Politics Blog

I'm going to try and plug for my politics blog again, since I am having renewed vision for it, and one that may be pertinent to all people, and not just people voting for the particular senators, as interesting or disinteresting that may be. Anyway, I would love any feedback, and really just want to know what everyone thinks. And feel free to share it with your friends!

As a side note, I seem to have my greatest moments of genius and aha relating to writing when I am lying in bed trying to go to sleep. Generally I can accept that I will remember it in the morning, and go to bed, but sometimes things just make me so excited that I have to do them right now! Or I have weird pain in my hip and it distracts me from actually falling asleep, and tonight it was the two factors combined. I should probably say this on my politics blog, and I will, but I want to put some time between the posts, but I would welcome more ideas for further topics of discussion.

I Love Yoga

Yoga is sooo nice. I've been so stressed lately, but like...I spend an hour doing restorative yoga, and I feel like a baby right after feeding, in that "milk coma" as Ben (my brother-in-law) says. I just feel so rested, so restored, so in myself. It doesn't matter what is happening outside of my body, that is all I can control, and I have the power to relax the tension. And I just did, doing restorative yoga. The teacher calls a lot of the poses yummy. They didn't feel yummy at the time, but now I feel soo great. I just want to float through the rest of the evening, and then enjoy the further restoration that comes through sleep.

In memory of Jonathan Berry

I had a dream last night about an old friend who went missing just over two years ago. I had a dream that he was alive, and had married some girl in the Ukraine and had been hiding there, just for kicks and giggles apparently. Anyway, as soon as I saw him, I ran up to him, and pretty much attacked him with a hug, because I was soo happy to see him alive. And I just told him that I loved him. I woke up, and for the first time mourned his loss, because I hadn't been able to before. I miss my friend. I also wish I would have made more effort to see him when he came back from his mission, because I cared about him then, but was worried that he would distance himself from me, since he no longer had a testimony. I await the day when I will get to be reunited with him once again, and I can hug him, and I can tell him how much I love him.

Married to my best friend

I just read something on facebook, about how someone was marrying his best friend, and it made me start thinking, and so you can learn about an idiosyncrasy of mine. Lots of people say something like this, or aspire to something like this, and I think it is a good thing, but I have never said it. And there is a reason. It is because to me, the husband shouldn't get to steal both labels. Like...my best friend before I knew Janardan was Stefanie. Why should he get to steal her title when he already gets the title husband? So, it doesn't seem fair to me, so I've never said it, because to me, a best friend is someone else besides my husband. He is obviously the closest to me, and he is my closest friend, but he doesn't get to be my best friend, because that role was taken long before he ever came around. Of course he doesn't care, but, he should see it as a badge of loyalty. Just as I won't give up my best friend for some newer male model, I won't give up my husband for anything else. He's mine and mine forever. I love him, and he is wonderful, but he doesn't get to be called my best friend.

The Tasty Surprise

A few nights ago, I was making Janardan some food, and he asked along with the other things to bring him a tasty surprise. That first night I was kind of thrown by it. I hunted through the fridge looking for something different, and something tasty. I saw celery, and thought that he hadn't had any frogs on logs lately, so I made him those. He thought it was a good tasty surprise. Anyway, so then last night, I was anticipating the request of a tasty surprise, and I really like it. So I have started trying to make tasty surprises and it is fun to try and create something new that Janardan will think is a tasty surprise. And I have added a few new things to what I get for him, so that is fun, and I look forward to seeing what genius is spurred by further tasty surprises.

Prison Blog and Books

I've been reading a blog written a few years ago while this guy was in prison. I'll warn you, it can be pretty explicit at times. There are a lot of f-bombs and people talking about sexual gratification as it relates to prison life. Just so if you don't want to read those sorts of things, you either don't read the blog, or know that parts should be skipped over.

It has brought my attention to different problems with prisons, though, and I guess made me question the whole prison system anyway. Like I'm not a fan of drugs or anything, but I think there is a big difference between doing drugs and committing murder. But when people who do drugs are sent to the same prisons as people who murder...then they are becoming part of a community of murderers, or they risk being murdered by those people...or being extremely lonely. And it's like...a system where people are forced to associate with those type of people changes them, and it seems to me that going to prison could change them into hardened criminals. They don't learn the virtues that are important in the outside world. They learn to be tough, to hide their emotions, and to avoid being beaten up, being raped, or being killed. It seems to me that the system is not working. People doing drugs should not be sent to prison to be punished, but to be rehabilitated, maybe even forced detox or something like that, where they are in control of the state. It seems in much more interest of the state to rehabilitate prisoners so that they don't return and so they can contribute to society, rather than creating criminals out of drug-users, so then we can pay to keep them in prison for the rest of their lives? That just doesn't seem to be a system that makes sense to me.

