TV Binging

In general, I try not to watch a lot of TV.  I just do not have the time in my schedule to watch for hours, especially if I want to get a full night’s sleep.  Plus, it is too easy to get hooked on shows that are stupid and not worth the time being used.  I do not watch regularly programmed TV anymore, because I cannot keep to a specific schedule with the unpredictability of my work and family life.  And I made myself stop watching the vast majority of TV shows available on Netflix streaming because it was too easy to be sucked into a vortex of endless watching with the automatic play feature.  So this leaves me with getting past seasons of TV shows on DVD which means I am always behind the rest of the planet but happily only watching in short spurts every week or so.

Occasionally though, I make an exception to the no streaming rule.  For instance, when I am stuck home sick or I am completely brain-fried from work, I sometimes just want to do nothing.  Then, I find myself pulling up TV shows on Netflix and watching for hours.  This has been one of those weeks.  The chaos of work and home life has been marginally better, and that is why I have the time needed to write this week's blog, but it has been hard to motivate myself to do much else.  I am still tired and rather cranky from dealing with everything.  So for the past week, I have come home, turned on the TV, pulled up Netflix, and binge-watched my favorite shows.

My favorite types of show to watch when I am in a cranky mood are procedure crime dramas.  Of course, my selection is limited to what is currently available on streaming, but here are some of the ones I like the most.

-  Criminal Minds – I am fascinated by the psychology behind why bad guys do the things they do.  Of course, some of them are simply evil, but I am more interested in the ones that have a sympathetic background.  While I cannot imagine committing these horrible crimes, when I see stories where I can understand how they got to the killing point, it makes me wonder what, if anything, could drive me there too.  Plus I love the characters on this show, and how personal they have gotten with them over the years without making it seem too hard to keep up with everything.  My favorite character is Dr. Spender Reid because I love his awkwardness and nerdiness.

-  NCIS – This used to be my favorite show, but it has fallen to second place.  Again I am drawn to the full-bodied characters and great interaction between them as much as the smoothness of the show itself.  I am a big fan of both Timothy McGee and Abby Sciuto.  I like him because of the nerdy cuteness (yes there is a pattern), and her because I admire her and wish I was more like her.  I also am a fan of them together and am disappointed that the show does not play with that storyline more.  The reason this one has fallen from the top spot is because it has turned too far into the anti-terrorism storylines.  I want my procedural dramas to be contained in one episode and not require me to put a lot of work into keeping track of threads.  I do not mind a two-parter or a story that builds over a few episodes occasionally, but NCIS has gotten to the point where I am constantly referring back to old episodes to figure out what is going on in the current one.

-  Law and Order – I know this one is no longer on TV, but I am still watching old episodes on Netflix whenever they are available.  I like the fact that these are self-contained, mostly straight-forward murder cases.  I also find it a hoot to watch the older episodes and see how much the show changed and yet still stayed the same over the twenty years it was on TV.

-  Law and Order: SVU – I know most people think this is better than the original, and sometimes I agree with that.  However, most of the time I find the other one easier to watch and that is why I often prefer it.  One reason I find it less entertaining is the painful character arcs.  There was a stretch of time where watching Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler get more and more out of control was ruining the enjoyment of the show for me.  I am happy to say that the cast change-up starting in season 13 has breathed new life into this show and I am enjoying it much more that I was.  The other reason this one is less enjoyable is because some of the episodes are too likely to happen to someone like me.  If there are too many in close sequence where I can identify with the victim, then I get freaked out.

-  Psych – This one is a comedy rather than a drama, and so sometimes it is not a good fit for my mood.  Also, this is one of the shows I watch with my husband so I cannot pick it if he is not going to watch with me.  This show is great for silly entertainment.  It still has a crime to solve, but nothing is done to regulation or expectation.  Shawn and Gus get into trouble as often as they help out.  I am almost guaranteed to be laughing out loud whenever I watch it.  My favorite scene of all time is the Blueberry Speedbump scene (go check it out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7i0A5xCl0U).

What about you?  Do you binge watch TV when in a foul mood?  What shows are your favorites to gravitate toward when you just need a few hours of mindless entertainment?

Well, I am off to watch some Law and Order:  SVU.  I mean go to bed (watch SVU).  See you next week!

