Jane Eyre and Airplanes

I’m a reader.  The kind that takes two years to finish one book – restarting each time I pick it up. I’m the kind of reader that falls asleep mid-sentence and who owns an entire bookshelf full of someday-I’ll-read-these novels. That reader that makes her roommate read her psychology novel out loud to her. I’m the kind of reader that’s a horrible kind of reader.

But I am a reader.  And I've held onto every word from Ms. Bronte’s Jane.  Jane Eyre.  She's accompanied me to the coast, overseas and on many many airplane flights.. Many more than I'd like admitting.   

"You never climb the same mountain twice, not even in memory. Memory rebuilds the mountain, changes the weather, retells the jokes, remakes all the moves."    

--  Lito Tejada-Flores --

He walked the whole mountain like this.

I'm done with being Organic.

I've officially finished all my organic chemistry requirements (mmk besides an advanced organic lab?!) :) But for now, I'm done… as least with any classes coinciding with pre-med/pre-dent students, which is weirdly a relief, mostly because I'm done being asked, "what [I] got on the test?" In a way I was flattered to be somebody's standard for success? But mostly, not really… I wanted everyone to do well (in the beginning), even though most didn't want anybody to do well, and I didn't want my success to be based off the failure of others, but the pre-professionals bred that, and I found myself not wanting anyone to do well, or to do slightly worse than me.  So my malicious attitude has been reformed, and the competitive cut-throat personalities are out of the Benson (or at least my classrooms).  I'm half-way done with my college career now, and I still feel like a baby, luckily two years is a long time… or at least long enough.

Speaking of time and passing years, my dad had a birthday this past month and not just any birthday.  This was his 50th! That's half a century!  I'm tempted to say he's old, but he can still out bike me on any mountain and help me with my college level homework, so maybe aged would be a better word choice. aged to perfection.  Because my dad truly is almost perfect, and I can't wait for the adventures in the next 50 years. 

In celebration of finishing finals - (not having any commitments in Provo) my mom and I headed up to Park City for a few days.  We laughed and laughed and laughed like we were children! It was beautiful.  And I think I'm going to own the Montage, or Stein Eriksen Lodge someday… or at least a cabin up in the middle of nowhere, because nothing can surpass its purple mountain majesty.  It screams America, or at least my kind of America, and I like it a lot.     

Let's get married in Vegas

Beautiful Laurel got married a few weeks ago in Vegas.  I met Laurel in London in the fall.  I seriously loved her from day one because she showed me where the best gelato was on Bayswater and took me with her to the dry cleaners.  She went with me to Denmark and taught me all about the preservation of food… apparently it can last for… a long time. :) Over Thanksgiving break she flew to New York City to visit her family, and Jordan (the love of her life) surprised her with a ring on the top of the Rockefeller Center.  This is the second Londoner to get married (in Vegas).  She was a beautiful bride, and I'm so happy for her and Jordan.   

They respectfully cut and ate the cake?.. But really.  I kind of hate the "let-me-shove-this-in-your-face-and-and-blame-it-on-spontaneity" trend. 

Laurel is obsessed with bows. 

In London Maggie and I got the nickname "PTA moms" because we would stay up late into the night talking and talking and talking just like PTA moms?.. Either way I love this girl.  

I think there will be a lot of golf in heaven.

***So… I accidentally hit this deer with my golf ball… Oops***

*Thank you Leslie for your amazing photography skills. 

The Love of God.

Currently loving this talk:

"When our hearts are filled with the love of God, something good and pure happens to us. We ‘keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world.’ The more we allow the love of God to govern our minds and emotions—the more we allow our love for our Heavenly Father to swell within our hearts—the easier it is to love others with the pure love of Christ."

             President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

If you're into art...

You're probably pretty into the Frieze Art Fair.  And London's Regent's Park on an October afternoon.

And if you're into art you probably like sushi too.

And you'd probably define art as X-rays and blank canvases and streaks of blue - but especially defaced currency. 

And you'd probably wear a sweater wrapped around your waist with a levi shirt tucked at your side.

You could probably spend all day staring and thinking, or maybe just staring if you are at a loss for thoughts, but thoughts should come easily, because art's a pastiche of the ordinary, in a very non-ordinary way, non-ordinary because it's label as art.  

And if you're into art you won't really care how much an art piece is appraised, because selling art makes it all the more… well, less of what it was.  It makes art, non art, so maybe that's why they don't put price tags up on the displays, or maybe it's to separate the true artists from the buyers, because artists won't ask - they aren't supposed to care.  But possibly there aren't price tags, because what artist can truly afford to care for a million dollar rag-stuffed frame? 

But you probably do care for neon lights.

And you definitely care about art's purpose.  You'll wrestle with this one, and conclude that maybe art doesn't need a purpose.  But maybe art's purpose is to be beautiful or weird or so horrifyingly normal just for the sake of being beautiful, or unique, or terribly comfortable, but… possibly it'll provoke thought about the monotony of life, making it less monotonous.  

So,  if you're anything like me, you'll find yourself, asking again and again and again… What even is art? well, I don't know.

And maybe you hate art

But it takes time to like raw fish.  

Enjoy the Frieze Art Fair… captured on camera.

The x-rays

Art probably directly influencing Transformers 4… 2014 release date?  

I really like this one. by David Brian Smith called Great Expectations 

The finished product.

Art people

Art these days?

"Who run this mother?" Luckily the art world also appreciates good music (Beyonce).  I too might be an artist?… *** THE ART NEWSPAPER*** it's what the artists read. 

Sushi for the workers. 

Disheveled hair. All good art appreciators can relate to this look. 

Neon signs=art.

I don't know how they transported this one to the buyer's home?

Spider= visitor or a part of the show?… What is art?

The canvas.

If you're into this stuff… probably dress like that. 

...And the Frieze Art Show made me think.