A Date and a Little Dutch Man

Tonight Andrew and I had the rare opportunity (courtesy of our friend Gio) to listen to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra play. The Meyerson is such a beautiful building, and the DSO is very talented. It was a great date night.

These are quick, sneaky cellphone pix. We were so close to the stage, it was an incredible sound. The conductor was Jaap van Zweden, a short, pudgy and animated man from Amsterdam. I liked watching his jowls jiggle when he was trying to get more oomph out of strings' vibrato.

The first piece, a Schoenberg (Verklarte Nacht, Op4) was delightful: a very unusual "early work," harmonic, thematic and romantic--no twelve-tone crap. The Brahms (2nd Symphony, Op 73) was light and "summery," or so says the playbill, but I'd have to agree. Brahms was in a very good mood when he composed it, that's for sure. All four movements are in major. Apparently, though, he pretended to all his friends that this symphony was going to be super depressing, or as he put it, "I have never written anything so sad...the score must appear with a black border." Ha, ha. Music geek humor.

I think the last time I was at the Meyerson was when Perlman played Paganini, something I will never forget. A good violin is a wonderful thing. A virtuoso violin is simply sublime.

During the intermission we got ourselves drinks (a delicious Kahlua concoction and Grey Goose on the rocks) at the bar. It was nice, being fancy and dressed up with delicious drinks, and wandering around the gorgeous Meyerson foyer and mingling with rich old people. That's not something we do very often these days, due to this little cutie pie:

She is SO big now. She is 25 inches and 18 lbs. What a chunky monkey. Anyway, my schoolwork is behind but it's been a great week. Sometimes you just have to have weeks like that, especially since I have absolutely no summer break ahead of me. I am doing anatomy, like I mentioned before, but I am also going to research, hopefully with an interesting project on traumatic brain injuries and CT scans. Anyway, bye bye summer! That is what I tell myself when I decide to do things like walk around Northpark with my dear friend Courtney and play with the iPad at the Apple store... instead of listen to neuro lectures.

Yup, life is all about balance. And my scales were tipping a bit too much towards school. I definitely rocked the neuro test: 98%, easy cheese.

P.S. One more thing. A pet peeve I have developed over the years. Please, please teen girls, it is not attractive when you take 300 pictures from above and make poofy kiss-me lips as you do so, or serious I'm-so-hot-looks either. It is tacky. The picture that results looks nothing like you (EVERYONE knows that pictures from above are slimming and make your eyes look bigger). Do not stick out your hips as you take said picture, because it looks slutty. Especially don't wear low-cut shirts which only shows the world your lack of cleavage. Please take normal head shots and smile nicely and that is beautiful. Teenage girls, you are beautiful the way most people look at you all the time: eye level.

Unless you are being ironic, of course. Then it's okay. Knock yourself out.

My shirt print says Sprague but it is backwards. A tell-tale sign that this picture was taken with Photobooth.

Good night, friends. Leave comments if you love me. I am feeling blogger-insecurity tonight. Haha, you know what I mean if you blog.