Not a Real Blog – That’s Life

Although my goal is to write a blog a week, sometimes things just will not work out.  That’s life.  The past three weeks have been very rough.  It is quarter close at work, and a rocky one due to changes in the department.  My father-in-law’s illness has continued to take a toll on my family at home.  The past two weeks, I have managed to eke out a few hours to write the blog.  This week though, it just is not going to happen.  I have run out of the time and the brain power needed to put together my thoughts on any topic.  These few sentences of explanation will have to suffice.  I have high hopes that next week will be better workwise, and that should mean we are back on schedule for a blog next Wednesday.

See you next week!

Feeling Helpless – Loved Ones Dealing with Sick Relatives

I feel so helpless when people I care about are dealing with painful situations and I can do nothing to help them through it.  It has been a rough week.  I have had two loved ones dealing with relatives in the hospital.

My father-in-law has been in the hospital for over a week.  His heart was failing and not pumping the way it should, which caused fluid to back up into his lungs, which caused him trouble breathing, which caused an oxygen shortage to his brain, which caused a very sick and confused person.  They got the fluid drained out of his lungs and installed an implantable cardioverter defibrillator.  He was released but ended up in the emergency room not even two days later.  Now he has blood clots in his legs and his lungs.  They performed surgery to clear those out.  He will be there for another week and possibly longer.  Prognosis is not great.  My father-in-law has not taken care of himself over the years, and his body is not strong enough to fight effectively.  The doctor has supposedly said (all third hand information through my husband) that if my father-in-law quits every vice and follows every instruction to the letter, he is still probably only looking at a couple of years.  It is more likely that he will throw those instructions out the window as soon as he is strong enough to do it though, so we are looking at an unpredictable route of complications that will likely end in death sooner rather than later.

My husband is not handling this whole situation well at all.  He does not have a good relationship with his family.  The strongest tie is to his father, with a neutral stance on his sister and a volatile bond with his mother and brother.  So now, he is sad that his father is dying.  He is angry that his father has done so much to destroy himself.  He is even angrier at his mother and brother who are completely dependent on his father, and in his view have caused his father more work than necessary to support them.  He is afraid of what is going to happen to them when/if his father dies, and he feels guilty that he does not want to help them in that situation.  My husband deals with this by alternating between bottling emotions up inside to pretend that nothing is bothering him and lashing out in yelling, crying fits about how awful and unfair everything is.  I feel completely helpless to help him out with any of it.  All his emotions are reasonable.  I do not have a much of a relationship with his family, but a big part of that is because they are so completely dysfunctional.  It is unhealthy to be around them and their drama.  Now he is forced to deal with it in an unpleasant way and with very little predictability about what will happen next.  He will not talk to me at all half the time and he scares me with crazy raving the other half.  I also have no practical advice.  There is no way to make his father behave.  We are probably going to have a weird and difficult time figuring out how to deal with his mother and brother when his father dies, regardless of whether it is tomorrow or five years from now.

On top of that situation, one of my best friends’ mother has also had a recent hospital stay.  I have gotten very few details from her though, so I do not at this moment what the status is.  A week ago her mother was in the hospital for a few days with severe anemia.  They gave her more blood and started her on iron supplements.  However, they could not figure out what went wrong to cause her blood count to drop so low in the first place.  The last I heard was that she was being released to go home.  I have reached out to my friend a few times to get an update since then, but she has not replied.  She could just be really busy, but I worry that there have been additional problems with her mother.  I live several hours away, and I feel completely unable to offer her any kind of help.  Given the situation with my husband’s family, I cannot go up there to check on her, visit her mother (who is a wonderful woman who always treated me like part of the family), or offer any kind of assistance to her.  Plus, there is always the possibility that I am overreacting and everything is fine with her mother recovering nicely at home.

I know that many people feel helpless when the people they care about are experiencing pain.  There are often situations where there just is not much anyone can do to ease the burden.  I know that my husband and my friend both know that I am here to listen and lend support to the best of my ability.  I just cannot help but feel that I should be doing more for both of them.

What about you?  Do any of you have any sage advice on how to get through these situations and how to help my loved ones out?

See you next week!

