stranger love

you know how it goes these days - everything online - strangers contacting you, somehow having fallen in love. or something. for your amusement i thought i'd post one of the latest protestations i've received. what's funny to me is that i recently read some 18th century sonnets with my students. i wonder if this is just a modern version of "to helene" - a rather funny sonnet in my opinion by some guy named ronsard. i think what really irked me is when this guy calls me a pillow. really, not a good word to call a woman. right up there with "couch" and "sturdy."

Hello
My name is micheal and i read ur profile so i liked it then i thougt u are the ligth that i can see and u are the pillow that i can lay some dougth some belive some la achive so it will be only u and me when u weak i will make u strong know where u belong i am not perfect but i promise i will not do u rong i will keep u away from harm my love is protected i rape u in my arms so u will never neglected i just make u aware of wat we will have is rare and the moment of the spare i will be the courage when u scared,loyal down for u as soon as i saw ur profile i wanted to be there cos i a can hold it down for u be around for u u are the qeen that is y i will treat u royal this is all for u cos i simple adore u.
I will love to read ur reply
Bye angel.

it is finished

i have officially completed my shakespeare class - i know, really i finished about a month ago, but today i got my transcripts with my final grade posted - a b+! i got an a- on the final - miracle! everyone celebrate!

Spoiled

This post is inspired my monica's blog - ain't life fun. Life is fun! And I am spoiled. I was just saying my evening prayers and reflecting on god's blessings. I realized (for the second time in a year) that god has surrounded me with the softest bounciest pillows ever. When life gets me down and I think i'm having an abraham moment I run into a big soft pillow. Today the pillow was aud and mind at the park with baby tabitha. Bounce! Thanks guys. Thank you to all the good pillows that you friends are!

More dona

I forgot - here's another photo documenting dona's bday. On the actual date some of the girl friends gathered for dinner at fat cats - yum to bread sticks!

Ed learns a lesson

For years i'd argue with ed about punctuality. Now that he's married he's often on time. Now that i'm older and still single i've lowered my standards a bit (just trying to blend). Tonight we gathered to celebrate dona's bday with dinner and u2 laser light show. It seems ed beat me to the restaurant. He discovered that one of the benefits of being early is that you get to sit in nice chairs. Lounging chairs no less!

quitting

do you ever want to quit your job? today i do. not because the kids are getting to me. because the beauracracy is getting to me. it's testing time and this year we're trying it online. i'm just stumped by the sheer impossibility it seems to organize my lessons/time around this unknown factor. the guy in charge of coordinating all this is a football coach. enough said. i can't listen to him - it causese me all kinds of pain. my only comfort is that if i did listen to him he wouldn't be making sense or would be making up stuff anyway. yep. i want to quit. i'm done. there are only 9 weeks left. anyone want to be a long term sub? i'm ready for summer.

easter reflections

first i want to thank all of you who shared uplifting thoughts by email or blog - it enriched my holiday weekend. and it needed enriching! i think this may have been one of my more significant easter weekends. my celebrations began by watching "king of kings" at the organ loft. i enjoyed the funny parts (silent films are just different) as well as the more spiritual reminders of christ's life. i liked seeing it portrayed through different eyes than mine and realizing that his life is for everyone, no matter their beliefs or interpretations. i liked the colorized part best - it reminded me that the resurrection morning truly is the most important point of this weekend - god promises us life. all kinds of life. christ brought us that life through the atonement and his resurrection.

then friday morning i attended an early temple session since it was my one and only day of spring break. the spirit was strong there and i felt completely relaxed as i had nothing more pressing waiting for me when it was over. i could just savor it. that afternoon i explored farmington bay where the cycle of life was evident in the swampy boggy noisy water and walk ways. birds and people were out in abundance soaking up some of god's great beautiful earth.

