Happy Monday!

I hope that you all had lovely weekends. I did.

It started off with my niece Grace and I heading out to the Museum of Art down at BYU. We had intended on hitting UVU's art gallery in the mall but they close at 6pm on Friday and that didn't work for us. The BYU museum was a wonderful treat for me. It has been several years since I have been there and so it really surprised how good their collection actually is. Currently they have a couple of interesting exhibits including one titled The American Dream (I think that is right and am too lazy too look it up right now) that is set up like a thesis exploring different themes by exploring what American artists paint and one titled The Dismantling Geneva Steel which is surprisingly very pretty. After the museum we hit 7 Eleven so that I could introduce my niece to the joys of a slurpee on a hot summer's eve. She appreciated it appropriately.

Saturday I headed off to the Farmer's Market in Provo which was smaller than I had hoped for but not a total loss. I picked up some very cheap corn and 1 pound of cherries. Go me for supporting local growers--made sure to find out before buying where the fruit was coming from.

Other things I did on Saturday:

--finished reading Rosie Dunne by Cecelia Ahern (which I had only even started on Friday)

--started Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier. I'm only on chapter two but already I can tell I'm gonna love it (if you haven't noticed, my reading list has been totally turned upside down with books like Rosie Dunne and Daughter of the Forest jumping ahead of books like The Road--but eventually I am determined to get back on top of my reading)

--watched Candles on Bay Street--supper cheesy Hallmark Hall of Fame movie--say what you will but I love Hallmark movies and really all cheesy movies that make me cry. It is a weakness but I'm ok with it so don't try to change me.

--in watching Candles on Bay Street I discovered (really rediscovered because I also so him in Band of Brothers and CSI:NY) Eoin Bailey

He could be a contender for my favorite 5 guys in all the world.

Sunday came on a bit too fast. I volunteered to take Grace for the day to giver her parents a bit of a break and see if she would do better in my nursery class than in her own. I crawled out of bed and ran down to pick her up (they have 9 am church) and bring her back where we enjoyed a few books and a cartoon show on Disney before heading outside to enjoy some running through the sprinklers naked--obviously she was the naked one while I was fully clothed. Then I ran in and showered and attempted to get ready for church while Grammy played in the water a bit with Grace. Lunchtime came up on me pretty fast so I whipped us up a quick grilled cheese sandwiches, some kiwi (of course) and bananas, and milk. While Grace was finishing off her lunch I pulled her hair into the cutest little pig tails and then attempted to iron my skirt, but she was feeling a little down without her mama so I didn't get to finish that. Then it was off to Church where she promptly fell asleep for an hour until nursery. It all went really well but let's just recap it a little:

--I didn't have a chance to put make up on or do my hair.
--I didn't get the chance to check my legs for shaving cuts or missed patches until I was running out the door and even then didn't want to do a thorough search because of the rush shaving job I had done in the shower
--I wore a wrinkled skirt and a shirt that had a hole in it.
--I forgot to grab the diaper bag and had to run home to get it (I only live a block and a half from the church so no need to cry too much for me).
--and I didn't get the chance to clean up from lunch until right before dinner.

Really ladies, I don't know how you do it all the time. Next time I'm waking up early to get ready before I pick Grace up.

I finished Sunday off with the family watching episode 1 of HBO's John Adams series. It was really good and I am looking forward to the rest of the series--getting to see John Adams' during the trial of the soldier's involved in the Boston Massacre was really interesting and so well done. Plus, Laura Linney is playing Abigail Adams and I love both of them so I am pleased.

Well, there it is. My weekend in a flash. It was really nice but a bit busy--hence the lazy Monday syndrome I am experiencing. Hope yours was nice as well.

(I can't believe I didn't take any pictures! I must do better)

So When Are We Going?

The Beehive Bazaar takes place this Friday and Saturday--the gist is that it is a craft show with a bit of an edge. For more information on this event visit their website here. Here are a couple of things that have already caught my eye:

(product will be provided by Fall Down Tree)

(product will be provided by My Dear Lizzie)

Springville Art Museum

I went down to the Springville Art Museum on Friday (as part of my day-off activities) and had an absolutely fabulous time. I really don't know why I don't get out to my local museums more often because I really do love Museums and the local ones are free! Going on right now at the Springville Art Museum is the Wayne Thiebaud: 70 Years of Painting exhibition and it is a real treat. I love his use of colors and textures and the everyday things he paints into art. It really is a must see if you are in the area (plus the museum itself it gorgeous). The exhibition will be on until 27 July so make your plans now--you might even consider inviting me because I'd go again!

