Life....and Death

Unfortunately, my life has been touched by several loved ones who have taken their life recently.  Its one of the things that goes with coming from a state with a high suicide rate and well...just living in this cruel world.  A few weeks ago, a friend I grew up with took his own life.  This morning, an old favorite single, Rhett Miller's song, "The Believer, (For Elliott Smith) popped into my head."  Elliot Smith was another favorite singer who took his own life. Rhett's tribute to his friend is poignant, if you listen closely.

Random Musings: Pneumatic Lungs (NOT MINE!!)

So, let's say you get home, notice your best friend aka roommate's car in the driveway and realize she didn't go to work.  You come into the apartment.  She tells you that she has pneumonia.  You Do a few chores, ask her for what she needs, and she keeps telling you that she's fine and has it under control.  She also tells you that her dad who was diagnosed with pneumonia last week is back to work.  She then says she has this under control even though her mother is worried about her and wants to come to DC and take of her.  Yeah, I'm pretty sure that no one is "fine" when they have pneumonia.  No. One.  But she sure made me chuckle.  Darn, stubborn, best friend.  I may still love her, but she's a stubborn one.

Upstairs, Downton

A few days ago my mom asked me whether or not I had seen the season finale of Downton Abbey.  I hadn't and so the next sentence out of her mouth....wasn't words.  I take that back. There might have been an "oh my" somewhere in that sentence of oh...............wow................oh.............my..........ah...oh..

So yesterday I caught up with Downton Abbey.  I was two episodes shy from the end of the show.  I don't consider Downton much more than a historical soap, but the show is fun and it's amazing to see how it's become a pop cultural icon here in the US, so I watch the show.  That and avoiding conversations like the one above with my mother.

Anyway, my thoughts about Downton Abbey without giving any plot spoilers away can pretty much be summarized by the cartoon below that's been circulating on the internet the past couple of weeks:

Dessert Overlord

Up until last week, the only thing I ever wanted to be a (benign) dictator of was my own bookclub.  Other than that, I'm pretty much a big believer in democracy in almost all aspects of my life.

However, late last week I was appointed Cranberry Sauce and Dessert "overlord "of Thanksgiving Dinner.  At first I was skeptical, but now I see many possibilities regarding this.  Cranberry Sauce?  We have reason to believe many of the people at our table may not ever have had cranberry sauce at their Thanksgiving Dinner so I'm thinking of either serving basic cranberry sauce (maybe with orange, haven't decided) or making two 1/2 batches of cranberry sauce. One traditional and the other with jalapeno.

As far as dessert goes: I haven't quite narrowed down what I want to do.  I could do the Mrs. Smith and Dairy Godmother route.  I could be mean and offer my guests hot tamales and chocolate bars as desserts, but I don't think they would ever let me forget that.  I'm guessing I'll do a traditional pumpkin pie, a not traditional pie and then maybe something else as surprise..but I'm not sure what.

Val

I think I mentioned that my dad lost one of his closest friends on Thursday. Val was like a brother to my dad and an Uncle to my brothers and I.  So, rather than type anything, I'm just going to leave a link to his daughter in-law's blog that she published on Friday.

Here you go:
http://onafricanthyme.blogspot.com/2012/11/val-j-mortenson.html

Del Marva Trip Day 1

Saturday morning, Kelli and I headed to Virginia Beach.  We had the idea of doing the DelMarva Loop...heading to Virginia Beach and (finally!!) taking the southern bridge to the Del Marva peninsula.  What we didn't know is that we would end up at three national wildlife refuges (Go FWS).  So after stopping for diet coke next to the scariest truckstop ever and finding the one toll road in Richmond (here's hoping we don't get a ticket for accidentally not paying.), we made our way to the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

The Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge is completely undeveloped beach that starts south of Virginia Beach to the North Carolina Border.  I really want to walk to North Carolina someday, but i'm not sure if I ever will.  However, what we did see was at least 3 or 4 dolphin pods and maybe 30 or so dolphins. We saw dolphins jumping, twirling, and I even saw a tail (Kelli missed it) not far from shore.  However Dolphins are pretty much impossible to photograph with even my "nice" camera, but I did get a fin of one dolphin in a shot (I tried twice because dolphins are super tricky to photograph).  After dinner I tried Sheepshead for the first time.  Although a sheepshead has a face even his/her mother doesn't love, it's a succulent, tender fish that tastes a little like scallops.  

Sheepshead closeup found on the Internet. 

