Our Trip to the Portland Art Museum

 

On Tuesday Eric and I decided to do something a little different on his day off.  I had wanted to visit the Portland Art Museum for a couple of weeks and so off we went.  Being from the Pasadena area of California, I will admit that I am a little spoiled.  We have the wonderful Norton Simon Museum which, although not large, has an incredibly versatile and impressive collection.  We also have the LACMA, the MOCA, and the Getty, but the Norton Simon is my favorite. Happily, there were sections of the Portland Art Museum that reminded me very much of the Norton Simon.

Not knowing our way around, we actually ended up in the areas with modern and contemporary art first.  I will admit, that this style is not my favorite.  As a Humanities major at BYU-Provo I had many art history classes on different styles and periods and after all of them, I still enjoy the Impressionists the most (Renoir above all) as well as older, classical styles.  I love bright colors, creative uses of light and light sources, and differences in textures, like metal, lace, velvet, and flesh.

Here are some of my favorites from our visit: (I highly encourage you to click on the pictures to see them in larger sizes...)

I love portraits like this one:  "Madame de Pompadour."

One of Monet's many water lily paintings is exhibited there.

Wonderful textures of the different fruits, petals, containers, and the marble counter.

One of my absolute favorites of the day "Nature's Fan," which shows either a young mother or sister fanning a cherubic child with a handful of leaves.  This picture does not do it justice, because the way the artist shows the flesh and veins on the hands and feet is just exquisite.

This was another one I really liked, which shows a Spartan woman giving her son a shield before he leaves.  I could see myself choosing this one to write about in a college class.  You can see the mother's worry, trying to be brave as she sends her oldest off to war.  Perhaps she is already a widow.  There is a lot of subtext to this piece.

And it was thrilling to see a very famous Renoir piece in person. 

 Once in a while a modern piece will captivate me.  Both Eric and I were amazed at this sculpture called "The Dishwasher."  My first glance at it was coming down a flight of stairs and, thinking we were alone, I was about to say something to him.  Then I saw this man sitting down out of the corner of my eye and, convinced he was real, stayed silent.  We were both dumbfounded as we approached and realized it was a sculpture.  It is incredibly life-like...

I don't know what the piece weighs, but you can feel the weight, the tiredness, and the hours of exhaustive physical labor in the subject's posture and expression.

I was most impressed with his hands.  Looking at this photo alone, would you ever guess that this is not a real person?

Here are some other modern pieces that we really liked:

Made from a collection of tiles, this mosaic-type piece shows the atom bomb in mid-explosion.

When you approach it, you see the tiles are sometimes ears, skulls in different positions, dominoes, brick walls, etc.  A very interesting, thought-provoking piece.

Impressive in its realism, this painting shows wonderful details in shadow, reflection, perspective, and even the oil stains on the pavement. You feel like you are looking through a window into the past.

Again, it was the details that I liked about this sculpture.

A hat?  A spine?  No, a stack of figures in crouched positions one on top of the other.  It is odd, but you can't stop looking at it...

I just loved the use of color in this piece.

One of my favorites of the modern pieces, a self-portrait of the artist.  We are forced to make eye-contact him, and that is what I like about it.

And, of course, there are the pieces that just create a series of questions, such as "what is art?"

This one showed the sun going down repeatedly, while playing audio from "Apocalypse Now." 

Of course, art itself, in any form is supposed to make you reflect and feel and remember it.  I would say that all of the pieces above were successful in doing that, so much so that days later, I am still thinking about them.

We had a lovely day, the weather was absolutely perfect--although windy--and we concluded our Portland trip with a late lunch at Jake's Grill.  I'm looking forward to another trip to the museum and a chance to revisit what we saw and ponder them again in person.

Summer California Trip

A few days ago I returned from California, where I spent 17 days visiting my family.  This was something of a momentous trip because I drove down there alone...well, almost alone...with my big dog, Bailey.  I broke the drive up in 2 days each direction, staying at the dog-friendly La Quinta in Redding, CA both times.

