My Muddy Valentine

Of the nine holidays I formally celebrate, Valentine's Day is my least favorite. I'm not anti–Valentine's Day, like some people are; it provides a little bit of brightness in the winter. But there's just not much to look forward to. The food is literally the best part.

Since I was able to run up North Canyon, my favorite trail, on Thanksgiving and Christmas, I thought I'd try it out for Valentine's Day, since the snowpack hasn't really improved. 

There was definitely more snow than there was on Christmas, so I opted not to go up the usual way to Rudy's Flat.

Instead I took the new Mahogany Ridge Trail up to Cave Peak. And much of the trail was muddy. I think it was muddy from the small storms we had this week, which were rain in the valley, but they appeared to have left a dusting of snow on the trail. Much of this dusting had melted (hence the mud), but there were patches in the shade that were still covered in snow.

Honestly, I can't say it was a great run. February is just not a pretty month—no wildflowers, no green, no fall leaves. Even December was prettier. I didn't like running on the mud. It was a reminder of the  terrible winter we've had this year. And I wish I had worn a hat, because the sun was in my eyes (in the summer, it's higher in the sky). But at least it was pretty easy for me.

As I was coming back down, I met an older man who asked me about the trail conditions. He wants to go to Rudy's Flat sometime, because his name is Rudy, but yesterday was not the day to do it.

I was a little disappointed to get my Halloween shoes all muddy, but they already have 294 miles on them. My run was just under seven miles.

I allowed myself to do virtually nothing for the holiday. My mom made sugar cookies, and we had our traditional pizza dinner to remember our worst Valentine's Day ever, when my mom broke her leg carrying a pizza downstairs. One of the pizzas got overcooked, but I remarked that it's better overcooked than thrown on the floor.

And I spent the bulk of the day watching Valentine's-themed episodes of various sitcoms on TV: The Simpsons, The Nanny, Frasier, Roseanne, and Bob's Burgers. That seemed to be about the best way to spend such a bland holiday.

And now that Valentine's Day is over, we can move on to the holidays that are actually fun.

Serious and silly

I had a week where I feel like I can say something about every day!

Last Sunday, I wrote letters to Celeste Maloy, John Curtis, and Mike Lee, and I put them in the mail on Monday. This is the bulk of the letters:

I am severely concerned about the current state of the United States of America under the Trump administration. Actually, “severely concerned” is an understatement. My grievances are too long to include fully, but they include the following: pardoning people who attacked law enforcement at the Capitol, killing any boats that are assumed to have drug traffickers, filling government positions with unqualified people, removing history from museums and markers, flip-flopping on the Epstein files, posting mean-spirited social media content on official government accounts, and threatening to invade Greenland. I am dismayed that I can no longer trust the content on official government websites, whether it’s about health, science, history, or elections. And I am certainly infuriated by the brutal ways ICE is fulfilling its job: murdering people such as Renee Good and Alex Pretti; detaining children, legal immigrants, and US citizens; and not adequately training employees.

In your heart, I think you know that Donald Trump is not a man of honorable moral character, that he is a man who cares only about himself. Therefore, I invite you to encourage your colleagues in the House to do what you can to remove him from office, and then keep the momentum going when the vote goes to the Senate. I know you worry about revenge and retribution from him. But if enough of you can band together, you can remove him and strip him of his powers. Think for a moment what it would be like if Trump no longer had control over the US and the Republican Party. You could instead rally around a leader who has a firm moral compass and does what is best for the country, not his or her own personal interest—someone who is a good role model for your children and grandchildren, someone who tries to unite us.

I did add some personal touches to the introduction and conclusion, and Maloy's was slightly different, since she's in the House. I told Curtis I voted for him in the primaries (he was the least terrible option, though of course I didn't tell him that), and I invited Lee to repent for joking about Melissa Hortman's murder. Between Mike, Trevor, John D., and Robert E., I have a hard time trusting people with the last name Lee.

I went into the office for my Utah Historical Society (UHS) job (I'm expected to go in once a week). In the afternoon, I met my BYU boss for lunch (he loves lunch) as I started working for him again. Since October, I have been working full-time hours for UHS, but I've still been a part-time employee. But this week I resumed splitting my time between UHS and BYU. I gotta say, I have a harder time focusing for my BYU work. I think that's because (1) the assignments are harder, (2) I'm using my own laptop, and (3) I work on it at the end of the workday.

