bear

Me, paging through an internet food forum: "Oh. My."
hyounpark: "What's up?"
Me: "Er. That's a ... very interestingly shaped challah."
H: *peers at the picture* "Is that like one of those airline neck pillows?"
Me: "That was ... not my first thought, though I can see how you'd get there."
H: "What did you think it was?"
Me: "Clearly a dong and balls. See how the one side is long and a little skinnier, and the other side has multiple lumps?"
H: "YES DEAR."

Me: "... Ticketmaster decided it was necessary to send me a notification about A Flock of Seagulls tickets going on sale?"
H: "And you ran. You ran so far away."
Me: "Seagulls are evil!"

( cut for mention of calories but the main point is a pun it took me 23 years to get )

On Election Night, I went out to pick up groceries and ate an ice cream sandwich (cardamom ice cream with chocolate cookies) for dinner and then ignored the outside world as best I could. hyounpark was in San Diego for work; Elana invited me over to her friend's house, and I just couldn't with the world. I basically hibernated until Wednesday night, when I had to drag myself out for tech week for Carmina Burana.

I wore my What a Cluster! t-shirt; appreciative comments all around. Our director opened things up by leading us in Lean On Me a cappella. Reminded us that we, as artists, as musicians, were going to be called upon as "first responders to the soul." Read An Artist's Response to Violence aloud:

We loved [John F. Kennedy] for the honor in which he held art, in which he held every creative impulse of the human mind, whether it was expressed in words, or notes, or paints, or mathematical symbols. This reverence for the life of the mind was apparent even in his last speech, which he was to have made a few hours after his death. He was to have said: “America’s leadership must be guided by learning and reason.” ...Learning and Reason: the motto we here tonight must continue to uphold with redoubled tenacity, and must continue, at any price, to make the basis of all our actions. ... Our music will never again be quite the same. This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.

And then we made music.

Afterwards, hyounpark and I walked towards the BART station, and at the light, a sedan with the windows down, passengers hanging out the windows, pulled up next to us, absolutely buh-last-ing FDT. Had a little defiant dance party on the sidewalk, a moment of community, and as the light turned green and they drove away, I felt a little better.

Lather, rinse, repeat for Thursday (honestly, tech week couldn't have been better timed for all of us in need of something to focus on and not doom-spiral over), and then Friday night concert. Someone on TikTok posted the first movement of our performance of Carmina Burana; their first time at the symphony. And they got to see a professional symphony conducted by somebody like them; see a chorus conducted by somebody like them. The classical music world has the potential to be a hell of a lot more inclusive; this is proof the efforts are worth it.

Since then, it's been reassuring to see people, commiserate, talk about next steps, what was getting us through the current moment. Even so, as I put things to try to look forward to on the calendar, it all feels so tenuous. But I've also been reminded of the value of being "900% me," as Kat put it. Showing friends the ridiculous platter of pastries we've been working our way through all week (thank you Paris Bakery, Alta Bakery, Ad Astra Bread Company, and Krispy Kreme); noghri remarking on the presence of donuts from that last iconic bakery with "you still like those?" Me: "I blame my Southern husband for continued exposure, but yes!" He, smiling, "I still remember how we met all that time ago." Me: "Yeah, my reaction made quite the impression, hahaha." So then I had to tell the other friends present the story of how I introduced myself to noghri, which is basically (seriously, I didn't manage to LJ this back then?! ugh, past self, why so coy!):

Setting: elemmire7's going away party, July 2003
Me: *perusing the snacks table, wondering what to munch on next*
*the doorbell rings*
noghri: *enters, bearing a box of Krispy Kremes, which were so new to Boston at that point they'd only recently opened up their Wellington location*
Me: *spies cute guy entering with said box of Krispy Kremes, promptly vaults across the room and lands firmly in front of him* "You brought Krispy Kremes! You're cool!"
noghri: *stares at me, a total stranger, at a loss for words*

Everybody hearing this story for the first time: "... yep, we can visualize *and* auralize exactly how this went down!"

So, yeah. Being 900% me in the topics I've posted about to Bluesky, since that seems to be where people are migrating for shorter-form conversation and staying in touch with each other at least one step further removed from the control of billionaires; so far I have talked about indie bookstores and transportation cycling and choral music. Being 900% me in digging into Thanksgiving menu planning - eyeing this pumpkin basque cheesecake, but also considering a persimmon custard tart with hojicha meringue? Kristina Cho mentioned it in her Instagram stories earlier this week; the recipe hasn't been posted yet, but it sounds right up my alley. Being 900% me in pondering, as Jackie asked us at coffee ride this week, what is my actual role in my communities now and in the future.

