tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66034622024-03-05T02:07:15.217-05:00Laughing WildAmbition this shall tempt to rise,
And moody Madness laughing wild
Amid severest woe.
-from Thomas Gray's "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College"maurinskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04398559432565869750noreply@blogger.comBlogger1196125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6603462.post-65557344519948287072013-09-24T12:44:00.001-04:002013-09-24T12:44:22.620-04:00Engaged!Yes, the rumors are true, and I'm so sorry, former-next husband Louis CK, but you missed your chance. I am now wearing a lovely pale green sapphire engagement ring on my left hand and after Siobhan gets married, we'll start making our plans.<br />
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<br />maurinskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04398559432565869750noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6603462.post-72643205805143072062013-08-09T08:58:00.002-04:002013-08-09T08:58:26.663-04:00AnticipationAnticipation is my drug of choice. If I don't have something looming in the distance, I feel kind of empty and sad. Right now, I'm overdosing on anticipation. Next week, we're going on camping in Maine, and we'll be living here for 6 days:<br />
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I'll be home for approximately 15 hours before I head to Orlando for a work conference. I'll be starting back to school while I'm there, and when I get home, it will be about 15 hours before Maeve starts school, and later that evening will be our first day back to work in the choir. Yes, our, because Maeve will be our soprano section leader.<br />
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And it will only be a month and half after that that Siobhan will be getting married. The day after she and Jason marry, my sweetheart and I will celebrate our 3rd anniversary. And then it's not too much longer until my birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and next April we're going on a cruise...<br />
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I might need to figure out how to enjoy life in the present, because I feel like I'm blowing through time looking ahead instead of being, now. I like the endorphin rush of looking forward to things too much. <br />
<br />maurinskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04398559432565869750noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6603462.post-92063142020664950582013-04-17T09:55:00.002-04:002013-04-17T09:55:46.120-04:00Various and SundryMy second term at school started. I'm taking English Composition 2 and State and Local Government. I felt like I got a bad start in Eng Comp 2 - I kept doing everything wrong! It was partly because this was the first class I had where the teacher didn't use the Course Content to, you know, list the course content. He uses the Announcements to give deadlines, new assignments, etc. I had a sharp learning curve and it didn't go well. So I didn't get credit for the first week's discussions, because I missed the mid-week deadline for them. Then we had an essay to write in the second week. I thought the topic was one we had to choose from a list he had in the Course Content folder. I initially thought the paper was due on Sunday, because the syllabus states that all assignments are due by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, but that's not accurate. The first draft was due Friday night. I was having a quiet day at work, so I spent a chunk of the afternoon writing an 8 page paper on homeschooling. Then I got home to finish it, and I read the announcements page and saw that I was supposed to write about a completely different topic. This was around 3:30 p.m. So I started a new paper, this one only had to be 5 pages long. I researched and wrote it in 2 hours (because I had a rehearsal, more on that later), and then submitted it around 10 p.m. after I double checked the works cited page.<br />
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We were put in peer review groups, and the instructions said to review our peers' work and respond, with a list of items to address (spelling, grammar, effectiveness/relevance of the title, quality of the argument, etc.). That had to be done by Sunday at 11:59, so Sunday afternoon, I sat down and read all of my peer group papers, and reviewed them all. Around 8:30 that evening, the professor put up a new announcement stating that we only had to review one of the papers of our peer review group. I put this one on the professor, since the original instruction didn't include the words "one of your peer review group papers".<br />
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Anywhoo, I ended up getting an A on my paper, and he even put it up as an excellent example. Good to know I can still write an acceptable paper in a short time frame!<br />
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My other class has been a breeze. I read the chapters, and discuss a specific question from the chapter on our discussion board. Easy peasy.<br />
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On the subject of the rehearsal I mentioned, I recently got to sing with <a href="http://voceinc.org/">Voce </a>in their recent Anglophile concert. They needed a larger choir to perform Vaughan Williams "Lord, Thou Hast Been Our Refuge", which is one of my very favorite choral pieces. It was so wonderful to sing with such a great group. I am getting burnt out on my church choir, I think. Some of the people seem to be incapable of learning to sing properly. They make the same mistakes on all the songs, even after they've corrected it for previous songs. We also have one tone-deaf soprano who somehow manages to sing a tri-tone below the actual soprano part. It's painful to listen to. <br />
