Vacation, All I Ever Wanted...

And...we're off to Disney World! See you 'round Sunday! (Maybe sooner, if I can blog from the hotel room.)

Candy-Making Adventure!

I've been dying to make salted caramels for months now. The idea of combining the creamy sweetness of caramel with the salty crunchiness of sea salt sounded too delicious for words. I've just been too intimidated by the idea of making candy to actually do it. I had a browser window open with a salted caramel recipe for two weeks or so about a month ago, and would open it, read the directions, salivate a little, then sigh and minimize the window, sure I'd never be able to do it. (I've done the same while walking by Velatis, the new caramel shop on Georgia Ave: look in the window, salivate a little, and then sigh realizing there was no way I could pay $3 for a truffle, or $17 for a box of caramels. The place has gotten great reviews...Someday, they will be mine...)

Imagine my delight, then, when Alton Brown--one of my celebrity geek crushes!--had a show last week featuring salty/sweet foods...And had a recipe for dark salted caramels! I figured if Alton was telling me I could do it, and it would turn out to be Good Eats indeed, I could get off my ass, stop being scared, and do it.

With a little "Don't worry about messing up; it's only food" encouragement from Jake, and his assurance that he'd be on the couch doing work if I needed him, I gathered my ingredients (pictured above--that mysterious brown liquid in the little dish is the secret ingredient: soy sauce) and started making candy.

The adventure begins...after the jump!

Birthday Food!

What a great day yesterday! I did practically nothing all day (save watching Miss Congeniality and Sixteen Candles), went to see Eulogy, then came home for an amazing birthday dinner, made by my favorite home chef, Jake.

We have a deal in our house: the birthday boy/girl gets to ask for whatever s/he wants for his/her birthday dinner, and the spouse has to make it. It keeps the birthday dinner budget down, and since food is one of our favorite things to share, keeps it personal. For the last couple of years, Jake has asked for one of my favorite recipes: lamb meatball gyros. They're not super-difficult to make, and I'm so happy he can take so much pleasure from them. He's already asked for them again this year, even though his birthday isn't until May, and I'm already excited to make them. (I only make them once or twice a year, so they don't lose their birthday novelty.) I'll also make some sort of dessert, since I know now I like to bake.

I had to think really hard when he asked me what I wanted to eat on my birthday. He makes so much wonderful food, it was hard to narrow it down. But over and over, my brain kept saying, "Cheese polenta! Cheese polenta!" So, I asked for cheese polenta with some sort of lamb...something... And I got:

Cheese polenta (recipe from Cucina Rustica), spicy lamb sausage, and a radicchio salad with pancetta. Amazingly delicious!

And now, for a medley of birthday cake pictures!

The cake, recipe courtesy Cook's Illustrated. It tasted like the world's best white box cake (which is what the recipe was going for), with the world's best chocolate frosting.

With a big chunk taken out. I won't pretend we didn't eat birthday cake for breakfast, too. I also won't pretend we won't eat birthday cake for breakfast tomorrow.

Looks good, doesn't it? And eaten with a Spumante Dolce--bought for an incredibly good price from Fenwick Beer & Wine--while watching Willow? Birthday perfection.

Countdown to Thirty: Zero Hour!

That's right, folks: your intrepid blogger is officially thirty years old! As of 1:44 this afternoon! Mom and dad have been called and thanked.

It's been a great day so far. I've been doing essentially nothing, which I don't get to do a whole lot of. Later, I'll be seeing SOOS Sr.'s original play Eulogy. Then, back home for a fantastic meal by my favorite home chef.

Right now, I'm watching Sixteen Candles. No one's forgotten my birthday (geez, the celebration's already been going for over a week), and there will be no panty-showings at any school dances today. But I will be having cake with a great guy named Jake! Just like Samantha Baker's sweet sixteen, I don't see any physical changes--not that I would know what that would look like at thirty; Samantha was expecting something very definite in the area of her chest--and to be fair, I don't really feel any differently than I did yesterday at 29.

But there's a sense of pride that goes with knowing...something...I'm not sure what. That (thank god) I'm not a teenager any more? That (thank god) I'm closer to figuring out who I am than I ever have been before? That (thank god) I'm happier with where I am in my life than I was ten years ago?

Whatever it is, it's pretty good.

Countdown to Thirty: One Day

Blogging later than usual today, because...well, it's my first day of vacation and I slept until 10:30. That felt SO good. I wasn't even out particularly late last night; one of Jake's former grad school friends (still a friend, but not at GW any more) came to town for the weekend, and we met up out in the city. We should know better than to go to Gallery Place after a Caps game, but our friend wanted a central location, and it's difficult to get people to come out to Silver Spring.

