Private Blogs....

Private blogs are so annoying because I can't freely stalk people. The entire purpose of the internet is to facilitate my ability to find out about people's lives who I don't know and who take cooler trips than me right? Jokes, just jokes.

But alas, the time has come ladies and lads that I have to have a private blog.

The reasons for this abrupt change are as follows:

I am tired of the paparazzi knowing so much about my life.

I hate that when I google my name the pompous title Sarah's Literature appears.

My life is now dedicated to public education where students try to add me to facebook and read about my life via my blog. I want them out of my life and I want to keep my job.

So, I am creating a private blog and would love to add you. Just email me at sarahorme@gmail.com or leave a comment here and I'll add you. And, to all you google readers I will periodically put posts on this blog telling you about new posts on my private blog.

These internet protections are ruining my (and your) stalking abilities.

Happy internet surfing!

Sarah

Life is like the trickster in fables, always getting our goat.

I'm just got back from San Fran where I ate more than I care to talk about, hung out with girls who are fabulous, partied on the beach and remembered how great summer is.

What a perfect way to end the summer before I go back to school this week. Between teaching at Timpview and USU I'll be busy, but happy.

This girl is an absolute gem.

High school English teachers

One of my favorite things about being an English teacher is that when people find out what I do everyone has a story. It seems that everyone has a favorite English teacher who changed their lives, made them believe in themselves, helped them question their culture, exposed them to the raw, uncensored world, tenderly pushed them to places they didn't want to go, helped uncover the humanity in the humanities, and were a little quirky while doing it.

Just this week I heard about the teacher who called the student to apologize for a class activity that was to hard (while the student telling me the story couldn't help smiling about how the teacher cultivated an argumentative classroom for the 18 year olds) or the teacher who had each student create a tome of English information for the AP test, or the teacher that helped the student want to read.

I know my job doesn't make a lot of money, and I know that it's hard and frustrating sometimes, but it's delightful to be part of a system that people can't help but talk about. I see in these conversations the appreciation students have for their teachers and it helps with the frustrating times and the life of poverty.....

RIGGS!

Did you know that I moved to SLC, or that I got a new job for the fall, or that i'm working on my thesis right now? Anyway, those things are unimportant compared to this picture. I was at my house this weekend and a friend brought over a box and when she opened it out jumped this cat. It was fantastic!

Here is why this picture makes me happy:

I am holding an animal (which looks like it has super powers)

The animal is named Riggs from Friday Night Lights--a show i'm head over heels for.

The picture was taken by one of my favorite people who was visiting over the weekend.

Authenticity more common in movie trailers, while

viral posts achieve:

love- courage- wealth-

dreams.

reading, watching, scrolling and

feeling parched for reports of lives of the ‘living.’

Fantasy begets reality.

Do rivers overflow and winds blow?

Hearts ache?

souls weep?

dreams die?

forgotten amongst the electronic voice of fine dining, parties, smiles, beauty, (mystery)

Kellee's Wedding

My best friend got married this weekend and I could not have been happier. The wedding dinner at Sundance was spectacular and her in-laws have a southern charm that I have never experienced. I was asked to give a toast and as I prepared for it I thought about how Kel and I have been friends for so long and gone through so much. She is so incredible. Her husband is stellar; he's smart and grounded and charitable.

It rained all day during the wedding but stopped for the reception and the garden party in her backyard was phenomenal.

Harold and her are now partying in Bora Bora and then will move to their next adventure in Florida. I will miss them both dearly.

Congrats Hal and Kel!!

photo by Justin Hackworth

She is stunning!

The best compliment of my life happened yesterday. I think Joel McHale, who plays Jeff Winger on "Community," is dreamy and funny. Anyway, a collegue of mine said that he could see Winger and me dating because we would have some witty banter.

Loved it.

Between that and someone telling me that I look like Maggie Gyllenhaal this week makes me think that I may actually get through my research papers, student's grades, and moving out.