then saturday i went through a hard personal experience. what made it sweet was the peace i felt knowing that i could trust god and that even though i was sad i knew it was all for the best and would work out for the good of all. you know that bittersweet pain that you can't quite call pain because it feels right in some way? yep, that's the best way i know how to describe it. i felt peace knowing that i was doing the right thing.

sunday morning i attended music and the spoken word with a group of friends (see photo below). such beautiful music! and all of it about the death and the resurrected christ. i spent most of sunday leaking tears as memories and reflections on dad, plus saturday night's pain, kept flowing through my mind giving me new perspectives and just reminding me of love. i found myself thinking about god's will and god's plan for me quite a bit. i like that part of that plan includes the atonement.

anyway, it's hard for me be to be personal or spiritual in a blog - but i wanted to share something. and thank many of you for your "somethings." happy new year!

73rd annual spring ski & schleck

Okay - so it's only the third or fourth in my memory - but it's been great to celebrate spring these many years with so many good friends. We had a couple new participants this year. And stylin' ones at that. How happy it is to spend time in the great outdoors with great people. By the way, i'm trying to round up 23 friends interested in pitching in 100,000 dollars to share ownership of a brand new gorgeous cabin complete with a home theater! 2 weeks of the year it would be yours to use for free!

bird watching

i wish i could call myself a bird watcher. i'm more a bird see-er. i see them fly. i think - gee, i wonder what kind of bird that is, i wonder where it's going, i wonder when it's going to rest, i wonder if it ever feels lost, i wonder where it's friends and family are... things like that. today i had a very enjoyable afternoon seeing birds with my good friend monica. we drove out to some bird preserve - no it was a "management area." anyway, we had a yummy lunch and then took a good long walk alongside a bit marshy swampy wet part of the great salt lake. maybe it has its own name - but either way - it was pretty and there were lots of birds around. some old guy we ran into said they were canadian geese - even some big white ones he claimed were snow geese. monica and i disagreed - they seemed more pelican like - but since neither of us are real bird watchers there's really no telling what they were. either way, i recommend the spot - pretty nice - just south of the fair grounds i believe. don't go between september and march - old guy said that's hunting season - sounds dangerous. and part of the road is closed from march until august - something about breeding season. okay, so i don't know when the ideal time to go is. oh - he did say that you see bald eagles in february. we just missed them. i'm just bummed i failed to document my trip with the trusty cell phone camera.

Arctic

The home of lime squeezies! But tonight I had an above the rim choco-banana that wasn't above the rim enough. Still - it's a good place. Mark came. Lynn was supposed to but the eq people didn't get their job done fast enough. Which is unfortunate because mark - as usual - made me frustrated and I cried. We sure do have different conversation styles! But he's patient and forgiving. I am the lucky one.

overheard nerd conversation

the head computer tech guy and the ap calculus teacher were overheard in the faculty lounge today having the following conversation while buying coke:
"so what do you think is the largest cat?
"it's got to be the tiger."
not the funniest, or nerdiest, but still it seemed very odd to me.

speaking of odd things - today i found myself not bothering to secure the bathroom stall when i use the faculty restroom. i close the door (it stays in that position) but i don't bother with the latch thing - too hard to aim just write - plus it gets a bit stuck. i see no problem. i did wonder, though, when there was someone else in there if they noticed the lack of latching sound. hmm.

celebrating green

last night i attended one cool st patty's party. everyone dutifully wore green - wait - i think the guy next to me was in gray - well, you know how guys are. anyway, there was live entertainment. a professional musician played her piano and sang traditional irish songs for us. she also played a couple jigs on the fiddle. i learned the difference (maybe) between traditional irish music, american irish music, and american wannabe irish music. there was also lots of delicious food! what a great time.

benefits of yoga

last night in the shower i discovered one of the benefits of yoga. i don't know about you all - but my body had aged enough that i couldn't touch my hands behind my back - you know where one goes over the shoulder and the other comes up from below.... anyway, i could grab my hands - i could reach! i tried it the other way - i have NO recollection of ever being able to touch from that angle - you know how one side is weird and doesn't do what the other side does. anyway, they touched! they couldn't grab each other but they touched! i am officially more flexible!

once again - thank you cindy!

