Peanut Butter and Jelly, a Bag of Chips, and a Fruit Rollup

It is that time of year! The days are starting to get shorter, school supplies are one of the biggest commodities, and Labor Day is just around the corner! Like many of us, I am struggling to make the most of it - forcing myself to enjoy every last minute - anxious to make it last.

Calm is all nature as a resting wheel.....

Complacent fictions were they, yet the same.....

Days undefiled by luxury or sloth....

In other news: Birds in France, not having gotten the memo about climate change, aren't migrating quickly enough to satisfy their needs worry top French ornithologists; The most recent discovery of a bigfoot turned out to be another hoax - a rubber gorilla suit in ice; And a wild dolphin is apparently teaching other members of her group to walk on their tails, a behavior usually seen only after training in captivity.

Frank Lloyd Wright

"Give me the luxuries of life and I will willingly do without the necessities." - Frank Lloyd Wright.

Other notable things he left us:





























A friend and I took a tour of his home and studio today. What an eccentric man! He built his house wired for electricity, though it didn't come to the area for another two years; he used optical illusions to make space look larger (a balcony had decorative bands placed closer and closer together so from the ground the space above looked larger); and he built his grand piano into a wall so as to maintain the feel and action of a grand, without taking up the space in the room.


As you can see, it was a beautiful day.

In other news: Teachers in one district of Texas will be allowed to carry concealed guns to school; Two US men say they have found the body of a Bigfoot; and Olympic viewers are clogging exercise equipment help lines by trying to get their machinery set to keep pace with Olympians while they watch them on TV.

A Day Off in Chicago

Despite the exorbitant entry fee for the Shedd Aquarium, I visited today, along with tons of loud-mouthed children and foreign tourists. It was really cool - and really gross - and quite creepy.......

A Dwarf Caiman. Falls under the category of "creepy."

A River Otter - my favorite. Definitely under the "cool" category.

Giant Japanese Spider Crabs. Spectacular. Then creepy when you think about them running around your kitchen at night.

I have no name for this turtle. He was just so funny looking!

Strawberry Anemones in the foreground, a California Moray in the background. Gross.

The tank in the middle of the Aquarium - you can see a shark, a sting ray and Waldo. Enjoy.

In other news: Tobacco may help treat cancer; the 37th Francophone Scrabble World Championships are taking place in Senegal this week; and completely unexpectedly, Lindsay Lohan wears see-through shirts.

Things to Celebrate

Someone Has Found It

Within a Budding Grove

In the people-watching summer months, I find the intricate and pained musings in Proust's novels to be especially enjoyable.

In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower is a story of relationships from the view of a tormented adolescent. In two parts, (focusing also on two distinct women), it gives an exhaustive representation of Paris and the Normandy seaside that I really enjoyed. With familiarity now with the same narrator that took us through Swann's Way, the reader is used to the paralyzing thoughts and neurotic behavior as a baseline for the slow-moving story.

As the narrator says, "In the confusion of existence, it is seldom that a joy is promptly paired with the desire that longed for it." While I do believe at this point the narrator was speaking of his first love, or rather his desire for her, that theme was carried through the whole book and might remind you of much in the first novel. Often despondent, the narrator concludes, "... those who know love and those who enjoy life are not the same people."

One of the narrator's acquaintances says to him, "There is no such thing as a man, however clever he may be, who has never at some time in his youth uttered towards, or even led a life, that he would not prefer to see expunged from memory. He should not find this absolutely a matter for regret, as he cannot be sure he would ever have become as wise as he is... had he not traversed all the silly or detestable incarnations that are bound to precede that final one." While sometimes laughing at and sometimes empathizing with the narrator, I see how well his words may ring true.

Chasing Down that Lazy Summer Day

A Blog Just to Blog

Hello. I'm still here. I forgot to tell you - I turned 30!


Also:

1. My dog had a fight with my rat.


2. I started cooking again.


3. I started running again (no pic - that would be weird).

4. I have been very busy working. Click HERE for proof.

5. And a giraffe licked my camera.



In other news: The Eighties are Back!



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I am OFFENDED

I am sitting in a cafe in Chicago. A man in a Hawaiian shirt is singing opera, sometimes to the tune of Music Box Dancer, sometimes not - about the WWE. I hate open mic-night poetry readings (sorry Michelle!). I would have included a picture but I didn't want to gawk.

Mediocrity

Today is one of those glorious days with rain and thunder and a day off of work. It is DARK at 10am. I LOVE it.

