HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

This past week we had our first snowfall down here in Utah Valley. My weeks are really seeming long right now. I site down and think about Monday and it honestly seems as though it were two weeks ago. The Mayans believed that time was not linear, but circular; Virginia Wolf said that time was like the radiance of light rather than a line of motion; the scriptures say that past, present and future are before God at all times. Every now and again Becca wakes up late on a Thursday and wonders what I’m doing still at home. I haven’t had Tuesday or Thursday classes since we’ve been married. Seeing as time is truly relative, I suppose that it’s okay for Becca and me to get a little disoriented.

WARNING!

Ryan is about to tell a story about South American History. Those not interested should skip the next three paragraphs!

In the late 1800’s Paraguay fought a war against Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil. They realized that without an outlet to the sea their nation would never be great, so they marched their formidable army to the south and robbed territory that belonged to the other three nations. This would allow them to ship their national goods, like pineapples and spider monkeys, to Europe without paying export taxes.

Brazil had only ever been attacked from the sea so all they had was a cost guard to make sure that the slave traders made it into port okay. Uruguay is puny and weak; they always have been and they always will be. That left Argentina who, to this day only really cares about Buenos Aires. It was one of those ideas that probably looked great on paper, kind of like that whole Bill Clinton talk show that was going to go on the air a few years back.

Brazil got really mad, got together an army and beat the Paraguayans back and then, to make sure that Paraguay never attacked them again, they went onto Paraguayan land and killed thousands of people. Paraguay lost twenty percent of its population during those ten years of war; most of the dead were young men so for a long time Paraguay was a country of women, children and elderly people. Paraguay never got over that loss. They are, and will probably continue to be, one of the poorest countries in the world.

I got a call from a school district in Arizona last week that wanted a translator for the Ethiopian language Hadic. I was doubtful that I would be able to find someone to translate into Hadic, but I decided to look. I looked up Ethiopia on wikipedia.org and found that their national language is Amharic. It sounded to me like the lady from Arizona was just a little confused so I took the initiative to find a couple of translators who could possibly do that job. I called the lady back and gave her the info, which she seemed quite pleased with, and then she asked if I could get people to come to her school to provide oral translation. I then had to explain to her that oral translation is called interpreting and that what she needed were interpreters and we only provide translators. I was thoroughly annoyed.

Just so everyone knows, prosecutors try to throw you in jail, defense attorneys try to keep you out; there’s a difference. Pediatricians take care of your children and podiatrists take care of your feet; there’s a difference. Personal computers stay at the office but laptops can come home with you; there’s a difference. Actors are men, actresses are women; there’s a difference. An interpreter stands next to you and tells you that the little Japanese man sitting across the room wants his car factory in L.A. to be more productive and a translator takes an instruction manual from the same car company and rewrites it in English; there is a difference.

I’ll let the lovely Becca fill you in on a few of the other things that we’ve been doing this week.

Well, there isn’t much to say on my end. I have been working like always.

We went to a haunted forest yesterday. It was pretty creepy. They did a good job. I didn’t want the actors to focus on me, so despite my desire to scream, I forced it into laughter, and said things like “how clever! ...that was done well”. It worked pretty well. The chainsaw men, goblins, ghouls, aliens, closet monsters and swamp monsters focused on my screaming, run for your life friends instead. I was still holding tightly onto Ryan’s arm with fear. Even though I knew it was fake, they did a very good job at playing on the fears of people (small, lightless and damp enclosed spaces decorated just right, sometimes all three of those things together along with the actors, and things popping out of the walls, hanging bags of who knows what and aromas to fit the atmosphere). I have told Ryan that I never want to go to something like that again. The props are becoming too real. The scary things you see actually still happen to people. The main reason is that I walked out wanting the Holy Spirit to be with me again. I would rather not feel the loss of it in the first place. Also, your preconscious mind doesn’t work in the imaginative; In other words, it doesn’t know that what you are seeing isn’t real. For all it knows, all of those things really are happening, and they aren’t fake. That type of stress on your body just isn’t good. The fear of death in a concentrated form like that of a really realistic haunted forest just isn’t good for you. So I’d rather not stimulate that kind of stress in my body- Even if it is to hang out with some friends that we haven’t seen in a year.

