Weepy

I think I must be getting old or not sleeping enough, because lately I've been a little weepy. Now, I've never been much of a crier, but seriously, I was watching this episode of Bones and there was a sad-happy part and I literally shed tears. Not like, I got a little teary eyed, like tears fell. Which probably if it hadn't been 1:30am it would have only been teary-eyed, but still. It's a TV show. And it's not the only TV show that's made me well up a little, or the only book, or the only movie, or the only Sacrament Meeting story in a talk. Seriously, if there is anything tender going on anywhere it brings a tear to my eye.

This must stop. It's totally ruining my rep.

Peppers

Do you see those? Those are jalapeño peppers that are growing in my garden. That's right. Peppers. Growing in my garden.

Call Me!

An old friend of mine recently contacted me electronically and asked me for my phone number so we could talk and catch up. I haven't really been in contact with this friend for several years, but when we were in contact we were pretty tight so I was like "SWEET! You should TOTALLY call me!"

And then I was like "Woah, that could be the most awkward phone call of my life." Because when you haven't really talked to someone in 47 years, you either have 47 years worth of stuff to talk about, or you have nothing to say to each other because those 47 years have erased anything you used to have in common.

And reconnecting with people is always a little awkward anyway because it's hard to know if it's just a one-off "here's the Christmas letter version of my life, talk to you again in 47 years" or if it's a like "Man, these last 47 years have been a dim and dark place because of your absence in them; let us never allow such a thing to occur again." And the worst is when one of you is like "AWESOME! We can be best friends again!" while the other is like "Thanks for the update; see you in the millennium."

And this is what Facebook has done to me. Made it so I have to make these kind of stressful reconnection decisions ALL THE TIME! I mean, used to be that you lost touch with people and your touch stayed lost except for when you happened to run into each other at the airport or whatever. Now I swear I get a weekly request to be friends with people I haven't even thought about in the last 47 years.

But that isn't even what I wanted to talk about really. Because I have thought about this friend of mine occasionally in the last 47 years, and I was gladdened by the contact. So I sent my phone number as requested and that is what the point of the post is: giving someone your phone number for strictly social purposes (as opposed to exchanging them) is TOTALLY STRESSFUL! I haven't felt this vulnerable in months -- maybe years.

See the thing is when you give someone your phone number its kind of like making a commitment that you're going to be willing to extend your relationship into this new telephone medium. It says "you are free to contact me" in a way that electronic media doesn't and allowing only in person contact doesn't. And the other person doesn't actually have to return that commitment. And if they never call you, that's like REJECTION! They're saying "I REJECT your commitment!" AND NO ONE WANTS TO BE REJECTED!

Also, you don't know if they are never going to call. At what point can you say, "Oh, I guess What's-her-bucket is never going to call me" because they STILL COULD!

And that is why giving someone your phone number is stressful. So, dear old friend of mine, I sure hope you call because I'm totally acting like a teenage girl who's just been asked for her number by the hunky quarterback. But with less squealing.

Mostly Uninteresting

I'm sorry that my life is pretty boring lately. Mostly my days consist of work, running, reading, and watching TV on DVD. Oh, and once a week I go to Young Women, which is going very well, thanks for asking. But there have been a few things of note.

Thanksgiving

Starting with the obvious: it was recently Thanksgiving. I had to work in the morning, but after work I went over to the other side of the duplex and spent the afternoon with the Dixons, the Louchez, Lou and his brother, and a couple of the Del Sol girls:

It was a delightful gathering. I made the turkey, which was moist and delicious. I put it in the oven and the set the oven to start cooking while I was at work and couldn't check on it so I was nervous about it, but it turned out wonderfully. I also made some super delish  cranberry-orange sauce and Emma's cranberry cake which is seriously yum. Ed made green bean casserole, candied yams, mashed potatoes, and crustless pumpkin pie and we like it. And, just as an extra treat for you, here is my favorite picture of the day:

Christmas Tree

After all the other people left, I stuck around and hung out with the Dixons and they helped them decorate their Christmas tree. Then today, they returned the favor and we decorated my tree. And it's super cute:

So, I always have a sort of them when I decorate for Christmas every year. Last year it was circles, the year before that, it was snowflakes. This year I found these super cute star ornaments, so I think this year the theme is going to be stars. I also found this adorable aluminum links garland. Love it!

Soups and Organic Produce

To say thanks to the Dixons for their help, I made them dinner before we started decorating. I've been on a Sunday soup kick so today I made kabocha squash soup. I had never before in my life eaten a kabocha squash, and that is really sad BECAUSE IT IS SO DANG DELICIOUS! I got it through this organic produce buying club that I recently joined. I had decided I wanted to be eating more vegetables and I wanted to broaden my vegetable horizons, but I had no idea how to really go about that, so I decided to outsource my vegetable buying. I've only gotten one box so far, but I've already discovered the joy of the kabocha squash. Also, I've tried rapini which was super yum, and I made this fantastic lentil and escarole soup last Sunday. So many new veggies! One of the nice things about this club is that it provides a bunch of recipes using the produce in your box, so not only am I eating more vegetables, I'm actually doing a lot more actual cooking. Hooray for me!

Ward Choir

I don't have a really awesome segue into this section, but I'm directing the ward Christmas choir. So far it's been pretty fun. Since we are a small branch here in Key West, I'm sure you won't be surprised that we have a small choir: less than a dozen showed up today, so I decided to keep the arrangements pretty simple and straight out of the hymn book. We're singing "Far, Far Away on Judea's Plains" and "O Come All Ye Faithful" and so far things are going smoothly.

And I think that's about everything that's of note. I'll let you know if I think of anything else.

You Guys Wanna See Something Gross?

Seriously, it's disgusting. If you're not cool with really gross, disgusting things, DON'T click "read more."

My Garden is Blooming

:) More pictures here.

Five Star Post

So, I've been rating a lot of things lately. Books. My personality in lame online personality quizzes. Products that I buy from Amazon. Movies on Netflix. You know, just the stuff that you rate in the course of a day. And I have learned something very important about myself. I HATE 5-POINT RATING SYSTEMS!

Apparently I feel the need to be a little more nuanced. Whenever I have to rate something with stars I feel like I'm using a cleaver to peel an apple. Like I'm using a shovel for planting petunias instead of a trowel. Like I'm using a sladgehammer to hang a picture in the wall. You get my point. (Like I'm using a magic marker to write my name on a tax form.) I don't know, they're just brutish. Like neanderthal hands trying to do needlepoint. And what's the deal with the half star? If you're going to give a half star, you might as well just go all out and give a 10 star rating.

I'm going to start a movement. The 10-star Movement. DOWN WITH 5-STAR RATINGS!