My five-week break is over. Spring semester began on Tuesday.
I'm taking Utah history, environmental history, and US history since 1877. The first two are undergrad classes, so there's more than thirty people in each class. That makes me feel less inclined to participate, since it's hard to interject via Zoom, and I don't want to steal the thunder from undergrad students. But the third class is only for grad students, and it's required. I had the professor for my borderlands history class last semester, and she's pretty lenient. She's also removed some of the regular requirements to help us cope with COVID, so I'm not too concerned about that class.
I am a little sad that most of my time once again will be devoted to reading. It can be exhausting. Last semester, I looked forward to the end of the semester, because it would be festive Christmastime. This semester will end in May. May is a fabulous month, but it's just kind of...open ended. But then I will have all of the summer to look forward to. Or maybe I won't look forward to summer. Who knows what summer 2021 will look like?
On Tuesday afternoon, I had a dental appointment. I was supposed to have one in September, but my old dentist stopped taking my insurance. If I upgraded my insurance to keep going there, it would more than double my monthly payment, so I just picked a new dentist, and it took me a few months to get that worked out.
It's a good thing I did, because the new dental office diagnosed me with periodontal disease. They seemed surprised that the last office hadn't noticed when I went in March. The hygienist (who was the most friendly/least socially awkward of all the office staff) listed off possible causes of the bone loss when I asked. The only one that seems to fit is genetics. I don't have any other diseases (that I know of), and I have good oral hygiene. (I didn't have good oral hygiene when I was a kid, since my parents didn't enforce teeth brushing, but I do now.)
They didn't do my cleaning on Tuesday, since they weren't prepared for my necessary deep clean. So I have to go back this week.
On Wednesday, I was happy to watch the inauguration. I was going to do my strength training in my pajamas with the inauguration in the background, but it seemed important enough that I take it more seriously and put on my Biden/Harris t-shirt.
It was the first time I ever watched an inauguration (I worked in 2017, was on a mission in 2009, and was young before that). I felt so happy while watching it! First of all, I was happy that Amy Klobuchar was MC, since she was my first choice for president. I hope we haven't seen the last of her. Then I was so happy to see Joe Biden cross himself for the prayer. It's refreshing to see someone (especially a Democrat) who is deeply committed to his faith. I was especially happy that the prayer quoted James 1:5, that most significant of Bible verses in Latter-day Saint theology. And regular blog readers know how I feel about Lady Gaga, so I was delighted to see her sing the national anthem wearing a giant dove brooch. She did a beautiful job, as expected. And then, how exciting to have our first female/black/Asian vice president! (My first year at Sundance, I had a coworker named Kamala, so I know she must be happy now.) And of course, it was refreshing to have the president tell us that he will fight for those who didn't support him. So much better than the last four years of us versus them.
Unfortunately, I did have to temper my enthusiasm. I realized that the joy I felt was not so much because I'm wildly enthusiastic about this president or think this will be a spectacular administration. It's just a relief to be done with the last one! The fact that Mike Pence and George Bush attended but Trump did not is a testament to the fact that he is a narcissistic, selfish, evil man. I hope we never hear about him ever again, except if he is convicted of a crime or when he dies. Well, it would be nice to hear if he had a change of heart, but in that case, I think the news stories would be more focused on the airborne swine and Mephistopheles's snowballs.
In other news, I have continued running on new streets in North Salt Lake. I ran down Redwood Road to the southern end of North Salt Lake. I have most of the eastern part of the city done, but I have a lot in the western part still to do. I have driven down there for some of the roads, since I don't love running through traffic.
I often talk about my dislike for January. But I do love being able to see six-pointed snowflakes with my naked eye.
I love to experiment with variations on recipes, so today I wanted to try cherry chocolate pancakes, using the cherries we have in the freezer. They were a challenge to make; I wasn't used to the cocoa consistency, and the cherries made the pancakes thick, which made them harder to cook all the way through. They were OK.
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