Classics.

I love bookstores.  There is something so simple and quaint and peaceful about them- even the enormous Powells' bookstore in down town Portland.  If you slip away into a small corner of the massive store it can feel like a seaside bookshop.  (If you are not familiar with Powells it is the largest independent bookstore in the world and takes up an entire city block.)

Honestly, I probably like bookstores more than reading.  I find that walking through a bookstore and picking out the best front covers can be very inspiring.  There is a famous saying, everyone knows it, "don't judge a book by it's cover."  Unfortunately I do not adhere to this guideline. In fact I have been known to not purchase books that were recommended to me because I thought the cover was ugly.  I HATE when I want to buy a book that has been made into a movie and the actors' faces have replaced the original art work.  I love covers and it's one of my random photography-bucket-list items, to have one of my photos as a book cover.

These are all just random side notes by the way.  Let me back up.

David was out of town so I decided to watch a matinee, "Perks of Being a Wallflower."  I won't give away the movie, I will recommend it- I thought it was good.  The movie sparked an interest to visit a bookstore and I just happened to be in walking distance of a mini Powells bookstore- the Cedar Hills Powells.  I walked to the store with the idea of buying Jack Kerouac's "On the Road."  During the previews I learned that this classic book was about to hit the big screen.  I really like reading books that will eventually be movies. I enjoy not only comparing the two side by side (which is better the book or the movie? ...it's always the book...) but I also get a kick out of seeing how one type of artist visually communicates words that were written by a completely different kind of artist.   I think we should make all books into movies... of course I think you have to read the book first.

As I typed in Jack's name I realized I didn't know how to correctly spell it.  He's a famous, classic author with well-known books, I should know how to spell his name.  Thankfully I have a little thing called Google on my iPhone.  (What did we do before technology?)  I walked down the literature isle slowly, gazing over the book covers and mentally noting which ones would be readable and which ones will never enter my bookshelf.  I came to K and found the book I was looking for.  It reminded me of a New Years Eve resolution I "mentioned" a year or two ago.  I can't actually remember if it was last year or the year before.  I put "mentioned" in quotes because it literally was one of those resolutions I just threw out there and never actually put it down as "this is my resolution for 2012."  The goal was to read five classic novels.  The novels that everyone else seems to have read, or at least the pretend to have read it.  On my list I definitely wanted to read Catch-22 and then anything written by Jane Austen, Ernest Hemingway and Jack Kerouac.  My fifth read was still up in the air- I thought about rereading The Great Gatsby or something by Mark Twain.  Obviously I didn't give it a lot of thought because this resolution never stuck.

I had "On the Road" in my hands when a craving to read other classics came over me.  I thought about how much TV I watched and that it would be a smart switch to replace the tube with a book.  I also thought about how nice it would be to actually know what people are talking about when they mention a Catch-22 (ya, ya, I get the idea) or to agree or disagree when someone says Hemingway was the greatest author.  Pride and Prejudice is one of my all time favorite movies and I can't believe I've never read the true version from Jane Austen's hand.  So I went around the bookstore and I started to pick up all of these classic novels.

I decided on three to start; "On the Road" by Kerouac, "Pride and Prejudice" by Austen and "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller.  I did look at Hemingway's "Old Man and the Sea" but I didn't buy it.  It's a short book, that surprised me.  (PS. If you look up photos of Hemingway when he was younger I think you'll find the author to be very handsome.)

The cashier asked why I purchased the special edition of Pride and Prejudice (a Norton Critical Edition). He asked if it was for school.  I told him I knew there were cheaper versions (like really cheap for three bucks) but I wanted this version because it had footnotes explaining words I did not know.  For instance on the very first page the word Michaelmas is used, I thought it was a person's name but the footnotes explained to me that it generally means "autumn."  I paid the extra five dollars for knowledge... plus it will save me time,  I won't have to bust out google on my phone. ;)  The cashier explained that this edition puts the book in three volumes as opposed to one long novel.  According to the lovely cashier the three volume version is how Jane Austen wrote the book.

When the cashier asked if it was for school an unexpected excitement entered my mind.  School?  It sounds exciting?  It only took 7 years for the thought of taking classes to excite me again.   I have been thinking about taking a class here and there- like a writing class or a food photography class.  Don't worry my bachelors degree is more than enough for my occupation and I am completely happy with my career choice, so I will not be going back to school full time.  For now I'll see if a small class is in my near future and I'll get to work on reading my classics.

What is your favorite classic novel?  Author?

Skipping,
Aubrie

Food. Books. Movies. Clothes. Wine. Aqua-Bike. Photography.

