Life unexpected.

I like to have a plan--I like to know where I'm going and where I'm at, etc.  Occasionally, God has other plans for me.  Usually this throws me off because I like to think that God's plan IS my plan.  He has given us his word through the scriptures and modern day prophets and gosh darn common sense.  Which is why, when I get a prompting that is off the beaten path, I'm often thrown through a loop.  This happened as a missionary a LOT, but that is a whole other blog post...honestly, probably a whole 'nother blog.  


Sometimes when this happens I throw a tantrum.  Sometimes I take it a little more in stride.  I am proud to report that as time has gone on I have gotten better at trusting him...because it always turns out better than I could have expected in the end.  

Another positive aspect of God leading me in mysterious ways is that I have learned over time and over time again to NOT JUDGE PEOPLE.  I grew up in a very diverse place and I never felt like a judgmental person (do you ever?) because I didn't judge people who had different backgrounds from me, which was most of the people I associated with.  Then I went to a college where everyone was mormon.  Then I went on a mission where it's even more homogenous.  I learned that I was a very judgmental person.  I think we are often harder on people that come from our same background because we think we know them and their motivations and what they should do.  But we don't.  I had learned not to judge the sinner, but had a much harder time learning to not judge the saint.  I'm still learning, but I've gotten much, much better.  Funny how perspective changes things like that.  

So I got a rad internship with an interior design firm in the city.  Definitely not what I thought I would be doing with my life at this moment in time but I know its what I'm supposed to be doing.  I don't know where it will lead me and I don't know for how long He wants me to be doing this but it's definitely been fun so far.  In the mornings I get up, the hubster drives me to the 69th street subway station where I ride 13 stops into the city, then walk 8 blocks to South street, which is an up and coming hipster neighborhood where I work all day with the designers, compare fabric swatches, go to vendor meetings, and even pick out options for some pretty well-to-do clients.


Here is where I work now. 

There are of course some not-as-fun typical intern tasks like putting stickers on coffee sleeves or taking out the trash, oh yeah, and not getting paid...but as far as internships go, this one is pretty awesome and has good chances of turning into a position with the firm.  And I'm learning a LOT.  It feels sort of like that montage in a chick flick when the girl lands the gig and she's working hard and catching the subway and working in an office with exposed brick walls...yeah, sort of like that.  Queue the upbeat soundtrack.  (P.S.  I just went to Hulu to check the spelling on Queue).  But anyway, NOT what I imagined I would be doing right now.  And although my first temptation is confusion and then perhaps a tantrum (because I LIKE my plans, darnit)--as far as alternate routes God has taken me on before, this one is not too shabby.  Not too shabby.


And just so I can up my internet real estate, here are some more photos of the neighborhood I'm working in.  It's pretty cool.  

Life isn't easy if your a ginger

Apparently, even if you're a seal.  Get the full story here.

You Make Me Feel Like Dancing

I don't think my essence has ever been captured so well.  

Lady Geilman of Lansdowne

I just want to take a moment and say how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE our little town we moved to.  We live in a little historic town called Lansdowne just outside west philadelphia.  It makes for a not very scenic drive through west philadelphia (born and raised! at the playground...daddaadaa) into the city but I'm pretty sure that's why our rent is so good.  When you actually get to our town its very nice, but up until...not so much.  We live two blocks from the grocery store and the cutest little main street with a historic theatre and cafe...AND a farmers market EVERY saturday from Memorial Day to Halloween!  Rain or shine!

We can walk to the park down the street (or the NINE other parks here), or the library, and even the train station.  The bus stop is also across the street from our bank...and our bank is two houses down.  On my walks almost every day I get to see the COOLEST Victorian houses everywhere.

It's an artist community, so our first weekend here we attended the Lansdowne ARTS FESTIVAL.  An arts festival people.  We made stained glass.  It was fabulous.

They pick up our garbage here.  They actually come to the back of our house and pick up our garbage for us.  We have to take our recycling to the curb, but they RECYCLE for heaven's to betsy!  Recycling.

And that's just what is happening on the OUTSIDE of the apartment.  I feel like we won the apartment lottery.  Besides living on the first floor of a Victorian home ourselves, with a patio and back door and off street parking (off street parking!) we have a electronic keypad entry into the landing.  Then through our door you are greeted by a pair of FRENCH doors leading to the HUMONGOUS bedroom and a spacious living room with BAY WINDOWS and a fireplace.  A quaint bathroom off the living room with an arched doorway to the toilet and sink make me squeal inside almost every time I pee.

