Every year it seems that without fail, I am the keeper of the secrets around the family holiday surprises and 2007 has turned out to be no different. I always know who’s getting what gifts or what everyone else should expect on Christmas morning.
Except this year, it was WAY BIGGER!
My brother who is in the Navy was not going to be home for the holidays at all for the second year in a row. To make matters worse, it looks this will be the last year we will all have the chance to be in Chicago together for a while.
Last week my parents were out of town and I got a phone call from my brother who sounded a bit worried. He told me that he unexpectedly had been given a week of leave while his ship was going out of port and was coming home, but he couldn’t get a hold of Mom and Dad to tell them. I said, “Well, they’re out of the country and as they’ll only be getting back two days before you’ll be coming home, I think we shouldn’t tell them you’re coming.” (I think I had a couple of little giggles in there as well.) This was going to be the most awesome surprise ever.
So we didn’t so much tell my parents that my brother wasn’t going to be home for Christmas as much as failed to mention that he would be.
Last night I picked my brother up at the airport and then drove him to my parents house under the guise of picking up something that I needed to ship to him. As we snuck upstairs, it was all I could do to contain my anticipation. I had to wake up my parents and told them that I wasn’t taking the package for my brother. Now keep in mind they were just being awoken out of a sound sleep and I don’t normally wake them up for anything unless it’s an emergency. Once they were assured that all was right in the world. I repeated that I wasn’t sending anything to my brother because instead he was right there.
That was one of those moments that will always get extra special time in my mind when I play back the happy moments in my life that I’ve been able to give a good thing to someone else. And it cost less than $20.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Spirit of Giving
So this year for Christmas I've set limits on myself. The type of limits that make me challange two of the the things that I like to do: shop and give gifts. I decided that I don't want to spend more than $20 on any Christmas gift this year. Instead, I'm spending my time putting the thought and energy into getting the gifts together. Not a homemade Christmas, but a thoughtful Christmas.
What thoughts are you putting into it this year?
What thoughts are you putting into it this year?
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
You Know It's Trouble When...
I’ve messed up my knees. There’s no other way of putting it. I wish I have some fantastic story to tell how I did it like base jumping into the Grand Canyon, but it’s really quite sad how it all happened. The first time, it involved New Years Eve, me, a trampoline, a skilled surgeon and many hours (I can’t say countless because my insurance company has kept track of all of them) of physical therapy. I had so many questions and I was never sure exactly what to expect or how far I could push myself. I am now so amazed at the limits to which the human body can be pushed and still recover.
That was the first time. This time, it’s a little less complex, but a whole lot more embarrassing. I didn’t realize how much until this weekend.
I was involved in a community play with people at church, many of whom I did not know and was meeting for the first time. As we would go on stage people of course would say, “Break a leg,” and I would laugh about how I really shouldn’t try that as I recently did that. Once gentleman asked how I had broken my leg. I replied that I had done the other leg a couple years ago and went for the matching set and it was a bit of an embarrassing story. He then proceeded to talk about how a friend of his daughter had told them about a girl who had broken her leg doing the limbo and that my story couldn’t any worse than that. "Besides," he told me, "no one could really break their leg doing the limbo."
I was standing there listening aghast as a total stranger told me the story of how I had broken my leg. I had to confirm to him that someone could indeed break their leg doing the limbo as I was the girl in the story. And now I’ll get to do a second knee surgery.
That was the first time. This time, it’s a little less complex, but a whole lot more embarrassing. I didn’t realize how much until this weekend.
I was involved in a community play with people at church, many of whom I did not know and was meeting for the first time. As we would go on stage people of course would say, “Break a leg,” and I would laugh about how I really shouldn’t try that as I recently did that. Once gentleman asked how I had broken my leg. I replied that I had done the other leg a couple years ago and went for the matching set and it was a bit of an embarrassing story. He then proceeded to talk about how a friend of his daughter had told them about a girl who had broken her leg doing the limbo and that my story couldn’t any worse than that. "Besides," he told me, "no one could really break their leg doing the limbo."
I was standing there listening aghast as a total stranger told me the story of how I had broken my leg. I had to confirm to him that someone could indeed break their leg doing the limbo as I was the girl in the story. And now I’ll get to do a second knee surgery.
Monday, November 12, 2007
The Power of the Visual
I was on my way into work this morning when I noticed something that I had seen hundreds of times before, but I had not realized. Every day I pass by the offices of a major energy (mostly electricity) corporation that has it's logo on the building as most companies do, but what got me thinking is that the logo for this company has almost the exact same elements as a blog that has the exact opposite aim as the corporation.
