Oops...I did it again

For what seems like the millionth time, I took another bad I.D picture yesterday. I'm not really sure what's the deal! Last week I started a new job that required me to get an employee name badge. Nothing too fancy, it has my picture on it and some sort of sensor that gives me access to the building. On Monday they told me they would be taking pictures yesterday. Yesterday morning I got up a little early, showered and actually spent time on my hair and make-up. I even decided to wear a new sweater I got over Christmas. Unfortunately all my preparations were in vain. It wouldn't be such a big deal if it was an occasional thing. But NO, not for me, it seems like EVERY identification photo that is taken of me is heinous. The lack of photogeneity--is that a word?--in I.D. photos dates back my days of awkward adolescence at Indian Woods Middle School. Next time I have to get an I.D. picture taken minimal effort will be made. That way if the picture turns out crappy I'll have an easy excuse.

Here are a few samples from my hall of shame:

Overland Park Pool Pass, photo taken Summer '99 but still valid: I don't even know what to say. I look like cyclops. This was actually my yearbook photo and my mom mailed it in. It was bad to begin with, but scanning it made it even worse. So if you look me up in the OPP database THIS unfortunate representation of me is what you see.

Provo Rec Center, Summer '06: Um...even my husband thinks I look weird in this one. I look special. What is going on with my hair? And my face? My nose?This one usually gets the biggest laugh. What is the most baffeling about this pic is that it was taken a few weeks before we got married and I look normal in those pictures. Whatev.

What gets me the most is the fact that I don't look this bad in regular pictures. I'm no model, but this is just ridiculous. There is something about I.D. cards that brings out the worst in me. In the next while I will be getting a Missouri Driver's License and Passport...hopefully I won't have anything new to add to my hall of shame.

Boston's reign of terror continues

It is a good time to be a sports fan from Boston. It was not all that long ago when all of the teams from Beantown were monumentally bad, so I know that sports success ebbs and flows, and that knowledge makes me appreciate recent triumphs. The Red Sox won the World Series. The Patriots won the AFC Championship and will play in the Super Bowl, and the Celtics have the best record in basketball about half-way through the season.
I appreciate Carrie and her willingness to watch sports with me. She has been wearing my Brady-Moss in'08 shirt the last couple of days, and she pulls the look off well.
Seeing my bliss from sports victories any social psychologist can tell you that I am "basking in reflected glory". I think that sort of tendency than the other half of the same sort of behavior, "cutting-off reflected failure". If you do both of these things with your teams a lot, you are what I call a fair-weather fan. For example, in 2003 after my mission there was a negative buzz around BYU campus about the football team. I bet this happens every time the team is not competing for the league championship, but there were lots of jabs by bitter professors, editorials and articles in the Daily Universe, and diatribes from the "soapbox" outside the Wilkinson Center. The team was not good and it seemed like BYU people wanted to cut their allegiances to the team. (By the way no tithing money is spent on the football team. That argument is tired and lame.) Now that the team is good again that sort of talk has totally stopped, or at least it was last year before I left. I love BYU sports, but it is easy to call their fans "fair weather fans" to a certain degree...not to the extent of the U fans, but to a certain extent. Maybe it is a Utah thing.
While everyone may be bugged with the Boston sports world, NOBODY can make the claim that Boston fans are fairweather. I would actually make the claim that Boston fans are the most loyal that I know. The reason that Fenway Park is the funnest place to see a baseball game is because the fans there appreciate the game, and they don't need a scoreboard to tell them to cheer.
oh boston you're my home

Run for your life

One of my "New Year's Resolutions" is to run a half-marathon. I've been talking about it for awhile with both my friend Stephanie and sister Melanie. In early December Stephanie and I ran a 5K and were pleasantly suprised with our times. The past few weeks it has been harder to get in a good running schedule with the holidays and colder weather. However, the past few days it's been warmer--not to mention I've had more time on my hands--so I ventured out and did some jogging again. I don't know why it is always like this, it takes me forever to motivate myself to go, but I always feel better once I do. Anyways, I came across this website the other day where you can calculate your mileage. It's great. City blocks are not very uniform here, so it's hard for me to figure out how far I've gone. I was especially excited because I had underestimated how far I had been running and had been really disappointed in my time. Click here to check it out!

back to school blues

School just started for Carrie. She is taking three classes this semester instead of the single class she has taken per semester prior. My classes do not start until Monday, but I have had to return to work this week at the Center for Assessment. In fact, I am here at work now, but there is not very much to do, and so I thought I could use my time a little better and write another entry on our blog.

