Grown up things

Today I met a friend in town for lunch. We both brought our lunches and then sat out in the grass near her office and caught up while eating our sandwiches. It was pretty wonderful. And it was a gorgeous day today. For whatever reason, it makes me feel really grown up when I meet up with someone for lunch.

The Symphony

I got my first use out of my BSO College Card today. I had a ticket for the matinee and it turned out to be a pretty decent seat. It was off on the side but in row F! The BSO played Debussy's Symphonic Fragments from "The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian", Martin's Concerto for Seven Wind Instruments, Timpani, Percussion, and String Orcestra, and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3, Opus 30. I really enjoyed the Debussy piece and I thought that it would be my favorite, but the Rachmaninoff blew me away. Nokolai Lugansky was the pianist for the piece and he ended up taking four curtain calls. He was amazing. He deserved every bit of his standing ovation (and I don't like to give standing ovations--I think that they are rarely deserved and too often given).



The piece is very long (which is part of what makes it so difficult), but if you watch even the first couple minutes you can get a taste for how awesome it is (it doesn't actually start till about a minute in). The concert notes talked about how some of the tunes in Rachmaninoff's piece have a very "familiar quality" to them. I definitely felt that. Actually, in some ways it reminded me of Ennio Morricone's score for The Legend of 1900. I'm curious now where Morricone got his inspiration for that film score--maybe it came from this piece?? And I really loved how Rachmaninoff's piece just feels like the early twentieth century. That's one of those sentences that doesn't really make sense, but it is exactly what I mean. I don't know how to explain it.

I was definitely among the youngest people there. It's funny how the matinee draws two distinctly different crowds: the college age kids, and the retirees. I don't think I saw any regular middle age people there, and really only a handful of college kids. But I suppose it does make sense for a Friday afternoon. I was very pleased that every single person in attendance had proper concert etiquette. And it was just fun to get all dressed up to go to the Symphony, it sounds like such a grown up thing to do. I am super excited to go to the Symphony again.

Not using the internet at home is hard. very hard.

Well, I lasted nearly an entire week of not using the internet at home. I still really like the idea of not using it at home, but at this point in my life it is really helpful to not have to pack up everything and go somewhere else so that I can do a handful of things online. Today I have an early afternoon meeting at work, and I have plans to cook an actual meal for lunch and so it is just very hard to motivate myself to go to the library to work for an hour when I'll have to turn around and come back. And there are a lot of things I'd like to do online that are perfect to also get housework done (like watching the debates I've missed while folding laundry and cleaning my room). All that being said, I think I will stand by my no internet after work rule. That one seems reasonable, and doable--I should just be going to be after I get home from work anyways.

I'll try to remember to take pictures of the stir-fry I'm making for lunch today. I'm pretty excited for it.

So many things, so little time

So I actually started writing this post yesterday, but didn't finish, and now I find that there are other things I want to talk about too. 

When I decided on Thursday that I wanted to be internet-free at home I figured that the first few days would be easy because I knew that I had a lot of plans already and that I wouldn't be home that much. But I did wonder about Sunday. I wasn't sure how it would go since I'm typically home for much of my Sundays.The first couple days went about like I'd planned--easy as pie. I've already done several things I wouldn't normally get around to doing (like reading books for pleasure). Sunday turned out to be surprisingly easy. I ended up with a mighty headache and so slept much of my afternoon away. whoops. Where I've hit snags have been the last couple days. My classes are all near the end of the week and so Mondays and Tuesdays are my days at home to do homework and other things. Yesterday I spent much of the day at the local library and today I spent most of the day running errands. But there are still many things I'd like to do online that I just can't squeeze in during the day. For example. Last week I missed the VP debate and tonight I'll miss the presidential debates. I did manage to watch part of last weeks debates today, but with limited internet access I just can't justify sitting down for an hour and a half to watch it when I have tons of homework that I need to do.

I keep wanting to make excuses and use my internet, but I'm trying to be strong. If nothing else, this is a lesson in my needing to plan better. And I imagine that this will get easier as the weeks go along. And if all else fails, we're halfway through October.

On a totally different note. Today I went and looked a neat encyclopedia of cookery at one of the Harvard libraries. The library the book is at isn't one of the libraries that are accessible to the general public and so I worried that I might not be able to get in. But luckily the girl at the door pretty much just waved me through. I was armed with an introduction letter, but she didn't seem to care too much about it (which is good, because now I can use the same letter to go back another time and peruse the book more). I was excited about how easy it was. I guess I must look like they expect researchers to look like (i.e. not a tourist). The encyclopedia was fantastic. It's this comprehensive eight volume set and has tons of stuff in it. Quite remarkable.

Every time I go to libraries and look at their cookery books I just want to own them. I want to have them on my shelves to access whenever I want. I'm excited for the Boston Book Fair in November, maybe I'll find one of these books that I am desperate to own. Now if only I had better heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) to store my books in.

Also, I bought milk in a glass bottle today. Yeah. I'm pretty excited about it. Nearly plastic-free milk!

Today's sage advice

Don't buy anything you wouldn't pay full price for.


Good advice. Just because it's on sale doesn't mean you need it or should buy it.

Oh Google...

I opened up Google Docs today and was greeted by this message:


I'm not exactly sure what a "modern browser" is and how Chrome embodies a modern browser, but Firefox doesn't. Sometimes Google makes me chuckle.

Internet in your home

Today I read this article about taking the internet out of your home. Reading the article today was not the first time that getting rid of my home internet connection has occurred to me, but I think it was the first time that it occurred to me that other people actually act when they think of things like that. And that there are people out there who choose to not have internet at home. 

I really like the idea of not using the internet at home. In some ways it harks back to my Facebook-free month, and also to the numerous days that I decide that I'm not going to open my computer when I get home from work (on these days I invariably get more sleep and often get to read for pleasure). During my Facebook-free month I felt so much more liberated and free. Facebook weighs me down and I don't like that feeling. And I sometimes feel the same tether from the Internet at large. Don't get me wrong, the internet certainly is useful, but I'm not sure that I really need it in my home, consuming my life. Of course, living with roommates as I do I find it highly unlikely that I'd be able to get them on board with getting rid of the internet all together, but I don't think that that needs to stop me from doing something to get the internet out of my home.


I think my goal for October (what's left of it) is to not use the internet at all after work (or after 9 on non-working days) and I also kind of want to go cold turkey and declare no internet at home at all, but I'm not sure that I'm strong enough to do that. But it would be a good exercise for me in planning. And I have plenty of libraries near me where I can get internet. And I think that will help my homework to be done more efficiently too. I think I'm going to try. It'll be hard, but if it's not hard then I won't grow or learn as much, right? And I'm going to try it through the end of the month, though if it's going well then I'll go all the way to the 11th of November. A nice full month.

Keep me honest. Ask me how it's going. Really. I think this goal is going to be more challenging than my other goals have been.

On being grateful

Writing about waiting made me think about the wonderful things that I have in my life. Here are a few of the many things that I am grateful for (in no particular order):

• my wonderful and supportive family
• my awesome job
• the fact that I have a roof over my head and food in my cupboard
• the Gospel in my life
• my three fantastic roommates
• my friends spread throughout the world
• the opportunities I've had to travel in my life
• the opportunity to watch General Conference last weekend and listen to the words of living apostles and prophets.
• the opportunity to be educated
• my bike
• and about a gazillion other things.

 What are you grateful for?


As an aside. I bought more Muller Yogurt today--that's another thing I'm thankful for. Delicious yogurt.