Books Read in May

 I will start with a photo, just for fun? How many conservators does it take to clean a pagoda that has been exposed to several years of construction dust?

It is very hard to see the fourth one--she is gray-haired, and barely visible right below the arm of the girl on the left. So FOUR is the answer. Although, when I first saw them, there were five working on it, but I didn't have my phone/camera. By the time I got it, Lili (the superviser) had bowed out because five was too many! Too crowded! (Patrick suggested to me that technically it only takes ONE conservator for this task--it would just take longer to finish.)

And now on to the eight books I read in May! (With still two days to go, I am not planning to finish any of the books I am currently reading, including Emma M. Lion #8, which I am slowly savouring.)

1. The place of knowing: a spiritual autobiography (2011) by Emma Lou Warner Thayne. Emma Lou Thayne wrote this after recovering from her trerible accident, in which she was a passenger in a car driven by one of her sons-in-law, when a long metal pole came flying through their windshield and hit Emma in the face/head. She should have died, and in fact did die, but managed to survive and recover movement and all her mental faculties. Emma Lou was a poet, with most of her published books (not all) being volumes of poetry, so the language in this prose book is highly poetic. I read this book because a church historian contacted me to see if I could help her pin down the exact date of Emma Lou Thayne writing the lyrics of the hymn "Where can I turn for peace?" I had, years ago, read another of Thayne's books, written with her daughter Becky, about Becky's mental health issues and anorexia, and I knew that in that book she talked about writing the hymn. Only we didn't have that book in our library, so I couldn't easily re-read it, or even look in it. We had, instead THIS book, so I checked it out, and it too mentions the hymn, actually has a chapter with the same title, "Where can I turn for peace?" but lacks the detail that I remembered reading in the other book. I was sure that the hymn was written for a June conference, back in the day when June conference was a thing. The historian (Melanie) had the idea it was written for a Laurel conference held at BYU. I suggested trying to contact one of Emma Lou's five daughters, and in my sleuthing had the idea (inspiration?) that my friend Andrew Maxfield might know one of the daughters, Dinny. So I sent him a message to ask, and he had grown up in her same SLC ward, and immediately sent me her email address, which I gave to Melanie--and the daughter was super helpful, and then Melanie was able to fnd documentation that supported what Dinny (daughter #4) told her. So that was fun--and turns out the hymn was written for the June conference of 1973. (We had both been looking in the WRONG YEARS. I thought 1970; Melanie thought 1971. Yet the hymn's copyright date is 1973, so we should have looked THEN. Makes perfect sense--Becky's issues began in 1970, so it would reasonably take a few years of trial and effort and disappointment before her mom was anguishing about "Where can I turn for peace?") 

2. R.I.P. Eliza Hart (2017) by Alyssa Sheinmel. Ellie and Eliza were best friends in their early school days in California, before Ellie's family moved across the country to New York. Now they re-meet at an elite boarding school in California, where Ellie's parents have sent her as a scholarship student, hoping she can get some help with her terrible claustrophia issues that no therapists have been able to help her overcome. Eliza, whose family is wealthy, are also hoping she can be helped: she has terrible depression. These two girls are NOT well met. Not long after their unhappy meeting, Eliza dies in...a fall? a jump? a shove? over a cliff. This story is so well told! Add in some Redwood burl poaching (I did not know what a burl was!) and interesting characters, and this makes a compelling story as Ellie discovers the source of her own mental illness and how it connects to Eliza and her mental distress.

3. Walking in two worlds (2021) by Wab Kinew. This is one of Kinew's fiction books--I read one of his nonfiction books last month. I really like him. Like, I admire him as a person and as a politician. And this was a wll-told YA fiction story, set in the real world of an Anishinaabe reservation in Manitoba and the virtual world of a video game. Bugz is an awkward teen in the real world, but a powerful gamer in the virtual world. She meets a young man from China, Feng, who has moved to Manitoba to live with his aunt, who is a doctor for the reservation's medical center. Bugz does not realize that Feng is also one of her enemies in the virtual world. Kinew does a good job of walking his characters through their two worlds. I think Nancy would be interested in this book because she studies religion in books written for children and adolescents. The Anishanaabe religion definitely plays a role in this book, and also Feng is Uyghur, which is why he has been sent out of China--just like Bugz's grandparents had been subjected to residential schools in Canada, Feng's Muslim religion is being brainwashed out of him through residential schools in China. (This is really happening to Uyghur children in China right now.)

4. Up home: one girl's journey (2023) by Ruth J. Simmons. This memoir traces Ruth's life from birth through university. My short summary is: From hard beginnings as the 12th child in a black sharecropper family, Ruth became the president of three universities. Her life was difficult but she had a loving mother and some wonderful older siblings. Ruth's father was a hard man, and did not see the need of education, while Ruth knew that education was her ticket to a better life. After her mother's death, she could not rely on her father to provide clothes or books or school supplies, but she had a couple of much older brothers who were a wonderful support system. (She was in the same grade as one of her nieces, who was a few months older than her.) 

5. A stranger in Jerusalem: Seeing Jesus as a Jew (2019) by Trevan G. Hatch. I need to email Trevan and tell him I read his book! It is so interesting reading books by people you know--this book sounds just like him! Trevan is one of our librarians, but he came to us with a PhD. in Hebrew studies, and is very well-versed in all things related to Israel, where if I remember correctly he lived and did one of his advanced degrees there. Anyways! In this book, he positions Jesus as a Jew in the culture of the Israel of his time period. Christians tend to turn Jesus into a Christian--but he was definitely a Jew. Trevan raises some interesting points--like Judas for example: was he really a traitor, or did he think that there was no way that Jesus, the Messiah, would die? Trevan compares the accounts of Christ in the four gospels, and the history of when they were written, and by whom (we don't know, but what characteristics did these people have) and why the accounts are different, and what was happening then between the Jews who were Pharisees, the Jewish followers of Christ, and  the Jews who did not fit into either of those categories--it was a very complex situation. Super interesting!

6. On these magic shores (2020) by Yamile Saied Mendez. The title of this fiction book comes from a quote by J.M. Barrie in Peter Pan. And this book melds a story about three young girls whose Argentinian/American mother disappears, and so they are fending for themselves (the Lost Girls) while the oldest sister, Minnie, is trying to hold it together for their school production of Peter Pan. I really like how the author tells this story, so elegantly. (I am going to read more of her books!) The story is set in Utah, in a small town near Salt Lake City. (This is harder to figure out when you actually live here, I think, than if you were just imagining a small town near Salt Lake City.) And I like how the decision to move back to Argentina is a good decision. I feel like some books make leaving the United States into such a terrible thing to have to do, when actually there are many wonderful places to live in the world. Oh yes--for Nancy--there is a religious element in this JUV novel, too. Like, they don't go to church anymore, but they still keep the commandments; and Minnie remembers testimonies of things people believe though they have not seen.

7. Dance masters: interviews with New York's dance teachers (2024) researched and edited by Donna Marie Nowak. I have been working on a book/edition of a dancer's teaching methodology for the past couple of years, and it is due to be published in an online format in June. One of my peer reviewers wanted me to compare my teacher to some other female teachers (I had only done a section on male teachers to situate her in relation to other ballet teachers) and the reviewer suggested a couple of female dance teachers, and one of them was one of the 17 teachers discussed in this book. So I initially read just that section, but then I went back and read all of it, because it was interesting for me. (Suffice it to say, the female dance teachers he suggested were after my person, so not that relevant. But at least I did my due diligence before rejecting what the reviewer wanted me to do, right?) This book was helpful to me also because my editors keep asking me questions about why this and why that, when my dancer died in 1999, so it has been a loooong time since the stewards of her materials received them. And this book--she did the interviews around 1992-1994 and just published them in 2024. So. A lot of time passes! She had to add lots of footnotes about why this and why that. However, the tapes of these interviews are all held in New York Public Library's dance division. 

8. Al' America (2008) by Jonathan Curiel. Dick Dale is why I read this book. I had never heard of him until my student, Megan, was preparing her paper about the Beach Boys for the Mountain Plains Chapter of the Music Library Association, and while she talked about Dick Dale and his pioneering of Surf Rock (I had never heard that Surf Rock was a thing either!) she didn't have a sound sample, and I thought she should. When I heard Dick Dale I was like--that is totally Middle Eastern!! So I looked him up, and he is Lebanese! And so then I read this book. So, in the anti-Muslim environment that has developed in the USA post-2001, people have forgotten the long history of Islam and Arabic speakers in the United States. This was not a new thing. Probably the first to come to these shores came unwillingly, as slaves. So here we have these illiterate white guys capturing and bringing black slaves from Africa who were literate (in Arabic) Muslims. It wasn't until the 1870s that people from the Middle East started coming to the US voluntarily, even 29 who survived the Titanic, but this is all to say that there are lots of these people, millions of these people, who are born citizens of the US, AND that they have made huge contributions to our culture. Music, Ice Cream Cones, Architecture, I Dream of Genie, Aladdin, the Alamo, etc., etc. etc. Super interesting!

