Great Expectations

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Moldy Wedding Cakes

I feel bad giving Mr. Dickens a rating below 5 for any of his works. He is one of the greats. There is no doubt about that. This is just not my favorite of his. While there are some awesome things within it, I found myself yearning for the end of it. It probably didn't help that I knew how it ended because I read some spoilers before reading it.

It starts out really great. And I was impressed with the continuous them of expectations, gratitude, and family throughout. Dickens, the brilliant man that he was, starts the novel in a graveyard which is where all expectations end. The relationship between Pip and the escaped convict is interesting because it continues throughout the book. Pip always thinks about him and that fateful day when he brought the man a file to break his chains and some food and drink.

Odd thing about this novel is that I lost interest as soon as Pip went to London. Once things started going good for him I was not very excited. Guess that is another issue because about 90% of the novel takes place when everything is going good for Pip.

A very poignant relationship that I wish was given more breadth was that of Estella and Miss Havisham. I loved when Estella freaks out on Miss Havisham and accuses her of making her into a monster. Miss Havisham is not a mother. She has got to be one of the weirdest women in English literature, but she and Estella were my favorite parts of this book.

Speaking of Miss Havisham...The theme of expectations is seen in her as she was jilted on her wedding day. Her expectations stopped at that moment. Even her clocks are still set at the very time when she was jilted. Her whole life is put on hold. Miss Havisham is the embodiment of what happens to us when our expectations of life are set too high and then it crumbles around us. None of us should strive to be like her.

Estella is an interesting character. At first I don't understand Pip's attraction to her. She's a brat to him when they are young. She treats him like garbage. But then there's an interesting thing that happens to their relationship. I tend to think that she actually loves Pip because she would not let him have her. She knew she would just destroy him, so by not returning her love she was actually protecting Pip from herself. How depressing is that? But this, alone, makes me think that Estella is a strong heroine.

Pip drives me nuts. Why can't he just stay at home, become a blacksmith, marry Biddy, and be done with it? I feel bad for the way he treats Joe and Biddy as he becomes a gentleman. This, I think, is Dickens making a commentary on the richer society.

At any rate, this book is worth reading. I did skim some of it because I lost patience, but I definitely think it is one of those classics that should be read simply because of the timeless themes within it. As a toast to Miss Havisham I have given it a rating of 3.5 out of 5 Moldy Wedding Cakes.

Thirsty Imagination 2 Year Anniversary

Hey, so I was perusing my old posts and I went to the very first one and realized that it was posted November 27, 2008. Woah! Two years to the day! I am impressed with my efforts in keeping up with my blog. Thank you to all my followers. You all are awesome. Stay tuned for more insanity!

Note: This post is probably, technically, posted on the November 28, 2010, but that is just a little technicality I am willing to overlook. So you better overlook it as well. Ha!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I cannot believe it is that time of the year again! I absolutely love Thanksgiving. It is a time to get together with family and reflect on all the things you are grateful for. What better way to do that than to gorge out on a fantastic feast with the ones you love. I also think that this holiday is a perfect precursor to Christmas because we can get in the mode of gratitude and segue into a celebration of Christ's birth.

To celebrate Thanksgiving I am going to do my annual list of things I am grateful for. They are in no particular order and are not exclusive. I don't think any list will ever be able to show all the things I am really grateful for, but this is the best I can do.

1. Good movies: Inception, Nine, Up in the Air, Elf, Princess Bride, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the list goes on and on and will continue to grow. Hollywood still does some good work!
2. Family: Who else would put up with me?
3. Great friends: I have old friends who continue to stick by me and prove their undying friendship and I continue to make new friends.
4. My car: Phoebe is still going strong. She is actually really good in the snow which is a bonus for her.
5. My book: I am so grateful for how it is all falling into place! I really think it has some great potential and I can't wait for everyone to read it.
6. Hadjii: My dog's breath may stink and he may yap obnoxiously sometimes, but he is a pretty awesome dog. I don't know what I will do when he is gone.
7. Art: In all shapes and forms I love it.
8. New-found confidence: I am the most comfortable in my skin that I have ever been in my life. I finally dress the way I want to and have fun with creating different looks. And my body is in the best shape it has been in a long time. I also feel more self-assured when talking to people. It is such a big step in my life!
9. Books: Love them! Can't get enough of them!
10. Deodorant: Random but...can you imagine life without it? Gross.
11. Ties: I am becoming a tie freak. I love finding new ties with awesome colors and designs.
12. Beaches: For giving me something to dream of when I am in the middle of an Idaho blizzard. And for the opportunity I had to spend a whole day on a beach in California this year.
13. Decisions, free agency, and choice: I love that I have been given the freedom to choose to act or be acted upon.
14. The beautiful women in my life: my mom, my sisters (Katie and Brittany), my niece Gigi, Sue and Susan who make work awesome, all my aunts, my grandmas (Taylor and Phillips), my cousins...women are amazing!
15. Dreams: Having aspirations and desires of an ideal future are sometimes the only thing that keep me going.
16. The gospel of Jesus Christ: Restored in its fullness, I am grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
17. Experiences: Good and bad. I am grateful for the opportunity I had to preach the gospel of Christ and to bring people closer to the Lord in Florida. Also I am grateful for the hard times I have gone through in order to make me who I am.
18. The great minds of history: Da Vinci was an amazing man. He had so many inventions that I never knew he had a hand in. Shakespeare who has done more for literature than any other person in the world.
19. Ireland: For being a never-ending inspiration for me, a place of dreams, and a land I wish to visit someday.
20. Games: They're fun. That's all.
21. Dates: I have gone on a lot of dates recently. Some good. Some not-so-good. But all are great for the experience.
22. Heartbreak: Weird to be grateful for such a thing but I think I have learned a lot from the heartbreaks I have experienced.
23. Holidays: I love celebrating and really getting involved in holidays.
24. Flu shots: I just got one this year and I think it has made a huge difference already.
25. Blood drives: I have the universal blood donor type so I went a few weeks ago and donated for the second time. While the little nurses who were taking my blood were not the nicest I really felt like I did a good deed.


