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Valentine’s Day is always a treat for me because not only do I get to hang out with my most favorite person on the planet but I also usually get to eat some awesome food and do something cool. Does this make me a cheese queen? Absolutely. Am I proud of it? Absolutely. By the way, this post is oozing with cheese…consider yourself forewarned.

This is the group of friends we celebrated our marriage with.

Last Friday Jas and I continued our Valentine’s Day festivities by attending “A Celebration of Marriage” with a group of our friends. This yearly happening consists of dinner and lectures on ways to improve your marriage. Sounds lame right? Well, it was actually quite interesting, thought provoking, and fun. Jason is a pretty darn perfect husband so he doesn’t need much in way of advice, but I think we both walked away from the event with a few ideas on how we could make our relationship even better. Thanks Fran for organizing our group’s attendance!

Finally! I got a decent picture of Jason taking a jump. He may not be Shaun White but I think he's very talented.

On Valentine’s Day itself Jason and I woke up, checked the snow report at Brighton (6 new inches overnight), and decided to go boarding on a whim. It turned out to be an excellent idea. The snow was soft and the weather lovely. When Jason and I got home from our boarding expedition I quickly shifted gears and begin preparations for the romantic candlelight dinner that I had planned. I made Shrimp Scampi with Linguini, Lemon-Butter Green Beans with Pine Nuts, and a Mexican Chocolate Crème Brulee. Everything was quite tasty but the crème brulee was delectable! At the bottom was a band of creamy cinnamon syrup that was concealed beneath the rich chocolaty custard. Topping this heavenly indulgence was oven roasted brown sugar caramelized to perfection with the help of my kitchen torch. Fab-u-lous! The charm of the occasion was accentuated by twinkling tea lights and scattered rose petals…and of course great company. After all, any dinner with my best friend, who happens to be hilarious and adorable, couldn’t be anything less than amazing.

I set the table for a lovely private dinner.

On a side-note, I know a lot of people detest Valentine’s Day: the crowds, the mushiness, the PDA. Yes, restaurants and theaters are usually quite packed on Valentine’s Day but if you never go out among the love struck masses I think you are missing something. This year Jason and I skirted the V-Day crowds, not by design but simply because that’s how my event timing turned out, and to be honest I kind of missed the craziness. So what’s so appealing about being in the throngs of V-Day couples? When you go out on Valentine’s Day you are surrounded by people holding hands, snuggling, staring contentedly at each other. Everywhere you look there are couples on their first dates, excited but awkward, married couples that are relieved just to have a few hours away from their kids, older couples that have been together for practically their whole lives yet you get the sense as they chuckle and hold hands that those lifetimes haven’t been long enough. What’s more, you can tell that this occasion means something to all these people by the way they have dolled themselves up for their special someone even if that someone has been with them for many years and has seen them every morning with their hair askew and their face smeared with mascara.

When you go out on Valentine’s Day it’s easy to be so enthralled with your partner that you are hardly aware of what passes beyond your tiny sphere but if you take a moment to glance around you you realize that this holiday really isn’t just about the two of you and your little bubble of bliss. The multitudes of pairs dining near you are there for the same reason you are and when you see the adoration and respect you feel for the person sitting across the table from you echoed in their faces as they gaze at each other you appreciate just how much love binds us as human beings. As you glimpse at the crowds you understand that Valentine’s Day isn’t just about celebrating our partnerships, it’s about celebrating our commonalties and connections as human beings. We all need love…and maybe the Beatles were right, maybe that is all we need….well, that and perhaps some flowers, or chocolates, or expensive perfume…

Swine Flu: everyone is talking about it, even those that don’t have a clue what they are talking about. Although I am no CDC expert, I did take enough microbiology classes in college to understand the basics of what’s going on. Plus, I have a brain, which, apparently, some people are lacking. So I’m going to give my two-cent synopsis and solution to this whole piggy mess. Not because there isn’t a plethora of information out there, but mostly because I like to hear myself talk, or type rather.

