5 reasons to be happy

I woke up feeling rather down and the gloom has been hovering over me all day, so...

5 reasons to be happy:

5. I'm rereading Till We Have Faces. It's been a long time since my first reading (3 years, I think).

"No, no no," she said. "You don't understand. Not that kind of longing. It was when I was happiest that I longed most. It was on happy days when we were up there on the hills, the three of us, with the wind and the sunshine … where you couldn't see Glome or the palace. Do you remember? The colour and the smell, and looking at the Grey Mountain in the distance? And because it was so beautiful, it set me longing, always longing. Somewhere else there must be more of it. Everything seemed to be saying, Psyche come! But I couldn't (not yet) come and I didn't know where I was to come to. It almost hurt me. I felt like a bird in a cage when the other birds of its kind are flying home.

4. My Peter Pan cast. ♥

3. I learned how to do a heart in HTML. ♥ You have no idea how happy this makes me.

2. "This Charming Girl - handmade and vintage treasures for all your whimsical jewelry needs" - Camera Shy Necklace I didn't even know I had "whimsical jewelry needs" until I found this website.

1. The fact that I actually had to make myself stop at five. I have more reasons.

That in itself is very cheering. All right. I feel better now. :)

Finishing up Sense & Sensibility

Confession: I could read Sense & Sensibility over and over and over again. I really could. For some reason, this story pulls me in and keeps me entertained more than Jane's other books. It's not that it's my favorite (I still don't know which is my favorite. It's been Emma for a while). I just love spending time with these characters and the story they tell. It has the right mixture of sadness and joy, without leaving me with that bittersweet hollow feeling at the end. It helps that my copy (Penguin Classic's Hardbound Collection) is absolutely delicious: light blue and pink, with flowers on the cover that almost bring to mind the "art nouveau" style.

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

There are lots of good lessons to be learned in Sense & Sensibility. I was just rereading Elenatintil's wonderful review of the Emma Thompson/Kate Winslet Sense & Sensibility film. She writes, "Marianne and Elinor are not just dealing with the question of whether to marry for love or money, but with the question of "how does one conduct oneself when one is in love?" And that, believe it or not, is a question that every young person deals with. Do they show themselves richly enamored (as Marianne does) or remain guarded and aloof (like Elinor)? The times may be differant now, but even though our society embraces the openness of Marianne, we also see Marianne's heartbreak and embarassment repeating itself over and over again in our young people."

I don't even know what else to say. That's just so wonderfully put. :)

I'm almost finished with my re-read. Edward and Elinor are finally together. Everything is explained, everything is happy. I think Jane Austen gave Elinor the happiest possible ending. Instead of letting Edward come directly to her, tell her he couldn't think what he had ever seen in that Lucy Steele, and would Elinor pretty please marry him and make him the happiest man on earth, Jane put Elinor through a few pages of misery first and writes one of the most heartbreaking paragraphs I have ever read:

"Elinor now found the difference between the expectation of an unpleasant event, however certain the mind may be told to consider it, and certainty itself. She now found, that in spite of herself, she had always admitted a hope, while Edward remained single, that something would occur to prevent his marrying Lucy; that some resolution of his own, some mediation of friends, or some more eligible opportunity of establishment for the lady, would arise to assist the happiness of all. But he was now married, and she condemned her heart for the lurking flattery, which so much heightened the pain of the intelligence."

Even when Elinor hears that "Mr. Ferrars is married," she is calm. Amusingly, Marianne is the one who goes into hysterics.

Then, lo and behold, all misunderstandings are cleared away with the arrival of Edward. He is not married, and...

"Elinor could sit it no longer. She almost ran out of the room, and as soon as the door was closed, burst into tears of joy, which at first she thought would never cease."

That sudden sharp turn from misery to joy always gets me. :)

Another thing I love about this book is the warm, happy family atmosphere. Aside from Marianne and Elinor's obvious closeness, Mrs. Dashwood is a loving mother who takes good care of her children. Marianne clearly inherited her sense of drama from her mother, but Mrs. Dashwood is still a sensible woman who raised her daughters to be intelligent, virtuous and sweet young ladies. Unlike some other Austen mothers I can think of, whose children only turned out all right by some miracle of fate. The warmth of the Dashwood women's family life is very appealing, and it's so absent from Austen's other books. Think about it: In Pride & Prejudice, Jane and Lizzy are the only sane members of their family. Lizzy can't hold a conversation with her mother without giving up in exasperation at the latter's foolishness. In Mansfield Park, Fanny Price's parents give her up to rich relatives quite readily, and when Fanny goes back to visit them years later, she is disappointed with their vulgar manners and habits. Her relationship with the aforementioned rich relatives is no better. One aunt takes advantage of her submissive disposition and the other constantly picks on her. Her girl cousins look down on her and only her cousin Edmund pays her any proper attention or kindness. In Persuasion, Anne does not have ANYone of sense to talk to in her family. Her father and sister are conceited jerks and her younger sister is just silly. Emma never knew her mother and appears to take care of her aging father instead of the other way around. Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey spends so much of the novel away from her parents that an accurate picture of her relationship with her family can never be drawn. Sense & Sensibility is the only one of Jane's novels that portrays the heroine's family in a truly positive light.

