He's making me laugh

I saw Hairspray last week. I really enjoyed it, it was quite entertaining. I've been watching previews for movies and realized that James Marsden makes me laugh. I liked him in X-Men, though his character wasn't well developed, he was ok in Superman, but watching him in Hairspray and the next movie he is in is called Enchanted, just makes me laugh. I can't wait to watch that movie and see how they've twisted the fairytales.

Harry Potter

I actually wasn't one of those people who had to read Harry Potter 7 the day it came out. Honestly, I was in Reno and had ordered it from Amazon, so it was at my house and I wasn't. But I realized that I had to read it pretty quickly because otherwise people would start blabbing the plot and I HATE when I hear what happens before I read it. So I started Monday night and finished up Wednesday night. I have two things to say about it.
First, Borders had that whole "Snape: Friend or Foe?" and I did honestly pick one, though I didn't say anything. And I was so right!!!
Second, I really enjoyed it. It was a great ride. I like twists and turns and not being able to see everything that is going to happen. There were certain things I could predict, but there was enough surprise that I was satisfied. I thought it was very well done.
Well, if you have finished it, or are in the process, happy reading!

Reno

I spent the last weekend with my grandparents. They aren't actually in Reno, they are just over the mountain from Lake Tahoe, but we definately weren't in Lake Tahoe. We are about an hour and a half south of Reno, just about ten minutes north of the California border. It was fun to visit with my grandparents, but sometimes it is hard because we are at completely different places in our lives. All the people we met out there were retired (ok, not all, but most), and sometimes it was hard to carry on a conversation. My grandma is a very opinionated person (fyi, she's actually my mom's stepmother) and my grandfather just is happy you are there and doesn't say much. I was very happy that I brought five books to keep me busy, but I still went a little insane not having anyone to talk to. My cell phone also doesn't get reception at their house. Good news is that they took me clothes shopping and now I have new clothes.
My baby sister (who happens to be fifteen) came too. It is definately fun when you realize that can pretty much get her to do anything you want. Anything I told her she should buy, she did. One more good thing, she did look good in the things I told her to buy. We had to wear something cool to a picnic we went to, so I had her try on some of my capris. She found a pair she liked and decided to wear it. While she was changing, my grandma complained that she couldn't even get my sister to try on a pair at the store. Ah the joys of being an older sister. Of course, if we even lived close it would be easier to influence her, but maybe part of the magic is that I only see her about twice a year for three days to a week. Still, it was fun to realize I had that much power.

Sunday dinner

Ok, so I am super excited because I am watching some kids all weekend and I am really enjoying cooking for them. I have never steamed anything before and I figured out how to steam broccoli!! I was way excited. Than I made this sauce to go over rice that was cream of mushroom soup, cheese and broccoli. I really liked it and was really proud of myself, because I just threw stuff together, I didn't have a recipe, and it tasted good (Is there a better way to say that?). Now I just have to figure out what new thing I am going to make for them tomorrow!!

Shakespeare!!

Here is the promised update for my trip to the Shakespeare festival.

