Honey, Eggs, and Red Rock

It's about time I catch up on my bucket list successes. I will recount the experiences in chronological order.

#21.18--Read The Secret Life of Bees

I believe it was Tuesday night. It was end of term, my independent reading assignment was due on Friday, and I desperately needed to buckle down and read a book. I chose The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, curled up under a quilt and a lamp in the corner of my room, and read until 1:30 in the morning. It was heaven. I had forgotten how much I adore reading. And the book was just wonderful!

Photo Credit

I absolutely loved it. It is definitely feminist, which I don't necessarily agree with, but it is an overall amazing book. It's one of those books that makes me feel like I'm in the story, one of those books that I can relate to in one thing or another. It talked about the importance of having something to believe in. Though I do not believe in the same things as the women in this book, I began to feel a greater appreciation for the strength that I draw from my beliefs. It also talked about love. My favorite quote from the book was said by a woman named August Boatwright.

"And when you get down to it, Lily, that's the only purpose grand enough for a human life. Not just to love--but to persist in love."

Honestly? I want to sit right back down with it and read it again. I loved this book. Well done, Sue Monk Kidd.

#48--Cook something in the odd hours of the night

Immediately following my completion of The Secret Life of Bees, I was wide awake. I don't know if I was just giddy from the excitement of reading, perhaps the book had simply put my mind back in motion, but whatever it was, I was not going to bed anytime soon. It was then that I realized that I had skipped dinner entirely, due to the excitement of the novel. With a growling stomach, I crept downstairs and proceeded to make myself a scrambled egg sandwich.

Though the picture begs to differ, it was marvelously delicious. And satisfying.

(P.S. Don't judge my photography skills off of this photo, it was not taken in the most artistic of circumstances. AKA: I was starving in the middle of the night and wanted to eat the sandwich, not take a picture of it.)

#38--Run a half marathon

This one happened yesterday. My mom, sister and I journeyed to Moab to run the Canyonlands Half Marathon. I ran it with the time of 1:53.30 and absolutely loved it! The canyon is beautiful, the supporters were wonderful, the event was organized, and I had a great run.

This paper was in our hotel lobby.

I fell in love with half marathons--everything about them is supportive, uplifting, and encouraging. There were some 4,000 runners on that course yesterday and every one of them succeeded. Not just the overall winners, not just the top finishers in the age divisions, but every single person that crossed the finish line. The volunteers cheered for every runner as if they were setting a world record. People I didn't even know were supporting me and helping me to be my best. People I had never met were proud of me.

I may or may not get around to posting pictures. I have yet to see the pictures that were taken (they're due to be posted sometime this week), but if they're worth anything I'll put them on display for all the world to see. Since all the world follows my blog.

We saw the coolest car in the world on the way home.

The full car

Close-up on the window sticker

The license plate reads, "RUNLOCO"
The license plate cover reads, "gotta run..."

Bumper sticker: Marathon Freak

I think I'm in love.

Also, I discovered this place. Brilliant. One of these days I'll get around to purchasing the Original Black T--because you can never have enough cotton t-shirts. Especially when it has brilliance printed on it.

The Kite Runner

Photo Credit

This book is outstanding. Well-written, beautifully painted, this novel tells a story different from most I've read. Obviously. It follows the life of a boy who grew up in Afghanistan and depicts what life was like there, how it has changed. It gave me a perspective I never would have found otherwise. I loved and hated characters at the same time. I laughed out loud, I panicked, I was shocked at parts. I couldn't put it down. It's a story about friendship, betrayal, loyalty, relationships, sin, and forgiveness. In the end, I guess you could say this book is about redemption. It's about life - the good and the bad, and it shifted how I view my own life. Khaled Hosseini created something absolutely beautiful with The Kite Runner.

#21-3 complete.

The Nutcracker

Photo Credit

Last night, I went to the Nutcracker performed by Ballet West with my choir. We sang out on a little balcony as people came in and during intermission. I had a lot of fun with that.

The view from my seat.