Christmas vacation was very fun. You do not appreciate all the things your parents do for you until you move out on your own. Visiting both of our parents made me re-realize all the blessings and comforts of home. We tried not to mooch too much from our parents and be somewhat responsible. It was nice to sleep in. It was easier to help out around the house. I have found that it is always easier to help with dishes or with chores when they are not your real responsibility and you do not have much else to do. Carrie and I went running in the middle of the day, walked the dog, raked leaves, and did dishes, trying to not be burdens to our parents, but we probably were. Melanie's birthday was fun. I like her. I also like a delicious steak dinner and a BYU bowl victory. I think J. Gilbert's is one of the if not the nicest restaurant I have ever been to. Christmas was also very fun, and the Cranes did an excellent job of shopping for me, which I hear can be tough. My birthday was also fun, and I can hardly believe that I have turned 27. As I get older I think I remember my father being my age, and that weirds me out a bit since we do not have children yet. We traveled to Boston for the final week of our vacation, which was also fun. My family surprised us with Celtics tickets, and Matthew shared with us his Christmas present from his Teacher's quorum president of sweet seets at the Garden. We also went to NYC and saw Curtains on Broadway, ate at the famous Carnegie Deli, and saw New York from the top of the Empire State Building. Both our families were very generous.

We also got to spend time with Carrie's and my best friends from home and see their new children. Both Carrie Diggins and Clarke Low had children join their families recently. I was impressed by both families and their cute babies. This is not an announcement of any kind, but Carrie and I talked about our future children and how excited we are. I can safely predict that we will have children some day. I am going out on a limb there, I know.

I was also reminded about a psychological phenomenon that I learned about in school which seems so applicable to family situations. Everyone thinks that how they think and do things is the best way to do it. Everyone thinks that how and where they grew up is a little better than it actually was. It is a human universal. It leads to things like stereotypes and ethnocentrism, and within families this tendency rears its ugly head also. Older children and younger children the world over have a constant battle over who had things better or worse. Everyone is reading this thinking, "yup." Older children often come home and see how their parents have "loosened up", the free weekends, the newer clothes, and the dinners at restaurants, etc. and all they can think about is their own stricter curfews, weekends of family babysitting, hand-me-down clothes, and how they never ate out. I struggle with this. I look at my younger siblings and quickly judge, "Boy, they are spoiled." I remember when I was in sixth grade and what I wanted more than anything in the world was a pair of Umbro shorts. I really thought that these shorts were the key to being cool. I do not think that my younger siblings have those sorts of experiences. If I remember right (and false, biased memory is another HUGE problem in these sorts of discussions) my mom made me earn half the money. Really, my bitterness is not about my siblings, but all about me and my selfishness. It is not like I grew up in the gall of depravity. So many in the world do not yearn for Umbro shorts. They want food or shelter. The truth is that within our family no one's situation is particularly better or more spoiled. The situations are just different. Usually comparisons lead to more hurt feelings, so it is not worth it. To all my siblings and siblings-in-law: I love you. You are great. I will try to not be such a jerk when I come home in the future.
In other news: Our car's yellow check engine light turned back on and stayed on the whole vacation. Our mechanic told us before the vacation that there is probably a problem with our oxygen level sensor, because the car is running better than it ever has. When we tell people about our light it seems like half of them have a story about how their car had a faulty dashboard light and they ignored it until their car died a long while later. We are not sure we want to take the risk of ignoring the light when our car has had so many problems already. We may have to take it in and get the sensor or its computer fixed.