TV Reviews

it makes sense - i teach the high school.

wwww

speaking of the famed wwww tours - for the heck of it i feel like posting some photos from trips gone by. way by.
it seems all good trips need a feet photo. i believe this was the inaugural run for my car as chief transportation mode of wwww tours. it may have even been the one where i got my ticket - i learned the hard way that you don't pass a car by exceeding the speed limit.
this is another lava trip - we eventually grew out of our roots and moved on to more glamorous cities like st george. in this photo we're showing off our "tats."

clarification

the good roommate pointed out that some clarification may be necessary. wwww stands for women of the world whirl wind tour. see my trip to st george - that was the latest. in august we hit boston. good times all around!

nephew

i couldn't resist sharing this photo. it's my 2 year old nephew - or maybe only one. anyway, he climbed in this doll cradle at my mother's house and made himself comfortable. quite the photo to live down once he's all grown up i think.

recap

okay, so i'm home from my trip and i realized there may be a couple gaps in the story. i arrived in laramie on friday night and attended the obama rally. it was cool. then before turning in for the night i enjoyed some asphalt pie - it's been a long time since i enjoyed the deliciousness of wingers! saturday was filled with a trip to cheyenne to buy building supplies to make a dog kennel - i know - exciting. it was odd to me, though, to drive an hour to get to a big box store like home depot. saturday night i attended the brown and gold ball - a resurrection of an old tradition at university of wyoming. the ldssa decided to bring back the old glory a few years ago. i couldn't get over the flashback twilight zone feeling of the whole experience. i was surrounded by young college students dressed in a variety of "formal wear." the few couples at our table were fun to chat with - unsure of their majors but having a good time anyway. i saw many girls painfully dressed in bright colors that were either too tight or too short or too weird. of course, there were also the few that made everyone else jealous - even me - who was way too old to care. when the dancing began it was all country music, so we decided to head to the grocery and call it a night. sunday we forgot about daylight savings change so we overslept. not a big deal, but funny. church was great! lots of young marrieds, but smart sharp humble people - i loved all the talks and lessons. we got invited to dinner with by a family that was having missionaries over, so that was a nice treat. the evening ended with a pioneer trek fireside. i was a bit jealous - i kind of want to trek again! this time i'd make a bonnet and skirts instead of wearing the ugly di stuff i had. today i came home, but first i attended a class on land reclamation - the science of restoring natural habitats to areas that have been excessively modified by human use. it was pretty interesting. then a two hour drive back to denver, a two hour wait in the airport, and then an hour long flight home. full day! good adventures all around. oh, and my rental car got renamed "the black panther." i can't say i'm a fan of the chevy mini-suv and there were NO blizzards, but it was fun to have the xm radio and the feeling of driving a "new" car.

ugh - back to work tomorrow.

Chillin'

I'm just having a snack at the mc-d just north of denver. Not bad. I'm headed home now. I'll probably post more laramie stories later, but for now let's just say i'd rather not be headed home. Something about work and life back home just doesn't sound so exciting to me. I do like this outdoor table where I can hear and watch all the bigrigs come and go from the highway. Sort of like plane watching but different.

Obama

I'm a total loser - I forgot to take my cell phone/camera with me tonight. I attended the obama rally in laramie tonight. I know I have no photo to prove it but it's true. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Yes there was the usual rhetoric, but as an english teacher I just focused on how fun it was to identify it. He wasn't as polished, though, as i've imagined him. He was good but there were pauses where he seemed to be struggling to remember what he wanted to say or how he wanted to say it. Either way, it felt good to see him and support him and think he'll be president. I did sign a huge "laramie loves michelle" sign. I wonder if she'll get it. Seeing it pass through the rows of the stadium reminded me of combined eq/rs meetings in the chapel.

