Quick ham bone soup update

Just wanted to report that my ham bone soup has turned out delicious. Turns out chilling it overnight was exactly the right move. I took it out of the fridge to see that the fat layer had solidified right on top just as I hoped. I scraped it off this morning, though it didn't come off neatly enough to save, and discovered that beneath it the soup had gelatinized into a nice thickness. It was the consistency I was going for from the start, with no need to puree it at all. I ate a mug of it just now, and it was great, smoky, substantial, with a great chewy texture. So I'm going to consider this experiment a success. I'll have to be sure I do this every time I have a ham.

Biweekly Theater Writing Challenge #10.3 - Dave at Helen's checkup flashback in The Waiting Room

Another flashback scene from The Waiting Room. In this one, Helen's best friend Dave has accompanied her to a prenatal checkup. Like all the flashback scenes, this is intended to clarify the issues with Dave's relationship to Helen's pregnancy. My teacher wanted me to learn subtext, and I think I did a pretty good job of utilizing it here. I actually think it's pretty obvious, so see what you can pick up!

(Jump back to the past. Lights down on the waiting room as DAVE goes to the exam room. HELEN sits on the counter in a gown with a small but visible pregnancy bump. DR. TEAL enters with a chart.)

DR. TEAL: Helen Gaffen?

HELEN: Yes.

DR. TEAL: Hello, I’m Dr. Teal. I’ll be doing your exam today. How do you do?

(She shakes HELEN’s hand, then turns to DAVE.)

DR. TEAL: And who might you be?

DAVE: Me? I’m Dave Holland.

DR. TEAL: Pleased to meet you. What brings you in with Helen?

(DR. TEAL begins HELEN’s exam.)

DAVE: Well, she didn’t want to come in alone. Somebody should be along. You know, for moral support.

(HELEN looks at DAVE awkwardly. Suddenly he understands.)

DAVE: Oh, it’s not mine.

DR. TEAL: All right.

DAVE: I’m just her friend.

HELEN: The father and I are out of contact. He’s… not going to be involved.

DR. TEAL: I understand. Well, Helen, everything looks fine so far, but we’ll draw some blood for testing, and get you an ultrasound. I’ll just go and get the machine ready. I’ll be right back.

(Exit DR. TEAL. As soon as he’s gone, HELEN collapses a little and covers her face with her hands.)

HELEN: God, what he must be thinking.

DAVE: I’m sorry, I should have kept my mouth shut.

HELEN: No, it’s not you, it’s me.

DAVE: What do you mean?

HELEN: Everyone’s judging me all the time now.

DAVE: Oh, he’s a doctor, I’m sure he doesn’t do that.

HELEN: Well, that makes one of them. I know what everyone else is thinking when they look at me— unwed mother, abandoned by the father, threw away her whole life.

DAVE: I’m so sorry, Helen. I hope that’s not true.

HELEN: Thank you. And thank you for coming down here with me.

DAVE: Glad to do it.

HELEN: If you hadn’t, I don’t know who would have. I couldn’t have asked anyone in my family. They’re so disgusted with me. After getting with Ben, even after everybody told me not to… they all just think I’m a fool.

DAVE: I don’t think that.

HELEN: Really? I know you certainly didn’t approve of him.

DAVE: Well, no, but that never changed what I think of you.

HELEN: That really means a lot. It’s changed what I think of me.

DAVE: Oh, Helen.

HELEN: It has. I can’t believe how stupid I was. Thinking I was special because he was a jerk to everyone but me… of course sooner or later he’d be a jerk to me too. And now I’m abandoned with a baby. Guess I got what was coming to me.

DAVE: You don’t really think that, do you?

HELEN: Think what?

DAVE: That you’re… being punished with this?

HELEN: I don’t even know, Dave.

DAVE: God, no. Helen, you just made a mistake. You didn’t do anything wrong.

HELEN: I’ve still got to pay for it. I mean— I know I shouldn’t say that. A baby’s not a punishment. It’s just… now I have to take care of one all by myself.

DAVE: No, I get it. I mean, now you're stuck with Ben's--

HELEN: Dave, don't talk like that! It's still my baby!

