More Tears Tonight

This poster is from the official OWS site. Nothing to see here, folks. We only want to recreate our democracy. Nov. 17th, huh? Hmmmm....

Read Here about N 17

So you say you want a revolution...

But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao
You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow...

Unless it's 2011!!! Because now you can wear Che Guevara's image on your underpants!

Seriously, I can't even fathom this is my world. I can't fathom the changes I think I'm going to see in my life. I think it's, sadly, unstoppable.

I can't believe the world is going to sit back and let this go down. Not jut let it go down but asking for it. Forget ancient history, can no one remember what has happened in their own lifetimes? Even during our short lifetimes of 30 years? This does not end well. I'm helpless and mourning.

Propaganda

My nephew showed up at our beach house vacation two years ago with an Adbusters magazine.

I thumbed through it then, numb and shocked.

Ever seen one? Thumb through one online and you might cry. OWS is anything but grassroots.

There really are no words.

I feel like crying sometimes.

American Autumn? End of the West?

All coming our way courtesy of a lie. A lie told so perfectly. And in the most subtle way.
The best way to trick someone into something bad is to make them think it's good, don't you think?

.... ahhh, more on this some other time. There is so much I want to talk about and no time.

Evil or Irrational

Did you see the happenings at UC Davis today?




They were protesting, in part, a tuition increase at California universities.

A tuition increase?

Could the rising cost of education at state schools possibly have anything to do with policies like the Dream Act?


Please read this open letter to the Chancellor. The professor who wrote it teaches Critical Theory, surprise! A marxist professor? Who would have seen that coming?

I like the banner at the top with the clenched fist...'Unity'. (The collective is oppressed, didn't you know?) I like the downloadable propaganda on the sidebar and the list of 'comrades' is especially telling. Aaaand, the slogan...'Against the privatization of education and everything else'.

We DO live in (nearly) a police state. They have too much power. Who gave them that power? We did. That's why I'm confused. If you're against the excessive force the State has the power to deliver, why would you be for nationalizing everything? Would the State suddenly stop exercising its power unjustly and arbitrarily if we endowed it with MORE power?! Illogical!

Again:

1. In any conflict between two men (or two groups) who hold the same basic principles, it is the more consistent one who wins.

2. In any collaboration between two men (or two groups) who hold different basic principles, it is the more evil or irrational one who wins.

3. When opposite basic principles are clearly and openly defined, it works to the advantage of the rational side; when they are not clearly defined, but are hidden or evaded, it works to the advantage of the irrational side.


It's hard to even think the agenda is not being clearly defined or evaded when you look at websites like the one posting the open letter. Or Adbusters or even the official OWS site.
The agenda seems so blatantly in yo face! To me, anyway.

There is an agenda. Moving over the face of the earth. I'll let you guess who runs it and who is employed therein. The end game is global socialism. And control of all of us.

If you wanted to take over the earth, how would you do it?

That's why I can't stay quiet.

Meeeeooooowwww

Brandon passed the physical test months ago and finally, this week, had his interview to join the volunteer fire department.

We will find out in December if he made it. Oh please, oh please!

Yes, we would finally have affordable medical insurance and even dental! Dental! Retirement, too, though I indulge no fantasy anything but solid gold can withstand the next 30 years.

All this is dandy but I'm more interested in the meow factor. My husband on the volunteer fire department? Mama likes. When he gets called out in the middle of the night, I will definitely be waiting up for him when he returns. I told Brandon that him becoming a volunteer fireman turns me on as much as he would be turned on if, say, I joined the volunteer stripper department.

Even the big bag that carries the turnouts is a turn-on! Mmm mmm mmm, so manly! And what if he gets to drive the fire truck? Ahh, I'm weak in the knees. I swoon. I'm blushing!

I think I'm getting my hopes up. (Fingers crossed.)

Throwing Myself Into the Debate of Ideas

I have been keeping quiet about the happenings in the world lately and I feel guilty. I see what is happening (Occupy Wall Street, in particular) and I don't think the story ends well. I feel powerless. But we all have a responsibility to join the intellectual debate. All I can do is say what I see and how I see it. I know only, like, 3 people read this but it's the biggest forum I have to carry out my responsibility.

This following is what finally cracked me:

Watch this:

PROTECT IP Act Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on ">Vimeo.

Now, read this.

