Resume a Routine: Survival Tips from the Festival

So I guess now that the kids are back to school in NY, the Labor Day holiday is over, and vacations are a memory, it's back to the swing of things at work. I don't know about some of my other colleagues, but I have at least 6 standing meetings a week. (Not physically standing - you weisenheimer, you -- they would go faster if they WERE standing.) SIX! One day this week, the entire day is meetings. Not work. Meetings. ?WHY?!

I wonder what survival tips we'll have to adapt for the fall and the Fall Festival.

~ ~ ~

For the summer, we had a variety of coping mechanisms, survival tips if you will. You do what you can.

There was the Departmental hooky day at the lake last month.

Of course with a buffet, because our department doesn't "do a thing" without some kind of buffet.

We may have been wondering if there was some way senior management could delay coming back from their vacations. We might have needed them to be on vacation for at least another month, so we could have caught up from the last 8 MONTHS. (Not 8 weeks. 8 MONTHS!) {Why? MEETINGS!}

There was the post-concert, staff Karaoke Kontest, and Kameo by an Ice Cream truck on Closing Night of the Festival.

There may have been some lapsing into some outrageously outre accents. Da, comrades?

Someone MAY have been making up lyrics celebrating the end of the Festival. With apologies to the writers of One Day More from Les Miserables:

One day more! Another day, another destiny. This never-ending road to [revelry]; These men who seem [pay my dime] Will surely come a second time.

Tomorrow we'll discover What [the HR ladies have] in store! [party] One more dawn [Can I make it?] One more day [I will make it!] One day more!

There was a farewell to departmental seasonal help at a final seasonal staff meeting with, of course, a buffet.

Week 6's Opera evening saw some art therapy going on during the intermissions.

There may have been an impromptu dance solo during a rain burst, leading to the question/answer:

Q: Should I apologize to all the audience members who saw me dancing barefoot with my umbrella during the pre-concert microburst? #sorrynotsorry

A: Nope. Perfectly happy to enioy my #singingintherain solo. Life is too short, and I work too hard, not to dance like no one is watching.

Other people on Twitter agree.

Daunse lyke nobodye ys wacchinge except the wylde and airy deities of summer.

— Chaucer Doth Tweet (@LeVostreGC) July 17, 2015

We ate a lot of leftovers from the previous night's party platters. If the cookies have oatmeal and raisins in them, it's a healthy option for breakfast, right?

We got MORE punchy. Even "Secret Summer Santa" has having a hard time.

There might have been low-tech hot stone massages and fake tans (aka our feet hurt so much the radiant heat on the train platform felt good on dirty swollen feet.)

People came in on an "early" train just so they could sit on a bench in front of an indie bookstore in the sun, to enjoy 30 minutes of a book, when it wasn't too hot, before the car pool arrived.

People left at 5pm a day or two--and refused to feel (too) guilty about it.

There may have been meditation moments during musical interludes. NOT sleeping. Nope. We weren't sleeping. We were mediating. (Rigggggghhhhht.)

We may have gambled on not getting Lyme Disease, malaria, or other foot/mouth diseases, by walking around barefoot in the grass.

One rainy night on a late night commute, we got to enjoy the musical stylings of a quietly playing, considerately mellow, talented guitarist on a train platform.

We may have started paraphrasing the Bard as we longed for sleep.

"...to sleep, To sleep, perchance to Dream; aye, there's the rub, For in that sleep...what dreams may come," ~ Hamlet 

Still-lifes may have been artfully arranged.

We were burning the candles at both ends. When we weren't actually burning candles.

There actually MAY have been naps. A LOT of NAPS. And the 12hour sleeps of the NyQuil-assisted.

We may have gotten a little too excited when other departments showed up with the rest of the summer swag.

There were random ice cream socials with a cases of ice cream shipped in from Graeters Ice Cream.

Every meeting seemed to come with some kind of decor, treat, and/or buffet of goodies.

EVERY.  Meeting.

 

This was National Popsicle Day.

  I forget why there was champers and strawberries. Though, do you need a reason?

But then there were ALSO cheese-cake birthday surprise bashes and birthday buffet dinners.

Maybe our eating habits were REALLY random.

Maybe there were occasions of breakfasts of PB Cups. Logic: PB is Protein, Protein is necessary. Sugar is Energy ERGO PB Cups.
OR
Days that started with PB Cups and ended with Tastykakes. Because we are adults. And we didn't have time for that whole "balanced diet" thing.
OR
Days that started with 3 Twix for breakfast, then a chaser of knockoff Fruit Loops w/a 1.25 liter of Diet Coke, and 3 Advil. Because, yeah -- sometimes ... 

Perhaps meetings involved random exercise breaks including planking and jumping jacks.