Bailey was a champ in the car.  He is allotted the entire back seat to stretch out his 100 lb. shagginess, and he only got fidgety when it was time for a stretch or a potty break.  And even though, at 11 years old, I'm not sure how threatening he would be to someone who would try to harm me, it was still a comfort to have him along.  My mom's dog, a passive but beautiful Golden Retriever named Brinkley, was very happy to have his friend return after nearly a year (we took Bailey down at Christmas.)  I know that Bailey enjoyed Brinkley too, and it was cute to see them walk side by side on familiar routes when they would get their evening strolls each night.

However, neither Bailey nor I enjoyed the CA heat.  Wow.  It hovered around the triple digits nearly every day.  My mom's house has air conditioning, but because of the remodeling going on, the heat from outside is not sealed off, so it was of little use.

Oy, the remodeling...

The company she is using is doing a great job, staying on schedule, etc., but it was hard for me to adjust to the pounding that would begin daily at 7am, and not having any access to the living room, dining room, or family room in an already small house.  The family room is what is being completely redone.  I knew that this lack of space would be challenging, which is why I wanted to bring my car.  It was a very good decision!

But, despite the heat and the tight quarters, I was thrilled to see my two favorite little people, my niece and nephew, pictured above.  They are so cute and so fun and I always want to be in touch with them.  I met my brother and the kids at a couple of parks, took my nephew one day to Kidspace Museum, and then the 4 of us went to the Aquarium of the Pacific last Friday.  That was a lot of fun.  My brother has talked to my nephew a lot about sea animals, fish vs. mammals, etc. and I could tell he was taking it all in.  My niece, who is only 2, kept saying, "Fishies!"

Playing at the park in the sprinklers with his new umbrella

My cute boy!  Too bad it turned out blurry.

She is a charmer.

It was tough to coordinate the animals and the kids' expressions!  Jonathan got a better picture of the kids, but with no sea lions behind them.

In front of the "Finding Nemo" tank at the aquarium.

These sea dragons never cease to amaze me!

Jellyfish!  I love looking at all of the different kinds of jellyfish.

After all of the fascinating live animals, my nephew's favorite part of the whole day was playing with the rain at the model showing the different reservoirs in Southern CA. 

The night before I left, my sister-in-law brought the kids over so I could see them one last time.  I packed and they played on the iPad.  Gosh, I love these kids!

 

 

When I look back on the two weeks, I actually did quite a lot!  I had lunch with my cute grandma, lunch with my friend, Heather; my mom and I spent several days making trips to Ethan Allen and Calico Corner in Pasadena to look at fabric because she will be redoing a lot of her furniture; my friends, Heather and Amy and I did a session at the LA Temple, we had the Kidspace and aquarium trips, and my mom and I went to 2 concerts. 

The first concert we went to was such a treat!  We got to see Steve Martin perform on the banjo with the Steep Canyon Rangers.  It was all bluegrass and fun, upbeat music.  He was very funny and it was a great thrill to see him in person.  My husband and I have been wanting to see him perform and it was just dumb luck that he happened to be in LA while I was there, so my mom went with me.  It was expensive, but worth every penny.  Here is are 2 of my favorite songs they performed:

 Atheists Don't Have No Songs


Daddy Played the Banjo (Steve Martin on banjo, lead singer for the SCRs singing the lyrics; written by Steve Martin)


Lastly, the other fun thing was to finally meet my mom's new cat, Booker.  He was found wandering around an apartment house by my uncle, who knew that my mom had just lost her cat.  Booker is a delight!  He has no fear and he's everywhere we go, inside or outside, any room, with the kids, in the gazebo, front yard or back yard.  And to top it off, he's gorgeous!

All in all, it was a good trip.  I arrived home very tired after 17 days away and a lot of driving, but I'm glad I went.  I'm also glad I'm home!

Our 2nd Anniversary

Last week, on August 7th, Eric and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary!  I still can't believe it has been 2 years.  Honestly, sometimes I still can't believe I'm married.  But I certainly feel fortunate that I have found such an incredible and loving husband.

Eric planned his vacation time around our special date, so we made plans for a fun evening.  We drove down to Vancouver to our favorite sushi restaurant.  Then we headed to Portland and saw Jersey Boys.  Our seats were right up front, the music was great (most of which we have all heard over the years,) and the story was both entertaining and interesting.  I will admit that both of us were completely unprepared for the language in the show, but we tried not to let that ruin our evening.  But I wouldn't recommend taking children to seen it. A shame, too, because it really was a great show otherwise.

