Dragon Lights, Dragon Lies

Dragon Lights is a Chinese-themed festival running through May 6th at the Utah State Fairpark. I saw something about it on Facebook, thought it looked pretty cool, and bought tickets for the family. Our tickets were for yesterday, Sunday, March 25th. I bought the tickets only a couple of days in advance, on a day when Weather.com showed absolutely nothing worrisome in its Sunday forecast. The plan was for us to have an early dinner at one of our favorite Utah Chinese restaurants (located about 25 minutes away) and then backtrack to the fairgrounds. It would be a fun and different way for us to spend time together as a family. I was really looking forward to it.

Sunday morning came and went. The weather was nice. Then, around the time we were to head out, it started snowing. And then it started to snow harder. And harder. While this was disappointing because it didn’t sound fun to walk around in such bad weather, we didn’t have the option of changing our plans. The tickets were date-specific, and as the Dragon Lights website reports in their FAQ section, the festival would be held come “rain, snow or shine.” Plus, even when the snow started coming down fairly fast and furious, Weather.com showed nothing in the hourly forecast about snow. Probably, it would all let up quite soon.

Melanie, the boys, and I piled into our car and headed to the freeway. As we cruised down (up? We were going north, after all) the Interstate, I felt increasingly uncomfortable with our commute. I suggested we go to a much closer Chinese restaurant, one I had been to a couple of times but that Melanie and the boys had not. Nobody had any objections, so I exited the freeway and quickly found the alternate restaurant. It was closed for the Sabbath. Damn!

I shrugged and figured I’d try again to head to Bountiful, the location of our first-choice Chinese restaurant. Meanwhile, Melanie started searching for nearby Chinese restaurants on her phone. My rekindled determination to get to Bountiful quickly fizzled when, once again, I found it very difficult to see through the snow while driving on the freeway. Melanie suggested that we eat at Sampan, a nearby Chinese restaurant Melanie and I were quite fond of back before we got married. I had no interest in driving all the way to Bountiful via city streets, so I agreed. Within a few minutes, we were safe, cozy, and relaxed, sitting at a table and looking over our menus.

Our food was great. It’s probably the best Chinese food I’ve had since moving back to Utah. I don’t know why we haven’t revisited Sampan before now. I’ve tried several other Chinese places since moving back, and only a few have seemed adequate, much less quite tasty. Perhaps because I so loved the Chinese restaurant we used to frequent while living in Tallahassee, I had zero hope of finding anything of note in Utah. Adequate was the best I had hoped for. And maybe I just assumed that Sampan would be as mediocre as anything else, after being disillusioned by my first few forays into Chinese cuisine as a recently returned Utah native. But, man, Sampan was yummy. The boys thought so, too, as did Melanie. Hanging out together at a restaurant in-and-of itself was also quite lovely. We really enjoyed our time. And, wouldn’t you know it, the snow let up quite a bit while we dined. It didn’t stop snowing completely, but it had been reduced to small flakes falling in slow motion. Nothing to worry about whatsoever.

With full bellies, we climbed back into our car and headed to the Utah State Fairpark. A minor detour was involved, thanks to a slow-moving freight train—a common occurrence in that neighborhood, as I remember from my childhood. (I grew up relatively close to the fairgrounds. A junior high field trip even involved walking there, which I thought was nuts at the time and perhaps even more nuts now.) But, despite arriving nearly 90 minutes later than I had wanted and planned to, we finally made it.

Then we saw the sign. Dragon Lights had been canceled for the evening, I can only assume due to weather. The bastards.

As I said, the festival runs through the beginning of May, and according to the posted sign, we can use our tickets for any other day. But the only reason we fought through the snow in the first place was because the Dragon Lights website had ensured us that it would not be canceled due to inclement weather. It wasn’t pee pee in my Coke, but it felt like a joke, that’s for sure.

Oh well. We still had a good time.

Trimming the Fat

As much as I wish this were a post celebrating weight loss, it’s not.  I’m probably heavier than I was when I last wrote a blog post, which was back in February.  Heavier physiologically, but not heavier emotionally or psychologically.  And that brings me to the real point of this post: the simplification of life and the joy it brings.

Though there is not a single defining moment to point to, the summer of 2017 was a revolutionary one for me.  In some ways, it was a time of embracing.  In other ways, it was a time of letting go.  The end result is that I am more happy and satisfied in life than perhaps I have ever been as an adult.  Or maybe ever.  And because I’m quite pleased with the ways in which I’ve fine tuned my life, I have every reason to be optimistic about the future.  The course I am on is a rewarding and fruitful one.  I am eager and excited to travel further down this road.

So as not to be obnoxiously vague, allow me to say more about the changes that have taken place over the last few months.  The most important is my involvement with music.  Every year, the guitar school from which I take private lessons offers various summer programs that are meant to supplement one’s private lessons.  I did not participate in any such programs in the summer of 2016, at which point I had barely become a student at the school.  But for Summer 2017, I enrolled in a program that put me together with three other guitarists and a drummer (none of whom I had ever met).  Every Thursday evening, we got together to learn and rehearse songs that we would eventually play at an end-of-summer outdoor concert.  I absolutely loved it.  Almost every time we got together and played, I found myself thinking, “This is me.  This is who I am.”  I felt more connected to my “true self” than I ever had before.  Not that I don’t play guitar on my own, but it’s different to be in a band setting.  And the fact is, playing with others made me so much better.  We’re not talking about minor improvement here.  It’s hard to put into words, but if the player I was at the beginning of summer could see the player I was by summer’s end, I would scarcely have believed it.

In a similar vein, I have made great strides as a vocalist.  I actually sang one of the songs we did at the end-of-summer concert—a cover of The Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues,” which isn’t the most flattering song for my voice, really—but that’s not what I regard as an accomplishment.  You see, once I knew I would be singing a song at the concert, I started paying even closer attention to my vocal abilities.  Not only did I spend a fair amount of time singing along with the radio on my way to and from work, as I had always done, but I started doing things like recording myself as I sang and then listening back to it.  The outcome?  Soul-crushing heartbreak, to be quite honest.  I sounded so much shittier than I expected.  I never thought I sounded amazing as I was singing, but playing it back on a recording, I sounded so much worse than I had ever realized.  And it devastated me.  So, in desperation, I started looking into some vocal exercises.  Truth be told, I didn’t even do that much in this department.  But the extremely little that I did—and I’m telling you, it was next to nothing—had instantaneous results.  Seriously.  There were like two or three little things I did, but from the moment I started doing them—and I’m not kidding, I really mean within the first 30 seconds or something—I noticed things about my voice or what I was doing with my throat, etc., that gave me better control and more awareness of how to use my voice.  And so, once again, if the me from May or June could see where I am at today, I would have been a bit flabbergasted.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m nowhere near incredible.  Nobody’s ever going to want to listen to me sing just because my voice is so gosh darn beautiful.  But I am way, way, way, way better than I was just a few months ago.  It’s quite shocking.  And now I drive home from work singing my guts out and not even sheepishly trying to hide it when other cars get too close, like I used to do.

