Under the Skin

The other day, I was thinking about how we treasure things; or, if the case may be, how we don't treasure them.  And I started to think about how sometimes we treasure things more if we feel like we lost out on something.  In Behavioral Economics, this phenomenon is called the Endowment Effect--people resent losing something less if they never felt like it was really theirs to begin with. However, even if that person didn't really want the item, losing it is more painful if they felt like it was theirs, because they feel like there was something that they could have obtained, had they been allowed to keep that item.  Historians use a much more poetic term than economists, as historians usually do.  They call it the Camelot Phenomenon.  This is in reference to a song in the musical, Camelot--more like a mantra in the musical. The musical outlines King Arthur's desire to make a land where right will rule over might, and a person's status will have no effect where ...

In the world of feminine consumable items, I do not use things very quickly.  I have had the same brush since I was eleven-years-old.  It is my firm belief that if they really intended for you to get new mascara every six months (or year--whatever the current thinking is), they wouldn't put so much goop in one tube.  Let's just say that I probably use things way beyond their utility or their recommended use-by date.  The exception being, if it's growing things, I will NOT do the cut around the mold on the cheese. One of my roommates keeps a moldy block in the fridge and just cuts around it, not even bothering to throw away what she cut around.  More power to her, she probably saves money in the cheese department, but I will not do it. However, there is one thing which I go through faster than most any woman I know.  Razors. Perhaps part of it is that I cannot go more than a day without shaving my legs and underarms.  I don't really know why, as I don...

This summer, I spend a lot of time around children.  I am a full-time nanny to two little boys, and the assistant nursery leader.  We're commanded to be like unto a child.  But surely we don't want to be immature and childish.  That's where we must draw a distinction.  There is very much so a difference between being childish and being child-like--there is definitely a line. And, all modesty aside, sometimes, I feel like I walk it like a pro. I am an interesting kind of girl.   I know that I am. I know that I always have been.   And I don’t really fight it. Part of the interesting thing about me is that I feel like I have managed to mature while retaining child-like qualities.   If you look around my room at college, you can see that I have stuffed animals, matchbox cars that look like characters from the Cars movie.   Altogether, if you had to choose a theme to describe my room, it would probably be the Cars movie.   I have a Li...

The summer is going to be a long one.  I am currently looking for a job, but I have a lot of hopeful applications in, and a medical temp agency has told me that they will be on the look out for any receptionist jobs they can get me for the summer.  So, we'll see what happens.  I am going to try to be a better blogger this summer, and next year.  Currently, I am putting together a goal list for the summer, and I'll let you know the plans as soon as that happens.

When I came home from BYU for the summer, my little sister, Sarah, told me that there were two things that I was “going” to do this summer.  First, I am apparently going to read The Hunger Games .  I haven’t read them yet, mostly because I was planning on it, and then it became the seriously “in” thing to do.  I didn’t want to be the one among sixteen reading it in any given room.  But, that’s a pride thing.  I eventually always planned on reading The Hunger Games , but we’ll see what happens.  Second, Sarah has recently come to really like the BBC series, Merlin , and thought I’d like them too.  My roommate, Leslie, really likes Merlin as well, and had always wanted me to watch them with her, but I never did.  It was not because I thought I wouldn't like them, but because I didn’t really have time in the school year.   But, I did watch some of the series this week.  There are four seasons out (fifth coming in the fall), so I...

The other day, I made a Utah observation. This week was spring break for the younger children, and they seemed to be all over campus. On Tuesday, I was in the WILK, and saw a woman who had about nine children with her. The children all looked fairly similar to one another, and the ages were such that they could have possibly have all been siblings. Someone else on campus asked this woman, "Are these all yours?" It is a phrase that I know well. Growing up with five siblings, I remember the days of, "Are these all yours" because it was asked of my parents quite commonly. But this time, it wasn't quite the same. Here in Utah, it was a question that had the implication of, "That's so wonderful!" Everywhere else, it seemed to carry a tone of either, "Are you completely insane?" or "How dare you populate the world this way." It was just an observation. Currently no more. I have no conclusions, mechanisms or proposals for the o...

So, I am currently working on paring down my food stocks for the summer. So, for Easter, I made a feast. All of these were made up by me on the spot, using what was available in my kitchen. Main course: Spring Chicken! Chicken breast, sliced Marinade: white vinegar a dab of olive oil lemon juice oregano basil salt lavender chicken stock Cooked on stove-top in a pan How did it turn out? It was really good. But the downside was that I didn't time things well, so this got overcooked waiting for the potatoes. Jello: Strawberry jello frozen strawberries Make like normal jello, put in the sliced up, frozen strawberries How did it turn out? Good. There was a strange chemical phenomenon that it started to clump up when I put in the hot water. Never happened to me before, but we kind of got a couple of gummy bear-like clumps at select locations. My roommates said they were good. I hated them. Green beans: frozen green beans lemon juice lavender olive oil Tried to have a vegetable, use...