die walküre

back story:

1.

jb loves wagner. 

he took a whole class on him. 

and the ring cycle.

2.

i was walking by lincoln center last august

and saw a sign for the Met's 2010-2011 opera season, 

guess what was playing?

wagner's ring

(only the first two parts, but still)

so obviously i bought tickets.

i tried to get tickets to both parts, 

but $600 for an opera is a little out of my price range.

so i got tickets to die walküre.

(part 2)

all 5 hours of it. 

crazy pants. 

i got to go to the met. 

on a school night.

and drink champagne.

rockstar.

and they have some crazy amazing chandeliers. 

i want 'em in my house, 

real bad.

i could lie and say every time i took a picture in the lobby

i wasn't trying to get the chandeliers in the shot

but that just wouldn't be true. 

i mean they are too flippin' cool.

also, james levine was the conductor.

and apparently he is supposed to be kind of a big deal.

so that was cool.

luckily for me, 

they had a plot synopsis

so i could brush up before the opera started. 

the Met's synopsis of the plot

 

and if i'm being totally honest,
this thing was great because
now i would know what was going on when i woke up.



yeah, i'm that loser who goes to the opera and falls asleep.

but it was five hours. 

 

 

and i wasn't as much of a loser as the creep i was sitting next to. 

sweatpants with hugely stuffed pockets.

not cool.

add to that creepy throat clearing.

death. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

bottom line ---

it was totally cool. 

plus, i feel like such a rebel going out on a school night.

nerd.

pavlinka krobotova turns 60!

 so the whole point of going to the czech republic 

was to celebrate babi's birthday.

and celebrate we did. 

enter, one man polka band.

enter, slivovice.

 (babi is a little bit of a drug pusher)

add to that, 

jb learning to polka dance,

zk polka dancing like a rockstar, 

and a circle of middle aged to older aged czechs dancing in a circle.

amazing. 

praha

so one question i've had since the first time i visited prague was

what the H, E, double hockey sticks is up with this church?

i mean it is crazy gorgeous.

but it has all of these buildings built in front of it.

huh, what?

why would they do that?

so my goal, 

while in the czech republic was to find out what the freak was going on.

goal, fail.

no czech people i asked knew what's up.

the exhibit in the church, 

which goes through the church's history, 

doesn't mention it. 

what the flip?

guess it will remain a mystery.

rats.

(cause let's face it,

i'm too lazy to google this thing to death)

the fire escape

it is time. 

spring is here. 

it shouldn't be too cold anymore.

which means, 

fire escape garden. 

so excited. 

last weekend, i went out and got soil and pots.

and maybe planted some arugula seeds. 

(look how much it has grown already!) 

plus i had my lavender and mint from the garden club.

then this weekend, 

i couldn't help it, 

i bought my herbies. 

rosemary

thyme

sage

tarragon

basil

parsley

chives

rockstar.

now i have to figure out what other cool things i should plant. 

maybe tomatoes, 

or peppers,

or maybe even beans.

(cause how cute would they look growing up the railing of my fire escape?)

whatever it is though, 

it's going to be good.

now if i could just prevent my cats 

from going into the neighbors apartment. 

that would be swell.

yesterday,

captain cornelius, 

genius that he is,

decided to sneak into their apartment

before i could retrieve him.

luckily no one was home to discover him

and their cat scared the captain out of the apartment. 

otherwise, i was going to have to climb into that apartment

and retrieve him.

chaos.

amazing or amazing?

amazing.