Giving My Regards to Broadway!

I'm headed off to see Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown this Saturday (on Christmas!) with Matt S. and Sarah K. Needless to say, I am very excited for the Patti LuPone/Laura Benanti/Sheri Renee Scott/Brian Stokes Mitchell loving that is about to ensue. I've seen Brian Stokes Mitchell in person before, at the wonderful Kennedy Center event last January, but none of the rest of them. And I'm particularly excited about one of the best divas on the stage, Patti LuPone. I've heard mixed things about the show, but am nonetheless very excited for the panoply of stars AND to get to see a musical with two of my favorite fellow-theater-goers. You'll remember that the last time we had a theater adventure together, wonderfulness in Sondheim/Lansbury form resulted.

Sometimes I just get so excited about musical theater, and read Playbill.com and Broadway.com more than an energy efficiency researcher should during her lunch breaks. As a result, I've been hearing about lots of things that make me happy. And so, I present:

Rachel's List of Broadway Shows I'm Ridiculously Excited About:

1. Sutton Foster and Joel Grey in Anything Goes. Anything Goes, being a former Ethel Merman vehicle, and being full of deliciously clever Cole Porter lyrics, is one of my favorite shows. And Sutton Foster tap dancing in anything makes me happy (she made me like Shrek the Musical. that's just impressive!). Plus, Joel Grey is wonderful in every way. For evidence of the wonderfulness of this show, see this clip of Patti in all of her glory (now you see why I'm excited to see her in person for the first time?!)



2. rumors re: Patti LuPone in Hello, Dolly, another one of my favorite shows. In fact, when Arielle G. told me about this rumor, my response was "ahhhhh that rumor just slayed me. I am now a remnant of my former self, cowering in the ashes from when I just burned up in a blaze of Dolly-loving glory. " Overdramatic? Absolutely. Warranted? Most assuredly. Dolly, being another Ethel/Mary Martin/Pearl Bailey show (we pretend like that Carol Channing thing didn't happen), is one of my all-time favorites. Plus, I made a darned cute Minnie Fay in the 2004 PVHS production of said musical. No guarantees on this one though -- according to this article, "She [Patti Lupone] has talked on the phone with Jerry Herman, but that's as far as it's gone." Here's hoping!



3. Sister Act: the Musical. This has the potential to be absolutely, fundamentally god-awful. On the other hand, it has the potential to make me vigorously happy in every possible way. In general, I like the musicals written before 1980, and in general, I don't like movies that are turned into musicals. But there are exceptions (42nd street was originally a movie, In the Heights was made long after the 1980s), so I'm willing to go into it with an open mind. ESPECIALLY given the fact that Sister Act and Sister Act II: Back in the Habit are two of my favorite movies of all time. After all, who doesn't love Whoopi and Maggie Smith and lot of nuns singing MoTown? And even better -- Lauryn Hill rocking out in all of her early 90's glory?



4. How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying: the Harry Potter edition. One of my favorite Frank Loesser shows, featuring the actor best known for being Harry Potter and getting naked with a horse (in Equus, duh). I think it has the potential to be wonderful or godawful, and I've decided to be hopeful.

There are many more, but I've already given you a few clips of happy, so let's leave it there for the day. But seriously - what shows am I missing? What else MUST I be vigorously excited about?

Happy Thanksgiving: The Gold Family Edition

Reasons Why This Thanksgiving Was Amazing. In List Form, because that's how I roll:

1. the addition of the lovely Fischlowitz-Roberts clan -- Max's Mom, Dad, and brother all came into town (from St. Louis and Maine!) to hang out with us Gold ladies and enjoy the holiday Mona-style. They added a lovely dose of football (we normally don't watch), humor, and balance to the normal Gold-women-being-totally-crazy scene.

2. the addition of not 1, not 2, but 4 pieces of argyle clothing to my wardrobe, thanks to Momma Mona. Not only are my three pairs of socks and one sweater stylish and fabulous, they are warm and cozy as well. Major win.
3. the arrival of the FIRST SNOW OF THE YEAR! Oops, sorry for the caps just then. It's just that snow triggers my inner 8-year-old happy-to-be-getting-out-of-something genes, and usually involves a happy snow dance of some sort. It was less than an inch, and didn't stick anywhere besides the bench in the backyard, but it made me pretty ecstatic.

