Why Can't Young Men Be More Like That...?

I love Don.  Everyone needs to work with Don.  He's just great.  


Here is a recap of one of our very first conversations.


"So, you're Mormon."
"Yes I am."
"My wife's brother and his wife are Mormon.  I may have some questions for you someday."
"Fabulous."
*Pause
"I don't want to join your church.  I just have some questions."


The conversation picked up again a few weeks later.


"Hi Don."
"I wish I were.  Come in.  Sit."
*Interlocks his fingers behind his head and stretches his legs out in front of him
"Question number one.  Why long underwear?"


Oh Don, you are just great. 


A little more background before one jumps to creepy conclusions about this man.  Don (or Dr. H.) is our school psychologist.  He is semi-retired and hails from somewhere in Michigan where he spent a large portion of his career working in Catholic schools.  Don is tall and thin and looks like he was a runner when he was younger (which, I found out, he was--we discussed this when I had my ACL replaced and he sympathized by telling me about his total knee replacement).  Don has white hair and a white beard and mustache and sometimes wears a denim shirt with Looney Tunes characters embroidered on the back.  I really love Don.


When I had a different frustrating job at my school, my office was right across the hall from his.  He'd pop his head in every morning and give me a pseudo-grumpy greeting.  I miss that about my old job.  He still greets me in his fake-grumpy manner whenever he sees me in the hallway, though.  A couple of weeks ago, he popped into my classroom one morning.  We engaged in a lively conversation about Mitt Romney (neither of us are big fans).  I miss my old office sometimes.


Just today he came to my room to talk to me about a student.  Before leaving, he made reference to my leaving the school (yes I am--was just offered a position to teach at another school in a different city).  He asked why I'm leaving.  I told him that this city is not a good place for a single, thirty-year-old woman.  He paused for a moment, cocked his head to one side and said one of the most encouraging things to me I've ever been told.  


"A single thirty-year-old woman like you should not be a single thirty-year-old woman."


It made me feel like maybe I am a good catch.  I mean, if someone I admire as much as Don thinks I'm pretty neat, perhaps I am.


Thanks, Don.  You'll never know how much that meant to me.  Especially right now...

Perhaps It's More a Commentary on Men...

I always hated references to women freaking out on men and bashing in their trucks with a baseball bat. Or a crowbar.  Or whatever.  I felt as if they portrayed women in a bad light--as if women are volatile and ready to snap at any second.


I may have changed my mind.


Instead of bashing in your truck, however, I found great pleasure and relish in smashing that stupid jewelry box into thousands of pieces on the cement outside my bedroom.  I'm hoping I can find more large pieces tomorrow morning when the sun comes up so I can throw them again.  


I also unfriended you on Facebook.


So, it's not as dramatic as I wish it could be, but my rampage will not land me a police record.


And, you're still a jerk.  I just don't have to be reminded about it when I look at my jewelry anymore...

SOLIDARITY...!

I often feel frustrated and perhaps a little spiritually impotent.  There was a flare up of this recently.  Today, thanks to the miracle of the internet (and my dependence on it when I can't find the energy to do anything but surf mindlessly), I ran into a fantastic blog I sometimes read.


You should go there.  


http://www.askmormongirl.com/


On many occasions, I find myself indulging in a luxury granted to the teenage-world; that is, sulking and feeling misunderstood.  I somehow find a twisted comfort in holding to the belief that I am the only one who feels particular feelings, has particular doubts, challenges particular cultural, political, and/or doctrinal stances.  That twisted comfort lasts only for a brief moment before settling into a deep pit of anxiety and despair.  


So, a sense of solidarity is a tender mercy.  Thank you to the imperfect souls out there who are willing to expose your vulnerabilities to the rest of us.  We need it.  


I need it.

Thoughts from Today...

Naughty behavior has consequences.  When you use people (ahem, me) or treat people like objects (see previous parenthetical aside), those people may eventually ignore you.  
Deal with it.
Yo.

Times Like These...

I have a band-aid on my face.  My pants ripped at the pocket seam.  I haven't brushed my hair in two weeks.  


Yeah, this pretty much sums up the sad state of life I find myself in recently.  


