Through Amber Colored Glasses

I've misplaced my sunglasses and have been using a pair of Roger's that I found in the Jeep. The lenses give everything an orangey-pink glow. I tell you it's been fabulous driving around looking at all of the autumn leaves.

Years from now I'll be saying, "Remember how vivid the colors were in the fall of 2007?" and everyone will just stare at me like I'm nuts.

Theme of the Day

Within the last 24 hours, I've read two amazingly similar ideas in two dramatically different books.

From Fahrenheit 451, written in 1950 and which I'm reading for a book club discussion later this week:

"If only they could have taken her mind along to the dry cleaner's and emptied the pockets and steamed and cleansed it and reblocked it and brought it back in the morning."

From Peter Pan and Wendy, written in 1940 and which Jack and I are reading aloud:

"It is the nightly custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage in their minds and put things straight for next morning, repacking into their proper places the many articles that have wandered through the day."

I can certainly see the appeal. I've got a lot of stuff crammed into my head, and it would be fabulous if someone could go in there and organize it all for me!

State Stats

The other day at Jack's Cub Scout Pack meeting we had an activity to get to know the leaders. One of the questions was "how many states have you been to?" I was very suprised that only one of the eleven leaders had been to more than half of the states (40), and even more surprised that only three of the leaders had been to more than 15 states. Four of the leaders had visited less than 10 states! (In their defense, however, two of them grew up in other countries--Brazil and Canada.)

Maybe it's just me, but don't these numbers seem awfully low?

I suspect part of the reason people here haven't visited that many states is that out west there just aren't that many states. And they're huge--it takes hours and hours of driving to get out of Utah!

Or maybe I'm the odd one out with a lifelong goal of visiting all 50 states.

Both Roger and I have only got one left--Hawaii. A few years ago it came down to two--North Dakota and Hawaii. So Roger and I made a point of going to North Dakota. Hawaii seems like a much more exotic place to finish up (although we did enjoy our drive through North Dakota!). And Jack has officially visited more than half of the states so far!

P.S. I just have to share a related incident that still makes me laugh when I think about it. One of our employees at the bookstore was a student at BYU and she spent a semester studying in Nauvoo, Illinois. The program was administered through the study abroad office, and so naturally the students referred to going to Nauvoo as "going on study abroad." Maybe crossing the Mississippi River counted?