I'm going to remember what I can about March 19 from years past.
2014. I think I went home after my weight training class so I could change for the Linguistics and English Language graduation banquet. I put on a button-up shirt, a tie, tan pants, and grey and blue shoes. Then I walked up to the Hinckley Center, where I had never been. I went and got a drink before I went into the banquet room. I sat down at a table, and soon other people came in and sat at my table. One person was a master's student who had been in my corpus linguistics class; I think Olivia Corey might also have sat at my table. I didn't care for the dinner; I thought it was too fancy. There were desserts next to every plate, and they told us we could choose what one we wanted. One of them was a round thing covered in chocolate; another had little pink round things on top. Some of the people at the table knew I only eat seasonal desserts, so they asked if I could have it. I told them I was trying to decide whether the pink candies made that dessert suitable for Easter; they said it was, and they also tried to convince me the chocolate dessert was egg shaped, but that was too much. They announced different awards for people with good GPAs. The only recognition I got was when Dr. Cynthia Hallen read off my name for participating on the student journal Schwa. The entertainment for the evening was a gamelan performance, since Dr. Elzinga was part of BYU's gamelan group. After the banquet was over, I went and talked to Dr. Mel Thorne because I was running out of mandatory hours for the student journal class. He told me not to worry about it and to send him an email reminding him I had talked to him. Then I walked back to my apartment, and I seem to remember seeing my roommate Scott, but he was becoming weird at that point in time.
2013. That afternoon I had a field trip at the Museum of Paleontology, so before it happened, I walked near the museum. I sat on the lawn by the football stadium and ate my lunch, which included an Easter marshmallow 3 Musketeers mini, while reading my geology textbook. Then I went over to the museum and waited for my classmates to show up. We went inside and had the tour from Dr. Britt. He criticized the mural of the Jurassic animals. He told us what the definition of a dinosaur was; he pointed to the humerus crest that was the diagnostic feature of dinosaurs, and he told us that if you take Triceratops and birds and find their common ancestor, then that dinosaur and all its descendants are dinosaurs. We went in the back where volunteers and geology students were working with fossils. A geology major named Josie told us something about "Quarternary rocks," and I was surprised she would use the outdated "Quarternary" instead of the more modern "Neogene." The "mature student" in our class was asking a lot of questions when we were being shown a turtle fossil. The tour lasted late, so I asked my classmate, Michael Arnold, if he could drive me up to the JFSB, since I would be late to class. He agreed, so I got in his van, and a shirtless guy was running along Canyon Road. I felt bad for Michael dropping me off, because it was awkward for him to turn around. I went down in the basement to go to class, and I saw Geoffrey Palmer, the son of my second mission president. He recognized me and talked to me, and I think he asked if I was going to the upcoming reunion. When I went to the classroom, there was a sign on the door saying that class was cancelled, so I didn't need to have Michael take me after all!
2012. That evening I went to Smith's so that I could get some Easter candy to put in my Easter jar. In the parking lot, I saw a guy named Andrew who had worked at the Distribution Center where I worked. I wanted to talk to him, but I didn't get a chance and I didn't think he would really know me, since we hadn't worked together too much. I got Hershey's cookies 'n' cream eggs.
2011. I went to Famous Footwear because I needed new Sunday shoes and new running shoes. I remember running down the aisles in the store to see how the shoes felt, and I felt really foolish doing so. My shoes total cost over $100. I thought that Famous did buy one, get one half off, but now I know that's only sometimes. I got all signed up in their system. That evening, my roommate Derek saw my new green and silver K-Swiss Tubes shoes and said it was hard for him to imagine me wearing something that looked that crazy.
2010. I drove home from Provo for the weekend. I had just gotten a DVD of the Peanuts Motion Comics Collection, so we watched them that night, I think while eating pizza. Each clip was three minutes long, so by the time we had watched the twentieth, we had the theme music memorized.
2009. I'm pretty sure this was the day when in the morning I got a package from my mom. It had mint Oreos, which I could no longer eat because St. Patrick's Day was over. It had Noah's Ark Easter eggs, each egg looking like an animal with cheap candy inside. It had two CDs, the MoTab's Consider the Lilies (since my mom had an extra copy) and Cherie Call's He Gives Flowers to Everyone. Thus it was this day that began my continual adoration of Cherie Call. I looked at the lyric booklet and really liked how "When I Sang" incorporated lyrics from hymns. During our lunch break, Elder Betenson turned on the Cherie Call CD in the Dans' stereo upstairs (the Dans were the members we lived with). He turned it up really loud, and Sister Dan asked if he could turn it down. He was embarrassed because he didn't know she was home. That afternoon we went to a members' home, the Jameses', to help them with a service project, and then they were going to feed us dinner. When we were done with the service project, there was still a long time before dinner, so I think we biked home and changed out of our service clothes. Then we went back to the Jameses'. Their sixteen-year-old daughter was pregnant, and the nonmember "F.O.B.," as Sister James said, "father of baby," was coming over. While we were waiting, we played Farkle with the teenage kids, including the F.O.B. Dinner took a very long time. Finally the corned beef and cabbage was done, and Sister James explained to her kids that corned beef and cabbage was a traditional Irish dish, so it went on sale at St. Patrick's Day. I had never had it before, but Elder Betenson was really excited to have it. At some point we had a conversation about scriptures and Elder Betenson shared one from the Law of Moses that had to do with bodily functions. We were there a long time, and we felt bad that we didn't do anything else that night. Looking back, however, I think our time there was very well spent, because that was a very difficult area to work in, and we helped forge a good relationship with the F.O.B. (he later gave us a ride one rainy evening). Then we had to go back to our house, where Elders Nixon and Bobo met us for an exchange.
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Friday, March 13, 2015
Leprechaun stories
When I was a little kid, I believed that all holidays are created equal, and subsequently I didn't realize that St. Patrick's Day is the most pointless of all popular holidays. Come March, my mind was turned to leprechauns, and I would invent stories.
In kindergarten, I decided to create a play that I would perform for my family. My mom had bought me a plastic leprechaun hat (and my aunt rescued it from blowing away outside the store on a windy day), so I would don it for my plays. My friend Hillary Ulmer had a gold-colored shiny cheerleader pom-pom, and I asked her if I could have it. I put it in a glass jar and that was my pot of gold, the stringy gold parts hanging over the jar. (I actually can't remember if I had that in time for the leprechaun plays, but I know I used that as a decoration for years. Sometimes I put the plastic hat on top of it, and one time our home teacher asked if it was Cousin Itt!)
Anyway, one day after school, I was planning on my leprechaun play, and my brother David, who was thirteen, wanted to help me out, and he wore the hat he got for Christmas. We went around improvising this play, but after a while it was too violent (with shooting) and un-leprechauny that I didn't want his help anymore. In the evening I gathered my family around while I performed my leprechaun play in front of our fireplace. It was kind of a day in the life of a leprechaun, and I would narrate things like "Now I'm asleep. Now I'm eating breakfast." And so on. When I was "sleeping," I would use a yellow crocheted blanket we had. I think I performed the play several times, and I tried to make sure I was wearing green every time, but soon I realized that if I did that, I wouldn't have any green to wear for St. Patrick's Day.
In first grade, we got some leprechaun window clings that really piqued my interest, and I even made a song based on them. One day in class, I raised my hand and mentioned that I had a song about leprechauns, so I sang my hokey little song. I think I mostly made it up as I went along, but I know the first line was, "I'm a little leprechaun a-sitting on a clover." I think I meant "toadstool," but for some reason it came out clover.
We also needed to write a leprechaun story for class. My copy of this story might be floating around the house somewhere. The only thing I remember is that it started out with a leprechaun going around collecting "horseshoes and brimstones." And by "brimstones" I meant "Blarney stones," not realizing there's only one Blarney Stone.
In second grade we were instructed to write a leprechaun story. Fortunately, I know where that is, so here is my transcription (there are some capitalization marks in it, but I don't know whether they were put there by me or someone else. I'm going to incorporate those edits):
My Leprechaun
One day I went outside to get the mail. When I looked down, there was a leprechaun on our door step. His back Was to my feet. I Caught it by the stomach. "Let Me go! Let me go! Me have to go to Ireland in 10 years! let me go! Let me go!"
I brought the leprechaun in. "I'm hungry," said the leprechaun. "So let me go and get food! let me go!"
"Wait a minute," I said. I will get you some food." I made him some Soup. He duck his head in the soup. His hat plopped up.
"Ow," complained the leprechaun. "Me face Is burning!"
"You were'nt supposed to do that," I said. "You were supposed to do that when It cooled. And stop saying me instead of My. It's not proper english."
"But it is proper Irish," said the leprechaun. "Where's your pot of gold? Give me your pot of gold! And stay with me when you give it to me!"
"Okay," said the leprechaun. He didn't eat his soup, he Just went outside. Then there was a knock at the door. I opened it. There Was the leprechaun.
"Hi," he said. "Here's a pot of gold and a pot of silver. Bye." And as quick as a wink, he ran off. "That foolish leprechaun," I said "He's mean too, but I do have gold and silver." The end.
(I must say that I'm impressed that at eight years old, my only misspelling was the placement of the apostrophe in "weren't.")
