Sick sick sick

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I’m sick. Not a cold, but throwing up. I haven’t been throwing up sick as an adult (sober) ever maybe. Throwing up is the worst.

I don’t know what it is. One of my students was throwing up sick and stayed home on Wednesday, but came in Thursday still not feeling well. So maybe it’s that, or maybe it was the General Tso chicken from Wegmans that I left sitting on the desk at work until I took it back home to eat. Or scrambled eggs Thursday night that seemed fine but were out of date (eggs last forever!) But ugh. This was not how I wanted to spend my day, and now it’s threatening my attendance at Soup Fest tomorrow, which is my fav food event in Buffalo. I’m sad. Sick and sad.

Posted in: Personal

David Bowie…

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David Bowie died yesterday. I am sad. Maybe sadder than I should be. Because I was never a super fan, and I knew maybe 1/4th of his catalog. But I thought he was awesome, the music I did know I enjoyed, he was a terrific performer, and one of the most creative artists in the world.

When I first “got into” Bowie, it was more because Carolyn and I just thought he was great. As she put it today on facebook she/we were always more intrigued by Bowie the man than by Bowie the musician. We went to see him on the Area 2 tour with Moby simply because he was Bowie, and not because we knew or enjoyed his music beyond a handful of songs. And it was fantastic. And we left right after, along with many other people.

After Nate left me for the Peace Corps was when I really started listening to more Bowie and realized I actually liked the music too. Thankfully I was able to see him live 2 more times with LeighAnne on his Reality tour. The “Sunday”, “Heathen” couplet on that tour is one of the best live moments I’ve ever seen. He wasn’t afraid to perform the songs he wanted to play, instead of catering the entire show to the crowd, playing songs like Motel off Outside, or the Bewlay Brothers from Hunky Dory. The Bowie exhibit from the V&A museum was a must see when it came to Toronto. That Union Jack coat, drool.

He was fearless, he was visionary, he inspired so many people.

So while Bowie wasn’t an “obsession” on the level that Michael Jackson, NIN or U2 were, he was high up on my list of personal gods. When J txt me at 3am to tell me he died, I was sad, but it was ok. Then I woke up the next day, went onto facebook and saw post after post about him, videos, songs, tributes, and it made me so sad I couldn’t help but cry. He may not have has as large an impact on my life as the others I mentioned, but there was something about knowing a human like Bowie existed somewhere in the world, and now he’s gone and there is a big giant hole there. I’m not sure that Bowie shaped hole will ever be filled.

Posted in: Personal \ Tagged: ,

2015 In Review

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Since I want to start blogging more again, I should start with something I used to always do, a Year in Review.

Only problem is, I barely remember last week let alone the entire last year. I have no idea what I did last January other than spend it teaching roulette at work. The winter was brutally cold and snowy. February…still teaching roulette. Still cold and snowy…The entire spring I spent teaching either roulette or blackjack, and it was cold and snowy forever.

Classes ended in May, and J and I vacationed to Seneca Lake at the end of May. We did the Skyride bicycle ride over the Skyway in Buffalo, which was really cool. But the rest of the summer? I have no idea. We kayaked a few times, took a Buffalo River boat trip with co workers, but J and I were the only ones who dressed as pirates (oh wait no, Melissa did too). Saw U2 with Mary in Toronto, and The Tea Party with the old school crew minus Danielle a week later.

In the fall we vacationed to Arizona for a week to go to Taco Fest and see a Titan Missile Silo, which was aaawweeesoooomme.

And here we are at winter again, and I’m teaching blackjack again. It wasn’t cold until last week, and it was the latest snowfall ever. And here I am talking about weather, because face it, adult life is boring. Work, sleep, repeat. Or you have kids and then it’s work, sleep, soccer practice, repeat.

**

In other news, I’ve run out of hosting space. I had 10 gigs, used it all, asked for more so they gave me another gig. Not good though, because I don’t feel this site is complete yet, I wanted to add more photos but if I do, I’ll use up that space and if I ever go exploring again (no one likes me, and no one invites me to go with them, despite my practical begging boo hoo) I’ll have no room to update Institutional Green or Sara Etten Photography. I can’t go with a new company with more space because I just finally got my 4 sites working. Ugh. The problems of living your life digitally.

