empanadas

miami cuisine, as it turns out, involves a lot of empanadas...

friend kyle and i had our fair share at david's cafe.

i also tried half moon, upon on the suggestion from auntie lucy. (it was, like, the baskin robbins of the empanada. i never knew so many flavors existed).

emapanadas are everywhere in miami! 

new york needs more of them. 

i wrote a haiku about them because i love them so much:

mmmm empanadas

you are so tasty and cute

i'd eat you often.

xoxo

yeh

life adventures fund

i had a beautiful day off in miami last week...

it involved waking up at noon, going to the beach, wearing my floppy sun hat, lying in the sun, listening to les noces, and daydreaming about the future. 

the future is one of the best things in the world because everything can be as perfect as you want it to be!!

on this particular day, the future involved a lot of adventures. i like adventures...a lot a lot. 

i dreamt up all of the ultimate adventures i could take in my life and wondered how and when i would actually get to take them. so i thought of an idea: 

the molly life adventures fund

(referred to hereafter as the LAF)

the details of how i add to the fund have yet to be determined, but as i'm making a little bit of a salary this year, i gather i can add bits and pieces to my fund and over time have enough to make some pretty strong adventuring happen. (mum wants my savings to go to a down payment on a house for when i grow up. but what good is settling down in a house if you haven't done enough cool things to merit settling down yet? i guess we can negotiate a happy medium, mum). 

adventures that i will take using the LAF:

a dumpling tour of the world

samosas in india

potstickers in china

gnocchi in italy

pierogies in poland

knödeln in germany

yoga in india

cooking classes in italy

learning things about my roots in china and hungary

carnivale in brazil 

something in paris... i don't know what yet. maybe just finding the best croissant? 

those are the adventures that i've dreamed up so far... i'll add more as they come...

xoxo

yeh

my friend doug!

last evening i caught up with one of my very good friends

(and also a new addition to the new world symphony trombone section),

doug

!

we dined at a restaurant that does this thing that's semi common in miami called

beat the clock

where the price of your meal is the time that you ordered it (we ordered at 5:40 = $5.40 for a ton of carbonara!)

and then there was

gelato

...

my concoction was an equivalent to my choice cocktail, the amaretto sour: lemon sorbet + amaretto gelato = tasties without the woozies.

over the course of our gelato, we realized that next month marks our seven year anniversary as friends!

whoa.

seven years ago...

we were just little nubbins, sitting in the back of youth orchestra together...

playing

pictures at an exhibition

(a teensy ethan bensdorf nailing the trumpet solo, and everyone's favorite dr dennis conducting...), talking shop during all of our breaks, singing brahms in the parking lot of the steak n shake late at night after cso concerts...

i think this picture is from 2006... when we had already known each other for four years!

and now...

we're munching on gelato in miami, playing in new world together...

who woulda thunk?

and who knows what another seven years will bring...

cso?

LA?

boston symphony?

NY phil?

the community youth wind ensemble volunteer project of boise, idaho?!

teehee.

here's to seven years, dougie!!!

xoxo

yeh

hello, miami!

wait a tick...

dejavu? (i was just here!)

i'm subbing with the new world symphony this week :-)

program:

John Adams The Chairman Dances

Edward Elgar In the South

Adam Schoenberg Finding Rothko

Benjamin Britten Young Persons' Guide to the Orchestra

i'm playing castanets and some other things on the britten

and drumset (what the...?) on the adams.

if you've never heard the chairman dances i highly advise you to do so.

the scenario of the piece:

"chiang ch'ing, a.k.a. madame mao, has gatecrashed the presidential banquet. she is first seen standing where she is most in the way of the waiters. after a few minutes, she brings out a box of paper lanterns and hangs them around the hall, then strips down to a cheongsam, skin-tight from neck to ankle and slit up to the hip. she signals the orchestra to play and begins dancing by herself. mao is becoming excited. he steps down from his portrait on the wall and they begin to foxtrot together. they are back in yenan, dancing to the gramophone..."

peter sellars and alice goodman

wouldn't it be so fun to be in that colorful room?

the piece is so dreamy and colorful and exciting. it makes me want to dance and get all groovy and stuff. i could listen to it all day long and bob my head every second of the way.

although i don't know what genius put me on the drumset part (i mean, i do know what genius that was, and i luv him, but come on.)

i literally had a stressful time packing because i have to wear pants all week behind the kit and not my miami-appropriate sun dresses!

(bitch bitch bitch.. life is so tough...i'll shut up now)

in an effort to be economical, i went to the publix and bought sandwich making materials so that i could pack lunches all week (it seems to be the general trend at restaurants in miami to attract customers by the booby size of the hostess rather than quality of the food... so i don't really feel guilty by not indulging in miami beach cuisine). publix, for what it is, actually has a decent mustard selection.

i was for some reason getting into the commercial/artificial food vibe of the publix

(i had ritz crackers and kraft cheese in my cart) and actually almost purchased hellman's honey mustard.

but alas even i probably couldn't have finished the economy sized tube.

so i got a cute little sweet hot inglehoffer with honey.

okee. wish me luck this week everybody!

xoxo

yeh