A Quiet Girl

Started off the day with Broadway show CDs as I ate my Cheerios and watermelon for breakfast. I originally saw the Julie Andrews studio version of The King & I at the same North Cape May music store where I found By the Beautiful Sea in the mid 90s, but I never bought it. Pity, as Andrews does well as Anna and Ben Kingsley isn't bad as the monarch she clashes with.

Work wasn't bad, either. It was pretty much the same as yesterday - quiet to steady for most of the afternoon. It was only busy during the rush hours, and even the 4PM one could have been worse. In fact, it was so quiet during rush hour, I was able to get off on time with no relief. Between the unusually cool weather and this being the middle of the only month in the US with no major holidays, I doubt we'll be really crazy again until we get closer to Labor Day.

I didn't really have a lot of grocery shopping to do this week myself. The Acme is having a big sale on their store brand chicken this weekend. They had breasts in packages of two that cost as little as $1.18. Perfect! I only need two small breasts. The larger packs they sell can sometimes feed me for weeks! I also bought canned chicken for quick meals, toilet paper, Smart Balance butter sticks, bakery bread on the clearance rack, eggs, and my first Reese's Pumpkin of the year as a special treat. (They just put out the Halloween candy a few days ago. Yeah, it's too early, but I know Halloween fanatics who will be really happy.)

I continued with Broadway when I got home. This time, we moved from Rodgers and Hammerstein to Leonard Bernstein for Wonderful Town. A musical version of the movie My Sister Eileen takes us to bohemian Christopher Street in the heart of New York's Grenwich Village in 1935. Sweet Eileen Sherwood (Edie Adams) wants to be an actress. Her cynical older sister Ruth (Rosalind Russell) is dying to become a writer, despite her problems with men. Their adventures in the Big Apple range from being blasted awake by road workers at night to discouraging a wide variety of men who come looking for the former owner of their apartment to getting mixed up with conga-crazy Brazilian Naval cadets and landing in jail.

The second collaboration between Bernstein and Betty Comden and Adolph Green is just as much fun as their first, On the Town (and interestingly also concerns young people looking for love in Manhattan). Russell dominated the original show and its 1958 TV recording - listen to "Conga!" and "One Hundred Easy Ways" and you'll understand why. Edie Adams scores with the lovely "A Little Bit In Love," and we also get the awkward "Conversation Piece" and brassy "Swing!" and "Ballet at the Village Vortex" that sound perfect for the period.

Absolutely necessary if you're a fan of Russell, Comden and Green, and/or Bernstein. Folks who enjoy the original cast may want to look for the two recordings of the 2003 revival with Donna Murphy and Brooke Shields as well.

I made a Peachy-Plummy Crisp while the record was on. Added plums along with the peaches to the Peachy Crisp recipe from the Garden State cookbook. I also cut the sugar and added the last of the orange juice concentrate. Oh yuuuuummm. It's perfectly soft and gooey and absolute heaven.

Switched to radio comedies while making Poached Chicken Legs, Chinese Beans with Cracked Pepper, and fresh farm market Jersey tomatoes for dinner. I have a couple of episodes of Fibber McGee and Molly on LP that I picked up from a thrift shop a few years back. My favorite of the two I listened to tonight was "Picnic," presumably one of the last episodes from their final season in 1950. Molly talks Fibber into going on  picnic with her. This would be a simple affair...if they didn't keep eating on everything from a golf course to fox hunting grounds to a field that's about to be blasted for a highway!

Oh, and my schedule next week is almost as good, and even busier. Only one day off, Monday, but the days I work are slightly later accept for Wednesday and a bit shorter. It'll be tiring, but my next two paychecks in a row should make up for all the trouble this week.