a tall personality

This is what it looks like to drive up to work every morning!  (Actually this is what it LOOKED like, now we come in from 3rd South instead of Center Street, just FYI) This is my new life (read job).   My first ever social work internship and I LOVE IT!  I work with people who have committed crimes but were not deemed competent by the judge to stand trial.  We work with them to help them understand their case and the legal system so that they can go to trial and move on with their lives, whatever that means for them. I love it, I wouldn't change it for anything. I've noticed that this job is HARD!  Hard in all the best ways but still hard.  It's hard to work with people who sometimes don't want to be worked with.  It's hard to see them inside and basically locked up all the time, even though they may not have been tried for a crime.  It's hard to care about people more than the system dictating their lives seems to care about them. S...

Saturday was a perfect day, weather wise.  Enough sunshine to just warm the skin but not enough to feel sticky, the slightest breeze that rustled wisps of hair at just the right moments.  We thought going out on Utah Lake to watch conference was the perfect idea.  And it was.   This was our setup:  Alex's fancy smartphone-turned-fm-radio plugged into his computer.   So there we were, in the middle of Utah Lake, having the best morning ever listening to General Conference on the radio.  We both loved it!  No distractions, no noise (except that one frontier jet and people who asked us what we were fishing wish (the answer to which was rock-hard marshmallows)). Notice the glassy calm water... Then conference was over, I was planning on getting back to Provo to play softball by 12:30, so we knew we had to hurry out of there to make it back in time.  Alex went to start the motor.  It managed a disappointing chug, th...

I went to a fireside (which is a spiritual address) this past Sunday presented by a couple who had been on a service mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  They showed slide after slide of people who walk miles and miles to get water for their families.  And after all theri efforts, many family members die because the water the return with is contaminated.  It was heart wrenching to see, and it made me so happy that the church is trying to help them have access to clean water.  Even if we can only help a few villages and cities, I'm so glad we are helping. One of the points they made was that no matter how hard our lives are, no matter how many tests we have, or dates we don't have, if the weather is too bad for us to go skiing--whatever our plight may be, when we come home at night we can turn on a faucet and out comes water that will not kill us.  As much of it as we want.  At whatever temperature as we want.  Any time we want. I've ne...

Probably seven and a half times every day I think so myself, "You should write this down, or blog about it or something, but don't lose or forget all the great things that are happening to you!"  So I'm going to try.  I'll try not to make it lengthy, or tell stories that aren't that interesting, and I'll try to include pictures.  All the good blogs have pictures! Today however I have no pictures.  Let me see if I can at least round up some thoughts. 1.While I was working on my research I noticed that when I changed one little thing about the way I was modeling the phenomenon I'm studying all of the results changed too!  I had to ask myself, which of all the ways I could model my research best represents reality?  There is no way to know, and that drives me CRAZY.  Seriously, crazy, I think about it all the time.  What drives me crazier is how scientific journals only publish very specific types of results which makes all public science TOTALLY...

When I was a freshman in high school, I was second chair trumpet in the concert band, but the really good kids, they were in the jazz band .  The jazz band was the elite, cool band who met before school even started.  I remember that year when the jazz band came back from the UAF jazz festival where Ingrid Jensen (professional trumpet player) had been the featured artist.  I remember them trying to imitate how she played, and talking about all the things they had learned, and all the fun they had on the trip.  I though to myself, "I am NOT missing out on that next year!  I'm joining the jazz band!"  Aaaand I did. From my sophomore year on I got to play lead in the concert and jazz band.  I found myself spending extra hours before and after school in the band room practicing, taking lessons, playing around with different instruments, and getting to know music.  I never went anywhere without my trumpet, just in case I found a spare moment to play. ...

Last weekend I made the very wise choice to go to McCall Idaho to visit old and very wonderful friends, and see the Ice Carving contest!  McCall, you have it going on!  On a lake, in the mountains, kinda rustic and woodsy- it's as close to perfection as the lower 48 can offer in my humble option (the true humility of which is debatable).   So Friday night 5 of us packed into Michael's car and went careening for 9 hours down icy roads of death!  Actually the roads were generally dry and there were only a few moments I would have classified as "careening" :)  Thanks to Travis we were equipped for most emergencies with a 5  pound bag of gummy bears! We arrived at the "cabin" in Donnelly late late that night, and pretty much went straight to bed so that we wouldn't be monsters the next day.  Luckily that worked out for us well, and there were no monster outbreaks the whole trip! Then it was the day we had all been waiting for!  We were al...

Today I heard an amazing lady tell an amazing story and I want to share it. Here is some context first:  I heard this story with my friend who is a survivor of some heart-wrenchingly difficult life-circumstances.  She eventually escaped them and came to BYU where she started to make friends, for the first time in her life.  I have the honor to be one of her friends, and to be part of her healing process.  It has been one of the best experiences of my life.  Since I have known her she has blossomed into a beautiful, capable, strong women; she is one of the people I admire and respect most in the whole world. She and I were chatting with one of the kindest and smartest ladies I know, who also happens to be a Jewish holocaust survivor.  I also admire and respect her more than I can express. So there I was, sitting with these two people who have been subjected to the worst of humanity.  They are also two of the most wonderful people in the world. ...

I wrote the first part of the post around last Valentines Day, I just found it again and wanted to share:   These thoughts about love started to coalesce the Tuesday before Valentines Day when a professor recited a poem by ee cummings. It goes like this i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)i am never without it(anywhere i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling) i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true) and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide) and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart) Then he told us that whatever else we do in our life, we should find love.  N...

It's just after dawn, it's cold, it's rainy, I'm with a gaggle of about 200 runners all wearing leggings and long sleeves huddled around a "Start" banner in the middle of the red rock desert near Moab, UT.  Offspring is blasting through the morning dampness as a feeble attempt to pump up the hardy souls who came out for this race.   " I won't pay, I won't pay ya, no way,  Na-na Why don't you get a job!"   I haven't heard this song since high school and it is pretty apparent that I'm the only one of my friends who ever was a fan of the Offspring, but I sing along anyway.  My friends and I dance around and take silly pictures wearing trash bags.   I think Heidi and Kristin are maybe playing patty-cake here? Kristen let me share her trash bag.  What a friend! The silliness distracts me from the pre-race jitters that tag along with my thoughts, "What if it's too hard?  What if I get lost?  What if everyone leaves me behind...