Jane Eyre, and why I spent 2 hours at Barnes and Noble

This past weekend my sister Hailey and I really wanted to see Pirates 4. We were going to go Thursday for the midnight showing, but I was sick on Wednesday and by the time I decided I was feeling well enough to go, it was already sold out. So we decided to go on Saturday, because Friday there was a girls' camp 4th/5th year hike and overnighter that we were both going on.(I'm a camp leader--camp cook, yo!) Anyway, so Saturday was the night. But when we got there (we even arrived early) it was sold out. Boo. However, I remember that I hadn't seen the new Jane Eyre movie, so we got tickets for that. We got the tickets at about 7 45, and the show wasn't starting for another 2 hours, so we had two options:

1. go home (20 minutes away), or

2. go to Barnes and Noble (just around the corner)

We decided to play around at Barnes and Noble. First, we sat down in the middle of the "bargain books" aisle and started looking at all sorts of random books, like Warrior Women in History and The 50 Greatest Lies in History (which Hailey promptly put back on the shelf after we read that they thought the Founding Fathers were power-hungry and not motivated by moral conviction. Not a good thing to say to Hailey.) We looked at their JRR Tolkien books, including a beautifully illustrated copy of The Hobbit. We then found an optical illusion book, and sat down on a couch and entertained ourselves with it for awhile. Luckily, there's a mini Starbucks inside Barnes and Noble, so we got Starbucks smoothies (which are, by the way, way better than I expected).

And that about did it. We headed back to the movie theater and got ready to see the newest movie version of my favorite book. Here's the verdict:

I loved it. Granted, I'm generally not hard to please, but I am picky with my Jane Eyre movies, because they never seem to get the character of Mr Rochester right. I thought the casting in this movie was brilliant, even though it was hard to fully develop Jane and Mr Rochester's relationship in such a short amount of time. They did have good chemistry though. I loved the fact that this version really played into the creepy elements of the novel, because it reality it is a gothic novel, so I was glad to see the gothic elements more emphasized.

I love everything about Jane Eyre in general, so it was just exciting to see more of it. When I went to the Bronte parsonage in England, it was one of my favorite days in the world. You can really understand why Charlotte and Emily wrote gothic novels; for heaven's sake, they lived next to a graveyard! And not just a regular graveyard, either. A creepy, mossy, overgrown graveyard (well, it has been almost 200 years since they lived, but I imagine the graveyard was still creepy). Old graveyards are pretty much one of my favorite things. I should post pictures from some of my favorite graveyards (would right now, but I'm at work, so maybe tomorrow. r later today.)

Anyway, I think that's all.

the convection oven

I adore Amy Krouse Rosenthal's idea of creative nonfiction in encyclopedia format. It makes me want to document my entire life in encyclopedia format. Really, though, wouldn't that be a delightful way to journal? Every day I could write a new entry for my encyclopedia, although I don't know if I would ever try to publish it, because Rosenthal has that covered already. Does the world want two Encyclopedias of an Ordinary Life? I guess I could get to work and have an exciting life, and mine could be called Encyclopedia of an Exciting Life. For right now though, my life is not necessarily exciting to anyone but myself. So, anyway, if I decided to write encyclopedia-journals, today's entry would look something like this:

CONVECTION OVEN/MICROWAVE

Today my dad suprised my mom by having a convection oven/microwave delivered to our house. He did this because several weeks ago, I was using the microwave and noticed strange sounds and smells emitting from the appliance. When I opened it to remove whatever I was warming up, and found that the food was still cold. Strange. The microwave before that one had to be replaced shortly after, as a teenager, I decided to see what would happen if I microwaved a cd (by the way, it was very "cool"--I only put it in for 3 or 4 seconds, and it sparked inside the microwave and had a crackled design when I took it out). My family tried to blame the loss of the microwave on me, but I maintained that the microwave was old and broken anyway, so whatever I did was a mere drop in the bucket. So, considering these accusations, it was interesting to me that I was the one to discover our current microwave's brokenness. Our new contraption is both a convection oven and a microwave which is, let's face it, pretty genius. I can't wait to use it.

Bahahaha

I'm reading this book right now, and it is seriously cracking me up. Allow me to share with you a few of my favorite entries so far:

"BROKER

It is weird and unsettling that a person who is hired to handle your money, make wise decisions about it, and, ostensibly, keep you from losing it is called a broker.

BROTHER

My brother, who grew up with three sisters, was I won't say how many years old when he finally realized that he did not have to wrap the towel around his chest when he came out of the shower.

...

