better to stew in discontent than to admit we’re wrong

december 30, 2006.
it's a red -letter day.
today is the day we drove to denver to see andrew bird and devotchka.

some said we were foolish; mother nature is a fearsome force to be reckoned with.
who were we to challenge her?
but we were smiled upon and here i present to you a record of our success.

despite what others might have you believe, we took only calculated and reasonable risks. we gave ourselves 14 hours to do a 7.5 hour drive. in order to do this we started early.

here we are venturing into the cold at 5am:

and here we are shivering out there in the dark:
and here we are, piled into the back of t.r.'s car:


as instructed (888.wyo.road), we expected "dry pavements" for most of our way through wyoming.
roads weren't bad at all, in fact, proving all the nay-sayers wrong.

we made ourselves comfortable, grateful that t.r. was driving, and enjoyed the scenery.

the mundane scenery of wyoming:


we listened to andrew bird.
first weather systems, then mysterious production of eggs. then joey pulled out the bowl of fire:

ren's a bit of an andrew bird novice so we gave her an introductory briefing.
then, just to be fair, we enjoyed a little devotchka(!) and i promptly fell asleep.

i awoke to joey and jeni arguing about the validity of such shows as what not to wear and split ends. rennie passed out the rolls and cheese and we discussed the most likely places to steal mustard.

the back seat was a little cramped so we got out to stretch our legs and play a short round of chinese fire-drill meets musical chairs. you might say i lost.

cramped quarters and road trip food:



in good time we made it into denver, recognize the famous skyline?

we headed directly to the d.a.m., having been informed that it was free.

aren't we artistic?


we saw the sights of denver, well those that we could get to, and decided to dump our stuff and meet our hosts.
so we headed down to aurora.

here's a look at the treacherous, blizzard-beset roads:


we had to park a couple of blocks away and walk in, but it gave me a chance to demonstrate the usefulness of my new pink snow boots:


the funks entertained us until it was time to head over to the "historic" venue.










andrew bird is, as it were, a gem.
andrew bird can make the very absolute worst day of your life happy and worthwhile.

devotchka ain't bad either. (plus, we decided, much more condusive to understandable dancing.)

here we are rocking out at the show:

sunday morning took us south again to the springs and here the roads were a little more sketchy. but we made it and saw my lovely sister and brother-in-law and my fat kitty-nieces.

kitty-nieces:


we decided against another night out and headed home in the early afternoon.
the ride home was slightly more onerous (the way home always is) but we made the best of it by sleeping most of the way.

the dull drive home:

happy new year, kids!

and she doesn't know why that she runs, but she runs

cats, i'm not so sure about this...

my family rocks the casbah: part 1

in no particular order, my family rocks the casbah. today's installment features my brother-in-law jordan on trombone.

Let's talk about Jordie as a trombonist.
He is currently a Bachelor of Music, though married to my sister Lizzard-breath. In Spring of 2007 he will become a Master of Music in Trombone performance, which degree will be conferred upon him by the Longy School of Music in the self-same Boston of Massachusetts.

Jordo plays with the Rhode Island Philharmonic and the Brockton Symmphony and has played with the Utah Symphony, OTS, Longitude, Synthesis, SLCJO, SLAJO, the salsa band Son del Callao and more! He has lots of fancy teachers with funny names and even, I hear, bought himself a smallish trombone.

He has played in Russia, Finland, England, Boston, SLC, Provo, Long Beach and all over the Northeastern US including places like Interlochen, Avery Fisher Hall, The Wolf Trap, Chautauqua and Tanglewood.

He records stuff and composes stuff and is generally awesome musically. A great music-guru both for jazz and if you dig Mahler.

In his official bio he is referred to as Mr. Jacobson which cracks me the up.

Now let's talk about Mr. Jacobson as a regular guy. He grew up in Provo, as a child he was in the same church ward as my other rockin' brother-in-law, Chris.
He wasn't born there, though, he was born in Mt. Plesant, Michigan. He has many of the siblings, of which he is the youngest. He has nieces and nephews, all of which are adorable (and one of which looks like Jord in miniature.) They call him "Jord" and "a tease" we call him "Little Jordie" because he's overly tall and dwarfs my sister (6'4" to 5'4") and because that's what Chris' mom called him from way back when.
As a child, Jordan was a sweet young thing, once found in the back of an elementary school classroom chanting "BO-RING, BO-RING," much to the chagrin of his teacher.

Jordan is crazy cool. He talks to me while i wile away the hours on the cold and unfeeling internet. We compare notes about working in the library and some such. He makes the rockin' awesomest korean food (and teaches me too!) and he has the entire city map of boston memorized so he can tell you how to get anywhere at anytime with any kind of a point of orientation. this is quite a skill. and useful too!

anyway. that's jordo.

you are invited.

guess what! on Vimeo
i love parties.
and my sister. thanks for guesting on the invite, jen.

you know...for kids!

my kitty-nieces came to visit. this is their first trip to utah.
agnes and i tried to camera dance today, but she wasn't into it. she'd much rather explore.

man, i wish i was indian

but not for the marriages. obviously.
is that really what you thought?

for the dancing.
and the clothes.
and the being lovely.
and those ROCKIN accents.
and the food!
oh the food!

strangers on a train

two girls talking on the train:
"are you married?"
"no, not yet."
"do your parents have someone in mind?"
"they are looking."
"so do you have to do the whole arranged marriage thing?"
"well,..."
"we do."
"my parents wouldn't mind if i chose. but i don't want to choose."
"yeah. i think if you pick, i don't know, you'll pick the wrong one, probably. you can't trust guys."

i wish i was indian.

