May flowers

 It wasn't that eventful of a week. And honestly, that is entirely welcome—it means I now get a reprieve from all the school stuff I used to do!

I went to the dentist this week. I was supposed to go the morning of my portfolio defense, but the hygienist was stuck in bad traffic on I-15. This was the first time in my entire life that I have ever had a male dental hygienist, as far as I can remember. I have never had a female dentist.

Right now is the very best time for trails, save for late September and early October, so I went out on them five days this week. One night I went (hiking, not running) on Wild Rose with the elders quorum, and I was able to show how much I knew the wildflowers. Then today in elders quorum, someone who wasn't even there announced that he heard that I knew the wildflowers without using an app! Now I hope that people don't think I have exceptional knowledge about plants, because I'm just a novice beginner. 

Glacier lilies

Dyer's woad. I feel guilty when I think noxious weeds are pretty!

The first mulesear of the season. When mulesears are in full bloom, they are the most stunning sight in the entire calendar!

Western waterleaf

Arrowleaf balsamroot, which is second only to its lookalike mulesears

longleaf phlox

Yesterday I returned to the new portion of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail that I went on the day after  Thanksgiving. In six months, they haven't expanded it, though it looks like they've smoothed some of the existing portions. I was surprised at how many people were on this dead-end trail. But it's pretty flat, which makes it kind of boring. I went just over seven miles.

This is where the trail ends. But there are some cut trees beyond the end of the trail, so I suspect that it will continue to North Canyon.

I also had some oddly specific dreams. In one I was singing solos and duets in church, and I even sang a solo of "The Star Spangled Banner." Everyone cheered when I held the last note on "land of the free," even though I didn't go up like many singers do, and I was pleased with myself that I sang so well without voice training. In another dream, I was at a Thanksgiving dinner that also had Mike Lindell, the My Pillow Guy, and I called him out for supporting an insurrection, and he laid into me.

May is just a wonderful month.

Earth Day, etc.

Last summer, I was looking forward to a bumper crop of apricots after our tree took a hiatus in 2020. We had a ton of blossoms and a ton of fruit on the tree.

And then...July came. And the apricots never ripened. Instead, the tree just up and died. We had it for my entire life. That means it was an old tree, and maybe it was its time to go, but I think the drought had something to do with it. That is one way that climate change has personally affected me. So many apricot memories. And what's really sad is that not only did our own tree die, but our neighbors cut down their apricot tree that hung into our yard. And some neighbors around the block redid their landscape and cut down their apricot tree. Will I ever eat an apricot again?

Anyway, my dad cut down the tree this week. I didn't help because I was at work. But I got to see his daily progress cutting down the tree. Sigh.

Our plum tree had a lot of blossoms this year. But that tree is also old and ailing, and given this year's water supply, I wouldn't be surprised if it died too.

On Wednesday, I was feeling a little bored with the usual nearby trails, so I decided to run up the Sessions Mountain Trail by the Bountiful Temple, which I haven't been to in six years. I only ran about a half hour. It reminded me why I don't go there—not only is it farther, but it is very steep, and the trail is not in good shape. Parts of it are slippery, and parts of it are more of a ravine. But it looks like there might be a new trail there that I didn't notice before, so I might have to go back sometime. It's just not a priority when I already know that I like the closer trails.

I recently noticed a large growth on my face (temple), but it's behind the frame of my glasses, so it's not someplace I pay much attention to. I thought it might be good to get it looked at, so I made an appointment with a dermatologist. The copay was $40, since it was a specialist. The doctor came in with a light and told me it was a pimple growing on top of a mole. Completely benign. The doctor quipped that it took me longer to park my car than it took him to look at it. I feel silly that I spent all that money to have him look at something that ended up being nothing. Oh well, at least I know I don't have skin cancer.

Friday was Earth Day, but I didn't do anything actually beneficial to the earth, partly because it was rainy. (It was a good excuse to watch the new Earth Day Peanuts specials.) But I did make veggie burgers, since meat is detrimental, though they had egg so they weren't vegan. I try to do my part every day, and I have made a lot of decisions to reduce my carbon footprint. But it is frustrating that I spend so much effort doing my part, but my efforts will mainly be fruitless without the help of others.

For example: when I was in Primary, we once had an Earth Day activity where we had worms-and-dirt dessert. This year, Dairy Queen has a dirt pie Blizzard. Even though Earth Day isn't one of my canonized holidays, I decided I could go get the Blizzard. I specifically told them I didn't need a spoon, because I brought my own. And yet I still ended up with a spoon, since the person taking my order was not the one making it. That made it kind of an anti–Earth Day. This happens a lot of the time, perhaps even a majority of the time, and it is very, very frustrating. But it isn't my fault. If the companies quit dispensing single-use plastic, I wouldn't have to ask and then have my efforts frustrated. I can't do this alone.

The spring of the leaf

 Ah, springtime!