On Tuesday I went to DI, which I don't go to very often. I enjoy looking at the old CDs to try to find things that are not available on streaming services. On this trip, I bought the CD Shall We Gather by Enoch Train, a local folk ensemble named for the ship that transported many of the handcart pioneers. I heard the CD on my mission when my companion borrowed it from our district leader. (That was the only companion who I think is actually a bad person.)

On Wednesday, UHS had a ceremony for our annual awards. This time, it was held at Hill Aerospace Museum, so we were surrounded by lots of old airplanes. Military history isn't really my thing, but it was still a cool venue to be at. I'm on the committee that decides the best books and articles. Our top two Utah history books (published in 2024) were This Abominable Slavery: Race, Religion, and the Battle over Human Bondage in Antebellum Utah by Paul Reeve, Christopher Rich, and LaJean Purcell Carruth, and American Zion: A New History of Mormonism by Benjamin E. Park. I had a lengthy discussion with Christopher Rich after dinner, and I said hi to Ben Park, but he meets so many people. (I generally admire his scholarship, but last year he made a video about Pioneer Day that had some dead-wrong analyses—he obviously hadn't read my article!) And I also talked to the authors of our award-winning articles, as well as other scholars who were there. The awards ceremony also honors various community initiatives, but I'm not involved as much (or involved at all) with the others.

They dimmed the lights during the actual event, but all of us employees had to help set up

And I was glad we finally got a little bit of snow that evening! Still, it was a paltry amount for January. Sigh.

Thursday I swam with the recreational swim team again, which I've been doing pretty consistently this month. The swim coaches put up workouts for us, and I finished the whole workout on both Tuesday and Thursday this week! But they were easy workouts, posted by the easy coach.

Friday I ran up some of the new streets under development in North Salt Lake. 

Also, I was surprised this week to realize that when Catherine O'Hara was in Beetlejuice and Home Alone, she was younger than I am now!

Saturday, I rode my bike to the top of the Summerwood neighborhood in Bountiful, which is really hard to do, so it's satisfying to make it up. I went 6.8 miles total and climbed 1,100 feet. I shed a layer on the way up and put it on for the cold downhill. It's a challenging ride, but I find it less boring than a flat ride.

My boss also sent me a copy of one of the many books I've been working on for him in the last couple of years.

In my free time, I've been watching various Valentine's shows for a new spreadsheet I'm working on, and I've been playing Super Mario Galaxy on my Switch in anticipation of the movie coming out this spring. I don't know if I'll see the movie, but the game is probably the best video game I've ever played, even though it originally came out in 2007. And I've been catching up on my history books about the memory of the American revolution—I have a lull before we get more books to read for next year's Utah history awards.

It's been a while since I've posted any drawings about my dreams, so here are some I've had in the last month or so. As a reminder: I used to make AI dream images, but I've switched to drawing them myself in order to foster creativity. They are not meant to be good drawings. And I just think dreams are funny.

At the White House, David and Susanne hit Trump on the head with spoons, and Mark tries to figure out how to stab him

Reggie sits in a giant geode

Mark rolls down the street on a pair of lint rollers

On social media, people make fun of a company's new apatosaurus jingle

At This Is the Place, a hippopotamus follows Mark around

Oh, and what the heck, it's Valentine season, so I'll share some of the Valentine's treats I've had this week, in the style of pumpkinundation roundup.

The Arctic Circle Chocolate Covered Raspberry Shake is just a raspberry shake with little chocolate raspberry cups. It's OK, I wish it had more chocolate in it. 6/10.

The Cold Stone Berry Velvety has red velvet cake batter ice cream with strawberries and cream cheese frosting. I ate it, and I didn't distract myself with my phone, yet I still don't remember much about it. I think the cream cheese was a little potent, and the strawberries were a weird addition. 6/10.

The Shake Shack True Love Shake has strawberry, custard, chocolate whipped cream, and a crackable chocolate shell on the inside of the cup. I would love to see more creative things like this! 8/10.

The Kneaders Chocolate Raspberry Petite Cake is also called a Black Forest cake (according to them), and it's a chocolate cake with a raspberry filling. In previous years, they've just had a chocolate cake with a cherry on top, so this is more interesting. 7/10.

