Colorado

We're going to Colorado this weekend to campaign for Obama!

The Women of Genesis series

I never thought I would fall in love with Orson Scott Card's writing. I always knew of books like Ender's Game, but never took the time to read them mostly because they just seemed like superficial Mormon literature at first glance. However, recently I have read all three of the Women of Genesis series (on Tim's recommendation and I love them! His writing style is captivating, they are very well-researched, and it's the Bible from the women's perspective.... what more could you need? I am highly impressed with his ability to get inside of these women's minds while knowing so little about their life stories except the basics in the Old Testament. Moreover, it's really humanized these faithful and brave women for me, especially as I go back and reread the passages in Genesis that talk about them. Sometimes, I get angry at the lack of representation of women in leadership positions within the Church, past and present. But then I think about those select women who have status, somewhat, and I delight in their accomplishments. I think our vision is skewed by the world. Women have been made invisible for so long, even by righteous peoples. I think Card did us all a favor by bringing their stories to life and making them visible, though it is only works of fiction. It's a start, and it gives me hope that somewhere there are lost manuscripts of women's experiences with divinity. The book of Sariah. Of Rachel. Of Vashti. Of the daughters of Zelophehad. Of Mary. There are so many righteous and brave feminist women in the Bible. I just wish we knew more about them.

And I hope Orson Scott Card and his family got the wedding invitation we sent them :)

WomanStats blog!

WomanStats has a blog! Hooray!

BYUSSR

BYU is brainwashing its students, once again. The campus devotional today was a subversive tool to support its position on Proposition 8. Not only was the speaker an ultra-conservative philosopher, he managed to slip the word "proposition" more times than normal.

The loveliness of life

Where is my husband? I do not know. Dinner is getting cold...

While I'm waiting for my love to get home from campus, I think I will blog. I am losing inspiration lately. There is not much going on besides school, work, work, work, campaign, campaign, campaign, and Parity, Parity, Parity with the occasional social outing. We are living the married life, and living it good. Tim is realizing what a terrible, but ambitious, chef I am. I am realizing that Tim is a lot cleaner than I thought he'd be. We are both realizing living together and being married is not as hard as everyone made it out to be. Disagreements are few and far between. Not to say it's blissful all the time, but comfortable and calm at the least. I really like it.

This past Saturday, we were lazy. LAZY. We laid out our hippie, South American style blanket that we got at Goodwill on James Island in SC, and made a picnic lunch (carried by Katy's beautiful basket.)




It was wonderful. The sun was shining, the shade was perfect, and the company was divine.



We laid out for hours reading and napping, finally ending the afternoon with a trip to the temple for proxy sealings (because getting married again is so cool!) After the temple we went to Emily and CB's reception, then over to Carl and Gloria's house for political discussions. It was a wonderful Saturday.

Pick your Spot

I took this quiz that told me the top 24 places I should live based on lifestyle and preference. My results included a lot of cities in Oregon (which is one state I've never been too) and a few other random ones.

1. Portland, OR
2. Eugene, OR
3. Little Rock, AR
4. New Haven, CT
5. Providence, RI
6. Honolulu, HI
7. Corvallis, OR
8. Salem, OR
9. Shreveport-Bossier City, LA
10. Hartford, CT
11. Santa Cruz, CA
12. Alexandria, LA
13. Medford, OR
14. Baton Rouge, LA
15. Valencia, CA
16. Baltimore, MD
17. Santa Barbara, CA
18. Danbury, CT
19. Ventura, CA
20. San Bernardino, CA
21. Fayetteville, AK
22. Boston, MA
23. Monroe, LA
24. Worcester, MA

Louisiana? I thought that was a little random. And rich-y places like Santa Barbara? Hmm... average house price is a million something. No thanks.

Mine's pretty similar to Austin's. This bodes well since our families will eventually live together one day.

So over the wedding posts...

So it's been a month. A month! I've been married a month. I can't get over how foreign that concept is to me. When I look back and think that just about four months ago I barely knew Tim it just blows my mind how everything has fallen into place so wonderfully. He is my best friend! He is so easy to talk to and we have so much fun together. He's hilarious. I love our pillow talk at night before we collapse into each other's arms exhausted. He makes me smile on a regular basis. I am happy.

But, the wedding is over. It was wonderful. I will no longer post about it :)

I also really want to make my blog cool. I don't know how. Will someone teach me? Are there websites with templates? Please assist my uncreative soul.

Speaking of uncreative, I hate referring to myself as that. I am not artistically gifted in most ways. But I am a creator. I went through a program last year called "The Artist's Way" with some friends of mine. Although I did not follow it as faithfully as I could have, it opened up my eyes to many areas of my life that are long neglected. While I do not have the capacity or the patience to create works of art on a canvas, I write. I love to write. I write amazing 15-page political science research papers. Maybe that does not seem like art to most, but at the end, when I read that finished product, I know I have accomplished something worthwhile. It is discouraging to have talents that are not quite as visible as "L"'s paintings or Ash Mae's creativity or John's violin-playing because they are oft forgotten by even myself, but I know that my creative talents are manifest in different ways. For example, I have an amazing photographic memory. I can remember phone numbers after dialing them once. I remember birthdays of long-lost friends. I read something once and it sticks with me forever. It is a very neat talent of mine. I like myself. I am creative. I just do not know how to make a cute blog.

The swanky reception

Pictures from our swanky reception at the Officers' Club on Fort Jackson in South Carolina. For more pictures, click here.

