Reflections on Brazil 2011, Part 2

July 13–16: Ouro Preto & Cordisburgo

Early Wednesday morning I took a bus to Ouro Preto. I stayed in a decent pousada but it was a bit removed from the main part (read: touristy part) of town. Ouro Preto is one of the most well preserved colonial towns in Brazil and it reminded me a lot of Portugal with the terracotta roof shingles and the numerous churches dotting the area. It really reminded me of Coimbra with all the steep hills. Let’s just say that Ouro Preto puts Coimbra’s “Quebra Costas” to shame.

I could talk about all the amazing churches and how cool it was to see Aleijadinho’s work, but what really impressed me about Ouro Preto was how nice the people were. Granted, most of the locals make a living from tourism but it felt different than other touristy towns. A employee at the craft fair, after speaking with me in Portuguese for several minutes, asked if he could practice his English. We had a lovely conversation and he told me all about his job in English. (Too bad the soapstone carving I bought from him broke on my flight from Curitiba to Sao Paulo. I hope we can glue it together.) I also met Alejandro, born in Argentina, raised in Spain, and now living in Brazil. He gave me a private tour of their art gallery and told me all about the great local artists. I realize he was trying to sell me a painting, but even after told him I couldn’t purchase anything (most paintings started at $500), he kept talking to me as if I were a valued art collector. That evening, I had dinner at Bané das Flautas and it was the perfect end to a perfect, if not tiring, day.

The next day, I saw more museums, more churches, and climbed up and down more cobblestone hills. I should have brought hiking boots and not my converse All-Stars. Even with the blister forming on my left heel, I kept trudging along. I enjoyed my eating experience as well. The truffles from Chocolate Ouro Preto were delightful, as well as the “açaí numa tigela com banana e granola” that I had at a street corner café. (I have a list of foods, snacks, and candies I have to eat every time I come to Brazil and that was one of them.)

That afternoon, Paulo, Leticia, and the kids picked me up and we headed over to Mariana, another historical city in Minas Gerais. We got a quick bite to eat and then headed to the theater to watch the Grupo Galpão's rendition of Tchekhov’s Uncle Vanya. We got there late and had to sit on the floor in the aisles, but it was well worth it. Paulo’s brother is a founding member of the acting troupe and has appeared in several movies, in addition to his stage work.

Friday morning I took another bus to a little tiny town called Cordisburgo. The town is mostly known as the birthplace of João Guimarães Rosa, the Modernist writer. Every year they have a weeklong festival dedicated to his memory. I made some great contacts, including the director of the museum, and had a wonderful time making friends, eating good food, and enjoying the festivities. The highlight for me was seeing the house where Rosa grew up. It has been converted into a museum and youth from the town, knowns as Miguilins, give the tours, reciting passages from his short stories and novels at the end of each visit. I had the pleasure of listening to part of Grande sertão: veredas when Diadorim reveals his/her real name to Riobaldo. Saturday morning I went on a “caminhada eco-literária” (ecoliterary walk) led by Brasinha and Grupo Caminhos do Sertão. Basically, a group of 160 people took buses to a farm and then walked 3 kilometers down a windy dirt road in the beautiful countryside, pausing every 10-15 minutes to listen to locals perform sections of a story, “A conversa dos bóis.” (Every year they do a different story or part of a novel and apparently the "caminhada" is different as well.) Brasinha and I became friends and I promised I would return some day. I made some other friends and was able to bum a ride back into Belo Horizonte and then take a taxi home.

Next stop, Curitiba!

Reflections on Brazil 2011, Part 1

Three weeks ago I was making my final arrangements for my trip to Brazil. It was a busy day but packing went much more smoothly this time around than in past trips. Aimee and I were able to put things together over the course of several days, we got the laundry done early, which made all the difference. I don’t want this to be a travelogue, although there will be some of that. My goal here is to reflect on what makes this trip different from my past trips to Brazil. As I was talking to my friend Flâvio last night over four-cheese lasagna at Famiglia Mancini, I realized that some of the enchantment that Brazil has held in my mind and in my heart in the past has diminished. And I see this change as a positive step.

July 7 – July 12: Belo Horizonte

The flight was normal, if a bit cramped. But that’s to be expected. I didn’t sleep well. But that is also to be expected. I started to get worried at the baggage carousels when I couldn’t see my internal frame backpack, but then I realized they had just put it in a plastic sack. But for a moment the linguistic fight or flight instinct kicked in and I started rehearsing what I would say to baggage claims.

