Baby Equipment

 Our grandson is 10 months old now and walking. He is, of course, adorable, but between walking and rapid crawling, very mobile.

We will be babysitting next Monday while the young parents attend a wedding, and so we have had to buy some additional equipment, namely a playpen, gates, and a car seat. If you haven't shopped for baby equipment lately, you would be amazed at how complicated it has become. There are so many choices! And there are so many reviews to "help" in decision-making. 

The reviews did actually help in picking out the playpen, which unlike in the distant past, is no longer a small, easy to fold up item. You can still get those, but our kids wanted us to get what looks like a fence, plastic panels that snap together. That was fine. Then you find a few on Amazon or wherever and start to read the parent reviews - yikes! Pens arriving with broken pieces, toddlers using the design of the pen to climb out of it, missing parts, and so on. We did finally pick one and it now sits in our living room waiting for us to put it together.

Gates are also much fancier that when our kids were small. Some open, like a door. Some are designed especially for stairs with bannisters. Unfortunately our stairs has a wall on one side and bannister on the other and none of the gates are able to accommodate for that - not wide enough. 

We haven't even begun looking at car seats - again so much easier when our kids were babies. The kids have a fancy one with a base that stays in the car and the seat lifts out. We need a simpler one that is just one piece and not too difficult to buckle in as we don't need it in the car all the time. And sometimes we need to backseat for friends.

However, getting to spend time with the little guy is so worth it! 

Memories of Greek food

This past weekend we went to one of the few remaining Greek restaurants in Chicago's Greek Town. It used to be you could walk down Halsted Street west of the Loop and pass one Greek restaurant after another. Now most of them are gone. I'm not sure why, possibly a change in the neighborhood. There are a lot of new buildings.

Our dinner was very good, but I really want to reminisce about a restaurant in my hometown.

I lived the last part of my childhood in Connecticut, in Cos Cob, which is part of the larger town of Greenwich. My family loved the Colonial Inn, in Old Greenwich, which was owned by a husband and wife -- one of them was Greek and the other Italian. An so the Colonial Inn was a Greek-Italian restaurant. It was on the small side and cozy. White tablecloths. It's no longer there, but I heard from high school classmates that the children of the owners have opened a restaurant in a neighboring town. I should say that my family is not Greek (or Italian).

I have two standout memories of the Colonial Inn. One was when my sister's college boyfriend came to visit and our parents gave us some money and said, go out to eat. My sister, brother, the boyfriend, and I went to the Colonial Inn. Us three siblings all ordered Greek food, from appetizer to dessert. The boyfriend (I have forgotten his name!) ordered a ham steak followed by cheesecake for dessert. My brother and I knew then that the relationship wouldn't last. And it didn't.

My other memory is of an evening with my parents and brother and sister. My dad wanted to order wine and was asking what a particular wine was like. The waiter paused. A Catholic priest was eating by himself at a nearby table, but he had gone to the men's room. The waiter remarked, "The Father won't mind," and poured a small glass from the priest's bottle of wine for my dad to try! 

When we got to dessert, the waiter informed us that the galaktoboureko had just come out of the oven. Galaktoboureko is not as well known as baklava, but once you have it, you won't forget it. Usually it is served chilled, but that night we had it warm from the oven. Oh my, in 40 years I have not forgotten the sensation of eating that delicious dessert. Here is a description from the web:

Galaktoboureko is a traditional Greek dessert made with layers of golden brown crispy phyllo, sprinkled with melted butter, filled with the most creamy custard and bathed in scented syrup.. Simply amazing!

I didn't have any dessert this past weekend; I was stuffed from my seafood, rice, and bread. But sometimes memories are better than the real thing.

My Dad and World War II

 My brother and sister-in-law were in town yesterday on their way to New York to visit their new grandson. We had a great visit and in chatting my brother mentioned that he has been looking into the role of sub chasers in World War II. Our dad was the captain of one of these.

