Summer Memories

Last night I was at ward prayer writing a  nice note to someone when a smell hit me.  I couldn't place it at all, but I was overwhelmed with nostalgia.  It smelled fresh like summer and playing outside and camping in the backyard while Dad told the mayonnaise man story (maybe I'll tell you sometime, it's terrifying).  Not knowing what the smell was frustrating so I wondered allowed what it was, "Something smells like summer."  My home teacher Preston answered simply, "It's mint" as he grabbed a leaf from the flower bed and handed it to me.  I held the leaf up close to my face and inhaled deeply.  There it was.  Mint.  Summertime.  Memories.

My mom always grew mint (still does) under the spigot on the outside of our house.  I don't know how mint does it, but it grows all summer long.  When we were really young my sisters and I would pick it to make "wilderness stew" to go with our elaborate outdoor camping games (not that we would have eaten it as the other ingredients included rocks, sticks, grass, mud, and dandelions).  My grandmother dries her mint and boils it for tea all summer long.  Every time we turn on the hose the water splashes into the mint and the aroma is released.  Smelling that little mint leaf last night I was overwhelmed by these memories and taken back to a time that was simpler and in many ways happier; a time of family and neon green shorts and drinking from the hose.

Preston grabbed a piece of rosemary soon after and as I smelled that piece I remembered the herb-stuffed pork loin Mom tried (and succeeded at) making five or six years ago when she started growing lots of herbs in her garden.

I know that studies show smells bring back memories faster than pretty much any other sense, but I was not prepared to be taken back so dramatically and immediately from last night to my childhood.  The experience was a welcome (albeit brief) escape from unfriendly reality.

My life isn't exciting enough for a single topic post.

I'm just creepy enough to love the new "coment view" of albums on facebook.

Good friends might bring you a gift when they go out of town.  Great friends bring you rocks.

Playing mom is hard and exhausting.  No matter how smart the seven year old is, there's no way to seamlessly insert one into a singles life.

I'm addicted to the Provo Farmer's market even though they have almost exactly the same thing every week.

Pottermore was announced and I'm stoked and confused and excited, but we have one problem.  When you sign up you have to register a magical username and I only have a few months to come up with one that is adequately awesome without being too cheesy.  

Seven Peaks = yes.  Destiny and I have been there three times in the past week.  The new slide is epic.  the funky feces smell by the slide tower is not.  

I'm ready for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 and to take another trip to Orlando.  For someone that hates Florida as much as I do I sure loved Orlando and felt at home there. 

I love summertime.  Humidity can stay away from me forever and that's fine.  It's also ok with me if the 92 degree day we had this week is the only one of the summer.  I love mild summer.

Trees

It amuses me when people from the desert/western mountainous states go east or to other places with trees for the first time.  Some of them talk about how claustrophobic it makes them to be on the interstate and not be able to see what's around (picture of I-95 in Virginia).

More often mentioned is the confusion and frustration of buildings obscured partially or completely by trees.  Thing is, when it's more wet and the soil is nice and rich (meaning not the sand of the desert), the trees thrive.  

For example, here's a Google Map shot of my neighborhood at home.  Yep, those are all trees.  And even in those patches of trees the houses are about as regular as the ones you can see that are more exposed.  

(Seriously, click on it.  There're a bajillion trees.)

I definitely miss the trees when I'm out here.  Also, I want to be clear that I'm not mocking the people that are shocked by the trees and greenness the first time they encounter such a thing.  When I first came to Utah the enormous mountains shocked me and I still love to just look at them.  The sparse dessert on the way to the sand dunes on a camping trip enthralled me.  I'm just amused by the fascination with something I grew up with. 

Having the trees makes for some nice shade in the summer, though.  However, in the East where it's obnoxiously humid all the time (when I talked to my mother yesterday it was 98% humidity, it's 63% right now), the shade doesn't actually do that much.  It's still hot and outrageously sticky in the shade.  The only real benefit of the shade is to get the sun out of your face. 

