Because I clearly as a masochist and haven't gotten my fill of sad, depressing movies, I put "God On Trial" on my Netflix. First of all, I will admit shamelessly that one of my favorite things about Masterpiece Theatre is that they always have someone introducing the feature presentation and this time it was Matthew Goode. Who I love. OK, shallowness out of the way, let's get onto the movie.
The story is about prisoners at Auschwitz putting God on trial, and the scenes in the camp was juxtaposed with modern visitors to the camp, including an older man who you assume is probably a survivor, which breaks up some of the intensity, but in a good way. The cast was incredible: Dominic Cooper was one of the angriest prisoners who had given up on God, Stephane Dillane and Eddie Marsan were wonderful, and Rupert Graves played a character whose father was selected, yet the trial continues to push them farther apart because of their history.
It's hard to really sum up what I think about the movie so I'm going to put in my favorite quotes and my own thoughts that I jotted down, and then a clip from the final verdict and let you think about it.
Charge is murder and collaboration
Judges, rabbi as “living torah” “attorneys”, eventually
decide on breach of contract, God broke the covenant between him and the Jews
Test of faith, we must pass our test like they passed their
(Masada, Romans, Russia, pogrosm, etc.), must keep hearts pure and must pray
Why should we if God has betrayed us? So that we can be a
good Jew.
Perhaps we are in breach of our covenant, not God. This is
because of our sins.
Some make it personal (Rupert Graves and his father- arguing about keeping religion or marrying out of the faith.)
Debates about free will, purification of God's people, loving
the surgeon but not the knife
Maybe God is suffering with us? We don’t need a God that
suffers, we need one that brings the Angel of Death to our enemies.
One man asks for the trial to be concluded. Rabbi and judge
don’t want to but insists “We are men, they cannot take that away from us.”
Trial interrupted by the beginning of the
selections/gassing.
Survival of the people is no longer certain, therefore God
is guilty.
Jews were the first to have one God- all the power surrounded
by one being. Got the idea that God loves them more than anything else. They
prosper, keep to themselves, isolate themselves. Someone comes along with an
even better idea. The Christians say that God loves everybody, not just the
Jews. It’s all about power and struggle. It’s about having better ideas.
Hitler had the idea that there is one God and that it is
him.
They took everything from you- don’t let them take away your
God. Let that be something they can’t take away from you.
The men that thought they had been selected had actually been saved. Those who thought they were saved were taken to the chamber. What else is there to do? Pray. Scenes of them praying as they are stripped and taken to the gas chambers.
So recently, I have been investing in some fun new things for my kitchen. I like how, with getting more and more into cooking and trying out new things, my kitchen has become far more adult. I've started to invest in buying spices so I have things on hand, since I've been baking more often, I've had to stock up on flour, sugar, baking power and soda (still can't tell you the difference in those though....) and of course, thinking of ways to make space for my new purchases.
My two newest purchases, which I am very excited about, are the single cup Keurig coffee maker. I've been making myself iced coffees in the morning and experimenting and of course, stocking up on as many little K-cups for as little cost as possible. I love my new machine though and it makes me feel grown up, having coffee at home in the morning.
I also bought these canisters for 20% of at Bed Bath and Beyond, a place I normally avoid because it overwhelms me. But I use these for my white and wheat flour, brown and white sugar, baking powder, soda and salt and they are just perfect. And black goes with everything!
The rest of these items are on my wish list. For the future....
I would LOVE to have a juicer because sometimes I forget that I have veggies or fruit and instead of them going to waste, they could be juiced up and made into something yummy. I don't know if a blender can be a juicer but if it can't, then a juicer is on the list for sure.
I love stemless wine glasses and currently own one. A set would be lovely. Maybe a set for red and a set for wine. Because I'm that classy...
As much as I enjoy using a pan for my French toast, this would be so much easier, for pancakes as well. One day....
