To Desperately Work

I love sleep. I love sleep way more than the average person, I think. But one of the few things that can get me out of bed - even get me out of bed when it is inordinately early - is the opportunity to finish a project. Like the time that I got out of bed at four in the morning to paint the trim in our upstairs bathroom. Or the time that I got up at five in the morning so I could stain the fence for a few hours before going to work.

And now, once again, it is five in the morning. I've been wide awake for an hour already, because my body feels compelled to spread the 20 cubic yards (enough to cover 3000+ square feet) of gravel that we had dumped in our driveway yesterday afternoon. I started to spread some of it yesterday afternoon, but I've barely made a dent in the piles. I'm anxious to continue on the project this morning, but it is still dark outside.

As Sam and I worked in the driveway yesterday afternoon, Sam wanted to chat about different topics to help keep him from being bored. His mild complaints of boredom made me think about how I reacted to work as a child. When I was a kid, especially when I was about nine and ten, I was very much interested in integrating work and play. Most of my playtime and pretending involved some type of work: starting up a restaurant with V called "Surprise Supreme," setting up a business called "[M] and Company" (in which I coerced my siblings A and C to work for me), organizing a ballet class for C and her neighbor friends, and building a ramshackle clubhouse out of wood scraps from our garage.

I would often ensure that these work situations were somehow unnecessarily intense, too. When I wanted to work, I would generate these romanticized situations in which I would need to desperately work. When I organized the ballet class for C and her friends, I rushed to the library to check out an oversized book on ballet; I needed to hurriedly research dance moves before "class" (because I really didn't know anything about ballet). When I built the ramshackle clubhouse, I worked all day long so I could finish the project in a single day. And, back when I was this age, my favorite thing to pretend at the time was that I lived in a forest and I desperately needed to gather food so I wouldn't starve. I would huddle in this little wooded area behind our garage, with my freshly-gathered stash of "edible" sticks and grass, pretending like I could carry on and survive in the forest for another day.

There was almost always some sense of urgency, desperation, or sacrifice in these play scenarios that I created as a child, and I realized yesterday that I haven't changed much. In order to save myself from boredom during this last month of summer, I've obsessively thrown myself into different house projects. Just this week I decided that we needed to clear out the weeds in the driveway. I had the idea that we could get the driveway paved, but after learning that option was too expensive after receiving a few bids, I decided to have these huge mounds of gravel delivered. But, as so often happens, I created a rather narrow window of time to finish this project. I needed to clear the driveway of weeds before the dump truck arrived, which meant that I needed to dedicate hours and hours each day to pulling weeds out of our driveway. And, as if the cosmos cheekily wanted to help me create an especially desperate and urgent situation, it has been raining quite a bit this week. So, I've been clearing out weeds in the rain, as our driveway (and the mossy carpet that has been growing in our driveway) has become muddy and sodden.

On Thursday, after an unusually heavy downpour of rain, J and I went into the driveway in a last-ditch effort to pull up weeds before the truck came the next morning. As we worked in the weeds and mud, kneeling down and practically crawling around to pick up globs of mossy mud and weeds, J said that he felt very much like the two figures in the "Constitutional Peasants" sketch from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. "Dennis, there's some lovely filth down here!" J called to me across the driveway while speaking in a high voice with a British accent. We both laughed, especially since we were creating piles of large piles of muddy weeds, similar to how the peasants build a big pile of mud while chatting with King Arthur. J even was pulling our compost bin around the driveway, similar to Dennis pulling his cart. I keep chuckling about the similarities between us and that sketch. What a desperate, silly situation I created! If anything, my nine-year-old self would have relished the dramatic, sacrificial scenario in which I had placed myself, down to the last raindrop.

It is just beginning to get light outside. I'm going to go outside and shovel gravel for a few hours before the boys wake up.

Update: I didn't end up shoveling gravel in the early morning, after all. My neighbor's bedroom had an open window right next to our driveway, and I thought it would be cruel to be working so loudly in the morning. Luckily, I did end up falling back asleep.

England Trip: London

 "Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."— Samuel Johnson

The day after Lyme Park, we said goodbye to my family (who flew home out of Manchester) and took a train down to London. J and I have been excited to go to London for several years. This is one of the cities where we fell in love, even though I was in Provo while J did a study abroad in London. Back then, J often would think about the things around the city that he wanted to show me. It has been ten years since I visited London on my own study abroad (before I met J), so we were both excited to go back. We were also excited to show Sam this city, too.

