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

Growth

I started a new job on Monday at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and it has been amazing. At previous employers I've been through orientations where you learn about "the mission" of a hospital or company. In the past I listened, but never really heard or deeply cared about the company as a whole. I really care about my patients and being the best nurse I can be, but have felt much less connected to the big picture. I feel like I have learned so many lessons in just one week. At MDCC everyone talks about "the mission" or "core values" and everyone is there for the same reason, "to make cancer history." I am about to venture in a completely different kind of nursing for all the right reasons. Even though I am nervous about this new challenge, I can't help but feel like I already truly belong there. I hope I can bring as much comfort and kindness to my patients as my family members have received at MDCC in Orlando. Linda and Gerry are doing great by the way. Thanks for your prayers!

Our garden has gone through some changes too!! It's actually growing!!! I did lose a cucumber plant and a cilantro plant both for unexplained reasons. But I am happy to report that our tomato and pepper plants look great! We now have three tomato plants because I made the risky decision to split one of them while it was still pretty small and thankfully they still both thrived. So one creole tomato plant and two yellow pear tomatoes. They just started flowering which is a great sign, so hopefully we'll see results in the next few months.

February 2009March 2009

Flowering tomato plant

P.S. Grapes of Wrath is coming up this weekend. Gabe is performing Fri night at 7:30pm and Sunday at 2:30pm. This is his biggest role to date so we are so excited! We'll give more details soon!

Spring Break Texas style!

We had an amazing Spring Break. Dad and Beth were able to visit and we still can't believe how much we did in 5 days. Spring Break in a nutshell- San Antonio-river walk- tower of the americas- amazing bed and breakfast- river boat tour- the alamo- nap- irish dinner next to green river- wildlife ranch- saw giraffes, an ostrich, sheep, cows, camels, rhinos, etc- natural bridge- caverns- back to houston- space center- kemah boardwalk- galveston coast- best BBQ in houston- Houston Rodeo and Live Stock show (saw a longhorn, a day old calf, watched a chick hatch, horse show, funnel cake, bull riding, muttin' bustin', Pat Green) Whew!!! We had a blast!!!!! Thanks Dad and Beth for visiting!

Spring Break

Opera News

I mentioned in the last post that Gabe had just finished an opera called "Florencia en el Amazonas," and the director just recently posted pictures on the University of Houston Moores Opera Center website. The link is here. Just go down towards the bottom of the page and you'll see the title. Gabe is in the 11th picture, dressed in a white shirt with a long wig. The rest of the pics are mainly of the monstrous boat they built.

Gabe's next show is "The Grapes of Wrath," and he will be playing the role of Tom Joad, played by Henry Fonda in the movie version. The opera premeired just last year in the US, and this will be it's first perfromance in the great state of Texas. The composer, Ricky Ian Gordon, will be attending the rehearsals-for opera buffs it's a pretty big deal. The performances are the first weekend in April. We'll give more specifics when we get closer. Gabe is very excited!

Quick Update

Hi everyone!! Just a quick note since we haven't posted in awhile. Things have been very busy here. Recently Mom and Linda came to visit for a weekend and we had so much fun. We toured the Galleria, the Zoo, Hermann Park, and brought them to some of our favorite places to eat. Unfortunately I can't post pics that my mom sent me. Technical difficulties with snapfish...argh!

Gabe had a show that weekend as well so they were able to see his hard work in action. "Florencia en el Amazonas," a spanish opera set in Brazil on a river boat. The set was incredible. I hope I can post pics soon. Gabe was amazing. He had a principle role "Riolobo," a river spirit and boat hand. It was a very unique production and the music was beautiful. The river boat was two full stories and turned 360 degrees on stage. I was in awe. Mom and Linda enjoyed it too!

Valentines Day we were able to sleep in, take a long walk, relax with friends at Hermann Park and have a great dinner together. We went to a Thai Mexican restaurant that was really good called Teala's. Hope everyone else had a great day too!!!