Archive | thoughts

a theatrical discovery

October 17, 2011 at 4:54 pm

Recently I rediscovered my old blog from high school/college, a very enthusiastic Xanga site in which I documented most experiences from those days. While scrolling back through old entries (and snickering at my old self), I discovered the most verbose, the most over-the-top blog post of them all, my post about seeing Les Miserables with my family in Washington, D.C., several years ago.

Elliott and I discovered early on in our relationship that we both love Les Mis. In fact, in September 2008, before we started dating, we went on a camping trip with a group of friends into the White Mountains of New Hampshire. That night, as we sipped red wine that Elliott had brought along (reason #8,942 I was already very interested in him), we noticed the sparking swath of stars overhead, glittering through the pines. Inspired, I began to sing “Stars” from Les Mis. Suddenly a rich, deep tenor flooded between the squeaks and cracks of my own voice, and I turned in surprise to see this guy Elliott singing right along with me, singing each line with confident memory, and smiling alternately at the stars and then at me.

Oh be still my beating heart.

Soon after that two things happened. The first was that we started dating. The second was that we discovered our families both went to see Les Mis in December 2005 when it was showing at the National Theater in D.C. The show only played for a few nights, and so chances were high that we had been there the same night! But neither of us had saved our ticket stubs, and so we let that remain a mystery.

Then we got married, got pregnant, had a baby, moved to Italy, started a blog, discovered my old blog, and…

… discovered this blog post which records that my family saw Les Mis on December 27, 2005. We made this discovery last night and then excitedly searched Elliott’s computer for photographs from that time. Were any of them time stamped Dec 27? But he had no photos from that night. He did have photos from Dec 28, though, when his sister Eden cut off her L’Abri dreads and became a buzz-cut pixie a la Natalie Portman.

Excited, I sent an email to Elliott’s family Did anyone remember if Eden cut off her dreads the night after they went to see Les Mis? Thus began a flurry of emails, a checking of blogs (we all had Xanga sites back in the day, apparently), and an evaluation of photo time-stamps. Eden confirmed that she did cut off her dreads the day after Les Mis. David’s photos from after the show were time stamped Dec 27.

And so it’s true! In 2005, almost 3 years before Elliott and I became friends, we were in the same room at the same production listening to the same actor sing “Stars.” We both have pictures of our families outside after the show. We can’t see each other in the background of the photos, but… how close were we? Did we see each other, brush shoulders, catch the other’s eye for just a moment? We’ll have to leave that a mystery, I suppose…

My siblings and myself (Eric, Emily, Julia, and me) on the metro on our way to the show:

After the show, David took this shot outside the theater of my handsome hubby-to-be:

Elliott and his siblings (Jonathan, Jessica, Elliott, David, Eden) outside the National Theater:

Meanwhile, my siblings and I were all hanging around the stage door waiting to meet the actors! Finally we met the guys who played Jean Valjean and Marius:

Who knows who we are crossing paths with today that will change our lives down the road?

3 :: in family, husband, thoughts

a theatrical discovery

October 17, 2011 at 3:54 pm

Oh be still my beating heart.

Then we got married, got pregnant, had a baby, moved to Italy, started a blog, discovered my old blog, and…

My siblings and myself (Eric, Emily, Julia, and me) on the metro on our way to the show:

After the show, David took this shot outside the theater of my handsome hubby-to-be:

Elliott and his siblings (Jonathan, Jessica, Elliott, David, Eden) outside the National Theater:

Meanwhile, my siblings and I were all hanging around the stage door waiting to meet the actors! Finally we met the guys who played Jean Valjean and Marius:

Who knows who we are crossing paths with today that will change our lives down the road?

3 :: in family, husband, thoughts

for the love of books

October 3, 2011 at 7:01 pm

Elliott and I both love literature, love being buried in books in the evenings, and love reading aloud to each other. While undergrads at the University of Virginia, both of us chose to mix a literary concentration (English Literature for me, Religious Studies for him) with our primary major (Nursing for me, Biology for him). Both of us love Sunday afternoon trips to Barnes & Noble, a book in bed on a rainy afternoon, and–like all good UVA graduates–the stacks of Alderman Library.

In the vein of Simplicity Parenting, we want to pass that love on to our daughter. All the parenting books recommend reading aloud to your child from Day 1. Although I can’t proudly proclaim we did that, or that we read to her every day, or that we are model parents in the book department in any regard, I can say that we try. These days we attempt to read her a short board book before bed, we take her on many trips with us to bookstore and libraries, and we [sometimes] model reading by putting our computers away and pulling out our books (although not as frequently as we should).

As we put our dreams for our family into practice, I take pictures. And so here are some pictures of our little one and books.

She got distracted by the amazing rug and started rubbing her hands over it. End book time, begin texture time.

I remember one summer years ago I was babysitting while the kids’ parents were out on a date. “What did you do?” I asked when they returned.

“Oh,” the mom said, “we went rollerblading and then checked out the new Barnes & Noble.”

My jaw dropped. “You have quite possibly just described the best date I could imagine. I want to do that when I’m married!”

And Elliott and I did do that. I’ll admit it right now: the first day of our marriage we actually walked down the street from the W Hotel in D.C. and spent a couple hours in the corner Borders. Now our baby girl joins us on these dream dates of ours.

On a recent trip to Barnes & Noble, she read with her daddy about raising chickens in our backyard…

… and studied knitting patterns with me.

