Happy New Year!!
I kicked off the new year with the rather surreal experience of watching Pink Martini and Carol Channing (of all people!) live in concert at the Schnitzer Concert Hall. I was genuinely surprised by how much I enjoyed Carol Channing. I remember words like "living legend" and "watching history" running through my head as she was performing. I always thought Carol Channing was a bit annoying when I was growing up... or maybe that was Phyllis Diller. Yep, probably was, now that I think about it. Anyway, it was an amazing show... probably one of the best live performances I have ever seen. She told funny little stories about Yul Brenner, the making of "Hello, Dolly" and told some vaudeville-esque jokes which were so old that they are new again. She also brought out her husband of 3 (and a half) years to perform a little dance that they wrote together when they were in junior high to try to get her elected as VP of the student body... it was just adorable. I can't believe how spry and sharp she still is at 87 years old! Pink Martini performed a tour de force show... with lush, sweeping, operatic-in-proportion performances of songs like Bolero and sweet, soft performances of songs like "Clementine".
There were so many interesting little asides during the show. The dress Chyna wore was her great aunt's "coming out" dress from the 1930's. She said it had been in a closet for 70 years when she found it and it fit her, so she decided to wear it for us for New Year's Eve. And it was beautiful, of course. They just don't make dresses like that any more. She said that next year, Thomas is going to wear it to perform in. (ha ha!)
Another aside was when a friend of the group came up with his baby's mother and asked her to marry him on stage. He is their sound engineer, and he and his now fiancee did things a bit backwards. They bought a house, had a baby girl -named Clementine after the Pink Martini song-, and now they are going to get married. It was adorable. He asked her, and she said "yes" of course. Then he went to give her the ring and people in the audience shouted "On your knee!!" He tried to look put out, but he got down on one knee and put the ring on her finger. It was fantastic!
More surprises happened throughout the night. The first was when they brought out an Arabic professor from PSU and his daughter to help them sing their first Arabic language song. The daughter was a total trip. She was dancing and singing like a pro. I remember thinking that it was a beautiful thing, because she was very overweight but didn't seem hesitant about moving her body and enjoying herself in front of hundreds of people. She had such a bold spirit. Her father was more reserved and shy, but still performed to help the band.
They also brought out a kyoto(?) player from another university- I don't remember which one. She played on a Japanese inspired song from the 1950's. She was very pretty and very dainty. She had such small hands, but such a big beautiful smile. The instrument itself was massive. It had to have been about 5-6 feet long, with at least 20 strings. There were supports underneath the strings, they looked like bridge supports, that could be moved to create different effects. It was a really interesting sight to see.
And lastly, they brought out this funny little man who I guess almost singlehandedly created the Portland Symphony. They said he was responsible for making the symphony into the highest-supported per capita symphony in the US. He was also a clarinet player. He came out and played this funny version of "The Entertainer" using what he called a "pizzicato clarinet". It basically is this strange little way he had of making the clarinet emit popping noises, in tune and on cue. The strings section put down their bows and played pizzicato (by plucking strings), too. It was fun and hilarious. I love when musicians don't take themselves too seriously.
In the end, everyone came out on stage to perform "Brazil". You could tell that they were just having fun and enjoying themselves. It was wonderful.
I had an early morning, so I was happy to get home. I woke up feeling more like I had caught Franz's cold. I took care of doggies for two visits today. I slept ALOT. I thought more about what I want my goals to be for this year. And Franz and I sat down and worked out our calendars for the year. We are starting the detoxifying process tomorrow... using Colonix and ToxinOut from Dr. Natura. I have really high hopes for what will happen to help our bodies on this program. I hope it is as good as everyone says it is.
So, what's "The Plan", you might be asking? The Plan is what I am calling my goals for this year... a total life makeover. I am going to lose weight, get my life completely in order, and work on my physical, mental, and emotional health this year. The following are my goals:
1) Lose weight and get into shape. Improve my physical health.
I want to lose 50 pounds this year. It sounds like a lot, but I figure that it is about 1 pound per week. I think this is do-able. I want my body weight to be about 145, my BMI to be about 23 and my percentage of body fat to be somewhere between 23 and 25%. I think these goals are within my reach. I just have to stay on course. Tomorrow I am going to take all my measurements so I know where I am starting from. After all, you can't find your way someplace if you don't know where you are right now.
2) Get organized.
I want to be able to think of something in the house that I want or need, and be able to put my hand on it in 2 minutes or less. This means filing paperwork in a new filing system, keeping track of my schedules (work and personal) as well as Franz's schedules. It means getting rooms sorted through, and getting stuff that we no longer need ready for a garage sale, etc.
3) Enhancing and protecting my mental and emotional health.
I want to work on finding the sources of things that cause me worry or pain, make me afraid or depressed, etc. As I find them, I want to work to end them. I also want to make sure that I am feeding my brain on a daily basis. I have spent far too much of my life focusing on the "unreal"- watching trash t.v. and so called "news" shows about people like Paris Hilton and Brangelina. That is not my life. And it is time I stop giving things that aren't real, or important to my life, so much of my time and energy. To that end, I have set up a plan to do educational reading as well as pleasure reading for one hour each day. The first subject I have chosen is "Financial Planning." I want to learn everything I can about investing and planning for emergencies, etc. I have checked out a ton of books from the library so I will have both the time and the materials to study this subject in depth. I mostly just want to know that no matter what happens to me, Franz will always be safe and cared for financially. There has to be more I can do to safeguard that. I intend to learn more about just that.
4) Journaling- I want to keep track of my progress in a journal. This is that journal, so far. It may change forms, electronic or paper, but it will be here everyday. I have to chronicle this journey. It has been a long time coming, over 33 years in fact, but if I underestimate the importance of "The Plan" I may lose focus and not achieve my goals. That would be unforgivable.
There are about a million more things that will go into "The Plan". But those are the goals, in short. I hope I achieve everything I set out to do this year. I could really turn my life around and make it into something better, even better than it already is, if I pull this off. Wish me luck!!
Sherry
