Chuck E. Jeezus

[bloodyrosemccoy]

UN International Youth Day
Vinyl Record Day
Anniversary - IBM Personal Computer
Anniversary - Sewing Machine
Birthday - Cecil B. De Mille's (filmmaker)
Herbert Hoover Day (Iowa)

 

Heather got her mission papers recently.  In October, she’s leaving for the training center, and two months after that she’ll be in one of either Estonia, Latvia, or Lithuania (she’s not sure) to tell people all about Jesus paddling to the Americas in his little canoe.  That’ll be 18 months.

 

Damn.

 

Anyway, a few days ago she invited me and my Mom to come watch her mother in a dress rehearsal for a concert she was going to put on.  Heather’s mother is in the Orchestra at Temple Square, which is exactly what it sounds like—an orchestra that plays in the Conference Center and the Tabernacle and all those other places around the great and mightly LDS Temple.  Mom and I love Heather and her mother, so we agreed to give Heather a ride and watch.

 

This turned out to be complicated.  I will say that the Conference Center has some pretty features to it, like a waterfall from the roof and a lovely indigenous plants garden on the roof itself.  The inside mugs your brain and leaves it in an alley, however, and I’m not just talkin’ ’bout the giant auditorium with the largest indoor seating capacity in the world that looks like some sort of optical illusion. No, you also get good and disoriented when the press gang of nice ladies in their Sunday best manhandle you into a tour group so that you’ll be supervised because You Can’t Be Too Careful After September 11* and you go around looking at nice little statues of things like A Joyful Moment or enormous paintings of scenes from the book—I really like the technique on the paintings, but I honestly think it would be better suited to the cover of a paperback fantasy novel.

 

We wanted to see the roof, but it was getting close to rehearsal, so we sneaked away from the tour group and went back to the auditorium.  We had just enough time to determine that apparently this was the Choir** and the orchestra was in the Tabernacle before the press gang got us again, and we agreed to eject ourselves.

 

The music itself was brilliant.  They played Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, and I tellya, that first movement makes me want to be Godzilla for a few minutes.  It was thunderous and gigantic and beautiful. And the second movement always wins me over for its focus on the violas and cellos. It was brilliant.

 

The only downside was that Heather’s buddy the Get-A-Life Missionary Man showed up.  My brother insists that I not carry on about what a douchebag he is because they’re friends, but I think in this case my brother doesn’t realize something: this guy epitomizes the behavior pattern so common to this region—condescension toward women.  I don’t think he learned it consciously, but it’s very obviously there.  It’s sneaky, though, so it’s difficult to notice if, say, you’re not a woman, so my brother doesn’t get that directed at him. But to be fair, the guy was a little more civil today—probably because he was worried I’d get pissed again.

 

Mostly I ignored him, and after the rehearsal we went to Hire’s and had a very enjoyable time chatting with Heather and her Mom.  We agreed to do it again, and left for home feeling very glad we had motivated ourselves to get going.

 

I am starting to feel that franticness that I get when we all go our separate ways for the school year and beyond again.  We’re bringing the Dude back to Golden on Wednesday, Heather’s going to be off missioning for the better part of two years, Aspen’s staying here, I have heard nothing from Afshan all summer, and I’m going to FUCKING KENYA in three weeks.  Maybe that’s why tonight I’m going to visit Jess, who I haven’t seen since her wedding last year.  I am getting nervous about everything.

 

I suppose that’s only to be expected.

 

 

*This was the actual reason cited for why we couldn’t just sit in the auditorium and wait for the rehearsal to start.

 

**Yes, that Choir.

Comments

[shriekingsnape.livejournal.com]

Latvia! I know people from Latvia! They're nice, but they probably don't want to here about Jesus..

KENYA! I'm jealous

[chairman-wow.livejournal.com]

I, too, am v. jealous of you going to Kenya (they've got lions) (XD) (got that stuck in my head now, dammit). I've never been anywhere near that far away and different. Well, I suppose the States are pretty far away from Europe and quite odd, but y'know. Kenya.

People still doing that missionary thing is bizarre, to me. It seems so 19th century and imperialistic.