Both of these were posted on facebook today by my nephew's old girlfriend. She is brilliant! Truly. I love her. She is amazing, just like Jake. But the two posts are contradictory... Perfectly exemplary of the illogic I see in the OWS protests.

On one hand is the video promoting the kill of the Protect IP bill. I agree. It should be killed. (Intellectual property is one thing my perspective has evolved on. But I still need help with that...more on that some other time.)

Points of interest in the video are:

"...won't stop piracy but WILL introduce vast potential for censorship abuse..."

"...even if you trust the US government to not abuse their power to censor the net...other countries will copy our laws..."

(That second one is particularly laughable. You know, because power doesn't corrupt Americans...wtf?!)


And now to the article about vegetable pizza, points of interest being:

"...This sort of makes it sound like local school districts would be serving heirloom tomatoes and quinoa if the federal government just got out of the way. At any rate, I'd recommend that you remember this the next time you hear someone say that the government should get out of the business of "picking winners and losers." (Winner: salt! Loser: fighting obesity!)"

"In addition to this, the move to classify pizza as a vegetable gained traction because of popular, reality-transforming political philosophies on the role of government."


Is it just me?

No! It is contradictory. It seems impossible that both of these were posted by the same really smart person as, I'm assuming, representing her view. Unless she posted them to show her two totally different views.

DO YOU WANT THE STATE TO HAVE MORE ARBITRARY POWER OR NOT?

Okay, this is going to be difficult to articulate. Deep breath aaaand, here we go...

It is clear we have a revolution on our hands. Anyone else stay awake through their history lessons?

What kind or revolution, you ask?

Gee, I dunno. Let's redirect to the OWS website, shall we?

Hmmm, where have I seen that clenched-fist imagery before? Hmmm, looks familiar but I can't quite... wait... wait a second...

Maybe the slogans in bold will give us more clues.

The revolution continues worldwide!

The only solution is world revolution!

Blah, blah, blah, social justice, blah, blah, blah.

I get the funny feeling this isn't a revolution calling for the repair of our original constitution, rather, the destruction of anything resembling it. And worldwide, too! Oh, goody!

I see the sings the OWS people are carrying.
A lot of the complaints are valid. Wall Street is corrupt. Bankers did have a role in trashing the economy. Laws are bought by corporations through lobbyists, etc. Congress is corrupt and obsolete. My vote is an illusion.

So, the people are ticked. We've established that. So, how do they want to fix it? Generally, they're calling for more power to be given to government so they can take from the rich and give it to them. That really sums it up.

Here's how the illogical thought process goes...

Bankers and corporations are evil. They steal my money and buy my legislators. They have too much power and are corrupt. I want to give more power to the State so they can fix it and make the game fair. (The first 3 sentences are accurate. The conclusion drawn in sentence 4 is illogical.)

This logic operates under the premise that power doesn't corrupt individuals if they are standing underneath the government umbrella.

Power corrupts. People abuse it. Period.

Shouldn't we be trying to take power away from everyone? Especially from the hands of government?

I think people get confused because the complaints are valid. Our current form of capitalism and government is corrupt. People recognize that and then errantly draw the conclusion that capitalism must not be working and we must need the opposite...socialism. When really, that will be just more of the same. We need a libertarian revolution. We need to get back to what the country was founded as... before laws could be bought. Which, trust me, they've been being bought for, oh... almost right out of the gates... like for 150 years now. We need true capitalism, not crony. And NOT socialism.

_____________________

It was just after that philosophy class at DSC we all took together that I sank deep into my objectivist phase.

This was when I had no car so I would walk to that weird little book store on main street to browse. There are all those weird upstairs rooms with places to read that made me feel like I was on The Neverending Story. Plus, the big guy... and the smell... and the mystery of how he got in/out or if he just went in thin and started eating... it all just added to the mysterious experience.

I picked up this book lots of times but always put it back in favor of something else. (You see, my Ayn Rand phase was concurrent with my Richard Bach phase.)

So one day Janna comes down from Salt Lake with her boyfriend Mike. (This was the very first time I met him.) We were all going to Havasupai the next day and they were looking to kill time when I suggested they peruse the stinky book store. They go. They come home. I say, "What did you get?" Mike says, "This." And briefly flashed the book I'd considered and held in my hands for months. (I knew we would be great friends then.)

And ten years later, I borrowed it from him and finally read it.

