Utah 2012 Photos, Part 1

I now begin the arduous task of posting pictures from our Summer 2012 Utah trip. As I noted in my first post about the trip, I failed to take to Utah the cord that would have allowed me to transfer photographs from our camera to our laptop. This oversight prevented me from being able to share pictures as I wrote about the trip. Because I am now sharing photos after the fact, I’m going to try to minimize just how much I do. Otherwise, the task would be all the more tedious. The good news is, as I share select photos, I’m bound to have a few new things to discuss, either that I previously overlooked or that weren’t significant enough to work into my previous narratives.

For the record, these photos cover July 11th through July 20th. Some of the events depicted here were described in greater detail in my Week 1 and Week 2 posts about the Utah trip.

Melanie’s mother had giant cans of Diet Mountain Dew awaiting us when we arrived at her house immediately after being picked up from the airport. She sure knew how to make us feel welcomed!

This is a spare bedroom in Melanie’s parents’ house. It acted as my office while I was in Utah. I spent a fair amount of time in that kitchen chair, working on my dissertation.

One of the boys’ first destinations was Grandma and Grandpa’s backyard trampoline. Creegan was very cute on the trampoline, but he usually preferred to run around the yard instead.

This pic was taken from underneath the trampoline. It would make a good album cover for The Toasted Heads (which is what Edison told me several months ago would be his band’s name).

Melanie’s elementary school is a very short walk away from Melanie’s parents’ house. This picture was taken when we took the kids to the school playground. That’s Uncle Tom on the right.

Edison chillaxin’ at Sconecutter.

Creegan with a drink in each hand. Smart kid.


Pics from Silver Lake on Grandpa’s birthday:

Moving felled tree stumps is hard work, says Creegan.

Peter gets some help from Grandpa.

And they made it!

Peter wanted constantly to be looking through Grandpa’s binoculars. Bumping into other hikers several times as he walked didn’t dissuade him.

Edison wanted his picture taken on top of almost every rock we passed. And that’s pretty much what we did.

Creegan keepin’ hydrated.


Pics from Great Grandma and Grandpa’s House (still on Grandpa’s birthday):

Great Grandpa’s backyard is huge, with plenty for kids to enjoy. The tractors are always a hit.

Eddie and Peter, swinging with Uncle Tom.

Uncle Tom is everybody’s favorite. Now you know why.

Edison shows off his marshmallow-roasting abilities.

Peter shows off his marshmallow-eating abilities.

Edison and Peter are always willing to help when it comes to cake. (By the way, that cake was AWESOME. It’s just a yellow cake with some sort of cream cheese frosting topped with cherries. But man, it was good!)

And Creegan is always willing to help Eddie and Peter when it comes to cake.

That’s it for now!!

Mormons and R-rated Movies

One of the most widely-obeyed yet unofficial “rules” of Mormonism is that members of the Church must not see R-rated movies. I call the rule unofficial because that’s what it is. Although many adult members of the LDS faith shun all R-rated movies as a matter of principle, they have never been commanded—or even strongly encouraged—to do so. Not really. And I personally believe those who eschew R-rated movies simply because they are rated R are thereby making a serious mistake. Allow me to explain…

First off, many LDS folks will eagerly attest that some Church leader or another has counseled followers not to see R-rated movies. Perhaps the most explicit example of this comes from Ezra Taft Benson, who during his tenure as the President of the Church, said plainly: “Don’t see R-rated movies.”¹ What many members of the LDS faith fail to realize is that President Benson was speaking specifically to the youth of the Church—those between the ages of 12 and 17. Indeed, I cannot find a single, official admonition from an LDS authority, against R-rated movies, that is not directed expressly to teenagers—that is, to the very age group that the Motion Picture Association of America suggests may not be the appropriate audience for such films. To my knowledge, no Church leader has ever told adult members of the LDS community that they mustn’t, or even shouldn’t, view R-rated material. I urge anyone who is skeptical of this claim to do some research of his/her own. If such a person can prove me wrong, I will gladly stand corrected. Until then, I’m not holding my breath.

Now, there are two lines of thought that a typical R-rated-movie-avoiding LDS person might offer in response to my comments. One, such a person may insist that if the youth should avoid R-rated movies, it follows that adults should also avoid R-rated movies. After all, the thinking goes, what is good for the child is good for the adult. Two, the person may insist that R-rated movies are to be avoided not because they are rated R, but because such films undoubtedly include content that it is inappropriate for anyone to see and/or to hear—a fact to which the R-rating attests. On this view, the R-rating is regarded as a warning, but the movie is avoided because of the danger to which that warning points (not because of the warning itself). I should note that these responses are not mutually exclusive. A person may simultaneously yet consistently offer both responses in order to defend the view that R-rated movies should be avoided by the LDS adult.