London has wonderful museums and most of them are free. I already wrote a post on my art history blog about a lot of the art that I discovered on this trip. Here are the places we visited and the things that we did:

I had an art history friend tell me that the John Soane Museum has a charming "horror vacui" feel about it, and I could definitely see what my friend meant when we went inside. I really loved the charm and quirkiness of this building and its eclectic collection, though. This was one of the most memorable spaces that we visited in London. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but you can get a sense of the space from this drawing in this "Illustrated London News" from 1864. Pictures are also available here, here, and here. I kind of regret that I didn't buy this reversible bag in the gift shop, since the calm exterior of the building belies the busy and cluttered nature of the interior (see detail of bag here).

We saw the London Eye, the House of Commons and Big Ben as we walked along the Thames

 We visited St. Paul's Cathedral and got to hear a choir sing at a Mattins service

The Millenial Bridge between St. Paul's and the Tate Modern was closed because a Marvel movie was being filmed. We could see the helicopter swooping down from the sky and a huge group of extras running across the bridge. By the time we walked an alternate route across the Thames and I was able to take this picture from a balcony at the Tate Modern, though, the bridge was open again.

I teased J that he must have subconsciously chosen to wear maroon on the day that he knew that he would get to see his beloved Seagram Murals.

Part of Dan Flavin's untitled 1987 installation at the Tate Modern

Enjoying scones and biscuits in the V&A courtyard

Sam really loved the fantastic pirate ship at the Princess Diana Playground in Hyde Park

We visited 27 Palace Court, the place where J lived during his study abroad. This is one of the places where we fell in love, even though we weren't together. The picture is fuzzy because Sam took it with my phone.

We let Sam choose a copy of a Mr. Men book at a bookstore near where J used to live. When we were dating, J mailed me copies of Little Miss Somersault and Mr. Quiet that he bought at this same bookstore. I like to think that we can build our collection of Mr. Men books from continual visits to this bookstore. Here, Sam is reading his new book while riding on the Tube.

 Inside the Wallace Collection

Sam loved the armory in the Wallace Collection. We didn't even know that an armory was there, so it was a special surprise to find so many neat sets of armor and old weapons.

J in the Design Museum, standing by an example of the signs used in British freeways

We squeezed in a trip to the National Gallery to see the Vermeer exhibition. We got to see a few things from the permanent collection, but we didn't have time to see everything.

We went and saw the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical which just came out this summer. The show was playing in the historic Drury Lane Theatre. This theatre was home to the London premieres of several hit musicals like Oklahoma (1946), South Pacific (1951) and My Fair Lady (1976). Sam was so excited to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; he would enthusiastically clap his hands between every scene. We sat on the very back row. Sam had to use three booster seats in order to have an unobstructed view of the stage.

Sam loved all of the pictures of dogs in the Tate Britain. This was his seventh museum that he visited, but he stayed entertained because there were paintings with dogs in almost every single gallery.

Whistler, Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea, 1871. Tate Britain

Arthur Melville, The Blue Night, Venice, 1897. Tate Britain

One of the highlights of the trip to London was visiting with my cousin, Zillah. She joined us for dinner twice, and also went to the Tate Britain and British Museum with us. Zillah has been living in England for almost a year, doing research and work for her PhD. She took us on a double decker bus through the city, which Sam loved.

Our flat was located near Paddington Square, so it only seemed appropriate to take this picture and introduce Sam to the Paddington Bear books.

The ceiling of the British Museum commons area

The Parthenon Marbles! Visiting this gallery and seeing Ashurbanipal's lion hunt reliefs were two of the highlights of my visit here. Sam was getting really tired by the time we made it to this gallery, however...

 ...and he soon fell dead asleep in my arms. After visiting eight museums in just about three-and-a-half days, I'm not surprised that he was tired.

A London squeeeeeze!

I feel like we got to see and do a lot in London, and I'm glad about the choices we made in how to spend our time. That being said, there still were things that I wish we were able to do - like visit the William Morris House and go back to the National Gallery to see the The Arnolfini Portrait. I can understand why Samuel Johnson felt like people were unwilling to leave London (see quote at beginning of post). It really is a great city.