A montage of  my photos.  If you look closely in that middle picture, you can see a dolphin dorsal fin.

Back

I've spent the last 5 weeks in Utah with my parents.

While there I:
worked;
held (my niece);
kept a secret from my mom;*
attended two graveside services;
regretted I didn't let my brother show me how to knife (an oyster);
teach the other niece how to eat berries obnoxiously;
caught up with a friend from high school;
rode bikes;
was invited to Nicaragua next year;
rode 2k miles in a car;
presented;
ate at the Ranchhand for the 3rd time in 6th months;
realized that my parents watch at least one sport every night (many nights two);
played Ligretto with old friends;
introduced a dog to a little boy who kept saying, "meow";
teased my other brother;
had one-on one time with my sister-in-law; and

many other now memories.

The secret? After work I wandered outside to help my dad with the garden.  While I prepared soil for his greenhouse he came over to me saying, "I don't have the seeds."  He set them down in a plastic bag and couldn't find them.  We looked for them for several minutes but because it was so windy we thought they could easily be halfway across the valley. I was then sworn to secrecy.  Well, he found them a few days ago in the window well and the seeds are now seedlings in the greenhouse.

Steven Knifing Oysters at Hood Canal

Wordless: People in a Peach Orchard Edition

From Left: Steve L., Jeanette L., Courtney G., Jane P., Ben H., Me, Kelli K. Bottom: "Other Steve" and Roger.  Picture courtesy of Roger.

Catch-up, not Ketchup

Whoa, the last couple of months have been a little wild. Since September I've been to Europe, had a surgery, had a cold, bronchitis, a cold/sinus infection and another cold and was on three rounds of antibiotics (not at the same time)*, did a Secretarial Event at work, went to Washington and Oregon for Christmas and am now back in DC. Excuse me if I don't catch my breath before I continue.

Anyway, life really has been good. Being sick has given me time to stop, think about where my life is going and what I need to do to improve. For 2011, my theme is "focus". I've picked five areas that I feel I need to focus on, and I'm trying to spend my time working on those areas.

Those areas are:

spiritual/physical health

finances

writing

relationships

hobbies

I've also come up with a list of things I want to do this year. I'll probably share that list later (to keep myself accountable.

Last year, my theme really was submission. The year was full. There were a lot of great things that happened as well as tough things too. I've gained a greater appreciation (if that's the right word) of the lessons asthma has taught me, and the lessons I believe I need to learn. I'm more resolute in the conviction that I have to control the disease and not the other way around. Getting the asthma controlled has been a lifelong battle, but I know I can do it. There's people around me who have had to deal with much worse trials than mine, and I know I can turn my trials into assets.

I'm also so grateful for my life and for the people in my life. There's been so many people who have helped me, whether they realize they've assisted me or not. I've had so many instances in the past several months where friends, family or even strangers have done something to make things easier for me whether they realize it or not. Those experiences have really humbled me and made me more resolute in trying to assist others whenever I can-small or big.

So anyway, thanks for reading this if you got this far. Here's to 2011!

T-day

Thanksgiving was nice. I needed to go to the office to pick up my phone and ipod so I meandered my way into the city. I stopped at Old Navy to check out their Black Friday sale and was completely impressed by their customer service. I felt sorry the Old Navy staff had to work, but they definitely weren't surly about it. Then it was a stop at the grocery store and into the city in about 10 minutes maybe (I live 6 miles from my office). After marveling at how many people were saying hi to Lincoln on Thanksgiving morning, I spent a few minutes in the office and was back home. Later in the day, I hit a wall and wasn't sure about going over to a friend's house. I ended up "crashing" (I was invited, but hadn't rsvp'd) a T-day dinner. Dinner was lovely and all in all a nice day. Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving!

At Thanksgiving dinner, we found that one of the girls at our table is a mormon.org superstar! Check it out!

Thanks Megan!!

I'm really sorry for the tardiness of this post. Back in July, when I had my first surgery, my roommate brought back this card for me. Her niece, Megan, crafted it with love for me. Isn't it awesome? Plus, I love the colors she picked! Thanks again Megan!

Wordless

Recent Happenings

Here's a roundup of the things that have been happening the past couple of weeks:

Fourth of July (Observed): Kelli wasn't working on the 5th of July so when she finally arose from her bed, we decided to go play skeeball up at Dave and Buster's in Maryland since it was 100 degrees outside. I had to convince there wouldn't be much traffic (luckily there wasn't) and we had a great time up there at the arcade playing skee-ball, killing dinosaurs, racing horses, shooting moose, and racing NASCAR cars. Pretty much a redneck's dream 4th of July Celebration.

