Ten Years: Then and Now

I began this blog ten years ago today! Over the last ten years, I have blogged every Sunday, and I have made anniversary posts every May 1.

When I think about 2011, I think, "Oh, that wasn't that long ago." But when I hear ten years, I think that's a long time. How did this happen already?! For this year's anniversary, I thought I would reminisce about what the world looked like in 2011.

If you wanted to stream music, you used Pandora. That meant if you wanted to hear an entire album, you had to buy it, either digitally or on CD. CDs had declined, but most major stores still sold them. New music came out on Tuesday, not Friday.

If you turned on the radio, you would hear a lot of familiar voices: Maroon 5, Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Adele. But many others have faded into obscurity. Remember  Owl City, the Band Perry, Enrique Iglesias, "Tonight, Tonight," "Pumped Up Kicks," "Party Rock Anthem"?

You could still shop at Shopko and Kmart!

There weren't nearly as many streaming options, so DVD and BluRay were still king. 

3D movies were still a thing.

Frozen yogurt (froyo) shops were all over, and cookie shops were rare. (I like the cookie shops better.)

Facebook was in its prime, and it was better. It didn't have as many ads in your feed. Was anyone using Instagram then? They certainly weren't using Snapchat or TikTok. 

Blogging had already declined, but a few more people were still blogging than are doing so today. 

Colorful shoes and pants were popular. I miss that.

I still used a flip phone, though plenty of people had smartphones. I still took my physical scriptures to church. In fact, I worked at the Church distribution center at the end of 2010 and the end of 2011, and we sent out lots of manuals and books for people to use in church; I think the Gospel Library app was much smaller. I imagine they don't send out nearly as much anymore. They probably don't employ as many people. But I don't know that.

Everyone scoffed at the notion of Donald Trump running for president, because [comment deleted so as not to start a fight on this commemorative post].

We were coming out of the Great Recession, which meant my dad was laid off for several months.

In my personal life, I was in my second year at BYU, and I had a custodial job.

I could spend more time listing off things from 2011, but I still have four papers to write this week. Who would have guessed that ten years later I'd still be in school. 🤷

Earth Day and diabetic cat

Seven years ago today, I graduated from Brigham Young University. At that time, I thought I was done with homework forever.

But now I have to write five papers in the next two weeks! 

Wednesday was the last day of my class about American history since 1877. That was my easiest class this semester, since the professor is more laid back and there aren't as many assignments. Now I just have to write a historiographical essay for it.

Also on Wednesday, I had my environmental history class. For that class, we watch prerecorded lectures, then talk about them over Zoom. We are graded on participation, and sometimes it can get a bit awkward, so I sometimes ask superficial questions so I can get a good participation grade and so we don't have awkward silences. (There is also one student who is eager to show off how much he knows, even when it's not entirely relevant or helpful.) We have been discussing the twentieth-century shift from conservation to environmentalism, and since it was the day before Earth Day, I asked if the shift in emphasis from Arbor Day to Earth Day is a result of that shift. Arbor Day used to be a much bigger deal; the first Utah legislative session in 1896 declared it one of the state holidays, and it remained so into the 1940s and maybe even into the 1970s. My professor didn't know, but he said it would be an interesting topic for me to research.

Then on Earth Day itself, I wanted to see if the new trail in North Canyon was completed. The last time I went to North Canyon was the day before Thanksgiving, and I met a man who was working on the new improvements, and he made it sound like the new trail (next to the dirt road) would be done soon. Well, it wasn't done, but there were lots of flags and ribbons marking what I presume will be the new trail. Some of it surprises me, because it looks like parts of it will be next to a steep dropoff into the stream.

Of course, I went to North Canyon almost every day last summer and fall, so it was strange to see all the grasses matted down from the winter's snow. It was almost as if the forest had been mowed.

But I didn't get that far up the canyon because there was still a lot of snow, and I knew it would only get worse. It's so unusual, because I don't feel like North Canyon is that far away or that high up, and yet all the other nearby trails are completely dry now.

That same day, I also made veggie burgers, my favorite food. I have several veggie burger recipes, and this particular one uses almonds, oats, onions, chili powder, and egg (so it's not vegan). There are other flavors that I like better, but these are the easiest to make, and my parents both loved them, which isn't always the case.

