The NEW Conner News

I'm a little late on this post...

Earth to Audrey

I saw this article on MSNBC and (since I'm at the age where I think about this a lot) I was intrigued. Am I concerned about growing older? Assuming good health, how bothered am I by wrinkles, gray hair, and saggy skin?

I bought a birthday card once (many years ago now) for my husband's brother-in-law that said, "You're at the age where your knees look up and say... (inside) AVALANCHE!" I thought it was hilariously funny--now I know it's also true. Maybe a little too true to be as funny as I once thought. Hmmm. What to do.

I used to say that when I get to the end of the road I want to look like I've been somewhere. I needn't have worried. My eyelids are sagging. The corners of my mouth are drooping. My face started thinning out about 12 years ago. There's excessive skin under my jaw. My eyes seem to be lighter--that washed out look blue eyes get sometimes. What little eyebrows I ever had are totally out of the picture. And I think my ears are getting bigger. "You look like your mother." has taken on oh so much more meaning... Ah well. (Good thing I have a good-lookin' mother!)

Here's my "beauty" regimen at 49 years and 10 months:
I wash my face with water. Just water. Grammie B. did it and so shall I. :)
I have recently (day before yesterday) started using a toner to "minimize the appearance of pores."
I always use a facial moisturizer in the morning. It's called Myra E and runs about $2.75. I think it's a product of the Philippines, but I haven't noticed that I look any whiter, so I'm not sure.
I pull out the gray hairs that I can see. I try not to look too closely.
I get my hair cut whenever I get to the point that I "can't stand it anymore" and about twice a year I have a hot oil treatment. At the salon. No kidding.
My eyebrows are put on with a brush, I use a little eyeliner and lipstick. On Sundays I go all out and add mascara.

I do drink lots of water--probably 8 to 12 cups a day--and try to remember to smile. Some beauty tips work for everybody. (Thanks for the reminder Audrey.)


I don't think I'd ever try anything along the lines of cosmetic surgery, injections, etc., but you know what they say...never say never. After seeing some of the celebrities in the article referenced above I think I'd break all the mirrors in the house first.

Are you concerned about signs of aging?

Perceptions

I just got this email forward from a friend.

For those of you who have been watching the news and may have wondered....

Some Mormon women sing...

Some Mormon women dance...

Some Mormon women write scary stories...

Some Mormon women have lots of money and really great hair...

I know hundreds of Mormon women. They do all kinds of different things and live all different kinds of lives.

This woman served as a leader in the Mormon church. She recently spoke to teenage girls worldwide. She encouraged them to stand up to peer pressure, strengthen their families and serve others. (Click here for more.)

None of the Mormon women I know look like this...

None of them are marrying off their teenage daughters and-- although some may joke about wanting a sister-wife (preferably one who is really fat & ugly, does bathrooms and changes diapers)--none of them really want to share their husband with anyone.


Furthermore...

Some Mormon guys can throw a ball...

Some Mormon guys yell at the ball...

Some Mormon guys make scary movies...

Some Mormon guys have a lot of money and really great hair...

I know hundreds of Mormon guys. They do all kinds of different things and live all kinds of different lives.

This is one of the leaders of the Mormon church. Last Sunday he spoke about honoring women, especially mothers, and gave advice to husbands and children about how to treat the women in their lives. (For the whole story, click here.)

None of the Mormon men I know look like this...

The Mormon men I know are honest and hard-working. They don't cheat, smoke, drink or gamble. And TRUST ME....the last thing any of them want is another wife.

My 2 Cents

Okay, well, yes. Even though everything in the previous post is true, the tone was set more by the fact that I was tired and just felt like complaining.

It looks like there won't be an island-wide blackout--at least not this weekend. According to this morning's paper, CUC (Commonwealth Utility Corp.) was able to buy another 1300+ barrels of fuel to help tide us over. There will be rolling blackouts, probably for an indefinite period, but we've gotten used to those and they're not really that big of a deal as long as CUC sticks to the schedule (ahem). It's usually only for a couple of hours a day. Sometimes twice a day....

Actually, this could turn out to be a time of opportunities. The major problem here on island is the government. The government is run by the indigenous minority--the majority of the people here are non-resident (hence non-voting) contract workers. People get into office--and there are a few exceptions--by courting the votes of their extended family with promises of jobs or forgiveness of debts (including tax debts), and sometimes with just cases of beer. I think generally they make good on the job promises because the government is bloated with deadwood employees who haven't got the skills or education to do anything even if they had the gumption. Which they don't.