First, here's the corporation's logo:
The style is modern in the font. It's sans serif, so it's designed to be seen in large typeface. It's made of of blue and green colors so it indicates a harmony with the enviorment and the "o" is designed to look like the on switch of most consumer electronics so that would indicate it has to do with power.
Now here's the logo of the blog:
Again, it has the modern font as it has a modern mode of communication. The colors, while not an exact match, are simularly themed. Even the design schemes are simular with the on switch. Only this time, it's not the name of the company that's turning on the message, but rather the enviorment.
I'm always amazed at what groups come up with when they have the same message (in this case to tell the consumer that they each only want what's best for the enviorment) but and exact opposite way of viewing it. Isn't spin wonderful?
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Where am I exactly?
When I went and visted my sister in Salt Lake a couple of weeks ago, she told me that we were going to a fund raiser in Peru. Now, I lived in Utah and I had never heard of Peru, UT but I was just going to go with what she said. When we got out there and actually got in the car to go to the dinner, imagine my suprise when we only drove a few blocks to East High. It was a dinner and silent auction for http://eagle-condor.org/ and we also got to enjoy the talents of some authentic Peruvian dancers. I even got some pictures.
When I got home I showed my pictures to some of my co-workers who asked where I was over the weekend as I said that I was in Salt Lake City. You see they all thought that because the pictures were taken at East High from High School Musical that I had gone to Peru, via New Mexico, via Salt Lake. All in all, it was a very busy weekend.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Have Terror, Will Travel...
Every time I fly on a plane, I reflect on how exactly my life has been affected by all of the changes that have come into the world since September 11, 2001. It can be just the little things like being dehydrated after a flight or knowing that the government is more interested in reading my emails.
Sometimes though, the terrorism threats feel very real and they hit close to home. What follows is a story as I related it to friends and family in an email in July 2004.
"I just wanted to notify you all of a very dangerous situation that occurred to me last week while doing my daily commute home from work. Because of security risks that have been happening, all commuter trains have been on a heightened state of alert and so many of the passengers and railroad personnel have done an excellent job of making sure of our safety. Before you go on, I just want to ensure you of it's truthfulness and that it really did happen to me.
"Last Friday evening, a bomb scare shut down the commuter rail line that runs from Chicago to the western suburbs because of a suspicious package that was on the 4:44 train. We were stuck on our train in the train yard for 30 minutes and then were forced to walk the last half mile to our cars. Others had to wait more than an hour for buses to get to their train station during rush hour and then sit on a bus to get home. The fire department sent out the bomb squad, the immediate area of the station was evacuated, and all emergency personnel were put on alert. "The immediate area around the package was quarantined and stabilized, but the package itself began to move. After and exhaustive attempt to defuse the situation without putting any of the brave personnel in uniform in any undue rink, the suspect package was found to contain a hamster.
"Just so you know, I was neither hurt nor terrorized during this incident. I was actually rather amused.
"P.S. The hamster found a very happy home with one of the fire fighters."
Despite the lightness of that incident, I know that in many ways the order of things post 9/11 is very different than it was before that day. Like so many social changes that happen, most of them didn’t occur right after the terror attacks happened in 2001 but it was a more gradual shift so that we could become more used to the idea.
I didn’t fly after 9/11 for six weeks, but at that time we still had National Guard personnel manning the security checkpoints at airports with automatic weapon. That was uncomfortable. That has since changed. When I went to the Louvre in 2006, the military presence at the entrance there was also heavily armed and I imagine they could use their weapons just as easily as those who were at the US airports in 2001. But there it didn’t feel as out of place because as an American, the threat of terrorism has always felt like a faraway or foreign problem. Every once in a while we have moments like the great hamster episode that remind us that even here we are vulnerable, but I’m not ready yet to allow the automatic weapons to patrol the grounds around the Museum Campus just yet.
Sometimes though, the terrorism threats feel very real and they hit close to home. What follows is a story as I related it to friends and family in an email in July 2004.
"I just wanted to notify you all of a very dangerous situation that occurred to me last week while doing my daily commute home from work. Because of security risks that have been happening, all commuter trains have been on a heightened state of alert and so many of the passengers and railroad personnel have done an excellent job of making sure of our safety. Before you go on, I just want to ensure you of it's truthfulness and that it really did happen to me.