Neither response is satisfactory, however. Let us examine the first response (call it R1): that what is good for a child (i.e. non-adult) is good for an adult. Or, more precisely, that what is bad for a child is bad for an adult. While this is certainly plausible in many instances—eating your vegetables, saying ‘no’ to drugs, avoiding stealing, etc.—it fails to hold in the extremely generalized sense that R1 requires. It is patently false that if it is bad or inappropriate for a child to know about, to see, and/or to hear certain things, it is likewise bad or inappropriate for an adult to know about, to see, and/or to hear those things. To list just a few obvious examples, here are some things that I don’t want my children to know about before they reach a certain level of psychological and emotional maturity: rape, abortion, suicide, child molestation, terrorism, AIDS, serial killing. But the list isn’t limited to things that are typically regarded as negative, bad, or as things to avoid. Also on the list are things like sex, birth control, orgasms, and (on a wholly unrelated note) where hamburgers come from! Once my children are appropriately mature, I think they should know about all of these things. In the meantime, such knowledge can serve only to confuse and/or to harm them. It is best that these matters—many of which would garner an R-rating if examined or explored on film—be kept from those who are not adequately prepared to deal with them. Responsible adults, on the other hand, should not be kept from maturely dealing with these issues, including viewing films that may broach such topics.

Interestingly, there are spiritual/religious parallels that support my way of thinking. In the third chapter of 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul suggests that one must be adequately prepared to learn and to handle certain kinds of information and knowledge before that information and knowledge is received. Related points are made in Paul’s epistle to the Hebrews (5:11-14) and in the LDS Doctrine and Covenants (19:22; 50:40). The Biblical notion of learning line upon line and precept upon precept promotes a similar idea (see Isaiah 28). Meanwhile, for as much as Mormons emphasize the importance of LDS temples, it is commonly understood that one should not be prematurely exposed to the sacred ordinances that take place therein. This remains true even though it is an implicit belief of any adherent to the faith that, ideally, everyone will prepare for and participate in those ordinances. But as my aforementioned examples should have made clear, exercising discretion with what, when, and how we expose others to certain kinds of information is important not only in spiritual matters. Rather, it is a central feature of being a responsible person, period. As responsible adults more specifically, we should not allow our children to take on things that they themselves cannot responsibly handle.  It’s quite possible that most R-rated content is something that even a young teenager cannot responsibly handle.  And yet that doesn’t mean an adult can’t.

This brings us to the second possible response (call it R2): that R-rated movies should be avoided because of the inappropriate content that they undoubtedly possess. This is a much more reasonable line of thinking, and yet it doesn’t work as a response to my initial claim that a movie should not be avoided simply because it is R-rated. Anyone who sincerely holds R2 is admitting that the rating itself is ultimately irrelevant. My concern is that many people who would claim to hold R2 do not in fact do so, and that despite their claims to the contrary, these people really do avoid movies simply because they are rated R. The most obvious case of this is when a person shuns R-rated movies but freely watches movies that are rated PG-13 (or even PG) without any consideration of why a given film has received the rating it did. PG-13 movies in particular can be quite crude and profane, may contain excessive violence, can contain some degree of nudity, and are typically allowed at least one or two uses of the granddaddy of swear words (clue: it rhymes with “duck”). If a person watches a PG-13 movie without hesitation but cites something like R2 as a reason for avoiding all R-rated movies, such a person is inconsistent at best. Sadly, I believe many Mormons fall into this camp. Better off are those who avoid PG-13 and R-rated movies altogether. But even these people run the risk of inconsistency if they freely watch PG movies. It may surprise you, but some PG movies contain nudity (one gag in the PG-rated Airplane! involves a close-up of fully-exposed breasts exaggeratedly bouncing) and even the very-similar-to-“duck” word (e.g. Benny & Joon). Knowing this, the sincere holder of R2 should not watch any movies without learning what specific content the movies will include. In practice, it may be easier for this person never to watch movies again.

The practical complications of avoiding certain types of content are exacerbated by the fact that the MPAA ratings system is both wildly inconsistent and, to a greater extent than many people realize, arbitrary. As I’ve pointed out in a previous post, the Motion Picture Association of America is not a government institution. It is not regulated in the way that many people might assume. According to some former employees of the MPAA, there are no official criteria for the ratings board to follow when deciding what a film should be rated. They simply watch a movie and vote on its classification.² This leads to some bizarre results. Although the ratings system didn’t exist in 1960 when Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece Psycho was released—a fairly tame film by today’s standards—the MPAA saddled the film with an R-rating in 1984. Meanwhile, in the same year, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was released and received a PG rating. For those who don’t know, Temple of Doom features graphic and gruesome scenes of human sacrificial killing and contains more than a little sexual innuendo. (Parental guidance suggested, indeed!) Anyone who will watch Temple of Doom but will not watch any R-rated movie whatsoever is in serious danger of being a hypocrite. I could list a plethora of R-rated movies that are “cleaner” than Temple of Doom and that I’d much rather have my own kids watch.

The purpose of this post, however, is not to examine the shortcomings of the MPAA ratings system, nor is it to say that all adults should be watching R-rated movies. Rather, the point is that there is no good reason for avoiding R-rated movies simply because they are rated R. Even devout Mormons need not subscribe to the view that R-rated movies should be shunned without exception. It is worth reiterating that adult members of the LDS Church have never been instructed to avoid all R-rated movies.