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<br />maurinskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04398559432565869750noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6603462.post-88074197463103479722013-04-05T08:12:00.001-04:002013-04-05T08:12:54.620-04:00RIP Roger EbertEvery now and then, not often, but every now and then, a celebrity death hits me hard. Phil Hartman, for example. Bob Fosse. And now, Roger Ebert. When I was a kid, we only got 3-4 channels depending on how clear of a day it was, and one of the channels we always could rely on was PBS, channel 24. I became a devotee of several PBS programs - on weekdays, Sesame Street, Mister Rogers, The Electric Company, Zoom, and on weekends I liked the cooking shows, but my favorite weekend show was Siskel & Ebert At The Movies. I probably didn't see 2/3ds or more of the movies they reviewed, but I loved seeing the clips and hearing them debate about a movie - and when I was younger and went to the movies more often, it was obligatory that after a movie, we would head out to a diner and have a discussion about it - which sometimes turned into a debate. <br />
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As a kid, I fancied myself a bit of intellectual, so I always sided with Siskel, who I thought was more analytical and intellectual, but as an adult, I really began to appreciate Ebert's passion and joy for the fun of movies. He had a generosity of spirit when he reviewed a movie. And in the past 10 years or so, as he dealt with his cancer, losing his jaw and his voice, I was so grateful for all of his writing, on political subjects, on movies, on his memories - that even though he couldn't speak, he could still speak, and boy, did he have some things to say!<br />
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I'm blue at the news of his death. Just to cheer myself up, I might read some of his one star reviews - they are always good for a laugh. I especially recommend his one star review of "Freddy Got Fingered". maurinskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04398559432565869750noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6603462.post-54800186025027620082013-02-28T12:04:00.001-05:002013-02-28T12:04:47.994-05:00You learn something new every dayOn Monday, I learned something I never knew before, even though it was the cause of all the problems I've had with my hip my whole life.<br />
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Before my memory begins, I had surgery and was in a series of braces for various lengths of time. My mom always told me it was because I was born with a dislocated hip. Eventually, when I was managing my own health care, I heard the term "hip dysplasia". So that's what I thought my problem was, and the typical treatment for a person with hip dysplasia and severe osteoarthritis is total hip replacement surgery. When I was younger, I was told that I should wait until I was 40 to get the surgery done. When I was 40, I went to the orthpedist and he encouraged me to wait a little longer. I kept hearing that my life was going to change with hip replacement surgery. All the people I knew who had hip replacement surgery told me to stop waiting and just do it.<br />
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Well, as it turns out, I didn't have hip dysplasia. I had a childhood disease called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legg%E2%80%93Calv%C3%A9%E2%80%93Perthes_syndrome">Legg Calve Perthes. </a>I heard these three words for the first time on Monday. My trust in my orthopedist is shaken. How could I know know that this was what I had? How could I be hearing this for the first time when I'm 43 years old?<br />
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At any rate, he still doesn't want to do the surgery. I am going to get a second opinion, because there are some things about the LCP that don't gibe with what I went through (osteotomy surgery at not quite 2, a full 2 years before the disease is supposed to show up, for example). In reading about it, people who have LCP and get total hip replacement surgery can have good outcomes, but recent studies (small studies, unfortunately), have suggested that there is a significant increase in neurological complications in THR surgery on LCP patients. And I can't have the latest and greatest in surgical techniques because my hip is so very deformed.<br />
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I'm kind of thrown. The surgery that I've been hearing "this will change your life for the better" all my life suddenly seems much more tenuous. My orthopedist said that I have to set aside all the success stories I've heard, because my surgery will be different and my results won't be so strong. On the other hand, I was reading a forum of people who have had or are going to have hip replacement surgery, and there are some people on there who are thrilled with the results of their surgery. I would like to have an increased range of motion, because I'm worried about the lifetime impact of overcompensating on all the other joints in my body.<br />
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On the plus side, I have ankylosing spondylitis in my hip, which my ortho called "a blessing", because it further limits my already severely limited range of motion, which actually reduces the pain. maurinskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04398559432565869750noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6603462.post-52844687507412774412013-02-09T16:08:00.002-05:002013-02-09T16:08:55.263-05:00Blizzard 2013<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This was the view from our front door shortly after the snow stopped falling. The snow wasn't actually 3 feet deep, you can kind of tell from the picture that there was drifting. We probably got 18-20" of snow, and thankfully, my sweetheart has a snowblower, so it wasn't hours of shoveling to get everything cleared. I was more worried we would lose power (which would mean we would lose heat, too), so I'm grateful it was just a shit-ton of snow.<br />
