I judge books by their covers.

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I'm not afraid to admit it.  I judge books by their covers.  Titles are highly instrumental in forcing my hand to reach out for the binding, but the cover can make me think twice.  Or not at all, I suppose.  Like a man with beautiful eyes and lips but teeth that are nasty.  Or jeans that make you look and feel like you work out a lot when you don't, but are distressed in places that are completely unnatural spots to be worn out unless you are the Tin Man.  I have cuddled in bed with a few titles in my day, and I couldn't help but notice that the choice of cover art on a book is often indicative of what's between it's sheets (pun intended).  I read a wide variety of literature, but as of late I read a little more young adult literature, being that it's the middle of the school year and all.  Therefore, I have an unofficial list of rules that I have created to help me weed through the plethora of teen-oriented titles.  This list qualifies a book for a few seconds longer of consideration of my time.  There are always exceptions to the rules - books that have the right cover but the wrong content.  Of course, there are also those books that I've pigeon-holed though I haven't read them yet.  But the thing is, because of my rules, I probably never will.  I've had to read some of "those" books - you know, the ones that have made you realize you will never get the time spent reading it back - to come up with my conclusions of course, and as a result have judged books of similar coverage as a result.  Forgive me, dear reader, if you disagree with my verdicts.  These are my rules, after all.  Here they are - my guidelines for choosing whether or not I will consider reading a YA novel:

1.  I try to avoid books with black backgrounds and

a) lone blossoms or pieces of fruit.  These images tend to appear in the YA section of your local Barnes & Nobel and symbolize sex/sexual tension.  Sex equals romance.  Romance equals love triangles, and consequently hours spent reading painful verbal exchanges between people who don't yet buy their own underwear but think that they know enough about life to be unable to go on living it without John Doe vampire. Think Twilight and it's sequels.   The Truth About Forever has a white background, but a flower that is being plucked.  Just as guilty as the black background, and just as unreadable.

b) a mouth, often with blood dripping from the cosmetically altered lips. Oh, or a craned neck, often with blood dripping from it (the neck may have a husky male face-planted in it).  Again, this cover is found in the YA section, but should not be confused with the corset-busters adult women read.  Those steamy little morsels don't have black backgrounds.  In the black background version, the mouth may be open or closed, shot head on or from any variety of angles;  regardless, those lips and exposed necks are also symbolic of sex (which equals romance which equals...).  Or death after sex...no, not BECAUSE of the sex, just somewhere in there.  Most likely after the love triangle which will most definitely be present, where any number of John Doe vampires may or may not be present.  Think Envy or The Vampire Diaries and most other paranormal romances (yes, there is now a section in B & N devoted just to them).  And I guess most
teen romances in general.

2.  I try to pick up books with black covers and objects you wouldn't expect to be floating on a black background.  Like a playing card.  Or a plastic cowboy and indian.  Or words.  Or Walter Dean Meyers' name on it.  Or just a black silhouette.  These usually are coming of age stories with male protagonists that somewhat replicate the problems real teenagers have.  Think I Am the Cheese,  The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, Underdogs, The Outsiders, Playground, or Twisted.

3.  I try to avoid books with full-body pictures of teenage girls on the cover.  I especially stay away if they are lying on their backs, arms stretched above their head in a "Take me, I'm yours" pose, staring behind them at the camera.  Often they are wearing prom-dressy, corsety, sun-dress sort of things.  Their faces may be out of view or chopped off above the nose.  These books will most definitly contain a love triangle and pretty cheesy writing.  But rarely a prom, interestingly enough. Think Fallen in Love, Abandon, Dreaming Awake, or Everneath (which I am currently trying out but skeptical).  This also applies to full-body pictures of guys wearing jeans but no shirt, like Hush, Hush, or full-body make-out's on the cover, like he Rules of Attraction series.

4.  I proceed with caution around books with a close-up half-face shot of a teenage girl on the cover.  I've had some luck here, but I am nevertheless wary.  This is when the title and the dust-jacket summary act as deal-breakers, as they should.  There will still be a love triangle and a most likely a female protagonist who must get beyond her weak ankles to challenge her society, but the story may be more developed and thought provoking.  Think Delirium and The Uglies series, but beweare of others like The Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars series, or If I Stay.