Because all I really have control over in the big picture is being true to myself, so.

So eevieivy posted this glittery cat video meme earlier, which promptly sent me down the nostalgic wormhole of my favorite cat memes and videos, and I figured I would gather them all into one place for my amusement and convenience.

( Cat Facts )

I stumble across the Cat Facts text prank every so often, and it makes me giggle as much as the sneezing panda video.

( What Kind of Cat Are You? )

When we lived in Boston, we used to listen to The Playground on WERS on weekends, and Billy Jonas' What Kind of Cat Are You got played a lot on that show. That and All A Cappella were my fave WERS shows.

missing video of a turtle chasing a cat makes me laugh mostly because of hyounpark's reaction to said video, and I'm so glad I wrote it down :D (It might be this video; it was posted around the correct era.)

Stuff on My Cat still works!

( i think your cat is drunk )

I found exploding dog way back in 2002, and fell in love. This is one of my favorite of their works. (I still want i have magic powers painted on a wall in my house, or at least a good-size print of such. And i want to ride bicycles with you. And thought i saw you today. And maybe we just need some more books should hang in the library. Okay, now I'm getting away from the cat memes.)

( Nyan Cat! )

Nyan Cat, aka the perkiest pop tart of a cat flying through space emitting rainbows out its butthole; the video game itself was a test of my reaction speed that I didn't always pass, but it was adorable.

( Neko Atsume, holiday music lullaby version )

Neko Atsume, by contrast, was the most relaxing internet cat game, and the winter holiday music is especially soothing and soporific; it's our household lullaby.

And this, of course, doesn't even address the sheer volume of LOLCats.

Which internet cats are your faves?

Bay Area folks, especially in San Francisco: come hear me and other Oakland Symphony Choir members join Pacific Edge Voices tomorrow for their Sound Garden of Love concert! Saturday, April 6, 7:30 pm at St. Mark's Lutheran. (Geary + Grant, right on the 38, I don't know the bike parking situation though.) Yes, this is the one where we'll be performing Hymn of Acxiom, about which I have obviously been squeeing, although it has been a workout for both my soprano brain, unaccustomed to being "not the melody or ornamental descant?!?" for an extended period, and my soprano body, looking askance at the Ab3 on our part solidly in alto-tenor range.

And we finally got the scores for our May concert (Friday, May 17, 8 pm at the Paramount): we'll be doing Aaron Copland's Canticle of Freedom (an MIT Chorus and Orchestra commission back in the day, Cambervillains! Pisses me off even more what's happening with the San Francisco Symphony right now and that factored into Esa-Pekka Salonen's decision to not renew his contract when it expires after next season, austerity towards musical innovation when your board is sitting on 10 years of operational budget in your endowment). I loved when I did his In the Beginning with Chorus Pro Musica back in the day; excited to be singing more Copland now.

(And of course I just earwormed myself with let there be LIGHTS in the firmament of the HEAVENS to divide the DAY from the NIGHT, and let them be for SIGNS and for SEASONS and for DAYS and YEARS; let there be LIGHTS in the firmament of the HEAVENS to give LIGHT upon the EARTH ...)

( In the Beginning score video )

*

A delightful thing hyounpark and I did recently: helped introduce several thousand elementary schoolkids to the joys of classical music. The Oakland Symphony has an annual Young People's Concert, where local K-8 kids come downtown to the Paramount Theatre and learn about the various kinds of instruments, what they sound like, how different combinations of sounds create different emotional landscapes, etc. So Sarah pulled us both aside after rehearsal one night and asked if we'd be willing to be Robins to host Omari Tau's Batman - provide harmonies, demonstrate some easy dance moves (wait, what), and get kids excited about classical music. OBVIOUSLY we would :D

It was both a little terrifying ("I am the only person on my part for 55 minutes, and I have to do choreo, and hold a mic, what?!") and a total blast. Omari had clearly done this before, and he had a voice and tenor straight out of Disney. I told Hyoun afterwards that I felt like we'd just walked onto a Nickelodeon set somewhere. Engaging an audience that securely? Dayumn, that is impressive talent and hard work. But the best part, honestly, was getting to see all of the kids' reactions. Laughing and gasping at various points, getting to get up and dance out their wiggles for Oye, teaching them the words and notes for the call and response of We Shall Not Be Moved. Even the complex meter of Ram Tori Maya reminded me that when Hyoun and I were kids, we were being taught about such time signature shenanigans thanks to Sesame Street and the Pointer Sisters.

