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.

Everything Has Changed … A Little Bit More

Last time, I wrote about moving into a new place, starting a new job, and being ordained (along with Melanie) to the priesthood in Community of Christ. I shared some photos of all but the new job. Almost three weeks have passed since then, and now I have some new photos that show how things have progressed in respect both to our home and to our new church responsibilities. If you haven’t seen my previous post, you won’t get the full effect … and the effect will BLOW YOUR MIND! Well, not really. But it adds a little bit to the experience.

Let’s begin with the new home. About a month into living here, Melanie and I love it. I really love it. I don’t know what to say about it that I haven’t said before, but I’m incredibly happy here. It feels good. In my previous post, I shared a photo of Melanie sitting in a sparsely filled living room. But then we got our federal tax return—an incredibly nice one—and went on a shopping spree, which included a new couch, a rug, a new TV, and a TV stand. Yes, we’re playing grown up, and it’s mighty fun. Here’s how our living room looks now (which still isn’t finished, for the record):

Since being ordained, Melanie and I have had the opportunity to administer communion to our congregation. This is something I’ve looked forward to since we received our calls to the priesthood. We got to the church early on March 7th, prepared the bread and grape juice, and during the worship service, blessed them and served them to those in attendance. Melanie went first, blessing the water. I got teary-eyed during her prayer. After we had served the congregation bread, I blessed the grape juice. I tell you, as a former Mormon, it’s a lot more stressful to serve communion at Community of Christ. For one thing, you don’t just hand the tray to the person sitting on the edge of the pew and let everybody pass it down the row. In Community of Christ, the priesthood serves communion to each and every member of the congregation who partakes of it. That means that, this most recent Sunday, I was holding the tray the entire time I served. That makes it more stressful in and of itself, but add to that the fact that you’ve got a tray full of little cups of grape juice—dark purple grape juice that could stain anything it touches—and the stress of working up and down the rows escalates. It was a neat experience, but a much weightier one, no doubt. I wish I had been able to pay more attention to what Melanie was doing, because that would’ve been neat. I didn’t really see her serve anyone because I was too busy tending to my own serving. I especially wish I could’ve seen her serve it to our kids, which she said was a really neat experience for her. Shucks. Anyway, a good friend snapped a photo with her cell phone while Melanie and I were serving grape juice to each other. It’s from a distance, but I appreciate that we have a photo of our first time serving communion together, and the first time in Community of Christ. Here it is:

Everything Has Changed

I’m not the same man I was the last time I posted on my blog. Or, at least, there are many things about me that have changed. I’ve started a job, I’ve moved, and I’ve been ordained to the priesthood at church. It’s a busy and exciting time, with an emphasis on “busy.” It’s so busy, in fact, that I’m hardly going to say anything about all of these wonderful and exciting developments. But I’ll say a little bit about each. That’ll have to do.

When I received and accepted a job offer, Melanie and I made finding a new home a priority. Living with Melanie’s parents for a year and a half was a necessity, and it had a lot of perks. But nothing compares to having your own space. And so, we began some serious house hunting. We had kept our eyes peeled for rental homes before I received the job offer, but once we knew I had a guaranteed income, we were empowered to act on any promising homes we found. When it came down to it, we were strongly considering two different rental properties: a townhome and a duplex. Originally, we had avoided looking into townhomes and duplexes because we didn’t want to have neighbors that were technically living in the same physical building. But there are some significant perks to these types of rental properties that weren’t typically available when renting a house, such as having your landlord take care of landscaping responsibilities and certain utilities, or having a much smaller security deposit. The townhome we fancied was in a pretty good location, not too far from where we had been living. The townhome community itself was built in 2007 and so was quite new, meaning it looked and felt rather fancy inside. It had some nice amenities, such as a clubhouse and swimming pool, and the guy who showed us the property seemed ready and willing to rent it to us. It was very tempting. But we were also considering a very large duplex, a duplex so large that the term “duplex” seems misleading. The duplex seems like a townhome of its own, with three levels, four bedrooms, an attached two-car garage, and approximately 2,000 square feet of living space. It’s an older property—built in 1970—but it’s been updated inside. And did I mention the space? The rooms are huge. It was also about $200 less per month than the townhome and even closer to Melanie’s and my works. And so, after giving it much thought, we decided to apply for the duplex. And we got it. And we’re living here now. And it’s absolutely wonderful. I love the location, I love the space. I’m ecstatic about these things. Here’s the first photo taken in our new home, with things still looking rather sparse:

When it comes to my new job, I started on Tuesday. The first day was new hire orientation, which included being taken out to a very nice lunch. That was cool. I then spent the next two days getting the impression they weren’t 100% sure what to do with me just yet. I think there weren’t any new projects for them to start me on, so they were kind of killing time. I was told to do things like investigate the company website and learn more about it, to set up a LinkedIn account, and other activities that probably aren’t the most pressing things one could do when on the clock. But by late Thursday afternoon, I was actually doing some real work, and I’m feeling incredibly optimistic. I already was optimistic, but I just think I’ve fallen into something really great here. The team is terrific, the scheduling and dress code are both very relaxed, the pay is good—I don’t know that I could realistically be happier working a “real” job.

And then there was today. Melanie and I have been preparing for ordination into the priesthood of Community of Christ for months now. Today, we were both officially ordained. It was a beautiful service with lots of love and support from friends and family. Melanie’s brother Brent even came down from Seattle to share the moment with us, which was pretty awesome. I was the first to be ordained during the worship service, being ordained to the office of elder. It was cool because the second I was done being ordained, I was able to hop up and assist in Melanie’s ordination to the office of priest. Serendipitously—or perhaps it was divine intervention—Melanie and I were extremely color-coordinated not only with each other, but with Jenn, one of the people ordaining us. None of this was planned or known about ahead of time. Melanie and I were both dressed before we saw that we matched. Here are some photos a friend of ours took of the ordinations. You’ll see what I mean.

Happy, But Sorta Crappy, New Year

The whole week leading up to 2016, Melanie, the boys, and I have had the house to ourselves. Melanie’s parents and brother Tom went to visit her brother Brent in Seattle. With Melanie and the boys out of school, it felt like a vacation to us. We could do whatever, whenever, and didn’t ever feel like we were stepping on anyone else’s toes. Melanie and I could watch our favorite vulgar and profane TV shows in the living room at 1 AM and it didn’t matter. That sort of thing. Unfortunately, much of the fun has been ruined by persistent illness. I mentioned the roller coaster of health we’ve all been riding in my previous post, but since then, I’ve gone back downhill. Yet again. It’s unbelievable. I feel like crap. I don’t know if the Utah climate is to blame or not, but I feel like I’m giving serious reconsideration to living here. The winter sucks. It hasn’t been that snowy this year, which is great, but the cold, dry air wreaks plenty of havoc. My skin dries out and cracks. Even if it doesn’t snow, you have to get up 30 minutes early to go stand in the cold and scrape the frost off of your windshield. Melanie has developed asthma since returning to this elevation. Creegan gets nosebleeds all the time, which used to be a very common problem for me living in Utah. And now this never-ending carousel of sickness. I don’t think we spent so much time sick in Florida. Maybe I’m glorifying the past, because I know I wrote blog posts in Florida about being sick all the time. But I don’t know if it was such long stretches. I’m hacking my lungs out. I feel like my insides are being torn apart, and like I have a blister on the back of my throat. Even when I did get sick in Florida, I don’t think it was this vicious. (The voice inside my head says, “Um, did you forget all the trips to the hospital?” Okay, okay. Fair point.)

December 2015 saw me canceling many plans due to illness. It happened again on New Year’s Eve. My family had been invited to a friend’s house, and we were looking forward to it. My health kept swinging around, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I thought I was on the mend, but Creegan and I were both feeling pretty crappy once New Year’s Eve arrived. Canceling plans is one of my least favorite things, so I always hold out until the last minute in case something can work out after all. As a result, I canceled on my friends rather last minute. I wasn’t the only person invited to their house, so it’s not like I completely ruined their evening. And I don’t pretend I’m so special that my not being around would ruin their evening. But you get the point. I think it was the right decision. I seemed to feel worse and worse as the night went on, and I tossed and turned all night, grunting and wheezing in that pre-cough dance that your throat often does when you have a really bad cold. I feel like poo balls today. I’m getting really tired of it.

