Kiersten’s Blog

Taylor and I have been lucky enough to spend the last two nights listening to lovely music.  Tonight we saw the San Diego Bach Collegium.  A friend of his from graduate school conducts the group.  They were fantastic!  I was actually surprised at how good they were.  I was expecting a good concert, but not as good as I heard.  They performed all six motets written by Bach.  It was very enjoyable.  I will admit, though, I was really tired and kind of fell asleep.  But not enough to make me not hear or get startled when applause happened.  I still thought it was exceptional.  We get to see them again next month.  I’ll try to be more rested before the concert next time so maybe my eyes will stay open.

Last night we visited Copley Symphony Hall in downtown San Diego to hear Joshua Bell.  I was really excited for this concert.  Taylor got me tickets for Christmas.  I loved listening to him and watching him (through my binoculars) and his incredible technique.  He was so relaxed.  I was especially impressed with the tightness of the ensemble (violin and piano).  They performed Bach, Saint-Saëns, Schumann, and Ravel Sonatas.  It was really amazing how together they were, especially with the super fast octave runs in the piano, doubled by the violin in the Saint-Saëns.  I have no idea how they did it, but I was blown away.  The concert was great, but I was somehow let down.  Don’t get me wrong, Mr. Bell played flawlessly, but somehow I expected something more.  Maybe it was due to our seats, but some of the really intricate parts were kind of lost behind the piano.  I felt like I didn’t quite hear everything I wanted to.  Maybe I just had a bad seat.  Maybe the acoustics in the hall could be better.  (It’s kind of a funny building.  You would never know it was a symphony hall from the outside of the building.  It just looks like a high rise building.)  Or maybe I was just so spoiled by Yo-Yo Ma last year, that nothing will ever live up to that experience.  No matter what it was, I still had a good time and definitely enjoyed the concert.

Our huge fire

For Family Night tonight, we decided to have a bonfire at the beach and invite some friends.  For Taylor, it was an excuse to go surfing.

sand angels

For London, it was an excuse to get messy.  For Ashton, well, he just likes to hang out with anybody who will pay attention to him.

He looked so grown up and adorable in this little chair!

Bonfires at the beach are one of London’s favorite things.  We usually get there and hang out for a bit and when the sun starts to set, we start up the fire.  Then we roast hot dogs and marshmallows.  The kids play in the sand and we all have a great time.

Isabelle, Sam and London in the shark tent

Every time we go, we say how we need to do it again.  So we do.  And it’s fun again.  I’m excited to go back!

Taylor’s done!  He made it through the year and now has until mid-August off!  Sure, he’ll still be prepping for the coming year and writing a dissertation, but for now, I’m loving the time we have together.  I got home from my walk this morning to a clean bathroom, freshly vacuumed carpets, and laundry in the washer.  I think I have a keeper!

Ashton and I on "Toy Story 3D"

We celebrated summer yesterday by spending a drizzly day at the happiest place on earth.  London earned her stickers with a lot of encouragement from us.  We had a good time.  London had to dress in her Minnie Mouse dress, heels and all.  We told her that she could, as long as she changed after we saw Minnie.  The first stop for me was the mother’s area to feed Ashton while London and Taylor played on the rides.  Next stop: Minnie’s house.  The line to see MInnie was the longest line of the day.  After hugging Minnie, London cooperatively changed into her Minnie Mouse t-shirt so spend the rest of the day in comfort.  Taylor and London got to go on lots of fun rides each time I had to stop to feed Ashton.  The trade-off was, I got to sit down.  Taylor didn’t do that all day, except on the rides.  Taylor and I switched off watching the kids so we could each take a turn on “California Screamin’”.  London was really upset that she couldn’t ride that coaster because she thought “The Matterhorn” was the greatest thing ever.  She got to ride it twice (once with each of us).  I find it ironic that she’s such a thrill seeker.  She won’t even go down the big slide at the park by herself!  Even after all the fun rides, if you ask London what her favorite part of Disneyland is, she’ll say “the characters.”  She gets so excited to hug them.  All in all it was a great day and we all came home totally beat.  After all, I guess that’s what Disneyland’s all about!

