"Fun Home" at the Gateway Theatre is a Hit

We had a great time at the Gateway Theatre last weekend. We saw the award-winning musical "Fun Home." I'll be honest, I had not heard anything about this musical. The story is based on Alison Bechdel's groundbreaking and heartfelt graphic novel and is lovingly adapted to the stage. Alison's story is moving, funny, and at times heartbreaking. You'll find yourself rooting for her as she navigates to adulthood. If you're looking for a thought-provoking, heart-wrenching, and entertaining musical this is a good one to see.

The 42nd Street Moon team did a fabulous job, led by Executive Artistic Director Daniel Thomas. “It is at turns beautiful, powerful, poignant, and sorrowful in its look at family, sexuality, and coming of age; and Jeanine Tesori, who had already proven herself one of Broadway’s most versatile songwriters, gives us the best score of her career," he says.

A groundbreaking musical based on Alison Bechdel’s best-selling graphic novel, FUN HOME explores Alison’s life at three different ages, delving into her journey of discovering her sexuality, as well as her relationship with a hot-tempered father, with hidden secrets and desires all his own. 42nd Street Moon is proud to present the Bay Area regional premiere of this five-time Tony Award-winning triumph, a refreshingly honest, wholly original story about seeing your parents through grown-up eyes.

FUN TIME runs approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes with no intermission.

42nd Street Moon’s 2021-2022 season will conclude with THE PAJAMA GAME (June 2 – 19, 2022). Single tickets range in price from $35.00 to $76.00 and are available now at 42ndstmoon.org/fun-home.

42nd Street Moon tells universal stories through the production of contemporary and classic musical theatre. Moon celebrates humanity’s common heart and champions characters who sing their truth. By honoring the best of the past and providing an outlet for the voices of the present, Moon commits to a better future through our programming, education, and community outreach.

Date night in San Francisco is back!

Live theatre in San Francisco is back!!! Don and I had so much fun at the premiere of "A GRAND NIGHT FOR SINGING." 42nd Street Moon Theatre company does such a nice job with all their productions. We have enjoyed every show we've attended. They never disappoint.

"A GRAND NIGHT FOR SINGING" is one of the best musical revues ever written,” says Executive Artistic  Director Daniel Thomas. “It truly takes you on a journey over the course of two hours. The song selection is impeccable - you get some of the most well-known and loved Rodgers and Hammerstein songs alongside lesser-known but equally brilliant gems. And each song is given a treatment that highlights how well it stands outside of its original context. We are lucky to have such a tremendous  group of artists bringing this show to life.” 

Thirty-two of Broadway’s greatest songs were written by one of Broadway’s most iconic partnerships! Now,  experience musical theatre legends, Rodgers and Hammerstein as they’ve never been seen before! Join us for a celebration of both the hits and hidden gems — showing off Rodgers’s exquisite melodies and  Hammerstein’s evocative lyrics that celebrate the humanity that binds us together – all with a modern twist! Featuring favorites from Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and more. 

The cast of A GRAND NIGHT FOR SINGING includes Edu Gonzalez-Maldonado as “Edu,” Keith Pinto* as  “Keith,” Jacqueline De Muro* as “Jacqueline,” Jasmine Cook* as “Jasmine” and Joel Chapman* as  “Joel.”  

In addition to Goldfield and James, the creative team for A GRAND NIGHT FOR SINGING will include,  Mark Mendelson (Set Designer), Claudio Silva Restrepo (Lighting Designer), and Cindy Goldfield (Costume  Designer).  

*Member of Actors' Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers.  

42nd Street Moon’s 2021-2022 season will continue with FUN HOME (April 21 – May 8, 2022) and THE  PAJAMA GAME (June 2 – 19, 2022). Single tickets range in price from $35.00 - $76.00 and are available now at 42ndstmoon.org/2021-2022-season. The previously-announced production of THE SCOTTSBORO  BOYS will now take place in the 2022-2023 season. 

