32 and still growing up now

 One of my favorite parts of September is making juice from our own grapes. But you can't pick the grapes too early, or there is little flavor.

Last Sunday, I noticed that a few bunches of grapes had died, so I knew I had to pick the grapes before the rest of them were gone.

Well, I picked all the grapes I could find, and I was shocked at how few there were! I had used some for grape bread, but I thought there would be more.

After a while of cooking, a negligible amount of juice came out. I thought, "I want to keep this cooking for a long time, so I can get the maximum amount of juice out." But that was a mistake. Since there was so little juice, it burned. So when I poured out the rest of the juice, it was all burned and spoiled the little bit that was good. But it wasn't that big of a waste of juice: it only made half a cup or less!

If I had known, I would have used the grapes for some other purpose. Oh well. This year's drought has been terrible. Our tomatoes haven't been nearly as abundant, and our apricot tree, which we have had my whole life, died.

Sometimes, I write my blog and then come up with a title. And sometimes, I know the title I want to use and then let it tell me what to write. I only have two and a half more weeks for the Taylor Swift lyric to be relevant to me, which is why I picked this week's title. And here is the story of how it applies.

A few years ago, my nephews became obsessed with Squishmallows, which they call Fluffies. In order to bond indirectly with my nephews, I have been buying the holiday ones, and the Halloween ones are the best. A few years ago, Squishmallows and Disney partnered up. This year, there were new Nightmare before Christmas ones, and of course that's my favorite movie. But I knew they would be wildly popular and hard to find this year.

Wednesday evening, I had a class meeting with my fellow grad students, and then I went to the Smith's Marketplace in Salt Lake. There were stickers on the shelves where the Nightmare Squishmallows would go, but they weren't out.

On Thursday, I went to the Bountiful location, and got Lock, the very last Nightmare one they had. Then I went back to Salt Lake. They had Jack, Sally, Zero, and Barrel. I grabbed all of them, but then I saw a sign saying only one per customer.

So I decided I just wanted to get Zero. Then I saw some girls (probably in high school) grabbing all the rest. I went up to them and told them it was only one per person. They hesitated. But then I saw them buying all of them. Jerks! I hope their consciences eat away at them. 

And when I got home, I discovered that my niece, Allie, had bought me Jack for an early birthday present! So I was glad I didn't get that one on my own. I would like to have more (especially the Mayor), but since they sell out so fast (including to predatory scalpers), I'm happy with what I have.

When you have the mind of a child and the income of an adult

Since we just replaced the floor, we have been in the process of getting our house back in order. I didn't think it made sense to put up the regular decorations so soon before we put out the Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas decor, but my mom was anxious to get things settled again, so on Saturday I just put up the indoor Halloween stuff early. Is it too early? Possibly, but I always decorate early anyway, so it was only four days earlier than my arbitrary date of September 15.

I also attended the state fair, 'cause that's what you do in September. I know it really doesn't make sense to spend money just to walk around and eat overpriced food, but it's just one of those things.

Of course, yesterday was the twentieth anniversary of 9/11. I did a write-up on this blog ten years ago. But this year, for some reason I find myself less engaged in the remembrances. This is probably mostly because I have a lot going on right now, with full-time school, working one day a week, and cleaning up after all the remodeling. Maybe it's also because twenty years is much more removed from the event than ten years. I have thought about reading some of the articles and reminiscences. But I find I'm really not in the mood to bring back all those feelings of tragedy and despair. Maybe, again, that's because I have a lot on my mind. But this year is hard enough already, with the delta variant, people not caring about the virus, the drought, a bleak future for the Great Salt Lake, people excusing insurrectionists, etc.

Also, one concern about anniversary reminiscences is that sometimes they can become distasteful. I haven't really seen any so far this year, and generally I think they are an admirable thing. But they can become trivialized, commercialized, or even celebrated. I'm just not in a mindset to deal with that right now.

Floored

 This week was kind of hectic. On Monday, our floor was torn up, which meant I was often called upon to help move furniture. I was happy to head to campus to be away from all the noise. Monday afternoon, I also had my "first" class of my research seminar about gender, but it was the second class session, since I didn't initially sign up for the class. We met outside because of COVID, which I didn't mind. 

On Tuesday, the flooring guy started putting the floor in our living room, and most of his work was while I was away. It was hard to concentrate when he was noisily working.

And on Wednesday, he finished. 

Here's Jimmy on the new floor. He didn't like how much his life was disrupted, especially since we had to move his food.

But everything is not done. My parents bought new couches, which haven't arrived yet, so we still haven't moved all the furniture back into place. We're also getting new carpet on the stairs, and we have to wait before the flooring company can do that. 