My involvement with music has definitely played the biggest role in making me happier than I’ve ever been.  But so has the general overall focus my life has taken.  That is, outside of work, music, and my family—which I list in no particular order, so don’t read into it—I have almost nothing else on my plate.  And it’s blissful.  It’s such a 180 from how life felt one year ago.  As my poor wife can tell you, I spent so much time complaining and freaking out last year because I never had time to do anything that mattered to me.  I was constantly stressed, and I never felt able to get done the things I “had” to do, much less the things I actually wanted to do.  In hindsight, I’m not even sure what it was that occupied so much of my time.  But I know my to-do list was always a mile long, and I know it felt like at least 50% of the items added to that list would not be completed before another 10 or 20 items were added on top.  It just felt like chaos, and it seemed like there was never any time for me.  Well, focusing on music, which has always been my first love, certainly helps matters.  It ensures that I don’t feel like an ignored aspect of my own life.  But it’s the cumulative effect of focusing more on music and less on other things that really makes life grand.  And there have been many things I’ve cut back on.  Purposely, intentionally, and giddily.

One thing I have proactively reduced in my life is ecclesiastical responsibility.  The church I attend has a rather small congregation.  Because we are small, simply being a member of the church provides one with ample opportunity to help out.  On the other side of that coin, it provides one with ample opportunity to feel guilty and/or stressed out.  I’ve never had the time to commit to the church that some of my more enthusiastic (and less-employed) cohorts do, but I’ve tried to be very involved since I started attending this church nearly three years ago.  For almost two years, I’ve served in the pastorate.  I’ve had many wonderful experiences that I sincerely cherish, and depending on whom or what you compare me and my situation to, a case could be made that my church responsibilities are not all that burdensome or time-consuming.  Be that as it may, church had recently become a consistent source of anxiety for me.  Many weeks, I found myself thinking that, if not for church-related duties, life would be well-balanced, wholly manageable, and rather pleasant.  The addition of those church duties, however, was just enough to make everything spiral.  Time and time and time again, church was the tipping point between calmness and chaos.

Eventually, I realized that my mental and emotional wellbeing were not a tithe I could afford.  In late August, I reneged on my agreement to preach an upcoming sermon and declared myself unavailable to preach or preside (i.e. oversee a worship service) at any point between now and the end of the year.  In and of itself, I don’t see this as a huge deal.  I still attend church regularly—though I also skip it regularly, and usually with great satisfaction—and I am even teaching one of the Sunday school classes this week, a responsibility for which I volunteered without having to be asked.  (I’m the one in charge of asking people to teach Sunday school, as a matter of fact).  So, it’s not like I’ve decided church has no place in my life.  Far from it.  But as simple a change as this is, it feels tremendously freeing.  I feel so at ease, so content.  I look forward to preaching and presiding again at some point in time, but my involvement is going to be significantly scaled back for the foreseeable future.

There are other ways in which I’ve reallocated my time, but nothing quite as noteworthy as what’s already been discussed.  A lot of little changes have contributed to a more satisfying life.  This includes minor adjustments to my work schedule, adjustments that have come about in response to a variety of factors.  Long story short, I tend to get to work a little bit earlier than I used to, and often I’m not staying as late into the day.  Consequently, I get a surprising amount of things accomplished in the evenings, and I feel much more connected to my family.  It’s a win-win, and it’s definitely part of why I’m loving my life right now.

As I draw ever nearer to being a middle-aged man, I am repeatedly convinced that adulthood is—or should be—about fine tuning one’s life.  Call it living authentically.  Call it self-awareness.  Call it confidence.  Call it a combination of the above.  Call it whatever you want.  I just think it’s great.  I still get my hopes up that my best years are ahead of me—which may be naïve and may be a recipe for utter disappointment.  But if these past few months are any indication, I think it’s quite possible that my greatest joy is yet to be experienced.  After all, if you had asked me at the beginning of summer, I would’ve said these last few years have been my most satisfying.  And look at how much it’s improved since then.  This is what a focused life can do for you.  I don’t “want it all,” as the saying goes.  That strikes me as immature.  No, I want relatively few things.  And usually, I have too much.  But the beautiful thing about cutting out the excess is that you suddenly find yourself with a shitload of the relatively little that you want.  And that is when you know you’re living the good life.

BOO!

It’s me! I’m still here! It’s not over yet, folks!

That’s what I’d say to the readers of this blog, if I had any. As it is, I suppose I’m just talking to myself. That’s fine.

I’m coming up on the one-year anniversary of getting my first real job since leaving grad school. I guess I needed a one-year sabbatical, because lately I’ve been itching to reclaim many aspects of my life that I feel like I lost when I got a job. I just looked back on my 2016 blog entries, which are few, and apparently I never wrote about these feelings publicly. I did write about them in my private journal, however. While many great things came from my being employed, I also felt like a big part of me was lost. So many things that had defined me, aspects of my life and personality that I felt were being richly developed, things that were exhilarating and meaningful to me, quickly fell to the wayside. I just didn’t have time for them, and because I was so busy and preoccupied with other things, I hardly cared that those major parts of my life and personality had seemingly vanished. The one exception was music, which I made a greater priority in 2016 than it had been in years, possibly decades. I started taking guitar lessons again, and it has been a wonderfully fruitful endeavor. I’m loving it. But other things were lost, some more gradually than others, and I am only now starting to yearn for them again. Case in point, I read one book in 2016. One. A single book! I used to read between 40 and 50 books per year, and in 2016 I read one. Insanity! Well, now I really want to read again. I’m actually craving it, and I’m actually halfway through a book already. (Hugely impressive, isn’t it?) I also feel a strong desire to rekindle my spiritual life, which has been severely lacking over the last several months. And yes, I have a renewed interest in writing. Hence, this blog post.

It’s always temping after a long break in writing to try to sum up everything that’s happened between the previous entry and today. That ain’t going to happen. I’m stopping here. But there will be more to come. I truly believe this. We’ll see if I’m right.