The Wedding

While it's fair to say that the royal wedding has probably had too much publicity, I don't really care because I love all things English, and a royal wedding basically encapsulates everything I love.

Unfortunately, just like my Hogwarts acceptance letter, my invite to the royal wedding was lost. But, the good news is I can still see the royal couple.

I have a student from Alberta, Canada and she was telling me about how Will and Kate are touring Canada this summer. They will be kicking off Canada days, and will start in the east and head west. I am almost as obsessed with Canada as I am with London, so you better believe that I am getting plans ready to make my pilgrimage to see the happy couple. Maybe she'll even let me throw her a post-wedding shower. We can only hope.

If you would like to take a trip to Canada with me this summer I promise that you'll have a good time. We can eat Macintosh candy, see the world's largest windmill, hit up markets and museums, and take afternoon tea together.

I can't wait!

Learning How To Think

An insightful article about how to think. Funny, witty, a little crass, and full of profound truth. Thank you David Foster Wallace. Thank you.

David Foster Wallace on Life and Death

Post reading this you may find that Wallace committed suicide. An interesting insight to the article.

NO more words with friends

I am an English major-that does not make me a master of English. Which means that I suck at words games (AKA scrabble, speed scrabble, group scrabble, online scrabble and any other variation of scrabble).

This includes words with friends. I just got owned in a game and I refuse to ever play a word game again.

Come on world, stop expecting me to read every book, know every word, write poetry and change the world.

I became an English major because I can't do anything else, not because I can do everything.

Here comes the sun....

A friend of mine told me on Sunday that she feels like a dry, withering tulip that needs water.

I feel like a dry, withering human who needs the sun.....and a lot less school.

Quick life updates:

My friends and I threw Kel a bridal shower and I think it turned out really well. It was fun to have everyone over to my parents house to celebrate Kel and Harold's love! Great food, friends, and conversation always makes for a great afternoon.

I went to the Sugar Ray concert, and though the lead singer didn't have bleached tips, it was fun to be with a bunch of my old friends and dance and laugh and talk.

I am schooling like a mad person. I keep telling myself that someday I won't be in school but that is such a faint dream that I'm not sure if it will ever happen.

Also, I think I just found the reason for teaching poetry in this insightful article by David Brooks.

Hope all is well, bright and happy!

W.W.

I finished the final season of The West Wing.

I am obsessed with that show.

It's intelligent, funny, hot, fast, and interesting. Aaron Sorkin is on his A game with this show.

How will I be able to convince Rob Lowe to fall in love with me?

How will I convince the Obama administration to let me work in the West Wing?

How will I end up living in DC when my school, job connections, and family are in Utah?

These questions are making my dream of the powerhouse-woman-who-rocks-the-east-coast-and-reads-the-new-yorker-and-is-involved-in-politics-and-writes-novels-and-poetry die.

And dreams like that die hard.

Day Club

Day Club

There once was a group of college graduates.

They didn't have jobs.

They were finished with their degrees.

They were waiting for the fall to bring work, school, and engagements...

so they played during the day. they swam, ate, talked, hiked, golfed, ate, and watched movies.

They called themselves the day club.

This is a petition for day club to return. (Which may be difficult because most are engaged, moved away, or got jobs).

Come this summer I'll be back in SLC without an engagement, job, and though I will be doing "school" I am looking for new members of day club.

Long Live The Day Club (even if i'm the only member)

Politicking

When I walked through the door on Friday afternoon I decided to turn on the tv for some background noise. I was busy and the house was quiet.

Anyway, somehow I ended up actually watching CSPAN (which btw makes me look like a 60 year old retiree with cats and few friends) and was captivated by a summit in Colorado by a man in parliament lamenting on why Americans need to avoid the European system of government. Blame it on his accent, or on my eternal curiosity of politics, but I was captivated for the next 45 mins. Eventually my roommate Annie came and started watching it with me. Relieving me of feeling like a complete loser.