Ryan continues to be my bug slayer. That makes me happy.

Well, that is it for today. We hope everyone is doing well.

PS- Here is a picture of the cute little Elderly couple that got married in our ward:

Alex and Doretta

PLAY-FIGHTING AND VENEZUELAN FASHION DESIGNERS

I am happy to report that I went jogging for a total of about ten miles this week. I’ve tried several times to go jogging consistently like I did in 2003 and 2004 but I never could seem to make it past a couple of weeks before I stopped. I don’t remember if it’s been one month or two since I started jogging again but I like it. It gives me time to clear my head.

I have so many college credits that I get to sign up for next semester’s classes this coming Tuesday. If I take a certain class next semester and two more during the “Spring Term” then I could graduate in August with a double major in Spanish Translation and Interpretation and Latin American Studies and also have a minor in Portuguese. I think that the Latin American Studies major would make me look attractive to a couple of places that I’d like to work and also be in line with the things that I would like to eventually teach at a University level. I think that it would be fun to eventually get a M.A. in Latin American Studies, with an emphasis in Argentine/Brazilian relations, and then get a PhD so I could teach at a university level. However, the business is showing signs of promise so I may just do that for a while after I graduate. Well see.

My Grandma Barbara got out of shoulder/neck surgery this past week so let’s all remember her in our prayers so that she can have a speedy recovery. It’s been nice to hear from so many of you this past week. Mom (Kim) is enjoying her musical experience, Dad (Teryl) got a hydrotherapy table, Debbie is growing as a teacher and Grandma Boothe has to deal with broken mud-guards. I am grateful for those of you who left your comments this past week; it’s always nice to know that people read our blog and even better to know what they think about what we wrote. By the way, if anyone looks at the site after a week and doesn’t see a new post, try pushing the “Refresh” button (at the top of your screen to the left of the button that looks like a house) and that should do the trick. I’m not sure where that problem comes from but I’ll figure it out eventually.

One more quick thing to add: a document I had to translate not too long ago banned any type of play-fighting at elementary schools. I’d hate to be the person in charge of enforcing that rule! Their definition of play-fighting was rather broad and included many, many things so if I had attended this school as a third grader I’d have been suspended for playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They’re going to end up expelling all of the boys in their elementary schools! Extreme rules like that one are usually brought on by extreme circumstances. I’m sure that the teachers in our family could tell us some pretty good stories.

That’s enough from me, here’s the lovely Becca:

Well, there isn’t much from me this week. I have a new job and am starting up my own outcall business. There are a couple of clients from clinic when I went to UCMT that will be either weekly or monthly clients. One of which is a fashion clothing designer!!! I called him up to let him know that I was doing house calls and he scheduled Saturday with me. He has an account with Nordstrom which I think is really cool. I’ve never shopped there (since it is sooo expensive), but I think I will stop by sometime for the thrill of trying on clothes and being able to say…“I’m his massage therapist” to my friends. I know, I know…that would be bragging…but how cool will that be? ...come on…you gotta admit that is cool!!!! He is so far a weekly client. He is a convert to the church of about 3 years or so and is from Venezuela where he designed and sold $2000 silk wedding gowns. The cool thing about his clothing line is that everything is modest. He decided to revamp his entire business plan after he joined the church. I think that is admirable. He designs really fashionable clothes, but makes it so that they are modest, and on top of that, is going to sell them at a HUGE well known retail chain that is all over the country!! I saw sketches and some of the actual product. I really like them! He is going to have a runway show in Sun Dance, during the Sun Dance Film Festival to introduce his product! I think that is sooo cool! Well, that is my most exciting news of the past week.