The saddest part of the week was on Saturday. We took Jimmy to the vet because he has been drinking a ton of water lately. I have been going through so much cat litter! We last took him to the vet on March 8 because he hurt his leg, but we knew we had to take him again. Which is a problem. In order to prepare for the vet trip, I brought in his kennel so he could get used to it. And he spent a lot of time sleeping in it.

On Saturday morning, I had him chase his laser into the kennel. But as I approached, he suspected that something was up, so he darted out and hid under my bed. We went into my room and closed the door, then my mom used my shoes to push him out from under the bed. I grabbed him, and then it took both of us to force him into his kennel, while he unhappily meowed the entire time. I think it would be impossible for just one person to get him in it! 

The vet did a blood test and told us that he is diabetic. He told us that we could give him insulin shots. In the morning, we would have to feed him thirty minutes before his first injection. Then four to six hours later, we would have to make sure he had food available. Then we would have to feed him thirty minutes before his evening injection, which would be exactly twelve hours after the morning one. Phew! Not only would that be difficult and expensive, I don't think Jimmy would tolerate us giving him those shots twice a day, since he doesn't like it when we pick him up. The cure sounded worse than the disease! The vet said that if we couldn't commit to the exact insulin schedule, it would end up being worse for him. So we opted not to do that. We will change his diet to include less fatty foods, but we will just let him live out his life. The vet told us that within six months, his eyes could turn white, and his kidneys could fail within a year. This is all very sad for us, of course. But he is already eleven or twelve years old (the average lifespan of a cat is fifteen years), and who knows what other health problems he inherited from the Humane Society and his previous owners. He already has lost three of his four main teeth. 

One comforting thought was that with our previous cat, Jenny, the vet told us that cats' blood sugar sometimes spikes when they are stressed. And taking Jimmy to the vet certainly stressed him, so maybe that's why he registered as diabetic. But clearly something is not right, since he's drinking so much.

It isn't just the water, though. It used to be that he would jump up on my bed, my chair, or whatever else I was sitting on so he could sit on me. But for the last month or so, he will only jump up on two couches to spend time with us.

It is so endearing to have him rub his head against my face and purr. 💖

He used to spend a lot of time under my bed, but now he spends most of his time in the living room.

My mom had an old red plastic bag in one of her craft boxes from the 70s or 80s. This plastic bag disintegrated into a sort of red confetti. Today I found Jimmy with the red plastic all over his fur. I don't know where he was or what he was doing to get it all over him like that!

I will cherish the time I have left with this mortal cat.

Mostly dull

 It wasn't a super eventful week. Lots of schoolwork and rain prevented a lot of fun things.

On Monday, I had a Zoom meeting because one of my professors wanted to talk to me about the essays I have worked on, because I didn't get great grades on them. I was super nervous about that, because I get intimidated by people in authority. You have so many important things to do, so why should you spend time talking to little old me? One of the things that has surprised me about grad school is the amount of historiography, which is writing about what other people have written. Instead of doing my own historical research, I read books and articles and write about them. Frankly, I kind of find it dull.

I'm in the MS program, which is considered a terminal degree, one meant for people who won't be professional historians. I could have done the MA program, which has a few more requirements and is meant for people who go on to PhDs. The MS sounded right for me, and the director of graduate studies recommended that for me. Sometimes I wonder if I should have done the MA in case someday I want to do a PhD instead. But I don't think that's right for me. I am a much better editor than I am a historian, and I enjoy editing more than I enjoy reading or doing history. 

I will say, though, that I think I have a real knack for reading historical documents. For my side gig right now, I'm reading transcriptions of nineteenth-century journals to make sure they are accurate, and if something doesn't seem quite right, I look at the original to verify it. Both the context and the handwriting have helped me deduce some mistakes, such as when "shift" was transcribed as "shirt" and "suet" was transcribed as "suit." So I am good at some historical things. Historiography, not so much.

Perhaps the biggest thing this week wasn't something I did, but something my parents did. Yesterday they bought a Dodge Ram 1500 truck. It's for pulling the trailer they bought last summer. For the last three and a half years, my car has been the nicest one in the family, but that is no more. The new truck has all the stuff mine has, as well as other things, such as a heated steering wheel (which I have often longed for), a rearview mirror that acts as a camera, and parallel-parking assist. I haven't driven it yet. We have never had a truck before. Honestly, trucks intimidate me on the road. I associate trucks with in-your-face MAGA types. Hopefully the truck will help me quit stereotyping people.

