Pascua

Easter is always a peculiar holiday, because it's never the same. Since there is a month-long span when it can fall, every year can seem very different. I hate it when it falls in March, but fortunately it won't fall in March again until 2024.

Easter week also feels basically just like any other week, compared to other holidays. But it was a pleasant enough week.

On Tuesday everyone turned out for caucuses. Since I don't want to be labeled as a Republican or Democrat, I am unaffiliated and didn't go--but after the caucuses had started, I learned that I could go to the Democrat caucus. So I drove out to South Davis Jr. High where it was being held. The church parking lot down the road was completely filled, and some inconsiderate people were parked in non-parking spaces, making it so that I couldn't drive through like I should have but had to do a three-point-turn to turn around. Jerks. Since the parking was so crazy, I didn't think it was worth my time, and as I drove past the school, the line was out the door, past the seminary building, and probably around the block. (In case you're wondering, I would have voted for Hillary.)

I am glad that Trump didn't win any delegates. It baffles me that people are supporting him, even people I know and respect--or at least used to respect. Ben Carson is an example of a good man who wasn't a good candidate, but Trump isn't even a good man. But I don't want to wax political on Easter.

At work on Wednesday, someone did a silly presentation about marshmallow Peeps, and they had Peeps "sushi," with Peeps as the fish, Rice Krispies as the rice, and fruit leather as the seaweed. Then I went to Farr's Fresh Cafe and had Peeps-flavored ice cream. And since I'd been eating like the Easter Bunny all day, I made carrot soup for dinner. (I also made carrot oatmeal cookies last Sunday, and I've been eating plenty of carrot cake.)

(The internet tells me that we have Bugs Bunny to thank for the stereotype that bunnies like carrots, and that Bugs was parodying a Clark Gable movie. So in a bizarre twist of pop culture, we have Clark Gable to thank for all the carrot things that show up at Easter.)

On Thursday, I colored eggs with my family. My forest egg would have been better if I hadn't kept it in the green dye as long, and I wish I had had a real black crayon for the bats.

I am thrilled that our "popcorn" tree is doing well, because we had almost no blossoms last year, and absolutely no apricots. And now I have a cookbook with recipes for using our apricots and plums.

On Friday my stake had invited BYU's Vocal Point to perform. We had a free Vocal Point concert! When it comes to a cappella groups, I either like them or hate them. I never love them. Vocal Point is one of the non-annoying groups, and they are very talented individuals. But it does show that they're not so uniquely talented, considering they can keep replacing people. Their beat-boxer is very impressive.

On Saturday, I ran seven miles (so I could eat more candy) and we received Easter baskets. I got a handheld immersion blender, because my carrot soup really made me wish I had one. I watched parts of the women's session of general conference, since Mormon women's speeches have been my job for the past seven months.

Then Easter Sunday was busy. I regretfully wasted time in the morning before church, and then family was at our house for a long time in the evening. It was more like a summertime meal. And then it's going to snow again.

This Easter-in-March thing keeps making me think it's a month later than it actually is. And I have to keep reminding myself, "No, there's still plenty of snow to come." I still hope for snowstorms in April and May and possibly June. But I want them to be quick-melting snowstorms.

Minus Phone Facebook

When I was in California, I got a Facebook notification that someone had accepted my friend request. The only problem was that I hadn't sent a friend request! It was for someone in my ward but I haven't formally met him yet. I never send requests because I don't want anyone to feel obligated to be my friend if they don't want to be, so I felt a little embarrassed that I had sent one. I'm sure that in scrolling on Facebook on my phone, I accidentally tapped "Send Request" in the "People You May Know" section.

Well, this week I got another notification that someone accepted my request. Um, I don't even know who that person is. We have three mutual friends, but she lives in Provo. I don't anymore. I was shocked and embarrassed that I had sent another request without knowing it, and I was a little surprised that she had accepted my request when we don't even know each other.

There have been other times where I know I have "liked" something on accident. Once I "liked" something that a stranger posted on the profile of a cousin I don't know super well, and I didn't even realize it for a while. And for all of these accidental requests and likes that I know about, how many are there that I don't know about?

