We are all stubborn fools

Carrie and I recently re-watched all of the Harry Potter movies. They are all good. I was reminded of how I resisted the allure of Potter-mania for years. I saw the movies, but only with my family because my tix were paid for, though I liked them. I never read the books until one fateful drive from Provo to Overland Park, Kansas, when I got to spend time with the Cranes in America's Heartland when we were recently engaged. We listened to the third book, Prizoner of Azkaban, and it was riveting. When we got home before it was over I had to listen to the rest of the cassette tapes in Carrie's kitchen. I have since read all of the books after the third, but still not the first two.

Why was I so slow on the uptake with Harry? They are fabulous books. Everyone that read them told me that they were wonderful. And yet I resisted. I think I am a stubborn idiot.

I am like the native Tasmanian people, the famously "most backward" people in the whole world. They were cut off from the world when water levels rose and cut off Tasmania from mainland Australia. Not only did their culture not "progress" according to western standards, but it digressed, losing the technologies they had already been exposed to. Americans choose to resist good ideas sometimes as well, though with less debilitating results. We stubbornly stick to our ineffecient QWERTY keyboard. It was designed so that all the letters that are used most often are placed far apart so that old-school typewriters would not get jammed. Other designs for keyboards have been designed and produced, but we resist. It is pretty silly, right up there with resisting the metric system.

But I do it all the time. I still have not seen all of Titanic. I made a decision a long time ago that I would never see the movie. Why? I do not know. I think I was bothered by all the attention the movie was getting, and I decided to have an unneededly strong opinion about it. I think a couple of times I have said that I thought the movie was dumb, but how would I know. I have not seen it. Maybe some psychologist would say that I resist the Titanic because I am getting some reward the reinforces that behavior, but I can't think of what I am getting. I have watched scores of other cheesy, "girl-movies", and liked more than I publicly admit, so what is the problem with Titanic.

I think I need to listen to others better and learn from their opinions. Perhaps then I would stop needlessly punishing myself by withholding my participation in activities, movies, books, etc. that are good. I need to seek after things that are "of good report", and those opinions come from others. This post is way too long because I am waiting for Carrie to be ready for bed.

Celebrate Good Times COME ON!

Yesterday the John family spent their first day in the resort town of Branson, Missouri. Carrie's employer paid for all of their employees to go to an amusement park, Celebration City, and for a good ol' southern BBQ for everybody. We decided to go to the outlets in Branson before we hit up the amusement park. Outlet shopping is not my specialty, as I usually do not enjoy shopping unless there is something I need. After Carrie tried to convince me to spend her gift certificate money, I finally realized that I did need a new pair of shorts. It was 95 degrees outside and I was wearing jeans because my only pair of shorts had multiple food stains (big surprise to those who know how I tear through food like a tornado through the Ozarks). I bargain shopped, comparing prices at every store that sold shorts I liked, and I ended up finding a mismarked pair of shorts that I convinced the cashier to give me the sale price. I think that my mom would be proud. After shopping we went to the A&W, one of the many business entities in Branson with Mormon ties. I had forgotten that they have root beer on the tap there, and it reminded both of us the homemade root beer at the Crane fmily reunion. We are sorry we had to miss the reunion this year and hope to attend future reunions.


After shopping we made our way over to Celebration City. I decided to dance through the entry-way, which Carrie happened to catch on film. Now Celebration City is no ordinary theme park. It is not caught up in all the hoopla, the bells and whistles of other parks like Six Flags or Disney World. It is quaint. It stinks of fried food. The lines were short, never longer than 15 minutes, and the rides were simply fun. Also, amusement parks are not designed for 20 somethings like our family. However, if you get in the right mood you can have fun without mind-altering drugs. I think this picture of Carrie tells you how we were acting. It reminded me of the times I went toLagoon and Six Flags with my sisters, and the one time I was assaulted my a crazy woman in the final car of a roller coaster. Carrie and I were slap-happy. Our favorite ride was the "Orbiter". At other parks it is called the magic carpet. It simply is a bunch of seats on a floor that goes up and down in a circle. It pretty much is the part of the rollercoaster that is really fun, the sensation of weightlessness without all the side-to-side jostling.

They rang his bell

It's been a rough week for TJ. During our 4th of July Festivities he got hit in the leg with an errant firework which has left a nice hairless circle on the front of his left leg. We tried to take a picture of it, but the pictures didn't really do it justice and Anthony doesn't want people to get jealous of his nice legs, so sorry no picture. Thursday evening he went and played basketball at the church and got an elbow to the jaw for his defensive efforts. At first he just seemed to have a headache, but when he couldn't get up the next morning, felt dizzy and nauseous, deleted important files at work, had difficulty making coherent statements, and was strangely aggressive, we determined he was, in fact, concussed.

Other than Anthony's maladies we've actually had a rather uneventful week. Finishing my retirement planning class (yay!) and taking my first long run in awhile (8.5 miles) with Stephanie were the highlights of my week.

On the docket for next week are a trip to Celebration City and checking out some local areas of interest so we can entice people to come visit us.

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Perhaps the weirdest thing I saw on my trip. I saw it when I was driving north on I-15. Not really sure what to think, but please don't think I'm a perv for posting this. Something this odd you just have to share.

Looking down on creation

I was able to spend a fabulous few days in Utah last month. While there I stayed with Jill--she was a gracious host--and we did a lot of fun things. Saturday morning we woke up and hiked the Y. It had been about a year since I last hiked the Y and I definitely used the "I live at 1300 feet" excuse when I made us stop for drinks a few times along the way. While we hiked we tried to figure out how long the hike actually is with all its switchbacks and how high up we were. According to Wikipedia, Y Mountain stands a proud 8520 feet tall and the trail is 1.2 miles long. We stopped when we got the the Y, but there is no doubt in my mind--or my lungs--that I was higher than I'd been in a long time. Of course we took some pictures.

Here we are at highest point of our assent.This is me admiring my surname immortalized on the side of the mountain.
Here is Jill holding up the Law School. She totally rocks it there.
After our hike we were starving so we bought a 5 Buck Pizza and devoured it while watching Saved by the Bell.

I'll leave you with an interesting fact you may not know about the Y: No other college in the United States has a larger symbol, in fact, the Y is even larger than the letters used in the famous "Hollywood sign."