So Sue Me

This morning as I was driving through downtown Salt Lake City, I noticed the driver of the car behind me putting on mascara....as she was turning left at an intersection. I curiously glanced back at her a few times to see what other kinds of tricks she could perform while driving. She also put her hair in a ponytail. By that point I watched her vehicle to make sure that she wasn't going to run into me at the next red light. She didn't, but as she passed me to make a right turn at the next intersection, I caught a glimpse of her license plate, which very appropriately states: "So Sue Me."

Shadowlands

You know those questions that people use to get a conversation started or keep it going when it's running out of talkative steam? Questions like "what is your favorite color and why?" or "if you could name a movie that would describe your personality, what would it be and why?" Well, one of my favorites is "if you could meet three people who have already died, who would it be and what would you talk to them about?" That is a particularly difficult question for me to answer, and I've decided that there is no way that I could only choose three people out of the many who have lived and effected life on this earth. Instead, I would prefer choosing three people within different categories, like three prophets, three artists, three world leaders, three humanitarians, etc. etc.

The movie Shadowlands has led me to add a certain author to my list of three writers: C.S. Lewis. Not that this is much of a surprise; I already considered him one of my favorite authors before Friday night, when I sat down to watch this movie about his life with his wife, Joy. The movie displays some of Lewis's beliefs on the subjects of adversity, pain and love, and gives us a glimpse into his life. After having seen this portrayal of a small, joyous, and painful portion of Lewis's life, I want nothing more than to spend an afternoon discussing the deeper meaning of things with him.

My Un-Christmas List

This belt is NOT on my Christmas Wish List, it is on my Un-Christmas Wish List. This is the list that nobody else gets to know about (so feel privileged that I'm providing a glimpse to you). The Un-List has stuff that I would never want to receive from anyone else, it includes things like fancy pimple creme. It lists stuff that I want to get if I decide to play Secret Santa for myself. It's secret because no one else knows about it. Don't buy this belt for me for Christmas, okay? Thanks!

Nutured By Love

On Saturday I went to the Suzuki Association of Utah's Celebration VII: Nutured By Love. This was a concert with over 3,000 performers, so many that they chose to have it in the Conference Center. All of them were teenagers or younger, with the exception of their teachers. 3,000+ budding musicians who have benefitted from the Suzuki method of music teaching. The concert was two hours long, with performances on piano, flute, cello, basse, harp, acoustic guitar, organ, and violin. There were LOTS of violins. Part of the greatness of the whole program was the obvious combined effort that had been put in by parents, kids, and teachers. The performance as a whole was very well organized and planned. A few blunders here and there, skewed timing once in a while, some smaller children dancing in their pants while others were performing, gave the performance a touch of charm that was adorable. The part that got me the most was seeing the many teachers among the kids, leading them and encouraging them to do their best. When I have kids, I hope they love music as much as I do, and I hope they have good music teachers who inspire and instruct them too.

People Food

I love food, yes I do. Do you remember the commercial jingle "I love eggs from my head down to my legs,....the incredible edible EGG! doo doo Wah!"? Well, that sums up my feelings pretty well if you subsitute the words "eggs" and "legs" for "meals" and "heels." Cheesy, yes I know. Cheesy...mmm, I love cheese too, especially cheese that gets nice and stringy when you melt it.

More importantly, I love PEOPLE food. Yes. Spaghetti, meatballs, rolls, ice cream, asparagus, broccoli, all kinds of veggies and fruits (except for chunks of cooked onions and green peppers in omelettes...for some reason they make me want to scour my mouth with antiseptic wipes to remove the ickyness).

Right now I live with my sister, brother-in-law, their daughter, and their dog. Like me, the dog, Belle, also loves people food. She is a beautiful golden labrador puppy who gets uber-excited every time I come home from work and serve up some nice warm people food for myself. Each time I must pry myself away from those big, brown, pleading eyes of hers that bore into me when I sit down to enjoy my feast. Yes, she always wants to share in the spoils, even though it isn't the best food for her. If I were her, I would definitely choose some nice spicy tortilla soup over any dog food. I feel for her, but she still isn't getting any of my chips!