Therefore, I decided to quit looking at Facebook on my phone (although I will continue to look at it on my computer). It just seems that too much can go wrong. And I found that I was addicted, and I kept looking at it all the time. I don't want to be one of those people who live on Facebook--the kinds who are on their phone the whole time they "visit" you, and the only interaction they have is to show you a meme or joke they think is funny but isn't really that funny.

And even though I get addicted to Facebook, it isn't even all that satisfying. Facebook shows me lots of things I don't care about, such as when my friends "like" or comment on something. Not only is this annoying and uninteresting, it can make me lose respect for my friends, especially if they "like" something related to Donald Trump. (Fortunately, I think I only have one such friend.)

I feel like Facebook used to show interesting things, but then they invented the "Share" button, and everything went downhill. I would tell you my opinion of people who excessively share, but it isn't kind, so I will forbear. Forwarded jokes and urban legends used to come through email, but thankfully I didn't get those emails. But then they turned to Facebook, and now I get them. *sigh* I also think that the forwarded emails didn't include recipes, but now people use Facebook to get recipes. Even if you don't like cookbooks (and I happen to like cookbooks), there is still Pinterest you can use. (Please. Go there instead.)

At various times, I have loved watching YouTube videos and going on funny websites, and while I still like those things at times, I find my life is more fulfilling the less I'm online.

When I'm not on the internet, it lets me prepare food, like the avocado smoothie/milkshakes I made for St. Patrick's Day.

Last week I bought some trail running shoes, and the trails were finally thawed out enough this week for me to try them out. I do think they do a better job of protecting my feet against rocks, which is what they're meant for, but after running six miles yesterday I do have some large blisters. I'm hoping they're because the shoes are new, not from the shoes in general. My Fitbit tells me I climbed 1,200 feet yesterday. I also explored a trail by the North Salt Lake landslide which has been closed ever since I've moved up here but is now open. I wasn't impressed.

Quit living a virtual life and go out and live a real one instead. Instead of seeing everyone else's adventures, go have some of your own!

It's always something.

I was looking forward to this week where the snow was all melting and it was warming up. I mean, I haven't been trail running since before Thanksgiving. And then I got sick. I generally pride myself on not getting sick, but I did get a couple of colds this past winter. And then this week I got sicker than usual--probably the sickest I've been since July 2013. I always get my worst sicknesses while in California or shortly after returning.

At work on Tuesday, I found my back aching, and I figured it was because I'd been sitting at my desk for too long, but I always sit at my desk for a long time. I even knelt on the floor so I wouldn't be sitting, but that made it hard to breathe. So I went home not feeling well.

I didn't even go into work on Wednesday. It was the first time I'd taken a day off for being sick since August 2012, when I was working at BYU Studies (and I had recently returned from California then, too). Well, actually I took some time last summer to go to the doctor when I had pink eye, but I didn't take the whole day off. (I actually didn't take the whole day off Wednesday either because I did some work from home.)

On Thursday I began working on a new project at work--and by new project, I mean being assigned to work with different people. This may be the least interesting assignment I've ever been given. It involves adjusting citations to a certain citation style. And I don't know who came up with this citation style, but it's terrible. Only Pandora and Spotify can get me through the next few weeks on this project.

I wasn't the only one to have health problems. I got my sickness from my mom. But our cat, Jenny, showed up this week with some missing patches of fur and some gashes on her skin. When one of the wounds kept bleeding, we decided we should take her to the vet. And she hadn't been since she was a kitten, and she is thirteen years old now. She doesn't like to be held, not even by us, so we didn't know how it was going to work out. We got a crate (not an animal crate) and put a towel in the bottom, put her in it, then covered it with a towel, which I held on top for the car ride. She didn't like that; she kept meowing at us. Once we took her out at the vet's office, she explored the room--but once she had had her fill, she was content to rest in the crate. While she didn't like being handled by the vet and the assistant, she didn't struggle as much as we expected. I think she was too scared to do anything else. We heard another cat meowing like crazy, but Jenny didn't really meow at all. The vet told us that her wounds are healing just fine, and in fact they probably happened long before we noticed--the fur came off later as pus built up under the skin. We learned she has a heart murmur, but we didn't think it was worth spending $500 for an ultrasound for a teenage cat. We also told the vet about her limp, so he extended her front legs backwards. When he did one leg, she hissed, but she didn't at the other one, so he thinks she has arthritis of the elbow. (I'm amazed at how specialized vets' knowledge is.) He gave us some prescription food for her arthritis. I'm glad to know what it is--I've worried about her limp since I first noticed it on Halloween, but I didn't know if it was worth going to the vet just for it.