A few of my favorites (um, LOVE the one with Tim dancing with my cousin's little girl. And Tim and Ethan hugging. Love, love, love.)

Enough of all this serious talk.... our honeymoon!

We had a great honeymoon (minus the third-degree sunburn and tropical storm) in Charleston, SC. The first day of our honeymoon was actually spent at my parent's house, since they were all still in Utah and didn't check in to the hotel until 3 pm. We slept in their bed, woke up late, and lazily made our way to Charleston. Our hotel was part of this timeshare deal, and we were the only people there not in the AARP and Medicare. Nonetheless, our room was super nice (with a fireplace and all) and we had a good time walking around the city.




We went to the Aquarium... I was like a little kid playing in the touch exhibit, and Tim really liked this metal frog.



... we found random old houses to explore.




And we went to the beach before the tropical storm actually hit (it was so windy and cold though... tainting Tim's first experience with Carolina beaches).

Seriously??

There was also a letter to the editor today that compared Obama to Hitler because the writer's great-uncle got the same feeling from listening to Obama as he got from listening to Hitler, and this is why we should not vote for him.

"He told us he had a very distinct feeling of how evil Hitler was... and that he had the exact same feeling when he heard Obama speak... I'm not a hard-core Republican or anything, but since he received the same revelation for these two people, shouldn't we be doing something?"


I'm not going to judge. But COME ON! I bet he won't get hate mail and no one will question his faith.

Um, yes, I have a temple recommend

So, after my little rant was published today in the DU, I have received an onslaught of hate e-mails from fellow BYU students featuring a multitude of ad hominem attacks about my faith. I was told I need to be more in tune with the teachings of the Church, listen to the prophet a little harder, keep my temple covenants (because as one person wrote, "Some of us keep are temple covenants" by voting for a political issue!?) and actually, I kid you not, one person told me that I should not be allowed to call myself LDS.

And one other thing: I do in fact respect all of those out there in favor of Prop 8. Thank you for your input, and I welcome rousing political discussion on this blog. I respect everyone's opinion, especially those who have worked through the issue intellectually and aren't following our leaders blindly. I honestly do not think the prophet himself would want us to not question his positions. We are given our minds for a reason. I was simply expressing my thoughts about how narrow the fight on Prop 8 has been on our campus. And I think what scares me a little is how it is reminiscent of the position of the Church in the 1970s against the ERA. If you aren't familiar with that, it was the Equal Rights amendment, guaranteeing equality between the sexes. The Church also made a statement against that warning that it might "stifle many God-given feminine instincts" (as well other reasons, including the fact that it may turn people homosexual... go figure), but I think Church doctrine has changed considerably in three decades, and cannot imagine such a statement now.

What I'm trying to get at here is please, please, please don't attack my faith and things I truly do hold very dear to my heart. Thank you. I do listen to the prophet. I do love this Gospel. I just simply want more people to think before they vote, and see the adverse effects that Prop 8 could have on the Church.

Also, I want to express my belief in freedom of speech for all of those pro-Patriotism Sarah Palin types out there. Ok, and you must read this editorial. It's brilliant.

A veritable deluge of wedding pictures

Because it's hilarious....

My niece's reaction when she learned my sister was having another boy.

Go here.

Prop 8

I know I'm on a completely different page than practically everyone at BYU when it comes to the passage of Proposition 8 in California. And since I'm not a California resident, I have no ability to even vote on the matter. But I just take issue with the extent to which the Church is supporting and encouraging members to vote for Proposition 8 (for those who don't know, the initiative seeks to define marriage as between man and woman only, intending to trump the most recent California legislation allowing same-gender couples to marry). Frankly, I'm quite appalled that Church members are so gung-ho supportive of Prop 8. Personally, I am not supportive of gay "marriage". Yes, I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. However, when two consenting, responsible adults have a committed relationship for long periods of time, I do support their civil rights including hospital visitation, filing taxes jointly, sharing health insurance, etc. and if they want to call that marriage, who are we to tell them they cannot?

What will homosexual marriage do to you? Honestly? Is it going to ruin your life? Then why would you vote for a proposition that will in fact ruin someone else's? To me, it just does not seem very Christ-like. Same-sex attraction is very much a biologically-driven lifestyle, and for those without the Gospel, that lifestyle hurts no one. Research has proven that children raised by homosexual couples are just as well-adjusted, do just as well in school, and have no greater chance of being gay. There was a pamphlet being distributed to members of the Church from an anonymous source with many false and misleading statements regarding the consequences of Prop 8 not being passed. Professor Morris Thurston, a Harvard-educated law professor at BYU, wrote a response to the pamphlet. You can find it here.

Voting for Proposition 8 simply hurts the Church. It hurts those men and women within the Church who struggle with same-sex attraction. It hurts our image. It turns people against the Church. Joseph Smith once said that he teaches his people correct principles and allows them to govern themselves. We have been taught the correct principle regarding same-sex attraction and acting on those tendencies. Now let's try out a little agency and govern ourselves while allowing others to make their own decisions without the government interfering.

Beng married.

Two weeks in, I'm feeling pretty good about this whole getting married thing. We rearranged our apartment last night, and I'm feeling a lot better about it. We feng-shuied it and opened up the space a lot. We bought plastic Sterilite drawers for our clothes, so we no longer have the huge piles of clean/dirty clothes. Every night is like a sleepover with my best friend... it's great!

story of my life.

It is simply unethical to issue speeding citations to newly-married, incredibly poor, stressed out, late to class, crying students. Even if they are speeding down a hill going almost 20 over. URGH!