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I have been a bad, bad blogger. I had every intention to blog daily but good intentions don’t always work out. So … I will promise to try to come here as often as possible and type odd remnants of ideas from my addled brain for any poor fool who wants to read them. Is that you? Do you qualify? Are you a theater buff? foodie? anarchist? All of the above? Keep watching … cause I’m back … and badder than ever. I am cold! I am sitting at my desk in my office wearing my hoodie, sweats and warm socks. It’s about 59 degrees today here in sunny Florida. My friends Deb and Jeff and the kids are off on the Pirate Ship tour boat that leaves out of Clearwater beach every day. They wanted me to join them. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! No Freakin’ way. It’s cold in here, with the heat on, in my jacket, with the hood up …IN MY WOOOLY SOCKS FOR GODSAKE! Meanwhile, back on the boat, the family from Virginia who escaped 14 inches of snow by bailing out of the Roanaoke Airport after waiting over 24 hours for the airport guys to shovel off the runways and warm up the planes, are riding on a big red pirate boat on the water in the sunny Gulf of Mexico … probably wooooo hoooooing. I am a wimp. I am not in denial about this. I hate to be cold. This is why I left my home state of Jersey and moved to Florida which, though devoid of culture, overall intelligence and people under the age of 75 ….. is warm … usually. Yesterday, when I took my friends to the beach, there were surfers. I admit that for once, there was also surf which could be why these brain trusts were out there in wet suits instead of in a nice warm bar drinking hot rum beverages. In New Jersey, guys surf in cold weather too. Like 35 degree weather. I used to go to the boardwalk and sit in a bar and drink the aforementioned hot rum beverages, watch them and laugh my ass off. They would come out of the water with their heads , hands and feet, being the only thing not covered in skin tight rubber. Everything but the rubber was a lovely shade of beet. So … it’s all relative. If the sun is shining and the waves are waving, surfers all over the world will go out in the freezing water (again relative according to region) and surf. People like me will sit in our hoodies drinking warm things and cursing the cold. The good news is that this is Florida. If you don’t like the weather, wait a few minutes. By Wednesday it will be 78 degrees again and I will be walking on the beach on Christmas eve with my beautiful wife. I will be the one in the cut off s and flip flops. I can hold out! We had a wonderful brunch today that many of our friends attended. Beth made omelettes to order and we had crepes with fruit and the whipped cream I made fresh this morning. Good food, good conversations and your basic holiday cheer. It was great! … except. I threw this brunch so that my friends (now my family) could meet my old pal Debby and her family. Guess where Deb is from … Roanoke VA. That’s right! The place that is currently under 2 ft of snow. She called me on Saturday afternoon to tell me that they were still in the Roanoke airport where they had spent the night at the airports Sheraton awaiting the clearing of the runways and rescheduling of the flights. The guest of honor for our brunch was holed up in Virginia with two young sons and her husband pacing and praying … As Toni would say … OY!! About 8pm on Saturday I got a call …”We’re in Orlando”. We’ll see you tomorrow … about noon. GREAT!!!! Except ….. The brunch was set for 10 ish for all of my local friends. Whadda ya gonna do? So everyone from the theater company came between 10 and 10:30. most everyone left between 11:30 and noon and Deb and family arrived at 12:30 having missed every light on the way and gotten stuck, to boot, behind some weird holiday motorcycle parade for about a half an hour. Jason and Bev were still here … so they got to meet two of our best friends and there was still some food left …. so that was good. More importantly I got to spend the rest of the afternoon with my dear old friend and her charming family. Her husband Jeff had us all in stitches … funny, funny guy. Her kids are terrific! I took them out and showed off our amazing “Honeymoon Island Beach” (Jeff decided then and there to stay here and not return to Virginia) and had a great chance to catch up after a 15 year absence in one anothers lives. God bless Facebook!!! reconnecting old friends everywhere! Sometimes … like this time … that really works out well. Ok! So I am completely not ready! Then I am never ready for Christmas. I have never bought presents much prior to December 15th (who am I kidding? more like the 22 0r 23) This year we are hosting a holiday brunch at our house. My good friend Deb and her family are visiting our area this coming weekend and I thought, “Why not invite everyone in the theater company to eat brunch and meet my pal?” Oh the shopping and cooking and cleaning I will do … AHHH! I am nuts!!! But the good news is that my wife is on the same crazy page as I am. Tomorrow I will hit the Costco – God