Eat your Apples to Apples

Out of duty to time-honored traditions of the past, Sunday nights in our family are reserved for spiritual songs, thoughts, scriptures, and lessons in the way of "Family Home Evening." In contrast, Monday nights are a time for riotous frivolity and tomfoolery, mayhem and untainted wantonness: The main event usually consists of a contest to see who can drop the greatest number of masked insults before someone decides that the usual fail-safe - a swift smirk, followed by an innocent face and "Just kidding!" - no longer applies. Hilarity (also known on occasion as complex and/or illogical verbal battles, tears, slamming doors, and the occasional parental threat) ensues. However, in between and sometimes during rounds of this, we usually watch a movie or do the dishes or play a game.

Speaking of games, one of our favorites is "Apples to Apples." We play this game so often that we have acquired our own family traditions within the context of playing the game. For example, it is practically a rite to pick out random green (adjectival) cards after the game to describe "the way [insert family member's name] feels at Christmas," or red (nominal) cards to describe "what [X] will get [X] for Christmas." (By the way, I'm not sure why all the Christmas references come to mind...something about the red/green element of the game? Fact that we got it as a Christmas gift?)

Another thing we like to do is have our dog, Teddy, play.


This practice developed when there were only two of us willing and wanting to play the game at a certain time. And as we all know, the game requires at least three players (or two players and a stuffed animal, I suppose). Now, Apples to Apples being designed for humans, and Teddy being a dog, the results are quite funny, pitiful, and occasionally unpredictable. As none of us could be allowed to knowingly "choose" Teddy's card, we developed random methods to "select" red cards for him to play (i.e. number of licks, licks to a particular finger, sniffs of a particular card, completely and totally random, etc). The same rules apply to Teddy's choosing the winning red card, should he happen to be the judge.

I love it when Teddy plays. He's such a good sport - he never complains about getting a rotten draw or losing a round which he deserved to win - and creates such comedy for the rest of us by choosing the oddest of cards, like "Earthquakes" for "Cute," or "The 21st Century" for "Delicious." If you're the judge, and a particularly ridiculous card comes up ("The Eiffel Tower" for "Frazzled," say), it's a good bet the card is Teddy's. And when he manages to astonish us all by winning a round or two, it's a great opportunity to get rid of your worst red card, since he assumedly has no idea which one he's choosing ("Lenin's Tomb" is "Dainty"? Sure, why not!?).

But in all the years that we've played Apples to Apples, Teddy never actually won a game until last week. I mean, it's not exactly a game of luck! Witness the serious and lengthy amount of time, energy, and effort often required to select these cards and to agonize about which one deserves to win. Witness also the heated arguments and debates which take place in defense or attack of a particular decision. Even luck with good cards isn't enough to help you if a particular judge disagrees with your interpretation of a certain adjective.

Be this as it may, whether by inordinate good luck on his part or bad luck on ours, and with all the odds against him, Teddy officially won his first game of Apples to Apples last week. I didn't know whether to be proud (Attaboy! The classic story of the underdog win!) or embarrassed (Yeah, I lost the game...to our dog.). I may have to reconsider all that stuff about it not being a game of luck...cause that's what is was, right? RIGHT!? Whatever the secret is, Teddy's not talkin'. And if he can win Apples to Apples, what's to stop him from winning ANY game based on the luck of the die? What will happen to reputations established over years on the continual winning of board games such as Yahtzee and Sorry?

Anyway, another one of our family traditions is that the winner has to put up the game. Naturally, this one fell by the wayside that day, which just goes to show that you can't rely on anything anymore.

Thoughts on Vacation (and Death)

Recently there has been some debate as to whether or not our family will be taking a vacation this year. Or, at least, part of our family--the part that does not bring in a steady income and tends to have wacky, impulsive ideas involving risky ventures and imprudent behavior. In relation to this, I have been mulling over the following thoughts:

Vacation Pros:

Remember what it feels like to drive 70 mph on a straight road.