(image via http://smofa.org/)

Really, you need to go see it because the above image just doesn't do the work justice.

So, So Busy

Okay, so the 1 hour nap I took this afternoon probably isn't going to win any points of sympathy but I swear it was totally justified. Last night I went to see Annie at Kingsbury Hall--so good I highly recommend it (although it probably didn't justify the standing ovation that it was given--Americans are a bit liberal on giving standing ovations and that only serves to make the ovation worthless. I didn't stand.). My favorite song was "Your Not Fully Dressed Without a Smile" which totally surprised me as I thought Tomorrow would be the hit of the night. (Didn't get home until about midnight had to get up at 6 am: justification for nap this afternoon)

Tonight was my monthly crochet group were I began a bookmark. It doesn't completely look like a bookmark but it is a start. I am really getting into this crochet thing. The nice thing was that I almost finished the entire thing in 1 1/2 hours--guess what everyone is getting for Christmas!

And now I must run to watch one of my pretend boyfriends on CSI-NY. Just in case this doesn't fill your blog fix visit Stephmodo whose husband did a great post about cheeses that are available at your local Harmons (or at least in Salt Lake). I heart cheese.

Weekend Round Up

So I had a really nice weekend and I thought I would share a bit of it with you. It started out with a "lovely" trip to Jamba Juice for a shot of wheat juice. Fortunately they provide a slice of orange with the shot because it was absolutely disgusting--really bad disgusting. But hey, anything in the name of health right?

(Photo from http://www.aromathyme.biz/)

Then Saturday was spent running around doing chores and errands and feeling very productive about the whole day. The highlight was definitly taking my niece out for pizza at Pizzaria 712. I have been wanting to try this place for such a long time and I finally got around to it. First may I just say that really I am bound to love any place that gives me free hummus and pit after ordering is going to have a special place in my heart. Really, I think that if I were forced to choose just one food to eat forever I could actually do it with hummus. Now back to what I ordered. I don't typically order salads because I find so many salads in restaurants to be less than interesting but on a whim I decided to order the mixed lettuces, roasted squash, gorgonzola, pecans, and vinaigrette salad and can I just say WOW. It was nearly to die for good. I followed that up with tomato sauce, hand-pulled mozzarella, and basil pizza. It was just as good as the salad--I especially like the thin crust. So yummy. I can't wait to go back--I might even branch out and try something different because really everything looked so good.

Saturday was also when I began my nightly impersonations of Laura Ingalls. You see, my hair is starting to get a bit long (it is at my shoulders which is long for me) and it really bothers me at night when I am trying to sleep to have it wrap around my neck. So I've begun braiding it into a single braid each night and that is working wonders. I think, actually, that I might be impersonating Mary Ingalls--didn't she have one braid? and Laura had two?

Anyway, then came Sunday. Dreaded Sunday. It started out rather poorly when I awoke and found this:

Really. Are you kidding me? It is nearly April. We really should be past this kind of weather.

Then the hours ticked by and my nerves really began to kick in. Since I have not yet learned to stop time, the time finally came. I gave my talk at Church. I am told that it went really well and that I didn't even sound nervous (I can hardly believe that since I could clearly hear my voice quivering but I attend church with some really nice people). After it was over I was tracked down and invited to join the women's writing group and the women's book club. I guess my talk must have passed some sort of test and I was proved worthy. Really I felt a little bit like Anne of Avonlea after giving a dramatic reading--without the puffed sleeves. I did however have on a great skirt that made me happy the entire day not only for how cute it is but also because when I bought it I couldn't actually zip it up and now I can (You needn't lecture me on how one shouldn't purchase items one can't actually fit into. I know. But I just couldn't resist.)