Bless Them – and buy lots of stuff for the brunch and some for the Christmas dinner, which at this point will be an all day extravaganza of food and wine. Hurray! As for gifts, we have cookies piling up on the tables and counters at the house as my a-for-mentioned crazy wife continues to bake …. and bake … and bake !! The tins are ready for loading and that, my friends, is what everyone will be getting ….cookies. Except Beth. Beth will be getting some cool little gifts and the one thing she has asked for. Time. God has given us lots more of this and we are very, very grateful. So … We will be spending time this year. Not so much money which is kind of a waste. Don’t you think? We will be spending time with our friends who love us and who we love. People who were there for us at the worst and continue to be so at the better. Time in our home and with our remaining, sweet dog who is healthy and well and full of love and piss and vinegar. But most of all … time with each other. Blessed are those who have love … Because they have everything. I am a member of several networking groups. We meet at breakfast or lunch or happy hours and pass around our cards and fliers for upcoming events and classes we are offering or special offers our companies are providing. Most of the time we are each given about 30 seconds to about 2 minutes to do a “commercial” telling everyone in the room about our business and why they should buy our products, use our services or become team members of our multi level businesses. It’s all about making connections. It’s all about striving to generate new business and make lasting business contacts, friendships and family ties. BULLSHIT!! – it’s all about the food! especially the free food. Networkers can eat like longshoreman after putting in a hard day at the docks. They eat like actors and musicians and drink like teachers and doctors at a convention … that is if it’s free food and, God willing, free booze. Little, tiny wasted, women can suck up more spring rolls, chicken wings, potstickers, cheese wedges and fried appetizers of a variety of natures than should be humanly possible. BUT … when it’s not free … not so much! I run a Friday networking group and I went with a smart decision in order to avoid the embarrassment of having people come to the meeting, sit there with nothing but a free water in front of them and take up space on the restaurant (which they hate). My meeting is at a Chinese restaurant, a very good one, where you get an entire meal for under $6. We are well attended. It’s not free but it’s the next best thing … it’s cheap. So … I am off to a networking meeting tonight … great apps and buy one get one drinks. Wooo the frick … hooooo!! If I could only bring in a little cooler, Beth would not have to cook tonight. It takes a lot more than free food to get my wife to a networking meeting!!!! I had to make a quick dinner for Beth and I tonight and thought I would pass along a little tip. Lisa – listen up – it’s a way to make that freakin’ Ragu Sauce you eat …. edible. Take any decent jarred sauce (even ragu – if they still make that stuff) and start like this. In a saucepan melt a tablespoon or so of butter, add a little minced garlic. If you don’t have this go out and get it. You are not allowed to continue cooking without this in the fridge. Add a little olive oil (same applies as with the garlic). Stir together with a little garlic salt and whatever dried Italian seasonings you have around – just a little of that. Add about 2 ounces of Vodka, more to taste if you like and about 2-3 ounces of milk, any kind even half and half. Throw in salt and pepper to taste, toss over some wheat pasta which is much better for you than regular pasta and tastes twice and good. Done ….enjoy!!! Christmas used to mean my big Italian family, snow, cold crisp air, trips into the city to see the tree light in Rockefeller Center surrounded by skaters and crowds, carolling with my friends, lots of hot chocolate, parties and many, many layers of clothes. It’s different now. I have no parents or grand parents. I have new friends and can’t get north to see the old ones. It doesn’t snow and it rarely gets cold enough for hot chocolate, or more “layers” than a sweater or Henley over my tee shirt. Yesterday I wore cut off jeans and my beach shoes with no socks. It’s colder today because it’s raining and we can’t carol downtown for the old fashioned Christmas event because we got rained out. By the weekend we will probably be able to hit the beach for a walk or sunset in just shorts and maybe a light jacket. I miss my family. I am the only one left standing and that’s hard. But the thing is … I have a family. I have Beth, the most amazing wife anyone could have and we still have little Taylor, the world’s cutest dog. Our friends are many and great. They love and support us and surround us. Mary and Ray and Marie will eat Christmas dinner here and who knows who else will show up to eat Beth’s cookies, breads and cakes (the woman is a baking machine). New years eve and day we will gather together, eat, drink and laugh. Everyone will stuff themselves with my