DAVE: I'm sorry. It's just... I know it's yours, but I... it's weird that it's Ben's too.

HELEN: Well, it's weirder for me! But that can't matter anymore. I'm going to be somebody's mother, Dave. Somebody's going to cry when they're hungry, or scared, or hurt, and they're going to be crying for me. I don’t know if I’m up that.

DAVE: You won’t be alone. The people who love you will help.

HELEN: Maybe. But it’s my responsibility. Nobody’s but mine. If I screw this up… my baby suffers for it.

DAVE: You won’t screw it up. You’re good at everything, Helen. I’ve never seen you screw up.

HELEN: Except with this. And my mom thinks I’ve screwed up my whole life. Can’t finish school right now… and I’m probably going to have to get used to being alone. Who’s going to want a screw-up with a kid?

DAVE: Please, Helen, stop. This might have thrown off your plans for the moment, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get back on track later. Things could still work out. Someone as smart and determined as you will find the way.

(HELEN shrugs, unconvinced.)

DAVE: And someone like that will never end up alone. The right person won’t care about any of this.

HELEN: I hope so. It ran Ben off pretty quick.

DAVE: That wasn’t your fault! He’s an asshole. You deserve way better than that. You deserve… somebody better.

(Pause.)

DAVE: Helen… I want you to know I’ll always be here for you. For anything you might need.

(Reenter DR. TEAL. DAVE takes a step back in embarrassment.)

DR. TEAL: All right, Helen, we’ll take you into ultrasound now.

(HELEN slides down off the counter. DAVE starts to follow her out, but DR. TEAL stops him.)

DR. TEAL: Sorry, sir, it’s family only back there.

DAVE: Oh. Of course. I guess I’ll wait for you in here.

HELEN: Thanks, Dave.

(She briefly hugs him.)

HELEN: I really don’t know what I’d do without you.

(HELEN walks out after Dr. TEAL. DAVE stands alone a moment, looking sadly after her.)

DAVE: Yeah.

(The lights go back up on the waiting room and down on the exam room. DAVE returns to the chairs.)

Ham bone soup

Today I finally did something I've been meaning to do for ages, save the bone from a honey baked ham and throw it in a pot for soup. I didn't want to make a special trip for it or anything, so I just threw together some odds and ends in my kitchen. I'm still not very confident about improvising dishes, but I figured if it didn't work out it wasn't like I bought anything special. I started by sauteing an onion in the bottom of my big stew pot. I had originally wanted peas, as my I grew up eating a mean split pea and ham bone soup my mother makes, but I didn't have any, so I used a bag of brown lentils I've had lying around forever instead. In they went with the ham bone. I seasoned it simply using salt, pepper, thyme, and bay leaves, then covered everything with fresh water. That I boiled for a couple of hours on the stove, coming by periodically to stir it and see if the meat left on the ham bone could be knocked off into the soup. I had been eating the leftover ham off that bone for several days now, but I found that there was quite a bit left that was too hard to cut off with a knife and fork. It came off easily as it softened in the boiling water, so the broth became quite meaty. When it was finished it wasn't as thick as I wanted; I think I put too much water in in the beginning. Tossing the bare bone in the trash, I considered pureeing it to thicken it, then eat it for dinner tonight. But then it occurred to me that made from meat scraps as it was, it was probably very fatty. It might be better if I put it in the fridge overnight, so the fat would have time to rise to the top and condense into a solid layer I could easily scrape off. Perhaps I could even save it to use as a cooking medium for something else. I wasn't sure if pureeing it would disrupt the separation process, so I decided to hold off on that until after I'd defatted the next day. I will eat it tomorrow, and I'll hit it with the stick blender just before I do. Not sure how good it will be, as there's basically nothing but lentils and junk ham in it, but it smelled delicious while it was cooking, so I have high hopes.

