Calling All You British Drama Fans

I just watched North and South this week and I must simply say, "Thank you, BBC!" I never thought anything could come close to Pride and Prejudice, but this film certainly does. Richard Armitage is just amazing. I think the final scene in this movie has to be one of the best romantic scenes in film ever.

It's definitely more serious/gritty than P&P but don't let that dissuade you. The book is worth reading too. It's by Elizabeth Gaskell who also wrote Wives and Daughters (which has been turned into a movie as well--very very good with a great ending too, though I must say I am much more obsessed with North and South.)

Well, maybe now that I've blogged about this, I can get on with my life and stop watching it for a day or two. Unless, y'all want to do a marathon movie night and watch it together???

Desk Duty

Michael and I just watched Breach the other night. It's based on a true story about how they caught a former FBI agent who had been spying for the Russians for 15 years. We liked it but of course Michael had to go off about how spying is dishonest and how the CIA always just gets us into trouble with their secret tortures and assassinations and failed wars, etc., etc.

Normally this would cut quite close to my heart. After all, I work for the CIA.......you know, in my free time. But I must admit that I have been having some job frustrations lately after I was recently reassigned to desk duty. No more Syndey Bristow stuff for me.

Nope. Here's me now. Hey, don't touch my stapler!

If you've never seen Office Space, it's hilarious. And this guy is my favorite character.

But anyway, watching Breach made me question how good of a spy I would really be. I think I'd get all nervous and queasy about killing and torturing people. And I don't know if I could stay very calm under the gun when getting caught would mean very scary business. Maybe I'll just have to make peace with my new analyst position.

Hi, I'm the Choir Pianist Today

Since it's Sunday, I thought I'd better blog about something religious so I can count this blogging time as an appropriate Sunday activity. Here you go. Today I'm going to talk about pride. Now pride is something that the prophets are always talking about--mainly, about us needing to get rid of it. Yeah, yeah, easier said than done. But I have come upon a method that will completely strip you of all pride. 100% guaranteed. I call it "The Pride-Sucker Method."

So this is it: Volunteer to do anything that you do not have the skills for. Then show up, perform agreed-upon duties and leave 100% pride-free. Here's my particular favorite: If the choir assistant is short a pianist for that evening's choir practice, agree to do it. But I don't play the piano, you say. Well, that does not matter. Even if you play the piano this method will still work.

Testimonial: I, Kasey, used The Pride-Sucker Method today and I can definitely bear testimony that this method works! I was pulled out of Sunday School today and asked if I could play for choir tonight. Of course I said yes because I knew about The Pride-Sucker Method and thought it would be a fantastic opportunity to rid myself of some of that pride baggage.

I showed up and looked at the music for the first time. Love that no preparation stuff! Then I met the choir director who happened to be perhaps the most qualified choir director I've ever met, working on a master's degree in some sort of music specialty. Oh goody. I knew I was going to get lots of pride sucked out today. And I did. The Pride-Sucker Method really came through for me. I did my duties with my usual Kasey excellence of forgetting how to count and mixing up my pages and playing the men's notes on the treble clef and struggling through music note dsylexia because of those extra lines of music and playing wrong notes and all sorts of heinous errors that are too numerous to mention. Oh and that was all just without even attempting the accompaniment. I was really on a roll tonight.

The thing to remember about this method is to completely let your pride go and just flow with it. Pride, self-respect....let them go. It's difficult, but you have to hang in there through every last humiliating moment. I confess that during a moment of weakness tonight, I started wishing I had worn a bag over my head and introduced myself as Mystery Sister on the piano. But that would have impeded The Pride-Sucker Method. I should be saying thank goodness I had no paper bag to hide my face. It made the humiliation all the more acute. So thank you Pride-Sucker Method. I feel completely stripped of pride.

Well, at least for tonight.

I'm sure next week I'm going to blame this all on my friend Katie. "No, no that wasn't me playing the piano in choir. You're thinking of Katie. She's a brunette too and since we work together in Relief Society and have names that start with K and end with an 'e' sound, people seem to mix us up from time to time. "