Month: May 2023

Outdoor Opera

Well, there was a free performance by Houston Grand Opera tonight. The main parts were all played by HGO Studio members, which was quite cool. The whole thing was at an outdoor theatre in the middle of a park by the zoo. Shows and performances there are usually really great, and the opera was no exception. Though I had already seen this opera multiple times, La Traviata, and I had seen this exact production – though with more names, since this one used only the local studio folks who are working on improving themselves for their professional careers – it was still quite impressive.

Firstly, the performers were good. Bigger, though, was the fact that HGO actually brought 18-wheeler truckloads of sets and costumes just for these two performances (last night and tonight). They put a graded stage on top of the stage, then put their set on top of it. I’m not entirely sure they didn’t bring their own supertitles screen that hung up above the stage. And they also had two monitors on the sides of the stage, though out front, so I could see them clearly, but only could just see that they were video of the conductor, as opera usually has for the performers on stage. And, lastly, we got to sit right up front, only a few rows away from the stage. We could see each person and each costume and each bull skeleton clearly. It was great.

Even though we had two life flight helicopters fly over and some ghetto-sounding fancy boom box party that was taking place nearby in the park, it was still enjoyable. Oh! We also had a small incident of sorts…(?)

There is an area of theatre seating in front of the stage there and lots of people sit there (we were there tonight), and then there is the sound booth in a concrete little building at the back of the seating, and then there is a massive hill upon which loads more people sit for performances, picnic style or in lawn chairs on one half or the other.

Now, just at the end of the first intermission, two guys were standing atop the sound booth, one shouting out to the hill. It was quite weird, and we couldn’t understand what the guy was shouting, but it seemed very soapbox-like. Everyone had quieted down for the show to start, and the guy was still shouting. No one white knew what to do about it, and everyone was just starting to wonder what could be appropriately done. All of a sudden, a deep and powerful male voice yells from Hill Left, “Boy! Sit yo’ ass down!”
And just about everyone clapped and cheered. The guy then did shut up and sit down, and I chuckled massively to myself at the whole scenario. Ridiculous. Just ridiculous. 😛 And I was also quite glad that it was handled without any violence or police. I had started to wonder if one or both would be imminent. But the kind man had both the courage and the ability to shout the men down and to let the show go on. 😛

Anyway, it and the boom box were both silly, but the show was still great. So, yay!

Thank you, God, for this lovely blessing. Please, bring my man home safely and healed even more from his poker night tonight. Heal us both wholly. Thank you for this life and these beautiful opportunities. Help us to seize them and pursue them fully, fulfilling your will as we become and be our best selves. In your name, I pray in gratitude. Amen.

P.S. I sent this to my man to show him how they, too, we’re playing poker! 😛 He laughed at it. And me. Haha

Post-a-day 2023

Cutting it close

Sometimes, things don’t feel like they’re getting close. It doesn’t feel right now like I am getting closer and closer to completing my course. It not only feels like I’ll be cutting it close to my self-given deadline. It feels more like cutting… it almost hurts like actual cuts, not having more done already, not progressing faster… failing so much… it just hurts…

Post-a-day 2023

Baseball coincidence and fun

I send a friend of mine a photo of the baseball game from our seats for the night. My man’s brother let us have his seats for the night, since he is out of town, and w w roughy my brother and sister-in-law with us. They are great seats. But it is also a professional baseball game, and this particular friend loves the Astros.

I snap the photo and send it.

Then I do a double take back to the message. On the message screen is two photos. Apparently the last messaging we had done on there (versus WhatsApp) was when I had been asking why he wasn’t at our gym social yet, and he had responded with a photo of the baseball game… a photo that looks almost identical to the one I have just sent him.

Hang on a tic…!

Are we in the same section as his tickets?!

I quickly show the photos to my man and start to look around. It seems his photo is slightly more to the right. My brother points out that it is also a touch higher up. I look to the implicated seats. I do not see him, though. As we pinpoint our exact guess – one row up, one section to the right, seat nine or ten – I notice that my phone is buzzing in my man’s hand while he swipes back and forth between the images.

