Race Day. Have you been to Moab lately? The whole town is organic and made out of granola and mountain bikers. It made the whole experience feel just a little more hard core, even though we have a long way to go before we would qualify as a Moab-ite.
I haven't been there since we hiked arches when I was 13. I kind of just remember we went to buy ice cream after, but then my dad made us boycott it because all proceeds went to draining Lake Powell.
Anyways.
This is our before picture, somewhere during the time everyone waits for the shuttle and uses the bathroom a million times.
Kimberly's sisters came down with us and cheered us on. I love being around sisters even though it makes me miss mine. My parents met us in Moab, too. They got in that morning so I didn't see them before the race.
It was SO fun turning the last corner and seeing the finish line and my parents at the same time. I did a little dance for them. Then I kept running.
My Aunt Tanya ran it as well! She's a professional at this, I don't even know how many races she has done. It was so fun to see her there!
The race was great overall. Kimberly finished in two hours and I am SO proud of her! Then she was there to cheer me on when I came in 30 minutes later :)
Kimberly and I are happy happy happy to be done with the training process. Now we get to choose how long we want to run instead of following a calendar. And I get to eat Reese's Eggs whenever I want. Right?
Race experience made possible by: Kindal's running mix, ibuprofen, Ali's coaching, the man who offered everyone beer at mile 6 (took the laugh, not the beer), Clif Shot energy gel at mile 8, the old women who played bongos at mile 9, Alma 30:44, my parents' cheering, and lots of grateful prayers for a body that can run if I teach it to.
Feels weird to have the race finished! Now we're just ready to finish being sore :)
I think Michael and I possibly drove farther than any other BYU students over Presidents' Day weekend. Maybe that's why I'm not blogging about it until now? A lot of homework time was sacrificed in the making of this trip.
Look, Idaho! And that, my friends, is the only picture of a "Welcome to (insert new, exciting state here)" sign that we got. BUT I added two to my list; this was my first time to Oregon and Washington. Northwest corner, check.
We drove up to visit Allison and her fiance, Adam. Even though we heard a lot about Adam last summer, we still wanted to check him out before she marries him in June.
We approve.
Adam is going to medical school in Seattle, and Allison moved there after Jerusalem. They were so nice to give us the grand tour of their city! We loved visiting them.
Seattle in one word: colorful. Interpret that as you will. Look, the city has trolls under bridges. Three Billy Goats Gruff style. We climbed it.
And picked its nose.
The market! Saturdays and markets are just meant to go together.
London taught me that.
Sometimes that lesson causes some sentimental Saturdays when I have no market access.
Pike Place Market. It's famous.
We watched a movie in 8th grade once to learn about being positive employees no matter where we worked.
The whole movie focused on Pike Place Market.
Must have been memorable because I don't know why I'm bringing that up.
They really do throw fish a lot.
This...is the gum wall.
I just really like it because every piece on that wall is not on the ground, and not on my shoe. They're also not under a desk in the library. I am very grateful for this wall.
Mmm, more markets. I wish I did my shopping here every week.
And I wish someone brought me these every week.
Flowers from a market, what's better than that?
Don't worry, that was hypothetical -- I know you won't be able to come up with anything.
They're getting married in DC on June 18th, people.
And I will be there! That's where I'm doing my internship to finish up school. Then after that I will ... oh wait. I have absolutely no plans after.
Let's not dwell on that.
I just liked this.
Don't tell Allison, but the REAL reason we went up to Seattle that weekend was for the Pacific Northwest Yo-Yo championship. Michael is obsessed.
Ok, that's not true. But we did spend two hours a few minutes being jealous of a lot of insanely talented yo-yoers. I felt like we discovered an entire hidden community. But then we saw other BYU sweatshirts and I realized that we didn't really discover anything - Mormons are all over free entertainment.
We rode a ferry out to Bainbridge Island one night. People can bring cars onto ferries. I tried not to think about that too much... but I feel like any boat with cars on it has a good chance of sinking.
Water robs me of my faith.
It was incredibly windy and enjoyable. The front of the ferry was almost too windy to handle. There were some small children that couldn't get enough of it, actually. I was convinced they were going to be blown off the boat.
Water, no faith, remember?
Michael has a rough past with the Puget Sound. I shouldn't tell you this because Allison has the copyright to the story, but he once faced a vicious harbor seal in those waters. He was just paddling along, then suddenly a growling seal emerged from the water and tried to climb onto his kayak. Somehow he managed to fight it off with his paddle, but once he pushed it back, his kayak flipped over.
I think he was a little nervous during the ferry ride, but it was good for him to get back to the scene of the incident. Closure.
See? Vicious.
We accomplished a lot over the weekend, including this ridiculously hard puzzle. Don't be fooled by the picture, in real life all of the pieces look pretty much identical.
