On the luxury of having too much to chose from

Sigh. More female dilemmas. Nothing new, but a few recent articles have stirred up the debate and continue to make me think.

1% Wives Are Helping Kill Feminism and Make the War on Women Possible, according to this author.

Ouch! I see some pertinent points here, but I'm not sure I agree with her premise that feminism means raw wage equality. I've always seen feminism as giving political and social equality to women but especially valuing femaleness as much as maleness, which to me entails that a woman doesn't have to do exactly the same thing as a man in order to have the same "value" in society. And while she starts off talking specifically about "one percenters", her arguments are really stretched out to include any woman who has a choice. I find her basic assumption scary because it means that, basically, she would love to see all women forced to work full time and earn their own keep.

I agree with this:

"Who can possibly take feminism seriously when it allows everything, as long as women choose it?" 

There has to be some sort of standard: Becoming a porn star is a bad feminist choice. Being a mother who forces her daughter to marry at 14 is a bad feminist choice. I'd say dropping out of high school is a bad feminist choice. And she's right that mothering is not the same thing as salaried work, BUT that doesn't mean it doesn't have value: I believe being a stay-at-home-mom has immense value and it should be viewed by all as a valid--and valuable--life choice.

She has a point about women being financially dependent on men -- it's a dangerous position to be in, and that's why education is still very important, at least having the POSSIBILITY of being able to support yourself should (heaven forbid) anything happen (which has incidentally been taught by prophets). But otherwise, her tone is pretty crappy and I'm sure she's going for controversy here... not everything of value in life is measured in $$ signs. She's like the people who want to prevent Laura Bush from receiving the Alice Award, which honors a woman who has advanced the cause of women: I refuse to let a few individuals define feminism in such a narrow way.

Then there's this article, which is spot-on. It also depresses me, because it is so true. I get incredibly frustrated sometimes that the media industry wants to force me to decide between family and a career -- it's still very much all-or-nothing in journalism, and frankly I'm sick of it. There are no true role-models in the media for me, no woman that's figured it all out. I don't want to give up my prime child-bearing years only to be chewed up and spit out as soon as I get a wrinkle or two.

There's another dilemma in all this, as a Latter-day Saint woman: we absolutely have benefited from women entering the workplace in many, many ways. Family-friendly corporate policies for example (for women AND men), or domestic policy that benefits children and mothers. It is important for women to hear their own viewpoints and opinions expressed in the marketplace of ideas. I think female reporters (and not just single career women, either) are necessary, crucial even, because they will have an eye for certain issues that may not be brought up otherwise. And we can bring qualities like empathy and (as mothers) a common understanding of education/health/family issues.

But that brings up the question: how many LDS women should chose a non-traditional path? It's a hard question to answer, especially when I'm pretty sure EVERYBODY I know is sort of wondering why we don't have kids yet. And yet Jimmer didn't serve a mission. Steve Young played football on Sundays. Valerie Hudson isn't a full-time stay-at-home mom. Mitt Romney spends a lot of time traveling away from his family. And nobody gives them any trouble about it, because these people make valuable contributions and also give a positive image of the Church to the world. (Well, Romney arguably not, since liberals don't like him) The irony is, we sort of need more Mormon women in the workplace and the public eye in order to push back, to change the workplace to fit better into Mormon women's lives, if that's what they want. But doing that takes sacrifices.

So how do you know you're supposed to be a norm-breaker? At what point do you know your contribution will be worth the concessions you might have to make? Who will be the next one to place themselves and their family on the Sacrificial Altar of Progress?

Adjusting

I'm really glad I'm still working as a contractor for my former employer (translating), because otherwise I would definitely go crazy. It's hard to have a sense of purpose while waiting around for a job to open up. Good news is the station just posted an opening today, so hopefully things will speed up now. To be totally honest, I'm still a little bummed about not making the final in the Hearst competition. I'm just feeling it more tonight. Thank goodness for the county library! I officially have a card and have been reading a lot. Although I'm going to have to cut back on the dramatic books because I had awful nightmares the other day...

I bought a good windbreaker/rain jacket today, because I'll definitely be needing it here. The wind is crazy!

