My Very Dear Friend

When I moved to Utah many people suggested I would be lonely, or it would be horrible to be away from family, or being far from roots would be debilitating. As luck would have it, I have no idea if this is true as I met a wonderful family within a year of arriving here. They have very nicely adopted me into their group and forgive me when I forget to call.

But mostly, they got me through the worst time of my life last year just by being around. This year, my surrogate mom has said she will donate blankets to the hospital Nic-U in honor of my baby who died. I am not sure I am sufficiently corny enough - you know, we stoic Victorian types have a hard time with emotion - to demonstrate often enough how much I love her and her family and how much I know they have done for me.

Thank you for everything.

Let it Snow Let it Snow Let it Snow

The snow has begun to fall here in northern Utah and it is beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. My cats are a bit pissed that they can't go outside - they can, but as they are morally opposed to snow, they feel they can't - and the dogs are thrilled to run around in the snow. And, of course, boot camp was inside, so no figure 8 or monster hill.

But mostly I want to comment on the fact that my road has not been nor will it ever this winter be plowed. In Utah, the people pride themselves on paying no taxes. I guess Westerners feel very strongly that there should be no government services. In New York, we paid taxes - and, lo and behold, we had a better economy than does most of the world and certainly better than Utah, so clearly paying taxes doesn't ruin the economy as some of our more friendly Republicans would have us believe.

Here is a list of things I had in New York where people paid taxes:

• Best per pupil funding for education in the nation.
• Streets were always plowed within 24 hours so no one died unnecessarily.
• Instead of the $110 a year for car registration I pay in Utah, I paid $45 for two years.
• Garbagemen picked up everything you put on the street, everything.
• You got to hand in your cans for $.05 a can, which was nice for kids raising money.

The list could go on and on. My good friend once called New York, "the People's Republic of New York" - she's in Arizona. And I laughed. But when I slip and slide down my road, which I will do for the rest of the winter, I think a little about how I miss the good people of New York.

Idiot Students

It's that time of year again when I move into student presentations and away from lectures. And my head explodes.

Things I have heard/read:

• (in response to the question: what exactly is your thesis) I did a kind of scattershot thinking paper. Just because it's different doesn't mean it's wrong.
  
• (assignment turned in for a 5-7 page book review) You mean two pages isn't enough to review Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone? I mean, why not?
  
• (email) Professor, I sent you my paper for you to post at midnight last night. It is now 7am, why isn't it posted yet?

Why do students think it is okay to do these kinds of things? Do they have no perspective on their place in the universe?

ARGH!!!

Christmas Movies

My favorite Christmas movie is Love Actually. Today it's playing on USA as we gear up for the Christmas season. Why do I love this movie? All the different types of love that are displayed: adulterous love, unrequited love, young love, first love, international love, love after death, love after adultery, a stepfather's love for his stepson, a good friend's love for her friend, inappropriate love between an employer and subordinate, the best friend's hidden love for the girl, a sister's love for a disabled brother, and so on and so on. No resolutions necesssary. No profound declarations with political meaning. No daunting questions to address after you're done watching. Just fun depictions of the many types of love.

I adore this movie. Maybe this year someone will buy it for me for Christmas and then I can watch it all the time, even in July.

5th Year Anniversary

Today is the fifth anniversary of Paul and my wedding date. I have been friends with this guy for ten years, been in love with him for eight years, and now am lucky enough to have been married to him for five years. Sometimes I am amazed that after years of reading historical romances that I actually found the guy who was my soul mate. It seems so corny.

Here's a love shout out to my baby, my best friend, the best looking guy I know...I love you.

Thanksgiving

Today the husband and I went to have Thanksgiving dinner with some friends, which was delicious. We then played cards, which was fun and fabulous. Then I got nauseous, which was not so good. Did I eat too much? I didn't have seconds and I only had one scoop of each delicious item offered. Was it the diet coke? Could have been. It's been two weeks since I have had any diet coke and I drank quite a bit today. Or was it some weird combination of foods? I have this strange tendency to get very nauseous as a result of eating seafood and steak - neither of which alone makes me sick but together is lethal.

Whatever it was I was very embarassed to have to run out of the house because I had to throw up. I mean, my friends may love me (or maybe they don't) but I don't think they'd appreciate my puking all over their gorgeous hard wood floors.

Spinning

This week is Thanksgiving (in case you didn't notice this big holiday coming up) so boot camp is canceled on Thursday and Friday. In an effort to be a good exerciser, I went to boot camp this morning. We ran the hill (half of the figure eight) twice with an 8lb medicine ball. Then we went in to spin. Spinning is riding an exercise bike in the dark with loud music and your boot camp instructor yelling at you. At one point she came around and made sure all of our resistance knobs were turned all the way up, so I subtly turned my up before she got there. I always thought spinning would be fun...and it was, but it kicked my ass. I was so sweaty that I couldn't open my eyes.

God I love boot camp.