As a side note: the skirt is an excellent skirt for twirling in. And that brings us to Nursery. I think The Lord must have realized what a traumatic experience speaking was and had mercy on me in Nursery. We only had 4 kids. 4 kids! It was great. We laughed, we played, we twirled, we had a lesson about how we are grateful that Heavenly Father and Jesus made the fish for us and they got it. It was brilliant. I don't know how I am going to go back to having 12 kids (which I know is still not a lot, but the difference between what we could do with 4 and 12 is amazing).
So there it is. My weekend at a glance. There are a few things I didn't get done (for example, I found mold growing in my wheatgrass. Mold. Yuck. I was going to throw it out on Sunday but couldn't face having to wade through the snow.) but all in all it was really great.

Romeo and Juliet

Over the weekend I had the really, really great opportunity of attending a performance of Romeo and Juliet. Granted Romeo and Juliet is not my favorite Shakespeare play (it just hasn't been the same since I realized it wasn't the play about true and undying love that I thought it was--just a play about stupid teenagers with short-term memory), but any time I get the chance to see anything performed by the Utah Shakespearean Festival I am going to jump at it. Plus I didn't even have to drive all the way to Cedar City. You see, the festival has this great program called Shakespeare in the Schools which sends a small troupe of actors into schools throughout Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and Idaho to perform a play written by Shakespeare. I've never really paid enough attention to this program to take advantage of it when it has travelled into my area in the past but on a whim this year (and an accident of hearing about it) I decided to try it out. Like I already said, the play this year is Romeo and Juliet and while it is not my favorite play I must say that this version of it was really well done and quite enjoyable. The only other production I have seen of Romeo and Juliet (live) was a few years ago in Stratford-upon-Avon--and sadly it must be said that that production was hands down the worse production of any Shakespeare play that I have ever seen. So I suppose in this light the production performed by the USF couldn't really have been any worse. Luckily, though for me, it was much, much better.

Since the whole point of Shakespeare in the Schools is to make Shakespeare more accessible to students I was pretty sure that the version being performed was going to be a more modern and updated version of the play (which I am not opposed to--in the question and answer session after the play the actors were asked if they like doing a modern version and as part of his answer one of the actors pointed out that for the most part that plays written by Shakespeare were performed as contemporary plays in his time and so it seems to make some sense that we occasionally continue to perform the plays as contemporary to our time--the words of course are not changed) which it was. And the cast was rather small for a Shakespeare play (sometimes at the beginning of the play I found myself a little confused about who was playing who at what time as all of the actors played at least 2 characters). And the play was cut down to 90 minutes and there was no intermission. But really all these things worked together to create a unique opportunity to delve a little into Shakespeare on a bit of a casual basis.

The acting was, of course, top notch--I particularly thought that the actress playing Juliet did a great job of portraying her as a bit of a teenage drama queen--and from what I understand 2 of the actors will be performing in the festival this summer. To sum up, I highly recommend this production of Romeo and Juliet. Click here to see the schedule of where they will be performing. The cost of my ticket was $5. You just can't get better than Shakespeare performed by professional actors associated with a great festival for $5.

(Just as a general note: Shakespeare wrote with a lot of innuendos about sex and they portrayed the play as he wrote it. I didn't find it at all inappropriate but I did hear a parent sitting behind me make a comment about it. If you feel nervous about taking a teenager may I suggest that you read the play to inform yourself about its content.--there was a play performed at the festival last year that had some innuendos and I think some swear words as well and there was quite an uproar from some individuals who were offended by it and felt that the festival either should have edited the play or informed its audiences ahead of time about "inappropriate" content. Well the entire conversation drove me nuts because really people the responsibility of filtering out inappropriate material is your responsibility and only yours. If you choose not to inform yourself about what you are seeing and subsequently are offended by it that is your fault and only your fault. Stepping off my soap box now.)

St. Patrick's Day Parade Recap

Well, I have a bit of catch up to play since I was a very poor blogger while my sister was in town. Today's theme: the Salt Lake City St. Patrick's Day Parade. I love this parade for two basic reasons: 1. You don't have to arrive hours in advance to get a good seat:

Please note the massive crowd turn out. More people did show up a bit later and I think other parts of the parade route had a better turn out.

And 2. They throw out lots of candy during this parade.

Tess kept her collection in her pocket until we had so much that we had to start using the diaper bag.

I had the chance to use my Sis' fancy Nikon camera, too, so that was lots of fun (although the pics look a bit better blown up on my computer than they do on this post). Now, without further ado, the parade:

Of course we came prepared with our own pits of green:

And there was plenty of Irish jig dancing:

Check out the massive Irish Wolf Hounds. Not the kind of animal that I would want to meet in a dark alley (or anywhere really).