I also have a huge pile of laundry that has been spilling out between two laundry baskets since the last time I brushed my hair.  My car used to be red and is now some shade of dun due to the dust it has accumulated.  


I sat on my couch for the better part of two hours tonight, fantasizing about eating Greek food but knew that it would mean brushing my hair and taking the band-aid off my face.  Eventually I got off the couch and into my dun-colored car.  I walked into the restaurant to enjoy a meal by my onesies, band-aid and tangled hair included.


Hopefully I can pull out of this sometime.  


And get myself some new pants...

Havasupai Time...

Aside from making a clever (if over-used) pun, Havasupai is A. MAZ. ING.  I tossed and turned in bed the other night because I inadvertently forgot to mention that I went there this summer.  In June.  For the third time in my life.  

My large camera is not easy to take on 11 mile hikes (that's just to get INTO the campground) and my little camera was without batteries, so all of the pictures from '09 and '11 are lifted from other people.  


The first time 'round...
June 2008

I love my Chacos.  They went all three times with me.

This is what Havasu Falls looked like pre-flood .  In July of 2008, a dam broke and changed the course of the river.  

Watch out for the mules!  You don't know they're upon you until, well, they're upon you.

A moment of silence for Navajo Falls.  They are no more.  The big flood of July 2008 changed the course of the river so much that this area is now bone dry.

Beaver Falls makes a great day hike.  And yellow bandanas go stylishly well with red shorts and blue t-shirts.

There used to be a great hole for doing some rope swinging.  The flood changed the level of the river because so much earth moved.

Here is where people launched themselves into the water.  I have no upper-body strength, so I snapped great pictures instead.

This has GOT to be my favorite rope-swinging picture EVER.

Or maybe this one.  It looks like he's sitting on her head.

Yes, someone took a hammock.

Again...
June 2009

This is a shot of us scaling mountain walls to go down to Beaver Falls. The first stop is the bottom of Moony Falls.

Packing back up to go to camp from Beaver Falls.

We bought an amazing hat for a friend's birthday gift.  We decided we should take pictures with it.

 Hit me baby, one more time...
June 2011

My Livin' It UP! girls came this year.  I love them.  This is how Havasu Falls looked this summer.  Notice it is not nearly as powerful.

And Beaver Falls again!

Moony!  Gettin' our Zen on.

I need to post all the sleeping pictures people have snapped of me.  

 MY FAVORITE PICTURE...

I got up early this particular morning and trekked to Navajo Falls myself.  I snapped some amazing pictures because the light was absolutely perfect.  The colors look unreal.  They are real.

This is one of my favorite places on earth!  It is breathtakingly beautiful and holds wonderful memories for me.  Havasupai was my very first experience doing actual backpacking.  I found I'm made of tougher stuff than I thought (not that Havasupai is very tough, but I'd never done any backpacking before that fateful summer in '08).

Year in Review

Here are a few shots of where I went this year.  

June:  Washington DC and Raleigh, North Carolina

July:   Grand Canyon (North Rim) and Utah

Sept:  Grand Canyon (South Rim)

Oct:   Grand Canyon (South Rim)

Yes, I visited Arlington. Twice in this trip, actually.

Who DOESN'T love all the Smithsonians?

DC is one of my favorite places. 

We ate loads of cupcakes while I was there.

A side trip back to DC (from NC) took us to Washington's birthplace.

The street pretzels in DC were absolutely disappointing.

Grand Canyon!  I visited this place three times this year.  Once in July, once in September and once in October.  Two of the three times, we camped.

We made it up to Bear Lake and did some canoeing.  Not in this, though.  This is CLEARLY a kayak, and CLEARLY not mine.

We also went to a Decemberist concert for free-ninety-free in SLC.

I went to a baseball game in July for the first time in three years.  

THIRTY!  German Chocolate Cake is the BEST way to celebrate getting old!

Here are my feet in the GC after "hiking" with the parents.  We went partially down South Kaibab.

Beautiful sunset picture taken at the GC in September.  I met up with the parents for this trip.

I was not nearly as dedicated to pictorial documentation of my year as I should have been.  Alas!  2011 was a year of growth.  I started my year with a new knee and continued through the year working on a new outlook.  Here's to new adventures and a great harvest of growth in 2012!