A Star-Studded Night in Central Park

Romeo and Juliet was awesome…LY HOT! It was like 90 degrees and humid as hell. I was dying of thirst in that heat, oh why oh why didn’t I bring a water with me?? I was seriously ready to steal someone’s water or offer them 5 bucks for it, anything…and then the set had a huge pool of water, the big teasers...how I would have liked to jump in it..or lap it up the way Salty Dog used to at our pool in the Old House…but that would have been in poor taste, wouldn't it? The play was well done for the most part -it's not my favorite Shakespeare play, it's too silly, those little 14 year old star-crossed lovers...plus I hated the movie version with Claire Icky Danes and Leo GirlFace DiCaprio so I think that turned me off of it forever – the girl from Six Feet Under was Juliet and she did a good job of it and because she looks more like an adult than a child, she made me like and believe the love story more – and the Nurse and Mercutio were wonderful and funny too. The rest of them were fair to middling. And it was the night of celebrity sightings. I saw: Ross the Intern (ha!), Ross from Friends (David Schwimmer) who was with Rashida Jones (Karen) from The Office, so then Megan and I wondered if we were getting some insider gossip – are they dating? Who cares? Jim won't care anymore, he's with Pam..there were other minor celebrities in attendance, like Martha Plimpton - she'll be in the next play, A Midsummer Night's Dream, I'm thinking she'll be Puck, she looks very Puckish to me – but those were the major ones – um, Nikki, does Ross the Intern does count as a major one???

‘Tis the week to celebrate..the end of Mercury Retrograde!!! Already I see a shift, certain THINGS have returned to normal and fortified my hopes a bit instead of swaying me this way and that way with bad info and unreliable messages from the Unknown…don’t ask me to explain this, I won’t, but suffice it to say, I feel better, more normal and like my feet are on solid ground once more. So praise be to the planet Mercury for going back into its normal rotation.

I don’t have much else to report other than I’m smiley again and I know you were all wondering when and if that would happen again, the way my mood has been.

Wonderful little recipe for you to try out, courtesy of The Moosewood Restaurant – this was my supper last night:

Take some really good vine tomatoes, chopped, add a can of artichoke hearts, slice them (make sure they aren’t marinated), toss with olive oil, some red wine vinegar (go lite with the vinegar!), 1 clove of pressed garlic, sprinkle in some dried tarragon or fresh if you've got it and lots of fresh basil – as much as makes you happy. I like a lot, so I added a LOT. Salt and pepper to taste and chill/marinate for an hour – but the longer you let it sit, the better it tastes – so if you let it go overnight, you like this more. Its nice and light and refreshing and I love the flavor of the fresh (must be fresh!) basil and artichoke hearts together. I served it over lettuce, but I think it would taste good tossed with pasta or in a pita as well.