New favorite

For the longest time, The Phantom of the Opera was my favorite Broadway musical, although this was sort of out of default. My parents were kind of Phantom nerds back in the eighties and even followed it up to Toronto just so they could see it again. Whenever we were going on a long car ride, we'd pop in the soundtrack and sing away. I've seen it on stage at least three times and each time it's been magical.

And then there was War Horse. Dear god, this play blows Phantom out of the water. What Phantom has in sheer gargantuan extravagance, War Horse had in unadulterated awesome. The set is minimal, consisting of a rotating stage, a narrow screen above the stage, and some moveable props. Oh yeah, AND THE PUPPETS!

My favorite scene. 

Yes sir, that is a puppet. Three people are required to operate it, two inside and one on the outside to control the head movements. The puppetry is absolutely amazing. The ears move, the body looks like its breathing, and the tail swishes. There were times when I forgot it wasn't actually a horse on stage. Plus, people ride these puppets.

If you don't know the story, it's a (yet another) tale about a boy who finds an amazing horse but they are separated and then try to find each other once again despite the odds. Okay, it's not the most original of story lines, but it started off as a children's book (as if that should be an excuse). Basically, Albert falls in love with a young hunter foal and names him Joey. He teaches him to plow in order to win a bet so that he can keep the horse while simultaneously making Joey a work horse for their struggling farm. When Albert's father sells Joey to the British cavalry and he is shipped off to fight in World War I, Albert has to find him among the trenches of Europe. Now imagine this done with life-sized horse puppets. Here's just one of the videos you can find on YouTube:

Another amazing aspect of the play is the music. It's not a musical per-say, but it does have a man who sings various war-era English folk tunes which compliment the scenes. Since much of the play deals with Joey and Albert's desire to return to England where everything is safe and they can be together, the folk songs feel like pieces of home they can take with them.

Knowing that eventually Joey was going to go to war, I went into the play expecting to cry. It first drew tears from me within the first five minutes when Joey as a foal appears on stage and I thought "Oh, look at the little horsey. The little horsey is going to go to war!" I then cried four other times during the rest of the play. I don't know if I'm just that much of a wimp, but from what I hear this is a fairly common reaction. The story deals with some pretty dark subject matter, and the fact that the main character is a horse just doesn't make you want to see a helpless animal die on the battlefield.

Whether or not you want to cry your eyes out in an auditorium full of strangers, I highly recommend that you see the play if you can just to see the puppets. Right now it's only in London, New York, and Toronto, however in 2012 they're going to kick of a US tour. I am going to go see it as many times as I can.

Plus, it will be nice to see my favorite character, the comic relief goose, again.

(image from here)

Perfect.

Today is the perfect New England fall day. Seriously, it is. The sky is just the right shade of light gray to make the leaves pop, and it has acquired that nip in the air that startles you when you first head out the door, but then you warm up as soon as you start walking.

It even smells like fall. It's a combination of the sweet and warm smell of fallen leaves, wood smoke, and the sharp, spikey smell of the imminent snow storm.

Happy Halloween!!

It's days like this where I fall in love with New England all over again. I am proud to proclaim that I am one of those people who complains about California because "It doesn't have any seasons". Oh yeah, I'm one of those people. But who could blame me?

This is actually my favorite time of year. It's when the days are brisk and you feeel so warm afer coming inside. I miss being able to go outside without a jacket, but at least the chilliness means that the leaves will erupt in flame and fall just so I can scuff my feet through them and make that "kssh kssh kssh" sound when I walk. After Halloween, it's only a few weeks until Thanksgiving (and my Mom's turkey), then a few more weeks and it's Winter break, which means Christmas and my birthday.

After Christmas, though, the weather gets boring. Snow isn't magical after Christmas, it's just white and slushy and freakin' cold when it gets in your shoe. The world is stuck in black and white from January through most of March. And then everything is brown and muddy. But then, eventually in April, you see the tiny impossible green buds of new leaves poke out of the tips of branches and the whole cycle resets again. How could I live anywhere else? Well, I could live somewhere that still had all of the seasons but skipped March. I hate that month.

Attack of the Killer Laziness!

This semester, it's all about money. And how to be an adult regarding money. What with the food budget and saving up to possibly rent an apartment next year with my friends, I'm having trouble copping with the fact that the sum of money I accumulated over the summer is quickly slipping away,and will continue to do so.

So far this year, I've tried to manage my money. My boyfriend and I have a budget for our food, and the free veggies from the farm he worked at over the summer really help. Plus, I have successfully done away with my university meal plan and will be refunded most if not all of the money (minus the one meal I ate with my friend). On top of that, I got an on-campus job as a bus driver. Soon I will be getting $9 an hour for training (which includes just sitting on the bus to get to know the routes) and then after that $10 an hour for actual work. It's a pretty sweet situation, because I will be working a minimum of 15 hours per week, and there's plenty of opportunities to pick up extra hours or get promoted. So now begs the question, what am I going to do over the summer?