See the world before we die. Or at least see America.

Create lasting memories of the best years of our lives, when we are young and stupid and rely on our parents to pay for all of our expenses.

Vacation Cons:

Money could be used in more practical ways (i.e. clothes for fall, new books that I want to read, movie tickets).

Requires too much exertion to research places we want and can afford to go to.

We could die.

Should we end up doing a vacation after all, it's likely to be one of these options: the Grand Canyon, the Great Salt Lake, Zion National Park, Lake Powell. I've been to the GSL once, but it was too cold to get in, so I'd like to return and do that at least once (before I die). As for the others, I know nothing about them yet, but I assume a lot of driving and hiking would be involved, and possibly some camping and bear-baiting, and maybe, possibly, conceivably, death of some kind. It could be a person. Or a car - our red minivan Jack died on the last day of our last vacation. Or it could be the bear, which I wouldn't mind so much.

So far I'm ranking them in this order, with the following Pros & Cons:

1. Great Salt Lake

Pros: Close to here. Involves water. Not very crowded. No bears.
Cons: Kind of boring. Possible death from salt poisoning?

2. Zion National Park

Pros: Pretty close to here. Supposed to be pretty. Hiking is fun. What are the chances of getting killed in a place called "Zion?"
Cons: If you've seen one park, you've seen them all. Might as well stay here and hike Timpanogos.

3. The Grand Canyon

Pros: It's famous. It's grand. It would be cool to say that we've been there.
Cons: Our neighbor's mom died there - she took a step back to pose for a picture. So...deadly and possibly haunted?

4. Lake Powell

Pros: It's a lake. Swimming!
Cons: Kind of a long way to go just to swim (since we don't boat, fish, jet or waterski).

Who knows? Perhaps it will be just the library and the movie theaters for me this summer. What with all my acquired expertise in crime after spending 6 hours at the National Museum of Crime and Punishment in Washington DC, I'm kind of looking forward to this new movie coming out about the famous bank robber John Dillinger (Public Enemies, I believe, is the name of the film?) this Friday. However, if I do go, I'll be lucky to make it out of the theater alive.

Done!

So, I officially finished spring semester today! The grammar exam only took one hour and 45-ish minutes to complete, and I was actually the third-to-last person to finish, so apparently I'm a slow test-taker... or just didn't study very well.... But I betcha I got most of the questions right. Luckily, the test was pretty straightforward. I say "luckily" since I neglected to even look at the actual study guide for the test until about 15 minutes before (she had given it to us a few weeks ago, and I had stuck it in my folder, where I promptly forgot about it) the hour. I had studied all morning and last night from my own notes and the homework, but it would have been helpful to have the study guide as a reference. Oh well... I still think I did quite well. And I KNOW I got one question right, because I asked her afterwards if I could see the diagram, and she had done it the exact same way as me! I'm sad I don't get to keep my tests from the class for my school portfolio, but I guess I can always go back and diagram the sentences again (she gave us a take-home sheet, which I still have, he he). In fact, I'd probably better do that soon, before I forget EVERYTHING I learned about diagramming (wait, what's a "slanty" line for? My mind is going...I can feel it....).

To assist my mind on its path toward implosion and the emotional purging which typically takes place after the end of a semester, I watched "Cars" for the first time when I got home. My reaction? Meh. (That seems to be reaction to a lot of films these days) It wasn't anything special. Although I did enjoy hearing Paul Newman's voice coming out of a car. The truck was also kinda cute. But the whole romance/redemption/fictitious creation of a world inhabited only by cars thing? Meh. "Ratatouille" and "The Incredibles" are much better in the way of Pixar films.

As for my other pursuits, I am doggedly struggling to finish reading "Extras," by Scott Westerfeld, just so I can say once and for all that I read the entire Uglies series in less than two months. They're really starting to wear on me, showing up in my dreams and my thoughts far too often, so let me know if I start saying dorky, futuristic things like "Check out that scary-making ride - it's totally kick!" and "I'm not feeling very bubbly today, Mama-chan."

