Breakfast at Tiffany's

1.   What did you do in 2013 that you'd never done before? I went to the gym consistently, gave a wedding speech, watched all six TOS movies, participated in Hungry For Change (a diet of limited oatmeal, rice, and beans for 1 week), visited Cambria and tried olallieberry pie, joined the worship core at church, leased a hybrid car, played piano for a wedding, skipped my 10-year high school reunion, and cosigned an apartment with my mom and dad. 2.   Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Besides the break in December, I did go to the gym regularly every week for 11 months!   Next year, I would like to continue exercising and incorporate a diet that includes portion control and more vegetables. 3.   Did anyone close to you give birth? No one particularly close to me, but the baby boom continues at LSCC. 4.   Did anyone close to you die? No 5.   What countries did you visit? I did not travel

"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door.  You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."  -- JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings This is one of my favorite quotes.  I adore it as a metaphor for life, whether Bilbo meant it as such.  It embodies the mixed emotions of excitement, fear, and hopeful anticipation related to the start of new adventures.  The best part about new adventures is that one can begin at any time.  Every morning can be like this !  Even though there are certain milestones in life that I planned for, like graduating from school, starting a new job, or moving to a new city across the country, often it's the unexpected twists and turns in life that (usually in retrospect) give so much character to my existence.  Often, also, such new adventures begin with my making the willful decision to move toward a particular direction with a mindset like Dory's perceptive s

I watched Les Miserables the day after Christmas and also on New Year's Eve.  I was so impressed with the film and fell in love with the music!  Going into the movie, I had only been exposed to "I Dreamed a Dream" and "On My Own" from a couple of Glee episodes, and I had only seen the movie version with Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush.  While I was excited to see this 2012 version, I had no expectations, and I was completely blown away by the story (the 1998 version's plot was incredibly lacking without music), the intense emotions, the themes about life, love, forgiveness, equality, honesty, passion, desire, regret, God, etc., and the beauty of the music that portrayed these themes.  I wanted to write a paper about it all!  I wanted to be 10-15 years younger, so I could pursue a career in Broadway.  I wanted to marry Marius. These past few days, I have been talking to others who have also seen the movie but found it disappointing.  Their disappointment wa