Charity Never Faileth

In church today I felt a prevailing theme peek through the words and scriptures presented by the teachers and speakers. Although their topics were not necessarily based on this subject, it seemed to press into my mind continually. One scripture stood out to me. Here it is:

Romans 13:8-10

8. Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hat fulfilled the law.
9. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thous shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other comandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
10. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

This helps explain Matthew 22:36-40:

36. Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37. Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38. This is the first and great commandment.
39. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt alove thy neighbour as thyself.
40. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

If we love Heavenly Father above all, we will want to love our neighbors. If we love our neighbors as ourselves, we will not want to do anything to hurt them. The other commandments hinge on how we feel about and treat Heavenly Father and our neighbors. It's all so simple in writing, and yet, so complicated when put to action. Nevertheless, the lesson is an important one, and one that has been on my mind for a while. True charity, a wonderful goal!

The Entertainer

When I think of Scott Joplin's rag-time number, I am reminded of my niece. She is a kick in the pants and so much fun to be around. Here are some pictures of her being her cute self:

Here she is, the future jazz pianist:



Now she's making kitchen stuff into play stuff:







She's so good at multi-tasking already!



Maddie is so funny, I can't wait to see what her little brother is gonna be like!

Loving the Cornish-ness!!!

Today I am working on my Cornish genealogy. For those who know me well, this is not a surprise. I've been engulfed in it quite thoroughly since last year and I'm bound to keep it up for many years to come.

Let me tell you what I love about doing Cornish genealogy. Lots of folks who either live in Cornwall now or have Cornish ancestry volunteer their time in transcribing parish registers, census records, and newspapers in Cornwall. What do they do next? They publish it on the Internet in FREE searchable databases. Yes, that's right, TONS of FREE information about my Cornish ancestors is just floating around, waiting for me to grab onto it. Here are some of my absolute favorite sites:

http://www.cornwall-opc.org/ - Cornwall Online Parish Clerks is an incredibly helpful site containing transcriptions of parish registers throughout Cornwall. The transcriptions are not complete, but the site tells you what they have, AND they are continually adding stuff to it. This site also contains transcriptions of the 1841-1901 UK Censuses. 1841-1861, 1881, and 1891 are now complete and the others are currently being worked on.

http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/Cornwall/ - GENUKI Cornwall has lots of helpful information, including transcriptions from works like the Kelley's Directories, population statistics, links to maps, etc.

http://www.old-maps.co.uk/ - This is a fantastic collection of old maps of England. They are searchable by address, town, and county, I believe. SO HELPFUL!

This afternoon, you know what I'll be up to!

Robbing the poor to feed...the poor.

One of my friends was robbed last night. Someone came into his apartment, took all the iPods and greenbacks they could find and skedaddled, especially when they noticed one of the roommates sleeping on the couch. Yuck.

In chatting with him about it today, I remembered my own experience of being robbed while in Paris last year. Immediately after I was robbed there were tasks that had to be completed. After I took care of everything that needed to be done, such as filing a report with the police (a difficult feat when I was quite shaken up, trying to speak French and understand a cop who was speaking French to me), applying for a new passport, cancelling my credit card, and crying on the phone to my mother, I came to a new understanding about life.

First of all, the robber didn't hurt me. He didn't put a gun to my head. He didn't touch the friends who were with me. Physically, we were quite unscathed. Last night, my friend and his roommates slept peacefully, undisturbed, all night long. (Isn't it creepy to think that a robber came into their bedrooms and took the money out of their wallets while they were sleeping? At least I was aware of what was happening to me as it was happening, not after the fact.)

Secondly, I think I am dirt poor when in reality I always have clothing, a roof over my head, and food to deposit into my stomach. Silly me. I suppose I AM poor, but not to the extent that nothing I have could be of value to a robber. My friend and all of his roommates owned iPods. iPods are not cheap in my book, but I own one too. Even my low socio-economic status as a college student does not prevent me from having some nice things. I hope that the young man who stole my purse used the money in it to buy food for his family, although I realize that he probably used it to buy drugs or alcohol. In the same way, I hope that the iPods and cash went to good use.