Blah

Maybe you'd be interested in a recap of the Sunday School lesson I taught today? I began it by discussing the origins of the book of Moses and the book of Abraham. I talked about Moses 1 and Dieter F. Uchtdorf's "paradox of man." I showed pictures of various political and religious figures and asked, "How does knowing we are children of God affect the way we treat ourselves and others?" I talked about the Creation and asked, "How can we care for creation?" And I talked about the seventh day of Creation and asked, "Why is it important to have a day of rest?" I ran out of content at the end, but the class contributed with their own comments and insights. I thought it went well, and I received several compliments.

I also bless the sacrament every week, because I don't like passing it, and that way they won't ask me to pass it. Today we had a high councilor speak with his family, and he said he pointed out to his priest son how carefully the sacrament prayer was enunciated. I never know how good a job I'm doing, so it's nice to get a validating shout-out. (Unless he was talking about the other person who prayed?)

(I put these two paragraphs at the end of the post, but then I moved them to the beginning because they seemed less frivolous than the rest of the post.)

Every January, I miss Christmastime. It's nice to have a refresher after all the chaos of the holidays, but I still miss it. And that is especially true this year, because I felt cheated out of the full Christmas experience, and I had a lot of missed opportunities. 

I couldn't find my new Christmas ornament from Holiday World, but I found it this week. I learned about a delightfully quirky Christmas album that came out in 2025, but not until Christmas was over. I felt like I didn't get as much time playing and sharing my Christmas playlist as I would have liked.

But of course, the biggest reason was that it was such a warm and snowless Christmas season. I didn't get the cozy, white vibes we think of.

But at least December was better than January. We had good air quality and clear trails last month. But this January, it's super smoggy. We had a skiff of snow over a week ago, but it still hasn't melted, even though it's been sunny and above freezing. That keeps me off the trails. I went swimming four times this week because of the icky January weather. I want it to get better . . . but there is no indication that it's going to.

And I get extremely frustrated with a segment of the population who think climate change is a hoax because they think they're somehow smarter than the people who actually study these things professionally. How can they not notice what is going on in front of their eyes? I am hopeful that emissions are slowing, and hopeful that other countries and private entities are doing something, even if the US isn't. I look at humans' successes in reversing the decline of the ozone layer and in generally making the air cleaner than it was in previous decades. I hope we can have normal winters and Christmases again. But that's all I can do, hope, because otherwise I just feel helpless.

There are some Christmas fanatics, and I honestly feel worse for them when Christmas is over. Because of my veneration of holidays, I treat every (major) holiday the way others treat Christmas: a designated season with special decorations, songs, clothing, and other things. So it's less sad for Christmas to be over when I just move on to the next holiday with all its trappings.

But . . . the replacement for Christmas and New Year's just isn't that great. I started the Valentine's Day season this week, and it's nice to have something in January, but of my nine formally canonized holidays, it's my least favorite. It's just boring and not that special.

It began as a boring, ordinary, religious saint day. Then Chaucer wrote a poem where he said it was the day when birds chose their mates, and then people associated it with romance—either doing fortune-telling rituals to determine their future lovers (as they also did on Halloween), or sending valentine messages. Then in the 1840s, companies in the US capitalized on valentine cards and other gifts. What a strange holiday.

I just don't love all the heteroromantic stuff about it. I appreciate efforts to make it about familial or platonic love, but I still don't think it can shake its romantic overtones, or at least it's not close to doing so. And platonic love is something we have all the time anyway. 

And of course Christmas has all its famous songs, and even the other holidays have a few standards. But the only semifamous Valentine's song is "My Funny Valentine," which literally has lyrics like "my dimwitted friend" and "your looks are laughable." I'm not making that up!

Anyway, the best part about this time of year is the candy and treats, and I love trying all the red velvet, cinnamon, chocolate strawberry, rose, etc., flavors. Such as festive coffee creamers in noncoffee cozy drinks (Pero and Postum). 

raspberry rose

chocolate covered strawberry

Hmm, I feel like this was kind of a dumb post. Probably because I didn't have a lot to talk about—you probably don't want to read a list of all my swimming times or see pictures of my swimsuit. Oh well, when you've written more than eight hundred blog posts, they can't all be winners.

A Boring Holiday

Welp, we are now past Valentine's Day. For me, Valentine's Day is just a holiday to be tolerated until the actual fun holidays of St. Patrick's Day and Easter begin.

There's just not a lot to do for Valentine's Day. I will tell you the things I did this week in the context of Valentine's Day, and you can see what I mean. 