After a 45 minute taxi ride (the airport is 40 km. away from the city), I finally arrived to Paulo and Leticia’s home, which we eventually dubbed “Pousada Colchão no Chão,” or “Mattress on the Floor Bed and Breakfast.” I met them both at a symposium at Brown in 2009. Paulo invited me to come stay with them in Belo Horizonte, or simply BH (pronounced Bay-ah-gá), that summer since I was going to be in São Paulo but that’s where it ended. This year, out of the blue, he invited me to participate on a panel he was organizing for a conference (more on that in a minute) and re-extended that invitation to stay with his family in BH. I accepted. (This paragraph has five parentheticals, including this one.)

I get along really well with Paulo. Simply put, he’s a cool guy and we can talk about literature, music, film, and even religion. Imagine that. An honest, open discussion about the role of religion in the US with another academic. I guess we’re not all bloodthirsty, baby-snatching atheists. (In the spirit of full disclosure, Paulo is not religious although he’s known plenty of Mormons in his life.) He is on a tenure-track path at Yale so there is an incredible pressure for him to produce solid research. He has a book coming out this fall, which I can’t wait to read.

What can I say about Leticia? She is warm, caring, friendly, organized, respectful, and funny. She is a great conversationalist and family is very important to her. She is also a talented artist. Getting to know her and to see her and Paulo interact as a healthy couple, especially after 20 years of marriage, was a highlight for me. It showed me that I can improve my communication skills with Aimee, even though 12 years ain’t too shabby.

They have two darling children but I am going to respect the privacy of their family and not write about them. I will say that it was fun to hear their young daughter speak a mixture of English and Portuguese. I also got to meet their parents, several of their siblings, and cousins, nieces and nephews. Family is very important to Paulo and Leticia, which was evident in the fact that they visited their parents several times a week. I suppose they want to make the most of the two months of each year they spend in Brazil to reconnect with family.

Paulo and Leticia were the perfect hosts. They went out of their way to ensure that my stay in BH was not only pleasant, but academically productive. They suggested numerous museums and exhibits to visit. They certainly seemed excited to show me around town. One of the highlights of the week was our visit to Inhotim. It deserves its own paragraph.

I’ll let you read about Inhotim on your own, but it was heaven on earth. Seriously. If there is a heaven—and I personally believe there is something after mortality, and I espouse a religious system that promotes this idea—then I want heaven to be like Inhotim. Beautiful green space, ponds and lakes, exotic botanical gardens, and world-class art galleries.

The most moving exhibit was Janet Cardiff’s “The Forty Part Motet.” It involved 40 speakers arranged in an oval of 8 sets of 5 speakers, each speaker reproducing the recording of an individual voice. Each group was composed of a bass, baritone, tenor, and two boy sopranos from the Salisbury Cathedral choir. I entered at the beginning; three minutes of talking before the performance. As I walked around the oval, I heard two boys chatting about one of their teachers, a bass going over his part, humming sections, and saying “Right, uh huh,” as well as others mumbling to themselves or chitchatting with their neighbor. And then, a click on the music stand and then some of the most beautiful music I’ve ever experienced. I mostly had the room to myself during the eleven minute performance. As I sat in the middle of the room, I could hear the music sweep from one side to the other, front to back, immense waves of voices surging and receding, lifting and falling. As I walked around the room, I focused on individual voices placing my head between two and three speakers, creating new combinations of harmonies and counter melodies. The experience of total immersion in sound nearly brought me to tears. (The video doesn't do it justice but you get the idea.)

The Best in Music of 2010

In many ways, Facebook has killed this blog, or at least seriously maimed it. Nevertheless, I will not fail in posting my annual music list. Some of the songs came out this year, some are rediscovered favorites. Hopefully you will find something that you will end up liking.

Clicky!

1. Vita Nostra – Ennio Morricone
The soundtrack to The Mission was also the soundtrack to my mission in Southern Chile. This song elicits so many memories of Puerto Aysen and Coyhaique. One of my companions, Jerem Eyre, introduced me to this wonderful music.

2. At My Most Beautiful – R.E.M.
I have wanted to include this song for several years now. I vividly recall listening to Up in Ben Wilson’s kitchen shortly after our missions. The Beach Boys musical references were not lost on my ears.

