What I miss...

I've been thinking a lot about my recent trip and what a good experience it turned out to be and I've made a list of some things I'll miss now that I'm in Utah and what things I was glad to get away from. Also thrown in are some things about Utah I missed while I was on the east coast.

First of all just to get the negative out of the way: Ticks. You all knew I was going to say it! Blood sucking, disease carrying monsters who made it impossible to play in the back yard. I am so not missing them and my heart goes out to Linsay who is stuck with them for the next year.

Humidity: I guess it's not that bad if you've grown up with it but I haven't and I felt that it would have been greatly beneficial for me to grow a set of gills while walking around the city.

As for things I'll miss: East coast storms. Nothing like the wimpy rain we get in the desert. When they have a storm they don't mess around and it only takes 3 seconds to go from dry to drowning.

Rita's Italian Ice: They make home made custard and mix it with the Italian ice. Amazing! I've heard the passion fruit flavor is the best but they didn't have that flavor when I went. Only open for three months during the summer, Rita's is the hotspot in Maryland and is the perfect way to cool off.

Farmer's market: In DC every Friday they have a huge farmer's market right by the Department of Commerce. People sell pretzels, honey, fruits and veggies, ice cream and home made bread. We do have some fun farmer's markets here in Utah but they're nothing compared to DC.

Public Transportation: I know we have that in Utah as well but everyone knows the the bigger the city the better the mass transit system is. I loved being able to hop on the Prince George station rail and go anywhere. They have trains that run EVERYWHERE and it is so easy (and cheap) to see all of DC by metro.

Salamanders and Toads: Although I sometimes got grossed out by the creatures running around our yard I miss having tiny lizards and toads come out every time it rains. Plus toads and salamanders eat bugs to they are pretty much my best buds.

Tonks: My sister's crazy cat! She sat on my lap the second I sat down and always tried to sleep with me. I taught her some naughty habits while I lived there. Habits like, it's okay to sleep under the covers and that it's okay to sleep up by people's faces. :)

Last but not least: I miss very much my nephew, Ethan. His parents too. He used to tackle me every morning to wake me up and I don't think I know a sillier kid. I left just before his 2nd birthday and was so sorry to miss it. He used to hide in the entertainment center, make a hammock out of my legs and a blanket, and yell at me when I stole food off of his tray. They are coming to visit in December and I can't wait to see the little guy again.

As for things I missed about Utah: Mountains. How can you tell which direction you're going without mountains?

Roxberry: Rita's may be nice but if you want the best fruit smoothie the US has to offer then hit Roxberry. How can you pay $4 for a small watered down Jamba Juice when there are delights like Roxberry to be had. If you haven't tried it yet then repent of your ways and get to it.

Movies that don't cost you your first born child: Movies were $12 in MD. Ouch! The 7 weeks I was there I only saw one movie and it was a matinee which was only $8.

Dry air: you saw what I wrote about humidity. I love the dry, cool Utah fall weather.

Friends: Although it was fun to make new friends there is something special about the peeps I already have. Maybe it's just because they have shared so much more life experiences with me or the fact that I've known most of them for 10+ years. I was glad to come home and sit at the party pad again with me peeps.

Family: I miss Ethan like crazy but I do have family a plenty still here in Utah to keep me busy. Nieces and nephews. Early morning exercise and late night discussions. Callie has taken up Ethan's post as wake up caller and tackles me in the mornings.

I loved DC. I did what I went there to do and now I'm happy to be home. There's no place like it.

Arizona

Well, Maryland is over now and I'm off to continue my pursuit of that flighty temptress, Adventure! My nephew Isaac was born just a few months ago so I made a pit stop in Arizona to hang out with my favorite people in the whole world. My family.

I admit that traveling 5 hours on a plane with a 2 year old isn't the most fun I've had but he did pretty good. As long as we have nice neighbors and Winnie the Pooh he is fairly happy. Once we got to Arizona the first thing I noticed, of course, was the lack of humidity! Glorious, dry western air. There is nothing better even though I'm a little worried about my gills closing up because of under use.

Our first night there we went to visit my brother at work and all of the girls got sushi (except for me). After dinner we all took turns passing baby Isaac around and oooooing over his fat little cheeks. I always forget how small babies start out. I'm used to Ethan.

There is nothing I love more than a good sleepover and so I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the patter of little feet that were suppose to be in bed running up and down the halls and the giggling of 4 year old voices. Dress up and talking late into the night...by the adults and children.