I have been sitting on an exciting story for two weeks now, not having the time to blog, and kind of liking the privilege of exclusive knowledge. But let me tell you how exciting tax day was this year!

As usual, I filed early, sent my stuff certified mail and have already received a small refund. I'm on top of that kind of thing. However, on April 15th (a Tuesday, I'll always remember) I was having a painting party at my new apartment (oh yeah - I've moved). One of my friends came over and was telling us about his rotten day - how he seemed to have the anti-Midas touch. Late into the evening, he mentioned that he had yet to pay his taxes. !!!!! I don't do that kind of non-conformity. So, after finishing the kitchen wall, we put his bike in the back of my van and headed downtown to a post office that was touted as being open until midnight that night.

It was a quarter to midnight and anybody downtown that late on a Tuesday night is usually up to no good. I wish I could convey our astounded reactions to the bustle we encountered in approaching the post office. We were busy looking at addresses so we wouldn't pass it and suddenly found ourselves in the midst of a mysterious and desperate traffic jam. Routed to the side by police, I rolled down my window only to have a member of the special forces of the United States Post Office hold out a sack to me and ask for my taxes. Quickly slapping extra stamps on the envelopes, we shoved them out the window only then seeing that we were near the post office. Being pushed and prodded forward by frantic last minute tax payers and workers determined to keep things orderly, we found ourselves on Lake Shore Drive a mere eight minutes later dazed by the whole event. I really feel like I experienced tax day this year! I know that next year I'll pay early, as I always do, but at midnight on the 15th, I'll know what is out there and I can go to bed smugly knowing what I'm missing.


In other news: A man in India plans on being lifted by a helicopter by his ponytail; IronMan came out this weekend and I hear it is ******* awesome; I heard NPR do a bit on Grand Theft Auto IV yesterday, and many of the show's callers were similarly eloquent; and this Saturday is the Kentucky Derby (to find out how much racehorses pee, click here).

Cheap GPS

Teaching people lessons the hard way.

Four Piano Blues

I love it when you can say to a little girl, "You're so sparkly today," and she takes it as a compliment instead of an observation and says, "Thanks!"

The Barber of Seville

Recently I was gifted a ticket to the Lyric Opera. I rearranged all my plans, dug out something nice to wear, and enjoyed the Barber of Seville more than I ever have - or ever thought I would.


I was surprised and diverted by the production (by John Conway), which juxtaposed the artwork of Magritte with the surrealistic layers of the opera. With each level of disguise and intrigue there lay another interesting aspect of the surrealist's art in the set (by John Conklin) and costume design. Rather than sticking to a traditional production or trying to spice it up with an unsuccessful modern-day setting like some so often do, this production was a huge success!
What I also loved about this particular performance was that the singers were given certain leeway as they would have been in Rossini's day which filled the performance with the sort of musical jokes that would have been typical when the opera was first written but that apply to the audience today!


My favorite scene was the overture opening the second act. Rather than have nothing occurring on stage while the orchestra played, an acting out of a rainy day was taking place. Of course, the backdrop was the famous painting of Magritte's with the men in the bowler hats.


Hidden in the costumes and the set (such as the inside of the umbrella containing the blue sky) were treasures of artwork and music. (That last sentence sounded stupid but I'm having a hard time writing about art.)

I look forward to my next opera opportunity. Goodnight.

I really do have actual things to blog about....

http://xkcd.com/

Ground Pepper

Word of the Month

What do you think sesquipedalianism means? I'll give you a hint. It either means:

a. sesquipedalianism (n). - given to taking too many steps to reach a conclusion

OR

b. sesquipedalianism (n). - the habit of using long and overly fancy words

OR

c. sesquipedalianism (n). - a malady common to shoeless horses.

Meaningful Relationships

Happy Valentine's Day

Books I Fear I'll Never Finish

1. The Castle in the Forest by Norman Mailer
2. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
3. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
4. Waiting for the Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee
5. Loukom by Calixthe Beyala
6. The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
7. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Am I missing out?

Sure plays a mean pinball

Things that were good about today:

1. My students at the Suzuki-Orff school gave their first piano performance today and they did a beautiful job!

2. I enjoyed Oscar Levant playing Khachaturian’s Sabre Dance and a scene in which Fred Astaire did a fabulous dance making it look as if his tap shoes were controlling his legs in the movie The Barclays of Broadway.

3. I learned how to build a fire.



In other news: The official groundhog proclaimed that we will have six more weeks of winter; the movie Tommy is so weird (I think I might have nightmares); China is having the worst snow storms they have experienced in over 50 years; and tomorrow is apparently the Superbowl.