The Alchemist

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is one of those books that makes me want to buy a paperback copy just so I can use a highlighter on all of the pearls of wisdom. I don't care that that will probably result in more of the book being highlighted than not. What a lovely, simple story about really giving your dreams a shot, listening to those who have been there before and are trying to help, and letting nothing stand in your way.

Books like these sometimes frustrate me. I start to pick apart all of my life choices and wonder if I'm fulfilling my destiny properly. I wonder if I should have done this or that instead of what I did.

**SPOILER ALERT**

BUT, one thing I really appreciate about this book is that Santiago meets his true love... and the meeting isn't the end of the book. True love was not his treasure, but instead simply a happy part of his journey. His love totally supports his leaving her to continue on his quest to fulfill his destiny. THAT is true love.

**SPOILER COMPLETE**

I have prayed about this a lot, especially lately, and I truly feel that I am where I am supposed to be. I am on the right track and doing the best that I can. I am by far from perfect, but my intentions are good and most of the time I feel like I do the right things.

As long as I can say the above honestly, I know that it will all work out. I might not achieve my dream in the way I expect, but Heavenly Father will make sure that I'm happy in the doing, and in the end.


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My roommate, Sutton

Last night I had the loveliest dream. I had a dorm "room" in the corner of a huge, huge, unfinished basement. I was trying to figure out how to arrange things when my roommate came in. It was none other than Sutton Foster, who was much shorter than I had expected (isn't she really tall?) In spite of my being nothing like her besty, January Jones (who may not actually be her besty, but she was in the dream), Sutton and I got along famously. We spent the rest of my dream slowly taking over the rest of the basement with our stuff, and getting dressed up in matching baby-doll dresses, jewelry, make-up, and fancy hairdos. The best part was that Sutton was the nicest person in the history of the world. Now I wish she were REALLY my roommate :D

When your hut's on fire

[author unknown by me]

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him. Every day he feverishly scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming. 

Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect himself from the elements, and to store his few possessions. One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, with smoke rolling up to the sky. He felt the worst had happened, and everything was lost. He was stunned with disbelief, grief, and anger. He cried out, "God! How could you do this to me?" 

Early the next day, he was awakened by the sound of a ship approaching the island. It had come to rescue him! "How did you know I was here?" asked the weary man of his rescuers. "We saw your smoke signal," they replied. 

The Moral of This Story:
It's easy to get discouraged when things are going bad, but we shouldn't lose heart, because God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of our pain and suffering. Remember that the next time your little hut seems to be burning to the ground. It just may be a smoke signal that summons the Grace of God. 

P.S. You may want to consider passing this on, because you never know who feels like their hut is on fire today.

I'm sick again. The doctor speculated that it might be the flu, but wouldn't you know it's too early in the season to even have a flu test available? Vaccines ARE available, though, so get your flu shot as soon as you can.

At any rate. I'm feeling pretty miserable, and I have been since last Tuesday -- yes, before my birthday. Yesterday, I was sick at my own birthday party :P Thank goodness for leftover birthday cake I can eat when I feel a smidge better.

And yet, I feel grateful for many things:

• I could get in to see my doctor today. I adore my doctor, and have never had any trouble getting an appointment right away when I needed one. She's so good at calming me down and listening to my concerns. It's just nice to have your worries validated :)
• According to my bloodwork, whatever I have is apparently not contagious. I'm so glad, because I really don't want to give this to anyone else!!
• I have plenty of food. Between the birthday leftovers (including fruits and veggies) and the massive tupperware of chicken soup that my mom provided, and all the juice I bought today, I should be set for at least 3 or 4 days.
• My friends are awesome. Whenever I feel sad that I'm sick and single and have no one to take care of me, I have at least one person sincerely offer to help. I love that my single girlfriends understand how depressing it is to be sick and not see anyone for days, let alone try to muster the energy to actually make something to eat. To quote Kristen: "Us single girls need to stick together!"
• I can just BE sick, and I don't have to take care of anyone else right now. (I wish I could be more help to my mom friends when they are sick...)
• I've rediscovered popsicles. Perfect for when my throat hurts too much to want to drink water, but I need to intake fluids somehow. Sweet!
• Due dates at work are still a few months away, so I don't feel too horrible about calling in sick. Well, no horribler than normal. I take pride in my work and loathe calling in sick on principle.

For now, my main concerns are drinking fluids, keeping up on my meds, and sleeping as much as I can. I really, really want to be well enough for an audition on Saturday, but, if it isn't meant to be, I'll live with it. Like Larissa says, "These things work out the way they're supposed to" and there are several other auditions coming up I'm excited about, too. We'll see.

Thank goodness for silver linings.

Summer is over

...So let's celebrate the past lovely couple of months with one last hurrah from (500) Days of Summer:



Isn't Joseph-Gordon Levitt adorable? Thank goodness he grew out of that long-hair phase after 3rd Rock from the Sun (no pun intended)!

Happy Friday!

The Festival! (redux)

When I won the free tickets to see The Glass Menagerie at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, I had to laugh. I already had a trip to the festival planned... and that play wasn't on my itinerary. So, I ended up attending the festival twice in consecutive weeks!

Jamie, Nichole and I drove down to Cedar City last Friday afternoon, and arrived time to check into the hotel, change, grab dinner at Cafe Rio, and only arrive about 3 minutes late for the Greenshow that night.

