A Treatise on Gift Giving (and Getting)

I think lots of people are like this. Or maybe it's just me, but anyway, when it comes to choosing gifts for people, I often end up getting things that I myself would want as a gift. If I have a hard time coming up with something, or if I don't know the person all that well, I just say to myself, "Oh well, I would like this, so hopefully they will too." Yes, it's a gamble. But it does make shopping more fun. One of my major go-to gift ideas is probably what I would like to be gifted the most. That my friends, would be books. I love them. I love getting them for people, but sadly, I rarely get them as gifts. You'd think that as an English major and a fairly avid reader, people would get me books more often. No. Not really. Only my grandma ever gets me books, and that's because she always requests a specific list of exactly what we want because she doesn't like to play guessing games. So that means she gets them because I ask for them. No one else that I can think of has given me a book in recent years, and I so wish someone would, because I think they're such meaningful gifts. I love to pick out a favorite book of mine to share with someone, and write their name and a special message in the front cover. I think there's something very poignant about opening the cover of a book and finding out where it came from. My mom did this when I was little, and so did my other grandmother, which is probably where I learned to love it.
Getting to the point of this post, I've decided to make a list of books I would love to receive for Christmas or my birthday, which is conveniently (or not, depending on who you ask) four days before Christmas. I hope this doesn't look like a shameless cry for presents; I really just thought it would help those who were already going to get me something for Christmas and don't have any ideas. So, without further ado:

Our Mutual Friend, by Charles Dickens (I have a huge thing for Dickens.)
also, Nicholas Nickleby, The Pickwick Papers, and Little Dorrit, all by Dickens.
Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy (Never read a Russian novel, but lately I've been wanting to.)
The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas (I have it, but it's not a good copy. I'd like it in a nice big paperback that's unabridged.)
also by Dumas: The Three Musketeers
Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo (also unabridged)
Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte

These are just some of the ones I've been wanting to buy lately. Now, a word on the above. I'm quite picky about the editions of my books. I know that's super nerdy, but they make some really crappy editions, and I am quite biased. My favorites are the Penguin Classics, which have a black spine with red and white type, like this:



I also like the Modern Library Classics, which have a gold-ish spine. For example:



Happily, most classics are cheaper than contemporary novels, and since I like reading classics best anyway, it works out well for all. I also love children's books, and here are a few I'd like in my library. I've read and love all of these, but for some tragic reason don't own them. (most of these only have one edition, or if they don't, I don't care much):

The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin
The Egypt Game, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Ella Enchanted, by Gail Carson Levine
The Anne of Green Gables Series by Lucy Maud Montgomery
The Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series by Rick Riordan (there are five of these, they come in a cool set since the whole series is out.)
And what would be the crowning glory of my book collection (even though I know no one will ever buy these for me. I'll have to save my pennies one by one)...



The complete Harry Potter hardback set in a Hogwarts trunk!!!!!! Isn't it beautiful? And also, can you believe I don't own these?! I had them all when I lived with my parents, but the fam wouldn't let me take them when I got married, even though half of them were either purchased by or directly for me. Oh well. Someday I'll have my own.
Anyway, those are some books I would like someday. And who knows, you may just be getting one of them from me someday when occasion calls for me to get you a present. Because, let's face it, that's the way I roll.

School is for Losers.

So the former Vienna would never have uttered the title of this post, at least not seriously. But the current Vienna is saying posh to school because she is BURNT OUT. I'm losing my mind. Seriously. It's the end of the semester and all I want to do is crawl under a mountain of blankets and sleep for weeks. Not trying to complain, just telling it like it is. I thought I'd give a quick update so everyone (mostly my mom) knows we're alive:

I'm sure I've had worse semesters than this, but it really doesn't feel like it right now. I have to do a ton of homework over Thanksgiving break, and then it's two more weeks of school with tons of stuff due, and then Christmas Break, which is nice and long, and should have been delightful. But someone (that'd be me) has to write their 30+ page honors thesis over said break. I'm super not happy about it.

On the plus side, Rob is doing well. He's roughing it out through the horrors of chem and bio, and math, all terrible subjects I left behind me in high school. He had a beard for a few weeks. But he shaved it.

