I have a Bachelor of Arts degree.

A little birdhouse in your soul

Today, I was playing croquet in the yard by myself imagining I was playing with the Queen of Hearts when I noticed a garden box in the northwest corner of the lawn. I politely excused myself from my imaginary company so I could look a little closer. It turns out there is a garden box in my yard! But it is covered in dead, dry weeds. I started pulling at some of them to see how easy they would come up and then I realized how manageable this would be as a project.

Tomorrow after my "final" at Dr. Matthews house, I am coming home and pulling weeds. Then I will break up the soil so it is conducive to planting (I am avoiding the word "fertile" because I hate that word). Then I will plant things!

Here's where I need help: What do I plant? What can be planted in the last week of April? I have never gardened in Utah, so I don't really know what works best for this climate. Any suggestions? If possible, I would like to grow some Cafe Rio salads, or those delicious wheat rolls that Kyle's mom makes, or maybe some orange Creamsicles to eat just in time for summer.

As an afterthought, I wonder if any store sells seeds that would grow tarts? I know someone who would appreciate some replacements for her missing tarts.

Consumerist Burnout

I told my dad the other day that I wanted to move to a farm in a rural area. The purpose for this is so that I can grow my own food, be less addicted to technology, and reconnect with a slower (read as "natural") pace of life. He said that an agrarian society is unreasonable in this day and age.

The desire for farmland comes from my consumerism burnout. I am tired of consuming grocery store foods that have been sprayed with chemicals I know nothing about, turning to costly movies or restaurants for entertainment, and expecting constant/lightning feedback from too much use of computers. It's boring. And you want to know why? Because the pulses that drive these consumable items/activities are 1) efficiency and 2) cost-reducing. I guess I have reached the point where I no longer care if something is cost ineffective or inefficient if it means that I have no part in the creation of it.

In order to un-do the consumer in me, I asked myself this question:

What is the antithesis of consumerism?

Answer, according to me:

Creation.

Somehow, along the way to becoming the most suburban, hands-off girl you ever met, I lost sight of what it means to create a thing; I lost sense of the craft. I don't know where my clothes are made-- only that I buy them at the store. I don't know how circuits and electricity work enough beyond the fact that when I hit a switch, a light goes on. But I also know that I am not the only one to behave or think like this (food for thought, you reader).

So, in order to cure my consumerist ennui, I am putting forth a little effort to create a little more. I am:
*Cooking more from scratch instead of eating packaged foods. I made homemade rolls on Easter.
*Working on a painting (even though I have never painted before--you should have seen me at Michaels trying to figure out which paints to choose) to fill my leisure time.
*Going climbing every Friday to put more strength-type recreation into my schedule. I will climb a 5.10 yet!
*Reading a book on how to make candles. I went to a fair last summer and saw a family that dipped and carved beautiful candles.

This is a start. I may make a lot of weird-tasting home-foods before I get it right, or paint a lot of awful pictures before I like what I've done. But I don't really care about the consumable finish anymore. I just want to create something for a change.

Friend-Baby

On my family's home computer, there is a button on the toolbar that says, "Create a baby using pictures of you and a friend! Subscription required."

When I first read this, I thought "silly computer, that's not how you create a baby." My second thought was, why would you want to combine photos with friends to see what your children will be like? Are you interested in having children with your friends? Do you just want to see freaky looking combinations? Because there are already plenty of freaky looking people in the world to look at without you creating fake friend babies. Type in "weird looking people" in the google images search engine and you will see what I mean.

I want to know who in my family put this button in the toolbar and more importantly, if they signed up for a subscription.

Chaotic Flight

I haven't blogged in over a week. This is a long time for me. But I just have so many conflicting thoughts in my mind that I can't seem to commit to writing any sustained blog post. How sad is that-- I can't commit to making sense of my thoughts for ten minutes to write a short post? I would say that my mind is like a whirlpool, but that would imply it has some kind of order or shape to it. The thoughts in my mind are like the route of those spastic birds flinging their bodies around in chaotic flight, threatening to whack you in the face. Totally out of control.