Our bedroom has 3 windowed walls that surround our bed and enough space at the other end for my WORKSPACE.  Ben put together this amazing desk and shelves so that I could do my creative shtuff.  Did I mention I won the marriage lottery too?  Sigh.  There's another room that is Ben's office right now but will someday be the kids room and then a cute dining room and our KITCHEN.  We have a whole room for a kitchen.  And with the IKEA island we got we have SO MUCH COUNTER SPaCe!!  And EVERY room as AT LEAST one double paned window.  All the windows are double paned.  And the ceilings are 9ft.

Did I also mention central air?  I think that alone merits the extensive use of all caps in this post, thank you very much.

Bad Hair Day

The other day I woke up and my hair looked like this:

Not a good look for the new Mormon girl in town.

But it's okay, because I found a hair school in the city (if you are willing to take the risk it is SO worth the price)...

and now I look more like this:

Ahh...now isn't that better?

Media Angst

A few weeks ago I was on my mid-morning walk in beautiful La Jolla, CA.  I was soaking in the gleaming sunshine, gazing at million dollar homes, and meditating on my life when I walked by a house that was up for lease and had a flock (??) of crows circling above it.  Now you might not think this is odd but my immediate thought was that there must be fresh human remains inside.  What should I do?  Should I notify the police?  The place looks empty and the garage door is opened a little, I could probably crawl inside and take a look.  But the killer could still be there--and even if this killer isn't still lingering around the crime scene, there would still be a dead body to deal with.  But their dead--and it isn't worth having to possibly deal with a killer when they are already dead and I can't help them anyway.  I probably should have taken those self defense classes in college.  Plus, I've only seen dead bodies in caskets, could I handle something that would be labeled "fresh remains"???

And then I realized I've probably been watching to many episodes of Bones.  I continued on my merry way.

On the Road

I can now say that I have participated in that rite of passage that we know of as: the cross country road trip.  Whoever decided that this was a rite of passage?  And is it only a rite of passage here in the US?  Because I'm pretty sure it's not quite the same for those crazy college kids in Luxembourg.  Or those crazy college kids in Canada.  Not that I am a crazy college kid.  I'm married--so it was just me and my husband--but it was surprisingly enjoyable.  Not surprising as in that much time spent with my husband is not usually enjoyable, but surprising as in I did not want to scream and tear my face off after driving 3,000 miles.  This is good.

When you are on a really long road trip you start getting excited about really mundane things. Like seeing a sign for elevation in the middle of a state that says "sea level" instead of a bunch of numbers.  Or a pretty town nestled in the side of a mountain.  Or getting a truck driver to wave back at you.  I wonder if they enjoy when people do that.  Maybe the really gregarious ones do...but I've never met a gregarious truck driver, have you?

Cream Cheese and Rocky: A winning combination.

So a big part of the reason I am starting this blog is because we are moving to Philadelphia.  I would say I will miss my friends, but a large majority have already moved away from Utah and the other gave me up for dead in married land.  I don’t blame them, I did it to my friends after they got married.  I would say I will miss my family but I was already living out of state for 5+ years and we already have a really good Skype thing going, and I don’t want to mess that up.  The thing that I WILL miss the most is my in-laws.  After living in Provo for 5 years I was done and used to not living close to family.  Then I had to go all get married to a farm boy from American Fork attached to the most awesomest family outside of San Diego County.  Darn.  I really have the bestest in-laws.  Ever.  Mostly red headed, freckled, funny, feed us whenever we show up, and produce the CUTEST nieces and nephews.  Boy did I get lucky.  They say that when you get married you marry the family as well.  Well I got married AND fell in love with them.  It is they who I will miss the most upon leaving and it is mainly for them that I started this blog because my husband, although painfully good-looking and whipping smart, is not the best at keeping in touch.  I can vouch that he tries though.  And I apologize in advance to my Father-in-Law that I will probably write too much on this blog for his liking.  Loves ya!

Am I taking CRAZY pills here?

My sister got married.  Oh yeah, she got married and had a WEDDING.  When I got married I pretty much let my Mom and my sister plan it because my sister has been obsessed about weddings since she could say “lace covered chiffon” and they both have pretty great style.  I did have to ixnay on the tangerine sashes though—my colors were Navy Blue and PUMPKIN, thank you very much.  Other than that though, it was in their well-manicured and capable hands. 

