What Not to Wear

Let's start this entry with a few Snuggie pictures that didn't make it into the official advertising materials. (Gee, I can't imagine why . . .)

First, two-headed Snuggie:



Next, Roman orator Snuggie:

And my personal favorite, "Ghost with No Hands" Snuggie:

Seriously, who wouldn't want one of these things? Look at the entertainment value! Now it's time for a fashion quiz. In which places would the above-shown Snuggie be appropriate attire?

a. my office

b. the seminary building, while teaching

c. the airport

d. on the Rail Trail, while jogging

e. my kitchen

f. at the bus stop

Would the world be a happier, more peaceful place if we all wore Snuggies? How about Snuggies along with footie pajamas? At least we'd be comfy and warm, right? Doesn't that count for something?

steel drum videos!

Friday was my last steel drum class. I left early last week, so I missed the announcement that friends and family could come watch. I'd been hoping we'd have a recital, but we only learned two songs, so it would have been a very short recital (as in under ten minutes). Instead, I borrowed a friend's flip video to document the fun.

First, here are all the different kinds of drums:

Then come the double pans, which are what I played. Sorry about the "Blair Witch Project" filming quality on these videos.

This was a fun class to take. I would do this again-- provided we could move a little faster through the music. One of the lead drummers had absolutely NO sense of rhythm, so that slowed us down, and another lead drummer had almost no memory for what we'd learned the week before. Amazingly, we pretty much pulled together at the end for our "performance." That always seems to happen. I wonder why.

Some of you may be thinking, "Hey, where's the footage of actual PLAYING?" I tried to upload the video three times. It never worked. I think there was too much for the system to handle. So, sorry. I really did play these drums, honest!

Time? Time? Where does it go?

Let's revisit one of my goals I set for the semester: not overpacking my days. Hmm. What's my typical daily schedule?

4:30 AM- Alarm clock rings.
4:35 AM- Alarm clock rings again (I hit the snooze).
4:40 AM: Alarm clock rings yet again. This time I get up.
5:40 AM: Head out the door to teach early morning seminary.
6:05 AM: One student (sometimes two) is present for the start of class.
6:55 AM: Seminary ends and everyone rushes out the door. Someone generally gets left behind, so I end up joining the high school car pool line.
7:30 AM: Finally get home and change into running clothes.
8:30 AM: Done with running. Time to get ready for work.
10 AM: Suddenly very hungry while sitting in office. Why? Oh yeah-- I've already been up for almost six hours.
12 PM: Wonder where the morning went. How could a meeting with no point to it eat so much time? Realize I have a conference presentation to write, a stack of papers to grade, and a mid-tenure portfolio to compile.
2:30 PM: Hungry again. Who has chocolate? Time to wander the building and see.
4 PM: The minute I intend to get out the door to go home and rake leaves before it gets dark, three students stop by with emergency situations. Happens every time.
4 PM on Wednesday: I'm teaching until 7. Hungry again by 5:30 PM.
6 PM: Hopefully eating dinner.
7 PM: Working on tomorrow's seminary lesson. Also catching up on e-mails and whatever phone calls need to be made.
9:30 PM: Whoa! Where'd my evening go? Time for a shower and getting ready for bed.
10:30 PM (hopefully): Bedtime!

This actually doesn't look all that busy, but it seriously feels like the minute I wake up four hours have suddenly vanished. Don't get me wrong: I love teaching seminary. I'm wondering, though, how I did it and grad. school at the same time. I thought this semester's pace would be slower. Boy, was I wrong!

I think ultimately what matters is that my priorities stay in the right place. I'm coming to terms (well, sort of) with the fact that I will never, ever get everything done that I want to do. What matters is that I pace myself and do first things first.

Good night!

Any costume ideas for these hats?

First, let me give some background. A week ago, I was in the creative arts building on campus for a friend's double-bass recital and saw signs for a pre-Halloween costume sale in the costume workshop. I was hoping for the makings of a Renaissance costume. Either lots of other people were as well and got there first, or there weren't any Shakespearean costumes up for purchase. Instead, I bought three hats for a quarter each.

Let me also apologize for the lousy facial expressions. I couldn't figure out the timer feature on my camera, so I was just trying to get pictures from arm's reach.

So here's the game: what costume would you suggest for each of the following hats?

First, the hat I have unofficially named the "itty bitty hat":




Next, a hat that looks much better than the photo suggests. It's lavender and the veil extends all the way down if you let it:

Finally, my favorite (although you'd never know by the facial expression)-- I have named it "pansy fantasy":

Okay, send the suggestions!! Maybe I'll use one next Halloween!

