Rigoletto at the Kennedy Center (3/27)

Torrey knows a friend – I use the word ‘knows’ loosely because he can’t remember who the person is or how he knows them – who works at the Kennedy Center. The friend works specifically for the Washington National Opera as the Manager of External Relations. Once politics is out of my system, it is my dream to utilize my public relations degree and work for an opera company/house doing PR in some shape or form. So this person is already cool in my book. This friend invited him and a guest to an event that was being headlined by a former secretary of Veteran’s Affairs. After that, guests were invited to stick around and watch the dress rehearsal of Verdi’s Rigoletto starring Joseph Calleja. I’m still unsure what the event was for/about and why it was at the Kennedy Center. But I love opera and veterans so I’m not complaining.

We arrive late because Torrey couldn’t get off work, but that gave me some time to switch out of jeans and into more respectable attire so I didn’t complain. We get to the KC and make it up to the event. Torrey’s first question to me is “where is the bar?” He's got his priorities in order. :) We step into the room where the event was taking place and some dude was speaking about the KC and how cool opera is and how these are exciting times. Then, he mentions Placido Domingo. Even if you don’t love opera, you should know who Placido Domingo is. Geeze! He’s one of the three tenors! Come on people! :) So I hear Domingo’s name (he’s the general director of the WNO) and my eyes start darting across the room in search of the famous tenor. Could this be? Him? Here? Is he going to speak? No way! Well, just no. I got my hopes up. But the ex-secretary of the VA got up and spoke.

About fifteen minutes into the speech, Torrey leans in and says, “Gee, I love listening to myself speak as much as anyone else, but this is ridiculous.” We stepped outside so he could smoke a cig and then headed back in to grab a quick cocktail and dinner roll, picked up our tickets, and headed to the opera hall.

This was only my second live opera, the first being Otello at the Met with my fave Renee Fleming, so I was looking forward to the evening. I had heard good things about Rigoletto, but didn’t have time to familiarize myself with the plot or music. But it’s Verdi and I love Verdi who also composed Otello and another favorite La Traviata. The KC opera house was a lot smaller than the Met, but I think it added intimacy and closeness to the performance.

Here’s the gist of the opera as posted on the WNO’s website: “As the libertine Duke of Mantua’s jaded jester, Rigoletto is known for sparing no one his biting and often vicious sarcasm. But when courtiers abduct Rigoletto’s beloved daughter, Gilda, for the Duke’s enjoyment, a curse and misdirected revenge bring tragedy and are Rigoletto’s undoing.” So the courtiers thought that Gilda was Rig’s ‘lady friend’ and not daughter. Rigoletto hired some dude to off the Duke out of revenge. Gilda doesn’t want the Duke to die, so dressed as a man, she takes the place of the Duke and is stabbed and eventually dies in the arms of her dad. Rediculous? Yes. Melodramatic? Of course! Amazingly awesome? You bet!!

The opera was Ah-MAZING! Joseph Calleja is pretty darn hot and sang extremely well as the Duke. Andrea Silverstrelli was the dude hired to kill the Duke. I was totally captivated by this Italian bass. It was a very interesting and unique voice with so much power behind it. I was also pleasantly surprised because I had heard two of the songs and never knew they came from this opera – “Caro Nome” and “La Donna e mobile” (many of you have probably heard La donna e mobile before – google it). The sets were huge, but conveyed well the various locals.

The performance was a dress rehearsal and it was fully staged and the singers were fully costumed. The only major thing that might be different in a dress rehearsal as opposed to the real deal is that some of the singers might choose to cover. This just means that they don’t sing full voiced to save up for the opening night. In some instances, the orchestration might overpower the singer making them a little more difficult to hear. I think I only picked up on this a few times, mostly from the soprano who sang Gilda, and I think Rigoletto and the Duke. But I’m no expert so who really knows?

Well, my second opera experience was most enjoyable. The small crowd, including myself thoroughly enjoyed it. I think Torrey had a good time too. He left the house whistling the tune for La Donna and was mesmerized by the enormity and awesomeness of the stage settings. Maybe I have a convert who can join me at future productions. Handel’s Tamerlano is up next with Placido Domingo.

Tours: the people's house and my work

Michelle and her family were in town for the White House Easter Egg Roll and asked if I could give them a tour of the Capitol on Tuesday (3/25). Of course!!! Anything to break the day up and roam around the coolest Capitol ever! She also scheduled a White House tour for her and her folks and asked if I wanted to come along. Of course!!! It is, after all, the people’s house.