Let's talk about everything... everything that is cliche.  Nothing too deep on this post today.  Just a lot of things I've seen, heard, read, tasted or want to try.  You know, the basics... food, clothes, movies, music, books and of course my two "basics" photography and wine.  This is definitely a "For Fun" kinda-post. 


Food: 


So for awhile there David and I were trying the 17-day diet... first time around we had success and the last two times we've tried again we did not accomplish anything. Since I was watching what I was eating I really didn't get to cook anything too exciting.  I don't need to make fried chicken with a thick cream sauce... but when you limit dairy, grains, etc. it makes for some boring meals to create.  I've hit a little "mood" where I want to cook some new dishes and maybe even bake a few treats.  


So I have a few things I'm going to try at some point this week/weekend... 


Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese... click here for a picture and recipe


Asparagus and Chicken Fricassee... click here for a picture and recipe


Lemon Poppy Seed Pancakes... click here for a picture and recipe


I have all the ingredients for everything above... I'll let you know how they all turn out. I made my own version of Oatmeal Cookies the other day.  They actually turned out awesome... I cut the oats in half and put coconut and dried cranberries in the mix.  Yum.  Click here for a picture and recipe.  


Books: 


I just finished reading "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson.  Great read!  He is such a funny writer.  The book was about him and his friend hiking the Appalachian Trail.  (The AT is just like the Pacific Crest Trail but on the East side of the country).  You learn a lot about America reading the book as well.  If you are into hiking/travel/adventure/outdoors kind of books you'll definitely enjoy this one.  I can't wait to pick up another book by Bryson.  


I am totally switching gears and I just started reading "Crazy Love."  My sister gave me the book for Christmas.  The back of the book reads... 


"Have you ever wondered if we're missing it? It's crazy, if you think about it.  The God of the universe loves us with a radical, unconditional, self-sacrificing-love.  And what is our typical response?  We go to church, sing songs and try not to cuss.  Whether you've verbalized it yet or not... we all know something's wrong.  Does something deep inside your heart long to break free from the status quo?  Are you hungry for an authentic faith that addresses the problems of our world with tangible, even radical, solutions?  God is calling you to a passionate love relationship with Himself.  Because the answer to religious complacency isn't working harder at a list of do's and dont's- it's falling in love with God.  And once you encounter His love, you will never be the same." 


It's going to be a "hard" read... if ya know what I mean.  


Movies: 


So movies have been a little difficult lately.  I've actually watched a few that really did not excite me at all.  "Drive" was fairly gory and not what I expected.  "Tintin" was actually kind of boring to me.  "Rum Diary" was not all that great either.  A little while back I watched "Moneyball" and I really enjoyed that movie.  (David not as much, but I don't think he gets/likes baseball as much as I do.)  We just rented "How to Train your Dragon."  That movie was very cute and entertaining... safe for the whole family lol.  I would recommend it.  Cheap theatre night we watched "This Means War." It was actually very funny, we laughed out loud a handful of times.  And the other day we saw "Hunger Games."  I did not read the book... so from just a movie point of view I thought it was good.  It wasn't like the best movie I've ever seen or anything... but I judge movies purely on an entertaining value.  Did it entertain me?  Yes.  (Warning for the next one: Spoiler Alert.)  So I rented "One Day" the other night while David was out of town.  Great little movie... loved how it went through all the different years and how the two characters grew.  (Plus I loved Anne Hathaway's hairstyles).  The ending shocked me.  I got a bad feeling all of a sudden... like "Ohh no, something horrible is going to happen." And before I could even finish that thought.... BAM!  She literally gets ran over by a bus.  I actually put my hands to my face an a little yelp squeaked out.  I was shocked.  Of course the movie turns sad... but that's life, right?  The very end of the movie brings you back to the beginning so you can see what actually happened and finishes it so that your not completely in the blues.  I think it was a good movie... even if it didn't have the ending I wanted. 


....This is not a movie, but I do have to say very quickly that I've been enjoying "Frozen Planet" on the Discovery channel every Sunday night.  Awesome cinematography.