I found some of these at Target by I'm waiting for them to go on sale. I buy a lot of stuff from Winco, especially beans and rice and pasta, so it would be nice to have them in these canisters, instead of the plastic bags, and out on a counter somewhere so I remember to use them. When they're shut up in a pantry, I tend to forget about them...
Often I'll see a recipe that requires a food processor, a tool I don't have, so having one would be nice to be able to do those recipes. And make my own pesto. Or hummus. Or tahina. Or anything really.
Because tickets are RIDICULOUSLY cheap if you're a student (holler!), I got season tickets to the Shakespeare Festival. Niki and I went to go see the opening play, Romeo and Juliet, together, which of course, brought back memories of the 6th grade class play. Not all of them were good.
On week nights, the show opens with the Green Show, a short improv performance by Joe and Tom, the members of the Fool Squad (also C of I's 2012-2013 Faculty President...). They interact with the audience, taste their food and drink, tease, make jokes and keep the audience laughing, as well as introduce the play.
Everybody and their mother knows the story of Romeo and Juliet (in fact, I think I can still recite the prologue and I CERTAINLY can recite at least 50% of Juliet's lines...) so I want to mention some things I loved about this production.
I really enjoyed the interplay between Romeo and his two pals, Mercutio and Benvolio. Mercutio was played so well- he's such a smarmy character, keeps getting others into trouble, starts trouble himself, yet at the end, you identify with his cry of "A plague on both your houses!"
I loved what they did with the costumes. The show was set in 1920s Italy and you felt like it was the 1920s. Not only were the costumes beautiful, they the color scheme was so great. They were all in blacks and shades of gray, except for Juliet who wore a very light shade of purple. The picture below shows a great spectrum, from Mercutio in the near-white, Romeo in grey and Tybalt in all black. It was just another way to portray the various relationships and the complexity of the feud between the Monatuges and the Capulets.
Another great example of the various shades of color. Even Juliet's purple is almost a shade of gray in itself.
Side note about open air theater. Around the end of the first half, the wind started to pick up and it almost felt like that opening scene in "Wizard of Oz" where everything starts swirling around and you can tell something bad is going to happen. The wind was strong but the temp was still warm and I didn't need a sweater or anything. But the wind kept picking up until you couldn't really hear what the performers were saying. The actors were in the middle of the scene below- Friar Lawrence comforting Romeo after Tybalt was killed- when an announcement came on for the actors to hold and go backstage and then telling the audience that they were going to hold the play for 15 and see if the wind would die down. By the time it had started, a lot of people had left.
In their defense, it's not like they didn't know how it ended....
So as I said in the previous post, I've been listening to some new James Taylor. I got three of his newer (so coming out in my lifetime) CDs at the Record Exchange for pretty cheap and I've been slowing getting to know his songs. Here are my favorites from each CD.
"New Moon Shine" favorites include "Copperline", "Frozen Man," "Down in the Hole," and "The Water Is Wide"
(This version is slightly slower than the one of the CD, which is more upbeat. But still like it!)
(This song gets stuck in my head like no one's business!)
(Makes me think of that scene in TWW where Leo tells Josh the story of the man in the hole.)
(I've always loved this song and this is just another amazing version.)
"Hourglass"- Favorite songs are "Up Er Mei", "Yellow Rose" and "Boatman"
(I love the lyrics in this one. I don't even know what Up Er Mei is but I can imagine climbing up to the top and just see the most beautiful land ever.)
(My favorite part of this is the harmonies.)
(Fights "Frozen Man" for getting stuck in my head. And I don't mind either.)
(This just makes me laugh- reminds me of something we'd sing at a Hootenany.)
"October Road"- Favorites include "On the 4th of July", "Belfast to Boston", "Baby Buffalo", "My Traveling Star"
(The pictures that this song draws in my head have no words.)
(This is just a sad song. I don't know why I like it so much... song starts at 2:20)
(This reminds me of a song you'd sing to your children, like "Sweet Baby James")
(I love this melody, especially sung by James himself.)