Up in Smoke

The last 10 days or so have been a wild ride. Eddie and Peter went back to school. Creegan started preschool. After a decade-long hiatus, Melanie is once again living her dream of being a Kindergarten teacher. Life is busy. Aside from the minor ways in which I assist with everything listed above—and my contributions to most of these things are very, very minor, I readily admit—I have spent much of the last week researching cars. If you read this blog, you are probably Melanie, my mom, or me, so you already know this, but Melanie and I no longer own a functioning automobile. After nearly eight years of faithful service to my family and a brief but awe-inspiring battle with fire, our Toyota Corolla passed away on Sunday, August 16th. It was 16 years old.



To tell this story properly, I need to go back to Saturday, August 15th. On the evening of said date, I was going to head out and run some errands. Up until this point, our car had been working just fine. But when I started the car that evening, it was shuddering and convulsing the way cars often do when they’re about to stall. I backed out of the driveway to see if using the gas would help the car come to its senses, but it did not. I quickly pulled back into the driveway, shut off the car, waited a moment, and restarted the car. Nothing had changed. I again shut off the car and decided to check the oil. It made no sense to me that oil would be the problem, but the only problem I’ve known our car to have (and I’m not sure it’s a “problem” so much as a nuisance) is that it burns a lot of oil. The oil was just at the minimum level line, so I topped it off, not really seeing how this could possibly affect anything. But being that it was the only thing I knew how to do, I did it. It didn’t help. When I restarted the car, it was still having its spasms. I decided to take it for a spin around the block, just to see if anything would change. I backed out of the driveway and the car immediately died. When I turned the key, it started back up without a problem, which gave me the tiniest bit of comfort. I then drove around the block.



The car made it around the block, but it was shaky the entire time. Also, pushing on the accelerator seemed to make little to no difference in how fast the car would go. It topped out just above the speed any automatic car would go if you put it in drive and merely took your foot off the brake. I returned home and let the car sit. Not much later, Melanie’s dad came home. He knows much, much, much more about cars than I do and has been roped into fixing all of his kids’ cars on numerous occasions. We asked him to look over the Corolla. He did so, reporting back to us that he expected it was the spark plugs. As I understand it, he replaced the spark plugs, but it didn’t help. I’m not entirely sure what all he looked at or tried, but he eventually came to us and said the car was now working fine, noting that the spark plug wires had been the true culprit. We rejoiced in once again having an operating vehicle and went to sleep peacefully that night.



On Sunday morning, we got ready for church and loaded ourselves into the car. It started up beautifully. Everything seemed fine. Well, sort of. The check engine light was on—but it had come on the night before, and I know those lights don’t always go out immediately after you fix something. More worrisome to me was the strong smell of gasoline. It was very strong. I know sometimes after a car is worked on, it stinks or smells strongly of this or that chemical or what have you. I assumed that’s all it was, and we started our 20-ish minute drive to church. The smell dissipated as we drove, which seemed like a good sign. And yet whenever we stopped at a stoplight, it became quite intense again. Ridiculously and unbearably strong. I expressed concern about it. Melanie thought we should continue and just ask her dad about it later. Clearly, neither of us thought it was of such importance that we shouldn’t be driving the vehicle. And so we continued.



Aside from the smell of gasoline, everything went fine and dandy until just after Melanie and I exited the freeway. We stopped in the left turn lane at a red light just a few blocks from our church. While stopped, I suddenly noticed the oil light and battery light on the dash become illuminated. The car may have stalled, which would explain those lights coming on. I think it probably did, but I didn’t really have time to think about it before smoke started to billow out from under the driver’s side of the hood. I think I had just enough time for “oh crap” or some such sentiment to pass through my mind before a flame shot out from underneath the hood. I say “shot out” because it flared up enough to be seen, but I don’t want to be overly dramatic. It wasn’t something I’d want to describe as “explosive,” although people keep using the word “exploded” when they talk about the event with me. Regardless, I didn’t feel a sense of panic, but I did recognize the urgency of the situation and immediately told my family to get out. Melanie assisted Edison and Peter, who exited the car on the passenger side. I helped Creegan, who had been sitting behind the driver’s seat. We hurried over to the gas station on the southeast corner of the street and watched as the smoke being belched out from underneath the hood increased and darkened. Peter and Creegan were crying. Melanie was too. Eddie seemed fascinated by it all, although I think his relatively positive demeanor was probably his way of dealing with such an intense situation. (I have seen a similar response in myself when big things have happened.) Melanie called her dad and 911. I called our associate pastor and let him know we wouldn’t be at church, something that seemed important only because Melanie was slated to teach the Sunday school class for young children. A very kind man, without any request from us, ran over to our car and grabbed some stuff out of it (including the Crockpot full of food we were bringing for the potluck after church). A very kind woman offered to let our kids sit in her car and listen to music to try to put them at ease. This man and woman were the first heroes on the scene. Others would soon arrive.



When the fire department arrived, they went to town on our car. They sprayed it down, then proceeded to saw into our hood and peel it open can-opener style. For whatever reason, they also smashed the driver’s side window. Melanie’s dad had arrived on the scene to take us back home. We waited for the hubbub to die down, at which point we were allowed to collect more belongings from our car. It was a good thing. Melanie had her work ID in the car, we had car seats in the back, and various other little things were gathered. Our beloved Corolla was then towed away. We went home, some of us more traumatized than others. (For whatever reason, I never felt too distraught by it all. “That’s a bummer” probably summarizes quite well how I felt about it.) Melanie contacted the insurance company and learned that we could pick up a rental car the next morning. We tried to spend the rest of our Sunday in as relaxed a manner as was possible.



Since approximately 8 AM on Monday, August 17th, Melanie and I have been driving a rental car—a little black Fiat that all too frequently has to downshift in order to pick up speed—as we wait on a settlement from our insurance company (which has indeed declared our Corolla a “total loss”). I have spent copious hours online researching used cars. The bulk of my time in the last week or so has been spent on this. It’s probably overkill, but I always get stressed over major purchases and want to be smart about it. Used cars in particular cause me stress, because it feels like such a crapshoot. What’s more, I’m trying to determine the best plan for getting us into two cars as soon as possible. Melanie and I had been talking about getting another car and letting the Corolla become our secondary car. We had talked about this the day before such plans quite literally went up in smoke. That’s the biggest disappointment about losing the Corolla—not that we have to buy another car now, but that doing so gets us no further ahead in being a two-car family. With Melanie’s new income, I am hopeful that we can yet pull it off to have two cars. But figuring out more than one decent used car, at least one of which must be relatively cheap, only adds to the stress.



I will conclude with the four images I snapped on my cell phone. My cell phone camera is quite shoddy, so you get what you get. Enjoy!

Spring Break 2015

Spring break is drawing to a close, which is very sad. It’s passed all too quickly, but it’s been fun. For the first time, I’m not the one who’s getting a break from school, but Eddie, Peter, and Melanie did. We splurged appropriately. Here’s how things have gone this week.