Biweekly Theater Writing Challenge #10.2 - Helen-Margaret flashback from The Waiting Room

Well, it's getting to be greater than biweekly, isn't it? Good for me. Of course I've got to hand in a draft of my one-act this coming week, so I hardly have the time to wait for biweekly! Anyway, here's another scene from the hospital family drama I'm calling The Waiting Room. It's another flashback with the girl Helen (who's having the baby in the present) picking up her younger sister Margaret after doing something stupid lands her in the hospital. It's intended to illustrate how Margaret resents how perfect Helen is and how she never gets into trouble, which in the present gives her a conflict over feeling vindicated that Helen has finally screwed up but feeling guilty that she thinks that while Helen's in such dire straits.

(MARGARET goes and sits on the counter in the exam room. She puts a cast around her wrist. Lights down on the waiting room. Enter HELEN.)

HELEN: Aw, geez, Margaret, look at you.

MARGARET: Yeah, yeah, I know.

HELEN: What happened?

MARGARET: We cut through the construction site on Bacon Street. We were climbing over the earthmover and when I tried to get off I fell. Sandra called an ambulance and they took me here.

HELEN: Oh, my God, don’t you know how dangerous it is in there?

MARGARET: It’s like twenty minutes faster!

HELEN: Maggie, a girl got killed messing around in there last month! There’s heavy machinery and blasting caps and God knows what else. You could have broken your neck or blown yourself up!

MARGARET: Blow myself up, are you kidding?

HELEN: Did the ambulance call the cops on you? You know you were trespassing.

MARGARET: Yeah, but—

HELEN: Jesus, Margaret!

MARGARET: Nobody’s pressing charges! They let me off with a warning not to do it again.

HELEN: You could have gotten into so much trouble. There’s a reason Mom and Dad forbade you from going through there. They’re going to be so disappointed.

MARGARET: You can’t tell them!

HELEN: They’re going to see you’ve got your arm in a cast! You’re just lucky they aren’t going to see it on you in jail.

MARGARET: Christ, calm down! Nothing’s going to happen now! Mom and Dad don’t have to know how it happened. We can just say that I tripped down some stairs or something!

HELEN: I’m not lying to them, Margaret.

MARGARET: So you’re going to rat me out?

HELEN: Not if you tell them yourself.

MARGARET: Nothing all that bad happened! I’m okay mostly! I won’t do it again!

HELEN: They made that rule for a reason.

MARGARET: Who made you my parole officer? Can’t you just help me out here, just this once?

HELEN: Grow up, Margaret.

MARGARET: Yeah, of course not. ‘Cause you never screwed up once in your life. You’re so damn perfect all the time!

HELEN: I thought you were smarter than this, but I guess you’re not.

MARGARET: No shit, you’re the only smart person in the world, Helen. Thanks so much for this, sis. You’re going to run everything. They’re never going to trust me again!

HELEN: You should have thought of that before your betrayed their trust. Come on. Let me get you home already.

            (Lights down on the exam room. HELEN exits while MARGARET removes her cast. Lights up on the waiting room.) 

Quick status update

A quick rundown of the state of my busy, busy life:

- Merely Players goes into tech week next week. We're very close to being ready to go; the acting and blocking have come out extremely nicely. We just need a few more costume pieces and props, plus to hammer out preparations for the concessions we're going to sell. Fortunately lots of people have volunteered to help, I just need to finalize the plan and organize those lovely people into useful action. You should come see it on 11/11 and 11/12-- doors open at 7:15, so you can order drinks and snacks before the show!

- My last playwrighting assignment for the semester is also due next week. Bah to that timing, which means I am going to have to work like a madman to get it and all the play prep stuff done all at once. I have begun work on my one-act that I must prepare, and started on the reading and responding, but still I'm probably behind where I should be. I guess this weekend will have to be devoted to finishing.

- I signed up for Feast of the Minotaur as my first pick for Intercon. I am pleased with that; it sounds like a good game and it's already full, so it turned out to be the right choice. I'd ask all of you what you chose, but as a member of bidcom I get to look at the signup logs, which is pretty much my favorite thing in the world.

