New High School, Old (Old!) Me

After a busy summer (three of my four daughters and their husbands moved from one house to another in the last three months, and we didn't have the foresight to be out of town during those moves), the start of the new school year is once again looming.

Our once rural little town has experienced a massive growth spurt in the last few years. Many of the fields and pastures have been turned into single-family and high-density housing subdivisions, and the traffic on roads not built for the high volume of cars is a nightmare. Housing is still cheap enough here that we have become even more of a bedroom community for those escaping from The Big City prices or coming here from other states (I see license plates from all over the country). When we first moved here, rush hour was four cars at a stoplight. Now the steady stream of vehicles in and out of town is never-ending on a street system that was not designed for being efficient at such a high volume. 

With all the new housing comes a greater need for schools. A new junior high is in the works and a new high school has now been completed, and with it comes a new seminary. And with a new seminary comes the opportunity for a new administrative assistant: me. 

I admit I wrangled myself into position for that job out of a mixture of both ambition and a desire for adventure. My FTE status is based on seminary enrollment numbers, and although I have been working at two seminaries for the least eighteen months, neither seminary has the enrollment numbers to make me full-time (they don't add the enrollment numbers together, unfortunately). The new seminary is siphoning off enrollment from two of the other seminaries, one of which is my original seminary, making numbers even lower and reducing hours for the admin assistant, Darlene, who actually likes the reduced hours. Because most of the growth is located within the boundaries of the new high school, I figure that enrollment at the new seminary will grow enough within a few years to give me full-time status. The bonus is the thrill of helping to start a new program and culture with a new faculty and student body.

There were some small politics involved, so skip this paragraph if that doesn't interest you. I can't remember if I ever wrote about this, but when I was originally hired five years ago, I was hired for the largest of the seminaries in the valley, which was a full-time position. Another administrative assistant, Jenie, was hired for the other seminary, which was a part-time position. Unfortunately, Jenie was a cousin by marriage to the then new principal, Griff, and HR didn't like that close of a relationship between administrators of credit cards, money and budgets. Within a couple days of being hired, I got a call from the region director who asked if I would be willing to switch seminaries, and if I wasn't, that was fine except they would then need to un-hire the new admin assistant and find someone else. I felt incredibly upset that I had been put in that position. If I wanted to keep my full-time status, I would know I had put Jenie out of a job, and I had already met her and really liked her; but by switching, I was being asked to give up the money and benefits of a full-time position. It was unfair to put me in that position, but I ended up agreeing to switch jobs. In the end, it worked out very well for me in so many ways, and I have never held a grudge against Jenie, who really is one of the best people you will ever meet. I also managed very early on to forgive the region director, Shane, for putting me in that position, which is good because he will be my new principal. But I do feel like I had every right to argue for myself as admin assistant at the new seminary after five years (and one-and-a-half years of working at two seminaries) even though Jenie's job will drop from full-time to part-time because of the drop in enrollment at her seminary. She made the choice to stay at the seminary for the time being, but enrollment at that seminary may never recover enough to grant her full-time status again. I only ever talked about this in confidence to my principals because, over the years, I never wanted to create bad feelings and drama with faculty members, and I don't have any anger about it anyway. I was the one who made the choice, however unfair I felt it was at the time to force me to make that choice, but I have been very blessed with the outcome. My principals, who had most of the say in the personnel shuffling that went on when planning to staff the new building, were quietly rooting for me to get the place at the new seminary, and neither of the other two admin assistants were fighting for that position very hard. Politics talk ended.

The former region director, Shane, who, before being region director was a teacher and principal for twenty years, has been asked to come in as an experienced principal to open the new seminary before he retires. I have worked with Denise, one of the new teachers, for several years at my original seminary, and have known her for fourteen. The other one, Jason, is a Millennial I have spoken to on occasion but never worked with. He's super intelligent, absolutely dedicated to teaching the gospel to young people, very open about his feelings, and very smart with technology. Shane, Denise, and Jason know each other very well and know all the same people and have even vacationed with each others' families, so they have a lot to say to each other, which became apparent during a recent overnight faculty retreat we took to southern Idaho. I went for hours at a time without having anything to contribute to the conversation, and I felt a little awkward much of the time, like I was back in high school and the cool kids were having a great time and had no malice towards me but simply forgot I was with them. Things got a little more awkward because of the multiple times Jason would wax poetic in singing the praises of the admin assistant I originally switched with (Jenie), and with whom he has worked for the last five years. I do not begrudge any praise ever to Jenie, who really is that awesome, but I couldn't figure out if Jason was just being a little insensitive to my feelings by going on and on and on about how great she is or if he really did want me to understand that I will never be to him and the job what Jenie is. We will see how I fit in to that dynamic over time. When two new teachers are added in a year, that will also alter the group dynamic. It will be interesting. An adventure.