We had a great time, but I couldn't help feeling like the oldest one at the party. Probably because I was the oldest one at the party. It's not a big deal; I get along great with these folks, but sometimes our age differences stand out. The group last night ranged from 23 to 27, plus Jake and I. (We do have a friend who just turned 22, but she wasn't there last night.) Again, it's not a big deal--honestly, it's just a couple of years--and I really like the people around the table. But I'm in a very different place in my life. One of the girls at the table, someone a friend brought and I had never met before, kept cracking me up by remarking on how much she loved me. She capped the evening by saying I was "the best wife ever!" to which pretty much everyone else nodded their agreement. (If I remember correctly, that was because I said I liked strip clubs. Or something.) Jake and I joked that the crowd keeps us young.

Which brings us to my goal for the day: emulate Jennifer Garner in 13 Going on 30.

The movie is the namesake for this blog--near the beginning, Garner's character Jenna closes her eyes and wishes with all of her heart that she could be "thirty, flirty, and fabulous." I will admit that it's one of the movies that I will watch any time it's on television, regardless of what point in the movie I'm turning on. It's in good company with The Devil Wears Prada and Mean Girls.

So, today, I will:

1. Smile to the point of dimples.
2. Be pleasantly surprised with everything in my closet, and how I can fill it out.
3. Avoid back-stabbers. (Ha!)
4. Dance at least once to "Love is a Battlefield" and/or "Thriller.
5. Revel at how well I get along with people younger than me, and the wisdom I can give them.
6. Realize how lucky I am in my home life (I got the Mark Ruffalo!).
7. Be proud of something I've done that was outside-of-the-box and artistic.
8. Walk down the street with "Head Over Heels" running through my head.
9. Tell my parents I love them.
10. Take in the world around me with new eyes.

That's "all." Whew!

Countdown to Thirty: Two Days

Two days to go. Whoo! Went to the SOOS Sr. dress rehearsal last night, and the students (with the attendant adults) did a fantastic job. Can't wait to see it again on Sunday. It was a great way to achieve yesterday's goal: when I see a show I helped develop, it makes me recognize the artistry in collaboration and dramaturgy. I'm going to see Sing and Never Tire, another play I worked on, tomorrow night.

So, on to today's grown-up goal: be okay with walking away. I've been crossing items off of my to-do list at work, and it's seriously satisfying to see all of those "X"es. But there comes a time when one has to erase the completed items and add new ones. When I get to work today, I'll be faced with everything I have to get done by close of business today...or it won't get done for another week! There are a few items I'll be okay with leaving until I get back from vacation. I just have to figure out what they are.

With visions of Disney World (and the great birthday dinner Jake is going to make on Sunday) dancing in my head, it'll be difficult to get anything done today! But I have eight (who am I kidding? Nine) hours to work today, and I will be okay with walking out the door for a week when I leave this afternoon.

Countdown to Thirty: Three Days

Three days left of my youth (ha! Just kidding), and I'm having a pretty good week so far. My grown-up goal for the day: recognize and appreciate myself as an artist, not just an administrator.

A year or so ago, when looking at my CV, one of my teaching-artists said, "You know, I think of you as an administrator, but you only have, like, two admin jobs on here. The rest of them are teaching or artistic." Well, yeah!

It's difficult sometimes to call myself an artist. Like so many other artists, I make my money with a day job--unlike so many other artists, my day job is actually in the arts, in my field, and I love it. Like so many other artists, I create, usually in collaboration with others--unlike so many other artists, my creations sometimes live in the worlds of research and criticism. I've found that as a dramaturg, it's hard to recognize myself as an artist sometimes, preferring instead the term "grown-up theatre geek." I have to recognize that what I do is, indeed, an art.

During the summer, my colleagues at work and I get to focus more on artistic pursuits, since there are so many actual student shows going up than during the school year. My party line is that it would be easier for me to go after a position if I were a director or a choreographer or something like that. I could say, "Hey, Guys and Dolls! I'd like to direct that!" or something to that effect, and get my artistic fulfillment that way. But I'm a writer, which is a bit harder to go after. Fortunately, I have the opportunity to write a script once a year, and I have a great time with it. I'm more than satisfied having an admin position if I also get that part of me fulfilled, and I recognize how lucky I am that I do get that.

Last night, I had a training session to become a script reader for a local company I love. This evening is my mid-semester observation for the Creative Drama class I teach. Tonight, I'm going to the dress rehearsal for a student show I dramaturged (and going to the closing night on my birthday). This weekend, I'll go to the most recent grown-up show I dramaturged. And through it all, I'll happily do my administrative work (which, being the spreadsheet queen I am, and getting to work at a theatre with some great people, I'm more than happy with). I do love what I do.