road rage

I have a problem. I have become one of those people. You know, someone who thinks teens are selfish idiots and wonders what is happening with kids these days.

I certainly was never like that. I'm still not . . .

Observe:

(click to enlarge)

This is a (loose) representation of me driving to work in the morning. Usually I get to this intersection when the cross-street has a green light. I stop and glance to my left, eyeing the horde of teens on the corner. It's like I'm hunched over at the opening lines of a track race, scowling at my competitors.

I don't know what that is like because I'm not an athlete, but I have seen movies.

The light turns green, and I get a green arrow to turn left.

BUT NO!!!!!! Thwarted! The gaggle of children begins their trek across the street, thinking that because the light is green, they can walk.

"I have the right of way, children!" I scream in frustration. (No matter that I am less than ten years older than some of these kidlets, I'll still call them "children." Who am I?)

I think I need to start taking a different route to work in the mornings. This scenario fills me with homicidal thoughts every morning.

granola

Last week at work we had a week of academic meetings. I just transferred to a new department, so I got to go this time (in the past, I haven't gone to anything except the all-staff dinner). During these meetings, they fly in almost all the remote employees (of which there are many). It's kind of ridiculously extravagant. I imagine they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars providing transportation, room, board, renting out the hotel for the meetings, and who knows what else. Just give us all a small raise and I'd be satisfied. But whatev. I guess I'll take what I can get.

So, during these meetings, they provided three meals a day. I didn't go to all the meals because I didn't want to spend 24 hours a day (that's hyperbolic) at the Little America hotel, the food wasn't that good (I'm convinced that it is nigh impossible to feed a lot of people all at once and have it all turn out really well), and because Tim couldn't come with me (boohoo). I did consider sneaking him in on several occasions. It was such a large event that I'm sure it would have gone completely unnoticed. He could have pretended he was a student mentor for the IT program or something and no one would have asked any questions.

On that note, maybe hanging out at hotels could be rewarding. You might be able to get a lot of free stuff unnoticed.

Anyway, the point of all of this is to say that I did eat some granola at breakfast one day and it was amazing. The perfect granola. I'm pretty sure it was homemade (it appeared to be, anyway), and I just want to know how I can get my hands on it so I can have it everyday for the rest of eternity.

Do you think if I called the hotel and asked for the recipe, they would tell me?

an obligatory post

Even though Valentine's Day doesn't make me feel lonely anymore because I am now a married woman, I still am not a huge fan of the holiday.

Because it is so commercialized, it seems to still have an ostracizing effect for many, like people who aren't romantically involved, or those who don't have much of a disposable income to spend on their loved one. Some would argue that the holiday can be broader, too, which is great, but you can't avoid thinking about it mainly as a day celebrating romantic love. (Maybe just out of tradition? Wikipedia tells me that it's been this way since the 14th century.)

There are certain elements of the holiday I like, and I like how people get creative with it. (Kate Spade's e-cards, for example, are very fun, I must agree.) And I know even if you lack a disposable income, you can still have fun with it. (The e-cards are free! Yeasayer is offering a free EP!)

Honestly, I could probably use some festivity, stop being lame, and get on the holiday train. I should have fun with holidays more. I don't do much. For this and other reasons, I worry that my kids will hate me. Maybe when I have kids, I'll be more interested in making big deals out of things like holidays, birthdays, and other random days of the year (for no apparent reason). For now, it doesn't really appeal to me.

In that vein, I'm giving Tim time (Tim time, haha) to spend with his other lover: homework. I've asked Meredith to be my valentine in his place. (She accepted. Yesssss!!)

Foam Soap

I'd like to know the psychology behind foaming cleansers. This has been on my mind a lot lately. Do we imagine that things are getting cleaner when we put foamy stuff on them?

what happens when I'm not noticing?

Sometimes I notice random things, sometimes I don't.

Yesterday I noticed two random things:

1. For the second day in a row, I was driving to work alongside a girl who lives in my apartments and whom I saw at church on Sunday. She works near where I work, and lives near where I live.
   
   
2. For the second day in a row, I saw the same man at 7-11 using a pay phone. The first time I saw him, I said to Tim, "Look at that guy talking on the pay phone. Who uses pay phones these days?" I saw him again at the same 7-11 talking on the same phone.

random thought #2, welcome to blog

I worked as a secretary in the English Composition Office at BYU a few years ago, and while I was there, I was commissioned to develop a library. We had a whole bunch of books, I don't even know where they all came from, but they were available for the graduate instructors to borrow and use for their classes. I've forgotten mainly everything about this, but I remember thinking it was fun to develop this library system (cataloging and labeling all the books mostly), but also really hard. I had no idea what I was doing, and was largely unsuccessful in the venture. I wonder what the state of that "library" is now . . .

I still have a persistent interest in becoming some sort of librarian, and still have very little idea about what it entails. What I do know about it sounds right up my alley, though.

art appreciation

How can I appreciate art (I'm talking about art in the sense of visual artwork here) at my level? I don't have the context for the method, theory, or history. So when I go to a museum or gallery and see something on display, how do I get something out of it? My experience at a lot of museums/galleries/places where art is presented is a little bit like this: Look at piece for five seconds, think "That looks cool," or maybe "That's weird," or "I don't get it," and then move on to next piece. Then I forget about everything I saw.

snowshoeing

The more environmentally friendly OS

Is there any reason that the temporary storage "receptacle" for deleted files is called a recycle bin on PCs? Are we supposed to believe that Microsoft is more environmentally friendly than Apple?

Although Apple's corresponding functionality is called "Trash," the company takes its name from something that grows in the earth. What's more environmentally friendly than that?

Help Dylan

My good friend Kirsten and her husband are doing a fundraiser for their nephew, Dylan, who has an unfortunate medical condition that requires special treatment. His family can't quite afford everything on their own and need some help.

Tim and I are fairly strapped for cash these days, so we didn't donate much, but it feels good to do a little bit. I am amazed at how much has been raised already. They only started this fundraiser about a month ago and are already more than halfway toward their goal of $8000. People are so generous.

Kirsten and Sead have a PayPal account set up, so it's pretty easy to donate. Here's the address for the blog where you can find more information and a link to donate: http://dylanfund.blogspot.com/