At the Ballet

Josh and I went on a date to the ballet last night. I've been subtly suggesting that we go since we moved to the Portland area over three years ago, but he didn't get the hint. So I finally said, "I want to go to the ballet. You need to buy tickets" (it helped that we got a coupon for it in the mail). I love, love, LOVE ballet because it's something so ridiculously difficult, yet beautiful and graceful and looks like it takes no effort at all.

I sat next to a little girl who wore her little opera cloak and whose mom was clearly excited about being there with her because she was telling her about the orchestra and the dancers and what to expect. It was cute. Plus, the girl got a soft pretzel during intermission and I kind of wanted to steal it when she fell asleep during the third act.

I love attending the ballet because it's a different crowd than I see at performances of musicals or music groups. I love the grey hairs, the cloaks, the jewelry, and the little kids that are on their best behaviors. And, of course, I love anywhere that I can wear my pearls and heels. 

I highly recommend Oregon Ballet Theatre's production of "Sleeping Beauty." It runs tonight and tomorrow night as well. 

(In anticipation of the ballet, I got the song "At the Ballet" from A Chorus Line stuck in my head for a week, which just describes my love for ballet so well).

Master of the House

I picked up my diploma today. Josh said I should share the news.

School has been going well lately. I've started my dissertation (and hope it will go better than the thesis) and already have over 30 client contact hours at my practicum site (which means nearly 300 overall). That's okay since I didn't do practicum last year and am not applying for internship this year. 

Brains

In the past couple months, I have become obsessed with the game "Plants vs. Zombies." The premise is that zombies are invading your backyard (and, later, your pool and roof) in order to get in your back door and eat your brains. It is your job to plant zombie-killing plants (like the pea-shooter or watermelon catapult) in order to keep your brains safe. I first started playing this game at my parents' house because it's loaded on my mom's computer for the grandkids. 

I don't exactly know why it's so fun, but it's appropriate for all ages (unless your kid is super afraid of zombies, but my friend's three-year-old boy plays it too and loves it) and it's not so difficult that it's no longer fun once you get to the higher levels. 

This might (definitely) be why I haven't gotten very far on my 30 books before I'm 30 list. You can read more about the game here.

30 Books Before I'm 30: Les Miserables

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
"azure in the sky does not prevent rags on man"

This book marks my first foray into Kindledom. I absolutely love my kindle because it's lightweight and easy to travel with, but I hate it because I can't read with it in the pool or the bath and it has "location" numbers rather than page numbers, which means that I could only see what percentage I had read rather than how many pages I had left. It's probably not as frustrating with shorter books, but it really drove me crazy with this book (though once I figured out how to make the font smaller it went by faster). Consequently, it took me four months to finish. I didn't even have it read in time for book club. Shameful.

I was simultaneously drawn in and repelled by this book. Drawn in by the characters and their endless moral quandaries, and repelled by the endless philosophizing and expatiation on the part of Hugo. I was told to read the full version rather than the abridged version and I do not recommend it! Read the abridged version! Unless you have a bewildering interest in the history of 1830 French politics, you do not have the need to read the didactic rantings of a man long since dead.

Briefly, this book is the account of a convict, Jean Valjean, who is on an endless route of escape; escape from jail, escape from his police pursuer Javert, escape from his own conscience and God's judgment. Through a series of wacky events, he ends up the primary caregiver for an abused girl (Cosette) who falls in love with a lawyer and revolutionary (Marius). Spoiler alert: Jean Valjean is pretty miserable and a lot of people die.

Things I liked: The characters are wonderfully painted, and I got a real sense of their internal struggles (except for Cosette, who was pretty one-dimensional the entire time; Hugo does not write women well). If I had been reading this book for a class, there were endless things that would have fostered great discussions (e.g. the relationship between morality and forgiveness, the question of whether people can change their true nature juxtaposing Valjean and Thenardier, or, my favorite standy-by, comparing and contrasting the female characters-- especially Cosette vs. Eponine and Fantine vs. Mrs. Thenardier).