The question remains whether it is ever particularly worthwhile to view an R-rated movie. The answer strikes me as an obvious ‘yes.’ I imagine the only people who would deny this would deny that movies in general have any merit or value. Such a view is so extreme and absurd that I do not think it worth addressing. It also strikes me as clearly false that something with content presumably deserving of an R-rating is automatically without value. The Bible is more graphic and “R-rated” than many R-rated films (as is the Book of Mormon). Does it matter that one reads the Bible but watches a movie? I’m not sure why that would matter, but I know many people draw a moral distinction between what’s written and what’s on film (even barring the issue of nudity). Does it matter if/that the accounts in the Bible are true? If they are, one might reasonably suppose that makes the stories all the worse. But even if it doesn’t, and even if it’s the case that scripture is of a higher value because it is God’s intended message for us, it should be clear that something valuable can come out of studying (via books or movies) situations that are not wholly “G-rated.” Furthermore, those who experience the events only vicariously are bound to learn many of the same lessons, whether reading an accurate history or watching a purely fabricated story unfold onscreen. “R-rated” content notwithstanding, the meaning and import of certain truths can be conveyed equally well via fiction or non-fiction. This makes a moral distinction between reading tales of rape and murder in the scriptures and watching an R-rated film like The King’s Speech (true story) or Slumdog Millionaire (not so true story) highly suspect. I’d argue that in some instances, truth simply cannot be conveyed in its fullest or noblest sense without including “R-rated” material. And for that reason, I am thankful that my religion does not prohibit me, as a mature adult, from choosing what movies I watch.

¹http://www.lds.org/general-conference/1986/04/to-the-youth-of-the-noble-birthright
²This information comes from the documentary This Film Has Not Yet Been Rated.

Utah 2012: Week 4, Pt. 2

The goings-on of our final few days in Utah, Summer 2012:

Per usual, Saturday and Sunday (August 4th and 5th, in this case) were dedicated to visiting my family. We spent the afternoons at my parents’ home, chatting it up. On Saturday, we bookended our visit with some fun eating. On our way to my parents’ place, we stopped at a nearby restaurant called Melty Way. Melty Way offers specialized grilled cheese sandwiches. We hadn’t heard anything good or bad about the restaurant, but we’d noticed it as we drove by and thought it might be fun. I ordered a club, which had turkey, bacon, tomatoes, and Havarti cheese. It was decent, but nothing special. It tasted like something you could easily make at home, not something that would get me coming back again and again (even if I could). Melanie’s sandwich, on the other hand, was quite tasty. It’s probably an easy enough sandwich to make on your own, too, but it seemed much more worth the money. It featured both provolone and pepper jack cheeses, artichokes, tomatoes, and some kind of pesto sauce. The kids got plain old grilled cheese sandwiches, except for Edison, who spruced things up with the addition of ham. But perhaps the best menu item was the “sweet grilled cheese” sandwich that we had for dessert. It comes with cream cheese and strawberry jam on cinnamon swirl bread, sprinkled with powdered sugar. It was pretty darn yummy. Later, after leaving my parents’ place, we drove downtown in the hopes that Creegan would take a much-needed nap. He did. Melanie and I seized the opportunity to stop at Alberto’s, one of several fast-but-authentic Mexican food chains in Utah. Melanie ordered her much beloved chicken nachos (sans beans), and I went for the rolled tacos with shredded beef. We shared a bit, and everything tasted as delicious as it always has. In fact, it may have been better than ever, since the guacamole on the rolled tacos didn’t look like a gigantic elephant poop, which is what I’m used to with Alberto’s. Anyway, we ate in the parking lot, since Creegan was asleep. He soon woke up and joined his brothers in eating some quesadillas, and then we drove home and put the kids officially to bed. Melanie and I then stayed up late watching The Killing with Melanie’s mom. We had started watching the show shortly after our arrival in Utah, and we got through almost the entire series (two seasons) before we came back to Tallahassee. It’s a very good show, and it was fun to hang out with Melanie’s mom on a regular basis. It became an almost-nightly routine.

The dynamic changed a bit on Sunday, when Melanie’s brother Brent (who lives in Seattle) came into town with his wife and two children. They were going to stay in Utah for about a week. Melanie and I purposely planned our trip so that it would overlap with theirs and we’d get a chance to see them, but their presence admittedly made things a bit more hectic around Melanie’s parents’ house. To celebrate Brent’s arrival, Kaya (with Kaleb’s help, I’m sure) made Sunday dinner for everyone. (Dinner consisted of cheese enchiladas, prepared with homemade tortillas. Dessert was extremely good homemade ice cream. I had Butterfinger / peanut butter cup, but raspberry was also an option.) Mark and Trina came over, and the kitchen and dining room were crazily crowded. When the kids were put to bed a short while later, it helped offset the madness. At that point, Brent, his wife Shanda, Kaleb, Melanie, and I played a party game that Brent had purchased called Quelf. It’s similar to Cranium, but zanier. For example: I drew a card that forced me to sit on my hands, whenever it wasn’t my turn, for the remainder of the game; Melanie drew a card that prohibited her from referring to herself in the first-person; Shanda was forbidden from bending her arms or legs when it wasn’t her turn and so spent the majority of the game standing up; etc. It was quite fun, and we planned on playing it again sometime before leaving town, but it didn’t happen. Oh well.

