Author: Jana

  • teach

    This morning I had 7 undergrads in my office, sitting at my feet (yes, literally sitting at my feet since there aren’t enough chairs to go around). I sat at my desk chair (which is has a high back and is remarkably plush and throne-like) as I gave them each advice on their upcoming group presentation.

    We talked about the chapters that they needed to cover and I made some suggestions about teaching strategies. They impressed me with their preparedness and their enthusiasm. Such cute, clean, young girls (I have very few boys in my class, and none at this particular meeting). All aspiring teachers of K-12 students.

    What I wanted to tell them, but I didn’t/couldn’t is that I want to give them all A’s. I want to write them all positive evaluations, to tell them that they are wonderful and eager and they will go far in their lives.

    After reflecting on my morning, I realized that the job I would really like is one where I would be paid to tell people good things about themselves. To be a cheerleader. To applaud, support, and love them. I’ve been told that I’m too nice as a TA—I tend to grade students too generously and I care more about _them_ than about their assignments. But honestly, people (even 19 year-olds) are so amazing. Their stories are so compelling. Their efforts are so worthwhile. And undergrads are so very young. Maybe it’s just the mother in me that wants to smile at them and tell them how beautiful they are, instead of giving them arbitrary grades according to a heartless rubric.

  • under where?

    This is what I’d be buying John for his birthday if he didn’t already have a drawer full of underdrawers already. Because every _real_ man needs to express his feminist leanings on his skivvies, right?

    BTW, ya’ll can stop by MOF on Friday to wish the old man a Happy Thirty-Five!!

  • reading

    Can’t say enough about this book. I recommend for all tastes, for all readers: Exuberance

  • you know you’re getting old when…

    Sore today. That nasty lump in my right shoulder that recurs every few months.
    Tiger Balm is my new best friend.

    Wishing Yvette was here right now because she has the magic fingers that can untie my knots…

  • Make me smile…



    –get cozy in my underwear drawer.
    –love the fresh berries I bought from the Farmer’s Market as if they were better than catnip.
    –jump up on my lap while I’m typing (instead of on my keyboard).
    –take pictures of my ellycat for me to post on my blog (thanks John!!).

  • minerva

    Thinking about Minerva Teichert today. She’s got to be one of my all-time favorite artists (LDS or otherwise). She’s also an inspiration in many other ways.

    But the best part about Minerva is that this woman knew how to use RED!

  • camp stories


    camp stories
    Originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

    C just returned from a week-log jaunt to Outdoor Ed! We are oh-so-thrilled to have him home!!

    I’ve uploaded a few pics of him telling the stories of his adventures. He promises that he’ll be sending an email post out to the family soon to fill them in on all of the details!

    Yay! He’s back :)

  • E’s magnet Picasso


    E’s magnet Picasso
    Originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl
    Took a few pics of E’s fridge faces…of course they don’t quite approach the artistry of Suz and Chris’ magnet masterpieces, but they come close…

  • knee-jerk response

    Last week a friend (who shall remain nameless but has the initials of rjw), mentioned that cats were some of the pests that God had cursed the land with in our post-lapsarian world, I almost kicked him right in the middle of Sunday School. Fortunately restraint held out and my pacifist tendencies kicked in before my shoe actually made contact with the seat of his pants (he was sitting in the folding chair in front of me–giving me easy kicking access).

    The irony of the moment is that 10 years ago–even 5 years ago–I may have made a similar comment. I can distinctly remember rolling my eyes when I found out that my sister Suz had a acquired a cat (the infamous Sir Stinky Winesalot). Wondering why she would keep such a creature in her house. To me it was just plain inconsiderate to those of us who are feline-allergic (which includes the bulk of our family). That seemed crazier than the snake she kept during college.