Then in fourth grade, I didn't really have a story per se, but I took on a leprechaun persona. I was tired of Easter stuff before St. Patrick's Day, so as a leprechaun I said I hated Easter. On St. Patrick's Day, my friend Cody Zesiger and I played some game where I think he was trying to catch me. Before he went home, I gave him some mashed up shiny pipecleaners--gold, silver, and blue and silver (which I said was a mushed-up mushroom).
In kindergarten, I decided to create a play that I would perform for my family. My mom had bought me a plastic leprechaun hat (and my aunt rescued it from blowing away outside the store on a windy day), so I would don it for my plays. My friend Hillary Ulmer had a gold-colored shiny cheerleader pom-pom, and I asked her if I could have it. I put it in a glass jar and that was my pot of gold, the stringy gold parts hanging over the jar. (I actually can't remember if I had that in time for the leprechaun plays, but I know I used that as a decoration for years. Sometimes I put the plastic hat on top of it, and one time our home teacher asked if it was Cousin Itt!)
Anyway, one day after school, I was planning on my leprechaun play, and my brother David, who was thirteen, wanted to help me out, and he wore the hat he got for Christmas. We went around improvising this play, but after a while it was too violent (with shooting) and un-leprechauny that I didn't want his help anymore. In the evening I gathered my family around while I performed my leprechaun play in front of our fireplace. It was kind of a day in the life of a leprechaun, and I would narrate things like "Now I'm asleep. Now I'm eating breakfast." And so on. When I was "sleeping," I would use a yellow crocheted blanket we had. I think I performed the play several times, and I tried to make sure I was wearing green every time, but soon I realized that if I did that, I wouldn't have any green to wear for St. Patrick's Day.
In first grade, we got some leprechaun window clings that really piqued my interest, and I even made a song based on them. One day in class, I raised my hand and mentioned that I had a song about leprechauns, so I sang my hokey little song. I think I mostly made it up as I went along, but I know the first line was, "I'm a little leprechaun a-sitting on a clover." I think I meant "toadstool," but for some reason it came out clover.
We also needed to write a leprechaun story for class. My copy of this story might be floating around the house somewhere. The only thing I remember is that it started out with a leprechaun going around collecting "horseshoes and brimstones." And by "brimstones" I meant "Blarney stones," not realizing there's only one Blarney Stone.
In second grade we were instructed to write a leprechaun story. Fortunately, I know where that is, so here is my transcription (there are some capitalization marks in it, but I don't know whether they were put there by me or someone else. I'm going to incorporate those edits):
My Leprechaun
One day I went outside to get the mail. When I looked down, there was a leprechaun on our door step. His back Was to my feet. I Caught it by the stomach. "Let Me go! Let me go! Me have to go to Ireland in 10 years! let me go! Let me go!"
I brought the leprechaun in. "I'm hungry," said the leprechaun. "So let me go and get food! let me go!"
"Wait a minute," I said. I will get you some food." I made him some Soup. He duck his head in the soup. His hat plopped up.
"Ow," complained the leprechaun. "Me face Is burning!"
"You were'nt supposed to do that," I said. "You were supposed to do that when It cooled. And stop saying me instead of My. It's not proper english."
"But it is proper Irish," said the leprechaun. "Where's your pot of gold? Give me your pot of gold! And stay with me when you give it to me!"
"Okay," said the leprechaun. He didn't eat his soup, he Just went outside. Then there was a knock at the door. I opened it. There Was the leprechaun.
"Hi," he said. "Here's a pot of gold and a pot of silver. Bye." And as quick as a wink, he ran off. "That foolish leprechaun," I said "He's mean too, but I do have gold and silver." The end.
(I must say that I'm impressed that at eight years old, my only misspelling was the placement of the apostrophe in "weren't.")
Then in fourth grade, I didn't really have a story per se, but I took on a leprechaun persona. I was tired of Easter stuff before St. Patrick's Day, so as a leprechaun I said I hated Easter. On St. Patrick's Day, my friend Cody Zesiger and I played some game where I think he was trying to catch me. Before he went home, I gave him some mashed up shiny pipecleaners--gold, silver, and blue and silver (which I said was a mushed-up mushroom).
Saturday, March 7, 2015
March 14-18
It's time for me to remember the days surrounding St. Patrick's Day last year.
March 14. In the morning, I went over to Cougar Dental to get my wisdom teeth out. They gave me laughing gas, and it was a very uneventful operation. The dentist gave me a little bag of gauze and some fluid I was told to rinse with. He told me not to eat chips or other things that might get caught in my gums. I remember being confused because the instructions said to rinse with a capful of the liquid, but the cap was tiny. I was also instructed that I no longer needed to bite on gauze when it was white. I went up to my French lab. I was the only one in the room, so the TA was talking exclusively to me, and then when he asked me to speak, I said, "Je préfère ne pas parler," at which point he kind of gasped when he saw the gauze, "car le dentiste a enlevé mes dents de sagesse." He seemed sorry for me. Other people in the class later showed up, and as I was leaving, I think I was explaining why I hadn't had them removed before my mission. I think I changed out my gauze, and it was still pink, and I was running low on gauze, so I went into the Twilight Zone (like a convenience store on campus) to try to find some gauze. My friend Carrie saw me there and said hi; I pointed to my mouth and said "wisdom teeth" to let her know why I couldn't talk. There wasn't any gauze in that store, so I walked down to South End Market right by my apartment to look for gauze there. They didn't have any either, so it was back across the street to Cougar Dental to ask for more gauze. The hygienists took me back and bundled up some gauze for me, and the dentist came and asked to see in my mouth. I let him look, and he told me I didn't need to bite the gauze anymore, even as he gave me the gauze the nurses prepared. I felt confused and a little bad for taking it. What was I going to do with gauze if I wasn't supposed to bite on it? I went back in my apartment and had lunch. It seems that sometime in the ensuing days, my roommate Chad and his fiancée Sierra were surprised I was up and about after the operation, since she had recently had hers taken out and it was very painful for her. After napping and eating, I went back up to campus to work, since my computer didn't have Microsoft Word yet. I called my boss, Reid, and when he answered, he said, "I'm just getting in my car." It was a little later than usual. I just had a quick question for him. Then I worked in the library. Then I went to South End Market again and got some mint chocolate chip ice cream and went to my apartment and watched the "May the Wind Be Always at Your Back" episode of The Flying Nun. I journalized as follows:
"This morning I talked to Reid before I went to get my wisdom teeth out. It was a very simple procedure--they numbed me up, and gave me laughing gas, and I didn't even know when the teeth came out. I had to have gauze in my mouth, so I went to French lab with it being hard to speak. I was going to work, but I needed more gauze and lunch, so I came back home. I asked the dentist for more gauze, but he said I didn't need it, even though they gave me some. I made lunch and took a nap, and then I went back to campus for hours to work. I came home and ate mint ice cream while watching the St. Patrick's Day-ish Flying Nun episode."
March 15. In the morning, Carrie texted me and invited me to go on a hike with some friends. I thanked her for the offer but thought it might be best if I not exert myself because of my gums. I went and did some errands. First I got lunch at Kneaders because I wanted to get a key lime tart with my meal. They had Easter cupcakes, and I made a mental note that I would have to return to get one when it was Easter time. Then I went up to Eliane French Bakery, where I awkwardly tried to speak French with the owner. I asked for a macaron à pistachio, and he corrected me pistache. I also got a green shamrock-shaped meringue. Then I went to Lolo's grocery store, where I got a small package of Rolos to put in my little pots of gold for the next few days. I was feeling a little bad about all the sugar I was eating. Then that evening, my roommate Jordan and I went up to the evening session of our stake conference. I think I had been asked to make sure people sat in the middle of rows so that people wouldn't have to climb over them. I don't like talking to people, but I was glad to have an excuse to make people sit in the middle, since that's one of my pet peeves. But there was only one person I had to tell to sit in the middle. After the conference, they had brownies, so I had my share of mint ones. My former home teachee Autumn was there with her fiancé, Scott, and she knew about my rules and noted that I got the green ones. Then we went back to our apartment. and I watched the "Leprechaun" episode of Bewitched. Jordan watched it too, at least part of it, and later his girlfriend Laura came over and Jordan said, "You missed Bewitched."
March 16. In the morning I had to go to a priesthood leadership meeting. They had a panel of Relief Society presidents from the various wards so we could ask them about home teaching. One of the RS presidents was Leanna from our ward; another was on the staff of Schwa, the student journal I was working on. Someone asked about whether it was acceptable to date those you home teach; they said you could but you would need to deal with the consequences if it didn't work out. The overall answer for the various questions seemed to be "It depends." Leanna said that guys should be nice to their girlfriends' roommates, because they might end up home teaching them--she said that experience had happened to her. After that meeting, I walked to stake conference on 900 East. I was wearing my shamrock tie, and when Megan Ward saw me in the halls, she complimented me for my tie. One of the speakers was a bishop who told a story of a guy who got married fast and was expecting a kid. Then he said, "Go, and do thou likewise." Then he sat down. Everyone was in an uproar (mostly laughing) that he had done that. There was debate as to whether he had sat down without closing ("In the name...") or if he had closed his talk but no one could hear him. I wrote my two blogs. I journalized as follows:
"This morning I had to go to a Priesthood leadership meeting. They had a panel of RS presidents answering questions about home teaching. I think President Stratton is out of touch with us college kids--who can go on two dates a week?