There were, of course, lots of Irish dancers:

And more dogs:

And some big trucks all dressed up:


But my favorite floats were the ones that brought the Irish people into the parade. Now, if you know much about Ireland you will know that there are lots of different classifications for different types of Irish. There is the traditional term: Irish. There are the Scots-Irish. If you are LDS in Northern Ireland your Irish classification won't actually include the word Irish but it is still very much an Irish classification: you would be either Protestant Mormon or Catholic Mormon. Well here are a few more classifications that you may not have heard of.

Polynesian Irish (You might not be able to tell in the photo but they are all Polynesian):

Mexican Irish (again you might not be able to see it--sorry):

There are even the Civil War Reenactors from the North Irish:

And from the South:

And the scary silly string artists Irish (which I didn't get a shot of but I think you can tell how scary they were):

We didn't stay for the entire parade so who knows what other Irish classifications I missed. I can't figure out exactly why it is that on St. Patrick's Day everyone thinks they are Irish. I mean on St. Nick's day we don't all feel the sudden urge to claim Greek heritage. All in all, it was a fabulous parade. Can't wait 'til next year. Maybe we'll see you there.

Exhibit 2

Today was a bit of a busy day around here. My sister, her husband, and 2 little girls are in town and so we are trying diligently to be good hosts. Today's good hosting responsibilities included hitting the Salt Lake Aquarium, lunch at The Pie, and a little shopping at Steve and Barry's. The Aquarium was kind of fun. It was good that the girls are young, though, and have never been to Sea World. It had a small section of Utah fish and a small section on marine life (the emphasis here should be on the words small). In the marine section they had sting rays swimming around in an open pool and if you are brave enough you can stick your hand into the water and pet them. My brother-in-law Josh was the only brave one. The stuff they did have was pretty cool--my favorite part was the jelly fish so cool. I'd recommend the Aquarium if you have kids who are say 3-8 years old (and haven't been to Sea World). I hear that the Aquarium has plans to expand so hopefully it will be better in the coming years.

After the Aquarium we hit one of The Pie locations and had some really delicious pizza (and cheese pull aparts a.k.a. breadsticks). It is at the point in my post that I would like to introduce exhibit B into our proceedings:

My sister is probably going to kill me for showing you this picture, but just focus on the food in the picture and I might just live. So here it is the second reason this week is becoming a week of gluttony. Seriously good pizza. Anyway, I've got to run (exhibit C is calling my name as we speak).

Oh but before I go I have to tell you of the near encounter I had with another Sigg user. It nearly happened in the cafe at the aquarium. There was this woman sitting in there with two small children and there was a Sigg bottle on the table. I nearly went up to her and told her how cool it was that she was so fashionably saving the world, but I didn't. Instead I ran over to my sisters and told them. Do you think I have a problem?

Grace Time

Well to start off I would just like to welcome my cousin Jen and my Grandmother who I just found out read my blog (eek--now you know that I mentally swear at adults in nursery; I promise that I don't do that on a regular basis and that they really did deserve it and they weren't really bad swear words--if there is such a thing--I blame it on the Irish in me). Jen I think you should start blogging--I would love to read about what you are doing (Grandma to).

Now on to my post, last night I kidnapped my niece Grace for a bit of museum fun. It isn't the first time I've kidnapped her, but it is the first time it went well. The last time I took her we went to IHOP and she spent the entire time sitting in my lap reaching out for the door (I think in hopes that her mom would walk in and save her). Not wanting to give up, I took her up to the mall and walked around a bit. After awhile she relaxed and got into the walking around the mall thing that we girls love to do so we stopped and bought some pretzel bites. Then on the way to Grammy's house we stopped at Partyland to get some St. Patrick's Day supplies (a very important holiday). It was at Partyland that Grace first met Zac Efron--or at least a life-size cardboard cut out of Zac Efron. Apparently it was love at first site. I had to pull her off of him at least 4 times. Hannah Montana's cut out was next to Zac's and she couldn't have cared less. Just over 1 year old and already boy crazy!

