crossthreaded

Have you ever had one of those weeks, days, hours that just never seems to go quite right? Like you’re just waiting for the next big problem to pop its head out of nowhere?

This week has proven to be such a one. I haven’t seen things this way in some time. I guess my little happy bubble just got burst. In reality, there’s nothing that wrong. I’m still well, able to write, able to do the things that I want. That is all a bunch of blessings I just want to selfishly skip over in order to complain, I think.

My significant other is away for work right now, I ended up in the emergency room the other night because I snore (Don’t even ask.), I locked myself out of the house when I was trying to go to the library to check out the movie “Aladdin” while I recovered from the emergency room visit the next day, then there was a blizzard yesterday (No problems other than a lot of snow! Yeah!), and today was awful at work.

So now that I got that out of my system, I’m going to watch another movie and chill for the next two days in my apartment with my dog and be happy. I did get an $8.96 Schlotzsky’s turkey sandwich, root beer, and a bag of chips to make it all better for my dinner tonight.

This building takes up a city block with the courtyards and fountain around it. This was my first time to Salt Lake City, and Mama and I spent quite a while driving around the Temple Square. I saw it from every angle about five or six times as we looked for  a parking spot. Unfortunately, there was a convention at the Mormon conference center across the street, and the area was packed with people and cars. Then there was a wedding going on somewhere nearby. A couple was having their picture taken in the Square.

There was an Administration building, a conference center, and Office building, and the Temple. A block or so away from all of that was the Zion bank. Downtown Salt Lake is like nothing I’ve ever seen.

I felt sort of like I was entering the opening scene of one of the old “Planet of the Apes” movies. The Salt Lake was laid out flat and dull grey in front of me, and there were distant snow-capped mountains sort of hovering on the horizon. The sun was out, and there were lots of people out on the water in their sailboats. It still felt a bit desolate and eerie.

I saw the flagpole near the marina with the concrete cylinder at the bottom, holding the pole and keeping it from falling over. Salt Lake 2002 and the five Olympic rings were imprinted on the concrete base. The flag pole was a bit rusty at the bottom, and the concrete itself showed signs of, well, runny rust and sitting very close to the Lake, which is five times saltier than the ocean. Only little brine shrimp can survive. It was something left over from ages ago, it seems. The Olympics were only seven years ago, but I felt like I was looking at it in the year 2150, or something.

Now, pan the camera out to focus on the crown of the Statue of Liberty, and you have the right idea. The American flag was still flying at the top of the pole, though, so that helped bring me back to the here and now.

I can’t cook to save my life. I like to eat, though, and I like to have other people over to my house to eat. We’ve had company over a lot in the last few days. My husband has done the cooking, and I’ve done the entertaining. We’ve made a good team.

I don’t entertain either, really. I guess that might not be the right word to use. It doesn’t really matter. I’m not in to decorating, parties, fine china, or wine glasses when people come over. I just want to have fun. We’ve had two different couples over in the last three days, and it’s been great.

Conversation and laughter make the evening fantastic. I talk a lot and smell the good things coming from the kitchen. I can hardly empty a bag of salad in a bowl without messing it up somehow. Friends are made during these few hours together, and it’s so awesome just to hear other voices in the house besides my own, my husband’s, and the dog’s (which mostly is growls and whimpers).

I think I’m just reflecting on good food and good people. I’m full and tired now. Then my mom comes to visit tomorrow!

There seems to be a lot of buzz these days for non-profits to figure out how to make a presence for themselves on the Internet. That’s not just an organization website; it’s Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, RSS, blogs, podcasts, and a host of other tools that non-profits can use to increase the world’s exposure to the good work that they do.

Traditional mailings and campaigns are still definitely important for certain segments of some non-profits’ donor and support bases. However, it is important not to overlook the fact that a typical blogger is a middle-aged male making around $50,000 per year, or so I read somewhere recently. Also, I’ve read that many older adults are also getting into the Internet, e-mail, and social networking. I e-mail back and forth myself with an 85 year-old man who shows no sign of falling behind the technological times!

Also, I would imagine, though I haven’t verified it, that many older adults who are really into volunteering are using the internet to connect with organizations to volunteer with through the Internet, or are using the Internet while they are volunteering for all sorts of office tasks they may do. This population is also keen to keep up with family members and photos of birthday cake in the face of a one year-old grandchild or great-grandchild are most easily sent through e-mail these days.

Given the following that some blogs have, wouldn’t it be great for a non-profit to figure out how to get their name in these high-performing blogs? That’s just one idea of thousands that can bring more awareness of a non-profits cause to the world, and also potentially increase funding, which is so vital in today’s economy. Service demand is up, but budgets have been slashed. Despite this, I’ve heard that some non-profits are setting up entire full-time positions for people to manage their online social networking presence.

This is an area that I’m reading more and more about, and I am curious to see where this dynamic and ever-evolving field of outreach will lead.

We drove to Winter Park yesterday. My husband had never been there before, and I wanted to get out of the house. I should have known that it would be better to stay on my couch with my fuzzy red blanket and sleep, like I usually do on Saturdays.

Highway 40 going to Winter Park is full of 15 m.p.h. curves that go in one of two directions (besides the curve part): up or down. That’s it. Driving along at 40 m.p.h. on curves like that for a while at 10,000 feet above sea level did me in. I know that I am prone to altitude sickness, but this was awful. I wasn’t even outside of the car. I’ve lived in this state for 7 months almost, and I still want to curl up and hide every time we get that high in the mountains.

There were a lot of backcountry skiiers out, and it was awesome to see the zig-zagging trails from skis going down the sides of the mountains. People were hitching rides back to their cars after they’d skiied all the way down the slopes. The snow was really deep, but the roads were covered in water from the melting snow. Springtime is coming, slowly but surely. Of course, it’ll just snow another foot tomorrow, but that’s how it goes.

I was very glad to find my red blanket waiting for me when we finally got home last night. I went to sleep for about two hours.