Posted in: Personal \ Tagged:

dream

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I was at work and we were told to go see this dentist for a free check up, so I went, figuring why not, it’s free. Turns out the dentist would look at your teeth and then promptly proceed to pull out your pointy canine teeth. Like, wtf. So he pulled out both my teeth, and all these other coworkers had gone, and we’re all walking around missing those teeth. I was super upset about it, and Zach one of my old students found out after a few days we could go back and get the implants put in. But I could never figure out where to go to get them done, and still none of it made any sense to me. So I ended up at my real dentist so he could look at my tooth holes and figure out what to do. He ended up taking me to Las Vegas. We were in Caesar’s and Celine Dion was performing, but she didn’t have her own show room she just performed on the casino floor, you didn’t really need a ticket unless you wanted to be up front. So we went back stage into her giant hotel suite, and a bunch of other rich fancy people were there hanging out. Somehow I started to suspect my dentist and all these people were vampires. They’d talk about how old they were and how long they’d been coming to hang out in this suite, and I was like, are you guys vampires, and they would say, nooo. Then they’d talk about something else vampire-y like buying coffins, and I’d be like, are you vampires, and they’d say no. There was something about my dentist’s baby dying because it fell off the roof or balcony and landed on a submarine sandwich, so no one was allowed to eat subs anymore. And something else about how no one was allowed to say the word “poker” because of something else traumatic that happened to this group of people/vampires. I wanted to go gamble because I was getting bored up there, but now that I knew about these people I couldn’t leave. Since my dentist seemed so all powerful and rich, I asked if they could get me a private table set up in the room to play, but he said no. Then it changed and my dentist and some other guy were driving me around looking for locations for them to take over, for their coffins or lair or whatever, even tho nooo they weren’t vampires. So it was really urbex-y, looking at these abandoned places, including one super industrial site, that was full of electricity transformers and elevated railway tracks that were all covered in ivy and looked super awesome.

Posted in: Dreams \ Tagged:

dream

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Dreamed my friend Melissa lived near Darien Lake and when we were going out there she said to stop by her house, which was practically in the parking lot. All the times we had been at her house before she never let us inside, for whatever reason, but this time she did. Turns out she had a lot of people living with her. Instead of having 3 kids like in real life, she had 5, which she all let live with her. And a few of them were adults, so they had partners and their kids living there. So the entire house was full of people, sleeping on every flat surface. So we went back outside and there were still more people. Because beyond the immediate family, she had like 8 sibilings who she all let live there, with all there kids, and they were everywhere. Everyone was asleep, laying on the ground and lawn chairs, just, everywhere. There was no where to walk, you basically had to step on people, kids, babies. Then I realized there had been so many people living there, they couldn’t all eat, so outside there were a ton of dead bodies, mostly babies, and you had to step on them, and crush them, and there were little skeletons everywhere. I was so grossed out and disgusted that I had dead people on my shoes.

 

2nd dream that Melissa and Harold stole my phone and when I got it back they had taken over 200 photos trying to get dick pics. But it didn’t really work, so there weren’t any actual dick pics on my phone haha.

Posted in: Dreams \ Tagged:

Fail

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For Thanksgiving I volunteered to make a dessert. Since my baker friend has had several recent tragedies I didn’t want to ask her for pies, and I figured, I am an adult I can do something myself. So I looked at pinterest for a creative Thanksgiving dessert and found an Apple Pie Cake. Looked super easy, yellow cake mix on the bottom, 6 sliced apples spiced with brown sugar and cinnamon like an apple pie, crumbles on top.

FAIL. FAAAAIIIILLLL.

I followed all the instructions, even when I thought that 6 apples seemed like a lot. Baked for 35 minutes and the cake batter was still completely raw batter. So I put it back in for 5 minutes at a time for another 15, raw. Then I gave up. The apples just didn’t let the heat get down into the cake mix. An hour later mom suggested I put it back in, so I did for another 25 minutes. Better, but raw. Inedible. Fail.