5.  I try to pick up and read books with what looks like rusted metal on the cover and/or the colors of rusted metal.  Or fire.  Or the colors of fire.  They haven't let me down yet. They tend to have male protagonists, moral dilemmas, and a girl who is slightly less annoying.  Maybe because she doesn't talk as much.  Think Ship Breaker, The Hunger Games, The Knife of Never Letting go, Divergent, or The Book Thief.

6.  I try to pick up books with maps, city street scenes, or cars on the cover.  Not like the red race car type; more like the NYC taxi cab.  Think It's Kind of a Funny Story, I Am the Messenger, or Maze Runner.

7.  Books with all sorts of strangeness on the cover usually get my second glance, and often my read.  Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, and The Replacement come to mind.   So far, these novels have not been amazing, but I've read them solely for the weirdness factor.

8.  Last but not least, there are the books with little to no picture on the cover.  Just the title and maybe the hint of a picture - Milkweed, Stargirl, The Catcher In the Rye, The Boy In the Striped Pajamas.  I find them intriguing, these paperbacks with minimalistic tendencies.  Is the book hiding something?  Teasing me?  Testing me to see if I am one of the noble of heart that deserves the treasures within, hidden underneath its humble facade?  I will most definitely pick up this book for further exploration.  I may still choose not to read it, but it will stew in my hand for a moment or two, calling to me.  I only have to decide if I'm up for the challenge.

Celebrating Grandma

Florence (Bergman) St. Laurent, HS graduation
approx. 1932

My grandma St. Laurent is an amazing woman.  Next month she will turn 97.  Last night I was watching the BBC series Downton Abbey, and I realized hours into it that, while it spans a few years,  part of the story takes place the year she was born - 1915.  I watched with a new curiosity for her life experience, or at least the factors that would have been similar.  So today I called her.  I wanted to ask her more about her own life.  I've had the opportunity to see her a few times over the last few years and I've asked her about a few things when I can, but conversations evolve, distractions interrupt, and there just never seems to be enough time while visiting to get all I want to know in.   I want to know more and more importantly, I need to write it down so I don't forget.  Grandma won't be around forever, and there are few left - and none that I know - that have lived and seen what she has to ask about it when she has gone.  So here are the few tidbits I have gathered from today's conversation and previous ones, both of historical and personal significance.
 - When Grandma was born, she had neither a telephone nor electricity.  Her family used gas lighting.  She doesn't remember when she first had electricity.
- Her two older married sisters and their husbands lived in the same house as she and her parents did.
- She lived on the corner of Main St. in Brockton, Massachusetts.  There was a grocery store nearby (within a few doors of hers), a 5 and 10, and a few others where they would do their shopping.  Bread was 17 cents a loaf, and the best hamburger (she said "hamburg") was 35 cents/lb.
- Her family was very poor.  Her father worked in a shoe factory.  He was laid off at some point, probably during the Depression ("the first Depression").  Grandma said he got a job for the government fixing roads and such.  He worked for $9 a week.
- Her mother did the laundry in a big tub with a corrugated metal washing board.
- She had very few toys.  She remembers a large teddy bear she was given by her uncle when she was seven.  Her father gave her and her older brother (by 2 years) Flyer sleds, and some ice skates he had bought her from a thrift store (Salvation Army?) because they were cheaper there.

