Tonight is the last night of my Fine Arts class. I'll miss it, not just because I didn't have to do very much work in it, but because I was required to get out and get some culture while I was in it. And for those of you who don't have to take a Fine Arts class like mine, here are some things I learned:

1. They do not sell peanuts or popcorn at the symphony.
2. The Getty gives me Ikea Syndrome. Ikea Syndrome occurs when there are too many rude, impatient people around you that don't mind pushing you out of their way so that they might see whatever you're looking at. This results in extreme feelings of claustrophobia and the urge to run away, even though running away isn't a simple task.
3. There seems to be a senior discount for plays performed in the afternoon. Everyone around us was 70 and over. But they had class.

Well, so long Fine Arts class. You got us out of the house on many a Saturday. Good for you.

When a girl has a great complexion, she makes a huge deal over a tiny zit. Others who are less fortunate are just happy when their zit count is in the single digits. That's sort of how Californians are with the weather. We hardly ever get rain or terribly extreme temperatures, so we make a big deal of it when we do. But people in other parts of the country, with the bad complexion sort of weather, are happy when they have a day with pleasant weather. Although I lived 19 years of my life in such a place (Alabama), I find that I'm becoming spoiled after living in California for three years. I complain when it's too hot, forgetting that in Alabama the humidity ensures that even the shade is searing. I complain when it rains too much and there are multiple wrecks on the freeway because of many Californians' inability to understand that when it's raining, you just can't go 80 mph. Really. And I complain when we have too many sunny, warm days, that I miss having real weather. Forgetting of course, that having too many good weather days was never a problem in Alabama.

So anyway, I repent of my whining. I do need to appreciate the weather. Besides, it's why it costs so much to live here, right?

A Typical Day in my Fine Arts Class

Around 6:02 pm I walk in and sit down in the nearest desk that isn't too close to the front or back of the room. The class is filled with rabid, shallow teenagers, and you don't want to be too conspicuous because they might notice you are not one of them. And then you will be judged. This can only result in a severe makeover or diet advice. Both result in sure death.

My teacher begins calling roll, never remembering who I am. However, he pronounces my last name correctly, so I forgive him, because that's not a task many are up to. He then shows a video of some sort, which can be good, because it's a four-hour class and the time goes by more quickly when we watch a video. But it can be bad, as well, because if it's a long video we definitely won't get out of class until the designated time. The goal is to get out as soon as possible, of course.

The videos have ranged from Sister Wendy Beckett to random plays performed by some group in San Francisco to the director's commentary for American Beauty. Sister Wendy Beckett is fascinating due to her buck-teeth, English accent, and habit (nun attire). She also seems to know a lot about art, but her appearance and speech are still the most entertaining aspects. The director's commentary was also interesting because he has an English accent, and who wouldn't want to listen to a person with an English accent talk for 2 1/2 hours? No one, that's who. Unless they were uncultured swine. And in that case, it's good for them to take a fine arts class.

After the video, the teacher gushes a little about what the content in the video means to him. Then we take notes if it's less than two hours into class, or go home if it's more. Yay for summer classes. :)

I don't believe mine eyes! The second advent of Russ Young's blog has come. Welcome back, Russ.

We saw the play, A View from the Bridge (Arthur Miller) today, so we spent much of the day in Costa Mesa. I have a paper due next week, for which I needed to watch a play, so we chose this one due to proximity and cost.

The play was good, though. I kept thinking that Beatrice sounded like George's mom on Seinfeld, and looked like Kitty, the mom on That 70's Show. The New York accents were hard to get used to at first. I've decided that the country is way too hard on southerners for their accents. Northeners (like from Wisconsin) sound really nasal, New Yorkers sound mean, etc. Sure southerners sound a little twangy. But at least they're nice, even if the accent hides their superior intellect. :)

I felt an earthquake for the first time today. I've lived in CA over three years. Anyway, here's an article on it. So far I've gotten a few calls from friends/relatives to make sure I'm okay, which of course, I am.

Oh, and California hasn't fallen into the ocean. Yet. ;)

I just wanted to point out that Brandon is older than pac-man. Hehe.

Yes, there should be an IQ requirement to serve on the jury—especially for the celebrity cases.

Lesson I learned today:
Putting a lemon down the garbage disposal makes the disposal smell fresh and clean.

Lesson I learned the hard way today:
You're supposed to CUT the lemon up first. Otherwise, your disposal, your sink, and the cabinets below have violent seizures trying to digest that big hunk of lemon.

We spent most of the day at The Getty on Saturday. I have a paper due Tuesday, and for it I had to visit a museum and write about a specific painting. My teacher also wanted me to sketch the painting while at the museum - mainly because when you sketch a painting, you have to really look at the painting - but it turned out to be really lame because everyone who walked past wanted to look at my work, and I hate when people watch me write or draw things. So I gave up and decided perhaps it would be best to just buy a postcard of the painting and trace it later. We'll see. Anyway, you can see some of the pictures of our Saturday here. There are no pictures of the paintings we saw, mainly because you can see better pictures of them on The Getty's site, and the pictures we took of them were blurry due to the lighting and inability to use the flash on our camera.

Food I've been totally craving lately (and no, there isn't a bun in the oven, unlike half of blogland):
1. Generic pickles - I rejected name brand pickles, even though they were the same price
2. Salad from Outback Steakhouse
3. Hot wings
4. Life cereal
5. Overly-seasoned steak (meaning it's from Chili's) well-done, instead of medium rare like I'd normally order. Not to mention I usually prefer poultry. Er, poultry cooked well-done.