Tonight I made taco salad. I'm getting better with mixing the seasoning myself (gone are the days of the paper packets of "Taco Flavoring" from the grocery store...as yummy as they are, they kind of defeat the purpose of this clean unprocessed eating business) but I really need to work on my knife skills. I figured I'd go all gourmet and chop up some onions to cook along with the ground beef, and it ended up in gigantic chunks. Which would work fine if I was making stroganoff, but...yeah. Gotta practice.
I forgot to take a picture before I ate it. But trust me, it was delicious. Giant onion chunks and all.
Anyway it's been a busy few days - today's Memorial Day and it's our first day off in ages.
On Saturday night, we went to the opening night gala of Hairspray, which Panda Assistant-Directed. It was a truly impressive show - I've been seeing musicals at that theatre since I was about 11 or so, and that was the best production I've ever seen there. Really fun, hilarious, and absolutely meaningful when it needed to be. I met Paula Warren years ago when I worked on Finian's Rainbow, and was super excited to see her play Motormouth Mabel. Now, every member of that cast was very talented and absolutely suited to their roles (their Tracy, in particular, was outstanding). But Paula walked away with that show. I had to cover my face in the audience as I ugly-cried through "I Know Where I've Been." I'm not religious anymore, but the feeling in my heart upon hearing that song made me wonder if that's what the faithful feel when they hear an inspiring song at church. Seriously, it was that good. Paula Warren took me to CHURCH with that song.
TL;DR - if you're in the area, see this musical. It is just fucking tops. No lie.
Anyway we went to the gala afterwards and I had lots of water and some plain crudites...and a few compliments from people, which was helpful in me not stuffing my face with the always-tempting baked mac and cheese. I caught up with some cool theatre friends I hadn't seen in ages, and met some new ones.
Yesterday we took a day trip to Phoenix, AZ. No, that's not an exaggeration. It was for Panda's brother's wedding. We flew from San Jose to Phoenix (Panda wore his suit, I brought my dress along in a small tote bag), rented a car, I changed in the rental car restroom, and we drove to the venue. After the wedding we drove back to the airport and flew home. It was a long day but well worth it - it was a fun wedding. My Spanish is improving and I was very pleased that I was able to communicate with many of Panda's relatives as well as some of the bride's family, whom I'd never met.
Oh, Panda's family is Mexican. I may have forgotten to mention that. Heh...although my Spanish is better than his; he'd admitted it and his mom agrees. ;-)
The ceremony itself was in English and Spanish, which took a bit longer but was very sweet and kind of funny - the white minister speaking English was very VERY pro-Jesus, and all the people who don't have Jesus get divorced and aren't you glad you guys have Jesus because I'm sure you won't fail like everyone else...and the interpreter following him in Spanish was much friendlier, very Jesus loves you guys, God's so glad you two are getting married, isn't marriage great, Jesus is great. The white guy had no idea - it was clear he spoke zero Spanish.
There was a mariachi band. Panda's mom and I had THE BEST time listening to them; she's so funny. They sang "Volver, Volver" right by our table and she was practically conducting them with her big dancing arm-sweeps. It was adorable. His 12-year-old nephews were at our table too, and those kids are hilarious. One of them got ahold of the baby's tiny clip-on tie and swapped it out for his own, and when I said "ok I need a picture, do the Dos Equis pose" and he immediately put his elbow on the table and went all blue-steel in the face. I thought I'd die laughing. He wore that tiny tie for the rest of the evening, like a boss.
I love weddings.
And they actually had some food I could eat! I ended up drinking about 30 gallons of water since I couldn't have wine (and because it was Phoenix and I didn't want to die of dehydration...seriously, how do people survive in that heat) and eating lots of salad, roasted carrots and some chicken.
I got some nice compliments on my appearance, which was very encouraging. And the dress I chose at the last second (because it was clean, it still fits and is light enough to carry without a suitcase) ended up matching the bridal party like we'd planned it. For the second night in a row, I liked the way I looked. That very rarely happens for me. And although I still have to keep my arms covered (I wonder if there's a magical incantation just to remove arm fat...I'd be all over that) I felt a little thinner in this dress. And the strapless bra wasn't cutting off the circulation in my boobs like it used to!
It's the little things.
Anyway today was pretty productive since I didn't have to go anywhere. This coming week's another busy one, but thankfully tomorrow night I'm not called for Comedy of Errors so I can hit Musson and Sally Beauty Supply and restock my makeup kit (I cleaned and organized it for the first time in years today...I don't think my Ben Nye from middle school is still usable, quite frankly).
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