Finally Watched Wicked

Doug and I just got done watching "Wicked."

I am a bit late in the game. I decided to wait to see it until it started streaming and it is now on "Peacock." It was phenomenal - visually stunning. I had tears on and off during it - and remember I've already seen "Wicked" twice on stage (once on Broadway). It was intense to watch this movie now while living through America's current political environment - the fraud, the lies, the scapegoating, the discrimination, the bullying by its leader(s). It is all in there - just like real life. It hit home a little too closely for me. But I still loved it. 

 

In this life, don't be a Wizard, be an Elphaba.

 

I Don't Have To Be Positive

I wrote this on FB...

"Living in this country under this horrid, evil administration that think the rules don't apply to them and are insanely cruel to marginalized groups, there is no way I am going to feel completely happy or positive for a very, very, very long time. I will walk around with an underlying sense of dread and anger even when I am trying to embrace happy moments in my life. It is just how it is going to be now."

I have stated this before - the Republic@n party is long gone. It is now the M@GA party and their main theme is hate - well except for insurrectionists. They embrace the insurrectionists.

Anyway, I am human and I will continue to remain human. So the anger stays until justice is served - however long that takes.

February Recap

February was pretty rough for me. I am still dealing with frustrating health issues. I'm still sick over state of our country. I have had more appointments than I even want to talk about - doctor, dentist, counseling, physical therapy and even the vet for Mei. Appointment attending seems to be my full time job right now.

Despite the struggle, I did manage to find some happy during the month of February. As you already know, we attended SCAD TV Fest in February...

 

****************************

 

I spent time with a few friends over a few meals and that was much needed last month.

Here are some pictures of the food I consumed...

Doug and I met up one evening with our good friends Kai and Kelly for a belated birthday dinner for Doug at 1885 Grill. The food was delicious and the pecan pie bread pudding was absolutely insane. I met my bestie Julie for lunch and a life catch up session at McAlister's Deli. I forgot to take a picture of my delicious tacos when I met my bestie Amy for lunch at Huey Luey's and had some girl chat - the tacos pictured are kind of similar to what I ordered. And finally, I had a delicious breakfast with Doug (after a doctor's appointment of course - heh) at The Morning Shift.

*************************

And of course in February, we celebrated Valentine's Day.

Even though Briana wasn't here, I still felt like decorating my house a bit...

When Briana visited home in January, I had her take a gift bag back to school to hold on to for Valentine's Day. And Doug sent her a box of chocolates (and he gave me a box of chocolates too)...

I had this sweet picture pop up in my Timehop memories (I miss these days so much)...

Doug and I had an amazing, quite dinner at one of our favorite nearby restaurants on V-Day...

The meal was absolutely delicious - 10 out of 10.

******************************

Mei is doing well. I had a picture pop up in my FB memories of her 10 years ago and now. Not much has really changed (except maybe her girlish figure)...

******************************

As for Briana, she is plugging along in school. Getting fantastic grades. Enjoying time with her friends. She unfortunately has had a bit of social drama in her life due to some drama queens she that has to associate with (this does not include the roommate who sleeps in her dorm bedroom with her - they are getting along just fine luckily). If you know my girl, she doesn't like drama and tries to avoid it. Just because kids go off college, it doesn't mean they are mature yet - some still have a lot of growing up to do. B is having to navigate some frustrating personalities and immature waters, but she is dealing with the drama with as much grace and maturity as she can...

On a lighter note...

Bri had a very difficult assignment she had to do for her color theory class in February. It took her hours to complete. She had to choose a picture of a face - so she chose the famous photo from Les Miserables. She had to pixelate it in photoshop and print it out. Then she had to make over 250 color matched squares, cut them out and then replicate the pixelated photo on a different piece of paper - just using just primary paints. Talk about a grueling process! She was so worried about how it would turn out and it turned out so well, it is now hanging in the classroom with some other chosen pieces!

 The process...

Finished product...

Briana also completed a program called SCADamp...

It is a workshop/coaching program that students can complete on their own time and at their own pace. And Briana decided to complete it all her freshman year. That is very impressive! The school had a certificate ceremony on Valentine's Day to celebrate the students who completed the program (wish I could have been there)...

After the ceremony, Briana started not feeling too well. Unfortunately, she came down with something. I think it was just a really bad chest cold - it seemed pretty textbook (sore throat, stuffy, bad cough). She was sick for over a week. It broke my heart that I couldn't help her out - her very first college sickness...

She said she could absolutely not miss a class that week, so she masked up and didn't miss a class somehow. Actually, she did have a class that was canceled one day because the professor was sick too. There was a lot of sickness on campus that week.

