Sophie's Story

  The Winter Olympics are finally over. I did watch them although I'm a casual viewer. This year was disappointing. It wasn't due to the attention given to Bob Costas eye infection and it wasn't because the Russia won more medals than the United States. I was disappointed in the poor attitudes and  sensationalism that stemmed from some of the competitions.   Meryl Davis and Charlie White won a gold medal in ice dancing. After this win there were several articles about how the judging wasn't fair, that there was collusion among the competing countries to make sure that the Russian ice dancers would win the team event and Davis and White would win the individual event. There were a couple experts that lamented that the true winners should have been Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. Even Virtue and Moir stated that they felt their coach, who also coaches Davis and White, favored the US pair, which meant that had to settle for a disappointing silver medal.   The same...

   I was looking through some papers the other day when I found an email sent to me by my sister. It was a list of things that every woman should have. Some  of them were material goods, a black dress, a special recipe, an outfit that is comfortable and makes you feel pretty. Other items on the list were a good friend, a fulfilling job and a hobby. One of the items on the list caught my eye. It was an ex-boyfriend that makes you realize how far you've come.    I have one of those. His name is Perry. I talk about him sometimes and when I do it's not very flattering. I've referred to him as Pyscho Perry or the dumb thing that I did when I was younger. For many years I could never understand why I dated him for as long as I did.   I met Perry at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. He was working in a food booth. He sold me a bowl of soup and added some flattery. I was not used to flattery of any sort and after a few phone calls agreed to a date. ...

  C and I went out dancing last night. There is a place that has a band that plays swing and big band music. They also have a vocal quartet that sings standards. We try and go out dancing at this place once a month.   It's a lot of fun. The music they play is my favourite kind and the crowd is interested in dancing. I've never seen anyone get drunk and out of hand there.    There are three groups of people that dance there. There are the professional dancers who might be there to practice or are there with students. There are the older couples who either learned the dances when they were younger or have taken lesson. Then there's C and I.   I love watching the professionals. Sometimes they dress up. The women wear flowing skirts or dresses and the men wear suits that look like something from the 30's. They are pretty easy to spot. They are doing graceful dance moves and never seem to miss a beat. The women turn their heads at just the right times and t...

   Today is Valentine's Day. There have been hundreds of articles on gifts, food, drinks, chocolate and other things relating to romance. I thought today I would write about love songs.   You would expect that being married to a musician music is very important our life, You'd be right. The first Valentine's Day present I gave C was a mix tape. The second Valentine's Day I gave him a another one. His wedding present to me was a song that he had written.   I am picky when it comes to love songs. I'm not a big fan of overly sappy,gooey love songs. The only gooey things I like are melted cheese and caramel. I'm also not fond of songs that just seem unrealistic. "I Won't Last a Day Without You", "Saving All My Love For You", "You're Every Woman in the World to Me" come to mind. That whole smothering can't breathe, can't eat, can't live without you thing is just sick (not in a good way) to me.   I prefer my song...

   I was really excited about teaching the Relief Society lesson last Sunday. It was a good lesson and a fairly easy one. All the women would have had this lesson at some point in time. It's one of the first ones that is taught to converts. I was expecting a good discussion with lots of comments from the class.   I was hoping to spend a leisurely Friday reading over the lesson and preparing my notecards. That didn't happen. Instead I wound up working. I'm glad I went in, there were things that needed to be done, but it meant my preparation would have to be done the next day without fail.   Saturday turned out to be busy too. I had to sandwich my preparation between loads of laundry, errand running and helping to clean the refrigerator. It was not the ideal way to prepare. I like to read the lesson, think about it and discuss it with C before I make up my notecards. I felt like my preparation was rushed and choppy. I told myself that it was still a good lesson an...

   I'm reading a book by author and historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. If the name sounds familiar to you, you may have seen it at the end of a quote. I own a mug with the quote on it and have seen it on everything from T-shirts to bumper stickers. The quote is, "Well-behaved women seldom make history."   I found the book in a bookstore and couldn't resist buying it. I have always liked the quote and thought it would be interesting to read more from the woman who wrote it. There are two reasons why I think Laurel Thatcher Ulrich is interesting. The first is because she is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Historian working at Harvard is not the first thing one thinks of when one hears the words Latter-day Saint and woman in the same sentence. I'm guessing that most people think of gentle creatures rocking cradles of babies, the show "Sister Wives" or Marie Osmond. In fact a friend of my stepdaughter, Carrie, told me that she ...