4. Momma Mona's glorious feast of deliciousness. I thought that this year might be a challenge, given the addition of three vegan guests, but the food was as yummy, if not more, than ever. We did have some turkey, and a few non-vegan items, but for the most part, we kept it dairy/meat free. Particular hits were the sweet potatoes with pecans (almost as good as Paula Deen's, and not guaranteed to clog your arteries), mushrooms stuffed with mushroom stuffing (seriously, my mother is a genius), and Mom’s Cranberry sauce with oranges and walnuts.

5. the Peanut Butter Mousse Bomb from the amazing Vegan Treats bakery in Bethlehem, PA. I visited this glorious confection shop for the first time the day after Yom Kippur with Max/Alli, and was SO grateful that Max and his dad made the trip up to Bethlehem for Pumpkin Cheesecake, Apple Pie, Chocolate Hazelnut Cake, and Peanut Butter Mousse Bomb, my personal favorite. Seriously, though

6. and most important, the craft-of-the-year: Foam Turkeys! It's very rare that a year goes by without some fun craft made by my Mom to decorate the table. This year, it was glittery, cute foam turkeys. Gold family win!

All in all, a fabulous Thanksgiving and a much-needed break from DC for some family time! Oh, and getting to see one of the best friends (Matt S. ) for the first time since February was pretty rockin' as well. There are few things that aren't improved by best-friend-time in the form of Harry Potter viewing and Starbucks schnuggling.

G3 Thanksgiving: The DC Edition!

Back in my Brandeis days, Thanksgiving meant a chance to go home to PA and get some Mona-and-Alli-time. But before we left for home each year, the G3 (Gordon 3, the hall I lived on freshman year) crew got together to make a delicious makeshift dinner on hotplates and in microwaves. This tradition has continued on even after college, but I haven't been able to attend, since the majority of that group lived in New York. But THIS year, the DC outpost of Gordon 3 grew enough (it was just Whitney and I last year) to merit our own G3 Thanksgiving, thanks to the lovely additions of Becky P. and Sarah K., both of whom recently moved down to the district.

The lovely Sarah K. and her brand new kitten (!!) hosted this year's celebration, and honorary G3 member Aaron B. was in town, so he joined in on the fun, too! I originally planned to make two of my favorite dishes, Momma Mona's spinach casserole, and Paula Deen's Sweet Potato Bake, but both of those failed. I forgot to drain the water in the spinach casserole, and forgot to add the cream to the sweet potato bake. I swear, if my head were not attached . . . Needless to say, I went to Whole Foods to pick up mashed maple sweet potatoes,garlicky broccoli rabe, and a cranberry apple sauce, all of which were delicious.

There was a delicious salad (with avocados and what I think were walnuts), corn, stuffing, and two kinds of cranberry sauces. The garlicky mashed potatoes were a particular hit with me -- Sarah K. made them with help from Becky P. We finished the meal with butterscotch pudding and my favorite thanksgiving food, pumpkin pie (thanks, Becky/Trader Joe's!). I don't know if it quite compared to the G3 Thanksgiving in New York (see Elizabeth's excellent blog post on that adventure for more details), but it was definitely wonderful.

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We were entertained by Sarah's new kitten (yet to be named -- right now she's calling him "Little Man") and her roommate's very cool Turkish cat, Baykus. At one point Little Man jumped on the computer and turned off our background music, then curled up contentedly in front of the computer, as if to dare us to turn the music back on.

Our excellent meal WAS lacking one thing . . . turkey! (most of the group was vegetarian, or not-so-frequent-carnivores). And because a post about Thanksgiving just wouldn't be the same without some turkey, here are two of my favorite West Wing turkey-related scenes for your viewing enjoyment.

Aren't I going to get a reputation for being soft on turkeys?

I'm . . . Joe Bethersonton. That's one t and with an h in there.

a little mid-afternoon Douglas Adams inspiration

I must have petroleum energy efficiency on the brain, but I just saw this old favorite quote, and felt like it needed to be shared with the world. Douglas Adams, may he rest in peace, was really a wonderfully funny and clever writer.

Here it is:
"The trouble with most forms of transport, he thought, is basically that not one of them is worth all the bother. On Earth – when there had been an Earth, before it was demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass – the problem had been with cars. The disadvantages involved in pulling lots of black sticky slime from out of the ground where it had been safely hidden out of harm's way, turning it into tar to cover the land with smoke to fill the air with and pouring the rest into the sea, all seemed to outweigh the advantages of being able to get more quickly from one place to another – particularly when the place you arrived at had probably become, as a result of this, very similar to the place you had left, i.e. covered with tar, full of smoke and short of fish."

