Tagged?? Where's the spray paint?

I haven't played tag in AGES!! and i'm rethinking my game playing philosophy.

I used to be happy to play a game with someone so they could feel good about winning. No more! I've found some of my competitive nature, but i don't have the patience to hone my game playing skills so that i'll feel some of the exhileration of winning once in a while.

So, tag means I have to write 5 crazy things about myself... and like many other's that I've read, this is not an easy task. :D I think we secretly KNOW the crazy things, we are just hesitant to divulge them for the world to read.

Think, think, think...

1) I just packed up my whole house and moved in with my parents in TWO days! okay, maybe it took me longer than that, but I'll tell you what, it FELT like two days.

2)Some of my best, and most fulfiling friendships are with ex boyfriends. I was never one to be friends with boys growing up.. how much I missed!

3) I once hopped a plane for Australia on a whim.. told my friend I was coming to visit AFTER I bought the ticket.

4) huge confession-- when I was teaching school, I gave in to the pleas of two of my favorite students and shared some tempura paint so they could give a fond farewell to a student teacher they had a crush on.. they were SUPPOSED to use it only on the windows of her car, but they got carried away. Guess who went to the principles office??

Five is the hardest one!!!
hmmmmm....
5) I have boxes and boxes of art supplies that I NEVER use! I like to buy them at the store, but they promptly get put away for a rainy day. Inevitably, when the rainy day comes, I'm back at the craft store buying more supplies.

So, 5 crazy things about me... and i'll store up tag for the next time we all need a little spice in our blogs. :D

Moving Day, and the living is....

I don't quite know how to explain the day.. stressful, relieving, neverending... monotonous, adventurous...

I'm about half way finished, and after all the men come tomorrow to move the heavy furniture, it can only get better, right?? Please tell me I'm right!

I was highly relieved though, when I went to the bank to finalize the financing on the (boo hoo) loss on my condo. I'm having to find a loan to pay off the remainder on my mortgage. The gentleman at the bank said he was going through exactly the same thing. They sold their house quicker than they thought they would and had to get a loan for the loss. BUT!! he said it would wrap up in the mortgage of the new home he was building.

This is exactly what I was needing to hear. :) it's nice when a realtor tells you it can be done, but entirely another when you can't find someone who's actually had the experience.

Things are on their way.. Decisions were made 7 months ago, with no idea what the results or consequences might be, and now I'm working through those. I'm thankful for a wise father who reminds me of that, and of the comfort of making a decision early that helps with follow up decisions.

:) so, the phone rang at the :D:D unearthly hour of 7 am this morning... one of my best friends was calling to see how life is.. We had a WONDERFUL 45 minute chat, and then I let her go so i could catch 15 more minutes of shut eye. I was given strict instructions to blog about those 15 minutes of bliss.. and TA DA! here it is. They were wonderful minutes of sleep. Now i'm ready for more.. it's been a non stop day of packing boxes and making trips to storage units, and calling banks.

There's yet more to pack and dinner to be found.. so I will end with that.

Reverence

Four times a year a get this nifty little magazine in the mail from Brigham Young University--it's one of the "perks" for being an alumni, along with the regular requests for fund donations, that make me wonder why i'm not making enough money to feel like I can EVER make a donation that means anything. :)

Luckily, I don't feel overly guilty if I make a token $10 donation every couple of years. One day when I'm RICH I will call THEM to take my money.

But that wasn't the subject of this blog... it was the magazine article.

I don't usually read this magazine. It sits in a pile with the mail I feel like I SHOULD read, but never get to, and then ends up in the garbage when I have a huge cleaning adventure. This time, however, I was intrigued by the opening article titled Renewing Reverence by Paul Woodruff. It is adapted from a forum address he gave at BYU in January. I'll post some of the most interesting quotes here.

I was hoping I could link to the full article on the web, but all they have available is the audio of the address, so if you'd like to listen you can click here.

"...justice is not enough to provide us with the stable communities we need to survive. Justice by itself can be harsh, unfeeling, divisive. The losers in a court of law, even though they may deserve to lose, may be alienated and angry and bitter. There is a reason why courts of law are hedged around with reverent ceremony. The reason is that reverence pulls us together. And we need to be pulled together around acts of justice, and justice alone is not enough to do that. Justice by itself can divide us, but reverence pulls us together."

"Reverence is an ethical virtue that is most important and valuable in human life when people have great power over others. Reverence is remembering not to carry on as if you were a diety of some kind. Reverence is this memory of being human, with all that that means, that is fostered by a well-devleoped capacity for feeling awe at that which is awe inspiring, because feelings of awe remind us of our humanity. Reverence is the basis for respect, and the language of reverence is ceremonial. Its effect on us is restraint in the use of power."