4.2 Miles

I bought a little pedometer last week. I am trying to get to 10,000 steps a day, which doesn't seem like that big a deal until you realize just how goddamn many steps that is. Needless to say, I have thus far failed to meet my goal. Today was my boot camp day which involved a series of obstacles...I guess, an obstacle course. We did jacks with medicine balls, jumped up stairs, skated, long jumped across the gym, climbed the wall (this is my particular favorite as my very good friend is my partner and she can run over the wall while I heave and shove myself up it and down it), we did abs and abs and abs, ski jumps, lat pull downs, bicep curls, etc etc etc, with each set of torture offset by a 2 lap sprint (I was happy today because I actually passed people...woo hoo!). I decided to wear my little pedometer to get a feel for how far and how many steps we go when we aren't on a cardio day (oh yes, this was NOT a cardio day). We stepped 4.2 miles...4.2 miles! On a non-cardio day. I can't wait to wear the pedometer for the figure 8.

I imagine I may get to my 10,000 steps today.

Wasteland

Okay, a couple of posts ago I was bragging about the skiing and how beautiful it is here and blah blah blah...well here's a reason why I don't like living in Ogden, UT. I wanted to go see For Your Consideration (I love these movies: Spinal Tap, Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman, A Mighty Wind...I keep waiting for them to do an academic conference or a Winterguard show or a Band Camp) and it hasn't come here yet. So, I have to wait a week.

It's beautiful here but sometimes it feels like a cultural wasteland.

Borat

Last night two girlfriends and I went to see the movie Borat. I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. And when I wasn't laughing my stomach hurt as I anxiously waited for what horrible thing he was going to say next - the same reaction I used to have to Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Things I learned from Borat:

• Rodeo people are homophobic;
• High society women in the South would rather have a bag of shit at their table than a black stripper;
• Black kids in the inner city are the friendliest to people from out of town;
• Frat boys are stupid and wish slavery would return;
• Mortgage brokers do not know what to do when two naked men wrestle through their banquet;
• Pamela Anderson has a good sense of humor;
• and...that dude from Cambridge is hilarious!
  

My Old Car

I have an old car. In case you didn't realize about me, the deal is I only drive a car that gets good mileage because I don't care what it looks like. I have no aesthetic conceptualization capacity when it comes to automobiles...or, I can't figure out why a mustang is a good looking car and a sedan is not. I just don't get it at all. So, I drive whatever car I have that happens to work.

Currently I am driving a hand me down which was bought used by my mother. My husband is driving the car I bought new eight years ago and paid off in perfect time without ever having missed a payment or having been late. I don't know if Paul would prefer a car that is pretty, but he doesn't seem to care either as long as his Sirius works. My car now does not have a left directional, which means I have to drive with my hand out indicating when I am turning left. This sucks. Mostly because it sucks to hang your hand out the window and now that it is snowing my window doesn't always work. I am planning on taking it to the mechanic this week and hopefully he can fix it. But my understanding of Mazdas, especially ten year old ones, is their parts aren't made very often so I may be driving with my left hand out for some time now. And as I do not want a car payment, it could be for quite a while.

BTW, to all my skiing friends, the resorts are opening Wednesday...now ask me again, why do I live in Utah? Oh yeah, it's frickin' beautiful and I can frickin' ski before Thanksgiving...

the New Vacuum

Husband and I have five animals: three cats and two dogs with lots of hair. Our vacuum broke down a couple of weeks ago so we bought a new vacuum. By Bissel called lift off and especially made for pets. It is fabulous. I cannot believe how well it cleaned my carpet. Of course I had to keep emptying the dirt thing and I had to maintain the vacuum instantly as the driver belt was covered in hair...but my carpets look fantastic!

Woo hoo new vacuum!

Animals

I am sitting here watching Numbers (I love this show...makes me wish I had done more math...could someone write the quadratic equation on the board please?) with a Hector meow leaning on my left arm, a Hobbes dog's head on my right arm (making it kind of hard to type), Scully is over there taking a bath, and my little Macamoo dog is sleeping on my feet.

My animals are fantastic. They all take such good care of me. I love them. I love my puppies and my kitties and their efforts to keep me from doing too much work.

My Teachers

Last night I saw David McCullough speak - who knew he was the voice of Seabiscuit, well probably many people did but I figured it out last night listening to him speak - and he was wonderful. Intelligent, insightful, witty. I need to read more than 1776 of his books because I think they were probably pretty good. Dr. McCullough discussed education and teachers. And the turning on to the love of learning that teachers give students. So, this morning, I am listing those teachers who turned me on. Wherever you are, I still admire you, I still remember you, and I thank you.

Mrs. Kniskern
Mrs. Schmee
Mrs. Harrison
Ms. Smith
Mr. Hall
Mr. Bournazian
Dr. Stonecash
Dr. Provine
Dr. Christensen
Dr. Malbin
Dr. Miroff
Dr. Hildreth

Run Forrest Run

When I watched Forrest Gump, the thing I was most impressed by was his running. My lord, the man ran from Maine to California. I can barely run down the street.

Today in boot camp we ran backwards up the major hill, down and then around the "little hill" (the little hill is the one I have to downshift to get up) and then backwards up the major hill, down and then around the little hill, and then straight up the big hill and into some neighborhood. I almost died. I almost got lost. I was very pathetic.

