Check out 'Carrier' on PBS

Starting this Sunday on PBS, a documentary mini-series will premier called Carrier. It will highlight the experiences, deployment, and lives of members of the Navy stationed on the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier. My brother, though no longer on the Nimitz, was stationed there for almost two years. At first when I (and I would assume others in my family) told Mark about it, he didn't seem that excited as he was not on the carrier at the time of major filming. But this week, after seeing the half hour preview of it on iTunes (where it can be downloaded for free) he called me excited, telling me to download it, and that he knew, had worked with, or had seen many of those people who were profiled in the episode. He began to tell me about how much he missed it, that it was a family, and even that he wishes he were back on it to be on another deployment seeing the world. I think he is now starting to see what a special opportunity it was to serve there, though initially his family seemed more impressed by it than he was. My sisters and I were fortunate enough to be present at my brother's deployment to the Persian Gulf in April of 2007. Not to be too dramatic, but it was one of the most profound experiences in my life. I have been thinking a lot about this in the days since my brother's phone call and just wanted to share some things I had written not long after his deployment in '07.

"Send Off"

From where I stand,
white lines salute
from the edge of a floating fortress
of black steel that is

taking you away
from port
and me.





"Consequences"

He tries to tell me
not to worry -
I'm being silly-
while bombs and anthrax shots
are mentioned in the next breath
that uses a foreign vocabulary
of acronyms and
job descriptions that
alienate outsiders from
understanding
and him from grasping
my distress,

Another consequence of war.


"Leaving Home"

Why is it that at some point
young men need to leave home?
They set out to work
their hands needing to be doing something,
their eyes needing to see,
their feet aching to take them to
where they are allowed to be.

And then duty calls.
And whether or not their hearts want
to continue,
their hands haven't done enough,
their eyes want to see more,
and their feet can't yet stop moving.

And at home we must be patient
for our men to return
and hope
that they know that until then
we will be here
waiting.

Live Music Rules!

I've been to a few concerts over the last few months. About a month and a half ago I went to see a local band called Mason's Jar of Jam. Pretty good stuff! Two weekends ago I went to see Colbie Callei (famous for the song "Bubbly") It was OK. She's not one of my favorites, but my friends and I went for something to do. It was at the Tuachan amphitheater, so the scenery was the best part of it. For anyone interested, she sounds exactly like the CD, as in not a single note sung differently. But this Friday I went to see Kalai here in Cedar City at The Grind Coffee House - he is a little bit Ben Harper, a little Jack Johnson, a little James Taylor, a little Bob Marley... Probably one of the best concerts I have ever been to. He is a phenomenal musician and HILARIOUS - let me explain. Usually at a concert one of two things happens. Sometimes the musicians try really hard to be funny and tell stories and just plain try too hard and it gets annoying - you want them to just get back to the music. The other scenario is they don't talk at all and you get a sense that the concert is almost painful and they just want to get it over with, so you want them to talk to feel like a) they have a personality and b) they are acknowledging your existence. Kalai was so funny in between songs that I couldn't wait to hear what he had to say next. The best $12 I've spent in a long time!

Is one of the 12 steps admitting you have a problem?

I have been a casual American Idol fan for the last four or five years. That all changed this year. I don't usually start watching until the contestants have been narrowed down to about ten or so - they are usually the best anyway. I think this year, accidentally, I started watching at around the top 16 week and was instantly hooked. It is a whole new ballgame this year. I admit it...I...have...VOTED. Whew. (more than once). MORE THAN ONCE! And I have purchased singles from iTunes. And I listen to them OFTEN. Oohhhh, the shame...But Claudia, you really should check out Jason Castro's version of "If I Fell" and everyone on the planet should check out David Cook's "Billie Jean is Not My Lover." Freakin' AWESOME! (Is saying this a step back from moving forward?)

Finally, the "How I Spent My Spring Break" OR Easter '08 Post

My friends and I went to LA for spring break (one perk of working in public education) and the weather was fantastic! While this travel log is not even close to how cool Claudia and Adam's Mexico play-by-play is, I will let those of you who care in on the events of my Easter weekend trip with my friends Laura, Lisa and Jamie.

Day 1: Driving and visiting Hollywood - including a wax museum of the stars...American royalty at its best!

We enjoyed the city streets,




We saw the stars...





And where they go to be seen(Grauman's Chinese Theater)!





Day 2: Santa Monica Beach (where we saw dolphins swimming and jumping by) and the Portland Trailblazers-LA Clippers basketball game (notice how I put the Clippers second...I've seen high schoolers move with more grace on the court than these guys, but it was still way fun - their DJ is awesome!) If you look close you can see the dolphin fins. I don't know how to get the video to work, so this lame picture will have to do. They came by twice and there had to be at least eight of them in the pod. On their trip back two even jumped straight up out of the water, but they didn't tell me in advance so I didn't capture it on camera...shucks.

The Lakers (for those of you who don't know...which is probably most of you who actually look at this) also play here, and probably have a full crowd. They weren't playing at home the nights we were there, and honestly the nosebleed tickets we spent $30 on would have been closer to $60 for the Lakers, but it was fun to go to a pro game and the DJ played the best music so Laura and I spent more time dancing and all of us DEFINITELY spent more time watching the jumbotron screen - whoever has that job is freakin' awesome! Portland won, by the way.

A Case of Mistaken Identity

I went with my sister and nephew to see Horton Hears a Who on Saturday. About an hour into the movie, when the popcorn ran out and the Mountain Dew kicked in, I took him out in the hall to run around for a bit. He loves to see the more-than-lifesized cardboard cutouts of the Kung Fu Panda (he growls, points, runs up to touch the panda...) so I knew he would be entertained. About 20 minutes into the hall, he is having more fun with the panda cutouts and me running next to him then he was having in the movie. And then he spots this:
Do you want to guess what his response is? "Jesus." But not just a mumble under his breath. I'm talking about animated, pointing, frantically trying to get my attention repetition. Mikey's abilityat this age to recognize Jesus in pictures is so sweet and precious. So you can imagine my shock when he points out the free-love version of Satan and mistakenly identifies him as the Savior of the world...that durn facial hair! I just softly told him, no honey, that's not Him and tried not to laugh. Those durn kids. I like the world durn. Or bleepety bleep bleep. It's certainly helping me curb my language for now until I become more holy...

Apparently, my diamond ring story was lame.

I told one of my freshmen classes my story about trying on the diamonds (see my previous post) . A boy literally said to me, "That's it? They way you built it up I though there would be more to it than that." Sigh.