Addiction to Beauty Bloggers

I have a confession to make.  I have recently become addicted to beauty bloggers on Youtube.  Youtube is actually a fairly new phenomenon to me.  Although I was aware that it has existed for quite a while, I did not have an account and I really did not watch much of it.  Mostly, I watched videos that my friends sent to me sporadically.  Occasionally, I would look up a music video on it.  Last year, I had to use the site to post a video presentation for one of my classes (360 degree performance appraisals, exciting!).  Thus, I had to create an account and actually work with the site a bit.  From there, it moved into more frequent video watching.  My first subscription was Jenna Marbles because that was the site my best friend sent to me most often.  Since then, I have added three more comedy sites (IISuperwomanII, Pittsburgh Dad, and Jeanne Robertson) and two yoga sites (Yoga TX and PsycheTruth).

Then, I discovered the Beauty Bloggers.  Originally, I was just trying to figure out how to use some of the products I received in my ipsy bag.  I have spent most of my life being the Plain Jane.  Now in my 30s, I am tired of everyone looking better than I do.  So I decided to start wearing a little bit of makeup and trying to take more care with my appearance.  I got the subscription to ipsy because it seemed like a fun way to test out some new products and find things that worked for me.  I was never very good at makeup though and am seriously out of practice from little attempt to wear any in the past few years.  Even though I received the new products, I failed at wearing most of them.  So I turned to Youtube for some guidance on what the products were, whether they were any good, and how to put them on my face.  I was quite surprised to find out that ipsy subscription “unboxings” were actually a big thing on the site.

A few ipsy bag videos turned into subscriptions to several channels and hours of watching young girls unboxing samples, showing off hauls, reviewing products, giving tutorials, and talking about their lives.  It is ridiculous for me to spend so much time watching these videos, especially since a lot of it is garbage.   However, I do still genuinely need some guidance on which products to use and how to apply makeup.  I deleted several of my subscriptions and made some rules for watching the remaining ones.  I only watch girls who have similar styles and complexions to myself, because they are going to be the most likely to point me to products that will work for me.  I only watch videos that are reviews or tutorials which give me the information I actually need.  If a Youtuber starts to become too repetitive or annoying, then I delete the channel from my subscriptions.  I try not to subscribe to any new channels.  I find myself backsliding occasionally though, subscribing to that new Youtuber I could not resist when another made the recommendation, watching a haul video that only serves to make me jealous that I do not have all that stuff too, or falling prey to a drama-filled headline that has nothing to do with beauty tips at all.  Overall though, my addiction has become much more manageable and my viewing time is less than an hour a day most days (unless my motivation levels are way down…see previous blog).

Currently, I find myself focusing on three Youtubers.  My favorite is Emily Noel, who actually has two channels, Beauty Broadcast Express and EmilyNoel83.  She is one of the best at presentation due to a TV journalism background that gave her experience with conducting herself on camera.  The Beauty Broadcast Express is entirely short product reviews, which a) give me good insight into some products I would be interested in trying and b) are easy little videos to fit in when I only have 5-10 minutes free to spend on Youtube.  The EmilyNoel83 channel has a mix of reviews and tutorials that I find easy to follow.  My second favorite is Kathleen Lights.  She does a lot of tutorial videos with different eye looks that I find helpful in learning what colors to use and pair together.  She also has extremely dry sensitive skin, same as I do, and can provide some tips in the skincare realm.  The third is RachhLoves who does reviews and tutorials but also some fitness, nutrition, and organization tips that I find interesting as well.  She has a refreshingly silly style that makes her very relatable.

So that is one of my guilty little secrets.  I often find myself watching these videos feeling silly that I pay this much attention to Youtubers, and feeling a bit guilty that I am not being more productive with my limited free time.  How about you?  What are your Youtube secrets?

See you next week!

Lack of Motivation

Do you ever have those days where you just cannot seem to accomplish anything on your To Do list?  I seem to have them frequently, especially on weekends.  I get up in the morning, sit down with my planner, decide what I want to accomplish for the day, and then….nothing or next to nothing.  Then, I go to bed at night, feeling very disappointed in myself for not accomplishing what I wanted to accomplish.

