Mark My Words: March 2024

Sunday, March 31, 2024

Easter

I had a lot going on this week!

On Monday, I had my weekly video call with my boss. As I mentioned previously, her two-year-old son likes to say hi to me and will often say "Want Mark." This week, he was very clingy to his mom, and at one point he was eating her hair, then saying "Icky." But someone else joined our call, and I could tell that the toddler was saying "Off." My boss later told me he was saying, "Want her off! Want Mark!" It was funny, but I could tell my boss was flustered.

On Wednesday, I went on another steep bike ride to the top of Summerwood, but I went a different route this time that was just a little longer. It was really hard, and I thought, "I can't stop, because if I do, I'll never get going again." But I was still pleased that I was able to do it—and yet, while I was going up, another cyclist went fast past me. He said, "Have a good ride!" It was another reminder how I'm not a cyclist.

On Thursday, the Utah Historical Society hosted an event with the Mexican Consulate in Salt Lake City. The winter 2024 issue of Utah Historical Quarterly is a collaboration with the consulate. To celebrate the 110th anniversary of the consulate (1911), there was a Spanish-language publication a few years ago in Mexico. For UHQ, we had the articles translated and then published them in English.

It was a real headache to edit this issue. There was one article that I was sure had been translated by a computer, because the translation was so bad, but apparently it was a human. (I don't know whether the translator was bad, or if the original publication was bad.) Some things had been mistranslated. For example, one article talked about "Marquis de Frazer Mont wheat," but that was actually marquis wheat from Frazer, Montana. One writer made a claim about Latter-day Saint business practices, but when I looked at the citation, it was a sarcastic anti-Mormon article from the Salt Lake Tribune, so the facts were wrong—but the writer, not having English as their native language and not having a background in Mormon history, didn't get that. With every article for every UHQ issue, I clean up the citations, which usually means finding the original sources. That's hard in English, but it was especially hard with Spanish sources. (I took four years of Spanish in high school, and I was really good at it, but I'm not fluent, and I only got a 2 on the AP Spanish test.)

Anyway, the event was to honor the publication. We got the print copies in the nick of time (and it still hasn't been published digitally). Some of the authors came, including one who flew in from Mexico, and the Mexican consul himself was there. I had a lot of impostor syndrome: I did do a lot of work on the issue, but it wasn't my idea, and I hadn't really communicated with all of the authors. I must admit that it was hard for me to pay attention during the presentations. But at the end my boss pointed to me as someone who helped out a lot with the issue, and the woman who kind of spearheaded the project seemed excited to meet me.

I found the image for the cover in the Utah Historical Society's digitized collection.

Since I worked on Saturday last week, I got to have Friday off, which also happened to be Good Friday and my half birthday, as well as the thirty-third anniversary of us moving into our house. I went to the pool, and there was a group of special-needs adults there. One of them came into the locker room meowing. Like, it sounded exactly like a cat.

It's on my bucket list to visit every state park in Utah, and I thought it would be a fun day to go to Utah Lake. Even though I lived in Provo for four years, I had never been there. Most state parks are reservoirs, so I want to save them for the summer so I can swim and paddleboard in them. But Utah Lake has so much algae that I don't anticipate swimming there anytime soon. I went with my mom, and I walked around the edge of the lake. It was a lovely place, and I'm glad I got to see it. But it makes me sad with all of the environmental problems it has. And I'm not a fisherman or a boater, so I don't have much reason to go back.

Yesterday (Saturday), I colored Easter eggs with my family, which is always fun. These are the ones I made.

The plain ones are actually from brown eggs, which colored better than we expected

And my mom—I mean, the Easter Bunny—still prepares Easter baskets for us, even though I'm a grown adult. I appreciate that. But only my niece and I got chocolate bunnies.

Then last night, my ward (among others) was asked to help with manual labor at the Bountiful Temple while it undergoes annual maintenance. I was in a group that tore up the carpet in the celestial room. We pulled up the carpet, then pulled up the black padding underneath. Then we had to scrape the glue off the concrete floor. This was difficult work, even though I think I'm more fit than the average person. It certainly was strange to be in the celestial room, with its white walls and chandeliers, but drenching myself in sweat while performing manual labor. We wore white jumpsuits with casual shoes. Probably the only time I'll wear Easter-egg socks in the celestial room.

This morning before church, I made carrot cake for our family's Easter lunch. I used a cookbook from the 1970s that is falling apart, but it was one of the best carrot cakes I've ever had, I think. Carrot cake is my all-time favorite dessert, but I only eat it at Eastertime.

I made the cake and the frosting, but my mom actually frosted it and put the decorative carrots on

I sang in the ward choir at church. I sing tenor—I think I'm better at bass, but I like tenor better (when I can hit the notes), and tenors are harder to find. For both our songs, the tenor line was really weird and unintuitive. But I think I got it down and it worked out—even though I had to sing falsetto because it was extra high.