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The storm did remind me of two snowstorms from my childhood. After the ice storm ('72, I think), my sister and I were able to ice skate on our back yard. And I mean we strapped on ice skates, we didn't just slide on top of the snow. It was magical, I remember being outside until it was dark and feeling like I was in fairy story.<br />
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The second one was '78, and a bunch of kids from the neighborhood and my sister and I built a series of adjoining caves/tunnels into a snowbank that was well over 6' high. She reminded me that we were having so much fun that when we came inside and took our socks off, our toes were purple and it took a long time before we could get our feet warm again.<br />
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I love the summer, but now that time goes by so quickly, I do find winter more survivable and less depressing. Especially if I don't have to go anywhere in the bad weather!maurinskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04398559432565869750noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6603462.post-48470834486976677002013-01-25T10:19:00.003-05:002013-01-25T10:19:58.607-05:00TravelMaeve has been selected as a People to People Student Ambassador delegate. She will be traveling this summer, to France, England, Wales and Ireland. I am so excited for her, although I spend at least a half-hour lying in bed doing math to figure out how we're going to pay for the trip. Our first significant payment is made already, but there are three more looming.<br />
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This will not be her first travel experience. When she was 4, we vacationed in New Brunswick, Canada for a week. We stayed in a little town called Bouctouche, right on Le Baie de Bouctouche. It was a wonderful trip - we visited Prince Edward Island, with its gorgeous red clay beaches; Nova Scotia, where we spent most of a day at Peggy's Cove and where she discovered her love of pickled beets; and where we also visited an animal preserve, where a young otter decided he loved Maeve, and he followed her everywhere she went.<br />
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When she was 5, we went to England. We stayed in London for a few days, at a hotel that was just around the corner from the London Eye and just on the back side of Town Hall, which faces the Thames. Then we traveled around. We went to Glastonbury, where we found a little B&B that had the Tor in its backyard. We went to Bath and Stonehenge, where Maeve absorbed the autoguided tour, telling us that "this is hundreds of thousands of years old!" Then we went back to London and stayed with family for a few days, which was fantastic. We also had a get together with some of the May Moms and their kids, all the same age as Maeve. We visited Leeds Castle and heard the sad story of the albino peacock, whose albino peahen mate was eaten by foxes and who was rejected by the colorful peahens. My cousin-in-law Mick took us on his whistle stop tour of London, which included some seedy bars where he got to see some of the giants of classic rock before they were huge.<br />
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When she was 8, we went to Paris and Ireland. Our first day in Paris, we stayed in Montmartre. It was a drizzly evening, and I was wearing a blue plastic poncho, and an old man came up to me, reaching for my face and speaking to me in French. Siobhan translated for me - he was telling me that my red hair looked beautiful against the blue poncho. We went to Ireland for a week, where we met people in Dublin who varied between angry and crazy; we found a much nicer Ireland in the countryside, and we stayed with my family in Galway for a week. Then we went back to France, stayed in a small apartment off of Rue Mouffetard, and did all kinds of touristy stuff like the Tour d'Eiffel and the Louvre, D'Orsay, etc. And we ate like kings!<br />
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I feel so lucky that we've been able to see some small part of the world outside of where we have settled down. maurinskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04398559432565869750noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6603462.post-11715956978629036642013-01-22T14:40:00.003-05:002013-01-22T14:40:49.564-05:00Back to school, againToday is the first day of my first semester at Charter Oak State College. I am pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Public Administration. The semester is divided into two 8 week terms, so it promises to be intensive, although it also means I only have 2 classes a term. I'm already enjoying the online classes, I'm having a discussion about Orwell and creative writing with one professor, talking about the role democracy plays in public administration with another. maurinskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04398559432565869750noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6603462.post-18409156517422904332013-01-19T14:01:00.002-05:002013-01-19T14:01:19.905-05:00Something has changed within meMy sweetheart and I were at a Verizon store last week as he was upgrading his phone. While he was going through that process, I started playing with the iPads, and I opened an app called Mathboard, which