It was a welcome relief when, feeling a little insecure after that faculty retreat, I went to my other seminary to meet up for some work with my other principal, Trent, and, as soon as I walked in the door, he shouted, "Eva! How are you! I missed you! How's your summer? It's so good to see you!" and was genuinely glad to see me and have a nice, catch-up conversation before getting to work. I will also still be working with Tanner, for whom I have great affection, and now with Kim, who was transferred over from my original seminary after being there for twelve years, and who replaced Kristine (who was transferred to Jenie's seminary, and with whom I very much enjoyed working). Kim and I are old friends, and the three of them, Trent, Tanner, and Kim are so fun and easy to work with that working at that seminary is always going to be thoroughly enjoyable. 

In other news, Elannah and her husband moved just a couple weeks ago to her in-laws' basement (fortunately, it's a huge house, so they have a huge basement) in order to save money toward a down payment on their own future house. Elannah works with my other daughter, Gabrielle, and now one of my other sons-in-law, Sophia's husband Matt, at Adobe (the company that operates Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.) and is putting her husband through commercial flight school. Anyway, they are now living close enough to us that Elannah and I can take quick shopping trips together again without one of us having to drive a long way to meet up. Last Saturday, she and I went to Chinatown in The Big City, which is not an entire neighborhood like in some cities but just a little mall with a massive grocery store selling Asian foods and products and some restaurants. We enjoyed shopping through the store and then grabbing some fish cakes, soup, and tteokbokki at a little Korean restaurant. And, of course, chatting. 

Gabrielle and Raine finally got Raine's medical discharge date for late September/early October, and that is a huge relief after over eighteen months of what was supposed to be a one-year deployment. They just moved into a sweet and quirky little 1930s cottage they are purchasing that somehow manages to pack four bedrooms into a very small footprint but has been updated enough to be modern and usable. Raine took some leave to come and help with the move before heading back to Colorado, and they will both be so glad to finally be together again in a couple months.

I had to dig out my high school yearbook to get a scan of my graduation photo as part of the new seminary faculty's introduction of themselves to the new student body. I don't have an original copy of that picture (I gave away the only copy I had), so it's really pixelated. Old technology for old people.

Look how young and cute I was! Sad how things change, although I would not give up the incredible life I have had with all it's weight gains and losses (well, I would give up the weight gain for sure), scars, pains, and triumphs. It would probably be very dangerous if we aged backward. Can you imagine going from old, saggy, and in pain every time you sneeze wrong to young, vibrant, and able to eat anything without gaining weight? While youth is wasted on the young, it would be far worse to know better with an older mind in a young body. One would hope wisdom would prevail, but one is probably too optimistic.

I remember being in my high school's art room where the art teacher took this picture. I suddenly realized I did not have a senior photo and the deadline for that section was coming up. I even developed the film myself, which was a skill I was happy to learn back then but is now almost obsolete. 

For some reason, the art teacher, who was the yearbook advisor, asked me to be the editor-in-chief of the yearbook even though I had absolutely no experience with putting together a yearbook, and I was naive enough to agree. I also had to be the layout editor because I didn't have anyone else to do it (small school woes), and back in those days, you had to draw everything out with graph paper and rulers. Oh, the deadlines! They were constant! I pretty much worked a full time job getting that thing to the publishers. The one photographer I had hated my guts and quit halfway through, so I ended up becoming chief photographer and photo developer as well. I wish I could say I was brilliant at it from the start and put together a yearbook no one could have guessed came from a rookie, but what really happened was that I would have been very good at it about three years later. The yearbook was pretty crap. 

Me, trying not to drown in 1989 before I graduated in 1990.

I Asked ChatGPT to Write Me a Blog Post in My Style, and Now I'm Going to be Sick

 Yikes. Out of pure curiosity, I asked ChatGPT to write a blog post in the style of my blog. It said, "Sure! Here's a blog post in the playful, light-hearted style of justforchuckles.blogspot.com."

