Side character

 I always think of myself as a side or minor character, so it unnerves me when I get more attention.

Last week I talked about making a presentation for my oral history class that was supposed to be twenty minutes long, but it was only thirteen. Well, about twenty-four hours after I submitted it, the professor emailed me and said he took a quick look at it. He thanked me for being so thorough. I thought, "Well, will you still think it's thorough when you take a closer look at it?"

On Wednesday, I walked into the building where class is, and I heard someone call my name. It was the professor sitting by the little coffee shop* in the building. I was a bit surprised he recognized me outside of the classroom. He once again thanked me for being so thorough. My presentation is the first one for the semester, and he said it's hard to be the first but I set a good standard. I told him that was good to hear because it was too short. He acknowledged that it was short, but he said it was a good length to keep the undergrads' attention. 

And then in class, he praised my presentation. I feel a little weird when all eyes are on me. But I also feel weird that so many people are watching my presentation. Just like everyone else, I hate hearing recordings of my voice. I think I sound unintelligent and socially awkward. Well, I know I'm socially awkward, but I don't want to sound like it! But I realize most people probably don't think twice about my voice.

*One thing that has surprised me about the University of Utah compared to BYU is that the U has a lot more places on campus to eat. BYU doesn't have coffee shops for obvious reasons, but the coffee shops sell sandwiches and other things. BYU had a lot more vending machines than the U. The U also has a lot of food trucks, but food trucks were a new thing when I was at BYU, so I don't know if BYU has them now.

My oral history presentation wasn't the only thing that brought attention to me this week. For my science and technology class, there are six of us grad students, and each of us had to select a book for us to read. We grad students meet every two weeks to discuss these books outside of regular class time. This week was my book; I had selected Fossil Legends of the First Americans, an academic book with a pulp-fiction cover. It was unnerving to me to lead the discussion, especially since I'm so clumsy with spoken words. 

But that's not the only way it focused on me. One of my classmates is basically the main character of the grad program, and she knew it was my birthday last week. She loves baking, and she asked me what I usually have for my birthday. So she had made a Mexican chocolate cake, and to keep with the theme of the evening, she put dinosaur candles on it! So all my classmates sang to me and I blew out the candles. And I was just trying my best not to be awkward in an awkward situation. It was very generous of her and my classmates.

I guess even minor characters get their own episodes once in a while.

***

This pumpkinundation roundup leads me to random stores to buy lots of random stuff. Trader Joe's has lots of pumpkin stuff, but so does Sprouts. I think the Sprouts items are even weirder. You will hear more about these in the coming weeks. (I have to budget my calories so that things don't get [even more] out of hand!)

There are two ways that I like to eat candy-coated pretzels. One is to let the coating melt away in my mouth, then just have the pretzel. And the other way is just to crunch it normally. These Flipz Pumpkin Spice Covered Pretzels are not as good when I let the coating melt away; it's overly artificial. But when I crunch them, I am pleasantly surprised! The spices blend nicely with the salty pretzels. 8/10.

Special K Pumpkin Spice consists of Special K with little pumpkin spice–coated clusters. It's not very pumpkiny, but it's a really enjoyable cereal! 7/10.

I had these Trader Joe's Fall Leaf Corn Tortilla Chips several weeks back but didn't include them on here, and I liked them enough to get them again. (I accidentally wrote "I liked them enough to be them again." I didn't like them that much!) They're not branded as a pumpkin product, but pumpkin and other vegetables are in the ingredients—maybe for color? They are better than most corn chips, but the shapes are adorable. 8/10.

Trader Joe's Apple Caramel Greek Yogurt is more palatable than most Greek yogurts. There are little bits of apple in it, though it didn't seem very caramely. 7/10.

This Atlas Pumpkin Spice Protein Bar is the first I've had of this brand. It's like a combination of an RXBar and a Quest Bar. It has a nice pumpkin spice flavor. As far as protein bars go, it's not bad. 7/10.

These Serenity Kids Pumpkin & Cinnamon Grain Free Puffs are literally baby food. But they don't really taste like much at all. 6/10.

This Dick's Fresh Market Caramel Apple Donut has apple pie filling and a caramel frosting on a sugar-dusted donut. I think most Associated Food Stores have these donuts of the month. It didn't seem very caramely, and apple pie filling is very different from a fresh apple. But I still loved this donut. 8/10.

I've heard good things about Culver's pumpkin products, so I got a Culver's Salted Caramel Pumpkin Concrete Mixer. I really enjoyed it, but I didn't think it was that different than, say, Dairy Queen pumpkin products. 9/10.