Now I am off to read the last few pages of this delightful book. :) Next on my Jane Austen reading list: Northanger Abbey.

Catch-up post

Sound of Music is over. For a while I couldn't blog about it because it made me far too sad. Oh, who am I kidding, it still makes me sad to think of it being over. :) But then I just forgot. Anyhow, it was an incredible experience! I had an amazing time and I will never forget it. It really is hard to leave it behind, though. That character became such a part of me... and I miss all my Von Trapps so much. I miss all of the cast, but especially those Von Trapps. :)

Taming of the Shrew is also over. I was a little less sad to see that one end. It was a lot of fun, and as my first real Shakespearean part (not counting servants, messengers, etc. which I have played in the past) it was a great experience. But after 8 shows, I was done. I do rather miss my costumes, though. I only had three, but they were all gorgeous.

In other news, I have had plenty of time to read this month. Currently, I'm reading Sense & Sensibility... for the second time in one year! I rarely read books twice in one year. But I make special exceptions for comfort literature, school, and really short/easy books. Jane is comfort literature. :) I might take it into my head to do a S&S-themed blog post... oh, heavens, I didn't mean for this to turn into a Jane Austen blog! Though on that note...

Take a look at this Guide to Avoid Gossip - Jane Austen Style. I was particularly tickled by "If you’re male, be poor." It reminds me of that little poem:

"Oh if you’re a bird, be an early bird
And catch the worm for your breakfast plate.
If you’re a bird, be an early early bird
But if you’re a worm, sleep late."
--- Shel Silverstein

And of course that gave me a lovely image of Mr. Bingley as a poor, unsuspecting worm, with Mrs. Bennet as the ruthless early bird, trying to catch him and bring him home to feed to her children. Mwahahahaha.

One last Pride & Prejudice post, some small news and a slight digression

It always makes me so sad to leave the world of Jane Austen. You have no idea how tempted I am to pick up Pride & Prejudice and simply start reading it all over again. Now the only Jane books I haven't read this year are Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion. And I'm barely halfway through the year! I'm going to have to break my rule of not reading the same books twice in one year, methinks.

But let me blog Pride & Prejudice once more before I move on. And once more, I will connect it to The Sound of Music.

There are many scary things about playing a lead role, not the least of which is: the looooove scenes. ;) (Particularly when you have younger siblings in the room) Personally, I think the relationship of Maria and Captain Von Trapp is not quite so important as Maria's relationship with the family as a whole, but it is still very important. So I was talking it over with my voice teacher. She was saying to me, "The thing about this relationship is that it really snuck up on Maria. She always thought of the Captain one way - and then suddenly, here she is, thinking of him in an entirely different way."

Oh, I couldn't help myself. I pulled my beautiful, hardbound book out of my purse and waved it around. "Pride & Prejudice!" I said.

"Oh! Yes!" said my voice teacher. "Yes, perfect example! Mr. Darcy is actually a really good correspondent for the Captain." We talked about how the specifics of the stories and the characters involved are very different of course, but there is still that common theme of being surprised by finding out who someone really is, and of being surprised by love.

And inwardly I was just saying, "Yesssssss." It was great that I could even find a way to fit Pride & Prejudice into a conversation with my teacher - even better that we could draw parallels from Lizzy & Darcy to the love story I'm portraying right now.

(And I'm going to go on a tangent right now and say this: We were watching the Cathy Rigby recording of Peter Pan the musical on YouTube, and it made me smile that the audience cheered every time Peter flew through the Darling's window. It made me think - I hear that there were a lot of screams and cheers in the theaters when Robert Pattinson showed up onscreen as Edward in Twilight. And it got me thinking - why don't we do the same for Mr. Darcy? And once I began to wonder this, I remembered that there have been several stage versions of Pride & Prejudice, some of them musicals. See this website: http://www.prideandprejudice-themusical.com/music.html and this one: http://www.prideandprejudicebroadway.com/) I think the perfect Pride & Prejudice musical would all come down to this: when Darcy enters the ballroom at Meryton, he would have to freeze for a full minute while every female in the audience clapped her hands raw and cheered her throat hoarse. Darcy has been a sort of icon long before Edward Cullen and Peter Pan were around. I think he deserves nothing less. Three cheers for Mr. Darcy! )

And on another note, take a look at the About The Musical page on the second P&P link. Are not the song names too perfect for words? It's like some kind of joke - "My Reasons For Marrying." "My Poor Nerves!" "I Can't Resist A Redcoat!")