42nd Street Moon celebrates and preserves the art and spirit of the American Musical Theatre. The organization contributes to its evolution and continuing vitality by presenting intimately produced performances of classic and rarely performed musical works. Through productions, educational programs, and community outreach, 42nd Street Moon is committed to increasing the awareness and appreciation of the rich heritage and cultural perspective of musical theatre and its vast influence on the world stage.

Grab some tickets and head to San Francisco! For more information, visit www.42ndstmoon.org. 

Wordle Mania

Every morning I wake up to the green glow of Wordle squares on my phone. The messages start appearing before I wake up and my alarm goes off at 6:30am. This is what happens when you're in a western time zone and are apparently one of the last to arise. The string of game posts, emojis, and comments greet me like a warm hug every morning. 

I love that we have this little exchange every day! 

It all started right after Christmas. I had heard about Wordle from a friend and invited my family to try it. We all love games. My dad is a crossword puzzle fanatic. And we are all just a teeny bit competitive when it comes to games. 

If you've never heard of Wordle it's basically a simple word game where you have 6 tries to guess a 5 letter word. It was started by Josh Wardle in the fall of 2021 as a game he created for himself and his friends. It grew like crazy almost overnight. Then the New York Times bought it for 6 figures in February 2022. (Way to go, Josh!) You can check it out here.

After we got everyone in the family to understand the game and how to play we all started posting our results. The "family" includes my husband, my sister, my two brothers, brother-in-law, niece, nephew, my daughter, and my parents. The age range is 19 to 91. 

Part of the game is to post your results. We had a couple of group texts and ended up renaming one WORDLE MANIA so we all knew which one to post our results to. We don't need to mix up Wordle stats with recipe recommendations, soccer stats, and birthday celebrations. This is serious business. haha.

It's now become a daily habit and competition to see who can solve it in the fewest tries. Since I'm not the first, I take my time in the morning. Get my coffee, my cereal and watch the Today Show while I solve the puzzle. And there is absolutely no cheating. Duh. You just don't. Cuz what fun is that? 

If you don't solve it it's a bleak morning. And humbling to post that you couldn't meet the challenge.

Big bragging rights when you get it in two tries. Or three. Or four. Really, if you finish we celebrate! lol.

We don't have any one-hit wonders yet. But it's bound to happen. I guess it's the equivalent of a hole-in-one. Although much harder, because at least in golf you have an idea of where to aim. With wordle, the first word is the biggest guessing game. 5 letters. Go. That's your clue.

I've used the Wheel of Fortune strategy. Trying to get as many of the letters R, S, T, L, N, and E in my initial guesses based on them being the most frequent letters in the Wheel of Fortune game. I feel like this strategy worked better before the NYTimes purchased the game. I think it got harder after they bought it. They claim that they didn't change any of the planned words immediately upon closing the deal, but I don't know, it feels harder and the words more obscure.

So every day we post our scores along with some pithy comments. 

"Got it going on today."

🤠

"Dang."

"boom baby"

"I thought my other guess was better."

"a struggle"

🤮

"yeah"

"grrrr"

"okay for an old geezer"

"whew!"

🥸

"ugh"

"oh well"

"Mr smarty pants"

Most impressive are my parents who are in their 80s and 90s. They never miss a day. 

We haven't created a leader board yet. We all have our individual stats but haven't shared it with the group. But it wouldn't surprise me if someone is tracking that! 

The best part of the game is how it's connected our family. 

Before wordle, I would talk to my brothers every once in a while. Months might go by. We don't live near each other and all have busy jobs and families so life would happen and we wouldn't hear from each other. Now we have something that connects all of us every day. 

It's pretty cool. 

We laugh, we vent, we brag and we support each other. 

#WordleManiaForever

How I became a health coach

I never would have guessed 6 months ago that I would be a health coach now. And yet here I am writing about it. When I started this blog back in 2009 (yikes!) my first post was about pork chops! Since then, I have recorded a library of my favorite recipes. Some are healthy and some with way too much butter. You all know that baking is my specialty (just ask my neighbors) and everyone knows I love my wine and cocktails (just check out my IG.)