Afterwards, we stopped by the Capitol Hill neighborhood to get burgers at Good Stuff Eatery. The hype around this trendy burger joint is completely well-deserved. The veggie burger was the best I've had in the area, and the milkshakes are worth $5.00 a piece (and more than big enough to split). While we were eating outside watching the sun set on the Capitol Hill neighborhood, Kelli remarked, "I wish every day was the 4th of July.....Observed."

LDS Singles Conference: I’ve decided that the only way to get me to Church Single Adult Activities is to ask me to help plan…and even then I drag my feet a bit. 3 days (after registration closed) before our LDS Mid-Singles Conference I finally realized that because I was going to be help planning my weekend was going to be shot so therefore I should probably register. I’m a little slow. Anyway, Friday we had dinner at Red Curry in Old Town (Recommend this place) and then took the Cherry Blossom Steamboat out on the river for 3 hours* with 200+ of my closest single friends. There’s something about trapping 200 single adults on a boat for 3 hours* that makes for some interesting people watching, conversation and observations. Saturday I ended up spending the morning at the church and then we had a bbq that afternoon. Sunday was shortened church at GW Middle School in my neighborhood with lunch provided afterwards. Shortened church+free lunch=happy Sunday.

Avenue Q: Thursday, Kelli and I went to see Avenue Q. A spoof of Sesame Street with Gary Coleman as the Super of the apartments, it’s hilarious (and raunchy at time). We learned valuable lessons like “Everybody is a Racist” and the “The Internet is for Porn.” The show wasn’t over-the top crude all the time, and I’d recommend it to well, some people. That being said, I enjoyed the play, and it was definitely worth it to me.

Lung Surgery? In March, my pulmonologist started talking to me about Bronchial Thermoplasty procedure. I agreed to it, we got my information and sent it to my Insurance. On Thursday, I got a phone call saying I was scheduled for the first procedure….on Wednesday, if my insurance goes through. I haven’t heard yet if it’s been approved but if it is, I’ll be going in on Wednesday. Lung Surgery sounds much more dramatic than an outpatient procedure which is what Bronchial Thermoplasty is.

People with asthma and especially people with moderate-severe continuous asthma have continually small airways in the lungs because of the chronic inflammation of the lungs. When an attack happens to someone with asthma, the airways get even more constricted. Bronchial Thermoplasty opens up those airways permanently so when an attack happens, the airways don’t restrict as much as they did previously.

Bronchial Thermoplasty is an outpatient procedure where the patient is put under conscious sedation, and a little probe is put down their airways. At the appropriate times and locations, the probe shoots super heated air on the airways in the lungs making them larger. 3 procedures spaced 3 weeks apart are done and after that I’m finished. Almost all patients in the clinical study experienced a remarkable improvement and over 80% of patients in the study came off all of their asthma medications except for occasional use of albuterol.

Needless to say, it’s not an exaggeration to say that Bronchial Thermoplasty just may be life-changing....if my insurance approves it.

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday via Ransom Note Indicator

Wordless: Great Falls MD

Weekend Roundup: Vernal Equinox! Vernal Equinox!

1) Last Week
Last week was a bit of a roller coaster. Work has been crazy busy, and this morning I found out that the Secretarial Awards Ceremony I’m in charge of has been moved to the Fall. I’m doing everything I can to let them agree to let me go to Switzerland in September with Steven (see #3).
So, I only really pay attention to College Basketball until Tournament time, and since my other teams were out quickly, I turned my enthusiasm to BYU. BYU Men’s Basketball actually won a game in NCAA Tourney which was a major highlight of the week. Of course they lost on Saturday, but still-they proved that they could win a game at the Big Dance! Plus, Michael Loyd Jr.? He’s going to be fun to watch the next couple of years. The sad news is that a co-worker and close friend of mine passed away from cancer Wednesday evening. I worked closely with this co-worker for 4 years, and it’s always tough losing a friend. My heart goes out to her loved ones. However, the weather in DC has been phenomenal. Mid 60’s-70s with no wind and sunny days? Oh, I’d love to package up the weather over the weekend and save it for a rainy day. The tulip trees are just starting to blossom which means cherry blossoms in about 2 weeks.