Monday was a pretty chill day. We spent a lot of time at home, in part because Melanie had to study for a test she was taking the next day. (I guess the day was slightly less chill for her.) In the afternoon, we went as a family to the Castle Creek Inn, a castle-looking bed and breakfast not too far away. We didn’t go into the hotel, but we moseyed around their backyard, which features a koi pond, a running stream, lots of greenery, and some cute benches on which to sit. We got some cute photos, including these:

Peter is showing off some flower petals he has scooped up from the ground, but I love that Eddie and Beegy are caught in play behind him.

Eddie is also quite a fan of chai lattes, it turns out.  Just don't tell Grandma and Grandpa!

Beegy poses with his patented "pissy pants" glare.

On Tuesday, Melanie took her Praxis test in the morning. The test will help her reactive her teaching license and also allow her to level up as a teacher, not unlike when Mario gets a mushroom on Super Mario Bros. With the test out of the way, Melanie was more than ready for her official birthday celebrations to kick in. She had celebrated some on her actual birthday, but this was the night of our official birthday date. We started off with Ruth’s Diner for dinner. It was delicious, including dessert: banana walnut bread pudding with caramel pecan bourbon sauce. After dinner, we took to Kingsbury Hall at the University of Utah for the traveling Broadway rendition of Once. It was a more liberal adaptation of the movie than I had expected, and I felt it almost moved too briskly. Still, I love the music, so it was a very enjoyable performance overall. I snapped some crappy photos on my cell phone while waiting for the show to begin. They had the stage open, set up to look like a bar, and those from the audience who had purchased the appropriate tickets were able to go up on stage before the play started and actually get drinks from the bar and whatnot. That’s why the stage is so crowded in the following photos:

We had promised the kids we would go to McDonald’s for breakfast on one of the days of Spring Break, so that’s how we started Wednesday. We then planned to drive to Hill Air Force Base, but when we got on the freeway, it was raining pretty hard. We had to drive slowly, and we couldn’t see that well. Melanie and I both felt anxious about it, and we quickly changed our plan. We got off downtown and headed up to the Utah State Capitol Building. By this time, it was barely drizzling if anything. But we had fun. The boys liked roaming around and taking photos. They snapped several, including none that you’ll see here (I know, I’m terrible):

"Anarachy in Utah!"

After the capitol, we stopped at Hatch Family Chocolates and let the boys each choose a treat. I tried an Aztec Spice caramel that was quite yummy but surprisingly hot. We actually hung out at the chocolate shop for quite a while. By the time we left, we needed to eat a real meal again. We headed to Blue Iguana, which is about as cheap but delicious a restaurant as you can eat at. Having just eaten a piece of chocolate, I felt less inclined to get what I almost always get, which is cheese enchiladas in a chocolate mole. Instead, I got a combination platter I’ve never gotten before. It came with a cheese enchilada (in standard enchilada sauce), a chili relleno, a beef flauta, and rice and beans. A pretty great combo, except that the cheese enchilada with enchilada sauce is so bland compared to the mole. I know because Melanie got the mole version and let me try a bite. So darn yummy. But I was happy with my food nonetheless. Here are some of the photos we snapped while at Blue Iguana:

Beegy enjoyed dipping his chips in his drinks.

Photo credit goes to Peter.

My combo meal.  Are you jeals to the hells, or what?

Melanie's superior enchiladas.

I know a lot of people think a lemon makes their Diet Coke taste better, but I've never been able to successfully suck the Diet Coke through the lemon wedge without spilling it all over myself.

Peter proudly presents his corn dog finger.

On Thursday, things went haywire. I woke up to the sound of Peter puking. Peter is the most susceptible to illness in our family, but also usually the quickest to get over it. We didn’t know how seriously to take this, because there have been times in the past where he pukes in the morning and then a couple of hours later is fine and dandy and nobody else ever gets sick from it. But, on this particular occasion, Peter was also experiencing … backdoor problems, let’s say … and that was very unusual. We prepared for the worst, just in case. Sadly, that meant canceling the various plans we had had for the day, including bowling with Melanie’s side of the family as a belated birthday party for her. Very disappointing. And wouldn’t you know it, Peter was fine and dandy by the early afternoon. But by that point, there was no use trying to reinstate our plans for the day and so the day just kind of vanished on us. We pretty much just stayed home. The good news is, nobody else got sick from Peter this time around, either.

Friday was a busy day. After a relatively calm morning, we went to pick up a soccer jersey for Creegan. Yup! He’ll be playing soccer starting next week! We got the jersey from a rec center that the kids wanted to spend some time exploring, so that ate up a tiny chunk of time. After we left there, we headed to Target. In March, we started giving our kids a monthly allowance, and they were ready to spend their April cash forthwith. We also needed to pick up a birthday present for a kid from Peter’s class, whose birthday party was today. Looking at toys and trying to decide how to spend your allowance can take a massive amount of time, so we were at Target for quite a while. After leaving Target, we picked up a pizza and had a pizza picnic lunch at a nearby park. It was very nice, although I actually got quite chilly when I was in the shade. The weather has been a bit fickle lately.

And that brings us to today. As noted, Peter attended a birthday party. It took place at the main aquarium that the Salt Lake Valley has to offer, which is pretty cool. Aside from that, today is a day of chores and running around—grocery shopping, cleaning the house, Melanie’s acupuncture appointment. Nothing too exciting.

Tomorrow will be the final day of Spring Break. It’s going to be a busy one as well. We’ve got double church duty—and maybe even triple church duty, depending on how you look at it. In the morning, we’ll have our regular church services. Immediately afterward, we’ll be attending the baby blessing of my nephew’s daughter. Then, not long thereafter, we have an event back at our church. It’ll be a bit tiring, but it’s all positive stuff that I’m looking forward to.

The end!

Happy Happy, Joy Joy

I’ve been deliriously happy over the last several days, particularly since Sunday. For the first time in a long time, life feels brim full of possibility. My life is really shaping into something I love. The reasons are myriad, but suffice it to say, my dreams and ambitions are becoming clearer and clearer all the time. Things that have troubled me or weighed on my soul for prolonged periods of time are beginning to shift and fall into place, and I like the result. I feel overwhelmed by love and joy.

There are many things contributing to my good mood. Some big, some small. One that I consider at least a moderately big deal is that Melanie and I have already received our tax refund for the year. It was substantial enough to pay off one of our credit cards, the one with the highest APR. For us, that is a really big deal. It is so relieving! It reduces our monthly bills greatly. We can now slam that extra money down on other credit cards, and an end to credit card debt may actually be in sight. We had enough money left over from the tax refund to purchase tickets to the Broadway Across America production of Once, which will be at Kingsbury Hall around the time of Melanie’s birthday. Melanie and I both loved the movie Once and have very much wanted to see the stage adaptation. We figured if we ever had the money, we would splurge on it as a birthday gift to Melanie. That opportunity presented itself, and so we went for it. We are very excited.