Now only the stairs, my bedroom, and the guest bedroom will have carpet. I'm excited for the easy-to-clean hard floors (especially with a cat). But hard floors are noisier than carpet: the rooms echo now, and I can hear footsteps now. It always reminds me of the opening footsteps in Taylor Swift's "Cardigan."

Last Sunday, I submitted my article on Pioneer Day to an academic article. On Tuesday, I got an email rejecting my article. It was the nicest possible rejection letter, and even though I'm not offended, I couldn't stop thinking about it. They told me it didn't have enough primary sources, even though I mostly used primary sources. Oh well, I have some other journals in mind to submit it to. 

Yesterday, I decided to run farther on the new Bonneville Shoreline Trail than I have been yet. I followed it from the Woodbriar Trail until it was blocked off for construction, where it intersects with a really steep trail in Bountiful. I don't see myself coming on this trail that often. It's a little hard to access, but it's also pretty boring, and it's not super well shaded. 

I'm so excited it's September now! It's my favorite month, even though the beginning of the month is kind of boring. But I'm anxiously looking at the trees for signs of change (I think they're later this year so far), and I have started adding new songs to my Halloween playlist. 

I really enjoy reading histories of various holidays, and earlier this summer I bought an encyclopedia of American holidays. This week I've been reading the history of Labor Day. It was very boring.

18th Grade

 Well, this week was full of new experiences!

I worked on Monday as usual, because the plan was that I would keep working Mondays and Fridays.

On Tuesday, I got on the bus to ride to the University of Utah. But I was confused at where I was supposed to get off, so I went too far, and then I had to walk quite a ways to get to my first class. I made it just in time! This class is a history of science and technology. It's both an undergrad and graduate class, but we grad students have some extra assignments. It was a little strange to be in a classroom again—it's been more than seven years! This is my second year of grad school, but everything still feels new because everything was virtual last year.

Then Tuesday afternoon, I had my second class, HIST 7800, a methods course, which was with the same professor. I thought I had enrolled in a research seminar. But as I looked over the syllabus, I realized it was not what I thought it was. At the end of the semester, the final project was a 20–25-page historiographical essay. That kind of ruined my day.

So that night I sent off an email to the academic advisor asking about classes. The research seminar class this semester is about gender, and I emailed the professor for that class to ask if I could see her syllabus. That would help me decide which class I would rather take. Well, the final project for this research seminar is a 15–20-page research paper. Not only is it shorter, I would much rather write a research paper than a historiographical essay. Besides that, there are fewer assignments in general. The research seminar is better in every way than HIST 7800. So I switched my schedule. But that class meets on Mondays, so I already missed the first class. I also had to let This Is the Place know that I can only work Fridays. But I will be more excited for the research seminar and dread it less than 7800. Since I'm an MS student (not an MA or PhD student), I don't need 7800, and I think research papers will ultimately be more beneficial to my career than historiographical essays.

Wednesday afternoon, I went to my other class, oral history. This class will take me out of my comfort zone—but if I'm only going to do things I already know how to do, then there is really no point in being in school. This class is another one with both grad students and undergrads. I'm excited for this one. It only meets once a week because of COVID.

Thursday I went to my second session of the science and technology class. One thing I remember from BYU is that there are always students who make weird, inappropriate, or irrelevant comments. We have one of those in this class. The professor asked us grad students to raise our hands, and one of the undergrads also raised his. The professor said, "Oh, are you a graduate student?" and he had to ask several times before the student understood what he was saying. And then for the rest of class, he kept making weird, "cool story bro"–type comments. I think he's worse than the ones I remember from BYU. (Maybe because it's harder to get into BYU?)

Friday I worked again, and I was able to get a lot of class reading done while I was there. Which is why I don't want to work on Saturdays, since they're busier in the fall and therefore give me less time to read. 

So yesterday, August 28, was the first Saturday I didn't work since May 1. Phew! But it wasn't entirely a day of luxury. We are replacing the floors in our house, and my parents wanted to paint our walls before the new floors are in. They are doing the vast majority of the work, since they are retired, whereas I am in school and working (I am a little sad I'll only be working once a week). But I would feel guilty if this all got done and I didn't help out, so I spent a few hours painting.

I have been able to get some good reading done on the bus, so I'm hoping I will be able to enjoy more free time at home this semester. 

First day of eighteenth grade!

The storm after the calm

 When I titled last week's post "the calm before the storm," I didn't know that there would be literal storms this week!