Home Sweet Home

Now that I’ve said goodbye to Van Ness, it’s time to talk about the new place! In May, I moved to a two-bedroom with my friend from Brandeis, Rachel H. We’re located in between Dupont and Logan circles, and it’s such a cute place. In fact, it’s so wonderful that when we saw the place in April, we RAN back to my office so that we could immediately email the application in. We didn’t want to miss out on it – and it toNow that I’ve said goodbye to Van Ness, it’s time to talk about the new place! In May, I moved to a two-bedroom with my friend from Brandeis, Rachel H. We’re located in between Dupont and Logan circles, and it’s such a cute place. In fact, it’s so wonderful that when we saw the place in April, we RAN back to my office so that we could immediately email the application in. We didn’t want to miss out on it – and it totally took us less than 15 minutes to get all the way to Metro Center.

Since I’ve been here for about two months, I can now accurately say what my favorite things about my new home are. In no particular order, they include:

1. This apartment feels much more like a HOME. I moved into my Van Ness apartment very quickly, and while I liked it, it never really felt like I had any sort of ownership over it -- perhaps because I was in a room with a fake wall, but more likely because I didn’t really help figure out how to set it up.

2. Our cute and decidedly full-of-character neighborhood. There's a crazy house next door, with flamboyant colors and odd figurines in the window. There's an abundance of cute and friendly dogs. Some people have baby envy; I totally have dog envy. And best of all, there's amazing people watching, fabulous little front yards, and alleys full of people having summer parties.

3. There's access to not one, not two, but three (!) Metro stations. Of course, none of them are quite as close as Van Ness was, but I am no more than a 15 minute walk away from all 5 Metro lines!

4. In similar, transportation-related reasons why I love our new home -- I can walk to work! This was one of the requirements of moving downtown, and I am so grateful for my 20-minute walk down 14th street every day. (I don’t actually walk EVERYday, sometimes I take one of the very convenient 50-buses there!).

5. I have an amazing new roommate, Rachel H.! She introduces me to great TV shows (see: 30 Rock and How I Met Your Mother) and lets me read her books! I'd say it was an uneven relationship, but I DO cook with garlic often, and I feel that that's an advantage in a roomie.

6. The apartment includes a WASHER and a DRYER. in unit. Need I say more? No, but I will. This makes me so excessively happy -- I always ended up in the dorms at Brandeis that required outside travel to do laundry, and at the Albemarle there was always a line to laundry . . . lame. The point it is, this is the best thing since Ethel Merman in Anything Goes.

7. The ceilings of the apartment are soooo high. And it's full of light (which necessitated blackout curtains for rooms, but I revel in it! although I may need some curtains soon), which makes it an altogether-decidedly-cheery place to live.

8. There is wonderful food shopping. I’m a mile from Trader Joe’s, a ten-minute walk from the lovely (if overpriced) Dupont Circle Farmers Market on Sundays, and two blocks (!) from a Whole Foods. Although I sometimes miss the reliably inexpensive almost-suburban experience at the Van Ness Giant, there really is a lot of great food shopping around here. And when I don’t want to cook, there are about a hundred restaurants within short walking distance. Actually.

9. The new apartment is downtown and convenient and wonderful, and clearly other people think so as well, because I have lots of great neighbors, many of whom I knew before but am really excited to be living near now!

Goodbye, Van Ness!

I’ve been in our new apartment for two months now, so I suppose it’s time to write a Goodbye, Van Ness blog post.

The apartment in Van Ness was my first big-kid apartment, and I moved there in January 2009, 9 days before Obama moved into HIS new home, and 3 days before I started my new job at ACEEE. I had spent the past six months living at home in Skippack, and while I loved the time with my mom, I was READY to be on my own.

I originally lived with two lovely ladies -- Jessica G. and Becky W., although Becky moved away in August, and was replaced by June R. I was in a room off of the living room which used to be the dining room, and which had a fake wall. It was a large room, with lovely big windows, but it was closetless. The apartment in general was huge, and particularly I loved the built-in bookshelves in the living room (look at how big that room is! you can do a cartwheel in it!).

Van Ness was also great for its proximity to a number of things I love. These include:

1. The people who were living in The Consulate. I was really lucky to find a great group of friends in Seth, Stacy, Arielle, and Alexa, (thanks to Rachel H!), and it was wonderful being a few blocks away for LOST watching and impromptu snowmageddon excursions. Of course, 3 out of the four of them are moving away, some all the way to LA!, but I will definitely miss being close to them.