How silly is it that I was a little flattered that an artificial intelligence described my style as "playful" and "light-hearted?" 

Here's what it came up with. Frankly, I'm appalled. Do I really come off as this ditzy? Have I ever written the sentence "But here's the thing" and ended it with a period instead of a colon before elucidating on the thing? That particular grammatical travesty (not to mention the overall content) makes me sound like a total guppy (see what I did there? you will), and I own the more than fifty years of life I have accumulated on this earth! 

This fake blog post is giving total Gen Z vibes, but it would be even more Gen Z-appropriate if it didn't include any capitals or punctuation--as if I am texting or tweeting (X-ing?) my blog post rather than writing it from a very Gen X, obsessed with grammar and punctuation and a love of diagramming sentences, viewpoint (though, to be fair, it's not reasonable to assume that more than 25% of the Gen X generation are--or have ever been--obsessed with diagramming sentences.) 

For the record, I have never had a goldfish named Bubbles. I would NEVER name a goldfish Bubbles. And the life lesson wee Bubbles has apparently taught me is so insipid that I am hanging my head in shame that, after sorting through all my content, THIS is what an AI thinks I would write. This is a blog post I would have left as a draft and never published because my overthinking self would have been entirely correct. If you read the AI blog post below and can't decide how it differs from my real content, please do not tell me because I will be sick and never write again. Let me continue to live the lie.

Now, buckle up for the life lesson of the ages!

The Strangest Things I’ve Learned From My Pet Goldfish

So, the other day, I found myself in a deep philosophical conversation with my pet goldfish. And no, I’m not kidding. I’m not losing my mind, I swear! My fish, Bubbles (yes, I named him Bubbles), has been teaching me some pretty profound lessons about life. Who knew that a little fish could change the way I look at the world?

1. You Don’t Have To Keep Swimming In Circles

We all know the classic stereotype about goldfish: they swim in circles. They swim, and then they swim some more, and then... yup, they swim some more. But here's the thing. Bubbles has a bit of a rebellious streak. Every once in a while, he’ll just float. Not swim in a circle, not frantically chase a plastic castle (don’t ask), but just float there, in perfect stillness.

And you know what? Sometimes, I think we could all learn something from Bubbles. Life doesn’t always have to be this never-ending sprint. You don’t have to keep swimming in circles, constantly hustling, stressing out, chasing after things. Sometimes, it’s okay to just… float. Chill. Let the water (aka life) carry you for a bit.

2. Everything Can Be Entertaining If You Look Closely Enough

Bubbles is a small fish. He doesn’t do much. But let me tell you, when you watch him carefully, it’s like you’re witnessing a tiny aquatic sitcom. The way he flits around the tank like he’s in a rush to catch the bus, or the way he pauses dramatically in front of his castle (like he’s deep in thought), it’s impossible not to giggle.

It’s a reminder that even the most mundane things can be fascinating if you take the time to appreciate the little details. Whether it's the clouds in the sky or your morning coffee, there’s something fun to notice everywhere—if you're paying attention.

3. Don’t Let the Small Stuff Stress You Out

You ever notice how Bubbles gets upset when his castle is in the wrong place? He’ll swim right up to it, give it a little tap, and then proceed to act like it’s the end of the world. Then, a few minutes later, he’ll forget all about it and continue his day like nothing happened.

It’s hilarious, but also a great life lesson. We all get worked up over little things sometimes, but most of the time, those things aren’t as important as we think. Will that coffee spill matter tomorrow? Will the fact that your pen ran out of ink really ruin your day? Probably not. So, maybe don’t sweat the small stuff. And if you do, remember: tomorrow’s a new day, and you’ll likely forget why you were stressing.

4. Patience Is Key—Especially When It Comes to Feeding Time

Now, this one is a little more selfish on my part, but hear me out. Bubbles has this incredible ability to wait patiently when I drop food into the tank. The moment I approach with the fish flakes, he’s right there at the surface, staring at me like he’s giving me a motivational speech. "You got this, human. You can do it. Just drop the food, and I’ll eat it." No squirming, no frantic jumping. Just zen-like patience.

It got me thinking—if a fish can stay calm when food is literally seconds away, maybe I should try to be a little more patient when things aren’t happening as quickly as I’d like. I’m talking about the "waiting for the weekend" vibe, the "waiting for your food delivery" vibe, or that "waiting for your Netflix show to load" vibe. Bubbles is on to something, I think.