Anyway, I’ll stop complaining and focus on the fun we had last night. Because we did manage to have some fun as a family. We ended up ordering Chinese takeout and picking up a movie (a family-friendly drama called Max, about a military dog) from Redbox. We also had some snacks on hand. After eating Chinese food and watching the movie, we played TENZI, a game that Melanie’s parents had given me for Christmas. In the game, up to four people are given 10 dice. Everybody starts at the same time, rolling their dice, putting to the side any dice that they wish, and then rerolling whatever’s left. The winner is whichever player first gets all 10 of his/her dice to be the same number. There are also several variations you can play, such as one where you not only have to get all 10 dice to the same number, but you then have to stack them up in a tower in order to win. It’s more fun, and less grueling, than I thought it would be. I think Eddie and Peter liked it. Creegan played a couple of rounds but then lost interest.

After game time, Eddie wanted to watch another movie. Even thought I doubt we’ve ever watched more than three movies on a New Year’s Eve during Eddie’s lifetime, the boy had it in his head that we were supposed to watch four or five. He found something on Netflix and started it, before anyone else really gave any input. I was fine with that. I hardly watched any of this second movie, the title of which I don’t even know. I did a little bit of reading. Creegan came up to me around this time and said he was going to go to sleep in Melanie’s and my bed. And he did just that. Peter and Eddie, however, remained alert and attentive all the way until midnight. As did Melanie—I think. She might have dozed off a little bit during the second movie, I’m not sure. Regardless, all of us except for Creegan were conscious as midnight approached. We turned over to ABC and watched the pre-recorded excitement of all those thousands of people crammed into New York’s Times Square as they welcomed 2016. When the ball dropped, or at least when it was broadcast to us here in the Mountain Time Zone, Eddie was the first to grab a pot and a wooden spoon and head bravely into the cold, making all the clatter he could. I had no interest in going outside. Melanie and Peter did. I was the party pooper, but I stand behind my decision.

And that’s pretty much that. We got Eddie and Peter to bed soon after, then Melanie and I went and watched a show on the living room couch. I fell asleep before the episode was over, benefiting no doubt from being in an upright position. Once the show ended and I officially went to bed, I was wheezing and hacking away. Thankfully, I eventually was getting more sleep than not, and I stayed in bed until nearly 11:30 AM.

I haven’t wanted to do much today. I’ve watched some TV, I’ve eaten. I’m proud to say I did a fair amount of cleaning in preparation for the return of Melanie’s parents. Melanie, the boys, and I played another game tonight—Gubs, which Peter received in his stocking. I honestly don’t think there’s anything else to say about the day. It’s been a non-eventful 2016 thus far, which is probably what I would’ve hoped for on New Year’s Day, but in this case I wish it had been on better terms. I’ve coughed up more snot and boogers than I care to admit, but not nearly as much as I wish. I bet you’re glad you didn’t stop reading before you learned that.

And now, some photos from our New Year’s Eve. Enjoy.

My dinner plate.  Yum.

Creegan's eyes look slightly demonic here, all because he's sick.  His eyes were quite pink and cloudy.

Looks like somebody got TENZI!

This one should probably be filed under "photos that should never see the light of day," but I'll bravely share it with you.  Peter thought my pajama joke was pretty funny and wanted to copy me.  You know what they say, imitation is the highest form of flattery.

Christmas 2015

It will be much easier to recap the holiday season via photos than trying to explain everything in detail. It’s been a good few weeks, except for the fact that illness has been a persistent presence in our home. Melanie got strep, I got strep, I got bitten by a bug of some sort that made my head swell up quite a bit behind my ear and gave me very itchy extremities, and now we’re all back to having terrible colds. So, health wise, December has been a crappy month. But we’re trying to have some fun anyway. Below are some of the things we’ve been up to.

