A Few of my Favorite Things

Things that consistently bring me joy...in no particular order:

Cold cereal

Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”, Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto no. 2”

Good conversations

Finishing a run

Anything pickled (well almost)

England, its countryside, all things English (except their teeth)

Driving in my car

The Beatles

Mountains

Fish

My red sleeping bag

The feeling of airports

Watching a little kid make something

Thermostats at 73 degrees

History

European chocolate

Quotes by Oscar Wilde

Art museums

Thai food

Large chunks of deliciousness in vanilla ice cream

Talking to old people

Being around my nieces and nephews

Calvin and Hobbes

Talks by Elder Holland and Elder Maxwell

People that genuinely care

Wheat bread

Davis County

My family

Head 'fer the Hills!

This is a combination tribute to two things: new running shoes and the mountains.

Whenever I get a new pair of running shoes, I get excited. Opening the box is like looking into a whole future of new adventures, early morning runs, sunset runs, cold and hot... You just never know where those shoes will take you! I went last Saturday and bought what is likely the MOST perfect pair of running shoes I can remember getting: the Brooks Launch. I think they are magical! It's like running on a cloud. I feel like I can do anything with my new blue shoes :) For example, this morning, I stumbled out the door to run. I had slept in a bit and so wasn't super keen on going out but I was inspired by the shoes, so out I went. Just down the street, I ran into my cute neighbor, who was just finishing a run. She had just run along the Bonneville Shoreline trail from Slate Canyon over to the temple and loved it. And then she made the comment, "You know. I love running in the mountains. The mountains don't judge you. You can just run." Suddenly, I wanted to run up that mountain! I'd never run the trail before, but why not? After all, I got new shoes.


So, I started running...and just kept running.





The morning was beautiful and the views even better. After awhile the trail turned to a road and then I realized that I was at Rock Canyon park, just above the Provo Temple! From there I headed down to University Avenue and then back home. I'm not sure how far I ran. Maybe 10 miles? I'm not sure, but it didn’t really matter. It just felt so good. Plus, I love the mountains. They are inspiring whether you’re below, across or on them. There is no better venue for clarity and contemplation then when you can stand above the bustle of daily life. The buildings look like models, cars look like Matchbox toys driving on the charcoal gray ribbon of road. It just puts life into perspective. It's true: you can just BE. The mountains don't judge. WHAT a way to start the day!

The mystery of art history

I am grateful that some people were created to enjoy science. I am equally thankful that there are people who enjoy accounting, the law, medicine or starting their own businesses. These past couple weeks, I have realized just how grateful I am that I was made (chose) to be an art historian. History fascinates me. I adore art (but can't produce it). I love combining the two ;)It can be stuffy yet suave, completely enigmatic, wonderfully yet annoyingly subjective, implicitly elitist... but very fascinating, beautiful, educational, inspiring, compelling and downright satisfying.

It's funny because growing up I envisioned myself working in a few different careers. When I was 7 and 8 years old, I really wanted to either be the person that built the big Lego monuments and animals at Legoland (like this lucky guy) or a bus driver. (This was the stage where I would ride my bike around the neighborhood stopping at different places playing school bus.) Then I went through a short era, that I'm convinced every kid has at some point, of wanting to be a veterinarian, until I realized that I don't like animals. After that, I really honed in on being a teacher. My mom taught early morning seminary and we had a classroom in our basement with desks and a huge marker board. I loved it! I would go down after school and teach school to my classroom of invisible students. But when I was about 12, I discovered what I thought was the career of my dreams: journalism. I wrote a lot and enjoyed it. Every career day from then on, I would always go to the journalist and listen to them tell their stories.

I fell in love with art history during my junior year of high school, when I took AP Art History. I was fascinated by it. When I studied about Michelangelo's sculptures, I got chills. I felt like the marble could start breathing, they were so full of life. When I looked at Van Gogh's "Crows in a Wheatfield," his last painting before he shot himself in that very field, I cried. But, I never really consider being an "art historian," I mean, what do they do anyways? However, after taking various intro classes in English, History, Accounting, Writing, I just couldn't see myself doing any of those things. Then I took an art history course just for fun. And the rest is history.

dating.com

So, a couple months ago some ladies that I worked with convinced me to sign up for an online dating site. I actually know a lot of people, a lot of friends, who have profiles on various dating sites and are wonderful, accomplished people and so I consented to try it out for three months and see what it's like. Well, thus far the social results have not really been worth my $19.95 (or whatever it cost), however, I have found it to be a source of great entertainment and a fascinating look at human nature and personalities. It's a gold mine. I have extracted a choice sample of comments that have been sent to my profile, which does have a photo of me and a brief description.
Anyhow. You can be the judges. Here we go:

Candidate descriptions:

"[He] loves loving and being loved." Duly noted. Great. Love is a divine attribute...