Our tour was scheduled for 10:00 and because of security I just went from my house to the White House bypassing work altogether. Thank goodness we were on recess. I’ve been to the White House several times. Twice for a West Wing tour given by a friend who works in the press office. He was very knowledgeable and had some great stories and info to tell about the WH. So those tours were awesome. Plus we got to see the Oval Office. Don’t tell the secret service, but I accidentally slipped my foot a little past the threshold into the Oval Office – twice. Another time, I went to work with Mel when she was the holiday assistant (pretty much the coolest job ever because you’re working at the WH at Christmas time!!!) I pretty much saved the day for the Hanukah Party (a story for a different time) and after Mel and I worked, we went to the East Wing to see all the Christmas decorations. It was pretty Ah-MAZING!

So this tour that we had scheduled was for the East Wing – minus the Christmas decorations. It was still pretty awesome, but what I missed was a tour guide telling me some cool stories and inside info about what happened in these rooms and a little history about, oh I don’t know, say the color selections. Why red, blue and green? How come not purple, pink and orange? So minus the no tour guide thing, the East Wing is pretty spectacular. If you stand there and think of all the presidents from our country and others who have passed through these halls, you can’t help but be astounded. I was astounded. Seriously think about it. Abe Lincoln lived there. I probably walked were Abe Lincoln once walked. I was standing where Teddy Roosevelt probably once stood thinking about which piece of lands to designate as National Park Land.

About an hour and a half after breathing in about two hundred years worth of American Presidential history, we all headed over to Union Station for a bite to eat. Then it was off to my work. By now it’s 1:30 and Troy and Karen have to leave by 3:00 to get off to their flight back to Arizona. We went downstairs through the elaborate tunnel system connecting Congress to the House and Senate office buildings and the Library of Congress. Tons of other people were in town, so there was quite a line to get into the Capitol.

We finally made it through and headed to the Crypt to see where Washington was first interred before being moved to Mt. Vernon. Next, we quickly dashed to the House Floor so Karen and Troy could see that before they had to leave. After we said goodbye to the two, we resumed with the rest of the tour. I’ve only given a tour to Sam and Steve before so my knowledge about the various paintings and frescos is quite unpolished. Luckily, Michelle’s family was pretty content with just taking in the enormity and awesomeness of it all.
By the time we finished up with the tour there was only about an hour left until quitting time. I checked emails and shuffled through some papers before calling it a day. And then I met Michelle and her folks for dinner at Bullfeathers around 7:30. Hanging with pals at the White House and Capitol – not a bad day at all!

Sin City?

Nope, Atlantic City baby!!!

Everyone in the office is headed to the shores of AC for a weekend of fun, gambling, but unfortunately no beach time (a bit too cold for that) but I heard a whiffle ball tournament is in the mix. I, myself, have scheduled a Svedish massage! Ahh, the luxury. So I'm out for the weekend and won't be posting to the blog. Still have a week to get caught up on so tune in next Monday when everything should be up to speed. Oh, and send me good luck vibes. Big winner baby!!!

Great times on the ski lift

This is the greatest vid I have ever seen. As a skier/snowboarder, I can totally relate to this guy and all the random thoughts that pop in your head as you sit on the lift. Especially if it's a weekday and not many people are on the mountain so you get the lift all to yourself and you're just sitting there amongst nature's awesomeness thinking "what happens if I fall? How bad would that hurt? Would I break my legs or could I land it just right so I could board down without any problems? Man, it's really cold."



This video makes me miss Flagstaff so much. I moved to DC right when they were getting hit with these awesome snow storms so I've missed a whole season of great boarding and random thoughts. Sigh... Anywho, the video was made by a Telluride regular. This is his website: http://www.favermanfilms.com/

What are the odds?!!

So just a few hours ago, I posted a blog cursing my uncanny ability to sleep through important and fun events and how I missed yet another opportunity to meet the First Lady. Well guess who just emailed me? That's right. Laura Bush herself!* Asking ME for an important personal favor. She called me by name and chirped how grateful her and her husband are for "our special friendship throughout his campaigns and Presidency."

My pleasure, Laura! Let's do lunch...


Okay, yeah it was just a blast email from the RNC, but whatevs.

Story of my life

Apparently I was not meant to be best friends with Laura Bush. My chances of meeting her are slowly fading away, and my one sure fire chance vanished right before my sleeping eyes.