By mere happenstance, someone posted an article by this same man and you can read it here.

Though the article doesn't have the accent, it is still worth your time. I want to buy his book.

Farm

I am taking a farm literature class and for the first time in my life I really am obsessed with farms and the fact that our food comes from the ground, not grocery stores.

I think I may be hoping on the organic/local farmers train. Some of the things I have been learning about are wild. If you want to see an animated video about it you can click here.

Anyway-my friend Michelle is a part of our generation who are making an exodus back to the farm and lovn' it.

She made me homemade salsa. It was amazing. Someday I am going to can my own salsa...and learn how to fly fish.
She also has a baby lamb, which she had to corner and catch for this picture. It was hilarious.

It was such a fun thing to see her on the farm and to see the baby animals. Love them. Love her.

**Don't worry-the pictures and her story are being used in my final project. Hopefully my teacher thinks it is as cool as I do.

Oregon

Oregon-where they pump your gas, don't have sales tax, wear North Face and Chaco's, love to recycle and enjoy the nice green environment.

My long time friend Whitney got married, bought a new car, got two new dogs, and moved to Oregon with her husband. Naturally, Mandi and I (the traveling duo) helped her drive out to her new life.
On our 13 hour trip we stopped at the garden of Eden gas station--and it was here that I knew the trip was going to be...well....a trip. See gigantic snake above me.
The largest bookstore in the world is an entire city block and is located in Portland, Oregon. The store is named Powells, and I love it, and it's HUGE!
It literally is a city of books. I bought a used collection of poetry with tons of four leaf clovers in the pages, and I bought the short story A River Runs Through It. The story is amazing! You all should read it. 100 pages of poetic prose. Also notice that I got caught in the rain and so my hair turned curly.
We went and saw a gorgeous waterfall.
And this is my traveling companion, setting a very high standard of fashion and style for a road trip.

It was a joy and pleasure to see Whit's new life, hang out with her very cool husband, and eat out for every meal. And it was fun to road trip through the west coast with Mandi. Basically Mandi and I need to road trip through the south and we will have been all around America. I wonder if there is a way we could swing that.....

Bystander Effect

We met a brief 10 minutes ago when I pulled up to his apartment in SLC. Yes-it’s another first date, and it’s a blind date, and I had considered backing out of the date more than 10 times. All I knew was that his name is Tim.

We met, started chatting and acting like old friends with banter and sarcasm. We quickly pulled up to the popular restaurant the Red Iguana. His friends that we were meeting were coming, and so he put our names on the list and we began to field the all too familiar first date questions while we waited on the bench outside the store.

“Yeah, I’m getting my masters—no no it’s not that big of a deal”

“Fourth child, only girl…yeah, I’m a little spoiled”

“Well honestly, my favorite food is potatoes…shot I should have said something more sexy”

And then a large black man who was yelling for someone to call the police swaggered down the sidewalk. As he past the large crowds no one said anything and let him continue to walk. I looked at Tim as the intoxicated man came closer.

The Chicago born man turned his head to reveal a deflated eye, weeping tears of viscous blood. His torn eyelid hung, threatening to detach. Tim and I both momentarily paused, confused--believing it was unbelievable.

And I didn’t know what to do. And I paused, and as I think about that pause I feel sick that I am the person that did what the others did. I watched while someone who needed helped, yelled with profanity, pleading for assistance, and just paused. They call it the bystander effect. I call it an excuse used by those who, for whatever reason, don’t help.

And then Tim was on the line with the police, while I sat with the man asking for details about the children he kept talking about. Hoping to glean information that would be useful to the police, while middle aged men asked their wives to stand on the other side of them while quickly fleeing to their cars.

And Tim remained on the phone. And I stayed on the floor with the man.

And the police and ambulance came and took him away.

