Herriman

Last Friday I went for a quick run before going to a Halloween party. I have to say that running in Herriman is sometimes a sublime experience - not always, but more often than you'd think. I'm going to try and describe it, but it might sound quite cheesy. It was just very nice :)

On Friday it was quite nice. I first noticed the cool October air and decorated yards as I ran through the neighborhood. I love the musty smell of the fallen oak leaves as I ran through the small patch of woods and around the lake, the sunset giving the lake and all the hillsides around a pretty glow in backlit muted browns and blues and yellows and tans. I ran a bit longer than I planned just so I could keep looking at the valley lights and changing colors on the mountains as the sun set--three temples glowing their light. And the mountains are so spectacular just being there! They're huge! The groups of deer I passed weren't scared by my running towards them. They deigned to lift their heads from the grass for a bit, then went back to their feeding. And all this to the very fitting music of Nickel Creek and my other favorite songs (When You Come Back Down, Pastures New...).

It was just very, very beautiful...I wondered how many people get to notice this artwork. We go about our errands and work against this spectacular backdrop, and it probably happens every single day! I need to go running more often :)

Excerpts from my new journal account

Facebook post #2: I love freeways which also double as parking lots. I love them at midnight especially :) Sat at 12:12am via Mobile Texts...
To get back to the facebook update:I drove home on the freeway quite tired already, then ran into some awful traffic. The entire set of cars on the freeway (which were many) came to a halt and for about 1 entire hour, we inched forward every 10 seconds or so. I was so bored and so tired that I put in "Il flauto magico" (which is not italian, but German for the Magic Flute). and though I skipped a few songs, I LISTENED TO THE ENTIRE OPERA without reaching the next freeway exit. Turns out they were moving a bridge onto the freeway. The situation became quite dire as I nodded off every few seconds. I pulled out my phone and wrote the following update:
And they're nice at 1 am... Aack! No they're not! Someone get me out of here! Sat at 12:50amIt was 5-10 minutes after that that we finally started to get moving again. I don't really want to do that again!

Recommitment, Again

So, I have been inspired by this month's Ensign and by Facebook to attempt to keep up in this thing again... I'm always wanting to give really detailed Facebook statuses - but then worried who will read them and be offended, or who might judge them, or just might not want to see them. I guess the nice thing about blogs is no one has to read them! I wonder if I could do a completely private blog, so it would be like a journal - for some reason that seems better than journaling via a Word document. I also want to start a political blog - Politics are so confusing, but maybe if I write out some ideas and people can point out where my logic is weak, it would help me understand better. Maybe an Italian one too to practice, a exercise journal, analyzing relationships - the possibilities are endless!

So to start, I will just expound on my Facebook statuses :)

"So I didn't bite anyone's arm this week, but I did start having an asthma attack during the snake dance, then I went to Thanksgiving point and was scared out of my wits going through the children's 'haunted creature,' followed by much jumping on a bubble thing and eating delicious food. Tonight is Bill and Amber's reception and it comfting that our little band of single friends is breaking apart in such a happy way."

One of the highlights of life over the last few weeks is that I've started participating in a dancing group that will perform at Christmastime. I'm not allowed to post the name of the group online though, but here's a link to the DVD of the performance last year: link :) I think it was something special, and I wish everyone could have been there. (Registration for tickets begins at 12:01 a.m. on October 17 this year ;))

Anyway, dancing brings such balance to my life; I don't know why, but I really, really love it (though I really need to become better). When I don't dance, I feel like what I suppose a musician would feel if they couldn't play for a while. This may sound silly, but I feel like dancing (good dancing) is a way to worship the Creator. Very fulfilling hobby. At this dance group a week and a half ago, we were practicing a Jamaican dance (or as I like to call it, the "asthma attack" dance) which involves flailing arms, dancing rain and sun and running around madly in a circle. And at one point I found my neighboring dancer's arm in my mouth! It was so shocking and so funny. The imprint of my teeth were very clear and a week later she showed me the scar. It wasn't awful, but it surprised me that she still had a mark after a week. Thus my clever aunt suggested renaming my dance as the "snake dance."

