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| I didn't read this story... |
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| ...but this picture caught my attention. I don't know whether to laugh or to shudder. (1932) |
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| Some things are still applicable today. Add Mexico, Central America, or Iraq, and this would seem very timely. (1945) |
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| My very favorite issues are the October ones. And the food just sounds, uh, interesting? Cottage cheese and jelly sandwiches and goblin salad are certainly appropriate for Halloween, because they sound horrifying. Goblins and brownies used to be a bigger part of Halloween, before they were replaced by vampires and werewolves. (1945) |
On Friday, my ward had a "campout" at the Church's Heber Valley Camp. I had the day off, so I headed up in the afternoon. I played some horseshoes, did a small hike, socialized, and listened to a motivational speaker who is a CEO. It was nice, but I expected there to be more/taller trees.
However, I did not stay the night, because This Is the Place was dedicating a new monument. Since I'm writing a book about Pioneer Day, I wanted to be there, so I didn't request the day off. I had to get to work early. After coming back late from Heber in terrible traffic on Friday night, I was super tired when I woke up on Saturday.
Imagine my disappointment when I got to work and learned that I wouldn't be able to attend the dedication. That was the only reason I didn't stay at the camp! Instead, I had to help with parking. There were lots of people coming to the park for the dedication, but there was also a company retreat happening, so I had to make sure the people were parking in the right lot. They wanted me to stop cars to make sure they were going the right way. But I really didn't feel comfortable doing that, especially when the vast majority seemed to know where they were going. So I didn't really stop them. Which made me feel like I wasn't doing my job. It was very frustrating: (1) I left my last YSA camp ever early so I could (2) wake up early only to (3) miss out on the dedication and (4) do a job I didn't want to do. Ugh. Also, I doubt anyone who got to go to the dedication is writing a Pioneer Day book.
I was helping with parking for two and a half hours before they relieved me. But the day didn't get better from there. It was half-price admission, so it was a very busy day. I was in the print shop. When I told some people it was a busy day, they said, "That's good." No. It's not good. When it's busy, it means that I can't keep an eye on people. People (mostly kids, but also adults) come in and touch everything. They remove the lock on the paper cutter and try to play with the cutter. They play with the handcart model and break it. They bump the 3-D printer, which messes up the print job (which takes hours to complete!). They drip ice cream on the floor. We have two open rooms, with a storage room in the back. Some kids will come in, ignore everything in the open rooms, then go directly to the back room and try to go in. Like, you're not interested in the open rooms, so what makes you think you'd be interested in the closed room? And the door knob came off recently, so we can't keep it closed properly, which only makes the problem worse.
And since there were people in so much of the day, I had to wear my leather apron much of the day, even though there's no air conditioning, and it's the hottest time of year. The boot shop in the park has AC, even though no one works in there, yet the print shop, drugstore, bank, and barbershop become ovens. And I was so tired. It was not a good day.
While I was at work, I got a Facebook message from one of my horse friends from back in 2012. She (Kristen) had forgotten to send me an invitation to her wedding reception. I wanted to go to it for old time's sake. But I was also planning on going to the Tabernacle Choir concert. Could I do both?
Rather than go home to change (since I hadn't brought clothes), then drive down to Gardner Village, then drive to Temple Square, I opted to buy clothes and then go to the reception without going home. I got a shirt with astronauts on it—I thought I had to get that shirt on the fiftieth anniversary of the moon landing. And I went to the reception. It was good to see Kristen, as well as Carissa, another horse friend. But I couldn't stay long, because I had to head downtown.
My friend Shane had tickets to the Tabernacle Choir Pioneer Day concert, so he invited me and two others.
The guest artist this year was Sissel, who sang at the Christmas concert in 2006. When I came home from my mission in 2009, I bought the CD of that concert, Spirit of the Season, and to this day it's one of their best yet. In fact, I will say I like Sissel more than any other guest they've had. Even more than the King's Singers. She's a Norwegian singer with an angelic voice. It was very soothing after a hard day. It was like Christmas in July—I'm most familiar with her voice at Christmas, and she sang "Like an Angel Passing through My Room," which is on Spirit of the Season. She also sang a brand new New Year's song, which was fantastic.
I also happened to see my cousin Lacie there. She said she expected it to be more pioneery. I've been to a few of these, so I knew it wasn't super pioneery. Yet in many ways, I thought it was more pioneery than usual. They sang "The Handcart Song" and "Faith in Every Footstep" (which are less pioneery than some of the other pioneer songs), but they also had a medley of nineteenth-century railroad songs, which I though was fitting for the year of the sesquicentennial of the railroad. (What a missed opportunity that there were no songs about the moon, since it was July 20!) And there were many references to pioneers throughout the evening, and Sissel herself said "Happy Pioneer Day!"
I very rarely watch Music and the Spoken Word, but I had to catch it this morning because she was on again. So. Good.
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