Julia's Valentine Box

When I was a kid, I always wanted to get mail. My dad would come home with the mail and I'd ask if there was anything for me (there usually wasn't) and I would dejectedly remark that I never get mail. "Well, this isn't anything fun," my father would say. "This is just an electric bill." No matter. It was mail. To this day, I still enjoy going to the mailbox. There's always the promise of something fun, even if that promise isn't always fulfilled.

So, it's extra fun putting together mail for my niece. Not only do I get the fun of assembling the package, but I get to imagine her delight when a cool-looking box arrives and she discovers it's got her name on it. Oh, the joy. Here's what she got for Valentine's Day. She called me when it arrived and she was so excited and I was so happy.

 

  

Me, when I found out that Jon Stewart was leaving The Daily Show.

Things that happened when I worked 70 hours of overtime in less than two weeks in January.

Cold Popeye's chicken fingers dipped in cold Popeye's mashed potatoes was deemed a perfectly acceptable dinner. Twice.

I got dressed from the load of laundry in the dryer, like it was my bedroom bureau.

When my boss momentarily forgot about my crazy deadlines, and asked if I would be "going home to PA this weekend?," I snapped "No! I will be coming HERE this weekend! AND next weekend! AND the one after that!" Like a crazy person. 

Half a bag of chipnitzel cookies was deemed a perfectly acceptable dinner.

My hair... suffered.

I began to fondly recall that one Saturday morning when I got to sleep until 10 AM. Before going in to work for nine hours.

Barbecue potato chips and dip was deemed a perfectly acceptable dinner.

I forgot to look at the Oscar nominations until noon on the day they were announced, instead of bounding out of bed to check them.

I left my flat iron on while I went to work for 15 hours. Note: apartment did not catch fire.

I lost so very many Trivia Crack games by not playing them in time.

Half a bag of microwave popcorn and some cheese was deemed a perfectly acceptable dinner.

After working 12 hours on MLKJ Day, I muttered "This is not what they meant by 'a day of service!'"

The day I left work at 9 PM, I thought to myself "I can't believe I'm getting out of here so early!"

I once considered just staying at the office through the night, but I knew my co-worker would notice that my clothes had not changed. And sure enough, the next morning she checked my clothes.

I still managed to watch the six-hour Season 2 of The Fall, which, I guess goes to show that Netflix is like the house in Vegas: it always wins in the end.

They say the neon lights are bright...

Last weekend, Melis, Eric, and I took a quick trip to NYC. Melis and Eric wanted to see Idina in If/Then one more time before it closes or she leaves, and Melis and I wanted to see Beautiful before Jessie Mueller leaves. There was nothing to do but head to the Big Apple.

We got there Saturday morning and things went swimmingly. Melis and Eric won the final set of lottery tickets for If/Then, and went to see Idina in all her glory. I got a ticket for my beloved Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, and I must say, it was even better the third time.

For our second show, Melis and I went to see Tony award winning Jessie Mueller play Carole King in Beautiful. Melis had gotten the last single ticket available, and as I waited in the cancellation line, a darling little old man came up to me and sold me a ticket his friend had bought but couldn't use. Sixth row, center. Jackpot. He even went into the theater with me to make sure the ticket scanned so I knew he wasn't scamming me. Delightful.

That night Eric went to On the Town and, sadly, hated it. Poor him. But Melis and I were transported. Beautiful is a music-lover's dream. I was a scene and a half into it when I thought to myself, "I have to see this again tomorrow."

Then the Drifters came out as characters in the musical (I'm just crazy about the Drifters) and I could not have been happier. My mind was definitely made up to see it again.

The next day, an evil British lottery crone denied Melis and Eric a chance to enter the If/Then lottery, even though they showed up with a good 30 seconds to spare. It was too late, baby, it was too late, though we really did try to make it. (I was singing that song and Melis failed to see the humor.) So, Melis and I got cancellation tickets to Beautiful again and Eric got to see the wonderfulness that is Gentleman's Guide, finally. I enjoyed every second of Beautiful and danced out of the theater.