Well, I tried again last night and it went much better (and this time I took pictures). We went to the Bean Museum and had a lot of fun looking at all the animals. Grace would walk from animal to animal pointing (and grunting) at each one. If I happened to get too far behind her she would turn around and grunt at me and wave me forward. There were only like 3 other people in the whole museum so it was really great.

Here is Grace with a Tiger

Here she is checking out the deer and elk (and rope)

Here she is with the Rhino (her favorite; we went back to it at least 5 times)

She approached the hippo (hanging on the wall with wide-open mouth) to check it out (very brave) and realized a little too late that there was a crocadile on the floor under it.

After the museum we went to a place called Smart Cookie and had (of course) cookies. I had a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie and Grace had a snickerdoodle cookie. They were great! Can't wait to go back. Sadly, I didn't remember to take pictures here--which is truly too bad as Grace was in a particularly good mood (with all the sugar running through her veins) and was laughing at everything. So thanks for joining me for a bit of fun Grace and thanks for enjoying it more than you did last time.

Midwinter Storytelling

I had the most happy opportunity of attending one part of the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival's Midwinter event last night. Telling first (apart from the 14 year old warm-up act) was David Novak. I can't say that I am won over as a fan, but I can see how others (especially children) really love him. His story about how cats evolved from snakes did ring true to me and makes complete sense--I always knew there was a good reason I don't like cats: they are snakes (tails always moving like a snake, like to stretch out in the sun, hiss when angry, etc.)--sorry to other cat lovers; and just so we are clear I don't hate cats and don't advocate stringing them up or drowning them in the nearest river, but could you please keep them off my lap when I come around? Next up, and my number one reason for going (this and maybe the fact that I get in free on account of my mother being on the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival's committee) was Donald Davis.

Isn't he the cutest? I love Donald Davis. He is probably one of the best professional storytellers to ever grace a stage. Add to his greatness as a teller a true humility and an honest interest in people and really you have a complete package and some very good reasons to follow him around like a love-sick puppy. (I especially appreciate his humility in light of some other tellers who believe they are God and expect to be treated as such complete with the bowing and walking 5 steps behind them--sadly so many of these tellers are actually very good so rather than sticking it to them for their disgusting behavior I end up buying their cds and then standing in line for an autograph--I'm weak that way) Anyway, Donald was as wonderful as ever telling hilarious and touching stories about his youth (last night it was Aunt Mary's night (I think it was Mary)) and now I have some new inspiration for the kind of aunt that I want to be.

For those of you sad and sorry people who have not yet been introduced to the fantastic world of storytelling let me just tell you that it doesn't involve people sitting around reading aloud from books. It is, though, made up of a very talented community of individuals who tell stories to children and adults of all ages. Donald is a great way to introduce yourself to storytelling so check him out in your local library (my favorite cd is the Grand Canyon one). A couple of other recommendations that I would have for you are Bill Harley (great for kids), Bil Lepp (yes I spelled his first name correctly--a great tall-tale teller), and Carmen Deedy.

Also if you are coming to the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival in August you get to see Bill Harley and Carmen Deedy live and in person! There are 8 others coming, but I am going to be following Bill and Carmen around.

My Weekend Outing

After a little cojoling, I convinced one of my sisters and my mom to a few outings this past Saturday. We started out at the Oh Sweet Sadie art and gift show, which I enjoyed. My sister and Mom felt it was a bit pricey compared to other craft shows offered around Utah Valley, but I appreciated the ammount of things that I wanted to buy--I usually go to these craft shows and find that they are catering toward people interested in home decorating and kids. I don't have a great interest in these two categories and so I was really pleased to find a good selection of products not geared toward home and kids--like notepads like this pad that I bought:


I love notepads; shoes (for adults of course); and head bands (again for adults). Everyone bought something so I think we were all happy enough.

Then we headed over to Steve and Barry's which I have talked about before. Well, the sale that they were having an entire month ago is still going on. Sadly, this means that the entire store is still really picked over. They also haven't changed the selection of clothes yet--I was hoping for some spring/summer selections. I did buy a great pair of teal ballet-flat shoes that I love, but otherwise I was very disappointed (So, Cranat, it is really good we decided not to go up--I'm thinking maybe in about a month).