And to top it all off it was RAINING...RAINING. I was soaking wet at the end of the whole ordeal. It was unclear how much of the soak was coming up from my sweaty body or coming in from the rain.

I keep hoping that like Forrest Gump the running will become something I love to do, but as yet, that state of zen has alluded me.

What Goes Around Comes Around

Twelve years ago I was a junior in college at Syracuse University. I watched the returns in the Newhouse building. I remember Cuomo lost New York that night, and to add insult to injury the Democrats lost everything. Everything. I was young and politically romantic. My first vote went to Bill Clinton for president. And I watched the returns crying and crying. I remember my professor saying, "it's not like they will stake babies in the street." And I thought he totally doesn't get it.

Last night I ran around the house like an idiot - the same way I did when Syracuse won the basketball national championship - and called my father at 1130pm his time to tell him his idiot of a republican member had been ousted. In Greene County, a Democrat had won! Woo hoo. Of course I am a bit dismayed by all the damn "ban gay marriage - no equal rights for gays" initiatives, but all this in time.

I was very happy that every state that had a minimum wage hike, voted to hike it. Maybe the workers of the world are uniting! Remember, I can now carry an 8 pound medicine ball far distances!

Election Day in Utah

Election Day in Utah seems a bit useless. As a rule, the state will vote Republican except for Jim Matheson, who may as well be a Republican. It is a conservative, traditionalistic state to which the status quo is better than any change, even if it took people in a better direction. This is all okay. I am okay with all of this. My friend last night suggested that he and I had never lived somewhere where it mattered where we voted so what was the point.

At first, I agreed with that until I started to think about where I have lived. I grew up in Rotterdam, New York which was a Democratic party machine forever. Thus, no point to vote. Then as I moved, it switched over to a Republican party system. Hmm. Then I lived in Syracuse, New York, in Jim Walsh's district. Syracuse as a city grew up as a Republican machine in opposition to the Democratic machine in NYC (kind of interesting, I think). No one should ever win there who is not a Republican. Except Jim Walsh is in trouble this year. Then I lived in Coxsackie, NY (hahahaha, I know it's a funny name) which is in the district of Sweeny. This district is especially drawn for a Republican by the NY Senate to cover every house near Albany that is a voting Republican. This guy has been guaranteed the election by his district drawing. And he just might lose today. And those changes just might depend on people saying even though it doesn't matter if I vote, I will vote anyway.

So off I head to the new machines here in Utah (I will probably blog this experience later) to cast my vote where it doesn't matter if I vote.

And, for the record (for anyone who is keeping a record), today in boot camp I climbed a wall and did the football jump string thing (I am sure that's not the name) with a 20 - 25lb backpack on my back after doing push ups, ski jumps, jump ropes, walking push ups, tricep pull downs, etc etc. When the workers of the world unite, I will be ready for the war!

All Souls' Day

Yesterday was All Souls' Day for the Catholic Church. What this means is we pray for all the souls and the people who have died. This day never meant anything to me before but now it comes on the anniversary (or near the anniversary) of my baby's dying. And my church puts her name up on the wall as one of its "beloved dead." Many people will forget that I lost a baby last year, and I understand why...before it happened to me I never understood how people could be so upset about losing a baby as a stillborn. Some people will remember (and have already mentioned they remembered) who know me well and know how awful this time last year was.

I draw solace from the fact that my church community will pray for her and that she was remembered by them without my prompting. While the world marches on (which sometimes boggles my mind as I feel every rock and tree has changed), my church mourns with me.

Being a Democrat

I have always been a Democrat. When I registered to vote when I was 17 I registered as a Democrat. Every time I have registered since I have done so. Then I had the bright idea of getting involved in party leadership...and I think I am going to unregister myself here in Utah. I am embarassed to have my name connected with a number of these people. Some Democrats here I love (husband and best friends) and some Democrats I admire very much (my mentor in the party and previous county chair) but holy crap there are some Democrats who are testing my time worn attitude about weapons.

Last night I was feeling pretty good about myself. I was a panelist on the local PBS station's CD 1 debate (then of course I saw myself and realized those 3 cameras on me added 30 pounds...or that I have a lot of work to do at boot camp) and came home loving life. Hit play on the answering machine to have some man threatening prosecution because some Democrats put signs on his lawn without his permission apparently at 6am yesterday morning.

WTF!?! What idiot Democrat snuck on to someone's yard and placed a sign at 6am? Oh, wait, I know, it's that annoying family which seems determined to embarass us all. Eris, you know about whom I speak! I do NOT want to be associated with these people. They are stupid, they are vindictive, they are nasty, they are mean (the latter three wouldn't bother me so much if they were smart...like I kind of respect Karl Rove because man the dude can work the politics...it's the stupid that really gets my hackles up) and they are causing ME to have messages on MY personal answering machine. That's it. I am out of this Utah party.

Watch world, Idaho will go Democrat and Utah will stay Republican until the end of time because of these types of people who seem to populate the party here. ARGH!!