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I don't know if at the end of this post, my thoughts will be coherent, because I'm recording them as I think about them.  Let's get on this ride together and see where it goes. This past Sunday, with John gone to Pennsylvania, I didn't have much to do by myself.  I mean, I had already done hours and hours of genealogy.  So, I thought that I would attend a Berlioz/Paganini concert by the Detroit Symphony, but I was low on gas, and I didn't like the idea of making people work on the Sabbath for my own pleasure.  My thoughts then went to the free concerts that the students and faculty put on all day, every day at the School of Music.  As a teenager, these were a staple for me (and the reason that I know how to somewhat get around the school), and I kind of love them.  You just never know what you're going to get because each and every instrument and program is represented at some point. There was a traditional violin recital happening at 5 p.m. (by an Asia...

PA schools requires a lot of stuff in order to apply, and unfortunately, they all have slightly different requirements. The majority, however, require a recommendation letter from a professor. I haven't ever really worked very closely with a professor, so I knew that I would need to acquire an undergraduate research job in order to gain that relationship with a professor. I spent a few days looking at different professor in different fields of science to determine where I felt I could be an asset, but let me tell you, I felt very under qualified for any and all science-related research jobs. Science isn't easy for me, and I was worried that my lack of understanding in areas such as Biochemistry or cancer research would severely affect my ability to gain a research opportunity. I was very nervous to contact professors, asking for a time to meet so as to discuss the possibility of me joining his/her lab. I decided to attend an event held by BYU called "She is a Scientist...

This is a long, convoluted story, so stay with me as long as you can.... Last summer, Beth (also known as Aunt Beth around our house) was at Girls' Camp with me--she was the YW leader for the Saline girls (I don't think they had an actual ward camp director).  While there, she found out that the woman who has been putting on Girls' Camp for the last five years was "retiring" or asking to be released, and honestly, after five years, she totally deserves to be released....with a trumpet fanfare, a celebration of her stamina, and a cheque....  So Beth decides that she  wants to be the next stake Girls Camp director, and she tells everyone within hearing distance, including the current stake YW president (who also happens to be her friend).  She also mentions to me that when called, she's going to submit my name as an assistant, reminding me that this is what we promised each other when I first moved back into the area--we would call each other into a presidency...

An hour ago, I dropped John off at Detroit Metro to fly to PA to begin a new job.  I am in tears. "What?" you might ask.  "I thought you were sick  of having him around 24/7," you might say to me. I was, but over the past 15 months of unemployment and being together every waking moment (and every sleeping one), we've found our groove.  We've found our rhythm.  And I'm not looking forward to going back to being alone. Last week, I watched the Golden Globes award show and saw Adam Driver's and Scarlett Johansson's nominations for a movie called "Marriage Story".  Because they are such powerhouse actors, and because they rarely film anything that isn't "R", I was hoping I could watch them in it.  Thankfully, the movie was on Netflix, and even more thankfully, I could edit it through VidAngel and watch it (because it is, in fact, rated R). The first ten minutes of the movie are magical.  They each spend five minutes na...

It goes without saying that I love genealogy.  I've recorded my earliest memories of being exposed to genealogy when I would sit in the Lubbock Public Library reading books in the children's section while my mother spent hours with her head in a microfilm reader.  I was also brought to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City for one week a year from the ages of 10-13 where my mom would send me off to the copier with some book and a stack of dimes to make copies for her.  She made sure that my "Book of Remembrance" was completed almost immediately when I received it as a gift for my eighth birthday.  I knew the birthdays and birth places of my parents and all of my grandparents and even some of my great-grandparents from the time I was very young.  While I've never spoken to my mother about her love of genealogy, I imagine she feels much the same feelings that I do in that she wants to have a connection to or a knowledge of who she is because she has so litt...

Hannah and I love to follow the posts on Michigan Bird Watching on FB.  There are so many wonderful things about Michigan including protection of "wild" areas throughout the state.  I mean, we have an ENTIRE peninsula that is pure wilderness, eh? ;-). Because of all these wild areas, there is a lot of wildlife, including birds.  (I know I've said this before, but besides crows and starlings and the occasional blue jay, I never heard another bird in PA, including on walks in the woods.  Thanks so much, farming chemicals.). When we came to Michigan, we set up a feeder in the backyard next to Glo's window, and it didn't take more than a day to have flocks of goldfinches covering it.  And we can't forget the AMAZING Baltimore Orioles that commandeered our hummingbird feeder last spring. Well, on the FB page, people from all over Michigan post photos and videos of various bird sightings.  There are a lot of professional photographers who are obviously trying t...