My summer that is.  Yesterday I officially said my goodbye’s at the theatre (just for the summer that is), packed up my junk and this morning I made my trek over to the east coast.  Pretty normal travel day all things considered, 6AM wake-up, have Sunreon pound on my door at 6:20, load up my junk into her car and head over to The Red Moose for a cup of coffee and a breakfast burrito.  I can’t remember if I ever mentioned this little coffee shop before, they haven’t been around that long (I believe since December) but they have great coffee and great food.  They are also practically right across the street from my house which could be a dangerous thing.

The traveling today was pretty painless.  I still think that it is a pain in the ass to get from the door of the airport to the door of the plane, but when you fly early enough in the day getting through security is pretty efficient.  In general, flying on Southwest is pretty efficient.  They seem to really be able to get you from one place to the next without much hoopla.  They also have pretty good fares.  I do love sitting in the terminal and on the plane during boarding listening to the agents and flight attendants try to explain to people about the open seating.  There are some people who really just don’t get it.  It isn’t that hard to understand is it?

As we loaded up the first plane (SLC to MDW) I ended up sitting next to a very interesting gentleman who works for the VA hospital right across the street from the theatre.  We shall call him D for the sake of privacy.  It turned out that he was also flying from SLC to MHT, though his reasons for the trip were not quite as upbeat as mine.  He was a very nice man and we had a great conversation for most of the flight.  In fact, by the time that we stopped chatting I only was able to make it about halfway through the new “Alice in Wonderland” movie.  In the end I suppose that isn’t terrible because now I can watch it on a screen larger than my iPhone.  I never did see it in theaters, and I was totally OK with that.

We arrived at MDW a couple minutes early which is a good thing because the layover was only 35 minutes.  I probably should and cold have grabbed some food, but since people were already lining up to board, I figured that I would hit the head and then get in line.  I ended up sitting with the D again and another interesting person who I believe was around my age.  This flight, which was only around 1:30-sin in length, the tree of us chatted the entire time.  I don’t think that I have ever had that much interaction with the people that I have been sitting with (who are not friends or family) on an airplane before.  In the end, D and I exchanged cards, and will probably connect again when I get back to Utah.  He has kids who he would love to see get involved in the arts, and he knows some people at one of the youth theatre organizations that he wanted to put me in touch with.

With an on-time arrival in Manchester I met my parents and I finally got to meet the new puppies.  They are sooo cute!  They are crazy hyper, like all huskies, but they are a lot of fun.  However they did manage to pinch my old Red Sox cap from my bag and chew it up.  It is a little sad, but I am sure that I will get over it (and get a new cap).  So, since it is Friday, I think that I will leave you with one of my father’s photos of the puppies.  The white one is Ava, and the black/silver one is Zoe.

Zoe and Ava on the back porch

I suppose that I should also mention that for the rest of the summer (until mid August) I will be on the east coast, primarily in Maine and New Hampshire working at Indian and Forest Acres camps.  My blogging may be a little more erratic over the summer, but I will keep you all up to date!

It isn’t that I was busy yesterday so much that I was sleeping in after partying late after closing the show.  I did have to work for a little bit yesterday, but nothing crazy.  Of course, my phone also crashed yesterday which was a big pain in the ass.  I mean, it isn’t that hard to restore an iPhone, but when you run a jailbroken phone you have to go back and install all the non-Apple stuff.  (It is totally worth it though).

So, late yesterday afternoon I finally got a chance to call my mother to say “Happy Mother’s day.”  While I am sure that it made her happy, she didn’t really care.  She was more interested in the fact that I had called and that we could catch up on  things.  It’s not like I don’t call my parents a couple times a week, I just thought it was interesting.  At the time, they were in the car on the way home from New Hampshire, so later on in the evening I got the following email from my mother:

“I wanted to say something about mother’s day but I forgot when we were talking today and my phone battery was dying.

“For me, every day is mother’s day. I have three amazing kids and I feel honored by you guys every day and by everything you do. (Also, I pat myself on the back, and daddy too, that you are such great kids). I guess many mother’s need a day. Or at least Hallmark and florists/restaurants need a day – but I am so proud of you, Dan, and Leah all the time it makes every day my day.”

This, of course, made me think back to mine and my siblings b’nei mitzvot when my mother told us that if people asked us “Are you proud of your sibling today?”  We should say: “I am proud of my siblings every day!”  I don’t know if I truly felt that way then, but I certainly do now.

I agree with my mother on this one.  While in some respects it is nice to have a day to celebrate mothers, how much do we really need it?  I mean, everyone should be honoring their parents every day!  We should be thankful to our parents for bringing us into the world and giving us a chance at life all the time.  I think if we keep that in mind then everything we do will always honor our parents!

As with so many holidays, Mother’s and Father’s day have gone from having real significance to being complete “Hallmark” holidays.  They are now just excuses for companies to make and market products that are holiday-centric.  You shouldn’t need an excuse to send your mother a card or bring over flowers.  You shouldn’t even need an excuse to call home just to say hi!  It also shouldn’t cost you anything or require any additional work out of your day to make your parent’s proud of you.

