Mark My Words: Kites Are Fun!

It is kind of strange having two jobs, and there has been a lot of frustrating bureaucracy switching from a Church employee (intern) to an independent contractor for the Church.

Last month, I arrived at the Church History Library, and my badge wouldn't let me through the doors. No one had told me I needed to have a vendor badge instead of an employee badge. I had to swap one piece of plastic for another piece of plastic that did the same thing. I got it switched, but then the next day it didn't work, but then I got it fixed.

On Monday this week, when I returned from vacation, once again my badge wasn't working. Except it kind of worked. I hate using elevators (so boring!), and my badge got me into the stairwell. But it didn't let me out of the stairwell! Luckily someone was coming down the stairs and let me out. I talked to the person in charge of badge access, and she restored my permissions. But she kept asking about May 5. I told her I didn't know what that date was, because my contract goes through December.

Well. I showed up at the office on May 5, and once again my badge didn't work. I managed to make my way to my desk, but the woman in charge of badges was out of the office. At the end of my work shift, I forgot to take the elevator, out of habit. And once again, my badge let me into the stairwell but not out of it. Under what circumstances would it ever make sense to design a badge like that?! There's not even a phone in the stairwell! I had to go to a floor where there were people nearby and knock so someone would let me out. So that's something I'll still have to figure out when I get to the office tomorrow. I'm just so frustrated by all the arbitrary rules that make things less efficient for everyone.

Since I'm not technically a Church employee now, I miss out on a lot of the more interesting perks. But since I am a state employee, at least I get the interesting things there. My state job definitely has more meetings than my Church job.

On Tuesday, we had a field trip where we walked around Sugar House, admiring old signs. There is a woman who has gone around the state, documenting interesting vintage signs, so she gave us a tour. It is kind of fascinating to see the various twentieth-century relics still hanging around.

That black sign used to be a Mexican restaurant. It was a sombrero.

An empty store with a cool sign.

The remains of a bakery sign on the back of a building

Neon signs were an art form

This is a mural of an old photograph of Sugar House

My state job also had a video meeting on Thursday. Reggie was desperate for affection, so I let him on my lap during the meeting. The head of the Utah Historical Society wrote in the chat, "Mark! A cat friend :)" but I was too shy to respond and thereby bring attention to myself.

Now, some of you may know that my all-time favorite song is "Kites Are Fun" by the Free Design. I bought this song six years ago (I still buy music), and it can still bring a tear to my eye because it's so beautiful.

But it had actually been a long time since I flew a kite. Three years ago, during COVID, I tried to fly some kites we had, but one was missing pieces, and the other one just wouldn't work. Last year I got a kite for Easter, but I never used it.

This year I thought it would be fun to attend North Salt Lake's kite festival, which I had never been to before. So Friday night, I took my kite to the park to test it out. And the song was right: kites are fun!

The next morning, I attended the festival, and it was fun to have so many people out flying their kites. One kite was impressively high in the air. It was a perfect day for kites. Like, I really can't imagine more ideal weather. They had a live DJ, but he did not play "Kites Are Fun," at least not while I was theyre. He did play "Let's Go Fly a Kite," which is a fine song, but it doesn't match the pure majesty of the Free Design.

I had invited my friend Chris, and he accidentally got my kite in a tree. I wasn't mad, because it reminded me of Charlie Brown's Kite-Eating Tree.

But with some strategic tugging, Chris got it out, which was impressive, because I thought it was pretty well entangled. Thanks Chris!

It was a lovely event. I'm glad I went.

For my Saturday run, I decided to go to the Woodbriar Trail and run down into City Creek Canyon. The last time I went all the way down there was Thanksgiving 2017, because the trail is steep and difficult. But I decided I wanted to go again anyway. I know Mueller Park and North Canyon would still have a lot of snow, so I opted for this drier trail.

There still is snow in the gully on top of the ridge

I made it down to City Creek, and then I had to come back up. I went so slow because it's so steep. It made me feel like I can't really call myself a trail runner. It climbs more than a thousand feet in a little more than a mile, which means it's three times as steep as Mueller Park and twice as steep as North Canyon. I would run a short distance, then take a break. I did run up the entire thing, but it took more than half an hour to go one mile.