Proustian

Marcel Proust was a French Impressionist writer. He dealt with ideas of time and memory, something of a predecessor to the stream of consciousness style that James Joyce would develop in his literary contributions to the Impressionist movement. So while perhaps this meandering post might better be called Joyce-ian, I'll stick with Proustian. It just fits. 


So last night while I was reading my homework, Aric took a nap. (I envy those who take naps. I miss that luxury.) Anyways, he was laughing out loud at some dream he was having. He didn't remember what it was, but it must have been pretty hilarious. Well, this morning as I was trying not to wake up to my alarm -- or trying to wake up to my alarm? -- I had a cool dream. There was some band playing, mostly drums and brass instruments, I think. Then there was this whole group of monkeys. Like, probably a hundred monkeys or so. They were in a few really long lines, maybe three long lines total. (Lines, not columns.) And they were wearing these metal hats... very flat hats. Like this. 

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3456/3846817911_0cb8c3b477.jpg)

 The band music I had been hearing before switched just to percussion. It was the tapping of the hats that made the sound, and the monkeys grouped close together in a tight formation. Even as I dreamt it the sound didn't make sense with the image. I mean, that hats worked for the tonal quality, but the rapidity of beats they hit made it seem more like tap shoes doing a cadence as they grouped together. Hm. Anyways, they had just gotten all clumped, keeping this clean cadence, when my alarm went off again and I had to really wake up.

Ok, the other part of this post was going to be an educated "rant" of how people like to force meaning into art. Like painting. Some people love it when the artist explains the work. Oh, the reflection refers to eternity and the umbrella is the gospel, and the temple in the background is important and the workers are all different kinds of people because blah blah etc etc..... I just don't agree with this kind of "art." It so... proscribed in its interpretation. It's true, without the artist's easy meaning, you might not pick up on all that is going on the piece. But that is kind of the point of art. You study and discover what it means to you. And maybe it doesn't mean anything at all -- maybe it simply inspires an emotion, a mood, a thought.

People want to find a meaning in everything and everyone. That's the disease of our age, an age that is anything but practical but believes itself to be more practical than any other age. Pablo Picasso

Everyone wants to understand painting. Why is there no attempt to understand the song of the birds? Pablo Picasso

Seven Weeks

Yeah, it has kinda flown by. Not that seven weeks is very long. But it has been long enough to learn many things and make lots of fun memories. It also just might represent the shortest time span for me to have the most kitchen fails. Ok, so maybe just two semi-fails. The oreo truffles last night turned out...... until I tried to dip them. Aric didn't mind that only five looked "normal" but I was kind of sad that I ruined the chocolate and ended up turning out half a batch of hideous truffles. I'm sure they still taste fine........ Yesterday we also, erm, took care of my other kitchen fail. So to celebrate Aric graduating, I made him the yummy olive garden pasta, and even whipped out some homemade breadsticks. Personally, I didn't think the pasta turned out quite right... the sauce just wasn't what it was supposed to be. And then the breadsticks.... don't use expired yeast. It fluffed up in the bowl before I added flour so I figured it would be ok. Negatory. Those things came out about as flat as the bottom of an Everglades boat. Aric graciously ate one - maybe two? - but even fresh out of the oven they were an epic fail. The sat on my counter for the next week and a half, since we had vaguely discussed donating that failure to feed the ducks. As I was preparing dinner for us last night, I decided to just tidy up and toss the stuff. (And of course Aric asked if I still had them to feed the ducks with. I fished out about 2/3 from the garbage can for our outing.) Do you know how much of a fail those things were? We couldn't even use our hands to break them apart for the ducks!! Granted, I hadn't put them in an airtight bag so the air dried them out, but still.... Aric stomped them up so we didn't kill the ducks with the potentially deadly missiles of bread. To be honest, it was pretty hilarious to see the resilience of my failed food. And the bigger chunks were good for hitting the big ducks who were trying to gnaw on the little ducklings.

http://www.chriskaylerphotography.com/mallardimage.jpg

 Despite my kitchen fails, it's been a lot of fun. I learned how to tell that a plant is in the lily family yesterday, and I consequently explained the 3-3-6-3 formula to my co-worker today as soon as she got in. You've got 3 sepals, 3 petals, 6 stamens, and 3 pistils. It's pretty cool when you look at, say, a tulip -- it is in the lily family. You think it has 6 petals, but nope! Three of those are sepals. Crazy. And there are two types of chestnut trees on campus: the horse chestnut and the buckeye. Thanks to the movie assistance of "Where The Heart Is," I believe the second chestnut we saw was a buckeye. It had droopy leaves in groups of 5. Apparently buckeyes will have leaves in groups of 5 or 7. Now I'm going to have to go back and check out the buckeye sapling on the movie to see if it matches.... ooh now there is some science at work, lol!