- Work is going well, though I am not finding it effortless to get up one hour earlier. I do like getting out earlier in the day, though. There is talk of switching me from contractor to direct employee status. I take it that means I'm doing something right. Is it too much to hope that they'll start just paying me all the extra they've been paying to my staffing company? ;-)

- I have put myself on a diet. I am trying to stay within thirteen hundred healthy calories a day thanks to a calorie counter, and buckling down on my efforts to practice ballet for exercise outside of class. The calorie counter is mostly helpful in that it keeps me mindful of whether or not that can of soda is really worth it, and encouraging me to make better choices because the numbers indicate the difference. I feel hungry, but it allows me to get in complete and balanced meals while eliminating room for snackings during the day, so it's probably a good range for me.

- After the next week or so I am going to need a nice long rest. Fortunately my break from school and the finishing of my theater run coincide nicely. Perhaps during that time I will get more rest and start to de-stress.

Pixie dress

So hanging in the window of the thrift store all this past month was this dress:

I liked it the minute I laid eyes on it, and put my name down so that when they changed the display they would put it aside for me. I love all the details on it, the gathered tulle bodice, the pearlescent beading, the lace at the waist, the crisp pleats and sharp points of the skirt. When I was first going to try it on I thought it must be too small-- since my weight gain I feel like a house --but I was pleased to find it a very nice fit. It has shirring in the back, which probably helps. So home it came with me. Here is a closer shot of the details.

I'm not sure why I wanted this dress. The peachy-pink color isn't really a flattering one for me, and it's so ornate that I don't know where I'll ever wear it. But I think it looks like a dress for a pixie, or maybe a china doll or a young girl from an earlier century. If I'm lucky I can wear it as a costume sometime, in a larp or a play. Or maybe I'll throw another party just to give an excuse to debut it. The lovely thing about thrift store dresses is that they're a cheap way to get the thrill of pretty fancy things and it doesn't matter if you don't wear them very much.

Biweekly Theater Writing Challenge #10.1 - Mother-daughter flashback in The Waiting Room

I am working on scraping together a one-act play for my last playwrighting assignment. Though I don't love it, I have settled on writing a family drama about a family sitting in the hospital waiting area waiting for their daughter to have her C-section. The pregnancy was unexpected and unintentional and the family is not happy that it happened at all. As they wait, the story is interspersed with flashbacks of events in the family's history that took place in the same hospital that led them up to this point. I want the girl's mother, Lynette, to be unhappy about her daughter's having a baby because she had a poor relationship with a mother who had her too young and didn't want her. This scene goes from the end of a scene in the present with the family in the waiting room, where Lynette hints to her other daughter Margaret about their poor relationships, and ends in the scene in the past where the grandmother Beverly has just received bad news about her illness.

LYNETTE: Your grandmother was about Helen’s age when she had me.

MARGARET: But Grandma was married and everything.

LYNETTE: Even so. It wasn’t easy on her. She made that very clear.

            (Lights down on the waiting room. LYNETTE goes to the SR hospital bed. BEVERLY sits up in it, hooked up to machines. LYNETTE faces away from her and picks up the receiver on the wall phone.)

BEVERLY: I can’t believe they’re not letting me go home. I want to talk to the doctor again. Lynette? Lynette, are you listening?

LYNETTE: One minute, Mom, I’m on the phone with Scott.

BEVERLY: What?

LYNETTE: Here. Scott wants to talk.

BEVERLY: Oh, tell him I’m not here.

LYNETTE: Mom, he knows you’re here, you’re in the hospital.

BEVERLY: Tell him I can’t talk!

LYNETTE: Mom, come on.

BEVERLY: Tell him I’m taking a nap now, I’ll call him back.

LYNETTE: Oh, fine. Scott, she’s being difficult right now, she won’t talk. Sorry. I don’t know why! I can’t fight about it, I’ll make sure she calls you back. Bye for now.

            (LYNETTE hangs up the phone.)

LYNETTE: I don’t know why you’re being like this.

BEVERLY: I told you before, I don’t want to take calls right now. I’m tired of everyone nosing into my health.

LYNETTE: Scott is your son and he’s concerned about you!

BEVERLY: Oh, if all of you were concerned you’d listen to what I say.

LYNETTE: Please don’t be like this when they get here.

BEVERLY: What do you mean, get here?

LYNETTE: Him and the kids are flying in on Wednesday.

BEVERLY: He’s just dropping everything in the middle of the week?