So I had no dessert to bring because I didn’t have much time to try something else. Mom ended up making an apple pie.

 

***

I got my ear pierced 2 weeks ago, a daith, because it was floating around facebook that it “cured” migraines. For 2 weeks it worked!!!! I went 2 weeks with only a few short lived very minor headaches that I could have treated with ibu, but didn’t even bother to. Well that all ended yesterday. Massive massive migraine. It’s completely hormonal, which for me means it’s completely immune to all treatment. I’m hoping that when this episode is over (I may end up at urgent care where they’ll treat me like a drug addict seeking pills, but maybe get steroids, which also are horrible) that the piercing will still continue to work on my “regular” headaches. Then I can go back to Dent and seek specific treatment for the hormone headaches. Internets had some suggestions, though the person I’ve been seeing said they don’t do hormonal treatments. I’m dying though. I can’t take it.

Posted in: Personal \ Tagged: ,

The Jacksons @ UB

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So now I’ve seen all the Jacksons…or well the ones that matter. I saw a commercial a few weeks ago for The Jacksons playing at UB. It was on a Saturday, and I thought it was Thanksgiving Saturday, so I let it go because it was the one Saturday this month I didn’t have off. But then it turns out, nope, it was the 21st, which I did have off. I still let it go, I didn’t feel like spending any money on it, and I wouldn’t be able to find anyone to go with. But then my friend Melissa posted on fb that her son was selling tickets for $10 to benefit his jazz band at the high school so then I found it hard to say no. I bought 2 tickets in the chance I’d get someone to go, but in the end I went by myself.

I didn’t realize there were only 4 of them performing, and I didn’t know which one was missing. I thought it was Jackie cuz I thought he played guitar back in the day, and only Tito was playing (and Jermaine sometimes) but they finally did “call outs” to each other, and turns out Jackie was there and it was Randy who was missing.  They played just over an hour and it actually was pretty good. Honestly I wanted to cry the first few songs, every time it was an MJ part being sung by one of the others. I got over it. Jermaine seemed like he was kinda phoning it in, he wasn’t as into it as Jackie and Marlon (and Tito plays guitar, so really, how into dancing can he be?). They looked like they were having fun though. And all the songs are classics by now, so it was cool to hear them. I love Can You Feel It, and This Place Hotel was good. I was surprised at State of Shock, though I don’t know why. It felt like they played more than this setlist says, but probably because of the middle medley.

The MJ covers were “safe” for them to do, I think. No mega hits, like Jermaine trying to perform Billie Jean or something that would be sacrilegious haha. But Can’t Let Her Get Away was an odd choice. The music was not recognizable to me but the lyrics were and I couldn’t figure it out until the chorus. Hey, it’s been a long time since I listened to Dangerous lol plus it was live and changed a bit.

Jermaine kept taking out his ear piece, just like MJ was doing in This Is It, so now I’m watching it again haha.

So it was good, I’m glad I went though I’m not sure I’d have paid a ton to go. It was fun and it made me smile even if I was sad too.

Can You Feel It
Blame It on the Boogie
I Wanna Be Where You Are
Rock With You
Enjoy Yourself
Show You the Way to Go
Lovely One
2300 Jackson Street (Video Interlude)
I Want You Back / ABC / The Love You Save / Dancing Machine / Never Can Say Goodbye / I’ll Be There
Can’t Let Her Get Away
This Place Hotel
Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’
State of Shock
Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)

Posted in: Concerts, Other bands \ Tagged: ,

Fake Al Pastor in the Crock Pot

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A few years ago I became obsessed with taco trucks, or food trucks in general. I went on a road trip to Ohio for some exploring with Alex, and we stopped in Columbus just so we could stop at a taco truck. I was advised, probably by Carolyn, to make sure I knew what I was ordering so I investigated various menu items before we went. I decided I wanted to get al pastor –  a gyro type meat concoction – even though gyro terrified/terrifies me. Well it was DELICIOUS, so now whenever I find al pastor on a menu I get it.