So here is why I haven't posted in over a week. And by the way, this is just the stuff I remember. I know there are other things that I can't for the life of me remember what I did. Just because it's been busy, not because I was incapacitated or intoxicated or anything.... Promise...
Thursday the 14th- after chatting with Klaudia about her Peru trip, I went to visit my friend Jocelyn in Meridian and see her new house. I went straight to the C of I Alumni/Faculty/Staff picnic at Municipal Park. I got to chat with a few professors, the president, hung out with Abbey, Jon, Katie and Jake, and got some food to eat. Then I went to April's house for a lovely girl's night with her and Niki where we snacked on fruit, cheese and crackers and of course had some wine.
Friday the 15th- unexpectedly ended up going to see "The Hunger Games" with Miss Aly and then grabbing a drink at Red Robin afterwards. Really enjoyed the movie, even though there were differences from the book. I just felt that it dragged on at times and could have been a bit shorter. I loved being able to hang out with Aly afterwards though and get to know her better.
Saturday the 16th- this was a thrilling day, guys. I cleaned the house all morning and afternoon, went to run a ton of errands, bought some new fun things for my kitchen (more on that in a bit....), listened to some awesome James Taylor (more on THAT as well) and got to read a book and relax in the sunshine.
Sunday the 17th- Finally went to church after like, forever. Practiced for Helen's service afterwards, popped home to drop my cello off and then had lunch and a good catch up with Hester, finding out all the church gossip and stories and such. Went over to Regan's and we rode our bikes around Caldwell and then had homemade fish tacos back at her place with Dustin. Watched her poor dog get dive-bombed by some bird. Best part was that Rodrigo didn't even seem to care. Love it.
Monday the 18th- Decided that I wasn't going to be able to go down to SLC to see Megan and the kids and watch the Galaxy tgame. But it was OK because things got crazy again. Met up with Aly and Regan in the morning at the Birdstop after I got a quick work-out in beforehand. We got to chat about vacations and about Kelsey's wedding and I always have such a good time hanging out with them. Also there was some soccer involved in my afternoon. As usual with EURO 2012.
Tuesday the 19th- after running some errands in the morning, I went to visit my friend April in her new house and chat with her about her new job and finishing off the semester at BSU. I ran a few more errands, picking up some things for Kelsey's bachelorette/shower and then wandered through Karcher Mall waiting for Niki. She finally arrived after some mad traffic and we got dinner at Northern Lights while watching the Five-Year-Engagement. Lots that the trailer doesn't reveal but go see it- it certainly made me laugh.
Wednesday the 20th- I spent the morning making lunch for Kelsey, Aly and Regan. I made baked taquitos, trying out a new recipe, and put together some guacamole and salsa and cheese for the toppings. Aly brought fruit and Regan brought drinks and we ate outside on the dinosaur blanket while discussing the party and the wedding and other various and sundry things. Again, love spending time with them and can't wait for the wedding!
Thursday the 21st- THis was all about getting ready for the bachelorette party. I put together veggie platters, made some delicious homemade cucumber yogurt dip, made some bruschetta. I discovered that I love putting parties together! Anyway want to have a party? I'll help! I had a great time up at Bitner, even though it was pretty hot, but there was good food, good wine, good laughter and good new friends. Yay for Kelsey and her wedding. (More on this later.)
Friday the 22nd- After my usual morning workout, I went to lunch with Kelly, who I had gone to school with but hadn't seen in years. Total throwback to college, having lunch at Red Robin but it was great to catch up with her and hear what she had been up to and know that there's another person out in Caldwell. I had a massage appointment at 3 which was lovely and relaxing and then after killing some time at Barnes and Nobles (where I DIDN'T buy anything- see, it is possible!) met up with Niki, picked up some dinner and went to see ISF's production of Romeo and Juliet. (More on this- see what I"m doing? I'm making up for lost time.)
