Getty Villa

Running for President

Today mom and I shared a pew with Richard Bushman and his wife at church. When they first sat next to us, I swear, and so does my mom, that he said "I think I know you?". I told him how I'd been the only one to stay on the stand during a fireside he gave a few years ago in Seattle, sitting a few seats away from the pulpit which was turned at an angle to face the overflow crowd. Basically I was staring at the side of his face from about three feet away the whole time he was speaking, which was probably a bit disturbing but I wasn't going anywhere, he'd written one of my favorite books, I was staying on the stand! Anyway, afterward I wondered if instead he'd said "I don't think I know you", in which case my answer of that story was probably a little perplexing. Heh.
He asked where we both were from and then I asked him if they were living in Pasadena. He's working at the Huntington this year, then next year he'll be directing the first program of Mormon Studies outside of Utah at Claremont College. We talked a little about Romney running for President, and he made the comment that the focus on the church will subside now that Romney is out of the race, so I said "Yeah, we need another one", at which point he jabbed me jokingly in the arm a few times and said "How about you? Going to run for President?". I said sure. If you tell something like that to Richard Bushman, does that mean you have to do it? Because if so I'd better get a move on.

Some pictures from Zuma beach on friday. The first one is Katie and Jack and Mom in the pop-up tents for fair skinned people. Kyra and I were getting water from the ocean and making mud most of the time. Everything was very blue and turquoise. My head, despite being swathed in layers, was still a bit burned.

Pasadena

after reading Jenni and Joseph's blogs, I've come to the conclusion that Pasadena is pretty much the opposite of India.

but good for thinking


and Swedish Breakfast on the balcony



and it has Heather and Andrew! we went to one of the largest LDS temples last night, as evidenced in this little tiny picture-

I also went to the beach yesterday with Mom, Katie and Kyra, and Jack. my sister Katie has free connections to Disneyland so we'll go there monday, I haven't been there since my high school science trip. today my mom and I are going to the Getty Villa, an offshoot of the Getty Museum, but in a villa on the oceanfront.

My brother P's got talent.

February 1992

My good Aunt Corliss brought me a copy of the February 1992 "Friend" tonight. She's a former editor of the magazine, and was telling me the other day about using our family as inspiration for one of the many games she put together. I couldn't find it online, so she brought me a copy! Nice. Here it is, sorry about the glare. This game has reference to the things all of us siblings were interested in in 1992. Can you figure it out?...



.... You're Right! Muy Interesante!

This is one thing I love about my morning walks in Utah, popcorn popping on the apricot trees. It smelled good this morning. I know Seattle has smells, and that they are mostly pleasant, but Utah really smells good in the spring/early summer. Nothing compares to it.


Look family, the creek is running! This usually means good well water from the house kitchen tap. When the runoff starts in the mountains in the spring our water source gets switched over and the water from the well comes through the taps.

What a good weekend! Saturday started with watching conference with my dad, then to Dainon's for delicious food and nice friendliness, then to get some needed yard essentials with Dennis, then dinner with Ward, then a great night eating delicious stuff I really really (x7) shouldn't eat all the time with Dennis's good friends from Kentucky. THEN on sunday Ward had an extra ticket to the afternoon session of conference which put us in the front of the second floor section in the conference center (undeniably good placement for a very good session), then back to centerville for a dinner my dad put together for us and a cathedral concert back in salt lake. Whoosh. Lots of going here and there, but when asked last night if I had a good weekend, I'd have to say resoundingly yes.
Ps- Weather today in Centerville is crazy! Hail!

This past week we took a trip up to seattle. It was amazing- friends, sun, dancing, crossing the border, food- everything was great. Here are just a few photos. I did wear other clothes on the trip, just not in these photos!

