A Funny Coincidence

When I was a child, about 4th grade or so, I lied to my mother and told her I needed glasses because I had failed the eye test at school. Luckily for me, she took my word for it even though the school hadn't called and told her there was anything to be concerned about because as it turned out, I did need glasses.

I didn't think about it at the time obviously, but I'm very lucky that I did need glasses because that is kind of an expensive lie. =P

I thought I was the only one silly enough to lie about needing glasses, but apparently Andrew did that too. What a coincidence.

Granted, he did it for a different reason. He thought his parents wouldn't believe he needed glasses if his prescription wasn't strong enough so he actually lied in the eye exam and got stronger glasses. But all the time he knew he needed them.

I didn't know I needed them, but I lied anyway for vanity reasons. My friends had all just gotten glasses and I felt left out. =P

A New Reign Of Terror

I can't believe I didn't see it before. Well actually I guess it all makes sense, considering I didn't really read (and consequently really ticked my english teacher off) A Tale of Two Cities. On a somewhat unrelated note, maybe I should contact my 10th grade English teacher and tell her I am now reading all the books I refused to read that year, of my own accord. Teachers love to know they made an impact right? Even if it's like 10 years later? =P (...oh my stinkin' stars that WAS nearly 10 years ago...)

Anyhow, I've been reading the Scarlet Pimpernel. On another side note, I recommend it. It's really slow to start but after that its pretty solid and a fun read.

Moving on. What was the whole deal with the French Revolution? Right, the middle and lower classes, rising up in violent protest against the upper class. In America today, we call that the 1%. Now, I have a lot more sympathy for the upper class of America than I do the French. (Not that I think they deserved to all die, but they were rather silly...but honestly back then, what upper class WASN'T?) All that aside, I find all these occupy movements to be eerie shadows of a bloody revolution. Just...not so much blood and no guillotine (which is probably the reason for not so much blood. that and generally executing people just because they are rich is typically frowned upon these days...)

Speaking of eerie shadows. The Great Depression. We're practically there. I mean, I refuse to believe we're in a recession at all. Mostly because that was a silly word invented by Democrats (or maybe Republicans, I forget) to quell widespread panic during the 80s. Before that, all recessions were called depressions. Recession is just a PC term for depression and no one is going to use the word Depression until we're all on the streets living in ramshackle "Obama-villes". I don't understand the point. Canyons are all canyons...but there is only one GRAND canyon. So why can't we just be calm about the word depression? Thus far there is only one GREAT depression....

Back to the shadows of things past. Here is what I see, please tell me other people have seen it.

1930's-widespread drought
2012-half the country is in a state of emergency because of drought.
1936-Great American Heat Wave
2012-ridiculously large heat wave across America and thousands on new record high temps set
1929-stock market crashes, economies world wide follow
2008ish-severe economic depression and stock market unstable at best
2012-umm...yeah America isn't the only one with a crappy economy right now...just sayin.

If I was a crazy conspiracy theorist or whatever, I would say that it really doesn't matter who gets elected president...they can't fix the economy now. History already shows that. What will have to fix it, is WWIII, because lets be honest, WWII is what fixed it last time. But then again, if you look at it like that, how can WWIII fix anything when the government has no money to spend? I guess the world is just going to end. =P

But I'm not one of those people, I just think its kinda fun to find all the parallels. History repeats itself so I'm sure you could find parallels anywhere you look. I just thought all this was kinda fun. :)

Many New Adventures

I realize I haven't had many pictures up lately. I keep forgetting to take my camera places. Problem is, I've grown accustomed to always being with Andrew who always has his wallet and keys so I frequently decide to leave my purse at home (because who wants to carry a purse?). Unfortunately, that means my camera gets left behind too. That or I'm just plain too lazy to take pictures because it is hot in our house. But enough of that.

Andrew and I made homemade potato chips. Being poor certainly does not mean we are wanting for junk food. =P These were amazing!

It was much cooler outside than it was in our house so we just pitched our tent and slept outside on Friday. We kinda startled our neighbors. =P Good thing they like us =P 

I tried my hand at canning this last weekend. We used our camp stove so that it wouldn't make our house hot. That and well, with the jam on the stove, there was no room for the canner.

We got about 20 pounds of plumcots from Andrew's aunt. Unfortunately, we had to wait until payday to buy mason jars so some of the fruit went bad...but we still got 12 jars! I was so proud that it turned out since it was my first time and I was way nervous!

In other exciting news, one of my best friends is getting married in August. She's been living in Boston but had her bridal shower out here on Friday. I don't generally like bridal showers (I didn't really even care for mine but felt obligated) but this was seriously the best bridal shower I've ever been to! We didn't play any of the typical games you play at bridal showers. We played scrabble! We just got extra points for wedding and love related words. (I didn't manage any of those cuz I suck at scrabble). Also, since she's marrying a Jewish convert to the church, we had a bunch of Yiddish words we had to guess the meaning to for one game. Again...I sucked. =P

Finally, for our last game, we played a "worst case scenario" kind of game. This was hilarious. For example, what would the bride do if the bass from the music on the playlist awakened a colony of killer bees that were hiding in the bouquet and they started attacking everyone?" And other ridiculous scenarios.

I really had so much fun! I was pleasantly surprised to find that I felt very comfortable even though I didn't know anyone there except the bride. Her family is very affable and I felt like I fit right in. It helped that they kept joking that I was "practically family" since I married a Powell. (the bride's maiden name is Powell).