It's kind of ominous-sounding at times, honestly. This place is just so wild. Yes, there's a 55,000-people city, but it feels like nature is bent on pushing back just as hard as it can. At least we don't get tornadoes! Although given our proximity to Yellowstone we'd probably be the first wiped off the map in a catastrophic event. Do I sound grim enough for you? :) (sorry, we watched 2012 last night)

We're starting to make friends, slowly but surely. I'm hoping I'll be able to volunteer at the YW camp because that sounds like fun. Ah, and I'll be flying to Las Vegas for my little sister's high school graduation! I'm excited for her: she's singing the national anthem (which is kind of funny considering I'm pretty sure she'll have to learn the words... Growing up in a foreign country will do that!) But I'm sure she'll be fantastic.

Andrew is playing basketball with people from our stake right now, I'm glad he's making friends :) speaking of friends, it never gets old seeing cottontail rabbits in our yard. A big fat turkey even waddled through the other day! Pretty crazy.

And that's about it. Unfortunately I don't have anything very exciting to post about. Maybe I'll put up pictures of our temporary cozy country home :) We visited a SWEET apartment the other day. You guys, it has a fireplace! It was dreamy. And pricey. But man, I dream of cuddling up by the fire on those cold Casper winter days...

The trek West -- or North-East, rather. It certainly feels more Western though.

We are alive and well in Casper, Wyoming. It's still a little odd to think that this will be our home for the next three plus years... the city has 55 000 people, but it's the only real city for hundreds of miles around, so every once in a while if you look up you realize how easily nature could just press in a little more and snuff out any trace of civilization. No, I'm not being dramatic...

But let's start from the beginning. We were sad to leave Provo :(

The drive itself went quite well, other than the fact that the moving van Andrew drove couldn't go over 50 mph -- we were kind of slowing down traffic. Oh well. Communicating via walkie-talkie was fun though :) And I'll add that it was quite necessary because we didn't have any reception for a large part of the trip!

This is what the last third of our trek looked like:

We started to worry we were moving to a complete desert, but then we finally rounded a few bends (they call them mountains but they're more like hills) and arrived in Casper. It's not bad at all, quite green especially on the mountain, and it's almost always sunny. The North Platter River runs throughout the city and there's a path for several miles so we're itching to get some bikes now.

All sorts of critters live in our backyard: squirrels, rabbits, geese... it's a bit dusty, but the river makes up for it. We're excited to go rafting and also explore Casper Mountain. The city's not huge, for sure, and the lone mall is a bit... well, dead. But there are worse things. Hey, at least we have a Target!

look who came to visit!

Right now we're living in a house that belongs to the city - they rent out rooms to interns and incoming employees. So far we only have two roommates (another couple) and they're very nice. It's a bit on the edge of town but it's only a five minute drive anyway, and we're kind of liking living in the wild - it's very peaceful. As soon as Andrew signs a full-time contract though we'll get into an apartment (or potentially rent a house, but I hear that's near impossible to find around here). We have one place in mind that we really like, but for now we need to wait and see.  

Andrew started his internship on Monday and things are going well so far. He gets along just fine with the people in his office and he also found out there are more full-time positions opening up soon, so his chances of getting a full-time position just got better -- and he could have more options.

We went to city council meeting last night and boy was that fun!

It was the first hearing for a proposed smoking ban (an extension of a current public smoking ban) and some interesting characters came crawling out of the woodwork. Hitler and God were both brought into the discussion, and one lady accused the city council of using the same methods as Nazi Germany... there were reasonable people there too though, and honestly it was kind of fun to get a glimpse at the heart of Casper.

And you're probably wondering how my interview went. I think it went well. I could have maybe said more or something, but I believe I got my point across and he seemed impressed by my resume. I said one thing that may have come across awkwardly but otherwise it wasn't bad. He was very friendly at least. I left him my material and told him I was ready and just waiting to get to work... he seemed to like the fact that Andrew and I will likely be here more than just two years, too. There aren't any openings until July though, so now I just sort of have to wait... forced vacation I guess! And here I was all ready to get going. In the meantime I'll keep translating from home, and then call back as soon as they officially post the opening.

So overall, not a bad start. We're settling in nicely, and we really enjoyed church on Sunday - the people were very nice and welcoming, and it's just awesome to be in a family ward, finally. Well, I will add that we giggled when one lady quoted Mitt Romney in her talk...

So bottom line is things are not bad at all here. It still feels kind of small-town ish, which is a bit scary to me, but things couldn't be going much better for the both of us at this point, so it's all good. And we're going to have so much fun this summer rafting, hiking, biking and generally experiencing the great outdoors! (Let's not talk about winter yet, ok?)

Here we go

Well, here we are: commencement day. Tomorrow, we get our degrees and then it's off to...

That's right: Casper, Wyoming!

