Politics on social media: Just scroll down

With still more than a year to go before the next Presidential election, already I'm beginning to see posts, memes, and comments on social media regarding the possible candidates. My memories are stirred of the last election (2012) and how weary I became of the constant political dribble streaming down my Facebook wall. Roughly 85% of my “friends” on social media embrace an opposite political perspective from mine, so yes, as the election grew nearer, it became increasingly annoying to see all the negative posts and comments about the candidate I respected, supported, and admired.

For the most part, I simply scrolled down and rode out the storm, though I will admit to “blocking” (not deleting) a handful of folks whose daily posts were too scathingly vicious to tolerate. So the question is, what crosses the line of acceptability? Is there a line? How much politics on social media is too much? On the other hand, I saw a post yesterday that said, “You say you're tired of my political posts. Okay, I'll go back to sharing important stuff like what I had for dinner and when I went to the grocery store.”

I can see that side too. If we want to engage in meaningful dialog, we have to be willing to listen to opposing viewpoints on controversial issues. The key, I think, is respect. It's absolutely possible to support a political position or candidate respectfully, even on social media. It's just that not everyone does that. Social media seems to be the perfect forum to spread hatred. Time will tell how I'll respond to the hoopla as the 2016 Presidential election season gains momentum.

What about you? How do you feel about political posts/memes on social media. Do you participate? Do you block those friends who disagree with you or just scroll down?

First day jitters, and waiting not so patiently at home

At 2:30 a.m. I awoke to noise coming from the bathroom. Was it water running? In a state of confused semi-consciousness, I got up to investigate and found that, indeed, someone was in the bathroom showering. By process of elimination, it would have to be Seth. I knocked and shouted, “Are you okay?” Affirmative. “What are you doing in there?” Taking a shower. “Do you realize it's 2:30 a.m.?” Somehow, he thought it was 6:30 already, and he was supposed to be up getting ready for school.

First day jitters. On the surface, he was all meh about it yesterday when I asked him if he was nervous for the first day of his sophomore year. “What would I be nervous about?” Obviously, though, there were some subconscious jitters going on, enough that he woke up and hopped in the shower at 2:30 a.m. I remember my older kids doing this same thing a couple of times the night before important events. Whether we are headed to kindergarten or our senior year of college, there is just something about that first day of school that elicits an emotional response in all of us.

That includes us moms waiting not so patiently at home. It's now 2:15 p.m., and I've been thinking about him all day. Will he like his classes? Will he find his friends in that giant school? Will his teachers be nice? I'm just about to go pick him up, and the excitement is waxing strong. I'll take him for an after-the-first-day snack and listen to a play-by-play report of his day.

Hopefully tonight the jitters will be gone, and he'll sleep peacefully, with no 2:30 a.m. showers.

The tradition continues: All roads lead to Macaroni Grill

About 10 years ago, Shulamith came to Salt Lake City to attend Westminster College. I suggested she apply for a job on campus, but no, she decided to apply to be a host at an Italian restaurant called Romano's Macaroni Grill. It was far away from campus and required long, late hours, and I didn't think it was such a good idea. As my children will tell you, I am very rarely wrong (ha ha), but in this case, well, let's just say the whole Mac Grill thing turned out better than I expected.

Shulamith worked as a host until she was 21 and old enough to serve. Serving, she made tons of money, enough to pay for her entire senior year at Westminster without our help. About the time she graduated, Isaiah also headed to SLC to attend Shulamith's alma mater. And where did he decide to work? You guessed it. Mac Grill hired him before even meeting him, on Shulamith's recommendation, and he worked there all through college.

When we moved here in 2011, Eli was with us for a few months before his mission, and yep, Mac Grill was happy to hire him as well. After his mission, he returned to work there to save money for college at BYU-Idaho, and now he works there during his semester breaks. And they all return for the giant days each year, Valentine's Day and Mother's day.

We used to joke about Seth working there one day, but "one day" seemed far in the future. When my friend Lindsey saw this picture on Instagram, she commented, "How's that even possible?" My thoughts exactly. That "one day" so far in the future came more quickly than I could have imagined. He is my baby, barely 15, and this whole working deal is pretty much ridiculous.

