Ch-ch-ch-Chia!

I know I cannot be the only one who finds this disturbing. What exactly are they supposed to do for me? I guess my main concern here is that if you take these, you will start growing green sprouts instead of hair.

Shark Night!

Last night, Lisa and I went to see the super craptastic film, Shark Night. It truly lived up to our craptertainment expectations, and honestly, the post credit rap video was worth the price of admission. Here is a small tidbit of it...I shouldn't have been filming in the theater, and it's super crappy quality, but I really wanted to share this with all of you since it brought me so much joy. I hope this inspires you to at least rent the film.

Reflections

Ten years ago, I was on the mission when the planes hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I still remember that afternoon quite vividly; my companion, Hermana Gallegos (now Noemi McKnight) and I went to teach a second discussion in Valencia. When we walked into the apartment around 4:00 (10am New York time), the investigator had the TV on, and I saw the twin towers going up in smoke and asked her, "Oh, what movie are you watching?" It was shocking to find out that this was no Hollywood idea, this was the work of evil men intent on destroying America.

People started running up to us on the street asking me where I was from and asking if I knew anybody in New York. Thankfully for me, I did not, but there were many who did. After that, our mission president told us to avoid any areas with high concentrations of Muslims, and for us sisters to be home an hour earlier every night. There was one day where Noemi and I happened to go into one of those neighborhoods, and even being largely unaware of what was happening in the U.S., I was terrified. "Don't say a word'" she told me.

I never experienced the unity that so many spoke of in the days following 9/11, and in many ways, I feel as though there is more discord in our country than ever. When I came home, all I saw was a nation of excess, taking things for granted, and a general sense of entitlement. But, I still believe in the greatness of America: we want people to succeed, and give them opportunities if they work hard enough.

On another note, it's been a year since the breakup, and things are great. Over the past year, I have traveled a ton, had so many fun adventures, and of course, made some fabulous new friends. Life doesn't always go the way I plan for it to go, but it never leaves me bored. Thanks to the following: Mom and Guy for showing me what a celestial marriage is supposed to be (and for being silly).

Jeff and Daniel for putting up with me every week; you are like my brothers.

Terri, Leesh, and Mich for sticking with me for so long it's ridiculous; you all have qualities I can learn from.

To my church friends (there are WAY too many to name) for being generally awesome and making me smile.

To my roomie for being kindhearted and generous in a way that I don't know I ever will be.

And finally, to Shaine, who will always be my sister, no matter what. Team D.I.L. forever - I'm rooting for you!

Busy bee

The past couple weekends have been busy for me, and the next few also promise to be eventful.

The weekend of the 23rd, my friend Alejandro (we refer to him as Alejo) was in town from Utah to visit the Colombian consulate. Since the consulate is in the financial district of the City, he only saw the not-so-scenic part of San Francisco on Friday. We did take him to Emerald Glen Park on Friday night for Leavitt's going-away to Arizona party, but wanted to show him around the more tourist-y parts of SF on Saturday.

We drove over to SF and went up Columbus St. to Lombard, where we stopped at the crooked portion.

Lisa and Alejo climbed the stairs while I waited at the bottom. Then, on the way back to the car, we noticed this quaint little gate and a small park, Fay Park. We wandered in there for a few minutes and decided it was a good place to play hide and go seek.

Next, we headed down to the Embarcadero, and more specifically, to Pier 39. We enjoyed the sea lions and the candy shop!

The next stop on our day of fun was Fort Point at the far west end of Crissy Field. It was super windy, but of great historical significance.

After this stop, we finally made our way over to Ocean Beach. It was overcast and cold, but we still put our feet in the water.

And, if you are Lisa's friend on Facebook, you can also see this video of a Seagull eating a crab.

Yesterday, in my apparently new tradition of going to Yosemite every month (Lisa and I are going on August 20th if anyone is interested), I drove myself, Alan West, Allison Orgill, Lisa Despain, and Ryan Heaton to the valley. We had a great time.

Allison, Alan and Ryan ended up hiking about 2/3 of the way up to Upper Yosemite Falls, while Lisa and I hiked about 1/2 mile of the same trail before she graciously agreed to hike on the Valley Loop Trail with me. We hiked from the Camp 4 all the way to Mirror Lake on that trail, saw Lower Yosemite Falls....

Lisa and I stopped at the Awahnee Hotel for about 20 minutes on the way to Mirror Lake, and once at Mirror Lake, we dipped our feet in (the water was cold, but it felt REALLY good on our hot feet). I managed to drink almost my entire CamelBak full of water, which is a good thing, because it was HOT!

We rendezvoused with Ryan, Alan, and Allison at the Camp 4 bus stop right at 3, and then headed back to Curry Village to get the car and head home. It was a long day (we left the church parking lot at 6am and got back at 9pm) but it was really fun, and I can't wait to do it again.

What is that SMELL???

Public bathrooms rarely smell decent. In worst case scenarios, they smell like, well, crap. Literally. If you're lucky, it may only smell bad, but the stalls will not have paper on the floor or pee on the seat. Now, let's turn to the bathroom in the office building where I work...

It doesn't usually smell bad in there, and for a bathroom, it's quite nice; the landlords have decorated it in shades of grey. and put (fake) orchids on the counter. However, when I walked in today, I was overcome with dizziness as the odor of a newly replaced air freshener hit me. The scent was supposed to be Ocean, but it didn't smell like any ocean I've ever been to. I felt as though I had just stepped through the door into a florist who had only 1,000 rotting honeysuckle plants in stock; the smell was gonna give me a migraine. Now, I am all for making the bathroom smell a little more pleasant, but for heaven's sake, we don't need to make it smell so sickly sweet that I am overcome with the urge to 'hold it' all day, do we?

Seriously so blessed

It's very cliche, but I feel like I have some great people in my life, and I truly am blessed. So many of the women in the ward are willing to lend an ear and give helpful advice when I need it, and of course, my roomie, who is willing to drag her butt outta bed at all hours to take me to the hospital when I need it. Friends are important. A couple weeks ago in Sunday School, the teacher asked us why Christ asked Peter, James, and John to come with him to Gethsemane and "watch and pray." One of the responses was touching: Christ knew he was going to be having a very difficult time, and even he needed his closest friends with near him. If Christ needed friends, so do we.

What a Day

My Thursday was very interesting. As a preface, I had been having back-end digestive problems since Sunday night.


I woke up at 1:00am on Thursday with tear-inducing pain radiating from the lumbar region of my spine. I decided to try to wait it out and go to the urgent care center at 9am when they opened; my body had other plans. Around 3:45, despite repeated attempts to fall back asleep (or even find a position which wasn't excruciatingly painful), the stabbing pain was still there, so I decided to drive myself to ValleyCare. I knocked on Lisa's door to let her know, and of course, she being the selfless person she is, offered to drive me.

We'll skip past the boring stuff and get to the heart of the matter: I was seriously dehydrated. The doctor speculates that the back spasms were related to the bowel issues and the dehydration. In any case, they started an IV and pushed Toradol and Zofran into me. The entire IV, 1000mL (about 4 cups) emptied in less than an hour. They also checked to make sure I didn't have any infections; all of this is fabulous because I really dislike needles. Lisa had to keep me distracted by playing WordFeud. I think I still won, but am losing the game we started (I blame the drugs).

Other than the severe dehydration, there seems to be nothing wrong, which is a good thing. The doc prescribed me some pain meds and told me to get some sports drinks (I opted for PediLyte, which I think is a little gentler on the stomach). Then, it was 8:00am and time to go home and go back to bed until 12:30pm.

Much of yesterday was spent sitting around on a heating pad, watching Harry Potter movies in preparation for Deathly Hallows Part 2.

We met Shaine and Kevin (and 4000 other people) at the Dublin theater at 10:00pm and got in line. The theater had the lines divided into lines for theaters 1 - 10; the IMAX; theaters 11 & 15 (for 3D), and theaters 12-14 & 16-20. We were in the line for theaters 12-14/16-20, and it took us until 11:40 to get inside and get seated. After a few (too many) previews, it was time for epicness...

I thoroughly enjoyed the 2nd part of the Deathly Hallows; it was action-packed, fulfilling, and emotional. I didn't think I would cry as much as I did, especially for Snape. The girl behind us was snivelling, and I was just quietly weeping as the truth about Severus finally was revealed visually. There were clearly people there who had not read the books, as they gasped in horror when seeing Lupin, Tonks, and Fred's bodies.

I can't believe it's over, but it filled the emotional expectations I had for it; I hope J.K. Rowling invites us Muggles back into Harry's world sometime in the future.