3. Cape Code Kwassa Kwassa – Vampire Weekend
I resisted Vampire Weekend for awhile. They just seemed too preppy and too self-absorbed for their own good. But Doug told me to give this album a solid listen and I’m glad he did. What I like so much about this particular song is the overt West African musical influence juxtaposed with the New England upper-class snootiness.

4. Sun Hands – Local Natives
Again, I have to thank Doug for insisting I give this album a good listen. In fact, we had to decide who was going to get to put “World News” on his compilation playlist for this year. I love the harmonies on this song, and the whole album, frankly. I almost went for “Camera Talk.” I highly recommend you pick up a copy of Gorilla Manor by Local Natives.

5. We Used to Wait – Arcade Fire
I’ve known about this band for several years. U2 played “Wake Up” from Funeral before their shows on the Vertigo Tour in 2005–2006. But, it was only this year that I really gave them a good listen. Like Vampire Weekend, I resisted getting on the Arcade Fire train. Suburban is a much more mature album than their first two, which are good, great even. I picked this song for the really cool interactive video experience. Bravo. (Make sure to download Chrome.)

6. Explode – Nelly Furtado
Aimee and I love Folklore. I finally loaded it into iTunes several months ago and I was reminded of how amazing these songs are. I don’t care too much for Loose, and I haven’t heard her new Spanish-language album (I know, I’m surprised, too), but I love her first two albums.

7. Angel Dance – Band of Joy
Rumor has it that Alison Krauss and Robert Plant attempted to recreate the magic of Raising Sand but the sessions for a follow-up album did not go well. This may be the next best thing. Plant covers Los Lobos. The mandolin rocks.

8. Sleeps with Angels – Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Many consider Neil Young to be the godfather of grunge and this song shows that he could be just as dark and as brooding as the Seattle bands he inspired. Young wrote this song about Kurt Cobain’s passing, and it is just as relevant today as it was in 1994.

9. She Talks to Angels - The Black Crowes
When I was sixteen or seventeen, I had a fantasy of growing my hair out, going down to the UTA bus stop by Crossroads Plaza, sitting down with all the dirty hippy kids, pulling out a beat-up acoustic, and playing this song for loose change. Although that never happened, I did learn how to play this song. This amazing version is from their recent album, Croweology.

10. Number of the Beast – Zwan
This Iron Maiden cover appeared as a B-side for “Honestly.” That’s Matt Sweeney singing and playing, with Billy Corgan soloing. I love how Sweeney has turned a heavy metal song into a dark and swampy blues tune. After three songs about angels, I felt I needed this one about devils to bring balance to the universe.

11. All We Ask – Grizzly Bear
I admit it, I’m a music snob. Few indie bands truly impress me. Grizzly Bear, however, immediately caught my attention when I listened to Yellow House. Their next album, Veckatimest is better. Tighter. On this song, I’m pulled in by the plaintive vocals, the double-tracked harmonies, and the evocation of carnival music, without getting all Tom Waits.

12. The Owl and the Tanager – Sufjan Stevens
I like Sufjan’s new album, The Age of Adz, but I needed to see him live, with the light show, images, and bad dancing, to finally get it. While the electronica songs were fun, the song that really stood out to me at that show was this one from his ep, All Delighted People, also released in 2010.

13. You Are Not Alone – Mavis Staples
Ever wonder what an album produced by Jeff Tweedy would sound like? Wonder no more. This is probably the coolest pairing I’ve heard in a long time. I’m not too familiar with Mavis Staples but this is an awesome album.

14. Human Wings (acoustic) – Fictionist
I’m not sure who first told me about Fictionist, but I’m pretty sure I heard about them shortly after we moved back to Utah. I’m just getting into them. I haven’t seen them live yet and I don’t even own their albums, but I would dare say that Stuart Maxfield may be one of the most talented indie musicians in Utah. I knew he was a solid guitar player, a decent singer, and a good lyricist, but it wasn’t until I saw him playing at Debra Fotheringham’s ep release party that I realized how good a guitar player he was. And then, a few weeks later, he was playing a rooftop gig with The Lower Lights in Provo and whipped out the fiddle!

