Happy 21st Birthday to my best friend, Emily Niedfeldt! And it’s now been about 12 years since we first met...wow. Here’s to another 12 years, Em! And another and another and another...
Yesterday was kind of a lazy day, which was kind of nice, since I was kind of sick. Valerie was at her mother-in-law’s house all day (she spent the night there Friday, and ended up spending the night on Saturday too—she got back around 5 pm on Sunday) and I got to make use of our entire room, watching movies on my laptop and sleeping and...reading...and...wasting time. Pretty much.
I did go to a free film festival thing at the National Gallery of Art at 2:00 pm. It lasted until about 5:30 (~~!!!!~~) but I only struggled to stay awake once, during a film that actually wasn’t that bad. It was called Nora and was kind of a true story set to interpretive dancing. No words...that always makes me a little tired. But the dancing and scenery and stuff was actually very colorful and visually stimulating, so I must have actually been tired. But then again, I was absolutely fascinated by the 52 min. long “short” which had 0 dialogue and showed nothing but real-life footage taken of polar bears in the Arctic. I never got tired of watching them interact with eachother, and was actually a little sad when the camera pulled away after showing maybe 5 min. of one group, because I had been observing some little interactions going on, and I REALLY wanted to know how they were resolved! Oh well... polar bear drama will have to wait until it can afford to take the big screen. There were two ladies in front of me who were struggling considerably during the polar bear movie, from the way they groaned and sighed and then laughed at each other whenever the screen went from a momentary darkness to...yet another reel of footage! But yeah. I actually liked it a lot, and now I’m feeling quite loving towards polar bears...
After this rather long film fest, I walked the long route home, past the Washington Monument and the White House. I stopped at the Kennedy Center and bought a $20 ticket to the NYC ballet performance on March 5. The man who helped me was very friendly and accomodating; he spent maybe 5 min. just discussing what would be the best seat for someone of my height and with my preferences. I told him I liked the balcony seats, but he was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to see over the rails. So he was going to put me higher up, but then I told him I was worried that tall people would sit in front of me. Then he suggested an enticing option...would I like to sit on the FRONT row on the floor!? WOULD I!?!? Anyway, that’s where I’ll be next Thursday at 7:30 p.m. if you want me. FRONT ROW of the Kennedy Center opera house, basking in my closeness to some of the finest dancers in the world. And the friendly man assured me that I would be able to see everything, except maybe some feet when the dancers are backstage. I assured him that was perfectly fine.
After getting my ticket (and being even more excited to learn that it was one of the very last of the cheap $20 offered to young people—not students, but young people—who are assumedly poor because of their youth), I went to find the free concert at 6 p.m., but it wasn’t on the usual Millenium Stage in the main hall. It turns out that it was upstairs in a special theater called the Terrace theater! I had never heard of this place before, but enjoyed exploring the Kennedy Center some more by taking the elevator up and wandering through the beautifully decorated gallery space there. Soon I found myself in a nice comfy box theater with a cosy waiting room and a monitor to occupy me until there was a sufficient pause in the performance for me and all the other latecomers to enter. It was about 6:40 at the time, so the performance, whatever it was, was coming to a close (they usually run from 6-7), but I still got in with enough time to catch the last number, an absolutely stunning piano-flute duet by a guy and girl who looked very similar to the actor and actress who play Peter and Susan in the new The Chronicles of Narnia films. I got a very nice seat—about four rows away from the stage, almost dead center—and thoroughly enjoyed the performance. The girl (who played the flute) played the entire piece from memory—impossibly amazing! And the boy (pianist) was likewise incredible—although he had sheet music and another person to turn the pages for him, so he was, at least, still human.
After the performance, I was wandering around the gallery and found an open door leading to the outside terrace of the Kennedy Center. There were other people walking around, so I walked through the door and found myself on a nice high platform, overlooking the city. It was really breathtakingly gorgeous. Lovely views of the Potomac River, Watergate, and the Bridge of Terror (that’s what I’m going to call that-bridge-I-crossed until I find out whether or not it was the Theodore Memorial Bridge or the Arlington Bridge). I made a video, since all the pictures I took seemed to turn out poorly. I need to get myself a new camera. Perhaps for my birthday?
A few things to wrap it up before I go to bed:
The oranges came! Thanks very much, Dad :)
I have a new favorite movie: The African Queen. Not perfect by any means, but still a perfectly lovely little film. Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn (#1 actor and actress in America! Success is inevitable!) pretty much ARE the film, and they are amazing. And the story, while it’s no Lawrence of Arabia, is exciting enough to keep you interested, while being very sweet and simple. So a big round of “Aaawwwwwww....” for this film, everyone, if you please.
The Academy Awards!!! We’re having an office party tomorrow (they did a sort of “pool” where we all guessed the winners...but I didn’t guess, since I didn’t want to put in $2... but I’ll still come to the party), so that’s exciting. And, while I didn’t really watch the Oscar ceremony on TV tonight, a lot of other Barlow Center people did, and I gathered that Heath Ledger did indeed win the Best Supporting Actor award for his role as the creepy yet somehow swoon-worthy villain in The Dark Knight. And, in my now informed opinion, he really, really deserved it! :) And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go swoon.
2 comments:
You're right - I had no idea you were feeling poorly. Way to stick it out by bein' a social whirlwind! Get well soon; it would be quite a shame indeed if any unexpected bouts of sniffling or coughing threw the ballerinas off beat.
And why is Valerie staying at the Barlow center if she's married?!?! Where's her husband? (Just curious.)
“Aaawwwwwww....” There. I said it. Go stand next to your bed before you have that first swoon, OK? And make sure there is a pillow nearby. Looks like Kirstiloo would like to know more of Valerie's story, which I will leave to you to communicate. Kind of off topic here, but everytime I look at the news these days, I feel inspired to have a temper tantrum, so I think I'm going to have to do something different. Like work and study.
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