You know those memories that are locked away, you think maybe forever, somewhere deep in the back of your mind? Every so often you will be doing something mundane…. tying your shoe, picking up a sweater, running in a field…. and one of those memories will surface from their fuzzy dreamlike state with a clarity that is most shocking. But sadly, that intense clarity usually only lasts for a short while. These tiny accidental moments of clarity are something I have come to cherish because since my father passed away, because those are all I have left of him.

This post has been a week and a half in the making. I have turned it over 100 times in my mind and wondered if written words could even give my thoughts justice. But written words have prevailed because of how tricky memories can be. I do not want to forget Eurydice or the things that came with her to me with her tale.

Last week I was given a very special gift in the form of memory in the most unlikeliest of ways. Sitting in a dark theater, I was handed a love letter from my father.

The Play.

David’s brother Barry got us tickets to the Alley Theatre’s performance of Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice. Prior to sitting down in the theatre, I flipped through the playbill. When the lights went down I understood that this was to be a retelling of the classical tale of Orpheus and Eurydice. I also understood that Sarah Ruhl’s father had passed away and that facet of her life play a huge role in the writing of this play. This play was to be an intensely personal look into Sarah’s soul. Even knowing that, and knowing how much I do relate to this woman, I was not expecting to be rocked like I was.

Like in every classic Orpheus tale, he is the musician who plays the world’s most beautiful music and Eurydice is his starry eyed and beautiful beloved who dies on their wedding day. Orpheus then fights his way to the Underworld to bring Eurydice back. He does succeed in gaining entrance, but the God of the Underworld gives him a strict challenge to regain possession of Eurydice. Orpheus must walk out of the Underworld and allow Eurydice to follow him, without once looking back at her. If he looks back at all, Eurydice will die all over again and he will lose her forever. In all of the classic tales, Orpheus succumbs to his desire to see Eurydice and turns around before they make it out of the Underworld and the tale ends in her second death and in his grief.

But what of Eurydice? Where was she while Orpheus was beating his proverbial chest and conquering death? Just chillin’ in Hades, sitting on a rock, waiting for Orpheus? Or does she have any idea that he is even coming? Does she even care? In Sarah’s version, things are much more complicated and Eurydice is given much more control over her story. And a new character is introduced…. Eurydice’s father.

The play opens with Eurydice and Orpheus on a beach. Orpheus gives Eurydice the gifts of the birds and the sky…. their banter is easy and sweet and it is quite that obvious that Orpheus is hopelessly in love with the doe eyed Eurydice (as was I). The scene ends with his confession of love and a simple piece of string looped around a very “particular” finger. At this point I teared up only because I’m a sucker for love; especially when it is offered in such a pure and easy manner.

The moment at which I knew this play was going to have a profound effect on me was when Eurydice’s father first appears on stage and begins composing a love letter to his daughter, a love letter he cannot hope to ever hand her himself because he is a resident of the Underworld. I think this is something that every little girl craves when they say goodbye to their Daddy…. just one more word. In this other world of myth and legend, it seems there is some line of communication open (even if the service is a little faulty) because Eurydice’s Father leaves the letter on the ground for her to find.

Moments later Eurydice herself arrives and begins a poignant monologue on weddings. “Weddings are for Father’s and their Daughters” she says…. this line managed to completely undo me…. because it is something I have often thought about. After all…. it is your father who is supposed to give you away. Isn’t it? It is Daddies who pick their little girls up when they scrape their knees and who tolerate playing Barbie because a smile from their daughter is a treasure. Who else has the authority to give a little girl away to another but the man who will always love her most?

Like mine, Eurydice’s father cannot be there on her wedding day. But a mysterious man shows up while Eurydice is taking a break from the wedding party and tempts Eurydice away with the promise of a letter from her Father (wonder where he found it? Damn that faulty mail service). Eurydice ends up realizing that following the man was a mistake and in her flight from him, she ends up falling to her death. Here Eurydice reunites with her father, who has conquered the swim through the “River of Forgetfulness” and has been faithfully waiting for her at the other side.

Of course, when Eurydice arrives she has no memory of her life on earth because of that fateful river swim. She mistakes her Father for a mere porter. Thus begins Eurydice’s journey with her father through the tangled webs of thoughts and memories and words from “porter” back to “Father” again…. and Eurydice remembers what it is to love. There is laughter and a house made of string and much song. There are stones and a petulant child and grief.

