This weekend had its share of expectations, both high and low. Expectations play a funny role in life. Is it better to expect everything and be inevitably disappointed at times? Or is it better to never expect anything and have occasional moments of surprised happiness? If you were to base your life philosophy on a movie and a concert (which is only natural), you'd probably come out with one of the world's great symbols tattooed on your arm: the yin-yang.

Which is what I did this weekend. Not the tattoo part. Just the "basing my expectations and happiness in life on a movie and concert" part.




THE YIN: Baby Mama

Everyone knows that I have a fake girl crush on Tina Fey. According to my husband, it's because she validates my life-long hope that a girl who loves to eat, write and quote Star Wars actually has a future as a semi-normal and successful human being. I also just think she is seriously funny. All that being said, however, I was seriously concerned about this latest movie venture. First, I found out that Tina Fey didn't even write it (dashed were my hopes for Maternity Mean Girls). Then, all the commercials made it look not only entirely predictable but also entirely not funny.

But I am a girl with loyalty.

We saw it on Saturday as we celebrated Jon's birthday with some of our favorite friends (You all now think I'm the manipulative wife who ropes her husband into seeing the movie she wants to see on his own birthday. But that's where you're wrong. He wanted to see it too. And it wasn't even his real birthday.) And the verdict: I laughed my head off. Yes, it was totally predictable. But it was also funny in surprising ways. And I left with thoughts of cheating on Tina Fey with Amy Poehler.

The zen lesson? Low expectations sometimes lead to higher pay-offs (somewhere out there, Michael Scott just said, "That's what she said.")








THE YANG: The Swell Season show

This show was the polar opposite in terms of expectations. We bought our tickets over three months ago. I not only love their album but also adore the movie that brought the two main players in this act (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova) to Utah in the first place. And there's a magical combination of love, sacrifice and success in their story that everyone loves to believe is possible.

When we got to The Depot on Friday night, I started worrying if maybe my expectations were a little too high. There was a huge line of people waiting to get in and it made me a little annoyed (I really hate crowds). Plus, the lame snobby part of myself looked at the people around me and said (in my head), "You're only here because you saw these guys on the Oscars."

When the show finally started, I realized how stupid I was being. It really was an amazing show. Backed by members of The Frames (Glen Hansard's former band who is also definitely worth a listen), all of the songs that made me love the Swell Season took on an even greater life. And that's when I discovered why all of these people came out to this show: when someone does something that they really love and they put themselves completely out there for it, it speaks to people. Glen Hansard isn't the most technically accomplished guitarist out there. He only plays one guitar for the whole show and it's the same beat-up one he played in the movie. It's not about an impressive stage set-up or mixing or anything like that. It's just beautiful songs by people who love what they do. And it's a reminder to me to forget all of the unimportant things that you think hold you back from doing what you love and just try it. Because sometimes creating something beautiful and meaningful even in the face of imperfection is the most impressive thing.

It was a pretty perfect show, though.

The zen lesson? Sometimes, high expectations are good. It makes you remember that amazing things are possible when even those are exceeded.




So, there you go. I left this weekend with my expectations satisfied. And I'll try to avoid referencing the yin-yang ever again.