Birthday #44--Part 1

So I turned 44 yesterday. I had a very nice several-day celebration of my birthday, starting with an hour-and-a-half massage on Friday afternoon. I've never had such a long massage before, and it certainly was relaxing. (I don't relax very easily!)

Sunday afternoon, after band practice ("Consorting with Papists" has regrouped), Mike and I went to see "Guys and Dolls" at Portland Center Stage. Another first viewing for me--even though I do love musicals and have seen many of them. It was a wonderful production, as always, and good escapist fun. I like the fact that the "tough guys" in the show were not ashamed to admit they'd fallen in love.


I could fully relate to the missionary, Sarah, when she goes off on a whirlwind evening with the gambler, Sky, to Havana. She unknowingly tastes her first alcohol (disguised in a milkshake with a "tropical" flavor called "Bacardi"), and it loosens her up considerably. It reminded me of myself, after my first year at PLU in an all-girls dorm, hanging out with the fundamentalist Christians, eshewing any alcohol and being horrified by the fact that my roommate's boyfriend wanted to smoke pot in my room. (Even later, I would have put my foot down about that...) Then my sophomore year I moved into a small, fairly intimate coed dorm, and my whole world opened up! I shed my good girl image, at least in part (still have a bit of those tendencies!!), and was able to experience college life more fully.

Here is a clip from the movie, with Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons...although I prefer the Portland Center Stage version and the actors who played Sarah and Sky (nightingale voiced Carey Brown and Robert Mammana).





Afterward we went to Andina for happy hour. Portland has so many up-and-coming, trendy restaurants, and being parents, we hardly ever get to try them out.

Happy hour was the perfect way to sample Andina's amazing cocktails and delectable tapas. I took some photos of said beautiful cocktails and tapas, but somehow today I inadvertently deleted all of them on my camera!! So you'll just have to take my word for it (and see a few generic clips I nabbed from the internet). This is a description of the delicious cocktail I had--sadly no photo of me raising my glass!:
RON-YKI-ON
roasted ginger infused silver rum shaken with grapefruit juice, lime juice, and cane sugar,
served up with a cardamon sugar rim

Here is a photo of one of the tapas we tried...a Causaa, a traditional preparation of freshly mashed potatoes, infused with key lime juice and pressed into a cake with assorted fillings...we had MIXTA NIKKEI: spicy tuna, crab salad, and crispy shrimp. As they say in Japan, OISHII!!!

We rounded off the day by returning to my parents' house to pick up the children. My mom and dad had just returned from their 1-month trip to England and Ireland, where they had a fabulous time...just in time to watch our kids so we could go on a birthday weekend date! Thanks, Mom and Dad!!

Comments

  1. Happy Birthday! We're delighted you enjoyed the show.

    - Trisha@pcs

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment