Awesome Tony performance.

New SAT Question

Have you ever heard Oprah say, "Black don't crack," referring to the fact that black people often look at lot younger then they really are? Neither have I, since I don't watch Oprah, but my friend Shelly says that she does!

Anyway, it made me think of a new question for standardized tests:

If "black don't crack" and "crack is whack" then . . .

"black ain't whack." Am I right? I don't think I did so well on the SAT's anyway.

(Welcome to the inner workings of Amanda's brain.)

The Fire

I think that we could save a lot on therapy bills if we just were able to build and watch a fire everyday. Fires are the coolest (well, that doesn't seem right) make that most calming things to watch and sit by.

When we were in Utah, the next to last day it snowed. Then when we got up in the morning, it was 28 degrees outside and 48 degrees in the cabin. So, you can see why we were making fires.

I got pretty sad one day, watching the fire, and thinking, "That used to be a tree that had a life and a purpose. Now it is just a piece of itself. Pretty soon, it will be nothing but ash." I was being deep, melancholy and poetic. When I said it out loud, my brother, David, said that he thinks of the trees as fulfilling their purpose and giving us back the energy and light that they received from the sun.

The next day, my dad put his two cents in (I'm pretty sure he had gone to bed before we started our fire conversations from the night before). He said, "What if the trees remember the faces of the people and animals that have passed before them and then show us their memories in the flames they put out."

Whoa, dad wins the fire philosophy game!

Today in Utah

Today in Utah:

Went to Park City, where the Sundance Film Festival is held, and shopped at Dolly's bookstore, ate a turkey burger at an Irish pub, took lots of pictures, and did the tourist thing (can you say Park City souvenirs?)

When we came back, we stopped at the grocery at Kamas (nearest one, about 20 miles from the cabin,) and also stopped at the Rode Island Diner where we had chocolate malts. Yummy!

Then naps, thunderstorms while sitting on the porch, dinner (I was the bean snapping queen), and Trivial Pursuit. Now, we like to play this game, but tonight it was a little like pulling my fingernails out one by one. Here's why: we couldn't find the cards to the edition (genus iv) so we scrounged up a set of cards from the Baby Boomers version. Imagine, me, a 28 year old, playing with my 34 year old brother (who quit about thirty minutes in, thanks a lot!:) and three old people (just kidding, guys). I mean, three Baby Boomers. It was nice for the people time, but not really good for building up the old self-esteem. Felt like the dumbest person in the room. (But, you have to give me a break, the cards were from 1983!)

NEWS ALERT!!!: Aunt Pam won Trivial Pursuit. She is the best baby boomer ever!

Thrusday at Utah

Here are some of the memorable moments from my trip so far.

Yesterday, we ate a delicious dinner made by my aunt Pam. It was chicken marsala with corn of the cob and something called quinoa. It is supposedly some superfood that is really healthy for you . . . I guess that it is usually tasteless, maybe like tofu, but it was completely delicious when coupled with caramelized onions and garlic. So, quinoa, is one of the things I'll start to cook when I get home.

Today, we went of a nice hike through the hills of the mountains. David climbed into a hole on the side of the mountain, which is very David-like.

Now, we are sitting in the living room of the cabin, watching the fire, and talking about stuff. (Talking about how everyone got engaged. Oh, no, what do I do when they come to me?!)

I can't really think of anything else right now. Oh, yeah, I beat David at backgammon.

One more exciting story, but I'll save that for another day:)

Utah One

I'm in the place that I imagine when I think, "I wish I could be anywhere but here." Sitting in the hammock on the porch of my Aunt's cabin in the mountains of Utah. We arrived here, Salt Lake City, yesterday, and went to our hotel. My dad, as we were leaving the airport said, "You know what I don't know is how to get to the hotel." Which is so unlike my dad. So, here we are driving just guessing which way that we should go on I-80. Hmm, should we go east of west? Well, we picked the wrong way, so we turned around which was not straight forward and simple.

Today, we drove up the cabin which was about a two hour drive. The last eight miles are down a dirt/ gravel road, which we stopped several times along to get pictures.

