I arrived at 12:01am Saturday, to hear the jubilant cheers of other Harry Potter zealots celebrating the first sales of the seventh book. Andria, humoring me, waited in line with me, around the corner of the building. Thirty-five minutes later, I had my thick, orange copy in my arm. After driving home and enduring some gentle teasing from Justin about my devotion to the boy hero, I started to read.
I read, without getting tired until 5:30am, slept a bit, then read every second I got (and I got a lot of them) until 11pm Saturday.
I won't say anything more to spare you from spoilers. But as soon as you finish, let me know, so we can talk about it!
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
dragons
Juma: Dragons are real, you know.
Sarah: Are they? How do you know?
Juma: Because.
Sarah: I thought they were just pretend. Is there any evidence that dragons are real? Where do they live?
Juma: They live in Africa.
Sarah: Really? I've been to Africa, but I've never seen any dragons.
Juma: They're really hard to see.
Sarah: Are they invisible?
Juma: No. They just have camouflage. Really good camouflage.
Sarah: Oh! But what do they eat?
Juma: pause Elephants.
Sarah: Wow. Let's talk about that some more. What evidence so we have that they are real, and what evidence do we have that they are pretend?
Juma: They're real! Uh-huh, they are!
Sarah: Hmm. Well, I've never seen one in a science book. How come scientists haven't seen them?
Juma: Camouflage.
Sarah: But if scientists thought they were really real, I bet they'd try really hard to find one, so they could take pictures and study them.
Juma: They live far, far away in Africa.
Sarah: So do giraffes and lions and hippos, but we've seen all those.
Juma: They hide real good. In the grass. They have lots of little green spikes that come out all over, looks like grass.
Sarah: Then how come we haven't seen any dragon bones, like we do for dinosaurs, mammoths, horses?
Juma: They sink way down, down, down into the ground.
Sarah: Oh? How come the dinosaur fossils didn't sink way down?
Juma: The dragon bones are really, really heavy.
Sarah: If the bones are so heavy, how do they fly and walk?
Juma: Well, they're kind of heavy, and kind of light.
Sarah: I see. You know where I've seen dragons? In books of pretend stories.
Juma: trying to please me They're just pretend.
Sarah: People talk about them in make-believe, and that's okay! It's really fun to believe in make-belief stuff, and tell stories about them. Dragons are cool in stories!
Juma: They're real.
Sarah: Well, we don't have evidence that they are. And we do have evidence that they aren't. Do you know what evidence we have that they aren't?
Juma: shakes head
Sarah: Well, lots of people all over the world have stories about dragons. But in those stories, the dragons are always different. In China, in Africa, in Europe, always different. Even the dragon you told me about, it's different. That tells me the dragons are in people's imaginations. 'Cause horses? In all the stories that have horses, they're always the same. They look like the horses we know about in real life.
Juma: slight dismayed But they're real.
Sarah: It's okay to think about dragons, honey. They're fun, aren't they?
The next day, Juma was having a conversation about dinosaurs with his cousins. He turned to me.
Juma: to Sarah, earnestly Wait, how do we know dinosaurs are real?
Sarah: Because we can see their bones.
Juma: satisfied Oh, right. Right. Dinosaurs are real.
Sarah: Are they? How do you know?
Juma: Because.
Sarah: I thought they were just pretend. Is there any evidence that dragons are real? Where do they live?
Juma: They live in Africa.
Sarah: Really? I've been to Africa, but I've never seen any dragons.
Juma: They're really hard to see.
Sarah: Are they invisible?
Juma: No. They just have camouflage. Really good camouflage.
Sarah: Oh! But what do they eat?
Juma: pause Elephants.
Sarah: Wow. Let's talk about that some more. What evidence so we have that they are real, and what evidence do we have that they are pretend?
Juma: They're real! Uh-huh, they are!
Sarah: Hmm. Well, I've never seen one in a science book. How come scientists haven't seen them?
Juma: Camouflage.
Sarah: But if scientists thought they were really real, I bet they'd try really hard to find one, so they could take pictures and study them.
Juma: They live far, far away in Africa.
Sarah: So do giraffes and lions and hippos, but we've seen all those.
Juma: They hide real good. In the grass. They have lots of little green spikes that come out all over, looks like grass.
Sarah: Then how come we haven't seen any dragon bones, like we do for dinosaurs, mammoths, horses?
Juma: They sink way down, down, down into the ground.
Sarah: Oh? How come the dinosaur fossils didn't sink way down?