It is not that I am totally lazy and actually doing nothing throughout the day.  I usually keep up with the day-to-day chores like dishes and the routine weekly items like laundry.  However, I have several projects that I want to complete.  I have a house to clean and organize after moving into it more than a year ago.  My kitchen is only half organized, I have no furniture in the living room, and there are unpacked boxes everywhere.  I also have some home improvement projects on the list.  The deck needs treated, the front landscaping needs cleaned up (or actually I want to tear it out and redo it completely), and a new heating and air conditioning system needs to be researched and contracted with a professional.  I have work projects that I bring home with hopes of making progress on them since they never get done in the office, including creating training programs for my staff and updating written procedures that are years out of date.  Then, there are the fun projects that I am supposed to be working on, like knitting an afghan that I started about three years ago and building a model pirate ship with my husband.  There are many things that I would like to know how to do (speak Spanish, rock-climb, ice skate, decorate cakes, know more history, etc.) but I would need to study, practice, and probably get actual instruction from someone else to make any progress.  Finally, there is the writing that I am supposed to be incorporating into my schedule.  I have kept up with the weekly blog so far (go me!), but I have yet to start writing the fiction that I want to create.

For example, today (Sunday) I got up and made this task list:  1) Prepare something to take to the work potluck tomorrow, 2) Clean upstairs hall bathroom, 3) Do one of my pending clothing repairs, 4) Write blog for next Wednesday, and 5) Work on initial direct cost reconciliation procedure for work.  It is now around nine o’clock at night.  I have done laundry, read half of a chapter in my current book Overwhelmed, watched the movie The Money Pit, took a nap, played on Facebook, and watched many Youtube videos.  Right now I am working on the blog obviously, so that is at least something.  I also have sent my husband to the grocery store to get what I need to make my tortilla rollups for the potluck.  Sadly, this counts as a decently productive day for me.

So why is it so hard for me to accomplish my tasks?  The reasons vary from day to day of course, but they dwindle down to a few different themes.  The first reason has nothing to do with lack of motivation and just consists of other things that get in the way, like family events, tickets to shows, and husbands that want to explain String Theory to me.  The rest of the reasons all have an effect on my motivation levels.  Often, I am just plain tired.  I intend to do some work, but I end up taking a nap instead.  Sometimes, I am overwhelmed by all the things I want to accomplish, and either start/stop too many things to actually get through any one of them or cannot decide what to start so I give up without picking anything in the first place.  This is why I started using the planner and making To Do lists to try to prioritize projects and focus on small accomplishable pieces of them.  Other times, I get depressed by the amount of things that need to be done and the knowledge that there will just be more to do tomorrow.  It seems pointless to try to work on anything.  Finally, I get frustrated that I never seem to have relaxing time because of all the other things that need to be done.  I feel defiant and think I deserve to read for half the day or I should be allowed to watch a couple hours of TV.  All these factors combined make me look at my To Do list and say nope not right now.

I have days where I get a burst of motivation and I will accomplish many tasks that I want to do.  I also have days where I just pick out only things that NEED to get done or there will be undesirable consequences.  Then, I have days where I think I will just deal with the consequences and do not even do the things that really need to be done.  Lately, I just seem to be in a cycle of only doing what really needs to be done.  Then the knowledge that I am not accomplishing anything depresses me, which makes it harder to find the motivation to do something.  It is a cycle I find it very hard to break.

What about you?  Do you have these kinds of days?  Rarely, occasionally, or frequently?  What do you do to kick yourself out of the funk?

See you next week!

I Can’t Go Home Again

Do you know the saying “You can’t go home”?  I do not know who said it, how it was used in context, or even if I am quoting it correctly, but every time I go back to Pennsylvania to visit my family I think of it.  I went home to visit my family this weekend.  My little sister is turning 30 at the end of this month, and she requested my attendance.  So I made the arrangements to spend time with her and the rest of my family.  I was looking forward to this trip, but as usual I was ready to go back to Virginia after just two days.

The issues start with the sleep logistics.  I need to sleep somewhere, and it is always uncomfortable no matter what option I chose.  When my husband goes, we stay at a hotel.  This is my preference, but I know my family is always perturbed that we would spend the money when there are so many beds available for us to use.  I let my husband be the excuse, saying he does not like relying on the hospitality of family he really does not know that well.  When I am by myself though, I feel incapable of staying in a hotel.  The best option was always to stay at my sister’s apartment.  My mom did not seem to begrudge my staying with my sister, and my sister did not seem to begrudge my coming and going as I pleased.  This is no longer an option, because she has recently moved in with her fiance and his grandparents, which is a bit of an awkward arrangement to me.  Most of the time, I stay at my parents’ house.  I dislike this option though for two reasons.  One, their house is filthy and even a couple of days have me sniffling and coughing from the dust.  Two, I sleep on a futon in the living room where I need to wait for my mother (a night owl) to go to bed and where I am often woken up early by my dad (a morning person) so I end up with little sleep.  This last visit, I chose to stay with my maternal grandmother which I have never done before.  It went all right, but I am not sure how often I can do this.  I could tell my mother was disappointed that I was not at her house.  I also felt a little restricted in what I could do while I was there since I needed to be home before grandma went to bed.  Plus, I felt a little awkward making plans with other people when she was so excited to visit with me.