Three Wishes Pumpkin Spice Grain Free Cereal was better than I expected from a cereal with little added sugar and no grains. But it kept reminding me of Indian food! Not sweet Indian food, savory Indian food. 6/10.

Del Taco isn't know for its seasonal offerings, so I was excited to try a Del Taco Caramel Apple Shake, though I'm not sure it's meant as a Halloween/fall treat. It has caramel flavor and artificial apple flavor. But it didn't necessarily taste like a caramel apple. 7/10.

Tootsie Green Apple Caramel Apple Pops have been around since the 90s, and they are fascinating in that the hard part bends like caramel. They are classic. 7/10.

But did you know they make them in different flavors at Halloween? I got a bag of the three flavors back in 2012, and it's because of them that I started brushing my teeth more than twice a day. The Golden Delicious Caramel Apple Pop tastes a little different from the green one, but not significantly so. 7/10.

And the Macintosh Caramel Apple Pop also tastes a little different, maybe a little sweeter than the green one. The cashier said it was her favorite of the three. 7/10.

I have wanted to try a Tonyburgers Pumpkin Shake. It is great as a shake, but it didn't come across as very pumpkiny. 6/10. 

I first had a Jamba Juice Pumpkin Smash at the Jamba Juice on BYU campus, so things came full circle when I had one on the U campus. It was better than I remembered. Nice and pumpkiny and also refreshing. 8/10.

The Happy Apples Cinnamon Caramel Apple is OK. It wasn't very cinnamony. These caramel apples aren't that great. I assume they put peanuts on them to keep them from sticking to the packaging. I like peanuts, but they detract from the caramel apple. 6/10.

The Maverik Bonfire Pumpkin Chocolate Chip is good but not exceptional—it's just what you expect from such a cookie. 7/10.

I like Sunbelt Pumpkin Spice Granola Bars enough to get them every year, even though they're not super pumpkiny, but they do have actual pumpkin in them! 7/10.

When I got Trader Joe's Harvest Blend Herbal Tea, I mistakenly thought it was pumpkin. It's not. It has spices and apple. It's nice for something that has no calories, but it wouldn't be my first drink of choice. I have had two cups so far, and I liked the first one better—probably because the second one cooled down too much because Jimmy needed some affection. (Speaking of Jimmy, he's sitting on my lap while I'm typing, and it's hard to type while dodging his tail.) 6/10.

Why does everything happen all at once?

Hi! This picture is at the top so it will be the Facebook thumbnail.

Whew, it was a busy week!

On Sunday evening last week, my parents gave me my birthday presents before they left. I got a giant secondhand spatula and also Super Mario Odyssey, even though Nintendo Switch is at the very bottom of my priorities. (I had listed it as one of many potential gifts, so it was perfectly reasonable.)

They had previously given me a little staircase so our aging Jimmy can climb on the furniture more easily. It is painful to watch him walk. He jumps on furniture, but he hesitates a lot before he finally makes the leap, and occasionally he doesn't make it. I have put it next to my bed (I miss when he would regularly come onto my bed when I woke up), but he doesn't use it. I have gotten him to climb onto my bed by putting treats on each step and having him follow the laser light up it, but the rest of the time he still jumps off and on the bed or couch. Sometimes he deliberately goes around the steps to jump. I guess it's good that he's still in a condition to jump, but it would be so much easier if he just used the stairs!

*Update*: While I was writing this post, Jimmy figured out how to use the stairs on his own! Yay!

Monday morning, my parents left on a cross-country trip for two and a half weeks. That means it's just me and Jimmy in the house. Jimmy spends a lot of time with my mom, so now he's been spending time with me, just like old times. I do adore him.

Monday morning, I opted to go on a North Canyon run. And the leaves were spectacular! I don't see how anyone can not like the fall. My mom wanted to go east to see their fall leaves, but Utah's leaves are wonderful in their own right. I was slow on my run, mostly because I spent so much time taking pictures of all the beauty. But most of my pictures don't do justice to reality.

Remember when I accidentally made a turkey out of piecrust on the Fourth of July? This week I found a gum wrapper on the floor that made a perfect cow.

I loved Monday's North Canyon run so much that I decided to go again after class on Tuesday, because autumn runs are even better in the evening. I think I encountered the same biking club I did last week on Wild Rose, which was a bit annoying, but at least this time they were going downhill, so it was one-and-done. 

(Forgive the photo dump, I just love this place so much!)