Saturday the 23rd- Despite being up suuuuuper late the night before, I managed to get up, get some coffee and made it out to the church to play the cello for Helen Lowell's funeral. Helen was the oldest member of our church and nearly made it to her 107th birthday. Amazing. I didn't know her too well but she was always sitting there in her usual pew and there was a wonderful turnout , beautiful music, a lovely eulogy and reception afterwards where people told story after story about Helen. It was a blessing to be a part of that. After catching a quick nap and trying to enjoy the movie "Beginners" (I was so disappointed that I didn't get into it- I love both Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer...), I went to Abbey's house to relax on the patio with some wine and stories and then people watch at Brick Oven Bistro. We got there just as the circus was getting out so certainly got some great people watching in, including spotting the woman in the green dress that a nameless friend of ours danced with at the Bistro (a different one.... Main Street, not Brick Oven....) several weeks ago. We may or may not have followed her for about 10 minutes....
Sunday the 24th- Headed back out to church again to play for service, then went over to the Cox's house for dinner/lunch. WASTED three hours of my life watching England lose to Italy in PKs and then read some dark Roald Dahl stories to cheer me up and then went over to be a part of the Newsong Camping Fundraising Concert. We played a bunch of music, Obadiah and Bobby Hopkins sang a few things, we got people up on their feet clapping and also crying. And raised nearly $1000 for the camp. Again, major blessing to be a part of that.
This week is still busy so I'll update eventually but a week from today I head off for home!
I just finished watching “The Last Legion” and surprisingly,
I didn’t hate it! Those of you who know me well know my issues with historical
movies. I can’t stand when they take stories and screw them up. “Kingdom of
Heaven” is one of my favorites because it’s quite accurate, certainly more so
that the awful mess that is “Gladiator” or “The Patriot.” The premise of “The
Last Legion” is that the final emperor of the west, Romulus Augustus, played by
the adorable Thomas Sangster, who was only about twelve when Rome was sacked by
the Goths, was sent to Capri to be imprisoner for the rest of this life and
that’s about all history knows about it. So this is where the movie picks up.
Colin Firth plays Aurelius, a Roman general who swears to protect twelve-year
old Caesar. He and his band, along with Mira, a warrior from India, and
Ambrosinus, a magician, philosopher and guiardian from Britannia, rescue
Romulus and take him to find the 9th Legion in Britannia. Vortgyn,
the Danish warrior in Britannia, desires Romulus’ sword, a sword created to
serve the Caesar. Against all odds, Aurelius and his men, eventually supported
as well by the Dragon 9th Legion manage to defeat the “barbarians”
and stand for Caesar. The movie ends with Romulus throwing this sword that
eventually lands upright in a rock.
There’s then this little epilogue of Ambrosinus walking past
this rock with a young boy, telling this boy the story of the Last Legion. He
explains that Romulus was adopted by Aurelius and Mira and raised as their own,
taking the name Under Dragon, or Pendragon. Ambrosinus also reveals that he’s
takenby his Britannic, Druid name, Merlin and reminds the young boy, whom he
calls Arhur, that everybody needs legends and stories to keep them going. The
film concludes with a shot of the sword and a small bit of the Latin on it
still visible, which spell out Excalibur.
Again, there is really no historical background to support
any of this, and the legends of Arhur are also incredibly contested, but I
thought it was clever how the writers and directors tied these two stories
together. It made me think of how Rome itself was founded by Aeneas fleeing
Troy and now how Britannia was really created by Romulus fleeing Rome. It was
poetic. Maybe because there really is no historical veracity to this story
allowed me to like it so much. Colin Firth certainly didn’t hurt this cause
either.
Let me also just say that if I ever need someone to give an
inspirational speech, I’m calling Colin Firth or tracking him down. I love
every time he gives some sort of inspirational speech, whether it’s about
protecting young Caesar as a warrior-hero in this movie or his incredible
speech in “The King’s Speech” or his terribly messed up Portuguese speech in
“Love Actually.” I just love Colin Firth oh so much.
A couple of weeks ago, April and Niki came out to Caldwell for some thrifting, marketing and of course, some yummy home-made dinner. I picked up a few things on my way back from getting a facial in Boise that morning and then made sure the house was clean before they arrived.
