Sweet Home Utah Part 2

When we decided to move from Orange County California to South Jordan Utah, we expected a culture change.  In 50 years, we’d become used to the mostly wonderful climate, the plethora of entertainment venues and eateries, the gorgeous beaches and regional parks.  We’d also adapted to the somewhat frenetic lifestyle, freeways so crowded we planned our life around rush hours and the sometimes overwhelming materialism of the wealthy.  What we got was an introduction to living in a beautiful new house during a pandemic, a pandemic during which my wife Muri dealt with breast cancer.  Without face-to-face contact with anyone but our daughter’s family and one couple next door.  We shopped in masks and ordered restaurant food from curbside pickup.   My wife’s cancer treatment was grueling but effective and we didn’t catch COVID (until two months ago).  We emerged from 2020 ready to learn what it was like to live unrestricted in Utah.  Here’s what we found.

Mom and the King

I grew up to the sound of music (and, yes, The Sound of Music) on the TV/Stereo Console in the living room, right under the picture window that looked out on Bradley Street. That is, I grew up to music when Dad wasn’t home.  Dad liked it quiet and I can remember Mom lovingly lifting the needle for one of her favorite LPs at the sound of Dad pulling into the driveway.   I get it.   I would have music playing all the time (it actually is, in my head) … my wife Muri sees it as background at best, off even better.  Like so many things that define me, I got my love of music from Mom.   What did she listen to?  Yes, there was some obligatory Montovani, 101 Strings and Ferrante and Teicher but mostly she played big bands (especially Glenn Miller), classical music (she favored symphonies) and Broadway musicals.   I still remember the lyrics from South Pacific (Some enchanted evening …), Oklahoma (where the wind comes sweeping down the plains ...) and My Fair Lady (I’ve grown accustomed to her face …).   Then there’s The King and I.  My Mom’s favorite.   She saw it in New York and immediately had a crush on Yul Brynner.   It was the only time I remember my Mom owning up to a crush.   I think my Dad was OK with it because he had more than a little bit of the King in him.  Then I went away to college and became educated (technically) and sophisticated (supposedly), too cool to listen to Broadway musicals.  Once I was married, my wife and I became fans of live theater, but I resisted seeing those uncool musicals.   It would be years before I admitted my love of musicals and began to add them to our theater repertoire.   Sophistication be damned, right?   At 73, I’m nostalgic.

Monday (Musical) Smiles

I grew up listening to Broadway musicals.   It was not entirely my choice, however.  My Mom, who loved music almost as much as I do, loved Broadway shows and her record collection (remember those) included most original cast recordings of her favorites.  My Fair Lady.  South Pacific.  Oklahoma.  I’d say her favorite was The King and I, at least in part because she had a crush on Yul Brynner.   She would play her music during the day until Dad came home from work, then turn it off.  Dad was a fan of quiet.  Me?  Being the lyric-sponge that I am, I still know virtually every word to every song that she played.

Monday Smiles – 1/25/2016

Years ago, when my wife Muri and I were younger … and friskier … we would periodically take mini-vacations.  We’d find, perhaps, a play on Saturday evening and maybe a concert on Sunday, then stay in a hotel near the venue on Saturday night.  Dinner at one of our favorite restaurants was always part of the agenda.   As we push forward, me into my seventies and Muri not far behind, we still reserve nearly every Saturday for a date but the mini-vacations have been few.

Monday Smiles – 5/4/2015

Scenes from a weekend:

Blair Field:  It’s is the home of the Long Beach State Dirtbags.  That’s right, the LBS baseball team is known as the Dirtbags and the are playing the Rainbow Warriors from the University of Hawaii on Friday night.  I’m out for an evening with the guys, even though I have no affiliation with either university and don’t really care much for baseball.   But I’d been invited before and I need a change, so there I am, laughing as I listened to the kids in attendance (with their alumni parents) cheer, Let’s go Dirtbags.   It was a good game on a gorgeous night relaxing with friends.