Speaking of rides, I noticed that the Orem Summerfest carnival is all set up... in PROVO. The parking lot of the Albertsons at the bottom of the hill, to be exact. My first reaction was, "Wow, what a nifty way to create tension between people who want parking spaces to shop at Albertsons and people who just want to go to the carnival. AND people who just want to drive down the hill from Orem to Provo" (i.e. ME). My second reaction was a tie between "Wow, that Ferris Wheel is reaaaaally close to the road. Seriously, someone could fall out and land right on a car's windshield!" and "I bet wonder how great the view of the top of Albertsons is." My third reaction was, "Where's the freakin' star machine? The only ride worth the price, and I don't even see it!? So totally bogus."

You only THOUGHT I died in a plane crash...

And, ladies and gentlemen (all...er, seven of you? Hello?), after taking a much-enjoyed two-month break (from blogging - I've been plenty busy doing spring semester stuff), I'm BACK! I enjoyed the break, but I definitely don't want to go so long again without writing in what is pretty much now my journal.

So, I got back from Washington DC....um...a long time ago. More details on that later, as well as on the many things that I didn't get the chance to talk about before leaving. Like the Museum of National Crime and Punishment, and the...zoo. National Zoo, that is.

For right now, let me bring you back up to date on me. After getting back from DC, my immediate priorities were 1) finish my research paper for Pol Sci 399R, and 2) get ready for spring semester. I finished the first on May 16, after an unfortunate string of almost all-nighters, and am pleased to report my happiness with the results. As for the second, I just finished taking my CHum 230 (Print Publishing) final, and only have the ELang 325 (Grammar) final tomorrow before I am done withe spring semester! Hooray!

Other priorities I've got going now include the following:

1. Ward organist/RS pianist/choir pianist/Relief Society teacher (first lesson THIS SUNDAY!)
2. Writing more in my blog/journal. Yeah! Aren't you happy?!?
3. Working on the Americana journal for next year. Our chief editor graduated, and we're kind of in the lurch. Good thing I just took a print....publishing...class. Oh, shoooooot.
4. Cleaning up. I have to make a school portfolio for last winter and this spring, and organize all the stuff I brought back from Washington.
5. Work on Christmas presents! Never too early, right!? Speaking of holidays, I'm also going to be turning 21 this summer.
6. Read a ton of great books and watch a ton of great movies. That's what summer's all about, right?
7. Prepare for imminent doom, also known as GRAD school. Eek.

Wish me luck in all of the above, please, but feel free to pick favorites. #6 is mine!

The Final Day

Well, here I am at the end of my final full day in Washington DC! The time has certainly gone by far more quickly than I expected, and I am only just aware of what an awesome and wonderfully comprehensive experience this semester has been. Needless to say, there is no WAY that I am done writing about the Washington Seminar, and since I have plenty of pictures and stories still to post, you may continue to look forward to the updates as often as I have time when I return to life in Utah. After all, the longest journey is comprised of many journeys, is it not? And it would be a shame to overlook so many of the fantastic experiences that I've been too busy having here to write about them.

But since this IS the last post from DC, I want to officially thank everyone who read and supported me and sent thank you notes and commented on my blog up to this point - in a strange sort of way, I felt even more connected to y'all despite the increased distance! I hope you'll continue to keep in touch even when I'm back in (boring) Utah. Ok, ok, just kidding about the last part. Utah's not boring - or at least, it won't be once I get back ;)

Today was one of the fastest days I've seen go by. We had class at 9 am, and it was probably the shortest class we've ever had. There was nothing to do except go over what we had already been given instructions on at least three times in emails and previous class periods, and we took many group photos, and we clapped for our professor in the traditional BYU custom. Then we scattered to our rooms to clean. I had already done most of my packing, but decided to wait on the cleaning until the evening so I could do some sight-seeing.

