Touching Heaven

I am so blessed. I have wonderful friends who help me so much. This past week was hard, really hard. I felt so depressed, and then realizing I was depressed made me even more depressed.... vicious cycle. My less-than-stellar mood made me a less-than-stellar babysitter and I felt bad about getting frustrated, then sad about being single... anyways, the point is that it was shaping up to be a sad weekend. And then, two of my friends invited me over to have dinner and games with them... and I was able to bring along another friend with me! Thanks Amy, Colin, and Kellianne for an amazing Friday! We had such a fun time catching up, eating delicious food cooked by the Slades, playing Cucumber, and watching folk dance clips. It was such a good night that no one seemed to want it to end, even though we all were getting so tired after midnight passed by. 


Then came Saturday. It started off not so fabulously... I wasn't feeling super duper, but mostly I just didn't feel like doing anything, so I bailed on watching the BYU game with a friend and stayed home, thinking I got the channel it was on. I didn't. However, I used the time to work on some grading and thesis "busy-work," so I made the afternoon work for me anyways. That night made up for the day, though, because I got to meet up with Ananda and go dancing. Every now and then we throw a variety of dance shoes into our bags and meet up to mess around in the studio. Last night was probably one of our more successful ventures: Ananda taught me part of set dance (hornpipe, with back trebles), we did some rhythm work together, contemporary, cardio, and yoga. My favorite was the contemporary. 


Because my dance styles of late have been focused on footwork execution, I haven't done as much emotive dancing, dancing where your soul moves your body. Even the times lately when I try at contemporary style, I usually feel like a dork more than anything. But last night, my soul danced. Ananda put on the song  "Restless" by Audrey Assad, and as I danced, I felt like it actually meant something... to be moving and telling my story. I almost started crying a few time, it was so transcendent. 


To cap that off, we had stake conference today. I don't know that the talks were particularly amazing, and to be honest the hard metal chairs were far less than comfortable. Yet something good settled back in me, pushing the darkness away. I wish I knew what it would take to keep things that way, but I'll just pray that it lasts longer this time. And in the meantime, I'm ever so thankful for wonderful friends who lift me up.

Why I sleep in too much these days

It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up.

W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)

Why my thesis progresseth at a snails pace

A superhuman will is needed in order to write, and I am only a man.
Gustave Flaubert(1821-1880)

DUDE!!!

I am going to PARIS and LISBON this summer!!! As in, I will be able to walk and thirty minutes later saunter into the Paris Opera House, the Louvre, the Musee de Orangerie where Monet's huge waterlily paintings span two rooms! I'm just a jaunt away from the Moulin Rouge (okay, probably won't go inside that one, but pictures are sufficient). I will stroll through the Tuilieries and visit the Champs Elysees. I'll cross the Seine and see the Musee d'Orsay and the Eiffel Tower. And the Notre Dame Cathedral. And did I mention the Rodin museum? 

After Paris, how about some Spain and Portugal? We're staying with host families in Spain, but this is the terrace of our hostel in Lisbon. Maybe I'll have to expand my job search to Europe. Seriously... what beauty! This is going to be the most amazing summer ever!!

More love thoughts, and randomosity

I read another great thing about love today... this time a talk given at BYU-I. You should read it too.


No phone call from the guy yet. I think there's another day or two left in the turn around time. Guess we'll see if that hand hold last night truly translates into a call. Wow, someone's got trust issues? Truly, though, mistrust is not my nature. If that first impression is good, the general impression will stay good. On the upside, I connect well with people; on the downside, its easy for me to get hurt by people I shouldn't trust. Thankfully, those are few and far between. Sometimes people treat you in a way that changes things too, like how much personal info and sharing you'll entrust to someone else. 


Is it weird that I write on my blog like a journal, trusting potentially complete strangers with inner details of my life? Nah, I always filter on here. It's gives an accurate read of me, but it doesn't tell the whole story. My life as Reader's Digest. It takes commitment to hear "the rest of the story" (as Paul Harvey would say. You had to be committed to hear his "rest of the story" segments... each day at a certain time and if you wanted it, you were there for him). Can I be any more random today?


I taught class tonight. Despite a great day, I wasn't really feeling the classroom today. Neither were the students..... I felt like I was teaching crickets a few times. There's important questions to be addressed!!

Photography: there was a general lack of discussion, but I got the feeling that my class didn't see photography in the same category as fine art. Take this last photograph by Rodney Smith. It replicates a Rococo painting by Fragonard, The Swing. While perhaps the original painting is more compelling, there is still a vast amount of artistic value in this image. I theorized to them why I thought they were discounting photography. We talked the very first day about fine arts and techne arts (root word of technology, anyone?). Painting definitely falls into the fine arts and is viewed as something that requires talent and individual inspiration. Photography falls more into the techne side, being highly influenced by science in its origins and development. So there's arguably a built-in bias given our modern culture and understanding of what "fits" in the art category and what doesn't qualify. Additionally, there's a very strong perception that anyone can take a photograph. We live in the digital age, full of point-and-shoot cameras. Do we require the artist's name to call it art? What are they doing in the form to distinguish themselves from the masses to be called artists? 