On Monday, I went to cash a check at America First Credit Union inside Lee's MarketPlace. Lee's has donuts of the month, and this month was chocolate raspberry. The seasonal flavors are literally my favorite thing about Valentine's Day, and I'm not exaggerating. But the problem is that most of them are only available in February (and not in January), but I don't consume them after Valentine's Day, which means there isn't enough time or calories to eat them all.

After I bought the donut, I also stopped at a new taco truck in North Salt Lake. There are suddenly tons of taco trucks, some of them just a few blocks away from each other. I try to go to every restaurant in North Salt Lake, and it also seems especially important to support immigrants right now.

That evening my ward had an activity decorating sugar cookies, because how else are you going to have a Valentine's party for single adults? I took my own knife so I wouldn't have to use the plastic ones they would provide. But they set knives out at every table, so they probably got thrown away anyway. Why is single-use plastic still a thing?!

On Tuesdays I work in the office, and there's a cupcake shop just down the road that has different flavors every day. They have both mini sizes and regular sizes, and for Valentine's flavors they had the chocolate-covered berry correspond to the size, so of course I had one of each. 

On Wednesday I made carrot soup, and in the background I watched Valentine's episodes of sitcoms on TV.

My favorite flavor of Pop-Tarts is sugar cookie, which they usually bring out for Christmas. This year, though, they bring them out for "Spring Thaw," and they have images of Christmas characters in tropical settings. It is very bizarre. But I associate sugar cookies with Valentine's Day almost as much as Christmas, so I got them for this time of year. And on Thursday I tried them with a Valentine's-adjacent flavor of ice cream. But I'm coming to realize that I just don't like Pop-Tarts that much. (The berry ones are especially unappealing to me.)

For Valentine's Day, my mom made a Black Forest cake using the cherries we (mostly I) pick from my sister's tree. 

I got my mom a Valentine's gift. She collects salt and pepper shakers, and I collect holiday-themed Squishmallows, so I got her salt and pepper Squishmallows.

Back in 2014, when Valentine's Day was also a Friday, I visited home from college, and we got Papa Murphy's pizza. My mom was carrying a pizza downstairs, and she missed a step and destroyed her leg. It was also the same day my dad fainted at work because of a heart issue. To remember that day, we have gotten pizza every year since then. And I have noticed that heart-shaped pizza has become very common, with different pizza places offering it. I even saw an advertisement for yeast with a recipe for heart-shaped pizza. It's almost becoming as iconic as corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day and hot dogs on the Fourth of July!

Papa Murphy's heart is less pronounced than that of other pizzerias

But Valentine's Day was just boring (which is better than it was in 2014). I worked from home, wearing my heart shirt, and I proofread an article for Wayfare. I considered going on a short run, but it was rainy. In the evening, I watched Valentine's episodes of various sitcoms, accompanied by the love of my life. The romantic, heteronormative emphasis of the holiday just doesn't speak to me. I fully support emphasizing other forms of love, but it still doesn't make it a very interesting day.

Then yesterday, February 15, I fully moved on to the season of green and shamrocks. 

And I ran on the Jordan River Trail. I don't recall seeing the mud island there before. 

And here are this week's dreams. (The airport ones are all from the same dream.)

a woman almost drives her car down a boat ramp into a lake because she thinks it's a road

a fish tank without sides is installed in a bathroom

Mark wants to see Imagine Dragons with his friends, but the tickets are all gone

Mark is confused as he drives through Ogden, Utah (the AI generator loves the phrase "ethnically ambiguous," or maybe it's supposed to be "ethically ambiguous")

Mark keeps looking through the peephole to see if the baby elephant is still outside his apartment door

a man dressed like a beatnik interrupts a meeting by beautifully playing the violin outside

Linus from Peanuts has a heart-shaped pizza in a heart-shaped box

a family has a Liberty Bell decoration from 1904

a cookbook has different recipes for fruit breads, including cranberry orange

Mario throws a magic star into space, which creates a line of new cities (this is one of the most accurate images I've had in a while!)

Mark's friend comes to stay at his house, even though Mark's relatives are also staying

Mark helps a kindergarten class with their painting, and a girl paints black over pink

at the airport, five-year-old Franklin proudly shows off hopping on one foot

at the airport, a restaurant sells carrot-flavored water and chocolate cherry tarts

at the airport, a restaurant sells green caramel apples called "Ireland's Ire"

Rick shows Mark a catalog of seasonal food, including cranberry bacon pizza

Mark takes a bag of raw chicken through airport security