Juma: The dragon bones are really, really heavy.
Sarah: If the bones are so heavy, how do they fly and walk?
Juma: Well, they're kind of heavy, and kind of light.
Sarah: I see. You know where I've seen dragons? In books of pretend stories.
Juma: trying to please me They're just pretend.
Sarah: People talk about them in make-believe, and that's okay! It's really fun to believe in make-belief stuff, and tell stories about them. Dragons are cool in stories!
Juma: They're real.
Sarah: Well, we don't have evidence that they are. And we do have evidence that they aren't. Do you know what evidence we have that they aren't?
Juma: shakes head
Sarah: Well, lots of people all over the world have stories about dragons. But in those stories, the dragons are always different. In China, in Africa, in Europe, always different. Even the dragon you told me about, it's different. That tells me the dragons are in people's imaginations. 'Cause horses? In all the stories that have horses, they're always the same. They look like the horses we know about in real life.
Juma: slight dismayed But they're real.
Sarah: It's okay to think about dragons, honey. They're fun, aren't they?
The next day, Juma was having a conversation about dinosaurs with his cousins. He turned to me.
Juma: to Sarah, earnestly Wait, how do we know dinosaurs are real?
Sarah: Because we can see their bones.
Juma: satisfied Oh, right. Right. Dinosaurs are real.
Friday, July 13, 2007
sneaking
Juma: Mom, I'm good at sneaking candy.
Sarah: You were sneaking candy behind my back?
Juma: Not your back! I was sneaking it behind my back.
Sarah: You were sneaking candy behind my back?
Juma: Not your back! I was sneaking it behind my back.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
the amazing new super hero
Sarah: Juma, finish up your lunch.
Juma: No!
Sarah: Are you hungry?
Juma: No!
Sarah: Please finish. Then we can go play with your cousins at Grandma's house.
Juma: I don't want to!
Sarah: I think you're tired.
Juma: No, I'm not!
Sarah: I think you should be a superhero: Contrary Man. Yep, that's your super power, to be contrary.
Juma: I am not!
Juma: No!
Sarah: Are you hungry?
Juma: No!
Sarah: Please finish. Then we can go play with your cousins at Grandma's house.
Juma: I don't want to!
Sarah: I think you're tired.
Juma: No, I'm not!
Sarah: I think you should be a superhero: Contrary Man. Yep, that's your super power, to be contrary.
Juma: I am not!
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
hp
My name is Sarah, and I'm a Harry Potter addict. I bought tickets to see the 12:30am show, and Justin's long-suffering enough to come along with me.
Now I feel a little lame, but that's okay. I'll go to bed happy.
Now I feel a little lame, but that's okay. I'll go to bed happy.
Monday, July 09, 2007
Thursday, July 05, 2007
fireworks
Justin and I drove up to Park City to see the firework show up there. By putting down a couple blankets, we reserved a great spot on some nice, green grass a couple hours before the show was to start. After a dinner with the slowest service ever, we found the spot again and settled down for the show. The fireworks were big, loud, and colorful, exactly as they should be, but nothing memorably out of the ordinary for a fireworks show. Unfortunately, though, a large light was several yards in front of us, but we just blocked it out by laying back and holding a blanket up a ways to limit our range of vision.
As I contentedly snuggled up to Justin's shoulder, screams suddenly broke the normal chatter of the people surrounding us. In a panic I started to sit up, thinking that somehow, some sparks had fallen and ignited a blanket in front of us. I saw the group of people in front of us were grabbing their blankets, and in that split second I was watching, a heavy spray of water splashed against my face.
Sprinklers.
Sprinklers had turned on, apparently on their normal nighttime schedule.
Now the Park City fireworks show will be memorable for me.
As I contentedly snuggled up to Justin's shoulder, screams suddenly broke the normal chatter of the people surrounding us. In a panic I started to sit up, thinking that somehow, some sparks had fallen and ignited a blanket in front of us. I saw the group of people in front of us were grabbing their blankets, and in that split second I was watching, a heavy spray of water splashed against my face.
Sprinklers.
Sprinklers had turned on, apparently on their normal nighttime schedule.
Now the Park City fireworks show will be memorable for me.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
kids these days
playing dinosaurs with cousin Xander
Juma: It's the Cretaceous period.
Xander: Yeah, I'll be T-rex.
Juma: T-rex didn't live in the Cretaceous period!
Xander: Yes, he did!
Sarah: What dinosaur are you, Juma?
Juma: Um, what's it called? Oh, a horned meat eater.