"Last Friday evening, a bomb scare shut down the commuter rail line that runs from Chicago to the western suburbs because of a suspicious package that was on the 4:44 train. We were stuck on our train in the train yard for 30 minutes and then were forced to walk the last half mile to our cars. Others had to wait more than an hour for buses to get to their train station during rush hour and then sit on a bus to get home. The fire department sent out the bomb squad, the immediate area of the station was evacuated, and all emergency personnel were put on alert. "The immediate area around the package was quarantined and stabilized, but the package itself began to move. After and exhaustive attempt to defuse the situation without putting any of the brave personnel in uniform in any undue rink, the suspect package was found to contain a hamster.
"Just so you know, I was neither hurt nor terrorized during this incident. I was actually rather amused.
"P.S. The hamster found a very happy home with one of the fire fighters."
Despite the lightness of that incident, I know that in many ways the order of things post 9/11 is very different than it was before that day. Like so many social changes that happen, most of them didn’t occur right after the terror attacks happened in 2001 but it was a more gradual shift so that we could become more used to the idea.
I didn’t fly after 9/11 for six weeks, but at that time we still had National Guard personnel manning the security checkpoints at airports with automatic weapon. That was uncomfortable. That has since changed. When I went to the Louvre in 2006, the military presence at the entrance there was also heavily armed and I imagine they could use their weapons just as easily as those who were at the US airports in 2001. But there it didn’t feel as out of place because as an American, the threat of terrorism has always felt like a faraway or foreign problem. Every once in a while we have moments like the great hamster episode that remind us that even here we are vulnerable, but I’m not ready yet to allow the automatic weapons to patrol the grounds around the Museum Campus just yet.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
The King of What?
Some friends and I were out the other night at an arcade and as we went up to the Skee Ball machines we came upon a middle-aged man who had a video camera set up on a tri-pod and a t-shirt emblazoned with the words "King of Skee Ball 1998" across the back. My first thought was, "I really hope I don't end up on camera tonight because I was at work today and I look really tired," but my second thought was How does one become the King of Skee Ball?
A brief google of skee ball champions and I discovered two things about the man that I met and confirmed something I already suspected. The two things I learned are: first of all skee ball takes almost no skill and secondly it is usually done comparatively by a bunch of drunken frat boys. What was confirmed for me is if you're still bragging about being the King of Skee Ball nine years later, your rule has been usurped and the palace china has probably been sold for more pot or some other magical substance.
I did find something really remarkable though about this man in what he was doing. Every time he played he stood in the exact same spot and did the exact same movements and he got exactly the same two results: 100 points or 10 points. He had learned that the movements that would garner him the greatest reward also have the greatest risk for the lowest scores. How can anyone do the same thing over and over again and vacillate between the two extremes? Do we really need a new King of Skee Ball each year?
A brief google of skee ball champions and I discovered two things about the man that I met and confirmed something I already suspected. The two things I learned are: first of all skee ball takes almost no skill and secondly it is usually done comparatively by a bunch of drunken frat boys. What was confirmed for me is if you're still bragging about being the King of Skee Ball nine years later, your rule has been usurped and the palace china has probably been sold for more pot or some other magical substance.
I did find something really remarkable though about this man in what he was doing. Every time he played he stood in the exact same spot and did the exact same movements and he got exactly the same two results: 100 points or 10 points. He had learned that the movements that would garner him the greatest reward also have the greatest risk for the lowest scores. How can anyone do the same thing over and over again and vacillate between the two extremes? Do we really need a new King of Skee Ball each year?
Friday, October 12, 2007
Reaction to a newscast
I hate anything that even catches the whiff of political perspiration and what is below reeks like a eighth grader coming out of gym class…
A few days ago, I was listening to a story on the radio that’s given me a lot to think about. The story I was listening to was just another one about how another town outside of Bagdad has been effected by the troop “surge.” We all know how those stories usually go, troops move in, the bad guys are there, the towns people leave. What I was particularly impressed with in this story though was an interview that was done with one on the soldier assigned to the post that had been set up in the town. It wasn’t even so much about the fact as to weather or not the soldier believed in what he was there fighter for or not. He knew that the people of the village had given up. In fact, from the sound of it, they didn’t even want the fight in the first place. I have to trust that no one in the village has shed a single tear over the fact that Saddam Hussein was forced from power in their country, but did they really want the United States to be the ones to fight for it? We’ve given the Iraqis no other option but now they either have to fight against the outside wall of insurgents or they have to just give up.
Why do people fight for freedom? It’s not because someone comes into your country and says that it’s time for change, people will only fight for something when their backs are against the wall. When someone else has put your back up against the wall, who are you going to fight against, the wall or the person who put you against it in the first place?