was a game that looked like an old-fashioned chalk board, and you did math problems. And I played this game, willingly, and had fun playing it, for about 15 minutes, at which point I got out of the way for a woman who was planning to buy an iPad that day and wanted to try it out.maurinskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04398559432565869750noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6603462.post-916609852847469362013-01-19T10:46:00.000-05:002013-01-19T10:46:00.271-05:00OpportunitiesMy younger one has a big opportunity - a big, expensive opportunity, but an opportunity nonetheless - to spend 3 weeks of her summer traveling in Europe. I have put a deposit on the trip, and she has an interview on Tuesday. During daylight hours, I'm just excited about the trip, but last night, I just kept thinking about the money. It's going to be a tough year for me, between this and my older daughter getting married. I basically can only pay my bills and buy essential items in 2013, so my budgeting is going to be super strict. I know it will all work out, but it is going to be tight.<br />
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Also on Tuesday, I will be starting back at school, pursuing a BA in Public Administration. My boss is thrilled - he teaches public administration at the grad level, although he did say that he wishes he'd gone to medical school instead, since all his doctor friends are already retired and living in beautiful places on boats and he's spending 12 hours a day going to meetings and seeing his plans sometimes get dashed because a new person is in charge of a committee. I don't think I would survive medical school, so that's not an option. Music education is what I wanted to pursue, but it's not in the cards. Still, I'm playing my guitar most days, and actually seeing improvement. I sing whenever possible, usually for pay, so that's good. I believe in the possibility of personal renaissance.maurinskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04398559432565869750noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6603462.post-37069594080537205942013-01-15T08:59:00.003-05:002013-01-15T08:59:33.374-05:00Magical ThinkingWhen I was married, we had a lot of crisis, or were always near a crisis. I have to claim some credit for this, in classic adult child of alcoholic style, I craved a certain amount of chaos and subconsciously worked to make sure it would happen. I engaged in some magical thinking as we moved through our various crises, and my magical thinking worked like this: I am stressed out and managing a lot of stuff, but because of all this crisis and suffering, nothing truly bad can happen to me personally. <br />
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The other night, I was lying in bed next to my sweetheart, who was already fast asleep, and I was thinking about how peaceful and serene my life is now, and all of a sudden, I thought - now I've opened myself up for something terrible to happen. Now I'm going to get breast cancer, or something.<br />
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Who needs enemies when this is how your brain works?<br />
<br />maurinskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04398559432565869750noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6603462.post-5983302713259342112013-01-02T09:53:00.001-05:002013-01-02T09:53:17.225-05:002013 Resolutions"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. If again you fail, fail better."<br />
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Once again, I'm making resolutions for the year.<br />
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1. 30 minutes of deliberate movement (added on to my regular activities) at least 6 days a week.<br />
2. 15-20 minutes of guitar practice at least 6 days a week.<br />
3. Write something every day.<br />
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That last one is part of a general shift from consuming to producing. I want to spend less time in front of a screen and more time creating. maurinskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04398559432565869750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6603462.post-88992340829228469072012-12-31T10:57:00.001-05:002012-12-31T10:57:27.914-05:00Dream, Dream, DreamI have been having some strange, vivid dreams recently.<br />
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I had one where I was in Cleveland - a city I've never been to - and I was trying to find my way to a restaurant where I was going to be meeting someone important, but I couldn't find it. I kept walking all over the city, and going through some scary neighborhoods, all dressed up in fancy clothes, and finally I decided I had to get on a boat to see the outside of the city to figure out how to get to the place I needed to be. In my dream, Cleveland was a peninsula jutting out into the water, so I could take the boat all the way around the city to figure out the best way to get to the restaurant. I remember feeling very happy in my dream that I was getting a lot of exercise with all the walking. <br />