Also, I was sitting right behind the mother and godmother of the guy playing Gerry Goffin, the male lead. After the show I said to his mother, "He was wonderful." She replied, "I thought so too! And I'll be sure to tell him you said that!" She was a delight.

In between our three shows we stuffed our faces with:

• The world's best Eggs Benedict at Le Monde
• Chicken fingers, mashed potatoes, pickles and cabbage at Junior's
• The world's best pepperoni pizza (aside from my mother's homemade, of course) at John's
• Empanadas from a food truck
• The world's best chicken parm at Caffe Napoli
• Assorted pastry from Crumbs, Junior's, and the Ferrara bakery in Little Italy
• And another John's pizza for the road

We should be heartily ashamed of ourselves, but, well, you know how that goes.

I come to praise Caesar, not to bury him.

Tonight I went to see Julius Caesar at the Folger Shakespeare Library downtown. BTW, the Capitol dome is currently under scaffolding and it looks so cool at night, as though it's under its own bell jar. Had I taken my good camera, I'd have snapped a pic.

Crying "havoc" and letting slip the dogs of war.

The play was wonderful. I had two favorite moments (aside from Antony's funeral oration, of course). The first was when the conspirators were portrayed in a hellscape, enrobed as wraiths and hissing and moaning. It was like a dozen Nazgul on stage. Creepy!

"Give ussssss the riiiing!"

The second was when the little old man next to me started audibly snoring and his wife, a stylishly coiffed, fur-coat-wearing, little old lady hissed slowly and deliberately at him: "Wake. Up."

"Beware the Ides of March. Also an angry wife."

Obsessed! (And you will be, too.)

Have you ever heard me talk about This American Life, that most glorious radio show, which would surely make it onto my desert island list of necessities? You really ought to listen to it. Each week, they take a theme and produce a variety of stories relating to that theme. It’s truly wonderful, every single week. Now they've made a spin-off called Serial. Instead of telling a story during one episode, the way This American Life does, Serial tells a single story over the course of a season of episodes.

This inaugural season, it’s the story of Hae Min Lee, a high school senior who disappeared in Maryland in 1999. Her strangled body was found buried in a park a few weeks later. Authorities soon arrested her ex-boyfriend, a 17-year-old kid named Adnan Syed. Adnan was well-liked in the community, very popular at school (he was crowned Prom Prince), and had lots of friends, all of whom were shocked when he was arrested for Hae’s murder. He was tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in a Maryland prison, where he has been for the past 15 years. He claims he had nothing to do with her murder.

The host of Serial, Sarah Koenig, examines reams of evidence, trying to decipher a case with loads of twists and turns (Why was a witness who claimed to see Adnan at the time of the murder never called to testify? Why was Adnan supposedly in one place when his cell phone was pinging a cell tower 45 miles away?). You will swing from “He’s definitely innocent” to “He’s definitely guilty!” and back again, with plenty of “Oh, I just don’t know” along the way. It is so compelling.

The Serial episodes can be downloaded as a podcast or listened to from the website here. The website also has photos, maps, letters, call logs, and other evidence you can peruse should you become completely obsessed (you will).

So far, there are six episodes out with a new one each Thursday. The only way they could make it better is if they dropped all the episodes, House-of-Cards-style, all at once so I could binge-listen to them. I keep telling myself I’ll wait and let a few accumulate, but then Thursday rolls around and I need my ear candy.

Go listen!

Blazing, beautiful autumn.

This weekend, I headed up to Harpers Ferry for one last taste of autumn. (Until Virginia tosses summer right back in my face this week, that is. 80 degrees? Really?) The weather in Harpers Ferry, however, was perfect; just spectacular.

I climbed all over the ruins of the Shenandoah Pulp Factory...

...and walked through the beautiful woods and along the sparkling Shenandoah River.

What are men to rocks and mountains? -Jane Austen