Jane, me, and the Robot- Sunday night party with friends, Seattle



Dip- Me and Dennis, dancing with Steph, Seattle

Lost

I'm hauling out the contents of my room, piece by piece, looking for my lost W2. Now that the bed is full of shoes, clothes, papers, and old notebooks, it's time for a break. The lost W2 makes me angry and mad at myself, this happens every year, I try as hard as I can to save one piece of paper for a few months until tax time, usually by sticking it someplace "special". Well, yet again, I've forgotten where that oh-so-"special" place is. Mental boot to the head.

So, back to the point, it's time for a break. I found an old copy of a magazine a few of us put together a few years ago, sort of a hip-churchy publication for single women. We only made one issue, but the travelogue I did for that issue is reminding me of other happier times, so I'll reprint it here. Enjoy!

TRAVELOGUE
Saturday October 20, 2001

Have decided to go hike Mt. Timpanogos with some people from work. Get up at 4:45am, go to the store and get mini peanut butter and jelly bagels (a Harmon's specialty), chips ahoy cookies, and two apples. Something about the early hour makes me think this is a balanced meal to take up a mountain. No protein, but hey, who needs it. Meet two guys from my work and one brother-in-law in the parking lot of our office building, and we head up. Have to follow them going 80 mph down the freeway. Don't follow them so much as the black tire streaks they leave on the asphalt road. My car, called "the muffin car" for a reason, barely keeps up. Make it to the mountain, and start climbing. They stop sometimes to let me catch up, but really I'm pretty happy to go at my own pace and think thoughts. There is something reassuringly clean and fresh about a mountain. Must be the air. Can understand God more here for some reason, so the thoughts flow through me like waves. Am sure I've figured out the solution to world peace, although it will escape me as soon as I leave the mountain. Oh well.

Like the hiking fine until the snow gets pretty slick. Still okay, though. Reach the flat meadows that extend for a few miles until the final push up the mountain, and can barely walk. No air up here in the air. We stop for lunch, and I tell them I could use a few hours just sitting in the meadow while they climb to the top and back. They are hesitant to leave me there, but in the end I convince them. They head up the big mountain, and I find a rise nearby and sit. Can see them as they go along the rock field up to the saddle, a flat part on the mountain ridge where you can see down both sides. I decide to at least make it to the saddle, and start up about an hour after them. Have to cross a rock field covered by a foot of fresh snow by following their footprints. This is my mantra: "follow the footprints to the sun, follow the footprints to the sun..", which I repeat outloud to myself. Later find out they were on the saddle watching me with binoculars to be sure I was okay. Probably saw me talking to no one. Gotta do what you gotta do. I reach the saddle and sit quietly in the sun on bare rock and look all around at the lower mountains and valleys, and feel very pleasant. There is a guy in a parka a few yards away doing the same thing, and he seems to be feeling very pleasant too. I find I try to think thoughts with no success. My mind is a blank. The presence of the mountain seems to overwhelm my usual senses. Wonder if the parka guy is having the same sensation. I sneak a glance at him and decide probably not- he's talking on his cell phone.

Finally they come back down from the top, and don't see me sitting there, and it's weird to hear them talk about me, asking each other where I am. I wave, but they don't see me. The parka guy smiles because he sees that they don't see me, though I am right there. I walk up to them and give them a surprise, being right there. Pretty funny. We start down feeling happy and running. Ouch. After a while, I just walk. Sometimes one of them slows down and we talk for a while about life. I am alone and only about a half hour behind them as I come into the parking lot. We say goodbye and make the hour drive back home. By the time I get to my apartment, everything is stiff and every tendon hurts. I get inside, lay on the floor, and order pizza. When it comes I put it on the floor next to me and spend the night there because it hurts to move. It hurts to even breathe. But I am happy.

Vista Del Sol

Annemarie, this is for you! yes, I am still alive. and I can still take photos to document it! whoosh.

Last weekend ward, kristin and I went into retirement for four days at the Senior Living compound (is it fair to call those a 'compound'? I'd say yes, anything that looks like the town from Edward Scissorhands deserves that designation) called Vista Del Sol.