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This weekend, I dreamed I was singing at church (and in classic dream logic, it was the church I usually sing at, but didn't look anything like the church I usually sing at), and one of my co-workers (not even someone I'm close to) came and called me into the lobby of the church, which was vast and cold. He told me he was embarrassed because he ran out of boxers and had to wear briefs - which he showed me - and somehow we both knew that because he was wearing briefs, his soul was now more vulnerable to being taken by demons. We were standing in the lobby, and there were these cave-like hallways, and I could hear something calling his name from one of them, so I looked down, and there was some kind of specter calling him. I told him to please stick close to me, that I would protect him. So we go into the service, and I notice that he's got this pained, worried look on his face, and then he slowly slips out of the pew. I follow him into the lobby, and now, it's snowing inside the lobby - it's beautiful, the place looks like St. John the Divine, this vast empty stone space with snow falling in it. My co-workers is inching towards the cave/hall with the demon in it, and I can hear it's calling his name. My co-worker is saying "he really needs me" in a child-like voice, and so I take his hand and we go outside. Outside, it's spring, it's warm, and we sit in the grass until I can see he's back to normal. <br />
<br />maurinskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04398559432565869750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6603462.post-47626900249406634732012-10-10T10:47:00.003-04:002012-10-10T10:48:06.778-04:00SchoolThis semester (my last semester at MCC!!!!), I'm taking Biology, Algebra and Guitar. Biology has become sort of all-consuming. I have a Bio lecture every Monday and Wednesday, and a Bio lab on Tuesday, which equals 5.4 hours of Bio class every week, plus homework and a quiz before every lab. My teacher is a very nice woman, but not the greatest or most scintillating teacher. This is my youngest class, by far. There is one other person in the class who is my age cohort, everyone else is between 17-22. I'm dreading class today because we're having someone from the college come to give a presentation on e-tutoring. But attendance is part of the grade, so I'll be there making grocery shopping lists in my head.<br />
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I have Algebra on Saturday morning, from 9-12:20. I have struggled with math since division was introduced, but suddenly, I'm getting it. This math teacher is the best math teacher I've ever had. I'm doing very well in the class, and I expect that to continue. Plenty of homework, but it's not overwhelming, and since we only meet once a week I'm finding it less difficult to fit the homework into my schedule.<br />
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Guitar is fun and I'm making progress, but I get so confused in class sometimes. The teacher is not a native English speaker, and he is clearly exhausted by the time he walks in the door, so he loses focus and changes direction all the time. He'll ask us to play something and then stop us a few minutes into the piece to talk about something else. He is also disorganized, which is a quality I've come to loathe in teachers. maurinskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04398559432565869750noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6603462.post-90662323728076012212012-09-12T10:55:00.000-04:002012-09-12T10:55:04.832-04:00SchoolMy last semester at MCC started on 8/29. Yes, I will be leaving the hallowed halls of this community college after I graduate in December. This semester, I'm taking Biology, Algebra and Guitar. And I know you will all be jealous when I share that my Algebra class is Saturday morning from 9-12:20.<br />
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I have 2 Bio lectures and 1 Bio lab every week - Mon, Tues, Wed. The lecture is an hour and 20 minutes, the lab is just about 3 hours. My teacher is nice, and I like her, but she is unfortunately not a very good teacher. She lacks confidence, and all of us in the class know it. It's not a good situation, and if people start doing poorly on quizzes and other work, there could be a mutiny.<br />
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I don't start Algebra until this weekend. I am alternately dreading it and trying to improve my attitude at the same time.<br />
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I had my first guitar class Monday night, and I LOVE the teacher. English is not his first language, but he has a wonderful vocabulary, and I found myself delighted by some of his word choices as he was teaching our first class. We learned the strings, their names, how to read tabs, how to play Hot Cross Buns, a 12 bar blues riff, and some ways to fancy up the 12 bar blues riff. The class is officially Monday nights from 7-9:50, but he's subdivided us into beginners and more experienced players (I'm a beginner).<br />
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I got a guitar for the class - nothing too fancy, a Yamaha something-or-other. She is so pretty, and I'm thinking about naming her, although I'm not sure what I'm going to call her. I love her! maurinskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04398559432565869750noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6603462.post-37361221902531538082012-07-12T22:16:00.002-04:002012-07-12T22:16:54.950-04:00ChoppedThis show is like a bag of chips (or pretzels, or whatever bag of snacks you can't just have one of). I can't watch just one episode, I get sucked in to watching as many episodes as they run. If I stay long enough to see the four starting competitors open their baskets, that's it, I'm done. I have to watch until the end. What are they going to do with that huitlacoche? How will they incorporate cough drops into a lamb entree? It makes me wish I could be a little more free to experiment in the kitchen.maurinskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04398559432565869750noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6603462.post-81824573153954122252012-06-28T10:41:00.000-04:002012-06-28T10:41:24.334-04:00So You Think You Can Dance?Since I'm talking about the TV show, you don't have to answer. I have been watching SYTYCD since mid-way through season 2. I have some issues with the show - Nigel Lythgoe is a gross ogler of young ladies and seems slightly homophobic, the judging often focuses on the wrong things (I don't care if the costume is terrible, the dancers don't pick their own), and sometimes the choreography just sucks ass (Tyce DiOrio), but I can't get enough of non-celebrity related dance programs.<br />