The problems continue with planning who to see, where to go, and what to do while I am there.  I usually am planning a trip around some event (a holiday, a family party, a show, etc.), so that is one easy thing to plan.  The rest though ends up being chaos, where I feel like I never do what I want and I have disappointed everyone around me.  My mother usually takes charge of my visits while I am there.  She arranges dinners with family, get-togethers at grandma’s house, and visiting time with her.  Most of the family arrangements center on her side of the family.  My dad’s side of the family is smaller and less well known to me.  However, I do have a relationship with my grandmother, and I often feel she does not get nearly the amount of visit time with me that the grandmother on my mother’s side does.  This makes me feel guilty.  If my husband comes we often want to do some touristy trip to Pittsburgh so he can see some of where I grew up.  It can be hard to find a chunk of available time big enough to fit these activities.  Also, there is often the desire of family members wanting to accompany us, and sometimes we would just like to have some time to ourselves.  Finally, I have completely given up trying to visit friends in the same trip as family.  I used to try to accommodate everyone, but the hurt feelings of my family became too much for me to handle.  So now, I plan completely separate trips to see my closest friends from college, and I do not tell my family that I am in the state.  I have let many other friendships dwindle to nothing, because I just do not have the time to see them when I go home.

Finally, I have to face the issues with my family that made me want to move in the first place.  My relationship with my immediate family has been rocky since I was an adolescent.  I am a daddy’s girl and still have a good relationship with him.  He is usually very flexible with working with what I want in my life and in my visits home.  My sister and I had a terrible relationship while we grew up.  She had some issues with anxiety, depression, and behavior control that made her very hard to be around.  She was very angry all the time, especially at me.  She is much better now.  We usually have a good time together as adults, but occasionally I can see the anger and meanness peeking through her personality.  It is often directed at other people now, but that still does not make it easy to handle.  My mother is my biggest issue when I go home.  I feel like I am constantly restraining myself from arguing with her.  She has very specific ideas of what I should be like and how daughters are supposed to behave in her family.  Who I am and what I want seems to escape her even after all these years.  Additionally, there are some unresolved issues from growing up that occasionally surface in discussions with her and other family members.  If I try to address any disagreements with her directly, she becomes very defensive and very emotional.  I end up feeling guilty that I have hurt her feelings.  Therefore, I try to swallow my opinions and feelings so we can just get through the visit on a pleasant note.  Other family members seem to think I am too harsh with her and should be a more loving daughter, so I end up being defensive about feeling the way that I do.  It is tiring for me to suppress myself constantly while home, and so I am usually soon ready to run away from it all again.

Maybe in the future, I will learn skills to better cope with my family.  However, right now the solution I have is to not live near them and to limit my visits with them.  Sometimes, I feel sad and angry that I cannot return home permanently any time soon, if ever.  However, I think I am a better, healthier person removing myself from all the drama that surrounds going home again.  So the saying is true, at least for now, “you can’t go home”.

How about you?  Can you relate, or do you find it easy to go home?  See you next week!

Ballet Subscription: Should I Renew?

I have just received the renewal form in the mail for a ballet subscription to the Kennedy Center 2015-2016 season.  I also just saw the last ballet in the 2014-2015 season for which I had subscription tickets.  So now the question is should I renew?

I purchased the 2014-2015 subscription as a reward to myself for completing my MBA program last summer.  I have always loved to dance and to watch others dance.  I have seen many ballets performed by many companies over the years.  I have seen several ballets at the Kennedy Center over the last decade.  It seemed the perfect reward for all the hard work that I had done over the prior two years.  So I purchased two tickets to each performance with the intent of using the second to lure friends and family to come visit me in Virginia.

I actually really enjoy the Kennedy Center as a venue for the ballet.  It is easy to get to via metro and a short walk or a short shuttle bus ride, so I do not have to worry about driving and parking in the city.  There are a number of restaurants in the area, including two actually at the Kennedy Center, to enjoy before or after the performance.  There are almost always matinee performances so I do not have to make it a late night.  The Opera House, which is where ballets are normally performed, is spacious with decently comfortable seats, enough leg room, and good visibility of the stage (at least compared to some theaters I have visited).

