Beautiful Day

On the Sunday of Ted & Holly's visit, after church we had a picnic at the Mt. Auburn cemetary. My friend Kristie also had a visitor, her friend Heather (whom they call Heather B. because she also has a sister named Heather). I met Heather B. when I went home with Kristie to Virginia for Thanksgiving last year. The weather was perfect and beautiful and warm. It made me want to dance, so I did. Afterwards, we drove to Lexington and Concord. I seem to have been there a few times this year... each in a different season, though. This was the first time that I went to the Sleepy Hollow Cemetary, where Thoreau, Hawthorne, Alcott, and Emerson are buried. It's strange to think that all these great authors were friends and lived near eachother.


Our last stop for the day was Harvard campus, where Ted obviously has little respect for authority. I went on the unofficial Hah-vahd tour last October with Mandy and her mom and tried to remember tidbits of information. I really should write things down.

Water Fire

The next day, Saturday, May 24th, we drove down to Providence, Rhode Island. Jack gave us a walking tour of the old historic part of town. His daughter is in our ward and offered the tour for our charity auction last Christmas. There are some beautiful homes there. Jack explained the different types of architecture. The houses on the left remind me of the painted ladies in San Francisco. I also thought it was funny that they just painted each section a different color, even though it's really all just one building. The house to the right was my favorite. I love the turret look and all the flowers in the windows. On the tour we went to one of the oldest libraries in the country, founded in 1753. I loved the old feel of it with books stacked to the ceiling. They still use the card catalog system. We ended the tour near the river and watched gondolas go by.

We stayed to watch the Waterfire exhibit that night. Dramatic music began playing, while a lady hitting a gong floated by, followed by a man in white with a mask. (When he floated by the second time, he gave me a red carnation.) Then a boat came and lit each of the fires one by one. I love staring at fires, how they move and change colors. They also kept us nice and warm, as the weather got a little chilly. It felt like a fair, with vendors allover. We got a crepe with strawberries and Nuttella. Mmm.

I like Providence.

Cousins

My cousins came to visit me for Memorial Day weekend! Don't we look like we're related? :) These are my cousins on my dad's side... He's also blonde and blue-eyed. Yeah... I definitely take after my mom. I did get my daddy's curly hair, though.
Anyway, once both Holly and Ted were here, we spent the first day walking around Boston. We had dinner at Legal Seafood in the Prudential. Holly was trying to find the same dish she had seven years ago on the menu with little luck. It was still delicious though... I can't believe I'm saying that about seafood! At dinner we discovered that between the three of us, we've traveled to forty-two of the fifty states. (We are also the only cousins who are single and over the age of twenty-one.) Afterwards, we walked around Copley Square and to the Esplanade... then the Commons and Public Gardens. So fun to have visitors!

There's no Basement in the Alamo

After leaving Heather & Mike's, I spent the rest of my time in San Antonio at the Marriott Rivercenter. We were just down the street from the Alamo and right on the Riverwalk. Bethany and I saw an IMAX show about the Alamo and another show from the Discovery channel. Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie were among those that defended the Alamo against Santa Anna. They were there for 13 days before the Alamo fell.

We also went on a cruise around the city. The Riverwalk is beautiful... little shops and restaurants with quaint bridges, statues, and lots of flowers. The little purple ones to the left are Texas bluebells. There were also bright colors everywhere. I heard that Salt Lake is deciding what to do with the Jordan River. I hope they do something like this with part of it. Just fun and different.
I attended two different conferences that week. The first part was just my company, then the last half of the week was the national ASCA (Ambulatory Surgical Centers Association) conference. I learned about spine surgery, bariatric procedures, and many other issues. It actually was quite interesting. I may want to study more about public health. We heard from keynote speaker Magic Johnson (he is HUGE) and the ambassador of fun from Southwest Airlines. He taught us that in Texas the standard greeting is "Howdy! How y'all doing?" To which one would answer either "Fine as frog's hair" or "If I were a dog, my tail'd be waggin'". To leave, "Well, it's time for me to git. Adios, amigos." They had a Red Hot Fiesta where we did a little line dancing, a little salsa dancing, and had caricatures drawn. My co-worker Brian also rode the mechanical bull. Yee-haw!

One funny thing about Texas... I have never seen so many state flags anywhere else in the country. There are more Texas flags flying than American flags. It's certainly all about Texas pride!