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(Sidebar: I have always wanted to be a dancer. My parents were instructed to put me in ballet after I had osteotomy surgery to help strengthen my leg and core muscles and keep my flexibility going, but they didn't. Instead, I took Irish step dancing, which I adored, but the lessons were too far away from our house, so my mom stopped taking us. As an adult, I did lots of musical theater and I even had a featured dance solo in a production of "Chess" because the choreographer loved me. I worked hard, but with a body as messed up as mine is, dancing isn't really in the cards. But I love to watch dancers, I have never been to a recital or dance show where I didn't cry - there is something about the pairing of music and movement that moves me.)<br />
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I watched the audition shows sort of half-heartedly. It's almost a waste of time, because half the dancers they pick for the program aren't featured during the auditions (usually), and you often see as much of the judges reaction (which I don't care about) than you do the solos. But last night was the first time we would meet the top 20, and since there are dance routines involved, I'm there.<br />
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The first four in the top 20 are Alexa, Amber, Will and George. I will come out and say that George is my early favorite - the boy was born to dance, and his joy at dancing comes through in his movement and his face. Seriously, his face while he dances is just dreamy. The choregraphy is Tyce Diorio, so, it's okay, but not great. Will is a giant. Everyone does a fine job.<br />
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The next three are two blonde ballroom girls from Utah, Whitney and Lindsey, and Nick, a brown haired ballroom guy from Utah (the Mormons are trying to corner the market on ballroom dancers, I think). Jason Gilkison choreographs a ballroom menage a trois, and it is fiery and excellent, although poor Nick gets lost a little because it's hard to not look at the girls, Whitney in particular, who is demanding that you look at her, because she is awesome.<br />
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Next is Eliana, Daniel and Chehon. Eliana was an aerialist with Cirque de Soleis, and her legs are magic. Daniel wanted to move from Australia to the US and found out that you could do that if you did ballet, so he did - he seems really pragmatic from what I've seen of him just fare and way less emotional than many of the other folks. Chehon is a beautiful ballet dancer from Switzerland. His leaps are insane. He is about 20 seconds away from actually being able to take flight. They do a very stylized and modern ballet piece, with all the strength and beauty that ballet contains. The costume they put Eliana in has actually injured both of her partners, but it was glorious, although I am worried that the floor is not good for pointe - I think Eliana was holding back a little. The routine was choreographed by Desmond Richardson and Dwight Roden, who are serious business in the ballet world.<br />
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The next routine was supposed to include three tiny dancers, Audrey, Tiffany and Janelle. Janelle is a belly dancer who (from what I saw of her in Vegas week) did well with other styles. Janelle, however, is ill and a doctor has instructed her to sit out this week. So tiny and indistinguishable Tiffany and Audrey get a Sonya Tayeh routine. I love Sonya Tayeh's work - I know it's instantly recognizable, but I find that a plus, not a minus. You would instantly recognize a Bob Fosse piece, too. She has a vocabulary of strength that I love. These girls are pulling it off, but they are so tiny it makes it look like they are the best girls at a high school dance recital.<br />
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The next routine includes Matthew, who is a cute contemporary dancer, Dareian, who is a tiny man with clunky feet but a gorgeous dancer is every other respect, Amelia, who is a little over-affected but clearly has the dancing chops to back it up, and Jenaya, who I don't know anything about. It's a contemporary choreographed by Stacy Tookey, and it's very sweet and it's hard to not look at Amelia because she is the whitest person on the planet. Her skin is so white it appears blue on stage.<br />
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Next routine is made up of the last three guys: Brandon, who is a stepper, Cyrus, an animator, and Cole, a martial artist. Of those three styles, I only recognized stepping as a dance style, but Cyrus has one of these personalities that goes on for days, Cole is just beautiful, and Brandon is big and strong. Christopher Scott choreographs a baseball themed routine where they each get a moment or two to shine. Cyrus doesn't shine quite as much, because outside of his style, he has some issues, but it's a fair introduction.<br />
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The top 10 girls dance a dreamy piece choreographed by Travis Wall (he's an asshole, but at least he's a good choreographer); it's really lovely and the girls work so well together.<br />
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The top 10 guys get Sonya Tayeh, and I love this one. So strong. The stand-outs for me in this one were George, Cole and Will.<br />