I was looking on pinterest for some new crock pot recipes in preparation for 10 more weeks of working 4-midnight and needing dinner to be ready when I get home when I found a recipe for al pastor. What? Because it’s a meat conglomeration that’s usually cooked on a spit and then carved off with a big knife, I wasn’t too sure how that was going to be done in a crock pot but I clicked anyway. http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/slow-cooker-tacos-al-pastor/

So, it’s imitation al pastor but I thought I’d try it. I’ve never cooked any pork before. Pork terrifies me, because you can get so sick, and get weirdo parasites from undercooked pork. Typically I stick to chicken. But this really seemed pretty easy.

Carolyn had to help me and explain what kind of pork I needed to get, and wow, it’s a good thing it’s pulled pork in the end because I massacred that sucker. It was on the bone, since the boneless pork shoulder was 3 times as much money. I am still uber grossed out by touching meat but I did better than I thought I would. I probably wasted a ton though because my knives are not sharp, and I eventually gave up because I just didn’t know how to get any more off the bone. Oh well.

The rest was easy – chop up the pineapple and onion, throw everything in the food processor.

So it slow cooked for 4 hours, I shredded it, and there was a whooooole ton of the “sauce” left in the crock pot. I made myself a taco with the meat and some salsa, and it’s ok, but it wasn’t spectacular and it didn’t taste like real al pastor. I didn’t know what else to do with all the pork, because I wasn’t gonna make more tacos from it, so I decided to turn it into a soup. I used a few ladles of the left over pineapple sauce, a bunch of broth, sauteed another small onion with some jalapenos, and added a can of black beans and a bunch of frozen corn. Turns out way better than just the pork plain. Made some guac to go with it on the side (cuz I have a weird thing where I have to eat more than one thing in a meal, and prefer 3 things, and one of those things should be crunchy – so usually it’s chips and hummus/dip/salsa.) Food for a week now!

Posted in: Personal \ Tagged:

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

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I can’t believe I saw Hedwig on Broadway 3 times and never once posted about it. So now I’m going to rectify that.

I discovered Hedwig and the Angry Inch in college, because I saw a photo of John Cameron Mitchell in Hedwig makeup in a magazine and thought he looked awesome. Soon enough I was seeing the movie with Carolyn and Adrienne and I looooved it. I pretty much made everyone I knew at the time watch it, and everyone loved it, including LeighAnne who learned about Hedwig when she was coming up to visit me and planning on moving to Buffalo. It didn’t go over so well when we played it for James and Brian though, who called it “the worst movie they’d ever seen”. Careful guys, your homophobia is showing. I attempted to kick them out of my house, but they didn’t believe me and thought I was joking, but they should know, even though it’s been over 10 years, I will never forgive them for that. (For what it’s worth, Brian did apologize, saying that he wouldn’t have wanted me to say that if he had shown me one of his favorite movies.)

Rumors have flown around for years about Hedwig going to Broadway, and in 2014 it finally did. OMG I was so excited at the announcement that it was being revived, that it didn’t matter how much it was going to cost me, I was going to go. They announced it would be a limited run starring Neil Patrick Harris. I didn’t know what to think about that, because I didn’t know he was a singer, but I didn’t care. I was going.

So what turned out to be the first trip to NYC came in May 2014 with Jason, Susan, Jessica and Nick. LeighAnne was supposed to come as well but had to cancel so Jess found a friend who was interested in the ticket. We flew down for just one night for the show, but it turned into 2 nights when our flight home was cancelled due to weather. Ah well.

The show did so well with NPH they extended the run and started having new actors play Hedwig. I didn’t think I’d go again though, we’re just too far away. Then one day I woke up to the news that Michael C Hall was going to play Hedwig. What? Dexter as Hedwig? I had to go. So Jason and I bought tickets to treat ourselves for Christmas and drove to NYC (so flights couldn’t get canceled in the winter and make us miss the show) in December 2014.

But right after I had bought the tickets to see Michael C Hall it was announced that he’d be followed by the one, the only, the original, John Cameron Mitchell. *dies* I literally started laughing in bed when I read it, I just could not believe it. We had just bought the MCH tickets though, so I let it go…until we went to the MCH show. I decided I couldn’t NOT see John Cameron Mitchell as Hedwig on BROADWAY, so when we got home, I bought us another set of tickets, and we went for the final time in March 2015.