It looks as though Ryan and I are going to make it to MI for Christmas. I have 59 hrs at work that I will need to cover during that time, so hopefully I will be able to. It kinda stinks being an employee, because now I can’t just take time off. I HAVE to cover my shift. It looks as though I may be able to though. I’m keeping my fingers crossed!! The twins seem to be doing great. They are already over 10 lbs each and have definitely filled out!! I don’t even recognize them! I can’t wait to see them in December.

Oh yeah, I chopped my hair and got bangs that go to the side. I like it. I’ve never ever had bangs, so it is different.

Well, my hubby has let me know that he is tired, so I should end the letter. I hope all of you are doing well. We keep you in our prayers!

MOVIES, EXISTENTIALISM, MARRIAGE AND BUGS

We honestly need to stop buying movies. Back in April we owned about ten movies and now we have almost fifty. We just keep finding great deals! For those of you who don’t know, Hollywood is forcing the people who edit the gore, swearing, nudity ect. out of movies to go out of business. Because of this there are some major sales for edited movies going on right now and you can buy movies like Braveheart, Schindler’s List and others for under $15.00.

Our internet was out for almost all of last week. This was mainly my fault since I forgot to pay our internet bill for two months in a row. I have since set up the account to take money directly out of my bank account so it won’t happen again. I have since found out that this particular internet company puts peoples names on a list to get their service disconnected. Once on the list, the cable installation guys will come by your house and disconnect you, without telling you. Well, I paid for the two months, got everything set up so I wouldn’t get behind on my payments again and then one morning we found that we had no internet. Remember that for us this is particularly bad since our home, business phone and fax are run through the internet, when we have no internet we are really cut off in a bad way. I spent hours on my cell phone with tech support people from four different countries trying to find out what the problem was. It wasn’t until a repair man was sent out that I was informed that although the company puts people on the list, they don’t bother to take them off. They wait until you’ve been disconnected and for you to ask to be reconnected.

Church was really nice today. During the third hour I participated in a wonderful discussion about agency. I think that Mormon’s are some of the biggest non-atheist existentialists you’ll ever meet. I think that our decisions are what define us more than anything else. Being imperfect individuals, the ability to choose will inevitably lead to mistakes and therefore sin. For this cause, Jesus Christ’s sacrifice is all the more meaningful. He allows us to learn from our mistakes without having to pay for them eternally so that we can eventually return to the presence of the Father and experience never ending joy.

After a four week absence, HERE’S BECCA!!

Well, even though I haven’t written for about 4 weeks…not much has really gone on. I’m “chugging” along with work, and still interviewing at other places. So far things have been going pretty well. I miss The Heavenly Spa in Modesto though…*sigh*. It was a really good place to work.

I have been buying little things here and there for our basement apartment. It is getting better and better. OOOO….I did buy some of that silicone bakeware. IT IS AMAZING!!!! (not to sound too enthusiastic) I absolutely love it. Baking has never been easier. The light in our bedroom still likes to only go on when our upstairs neighbors are home at night and rollie-pollie/potatoe bugs love our home. I don’t like that they love coming inside, so I have a can of raid on hand. One spray and they are gone. Too bad their relatives don’t get the idea. I tried saving them at first by putting them outside, but it became too frequent. Now I just kill them. I’m not talking about one or two a month, it is more like 5+/week.

You all know how I hate them. Ryan continues to be my “bug slayer” when it comes to spiders. Anyway, enough about bugs. An 80 year old woman just got sealed in the Provo temple yesterday (Saturday). She has never been married before, and couldn’t be more happy. She was a sweet blushing bride. I took near 400 pictures for them. I’ll pick like the best 50 and print them out and put them in a photo album as my gift. There were other people who volunteered to be the photographer as well, so it will be a nice combined effort. All of the pictures are going to go on a CD for them as well. I don’t know if they have a computer with a program that will work, so I’m giving them some hard copies just incase. It was a lot of fun. I’m sure they will be quite happy together.

Well, it is getting late. All Boothes in this house should be going to bed. We love you and hope all is well.