The Hunger Games

I have been waiting FOREVER to see Hunger Games. I read this series about two years ago and fell in love; so much better than the Twighlight series if you ask me. I instantly got Gloria hooked who then in return got Stef hooked. We then found out that Bob and Megan were big fans and it was a date!
Saturday night we ventured to Harvard Square to see the much anticipated and hyped showing of the Hunger Games. We arrived an hour early and were the second group in line, which ended up being very long. We had wonderful seats in the middle middle for all five of us, so we could not have been happier.
We decided to get shirts as Gloria and I are always on opposing teams. I am team Jacob, she is team Edward. So it was no surprise that she liked Gale and I loved Peeta.
We have very different taste in men! It is a fun rivalry and we decided shirts would bring out our inner teenager for the night. Stef was team Katniss and Megan had a Mellark Bakery shirt as she is too sweet to chose a team (but we can pretty much call that Team Peeta).

We enjoyed a nice Mexican dinner at the Border Cafe in Harvard Square; it was a fun time full of laughs and excitement.

The movie was AWESOME!! It did not disappoint one bit. I thought all the characters were phenomenal with Haymitch being my least favorite (Woody was okay, but I always pictured the character as a big fat guy), and everyone else being my favorite.

What a fun night with my pals, good food, silly jokes, teenager like rivalries, and great company.

A Master Piece by Master Gentry

After 11 years of college classes, concerts, lessons, meetings, papers, and learning, Christian is one step closer to completing requirements for his PhD.

Saturday, March 17, 2012 was a big night for my sweet husband. He has been working for over a year on contacting the percussion Group, Talujon, to come play student works at Brandeis University. He wrote a grant, got the funding and organized the group coming to Boston. Once that was done, he started writing his dissertation piece for this amazing group.
Christian worked hard on his piece for percussion quartet called Tableaus.

As a special surprise, Christian's dad flew in from Arizona to be here for the concert. It was such a sweet and wonderful surprise!

The big night came, and wonderful works were written by seven of Brandies' finest composers.
Below: (in no particular order)
Travis Alford, Mu-Xuan Lin, Rebecca Sacks, James Borchers, Victoria Cheah, Richard Chowenhill, Christian Gentry, and their professors, Erick Chasalow, David Rakowski, and Yu-Hui Chang.
(Jared Redmond, a Brandeis composer is also in the picture, but shouldn't be as he had nothing played, silly composers).

I was such a proud wife, can you tell? I have never been so proud of my amazing and talented husband; he has worked so hard for so long and is an incredibly gifted composer and teacher. Most PhD students do not graduate in 5 years it usually takes them 6 or 7 years to finish. Christian has worked his little bootie off while managing his job of stay at home dad, teaching classes at various universities and teaching a piano studio of 5-8 students not to mention being an loving and gracious husband and fun and adventurous best friend. He seriously amazes me with all he does! I am so proud of my man!

The Gentry boys. Christian, his dad, and his cousin Dwayne who just happens to be doing an externship in Rhode Island and drove an hour to support Christian. It was so touching to have some family there on Christian's big day.

I am truly humbled and grateful for all the support we had from our friends here in the Boston area on this big night. I counted 25 friends (not from Brandeis) who came to the concert to show their support for Christian and I. Many friends sent one spouse to the concert, and the other spouse stayed home and watched the little ones. It was wonderful that they made this sacrifice to be apart on a weekend night. I cannot begin to tell everyone who came how much your support means to us. Thank you so much for coming!
I tried to get pictures of everyone who came, but some people had to leave right after the concert.

Christian, Patrick, Stewart, and Dan
friends from Cambridge 1st ward

Some of my supportive co-workers at Shwartz Hospice

Our friend Kate made this DELICIOUS cake.
Congrats Christian, there is nothing we love more than stuffing our faces to celebrate :)

Christian, Justin, Laci, Gloria, Stef

Roth and Christian
(Christian's techie buddy)

Fellow composer and friend, Travis Alford and Christian
These two are good buddies.

Christian's dissertation adviser, Yu-Hui (pronounced "U-A") Chang.
Christian has really enjoyed working with her.

Many wonderful friends from the Cambridge 1st Ward
Alex and Celeste Douglas, Dave and Grace Poulsen, Karen and Karl Haglund (our Bishop), Megan Palmer, and Tracie Gillespie

Another great teacher, Eric Chasalow

Marty Boykan, one of Christian's professors who has retired but still keeps supporting his students. He is famous for giving very honest critiques, he gave Christian a thumbs up for his dissertation piece.

Robbie (graduated musicologist and pal), Christian, Jeremy (graduated composer, friend and neighbor) and Jeff (Jeremy's significant other and our good friend).

Other composer friends, Jared, Christian and Richard
(who has awesome dreds down to his butt!)

Our doctor buddies RyRy and Nikki

So much love, so much support. So many wonderful memories.
Thanks again to everyone who supported us on this big journey and on this big night.

Congrats to my talented, gifted, hard working, intelligent, handsome, amazing husband!
I could not be more proud of you and all your hard work!!

I will post a video of the performance soon.

Friends

We are blessed with some great friends in Utah. I miss seeing them on a regular basis, but it was fun to catch up with some of them while we were in Utah.

Laci, Lilli and Kim
Some of my good pals from our time in the University Village. These girls are funny and fun.

Some of my closest childhood pals,
Kara, Laci, Stefani, and Marci

My adorable college roommate, Natalie.

Christian and his hommies. Not sure why they struggle so much to take a decent picture, but hey I did the best I could.

One night I was able to get together with my childhood gang and all of our moms. All these ladies had a huge role in my childhood. I was lucky to grow up in such an incredible neighborhood with so many girls my age close by whose mother's all looked out for us.
It was so much fun to catch up and laugh like we used to.

From Left:
Back: Kara, Laci, Marci, Stef, and Alisha
Front: Carolyn, Karen, Cathy, Sue, and Marsha