In the effort to come up with enough jobs to fill those promises, the government has made itself the provider of many services that would be better supplied by private companies (i.e., utilities). Initially, this may also have been because there was nobody else interested in supplying the service, but over time it became the status quo. The heads of these services departments are appointed by the governor so there is a massive turnover every four years. For instance, the head of the health department may be a Health Administrator or a medical doctor or just someone the governor really owes and is stupid enough to think they can run a hospital/public health department. CUC is supposedly a semi-autonomous agency, but ultimately the governor can run the show and pretty much does.

So the problems we have now with CUC, PSS (public school system), CHC (health), etc., are the results of years of inconsistent, politically-driven leadership. Every time someone gets in that seems to know what they're doing, they often get booted when a new governor comes regardless of if they are in the process of getting things on track or not.

So, the opportunity part. What I think is that if things get bad enough (and you'd think we'd have been there and back again by now), that the government will have to let go of some of the services they've been hanging on to (like hemo, emergency medical services, utilities, etc.), and let private companies have at it. If the government would get out of the private businesses way (like putting exhorbitant fees on RFP's for privatization of power), then maybe we can still pull out of this mess.

I also think that the time may ripe for more non-native islander legislators. I've heard one idea of getting rid of everyone on Capital Hill and hiring something along the lines of a city manager/professional management company to come in and take over.

Islanders are much more complacent than people in the U.S., but maybe as they lose desired services, prices climb higher and higher, and many of those who were "gifted" jobs lose them they will let go of the "family" voting and get real.

How much is a rain barrel anyway?

State of The Commonwealth

We went to the movies tonight. All of us. In fact pretty much the whole island community. The occasion? Closing night. Tomorrow the movie theater will close. Maybe for 30 days or maybe for good. The Tribune said the theater was due to "inexplicably shut down." We had a laugh about that. The Variety said "insurmountable utilities cost" and just generally the poor economy here on Saipan. That's pretty much what we all figured.

There may not be any school tomorrow. There may not be any power tomorrow. The public utility was unable to pay for enough fuel to last until the next scheduled delivery and they expect to run out tomorrow. Of course, with nobody having any power that they have to pay for this could become a never-ending cycle. Will they ever have enough money to supply the whole island again? Case wrote a report for the hospital detailing the foreseeable problems that would be caused by an extended power outage. The big problem will be water, which is a problem here even on good days. Cholera (among other things) may take a little jump, but hey, at least we won't freeze to death.

And the governor has postponed his State of The Commonwealth address until May 3. Why bother?

Hittin' the Big Time

Levi's in Los Angeles. California. He just signed a contract for his band, Million Year Echo, to do 3 demo songs for Epic/Sony Records. They have flown Levi and Alan (band member, co-songwriter, friend), to L.A. for 10 days to work with a producer to see if they can come up with a hit song. Levi can. Yup.

Stay tuned...

We Love You Mal!

Adventure Beach

Eden

I Wish I Had . . .

The Holidays 2007

This one is for the kids--the tradition is: buy the biggest turkey we can find. This isn't the biggest we ever had, but it's definitely the biggest we've found since living on Saipan. Also, everybody, including all the guests, gets their favorite pie--or two.... (unless their favorite is lemon meringue--try making that in 75% humidity!) We don't worry much about leftovers because on Thanksgiving night we invite even more people over for Pie Night (i.e., bring your leftover pies and come share our leftover pies).

Since we live in the tropics, a trip to the beach can always be on the schedule. Of course, the kids would love to be in the snow--the youngest ones don't remember ever having seen snow in real life. They used to bring in a shipment from Japan every year and have a snow festival at La Fiesta Mall, but not anymore.

A cookie exchange for Ladies Only. We placate our families with the promise of bringing home treats. Everyone brings a big batch of a holiday cookies and goes home with a big container of a whole variety of beautiful Christmas cookies. I did my one and only cookie exchange (prior to this) about 3 or 4 years ago and this one came about by special request. This may be an every 3 or 4 year tradition--we'll see.

Our family participated in the holiday musical Scrooge this year with our community theater.

It was a lot of work and there was a little complaining about having to go to rehearsals, but it was worth it in the end. We put on 5 performances over a 6 day period. Phew!

The fabled "School Christmas Program." Yes, that's Jake in a skirt.

You'll have to be an AC/DC fan to really understand this...

The Seminary Christmas Auction ...

The Branch Christmas Party...

Christmas Eve Dessert...Pavlova--Yum!!

Christmas morning Santa...& helper..

If our walls look a little bare it's because I had the brilliant idea that since the furniture was all moved out of the livingroom to accommodate our Thanksgiving day guests it would be a great time to paint the main rooms of the house. And the ceilings. And the ceiling fans. (It's an open floor plan, so the kitchen, diningroom, and livingroom all had to be done at once.) So we began painting during Scrooge production week...the first week of December...between Pie Night and Cookie Party...I must be nuts.

