It always comes down to who you know, not what you know...

I'm so happy that nepotism is alive and well in Utah.

Really, I am; because without it, I wouldn't have had one of the most interesting mornings since I got here.

I have been struggling with some access issues where I am based.  Very specific issues, with specific people, who insist on setting themselves up as gatekeepers and then withhold access to the places they've been promising to bring me for (six) months.  Frustrating as hell.  To be fair, I have had some great access to other parts of the organisation - it's just this one specific area (and one particular person) who's proving to be problematic.

Anyway, I was talking about nepotism.  A woman that I've become friendly with here brought me to a St Patrick's Day party (the irony of being the only Irish person in the house at a St Patrick's party!) and introduced me to another of her friends who works at a fairly prestigious research hospital.  We were talking shop for a little while and she offered to show me around the facility so that I could see how things are done in other places apart from where I am.  Yeay!  A bit of rounding out.

So this morning, I met her at 7.  (Yes, 7.  In the morning.  In order to get to the hospital on time, I had to get the Trax at 6:30, but the first bus past my road isn't until 6:40, which meant I had to walk twelve blocks (about 3km), which meant I had to leave my house this morning before 6!!!)  She brought me to a treatment planning conference and then brought me on a full tour of the facility - hospital and research institute - and introduced me to heaps of people.  She spent 3 hours with me this morning, showing me everything and talking me though a lot of the specifics that I was seeing.  Fantastic.

And what did I have to do to get this amazing treatment?  Apply for a Fellowship?  Request special permissions?  No.  All I needed to do was serendipitously meet the right person at the right party.  Proving yet again that it's rarely about what you know, and more often about who you know.  And for once, at least, I'm very pleased about that.  :) Happy day!

It's completely true...

My favourite tshirt.
Never fails to get a grin.
Especially from other sexyglex wearers.

For added irony (in the Alannis Morrissette sense), I also wear it when I'm wearing my contact lenses...

In more recent news...

My parents came to visit me last week - I don't think I've been so excited to see them EVER!  I was like a small child the day before my birthday on the day I was due to go to the airport and pick them up.  Like me, I don't think they were expecting much from Utah, what with it being soooooo high on everyone's list of places-to-see-before-you-die!  By the time they were going, I think they'd been won over by the sheer beauty of the state - even if there is some deep oddness that goes with it.  (Is there a Nobel prize equivalent for understatement?  I think I deserve one!)

They arrived on Tuesday night and on Wednesday, I met them for lunch and then we went for a wander around Temple Square (because you have to, right?  It would be like not going to Agia Sofia or the Blue Mosque when you go to Istanbul/Constantinople, or skipping the Acropolis in Athens) and a tour of the Beehive House.  That was hilarious!  Two lovely girls trying to put the hard-sell on me, my dad, and some other guy who was doing the tour: "What religion were you brought up?"  My ingrained Catholic guilt made me reply "Catholic, sorry", when I've been practicing for months that the next time I get asked that question, I'll answer "I'm a Pastafarian, but my husband and kids are Jedi".  Bah!  Now I'll have to go back so that I can have my ésprit d'éscalier moment.  Goddammit!

Tabernacle - Organ Recital

Thursday, I met the folks at the Tabernacle for an Organ Recital.  That was impressive.  The acoustics in there are incredible.

Dad wanted to get a nice jacket, or rather, Mam wanted Dad to get a nice jacket, so I suggested a suit shop that I've passed on the bus every morning for the past six months, not realising it was a Mormon clothes shop.  Seriously!

Click for larger view and see just what
a missionary can get for under $700!

That evening, we went to watch the Tabernacle Choir rehearsing.  They were in the Conference Centre for that and while the acoustics weren't as good as in the Tabernacle, it was still an amazing spectacle.  I tried to upload a short video here, but the technology gods are not on my side unfortunately.

Friday morning, we hit the road and headed south to Moab.  Dad and I hiked around Arches National Park, and this time, I got to do the Park Avenue trail and actually climbed up to Delicate Arch: it was so worth it!  We had dinner in Moab, before heading 50 miles further south to our (dingy) motel in Monticello.

Park Avenue trail

Me at Delicate Arch

Next morning, an early rise, and back up to Moab where I ran the Canyonlands half-marathon in 2:04, a personal best, thank you very much!

At the starting line

At the finishing line
(I'm going by my chip time... I started WAY back!)

That afternoon, I took the folks to Dead Horse Point and Dad and I took the trail across the headland to the Point, while Mam met us there with the car.  Thank Jeebus that she did, because by that stage, I don't think I had the energy left to trek the mile and a half back to the Visitor Centre!