Anyway, for anyone else interested in trying to help prisoners...I don't have anything that specifically helps with those issues, but there is a prison book program, which helps prisoners get books so they can get educated, so they can hopefully contribute to society when they get back out -- http://www.prisonbookprogram.org/.

And then there is also a site devoted to helping stop prison rape -- http://www.spr.org/, which it seems like also is a very good idea.

So...help the prisoners out!

I want to make cheese

I went looking around on the internet again for cheesemaking supplies, and it made me excited to make cheese. I am really excited, though of course, it will take a long time to figure out if I was successful at my first attempts (because the least amount of aging is like one month). Anyway...so I am once again excited, and can't wait to be settled back in Utah so I can start making cheese. Yum.

Can't Sleep

Tonight it is because I tried to go to sleep 2 hours earlier than I have been going to sleep the past week or so. I got on the computer, because I thought it might help me, and it seems to already be serving its purpose, though I am now realizing that I am really hungry, so I may need to eat something before I go to sleep. Also I think it is going to be hard to get to bed much earlier than 1am when I am running until 9:30pm. It is too hot here to run any earlier. I was running in the mornings, but then I ended up with headaches all day because of the heat. Perhaps I am doomed to sleep from 1am-10am. But even getting up at 10 would be better than 11:30/noon as I have been lately. I end up with such a short amount of time where I feel free to do things, because then after 10:30/11 at night, Carol has gone to bed and so I don't want to wake her up doing anything that might be loud.

Anyway, I am tired, but not tired enough to fall asleep. I did have some good thinking time, though. That is one thing I like about going to bed before I am dead tired. I get to think about a lot of things. That is often when I come up with new ideas for stories or worlds or settings. Maybe if I start freewriting a little again I'll get more inspiration coming to me at night. It is odd, because as soon as I have a really good idea, I find it so much easier to sleep, because I am looking forward to writing about it, but not so jazzed up about it that I can't sleep.

Well...Janardan just stirred. I think my typing may interrupt his sleep. So goodnight blogosphere, sleep tight.

100 Miles Baby!

I've run over 100 miles since I got my NikePlus!

Yay! I'm so excited! And now I am having crazy thoughts. Like...I may actually want to run a marathon. I'm thinking sometime next year. I am trying to decide between April and the St. George, which I don't remember when is (Oct/Nov-ish). Anyhoo, there ya go.

I feel wrapped in happiness

I feel like I seem obsessed with my rainbow quilt, like I changed my whole theme to my rainbow quilts, and I feel like I write about them a lot. It is for the simple reason that this rainbow quilt that I have makes me happy. I got it out yesterday to use, and so I look down at my lap, and see these beautiful rainbow colors, just there, and it fills me with a sense of happiness. And so today, I feel wrapped in happiness, because I have my rainbow quilt around me.

It is a not a quilt that I am uber proud of. It's not like I think of my quilting prowess, and am like - oh my rainbow quilt is the coolest thing I have made, but I love it. Hm...maybe I will make a mini rainbow quilt just like this one that I can hang on the wall. That would be fun. And be ridiculously quick to make.

Well, there, you got to witness how I come up with an idea for a quilt. This is why it is a bad thing to talk about quilting - it always ends up with a project. I am still trying to figure out what kind of borders I want on my 2nd rainbow quilt. It is eluding me right now.

Also I am soo excited. I get to go to church tomorrow. It's been three weeks. I like...cannot wait. I have felt so deprived not being able to go these last two weeks.

Ok...I am feeling more incoherent than usual, and all spazzy, so I will go to bed.

I've been tagged!

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

I was living in the house of my step-grandparents. My mom and Tom had just gotten married, and there was drama with the new house and the tenants not leaving, so we were living with them while it all got sorted out. It was fun. We would swim in the pool in the back and hang out with the cousins who were close. I remember Little Mike teaching Emily and I how to talk like new Yorkers, and batting at fireflies with a bat. It was also the short time we had to spend with Grandpa Ciccotelli before he died later that summer. I remember the time with fondness.