In 2008

- She said more than once how poor they were.  They didn't really celebrate Christmas (I want to ask her more about this - I was letting her talk without interruption), and didn't get presents.  Her father worked very hard for very little money, so they didn't have money to make the day different than any other.
-  She loved to go swimming.  She remembers her sister, who was quite a bit older than her, her sister's husband, and their kids would pick her up in their car and drive to the Cape or Nantasket Beach.  Interestingly enough, Grandma didn't learn how to swim until she was around 50 year old, 10 years give or take before I was born.   I remember her at around 70 diving off a little dock at the local pond and doing underwater handstands.  I couldn't have been more than 8 or 9.  It was the first time I realized that there was more to my grandma than I realized.  I'm happy to report that she remembers that day too.
- In school, if a student talked back to a teacher or got into any sort of trouble, he/she would be sent to the principal's office and be paddled.
- The farthest she has traveled from her home in Massachusetts is to Rhode Island, again with her sister and brother-in-law.  As mentioned before, she also made some trips to Cape Cod.
-  Grandma loves music.  She used to play the guitar, and enjoyed dancing and country music (I need to ask her which artists were her favorite).  She is a writer of poetry.
-  Grandma was keen on a young man who died in WWII.  She does have some pictures of him tucked away in a photo album.  After he died she met my grandfather, and if I remember correctly, she met him in the park.  They were riding a bikes.
- Her parents were immigrants - her mother from France and her father from Armenia - but neither of them talked much about where they came from.  She doesn't know for sure how they met.

While these details are not a full summary, nor do they define her, they do make up part of a wonderful record of the long life Grandma has lived.  I have many more questions about her experiences, but am ashamed that I have waited so long to start asking her.  One of the thoughts I had while she was remembering is how so often today we complain and talk about sacrifice - or the sacrifices we don't want our children to have to experience - when in reality the sacrifices we experience today put us in a better position than the average person had as their daily reality, no "sacrificing" being part of it for them.  Our lives are so comfortable in comparison, and even those who struggle (in some situations) still have it better than what what she and many others did normally.  The thing is, she described it so unemotionally - not trying to do a one-up on suffering.  She certainly is amazing, my grandma, and I can't wait to find out what she will share next!

Learning to Multitask

A few months ago, a video was being discussed on the CBS Nightly News, as well as other news programs.  It was of a one year old girl who was using an iPad for the first time.  Later, she was given a paper magazine, but the strategies that she used to navigate the iPad did not work as she tried to drag her finger along the surface of the cover (see the video here).

I recently acquired the same piece of technology and wanted to see what my 1 1/2 year old niece could do with the drawing application.  She loved it but she was torn; she also loves her baby doll.  Her crying baby doll.  Who wins?  The crying baby or the new toy?  At what point do women learn to multitask the responsibilities of motherhood with personal desires?  My niece's choice suggests that it is early on.  VERY early on.
 

Raddest Summer EVER (and the longest post of pictures ever)!

Fall is turning to winter here in southern Utah, but I feel like I'm only barely processing what a great summer I had!  I'm lucky in lots of ways, one of which is that I have family and friends who live far away from me so I have fun places to visit  (NOT that I am happy they live far away), and that, after I finish professional development classes, I have time to visit the corners of the Earth.  My summer was a whirlwind, but here are some of the "Best Of" moments.

1) My visit to Claudia, Claire and Adam in Oregon. Not only did I get to hang out in the Portland area, which I adore - going on walks, visiting parks, a trip to the zoo and to the farmers market -

but we took some amazing side trips to the Olympic National Park in Washington, which has four distinct climate ecosystems to explore.  The mountains still had 5 to 7 foot snowdrifts!

How many of you can say you've had a snowball fight on the last day of  June?

On through the lowland forest

The rain forest on probably one of the only sunny days they have all year.

The coastal area of the park was probably my favorite, so I wish I wasn't feeling sick so I could have enjoyed it more.

From there, we headed on to Idaho Falls, Idaho to spend time with my brother-in-law Adam's family for the Independence Day weekend, where we branched out to the town of Island Park and the Belnap cabin, and up to nearby Yellowstone National Park.

I love this fairy ballerina princess who wears tutus with jeans and  pink Converse shoes!

It was a beautiful day in Yellowstone!

the mud pots

I'm so proud of my pregnant sister who hiked up this gravelly hill with no trail so we could get a better view of one of the paint pots.  What a champ!

the first grizzly bear

The second grizzly bear - I've always wanted to see one in the wild, and I got to see two in one day!

We were close enough to the bear that we could hear it chomping on the dandelions!

the Lower Falls

the Upper Falls

Island Park, ID

the Teton Mountains

back in Idaho Falls

Happy 4th of July!

