Quote Wall of Summer

I realized sometime in May that I needed a place to write down some of the interesting and helpful quotes that I discovered and heard this summer. I typed them up in a word document and now, as a final tribute to this very odd summer, I'm putting them here. As with any good quote wall, this only represents a very small part of everything that could have been written down - in fact, only about three of these were ever actually spoken. My parents and sister said a lot of wonderful things that I never wrote down. However, this is a small slice of what I wanted to remember. That said, here you go:


“I miss the mountains! I miss the highs and lows! All the climbing, all the falling, all the while the wild wind blows, stinging you with snow, and soaking you with rain… I miss the mountains! I miss my life!” – Diana, Next to Normal

“Cooking is the great divide between good eating and bad.” – Barbara Kingsolver

“The choreography of many people working in one kitchen is, by itself, a certain definition of family, after people have made their separate ways home to be together.” – Barbara Kingsolver

“In the world map of produce, California might as well be its own country. A superpower in fact, on state that exports more fresh produce than most countries of the world… those truckloads of California broccoli and artichokes bring winter cheer and vitamins to people in drearier climes all over the world.” – Barbara Kingsolver

“Hahaha… that’s so funny! It’ll be great.. but I’m sure there’s SOME form of Swedish Twister in heaven.. it just wouldn’t be amazing without it! :-)” – Dana Bogart

“Definitely! Physical death is only slightly more preferable than spiritual death.. no sense in either of you experiencing either kind :]” – Dana Bogart

“Say, I think it’s about time to send a care package, what do you think :-)” – Dana Bogart

“Wouldn’t it be nice if we were older, and we wouldn’t have to wait so long? And wouldn’t it be nice to live together, in the kind of world where we belong?...Wouldn’t it be nice if we could wake up in the morning when the day is new? And after spending the day together, hold each other close the whole night through? The happy times together we’d be spending...” – The Beach Boys

“My life would be awfully unfortunate without you?” – Steven Perry

“Love: The anatomical anomaly in which the heart and body can be hundreds or thousands of miles apart, and yet one can still live.” – Westen Masterson

“If I wasn’t a member I would try heroin!” – Adam Lewis

“I really like playing with the yellow pieces. Yellow is one of my favorite colors. And pink.” – Adam Lewis

“I know you will. I miss Steven. And I’ll miss you. And my girls when they are either gone/married. But we WILL see each other again in heaven, I have no doubt.” – Dana Bogart

“I have learned that community reaches far beyond what eyes can see and though miles divide us, at some point we’re all washed by the same rain.” – Pat Humphries

Another Wild Friday Night

What I did on my summer vacation, August 21st:

10:00 PM - I'm sitting on the couch under a blanket eating cookies
10:05 - My sister says good night and I, disgusted by my boring life, decide to go out
10:10 - I drive to El Pollo Loco (the healthier, Mexican version of a drive-thru) listening to "Live your Life" by T.I. and weeping on the inside about the irony
10:15 - I eat my taco in my car in the dark parking lot listening to free iTunes downloads
10:20 - I get home and write this blog post.

WOOHOO!!!

A Few Unanswered Questions

I recently finished reading The Plague by the existentialist Albert Camus and it got me thinking. The basic premise of the book is that a plague breaks out in the French town of Oran in North Africa in the 40s. The government orders the gates to be closed, so the inhabitants of the town are trapped inside until the plague is over. The book follows the efforts of Dr. Rieux and several other men as they deal with the plague. Now, I was expecting the novel to be a horror-filled tale of death and despondancy, but it was totally the opposite and actually pretty good. The sanitary squads take care of most of the disease and everything is dealt with in an orderly way, so a lot of the prose is devoted to how people react to the plague instead of gruesome details.

Anyway, one of the main questions the novel asks is "What's the point of trying to survive in such an absurd and hopeless world?" One character attempts suicide, one gives in to illness, one tries to escape the town. At the same time, however, some men give their all, risking their own lives and fighting the disease, in an effort to show compassion even though they can't do anything about the disease once it infects a person. Why even try?

