brows both high and low

This weekend was truly awesome.  I did no work, and had social engagements both Friday (Jazmin!) and Saturday (the opera) nights and saw Skyfall on Sunday (an anti-technology polemic).  So much culture, both high and low brow.  Theo got sick for the first time, which was miserable (but on a side note--he's gone almost nine months without sickness!  I have a feeling he'd survive a zombie apocalypse.)  I finally got to use that blue bulb one is gifted with at the hospital--he didn't seem to mind.  I also downloaded The Twelve, the second book in my favorite post-apocalyptic trilogy (The Passage was the first).

I have now seen two of the three operas here in the bay area that I studied in Vienna.  We saw The Magic Flute last summer and saw (the first act of) Die Fledermaus on Saturday (Natan was tired and couldn't make it through 3.5 hours of opera.  Such an American, am I right?).  I think the NEH grant did exactly what is was supposed to do--make me a life-long patron of the arts (now opera can be added to the list of cultural events I will pay for!) and broaden my holistic view of the world and education.  It also gave me the chance to think about ideas that were directly relevant to my teaching--city planning (Vienna is consistently one of the world's most livable cities) and the beginning of scientific thought.  I loved it so much!

Here's a picture from Opera San Jose*.  (I bought a $2 coffee and Natan said it felt like he was at a Romney fundraiser.  ZING!). 

 *Taken with camera phone (ugh).