I love you

I must be one of the luckiest people on earth. I have four amazing siblings and two of the best parents anyone could ask for. As of today, they have been married for thirty years. What an achievement!

Nowadays, divorce is common, but the thought is not even relevant in my household. My parents made all the right choices in marriage, and I am glad they chose each other. I have not seen them fight in ten years.

They went out to dinner today, to celebrate. Before my dad got home from work, Mom went upstairs to change into her new dress. When she came down, I could see the sparkle in her eyes, She was absolutely beautiful. She had on her new blue dress and a gorgeous shawl over her shoulders. I could tell she felt beautiful. Dad had gotten her a pearl necklace, bracelet, and earring set that matched her outfit. I helped her put on the necklace, and she put on the bracelet and earrings herself. I could not stop smiling. Her face sparkled.

She was beautiful.

Dad came home and went up to kiss Mom. He must be the luckiest man on earth, and she is the luckiest woman. Dad opened Mom's card and they both opened mine. Dad found his present, an old map of the world, framed in a nice frame. His eyes lit up, and he managed to make a decision as to where he wanted it, rather than listening to his wife, who seemed to like it somewhere else.

They got all their stuff together and left to go out to dinner. When they left, I could not stop smiling. They love each other so much, and I know that as long as they live, they will stay married. I love them so much and I am glad they are still married.

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!!!

Lord of the Flies

I have never been left breathless by a book until now. And this was the second time I had read the book cover to cover. The whole story goes so slowly until the end. In the last chapter, the biggest and scariest action of the book happens and the chase seen and the who climax is right there. The falling action was two paragraphs long. It took me three hours to get my breath fully back.

Siblings

I am very glad I grew up with siblings. It has taught me more than I can fit in a blog post and more than I know that I know.

• I learned how to fight with the people I love.
• I learned how to forgive the people with which I fight.
• I learned how to be called stupid or immature or any other recognizably insulting names and not be insulted.
• I learned how to deal with immaturity when I know I am just as or more so immature.
• I learned how to deal with authority and not having it.
• I learned to have fun at something I adamantly don't want to do.
• I learned how to entertain myself with something others see as work.
• I learned how to make myself heard when I need to be.
• I learned how to be silent when I have no seniority or authority.
• I learned to ask questions when I don't know an answer.
• I learned how to figure things out for myself when I can't find an answer.
• I learned how to clean bathrooms and wash kitchen floors.
• I learned how to do the dishes and clear and set a table for a meal.
• I learned that the more you know someone, the harder they are for whom to shop.

There are too many more to count, so I will shut up now. I hold firm to the fact that second to life, the best gift a parent can give to a child is a sibling.

I have a theory

If you don't like something. An activity, say. If you don't like it at all. You hate it with a passion. Pick something. Anything. You hate it. But you have a friend who loves it so much. This friend cannot stop talking about it because of how much this friend loves it. It is a perfectly harmless activity. Painting, say. You hate painting, but your best friend loves it. After a while, you get to know about painting. This friend will tell you everything from famous painters to techniques to ideas that this friend wants to use. Soon, you will begin to notice things. Say you are in an art museum. You will recognize a specific technique that an artist you have actually heard of and say, "wouldn't it be cool if they had used this technique for this area to make a ____ kind of look?"

You will second guess yourself.

You will start to like painting.

You will hate yourself for liking it. "Wait! I wasn't supposed to like this! I've never liked it!" Who knows why you disliked it in the first place. Maybe you had an awful art teacher that picked favorites and you weren't one. Maybe your older sister was a painter. Who knows. But you have a friend who loves it, and now that you can participate in the conversation, you will start to like it. Maybe even love it. Or at least love listening to it. Maybe it is easy to enjoy listening to a friend be excited about something. That is always fun. But when you can come to terms with a former foe of an activity, something good has happened.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

For the many years you've been my dad, my siblings' dad, my mom's husband, my uncles' brother, my grandparents' son, you are amazing, and I wish you the best and happiest birthday today.

Shostakovich and 20th Century Music

I know enough people disagree with me to make this worth my while, so I will make it known that I prefer Classical and Baroque music to Romantic and Contemporary.

Baroque and Classical make sense. There is a rhythm, it is strict, and you know what is going to happen. This is not to say it is not suspenseful; it is. Listen to Beethoven's 5th or 6th or 9th. They are amazing. If there is a dissonant chord in Baroque or Classical, it is a 7th chord. Progressions always lead up to the I or V chords, depending on where you are in the piece. There is a specific place to which you are going, and you always get there. Everything is resolved.

This does not happen in 20th century music. Take Mahler for example. Though much of his music is either powerful or beautiful or both, it never leads anywhere. As if you are running for your life through a dark alley while a mugger is chasing you with a knife, and suddenly you become a little girl with curly hair in pigtails playing tag with her brother. Some contemporary music just seems to be strange chord progressions full of even stranger chords.

Romantic music isn't bad. I don't mind listening to it at all. It's not the best to play, however. With so much rubato, it is hard to keep a steady tempo. Well, it's written in not to have a steady tempo, which is why I'm not too fond of it. I like mathematical styles. Romantic music is not mathematical at all.

I have no problem with people liking 20th Century music at all. A good friend of mine seems to be in love with Shostakovich, and I know a few young ladies who like Mahler themselves. It's a matter of opinion, really. But if I am wrong, and I am never wrong, classical and baroque dominate.

Clearing your Head

Sometimes you think you're clearing your head, when really you just want to know something that is practically impossible to know. It keeps gnawing at you and you can't do anything about it. You want the question to leave you alone, never to bother you, but you care about what the answer is, and you really want to know. Your "clearing your head" is never complete until you know that answer. Being alone will never help. Only the people with the answers will.