During school break we attended

the first-ever-on-Saipan Cubmobile Races.

Team T-Bone wins!

No New Year's Eve pictures this year, but we did have the party. Every year I vow that we are NOT going to have a New Year's Eve Party because of all the kids (it's always a family party), and fireworks (you can buy BIG ones here), but somehow it keeps happening. This year we didn't buy any fireworks--not even sparklers--but I knew that people would bring them because they always do. NOBODY brought ANY! That was fine with me. I, however, was the Scrooge of New Year's Eve according to the home team. Forget the fact that we can see all the fireworks for miles around from our deck and (at least I) enjoyed a beautiful show this year. Oh well. Happy New Year kids!

All the Happenings--

Here are some photos from today's Saipan Tribune.

T-BONE RULES: Members of Team Bumblebee and Team T-Bone, composed of boys between the ages 8-10, pose for the camera after the first ever cubmobile race on Saipan Saturday. Team T-Bone had the fastest time and won trophies. Team Bumblebee was given rubber snakes as consolation prizes. (Contributed Photo)

SCROOGE'S STOOGES: Scrooge's stooges Harold (Jacob Conner), Richard (Sam Conner) and Thomas (Tommy Baik) perform as Scrooge (Leo Goode, Jr.) and Christmas present (Bree Reynolds) look on during the Friends of the Arts' second production of the much-loved Christmas musical Scrooge at the Charley's Cabaret of the Pacific Islands Club. (Jacqueline Hernandez)

Being Monk-ish

Uh-oh. My OCD is showing. This morning I ended up at Price Costco about 5 minutes before opening, so I grabbed a cart and settled in to wait with the little group that had gathered to get their shopping out of the way early in the day. I knew right away that the shopping cart I had chosen so carelessly was a reject, so I quickly pushed it to the side and pulled out the next one. It rattled too loudly--no way was I going to stroll around PC with that! I felt a little self-conscious pulling on the next cart, but what could I do? It came out easily, but a little unevenly. I gave it a little shove as I strolled nonchalantly around to the other line of carts, hoping nobody would notice. (i.e., "What is the crazy American lady doing?" Oh well. At least I can't understand them.) I groaned inwardly as I realized that the next cart I pulled out was horribly unacceptable. I could see now though that just a couple of carts away was one that looked relatively new, so I quickly tugged on the two intervening carts to move them out of my way and, sure enough, slid out the cart of choice. It glided smoothly and quietly as I turned to the faces of my fellow-shoppers. The lady closest to me (an islander) smiled what seemd to me to be an understanding smile.

And then there's my bed pillow compulsion. . . .

THANKS-giving.

Fourteen pies (Kait made the two pumpkins AND rolled out the crust for several others), 32 for dinner, and 1 Pie Night open house later and we've once again come happily through what is possibly the favorite holiday in our household (actually it's an impossible-to-call-it tie between Thanksgiving and Christmas).

So much to be thankful for and so little ability to express it:

• Alexa's home. She arrived at 3:30 A.M. last Sunday morning. The kids didn't know. The day before was Ezra's birthday, and since we were pressed for time to do all the things we had going for that day, I had told him that we would give him breakfast in bed on Sunday morning (it's kind of like birthday cake in our family--it may not be everyone's favorite thing, but it's expected by both the givers and the receiver), and I'd get a special surprise for him. Anyway, so we had 6 Japanese high school athletes staying with us that weekend (OK, so there's a thing or two that happens here that I don't get around to blogging about--yatahay), so our boys were all sleeping in Sam's room. The girls got up to make Ez's breakfast, and we took it down with a cheery rendition of "Happy Birthday". We just stood there chatting for a while and trying to wake up Sam and Jake (teenagers sleep like newborns--awake when you'd like them to sleep and vice-versa), when Kait asked me what the special surprise was for Ezra. "Oh yeah. Just a second, I'll go get it." So I ran down to my room where Lex was sleeping and told her that we had a little window of opportunity to totally surprise the rest of the kids. She got up and grabbed the gifts she had brought for Ez and you should have seen those faces when she walked in the room!!! It was so fun! For a second everything just stopped, and then Kait threw herself at Lex and held on. She kept her eyes squeezed shut like she was afraid of waking up from a dream. Jacob kept saying, "It's Alexa! It's Alexa! Sam wake up! It's Alexa!" and wiping his eyes with a shirt I had tossed to him (he was still under the sheets). The little kids were just watching with big grins on their faces as if they weren't quite sure what was going on--it was great!

