A case for educated women

Sometimes as I pursue my Master's degree, I wonder if I'm not just hurting my potential marriage chances. It's generally a fleeting thought, and no unknown like that would ever sway me out of my course. Here's a NY TIMES article that has some interesting thoughts on the subject of education, economics, and marriage.

Borrowed Art

I saw this cool art on one of my daily feeds, Artist of the Day. I love horses, and I love how the artist captures their essence through these pieces.

Courtesy of sculptor/artist Syaka Ganz, Fort Wayne, IN

Anxiously Engaged

No, I'm not engaged. C'mon people, I'm not even dating on a regular basis, let alone dating one person exclusively! That's okay-- life happens, and that will too when it's time. Its just interesting though, for me to look around and see how many people I know that are engaged. Three friends of mine got engaged over the weekend. I'm counting down the days until my roommate has an actual ring to make things "official." By the way, have I mentioned that I like my iPod? It's smart. No sooner do I start typing this post than beautiful Josh Groban comes on and starts singing "You Are Loved (Don't Give Up)." Anyways, love is in the air!! Another friend of mine is expecting a baby any day, another is expecting in the next few months, and I'm going to be an auntie again in August!! Here I try to convince myself that it's getting time to leave Utah and I get more kiddos to keep me here.... I see what you're up to Megan. :)

I'm quite happy today: my optometrist prescribed me some new lenses and they are great! He thinks my eyeballs had a negative reaction to the material of my Acuvue Oaysis lenses, which is why my eyeballs were red and irritated more often than not. It is so refreshing to have good lenses in that won't turn me into the perpetually tired-looking full-time employee, part-time student, occasional dance teacher, sometimes chef, dancer-on-two-companies gal that I really am. Just because I feel that way doesn't mean my eyes should reveal that, so way to go new doctor!

Have you ever heard someone wail on the trumpet? I went to a concert last night that included BRIJJ, a local jazz group. Wow, they can play! And their lead man played a mean trumpet. I also met Ryan Shupe, Tony, and Brian (?) who are in his band. Yeah, I've got connections. And happy day for the 10 hours of dancing on Saturday that have been making me feel like a rockstar! Nothing keeps you in shape like the continual calorie burn that happened this Saturday. I actually left the stake dance early, feeling rather sick. I came down with a lovely headache about 20 minutes after getting home. I usually can outlast dances, but this one I didn't. And one a year or two ago, where I was so tired I was dancing with my eyes closed. Good thing my partner could lead!!




It opens the lungs, washes the countenance, exercises the eyes, and softens down the temper...; so cry away.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

Happy President's Day

Who doesn't love a Monday off work and school? Not that I have class on Monday, but it's always nice to have a day off. And tomorrow will be Monday classes, so technically I do get a day off school. But that's besides the point. Being the dedicated and hard-working lass that I am, I woke up bright and early to get a good start on the day. Well, that is if you count 11:30 am early and reading a novel for an hour and a half a good start. (I do.) A little bit of housekeeping, a shower and breakfast later, and I was ready to ponder how to spend my day. Alone. (Again, that's beside the point. I usually spend free days alone if I don't have rehearsal, and that's just how life goes.) I decided to do at least one responsible thing today, so I dutifully got online to look up books for my research paper and presentation for Friday. I returned about half the books I checked out last semester, but I'm pretty sure I left with just as many books as I returned. What can I say, I'm a sucker for the written word!

Even better than finding good resources for my paper was the inspiration I had as I was leaving the library. My Friday professor keeps encouraging us to have "pithy" openings and conclusions. I had a good conclusion last time, but I need to work on the introduction. As I sauntered through the misty rain towards my car, along the near-deserted sidewalks, a sentence came to me. I scribbled it down as soon as I got to my car. Then, a second sentence grew as I waited for the lights to change. (Don't worry, I waited until I got home to write that one down.)

As I got out of my car, I saw two girls in my ward also unloading, bearing bags of Banana Republic and other such stores. Compared to my bookish returns and blue polka-dot tote, it seems they had a much more interesting trip today. Oh well. Check out my pithy introduction... maybe one day I'll be published and be so rich I can shop at great stores all the time!

(Please note: if anyone takes my incredible intro, I will hunt you down. Consider yourself warned, and the following sentences copyrighted.)

Over the centuries, dance has been used as a means of socio-political commentary, often pushing at the edge of outright activism. Inextricably woven in with aesthetics and artistry are threads of nationalism and social ideology.

Pithy? I think so. Now time to do the research for all the rest of it...

Playing with Photoshop

In January, on some Thursday night after I taught dance, I saw this incredible full moon hanging in the cleft of the mountains. Of course I had to capture it on my new camera! I learned two things through this experience. 1) I really know next to nothing about photography and how to manually capture the shot I'm looking for. 2) I don't know how to use photoshop to make it look cool. Below are my attempts to take and edit some pictures of that moon. Trust me, none of them do justice to the looming yellow disk that was illuminating the mountains. I just couldn't get the outline of the mountains to stand out like I wanted it to, even though in real life it was quite clear and definite. Enjoy!

Grumblemusings

Half of me is frustrated at listening to a very annoying voice mail lady tell me that no representatives are available. Do they hire someone with the absolutely most annoying voice possible to do those recordings? Thank goodness a real person finally became available. It only took about 5-7 minutes of phone gymnastics to get to her. Outside of that, things are going quite well. I made a new friend this week (!!!) and she's very nice. I know, I'm sure some of you all would rather I get a friend of the other gender. You and me both, kiddo. But given the fact that I essentially live alone now (almost engaged roommate), I'm not going to be picky about the gender of my friends.

Ambi-dancetrous

In dance, all muscle training is done equally on the right and left side. Some dance forms, like Irish dance, preserve this symmetry in their dances-- once you do a step on the right foot, you do it on the left foot. Then you move on to the next step, right/left. Some of my girls were getting a little confused yesterday when we were doing our two jig steps together. (By the way, I love this jig! I borrowed a step from the BYU curriculum- mostly because it was in my head- then came up with a nice second step to complement it. It rocks.) I emphasized to them that everything we do on the right foot, we do on the left foot too.

What is interesting in all this, is that despite the "balanced" training, we still end up with a dominant side. My right side is generally dominant when it comes to muscles. Perhaps this explains why every injury I get is on my left side. Bad left knee? Check. Bad shoulder? Check. Less hearing capacity? I'm pretty sure. Sometimes I wish I could just replace that half of my body with something a little better functioning. Ah well, that's why we have chiropractors. Time to make an appointment.

Quiet Thoughts

Ah, the wonders of technology. It keeps people connected, even when time or distance or change of circumstances. I was casually perusing Facebook today, and found out that one of my good friends freshman year lost her baby. (What a strange way to phrase it... like a misplaced object?). She married a few years ago and had a baby back in Fall, but unfortunately their little girl had seizures and troubles. There was a while that she had to stay in the hospital, but she did get to be at home for the past two or three months. Anyways, more complications came up and they returned to the hospital, and on Friday their daughter passed away. How sad. Life is such a mix of highs and lows. What was interesting is that I noticed someone that commented about the events, someone who used to be in my ward senior year. This girl also faced a tragedy in the past several months, when her husband passed away in a car accident. She was injured as well and had some significant recovery to get through. She has a little girl now, but no husband. Extending comfort to a woman with a husband, but no little girl anymore.

With great happiness comes great sorrow, I suppose. Erin and Katie, I wish both your families peace. You're both so strong, I know, but you're in my thoughts and prayers.