My sister however, the one mentioned above, was SLIGHTLY more involved than I was.  And by involved, I want to share a story with you.

Do you see these flags?  I made these flags.  My now brother-in-law is quite the walking musical consortium and she wanted to include that in the decorations: sheet music pennants.  Should be easy enough, I had just made cloth ones “for fun” that ended up being way more complicated then they were worth, so paper ones should be pretty simple.  But this is my sister, I should have known.

“Oh and I’d like them tea-dyed” she chirped before floating out the door (my sister is a ballet dancer, so she floats most places).  Okee doke, I thought, that shouldn’t be too complicated.

Here is the step-by-step process for making THESE particular pennant flags.

1. Draw up pattern for Pennant flags that include flap to fold over the string (with the appropriately angled sides so that you don’t have to cut the little extra that would result if you just folded over the top) making a beautiful seamless edge.  Pattern should resemble a stretched out super man logo.
2. Congratulate self for being so smart about including the flap to fold over the string.
3. Undo the staples on the book of sheet music, so that you cut out twice as many at a time.
4. Congratulate self for also thinking of this.
5. Find the best configuration for getting the MOST flags out of one bi-folded sheet of music, having lines touch each other so one cut is actually four cuts. 
6. Trace pattern in configuration.
7. Cut out flags.
8. Buy another book of sheet music at sketchy thrift store because your sister wants to make sure she has enough.
9. Remove staples from book of sheet music.
10.  Find best configuration to get the most flags out of one bi-folded sheet of music.
11.  Double check with sister on flag configuration, which results in lines of music being STRAIGHT, instead of diagonal like she had requested.
12.  Breathe sigh of relief when she approves this.
13.  Trace pattern in configuration.
14.  Cut out flags.
15.  Prepare bucket of hot water to tea dye the flags.  Include scarf your mother asked you to tea dye.
16.  Get worried when you test one flag and the paper seems weak.
17.  Sister suggests SPRAYING the tea water with a spray water bottle.
18.  Place hot water and tea bag inside of spray water bottle.
19.  Curse when tea bag breaks, causing spray bottle to clog.
20.  Decide to tea dye paper quickly so as to keep the integrity of the paper but hopefully dye them enough.
21.  Curse when paper just looks wet.
22.  Have stroke of brilliance and borrow brother’s paint set.  Mix brown and yellow paint in watery solution that resembles opaque tea-water.
23.  Splatter over the still-wet pennant flags.
24.  Find out from Mother that Sister thinks they are “Too orangey.”
25.  Curse cheap paint and have meltdown because you dealing with a high maintenance wedding and its that time of the month.
26.  Mom swoops in and RE-tea dyes flags.
27.  Take flags with you to beautiful Dana Point, where husband has week of job shadowing for his territory. 
28.  Thank your Creator that your husband has a great job.
29.  Thank your Creator that your husband has a job.
30.  Thank your Creator that you have a husband.
31.  Remove all flags at Sister’s request that are “too orangey” on both sides even after re-tea-dye.
32.  Sit in hotel room and iron all flags to get the wet wrinkles out of them while watching reruns of King of Queens.
33.  Sort through flags to find the “less orangey side” to be the front.
34.  Go for a swim.
35.  Sit in hotel room and fold top crease (TOWARD from orangey side) on all flags so now they just resemble flags and not stretched out super man logos while watching reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond.
36.  Meticulously glue over crease and then place string inside crease and carefully fold over to create finished flag.  Repeat 12 times.
37.  Curse when Elmer’s glue keeps getting clogged.
38.  Switch to backup stick glue.
39.  Thank the heavens that this works.
40.  Repeat 15 times.
41.  Start to get anxious that you didn’t double check what LENGTH between each flag your sister wanted.
42.  Continue onward because you’ve already started and the wedding is two days away.  Try to ignore the erosion of stomach acid.
43.  Finish flags and bring them back down to San Diego.
44.  Heave sigh of relief when sister approves of them.
45.  Congratulate passive-aggressive bridezilla of a sister on her upcoming nuptuals and wonder why you don’t drink.

Congratulations to my little sister and her new husband William--may you enjoy every idiosyncrasy you both have until the end of time!  (Doesn't her dress look STUNNING???  My Mom did it.  She's amazing.)