Shot in the Arm

 My week wasn't super interesting. I have so much reading and homework to do that that's how I spend most of my time. I don't know how people work full time and go to school! I have even had to take time off from my editing side gig to finish my assignments.

Probably the most interesting thing was that I got my first COVID vaccine on Thursday! I got the first dose of Moderna. I had been looking for an opening for a week or so before I was able to get one. It's so frustrating that they're easing the restrictions when it's still a little tough to get an appointment, and then you still have to wait weeks for the second dose after that. My second dose will be on May 6, so I should be fully immune on May 20, more than a week before Memorial Day weekend. I was supposed to start back at This Is the Place on May 6, but I pushed my day back until May 7 so I can be sure to get my shot. (Oh, and an important update is that we won't have to work on Sundays there. Phew!)

Since I was busy and it was stormy in the early part of the week, I didn't do much running early in the week. On Friday, I wanted to explore the Hell Canyon trail. I drove to Tunnel Springs Park, then ran down to the desired trail, which is exactly two and a half miles from the park. 

In the actual "canyon," there are lots of switchbacks, and it's pretty steep on the side, which made me a tad uneasy, though I don't think it was dangerous. It looks like you used to be able to go into the canyon, but now there's a gate, probably because it's too close to the gravel pit work. Then the trail winds down a hill to the trailhead on Victory Road. It was just going back and forth on switchbacks on the open face of a hill. That meant it was relatively easy, since it wasn't steep at all, but it also wasn't very interesting, though there was a cool outcropping of red rock.

When I got down to the trailhead, I had gone 4.5 miles, which surprised me. That meant I would be at nine miles when I got back to my car! I was glad I had driven to the park, since that saved me about three total miles.

It's been many months since I've run nine miles, especially on trails, so I was surprised that it wasn't harder. My feet were a little sore (my shoes are getting worn out), but I wasn't exhausted. But then when I got home, I was sore. It was a very satisfying soreness: nine miles combined with a shot in the arm.

That evening, I heard some strange booming noises outside. At 9:45, I was sitting calmly on the couch with Jimmy when the doorbell rang. Who comes to the door that late? The police! A woman officer asked, "Is everything OK?" She said someone had called because they heard lots of yelling and banging. I told her about the booming I had heard, but I told her it wasn't us and thanked them for checking. I really do appreciate police. The idea of quiet old me and my sexagenarian parents creating a disturbance is laughable.

Those April Events

 My parents went to Capitol Reef this week, but I had to stay behind because of school. So I had the house to myself. It did kind of feel sad not to have any kind of human interaction. Jimmy was the only other "person" at home. But lately, he hasn't been coming into my room or on my bed like he used to. I ordered some arthritis food for him, so hopefully he will feel like jumping up more often again.

The beginning of the week was kind of hectic, because I had to finish an essay, and once that was done, I had to catch up on everything else that got pushed aside. I'm not really satisfied with the essay, but it's done. If I'm writing about something that really interests me, I can be a good writer, but when it's an assignment, I'm not great at it.

Thursday was April Fool's Day. My parents came home from Capitol Reef, and I had an idea for a prank. My grandpa loves pie and hates pickles. The Sunglow Cafe in Bicknell, Utah, sells pickle pies, so I asked my parents to pick one up. We took it to my grandparents and served it to them without telling my grandpa what it was. We were all waiting for a reaction as he took a bite. But he liked it! When we told him what it was, he said it was the only kind of pickle he likes. I thought he would like it, but he would never try it if he knew what it was.

I am sad when Easter is over, so I'm sad it was this early this year. But at least it wasn't in March! And next year, it will be April 17. 

Spring seems to be a little later this year; I haven't seen any glacier lilies or springbeauties yet, which are the first wildflowers. About a year ago, I discovered the Hell Canyon Trail near Ensign Peak, which was constructed sometime between 2015 and 2020. I decided to go there on Friday to see what it was like. It was a lot of switchbacks. But I didn't see where it ends, so I'll have to go back sometime to see where it goes. For some reason, running seemed harder this weekend. 