Our seats were way up in the nosebleeds, but I still feel like I got a really good seat. I was literally in the very center. It was wonderful. And you know what? Even from way up there I could still see their calves! It was so crazy.

The performance itself was outstanding, I was thoroughly impressed. Ballet is so beautiful. They dance with complete control. Every motion is fluid, each placement exact and, without ever saying a word, an entire story is told. I loved to watch and realize how much work it must have taken to accomplish the skills that they had.

Overall, it was a really good experience. I would definitely recommend this to anyone.

Jon Schmidt Christmas Concert!

My parents were kind enough to reward me with an early Christmas present, and I can now cross off #17! Oh my, it was absolutely outstanding! This man is so talented. 

The opening act was a cellist by the name of Steven Sharp Nelson, who also played for Jon Schmidt throughout the whole concert. He was amazing. Seriously. He does things with his cello that I've never seen anyone do before. He turns his cello into about a million different instruments, it's so cool. Granted, I don't know a whole lot about playing a cello, but I'm pretty sure he's unique in what he does. Jon (I'm just gonna assume that we're on a first name basis here) said in the concert that Steve is "the world's only cello-percussionist." Take that how you will. But if you are looking for some really good cello music I would highly recommend his CD's.

Jon, of course, played a lot of songs. Seriously, I fell in love with the piano all over again. Hopefully I'll learn to play it someday. At the intermission (or, as he called it, half time), his daughter came out and quoted the classic "Charlie bit my finger" YouTube video, sang us a song, and helped him throw balls out to the audience. He said he mostly did it for the husbands whose wives dragged them to a piano concert on a Saturday night. It was funny.

After intermission, the show got even better. He played one of his Christmas songs while they ran the most darling video I have ever seen. About 7 or so years ago he and his wife taught their kids the most basic movements to each instrument so it could look like they were the ones actually playing, then put it all together to make the sweetest music video I've ever seen. Jon was watching the video the whole time it was playing, it was so cute. Seriously, watch the video (the link is above, if you haven't noticed yet.) It is so worth the 4:47 of your time.

His son came out and sang one of his songs with his little sister singing backup. Unfortunately, I can't seem to recall his name. But he is coming out with his first album soon, so look for it, cause he was good.

Jon's dad also came and played his harmonica. No one plays the harmonica like that man can, he totally blew me away.

When the concert was over, we, of course, stood and clapped vigorously until he came back on stage absolutely ecstatic saying, "You guys, thank you so much! I've never had an encore before!" Right Jon, right. But he proceeded to put on a red wig, mentioning that he should be able to get a discount at Wendy's if he wore it there, and played a song entitled Dumb Song. I love that song, it's so fun. At the very end, he ran up to a raised part of the stage and did a backflip off of it. So good.

Then he decided to do a double encore and did this really cool thing where he invited someone from the audience who had played the piano in a jazz band to come up and play with him. He said that they had to be complete strangers, they couldn't have ever met. They also had to be able to name off the notes in some blues scale (I clearly don't know what I'm talking about, but I'm hoping that those of you who understand the terminology will know what I'm getting at.) And he began asking for someone who had played in a professional jazz band to come up. No one. After a while, he went down - college level jazz band. No one. After some pleading, he finally moved down to high school. One kid raised his hand, and messed up the scale at the second note. So they moved on to the next kid who rattled them off like it was common knowledge. He went up and totally tore it up. That kid was dang good, it was so fun to watch them.

For the real last song, he played Silent Night and asked us all to sing along with him.

Seriously, that concert was such a great time. I am so thankful to have gone. I highly recommend his concerts to anyone and everyone. It seriously was an incredible concert.

The Help

I highly recommend this book. Written by a fine lady by the name of Kathryn Stockett, this book will suck you in. Her writing is incredible; I am amazed at the voice each and every one of her characters carry. It takes turns you'd never anticipate and you'll find yourself turning pages faster than you can read. It makes you think and, in the end, teaches a message each of us can learn from. If you get the chance, pick this book up. You'll have it finished before you know it.

#21-3 is now complete.