Michelle was in town to work on the White House Easter Egg role. She got me waived through. I wanted to be there by 9:00. As luck would have it, my alarm didn't go off and I didn't wake up until….you guessed it….9:00. I check my blackberry and have several emails from Michelle and Mel, "Where are you?" "When are you getting here?" "The President and First Lady are here." Of flipping course! There was no chance of making it over in time to even get a glimpse of the First Couple, so I got in the shower and tried to get over before I missed anything else. I made it by 10:00. Not only did I miss the first couple, but my camera is a piece of crap and drains the batteries the instant you put them in. Luckily, I was able to borrow a camera, otherwise this whole Easter experience would just be a memory with no visuals.

Michelle hooked me up with an early lunch from the staffers tent, which was very welcomed since I skipped breakfast in my haste. I met up with Troy and Karen on their way down to the Ellipse. Michelle's dad is a magician in his spare time and he's so awesome that he got to perform at this year's Egg Roll. We watched his show and he's quite good! We strolled back up to the South Lawn since Norm had another show to do. It was pretty much a repeat of the first show, but he's still good! Torrey got there around this time so I strolled around the White House lawn with him for a few minutes before he headed off to work. I stuck around for a bit longer since I didn’t have anywhere to go so I walked around the White House lawn for a few more minutes because I was there and I could. Plus, when else I’m I going to be able to freely meander across the WH lawn? Probably not for a while.

So who else did I miss? My favorite Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, football star Troy Aikman, tons of cool Sesame Street Muppets, the Jonas Brothers (a travesty for missing them, I know), and a slew of other WH officials plus I think the first dogs were out there. That’s alright. It was cool to go anyways!

I met up with Michelle’s parents, Troy and Karen at 4:00 to go to the top of the Washington Monument. Never done that before so it was way awesome! The view from the top is Ah-MAZING!!! Afterwards, we met up with Michelle, and we all went to Old Ebbitts for dinner. It was very good. They have the best peanut butter pie ever! We hung out in the bar for a few minutes afterwards and then parted ways.

Good times were had by all this Easter Monday. There’s still 9 more months to try and become best friends with Laura Bush. We shall see….

A double dose of Jesus

There aren't many people who I'll get out of bed for before six o'clock. Jesus is one of the few.

We decided that sunrise services on the Lincoln Memorial would be pretty awesome, so despite the ghastly hour, the roommates plus two stumbled out of the apartment at 5:30 to claim our seats at the feet of Lincoln. We were pretty early, but it was amazing how many people came for the event. The choir was amazing, the service was great, and the view was spectacular. Totally worth getting out of bed at 5:00 for. I'll just let the pictures do the talking.

The roomies plus two: Trey, Mel, Laura, Me, Tara, Sarah

Pretty much Ah-MAZING

We came home, made pancakes and chilled the rest of the day. Mel, Trey and I went to the National Cathedral around 5:00 for their Easter Services. The choir was seriously heaven on earth – literally brought tears to my eyes. The service was a bit liturgical for my tastes, but I certainly appreciated the tradition and awesomeness of what was being presented.

Quite a long day, but a double dose of Jesus is well worth it! Mel and I had planned on dying eggs, but we only got as far as boiling them. Maybe next year or some random day when we have egg-stra eggs. (haha I made a pun!)

Visitors Galore

When people come to visit, they come to stay…with us. One roommate had a friend in town for a conference for a whole week leading up to Easter. Mel's buddy Trey, whom I bonded with over a DC United game last summer, came into town on Thursday and was staying through Monday. The house was full! Plus, Michelle and her fam, and Troy and his g-ma were coming in from AZ for a weekend of Easter festivities (they weren't staying with us!) With lots of people comes lots of good times! (Please note that there is a Trey and a Troy in this story so try to keep up.)

After Mel and Trey got back from dinner on Thursday, someone had the bright idea of walking the monuments at night, in the cold and the wind. So we (Mel, Trey, Tara, and I) bundled up and took the metro to the Smithsonian stop and walked the rest of the way. It was actually pretty awesome and I'd never seen the monuments at night. We walked all the way to the Lincoln singing patriotic songs because we're cool and we can. We talked about maybe one day streaking through a national monument area, but most of the time we're all talk and no action.

Torrey had organized a dinner Friday evening for Michelle, Troy, Karen (the g-ma), and me at this steak place which was featured in the Devil Wear's Prada. It took several brainstorms to settle on this place as our dinner local. Torrey wanted to take us all to a Mexican restaurant. Now I'm sure there are Mexicans living in DC making good Mexican food, but you don't come from Arizona to DC for the Mexican food. That's just dumb! It's as if I was going to North Dakota for the lobster. You just don't do that. So we finally all agreed on this place. I had the prime rib, and it was excellent! We wined and dined and eventually strolled back to the Mayflower hotel where Michelle and Troy were staying. For anyone keeping track, that's the hotel where NY Gov. Spitzer had his rendevouzs that got him in a lot of trouble. Torrey broke off and headed to Dupont. The rest of us just hung out in the hotel bar for awhile shooting the breeze. I eventually left and closed the books on another fine Friday in our great nation.