Wednesday was my day off, and I took the opportunity to go to the Church History Library to look at some sources for my Pioneer Day article. Hopefully those are the last sources I need for my article, and I can submit it soon! I have wanted to look at these sources for a long time, but, you know, COVID. I was so happy to do so.

One of my classes this semester is both a graduate class and an undergraduate class. Our professor invited us grad students to his house to discuss the class, so I headed there Wednesday afternoon. He had already met everyone else, so I felt out of place for a few reasons. I'm super socially awkward. Impostor syndrome is very real, and I feel dumber than all my classmates. The professor seemed very hipster (or whatever the 2020s equivalent is), serving fancy hors d'oeuvres of dates stuffed with brie. They were all drinking alcoholic beverages, and there was a friendly, well-behaved dog walking around. Brie, dogs, and alcohol are all things that I very much dislike. But it was OK.

(Now that most of us sane people want to follow the CDC's guidelines about masks, vaccines, and social distancing, I want to remind people of the CDC's guidelines on alcohol: "The Dietary Guidelines does not recommend that individuals who do not drink alcohol start drinking for any reason. . . .  Alcohol has been found to increase risk for cancer, and for some types of cancer, the risk increases even at low levels of alcohol consumption (less than 1 drink in a day)." And also: "Although past studies have indicated that moderate alcohol consumption has protective health benefits (e.g., reducing risk of heart disease), recent studies show this may not be true. While some studies have found improved health outcomes among moderate drinkers, it’s impossible to conclude whether these improved outcomes are due to moderate alcohol consumption or other differences in behaviors or genetics between people who drink moderately and people who don’t."

I really hope that someday, alcohol will be stigmatized in the same way tobacco is. The sooner the better. And I really think alcohol is more detrimental to the general public, even if tobacco is worse for individuals.)

That evening I made grape bread, one of my favorite late-summer treats. 

When I went out to pick the grapes, it was certainly strange to smell smoke so strongly when it was rainy. What a weird August!

The next day I had requested off as well, and it turned out that This Is the Place closed anyway because of the weather. I had "new" student orientation at the University of Utah. I'm not officially a new student, but they invited us second-year students, since we only had a virtual orientation last year. On both Wednesday and Thursday, it was weird to meet my classmates in person. I recognized their faces, but I didn't know what they looked like from below the shoulders, such as their height. I enjoyed talking to one of my professors for the semester, even though I'm shy and awkward.

During orientation, we introduced ourselves and had to share something that other people might not know about us. So I said, "I'm a reviewer for a junk-food blog, so I spend a lot of time going to random grocery stores to find things to review." After the orientation was over, I planned to go to several stores, since there have been four things I've been searching for, but I was delighted to find two of those four things at Dan's. So I reviewed/am reviewing both of them. (I'm still looking for Candy Corn Red Vines and this year's version of turkey dinner candy corn.)

I've been listening to a creepy song lately, so the song and the skeleton on the Skittles package led me to have some horrifying dreams/nightmares this week. 

First, I dreamed that I had seen lots of corpses and skeletons in a mausoleum, then took them to Carrie Underwood's house. (I just learned that Carrie Underwood is anti-mask, so she deserves to have corpses in her house.)

Then the next night, I dreamed I was in a Washington DC grocery store where there was a man with large guns. I was calling the police, then left the store but came back, and he shot us! That woke me up.

But soon after I fell asleep again, I dreamed that I awoke from a coma with one of my legs missing, replaced with a fake leg. I'm not sure whether that was from the shooting or from a drunk driver.

Fortunately, my real life is not so terrifying. The rest of the week, I attended a family party, went to the wedding reception of my first cousin once removed, and made tomato zucchini cobbler.

Yesterday was my last day working on Saturday at This Is the Place. I have worked every single Saturday since I started back in May! Phew! But I can only afford to keep working there on slow days. My classes start this week. Even though it's my second year in grad school, so much of it will feel new since I will be on campus. I just hope I can keep up with everything, since I didn't have to worry about commuting last year!

The calm before the storm

 I had to work six days this week. Several weeks ago, they told us that a company had rented out the park for a corporate event, so they asked for volunteers to work in the evening. I said I could help out.

It turned out that it was scheduled for my day off. At first, I resented that I had to work every day. But then I realized, is that really worse than having one day where I would be at work the entire day?

I decided to use the day off (before working in the evening) to go get my ID card (UCard) from the University of Utah. I drove to the public parking lot at This Is the Place, then rode my bike to campus, just like I did two years ago when I took the GRE. I do get confused with where to go. But I eventually made it to the main area of campus so I could get my card, and I also found the classrooms where I will be attending. I also took the time to go into the campus store. It was kind of surreal to be surrounded by all the red merchandise while the speakers were playing songs that were popular in 2013, when I was at BYU. There was one shirt I liked, but it was eighty dollars, so I didn't like it that much. 