And you should, too. It gave me a perfect understanding of what unadulterated capitalism would look like and that we do not have it! (But were meant to.) Not even close. We are slip slidin' to socialism and have been nearly since the beginning. (We should believe her. Soviet Union?!)

OWS... Capitalism is corrupt. We must need socialism, right? WRONG! We need real capitalism. A libertarian revolution. No special deals for special people. No lobbyists. No Federal Reserve. No welfare. No minimum wage. (most gasp in horror when I suggest that one.) No subsidies. No incentives. Flat tax. Looser borders. (You don't need to gasp again...remember... no welfare.) No war machine. Legalize drugs.

But, Alana. Don't we need more regulations? Especially in banking because what those bankers did wasn't even illegal and it ruined us?

Make all the laws you want, regulate to the hilt. And guess what? People will always find a way to cheat. Don't chain finance's ankles to a ball because its fingers will still be doing dirty things.

___________________________

And suddenly, folks, I have no idea what I was talking about.

___________________________

The right way to do this would be to bite off a little at a time, writing one concise post a day with an obvious beginning, middle, end, and point. But, alas, I find that impossible. I know I'll wake up tomorrow and think what in. the. sam. hell. was that?


We had a classic Jacobsen dinner at my house tonight. I didn't throw any rolls at anyone's face this time but we didn't talk about the weather, either. We always laugh that we're all so opinionated. And my family loooooves a heated debate. It gets loud. We raise the roof.

I was trying especially hard to get Mike to admit the general tone of OWS is a socialist revolution. It is textbook class warfare. Most people down there (as in any movement of the masses) don't know what the heck is going on. All they know is they are ticked and it has something to do with the corrupt machine. But they had all better decide how they want to fix it. And I demand it be logical.

There are people with real power and real money that use masses for their ends. And if your premises and solutions are not clearly defined, you will only be a pawn in the hand of someone that DOES HAVE a clearly defined goal. (Nothing sinister. Just global socialism.)

I don't think this will end well. And I'm pretty much powerless. All I can do is throw myself into the debate of ideas. It's my responsibility to do so.

1. In any conflict between two men (or two groups) who hold the same basic principles, it is the more consistent one who wins.

2. In any collaboration between two men (or two groups) who hold different basic principles, it is the more evil or irrational one who wins.

3. When opposite basic principles are clearly and openly defined, it works to the advantage of the rational side; when they are not clearly defined, but are hidden or evaded, it works to the advantage of the irrational side.

-Ayn Rand.

Nicole, did you read that book I gave you yet?

From the vison of Charles D. Evans:

Thou beholdest a change. Confidence is lost. Wealth is arrayed against labor, labor against wealth, yet the land abounds with plenty for food and raiment, and silver and gold are in abundance. Thou seest also that letters written by a Jew (Bernanke?) have wrought great confusion in the finances of the nation which, together with the policy of many wealthy ones, has produced distress and do presage further sorrow.

Factions now sprang up as if by magic: capital had entrenched itself against labor throughout the land; labor was organized against capital. The voice of the wise sought to tranquilize these two powerful forces in vain. Excited multitudes ran wildly about; strikes increased; lawlessness sought the place of regular government.

Remember This?

Bacon.

Williams - Halloween

Sage is a witch. I did her makeup. I am pretty proud of my work. It helps when you purchase a decent set of face paints. Herbie was Darth Vader on Saturday at the ward party and Halloween night he was a Black Ninja. Evey year he has to be more than one thing. Nora is a cowgirl. Herb and I dressed up to match Nora but unfortunately we didn’t get pics. Take a look at the pumpkin in the center. Herb carved it and it is supposed to be ZOMBIE’s. He has a bit of an obsession and he is pretty excited about the pumpkin. Halloween night someone smashed his and Sage's pumpkin in the road. I think Herb was more sad than Sage. Take note of Sage's face in the pic above when she is cleaning out her pumpkin. It is priceless! 

Halloweenie

It all started with Yoda. Anika and Emmet wanted Ben to be Yoda... then it progressed to Luke and Leia. Janna and Mike dressed up but Brandon and I (we're boring) didn't. After seeing Janna and Mike's costumes, Anika looked at me and B like we were losers and asked, "What are you going to dress up as?" She seemed disappointed. I suppose we'll have to dress up next year.

Help!