By this point we all needed a bit of nourishment so we headed over to So Cupcake, a new cupcake shop that just opened in Salt Lake. I really like cupcakes and was really looking forward to trying this new place out. Sadly, I was a bit dissapointed. The shop was cute with its pink trimmings and I absolutely love the cupcake sketches that are hanging on the walls (check out their very cute website linked above--the sketches on the site are the same ones hanging on the walls of the shop), but I felt they missed out on truly making the cute point by putting down ugly linolium on the floors and doing nothing at all to the ceilings which was sad since they have really cute chandeliers drawing your attention up--I would have done some hardwood floors and some metal tiles on the ceiling (which, I know, is more expensive so maybe these are on their to-do list)



The cupcakes themselves were pretty looking and of a good size (I hate going somewhere for cupcakes and getting this tiny, little thing) but a little unimaginative in their names. The red velvet cupcake was called the red velvet cupcake--although on their website they have at least given a nod to trying to be creative we'll have to see if eventually these titles make it into the shop itself. I went with the cinnamon sugar cupcake which I felt was rather dry. My sister had the chocolate cupcake and also felt hers was dry. My mother had the red velvet cupcake and thought it was nice and moist. I did really like the frosting, though, so all was not disappointing. Unfortunately, I think the general verdict is that I will probably not be going back. Perhaps I need to perfect my own cupcake-making skills so that I don't continually have to be disappointed by others. Do any of you have any good cupcake recipies? I am looking for a recipe that is moist, but slightly dense.

So maybe the outings themselves weren't great, but I did have a lot of fun hanging out with my mom and my sister (and baby Grace) so as far as I am concerned a good time was had by all!

Alcohol

So two days ago now was my first really good introduction into the country world at large. I've learned a few things like if I'm going to really become a part of this world I need bigger hair, tighter jeans, a cowboy hat, and a boyfriend with a bit of a beer belly and long hair that he can pull back into a pony tail. Ok, so this is a bit stereotypical and I saw some very reasonable looking people enjoying the concert, but the reason stereotypes exist is that there are enough people doing something to make it seem true (or there is enough propaganda to make us believe it is true, but I going with the first one in this particular case). The thing is, none of the singers performing would fit into this category. So why is it that country fans don't try a bit harder to emulate those that they worship?

Sorry, I digress a bit. As you can see the title of this post is Alcohol so lets get on topic. (Actually a plastic cup of beer would be something else I would need to fit into the country world--sorry, I really do have a great respect for the country music world. Apart from all the songs about leaving your girlfriend for fishing, killing your husband for sleeping around, or other songs on adultery in general, I find that country music is very home-town value centered and not at all ashamed about singing about religion and God. Sorry, again I digress a bit) I would just like to leave a few comments directed at those of you sitting around me that got drunk at the concert a couple of days ago. You know who you are (skanky couple who kept making out in front of us).

1. Just because you are drunk doesn't make me your best friend.

2. Alcohol doesn't make you better looking. (Unless, perhaps, I'm the one who is drunk)

3. Alcohol doesn't make you funnier.

4. Alcohol doesn't make you smarter.

5. Alcohol most definitely doesn't make you a better dancer.

6. I don't care who you are, how high you think your alcohol tolerance is, or what you are drinking, one drink does affect you (see above for how or rather how it doesn't). Trust me, as a sober person who has watched people start at sober and end up drunk from here to Ireland, all it takes is one drink for me to see the side effects start and they aren't pretty. Just in case you were wondering, the reason I leave after you order your 3rd drink is that your pathetic behavior is not charming or funny but rather embarrassing to the both of us.

In closing, please, please tell me you didn't drive home.

p.s Check out my pics a couple posts down again. I fooled around with the lighting and they are a bit better.

Should've Done My Homework

I had thought about borrowing a couple of Brad Paisley cds before I went to his concert so that I would be up on some of the songs that would be sung and now, after the fact, I realise I should have done so. You see, all of the artist kept on doing that thing where a singer stops singing and holds their mic out toward the audience to indicate we were supposed to sing the lyrics (an entirely stupid idea since I didn't spend a whole lotta money to come and hear a crowd of drunk strangers singing songs--I paid to see a complete stranger, to me both personally and by his works, who I have been led to understand is very good sing some songs). Well, the first time this happened I near had a heart attack for fear that I was going to be recognized for the fraud that I am and pulled by my hair from my very good seats up to the nosebleed section where in truth I probably deserved to be.

