26 going on 19

Last week we celebrated my 26th birthday. It's a strange age, I feel like I'm actually in my "late 20's" now. I had to work all day, but we had a great time at dinner that night with our friends Jack and Amanda. We went to my favorite restaurant in Houston called Shade then to our favorite yogurt place called Swirl. This was the only picture we took (kind of blurry) but we had a great time. Work has been going great. I'm learning lots of new things. Speaking of turning 26, I constantly hear "you're a nurse, you look like you're 19." I say "well thank you I guess" or "I'm older than I look." Catch is, nursing is one of those professions where age and experience are key. I get a lot of strange looks. Some of the nurses that have been training me will say "this is Christina, she's new to our clinic, but she is not a new nurse." I hope I don't scare anyone when I walk in the room :)

The Opera Singer

My husband is an opera singer.

I'm going to stop telling people that he is "training" to be a singer because I am convinced he is already there. I'm starting to understand that other people believe this as well. Grapes of Wrath was unbelievable.

On Friday, April 3, the composer of the opera, Ricky Ian Gordon, was there to see the show. I went to a lecture that he gave before the opera about his career and the story of how the opera was "born." It was very compelling and made me even more excited to see the show. He has had a pretty amazing career and this opera proves to be a continued success even premiering less than two years ago. It's pretty long, running at three hours minus the two intermissions but it was all worth it. Gabe was phenomonal. In fact, a writer for the Houston Chronicle thought so as well....read here

As if that wasn't cool enough we found out today that the same article was printed in another publication in California, called the California Chronicle and was featured on the website, Operanews.com. It's popping up everywhere!!!!

Here are some pictures from the show...Opening scene, "The last time it rained"

Gabe and his good friend Jack who played Casey, the preacher

Tom Joad gets out of prison and comes home to the devastation, here he sees his mom for the first time

On the road to California