"In the later session, one speaker told about someone who got married and was expecting a kid in six months time, and said "Go, do thou likewise." Then he sat down. It was really weird.
"Then we went home teaching. That's always a little awkward. Then I've been blogging and such."
March 17. I think I finished up my Lucky Charms for breakfast; and they were special Lucky Charms that only had clover marshmallows. I was super excited to be able to wear my brand-new neon green Vans, my green pants, my St. Patrick's Day Snoopy shirt, my green socks, and my old green glasses. I went up to campus to work, and I tried to find some St. Patrick's Day music on my free trial of Google Play. During my break my phone informed me that Nate Garlock sent me a Facebook friend request. (Then he unfriended me at Christmas.) When I was done with working, I went to the BYU Bookstore to pick up my order of Microsoft Word, which work had paid for. There were also booths for the Choose 2 Give campaign, where you donate money that goes into scholarships and stuff. They were giving out yellow-green cotton candy, but I didn't get any, because they were having it outside and it was extremely windy, so they stopped. I donated some money, so I should have gotten a free t-shirt, but they only had kid sizes available at the time. Then I braved the wind to go over to BYU Studies, the job I had left three weeks earlier, to pick up the latest issue of the journal. Everyone in the office asked me what I was working on, and they were impressed with my outfit, that I was literally head to toe in green. The web developer lady Eden had apparently given people a hard time for not wearing green. She wasn't in, but Rosalyn, her assistant, took a picture of me to show her. After that, I went down to my weightlifting class. I had brought a green shirt to work out in, and as I looked out the window before class, I saw a guy also all in green, including light green slim-fit pants and green running shoes. I of course was wearing my green shirt and green socks (I can't remember whether I had kept on my green glasses). When I was doing some ab workouts, my spotting partner, Ryan, said something like, "You're the Hulk, since it's St. Patrick's Day and you're wearing green!" as a motivation. I didn't go running because it was so windy, and I also didn't know if I would have time. I went home, and for my "scripture" study, I watched a seminary video about an Irish convert. Then I went out and did some shopping. I went to Shopko and got some St. Patrick's Day pajamas, which of course I could only wear that night, and I got some Trix Easter fruit snacks which I could start eating the next day. I saw some mint chocolate cookies, which I couldn't justify buying because I couldn't eat them all in a day. Then I went over to Lolo's, where I bought a potato for dinner and an Idaho Spud candy. (Since potatoes are stereotypically Irish, I could eat it, especially since some potato candies are made specifically for St. Patrick's Day.) Then I went home and baked my potato in the microwave. That evening I went over to FHE, where they had asked me to share the spiritual thought. I printed off copies of the hymn I wrote based on Psalm 119. I explained to everyone that I had written it for my Early Modern English class, and they all seemed impressed with it, even saying we should sing it at church. Jared in my group even looked at the verses in Psalm 119 that it was based on. We sang the hymn, and people seemed a little unfamiliar with the tune, "Come O Thou King of Kings," which surprised me. Our activity that night was indexing, and some people hadn't done it before. One such person was Dani Robinson, who was sitting next to me. She didn't know her record number and didn't know if she had an LDS account; I pulled her number up but then she found her login information. Then she said to me, "Wait, why do you have my record number?" I said it was only because I was ward clerk. There were green cookies, which I could eat. The indexing batches we were working on were Philippine census records from the 1800s, so they were in cursive, and they were Spanish names, so they were murder to fill out. While we were indexing, everyone was playing music; when someone played Pharrell's "Happy," Jessica Andelin said, "I love this song!" I asked everyone if they wanted to hear the one St. Patrick's Day song I had, so I played Jan Terri's "Luck of the Irish," but my speakers aren't very good. Someone's playlist started playing Michael Bublé's "Cold December Night," and I said, "Wrong holiday." Eventually I went home and finished up the indexing batches I had downloaded, and since they were so hard, I vowed not to index for a while. Then I watched the "If the Shoe Pinches" episode of Bewitched, and then before I went to bed I had to look up what a shillelagh was.
March 18. At French class in the morning, Mme Petelo asked if we had done anything fun on the weekend. I said that I had had my wisdom teeth taken out and that it wasn't painful. She said, "Est-ce que vos dents sont déjà sortis?" "Oui." That evening, I picked up my friend Natausha because I had invited her to go to Cherie Call's CD release concert. As we walked to my parking lot, I told her about the experience I had recently had where a girl refused to get in the car until I opened her door. I asked Natausha whether she liked guys opening doors or whether she found it demeaning. She said it was nice but not necessary. In light of that conversation, I opened her door, but I don't think I did the rest of the night. On the way to the venue, I missed the turn, and I ended up having to turn around at the Trax station. Then I went back and parked. We went in and my name was on a list because I had already ordered the CD; Natausha turned in her ticket and got the CD. I told her we could get some lime popcorn, but she didn't want any, and I didn't feel like making my way over there. We talked about her shoes, because she had drawn on them. I talked about my sock collection and how I had socks for every holiday except for New Year's and Easter. I told her how much I liked Cherie Call (she seemed impressed when she learned that the cardstock sleeve she just received was a CD) and I said that I had been listening to her in the car on the way; she said she reminded her of our mutual friend Sariah's music. Cherie Call sang most of the songs from her new Homeless Songs album and some of her other standbys. One of the backup singers was Debra Fotheringham, and I was sad to see she had a wedding ring on. Before Cherie sang "Sweet Sweet Dreams," she said that she had songs about her daughters but wanted one about her little boy. I heard a mom behind me say to her little boy, "This is a little boy song!" I think her encore song was "It Passes All My Understanding." As we left, we talked about how it was hard to hear her voice above all the music. Natausha said she loved the songs that were from previous albums, saying she adored "Love makes me invisible." I told her "Memphis" was one of my absolute favorites. Then we talked about where she was living in the future. I mentioned something about both of the "Ward sisters," and she thought I was talking about sister missionaries, but I was talking about Cami and Megan Ward. When that was cleared up, she said, "It amazes me how different they are."
March 14. In the morning, I went over to Cougar Dental to get my wisdom teeth out. They gave me laughing gas, and it was a very uneventful operation. The dentist gave me a little bag of gauze and some fluid I was told to rinse with. He told me not to eat chips or other things that might get caught in my gums. I remember being confused because the instructions said to rinse with a capful of the liquid, but the cap was tiny. I was also instructed that I no longer needed to bite on gauze when it was white. I went up to my French lab. I was the only one in the room, so the TA was talking exclusively to me, and then when he asked me to speak, I said, "Je préfère ne pas parler," at which point he kind of gasped when he saw the gauze, "car le dentiste a enlevé mes dents de sagesse." He seemed sorry for me. Other people in the class later showed up, and as I was leaving, I think I was explaining why I hadn't had them removed before my mission. I think I changed out my gauze, and it was still pink, and I was running low on gauze, so I went into the Twilight Zone (like a convenience store on campus) to try to find some gauze. My friend Carrie saw me there and said hi; I pointed to my mouth and said "wisdom teeth" to let her know why I couldn't talk. There wasn't any gauze in that store, so I walked down to South End Market right by my apartment to look for gauze there. They didn't have any either, so it was back across the street to Cougar Dental to ask for more gauze. The hygienists took me back and bundled up some gauze for me, and the dentist came and asked to see in my mouth. I let him look, and he told me I didn't need to bite the gauze anymore, even as he gave me the gauze the nurses prepared. I felt confused and a little bad for taking it. What was I going to do with gauze if I wasn't supposed to bite on it? I went back in my apartment and had lunch. It seems that sometime in the ensuing days, my roommate Chad and his fiancée Sierra were surprised I was up and about after the operation, since she had recently had hers taken out and it was very painful for her. After napping and eating, I went back up to campus to work, since my computer didn't have Microsoft Word yet. I called my boss, Reid, and when he answered, he said, "I'm just getting in my car." It was a little later than usual. I just had a quick question for him. Then I worked in the library. Then I went to South End Market again and got some mint chocolate chip ice cream and went to my apartment and watched the "May the Wind Be Always at Your Back" episode of The Flying Nun. I journalized as follows:
"This morning I talked to Reid before I went to get my wisdom teeth out. It was a very simple procedure--they numbed me up, and gave me laughing gas, and I didn't even know when the teeth came out. I had to have gauze in my mouth, so I went to French lab with it being hard to speak. I was going to work, but I needed more gauze and lunch, so I came back home. I asked the dentist for more gauze, but he said I didn't need it, even though they gave me some. I made lunch and took a nap, and then I went back to campus for hours to work. I came home and ate mint ice cream while watching the St. Patrick's Day-ish Flying Nun episode."