Rob went through a 2 day origami phase. I came home from school one day to find him looking up hobbies online. He told me he needed a new hobby. And he stumbled across the delicate Japanese art of origami. So for two days he was intensely involved in constructing paper cranes, flowers, and complicated geometric sculptures. It was super bizarre, but equally endearing. Except for the fact that he's kinda mean to me when he does origami. He says it's the intense state of focus. Anyway, I went to Michaels the second night of this origami craze and used my treasured coupon to buy him a 300 sheet pack of origami paper. The next morning he said he was taking a break from origami. The paper pack remains on our table, unoppened, and unloved by its master's touch.

Speaking of weird hobby obsessions, I'm addicted to crocheting. I haven't been able to do much lately with all of my preposterous homework, but all I think about is crocheting. I'm addicted to looking for patterns and equally addicted to buying yarn. This is why giving up my Michael's coupon was such a sacrifice. I've tried to limit myself on the yarn buying though. I bought a storage box for it to put under our bed, but I got a smallish one and told myself I could only buy what would fit in the box at one time. I've mostly stuck to that rule. Mostly. I'd post pictures of the stuff I've made, but I've got some Christmas presents in the works, and would hate to spoil any surprises.

Speaking of Christmas, we bought a tree! It's a little fake one (I'm a fan of real ones, but such a pain they are) and it's pre-lit, which makes life convenient for us in our little apartment with minimal storage. Last year was our first Christmas together, but we were on our honeymoon, so it wasn't much of a Christmas. I'm really excited for this year.

I just have to think of the joys of Christmas in order to lift my spirits from underneath all of my present scholastic burdens. Let's hope the Christmas spirit is strong enough to withstand my almighty bitterness. I'm just praying that I will get out of this school-hating stage and not graduate with a bad-itude.

Halloween Chez Goates

Happy November everyone! I'd like to look back on a lovely October, and I'd also like to tell you the story of our Halloween.

First of all, Fall in Logan is the best. The valley is beautiful, and I don't even mind when it's freezing. The novelty of that wears off fast and becomes miserable around January, but that's another post. In Logan they have a lovely tradition called the Pumpkin Walk. It's kind of like Festival of Trees, only with Pumpkins. People make these cool displays and you can walk around and see all the crazy stuff that people create using pumpkins. Sadly, this was my first (and last) time in the 4 years I've lived here that I've been able to go, but it was great. Rob was working and couldn't make it, so I went with my friends Cameo and Karissa, and Karissa's husband Jayson.


Here we are. This picture was taken at the display of Where the Wild Things Are. They also had a little pumpkin Max on his sailboat, and all kinds of pumpkin-Wild Things.


This was a display of the old Pepsi commercial with Michael Jackson. That pumpkin head looks creepily like Michael, and the whole thing was cool, so I took this picture to show Rob, who has always been a big Michael Jackson fan.


They had all of these face cut out things that were probably for children, but we couldn't resist. The Little Mermaid is my favorite movie, so I just had to do it.


Expelliarmus! I've discussed my extreme love for HP in previous posts, so I feel we can move onward to the tale of our sweet Halloween party.

About a week ago, the mister and I were trying to decide what to do for Halloween. We haven't had a weekend in Logan since school started, so we really didn't want to go down to Salt Lake (no offense to our awesome families), but we also didn't know what to do in Logan. In my family, it's a Halloween tradition to get pizza and watch Halloween movies, so that's what we decided to do. And while we were at it, we figured we'd invite our friends if they didn't have any other plans. So it basically turned into a par-tay.
Saturday morning Rob and I woke up pretty late due to some partying we'd done the night before (we're animals, I know) and made a list of things to do for the party. Our apartment was a major disaster zone, so we did some preliminary clean up before heading off on our errands.
Our first stop was the Deseret Industries in order to find costume supplies for Rob. We were going to dress up as French people, and we were all excited. Rob was even growing a mustache for the occasion. Well, being the Francophile (lover of French people and things) that I am, I had all the stuff for my costume, but we needed some things for Rob. The D.I. proved to have absolutely nothing. So we decided last minute to be something else instead. You'll see in a minute, but don't get too excited, because I still think being French would have been beaucoup cooler.
We continued to run around town looking for party stuff. Turns out if you buy Halloween stuff on the day of Halloween, it's much cheaper. It's not a very festive way of doing things, and you don't get to enjoy them as long, but our Halloween decorations (though minimal) were pretty cool, and wicked cheap. Our pumpkin was a dollar. And it was a good 'un. More than anything, Rob and I had a lot of fun dashing around together all day.


