There's No Hole in My Bucket

I had a lot of time on my hands over break.  Instead of doing something productive like research for my thesis, I used this time to think.  About what may you ask?  Well, I am an indiscriminate thinker.  I'll think about whatever pops into my head.  Sometimes I will spend hours thinking about the most random things.  I once spent 30 minutes contemplating the purpose of doors.  I know that sounds like crazy talk because doors are here to create barriers, provide protection, serve as a fortress from your crazy aunts who will not leave you alone.  However, doors are not treated the same in all cultures.  In German households, as I learned in my one semester of German my sophomore year of college, most doors stay locked throughout the day and are only unlocked when someone needs to enter the room.  Here in America, that is not the case, at least from my experience.  For goodness sakes, the majority of people in my hometown keep their doors unlocked at night!  However, I digress.  As of late I've been thinking about traditions, the history and future of publishing, the art of comedy, domesticity, and much to my chagrin, my future.  The most recent thing on my mind is bucket lists.  I've never actually written out my bucket list and I think it might be beneficial for me to have a written record of what I'd like to accomplish before my time on the earth expires.  It may be helpful for forming my future plans.  Here are ten things unrelated to my career on my bucket list.

1. Go cage diving with sharks -- I have always loved Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, and ever since I first saw people cage diving on TV when I was five I have wanted to do so as well.  I am scared of a lot of things, but sharks is not one of those things.  This is probably the most adventurous thing on my bucket list.
2. Host SNL -- Sketch comedy, especially SNL, has been an important part of my life.  I cannot think of anything that would be more fun that spending a week with SNL cast and crew and being a part of a show.  I just have to do something that makes me famous and moderately influential.
3. Meet Ina Garten and host a dinner party with her. -- Ina Garten is my hero!  She's done so many amazing things, working for Presidents Ford and Carter, owning her own business and expanding it, her cookbook series, cooking show on Food Network, being a columnist in several magazines, and having what appears to be a wonderful marriage.  She isn't a classically trained chef, but her recipes and menus are phenomenal!  I could watch her show all day. Ina Garten is truly an inspiration to me.
4. Write a memoir. -I don't really care if it gets published, but I would like the hilarious stories that stem from the awkward situations I get myself into recorded in some form or fashion so my progeny may tell their friends of my awesome shenanigans.
5. Become a polyglot -- I plan to become fluent in French, German, and Italian.
6. Go on a cross country road trip -- I've never participated in a leisurely cross country road trip, stopping to see things like "The World's Largest Popcorn Ball."  I think this would be a good thing to do while in my 20s.  The stories and photos from this trip will be great fodder for my memoir.
7. Ice skate at Rockefeller Center on Christmas Eve -- This is another thing I've wanted to do since I was a kid.  
8.  Meet Joyce DiDonato -- She is a phenomenal artist, truly inspiring.  She seems so down to earth and honestly cares about the future generations of opera singers.  If you get the chance, check out her vlogs in youtube at TheYankeediva.  Everyone can learn a thing or two from here, even if you aren't into opera.
9. Have a joke published on a Laffy Taffy wrapper -- Yes, I realize that I should have done something to cross this one off my list when I was 10.  However, I never got around to it.  So I guess I should start now.
10. Plant a tree with Al Gore -- I absolutely adore Al Gore!  I love the environment.  Why not combine the two and plant a tree for the environment with Mr. Inconvenient Truth himself?

Some of these things are silly, some are dangerous, but they're what I want to do before the proverbial curtain closes on the final act of my life.

Until next time,
Caro

Le Cénacle

This blog is inspired by the 19^th century intellectual group called “Le Cénacle.” The primary purpose of Le Cénacle was to revive the old monarchial spirit, the spirit of mediaeval mystery, spiritual submission in French literature. It first formed around the Deschampes brothers and their Muse Française. Le Cénacle first formed around the Deschamps brothers and their Muse Française. Emile Deschamps translated Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet, wrote some libretti, and produced two plays. Antoni Deschamps wrote the first known literary work inspired by absinthe: Adversus Absynthium, 1847. In 1827 the Cénacle moved to Victor Hugo’s house in the rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs. Over the years memebership included Alfred de Vigny, Alfred de Musset, Prosper Mérimée, Dumas Pere, Victor Hugo, Alphonse de Lamartine, Sainte-Beuve, Théophile Gautier*, Gérard de Nerval* , Petrus Borel*. (These last three were more bohemian Romantics and were known as the Petit Cénacle.) The response that surrounded Hugo’s Hernani (1830) was overwhelming and ended the battle of the Romantics which ceased the conventions of Classicism.

So now that you’ve had your history lesson for the day, let’s talk about why I’m really here. I’ve been blogging/journaling for years, and it’s high time I start writing something consequential as opposed to my normal quibbling. Frankly, the world does not care about my views on the latest celebrity sex scandal, or the lack of sex or scandal in my own life. And truthfully, what’s to say you care about anything I have to say? Well, the fact that you read through a history lesson about a group of intellectuals during the French Romantic period and you’re still reading is a decent indicator that you’re willing to hear me out.

Excuse me while I digress to the matter at hand: why I am writing. I have ideas and thoughts. And presently I have few outlets in which to discuss said thoughts and ideas. I’m a master’s student studying arts administration in a Midwestern city, and over the past nine months I’ve discovered that my opinions are worth less than nothing. They’re almost a toxic asset (Ha! Look at me apply the little accounting knowledge I have.). Too bad I don’t get a bailout. That doesn’t mean what I have to say isn’t important. It just provides evidence against the true ideals of academia. Why have discussion based classes when a professor renders any opinions other than his/her own as moot? It seems to defeat the purpose.

So much for an elevator speech… My Intro professor would be so disappointed. At least she’d approve of the mission, or at least I hope she would. You never can tell with her.

The mission of Le Cénacle is to create an open forum for discussion of both socially relevant and irrelevant topics. I encourage discussion, and dissenting opinions are welcome. I can’t guarantee this blog will be life changing or that everything I post will have any meaning to you. The mission allows for a wide range of topics to be discussed, spanning anywhere from opera to cooking to fly-fishing, to sweat shops in Malaysia. As they say, the world is my oyster. I plan on making a pearl with it.