• Wonderful friends. Not the least of which happens to be my husband. I learn so much that I need to know and understand and work on from watching my friends and they are so kind and patient and tolerant of me that it just amazes me sometimes. I'm also grateful for the ability to store these friends in my memories and recall those incredible people who aren't physically near me anymore for whatever reason and the things I gleaned from my association with them.

• Time and perspective. I don't think I'm particularly slow to understand concepts, but I am very slow to put them into practice. My aunt used to say, "Oh, if I only lived as well as I know." But I can look back on my life from here at almost 50 and see that in many things I am better--I am kinder, more empathetic, even stronger in some ways. I'm thankful that the Lord has given me the time to have the experiences that have helped to polish off at least some of the rough places.

• The ability to realize my blessings. I knew that the Lord doesn't think or act the way we do and many blessings I asked for came in the form of trials, but I found that I was having a hard time recognizing these things. So I asked the Lord to help me so I would have the joy that comes from feeling grateful. He did and I do. Very grateful.

He Just KILZ Me!

We've had a great week. Thursday was our 27th wedding anniversary and we went "away" for a few days and stayed at a resort here on island. It was so fun--we went kayaking and snorkeling and played at the waterpark...Case said it would make up for all the anniversary dinners we ate at Sam's Club. Actually, I never minded the Sam's Club dinners....

Anyway, his mind must have still been on vacation when he was getting ready for church this morning. I was at the bathroom sink putting on my makeup and he was ironing his white shirt. I heard him get out the spray starch, but I guess I was too focused on what I was doing to notice the irregularity of hearing a mixing bead rattle as he shook the can. The next thing I know Casey's saying, "Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!" Yup. Luckily he noticed that he had sprayed his shirt with KILZ primer before he laid the iron to it--what a mess that would have been! It actually did a pretty good job of sizing the shirt while covering stains at the same time, but the shade was slightly off. It was the only good white shirt he had, so he quickly pulled a blue shirt out of the closet and hurried out the door.

He told some of the guys at church what had happened. When he said that he had accidentally sprayed paint on his shirt one Filipino brother simply asked, "What color?"

Need I Say More?

Well...it HAS been a little rainy...

Check out these familiar faces on www.youtube.com.

Been There, Done That...

This was taken from the "You Know You're From Maine If..." group on http://www.facebook.com/. It's the best one I've seen--I've made additions in red.

You know you're from Maine if:

• You've had arguments over the comparative quality of Fried Dough.
• You're favorite ice cream is grapenut.
• You call four inches of snow "a dusting."
• You don't "shovel" snow, you "dig out."
• You don't understand why there aren't fried clam shacks elsewhere in the county.
• You know what an Irving is and the location of 15 of them.
• "I saw him go." has an "r" sound in it, but "My foot is sore." does not.
• You knew all the flavors at Perry's Nut House.
• Your car is covered in yellow-green dust in May.
• Your favorite smell is clam flats at low tide.
• You can drive the Augusta traffic circle without slowing down.
• You've hung out at a gravel pit.
• You think a mosquito could be a species of bird.
• You once skipped school and went to Bar Harbor, Old Orchard Beach or Reid State Park.
• Even your school cafeteria made good chowder.
• You've almost fallen asleep driving between Houlton and Presque Isle.
• You know how to pronounce Calais.
• You've made a meal out of a Jordan's red dye hot-dog, a bag of Humpty Dumpty potato chips and a can of soda.
• You've gone to a Grange bean supper.
• Baked beans ARE supper.
• In high school, you (or a friend) packed Deering Ice Cream cones.
• At least once in your life, a seagull pooped on your head.
• At least once in your life you've said, "It smells like the mill in here."
• There's a fruit and vegetable stand within 10 minutes of your house.
• You crave Italian sandwiches at least weekly.
• Your house converts to a B&B every July and August for people from away that you happen to know.
• All year long you're tracking sand in the house-from the beach in the summer and the roads and sidewalks in the winter.
• You have to have the sand cleaned out of your brake system every spring.
• You do the majority of your shopping out of Uncle Henry's.
• You've ditched the car on the side of the road somewhere because you thought you saw some good fiddleheads!
• You know a lobster pot is a trap, not a kettle.
• You know not to plant tender crops until the last full moon in May.
• You go to the dump and bring back more than you brought.
• You've watched "Murder she Wrote" and snickered at the stupid fake accents.
• You know how to find the rope swing at the quarry.
• You take the New Hampshire toll personally.
• You always wave when you see a Maine license plate in another state.
• When you're supposed to dress up, you wear flannel with a tie.
• There's too much "stuff" in your 2 "cah" garage to get either of your cars into it.
• You know what a frappe is.
• L.L. Bean's not just a store, it's a way of life.
• "The City" means exclusively Portland.
• "Salt damage" is a viable insurance claim.
• All of the traffic lights blink yellow at 10 o'clock at night.
• It's not a storm - it's a Nor'eastah.
• "Open 24/7" might as well be Greek.
• More stores have "Bienvenue" flags than "Welcome" flags.
• You eat ice cream with flavors like 'Moose Tracks" and "Maine Black Bear".
• You know that a chocolate doughnut is not a white doughnut with chocolate frosting.
• You wouldn't eat beans in tomato sauce or Manhattan clam chowder if you were starving!
• As a child, you played outside in a snow storm without hat, mittens, scarf and with your jacket open because it was just a little cool.
• The area around your back door is referred to as "the dooryard".
• You eat potato chips with flavors such as "clam dip", "ketchup" and "dill pickle".
• You call the basement "downcellah."
• There is only one shopping plaza in town. .
• You use "wicked" as a multipurpose part of speech
• Your pickup has more mud on it then the ground around it for a 15 foot radius.
• More than 1/2 the meat in your freezer is moose.
• You enjoy a hot chocolate more than a margarita.
• If your "luxury vehicle" is a twelve-year-old rustbucket on wheels.
• If your dog eats better than you do, and more often too.
• If you never say what you paid for an item but how much you "give" for it.
• You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from Maine.