...can't wait until you can't wait 'til you unsubscribe. i'll be a lonely scribe

so i'm not the best about posting interesting stuff regularly
but i'm not trying to get rid of you. i'm not.

i was going to say i don't know why i try. but i know perfectly well why i try.
as to why i talk to you as if you were really there, i don't know.

i've ruined myself. too much homework leads to sleepless and wasted nights, putting off the much craved sleep until the weekend. then the weekend comes and i can't sleep.

i have big plans. always. but, while i never consider myself to be ambitious, my eyes, as it were, are always bigger than my proverbial stomach of free time.

i did try to get rid of the busy-ness of the blog. but there is a part of me that misses the polka dots.

and the blobbyfarm badge. i'll get that back.

it's funny. i'm running in circles. but ever contracting circles so i end up spiraling and eventually you will find me spinning on a dime in my kitchen. hmm. remember country dancing and my favorite step? yeah. like that. but probably just by myself. did you know my mom once called me little black sambo? it was kind of strange.

Don't you wish you were going to this?

me too.
if only i had the moneys.
bummer.
if you're anywhere near boston in the upcoming week, go. and liz is playing on wednesday.
i'm so bummed! (that i can't go, not that they're playing. obviously.)

graphics courtesy of christopher lynn:

Christopher Lynn, Director

Gallery of Contemporary Art

University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

P.O. Box 7150

1420 Austin Bluffs Parkway

Colorado Springs, CO 80933-7150

office: 719.262.3504

fax: 719.262.3138

http://www.galleryuccs.org

and all of those who sing on key, they stole the notion from you and me...

what? i can't take a vacation? jenifizzle can just be the patient. if it weren't for me she wouldn't even be jenifizzle.

______

so look what happened the other day.
i was on the line looking up my stuff for the schooling and this just popped up:


it was awesome.
now, this is not the first time my student registration and records page has magically become an employee information page but it IS the first time it said this:


being a librarian is my only life-long dream--i.e. my whole life i have known that being a librarian was my density--and i know i'm not technically a librarian, but i totally work in the library. on friday i even got to push one of those carts all around and shelve things. (kind of. i only got to shelve the things i had taken off. and they weren't that interesting. science periodicals. no, serials is not a very romantic library job, but it's a start.) i even got to stand on one of those library stools that they always say are for employees only (which i am)

so yeah.
if this internet sticks around, i guess i'm back. sorry for the two month sabbatical. i was busy.

now all i have to do is come up with an

hasta.
jo

i can't sing on key

do you know what my favorite sound ever is?

sung syllable-final voiceless velar stops.

mmm.
if i had time, i'd give you a run through of highly prominent examples but i don't really have time.



...
look what kai and i found:


no, it's NOT a map of africa and europe. but close.

now you wish you hadn't been scared of the lightning and the wind.
now you wish you were an intrepid explorer like us.

picnics ARE for fun!
(maybe, just maybe, it IS a map of africa and europe and it's carefully pruned so that at midnight on the full moon the light shines through the leaves and points out the spot for the buried treasure.
we better go check. just to be sure.
when exactly is the full moon? )

yippee yippee yum yum ! goodie goodie gum drop !

i don't have anything to say, but i didn't realize people were actually going to look at the blog when i put that picture up.




































...

it's like wonderbread on steroids

who told my professor i already graduated?
it's my deepest darkest secret. how could you rat me out like that? just kidding. i'm sorry to brag, but i worked my butt off. (and my family's too)
now if only dr. matheson will see the light and give me an a on my final.

debatable

today is june 21. (happy 8 month birthday, mark and paul.)
that means a number of things.
1-9 days left to do your visiting teaching
2-the day my parents got engaged (they got married on the 22nd. more on that later.)
3-that concert that i shouldn't go to
4-the last day of 3701 (check it. i learned the numbers)
5-the summer solstice

now, knowing me, you would think i would be all over this.
i would think that to.

i know today is the "official" first day of the best season ever--summer, but i can't help but find it a bit anticlimactic, since for me (and all other reasonable people in the world) summer began way back when i drove with my windows down for the first time and was out at night without a jacket.

i know that all kinds of pagan rituals and stuff are totally appropriate today. and susan is totally going to a solstice party and making me feel like a boring person. but in all honesty, i don't think there's anything to celebrate.
the longest day. the most sunshine of the year. yes, this is heaven on earth, but then starting tomorrow each day gets shorter.

i feel like i should be in mourning.

