Dash #607 Never Stop Writing

          When I was younger, I enjoyed reading poems and would often write nonsense poems just for the sake of rhyming.  It wasn’t until I was in high school and taking a creative writing class that I learned about many different types of poetry and have often attempted writing different styles.  Some styles I prefer more than others.

          I wrote poems for many years.  I wrote poems and started many different story lines, but I don’t think I ever finished a single one.  My mind has mostly raced ahead of my pencil.  The word processor seemed to add an ease to writing stories and biography.  I now have the ability to add things and delete things and not worry about marring the paper in any way. 

          I rarely write poems anymore.  Sometimes I will work on stories with Jenna.  But mostly what I write are truths and journaling.  Once in a while I take out a pen and paper to accumulate thoughts or take notes.  But mostly I do it electronically.  It is faster and tons easier to read.  I write letters and emails electronically. But I do print letters and send them through the mail.  I mostly write my eldest granddaughter – well I address her personally, but the letter is really for the entire family. 

          Once in a while I will send a letter to someone I have never sent to before, for example this letter was sent along with heirlooms – one before she was even born.  On Thursday I sent a letter to my grandnephew who has cancer.  He is four.

          I enjoy writing.  I don’t enjoy poetry as much as I used to – though I have my moments enjoying certain styles like those mentioned in posts here and here. I have since purchased Mirror, Mirror and Follow, Follow. see here

My favorite poets are Carl Sandburg and Langston Hughes. I especially love Langston Hughes and have read most of his collections – many of which are not poetry.  He has written books about a character named “Simple”. Very Funny!

Throughout the beginning of my blog there have been some styles of poetry added to some of my posts – most seem to be about the weather, but there are some others.  Perhaps I’ll share a few of my earlier works if I make the time to look for and compile them and post them.  It will be a while if it indeed happens. Don't count on it.

Movies and Showers

          I once went to a wedding shower in which all the gifts were part of a movie theme.  I don’t have the original invitation, but I do remember the envelope was decorated with movie reels or other decorations.  I don’t remember if there was a director’s cut with instructions or if it was written on the reverse side of the ticket that the gift purchased needed to relate to the title of the movie somehow. 

          Mine was easy.  “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”.  I purchased a laundry basket, six white hangers and a bottle of cheer.  I figured that the laundry basket and each of the hangers could represent each dwarf – and the whole theme because Snow White was always so “cheer”ful and didn’t mind doing laundry.  She would actually sing about it. I think “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” was the only movie the bride-to-be had even heard of – let alone seen

          There are only four other movies I can remember that were represented: “Napoleon Dynamite”, “Anne of Green Gables”, and “Benny and Joon”.  I had seen the latter two at the time, but not the first one, nor did I really have a desire to see “Napoleon Dynamite” but have seen it since.  It is basically the day in the life of my son, Tony.  At least that’s what it reminds me of.

         

          I know the person that received the “Napoleon Dynamite” movie ticket had seen it many times and thought it was hilarious.  I think her gift was several boxes of macaroni and cheese (or whatever it was he liked to eat).

         

          The gal that received the ticket marked “Anne of Green Gables” had never heard or seen the movie (nor the books for that matter – how could she not?) went out and purchased several cleaning products – anything that had a “green label” figuring it was close enough.

          The gift that made everybody laugh (except for the bride who was very puzzled by the gift) which I thought was clever and think about that shower every time I watch “Benny and Joon” and remember the look on the bride’s face when she pulled out of the box a loaf of bread, a brick of cheese and an iron.  If you have no clue what I am talking about, I highly suggest that you watch the movie.  It is such a sweet love story where I never suspected a love story would be.

Acronyms and Anagrams

          I have been doing several puzzles that involve anagrams.  Anagrams are words made from the same letters.  For instance, I could take the letters E-S-S-T-A.  I can make the word “state” or “taste” from the same letters. 

          Acronyms are generally words made up from initials or abbreviations.  For example, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is more commonly known as NASA.  Some acronyms are easy to pronounce as one word while others may not be.  

           The word Pemdas, for instance, is not one that I will recognize right away.  I am more familiar with “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally” which is just a play on words that might be easier for students to remember than  “Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, and Subtraction” Either way PEDMAS or the “Aunt Sally” phrase are supposed to help young minds know in which order they are expected to do a math (specifically algebra) problem (see here).

          Acronyms help allow us to memorize techniques – though they do not work for all people.  Likewise, there are some people that will only see one word with any given set of letters and may not see the other anagrams that are waiting to be arranged into other words. 