The adult in me says that I should continue with this whole employment thing. That's all well and good, but I would rather choke myself with rotten sauerkraut while driving needles into my eyes than go back to working as a cashier. Honestly, I'm extremely introverted and I panic when I am required to rapidly learn new technology and handle money. Yes, let's make me a customer service associate. And then put me behind the returns desk for nine hours the day after Memorial Day weekend. I think you see my point. However, there aren't too many other jobs for college students who need to pick up some cash over the summer.

So here's my thinking: I could work at the farm where my boyfriend worked last summer. I really like the bond he formed there with all of the other workers, and I want to get more in touch with the farming community in the area (hippie that I am). However, I do see a few issues.

Here is my Pro/Con list:

Cons:
1. The sun. I am deathly afraid of skin cancer. I make it my mission every summer to remain as pale as possible. Working on a farm would mean that I am subject to UV rays for at least six hours per day. Honestly, I'm so pale that when I visited my boyfriend and picked currents for three hours, my skin started to blister.
2. Keeping clean. I am in love with that fresh, out of the shower feeling. I also hate the way sweat and dirt feels on my skin. I could get used to it, but the typical rule is that the farm hands only shower once a week in order to save water. Well, there are also some swimming holes nearby, so it would still be cleansing without the actual shower, so maybe I could just be the one to always insist that we go swimming.
3. My hair. This kind of ties in with the whole shower thing, but my scalp tends to be particularly sebaceous. It also has a mind of its own and is so bushy that hats will not stay on it. I guess I spoil my hair a little.
4. Farm work. This is a big one. I'm more of an inside cat, who likes to lounge about on a couch or stay in a nice, air-conditioned back room typing endless streams of numbers into a hospital database. That was my dream position when I volunteered at a local hospital. I really hate yard work, and the idea of repetitiously bending over to pick up things makes my back hurt just thinking of it. I couldn't even pick currents like the other guys when I visited, and I could even sit on the ground for that.
5. The socialization. Being in a house with a bunch of strangers and little to no privacy for a month isn't my first idea of fun. 

Pros:
1. It's only a month. One of things I hated about my job last year was that most of my summer was eaten up. Even my parents were getting miffed that I was working all the time because it was cutting into their vacation plans. When August finally hit and I was let go, I relaxed so hard I rebounded back into being semi-productive. It was scary. With the farm gig, I would just work for a month and for the other two I would be free to read, lounge, and set things on fire.
2. The community. As I stated before, I really like the farm community out here.  I've gone to a couple of potlucks with my boyfriend and they were always really fun. They're a great group of people!
3. The food. Since my boyfriend and I started eating local veggies, I can't get enough. I actually got excited over a rutabaga last week because I heard we could mix it in with mashed potatoes. At the farm, we would be pulling stuff out of the fields and eating it that day. Heaven!

This is the June Crew, the one my boyfriend worked on.

I know I have more Cons than Pros. Truthfully, the Cons are probably things that I would be able to cope with given time. When I was a cashier, I had to get used to standing for eight hours a day and I eventually did (thanks to Dr. Scholls...). I think I could get used to the non-bathing and maybe even the farm work. My boyfriend said that he had a tough time with it in the beginning, and he's the out-doorsy type. Really the only thing that I would have a ton of trouble with would be the sun. I am tempted to bathe in SPF 75, but I don't think that would be feasible. I would definitely load up on sunblock before I went and try to wear clothes that cover me up, but that still could get tricky.

The last factor is money. This one is tricky. It pays roughly as much as I would have earned as a cashier, however since it is only a month-long job I would only have that to go on. However, I think the fact that I recently got money back from the university (and I won't have to pay the fee again!) and I have an on-campus job that will last me for at least two more semesters, I think that I could justify the farm venture as being more of an experience rather than a job. The money would just be a perk.

I'm inclined to say that I have already decided to do this just on the basis that I think I could cope with the conditions and the notion sits pretty comfortably in my mind. After all, I was looking for some farm work last year before I was hired as a cashier, so why should I back down now?

(images from here and here)

Dear Bro Next to Me,

Why are you so loud? Seriously, why?

I know that you and your friends like to convene and play video games. I know that you like to leave your door open so that all can come in and be welcome. I know that you are social and enjoy the company of others. But why must you be so loud?

You are right there in front of the TV. You don't need the volume to be turned up to 11 just to know that you killed that zombie. Plus, you don't need the door open so that everyone else can hear that you killed that zombie. Why not have a "Come on in!" sign and leave your door unlocked so that all who are curious can come in as they please, but the rest of us don't have to angrily close our doors.