I first walked to the Mall via the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument, then visited the National Museum of American History to take another look at the Presidents' Exhibit (my favorite one). I wanted to see Abe Lincoln's hat, but about 100 other people had the same idea, and there were a lot of other places I wanted to visit too, so I skipped that, arguing to myself that seeing AL's coat at Ford's Theater was just as good. Then I went to the Smithsonian Castle and saw all the displays for the contest to design the soon-to-come African-American History Museum. I took pictures of my favorites, and the winning one. Stay tuned... or just Google it. Whatever. I went to the Freer Gallery next to get another look at Whistler's Peacock Room and try to take another photo, since I didn't like how my first one turned out. Turns out that when I got there, a lady was standing in front of the room to ensure that no one took any photos inside. Whups! Oh well - the room was still neat to see.

After this, I wandered for a bit through the Freer and Sackler museums, trying to find the best possible exit, and eventually made my way to the National Museum of Natural History, where I saw the Hope Diamond (and got pictures!) and wandered through some random exhibits. After all this, I walked home via Virginia Avenue, passing a sculpture in front of the Ellipse that I had wondered at for some time but never had approached until today. Turns out it's a WWI memorial. Pretty cool-looking. I'll post pictures later.

So I walked home, had noodles for dinner (and pancakes, courtesy of my Barlow roommates), and watched/listened to movies on my laptop while I cleaned my room. Valerie was gone by then - she's staying with her grandmother-in-law tonight, and will be back tomorrow morning to help me clean out the group freezer, and check out of our room at 9:00 am. I'm going to go to bed now (hopefully...although as you can probably tell, I'm WAY TOO EXCITED TO SLEEP), wake up early enough tomorrow to fold up my sheets and pack all the last-minute items, clean out the freezer, check out of the room, catch my SuperShuttle, and catch my flights. I can't WAIT to see my family again! Do you hear that, guys? I love you, I love you, I love you!

Ruthena

Happy Birthday to Thomas Jefferson!

This picture is a reminder that the cherry blossoms can, will, and do fade very quickly. I do apologize for not getting down there early enough to take some more attractive pictures. It’s only two hours before midnight here, and I thought about going down to the Jefferson Memorial at midnight to see if there would be any Libertarians trying to dance to their ipods in his honor or something... but, well, being more fond of Hamilton and Adams myself, decided against it in the end.

Yesterday we visited the Albert Einstein and World War I Memorials as a group, and learned some cool things about how they were built and how Washington DC was designed and what the term “architecture” means and... But I exaggerate. Our wonderful Institute leader, Taylor, led us on the tour, and she did a really fantastic job. It was a little nippy outside, even I had to confess (although I also proudly state that I enjoyed it, enough so that I stayed out two hours longer than most people, and eventually got to where I didn’t even feel cold at all), and we held our little Easter devotional at the World War I memorial, in a place secluded from the sun and with no “sitting” spots readily available. This left most of the group standing and shivering in an awkward-looking line. I sat down to lean against an oddly-carved pillar (imagine many concave scoops out of a solid pillar), and tried to pay attention while enjoying the breeze and shade.

I learned a few new things from the trip:

The floor of the Albert Einstein Memorial is designed to show the planets and stars, and if you stand in the middle of it and face the statue, you can talk and hear your voice echoed, as if the statue were answering you.

He doesn't look very happy, does he? Kind of tired and old and ugly...which oddly enough, makes me like him even more.

The World War I Memorial only has the names of the soldiers killed in battle from the District of Columbia. No wonder it’s so much smaller and lesser known than the other memorials!

They're all doing the Wizard of Oz thing. Aw, how cute! Snort.


In this picture, you will note how cold everyone except for me looks, and how snotty and stuck-up I look, standing in the middle of the memorial alone as if I'm too good for the rest of the group. Which, of course, I am (smirk).