After my man details for me why he thinks the photo was taken where he thinks it was taken, I open the new messages to see a photo of a television screen showing the game. The friend is watching at home. Ugh! I thought he had season tickets, though! I tell him as much. Only for the weekend games, he says. Ah, I see. I tell him how I was looking for him. He asks if we are on a certain same level. Uh, duh. Did you not see those two nearly identical photos?! I say that in a nicer way, and I tell him my man’s specific guess for where the friend’s weekend-only seats are located.

He is blown away. They are actually three rows higher than ours, not just one, but the section is the one right next to ours and the seats are nine, ten, and eleven. My man was almost spot-on.

But we’re not nerds. ;P

And we were all three very into this tiny game of comparison. Again, though, we’re not nerds or anything. Haha 😛

So, that was cool! Also, the Astros won, quite impressively. They had, I believe, four doubles in a row in one inning, giving three runs just from those. Then, the fourth run that inning was stolen, perhaps? I know one run was, but not sure if it was that inning or the first inning. If it was the first one, then, I believe, there was yet another double that inning. Nonetheless, it was a lot of doubles to have in a single game, let alone in one inning. And the pitcher wasn’t messing up. They just were somehow hitting them. It was really cool and bizarre.

Okay, I looked it up! I remembered correctly! It was four runs batted in from doubles, with a total of five doubles in a row in the inning!

It was totally cool to see. Each one was played very well by both teams, which helped to make it all so impressive. I’m really glad we got to attend and see this game.

Also, one player did the whole jumping into a wall thing to catch what was very nearly going to be a home run for the visiting team, and he caught the ball. He slammed backward into the wall a bit, and then pitched forward and fell to the ground, but he kept a good and clear hold on the ball, securing the out. It was absolutely impressive.

Thank you, God, for this lovely night out for us all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Credit goes to MLB’s website for photo and video, as shown on each.

Semi-on-schedule

I slept in until noon today, actually sleeping for a change. Granted, we went to bed around two something, so I actually only got just over nine hours of sleep. However, it was real sleep this time, only interrupted briefly by a need to use the bathroom a couple times. I fell right back asleep after each, which is huge. I knew I was tired, but didn’t know if this sinus infection would let me sleep. I am grateful that it has lessened enough to let me sleep. I pray for good sleep tonight, too.

Thank you, God, for sleep last night. Please, grant me good and healing sleep tonight. Heal me, please. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Mother’s Day

Has anyone else ever struggled on Mother’s Day, due to the sudden overwhelming amount of everyone your own age and even significantly younger putting up photo after photo of how happy they are being mom’s? For some reason, that hit me really hard today, and I was in actual tears over it all. It felt like a slap in the face, over and over again… like they and God were just dangling their joy in front of me, showing me what I still cannot have yet have wanted for so long. Though, I suppose it would not be God dangling something like that – that would be more akin to the work of the devil, would it not? ‘Go ahead, covet what they have,’ he might say, ‘Hate them for it,’ he would encourage, ‘Be angry with your God.’

But I shall not. I shall do just the opposite.

Dear God, thank you for my current state. Thank you for not making me a mother or a wife sooner in this life. Thank you for giving me the man who is perfect for me and for whom I am perfect. Thank you for helping us to become perfect for each other before we met. Thank you for giving us the time and experience to let go of and get over so many things that do not serve us or you. Thank you for taking the time to work on us before we get to be together and get to be parents. Thank you for such care and concern and love. Thank you. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Travel

Well, we drove three+ hours each way today instead of flying half as much to go visit my grandmother for Mother’s Day weekend. The weather was just too spotty and unreliable, so we drove. The up side is that we got to bring the dog with us. The down side is that my man didn’t get the extra three hours of cross-country flight time he would have gotten if we’d flown. But it was also cheaper driving…

Nonetheless, plans changed, but it still worked out well. We got to stop at Costco for flowers and a hot dog and slice of pizza. Always a good thing on our list. And then we had a great lunch out with my mom and grandma (and the dog), a good time just the two of us with the dog waking around town a bit, and then a good time relaxing st my grandma’s before we all headed back out to go home. All in all, it was a very good day, and I am grateful for it.

Thank you, God, for the family and the love and the safety of today. Please, keep us always safe, that we pursue and fulfill your will by being our best selves. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023