CALLING SOMEONE'S NAME

You're calling someone's name, trying to get their attention. Perhaps you're in a crowd. Or they are across the street. Or they went to get popcorn and Raisinets and are now looking for you in the packed movie theater. You cup your hands around your mouth and repeatedly call their name, waving your name--Here I am--but they don't hear or see you. No matter who they are--a lawyer, a surgeon, a Latin scholar--they look like an idiot searching for you, craning their head like that, and you question your intelligence."

Oh, and here's the foreword:

"I was not abused, abandoned, or locked up as a child. My parents were not alcoholics, nor were they ever divorced or dead. We did not live in poverty, or in misery, or in an exotic country. I am not a misunderstood genius, a former child celebrity, or the child of a celebrity. I am not a drug addict, sex addict, food addict, or recovered anything. If I indeed had a past life, I have no recollection of who I was.

I have no survived against all odds.

I have not lived to tell.

I have not witnessed the extraordinary.

This is my story."

So creative, so entertaining. And I'm only on letter C.

Love it. Although I kind of wish someone had edited out the profanity in the first couple of pages. Oh, contemporary literature.

something i love

rocks:

southern Utah is a fascinating geological playground; meaning, we have mountains characteristic of the rest of Utah (grey rock, covered in greenish plants) blended with more desert-like mountains (red rock, speckled with sagebrush). There is also a smattering of gnarled, sharp lava rocks from an ancient lava flow and fossils indicating that parts of this area were at one point under the sea. There are fault lines, colorful layers of sandstone, and blue clay that destroys houses. One of the reasons I am particularly attached to this area might be the geology of it. I know there are geological wonders in other areas, and I would love to live in other places, but this place is special to me for other reasons than the fact that it is my home. For example, I would love to visit places with active volcanoes, because I'm weirdly attracted to them. Here there are only ancient lava flows, but nothing (currently) active. And I've slept through the only sizeable earthquake we've had here in a couple decades. Not that I wish the devastation of natural disasters on areas that I live, but aside from the risk of death and distruction, it would be exciting to experience. Anyway.

I took a geology class a few years ago (six, maybe?) when I was attending Dixie State College, and it was one of my favorite classes. Someday, I will get a degree in geology (and history, and music, and other things).

But with a degree in creative writing, I'll just write about them, and save the degree for another life.

And in that life, I can devote myself to studying rocks. And it will be fun.

just because I wanted to

Please allow me to share with you one of the most beautiful sentences I have read in awhile:

"...time seemed to have shaken off its quotidian moorings to reveal something of of its true scale and unnerving nature."
{from the essay "Table Manners" in Chris Arthur's Words of the Grey Wind}

When I read that unbelievably beautiful sentence, I had to read it again, then stop, sigh, and thank heaven for people like Chris Arthur who blow me away with the way they have mastered the English language. Praises.

things I need:

*to refrain from online shopping while working at the Tuacahn Box office. Really, though, the moment there's a bit of down time I'm all over eBay and Amazon. I just bid on a Cath Kidston purse (it's beautiful, and I need a new purse. I swear.) I did bring a book (two, actually) so thankfully I have the option of staying offline and reading. Reading will be my protection against overspending this summer :)

*to get more sleep. I was over an hour late to work at my dad's office this morning because I slept in, and unfortunately the excuse that I have a headache and allergies doesn't always fly. (Sorry Dad!)

*to tell all of you that I got GOOD NEWS this week about the fall. I got approved to teach a freshman-level writing class at BYU while I am grad schooling. Yes, starting this fall, I will be an instructor at Brigham Young University. Heaven help my students!

*to have a vacation. I don't know if I can wait until the Seattle trip at the end of July.

*to blog more.

*to see Little Mermaid at Tuacahn. I love working in the box office (perfect summer job) because I get FREE TICKETS! They are also doing Grease this summer, which isn't my absolute favorite musical, but I will most likely see it anyway. Can't wait for June!

*to write. I haven't writted a lot lately, so I definitely need to change that. I think there should be a time for experiencing and a time for writing, although there is never a bad time to write. I think I've been in the experiencing phase for awhile, with all sorts of unexpected, sometimes unwanted, events that take some time to process. But lately I've been getting all sorts of ideas, and I need to start recording them. Like yesterday, I flopped down on my bed and, staring at my stretched out, sleeping cat, I thought what it would be like to be a cat. That would be an interesting avenue to explore. Or why the movie Ben Hurr is my favorite movie to watch on Easter. Or what it is about chocolate that makes it irresistable (besides the caffeine, people. I'm not looking for the obvious.) Or my obsession with dying my hair (I haven't dyed my hair for awhile, but believe me, it's tempting.) Anyway, lots to think about.

And that's all for now!