A Day in New York

I had the privilege and pleasure to spend the day in NYC today.  I got up early, caught the bus and met some wonderful friends for brunch in Brooklyn at The Henry Public. We had superb Bloody Marys (though I believe they were called Bloody Henrys) and lovely, though not particularly adventurous breakfasts.

The reason I took the trip was to see the closing performance of The Front Page, starring Nathan Lane, John Slattery, John Goodman, Jefferson Mays, Holland Taylor, Robert Morse and Sherie Renee Scott (who is looking fantastic after a battle with cancer).  The Front Page is the play upon which the classic film His Girl Friday, with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell is based.  You can (and should) watch the whole thing on YouTube. It's a wonder of dialogue delivery.

I spent more than I normally would for the ticket and I was really excited to go, and then this past week happened.  While riding the train in from Brooklyn to Midtown, I shared a car with a number of people headed to Battery Park to march in protest of the new immigration policy rolled out by Trump this week.  Part of me wanted to hop off with them, but my Midwestern frugality wouldn't let me waste the money I spent.  Somehow I have a feeling that I'll have plenty to march about in the coming weeks and months.

The play itself hasn't aged well.  It's a cast of white men (even the Rosalind Russell role is a man in the play), with some ladies thrown in as decoration (a girlfriend, a fiancee, a mother-in-law, and a cleaning lady).  Let's just say it doesn't pass the Bechdel Test, nor is there a person of color to be seen.  In all honesty, it seems like a bit of a waste.  All of these actors, at the top of their game given this play.  It's funny, it's fast-paced, but it doesn't have anything new to say.

There were three acts and it took Nathan Lane almost a full two acts to show up on the scene.  But once he did, he plucked the play from the hands of the other actors and proceeded to bring the house down single-handedly.  Everyone else could've packed up and left and I would have stayed to watch him say his lines alone on stage (and with a cast like this, that's saying something).

To sum up, I enjoyed myself, but this one won't have any staying power.  I don't think I'll be talking this one over in the days and weeks to come, which is too bad because this crew of actors is capable of anything and in our country at this moment, I want art to make a statement.

Whatcha Reading?

One of the most glorious things about being done with grad school is that I have more time to read for pleasure.  I've been reading up a storm this summer, and some of the books are not even embarrassing for me to share with you (some of them are...I'm no stranger to a cheesy bodice-ripper)!

Alexis Smith's Glaciers can be read in an afternoon. Clocking in at less than 200 pages, it tells the brief, but poignant story of Isabel, a girl enthralled with the past who is learning that time waits for no girl.

Sara Benincasa has one of my favorite Instagram feeds.  This book is about her battle with mental health issues and it's HI-LARIOUS!  She's about to blow up big time as a comedian, but you heard it here first!

Jessi Klein has already made it, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't feel that way. This book is about feeling awkward, out of place and like you don't know what the hell you're doing, but it's written by the Emmy Award-winning head writer of Inside Amy Schumer (whose new book I have checked out from the library right now).

It's Not a Diet

To be honest with you, I've been really resistant to "dieting" as an adult.  I went to my first Weight Watchers meeting when I was in junior high and I've been fat my whole life.  After years of dieting and exercising, with the only result being disappointment, I decided to stop counting calories and just listen to my body. I am a firm believer in the Health at Every Size Movement, because I believe that some of us just have bigger bodies and it's not because we're lazy or we secretly eat pounds of candy when no one is looking. 

So making a change like moving to a paleo lifestyle, even though it's not technically a diet plan, was a big decision for me.  Publicly pursuing weight loss brings back a lot of painful memories and it makes me feel like I have less agency over my own body.  I don't like people commenting on my weight loss, or offering advice.  I don't like people telling me how much better I look, because it makes me sensitive about how I looked before. It's one of those things where I desperately want people to notice a change, but I dread it at the same time.  It's complicated.

Even before I began, I ate more healthfully than most of the people I know, no fast food, limited desserts and alcohol, so when people start offering advice about things I already do (and probably more faithfully than them) it makes me crazy. I've known for years that the reason some people get fat and others don't had to be much more than a simple calories in/calories out breakdown. This paleo lifestyle is just proof.