Opera is finished

Mixed feelings abound regarding the end of the opera. I am glad that mom and I will be able to get back to a more regular schedule. I am sad that I won't have the opera to work on and the people associated with it to see and hang out with. Sigh.

I felt like my life, such as it is, was on hold while I was working/focused on the opera. I do knw that some stuff got neglected. Like my blog. And the mail/bills. I hope to get to them today - at least that is my plan.

Ok, so where were we? Oh, yes. The opera is over. Sunday was a long day. So was Monday, come to think of it. Each will be examined minutely (or not) in due time or course or whatever saying is most apt. Let's start with Sunday.

Sunday was the second and last performance of Don Pasquale. Matinees are odd - like going to a movie in the afternoon. It comes as a little bit of a shock when the performance is over and one walks out into the daylight! The show went smoothly - I think Robert and I finally got the curtains to go at the perfect-ish time. After the show, we had to do strike - remove all evidence of the opera having ever been there. It went pretty well and quickly. Everyone helped, even though they weren't required to. And the piano got moved back - honestly, I had forgotten about the piano. Moving an $80k Steinway is heavy and nerve-wracking (nerve-racking even...) work. Though, truth be told, this is the second (or third?) time for me, so it wasn't nearly as scary. We finally got everything that we were planning on getting done done. By 6:00 pm. Yay!

The "Cast" party started at 6:30 - I didn't get there till seven. I went home, fed mom badly (McDonald's fish sandwich), tried to get her situated with something to watch on television and changed my clothes. The party was at The Cobblestone - a tradtion apparently. We had a much smaller group than in years past, so only took over the top floor. Quite a spread! Lobster, sushi grade tuna, roast beef, lasagna, all sorts of other things - yummy desserts, decent selections at the bar. I stayed for a while after dinner and listened to the performing, but, since Al had decided he wanted to be up and out early - sigh - I wanted to make an early night of it, leaving around 9:30 pm.

Once I got home, I spent some time with mom, checking in. I do feel that I have neglected her a good bit over the past couple of weeks. Poo. But she has probably forgotten already. Yay! And then I stayed up too late playing.

That is part of the reason that Monday was a long day. I went to bed late, slept fitfully (yes, a combination of lots of rich foods does tend to make my sleep a smidge uncomfortable) and woke early. I did get a little done before heading off to the Smith to stuff Al's van full of props, costumes, backdrops and furniture. We had help toting things, which was great. I think it took all of half an hour to load his vehicle and see him off.

Back home, I thought to nap, but somehow never managed to sleep for more than a few minutes at a time. A new person is working for the aide service and she wanted to come and see if mom's service plan (like a car?) needed an overhaul. It didn't. Then Jenny came and helped mom out a bit by dusting her corner of her bedroom. I made lunch and headed to the Smith for a staff meeting. After which, back to the house for more attempted napping. Again, mostly unsuccessful! Eventually I headed to the grocery store to get victuals for dinner - left over chicken (from the fridge, not from the store), corn on the cob (yummy), artichokes (not good - too woody) and green beans (which I managed to cook just about perfectly). Huzzuh!

Somewhere in here, I had an epiphany-let: there probably exists a book cataloging app for my iPhone. Sure enough, there was. I bought it. $1.99 which is a bargain. It can scan an ISBN number and put all the data it can find from the web into the local database. Sure, it's a few issues, but it is way better than having to enter every book by hand. I keep telling people that there are 15k books in the house. I think that was the number I entered into a database back in 1999-2000 when I last cataloged the books. We shall see. I have already entered 15 or so. One book at a time until a room is done. Then another room and another...we shall see. Anyone want to guess?