15. Ye Elders of Israel – The Lower Lights
On July 4th, I came home from a neighborhood fireworks display (illegal fireworks, I might add, the fire department showed up, none too pleased) and when I walked into our backyard I heard the voice of a friend. Sometimes I pretend I still have a tenuous connection to the local music scene in Provo. The truth, however, is that only a handful of my music friends are still making music. One of them is the amazingly talented Debra Fotheringham. It was her voice I heard. While the rest of the neighborhood was eating cupcakes and watching fireworks purchased in Evanston, the Clark family had their annual sibling’s party and witnessed maybe the first public performance of The Lower Lights. At the time, I didn’t know Chris and Lisa that well, but I walked over and invited myself in their backyard, just in time for the last two songs. Long story short (too late!) Debra is part of this project and sings leads on this song. I’ll let you learn more about them on your own, but please also check out Debra’s new ep, Time. (It looks like her website needs to be updated but I know you can buy it on iTunes.)

16. Save It for a Rainy Day – The Jayhawks
You know those songs you hear when you are out and about but you never catch the name of the song or the band? For years, I kept hearing snatches of this song and I liked it, especially the “so sad” part. One day, I was out with the kids and I finally caught the hook in the chorus and decided, right then and there, to look up the lyrics on my phone (oh blessed technology!).

17. Last Goodbye – Jeff Buckley
I first heard about Jeff Buckley many years ago but it wasn’t until a few years ago that I really delved into Grace. It is a beautiful, transcendent album. Buckley shows off his astonishing vocal range on this particular track, which really resonated with me earlier this year.

18. Cars Can’t Escape – Wilco
This is a rare track only available on a collection of early mixes for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. (There is also a slightly different version available on another set of demos. [Yeah, that’s right. YHF is so awesome it has two bootleg albums of demos]). It sounds like they recorded this song at three in the morning and I love it.

Now, there are hardcore Wilco fans out there, and I would probably include myself in the top 10–15% of fandom. I’m not obsessed, just dedicated. I have 29 albums—and keep in mind—they only have eight officially released albums. The rest are demos, side-projects, and collections of b-sides and outtakes. But that’s not all. I have 17 Jeff Tweedy live recordings (40+ hours) and 51 Wilco shows (94+ hours). It would take me roughly a week to listen to all the Wilco I have, and I’ve listened to every album and show at least once and many of them multiple times. I only collect high quality soundboard recordings or radio, television, and web broadcasts. I’m sure I have another 15 shows waiting to be loaded into iTunes. But that’s still not all. I have 25, or so, DVDs of various Wilco performances that have been filmed over the years. I’ve seen Wilco three times (Louisville, Nashville, Aspen) and I’ve only been a fan for maybe four years, at most. Not obsessed, just dedicated.

19.

Compilations from Previous years:

2006 - Feliz Navidad de Papa Nicolau (I need to load this up. Come back later.)
2007 - Oh Holy Dwight!
2008 - Merry Christmas from the Black Lodge
2009 - Satan vs. Santa

15 Authors in 15 Minutes

I posted this as a Facebook note, but I have several Luddite friends who value their privacy too much to sign up.

The Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen authors (poets included) who've influenced you and that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Tag at least fifteen friends, including me, because I'm interested in seeing what authors my friends choose. (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your profile page, paste rules in a new note, cast your fifteen picks, and tag people in the note.)

I just started typing names and this is what came out in about two minutes. Then I spent nearly an hour typing up commentary. I have read multiple titles for each of the author’s below, which is one of the restrictions I placed on myself.

1. Julio Cortázar (Argentina) – Rayuela is a masterpiece. It’s English translation, Hopscotch, is as well. I think I’m going to reread it over Christmas. His short stories are really cool.

2. Machado de Assis (Brazil) – Dom Casmurro and As memórias póstumas de Brás Cubas are two of the best novels ever written in Latin America, and certainly during the 19th Century. If you’re going to read them in English, go for John Gledson’s translation of DC and Gregory Rabbasa’s of BC. They are both part of the Oxford Series of Latin American Literature.

3. José Saramago (Portugal, Nobel Prize Laureate) – Even though he’s a Portuguese writer, and I know Portuguese pretty well, most of what I’ve read has been in translation. Ensaio sobre a cegueira (Blindness) and Todos os nomes (All the Names) are wonderfully written and changed my perspective on the human condition.

4. Pablo Neruda (Chile, Novel Prize Laureate) – I don’t know if I’ve read everything by Neruda, but pretty darn close.

5. Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina) – Ficciones blew my mind as a junior in my Introduction to Spanish American Literature class. Even after a dozen or so readings, I’m still amazed by the perfection attained in this collection.