"A reverent classroom is where learning is most likely to take place. In a reverent classroom neither the students nor the teacher interrupts. In a reverent classroom there is a ceremonial observance of respect... You may suppose that ceremony of raising your hands and waiting to be called upon is an empty ritual. In america these days we tend to associate the words empty and useless with ceremony and ritual, but surely the ceremonies of a reverent classroom are not empty and they are not useless. There is a kind of reverence in the classroom-- reverence for what is to be learned, for the truth, which is awe inspiring, somewhat mysterious because no on in the room knows all of it, and not under anyone's control."

"...reverence is also the difference between a home and a shelter where people sleep and eat. All cultures need to keep the family circle healthy because the family circle is foundational for a healthy society. "

"there's a huge cost to letting your rituals and ceremonies become empy. Reverence is what keeps your ceremonies from being empty.

Good stuff, huh??

Men's Figure Skating

speaking of reverence...

did you see the Men's Free Skate at the Olympics tonight?

They are mere boys to me now.. which is amazing.. seems like at the 2002 games I could still fancy that the skaters were somewhere near my age and I could justify having a crush or two. But now, goodness!! they are too young to even think about!

Yesterday they were doing the long programs that had so many requirements and they all chose harsh, abstract music to skate to. As a result they definitly showed their strenght and skill with the jumps and acrobatics.

Tonight though, they are skating to revered classics such as Sceharezad and the Pirates of Penzance and they are more commanding on the ice than I ever remember seeing in previous years.. granted time can make those memories dim. But I'm very impressed. It's been a year of suprises, and i'm really enjoying watching them... If you can call it watching...

I'm trying to multi task and do homework and pack and pay attention to the events at the same time.. so my back is actually turned to the television.. Everytime Scott Hamilton gets an excited pitch to his voice I have to turn around and see what he's exclaiming about!!

whew!! feels good to blog again.. but back to my homework!

Duncan Sheik

I'm on a high, I'm on a high
there's nothing more to it.
We are the sea and the sky
and the blue that runs through it, yeah.

and there are some who say there are so many things I need
so I run or I fight and I crawl or I scream and I bleed, I bleed, I bleed

well, it's a lie it's a lie - don't you believe it.
if you're fine then you're fine - it's all how you see it.
oh, there never will be no conspiracy of happiness.


Words to my current favorite song. :)

Good friends got tickets to Duncan's performance in Park City, Utah. He sang at a club called Suede. It's not exactly the atmosphere you would usually find me or my ski friend in, but we were well taken care of with a sprite in one hand and GREAT ventilation above our heads to suck up the smoke. Duncan didn't take the stage until nearly 10 pm and then played for a couple hours.

My fascination was in the comparison of his performance with the two acts previous to him. The first was a solo accoustic act who was actually pretty good. He was a bit edgy and had great stage presence, but less experienced with performing for a crowd. The second act was a band that was great at imitating the stuff you hear on the radio, but they weren't very original, nor could you understand their lyrics very well.

Enter Duncan-- Dark, handsome, (despite the thick beard) and armed with six guitars. He opened his mouth and beautiful, clear words emerged using every vocal technique I've seen. Added to the beauty of his form is the beauty of the meaning behind the words. It was stunning and I was riveted.

Here's some links to the lyrics of some of Duncan's other songs I've come to appreciate. Enjoy!

Genius
Someone you need (with Howard Jones)
Barely Breathing
For You
Home

Solace On the Ski Slopes

I have discovered solace.

When I was a child, Dad took the free ski lessons offered through local newspaper. They taught the basics of snowplowing, simple turns, safety, etc...

He brought all this information home and taught all of us kids. My uncles come from California to ski every couple of years, so they would put their two cents worth in, but never had enough time to really teach us how to ski.

Now that I think about it, I'm not sure any of us had the patience or perseverence to learn at that stage in our lives. We were pretty wimpy about the cold and how comfortable our boots and skis were. On a limited budget, we were pretty dependent on our winter coats and long johns to keep us warm. No fancy winter weather gear for us.

So, Dad discovered a fantastic deal at Alta Ski Resort. As part of their ski school, they offer a free skiing after 3 pm, EVERY DAY!!! (at least on one lift)Dad is also a great bargain hunter at the Deseret Industries, the LDS version of the Salvation Army. He has found fantastic deals on second hand skis.

I decided this year was it. I was going to find my deal on skis and take advantage of this free lift to make or break my ski skills. Dad helped me find some parabolic skis for $15 and boots for $5. :D I'm proud to report that I'm addicted. I love skiing!! Thanks to ad hoc lessons from a good friend who loves the slopes more than anyone I know, I'm learning to parallel ski and actually feel some control on the slopes. Because of that control, I can take my focus off of my fear of breaking my leg and put some of it on appreciating the beauty of the canyon, and the snow and the softness it brings to the otherwise rocky crevices.

So, now I've got a companion for my Beach Bug-- the Ski Bug!! This one is a little bit easier to appease, due to the perks available to locals.