The next day was blessing day and so there was a rush of food preparation and house cleaning. I admit I mostly "supervised" and watched my favorite show: Good Eats. Alton Brown, being supreme in all things cooking, I decided if I watched his show for several hours I could lend my new found knowledge to those doing all of the work. Unfortunately by the time I gleaned all I could from the mad food scientist the work was all done. Oops!

After Isaac was blessed we had a mini birthday party for Ethan who just turned two. He blew out the candles on his cake and we sang loudly for him. I don't think he quite realized what was going on but everyone seemed to be paying him special attention so I didn't hear any complaints from him. Once the kids were in bed the Killer Bunnies commenced. One of my all time favorite games (outdone only by Harry Potter Clue) in a morbid and twisted sort of way. We stayed up until about midnight slaughtering each others bunnies with kitchen whisks, lawn darts and hedge clippers. (We also took a short break to dress me up as a potato head.)

On Sunday we went to church and got packed up to go home. We set out on Monday at about 6:30am and were okay until about the Hoover Dam. Rose has decided that she does NOT like to be in the car...I tried to drown out the crying with my trusty iPod and only had to listen to the sorrow in between songs. She eventually fell asleep and slept all the way until St. George. We stopped there to see Amanda's in-laws and let the kids run loose for a bit. We only stayed for an hour and then the journey continued with Rose crying and laughing in 30 second intervals. It took a total of 15 hours in the car to get home and I was more than happy to be home. Home to the mountains and Utah in the fall. My favorite time of year in this valley.

Now to get back into the real world. Find a job. Find a place to live. Finish training for my marathon. It was wonderful to have a break from the world. Such an amazing opportunity for me to take a step out of myself and evaluate what it is I want from life and where I need to go in order to get it. Drama is always less serious when you are removed from the thick of things. I have a clear direction now and when I have a path it makes getting back into regular life sweeter. On to the next adventure!

Asian Art

Today Linsay, Ethan and I went to the Arthur M. Sackler Asian Art Museum. Maybe it's because I'm half Japanese or maybe it's because I think that Asian art is so much more interesting than European art but either way I had an amazing time. They have collected pieces of art from Korea, Thailand, Japan, China, India, and Russia. I think the Russian weaponry was my favorite part of the exhibit.

They have a blue room with gold peacocks painted on the walls that I could have stayed all day in. The Peacock Room carries all of the rare blue and white china that the Smithsonian has collected. The picture on the right (below) is a hanging sculpture that runs down the center of the museum. On the bottom floor, where the sculture base is, there is a fountain and doors that lead in to the Museaum of African Art.

Ethan spent the whole time watching Winnie the Pooh on my iPod (I carry it everywhere just in case he gets bored) and yelling so he could hear his voice echo off the walls. Luckily he kept the yelling down to a minimum. After the museum we went to a set of gardens next to the building and let Ethan play in the water fountains and chase birds for a bit as his reward for putting up with us and all of the boring paintings.

There are still so many things to see before I go home so I'll probably go downtown 1 or 2 more times before I head to Arizona.

Berry Picking

It took us an hour and a half to get there but it was totally worth it. The large farm in Virginia where you pick your own berries was so much fun! David, Linsay, Ethan and I met up with Heather and James (friends of David and Linsay) and their kids and as soon as the kids were out of the car the berrymania started.

Although it was blazing hot the kids immediately began to run through the bushes pulling off anything low enough for them to reach. We had to explain to them that red blackberries are not ripe and shouldn't be picked so only to grab the black ones. Also, raspberries should be red not white. :) They were so adorable running around the shore trying to swat at bugs and sneaking berries out of the buckets. I first noticed something strange about 30 minutes into the trip. No matter how many berries I put into the bucket, it always stayed empty. The red stain around Ethan's mouth was all the evidence I needed. We explained to him that we were only there to pick berries and we could eat them later and after that he only snitched a few. I always new when he had gotten a berry because he would shout out his favorite word. "YUMMO!" Ethan followed along behind holding the bucket for the adults to put the berries in saying, "Bee!" everytime we passed a flower. They have mutant bees the size of quarters swarming the bushes but of course they're just after pollin so we left each other alone.

We spent several hours in the sun picking berries and making sure the kids didn't fall in the water or get stung by bees. I've never been to such a beautiful farm before and although it would be desperately hard work I've always wanted to live on a farm. Being among the berry bushes just set that idea into cement. After we were exhausted from chasing around and the heat we ended up with about 2 lbs of raspberries and the same amount of blackberries. I slept in the car almost the whole way home.

Now I have homemade jam and ice cream to look forward to before I head home to Utah.