March 15. In the morning, Carrie texted me and invited me to go on a hike with some friends. I thanked her for the offer but thought it might be best if I not exert myself because of my gums. I went and did some errands. First I got lunch at Kneaders because I wanted to get a key lime tart with my meal. They had Easter cupcakes, and I made a mental note that I would have to return to get one when it was Easter time. Then I went up to Eliane French Bakery, where I awkwardly tried to speak French with the owner. I asked for a macaron à pistachio, and he corrected me pistache. I also got a green shamrock-shaped meringue. Then I went to Lolo's grocery store, where I got a small package of Rolos to put in my little pots of gold for the next few days. I was feeling a little bad about all the sugar I was eating. Then that evening, my roommate Jordan and I went up to the evening session of our stake conference. I think I had been asked to make sure people sat in the middle of rows so that people wouldn't have to climb over them. I don't like talking to people, but I was glad to have an excuse to make people sit in the middle, since that's one of my pet peeves. But there was only one person I had to tell to sit in the middle. After the conference, they had brownies, so I had my share of mint ones. My former home teachee Autumn was there with her fiancé, Scott, and she knew about my rules and noted that I got the green ones. Then we went back to our apartment. and I watched the "Leprechaun" episode of Bewitched. Jordan watched it too, at least part of it, and later his girlfriend Laura came over and Jordan said, "You missed Bewitched."
March 16. In the morning I had to go to a priesthood leadership meeting. They had a panel of Relief Society presidents from the various wards so we could ask them about home teaching. One of the RS presidents was Leanna from our ward; another was on the staff of Schwa, the student journal I was working on. Someone asked about whether it was acceptable to date those you home teach; they said you could but you would need to deal with the consequences if it didn't work out. The overall answer for the various questions seemed to be "It depends." Leanna said that guys should be nice to their girlfriends' roommates, because they might end up home teaching them--she said that experience had happened to her. After that meeting, I walked to stake conference on 900 East. I was wearing my shamrock tie, and when Megan Ward saw me in the halls, she complimented me for my tie. One of the speakers was a bishop who told a story of a guy who got married fast and was expecting a kid. Then he said, "Go, and do thou likewise." Then he sat down. Everyone was in an uproar (mostly laughing) that he had done that. There was debate as to whether he had sat down without closing ("In the name...") or if he had closed his talk but no one could hear him. I wrote my two blogs. I journalized as follows:
"This morning I had to go to a Priesthood leadership meeting. They had a panel of RS presidents answering questions about home teaching. I think President Stratton is out of touch with us college kids--who can go on two dates a week?
"In the later session, one speaker told about someone who got married and was expecting a kid in six months time, and said "Go, do thou likewise." Then he sat down. It was really weird.
"Then we went home teaching. That's always a little awkward. Then I've been blogging and such."
March 17. I think I finished up my Lucky Charms for breakfast; and they were special Lucky Charms that only had clover marshmallows. I was super excited to be able to wear my brand-new neon green Vans, my green pants, my St. Patrick's Day Snoopy shirt, my green socks, and my old green glasses. I went up to campus to work, and I tried to find some St. Patrick's Day music on my free trial of Google Play. During my break my phone informed me that Nate Garlock sent me a Facebook friend request. (Then he unfriended me at Christmas.) When I was done with working, I went to the BYU Bookstore to pick up my order of Microsoft Word, which work had paid for. There were also booths for the Choose 2 Give campaign, where you donate money that goes into scholarships and stuff. They were giving out yellow-green cotton candy, but I didn't get any, because they were having it outside and it was extremely windy, so they stopped. I donated some money, so I should have gotten a free t-shirt, but they only had kid sizes available at the time. Then I braved the wind to go over to BYU Studies, the job I had left three weeks earlier, to pick up the latest issue of the journal. Everyone in the office asked me what I was working on, and they were impressed with my outfit, that I was literally head to toe in green. The web developer lady Eden had apparently given people a hard time for not wearing green. She wasn't in, but Rosalyn, her assistant, took a picture of me to show her. After that, I went down to my weightlifting class. I had brought a green shirt to work out in, and as I looked out the window before class, I saw a guy also all in green, including light green slim-fit pants and green running shoes. I of course was wearing my green shirt and green socks (I can't remember whether I had kept on my green glasses). When I was doing some ab workouts, my spotting partner, Ryan, said something like, "You're the Hulk, since it's St. Patrick's Day and you're wearing green!" as a motivation. I didn't go running because it was so windy, and I also didn't know if I would have time. I went home, and for my "scripture" study, I watched a seminary video about an Irish convert. Then I went out and did some shopping. I went to Shopko and got some St. Patrick's Day pajamas, which of course I could only wear that night, and I got some Trix Easter fruit snacks which I could start eating the next day. I saw some mint chocolate cookies, which I couldn't justify buying because I couldn't eat them all in a day. Then I went over to Lolo's, where I bought a potato for dinner and an Idaho Spud candy. (Since potatoes are stereotypically Irish, I could eat it, especially since some potato candies are made specifically for St. Patrick's Day.) Then I went home and baked my potato in the microwave. That evening I went over to FHE, where they had asked me to share the spiritual thought. I printed off copies of the hymn I wrote based on Psalm 119. I explained to everyone that I had written it for my Early Modern English class, and they all seemed impressed with it, even saying we should sing it at church. Jared in my group even looked at the verses in Psalm 119 that it was based on. We sang the hymn, and people seemed a little unfamiliar with the tune, "Come O Thou King of Kings," which surprised me. Our activity that night was indexing, and some people hadn't done it before. One such person was Dani Robinson, who was sitting next to me. She didn't know her record number and didn't know if she had an LDS account; I pulled her number up but then she found her login information. Then she said to me, "Wait, why do you have my record number?" I said it was only because I was ward clerk. There were green cookies, which I could eat. The indexing batches we were working on were Philippine census records from the 1800s, so they were in cursive, and they were Spanish names, so they were murder to fill out. While we were indexing, everyone was playing music; when someone played Pharrell's "Happy," Jessica Andelin said, "I love this song!" I asked everyone if they wanted to hear the one St. Patrick's Day song I had, so I played Jan Terri's "Luck of the Irish," but my speakers aren't very good. Someone's playlist started playing Michael Bublé's "Cold December Night," and I said, "Wrong holiday." Eventually I went home and finished up the indexing batches I had downloaded, and since they were so hard, I vowed not to index for a while. Then I watched the "If the Shoe Pinches" episode of Bewitched, and then before I went to bed I had to look up what a shillelagh was.
March 18. At French class in the morning, Mme Petelo asked if we had done anything fun on the weekend. I said that I had had my wisdom teeth taken out and that it wasn't painful. She said, "Est-ce que vos dents sont déjà sortis?" "Oui." That evening, I picked up my friend Natausha because I had invited her to go to Cherie Call's CD release concert. As we walked to my parking lot, I told her about the experience I had recently had where a girl refused to get in the car until I opened her door. I asked Natausha whether she liked guys opening doors or whether she found it demeaning. She said it was nice but not necessary. In light of that conversation, I opened her door, but I don't think I did the rest of the night. On the way to the venue, I missed the turn, and I ended up having to turn around at the Trax station. Then I went back and parked. We went in and my name was on a list because I had already ordered the CD; Natausha turned in her ticket and got the CD. I told her we could get some lime popcorn, but she didn't want any, and I didn't feel like making my way over there. We talked about her shoes, because she had drawn on them. I talked about my sock collection and how I had socks for every holiday except for New Year's and Easter. I told her how much I liked Cherie Call (she seemed impressed when she learned that the cardstock sleeve she just received was a CD) and I said that I had been listening to her in the car on the way; she said she reminded her of our mutual friend Sariah's music. Cherie Call sang most of the songs from her new Homeless Songs album and some of her other standbys. One of the backup singers was Debra Fotheringham, and I was sad to see she had a wedding ring on. Before Cherie sang "Sweet Sweet Dreams," she said that she had songs about her daughters but wanted one about her little boy. I heard a mom behind me say to her little boy, "This is a little boy song!" I think her encore song was "It Passes All My Understanding." As we left, we talked about how it was hard to hear her voice above all the music. Natausha said she loved the songs that were from previous albums, saying she adored "Love makes me invisible." I told her "Memphis" was one of my absolute favorites. Then we talked about where she was living in the future. I mentioned something about both of the "Ward sisters," and she thought I was talking about sister missionaries, but I was talking about Cami and Megan Ward. When that was cleared up, she said, "It amazes me how different they are."
Friday, February 27, 2015
Melville family pets
In this post, I'm not going to try to remember everything, but I will try to remember all the pets my family has had while I've been alive.
We had some guinea pigs, but family lore tells me one died because I dropped it. It seems that one was white and brown. I remember my dad burying some brown ones and him insinuating my cousin Jesse had contributed to their deaths. But I can't have been older than four, so who knows if that really happened.
We had a fishtank and we had plecostomuses, sucker fish. Because they are ugly, my family named them Homer, after Homer Simpson, and I think we had several Homers: Homer 1, Homer 2, etc. But then one day that fishtank cracked, so we had to transport the fish to bowls and my aunt came and took them.
One Christmas, probably in 1993 but maybe 1992, my brother got an iguana for Christmas and named it Lizzie. But a few days later it died. That was one of the rare times I saw my brother cry.
Soon after that, however, my parents got him a snake. It was an albino corn snake, so David named it Al. He used to play with Al all the time, and he even measured its length on the closet door where my family measured our growth. (My family got rid of that door. :( ) After a while, though, he quit playing with it as much, and it became less tame. That made it a problem when it would sometimes escape and he had to catch it. We used to go to the pet store to buy pinkie mice to feed it. We eventually gave it to my uncle's wife.