To listen to the story, use the following link and the part I reference above is about 5 minutes into the report, but it’s worth the wait:
http://www.npr.org/templates/dmg/popup.php?id=14761413&type=1&date=27-Sep-2007&au=1&pid=24325522&random=4625112025&guid=0000F158C86805561B7B507261626364&uaType=WM,RM&aaType=RM,WM&upf=Win32&topicName=News&subtopicName=Iraq&prgCode=ME&hubId=-1&thingId=14761434&ssid=&tableModifier=&mtype=WM
A few days ago, I was listening to a story on the radio that’s given me a lot to think about. The story I was listening to was just another one about how another town outside of Bagdad has been effected by the troop “surge.” We all know how those stories usually go, troops move in, the bad guys are there, the towns people leave. What I was particularly impressed with in this story though was an interview that was done with one on the soldier assigned to the post that had been set up in the town. It wasn’t even so much about the fact as to weather or not the soldier believed in what he was there fighter for or not. He knew that the people of the village had given up. In fact, from the sound of it, they didn’t even want the fight in the first place. I have to trust that no one in the village has shed a single tear over the fact that Saddam Hussein was forced from power in their country, but did they really want the United States to be the ones to fight for it? We’ve given the Iraqis no other option but now they either have to fight against the outside wall of insurgents or they have to just give up.
Why do people fight for freedom? It’s not because someone comes into your country and says that it’s time for change, people will only fight for something when their backs are against the wall. When someone else has put your back up against the wall, who are you going to fight against, the wall or the person who put you against it in the first place?
To listen to the story, use the following link and the part I reference above is about 5 minutes into the report, but it’s worth the wait:
http://www.npr.org/templates/dmg/popup.php?id=14761413&type=1&date=27-Sep-2007&au=1&pid=24325522&random=4625112025&guid=0000F158C86805561B7B507261626364&uaType=WM,RM&aaType=RM,WM&upf=Win32&topicName=News&subtopicName=Iraq&prgCode=ME&hubId=-1&thingId=14761434&ssid=&tableModifier=&mtype=WM
Good Reads Updates
So I've added a new feature...I've added a link to my currently reading list over at http://www.goodreads.com/ so that I can keep track of what I'm reading and so can you!
Thursday, September 27, 2007
New website...
A friend sent me to my new favorite website www.goodreads.com that lets you network with people what books you've read, what books you're reading, and what books you plan on reading next...or soon...or eventually if you're me. I'm one of those people that is always asked, "So what should I read now?" And usually people expect me to come up with a suggestion right on the spot for them. Unfortunately I’m not always that good and sometimes I have like seven suggestions so it’s really hard to give them one, especially if I really don’t know what they’re looking for in a book. So this website is a listing of pretty much all of the books that I care to let people know that I’ve read (yes, I do read some books that I’m too embarrassed to tell others about) so it should help to lower the whole, “Hey, what should I read?”
Tonight was the premier of The Office, which along with 30 Rock and Scrubs makes for the funniest time on television. It only becomes less funny when I realize that I actually know people at work who were like the people on the show. Although I can’t say that I know anyone at work who would actually try to euthanize a cat by putting it in the freezer, running it over with a car, but not in the freezer.
Question of the day…What television character do you most identify with?
Tonight was the premier of The Office, which along with 30 Rock and Scrubs makes for the funniest time on television. It only becomes less funny when I realize that I actually know people at work who were like the people on the show. Although I can’t say that I know anyone at work who would actually try to euthanize a cat by putting it in the freezer, running it over with a car, but not in the freezer.
Question of the day…What television character do you most identify with?
My First Offering...
Yesterday I finished Phillip Pullman’s The Golden Compass in the His Dark Materials trilogy. When I bought the book I wasn’t expecting very much to be honest, but as the movie is coming out later this year and as a general rule I like to read the book before I watch the movie, I picked up The Golden Compass a couple of months ago. Back to the book…I had a business trip the last two days (more about that in a bit) and I took it to read. It was far more than I expected to find.
Brief plot synopsis is that a young girl Lyra Belaqua lives in an alternate version of late Victorian Earth where the Church rules all and where the United States doesn’t exist, but many technologies of that era are coming in to common use. She’s been raised by the scholars at Jordan Collage at Oxford University where her uncle Lord Asriel has left her while he does his exploring in the Artic. He returns with fantastic proof of Dust and convinces Oxford to sponsor another expedition just as roomers of a dark threat begins to threaten Lyra.