Monday the 6th was largely a play day. Melanie and I paid a final visit to Grinders 13, sharing a pot roast sandwich that was unbelievably good. I think I might like it even more than the cheese steak, which is almost blasphemous to admit. But it’s that good. After running a post-lunch errand and spending some downtime at Melanie’s parents’, we then met up with Kaleb, Kaya, and Brent’s family at Café Rio. Kaleb and Kaya had sprung the idea on us the night before, and we weren’t about to pass it up (even if we had already been there a couple of times). To shake things up a bit, I had a beef salad rather than my standard barbecued pork burrito. Melanie stuck with the pork salad, and the kids took advantage of the free kid’s quesadillas. After dinner, Melanie and I took the kids to a Bees game. Brent’s family met up with us at the ballpark, as did Mark and Trina. We bought discount tickets that were only $5 and included a hot dog. (We weren’t very hungry, so we saved the hot dog until very late in the game and ate it even then only as a matter of tradition.) Even though we could have had reserved seats, we chose to sit in the general admission area (i.e. on the grass). This allowed the kids to run around a bit as we watched the game. The problem is, we didn’t watch the game because we were so busy watching the kids. I go to a baseball game almost every year, and I usually don’t see very much of the game because I’m socializing or whatever. But this year, it was the kids alone that made it so difficult to watch. I feel like I hardly socialized at all, and yet I watched no more than five or six pitches total. Literally. I was slightly bummed by that. I always hope to watch more of the game than I do, but this time seemed especially pathetic. But at least the kids had a lot of fun. They got to ride on the “train,” and they spent a good chunk of time playing in the play area that sits just behind (but is attached to) the stadium. Edison expressed interest in going to another game as soon as we had left the ballpark.

On Tuesday, Melanie and I were treated to a tour of the as-of-yet unopened Scheel’s store currently under construction in Draper, Utah. The store opens in late September, but Kaya works for them and gave us a tour of the partially-completed facility. The kids were surprisingly excited about this, with Edison loving the fact that we were getting an exclusive peek at something that the general public cannot yet see. They were especially thrilled by the Ferris wheel that is in the center of the store. If you hadn’t heard of Scheel’s, neither had I until this summer. To be honest, I find the concept of the store a bit bizarre. It sounds like a combination outdoors / clothing store. That may not sound odd, but I don’t think the clothes are exclusively outdoors-type clothing. I think they’ll have clothing and perfume and stuff that something like Macy’s might have, but then their upstairs is hunting equipment, kayaks, and the like. I don’t know. It sounds kind of weird to me. But it was cool to go on the tour. Photography was strictly prohibited, so don’t expect any pictures from our trip to Scheel’s.

After leaving Scheel’s, Kaleb went with us on a final visit to Beyond Glaze Gourmet Doughnuts. I tried yet another new (for me) flavor, blueberry torte. I also tasted Creegan’s German chocolate donut and Peter’s orange creamsicle donut. The latter wasn’t my style, and although I’m not overly fond of rich chocolate flavors, Creegan’s was pretty good thanks to the delicious toasted coconut. Happily, I thought my blueberry torte donut was the best-tasting of the three I tried that day. After coconut cream and nutmeg dash, blueberry torte may be the best donut I’ve had from Beyond Glaze. That or apple crisp. Anyway, after our snack, we returned to Melanie’s parents’ house. Melanie and the boys hung out with the large assortment of available family, and I took to my own parents’ house for a final goodbye. I spent about three hours with my mom and my sisters Khrystine and Karen. We talked religion, sex, and to some extent, the connection between them—because we’re cool like that. Karen expressed many thoughts on Utah culture that were almost verbatim what I had going on in my head. It was very validating, and a bit strange to have my thoughts mirrored so exactly. My dad came home just a few minutes before I left. I felt sadder about leaving than I probably ever have, which I assume is because I’m getting more and more eager to live in Utah again and to be near these people. My heart broke a little.

Melanie’s family was doing a barbecue on Tuesday night. I basically missed it, but the food hadn’t been put away and I was able to salvage a cold hot dog and cold cheeseburger for my dinner. I ate alone, which fit my somber mood. Things took a turn for the better when several of us—Melanie, our boys, Brent’s family, Tom, Kaleb, Kaya, and myself—went to “the wetlands.” I was surprised to learn that these particular wetlands existed, tucked away and surrounded by suburban homes just a stone’s throw away from Melanie’s parents’, arguably in the same neighborhood. We fed ducks and walked around for a bit. It was on the later side and we almost didn’t go, thinking we should put the kids to bed. But I’m glad we went. Why miss out on the last little activity? It was good to get out. We all enjoyed ourselves.

