Experiment: Meat Packing

It's 5:45 am and I am in the parking lot of the Deseret Meat Packing Facility in Spanish Fork, Utah.It's dark, starless. I am finishing up my Luna bar and tying my tennis shoes. Jared is rubbing sleep from his eyes. At 6:00, about the same time we have finally gotten warm, we leave the car to enter the plant. It is still dark outside, but inside it is weirdly bright, Pantone 1215. Tall tropical plants, gold nameplates, chairs that don't really get sat in much. The waiting room kind of looks like a mid-90's dentist office. Or it's what we presume is the waiting room, no one is waiting on anyone. "Hello?" we ask. Nada. Then comes a woman, Joan, who is the volunteer coordinator....

Experiment: 30 Day Purge

Day 14Death to Smoochy, Full-screen edition.There are some comedies that stand the test of time.This movie is not one of the...

Experiment: "Leisure" Cards

When Jared and I got married a few months ago, we vowed to do what we hadn't done during the social exclusivity of our engaged relationship--actually get to know our neighbors.I was thinking aloud one night about how quickly We are to disclose our interests, tastes, feelings, photos to a wide digital audience (friends, family, secret blog readers, Facebook acquaintances) but rarely broadcast these same interests to our "analog neighbors" (if you'll allow me the liberty of using that term).The past 3 places I've lived I've barely known the names of my neighbors, let alone their interests or occupations. (It was only when I had to knock on my Morningside Heights neighbor's...

Experiment: 30 Day Purge

Day 4Tory.Most women in their twenties who keep photos of 17-year old boys are called Harry Potter fans.I am called. A total creep.I swiped these out of the yearbook room my senior year of high school. Don't let the androgynous name fool you. As you can see, Tory was all man. Or more likely, I suppose accurately, all teenage boy. And I crushed upon him for a few hot months. The full-bred Italian, the soccer star. The man of the mane.It makes sense - if you abide by a similarly skewed moral logic - for an 18-year old to possess such souvenirs. But I'm pretty sure I had plenty of chances to throw these away since then. And yet, I didn't.Packrat at heart.Packrat of the heart?I...