Around this same time, circa 1993, my aunt got a blue budgie bird that she intended to give to my cousins for Christmas, and we kept it at our house, but my family became attached to it and kept it. We named it Tweeters, Tweets for short.
In 1994 (I think), David got another bird, I think for his birthday. This bird was a cockatiel, named Spike for the stick-up feathers on its head. David often called her Spoy or Shpoy. David really wanted a dog, so Spike became his pseudo-dog. At one time we got bird food that looked like dog food. David taught it to bark, wolf whistle, and say "Pretty bird." It would often look in its mirror and go, "Pretty bird. Pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty bird." We tried to teach it to whistle the Andy Griffith Show theme--it got the first notes right, but then it did its own thing. One peculiar trait it had was to put its head in its toy bell, grab the dinger with its beak, and shriek as loud as it could. This was loud to us, so we can only imagine what it was like for her! (Sorry I keep switching pronouns for the bird.) If she would see someone nodding, she would nod too. I used to run around the living room and spin my arms in circles, and that would make her nod too. Sometimes Spike would have night terrors and would thrash around in the cage, leaving bird blood splattered on the cage and walls.
When we would get the two birds out, Tweeters was a little more defensive and aggressive, even though she was the smaller bird. David cut out pieces of cloth to put on his shoulders to keep his clothes clean. Sometimes he would take the birds (at least Spike) into the shower with him, although I don't think they sat on his shoulder but on his finger. David left on his mission and later moved away again, and since birds are messy, we didn't get them out often, and they got less tame. Tweets died just before Thanksgiving in 2003. In 2007, my sister was diagnosed with some disease that was aggravated by birds, so we had to give Spike away.
In 1995 or so, our neighbors across the street, the Reeds, gave us a hamster. I think one morning David found it in a plant holder. Shortly after that, we found it had escaped again and died, probably from eating mouse poison.
For my birthday in 1994, we got a new fishtank, and over the years, we had lots and lots of fish. I was particularly fond of the see-through glass fish, and I liked the crabs we had that used to escape. (I once wrote a post all about the crabs.)
We had a few notable fish. When I was in first grade, we had orange fish in which the males had sword tails, and on one occasion we bought both a male and a female, and soon the female was pregnant, and shortly thereafter there were lots of tiny orange dots in the fishtank. The other fish, including the parents, tried to eat the babies, but one hid in our decorative rocks. We captured it and took it to my aunt's house so it could be safe until it was fully grown. I named it Pumpkin and it lived to adulthood.
In college, David became a biologist and worked with zebrafish. In one lab in 2000 (I think), he injected chemicals into sets of 100 zebrafish, and in one of those sets, two fish survived while all others died. I don't know if they survived because they were superfish, or if they were superfish because of the chemicals, but these were super hardy fish. David named them Ishmael and Queequeg, characters in Moby Dick. They lived for more than four years, maybe even as long as six years. Not only did they live a long time, they lived in harsh environments. My mom took the aquarium to school, and the kids accidentally turned up the heat, killing all the fish except for the zebrafish. We weren't the most responsible at cleaning the tank, and sometimes it became super gross and all the fish died except the zebrafish.
And then there are our cats. In 2001, my sister and her roommates got a cat, Cleo, and we watched it for a few weeks. After that, I really wanted a cat. My mom's friend's cat had kittens on July 16, 2001, so we got one, a black and white cat with a black "mustache." I named it Dinah, after Alice (in Wonderland)'s cat. Dinah was hilarious but mean. She would sometimes bite me and even drew blood. She liked to attack my feet. As she got older, she got tamer.
Unfortunately, after we had had her for just over a year, in September or October 2002, she disappeared. We don't know what happened to her, although my dad saw a raccoon in our yard the night she disappeared. We went to the pound, but she wasn't there.
But I wanted to get a replacement cat. We were going to Taiwan in November 2002, so I asked my maternal grandparents if they would watch a new cat while we were gone. They agreed, so in October we went to the pound and got a grey kitten, which we named Jenny. More than twelve years later, Jenny is still alive and well. And what a strange cat she is. Soon after we got her, my paternal grandparents came for a visit, and Jenny loved rubbing against Grandma Judy's white leather shoes. To this day, she likes to rub against feet, more than she likes to be petted by hands. My dad won't let her be fed inside the house because she tends to throw up. She's picky about her litter box. She isn't particularly loving, hisses at kids, and likes to spill her water bowl. But she's a good mouser, and I like having her.
We had some guinea pigs, but family lore tells me one died because I dropped it. It seems that one was white and brown. I remember my dad burying some brown ones and him insinuating my cousin Jesse had contributed to their deaths. But I can't have been older than four, so who knows if that really happened.
We had a fishtank and we had plecostomuses, sucker fish. Because they are ugly, my family named them Homer, after Homer Simpson, and I think we had several Homers: Homer 1, Homer 2, etc. But then one day that fishtank cracked, so we had to transport the fish to bowls and my aunt came and took them.
One Christmas, probably in 1993 but maybe 1992, my brother got an iguana for Christmas and named it Lizzie. But a few days later it died. That was one of the rare times I saw my brother cry.
Soon after that, however, my parents got him a snake. It was an albino corn snake, so David named it Al. He used to play with Al all the time, and he even measured its length on the closet door where my family measured our growth. (My family got rid of that door. :( ) After a while, though, he quit playing with it as much, and it became less tame. That made it a problem when it would sometimes escape and he had to catch it. We used to go to the pet store to buy pinkie mice to feed it. We eventually gave it to my uncle's wife.
Around this same time, circa 1993, my aunt got a blue budgie bird that she intended to give to my cousins for Christmas, and we kept it at our house, but my family became attached to it and kept it. We named it Tweeters, Tweets for short.
In 1994 (I think), David got another bird, I think for his birthday. This bird was a cockatiel, named Spike for the stick-up feathers on its head. David often called her Spoy or Shpoy. David really wanted a dog, so Spike became his pseudo-dog. At one time we got bird food that looked like dog food. David taught it to bark, wolf whistle, and say "Pretty bird." It would often look in its mirror and go, "Pretty bird. Pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty bird." We tried to teach it to whistle the Andy Griffith Show theme--it got the first notes right, but then it did its own thing. One peculiar trait it had was to put its head in its toy bell, grab the dinger with its beak, and shriek as loud as it could. This was loud to us, so we can only imagine what it was like for her! (Sorry I keep switching pronouns for the bird.) If she would see someone nodding, she would nod too. I used to run around the living room and spin my arms in circles, and that would make her nod too. Sometimes Spike would have night terrors and would thrash around in the cage, leaving bird blood splattered on the cage and walls.
When we would get the two birds out, Tweeters was a little more defensive and aggressive, even though she was the smaller bird. David cut out pieces of cloth to put on his shoulders to keep his clothes clean. Sometimes he would take the birds (at least Spike) into the shower with him, although I don't think they sat on his shoulder but on his finger. David left on his mission and later moved away again, and since birds are messy, we didn't get them out often, and they got less tame. Tweets died just before Thanksgiving in 2003. In 2007, my sister was diagnosed with some disease that was aggravated by birds, so we had to give Spike away.
In 1995 or so, our neighbors across the street, the Reeds, gave us a hamster. I think one morning David found it in a plant holder. Shortly after that, we found it had escaped again and died, probably from eating mouse poison.
For my birthday in 1994, we got a new fishtank, and over the years, we had lots and lots of fish. I was particularly fond of the see-through glass fish, and I liked the crabs we had that used to escape. (I once wrote a post all about the crabs.)
We had a few notable fish. When I was in first grade, we had orange fish in which the males had sword tails, and on one occasion we bought both a male and a female, and soon the female was pregnant, and shortly thereafter there were lots of tiny orange dots in the fishtank. The other fish, including the parents, tried to eat the babies, but one hid in our decorative rocks. We captured it and took it to my aunt's house so it could be safe until it was fully grown. I named it Pumpkin and it lived to adulthood.
In college, David became a biologist and worked with zebrafish. In one lab in 2000 (I think), he injected chemicals into sets of 100 zebrafish, and in one of those sets, two fish survived while all others died. I don't know if they survived because they were superfish, or if they were superfish because of the chemicals, but these were super hardy fish. David named them Ishmael and Queequeg, characters in Moby Dick. They lived for more than four years, maybe even as long as six years. Not only did they live a long time, they lived in harsh environments. My mom took the aquarium to school, and the kids accidentally turned up the heat, killing all the fish except for the zebrafish. We weren't the most responsible at cleaning the tank, and sometimes it became super gross and all the fish died except the zebrafish.
And then there are our cats. In 2001, my sister and her roommates got a cat, Cleo, and we watched it for a few weeks. After that, I really wanted a cat. My mom's friend's cat had kittens on July 16, 2001, so we got one, a black and white cat with a black "mustache." I named it Dinah, after Alice (in Wonderland)'s cat. Dinah was hilarious but mean. She would sometimes bite me and even drew blood. She liked to attack my feet. As she got older, she got tamer.
Unfortunately, after we had had her for just over a year, in September or October 2002, she disappeared. We don't know what happened to her, although my dad saw a raccoon in our yard the night she disappeared. We went to the pound, but she wasn't there.