2) The weekend?
Friday: I had Friday off and spent the morning at the Doctor’s office getting a Xolair shot. My nurse blew a vein in my leg, but she’s totally forgiven (seriously) for bringing me Cabbage and corned beef while I was waiting in the office afterwards. Food heals all wounds in my world. That evening Kelli and I sheepishly admitted to the other that we really liked “The Hangover” and we both wanted to see “She’s out of my League” but common sense ruled out as we went to buy tickets at the movie theater. Instead of paying $21.50 for a movie, we decided to spend $47.50 on a Dust-Vac. There’s logic to that decision somewhere, I think. Saturday: After Kelli got home from working a few hours, we went up to Eastern Market for Lunch. We didn’t find the pickle guy (my fave) or the Crepe Guy (Kelli’s fave) until as we were leaving, but still had a great time taking in the sun while browsing through the stalls. That afternoon I cleaned and watched my Bracket Picks go down the drain (Thanks Kansas!). After the first half of the BYU game, we went to a house farewell party that evening (friends are getting kicked out of their house as their landlady is moving back in) and talked to a good friend for most of the evening. Sunday: I slept in and didn’t go to Stake Conference. Oops. But there was more cleaning to be had, lungs to be convinced that pollen isn’t out to kill them, a dinner at our neighbors and tentative plans for next weekend made. All in all a great weekend.

3) Trip Plans
March is here and I already have two big trips (Ecuador and Switzerland) planned. Ecuador will include the Galapagos Islands, and Switzerland will be 2 weeks of hiking in the Alps with my baby brother. There’s a smaller trip to Montreal in July that we’re hoping to do, and then there’s Christmas and a trip to Portland to see a baby get blessed. I’m already saving for a house down-payment, but it’ll be good for me to do some further cut-backs on my expenditures.
4) The “I will if you will” Book Club
One of my absolute favorite blogs is “Monkey See” on NPR. The primary writer, Linda Holmes” waxes poetic on pop culture and each post is a gem. A couple of weeks ago after admitting she had never read Twilight, she started the “I will if you will” book club on the blog with Twilight as the first book. Today is their first installment of talking about Twilight and Linda chose to talk about the writing with another Monkey See Contributer. Here’s an excerpt about the book:
It's just this wildly florid prose that's wielded with the subtlety and repetition of a jackhammer, all in the service of a story that's going nowhere being told by a girl who seems to be fighting me for the gold medal in a not-liking-her contest.
Monkey See Blog

5) Health Care Bill
All in all, the Health Care Bill has kind of been an exercise in hilarity. I wasn’t real impressed with anyone during the whole debacle, but they finally passed it. Now that it’s passed, I’m hoping that it actually does more than just line the pockets of the Health Care Industry and actually gives the uninsured a chance to have cheaper, more comprehensive health care and it gives those that are insured better health care. Because really, our Health Care system is broken and unfortunately I don’t see how anyone except the government can fix it. Here’s hoping that the Bill will actually help fix the problem. And if someone could explain to me (in a rational, logical manner) how passing this bill would move us over towards a totalitarianism government, I’m all ears.

6) Everyone’s Favorite Mormon: Glen Beck!
I’ll be honest. I’ve only watched about 2 minutes of Glen Beck before changing the channel, so all I know about him is mini clips here and there, and others verbal repudiation of Beck. However, Beck encouraging listeners to flee churches that had hints of social justice shows of a lack of understanding of basic Christian Doctrine
Roger Ebert wrote an enjoyable piece about Beck and some great points that he learned about Mormonism. A highlight from his blog is here:

Nor, for that matter, could a genuine conservative identify with a flywheel like
Beck. Conservatism is a political and ethical philosophy that exists in another
universe from Beck's shopping cart. Remember that TV show where couples raced up
and down aisles seeing who could jam the most loot into their carts? Beck loads
up from the shelves of the Discount Screwball Supermart. He needs material to
fill his daily hours of air time and fuel his fans with one-liners they can pass
off as thought.