Flash forward to 2009 and something that's been on my mind lately: why stay in the "world" when it would be so much easier to not deal with that. I know it's not actually possible to go live in a cave somewhere and exist free from money and societal worries, but what if it were? What if, like those people who escaped Oran, there was a way to escape life? Would it be reprehensible to run away? We're told that service is the only way that we can become like our Heavenly Father and be happy (which I strongly believe), but why is that?

Taking my answer from Camus, the reason we fight evil is because that is how we protest evil's existence; just standing aside and watching evil happen does not make us good - it makes us neutral at best. There are two main categories of people, Camus' character Tarrou says: pestilences and victims. Those who do evil and those who are hurt by evil. To this Tarrou adds a third category: that of the healer, the one who refuses to do evil while at the same time refusing to stand by while the evil happens. He says, "This, and only this, can bring relief to men and... at least do them the least harm possible and even, sometimes, a little good." Is that why we serve? Since good cannot exist without evil, is fighting against evil the only way for us as human beings to be righteous? I guess that makes missonaries like uber-heros as they battle for righteousness. Pretty cool, eh?

Anyhow, I really enjoyed this book, or at least the last 100 pages or so and I recommend it to everyone.

Munchkin Wrangling by Divine Decree

In the horribly-cliched pattern that college students weave through every day, I was called to restrain teach the 7-going-on-8-year-old Primary class, which is great. You don't really have to plan much; the lesson manual tells you everything to do and half of the lesson time is spent telling the kids to be quiet. But deep down, I'm ashamed to say, I have a confession to make about my calling:

I'm a horrible primary teacher.

It's not that my lessons are poorly prepared. I don't feed the kids on Fast Sunday, nor do I tell the adorable little nuisances to either shut the heck up or learn what it's like to breathe through one's skin because someone happened to tie their tie too tightly. It's just that I'm a terrible disciplinarian. Sure, I guess it's bad that Jose and Daniel are poking each other incessantly during Sharing Time, but it's not like that part of the lesson is really worth listening to anyway. I'm bored; why should I force the same fate upon them?

Of course, not all (or any) of the higher-up Primary workers agree with me on this point. One in particular, Sister Dictatornazi (name has obviously been changed) has expressed her annoyance at my lack of iron-fisted authority through several disapproving looks and interventions. Okay, so she was really just trying to save Daniel's left arm from internal bleeding caused by continuted finger pressure, but I know that deep down inside we two are sworn enemies.

Luckily, the good sister is often off busy restricting the freedom of others, so there are good times in it all. One cute little girl in my class named Colette will, without fail, return to telling a story about Jeanine in her first-grade class who hurt her feelings. Mitchell knows all the answers and is very excited about everything - especially singing. He can definitely be the loudest kid in the room. Wilver's attention will sometimes wander to some far-off locale when he's asked a question, leaving the rest of us staring at him in silence while he sits staring at the upper left-hand corner of the room in silence.

In all, it's a great experience. The bishopric says that it'll be a good experience for me to simplify the basic points of the gospel to a point where children and others can understand it. I'm just hoping I'll never have to sing about how far pioneer children walked again after this summer.

There's a World...

I was listening to the song "There's a World" from the (amazing) musical Next to Normal the other day. It's sung by the character Gabe to his mother Diana, and it reminded me (strangely) about Provo, particularly these lines:

"There's a world I know, a place we can go, where the pain will go away. There's a world where the sun shines each day."

Of course, that's ignoring the fact that Gabe is a hallucination and is trying to get Diana to commit suicide... but really, Provo is where it's at.

Quesadillas and Chocolate!

Sweet Potato Quesadillas

2 medium or 4 small sweet potatoes
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon basil
1 teaspoon cumin
Chile powder to taste
4 flour tortillas
4 slices Provolone or Brie cheese

Cut, boil, and mash sweet potatoes. Saute onions and garlic in olive oil, then add spices and sweet potatoes and mix. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Oil a baking sheet and put tortillas down, rubbing so as to coat one side with oil. Spread sweet potato mixture on half of each tortilla, top with cheese, and fold closed. Bake until brown (about 15 minutes) and eat.