One silly thing that is bringing me much delight over the last several days is an album I got from the library, Men Without Hats’ Pop Goes the World. The title track was the only one that was familiar to me, but the whole album has proven very infectious. There is something beautiful in the cheery, innocent simplicity of pop. It really elevates my mood. Something about it resonates on a very deep level with me. It is happy and beautiful. It inspires me to do more with music. I love that music, at its core, serves no other end than to touch one’s emotions. It is as close to a pure manifestation of love as I can imagine. It makes me giddy.

On a much more serious note, my spiritual life is amazing and humbling right now. I’m not sure I can explain it in a way that makes sense and doesn’t defile it in some way. The last few years have been a roller coaster, but I have been relentless in searching, pondering, and praying. It hasn’t been easy. At times, I have felt very confused and pulled in seemingly opposite directions. Stepping back and getting some perspective, I can see how things have worked together for my good, and I see evidence of God’s hand in my life all along the way. It reminds me of John 3:8, which reads, “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Maybe I’m misapplying that scripture—I admit, I’m not 100% sure I’m interpreting it correctly—but it seems applicable to this time in my life. I feel prompted to do this or that, and I don’t always get it. It doesn’t always make sense to me, and sometimes it feels like I’m going in circles. But the experiences I’ve had as I’ve tried to be earnest and sincere in heeding God’s Spirit in my life have been astounding. This most recent Sunday was particularly significant to me. It was one of the most spiritually powerful days I’ve had in who knows how long. My soul was on fire for most of the day, even when I was doing normal, day-to-day things. It’s sad to me that I don’t feel I can share my experiences with just anyone, because religion is taken to be such a competitive market. You say one good thing about whatever church you attend, and those who attend a different church will think you’re saying yours is better. Or maybe it’s just easy for me to assume that because of my own religious background. Maybe it’s a Mormon mindset, coming from the idea that Mormons are a special people to God. God’s spirit can be felt at Mormon church because it’s His church! Oh, maybe He visits other churches from time to time, but if you say you felt God’s spirit somewhere else, the Mormon mind is automatically on defense. “That’s great and all, but you should come to Mormon church, because that’s where God’s spirit always is. I promise, no matter what you can tell me about your church, mine can do that and more! Anything you have to say? Been there, done that! Plus, bonus features galore that are available only through God’s true church—which is mine, by the way. No matter what you have to tell me about your experiences, there’s nothing you can say that isn’t describing only some of what you’ll get at Mormon church! Be as excited about your church as you want, but it’s like telling a guy with a fully-loaded Lexus that you’re excited about your Hyundai because it has air conditioning. That’s awesome! But have you ever ridden in a Lexus?!? It’s even better!!!  Air conditioning is just the beginning!!!!!”

Sorry. That was probably a bit negative. But there’s pain behind what I’m saying, because I’ve had some unbelievable experiences and I know certain people in my life would dismiss them out of hand. The spiritual promptings I’ve had won’t matter to these people. They won’t believe they can possibly be legit. The hours I’ve spent praying won’t matter. The seeking and thinking I’ve done won’t matter. All that matters is that I’m not doing things the way they think I should. The story behind it all is irrelevant. And that’s heartbreaking to me. But be that as it may, I’m in too good a mood to dwell on this stuff. Let me remind you of that before I end this, just so we can be back in happy mode. This is an exciting time in my life. I think 2015 is going to prove a monumental year. I can’t wait.

A Final Post from Tallahassee

This will be my final blog post written from Tallahassee.

Probably.

While we are mostly packed up and ready to go, we thought we were loading up a trailer this morning. As you may recall, Melanie’s parents are driving out to meet us with a large trailer that they own. That was to be our mode of moving, and we expected them to arrive last night so that we could load the trailer this morning. We then figured we’d officially depart Tallahassee on Sunday morning.

Then disaster struck.

On the way out, Melanie’s parents broke down. They had to get a new alternator. We thought this might delay them, but the work was done quickly and we were relieved to learn that they would still make to Tallahassee at the regularly scheduled time. But then, yesterday, their truck broke down again. Only the situation was much worse. The truck very nearly burst into flames. Everything under the hood was so hot that mechanics couldn’t do anything with it for quite some time. The heat damaged tons of stuff. The computer was fried, and before they even got done looking things over, they knew it would cost at least $4,000 to fix the truck, just for the parts. No labor included.

Moving postponed.

Although it’s not Melanie’s and my fault, we both feel some residual guilt that her parents are in this situation. I don’t know how they are handling it, but I feel terrible for them. The damage was so bad and would be so expensive to fix, they have decided to buy a new truck. Their generosity of coming out to help us move has resulted in them having to buy a new vehicle. They are already on their way to us again, and will be here tonight. We can then load up tomorrow. I’m not sure if we’ll try to leave soon after loading up, trying not to lose any more time, or if we’ll try to catch our breath and leave on Monday morning. It doesn’t really matter for Melanie and me, thankfully. But Melanie’s dad has taken time off work to come help us out. You can see how the guilt adds up, right?

To focus on good news, we sold several big items in the last week or so. We’ve sold many things for very little, so it’s not like we’re raking in the dough. That’s not the point. It’s just nice to simplify. And yes, we’ve given away some things for free. But the most wonderful news is that we sold our minivan, the one that gave us relentless trouble after we first bought it. The van wasn’t even in working condition when we sold it, so we feel pretty lucky. The guy that came and looked it over knew what he was doing and got it running. We then sold it to him for half of what we were asking, which is about what we had hoped to get out of it. We honestly thought it might end up being donated to Goodwill, so the fact that we got anything out of it feels like reason to celebrate. We are stoked. It will help us immensely.

And that’s that. Although I guess it’s worth mentioning that, even with our home packed up in boxes, I haven’t started to feel weird about moving. I thought it would hit me by now, but apparently it’s a delayed reaction. Or maybe I’m more mentally prepared for the change than I expected. I suspect it’s just a delay, but we’ll see.

Bad News, Good News, Bad News, Good News, Good News, Good News, Good News

Yesterday’s post admittedly favored a pessimistic outlook on life. I thought I should try to balance things out a bit. Here goes.

BAD NEWS! Life has been so busy lately that I’ve literally gone a few months now without playing piano at all. This was such a source of joy to me, and it’s falling by the wayside! No!

GOOD NEWS! The stench in my school office from a dead rodent has, after two weeks, been remedied! Yes!