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The last routine is choreographed by the returning Mia Michaels (again, she's an asshole, but she can be an incredible choreographer). This piece is good, with a lot of the emotional heft that her choreos provide, although it was hard to see everything because it was so dark and my TV is so old. I think Alexa was the standout in this one, and that's good if she can stand out against 20 people who are all doing the same movement.<br />
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<br />maurinskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04398559432565869750noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6603462.post-88470871104399152752012-06-25T10:56:00.004-04:002012-06-25T10:56:47.435-04:00Moonrise KingdomSam Shkusky is an orphan and a Khaki Scout. His troop is attending a performance of Benjamin Britten's "Noye's Fludde" (foreshadowing!) when his restlessness gets the better of him and he gets up and wanders through the building, eventually ending up in the girl's dressing room, where he locks eyes with Suzy Bishop. Before he is returned to his seat by his troop, she slips him her address and asks him to write. They do, for a year, and Sam plans an escape. He asks her to join him. She does, bringing everything a girl needs when running away - a suitcase full of books and a battery operated record player. His Scout Master and her parents find out they are missing and the search begins while a hurricane brews off the coast.<br />
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The kids who play Sam and Suzy are played as if they were children imagining they are adults. They end up in a cove where Sam pitches camp. They swim and dance and share a first kiss. They are in love in the way only young people seem to be able to be in love - the rest of the world doesn't exist for them. The actor who plays Sam (Jared Gilman) is a little mush-mouthed, but he exudes a confidence that he can handle any problems that come their way - unless it involves swimming, because he's not a very strong swimmer. Suzy (Kara Hayward) looks at the world through her binoculars, but when she puts them down, she has a thousand yard stare that it would be unsettling to be at the other end of.<br />
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Standout performances in the movie are from Ed Norton as Scout Master Ward and Bruce Willis as the police chief. They both are sensitive and subtle and sad, but are redeemed in the end. <br />
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The music of the movie is mainly classical - excerpts from Britten's Noye's Fludde and Midsummer Night's Dream, selections from A Young Person's Guide to the Symphony, with a little mid-60's French pop music as well as a good helping of Hank Williams.<br />
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I've been a fan of Wes Anderson since Bottle Rocket. While his movies
are criticized for being twee and precious, I think despite the
artificiality of the worlds that he creates, there is genuine emotion
and feeling present. This movie has the look and feel of childhood
remembered - there is a washed-out, Instagram quality to the picture.
The story takes place on and island off the coast of New England, and
the characters at the start of movie are all islands unto themselves.
Suzy has a violent streak; Sam just doesn't fit in (although when it
comes down to it, no one can quite figure out why they don't like him,
although I suspect it's because he doesn't seem to care what anyone
thinks of him). Suzy's mother is disconnected from her family - she
calls the kids to meals with an airhorn - but has some kind of sad
affair going on with the police chief; the police chief put his love
life on hold for the woman he loved who married another, and lives a sad
and lonely life; Suzy's father seems to suffer from ennui as he lazes
around the house reading books. By the end of the movie, connections are
made, bridges between these islands that won't be washed out by any
flood.<br />
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<br />maurinskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04398559432565869750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6603462.post-82658401736430787352012-06-22T10:04:00.000-04:002012-06-22T10:04:01.439-04:00Long time no writeIt's been almost a year since I last posted. I am planning an overhaul of this blog, to focus on a few things instead of just random posting. I will be focusing on the subject of going back to school after a long hiatus (which includes the subject of being in school and working full-time); on television, movie and music reviews; and there will inevitably be some political posts.<br />
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So all my non-existent readers can look forward to changes soon. The first thing I'm going to talk about after the updates: Moonrise Kingdom.maurinskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04398559432565869750noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6603462.post-48600485757888839882011-08-04T13:54:00.004-04:002011-08-04T14:05:36.778-04:00Wedding PlanningSo my eldest is engaged and they've picked a date, which is 2 years away. I am slightly astonished at how obsessed I am with wedding planning right now. I can't stop thinking about it. I keep reading Offbeat Bride, I scan through bridal magazines on the rack at the bookstore/grocery store, and Google lace wedding dresses (she wants a lace wedding dress). I have contacted venues and photographers so I plan my budget (I'm not paying for the whole thing, but I am contributing).