Beneath the Wraps

          Several years ago my friend Peggy had gone to several doctors with odd symptoms that no one could seem to figure out.   Out of frustration, she did her own research.   She checked out books from the library (because this took place long before Google existed) and spent countless hours at the library until she thought she had figured it out and reported back to her doctor and said, “This is what I have.”           Fibromyalgia wasn’t a word associated with the 20 th century as it is today. Commercials now are exploding with drugs and advice to “ask your doctor” – not that the pills will cure you.   They will assist with whatever ails you while we sit back and collect cash.   Hey, and if it doesn’t work out to all expectations, there are also ads inviting us to join whatever bandwagon the attorneys may have set up so that we can sue whatever company for making us sick.      ...

Currently, the temperature is 56 degrees.   Alexa says the high will be 73.   This is why we moved to Oregon.   This is how the temperature should be EVERY day.

       I don’t recall where the email was sent from or why I accepted it.   I registered both Roland and me for a seminar on social security.   He had been asking me questions when I had taken my Sociology of Ageism class.   I thought we could attend this together, have questions answered, and have a free lunch.   I enjoyed the lunch part but had found my Ageism class much more informative than the seminar. Except for a few facts that apply specifically to Oregon, there isn't really much that I learned.        During my school course, I had completed four assignments.   The subjects were as follows:   “Websites for the Aged”, “Financial Options for Elderly Care”, “Age of Retirement” and “Life After Retirement”. I started off my first paper by defining “Baby Boomers” which is/was an unusually high amount of births that took place between 1946 and 1965.        I used a quote...

            There are definitely many values that our parents instilled in us, but the three I would pick to answer this question would be prayer, family and service. Prayer           From an early age, we learned that we could communicate to our Heavenly Father through prayer.   We were taught not only to ask for things but to thank God as well for the many blessings that we had.   And there truly were many.   Mom and dad were able to help us understand what the blessings were.   Especially dad.   He had tremendous faith and find the blessings where we could not such as in car failure or his swelled foot ( here )and in his final years could see the blessings with his deteriorating health.                     I remember on several occasions seeing my dad kneeling in front of the gre...

          I remember going to a resort when I was a leader of the young women in my first ward.   There was a thirteen-year-old who enthusiastically asked, “Could we take all the mattresses downstairs and put them in a pile and jump over the balcony into them?   Wouldn’t that be fun?”              At thirteen years old I would have agreed with her. But I had become a rational fun-sucking adult.            “No.   That does not sound fun.   It sounds dangerous.   If you land the incorrectly, you could break your neck.   No.”              I am through with school.   I no longer have to sign in each day or take care of assignments, assessments, and discussions.   My last class was called “Biological Psychology” where we were introduced to the brain and functions.   We’re told that the ...

What causes stress?             Moving causes stress – especially when the moving date has changed and you are not prepared as you believe you have more time to pack everything.              It is stressful looking for a house to move into.             A job can be stressful – especially one that lays on the pressure for an academic advisor to reach the unreasonable goal of ten starts each month.   How can an academic advisor seriously be accountable for a student changing his or her mind?   Especially when the referrals given come from people who were searching for jobs and filled out a school interest on accident as they believed it was a part of the job application?             Stress is trying to fill out a job application online or take a test for school when the Wi-Fi seems to have troubles staying connecte...

There is not a large amount of time from the time cherries ripen to when they need to be picked.   The race between getting them picked before the birds eat them creates an even smaller window of opportunity.   I don’t like being in the yard when the sun is blazing nor do I have the confidence in myself to climb the hill.   But I have made a conscious effort to do my part this year. Wednesday was my last day for subbing. Before I left the house, I took a bucket to the top of the hill to pick some cherries.   When the bucket was a third to half full, I made my way back down the hill and left the cherries on the kitchen table.             Yesterday I retrieved the cherry pitter from its storage spot and punched cherries for about an hour or so.   Perhaps the cherries weren’t ready after all as many of the pits remained attached to the cherries.   I would have preferred an assembly line but as Jenna was...

                I don’t know that dad really had a motto he lived by.   The quote I remember him saying most were: “If wishes were fishes, we’d all have a fry” which is quite a mouthful for my dad.   I believe his favorite word was “ditto” as it provided him a way to mimic someone else’s complete sentence.   My dad was not a big talker

Field Day is a way for the elementary schools to transit from the last week of school to beginning the summer vacation.   The idea is for children to have fun playing games and friendly competition. I remember volunteering for Field Day at South Kearns Elementary.   I believe I had signed up three different years.   I know we got rained out at least two years, but there may have been one room in which we were able to complete the competitions. There were a parachute and relays, water games, racing with a spoon and keeping contents from spilling over.   I don’t remember being involved in another field day until yesterday as I had agreed to sub this week.   It felt weird going back after having been off for a month.   I felt awake when I left the house but somehow grew tired after having entered the building.   I don’t know why.   Every time I entered a classroom I seemed to go deaf. I was constantly asking students to repeat themselves...

          Hillcrest High has held some amazing performances throughout the years as well as some not so amazing.   Since I can remember, the high school plays had always had HUGE casts. If you were a student in band, choir, or the dance club, it was mandatory for you to be a part of the play.   I don’t know if it was just at Hillcrest or if it was the entire Jordan School District (now Canyon Schools) that made it mandatory.   I can remember going to only two other plays outside of Hillcrest – each in a different district.            For instance, mom and I had gone to Kearns High to support a co-worker who was playing Jasper B. Biggler in the musical “How to Succeed at Business Without Really Trying”.   Jasper’s personality was so identical to Jack’s that we didn’t really consider it acting.   We heard the same thing about the guy playing J. Pierpoint Finch.   That is pretty...

Do you feel your beliefs and values are shared by most of the people you are surrounded by each day?   Or do your beliefs set you apart from those around you? The answer to both questions is “Yes”.   Allow me to elaborate: Less than half of all those living in Salt Lake are LDS.   Not all LDS are active.   Though many wards have great support and members work well together, there are just as many whose members may go through the motions each Sunday but may not carry it out the remaining six days – like the “Come Follow Me Program”   -   I’m just curious.   Although I have good friends in the Church who really do live a Christian life 24/7,   I didn’t often feel my values were the same as others living in Salt Lake. As a whole, I usually felt so uptight with the hurriedness, the crime, profanity, dysfunctional relationships, etc.   I was part of the minority – which is not a bad thing.   Evidently, I’ve been part of the minority m...

Thank you bags are not twice as big as other grocery bags, but large enough that they are a perfect size for our bathroom waste baskets.   Yesterday morning Roland decided he would collect the garbage all throughout the house.   He removed the “Thank you” bag and replaced it with a Wal-Mart – which sinks down into the can each   time I have tossed in waste.   I like THANK YOU bags.