          For more acronyms see here and here. 

Though Fog is Clean, it Can Be Eerie

I still have not written my word post.  Let me share with you some pictures of the fog.  It lingers longer in the morning creating an illusion of no background and driving into the unknown.

can you see the school?

I love the fall

Day of the Dead is NOT part of Halloween

          I love the movie “Coco” and for the respect that Disney put into the movie just as those who celebrate the holiday pay respect and honor those who have gone before them.  It is a two day event of celebrating life and staying connected.  This article compares the holiday to Thanksgiving as we are grateful to those who have gone before us.  “Dia de los Muertos” should not be associated with Halloween.  There are some who have misunderstood because Day of the Dead celebration takes place the two days following Halloween.  (See here and here).

https://www.worldnomads.com/explore/north-america/mexico/how-to-survive-the-day-of-the-dead

          I don’t remember having ever heard of the Day of the Dead until after Corey and Joh were married.  I don’t know if it is taught in schools every year now or if it may be taught at all.  I know it had been taught at the local elementary as I was there on Friday.  I’d been at the middle school the day before that.  It was on Thursday which happened to be the same day as Halloween. Several of the middle schoolers had dressed up in costume and there was an assembly.  Somehow that day became my Friday and I’d forgotten that it really was not Saturday the following day.

          There were three subs at the elementary school on Friday.  I think if the staff had not had subs there, they would have been fine without us except for at lunch and recess.  Other than that, it had to be one of the most unproductive days of my life.  I did assist in the kindergarten with two different teachers.  One had passed out copies of pictures to be folded into a book with four pages.  The title was on front.  The next three pages gave little detail on the Day of the Dead holiday.

                    The Day of the Dead is a festival of joy!

                    It is an old festival.

                    Long ago it celebrated the autumn harvest.

          In the other class I helped cut out and sort bones and passed them to the children to paste to bodied silhouettes.  This is an idea of the craft: 

          At lunch time there were a few kids crying because they missed their cats or their grandmothers or someone who had died.  After lunch and recess each class watched the movie “Coco”.  The concept may not fully sink into their minds right now.  I hope that one day that it does.  I hope we may all choose to celebrate the lives and dashes of those who have gone before us.

So Much to Do!

Today I was going to post about “Day of the Dead” and my last sub assignment but I’m afraid it will have to wait as lately I feel like a chicken with my head cut off – though so fully flustered I had told Roland that I felt like a head with my chicken cut off.  

And I suppose I can explain the phrase as well.  Just have too many projects in the fire today.  And perhaps I don’t need to post on Saturdays anyway as the blog doesn’t receive much attention on Saturdays.  I think it receives its most views on Monday.

The weather has been bitter cold in the morning.  It is bitter cold only the mornings when the mountains can be seen.  This morning the fog is thicker than I have ever seen it since we have lived here and so it is not as cold and will be warmer today than has been in October.  Okay.  That’s weird.

We’re going into town.  I forgot I was going to attend an activity this morning.  Good thing my alarm went off. 

Happy November Everyone!

Work and Halloween

One of my goals this year was to post a specific word at least every other week.  I don’t know that I posted any words in the month of October.  I haven’t been making good use of my time and didn’t post what I had in mind for yesterday.  I had to take the car in but figured I would write my post after I returned home.

While at the mechanics I received a phone call but couldn’t seem to answer it in time. I saw that it was one of the elementary schools and tried to return the call, but it didn’t go through.  I realized there was a message and listened to it.  The assignment is not until next week.  I called back to let them know that I can only work one of the two days that were mentioned.

I went home and looked up available sub jobs to accept the assignment, only it wasn’t listed.  Instead, I saw a position at the middle school for yesterday – though it was passed the time posted.  I called the school to ask if someone was still needed.  Thus, I worked yesterday for four hours and returned home.  I suppose I could have made the time after my return but chose instead to be with Roland who had gotten off of work early.

Downtown Trick or treating started forty-five minutes after Jenna returned home.  She had worn her elf costume to school but had changed into what she called a pastel demon.  We took her downtown and I took several pictures but have not gone through them all thoroughly but did make a scrap page from three of them to show her costume.  I will go through them more thoroughly eventually. I’ll be working again today as I had accepted the position on Tuesday morning.

After we returned from the Halloween festivities, I received another phone call to work today.  At first, I was thrown off believing yesterday was Friday and so why would I be asked to work on a Saturday?  But then I remembered that yesterday was Thursday.  It was a weird Thursday.  I somehow remembered that I was already working and so had to turn her down.