After a short Easterish devotional at the WWI memorial, a few members of our group irreverently decided to sing “Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree” beneath the dome. It didn’t reverberate as well as the Albert Einstein memorial echo, and I was disappointed at the lack of maturity demonstrated on the part of, well, whoever had the idea (I have a pretty good idea who, but I’m not going to post his or her name).

After that, we played a game where we try to jump on each other’s feet. That game stopped in about 20 seconds, after tall Andrew jumped on my left foot with a loud “crunch.” My foot was okay, but I limped for a little bit, and was so sulky about the whole situation that I immediately departed from the rest of the group for the rest of the night.

I spent two hours perusing the Franklin Roosevelt and Jefferson Memorials and the Potomac River, talking and complaining on the phone with my wonderful, loving family (whom I miss SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much!!!!), and finding a good stick to probe interesting rocks with and use as a crutch. I actually started walking home with it before I realized that the stick wouldn’t fit in very well with the city once I got past Constitution Avenue, so I had to throw away that little guy. Sniff!

When I got home, a group was watching “Mulan” on the 3rd floor with popcorn. The Blanchards had made us a huge Easter lunch/dinner at 4 pm, so I didn’t really feel like having any dinner. Grapes and popcorn ended up being my dinner—delicious.

Today was a fun day. I went to work, sorted through the masses of email that had accumulated over the weekend, wrote up the daily art news (by the way, there were a lot of articles about my museum over the weekend! The Washington Post did a whole article on the Hungarian exhibit on Friday! Check it out!), aaaaand took a nice long lunch break to the Old Post Office, where I rode the glass elevator up to the “almost top,” walked up 97 steps to get to the “as far as you can get” spot, and took some pictures. Not quite as high or as exciting as the Washington Monument, but still very impressive! And I’m glad I got to see the inside of the Old Post Office—it’s cute and quaint and old-fashioned...like a small, old version of Union Station.

Me at the top of the Old Post Office. This was the "South" facing window, which I believe is appropriate.

After lunch, I went back to work, and, since it was the Intern coordinator’s last day for that week, I got a picture with her and turned in my last personal evaluation form.

After work, I walked home, ate dinner (“Hearty” potato soup, bread, grapes) and attended FHE. We did a talent show, with most of the main acts being musical numbers, as expected. I could have pulled something together, but decided not to, as such things always make me feel rather awkward and uncomfortable, not to mention childish. I suppose I could have astonished them with my knowledge of Redwall lore or held the Eagle yoga pose for a minute or wowed the crowd with a full split...but I didn’t want to, and we had plenty of people making an exhibition of themselves as it was, so it worked out just fine. I took a few pictures and a few videos, but my camera was running out of space, so I didn’t get as much as I wanted to. Hopefully some other people got videos of the more interesting parts—I saw a lot of cameras in the room!

After the talent show, we had “German” pancakes—um, the egg-like quality and the square shape makes them German? Yummy with maple syrup, but I would have preferred yogurt and strawberries myself. Anyway, time to stop blabbing away and get this post posted.

I hope to get to writing about the National Zoo and the National Museum of Crime and Punishment next, but we’ll have to see how much time I have. There’s definitely a lot to get done this week, and time is soon to be very precious!

AT LAST!

I’ve seen it several times in the semester, but today was the first time that I had my camera with me AND saw the signs—policemen walking around, blocking traffic, whistling at people—early enough to get into position. Enjoy the exclusive Ruthena production of the presidential motorcade procession down Pennsylvania Avenue:






It almost makes up for my not seeing any of the Easter-egg rolling events (they were on the front lawn, apparently, while I always walk through the back lawn on my way to work). Not that I could have gotten very close, anyway—you had to have a 10 year old kid with ya to do that!



Also, if you listen until the very end, you can hear this little kid shouting "Barack Obama!" I wish I had filmed him shouting it, cause he was so cute and he did it several times after the line of cars had passed.