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Archive for June, 2023

Pride Baby

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , on June 26, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Remind me again why we’re living in one of the hottest, reddest states in the country? OK, it’s not Texas, but we were still sweltering this past weekend. Because of my amazing Drag Queen stylist, and because my daughter was working all weekend and Chase happens to be her hair stylist too, I had committed myself and the Love Bug to the cause. After all, what other grandmother straps on her orthotic sneakers and ties them up in a big rainbow bow to brave the 90+ temps at Nashville’s Pride Festival?

TN prides itself on being one of the most restrictive, ant-gay, anti-choice, MAGA Republican epicenters smack dab in the middle of the south. So when the legislators passed a bill against public Drag Shows where children MIGHT be present, of course Chase hatched a plan. He/She was the chief creator/producer of the Disney Princess Show complete with little dwarfs, a chipped tea cup, lion-kingesque animals and a magic carpet, all played by kids! Take that Gov Lee.

Bob and I picked up the Bug, AKA “The Talent,” early because we wanted to stroll through the Bicentennial Park’s exhibits and pick up some LGBTQ swag. Let me tell you, tens of thousands of people attended, the sun was shining burning, and I noticed a shy teenager standing alone in full color regalia. I surprised her when I walked up and said I absolutely “LOVED her over the knee rainbow socks!” Then I complimented her on her tulle skirt and fairy wings and before you knew it her Dad, a big guy in a grey beard, appeared.

He put his hand on the girl and gave me a look and a nod that said everything….”Thank you for seeing my daughter.”

All in all we spent five hours in the midday heat because surprise surprise, First Lady Jill Biden showed up right before the Bug’s act was to go on. We were backstage with the Queens when we heard the roar of the crowd. No wonder we were searched like crazy before we could enter the park; no wonder there were so many park rangers, metro police, secret service and God knows who all roaming around. Plus the place was entirely fenced off.

Now that I’m thinking about it, what an epic way to keep your citizens in line safe. It’s like calling in royalty – protocol means things will be done, precautions shall be made. And a friend said, “They didn’t want another Vegas shooting.” Thank goodness a federal judge ruled the public Drag Ban unconstitutional, I’d been thinking about what I might do if we were all arrested. Getting arrested for good trouble is high up on my bucket list.

I also thought about my little ballet Bride whirling out from under Mother Ginger’s huge petticoat back in the 80s, and going the wrong way on the Nutcracker’s stage. But the Love Bug hit her mark and delighted one and all. I would say the prettiest Drag Show in the South received a standing ovation, but everyone was standing up to begin with, except me. I had a front row seat.

So enjoy the pix and can you find the Bug?

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The Family Food Issue

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , on June 21, 2023| 2 Comments »

While Grannie and Grampie Camp was in full swing, I discovered that our progeny do not have any food allergies… or peculiarities. In fact, they eat anything and everything with gusto. One day Bob thought our sage was looking big and beautiful, so he put on his my apron to make pasta (from scratch) with Brown Butter Sage Sauce. This is a recipe we’ve repeated time and time again since traveling to Tuscany. Mind you, it’s not written down anywhere – Marco and Claudio must store millions of menus in their minds!

“It’s a matter of timing,” Bob said “you have to start the pasta water first, and finish by adding the pasta to the sauce with parmigiana.” Don’t forget, he actually made the pasta first! Then he presented me with a written essay. Needless to say, it’s heavenly:

SAGE SAUCE:

450 gm Pasta

150 gm butter

A good-sized handful of fresh sage leaves

1/2 cup of grated parmigiana/ and another 1/2 – 1 cup for finishing

Salt and pepper

“Put the pasta water on to boil (with a big pinch of salt). While it’s heating, get a very large skillet (large enough to hold all the cooked pasta after it’s cooked). Put 150 gm of butter and the sage leaves in the skillet. Add salt and pepper to taste (the cheese has a lot of salt so be careful). As soon as the butter melts and begins to bubble, turn off the heat.