After putting the kids to bed on Tuesday night, Melanie and I hung out with her family. Nothing in particular happened. We just hung out. And that was that. The next morning, it was time to finalize (and, in my case, to begin) packing and head to the airport. Melanie and I actually had time to run to Target in the morning to return some incredibly cheap toys we’d bought on clearance but realized we had no way of getting back to Tallahassee without paying enough in shipping costs to offset the discounted prices of the toys themselves. A bit of a bummer, but the only sensible decision. We also stopped at Maverik and got a final Diet Mountain Dew before returning to Florida. We learned on this trip that Maverik Diet Mountain Dew tastes much better (and is cheaper) than 7-Eleven Diet Mountain Dew. We were solid Maverik customers during our visit, and although they can’t beat the $.69 price tag of a Circle K fountain drink here in Tally, their superior taste is missed.

Things were a bit rushed at the airport on Wednesday. Melanie’s parents, Tom, and Kaleb accompanied us, which was wonderfully helpful with all of our luggage. They stuck with us until we went through the security check. Eddie cried more than Melanie did. He loved being in Utah, and he has cried extensively about it ever since we got back to Florida. Even now, almost a week since coming home, he spends some time everyday in tears. The first couple of days back, he wept almost non-stop. Very sad. Anyway, once we passed through the security check at the airport, we hurried to get some lunch at the central airport food court. Both Café Rio and Greek Souvlaki, two of Utah’s gastronomical superstars, had stations from which to purchase food. Because the Café Rio line was hardly moving, Melanie decided to go with me to Greek Souvlaki. The kids opted for McDonald’s. We didn’t actually eat the food until we were on the airplane, awaiting takeoff. We simply didn’t have time to eat it before then. We bought the food, hurried to the gate, made a quick restroom stop, and it was time to board the plane. I felt conspicuous eating food in that manner, but we were starving and I happily inhaled my food. It’s good we got a chance to eat before liftoff, because it was one of the most violently turbulent flights I’ve been on. At least for the first little while. Fortunately, the kids handled it quite well. Eddie and Peter were laughing at it, commenting on the tickling sensation in their tummies, and comparing it all to a roller coaster. I’m glad it served to entertain them rather than to freak them out.

And that’s basically that. We caught our connecting flight in Atlanta without any problems, despite the fact that it was basically boarding by the time we went from one gate to the other. Really, it helped to have minimal time between the flights. The kids seemed much less antsy on our return home than on our way out. Not dragging things out was a perk, but having the longer flight first was also extremely helpful.

By this point, things are back to normal. From the get-go, Creegan seemed especially happy to be home. The moment we walked in our door, he gleefully got out all of his old toys and spent a good chunk of time playing with them. Peter also seemed pretty happy. Edison and Melanie had the hardest time coming home, but they’ve adjusted fairly well at this point. I’m sad to be back to normal. I want Utah to be my normal. Which is not to say that I want what’s normal in Utah to be my normal. But I already wrote about that. For now, I’ve said plenty. And that’s enough. The end.

Utah 2012: Week 4, Pt. 1

The details of the first half of our final week of our Summer 2012 Utah trip:

Our final week in Utah got off to a good start. On Wednesday, August 1st, my sister JoAnna brought over her kids, Rayne and Caius, and let Melanie and me babysit them for a short while. It was Melanie’s idea to give my sister a much-deserved break. JoAnna wasn’t gone for long—an hour at most, I believe—but I think it did her some good. Her kids seemed happy with us, even if Rayne took a few minutes to get over JoAnna’s departure. Once JoAnna returned, Melanie and I asked her if she’d be interested in going to Café Rio for lunch. She accepted, and Melanie and I were able to spend a bit more time with her. Keeping kids under control didn’t help our conversations to go unimpeded once we were at the restaurant, but it was still a very nice visit, all things considered. I was bummed when it was over.

On Wednesday night, Melanie’s side of the family took to her older brother’s house. Mark and his wife, Trina, had invited us all to a baked-potato-bar dinner. Melanie and I supplied Snickers ice cream bars for dessert. Everything was quite good, but I was feeling rather headachy and tired and ended up taking a nap on Mark and Trina’s couch shortly after eating my food. The nap was brief, but by the time we got back to Melanie’s parents’ house, I was eager to continue my sleep, and that’s pretty much what I spent the night doing.

Pretty much.