After being sick for a week, Briana wanted to come home for the weekend to sleep in her own bed for a couple of nights...

She was still coughing a bit, but she was on the tail end of her sickness for sure. It was so good to have her home. She is doing so much better now and I am so glad that is behind her!

****************************

Doug did have to take two short trips in February - one to Boston and one to Fort Lauderdale. There was still some snow on the ground when he went to Boston. He got to see Celtics game...

And he ate at an authentic Thai place in Ft. Lauderdale (food looks so good)...

***************************

 So that was February in a nutshell. Happy moments with a lot of crappy health stuff and sickness thrown in. Oh - I need to add that Doug got a cold on the last day of February too and that lasted about a week. I really enjoy wintertime, but this winter sickness stuff absolutely stinks!

  March has already been pretty rough for me, but I am continuing to hold out that things will improve soon. What else can I do? Briana will be coming home the week of the 17th for her spring break and I cannot wait to have her back in the nest for a little while!

SCAD TVFest - Part 2

I left off in my last post us standing in the courtyard of the Atlanta SCAD campus. Doug and I had taken an Uber over to the campus so we didn't have to worry about parking.

 

Some of the sights...

 

Doug and I checked-in for TVFest and received a bag of fun swag...

Bri came down from her dorm room and joined us. And we of course had to pose in front of the TVFest red carpet...

Our first panel was with a show runner and two of the actors from the new show on NBC called "Grosse Pointe Garden Society" (which Doug and I are watching and it is really good - kind of Desperate Housewives-esque)...

While we were waiting to get into the theater, Briana introduced us to her friend Sophie and we got the meet her parents as well...

 

It was so cool seeing Ben Rappaport and Aja Naomi King up close and personal. We got to see some sneak peek clips of the first episode. I know both of the actors quite well...

After the hour long panel, Doug, Bri and I ate some lunch quickly at the school. 

Originally, I had signed up all three of us for a tour of SCAD LED volume stages for after lunch. But, Bri ended up getting a ticket to see Walker Scobell of "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series which was at the same time (right after lunch). She really wanted to see him. Doug and I thought about doing the tour ourselves without B. But, Doug and I had badges for parents weekend and we were allowed to see him too without a ticket (I hadn't realized that). I knew the LED tour was going to be down the street from the main campus but I didn't realize how long it was going to be. I was worried we might not make it back on time for the 3pm event that I really wanted to see, so Doug and I decided to see Walker Scobell with B instead.

I have not watched "Percy Jackson" myself, but I do know Walker Scobell from "The Adam Project."

 

He was receiving the SCAD Rising Star award...

 

Bri had made plans to sit with her friend Mei before Doug and I decided to attend the discussion too. So, Bri sat with her friend Mei and Doug and I found a seat elsewhere.

 

Walker came out to accept his award and then we got to watch an episode of the show before there was a discussion...

 

He was so personable...

After that session, we stopped in the school store for a few minutes before our next session started...

Then it was time for us to see the discussion that I was so excited for! Antoni Porowski! I absolutely love "Queer Eye" on Netflix, but he was here to promote his new 6 episode series called "No Taste Like Home" on National Geographic Channel. 

 

He came out and introduced his show (his passion project) and then we got to watch the entire first episode that featured Florence Pugh...

 

There was a discussion after the viewing...

Doug and I have been watching the show - we've now seen 3 out of the 6 episodes so far. We are really enjoying it. The episode with Awkwafina has been my favorite so far.

By the time the last discussion was over, it was after 4pm and we were exhausted. We decided to Uber back to the hotel with B so she could try out the restaurant at the hotel because it was so yummy.

 

So we had a nice dinner with our girl...

 

We tried all sort of things (including desserts this time) and Briana really wanted to try the truffle fries. We had so many of those left, she took them back to school with her!

 After dinner, Doug drove her back to school.

The next morning (late morning), Doug and I checked out of the hotel, picked Briana up and we had lunch together...

We decided to try the "Whitehall Tavern"...

The food was very tasty, but the atmosphere was a bit chaotic. There was a huge game room attached to the restaurant that we didn't know existed. So, it was a very kid-friendly bar food type restaurant.

 

After lunch, we took Bri back to school and then Doug and I headed home.

 

I am so glad we were able to have this experience with Briana. There were many performers who we didn't get to see including the Duffer Brothers (Stranger Things), the cast of "Clean Slate" (including Laverne Cox) and Hiroyuki Sanada (from Shogun). I wish we could have seen even more people. There is no doubt we will check out TVFest again next year! It was great!