But I opened the books on a new and superb Saturday. Mel and Trey wanted to go to Annapolis and invited all the roomies to come along. All the roommates wanted to go, but indecisiveness and homework widdled them away leaving the three of us bound for a mini road trip to Maryland.

Our first stop was the state capitol building. It was pretty old and pretty awesome. There's a George Washington life size figurine that apparently spoke at one time, but GW was mute on our visit. But that didn't stop me from getting my pic with our first president. From the state capitol, we ventured on over to the Naval Academy, but we stopped into a little art shop en route. They had the coolest set painting ever. One was a picture of Republican presidents (Abe, Teddy, GWB, GWHB, the Gipper, etc) sitting around playing poker. The other was the same of Democrat presidents (Bill, JFK, FDR, Jackson, Carter, maybe LBJ). Melanie and I were both serious about purchasing them, but they were kind of pricy. We told the shop owner that we were in town for the day and might stop back in on our way through town. If I didn't have so many opera's looming in the future, I might've purchased the painting...maybe even the set. I guess that's the true bipartisan in me. :)

So the Naval Academy was cool. We went into the campus cathedral and it was pretty awesome. The view of the harbor was phenomenal, especially with all the sail boats out and about on the overcast day. We strolled up one of the streets and stopped off to get some icecream and then headed up to this famous historical house that is known for it's huge garden. It was big. And there was a stream that flowed through it. It would be cool to have an evening party there. We headed back down towards the harbor and popped into a restaurant for a late lunch. After lunch we headed back to the car and drove home to the district. We watched Music and Lyrics, probably one of the greatest movies ever! and then headed to bed. Not bad for a spur of the moment road trip!

A night on the town

This event took place March 14th.

Torrey knows a guy who works for a cancer foundation. His company was having a dinner gala thing and invited us to come along. Torrey and I went back and forth on if we'd go. We decided not to, but Tor's friend called and said he'd be disappointed if we didn't go. So we went. I asked Tor what I should wear. He said black tie in DC means whatever you wore to work. Okay Torrey…

Torrey decided to rent a tux and at this point, I'm freaking out because I have two days to find an acceptable dress. Mel to the rescue! I emailed her and asked if she had a dress I could borrow. I tore through her closet and pulled out all her fancy dresses. Luck was on my side because the first dress fit perfectly. It was a black halter with beading under the bust line. So what I thought was going to take hours only took 30 minutes. So I met Torrey at the Sewall-Belmont house for a pre-St. Patrick's day event. Free food and Guinness! Heck yeah!

I met Torrey and his friend's boyfriend at the National Building Museum – a gorgeous and ginormous building. We went in and thank goodness I didn't listen to Torrey about his black tie theory because the ladies brought out their finest. We mingled for several minutes, sipped champagne, munched on exotic hors d'oeuvres, and gossiped about people.

It was time to be seated for dinner. Turkey was the host country for the event, so the décor was Ah-MAZING! Deep reds and gold with lavish table settings and tents. It was beautiful! We had a pretty decent table with the head of wine and spirits. The only problem, our table didn't exist. So they set us at the "kiddy table" in the very back corner. I think we had more fun that way and there was a girl there that I had met through the national College Republicans 3 years ago. Small world. Dinner was interesting. I ate crab and lamb – two things I normally don't eat.

After dinner, Paul, the friend's bf asked if I wanted to dance. I prefaced the acceptance with a disclaimer about my dancing skills. They're non-existent. I eventually got Torrey on the dance floor and we twirled around for a few songs. It was soooo much fun. I think the glasses of champagne with dinner helped to loosen me up a bit.

Afterwards, the boys wanted to go to Dupont, so I hung around for a drink. I got the ultimate compliment when I gay guy said I looked "fabulous," even though the guy carding us at the door said we looked like we just came from the prom. Whatevs. I popped myself in a cab and headed home.

I'm glad we decided to go because it turned out to be a great evening. Good food (kinda weird though) good friends, and good times.

Torrey, me, and Paul in our "Prom" attire.

Sightings

Arizona's own, Congressman John Shadegg crossed Pennsylvania outside the Cannon HOB just as I was crossing the street. I woulda said hi, but he looked pretty focused on his blackberry.