Mom left to go home to Philly on Tuesday, but before she braved the 9-hour trek across the ocean, we went to Bregenz to see Aida. I loved every minute of it! Of course, it helped that my two friends Arnold Rawls and Kevin Short were singing the night we saw the show, but honestly--it was good. Despite all I'd heard about the show, it was still a spectacle for which I wasn't prepared. The stage was built for this production from the ground up--or, from the water up, actually, since the stage sits amphitheater-style on Lake Constance. The singers are often asked to swim to their entrances! As one might imagine, the demands that these conditions place on the performers are extreme--but the cast rose to the challenge and delivered an exciting evening of opera.
After spending the weekend with Kevin and Arnold, and then seeing Mom off in Zurich on Tuesday, I had about a day and a half in Basel on my own before my new roommate, Rena arrived. It's been wonderful to have (English-speaking!) company to brave the new world of Basel with, and we are getting along swimmingly. She's here working with the Theater Basel, so her life here will no doubt become way more hectic in the next few weeks--but for now, we are both lounging in the living room, enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon, and typing away on our respective computers. I think they call this parallel play.
Rena has a dog. His name is Pete (or Petey) (short for Pitufo, which means Smurf in Spanish, Rena tells me). He is a Shih-Tzu. Here he is, in all his glory:
Besides a little jet-lag which caused poor Rena to have to walk him at 4am Thursday night, Pete has settled into his new life in Basel like a real champ. He takes real joy in life, and has (thankfully) incorporated me into his definition of home quite quickly.
He does lots of cute little dog things. I could spend five or six paragraphs telling you all the cute things he's done since Thursday--but I think this one example will be the best proof of his fantastic nature:
Friday night, the household was getting ready for bed. Rena, I think, was in the bathroom taking a shower. Pete found himself without a friend, so he padded his way into my bedroom and looked up at me. I was in bed, studying Adriana Lecouvreur, which is something I seem to be doing constantly these days. He put his front paws on the bed and made a half-hearted attempt to jump up, which was, I now believe, his way of asking me to pick him up. I did. He pawed at the covers, leaned up against my right thigh, lay down, and promptly curled up into a furry doughnut and fell asleep. All this took less than 10 seconds.
Pete is a revelation, especially for someone like me who is trying desperately to live in the moment, to trust, and to experience life with complete abandon.
Thank you, Cosmos, for sending me this consummate example of Zen living! I can't wait to see what other lessons you have in store for me.
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