Two Inches

Contributions

I won two dollars from Larry H. Miller yesterday, which I guess was a contribution (from LHM).  Although I probably burned more that two dollars in gas getting there to get it.

Anyhow, I figured I would post my contributions from yesterday today, because I can.

I went to FHE, which was pulling weeds in Liberty Park.  I now need to wash my jeans.  But Liberty Park, because of my ward, now has several hundred fewer weeds. Yay! AND...missionary work happened, because people stopped and asked us who we were....and we gave them ice cream.

Then I went to Winco, because I don't have any food.  The man behind me in line got stuck because I was on one side of the lane with my cart, and an old lady was on the other side of the lane in a motorized wheelchair cart.

So he started helping the old lady bag her stuff.

And while he was doing that, I finished bagging my stuff, then bagged his stuff.

Everyone helping out.  Yay!

And here is a link to Russanne's most recent post, and her thoughts on how she's surrounded by beauty.

Sometimes, especially this week, with the tornadoes in Oklahoma, I feel like there's not much I can do to help.  I calculated that if I got in my car tomorrow and drove to OK, I'd be driving for at least 12 hours, probably more before I got there to help.  And yes, we can do things like donate money and tanigble, needed items....which are very good things to do.

But we can also help within our own circles of influence by doing whatever we can to make people happier, make the world a more beautiful place.  So there you go...a mid-week Good Life post.  Be a contributor!

 

Love Darcy

The Good Life

So the good news today is that my brother Daniel graduated from optometry school yesterday, and he is now Dr. Daniel E. Creviston, O.D.  Pretty sweet.

I kept finding good news stories this week, despite everything else that's been going on.  Some of the things happened by chance, like the story about the two sisters.  And some of the things happened out of necessity, because people were put into situations that called for action.  And other things were simply things that happened because good people decided that they had the power to make a difference in the world.

Whatever the case, we do have the power.  You have the power.  You have the power to make the world a better place.  It's rare that we'll have the chance to lift a car off of someone or return $4,000, but from moment to moment we can choose to be kind to someone, to open a door, to hold back a sharp comment, to pay for someone's lunch. You can make life good for someone else. But it's a choice.

Here are the stories I found for this week:

 

This is perhaps my favorite story of the week, about a man who, despite the loss of his young son, goes out of his way to make others happy.  A true contributor.

This was a fun story about two sisters who unexpectedly met for the first time at a high school track meet.

And here is a good samaritan story. Why just go to prom?  Why not save someone's life, then go to prom?

We hear a lot about bad things that people do to other people.  Here is one instance where the bad guy didn't get away with it.

And here's another instance.  I know it might seem weird to include this on a Good Life post, but this is one person (two, counting the girl above) who won't have to deal with all the trauma of what might have come later.  Also, it's an instance of a parent who cared enough about their child to run a guy down in her car, probably totalling her car, to get her daughter back.

A 5-year-old uses his knowledge of the alphabet to save his dad's life, and even more life-saving going on at the end of the article.

And here's a story about a little girl who returned a lot of money.

And this is a story about someone who gave a lot of money.

And then there's this:

 

Have a good weekend, everyone, and if you want to congratualte Daniel on being AWESOME, leave a comment on this post.  :)

My life for now

So I love the sunshine, but I hate the heat.  75.  That's good for me.  Pleasantly, jacketless warm. Already I am running fans in my apartment and wishing I had air conditioning. 

And I need to clean my kitchen.  I'm drinking a lot of green shakes lately, trying to be all nutritious and all, and the heat is making all my fresh fruit go bad too fast.  I can't eat it fast enough.  But yes, I need to clean my kitchen and take out the garbage.

And go grocery shopping.  On the one hand, grocery shopping is easy when all you're buying is fruits and vegetables (okay, and some of Winco's homemade almond butter), but on the other hand, you have to do it more often because they go bad faster than processed foods.

I need to invest in some shorts.  I'm not really a fan of shorts, because I don't think I look good in them and I would have to shave my legs more often (true confessions), but I think this summer is going to be very hot.  So I should give in.

This might be one of my romance-free summers.  Usually, I don't know why, I end up in a relationship come spring-time, and then, for whatever reason, it ends by the end of the summer.  I don't think spring officially ends until the end of June, but I'm not seeing any romances coming on.

I had another doctor appointment today.  I had been seeing this one doctor, Dr. Butler, and he referred me to a Dr. Yorgasen.  Then I was referred by my bishop to a Dr. Smith.  They all did different procedures.  Hearing tests, CTs, sleep studies.

