My husband: The game designer

If it hasn't already become clear at this time, my husband likes to play games.

For example, when his sister and nieces were in town last month, he set up a Hogwarts Tri-wizard Tournament of lego games for a party.  He had one where the girls made potions, another where they fought a dragon, to reach the center of the maze they played this one.  All adults were headmasters of different magical schools (Dale was the headmaster of Dermstrang, wearing a Russian Dermstrang sorting hat), the kids had to compete in the tournament.  In this picture you can see the girls having their names burned in the Goblet of Fire.

Nope, this wasn't a birthday.  It was just a day that he got to see his family. 

If you recall in March Dale got 3rd place out of 25 original board game maker finalists at a national convention called SaltCON.  At that convention, Dale met several different publishers, one of whom gave him a request to send a second draft of his game once he had refined it with their recommendations.

Fast forward to June, Dale submits his second draft to Griffin Games.  Three weeks later, what does this picture look like?

If your answer was SIGNING A CONTRACT WITH A PUBLISHER, then you are correct!  A full professional contract with an advance, a percent of all gross revenue, and ultimately, a promise that on August 1, 2013, Cheesonomics by Dale Tolley will be coming to a store near you!

Side note: On my graduation day from graduate school, my mom gave me a great idea to buy a gift for Dale.  I chose a pen and engraved it with "To our success, love Alana."  We've used that pen to sign job acceptance letters, applications to things that mean a lot to us, and now contracts for published games.

This weekend, we made 6 prototypes of Cheesonomics to send to China, Chicago, Oregon, and Arizona.  This included a LOT of cutting and gluing.  But to see the sweet look on his face, it's worth every inch of it.

27: The year in which I explore my identity

I had a birthday last month.  It came and went with the usual excitement that comes of of noticing yourself and feeling that you're special on that one day.

After realizing that the first birthday had come where I no longer felt that it was cool to identify with my college years, I've had to re-assess what I consider to be my developing identity.  At this juncture, a lot of my current identity can be illustrated in this video:

1. I made my own birthday cake.  It's not perfect, but there is a certain mastery there that I have developed.  The first round stack birthday cake I attempted was in 2004 and it was presented in crumbles.  It was still tasty, as a box cake with pudding added is pretty hard to screw up.  This year's mode not only retained it's shape, but was EXTRA moist and delicious as I have learned to communicate with my oven.  Still to learn--the secrets of getting frosting to stick to the side of cakes.
What this reveals about my identity:
-I am a student of the arts of cooking.  I say student because I definitely acknowledge that I have a lot to learn.  I love it, I feel it is a recreational activity as well as a daily requirement to feed my family, and although what I make isn't always pretty, 95% of  the time it's tasty as hell.
-I am capable, resourceful, independent, and frugal as well as whimsical and trivial.

2. I look like hell.  I had just finished a full day's worth of emotionally draining, hard work.  The cake is also missing the frosting lettering that I would have done if I had had an afternoon off to work on it, and still kind of wish that I had taken the time to do for myself.  I am in my pajamas and generally ready to let my body have what it wants: lounge time.
What this reveals about my identity:
-I work hard, I am busy often, but I still make it a point to complete the rituals of celebration because I feel that treating yourself like a human being is vital.
-I spend most evenings in PJs, recovering from the work day

3. Dale sings to me and I laugh and make eyes at him.
What this reveals about my identity:
-I love my husband.
-I like my husband.
-I am a woman and he makes me feel powerfully feminine.
-We have fun together.

On a daily basis, these are the aspects of my identity which I feel the most.  Of course I have more that I define myself by--I'm saving up to purchase a harp, I talk WAY too much, I read novels excessively, I love to collect art and decorate my apartment, I am honing the professional skills of helping people, I fiercely miss my family of origin--but those are all not day-in-day-out activities.

I have, of course, had more that defined me in years past, but--as I said--27 is no longer an age to define yourself by being a successful single adult, flirtatious, or histrionic.  There was a lot of insecurity which being happily married eliminates.  Now that I know what I am and what I am no longer, that leaves me with a void in the years ahead of me. 

I want to be:
Patient
Intelligent, but know how to curb the expression of knowledge for times when it will amplify a conversation among equals.
Richly celebratory.  I want to have regular, big celebrations of life.  I want to travel with my husband.  Locally and abroad.
Professional.  I have chosen to be a social worker and I am learning from my professional superiors that there is a lot that I can learn from them.
Loving.  I intend to be a family woman.
Spiritual.  This will take soul searching of the adult variety.  Not merely actively participating in the rituals of Christian Scholarship, but allowing God to answer questions.
Positive.  I want to laugh more.  Not from the shallow deconstruction of another at their expense, but laugh because the world is optimistic and there are things to learn.
Excited
Restful--Anxiety in hand.
Anxiously engaged in service
Responsible--more active and reliable in my current opportunities for involvement.

