Sweltering Spring

Hi. I put this picture at the top of the blog because otherwise, the Facebook thumbnail was a closeup of my crotch.

Sometime within the last five years or so, I learned that green carnations were once a thing for St. Patrick's Day. I don't remember how I learned it, but I did. And I also learned that green carnations were associated with Oscar Wilde, and consequently they became associated with queer culture.

On Monday, I was looking at the Oxford English Dictionary entry for "leprechaun"—as one does—and came across this quote from March 1960: "Gifts and refreshments were provided for the audience, with green carnations, bowties and traditional leprechaun hats." That reminded me of green carnations, so I wanted to buy one. So I Googled and was surprised to see that Smith's sold them! So Monday evening, I went and bought a bundle of three carnations for the next day.

I only go into the office once a week, and this year St. Patrick's Day happened to line up with my day in the office. So I wore my green shoes, green socks with Irish flags, green pants, green belt, and green shamrock shirt. And I also wore my green carnation, but no one said anything about it, and it was a little tricky to keep it upright.

Many people complimented my outfit at staff meeting. I have earned a reputation among my colleagues as a fashionable person, which is a bit strange, because I don't think of myself as being that fashionable. Our director said I was very "on brand," but I don't know whether she meant "on brand" for the holiday or "on brand" for me. 

The director was wearing snake earrings but no green, and one coworker told her those were the snakes that Saint Patrick drove out of Ireland. Our assistant director got up and asked people to raise their hands if they weren't wearing green. Then he held up a pair of salad tongs and said they were "HR pinchers."

We have a lot of boxes of old materials to go through before we move into a new office space in June, so my time in the office was spent looking through old papers from the '90s and early '00s. There are some interesting finds, such as a handwritten letter cancelling the subscription to Utah Historical Quarterly because the subscriber "has gone to be with the Lord." My boss let me play my St. Patrick's Day playlist while we went through the boxes.

For dinner, we had corned beef and cabbage (I would say I made it, but my mom cut most of the vegetables for me) and Irish soda bread from Smith's, which was the sweetest soda bread I've ever had. (I didn't have time to make my own this year.)

And my mom also made these potato candies. My all-time favorite candy is the See's St. Patrick's Day Potato, which I didn't get this year, and it is a nougat candy. But apparently the more traditional Philadelphia candy is one with a coconut filling and a cinnamon coating, and I ordered some from Amazon last year. This kind that my mom made is more like the Philadelphia version, with a coconut and cream cheese filling, coated in cinnamon.

After I finished working, I ran on the Wild Rose Trail in green shorts, green shirt, and leprechaun hat. (Unlike the quotation above, by "leprechaun hat" I mean a hat with leprechauns, not a hat for leprechauns.)

And I spent the evening watching The Secret of Kells, which has grown on me quite a bit, and relevant sitcom episodes.

The next day I got to wear my carnation again, because my friend Connell invited me to a screening of the silent film Salomé from 1923, held at the Utah Film Center. It was based on an Oscar Wilde play (hence why I wore the carnation), which in turn was based on the New Testament story of Salome asking for the head of John the Baptist. (Back in 2012, I made this Facebook post: "My semantics textbook gives 'Herod gave Salome a nice present' as an example. I don't know about you, but I hardly consider a head a 'nice present'...") It was an interesting cultural experience. I can't say the entertainment value holds up a hundred years later, as it was very slow paced. I think it's the first time I've watched a silent film all the way through. 

Then on Thursday evening, I attended an event at the Church History Museum for practitioners of public history to talk about their projects about the Mormon Trail. Most, maybe all, of the panelists, were not professional historians. It was just an OK evening. One of the participants was musician Clive Romney, who I've followed for a time. More than a decade ago, he was leading a project with other musicians to release an album about every county in Utah. They only released three, the last one back in 2015, so I asked if there will be any more. He told me he's devoting all his time to trying to save the Great Salt Lake, specifically by writing a play (or something like that) for children to perform.