LYNETTE: He wants to be here with you.

BEVERLY: No, Lynette, not now. I hate it when they see me with my skin all pale and tubes stuck up my nose. Why can’t they wait until a time when I’m not stuck here?

LYNETTE: Mom, I don’t think you understand.

BEVERLY: What don’t I understand?

LYNETTE: You don’t seem to realize what’s happening.

BEVERLY: Oh, aren’t you so smart? Always know better than your mother!

LYNETTE: Will you just let me explain?

BEVERLY: Thank God you’re here to educate me!

LYNETTE: Mom! Please just listen to me.

BEVERLY: Fine, I’m listening.

LYNETTE: This isn’t like all the other times. The chemo isn’t working anymore. Things could get really bad. That’s why everyone’s flying in to see you.

            (Pause.)

LYNETTE: Don’t you think we should be together right now?

BEVERLY: Why are you doing this?

LYNETTE: Doing what?

BEVERLY: You’re just trying to scare me!

LYNETTE: Mom, it’s the truth!

BEVERLY: And you throw it in my face so that I behave how you want me to behave!

LYNETTE: How can you say that?

BEVERLY: You never think about me!

LYNETTE: I’ve been here all week trying to take care of you!

BEVERLY: I took care of you your whole life, and you do this to me now? This is what I lost all the best years of my life to?

LYNETTE: You know it hurts my feelings when you say that?

BEVERLY: Your feelings? I’m the one who’s dying, and I should be worrying about you? Why don’t you go, Lynette, I said I didn’t want anyone visiting me.

            (LYNETTE rushes out and returns to the waiting area. Lights down on the bedroom.)

"The Butler's in Love"

I like this image.




It's from a series called The Butler's in Love by Mark Stock. I think it's sweet and very sad. He's mooning over a lipstick mark left on a glass, which probably means that the woman he loves is probably above his station and unlikely to look his way. I like how they always have him slightly turned away, conveying how this is a secret thing he is wrestling with, something he cannot allow anyone to see. The artist painted it during a time of struggle with his own unrequited love, and I can see the empathy and understanding in the composition. I'd like to try to find the whole series, as what I've seen of it really affects me.

This is Halloween, this is Halloween...

Had my Halloween celebration this past Saturday. Here are our Avengers assembled, with me as Black Widow, Jane as Loki, Bernie as Captain America, Mac as Bruce Banner, Jared as Iron Man, Mike as Nick Fury, and Matt as Hawkeye. This is the first year I participated in the group costume, so I was drafted into being Black Widow to fill out the group. Black Widow was easier and I didn't feel like doing a Wasp costume, though it would have been fun to have an Antman action figure in my pocket that I could periodically pull out and go "Say hello, Hank." I confessed I kind of half-assed it, using my black leotard, leggings, tall boots, and the cell phone holster Rachel gave me. As usual, by the time Halloween rolls around I'm too burnt out from everything else to make the costume a priority. Still, I managed to spray my hair with red temporary color, thanks to some help from Steph. It flaked off on everything and stained the skin on my back, but it sort of made me look more like Natasha Romanov.

The evening was lovely, so I'll just include some more fun costume pics.

SHIELD directors Stark and Fury.

The no-face off between Prentice's Slender Man and john_in_boston*'s the Question. Jenn had a suggestion they should switch costumes, then remove their masks and freak the fuck out of everyone.

morethings5* as a German serial murderer of children from one of the earliest movies about serial killers. Of course.

nennivian* and bronzite* as Peter Pan and Tootles.

twilighttremolo* as a candle, one of my favorites I saw all Halloween. Look at that fabulous hair and lovely dress!

niobien* as a creepy yet still adorable ghost. I think it must be very hard to make her not adorable.

thefarowl* and Plesser as characters from Slings and Arrows, katiescarlett29* as Carmen San Diego, Carolyn again as a ghost, polaris_xx* as not-Xena, Prentice Slender Man, and April in a cosplay outfit for some anime character I've never heard of.

Cutest Zatanna EVER.

Scrunchasaurus

Dear everyone,

Look what thefarowl* and I have made.




He's like a spiky dinosaur. With a scrunchie-hawk.