The Great and Amazing Bike Ride of 2010

Last Saturday was QUITE A DAY, my friends. Maybe the most eventful day of this year since the one where I spoke in church, played the organ, gave a lesson, and ate ice cream. There were ups and downs, there were pliers and chainsaws, there was crying and laughing and screaming and breathing. Lots of breathing.

It all began with a curious itching of mine to go for a bike ride with my new dashing boyfriend, whom I shall refer to hereafter as any one of several names beginning in M. Mitch and I set off bright and early, after packing our bags and eating some waffles and making fun of each other's helmets. We also checked our tires briefly for any potential "flats," but that didn't stop Matthias from getting a puncture when we were about half-way to our destination. Fortunately, Mordecai was proficient and experienced in the mechanics of bike repair, a fact which I surmised immediately when he refrained from cursing or throwing rocks and instead detached from his bike a repair kit that had been invisible to my eyes until this point:

Being the supportive and loving girlfriend I am, I stood well away from the grunting, sweaty display of manliness before me and offered encouragement along the lines of "Now what are you doing?" and "I don't see anything small and black - what are you talking about?"

I also got out the camera and took pictures.



When I showed these to Mortimer for the first time, he said in surprise, "I actually look buff!" Such is my skill with the camera, folks.

Now, naturally I already believe my Maxwell is already the epitomy of hotness, but can I just say that there is something incredibly, undefinably attractive about a guy who can fix a flat tire? I think I sort of swooned while taking the next picture.

After around fifteen minutes of this, Michael fixed his tire and we took off again, chatting and teasing each other in between huffing and puffing as we went up the path into the Provo Canyon. It was a gorgeous day for biking - sunny but cool and breezy - and there were a lot of people taking advantage of the weather and giving us many interesting things to talk about (e.g. "Can you believe how many people are walking dogs?" "Hey, that person isn't wearing a helmet!") as we focused on other interesting pastimes, which included me trying to steal his pen from his back pocket (so it wouldn't poke him when he fell off! Honest!), me threatening to kick over his bike (I'm not really a violent person, I'm not), me laughing at him for signaling on the bike path when he passed ME (he claims he was just waving his arm, but YEAH RIGHT), and of course, our mutual quest to discover a means of holding hands while biking uphill. Downhill was much easier.

We soon arrived at Bridal Veil Falls and, after locking our bikes, stayed for several minutes under the falls to shiver and thus have an excuse to get warm by cuddling. The sun was not touching this part of the mountain at all and it was still pretty breezy, so we were getting cold by the time we decided to go back down the path to a park to have the rest of our breakfast.

Then tragedy/fate struck. My bike lock WOULD NOT WORK. The numbers had previously slipped on me before, but I tried every possible combination I could think of, and still had no luck.

While I fought the cold and my increasing panic over not being able to free my bike, Mickey resorted to taking humorous pictures to cheer me up:

In the end, despite Mark's valiant efforts to break the lock with his bare hands, I had to give up. Red and tearful, I turned to Merlin, blubbering through chattering teeth, "I don't know what else to do!" He gave me a hug and assured me everything would be fine, and then suggested that he call one of his family members to bring something to cut through the chain. I helpfully sniffed in agreement and wiped my nose on his shirt.

Since I had brashly managed to convince Methuselah beforehand that jackets would be unnecessary ("It's still October! We're young and hot-blooded! This is Utah, not Alaska!" etc), both of us were trapped in short-sleeved shirts at the still-shaded, now-freezing Bridal Veil Falls. We didn't want to move out of sight of the bikes, so we went to the nearest bench under a shaded pavilion and clung to each other for warmth. Fortunately, Micah had had the presence of mind to bring a small gray blanket that barely covered both of us. Armed with that and the natural hotness that exuded from Martin, we endured the next twenty minutes together in a fairly stoic fashion. At first I was quite miserable, being depressed and embarrassed about the ordeal; however, Malcolm was very sweet and cheerful throughout the whole thing, explaining that now we had something to remember the outing by and even going so far as to tease me that I must have arranged the whole thing on purpose just to extend the length of the time we spent together. He also pointed out that all the people passing by must think we were super cute, and I had to agree after seeing a sweet-looking older lady give us a huge fond smile. By the time Malvolio's handsome older brother arrived (I'll just refer to him here as "Hero"), I was feeling considerably better.