Again, as I have done so many times over the last two years, I ponder how much my life has changed now that I'm married.  New state, new house, new friends, new life.  It is a life I never would've predicted for myself, but that I am so, so grateful for.  Eric and I have spent a lot of time together over these last 2 weeks during his vacation...working on the house, cleaning the garage, picking out a new door and fixtures now that the house is freshly painted...and in doing these things it just reminds me again how much we are made for each other.  I love the fun we have, the way he teases, the way we communicate and make decisions together.  I love the way we work as a team and how we take care of each other.  I love his devotion to our marriage and to me.

Being married to him is truly a gift, and I look forward to many, many years together.  On to Year Number 3!

Fifty Shades of Embarrassment

I learned a very powerful lesson yesterday.  And though, in my mind, I've done what I needed to do to make it right, it continues to bother me a bit today.  Few were witness to it, fewer would even say that it is worth worrying about, much less writing about.  But it was important to me, therefore it made its way here.

It began two nights ago around midnight.  The house was quiet and dark.  My husband was asleep.  The pets were curled up in their respective nooks.  I was still wide awake and ready to find something new to read.  I had just finished a fun book by I Love Lucy's creator and head writer and I wasn't quite ready to delve into my book club's next selection.  I was in the mood for something light and engaging with a good story.

One of the benefits of having a Kindle is that you can either borrow certain books for free or you can download a sample of a book before committing to buy it.  I looked through the ones available for borrowing and nothing really caught my eye.  As I clicked my way back to the Kindle storefront, I saw Fifty Shades of Grey.  I knew little of the book except its bestseller status and that women everywhere were swooning over the main character.  Normally I do some research on a book before buying it.  I figured that downloading a free sample (about 10% of the book) would tell me enough of what I needed to know.

Even though the writing wasn't superb, the story was riveting .  Naive college girl interviews high-powered billionaire businessman on behalf of her sick roommate who needs the interview for the university paper.  Billionaire businessman is relatively young and dashingly handsome.  He comes to her rescue more than once after they meet and she is amazed at his interest in her.  Wow, I thought, this almost sounds like a modern-day Jane Eyre, with the powerful elusive man taking the awkward young woman under his wing.  This has promise.  The sample ended, but it held my attention enough to want to buy the whole thing.  Good summer reading, I thought, and if I get called in to jury duty this week I'll have a book to read.  I continued on, investing more and more in the characters....and then I fell asleep.

The next day I woke up and had a productive day, eager to get back to the book.  During a Facebook check-in I mentioned what I had started reading.  I suddenly had several "likes" and offers from different people to lend me the entire series.  I did have one warning, however, that the book was very racy and mildly pornographic.  This was news to me, so I went online and did a little more research.  And, yes, my friend was right.  The book dealt with sexual subjects that I had zero interest in reading about.  I thanked her and decided to keep reading a little further, but this time my shields were up.

A mixture of emotions went through me as the book quickly took a turn from riveting to revolting.  I'm not judging others who have enjoyed it, but I did not.  That, to me, isn't entertainment and it has no literary value.  I quickly went from shock, to revulsion, to anger and disappointment.  Angry and disappointed because I had started to care about the characters.  I also felt misled and embarrassed.  Misled because this is a book that has made its way into mainstream literature, which I don't think it is, and also because it touts itself as a love story, which I also don't think it is.  This is a book about sex.  Clearly not the same thing.  I'm not sure why I felt embarrassed, but I did.

Again, I'm not judging anyone who finds this book enjoyable, but I could not handle the subject matter.  After getting through one graphic scene, I decided I had had enough.  I erased it from my Kindle and iPad, annoyed that I had spent ten dollars on a book I knew I would never finish.  I just wanted to get as far away from it as possible.

So what was the lesson?  I guess the experience was a reminder that we live in a world where questionable things can easily masquerade as something acceptable.  But we all have a choice to make about the kinds of books and media we allow into our home.  In this instance, my choice was to move on.

I know, what a prude, right?  Thank you. But I'm the one who has to live with myself.  So, lesson learned.