5. Live Your Best Life (Even If Your Best Life Involves Small Tanks)

Lastly, Bubbles lives in a very small fish tank. It’s not luxurious, it’s not even high-tech. It’s just a regular tank with a filter and a plastic castle. But you know what? He’s absolutely thriving. He doesn’t complain. He doesn’t look longingly out the window at the vast ocean (though, to be fair, he has no idea what the ocean is). He’s living his best fish life, and that’s what counts.

It’s a good reminder that happiness doesn’t require grandiose things. You don’t need a mansion, a fancy car, or the latest gadget to enjoy life. Sometimes, the simple things—a tank, some fish flakes, and a plastic castle—are all you really need.

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So, the next time you're having a tough day or feel like life’s just a bit too crazy, think about Bubbles. He’s got it all figured out. Swim when you need to, float when you don’t. Be patient, and don’t forget to laugh at the small things. And remember: If a goldfish can make it through life with a plastic castle and a filter, you can totally conquer whatever your day throws at you.

Until next time, keep swimming (or floating, your choice)!

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Disclaimer: No goldfish were harmed in the making of these life lessons.

End Radio Silence

 I'm still alive! I feel like I should say that first because I've been radio silent for so long.

I don't really have a good reason for not posting more often. Life has been busy, but not unpleasantly so. It's just been day-to-day stuff, although some things have progressed over the last few months. I write drafts to post and then overthink them and end up not posting anything at all.

I have lost almost 70 pounds now, and that feels great. By the middle of May, I will have been taking tirzepatide for a year, so 70 pounds (or a little more by the time I hit my one year mark) is a good--but not crazy--weight loss amount, and I don't feel like I've had any negative side effects from the weekly shot. 

Obviously, I feel better in many ways. Donating my old clothes as they get baggy and then purchasing new clothing I feel is flattering has been a lot of fun. The best thing, however, is that playing with my very active grandsons is much, much easier. Everything is much easier!

Speaking of the grandsons, I love them so much and have such joy in them! Because Sophia lives close by, I get to see her little Bam-Bam at least once a week. I don't get to see Siân's four as much, but it's always a grand time when I can go to their house and hang out with them. We send frequent Marco Polo videos to each other so I can laugh at their antics and feel my heart explode with love for them.

My daughters, sons-in-law, and sons are doing well (or, in Raine's case, not great but better than he was).

Elannah and Gabrielle work together at a large software company, but while Gabrielle has long been hired by the company as a full-time employee, Elannah has been a contractor for the past year, and the end date for her contract was starting to loom large. Fortunately, she was just informed that, because of some personnel changes, she will be hired as a full-time employee before her contract ends, giving her some good job security and a nice pay bump. Also PTO. This is wonderful news because she has been putting her husband through flight school (he recently earned his private pilot's license and is now working on his commercial pilot's license) and they needed that job security. 

Gabrielle's husband, Raine, is the one who was injured during his deployment last year in Djibouti, Africa. He was on duty and was climbing into the back of a truck when the driver hit the gas, which caused Raine to bump his head hard, twice, on both sides of his head, before he flew out of the truck and hit the back of his head very soundly against the ground. Despite being diagnosed with a severe concussion and ordered onto bed rest for three weeks, his commanding officer ignored the order and required him to continue working after only twenty-four hours. After a month or so of severe and constant headaches and nausea, along with terrible insomnia, Raine finally demanded to be allowed to see the doctor again. By this point, his commanding officer, who didn't believe he had been so severely injured and thought Raine was faking it, had spread some nasty rumors around his company, causing his fellow soldiers to treat him poorly. When the base doc took a look at Raine, he immediately ordered him to be sent to the American base in Germany. There, the doctors diagnosed him with a traumatic brain injury as a result of the untreated severe concussion. Raine then spent eight months at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., being treated. He has not seen significant improvement, but the Army recently re-stationed him to the base in Colorado for the duration of his treatment. Hopefully, within another eight or nine months, he will receive his medical discharge. Because he was injured on duty through no fault of his own (in a technical combat zone), and because the outcome of his untreated concussion was also not his fault, he should be receiving a very generous monthly stipend from the Army for the rest of his life, as well as top-quality military health insurance. Meanwhile, by the time he is discharged, he and Gabrielle will have been apart for almost two years. They decided that Gabrielle would not move out to Colorado in order to keep the townhome they're currently renting so Raine can come home to a familiar place. Gabrielle and Raine have become fairly philosophical about it all and are just looking forward to being together again full time and maybe starting a family. The monthly medical check will be very helpful.