As I was leaving the Church History Museum, There was a pickup truck with the tailgate down, and it was full of a chair and lots of books. One of the books fell out. The truck drove off before I could catch it, but I picked up the book from the road; it was a boring book from 1920 about court cases. I'll probably just recycle it. (If the truck driver cared about the books, he should have secured them better.)

Yesterday I went to the North Canyon Trailhead. Fortunately, the main North Canyon trail was still too snowy to go on, so I went up to Cave Peak instead. I say "fortunately" because at this point, we want as much snow to linger as possible. 

This is the main trail, and I turned around here to go up to Cave Peak instead

Guys, I am so sad and worried about our winters. We had a snowless Christmas, New Year's, and Valentine's. Now Eastertime is more like Memorial Day. And I remember our late snow in 2021, and our record-shattering September 2022. Will we ever have normal Christmases and Easters again? We have a president and his uneducated followers claiming that climate change is a hoax, denying all the expertise of scientists, just as they do with vaccines and diseases.

Meanwhile, I'm over here limiting my plastic use, eating less meat, driving an efficient vehicle, voting for candidates who care about the planet, taking short showers, using our own cherries and apples, pulling up invasive plants, and recycling. And my efforts just feel so futile. I'm worried about our seasons and our lake, and yet I feel like I'm already doing everything in my power.

Anyway. I'm happy for Eastertime, and I was able to get up all the Easter decorations.

I got this bunny four years ago at the start of my existential crisis

I got the deviled egg / salt at Target last year because I loved it, so I had to get the umbrella/cloud and carrot / watering bucket yesterday

I reminisce about how wonderful last Eastertime was: nice and long, trying lots of Cadbury Mini Egg cookies, seasonal ice creams, cherry-blossom soap, singing "Were You There?" as a partial solo, making chocolate carrot cake, new Easter musical recordings, more appropriate weather. I don't expect this year to be quite as charming, but that's OK.

Adjusting

Much of this week has been adjusting after getting back from Taiwan, as well as catching up on some of the things I missed out on while we were gone.

I didn't sleep great any night this week. Most nights I woke up for a couple of hours; there were a few nights where I woke up a few times, but I didn't stay awake. In fairness, I don't know whether it was jetlag or the usual waking, because I often will wake up for two hours. 

I have two jobs and two side gigs, and on Tuesday I did all four of them. I do both jobs every day, and in the evening, I also had more stuff to proof for Wayfare. And I was also drafting my review of KFC jelly beans for The Impulsive Buy, which should go up this week.

When we got home last week, there was fresh snow in the yard, but it melted so quickly that I was able to go on the Wild Rose Trail five days this week. I didn't take many pictures, because it's not so pretty in early March. Yesterday (Saturday), I briefly went on Wild Rose to get to the trails above it, then came down by the radio towers. While the trails were mostly dry, there were some muddy spots on the top, including a giant puddle I dropped my water bottle in.

In the afternoon, I went to the annual Siamsa festival downtown, which has Celtic music, Irish dancing, and lots of vendors. It's after the St. Patrick's Day parade, but the Siamsa is better, IMO. Usually the food vendors are sold out by the time I get there, but I was happy to see one selling "Irish" food. I got overpriced corned beef and cabbage (which is Irish American) and Irish soda bread, but they weren't really better than what I make at home. And I had sticky toffee pudding, which they called Irish food, but I think it's more English. I was totally stuffed. 

I got a green lemonade and settled down to listen to the Irish-adjacent bands, Murphy & the Giant and Shanahy, who perform every year. I might have stayed longer, but I had to get back to my car before my two-hour parking spot expired. 

The plastic seems extremely wasteful, but most people don't bat an eye at it

It's just a fun thing to do in March. In the last decade-ish, I have really come to enjoy St. Patrick's Day, even though I have no connection to Ireland. I think of it as an American holiday celebrated by Americans. Here are various things I enjoy about the holiday, along with when they became part of my festivities (not necessarily every year), so you can see how relatively recent they are.