Blogger has added the pictures backwards. AGAIN.

I am also so happy to see apricot blossoms this year. We had, like, two blossoms last year and no apricots. So I'm looking forward to the July harvest.

My first cousin once removed, Adam, asked if he could come to our house for conference/Easter, and he brought his fiancée, Cam. My mom gave them Easter candy in Easter baskets. She gave me edible Easter grass, but then she forgot and told Cam that her grass was edible. So she was putting plastic grass in her mouth! *awkward*

We also colored eggs, and I colored more than my share. I always enjoy coloring them more than I think I will.

Here are some of the thoughts I had from general conference:

• I knew we would have Easter-themed talks, but I didn't expect a bunny-themed talk.
• Elder Palmer was my mission president, and now he's in the presidency of the seventy. I had never heard the stories he told before (at least I don't remember them).
• President Oaks basically said you don't always have to vote Republican, but without actually saying that. Hooray!
• It was odd, however, to have such a US-centric talk after such an international morning session.
• I took notes on my phone, and autocorrect wasn't helping. It changed "Taniela" to "Tanisha," and it changed "Aburto" to "Abortion"!
• I'm sure Elder Teh must get annoyed with autocorrect always changing his name to The.
• Yay, we single people matter! Take that, overbearing YSA leaders!
• Surprising to hear so many Europe temples!

For Easter breakfast, I made carrot-cake pancakes, which I invented last year (using a variation on a very versatile recipe). 

Here it is with cream cheese spread, but I'll be eating the leftovers with cream cheese frosting.

Then for Easter, I made a carrot cake with almond flour. But my mom frosted it and decorated it.

I think my very earliest memory of holiday candy is watching morning cartoons while eating my Peeps Bunnies. When I bit the ears off, I thought it made a snowman. Thus began a lifelong obsession. (It's gotten bigger in recent years, but that's because holiday candy is far more interesting now than it was when I was a kid.)

I was thinking this week that I don't have a great physique. But considering all the garbage I eat, it's not bad at all.

So much to do

It really wasn't that eventful of a week, because I had so much schoolwork to do. I had to read five books for school. 

Fortunately, I'm not expected to read every word of the books—just enough to get the basic arguments. But that's still a lot of reading, and I did read basically every word of one of the books because it was so interesting.

This meant that I was only able to exercise two days this week, which is a problem, because all I want to do is eat Easter candy. Fortunately, the lack of time for exercising also meant a lack of time for buying much sugar.

Surprisingly, I slept through the night better than usual. Except that my body decided a few times to wake up at 6:30 or 7 (my usual wake up is 8) and then not go back to sleep. That was after I was up late reading. Why?? Some of that had to do with dreams. In one dream, I was a passenger when my grandma drove her car into standing water, and we all had to get out, and I was pushing the floating car toward the shore. In another dream, I was a passenger in a car (along with a cat) when the driver went over a cliff.

Schoolwork has calmed down for a little bit, except that I still have an essay to complete by Wednesday morning. But I should be able to pound it out in the next couple of days.

The one thing that was less usual was that I got to attend the open house for the new Pioneer Center at This Is the Place. Previously, you bought tickets to the park in the gift shop, but now they have made the visitor center where you buy tickets separate from the gift shop, which really does make sense. The new building showcases the This Is the Place Monument from 1947. I like the monument, but it is very much a product of its time. It is full of Euro-Americans and Europeans, many of whom had a very little impact on Utah and its history. It has exactly one Native American, Shoshone Chief Washakie, even though, you know, the Indians are more Utahn than anyone else. I wrote a paper last semester that explored why Washakie was remembered in the early twentieth century more than any other Native. He and many of his tribe were baptized in the 1880s, and there were not one but two settlements named for him. Of course, the monument does not include the three black slaves who were part of the vanguard company, though they are mentioned on a 1987 plaque that listed all the pioneer names. 

The new pioneer center is very nice, but as far as I can tell, it doesn't make any effort to retell the story of the monument. I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing, per se, but I wish it would have provided a bit more nuance.

What is really frustrating is that I learned this week that the park will now be fully operating on Sundays, which means that we employees will have to occasionally work Sundays. I thought seriously about quitting, but I reluctantly decided not to. It's just so frustrating that the new center continues to promote the Mormon-centric narrative (which I don't object to), and yet the new policy goes directly against that narrative. So please don't come to the park on Sundays. I want them to make no money so they reverse this poor decision.