But I wanted to get a replacement cat. We were going to Taiwan in November 2002, so I asked my maternal grandparents if they would watch a new cat while we were gone. They agreed, so in October we went to the pound and got a grey kitten, which we named Jenny. More than twelve years later, Jenny is still alive and well. And what a strange cat she is. Soon after we got her, my paternal grandparents came for a visit, and Jenny loved rubbing against Grandma Judy's white leather shoes. To this day, she likes to rub against feet, more than she likes to be petted by hands. My dad won't let her be fed inside the house because she tends to throw up. She's picky about her litter box. She isn't particularly loving, hisses at kids, and likes to spill her water bowl. But she's a good mouser, and I like having her.
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Presidents' Day 2013 and 2014
Two years ago, I remembered all the Presidents' Days of the past, so now I'm going to remember the two Presidents' Days that happened since then.
2013. In the morning, I went over to Cougar Dental for my root canal. They numbed my mouth up, and they asked if I wanted laughing gas. I asked what they recommended and asked if the operation would be painful. They said the operation wasn't painful; the laughing gas would just be to calm me, and I would have to pay extra, but they could let me try it and see if I liked it. They also let me watch a movie on the screen above me, so I selected Hugo. I realized that I didn't like the laughing gas, so I asked them to turn it off. They drilled a hole into the back of my dead tooth and were doing their thing, but I was numb so it really wasn't a big deal to me. At one point, the dentist looked up and asked what I was watching; but since I was numb and had equipment in my mouth, all I could say was "Ew-oh." He said "What?" and I was worried how I was going to explain, but then he realized what I said. Then I went home, but I don't remember what I did that day. That evening, though, my roommate Scott wanted to host a dance party at our apartment, and I wanted to get some homework done, so I planned to go to campus to study so I wouldn't be distracted. Our friend Michelle came over, and she saw my St. Patrick's Day decorations. She also noticed I was wearing a St. Patrick's Day shirt and asked if I was going to wear a St. Patrick's Day shirt for the next month. I explained no, and I told her I had bleached the shirt; then I turned around so she could see the bleach.
2014. My mom was down in the family room with her broken leg. At one point, we got a delivery of crutches, and Buddy the dog went out and barked at the delivery man. When I came in and told my family that, Susanne said, "He's a jerk." The crutches weren't normal crutches, so we didn't know what was going on. I remembered there was an Irish-themed episode of The Flying Nun that originally aired in March, so I wanted to watch it and get feedback from my mom and sister to see if they thought it was a St. Patrick's Day episode. When Sister Bertrille took off flying in the episode, Allie said, "What the heck?!" When the episode was over, I said, "The show is weirder than I remembered it," and Allie said, "Yeah!" Susanne didn't think it was a St. Patrick's Day episode because that wasn't what it was about. My mom agreed, but she was sure they included all the Irish stuff for St. Patrick's Day. I said that was enough for me to know it was suitable for the holiday. The DVD menu was on the TV screen, and my mom said, "Was that 'May the Wind Be Always at Your Back'?" I said yes, and I wondered why she needed to ask that, since it couldn't be any other episode. Then I asked my folks if it was OK if I listened to a YouTube video for class. They said it was. It was about whether Amazon was good or bad (for the book industry), and Susanne said, "I love Amazon!" I told her she was paying more attention to the video than I was, because I couldn't bear the thought of watching an hour-long video of a seminar, so I was just looking at pictures of weird-looking bats. I might have also showed them a GIF of a peacock spider.
Then it was late enough that I needed to go back to Provo. I think someone had brought dinner, and my family was watching the Olympics.
2013. In the morning, I went over to Cougar Dental for my root canal. They numbed my mouth up, and they asked if I wanted laughing gas. I asked what they recommended and asked if the operation would be painful. They said the operation wasn't painful; the laughing gas would just be to calm me, and I would have to pay extra, but they could let me try it and see if I liked it. They also let me watch a movie on the screen above me, so I selected Hugo. I realized that I didn't like the laughing gas, so I asked them to turn it off. They drilled a hole into the back of my dead tooth and were doing their thing, but I was numb so it really wasn't a big deal to me. At one point, the dentist looked up and asked what I was watching; but since I was numb and had equipment in my mouth, all I could say was "Ew-oh." He said "What?" and I was worried how I was going to explain, but then he realized what I said. Then I went home, but I don't remember what I did that day. That evening, though, my roommate Scott wanted to host a dance party at our apartment, and I wanted to get some homework done, so I planned to go to campus to study so I wouldn't be distracted. Our friend Michelle came over, and she saw my St. Patrick's Day decorations. She also noticed I was wearing a St. Patrick's Day shirt and asked if I was going to wear a St. Patrick's Day shirt for the next month. I explained no, and I told her I had bleached the shirt; then I turned around so she could see the bleach.
2014. My mom was down in the family room with her broken leg. At one point, we got a delivery of crutches, and Buddy the dog went out and barked at the delivery man. When I came in and told my family that, Susanne said, "He's a jerk." The crutches weren't normal crutches, so we didn't know what was going on. I remembered there was an Irish-themed episode of The Flying Nun that originally aired in March, so I wanted to watch it and get feedback from my mom and sister to see if they thought it was a St. Patrick's Day episode. When Sister Bertrille took off flying in the episode, Allie said, "What the heck?!" When the episode was over, I said, "The show is weirder than I remembered it," and Allie said, "Yeah!" Susanne didn't think it was a St. Patrick's Day episode because that wasn't what it was about. My mom agreed, but she was sure they included all the Irish stuff for St. Patrick's Day. I said that was enough for me to know it was suitable for the holiday. The DVD menu was on the TV screen, and my mom said, "Was that 'May the Wind Be Always at Your Back'?" I said yes, and I wondered why she needed to ask that, since it couldn't be any other episode. Then I asked my folks if it was OK if I listened to a YouTube video for class. They said it was. It was about whether Amazon was good or bad (for the book industry), and Susanne said, "I love Amazon!" I told her she was paying more attention to the video than I was, because I couldn't bear the thought of watching an hour-long video of a seminar, so I was just looking at pictures of weird-looking bats. I might have also showed them a GIF of a peacock spider.
Then it was late enough that I needed to go back to Provo. I think someone had brought dinner, and my family was watching the Olympics.
Friday, February 13, 2015
February 16
I've already considered the other days around Valentine's Day, so now I'm going to remember what happened two days after it.
2014. In the morning, I called my mom at her hospital room to see if she wanted us to come or if we should go to church. She told us she was feeling fine, so we didn't need to see her immediately. So my dad and I went to sacrament meeting together. I didn't want to talk to many people so that we could get to the hospital sooner and so that people wouldn't think we were jerks for going to church without Mom. I drove to the hospital because my car is lower to the ground and would be easier for my mom to get into. I tried to listen to my Lower Lights Hymn Revival Volume 1 CD, but the CD player kept spitting that finicky CD out, so I asked my dad to put in Volume 2 (it was in the little compartment between the front seats). He found Imagine Dragons first, but then he found Lower Lights. We went up to her room, and my mom was told she could leave soon. But it took four or five more hours. My mom said that some other family had visited and had brought a sick two-year-old, and she found it inappropriate to bring a sick kid into a hospital. The nurses seemed a bit incompetent, as they kept coming in with conflicting reports. Sometimes she was informed she could take home a knee scooter but not crutches. Sometimes it was the other way around. But she had originally been told she could have both. While we were waiting, my mom watched the Olympics while I looked up St. Patrick's Day topics on Wikipedia on my phone. At one point, my dad and I went down to the cafeteria and got food. We didn't know what was going on, but we figured it out eventually. I wanted to see if there were any green desserts I could have, but there weren't at the à la carte. There was some green ice cream at an ice cream stand, but I couldn't justify that. Susanne texted me at one point and asked me to take a picture of the head nurse's office near the elevator, since she wanted to report the incompetence of the nurses. Eventually my mom was allowed to leave, so I went out in the parking lot and drove my car up to the door of the hospital. My mom got into the seat, not without some difficulty, and I think my dad rode with Susanne, who had come a little later. I think we were driving up Marialana Way when mom asked if Cherie Call was one of the people singing. When we got home, I think we helped my mom go down the garage stairs backwards and then into the family room. Right as we got her home, Laura Anderson came by, and I think she had cards from the primary kids. I may have asked my mom if she wanted to get revenge on the pizza by eating it, as we still had some.
2013. I remember going to Smith Marketplace with my family, and I got some Werther's candies to put in little pots of gold. Then I drove back to Provo and put out my St. Patrick's Day things. My roommate Cameron made a Facebook status about it.