Now that all that is out of the way, some other news of interest:

Full run-through of Sound of Music last night = much more encouraging than our last run through! The energy level was higher, and everything is just generally coming together. I'm nervous for the shows - but I'm also incredibly excited!

And rehearsals have started for Taming of the Shrew. I really don't want to talk about that right now, though. I feel like crying every time I think that I have rehearsals for both this show and Sound of Music every day (give or take a day or two) until... July? Pray for me. It's not that it's not going to be fun. It's just going to be really really hard... and exhausting... Even without "Shrew," my schedule would be pretty hectic - throw in another show that opens only a few days after the first, and it's basically insanity. Please please please don't ask how the heck I'm going to do it. I have to do it. So I'll find a way.

More Pride & Prejudice (reclaiming the classic and utterly darling artwork)

Pride and Prejudice Without Zombies at Austenprose.com. "Reclaiming the Classic." I started my re-read half a month ahead of the event, but I'll still be following the blog. I'm a huge fan of anything without zombies, so this should be great. ;)

Pride & Prejudice illustrations by an Italian artist. No matter how much of a purist you are, no matter how much the idea of P&P as a Marvel comic revolts you, who could help but be delighted with these colorful and comical illustrations of the story!? Click on the different places on the map to see the pictures that go with each location. (Personal favorites: Mr. Collins wagging his tail at Lady Catherine at Rosings, Lizzy and Wickham envisioning Mr. Darcy with horns and a pitchfork at Meryton, Lizzy's petticoat "six inches deep in mud" at Netherfield Mr. Darcy offering his heart to Lizzy at Hunsford, Mr. Darcy in his pond... with a smitten frog atop his head!) Each illustration is accompanied by an appropriate quote from the novel. And I'm not certain, but I believe the page is a work in progress, so keep checking back for new illustrations.

first day of spring

It's hard to express how the beginning of spring makes me feel. Everything seems to look better, or smell better, or sound better, or simply feel more beautiful in early spring.

Today...

- spring cleaning with Desirae.
- windows open for the first time in - well, if not for six months, then for a VERY long while!
- North & South soundtrack (found here ). I first read and watched the miniseries last spring, so it feels rather perfect.
- quoting Little Dorrit incessantly. I guess I didn't mention that we've seen the second half four times now. Andy Serkis wears a fake nose. Hah.
- Desi's been embroidering:



- I've been taking pictures...

From the Rose in bloom

I saw this on the blog of my dear friend, known in the "blogosphere" as Lady Rose: A Rose In Bloom and as I have always wanted to do one of these things, I thought I would indulge my little whim tonight:

Date... The nineteenth of January.

Starting time... 7:32 PM

Mood... Introspective, having just read a beautiful plot post at Journey of a Catholic Nerd Writer.

Outside my window... It's very, um... dark.

I'm thinking... about summer fruits. Mmmm.

I'm reading... I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith and The Inimitible Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

I'm listening to... Hayley Westenra's Wuthering Heights on Lady Rose's blog. (And she has Jon Schmidt there too! I love her. ;-) )

I'm wearing... Pajamas. Boring, I know. I intended to go to bed early... until I got on the computer. Same old story.

Yesterday, I... got a shiny camera in the mail and took an amazing photograph of my toe. No, I will not show it to anyone. My mother laughed too hard when I showed her.

I'm excited for...A lot of different things. Among them: Mass tomorrow. A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner which comes out March 10. Seeing my godsister. High tea with Miss Catholic Nerd Writer (whenever that may be!)

I'm sad because... because... because... suddenly I'm not sad because I was reminded of Madeline Basset from Jeeves & Wooster. "Life is very sad, isn't it?" "Yes, well, for some people it is..." (Madeline and Bertie, Jeeves & Wooster episode "The Hunger Strike") Did I mention that in addition to reading a Wodehouse book, my sister Desirae had the television series on today? I'm in no mood for sadness.

I'm hungry for... summer fruits. I shan't go into any detail, but I described my ideal fruit salad (preferably served over plain white cake) to my mother earlier today... not happening this month. Or next month. Come to think of it, I AM a little sad about that...

The song stuck inside my head is... Hehehe... the Jeeves & Wooster theme song. ;-)

I want... summer fruit salad. No, I want to have tea with Emmy.

I love... that picture of my toe. Don't worry, I'm only joking!

I loathe... certain things that have slipped my mind at present. I don't feel like I could loathe anything at the moment. I'm in a sort of blissfully forgetful mood. I can't remember if I'm sad, or irritated, or anything. It's been an unusually peaceful day.

This week, my goal is... Oh...dear. Goals. Right. Um... to live through it? It's going to be a little tough, starting on Monday.

Did I meet last week's goal?... Mostly, yes. My goal (though I never said anything about it here) was to clean my room and do something else which I've forgotten, but I'm almost positive I did it... ho hum...

Ending time... 7:54 PM