Andrew accepted an internship with the city's budget office that they very strongly suggested will turn into a job offer at the end of the summer. And I'm going to haul myself on over to their TV station and demand a job.

Is it out in the middle of nowhere? Yup.
Is it somewhat... savage country? Yup.
And don't start me on the fact that Casper, Wyoming is ranked at the very bottomy-bottom of the reporting food chain.

BUT considering the fact we wanted to go somewhere we both have job opportunities, it's actually not a bad deal. In fact, it's not a bad deal at all: we'll have jobs in the same city (which is AWESOME considering what we were starting to look at) and it might be kind of fun to live it up with the cowboys for a while. You gotta start somewhere! We also just found out what Andrew's starting salary would be, and we're both feeling really good about that... :)

Off we go to the Wild Wild West!

Hey look, we're grads:

The final result

Voilà, ladies and gentlemen. I present to you my sweat, blood and tears from the last four months. These are the four stories I'm submitting to the competition. Pray for me that the judges will think I'm awesome and send me a ticket to San Francisco in June!

Wish me luck!

Awards submission: done

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

My last story aired today and they are all DONE! My news director sent it all off today. Now, we wait. My letter says they'll make a decision early May, hopefully it's actually early May cause I want to know now! Even if I don't make the cut (there are ten students nationally competing, only five make it to San Francisco), I'll have  a very much improved resume reel which is awesome. And I can definitely be happy about that -- it won't have been in vain.

Here's the final installment:

And now, I'm basically done with school! I still have a few papers/forms to send in, and my internship goes until the 25th, but otherwise that's it! I can't believe the end is here. Right now, I just want to take a nice, long nap. For two days.

Oh, and you should watch this incredible video about the Kimanguiste Symphony Orchestra -- beautiful music in the midst of terrible violence and poverty.
It will give you much joy.

Reporting

can be maddening. Especially when everything goes wrong because of stupid technical problems. Ugh. And there's still so much to do!

Oh hey, I look blissfully happy here, when in fact I was probably running on empty and stressed out of my mind about a story. Blegh. Almost done.

Progress.. and awesome video

So I'm making progress. Finally. I'm praying that a woman I just talked to on the phone will agree to an on-camera interview -- she would be PERFECT. Everything else is actually close to wrapped up, which is miraculous at this point.

Also, my grandmother was called to be the primary pianist in my home ward -- and my aunt caught a piece of it! I love it :)
She was a concert pianist and taught children and adults for many years, but in the past years she couldn't play anymore for various health reasons. Lately though, she's started playing again, and it's a wonderful thing to see.

And check out my latest story -- a feature on community-supported agriculture.

Nothing too serious, but this is meant to be a feature, not an investigative report. The next two are the real deal though -- and I'm close to done on both of them! Hallelujah!

Back in the saddle

More literally than you may think actually: I've got an interview Thursday with a rancher-man who helps former inmates return to active life once they're released, by training them on his ranch. I'm pretty excited :)

Privacy

So yeah, I went private. I hate it, because that means nobody will read anymore. Not that I had hundreds of readers anyway, but my precarious following will all but disappear. Oh well, maybe that's not all that bad... Because sometimes when total strangers read things you have to say, they misinterpret or judge too quickly, or all sorts of crazy things. At least this way I have control over who has access.

So, Lydia's life right now:



Did you pick up on the subtle theme? Things were going fine until I discovered I won that journalism award. Don't get me wrong, I am elated. But now I need to send in more news stories, and I'm terrified of it not being good enough. It would SUCK if I made it this far and then didn't make the final in San Francisco! And then there's the other factor... time. I wake up before the sun is out and I typically get home after dark. WHEN am I supposed to produce these award-winning pieces?! That's a little problem I hadn't factored into my schedule at the beginning of the semester. Ugh. I know, I shouldn't complain because this is an incredible opportunity and I am so, so honored to get a shot at it. But I feel like it's nearly impossible to succeed now, given the time constraints I have. Thankfully, I've been able to get subs for the weather on Fridays, so I at least won't have an obligation then anymore, but that only gives me a precious four hours a week during business hours. Sigh. I can do this right? right?

Ok, Lydia needs some inspiration.



Phew, that's a little better. And I am really quite lucky to have a husband deeply involved in local government, because he's given me two awesome story ideas. And I'm excited. I can do this.

Redundant me

Way too many of my sentences start with "I read an article the other day..."