Really, though.
See? It was hard. But we did it. For some reason we just couldn't leave Seattle without seeing the finished product.
And then ... we had to get in Saturn Saturn and drive home. Fourteen hours, again.
I thought I would finally experience the feeling of wanting a road trip to be over and actually get sick of driving.
Didn't happen.
If fourteen hours isn't my limit, I wonder what is? I need to find out...
Look, Washington is beautiful.
The entire weekend was sunny, the whole rain reputation must be a myth.
We spent all of Thursday in the car, played Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then drove...
and drove...
and drove...
...home on Monday.
I. Love. Road Trips.
p.s. This is Oregon. We stopped at a lookout point because I had to touch it. Now it is officially counted on my list :)
Next weekend: Road trip to Moab! It's race time, people.
Lost to the Suns (better them than any other team ... except maybe the Celtics), and lost their longtime legacy.
The news of Jerry Sloan's resignation didn't really sink in for me until I watched the game tonight. I drove Jenny and her kids down to Cedar this weekend, and I'm glad I got to watch the game here. This is where I remember loving Jazz games with my mom, popping popcorn and watching Stockton and Malone read each other's minds. And Hornacek wear short shorts. We always popped popcorn. Could be the source of my addiction?
And Jerry Sloan was always there on the sideline. He started coaching the Jazz when I started, well, life. No denying 1988 was a good year. It felt so weird to watch the game tonight without him on the screen.
Nobody took his resignation harder than Ali, I love how much she loves him. She needs to come back home and draw the Jazz logo on our street in chalk again, like she did with her friends back when her team was in the playoffs with the Bulls.
I think people would still drive around it like they did then.
Running. Sometimes I still dread the getting-started part, but definitely addicted to the feeling you get once you're in your groove. Plus I love any chance I get to listen to Kindal's hand-picked running mix, while I run around in the SUU Track shirt she gave me. Basically, she's my sponsor. Thanks girl.
Garlic. Random, I know. But I used to avoid anything and everything that came into even minor contact with the stuff. Ever since my cooking class last semester, I have entered a mindset that everything I cook should have garlic added to it. Like I'm depriving (insert almost any creation from allrecipes.com here) of its full potential if I don't give it garlic.
Waking up before my alarm. This used to just seriously make me mad. I always felt like I had started the day as a victim of instant deprivation. But a week ago we heard a wonderful devotional from Elder Kikuchi that made me realize waking up too early is wonderful. He challenged us to wake up just 7 minutes earlier and read the Book of Mormon every day. Now when that happens, I just get excited :)
Road Trips. Oh wait ... I've always been addicted to those. Good thing I have two planned in February! Cedar with Jenny and her cute kids, then Seattle the next week! Thank you, Presidents, for giving us a Day. And thank you, Allison, for being in Seattle and letting me come visit you! SOON! Is it weird that I'm excited for 12 hours of driving?
Friday was an adventure up at Aspen Grove. A randomly connected group of us went cross-country skiing, and I call it an adventure since most of us had never been before. And when I say randomly connected, I mean it. Ready, try to follow this: On the left is Neal, who went to Jerusalem with us this summer. His date is Grace (also Jeru) who is next to Michael's sister Rachel (Jeru again). Then Lauren (Jeru) with her date Dave, who is in my ward. Dave is roommates with Jordan, who is also Michael's friend from freshman year, who came on a date with Kimberly, my roommate. (Kimberly and Jordan: not pictured. They were too busy being good at cross-country skiing). Then Michael, and me, and Tyler, Rachel's date, who went to Jerusalem as well.
Did you follow that?
Cross-country skiing stole any sense of coordination I thought I had. The skis are super thin, and I never really did figure out the technique of slowing down or turning. You know that whole pizza thing they teach you in elementary school? It wasn't working too well. And sometimes when we went uphill I would go uncontrollably backwards. Michael would kindly stick his pole back and pull me the rest of the way. It was greatly appreciated.
We got the hang of it by the end, though. I even made it down the steepest part of the course without falling my last time around. I turned around to brag to Michael, but he was coming at me at full speed with no sign of stopping. We collided into a small mountain-ish pile of snow. Would've been a soft landing if Michael's ski wasn't between me and the ground. I'm so proud of my bruise though! It's all sorts of colors. Too bad it's not in an appropriate place for me to prove that to you. Just take my word for it.
I was so glad Kimberly came with us! These days I feel like I only see her when we're running or falling asleep, which means we don't get to catch up enough. I'm no conversationalist when we're making each other run mile after mile in Provo's freeeezing weather, and I make no sense when I'm tired. No sense at all.
On our way back to the car we stumbled upon a Youth Conference dance at one of the lodges. Kimberly and I limited ourselves to two songs, then we decided the leaders were onto us. We just couldn't pass by a perfectly good dance party, even though the average age was 14.