December 8, 2015 – Rudolph Pancakes

December 9, 2015 – Ugly Sweater Sugar Cookie Decorating

December 19, 2015 – Christmas Program at Church

Creegan as a wise man.

Peter as Caesar Augustus.  Needless to say, the costumes available at church were not of ancient Hebrew fashion.

Eddie as the angel.

Acting is hard work.

Eddie as an angel, announcing to Mary that she is going to have a baby.  He really captured the "wowzers!" factor.

December 20, 2015 – Snowmen Pizza

December 24, 2015 – Christmas Eve

The Christmas Eve tradition of opening one present from Mom and Dad continued this year.  This year's gift: body pillows.

Creegan wasn't entirely sure how to use a body pillow.

We also continued our Christmas Eve tradition of driving around looking at Christmas lights just before bed.  Eddie and Creegan could scarcely tolerate the flash of the camera.  And don't worry, the kids had hot chocolate, not coffee.  Melanie and I had the coffee: our first caramel macchiatos.  I added some half and half to mine, as well as a couple of pumps of Irish Creme.  It was muy bueno.

December 25, 2015 – Christmas Day

Where we currently live, we had one Christmas tree upstairs and another one downstairs.  Like last year, Eddie left a note for Santa to leave all of his gifts downstairs.  The upstairs tree was used primarily for gifts from family members, although I think Santa left some gifts that were NOT for Eddie, Peter, and Creegan upstairs.  This is the upstairs tree, and so only about half of the Christmas booty.

Checking to see that Santa ate his cookies.  This year, we also left out baby carrots for the reindeer and some cookies for Bernadette.  Melanie was determined to teach our kids that Mrs. Claus has a first name and does more than sit at home on Christmas Eve.  She comes along to help.

Let the unwrapping begin.

Nerf guns were a very popular item.  All three boys asked for some, and all three received more than one as a gift.

These cups are called Snackeez Duos.  Apparently, the boys have wanted one very much ever since seeing them in use early in the school year.  There is a compartment for snacks at the top, and the beverage goes in the area beneath.  A straw then extends through the snack section and into the drink.  You can then pop open the top and snack on whatever.

As Christmas approached, Creegan suddenly took a strong interest in the one and only Perplexus game that we own.  He started asking if there were other Perplexus games and what were they called, etc.  It was clear that getting a new Perplexus for Creegan was a must.  Here, he examines his newly opened Perplexus Twist.

Peter and Creegan each received a "Chubby Puppy" from Melanie's parents.  They found them quite adorable.

The last few years, the boys have each received a card game with their stocking.  This year, Eddie received Guillotine.

Eddie brought up last minute that he hoped to receive Diet Coke in his stocking.  It was so last minute that I'm sure Santa must have already planned that.  What a coincidence.  Usually, our kids aren't permitted caffeinated beverages.

One of several packages of nuts I received for Christmas.  In addition to the toasted coconut cashews you see here, I also received pumpkin spice almonds, regular cashews, macadamia nuts, and others.

Christmas Part II: The Downstairs Tree

Creegan finds one of several unwrapped movies mixed in with the gifts.  Santa often leaves a few unwrapped items that are meant for the whole family.

This CD received near constant play in our family car while we had it checked out from the library.  All three boys absolutely love it.  Since Santa brought us our own copy, it has again gone into permanent play on our car stereo.

When Peter sent his letter to Santa, he asked for only five things.  One of those things was a purse.  Santa delivered this peppermint purse, which Peter dons proudly.

A ghost-shooting game courtesy of Uncle Tom.

I’ll conclude with some photos of Peter enjoying his new keyboard. It took a couple of days for him to open it and actually start using it, but since then, he’s been quite enthusiastic about it. He loves playing the demos and dancing along, as you’ll see below, but he also likes experimenting with his own playing. It’s been very fun for a music fanatic such as myself to behold.

See you next year!