Library Library Library

 Last night (May 21) I was happily reading Emma M. Lion book 8. The second journal entry of Emma's in this volume, for May 2 (1884), is super long--pages and pages and pages long. It made me think of a comment in my book group that NOBODY writes journal entries that are as long as Emma M. Lion's (to which I responded, "I think you have never met my daughter Nancy...") because May 2's entry was long indeed. However, she followed it up with the May 3rd entry which bemoaned the FIVE HOURS of writing the day before that caused her hand to cramp up, and also ink smears, and her back ached from sitting over her desk...it gave that loooong journal entry a touch of reality! And so I decided that I sthould stop reading and go and do some writing myself.

Ad so I did. I wrote for an hour. I put in pictures. I used Paint to crop some pictures. I chose my words carefully. And then...I hit something by accident and everything disappeared! An hour of work! I quickly hit the back arrow that blogger supplies (I remember when it didn't! so I am grateful it exists!) but it didn't work! I was left with a small letter "i" at the top of the otherwise empty page. This morning, my husband (who I thought was asleep and unaware of my lost work) said I could have hit Control Z and saved it. I dunno. If it ever happens again (knock on wood that it won't!) I will try that. And I ask myself, "Why didn't you call out that solution last night when you apparently heard me say "Oh no!! I just lost all my work!!" instead of waiting until this morning? 

So. I begin again.

This week was full of library things. Hence the title. It was in fact the conference of the Utah Library Association, otherwise known as ULA. I seldom go to ULA -- I think I have gone six times in 25 years. Because ULA is most frequently at the exact same time as MPMLA, which I go to almost every year, and in the past few years, often on Zoom if not in person. But this year, MPMLA was on May 8-9 (so I didn't attend in person because Hanna's wedding) and did not conflict with ULA which was randomly on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Which it never has been before. 

It was actually a delightful conference. There was, as usual, too much choice on the last two days, but I chose well and did not fall asleep in any sessions and actually learned stuff! The first day of ULA is always a workshop day, and this year, both the workshops I attended were really good! My colleague at BYU, Toni, did the morning one--three hours of working with a roomful of 80 people, keeping them engaged and learning!! Imagine that!! I was so impressed with how well she managed that. Well, her specialty is library instruction, so. Clearly she is in the right place for her talents!

Toni had us watch a cute news segment about a little boy in Idaho who wrote his own graphic novel and snuck it onto the shelf in the library. He had wanted to be an author since he was 5! He decided then, and wrote an 81 page hardcover book--literally illustrating that he understood the concept of a graphic novel. And the library catalogued it and added it to their collection--and it (The Adventures of Dillon Helbig's Crismis) gets a lot of check outs! Here is the news story, if you want to watch it! 

The next day, Josie sent this amusing picture, harking back to the story of Dillon sneaking his book onto the library shelves--someone at OPL snuck a box of popsicles into the library and "shelved" it!

The person clearly did not understand the Dewey Decimal System--popsicles do not belong in the 150s! They belong in the 640s! Or better yet, in the freezer compartment of the nearest fridge, which is what Josie expressed to her colleauges in an email: “Just popping in to remind staff and patrons that popsicles should be shelved in the fridge. But if you have to shelve them on the shelves please follow this example so it doesn’t melt on any books or carpet.” And the example:

The afternoon workshop on Monday was called Archives 101, and it was also good, and involved four people from my library. There were about 8 of them (presenters) in all including the people from other libraries, so filling the time was different (than it was for Toni, flying solo). Here is a picture of a slide from the University of Utah, which reminded me of Patrick, so I sent this photo to him:

Because I don't usually go to ULA, I don't think much about it, so I didn't even realize it was going to be in PROVO this year, hence, easy to get to. Once I realized, I hoped that Josie could attend (though her library is not super supportive. Well, the city isn't super supportive. They are the ones who pay. And decide things.) but she couldn't. She had attended an Access Services conference virtually in November, so they wouldn't pay her to go--she would have to take vacation days, and she had just gone to Vienna, so nope. 