Clothes: 


I bought a pair of cowgirl boots for my birthday.  I. Love. Them.  They are brown with a turquoise diamond pattern on them.   So every girl has their "thing" that they like to buy... a lot of girls it's shoes, for some it's purses and others love scarfs.  Mine is skirts.  I love my skirts so much that I just sent about 10+ skirts home with one of my friends so she can take them all in for me. (I lost some weight/inches and a lot of my skirts were not fitting correctly.)  Instead of tossing them out and just buying new ones I decided to save them.  SAVE THE SKIRTS!  I did loose a jean skirt though.  It's way to big on me and she could not save it.  Sad.  So now I'm down to... 20 skirts.  TWENTY?  Yes.  What?  I like skirts... how many pair of shoes do you have? ;)  


Aqua-Bike


I really want to try an aqua-bike this summer.  I loved my triathlons last summer but I hated training for the running part.  I'm just not a runner.  Obviously I love swimming, Masters Swimming is going well.  I actually have another meet next Saturday.  And biking is a lot of fun too.  Running sucks.  So this summer I thought I would concentrate on the two sports I like and try out an aqua-bike.  I know you're all going "what the heck is that??!"  It's a race where you just do the swimming and biking... no running.  The swim and the bike are longer though (than a Sprint triathlon).  Right now I am looking at the Grand Columbian Aqua-Bike in September.  It's a 1.2 mile swim followed by a 56 mile bike ride.  


Wine: 


We've came across a few wineries lately that were pretty good.  I always like to share... So Carlton is this cute little po-dunk town with a bunch of wineries.  You could definitely spend the afternoon tasting and you would only have to walk a few blocks.  Scott Paul had a few wines that we enjoyed... it was fun learning more about the French region.  I really enjoyed Folin Cellars though, they had a lot of reds, Barbara, Tempranillo, Cab, etc. that I liked.  I would definitely check that place out.  We went into the Gorge for my birthday weekend.  We've hit up a lot of the wineries on the Oregon side so we decided to mix it up and hit the Washington side.  They were all pretty good... I think Syncline was probably my favorite.  Plus it had a big tree-swing so that's always fun.  (Memaloose has a nice deck/view of the river and the coolest wine-dog ever.)  


My birthday present from David was a wine membership at our favorite winery, Marchesi.  Come June we'll have 7 bottles of wine from the Italian winery.  Mmmmmm! I can't wait.  They can't make a bad wine over there.  Who wants to have a wine party in June?  This girl.  :) 


Photography: 


I bought a new macro lens!!!  60mm f2.8 macro lens.  I'm excited to play with it!  (I actually would be playing with it right now, but my stomach is in shambles so I'm laying low...hence writing a long blog on nothing.)  I'm looking forward to the busy summer season.  I'm over this slow Spring phase I am in right now.  I'm ready to shoot and shoot and edit and edit.  (Although mid way through I won't be singing the same tune with the editing deal.)  


Check out my  Instagram feed... I am doing a "Photo a Day" in April.  I am following this list here.  
My Insta name is "aubrielegault" come follow me.  


Well I think that about covers it.  I have a few Instagram photos to take... a new lens to pay with,  a hard-heart-filled book to read and an aqua-bike to train for.  I better get on with it.  


Skipping, 
Aubrie

Regrets & Randomness

So I am waiting for David Letterman's show tonight.  No, I don't typically do this.  However when both guests intrigue me are on one show than I guess I'll burn the midnight oil.  The first guest is purely for pleasure- Robert Pattinson.  Yes, I read all the Twilight books and I've seen all the movies.  But I also enjoy his music and all of his other movies as well.  Plus he's funny.  The second guest is Annie Leibovitz one of the most famous photographers of our time.  It will be very interesting to see what her and David (Ball State is his alma mater by the way) chat about.

Instead of sitting in front of the tube I thought I would waste my time else where.  It seems like only once in a great while I get the chance to simply play on the Internet.  You know, scan through pins, read blogs and post blogs (like this one). So that's exactly what I'm doing.  That Pinterest is addicting!

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So this is one of those posts that are random.  Just so you know.

I've had a few thoughts today.  Like... who watches Jerry Springer?  I mean, really?  I would like to meet that person who still watches that ridiculous show and....slap them.

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I had an ex boyfriend that once told me something about not having regrets.  I wish I could remember the exact "quote" he used, but I can't.  I wonder if he regrets breaking-up with me?  (ironic-humor for you.) Anyway I can't help to at least think about a few things that I regret. And I'm not talking about the type of regret that makes me sick to my stomach but I do wonder how my life would have changed if _________ fill in the blank.

______ Fill in the blank: I regret not swimming my senior year.  I was voted to be captain by EVERYONE and my coach made that perfectly clear to me.  Yet I decided that my swimming career was finished, probably because I started when I was six and my body was done.  Instead I was motivated by my softball team winning state my junior year...I sat on the bench for that game.  I was not going to sit on the bench for any game my senior year.  So my dad and I spent the winter pitching in a gym.  I have mixed feelings about my decision.  I probably should have fought through my senior year and swam... not for me, but for my team.  But I also had some bonding time with my dad that year.  I don't think the decision I made affected my future. I didn't do either sport in college so I'm pretty sure that "regret" had no affect on where I am today or where I could have been tomorrow.