I returned to work that evening, and it was fun to be there at sunset. It was a lovely August evening, though I did get a few mosquito bites. The park has a different feel at twilight.

 The next day, I was working at gold panning, and some teenage boys arrived on the train. Two of them were hanging off the back of the train, which is very much against the rules. As they came down, I recognized one of the boys that had been hanging off, so I told him he was no longer allowed to ride the train. (That's park policy. Though I wasn't driving that day, I still wanted to enforce the rules.) When the train came back later, the boys were all getting on again. The one boy I had already reproved was supposedly going to walk behind the train, but I said to the boys, "There were two of you hanging off the back of the train. I don't know who it was, but either that person needs to get off, or you all need to get off." None of them confessed, so they all got off. And I have to say, it felt good to be mean! Not that I was actually mean, per se, just enforcing the rules. 

In Springhill Geologic Park, I found two red leaves on the ground this week! And so it begins.

I also emailed the head of NSL's parks to tell him about the trail vandalism that is occurring there.

I placed those three branches there to discourage people from using the fake trail. It infuriates me that people make their own!

I also used some of our own homegrown produce. Our neighbors' apricot tree hangs into our backyard, so I made apricot chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. I added too many chocolate chips, so they overpowered the apricot.

Then I made zucchini pancakes, adding spices and almonds. I really like them, but they taste almost identical to the carrot pancakes I make in the spring.

Sadly, our own apricot tree appears to be completely dead. But we'll have to wait until the spring to know for sure. We were all eager for 2020 to be over, but 2021 isn't much better.

In case you couldn't tell, it wasn't an overly eventful week for me. But changes will be coming fast!

August happenings

This Is the Place was busy this week! Tuesday I was helping out with the mini train, and it was the busiest I have had it when I have worked there. The ride takes about two minutes, and by the time I would be done with one ride, there would be more people waiting. Like, where did you come from?! I like to spend some time reading and weeding there, but I did little reading and no weeding. Then yesterday I was in the print shop, and it was unusually busy again. I was really frustrated with a dad who was pulling pieces of type out of a typeset page we have on display, even though there was a sign saying "Don't Touch! Thanks!" He was trying to put it back in after he realized the sign, but then he kept making it worse. I said, "I can put it back," and he said, "I can too!" His teenage kids kept telling him to stop, and then he rushed out embarrassed. So I moved it out of the public's reach, kind of while his family was still there, my passive-aggressive way of making him feel bad. He came back and said, "Sorry I messed that up," but I didn't say anything, because I certainly couldn't say, "It's OK," because it wasn't OK. I hope he feels bad and remembers this experience so he doesn't do anything like it again. 

I was off Wednesday, so on Tuesday night I joined my parents up at Moosehorn Campground in the Uintas, which has long been an August tradition. The next day I wanted to visit a place called Christmas Meadows, which was relatively nearby, because it seemed like I should visit a place with Christmas in the name. My dad and I walked up a trail a little more than a mile. It was pretty but not super interesting.

Christmas Meadows wasn't as good as Moosehorn because Moosehorn has a lake. I took my paddleboard and used it, only my second time doing so on it. But I only went on it kneeling and sitting, because I'm not yet comfortable standing, and this lake is too cold for swimming.

Then I headed home for the rest of the week.

I picked the last of our plums. We don't have nearly as many as we did last year, which is sad. Then I made some of them into a plum mint upside-down cake. The recipe calls for rosemary, which I usually do, but this time I opted for the fresh mint growing in our yard. (Last year, I was watching Holiday Baking Championship, and in one episode the contestants had to make an upside-down cake with different fruits and herbs. The winner happened to be plum rosemary, which I have been making since 2016! And I think the first time I made it was during the Olympics as well.) It was really good this time, probably because I followed the directions of mixing wets and dries separately.

Last year we had no apricots, and this year I was looking forward to having tons of them. There are lots hanging on the tree—but thanks to the heat and the drought, the tree is parched, and the apricots never ripened, and now they are shriveling up, so close to being ripe but ultimately useless. I think that's worse than not having them at all!