Influenza (A.K.A. flu) is a respiratory infection. Swine Flu is caused by an influenza virus that is typically only transferred from pig to pig. Occasionally you’ll have a freak strain that somehow passes from pigs to people in close proximity to the pigs, but even if a person catches this flu from his porcine friends, he usually can’t pass it on to other people. However, the particular virus strain that is causing all this hoo-ha has figured out a way to pass itself from person to person. That’s what makes it so special, and scary.

Here's Jas once again illustrating my post with a crazy picture.

Now, before any of you barricade yourselves inside your houses and start sporting layers of facemasks, let’s gain a little perspective. Although the swine flu has proved fatal for some unfortunate victims, did you know that the regular boring seasonal flu that comes around every winter kills over 3,000 people in the U.S. and about 300,000 people worldwide each year? And the Swine Flu has killed what, like 20? Yet you don’t see any school districts closing down during flu season. Hmmm…makes you wonder.

So why all the fear and panic? Swine Flu, I mean Influenza H1N1 for the benefit of the pork producers out there, is the new pandemic hotness! It’s new, it’s sensational, it’s exotic, and it represents uncertainty. People will always fear the unknown.

It’s pretty much the West Nile Virus scenario all over again. What? You don’t even remember what the West Nile Virus is? That’s because West Nile is a has-been virus. Oh, it’s still out there killing people. Last year it killed 44 people in the U.S. and the year before it caused the deceasement (Yes, I just made up that word. Do you like it?) of over a hundred Americans. Although West Nile is still up to its usual tricks of inflaming brains and spinal cords, no one seems to be interested in it anymore. Poor West Nile! It’s like one of those boy bands that are famous for about half a second and have hordes of thirteen year old girls drooling all over them but then quickly become all but forgotten until VH1 features them on a Where are They Now? special. Yup, West Nile is pretty much the NSYNC of viruses.

Okay, so now that we have established that Swine Flu is serious, but no more so than the standard run-of-the-mill flu, and will probably not hold our extremely limited attention span for long, we can all take a deep breath. Ahhh!!! Doesn’t that feel better?

If panicking isn’t the most reasonable and helpful thing to do in light of this recent outbreak, what should we be doing?

It’s very simple, and it’s the same thing that you should be doing even when there isn’t a deadly mutant virus on the loose: wash your hands regularly! The flu is often spread by people touching their mouth, eyes, or nose after contacting something contaminated with the virus; that “something” could be a hand, a doorknob…whatever.

By the way, you people that “wash your hands” by just running your hands briefly under the tap, and you know who you are, you don’t kill, or wash off, anything by doing that. Nothing! In order to actually remove microbes you need to scrub your hands for at least twenty seconds with both soap and water. Sud those babies up! And “regularly” washing hands doesn’t mean every third day, or even every other day. It means after using the bathroom, before eating, before preparing food, after petting animals, after shaking someone’s hand…etc., etc., etc.

So there you have it, my simple solution. The CDC must have stolen my simple solution idea because they have that whole washing your hands thing on their website too. Go figure.

Incidentally, eating properly cooked pork is NOT going to give you the Swine Flu…duh Egypt. I wonder if all of their scientists bought their degrees online.

So wash your hands people! Eat your hot dogs! And wear mosquito repellant-the West Nile Virus would like a little attention now and then.

*At least 50% of the information in this post is guaranteed to be 100% accurate.

As I’ve gotten older I’ve begun to realize just how many men complain about Valentine’s Day. You’d think with how much whining goes on that they were being forced to endure the rack or hang upside down by their toenails, when in fact all they are really being required to do to stay in good graces with their significant other is buy flowers, or chocolates, or go out to a nice dinner. Oh, you poor boys, that truly is cruel! Why would a woman that says she loves you make you go through all that?

For those of you who are still somehow confused about this whole Valentine’s Day thing, let me recap the situation for you. You men, especially those of you that are married, have a loving woman that puts up with you and your shenanigans day in and day out. Once a year, on Valentine’s Day, you are given the opportunity to do something special for her to show that you appreciate her. This could be something as simple as sending a card and some flowers, but apparently, for many of you, even this small thoughtful act is too much to ask for and you gripe about Valentine’s Day like it was a colonoscopy. Oh brother, you boys are pathetic.