On Monday, while I was at ULA day one, she was at a seminar put on by the company that does their technical support for Koha, their ILS. Koha is open source library software, but it still can be a problem, so they still end up having to pay someone for support. She sent me a picture of name badges they got at their seminar:

If you are not a library nerd, this name badge is probably completely confusing. My 100 $a is. Like, what the heck? However 100 is the MARC tag (MAchine Readable Cataloguing) for the person who is an author or creator (if the creator is NOT a person, like say a corporation, then the tag is NOT 100). $a stands for subfield a, which means personal name. So basically this tag means "My name is." So yes, super funny. Janice may have laughed out loud when I showed her Josie's text, and people in the room may have wondered what was so funny.

Josie was not finished sending us funny library things. She also sent this date due slip. 

If it was in a recently returned book--only 41 years overdue! (Well, not quite. A few months to go.)

The second day of ULA was good. I took a few pictures on Tuesday. Josie had told me to watch for her coworkers, and so I thought I would take a picture with them for proof. Apparently, her coworker Anita had been sitting behind me at Toni's workshop on Monday, but I had not really looked behind me much. At Tuesday's lunch, I took a picture of the next table over, because from her description of Anita, I thought she might be one of two people seated at a nearby table. 

Her friend Sabrina's ear is just below the number 5 on that table, so I figured her friend Anita was one of the peple at the table. Josie identified her as the stripes, so after the lunch was over, I went over to introduce myself--I already know Sabrina; she was actually in my class one year when I used to teach Music 210R. 

Here we are: Sabrina, Anita, me, and Shannon, who is Josie's boss. Section head of technical services. Sabrina and Anita are both cataloguers, while Josie is stacks manager.

After lunch, I went for a walk, and took a picture of this mural just across the street east of the convention center. I really like the way the trees in the mural and the actual trees work together.

And while I went to lots of interesting sessions and took lots of notes, I only took one picture of a slide in a presentation. This was a session by a couple of young folks from Utah State University library, who were presenting on library displays. (Kudos to them for carrying on so interestingly and confidently despite some pretty lengthy technology issues in their room.) I liked the way they dealt with books without nice display-worthy covers. Libraries used to send sooooo many books out for library bindings, which last a long time but are just very plain. 

And then came Wednesday, another great day to just enjoy learning from my fellow library nerds. 

Janice and I took pictures of each other at this fun photo booth they had at the conference.

Janice changed the sign to read "The librarian is sassy" for herself. I just liked "in"--the whole thing reminds me of Lucy in the Peanuts cartoon. So I just liked it as it was.

I took a bunch of pictures of the slides at a session about how to recognize AI materials that may find their way to the library shelves; how to notice them when ordering; how to catalog them if you decide to keep them; how to write collection development policies to help deal with them. Here is one representative slide from that session, about what to look for when shopping on Amazon:

They passed around a bunch of AI created books, and they were laughably bad in so many cases! However, they might not look so bad...Bob Maxwell got one to catalog that was supposed to be a biography of Dallin Oakes, and the picture on the cover was just...off...so he called his friend Dallin Oakes, the son of Dallin Oakes, and said, "Hey, I have this biography...I think it is an AI thing..." and Dallin, son of Dallin, said, "Oh, that's not the only one! There are several AI books supposedly about my dad!" They had a nice chat about all the people trying to make money off innocent suckers by not actually writing books and then selling them on Amazon.

And then it was time for Wednesday's lunch! I saved places for Janice and Valerie, who were working at the registration desk, at table seven. I wanted to be pretty close, because the guest speaker was Beth Brower. Yes, the author of the Emma M. Lion books that I referred to at the beginning of this post! I was excited to have the opportunity to hear her, without having to be on Orem Public Library's lengthy waiting list. Her books are super popular in their library--about 40 holds on each book! So when she spoke earlier this year, Josie told me about it, but I didn't want to fight the madding crowd. 

In fact, when I knew she was going to be at ULA, AND I knew that I could go to ULA this year, I thought the stars had aligned nicely. (Except that Josie could not go. That star did not align.) I took a picture of her speaking, thinking that would be the closest I ever got to her.

Some interesting things from her talk: 

1. Her cat, Spy Cat Grey, died the night before she had to speak at Orem Public Library. She did not tell anyone then, but she told us, because we are all librarians, and librarians tend to like cats. (Josie felt bad that OPL did not know--they would have tried to do something nice for her. Like, the day she spoke it was her twin nephews birthday, so they provided a birthday cake for them. Because Beth is very close with her family, so they all came to support her even though  it was someone's birthday.)