Ever After You...

It is so satisfying to find a really good song!  This morning while working around the house I was listening to The Gabe Dixon Band on iTunes and I was reminded of how much I love this song.  I couldn't find the original on YouTube (What?  Something that wasn't on YouTube?!) but these college students do a great job...Enjoy and have a great day.  Summer is so beautiful in our little corner of the world!

Primary Girls Camp--The Good Language Workshop

Finally, finally, I am at the end of my very busy week.  Today I get to be in sweats and have no obligations.  It feels wonderful!

This past Wednesday was my workshop at the Primary Girls Camp, which was a 2-day event, 6 hours each day.  I was in charge of a workshop on using good language, not using the Lord's name in vain, standing up to swearing, and using words appropriately.  I feel strongly about it, of course, but I was still a bit nervous.  For starters, I have never taught kids at church before, where the dynamic between teacher and students is a bit different than in a public school setting.

I did with the workshop what I do with my Relief Society lessons, which is to do the visual aides first.  Doing it in this order helps me to feel like I'm making progress, I have a chance to relax and be creative, and while doing the visuals the rest of the lesson starts to take shape.  I do the same process every time and I have found that it really works for me.

So, here are my visuals:

The sign

The scripture we discussed (the underlined words were ones I felt needed defining, so we talked about those in more depth)

 The strips of paper with the scripture that each girl received at the end of the workshop.

The activity (wrong choices)

The activity once the RIGHT choices were added

Poster board and glitter glue became my tools of choices, only because I wanted to make this as "light" as possible while talking about a heavy subject.

Mostly we talked about ways to handle uncomfortable situations when people around us are using bad language.  Almost every young girl (ages 8-11) had a story to share of a classmate who has said bad words in front of her.  Sometimes their efforts to say something were successful and sometimes they weren't.  I think that just sharing those experiences had a positive effect.  We also talked about words like "hate," "kill," "stupid," and the importance of trying to eliminate them from our everyday conversation.  I read them a quick story about a little girl who was constantly having to say "Please don't use those words around me" to her friends and they learned that getting the desired results is not an immediate thing.  We also talked about the No Cussing Club, which is an actual club started by a boy in South Pasadena, CA in an effort to stand up to swearing.  

When the half hour was up, each girl got a strip of paper with the scripture we discussed and her copy of the No Cussing Club certificate.  

The time went very fast.  Four workshops in 2 hours. Bam, bam, bam, bam.  By the last group I could tell that the girls and their leaders were tired.   I was too!  I didn't get a lot of feedback because things were just moving too quickly and there were still 45 minutes left by the time my last session was done.  The feedback I did get was positive, so that's a good thing.  Still, in retrospect, I can think of things I would do differently next time.

It was definitely a learning experience for me.  If I was ever asked to do something like that again, this experience gave me a good foundation.  What really impressed me, though, is how the subject hit home, even with the youngest girls, and how many of them have already been courageous enough to stand up to bad language that was being used in their presence.  Good for them!

Political Differences...Among Friends

I don't normally do this,  but this is a topic I feel strongly enough about to include on both of my blogs...

Recently I was placed in a social situation where the guest of a guest--not knowing or caring what everyone's political opinions were--carelessly demonized one of the candidates.  What had started as a relaxed and fun party turned tense and thorny.  It was neither the time or place for such talk and one by one (starting with myself) people began to leave the table until this person's audience dwindled to nothing.  He did what so many people do, which is (1) assuming that we have "enough" in common that we must agree politically and (2) being so over-confident that his views were the right ones that it made up the difference, in other words, not really caring whether people agreed with him or not.

Those few awkward minutes (which felt much longer) reminded me of the climate change in conversation that always happens during an election year.  It is a mistake many people make, and it usually begins with the first thing that this party guest did.  They take a quick look around the room, the table, email contacts, or even their Facebook friends list; then they do a brief statistical analysis of the group (naturally we can't know everything about everyone, but it doesn't matter)  We have about 80% of things (probably) in common.  Or at least the fundamentals.  Good enough.  And then...the political opinion sneeze is unleashed.