Turns out that the Indian Creek farmers market was opening that day so after hitting up a few thrift stores and looking at a few craft stores for potential frames for my London sepia photos, we wandered over. There were a few little booths set up, some seeling food, some selling arts and crafts, etc. It reminded me of a grassier market but similar to the one that Bethie, Candice and I went to in Irvine at the RV park. There was a guy singing- well, more like crooning- and we just missed the ribbon cutting ceremony. I'll be interested to see what the late summer/fall holds, when there is finally some actual veggies there to try so I don't have to go all the way into Boise. We also discovered a brand new little coffee shop downtown. I checked it out the day next with Regan and it has delicious coffee, a great backyard area and really fun music. Definitely will be spending a lot of time there, especially in the evening.
Back at the house, the girls went to pick up some bread and wine while I started the pasta dinner and the bruschetta. Because the weather was so nice, we picnicked out on the side of the house in the classic dinosaur blanket. Which now has a few wine stains. All part of the fun. I made the yummy pesto pasta with tomatoes and parmesan cheese dish with some bruschetta and toasted bread. This was the first time that the girls and I were able to hang out without classes and papers hanging over us, plus we had found out earlier that afternoon that all of us had passed! Hooray!
Also probably the reason for some of the wine stains :) We were pretty excited. Doesn't that spread look delicious!?
For dessert, the girls bought some little cakes and I put them in my ramekins with some strawberries and whipped cream. It was great until I dropped one of them. Luckily the cake was fine but I had to cut up a few more strawberries. Delicious way to end the day.
For all of you in Boise who don't think it's possible, believe me.... you CAN have fun in Caldwell!
... is my favorite version of awesome people hanging out. I would love to have been a fly on the wall during that hang-out session. Can I be invited next time???
These last two nights, I've seen the most incredible performances. I will not o justice is explaining them but I also want to try and jot a few things down to remember for the future what the experience was like. Just know ahead of time that I will probably do a horrifically poor job at describing what happened.
On Wednesday night, my small group ladies and I went to go see the National Theatre's production of Frankenstein. Written by Nick Dear and directed by Danny Boyle, it stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller as both the Doctor and the Creature. Each night they switch off and we were lucky enough to see Benedict at the Creature.
The show begins with the birth of the Creature. This was probably the most uncomfortable ten minutes of the show. The Creature literally emerged from this large glowing sac and spent ten minutes trying to move, stand, control limbs, make some sort of sound, breathe. It was like trying to watch a stroke victim or someone with extreme Parkinsons attempt to function. It was nearly unbearable- you wanted to jump onstage and held him to his feet. I'm sure that the discomfort was exactly what Danny Boyle was trying to achieve.
Unlike the book, Dear's script focused on the point of view of the Creature. Other than a short camoe at the beginning, Victor isn't seen until a third to nearly half-way through the play. We get to watch the Creature become tortured and abused by men until he is befriended by a blind man who, because of his blindness, cannot see the Creatur'es hideous and therefore does not judge. He teaches the Creature to speak, to read and write, to understand and question and his growth is remarkable. The passing of time was reflected in the shifting of lights and the impression of snow and was done so creatively. When the old man's family treats the Creature as the previous men treated him, he sets his sight upon his Creator, Victor, and lures him out by murdering Victor's younger brother.
The intereaction between Victor and the Creature was phenomenal and made me curious as to how it was on the flip-side when the roles were switched. Again, because the focus is more on the Creature than Victor, there is a lot of discussion of abandonment of children and the need for companionship and finally convinces Victor to make him a companion. The focus then becomes on Victor's "mad-scientist" escapade through Oxford and then up to the Orkney Islands to create a companion for the Creature. Some of the funniest lines came from Ewan and his nephew Rab, two Scotsmen helping Victor procure body-parts from graves.