Lena and I also make weekly trips to the library here in San Antonio. This photo is from our trip this morning. Lena is “reading” Going on a Bear Hunt (and wearing a darling little outfit we bought her in Venice). She doesn’t understand much but she likes when I read “splish splosh splish splosh” and “howhooo howhooo” and all the other sound-effect pages from that wonderful book.

I’m discovering that it must be a conscious decision to bring out books, read them aloud, encourage page touching (and tasting and chewing and bending and bruising), and inspire a love of reading from a very young age. We’ll keep working at it!

4 :: in good reads, husband, Lena, thoughts

for the love of books

October 3, 2011 at 6:01 pm

As we put our dreams for our family into practice, I take pictures. And so here are some pictures of our little one and books.

She got distracted by the amazing rug and started rubbing her hands over it. End book time, begin texture time.

I remember one summer years ago I was babysitting while the kids’ parents were out on a date. “What did you do?” I asked when they returned.

“Oh,” the mom said, “we went rollerblading and then checked out the new Barnes & Noble.”

My jaw dropped. “You have quite possibly just described the best date I could imagine. I want to do that when I’m married!”

On a recent trip to Barnes & Noble, she read with her daddy about raising chickens in our backyard…

… and studied knitting patterns with me.

4 :: in good reads, husband, Lena, thoughts

out for the night. dressed to the nines. baby’s with a sitter. blissful, right?

September 2, 2011 at 8:40 am

Our future Wahoo! With more UVA grads in her family than she can imagine–both parents, three aunts, two uncles–how can Lena avoid the orange and blue? We’re dreaming of taking her to her first UVA football game this fall…

* * *

Yesterday was the last day of Elliott’s training course here in Vicenza. To finish up things in style, the Public Health Command organized a banquet at a nearby Italian restaurant. The dress code was “dress blues,” which for Elliott meant his $500 Army uniform which he has worn once before in his entire Army career, and for me meant LBD or something similar. And babysitters were provided for the night!

Fabulous, right? Dream come true? Not so for several factors:

1) Elliott does not have his $500 Army uniform which he has worn once before in his entire Army career. It is in his express shipment from Egypt to Sicily, a shipment that should have arrived weeks ago. But when he inquired about it, he got an email that it only left Egypt last week. So buy another uniform? Not so easy when you now work on a Navy base! What on earth was he going to wear? This is a big deal, particularly because all the important higher ranking officers in his Command would be there.

2) I don’t have a LBD in my suitcase. I have been living out of a suitcase since May and will be till after Thanksgiving. In that oh-so-carefully-packed suitcase there is no black silk tricotine or taffeta. What was I going to wear? The now-faded sundress Elliott bought me for $10 in Rockport, MA, when my clothes were soaked after sea kayaking and I needed something dry? Ehhh…

3) I forgot the breastmilk I’d stored for Lena. It is still sitting in our freezer in Sicily. Also I forgot my breastpump. And bottles. We’re seriously committed to feeding Lena only breastmilk, no formula. So maybe I could buy a cheap pump? I went to the store. They only sell electric pumps for $70-150 each. Scratch that. Yikes.

So the Epic Evening Out was turning into the Epic Fail for the young Garbers. How could we redeem this? Attendance at the banquet was mandatory for Elliott, and I was not going to stay home with Lena; I knew he needed and wanted me, and my participation was important for our marriage and his relationship with his peers. So… we needed to get creative.

1) We went to the NEX, which is like the Walmart on Navy bases. We found some dark gray slacks, black dress shoes, an only-semi-tacky tie, and a handsome blazer for Elliott. No suits available, sadly. Elliott looked dashing. Anyway, his plight was unavoidable and understandable; his commanders gave him permission to wear civilian clothes and that’s what we would do for the night.

2) I called my [brand new] friend Leah. “Leah, I think you’re about my size… do you have a dress I could borrow?” She did! Her little black taffeta number fit fabulously, so fabulously that now Elliott and I wish I could keep it. The NEX had some gold earrings, and I had dressy gold sandals in my suitcase. Score.

3) For Lena’s milk, let’s just say her mommy learned what it means to “self-express.” It took me days, but I had two [smallish] bottles of milk to pass off along with my baby. The babysitter at the CDC was an incredibly friendly and warm young woman. I left Lena anxiously but ultimately decided that worrying wasn’t helping anything; I prayed that God would take care of her and left it at that.

After all that drama, choosing to let go and have fun meant we were in store for a great evening. All Elliott’s fellow Captains/veterinarians were vocally envious of Elliott’s comfortable outfit. His commanders knew what to expect and didn’t seem to mind at all. Someone told Elliott he looked like James Bond in that jacket… and wouldn’t you rather look like James Bond at a military banquet any day? I loved my dress and loved being at a party again. I loved being the girl with Elliott; I always have. We ate until we could eat no more and still the food kept coming. I counted about 8 different dishes, all of the best Italian fare. Elliott and his commander bonded over their days at the MFO in Egypt (where his commander met his beautiful Israeli wife). The wine flowed, the speeches waxed, the awards shone.

Of course we weren’t organized enough to remember everything, and thus forgot a camera. Here’s a grainy iPhone picture:

And the babysitter never called. Much later that evening when we slipped into the CDC to pick her up, Lena was fast asleep and had been for hours. There had been enough milk.

And her parents carried her home.