Well, I haven't been doing too well on my goal of writing every week, seeing that I haven't posted anything in almost a month. So here is an update. Since I finished Mockingjay I also read the Hunchback of Notre Dame (LOVED IT), went on a week vacation to Mt. Shasta, California and a good friend's wedding and reception. It might not sound like much if you don't keep in mind that all the while I've been working like some kind of animal trying to save up money for school. I figured that I could take each of these subjects in tern and give yall a brief summary.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame was FANTASTIC. I absolutely adored it. The picture painted by Hugo of fifteenth century Paris was all encompassing, yet detailed enough to set you down on the street, watching the story unfold. I was stunned by the depth and reality of the characters. It's place in the classics is indisputable.
My favorite thing about the book was the extremes Hugo managed to exhibit. Beautiful, angelic, other-worldly grace and perfection as well as supernatural brute strength and agility and then the most famous, that monstrous ugliness that repels even the most charitable and open minded. Least known and remembered, but for me the most interesting psychologically was the ghost priest, Claude Frollo the archdeacon of Notre Dame. His character portrayed the extreme in intelligence and intellectual pursuit. The pursuit that reached the height of the collective learning of his age and then pressed onward to the forbidden, for lack of subject matter and satisfaction. All three of these characters meet an unhappy end, shedding an interesting commentary on humanity's reaction to any extreme.
Extremes, those that don't fit the mold, either by conscious choice or nature's whim, seem to evoke the most negative of responses. I've always been fascinated by this. How people react to the different, the unusual and the unexplained. This was SUCH a good read!!!! I highly highly highly recommend it. Worth the investment and the patience it takes to make through Victor Hugo's numerous tangents, essays on art, architecture and poetry hidden inside his novel. They are super interesting and insightful but it can derail the story for you if you are not careful. I guess this short summary is not quite as short as I had planned but it was such an excellent work and this is my blog so I'll do what I want!
Lake Shasta in northern California is a six hour drive from our home in Portland. We used to go every year but as kids grew up and moved out, Shasta was put on a back burner. It wasn't until this year that we finally decided to make a comeback and get our sunburn on. As kids we would get fried from being in the water from sun-up to sundown. What good can sunscreen do against a lake, the biggest most intense magnifying glass there is?
The area is gorgeous, it's California, so it brings the heat with a vengeance, but it's so close to Oregon that a beautiful green coats everything except the red rocky shores and the jagged stony cliffs. We decided to camp on one of the little islands for the week. Reason number one it's free and number two, you wake up, get on your suit and off you go. It was so much fun!
There are four layers that make up Lake Shasta, the water is the bottom, a intense blue-green, opaque any farther down then five feet. It rivals Mediterranean coasts with the sun on full shine, bringing out all those brilliant colors. The next layer up is the shore. I wouldn't call it a beach because it's not sand, but a reddish beige ring of clay, mud and small crumbling rocks. It makes a flawlessly even ring around the lake and each of the islands, identical in height and color, with only the occasional rock formations to differentiate the landscape. Next up is the trees, that deep Oregon hunter's green that you feel like you could just fall right into. Rich and full firs, pines and cedars with foliage filling in the wholes for a thick blanket of green. Then of course is the incomparable sky, cloudless and luminous. It stretches on forever in every direction, but it's very best, we were all a little surprised to find out, is at night. I have never seen so many stars. The big dipper was about as visible as a really big dipper hanging in the sky would have been, along with Cassiopeia and Hercules and Pegasus. Thank heavens for the Google sky app! Instead of the usual neck craning marathon of straining to see some stars, trying to make the lights you can decipher into the constellations you can barely remember from star charts, it was more like connecting the dots in a children's book. There were shooting stars of all kinds, crashing into the atmosphere with a intense boom of light and then vanishing or streaking all the way across the sky before fading from view.
We went in to town every night for dinner and supplies and then would drive our boat back to our island in the dark. The cool breeze blowing and hint of heat left by the day made it almost like a dream, a hazy in-between time to muse and let thoughts weave whither soever they wish. That might be the highlight of the trip for me. Well, that or the thrill of wakeboarding. It does not in any way trump the absolute blessedness of carving fresh powder on the mountain but digging in deep and swinging way out to the edge, almost coming even and riding alongside the boat, well, that's a good feeling too. There is something about the wind rushing past me that is just intoxicating. I'll try to get my fix doing the least dangerous and least expensive activities, but you know junkies! Hahaha.
What was next on the list? Oh yes, my good friend's wedding and reception. There is something about a temple wedding that just makes you want to cheer. You can hardly keep it in. At least that's how this particular wedding was for me. Somebody found somebody else that they love and they made it to the temple where they can have to promise of an beautiful eternity together, never being separated, not even by death. I just feel like jumping up and down and shouting "You made it!"
Obviously, the marriage ceremony is only the beginning but what a fantastic way to start. There are so many ceremonial things people do these days to add weight to the ceremony, like the music and the flowers, the frills and lace so to speak but I've always like the simpler styles. Keep it simple, keep it real. I guess it just needs to be balanced, like everything in life. We live to find the perfect center of the paradoxes that pull us apart.