Seriously, it's pathological. But I really do read some good articles. And since everybody's stressing about finals while I chill out and enjoy my freedom (I technically have two finals left but I'm not really concerned, they're pretty straightforward exams), I've had lots of time to read interesting things. Or listen to interesting things. Have you ever heard of the Round Table, for example? It's a podcast by Mormon women and it's pretty awesome. I'm pretty sure that will be me in a few years. To be completely honest, I would love to have my own talk show and be a professional blogger. I'd go around giving speeches and write books and help people see the good in the world and think about hard things and find solutions... and learn plenty of things in the process for myself. Yup, that's what I really want to do.

Anyway, you should check it out, it's good. Another awesome place you should check out, especially if you're a mom, is http://powerofmoms.com/, founded by an LDS woman (well technically there are several women involved but I think she was one of the original developers) but intended for a general audience.

And since we're talking about interesting articles, here's one I'm reading right now, about boys becoming men (and no, it has nothing to do with boy bands).

Oh and if you really want a good read... you should read my latest interview for the Mormon Women Project! Plug! But really, you can hear (and see!) more about how this Lebanese-French artist discovered the Gospel, which influenced her so much that it quite literally colored her whole art world.

In other news, I attended my last real class of my undergraduate career last week. It feels wonderful, especially because I still have my internship to look forward to. I just found out about another possible anchoring opportunity, but I'll tell more when I actually know more for that one. I'm keeping my fingers crossed though. It was kind of bittersweet anchoring my last newscast and airing my last story on Thursday.

in the voicing booth with my awesome co-anchor, Jenné

The whole Thursday crew. Aw, don't we all look so young and full of hope...

I'm also a bit nervous about the future, let's be honest. Ugh, decisions decisions. It's hard being a grown-up.
At least I've gained great experience and met awesome people. Who knows what will come of it all though... who knows.

Last Newscast

Finals. sort of

It's so close. I can't believe I'm finishing the last classes of my degree.

Oh hey, did I mention I got the internship I wanted? Woohoo! I'll be starting at KSL January 4th and I can't wait.

But in the meantime I am exhausted--I need sleep, I need mental rest, and I really need school to be done. My last story airs Thursday, so watch for that :) And Thursday is also my last day anchoring... kind of sad, I can't believe it's already almost over! Phew. Time to got to bed, I can't muster any interesting writing right now.

Oh, my next interview on the MWP is coming out tomorrow or the next day, so look out for that as well.

As of late

Check out my resume blog, I've been posting stories I've worked on. I have one story left to do this semester and then I can BREATHE!

Hello ladies

I'm on a boat!

Playing with monkeys

A little look at what I've been doing lately...

Hey it's an orangutan! Watch the story here.

That's also why I haven't posted in ages... oops. But I do want to tell you all about the MWP Salon, soon I promise! I'll just say this: it was amazing.

I'm so ready for school to be done.

Story. of. my. life.

From Overheard in the Newsroom:

Editor: “We need a new way to mark stories. 
Instead of ‘Ready’ it should be, ‘I’m just tired of looking at it.’”

Turley resignation

Hey, guess who's at the top of the newscast! Check out my story:

It's always fun to squeeze in next to KSL and KUTV for an interview. 

Real news

That's what I did for tomorrow. I was at the Provo City Council about "what to do with Steve Turley"--I'll give you a hint: he didn't show up. Trepidating stuff (no, really).

And I met a real classy lady this evening. Cristina Flores from KUTV. This was kind of a big deal apparently, so all the SLC stations were there. As soon as they adjourned the meeting everyone rushed out to interview several key people and one lady was completely surrounded. I tried to squeeze my way in to get a good shot of her face, but try as I could I wasn't getting my mic close enough. Cristina Flores was right next to her interviewing her and motioned to me to hand her my mic, and there I had it: great audio. I was really touched that she would go out of her way to lend me a hand (quite literally). Especially when you expect angry cut-throat people (and let me tell you, trying to squeeze my camera in there was pretty scary. You have to get aggressive...), it was nice to have a friendly face in the crowd. She certainly won my respect tonight.

Hey, don't forget to watch tomorrow at noon! :)

Uninsured in Utah

Hey, my story's up! Check it out here.

LIVE from Provo

Hey, this is it! First live newscast. Definitely a few... brain melts (and prompter issues) but I think it went pretty smoothly. Don't mock our very awkward banter... we're working on it. Also, I smile like a ninny.

I'm just sitting in the newsroom right now finishing up my story for tomorrow, it should be good. Not the most exciting story ever, the video's kind of boring, but it's solid news at least. Tune in tomorrow to watch!