There is no greater compliment or pat on the back than a note like the one my mother sent me.  The fact that my siblings and I make her proud and happy every day means that not only did we do something right, but so did she!  So, don’t wait for an excuse, make every day Mother’s and Father’s Days!

Once again I come to you with a post inspired by Mama Kat’s Writer’s Worksop.  This week, the prompt that struck me was number 5: “Describe a home cooked meal that makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside.”  I like to cook and even more than cooking, I love to eat.  Home cooked meals are definitely the best and I have to say, I don’t eat enough of them.  It would be much better for me in terms of my health and my wallet if I ate more home cooked meals.  I think that I really need to figure out how to make my schedule next year such that I can!

I come from a family that sat down every night to a family dinner all through my high school career, yet when I read this prompt, my mind immediately went to my grandmother’s house.  She is always ready with a meal no matter when you come over, planned or unannounced.  I suppose it is kinda the “Jewish Grandmother” thing to do, but it certainly was great.  I was lucky enough to grow up only minutes away from all of my grandparents, so we spent a lot of time with them and celebrated many holidays with them.

This post pertains to my maternal grandmother.  I have posted before on the subject of corned beef, mostly just giving my grandmother’s recipe and talking about making it.  This dish though, is one of my all time favorite.  I don’t remember what holiday I really associate corned beef with, I think it is Hanukkah.  In any event, it used to be an annual treat to head over to Nana’s house and know that we were going to be having corned beef for dinner.  usually served with mashed potatoes or Latkes.  Can’t go wrong when it is with latkes!

This home made corned beef is unlike any that you get at the deli counter in the supermarket.  I think it has a lot to do with the glaze that we make for it.  Ham glaze, mustard, brown sugar… It makes such a sweet glaze.  I think there is probably something also in the cooking the meat in ginger ale as well, but I am not a food scientist (might be a fun job).  All I know is that, when made right, this corned beef is so sweet and tender that it might even convert some vegetarians. (Well, that may be a little extreme)

I can’t think of any other food that really makes me feel as warm and fuzzy as my Nana’s home made corned beef.  It reminds me of my family and being together and it is quite yummy-in-the-tummy.  It isn’t terribly hard to make and it is lots of fun to eat!

At 5:17AM 26 years ago I was born.  That is pretty cool in and of itself.  My parents were excited, my grandparents were excited, It sounds like it was a pretty good time.  I certainly can’t remember.  I also can’t remember the fact that when my mother got to bring me home from the hospital on February 14, she was bummed out that my father had to be working.  I do remember things like the day my sister was born because it was the day of my fourth birthday party.  I thought that was inconvenient, but My sister turned out OK!   According to my mother today, I turned out good.

It is kind of fun to wake up in the morning to have it snowing.  I like that about having a winter birthday.  Maybe the fact that I was born in the winter has something to do with how much I enjoy the winter.  It is also fun to wake up and have an inbox full of emails and notifications with birthday wishes.  Normally I am not a big fan of Facebook messages, but the fact that people take the time to send a quick note for a birthday is pretty nice.  When you consider the number of “friends” I have on facebook, the fact that even a few take the time to send a birthday note is kinda cool.

As expected, I talked to most of my family today.  Thankfully, my mother waited until after I woke up to call me.  Unfortunately my sister called first, right after I poured myself a bowl of cereal.  I was going to go back to it after I got off the phone with her, but then my mother called.  Needless to say, that bowl of cereal was a little to soggy to eat after two phone calls.  There are worse things of course, but it was a little sad.  It was nice to talk to my sister, I have talked to her more this week than many months on account of her birthday was on the seventh.

I think the only people I didn’t talk to were my grandparents on my mother’s side.  They are in Israel right now, so that is not surprising, but the email they sent was nice to get.  If nothing else, a birthday is a pretty good excuse to check in with the family!

I had a nice dinner with Ruth, though it left my stomach feeling a little funky.  I think I just had a little to much spicy wings…  In any event, I have been feeling better and better.  After the show tonight I am going out with a couple friends from the theatre for a little celebration, and all in all I think it was a pretty good day.  So, thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes, hopefully this is the beginning of another good year!

As my parent’s visit to Salt Lake City came to an end they did offer me some great things.  First off I finally got a new pair of ski pants.  I have been skiing in my old Spyder pants for a really long time and they are starting to show their age as well as not really fitting well.  I did have to go back to REI to exchange the pants as the first pair was a funny cut that didn’t quite fit right, but I think I have landed on something that I am happy with.

Additionally, my father found a photo workshop that looks like it should be interesting.  The workshop is down in Moab and it is run by the Nikonians Academy.  I was going to do a similar workshop last summer, but that one was cancelled due to conflicts that the hosting photographer had.  I was kind of bummed out about that.  At that point in time, the workshop was going to be birthday gift for me from my parents, so they made me the same offer on the upcoming one.  So, I am all signed up to go on a photo workshop this summer down in Moab, which should be a lot of fun.  I think that doing something lie this will be good for me as a photographer.  I will get to meet new people and learn something, and hopefully continue to develop my eye.