Thanksgiving Week, Day 1:

I am grateful for a guy who:

• draws incredible Liberty Jail and shell-shaped Community of Christ temple pictures on a banner
• likes to see plays with me
• likes to sing with me
• loves Sherlock Holmes as much as I do
• can banter with and understand me like no one else
• drives down from Bountiful in the snow to see me
• discusses C. S. Lewis with me
• likes Truman G. Madsen talks just as much as I do
• listens to Josh Groban with me (albeit begrudgingly at times)
• loves taking pictures even more than I do
• takes much better pictures than I do
• patiently teaches me how to take amazing pictures and lets me use his camera
• loves all things London like I do
• takes me out to eat Japanese food, cooks Japanese food for me, and teaches me how to make my favorite Japanese food
• knows many of the same old movies I know
• gets excited to take English classes
• is one of the most attractive guys I've ever met
• discusses gospel principles with me
• teaches me how to be calm in stressful situations
• loves his family like nothing else
• gave me a blue box full of office supplies when I got a job
• brings me quality gerber daisies out of the blue
• reads Children's books with me
• seems to be delighted with every new thing he learns about me
• surprises me every day with something fun I didn't know about him
• inspires me to do better
• is usually more interested in talking to me than in eating his food
• has more patience than anyone I know
• and knows me better than anyone ever could.

Michael Wesley Olson, you're amazing.

Oh, the cleverness of me!

Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens, London.

My mom recently reminded me one of my second-grade teacher's great qualities. My mom noticed that after my teacher handled a particularly sticky situation, she started to give herself positive reinforcement. Saying things like "Wow. I handled that really well! Good job, me!", my teacher complimented herself on her resourcefulness. This is the same teacher who went student to student with a jar of M&Ms, shook each student's hand, and asked her about her day or how she was feeling. This is the same teacher who had regular interviews with her students and asked each one to share a few things they were good at. If we were hesitant to say anything, she wouldn't hesitate to fill in the gaps.

My teacher was (and I'm sure she continues to be) one of the most confident people I know. When she was my teacher, she was a single mom with no spouse to celebrate her successes or compliment her ideas. But she worked with what she had - herself. Like Peter Pan, she said, in effect, "Oh, the cleverness of me!"

Our cleverness ought to be recognized, nay, demands recognition. Not everyone, especially adult women, receives recognition for what they do. This fact is to be expected, but not necessarily left unaltered. We are just as good at complimenting ourselves as anyone else. Working hard can be rewarded and encouraged by the little things we tell ourselves. Thinking "I started my day of so well by exercising! Good for me!" is much more motivating than "He doesn't even know how hard I worked this morning to look like this" or "I wonder if all the other people here know what I've been through." I'm no psychology academic, but I know from experience that our mental workings are crucial to our inertia. Go team!

14 days!

Draper Temple, 4/18/2009

Elder Ballard and the Oak Tree

Tonight at the CES fireside, Elder Ballard read a poem that really reminded me of this. The poem made me remember just how wonderful my English summer was. Here it is:

At home or abroad, on the land or the sea...
Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

A mighty wind blew night and day
It stole the oak tree's leaves away
Then snapped its boughs and pulled its bark
Until the oak was tired and stark

But still the oak tree held its ground
While other trees fell all around
The weary wind gave up and spoke.
How can you still be standing Oak?

The oak tree said, I know that you
Can break each branch of mine in two
Carry every leaf away
Shake my limbs, and make me sway

But I have roots stretched in the earth
Growing stronger since my birth
You'll never touch them, for you see
They are the deepest part of me

Until today, I wasn't sure
Of just how much I could endure
But now I've found, with thanks to you,
I'm stronger than I ever knew.

Threes

Remember how I visited the other three countries in the UK when I was in England?

From left, Scotland, Wales, Ireland.

1. Three weeks until Allyson comes home!

2. Three hours of working on that blasted non-research research paper until I gave up.

3. Three days of dreary, project-infested school days down this week. Two to go.

(three deep breaths - in, out. in, out. in, out.)

Some great things about the Study Abroad Office:

1. "Hey Kathryn, can you write up some culture scenarios about Ghana and Armenia?"

2. "Hey Kathryn, can you put together a brochure for this new program to GREECE?"

3. Repeat #2, inserting VIENNA, INDIA and CHINA for GREECE.

4. The stars in students' eyes when they turn in an application or post-application materials.

5. Helping a student figure out the best program for him/her.

6. An occasional "Kathryn? I didn't know you worked here! How do you get a cool job like this?!"

7. The little kids who came trick-or-treating around the Union Building. "Oooh - are you Frankenstein's Wife?" "Uh, no. I'm Sally. Duh!" "Oh...yeah....er....Oh! As in Nightmare Before Christmas." Sally's eyes roll.

8. The random questions about events in the Union building that I really don't know the answer to: "Can you tell me where the ___________ meeting is?" "Oh, I really don't know. I'm sorry." "Hm. That's too bad - I wanted some pizza!"

9. Writing up address labels for Denmark, Latvia, France, Spain and Sweden.

10. Opening up Campus Information Systems and having two tabs to choose from: the Employee tab and the Student tab.

11. Table-ing at random fairs at the Union like the Health and Wellness Fair. What does study abroad have to do with your health and wellness? According to my co-worker, Chris, "study abroad is good for the soul."

12. Knowing the behind-the-scenes preparation activities for the Korean Delegation's campus visit.

I love my job so far! Lots to learn, but it's all so great!

228

Oh, the 228. This is the bus that, had I the motivation and green-sense to ride the bus, I would ride from 2700 East up to the University of Utah. When I was riding this bus regularly, I wrote a post about its personality. I just re-read it, and liked it very much. So I'm going to share:

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I've been riding the bus more than I'd like to recently (thank you Allyson). Faithful UTA route 228 has become my ride to and from school quite frequently these days. The bus drivers know me so well, they wave as I go running past them on 2700 East. Ok - maybe they don't know me quite that well. Point: 228 has become my friend.

It really does have characteristics that allow it to be personified, which characeristics are mainly the people who ride it. As I tend to ride the bus at the same times on the same days, I encounter many of the same people.

First, the woman who gets on the bus, looks around, and after finding her favorite seat taken, settles for a different one. Does this stop her from ultimately attaining her favorite seat? Ha! Not her. As people vacate the spots around her favorite seat, she moves towards it gradually until finally she sits down on the bench right next to the door. One stop later, she exits.

Second, the young man who will probably be deaf by the time he's 40. As he listens to his music (with headphones on, mind you) we, his fellow bus riders, all enjoy the pleasure of listening to the words right along with him. I can't even hear my own music over the roar of the freeway as I listen to it with headphones. Impressive output there, bud.

Third, the man whom I call "the narrator". Now, this man obviously has some sort of mental disability. I think this makes things so much more entertaining and great. Bus rides wouldn't be the same with the spontaneuos outbursts of "wow - we're going fast!" and "oh no - we're ahead!" and "oh my stars!" to put a smile on one's face after a long day at school.

Fourth, the woman who wears a pink santa hat all throughout December and January. No worries - it's pink, not red. Totally January appropriate. In fact, Februray would be safe too.

Moral of the story: This bus has personality - one that makes my Mondays and Wednesdays after choir so much better. Not all world resources are impersonal or dull. Some have life and character.