Under the Knife

This entry has three sections that are in no way related to one another:

Part 1: Piano Madness
Last night I went to the Schubert Club International Artist Series with my parents (and without Ben... we have season tickets but we just have a ton going on this week, and he needed to take a night off to grade papers. Understandable. I did remind him that he could just draw grades out of a hat...but apparently that is not ethical.

Anyways, the recital was amazing and Watts rocked it out with an all Liszt program. If you're unfamiliar with classical piano repertoire, Franz Liszt is known as the greatest piano virtuoso of his time, and he wrote music primarily for his own performances. The man was basically a rock star - at the time, he was sometimes derided for his flamboyant performances and harmonic exploration and innovation, but the ladies did love him. I mean, look at this sexy mug - how could you not? Plus he apparently had huge....hands....

Rawr

And thus ends your nerd-tastic music history lesson. You're welcome.

I also noticed a glaring error in my list of things that irritate me - I somehow forgot to mention loud breathers. It might seem like I'm breaking my streak of no complaining, but I'm really not - I am just stating facts.
Fact 1: Loud breathers irritate me
Fact 2: One happened to be sitting behind me last night at the concert.
That's all...no complaints. Only true statements of a neutral character.

Part 2: Further thoughts on Yoga and Positivity
This whole "no complaints for a week" thinng has me thinking about real hardship, and I sometimes wonder if, by being all "don't complain, be positive and awesome!!", I am doing a disservice to true hardship. There's a huge difference between being a whiner about waking up at 5:30 and going through something really life-shattering. Then I read Christina Sell's blog yesterday, and I think she says it better than I ever could:

"I am not someone who believes that everything we experience in life makes us
stronger. I have watched plenty of people make mistakes, suffer terribly due to
life's ups and downs and experience tragedies from which they never recover. It
is not the case, in my opinion, that hardship makes us better people. I do
believe, however, that it can. I believe that difficulty holds within it
the power and possibility to elevate us and our awareness to new heights. I
believe the apparent "bad thing" has the potential to become our most
profound teacher, but I also believe that the circumstance itself holds no
guarantee that it will do that for us. The difference, in my opinion, as to to
whether or not difficult experiences strengthen us or destroy us has to do with
how well we are able to make use of them. The answer to growth is not on the
side of the circumstance. It is on our side, as students of Life."

Part 3: Under the Knife
And on a totally unrelated note, Mini is at the vet today for her spay surgery. I know I shouldn't be nervous but I totally am. I've mentioned before that having pets gives me a terrifying preview of what I will be like as a parent...and the fact that I can barely concentrate on work right now is not great. I also wigged out during my dad's hip replacement and my sister's appendectomy...if it was my own surgery I'd just be like "whateves guys I can handle it," but when it's someone I love I get super worried. I think I probably have an extreme amount of empathy...this has been confirmed by both Strengthsfinder and Meyers Briggs, and we all know if it comes from a personality test then it must be true...? Anyways I'm sure she's fine.

KITTY.

Bah.