The Artist Formerly Known as Surfjan

...Too depressing for his own good sometimes. But it's okay.

So Friday was Jennifer's birthday, so we went to the beach in Huntington. There was a strip mall and a flea market (that I unfortunately didn't have time to browse--but I will return!) near it. We ate at a delicious Mexican resteraunt called Wahoos--famous for their fish tacos apparently. I got the staple--quesadilla with beans and rice and lemonade.
Afterward, Kevin and I ran back to the car to get the kite, because we noticed how incredibly windy it was. I gave Jennifer the birthday cookies with car and dinosaur sprinkles, and we made our way to the beach, counting dogs and babies, for there certainly were a lot of them.
When we got down to the sand, the three bikini-clad girls lay out their towels and sat down. Kevin and I got the kite up in the air finally, much to the terror/relief of those who were nearby (like I said, it was windy...maybe people shouldn't set up their recliners in the middle of nowhere) and flew it for a while until I tugged a little too hard and it came tumbling down as the recliners tried to make themselves as small and impenitrable as possible.We walked back over to the group and watched Jackie flirt with Matt (our two resident alcoholics), who then decided to leave to look for the soccer ball fabled to be in Matt's car. We wanted to go look for shells, but decided to wait until Matt and Jackie got back so they'd know where we'd gone.
Ten years and one addition of Matt's apparently evil girlfriend later, they came back, soccer ball-less. We took off to the surf, minus the other chick whose name I can never remember (it might be Lauren). Amazingly, on our quest for seashells, the thing we came across the most of was ladybugs! They swarmed over the seaweed and strolled across the sand (and sometimes our feet). Kevin and Jennifer began to torment them. They decided their deeds were enough to get them into hell, but they didn't stop.
We did find lots of seashells. I picked up some driftwood and sea-stones too. I planned to incorporate them into some kind of decoration (more about that later).
We finally got back to the group after a million more lady bugs, seashells, and unexpected (yet inevitable) splashes up our legs from the ocean. We flew the kite one more time, letting Jennifer have a chance and offering it to the others, but I guess they were all too cool for school, since no one took us up on it. We ate cookies, watched Matt leave to escort his girlfriend to car, and decided it was time to leave since the birthday girl was leaving anyway.
Upon arriving back in Long Beach, I took my time in a nice, long, cool shower. I frowned a little at my new sunburn, but it wasn't too bad. After a nap and some pea soup and muffins, it was time to get ready for the spring formal! We wore our prom outfits from last year. Here's a picture of that in case you forgot/ never knew.
(Elias and Michaela are in it, but you get the idea.)
I think it's safe to say that that was a misnomer, because we definitely got the award for best dressed. But I guess that's the chance you take with a church dance in a lame young adult ward/stake. I'm just kidding, we're far from lame.
In any case, I got multiple comments from everyone on the beauty of my dress (:D), and Kevin was commented too. We didn't dance (no one was anyway, there were probably like 20 people even in the cultural hall). Instead, we went into the room adjacent and chatted with a couple people from our ward (brother and sister?) near the drink jiggers until people began to be perturbed at our blocking the way to the liquid refreshment, so we sat down at a table and joined an informal game of Taboo.
I have never played that game before, but it's now on my short list of favorite games. it was basically us taking turns listening to different people in the group try to describe the words on the card with no respect to the timer (until towards the end). It was hilarious and I'm pretty sure I was laughing more than I had in a while. We only planned on staying for an hour but ended up staying all three playing Taboo.
When we got back I immediately popped into bed. Saturday was going to be a big day after all!
It was a big day, but more than that, it was hot. Unnaturally hot, like 98 degrees in the middle of April. (Which it was)
So we eventually got every single chore done and I put my sea items into a nice glass vase to make an interesting and non-allergic centerpiece. Kevin's family, minus his mom and plus Heston, came up and over (to my place) and Kevin and I made them dinner. The reminants are actually still sitting on the counter (tells you how we live. Shameful). After dinner we went to the school to see L'Orfeo, an opera that Kevin has been excited about since the dawn of time. I didn't much care for the music when he played it for me so many times in the car, but I decided I'd give it a chance since he seemed to like it so much.
Let me tell you about L'Orfeo.
I'm not sure if it was the opera in general or just the CSULB rendition, but the only comment I had for it at the end was "That was dumb." My biggest disappointment was that they changed the ending too significantly to ignore. That is, instead of Orpheus (or Orfeo if you're speaking/singing Italian like they were) brooding his way to the hills of northern Greece, drawing with him all the men of the area and enraging their wives to the point of his violent murder (tearing him to bits and pieces as Maenids are wont to do), he simply laid down and cried. That's right. Not died. Then good ol' deus ex machina came down and took him up to Plympus (haha. I mean Olympus of course) with much song and dance.
The only thing I can say for the performance was that some of the dancing in Hades was cool. The spirits, including Eurydice, were confined in gauzy black sacks, giving them a globby appearance, which worked for making you feel like they were trapped down there. But you could see the zippers on the sacks, and every time someone moved their foot just so, an obnoxious SQWUAK would eminate, distracting from Orpheus' frowny singing and causing the occasional giggle.
Speaking of frowns, Orpheus had one on pretty much the whole time. That may have been because of his Cro-magnon appearance, but it made it hard to believe he had ever been happy in the first place. He was also a klutz (clutz?), constantly kicking the dancing shepherers/esses' feet by accident and making them stumble. In fact, he couldn't dance for himself, so they had a guy come in dressed like him that danced with Eurydice while the chorus sang about how wonderful it was that they were finally together, while the audience was wondering when Orpheus got a face lift, shrank four inches, and lost 45 pounds.
Another thing that really bothered me was the five people standing in the corner dressed in 50s cocktail party clothes, that later came in as various gods/ goddesses. I feel like they could've been dressed more appropriately for the time period, even for gods. I mean really, Orpheus didn't get a fancy cigarette holder or brandy glass when he became a god. Share the wealth.
After a painful and squirmy hour and a half, we were finally released and taken to Baskin' Robbins for a treat. A girl in my english class was working there and jokingly accused me of following her. Funny. Thomas and Heston turned it around and started joking that she was following me, which was funnier anyway. I guess you had to hear it. Anyway. Then they were going on about how it had taken five minutes for everyone in the opera to say one line, and how it might've been just effective if they had been singing their grocery lists. Needless to say, we all had a funny laugh.
Sunday was church, where I volunteered to help with face painting at the LDSSA booth at Kaleidoscope (a carnival-type event held at the university every spring), which will be fun. Kevin will be there for the Composer's Guild booth (which he is the Secretary of), so he won't miss me.
After church we started to go to a fireside we were supposed to sing it, but we were late, and Kevin forgot his wallet and wanted to turn around, so we didn't end up going.
When we got back home we read Greek myths and talked about how all the gods/etc were related. It was quite fun, but we had the front door open, and I think we annoyed my neighbors, because they huffingly shut their front door. Too bad for them.
Justina and Robert cam home and we talked about the Long-tailed Grass Lizards we got on Saturday morning.
(These are not ours, I haven't gotten the pictures developed yet)
I named mine Smee and Justina named hers Ruth (like the bible character). Robert fed them a ghostly white spider we saw creeping along the entertainment center and Smee snatched it right up. Ruth made a jab at Smee's mouth and got a leg, but Smee was the one licking his lips for some time afterward. I think they ate all the crickets I got them Saturday, so I'll have to get some more today.