It’s not everyday you get the chance to meet history, but last week at The Moth Mainstage in Boston, I shared a stage with Rick Carrier, a 90-year-old WWII veteran. Selected to close the show, he stood at the microphone in his uniform, now decorated with endless medals, and started to tell his story.
Tricia Rose Burt
Coming Clean
My apologies. I have been home only 10 days in the last five weeks, which is why I have been absent from my weekly blogs. Had I been more organized, perhaps I could have written a post or two, but alas, it was all I could do to make sure I had my phone charged and clean underwear.
My travels took me to Dublin for the last leg of The Moth’s European invasion, New York City, Nashville, Little Rock, Tampa, and finally Ocala, Florida for my niece’s wedding. Every trip except the last involved performing or other creative endeavors, and every stop featured food. Lots and lots of food.
In Ireland, at dinner with dear friends, we had a sumptuous meal followed by dessert — a lovely ice cream with fruit — where guests actually poured cream on their ice cream. Ireland is the land of cream and butter and then more cream and more butter, which you smear all over your bread (and there is so much bread) that you eat right before you eat a tasty baked good in a long line of tasty baked goods (e.g., strawberry and rhubarb tart, Irish whiskey cake). And New York is New York — delicacies are everywhere and I sampled them all. In Nashville, I ate my weight in buttermilk pie, shrimp and grits, and pimento cheese spread with tomato jam, delighting in the three essential Southern food groups — lard, sugar, and salt. In Little Rock, I was a bit more constrained because I was performing (if you don’t count the pork tacos). But in Tampa and Ocala, I celebrated my hometown and my niece’s wedding with gusto. Luckily, Spanx have a little give.
Back home in NH, I am now on Day 3 of a 21-Day Purification Program. I’ve been wanting to do a cleanse for months and my five-week culinary bacchanal pushed me over the edge. While it’s a big commitment — primarily vegetables and fruit for three weeks — I’ve done several cleanses before and I know what awaits: restored energy, clearer thinking, and jeans that fit. Just in time for the holidays. Wish me luck.
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Rebuilding our Foundation
Our basement wall collapsed. Well, it didn’t actually collapse, but it was buckling and bowing and basically you could see daylight in between the cement blocks, so it was only a matter of time before the whole thing came tumbling down.
Climbing Up Hill On Purpose
I changed my walking routine today. Instead of walking around the 2.7 mile loop in front of my house as I have done regularly for the past 11 years, I decided to walk up a steep hill through the forested property owned by the local paper mill. I’ve walked this trail only a handful of times, always with my husband, and the last time was about three years ago. I don’t like walking up hill — it’s too strenuous. I’m from Florida, so I prefer long, flat sandy beaches. I live only a few miles from Mount Monadnock, one of the most frequently climbed mountains in the WORLD, and I’ve never climbed it. Okay, I tried to climb it years ago with my pesky practice husband (we drove up from Boston) and we didn’t make it to the top. Talk about metaphor.
Movies That Soothe Our Souls
Last week I visited Jamestown, Rhode Island to visit a dear friend, smell the salt air, and marvel at the horizon line — New Hampshire is beautiful but there are too many trees for this Gulf Coast of Florida girl. Over dinner, we talked about our favorite movies, specifically that go-to movie when we are feeling down. The movie that brings us comfort, kind of like mash potatoes or a pint of ice cream, when our lives and the world seem too unmanageable.
For my friend’s husband, it was Caddy Shack. For me, it was Sense and Sensibility (Emma Thompson’s screenplay). For my dear friend, it was the Italian film Cinema Paradiso. We have always been close, but at that moment, we became even closer — mutual love of a particular movie can do that, you know — and since she always has the DVD at the ready, we promptly went home and watched it. Again.
The Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film in 1989, the movie follows a young Italian boy, his dreams to make movies, and his relationship with his stand-in father, the projectionist at the Cinema Paradiso, the small movie house in his village. The soundtrack by Ennio Morricone is transcendent and frankly, makes you want to go kiss someone. If you have never seen Cinema Paradiso, rent the movie, or download it from Netflicks, or whatever it is we do these days to see films. Nothing in theaters this summer compares, and as more tragic news fills our days, we all need places of respite to soothe our souls. For those of you who’ve never seen the movie, here’s a taste to whet your appetite and for those of you who have, a chance to make you laugh/cry again. And tell me please — what is your comfort movie?
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