I thought about explaining how I like to treat Christmas and Easter equally, and how various factors have made Christmas bigger than Easter, but I don't feel like it right now. Maybe another year. It makes me sad when Easter is in March, because it makes April less exciting, but next year it's late. I'll just leave you with this song, "I Wish I Was a Whisker on the Easter Bunny's Chin," which I genuinely, unironically love.

Sunday, March 24, 2024

The Peoples of Utah

It was a history-filled week. I mean, of course every week is, since that's my job, but this week especially.

A few weeks ago, my parents told me they got tickets to the Manti Temple open house on a Monday. I don't usually like to take a day off like that. But since I work in Utah history, I thought I had good reason to take the time off to go see it. I did get to do an endowment session there back in 2017. After visiting every county seat in Utah back in 2018, Manti might be my favorite.

We met my uncle and aunt and their granddaughter there. I was surprised for how busy it was on a random weekday. I really love these nineteenth-century buildings, and they had a few old artifacts inside.

Of course, the murals were the best part. The Creation Room had prehistoric animals in it, but the volunteers were herding us through. And of course, the World Room has beautiful paintings from Minerva Teichert. Like, I can't believe they were actually considering removing them! I'm glad they reconsidered. I would have liked to have spent more time in the World Room, but my family seemed to be rushing through.

And I had to play Cherie Call's song about the Manti Temple.

Last week, my Utah Historical Society inbox kept getting messages from the Church History Library inviting people to an event announcing a new online publication, Journals of Early Sister Missionaries. So I went there on Tuesday morning. My work there ended less than three months ago, so it was very familiar, but it was a little weird to be there on behalf of UHS instead. It was good to see some of my old colleagues, and one woman remembered me and called me by name during the Q&A, even though I only helped her briefly with one project. (But one didn't seem to recognize me, but I didn't work closely with him. Maybe it was the beard and the lack of glasses?)

Then Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, my days were mostly identical. I would work one job on one laptop. And then I would switch to another job on another laptop. Then I went running on the Wild Rose Trail. And then I would come home and work on the freelance book project for Faith Matters, which I finally finished editing last night.

It was good to be back on Wild Rose, my first time running there since Thanksgiving (though I did some snow hiking there in January). No flowers yet.

On the way home Wednesday, a black cat crossed my path, which I think is good luck.

Then Saturday, the Utah Historical Society hosted a symposium for the Peoples of Utah Revisited. Back in 1976, the UHS published a book called The Peoples of Utah, which showcased the histories of various communities in Utah. Fifty years later, we're doing a new version called the Peoples of Utah Revisited, or POUR. Various historians—both professional and amateur—are working on contributions for POUR, many of which will end up in Utah Historical Quarterly (UHQ). I'm on the public history team for UHS, so we helped with the symposium. (I initially applied to the position of the person in charge of organizing POUR, and thankfully I did not get the job, because the person they hired did a better job than I would. But then they invited me to apply to my UHQ position instead, which worked out better for everyone.)

I put this sign out, but I had to tie it to a tree with a lanyard. It didn't stay up all day.

In the morning, I participated in a discussion group for contributors who are writing queer histories. In the afternoon, the editor of UHQ presented about historical argumentation, and then I, as assistant editor, followed with a presentation about writing. It was fun to present, even though I'm not good at public speaking.

It's wild to me that here I am, working as a historical professional, when I only got a 2 on the AP US history test, and my worst grade in college was in a history class. I guess there's a lesson in that: try new things! Don't expect to always be the same person you thought you were!

Sunday, March 17, 2024

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:

Christmas (2,047 songs)
Halloween (553 songs)
New Year (50 songs)
St. Patrick's Day (269 songs)
Pioneer Day (237 songs)
Fourth of July (242 songs)
Valentine's Day (27 songs)
Thanksgiving (174 songs)
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!

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Civics

I engaged in several events this week relating to my civic duties.

Tuesday evening, I went to the Republican caucus. For many years I was an unaffiliated voter, because I didn't want party allegiance to affect my opinions, instead of deciding for myself. Before Trump, I was pretty much in the center. But since Donald Trump, I lean left, mostly because the right has gone so far right. (Right politically, not right morally.) I am now a registered Republican so I can vote in their primaries and select moderate candidates—I no longer worry about a Republican affiliation making me lean Republican, because I am frankly disgusted with the direction of the Republican Party since Trump, and especially since COVID. I am a RINO.

The Republican Party of Utah decided to not send out ballots, so in order to vote, I had to attend the caucus. We divided into precincts, and each precinct filled out a presidential preference poll. Of course, I voted for Nikki Haley. I didn't think she had a real chance, but I wanted to make my voice heard. It just baffles me that Republicans are backing Trump and objecting to any lawsuits or impeachments against him. Like, if you don't have Trump, you can pick another candidate who will espouse the same Republican ideas, but without bragging about groping women, getting impeached by members of their own party (twice), inciting insurrections, calling people names, spreading misinformation without evidence, or saying "ROT IN HELL. AGAIN, MERRY CHRISTMAS."