Wow, I'm already running out of time, but as for the rest of the Facebook post, I was lucky enough to be asked out on a date where we went to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point and then made tin foil dinners. I am not the biggest fan of haunted things, especially haunted houses, but this was a family-friendly venue, and when I saw the blown up balloon of a large lizard thing for children, I thought it would be fun to go inside. At first it was just what I expected...they made the inflated walls and fixtures inside to look like the throat and stomach (and intestines!!) of some kind of a lizard and it was entertaining and very twisty. But then people started jumping out at us from behind corners. I was so unprepared for that, and screamed a lot more than I had planned. They also had a lot of activities - it reminded me of a carnival - and one was a kind of inverted set of trampolines, except they were on the ground - blown up and made of plastic. It was fun (and a work out) to bounce around on those. It was funner to me to see the creative games the groups came up with on it. One group (I guessed they were from BYU) were playing dead man's bluff - I'm not sure that's what it's called, but one guy lay on the plastic while 7-10 people all jumped around him trying to make him bounce as high as possible. (This was one of my favorite games when I was 10.)

Finally, last night, I went to Bill and Amber's reception - maybe if they post their pictures I can post a link or something (realizing I need to learn more about how to do all this stuff). For a while there it seemed like our group of friends (mostly from high school) would never get married. But as each has been getting married - each time it renews hope for the rest of us - at least me - that it is possible, it does happen somehow, and it might happen for me too :)

Anyway, that's all for today. So much more I could write...

So part of the reason that I never post any blogs is a strange, recurring phenomenon - I come to this very page (not the one you're looking at), this "posting" page, and see the blank text box. And then my mind goes blank. I think my mind mimics what it sees and reads. Next time I try to post something, I will type while looking at something witty, engaging, and heart-warming.

But here is the quick update on my life: Saturday, I turned in a good portion of the work I was doing in India. I'm sadly behind, but not surprised! My mom has been sick now going on week 3 or 4 and it's so wierd, because she's usually the most healthy one! So hopefully she'll get better soon! And Thanksgiving is this week. Anyway, the blank blogger brain syndrome is weighing down on me. There is lots I could say, but it seems wierd to publish all my thoughts on the internet. So I'll promise to write more later :)

Lame

So, I realize I am a lame blogger since I never post anything new. It has been so busy and harder to have something ready for a computer than I thought. Yesterday, we said farewell to the family we have been staying with the last few months and clumsily boarded a few buses and 5 hours later, we were here in Madurai and exploring the huge temple complex they have here. I just came from there and wish I had a degree in Ancient South Indian Temples and their Symbols. We went at just the right time, people all over the place, the air was cool, but the stones under our feet were still warm from the sun before. At one point, Jay and I walked down a few hallways that seemed pretty deserted, and the carvings seemed really, really old - I can only compare with carvings I saw in Italy, but the climate probably also made a difference with these. Anyway, it was nice and peaceful - at least in those hallways...then, a half-level up from one of the hallways, there was a meditation hall, not 5 minutes did we sit there, when a very large processional of people, including a decked out cow and a decked out elephant and a decked out god being carried on the shoulders of several men came down the hallway. There were drummers and singers and horn players and "drone" players (small bagpipe/organ thing) and people carrying torches. All that with the tall carved dark stone pillars really made me feel like I was living an Indiana Jones story or something. Who knew places like this really still do exist? Anyway, i am going to keep my blogs short so I write more often.

My brother Jeffrey left Tuesday afternoon (for me)/morning (Utah time) for the good land of Brazil - I had a long call - I think the longest the shopkeepers had seen and it was really nice to talk with him for a bit. He will be good - he'll have an awesome experience. Well I have got to leave. All my love :)

Answers to Life's Profound Questions

[This is from a letter I wrote to April]

Whoa Whoa Whoa Whoa!

Do you spell your middle name with two "l"s???? I always thought (your own sister even!) that there was only one "L" in your "michele" which would make it hard for people to pronounce! hmmm. Well. I thoroughly enjoyed your email. It brought a smile to my face and heart, although my heart doesn't have lips, so it was quite diffilcult, and I had to go to the hospital to sew up the makeshift lips I created with my heart (because it was an open-lipped smile, of course). Anyway, email, in some perceptively subtle way, has inspired me to answer some common questions that someone might have for me like, "How is India?" and "Is it totally hot?" Brilliant!
"How is India?" and "Is it totally hot?" So, India is great! and filthy, and beautiful, and poor, and lavish, and clean, and yes, very very hot, even "totally" hot as some might term it.