The examination room had coloring pages for children to celebrate Mrach 17. (See what I did there?)

Stay in school, kids.

Every year, there are new proposals to end Daylight Saving Time, and I keep hoping this will be the year we end that cockamamie practice. And it never is! When will we stop this nonsense? (There once was a proposal to put us on permanent DST, meaning we would never be the same time as Arizona and we would sometimes be two hours ahead of Nevada, but I don't support that. Whoever suggested that one should sit down and shut up.) Proponents of DST say that it enables evening outdoor recreation. I enjoy evening outdoor recreation as much as the next guy, but if I want more daylight hours for trail running or whatever it might be, it should be my responsibility to adjust my schedule--not forcing the entire state or country to go through this ridiculous process to accommodate the outdoorsy types. And outdoor recreation really is the only benefit to DST.

California in March

Today marked a few firsts for me.

Firstly, it was the first time I've ever been to California during the month of March. We usually go there for summer vacation, Thanksgiving, or Christmas, not a random weekend in March. But the Bay Area is basically the same all year round, so it wasn't too unusual. Well, it was the rainiest I've ever seen it there, although it was pretty rainy on Christmas 2012.

California is where my three nephews live: Preston (11), Franklin (8), and Nathaniel (6). We were there for the baptism of Franklin, who is quite shy and charming. My grandparents also came, and to my knowledge they have never missed the baptism of one of their great-grandchildren. Franklin didn't want a lot of people to come because he didn't want to be embarrassed. He used to be shy around us, but he isn't anymore. He was making lots of funny faces and funny comments, such as saying that they had to kill lots of people for the headless mannequins in stores. This trip also marked the first time I had ever seen the younger two during the month of March. (Preston lived with us when he was a baby, so I've seen him in every month.) My sister-in-law, Ya-ping, asked Nathaniel why he was so cute, and he said, "I was born that way." I love visiting these kids, and I'm glad that they like us visiting, and Preston wants to move to Utah.

Nathaniel (6), Franklin (8), and Preston (11)

While the boys were at school, my parents, grandparents, and Ya-ping all went to Alcatraz Island. It was fun, and my dad and I got really wet walking around in the rain, even with umbrellas and jackets, but I didn't mind. I knew about the prison and some of the Native American protests, but I didn't know the island's history dated back to the Civil War.

One of the cells

Approaching the island

Lots of gulls

Apparently the island housed beatniks when it quit being a prison. Just kidding. But there is a bookstore/coffee shop in the first building you enter.

We walked up a steep staircase to the recreation yard.

The rubble buildings used to house the families of prison officials. There were children living an idyllic life on Alcatraz!

You can see San Francisco from the island, which made it difficult for prisoners, because they were so close but couldn't do anything about it. There are no known successful escapes from Alcatraz. About thirty minutes before this picture, it was so foggy that you could only see a very faint outline of the city.

Native Americans occupied the island in the 1960s.

Canada geese

I found a lovely phone wallpaper for this time of year.

I also hate to be one of those people who post pictures of food, because I judge them. But I was excited for some interesting seasonal food items. At this time of year I eat lots of green milkshakes, but they're always mint, so this Vietnamese restaurant had an avocado milkshake. It was actually pretty good. And then Ya-ping taught me how to make them, and those are even better, and greener.

 

They also live within close walking distance of a See's Candies shop, so I went there to get an item I'd heard of but never had: St. Patrick' Day potatoes. I'm kind of geeking out over them, because they look just like real potatoes, but they taste much better. The "peel" is cinnamon and cocoa, the "eyes" are pine nuts, and the inside is white chocolate and walnuts. The drawback? They are quite costly.

A boxed "potato," an unwrapped "potato," and a potato.

Even the inside looks like a potato.