Instead of a bunch of flowers, I sent Jason a bunch of cookies.

As ridiculous as many men are about Valentine’s Day, I have discovered that women are not altogether blameless in giving Valentine’s Day a bad name. For some reason lots of women have decided that Valentine’s Day is simply all about them and not about showing the ones they love how much they care about them. Masses of women have evidently come to expect gifts and thoughtfulness from their men but have decided they need give nothing in return. Ladies, ladies, ladies…what’s up with that? No wonder your men are disgruntled about their Valentine’s Day experience. They put up with your constant mood swings and irrational behavior, right? Then would it really kill you to do something nice for them for Valentine’s Day? I think not. Besides, we are supposed to be the emotionally mature sex, aren’t we? With self-centered behavior like this we might as well kiss our “emotionally sensitive” status good bye. Don’t let the rest of us down-we don’t want to be on par with men in the “thoughtlessness” category, do we?

In short, I am disgruntled about all the Valentine’s Day disgruntlement. What’s up with all this mediocrity? Why not raise the bar a little?

I love Valentine’s Day. It gives me the chance to surprise Jason and do something nice out of the norm for him. He is, after all, a truly fabulous husband and deserves much more than I could ever give.

Me and Jas at Capital Theater

I also look forward to Valentine’s Day because it’s an excuse for me and Jas to get dressed up and go out together. This year it was Jason’s turn to plan our activities. He arranged for an evening up in Salt Lake City. We went to Martine for dinner and then to Ballet West’s production of Madame Butterfly. It was great spending some quality time with my extraordinary husband; we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

You boys may note that Jason survived planning this excursion and even going to the ballet. All of his appendages are still intact, he didn’t turn into a frog, and he probably won’t even be emotionally scarred for life. So if you boys stopped grumbling and put a little effort into Valentine’s Day, I’m pretty sure you would live through it. That goes for you ladies too. Valentine’s Day is a celebration of love, so you might as well enjoy it and party like a rock star!

Jason and I got married just months before the 9/11 attacks. I had barely graduated from college and Jason was still working on his degree and interning fulltime. I got my first “real” job, making wages that I would now laugh at, mere weeks before September 11^th changed everything. Then that fateful day came and the world seemed to turn upside down. Overnight America’s financial future became bleak. All of a sudden we were stock piling plastic sheeting and duct tape to cover our windows and doors in case of another terrorist attack; we were declaring war. In an instant, our future became surprisingly uncertain and filled with fear.

It was in this turbulent economic environment that Jason and I tried to keep ourselves financially afloat. As is typical of newlyweds, we had very little money to spare, and job security was basically nonexistent for us. There was an ever present threat of layoffs at Jason’s work, every few months they seemed to go through another round of them. My employer was having severe financial distress as well, and layoffs occurred on a regular basis. Once, both our companies had layoffs scheduled within a week of each other; we knew that it was quite possible that we could both lose our jobs and our entire income. But somehow, we managed to stay employed, until 2003, when my company, just months from declaring bankruptcy, let nearly my entire department go. This event was more traumatic than I could ever have guessed. Saying goodbye to the good friends I spent 40 hours with every week, along with the stress of having a temporary career hiatus, left me in tears. But within six months I had a new job with much better pay, the economy was slowly starting to perk up, and everything seemed a little brighter.

Now, five years later, the future again seems unsure. With high gas prices, low home values, and subprime mortgage issues, everyone seems to be feeling the financial squeeze. And for me and Jason, history has repeated itself. Once again, both our employers decided to do layoffs at the same time, actually on the very same day. Miraculously, we both made it through the cuts, but many of our coworkers, and friends, did not.

It is impossible to explain to someone that has not experienced a layoff firsthand the stress, sadness, and shock involved. As HR calls people, one at a time, into a room, you wonder if you are going to be next. Thoughts of “what if” race through your head. And even if you are fortunate enough to still have your job at the end of the day, you have to say goodbye to coworkers that lost their jobs through no fault of their own.