What I find interesting is that very rarely does anyone talk positively about who they are supporting.  It is usually negative or harshly derogatory about who they are not supporting.  It is mud-slinging at the public level.  If the political candidates and their teams are aware of it, they must love that people do this.  It certainly makes their job a lot easier.  It is so much simpler to talk about what someone is doing wrong than what we are doing right.  And religious beliefs?  The Golden Rule?  Treating others with respect and kindness?  When it comes to politics and political opinion those things are usually non-existent (unless the mud-slinging involves bashing a candidate's religion, either real or assumed, and how it will play a role in their platform.)

As for myself, I am in a precarious position.  As an educator, most (but not all) of my former co-workers belong to one political party.  As a Mormon, most (but not all) of my church friends belong to another.  So, lucky me, when I go on Facebook, half of my friends  and family align themselves with one side and half align themselves with the other.  My extended family is mixed, my in-laws are mixed, and my husband and I both tend to rest somewhere in the middle.  That doesn't mean we don't have opinions on heavy issues.  Believe me, we do.  However, he enjoys talking about politics and I don't.  (For me, it is right behind getting my toenails pulled out one by one.)

But what I really see when a political topic is brought up is the emerging of that basic human need to categorize things.  Privilege or right?  Rich or poor?  Deserving or undeserving?  Entitled or not?  Liberal or Conservative? Democrat or Republican?  As the categories hit closer to home they start to define us.  And they start to define how we see other people.  Why is that?  Why do we let ourselves play into that kind of thinking?

We know why, although we don't like to verbalize it.  It is because we like to categorize ourselves as well.  We like belonging to a group, a way of thinking, a side, and supporting a possible victor.  We want to feel like we are on the winning team.  And even if the person we are supporting doesn't succeed, we are comforted by the fact that so many others supported him, surely, we cannot all be wrong.  To admit we were wrong is unthinkable.  Many will spend the duration criticizing the person who was elected, shaking their heads and pouting.  I've done it too.  It's completely unproductive, but somehow it makes us feel better. And anyway, in four more years we'll pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and try again, certain that the person we are supporting this time will turn our country around and make it what the Founding Fathers envisioned.  The American Dream restored.

I would like to propose something.

During election years like this one, let's put a bit more energy into other things as well.  Let's not make careless assumptions.  Let's opt for kindness.  Let's be careful of the way we throw out the words "liberal" and "conservative." Let there be more discussions and less arguments. Let's do more listening and less talking.  Let's do our part and keep the mud on the ground where it belongs.  And let's be more considerate.  I am not just talking about how we voice our political opinions.  I'm talking about assessing whether the timing is right and knowing our audience--even if you're 100% sure they agree with you.  If they don't, let's care more about that.  And most of all, let's not allow political differences to affect the way we see others.

Gandhi said this: If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. … We need not wait to see what others do. 

How true this is and it is speaking to each and every one of us.

A Busy Month!

My quiet summer enjoying the weather has turned into a busy one!  I don't know if I should be thankful or not that everything I need to do is all happening in the month of July, but at least it will all be finished around the same time.

This week is my "prep" week, and as long as I use my time well, everything should be fine.

So what are all of these things that need doing?  First of all, I teach Relief Society every third Sunday.  I love this calling and would do it forever if I could.  But I put a lot of time into my lessons, usually devoting an entire day to preparing.  That was yesterday.  With a few breaks here and there, I worked on my lesson from 10am to 5pm.  No joke.  Probably a solid 4-5 hours with a few other distractions and meals thrown in.  No wonder I'm always running out of time when I teach!

I have also been asked to do 2 other things at church.  One of them is to spearhead a service project that involves collecting school supplies for kids whose families cannot afford them.  At 4:30am on Sunday morning I was typing up sign-up sheets because I had just received the information on what we needed to collect.  I had no idea what kind of a response we would get as I passed the clipboard around that day.  Fortunately, it was pretty packed in Relief Society that day.  But, even more fortunately, is that we have an amazing group of ladies who always help one another.  By the time the clipboard was returned to me, most of the spaces were filled, along with $75 attached for me to buy things that had not been signed up for yet. Isn't that incredible?  I was so sure that I would only have a few people helping out.  I love this ward.  So that means that I need to hit the stores so that I can give an updated report on where we are on Sunday.