I'm glad you have friends. I'm glad that you have little bits and inside jokes that you do. But I don't like to hear "Krusty Krab pizza is the pizza for you and me!" shouted down the hall at 10. Do it at 8:30. You know, before quiet hours start at 9.

I admit, I can be a little loud too at times. I might have the god of creation and destruction stay for the weekend and he could be loudly regaling the tails of his sexcapades. Fear not, he will be gone by Monday and you will be able to hear your zombies again. Or, I could be loud because of genetic and naturally selected reasons that were and could be still beneficial for the formation of a social group and bonding between individuals. I try to stay quiet but I can't be totally silent. I doubt you can use the same reasoning, unless your particular group of hominid ancestors found it beneficial for you to be an ass-hat.

So please, keep it to a very dull roar. Neither I, my roommate, my roommate's boyfriend, or my boyfriend is interested to hear what you have to say.

Sincerely,
The girl who lives next to you.

Diet craziness

I am amazed at the sheer amount of crazy diets out there in the world. Some of them make sense and some I can't even begin to comprehend. On and off over the years, my mom would put the family on Weight Watchers, but it was too much to keep track of all the points. The rest of the diets I've personally encountered were mostly (failed) exercises in self control, so I don't have a lot of fond memories.

As it happens, I've kind of stumbled my way into eating according to the Paleo diet. Basically, the Paleo diet means eating foods that are not genetically modified or wouldn't have been found or weren't easily accessible to our hominid ancestors. This means a heavy emphasis on fruits, veggies, and meat with practically no grains. As for fats, butter and coconut oil are fine but heavily-modified canola and safflower oil are out. Since my boyfriend can't eat gluten, dairy, corn, or soy, this means that we've pretty much been eating Paleo. We do eat grains, however, as well as safflower oil. So far, eating the way we have been has been good to me, so I don't feel the need to go fully Paleo.

However, it turns out that diets can stem beyond personal well-being and extend out to the environment. Apparently in Australia, there is such a thing as Kangatarianism. This means that you exclude all meat except kangaroo meat from your diet. Since kangaroo is easy to come by in Australia, the thinking is that it reduces the need to import meat and it also doesn't require the massive amounts of farm land needed for beef production. There are variations, such as Pesco-kangatarianism where you can eat fish as well as kangaroo, Pollo-kangatarianism (poultry and kangaroo), Pollo-pesco-kangatarianism (fish, poultry, and kangaroo), and Paleolithic-kangatarianism (all native Australian animals).

Now, not all of this meat is free-range. From what I inferred from the Wikipedia article (where I heard about this diet), kangaroo can be farm-raised. However, I think that a diet based around native animals is a very cool idea.

I....I just can't.

If you want to find a good way to scare yourself, Google "vingate lysol ads". I'm not kidding. Lysol back in the day was an "all purpose cleaner". They meant all purposes. Just.......just try it and see what I mean.

*shudder*

 

 

(image from here)

Try it at home!

Isn't it amazing how quickly you can come to a realization?

For instance, today I was sitting in class and dropped my pen. Reflexively, I closed my legs in order to catch it in my lap. How did I know that closing my legs would catch it? Previous experience or pure instinct?

Then I remembered one of the scant parts of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that I can recall. I remembered that at one point in the book, Huck poses as a girl and seems to do a pretty good job of it too. However, he is eventually revealed by one of the strangest ways to test gender: by seeing how he catches something in his lap. The woman who takes him in explains that a boy closes his legs when he catches something whereas a girl opens hers (insert sex joke here). Well now. Does that mean I'm a boy? Nope. The reason is that I wear pants.

Think about it. If you were wearing one of the wide skirts back in the day of Huck's travels, by opening your legs you would create a tent of fabric and catch the falling object. Since boys didn't wear those skirts (past childhood, that is), they would have to close their legs instead. Obviously, since then women have begun to wear pants, and in the last fifty or so years it seems that the skirt is falling out of favor. Therefore, we have learned to close our legs (more sex jokes). Even the shape of the skirts probably have had an influence. Skirts and dresses have significantly decreased in volume, therefore decreasing the possible area available for catching falling items.

This as what I found when I Googled "catching a falling item" SO CUTE!

There are some other factors that might enter into this conclusion. For instance, Huck's test took place in the rural South. Perhaps in the North or in big cities where femininity obsessively controlled and sculpted the girls would have resisted spreading their legs. This could just be a "country bumpkin" test, but it's interesting that the mere social mandate of how women should dress affected the way that they react to catching items.

(images from here and here)

By the way, the bunny picture was made by trafalgarssquare on Etsy.com. You can buy a print from their store!