Dear Reader,

Ah, it does now look likely to me that spring is coming.  I am going to go ahead and allow myself to hope.   The giddiness will now descend.   I am likely as not going to be wandering out into the sunshine, distractedly, at the oddest times.  Everyone should be prepared.   :)

I have enjoyed that enviable first day of Spring Break.  This is the time when the whole week lies before you in its empty splendor.   All the time in the world is yours.  Around Thursday, I will be feeling some anxiety about the things that I did not accomplish over Break, but right now all seems possible and likely.   And, I got to spend five hours with this:

Utter solitude.  Only the piano and me.  No one came in to chat.  I took periodic breaks and laid down in those little spots of sunshine on the floor.   I got some good work done (still a lot of work to do, but good work today).  I had forgotten just how magical Ravel could sound on a Steinway "D" in an empty room with resonant acoustics.  I also took a big break in the middle of the day and had my physical trainer appointment at the gym.   For an introvert like me, this day was absolute heaven.  

And, at the end of it there was this:

And, this:

And, I'm making plans for a new spring project.   My friend and I have made an agreement.  He will read Jane Eyre, and I will read Moby Dick.   So, after the recital, this girl is going whaling.   I will admit to feeling a bit of trepidation.   This book has never seemed my cup of tea.   But, it will happen.  In anticipation of that, however, I feel the need to wallow in some favorite quotes from Jane Eyre:

“I do not think, sir, you have any right to command me, merely because you are older than I, or because you have seen more of the world than I have; your claim to superiority depends on the use you have made of your time and experience.” 

“I would always rather be happy than dignified.” 

“I am not an angel,' I asserted; 'and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself. Mr. Rochester, you must neither expect nor exact anything celestial of me - for you will not get it, any more than I shall get it of you: which I do not at all anticipate.”

“I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.” 

"Because, he said, "I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you - especially when you are near me, as now: it is as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame. And if that boisterous channel, and two hundred miles or so of land some broad between us, I am afraid that cord of communion will be snapt; and then I've a nervous notion I should take to bleeding inwardly. As for you, - you'd forget me.” 

“Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! - I have as much soul as you, - and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you!” 

Seriously, dear reader, am I to expect equally wonderful things from Moby Dick?   Hmm.  Maybe.  I certainly hope so.    But, that Jane is super feisty and wonderful, don't we agree?   She can, in fact, stand up for her own self.   I love her.  I remember a graduate English Lit. seminar that I decided to take (on a whim) during my doctoral degree.   All the English grad students thought it was super weird to have a music student in their midst.  Anyway, we were reading Jane Eyre (it was my 1000th time) and the professor (who was, I have to say, lovely to look at - totally superfluous information, but seriously, dear reader....seriously!)  was arguing with a fellow student rather vociferously about whether or not "true love" was a social construct.   The student was convinced that "true love" was an absolute and objective concept.    I remember sitting there thinking - um, is it really all that bad if "true love" is a social construct?   I mean, shouldn't love be social?   Anyway, it just goes to show you that people get very territorial about their Jane.   Very territorial.   It's all that "red room" business.  So many symbols to interpret.   I understand that there may be some symbol-age in MD, too.  

Anyway, I digress.   

Here are the facts of the day:

No weigh in until Thursday.

Total calories consumed:  1748

Total calories burned:  300  (1 hour of strength training, 30 minutes of cardio)  

Breakfast:

Lunch:

Dinner:

And, here's a nice thought to end on:

Let's all go out and be warriors in this way, dear reader.   

Thanks for reading!