Wednesday was my birthday, and it was fairly boring. I had to finish some readings in the morning before class. I had considered inviting people over, but I have so many assignments due that I didn't want to commit to the extra time, and I don't even know who's still around after COVID. I have to tell myself that it's OK to have a boring birthday when I'm in grad school during a pandemic.

My three greatest loves right now are holidays, cats, and trail running. In the morning, Jimmy came up and sat on my lap for the first time in a while, so that was nice. But after class, I knew I wanted to go on a trail run, so to save time, I went on the nearby Woodbriar Trail and only ran for an hour (unlike North Canyon, which takes closer to two). 

Then I went to pick up my last present from my sister's house, which was a joint gift from her and my parents. It was an ice cream maker!

I am really excited for this! I have some ice cream and sorbet recipes I have wanted to try, but our only ice cream makers require a lot of patience and salt. As far as I can tell, this one requires neither. But I will have to wait until I have some time to use it.

And for the third love on my birthday, holidays, I bought a Halloween mp3 album and watched the audio commentary for Song of the Sea, a joint Halloween/St. Patrick's Day movie.

But the rest of the week was less fun. I had spent enough time lollygagging during the first half of the week that I had to catch up the second half.

See, everything is happening all at once for me. I have two big projects due this week, which also happens to be the week after my birthday, and work also asked me to work on Saturday this week because they are short staffed, which also happened to be general conference. Whew! And to top it all off, I came home from class on Thursday to find that FedEx had delivered some mysterious packages to our home. Each big box had a little sticker addressed to a Rick Beam at our address, but the bigger stickers were addressed to some business in "Lake Havasu, Utah," which I think is actually in Arizona. How did we end up with them?! I didn't have time to even think about them Thursday.

Friday I worked as usual, but I was scheduled at gold panning, and it is very hard to do any studying there, which is annoying. After work I took the packages to FedEx, because I don't trust contacting corporations. I thought it would be easier to take them to the store than to schedule a pickup online or to be put on hold forever on the phone. And that was easy, but driving to the FedEx store did take out of my valuable time. For my oral history class, I have to record a presentation. I recorded it on Friday night, but it was only eight minutes when it was supposed to be twenty. Ugh!

Saturday I had to work. It was Little Haunts, where kids can come and trick or treat at the different sites in the village. I was in the print shop. When people weren't there, I watched conference on my phone while also doing reading for my presentation that was too short.

The reason they asked me to work Saturday was because they needed someone to be Alice the dragon. I have to get inside this heavy costume and walk up and down the street. The worst part is the pressure on my shoulders. My shoulders are still sore! I could only control the head with one hand because I was using the other hand to release the pressure off my shoulders. They want me to be expressive while I'm in this dragon/dinosaur costume, but most of my mental energy is just going into surviving. It is harder than running uphill!

Here I am working on my second degree and I have to dress up as a dragon for work.

I came home and added more material to my presentation. It was only thirteen minutes. But I was done. I submitted it as it was. I feel bad that it's not my best work, but I can only do so much. Oh well. I think this professor is fairly lenient.

I'm enjoying my Sunday before I have to keep working hard the next few days. I have enjoyed what I have seen of general conference (I was a bit distracted with yesterday's sessions, though I did watch them all). I especially like that they sing hymns that are not in the hymnbook that are not "Come Thou Fount." I liked that this morning they sang "Let the Mountains Shout for Joy," which was often sung at Pioneer Day celebrations of the late nineteenth century.

Oh, and speaking of Pioneer Day, I received an email this week that the journal I submitted my article to wants me to revise and resubmit my article! I am pleased with that outcome. The suggestions are all reasonable; some of them are easy fixes, while others will be more work. I will be happy to revise—when I can spare a moment to work on it.

***

For the week of my birthday, I could eat whatever I wanted, so I reserved most of my calories for nonseasonal things that I don't have the rest of the year. So pumpkinundation roundup will be sparse this week.

Trader Joe's Pumpkin Empanadas have a pumpkin filling (similar to pumpkin pie, but more pumpkiny) in a pastry. I really enjoyed it, and I'm glad I still have three more in the freezer! 8/10.

This is not food. I have seen pumpkin spice "brooms" before, but I couldn't commit to them, since I'm not big on scented things. But I could commit to a mini version of the Gonesh Pumpkin Spice Scented Broom. Does it smell nice? Sure! It would be great if you're into scented stuff. I enjoy getting a whiff when I walk by it. But I think I like cinnamon pine cones better. 7/10.