Pandemic Paddy

 St. Patrick's Day means that we are now in our second round of COVID holidays. Last spring, I remember thinking, "It's good that we are having these spring holidays during the pandemic, because it would be really sad to have the fall holidays and Christmas during a pandemic, and at least in the spring we can still go outside." Welp, here we are.

Since approximately 2015, I have really come to enjoy St. Patrick's Day more than I used to, because I actually do more things for it. And it's the beginning of springtime.

Usually Wednesdays are my busy day. I have a class at noon and then an evening class that lasts almost three hours. But the professor for the Wednesday class felt bad that we didn't get a spring break this year, so she gave us the week off. (I think it was as much for herself as it was for us.) And since I don't know when I will get another St. Patrick's Day like this year, I decided to take full advantage of it.

Growing up, we always added green food coloring to food. That's fun, but the food tastes the same as it does every other day of the year. I think it's much more fun to have actual flavors that go with the green. Then it doesn't taste like what you have every other time of the year. So anything green goes. (I still think of my ridiculous roommate seven years ago who claimed that lime wasn't a St. Patrick's Day flavor but mint was, and then he struggled to defend his position.)

My mom made an avocado pie after I mentioned that they exist. One of my roommates eight years ago made one, but he didn't share it. So this was the first time I had one. It was tart, similar to a key lime pie. I wouldn't say I loved it, but I did like it enough to possibly have it again.

Recently, Kneaders published their recipe for Irish stew, so I decided to make Irish stew on Tuesday. I took some liberties with the recipe, and it didn't turn out nearly as good as the Kneaders version. It was OK. My parents liked it more than I did. I doubt it's very Irish, especially since I used beef instead of lamb. (I don't even know where you buy lamb!)

And in the spirit of supporting small businesses, I went to Top Hat Video, which is a rental store that still exists. I don't watch that many movies, but I wanted some for the holiday, so I rented three.

On Tuesday evening, I watched Song of the Sea, which is about the Irish folklore of selkies, beings that can be either humans or seals. I wanted a St. Patrick's Day movie and ended up with a Halloween movie—it takes place on Halloween, since that is when faerie folk are active in Irish folklore, but it's not what you expect from a Halloween movie. It was phenomenal! The animation and art are spectacular, the music is lovely, and the story is engaging. I really struggle to identify any flaws in the movie. 10/10. Why haven't more people heard of it?

Wednesday was the big holiday, and I took much of the day off. I attended my noon class (only my green glasses and shirt were visible on Zoom) and worked on my side gig for two hours, but other than that I had fun. I put corned beef and cabbage in the slow cooker in the morning. I first started doing that in 2015, and I really like it and look forward to it. The stew and the corned beef were probably the first time I have personally cooked with meat since last St. Patrick's Day. I also made Irish soda bread.

 And continuing the green theme, I made avocado milkshakes, which have been my tradition since 2016. It's fun to have something green without any food coloring.

It looks greener in real life.

That evening, I watched the other two movies I rented. First was Finian's Rainbow, an old Fred Astaire musical. It was terrible. If I'm going to watch a movie with a leprechaun, I want the leprechaun to be the main focus, not a random side character in a heavy-handed critique of racism. The only good parts were the voices and some of the songs. 3/10. Leprechauns are such an iconic part of pop culture, so why aren't there any high-quality movies about leprechauns?

The other movie was The Secret of Kells, made by the same studio that did Song of the Sea, and it seemed like a trial run for Song of the Sea (since Kells came first). The animation is pretty, but less so; and the story is less engaging. It's a fantastical origin story of the Book of Kells, a real-life medieval illuminated Bible. 7/10. 

Then the holiday was over until next year, but fortunately the rest of the holidays this year are better holidays. I'm so excited for Eastertime! It's such a wonderful time of the year.

The other exciting part of the week was that all the snow melted, so I was able to get back on the trails! But I wasn't able to spend as much time as I had hoped. And I was dismayed to wake up to more snow again this morning. Oh well. It won't stay long anymore. I didn't see any glacier lilies yet, but they're coming!

It won't be long before everything is green again!