So the first show with NPH, I was just so excited because I really never thought I’d see a major production of Hedwig. I was sitting next to a guy from the south somewhere, who was as excited as I was, and we both said we’d probably cry through the whole thing. I thought it was so great that he and his girlfriend had traveled all the way to NYC because he loved Hedwig so much, given that the South isn’t known for it’s open mindedness. He had a bunch of souvenirs when I sat down, and he was so excited “They had a Shroud of Hedwig, wanna see?!?” I did cry when it started because, again, I just never thought I’d see it live. And during Origin of Love. And during Midnight Radio, because I can’t help it. NPH did a fantastic job as Hedwig, and he sang better than I expected. His performance was funny, bringing out more of the comedic aspects of the show, and he seemed to play Hedwig as a pretty happy character despite the bitterness and sadness of the story.

The 2nd show with MCH, it took me a while to get into it, because despite the make up and wig, I still could see MCH, and at the time I only knew MCH as Dexter. But after a few songs I forgot all that, and it was just Hedwig. MCH was definitely still a man in a dress, he was the manliest Hedwig, but he was fantastic as well. I didn’t know he had a musical theater background either, so I was impressed. I cried at Midnight Radio, again…MCH was still funny when Hedwig was funny, but he played Hedwig differently than NPH, more emotional and sad about life. NPH had more energy, or flamboyance than MCH, but maybe MCH is a more realistic portrayal of Hedwig, since Hedwig is really a forced transgender woman, based on his living situation, and not truly transgender in a sense that he felt like a woman trapped in a man’s body. I feel like Hedwig would still have some manly characteristics despite being forced to live as a woman now. Jason thought MCH was better than NPH.

But then there was JCM! I seriously cannot believe I got to see the original Hedwig. O.M.G. I feel so thankful, and like my life is complete. God, just, so awesome. So a few weeks before our show JCM hurt his knee during a show, and was replaced for a week by MCH again so he could heal, and I happened to convince my friend Emily to see it when she was in NY. I was sad she didn’t get to see JCM, but she loved MCH. Then I convinced another friend, Anthony, to see it, and he did – the day before we were going to JCM. He texted a few things about the show that I didn’t really follow because at the time I had no idea JCM was performing injured, in a knee brace.  So the show we saw was a bit different than what JCM was doing before the injury, but it was still phenomenal, and funny, and fantastic. JCM is my favorite, I’m not sure anyone could top him in my opinion. The injury was written into the script, with the story that Hedwig had gotten Nancy Kerrigan-ed by a man in a Michael C Hall mask, or at least, she thought it was a mask LOL! Much of the show was performed while sitting in a stool, and Yitzak had to bring Hedwig a box to rest his leg on, which when he forgot, earned him the wrath of Hedwig. JCM’s Hedwig was bitter and angry but still funny and likable. The jokes have been updated with different names (like John Mayer instead of Phil Collins, etc) and there are some new bits special for the Broadway production, but the show is very on script compared to the movie, same lines with the same inflection. However, JCM ad-libbed a lot more than the other 2, with his show actually going 2o minutes longer. Apparently James Franco was in the audience with us, which JCM mentioned in the show in one of his ad-libbed speeches. I cried at the beginning, again, because…JOHN CAMERON MITCHELL AS HEDWIG!! And I cried during Midnight Radio, again. God, it was just so fantastic.

There were 2 more Hedwigs before the show closed on Broadway, but they are taking it on the road, so here’s hoping I’ll get to see it a few more times with some more interesting actors. Surely it’ll go to Toronto, if not Buffalo, and I keep joking that I’ll be going to see it in London’s west end once Daniel Radcliff and David Tennant are named as Hedwigs (not joking, better start racking up some credit card airline points).

OH MY GOD I GOT TO SEE HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH ON BROADWAY THREE TIMES INCLUDING ONCE WITH JOHN CAMERON MITCHELL!!!! HOLY CRAAAAAP.

Posted in: Personal \ Tagged: ,