Conversations

I hate this conversation:

Well-meaning adult: "When do you graduate?"
Me: "I hope to graduate with my master's degree in history next May."
Well-meaning adult: "That's great! ...(silence) ... Are you going to teach?"
Me: "No. I have a job editing and I really enjoy that." OR "No. I was doing that but I decided I don't like adolescents." OR "No. I'd like to get a PhD and work at a university." OR "No. I really like research."
Well-meaning adult: "Oh, how nice."

My degree is in history. I know about five unemployed history teaching majors. You can do other things with a history degree besides teach.

I can't help but feel like some of the issue is that I'm a woman and teaching is an acceptable field for those of my sex. Also--the humanities get no respect.

But mostly, I wish that people wouldn't ask me if I was going to teach. You don't ask that question of biology, math, or physics majors. It seems to be a plague for the humanities.

It's probably cuz people think that history is useless as a degree and (because there are so many amateur historians who do a poor job) they think that anyone can do it.

That conversation is almost as bad as (and always precedes) this one:

Well-meaning adult: "How is married life!?!"
Me: "Fine."
Me in my mind: "Good. I love having sex with my husband. Do you like doing that with your husband?"
Well-meaning adult: "How long have you been married?"
Me: "Two years. It is a good time."
Me in my mind: "How long have you been married? Thirty years?"
Well-meaning adult: "You know, I'm sure your mom would love to have some grandchildren."
Me: "Yes, I'm sure she would."
Me in my mind: "I am not pregnant."
Well-meaning adult: "Is that in the near future?"
Me: "No."
Me in my mind: "Why are all of your questions about my sex life?"

I need to keep these things in mind and NOT ask them when I am a well-meaning adult. Or maybe I'll just stay cynical and grumpy and not talk to young people who visit their parents.

Happy Choir!

I've been the ward choir director for a year, and I have the hardest time getting people to come consistently. I never know how many people with sing in sacrament meeting. It is frustrating.

We sang yesterday in Church. Even though we had an 8:30 a.m. throw-it-together-in-an-hour rehearsal, we had a full choir! Five basses, three tenors, four altos, and five sopranos (and me, conducting and singing what was needed). I was so happy. We sounded good and our sound filled up the chapel.

We sang "How Great Thou Art" and I got chills. It was beautiful and I am so grateful that all these people came to sing!

Sisters, Sisters!

A few weeks ago, my sister Leslie came to Logan and spent the weekend with me and with Melanie. On Saturday we went to Hyrum Reservoir. There is a swim area, so we hung out there.

Leslie, me, and Melanie working on our tans at the beach. This is a great picture, and maybe I will print it out.

Our bottoms (covered, of course. What kind of a blog do you think this is?)

Melanie and Ross in their raft. We let Ross come even though he isn't a sister.


Me and Leslie in the water. She has a life jacket and I do not. I was trying to tread water and make the pose. Skillz.

It was a great day spent with the sisters. You should all hang out with your sisters cuz it is a fun thing to do.

Black Eye: A Journey

I had a tubing accident. It was epic and amazing. I was on the awesome fun tube (that seats four) and my face hit Uncle Paul's head. I think I blacked out and I just remember being in the water and thinking, "Oh my head kills." And then, "Oh my cheek kills." And, "Wow, I need to get in the boat." So I did.

Saturday July 30
Right after I got onto the beach and found a frozen waterbottle to ice my face with. I didn't cry. I am strong.


Later that night. Yes, I look stoned (this would be a lot of ibuprofen later). It was swelling and already starting to bruise.

Sunday, July 31
Time for Church! Oh, how it hurt to smile (please note the crooked grin).

Monday, August 1
I got a great response at work. No, my husband did not beat me. Maybe I was guarding the liquor store. My boss said he would beat us all until morale improved. I got a huge lecture from the co-editor at work about how dangerous tubing is and that I should never do it ever again. Yeah right, I'm going right back on next time the family goes.

Tuesday, August 2
Here the bruise is reaching it's best stage. My eye wasn't swollen but my cheek still was. You can see the yellow and it really was a black eye.

Wednesday, August 3
Here's another great day for the eye. I discovered why black eyes are often called "shiners"--get this baby in the right light and it reflects off the discolored skin. So cool!

Thursday, August 4
I was sad that it was starting to get better. I loved how strangers would stop me and ask what happened to me. I also have a strange fascination with bruises.

Friday, August 5
Still getting better, unfortunately. I think I bruised my cheek bone cuz it still really hurt to the touch.

Saturday, August 6
Here is a close-up. I think it is still pretty good. I went to Hyrum lake with my sisters and we had a great time. We didn't boat cuz we only had an inflatable raft and three life jackets.

Sunday, August 7
OK, so we all know that I am vain, but seriously, can I be any more babe-alicious? I'm so glad I'm hott even with a black eye.

Monday, August 8
I can smile again without pain! Now it is just red.

Tuesday, August 8
You can't really see it, but my face is classic. The bruise is mostly red and a little smaller than Mondays, and since it is Wednesday when I am posting this, it still looks pretty much the same.