When the water comes to a boil cook the pasta. Add a ladle of pasta water to the sage and butter skillet. As soon as pasta is done, drain and add to the skillet. Toss the sauce with the parmegiana until you have a thick, creamy, buttery sauce. Serve with a sprinkle of cheese on top.”

Bob

Now you know what dinners may look like at our place, I thought I’d go through a typical camp day with y’all. A big breakfast favorite is my French Toast, and the secret is shaking a little cinnamon/sugar into the egg mix – also about a teaspoon of milk. Then you can only top your creation with REAL maple syrup, or maybe Nutella… oh, and some fresh strawberries or blueberries on the side.

My general rule of NOT making lunch also applies here. Panera is always a good choice with the Grands, but we learned that a favorite Nashville restaurant also serves lunch – Jaspers. After a rainy morning trip to the Frist museum, we swung into Jaspers which has a whole room dedicated to games! Shuffleboard, PacMan, Air Hockey, Basketball… you name it they’ve got it. A veritable wonderland for kids!

Alas our camp days are over. The Bride and Groom returned from a trip to Northern Ireland yesterday. I know, I know, Northern Ireland? But the Groom was presenting his research paper to an international audience of critical care doctors to great acclaim! His study can also be found in this month’s New England Journal. If any of our Irish cousins are reading this, I apologize since they had no time for a visit to County Mayo.

And about the aforementioned pasta dish, we hardly had enough for the VA Grandparents, since the Grands seemed to love it! This was us at the Frist Museum.

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Camp Nana

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , , on June 15, 2023| 2 Comments »

This is the week of Granny Grampie Campie!

The Grands are enjoying one full week of no scheduled activities – no school, no soccer, no day camp, nada. In other words, it’s the kind of summer we used to enjoy, that is before I was sent off to sleepaway camp at Camp St Joseph for Girls. Even the Virginia grandparents have arrived to join in the fun; so we celebrated by baking them a strawberry bundt. It tilted a bit to one side, but was delicious with whipped cream. https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019441-fresh-strawberry-bundt-cake?searchResultPosition=1

Plump, delicious strawberries are in season at the Farmer’s Market, but you’ve got to get there early or they sell out. Same with flowers I’ve discovered. To create a kick off your shoes, care free, vacay-like vibe takes some planning – for example, our badminton set was in rough shape. The rackets had holes in them and the birdies were missing in action. I found the last set at Dick’s Sporting Goods, and now two of the three new birdies are resting comfortably on the roof of our garage.

And forget Pickleball, the Love Bug loves tennis. We happen to have tennis courts in the same park as the Farmer’s Market, just three blocks away; so a neighborhood crew of kids can just hop on their bikes and ride there like a Norman Rockwell print. Only these kids wear helmets. Luckily, we’ve been blessed with cool weather, and so far the only real bugs I’ve seen are the magical lightning bugs at dusk.

I know ninety plus degree-hot and humid days are right around the corner, so we’re enjoying the outdoors while we can. I’ve made a delightful “garden-gate-friend” who lives across the street, ie someone who freely walks through my gate to visit and vice versa. She has promised to teach me Mahjong and graciously invited us to her pool! Needless to say, the Grands loved swimming next door despite the cool temps.

Lucky us, there’s a public library in that same park filled with great children’s books and no limit on how many books you can check out. The Grands love nothing better than to curl up with a good book. Sometimes I find them both randomly reading on the couch, so without uttering a word I sit down and join them. I’ve just finished Ann Patchett’s “These Precious Days,” glorious essays she wrote about her early life and spending the pandemic lockdown with a new friend who just happened to be visiting.

I didn’t know Patchett had three fathers, or as she said her mother loved the idea of marriage. Of course, I started reminiscing as well, about the Flapper and my foster mother, about my three fathers – Robert, the pharmacist who was dead before I turned one, my foster father Jim, the railroad man at Picatinny who I loved with all my heart, and my stepfather Mr B, the judge who took me flying in his Cessna. Patchett has a picture at a wedding with all her fathers surrounding her that put a frog in my throat.