BAD NEWS! Peter puked in the night on Saturday night. Messy!

GOOD NEWS! I’ve had lots of positive family time lately. Last week, Eddie’s school had “Donuts with Dad Day” (or something like that). I took him to school in the morning, where they had free glazed donuts from Krispy Kreme. I was then able to go in his classroom with him and watch the morning school news. Eddie was really excited to show me his classroom. It was fun. Then, on Saturday night, Eddie’s school had a bunch of activities for families, including showing the movie Despicable Me 2. It was supposed to take place outside, but rainy weather messed that up. Still, we had a good time. And finally, on Sunday afternoon, Melanie and I took the boys to a park. These are simple things, but they are often what make life seem worthwhile.

Ready to head out for Donuts with Dad Day.

GOOD NEWS! Creegan is being potty-trained. Or, he already is, I guess. After day one, Creegan has not had any daytime accidents. He’s even been going #2 without a problem. In fact, the first time he went #2 in the toilet, he didn’t even tell anybody he was going to do it. He just left the room, and after a couple of minutes, Melanie went to check on him, only to find him attempting to wipe himself with toilet paper! Impressive!

GOOD NEWS! The disappointments of Saturday’s sessions of general conference did not extend into Sunday’s sessions, which were largely positive and centered on love and testimonies of Christ. I credit both the highs and lows of conference as stirring within me a recommitment both to making this church the best it can be by being a constant source of love within it, and to strengthening my personal relationship with God. I can only do what I can do, and I will do my part to add only good things to the mix.

GOOD NEWS! Last Thursday, Melanie and I were invited, along with several other likeminded people, into the home of an awesome and gracious woman from our church. Children played, adults commiserated, and good food was had by all. I’ve really made some wonderful connections over the last year or so, with neat and loving people both near and far, and the circle continues to grow. I am grateful for these things.

Good News, Bad News , Good News, Bad News, Bad News, Bad News, Bad News

GOOD NEWS! Melanie celebrated her birthday last week! We had a ton of fun. I hope to write about it in more detail in the near future.

BAD NEWS! Something died in my office at school, and it has reeked to high heaven for a couple of weeks now! Gross!

GOOD NEWS! I’ve agreed to be a blog manager for Exploring Sainthood. This is a project I care about, and I’m grateful to be able to contribute to it in a more significant way. Here’s hoping I can help it flourish!

BAD NEWS! The job I was really excited about and that I thought I’d be perfect for? They rejected me! Where will I be in a few months from now? Literally, no clue whatsoever!

BAD NEWS! I went into general conference weekend feeling excited and hopeful that I would feel spiritually nourished. Instead, I have been met with many messages of distrust, dismissal, and dogmatism. I know many people who are hurting because of what they are hearing from the pulpit.

BAD NEWS! Our water heater is broken! No hot water whatsoever right now!

BAD NEWS! Our car ignition was messed up and had to be replaced this week! Goodbye, hundreds of dollars! At least all of our car door handles are working properly! Oh, wait! Not a single one of them is!

Spring Break 2014

This week is spring break. I wish it could be more relaxed than it’s going to be, but such is life. At least Sunday was a good day. A very good day, in fact. A true day of rest, which sadly and ironically is uncommon for Mormons. You may think it strange that daylight savings could have led to a good day, but it did. You see, knowing that we’d be losing an hour of sleep, coupled with the fact that Sunday morning was a special stake conference starting at the unusual time of 9 a.m., Melanie and I decided to forgo church and spend the entire day as a family. (Sacrilege, I know.) We didn’t set any alarms. We just woke up when we woke up. Melanie and the boys made oatmeal pancakes, and I whipped up some scrambled eggs for the kiddos and some bacon/tomato/spinach omelets for me and the Mrs. (Note: I’ve never before referred to Melanie as “the Mrs.” I’m pretty sure she isn’t going to like it!) It was a tasty start to the day. Next, we taught the kids how to play Racko. The kids then spent a good chunk of time playing video games while Melanie and I watched an episode each of Dexter and Saturday Night Live. I spent some time reading, as did Melanie. We then took the kids out scootering, which gave Melanie and me a chance to converse—something that also doesn’t occur nearly often enough, simply because there are too many interruptions. Our late breakfast led to a skipped lunch, and in turn to an early dinner. We had leftover pizza from a couple of days earlier. The kids watched Charlotte’s Web as we ate, and everyone was satisfied. We then did Family Home Evening, wherein I video-interviewed Creegan, Peter, and Eddie, individually and in turn. (See below!) We then had some brownies, played the card game Sleeping Queens, and put the kids to bed. It was one of the most enjoyable and genuinely relaxed days I’ve had in a long time! I’m sad it’s over!

In order to make this post more exciting, it’s been jam-packed with multimedia! First, a photo of my breakfast. Then, the video interviews with my children. By watching these videos, you’ll learn the answers to such fascinating questions as: what kind of animal is Master Oinky? How does Creegan spell his name? Can five-year-olds do multiplication, and if so, does it lead to epilepsy? All this and more, below!

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The Microwave That Wouldn’t Die

I bought a microwave when I moved out of my parents’ house for the first time approximately 10 years ago. It was a small, cheapo microwave I bought at Kmart (if I remember correctly). That microwave carried over into my marriage to Melanie, our moving across the country to Atlanta, and all the way to Tallahassee. Not a bad $40 investment (again, if I remember correctly). Well, as of two weeks ago, that microwave is no more. It’s not that it stopped working. It’s that it stopped working correctly—in that it wouldn’t stop working.

Lest your brain explode as this mystery, I’ll explain. But I’m going to go back further than is necessary, because otherwise this blog post will be pointlessly short. For months now, our microwave has shown signs of old age—dementia, a lack of self-control, etc. Once in a rare while, it would flash inside. Not so often that we felt our lives were in danger, but enough to know something wasn’t right. More commonly, the microwave would make sickly noises. The usual microwave hum would sometimes be replaced by a fairly aggressive growl, as if the microwave were trying to achieve liftoff. Neither of these problems was consistent, so Melanie and I never did much more than say, “We really should be getting a new microwave soon.” That’s about as much motivation as the faltering microwave could muster in us.

Then two weeks ago happened. I put a mug of water in the microwave to make hot chocolate. I set it for 90 seconds. 90 seconds came and went. The microwave beeped to signal me that the time had elapsed. But the microwave kept going. It didn’t stop. I pushed the “cancel” button. The microwave continued to radioactivate my water. I didn’t dare open the door in an attempt to stop the microwave, because what if it didn’t work and the machine kept pumping microwaves into the air? I didn’t want to microwave myself! So, I reached back and unplugged the appliance. It stopped. Phew! I took out my hot water and made hot chocolate.