My father would never talk about what he did in the Navy in WWII. In my very limited experience, WWII veterans fall into two camps - those who want to get together and reminisce, and those who don't want to talk about it. My dad was clearly the second type.

I know my dad's sub chaser was off the coast of France on D Day. 

I don't know as much about sub chasers as my brother now knows, but he has gotten me interested. The sub chasers were smaller boats, made of wood. The poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti was in command of one of these boats. They maneuvered easily and were difficult for the German subs to detect. On D-Day, the sub chasers rescued men in the water among other duties.

It's family history. My parents, especially my mom, were very interested in genealogy. I inherited several boxes of family genealogy. The family trees and where people were born, etc. is interesting, but it's the stories of what people did, what happened to them, that makes family history come alive for me. 

Performance Anxiety Strikes

 I do love to play my horn. And performance opportunities are great - a chance to play for people, motivation to practice and delve deeper in the music... but also the possibility of stage fright, so to speak.

The concert band that I am a member of had a concert on Sunday. The last piece on the program was a medley from Wicked and "Defying Gravity" was a horn solo. It wasn't incredibly hard, but it wasn't easy either. And I haven't seen Wicked. (I know, I'm perhaps the only person in the country who hasn't seen Wicked. I haven't seen Phantom either.) So I looked the song up on youtube and listened several times. 

Problem number two: I am a classically trained musician. The style of pop music is very different than classical music, say Mozart, Brahms, Strauss, etc. Pop music, like Wicked, has certain rhythms and phrasing that you have to both read carefully and feel, or you don't stay with the rest of the group.

At the first rehearsal I bombed it all over the place. I went home and not only practiced it, but listened to it on youtube, and had my band director husband coach me (which he was delighted to do!). It was much better at the next rehearsal and I continued working on it with my husband at home.

Nevertheless, I was very nervous. And it was the last piece on the program, which for a brass player means tired lips. I carefully paced myself and the rest of the horn section supportively covered for me when I laid back in pieces before Wicked.

In the end, though I was nervous, I was able to relax and enjoy playing the solo. It's making music that is so rewarding and I think that I was able to do that. 

Whew!

Yo-Yo Ma!

 We saw Yo-Yo Ma last night!

Yo-Yo Ma has to be one of the best known and popular classical musicians. He is an amazing cellist, but has not limited  himself to classical music. He has played Appalachian music with Mark O'Connor and Edgar Meyer. He initiated the Silk Road global musical journey. He is a wonderful, dedicated educator, not limited to teaching music students but encompassing everyone. 

About 15 years ago, Mr. Ma was in Chicago and giving a free master class downtown. We went -- my husband, teenage daughter, her friend, and me. This was during the Silk Road experience. I don't remember many specifics any more, but I do remember Mr. Ma involving all of us in rhythm experiences using our hands to clap, etc. What I do remember is how inclusive and inspiring he was, along with being unconventional for a classical musician. 

He could have spent his career like most top soloists - soloing with orchestras all over the world, focusing on classical music, playing chamber music with other top musicians. Instead, he has continually looked to expanding his musical interests and reaching out to all people. He has said: "As musicians, we transcend technique in order to seek out the truths in our world in a way that gives meaning and sustenance to individuals and communities. That's art for life's sake."

Mr. Ma was here yesterday! He soloed with the Chicago Symphony in a special concert, playing the cello concerto by English composer Edward Elgar, a lovely 20th century piece. Orchestra was packed with a very enthusiastic audience. After the applause, he spoke to the audience briefly and was given a bouquet of roses by a young woman in the audience. He immediately used the bouquet to give roses to many of the women in the orchestra. 

After the concert my husband and I went to a nearby restaurant and had sorbet. The maitre-d asked if we had been to the Yo-Yo Ma concert. "How was it? Everyone at dinner (before the concert) was talking about it -- getting to see Yo-Yo Ma tonight."

He's touring the country right now, big cities and small towns. If you can, go see and hear him!