A couple of weeks ago, Taylor and I made a trip to Claremont.  He had to take his written qualifying exam.  We spent the night in Hemet the night before and left London there to play with Granny and Papa.  I spent the day shopping and hanging out with old friends, while Taylor spent the day taking a test.  I had a nice day.  I don’t think his was quite as fun.  That evening we went to a concert at the Claremont Colleges.  I was glad to be able to go, especially after the disappointment of not being able to see Itzhak Perlman the week before because London and I were too sick.  Anyway, the concert this particular day included a performance of a Philip Glass piece.  One of the performers was Philip Glass himself!  Philip Glass is one of the most important modern composers.  You will definitely find him in textbooks.  To non-musicians, he would be considered a “classical” composer.  To musicians, his music would fall into the category of minimalism.  It’s not often that a person gets to hear a composer perform his own music so this was a treat.

Taylor knows more about this stuff than me and he already blogged about it, so this is what he has to say,  “Mr. Glass et al performed a new piece called Book of Longing.  Book of Longing is a new work completed last year; basically it is a song cycle.  The songs’ texts come from Leonard Cohen’s recently-published book of poems by the same title.  Leonard Cohen is also one of those towering figures.  Cohen is perhaps one of the most important poets in the last 40 years; he is certainly one of the most popular.  Cohen is a songwriter himself, though most folks haven’t heard much of his music.  That song “Hallelujah” that was in Shrek, and that has been remade by everyone from Jeff Buckley to k. d. lang is probably Leonard Cohen’s most famous song.”

I enjoyed the concert.  It was definitely different from a traditional classical music concert but it was very good.  We had second row seats.  I felt kind of bad because, although I was enjoying myself, I had a really hard time staying awake.  I hope Phil didn’t notice me nodding off!  Part of the problem is, it was 100 minutes of nonstop music with no intermission.  Try that on for size when you’re 8 months pregnant.  I started to feel like I couldn’t move, and of course I had to go to the bathroom.  All in all, it was a great concert and a fabulous date with my husband.

Now for the rest of the story.  We just found out on Friday that Taylor did, in fact, pass the written portion of his qualifying exams that he took that day!  I’m so excited and proud of him.  Now he has to go back in a couple of weeks to take the oral portion.  After he passes that, he has to finish up the German class he’s taking and write his dissertation.  He’s getting so close!  It’s so exciting!  I’ll let you know when you can start calling him Dr. Smith.

Yesterday morning Taylor had to take his computer into the Apple store once again. This time it was for a new battery. London and I tagged along because the mall was partway to the beach from our house and we planned on going out there right afterwards. While we waited for Taylor, London got to play games on a computer so she was happy. Just as we were getting on the freeway, we got a call from Taylor’s mom asking us if we wanted to meet the family at the beach a little later. So we went home and met them that evening. Apparently the surf was pretty bad, but Taylor and his dad had a great time surfing together until a half hour after the sun went down. The rest of us (Kerri, Krystal, Denver, London and I) made sand castles and a fire. Okay, I can’t take credit for helping with the fire. Anyway, we roasted hot dogs and made S’Mores and just had a grand time. It was a fun, spontaneous activity. I haven’t been to the beach at sunset for a long time. It was gorgeous. We’ll definitely have to do that again sometime.

While it has been freezing around the country, the weather here in Southern California has definitely been something to write home about. I think the forecast tomorrow is calling for rain, but for the last week or two, we’ve had weather in the 70s and 80s. The only problem with this is that London refuses to wear short sleeves. But that’s another story. Because of the gorgeous weather (and the fact that the waves were supposed to be REALLY good) we headed to the beach on Saturday. We had a fun time. Taylor surfed. Actually, I don’t think he had much fun. Apparently the waves weren’t as good as they were supposed to be. While he was out in the frigid water, London and I played in the sand. I was kind of shocked that she didn’t even try to go in the water. I think that’s the first time I’ve ever been to the beach with her when she didn’t have to be dragged from the water kicking and screaming. I couldn’t even get a decent picture of her because she refused to let go of my hand when we were even close to the water. She was a little better yesterday when we went to the beach again. Yesterday was even warmer and the water was even bearable. I didn’t go in because I wasn’t about to wear a bathing suit to the beach in January but I easily could have and would have been just fine. It’s so great to live in a place where we can actually be outside in the middle of winter.