( we may have possibly spent an hour watching this 15-minute video analyzing The Pinball Song because we are total music nerds )

Afterwards, we came out the stage door and walked towards BART, and as we passed all the schoolkids waiting to get on their buses, we were the celebrities of the hour. "LOOK IT'S THE SINGERS!!!" Me to Hyoun: "Okay, this is the perfect level of 'fame' for me, in a better world and were I slightly more of an extrovert, you know I'd be going back to school to become a music teacher." (I know. We got to play the hero-of-the-moment versions, not the in-the-trenches day-in-day-out versions. Teachers are amazing and their actual heroism deserves better recognition.)

The kids riding with us on BART were utterly thrilled, kept bursting into snippets of the songs we'd been teaching them/performing for them, pointing and waving, "look, they're real! They ride the train just like us!" We're not Billy Joel, hahaha, but yes, we appreciate our urban conveniences, getting to take us on cool field trips like this :)

And yet I can't help but think, all kids should be getting to do this. Taking the subway from their schools to downtown, sitting in a beautiful theatre while grown-up musicians get to tell them about the things they love. Taking the subway back from downtown to their schools, sharing space with the musicans who just performed for them, getting to ask them questions. Our modern fucking world.

Today's Facebook memories reminded me both of the time when I had 14 bars of soap at home and thought that was A Lot, and then the fact that I started dating hyounpark about six months after I wrote that post, and at some point, realized he had 140 BARS OF SOAP in his utility closet.

ursamajor: Honey, did you realize you have A HUNDRED AND FORTY BARS OF SOAP? ... how much soap do you go through?!
hyounpark: BUYING IN BULK WORKS!
ursamajor: Is this the same reason why you have a THIRTY PACK OF TOILET TISSUE in the same closet?!

At the time, my post-college housing experiences had all been of the sort where there was barely room to store a four-pack of TP in the bathroom. But also, the closest place that sold toilet paper (whether Star Market in my Somerville and Cambridge apartments, or the 7-11 in my Fenway apartment) was never more than two blocks away. Hyoun didn't *have* a walkable grocery and household supplies option at the time; he always had to hop in the car. We've gone back and forth on having easy grocery access in the interim decades, but we're back to the level of "the supermarket is only three blocks away so we can get TP and soap whenever" level of convenience, for which we are both massively grateful.

Old habits die hard, though, especially when pandemic-reinforced. After the Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020, where we got on a waitlist to order bamboo toilet paper in bulk from a hipster brand off the internet (?!), Hyoun will now walk home from the supermarket with a 30 pack of toilet paper.

Back to soap: I have no idea if we went through 14 bars of soap or not in the four years between us starting to date and getting married, because my skin is dry enough that I rarely use bar soap unless I don't have an alternative; it's moisturizing body wash for me all the way. But in the 19 years since that post, we have managed to get down to eight bars of soap waiting in the wings, plus the existing bar in the shower. I guess maybe we need to pick up some more soap the next time we go on a Target run? Not 140 bars worth, though, ROFL!

And while I was trying to find that post, I found the shower time survey (🔒) belladonna posted from even longer ago. Hahaha omg, I'd forgotten how long these surveys were that we all used to do. We'll see how far I get into this before life happens and I post it incomplete.

( shower survey, 22 years later redux )

14 years married as of today! Still the best choice I made, to love you, to continue loving you through all the twists and turns of our lives. You’re the bestest. (Original post.)

Yes, that is cotton candy atop our soft serve. (Among other toppings, including pop rocks.) #latergram

1995 me is disgruntled it took until 2015 to get my hair this brightly colored without bleach or chlorofluorocarbons. 2015 me is, of course, Joy.

Me, reading Geek Feminism headlines aloud: "Will you be a sexy witch, a sexy bee, or a sexy girl-geek for Halloween?"
hyounpark: "Because whatever it is, it's gotta be sexy! Like, how about a sexy ... entomologist?"
Me: "Oh, like Bambi?"
hyounpark: "..."
Me: "On the X-Files."
hyounpark: "..."
Me: "She was an entomologist! And Mulder couldn't stop staring at her chest!"
hyounpark: "... you aren't making this up, are you. Oh, boy."

*

Also, this came across my reading path elsewhere, and it amused the hell out of me, and I totally need to iconify it:

"Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse."