The last week or so I've been in a funk. I couldn't figure out why, but I just felt down in the dumps and sad. Last night, I think I figured out why. I've almost always had a goal in my life, and most of my goals involved schooling. Getting through high school, studying music, studying art, getting a Masters and working towards a career. I still have the goal of getting my Masters, but at this point in my life, it isn't something I can work towards besides saving up money to do it. We don't want any more debt than we are already in with our car and David's student loan from when he first got back from his mission.
The thing that's bothering me is that I don't really have much of a direction in my life right now. I clean the house, work, and that's pretty much my life. I don't hate my job, that's not it. I just don't feel challenged. I would like a job in the arts, but around here that's not really an option. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't have many things to look forward to. The summer will be nice because it will be warm, but I'll still be doing what I'm doing now. I want something to work towards. I liked going to school because I felt accomplished. When I finished a class, I was that much closer to graduation, or being able to take the next level of classes. And then I graduated, and I don't know what to work towards. David says I need to find a hobby and I told him I feel like my hobby is laundry because I feel like that's all I do. I want to find something I'm really good at, something that I'll really look forward to doing.
Sorry this has been kind of a downer post, but I had to get all my feelings out so I can work through them in my head. That's basically how my mind works. Maybe tonight at work I'll have some epiphany about what I should do. Until then, I'm open to suggestions! (and to my family-I know you're all going to say stuff like underwater basket weaving...I know exactly where all my sarcasm came from.)
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
Symphony
It's concert time again! Tomorrow the Idaho Falls Symphony will be putting on their Red Dress Concert. We'll be playing Bizet's Carmen suite (I know you have all heard of it because everyone has heard the Toreador song!), Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (if you're a wind player you love this song, if you're a string player....not so much), and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade. If you don't know these pieces, I think you should look them up because they're all very cool!
During our dress rehearsal tonight, I was thinking about how much I love to play in a symphony. That was one thing that made me really sad about graduating, that I would have as many opportunities to play in a professional-type orchestra. Luckily, I found the IF Symphony! They play at about the same level as the college (which from what David tells me, for a community orchestra is pretty rare) and I have so much fun. I'll be sad when we move away because I probably won't be able to find these types of opportunities. I know life will kick in and I'll get busy with other things, but I hope I'll always find time and opportunities to play. I know that right now I would probably have an easier time finding a job or getting more hours at the job I have if I didn't play, but I couldn't do that. I would be unhappy because I wouldn't be able to do one of the only things that really makes me feel accomplished.
When I play, I like to imagine scenes where this music would fit, kind of like in movies. It helps me get in the right mood and feel for the piece. I try to get into the music and forget about how I look when I play or what others may think of mistakes I make. I especially love concerts. I think I always have. I love to get all dressed up and do my hair fancy. I love seeing everyone all dressed up, especially the men in their tux's. Someday I'll be able to afford a really nice black dress I can wear to concerts! I think I like concerts because that's when you can play the music without having to worry about the conductor stopping you and everyone (for the most part) is prepared and knows what to do and you can just dive into the music. Often during concerts, I forget there is even an audience there. Of course, then I remember they are and I get nervous, but then it goes away again and I can just be myself. When I play, it is one of the few times I feel graceful and at least somewhat talented.
I don't feel like that when I play a solo. I'm not a solo player...too much pressure... but I would play in a symphony any day. I just wanted to share those thoughts because I was thinking about them all tonight. I'm glad we have 2 more concerts after this! So come tomorrow night and listen to some great musicians! It's going to be a fun night!
During our dress rehearsal tonight, I was thinking about how much I love to play in a symphony. That was one thing that made me really sad about graduating, that I would have as many opportunities to play in a professional-type orchestra. Luckily, I found the IF Symphony! They play at about the same level as the college (which from what David tells me, for a community orchestra is pretty rare) and I have so much fun. I'll be sad when we move away because I probably won't be able to find these types of opportunities. I know life will kick in and I'll get busy with other things, but I hope I'll always find time and opportunities to play. I know that right now I would probably have an easier time finding a job or getting more hours at the job I have if I didn't play, but I couldn't do that. I would be unhappy because I wouldn't be able to do one of the only things that really makes me feel accomplished.
When I play, I like to imagine scenes where this music would fit, kind of like in movies. It helps me get in the right mood and feel for the piece. I try to get into the music and forget about how I look when I play or what others may think of mistakes I make. I especially love concerts. I think I always have. I love to get all dressed up and do my hair fancy. I love seeing everyone all dressed up, especially the men in their tux's. Someday I'll be able to afford a really nice black dress I can wear to concerts! I think I like concerts because that's when you can play the music without having to worry about the conductor stopping you and everyone (for the most part) is prepared and knows what to do and you can just dive into the music. Often during concerts, I forget there is even an audience there. Of course, then I remember they are and I get nervous, but then it goes away again and I can just be myself. When I play, it is one of the few times I feel graceful and at least somewhat talented.
I don't feel like that when I play a solo. I'm not a solo player...too much pressure... but I would play in a symphony any day. I just wanted to share those thoughts because I was thinking about them all tonight. I'm glad we have 2 more concerts after this! So come tomorrow night and listen to some great musicians! It's going to be a fun night!
Monday, February 13, 2012
New Calling
Last Sunday I got a new calling. Well, new would imply that I had a calling before and even though we've been in the ward for about 9 months, we have been on the DL most of that time. We never had to give the customary "new to the ward" talks or anything like that. The closest we came was when we were asked to give the opening and closing prayers one sacrament meeting, but it was a holiday weekend and there weren't many people they could choose from.
Anyways, my new calling is to be on the Relief Society Activities Committee. I think it's going to be a good calling, the bishop told me it's going to be me and 2 other girls and they would like to have at least one activity a month. That was all fine for me so I gladly agreed. I was already trying to come up with all sorts of fun activities later that day, but I found it was a lot harder than I thought. Our ward is a married student ward. The good thing is that most everyone is pretty close in age. The thing that made my brainstorming so difficult was that about 3/4 of our relief society is either pregnant or has a child under the age of 1.
Most of the activities our relief society has done in the past has been something like a recipe swap, a play date for the kids, or a baby stuff swap (they said you could bring other stuff too, but most of what they wanted was baby stuff like cribs or toys or something like that). It's hard for me as a non-mother (I don't know what other term to use so I decided to make one up) to want to go to these activities because I won't be able to contribute anything and will feel super out of place.
So here is where I ask for your help. In order to help myself and the 5 other girls in my ward that aren't expecting (I just came up with the number 5, although sometimes I feel like it's only about 1 other girl....) I would like to know your ideas for fun stuff our relief society could do that would be fun for everyone. One idea David came up with was to go gun shooting. I don't think that would be too difficult because I know a lot of people that would probably let us borrow their guns for an afternoon, but I don't know if the girls would like it. I don't know the girls in our ward too well because everyone is always moving in and out, so do you think that would be a good idea? I would like some ideas so I can contribute at least a little bit. So if you have an idea, please share!
Anyways, my new calling is to be on the Relief Society Activities Committee. I think it's going to be a good calling, the bishop told me it's going to be me and 2 other girls and they would like to have at least one activity a month. That was all fine for me so I gladly agreed. I was already trying to come up with all sorts of fun activities later that day, but I found it was a lot harder than I thought. Our ward is a married student ward. The good thing is that most everyone is pretty close in age. The thing that made my brainstorming so difficult was that about 3/4 of our relief society is either pregnant or has a child under the age of 1.
Most of the activities our relief society has done in the past has been something like a recipe swap, a play date for the kids, or a baby stuff swap (they said you could bring other stuff too, but most of what they wanted was baby stuff like cribs or toys or something like that). It's hard for me as a non-mother (I don't know what other term to use so I decided to make one up) to want to go to these activities because I won't be able to contribute anything and will feel super out of place.
So here is where I ask for your help. In order to help myself and the 5 other girls in my ward that aren't expecting (I just came up with the number 5, although sometimes I feel like it's only about 1 other girl....) I would like to know your ideas for fun stuff our relief society could do that would be fun for everyone. One idea David came up with was to go gun shooting. I don't think that would be too difficult because I know a lot of people that would probably let us borrow their guns for an afternoon, but I don't know if the girls would like it. I don't know the girls in our ward too well because everyone is always moving in and out, so do you think that would be a good idea? I would like some ideas so I can contribute at least a little bit. So if you have an idea, please share!
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Dali
Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dali I Domenech, aka Salvador Dali is one of the worlds most known Surrealists. His most famous painting is "The Persistence of Memory" (see below picture). He is a Spanish painter, but had his hand in many American productions. In my Art History class, we talked a bit about him and I'd like to share a little about what I have learned and my reflections on it.
Dali, like Monet, was the son of a wealthy family. He was born in 1904, just making it to the 20th century. He grew up and went to a fine art inistitution in Spain. He built a home there with his wife and many of his paintings deal with his love for his home country. In one year, he held his first one-man art show, joined the Surrealists ( style of art in the 20th century stressing the subconsciou or nonrational) which were led by a former Dadaist (basically a style where they tried to change everyone's perceptions on art), and met his wife Gala who eventually started taking over the business side of his art. It is after all this that I think Dali's life really got interesting. War was brewing and in 1934, Dali's lack of political fervor got him kicked out of the Surrealist group although he did show with the Surrealists for the rest of that decade. After WWII started getting more and more serious, in 1940 Dali and his wife moved to the United States where he eventually met up with none other than Walt Disney.
In 1946, Salvador Dali and Walt Disney started on a collaboration that took 57 years to complete. It was a cartoon, but as you can imagine, with Dali involved, it wasn't going to be your run-of-the-mill show. Dali and John Hench (Disney studio artists) spent 8 months on the storyboard. They even managed to get 17 seconds of the actual cartoon produced. But the project was suddenly abandoned when the Disney company started to run into financial problems. In 1999, while Walt Disney's nephew was working on Fantasia 2000, he found all the old storyboards and the original clip and decided to bring it back to life. It took 25 animators roughly 3 years to complete the project, but they did it. Here is the clip of Salvador Dali and Walt Disney. A cartoon that, in my opinion, exemplifies the Surrealist idea. Not just a story about a girl, but a look into the creative mind of a wonderful artist. I give you: Destino
Dali, like Monet, was the son of a wealthy family. He was born in 1904, just making it to the 20th century. He grew up and went to a fine art inistitution in Spain. He built a home there with his wife and many of his paintings deal with his love for his home country. In one year, he held his first one-man art show, joined the Surrealists ( style of art in the 20th century stressing the subconsciou or nonrational) which were led by a former Dadaist (basically a style where they tried to change everyone's perceptions on art), and met his wife Gala who eventually started taking over the business side of his art. It is after all this that I think Dali's life really got interesting. War was brewing and in 1934, Dali's lack of political fervor got him kicked out of the Surrealist group although he did show with the Surrealists for the rest of that decade. After WWII started getting more and more serious, in 1940 Dali and his wife moved to the United States where he eventually met up with none other than Walt Disney.
In 1946, Salvador Dali and Walt Disney started on a collaboration that took 57 years to complete. It was a cartoon, but as you can imagine, with Dali involved, it wasn't going to be your run-of-the-mill show. Dali and John Hench (Disney studio artists) spent 8 months on the storyboard. They even managed to get 17 seconds of the actual cartoon produced. But the project was suddenly abandoned when the Disney company started to run into financial problems. In 1999, while Walt Disney's nephew was working on Fantasia 2000, he found all the old storyboards and the original clip and decided to bring it back to life. It took 25 animators roughly 3 years to complete the project, but they did it. Here is the clip of Salvador Dali and Walt Disney. A cartoon that, in my opinion, exemplifies the Surrealist idea. Not just a story about a girl, but a look into the creative mind of a wonderful artist. I give you: Destino
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Artist Spotlight
At this point in my life, not much is happening. I like to put posts on here, but I hardly ever have anything to say. Most other people blog about their children or work or things like that, but since I don't have children and no one wants to hear pitiful stories about my job, I decided I'd talk about something that I love: art. Specifically, the artists that create the art. I love to think about what famous people are like. I would talk about my favorite artist first, but I have so many favorites that I didn't know where to start. So I decided to start with the artist who's painting I actually have a reproduction of - Claude Monet.
I know you never would have guessed, but Monet is French! Born in Paris in mid-19th Century, he was never one of the starving artists that you hear so much about. His family was fairly well off and sent him to a private school where he often got in trouble for breaking rules and being somewhat of a rebel. When he was 15, he was selling caricatures on the streets (which his well-to-do parents did not approve of). Shortly after Monet's first art show, his mother died and his aunt took over the encouragement of this young man's artistic drive. Monet studied with many great Impressionists of the time, but he didn't truly find inspiration till he found the works of none other than Edouard Manet. Manet used a similar style to the one that Monet came to be so famous for. Both artists painted "en plein air" which basically means they painted outdoors. This was a big step in art and could only have been made possible by the invention of tubes (like the tubes toothpaste now comes in).
Monet was so particular about the lighting of his pieces, that he would wait until the sun was at a particular spot in the sky and it was even said that he had a ditch dug and himself suspended in the air to make sure he had the perfect angle for his painting. I think stories like that are so interesting. Monet became most famous after his painting "Impression: Sunrise", but the reproduction I have (and actually saw in person!) is of "Venice, The Grand Canal".
I know you never would have guessed, but Monet is French! Born in Paris in mid-19th Century, he was never one of the starving artists that you hear so much about. His family was fairly well off and sent him to a private school where he often got in trouble for breaking rules and being somewhat of a rebel. When he was 15, he was selling caricatures on the streets (which his well-to-do parents did not approve of). Shortly after Monet's first art show, his mother died and his aunt took over the encouragement of this young man's artistic drive. Monet studied with many great Impressionists of the time, but he didn't truly find inspiration till he found the works of none other than Edouard Manet. Manet used a similar style to the one that Monet came to be so famous for. Both artists painted "en plein air" which basically means they painted outdoors. This was a big step in art and could only have been made possible by the invention of tubes (like the tubes toothpaste now comes in).
Monet was so particular about the lighting of his pieces, that he would wait until the sun was at a particular spot in the sky and it was even said that he had a ditch dug and himself suspended in the air to make sure he had the perfect angle for his painting. I think stories like that are so interesting. Monet became most famous after his painting "Impression: Sunrise", but the reproduction I have (and actually saw in person!) is of "Venice, The Grand Canal".
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| Impression: Sunrise |
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| Venice, The Grand Canal |
I know most people wouldn't find this very interesting and I don't have many chances to talk about it with people, but I could talk art all day. I think the thing that grabs me most about the Venice piece is the colors. They are so peaceful and serene. This painting isn't about the subject or about the brush strokes, to me it's all about the feeling. What you go through when you look at it.
Well, I hope this wasn't too boring to read and if you made it this far, congratulations! I'll just end by saying that I love this kind of stuff, no matter what other people say.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Memories
This past month or so I've been putting together our famliy calender (it's almost finished everyone, so just hold your horses) and it's made me realize how much fun I have with my family. There have been some really great times. There have also been some not so great times, but that's beside the point.... It's made me realize how important making family memories are. They are so precious to me. I hope I can make as good of memories with my future children. Here are some of the things that make me laugh when I think about them:
-All of Dad's ideas about trying to catch mice.
-Actually, a lot of Dad's ideas in general (like trying to get into his locked car by using a baseball bat, never going to forget that one!)
-All of Andy's Baseball tournaments where we would sit clear in the outfield and have our own party
-When Oscar was little and a little Houdini
-Burns getting his foot broken and David wrapped it too tight and he became Thumper
-The summer when Joni, Andy, and I were all home and didn't have any more than part time jobs so we would take Oscar everywhere with us.
-Ditcher Time where my sisters, mom, and I go out to lunch and always make some kind of a scene
-Going to David's parents house and having to be careful about not saying we were going to murder each other
-On the way to David's parents house, getting stuck at a truck stop in the middle of nowhere and talking to a very....interesting....truck driver
-Having Sunday dinners together and getting to talk to everyone.
I think I'm going to like raising my own kids and being able to do weird, funny stuff with them too. I think between David and I, our kids don't really have a chance of being normal, but like I always tell David when he brings that up, at least they'll be funny!
-All of Dad's ideas about trying to catch mice.
-Actually, a lot of Dad's ideas in general (like trying to get into his locked car by using a baseball bat, never going to forget that one!)
-All of Andy's Baseball tournaments where we would sit clear in the outfield and have our own party
-When Oscar was little and a little Houdini
-Burns getting his foot broken and David wrapped it too tight and he became Thumper
-The summer when Joni, Andy, and I were all home and didn't have any more than part time jobs so we would take Oscar everywhere with us.
-Ditcher Time where my sisters, mom, and I go out to lunch and always make some kind of a scene
-Going to David's parents house and having to be careful about not saying we were going to murder each other
-On the way to David's parents house, getting stuck at a truck stop in the middle of nowhere and talking to a very....interesting....truck driver
-Having Sunday dinners together and getting to talk to everyone.
I think I'm going to like raising my own kids and being able to do weird, funny stuff with them too. I think between David and I, our kids don't really have a chance of being normal, but like I always tell David when he brings that up, at least they'll be funny!
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Just Keep Swimming
I know many people know how I feel right now. Newly graduated, stuck in Rexburg for the next little while, and out of work (kind of). I do have a part time job, but they don't have enough hours for everyone so I'm only getting about 20 hours a week. Also, my boss thought I was going to quit (even though both David and I told him I was staying) so he hired someone else to work during the day (which is the shift I wanted) and so I have to work almost every night. It's a lot of fun when David's at school all day, I'm at work all night, and we only get to see each other for about 2 hours in between. It sucks. It's enough to pay the bills, but not by much. I've been looking for any job I can get that would offer me full time, but in this city it's nearly impossible. Especially if you want any type of benefits or want to earn even $9 or $10 an hour. There are so many college kids here that will take any minimum wage job, that hardly anyone is willing to pay much more. It's frustrating to call all these people and fill out all these applications to have nothing work out. But I'm hopeful. When my sister was trying to get a job in nursing, I remember her saying once "They can't keep me out forever!" I think I'm going to try to keep that attitude. Just keep working at it until something finally works out.
In the meantime, David and I have tried to do all we can to cut back on expenses. David decided that each of us can only eat out once a week. This isn't too hard for me because we would normally eat out at night and I work almost every night so that pretty much takes away that temptation. I do go out to eat with my sisters and mom every week, so that's my one time out. If I find a day job, I don't think I'll be able to go to that any more, which bums me out a little bit. Instead of eating out, David has to endure my cooking. While we were at David's house his dad kept telling me all the easy recipes and telling me I need to learn sometime (which I wasn't quite sure how to feel about him telling me that). I was never that much into cooking. I love to bake. I'm a sweets person. I love sugar. Cooking is much more salty. But I'm doing my best.
Also, we try to keep the heat off or on low as much as we can. This isn't too hard because sometimes having the heat on doesn't make our apartment any warmer than when it's off. Gotta love apartments.
We also try to shop at Sam's Club as much as we can and buy in bulk. It saves us a lot of money in the long run because usually we only go grocery shopping every other week and we just hold off on things we need until we can make time to go down there.
We also spent some money on a couple of chickens. Like whole chickens. Frozen. They were a lot cheaper than getting chicken cuts so that saved us money, but I had no idea what we were supposed to do with 2 frozen chickens. That night, David had his friend Paul over and they divided the chickens up into breasts, legs, and other stuff that they made a broth from. The broth was really good and we used it in some homemade chicken noodle soup. And last night, I had to de-bone and de-skin the breasts so we could have some crockpot chicken. It was pretty gross. I'm just glad we had good knives so that the process went pretty fast. I take after my mom in that I hate touching raw meat. David had the chicken while I was at work and he said it was pretty good so I guess I didn't mess that up! David said it's pretty hard to mess chicken up, but I know I'll find a way.
Well, that's pretty much my life right now. While I'm at home all day I look for jobs, clean, do laundry, and try to figure out what David can have for dinner. It's not very exciting. I'm already getting bored and it hasn't even been a week since David started school. I need a job.
In the meantime, David and I have tried to do all we can to cut back on expenses. David decided that each of us can only eat out once a week. This isn't too hard for me because we would normally eat out at night and I work almost every night so that pretty much takes away that temptation. I do go out to eat with my sisters and mom every week, so that's my one time out. If I find a day job, I don't think I'll be able to go to that any more, which bums me out a little bit. Instead of eating out, David has to endure my cooking. While we were at David's house his dad kept telling me all the easy recipes and telling me I need to learn sometime (which I wasn't quite sure how to feel about him telling me that). I was never that much into cooking. I love to bake. I'm a sweets person. I love sugar. Cooking is much more salty. But I'm doing my best.
Also, we try to keep the heat off or on low as much as we can. This isn't too hard because sometimes having the heat on doesn't make our apartment any warmer than when it's off. Gotta love apartments.
We also try to shop at Sam's Club as much as we can and buy in bulk. It saves us a lot of money in the long run because usually we only go grocery shopping every other week and we just hold off on things we need until we can make time to go down there.
We also spent some money on a couple of chickens. Like whole chickens. Frozen. They were a lot cheaper than getting chicken cuts so that saved us money, but I had no idea what we were supposed to do with 2 frozen chickens. That night, David had his friend Paul over and they divided the chickens up into breasts, legs, and other stuff that they made a broth from. The broth was really good and we used it in some homemade chicken noodle soup. And last night, I had to de-bone and de-skin the breasts so we could have some crockpot chicken. It was pretty gross. I'm just glad we had good knives so that the process went pretty fast. I take after my mom in that I hate touching raw meat. David had the chicken while I was at work and he said it was pretty good so I guess I didn't mess that up! David said it's pretty hard to mess chicken up, but I know I'll find a way.
Well, that's pretty much my life right now. While I'm at home all day I look for jobs, clean, do laundry, and try to figure out what David can have for dinner. It's not very exciting. I'm already getting bored and it hasn't even been a week since David started school. I need a job.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
North Carolina Trip - Day 11
I know I haven't been the best about blogging about this trip, but I'll try to give at least most of the highlights of the last week. They aren't quite as exciting as getting run off the road, but I think it's still pretty fun!
When we first got to NC, we all pretty much just laid around and slept, David more than the rest of us. I don't know why, but he took about a 3 hour nap every day for about 5 days. I got pretty sick of that so unless I was asleep too, I made him come do stuff with me. David finally got to play some basketball with some friends last week. He always tries to get people to play with him in Rexburg but it usually doesn't work out. I think he really liked being able to do that. I think he's going to try and do that again tonight and tomorrow as well.
David's parents have been very nice to us. We are a little short on money because we had to pay for a tow, a hotel, and David's brother because his brother "forgot" his wallet in SLC and so we've had to pay for a lot of his stuff as well. They paid for us to go to a movie as well as go to a nice Southern restaurant called Smithfields. David took me to Smithfields the first time I came over here so it was a nice way to reminice. They have some pulled pork there with the vinegar based BBQ sauce, very different from the honey based BBQ sauce you find in the West. I think I'm still partial to the honey based stuff, but it's fun to try other stuff!
For Christmas, 2 of David's sisters came to his parents house and we all got to spend some time together. I got to talk to Tracy and see how much she loves to tease David (which I think is healthy for that brother-sister relationship!) but David managed to give it back to her every once in awhile so it was good. I got to make many batches of cookies with Tracy's daughter, Chloe. She liked the sugar cookies and being able to cut out different shapes. Her favorite shapes was a foot and the letter "x". I tried to get her to do Christmas shapes, but she stuck with those. It made me laugh.
On Christmas day, we got woken up at about 7 by the little kids. David and I were pretty groggy because we stayed up till 2 the night before watching A Christmas Story on our laptop. David's family has a tradition that everyone has to line up on the stairs and get their picture taken before you can open presents. This was pretty different for me because David's parents were both awake and downstairs before everyone else. I'm used to my family where we all have to bug Dad over and over and over before he tells us to open grandma's present and go watch it and then he'll get up. My grandma usually sent us a movie or something like that so it bought him some more sleeping time. Anyways, we took a picture up on their catwalk (I'm sure David and I looked BEAUTIFUL!!! We were even wearing our matching Mitchell bowling team shirts!) and then we went down to the couch to get more pictures taken with David's sister Joy. She had her foot operated on and has pretty much been crippled the whole time we've been here. So after all the pictures, we finally got to open the presents. Chloe would scream and get VERY excited pretty much after every present she opened, so I guess she was not disappointed with her Christmas. David's mom made all of us stockings with our names embrodered on it so that if we ever came for Christmas again we would have stockings for Christmas. His parents worked very hard to make sure Christmas was exciting and fun for everyone.
The rest of the day went about like you would think Christmas would go. After a nice nap, we had Sacrament Meeting at 3 (a little late for my taste, but that's what they were assigned) and David got to do a wonderful musical number that he played on a cello he borrowed from a lady in his parents ward. The people he borrowed the cello from were so paranoid about him borrowing it that as soon as the meeting ended and David was packing it up, the husband was right there ready to take it back. It made me laugh, but it was really fun. When we got back to the house, David's other sister Mindi was there with her family. It was great to finally meet all these sisters that I keep hearing about! We had lots of laughs and a wonderful dinner together to end the day.
The next day we all went to Adventure Landing. I went there with David when I came a couple years ago, and it was fun to return. We all got to ride on their go-karts and race each other. David's dad was very nice and paid for us to go. They have 1 and 2 seater karts so the kids got to ride with the older people. I have to say, I did pretty good with it for only having ridden something like that 1 other time in my life! I wish we had more stuff like that in Idaho because it is a run thing to do if you have an hour or so to spare! For the rest of the day and all this morning we've just been relaxing. We went to Wal-Mart a few times (no week would be complete without a few trips to Wal-Mart! That's what David and I sometimes do when we get bored) and exchanged a few things, but nothing else to exciting happened. I tried to keep up with what was happening at home by texting my mom and brother, but I think that LISA and MAMA should write a blog post of their own to tell me all about it....(hint hint...)
David told me that he thinks this trip is too long. I tend to agree. We've been here a week and weren't planning on leaving till Friday night (not to drive all night Mom, just to drive to Tracy's a few hours away - don't worry) but David's been talking about leaving early. I don't know if we'll do it. Probably not because David's other siblings in Missouri area are having a big dinner on New Years that we want to go to. I've learned, though, that there really is no place like home. Our apartment isn't anything impressive or grand. The 5 rooms that we spend our lives in aren't fancy, but I kind of miss them. I'm really glad we came here and that I got to finally meet David's family after 8 months of marriage, but it will be good to go back. That's about it. Hopefully I'll have more later!
When we first got to NC, we all pretty much just laid around and slept, David more than the rest of us. I don't know why, but he took about a 3 hour nap every day for about 5 days. I got pretty sick of that so unless I was asleep too, I made him come do stuff with me. David finally got to play some basketball with some friends last week. He always tries to get people to play with him in Rexburg but it usually doesn't work out. I think he really liked being able to do that. I think he's going to try and do that again tonight and tomorrow as well.
David's parents have been very nice to us. We are a little short on money because we had to pay for a tow, a hotel, and David's brother because his brother "forgot" his wallet in SLC and so we've had to pay for a lot of his stuff as well. They paid for us to go to a movie as well as go to a nice Southern restaurant called Smithfields. David took me to Smithfields the first time I came over here so it was a nice way to reminice. They have some pulled pork there with the vinegar based BBQ sauce, very different from the honey based BBQ sauce you find in the West. I think I'm still partial to the honey based stuff, but it's fun to try other stuff!
For Christmas, 2 of David's sisters came to his parents house and we all got to spend some time together. I got to talk to Tracy and see how much she loves to tease David (which I think is healthy for that brother-sister relationship!) but David managed to give it back to her every once in awhile so it was good. I got to make many batches of cookies with Tracy's daughter, Chloe. She liked the sugar cookies and being able to cut out different shapes. Her favorite shapes was a foot and the letter "x". I tried to get her to do Christmas shapes, but she stuck with those. It made me laugh.
On Christmas day, we got woken up at about 7 by the little kids. David and I were pretty groggy because we stayed up till 2 the night before watching A Christmas Story on our laptop. David's family has a tradition that everyone has to line up on the stairs and get their picture taken before you can open presents. This was pretty different for me because David's parents were both awake and downstairs before everyone else. I'm used to my family where we all have to bug Dad over and over and over before he tells us to open grandma's present and go watch it and then he'll get up. My grandma usually sent us a movie or something like that so it bought him some more sleeping time. Anyways, we took a picture up on their catwalk (I'm sure David and I looked BEAUTIFUL!!! We were even wearing our matching Mitchell bowling team shirts!) and then we went down to the couch to get more pictures taken with David's sister Joy. She had her foot operated on and has pretty much been crippled the whole time we've been here. So after all the pictures, we finally got to open the presents. Chloe would scream and get VERY excited pretty much after every present she opened, so I guess she was not disappointed with her Christmas. David's mom made all of us stockings with our names embrodered on it so that if we ever came for Christmas again we would have stockings for Christmas. His parents worked very hard to make sure Christmas was exciting and fun for everyone.
The rest of the day went about like you would think Christmas would go. After a nice nap, we had Sacrament Meeting at 3 (a little late for my taste, but that's what they were assigned) and David got to do a wonderful musical number that he played on a cello he borrowed from a lady in his parents ward. The people he borrowed the cello from were so paranoid about him borrowing it that as soon as the meeting ended and David was packing it up, the husband was right there ready to take it back. It made me laugh, but it was really fun. When we got back to the house, David's other sister Mindi was there with her family. It was great to finally meet all these sisters that I keep hearing about! We had lots of laughs and a wonderful dinner together to end the day.
The next day we all went to Adventure Landing. I went there with David when I came a couple years ago, and it was fun to return. We all got to ride on their go-karts and race each other. David's dad was very nice and paid for us to go. They have 1 and 2 seater karts so the kids got to ride with the older people. I have to say, I did pretty good with it for only having ridden something like that 1 other time in my life! I wish we had more stuff like that in Idaho because it is a run thing to do if you have an hour or so to spare! For the rest of the day and all this morning we've just been relaxing. We went to Wal-Mart a few times (no week would be complete without a few trips to Wal-Mart! That's what David and I sometimes do when we get bored) and exchanged a few things, but nothing else to exciting happened. I tried to keep up with what was happening at home by texting my mom and brother, but I think that LISA and MAMA should write a blog post of their own to tell me all about it....(hint hint...)
David told me that he thinks this trip is too long. I tend to agree. We've been here a week and weren't planning on leaving till Friday night (not to drive all night Mom, just to drive to Tracy's a few hours away - don't worry) but David's been talking about leaving early. I don't know if we'll do it. Probably not because David's other siblings in Missouri area are having a big dinner on New Years that we want to go to. I've learned, though, that there really is no place like home. Our apartment isn't anything impressive or grand. The 5 rooms that we spend our lives in aren't fancy, but I kind of miss them. I'm really glad we came here and that I got to finally meet David's family after 8 months of marriage, but it will be good to go back. That's about it. Hopefully I'll have more later!
Thursday, December 22, 2011
North Carolina Trip - Day 2
Day 2
We woke up and showered and ate at the hotel. David’s uncle was coming from Salt Lake to take us from the hotel to Autozone and help us figure out what was wrong with the car. We were all so grateful to him for doing that! We got to our car and brought our battery inside to see if it was bad. They said they had to charge it first before they could test it because it was only at about 60%. While they were doing that, David’s uncle was cleaning off our battery cables because they were pretty corroded. They brought the battery out, put it in, and we tried turning the car on with our fingers crossed. It roared to life and we all started laughing! I turned on everything I could like the heater, radio, lights, to make sure that the battery wouldn’t die again and the car stayed on! They tested our starter, battery, and alternator and everything checked out. It’s amazing what a little grime will do.
Going through that whole thing made me realize that there are a lot of people in this world that will do what they can to help. They don’t have to be LDS or have a clean mouth. When we were thanking Anthony for helping us, he said he would hope that somebody would do the same for him or his daughters and just wanted to do a good deed. We got a lot of help from people that normally don’t get the best rap, but I’m here to say that those people were some of the kindest, most helpful people I’ve met. David said later that day that there must’ve been a reason for the car breaking down. Maybe there was a big accident that would’ve happened had we kept driving. My mom also said that maybe someone needed to talk to us for some reason. I hope that we gave back a little of what was given to us, because we were given so much.
Well, we made it back on the road. Most of the other people on the road were truckers; I guess they’re the only other ones that drive cross-country. David drove first, and then it was my turn. I do pretty well at driving, or at least staying awake. My sister Lisa says she likes travelling with me because she can talk to me the whole way because I can’t fall asleep in cars very well. When we switched drivers, David said to watch the trucks because they like to change lanes a lot. I had noticed that while he was driving, so I knew what to expect. While I was driving, David was asleep in the passenger seat and Brian was on his computer in the back. I came up to 2 trucks that were in line with each other. I could see the front truck was going a bit slower than the one behind it and I figured the back truck would want to pass it. I stayed back for a minute to let the truck change lanes, but it never did. I didn’t want to keep going that slow, so I decided to pass. I was watching the truck’s blinker the entire time I was approaching it, because I had a feeling it was going to change lanes. The blinker never went on, so I proceeded with passing both trucks. All of a sudden, the back truck started coming into my lane. No blinker or anything. And he was coming over fast. I slammed on the brakes, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop in time before we got squashed. I did the only thing I could think of, I drove off the road into the median. There was a slight hill going down into the median and I didn’t want to stop so I tried to make it back onto the road. Looking back on it, I should’ve stopped in the median and got back on later, but I thought I was going to get stuck if I did stop. Hindsight is 20/20 I guess. Well, I managed to make it back on to the road, but I was at too sharp of an angle, so I corrected my angle, went a little too far, and almost over-corrected. There was a big car accident involving some people in my high school while I was there where 2 girls died, all because the driver over-corrected. That was all I could think about at that moment, so I stopped myself before doing anything stupid, and we made it back to the road, everything normal. I was shaking so bad that I couldn’t push down the gas pedal, so I was glad I had cruise control. David had somewhat of a rude awakening, so he was a little confused as to what happened, and all I could say was that the truck came over so fast, I had no warning. I was a little shaken up, but everything turned out ok.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. We drove and drove until we hit Blue Springs, Missouri and crashed at David’s sister Marci’s house for the night. We really appreciated her letting us stay there and letting us rest in a real bed! Thank you Marci! Having been in the car for so long made us all pretty drowsy, and I don’t think any of us had a problem falling asleep.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
North Carolina Trip - Day 1
Day 1
Today started out very nice and exciting. It was the Convocation ceremony where I would actually walk and get my diploma (cover). I was so excited because that was what really made it real that I was graduating and I would have my bachelor’s degree. David, my parents, Joni and Chade, and Lisa and Tyler were all there to support me. I was really glad to see them all there and to have their support. After the ceremony, we went over to the Snow building to take some pictures. It was exciting for me to have those that could come be there. After all that, we went back to our apartment, packed up the rest of our things, and headed out to NC. I drove to Salt Lake while David tried to sleep.