"[He] can name all jelly bean flavors blindfolded." Awesome. Sign me up.

"[He] loves giving massages." Delete!!

"[He] loves sports, big screens, BBQ meat..." and the list continues.

Now, I mean no criticism towards these people. I just read some of these recently and they made me LAUGH! There is a lid for every pot and I know they will find theirs and be wildly happy.

Then a couple gems from messages sent to me:

"You look so tiny in your picture." ????

And the message that contained only these two words: "You gorgeous" - LOL! True, brevity is the soul of wit but there are other issues here: A. silver-tongued? B. Grammar rules to the wind...

But, this one is the champion. This message truly appeared in my little message box:

"hey I'm not not really here for dating, I'm actually recruiting for a SpecOps team to overthrow a series of small Asian governments. It's a lucrative temp-to hire position, great benefits and amazing scenery. If you like storming beaches for good surf and roasting marshmallows by the light of flamed-out tanks, drop me a line..." If only it wasn't Asian governments that he was overthrowing. We might have made it work!

Ah, that's why I love people :)

General Mills

As part of my ward's quest for Zion, they have instituted family home evening group competitions. Yea, verily, verily. So, each family has chosen a family name. Our family is "General Mills," in honor of our group mother, Tracy Mills. We're her rat pack :) This month each family group was supposed to make ice cream sculptures using three cartons of ice cream. We debated a bit and ultimately decided to capitalize on the natural shape of the ice cream block, by making a little ice cream train. I volunteered to sculpt the coal car because it had the simplest design :) However, in my defense, the Earnestly Chocolate was a very difficult medium to sculpt with! That carton had an intense amount of caramel that offered no stability! Anyways. Here's our family's ice cream creation, as documented on our new family blog:

http://generallyfamiliar.blogspot.com/2010/01/you-scream-i-scream.html

Everything I need to know I learned in primary

Where's Whitty in the Land of the Sunbeams?....

It's clear from this picture that the seedlings of my testimony were cultivated in my early years of primary class. A couple years ago, my sister, Mariesa, began scanning all of our family pictures and came across this candid little gem. She emailed it to me and for some reason it always makes me chuckle. It's fairly indicative of my childhood, right there. I look at it and pity the poor teacher, who is trying to act amused as all of us kids wriggle about. However, in this picture it's pretty apparent that I am being the spazzy, disruptive one, closely followed by the kid in the red pants who looks like he's about to mount the table or maybe the blond smiley boy who is about to hit the floor at a run. I don't know what the lesson was about this particular week, but it looks like I had something to say about it :) I came across this picture the other night and noticed something in it that MADE MY DAY! What was I getting so excited about that day in primary? Well, I looked closely at the teacher and realized that she has a Tootsie Roll in her hand! Ha ha! There I am, showing off like Flipper so that my teacher will toss me a Tootsie Roll. Only candy would silence me?! Maybe. But not for long!

In defense of my leave of absence...

Four score and seven weeks ago (actually, an accurate estimate) I began this blog. It was supposed to really change my life, as it seemed to change everyone else’s. However, I just haven’t been able to get into blogging. I really like the concept of the blog. I think that each individual has a bit of the creative spark within them and blogging celebrates that. Blogging is a legitimate form of self-expression, express on…! Lots of my friends have blogs and I enjoy checking for updates. My roommate Tracy, darling Tracy, has a great blog that she updates diligently with all sorts of updates and anecdotes. Over the last year, our running joke has been that I check her blog to see what is going on in my own life. She’s better at blogging my life than I am! But, I have decided that I’m okay with that.

Reasons why I don’t blog:

1. I am too busy to blog about what I’m doing
2. Fear of rejection from blog readers – honestly, I think I am the only one that laughs at certain things and I should probably keep those things to myself :)
3. Phrases like “legitimate form of self-expression” and other such parlance can hardly be entertaining in the collective blog-o-sphere
4. It will take away from my allotted daily Facebook stalking time
5. Isn’t a journal enough?
6. On some days, words cannot do justice to the amusement of life. Other days, my life is too boring and my thoughts are all rubber and mush
7. Tracy’s blog is much cuter than mine

Reasons why I am about to blog:

1. After talking to a few friends the other night about the very subject of blogging, it came down to either I start posting on my blog or I have to join LDS Link-up :) There is nothing wrong with either.

I am chuckling to myself right now, because I realize that I am going to post this and no one will read it because my blog withered and died last year. I’m okay with that, too ;)