All the while Orpheus is searching for a way to get Eurydice back, and the stage is raining.

The Emotions.

I am loathe to give away the end of the play and there is much I haven’t written about here. But know that it is a fantastic tale. The director, Gregory Boyd, brings Sarah’s tale of Eurydice to the stage in a way that rivals the stories mythical origins. The lines between loss and laughter, fantasy and reality, and love and regret are seamlessly crossed in the Alley’s telling of Eurydice.

So much so that after the play, memories crashed through the barriers in my mind like the greatest of floods. My heart was broken open and thoughts of my Father surfaced quite unexpectedly. For the first time in almost ten years, his laughter rang through my head like the clearest of bells and his face loomed more beautifully than any painting in the world. Eurydice was the most beautiful of love letters I have ever received. I will be forever in debt to Sarah Ruhl, and for the cast of crew of Houston’s much Alley Theatre, for giving me this amazing gift.

If you are in Houston between now and March 1, I highly recommend catching Eurydice. Whether or not the play affects you as it did me, it truly is a good cleaver spin on a classic tale.

Oh…. and Daddy? Kisses your way.

But really, I’m only kidding (a little). The truth is, the secrets only seem vast when you encounter certain Twitter-isms for the first time. Trust me. I had some pretty interesting and random thoughts when I first saw the following shortcuts and acronyms scroll across my computer screen! Some may even call my blunders “comical.”  I hope to help you avoid all of that!

1. The Hashtag

“What is the point of all the poundy-signs?”

Oh Twitter. Why you gotta be so intricate?? Really… what the heck IS a “hashtag”?

A hashtag looks like this: #. If you are new to Twitter, you may be thinking the same thing I was when I first saw this. “Why the f$%k are people attaching the number sign to words?!? Am I supposed to be randomly be doing that when like something??”

At this point, most normal people would have Googled “# sign on Twitter” but oh no, not Maggie. I asked Fayza, the Internet know-it-all, the above question. I got a really loud laugh before she sweetly explained to me that this “poundy-sign” was in fact called a “hashtag.”

So here we go. Hashtags are simply Twitter tags (or meta tags) that you add inline to your tweets by affixing a pound sign to the front of a word.  It functions by making that word stand out. Think of your hashtagged-word like a bookmark. You are putting that bookmark on a specific post. When people are tracking topics or conversations on Twitter that are related to your bookmark, your tweet will appear.

For example, during Hurricane Ike, many people attached a “#ike” to the end of their tweets. You can then see what everyone is saying about Ike when you search #ike on twitter!

There is an actual hashtag site that was created to track real-time conversations within the micro-blogging community, but it is no longer operating. If you try to search anything there, you invariably get a “504 Network Timeout.”  This is sad, because it used to provide users with some really cool reports and indexing features. Until it is back up again, stick with search.twitter.com.

Real tweet using a hashtag:

2. Tiny URLs

“How do people fit million-character posts in this tiny box?!”

My first day on Twitter, I tried to follow the sage advice of Monica , and be useful to my followers. Except every time I tried to post a useful link, it was too flippin’ long! Since I didn’t want to provide comic relief to anyone this early in my Twitter journey, I decided to obsessively click refresh on my browser until someone else tweeted a link  (I know, I know…I should have Googled it).

After a few people tweeted, I noticed they were almost identical, and lo and behold, they were TINY URLS! Tiny URLs?  Yes!  A place to make your URLs tiny!!! All you have to do is cut and paste your million-character URL into a box, click “Make TinyURL!! and it spits this cute little link back at you.

Need something even smaller? You can use is.gd! With both TinyURL and is.gd, the links are unbreakable and never expire. Perfect for tweeting!

Real Tweet using a TinyURL:

3. The Retweet

“RT your what?”

The simplest explanation of a retweet can be compared to using a quote in a high school term paper. If you use someone else’s words, you have to attribute them right? Well, with the “retweet,” or RT, if you liked what someone tweeted, you can post their tweet for your own followers to take advantage of, with clear attribution to the original tweeter.