That is really all I can think of right now.

Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy your feast!

Blasted Blizzard

Anyone who knows me knows my extreme disgust with snow and all the cold that goes along with it. I lived in Florida for a couple years, and it was amazing to see life without snow. Winters and Christmases are actually really delightful without snow. And it cools down enough in the winter there that you realize it is winter. I remember shivering once while I was there. It was in about October or November and it got down to 40 degrees but it was cold and wet. That was the one and only time I turned on the heat at my Florida apartment. While there are other things that you have to deal with (extreme heat, huge bugs, cockroaches, humidity, hurricanes) I would actually prefer those to blizzards.

Extreme heat: Just drink lots of water. If you have an indoor job (which most people do) you will be in air conditioned buildings.

Huge bugs: I saw a grasshopper that was bigger than my hand. Seriously. You can just spray for them or just let them be. They really are not that big a deal.

Cockroaches: They are nasty. Keep a shoe handy that you can squash them with or you can spray cockroach spray on them. It works wonders.

Humidity: I actually miss the humidity. Sure it makes the cold colder and the hot hotter. Drink lots of water and even keep a handkerchief around so you can wipe down your sweaty forehead.

Hurricanes: Yeah they do lots of damage. Of all the big disasters I would take a hurricane before I went through an earthquake or a tornado. You get a lot more warning so you can prepare for a hurricane while the others usually take you by surprise.

Blizzards, on the other hand: Come by surprise. You have to push through drifts. You have to plow and shovel your way out of your driveway. If you just have a little car you get to just white-knuckle it to your destination and hope that other drivers are being just as cautious as you.

Southeast Idaho has been in a vicious winter storm for the past couple days. It started on Sunday night and was pretty bad all Monday. Then we went on blizzard, winter warning Monday the 22nd. All day today we have been on this warning. It is nasty out there. My dad works in the ER in Idaho Falls and, on the police scanner, all he heard was "A rollover at this location! A rollover at that location!" People are idiots.

Today I was supposed to go to work. I called in because I was not about to brave the roads. Good thing I did. My boss had the stores closing at 5 PM so I would only be working for four hours. It would definitely not be worth stressing to get there for that short of a shift.

It's times like these I really want a Jeep. I have been wanting one for a few months now but this just reaffirms my desire. Someday. When I have a better job. Then again, maybe I will be living somewhere warmer so I won't really need a Jeep. But a Jeep would still be really fun.

We are starting Christmas early. Here comes a long winter. Oh the joys!

Talent Show

My friend Lindsey is in charge of all the activities in my branch which is a huge undertaking. She is a go-getter, hum-dinger, ball of fire so it is a perfect job for her to do. Awhile ago I suggested to her that we have a talent show. Not just any talent show but one where people with talents that are not in the performing arts could also share their abilities. For example, a writer could do a reading of something they've written, an artist could bring some of their artwork to display, a skier could bring photos of them skiing. You get the drift.

Usually I would fit myself in the writer's category and just bring something I wrote and do a reading for the show. But I have always wanted to be able to sing a song and play the guitar at a talent show. So my goal is to prepare a song to sing and play at the talent show at the end of December.

I have narrowed the song choices down. Some of them are originally done by girls but they would work to be sung by a male as well. In fact, some of them I think would be really awesome sung by a guy. I may end up just learning the song on guitar and finding a singer to sing it for me. I'm not sure how confident I am with this whole thing yet.

At any rate, here are the song choices so far:

Careless Whisper, as remade by Seether but originally performed by George Michael
Basket Case by Sara Bareilles (this one would require some wording changes for a male voice)
Sparks Fly by Taylor Swift
Heal Over by KT Tunstall
The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot by Brand New
2 is Better than 1 by Boys Like Girls (I would try to get a girl to do a duet with me)

If you like one of those more than the others let me know. If you have other suggestions, I am open to them. Let me know what you think!

Oh and did I mention that Lindsey put me in charge of the talent show? Yeah. Me and my big mouth. See if I ever give her any ideas again.

Spectacles

This week I joined the population of people who wear glasses. I am near-sighted so I have to wear glasses basically all the time except for when I am reading or doing closeup things.

Mall Scavenger Hunt Date

Yes. Two posts in one day.

The night before my awesome Sunday with Elder D. Todd Christofferson, I went on a really fun date. My date was Kira. It was a large group date with six couples. First on the agenda was a mall scavenger hunt. Here are a few of the pictures from that part:

I was a little late because of work. This is my date, Kira, giving a sad, dateless, princess face.

Apparently we are confused about either where we are or where we are going.

I was not here for this moment but I wish I had been.

Jon and Sarah Ann. So sad I missed the feather boa.

Monkey hat!

The Vogue version. Hot!

The GQ version. Yeah. We're cool like that.

Not sure how to rotate the picture. Sorry. We are hiding behind the bush. One of us took it a little more literally than the rest of us. *cough cough* Kira!

You can't see the logo on the side but the hat is a Harry Potter hat.

The second part of the date took place at Jon's house. We played a wild game of Curses, ate apple pie and ice cream, and played Kinect video games. It was pretty epic!