Becoming a blogger

When I was a young girl, I used to play dress up with my mom's old clothes. I loved to try on the ric-rac decorated dresses and clunky clogs that my mom remarkable still found fashionable. But, I promised myself that when I was older I would never wear anything so tacky and distasteful. Afterall, they were the dress up clothes, not the everyday clothes of the 80s (not that the everyday clothes of the 80s were all that much better, but that is a rant for a different day). So, I could only laugh at myself the day I bought a pair of re-invented clogs or stopped to take a second look at a shirt that was embellished with ric-rac. If there is one thing I have learned about myself, it is that I am prone to change my mind and change it often. I guess this applies to the creation of this blog because in some ways I have neglected the idea for some time now. Although about a year ago I created a blog that read something like, "After I finish my thesis, I will put this blog together." As most of you know, it is over a year since that time and nothing has come of it--until now. I figured that since part of my daily Internet time involves checking the blogs of many of my dear friends, I want to give back in kind to their generosity in sharing their lives with me through words. I like to think that you can only share some portions of your soul through words.
Since this is an opening blog, I will fill you in on some of the basic comings and goings of my life.
I am living in Provo, Utah.
I teach literature and writing at Brigham Young University.
I still drive an old, but incredible lovable white Jetta.
I have decided that I want to continue teaching, although I don't know where. I am not PhD bound at the moment, so I am looking into other possible teaching positions.
I went to Europe this past summer. Natalie and I went to London, Rome, Barcelona, and Paris. I then stayed another week and explored Southern France a bit with a conference I was attending. To say that it was glorious would be a shallow attempt at explaining the sounds, sights, smells, and soul stimulations that I experienced while sauntering through the real-life images I have only ever known through books. I loved it.
I can't explain where I am in my life now without also introducing you to Mark Morris. We have been dating since March, although our story is a little more complicated than that. As many of you know, I have always been the type of person who despised hearing statements such as, "When you are least expecting it, you will meet someone amazing," or "You will just know because you will be so happy," or any other fill-in-blank statements that married and/or dating people like to package and send to single people as some type of comfort on lonely Friday nights.Unfortunately, some of those cliche statements are true and yet the very nature of their cliche-ness still makes me wince when I am tempted to say them. So, here is what I have come up with for today. I never could have dreamed the glorious joy of wanting to spend time with someone you respect and adore. I find myself actually wanting to spend time with him: busy time, relaxation time, silent time, noisy time ... just time. And if you are wondering about our timetable--we are taking our time to enjoy getting to know each other.
A few facts about him that you might be interested in.
He is 29.
He works as a landscape architect and urban planner with an architect firm in Salt Lake.
He is dashing and extremely intelligent.
His character is well balanced, for example, he built a fence in his backyard and yet for our second first date he took me to a Hilary Hahn concert at Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake.
One of my favorite tidbits about him: he subscribes to a service that produces and distributes locally grown produce.

Anyway, that about sums up my life for the moment. Sure there are daily nuances that really define who I am and what I do, but you will have to check back for those.