Lead-Up to Easter

This will be another one of those posts where I just tell you what I did every day. I never said it would be interesting.

Back in October, I bought some new trail running shoes that happened to be Halloween colors. My Garmin app lets me track gear over time, so I input them into the app as "Halloween shoes 🎃." I'm quickly approaching four hundred miles, so I went up to Salt Lake Running Company in Centerville to get a new pair. They brought out the exact same model, even the same color, so I didn't even have to try them on. It was a quick in and out!

While I was up there, I went running on some of the Centerville trails for a change. There are lots of trails and dirt roads up there, so it's easy to get confused, and I ended up running on an ATV trail. I hate feeling like I'm somewhere I'm not supposed to be, but there weren't clear signs. I did a trail race up there back in 2017, so it was a little familiar, but still somewhat confusing.

Arrowleaf balsamroot!

On Tuesday after work, I stopped at the Other Side Thrift Boutique, where I bought a couple of nice shirts. It feels justifiable to buy "new" clothes from a thrift shop, since it's better for the environment and better for the wallet. (I still worry about closet space.) Only after I got home did I realize that one of the shirts perfectly matches a pair of socks I already had! 

I also like the 2010-era style. Back in 2010, I still somewhat felt that I wasn't allowed to wear stylish clothing

And I also made an Eastertime Trader Joe's run. Everyone loves Cadbury Mini Eggs, but I prefer the egglike Trader Joe's Candy Coated Dark Chocolate Almonds. 

glacier lilies from a Tuesday run

Our apple blossoms

In the evening, I filed my taxes. There are certainly other things I would rather do, but it's nice to have it done. 

Wednesday was a chilly day, and we realized that our furnace was out. So the rest of the week, my parents have been talking with various furnace companies to try to find a replacement. It was April Fools' Day, which isn't one of my canonized holidays, but I had to try the Crumbl everything bagel cookie, which was available for that day only. Various food companies advertise weird products for April Fools', and I was glad to see one of them actually do it for once. It was OK. 

Around Valentine's Day, I took my bike in for a tuneup, and Wednesday evening, I rode it for the first time since the tuneup. The brakes and the right shifting are a lot smoother, but the left shifting was worse, basically impossible on the uphill. That was frustrating.

And in the evening, my friend Sean invited me to a Passover dinner. I think we were careful to make sure we weren't doing an actual Jewish ritual, just having a Passover-inspired meal. (Recently, the Wayfare Slack channel had a discussion about doing Passover dinners like this; one person thought it was inappropriate, but the rest of us thought it was fine.) Sean made lamb, we had unleavened crackers and "bitter herbs" (greens), and I brought grape juice, including some of our own home-canned juice. (This winter, my dad hacked away at our grape vines, so I hope they grow back.) 

Thursday was snowy, which was refreshing! But cold, since the furnace was out. I took my bike back into the shop, and they couldn't re-create the issue on the rack (or whatever they call that thing they hang the bike on to do repairs). They made some adjustments and offered me some tips. In the evening, I swam with the swim team again.

On Friday, I biked to the top of the Summerwood neighborhood. The shifting was better that it had been on Friday, but it still wasn't ideal. It's just so frustrating that it doesn't work properly right after a tuneup. And I don't have the mechanical skills to fix it myself. But I'm always proud of myself when I can get to the top of the difficult ride. I climbed 1,000 feet in about 3 miles, for a total of 6.8 miles when you include the downhill.

On Saturday, we received our Easter baskets, and I'm glad my mom still gives us Easter candy even though there are no kids around anymore. 

And we also colored eggs. Back in 2010, my BYU FHE group introduced me to using colored crayons on eggs. (Before that, we only ever used the clear crayons that come with the dye kits.) And I really love being creative with crayons and dye. 

These are the five I colored.

Saturday evening, I had a mission reunion with my first mission president. I haven't had one with him since 2018, and I haven't been to one at all since 2019. Two of my companions were there, and there were some other missionaries I served around. I feel a little bad about people I've unfriended on Facebook over the years, but it feels weird to be friends with people you barely know.

I have complicated feelings about my mission, and missions in general, these days. I'm glad to see the Church placing a greater emphasis on service missions. I especially think tracting is dumb; even as a missionary, I called it "eating shirts," because it felt as futile as trying to eat a shirt. But it was an experience that helped me grow in so many important ways. (Except physically—I shrank instead!)

They had scrapbooks with all our transfer board pictures. This is mine!

One of the guys I talked to was embarrassed as he remembered what a weird kid he was. And I, myself, was weirder than most. But I pointed out that if we didn't look back and think we were weird, then it would mean we haven't been progressing since then—so it's a good thing we think we were weird. But I was seriously so, so disproportionately weird.

After the reunion, I stopped at the always quirky Brooker's Founding Flavors, where I had their carrot cake ice cream. 

Speaking of carrot cake, I made a chocolate carrot cake for our family Easter lunch. I made it last year after I had a dream about chocolate carrot cookies, and I loved it so much I wanted to make it again. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. 

My sister's cherry tree

It's been a decent Easter. I'm sad it's not as late as last year (April 20)—but next year it will be on March 28, which makes me sad. In 2038, it will be April 25, which is the latest it can ever be. That's a long time from now, and yet I remember 2014 Eastertime pretty well.