Husband and I ran some errands into The Big City today, and Sophia asked if she and Bam-Bam could tag along as her husband works on Saturdays and they were bored. That was so much fun!

My father is on hospice now. He was in so much pain for so long that going on hospice has been a relief. He actually feels a lot better and far more happy. Now they can treat his pain without worrying so much about long-term negative effects of the pain medication on his organs. His quality of life has improved, and he can smile and joke around again. I love my dad so much.

One of the things that has changed recently has made both of my parents very happy:

I have two younger sisters, and one of them (Ann) has lived in The Big City for the last couple decades, and we are very close. My other sister, Adele, has had a rough life. She is a supremely loving and caring person, but she has made some poor choices in men and in life decisions, and those decisions have led to some pretty serious physical problems (if I ever again run into the piece of crap former boyfriend who hurt her years ago and caused her those injuries, heaven help him). She was living in rural Minnesota until a couple months ago, but her car had broken down and she was having a very difficult time getting to necessary medical appointments and refills on her medications, which was causing even more physical and emotional/mental issues. Her current piece of crap boyfriend didn't care and was no help.

My mom bought a good used car, which she registered in Adele's name, and my sister, Ann, and my brother, Aaron, made the drive to bring Adele the car. When my siblings arrived at Adele's place, she saw their faces, looked around at her piece of crap boyfriend and her sad life, and said, "I'm coming back with you." By six o'clock the next morning, she was packed and ready to go, and she is now living with my parents and my two youngest brothers, Aaron (who owns the house) and Thomas, my youngest sibling. Due to her frequent migraines and some other ailments, I was only recently able to see her again at a family party at Siân's house, where she also got to meet her nephews for the first time. It was a great reunion. I'm so glad she's with us, her family, again. When she is able, she is helping take care of the household chores and cooking--along with my amazing brothers--so that my mother (who, even in her late 70s and with capable, grown children, thinks she, as the mother, should take care of everything and everyone) can concentrate on taking care of my dad.

My older son, Joseph, is working for the Census Bureau and making plans for his life. He is a smart, funny, good-hearted young man, and I love the conversations we have when we pass as ships in the late afternoon or early evening--especially when he's teasing me about my woeful ignorance of his generation's meme humor. We had a sad moment today, however, when we had to bury his little parakeet, Dave, who passed away in the night. Husband and I, after discovering a deceased Dave this morning (he had been ailing for a little while), took care of giving him a solemn little burial in the back yard and cleaning up his cage and all his toys to be donated to some other cute little birdie buddy. RIP, Dave. You were the best little parakeet you could be, and I really was very fond of you despite your screeching every time I turned the kitchen sink faucet on and the endless supply of bird seed you scattered onto the floor. The wall behind where your cage hung is sadly empty.

We still have Marmite the Dog, however. He's an old man now, roughly seventeen or eighteen, but he still loves to chase his squeaky toy when I throw it, go on walks, and be right at my side when I'm home. He's almost completely deaf, however, but he now "talks" constantly, usually in a whine as he begs for treats. Also, like an old man, he usually has to pee at some horrible hour of the early morning, and I'm the one he comes to get to let him out. 

Back to my children, though. Gary is almost finished with high school and is still working two jobs as both a student sweeper at his old elementary school on weekdays and at the bakery on Saturdays. He's saving money for a mission. This kid has an amazing capacity to store historical facts, especially as they pertain to world conflicts. He passionately seeks out historical data merely because he is fascinated by it. During a recent car ride, he gave me a thorough education on all the nuances of Japan's involvement in World War II. It was incredibly eye-opening because those were not things I ever learned in my school history classes.

Husband is still teaching fifth graders and I'm still working at the two seminary buildings, loving my job. The new high school and seminary is opening for the next school year, and we just found out who the new seminary principal will be. Now we will start sorting out who the faculty members will be and if I will be the new administrative assistant there, which I'm pretty sure I will be. I'll let you know. I'm currently practicing Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2, movement II, for my next recital in May. I'd also play the third movement if I was a far better pianist and could get it perfected in two months, but that is not going to happen. But I thoroughly enjoy the journey!

I think I'll leave it there. Thanks for stopping by and hanging out! I hope your day has been a good one!