You and the other remaining employees feel like the survivors of some horrible natural disaster. With every face you see in the hall you feel a sense of relief, relief that one more member of your work family made it through.

Even after the recent events at my company, and even with the constant onslaught of bad news about the American economy, I am still optimistic. As they have in the past, things will work themselves out eventually. I look back on those first couple years of my marriage, the years it seemed that everyone in America was holding their breath waiting for the worse, and our current economic situation doesn’t seem so bad. We’ll pull through; a little patience and some optimism go a long way. I, for one, refuse to let fear and panic dictate my financial decisions.

My last three years of high school were completely devoid of pep rallies, football games, clicks, wood shop class, and the hottest clothing trends. Instead my days were filled with physics, math, orchestra, American and European history, psychology, British and American Literature, Spanish, and a multitude of other enthralling subjects.

You might think it odd that I actually learned more about educational subject matter than I did about what shoes were totally “in” when I was in high school, and perhaps you wonder where this mythical place of learning was.

I attended a private school called Meridian my last three pre-college years. And while attending Meridian did involve some of the stereotypes you might envision when you think of private schools- such as uniforms- it was much different than most of you would imagine.

The school was not filled with spoiled little rich kids immersed in educational snobbery. Sure, some of the children were from well-to-do families, but public schools have kids from that demographic as well. The majority of the kids at Meridian were just from average families and many of these families had to make great sacrifices to send their kids to this school. These parents were willing to make these sacrifices because they believed in the importance of education. Their emphasis on education meant that they were very involved at the school and in their kids’ academic progress. I believe that parental involvement contributed greatly to the success of Meridian students. I am very grateful my own parents had the foresight to send me to Meridian.

While the parents played an important role at Meridian, one can’t forget the teachers. Most of the teachers were absolutely fantastic! I don’t know how such outstanding educators were convinced to teach at this school for what I am sure were meager wages. I have not had more capable teachers before or since. So wherever you are-Mr. Bennett, Mrs. Betts, Miss Tueller, Mr. Ramsey, and the many others-thank you.

Meridian was founded in 1989 by a group of BYU professors as an educational experiment of sorts. They wanted to find out if a private school, which spent roughly the same amount of money on each student as the government spent per child in the public school system, could provide a better education than public schools. I believe Meridian is proof that the answer to that question is a resounding yes.

While Meridian’s low tuition made its education accessible to more people, there was one drawback to this affordability: our building had to be cheap. Meridian was located on 9^th East in Provo in what used to be a Catholic school, Saint Francis. The building was completed in 1955 and was built to accommodate nuns and a father. These two factors resulted in some architectural peculiarities. One such peculiarity was the hallway of small rooms built to be nuns’ quarters. These rooms were equipped with sinks and vanities and were too small to be terribly useful. But we did manage to squish smaller classes into them anyway. The Meridian School building, due to its age, was also rather rundown. The classrooms never got too warm in the winter, necessitating the use of many layers of clothing. It also always seemed like only half of the toilets worked at any given time. Additionally, our gym floor was deemed unsafe for basketball games so the school teams had to play their games elsewhere. Despite these, and the many other idiosyncrasies, I still think of that building with fondness.

That’s why, when I found out that Meridian had sold their land to BYU and the building was going to be demolished, I wanted to see it one last time. A big group of my high school friends showed up to say our farewells. And yes, we have stayed good friends over the span of a decade, another tribute to Meridian I suppose.

We wandered around what used to be our stomping grounds and reminisced about those good ol’ days. We visited Mrs. Wilson’s classroom that Jim got thrown out of repeatedly, the place in the back of the school where Cam first asked Fran to be his girlfriend (through a note of course-every important conversation took place through notes back in those days), our weedy and hole ridden soccer field where the girls team lost many a soccer game, and Miss Tueller’s lounge where we ate countless lunches of Ramen Noodles purchased at Rikki Tikki’s Tavern.

It may have been a somewhat dilapidated building but it was a great school and I’m glad I was able to pass through its halls one final time.

BTW, although its original building will no longer exist, Meridian School will continue. Starting the next school year it will be located in Orem.