Each and Every

Some of the things we say...funny! "Each and every," for instance, is a redundant statement. I have always overlooked what I thought was a silly phrase, by assuming that, for it to become as popular as it has, it must be valid and that I was just missing something. I even analyzed the two words and thought that maybe each felt more individual and every referred to the whole group. If this is a saying you employ, I apologize...maybe I'm not being cordial, benign, or forbearing. But, the facts are these*... in a thesaurus, you'll find the one as a synonym for the other so really, they don't need to be said together. I'd like to refer you to my first degree; English. Though it will not provide me with the career I will someday have teaching fourth graders or wealth or fame, it has made me, if not an expert, at least a keen observer of the English language. Much like in politics, where we put down that which we don't completely understand, I concede that I error in the use of language as well. But, it sure is fun to play with and wonder about and analyze.
*"The facts are these," is a nod to one of my two favorite TV shows, Pushing Daisies (the other being The Office.) The narrator begins to explain a new fact to the story by beginning with that phrase.

Melancholy Thoughts

It is amazing how closely connected the mind and body are. Starting last night, I have felt my mood take a turn for the worse and low and behold, this morning I awakened with a sore throat. I went to work for the first half of the day and felt the depression inside of me combined with the onset of the beginnings of a sickness. Side note: Do you know why leaves change color in the fall? I didn't...I thought they were just dying. In reality, the tree is going into a kind of hibernation. It has turned off the chlorophyll (the food maker) in it's leaves and has started to live on it's reserves. The chlorophyll only works with sunlight and because the days are getting shorter, it can't do much of it's work anymore. So, the green leaves the leaves (tongue and mind twister) and the other colors are left. Cool huh? Back to my sickness. I felt a kind of turning in in my mind and my body as my body went into a survival mode before sickness. So, I left work after lunch and went home to nurse my hurting body and mind. While home I slept and read the rest of my book, The Scarlet Pimpernel. What a wonderful book! Anyway, I will finish this post with a couple of quotes from it. Being sick is really interesting. I find that I feel the world is crashing in on me when I'm sick and that not only is my body not right but nothing else in my life is either. It is a weird sensation to have these feelings on the inside and have everything normal around you. The pretty and happy and good in the world around you seem to taunt the fact that not everything is right inside of you. I have felt this also during my favorite season...autumn...hmmm... For some reason for me there is kind of sadness in autumn. The fall had always meant the stress of a new school year and that stress seemed such a stark contrast to the beauty of the changing scenery around me. The beautiful colors and the feel of the air seemed to mock my need to spend time in a cold, gray classroom or library. Here's a quote..."She was in the mood [melancholy] when the sea has a saddening effect upon the nerves. It is only when we are very happy, that we can bear to gaze merrily upon the vast and limitless expanse of water, rolling on and on with such persistent, irritating monotony, to the accompaniment of our thoughts, whether grave or gay. When they are gay, the waves echo their gaiety; but when they are sad, then every breaker, as it roll, seems to bring additional sadness, and to speak to us of hopelessness and of the pettiness of all our joys." Amen I say to that...the sea and other things as majestic and large, as only nature can offer, allow for a large void in which either our joys or sorrows must expand in order to fill. Luckily for now, I am healthy enough in spirit to be able to discern the virus' unrighteous conspiracy and put it's attack on my body and mind at bay with orange juice and good reading respectively. For a final and fun quote having nothing to do with the above thoughts and everything to do with the other thoughts that further cloud my already overcast day, I offer the discription of the heroine in the story I've read and of many other females in their quest for the love of a good man, myself not discluded. " A woman's heart is such a complex problem--the owner therof is often most incompetent to find the solution of this puzzle."

It's a Girl!!!

I was just called by American Fork High School to be told that my daugher was there in the office not feeling well and to be asked if I gave my permission to allow them to give her Tylenol. Wow! I sure hope she feels better. I have a daughter in high school...so much for feeling behind!!!
P.S. I did of course inform them that I am just 25 and so that would be a miracle for me to have a high schooler. The poor girl is still in pain and has not yet been given drugs.

"Just (laughin') and (runnin') in the rain..."

Happy Labor Day everyone! So I was talking to my roommate yesterday and I asked, "Is there anyone we're supposed to be honoring tomorrow, or just ourselves?" Turns out, just ourselves! So with no labor to perform and no cemetaries or parades to attend I began my day bright and early at 9:30 am (wow! I slept in) and decided to go for a nice walk. Georgous morning! It had rained all night and was completely overcast, not just cloudy. I think in French the word is "couvert" which means covered. There is another word for just normal cloudy but I forget it now...So I began my walk. I wasn't in a running mood, just a walking on. I have this big square south of BYU's campus that I do. I was on the first leg when it started to sprinkle. I was smiling to myself thinking, "Oh how pleasant!" I had tried to gauge what kind of day it would be before I left and new it had rained all night so thought it would start again in the afternoon sometime. My estimates were incorrect. The sprinkle turned into a pour. But I was determined and I wanted to get my workout in. I did kind of start laughing to myself though. Can I just say it's a good thing that we're not all crazy people cautious anymore with straight-jackets being thrown on people left and right cause a girl walking in the rain laughing to herself would definitely have been a candidate for a check-in to a room with padded walls. Before long I was drenched but I continued to try and convince myself that it would be okay. "Hey," I thought, "this is just like swimming only I'm on land and dressed. It is still a wet workout!" Well pouring turns into pelting and the rain starts going horizontally and the thunder and lightening start shaking...I felt so alive and wonderful. The future mother in me said, "You're going to get a cold," inside my head but then I thought about the state of my immune system and recalled my good eating, sleeping, and workout habits of the previous week and so I kept going. But as the rain gets harder so does my laughter and then I start laughing not only at the situation but at laughing to myself. I become aware of the fact that, as fun as this is, the rain is coming hard and is now stinging my the unprotected, now frozen skin of my bare legs and arms. Ahead I see a cute Italian restaurant that has those striped overhangs in a spot they usually have little round tables in and I run another block and jump a thigh high fence to get in. Continuing to laugh I watch as the Labor Day festivites accross the street are being ruined as people run from booths and hide in cars or stay to protect and cover the items they're selling. I stay there for 20 minutes and to quickly rush through those minutes the list of things I think of while pacing in the 12 foot by 4 foot area are as follows: boy that was fun; the differece between me and Gene Kelly is that the "Singin' in the Rain" set must have had heated water pouring over him; wow that puddle's a good one...I'll have to jump in it on my way back to the car; I would love to be out there in the rain kissing someone right now. After some time passes I remember the forecast as being rain all day and look up to see not a spot of blue sky anywhere. I'm going to have to brave it! I run all the way back to the car ((8 blocks), laughing the majority of the way. When I get to the car I get a blanket out of the trunk and wrap in it before I sit down because well I guess that being wet is going to do something to my '92 Ford Taurus that I haven't vacuumed in a month...go figure! I had a few things I needed at the grocery store and so I go in with the goal of not staning in one place long enough to create a puddle that would then be a triping hazard to other Allen's patrons. When I get home I plan to to shower, make a yummy breakfast, and drink some hot chocolate and then curl up with my math book. But, I am not that cool and all of those things happen except the math part. I do everything to avoid math including hand washing a dress I might now wear till next summer...hmmmm...interesting. All in all a great experience. Getting stuck with Gene Kelly in the rain would have been nice and if it had been a hot Mathematician instead of math book the curling up on the couch may actually have happened! The rain stops two hours later and Labor Day ends a beauiful, crisp Autumn day. I love this season. Happy September First everyone!