Red Hatting

In June I was manning a table at the local Arts Festival when I saw a group of women walk by wearing red hats and purple tops (to be fair, one was wearing a pink hat and a lavender top). While I have heard of the Red Hat Society, I had never seen them in action. Years ago a friend scoffed when her mom joined a local group -- which left me with the impression 70 and 80 year olds red hatted, not my contemporaries.

One of the women gave me her card and said if I was interested, I could reach out to her. I soon learned she is the Queen Bee for the group, and that the group is called East Coast Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (even typing that, it is a long name). Queen Bee Sue quickly returned my email, we struck up conversations via email and text. 

And I joined.

And I'm glad I did.

On my birthday she hand delivered a card from the group. None of my other friends did more than send me a Facebook birthday greeting or text.

Sue organizes events all the time. She feels Covid might come back and we'll have to hide again, so in the meantime we should do as much as we can (with an emphasis on staying outside). Others are encouraged to arrange events for the eight of us, but she is the one who puts the most umph into it. I suggested the sunflower day, and she ran with it.

Upon my first phone call with Sue I felt I found a kindred spirit. We just clicked. The women, though not all the same generation, are supportive of each other. That really matters.

I try to aim for one event a month because I do have other things happening in my life.

So far I went with them to:

Princeton University's Prospect Gardens in August:

Talk like a Pirate Day in September: (Because it was my birthday month I could flip my colors -- purple on the head and red on the shoulders)

Sunflowers in October:

No arguments or eye rolls or whines when someone says she wants to take a picture. That night Sue updates our group Facebook page (which I then steal). It is fun being around a group of women not worried about being silly.

As for Tara in pink and lavender, when she turns 50 we will have a "red-uation" for her. Looking forward to it. As she has a daughter who is a senior in high school, she is the one I am bonding with the most. I am enjoying meeting everyone in small doses. Next month five of us are going out for tea. I think I need to find a new hat in the meantime as my tiny one fell apart.

19 Months into Covid

As the calendar turned to October I noticed something. It was full. Overfull. Nearly nineteen months ago the world erased their calendars. We spent time at home in our bubbles, hardly seeing anyone. Learning Zoom. Learning how to be safe.

I'm not sure what happened, but suddenly races and plays and gatherings are happening again. The Delta variant is still there, but new Covid cases seem to be plateauing in some areas, and decline in others. Perhaps we are just learning how to live with it and recognizing it will never go away. The vaccines have been around long enough they are losing effectiveness and booster shots are encouraged and approved for those who had Pfizer (I got mine last week). The Moderna and J&J vaccines boosters should be approved any day now.

Schools have been in session since September. Though there have been some positive cases, a spike in cases has not happened.

Last Friday I had a busy day:

Lunch with a friend from college who lives two hours away, including a visit to art studio.

Stopped by Carin's tombstone to "visit," noticing her father-in-law has joined her. I sent her husband a condolence text.

Got Glinda blessed by Temple Micah.

Saw Hayden march with the Lawrence High School marching band.

The next day I went into New York City to see Six.

Making up for lost time.

Life is good. Busy, but good.

Sunflowers not Tuilips

This past May I went to Holland Ridge Farms to tip toe through the tulips. I went alone because I didn't have the energy to round anyone up to go with me. Planning group activities have always had some challenges (when? who?), but these days you add levels of Covid-comfort and the list who who shrinks. I went alone and made the best of it.

Fast forward a few months to October. This time of year they have sunflowers instead of tulips. Learning from my mistake last time (I went the last week) we opted to go in the middle. The pink and red sunflowers seemed gone (though we did find white ones) leaving mostly traditional yellow sunflowers, some of which were severely decapitated, and a lot of zinnias and other wildflowers. Each you could purchase for $1 a stem at the end. I only bought one sunflower in the end.

This time I went with a new group of friends: Red Hat Society.

I think the Red Hatters deserve a separate post, in a nutshell I found a group of women who are willing to dress silly in public, take pictures, do fun activities, and smile. We can all use more of that in our lives.

Here are some pictures from our day at the sunflower festival.

Broadway is Back! Seeing Six!

