Carve Our Own Paths in Trichotomy

Jabba the Bun

We used a small ottoman to form part of the rabbit’s habitat, we call it a “tunnel”, where three sides are surrounded by boxes and covered with a blanket. The rabbit has chewed a hole in the ottoman and managed to get inside. Now it has become his dig box. Whenever he turns attention to something we don’t want him to chew on (like the couch) we put something new in it (usually cardboard) and he’d be busy clearing that out. I’m glad he’s having fun entertaining himself.

He is still using the highline (a row of chairs under our kitchen table) to sleep on. He uses it so much that he has left an indent on our chair.

He is getting fat too; we took him to the vet this week and he has gained half a pound. I can see when he rests, he would have a double chin, like Jabba the Hut. In fact, when he spreads out in lambchop mode, he looks a bit like Jabba.

We are being more vigilant about not over feeding him - but I’m not sure how long that will last.

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Once every 13 years

I had an allergy flare up towards the end of last week. The first time since the hive incident in 2011, when I ended up taking Zyrtec for 2 years. Except it’s not hives this time, it was tiny little bumps. It started on my knuckle first, which I use to balance myself when I kneel down to pet the rabbit, so I thought maybe it was something in the rug.

It was especially hot and humid, so La Prof suspected it was dyshidrotic eczema. But it spread to every other part of my body by the weekend, so I was taking benadryl and pepcid ac and carrying a tube of cortisone cream with me. Dyshidrotic eczema is not supposed to do that.

I ended up seeing an urgent care clinic and dermatologist on Thursday and Friday, and they both said it’s likely the same allergy (that appears once every 13 years??) so I’m now on prednisone and Zyrtec again. Not sure how long I’ll need to keep Zyrtec this time.

The difference is I’d dealt with it before and know what to expect. I didn’t even have to miss a day of work.

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Out-of-town run

The amateur group had its second Carnegie Hall concert of this season. I didn’t play in it, but it was nice to go, especially to support the Japanese pianist and to catch up with the old Treasurer and her husband, with whom we had dinner beforehand. There were a lot of great musicians now and it’s nice to see them making connections, like we did when we were more active.

It’s clear the audience are friends and families of the performers, especially with the first-timers, their cheering sections were the loudest.

I still don’t have the desire to have another solo Carnegie Hall performance, but I’m up for accompanying people. The concert for next season (which happens in November, and there will be only one) I’m accompanying a singer and flautist in the Mad Scene from Lucia di Lammermoor. I’d performed with them before - last year in December, where he played the part of Malika and she sang Lakme in the flower duet. It was a bit odd. We also played Soir Paien, but that’s not really my jam. So I guess that’s why it didn’t leave an impression. But I guess they enjoyed it enough that they asked me back.

The flautist, who is in his day job also a software engineer, runs a concert series in Poughkeepsie (I think Eugene Kissin played there) and will organise a fund-raising concert for it. So, me, Lakme, and an Italian pianist whom he’d played with before will go upstate in September for this fundraiser. It’ll be a fun thing to do, and it’ll be nice to try out the mad scene, and I can perform the Yellow River concerto too. Lucia now also wants to do Meine Lippen, sie Kussen, so Heiss for an encore, which is a great idea.

The Carnegie concert is in November, so there’s still a lot of time, but this feels like doing an out-of-town tryout before opening a show.

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