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:

1. Christmas (2,047 songs)
2. Halloween (553 songs)
3. New Year (50 songs)
4. St. Patrick's Day (269 songs)
5. Pioneer Day (237 songs)
6. Fourth of July (242 songs)
7. Valentine's Day (27 songs)
8. Thanksgiving (174 songs)
9. 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!