Lumpy Chocolate Truffles

1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
2 chocolate bars, cut into small pieces
2 tbsp balsalmic vinegar
1/2 cup cocoa powder

Melt chocolate into cream in a bowl over boiling water until smooth. Pour into bowl, add vinegar, and refrigerate for at least an hour, probably more. Use a teaspoon to scoop chocolate into balls and roll each one in cocoa powder, then refrigerate. Makes about 10 truffles.

Just some words of warning: do not, while you are trying to saute the onions, accidentally turn on the heat underneath the glass chocolate bowl. If you do, don't hold it over the sink when it explodes and falls into the disposal. Also, don't put a spoonful of cocoa powder into your mouth all at once. You inhale it and nearly die, sputtering cocoa all over everything.

Some people just weren't meant to cook.

The Weekend of Awesome

(Every vacation now officially needs a title, so say I).

Anyway, I went to UTAH this past weekend, as many of you probably know. It was a ton of fun and I'm so glad I went. Despite that, I don't know how I can condense so much into a single story, so I'm just going to list off events and add to them later if necessary!

Getting to the airport with a meager two hours to spare
Watching Dr. Horrible in the airport
Watching nuns in the airport
Watching random people walk by in the airport
Getting on the plane with a "personal item" that's really a separate carry-on
Arriving in Utah during a rainstorm and realizing I didn't have a sweater
Hugging Becky in the rain
Getting totally lost over and over in SLC
Seeing Dana's house
Listening to "Boom Boom Pow" during a traffic jam
Starving during a traffic jam
Eating all your Mexican food in 3 minutes flat
Running to an opera with salsa on your shirt
Walking into a room full of praying nuns (more nuns?!)
Watching Dana get hit on by an opera singer
Being surprised by people and hugging everyone at the Elms (Favorite moment #1)
Seeing old roommates!
Waking up way too early to go to the temple with Adam and Kyla Sue
Waking up Dana because I was bored
Getting an omlette from the Cougareat because Taco Bell was under construction! Grr!
Ambushing Krista on rape hill in broad daylight
Wandering around with Dana
Seeing Catherine and her roommate
Stealing Catherine's starburst candies!
Eating lunch with a bunch of friends
Learning there are 50 cent frosties at Wendy's
Giving Heeje increasinly-goofy pieces of clothing to wear at DI
Getting the same pants as Adam at DI
Going to the Decades Dance (Favorite moment #2)
Investigating the church building before the dance started
Singing to Hairspray at the dance
Everyone yelling to bleep out the cuss word in "You Can't Stop the Beat"
Dancing in the rain
Meeting Sarah Decker (she's cool)
Talking about how much we like Sarah after she leaves the room
Katie Willard running after Sarah to tell her that we like her
Wandering around north of campus and luckily finding Jenessa's apartment
Talking with Jenessa and Hilary
Stopping at Hogi-Yogi with Starla
Meeting Brian's family and eating their food
Stealing some food for the road
Driving the one-way street to the SLC temple
Doing baptisms in the SLC temple
Walking to Panda Express
Walking back from Panda Express in another rainstorm
Seeing the rainbow end at the top of the SWKT
Watching Soylent Green and eating a bunch of junk food
Hushing anyone who ruined the last line of the movie
Playing art go fish and totally losing because I showed my cards at the beginning
Failing at holding Rachel Morrison's hand :(
Going to Adam and Brian's awesome Sunday School lesson
Sitting with a bunch of friends in a weird church. Just like old times.
Talking about comfy shoes on the way back from church
EATING after church (no breakfast)
Waiting for Adam to wake up so I could mooch off his Hamburger Helper
Changing the rules to Blokus, much to Adam's dismay (no Hamburger Helper by the way)
Cooking a frittata in a pan that probably shouldn't have gone in the oven
Seeing Emily in the alley and doing a double-take
Seeing John Bytheway at a fireside
Laughing about a million things (candy, the parking lot) after leaving
Meeting Becky's family and eating their food (I ate a lot of food this trip)
Singing great harmony on the way back to Provo
Singing horrible gospel music in Provo (Favorite memory #3)
Saying goodbye (a lot easier than before)
Talking late at night about all sorts of random junk (Favorite memory #4)
Getting 4 hours of sleep, getting up early, and getting out of Provo
Flying away
Falling asleep on the plane (just like last time I left Provo!!)

THE END