But, it was time for a change. 

I started a new health program in mid-April, 2021 because I had gained the dreaded Covid-15. After 2020, with all the stress and time spent indoors baking sweets, and cooking, and eating, and being stuck in the house I had gained back half of the 30 pounds I had lost on another program. The funny thing is, I have actually done that other program twice. I lost 30 pounds both times. And gained it back. So, it didn't really work. 

Fast forward to spring of 2021, and I see some posts from this girl I know from my blogging days. Tori is a busy wife, mom of two, and a nurse. Her Instagram posts always caught my eye because they were super colorful, positive, and motivating but all of a sudden they were different. She was posting about her health and her weight loss and she seemed really happy. Like when it's your birthday and you're 8 kinda happy. Just full of joy. Literally radiating through her pictures. 

Coach Tori and me, Aug. 2021

I had to know what she was doing. The thing is, we didn't really know each other. We met virtually about 10 years ago as part of a blogging group called "The NorCal Lady Bloggers." Dumbest name ever, I know. Our purpose was to support each other and boost each other's posts by reading them and leaving comments. (Kind of like our new coaching community!) 

So anyway, we've been "friends" on social since like 2010. A long time. But we had never talked or met in person. 

So I sent her a DM. "Hey, you look great. Tell me what you're doing!" Or something to that effect. 

It was Easter weekend. She responded right away which kind of surprised me. We got on the phone and had a great conversation. I was sitting in the parking lot of Target pouring my soul out to a stranger. Which oddly is always easier to do. She told me all about the program she was on. I listened. I shared my situation. And then I told her I wanted to sleep on it before I made a decision. 

I had tried so many diets before: Weight Watchers, Jump Start M.D., Cabbage Soup Diet, Raspberry Diet (I know!) It was a bit exhausting to think I was going to do it again. Don's first question was "What does it cost?" 

The next day I just decided to go for it. Something about Tori made me trust her that it would be different this time. I loved the fact that I would have a coach. There would be a community of people to connect with which was my favorite part of Weight Watchers when they used to meet in person back in the day. I could work on my mental health and hopefully, lose some weight (for good this time) in the process. 

Average weight loss on the Optimal 5:1 Plan is 12 pounds.

My BMI was 26 in the overweight zone. UGH. So I set my goal to get to 135lbs. I was starting at 148lbs and needed to lose 13 pounds. Seemed totally doable. I started on April 14th, 2021 and after one month I was at 137.5lbs. I couldn't believe it. By June 6th I hit my goal. After having a conversation with my coach I decided to set a new goal of 125lbs which would put me at a healthy BMI of 21. I hit that goal on August 16, 2021.

I actually lost a few more pounds after hitting transition and have been hovering around 121-122lbs since then. So in total I've lost 26lbs. At 5'4 1/2 " it's the perfect weight for me and I feel great. 

Nov 2021 vs. Nov 2020

My biggest fear with this plan was if I could keep the weight off. And the best part of this plan is the answer is yes. Because it's not completely focused on diet. It's a complete health program that teaches you how to fuel your body and your mind.

Along the way, I recruited my husband (he's released 20+ pounds), and my sister (she's released 30+ pounds), and about 10 friends! Coaching them just happened. I didn't set out to be a coach. But I honestly could not help myself from telling people how I felt. I have now met my Coach and her amazing husband Kevin and we have become fast friends. 

So you're probably thinking, are you qualified to be a coach? The great thing is the program has a ton of resources and trainings and they take a "team coaching" approach so you are always supported. I took the Coach certification test (and scored a 95%) but I'm still learning every day. This has become my new passion/hobby. It's not a job for me. It's a passion. I want everyone to feel this great!

My sister Kathy and myself, Nov. 2021

I'm excited to help more people on their health journey. So if you, dear reader, are interested in changing your physical (and mental health) take a minute and fill out the health assessment below. It's confidential and comes straight to me. 

Free Health Assessment CLICK HERE.

Kris