Oh, and a benefit to the humidity that I love to complain about?  Big thunderstorms and heat lightning.  Come back to me beautiful summer weather. 

Also, for your viewing pleasure, a beauty shot from Skyline Drive (near my home town of Luray, part of the Shenandoah National Park).

Flip-Flops

Get over it. I'm about to blog about flip-flops. Are any of you really surprised?

Side note before I begin: rumor has it that this Saturday flip-flops are $1 at Old Navy. By rumor I mean a commercial that I saw yesterday.

Those are random people's feet, but it's just normal flip flops in the picture so I put it here.

Flip-flops are absolutely amazing. There's no denying it. The feel of sunshine and happiness and wind and joy on your toes is amazing. Also, they come in approximately 8 kajillion colors.
Those are just plain colors. I have silver ones and you can get the kind with shells or bling or the ever white-trash platform style "heel". The varieties of flip-flops are endless. Don't even get me started on the attractive to douchey to overly-hipster to grandpa style man flip-flops. This post is about my opinion of flip-flops on my own personal feet so I'm not even going there right now.

But...you knew all this already. Unless you've been living under a rock for the past century you've either owned or come across your fair share of Old Navy style simple flip-flops (and the variations therefrom). Why the blog post then?

I want to talk about flip-flops at church. Go ahead. Leave a comment quoting some prophet or apostle about not wearing beach clothes to church. Now ask me the last time I wore flip-flops on the beach (the answer is I can't remember because I go barefoot on the beach like any sane person). Call me unrighteous, but I'm still going to wear flip-flops to church.

Why? First, there's the price. Even without the sale I mentioned above I can get plain flip-flops for $2-$5 a pair or a pair with decorations (glitter, beads, rhinestones) for $5-$10. Can I get heels or even flats for that price? No. I cannot. So, for the cost of half of a pair of regular shoes I can buy a pair of flip-flops in colors to match any of my outfits. Thank you variety.

They are comfortable. I can't walk in heels. Hopefully one day someone will teach me (that is kind of an invitation), but right now I can't. If I wear flip-flops to church I don't have to wear my slippers and carry my shoes in my hand. Some people love their heels and have beautiful shoes and want to wear them (Stefanie) and that is fine by me. I don't have beautiful shoes and I don't want my toes pinched. Additionally, the times are rare that I'm going to wear flats or heels without knee-highs, tights, or pantie-hose (is that really how that's spelled?). Your feet sweat. My feet sweat. It's a fact of life. If you go barefoot under your shoes most of the time your shoes start to get really stinky. I'm not going to continue to wear stinky nasty sweat-filled shoes despite their funk. Flip-flops are generally funk-less (and easy/cheap to replace in the rare case they become funky).

Finally (and I'll try to be brief), I have big feet. It's hard to find shoes that are comfortable, cute, and affordable for big feet. Flip-flops come regularly up to women's size 12 or 13 (though my feet aren't that big) for the same price as the more average sizes.

If I'm doing something in my life that's going to get me sent to hell, I don't think wearing flip-flops to church is it. Maybe one day when I'm rich I'll pay more for shoes and stop wearing flip-flops and you can all stop judging me. Thing is, I never go to church dirty, I almost always put on make-up, I take the time to do my hair (though it doesn't always turn out), and generally try to make sure I'm well put together. So, I'll keep my flip-flops and you can keep your judgment.

Thoughts on LOST

You may or may not know (I can't remember if I've blogged it yet) that I started watching LOST two Sundays ago. I'm currently looking for a job and graduated so I have no real responsibilities to do with my life. I finished all six seasons in two weeks. Since it's such a popular series, I thought I'd share some thoughts. This is obviously not a complete list of my thoughts because that would be a lot, but some random ones I wanted to talk about.