Hero was carrying a humongous set of plier-ish looking thingies, which he used to make a very satisfying crunching sound on the detestable chain which held my bike prisoner. We cheered, then made him repeat for the camera:

Then Hero insisted that I too take a crack at the bike chain, which I was happy to do (though slightly less happy when I realized that I had lost all feeling in my arms and the pliers turned out to weigh more than my bike):

Now thoroughly happy, we bid farewell to Hero and pedaled to the nearest sunniest spot we could find with a table, where we enjoyed a delicious breakfast/lunch of grapes, cheese, peanut butter, bananas, dirt (silly Manfred kept dropping things on the ground and then eating them!), and water. We also played Catchphrase, I stole his pen again (and "let" him get it back) and we experimented again with the camera:

Aw. Notice we still have the blanket on our backs.

As you can see, Monty ended up keeping his pen. But I will get it from him one of these days :)

We biked by Miles's workplace at Ancestry.com to get home and he showed me a neat little bike path that takes you through a more gradual incline to get from Provo to Orem. Plus lots of cute houses and fenced-in neighborhoods, which I love.We arrived home in time for Marshall to get to choir practice and for me to get in some GRE studying before I went that night to my very first haunted house ever (that's where the screaming and chainsaws come in). But more on THAT experience later. It was already a full and perfect day in my book.

September 2010 Media Inventory

A LOT has happened this month, which you may or may not be able to tell from the following media inventory: I watched 17 movies, saw 4 plays, and read 0 books (I KNOW!!!!) - however, I did get over half way through Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles before the library made me return it (and pay a ten cent fine for not returning it yesterday, grumble), plus I've been reading Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, excerpts from the Iliad, the Republic, the Aeneid, etc. And I have "The Help" sitting on my shelf, but alas, it will probably have to be returned to the library before I get a chance to open it. And don't even get me started on "The Book Thief," which I want to read, like, SO. BAD.

But anyway. Here we go.


Movies:


The Apple Dumpling Gang: SUCH a fun movie! It felt just like one of our Opening Night plays with a wild western theme and a healthy dose of Don Knotts. Just classic, awesome, funny stuff. And a cute love story too.

Becoming Jane: Less good than it should have been, but better than I was expecting. Why are all the famous women writer fictional biopics so SAAAAAAD?!?!?

Frequency: This was a really intense film, very well acted and written. Sure, maybe it didn't all make sense, but I loved the whole concept. And the scene where he booby-traps the bad guy with his shoes and the juice and the wiring . . . AWESOME.

A Serious Man: Once I got the whole "David/Job/weirdness" metaphor, I liked this film. It gives you a lot to think about and inserts some of that wonderful dry Coen humor as well. But I SO did not like the ending.

My Best Friend's Wedding: I can't for the life of me remember why I watched this film. Or even really what happened. But I didn't like it. That I remember.

The Strongest Man in the World: Okay. But nowhere near as good as "The Apple Dumpling Gang."

Mulan: SUCH a good film. The songs have been running through my head all month. The story, the characters, the music, the drama.... sooo good.

Treasure Island: THE GOOD VERSION. No. Wait. THE BEST VERSION. THE VERSION THAT MAKES YOU FORGET ALL OTHER PREVIOUS VERSIONS. What version is this, you ask? The one with the oh-so-cute Christian Bale (I like him SO much better as a young actor for some reason), Charlton Heston (he's a good villain and a good hero! Who knew?), Christopher Lee (IS. BLIND PEW.), and a bunch of other scurvy characters (and a really appealing cast of good guys as well, I might add - Captain Smollett and Hunter particularly caught my eye....rrrrrrrrrrrr)

Bride and Prejudice: I liked the first half of it, but then everyone and all the songs and the too-familiar story and exaggerated accents kept getting on my nerves and I was SOOOO glad when it was finally over.