The drive

Hooray for fancy radio in my car! I can listen to anything I want! But much like cable I found I just kept changing the channel. As you can see, there's snow up here. And wind. But that doesn't show up as well.

Black magic

That's what i've named my rental car. I've rented cars before (3 times I think) but this is the first time I did it alone. I was manhandled by judy, though. She forced me into getting the bigger car with 4 wheel drive. She insisited it's blizzard season and i'll need it. at least she gave me free extended hours. She also told me about her ramen and tuna stash in case I get stranded in denver with her. Really - a bossy woman. So i'm trying to enjoy the luxury of my fancy suv and not think about the waste of gas going on.

Denver temple

Here's the first leg of the lone wwww tour. It's a gorgeous day here - sunny and warm. I'm surprised by the chunks of snow on the fountain. Must be cold water.

The wait

Nothing like the line at the airport. This is my first trip to denver. Like plewe said, all the wwww tours have been good training - wahoo for single wwww tours.

It is finished

Shakespeare is done. And I didn't do as badly on the final as I thought I would. Instead of questions from ALL the plays like it said there would be I only had to deal with the last half of the course material. I was also very impressed with my ability to recognize many of the quotes I had to complete. Hooray!
as I left I saw a collection of paintings of the prophets that I remembered seeing in the halls of the harman building from back in the day when I temped there and attended church there. It was like running into an old friend. I took a photo of the new part - I think president hunter had just become the new prophet during my days there.

crazy

i'm seriously a bit crazy. i just told the byu testing people today that i will come in tonight at 7 and take the horrid shakespeare final. i have NO idea about anything. i better at least gather my books and maybe mark some passages that i was supposed to be familiar with or something. really i just think being done with it means more to me than doing well on it. call me a high school student. or something. did i ever tell you (the general you not really any of you in particular who are reading this) about the time i worked with mentally handicapped adults and realized how they are exactly like the rest of the world? when i taught 7th grade i came to the same conclusion about them. humans are the same. here on earth we look different on the outside and have different ages and stuff, but it seems we're really not at all different. we all suffer from laziness. for example, the one client i worked with would often wet her lazy boy. she would be rocking away in it, just enjoying herself. enjoying herself so much that she couldn't make herself get up and go to the bathroom. i found myself sitting on the couch sometimes, tired beyond belief watching pure lameness on tv and yet i was just too tired/lazy to get up and go to bed. it was like i was "wetting myself" for no good reason. i'll never forget that lesson. and yet, here i go to take a test i'm unprepared for and i just don't seem to care. hmm, my students will be taking a test next friday. i wonder how they'll do.

student sadness

okay, so this isn't really really sad news, but it did get me sort of down. one of my favorite (of ALL time) students just got checked out. i'm not sure where he's going, but i worry about him. he seemed to really be making progress here. i was even trying to get him some glasses so he could read without headaches. he was such a hard and faithful worker. really - a good example to me as well as his classmates.

more food goodness

dainon - this is for you. come on over! i have masaman curry cooking. (or however you spell that first word.) it's a red curry with coconut milk and a bunch of vegetables. normally i'd add chicken but i was too lazy to get any out and thaw it. the taste is the same. i just threw in extra asian eggplant for filler. it is all soooo delicious. hooray for the local asian market for hooking me up with the tasty ingredients.

baked indian pudding

basically it's corn pudding - but i like the romantic sound of "indian pudding." i got the recipe when i was in boston. the restaurant we visited had a brochure with a recipe. since i loved it in the restaurant i decided it was worth trying at home. trouble is i don't have a stone crock, nor do i want to bake anything for 6 hours. i managed to adapt the recipe for my sense of practicality. it's delicious. i'm happy to report i "baked" some today - it's in the fridge - ready to feed me this week. yum!