Tell You [a] Little Story

This week started with me getting a card in the mail from the ladies in our ward in Phoenix that had been passed around in Relief Society and on which everyone had written a little blurb of goodbye and good luck. The card made me cry. The messages were short and sweet, but the card represented my sweet friends in Phoenix, people who appreciate me and are appreciated by me and helped me and were helped by me and admire me and are admired by me. Utah doesn't need me, and that kind of stinks (although it has benefits, too), but the card reminded me of being loved and needed and missed and it felt nice. One point for Arizona. On Tuesday, I met Steve on the BYU campus in the Marriott Center which has the same yellow seats it has always had (and that is one of the few things that is the same about BYU since I left it 10 years ago), and we watched Chief Justice John Roberts' profile as he spoke to us about the US Constitution. A couple of weeks ago, we did the same thing, only it was ...

Abby and Jamie and Milo and Pearl deserve some sort of prize for hosting such a fun weekend for my kids. What kid wouldn't love: a hike in the mountains campfire complete with hot dogs and s'mores scary ghost stories movie about super heroes campout on the living room floor delicious breakfast of pancakes (hold the blueberries) and bacon and hash browns board games with cool friends go-carting (in the snow!) Fun times, fun times! What parent wouldn't love: a kids-free weekend night sleeping in until 8:30 on Saturday morning knowing that there are people in the world who are dedicated to loving and having fun with your kids

Being the sucker for a charity auction that I am, I paid $15 at the kids' school carnival auction for a coupon for a visit to a dentist without thinking that we would get dental coverage through BYU. I'm never going to use this coupon, so if there is anyone in Utah Valley who doesn't have dental insurance and wants a free dental exam, x-rays, and cleaning at the office of Steven F. Melff, D.D.S. in Pleasant Grove, it's YOURS, baby. Leave a comment or email me at emilygcraig@hotmail.com and I will mail it to you, stat. Out.

In 1996, I participated in a BYU ethnographic field study program in Namibia, long before celebrities flew there to have their babies, or baby, as the case may be. It rocked. There were 8 of us--all girls--who went, along with a male TA and our professor/anthropologist-in-chief and his 5-year-old daughter. We camped near a settlement of OvaHimba in Northern Namibia for three weeks. We had no shower; we were earthy, some more than others. We hired translators and lived among the women and children and the old men because the men were attending to their pastoral duties in less arid topography during the dry season. We interviewed them, we talked with them, we attended a funeral, we (I) took their hurt children into town to the nearest medical clinic when one of them was to fall into the fire and melt the skin on his hand. We watched them play, cook, eat, and we took lots of notes and recorded lots of interviews. We each had an area of focus. Mine kept shifting, but it had something do wi...

I actually own some nylons. I'm sure I do. They haven't been worn for five or eight years, but I know I have some. Maybe some tights, too -- that I'm not so sure about. All of my nylons and maybe tights are where (here, if I believed in making up percentages that have no substantiation, which I definitely do not, I might say) 92% of my belongings currently are. Do I think that I am defined by my belongings? I most certainly do not. I don't even like belongings very much, but the fact remains that I own nylons and they are in storage. Oh inhabitants of Utah and cold weather places: please inform! What do cool people do with the leg covering situation in the throes of wintery weather? Are bare legs kosher? Did I just make an anti-Semitic comment? I read that Carol Gotbaum converted to Judaism when she got married. Is it wrong that I feel kind of defensive about Sky Harbor airport when her husband speaks at her funeral about how if only one person would have helped her, s...

Jordan, Courtney , Pepper , Julianne, Bek , and others of you who may be with child, Please, today, take time to give thanks that--more than likely--your baby will not look like this upon immediate exit from your body. Your friend in medium-to-low birthweights, Emily

A VERY COLD STORM SYSTEM OVER THE GULF OF ALASKA WILL MOVE SOUTHEAST INTO THE WESTERN GREAT BASIN LATE THURSDAY. THIS STORM WILL MOVE SLOWLY EAST THROUGH NEVADA...AND STRENGTHEN AS IT APPROACHES WESTERN UTAH. THIS SLOW-MOVING STORM WILL PRODUCE SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF PRECIPITATION OVER WESTERN UTAH LATE THURSDAY NIGHT AND INTO FRIDAY. THE CENTER OF THE STORM WILL MOVE ACROSS UTAH LATE FRIDAY NIGHT THROUGH SATURDAY. THE VERY COLD AIR ASSOCIATED WITH THIS STORM WILL DRIVE SNOW LEVELS DOWN TO THE LOWEST ELEVATIONS OF NORTHERN AND CENTRAL UTAH. HEAVY SNOWFALL COULD DEVELOP ABOVE 6000 FEET... ESPECIALLY THROUGH THE WASATCH RANGE AND THE CENTRAL UTAH MOUNTAINS. THE STORM WILL MOVE EAST OF THE STATE ON SUNDAY. VERY COLD TEMPERATURES WILL REMAIN IN THE WAKE OF THIS STORM. MORNING LOWS ON SUNDAY COULD BE WELL BELOW FREEZING ACROSS WESTERN UTAH. AFTERNOON HIGH TEMPERATURES ON SUNDAY COULD END UP 15 TO 25 DEGREES BELOW EARLY OCTOBER NORMALS STATEWIDE. PERSONS PLANNING OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES THIS COMI...