Captain Tripps and the Pirates of Penzance

In the last two days, I've had two major accomplishments. On Wednesday, I saw my first opera. On Thursday, I finally finished "The Stand".

I've been a growing fan of the opera for the last couple of years. I'm not really sure why I like it so much- probably because it's so gosh-darn fun to sing along with when I'm alone in the car. (And I'm learning Italian!) Luckily I have good-natured friends and family who will go along with whatever odd thing I happen to be into. For Valentine's Day, my mom took me to see the Carl Rosa production of "The Pirates of Penzance" (second-row!). It was amazing. I love pirates, I love opera- so of course, I love them together! It was really cool to see such a highly-accomplished British cast perform a British opera. Rosemary Ashe and Steven Page completely stole the show as Ruth and the Pirate King. Now I just have to see Carmen and La Traviata and life will be complete.

Finishing "The Stand" doesn't seem like such a big accomplishment comparatively, does it? Well, I have a really nasty habit of getting halfway through a book, putting it down, and then never picking it back up again. I originally started reading it last summer- I read somewhere that the creators of LOST based some of the concept of the show on it. I got about a third of the way through... and started reading something else. Two weeks ago, I picked it up again. I can see where the most basic elements of LOST are similar. If the ending is the same, things are not going to turn out well for our poor lostaways... and I wanted Desmond to get home to Penny so badly...

Of course, my whole Star Wars theory is proving to be correct- they aren't even trying to hide it anymore. Using the old wookie-prisoner gag? And then CALLING it the "old wookie-prisoner gag"? Ha. Sawyer IS Han Solo. :)