<br /><br />Perhaps it's just because I got married because I was pregnant and I didn't know what else to do. I was madly in love, too, but ambivalent about the subject of marriage. When I was in high school, I planned to just have a series of fabulous lovers, never marry, and never have children. The only time I have been more scared than the day I got married was the day I went into labor. I had a brief thought on my way to the hospital that I really didn't want to do what I was about to do, but it's kind of late to do anything about that when you're already 5 cm dilated. <br /><br />Or maybe it's because I'm in love. And I know he wants to marry me. And I'm still kind of ambivalent about the idea of marriage. But the idea of having a big party with your family and friends to celebrate love is pretty appealing. <br /><br />Or maybe it's because the news is so depressing (continued war, horrible economy, starving babies in Somalia, etc.) that it's a welcome distraction to look at beautiful spaces and dresses. <br /><br />Whatever it is, I need to calm the eff down, because it's not my wedding!maurinskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04398559432565869750noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6603462.post-80591849377423178732011-06-10T11:43:00.001-04:002011-06-10T11:45:37.404-04:00Why not?I asked myself why should I bother posting anything here, but then I thought...why not?<br /><br />So, quick synopsis:<br /><br />Sold my house<br />Moved (incredibly stressful)<br />still settling in<br />have a steady, wonderful man in my life (the gentleman from 2 posts back)<br />kids are awesome, as always<br />HAPPYmaurinskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04398559432565869750noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6603462.post-32391124769016576512011-02-18T08:55:00.001-05:002011-02-18T08:56:38.764-05:00Guess what?I've been divorced for a year, as of this past Wednesday. That went by quickly. <br /><br />We also sold our house, our closing is scheduled for March 4th - in only 2 weeks! I have a great new place to live that I will be moving into next week. Things are looking up!maurinskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04398559432565869750noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6603462.post-20922811036948414122010-12-17T08:28:00.001-05:002010-12-17T08:29:59.697-05:00I know, who cares?Just an update on my last post, which was more than 2 months ago. A week after I posted that, I went out on a date with a very quiet gentleman, and I'm still dating him two months later. I'm pretty fond of him, although sometimes I'm not sure if it's because of him or because he's pretty much the opposite of my ex-husband. But he thinks I'm the best thing since sliced bread, and that makes me feel pretty good.maurinskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04398559432565869750noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6603462.post-70306319042513559162010-10-06T17:21:00.002-04:002010-10-06T17:27:26.232-04:00My new dating lifeI have officially put my feet in the pool, and I'm dating.<br /><br /><br />My first date went really spectacularly well, and we're definitely seeing each other again. There was definitely a spark of something there. <br /><br />I went on a first date with another man this past weekend, and had a good time. Not the same spark, but he was easy to talk to and I would go out with him again...although maybe he wouldn't want to go out with me again, since I haven't heard from him since ! Oh well, I don't even feel bad about being rejected.<br /><br />I just got off the phone with another man, who appears to be and based on his date of birth is older than me, but I felt like I was talking to a teenager, he sounded so young and he was nervous and giggly - it was actually kind of cute. <br /><br />I'm kind of rooting for date #1, because I really like him a lot and the more I talk to him the more I like him, but I don't think either one of us are ready to commit to anything serious yet. But who knows?<br /><br />I've now dated more at age 40 than I did in my teen years all put together.maurinskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04398559432565869750noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6603462.post-84394344286694658202010-09-27T11:50:00.002-04:002010-09-27T11:58:30.898-04:00I should probably just shut this downBut what the heck, I actually have some changes to talk about. <br /><br />I've been divorced for nearly 8 months now. My therapist and I talked it over and decided I'm doing so well that I don't need to see him anymore. I kind of miss him, though, he thought I was funny.<br /><br />It's been over a year since my marriage ended, and I decided that it was time to start dating. So I told some friends to keep their eyes open if they knew anyone who might be interested, and I set up a profile on a dating site. A few people contacted me, and I e-mailed back and forth with one of them in particular.<br /><br />And this past Friday, I went on my first first date since the late 80s. <br /><br />We decided to meet at a coffee place, and I got there first, and I was so nervous I was literally shaking - needless to say, I did not partake of any coffee.<br /><br />But when my date arrived, it was so comfortable and not awkward I was surprised, and I relaxed and just had a great time. He was cute and sweet and charming and funny and smart, and we decided to go get dinner, so we left the coffee place. And then we just talked until the restaurant closed. <br /><br />I think I'm still on a high from that date, and we've planned a second one. I don't know if this is the beginning of something permanent, but I really just want to get out there and have some fun, and this seems like a good place to start.maurinskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04398559432565869750noreply@blogger.com5