The first city we were in was Chennai which felt like we were in a bowl of Chilli (which is how the travel guide aptly describes it). It was SO hot and humid - I guess it had rained right before we came so it was especially humid. I enjoy sweating. yes. but not smelling. so Chennai (pronounced CHENN-ay) and i had a love/not-so-love relationship. When we got there we officially used the squatter toilets for the first time and then discussed possible strategies for not going to the bathroom for the next 3.5 months. Then we went out to meet Jay, but alack! all we saw was sea of pepper-colored faces. then we saw Jay on the right. He met us away from the crowd and proceeded to run us through the gauntlet--seriously. Knowing we would be exhausted, he loaded 30-40 pounds on each of our backs (mine was almost 50) and led us through harrowing obstacles, such as cement barriers, unfamiliar smells and crowds, alongside a street of car horns - I think there was more honking than there were cars - and they don't follow traffic lanes at all - they're very very efficient people --- if you can fit 7 cars, a bike and a bus side by side on a 2-lane highway, all the better! Well we survived that test and made it to the train and the hotel. Next time I travel, I am totally not packing anything - my pack was sooooo heavy. Oh well. Then we proceeded to sweat profusely after the gauntlet walk. It was quite admirable just how much we sweat! Well we didn't really stop sweating for the next 5 days until about the night before last, when for an hour or so at 1 or 2 am, it actually got a little cool. Sweating is fun, but being cool at 1:00 am is funner :)

CULTURE SHOCK? Well I don't have any culture shock at all, except for the time when I was vigorously trying to escape a woman with a crutch and something wrong with her leg...she saw me giving some coins to another lady and popped out of nowhere. She chased me for about 3 blocks (for which I was actually quite impressed - she was about grandma Black's age and stature, yet she was dodging obstacles, weaving in and out of fruit stands and always headed me off at the pass. What was sad, though, was as I was chasing her, I nearly stumbled over a man lying on the street face down in the heat of the day. He only had stumps for legs and thighs, and sweat was all over his back in the hot midd-day sun. I nearly started crying. He was begging too - I would have given to him if the other lady weren't in hot pursuit and then I walked a few yards and saw another man, lying face-down in the street with sweat on his back - He was also begging. Anyway, that aspect has been a little difficult to deal with. The money is so little to me that I don't mind giving...but when I have to deny someone, I feel guilty. I haven't seen any beggars since I left Chennai though.

Other than that, culture shock is like, "Oh yeah! I'm in India!" or feeling like you're watching a movie about India, and then realizing that the leather-skinned man in a linen skirt standing next to you is not common to South Jordan or even Provo for that matter :) Hopefully it will hit me permanently that I'm really in India and I will live in reality for a change.

Oh wait - another thing I am still trying to figure out is the head bobble - it's more entrenched and complex than I ever before imagined. I think it means both yes and no and maybe all at once! I'll let you know when I figure it out.

MY TIME - Well now that you mention it, my time on this computer may be running out soon...Do I want to pay for an hour? and hour and 15? We'll go for an hour and 15 for now. Um we're spending time sleeping and eating and brushing our teeth, and talking and walking, and riding busses and running errands, and reading and studying. Pretty boring I guess...Well, up until now, we've spent a lot of time just travelling and making preparations for travelling. Right now we're on a trip to the city to run some more errands: get mosquito nets, anti-malarial drugs, use the computers, buy a nightgown, etc. We did visit a few hindu temples and a place called Shanti Ashram and take a walk around the village. This introduced us to the children, mostly, and some of Jay's friends.

The children are pretty cool. They ask lots of questions like, "Hi! How are you!?" "What is your name?!" "Your father's name?" "Your Mother's name?" "Grandmother's name?" "Grandfather's name?" "Coming from?" or "Native Place?" [sorry -- I had to divulge the family secrets!] Then they giggle A LOT! One of them even took me for a ride on the back of her bike. They are really very beautiful people. The women dress in the most brilliantly colored sarees (dresses made of one bolt of fabric wrapped around you - kind of) and salwars - shorter dresses with pants and shawls. They seem to love gold jewelry and dress in really cool fabric...Hopefully I will get to bring some home and they won't be too discolored by the end of the summer...Who knew such a place existed? I did - but it still amazes me how cool they are...

Well, this email is beginning to wax long and boring. I did get through 4 of your 12 questions and hope to get through the rest soon!

I love you and miss you and wish you could be here (by the way, I saw a place that sold submersible pumps with lots of pictures of pumps and my heart lept.)

Departing in 004 hours!

Hey, I am going to try the blog thing during my time in India this Summer! I plane leaves in about 4 hours! Yikes! I really don't think this is hitting me yet. I usually deal with change after the fact. I am about to go and grab some Wendy's as a last rite. Anyway, I love you all (especially if you know me well enough to find this blog.) This will be the best way for me to keep ya posted. -Kristi