I guess the good news is that I've met my deductible by now.  Dr. Smith says that the sleep study I did shows that I don't really need nose/tonsil surgery.  That just leaves the ear surgery, which I think I'm going to go for, probably in August.  I'm not afraid of the surgery or that it will be terribly painful. Honestly, I'm more worried about insurance and making sure everything gets paid for without me going in the hole.

I've been really tired of my hair being dry and frizzy all the time.  I was in Whole Foods last week getting some chocolate for people, and I was lured into the soap and shampoo aisle by some lovely scents.  I ended up getting some Acure shampoo, which has some kind of oil in it that makes my hair awesomely smooth and silky without weighing it down.  Oh, and I got some leave-in-conditioner too, which I've never used before.  

I have been working about two hours a day on my book, trying to get it finished by the end of the month.  Can I say that....man....it's good.  And then I got about 3/4 of the way through, and all the details started converging on each other, and that's where my brain panics...and I just have to breathe.

Now that I'm back from WA/OR, I'm trying to find other things to look forward to.  The Crevistons are getting together in June, and that will be fun.  And my ward is doing something in Jackson Hole the weekend before my birthday.  I'm trying to convince them to make chicken tacos for the whole ward, but I don't know if they'll go for it. ;)

Anyhow, that's my life for now.

What We Teach Our Daughters...and Sons

Last night I read this article about the makeover of Disney's most recent princess, Brave's Merida. Before I started reading, I thought, "Oh great, what are people upset about now?"

Then today I read this totally different article, about a Texas female photographer who had her daughter dress as famous females for copy portraits.

And shortly after that, I read this article that combines the two stories.

I have a handful of thoughts on these articles.  On the one hand, you have Disney promoting the idea that beauty for women boils down to physical beauty: slim waist, femininity, bust size, long eyelashes, big eyes, long, flowing hair (essentially, a woman's beauty is defined by her value to a man).  And I'll say here that Disney is not the only entity that does this.  They are just the ones guilty in this instance.

On the other hand, in the instance of Jaime Moore and the portraits she took with her daughter, we have a very different definition of beauty. Aesthetically, yes, there was something attractive about each of the women portrayed, but I like what Jaime was trying to portray to her daughter: beauty is about who you are and what you do, not how much you weigh or what you wear.

I think there is something inescapable about society's definition of beauty.  It's everywhere and will most likely to continue to be so. But that doesn't mean that it has to be the only definition we let our children believe in.  When I first started writing this post, I hadn't tacked on the "and sons" part, but then I realized that it is just as important for our sons to appreciate real beauty in women as it is our daughters.  Because we can teach our daughters that beauty comes from within until we are blue in the face, but if our sons continue to seek the merely aesthetically beautiful women, it will be to no avail.

And I realize that as a fairly average-looking, slightly over-weight woman, this type of post could have a very sour-grapes type of flavor.  I am not arguing against aesthetic beauty.  I am arguing that it shouldn't be the only kind of beauty that we emphasize with our children.  I like how Moore introduced her daughter to good female role models and emphasized their positive accomplishments. How much better would our world be if we emphasized that it's the actions that make a person who they are, not society's unrealistic standards or a chance-based genetic lottery.

One of the differences between aesthetic (or physical) beauty and "inner" beauty is that the first limits a person and says what they have to be.  It tries to fit them into a fairly rigid mold that, let's face it, only a small portion of the world fits into.  The second kind of beauty is the opposite.  It says "You are already beautiful, and because you are already beautiful, you can do anything.  So go do it."  Inner beauty is a beauty of possibility, not confinement.  Inner beauty invites you to be who you are and not to worry about what the world thinks.

If I had daughters and sons, this is one thing I'd be teaching them.

The Good Life

Well.

Not that nothing has gone on this week.

But it's been decidedly harder to find good news than last week.

Here is something, though.

And I found this, which was happy news.

And this was great as well.

As far as contributions go, my VT gave me a ride back from the airport on Monday, and a mysterious someone left a bag of Cadburry Mini-Eggs on the table in Maintenance (when things are left on the table, that means "eat me").  I only ate about eight. As far as my own contributions go...I gave my visiting teaching the name of my violin teacher, who also happpens to be a cosmetician. And I bought my friend some chocolate and a bath ball for her birthday.

 

*I post Good Life posts every Saturday morning to remind us all that, even though a lot of crummy stuff goes on, there are still things to be happy about.  It's also a place where people can post things that they or other people have done to "contribute" or make the world a happier place (although people don't like bragging about themselves, so this hasn't caught on yet).

