jakey

this is my littlest brother, jacob.  (and our mom.)

he just left on his mission on wednesday.  for the next 3 weeks he'll be stationed in the notorious provo mtc, then it's off to the mtc in the dominican republic, and then he'll be booted into puerto rico.

missions are strange things.  it certainly is a faith based practice to send in such young men (and only a little bit less young women) to spread the gospel.  when my other brother, bryan, went into the mtc, it didn't seem so strange, probably since i'm only a year older than him.  19 doesn't seem so little when you're 20 and think you know pretty much everything.  but from where i'm sitting now, at the ripe old age of 25, 19 seems infantile.  and soon my baby brother will be saddled with the weight of saving the world.

lately the memory that sticks out about jake the most is actually a whole block of memories.  when he was about 5 or 6 he went through this phase where he'd hug me like 7 or 8 times a day, each hug lasting upwards of 2 minutes.  i've gotta admit, i really didn't want to be hugged for 14-16 minutes a day at that point in my life.  but it is basically impossible to pry your little brother off of you and tell him that he has got to stop hugging you.  so i gritted my teeth and bore it.  and, secretly, i liked it.  sometimes he hugged me when i needed it the most.  that's something he's been able to do for his whole life: see someone in need and answer that need in his quiet, self content way.  and that's what i know he is going to do for those people in puerto rico.  he'll give them a proverbial hug and they'll feel better, even if they don't admit it.

the nutcracker

is the perfect holiday date.  let me tell you why.

taking a girl to the nutcracker:

           1) proves that you are cultured and confident enough to choose to go to a ballet.  being willing to sporadically watch people spin around in tights is manly.  that's it.  the end.  kaput.  any joe can watch football.  which is fine.  but joe becomes joseph when he goes to the ballet.  

           2) gives the girl a chance to dress up.  you can go as fancy as your little heart desires.  and let me assure you that pretty much every girls' little heart desires to go fancy.  

           3) probably involves a trip downtown in whatever town you're in.  and that town is probably decked out in lights for christmas making the whole evening seem glowing and magical.  girls LOVE that stuff.  

           4) comes close to fulfilling childhood dreams.  not every, but most every little girl at one point wants to be a dancer, spotlighted, up on a stage, performing perfectly, possibly in a tutu.  not every, but most every little girl never attains that dream.  but taking her to watch those dancers dancing comes real, real close.  and scores you tons of points.  

i love The Nutcracker.  i have ever since i was a little pink-tighted, tutu wearing thing wishing i could be Clara with a nutcracker of my own.  my dad's really the reason that i love it though.  i was probably five when he took me to it for the first time.  i think it was just me and him, that's how i remember it at least.  i remember watching the costumes floating by and thinking that i could certainly do those things, that it couldn't be so hard.  i remember being shocked when the christmas tree grew as the mouse king came and the nutcracker came to life and when mother buffoon could hide so many kids under one skirt.  i fell in love with it then and have been in love with it since.  so i go every time i get a chance.  

one of my most memorable chances to see the nutcracker was when i was on a study abroad in vienna.  the viennese ballet was doing a performance with the philharmonic at the opera house.  tess and i thought we were in for the treat of a lifetime.  boy were we ever wrong.  they changed the story, changed the sequence, changed the music, and ended with clara and the nutcracker getting married.  clara is 12.  the nutcracker is made out of wood.  preposterous match.  i forced my dad to take me to the "real" version the next year so i could forget what'd i'd seen in austria.  but the memory still haunts me.  which probably just means i need to see it again.

"merry christmas," says npr.

"thank you," says i, "for the music."

top to bottom

canyons are the best of all landforms because canyons have a bottom to get to.  whether you start at the floor and climb to the top, or wend your way down from up,  the bottom of the canyon always plays a leading role.  it is what keeps those walls alive and reforming, renovating, refurbishing.  they grow because their bottoms keep falling out, worn away by unrelenting weather or determined rivers.  and as you work from crest to base and back again, you can see history etched in the walls around you.  it tells you its story if you look for it. 

i love visiting beaches, have always lived around mountains, but grew-up and came to be in canyons.  zion, cathedral wash, bryce canyon, glen canyon (which is currently occupied by lake powell making it even better), antelope canyon, marble canyon, the grand canyon.  they’ve shaped me.  wider and more open at the top, closed, narrow, and windy at the bottom.  

un-mysteried mysteries

crown burger: scrumptious food, confusing decor.  for those of you who have never been, crown burger is one of those delightful joints that thrive mostly on grease and are the better for it.  their trademark burger boasts a patty topped with cheese and pastrami.  it soaks right through the bun in 2 minutes.  every crown burger i've ever seen looks adequately seedy from the outside:

the ordering counter lives up to expectations as well:

but once you turn and enter the dining room, you are faced with something a little bit like this:

ok, that might be a slight exaggeration, but it looks waaaay more like that than anything called crown burger has any business to.  these are some actual decorations found in actual crown burgers:

i've never understood this anomaly.  until tonight.  i was eating my greasy burger after the jazz lost to the heat, contemplating the meaning of life when it hit me, IT'S CROWN BURGER! IT'S SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE A PALACE!

duh.  

mystery #1 solved.

mz actually solved mystery #2.  

did you know that the mom on The Sandlot and the lady in Indiana Jones and the Lost Arc and Indiana Jones and the One About Aliens is the same lady?!  well, she is.  

good eye, meg.

it really is the simple things in life.

welcome

i've had a bit of a fascination with birds for my whole life.  because they are awesome.  first of all, they can fly.  second of all, they can sing.  third of all, sometimes they fly around in packs doing astounding aeronautic routines in perfect sync.  all things i greatly respect and aspire to be able to do.

my parents called me Lark when i was a baby because i was always chirping.  when i was 4 i asked for a pair of binoculars and a book of birds for christmas so i could wander off into salt lake's unbridled wilds and find them in their natural habitats.  i enjoyed this practice so much i asked santa for a pet bird the next year (her name was Happy and i thought she was a boy for 5 years until "he" laid an egg...).

i think birds are lovely and graceful and very often overlooked.  so i look for them.  they crop up in the oddest places sometimes, like poems.  emily dickinson's poem "hope" to be precise.  it begins, "hope is the thing with feathers/ that perches in the soul".  i loved it immediately.  because hope and birds are so alike, small and singing and winged, able to brighten days, and frequently forgotten amongst the more impressive principles and animals.

i'm sure emily had no idea when she was writing these words that they were destined to be stolen by me and used for my blog title.  but i think wherever she is, she's pretty excited about it.  that's why writers write, right?  so that their genius can be looted an pilfered and used again and again?  i know that's why i'm writing this.  so, whether you're a word thief or a bird lover or one of my friends that i told i was starting a blog and practically forced into reading this, my blog and i are glad to know you and hope you stick around for more.