Third, in the thirty seconds that it took for that kid to grab my purse and run off, I realized what is really important in life. I wish my flash-drive, my passport, my Euros, my study abroad cell-phone, and other things hadn't been in my purse. While all of these items were representative of the things I cherish (the flash drive contained several months worth of homework and projects, the passport gave me freedom to travel, the money made travel possible, and the cell phone was my means of staying in contact with people), the loss of these things, these objects, was a tiny drop in the ocean that is my life. My life is full to overflowing with wonderful things and people, a reality that I didn't appreciate as much until I lost some of the material things I considered to be most important to my experience in France. (The passport WAS important, but a new one was expedited to me quickly because kind people at the American Embassy in Paris helped me out.)

Fourth, the life I lead is a charmed one. The kid who took my purse is one among a sea of second-generation descendants of immigrants who came to France from Northern Africa in the latter half of the twentieth century. When these people came to France they faced many difficulties, questions of identity in a new country, questions of acceptance, of religion, of employment, of language, to name a few. Their children are now stuck in limbo, living in a country that they have failed to assimilate into successfully. They respond with petty theft, rioting, and other means that are less than peaceful. While I do not think that these acts are the correct way to respond to problems, I certainly don't know what it feels like to struggle with the issues they deal with on a daily basis. My life is a peaceful one, for the most part, and I am thankful for that.

In the end, although I may have been deprived of some cash and replaceable objects, my freedoms, opportunities, education, relationships, emotions, and ideas are still intact. My friend is now short one iPod, but his intangible possessions remain untouched.

Sometimes I forget whether I have a good memory or not. . .

Yes, it is true. I am not an elephant, because they NEVER forget. These past three months have been quite interesting for me. You see, I've had two new jobs since August, both of which have caught me and my flawed memory off guard. I didn't mean to switch jobs so quickly, it just so happened that I decided to take the second one because it is more centered on what I have studied in school, and what I love.

The reason why I switched jobs, however, is not the point of this particular blog. If I don't get to it quickly, I suppose I might forget what I'm trying to say. When I am presented with several new processes to learn, imbibe, internalize, and otherwise comprehend, I've noticed that some of them slip through the cracks in my grey matter until I've had a chance to repeat the actions over and over again. Repetition is my friend. This explains why I can listen to the Wicked soundtrack three times in one day and not get tired of it. Anyways, my memory defects have been magnified several times in the past few months as I have attempted to master certain duties at new jobs.

I found quite an interesting list of memory-boosters today in an article on msn.com and I thought I would list them here (yes, I am actually following through on a thought I had earlier, maybe a sign that my memory is improving....YAY!) . You can read the article online at http://www.prevention.com/cda/article/7-habits-of-people-with-great-memories/47d350d1fa803110VgnVCM10000013281eac____/health/healthy.lifestyle/healthy.aging?cm_mmc=MSN-_-The%20Happiness%20Factor-_-Article-_-7%20Habits%20of%20People%20with%20Great%20Memories (HA! try to remember THAT link!). To give a quick summary of the article, here is the list of memory boosters mentioned:

1. Have fewer than two alcoholic drinks a day
2. Watch less than 1 hour of TV daily
3. Read novels
4. Do crosswords
5. Eat fish
6. Drink tea or coffee
7. Keep a journal

Now, I find this list to be very very intriguing. Off the top of my head I can tell you that I do five of the seven tasks here, everything excepting numbers 2 and 6. Number 6 will never be a problem for me, but that darned number 2 might be my undoing if I don't monitor it closely! I always thought that after I finished college classes I would feel free to expand my wings in more directions, try new and exciting activities because I would not be committed to homework. Now, I realize, I spend way too much time watching T.V. at night. Last week was especially bad, mostly because I didn't have use of my laptop at the time, eliminating my chances of working on certain projects that I have imposed my own due dates on.

Yes, I watched T.V. every night last week and I LOVED IT! Tis true. I became a T.V. addict for a week. But NO MORE! In attempting to improve my memory, I hereby limit myself to watching the news, The Office, and maybe Grey's Anatomy every week. What will I do in the meantime? Exercise. Read. Work on memory-enhancing tricks. Cook. Organize my mass of left-over homework that might possibly be of use to me in the future. Make a Halloween costume (I'm open to any suggestions here). Paint my sister's soon-to-be-nursery. The world is full of constructive activities, and if I don't forget what they are, by golly, I'm gonna do them!