Stupidity is not a Need

Today I ran into the word "synergies."  This word is tragic on so many levels.  Please, please, please, don't ever use this word or its slightly more acceptable singular form, "synergy."  Ever. Like ever ever.

One of the multiple problems with this word is that, even if you are using it correctly (which this particular user wasn't), it makes you sound dumb and gullible.  I've got some SYNERGY over here, man, you want some? Wowza, man, this stuff is CRAZY good!  It's like a car salesman, a cheerleader, drug dealer, and the author of a self-help book all in one.

We all make enough unintentional mistakes in life...so making intentional ones is just silly.  And using words like synergy is an intentional mistake you can avoid.

Synergy is a made-up word.  There are lots of made-up words in the English language. Language, like people and their ideas, is constantly evolving.  Some words are made up out of necessity, because there was never a word for them before (e.g. texting, blogging, smart phone), and some words very sadly evolved from perfectly respectable words (preggers, hubby).  Other words didn't evolve from anything but sheer stupidity or wannabe cuteness (when people try to make something cute that's not*, or when they want to romanticize things), like "baby bump."

*NOT saying here that a woman's pregnant belly is unattractive or unsightly, although I do think the current media trend to bare all is inappropriate.  I'm just saying that "tummy" worked perfectly fine for a long, long time, and I don't see the need for the change.

Need.

That's really what it's all about.  I don't see the need for baby bump or synergy.  But there are perfectly legitimate changes in English that I embrace.

Like the use of singular "their." There is a need for a gender-neutral, singular possessive pronoun. "His or her" and "his/her" combinations are ugly and disrupt the flow of speaking and writing. Made-up pronouns like "werf" are unnatural and draw too much attention to themselves. So, while the plural use of "their" as a singular pronoun used to be frowned on, it is increasingly becoming more and more acceptable.  It makes sense, and it fulfills a need.

Laziness and stupidity are not needs.

A while back, someone on the 100 Hour Board wrote in, asking about the growing use of the word "resiliency." I was not the asker of this question, but I sympathized with the asker's frustration. Why use "resiliency" when we already have "resilience" ?  I came upon this same situation in a Relief Society lesson a week ago, and it bothered me enough that I looked the word up (I told my nephews that I'd give a buck to the first person who brought me a dictionary).

What did I find, you ask? Resilience and resiliency are both words.  They mean the exact same thing. BUT...but, but, but...resilience is the more standard usage.

People who study language know that there are two camps when it comes to usage. Descriptivists (or non-commital pansies, as I like to call them), will tell you that language is a beautiful, ever-changing thing, and that there isn't necessarily a right or wrong (or as Olympia folks like to say "It's what's right for you.") Okay.  Really, they're not all that bad.  But they are less likely to tell you how things should be and more likely to tell you how they are.  And if everyone is using the word synergy incorrectly, they will probably tell you that that has become the new norm, and as long as the meaning is clear, it's okay.  Essentially, if all a descriptivist's friends are jumping off bridges, they will too.

The other language camp is prescriptivists.  These people are the ones who tell you that you can't ever, ever, ever end a sentence with a preposition, that infinitives should never be split, and that you should never start a sentence with a conjunction.  These are the sticklers for rules and meanings.  These are the ones who know the difference between nauseated and nauseous and discreet and discrete.  These are the ones who, never fail, when you ask them "How are you doing?" answer "I'm doing well," instead of "I'm fine," or "I'm good," because "doing" is a verb and only adverbs (like well) can describe verbs, not adjectives (like fine and good).

Neither camp is totally right.  They both have their advantages.  Language does evolve, so we need to be adaptable.  But we shouldn't be so adaptable that we allow it to lose all meaning or dignity.  Language is a code, and codes have rules, and rules should be followed, unless there is a need that the rule doesn't address.

Ooh.  See that?  Back to need again.

There is no need for stupidity.  Fun, laughter, freedom, yes.  But stupidity, no.  We all know that language rules can be broken for a particular purpose or effect.  This involves knowing the rules, though, and then breaking them, not because you are stupid, but because you are deliberate.

So, breaking the rules intentionally, but without a purpose is deliberate stupidity....which could be the topic for an entirely new post.

I will end this now.  You probably stopped reading four paragraphs up the page anyhow.  But I hope you have a lovely weekend. Go forth, and don't be stupid.  Stupidity is not a need.