** NEWS FLASH** **NEWS FLASH** **NEWS FLASH** **NEWS FLASH** 

I passed my classes this semester! 

Ok, so I wasn't exactly worried that I wouldn't pass. In fact, after reviewing my grades in my one class, I knew I was pretty much guaranteed an A, barring any major bombing of my final paper. But when I turned in my thesis prospectus for my other class...... I was worried. It wasn't much like the example one my friend was using, and turns out I was about a half page shorter than the required amount.... a fact I realized about half an hour after I submitted the prospectus for grading. Circumstances the evening I should have completed it were such that I absolutely could not focus or work on it. What revisions it got happened during my work breaks  Monday. You know, I wonder what will happen when I'm just doing graduate work, not working 40 hours a week as well. It can't get much better than this semester, though. 

This semester I: 

1. Figured out my thesis and narrowed down my focus
2. Wrote the thesis prospectus
3. Worked approximately 640 hours
4. Rejoined Clog America
5. Got a job teaching at BYU in the Fall
6. Continued teaching at the dance studio 
7. Choreographed most of the dance for the June recital
8. Started dating the most fabulous guy ever
9. Finished the semester alive and happy
10. Got a 4.0 for the semester!

Ok, well this is a lengthy post. I'm not a wordy writer, not at all. HA! If you survived reading this, then hooray. If not.... I'll try and put up some pictures next time. I think have some old pictures of food I've made (not kitchen fails) that need to be recognized. Hm, that sounds like a yummy idea. 

Pictures!!

These first two pictures are Aric's graduation gift: I gave him a framed picture of the two of us, along with the BYU blanket. I made it! (Thanks Megan for helping me cut it straight!)

I am trying to stay humble but... this turned out really well. I like it!

Thursday April 22, 2010 Commencement

Aric and his best friend, Jeff

My handsome guy (and a beautiful day outside!)

He loves taking pictures... check out those eyes!

My new blanket model. Don't forget, he's already taken.

I'm so sad that this turned out fuzzy. I saw Aric at the end of the long line of graduates as they took their seats. I was so excited! But I didn't get his attention until he was past me, so I had to hurry the picture.... but I still think he looks good, and you can see the smile.

The good thing about him being next to last in the line? I knew exactly where he was sitting. I'm sure glad my camera has a good zoom. 

Ahhh.... the sweet feeling of success

With the family: Mom (Shelly) and Dad (Tyler) Wright, Keith, and Truly. 

And Aric. 

What a stud! He's all grown up and graduated. Wahoo!

Graduation Excitement!

Aric is graduating today and I'm so excited!! Not only because I no longer have to compete with his homework for top priority, but because I finally get to give him his graduation gift!! I'm fairly confident he doesn't read my blog, and there's no pictures yet to post, and he'll be getting the gift in the next little while, so.... I feel safe blogging about it. I just got part of it finished and it looks so good! My co-worker/friend Brittany helped me out with it a bit to get things fine-tuned, and she/we did an amazing job. The other portion is waiting at home. I'm bringing it a little home so it's not so exposed when I give it to Aric. 

Well, that's all the info  I'll share right now. Look forward to my  next post, which will include pics from today and the actual gift. 

Great Weekend

       

(Do you see #10 getting ready to wallop the ball? Aric served with him in Slovenia)

       
Well, BYU ended up losing to CAL-U Northridge, but I was a winner Saturday night. Aric and I went on a double date with Jeff and Jackie to the volleyball game and Sammie's. Want a great burger? Go to Sammie's. It was probably one of the absolute best burgers I've ever eaten!!! We watched some Arrested Development after that and had a relaxing evening. Look at that face... isn't he the greatest guy ever? Well maybe you can't tell from his face, but I can.   Hm, well I kind of lost my train of thought right there...... Anyways, did I mention that this was a great weekend? Besides the great date on Saturday, I went to the temple Saturday morning, grabbed breakfast at Kneaders with Alisha, and laid out (ish) in the "backyard" and got some lovely sun therapy. I love the sun. And I love that the weather is finally becoming awesome. Well, I feel like I'm rambling and I should be getting ready for bed. 


*Watch for more pictures to come soon from April Fool's and Easter!

Phone

I was going to write something else here... but I have since changed my mind. Instead, I figured I would just post the picture I had picked out. It's kind of face-like, and I enjoy those types of pictures. So here you go - a picture to enjoy!

Happy April Fool's Day!

Last year I wrote a post here as a joke, saying that I was finally dating someone. I would just like to say that this year, I really am finally dating someone. And I am so happy. Of course, I have come to realize that just because I'm in a relationship doesn't mean that life is any easier. But I am ever so happy to be sharing it with someone!