On a more complex level, the RT really touches the base of what makes Twitter so amazing. For example, let’s say I tweet something that I think is super important, and I really want to get the word out about it; my followers will all catch that tweet. Chris Brogan happens to follow me, and he has a bajillion followers.  If he thought my tweet was interesting enough to retweet, then I have the ears of a TON of people I never would have been able to reach before. How cool is that?

Here’s how you do it: You type RT + @the tweeter’s name, and then cut and paste their tweet.

Real Tweet using a RT:

Then from 5:30-7:30 pm it will be time to consume said donations at a very worthwhile event: the kick off party for the Art-the heART of Houston viral video campaign. Come play with us at the HAA Space125Gallery for more details on this totally crazy and creative three month ride we are about to take with Houston’s best artists. There will be wine and artists and merriment to be had by all. And you will be home in time to watch the presidential debates!  Which I always find a bit easier to stomach after copious amounts of wine… but that is just me.

After HAA, I will be meeting up with David to enjoy a night at the theatre! Like the HAA party, the opening of Cyrano de Bergerac was delayed because of Ike, but in an amazing twist of fate that delay will make the night even better! David’s brother, Barry, is now a backstage hand at the Alley Theatre and got our tickets moved to the night of the 15th. What is so much cooler about these tickets as opposed to our original tickets? There is an after party with the cast and crew! I don’t tell many people this, but in the 8th grade I was historian of my junior high’s Thespian society and secretly wanted to be a Broadway star. So this is all very exciting to me… Which means my non-cheesy boyfriend and his brother managed to get me the most perfectly-cheesy-anniversary present ever I only hope I don’t faint at the feet of a cast member…

I really just cannot wait for Wednesday.

On Friday I was back and forth.  Do I stay?  Do I go?  Do I have another slumber party with Fayza or HappyKatie?  The straw that broke the camels back was pure exhaustian.  I just wanted to arrive somewhere and NOT MOVE and not think about the next step.

When I decided I absolutely had to get out of town I immediately decided on my sister’s place in college station.  Alice is in Vet School (dork) and studies ALL the time so I knew it would be a quiet weekend.  The topper?  Ali and my mother are my best friends; Ali and I don’t get that much time alone together, so I was really excited about my decision… At the time I had no idea the weekend would involve a wild Vet School “Rager” and a Pirates of the Caribbean marathon!

Let me tell you about Vet Students.  They know how to party.  Ali and I attended a barbecue fundraiser on Friday night and it was a blast!  Beer for 3 bucks, free food, a cheesy band… and (drumroll please) a raffle where you could win cool things like stethoscopes!  A word of advice:  if you are a guy, you should go to Vet School.  The chances that you will meet a girl are pretty strong considering there will be maybe two other males in your class.  I’m exaggerating, but the ratio is in your favor.  But I digress.

After the party, Ali and I hit up HEB and snack-fest 2k8 officially began.  Nothing of note happened for the rest of the weekend except a whole lot of pomegranate eating, stir fry making, queso consuming, “Killer Juice” box wine drinking, popcorn popping and Pirate watching.  I think Ali may have studied, but I was probably sleeping on the couch when that was going on.

All in all?  The BEST weekend ever.  I am lucky to have an Alice in my life.

So thank you for an amazing weekend little sister.  Because like I said, I have slept in many places.  But your couch was better than them all.

1. Yammer and Twitter totally saved my life.  A few months ago I scoffed at the whole idea of “micro-blogging” and status updates, but because of these tools I was able to get live updates from work and from Hurricane Ike, which were a lifesaver.
2. Card games.  Some new friend’s taught me how to play SKIP-BO and that kept the boredom at bay in the wake of the storm.
3. If it wasn’t for all that I’ve learned from being on Schipul’s Disaster Preparedness Team and the last minute security meeting we had on Thursday morning, I probably would not have thought to pull out cash and would have been helpless when power was out and credit card machines were down.
4. Box Wine.
5. Surprisinly… 104.1 KRBE kept me EXTREMELY informed with the text updates.  If you text “storm” to 37530 they will send you updates via text when they get them.  This is how we’ve been tracking which gas stations and restauntants are open!
6. Thank you David… for your patience and for your strength when I was totally freaking out before the storm.  I don’t know if I would have made it though with my sanity intact without you!