Adam and Eve

Two Fridays ago I went over to ACMA, which is a fine arts high school in Beaverton for their production of "The Apple Tree." My mom was hired to play the piano for the musical and she was doing it with her friend Jody who was on the synth. You never know what to expect from high school productions. I have been to my share of shows that make you want to sneak out the back before intermission. But occasionally I see something that really impresses me.

This was a very unique production. It was basically three short, seemingly unrelated, stories. The first was called Passionella and was set in like the 1940s. It was about a chimney sweep who wishes to be a movie star and gets her wish only during certain hours of the day. She falls in love with another movie star who doesn't want to give her the time of day because she is so "fake." Little does he know. Passionella is played by my friend Kyley who is a fabulous dancer and adds quite a bit of humor and glamour to this role. (She is giving the thumbs up with me to the left) Anyway, the two movie stars do end up getting married and they both discover in the end that they have both had some fairy godmother help to be "famous" and they both turn into their regular everyday average self as the curtain closes. Hmmmm...interesting.

Next short is set in like the fifth century or something like that. It felt very Romanesque in costume and feel. It is about a princess who is in love with a soldier. When their love is discovered he is sent to be judged. Now in this land the queen has set up a very odd system of justice. The accused is given the choice of two doors. At one door is a lion. If he chooses that door then he is obviously guilty and obviously immediately punished. If he chooses the other door, he is innocent and there awaits a woman that he then marries. So this soldier is given a choice and the princess finds out from the lion keepers which door the lion is behind. But she is also a jealous person and can't stand the thought of him marrying the person behind the other door. So in the end of this short act, we see her point him in the direction of a door and we never get to know if she chose death for him or not. Doubly, interesting. What does that have to do with the first short? These are written to go together. Hmmmm....?

The final half of the show follows Adam and Eve as they are first created and getting to know each other and their environment. I was supremely impressed by the two actors who staged this entire act. Their acting was compelling and the story made you think about something that gets entirely glossed over in Sunday school with the flannelgraph. They explored things like how did Adam and Eve know how or what to name the animals. In what ways were men and women different from each other before socialization ever had a chance to direct otherwise. Did Adam and Eve ever fall in love. What did that process look like? When you have no past to learn from and no teacher, how do you learn about the world? It was a very thoughtful, humorous and, in the end, touching show.

Now I am still trying to figure out how the three parts flowed together. They did mention the color brown during each show but I have no clue why. I also found out later that it was written by Mark Twain and was intended to be show in the opposite order of acts. Adam and Eve were supposed to start it all and Passionella was supposed to conclude it all. That piece of knowledge didn't really solidify anything for me. Oh well. It was a fun night. Since you couldn't take pictures during the show I don't have any to show you except these. Many of the actors and their parents showed up at Red Robin later where my parents and I were grabbing grub. The guy in the middle played Adam.

Cupcakes make the world go round

Ok I know that this is a day late and a dollar short but I have to tell you how Maile and I actually got through the voting process this November. First of all, it took three and a half hours for us to work through all the people and measures on the stinking ballot. Since we had anticipated such a long voting journey we decided we needed provisions and rewards. So we first pre-treated ourselves to dinner at the Montage so that all those carbs would give us the energy we needed to push through. (If you have not had the privilege of eating one of their famous mac and cheeses then stop by sometime and check them out. YUM!!) Then we stopped by Freddy's and bought our favorite beer. Because beer was going to help take the edge off when Sizemore's poorly written measures were making us frustrated and angry. Lastly, we needed a reward system to keep us going. We bought and baked our favorite funfetti cupcakes with funfetti frosting and sprinkles. Just the sight of them will cheer you up. We buckled down and filled in our little round circles and every once in a while, when we felt the momentum and resolve faltering, we ate a cupcake. So I just want to thank cupcakes for the important role they played in this year's election.

Halloween was so much fun. For five years now my church throws this huge party for the neighborhood. We buy 26ft high inflatable slides and bounce houses, fill the kids up with sugar for two hours and let them back loose on their parents. It's marvelous. We have tons of carnival games and cotton candy, popcorn and pronto pups (corn dogs). I had one person tell me that she was trying to find something else just as fun or more fun than the Halloween Extravaganza to take her grandkids to this year and couldn't find anything. Our party was the best thing happening for kids. YEA!! I love this event because it gives us a tangible way to meet our neighbors and serve them in a really practical and fun way. I hope we never stop doing this. The picture to the left is of my friend Elinna and I at the Extravaganza. Obviously I was a cowgirl (Yea creativity!) and I think Elinna was going as one hot mama.


Dad and I headed down to Corvallis again for another Beaver game. This time we got to sit a little higher. While the excitement of being practically on the field was awesome, we ended up watching most of the USC game on the jumbotron. This time, we had a big light pole right smack dab in the middle of our jumbotron sightline. Good thing we didn't really need to see it from where we were sitting. The Beavs are still on a very tentative path to the Rose Bowl because of our win over USC. But we have four huge games to hurdle over first. On Saturday we barely won over ASU. It was one of those really stressful games that wasn't played particularly superbly by either team. But we scratched out a win and Dad and I got to try out our new rain gear. We were hot but we were dry. Not we've got UCLA, CAL, Arizona and Oregon left on the schedule. Yikes. Should be interesting.

My good friend Karen Snyder was in town this Wednesday and she and Maile and I went out to Huber's for drinks and desserts. Hubers is known for their Spanish coffees which they make flaming tableside. I was very impressed by how this server could do a three foot pour in an arc over his head. Crazy! It was good to see Karen, who is leaving to serve for the next two years with Wycliffe at their national offices in Orlando, FL. I'll miss not being able to see her more often. And I know she'll miss the NW. Just maybe not in January when it is 70 degrees and sunny there.

Ok, that's the update. I've actually got the night off so I am looking forward to some down time. Catch you all later!