Summer & Fall

All rolled into one! This summer I:

• drove my Grandpa's car to his lake house all by my onesie-stopped once! Maryland to Alton Bay, NH in 9.5 hours, yes I DID, thank you.
• Hit up NYC! with friends-can you say Max Brenner's (chocolate chocolate chocolate), biking central park, MoMA (Starry Starry Night!!), Newsies on Broadway, The Strand bookstore, 9/11 memorial. SO. MUCH. FUN.
• Enjoyed getting to know my coworkers and organization better since starting work with an educational non-profit in late April, especially at the National Conference in mid-July
• Ate bacon sundaes with my visiting teachers!
• Listened to my Grandma speak in Sacrament Meeting about her conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was her first talk since her baptism last year.
• Visited Erin in beautiful Norfolk, VA {who is having her baby right NOW!}
• went to pool parties
• celebrated with friends @ birthday dinners
• went to grad school orientation [eek!]
• flew back to NH to get the car with Rachel and went to a NEW COUNTRY where I got to practice French, eat delicious food, watch part of a French Film Festival, attend church in FRENCH, and see the Montreal Quebec Temple!
• spent lots of time on the National Mall (hello! world famous museums 25 minutes from my HOUSE!) and visited the White House for the 1st time.

This fall I will:

• Work full-time
• Attepmt to pass my 1st semester of grad school
• Continue being really excited and really impatient for Christmas {the Countdown to Christmas page that I "liked" on Facebook isn't helping btw}

So if you don't hear from me until December 18th, I'm either at work, or in my room, drowning under books entitled: American National Security, Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Major Problems in American Foreign Relations. Send a search party at your own risk. In fact, I should be organizing my semester and studying right now. So until Christmas, adieu. Ne vom revedea...someday...

Derecho

That's what the weatherman calls it. I call it Wizard of Oz on steroids. But whatever it was, Bronwen and I didn't know it was happening. We were just partying it up, jamming the night away at an LDS Singles Dance. 

It was the 12th "Are you OK?" text message that tipped me off. Hundreds of downed trees and dark neighborhoods later, we finally got back to our powerless house, whereupon I realized I'm still not prepared for an emergency. But I did find my matches and candles!! I propose the following when you have a friend in town and the power goes out:

Take pictures of storm damage

Poor Aunt Kay's car-don't worry, all better now

One of the reasons it took us 3 tries to get into our neighborhood

Attempt to go to the cancelled Folk Life Festival on the National Mall (darn derecho)

Instead, party it up at museums ALL DAY!

Sackler Gallery

Smithsonian

African Art Museum

Hirshhorn

Find as many interactive exhibits as possible, including the world famous masterpiece "Nap Time." K, so that's what I would name it, beds and all, in the MUSEUM. That's how to make your artwork popular!

Go to the most fabulous 2nd hand book and clothing stores in the land.

Bathroom doubled as the languages section

"What if you want the book at the bottom of the pile?"

It took a while to find. We were happy.

Go to the historic Busboys & Poets. Go see BRAVE afterwards. Have everything work out wonderfully time wise and come home to find the power restored!

Vow to be prepared for an emergency next time...hmm, we'll see.

Keepin' On

Since we last talked:


Remembered I have an immediate family in Utah and visited them!

Saw the best friend from 3rd grade get MARRIED!

Gleaned inspiration watching a coworker perform in a DC Baptist Church theater version of one of my favorites: To Kill A Mockingbird. [and...ate the best guacamole I have ever tasted at Rosa Mexicano with Rachel]

Performed in church, taught Sunday School, gave a talk at a baptism, and had some friends over for dinner-all on the same "day of rest."


Enjoyed Music Man with some friends at Arena Stage at Southwest Waterfront, admired the modern and unique architecture, and subsequently had Marian the Librarian, Wells Fargo Wagon, and Seventy-Six Trombones stuck in my head (for a week).

Savored delicious blueberry banana and ginger ice cream at Tropical Ice Cream and chatted with my favorite Ghanaians followed by a great documentary (Drivers Wanted) about the culture and lifestyle of taxi drivers in NYC. Kind of great we have a world famous film festival annually 2 miles from our house!