Somewhere in eastern Oregon

2)  Within days of returning from my visit with the Belnaps, I headed to Washington DC.  I received a scholarship to attend a three day teaching conference at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, but there was also a lot of time to see much of the rest of the city.  In spite of the stiflingly hot and humid weather, I had a great adventure exploring this nation's capitol - and Capitol.  There are still plenty of sites I didn't have time to see, but I was in museum heaven, in emotional awe while seeing the documents this nation rests on, the original flag it fought for, and the names and images of thousands who have died during those fights.   

Highlights at the Museum of American History...

Michelle Obama's inaugural ball gown

and the Museum of Natural History.

David Quinlan - high school friend of my father who died in Vietnam.

United State Holocaust Memorial Museum - grateful for the time I got to spend there, the great teachers I got to meet, the things I was able to learn, and the survivor, historian, and Nazi prosecutor I was able to learn from.

Korean War Memorial

Utah Senator Jim Matheson's office in the Rayburn building - the starting point for the Capitol tour that I almost didn't make - I took my time walking around the city, visiting some memorials I had missed, when I realized an hour before I was supposed to go on the tour that I had forgotten the address/tour confirmation of where I was supposed to go.  I ran - literally - back to the hotel from the Metro station and back again, and got to the office 15 minutes late and literally dripping sweat.  I almost turned around and called it quits when I couldn't figure out where I was supposed to go.  I went anyway and discovered that the the intern was still waiting for another group of people to show up and hadn't left.  They cancelled and I got a private tour!  

The tunnel from the Rayburn Building to the Capitol building; also where I saw Ron Paul (would have taken a picture but I was a little star struck and mentally froze, as was my intern guide)  and many other senators as they walked to and from the House, which was in session.  Later, I would see Nacy Pelosi on the House floor, but photography was not allowed.

Me standing in the exact center of Washington DC, which is on the lowest level of the Capitol.

The Library of Congress, one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever been in.  It rivals the palaces of Europe, and has the largest collection of books in the world on top of it!

The collection room, which is not open to the public.

My sweat had finally dried when the rain storm started.  My linen pants were soaked to my knees, and my hair was a crunchy, salty, frizzy mess.  I was a sweet disaster just in time for my dinner reservation.

The Navy Memorial

My special treat to myself - a meal at America Eats Tavern.  Delicious!  The restaurant opened in conjunction with an exhibit at the National Archive about the history of food in America.  The menu consisted of foods that were considered  original American fare, and there were dates and descriptions of when the foods first appeared in American cookbooks. I had shrimp and grits for an appetizer, a lobster roll for dinner, a specialty root beer, and New York cheesecake for desert.  

The National Archive, home of the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and  the Declaration of Independence.  I made this my first stop, and felt I was in a sacred place.

Foggy Bottom, the neighborhood where I stayed.  It is quiet and full of old town homes.  It is also the location of  George Washington University.  Five blocks to the south is the Lincoln Monument, and five to the east is the White House.  It was a great place to say, convenient, and I felt very safe.

The DC Metro - the cleanest subway system I've ever been in.  No food or drink is allowed, and people actually follow the rule! 

   3) The summer closed with a trip to California for a surprise visit for my sister Beth's kids to Disneyland.

SOOOOO excited!

PIRATES!  Third visit to Disneyland, but only the first time on this classic (It was closed the last two times)

Nap time

Haunted Mansion 

Shooting at aliens!

Tinkerbell's Pixie Hollow

Nemo's Submarine Voyage

Sarah LOVED this ride!

It's a Small World - one of my favorites.  

Hanging out in Minnie's kitchen

I couldn't go all the way to California without spending some time on the coast, so I spend the afternoon at Manhattan Beach.  It's popular with surfers as it has pretty strong waves, which I discovered firsthand when a series of waves knocked me over and I probably flashed everyone on the beach when the waves took my swimsuit with them.  I got the worst sunburn of my life but drove home entirely relaxed.  It was worth it.

I can't remember ever having a busier summer, but I traveled from coast to coast and saw a lot of things I've never seen before.  Overall, I'd say it was pretty successful!  And if you made it to the end of this longest post ever, good for you.