I must give you a little context for my somewhat irrational response to not knowing the lyrics. You see, not so long ago I was a student in Belfast, Northern Ireland studying conflict. As part of my unofficial study I went to as many community events as I possibly could. One particular evening I heard about an "unofficial" IRA memorial taking place not too far from where I was living and thought I would go and check it out. I arrived and staked out a place in the general midst of the 50 or so people who had gathered down an alley way. As it turned out it was a memorial service for 5 young men who had been murdered or killed (depending on your point of view) by the British army in that spot. Well, all was going well and it was very interesting when an older man stepped forward and began to lead the crowd in a Catholic prayer (the sort that everyone knows and says all together). Well, not being Catholic and not having done my homework, I didn't know any of the words and I was suddenly sticking out in the crowd like a throbbing sore thumb as an outsider in exactly the kind of situation that you don't want to be seen as an outsider. Well, leaving right then would not have been a great option as it would have brought even more attention to me, so I was stuck between trying to pretend I was saying something and hope it wasn't too obvious that what I was saying didn't match the words of the prayer or stand very solemnly in silent respect. I went for the later one and hoped that if anyone was suspicious of me they would at least give me the chance to explain who I was (I can't even tell you how many times I had random people come up to me over the course of my study there and not very discreetly try to figure out "who" I was--who meaning was I a threat they should be worried about). Well, eventually it ended and the crowd dispersed (me faster than usual) and nothing happened (by the way, nothing ever did happen to me while I was there). But for a good 20 minutes or so I was rather nervous about the situation.

So anyway, right in the middle of this country music concert I had a sudden flashback to that experience and I briefly felt very nervous about my situation. As it turns out, the screaming girl next to me did take notice and told me that I needed to get into it a bit more, but if I didn't succumb to the peer pressure of a terrorist group I was hardly going to give in to her (although, she may have been the scarier of the two).

Two posts from me in one day. I'm exhausted.

Brad Paisley Concert

Last night was my big night at a country music concert--Brad Paisley's concert to be exact. And even though I am not a huge country music fan, it was a lot of fun and absolutely worth the money I spent. The concert started off with someone by the name of Chuck Wicks (Sorry, had never heard of him) but worth checking out--if for nothing else than for checking him out, though he has a nice voice too. Did I ever tell you how I got these tickets? Back in August I won a 6 month membership to the Brad Paisley fan club. Then right before tickets went on sale for the concert here in SLC I got an email from them offering me a chance to buy tickets before they went on sale. I figured that might be fun, talked to my sister who is a country music fan and a Brad Paisley fan, and we bought a couple of tickets. The one catch to the tickets was that we had to pick them up the night of the concert at will call (not a problem) and it wouldn't be until we picked them up that we would find out where our seats actually were. As it turns out we were on row 10 on the floor and since part of the stage jutted out into the audience, sometimes we were on row 4. Hence the pretty close shots I was able to get of the performers.

So anyway, back to the concert. After Chuck Wicks (who I accidental kept calling Chick--but obviously I knew that was wrong when I would say it) a man by the name of Rodney Atkins took the stage. I recognised one of his songs (the going through hell song--we sometimes spin to that song in spinning which I think is quite appropriate and fun) which was good. I did however mistake his fiddle player for him at the very beginning and was about to be very impressed that a fiddle player was making it big, but then I realised everyone else was looking in a different direction than me--how was I supposed to know? I just looked for the guy in the center. Anyway, Rodney is incredibly talented and the chatting he did between songs was very entertaining--even more so than Brad's commentary later on that night.

And to top it off I came home with my own Rodney Atkins guitar pick given especially to me by him.

Okay, so actually he just threw it into the crowd and it landed on the floor where no one noticed it until the concert was over and the lights come on--maybe I should take up the guitar now that I have some equipment.

So next up was Mr. Brad Paisley himself. This part of the concert seems part country and part special effects rock show. It was a lot of fun--especially being so close to the action--and I even recognized like 3 of the songs. I wished he had talked a little more about the songs, but he packed a lot into his show which went by way too quickly. Like I said, there were a lot of special effects that really added a nice to touch, especially during the "Where I Get Where I'm Going" video tribute to some famous people who have died--even included Heath Ledger (Two people sitting near me only found out that he had died when they flashed his picture up on the screen--where have they been for the last couple of days?). The special effects went on to include video footage of local SLC bars (including one drawn into the background for a shot of The Simpsons) for the song about Alcohol. It was a bit loud (I guess I'm getting old) and I could have done without the screaming girl standing next to me (tune in tomorrow for my commentary on the drunks in the audience), but like I've already said, I thoroughly enjoyed it and who go again in a heartbeat.