The 2014-2015 season of ballets was very enjoyable.  Here is a very brief review of the ballets in the season and my experience of each.

- The Suzanne Farrell Ballet – Mixed Repertoire Program – I saw this one with my husband because I could not find anyone else available that weekend.  I enjoyed the one act performance of Swan Lake, and I loved The Concert which is a very funny performance.  I did not enjoy the couple of short pieces done to Stravinsky because I do not care much for the discordant dances forced by his music.

- Ballet West – The Nutcracker – I saw this one with my husband also.  This was his original choice when I offered him up his pick of performances.  Ballet West’s version was a bit more humorous than others, but overall not my favorite rendition of the holiday classic.

- Mariinsky Ballet – Mixed Repertoire Program – My best friend from college came down to see this one with me.  This was definitely one of my favorite performances.  The highlights of the program were Le Spectre de la Rose which is dreamy and romantic, and Paquita Grand Pas which is an amazing display of ballet technique.  Mariinsky is one of the most talented companies I have ever seen perform.  Their performances here were breathtaking, especially during the Paquita Grand Pas.

- American Ballet Theatre (ABT) – Cinderella – I took my sister to this one.  It is a humorous variation of the fairy tale we all know and love.  I very much enjoyed it.  I have always had a soft spot for ABT due to their spotlight in Center Stage (a teen movie I adored in my college years) although I think most of the movie cast who were actual ABT members are no longer with the company.

- New York City Ballet – Mixed Repertoire Program – I was accompanied to this one by my cousin, a fellow ballet lover and subscription holder for The Pennsylvania Ballet Company.  We saw the 20^th Century Classics program which included Serenade, Agon, and Symphony in C.  Serenade was my favorite because the dancing was very emotional, and the costumes were designed to carry the movement of the piece.  Agon was my least favorite because it is again set to a Stravinsky piece.

- Scottish Ballet – A Streetcar Named Desire – I went to this one on my own because I could not find anyone to go with me.  Of all the ballets on the program, I was the most excited to see this one.  It did not disappoint.  It was based on the play by Tennessee Williams.  They did an incredible job of telling the story and showing the emotions experienced by the characters throughout.  However, I was familiar with the story beforehand, and I think this probably was helpful in following the sequence of events.

- The Royal Ballet – Don Quixote – I also went to the final ballet of the season alone because no one would accompany me.  This was probably my favorite piece of the season.  I prefer full-length ballets over the mixed repertoire programs.  Don Quixote is a fun one to see because of the humor in the story that does not require familiarity with the book to follow.  The Royal Ballet Company was fantastic in their performance.  The male lead for Basilio during the Saturday matinee performance was a phenomenal dancer.  The company also nailed the comedic aspect of the ballet, with the performance of Gamache the highlight of the show.

I obviously had a great time seeing the ballets this past season.  So why would I not renew my subscription?  The flyer for the 2015-2016 season has been sitting on my table for several weeks now, tempting me with the promise of wonderful performances that I would really like to see.  There are three main reasons why I am considering passing on the renewal of the subscription.  The first is that it was very difficult to find someone to go with me to each of the performances.  I had three that I could not find anyone willing and available to go, and my husband would only fill one of those (apparently I have a two ballet per year limit with him).  Second, it limits my ability to see other performances during the year.  It was not cheap to buy a subscription package, and I really felt unable to consider very many other types of entertainment for the year.  Finally, I really felt the impact of all the time required to see every ballet in the season.  I had a ballet almost every month during the season, some of which required several additional days of entertaining my various guests during the scheduled weekend.   With all the other commitments in my life, I felt like it added to a busyness that wore me down by the end of the season.

So am I going to renew my subscription to the ballet?  No.  Instead, I am going to pick the pieces that intrigue me the most from the new schedule (The National Ballet of Canada – The Winter’s Tale, Mariinsky Ballet – Raymonda, and Royal Swedish Ballet – Juliet and Romeo), offer them out to the friends that I think are actually interested in going to a performance, and only purchasing the tickets needed for a given performance.

I love the ballet.  I look forward to going to the 2015-2016 season, albeit on a smaller scale.  See you next week!