UTAH

When I saw the snow covered mountains as the plane was landing in Utah, I actually teared up. I missed this place. I always say that winter is my favorite season, but only in Utah. I love the way the snow transforms the world around me. I feel like the Sugar Plum Fairy from the Nutcracker. I also love the crisp cold air. The coldness is refreshing to me and I almost took a friend up on an invitation to go snowshoeing during my stay here. The most beautiful place I've visited while in Utah is St. George. It's been a while since I've made my way down to Southern Utah and I was shocked by the brilliant colors of the land and mountain plateaus. The red rock never ceased to enthrall me.

My mother lives in a nearby suburb of St. George that's so rustic I was surprised not to see Micheal Landon around every corner during the day and Jason's hockey mask chasing me down during the night. Besides snow, street lights rank pretty high up there as one of my favorite things. Mom kept myself, my brother and sister well fed, as usual, and I got to see both Seven Pounds and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The latter took place in a theater that could have had a Billy Bob, a Bobby Ray, and a Cletis in the audience. I'd wait for the video on both movies, though. Benjamin Button was so long, I started prematurely aging myself.

All in all, it's so nice to be around loved ones in a place I still call home even though I live miles away. There is nothing like being around family and feeling safe and warm on a cold winter day during the holidays. I think that's enough prepostitions for me. Happy Holidays, mine sure are.

Turning Point

I've just read a book about The Black Plague called Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks.  I've also recently seen the new Batman, The Dark Knight, on DVD.  On the surface, these two stories seem unlikely to contain similar themes, but they do.  In Year of Wonders one of the main characters is a young priest who decides to quarantine his little English village when the plague strikes to prevent exposure to others.  As he watches 2/3 of the population die he wonders if instead of sparing those outside of the village, he has become the cause of great fatality within it.  In like manner Batman struggles with his role as hero.  He feels that in his effort to defend all that is good in Gotham he has become a mere murderer, like those whom he fights.  The implicit question in both stories is "Where do you draw the line between what is good and what is bad?" and "Do good intentions negate the means by which those intentions are carried out or the tragic outcomes that result?"  

Another common theme between Year of Wonders and The Dark Knight is the turning point at which man can lose faith.  In Batman, Harvey Dent is out to destroy organized crime by acting as an aggressive district attorney, but he becomes badly wounded and his fiancee is killed.   He then turns to a life of crime himself as the villain Two Face.  In Year of Wonders, the young priest and his wife render incomparable service to plague victims by buoying their faith, ministering to them at their deathbeds, comforting living relatives and even providing burial ground.  (*Spoiler Alert*)  At the end of the book the priest loses his wife and he, in turn, loses his faith prompting the question, "Are there tragedies from which we cannot recover?" and "Can you understand someone losing faith in light of their life experience and is it then justified?"

I don't know about you but sometimes when I pick up a book or see a movie, I want my brain to be able to shut down for a second.  These stories I found more disturbing than entertaining because they addressed human issues and questions about humanity.  I think I'll move on to video games.  Pac Man can't be all that deep, could it?

Festivities

If I could, I'd be into garland on the staircases, lights outside and stockings on the fireplace mantel.  I cannot remember ever having a mantel.  Fireplace, yes.  Mantel, no.  Therefore, no stockings on mantels.  Just last year I instituted Christmas stockings, though.  At first, my family used coming from a non-Christian background as an excuse for a lack (and I mean dearth) of Christmas traditions, but having now celebrated sixteen years of Christmas, I think it's high time for some annual traditions.  I'd like some suggestions that can include festive holiday foods, inexpensive ways to give, homemade gifts, places to visit, or stories to share at the holidays.

I do, however, have a limit.  Many families have a tradition of decorating for the holidays to get them in a festive mood.  I want to make a public announcement that I'm not really the lawn ornament type.  That's where I draw the line.  Plastic Santa Clauses and such just don't do it for me.  By way of confession, I think it's sort of creepy when lawn ornaments move by themselves.  I"m sorry but it's like Night of the Living Dead or something.  Other than that, I'm open!

Thanksgiving

This was the best Thanksgiving ever! All six of my siblings, my mom and my grandma came to my sister's house and we had a blast. You know how you sometimes forget how much you like your siblings? Well this was a time to remember. Looking back, I don't even know how we had 10 adults, 2 kids and a baby in a three bedroom house. It was like the miracle of the bread and the fish, we somehow had enough room for everyone. It helped that the entrances and exits were staggered. People were coming and going even on Thanksgiving Day itself. Some of us made trips to the airport so often we could drive the route blindfolded.

I have never played more games in my life. It was games galore. We played UNO at the insistance of my two nephews, but I am willing to admit there were a couple of uno games played in their absence. We played my grandma's favorite, SCRABBLE. We played SPADES, SPEED and a game that I love but no one else seems to: APPLES to APPLES. Go get it if you don't have it. It's loads of fun. It was also the source of family feuds so my only advice to you is identical to that given to Indiana Jones in The Last Crusade, "Choose wisely."