6. Regina Rheda (Brazil, USA) – I only heard about her a few months ago but Arca sem Noé - Histórias do Edifício Copan (Stories from the Copan Building) blew me away with it’s conversational prose and insightful character development. I’m also surprised to realize she’s the only woman to make it on the list.*

7. Stephen King (USA) – I started reading King when I was 12 or 13. I believe the first thing I read was either Nightshift, a short story collection, or Salem’s Lot, which scared the bejeebers out of me. My friend, Steve, turned me onto The Dark Tower series when I was 15 and I still love it. I think I’ve been through the whole thing four or five times (we’re talking 3800+ pages! [and there’re another 900+ pages in the new graphic novels]).

8. Cormac McCarthy (USA – Winner of the Pulitzer Prize) – I changed my life after reading The Road and No Country for Old Men. The Border Trilogy is sitting on the shelves in my office. I will get to them soon enough.

9. Kurt Vonnegut (USA) – I read Slaughterhouse-Five on a whim while camping with Dad. I had heard of the title but I had no idea what the book was about. I just knew it was one of those must reads. I loved every minute of it and enjoyed it even more when I recently reread it. I then moved onto Cat’s Cradle and Breakfast of Champions, which I’m now rereading. What should I read next?

10. Robert Kirkman (USA) / Tony Moore (USA) / Charlie Adlard (England) – Shortly after defending my dissertation, I needed to get my mind on something else. I turned to zombies. I heard about The Walking Dead from a friend several years ago (thanks Chris) and with the recent AMC adaptation I thought I would give it a try. I got sucked in and moved on to other zombie related media.

11. Edgar Allan Poe (USA) – I like fantastic literature, some horror fiction, some detective fiction, and almost everything I’ve ever read by Poe. It’s a good thing the French liked him; otherwise, he may not have received the attention he deserved in his own country.

12. Juan Rulfo (Mexico) – Pedro Páramo is still one of the most unsettling books I’ve read. Even though there are ghosts in it, it’s not horror fiction at all. It’s still creepy, though.

13. João Guimarães Rosa (USA) – Grande sertão: veredas, I could spend my entire career researching and publishing on this one novel and it would never be enough. I still don’t understand it but love every moment of it.

14. Shel Silverstein (USA) – Okay, I started thinking about influential authors I read as a kid and the cover to Lafcadio: The Lion Who Shot Back flashed across my mind. I remember reading the whole book at the public library in Green River, WY when I was eight. Now I enjoy reading Where the Sidewalk Ends and The Light in the Attic with my kids.

15. Roald Dahl (England) – Hands down, my favorite author as a kid, and probably still in my top five. His imagination, experimentation with language, and quirky characters inspired a sense of wonder and amazement in my as a child and preteen.

Honorable mentions:
• Fernando Pessoa (should have been on the list but somehow he slipped my mind. Oops.)
• Orson Scott Card (just for Ender’s Game alone)
• Michael Chabon (The Coen Brothers are making an adaptation of The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, hurrah!)
• Mark Twain (I probably read all his short stories as a kid, as well as those two books with the N-word in them)
• Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez for Locke and Key (thanks for the recommendation, Mike)
• Gabriel García Márquez (if you only read two books originally written in Spanish, you must read Don Quixote and One Hundred Years of Solitude, you won’t regret it)

* This is partly due to the fact that I mostly read Latin American literature written before the 1970s. Sadly, it was a man’s game and few women were allowed to be part of the club. It still hasn’t changed much. Unfair? Absolutely. Also, I haven’t read multiple titles for many women writers, the exceptions being Gabriela Mistral, Rosario Castellanos, Alfonsina Storni, Clárice Lispector—whose short stories I adore—and some others I’m forgetting. This exercise has shown me that I need to be reading more literature written by women.

Jumping Back into the Pool

It has been a little over two weeks since I took a break from working full time on the Great Wall of Thesis. I came in once or twice last week and did some work, but today marks my first day back on the job after a nice, relaxing vacation.

During the July 4th Weekend, we attended a Pederson family reunion (my mom's side) in Fairview, UT. I had a wonderful time reconnecting with cousins I had not seen in years and hanging out with cousins that have become close friends as we have entered adulthood, married, and started families. One of my most favorite people in the whole world, Jaron Stanley, was one of my best friends in high school and ended up marrying my cousin. (They met at my birthday party, I will have you know.) I won't bore you with the minutiae, since the weekend was all just a blur any way, but here are some highlights (I include the names for my benefit since I'm a horrible journal writer):

• Attending the Manti temple with Aimee, Steve, Andrea, Elissa, Kathy, Erin, David, and Josiah
• Sitting on the cemetery lawn watching fireworks at Mt. Pleasant with Pederson's, Stanleys, Hammonds, and Krauses
• Hanging out with my brothers, especially John and his family
  
• Going to Juanita's and Maple Canyon with Dad one day
• Going to Maple Canyon and Juanita's the next day with the Stanleys and my family (Big Boy said the hike up Maple Canyon was his favorite part of the trip.)
  