Well, I wish every happiness for my friends and want to remember one thing she did at her reception which I'd like to do at mine. After the father's dance with the bride and the mother's with the groom, they played a couple songs and anyone in attendance could dance with the bride or groom, but it cost you. You slip them some well-wishing cash in exchange for a few moments on their wedding day. Maybe it's a capitalistic thing to do but extra cash never hurt any young couple I ever heard of! Well, it's been an interesting last month and the next few weeks are sure to be good, seeing as I'll be heading out to school soon and I've got a half marathon to finally start training for. Aiyiyiyiyi!!!
That's it for this week. God be with you til I write again!!!!
The Hunchback of Notre Dame was FANTASTIC. I absolutely adored it. The picture painted by Hugo of fifteenth century Paris was all encompassing, yet detailed enough to set you down on the street, watching the story unfold. I was stunned by the depth and reality of the characters. It's place in the classics is indisputable.
My favorite thing about the book was the extremes Hugo managed to exhibit. Beautiful, angelic, other-worldly grace and perfection as well as supernatural brute strength and agility and then the most famous, that monstrous ugliness that repels even the most charitable and open minded. Least known and remembered, but for me the most interesting psychologically was the ghost priest, Claude Frollo the archdeacon of Notre Dame. His character portrayed the extreme in intelligence and intellectual pursuit. The pursuit that reached the height of the collective learning of his age and then pressed onward to the forbidden, for lack of subject matter and satisfaction. All three of these characters meet an unhappy end, shedding an interesting commentary on humanity's reaction to any extreme.
Extremes, those that don't fit the mold, either by conscious choice or nature's whim, seem to evoke the most negative of responses. I've always been fascinated by this. How people react to the different, the unusual and the unexplained. This was SUCH a good read!!!! I highly highly highly recommend it. Worth the investment and the patience it takes to make through Victor Hugo's numerous tangents, essays on art, architecture and poetry hidden inside his novel. They are super interesting and insightful but it can derail the story for you if you are not careful. I guess this short summary is not quite as short as I had planned but it was such an excellent work and this is my blog so I'll do what I want!
Lake Shasta in northern California is a six hour drive from our home in Portland. We used to go every year but as kids grew up and moved out, Shasta was put on a back burner. It wasn't until this year that we finally decided to make a comeback and get our sunburn on. As kids we would get fried from being in the water from sun-up to sundown. What good can sunscreen do against a lake, the biggest most intense magnifying glass there is?
The area is gorgeous, it's California, so it brings the heat with a vengeance, but it's so close to Oregon that a beautiful green coats everything except the red rocky shores and the jagged stony cliffs. We decided to camp on one of the little islands for the week. Reason number one it's free and number two, you wake up, get on your suit and off you go. It was so much fun!
There are four layers that make up Lake Shasta, the water is the bottom, a intense blue-green, opaque any farther down then five feet. It rivals Mediterranean coasts with the sun on full shine, bringing out all those brilliant colors. The next layer up is the shore. I wouldn't call it a beach because it's not sand, but a reddish beige ring of clay, mud and small crumbling rocks. It makes a flawlessly even ring around the lake and each of the islands, identical in height and color, with only the occasional rock formations to differentiate the landscape. Next up is the trees, that deep Oregon hunter's green that you feel like you could just fall right into. Rich and full firs, pines and cedars with foliage filling in the wholes for a thick blanket of green. Then of course is the incomparable sky, cloudless and luminous. It stretches on forever in every direction, but it's very best, we were all a little surprised to find out, is at night. I have never seen so many stars. The big dipper was about as visible as a really big dipper hanging in the sky would have been, along with Cassiopeia and Hercules and Pegasus. Thank heavens for the Google sky app! Instead of the usual neck craning marathon of straining to see some stars, trying to make the lights you can decipher into the constellations you can barely remember from star charts, it was more like connecting the dots in a children's book. There were shooting stars of all kinds, crashing into the atmosphere with a intense boom of light and then vanishing or streaking all the way across the sky before fading from view.
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| Waterskiing near Deer Island, Shasta Lake |
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| My favorite wedding shot |
Obviously, the marriage ceremony is only the beginning but what a fantastic way to start. There are so many ceremonial things people do these days to add weight to the ceremony, like the music and the flowers, the frills and lace so to speak but I've always like the simpler styles. Keep it simple, keep it real. I guess it just needs to be balanced, like everything in life. We live to find the perfect center of the paradoxes that pull us apart.
Well, I wish every happiness for my friends and want to remember one thing she did at her reception which I'd like to do at mine. After the father's dance with the bride and the mother's with the groom, they played a couple songs and anyone in attendance could dance with the bride or groom, but it cost you. You slip them some well-wishing cash in exchange for a few moments on their wedding day. Maybe it's a capitalistic thing to do but extra cash never hurt any young couple I ever heard of! Well, it's been an interesting last month and the next few weeks are sure to be good, seeing as I'll be heading out to school soon and I've got a half marathon to finally start training for. Aiyiyiyiyi!!!
That's it for this week. God be with you til I write again!!!!