2. Five Snacks I Enjoy

1. Almonds

2. Carrot Sticks

3. Texas Sheet Cake

4. Red, orange, and yellow pepper slices

5. Sweet Peas (not the pods)

3. Five Things On My To Do List Today

1. Go running

2. Read Scriptures

3. Take a shower

4. Relax and hang out with family

5. Enjoy North Dakota


4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

I don't really like to think about this. Though I would not mind having more money than I have, I don't think I would do well with being rich. I guess I'd like to donate a lot of it, and buy lots of land, build a community greenhouse, and have an indoor swimming pool at my house.

5. Five jobs that I have had.

1. MTC Cookie Maker

2. Cutco Salesperson

3. Tanner Building Custodian

4. Net Marketing Alliance Phone Rep

5. Vision Security Credit Checker

6. Five of my bad habits.

1. Picking at the skin around my fingernails

2. Talking with a harsh tone without realizing it

3. Not eating when I am emotionally stressed

4. Comparing people (though I am a lot better than I used to be)

5. Not brushing my teeth everyday

7. Four places I have lived

1. Maryland

2. New York

3. Colorado

4. Utah

8. Five People I Want to Get to Know Better: A nice way of saying “Tag. You’re it!”

1. Jana

2. Heather

3. Mom

4. Jason

5. Monique

9. 6 Random Things:

1. My sister and I have aspirations to own a cow, and I would like to make homemade cheese with the milk from that cow.

2. In Middle School, I used to eat potato chips, animal crackers, and a coke or mountain dew for lunch. This compared to my preferred fare of nowadays of fruits, veggies, and good bread with yummy cheese.

3. My freshman year of college, Janardan and I went on a bus trip (where we just get on a random bus and let it ride us off), and missed the last bus back to Provo, because I had left my purse at the church we had found. We had apparently gone to Springville, and walked the entire 9 miles home.

4. When I was probably around 4, my best friend Whitney was over, and I was changing my clothes. I had taken off my shirt, and was just going around without putting a new shirt on. She said, "Jennie, if you don't put a shirt on, you'll turn into a boy." For some reason, her saying that has just always stuck with me.

5. My roommate and I once started an elevator club. We would do our homework and play games in the elevator, and then do weird pranks with people on the elevator. It was a fun, if short lived, club.

6. I tore my ACL in 8th grade fighting for a rebound with a guy who was probably at least 8" taller than me. In that same era of me playing ball with the older guys. One night I blocked two shots of a guy who was probably 9-10" taller than me. I miss playing basketball.

I Love Running In North Dakota

It is beautiful. It is cool. It is windy, so it keeps me cool, and there is so much to see while I run, and so many people driving past who wave. I can't wait to run again on Monday.

Day 1 -- Classes Start!

Today was the first day of classes. I took a class on needleturn applique. My teacher was really awesome. She taught us how to do curves, points, straight lines, and circles. I didn't take any progress shots, but below are some shots of the work I did today. PS Curves take forever! Once I got back to straight lines, I was going much faster.

Also my thread was not great. It's good there are some vendors around so I can buy some better supplies. So because of not great thread, my stitch would sometimes be more invisible than others, but that was also because of my learning.

But I am really excited. I have decided I need to start another tree for my North Dakota trip so I won't have to just be hand quilting all the way there, but I can hand applique as well!




So I thought I didn't really take many pictures at the quilt show today, but I guess I still did take pictures. So, yah.

This quilt below had over 20,000 jewels on it. It was gorgeous.

I probably should have put my finger or something in this picture, but this quilt was mini! Those little little pieces were 1/8" pieces. Tiny!

Yep, so that is it! Day 1 was great. Ready for day 2!b

NQA Quilt Show -- Preview Night!!

Today was the preview night for the quilt show. My pictures aren't great. I might double some up if I get pictures off of Mom's camera, which takes much better pictures. But for now, I'll just put up a ton of pictures.

So after going through a small portion of the show, I have decided I really like bright colors, and that color is the aspect of quilts that draws me in the most. Like, use of color has the most impact to me. Regular old quilt patterns done in bright and good colors are much more exciting to me.