2. There is a club in London, the Garrick Club, that only began admitting women in 2024! Still there are only 9 women members, but one of them happens to be Beth's agent? publisher? (I can't remember that detail!) AND so she booked dinner at the club for her meeting with Beth and all of the foreign publishers who are going to pick up her book. (That feels like something Emma M. Lion would like very much--being admitted to a men-only club!) Bloomsbury is going to be Beth's UK/Commonwealth publisher, and they have designed new covers for her books. And she is going to be translated into about 20 languages. So all of those people were at this Garrick Club meeting.

3. Beth LOVES libraries, and she pleaded with us to protect our physical collections!! Once something is available digitally it can be changed, altered, in ways that to most people are not detectable. This is her soapbox speech! (And reminds me of a book I read once, The Last Librarian, a dystopian novel that unfortunately seems all to easy to realize in actual life nowadays.) 

4. Q and A: The first question was asked by a person who looked almost too young to be at our conference, the next table over from me. She said, "I know that you know who Emma ends up with (if you read my "books read" posts, then you know that I also wonder who Emma will end up with!) but what if you die? Does anyone else know?" Beth laughed and laughed, because apparently her fan mail is full of this question! And also people are telling her they pray for her to live to finish the series so this question will not go unanswered!! The only living being she told was her cat, Spy Cat Grey, and you all know what happened...that cat died. But she does have an outline written that will go to her parents in the event of an untimely demise on her part.

So then someone said they were jealous of her cat? And Beth was like, "You want to die like my cat? You want to be buried under my rose bushes like my cat?" She went on to say that they could make that happen--if that woman would do the dying part, Beth would wrap her body in muslin and put her in the hole beside the cat and place a rose on top--"But we would have to dig a bigger hole..." This part was rather hilarious!

There was a furniture company as one of our sponsoring vendors. They had actually sprinkled their chairs throughout one of the plenary sessions, and whoever sat on one got to take it home. They were very proactive and were the sponsors of the lunch when Beth spoke, so they were also the sponsors of a signing table for Beth. I didn't know that was going to happen. I also didn't know they would have books for sale, so I got in line and bought book 8, which I am now enjoying reading, since that is the one that I was waiting to order once the waiting list got shorter--which would it? really?

And so I ended up in the Beth Brower autograph line. I noticed people taking pictures with her, entirely ignoring her sister (the mother of the twins) who was sitting there being Beth's manager and protector and helper. So when it was my turn, I asked for a picture with both of them, because I really admire the way that Beth's family rallies around her, and the way she includes them. "It is very Brontë of us," Beth said. So here we three are:

And here is her signature inside my book. Which I somehow took the picture upside down, even though my book and my camera were right side up? I amaze myself sometimes with how I get techy things just. wrong. Josie fixed it for me in about two seconds while I was still trying to figure out how I could possibly goof that up.

And thus ends my tale!! ULA was great this year!

Spider bite

 I will start this post off NOT with a picture of my spider bite!

Instead, I will start with a picture of me and Judy!

This week, I received a past student, Judy, as a visitor at work! It is always fun to see past students! Judy was in the theatre program, and she also is a very talented singer. Since graduating, she has worked for short terms at interesting places like Nauvoo and Disney World. At Nauvoo, she met her fiance, and that was the main purpose of her visit: to give me and invitation to their wedding reception! And soon after, they are off to London, where her man Sam will be in a master's program in theatrical arts.

And NOW for a picture of the spider bite:

Since the bite is on the back of my left leg, just a few inches above the ankle, it is awkward to take a picture of it! And I just didn't think to take a picture earlier.

This happened on Tuesday morning, as I was just innocently making my breakfast, standing in the middle of the kitchen, when holy cow! A shooting pain from my left leg. Very weird--I thought it would go away as quickly as it came, but then I realized that I was actively being bitten at that moment. So I got a wet wipe, and used it to wipe the offending area, and the itty bitty yellow spider that was the attacker was right there on the wipe--and very dead, because I inadvertently killed him/her. But I will not soon forget this spider because ow!!