Scoop: Funnier than I expected. And shorter. And abrupt-er. But seriously, worth seeing. Once, anyway. Definitely.

Sixteen Candles: Oh, you know. It was... what you'd expect from a teen movie made in the 80s. A lot of fluff and kinda fun, but a stomachache afterwards.

Ping-Pong: SUCH a cool film. And had me totally fascinated with the sport - nay, the ART! - of ping-pong by the time it was done. Not to mention the totally adorable scenes of the little boys, the teenagers bonding, Ping-Pong "Nirvana," and the part when smug Chinese guy gets p'owned!

The World's Greatest Athlete: I think I got this one confused with "The Strongest Man in the World." Anyway, both of them were pretty cheesy and far-fetched. At least this one had a tiger that did some cool stuff.

The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again: Not even half as good as the first Apple Dumpling Gang. But Tim Conway and Don Knotts are still pretty funny actors.

Empire of the Sun: I was really touched. This is a very poignant, heartfelt film about an experience that you don't hear enough about - that of a English boy who is separated from his parents in China during the Japanese occupation. Once again, Christian Bale gives a very endearing performance - he's just so vulnerable and desperate. And I was really intrigued by John Malkovich's character - gonna have to give in to the quiet urge I've been getting ever since my experience watching him in "The Glass Menagerie" to see more of his stuff.

Knight and Day: I know I've already seen this film once this year, but you can forget anything negative I said about it back then, because this time, it was AMAZING. Probably the best film in the history of ever. I wanted to hug every one of the actors and cheer at the screen during every scene (well, after a certain scene, anyway...). In case you're wondering, yep, I'm totally biased. This film is AWE-SOME. "Sometimes, things happen for a reason..."

The Handsome Suit: A hilarious Japanese comedy, and probably the next best film ever made since the world began. Could my reasons have to do with the line of thinking that was going on in my review of Knight and Day, you ask? Yes. Why yes. They could.

Theater:


Tuesdays with Morrie: I had previously seen and liked both of the main actors in the play, and I really enjoyed their performances in this. I felt the play was short, simple, thoughtful, and sweet. It didn't try to do too much and it gave me some encouraging things to think about regarding the purpose of life, relationships, and time. I even got my parents to go on a date to see it too!

Boeing-Boeing: A Mask Club, so....not really a play.... but still probably one of the best theatrical things I've seen all year. So. Funny. Wow.

The Taming of the Shrew: There were a lot of things going on, and a lot of props, and a lot of women (seriously, only one guy in the whole cast to play the part of Petruchio), and a lot of distractions (including the seriously angelic little boys who were volunteered from the audience to stand for what seemed like an eternity onstage hitting a gong and making other simple sound effects - I was amazed by how well-behaved they were). I guess the play itself was really good, but to be honest, it all went by so fast, I couldn't tell. Not that the play was short, either. They just spoke their lines fast and moved really quick from one scene to the next.

Alcestis: I LOVED this - it was the first time I'd ever gone to one of the University of Utah's Greek play reenactments here at BYU (apparently, they do one every semester) and I've been wanting to go FOREVER. Well, it was worth it. Not only did I get to experience the full excitement of Greek drama (they wore MASKS! They sang their lines! There was a chorus! The men wore actual togas that showed their upper arms and thighs and how gross and hairy they were!) but all the male parts were played by men and all the female parts by women. Sooooo refreshing. Oh, and a special shout-out to the young girl who played the daughter. She looked timid and quiet at first, but she sure knew how to belt out those lines where it counted.