Thursday, February 17, 2011

in the wild, wild wailing of wind

Yesterday I had the opportunity to drive down to Layton for a Sterling Scholar thing. As I left the wind was just picking up and driving along the highway my little car was quite buffeted.*

When I wasn't busy thinking about how careful I needed to be, or checking to see if my knuckles were white (they were, even though I make a point to never ~grip the steering wheel), I was reminded of the last time I drove through high winds.

It was on the freeway, heading north from Provo. I'm fairly certain the date was March 30, 2009. I remember what I was wearing -- my red shirt from the Gap** and my new red hat -- and the sun so bright on the white roads and the snow that was blowing everywhere. It was my first day of radiation, and the first day I drove to the hospital by myself. It took a lot less time than I thought it would, even with the wind freaking me out. My perception of how long it took to get to the hospital was skewed, because either I'd always come from the north or because my grandparents had driven me previously, and they were slow and took circuitous routes.

They were really nice at the radiation place (I seem to remember they complimented me on how cute I was, something they did every day [unless I was in the middle of chemo]).

I also seem to remember that the trip back down to my apartment took even less time than the trip up; the wind had lessened, and I knew exactly where I was going.

So you see, I do have some memories of that time. And especially as it was my first day, there's nothing unpleasant about it!


This morning as I was driving to work I was reminded of another time I drove in high winds, down to Bountiful for my friend Sarah's reception. I had planned to stay at my friend Marie's house for the night and head down to BYU the next morning, but my parents wanted to take me or something, so I drove back up. Then we were snowed in for the next day and a half. Kind of like the high winds heralded a snowstorm last night.***

I'm just glad I always drove safely.

"Blue Caravan" ~ Vienna Teng

*That means it browsed a lot of tables laden with food.
**This is the shirt that I was so fond of that when I picked it up the next year I'd left half my hair on it because I wore it so often/on the days when I was losing a lot of hair.
***It took me so long to scrape my car this morning I had to take off my gloves! (Because my hands were that cold.)

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

I can trace all my books [January 2011]

[I've decided that instead of using increasingly convoluted adaptations of lyrics, I'll just use brackets. It works.]

I resolved this year to read a little less. 200 books is impressive, but it also points to a lot of time I could be spending doing something else.

Well, in the month of January I read an unprecedented number of books -- quite beyond my high last year. Impressively, they were all first-time reads. Here's the list:

January
1. The Snow Queen by Mercedes Lackey
2. Heir to Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier
3. Seer of Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier
4. Intrigues by Mercedes Lackey
5. Palace Beautiful by Sarah Deford Williams
6. The Healing Spell by Kimberley Griffiths Little
7. Schooled by Gordan Korman
8. The Coming of the Dragon by Rebecca Barnhouse
9. Lemon Tart by Josi S. Kilpack
10. Clockwork 3 by Matthew J. Kirby
11. Star of the Morning by Lynn Kurland
12. Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper
13. The Birthday Ball by Lois Lowry
14. Forbidden Sea by Sheila A. Neilson
15. Heart's Blood by Juliet Marillier
16. The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball
17. English Trifle by Josi S. Kilpack
18. The Mage's Daughter by Lynn Kurland
19. Princess of the Sword by Lynn Kurland
20. Coronets and Steel by Sherwood Smith
21. The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams
22. Pillage by Obert Skye
23. Matched by Ally Condie
24. Choke by Obert Skye

So maybe next month I'll read less. ;)

floral