2009. [Copied and pasted from a Presidents' Day post:] Our district went to Kohl's for P-day because there were supposed to be some good sales. I bought a white-and-green-striped tie for St. Patrick's Day. I looked at the St. Patrick's Day t-shirts but I didn't care to pay the price to buy them. Elder Canova admired the Snoopy "Party Like a Rockstar" shirt. We looked at a shelf with clearance stuff on it; the perverted Elder Stafford talked about the "man thong." I found an orange beanie. I thought it would be good to have, since we frequently had to walk along unlit roads with no sidewalks at night. Then we did our grocery shopping. That year, M&Ms made green candies for Valentine's Day (stupid idea), but since no one liked that idea, there was plenty of clearance candy, so I bought a bag. Then we went to the Days', where Elder Lestarge and Elder Kitchen lived, and played the typical missionary game Bang! Elder Dunn liked the M&Ms. While we were waiting for a ride back to our house, I put on my new hat, and Elder Stafford commented on it. When we got home, I looked in the mirror, and realized how ridiculous my orange hat looked. It looked like a bathing cap. Elder Betenson said that he wasn't going to say anything, but that he agreed it looked terrible. He said that his previous companion, Elder Torrance, had cut up a hat and used it as a neck warmer. I mostly cared about the orange for the visibility, so I cut it up. But he said it still looked dumb, so I threw it away. Then we went and tried to visit a Sister Locarni, who lived close to us. We found out she was an active member, but her husband wasn't a member. We learned that Brother Wilhelm, the ward mission leader, visited them, which was a scary thought, since he was notorious for teaching false doctrine. After 9:00, Elder Wilson called me and said, "I have sad news," and told me that Brother Martin from the Davenport Branch had died unexpectedly. They announced it at stake conference. I think I might have called Elder Love and relayed the info. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was my first P-day in the district. It was a hassle with all the people; we had Elder Stafford in the trunk. I bought an orange hat to be more visible at night, but it looked ridiculous, so I threw it away. I also bought a green tie (and green M&Ms) for St. Patrick's Day. We also played Bang.
"Then this evening we met Sister Locarni, who is active, but her husband is not a member. We tried to see others, but they weren't home, and we came back.
"Elder Wilson called me and told me Brother Martin from the Davenport branch died unexpectedly."
2008. This is my journal entry for the day, which I don't really remember. For some reason, I decorated the date with spiders and spiderwebs:
"So since the last time I wrote in here I had sacrament meeting, P-day, a reunion with Elder Chun, Zone conference on Valentine's Day, and the exciting news of a family to teach. The reason for the lull in writing is due to the long exchange [my companion had been sick for a week] and trying to read sixteen Psalms a day.
"Today Elder Chun slept in and then had a three-hour nap after comp study. We tried to contact some people before we came home because Elder Chun was still tired and he slept at his desk for about an hour, while I read and practiced the piano.
"Then we went with Brother Palmer to try to contact some people. It was quite an uneventful evening."
2004. We went down to Provo and saw Dave and Ya-ping. My family was seeing a movie that I didn't want to see, so I was going to watch my new Gilligan's Island DVD at their apartment. As David was going through channels to get the right one, I discovered that Hallmark Channel was having a Gilligan's Island marathon, so I watched that instead of my DVDs. I was working on a seminary assignment where we had to make valentines for our parents. The holiday was over, of course, but it was still an assignment I needed to do. (I had a horrible seminary teacher that year.) My family came back from the movie and had bought lunch at Beto's. Then we went to Old Navy, and I remember seeing they had a lot of St. Patrick's Day clothing, including board shorts. My intuition tells me this was a day we went to the Target in American Fork where I got a Snoopy St. Patrick's Day shirt, and my sister wanted to get Toffifay, and we got some Easter candy--but I can't make sense of why we would have had Dave and Ya-ping with us, because I know we were coming back from Provo, so it wouldn't make sense for us to take them home with us. It could have been a different weekend. This is my journal entry for the day:
"This weekend was Valentine's Day. I got the entire first season of Gilligan's Island on DVD. But it has a scratch on it that causes it to skip, so we need to exchange it. The Hallmark Channel is having a Gilligan's Island marathon today. My family went to Provo, got David and Ya-Ping and went to Big Fish, but I didn't want to see it because it is PG-13 and has sexuality and nudity in it. I stayed at the apartment and watched Gilligan's Island."
2014. In the morning, I called my mom at her hospital room to see if she wanted us to come or if we should go to church. She told us she was feeling fine, so we didn't need to see her immediately. So my dad and I went to sacrament meeting together. I didn't want to talk to many people so that we could get to the hospital sooner and so that people wouldn't think we were jerks for going to church without Mom. I drove to the hospital because my car is lower to the ground and would be easier for my mom to get into. I tried to listen to my Lower Lights Hymn Revival Volume 1 CD, but the CD player kept spitting that finicky CD out, so I asked my dad to put in Volume 2 (it was in the little compartment between the front seats). He found Imagine Dragons first, but then he found Lower Lights. We went up to her room, and my mom was told she could leave soon. But it took four or five more hours. My mom said that some other family had visited and had brought a sick two-year-old, and she found it inappropriate to bring a sick kid into a hospital. The nurses seemed a bit incompetent, as they kept coming in with conflicting reports. Sometimes she was informed she could take home a knee scooter but not crutches. Sometimes it was the other way around. But she had originally been told she could have both. While we were waiting, my mom watched the Olympics while I looked up St. Patrick's Day topics on Wikipedia on my phone. At one point, my dad and I went down to the cafeteria and got food. We didn't know what was going on, but we figured it out eventually. I wanted to see if there were any green desserts I could have, but there weren't at the à la carte. There was some green ice cream at an ice cream stand, but I couldn't justify that. Susanne texted me at one point and asked me to take a picture of the head nurse's office near the elevator, since she wanted to report the incompetence of the nurses. Eventually my mom was allowed to leave, so I went out in the parking lot and drove my car up to the door of the hospital. My mom got into the seat, not without some difficulty, and I think my dad rode with Susanne, who had come a little later. I think we were driving up Marialana Way when mom asked if Cherie Call was one of the people singing. When we got home, I think we helped my mom go down the garage stairs backwards and then into the family room. Right as we got her home, Laura Anderson came by, and I think she had cards from the primary kids. I may have asked my mom if she wanted to get revenge on the pizza by eating it, as we still had some.
2013. I remember going to Smith Marketplace with my family, and I got some Werther's candies to put in little pots of gold. Then I drove back to Provo and put out my St. Patrick's Day things. My roommate Cameron made a Facebook status about it.
2009. [Copied and pasted from a Presidents' Day post:] Our district went to Kohl's for P-day because there were supposed to be some good sales. I bought a white-and-green-striped tie for St. Patrick's Day. I looked at the St. Patrick's Day t-shirts but I didn't care to pay the price to buy them. Elder Canova admired the Snoopy "Party Like a Rockstar" shirt. We looked at a shelf with clearance stuff on it; the perverted Elder Stafford talked about the "man thong." I found an orange beanie. I thought it would be good to have, since we frequently had to walk along unlit roads with no sidewalks at night. Then we did our grocery shopping. That year, M&Ms made green candies for Valentine's Day (stupid idea), but since no one liked that idea, there was plenty of clearance candy, so I bought a bag. Then we went to the Days', where Elder Lestarge and Elder Kitchen lived, and played the typical missionary game Bang! Elder Dunn liked the M&Ms. While we were waiting for a ride back to our house, I put on my new hat, and Elder Stafford commented on it. When we got home, I looked in the mirror, and realized how ridiculous my orange hat looked. It looked like a bathing cap. Elder Betenson said that he wasn't going to say anything, but that he agreed it looked terrible. He said that his previous companion, Elder Torrance, had cut up a hat and used it as a neck warmer. I mostly cared about the orange for the visibility, so I cut it up. But he said it still looked dumb, so I threw it away. Then we went and tried to visit a Sister Locarni, who lived close to us. We found out she was an active member, but her husband wasn't a member. We learned that Brother Wilhelm, the ward mission leader, visited them, which was a scary thought, since he was notorious for teaching false doctrine. After 9:00, Elder Wilson called me and said, "I have sad news," and told me that Brother Martin from the Davenport Branch had died unexpectedly. They announced it at stake conference. I think I might have called Elder Love and relayed the info. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was my first P-day in the district. It was a hassle with all the people; we had Elder Stafford in the trunk. I bought an orange hat to be more visible at night, but it looked ridiculous, so I threw it away. I also bought a green tie (and green M&Ms) for St. Patrick's Day. We also played Bang.
"Then this evening we met Sister Locarni, who is active, but her husband is not a member. We tried to see others, but they weren't home, and we came back.
"Elder Wilson called me and told me Brother Martin from the Davenport branch died unexpectedly."
2008. This is my journal entry for the day, which I don't really remember. For some reason, I decorated the date with spiders and spiderwebs:
"So since the last time I wrote in here I had sacrament meeting, P-day, a reunion with Elder Chun, Zone conference on Valentine's Day, and the exciting news of a family to teach. The reason for the lull in writing is due to the long exchange [my companion had been sick for a week] and trying to read sixteen Psalms a day.
"Today Elder Chun slept in and then had a three-hour nap after comp study. We tried to contact some people before we came home because Elder Chun was still tired and he slept at his desk for about an hour, while I read and practiced the piano.
"Then we went with Brother Palmer to try to contact some people. It was quite an uneventful evening."