He has grown up in a world where everyone, it seemed to him, had money to spend. You should hear him dream of all the things he will be able to buy:

"Mom, I'll get you hundreds of Diet Cokes, any time you want one."

"And I'll be able to buy everyone Christmas presents!"

"And video games on their release dates!"

"And I'll save my money so next year, I can go to the DotA tournament with Isaiah."

That last one, though. Uh, not likely I'll let him do that.

An $18,000,000 prize pool? For real?

Isaiah is in Seattle this week but not at an event for work. He's there on vacation watching 16 teams, each with five players, play a computer game. It's called DotA (Defense of the Ancients), and in the gaming world, it must be pretty popular. I say that only because over 17,000 people are there watching along with Isaiah, each having paid $100 for a ticket, more if they had to scalp one (Isaiah was online the second tickets went on sale but was still unsuccessful and wound up scalping one for $150). The prize pool for this competition is $18,000,000. Yes, you read that right. Count those zeros. It's true.

Poor Seth, who could not afford a ticket (or airfare to Seattle, or a hotel) is stuck here at home, glued to his computer, watching a live stream of the competition, texting back and forth with Isaiah. He believes that because he started playing the game at a young age, with years still to improve, one day he will be good enough to play in this international competition and win all that money. I'm skeptical, but hey, a boy can dream.

At the start, I sort of teased Isaiah for spending a week of his vacation time, not to mention a truckload of cash, to fly to Seattle and watch other people play a computer game. But then someone reminded me: “You and Shulamith spent that much to fly to Vegas for a weekend to watch Celine Dion sing for an hour and a half.” Indeed we did. It was worth every penny, and we'll likely do it again one day.

Entertainment is that subjective. What some find appealing, others don't. Seth just told me that at this very moment, 250,000 people are watching the live stream of the DotA competition. That's just crazy! But I'm glad he can watch since he can't be there. Reports from Isaiah are that it's the "best week ever!"

Food: The evolution of Pioneer Trek

Seth is our third kid to participate in Pioneer Trek. And while the idea has remained the same, the details have evolved over time. For those who may not know, Trek is an experience where youth in our church re-enact the journey the pioneers made across the plains to the Salt Lake Valley. They dress in pioneer clothing, pull handcarts, and walk. And walk. And walk. They walk for three or four days, camping along the way in "families" with a "ma" and "pa" and several siblings.

Just how authentic the whole thing is seems to vary, depending on where the event takes place, who the stake president is, and who is in charge. Shulamith went on Trek when she was 15. She looked adorable in her pioneer dress and bonnet, but I worried she'd starve. Back then in Washington, the leaders wanted to make the experience as realistic as possible. So they let the kids get hungry. One day, other than water and a piece of fruit, they didn't get food all day. That night, each kid had to catch his or her own chicken, put a cone around its neck, chop off its head, pluck its feathers, and boil it! And they were hungry enough to do it.

Several years later, Eli went on Trek with our stake in Montana. They went to Martin's Cove in Wyoming, and this time, the stake president felt strongly that the kids be well fed. No more slaughtering their own chickens or walking all day long without food. Eli said the food was decent, and they never went hungry. Who's to say if this took away from the whole experience, but I for one was glad to know my son was fed.

And then came Seth. Two weeks ago, he went on Trek with our stake here in Utah. They traveled all the way to Martin's Cove, Wyoming, the same place Eli went. Apparently, this particular stake believes in gourmet Trek food. One meal included brisket with "amazing" barbecue sauce, corn bread with honey butter, homemade potato chips, and salad with Olive Garden dressing. Then one morning they had crepes with cinnamon and sugar and homemade jam. Seth never ate so well in his life! Coming from our family, that's not saying a lot, but still.

Trek is an incredible experience, regardless of the way food is handled, and I'm glad Seth got to go. Right up there with EFY, it has been the highlight of his summer so far.

"It's not like I'm on vacation when I'm there."

As many of your know, we now have a world traveler in our family. His name is Isaiah, and a year ago this month, he landed the first job he applied for following his graduation from Westminster College with a computer science degree. He works for a company whose amazing software brilliantly handles registration and session access control for large conventions all over the world. Isaiah is an onsite tech specialist, so he needs to be, obviously, onsite. When he was interviewing, they asked him if he would be okay traveling around 75% of the time during the busy season. "That's what is most appealing about this job," was his reply.