We didn't finish the discussion today, largely because it was about 3 or 4 people offering their viewpoints, alleviating the burden of the rest of the class to chime in. I warned them that we would finish our discussion on Thursday and that I'd be calling on people by name to contribute. Time to finish memorizing names... and perhaps time to look at some teaching books and find some classroom techniques for inspiring conversation and participation. If any professors or teachers have recommendations, let me know!

Two new photographers I stumbled across... similar to Rodney Smith

Tim Walker Photography

Cade Martin Photography

Happy Day of Love and Chocolate (formerly known as Saint Valentine's Day)

Love Is Not Blind

That's a good talk. In other news, I ran into someone today that I completely did not expect to see at this venue. It went well. While I might have chosen a less-ironic day, it's good to know that the past can generally stay where it belongs. 


Also. Apparently another guy was totally checking me out for a while (says my friend Jenelle), although I didn't notice it obviously until a minute or two before he joined our dance circle. Props for his gutsiness on just joining us, because it really was kind of obvious.... especially when he promptly danced next to me, leaned in and asked my name. He thought he knew me from somewhere, but I don't think we really did. Anyways, we danced, then talked, then he suggested we depart the dance floor in order to facilitate actually hearing each other. (Yeah, the DJ wasn't the best one I've heard.. no offense.) We talked for a bit and had a fun time interacting. You'll never guess what his name is. No, really, never ever. Yet another irony of my past, but his name is Erik. Not Aric, not Eric, but Erik. Yeah...... time to re-watch "The Importance of Being Earnest" again? Anyways, the music was getting good so he got my number and we rejoined the dance floor. Ready for more overlaps? He graduated in finance from BYU, although given his mission dates I'm pretty sure it was with his undergrad degree, not a master's. 


Suffice it to say, tonight was a most interesting Valentine's Day evening. 

My Loves

Cute nephew that called me on the phone today!

Wonderful family who loves me and thinks I'm pretty okay

KINDLE!!!!!!!!

Treats for while reading. And for while grading. And for every other part of life that could use a hint of chocolate/peanut butter. 

Please. Self explanatory.

Sunshine days, and spring/summer around the corner!

I know, I need to take some more pictures with my camera. Until then, I'll borrow :)

Random video of me dancing!

So one thing I love about teaching is that I get to look through different art clips and find ones I like. In my searching tonight I found a few great clips, and then I decided to look up Clog America. Lo and behold there is a full-length video of our (now retired) dance, "High Horse." Even better than that? You can see me!! I'm in the second row on the far far right. Most camera angles don't keep me in the shot, but this one does! And it helps that I'm dancing next to one of the sons of the shooter. Filmer. Whoever. Anyways, if you look beyond a flub or two and the fact that my feet do in fact look like lead (which they felt like at the time), it's not so bad of a performance!


Enjoy!

BYU vs UNLV

So I wasn't expecting to have a very exciting Saturday. I left the Valentine Benefit last night with a massive headache that only got worse. I finally got to sleep, and ended up sleeping for a very long time. Thanks goodness I woke up around 11:15, because about ten minutes later I got a phone call from an old friend, David McMillan. How glad am I that I decided to answer and not let it go to voicemail? SO GLAD! Dave had an extra pass to today's basketball game, so I hurried and showered, got ready, and trucked it up to the Marriott Center.

The game was awesome! I've heard a lot about Jimmer Fredette this semester (who hasn't!), but I had yet to see a live game. It was amazing! UNLV put up a tough fight and certainly made all the BYU players work for their points. But you can't keep a good team down! We had some great shots from the field, including several 3's, some great dunks, and great shooting from the line. Jimmer broke the MWC scoring record, and overall it was just a great game! I'm so glad I got a chance to see our team play live! 

Art Quote

It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance…and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process. Henry James (1843-1916)

Just around the corner

Happy Groundhog's Day, everyone! According to Punxatawney Phil, spring is just around the corner. Thank goodness, because I don't know how many more of these super-cold days I can take! I got to campus today and it was about 9 degrees... with a "feel-temperature" of -1. At least it is bright and sunshining outside. 


So I was reading a friend's blog. She is doing a different goal each month in her quest to find greater happiness this year. I really like that idea! President Hinckley used to encourage us to be just a little bit better; we don't need to change every single thing right now, but just make little steps towards improvement. Personally, I've also been working to find the secret to happiness. One thing that has helped me has been to keep a gratitude journal (of sorts). While it hasn't been a daily thing, it is in the back of my mind as I go through each day. I have been able to look at the day and find good things about it, and because of that I find that my days have been happier in general! It has nothing to do with anything going on in my life, because nothing has really changed. But I am happier, and I love that feeling. To tie back to the beginning of this paragraph.... that change has helped me in one of my goals for the year: to complain less. 


I had a better point to make than that... but I sort of forget what it was. So I'm going to finish this here and work on writing my exam.