FEEDING BYU PROFESSORS, MAKING MONEY AND VALENTINE'S DAY

I spent about three hours writing a five page book report about Inés del alma mía. There would have been six pages but I made a title page and the space that was freed up shortened the text just enough. I’m actually very proud of it and am anxious to find out my grade. Dr. Lyon really makes us work so an A- from him is like an A+ from most other professors.

Congratulations to my cousin Derrick on his engagement to his girlfriend Regan Perkins! She seems like a nice girl. Becca and I are going to have to have you two over soon so that we can meet her and all get acquainted. Maybe we’ll make Indian food. The family just keeps on getting bigger.

This Tuesday I will take a nasty test about the Portuguese language poets of Goa, India. On Wednesday I proposed to my professor and classmates that we get together and have a dinner of Goan food. Becca and I would make the food; everyone would chip in a few dollars and then maybe Prof. Williams would let us use his house since ours doesn’t have a space big enough to entertain more than a few people at a time. To my surprise, everyone jumped on the idea and before I could ask him Prof. Williams offered to have it at his place.

From there, my small dinner party just kept getting bigger and bigger. It was then suggested that wives, significant others and perhaps even insignificant others be invited as well. That was okay with me because, after all, we only have seven people in that class. Could we invite another one of my classmates and his girlfriend? Sure! How about all of the other Portuguese professors at BYU? Why not?! Should we invite their spouses as well? Absolutely! What about entertainment? Why not prepare musical numbers about India and Portugal? Why not have a recital of poems in Portuguese written in or about India? No problem!! We are now cooking for about thirty people and practically holding a cotillion after dinner. It’s going to be on March 9^th and Becca and I are feeling a little overwhelmed.

Well, we’re heading up to Bountiful this afternoon with Becca’s cousin Alicia at the gracious invitation of Aunt Emma and Deb. It should be good especially since we haven’t seen our relatives in Bountiful for quite some time. Here’s my wonderful wife:

Well, life seems to only get busier! I’m averaging 4-7 ½ hrs of massage on every day (still). I work (4 days a week). It doesn’t sound like much…but I’m falling apart(at first it is tiring...but doable)…and being an employee means there is nothing I can do about it!!! If I am on the schedule, I can have massages, If I forget to tell them to give me a ½ hour *unmovable* break, I may not get one, or if I just ask for a break, they will give me a moveable one, and then it may not even be worth it, or may even go away! It is frustrating.

There are no laws in Utah that make breaks mandatory. In my profession you need them... yet business people are greedy enough that half a million a year (profit for them) isn’t good enough…so lets push our therapists beyond their limits to keep raising that. I understand that clients come first, but if you don’t take care of the therapist, they (the therapists) will only be able to give so much before they aren’t giving you a massage worth your money, because they can’t function properly without nutrition, rest and a chance to sit down!!!

Anyway…Money I am making, but body I am breaking!! Haha, I rhymed!

Other than that, life is good. I stopped losing weight…grrrrrrrrrrrr…so we will see what happens with the modeling thing (it should be in about 2-3 weeks). I changed my hair products. For the first time in my life I decided to try Infusium 23. I never wanted to before because the packaging isn’t as attractive (sounds shallow I know). It is the BEST shampoo and conditioner I have ever used in my life!!!! My hair is actually healthier! It doesn’t feel coated with stuff to make it look good, it just looks and feels great!

Ryan continues to be a loving and supportive hubby! I sure got lucky! For Valentines Day we had dinner up in S.L.C. at Samba Grill (Brazilian). He there gave me a pretty box containing a beautiful pearl and diamond necklace. He had such a sweet look on his face when he gave it to me! I gave him some manlier gifts I guess you could say. He now has a cool clock, and a giant frame with lots of little frames filled with 13 pictures of us and family (from dating-marriage) for his office.

Well, we love you, and hope all is going well. Have a wonderful week!

Here is a picture that Ryan and I enjoy!

TWELVE POUNDS AND THE AMERICAN EMPIRE

More than a few of you responded to my translation of Hugo Chavez’s speech in ways that I had not anticipated. Since Chavez speaks out against Pres. Bush so scandalously and since he refers to the USA as the American Empire some of you wonder why I chose to translate this speech for my senior project. I suppose that I wanted to translate something that I’m interested in and what I’m interested in is working in the Foreign Service where I would have to read stuff like this a lot. Plus, Chavez is a sensationalist and it’s kind of fun to translate the absurd things that he says.

We’ll, it’s almost midnight and I have many things to do tomorrow. Life has been very, very full for me but I prefer a busy life to a boring one. I’m a tad nervous about my “Spanish Oral Proficiency Exam” that I’m taking tomorrow morning. I would ask you to wish me luck but you will probably read this after I’ve taken the test. Here’s the lovely Becca:

Well, life has been pretty typical lately. There really isn’t much to say. I have been working a lot. Saturdays pretty much kick my booty because I end up doing 7-7 ½ hours of massage. Most of the time it is deep tissue, so by the end of the day…I’m pooped!

I have lost 12 lbs!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!! FINALLY!!! I want to lose about 15 more. I think it can be accomplished. It took about a week and a half to lose the 12; so hopefully, it will continue to come off. It has been coming off by about a pound a day.

The weather has been nicer hear in Utah which I am thankful for. I like sunshine, and when I go for long periods of time without it…I’m not a happy Becca. So lately things have been a little better.

Well, I guess that is it for the night. We love all of you!

POETRY, CRAZY SPEECHES AND INDIAN FOOD

I bought a new book that I’m reading for my Hispanic American Lit class. It’s called Inés of My Soul and it’s the newest book written by Isabel Allende, a favorite author of mine. Inés Suárez was the “life companion” of Pedro de Valdiva who was the Spanish soldier who founded Santiago, Chile. Ines has been left out of a lot of history books but apparently she was quite the adventurer and was every bit as much a conquistadora as de Valdivia was a conquistador. Isabel Allende did a ton of research in preparation for this book and I feel that it is an accurate portrayal of what Spain and then Peru and Chile were like in the mid XVI century.

Other than that, life is life. I read poetry for four hours, three times a week and work on my translation of Pres. Hugo Chavez’ speech. Before turning things over to the lovely Becca I’ll leave you with an excerpt from his speech:

Look, I believe that the first citizens who should read this book are our brothers and sisters, the Americans, because this is a threat that they have in their own home; the Devil was in your home. The Devil himself was in your home. Yesterday, the Devil came here. Yesterday, the Devil was here [Applause], in this very place. The podium where I have been assigned to speak still smells like sulfur! Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this very stand the President of the United States, who I call “The Devil”, came here talking as if he owned the world. It doesn’t take a psychiatrist to analyze the President of the United State’s speech yesterday. As the spokesman of imperialism, he came to give his recipes for maintaining the present scheme of dominating, exploiting and ransacking the people of the world.

(Excerpt of a speech given by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez before the UN on 09/20/2006, as translated by Ryan Boothe)

I regret to inform you that you will not be hearing from my wonderful wife this week. We used some of our Christmas gift money and went out for some Indian food last night. On Monday I did a presentation on Goan food (Goa is a small Indian state that was controlled by the Portuguese until the 1960’s) and I suppose that it made me hungry. Life is good and life is going by quickly. We love you all.