The last time I had a bite by this same type of spider, we lived in the North Orem house, and it bit me on the bottom of the foot while I was asleep. When I felt the pain, I thought I had jammed my foot weirdly against the metal spikes (that I had never liked!) on our bed frame. I could not walk on that foot very well at all, so I went to the doctor, and he judged it to be a little yellow spider bite.

This bite was no less painful, but I can attest that, if you are going to be bitten by a little yellow spider, the leg is better than the foot. Because you don't have to put weight on the bitten place, which is ever so much better.

Here is the bite this morning. It still looks pretty terrible, but it is honestly smaller! (Like, the area of infection has shrunk.) Hurray!

Today, I did not ever need to wrap my leg in a nice, cold, wet wipe, like I had to do a few times over the earlier days of this bite. My skin, which felt hot and hard to the touch, feels more normal--only hot and hard in a smaller area. So I am on the mend!

I picked Josie up from the airport on Wednesday night--her plane was delayed, the wait for luggage was long, the passport control line was long--so it was later than we thought it would be when we headed home. Just after the point of the mountain, we started hearing a weird noise that sounded like something might be wrong with a tire. After making sure I didn't take the Timpanogos Highway exit, I got off the freeway and we pulled into a parking lot, where Josie used her phone's flashlight to check all four tires, and under the car, and there was nothing wrong. The noise was abating just before we got off the freeway, and we had no trouble after getting back on and heading home. We did say an extra prayer for our car and our safety, and we felt very thankful to pull into our garage and everything was fine.

We figure I picked up something on the freeway? Something that got stuck under the car, or wrapped around a tire? I guess we will never know what it was--neither of us remember seeing anything on the road, and there was no impact with anything, either. Weird. But it was that dusky time when seeing is not so clear? Well, the good news is, home safely and all was well! Except of course, for the spider bite, but it is healing a bit more each day!!

I remember my mother getting spider bites when she was not so young anymore...she was somehow tasty. I hope that I am not getting tasty! I would be delighted not to be bitten by a little yellow spider ever again!

More Photos

 My niece Michelle sent me more photos from Hanna's wedding day!! How could I not post them when this was the first one she sent:

And Alice looks so cute? Right? (It is also pretty good of me--Michelle is a good photographer!

And these two photos from at the temple on Saturday morning:

Hanna's parents and brother (and maybe his Uncle Kevin? I am not sure, because sun glasses) (probably Hanna's Grandpa Adams, Michelle says) and Ye Dam and his parents, and not sure exactly who of his siblings. He has two sisters and one brother, so I think a sister-in-law and brother-in law, too, and the little--I think niece. Could be wrong. But essentially with both of their families!

Hanna's Wedding Day

 As promised, pictures from Hanna's wedding day. I do not have pictures at the temple to offer, because my assignment was to be at the church, preparing the food. Eric, I think, took the pictures there.

I arrived at the church at 11:45, and started arranging the vegetables on the trays--carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes. I got a text from Michelle saying things were running late, and a text from Eric saying things were running late. Vince's brother Preston with his girlfriend whose name I cannot spell, and his son Zander or Xander--I am failing on the spelling front!!--arrived with the salads and sandwiches they had picked up, and I told them things were running late. We four worked together on the veggies and the caesar salad and washing and cutting the strawberries, after a call from Heather so we would know how she wanted us to deal with the strawberries.

And then people started arriving, and things were in full sway before we knew it. I only sat down briefly at about 3:15, but was otherwise on my feet working or taking pictures the entire time.

I was glad to see the above sign finished--the very sweet girl who did the chalk work was very careful. Meticulously so. She did not even start this sign last night while we were setting up: she spent the full two hours working on the one below, which is smaller.

Last night, Yedam spent his time creating this, an unusual thing at a US wedding--the gift table is not to RECEIVE presents; it is to GIVE presents:

On the left are seedlings in little cups, and on the right are gift bags with some explanation about the things inside them. I know there is something from K-Pop Demon Hunters in there, but I can't remember what.

Here is the food table:

The tables all looked so lovely and neat because Jocelyn was there. She is very good at making things look lovely. 

Heather and I did this table last night while Jocelyn was doing the table shown above. But she suggested what to do, and we had her stamp of approval.

People coming in and signing the guest book, and getting their name tags...

I decided to get a picture of the bride and groom right away or I might miss the opportunity. They were, of course, the center of attention and were in demand all afternoon.

