Valentine's Day

This year, Valentine's Day was such a nice blessing! Starting from the beginning:

The kids are out of school for our ridiculous "Presidents Day Break" from Wednesday until Monday. I started back to work at USF this week, so that made life a little tricky. So the kids spent the day at Aunt Rena's. I was scheduled to start teaching at 11:30, so in the morning, I made the shrimp kebobs planned for dinner (shrimp wrapped in prociutto or lemon slices, skewered with Calmata black olives, drizzled with olive oil, garlic, crushed red pepper flakes and parsley), wrapped them in foil and stuck them back in the fridge while I simultaneously did some laundry.

Took the kids to Rena's then stopped by JC Penney's to get Matt a new pair of pants. While there, I decided to see if there was a dress I could wear that evening - and found a lovely little number marked down from $90 to (are you ready for this?) $6.99! I KNOW!!!

I went over to school to start my afternoon, remembering as I was doing some driving that not only had I neglected to pack a lunch, but I had forgotten to eat breakfast as well (this is a frequent occurence for me). Luckily, I didn't have any students signed up until 12:30, so I ran over to the cafeteria to eat. While I was there, eating lunch with the husband of the teacher who hired me, I got a phone call from my brother, Casey, who happened to be in town and free for lunch. At first, I was sad because I figured I was booked all afternoon, but as I looked at my watch, thought we could at least squeeze a coffee in. I told him to come over to campus, and we were able to get him some lunch at the coffee shop in the basement of the student center. So that was a nice surprise.

I taught at school until 3, went and picked up the kids from Rena's (she lives on the opposite side of town from us), then taught for another hour at home until 5:30. My last lesson stayed and ate supper with us, then was the kids' babysitter for the evening.

Supper was a remarkable feat. I managed a gourmet meal with about 20 minutes' prep time. It was on the table by 6:00. We had the aforementioned shrimp skeweres (baked, not grilled), ciabatta bread, Mediterranian curry cous cous, and fresh strawberries.

The kids had hot dogs.

I know you're dying to know what the evening was all about. We went to the opera. How 'bout that? Our local performing arts center hosted the Teatrico Lyrico d'Europa performing "The Barber of Seville." AND we got free tickets. Thanks, Bobbi! It's good to know people who know the right people, I guess! PLUS, we totally lucked out and got a parking spot right near the door (it was -4 degrees out). If you include the coat check, and the new clothes, the evening cost us about $42. The seats that we had would have probably sold for about $75 each, so we felt that we made out particularly well. Plus- new dress.

How was the opera? Pretty good. Opera's definitely an art form that takes some getting used to. I've only ever seen Madama Butterfly (twice, and been in it once), which is a Romantic Era opera. "Barber" is a classical era work, but Giaccamo Rossini. It's in a vein all it's own. There's a lot of text repetition, and the plot is absolutely ridiculous. The emphasis is definitely on the vocal prowess of the performers. The orchestra was excellent as well.



Isn't that a funny picture? You would think that maybe if your two leads are supposed to be "young lovers" that you might not zoom in quite so close, revealing that they're both well into their 40s. You also get the distinct impression that the tenor is actually Michael McKean (pictured on the right below), and you might get a little "Spinal Tap" thrown in for kicks.



Anyway, it was really nice, and the Mezzo did a great job. She was completely overshadowed, however by the Baritone who sang the role of "Figaro.'' He was awesome!

I've rambled far too long. That was our day in a nutshell. WAY better than last year, when Maia was sick, and I had to get a head gasket replaced on the car. AND work.