Jenna does not have school today.  But she will be going to the school’s homecoming dance tonight.  She will be dressing in costume and not a formal dress.

Dash TV#384 Yellowstone Park

                I would guess that I have been to Yellowstone Park at least 15 times.  I have mentioned it in ten posts and posted at least five pictures of my family over the years.  Yellowstone always feels brand new as it changes.  For the most part we found lodging in West Yellowstone and would just drive the west entrance to the park each day.  But there were at least four times we got lodging inside the park.

          I couldn’t find any photos when it was just me and Patrick.  Kayla would have been a baby when this one was taken in 1976

This one is of me with Kayla probably 1978 or 1979

Corey and Kayla in 1982

My missionary farewell was in August and my grandma was in town from San Francisco.  We took both of my grandmas to Yellowstone park in 1984.  We stayed at Old Faithful Inn which we had never done before.

 I left for the mission training center two days after we returned.

  

Patrick and I were both on our missions when this photo was taken in 1985

 I can’t seem to find any still pictures of our adventures in 1988.  Patrick and Sunny were newlyweds.  We had a joint cabin with mom, dad, and Corey on one side.  Kayla and I had to share a room with the love birds.  It was gross.

We saw more of the park that trip than we usually see during one trip.  Corey had played Teddy in “Arsenic and Old Lace” and was really into Theodore Roosevelt at the time and so we had to make seeing the Teddy Roosevelt Arches part of our agenda.

Corey filmed everything.  So we do have documentation.  It was the first or second week in July.  It was great that we were able to see so much of the park and that Corey was able to capture most of it on film – for the day after we returned home we learned about the fires changing the appearance of so much of what we saw – including Old Faithful Inn and I think the arches (here)

This is the last time I was at Yellowstone Park 1998 – it was just my mom, her mom and I that went.  

That was a really great trip also.  We would drive to a destination and mom would say, “Do you want to walk that trail?”

Sometimes we would get out of the car.  Sometimes we would just decide to enjoy the view from the car.  I don’t recall grandma going on any trails with us, though this photo indicates differently.

We saw a lot of animals as it was the end of May.  We saw the most animals on my birthday and had lunch at Trapper’s Inn.  It was the best chicken Malibu that I had ever tasted!  It was a great birthday.

My Tasteless World

            I remember a time when I stayed home sick from school.  My mom was also ill.  We both shared strong colds.  I remember she made us a beautiful lunch: halibut, baked potato, cottage cheese, corn.  Only the textures were different.  All of it was tasteless because of our stupid colds.

            When I was younger, I remember my dad using Fisherman’s Friends to cure a sore throat.  Those things were nasty!  Until my taste buds freaked out on me I have never been able to handle keeping a Fisherman’s Friends in my mouth until it was completely dissolved.  I am now able to keep one in there for the duration. I can barely taste it.

                                 

          I think that this loss in taste might just be a temporary thing.  Before I got my latest sinus infection, I recall a sister in the ward not showing up for a meeting as she reported her sinus condition.  Another sister swore up and down that if she would take 15000 dosage of vitamin D3 every three hours for nine hours that she would be cured.  15000?  That seemed like a lot.  And when I came down with symptoms of my own, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try.  However I could not find 15000 – not even 1500.  The closest I had come was 1000 which I selected and took every three hours for nine hours – for three days (as it did not go away in one).  Turns out I have overdosed on vitamin D3 – which I had suspected but didn’t realize I would lose my taste buds as a result.  I hope it’s only temporary.  I would like to enjoy eating again.

On the plus side I have lost weight and will continue to do so as I just don’t enjoy eating.  Oh, I did have some Top Roman noodles for lunch.  I added some crushed seaweed and tomatoes which I could taste slightly.  It is the first thing I’ve eaten for the last four days that felt almost worthy of eating.  I wanted to share that good taste with Roland.  His taste buds are working just fine and evidently my lunch was too overpowering for him and he did not appreciate the taste.  I suspect I wouldn’t under normal circumstances.

LaTiesha's Timeline

Last year I took a job as an educational assistant for the school district.  I sub for aides who need time off for whatever reason and will accept assignments at three of the five schools in our district.  I briefly mentioned in my last post about an instructor creating an assignment for her students to create their own personal time line (as they have been learning about historical time lines) and passed out papers of a horizontal time line starting in 2005 I believe.  I’ve gone back just a few years prior to that and have created my own time line – but changed the scale from horizontal to vertical as it will be easier to post it that way.