This is Makayla, who has been friends with Hanna since they were freshmen roommates, of course Hanna the bride, Yedam the groom, and you will have to try to zoom in and read the name tag on the other girl. She was a missionary in Guam with Hanna and Yedam. (There were very many of these young RMs there today--I missed taking a picture of all of them, but such pictures exist!)

And yes, we had name tags at this wedding! This was my first wedding with name tags! Hanna figured it woud help people mix, because there were so many people who did not know each other. Mine said "Myrna - Hanna's great aunt." And it really was helpful as conversation starters.

My Torrie nieces and nephew really liked our gym in our building because the walls are interesing, not just cinderblock. And the ceiling is interesing, and there are high windows. I didn't take this picture for the walls or ceilings, I took it to show how the tables were set up.

More room set-up--the table that Vince had claimed for "our" family. You can see Joseph beside him, and Eric's back beside Jocelyn. I think that is Heather? 

There was a program, with a mistress of ceremonies, who was very good at announcing things, telling people to sit down or get in the food line, or whatever needed announcing. First up on the program was a tribute to the bride given by her dad.

And then a tribute to Yedam given by his dad, who apologized that his English was not great so we had better listen carefully! (His English is very good, IMO! But he had written it down because, well, it is hard to think on the spot in a second language. This is also IMO.)

Then Yedam's brother sang a song. Holy cow. He has pipes! He had an astonishingly good voice. Like, I was expecting...not that. 

And then--he started to dance. And he also has the moves! He started solo, then was joined by his brother-in-law (husband of one of the Park sisters) and then even by their dad!! They did Gangnam Style, and I video'd part of it, but I do not know how to put that here. Normally I would ask Nancy for help, but she is in Vienna and also, hopefully, asleep because it is about 2 AM there. Maybe one day it will be here!

So, I am thinking that Hanna has joined a family of very fun and talented people!

And the last thing they did--they played a Kahoot game! Can you imagine a Kahoot game at a wedding reception? It was a game of questions about Yedam and Hanna. Speaking of, here is a picture of them up front while the game was going on.

(with a little bit of Michelle, and the back of Joseph.)

The family table while the game was going on:

Clockwise from Michelle's back: Michelle, Alice, Joseph, Heather standing behind him, Vince, Rachael, Jocelyn is hidden, Eric.

Heather and Hanna together:

The rest of the lovely ladies in our family (who were there):

Clockwise: Alice, Jocelyn, Rachael, Michelle.

Vince and his two brothers, standing in age order L-R: Kevin, Vince, Preston. Preston was so nice, and a pleasure to work with him on food prep.

And then--surprise! A familiar face talking to Michelle, so I went over and got a picture of Michelle with Heidi and Beth. Too bad Rachael escaped--she had been standing there, too, but she zipped away, and it would have been nice to see how tall Rachael (who is 13 going on 14) is compared to Beth (who has already turned 14). 

I am sure you guessed already: Beth, Heidi, Michelle. It was lovely to chat with Heidi! Later Robert and William came, too, but I failed to get a picture of them. William had come from somewhere...not sure where...and had earned about four medals, and he wanted me to PROMISE that I would not tell Beth!! He wanted to tell her himself!!

Somehow I didn't realize that Heidi's mom, Ellen, had also arrived at the same time (in separate cars because they live in opposite directions) so it was such a fun surprise to get to visit with her! She had seen me a ways off and thoughf for a minute that I was Colleen, but she didn't think that could be true, and it wasn't: it was me! Here we are: Heather, Michelle, Ellen, Rachael, Me, and Alice.

Hanna had not planned for a wedding cake, but a guest (last name Grover) made a small wedding cake anyway. She likes to give wedding cakes with the plate that it comes on as her gift to the newlywed couple. (Hanna wanted trees made of donut holes for her cake, because donut holes are her favorite.) So here is the cake and the couple ready to cut it. (The donut hole tree is there in place beside the cake.)

This is a picture with a lot of people from the Buss side of the family.

There was also a tiny bit of a dance by Yedam and Hanna, and I also have a short video of that which I cannot post because I don't know how. They danced their way over to the cake and were about to cut it when Heather interrupted them because--you can't just cut it--you have to let people gather around and THEN cut it, right? This piece of information is out of order...sorry!! I will just leave it here anyway.

I started to get worried, because Michelle and her girls had to leave to go to the airport in SLC for their flight, and they were taking Joseph with them to catch the shuttle to Idaho. There went four of our helpers!! I was worried that we would have nobody to help put away the tables--the only lifters would be Eric and Vince. 