2. Giant. I am a self-professed fan of supermarkets, and the Van Ness Giant is for sure the most “suburban” (I mean that as a compliment!) supermarket that I’ve experienced in NW DC. Of course, there are more exciting supermarkets (Whole Foods and Trader Joes), but for reasonably priced food AND well-stocked shelves (unlike some markets coughSovietSafewaycough), you can’t beat Van Ness Giant. And it was on my walk home every day.

3. The Zoo. As you know, I love volunteering in the Amazonia exhibit at the National Zoo, but I love it just a touch less when I have to trek there from my new apartment and the L2 is not coming. It was a much shorter (downhill!) walk in the morning at my old place. Plus, I passed the lovely restaurants and shops of Cleveland Park each way!

4. Alli G., favorite sister and sometimes doppleganger. Well, at least while she was still living at American University. Now that she’s graduated and moved off to FarFarAway (aka Takoma Park), this isn’t an advantage of Van Ness anymore, but at the time it was lovely to live one Metro stop or a short bus ride down Albemarle away from her.

5. Politics and Prose. Even before moving to DC, I heard about the wonderfulness of Politics & Prose from my Dad, who once purchased a biography of George Washington for me there. It’s this cute bookstore/coffeeshop about half a mile north of Albemarle Apartments on Connecticut Ave, and in addition to being a wonderfully well-curated independent bookstore, it's the site of daily author talks. While living there I got to hear a lot of great authors speak, although my favorites were definitely Taylor Branch (who recently wrote The Clinton Tapes, and who is famous for his history of MLK) and Walter Isaacson (who wrote great biographies of two of my favorite historical characters -- Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein).

The best part of Politics and Prose, though, is the abundance of sale books downstairs: needless to say, I spent a lot of my salary there. They're actually selling the store, and if I were 20 years older and a few hundred thousand dollars richer, I'd want to run it in a heartbeat -- what a wonderful place!

So that's the story of my first apartment. Goodbye, Van Ness -- you were a wonderful location for my first apartment and site of many glorious guacamole-related moments:

the lusty month of May in which June busts out all over

oh dear. That's quite the unfortunate amalgamation of musical theater lyrics . . . anyway.

It's been quite a while since I last blogged, for the very good reason that I've been too busy to blog (which really is the best way to be, even if it makes goal-achieving difficult) AND I've had to contend with a computer meltdown of monumental proportions. Since I last posted something on my birthday about two months ago, I have explored a new city (Chicago), moved to a new home (in Dupont/Logan Circle), gone to the White House, celebrated my sister's graduation, and more. In classic Assessing the Wreckage style, I've decided to present my goings-on in list/picture form. I present, eight of the best things that have happened since I turned 24:

8. One of my best friends, Mat S., is away in Brussels for the summer, being amazing and working on human rights law and eating frites and drinking beer as often as possible (at least, I sure hope so). Before he left, though, he had to a. celebrate the end of his 1L year with Scottish festivities (we learned that the word "forfochen" means exhausted, and I got to see Leah and Steph for the first time in a year!) and b. move from his apartment in the east 90s to the West Village. Along the way, I got lots of time with college roomie Katherine C. (including her first trip to Katz's AND first knish of life), a shabbos walk in Riverside Park with Jonathan H., and a viewing of Sondheim on Sondheim starring the fabulous Vanessa Williams and Barbara Cook at Studio 54!

7. At the end of June, I participated in Relay for Life with Jason F., Kate B., and many of their lovely friends from the RAC. Our team raised over $5,000 for the American Cancer Society, and had a really meaningful and fun evening of luminaria, track-walking, late-night chats, and astroturf. Also, I Zumbaed. Fact: I am a decidedly ridiculous Zumba-er.

6. ACEEE published another federal legislation scoring paper, this one on the Kerry-Lieberman climate change proposal! It was a lot of work, and may have slightly taken over my life in the later part of May/early part of June, but the release involved a Senator (the very cool Jeff Merkley of Oregon!), and was definitely one of the most collaborative projects I've ever dealt with. It's still unclear what its impact will be (since climate/energy legislation is rather up in the air right now), but I think it pretty clearly demonstrated the benefits of enhancing energy efficiency efforts, and that's pretty cool.

5. Miriam F. visited D.C.! Miriam F. is one of my best friends from college, and she just spent a year studying at Pardes and will be spending another year in Jerusalem learning to be a rabbi at HUC. Needless to say, I needed to get me some Miriam-time during her short visit home, and she obliged with a mid-week visit in June. This resulted in a day of my favorite D.C. things: friends, the Library of Congress, Eastern Market, Good Stuff milkshakes and onion petals, and Mandu happy hour!

