A Relaxing Evening Out

I just returned from a great evening out! David and I went to dinner at Six Penn where I consumed waaayyyy too much food. Chilean sea bass encrusted with an herb mix set on a bed of cranberry wasabi coulie, fresh sprouts, a nice salad with beet confetti, steamed muscles in a white wine sauce with black beans and corn, pumpkin cornbread topped with a layer of sweet custard, and a vodka watermelon and grapefruit sorbet to finish it all off with. Post explosion gastronomique, we went to hear the Verdi Requiem. It was fantastic! The piece was composed by Verdi and first heard in Milano in 1874. It was written as a funeral mass for Alessandro Manzoni, an Italian poet and author, who rivaled Dante in talent, and was greatly admired by Verdi. Verdi was an agnostic his whole life, so the fact that he composed such a beautiful piece of liturgical music is ironic. The video above is one small sample of the complete work which lasts about an hour and a half. The Mendelssohn choir was wonderful as always. It was a much needed stress releasing evening for the both of us. I have been fighting with the leave office at UPMC, dealing with not feeling well (STILL) and a whole host of other personal issues and David has been dealing with an ailing Mother as well some other personal stuff as well. It was nice to get dressed up and have an evening with some class and to spend time with someone who is such a gentleman!

Tomorrow we are headed to the Vatican exhibit at the Heinz History Center. It has been a very popular exhibit so I hope that we won't be waiting in line for ages. I am very much looking forward to it.

After two and a half months of leave, I feel like I am looking forward to returning to somewhat of a normal routine. I wont say that I miss all of the crap that goes on at work because I really don't. I do miss the social aspects of it. A person can only take daytime television, laundry, and cleaning for so long and then you get into a rut and start to feel isolated. I am a bit sad to know that when I return to work I will be stuck back in the same stressful scenario as before. I don't have much of a choice at this point but hopefully with a little determination (and a lot of luck) my situation will change for the better soon. I don't plan on laying back and dealing with all of this forever. It's only a matter of time before it changes. I know myself well enough. I can put up with a lot but when I am done, I am DONE and I will get fired up and make major changes. I have done it before....I can certainly do it again.