I guess the tables have turned -- the last dance I went to at Aspen Grove was with Ali and her roommates when I was still in high school. It was fun to tell the boys I danced with that I was still a senior when they would ask me what my major was. Maybe not as fun for them though.
I did actually make it to Beantown for New Year's...after failed attempt #4. The flight I was on that Wednesday night was canceled again, but not because of weather this time. Apparently Delta just could not find a pilot. There were a lot of people on my flight who had been waiting all week to get to Boston, so I felt bad for the nice Delta ladies that were taking the hit for it all. But still, missing pilot? They put all the passengers of my flight in a hotel for the night and made us a new flight for 6 am sharp Thursday morning. It was kind of fun. I jumped on my bed.
When I got into Boston I changed my flight so I could stay there until the last possible minute Monday night. Then we hit up some candle pin bowling! It's like real bowling, but much less satisfying. Even if you send your shotput-sized ball right down the middle, it might only knock down three of the ten straight sticks. Bogus.
The shoes are definitely the best part. I wanted to keep them. I would wear these regularly if they didn't live in Boston still.
I can't be in Boston too long without a sandwich at Al's, so we hit it up the very next day! Go there. Get a chicken salad sandwich. It's famous. It should be more famous.
This is outside the Garden right before our CELTICS game! Best Christmas present ever :) Thanks Ali! Ironically, they played the Hornets, so I've seen New Orleans play twice this year. And ironically, the Celtics lost...even though they've only done that three times at home. Well, four, after they play the Jazz tomorrow.
We had a little bit of time before the game so we hit up Modern Pastry for a Canoli. These things are growing on me. Then we buried my water bottle in the snow so we could have a drink out of it after the game. It brought back memories of when Ali would do that on campus my freshman year with egg nog. She's so resourceful.
The boys! Shaq is so big. SO big. We were pretty high up, but he still looked big. (Seriously, big). There were no uncooperative Hornets fans providing sideshows at this game. Ali and I danced our way onto the Jumbotron though! We weren't going to stop until it happened. Our neighbors were very supportive. "You go girls, get us on TV!"
After the game we went to look at the ice sculptures and skaters in Boston Common. The fireworks were beautiful! And Boston had record high temps for New Year's, it was just wonderful. I'm carrying the Celtics shirt I bought in this picture because stuffing it inside my coat only lasted for so long. If you do that, it falls out and then you step on it and wonder what crazy person left their shirt on the ground. Then a man behind you tells you that you dropped your shirt, and you realize that crazy person is you. Whoops.
We made it home in time to officially "stay in" for New Year's Eve, because years of experience has taught us that's the best way to do things. We grabbed Thai food on the way, then got our annual dance party started. Highlights included learning Jessie, Lisa, and Kelly's timeless music video routine in the emotional Saved by the Bell caffeine pills episode.
The real crazy people in this post, however, are these guys...These Bostonians are on the beach on New Year's Day, ready to take a dive into the Atlantic. Who would do that?
Actually, we couldn't resist. I mean, with record high temperatures, it was the year to do it right? So we jumped out of bed, bundled up, and drove to Castle Island. Here we are, ready for Atlantic Dive 1102! We were going for 2011. Rachel told us we did it right, but apparently all three of us are dyslexic.
It was fun watching each group run into the water together...fun because we were avoiding doing it ourselves :) Finally, we had to make our dash. WeirdestColdest Worst Strangest feeling ever. Ali dove under and I knew I had to do it, even though all my survival instincts were against the idea. So I dove.
Then I lost my (well, Ali's) shoe. I remember thinking, "Dang, too bad her shoe is lost forever" because the alternative was going farther out to find the shoe. That didn't even cross my mind as an option because survival instincts were still my dominant thought process. But Ali kept a cooler head through it all and pulled me out to rescue my (her) shoe.
Surprisingly, when we got out, it wasn't even cold anymore. I'm going to attribute this to numbness. We walked the mile back to our car with just a towel, and it didn't even faze us. When I noticed my flip-flopped feet were going through snow and I wasn't even aware of it, I decided numbness was definitely happening.
We gradually added layers as we made our way to our car (oh the parking in Boston), and then I felt my toes again.
And then, just hours before my flight home, I had to go to Al's again. Oh man, I miss that place.
Other highlights: meeting Ali's cute residents at her new job, ice skating and watching all of Ali's highly-skilled spins, going to Church in Boston's new Stake Center, driving by the Harvard chapel that is still recovering from the fire, buying new running shoes to bribe myself to March 19, seeing the piles and piles of snow that stole half of my week, playing with Rachel again...OK that's going to have to be the end of the list, because it could go on for way too long.
Thanks for the fun week, Ali! I'll be back soon :)
