Tashena the Track Star

Yesterday I cheered for my niece Tashena at a track meet and I certainly had a lot to cheer about!  She entered four events and she placed in all four of them!  I could not be prouder of her and I may have been a tad boisterous in my cheering!

Her first event was the 100 meter!  She placed second and was quite disappointed with herself because she won it last week.  She said she didn't let herself relax enough!

Next came her very best event:  the discus.  At her first meet, she threw it 89 feet 11 inches!  Her coach was absolutely amazed!  Last week she didn't do as well because so many coaches from other schools were watching her and she got very nervous.  She told me right before this event that she was a little nervous to throw because my Mom and I were there watching.  However, her first throw was 97 feet!  She was literally jumping up and down and screaming when she got the measurement!  Her second throw was 102 feet!  The state record is 113 feet and Tashena is only in seventh grade!  Nobody even came close to her distance and the coach running the event said that all she would be doing from now on is beating her own records!  I cheered so loud and yelled, "That's my girl!"  One of the parents near me told me that she was amazing!  I know!

Her next event was the 4 X 100 meter relay.  Tashena ran the third leg and when she got the baton her team was in last place.  When she passed the baton her team was in second place!  They ended up placing third!

Her last event was the shot put, which she thinks is her weakest event.  She told me that she usually throws in the 22 feet range.  Today her best throw was 25 feet and 1/2 inch and that was good enough for second place!

I may be a little bit biased, but I think she is amazing!

Arsenic and Old Lace at HCT

Last night I was able to see Arsenic and Old Lace at Hale Centre Theatre. Despite the fact that I consider myself to be quite the theatre aficionado, I have never seen this long-running play (or the popular movie starring Cary Grant) before.  Now I understand why it had 1,444 performances on Broadway;  it is absolutely hilarious!  Mortimer Brewster visits his aunts Abby and Martha only to discover a dead body in the window seat.  He learns that several old and lonely men have visited, answering an advertisement for a room to rent, and that the Brewster sisters have done their Christian duty by ending their misery with a glass of elderberry wine (with the addition of arsenic). Their nephew (and Mortimer's brother) Teddy, who just happens to think that he is Teddy Roosevelt, buries these men in the cellar because he thinks he is digging locks for the Panama Canal. Chaos ensues when Mortimer's brother Jonathan, a homicidal maniac, returns to the house needing to dispose of his own dead body which ends up, you guessed it, in the window seat.  Throw in an unwilling accomplice, a bumbling policeman who really wants to be a playwright, and a curious fiance and you have a thoroughly entertaining dark comedy that will keep you laughing all evening.  All of the performances are great.  One of my former colleagues, Claire Spencer, plays Martha and it was really fun for me to see her on stage and visit with her after the show. Brandon Green is absolutely hysterical, and a little bit creepy, as Jonathan Brewster.  I have seen him in previous productions at HCT and the physical comedy he brings to each role is second to none!  As always, I absolutely loved the set!  Kacey Udy, the set designer, created the perfect drawing room full of red velvet arm chairs, lamps with stained glass shades, and lace antimacassars.  I also loved the costumes worn by the Brewster sisters, especially the black bombazine dresses they wear for the funeral services of the men they kill.  I thoroughly enjoyed this production, but I recommend it for adults.  The show runs until May 31 and tickets range from $27.00-$16.00.  You can purchase tickets here but shows are selling out quickly.

Weekend Getaway

Last weekend, Marilyn and I spontaneously decided to go camping.  By camping I mean we stayed at a "kabin" at a KOA in Fillmore, about 150 miles south of where we live.  It is close enough to get to easily but far enough to feel like you have gone somewhere.  We have stayed here several times before and we really love it.

These cabins are great!  They have two beds (you bring your own pillow and linens or a sleeping bag), a desk and chair, a nightstand, and a mini refrigerator.  They have electricity and a heating and cooling unit so they are very comfortable.  There is a communal bathroom with showers a short walk away from the cabins so it is very convenient.  I really love the large porch and I have been known to sit there during the afternoon and read.  It rained most of the day when we were there so we stayed inside watching movies (we watched Young Victoria, Austenland, and Romeo and Juliet).  It was actually so much fun!  Then we ventured to the town of Fillmore for dinner and ate at a restaurant called the Garden of Eat'n.  What a hoot!

The rain stopped for a little while after we got back from dinner so we had to have a fire.  I think my favorite part of camping is spending the evening around the campfire.

Of course, no camping trip is complete without making s'mores and, as always, they were delicious!

This trip was so much fun!  It was the perfect little getaway from everyday life and it was so relaxing!  We laughed, almost non-stop, and ate way too many treats!  Even though the weather didn't cooperate, there is nothing better than the smell of a rain shower or the sound of raindrops on your roof as you sleep under a heavy quilt in a cabin!  I am really looking forward to many more camping trips this spring and summer.

Tchaikovsky's Suite No. 3

Last Friday I went to another beautiful concert featuring the Utah Symphony.  In my opinion, listening to the music of Tchaikovsky is the perfect way to end the work week!  The evening began with the Russian Easter Overture by Rimsky-Korsakov (which I thought was appropriate in light of the recent Easter holiday).  I really enjoyed this piece because it reminded me of my visit to St. Petersburg (I'm going back to St. Petersburg this summer so listening to this piece really ignited my enthusiasm for the trip).  It sounded so quintessentially Russian to me.  Also, I like any piece that features the chimes!  After the intermission we heard Tchaikovsky's Suite No. 3.  Tchaikovsky has become one of my favorite composers because I think his music is so romantic and emotional.  I had never heard this particular piece before but I absolutely loved it.  There is a theme in the third movement played by a solo oboe that was so haunting that it gave me goosebumps.  It was, literally, a night of Russians because the guest conductor, Andrey Boreyko, is Russian.  He was absolutely brilliant!  I think Russian music sounds so much better with a Russian conductor or soloist because they are always so passionate.  It was definitely a lovely evening with incredible music.

War Horse

Last week I was able to see the show War Horse at the Capitol Theatre.  It was absolutely incredible! It is based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo (I haven't read the book but I absolutely loved the movie version), a touching story about the bond between a boy and a horse set against the backdrop of World War I (a particular interest of mine).  The play is every bit as powerful as the movie but with the greater intimacy that the theatre always provides. The horses are full-sized puppets, created by the Handspring Puppet Company in South Africa, and each are controlled by three puppeteers. They reminded me of the puppets used in the musical The Lion King.  The horses have their own personalities and they snort, whinny, and flick their ears just like real horses.  They were astonishing and, after a few minutes, I actually thought they were real and I couldn't see the puppeteers any more.  I thought the staging was exceptional.  The rural village of Devon and the battlefields of the Somme are portrayed with projections on a large screen with very few props and the minimalist style is very effective.  The performances of the actors were wonderful but I sometimes had a hard time understanding the accents.  However, I felt that the horses were the real stars of the show!  I really loved the musical score;  it reminded me of the music in a movie.  The war scenes were sometimes very hard to watch and I actually cried when the horse Topshorn died (I cried again when Albert and Joey were reunited).  My only complaint was that the second act seemed to drag on a bit but it was worth it to get to the heartwarming end.  I highly recommend seeing this wonderful show if you have the opportunity.