I told Melanie what had happened. I wanted to warn her, in case she plugged it back in and tried using it and it once again didn’t stop. We weren’t sure we should even bother trying it again, but Melanie eventually decided she would. But the moment she plugged the microwave back in, it resumed its microwaving activities. The fact that it had been unplugged for quite some time didn’t matter. It immediately turned on.

Well, that settled that.

Melanie and I actually survived a week-and-a-half or so without a microwave. Did you know you can reheat things in a conventional oven? It’s true! For me, it was the leftovers from our second Thanksgiving that prompted a quick correction to our microwave-less situation. Although we went a couple of days reheating turkey, mashed potatoes, etc. in the oven, doing so made us realize how much we’d missed the luxuries of modern technology. (Because, you know, conventional ovens aren’t modern technology! Pssh!)

Our new microwave looks nice, but it is huge in comparison to our old one. It takes up significantly more countertop space, which is not good for our tiny kitchen. Fortunately, I’m pleased with the microwave otherwise. I’ve only used it a couple of times, but still. When we reheated our last plate of Thanksgiving leftovers using the microwave’s “sensor reheat” feature, which automatically determines how long to heat your food by detecting the presence of steam, the results were impressive. The turkey didn’t get dried out, and yet a thick blob of mashed potatoes was hot to the center. All of this without our having to stop and stir or blend or rotate or what have you. The sensor reheat didn’t work as well for warming up pecan pie, but common sense probably should’ve told us that. If your pecan pie is giving off a lot of steam, it’s going to be pretty damn hot. Way hotter than you need to get some vanilla ice cream melting on top.

To conclude, here are some photos, but of course.

Creegan was rather excited about the new toy. He insisted on being in some photos too.

The end.

Fair Weather Fun

It’s that time of year. Temperatures have dropped … slightly. We’re still getting into the 80s here and there, but mostly we stick between mid-60s and lower 70s. Not too shabby. People are getting sick. Yay. For a few weeks now, one or more of my children have been hacking quite a bit, or dabbing at their noses, or for one brief spell, puking. Despite all of that, we’ve also been having a lot of fun. On Veteran’s Day, we went as a family to see Despicable Me 2, which we very much enjoyed. Illness kept us away from church for a couple of Sundays. On one of those Sundays, we went on a nice long drive, which I haven’t done in quite a while. That was nice and made our Sunday feel more like a day of rest than it does when we go to church, no doubt about that. Within the last couple of weeks, Peter has started taking an arts and crafts class that is just for the holiday season. He was excited about the class and said he wanted to do it, which marks one of the first times he’s pushed for something he didn’t expect Edison to be a part of. I’m glad to see Peter branching out on his own. He’s an adorable kid, inside and out.

A highlight from the last couple of weeks would have to be our trip to the North Florida Fair. We’ve gone to the fair pretty much every year here in Tallahassee, but this year was a rather different experience. Peter has been very reluctant to try things in years past. Two years ago, I wrote about the trauma Peter experienced at the fair. Since that time, he hasn’t dared go on any rides other than carousels and Ferris wheels. (This has made our numerous visits to Wild Adventures somewhat pointless for him.) But this year Peter was eager to branch out. He went on a ton of stuff, including – believe it or not – a kiddie roller coaster! And Creegan, being our most spirited child, went along with everything his brothers did, including the roller coaster! Creegan even burst into tears when he wasn’t tall enough to go on something with Peter. I loved that everyone in the family was involved with doing things, rather than having Melanie and me take turns going on things with Eddie while the rest of the family waits. That’s kind of what it’s been in years past. We’ve always had fun, but this was really awesome in comparison.

Here are two of the very few photos I got at the fair. Our camera battery was on the verge of death, which we didn’t realize until we got to the fair and started taking pictures. It died on us after a few shots. What a crapper.

We had planned to leave the fair by 8 p.m., but that didn’t happen. We didn’t really get out of there until about 9:20 p.m., which is after we cut things short and denied Eddie and Peter the opportunity to go on more rides. Creegan fell asleep almost as soon as he was put into his car seat. Meanwhile, the rest of us were quite hungry. We had splurged and eaten a red velvet funnel cake at the fair, but now we wanted dinner. Edison remembered that we had stopped at Little Caesar’s on our way home from the fair last year, so he wanted to do that again. (He’s very into tradition and knowing what to expect.) We happily agreed. Melanie and I decided we’d stop and get the kids a cheapo pizza, and she and I would order some Chinese food from a restaurant that is practically across the street from our apartment. (They have the best Chinese food we’ve discovered outside of Utah, and it might be my very favorite of anywhere at this point.) Things then got a little bit crazy. I called the Chinese restaurant; they answered and told me that they had closed about ten minutes earlier but that they would cook me a meal nonetheless. I found that incredibly generous of them. A few moments later, I pulled up to Little Caesar’s only to discover that they had closed at 9 p.m. It seems Tuesday night was not made for late meals. The boys were devastated at the thought of missing out on the cheese pizza they had been promised, and so I quickly called Pizza Hut and put in an order for takeout. The pizza would be ready in 15 minutes, but the Chinese food would be ready in about 10. I didn’t want to keep the folks at the Chinese restaurant waiting, since they were doing me a special favor. But Pizza Hut was officially behind us and we would have to backtrack to it. We decided to press forward to the Chinese restaurant, pick up the Chinese food, and then go back for the pizza. That’s what we did. It worked out quite well in the end. The pizza looked super good, better than usual. Our Chinese food was also exceptionally good that night. I think in both cases, we got piping hot fresh food because we were ordering at such a late hour (for a Tuesday night, anyway). Eddie and Peter stayed up quite late that night, but it was really fun. We enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Fair thee well. LOLOLOLOLOL!!!

Sleepwalking

As far as I’m aware, I’ve never somnambulated. Lately, however, I frequently feel as if I am in something of a stupor. Even as I write this, I’m on the verge of sleep. My eyes are heavy, and I’m very, very tired. I’d probably be asleep in no time if I were to lie down and close my eyes. Lucky you, I’m putting my blog above the basic biological need for rest. I’m cool like that.

So, what’s the cause of my lethargy? Lack of sleep, plain and simple. For at least three weeks now, I’ve rarely gotten more than 6 hours of sleep at night. Often, I’m much closer to 5 hours. Last week, I went several days in a row where I was topping out at 5 hours of sleep. I’m actually rather impressed that I’ve managed so well. But these last couple of days, I’m feeling it. I sit down to watch something with Melanie, and I’m lucky to go 20 minutes without dozing off. Even sitting on the toilet, I begin to lose consciousness.

