Turns out it's a lot more difficult to blog when you're happy. Tolstoy once wrote that all happy families are the same, while each unhappy family is different in their own way. Happiness has made me feel that I don't have much to say except, "Things are good. Really good. Better than they've been in a long time."
This summer has been head and shoulders above my last couple of summers. I've started dating my best friend, and I would highly recommend it. Relationships should make you feel better about yourself???? Plus he took me up to Snowbird and I got to ride a chairlift down a mountain and swim in a heated pool; I guess you could say that things are going very well.
One of my main goals for the summer was to perform in a musical. With being back in school, summer is the only time I get to indulge that passion, so I was anxious not to "waste" my summer show. I was cast in Once Upon a Mattress at my home away from home, the Empress Theatre out in Magna. It was a party; that cast was my jam. Driving home from the theatre at night, windows down, radio blasting, knowing that I performed my best that night is one of my favorite feelings in the world. There is nothing like the rush of being in front of an audience again.
I was also involved with a staged concert version of Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore. What a blast. Gilbert and Sullivan are life. It was good to get another musical fix before I have to go back to school at the end of this month.
I've been reading some incredible books lately. To throw out a few recommendations:
-The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt for non-fiction-- discusses the writing and rediscovery of Lucretius' ancient poem "On the Nature of Things." I unexpectedly loved it.
-Room by Emma Donoghue for adult fiction-- HOLY FREAK THIS BOOK IS INTENSE. Incredibly well written, narrated from the point of view of a five year old boy who has never been outside the room where his mother has been held prisoner for the last seven years. Emotional and honest; most likely going to be on my top ten list this year.
-A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf (essay)-- This has been on my list for years, and I'm glad I got around to it. What I love about Woolf is that even though you can tell she is writing from a place of frustration, she injects wry humor into it.
Other miscellaneous things about life:
I got my hair cut. Finally.
I sent my sister Julia off on her mission to St George.
I'm supporting Hillary Clinton in the presidential election. (I'll vote for a third party candidate when one of the main ones isn't the embodiment of evil.)
My littlest brother, Aaron Grant, was born. He's the calmest, cutest baby.
Things aren't perfect, but they are very good.