I kind of wish it had lasted a little longer.

In sum, getting a black eye like that really hurts, but the beautiful colors are so worth it.

Air Show

Here is Andrew's nerd blog. I went to an air show on Lake Washington. Here are the highlights.

This is a picture of two of the most famous of the WWII fighters. The North American (absorbed into Boeing) P-51B and the Supermarine Spitfire. They never told me which variation of the spitfire it was, but oh well.

They also had a tribute to the Coast Guard - Guardian style. This HH-65 Dolphin flew in and dropped in a rescue swimmer. It flew around in a few circles while the swimmer thrashed around pretending to get someone ready for hoisting up. Then got hoisted up. It was cool to see.




Next they brought in an AV-8 Harrier II. This is one of the coolest jets in the world because it can take off vertically. It can also hover in one spot and translate in two axes. They demonstrated the Harrier's ability to hover. It was pretty cool. This shows how it can hover and actually fly backwards.

It can do this because the Harrier has a thrust to weight ratio greater than one. This means that the engines produce more thrust than the airplane weighs. The thrust also gets put out through special ducts in the sides of the fuselage, wingtips, and nose in order to provide the stability necessary to keep it from rolling or pitching in weird ways. Its pretty cool. Check out the video.





And here is one of the most (if not the most) aerobatic airplanes in the world. This plane weighs no more than 1200 lbs. (about the weight of a Geo Metro) and has an engine capable of over 400 horsepower (about 100 more than a classic Ford Mustang - I would have used the example of the AC Cobra 427 GT, but I don't think that most people know what that is) (Wouldn't that be cool - a metro with an AC 427 Cobra engine in it?). This plane could hover using its prop as a helicopter rotor!

And I know what you're thinking Ross... "This is my kinda crop duster!" (Watch out Melanie, if Ross ever starts a sentence with the words 'Remember that airplane on Sarah and Andrew's blog...' - The answer is 'NO!')





Next up was one of my favorite airplanes of all time! The C-130 Hercules. I don't know why I like it so much, but it's awesome. Its a turbo prop that has a ceiling altitude of 35,000 ft. It was designed for short runway take offs. Short take offs mean less than 0.5 miles. For those who don't know, a 747 can sometimes require up to 3 miles to take off. Most cases (if not all usual cases) require over a mile. After it takes off, it can climb at an angle of 45 degrees (most airplanes that you ride on never exceed 20 to 30).

Anyway, this one is especially cool because it is the one that takes all of the Blue Angels' gear around! His (yes, I know that planes and ships are usually 'her's' for some reason, but honestly would you name your daughter 'Albert' - if you would, you should be shot) name is 'Fat Albert'.


So, the reason the C-130 was here was because the Blue Angels also did a demonstration! The Blue Angels are Navy owned McDonald Douglas (now Boeing) F/A-18s. The video shows them flying in formation. Their formations force them to keep a minimum distance of 18 inches apart, but it sure looks closer than that some times.

What's even cooler is that you can see the aerodynamics at work. If you look closely you can see that the airplanes are staggered at different heights. This is because they need to stay out of each others' wing tip vortices. These vortexes are created because of how an airplane flies. The wing creates lift by making pressure differences. The bottom of the wing is making a high pressure and the top part makes a low pressure. The high pressure then pushes the airplane into the low pressure lifting the airplane up. So, when you get to the wing tip the high pressure on the bottom goes around the tip to get to the low pressure on top. This makes a swirling motion. When you're creating 40,000 lbs of lift, the vortices could put you out of control (see Wikipedia article for examples of crashes from wing tip vortices). Doesn't it make the flying that much cooler to know that these guys are precision pilots, and that inches could put them into a wing vortex that could throw their plane out of the sky?





So, now you can see that airplanes are awesome, and I am a nerd. I even left out some of the interesting details, like the eliptic planform of the Spitfire. I was also just looking through the pictures and noticed that it doesn't look sunny. Believe me, it was. I got sunburned. I guess that's what Seattle's sunny looks like.

Awesome Cool Fishing Trip

So, yesterday I had one of the coolest fishing experiences ever. I was fishing on Pass Lake in a float tube. I had a bite and started stripping my line in to land the fish. I was getting pretty excited because I could feel it felt like a log. Once the fish splashed and surfaced this bald eagle swooped in from the trees. It spread its talons about 20 - 30 feet from me. It scared me half to death and let go of the line so the fish could dive to safety. The fish stayed on the line, so I kept fighting it. Everytime the fish flashed on the surface, the eagle came swooping down. I had no idea how to get this fish in without feeding the eagle. I yelled to another fisher to ask how to keep the eagle away. He shrugged his shoulders. So, by this time the fish is so tired that he can't fight anymore. I just decided to bring it in as fast as possible and hope the eagle didn't get him. I netted him and got him unhooked. The longest measuring tape I had was 18 inches, and he was longer than that, but probably not 20 inches. He was probably the biggest rainbow I've ever seen, definitely never caught anything bigger. Anyway, it was pretty awesome. The only problem was I didn't have a camera. Next time.