Eric and I asked Heather if we should start discreetly cleaning up while people were still there, so that maybe they would help, and Jocelyn joined in after she was sure that Heather wanted us to do it. And it worked. All the many young RMs from the Guam Mission jumped in and put the tables and chairs away lickety-split, and helped Eric sweep the floor. In the kitchen, we had help from one of Heather's old roommates and her husband and son, and I was home by 5:45. Six hours from when I started at 11:45.

It was a lovely afternoon. Very nice people. Yedam and Hanna seem very--settled. Like, not giddy, just really sure about their decision to marry each other. That makes me happy. I think a marriage founded on a friendship--which is how their relationship began--is a good way to start. 

Oops! I forgot these last pictures! Two of Heather's college roommates came, and I can't remember their names! (Also, another former roommate who was so much help in the clean-up, along with her husband and son. The son was Jacob. I should have taken a picture of her and Heather, at least, but I failed to do so!) First, the roommate group with Hanna, the reason they were brought together today!

And then without--at Hanna's command. "Now without me." Okay.

May is fast disappearing...

 Wow, May 8 already! 

Josie flew off to Vienna on May 3. The cats have been really good, and I think they are all very content to be in their assigned quarters in the basement. Only a couple of times has Cinnamon trotted upstairs to look at--not meow at me--because I am later with the treats than she wants me to be. Last night, she even managed to open the treat container--I must not have screwed it tightly--and had sucked some treat out of one of the pouches! Because I was late--what's a girl got to do?

Nancy joined the crew in Vienna on May 5. Josie sent this picture of my three kids just chilling...

Nancy was probably blogging, because soon after this picture, there was a post to read!! Hurray! They spent Nancy's full first day (the 6th) at Klosterneuberg, which is like my favorite. I am so glad they went there.

My Thursday was busy with the GRASP conference on campus (Grants, Research, and Special Projects) of which the person in charge is Christine Ackroyd, sister of David, daughter of Jan, etc. (My kids know this family.) And then meetings all afternoon! Followed by meeting my nieces Heather and Michelle and parts of their families for dinner and ice cream at the BYU Creamery.

Here are two photos:

I took the one above and so am not in it! Bruce, Heather, and Joseph on the left, and Michelle, Alice, Rachael, Vince on the right.

Then Michelle took this picture from the other side of the table, same people except I am in between Bruce and Heather, and Michelle is absent:

Michelle's daughter Rachael, who is nearly 14, really likes Josie and was disappointed that she is not here. She asked me to say hi to Josie for her, which I did. Josie said hello back, and Rachael was thrilled! Michelle says that Rachael calls me "Josie's mom," not my name; and I told Michelle that even young Rosie always called me "Josie's mom." That's okay with me. But Rachael does like me, because she thinks I look like and sound like her grandma, my sister Colleen. I think she is not wrong!

Today was MPMLA. It was in Edmond, OK, but I was only participating on Zoom because I am here for Hanna's wedding/reception which is tomorrow. I was the last presenter--presenting on Zoom is awkward, so I was happy to be done! Then I met the family at the church to set up the tables, the TV for the photo collage, work on the food, etc. Kari and Rodger from my ward came and were very helpful to us. 

I decided to take a picture of most of the helpers--not the bride or groom or the bride's attendants, who were off doing other (helpful) things--just not proximate to take pictures. Below we have Eric and Jocelyn, Joseph, Vince, Heather, Michelle, and the Parks from Korea, parents of the groom.

Then the old switcheroo--he is out, and I am in:

And I took a picture of the bride's parents and the groom's parents together. I think they brought gifts from Korea for Hanna's parents. They are a very nice family!

Meanwhile, the kids in Austra (and by kids I mean adults!) were in Salzburg, which is my second favorite place in Austria after Klosterneuberg. Although I also love the view out Patrick's window!

I adore this picture! Hadis, Patrick, Josie, and Nancy all looking so happy!

And Josie sent me these pictures:

I do not know the story behind this picture!!

Tomorrow, it will be the wedding day, so I will do a post tomorrow about that! I will be spending most of the afternoon helping with that. It is hard to put on an event like that when you don't live in the place--the bride and groom live in Idaho; their parents live in Chicago and Korea; Michelle and kids live in North Dakota, and Eric and Jocelyn in Alberta. I am the only helper who actually lives here. I am happy to help!