England Trip: Lyme Park

I think that one of the most memorable days from this whole trip was the day that we visited Lyme Park. The south exterior of this park (not the main entrance, but the façade facing the gardens) was used as the Pemberley estate in the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice. It was also fun to go and see this park right now, because currently there is a 12-foot-tall statue of Colin Firth located in the pond. The sculpture itself isn't amazing, but the idea is fun.

One of the unique things about Lyme Park is that visitors are invited (but not required) to dress up in period clothes. Someone invited me and V to dress up, and it ended up that all four of the "big girls" put on Edwardian clothes. Once Sam and my littlest sister L saw us in costume, they wanted to dress up too. Some children's dress-up clothes were located upstairs near the stage, so L got to put on a fancy frock.

 E's fancy hat

Sam was very attentive to me when I was wearing this fancy Edwardian outfit. He kept holding my hand and telling me that I looked beautiful. It was very cute. I've never had such an attentive son. Maybe I need to wear Edwardian clothes more often!

We weren't able to take pictures inside most of the house, but it was really fun to visit an old estate. Sam enjoyed sitting down at an old writing table; I helped him write a letter to Bop and Gram. We learned on our visit that not everything in the house was original to the family of Lyme Park. The gallery of paintings in the upstairs hall were filled with paintings on loan from the National Gallery in London. But one still could get the sense of the original grandeur of the park. It felt a little bit like we were visiting Downton Abbey.

The home is set on a very large estate, and we only visited a portion of the grounds during the hours that we spent there. The gardens and the orangerie were also really lovely. Here are a few more pictures of the grounds.

England Trip: Haverthwaite, Cartmel, Clitheroe and Ribchester

The next two days of our trip were filled with several activities. We took a train from Haverthwaite to Lakeside, and then took a boat from Lakeside to Bowness. One of the highlights of our stop at Lakeside was seeing a display of live owls. The lady with the owls told us about how one owl is nicknamed "The Transformer Owl" and directed us to a YouTube video that was really popular that night. Sam was pretty excited to know that there was a Transformer Owl.

Sam took this nice photo of A and V on the train.

Sam also took this photo of C on the boat.

 Riding on the boat down below

After the boat ride we went over to Holker Hall to find something to eat. We arrived a little bit too late to get a full meal, and the house was also closed. We were able to walk around the gardens for a bit, though.

After seeing the Holker Hall gardens we drove to the nearby town Cartmel in order to get some food at the King's Arms restaurant. The priory in Cartmel dates from 1188. The church was already closed, but we did get to walk around the exterior. I thought it was interesting how the doors on either side of the transept looked completely different.

The other thing that I will remember about Cartmel is that I cracked my phone screen by accidentally dropping it on a cobblestone road. Those cobblestones! J accidentally dropped his Nikon camera on the priory grounds less than an hour later, breaking the zoom feature. Both devices still work though, so we can't complain too much.

The next day we met V's friends in Downham, a small town where allegedly the whole town in the 19th century converted to the LDS faith and moved to America. There really wasn't too much to see in this area, beyond the local church, a small scone bakery. and a red telephone booth.

Then we went with V's friends to visit Clitheroe Castle. The tower and grounds were pretty neat, although the majority of the actual castle interior was closed (beyond some exhibition rooms with artifacts and information that relate to Clitheroe).

The afternoon ended on a strained note, since V's friends lost their daughter (who has Down's Syndrome) on the grounds for about ten minutes. She was spotted at the bottom of the hill, underneath the castle tower. I jumped over a low part of the castle wall and practically slid down the grass hill so I could reach her quickly.

We said goodbye to V's friends soon after that mishap, and drove past Ribchester on our way home. I had noticed a sign that said "Roman Museum" off the road on our way to Downton, so I got everyone to follow us back to that sign. The Roman Museum was closed, but we did get to visit the Roman Bath House that was located in the area.

The Roman bath ruins. The area in the foreground separated by a curved wall was the sudatorium (sweating room).

A and Sam hanging out on a wall which would have been for the furnace room.

Sam and L standing on column stumps within the tepidarium. They're completing the missing columns with their bodies.

That night I was pretty pleased that I had been able to see art and monuments from all different types of periods over the past few days: prehistoric = Castlerigg Stone Circle, ancient = Roman bath house, medieval = Cartmel priory. It's neat that England's history is so rich that it has monuments and objects from so many historical periods.