 

Escape Trip Finale

Day 5: Monday

Monday was the last day of my trip, sadly.

McKay and I drove from Camas to Astoria, because I hadn't been to the beach in several years, and McKay was kind enough to humor me.

Monday was my music day.  After some tweaking of a few music converter devices, we managed to make it so my iPod would play on his stereo.  Here is where I say that my car is four years older than his, and it has an iPod jack.  It was pretty much the deal breaker for the car.  ;)

Anyhow, lovely drive again. Soooooooooo green, and lots of ponds and lakes and ocean inlets and stuff.

Our first order of business when we got to Astoria was to go to the Astoria Tower, which was easily one of my favorite things to do as a kid.  I always explain it to people who've never been as a light house without the light.  It's a tower, on the city's tallest hill, and there are 164 steps to the top.

Before you start climbing the steps, though, go to the little shop and buy one of the $1 balsa wood airplanes so you can fly it off the tower.

The view at the top is pretty spectacular, so stick around a while, and take lots of pictures.

After the Column,  McKay and I went to the Maritime Museum, where we took picures with us climbing on the giant propeller and anchor.  McKay says this is always a must-do when he brings his boys.

And of course, you have to eat at Pig N' Pancake when you go to Astoria, so we had a late breakfast there and ran into the German (?) family we saw at the Column.

We then made our trek to Warrenton, about ten miles away, where the beach was.

YAY! The beach!  This was very exciting for me.  Toes in sand. Water over toes.  Waves in front of me.   Salty air.  I don't think I thought I would miss that so much when I moved to Utah, but I do.

McKay was really excited about his hat.  He bought it at the gass station in Queets where we stopped to ask for directions on Friday.

Then McKay and I went to Ft. Stevens, which is in the same area.  This was a staple when we were kids.  It's a large, cement fort built during the Civil War, and there are all sorts of nooks and crannies to climb around in and hide in.

It was kind of sad going there.  It's falling apart now, and lots of the places are blocked off, and there's grafitti everywhere.  

And that was it.  McKay used his speed-demon driving skills to get me to the airport on time, and now I'm back, and I'm starting to think up new adventures.

Control

When you feel powerless to change anything else in your life, clean your spice rack and baking cupboard.

And fridge.  And pantry.

I decided I need one of those tiered spice racks.  Because I have so many spices, I don't use them all because I forget I have them. Oh.  And an official salt and pepper shaker too.

The Escape Trip, Part 2

Day 3: Saturday

Saturday was more soaking, more chatting.  We met up with Tyler and his girlfriend Mandy, whom we all really liked.  McKay and Tyler both looked like pirates.  They were wearing bandanas on their head and sunglasses (because all pirates wear sunglasses), and I could just imagine Tyler with a gold hoop through his ear. I had a picture of them both, but somehow it got deleted.

The conversational highlight of Saturday was when Mom was talking about one of her students who is always exaggerating things.  He'd told her a story about how he used a tranq gun to take out 37 racoons in his garage.  Mom was doing sound effects and gun motions.....and the spaces around us in the pool emptied very quickly.  :)

Somewhere around 3 PM we decided we were done soaking in the hot pools under the hot sun, and shortly after that we'd all changed and decided to hike out to Sold Duc Falls.  Mom and Dad say we've hiked out to it a number of times before, but I don't remember it.

There was lots of other fun stuff that went on that day.  We finished off the outing in Port Angeles, where we all grabbed dinner at a drive-though called Frugals.  Then McKay and I started the 5-hour drive back to Camas.

Where I got to sleep in a king-size bed. Mmmm.

 

Day 4: Sunday

Church.

Lego inspection.

Fort-making with the boys.

Hide-and-seek.

Tossing Ethan over my shoulder.

Ukelele concert.

Chicken tacos and Skor cake.

Watching RED with the family.

 

Here's where I note Bridget's observation that it was good for McKay to have me over because McKay never gets teased unless his siblings or parents aren't around, and I gave him a healthy dose of teasing. Here's where I also note that in the Creviston family, friendly teasing is a sign of affection.  His kids were a bit surprised that I could get away with teasing him, but I think they enjoyed it.

My Escape Trip (part 1)

Day 1: Thursday

So a while back McKay called me from work, and he says "We should go to Sol Duc," and I say "I'm there.  When do you want to go?"

I'm sort of at my Utah/singles life threshhold now, and I knew I needed a break.  This was it.

Thursday afternoon I took the plane (middle seat, between two old men) to PDX.  This was my first time flying into Portland, and I've decided it's the nicest airport I've been to.  Very clean, and very modern-looking.