Monday Smiles – 3/2/2015

My wife, Muri, and I attend a lot of theatrical events ranging from drama and comedy to musicals.  We attend concerts of classical music, jazz or rock and roll.  We occasionally attend more diverse fare, like dance or magic shows or acrobats, courtesy of Goldstar Events, the half-price ticket outlet that sends a list of available events by email every week.  We’ve seen the Blue Man Group and Cirque du Soleil at sea.  Consequently, a show rarely strikes us as completely unique.  This weekend, Goldstar was offering tickets to Sequence 8, a show by Les 7 Doigts de la Main (Seven Fingers of the Hand), billed on the Goldstar site as a Canadian cirque troupe.   The show was a combination of performance art, comedy, interesting music, acrobatic choreography and cirque acts that left the audience gasping.

Monday Smiles 1/12/2015

It is four thirty-five in the afternoon.  In less than an hour, the first College Football Playoffs Championship Game kicks off.  Is it OK if I just say, This was a good weekend.  It’s Monday … I’m smiling and call it a day?  No?  I have to explain why it was good?  Seriously?  OK.

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See?  It was a good weekend.  I’m smiling.  Now can I go watch the game?

Monday Smiles – 12/8/2014

I have to admit, sometimes, I pre-plan my Monday Smiles. If we are in Arizona and seeing the grandkids, I’m fairly certain I have a topic in hand.  If we have plans … for example, theater tickets … for the weekend, I frequently assume that the experience will give me smile-fodder, especially if it’s something I expect to like.  Thursday night, noticing that we didn’t have plans for the weekend, I went online to see what there was to do.   Our favorite local theater, the Laguna Playhouse, was offering Striking Twelve, a play called a throughly-winning minimalist musical by the New York Times.   Written by the Groovelily, self-described as just your typical violin/piano/drums theatrical power trio, Striking Twelve tells the story of a holiday-disillusioned man staying home on New Years Eve to avoid the faux cheer of the season.  An unexpected visitor to his door sets him to reading Hans Christian Anderson’s The little Match Girl, which in turn transforms his evening.  the Playhouse’s webpage said, Striking Twelve is a unique hybrid of pop-rock, musical comedy and live concert.  Sounded to me like a sure thing for a Sunday Date Night  and … as a bonus … a great topic for Monday Smiles so I grabbed two tickets.

Monday Smiles – 10/27/2014

For our almost fifty years together … including 46 years of marriage … Saturday Night has been Date Night.    I consider weekly Date Nights as one of the secrets to a long marriage and therefore, to a degree, sacrosanct.  Oh, there are exceptions.  One of us doesn’t feel well.  Family emrgencies.  Special occasions.  Taking care of the grandkids.   Fortunately, in Older Eyes Big Book of Rules for a Long Marriage, Make-up Saturday Night Date Nights are allowed on any day of the week.   So, I can say with assurance, we’ve had about 2,500 Date NIghts in our years together.   This year, for some reason my USC Trojans Football Team has been playing in prime time on Saturday NIght, so we’ve been trading Saturday Date Nights for Sunday so I can watch.   However, I’m considering revising Older Eyes’ Big Book of Rules to disallow swapping of Date Nights for football, instead allowing taping of the games … to be watched Sunday, IF WE WIN.   That’s because this year’s edition of the mighty Trojans has a penchant for losing games in the final seconds which leaves Older Eyes gasping for breath and unable to get to sleep later on when he goes to bed.   OK, the gasping for breath part is an exaggeration.  Cursing loudly is closer to the truth.  Last night, we lost with eight seconds left to Utah (Utah! Really? Gasp! Cuss!).   OK, if you’re here for Monday Smiles, stick around … I’ll skip the gory details and move on to Sunday.

Monday Smiles – 7/21/2014

Music!!!  Is there anything better?  What’s that?   How about family?  How about friends?  How about Date Night with the woman you love?  OK.  You got me (Don’t let it happen again).  Let me start over.   A musical weekend.  With a Saturday Date Night with the woman you love and … music!  And a Sunday evening out with friends for theater and dinner … and music !!!  What?  You can still think of better things?  Yeah, so can I.   But the official blogging bylaws say that hyperbole is acceptable as a means drawing a readers attention to a post.  Consider yourself drawn.