Sarah: Oh, a ceratosaur.
Juma: Yep.
watching a "prehistoric beasts" show, Silurian Period
Ammon: The water is so green!
Juma: Yeah, from all the allergies in the water.
Sarah: Algae?
Juma: Yeah, algae.
Juma: It's the Cretaceous period.
Xander: Yeah, I'll be T-rex.
Juma: T-rex didn't live in the Cretaceous period!
Xander: Yes, he did!
Sarah: What dinosaur are you, Juma?
Juma: Um, what's it called? Oh, a horned meat eater.
Sarah: Oh, a ceratosaur.
Juma: Yep.
watching a "prehistoric beasts" show, Silurian Period
Ammon: The water is so green!
Juma: Yeah, from all the allergies in the water.
Sarah: Algae?
Juma: Yeah, algae.
Monday, July 02, 2007
10-year reunion
This last weekend, when I was in Laughlin, my high school class had their 10-year reunion. The old student body president called my mom looking for an update on me, and I guess she lied ;), because he was impressed about what I've been doing the past 10 years. He asked me to write up a little blurb for them to read about me. This is the blurb they read (I'm assuming they read it):
......
Sarah Wilson Beckham, MVHS 1997
You may remember Sarah Wilson, now Sarah Beckham, as That One Girl on the Drumline, or as One of Those Kids Who Took Too Many AP Classes. Or perhaps you remember her as One of Those Rare Girls Who Managed to Hang out with Kartson Carr Without Drooling Over Him. What you probably do not remember about Sarah is that she always had a passion for Africa. Ever since she was too young to remember, she wanted to trek to Africa and learn Swahili.
As a junior in college, her opportunity finally came to go to Tanzania, on the East African coast, with a study abroad program. Armed with two semesters of Swahili language courses and some anthropology, she arrived on the tropical island of Zanzibar, 30 miles off the coast of Tanzania. She was majoring in International Development, and hoped to study how village women made money in the informal economy. But fate had a different path for Sarah. Two weeks after arrival, she found herself sick with body aches, fatigue, and a high fever. She had malaria. Her husband of only five weeks, Justin, took her to a Russian-trained Zanzibari doctor, who treated her with some drugs. The drugs did not cure her malaria, though, and she tried treatment after treatment. Finally, after five weeks, five rounds of drugs, a dozen malaria tests, two nights in a hospital, four different medical clinics, and some crazy drug-induced dreams, Sarah overcame the resistant strain of the parasite.
Instead of doing the sensible thing of just flying home, Sarah stayed in Zanzibar. Inspired by her harrowing experience with malaria and the local health care system, Sarah decided to focus her attention on public health issues in Africa. The rest of that semester in Tanzania, she studied peoples’ experiences with malaria, a preventable and treatable disease that kills at least one million children every year worldwide. Sarah went back to Tanzania again two years later, in 2001, this time leading a group of college students. Three years later, in 2004, she returned once again, bringing her two-year old son along (he got malaria, but Sarah knew how to treat it properly this time).
In 2005, Sarah began a graduate school program at Yale in public health and African Studies. For her summer internship in 2006, she returned to Tanzania to study maternal anemia in a high-poverty area where 50% of infant deaths are related to anemia. She is currently drafting a paper for publication that gives recommendations on how to improve the situation there. This fall, she will once again travel to Tanzania with her husband and now five-year old son, to do research on how poverty, illiteracy, and local culture affect access to medicine for people living with HIV/AIDS. She will graduate with a joint master’s degree in 2009, and hopes to work to improve public health interventions by making them better fit the local political, social, and economic context.
She has never gotten malaria again.
......
Sarah Wilson Beckham, MVHS 1997
You may remember Sarah Wilson, now Sarah Beckham, as That One Girl on the Drumline, or as One of Those Kids Who Took Too Many AP Classes. Or perhaps you remember her as One of Those Rare Girls Who Managed to Hang out with Kartson Carr Without Drooling Over Him. What you probably do not remember about Sarah is that she always had a passion for Africa. Ever since she was too young to remember, she wanted to trek to Africa and learn Swahili.