One of my friends, Matt, wrote a thoughtful, sometimes humorous (the kicking puppies line is great) post about Mr. Beck and Beck’s summation of the “religious left.” Definitely food for thought. From his post:

The savagely brilliant religious imaginations that Martin Luther King, or Walter
Rauschenbusch, or Dorothy
Day mobilized behind social reform worked because of their
comprehensiveness. They began with a vision of the world in part inspired by but
not bound to the contexts they found themselves in. And the social reforms they
advocated for were not merely an end in themselves, or to satisfy our basic
human impulse toward charity, or to pursue greater egalitarianism as a
self-contained good. Rather, their calls for social reform were bound inexorably
into the most basic and primal aims of Christianity – to, through the atoning
acts of Christ, attain for humanity salvation. Their theologies of social
transformation were based upon their imagination of the Kingdom of God. They
were radical, then, in the best sense, not merely political. They knew that the
world that Christ calls us to is not the world we live in; that the things
Christ asks of us cannot be fully embodied in the tools of politics. One does
not get that same sense of the incarnation of Christ in the politics of Jim
Wallis. And that, because, like those of Beck, they are simply politics.
So,
I feel an incessant, nagging suspicion that perhaps Beck’s salvo is a justified
one. This is not to endorse his somewhat staggering ignorance, bluster, and
paranoia; indeed, Beck suffers acutely from the same problem he diagnoses; he
believes God is on his side rather than engaging in that constant struggle that
should afflict every Christian – worrying that he is on God’s. It is, though, to
point out that as in every age, idolatry may be the most pervasive sin of our
own.

Maybe the Beatles were Right

I like Valentine's Day. There, I said it.
Even though I've had a Valentine maybe once in my 33 years of existence and I'm single. I like Valentine's Day. A lot. Why? Because it's a celebration of love. Platonic and romantic, familial, friends..all categories of love.
Oh, sure-the holiday has become commercial and as a candophile-Valentine's Day is a dream come true...but a holiday to celebrate the bonds we have with each other? That's pretty neat, I think.
Rather than dwelling on what I don't have, celebrating what I do have is a much better alternative. I have a wonderful family, a mother who sends me my favorite valentine's candy, a father who sends his children pictures of his deployed son's puppy on Valentine's Day, two brothers, a sister-in law who is awesome, Baby Buhlerette(do we call her Anna now?), extended family I adore, and many friends here in DC and points beyond that I cherish.
When I was younger I thought that the Beatles were pretty simplistic, but the older I get? Maybe they were right. Maybe love is all you need.

It's a Mystery

The past couple of days, I've came across a couple of unsolved mysteries. The first one happened a few days ago. I've been working on a scarf when all of a sudden, the knitting needles disappeared. At first I wondered if it was Josie-Monster, but there's no way that puppy could've pulled out the needle and left the scarf intact.. I'm pretty sure my dear grandmother took the knitting needle out of the scarf, hid it somewhere with the other needle and then forgot where she put the needles. Oh well.

Yesterday evening when I arrived home to Virginia, I decided to put in one of our netflix movies only to discover that all three were missing. My apartment isn't that big, and they weren't in their usual places. I'm hoping that my roommate took them to Utah with her.

On the First Day of Christmas, X-Mas Joy Gave to you a Virtual Trip to the Yucatan.

Roundup: Whoop, Whoop Whoopie Pie Edition

1) Kelli and I went up to Lancaster County yesterday to a Whoopie Pie Festival. We didn't make the festival until the tail-end of the festival, but still had a great time. Ever see a 250 lb whoopie pie? Those things are huge. We also found a pottery shop that is one of the coolest shops I've been to out there.

Lancaster County is gorgeous-the Amish were harvesting feed corn but did I take any pictures? Oops. Taken October, 2007

2) A blog I read had a post about a Faces of World War II project that is currently ongoing. The photographer is a 24 year old who has been traveling the country taking pictures of World War II vets. Pretty amazing stuff. He photographs the men and women in their uniforms, or with their army issue equipment.



3) Actual sentence from Dan Brown's new book, "The Lost Symbol":

"His massive sex organ bore the tattooed symbols of his destiny" ...

Ouch.

Okay, now that I've pointed example 353 of Dan Brown's horrible writing, yes I'll probably read this book. Will I give it a four star rating? We'll see. Brown's books are fun even though that man needs a new editor and/or a 12 week English bootcamp course from Mrs. Hawkins.
Link

4) I'm not going into the details about how this was leaked (maybe there is a use for Twitter) but President Obama calling Kanye West a jack-ass for that stunt at the VMA's? Obama went up a notch in my book.

5) I had my first xolair shot two weeks ago. Two of my closest friends have both commented that I seem better than I did before the shot. You aren't really supposed to feel the effects until a month after a shot, but I feel better. I rode my bike to work 3 days in a row and hadn't been able to do that since October of last year.

Goths on Holiday!!

Kell showed me a blog today called "Goths in Hot Weather." She blogged about it, so I don't want to steal her thunder, but this commercial? Oh, it's a gem.