Bambi

This morning I went for my usual long Saturday walk. A bunch of houses in my neighborhood have really big lawns backed by forest. I was walking past one of these houses, and I saw a couple of deer in the yard. It was a doe and a tiny little baby deer. The doe stood there and watched while the fawn jumped and ran and frolicked. It was just like on Bambi when they get to the meadow and Bambi is running around like there's no tomorrow. It was really cute.

The parable of the potato chips

There once was a girl who was very content with life. Things were really good, except that she was hungry. There was a table with a few bags of potato chips on it. Most of the chips were the really cheap kind- too greasy, too stale, no flavor, and definitely not filling. There was one bag that looked pretty good, but she wasn’t really craving potato chips, and the good ones weren't being offered to her anyway. She knew it'd be better to be hungry than to eat the bad chips, so she just went about her day without worrying too much about the chips. Then somebody offered her a potato chip from the good bag. It was a good chip. It was the gourmet kind- just thick enough and just fried enough and just seasoned enough. And, although she had never really wanted a potato chip, of course she wasn’t going to refuse such a good one. So she ate the chip. And it was just like it always is with a good potato chip. One isn’t enough. She wanted more. The person who had given her the chip dangled the bag of chips in front of her face for a while, acting like she might get another. And oh, those chips smelled good! Seeing the bag dangling there, getting whiffs of them, and thinking she might get offered another kept her going. But eventually, rather than offering the girl another chip, the person folded the bag down and put a clip over it, and then put the chips back on the table. The girl realized she really wasn’t going to get another chip from that person, so she decided to go looking for another. And now that she’s tasted such a good one, she won’t settle for just any chip. She expects the next one to be even better. She knows that eventually she’ll find a chip like no other. And there will be a whole bag of them just for her. So the search is on! She just hopes she doesn’t have to taste too many more cheap, stale chips, or be offered only one really good gourmet chip again. She wants a good, full bag!

A New Stage in Life

When I was in drivers ed, I was an amazing parallel parker. Give me any of the school cars or trucks, and I could put it in its place with barely a thought. Then I got out of drivers ed, moved on to the real world of driving, and could never parallel park again. I don't know what happened. I guess being up against real cars rather than little orange cones has always just been too much pressure. And it didn't help that in Provo, a lot of the curbs are more like canals- if you get too close, you'd go over the cliff and your car would be really stuck. It was scary. So over the last many years, my parallel parking experiences have consisted of going in and out of the space several times, hitting the curb a few times, hanging way out into the street, and then giving up and driving around until I could find a pull-in space. Even if it meant walking super far. Yes, I'm a woman driver. But then last week, something happened! I went to my friend's house, and he has notoriously bad parking in his neighborhood. It's a condo community with about 10 spaces in front of maybe 20 houses. If there aren't any good spaces, you have to go around the block and down the street to park. Last week there was a great spot right in front of his house, but the only way to get in with my Nitro was by parallel parking. I knew from experience how it would turn out, but I had to try anyway. And lo and behold! I got right in on the first try! I was in the center of the space, right up next to the curb without hitting it and everything! Since then, I've done it two more times! It's like on Matrix, when Neo downloads all kinds of knowledge and talents. So, as Neo would say, "I know parallel parking."

Summer!

Here's an interesting little tidbit: Michigan has the most golf courses per capita of any state. Golf is a way of life here. At Chrysler, several of my coworkers belonged to clubs and went golfing (full 18 hole course) at least once a week when there wasn't snow on the ground. I know of three or four golf courses within about a 10 minute drive of my apartment. It's a big deal. Anyway, a few guys in my ward love golfing and go often. They know that I like to golf, so last week they invited me along. I warned them that liking golf and being good at golf don't necessarily have anything to do with each other, but they said we would just do an executive course (9 holes, 3 par, super easy), so I went with. I proved myself right- I was awful. One guy (and, in fairness, his whole family golfs- I was using his little brother's clubs because they all have their own set- and he goes about once a week) got a score of 38. The other guy got somewhere in the 40s. I got 93. Yes, 93. That's an average of more than 10 strokes per hole where 3 is the norm. But the point is, I had a blast! The sun was shining, the grass was fresh, and I was out wacking a ball around. One of the guys even found a bright pink ball in the grass for me to use. It was a fantastic day. Ever since, I just can't get golf off my mind. So yesterday I broke down and bought myself some clubs. I got them used on Craigslist, and they aren't fancy or anything, but I have my own clubs! It's very exciting!

I'm sleepy!

I've noticed over the last few weeks that I've gotten into a very consistent schedule. I go to bed at the same time every night (except weekends) and wake up- often without my alarm- at the same time every morning (including weekends). I think it's because of spring. It's been kind of nice. Even when I try to sleep in, I see the sunlight through the blinds and I hear the birds chirping and I'm just so excited for the day that I have to get up. But then yesterday two things threw me off. First, I'm sick, so I took a nap in the late afternoon. I never take naps, and now I remember why. They mess with my schedule. The second thing was a good thing (we can discuss it later when I find out just how good it is). So when I went to bed I was, first of all, not tired enough, and second, thinking about this good thing, so I couldn't sleep at all! I finally fell asleep after two hours of lying in bed, and then woke up a couple hours later and just dozed on and off the rest of the night. So this morning I'm super tired! And I'm still sick! I have to run some errands, but I have about enough energy to walk to the kitchen for a drink of water. It's going to be a long day. Luckily, I'm in a fantastic mood, so it will be a good long day.

My new hobby

It's amazing what becomes interesting when you have all the time in the world to do whatever you want, but nobody to do it with. My latest discovery is hula hooping. Last week at FHE we played "boys vs. girls". It was a series of competitions, like basketball freethrows, high heel races, paper airplane throwing, jump roping, and hula hooping. I was easily the worst hula hooper in the crowd. So I borrowed a hula hoop from the ward and have been practicing ever since. My record so far is 60 revolutions without dropping it. I can consistently get into the 20s or 30s. It's a great workout, it's fun, and it will come in handy for the rest of my life at ward talent shows, primary/young women callings, etc. And it's a great way to start a conversation: "Hi, I'm Carolyn. I can keep a hula hoop going for a hundred revolutions." How can I miss with a line like that?

Birthday and Stuff

Last week a couple of my friends and I went to see a free show Jay Leno put on for the unemployed in Detroit. It was at the Palace of Auburn Hills, which is where the Pistons play. It was pretty cool. A super loud jazz band played first. I don't like jazz at all, and this was as jazz as it gets. I tried to suffer through the first song, but it went on and on. I kept thinking it had to end eventually, but every time it sounded like it might be ending, it just kept going. Finally one of my friends and I went out to the corridor to escape. They finally stopped playing after half an hour. One song- 30 minutes! What?! Then Kid Rock came out and announced Jay. I thought Kid Rock would sing, but he didn't. And then Jay was great. It was a lot of fun.

For my birthday last week I didn't really care what I did, as long as I got to make my own cake. my biggest challenge with cakes is that the filling is always too runny and it squishes out the sides and makes the outer frosting look weird. So rather than dealing with a filling, I made a big cake-sized strawberry marshmallow and put that between the layers. It would have worked really well, but then my frosting was too liquid and still looked weird. But the point is, it tasted good. And I had a great birthday. I played soccer with some people from the ward, then made my cake, then went to Red Robin with my friends (I'm in the Red Robin birthday club, so I got a free burger), and then we came back to my house, ate cake, and sat around talking for a few hours. It was good.