As soon as Broadway tickets went on sale for the first time since the pandemic, I jumped on the chance to see "Six" on Broadway. Six was in previews back in March 2020 and was about to open when Broadway shut down. Six is a rock musical about the six wives of Henry VIII competing to see who has the biggest sob story and deserves the most sympathy from the audience. The wives have modernized their tales of woe to include social media. 

Wikipedia had a quick synopses of the thoughts behind the characters:

• Catherine of Aragon is modeled off a mixture of Lemonade-era Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez, and Jennifer Hudson.^[4][5][6] Her solo "No Way" incorporates components of real-life Catherine's Blackfriars speech.^[6]
• Anne Boleyn features elements of Avril Lavigne, Miley Cyrus, and Lily Allen.^[6][5] In full-fledged productions, the actor portraying Boleyn typically wears space buns, which signals character roots in Miley Cyrus.^[6] Boleyn also sports green to pay homage to "Greensleeves", referring to the myth that states that Henry VIII composed the song for Anne.^[6] Marlow and Moss weave in the "Greensleeves" musical motif throughout the score.^[7]
• Jane Seymour emulates pop balladeers such as Adele, Sia, Rihanna, and Celine Dion.^[5] Seymour's costume design consists of a black and white corset design which alludes to half-timbered houses.^[6]
• Anna of Cleves radiates Nicki Minaj, Beyoncé's "Feeling Myself", Lorde's "Royals", and Iggy Azalea and Charli XCX's "Fancy".^[5]
• Katherine Howard's story is recontextualised through her depiction which parallels young, sexualised pop stars like Britney Spears and Ariana Grande.^[5] Katherine's costume design also features a choker, serving as a representation of her being beheaded.^[6]
• Catherine Parr's characterisation draws inspiration from Alicia Keys and Emeli Sandé.^[5]

My initial reaction to the show was: "Wow! That was fun!" I thanked Ashley for the suggestion, turned to Don to ask what he thought and he said, "It wasn't my favorite." Fair enough, but as the women are taking their curtain calls, the reaction should be a big giant grin, after all we just sat through a high-energy show in a packed theater.

As we walked to the PATH station, we talked it through and dissected our opinions. I loved it because it is a fun way to talk about history (like Hamilton in that way). It is high energy; and historic for having an all woman cast and band (the four-woman band calls themselves "Ladies in Waiting.") It breaks the fourth wall with the Queens talking to the audience (rock concert style), which Don did not like. He particularly hated when the last Queen (Catherine Parr) said (paraphrasing here) "I don't want to compete, we should all be getting along with each other," something he said she does every night so it must get old.

Six does no follow the traditional musical theater pattern (no "want" song in the third slot). Overall, though, still a lot of fun! It is only 80 minutes long and no intermission. I enjoyed it and started listening to the soundtrack again (which is in British English because it is the London cast).

As for the historical aspects, it helped we saw a one woman rendition of the six wives of Henry VIII, like when wife #4 said he didn't like her because she didn't look like her "profile picture," I remembered that was the wife he chose based on a royal portrait sent, then rejected her after she arrived from far away because she did not look like her portrait.

In late August we saw "Pass Over," one of the first shows to open on Broadway. The Covid rules felt better managed this time around. Staff checked our IDs and proof of vaccination while we waited in line. One minor problem was while I remembered to make sure Ashley had her vaccination card, I forgot to remind her to bring ID. She linked her picture to her school ID online and they accepted it -- possibly helped that we all have the same last night. As they checked our status, they gave us a handstamp so all the ticket taker had to do was scan our electronic ticket (are ticket stubs a thing of the past?).

The theater was packed! The energy was high! People are craving live entertainment. Ashley enjoyed the lighting. No moving sets. Lots of choreography. No costume changes. No ensemble -- just the six Queens and four Ladies in Waiting (band). 

No stage dooring. People did gather tightly around the stage door, but autographs

were not signed, just a loud cheer and a wave as they left to go home. Playbill had a QR code we could scan for a virtual signed Playbill. Speaking of Playbill, this one had 2 1/2 times the number of pages as the one for Pass Over had the night we went.

The real treat, though, was spending time with Ashley.

PS: We bought these tickets before we knew were going to have an exchange student. Yoran stayed with my parents and had cousin time.