Oh I missed her.

Moloka'i

I just finished reading Moloka'i, by Alan Brennert. Never in my life have I become so engrossed in a story. This was not the kind of engrossed that keeps you reading until 3am (even if you have to get up for work at 6) and then before you know it you've finished the book. No, I took my time with this book.

By engrossed, I mean I was a part of this book. My emotions were completely exposed as I read and I could feel everything. By engrossed I mean that this story will stay with me forever. It also doesn't hurt my opinion of the book that I found part of my middle name in it. Ali'i, royalty. :)

Moloka'i is about a young Hawaiian girl living in Honolulu in the late 1800's. At the young age of 7, Rachel Kalama is discovered to have Leprosy and is sent to the Leper colony on Moloka'i (still a relatively new settlement). She is torn from her family and everything she loves, forbidden from any further physical contact with her mother and father. She must, at such a young age, learn to live a new life in exile.

The book itself is set at such a time period that it spans several world events, beginning with the fall of the Hawaiian royalty and ending in the prosperity of the 50's. Isolated from the world, the residents of Moloka'i understand little of the change going on, but as the reader, you are privy to knowledge that only enhances your reading experience and further allows you to feel deeply for the characters. You are shocked as a reader in such a PC culture of the tolerance for hatred in the United States and you rejoice with each character's triumphs small and large and mourn their losses. Instead of people to be pitied, they each become champions and inspirations to the reader.

This book reads a bit slower because it is more of a day-to-day novel about Rachel's life but that is part of the beauty of the book as it give you time to absorb everything. Descriptions are never wanting without being too wordy (*cough* Tolkein *cough cough*) so as to easily transport you to a new time and place.

When I closed the book, I cried tears of joy and sadness (yes, I'm a sucker and yes, I cried. Ask Andrew). This story is one I will not forget.

If you read no other books in your life, read this one.

Trapped No More

Zippy, our car, has gone to the doctor this morning. He is getting his clutch replaced. :)

This has been a problem coming since December when we first found out about it during a routine oil change. The shop gave us about 3 months before the clutch failed completely but luckily, Zippy is still going. We were sure to drive carefully and not take too many trips out of Provo (read: we were trapped in happy valley which, incidentally is not that happy when you cannot leave.) Unfortunately, as of late, we have experienced a great deal of slippage in the clutch and he just can't go up hills the way he used to. Given that we have a trip to Washington coming up, it was time to cough up the money to take Zippy to the doctor.

Andrew dropped him off this morning before work (got a ride from our home teacher to work) and by this afternoon Zippy should be good as new!

Then I shall have to practice driving because the last time I had the clutch in my car replaced, I couldn't drive it worth a darn for like a week! =P

In other completely unrelated news. I have about 13 pounds of plumcots sitting in my fridge, waiting to be made into jam and canned. I really didn't think this through when I volunteered to take on the task. I've never canned before, and I'm not even sure if I can get around to it before they spoil as I have a bridal shower to go to Friday night and they've already been in my fridge near a week now.

If I assigned a hashtag to this it would be #justalittlebitoverwhelmed

And on that note, maybe having a twitter would be good for me. You know. For practicing writing concisely. =P

Cooking Woes

Some days, I'm an amazing cook. Those are the days that I post about my cooking adventures. But lest there be a poor soul out there who is comparing themselves to little ol' me, let me illustrate how cooking usually goes.

One day, a few weeks ago. I really wanted an ice cream cone. I walk past Sugar and Spice in the Cougareat every week and smell the waffle cones. I'm really tempted to just ask if I can buy a cone with no ice cream seriously. So I thought, "well, I don't have a waffle cone maker, but I don't NEED that do I?" So I set about trying to make waffle cones like crepes in a frying pan. I mean, who cares what they LOOK like. They don't NEED that waffle pattern. Turns out, that doesn't work. At all. So I thought, how about the oven? I make fortune cookies in the oven and they are kind of the same thing.

No. They're not.

You can probably imagine how this whole thing turned out so I'll just let you keep imagining. Needless to say, I bought ice cream cones at the store the next day.

4th of July.

This was NOT my cooking day.

I had to make a blueberry pie and lemon bars. I had just put the lemon bars into the oven and I licked the spoon as I was putting the bowl in the sink. The batter was awfully sweet. Maybe that was because I had just made lemon bars WITH NO LEMON!

I managed to save them by pouring the lemon juice in and scrambling it all with a fork. Phew.

Then came the blueberry pie. I guess since I forgot the lemon for the lemon bars, I had to compensate for something. I put 3 times the amount on lemon required into the pie. Good thing lemon tastes good with pretty much everything. =P

Then there was that time I made mexican rice. Did I ever tell you about that? Oh boy. I will probably never make mexican rice again....

I Don't Mean To Be Ungrateful

I'm very glad it is raining, I really am. And I'm very glad that all day it has been a steady drizzle instead of a torrential downpour; I'm sure the firefighters are glad for it too.

However, 63 degrees just isn't cutting it for me. I was hoping that with the heat we've had lately, I was going to go outside into an 80 degree sauna of wonderfulness...not 63 degree weather. Now I'm back in my office, no warmer than I was before I went outside to warm up. :(

Why is there no thermostat in my office!?