We stopped off at his Grandma’s house, picked up his brother, and then went to dinner with David’s old mission companion and his wife. After dinner we started the long journey to the East. Going through Wyoming was going pretty good, at first. No car problems and we were all in good spirits. David started getting a little tired and asked if I could drive for a while. We were also almost out of gas so it was a good time to stop. We pulled over at a truck stop in Fort Bridger Wyoming. I went inside to go to the bathroom and when I came out David said “The gas pump won’t work and the car is dead.” Oh fabulous, I thought. I knew something bad was going to happen while we were driving simply because we had done everything we could to prevent it. We got a jump from the lady at the pump next to us and the car started right up. We found a pump and started gassing the car up. We sat in the car trying to warm up when the car died again. We decided to wait till the gas tank was full before getting another jump, but the pump was going sooooo slow. After about 15 minutes of sitting in the car waiting for the tank to fill up, we looked at the gauge on the pump (it was only up to $35 at this point) when David asked “we didn’t use up that much gas, did we? Is it overflowing?” We were worried because it usually only takes $40 to fill our tank and that’s when it’s really empty. I opened the door and sure enough, there was gas spilling all over the ground. The automatic shut-off was broken. David went inside to ask if we could get a little bit of a refund, but they said something about how since we paid with a card they couldn’t do anything. Just our luck.
After that, we got another jump and managed to make it all the way across the parking lot before the car died again. We figured it was either the battery or the alternator. But we didn’t have a way to test either. I went in to get the number for a tow truck when a Russian truck driver that was standing there started asking me what the problem was. I tried to describe it the best I could and he asked if I’d done a bunch of tests to see if it was an alternator problem. I said no and had no idea how to do anything he said, so he came out to the car and helped us out. We got another jump and he ran his test. He said it wasn’t the alternator. That was good, but we didn’t have any way to replace our battery or even make sure it wasn’t the alternator. About 10 minutes after we got the jump, our car died again. The Russian truck driver helped us as much as he could for another 20 minutes and we even had one of the clerks out there trying to help us. We tried everything we could, but the car wouldn’t start. That began our other adventure.
We all went inside and decided we had to find a tow truck because we didn’t want to spend all night at the gas station. We tried to call as many numbers as we could of different tow trucks, but apparently there are none that are running at 7pm in Ft. Bridger Wyoming. The numbers we called were either out of order, busy, or no answer. My dad had an idea that he told me later and that was to call 911 and they would be able to contact someone, so I’ll have to remember that for next time. As we were sitting in the Burger King area of the truck stop, one of the girls that worked there asked me what the problem was. I told her what was going on and she called over to her friend (I’m pretty sure she called him Scraps-hopefully a nickname) and asked him if he knew some tow trucks we could call. He said he didn’t know and so she took me over to the diner that was in the truck stop as well and got me talking with one of the waitresses that worked there, and she gave me a couple numbers to try as well. It surprised me how nice and friendly everyone was. They were all doing their best to help us fix our car.
After we had tried all the numbers we could, we sat down in despair. The Russian truck driver came over and told us there was an area at the back of the truck stop where we could watch TV and wait until morning to find someone to help us. We thanked him for all he’d done for us and headed back. David and I started listening to our audio book on his computer when a guy came around the corner and said he had saved our day! We were both confused because we didn’t know him at all, but he said he had heard us talking and he got ahold of a tow truck and it would be there in 45 minutes. We were all so grateful to him for helping us out! His name was Anthony and he was a truck driver that was on his 34 hour break. He told us that truck drivers are on for 70 hours and then they are required to take a 34 hour break. He said some trucks have something on them so that if you reach your 70 hours the truck will automatically turn off. He was a VERY talkative. I think he was getting a little lonely because he stayed to talk to us the whole time we were waiting for the tow truck. Here are some of the things he talked about (I edited out all the swearing): He has 3 kids that he has to pay child support for (I got the feeling it was with 3 different women too) and that in Ohio if you didn’t pay child support they throw you in jail which is totally whack because it’s hard enough to pay for your own stuff. One time he was in Florida and he was with this guy who attacked an alligator. He went to Canada for about 3 months and there were all these people selling weed and prostitutes all over, he managed to get a lot of day jobs to pay for stuff. He traveled around the country because one time when he was high his friend told him that traveling is amazing because you get to see so much more stuff, and while you’re high everything is so amazing and such a great idea so he just got on a bus with nothing else and went across the country. My favorite story was how he got put in jail. He said he was in a bar and super drunk when some guy started giving him this bad look. He asked him if he wanted to go outside to take care of things and so him, this guy, and the guys friends all went outside and they were all beating up on him. He said it wasn’t a fair fight because it was 8 on 1 so he pulled out his knife and started stabbing people. He said in California (where he was from) it would’ve counted as self-defense but since he was somewhere else he got 2 years in jail. Luckily, when he was helping us he was 7 years sober. When he found out that we were Mormon, he said his mom was too, but she wasn’t a very good one because she also practiced Wicka. Apparently she always tries to cast spells and stuff. One day she was trying to cast a spell and she fell down the stairs and gashed her head open. Anyways, Anthony was a very nice guy that did help us out. When the tow truck got there he gave us all knuckles and we were on our way. The tow truck driver reminded me of my dad in about 10 years. He had a huge gray beard and this little dog in the cab. David and Brian thought he said the dog’s name was Varmint, but I’m pretty sure it was actually Nikki. The dog rode on his lap the entire way to Evanston. We had our car dropped off at Autozone and we stayed at a hotel. That was our first day of vacation. Pretty fun, huh?
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