The Glamorous Life of the Job Searcher

Day 48 without employment.

I miss feeling productive. Well, the earning-money productive.

Sometimes I clean our little apartment and feel productive,

then I think about how much more fun it would be to get paid for that productivity.

And THEN I think of how many times I'll inevitably have that thought in my future

life of motherhood and homemaking.

Ouch.

Michael should pay me to make our house and raise our future (future future future) babies.

And I'll pay him to go to dental school.

It'll just be pushing some money around, but hey, maybe it'll make us both feel a little better.

Anyways, I'm going a little crazy, but not too much. And all it takes is a picture like this 

to brighten me up to a suitable level of positive thinking.

I love penguins.

But sometimes a picture like this is closely followed by a random email telling me I didn't get a job,

typically a job that I don't remember applying for.

Ouch again.

But it's all good - there are good things in the works, always.

And as a last resort, my friend Elyse found a job that sounds pretty interesting...

It made me laugh as much as the penguin picture did. 

Which probably means I should go check my email...

The Darndest Things...

Don't you love the way kids just speak their minds?

And they get away with it. You don't get that privilege back in full until you're 70.

They just make me laugh more than anyone.

I got a voicemail from my nephew Jaren, and he sounded very concerned:

"Maddie, I'm not going to come see you in Indiana. 

I'm afraid a tornado will get me."

Then Lydia talked to me on the phone later,

telling me that I needed to watch out for tomatoes -- 

she does not want a tomato to get me and Michael.

Luckily "tomato" season has passed for the year,

so I told them they don't need to worry about that right now.

Then at church I had fun filling in for the primary pianist,

and cute Sienna's opening prayer was the best part.

"Please bless this will be the best day of our lives,

and we won't die.

Please bless our moms and dads will be good,

and we will just be so happy.

And not die."

Almost died laughing. Ironic.

Future Dr. D

The Class of 2016 had their White Coat Ceremony last week.

I didn't have the greatest of seats...but I tried to capture the moment.

If it's hard to tell from the zoomed in picture, Michael is not the one in the tube top, and not black.

See him there on the left? He looks good in white!

Here are some of his friends in his class. 

I'm thinking they'll be pretty dang close by the end of four hard years.

He looks pretty happy in that coat, yeah?

I mean, I never got a smile like that in any of our wedding photos!

I'm so proud of him - he works his hardest at everything he does.

So maybe 2016 sounds a little far away and a little daunting right now,

but I know it will fly by and we'll be sad when the four years are over.

Sucker for Swift

You know what I said the first time I heard Taylor Swift's new song?

That she sounded like Avril Lavigne. And that the country world would not be happy with her.

But deep inside I knew...

I only needed to hear it (minimum) two more times before I'd be belting it in my car.

How does she do that?

Why is she so good at that?

Whatever, who knows, here you go:

I just wish I had her in my adolescent roller coaster years.

She sings wisdom that I would have loved to belt in my old Hyundai Excel (RIP).

Doesn't stop me from belting it today, though.

You go, Taylor.

Road Trip 2012

After our perfect day in Boston, Ali was packed up and ready to hit the road.

That LONG road, right there.

Here are all the stops we made on our Southern route from Boston to Utah:

We headed out on a Thursday morning,
hitting up Dunkin on our way out of the city.
We just kind of felt like it was appropriate,
seeing as how there's a Dunkin (or two) on every corner of Boston.

Don't mind my randomly bloodshot eyes. They cleared up by South Carolina.

We had fun driving through Brooklyn and getting a glimpse of the NY skyline again,

and the Statue of Liberty. Beautiful day!

We spent our first night in Baltimore, then did a half-day in DC for a few of my favorite things.

First we explored the American History Museum,

then we met my sister-in-law Katie for lunch! 

She's crazy busy in her residency there, so I was glad she had time to meet up with us.

And of course we went to Sprinkles after lunch... :)

This trip proved to be no different than any in the past: I am terrible at getting shots of

the "Welcome to [insert state that is approaching way too rapidly]" sign.

But we managed to snag a few.

We spent a day in Myrtle Beach, and it was beautiful.

Definitely my warmest Atlantic Ocean experience.
We woke up early to catch the sunrise,
totally worth it.

We walked around Broadway at the Beach that night, 

and my dad and I couldn't stop watching these crazy carp. They're nasty and huge.

We fed them like $3.00 worth of fish food from the machine there, so I hope they're grateful.

The best part was watching the ducks that walked right over the top of all the fish,

and grabbed the fish food first.

Then, we loaded up again and headed West.
For the record, only the red & tan bags are mine. I was obviously ready to get on the road.

We had a great experience at church in Columbia, South Carolina.

This man had been baptized the night before, and shared his testimony that morning.

He mentioned that he met an LDS missionary in Panama, who gave him a Book of Mormon.

Then, he named the elder, and it was one of our good friends from the summer I lived in Boston!

Our friend left Boston to go to Panama to serve his mission, and now he's at BYU -- 

it was so amazing to hear this man's story of how our friend had changed his life.

We took a picture with him and sent it to our friend, totally freaked him out :)

We headed out through the southern states, and made sure we experienced some real soul food.

Mary Mac's Tea Room in Atlanta was so much fun -- fried green tomatoes, black-eyed peas,

fried chicken, tomato pie...we tasted it all!

And once we had digested (like six days later), we hit up Lambert's,

"The Only Home of Throwed Rolls."

It's true, they throw the rolls at you. And your drinks come in big gulps.

(Don't worry, that's water).

There's also a bucket of butter on the table, and people walking around at all times

pushing fried okra and all sorts of things onto your plate.