  • meme (from John)

    Four jobs I’ve had in my life
    -Legal Secretary (blech)
    -Guardian (read: babysitter) for foreign high school students
    -Janitor (for LDS Institute)
    -coffeemaker/server for UCI cafe (funny, a Mo girl doing this job–the first day all of the coffee was full of grounds because I didn’t know about coffee filters. One customer told me that he really did like “chewing” his morning coffee)

    Four movies I can watch over and over
     -It’s a Wonderful Life
    -George of the Jungle
    -Princess Bride
    -Lady Jane
    -Moulin Rouge
    [couldn’t stop at just 4…]

    Four places I have lived
    -Tulsa, OK
    -Englewood, CO
    -Salt Lake City, UT
    -Bakersfield, CA

    Four TV shows I love to watch
    -What Not to Wear (what can I say, it makes me cry…)
    -Deadwood (not for family viewing, but a must-see for a historian of the Am West)
    -Thin Blue Line (super-funny Rowan Atkinson sitcom)
    -Moonlighting (it’s a classic!)

    Four places I have been on vacation
    -Suzhou, China
    -Paris, France
    -The Isle of Man, UK
    -Canterbury, England

    Four of my favourite dishes
    -Oatmeal w/fresh fruit from The Stand (vegan restaurant in Laguna Beach)
    -Healthy Crunchy roll from SushiWave
    -Portobello and ‘Sausage Burger’ at Native Foods
    -anything John is cooking

    Four websites I visit daily (besides mindonfire)
    –dooce
    –eee
    –freecycleirvine
    –chudachek

    Four places I would rather be right now
    -Cambria, waking up to the morning sun from our campsite in a grassy meadow, then heading off to the TeaCozy to get warm
    -Paris, in the Rodin garden. With John, C & E at my side.
    -Canterbury, enjoying the dawn chorus and seeing the morning sun reflecting off of the cathedral spires
    -lying in a patch of sun taking a nap w/a cat on my back
    -riding the electric train down the coast from Laxey, IOM. Where huge fuschia bushes grow wild along the tracks.

  • Make me smile…

    –buying $.96 worth of sour gummies at Sweet Tooth w/E. The sweet burn aftwerwards. [too sour to smile through]
    –sitting at the kitchen table. E on the mac, John on his tabletPC, me on junebug. Listening to tunes broadcast thru the monster speakers on my vintage turntable via an FM transmitter.
    –wearing my blue striped socks to class today. Hiding under the pantlegs of my very bland khakis, peeking out during my students’ presentations.
    –the swish and pull of my dangly silver earrings with sparkly blue stones. A John gift from the Tibet store in Davis, CA.
    –E sitting in her chair with her knees pulled up to her chest. Her long, wavy hair (a recently undone braid) spilling over shoulders and legs as her head is bowed.
    :)

  • grace

    Reading this post by Brookewill gave me the kernel of an idea that I needed to complete a short piece that I’ve been trying to write about grace.

    Grace is an almost foreign concept in the Mo world. Though we espouse a belief in both grace and works, the balance of doctrine and ritual weigh in on the side of works. So when a friend suggested that I write about a moment grace I was hard-pressed to do so. Though my favorite hymn is “Amazing Grace” (not in the Mormon hymnal, btw), I have rarely thought through the concept or tried to apply it to my own religious practice or belief.

    So here’s my moment of “grace”:

    When I was 12 I was boy-crazy.Sometimes I even kissed boys in the halls at school.Enjoying the power the promise of such kisses held.Imagining myself a winsome beauty.Relishing the whispers of girls who gossiped about such things.Knowing that I was the center of scandal.

    When I was 13 and I was diagnosed with bone cancer, I started to feel guilty about my boy-craziness.When someone suggested that my cancer was God’s way of punishing me for kissing boys during my lunch hour, I believed them.I knew I was supposed to wait for such things until I was 16, or I was engaged to a good Mormon boy.Maybe God knew that only way to for me to ever end up worthy for the temple was to make me so sick that I no longer thought about boys.

    Now, with the temple marriage behind me and more than twenty years since my diagnosis, I still wonder why I got cancer. But I recently gave up the belief that my cancer was God’s doing.He and I have talked about that.And I now know that it was as hard on him as it was on me.