The funniest game by far was ghetto SCATTEGORIES. There is a real game that you can buy but we decided to each grab a sheet of paper and create the categories ourselves. We played girls against boys and much to my chagrin, the boys won by the skin of their teeth! They were not gracious either, there was hooping, hollering, jumping up and down, backbends (I kid you not) and my personal favorite, donkey kicks. Donkey kicks are performed by getting on your hands and feet then jumping both back legs into the air simultaneously. These were executed by a six foot thirty-year old. Instead of being upset, us girls were so entertained by their various victory antics that we were laughing until we could not breathe.

All in all, good times. Definately a holiday I look forward to more and more.

'Tis the Season!

I'm a catalog addict.  I love looking through catalogs.  I approach them with the knowledge that I'm not really going to buy anything but it's fun to look at the pics.  By the way, I think I could definitely be a catalog model (barring Victoria's Secret or course).  My favorite catalogs are Nordstroms (glamorous), Title Nine (sporty), and J.Jill (granola).  This is a particularly wonderful time of year for catalogs.  L.L.Bean, Land's End and Eddie Bauer are some great winter catalogs.  I always want to buy all of the cozy, warm jackets except for the ones with faux fur lining the hood--I'm a little old for all that fanfare. 

Then there are the seasonal catalogs, even Honey Baked Ham has one!  Needless to say, I'm not a big fan of that one.  Nor am I a fan of encyclopedic catalogs like JCPenney.  Hey, if I'm going to slip a disk picking up the catalog, that's a bad sign.  No offense to Mr. Penney, who is also a previous employer of mine.  Let me tell you, telemarketing for JCPenney during the holiday season is a zoo!!  People really do order those monogrammed Christmas stockings f.y.i.  In fact, I've been thinking about ordering some this year.  I think I want to start a Najah Christmas tradition of giving everyone their own stocking filled with little gifts and treats, but I digress.

When I want to go catalog slumming it's either Coldwater Creek, Chico's or Pier 1 (shout out to another previous employer).  Sorry, but furniture just doesn't do it for me unless it's IKEA or Pottery Barn.  Looking through a catalog is both eye candy and a way to take a mental time-out.  I know some people that even have catalogs in their bathrooms.  Okay, "some people" is me.  There is also a medical journal in there if that makes you feel any better.  In short, during this season of pure gluttony I will be occasionally retreating into an endless stream of catalogs for some mental debauchery.  Wish me luck.  

Tears of Joy

I couldn't stop crying last night.  From the moment I heard about Pennsylvania through the moment when I saw Barack walk onto that stage in Chicago with his family I could not stop tearing up.  I thought to myself, "You are the freakin' president of the United States of America!!  You are one of the most powerful men in the world!  You did it!  You did it!""  I used about a million tissues and thought I was sure to wake my sleeping nephews in the next room with my nose-blowing antics.  Oprah was crying, Jesse Jackson was crying, I was crying, how in the world did those CNN reporters keep a dry eye?!  Yet another reason I am not in broadcast journalism.  I would be the reporter with the handkerchief.   

Oh the beautiful irony of having a Black man in the White House!  In a needless proprietary argument, we did build it.  All of those who fought for this right, who were beaten, and mobbed, and killed, and brutalized, and turned away from the voting booths--this moment is for them.  Jesse Jackson lived through it.  He was there when Martin Luther King was shot to death for being a champion of civil rights in this country.  That octogenarian that Obama talked about in his acceptance speech has seen black men rise from being 3/5 of a man to becoming president.  The audacity of hope, indeed.  

I have faith in the American people again.  I have faith in democracy.  I have faith in the American dream and in the beauty of this amazing country.  May God continue to bless us in the days to come.  I was watching CNN interview a black soldier in Afghanistan and I think he said it perfectly when he stated, "This election proves that all men really are created equal and I am proud to be a part of a nation whose people believes that is still true." 

Absentee

I'm really nervous.  I filled out the application for an absentee ballot since I am now in North Carolina but I haven't heard or received anything.  Maybe nervous is an understatement, I am seriously freaking out!!  This morning I read about a couple that is flying from India to vote because they did not receive their absentee ballots, either.  We're talking over 9,000 miles and $5,000 to vote in this election.  I do believe this election to be the most important and historical election of my life and I would be completely bereft if my absentee ballot never arrived.  

The whole idea of not voting is appalling to me.  Maybe I should drive back to Utah to vote.  I mean, people really did fly from India--not Indiana, INDIA!  Heaven knows with the gas prices it would probably cost the same to fly to Utah than to drive.  I am faced with a conundrum.  What do I do?!  I'm manic!  I am a freakin' Obama campaign volunteer.  I have to vote. I'll have to get on the horn tomorrow and find out what needs to be done.  I'm on a mission.  Where is James Bond when you need him, or Tom Cruise, or I'd even settle for Maxwell Smart at this point.