Sushi Night!!

I've been wanting to put together a Relief Society cooking group for months. A week ago we finally did it. Yay for sushi rolling in my dining room! Look how much fun people had:



One person knew what she was doing. The rest of us just played around with seaweed, sushi rice, veggies, and bamboo roll-up thingies. We mostly stuck to California rolls so that we didn't have to risk some kind of weird food poisoning due to poor seafood handling. A few brave souls put smoked salmon or fake crab meat in their rolls, but mostly we did avocado, cucumber, and Daikon radish. The wasabi peanuts Jen brought weren't a hit with everyone. Some of us got a little addicted, though . . .

Don't these look pretty?

Look, a rare appearnce of ME on my own blog! My sushi rolls kept coming out square for some reason, but they still tasted good. The beautiful thing about sushi night: sushi's not so scary to make after all, and it's fun to cook with lots of people.

Next month: homemade pasta. Come learn with us!

Inefficiency Ramblings

First, check out this video: www.wimp.com/inefficientdrinker/

Once you've done that, the rest of this entry will make sense.

[Insert elevator muzak here]

Okay, done? When I first watched this video, I thought, "Man, what a funny/stupid cat! I can't believe it did that!" Then I started thinking some more. Uh oh. You know what happens when I start thinking more? I start drawing connections to my life. Yup.

So here's what I started asking myself: When do I do things in my life like the cat in this video? In other words, when do I get so bull-headedly sure that MY way is the best/smartest/most efficient way that I can't see that maybe my way ISN'T best?

Thinking, thinking.

Okay, pretty much all the time. Maybe not ALL the time. A lot of the time, though. I see a goal ahead, something I want, and think, "Okay, here's how I get there. Easy." In the process of getting there, I don't always choose the best way to reach the goal, though.

Example: Friday night was our ward autumn party/hayride at a farm about four miles out of town. The party started at 5:30. I had steel drum lessons until 6:45. I called a friend who was at said party to make sure it was still happening. Oh yeah, come on over. I'd forgotten, though, about the fact that it had been raining all day and that the road to the farm was unpaved. And narrow. And it was getting dark. The road ended up being washed out in places, full of puddles, and harder to navigate than usual. That combined with it essentially being a one-lane road presented problems. I should have just turned around at the first turn-out and gone home. But no, I bulled ahead, sure that despite the sudden return of a downpour, the party would still be happening. I ended up just blocking the way for lots of people trying to get home. And being cranky that I drove out there and everyone was leaving by the time I arrived. Plus getting lost on the way home. I was so focused on "I'm going to the party" that I ignored all the details that suggested going to the party wasn't such a good idea.

Not that the above event was a huge tragedy or anything, but it reminded me that I so often insist on MY way and MY schedule that I'm like the cat in the video, getting drenched and laying back my ears in discomfort while I keep sticking my head right under the faucet. I need to learn to wait a bit. I need to open myself up to alternative routes that might work better.

We Are the Knights Who Say Ni!!

Things I learned at the Renaissance Fair:

Two-year-olds wouldn't have been very good at defending the castle.

Attending the Fair in costume is a lot more fun. I need to make my own costume for next year. The ones they sell there are WAAAYY too expensive. (See? This is why you should learn to sew. You never know when you'll need a Renaissance outfit.)

History gets sanitized for the sake of pageantry. When they announced Henry VIII's royal court, they didn't say which wife this was. How many had already been beheaded by this point, huh, huh?

In staged jousts, the better horseman always plays the role of the bad guy. Here he is: the Italian champion who insisted on a joust to the death (which we didn't get to see because we had to go home). I guess I also learned that I gravitate towards the bad guy. Hmm.

The Renaissance Fair was a lot of fun. I also learned that a lot of people really have no concept of what Renaissance clothing looks like. I went to the fair on "Talk Like A Pirate Day," and there were TONS of pirates in the crowd. (I guess Sir Francis Bacon was kind of a pirate . . .) Really, this was kind of like a Trekkie convention except with older-looking clothing styles. It was an excuse for people to dress in costume. Lots of fairy wings for sale, along with elf ears and horns (hmm . . . what would Shakespeare have done with that?). I wanted to start quoting insults from Monty Python as I watched the joust, but I refrained.

Next year: Sheila goes in costume. There might be a blog entry or two about the making of the costume this coming summer . . .