I found the story engrossing and the narrative really kept a really good pace the entire time and I genuinely found the characters engaging and sympathetic. But what is the real driving force behind at least this first book (haven’t even looked that the other two yet) is the concepts that form the frame-work in which the story is set. Pullman set up Lyra’s world as an alternate Earth to our own that we live in and by the end, I was expecting to hear of strange invaders from the Arctic. I loved the subtlety that the book uses. I know it was written for a young adult audience, but it really is about consequences for everyone and choices that we all make in our lives. Unfortunately we don’t have alternate worlds to relive our lives, but we just have to make the most out of the ones we currently do have and try to live the live we’ve got the best we can.
So I promised to say something about my business trip. It’s not so much about my trip as it is about where I stayed. I was at a large chain business class hotel where they put me on a “Quiet Floor.” When I got off the elevator they even had a sign that told me so. It even had the following words:
The hotel promises that the following will not be staying on your floor
· Tour groups
· Bands
· Circus animals
Now as far as needing my sleep, I really appreciated the first two. But when I got to the third line, my thought was, “I’ve stayed at this hotel before and not been on a quiet floor. Was there a chance I was sleeping next to a tiger?” Seriously! I had no idea that circus animals actually stay IN the hotel. Don’t they have like—trailers or something. I mean even the “celebrities” on Dancing with the Stars get one and they’re almost the same, right? So next time I stay at a hotel, I’m for sure going to ask about their circus animal policy when I check in. Cause I sure as heck don’t want any camels crashing through the walls in the middle of the night.
That makes me wonder about what sort of things people really bring into hotels that they would never bring into their own homes. I did watch Welcome to the Parker on Brovo and I know people will do things like have really drunk ping-pong tournaments and ruin Gene Autry's house, but I’m not really the adventurous type in that way at all because I’m usually way too tired by the time I get back to my room because all my adventures usually happen outside of the hotel room.
Brief plot synopsis is that a young girl Lyra Belaqua lives in an alternate version of late Victorian Earth where the Church rules all and where the United States doesn’t exist, but many technologies of that era are coming in to common use. She’s been raised by the scholars at Jordan Collage at Oxford University where her uncle Lord Asriel has left her while he does his exploring in the Artic. He returns with fantastic proof of Dust and convinces Oxford to sponsor another expedition just as roomers of a dark threat begins to threaten Lyra.
I found the story engrossing and the narrative really kept a really good pace the entire time and I genuinely found the characters engaging and sympathetic. But what is the real driving force behind at least this first book (haven’t even looked that the other two yet) is the concepts that form the frame-work in which the story is set. Pullman set up Lyra’s world as an alternate Earth to our own that we live in and by the end, I was expecting to hear of strange invaders from the Arctic. I loved the subtlety that the book uses. I know it was written for a young adult audience, but it really is about consequences for everyone and choices that we all make in our lives. Unfortunately we don’t have alternate worlds to relive our lives, but we just have to make the most out of the ones we currently do have and try to live the live we’ve got the best we can.
So I promised to say something about my business trip. It’s not so much about my trip as it is about where I stayed. I was at a large chain business class hotel where they put me on a “Quiet Floor.” When I got off the elevator they even had a sign that told me so. It even had the following words:
The hotel promises that the following will not be staying on your floor
· Tour groups
· Bands
· Circus animals
Now as far as needing my sleep, I really appreciated the first two. But when I got to the third line, my thought was, “I’ve stayed at this hotel before and not been on a quiet floor. Was there a chance I was sleeping next to a tiger?” Seriously! I had no idea that circus animals actually stay IN the hotel. Don’t they have like—trailers or something. I mean even the “celebrities” on Dancing with the Stars get one and they’re almost the same, right? So next time I stay at a hotel, I’m for sure going to ask about their circus animal policy when I check in. Cause I sure as heck don’t want any camels crashing through the walls in the middle of the night.
That makes me wonder about what sort of things people really bring into hotels that they would never bring into their own homes. I did watch Welcome to the Parker on Brovo and I know people will do things like have really drunk ping-pong tournaments and ruin Gene Autry's house, but I’m not really the adventurous type in that way at all because I’m usually way too tired by the time I get back to my room because all my adventures usually happen outside of the hotel room.
Why would someone really need to bring their 500 pound gorilla with them on a business trip? Would the baby elephant really need to stay on the pull-out couch and watch the television all night? Do the dancing poodles really need to have access to the mini-bar? Okay, for the last one, I’d had to give it a definite yes because even this bitch needs a kings size Snicker's bar at 2 am sometimes.
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