So we came back, continued cleaning the house, decorated, carved aforementioned pumpkin, made brownies, and got ready in our costumes before the guests arrived. Ready to see our costumes?


We were "Dead Indie-Rockers." See our cool clothes and the iPod head phones with which I was strangled? We're a couple of concert goers whose night took a turn for the worse. Yeah it wasn't my best costume idea ever. We basically wore our regular clothes, and so most people thought we were just "Dead Vienna and Rob." But oh well, at least we were festive.


Here are Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey, from 30 Rock. A.K.A, our good friends Jeff and Sarah.


The Kims. No one really knows what Jayson was supposed to be. I don't think he did either.


Cameo and Dan did not dress up. We gave Cam all these glow sticks (and glow earrings) that we happened to have lying around, and told her she was a raver.

I have to apologize to the guests whose pictures do not appear, Emily, Marni, and Jeff. I got caught up in hostessing duties and didn't take anymore pictures. We were really glad everyone came though, and it was a lot of fun. We ate lots of food, played Catch Phrase Music Edition (Rob's favorite game ever), and watched Rear Window, a great Alfred Hitchcock classic (side note: I don't do scary movies. At all. Except for Alfred Hitchcock.)
We hope everyone else had a good time, and I hope everyone had a great Halloween. Now that the holiday season has been officially ushered in, I'm starting to feel some serious excitement.

Never thought I'd find myself here...

To continue the story of our CA adventures, I must now take you to a very strange place: Oktober Fest, and the Daschund Races.


My aunt Hope has two daschunds named Jack and Sally. Apparently they have races for daschunds, and Sally is a mighty fast little dog. She's won all kinds of awards, and was even in a parade. The weekend we were down visiting they had the races near Huntington Beach, and it was quite the experience. The above picture is of my cousins, my sister Chloe, me, and Jack, the non-racing daschund. And of course in the background we have a band decked out in their lederhosen.


I'm not really sure what chickens have to do with wiener dogs, or Germany, but this dude was wandering around amongst all the drunken Oktoberfest revelers. No worries though, Rob and I were not joining in. At least not in the drunken respect.


Here's Rob watching the races. He was so into it; it was hilarious. He kept cheering and yelling "Go Sally!" The excitement in the air was thick as the foam on the beer.


Here is Sally racing. I might as well not keep you in suspense any longer; she won the races!!! Sally ended up being undefeated, and taking first place. She won a gift card to some weird dog place and a trophy. They already have a bunch of trophies, but still quite the triumph for little Sally.


This is my cousin Delaney holding Sally the champion racer. She refused to look at the camera, but you get the idea. The whole thing was pretty cool, and a great atmosphere for people watching. You wouldn't believe all the weirdos and their dogs out there. No offense to my family, or Sally of course.

DISNEYLAND!!!!!!

Bonjour everyone! We are home from California after a short trip, and would like to share some of our Disneyland photos with you. Pictures of our other adventures in California will (probably) be coming shortly in future posts.


You'll have to excuse Rob's scowling. The sun was very bright. He was also upset because I called him a goober right before this picture was taken. I think his grumpy face adds character.


Here we are at the beginning of our day at Disneyland. I think going at Halloween time is my favorite. The decorations are so cute, and it's a bit less crowded. My dad and Jared had to work, so they weren't able to come with us, and we missed them. But it was a lovely and magical day, the kind only Disneyland can deliver.


Indiana Jones! The first ride of the day. This is definitely a family favorite.


It might have been a perfect day if not for this. Pirates was CLOSED!!! ALL DAY!!! I was so sad. Pirates has always been one of my very favorite rides. I always go on it multiple times. But alas, a pirate's life was not for us that day.


Behold Jafar, Disney's greatest Creep Cat. Since it's Halloween, the Villains have taken over Disneyland. The firework show is Jack Skellington and all the villains, and Space Mountain is Ghost Galaxy, which was wicked scary. Keeping with tradition, they also have the Haunted Mansion all decked out Nightmare Before Christmas, which is one of my family's favorite movies of all time. They keep the Mansion like that from October until Christmas, and it's super cool.


I think the Queen of Hearts had a thing for Rob. She kept bumping him with her skirt, and she wouldn't let him leave after we took the picture. Good thing she finally did though. I definitely didn't want to fight her for him. 'Twould have been off with my head.