Overall: I loved the characters. That's not to say I loved the show. I kind of wish someone would go back and re-do the show after season 1. Once time travel and too many additional groups of people and motivations get involved I didn't really like it. Somehow, though, even though the storyline was not great in my opinion I fell in love with the characters and their lives and their backgrounds. Does that make any sense?

Pretty boys: Boone.
Dear Boone: You are so so pretty. Why did you have to die in season two? Thanks for coming back toward the end of season 6 when things were getting wrapped up so that I could get a dose of you.

Vincent the dog didn't die like I was convinced he would.
It's kind of a rule when you're watching movies or shows that a beloved animal will die or run away or suffer some horrible accident. Vincent was awesome and stayed alive. Oh yeah and that is an arm he's carrying in that picture. Last thing, did anyone else notice that they changed Vincents for the last two seasons?

Come at me Jack Shephard.
Really, he's so lovely and a nice guy and only occasionally annoyed me. Sometimes he tried to be a hero a little more than I wanted and made some dumb choices, but he looked pretty doing it. Also, normally I go with the idea of the shorter the hair, the better, but I like him with his longer parted hair. It was precious. Ditto Sayid's long hair (and even ponytail).

Ben Linus, I still hate you.
Pretty much from the moment Rousseau captured him in one of her net traps I hated Ben Linus and hoped someone would kill him. And no one ever did. He kept lying and changing sides and being confusing and withholding information and he killed John Locke (who was crazy as heck) and I really didn't like his character. Boo on you, Ben Linus.

An addendum: Somehow I almost got through this post without mentioning Sawyer. I love Sawyer. He's super attractive, a huge a-hole, and I have some sort of secret thing for bad boys, apparently. Oh, and when he tells Jack (in season 3 I think) that Jack's the closest thing he has to a friend it is so precious and almost made me cry. Oh, and his slightly mean nicknames for pretty much everyone on the island? Genius.

What I've Been Reading pt. 3

First let me start off with a question. I plan on continuing my reading for pleasure even though the school year has started. Should I continue to post these reviews or should I just keep it to myself? Let me know. Also, a disclaimer: I didn't read as much at the end of the summer because I had friends and things to do and a working TiVo (and no, I don't regularly do that stupid capitalization thing but that's how it is for TiVo). *Note: I tried to do pictures, I did but then blogger didn't upload them and I got irritated so I'm not doing them.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: A good, fun read, of course. It's not Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe or anything, but it's a good solid C.S. Lewis book with a good moral and connections to Christianity. I really think everyone should have read all of the Narnia books by now. I re-read this in preparation for the movie that's coming out soon (that might suck).

Honey Baby Sweetheart: Another Deb Caletti book. This was the one that won awards and this was the one that I liked the least. It feels too forced into the teenage drama rather than like a real story unfolding. Maybe I just haven't had enough life experiences to quite get it, but I didn't love this book.

Unwind: This freaked me out. Basically it's another dystopian novel wherein the pro-life pro-choice debate has been settled. The agreement reached is that from conception to age 13 you can't do anything to chidren. From age 13 to 18 you have the option of having your children "unwound." Basically it's almost like being killed except every part of the child must live on in some way (transplants, giving limbs to those that have lost them, etc). What would you do if you found out you were going to be unwound? I did like this book. The whole dystopian thing is really working for me right now.

The Time Traveler's Wife: A decent story that moved too slow at times. I was told before I read it that the ending was sad so I just expected the worst the whole time. I found myself getting frustrated with the characters. Also, this is kind of rough (meaning too explicit for me) when it comes to sex. After the tragic part of the ending, the other part of the ending before the real ending really made me mad. Not a great read, but I've read worse.

The Cross Gardener: Sarah had borrowed this from Marci. It was written by her cousin or uncle or somebody related to her. It's a quick read and a nice uplifting story that made me cry several times. It takes place very close to the place I grew up in Virginia and the descriptions of the weather and the sites and the scenery there as well as details about places I've been or lived really got to me in this one and made me connect.

