Love Day

I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day! Now, I won't get up on my "Why I think it's dumb that single people hate Valentine's Day" soapbox again this year, but I'll just reiterate that I think it's pretty great that we have a holiday set aside specifically for those we love.

Valentine's Day was pretty awesome around here. People brought cinnamon rolls and brownies and milk and other yummy things to eat after our dictation test in the morning. At 11, I had a staff meeting, and at the end, our boss presented us all with about five different kinds of foreign chocolate and invited us all to take at least one of each. I told you work is awesome. :) In Singers, since the boys have done something cute for the girls in past years, we decided to switch it up, and we made little Valentines for the boys with things that we love and appreciate about them written on little cards with a piece of candy attached.

When I walked home that evening and checked the mail, I found a letter from my favorite, complete with pictures, which was kinda a big deal seeing as I never get pictures. Good timing for once in your life, USPS. 

Then it was time to get all fancy. Liz came and got me around 6, and we were off to Salt Lake. We arrived with an hour to kill before the symphony, so we stopped by The Blue Lemon for dinner. Delicious food. Excellent service. And they bring your meal out fast! We were hardly sitting for 3 minutes before they brought the first plates out! And yes, between the two of us girls, we ordered 5 plates of food. The waiter was a bit shocked. :)

yes, that is the same dress I wore to Homecoming 4 1/2 YEARS ago...

Clockwise from top left: Black-bean ravioli, Mediterranean salad, fish tacos, roasted beet salad
Middle: pita bread with artichoke dip
YUM!

At a quarter to 8, we boxed up our left-overs and headed across the street to Abravanel Hall and took our seats on the edge of row 15. It only took us all of 2 seconds to see that every body else in the hall was on a real date. We're just too cool for that, obviously.

What an incredible concert though! In the first half, they played all the ballet music from Romeo and Juliet. I loved watching the tympani player in the back, the pianist off to the right, and especially the conductor. I didn't even have to know that one of the pieces was titled The Capulets and the Montegues because he was practically acting out the battle from his stand. After intermission, they brought out a featured pianist to play a concerto. Unfortunately, the pianist had a recent injury to his right hand, and so, instead of having someone step in for him or skipping that part of the program, the pianist played a 20-minute-long piece that just so happened to be written entirely for the left hand! What?! It was incredible and certainly didn't sound like there was only one hand covering the entire keyboard. I read that the piece was commissioned for a young, rich musician who lost his right arm in WWI. Incredible. This guy got a standing ovation right in the middle of the concert because everyone in the audience was totally in awe (except perhaps the couple sitting next to me who was probably a little too busy to notice that the whole thing was only played with one hand). The concert ended with the symphony playing the Overture to the opera, Romeo and Juliet, and then the conductor announced one last, surprise piece: Tchaikovsky's famous waltz from Sleeping Beauty.

It was truly an amazing night. It's one thing to listen to music, but to actually sit in a hall and be an active participant in the creation of the experience.... I left inspired and uplifted. I loved seeing the old people still playing their instruments, and I decided that someday, I will buy a cello and play it again, even if I'm old.

And lots of thanks to Liz for being my "date." Can't wait for our next (and probably final...) adventure before those handsome missionaries get back. :)