And Tim looked at me and said, “This is a great way to start out a first date.”

The Week In Review

Here are just a few main points of what was a very busy week.

February 14th (Valentines Day)-Roses from a friend, and the bachelor.

February 17th-I involuntarily turned 23. Keep your fingers crossed that this is a big year.

February 18th-I reconnected with family at a memorial service for my Grandma in Idaho.

February 19th-Attended my Grandma's funeral, which was filled with wonderful memories of her life. My brother was also able to fly out for the funeral, so I drove him back to the airport after the funeral and was able to talk to him for 3 hours, as he was forced to be in the car with me.

February 20th-Partied with my nieces and nephew and family.

February 21st-Birthday lunch with some of the greatest girls I know and then helped my best friend look at wedding dresses.....let's just say that people that have Kel's body are stunning in wedding dresses.

And then I drove to Logan and thought about how returning to L-town meant figuring out a lesson for the next day, getting a new windshield, and walking in the snow/cold. Hurrah for the coming of spring.

Stone Soup

I am in a class that studies farm literature and today we made stone soup. It made me think of my childhood book, which is about how everyone brings something to put in a pot and you make soup. And so, as a class, we did precisely that. We all brought stuff, threw it in a pot (crockpot) and ate it.

And it was delicious.

Top three coolest facts learned in farm lit:

1. Women were more marginalized after farms became larger and more commercial because a successful farm was illustrated if there was a wife who didn't have to do anything-contributing to her loss of status in society and her rights.

2. More people are starving now than ever before, even after the green revolution, because food is now a commodity and substance farming is virtually nonexistent.

3. The carbon footprint on food is incredible (especially in America). The average distance that food travels to make it to our table is over 1,000 miles.

Skiing, Falling and Gambling.

On Saturday I decided to do what the locals in Cache Valley do-which is to run the slopes at Beaver Mountain. This mom and pop shop was small, but quaint. Spencer and I pulled into a parking spot ten feet from the lift (which is unheard of because we came at like 12:30...showing that no one goes to this 'resort'). We started riding and as to be predicted, Spencer owned the jumps and I was more a mogul gal. We both had our strengths. Well it had been awhile since the mountain had gotten any snow so we were running the trees in search for powder. I basically followed the boy who know the mountain "like his own home."

Bad idea.

We ended up going on this run where there was this jump that I thought I could handle. I went off the jump, fell on the ground, rolled around, lost both of my skis and looked for my friend to help me. He was gone. I was cold.

Come to find out he and his friend actually crafted that jump the week prior. Curse them.

My back and neck have never hurt so much.

All in all though the trip was great because it was sunny and warm and it reminded me that cold weather can end.

But, the day was not over.

I had a date to the Aggie basketball game, which we won (it was a sad day for Cleveland and Fresno State) and my date and I got the customary Aggie ice cream. They love it like BYU students love cougar tails. I really impressed my date by knowing what a RPI ranking was for basketball. I really need to start thanking my brothers for indoctrinating me into a culture of sports....

Anyway, the school was having this big Mardi Gras party after, and the 6-5' boy I went with is pretty involved in the school so we went. A large part of the party was the casino. They gave you 1000 chips and you got to gamble and the person who won the most won free tuition for next semester. Unbelievable. Anyway, we had a fun time playing poker and watching the cute 18 year olds try to look like hookers (a dream come true for their parents). The date was fun but I ran into so many of my students that I felt like some social norms were really being breached. Speaking of breaching social norms, one of my students was at my apartment last week. I wanted to die. Anyway, I also feed some of my students gambling habits by giving them some extra tickets. Maybe I'll be the cool teacher.

After the night of school sponsored gambling (something I'm totally used to at BYU), we went to a school sponsored show produced by Satan himself. We went to a mentalist who is someone who literally can read peoples minds and do crazy things. I guess if you're going to sell your soul to Lucy you might as well do something cool like mind reading.