On numerous occasions, I've verbalized to Brandon that I wouldn't mind any calling in the church except... being in charge of Homemaking night. Or at least it used to be called Homemaking. Then they changed it to Enrichment. And now, apparently, it's simply called Relief Society meeting. I think they keep changing the name so that when they ask you if you will do it, you say yes but only because you don't know what in the world a Relief Society meeting coordinator is. The title is so covert, even the Bishop didn't know what it was.

I came home last week from meeting with the Bishop totally surprised. Surprised because I've only been a ward missionary for 6 months. And surprised at my reaction. I have loved being a ward missionary. I felt like I got dumped by my boyfriend and needed to eat a quart of ice cream. At this point, I still didn't know what a Relief Society meeting coordinator was or I would have been upset for another reason.

When I found out that Relief Society meeting was really Enrichment which is really Homemaking, I about died. Leave it to the Universe to bring to me exactly the thing I have always said I never wanted to do.

Surely, Heavenly Father knows I can't even plan, organize, and execute a birthday party for my own child. She's 4 and I'm still stacking two boxes of ding dongs into a pyramid and calling it a cake. Surely He knows I'm extraordinarily uncomfortable taking initiative, taking charge, and delegating work. Oh, I cringe.

Speaking in church doesn't phase me. Knocking on doors with the missionaries is a delight. But even organizing a planning meeting to plan the RS thingy makes me squirm.

I met with my committee at my house Sunday and they were so lovely and nice and helpful. So I feel much relieved. Which is good. Because last night I literally had nightmares all night about this upcoming quilting thing. I even woke up to nurse twice and went back to bed to have more nightmares each time.

I am, though, making the Sister Missionaries promise not to dump me, whether I remain an official missionary or not. They always need members at discussions. Phew!

_____________________________

I had to walk Ben during RS Sunday and I felt very overwhelmed with his heavy bod, my heavy bag, and my inordinate fear of planning, organizing, and calling ladies on the phone.

We looked at this painting for a while.

I look at this picture a lot in the hall with Ben and always fixate on the woman with the infant. I imagine she's thinking... This is amazing! It's Jesus! Now where am I gonna sit down and nurse this baby?

I imagine she feels exactly like I did this summer at Knotts Berry Farm as I looked and looked for a private corner, nook, or bench to nurse Ben.

Then I wonder if, culturally, it was acceptable way back then to get your breasts out whenever/ wherever and even leave them out all day and I get mad because I want to leave my breasts out all day. Because hello! Babies need them, like, all. the. time.

And then Ben and I were looking at this painting and he got very excited.


He kept looking at the painting, then back to me with a huge grin on his face.

And then I felt better.

I remembered the WHY of all we do.

I can do this, I thought. I can call ladies on the phone!

Williams - Pumpkin Patch

 Nora thinks she is a big girl and wants to carry Herbie's backpack around. She also wishes she could go to preschool with him. Isn't she adorable? Especially when she keeps her hair berrett in so her bangs aren't in her eyes.

Annual Pumpkin Patch trip. Although, this year I told the kids we were only going to the pumpkin patch for fun and I would buy them pumpkins at the grocery store. It is much cheaper. They were fine with it and ended up getting some monstrous pumpkins for  1/2 the price. The maze, the train, and the boat are enough satisfaction for them.

Williams - Goodbye Grandma

We moved my Mom to Utah. We are placing her in a nursing home in Draper. She is at Kelli’s until all paperwork is finalized for the care center. It has been a painful couple months trying to make that call. Needless to say, I have shed many tears.

Williams - Swimming

Williams - Baby News

It's a GIRL!!!
I was convinced we were having a boy. Boy was I wrong!

No-Fail Recipe

You know those recipes you keep in your repertoire that are no-fail? I thought I'd post my no-fails when I happen to make them. Because I know how hard it is to find no-fails. When you find one you love, it just sticks.

20 minute black bean soup from Fresh365 blog.

It's not even 20 minutes. More like 5 seconds and I usually have everything in the house. It really does take 5 seconds to make and Brandon loves it.

I was cooking recipes from Fresh365 for a while before I ever realized it was a all vegetarian! (I use chicken broth because that's what is always in the cupboard.)

Sometimes I gross/grease it up a bit with cheddar cheese, sour cream, fritos, etc. And I've even added chicken to make it a little more satisfying for The Big B.

Try it. You will like it.