Mam & Dad at Dead Horse Point

We stayed in Moab that night and on Sunday went back south to the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park, stopping off at Newspaper Rock on the way.

Newspaper Rock
Needles District, Canyonlands 

I hadn't been to either of these before and they were really impressive.  We couldn't go up to the actual Needles, because that would have been a full day's hike and we weren't really in that sort of mood.  Also, my legs were still a bit stiff from the day before, but we did several of the shorter trails (between half a mile and 3 miles each) and had some amazing views of the Needles in the distance.

Needles District, Canyonlands

Needles District, Canyonlands

Wooden Shoe Bridge
Needles District, Canyonlands

Back to Moab that evening and on Monday morning, we set off for the Island in the Sky in the northern end of the Canyonlands National Park.  Visibility was very poor this day, with high winds and sand blowing up to obscure much of the view, but it was pretty incredible all the same.  I'll just have to make sure to bring my Jedi family back here when they arrive in 3 weeks (EXCITED!!!).

Grand View
Island in the Sky, Canyonlands

Green River
Island in the Sky, Canyonlands

Mesa Arch
Island in the Sky, Canyonlands

View through Mesa Arch
Island in the Sky, Canyonlands

Schaffer Canyon Trail (yes, that is a road!)
Island in the Sky, Canyonlands

We drove back to Salt Lake City that evening, via Highway 128, which runs along the Colorado River and is the route of both half-marathons that I've run in Utah.  It was lovely to drive up there safe in the knowledge that I wasn't about to get thrown out of a bus and made to run back to town!  

Highway 128

Highway 128

I took a sneaky day off work on Tuesday and chilled out with the folks, cooking a big ol' dinner and my roommate Linh, her fiancé Pete, and my friend Sarah came over to meet my parents and eat and drink and generally be merry.  Mam and Dad dropped me to work on Wednesday morning on their way to the airport and I'm still here, while they're off having fun in Richmond, Virginia now.  Lucky ducks.

It's been a while

I've been meaning to put up a couple of posts to update y'all on my exploits state-side. I finally decided to just get on with it, instead of procrastinating further and was horrified to realise that it's been over a month since I blogged.  Horror!

To follow up on my last post, I am growing to love my (not-so-)new MehBook. I don't think I'm going to rename it though, even if it no longer generates ambivalent feelings of 'meh!' for me.

Catching beads at a Mardi Gras parade

So, last time, I was just about to head towards New Orleans for Mardi Gras, I mean, a Fulbright Enrichment Seminar. It was a brilliant weekend - so much fun, such a great city, and a chance to reconnect with some fairly new friends and make a couple of brand new ones. On the Thursday night, there was a welcome reception with the Mayor of New Orleans. Friday morning was spent working on local community rebuilding projects - my group was assigned to City Park, where we helped re-establish nature trails through replanted growth. It seemed a bit of a shallow task, given some of the other groups were helping with actual rebuilding projects and replanting the bayous, but the whole park was decimated during Katrina and there are only 3 full-time employees to look after the 1,300 acre park. It's an amazing amenity, close to the centre of New Orleans, and has been salvaged mostly thanks to the efforts of volunteers, so worthy enough! In the afternoon, there was some seminar stuff to deal with, followed by dinner and dancing at a local hostelry. Saturday morning brought us on a tour of the Make It Right Foundation's work in the Lower Ninth Ward. This was a strange experience for me: I felt like a voyeur, traipsing around this neighbourhood. Parts of it are still flattened, and interspersed are the most amazing futuristic sustainable houses. The work that's being done is inspiring, but the scale of what's left to be done, five years post-Katrina, is heart breaking. The Foundation started up about 3 years ago and has received around $35million from private donors; they received their first federal funds eight months ago. Eight. Months. Ago. Shocking. I think the most poignant and evocative thing I saw that morning (out of a lot of disturbing and upsetting images) was the grassy corner lot, with just the remains of a concrete garden path leading to a badly damaged and weather beaten wooden door propped up by some breeze blocks. I wish I'd had my camera with me for that one.  Saturday afternoon was spent doing more seminar stuff and then, we had a police escort through New Orleans to get us to our garden party dinner at an old St Charles Avenue mansion, while we watched two parades go by outside. Mighty craic!

Photo in the mirror: Fulbrighters from around the world

Sunday was spent in the traditional pass-time of getting over my hangover, wandering around town, enjoying some more parades, trying the local hangover-cure/fast food (deep fried oyster po-boy, surprisingly undisgusting) and otherwise keeping myself entertained until it was time to head back to the airport and come back to the excitement and freezing temperatures of Salt Lake City...  Whooo-hoooo!