Here it is, a view of the sun...


ward's car parked at #64


This year our Women of the World Whirlwind Tour included the newest member, Gracen. What is the point of taking kids around in your car if you can't make them try on funny things like sunglasses? None. Poor kid.


Kristin navigating, with a smile!


This is one of those times when a picture is not worth a thousand words. It's worth one, "ick", and that is a lie! This was the best roast beef sandwich/pickle ever consumed by man! Or at least me! Stupid sun, washes things out.

The day that we had Gracen with us we stopped by the St. George Temple. It had three things that were fascinating to the under-three set:

1. A bride, standing on the steps after having been married. Fascinating. This is the stuff fairy tales are made of for the very small.

2. Flowers! Purple and yellow, growing right there on the ground within poking distance.

3. A fake village inside the visitor's center, complete with front porches with stuffed dogs lounging on them! This actually sparked some anxiety because the dogs, obviously, couldn't get in the houses. Ack.


Kristin and Gracen touching Jesus' "owies". (Under the full supervision of the sister missionaries, don't give me that look!)



One of the best reasons to be alive, lounging on warm rocks in southern utah.


lounge, lounge...


Ok, that's it! Other highlights were a read-a-thon, Rush Hour 3, pool bobbing, and barefoot sandune walking. I'm not going to say what was the best thing from that list.

some links

for intense and funny stories about the life as a paramedic/firefighter my brother-in-law Kip leads, go here:

www.kipstories.blogspot.com

for pictures of WWW 9 (I think it's the ninth trip, did we decide that?), go here:

www.plainoldsarahstories.blogspot.com

wholesale cell phone picture clearout

you have all been so patient while I've been off in LaLa land and not updating my blog! I'm so sorry, LaLa land is my favorite place, just couldn't tear myself away before now.

let me restart this thing with good jr. high stories. here's today's story:

first day of the semester. right off the bat, the phones are ringing, the kids are amassing, the locker combinations are being forgotten, and parents are trying to pay fees. three secretaries, going full steam, can barely handle it all.
so I am zooming from here to there, punching in things, printing off things, signing things, and I sit down at my computer to look up a schedule, and
"riiiiippp"
(what was that?)
(gentle breeze on my right thigh)
kid standing at the window says "where's my first class?"
"um, just a second, hang out there I'll be right over!"
(crap!)
*I look down, there's a giant flap of khaki hanging off my leg where the pants had just been, torn free by the sharp edge of my under-desk keyboard holder. hello, leg.
"hang on there!" - I grab newly-printed schedule in one hand, pin the flap to my thigh with the other, and hobble to the student window.
"ok, you're all set, thanks!" (ignore stare)
"um, mary, look..." I say to the ISS counselor. she looks, laughs, and we proceed to adhere the flap with duct tape we keep incase kids come in with holes in their pants. the rest of the morning, until I can break away and go home and change, I am a very very POOR example to all jr. high kids everywhere because my pants have the largest hole I've seen yet, and I'm a secretary!

fun fun.
:)

we gave my parents a photo book, it features emily's nose

Merry Christmas Everybody!

emily sent this link, it's Bing and Bowie. Hope you all have a good holiday!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKTHvW2JcAA

Jobed

oh my goodness jr. high is crazy business! no time for lunch! I am like a full-blown "Miss Plewe" on a plaque, desk closest to the front reception jr. high secretary, which is not what I expected! today I made PA announcements, opened a stuck locker with a key and pliers, took sick notes, tried to remember about 12 names, helped student assistants, etc. it's going to be such a struggle to figure out all the attendance rules and how to explain them to parents and record them in the computer and use the computer as a cash register. I'm a little scared to be honest. but it felt right being there, unlike the puppy place, so I guess I'll push through and try and sort all this out. I did manage to block up the computer I was borrowing but it was solved with a control-alt-delete luckily, I think that's the worst thing I did today. not bad I guess.
crazy busy though! the day flew by. whew. they need more help so I'm going in the rest of the week too.
and if you call me at work, it's Miss Plewe to you!