Shut In Robert B. Shaw

Like many of us, born too late,
(like all of us, fenced in by fate),
the late October fly
will fondly live and die

insensible of the allure
of carrion or cow manure.
Withindoors day and night,
Propelled by appetite,

he circles with approving hums
a morning’s manna-fall of crumbs
hoping to find a smear
of jelly somewhere near.

In such an easeful habitat
while autumn wanes he waxes fat
and languorous, but not
enough to let the swat

of hasty, rolled-up magazine
eliminate him from the scene.
Outside, the air is chill.
Inside, he’s hard to kill.

Patrolling with adhesive feet
the ceiling under which we eat,
he captures at a glance
the slightest threat or chance,

and flaunts the facets of his eyes
that make him prince of household spies.
And as he watches, we,
if we look up, will see

a life of limits, like our own,
enclosed within a temperate zone,
not harsh, not insecure,
no challenge to endure,

but yet, with every buzz of need,
by trifles running out of speed.
One day he will be gone.
Then the real cold comes on.

Eddie

I've been crushin' on Eddie since I was 11.

It's still sooo good after all these years:



In middle school, I wrote 'Eddie Vedder is better with cheddar' on the leather bottom of my backpack... very large and in very black marker. Now, I know we all go through an awkward adolescent phase there for a bit but my phase was somethin' else entirely. I excelled at being weird. I think I might still be weird.

Anika

"Sure is just a nickname for yes." -Anika

Undone

Nic,

The second I read your proposed title Something's Gotta Give I thought of yesterday. And everyday like yesterday. Which is everyday. Because everyday is the same.

The kids were up at dark as usual and the work began as usual. All day, housework. Momwork. And I kept thinking this one thought: a homemaker's job is never DONE. Every job I do comes undone. The house gets dirty again. The kids' nails keep growing and need to be clipped. The kids get dirty again. The clothes get dirty again. The toys get scattered again. The food gets eaten. The baby needs to nurse. The trash fills up again and on and on and on.

I feel like I'm on a crazy train that's never going to stop. Ugghhh, I sighed, when will anything ever feel DONE?!

That's when I realized... it'll be done when we're dead.

After that thought, I was instantly content with my alternative (to death). The laundry basket never empty, the mouths to feed, the floors to be swept... it all means we are alive. My mundane chores breathe in and out, day after day, predictable and repetitive as a pulse. My home is alive. We are alive.

And I am ever so happy to be here.

I've decided to become independently wealthy.

That's it. I'm going for it. I have two really good ideas for making money and I'm done mucking around in dreamland. It's time to do it. So Alana, I need your help with one of them. It will take a year before we see any real money, but I'll count you in when we finally do. Ashley and I are starting a blog called Something's Gotta Give. We are working out the details but we need your writing. You may as well make money for ranting and raving right? More later.

Oh and- we are having our annual Halloween party for adults with kiddos again so please come! Sugar Leo is the best street to trick-or-treat on and Meree is making her home made rolls plus I'm doing Zuppa Toscano. So you should come to that because I haven't seen you in forever!


Annie and Mom @ the BYU homecoming parade.

No wonder the photographer took so long editing... Not long enough, obviously.

This is my whole life...

...or at least I wish it was. Ive got some other STUFF to deal with:

1. Alana, when I read what you write and how you write, it makes me want to curl up in a little ball, crawl under a rock, and never again resurface to the world of posting. You're the only person who makes me feel that way- even including ... well, maybe not Harriet Beecher Stowe, but at least Stephanie Myers for sure. You're so much better than the rest of us. Want to buy a new house? Just compile your most racy posts and send them to a publishing agent. I wish I had time to write more.
   
2. Quinn is from Venus, Nicole is from Mars.
3. I'd like to be independently wealthy.
4. This year I finally realized there is no end to being stretched too thin. No no, I didn't say I was thin. Tisk tisk. Just that I used to exist believing in the pretense that there would come a day of respite from the madness. There would be entire days for me when my life was totally like those perfect women you read about on those "Isn't Life Bliss" blogs. Those ones that sew and bake and make out with their husbands all whilst posting every bit of ooey gooey life-is-delightfulness for us to scathe at. Not Debbie Downer, not even depressed. Simply SLAPPING myself across the forehead that I could have been so naive! Silly me. Silly me.
5. Furthermore.... Just WHAT was I thinking showing up to family photographs like this...? I'll have to burn them all.
   

Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon

Okay, ladies.

This . Read it now or we can't be friends anymore. Because I think this blog is about to change tracks onto one of my obsessive, several-month-long fixations. After which (maybe sometime deep into winter) I will drop off the blog and the planet into a deep rest/numbness of my mind and you will all think I'm dead. You all know how I work by now. Don't worry or cry; you will like it. It will be a welcome break from my recent (ongoing) GOAT/AGRARIAN FORTRESS phase.

The first time I ever learned about chiasmus was in a book I read years ago. It talked a lot about the book of Jonah, which is a chiasm, with the center point of the inverted parallelism being: They who observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. And I'm just lately learning about chiasmus in the Book of Mormon which... AWESOME.

There are plenty of arguments against the Book of Mormon that people encounter. My nephew, in particular, has had a lot of questions for me. I want to talk so much more about this later. Ohhh, there's just too much to talk about.

Anyways, I'm tired and going to bed but... Alma 36!!! Boooyah!!! The center point? Jesus Christ, Son of God. Now aint that perfect and pretty?

That's a First

Well, I've never come home from teaching with the Sisters with a pack of cigarettes before. That was a first and probably not the last if I have this calling for a while.

It's so strange that I just told the cigarette story about my Dad, too. I must have been remembering forward. (?)

The church now has a stop-smoking program complete with grapefruit juice, cinnamon mouth wash, and vitamin C supplements, all which surely would have come in handy for my Dad. (You just know that night he was baptized and the cravings hit he was thinking what the heck have I done?)

The Sisters are teaching a couple and their daughter. Both parents smoke but want to quit and be baptized. The first step to the program is that the smoker must crush their cigarettes. The lady was very reluctant, especially because it was a brand new pack. But crush 'em she did. But her crush was weak and we didn't want to leave a whole pack of cigarettes in the trash in the Relief Society room for some foolhardy boy scout to discover. That's why they came home to my trash.

The Sisters are my social life. I totally thought, when I got this calling, that the missionaries would be ladies. Turns out, I'm the lady. They are young and hip.

Goodnight.

Williams - Oregon Garden

 We had so much fun with the kids at the Oregon Garden. It was rainy and cold but you wouldn't know it by the way my children are dressed. I had to practically force them to wear tennis shoes instead of flip flops. 80 acres of beautiful gardens. The kids loved the childrens garden and their favorite was the water garden where there was a water dragon made from a plant in the water. It has been so great to take them to some of Oregon's amazing historical sites and experience it together.

Save the Water

This is a GREAT story.

My Dad was not a member of the church when my parents married. My Mom took the kids to church by herself for years. As my brother neared the age of 8, my Dad started taking the missionary discussions.

The morning of Alex's baptism, my Dad was out on the deck having a cigarette. My Mom said he stayed out there for a very long time, long after he finished smoking, and just seemed to be staring and pondering.

After Alex was baptized there was confusion as everyone was lingering. Janna was a baby and fussing in my Mom's arms so my Mom didn't really know what was going on. She asked her mother (my Nonna) what was happening and where Alan had disappeared to. Through tears, Nonna said, "It's Alan. He said, 'Save the water.'"

Save the water, they did. Everyone waited while my Dad was interviewed for baptism. And it happened! My Dad and Alex were baptized the same day.

I wasn't born yet but I like to think I was watching, amused at this cast of characters I would join in a few years.

I just think that story is delightful. I can totally hear my Dad..."Save the water!"

He screwed up royally later in life and struggled with many things. But he never did two things after that day: doubt the gospel or smoke a cigarette.

He was excommunicated when I was about 9 but was a believer 'til the bitter end and working his way back to the church and us. And the smoking... I think that's so funny. Only because he had so many addictions he couldn't shake to save his life, literally. But my Mom says that cigarette on the deck that morning truly was the last he ever touched.

I love him.

Vaya con dios, amigo.


________________________________

I'm enjoying writing about random memories. I'm not sure they're enjoyable to read but it is very cathartic for me so I'm going to keep it up.

I've been reading the history of my Great Great Grandfather and it dawned on me... I wouldn't know any of this unless someone wrote it down! I have really caught the spirit of wanting to know more about my progenitors. It's so fascinating. I'll just keep writing random stories as I get to them and printing them on actual paper.