Brad looks down a lot when he is playing so it was hard to get a good picture of him.

Then again, my camera isn't that great and really needs to be replaced so maybe my inability to get a really great shot was do more to my camera (or me) than being Brad's fault. If the latest economic stimulus package goes through I am going to by myself a new camera. Any suggestions on which one to buy?

p.s. I'm putting a few of the songs on my jukebox for your listening pleasure for the next few days--sorry no Chuck Wicks was available.

Concert Tickets

So about 4 months ago I won a 6 month membership to the Brad Paisley fan club. Now, I'm not a huge country fan, but a free membership is free so I took it--besides if I were to like country I would definitely like Brad Paisley since so many of his songs are funny and charming. So now Brad is coming in concert and my sister and I took advantage of my free membership and bought special VIP tickets before tickets even went on sale to the rest of you suckers. Which means I am now going to my 2nd country concert--which is a lot since, like I already said, I don't like country music a whole lot. Since I like lists, I thought this would be a good time to give you my incredibly extensive list of concerts I have attended. Please feel free to let me know what concerts you have attended in your life--especially your first.

1. New Kids on the Block (My very first concert--I was like 15; Classic)
2. Tommy Page (Another Classic)
3. James Taylor (A true classic--this is where I learned to identify the smell of marijuana)
4. Barenaked Ladies (Best concert ever)
5. Creed (Who can argue with Scott Stapp in leather pants)
6. Martina McBride (But I only attended half the concert--got in free)
7. LeAnn Rimes (I was surprised at how much I liked this concert--also free)

There it is. My extensive lists of concerts I have attended. It really is a sad sort of short list, but I still have time to make it better.

Also, don't forget to check out my sad, sad snowman in the post below.

Private Education

I hate to say this but the longer I work in public education the more dissatisfied I am with the so-called education that is being offered. Now before teachers everywhere try to hunt me down, I am obviously not trying to say that that all teachers everywhere are bad or that it is impossible to get a good education through the public school system. I'm just saying that I believe there is clearly a problem on several fronts of public education (take your pick from poorly qualified teachers, teachers who merely go through the motions of keeping current on their qualifications, or counselors who haven't a clue or simply couldn't be bothered to do their job properly--my latest pet peeve is teachers that are more interested in being their students best friends than in teaching them). In this system it falls increasingly on parents to be in the know and be thoroughly involved in their children's education--something that should be happening even in an ideal education system, but is all the more important in a system that is failing its students.

Now, I don't have children of my own to worry about, but I do have nieces and I am worried. So, in an attempt to do my part in my nieces education I have decided to begin supplementing their education--mommy and daddy will have to do the worrying about their classroom learning. My first attempt at this took place last Wednesday with my four-year-old niece Tess. We went up to the Museum of Fine Arts to view that Andy Warhol exhibit. I thought this was a very good introduction to the Arts for a four year old since Warhol is very colorful--my niece very much appreciated his use of pink. Her favorites were the Marilyns and the Maos. I really fancied the works on Jackie and John F. Kennedy, but the highlight for me was when my niece took a hold of my hand and told me she loved me so much because I'm perfect. I think it is safe to say that we had some fun together and are both looking forward to doing something together again. Unfortunately, Tess doesn't live near me so our supplemental activities won't be entirely regular (the other nieces are only 1 so I am going to give them a couple more years before inflicting the arts on them), but it is a start that I'm rather pleased with. Sorry no pictures. I had a temporary brain freeze over Thanksgiving and hardly took any photos at all.

**small note on the museum: it was surprisingly nice and had a decent collection--I am a fan of dutch artists and was pleased to find several in the regular collection. My one real complaint is that the shop was complete rubbish. We went in hoping to find a nice Warhol postcard to remember our outing by, but there were no post cards of the exhibit at all and only 2 or 3 of the regular exhibit. Very disappointing.