And that is a very good thing! In the past year, Isaiah has traveled to Las Vegas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Nashville, San Diego, Orlando, Boston, Dallas (several of these multiple times), and others I'm likely forgetting. Internationally, he's gone to Milan, Quebec, Melbourne, and Toronto.

Are we jealous? No. Well, maybe a little. Mostly we are just happy for him. Not many 24-year-olds get to travel this extensively. He always reminds us, though, that "It's not like I'm on vacation when I'm there." Yep, we tend to forget that part. When he's onsite, he generally has to be in the hotel/convention center by 6:30 a.m. each day in order to prep everything before people begin to arrive. He works very long days, often not leaving the center until 7 or 8:00 p.m. Then he has four or five hours to go to dinner (seriously extravagant meals!), and see some of the city before crashing into bed, often past midnight, only to get up and do it all over again the next day.

There are some wonderful perks, though, beyond the travel opportunity. Often clients treat employees from Isaiah's company to various activities depending on the city. While in Orlando, he got to go to Walt Disney World, and in Nashville, he got to go to the Grand Ole Opry. Sadly, until he got there, he didn't even know what the Grand Ole Opry was, which speaks to my woeful lack of parenting, obviously. How could he not know that?
After his first couple of months, his boss asked him, "So how do you like all the travel," to which he responded, "I love it!" Then the boss said, "I'll ask you again a year from now and see what you say." Truth is, after a year, he would say exactly the same thing. Flying has lost all its appeal for sure, but he still loves to travel, and in fact, he feels like a "boring, I wanna die office worker" if he has to stay here in the Draper office very long.

So what wonderful trips are in store this summer and fall? I know he's going to Vegas and San Francisco in August, and then  possibly Cancun in September, Dubai in November, and (as Barney would say) ...wait for it....Berlin (!) in Janaury. Let's go back up to the question I asked above: Are we jealous? Those who know me well also know my dream of going to Germany, but in case you don't, I wrote about it once here. So if that trip comes true for him in January, I might be a tad jealous. But mostly I'll just be happy.

And proud. So proud of him.

"IRL": But what if it's weird?

Last week I went to my favorite breakfast place in Salt Lake City, Park Cafe, and enjoyed a lovely breakfast with two people I had never met before. Both were friends I knew online, but until last week, not face to face. Each time I prepare to meet an online acquaintance “In Real Life,” a tiny bit of apprehension accompanies my stomach. “What if it's weird?” I always wonder whether, “IRL,” these people will be the way I imagined them. Will they look like their online photos? Will their personalities resemble their online characters? Will it be awkward?

I don't stress too much about this anymore because I've done it so many times, but there's always a tiny bit of uncertainty. I remember the first time I met an online acquaintance face to face. It was back in the late 80s, the pre-internet days, when the only way to communicate online was through an online service as a part of a discussion group or “forum.” The one we used was called GEnie, and I was active in several forums there: parenting, religion, and politics (shocking, I know).

Gerald and I had “met” and become friends with a guy named Ike from South Dakota in a religion forum, and he was visiting the Pacific Northwest and wanted to meet up. Back then people were extremely wary of this type of thing. Online communication was new; stories circulated of face-to-face meetings with frightening consequences. I wasn't particularly worried about meeting Ike, but I was glad Gerald was going with me. It was wonderful! Ike was exactly the way I imagined him, even physically, and back then online forums were text only. He had presented himself online with total transparency. His wife was lovely as well.

Then there are Susie and Holly, women I met on GEnie parenting and religion forums, respectively, way back when. It was easy to get together with Holly because she happened to live in Seattle when we lived in Mt. Vernon. Susie was in Denver, but she actually flew to Seattle for a special event in my life, even though we had never met previously IRL. In both cases, that anxious feeling was present, but only until we laid eyes on each other, hugged tight, and continued right where our online conversations had left off.

So far, all my initial meet-ups with online friends have been extremely positive, and last week was no exception. As one of those with us remarked, “When we talk for 2 1/2 hours over breakfast, I think you can safely use it as evidence that we enjoyed ourselves.” Indeed! These two were fun and fabulous. I hope we can do it again soon.