The scene where Victor and the Creature come face-to-face again with the Creature's companion was also extremely powerful- it was very easy to see either sides and so hard to figure out who to empathize with. It certainly speaks not only to the power of Dear's words but Benedict's acting as well. Again, I wish I could have seen it the other way around because so many reviews I've read recommended seeing Miller as the Creature and Benedict as Victor. One day....
In the end, when Victor sets off in pursuit of the Creature, both fading in the brightness of the light made you feel like their chase would be never-ending, similar to the feeling you get when you read Shelly's novel. The special effects of the production were superb as well. Below is a picture of the train at the very beginning, which all the sounds being supplied by the actors themselves. The cottage and field of the blind man and his family were cleverly done as was the effects during the dock scenes with the Creature and Victor's younger brother.
As I said at the beginning, I've done an incredibly poor job as describing just how fascinating this performance was and so I would recommend trying to see if this ever ends up on Netflix or anything and see it for yourself. You will not regret it.
Then last night, I saw War Horse. I was left absolutely speechles. I have no idea how they were able to essentially recreate a WWI battle on stage but they did. There is no way that I can recap properly so I'm going to bullet-point this out. And yes, I just used the word bullet-point as a verb.
-The horses were phenomenal. With the little foal, it was a little distracting with the actor puppeteering his head but you never noticed it with the larger Joey and Topthorn. I felt like there were real horses up onstage. The actors also supplied the "voice" of the horse, which included at times, screams of pain when the horse was tangled up in the barbed wire.
-There was a singer (sometime accompanied by an accordion player) who sang both original as well as WWI-era songs that essentially narrated the passage of time but not in a blatant "Balladeer" way like in assassins.
-At 0:40 in the clip above, you get an amazing view of the stage and the screen above it. That was maybe my favorite part of the whole thing. It essentially looked like a torn piece of parchment or old journal page and not only indicated the date and location of many scenes, but also have hand drawn style sketches to represent locations, emotions and passage of time. At 1:22 you see another little example of the effect of that upper screen. I got chills when drops of blood turned into poppies. Ugh, couldn't handle that.
-Ironically, the funniest bits came in the second half, which was all about the war. The best scene was between main character Albert and his close friend David. Laughed so hard. "Are you saying your horse can read? I'll take your silence as a 'neeeiiiiiighhhhhh'."
-When the horses died, some of them were incomplete mechanical puppets that easily collapsed on stage to signify the massive devastation of the cavalry during WWI. These poor horses were absolutely no match for the machine guns and tanks.
-Speaking of tanks. Guys, they brought a tank onto the stage. A tank! This is like Miss Saigon bringing the helicopter on stage. See both above and below. The lights, effects, sounds and background images totally made this show the phenomenon that it is.
- 0:53 and 1:06 and 1:23 give you a slight idea of what the battles looked like on stage.
-In essence, the show isn't about good versus bad. Albert's father isn't a bad character, he just makes poor choices and tries his hardest to make up for it afterwards. Uncle Arthur (who you don't know is the uncle for a good while- at first I thought he was just a mean-spirited neighbor) becomes tragic when you seem him grieve for his son that he forced to enlist. The Germans are represented by Fredrich who is a kind man intent on protecting not only Joey and Topthorn but also Emilie and her mother at all costs, including his life. Every single character except for Joey and Albert is flawed but attempts to be the best they can.
-All the animals were played by people. The horses had two people inside and one person at the head. There were birds, both sparrows and crows flown around on long poles and the actors made the sounds themselves. The more hysterical one was the goose that ran free on the Narragot farm- it kept trying to get inside the house and during curtain call, it came out on its own and took its own bow. There were also times when just the horses were on the stage by themselves and their movements were so fluid, so choreographed, so impactful. Again, it was hard to believe that these weren't real horses. Towards the end, even though physically they hadn't changed, you felt like they were exhausted, like they were thin and nearly starved, almost dead. That's magic right there.
-The picture below might give you a slightly better idea of what that upper screen looked like. It's a great example of the hand drawn effects that seem like preliminary sketches but I couldn't imagine anything more perfect.
