Though I have nine officially canonized holidays, I am interested in other regional holidays, and Tuesday was Mardi Gras. Last year, I got a king cake from Parsons' Bakery, and I was trying to figure out how to fit that into my schedule, since Tuesday is also the day I work in the office. But then I saw a spot on TV for Délice French Bakery in Salt Lake, and they were advertisting king cakes! So I went and bought one, since it wasn't far from my work. I didn't want to bring an entire cake home, so I brought it into the office and told people about it when I saw them. (I didn't want to advertise it widely, since I didn't think I had enough for everyone.)
As someone who avoids single-use plastic as much as possible, I was very annoyed it was covered in plastic. My supervisor took the beads home to her kids at least.
One of my colleagues came by my desk and said, "It was you!" He was surprised and told me I'm full of surprises. I wonder what it was he found surprising; a holiday-themed treat is pretty on-brand for me. I guess I'm not an overly generous person?
Anyway, I kind of like being mysterious and surprising, and I was thinking about what other things people have found surprising about me.
When I was a teenager, some people were surprised I watched The Simpsons
People have been surprised that I'm not a gamer or a Star Wars or superhero nerd
Someone was surprised that a quiet person like me had a detailed, wordy blog
People have been surprised to see pictures of me when I was ~250 pounds
I had a coworker who was surprised to find out I was a runner. Actually, she sounded disappointed, because I think she was jealous and insecure
People are surprised I like Lady Gaga
I think people were surprised I'm gay (come on, if you knew one of these last two things, you should have guessed the other)
This week, some of the Faith Matters folks asked me to look at the endnotes for a book they're working on, which was a rush job. I don't think people realize how much work goes into fixing footnotes and endnotes; it is by far the most time-consuming part of any editing project, especially when authors have been sloppy. But I know I'm very good at it, so I agreed, and that's how I spent Wednesday and Thursday evening. It's a good thing those evenings were rainy and the pool was closed, so I wasn't missing out on much.
This week was RootsTech, and the Utah Historical Society had a booth that I helped with on Friday and Saturday. I had never been to RootsTech before. (I had a stake family history calling a decade ago with a very gung ho high councilor, and it kind of burned me out from family history.) I just sat at the booth and talked to people about what we do, and it occurred to me that I don't know much about what people are doing in our division if I'm not involved with it. It was nice to be away from my computer, but it was a little challenging for a socially awkward introvert like me. But I signed up for Kindex, a software that can transcribe handwriting.
I had been to the Salt Palace before, but somehow I hadn't noticed the art installation of Martha Hughes Cannon made out of carpet scraps. When I saw it, I instantly recognized who it was, since her statue was just unveiled in Washington DC in December.
Other random things this week:
I found this piece of paper that had blown into our backyard.
I received my new CD of It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown this week. I'm really excited for it, but I try not to listen to Easter music until after St. Patrick's Day. My Easter playlist is my worst holiday playlist, so it will be good to get some new music in it.
I've been listening to Lady Gaga's new album, Mayhem, minus the songs with swears. So far I think the standout track is "Abracadabra," which was released as a single on February 2 and has been stuck in my head ever since. And I think Mayhem is my favorite album of 2025 so far, but it's still early.
And since I'm a sucker for twentieth-century holiday kitsch, I also ordered the DVD collection of all the Rankin-Bass Christmas specials. I already had most of them, but if I ordered the extra ones separately, it would almost be as much. And also, I learned that DVDs made by Warner Bros. between 2006 and 2008 are deteriorating, which might affect one of my box sets. To remain seasonally appropriate, I watched The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold, while drinking hot cocoa with special St. Patrick's Day Lucky Charms marshmallows.
And here are this week's dreams.
Jesse accidentally knocks down the walls of the gingerbread house after he puts a candy pirate inside
Jesse makes a cookie display of Marilyn Munster
Mark drives his car inside the building that sells home decor
at a church dinner, Mark reads a book with funny old pictures and pictures of animals
Mark slides down hundreds of beer cans on a mountain trail
Mark sees his second-grade teacher and another middle-aged woman in public, and they are both very short
Mark's family goes camping in early September, and some of the tents have bathrooms, and the leaves are starting to change
every time Mark puts up a Christmas tree in his great-grandmother's house, someone does mean things
Mark gets ink particles on his white button-up shirt
Mark buys lots of fabric at JoAnn for the last time
small moose walk between people's legs
a Latter-day Saint missionary brushes his teeth at the sink in a family's living room
a family teaches their toddler to swim by dropping her in a swimming pool and waiting for her to surface
rows of chairs are set up in the men's restroom in a church
Mark tries to order two nonalcoholic drinks in Spanish from the woman bartender
Mark invites his mom to an event at the gay bar
Mark plucks an invasive plant from someone's yard and then debates whether to put a history folder on the front step of the home
a high school student tries to take a used history folder from a guy who's supposed to deliver it
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