Mockingjay: No spoiler alerts because I'm not going to say anything. Basically, if you're reading the Hunger Games series you're going to read this third and final installment and if you're not, you're not. It's too new for me to post any plot details. I did love it, though.

A Great and Terrible Beauty: I've read this a few times before. It's a good fantasy novel that I first got into in high school. Basically some girls in Victorian (I think) England discover magic and it's pretty awesome. They're at boarding school in this one. There's an attractive gypsy boy involved and of course some evil to battle. I do love some good young adult fantasy. The second in this trilogy is pretty good, and the third wasn't that great (I only read it once, I should probably do so again).

That is all. Again, please comment and let me know if I should keep posting these book blogs.

Confession Time

I'm feeling a bit dramatic, so I'd like to make a few confessions.

1) I've realized in the last few months that when I spend the night anywhere that's not my apartment (besides home) I still get homesick for home and my momma.  This is me and my momma during Christmas break 2007.  Neither of us look particularly good in this picture, but I love our matching pajamas.

2) I've now been to Arizona.  I still don't really like it.

3) When my friends make racist remarks, it makes me sick to my stomach and wonder if I really want to be friends with a person like that, even my friends who I love the most.  And then when I think that maybe I wouldn't want to be their friend, I feel like a bad person.  Racist remarks just make me so frustrated.

4) I missed Sarah this summer, a lot.  But, I think I was forced into finding and making other friends which was good for me.

5) I'm so ready for the "boys" to get back from their missions.  At the same time, it freaks me out because I know that it isn't very likely that things will be the same between us.  However, they'll be grown up men so hopefully we can be a new kind of friends.  

I feel like five is probably plenty of confessions and a little too much drama for one night, don't you think?  I know that I thought of a six, but I can't remember it for the life of me.  Enjoy.

I Think About You in the Summertime

It is summer.  The weather makes me think spring, but it's warm enough that I can lay out in the sun.  I am already a closer to the normal color I should be.  Laurel would be happy.  I am the worst blogger ever, but you already know that.  Ok, back to the point.  Summertime.  I'm kind of loving it.  I have some classes.  Bowling (love it), children's literature (love it), foundations of education (tolerate it), and school health for elementary teachers (don't like the idea of it, but love the class discussion).  Here's the main problem with summer.  Sarah and me hung out a lot during fall and winter, plus some other friends that have since left.  And now I get out of class and do a lot of nothing.  This whole weekend, I've done nothing (but to be fair, I was sick).  So, I mostly hope Sarah comes back soon so I can get the heck out of my house.  I'm sorry, this post is the second most boring post in the history of posts.  

Oh, one more thing.  Sarah has gotten me all excited about football season.  Thing is, at this point it looks like it may be just me and Sarah for the games again.  We'll see.  Here's hoping for a better season for this guy. 

(com'on guys, it's Max Hall!)

P.S.  Got a letter from Cody yesterday. HOORAY!

P.P.S. Who knows what song lyrics the title of this post comes from?  No cheating.

The End of Winter Semester

I know I have a lot of blogging to do to catch you all up on things, but there's a few important things I need to just say quickly. 

Mostly, I got good enough grades and get to keep my scholarship!!!! Many of you probably know I was worrying.

Sarah has gone home for the summer which weirds me out.

My baby brother got braces which forces me to realize things are going on at home without me there.

My roommate Meghan graduated (congratulations!).

McKenzie and Melissa moved out...weird and sad.

Steve left to go home for the summer and then to med school. Sad.

Anyways, life is good right now, spring classes are going great and I got a minor sunburn yesterday which means I will get nice and brown this summer.  

Here's a picture of the baby boy (I know, I know. He's no baby) with his braces.