I thought this was a fascinating little clip. Plus the guy who plays the goose. Yes! And you get to see a lot of the horses and the birds close-up. At 4:04, you see the ending set, which is the entire cast in a large semi-circle around Joey and Albert and you can't hear it, but they're singing acapella and if that doesn't move you, then you clearly are the Tin-Man with no heart.
Again, words really cannot express the magnitude of these two shows. Go see them if you can. Truly, you will not regret it.
It had not been a good month and a half for authors, sadly. A few weeks ago I posted about Maurice Sendak but since then, both Jean Craighead George and Ray Bradbury have passed away and the reading world has lost two incredible members.
Ray Bradbury is always thought of as a science fiction writer but I think he is so much more than that. He was an amazing short-story author and some of my favorite things of his is "A Sound of Thunder" which I used in a paper for college. I love "Dandelion Wine" and "Something Wicked This Way Comes" kept me up all night because I just had to finish it. I am so impressed by authors who can take a short story and actually have it be full of substance and makes you think when you've finished. I haven't read something of his that I haven't liked (of course, who can argue the impact of Fahrenheit 451 and all of its implications) and I would encourage everyone to try a little bit of Ray Bradbury. There's something out there for everyone.
My favorite book by Jean Craighead George is "My Side of the Mountain." I always loved books about kids who didn't have parents. Nothing at all against my parents but I loved the adventures that kids had without parental supervision. "Island of the Blue Dolphins, "The Boxcar Children," all great stories that were about these crazy independent kids who seemed to be just fine without parents. Even when Grandfather showed up in "The Boxcar Children," he pretty much stayed behind the scenes. That's why I didn't love the end of "My Side of the Mountain" when his parents and brothers and sisters showed up. I wanted to be best friends with Sam- to live in the tree house with him, be with Frightful and Baron Weasel and Jessie Coon James, to hike and live off the land, to explore and discover new things and of course, taste the pancakes made with acorn batter. I didn't love the other two (three, actually, but I've never read the last one....) as much but that first one got me hooked and I frequently reread it. Jean Craighead George has written over one hundred books and children everywhere are worse off because of her death.
I don't have a ton of pictures from Shiri's graduation and baccalaureate and all that jazz because Mom and Abba took most of the photos but I do have a bunch from my time in DC. I spent about a week out on the East Coast, first in Lexington for graduation and then with the Webbers in the city. I flew out from Boise with no issues and even had a chance to get a burrito for my dinner and some sandwiches for Mom and Abba while waiting for them to fly in from Orange County. It was a looooong drive out to Lexington but we finally made it and I got some sleep.
The next morning was baccalaureate which was far more formal than ours at C of I. The students get dressed in their cap and gowns and it's a pretty long ceremony. There was a yummy reception afterwards and then, to be honest, some of the events kind of blend together. I think there were a few more receptions, one at this gorgeous large house in the country with a wonderful porch and I was able to chat with some very nice and intelligent people. That night, there was a joint graduation party at Emerald City which was fun until I got tired and just wanted to sleep, which was difficult when my bed was the couch.
Graduation was the next day and luckily the rain held off until the very end when we were walking to the sorority house. It went by a lot quicker than I expected, luckily, and thank goodness it wasn't too hot. There was a private awards ceremony in the morning at the President's Office for Clarke and Shiri and the man who came from the Sullivan Award Foundation was absolutely adorable. I just wanted to hug him and smile with him. Shiri was one of three that were singled out at the actual ceremony, so pretty high honor! So proud of my little TPFTW. The sorority house lunch was also delicious and there were a few more receptions before we went to dinner with Susie and Wayne, the folks who Mom and Abba had been staying with.
