You Have to Be Carefully Taught

 

My cousin, Hannah, came up yesterday to spend a couple of days in Houston over her Christmas break from Carnegie-Mellon and it has been a fantastic chance to hang out and chat more than we have in a long time.  At one point during the evening I posted the follow to my facebook and perhaps I should have worded my excitement in a different way:

 

The “Tolerance” statues in question are an installation along the Allan Parkway by artist Jaume Plensa that I have often seen while driving by but never had a chance to actually go and visit.  And as proof of my bad influence:

   

Me, Hannah and, as always, I keep one giant metal statue empty to represent our unfulfilled hopes and dreams…

… just kidding. My friend Zach was off having dinner with lesser people.

 

 

Artist: Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II / Album: South Pacific

Climb Every Mountain

 

For my birthday this last Friday the chairman decided to celebrate by taking the group on a hiking tour of the French Alps.  Okay, so maybe it was just happenstance that those two things occurred on the same day, but it sounds muuuuuch more flattering the way I put it.

As far as birthday cakes are concerned, I was fortunate enough to have TWO!  The day before during a rehearsal break I was walking around with some of the orchestra counselors and we stopped in a bakery to get some coffee.  Now, you must know that one of my favorite things in the world is merengue cookies, and this particular establishment had a, shall we say, birthday sized merengue I just couldn’t pass up.

Ummmm… HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEEE!!!

 

Following are several pictures from the hike.  There’s not a whole lot to explain except that it was extraordinarily beautiful and a fantastic way to celebrate my 27th.

 

 

Orchestra staff member (and dear friend) Brian Dunbar taking in the scenery

 

We came across this shelter at one point during the hike:

Brian: What is this, Frodo Baggin’s house? When did the Shire move to the Alps?!?!

 

We stopped at a rest area for lunch and enjoyed this view while picnicking:

The rest area… we have the same birth year!!!

 

NATURE!!!

 

We also managed to find some fresh (albeit tiny) strawberries

 

On one of the trails there was a tree trunk that had been carved into a "throne” of sorts.  Now how could I pass a chance to sit in it…

Birthday King!

 

I mentioned earlier that I had two birthday “cakes,” the first being my ginormous merengue and the second when we got back to Villard-Bonnot for dinner:

Bon Anniversaire, indeed!!!

 

Artist: Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II/ Album: The Sound of Music