I could keep going.  There is always the dynamic and colorful concept of what you'd like to be and I'd love to keep on exploring it, but if I continue then the concept will remain just that--inconcrete and unobtained.

This is a good start though.  I'll have to check in on my next birthday and see how things have developed.  It looks like a good list to describe an admirable adult, and makes looking forward to scarey numbers like 38 or (heaven forbid) 42 a little more hopeful.

What do you think you'd like to enhance in yourself in the coming years?

Yellowstone 2

The week after having completed the Wendt Family Reunion, Dale and I drove 4 hours north to Yellowstone park.  There we met Dale's parents as well as his brother and brother's girlfriend.  For those of you who recall from this post Dale's family has a generous friend who has shared access to their Yellowstone mansion cabin with the Tolleys on a regular basis!  I was getting over the sniffels, and it was just a normal 2-day weekend, so the brunt of this visit was lounging in the luxury of the fully stocked 3000 square foot, polished pine, vaulted ceiling marvel that only narrowly meets the definition of a cabin. 

On such a casual weekend, the only picture I grabbed was this: Dale eating s'mores and getting marshmallow in his beard.  Any weekend where family from three different states gathers is worth noting. 

What is also worth noting is that this place had a community recreation building that included a pool, spa, sauna, and racquetball court.  I availed myself of all of them.  I can now say I am someone who can play racquetball.  Or at least HAS played racquetball.  I found that with the bouncy ball and 4 walls to hit it off of, the best thing to do was swing wildly whenever it came to you.  The more wild your swing, the more likely it was that the ball would hit one of the walls before bouncing again.  And with this strategy I held my own against 3 grown men. :)

We came, we built fires, chopped wood, watched movies, and played games.  I think this is ideally what weekends are for: traveling as necessary to hang out with family.

The first Wendt family reunion!

What do you write for all the world to see about your first sibling level family reunion?  First time where  because Christmas and Thanksgivings are no longer a given that we all attend, and where we can't wait for one of us to get married to have an excuse to spend all of the money to travel, we had to plan to get together for no reason at all other than to see each other.  What I can say is: it. was. awesome.

Alana, Dale, Nanette, Eric, Jeremy, Heather, John, Liam, Noelle, Nathan, Brooke, Jonah, Ellie, Amber, Scott, Annabelle, Jack, Madlyn, Ian, Alex, Naomi, Andrew, Joseph, Alanna, Mari, Felicity, Xavier, Pamela, Carter, Rita.

Check out that impressive list.  Breathe it in.  Thirty of us have grown from the original 2 adults and 6 children.  The last time all of us siblings were in the same room was at my wedding 3 years ago.  With all of the kids married now, it took Jeremy saying "hey, lets get together!" and over 6 months of planning to pick a weekend where everyone was free (possibly the most difficult part), choose a location (second most difficult) then lodging, entertainment, transportation and food all more or less fell into place.

For those of you who don't know my family, I understand that that may be the end of your interest in this post.  For those of you who are long lost friends, enjoy the photos!

We swam (at the Lehi Legacy Center.  It's basically a mini water park that is actually a public pool.  We spent TWO of our 5 precious afternoons there)

We had the traditional reunion barbecue complete with spontaneous baseball game (what you see here is my nephew with a broken leg being helped to run around the bases by his dad while my brother in law narrowly "misses" him with the tagging ball.  It was really great to help the kids learn the sport and then for the all adult game (boys v girls, of course) where it was equally as non-competitive and awesome).

We hiked (also two of our 5 afternoons) all through little cottonwood canyon and up a mountain.  Ian and Alex were troopers taking 7 kids ages 12-2 on a two mile hike up a mountain! 

We also played games every night, went to the new City Creek Center and Temple Square, played in parks, had a talent show, and cooked great meals together.  (I know what you're thinking--a talent show?  But it was actually really awesome.  Every family had something to contribute and with a supportive crowd who share a base of inside jokes, it was epic).

When I was a teenager in LA I used to love having guests so I had an excuse to be a tourist in my own town.  I had no doubt that LA was a world class and amazing place.  I still carry that knowledge with the kind of confidence that borders on snobbery in it's fullness.  Having to find activities for a family of 30 to enjoy and then doing them helped me own an idea I had only noticed before.  My home, where I've lived for 2 years in the city and 5 years before that in the suburbs, where I began and nourished my budding marriage, is pretty dang great!  We've got mountains, temple square, nature, and a lot of really great family friendly public areas that welcome children and adults alike.

I think it also finally feels like home for me because now I have memories in it with all of these great people.  I love each of them so much.

For those of you who notice that only Johnny is representing the Jeremy Wendt family: Jeremy, Heather, Liam, and Noelle couldn't attend.  Jeremy's baby girl is seriously ill and could use all the prayers you have to offer.