As a junior in college, her opportunity finally came to go to Tanzania, on the East African coast, with a study abroad program. Armed with two semesters of Swahili language courses and some anthropology, she arrived on the tropical island of Zanzibar, 30 miles off the coast of Tanzania. She was majoring in International Development, and hoped to study how village women made money in the informal economy. But fate had a different path for Sarah. Two weeks after arrival, she found herself sick with body aches, fatigue, and a high fever. She had malaria. Her husband of only five weeks, Justin, took her to a Russian-trained Zanzibari doctor, who treated her with some drugs. The drugs did not cure her malaria, though, and she tried treatment after treatment. Finally, after five weeks, five rounds of drugs, a dozen malaria tests, two nights in a hospital, four different medical clinics, and some crazy drug-induced dreams, Sarah overcame the resistant strain of the parasite.
Instead of doing the sensible thing of just flying home, Sarah stayed in Zanzibar. Inspired by her harrowing experience with malaria and the local health care system, Sarah decided to focus her attention on public health issues in Africa. The rest of that semester in Tanzania, she studied peoples’ experiences with malaria, a preventable and treatable disease that kills at least one million children every year worldwide. Sarah went back to Tanzania again two years later, in 2001, this time leading a group of college students. Three years later, in 2004, she returned once again, bringing her two-year old son along (he got malaria, but Sarah knew how to treat it properly this time).
In 2005, Sarah began a graduate school program at Yale in public health and African Studies. For her summer internship in 2006, she returned to Tanzania to study maternal anemia in a high-poverty area where 50% of infant deaths are related to anemia. She is currently drafting a paper for publication that gives recommendations on how to improve the situation there. This fall, she will once again travel to Tanzania with her husband and now five-year old son, to do research on how poverty, illiteracy, and local culture affect access to medicine for people living with HIV/AIDS. She will graduate with a joint master’s degree in 2009, and hopes to work to improve public health interventions by making them better fit the local political, social, and economic context.
She has never gotten malaria again.
laughlin
For the weekend, we drove down to Laughlin, Nevada and Bullhead City, Arizona with Matt and Andria. Matt, of the Matt Lewis Band, had two solo shows there in Bullhead, so we made a mini-vacation out of it. We enjoyed an afternoon jet skiing and lounging on the Colorado River, giant breakfast buffets, swimming, Matt's shows, and some responsible gambling.
We figure if you set a limit--$10 or $20--and only gamble with that and whatever earnings you get, it's just some entertainment like any other. If you're itching to gamble more after that original limit is gone, it's time to leave the casino floor. Justin had an intense round of bingo, competeing with some fierce 80-year-old women who have 10 bingo sheets at a time. Later, he won $110 on a slot machine. I'm not much into gambling--I've taken too many statistics classes, I guess, to believe I might actually win--but I couldn't leave Nevada without trying something. So with $20 that Justin had won the night before, I headed to the roulette table with Matt and his friend, Johnny, while Justin kept Juma from "underage loitering in a casino." I lost all $20 in four spins, less than 5 minutes, and wasn't too pleased. Especially since Johnny won $93 on the same four rounds. Oh well. At least I know I don't have the gambling bug.
More fun for me was the jet skiing on the river. We spent an hour convinving Juma to come with me on the ski. He finally did, but cried the whole time, even though I didn't got over about 15 miles an hour. If you go any slower than that, the river controls you, rather than you controlling the ski. Juma just cried and cried, saying, "I wanted to give Daddy a goodbye hug! I didn't get Baba a hug! That's why I'm crying!" As if we were leaving forever. He gave Justin a big hug when we got back to the shore, five minutes later.
We figure if you set a limit--$10 or $20--and only gamble with that and whatever earnings you get, it's just some entertainment like any other. If you're itching to gamble more after that original limit is gone, it's time to leave the casino floor. Justin had an intense round of bingo, competeing with some fierce 80-year-old women who have 10 bingo sheets at a time. Later, he won $110 on a slot machine. I'm not much into gambling--I've taken too many statistics classes, I guess, to believe I might actually win--but I couldn't leave Nevada without trying something. So with $20 that Justin had won the night before, I headed to the roulette table with Matt and his friend, Johnny, while Justin kept Juma from "underage loitering in a casino." I lost all $20 in four spins, less than 5 minutes, and wasn't too pleased. Especially since Johnny won $93 on the same four rounds. Oh well. At least I know I don't have the gambling bug.
More fun for me was the jet skiing on the river. We spent an hour convinving Juma to come with me on the ski. He finally did, but cried the whole time, even though I didn't got over about 15 miles an hour. If you go any slower than that, the river controls you, rather than you controlling the ski. Juma just cried and cried, saying, "I wanted to give Daddy a goodbye hug! I didn't get Baba a hug! That's why I'm crying!" As if we were leaving forever. He gave Justin a big hug when we got back to the shore, five minutes later.
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