She had her students start with their birth, but as I did not choose to go that far back, I started with my marriage.  Her instructions were to have ten events and three pictures.  I have twelve events and blog references for more detail and well over three pictures.  I found it to be kind of a fun project.

Timelines Include Good and Bad

                I remember my niece had some kind of surgery and had worn a pink cast in the hospital bed.  Her dad, who is a professional photographer who always takes huge amounts of pictures, did not document any of Anna’s time at the hospital.  It was a sad event not to dwell on and he didn’t want any of the family to have that painful memory.  That doesn’t change what happened.

          My sister and I have a great four-year-old nephew has cancer.  His parents (or other family members) have taken lots of pictures.  It’s a sad event – one the family just assume forget and yet it’s a milestone that may need to be documented so one day the family will have proof about facing a challenge and learning things that perhaps they would rather learn another way.  It’s not a pleasant milestone – but there will be growth and learning experiences to share.

          Anna has another cousin on her dad’s side who has battled and may continue battling cancer.  I remember Bill sharing a picture of the family standing with their then four-year-old son who had cancer.  They thought it could possibly be the last family picture with him in it.  His mom just recently dropped him off at college.  He’s a survivor and I’m betting my nephew will be also with many years ahead.

          Yesterday one of Jenna’s former instructors showed a slide of an old car seat from the sixties.  After the students made their guesses as to what it was, she told them about an incident that happened to her family involving the car, a similar car seat and an overly cautious father (ahead of his time for car safety).

          He’d been driving the family car.  They were on vacation and had pulled off the highway to get something to eat.  Because it was summer and cars didn’t have such features as A/C’s (not to mention GPS units or even seat belts in all cars as it was optional back then) the windows had been rolled down and apparently a grasshopper had invited itself to roost on their dashboard.

          The mother and father changed places so that he could lie down in back.  He had strapped himself in with two seat belts.  The instructor who told the story had been five at the time and rode in front.  In between her and her mother was her one-year-old sister sedated in the old-time car seat which did not come with a belt.  However, her father (who had purposely purchased a car that not only offered front seat belts but back seat belts as well) had removed a seat belt from a junk yard car and bolted them into his own so that a strap could be placed over the one-year-old in the car seat.

          The mother, who was driving, decided to get rid of the grasshopper. Unfortunately she made the choice while she was driving.  She somehow managed to overturn the car so that it rolled two and a half times away from the road.  The car landed upside down.

          The dad somehow managed to free himself and crawl through the window, rescuing the instructor first and then her sister.  Everybody was fine.  The mom had received a few bruises and broken skin on her left hand as she had grabbed the bar that separated the winged vent from the rest of the driver’s window.  Other than that, there weren’t any injuries to any of the passengers – only the wrecked car that had to be towed.

          The teacher telling the story said that when the police arrived, the family was asked, “Where are the victims?”

           What a great thing to survive! Well, the results being great but not so much the event itself. 

          After telling the story, she assigned the students to each write a time line including at least ten things of significance that happened during their lives.  She said some memories will be sad.  Some will be happy.  Some will be first-hand events that are remembered first-handedly and some will be the memories of other family members that have told about what took place – like the birth of the individual.  Everybody was born and so had to come up with nine more things.  I found it to be quite an interesting assignment. 

          Later I had asked Jenna if she had ever had that assignment.  She said she had not.

Another Sense Dulled - Maybe Even Lost

I can remember staying home from school one day when both my mom and I were sick.  She made us a really great lunch consisting of halibut, baked potato and corn.  Neither one of us was able to taste anything on our plate.  The only real difference about the food itself was the texture on the tongue.  Otherwise the taste was pretty much the same.

I had forgotten about that incident until yesterday when I added salt to the chicken noodle soup and later on the spaghetti (never in my entire lifetime have I added salt to spaghetti before) because I couldn’t taste them.  I couldn’t taste the pancakes or egg I had this morning.  I couldn’t taste my orange juice or medicine.  Great for the medicine.  That stuff is nasty – and I wonder if that is what dulled my taste buds in the first place or if it is this sinus infection.

I still don’t feel  as unhealthy as I did in May when I wanted to die.  Still, I don’t feel great.  If my taste buds are now a permanent condition, it will be so much easier to lose weight as I normally eat for enjoyment and not necessarily out of need.  Right now there is no enjoyment involved.  So why bother.