The fun 1981 staff at Franklin

Do I know who these people are?

No

Do I remember where I got this picture from?

No

Do I remember why I even have this picture?

Absolutely not.

Do I still feel free to good-naturedly and unabashedly poke fun at these people?

Why yes, yes I do.

It's very difficult to choose my favorite, but I think it may be between the two women in the front row. I suspect, however, that at least one of them is not, in fact, making a silly face.

I sure hope it's the one on the right.

The Pros and Cons of being a Proletariat

I've been working in the factory for a good sevenish weeks so I'm more or less an expert, which qualifies me to create the following comprehensive list.

Pros

• You can always pass the buck up
• You can leave work as soon as your foreman type person says so, no paper work for you
• You can not care how particularly you do your work so long as it passes periodic inspection
• You don't have to get emotionally involved
• You can miss a day and it doesn't really matter
• You can walk away whenever you want, there are always other factory jobs

Cons

• Even when the buck gets passed up you likely have to fix the mistake
  
• You can only leave work when your foreman type person says so
• Your work has to pass periodic inspection
• When you're a natural perfectionist your work will pass inspection anyway, but it takes you a lot longer to do so because you do actually care
• You sometimes do get emotionally involved, and that's kind of disturbing because let's face it you work with labels, pills, lotions, and bottles
• When you miss a day it's really hard to go back because you remember your non-proletariat life
  
• Nobody cares if you never come back to the job
• Let's face it, when you work at a factory they're all pretty much the same experience, no?

Now for a debate, which is more depressing: the fact that you could not make a living as a factory worker because you're too unskilled in manual labor or the fact that you make your living as a skilled factory worker?

That is mad anti-climatic

Another chance for ten points, folks. One day, I'll actually record the points and they'll be worth something. Who knows what, but I'm pretty sure it will be all of your wildest dreams.

I know I have been remiss of the poor blog, but I currently live a schedule that has me staying up until the wee hours of the morning (which usually feels like the perfect time to blog but often ends up being a mistake), and then vacillates between being crazy busy and being crazy tired from the busyness. I know, I know I live such a hard life. Sometimes I'm not quite sure how to handle it.

Now for the real updates. . . .

Last week was pretty exciting because we got the 3rd of July off work so I actually could do fun and social things. In the said excitement I zipped up to Salt Lake City to visit the International Peace Gardens with three friends from the mission (the former Sisters Gurr, Howard, and Rowlands) and some new friends. They were pretty cool, but we only ended up getting to stay for about 20-30 minutes due to unfortunate flat tire incidents (not on my car, in case you were wondering).

Sorensen, Row, Howard, Gurr

Then I jetted down to Provo for a Scrabble re-match with my friend Ammon. Sadly, I must confess defeat, again. But I only lost by 50 this time, so I am improving and slowly learning strategies no matter what he says to the contrary. This was followed by an impromptu sand volleyball game with friends from his ward, which lasted for 3 hours (the game, not the friendships I'm sure), and a subsequent four days of soreness. It was, however, a lot of fun.

Saturday I had to be wily to figure out how to escape the Provo 4th of July parade. It had me almost entirely boxed in, but I prevailed and made it to Malad, ID at last to make a long overdue visit to the grandparents. I had a good time and heard a lot of great stories about family members (both the long deceased and the still living [insert slightly evil laughter]).

Then I had church and work for several days. Mostly this was boring but it did include a funny anecdote involving my friend Maritzha, who is Mexican, and a misunderstanding about ghosts and goats. (For more details, please contact the author).

Finally Friday I had another day off so I could go to another former CRM sister's sealing, run errands like the wind, and shoot back up to the Salt Lake area for her reception. It was fun, it was touching, it was tiring. At last I made it home and finally to bed by midnight, which is at least two hours before my normal retiring time and so rather luxurious).

Today, my friends I rose bright and early to go fishing. And as it turns out fishing was rather a bust despite the help of many family members and friends from whom I borrowed fishing equipment and/or who came to help teach me how. And so afterward we went swimming in one of the Burraston ponds. Much fun was had though this was probably very similar to the faces which may have been made after my rather unglamorous attempts at the rope swing.



What can I say, I think the last rope swing I swung on was in second grade and the last time I went swimming was many years hence. I'm out of practice. I really enjoyed myself anyhow. Brittany and Ammon, and several 11-year-old scouts, performed creditably, however.

That is in fact Ammon doing a flip off of the rope swing, though I will admit that these are not my pictures

The rest of today has been spent in the very efficient process of clearing out my inbox, among other errands. It took a shockingly long time. And this clip, my friends made my early evening.


Until next time.

Strange things are happening to me

I was blogtrawling tonight while I should have been getting ready for bed. I decided to head over to a blog I'd visited a few weeks ago where the blogger had been detailing some of their struggles in finalizing the adoption of their son and I wanted to know if there had been farther developments. In case you were wondering, there were not; but this particular blog has a weekly feature showing children who do need to be adopted and that was up. I began to click around and through and before I knew what was going on, I was seized by an extremely strong desire to adopt a child (and then think of people who could adopt all the others).

Must leave Utah, and all the babies, very soon.