So good, so fun...

But then we never wanted to eat again.

We saw some beautiful old mansions in Alabama, including one that survived the Civil War.
Then in Mississippi, we stopped where Elvis was born.
Are we huge fans, or was it time to switch drivers?
You decide.

In Memphis, we stopped at the hotel where Martin Luther King was assassinated,

which has been converted into a Civil Rights Museum. It was powerful.

From there we did two nights in the one and only Branson, Missouri, 

so my mom could see some shows.

We watched a comedy routine and Jim Stafford,

then we saw the Dutton family perform.

Maybe because they're really talented and entertaining,

maybe because my dad used to date their mom.

You decide.

One of our favorite (and only?) Arkansas sighting.

Once we hit Oklahoma, the land got flatter and the roads got longer.

Luckily we had a lunch break in Tulsa so I could meet up with my friend Jami!

And her adorable family. Isn't little Afton beautiful?

After a night in Amarillo, and a waffle shaped like Texas, we made it to New Mexico.

First stop: Carlsbad Caverns.

Go there.

It's amazing. Mammoth Caves are the longest in America, but this is the largest. 

It has a room inside that can fit 6 football fields. 

Do you know how long it takes a cave to make all the cool things inside?

It's pretty incredible to see.

We hung around until dusk, 

because millions of bats fly out of the opening for their nightly hunt.

I support this. They eat mosquitos.

The ranger told us there is a part of the cave that has 40 feet of guano.

Disgusting. But true.

We spent the night in Roswell...

heard of it?

We didn't see any aliens. And the most exciting thing in the museum

was accidentally walking into the men's bathroom.

Other than that, meh.

 From there, we went to my dad's hometown, Los Alamos, New Mexico!

My first time there.

He took us on the grand tour: his homes, schools, shenanigans, everything.

It was a lot of fun to see.

Then, the home stretch.

We had an Atlas-GPS battle the entire trip,

but we'd always found our way just fine.

But somewhere between Los Alamos and Farmington, NM, 

the road turned to dirt and the rain started pouring.

Then we came around the corner...

and found this.

Ultimate road block. Seriously?

It was craziness. So after some minor backtracking, we DID find our way again.

After one more night, we made it into Arizona land. We stopped at Glen Canyon Dam...

Then drove home through Zion.

It's still the prettiest place in the world. (See the goat?)

After 11 days, 23 states, and 4,000 miles...Cedar looked pretty good. Always does :)

Now, just 5 states left on the list!

It's great to be back in Indiana with Michael...

I carried some guilt through every state when I thought about him alone and in school.

He was so sweet to send me on the trip and never complain about it.

(He's probably going to complain when I make him drive to North Dakota with me though.

Gotta go someday, right?)

:)

Best of Boston, in a day

I spent the early, early a.m. of Tuesday nodding off during this beautiful sunrise...

And landed in Boston in time to help the sister pack her pod.

That thing is full. Blue-shirt Brian had some serious spatial reasoning skills,

which is something I was definitely not born with.

He kept finding magical places for everything to fit in.

Beds, recliners, rocking chairs, dressers, bookshelves...it's all there.

Even the bike. Pure talent.

 

So with the pod packed up, we spent Tuesday doing all our one-more-times.

We drove by our old Summit Ave house, where we lived a few summers ago.

That house had some seriously good times when we were roommates/sisters/coworkers/friends/everything.

Of course we went to Al's for lunch, our favorite sandwich shop. Ever.

And you know who was there? Al himself.

He's a legend.

Ali took a picture with him and confessed her love for his sandwiches.

She told him she was moving out to Utah, and how much she would miss eating there.

He gave her his cell number and told her to meet up with him at the Red Sox game,

and he'd give her an official Al's shirt.

An Al's shirt. From Al. At the Red Sox game. Score.

We ate our lunch outside by the fountains, and watched some skateboarders do hoodrat stuff.

Speaking of which, Ali had never seen THIS video until today. Crazy, right?

Then it was off to the game! Me, Green Monster, pretty sister.

Finally at Fenway park...in all my Boston time, I'd never been to a Red Sox Game.

(See the Prudential Center back there? Favorite.)

 Sisters at the game. Do we look like sisters? We always get one of two reactions from people:

"Wow, you guys look like twins!"

"Wow, you guys don't even look related!"

?

Who knows. I try to not let it add to my suspicion that I'm adopted.

(Evidence: No one knows what race I am, so people regularly find creative

ways to ask me about it. AND I just learned that 

Social Security has had my birthday wrong for my entire life. 

How old am I? Where am I from? What happened to Amelia Earhart? Shady.)

The whole crew at Fenway. I'm going to miss Boston visits with Rachel!

She was Ali's roommate for 4 years. We LOVE her. Most ardently.

Highlights of the game: Dogs. Sweet Caroline sing alongs. 

The inebriated lady who bolted onto the field,

followed by the stadium playing "What do we do with a drunken sailor..."

and of course...

Calling Al, and getting our official shirts. He even gave Ali a kiss on the cheek,

and tried to convince her to not leave Boston.

That's just the unimaginably perfect ending to our Al's legacy.

 There's just no other way this day could end than with a Berryline fix.

It's the greatest frozen yogurt there ever was.

All in all, it was crazy how perfect the last Boston day was. 

Added to all this we also enjoyed a random free sundae,

extremely lucky parking spots,
another Jumbotron appearance, 

and lots and lots of laughing.

It'll be bittersweet to drive away from Boston tomorrow...

but it just couldn't have ended on a higher note.