In the middle of Wednesday-going-into-Thursday night, Edison woke up vomiting. He had two brief vomiting sessions within a relatively short period of time, and then a dry heave session closer to morning. This was very bad news for Melanie and me, as we had plans to wake up and drive to Boise to see a Thursday night concert featuring our favorite band, Barenaked Ladies. Eddie, Peter, and Creegan were going to stay with Melanie’s parents, who were planning to take them all to the zoo, and Melanie and I were not going to return to Utah until Friday. Not only did we already have tickets for the concert, but we had just made a hotel reservation approximately 12 hours before Edison puked. (Why make the hotel reservation so late? Because Melanie was paranoid that something could happen to derail our plans—her primary example being that of a kid getting sick.) This put us in quite a predicament. We didn’t want to leave a barfing child with Melanie’s parents, and we had no idea how long Edison’s sickness would last. There was also the possibility that somebody else might get sick—Peter, Creegan, or even Melanie or myself. The rough night had also slowed our morning-time momentum, meaning Melanie and I were suddenly in the position of needing to decide el pronto whether to cancel our concert plans or make a rather hurried five-and-a-half hour drive to Boise just so we could barely make it to the concert. It was difficult to think of turning down a concert we had long planned on attending, but being completely honest with ourselves, it just didn’t sound that fun to go anymore. We love BNL and would rarely miss an opportunity to see them in concert, but this wasn’t a full-on Barenaked Ladies concert anyway. It was more of a festival type of concert, with multiple artists each performing a handful of songs. We didn’t care about any of the other acts, so attending the concert in order to hear five or six tunes from Barenaked Ladies hardly seemed worth the stress and effort. Moreover, we could cancel our hotel reservation without losing any money, so the only downside of staying home was the unused concert tickets themselves. And so, after stressing about the situation and realizing that neither of us really wanted to hurry off to Idaho and wouldn’t have chosen to do so at that point had we not already purchased the tickets, we officially canceled our Boise trip. We spent the day at Melanie’s parents’ house instead, with Melanie, Creegan, and me taking a short trip to Warlmart in the evening. After Walmart, I also made us go through the drive-thru at Greek Souvlaki so I could try their fried zucchini … and their bacon cheeseburgers. Needless to say, I was not feeling sick. Nor was Melanie. In fact, neither Edison nor anybody else ever threw up after Melanie and I made our decision to cancel the Boise trip. Which is not to say that the cancelation was pointless. Melanie and I didn’t regret the decision one bit, and I think we both benefitted from it. It made Friday into quite a wonderful day. Speaking of which…

Since our Thursday plans had been disrupted, Melanie’s parents decided to take Eddie, Peter, and Creegan to the zoo on Friday morning. In turn, Melanie and I decided Friday would be a “super date” day. Basically, we left first thing in the morning and didn’t return until 10pm. We spent the whole day by ourselves, going on the equivalent of anywhere between three to seven dates in a row, depending on how you want to look at it. We started out by heading to Ruth’s Diner, one of our absolute favorite Utah eateries and one with great sentimental value to us. (Case in point: Melanie and I ate breakfast at Ruth’s right before I took her to a nearby park and proposed marriage, back in July 2005.) It was about 10:30am when we arrived, so Melanie and I were both ready for lunch-type food despite our not yet having eaten anything. I ordered the halibut fish and chips, while Melanie ate a “caprese sandwich,” which had grilled chicken breast, fresh mozzarella cheese, balsamic vinegar, tomatoes, red onions, fresh basil, and a pesto sauce, all served on toasted pesto focaccia bread. We dined al fresco, and it was all quite wonderful—the food, the scenery, the company. It was a great way to start our day.

After the early lunch, Melanie and I headed downtown to Broadway Centre Cinemas and saw the movie Safety Not Guaranteed. Broadway Centre Cinemas is not your fanciest movie theater, but Melanie and I have a special fondness for it. It’s the only multiplex in Salt Lake City (and probably in Utah) that specializes in art-house and independent film. Melanie and I used to frequent the theater back in our pre-married days, and I even mentioned the theater as something I’d miss about Utah when Melanie and I first prepared to move to Atlanta in the summer of 2006. It felt really good to revisit the theater, and the fact that they have upgraded their theater seats since our last appearance was a nice bonus. Our only real disappointment was that, of all the Ritter Sport candy bars the theater had available for purchase, they did not have the cornflakes in milk chocolate bar that Melanie and I used to love. They had a white chocolate version, which we tried, but it wasn’t the same. We also bought the milk chocolate with yogurt bar, which Melanie quite liked but which had a tartness to it that I wasn’t overly fond of. As for the movie itself, Melanie and I both thoroughly enjoyed it. I recommend it.

Melanie and I also did a lot of nostalgic driving around during our super date. On our way to Broadway after Ruth’s, we took a brief detour through “the Avenues.” After the movie, we drove around a bit downtown, then headed to Rose Park, the increasingly dilapidated neighborhood in which I grew up. My childhood home now looks like a Frankensteinian house composed of various bits of mismatched building supplies held together by duct tape. My elementary school was rebuilt several years ago and so no longer exists as I knew it, but I discovered that my junior high also no longer exists, although the building is still there. It is no longer a junior high, but is some sort of “science center.” Everything has changed. It’s strange, and yet all the more strange that it isn’t all the more strange. I spent my entire growing-up years in Rose Park, from the age of approximately 18 months until I was an 18-year-old high school graduate, and yet I feel less attached to the neighborhood than I do to the Sugar House area where I lived for a few years after high school. Rose Park is so familiar to me and is where a lot of my memories take place. But somehow, I don’t feel personally connected to it. Probably because everyone I know and love has left it behind, including myself.

Anyway, after driving around Rose Park, Melanie and I did a thorough drive-through tour of the University of Utah. A surprising amount has changed in the six years since I graduated. More surprising to me was just how nostalgic I felt to be there. I didn’t know I had such a fondness for my U of U days. It made me rethink whether or not I’d like to teach there. I used to think not, but there is much I would love about it. My hesitations are, for the lack of a better word, political, but perhaps they could be overcome. I’m more open to the idea, at any rate.