today i saw

an old man standing on the east side of 900 E taking pictures of an old lady standing under a tree on the west side of 900 E wearing a skirt, a hat and holding a parasol.

there's a solitary man crying,

"dear internet," she began, in a pathetic attempt to make the reality less real by mocking it, "today i went to work."
she failed and she knew she had failed. but she wouldn't stop. she couldn't admit defeat. she couldn't admit that the internet was, in fact, her only friend.

and now that friend too had abandoned her.
now she must grovel. she must migrate from the temporary companionship of an office computer to the unfamiliar and unwelcoming wireless of the library. only to return home to the taunting solitude.
everything she thought of reminded her of something she could do with the internet. she must put it out of her head.

but it was too early to retire. she felt powerless. cutoff. and yet, she still couldn't bring herself to pay the $50/month to get her own wireless connection.

deep inside her, she knew one day soon she would.


...
last night linds and i closed down the library. (not hard to do thanks to the lame-o summer hours.) we didn't accomplish anything because as we entered we were asked to examine the new proposed chair for the library.
not only were they proposing a chair, they were asking us to fill out a survey.
not only were asking us to fill out a survey, they were offering to personally respond to us.
we couldn't resist.

we headed to the second floor, and looked to the right of the general reference desk. at last we found the box.
next to the sample chairs were a few of the current chairs. we dutifully tested both. trying each study pose we could think of.
at first i was put off by the lack of arm rests, but the sleek design, the surprising cushiness, the ability to lean back on two legs and (as linds pointed out) the ability to be wiped down and thereby promote hygiene won me over.
i gave it an "all in all i'm in favor" and emphatically requested a personal response.

i hope you will do your duty as a responsible citizen and try the chairs for yourself.
thank you.
and goodnight.

catch phrase

we ended our last day by hittin up the hardee's for some hand-scooped shakes. (the DQ --traditional beach night treat-- had a line out the door and into the parking lot.) the moon's not out yet, but the stars are close and friendly, so i said goodbye to them.
today was beautiful. lots of swimming.

too much swimming. while it's decidedly NOT swimmer's ear, i can't hear a thing and haven't since i came in (just for a breather, but my ears didn't clear and the rest of the fam soon followed me out) from the after-lunch swim session. it's like that sick, disoriented feeling you get when you're not wearing your contacts, but with your ears.
curse my tender sinuses!

my parents went for pizza and not too much later every cell phone in the house began to ring. when we finally found one in time to answer it, my mom told chris that she had lost my father. she ordered the pizza, but when she turned around he had disappeared. he later showed up in a nearby shop, swearing he'd told her where he was going.

later, after shakespeare got bitten by a snake on meerkat manor and the aliens started coming out of the corn on signs, i instigated the shake run.

we gotta pack up cause liz and jordan fly out tomorrow, but i'll leave you with the last castle.


yet another example of why you have an artist for a brother-in-law.


jordie's gallery/observatory. (i don't really remember what we decided it was.)



maria and bryan headed up the commune. (connected by a trade route, running parallel to the shoreline, to the main castle.)

we built this yesterday. liz and jord were "castled out" but chris started right in. i jumped at the chance to get in on the ground floor, as it were. i played engineer and worked on the outer defenses. the whole family helped.
and it took until nearly 10 for the face to become deteriorated. even the commune lasted well beyond our hopes. we had to have a flashlight to see what was going on when the tide finally started coming in.
the closest thing to a compliment i heard was a question of whether it was a temple to a pagan god.

we didn't build today. the weather was much too nice for us to not be in the water, and most backs were already itching from a few days' toil in the sun.

tomorrow we head back to durham for a bit and fly back to utah sunday night.
what a shame.

lynifer

"it doesn't even look real. it's just too perfect."

after watching the flooding of raleigh and durham on the news, our brief run-in with tropical storm alberto took us to wilmington for a movie and dinner. upon our return the sun was shining and all looks hopeful for real swimming tomorrow (knock on wood and cross your fingers).

the yellow moon rises over still rough seas and i find myself once again prone to melodramatic attempts at spanish poetry.

(here i am teaching maria to say "...las nubes, !ay! !que negras son!!" on day one.)

and since it's already after midnight and my paper is now due on monday, the sand castles.

day one:

(i'm sorry, i just have to point out my favorite part of the first picture. in the background you can see maria forcibly dragging jenny into the fierce and frigid [pardon the poetic hyperbole] ocean for some boogie boarding "fun".)

day two: (liz and jord's handiwork. it was too cold for the rest of us, and once the rain started, too cold for them to finish.)

hmm. i just realized that we weren't nearly so camera happy with liz's castle. ooops.
with the gloomy weather, the familial lethargy also set in.

this castle was really quite a feat. structurally sound, so much so that we were unable to beat the rain to see it crumble. the central bridge had two arches underneath, and due to my last minute feats of engineering, we were able to construct two canals that pulled in the sea water before the waves battered the battlements. the moat filled beautifully. among the many compliments, our favorite was from a 10-year-old girl who said, "our sand castle looks like crap compared with this one."

goodnight!