• Head-to-toe green: Indefinitely, accelerated since 2012
• Green foods: indefinitely
• Gold-wrapped candies: 2000
• Cooking corned beef and cabbage: 2015
• See's St. Patrick's Day Potatoes (candy): 2016
• Avocado shakes: 2016
• St. Patrick's Day playlist: 2016, gradually becoming more substantial, especially in 2019 and 2023
• Irish soda bread: 2016
• Green mac and cheese: 2018
• Siamsa: 2018
• Cartoon Saloon Irish Trilogy: 2021 (I had watched The Secret of Kells years before, but it didn't stick. They're working on a new one!)
• Colcannon: 2024

But I couldn't do much more St. Paddy's Day stuff in the evening, because I was going to a Pi Day party.

Today I taught Sunday School about Genesis 24–41, which I thought went well, and the class participated quite a bit. I used a PowerPoint, and I was happy to use this special TV:

A year ago (tomorrow to be exact), our ward moved into a new building, and the Relief Society room* has this unique pixelated painting in an enormous, gaudy frame.

But it's not actually a painting! There is a remote control on the wall that lifts and lowers the painting, like a theater curtain, to reveal a TV behind it. There are USB and HDMI ports on the side of the frame.

*In my ward, the elders quorum meets in the Relief Society room, because the RS is too big and meets in the gym.

This is looking to be a fun week!

March Miscellanea

Monday was St. Patrick's Day, and I was amazed at how much I was able to do in one day. I made corned beef and cabbage in the slow cooker; I worked both jobs from home; I edited an article for Wayfare magazine; I went on a short (less than three miles) trail run to and from Springhill Geologic Park; I got a mint shake from Arby's (after McDonald's was out of Shamrock Shakes); and watched Song of the Sea, finishing in time for the new episode of Spring Baking Championship. Phew! If only I could be so efficient every day.

(Other holidays where I have fit so much have included Halloween 2014, when I worked, ran, went grocery shopping, picked up my car, visited my grandparents, got pumpkin shakes, and watched The Munsters' Revenge. And also Thanksgiving 2017, when I ran twelve miles, went in the hot tub, and cooked, all before Thanksgiving dinner.)

Tuesday I drove in the snowy conditions to our in-office meetings. The Utah Historical Society is building a new museum, set to open in May 2026, and every month the museum team hosts a staff piñata day with trivia for different counties. If you get the trivia right, you get a swing at the piñata. This week we had Juab County, and our director said, "We should have a playlist for every county. What would be a playlist for Juab County?" And I chimed in, "The Killers made an album about the town of Nephi!" The trivia guy said, "That might be one of the questions." They let me have the first swing because I knew the album was called Pressure Machine.

I try to do cardio every day, and this week I was able to do five kinds of cardio in six days. Monday was the trail run. Tuesday and Thursday I swam with the recreational swim team. Wednesday I went hiking in the snow. 

Friday I went street running. And Saturday I went biking up to the top of the Summerwood neighborhood. As I was going up a very steep road, a woman walking her dog said, "Good for you." I do always feel accomplished when I go up there. I should bike more often, but I prefer running.

One advantage of being single and living with my parents is that I have plenty of money to spend on silly things. I bought a new bike pump that works for both presta and schrader valves. My bike currently has one of each tire, and I want to punch someone in the face whenever I have to use the presta adapter. So hopefully having a better pump will help.

I also have a large collection of holiday pillowcases I have made with different fabrics. Since Joann is going out of business, I splurged on various seasonal fabrics for pillowcases: sunflowers and bees, both of which I associate with Pioneer Day; happy gumdrops with candy canes; Addams Family silhouettes; apple pie; fireworks; and anthropomorphic hot dogs, ketchup, and mustard.

And here are this week's dreams.