• Watching Ghostbusters (well, most of it) with my brothers
• Learning that my cousin Tyler plays pedal steel guitar (we'll definitely use him on a few tracks on the next album)
• Watching Mom perform "Prince Albert and the Lion" twice! (oh, and the Norwegian joke was also pretty funny)
• all the delicious food, fun stories, laughter, hugs, and family togetherness!

We returned Tuesday, July 6, and recovered for the next two days. That weekend, my cousin Victoria stayed with us and I also spent some time with my Whitworth cousins. We also had a Portuguese section BBQ Friday evening, a Nashville friends BBQ Saturday evening (Nordstrom and Clemens families), and a Kearns High friends reunion Sunday afternoon (Jenkins, Wilsons, Moores). It made for a very, very busy weekend.

On Tuesday, July 13, we saw Paul McCartney at Rio Tinto Stadium with Doug and Heather Moore, my parents, and Aimee's parents. It was a great show. I mean, come on, it was a Beatle! This past weekend was Big Boy's seventh birthday. We had a GI Joe themed swim party on Saturday and then a little family get-together yesterday. Phew! The past two weeks have been busy. Now I need to get busy for the next two weeks and crank out this book report.

Thesis Update: While Visions of Translation Theories Danced in My Head

It has been a productive week. I have worked every day, coming in before 7:00 AM three days this week and working until normal quitting time. I don't know how many hours I've actually been writing vs. reading and note-taking (and the occasional Hulu break) but I know that I have written a solid 15 pages and taken another 30 pages of notes and comments. I'm sure I've read at least 200 pages of criticism and theory this week as well. My hope is that with a little work tomorrow morning I will be poised to bang out a strong draft of this chapter by the middle of next week. My current chapter calls for a 7-10 page section on the nature of translating poetry as a genre. In order to prepare to write that section I have inadvertently worked a bit on my theory chapter, which takes up the larger issues of translation, in general. In the long run, I may have saved myself some time, but I really wanted to get this chapter out this week. Oh well. The good news is that the next chapter will probably only two weeks.

My goal is to have solid drafts of my four chapters in the hands of my committee chair by the end of June. At this point, I have one chapter in the can, my Neruda chapter in the pipeline, and a third, my theory / context chapter, that is about 1/3 to 1/2 way done. My Borges chapter will need a lot of work. But, my hope is that by writing it last, I will have a better idea of how to approach the work. That one may require two weeks or reading and another week or two of writing.

I have to have my final draft of the thesis turned in by August 31. I know I'm pushing it a bit, especially since my chair wants each committee member to see each chapter before that date, but I think it is doable. Once I have my four chapters written, I will only have to write a 15-page intro and a 15-page conclusion.

Well, I will be back tomorrow, bright and early to put in another four or five hours. At least tonight is family movie night and tomorrow is date night. I have some R&R coming up.

(I think I'll post the occasional thesis update every few days since it looms large in my life right now.)

The Past Six Months...

...have been kind of stressful.

I spent this weekend in Logan helping my friend Doug paint his basement. We used a paint sprayer and it was hard work, but fun and satisfying. Friday night we sprayed the primer on all the walls, trim, and ceiling. Saturday, we painted two coats on the trim and ceiling, as well as several doors. Other than a few hilarious accidents with the sprayer, one of which resulted in Doug being face-splattered with paint, the project went well. We even had time to hang out, eat some good food, listen to some great music and just have a nice relaxing weekend.

Last night we were talking about everything: music, high school, church, our kids, marriage, guitars, politics, social issues, and work. Doug kindly reminded me that the past six months have been eventful for my family. We moved from Tennessee to Utah in December. I started a new job in January. Daniel started a new school. We had a miscarriage in February. Oh, and we were living in my in-laws' basement this whole time. We bought a place and moved yet again last weekend. It has been an eventful six months. Somehow in this craziness, I have been able to make headway on my dissertation, but I still have a lot of work ahead of me. Wish me luck as I get back into the grind on Monday.