Deep in the Heart of Texas

This year the ASCA conference was in San Antonio, Texas. I remembered that my last mission companion Heather lived in Texas (her family moved from Virginia while she was on her mission), but wasn't sure where. Lucky for me, it was near San Antonio! and she just had a baby! I went the weekend before the conference to stay with Heather, her husband Mike, ant their beautiful little girl Katy. It was so nice to get to see her and reminisce about the mish. I also took a video of an FHE that our DL at the time gave me. Crazy to see ourselves as missionaries again. We went to dinner the night I arrived and they were kind enough to let me share Mother's Day with them, so I was able to meet their families. I realized how much you get to know somebody when you live/work with them 24 hours/day for two months. Even though I hadn't seen Heather for a few years, it was comfortable and I realized how well I knew and loved her still. She was a great companion at a time I really needed one.We were supposed to go to the temple together, but unfortunately, my luggage didn't make it with me. My flight leaving Boston was delayed so they met us with one of those golf-carts to hurry us onto our connection. I guess they didn't bother to worry about our luggage though. Heather let me borrow her clothes so that I could go the next morning. I was still without luggage until after though, so no pics of me there. The temple in San Antonio is of the mini-temple variety, so smaller, but has beautiful stain glass windows. It is a goal of mine (and my friend Joy's) to go to all of the temples in the U.S. (and maybe someday the world). I'm a little bit more than halfway... San Antonio is number 32.
After the temple, I went to Six Flags and worked on my tan in the waterpark. Unfortunately, Heather had to work that day, so I was on my own during the day. It was convenient, though, when one rollercoaster had a single rider line. I only had to wait ten minutes instead of an hour. I missed out on the Superman, though. I waited for over half an hour, but it broke down and they couldn't get it running. This was the first time I went to a theme park by myself. Rather interesting to not talk too much and just listen to other people's conversations. In all, it was a great weekend. A good start to my first trip to Texas.

Red Sox Nation

On May 2nd, I went to another Red Sox game. It was raining. Hard. So we waited... and waited... and waited... until they started the game two hours late at 9 p.m. And almost all the devoted Red Sox fans were still there. Even though they had to sit on wet seats. It was rather entertaining to see the army of men run the field cover back and forth across the field three times. It reminded me of elementary school when we would play with a huge parachute at recess. I loved when we would flip it up high in the air and then get to run underneath it. Fun times. Anyway, we were able to stay for an exciting 4th inning where the Sox had 5 runs... then we had to leave to catch the train before it stopped running.

Going Under

I've realized that I like to think in terms of firsts and discover new firsts all the time. You know, the first time I hosted/made dinner... the first time I dyed my hair by myself... etc. (Now, you'll probably want to go through my entire blog and look for me saying the "first".) This last year has been full of firsts for me, and not all of them good. Last month was the first time that I had general anesthesia. I have been having stomach problems the last little while and my GI did a gastroscopy. Basically, he stuck a camera down my throat to look around for ulcers and such. Well, I remember being wheeled into the OR, the doctor asking me to lay on my side, the nurse injecting something into my IV, and then nothing... Next thing I knew, I was in a different room, still on my side, but very disoriented. I looked at the clock and it was 45 minutes later. Wow! Drugs are amazing. Luckily, I have no ulcers... all he found was some inflammation in the bottom of the esophagus. I also had an ultrasound to look at all my other organs and again, they found nothing (that was my first procedure in a hospital). Hopefully these medicines he's having me take will work as well as the anesthesia did to get rid of my pain. Keep your fingers crossed.

I Love Boston in the Springtime

Since I'm playing catch-up with my blogging... a few weeks ago, my friend Rachel and I decided to go for a photo shoot in Boston. She's studying photography right now and loves to walk the city. The beautiful magnolia and dogwood trees were in full bloom. The beauty of spring makes me want to sing. :) Unfortunately we had no sightings of movie stars that night... she had seen Matthew Mcconaughey the week before. Nevertheless, we had a good time walking through the public garden and the back bay. This was my favorite shot (I realize now why there is a shade of Spring Green for a Crayola crayon):

Accidental Skirmish

Patriot's Day is a state holiday in Massachusetts. This is the day of the Boston Marathon and... yes, another reenactment. :) Monday found me in Lexington at the Lexington green for another real-time reenactment beginning at 5:30 a.m. For the second time that weekend I woke up before dawn and stood in the dark, waiting for the soldiers to gather on the battlefield. It's really getting harder to recover from so little sleep! Has anyone else noticed that? There were two things that made this reenactment more vivid than Saturday's. First, we were able to stand closer to the action. It was a foggy, dark morning and you could see the fire exploding out of their muskets, the expression on their faces, and hear the officers shouting commands at the soldiers. Second, people actually "died". We were a little disappointed that nobody reenacted the dying on Saturday. ;) This soldier let us touch the bear fur in his hat and explained the pieces of his uniform. They were so detailed... the buttons had the number 10 engraved on them because they were in the 10th regiment. Afterwards, we had an enjoyable breakfast of omelettes and pancakes before I headed off sadly to work.

I May Name a Daughter...

You Are Aurora! (A.K.A. Sleeping Beauty.)

Thoughtful and loving. Authority figures probably have been sheltering you all of your life. Thankfully you're a very tranquil person who is content with what life has given you, but secretly you want to know how the outside world works.

Which Disney Princess Are You?