Mark plays with a handheld tool with a spinning blade

Mark walks up office stairs with a shoe on one foot and a sock on the other

Mark wants to swim to the high school mistletoe donation drive, but they drain the water

Mark pulls garbage from the snow in the yard

Mark hoses down the basement, getting water in the record player

on a neighborhood walk, Mark sees a red monkey, a flamingo, and a hummingbird

Mark asks Google Gemini if there is a movie about Cawnpore (this week I was doing research about a massacre in Cawnpore, India, in 1857)

Mark goes to the vet with his three cats, Reggie, Bentley, and Sean

Mark triggers a trespassing alarm in a parking garage while holding empty boxes

Historian, Hibernian

 Last weekend, since I helped out at RootsTech for work, I hoped I would have lots of extra time on Friday. But various things caught up with me that I didn't end up having that much extra time. On Monday, I was working when I noticed I was getting an aura. For me, an aura is where I have blind spots in my vision, and then I get a migraine. I tried to power through the aura, but I couldn't even read the authors' names in the sources I was consulting online. So I had to stop working and take a nap. And then, since I napped so long, it took me a long time to fall asleep, which meant I slept late on Tuesday.

Tuesday was also a busy day because I was invited to attend a book launch for Carry On: The Latter-day Saint Young Women Organization, 1870–2024 at the Church History Library. It makes me really happy that the folks at the CHL invite me to events like this because of my current position with the Utah Historical Society. I loved working there, but I probably will not work there again, so I'm happy that I still get to visit as part of my current job. 

In December 2022, one of the authors of Carry On asked me to verify entries in an appendix about Young Women medallions and stickers. Honestly, I don't remember much about what I did, but I do remember calling up stickers and things up to my cubicle. So I contributed to this new book project very slightly.

Then on Wednesday, I helped judge at the National History Day contest. This is like a science fair but for history. Some of my colleagues at UHS are in charge of this, so they encourage us to help out on work time. I helped judge websites, which means that I and two other judges looked at the websites students created, and we ranked them according to their historical arguments, sources, and presentation. And then I helped with a second round of judging for student papers. National History Day can be fun in its own way, but I don't know if I would choose to do it if I weren't encouraged to do so.

On Friday, my ward had a party for Pi Day. Since it is green season, I made an avocado pie. It tastes more like a lime pie (lime juice and lemon juice), but the color is all natural! This was the first time I have made this pie and the first time I have made a graham cracker crust. No one told me what they thought of it after they ate it.

Yesterday I went swimming (since the weather was iffy for outdoor activities), and I swam in the deepest lane. There was a scuba class in the deep end, and it felt funny to be swimming laps when there were people directly underneath me.

It is St. Patrick's Eve, and I keep liking St. Patrick's Day more and more. It used to be my least favorite of my canonized holidays, but now I like it more than New Year's and Valentine's Day. I feel a little weird observing it, since I have no connection to Ireland, but I think of it as an American holiday. It has been celebrated in the US since at least 1762. Yesterday I went downtown for a couple of hours to see the Siamsa festival. I listened to some live music; I had heard the local bands before because I've been several times now. 

I love this time of the year to listen to Celtic music, embrace the color green, and watch Wolfwalkers, Song of the Sea, and The Secret of Kells. (My biggest gripe with the holiday is that I am firmly anti-alcohol, and I don't think I will ever be otherwise.) And I think this is one of the best food holidays. I love the availability of corned beef and cabbage, colcannon, Irish stew, Irish soda bread, Lucky Charms, and all the green flavors (mint, lime, pistachio, apple, avocado, pickle, etc.). I made both colcannon and corned beef and cabbage this week. And here are a couple other interesting food highlights this week: 

• For years I have loved the See's St. Patrick's Day Potato, which has become my all-time favorite candy. But apparently Irish potato candy is originally a Philadelphia tradition, and this year I ordered some Philadelphia potatoes from Amazon. They have a coconut flavor. I like them, but they're not as good as See's.

• Harmons has Irish toffee brownies and Irish toffee cookies. I opted for brownies, since I didn't need both brownies and cookies. They're really yummy. I like having an unusual option, but I think they made up "Irish toffee." But I like that they have the chocolate gold coins, which seem to be a (kitschy) tradition all their own.
  

And to close, here are this week's dreams.