collards so we all have good luck through the next year (so far – it’s worked). Tonight, it’s raining. Beth is getting going on the batter for the millions of cookies she will make. The Christmas music is playing on the IPod. I will crack a good bottle of Pinot Noir, enjoy dinner and cuddle on the couch with my little family. I am hundreds of miles from home. Yet, I am home. I have my family and while it’s different than the Christmases of old – it’s not better, it’s not worse. It just is … and I am very lucky that it is! I love my job! Creative Director of the Showcase Arts Foundation and Director of the Showcase Repertory Company – a dream come true. Last night I sat in our little theater space watching everything we have all worked for come to fruition. It has been a little more than 3 years since I started this journey with the actors who stood on that stage last night. Some of them have been involved steadily from the get go, some , including my wife, came on slowly, even reluctantly. All of them have worked tirelessly to improve. All of them have taken workshops to the extreme, stretching their limits, letting go and learning, learning, learning. The results are amazing. I was brought to tears once again by actors who, not that long ago, were raw, unsure and unpolished. We are barely out of table readings on the play “Rabbit Hole” but already the sense that this will be the best thing we have ever brought to a stage is obvious. People need to see this play. I have a personal connection to this play that everyone will, at some point in their lives, have with it as well. We have or will suffer grief. All of us! How do we deal with it? Can we let others deal with it in their own way or will we judge them? try to help them? try to force our way of dealing with it on them? or just let them be? Tough questions without easy answers. I have read and directed a great many plays in my life. I will read a great many more and, hopefully get to direct many more amazing works. I doubt I will get to work with a play any much better written than this one and cast as perfectly. Who knows? We have come so far and have raised the bar so high with this company. Who knows what else we will be able to do? I, for one, am very excited to see into that future. What’s next? — Movies! One Christmas, about 20 years ago, my father proudly announced that we would be having a traditional English Christmas that year, complete with fig pudding and a fattened goose. This would have come as no surprise if it were not for the fact that my father was Russian/Polish and my mother 100% Italian. So he cooked a Goose – literally. And it was quite good so for many years to come he would, as often as possible, cook a goose, along with a turkey or a prime rib and my mother’s lasagna or ravioli and (what would Christmas be without it) the antipasto. Again, this could be why I have to go to the gym 3 – 4 times a week now! So – in honor of my Father’s screwy tradition, I am planning to cook a goose this year. I have no idea where to buy one, how to cook one or even if anyone but me will eat the damn thing, but I think, wherever the old man is, it’ll make him happy to know I gave it a shot. Tradition! I will, however, skip the fig pudding. That crap is nasty!! Tomorrow I take Mary and Marie and we go to Mazzarro’s, the best Italian deli south of Hoboken. We still have to have the ANTIPASTO! Geeeeez! I was talking to my old friend Lisa today about life, religion, discrimination and … .stuff! A light-hearted conversation – right. She said something about the fact that she got out of bed every day and that was a good thing which reminded me of something that came to me yesterday. We are all optimists – even the pessimists. Consider for a moment how much crap goes on in the world every day. Hurricanes, droughts, floods, natural disasters galore. Forget that! How about the travesties? - Apartheid, hunger, poverty, the unbelievably poor conditions in which so much of the world lives. In America, we are worried about finances, loss of jobs. How will we tell our kids that we can’t get them much for Christmas? How will we make our bills? What if we lose our house? our job? People get sick. So many people have cancer one wonders what the heck we are doing to create that. It’s hard. It’s fucking hard to get up every day and brush your teeth and go to work, assuming you have a job, to do all the things great and small that are required of us. But …. We do it. Just about all of us do it. We get up! We get moving. We keep moving until that blessed time when we return home, the luckiest of us to our families, and we breath a sigh of relief, pet the dog, kiss the kids, read a book, watch the TV … hit the hay! Sleep .. if we can and …. Do it all over again the next morning. We do the impossible every day – even the most pessimistic among us. As Dory (from “Finding Nemo” – a film to live by) would say, “Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming”. |
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Copyright © 2010 Lil Barcaski - All Rights Reserved |
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