"Rabbit Hole"

I saw this play by David Lindsay-Abaire this weekend. This is the play for which Cynthia Nixon (formerly of Sex and the City) won her Tony last year. It was one of the funniest plays about the death of a child that I've ever seen! Actually, there really was quite a lot of humour in it. And a lot of sadness, of course. "You'll laugh, you'll cry", it really applied to this. The writing was wonderful. My favourite character was the grandmother. She comes off at first like a bit of a ditz, but her random meanderings would eventually lead to a comment so poignant and so deep that it almost took your breath away. As with a lot of plays in LA, the actors are often people you've seen on TV. In this case, the most recognizable was the woman who played the mother of the dead child. She was Sela Ward's sister in "Once and Again".

A man who made a difference

Today I actually heard something on the radio that gave me hope and inspiration. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Mohammed Yunus, the Bangladeshi man who started Grameen Bank to provide small loans to poor people to start their own businesses. He basically created the concept of 'microcredit' and has helped many poor people, predominantly women, get a small leg up in a very unfair world. This concept has spread to many other countries, so untold numbers are now being helped. I first read about Yunus through Heifer International. It humbles me to know about people like this.

Charlie & Stacy

This weekend, my cousin Charlie married Stacy Wright. They make a very cute couple and the wedding was held in the beautiful flower filled Como Conservatory in Minneapolis. Both Charlie and Stacy are pilots (he as a commercial pilot, she privately) and work for the same airline. The tables were labeled by airports that they had travelled through together as a couple, with the story of each trip and a photo on the tables. Nice personal touch. The entire Cheng clan descended upon the city. It was fun to see all of the children together. Maia seemed to enjoy saying my name ('nan nan ai yi') which was really cute (somehow it becomes really meaningful when a 2 year old finds you memorable in any way). Hunter and Austin got along famously. Mari could be quite the independent little girl. Neve seemed to be enthralled with the older kids (especially the girls). It's amazing how quickly they have all grown.