Roadkill

You know how I like to look at roadkill to see what kind of interesting inside-an-animal things I can see? Well, I saw the most unusual roadkill yesterday. I had to do a double take. A cantaloupe. And I'm pretty sure it was dead.

I Wanna be Like Him

There's this cute kid that stands out on the road and holds a sign promoting Del Mar (a Chipotle knock-off chain). I'm guessing that he is about 15 years old and he is Indian (as Andrew would say, "Does it really matter?" but don't you have a clearer picture of this kid now? So, ha, it does help). If you know anything about New Albany, this kid probably doesn't NEED to have a job. He could have been spending his summer hanging out with friends and going to the pool. But instead, he stands out on the side of the road and waves his sign around all day long. And he is good at it too. You know how you see guys (usually middle aged men) standing outside with one of those signs looking like a zombie and trying not to make eye contact with any passersby. Well, this kid smiles at each person as they drive past. Depending on the traffic light, he turns in the direction of the on-coming cars and bounces his sign around as if to say, "Mmmm, you want a burrito for lunch. Don't you?" Even in the pouring rain, he stands out there. I love it! If only everyone could be so devoted to their jobs, even if it is only holding a sign for hours at a time. It is kind of nice to see how youth can color any scenario into something hopeful and exciting. Hopefully, 'the man' doesn't get him down to where he is writing in a blog at age 28 and marveling at how anyone can be so happy holding a sign.

What Universal Truth I Learned While Dancing in My Bedroom to a Michael Jackson Song

So, I was dancing in my room to "Billie Jean" and some other Michael Jackson songs while I was getting ready the other day. I was dancing along and snapping (because children of the 80's like to snap their fingers when they dance to Michael Jackson songs). So I was dancing, snapping my fingers and singing to my cat, Harley. (No, we haven't reached any universal truths yet, although the children of the 80's snapping thing is pretty close.) All of a sudden, I notice that Harley looks really afraid. He has this look like, "Uh, oh. I'm in big trouble. I don't know what I did, but I'm in big trouble." And I'm like, "Harley, you're not in trouble, I'm just dancing around the room and snapping my fingers and singing some Billie Jean, 'the kid is not my son (ow!)'."

Then it hits me, Harley thinks he is in trouble because whenever he really is doing something wrong, I snap my fingers at him. So here he is, listening to me snap up a storm, and thinks that he is in for it.

Why does this lead me to a universal truth? Well, if your name is David, Joel or Janette (sorry Andrew, but you really didn't live through this era, not like you read my blog because you hardly read my texts, yeah, I'm a little bitter) you already know where this is leading. When we were little kids, David and I would know we were in trouble because my dad would snap his fingers. He wouldn't yell. Most of the time he wasn't even in the same room as us (the man has a loud snap people) but whenever we heard it, wherever we were, we knew someone was in big trouble (umm, usually that was David, sorry but it's true). A snap reverberating through the house could chill our souls to the bone (that is if souls had bones).

Universal truth drum roll please: I grew up and became my dad! (Not the worst thing in the world, for the most part;)

I Know, I Know

I know that I complain too much about people and driving, but this one was really bad. I told my mom the other day that the older I get, the stupider others get! I can feel "crotchety" slowly seeping into my veins. Anyway, I was driving on New Albany Road just getting ready to turn into my condo complex. The guy in front of me was tailgating the person right in front of him, so I barely knew there was someone there. Then the car right in front of me went into the turn lane, making me think, "This guy is turning." But no, he was swerving around the person in front of him who had slowed to make a right hand turn. So, here is a surprise stopped person in front of me. Why do people do that? Is taking your foot off the gas or, heaven forbid, tapping the brake so awful that you need to lead the people behind you into an accident (well, I didn't get into an accident, but it was scary!)

Saying this when you burp makes it 10x funnier!



I did this at my house today, but there wasn't anyone to hear me but the cats, and they didn't find it funny.

On a comedian kick. Who says biracial, half Asian, half white people can't be funny?