Part-time job, take two

well, the bank account is suffering from the whole "jobless" situation, so to provide apples and tapioca for myself while finishing up the book I applied for a part-time job again, this time working in the office at a local Jr. High. luckily they hired me, so I'll start working thursdays and fridays and half-day wednesdays in the office there. it should be a challenge in a way I've not been challenged so far, helping out those kids and teachers and office people. I just hope there's enough jars of candy around that I can sooth any angry parent or picked-on kid with cherry flavored sugar. it works magic. let's hope I'm better at corralling kids than cats!
but I do think it'll give me more interesting stories to post here. :) I've now got to go get my uniform, a festive red holiday sweater. luckily my sweater skills are honed from shopping in Laramie for an outfit to wear partying this weekend. I possibly might also be required to get a feathered haircut, from the looks of things, but am putting that off for now.
I'm excited to see how this goes!

it's winter!

ward took me to Laramie

and Dennis took me to a place where the hot cocoa is as thick as bubble gum. mmm.

Interesting article in the Washington Post today-

Study: Monthly fasting may help heart

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer1 hour, 38 minutes ago

Mormons have less heart disease — something doctors have long chalked up to their religion's ban on smoking. New research suggests that another of their "clean living" habits also may be helping their hearts: fasting for one day each month.

A study in Utah, where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is based, found that people who skipped meals once a month were about 40 percent less likely to be diagnosed with clogged arteries than those who did not regularly fast.

People did not have to "get religion" to benefit: non-Mormons who regularly took breaks from food also were less likely to have clogged arteries, scientists found.

They concede that their study is far from proof that periodic fasting is good for anyone, but said the benefit they observed poses a theory that deserves further testing.

"It might suggest these are people who just control eating habits better," and that this discipline extends to other areas of their lives that improves their health, said Benjamin Horne, a heart disease researcher from Intermountain Medical Center and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

He led the study and reported results at a recent American Heart Association conference. The research was partly funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Roughly 70 percent of Utah residents are Mormons, whose religion advises abstaining from food on the first Sunday of each month, Horne said.

Researchers got the idea to study fasting after analyzing medical records of patients who had X-ray exams to check for blocked heart arteries between 1994 and 2002 in the Intermountain Health Collaborative Study, a health registry. Of these patients, 4,629 could be diagnosed as clearly having or lacking heart disease — an artery at least 70 percent clogged.

Researchers saw a typical pattern: only 61 percent of Mormons had heart disease compared to 66 percent of non-Mormons. They thought tobacco use probably accounted for the difference. But after taking smoking into account, they still saw a lower rate of heart disease among Mormons and designed a survey to explore why.

It asked about Mormons' religious practices: monthly fasting; avoiding tea, coffee and alcohol; taking a weekly day of rest; going to church, and donating time or money to charity.

Among the 515 people surveyed, only fasting made a significant difference in heart risks: 59 percent of periodic meal skippers were diagnosed with heart disease versus 67 percent of the others.

The difference persisted even when researchers took weight, age and conditions like diabetes or high cholesterol or blood pressure into account. About 8 percent of those surveyed were not Mormons, and those who regularly fasted had lower rates of heart disease, too.

Horne speculated that when people take a break from food, it forces the body to dip into fat reserves to burn calories. It also keeps the body from being constantly exposed to sugar and having to make insulin to metabolize it. When people develop diabetes, insulin-producing cells become less sensitive to cues from eating, so fasting may provide brief rests that resensitize these cells and make them work better, he said.

But he and other doctors cautioned that skipping meals is not advised for diabetics — it could cause dangerous swings in blood sugar.

Also for dieters, "the news is not as good as you might think" on fasting, said Dr. Raymond Gibbons of the Mayo Clinic, a former heart association president.

"Fasting resets the metabolic rate," slowing it down to adjust to less food and forcing the body to store calories as soon as people resume eating, Gibbons said.

made it!

made it to Laramie! blue skies and windmills all the way. and a vibrant greeting via dogs. (better photos on ward's blog)