2004. We went down to Provo and saw Dave and Ya-ping. My family was seeing a movie that I didn't want to see, so I was going to watch my new Gilligan's Island DVD at their apartment. As David was going through channels to get the right one, I discovered that Hallmark Channel was having a Gilligan's Island marathon, so I watched that instead of my DVDs. I was working on a seminary assignment where we had to make valentines for our parents. The holiday was over, of course, but it was still an assignment I needed to do. (I had a horrible seminary teacher that year.) My family came back from the movie and had bought lunch at Beto's. Then we went to Old Navy, and I remember seeing they had a lot of St. Patrick's Day clothing, including board shorts. My intuition tells me this was a day we went to the Target in American Fork where I got a Snoopy St. Patrick's Day shirt, and my sister wanted to get Toffifay, and we got some Easter candy--but I can't make sense of why we would have had Dave and Ya-ping with us, because I know we were coming back from Provo, so it wouldn't make sense for us to take them home with us. It could have been a different weekend. This is my journal entry for the day:
"This weekend was Valentine's Day. I got the entire first season of Gilligan's Island on DVD. But it has a scratch on it that causes it to skip, so we need to exchange it. The Hallmark Channel is having a Gilligan's Island marathon today. My family went to Provo, got David and Ya-Ping and went to Big Fish, but I didn't want to see it because it is PG-13 and has sexuality and nudity in it. I stayed at the apartment and watched Gilligan's Island."
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Conversation hearts
You know those chalky little hearts we always get in February? Love 'em or hate 'em, they are a ubiquitous part of Valentine's Day. (I'm actually surprised there aren't things flavored like them, like there are lots of candy corn-flavored things.) With it being nearly Valentine's Day, I'm going to remember incidents connected with them.
In preschool, one day we were in the upstairs dance hall, playing around, and when we were done playing, our teacher gave us some with faces on them. (I noticed that was different, so I obviously had had them before that.)
When I was in kindergarten, I decided I wanted to do a Valentine's adaptation of Santa Claus, so when we were at Kmart one night, I wanted to get a bag of the hearts. I made stockings out of paper and drew hearts on them and stapled the front and back pieces together. I was going to wait until Valentine's Day, but I couldn't wait, so I got up really early one morning, when it was still dark and my siblings were getting ready for their school, and I put the hearts in the stockings I had made. I remembered seeing pictures of Santa with his finger over his mouth, so I did that, and then I asked Susanne if she knew why I did that. She said she thought it was because I was telling her to be quiet, but I said that wasn't why. I remember her saying the yellow ones were her favorite.
One January in 1998 or so, I was at Food 4 Less in Bountiful, the one by the no-longer-existing Five Points Mall. I begged my parents to get me a box of them, and they did. There was another girl who got her mom to get a whole bunch of them for a party.
In third grade, my friend David Christensen gave me his valentine at recess, and it had a few "lacy" conversation hearts in it.
Another time, perhaps around 2000, our home teacher's wife, Ivy Petersen, was visiting us and said she loved conversation hearts and got them right after Christmas. But she didn't like the purple ones, saying they "taste like perfume."
On Valentine's Day 2001, I was at mutual, and I remember someone in another ward saying some girls had helped her decorate sugar cookies, and some of them had conversation hearts. I thought that was a horrible topping for a cookie.
In junior high, I remember talking with my friend Houston about how the white ones were our favorites. Around that time, my family bought a bag that was all white, but they were a strong peppermint instead of the mellow wintergreen in the regular mix. My dad loved them.
On Valentine's Day in eighth grade, I awkwardly gave handfuls of the hearts to girls from my ward as they walked past me on the bus.
One year, perhaps in 2005, I was dismayed that I hadn't had any conversation hearts, and my mom had only a few that she got from her class, and they were weird ones.
In 2006, I put a bunch of conversation hearts in a dish downstairs. Months later, they still weren't gone, and my nephew Preston (between 19 and 21 months) knew they were up on the shelf. He had his own language, with some words in English, some in Chinese, and some that he had invented himself. His word for candy was "ba." (My guess is that it was the way he tried to say "pop," as in "Otter Pop.") He would beg for "ba," so I would get one for him.
A few days after Christmas in 2007, on my mission, we had visited our investigator Cindy, and she gave us boxes of conversation hearts. I think they were of the "smoothie" variety. Perhaps that day, or at least very soon after that, we were out shoveling the driveway where we lived, and I slipped a little bit. I didn't fall, but somehow my slip hurt my ankle, and I felt like I had sprained it again. So I went inside and read on my bed while eating the conversation hearts.
I got some in a package from my mom in 2009, but I got transferred right before Valentine's Day, so I didn't eat many of them before I went to my new area. (I didn't want to take them with me.)
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2010, I was at Walmart with my family, and I got a bag. They were different from the ones I was used to, and they even had a blue one. That night I went to my dinner group in Provo, and the host had bought some cookies that were heart-shaped with messages on them. That led to a conversation about the candies, and someone said how bad they were, and I told them they had changed them and they were better.
In 2013, I put some ice cream-flavored ones in a jar in my apartment for a decoration. My roommate Cameron loved them, and one day I discovered one on the stairs outside our apartment, I think because our friend Carissa had taken some with her and dropped one. That heart was on the step for months. After he had eaten some, he bought two new bags--one was the ice cream kind like I had, and one was the large version of the fruit variety. He asked me which I would prefer him to put in (he correctly guessed that the ones I had were the ice cream ones); I can't remember what I said. Once Valentine's Day was over, I transferred them to a bowl, but then I quit eating them, and apparently Cameron quit eating them, because they sat in the bowl for months until I decided they were too dusty to be good for anything. (Come to think of it, it was around that time Cameron decided he was too good for us. So apparently he was too good for the hearts, too.)
In preschool, one day we were in the upstairs dance hall, playing around, and when we were done playing, our teacher gave us some with faces on them. (I noticed that was different, so I obviously had had them before that.)
When I was in kindergarten, I decided I wanted to do a Valentine's adaptation of Santa Claus, so when we were at Kmart one night, I wanted to get a bag of the hearts. I made stockings out of paper and drew hearts on them and stapled the front and back pieces together. I was going to wait until Valentine's Day, but I couldn't wait, so I got up really early one morning, when it was still dark and my siblings were getting ready for their school, and I put the hearts in the stockings I had made. I remembered seeing pictures of Santa with his finger over his mouth, so I did that, and then I asked Susanne if she knew why I did that. She said she thought it was because I was telling her to be quiet, but I said that wasn't why. I remember her saying the yellow ones were her favorite.
One January in 1998 or so, I was at Food 4 Less in Bountiful, the one by the no-longer-existing Five Points Mall. I begged my parents to get me a box of them, and they did. There was another girl who got her mom to get a whole bunch of them for a party.
In third grade, my friend David Christensen gave me his valentine at recess, and it had a few "lacy" conversation hearts in it.
Another time, perhaps around 2000, our home teacher's wife, Ivy Petersen, was visiting us and said she loved conversation hearts and got them right after Christmas. But she didn't like the purple ones, saying they "taste like perfume."
On Valentine's Day 2001, I was at mutual, and I remember someone in another ward saying some girls had helped her decorate sugar cookies, and some of them had conversation hearts. I thought that was a horrible topping for a cookie.
In junior high, I remember talking with my friend Houston about how the white ones were our favorites. Around that time, my family bought a bag that was all white, but they were a strong peppermint instead of the mellow wintergreen in the regular mix. My dad loved them.
On Valentine's Day in eighth grade, I awkwardly gave handfuls of the hearts to girls from my ward as they walked past me on the bus.
One year, perhaps in 2005, I was dismayed that I hadn't had any conversation hearts, and my mom had only a few that she got from her class, and they were weird ones.
In 2006, I put a bunch of conversation hearts in a dish downstairs. Months later, they still weren't gone, and my nephew Preston (between 19 and 21 months) knew they were up on the shelf. He had his own language, with some words in English, some in Chinese, and some that he had invented himself. His word for candy was "ba." (My guess is that it was the way he tried to say "pop," as in "Otter Pop.") He would beg for "ba," so I would get one for him.
A few days after Christmas in 2007, on my mission, we had visited our investigator Cindy, and she gave us boxes of conversation hearts. I think they were of the "smoothie" variety. Perhaps that day, or at least very soon after that, we were out shoveling the driveway where we lived, and I slipped a little bit. I didn't fall, but somehow my slip hurt my ankle, and I felt like I had sprained it again. So I went inside and read on my bed while eating the conversation hearts.
I got some in a package from my mom in 2009, but I got transferred right before Valentine's Day, so I didn't eat many of them before I went to my new area. (I didn't want to take them with me.)
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2010, I was at Walmart with my family, and I got a bag. They were different from the ones I was used to, and they even had a blue one. That night I went to my dinner group in Provo, and the host had bought some cookies that were heart-shaped with messages on them. That led to a conversation about the candies, and someone said how bad they were, and I told them they had changed them and they were better.
In 2013, I put some ice cream-flavored ones in a jar in my apartment for a decoration. My roommate Cameron loved them, and one day I discovered one on the stairs outside our apartment, I think because our friend Carissa had taken some with her and dropped one. That heart was on the step for months. After he had eaten some, he bought two new bags--one was the ice cream kind like I had, and one was the large version of the fruit variety. He asked me which I would prefer him to put in (he correctly guessed that the ones I had were the ice cream ones); I can't remember what I said. Once Valentine's Day was over, I transferred them to a bowl, but then I quit eating them, and apparently Cameron quit eating them, because they sat in the bowl for months until I decided they were too dusty to be good for anything. (Come to think of it, it was around that time Cameron decided he was too good for us. So apparently he was too good for the hearts, too.)
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