Things About Virginia I Will Miss This Summer

This is (as the title implies) a list of things I will miss when I am not at home in Virginia this summer.
1) My mother. I love my mom. We fight sometimes (rarely), but I can say with all honesty that she probably is [one of] my best friends. I don't really care much how cliche and ridiculous that sounds to you, it's the truth.
2) Seeing my father. My father is hard to live with (though I love him). It will still be hard to go a whole year without seeing him.
3) Carl's Ice Cream. A little ice cream stand in down town Fredericksburg that usually has an hour long line (especially on a friday night), but it's the best soft serve around.
4) Motorcycle rides with my dad. My dad got a new motorcycle (it's really pretty) and I'm not a huge fan of them, but in the summer there is something wonderful about being in that open air on a long ride on shaded back roads.
5) My grandmother's too cold air conditioning. Mammaw's house is always colder than any other house around. She's addicted to air conditioning and there's nothing like coming out of the heat into her house.
6) Destiny. My 5 year old niece and one of my best friends. She's absolutely beautiful and I love an miss her.
7) Gabriel. My 3 (almost 4) year old nephew and a stud. This kid has so much energy and never quits. I love him.
8) Playing in the baby pool with the kids. There is something so fun about surprising a child and sitting down in their pool with all your clothes on. I know this seems simple, but it's important to me.
9) Impromptu dinner parties with the neighbors. On summer nights (especially Sunday's) it seems like the whole street starts grilling at one time and some magic happens and we all end up sharing and eating together.
10) Laurel's house. I loved visiting Laurel randomly this summer and going over to hyperion and just chilling for hours doing nothing with her and Dave.
11) Crickets. Do they have crickets here? I don't even know. I just love to hear the sound of the crickets at night. Even through closed windows. Ditto lightening bugs. (Seriously, if somone familiar with Utah could let me know about this, that'd be great).
12) Wading in streams/rivers. A pivotal part of my childhood. I didn't do much of it this past summer, but now I'm going to miss it a lot.
13) Fishing with Dad and Glenn. They've got a lot more stamina when it comes to this than I do, but it's still so much fun. Especially when the kids come along and you watch their faces.
14) Sudden thunderstorms. You can be having a sunny beautiful day and then BAM all of a sudden the clouds roll in and it's pouring down rain. That's when you go out and dance barefoot in the street with all your clothes on. The smell and feel of the air just before is amazing.
15) Heat lightning. I'm guessing the drier air doesn't have enough friction or something to have this out here, but I will miss it.
16) Thunder that wakes you up/keeps you up at night. I love that thunder that literally shakes the whole house because it's so loud. It's absolutely beautiful.
17) Tornado warnings. They don't usually do much damage in my area (last year they did wreak a little havoc), but there is something exciting about the anticipation.
18) Nights when the power goes out because of a storm. I don't know why this is exciting. I love hunting for the candles and eating all the ice cream with spoons from the container so that it doesn't go to waste. I love when everyone gets too hot in their beds so they move to sleep on the cool tile until the air conditioning works again.
19) Hot wind. As much as I hate the humidity, there is something so amazing about the hot wind that will blow through every once in awhile.
20) Intense wind. Along with the thunderstorms comes the crazy wind that makes the trees look like they are going to fall right down. Also, microbursts (until they cause too much damage).
21) My other siblings. Swinging on the swing in the backyard together or laying in the hammock, or just chatting. I do love all of them.
22) Beth. One of my best friends from high school that's still in Virginia. I miss that girl.
23) Family ward. I love that we have to sit in the back of the cultural hall extension to the chapel because the kids are too noisy and that all the little ones play with cars and eating lunch with the Kalamas etc.
24) Beach trips. Even if just for a weekend I love that 5-7 hour drive with the family and lounging in the sand and seeing the ocean and smelling the pier and the crusty motel one street back and everything about the beach.

Ok, I know a lot of these are weather related and some you probably think are really silly. The reality is, these are important things to me. Things I will miss all summer long. It's going to be hard for me to be here in Provo, but I'm going to try to make the best of it. Any suggestions for the must-have experiences of a summer in Provo?