Alternative Commencement

If you have a soul . . . come to this! It will be AMAZING!!!! It is the most powerful example of grassroots efforts I have ever witnessed/been a part of, have faith in democracy my friends! Come celebrate it!

Miss Teskie 2007

I'm not sure exactly when Miss Teskies came into existence, my guess is maybe a decade ago. . .born of the feverish brains of teen boys. . . played out in the wild of the great outdoors. . . meant for only the bravest of the brave. . . named for a much disliked elementary school teacher. . . what is it you ask? oh! well, basically you go to a remote place (for us the shores of Utah Lake), you build a big bonfire (we burned palettes procured from the back of some store), you take a large pot and melt a bunch of parafin in it. . .till it boils. They you get several fool hardy folks to get very close to the fire holding Nalgenes filled with cold water, then everyone yells "THREE, TWO, ONE. . . MISS TESKIE!!!!!!!!!!" and then the said fool hardy folks dump the cold water on the boiling wax and KAAAABOOOOOMMMM!!!!! you all watch in amazement at the giant fire ball/mushroom cloud that erupts from the water hitting the wax. It's pretty awesome. The following are: firelight friends; the Arsenio Hall off between me and Joe; fire; the ladies of the casa; the boy beats band; me and heather; boil boil boil; one of the five miss teskies we did that night.

Cheney

Dear friends and family!
Hello! The following is a letter concerning the upcoming events
surrounding Dick Cheney speaking at BYU. My friends and I are
organizing an alternative commencement which you can read about below,
or check out the website at: www.byualternativecommencement.com
I am writing to ask you to help support this effort in whatever way
you can. Monetary contributions are greatly appreciated, as well as
coming and participating in the event. If 700 people donate $20 each we can make it!!! That's not so bad. . .c'mon! Be a part of history in the making!
Thanks so much!
Zina


I am writing to ask for support for a cause that is very important to
me. Last month, Brigham Young University invited Vice President Dick
Cheney to speak at the school's April commencement. Because many
students, faculty, alumni, and community members feel that Cheney
represents neither their standards nor those of the university, we
have formed a group called BYU Students for Alternative Commencement
comprised of graduating seniors, current students, faculyt, alums, and
friends.


The purpose of BYU Students Alternative Commencement is to voice our
dissent in a constructive way by having an additional ceremony after
the official commencement on April 26th 2007. Our alternative
commencement will not be about opposition, but about
alternatives–-creative, democratic alternatives to the problems facing
our country and government. As such, we've chosen speakers for our
event who embody these principles: former Amnesty International
director Jack Healey, former U.S. Senate candidate Pete Ashdown, and
citizen activist Ralph Nader.


By having these speakers at our alternative commencement, we seek to
promote a spirit of political optimism and ingenuity. We also hope
that this event will counter cynicism and wholesale criticism by
encouraging discussion and empowering graduates to search for positive
solutions to daunting problems. We believe that preparing students to
make this kind of visionary, creative change is what commencement
should be about.


Sponsoring a large event with distinguished speakers on such short
notice is very time-consuming and costly. In order to bring our
speakers out to Utah and secure a venue we have to raise $18,250 in
less than ten days. Through hard work and many generous donors we've
already been able to secure a significant amount in a few short days,
but we still need your help. Please support us by making donation
through Paypal* at www.byualternativecommencement.com, or by sending
cash or check payable to the "Gene and Charlotte England Education
Fund" at Zion's Bank, 1060 North University Ave. Provo, UT 84604. A
donation from you of $50, $100, or $250 will make it possible for us
students to accomplish our goal and 100% of it will directly support
this event.


Please feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions,
ideas, or if you know anyone who might be interested in contributing.
We also encourage you to learn more on our website, tell your friends
about the alternative ceremony, and attend on April 26th. Thank you so
much for your consideration and for helping make this event possible.

Schools Out Forever!!!

Today I took the last final exam I will ever take (I think . . .). I finished my last class for my Masters, and yesterday I turned in my proposal to my committee members and have my proposal defense scheduled for next Wednesday! In order to get all this done I've been pulling late nights all week and my body is about to quit. I have to admit though a tinge of nostalgia already building as I left my office at school late late last night . . . the empty halls . . . the bike ride home on the deserted streets . . . but I won't finish my thesis till December, so I'll probably have the pleasure of a few more of those late nights. I'm just happy the days of classrooms, papers, and tests are behind me. WOOHOOO!!!

Wordless Wednesday (Oslo)

THIS. . .

. . . breaks my heart into ten million little pieces. My parents are selling my childhood home, the only home I've ever had. I understand their reasons, and at least they are staying in Spring City (that would surely KILL me). . .but still. . . its our HOME! meoow. sad kitten.

My own private motercycle diary

Those who know me, know I have an incurable disease. . . wanderlust. I'm well aware of it, and take the necessary precautions, but every so often it flares up and the itch to hop a jet plane, boat, bike, or my feet becomes so strong I just have to fly the coop. I'd like to say I have an organized method to guiding my traveling whims, but I want to go so many places, and am so open to any adventure that someone just hast to mention and idea and I'm hooked. That's how my month long trip to Peru (with a week in Chile too!) slated for this summer (mid August to mid September) came about. My friend Camille g-chatted me one day saying she wanted to take and trip, and was I up for it, and did I want to go to Peru? . . . well, I started thinking, and looking and talking to friends who'd been. . . and voila! A trip was born! Early in the plans I said nonchalantly to my friend Davey "hey, wanna go to Peru?" to which he gave an emphatic YES and voila! I have a traveling companion. Now I spend my free time thinking about, reading about, imagining, and researching all things Peruvian. So if you have any advice, places to go, etc. send them along! So far the advice we've received consists of: watch out for loose women with STD's, try some halucinagenic plant in the Amazon, and beware calm looking people on crowded buses who may suddenly vomit on your leg. We're off to a great start.

Wordless Wednesday (i heart graffiti)

krishnakrishnahareharekrishna

So last Saturday was the annual Holi color fest at the local Hare Krishna joint, you know the one, Spanish Fork, llamas, passion plays a la Krishna, huge bonfire replete with weird-o witch effigy, and the thing we all go for. . . little plastic bags filled with fine powder in a brilliant array of colors made for one purpose. . . throwing it at your friends and strangers. It rocks. Here's some pics from two years ago and this year. Enjoy. Go throw some color.

Haircut!

Yesterday I got my hair cut . . . and it's short! Still 'long' by some standards, it hits just below my shoulder, but it's the shortest mine's been since I was three. I like it though, I wasn't sad. I figure hair grows, so who cares how long it is. I think the hairdresser was pretty much shocked and appalled when I announced to him that I do not own a blow dryer or one of those straighterner things . . . and that I only brush every so often and never 'do' my hair. I told him I want my hair like a pony and I think he wanted to die! But he did a fantastic job despite my unruliness, so my hats off!

Wordless Wednesday (copied from Dainon)

SPRING!!!

In no particular order some of my favorite things about spring: bikes, skirts, daffoldils, hyacinth, lilacs, birds, longer evenings, SUN, blossoms, cadburry eggs (the small ones), picnics, community, FRIENDS, cotton sheets, breezes, kites, bouncy songs, no coats, playing outside, clean air, baby sheep, ducklings, bright blue skies with breezy clouds, school ending, sunburns, laughter, camping, my flipflops, everything!
Yeah, pretty much all I've been doing is bike rides, lying in the sun, and hanging out. . . It's the best ever.

bike love!, slurpees!, friends!

Eulogies and Bullhorns

Some recent fun we've had in this neck of the woods include:
1) a funeral/birthday for our friend Chris (he's obsessed with death, in a Latin American sort of way), replete with a funeral parlor living room festooned with somber candles, organ music, a spanish father reading psalms, weeping/giggling guests, a love letter from a cat, eulogies, Neruda, and a miraculous raising from the dead!
2) the next morning we got up bright and early to go raise our voices and shake our fists at the gov.'s mansion in SLC to ask gov. Hunstman to please veto SB155 which would allow Energy Sollutions to expand nuclear waste dumping 50 miles outside SLC without any oversight. 80% of Utahn's were against the bill, but the legislature voted for it by 70% (they also got campaign contributions from Energy Sollutions. We had a good turnout, around 100 and got a lot of honk and wave support from passers by, and some good media coverage. Alas, the gov didn't really listen, and didn't veto the bill. . . so we figuring out the next step (plan a involves a chicken the size of a semi, plan b involves a large add in the tribune). All pics in this post compliments of the totally awesome Davey oh Davey!

I Heart Tax Returns

Last night I did my taxes. I kind of like it. There is something soothing about filling in all the little details and getting it all right. Maybe it helps a lot that I use a computer program to do it. I figured out a few years ago while working at the library that if you make under a certain amount you can use any number of online tax services for free, paid for by the state of Utah. Pretty sweet. So it takes me like a half hour, and I hit a magic button and wah-lah! It tells me how much I'm getting back and promises a direct deposit in a few weeks. To celebrate I started looking up plane tickets to tropical destinations. . .there are some cheap flights to Hawaii at the end of March. . .anyone for a field trip?

A Love Story

I love Valentine's day. I decided a long time ago that I would cast my lot with the platonic camp for this holiday, knowing that I would probably spend more alone and would rather enjoy the love of friends than be in the embittered 'single awareness day' crowd. I go all out. I always make homemade Valentine's cards, bake obscene amounts of sugar cookies, and make cheezy/ironic love mix c.d.'s. It's great. This is not to say I don't believe in romantic love (I even won a tug-of-war for the romantic cause), but it's happier this way.
With that said, let me share my favorite platonic love story. . . that of Dame Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev. Margot is a ballerina. I wanted to ballerina once. For 7 years I gave my life to it, the pink satin slippers, twirling on my toes, the whole bit. And Dame Margot was my hero. I loved her. I even named my first cat after her. She was great. I learned in my dance history class that when she was a girl she carried messages across dangerous war borders to the French in her ballet slippers. . . hiding from the evil Nazi soldiers. She came from a humble british background and became a Dame, a prima ballerina. In 1961, just as she was about to retire from a brilliant career, Rudolf Nureyev- one of the greatest Russian dancers, defected from the Soviet Union and came seeking one thing. . . to dance with Margot. He convinced her to keep dancing and be his partner. And thus began one of the greatest partnerships in the history of ballet that lasted till her retirement in 1979. . . the year of my birth. Perhaps their most famous performance is that of Romeo and Juliet, choreographed by Kenneth MacMillen, set to Prokovief's fantastic score and available to see on film today. I have always loved it, and to this day that score is my favorite piece of classical music. Sigh. They loved each other. Despite the 19 year age gap, his sexual orientation, and all the odds, they were fiercely loyal to each other. Nureyev said that they danced with "one body, one soul" and that Margot was all he had, only her. So it was significant that on Feb. 21, 1991, when I, as an eleven year old ballet enthusiast, was in attendance of a performance of Nureyev (on what turned out to be his final tour) in Salt Lake City on the very night that his beloved partner died. I don't remember if he found out during or after the performance, but I remember him crying during the curtain calls, mourning her loss.

La Mia Famiglia

I know I've been pretty much the crappiest blogger of the new year. I totally meant to post a blog about our awesome New Year's party replete with ice hockey and fabulous fireworks. . .but I didn't. I meant to post about walking half way across frozen Utah Lake at night and the way the hoar frost looked like feathers and the ice like glass. . .but I didn't. I meant to post a blog about the insane liver cleanse Ash and I are doing, but we fell off the wagon after three weeks, so I didn't. I also meant to post a blog all about how I learned to felt wool over Christmas and post pics of the projects I made. . . but alas! None of that either! Oh well. For now I'll just post this pic of my cute family who were finally all together this last weekend. . .a rare thing now that we all live all over the place. Soon to come. . . a report on our Love/Hate Valentine's day party. . . send me an email for an invite! xoxo, ZLB
p.s. I saw the most awesome movie, you should see it! Kamakaze Girls
p.p.s. on the subject of soulmates. . . Ash finally got the name of hers, Morgan, and our other roommate got the name River. . . she wins.

Soulmate

A few weeks ago my roommate Ash had her horoscope read. Like the full deal, we're talking 13 pages of detailed information and personality descriptions. Despite our skeptical approach to it, the document proved to be more dead on than any of us were really comfortable admitting and even caused me to ask my mom what time I was born at in hopes of having my own done. I haven't, I've been too busy/lazy. One morning while Ash was giving her chart a more thorough perusal, she came across a link to a webpage that would tell her the name of her soulmate based on her zodiac information! This was the invite of the ages and before she knew what was good for her she was whizzing through series of questions and sign-ups in order to have her love's name texted to her. Sadly, her stars weren't quite lined up, because all they told her is that his eyes will be blue, green, or brown, he will be an aquarius, virgo, or scoripio, and his name will start with X, P, R, V, S, E, or T. Not too specific. She was crushed.
Fast forward to today, I'm in bed, procrastinating as usual, and I run across a quiz on my friends blog to tell you what kind of Christmas ornament you are. Yup. I'm avoiding my paper so much that I debase myself and go to the page. But, to my ecstatic surprise, there in bold letters, is a link stating GET THE NAME OF YOUR SOULMATE. I didn't need any prompting. It was easy. I just entered my sex, first name, zodiac sign and phone number. In less than a minute I got this text:
Your calculated match is Sean. Together, the two of you will be fruitful whether you are creating a family, a business, or an artistic enterprise.
So there you have it folks. I know who my soulmate is. Pretty lucky day I'd say. Merry Christmas early.

We must be living right. . .

Because we got all this GLORIOUS SNOW!!!!!! Isn't it perfect? I'm pretty much the happiest kid in the country. Late Friday night it started coming down, but to my surprise, and didn't quit till Sunday eveningish. I haven't had time yet to enjoy it in proper style (ie sledding or snowshoeing) but I've taken several walks and enjoyed feeling like I live in a snow globe.
Also, to add to the list of Christmas festivities, on Saturday night we threw a surprise party for my friend Jason (that's him by the deer), that was a birthday/ecosapian party. . .so everyone dressed up like a tree/wood nymph in shades of brown and green, and I made a cake festooned with leaves. We all hid in the darkend house, and gave him near heart attack. Then a friend dressed as Paul Bunyan the corporatesapian came in and tried to cut us all down, until the Lorax (played by Cheri with straw mustache) jumped out and stopped him. Then we all sang "the earth is our mother. . . we must take care of her" hippie chant till he converted his tree cutting ways. (Jason is pres. of the local eco-response club. . .hence the eco themed party). Needless to say he loved it. And then when the drum circle started, our upstairs neighbors pitched a fit so we took our party out into the winter wonderland where we sauntered up and down Center street, drumming, singing, dancing, and making snow angles and peace signs in the snow. The inner hippy had emerged in all of us to celebrate birthdays, snow, and Christmas is fine style!

Santa came early

Announcing a new member of my family. . . tah-dah!!!! La mia nuova biccicletta!!!! Isn't she a beaut!!! I ordered this fabuloso mode of transportation a few months ago, and it finally came today. I was so happy I didn't mind at all that it was raining as I rode her home in the dark. . . because not only does she have a compass and a scope. . . I mean rain/mud guards and a skirt guard, but also a front and back light! (and the front is powered by a little generator that runs off my turning wheel). So pretty much anyone who wants to take a bike ride anytime, I am so down. I think I'll call her Cletta (as in the last part of the italian biccicletta). So I'm pretty much head over heels in love, Merry Christmas kids. . . hurry and write Santa a letter, maybe if you've been good he'll bring you one. P.S. yes that is my oversized flannal nightshirt with bucking broncos on it. . .my roommate says it makes me look like a trailer dwelling floozy in a mining town in WV, all I say is it keeps me warm.