We then saw a truly fantastic production of The Music Man, starring one of my personal faves at the festival, Brian Vaughn. The entire cast was wonderful, but my favorites were by far the quartet and the pick-a-little ladies. The change in the quartet from loathing each other to delight at sounding so good in harmony together was a complete joy to watch, and very believable. "From now on, you'll not see one without the other three" indeed! I think the "Pick-a-little/Good Night Ladies" song was my favorite of the night. Well, that and "Marian the Librarian", when they did a ballet of Romeo and Juliet during the dance break. So good! Makes me want to do the show again (I did it in high school) even more than I did before!

Nichole, Jamie and I cozy up to the Bard. 

We spent the evening watching episodes of Kid History, introducing Nichole to the Friday song, and talking about boys. The next morning, we got up for breakfast, and then went back to bed and slept as long as we liked. It was glorious!!

Ann joined us just before the matinee of A Midsummer Night's Dream. We all agreed it was our favorite of the three plays we saw! It was such a neat interpretation, the actors were hilarious, and we could understand everything going on. The scene where the four lovers have their huge fight was brilliantly done and everyone else made such fun choices. I was excited afterward when we ran into the Bria Suda (who played Helena, and also Ethel Toffelmeier in The Music Man) and I could tell her how much I enjoyed both performances. Once again, I wanted to do a Shakespeare play!! Someday I will get to and it will be awesome. Soon, I hope!

Jamie took off for a few hours to spend time with her sister, and Nichole, Ann and I had dinner at Chili's. We had so much fun chatting that we were shocked when Jamie called and told us the final performance of the Greenshow was going to start in ten minutes! Needless to say, we were a bit late. We WERE in time to buy some tarts (cream cheese and blackberry for me -- yum!).

Nichole, Ann and I at Chili's

We also managed to catch Queen Elizabeth just before she retired for the evening. She was gracious enough to pose for a photo, even though she seemed to be in a hurry to leave. We thanked her profusely. Doesn't she look great?

 The last play that we saw was Noises Off! and it was also very funny! We particularly enjoyed Quinn Mattfield's Garry. That guy is a terrific physical comedian. He fell down the stairs so elegantly, and anytime his legs flailed about crazily I laughed almost until I cried. It was also fun to compare the exaggerated characters in the play to actors I've worked with in real life. Freddy -- the guy who needs his motivations explained to him -- was particularly easy to identify as one or two people I know. The third act wasn't as crazy-hilarious as I had expected, but still very entertaining. I've long felt that the movie is better written than the play. Even so, I am glad I chose to see it, even if  I did miss out on Richard III that night, which everyone told me was the must-see play this year.

Can't help but love that we all look somewhat ridiculous in
 this photo:
Nichole turned around, my eyes closed, etc.
Ann looks pretty, though!

We went to bed fairly early, and were up early the next morning so we could drive home in time for church. I was a little sad that we had to split up, but I was glad that Ann had Nichole for company (and to keep her awake), and that Jamie and I had a little bit longer to hang out before the trip officially came to an end.

All in all, a satisfying weekend. I love my girls and am so glad they all got along, since Nichole and Ann didn't know Jamie beforehand. Next time, we'll have to take a longer trip together -- two days just wasn't enough!

I AM determined to go for several days and see all six plays one year, and then maybe the all of the Fall season plays, too, later in the year.

It's good to have something to look forward to :) And lovely memories to think back on!

The end of the "tweens"

I have thought about this passage from the beginning of The Lord of the Rings quite often lately:

"...As Mr. Baggins was generous with his money, most people were willing to forgive him his oddities and his good fortune. He remained on visiting terms with his relatives (except, of course, the Sackville-Bagginses), and he had many devoted admirers among the hobbits of poor and unimportant families. But he had no close friends, until some of his younger cousins began to grow up.  

The eldest of these, and Bilbo's favourite, was young Frodo Baggins. When Bilbo was ninety-nine he adopted Frodo as his heir, and brought him to live at Bag End; and the hopes of the Sackville-Bagginses were finally dashed. Bilbo and Frodo happened to have the same birthday, September 22nd. 'You had better come and live here, Frodo my lad,' said Bilbo one day; 'and then we can celebrate our birthday-parties comfortably together.' At that time Frodo was still in his tweens, as the hobbits called the irresponsible twenties between childhood and coming of age at thirty-three.

Twelve more years passed. Each year the Bagginses had given very lively combined birthday-parties at Bag End; but now it was understood that something quite exceptional was being planned for that autumn. Bilbo was going to be eleventy-one, 111, a rather curious number, and a very respectable age for a hobbit (the Old Took himself had only reached 130); and Frodo was going to be thirty-three, 33, and important number: the date of his 'coming of age'."

- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien 

 (Yes, I have used this factoid in regular conversation. Yes, my conversation-mates were amused and horrified that I managed to fit it logically into the conversation. Haven't we established that I am a nerd?)

Does anyone else think that modern American culture has sort of adopted this "tweens" mentality? So many of us are staying single until our late twenties/early thirties, and taking our time figuring out what we want out of life. It's kind of nice to enjoy being an adult. We still have the responsibilities, but we also play every chance we get.

Note: Turning thirty-three neither legitimizes my "adult" status, nor does it mean I have to stop playing. It just means... that I think about The Lord of the Rings too often, apparently. I do think it's super-cool that Bilbo and Frodo's birthdays are in September. September rocks, y'all!!

Just another made up, self-proclaimed milestone!