My three favorite things are holidays, trail running, and cats, and the most significant things this week are related to each of those.
First: trails. Once all the snow is gone from our yard, I resume trail running. This year I did some in early January, and while I love trail running, I'm very sad that we have had such little snow.
On Monday I was able to go again. Near my house (less than a mile) is the upper trailhead of Springhill Geologic Park. There is a section of North Salt Lake where there were once houses, but a slow landslide destroyed the foundations. So they removed the homes and made it into a little nature walk. There are better trails, but this one is fine when I don't have a lot of time. The park itself is like a mile, which makes it about two and a half miles if I run to and from there from my house. This park has lots of volcanic rock (which contributed to the landslide), and it's fun to see igneous rocks instead of the usual conglomerate around here. I went there Monday through Thursday this week.
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| No volcanics in this picture |
Then Saturday, I went on a longer run (five miles). My weather app told me it was going to snow, but after a few hours of it not snowing, I went out anyway. I went up a steep hill off of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail because I thought it would be less muddy than many of the other trails (and I was right). I usually reserve this trail for when I have less time, because it's a good workout in a shorter amount of time.
There was a man coming down with a dog, and he said, "You're killing it!" as I ran up. But I did have to stop and catch my breath a few times: I had a mildly stuffy nose, which made it harder to breathe. I don't know whether that was from last week's cold or the cold weather, or both.
But the snow did start while I was out. It wasn't sticking to the ground, but it was annoying to have the flakes blow into my eyes. I was glad I dressed warmer than our thermometer at home said. And then we had enough snow in the evening to stick to the ground. That was a welcome surprise!
Second: cats. We brought Reggie home on December 29, 2021, and he was terrified and shaking when we did so. It took him several weeks to come out of hiding.
On Friday, we finally took him to the vet for a checkup for the first time, because we finally had a carrier that was big enough for him.
He did not enjoy the experience. He had very distressed meows, he peed in his carrier, and he was full-on panting like a dog: mouth wide open, tongue vibrating, loud breathing. I have never seen him panting before. I have never seen
any of our cats panting before.
They gave him three vaccines, and one of them is a leukemia vaccine. They said we should bring him back in a few weeks for a leukemia booster. But that vaccine was less important, since he's an indoor cat. I don't think we'll take him back, though, because of how stressed out he was. They also said we need to give him lower-calorie food (he weighs twenty-three pounds).
When we brought him home, he went straight under my bed. But he was back to normal behavior in a few hours.
And third, holidays. Of the nine holidays I formally celebrate, Valentine's Day is my least favorite. If you don't have an elementary school party to go to, what is there to look forward to? If you have someone you love (which should be everyone, in one way or another), you have them all the time anyway.
To try to do something more interesting and memorable for the holiday, I went to the Valentine's Museum, a pop-up museum that used to be in Provo but moved to Salt Lake this year. A sign at the front of the museum says, "What if we could discard the parts of Valentine's Day that give us the ick and embrace a fresh definition of a holiday all about love? What if we could poke fun at the eye-roll-inducing cheesiness of it all, embrace the fun, and consider the love that exists all around us?" That's definitely how I try to view the holiday.
Before 2022, if I wanted to go to something like that, I felt obligated to take a girl on a date. Now I'm relieved and perfectly happy to go to things like this by myself.
There were various activities and displays about love, friendship, and relationships. But it largely seemed like something tailor-made to post on Instagram. There were a few couples there on dates, but some of the activities seemed like they would be awkward to do on a first date.
I'm glad I got to go, but I don't think it was worth the twenty-two-dollar admission. It would be costly if you took a date or, especially, your family!
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| This was a decision map about what kind of flowers to get someone, based on the kind of relationship you have with them |
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| I think these heart-shaped rose-colored glasses were supposed to provide an optical illusion when you read the signs in one section, but it didn't work very well |
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| Fishing for compliments. There was a little fishing pole to take out the fish, which had compliments on them |
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| You were supposed to type a question into an iPad, and I think it was supposed to print an answer, but it was out of paper |
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| There was a section where you could make valentines using old magazines |
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| Lots of photo ops |
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| I liked this display of early-twentieth-century postcards |
Speaking of Valentine's Day, I've been thinking about a Valentine's Day Facebook post my grandpa made three years ago. He passed away in June, and I think I can honor his life and legacy while also being bemused by the awkwardness of his post. Even if you overlook the inappropriate image, I found it startling that he thought Valentine's Day was a day to express love for the women, but
only the women, in your family. By including his family members, he's showing it's not just for romantic love. But if it's not just for romantic love, why did he exclude the male family members?
And to close, here are this week's dreams.
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| during a family game, Mark is supposed to draw himself wearing a plaid shirt in Toy Story 2 |
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| Mark almost buys a clearance scarecrow at the store, but he decides not to |
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| a very young boy knocks on Mark's door and asks if he has a trailer he can loan |
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| after a conference, Mark assembles a small taco, and a man tells a kid he's having his third dinner |
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| Mark squeezes into a room at BYU that has a miniature train on tracks |
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| Mark stuffs food in his upper lip, and his colleagues laugh |
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| Mark reads a Christmas anthology in a public bath |
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| fast-food workers cut pastrami at the front counter |
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| Mark has mouthwash in his mouth in the swimming pool |
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| Mark climbs up to a drinking fountain on rocks, and people wait in line behind him |
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| Mark has dried mud on his nice blue shoes |
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| a Latter-day Saint temple open house has people walk through a shallow pool of water with their shoes on |