After visiting the U, Melanie and I drove around the Harvard Avenue area of Salt Lake. This area is full of nice, large homes, all built many decades ago and so rather classic in their own right. Melanie and I used to love driving around and house gazing in this neighborhood. This time was no exception, although our extensive time spent in the car was finally wearing on us. We only spent a few minutes in the neighborhood before deciding to do something else. And what did we decide? To see yet another movie. We decided to go to The District in South Jordan, since I’d told Melanie how much I enjoyed seeing the theater with Matt a few days earlier. We made it in perfect time for a 4:20pm showing of Total Recall. The movie theater itself didn’t wow me as much on my second visit, but it was still fun to go somewhere that feels new. The actual movie was decent for being an unapologetic sci-fi action flick. Nothing special, but not bad. After the movie, Melanie wanted to walk around the shopping area of The District. We stopped at DownEast Home & Clothing, and Melanie found some great deals on clothes, buying two shirts and a very nice dress for a grand total of $17. By this time, we were feeling ready for dinner. We headed back to the Sandy area and stopped for Mexican food at La Hacienda. Melanie had tried La Hacienda for the first time last year, but it was my first visit. Melanie and I ordered matching combination entrees consisting of a cheese enchilada (made with beautiful, orange cheddar cheese), a shredded beef chimichanga, and a chile relleno. The meals came with rice and beans, although Melanie chose to have extra rice rather than refried beans (of which she is not a fan). The food was fantastic, including the Diet Coke, which somehow tasted especially good. The evening was almost perfect, except that we did not successfully avoid having the in-restaurant guitar player serenade us. We’d paid our bill and were literally about to stand up when the guy reached our table and asked if he could play us a song. We’d almost escaped, but at that point we felt we had to oblige him. I enjoyed his song, and it wasn’t as uncomfortable as I had worried it would be, so there’s little to complain about. But we had been scrambling to evade him.

On our way home from La Hacienda, Melanie and I stopped and got some not-too-fancy chocolates at the grocery store. We gave some to Melanie’s mom as a thank-you for her babysitting efforts, and we also got some for ourselves (including chocolate cinnamon bears, which I have no interest in but which Melanie enjoys and hasn’t been able to find outside of Utah). We were pleased to find all of our children fast asleep when we arrived at home. They should have been asleep by that hour, but we didn’t know if it would work without us. Creegan can be picky about bedtime routines, and Eddie and Peter aren’t always diligent about staying in bed. Apparently, everything went hunky dory. Melanie and I were both quite happy. I’m already dreaming of the next super date, although I don’t know when or if such a thing like that will ever happen again!

To be continued…

Utah 2012: Week 3

Our third week in Utah began on Wednesday, July 25th. It was a very low-key day for me. I worked all day. In the afternoon, Melanie took the kids to Arctic Circle to get milkshakes and play in their play land. Since our arrival in Utah, Edison in particular has been eager to point out every fast food play land that he sees and request that we go there. Arctic Circle was one of these places. We didn’t want to eat a meal there, but we were happy to order from their extensive milkshake menu. I was at home, but Melanie brought me a Butterfinger milkshake. It wasn’t a very exotic selection, but I enjoyed it.

On Wednesday night, Melanie went with her mom to see The Sound of Music at the Hale Centre Theatre. (It was pretty awful, apparently, and embellished with subtle Mormon themes. See what I’m talking about?) I took my boys to my parents’ house. Of their own accord, my parents proposed the idea of ordering pizza from The Pie Pizzeria, one of the best pizza places in Utah. The Pie was on my tentative “to visit” list, so I was quite happy to accept my parents’ offer. It was delicious, and my parents let me take home some of the leftovers, which provided a yummy lunch on Thursday.

Speaking of Thursday, Melanie and I ran a couple of errands in the morning. After that, I was back to work. But in the evening, Melanie and I went on our first date since arriving in Utah. We saw a 5pm showing of The Dark Knight Rises at Jordan Commons. We ended up in the exact same theater and seats as we were in for The Amazing Spider-Man almost two weeks earlier. I have to admit, I didn’t love the latest Batman movie. I enjoyed it, but I think it’s my least favorite of Christopher Nolan’s trilogy. It didn’t help that I couldn’t understand half of what was said by the lead villain, Bane. His voice was too darn muffled. I was also unimpressed by the popcorn at Jordan Commons for the second time. Most of it was itty-bitty, crumb pieces. And I don’t like that Utah movie theaters don’t allow you to put on your own butter, as they do in Tallahassee. I like to control that.

Friday the 27th was another full-on work day for me. Melanie took the kids to Classic Fun Center, along with her brothers Tom and Kaleb, and Kaleb’s girlfriend, Kaya. I got out of the house in the evening when all of us (including Tom, Kaleb, Kaya, and Melanie’s parents) went to Farr’s for some frozen yogurt. I had some pistachio fro-yo with cashews in it, as well as some salty caramel fro-yo with Heath mixed in. We ate the fro-yo outside, which I’d never want to do in Tallahassee. It was nice.

