Here we go again...

Ugh. I'm finally facing the fact that I've regained 25 pounds in the past 3 years. It started when my accounting classes got really hard, and the candy consumption crept up ever so slowly as I slaved away in front of the computer. Even after I graduated in the spring of 2011, I felt like I deserved a break from being so anal-retentive about tracking my food. Before I knew it, I was in I-don't-give-a-sh*t mode full time.

I finally picked a primary care physician and got my first annual physical in over 10 years this summer. Which meant I was face-to-face with that number on the scale after not weighing myself for years. I just didn't want to know, and for good reason. 166! Ugh. And I have back rolls. Double ugh. But (worse) my total cholesterol level is 205 (should be below 200) and triglycerides are at 177 (should be below 150). I knew it was just a matter of time before my excessive consumption of sweets would start showing up in the blood tests. I can only imagine how much worse it would have been if I didn't exercise.

I know what I need to do. I've done it before--twice--and successfully. Once our August Staycation was over, this past Saturday, I said to myself, that's it. I've declared my intention to clean up my eating on Facebook (30 likes and counting), so now if I fall off the wagon, it will be in front of a virtual audience of 500 or so. Today (my fifth day) I downloaded the free MyFitnessPal app, entered my first weigh-in (165.0, better already!), and started tracking my food. Yes, it's tedious. But tracking is the only way that gets results.

Here's a "before" picture from last week.

I do already feel much better physically, and Paul is supportive, which really helps!

Why Music Matters

We had our first performance of Brundibár at 10:00 this morning. I was rehearsal pianist for the two casts of singers in their tweens and young teens over the past three months, and was very excited to play the piano part with the CityMusic Cleveland musicians. We are playing four matinees for school kids and five evening performances for the general public.

This morning's performance was reserved for the students at John Hay High School. And I mean the entire school. Several hundred teenagers filled the auditorium, talking, laughing, texting, playing with their iPods, etc. I could tell they were happy to get out of class for an hour. But I couldn't help wondering if their teachers had given them any of the background context for the opera. Would they get it? Would it engage them and draw them in? Would they even like it?

The cast and most of the orchestra pre-set ourselves at the back of the auditorium before the concert began. The idea was that we would process up to the stage after the first piece, seamlessly and without the distraction of the doors in the back letting in light from outside. The concert started with Max Bruch's Kol Nidre for cello and piano, played beautifully. Unfortunately for those of us in the back, there was a constant stream of kids entering and exiting the back of the auditorium as the security guard cluelessly let them in during the piece, light flooding in, letting the doors slam as they closed. Kids being kids, there was a lot of whispering, giggling, and shushing from the peanut gallery. There were slides projected onto a large screen during the performance, but apparently that wasn't enough to focus them. They clapped when they thought the piece was over, about a minute too soon. I know that most of them have rarely or never attended a classical concert, so they don't know the protocol as well as they might.

The sound of a train whistle filled the room. Huge, menacing-looking images of a black steam engine filled the screen. Spotlights illuminated the aisles. I got to lead a line. We were to walk--slowly--while a very few musicians played the 90-second overture. It's hard to walk slowly but fast enough so that everyone behind you can get to their place on stage before the overture is over.

Maybe it's because I was on stage, behind all of the other musicians, but I didn't hear any noise from the audience except when they laughed or clapped at the action on stage. At the very, very end, something special happened. Ela Weissburger, who played the Cat in all 55 of the original performances in Thereisenstadt, came up to the stage and talked to the kids for about 15 minutes about how this music helped her survive the horrors of living in a concentration camp. It gave everyone involved an escape from the cold, the hunger, the terror of being sent away to a place no one ever came back from. It gave them hope, a feeling of connectedness, and a hold on their sanity.

She is in her early 80s. Her voice isn't the loudest and she didn't have a microphone. But that room was absolutely silent. They got it.

Ten Years and Two Days Later

One spring day in 2002, Paul & I met up at The Diner on Clifton (in Lakewood) to introduce each other to our friends for the first time. We had been an item for all of three weeks. I had my camera with me just in case. It was a very fun evening, and our friends enjoyed meeting each other. One of his friends, Lisa, asked him how many months he'd been hiding me. "Umm..point-seven-five?" I said. She then proceeded, purely by accident, to take what is one of the best pictures of the two of us ever taken. Never mind that Paul had just taught two Aikido classes, I had had a long day (it was about 10:30 at night by then), and we both were exhausted. We looked radiant.

Then: April 8, 2002

Fast forward 10 years. We thought it would be fun to revisit the Diner tonight. We haven't been there for years. I don't know why--it's less than a half-hour drive away. We still have the clothes we wore that night (well, the tops anyway). We got there, took a corner booth, and asked our server if she would do us the favor of taking our picture. She was all too happy to. I dug through my backpack, only to realize that I had forgotten the camera at home. I was so disappointed!

She was so nice. She volunteered to take the picture on her phone and email it to me. Thank you, Mandy Drahos--you get our Outstanding Employee Award.

Now: April 10, 2012

This has been the best decade of my life so far.