To be clear, I’m not trying to complain. I could—theoretically—go to bed earlier than I do. But it’s not like I’m being totally frivolous with my time. I’m not staying up until 1 or 2 a.m. to party. And I’m not getting up at 7 a.m. because it’s fun. There’s just a lot to do, and our kids’ sleep schedule has been messed up ever since we went to Utah in the summer. It’s rare that all of our children are asleep by 10 p.m. Often, putting the kids to bed can take until 10:30 or 11 p.m.! Whether I’m putting the kids to bed myself (which happens two or three times a week) or I’m doing school-related work while Melanie puts the kids to bed, I don’t have any substantial free time in my day until the kiddos are down. That’s just the way it works. By that time of day, I’m desperate to relax. I need to do something to unwind. The thought of going straight to bed is very unappealing. If all I did was work and sleep, I’d be miserable. And so, I usually end up kicking back (at 11 p.m. or later!) with a movie or some TV shows. But even if I spend only an hour in front of the tube, by the time I do all of the other get-ready-for-bed-and-for-the-next-day things, it’s easily 1 a.m. And down the spiral I go.

On the bright side, exhaustion may reach a point where I give up on downtime and even abandon my schoolwork because I simply can’t take it anymore. I assume sleep will become my number one priority soon enough, once my body is incapable of pressing forward without some serious zzz’s. Until then, I’lkk oeep pllugign awy….k,,,,,,////////

Prelude to Summer

Yesterday marked the end of the spring semester, at least as far as I’m concerned. I’m still on call as a TA, as there may be a couple of late papers that will make their way in during the week and need to be graded. But other than that, I am done.

What’s on the agenda for summer 2013? I wish I knew. I’ve been promised a TA-ship, but I have no idea which half of the summer it will involve. If it’s the first half of the summer, I’ll be back on campus, five days a week, starting on May 13th. That’s less than two weeks away. Alternatively, I’ll start on June 24th. That’s a big difference, and it’s irksome that I still have no idea what to expect. If I don’t start until near the end of June, it’s going to be a bit late for me to work out any travel arrangements for the first part of the summer. Not that Melanie and I are 100% certain to do any traveling. We haven’t talked about it too much yet, which is unusual. There was some talk a while back about going home to Utah. But for whatever reason, we haven’t discussed it recently. Probably because there’s no point to discussing it until we know when I’m available to travel! See how this works?

Regardless of what happens, I’ll need to spend the next week or so doing some good work on my dissertation. I think my committee chair probably needs a reminder that I’m still alive and a part of the PhD program. Tonight, however, we’re going to cut a little bit loose as a family and order some pizza and stream a movie from Netflix. On a Tuesday. This is living, folks! We’re also gearing up for Peter’s 5th birthday, which is only a couple of days away. I’m sincerely excited for it. We’ll have a family celebration on his actual birthday and then have a birthday party with friends on Saturday morning. It’s going to be dinosaur-themed. It should be fun.

That’s it, I’m done.

Jacksonville Zoo

Melanie and I took the kids to the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens yesterday. We treated Monday (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) like a regular work day so that we could splurge and play on Tuesday, when the zoo was offering $2 admission. I personally haven’t been to a zoo since Peter was a baby. I don’t think kids ever find zoos to be as exciting and fascinating as you expect them to, but taking them every once in a while is a parental must. I enjoyed the opportunity to spend time with my fam.

I’ll tell our zoo story mostly through photographs. For all the pictures we took, surprisingly few animals appear in them. But that’s okay. We plan to go back sometime in the near future. Also, because it takes a full 2.5 hours to drive to the zoo from our apartment, not including restroom breaks and the like, I made us leave the zoo by about 4 p.m. We ended up skipping a few parts of the zoo, which wasn’t our original intention. It was an all-day event for us, but we didn’t even see everything, and not because Jacksonville Zoo is particularly huge.

Our first stop at the zoo was the train station ticket booth. We rode the train and got a backside view of everything the zoo had to offer. That usually wasn’t all that impressive, but the kids on the train were cute, as evidenced here:

Our next stop was the stingray exhibit. Although our kids were too apprehensive to touch the stingrays, we spent several minutes watching them. I asked several questions of a zoo employee who tends to the stringrays, so it was an educational experience for me. In the end, everybody agreed that it was our favorite exhibit. There’s just something peaceful about watching marine life, at least in many situations. I snapped a couple of photos on my cell phone. They’re not great, but I’ll share a couple here.

This was the “boss” stingray, according to Eddie and Peter. It was huge, which you probably cannot tell from this photo alone. The zoo employee said it would grow to about twice that size in another couple of years. Wowzers!

One of the most intriguing sights, for me, was of an animal called an okapi. I’d never seen anything like it. It’s got the legs of a zebra, the body of a horse, the head of a deer, and the ears of a vampire bat. It’s like God’s version of Wendy’s chili, composed of all of the day’s leftovers thrown together. Or so it seems. In actuality, the okapi is not related to the zebra but to the giraffe. You can see the resemblance once you know, but it’s a quirky creature either way. I saw the okapis from the train, but I didn’t manage to get a photo of them. Here is an image taken from Wikimedia Commons, courtesy of someone who goes by the handle Raul654:

One of the highlights of our zoo trip was the inquisitive squirrel who searched our stroller while Melanie had the kids in the restroom. He continually climbed in and out of every part of our stroller. He even grabbed hold of my Diet Mountain Dew bottle and sniffed the lid for a few seconds. The kids were thrilled by the spectacle when they came out of the restroom. This particular squirrel was probably the most exciting animal they encountered at the zoo.

The reptile house was another big hit. There weren’t a ton of snakes, but the kids loved what they had. For whatever reason, they were particularly fond of the first snake we looked at, even though it wasn’t the biggest. We returned to it after admiring the other snakes, at our kids’ request.

I was a fan of the huge bull frog that resided in the reptile house. Peter’s head blocks the frog in the following photo, making it nearly pointless. But I’ll include it anyway since I’m so darn cute in it.

Playing outside of the reptile house…

Move over, Michael Jackson!

At the giraffe overlook (with the giraffes mostly obscured, of course)…

Playing on sculptures…

 

But of course, nothing beats a children’s play area. It wouldn’t matter where you go with kids, they will care more about the play area than anything else. Such was the case with Jacksonville Zoo. Admittedly, the play area was pretty cool. I didn’t get many photos to show off what the play area was like, but aside from a couple of slides, it was comprised primarily of things on which to climb. No swings or teeter totters, just lots of rope and walls. It was a smash hit.

Every time I tried to snap a photo of Creegan playing, I would barely miss him. That’s his red shirt at the left end of the bridge. This is about a good a photo of him playing as I got.

The end!