Bibbity Bobbity Boo!


Look at those crazy kids on the Tea Cups. I can't handle the spinning, so my mom and I watched from the sidelines. Actually, we can't really watch without getting sick either, so we mostly turned away until they were done.


Here we be, the non-tea-cuppers.


The three girls. It really was a great day. It was nice and hot, unlike the frigid Utah wilderness we came back to. The lines weren't too long, and the day was just happy. We ended the night with a special third showing of Fantasmic right before closing, and we got the closest spots you can possibly get! So close we even got wet. I love Fantasmic. If you've never seen it, you need to go to Disneyland straight away and see it. It makes me cry, every time, and this time was no exception. Yeah, so what if I'm 21 years old? I cried at Fantasimic. Disney just represents everything good about the world. Sure, it's overpriced, and commercial and all that, but I can't think of anything else that captures magic and imagination so beautifully. I'm tearing up just thinking about it.

Vienna the Artist...or...Not

So I'm in this drawing class this semester. Drawing 1, to be precise. It's a requirement for my art history major, and I've been putting it off for years. Not so much because I don't like drawing, but because I've been afraid. Well, I had good reason for that fear.
First of all, I'm pretty sure I'm anciently old compared to most of the people in that class. Most of them are art majors, and that's the first class they need. So they're all young'uns (who are really good at drawing, by the way), and I'm that weird old married person that I used to avoid like the plague when I was a freshman. Nice. Real nice.
But not only is it a socially-awkward experience, it's a big-ol'-freaking-huge-three-hours-twice-a-week blow to my self-esteem.
I've always been decent at drawing. In fact, once, when I was a receptionist, a coworker saw my doodling and asked if I would design a tattoo for her. I know, what an honor. Anyway, I thought I'd be able to scrape my way through drawing doing fair enough work to get myself an A.
Well...so far, not so good. I really like my teacher; he's great, with a charming Southern drawl and the quirky eccentricity of an artist. But when he makes his way around our easels and stops at mine, staring at my work, in silence, I usually want to gouge my eyes out with my drawing pencils. He's never mean, and everything he says is true. I'm guess I'm just not an artist, but I so, so SO want to be. I've always dreamed of being a painter, of creating things like the artists I study and love.
The most frustrating part is, I understand all the concepts we learn perfectly, and all the theory behind good drawing. Line, composition, perspective, form, blah, blah, blah... I'm an art history student for crying out loud--I write papers about how other people do all this crap, so of course I understand it. But when I go to actually do it on paper, it's painful disaster.
But the real tragedy is the fact that I always think I'm not half bad at it while I'm doing it. For instance, I'm working on this assignment where we have to draw an interior space in our home, and make it sort of a self-expression. So I'm sitting there in the middle of my living room, drawing my chair in the corner, and I'm like, "I can totally do this business." Two hours later, I look at the drawing, and want to rip it to shreds and burn the pieces, and never set foot in the drawing studio again.
The drawing is due this week, and I'm terrified of it. Any time I look at it, propped against my wall, taped to my drawing board, I feel nauseous.

I would so much rather write a 10-page paper about people who actually can draw.

Jealous?

Guess what kids? In two weeks from this very moment, we shall be in sunny Orange, CALIFORNIA!!!! Huzzah and Hoooooray!!!! We have been wanting to go to CA since we've been married, which, by the way, has been 9 whole months as of the 19th (props to us, for being nearly through with the epic First Year, and still living in harmony with one another).
Anyway, I was born in Orange, and have family there whom Rob hasn't yet met. My mom and sister have been planning on going down for awhile, and we were hoping to tag along, but when school started I found out I had a really important quiz when we wanted to go. Tragedy in the hearts of Rob and Vienna. Do not despair, however, for I talked to my prof on Friday, and she said I could take it when we get back. Praise her, sweet History Professor of Mercy!!!
And if you thought it couldn't get any better, you were sadly mistaken. We're going to freaking DISNEYLAND!!! Who cares if I've been there 12 zillion times; I never get sick of the place. Were they lying when they called it "the Happiest Place on Earth?" In a word, NO.
And it'll be the first time that Rob and I get to go together, which I'm sure will be a magical milestone in the grand eternal history of our love. I can't think of anything more delightful. So I'm not even going to tire myself trying.