Ho, ho, the mistletoe...

Managed to squeeze in some Christmas shopping between classes today - and was reminded of why *everyone* in America needs to offer a big thank-you to all those retail workers who work through the holiday season. I mean everyone. The one time I did it, it was in a tiny little store in a relatively small town that did not (thankfully) have an intercom system. If it had been, I would likely have gone absolutely bonkers from listening to the same 20-odd Christmas songs over and over and over and over...as it is, I'm rather glad I'm going to be in Barrow over the worst of the holiday season, and therefore will be away from said grocery-store songs before they throw me into a homicidal frenzy of ripping and smashing and tearing and...

...ahem.

Like I said, be extra nice to your grocery store clerk. If only because you don't want to set them off. ;)

In other news, Thanksgiving weekend was a lot of fun. Got to see the local production of The Nutcracker, which was somewhat disappointing, and "The Polar Express", which actually exceeded my expectations. In the case of the former, it felt very much like a small-town production; space limitations combined with the general dumbed-down feeling of the ballet made for a rather yawn-inducing experience. Considering how happy many of the locals were to have any sort of production at all, however, I wasn't too vocal about my feelings - even if I *did* feel like the yawning no-fun big-city kid. *sigh* It didn't help that the choreography felt so abbreviated - the music would build and build, and the dancing would build and build, and then the music would hit a climax and the dancers would just...stop. And all of the energy that had been building would just kind of go *phbbt* into the ether. It was especially obvious during the big pas de deux between the Sugar Plum Fairy and her partner; although they were both excellent dancers, it really felt like something was missing.

On the other hand, I really liked what they did with the "Waltz of the Flowers". It seemed like the one number where they used the limited space to their advantage.

With The Polar Express, however, I was completely wowed. I'd heard that it was good (Ebert gave it four stars, for heaven's sake), but I was expecting something (again) rather dumbed-down and kid-oriented. Boy, was I surprised. Yes, it was kid-oriented, but much in the way that Peter Pan is kid-oriented - yes, it's about children, but many of the themes are very mature, including the idea that childhood fantasy isn't always as safe as we might think. Plus the animation was awesome; many of the scenes were taken straight from the pictures in the book (which won a Caldecott medal), but they added all sorts of fun stuff to make it into a full-length feature. And amazingly enough, none of it felt like filler.

Anyway, back to everyday life. The most recent stage in my continual quest for quick sources of food has to do with my discovery of Luna bars. They're pretty typical energy bars (soy protein and vitamins and whatnot, supposedly balanced specifically for women), but for some reason they actually taste like food. Fred's was having a sale on them, so I got several different flavors to try; so far, my favorite is Orange Bliss, though the Chai Tea was amazingly good as well.

And it's time for my Art History class, so I'll be heading out...wish me luck on my homework tonight, everyone.

Ho, ho, the mistletoe...

Managed to squeeze in some Christmas shopping between classes today - and was reminded of why *everyone* in America needs to offer a big thank-you to all those retail workers who work through the holiday season. I mean everyone. The one time I did it, it was in a tiny little store in a relatively small town that did not (thankfully) have an intercom system. If it had been, I would likely have gone absolutely bonkers from listening to the same 20-odd Christmas songs over and over and over and over...as it is, I'm rather glad I'm going to be in Barrow over the worst of the holiday season, and therefore will be away from said grocery-store songs before they throw me into a homicidal frenzy of ripping and smashing and tearing and...

...ahem.

Like I said, be extra nice to your grocery store clerk. If only because you don't want to set them off. ;)

In other news, Thanksgiving weekend was a lot of fun. Got to see the local production of The Nutcracker, which was somewhat disappointing, and "The Polar Express", which actually exceeded my expectations. In the case of the former, it felt very much like a small-town production; space limitations combined with the general dumbed-down feeling of the ballet made for a rather yawn-inducing experience. Considering how happy many of the locals were to have any sort of production at all, however, I wasn't too vocal about my feelings - even if I *did* feel like the yawning no-fun big-city kid. *sigh* It didn't help that the choreography felt so abbreviated - the music would build and build, and the dancing would build and build, and then the music would hit a climax and the dancers would just...stop. And all of the energy that had been building would just kind of go *phbbt* into the ether. It was especially obvious during the big pas de deux between the Sugar Plum Fairy and her partner; although they were both excellent dancers, it really felt like something was missing.

On the other hand, I really liked what they did with the "Waltz of the Flowers". It seemed like the one number where they used the limited space to their advantage.

With The Polar Express, however, I was completely wowed. I'd heard that it was good (Ebert gave it four stars, for heaven's sake), but I was expecting something (again) rather dumbed-down and kid-oriented. Boy, was I surprised. Yes, it was kid-oriented, but much in the way that Peter Pan is kid-oriented - yes, it's about children, but many of the themes are very mature, including the idea that childhood fantasy isn't always as safe as we might think. Plus the animation was awesome; many of the scenes were taken straight from the pictures in the book (which won a Caldecott medal), but they added all sorts of fun stuff to make it into a full-length feature. And amazingly enough, none of it felt like filler.

Anyway, back to everyday life. The most recent stage in my continual quest for quick sources of food has to do with my discovery of Luna bars. They're pretty typical energy bars (soy protein and vitamins and whatnot, supposedly balanced specifically for women), but for some reason they actually taste like food. Fred's was having a sale on them, so I got several different flavors to try; so far, my favorite is Orange Bliss, though the Chai Tea was amazingly good as well.

And it's time for my Art History class, so I'll be heading out...wish me luck on my homework tonight, everyone.