Word Friend and I left my house around nine. We had checked the highway because of the wild fire between us and the festival. We had several alternate routes planned out in case of closures. Fortunately, we didn't need any of them, the road was clear the entire way. We did see a haze from the smoke and one random tree that was on fire.
We arrived in good time, but we couldn't check into our hotel yet. We parked and found out there was a student discount half an hour before the show. So we wandered around a little and ate our brown bag lunch. Then we went to get our tickts and we saw Lend Me A Tenor. We really enjoyed it, it was quite funny. One thing that tickled my funny bone was when we got our tickets, they saw which school I was from and warned us that there was swearing in the show. Lend Me A Tenor had some very Shakespeare situations. There were mistaken identities that led to some really interesting situations.
We went to our hotel and checked in. We had dinner there. Word Friend and I split a salad and scones. The scones were amazing!! They were so good. They were English style, so they were more of a pastry and came with raspberry jam, marmalade and Devonshire cream. I discovered I love Devonshire cream. Then we met with our group and brought up a couple questions to consider while watching Coriolanus. We watched the Greenshow before the show. They did it Festival of Fools style.
I don't know if you have read or seen Coriolanus before, but it is definately not a favorite. It is a very political play, and very military. We were sitting in the balcony, which was really hot, considering the theatre is a replica of the Globe. It was interesting to watch, some parts became clearer, but it was still a difficult play to digest.
The next morning we got up and went to breakfast at the hotel. It was a homemade breakfast for free! It was very yummy. Then we went to the literary seminars they had. We discussed Coriolanus and Lend Me a Tenor. The composer of Lend Me a Tenor was there and it was cool to hear so much about the play and how it developed. The discussion on Coriolanus was very helpful too.
We split a meal from Arby's and ate it outside the theatres. The campus was just beautiful. I think probably because it had so many trees. We had a discussion with our group on Coriolanus, but it started to rain a little. The auditorium theater was cold because the air conditioner was on and we were wet from the rain. We saw Twelfth Night. It was much easier to follow and the actors were really good. We really enjoyed that show. Word Friend and I went back to our hotel and went swimming. It was a little cool because the temperature had dropped because of the rain, but it was sunny, and we wanted to go swimming. I am really bad at breathing when I swim laps. We had leftover fruit (from breakfast) for dinner and then went to our group discussion. We talked more about the different roles the actors played. Then we watched the Greenshow. This time it was Irish. They sang ballads and danced soft and hard shoe. It was neat because that was the setting that King Lear was set in. I really liked that because it made a lot of the superstitions understandable. King Lear was amazing. They had a fabulous ensemble cast, they were all so good! I really appreciated the set. It was only a slab that had a map of the country on it with a decorated edge, but it was slightly cracked. When Lear's daughters kick him out, it split apart. That was the end of the first act. In the second act, it was spread out all over the stage and they moved pieces of it to different places to represent different places. His madness made so much sense on stage, reading it can be a little harder. It was a very moving show, I almost cried three times. If you get a chance to go and can only see one show, King Lear is my recommendation.
The next morning we had breakfast and went to the discussion on Lear. It was fun to hear what people said. They all thought it was a great cast and many of them thought it was one of the best productions they had seen. After that discussion, we went back to the hotel and I took a nap. We checked out and had lunch. It wasn't as good as I had hoped, but I had the scones again and that made me happy. Then we went to the gift shoppe. I bought some mugs that have phrases from Shakespeare on them (one has insults and the other love quotes). We saw Candida, by Shaw. It was really cute, we enjoyed it. We found out that one of the actors in the company had to fly out to New York because her mother had a stroke, which is why we saw several of the understudies in the shows. That was an interesting piece of information because the shows were all so good.
We drove home after Candida. We were worried that we would run into problems with the wild fire, because it was supposedly just as bad, but we didn't run into any delays. It was smooth sailing all the way. Word Friend and I are thinking about going down every year, we had so much fun. Seeing five plays in three days seems like a lot, but intellectually, I loved it. Physically, I had a hard time sitting still becuase the shows were mostly about three hours long. But it was really so much fun. If any of you would like to come next year, you should let me know!!

Summer Class

I am taking a Shakespeare class for educators this summer. I asked Word Friend if she wanted to come with me and she jumped at the chance. Yesterday we had the discussion part and today through Thursday we get to do the play watching part. However, there is a wild fire between us and the shows (being a few hours drive away) and they might close the freeway. So, here's hoping for a normal boring drive. But I am very excited to see some Shakespeare!!

Happy Independance Day!!

Ah, the insanity. I volunteered to help out at the Freedom run, so yesterday I had to be there at five thirty. In the morning. Which meant I had to wake up an hour beforehand. Especially since I decided to ride my bicycle because I was going straight to the parade afterward and didn't want to try to park my car ten minutes before the parade started. So I was there at five thirty in the morning and helped with registration and then helped remove digital recorders for time. I took my bicycle over to the parade and met up with my friends and their kids to watch the parade. As I sit there and watch all the pageant queens go by, I wonder why they even do it. What is the benefit of doing pageants? If anyone knows a really good reason let me know, because I don't see the intrinsic value. Of course my favorite part of the parade is the cannon at the end. They fire it alot, which is cool, its not as annoying as the sirens. And I like all the old cars, those are really cool.
Then, I had to take my bicycle home because there was not room for it in the car. This would not have been so bad if it hadn't been almost all uphill and at eleven in the morning when it was starting to get really warm. I only rode three and a half miles and it killed me! I am so out of shape. So then I took a four hour nap. I had dinner with my landlord and kids and then went to a barbeque with some other friends and then went to someone's work balcony to watch the fireworks.
It was a pretty good day, but boy was I tired afterward! And I'm starting to wonder if insanity is just some sort of disease I have that I can't escape . . .