Bravo! for dance! Kent and I attended a wonderful performance of the American Ballet Theatre Studio Company. The dancers are young, 17-21, preparing for careers in leading ballet companies. They are incredibly talented and put on a terrific show. There did a couple of contemporary numbers that I especially liked.
Several months back, Cora wrote me a note and asked if we could go to lunch with the two of us and Isabella. That's an idea I could certainly support, and I suggested we go to today and invite Vika and Mila to join us. All were in agreement that was a fantastic idea, so Izzy and I picked up the other girls and we went to lunch at Zupa's. We talked and laughed, Izzy made a weird concoction and tried to get everyone else to have the same thing, and we enjoyed being together. I love all these beautiful young people!
The Manti Temple has been closed and undergoing renovation for the past several years. The open house is happening and Mikayla and I had planned to go with Mom and our kids to see the temple. We made plans a couple of months ago, but as the moment approached for us to actually attend, I had a complication. Our reservation was for tomorrow, Thursday, March 28th, but my boss, Alvin, has a mandatory training all afternoon tomorrow, so I can't go then. I asked if we could rearrange the schedule and go today, and while Mom, Brandt, and I could all do that, it was going to be really rough for Mikayla. She told us to just go without them and that they would try and go tomorrow, maybe.
We had heard the lines for the open house were ridiculously long. We even saw a picture posted on Instagram of the line snaking around the temple. Some people without a reservation waited four hours to get in. We hoped that would not be the case for us. We had a lovely ride down, chatting as we went. We got a good parking space and couldn't see a line, so we thought we might be in good shape. Turns out, we were wrong. We got into the standby line because although we technically had a reservation, it wasn't until the next day. We were talking about the line and the people in front of us told us the wait in the standby line was two hours. TWO HOURS! We didn't have two hours to wait. We only had two hours total. They suggested we just go get in the reservation line and pretend ignorance when we got to the front if they asked to see our tickets.
We took their advice and went to the reservation line. That line seemed longer as it serpentined just like a line at Disneyland. But those with reservations were being let in more regularly than those in the standby line, so after only 45 minutes, we were able to enter the temple.
A volunteer told us that very little had been done to the interior of the temple. The furnishings, paint, and general decor was unchanged. While Mom and I had both been to the temple previously, it was exciting to see parts of the temple we had not been in. There are murals all throughout the temple, many of which had been restored. There is an amazing spiral staircase and an assembly hall across the top of the temple. My parents were sealed to each other, and I was sealed to them in the Manti Temple, and we were able to see the room where that happened. It is a tiny sealing room within the Celestial Room, with the altar on a raised portion under an arched ceiling. I love how colorful the temple is, from the carpets to the ceilings.
We were delighted to be in the temple and pleased we were able to pause as we went along and answer questions Brandt had. We also were there exactly the amount of time we had.
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Stake Conference today. A mother of five children, ages fourteen to two, spoke about how her family is doing Come, Follow Me. She began by saying that after President Middleton asked her, she panicked that she only had ten days to figure out how to do it all right. Then he said, "Keep it real." She did. She shared that their Come, Follow Me scripture study isn't spiritually deep. But some good things are happening. She described them as "drops of awesome."
I love that description. A drop is a small amount, an insignificant measure of anything. But as drops accumulate, they grow and can become something of great significance. She said she is trying to find those drops of awesome each day as they do their little bit. I need to be better at recognizing the drops of awesome that happen in my life. Here are a couple just from today.
So many plays and performances; so little time. In addition to the two movies we have seen this month and an upcoming performance on March 30, we have attended six things in March. Two movies, two plays, a musical performance, and dance. Aren't we just cultured?!
Today's performance was at the Hale Center Theater in Orem, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. It was a musical set in a large company wherein the main character rises rapidly towards the top. It was funny and I was glad to be with Brandt and Kent. I wish Isabella had come.
Kent, Brandt, Mom, and I attended a play at BYU today, House of Desires. It is a play that was written in the 17th Century by a Spanish nun, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. It is a romantic comedy involving complicated relationships that required a graph in order to identify who was who. It was very funny. Servants both catered to and undermined their employers, some of whom were faithful and successful in love, and some of whom were not. It was a bit racy, especially when one considers it was written by a nun, but very, very funny. My mother only lasted through the first half and left at intermission because the chairs were so uncomfortable. I discovered a friend from elementary school who was in school with me all through high school, Sheryl Hale Pryor, sat down next to us. Small world. She took the picture of us.
Thursday was Pi Day and while we all thought getting together to eat pie would be wonderful, it wasn't a great day for several of us, me included. Mom suggested we gather on Saturday instead, eat pie and play games.
This evening, Kent and I attended a Bravo! production at BYU. The Glasgow-based band Imar came to play and provided a fantastic evening of Irish, Manx, and Scottish folk music. The music was rousing and sweet, the group was funny, and the evening was really a pure delight. They played the fiddle, bouzouki (like a guitar), concertina (like a small accordian), bodhran (drum) and flute, whistle, and uilleann pipe (like a bagpipe). Several times I wanted to get up and dance. They told a funny and sad tale of their complicated trip from Glasgow to Toronto via Dallas, and shamelessly plugged their merch. We bought a CD and a t-shirt to contribute to their return trip. It was a super evening.
As part of a reading challenge, I read/listened to Dune by Frank Herbert. The first of a three-part movie series came out in 2021, and Brandt and Kent went to see it with Mikayla and Guy. I didn't go, not thinking I would like it. Then I listened to the book and decided I definitely needed to see it. The second part was coming out so I watched it with Mikayla and Guy at their house some weeks ago.
This afternoon, Brandt, Kent, and I went with Guy, Gary, Blake, and Brick to see Dune 2. I had seen several trailers including the scene where the actor playing Paul, Timothée Chalamet rides a sandworm for the first time. The whole thing looked very exciting and we eagerly anticipated the opening.
The movie did not disappoint. We saw it in IMAX, so it was huge. Visually, it was stunning, the story was well told, and I liked the characters. I was glad I had listened to the book as I had a clear idea of where the story was going, and I liked the visual realization of the printed word. It was fun to be there with family, too.