Next week is also the Primary girls' adventure camp.  Being a convert, I was never in Primary and I never went to Girls Camp.  These younger girls are going to a 2-day day camp, not an over-nighter, which is where the Young Women are this week.  I was asked to lead a workshop for the young ones, ages 8-11, next Wednesday.  4 sessions, 30 minutes each, 10-15 girls per session.  The subject is using clean language, not using the Lord's name in vain, and not using those "fake F words."  We all know what they are.  I have some ideas of what I want to do and have already bought a few supplies, now it is just a matter of sitting down and organizing my thoughts and hammering everything out.  I want it to be as visual and as "non-preachy" as possible because it is camp and it is supposed to be fun, but still a memorable learning experience.

And, last but not least, we are in the process of painting our house (Eric and his dad are painting) AND I have jury duty starting on July 23rd.  I haven't quite lost my mind yet.  This is about as busy as I would like to be, as long as I stay busy and organized.

I hope everyone else is enjoying their summer with their families!  That you're getting to go on trips and go swimming and get things done around the house.  The fun thing that we are looking forward to is seeing Jersey Boys in Portland on August 7th, which will be our two-year wedding anniversary.  It will be very fun and a nice reward once all of the current craziness is done.  Off I go!

Happy Fourth!

I hope everyone had a fun 4th of July!  This year was a little bit different because Eric had to work graveyard on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.  That was kind of a bummer.  But, luckily, since we live so close to the lake, where all of the activities are happening, we could still walk down there each day and get lunch and be part of the crowds.

When Eric went to work on the 3rd, I headed down and watched the hilarious Cardboard Boat Regatta.  I made it in time for the last couple of heats of semi-finals and the finals. It is extremely fun to watch and they always have a good announcer that knows how to entertain the spectators.

On the actual Fourth there was a flag-raising and pancake breakfast at our ward building.  The neighborhood parade started at 10am and was right at the end of our street.  For the evening,  I was invited by my dear friends/neighbors/adopted parents, the Ponds, to join their family 4th of July fun.  There was a BBQ with tons of food, kids of all ages, and very nice people at their son's house.  As it got darker, I realized how very tired I was, so I headed home and listened to the snap, crackle and pop of the fireworks outside.

Considering that Eric had to work, it was still a fun 4th.  But it is so much better with him!

Here are some pictures I took over the last few days.  Click on the pictures to see the full-sized versions:

Some of the entries in the regatta.  There sure were some creative designs!  The winner, however, was a very sleek regular boat design of two canoes with 5-6 people in each, connected in the middle by horizontal rods.  There were plenty of slow boats and some that even capsized and sank, but there were others that were incredibly fast!

The neighborhood parade is very simple, but cute.  The 3rd picture is the Pond family marching for Hilander Dental, which is where I go too.  They were all wearing their camo shirts later on at the BBQ.  Such a great family.

 Gus and Shawn, the Ponds' new puppies.  So cute!  They spent the whole night licking people's toes.

 Masterpiece in progress!  Rene and her friend, Callie, worked very hard on this flag cake.

 Steve and Diane, my dear friends and neighbors

 Is this the perfect party house, or what?

 Their beautiful deck

 There was tons and tons of food!  More people kept arriving and there was more than enough for everyone.  The hamburger sliders with pretzel rolls were a real hit, as well as this salad that Tracy made with chopped nuts, kiwis, boysenberries, strawberries, and...brown sugar.  It was almost a dessert in itself!

 Ta da!!  The cake is done!  Along with some patriotic Rice Krispies treats.

 Callie and Rene with their masterpiece.

 Look at all of those yummy desserts!

 Trying to ceremonially eat the first piece.  Yes, they ended up on the floor.

 This is why it is called the Flag Cake!  Isn't that cool?

Improvise the Harmony--My New Blog

I have decided to create a new blog.  It is called Improvise the Harmony. 

Keeping Up With Kristie will still exist and I plan to continue adding to it, but I wanted a blog that was for more introspective thoughts.  I hope you will visit it, follow it, and leave comments.

I'm very excited about this new writing adventure.  To visit the site, simply click the screenshot below.  See you there!