But I cannot live with regrets. They serve no purpose; wishing my father hadn’t died of a brain tumor would mean I wouldn’t have this life, this husband, these children and grandchildren. I choose gratitude instead, every day, despite a fractured finger. The sweater I’m knitting for the Pumpkin shows the very spot my hand was splinted. I have to embrace my imperfections, and keep moving, keep growing.

This week I’ll be bringing the Grands to a rehearsal for our Pride Festivities at the end of the month. The ban on public Drag Shows in Nashville has been (at least temporarily) lifted thankfully, and our hairstylist has enlisted lots of children to participate this year. I’m imagining they’ll all be munchkins in this fairy tale city!

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Full Rainbow Moon

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , on June 5, 2023| 4 Comments »

We’ve been celebrating our anniversary this past weekend.

It’s hard to believe Bob and I have been married 44 years, yet here we are. Celebrating under a strawberry moon, last night we returned to the Schermerhorn Symphony Center to hear Mozart’s “Requiem;” and there was not a mask in sight. We managed to arrive early, so we could catch the conductor, Giancarlo Guerrero’s lecture beforehand on Amadeus Mozart. When the Bride was a newborn, she had an elevated bilirubin count. So I would lay her on a blanket in the streaming, morning sunlight of the living room and massage her tiny body to Mozart piano concertos. He has always been my favorite classical composer.

We all know that Mozart died at only 35 years of age, and was buried in a pauper’s grave. He was working on “Requiem” when he passed, leaving it unfinished. But what I didn’t know is that he had been a bit of an arrogant intellectual who had been in debt most of his life. He was commissioned to compose “Requiem” by a duke who was mourning the death of his 20 year old wife – the only catch was that Mozart could not take credit for his own masterpiece. The duke would claim he composed the funereal music himself! And since he needed the money, Mozart agreed.

Ah the lying, the twists and turns of 18th Century Vienna.

I’m reminded of this 21st Century of misinformation, a time when promises made are not being kept; a time of cloak and dagger with a Supreme Court we cannot trust. Or as Nikki Haley said last night, and I’m paraphrasing, a small minority of people are telling the rest of us what to do! She was referencing trans women in sports, and I’m referring to gun violence; be that as it may, human rights are being stripped away from our country’s most vulnerable, bit by incremental bit – including a whole generation of young women who had never before questioned their own bodily autonomy.

If Mozart were alive today, he would still be composing operas, piano and clarinet concertos, and serenades for flutes; a mere streptococcal bacterial infection doesn’t usually end in a death sentence. The development of antibiotics in the 1930s saved the day. And the duke’s wife? She most likely died in childbirth of “puerperal sepsis,” which was strep too. A fever would start days later, and by one week post-partum the mother would be dead.

“Bearing a child is still one of the most dangerous things a woman can do. It’s the sixth most common cause of death among women age 20 to 34 in the United States. If you look at the black-box warning on a packet of birth control pills, you’ll notice that at most ages the risk of death from taking the pills is less than if you don’t take them—that’s because they’re so good at preventing pregnancy, and pregnancy kills. The risk flips only after age 35 because birth control pills increase the risk of stroke. (Psst, guys, you know what makes an excellent 35th birthday present for your partner? Getting a vasectomy.)”

https://slate.com/technology/2013/09/death-in-childbirth-doctors-increased-maternal-mortality-in-the-20th-century-are-midwives-better.html#:~:text=In%20the%201600s%20and%201700s,much%20higher%2C%20perhaps%204%20percent.

Menopause has its perks ladies! A bit of good news this week for my beloved drag queens. A Federal court has blocked the Tennessee ban on public drag shows, so the show MUST go on and on! Wave your rainbow flags and catch my hair stylist, the lovely Britney Banks, who is coordinating a show at the PRIDE Festival taking place in our old neighborhood, at the Bicentennial Mall, later this month. I promised not to tell you the theme, and I keep my promises.

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