Mayhap there was a H20 drinking game involved during marathon Gala prep sessions. Mayhap I should leave the details of this drinking game out there on Twitter for everyone to enjoy and not document it here.

Could it be that the backstage crew had the best coping mechanism of all?

Could it be that this phrase really best describes multi-week Festivals?

"It's not a sprint, it's a marathon" does NOT apply to multiweek Festivals. It's more a decathlon, that starts with a Gala/marathon.

A FEW people tried to start our summer out right. Not one, but THREE people had goodies ready to go at our Festival kick-off meeting.

THREE!

That should have been a clue.

As for ME, my coping mechanisms are front and center on my desk - as long as I remember to look at them:

 The paperweight is there for DRASTIC moments when I absolutely HAVE to chuck it at someone's head.

THOSE CUTIES! (Minus Jaime -- unfortunately.)

And the realization that THIS email exchange was more honest than anyone can know.

Query: "What do you do to keep yourself sane."
My instant reply: "I'm not sane. You think I'm sane?"
(We kid, because there is truth in comedy.)

A day without meetings ... is like a #unicorn. So precious. So rare. To be treasured and noted when spotted.

Maybe one day I'll spot my unicorn again.

~photos by iTouch

What Season is This Anyway?

Taken on the last day of September.

The zucchini plant still has blossoms on it and the morning glories have finally burst into full bloom this week.

These are strange seasons indeed.

photos by iTouch

Retroblogging: Summer Fridays 2013

Sometimes trying to keep up on this blog can be a real bear. I know it's easier to do it as things happen, but then life and projects get in the way. Life just roars on by and trying to claw out time for intensive posts can make me snarl.

Ad from the railways

Take blogging this summer. I had a project list that I was trying to tackle and prioritize around. And, added to that, the summer heat - while not as bad in years past - was still a bit oppressive due to the humidity. It was NOT a treatwave, contrary to what McDonald's would like to you to believe.

Really advertisers. Does this work?

The summer, and all of it's wonderful Summer Fridays, flew by. I outlined some of them already, and I was organizing, cooking, packing, or cruising on others. 

On a few of my other Fridays, I found myself heading in and out of the City running errands related to some of my other organizational projects. 

Things look lovely from the inside of an air-conditioned train, don't they?

The one treat I did indulge in a few times was a combo of a spicy Jamaican patty and an icy cold Diet Coke from Golden Krust at Grand Central. Don't mind the lap full of crumbs.

So good. Now I want one RIGHT NOW!

The Fourth of July weekend rolled on by and somehow I ended up getting the summer sickness of some sort. Nothing like a fever of 101+ to celebrate a three day weekend. Not only didn't I get up to Caramoor for the fireworks, but I wasn't able to help a friend move.

Instead I felt super crappy and decided to try and cheer up by doing a thematic mani/pedi - with varying success.

My feet are gnarly. I need professional help.

After so many years of having super short nails due to piano and then food service, and also not being able to wear polish due to the aforementioned food service, I feel weird with polish on my nails. It also chips and smudges and snags within seconds of application - on me, at least.

I also enjoyed watching the Twitter feed of the Boom Box Parade from ye olde  hometown of Willimantic. Social media is great for bringing far-flung community members together. Some of us started reminiscing about parades and politicians of yore and I pulled out the last of the family souvenirs from and snapped a picture to share. Talk about memories. The family used to have a HUGE stack of these potholders from Sam Gejdenson.

The one surprise I stumbled upon on these summer Fridays was exactly what these Fridays were for - finding the little secrets of the City that I've missed after over 20 years in the area ...

Library Way, at 41st Street

According to an article in Library Journal:

"The two blocks of East 41st Street that lead to the landmarked Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, the largest of The New York Public Library (NYPL)’s research libraries, have a tale to tell, but to read it, you must walk with your eyes cast down at your shoes. Inset in the pavement are 96 beautifully sculpted rectangular bronze plaques with literary quotations and whimsical illustrations."

 

 "Each plaque has a passage from a writer and a related artwork. For example, for Francis Bacon, two books are set at sharp angles to one another and each book has a “bite” taken out, accompanied by the quotation: “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested . . . .” Each bronze plaque is rectangular, and each is approximately two and one half feet by one and a half feet in size.  Other quotations are from Descartes, Emily Dickinson, E.B. White, and Virginia Woolf, among many others."

The full article in the Library Journal can be found at: http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/07/library-services/library-way-my-way/

I need to go back when the light isn't so blinding, now that it's not so hot, and with my real camera. Most of these pictures are from the iTouch and they and I couldn't see what we were shooting for the most part.

I miss three day weekends. I will ALWAYS miss three day weekends.