Ann Davis-Rowe

🍴:

Mon – Easter take 2. Lamb frites with a creamy mustard sauce and garden salad. Very bistro. But only vaguely better with the Crozes-Hermitage blend that didn’t work with the vinegary mint sauce the day before.

Wed – impromptu Hampton-made shrimp pasta with capers and subdried tomatoes dinner party before he went out with a friend to meet other friends and I went to rehearsal.

Thurs – fast pre-rehearsal food before my rehearsal based on a post Hampton saw from our favorite New Orleans hotel. We have neither a carousel in the living room nor proper champagne, but will 100% be stealing chicken nuggies with caviar on the regular.

Sat – our dinner timing was questionable because Hampton had a family funeral to attend (I already had the very last ticket to a show), so kept it simple with bacon and mushroom flatbreads with a pistachio/mint oil drizzle as inspired by this using aging pita and some toum.

Sun – Sunday supper springy chicken braise inspired by this. A friend left some sweet white wine, so the tomato paste and some lemon juice brightened things up. I added extra beans so now I also have work meals prepped. Twofer!

🥃: I should have taken a picture of getting organized at rehearsal today with the hot tea I made before leaving for the gym, empty sugar-free Gatorade and protein shake bottles, the can of diet Arizona green tea I picked up with lunch, and my Nalgene of water. Beverage goblin: rehearsal mode achievement unlocked.

🐶:

📚: two horror tales led the way this week. We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer began as a Reddit story and the twisty confusion was expounded upon nicely in “found footage”.

Morsel, by Carter Keane, was a trippy debut novella. Excellent use of exposition to lay a breadcrumb trail of clues, and I’m always here for some queer rage. Out Tuesday!

Also, I finally finished Westward Women by Alice Martin off of my NetGalley list. While not necessarily in the horror genre, it was disconcerting in a good way. I had to take some pauses reading the story of women being infected and compelled to head west because it made me feel listless and restless at the same time. There was some really interesting POV work done as a nameless narrator talked to the reader but then the royal “you” came back in during the climax fight. Also, shoutout to a fellow North Carolinian!

🎭: rehearsals continue for The Fantasticks, and my goodness this cast sounds good.

Yesterday I went to see Troilus & Cressida for the first time ever. While I do use my staff discount as much as possible, this production was also important to see as it featured a young friend who reminded me releatedly about it, which is good, because I scored the very last ticket for either of the two shows I could attend.

Joshua was in Annie when I was Miss H., and later went on to win the Triangle Rising Stars — where my friend who stage managed agreeed he was so sweet and professional — and he placed nationally at the Jimmys. He then got into the 20-person high school drama senior class at UNCSA and was one of the rare few accepted into their BFA program. Also, I saw him in a student film last year that’s going to be at RiverRun in a few weeks; the camera might love him more than the stage. Rude.

Anyway — the show was quite good. It was impressive how much comedy these kids pulled out of the text, and there were some great fight scenes. Also, as one of the many white women who inhaled Song of Achilles, I loved the attention that was paid to the Achilles/Patroclus relationship, and Joshua did justice to complicated prince Patroclus.