How New York is Different

The things you notice when you leave home and then go back for visits.

1. New York is darker than Utah. This may surprise you, as you would think a place with many many more people than Utah would be much more lit up with cities, but because of the big trees you can't see further than 5 feet around you most of the time, so you can't see house lights. Therefore, sometimes you are driving on roads that you know your ancestors rode their horses on, and you know it doesn't look all that differently from the 17th century.
2. New York has a lot more green. The trees here are bigger, fuller, and much greener. Kermit would love it in New York while feel totally out of place in Utah. Every window you look out of is green. As you fly in, all you see is green.
3. New York is damp. When children spit up formula on themselves and you rinse it out with cold water, 3 days later it is still damp.
4. New York is full of pushy people from downstate. As they can travel here easily, they come upstate and push you around. While standing in line at the grocery store you can have your bum pushed by the old woman from Long Island's cart who has decided that your personal space really ought not to be respected at all. But now that you live in a friendly place, you don't tell her off.
5. New York smells better. There are no bizarre odors wafting around. Maybe it's because the factories are all better behaved because we actually have government here. Or maybe it's because the factory smells are more contained because of all the trees we have here, but it smells better...

Ah wait, I slipped into the first person pronoun. I've been here too long. Now this is home and Utah is Utah...I wonder how many years it will take before that doesn't happen when I visit...

Grouse grouse grouse SMOOCH

My husband grouses all the time. He grumbles whenever he does something that causes something to be wrong. Now, to be totally fair and give him his due, when I do something wrong he is never angry or frustrated. He always just patiently fixes my mistakes. When he does something wrong, all hell breaks loose. And he grumbles and he grumbles. And I usually laugh at him or point out how he could do it better, which, I assure you, is not the nicest move on my part and is not very helpful.

Tonight the Princess found a much better way to handle the grouse. He launched the screen door off its track while trying to put it back on the track. Grumble grumble grouse grouse - to which I say, "would you like me to do it?" - implying, of course, that I could do it better (again, not very nice and not very helpful). I look out the door and the baby angel runs up, grabs his face by the cheeks and gives him a big kiss. Which results in a big smile.

Much better.

You know you're a political scientist when

The hubby and I had a fun fight the other night. I say fun because I don't think either of us were really all that angry and periodically throughout the arguing while I yelled profanities at him I laughed and he laughed - but it was a fight. It broke some underlying tension in our relationship free from behind the veil we hide these things and we dealt with it, a bit.

But you know you're a political scientist when you say to your husband the next day after a brawl, "I think the problem with our marriage right now is we are suffering from a lack of social capital" and he says "yeah, we're both real busy," and you say, "yeah, we're bowling alone, let's have a date." And the entire conversation makes sense to both of you because you've both read Putnam and it's a referent that works...

My Baby Girl

My baby girl comes by it honestly. I have fallen asleep reading books my entire life. I think part of the reason I worry about getting an iPad or Kindle is I am sure I will drop it one night.

She loves to dance and sing and play. She never sits still, unless she is not feeling well. If she is sad she tries to smile through it. My favorite memory is her crying when a friend stopped by and she looked at my friend and smiled through her tears - she was about 10 months old, so it's a natural quality she has.

Lately she has begun telling me when I am doing something wrong. She'll say "Momma, you yelled at me" or "Momma, you are yelling at Daddy" and sometimes she'll ask "Momma, what you doing?" And I think to myself, whatever it is I am doing I want it to be something I am fine with her doing. I am becoming much better behaved. I don't swear as much, I don't snap as much, I don't roll my eyes as much - generally, I am becoming a much better person, because I am becoming the person I want my baby girl to be.

BBC Coverage

Today the Utah Republicans decided that Bob Bennett wasn't conservative enough - so they booted him. There will be a primary between two men - a lawyer and a businessman. The BBC covered it - saying the Tea Party had dumped a sitting Republican senator in the United States.

It's always fun to be covered internationally...

Understanding

My daughter gets up about 15 times a night before she goes to bed. I don't find this frustrating because I understand it.

I was thinking about it the other night and I was remembering how desperate I was as a little person to get into a picture like this. I wanted to be up late at night, eating dinner, drinking wine, having good conversation and have someone take a picture of the group I was in.

There are millions of these photos in my family - they exist over the years and across the miles. Murrays stay up eating and drinking wine deep into the darkness of the night - and at some point someone who is less drunk than the rest hops up and takes a picture of everyone leaning in over the table. They are in frames all over the world - as I have family in Australia.

Last week I went out to dinner with my Utah friends and family and we took a picture - it is now up in my house as a testament to good drink, good conversation and good food. And as a testament to why my daughter, who herself is probably more Murray than she realizes, wants to be up at night too...

As we say "Eat, Drink and be Murray, for tomorrow you may die!"

A Daddy and Growing Up

Here is the Duke and the Prince as a baby.

Here is the Duke and the Princess as a baby.

Sometimes we hit an obstacle. Duke would like these babies to be this big all the time - the same way he loves kittens and wants kittens but never really cats - so he denies their growth. The Princess has been potty trained now for about 5 1/2 months - we hardly ever have accidents and when there is an accident, she will say something like "that was because I was so excited about Madagascar" or something. We also have not had a wet pull up in the morning in weeks. I keep saying it's time to let her sleep on her own, commando. My husband keeps saying, I think she needs the pull ups. I may just put my foot down - but my worry is the minute I do that she will wet her bed, and then I'll pay for it for years.

Summer Semester

Our university just switched to a trimester approach - and we are in our transitional phase. Which means I handed grades in last Tuesday for spring semester and today I started teaching summer semester.

Is that insane, or what? I mean, seriously, who is ready for their next semester so quickly?

But in other news, I got tenure and promotion, so I am not complaining all that much. In fact, I am not really complaining at all, but wonder at the reasoning behind this scheduling.