Mark admires the Easter decorations of a family named Sandwich

a social media influencer posts a video of cats and dogs and rattlesnakes in his house

on September 18, many houses have Halloween decorations up

the fast-food restaurant remains open while it holds a funeral for a former employee

Mark sits at a different fast-food booth because the bench is too full

the cookie shop must throw away all the cookies they didn't sell on Saturday

Mark is furious that the opening hymn at church is a dumb Easter song with a swear word

the criminal catches Mark writing in the criminal's notebook

Mark takes video of the temple that was never completed in rural Utah

the cat exits the house and runs through the fence

Forty Shades of Green

Back in December, Faith Matters asked me to edit a book for them. Since my Church job was coming to an end and I would have extra time in January, I agreed. So I made my first round of edits that month.

On Friday, the second round of revisions was finished, so it's time to get back to work on it. 

It's an insightful book, and it has an LGBTQ-affirming section, so I don't dislike working on it. But it is a little disappointing to me to have lost my free time, now that I'm working full-time (two part-time jobs) again. I also edited a Terryl Givens book for them back in November. I think I will have to decline if they ask me to edit another of their books.

That got me thinking how busy I have kept myself over the last three and a half years. I had a lot of free time with COVID in spring and summer 2020. But then I was in grad school in 2020 and 2021, with side hustles some of the time. And then I was working full-time in 2022 and 2023 with a lot of other things going on. I just got used to being busy—when I do have a free Saturday, I don't know what to do with myself. 

This weekend, I didn't want my editing responsibilities to completely take over my life, so I still did fun things Friday and Saturday. 

All the snow has melted from our yard, so I took the opportunity to go trail running again both Friday (five miles) and Saturday (eight miles). If you are in downtown SLC looking north, you can see several radio towers above the capitol, Ensign Peak, etc., so I ran to all of them from my house. This run is best in the spring and fall, because there is virtually no shade.

This rock fell off the side a few weeks ago (or more), and it's still in the middle of the trail

Then Saturday afternoon, I went to Salt Lake's Siamsa festival, an Irish celebration after the St. Patrick's Day parade. I don't love parades, so I skipped that part, but it was fun to go hear live music. It was very busy there. I noticed that there was not one demographic; there were all kinds. There was one old woman who I assume was drunk, and she kept getting strangers to dance with her. And a toddler came and hugged my legs. 

I got these shoes for St. Patrick's Day back in 2014, but they don't look ten years old because I don't wear them often. And I wore my Book of Kells socks my sister got me in Disney World.

I love dressing head to toe in green.

When I was younger, St. Patrick's Day was mostly leprechauns and green food coloring. It seems less about those things now, but maybe that's because those are more geared to children, and I'm not a child anymore.

Today, I made corned beef and cabbage (which I've been making since 2015) and Irish soda bread (been making since 2016). And then I made avocado milkshakes/smoothies, which I have been making since 2016, because they are green without food coloring!

And of course, I had to have my all-time favorite holiday candy: the See's St. Patrick's Day Potato.

I listened to my St. Patrick's Day playlist while preparing the food. Here are my rankings of my various holiday playlists:

1. Christmas (2,047 songs)
2. Halloween (553 songs)
3. New Year (50 songs)
4. St. Patrick's Day (269 songs)
5. Pioneer Day (237 songs)
6. Fourth of July (242 songs)
7. Valentine's Day (27 songs)
8. Thanksgiving (174 songs)
9. Easter (232 songs)

And I have become well known in my ward for my various holiday ties and outfits. I love wearing holiday clothes, but I only wear actual clothes. A plastic hat is not clothing. A headband with shamrocks on springs is not clothing. Glasses with no lenses are not clothing. An oversize dollar-store "bow tie" with sequins (as someone wore to church today) is not clothing.

But I was kind of jealous of the guy wearing pins of Mebh from WolfWalkers and Aisling from The Secret of Kells.

And out of curiosity, I looked in Utah Digital Newspapers to see when St. Patrick's Day started being celebrated in Utah. The first reference I found to a Salt Lake celebration was from 1871, but in 1864, US soldiers in Idaho invited US soldiers in Utah to their celebration. (They didn't learn about it in time.)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!