On Friday, my mom and I decided to be political by meeting Becky Edwards, a former state legislator who is challenging Mike Lee as senator. My mom knew her previously because she liked to meet with teachers. I met her four years ago at an Easter performance at a Catholic church, and then she remembered me the next evening when I happened to run past her. We drove to the meeting spot in Centerville, but they had moved it to her home in North Salt Lake because of the smoke. So back we came. I felt a little awkward in her home. My high school English teachers were there, but they didn't remember me. We got Becky Edwards signs, and I got a t-shirt. We need to elect Republicans like Becky Edwards, rather than Mike Lee, in order to heal our country, both metaphorically and literally. Make Republicans Great Again! We need more Becky Edwardses, Mitt Romneys, and Spencer Coxes, with fewer Mike Lees and Burgess Owenses. I was pretty much in the middle before Trump, but Trump did terrible things to his party, so now I have to lean left. Then the last year and a half has made me lose almost all respect for the Republican Party. They are so concerned about their right to do terrible things, like be jerks about masks and not solve gun violence, "because Constitution," and yet they get mad at Mike Pence for following the Constitution. I hope they get some common sense again. (I am having a very hard time feeling sympathy for adults who get COVID after they chose not to get vaccinated.) Sorry, I will stop my tirade.

My Fitbit watch has had a Coach feature on it with three different workouts. It would guide me on each workout, telling me what to do and for how long. I really think it helped me physically (since I hate strength training), and it was nice that it was all done from my watch. But then this week, I discovered that they discontinued the feature! I found an app with workouts, which is OK, but I liked having it all on my watch. Google bought out Fitbit recently, and I was worried they would make it worse. This appears to be the first sign of that happening. Why should I trust Google anymore? They got rid of Google Play Music last year, replacing it with the inferior YouTube Music. They "updated" Blogger but mostly just made it worse. They started charging for Gmail and Photos. But I'm kind of happy they're getting worse, because I get a little uncomfortable when companies have a monopoly on everything.

All right, that's enough for today!

Turn of the month

 The last week of July wasn't especially noteworthy.

I was able to go on a run up North Canyon. I'm glad to be working again, but I do miss that I got to go there every day last summer and fall. It reminded me so much of last year. I even saw two rattlesnakes, which I could have gone without—that's probably what I like least about North Canyon. For the first one, I was running when I heard it rattle on the side of the trail. As it got in its defensive position, it lost its "footing" and slid off onto the trail after I had passed.

For the second one, it was in front of me, so I backed off. It remained right on the side of the trail in its defense position for quite a while, so I couldn't go past. Finally it slithered off the trail. I could still see it, but there was a barrier of plants between it and me, so I kept an eye on it as I walked past. 

They have been building a new trail on the side of the dirt road that leads to the main trail, but it doesn't seem to be progressing very fast. I'm not a fan of the new trail, because parts of it are next to the road, so all they did was make the road wider, which defeats the purpose. It wasn't a good idea, if you ask me. Well, maybe the idea was good, but so far the execution is not.

On Friday, I went back to the new portion of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail that has been under construction. It is in much better shape now. It was a fun trail, and once I got to it, it was very easy. I had an idea of when I needed to turn around, but I pretended I didn't know what time it was so I could keep going. I will need to go again when I have time to see more of it.

Today I taught my youth Sunday School class again. I find this a real struggle. I remember being the same age and not knowing how to answer the teachers' questions, and here I am on the other side. The Come, Follow Me materials are geared toward all ages, so it's hard to find what will work for teenagers. I took the ideas of the body of Christ from 1 Corinthians 12 and Doctrine and Covenants 84:109–10 for an activity. I gave everyone a few body parts, then had them draw a person that only had those body parts. I thought about taking pictures of them all, but they were nightmare fuel. 1 Corinthians 12 is one of my favorite scripture passages, and whoever wrote the Latter-day Saint chapter heading did a terrible job. Paul spends literally half of the chapter talking about the body of Christ, but the heading makes no mention of it. And yet they didn't fix this glaring omission in the 2013 edition!

Now it's August, which means it's once again time to mention that I used to hate it but now I enjoy it. I'm excited for the leaves to start to change, trees and plants to yield their fruit, and the last elements of summer to be fully enjoyed. I also start school again, and I'm nervous. Fall semester will be very different from last year. For one thing, classes will be in person, so I will need to navigate taking the bus to campus. Also, I told This Is the Place I could work there two days a week as long as I don't drive the train. (They're so short staffed that I feel bad quitting altogether.) Grad school has so much reading, and most of the places at work let me read, but not the train. This Is the Place gets pretty slow on weekdays starting in late August, so I'm hoping I can get some good studying in while I'm still making money. Some of the classes I'm taking will be a different format from what I'm used to. I just hope I can feel like I have air to breathe, because the last two semesters were also a lot of work. But I still have a few weeks to think about that.