Saturday the 28th was a busy day. Melanie and I took a temple trip in the morning and then headed to my niece Gina’s house in the afternoon for her baby shower. Men weren’t excluded from the shower, which was nice for me. I even played some of the games, and didn’t do too poorly, if I say so myself. Eddie, Peter, and Creegan had quite a lot of fun playing outside on Gina’s swing set and slide with their cousins Rayne and Caius and Gina’s daughter, Hunter. On our way home from the baby shower, Melanie and I stopped with our kids for dinner at Greek Souvlaki. The food was good, and the customer service even better. Almost awkwardly better. When Creegan decided to throw one of his toy cars into the garbage, the Greek Souvlaki employee that had taken our order insisted on digging through the trash to retrieve the toy. She succeeded, but she was oddly happy to serve us in that way.

Melanie and I took our kids to my parents’ house on Sunday afternoon for a couple of hours. We just hung out and chatted, which is good. We left about dinner time because Melanie’s grandparents were planning to visit with us back at Melanie’s parents’ house. All in all, it was a quiet day spent visiting with various family members. It was a nice way to spend a day, and truthfully, we needed a day that didn’t involve much more than that.

Monday the 30th became a play day, even though that wasn’t the original intent. We started the day at Burger King, which had the play land that Edison has been the most excited about since our arrival. We let the kids play for a while, and then we headed to Barnes & Noble, hoping to use a gift card that we’d recently been given. We bought some Mad Libs for the kids for our return flight to Tallahassee, but little else caught our attention. After returning home, Melanie then went out with her mom to do some shopping and have lunch. I thought I’d get some work done, but it didn’t happen. Creegan in particular required too much of my attention. But Monday night gave me another chance to play. Melanie and I went on another date, once again to Jordan Commons, where we saw Moonrise Kingdom. Crappy popcorn again, but a decent movie. I had higher hopes after all the hubbub and given that I’ve quite liked many of Wes Anderson’s movies in the past. But I enjoyed being with Melanie. After the movie, I stopped at Crown Burgers and picked up dinner. (Melanie wasn’t hungry.) We went home, I ate, we put the kids to bed, and then we watched Mirror, Mirror on DVD with Melanie’s family. I don’t think Julia Roberts is a very good actress, honestly, and I didn’t think the movie looked very good. It ended up being better than I thought, though far from wonderful.

Tuesday was a really great day. Melanie took the kids to a friend’s house in the morning hours, while I worked. But around 3pm, I headed out to the house of my good friend, Matt. Matt and I have been friends since high school. He’s lived in a new house for just over a year now. I didn’t see his house last year, so he gave me the grand tour. It’s very nice, and I’m appropriately jealous. I spent some time chit-chatting with Matt while we waited for our other good friend, Chad, to meet up with us after he got off work. The three of us went to Sizzler for dinner, where I got steak and all-you-can-eat shrimp. I know Sizzler is low on the totem pole of steakhouses, but Matt, Chad, and I used to frequent Sizzler back in our high school days. We used to have shrimp-eating contests. (I was generally taunted for being unable to pack away anything near the amount of shrimp ingested by my friends.) I didn’t try to gorge myself this time around, but it seemed appropriate to do the steak and shrimp thing—a nostalgic hat-tip to our days of yore. I thoroughly enjoyed my meal and, more importantly, the company. Seriously, this is probably the first time in two or three years that I’ve gone out (on my own) with close friends. The experience made me all the more eager to return permanently to Utah. I could use this kind of thing in my life.

Anyway, after dinner, Matt and I bought tickets to see the movie Bernie at the megaplex right next to the restaurant. Chad was a responsible adult and declined to go to the show. We had some time to kill before the movie, so we went back to Matt’s house, visited for a few more minutes, bid a fond farewell to Chad, and then headed back to the theater. Coincidentally, Melanie had gone with her dad, her brothers Tom and Kaleb, and our sons to a park located by a lake in Matt’s neighborhood, so Matt and I were able to stop and say a brief hello. Eddie was very excited to see me and didn’t want to stop giving me hugs as I tried to leave the park. (Our movie was going to begin in five minutes or so.) It was cool to stop in and see my family, but it’s also kind of weird just to “drop by” and see them in an unfamiliar setting, having fun, and then leave them rather than stay with them. I think I could have felt sad had Matt and I not been in such a rush. Alas, we were, and so our visit was brief. We then returned to the theater. I hadn’t been to this theater before (called The District), and it was awesome. It was huge, new, and modern. As Matt himself said, it feels like being in an airport (due to its size). I loved it. And the movie, which I knew very little about despite suggesting it myself, was excellent—an idiosyncratic blend of documentary and dark comedy. The popcorn was much better too, despite the theater being owned and operated by the same group that runs Jordan Commons. Maybe it was better because Matt requested butter in the middle of the popcorn, so they had to scoop up some new stuff and not give us yesterday’s crumbs.

And that’s week 3.