My friend Chelsea from high school conned me into overcoming my hesitancy with public transportation and using the light rail to meet her downtown.  We had discussed doing dinner, but we weren't sure where.

Before she picked me up, I waited in Pioneer Square, where I watched a group of men avidly watching two other men play a game of timed chess.  It was fascinating, and I got a kick out of how into it they all were.  Chelsea picked me up in her work vehicle, which was a giant white cargo van that could have easily fit four bunk beds into it.

Chelsea is a prop stylist whose international wanderings I envy. We drove to the opposite side of town to eat at a pod of food carts.  Apparently this is a very Portlandy thing.  It was delicious.  We bought a basil/fennel sausage pizza from one cart and some sweet crepes (chocolate and pear and lemon and sugar) from another.  We also passed an Ethiopian restauraunt on our walk to the pods that smelled very delicious as well.

We chatted for a while about travel and Portland and my love life (?) and how I should move to Portland with her.  I'm sort of thinking about it short-term.  For a month or so.  Anyone want to take care of my bird?

Chelsea dropped me off at the Portland temple, where McKay works as one of the main security guys.  I always like seeing people in the place that they work, if I know they like working there.  It's a way of seeing them in a different light.

McKay and I stopped at Walmart on the way home (very late) to get some trip food.  I'll spare you all the details, except that we both got Milano cookies, and Mom ending up getting some Milanos too.

McKay and Bridget were kind enough to let me sleep in their spare bedroom, which has a giant, king-sized bed, which was very luxurious and not at all what I usually get to sleep on when I travel.

....

Day 2: Friday

Long post yet?  If you think it's too long, go play on facebook or something and come back.  I thought about breaking it into a different post for every day, but then I decided that would be silly, because even if it was broken into different posts, it would be the same about of reading.

Friday McKay and I took off early in the morning and drove. McKay had everything all Mapquested out, so, for the most part, we didn't have to do much navigation.  The drive really wasn't bad because it was PRETTY.  And by pretty I mean very green, and lots of water everywhere, and gosh I wish Utah would be as green.

McKay very considerately made CDs of his least annoying music.  I mention this because I know he went out of his way to do it.  I had done the same, creating a trip playlist of music that I thought he would think was tolerable.  McKay likes lots of techno and thrashy music and music no one has ever heard of.  I like what I like to call "real music."  We managed to make it work.

When we got about halfway up highway 101, McKay realized, when we saw ocean, that we were driving on the "wrong" side of the peninsula.  I knew which side we were on, but I figured he meant to go that way.  Anyhow, the Mapquest directions were no longer relevant, and my phone was dying, so we stopped at a gas station in a nowhere place called Queets to by a map.  And because you had to spend at least $15 if you weren't using cash, we also bought cinnamon bears, circus peanuts (more later on that), and some other stuff.

Well, we passed Forks (Twilight land) and some other nowhere places, and finally made it to Sol Duc.  McKay and I rented lockers in the changing rooms, which we'd never done before as kids, and I have to say, it's worth the money.  So much less worry about leaving your stuff out.

Sol Duc.  If you're related to me, you know what it's all about.  Relaxing in the hot pools.  Switching to the cold. Making whirlpools.  Being in the mountains. Listening to the Koreans and Russians (McKay made the interesting comment that we'd never observed any black folks or Mexicans there).  You always meet interesting people and have interesting conversations.

They have a few more rules now than they used to, but it's still fun.  Mom and Dad took us out to the Sol Duc lodge restaurant, which is a bit on the expensive side, but everything was really good. Then we went back and soaked till the hotsprings closed.

Here are some things to remember if you haven't been there and plan on going:

1. Bring some good flip-flops or water shoes for going between pools so your feet don't get too raw.
2. Wear sunscreen.
3. And sunglasses.
4. And keep applying the sunscreen.
5. Over and over.
6. Bring a towel.
7. Bring a water bottle.
8. Bring a hat.
9. It doesn't matter what you look like.  There will be all types there.
10. It's actually the best in the mornings and evenings when it's cool, and on really rainy days.  

We'd rented cabins, so we went back to change, then went to hang out at Mom and Dad's cabin. I pulled out the circus peanuts and started eating one in front of dad, and I almost got through the whole thing before he realized what it was and demanded that I hand them over. (Circus peanuts = gaggy sugary candy)

There were also lots of deer sightings (six, right outside our cabin!), some laser-pen nonsense, and some sampling of local rootbeer.