The Benchmark Photo

In case anyone has noticed the beautiful fall photo to the left (Mal)....yes it is the footbridge in Somesville, MDI. Sigh.

INTRIGUE!

The 5 most intriguing things--things that I wonder about and seem to puzzle me a bit right now (given in no particular order):

1. The Twilight series by Stephenie Myers. Maybe I'm behind the times, but I only heard of this book recently and frankly I wasn't much interested--vampires and stuff that I was into at 13. Then I learned that it had wrested the #1 spot on the YA bestseller list from Harry Potter 7. Hmmmm....and with nowhere near the hype....they're on their way to a mailbox near me right now.
2. Facebook. What a phenomenon this thing has become. When Mal got me to sign up for it several months ago, it was just a college cyber-hangout. Now each time I log in I half expect to see a friend request from my mother!
3. Casinos on Saipan--is this good or bad? I honestly don't know (which is intriguing to me all in itself considering what a die-hard Mormon conservative I am). I've only got a few more weeks to figure this one out.
4. The Old Testament--it's this year's Church Education System course of study. This book always intrigues me and I guess it always will. It challenges my views of right and wrong and how much of what I understand along those lines are God-given and how much are societal norms (i.e., my own perceptions). It forces me to think "outside the box." (Of course, I tend to live in a pretty small box.)
5. Bloggers--they're ALIVE! It's weird to think of this medium as being as powerful as it is seeming to become. It's kind of morphing from journal to soapbox to...well, I'm not sure what, but it's certainly become more than an online "log".

Book Club

I have joined a book club that a friend of mine has just started. Our first meeting was a couple of weeks ago and there were only five of us there, which I actually think is a good group. If there are too many there begin to be groups within the group.

I really need to do this...I need the motivation not just to expand my reading, but I think that the discussions will help me put what I read more firmly in my mind (i.e., "Wait...have I read it? No. Wait. Maybe I did. Wait. What's it about? Oh no. I haven't read it. Oh? Maybe I did read it...yes. I definitely did. Wait. I don't remember that...maybe I'm thinking of some other book...). You get the picture.

I also need to expand my acquaintances here on island. I'm a great one to know [enough to call them friends] only the people I go to church with. That's it. I don't work outside of my home and most of the people I know from my kids' school are also people who go to my church, soooo...well, it's good for me. It's easy for me to let my life involve only my own family and to be perfectly honest I have such an interesting and compassionate friend in my husband I rarely feel like I have a need for other close friends as confidantes or companions. I've kind of overlooked the idea that as well as having friends it's important to be a friend...the ladies in the book club are very nice, intelligent women and I really look forward to hearing their insights and opinions.

Here are some of the books discussed at our first meeting where we basically came with titles we wanted to suggest:

Much Ado About Nothing (we're starting with this since it's so easily available--we have to allow adequate time for shipping any books that we may have to order.)
Les Miserable
My Name is Asher Lev
Promise
Chosen
Devita's Heart
3 Swans (I loved this book when I read it several years ago.)
Man's Search for Meaning-Frankel
Agony and Ectasy- Stone (One of the few books I've actually read twice, but about 25+ years ago!)
Salt- Mark Kavanski
Fire in the Bones
The Shelter of Each Other