Movie Nights!! We Bought A Zoo (definitely recommend) with Marissa and Ginna and Inception with Rachel. I have now seen Inception twice and have concluded the writers are either brilliant or making stuff up because there are still things I don't understand.


Currently attempting to get an A in an Economics class; a prerequisite for the master's program I'm starting in the fall.


Getting excited for a lot of fun summer plans and trips. What are some of the fun things YOU are planning?!

Sunshine! Are YOU walkin' on it?!

And this, just because! :) Dance dare anyone?

Learning from Dog Poop

Visiting this lady

Lisa Hale (aka: Angel on Earth)

last weekend reminded me that the name of my blog insinuates I believe there is good and bad in life. Happy and sad. Incredible, fabulous, fantastic experiences, and things we wouldn't wish on our worst enemies. I also realized I have almost exclusively written about the positive lately. Time to talk about the negative...but not necessarily in a negative way.

This woman?

She either volunteered or was volunteered by her husband (the story is different depending on who you ask :)) to watch my brother and I (ages 2 1/2 & 8) when my mother died suddenly in 1994. Heaven knows my dad-who was left with two young children, a full-time job, and a bucket-load of grief-needed the help. She and her husband honestly saved the lives of a little family whose world had been turned upside-down. Subconsciously, I was learning for the first time that positive things can come from crap (for lack of a better term).

When my dad's brother died my freshman year of college, I learned again, more poignantly this time, the same lesson. My uncle the science teacher, happy and always full of life, who would answer the phone with something like: "Hey sweet girl! Did you know an elephant can fit on the tongue of a blue whale?!" had died. Amidst wrapping my mind around the concept of mortality, I flew to Texas the next summer to help my aunt and cousins make the drive to New Hampshire for our family reunion they had always made with their dad. IT WAS FABULOUS. I had an incredible time with their family and met my aunt for the first time. She had always been in my uncle's shadow (at least from my perspective). I talked to her SO MUCH-her personality came to life for me and I gained a great friend.

In summary, when terrible, almost impossibly difficult things like this happen,

I have always learned more than I would have had God allowed my life to be perfect or simply easy or entirely peaches and roses. ALWAYS! I am so thankful for each experience I have had in life. I learn something from every single one.

Inaugurating Summer

WITH:

Smiles, straw hats, and sunglasses

Adorable beach houses and the Maryland State Flag

SURF, SUN, SAND

Jumping in

Disturbing Baywatch flashbacks

Metal detecting couple (man not pictured)

Boardwalks

Thrasher's "Trench" Fries

FUNNEL CAKE!! (oh how I love thee)

Fish Kites

unique buildings

Cotton Candy

You guessed it: CHOCOLATE-COVERED BACON

Eating pork and chicken at a restaurant called "The Crab Bag"

Rachel stayed true to form and got crab cakes!

I have never rubbed on more aloe or popped more ibuprofen in a 48-hour period, but it was worth it! Thank you Ocean City!

In Romania!

Well, sort of...Rachel and I went to Georgetown University where a Romanian author, Gabriela Adameșteanu, was lecturing and reading passages from her novel, Dimineaţa Pierdută. 


It was fascinating to learn more about post-WWII and communism period Romania from the artistic viewpoint of someone who experienced it! We met a professor who has spent a good portion of his life learning about Romania and studying Romanian just because he likes it, a young man who wanted his picture taken with the author and subsequently failed to give me his email address (I will forever have a picture of an unidentified guy), and I even got the chance to talk to the author afterwards about the revolutions in Romania and Hungary (in Romanian! And she didn't transition to English when she inevitably realized it's not my native language!!). Overall, succes!

 It certainly pays to have the Romanian Embassy alert you when there are fabulous events going on in DC! Finished off a great evening with ice cream from a Georgetown establishment.

GRADUATE SCHOOL!

aka My Life May Finally Go Places Someday

I had to stay up til MIDNIGHT...

Starting to feel sleepy

Countering dizziness with fishies

Going crazy!

almost there...

...waiting for the portal to open (sound like a second-rate science fiction book to anyone else?), but I am finally registered for my first semester of graduate school at American University. Bring on the foreign policy-BRING IT!