Anthem

I read "Anthem" by Ayn Rand for the first time in 9th grade. It bored me to tears. Then we were made to watch the movie "THX 1138" and I thought I would die. (Having just read a summary of the plot to that movie, I'm kind of appalled I was shone it at school. Is it as bad as the summary makes it sound?) Anyway...

So I just reread "Anthem," having heard a lot about Ayn Rand recently. Wow, do I think more people need to read this book. Seeing as I don't want this blog to be a political blog (there's lots of things I don't want this blog to be--what I WANT it to be, I'm still not sure), I won't go into a lot of the things I liked about this book. But I do encourage all of you to read it and I would love to hear what you think individually. (Really. I would. It's really short. About 100 very small pages. Big type. Go ahead. Read it!)

My one big bone to pick with this book was how close it came to truth and then it lacked one very essential ingredient. I loved it until the last two chapters. And I even loved parts of the last two chapters. This is definitely one to add to your must-read-before-I-get-too-much-older list.

Frog Chorus

Last night, Morgan and I were in bed when Mom knocked on our door. "Come listen to this frog chorus!" said Mom.

Morgan was reluctant, but I jumped out of bed and went outside. Sure enough, the frogs were making a joyful noise. I called for Morgan and he stumbled outside. Listening for a second he said, "Martha? Where are you, Martha?" pretending to be a frog.

Mom and I started to laugh at the absurdity of all that noise just to look for one little missing frog. Morgan, Mom and I came up with more and more ludicrous situations.

When Morgan and I got back in bed, we continued the game. We talked about how dangerous it was for frogs with all this rain and the chance of getting run over in the road by accident.

"So I've got good news and bad news. Well, I found Martha..."

Ghost Train

One thing I miss most about Utah is the amazing concerts we went to. I went to tons of concerts when I was single and almost as many after Morgan and I got married. We discovered some really neat pieces of music over the years.

One concert we attended had a piece named "Ghost Train." It's by Eric Whitacre, a really interesting contemporary composer. Whitacre wrote this piece as an undergraduate. Morgan and I were hooked from the first flute solo. In fact, everyone was so astounded by this piece that when the fire alarm went off in the middle, no one moved until the last note. :) (There was only about a minute left. And it was a false alarm, thank goodness.)

Now, of course, this recording isn't going to be nearly as amazing as hearing it in a live concert, but I hope you enjoy anyway. It's especially effective if you close your eyes and do a little visualization.



Did Whitacre get this title on the nose or what?!

Funny Coincidence?

So I was thinking yesterday. Don't ask me why, but I noticed that the women who married my brothers all come from predominately female families. My brothers come from a predominately male family. Therefore, I obviously come from a predominately male family. I married someone from a predominately female family. I told this observation to my mom and she said that she has an equal number of brothers and sisters and so does my dad. Funny, huh?

I Really Want to Know

I didn't want this blog to become my complain-o-log, but bear with me for one post. I woke up at a ridiculous hour this morning with yet another massive headache. I detest taking painkillers, but they're the only thing that I've found that works to get rid of said headaches. Call me a wimp and that's okay, because when it comes to headaches, I really am. I can take nausea for months at a time (and frequently have). I can take extreme fatigue and still marginally function. I've lived through backaches, leg aches, sore muscles, sore throats--all sometimes for years at a time. But headaches? No way. Can't deal. I feel especially wimpy because I know some people who deal with headaches on a nearly daily basis. I have a few friends who deal with migraines on a regular basis.

So what I want to know is HOW do you deal with it? I'm a little worried about my stomach/kidneys/liver or whatever it is you ruin with painkillers. But I can't find anything else to make a headache go away. And please, the one piece of advice I don't want is to sleep it off. Sleeping makes my headaches worse. (Remember how I woke up with this massive headache? I went to sleep with a very minor one.) But other than that, how do you deal with headaches? I really want to know.

Another Favorite

So I think I've mentioned that I really do like opera. To a point anyway. I won't listen to just any opera, but there's a lot of stuff I love. Of course, with my impeccable taste, I don't just love opera. I love some modern stuff too. I gotta say, I love Bryan Adams. So when Morgan and I found this, we laughed our heads off. And enjoyed it very much.



Does not Pavarotti have the most beautiful voice?!!!! Sigh...

Lucky Us!

There was a fireside in Augusta, Georgia last night and they invited women from Memphis and Orlando to join in by satellite. Mary Cook and Julie Beck spoke. Mary Cook mostly spoke to the young women and challenged them to do three things. Smile, read their scriptures every day, and pray every morning and evening.

Julie Beck asked for questions from the audience. One women asked how to help other women struggling with depression. Sister Beck advised that they get the best professional and spiritual help they can. And then she quoted Joseph Smith saying that it takes faith to get out of bed in the morning. I really appreciated that. There are a lot of mornings where it just seems too hard to get out of bed, so the fact that I do... Wahoo! An act of faith! (Can someone help me find this quote? It sounds Lectures of Faith-ish.)

Of course, they said a lot more, but I don't want to go on forever and ever. We really enjoyed the fireside! Yay for the randomness of inviting us!