While it was still cold at the beginning of the week, I took the time to do that necessary springtime ritual: filing taxes. Though I don't like doing the paperwork (via TurboTax), I don't really mind paying taxes, because I benefit from them. I find it strange that during WWII, it was seen as a patriotic duty—but these days, those who claim they are the most patriotic are the ones who most resent paying taxes. Huh.

Anyway, I am delighted that trail season has resumed. We are in the early part of the season, which means that the wildflowers available now are springbeauties, yellowbells, and glacier lilies.

Bonneville Shoreline Trail

Yellowbells

I have gotten good at identifying the more noticeable flowers, but I'm pleased that I can now also identify the leaves of some of the flowers before they even blossom. For example, this picture shows this year's new crop of mulesears. But I was also able to detect the decayed remnants of last year's crop (not really visible in the picture).

springbeauties

Interesting how a new trail has developed to bypass the old one, which collects water 

Glacier lilies

We haven't reached peak spring yet, but even so, it is a wonderful time of year.

I am also grateful that Easter is late this year. Easter would already be over in 2021, 2018, 2016, 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008...and so on. (I did all of those by memory.) Since my life revolves around holidays, I'm always sad when we are in periods of no holidays. So even though spring is a wonderful time in and of itself, it's kind of depressing when Easter is over.

Of course, this means that I can eat all the Easter desserts I want. In 2012 was the first time I thought of carrot cake as an Easter dessert, and I came up with that on my own. But ten years later, the association is strong, and carrot cake cookies are the flavor du jour (or rather, flavor du mois). The following interesting desserts are ones that I have had in the last few weeks. They are not all from this week, so you shouldn't worry about me. But also, you should worry about me, because I'm not showing you all the desserts I have had, just the more interesting ones.

Normal Ice Cream Carrot Cake Ice Cream...is not very good.

Kneaders carrot muffin top

Chip Cadbury Egg Cookie

Twisted Sugar carrot cake cookie

Cutler's carrot cake cookie

Coldstone Peeps shake. Since I have an incurable sweet tooth, I don't understand when people say something is "too sweet." I think I met my match here. But I still finished it all.

Sugar Fix carrot cake cookie

We have one more week for me to gorge myself on carrot sweets before the holiday is over! But, not all the carrot stuff is bad for me.

Homemade carrot soup

Campus! Carol! Completion! Cat!

After weeks of boredom, I had some more exciting things happen this week.

On Monday, I had to go down to BYU for work. I had to look at some sources at their library that we didn't have at the Church History Library. It was fun to go down to my old stomping grounds.

Parts of it are the same (such as the lowest level of the library), but other parts are so different, such as new buildings. Campus seems to be more pedestrian friendly. I got lunch in the Wilk. I'm accustomed to there being long lines at lunch there, but now all the orders are done on phones or on kiosks. I started at BYU in January 2010. Twelve years ago! Of course there were plenty of changes during my four years there. But I thought about the condition of the world when I started in early 2010:

• I still had a flip phone. People had smartphones, but they weren't the default. 
• iPads had not been released yet.
• Instagram did not exist.
• People didn't use Spotify.
• I first heard of cloud storage my first semester.

I also walked by my old apartments, and unlike campus, they mostly looked the same.

Do they ever remodel those? And how long did they look that way before I lived there? There was even a "Welcome" sign above a neighboring apartment that I think was there back in 2010. (Note: I'm not thinking "tisk, tisk," that they're the same. In fact, I think useless and merely aesthetic remodels are wasteful. I just find it unusual and surprising.)

It was good to have a day to go down to BYU. The Church History Library's catalog was down all week, which meant I couldn't look at digitized sources, and I also couldn't order books up to my desk. Those are both things I need to do my work. So I worked on some very low-priority assignments.

Monday evening I did something unusual. Back in 2020, I heard that Carol Burnett was supposed to come visit Salt Lake City, but then it was cancelled. Since I have this thing for 1960s sitcoms, I remember thinking that I should see her when she came back. Last Sunday, I learned that this was the week she was returning. So I invited my sister and bought tickets to Carol Burnett at the Eccles Theater! To prepare, I watched episodes where she guest-starred on The Lucy Show and Get Smart. 

The evening mainly focused on her series The Carol Burnett Show. I have watched some of that on TV, but it just feels incomplete because they don't show the whole show, instead just picking out select scenes, mostly from the 70s. For this show, they showed a lot of clips from her show. One of the highlights of her series is that at the beginning of the show, she would allow the audience to ask questions. So for this live performance, she answered audience questions when she wasn't showing clips. She is eighty-eight years old, and I don't think she has it in her to sing or act. She walked slow. She certainly wouldn't be able to do her signature Tarzan yell. But mentally she is still sharp. 

Some people asked weird questions, and I was embarrassed on behalf of my hometown. But then I realized she probably gets these awkward people wherever she goes. One woman just kept talking and talking, and I don't think she really even had a question. And another woman told Carol she had read her book, and she compiled a list of eighty-seven similarities they had in common, and she wanted to give the list to her. Sometimes I'm insecure about my social skills, but people like that make me feel better. 