I also liked that I was exposed to a whole slew of words I had never seen before (and the Kindle has a built-in dictionary, so all you have to do is move the cursor to the word), such as: inexorable (unyeilding or not to be pursuaded), brigand (a bandit or lightly-armed foot soldier), mousquetaire (musketeer), valetudinarian (invalid or person who believes himself to be chronically sick [hypochondriacal]), assiduity (constant or close application of effort), tergiversation (to change one's attitude repeatedly), and, my favorite, canaille (riff-raff).

Things I didn't like: Aside from my complaints about Hugo's rambling political dogma, I had a hard time with this book because I have seen the musical so many times. I knew that the first 20% of the book really didn't have a ton of importance in the overall plot (aside from setting the moral tone), and I knew that I didn't need to remember the students' names, and I had "Master of the House" stuck in my head for weeks.

Hugo used freakishly long chapter headings, such as "Chapter VIII-- Many Interrogation Points With Regard to a Certain Le Cabuc Whose Name May Not Have Been Le Cabuc."

This quote, about Cosette: "A little girl without a doll is almost as unhappy, and quite as impossible, as a woman without children." Also, "One of woman's magnanimities is to yield." Hm. I have a million responses to that, none of which are Blog Appropriate.

This book would be good to read: while you're also reading other books. It is relatively episodic, which made it easy to pick up and put down, and it's really too long to hold one's attention for too long.

I would recommend this book to: anyone who likes French history, depressing storylines, and hates women. Okay, maybe not the hating women part (and I'm sorry if I've offended my audience of three), but this is definitely not a book for feminists.

I would also recommend: Les Miserables: The Musical! Just don't watch it first, because then the whole story will be ruined and you'll spend your whole time humming "Castle on a Cloud." Though, if you liked the political part of this book, you may also like Stendhal's The Red and the Black.


Coming up next: The Madness of Mary Lincoln. Lunatic or victim of the patriarchy? We'll find out!

Recent Obsessions

and, of course....

(it was on sale)



(can't you tell I've started my dissertation... and the stress eating?)

We did this too

I forgot to mention that we made the Westons walk to the south side of Autzen stadium on our campus tour. It was raining a lot, which is why it looks like I just stepped out of the shower (hot, I know). Neither Josh nor Chris look very happy to be there (though they were, I swear), and of course Haylie looks cute even though it was pouring and she was wearing flip flops. 

Weekend with the Westons

Remember when Josh and I went to Reno and then to Medford? And that the reason we went to Medford was to visit our friends the Westons? And that even though we had fun in Medford we didn't take any pictures that had the Westons in them?

Well, we tried to remedy that this past weekend when we met up with Haylie and Chris for a couple days in Eugene. Neither of them had ever been to Eugene, so we tried to give them The Grand Tour, starting with BJs for pizza:

We discovered way too late that Chris and Haylie like BJs (and that there is a location in Portland), because I am obsessed with pizzookies and I try to eat there whenever we're in Eugene.

On Saturday we made them walk around to places like...

Hayward Field

Matt Court

The Jaqua Center

Where they have these bike racks:

And tons of other places of which Josh didn't take pictures.

Then we took them to lunch at the Glenwood, which we figured was a perfect place for the campus experience.

Oh, and there was one other thing:

We also got to see the Ducks trounce the Portland State Vikings (69-0!)

Because Josh and I have season tickets, we couldn't sit next to Haylie and Chris, but they weren't too far away.

We had a great weekend showing off our old stomping grounds, and we discovered that we should have spent more time with them before they moved to Medford because they hadn't heard any of our usual stories!  (or maybe that means they spent the perfect time with us previously because they hadn't had to hear any of our usual stories....) We look forward to their visiting us again (soon maybe?) and visiting them when (if) they move back to Utah!