4. At the beginning of June, Jason F., David K., and I traveled to Chicago for the wedding of Ilana D. and Jeremy F.! We spent the beginning of the weekend gallumphing about the Art Institute, guffawing at Second City and Baby Wants Candy (musical theater improv! amazing!), and generally gadding about town causing a commotion. We spent the second part of the weekend celebrating at Jeremy and Ilana's beautiful, sweet wedding, and got to see a lot of wonderful Brandeis friends while we were at it.

3. Alli graduated from American University, in badass Gold family fashion! I knew I had a smart, fabulous, talented sister, but apparently the rest of the world knows it, too! Alli and her college bff, Seth C. jointly won the highest award given to undergrads at AU, the President's Award. Translation: great seats for us, lots of people saying nice things about Alli, and vigorous Gold/Dwork family kvelling.

2. I moved to a new apartment with Rachel H.! Although this ranks very high on the cool-things-in-the-past-month list, I'm thinking it's going to get its very own blog post very soon, so I'll hold off on that one for now.

1. I went to the WHITE HOUSE (!) for the Mexican State Arrival, thanks to the lovely Emily G., who gave me one of her extra tickets (she got them for being a decidedly cool and vigorous advocate for young women!). Apparently, the White House holds this big ceremony on the South Lawn with the Marine Corps Band (!) and the Fife and Drum Corps (!) and other forms of awesome salutin' every time there is an official State visit. It was one of the coolest experiences of my D.C. life to date - any day involving the Obama and the Shelly O., close proximity to the West Wing (!!!!), and the Rev. Al Sharpton is going to rank high on any list of mine.

The 23 Best Things about the year I was 23.

Since I'm about to turn 24, I decided I should probably chronicle my favorite things about 23. Here goes:!

Travels:

1. Costa Rica! In December, I traveled to Costa Rica with Mat S. and Jonathan H. It involved bugs, trees, two of my favorite people in the world, an epic sunburn, and zip lines. What could be bad?

2. My first truly epic road trip (this past summer), with Sarah K. Tanglewood + the Berkshires + Boston + best friends = utter summer happiness. Hoping that’s happening again.

3. Most Broadways shows in a year of my life (hoping to keep THAT trend going!) Saw Shrek the Musical, A Little Night Music, South Pacific, and Avenue Q. All with Matt S., my partner in musical theater-going crime!

4. Ronis Shabbos in New Haven. Mat S. + Ronis + Shabbos = a full neshama for me.

5.5. My mother-daughter weekend in Annapolis and Baltimore. Such good Mona-Rachel time.

6. Visiting Chicago for the first time (although this coming year will involve a Chicago visit as well!)

7. My first whitewater-rafting experience this summer (complete with West Virginia jokes, fun times, and fabulous new friends)

Work:

8. My first quote in a NY Times article!

9. My first (and second) papers on energy efficiency policy!

10. Discovering the power of Excel. And deciding that, despite all that kvetching I did at the time, Physics Lab was one of the most useful classes I took at Brandeis. I love proving myself wrong J

DC Gallavanting:

11. Flexing my science education skillz and volunteering at the Amazonia exhibit of the National Zoo!

12. Discovering Signature theater, and seeing Sweeney Todd, their AMAZING Kander and Ebb revue, and Showboat

13. Frequent visits to one of my favorite DC spots, Eastern Market (site of many wonderful hat purchases).

14. Living through Snowpacalyse (and having a fun time of it, too!) with my Van Ness crew.

15. Cooking and baking delicious food from my first CSA (through the DC JCC!. Such a fun experience.

16. Dancing through my first ballet class of life, which incidentally, I was nowhere near as awful at as I thought I was.

17. Wine touring in Virginia. One of the best days of summer for sure, and definitely an activity that needs a repeat.

Other Happy Things

18. Meeting Julie Andrews and “warming her heart” with the story of Sarah K. and my book sharing

19. Getting my picture taken with Alison Janney, and some of my other favorite people in the world. Seriously though, C.J. Cregg! Amazing!

20. My very first Bender-Horowitz family Sukkot experience. Best.

21. The discovery of Glee. You know my feelings on this subject.

22. Experiencing the best “kosher vacation” ever at Lilly and Alexander’s crab-tabulous engagement party

23. my movement into the world of Blackberry. It was frightening, but I’m loving it a little bit.

Things to look forward to in the year I’m 24 . . . moving into a new apartment with Rachel H. in Dupont Circle! Going to the White House for the first time! Hopefully, a climate change bill with lots of energy efficiency! My first venture west of the Mississippi! (okay, fine. I’ve been to St. Louis and Wisconsin. But no further west than that!)