Happily, our precinct voted for Haley! And according to the news I read, most of Davis and Salt Lake Counties also did. Trump still won Utah, but he had one of the narrowest leads in the country. Hooray!

On Thursday, I helped judge entries for National History Day at Salt Lake Community College, which is like a science fair but for history. The Utah Historical Society encouraged employees to help out, so I got paid to be there. In the morning, I judged websites, and my cojudge worked at the Church History Library. We had looked at the websites before, and then we interviewed the students (I think they were in junior high) before we ranked their entries. I liked interviewing them, and I admired their work, but not all of them could advance.

Then in the afternoon, they assigned me to help judge the final round of elementary school exhibits. I was judging with two other men, one of whom was a weird old man who reminded me of the old actor Percy Helton, so I will call him Percy.

He described himself as an armchair historian, and "armchair" is right. He said he's been judging for ten years, and I felt bad for ten years of students.

The exhibits had papers in front of them that described why and how they did their project. Percy was picking up their papers and circling every time they said "I." Now, as a professional editor, that really irked me—there's nothing wrong with saying "I," and we were judging more on their history than their writing. But as a shy, nonconfrontational person who thinks my opinions don't matter, I didn't say anything. However, the other judge (I'll call him Greg) then asked him about him doing that. Percy said that he worked in business and had to read lots of resumes and cover letters that said "I." Greg told him that these kids weren't being taught not to write with "I," and we were trying to make it a positive experience for them. They went back and forth for several minutes, with Percy giving unconvincing reasons for his judging. I occasionally chimed in to agree with Greg. Then when we were discussing our thoughts and rankings of the exhibits, I disagreed with literally everything Percy said. NHD is desperate for judges, but for the sake of the kids, I hope Percy doesn't judge again! He annoyed me.

One of the exhibits was about the shift from black-and-white to color TV, and the kid pointed to Gilligan's Island as an example of a TV show that never switched to color. I just happen to know more about Gilligan's Island than most people do, so I had to leave a comment that it most definitely did switch to color.

Then yesterday, I went to the capitol for a ceremony of the new Utah flag. Apparently March 9 was designated as Utah Flag Day back in 2011. I am happy with the new flag, though I would have liked to see sego lilies on it, which I think would better portray Indigenous peoples. Oh well, at least the sego lily is on Salt Lake City's flag. The beehive represents industry and community and 1847; the star represents 1896 (statehood); the peaks represent Indigenous peoples; the red represents the red rocks of southern Utah; the hexagon represents a common shape in nature and beehives.

They were also giving out free t-shirts and mini flags.

I'm happy with the new flag, which is more iconic and aesthetically pleasing than the old flag (which will still be around as the governor's flag). Some MAGA folks inexplicably are furious about the new flag. This same demographic was also mad about Minnesota's new flag, even though MN's old flag was even worse than ours.

The inscription actually says "L'Etoile," which means "the star," but it's still a funny joke.

Then I spent the afternoon filing my taxes. That's annoying, but I don't mind paying taxes, because I benefit from them. And, of course, state taxes give me a job (along with the revenue from the new black license plates).

And last night, I got on my bed to do some reading, but someone had other plans.

Sunday, March 3, 2024

Yay March!

Guys, we made it out of February! January and February are the only months of the year I don't like.

Some people seem annoyed or surprised when I do anything St. Patrick's-y before March 1, but do they wait until December for Christmas stuff (which is later in the month)? I recently saw a commercial with two guys knocking down a Valentine's heart, then saying, "It's St. Patrick's Day season!" I was glad that others agree with me that (a) St. Patrick's Day has a season and (2) it starts after Valentine's Day. (I'm just disappointed it was a whiskey commercial, which is by far my biggest gripe about St. Patrick's Day. I have a great deal of schadenfreude for drunk people. Drunk drivers deserve any maiming they inflict on themselves.)

Anyway, for the month between Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day, I like to consume green food and Irish food, even though I'm not Irish at all. This week I made colcannon, Irish mashed potatoes. It just had potatoes, cabbage, milk, butter, and onions (the recipe called for green onions, but I used regular onions instead). Those sound like very basic, bland ingredients, but it was amazing! It was better than the sum of its parts.

And I've started wearing my shamrock hat at my desk to keep the sunlight from the window out of my eyes.

Since Leap Day only occurs every four years, I wanted to make it memorable. It's one of those days when I can eat whatever I want, so I took advantage of that. And I went on another steep bike ride, so my Garmin app gave me a special badge.

And I watched the romcom Leap Year, which I rate 4/10.

And then, it was March! March 1 is the beginning of meteorological spring. And the snow was sufficiently melted, for one day, that I was able to do my first trail run of the year! I had enough time to make it a long one: I ran to Ensign Peak from my house, nine miles round trip. It was exceedingly windy, but it was so wonderful to be back on the trail. Only a few spots were muddy.