It did surprise me that it focused so much on the Carol Burnett Show and comparatively little about other parts of her career. And I thought it must have been sad for her to focus on her accomplishments from fifty years ago—does she feel like a has-been? But it was amazing to me to think that in 2022 I was seeing someone who knew Lucille Ball and others personally. 

Last week you will recall that I submitted my portfolio to my advisor. I was happy to be done with my portfolio for the time being, but I expected that I would have to make a lot of revisions. I was very nervous to await his response. So I was relieved and delighted when he responded and praised my work! I only had a few minor tweaks to make. Phew! So I made those few changes and submitted everything to the rest of my committee, and we scheduled my defense for May 9. That's after commencement because one of the professors will be out of town. Oh well.

Now that I don't have as much to worry about in the evenings, I was delighted to get back on the trails: Bonneville Shoreline, Wild Rose, and Springhill Geologic Park. Last year I was disgusted with someone apparently making their own trail in Springhill Geologic, so I placed branches, etc., to discourage it (and I had permission from the city to do so). It seemed to work for a while, but I was annoyed to see that the logs had been moved since I was last there in the fall. So I put some of the logs back, and I hope the selfish people have a change of heart. 

It's a good thing I can get back to trail running, since I have this obsessive need to try all the Easter-themed flavors at local dessert shops.

Reggie has enjoyed sleeping on my bed this week, which he hasn't really done before. He likes to sleep touching me, whether that's my ankles, my shoulder, or my legs. It is endearing, but it also makes it harder to sleep because I don't want to roll over on him.

It is very hard to get anything done when he comes to sit on me, but I also love it. Is that a form of Stockholm Syndrome? He often jumps onto my bed, presumably because he wants me to get on my bed so he can sit on me. Jimmy used to do that too, and I was happy to oblige. But I'm reluctant to do it with Reggie because he stays a lot longer. Like, a half hour. I don't have time for that!

Dad and Grad

 It was a big week in the Melville family. 

Thursday was my dad's birthday. But more significant than that, it was his last day working. He is officially retired. That makes me sad to have retired parents. Oh well. They seem happy about it (my mom is retiring this year too).

I didn't spend any money for his birthday. My parents have CDs that they like to listen to on road trips, but their new truck doesn't have a CD player, so my dad wanted to buy one. But instead, I uploaded his favorite CDs to my iBroadcast account, so it's all on the cloud now. He also got a smartphone this week. He has never really cared to have a cellphone before.

Then on Friday, my niece, Allie, graduated from high school. Crazy! Whereas my own high school graduation took place at the Latter-day Saint regional center, hers was all the way at Weber State. Why? Capacity? Separation of church and state? I don't know. It was weird to see some of my old teachers there, all of them noticeably older: algebra, ASL, physics, English.

I couldn't help but think of my own high school graduation, which toddler Allie attended. I remember being sad that high school was over. But now I'm like, why? Post–high school life is so much better.

I don't really think of myself as even the same person that I was in high school. My appearance has changed, but so have my priorities and interests. Well, some of my interests have changed.

Last week in church, we had speakers from two separate Brazilian families. Then the Brazilian theme continued this week when our special guest was none other than Elder Ulisses Soares! He told us it was his first time in sacrament meeting since February 2020. And he talked about the importance of gathering together. Oh, and he wore a mask!

Oh, you didn't think you'd be let off that easily from me telling you about running, did you? Well, I went on a different trail every day this week. May is such a splentastular month.

Monday was Bonneville Shoreline Trail. The Palmer's penstemon, the most fragrant wildflower, was out in abundance. Take your pick of Kacey Musgraves lyrics: "Oh what a world, don't wanna leave, there's all kinds of magic, it's hard to believe," or "You're my golden hour, the color of my sky."

I had two days off this week. Tuesday was North Canyon, and I just did the usual North Canyon route to Rudy's Flat. I wanted to go longer, but I just wasn't feeling up to it.

Wednesday was the Woodbriar Trail, the most beautiful spot in all of North Salt Lake. As I was coming down, I encountered some people walking their mountain bikes up the trail, who were complaining how steep it was. I told them it got even steeper. But I should have told them that it got even more beautiful as well.

Thursday was Springhill Geologic Park. I was surprised to see sego lilies there. I have never seen them there before, and it's the earliest I've ever seen them! They make me so happy, but now I worry they'll be gone sooner.

Friday was Mueller Park, which is a wonderful trail in every way except that it is so busy.

It makes me happy that now I'm not just good at identifying blossoms, I've started to recognize the greenery as well. This is heartleaf arnica, and soon it will have yellow flowers.

And Saturday was good old Wild Rose. 

And Memorial Day weekend is when I kick off the Fourth of July/patriotic season, so I am happy to have all the new red, white, and blue stuff now.

These apple pie bites were the tipping point. I now officially consider apple pie a Fourth of July dessert/flavor.

These veggie straws fell out of my cupboard and dumped out 90 percent of the contents.