_____ Fill in the blank:  The other regret I think about from time to time is moving to Portland, Oregon right out of college.  I had an internship at the Muncie Star Press as a photojournalist.  I did the internship to graduate.  What I should have probably done is sought out another internship...anywhere.  Most photojournalists have more than one internship and they move around a lot in the beginning of their career.  I moved. Once. To Oregon.  It sounds like I regret my move to Oregon and that couldn't be further from the truth.  I LOVE OREGON.  But I wonder if my photography career would look a lot different if I would have ventured into another internship.  The thing about this regret is I'm almost positive that it would have impacted my life and I would not be where I am today.  Which means I wouldn't be married to David.  And that thought in itself is enough to tell me that I shouldn't regret that decision at all.

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I want to come up with a new product to "display" wedding photos.  The journalist side of me wants to create some sort of publication that is all about the couple and their wedding day.  I'm thinking like a magazine-type layout.  With an actual word story and (of course) a lot of photographs.  A wedding-zine.  Hmm... I'll have to think it through.  Don't steal my idea now.  -Copyrighted!  lol

Skipping,
Aubrie

The Book is always Better

I'll read novels from time to time that are tied into the theatre.  I will admit that I love finding movies that were first a best seller then I have my own challenge and tell myself that I can't see the movie until I finish the book.  The book is always better.  Way better.  

It's funny how books are 100 times more descriptive and yet so simple.  For instance, I read Eat. Pray. Love. by Elizabeth Gilbert a few weeks ago and I just finished watching the movie tonight.   The movie moved so fast that you didn't get to take in all she actually experienced.  The Ashram, in my mind when I pictured it, was so delicate and open...spacious.  There was no ladder on the roof top where she forgave herself, there was just a beautiful white building with a deep blue sky and God.  The movie added too many distractions and was missing all the little stories that made the book a novel.  

So to re-live a few moments from the book I thought I would type-out some of my favorite quotes/stories from the printed version of Eat. Pray. Love.  I'll have to add a disclaimer here.  I do follow a Christian belief and that is my personal God.  No, I am not going to visit a Ashram or become a Yogi.  I like these quotes because it either made me think, laugh or I just simply enjoyed her writing.  

Eat (Italy):

 

"Generally speaking, though, Americans have an inability to relax into sheer pleasure.  Ours is an entertainment-seeking nation, but not necessarily a pleasure-seeking one.  Americans spend billions to keep themselves amused with everything from porn to theme parks to wars, but that's not exactly the same thing as quiet enjoyment.  Americans work harder and longer and more stressful hours than anyone in the world today... Alarming statistics show that many Americans feel more happy and fulfilled in their offices than they do in their own homes... Americans don't really know how to do nothing.  This is the cause of the great sad American stereotype- the overstressed executive who goes on vacation, but who cannot relax.  Italians are the masters of 'il bel far niente.' This is a sweet expression. Il bel far niente means "the beauty of doing nothing." 

Pray (India):

" Life, if you keep chasing it so hard, will drive you to death.  Time- when pursued like a bandit- will behave like one; always remaining one county or one room ahead of you, changing it's name and hair color to elude you, slipping out the back door of the motel just as you're banging through the lobby with your newest search warrant, leaving only a burning cigarette in the ashtray to taunt you.  At some point you have to stop because it won't.  You have to admit that you can't catch it.  That your not supposed to catch it.  At some point, you gotta let go and sit still and allow contentment to come to you." 

(There was a story about how people at this Ashram had to tie a Saint's cat to a pole while they meditated because it was so loud and annoying.  After it died they didn't know what to do or how to pray because they thought they needed to tie a cat to the pole first in order to meditate.) ...

"Be careful, warns this tale, not to get too obsessed with the repetition of religious ritual just for it's own sake.  Especially in this divided world, where the Taliban and the Christian Coalition continue to fight out their international trademark war over who owns the rights to the word God and who has the proper rituals to reach that God, it may be useful to remember that it is not the tying of the cat to the pole that has ever brought anyone transcendence, but only the constant desire of an individual seeker to experience the eternal compassion of the divine.  Flexibility is just as essential for divinity as is discipline." 

Love (Indonesia): 

"The Yogic sages say that all the pain of a human life is caused by words, as is all the joy.  We create words to define our experience and those words bring attendant emotions that jerk us around like dogs on a leash.  We get seduced by our own mantras 'I'm a failure... I'm lonely... I'm a failure...I'm lonely... and we become monuments to them.  To stop talking for a while, then, is to attempt to strip away the power of words, to stop choking ourselves with words, to liberate ourselves from suffocation mantras."