Las Vegas: Don and I jetted to Las Vegas on Thursday for a whirlwind few days of celebrating and ushering in my 60th birthday. We went to two shows, Cirque du Soleil Michael Jackson One and Elton John in Concert. dined at some fabulous restaurants, visited with friends Ken and Joanna Stewart, and came home with more money in our pocket than we left with!
Weather: It rained in Las Vegas but we missed the big storm. Everything in the casino was so noisy, who knew a tumult was happening outside? We got home to record-breaking rain here, too.
Death: This week a colleague's husband died of a heart condition. He was only forty. He leaves behind two young daughters and his loving wife. My heart is broken for her. We have become so immune from death it is a shock when it happens to someone who is in the prime of life. Once a student died at school. When I talked to the nurse, trying to understand the "why" she explained that sometimes there are no answers. "Sometimes," she said, "people die without a good reason." To honor John's memory, this quote from Shakespeare came to mind:
“When he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of heaven so fine, That all the world will be in love with night, And pay no worship to the garish sun.”
― William Shakespeare, Romeo and JulietJulia Child: For book club tomorrow we are reading My Life in France by Julia Child. I am now obsessed with the woman who almost single-handedly brought good cooking to America. Now I want to take a cooking class and attempt to make some of her recipes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
Books read this week:
- My Life in France by Julia Child. Written in the early 2000s when Julia was quite old. Based on the letters she and her husband Paul sent home while they lived abroad. An amazing story of love and devotion to food, friends, and each other.
- Romeo and Juliet: a Chooseable Path Adventure by Ryan North. I wasn't sure when to count this book as read. I read about ten different adventures and decided I had read enough to get the gist of the book. Most of the adventures were pretty silly.
- This Is What I Did by Ann Dee Ellis. A young adult novel about a boy who is marginalized by rumors about something that happened in his past. Well-written.
Currently reading:
- The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan. This is my current audiobook set in Australia and Burma during WWII. 37% done.
- Love Warrior by Glennon Melton. The Ophrah Book Club selection. I will start this memoir today.
Cavalcade of Authors West roll-out: I started advertising and rolling out the information on COA West to my students this past week. Enthusiasm is mounting for this wonderful event.
Quotes from a birthday card from my daughter, Rita:
We turn not older with years, but newer every day. -Emily Dickenson
...Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come... -Alfred, Lord Tennyson
YOUNG. OLD. JUST WORDS. -George Burns
Happy birthday!
ReplyDeleteHappy Belated Birthday, Anne! I'm glad you got the chance to get away and had a wonderful time with your family and friends.
ReplyDeleteHappy belated Birthday! It sounds like you had a great time in Vegas! I saw Elton John in concert years ago and it was pretty awesome. Your school nurse said some wise words; so sorry about your colleagues husband, 40 is definitely too young.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like a wonderful weekend. I love Cirque du Soleil! It is still difficult at times to believe that Patt is dead. I still kind of expect him to come in the door after work.
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday, Anne!
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't mind retiring and becoming a chef somewhere. I suppose I'd need to have an apprenticeship somewhere. Paris, perhaps? I think I'd like to learn to really bake bread. Care to join me? Maybe for our 80th birthdays, in 2036 and 2037.
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