The following morning, I wandered around downtown Lex before Mom, Abba and Shiri drove me into Staunton. We went to this great little pizza restaurant with amazing cheesy bread and then wandered around until the train was supposed to arrive. Except it was very late. This was to be the theme of the day (Megan Dixon told me later that it's because we don't have dual rail lines and passenger trains always have to wait for freight trains.... good to know.... thanks American....). I swear i was on the slowest train in the whole wide world. The lady next to me was nice though (she kept saying "i love DC... that's where my president is....") and thank goodness I had an entire season of Firefly to keep me occupied. I made it up to Danielle's in record time though and we had delicious tacos and champagne on the roof. Bliss.
On Saturday, I went to Ricky and Danielle to check out "spacious with den" which really wasn't spacious although there was a den.... they're in the process of trying to find a slightly bigger place but this certainly wasn't it. From there, we dropped Ricky off at work and went down to the Potomac for a boat tour. The tour took us past most of the monuments and although our guide was a little odd, my Israeli personality got us onto the boat and the roof kept us cool as we sailed up and down the river. Next we cabbed it to the Portrait Gallery which was also with the American Art Gallery. I loved some of the stuff there- of course portraits are great because they represent so much of history and the upstairs Champions and Artists section. The architecture of the building was also phenomenal, especially the upstairs. After showering and changing, we went down to Bibiana for dinner, which is where Ricky works. We got a cocktail and Ricky sent out some delicious apps and we ended up staying for dinner, sharing a few pasta dishes and being given some complimentary soft-shell crab. I could get used to this life!
On Sunday morning, I ran about three miles down to Dupont Circle where Danielle met me to go wander around the farmer's market. Such great colors and smells and things to sample. We went to a few bookstores, grabbed some coffee and luckily caught a bus right to the apartment. We relaxed that afternoon, making a quick stop up to Politics and Prose and CVS before getting dinner at 2Amy's, this amazing pizza place and then going to see Bob Marley at the improv. THe first comic was funny, the second one was just OK and Bob was absolutely hysterical. We were crying with laughter. There was a guy siting across the stage from us though that did not once break a smile. What's with this guy? Why was he even there? It was pouring when we came up from the Improv but it certainly cooled us down after a hot day.
Monday was Memorial Day and suuuuuuper hot. Danielle and I drove out to a little town near Dulles to meet up with Mom and Abba for breakfast at this great little bagle place. It was really great for them to catch up with Danielle, seeing as it had been years since they had last seen each other. From there, we did the fastest Whole Foods shopping trip ever, picking up some things for dinner that night. We decided to brave the crowds for the parade, stopping first at the Old Post Office Building to get some Be and Jerry's. There weren't a lot of people at the parade and we're pretty sure an amateur was directing the whole thing because a few bands would come by and then a huge gap and then a few more. But we saw Chuck Yeager, Kris Allen from American Idol and Gary Sinise which was pretty cool. After an hour, we went inside to escape from the heat and wandered around a few exhibits at the Natural History Museum, including a really fascinating forensic anthropology at the Jamestown and Chesapeake Settlements. Ricky made delicious mussels in a garlic sauce with crusty bread and salad for dinner that night, which was ah-mazing. We finished the night out with our usual trashy television. It was needed after a long, hot day!
I was lucky enough to be able to meet up with Alicia at American University on Tuesday morning. AU was close enough that I could run there, hang out with her for a bit and then run back without exhausting myself. After showering, changing and packing up, I headed down to the National Museum of the American Indian. So many interesting things there, especially the exhibit about the Spirit of the Horse. I wish I had had more time to really read everything but I saw some great artifacts. I also got a chance to eat at their authentic cafeteria. I had Plains fry bread with sugar and honey. OMG so good!
The bus out to the airport was only $6 and I made it out with no trouble. The trouble began when the flight coming in was late so we boarded late so we didn't make it out past the storm so they noticed a screen was malfunctioning so they went back to the gate but then discovered that it did work so they finally took off but we were all late and missed our flights and because United is a stupid airline, they blamed it just on the weather and not on anything else so we all slept on the floor of the airport. Awesome. Luckily, I got out on the first standby flight the next morning and got to nap at Brooke and Kevin's before C of I alumni Happy Hour.
