Lemonade, Sunshine and Other Happy Things

1-27-2012 Email: MTC Medical Maladies

2012-01-28T10:25:00.000-08:00

Before anyone freaks out, it´s not me who is having the medical problems. I just have a cold, which is a constant here so it doesn't really count. OK, now I will proceed.

We'll start with the biggest news. Although it's kind of hard to choose the biggest thing from this week, i think this may be it: we got a new roommate! it was totally unexpected. I will illustrate how it went down for you.

We had just gotten back from gym in the morning when we heard that Sister Abraham had been paged and needed to call the front desk. She called them back, and they said that she needed to come up to the front desk to pick up her companion. But her companion, Sister Lewis, was of course right next to her so she was like I think you have the wrong person. But the front desk insisted so they decided they should go check it out. They had said the girl's name was Stephanie Collins, which we of course didn't recognize, but while they were gone and I was (unsuccessfully because of the distractions trying to take a shower we discovered that there was a Sister Collins who had been in an older group who had gone home on medical leave. And it was totally her! So now there companionship turned into a threesome. But it was so crazy since no one had mentioned anything to them. And even though we have six beds in our room because we have three bunks we only have four desks and four closets (that were already full) and she had three huge suitcases of stuff that we needed to fit in all of a sudden... And we didn't even have any sheets for her or anything. So we're still adjusting, but she seems pretty nice so far. It's cool that she was able to come back, and she'll be leaving when we do for Sendai, Japan. Apparently she was two weeks from leaving for Japan when she found out she had diabetes (MTC medical weirdness #1).

One thing you should know is that by the time we had a unexpected new roommate it had already been a weird week. After gym on Saturday (now that I'm thinking of it, most of the craziness of the week went down after gym) said that she was feeling weird, and by the time we had returned to our room her face had swelled up super super bad. Such as that she had to take three Benedyls. But then it still didn't get any better, so after some midnight fun in the hall she went to the Emergency Room with her companion where she had to be injected with all sorts of stuff before it got better, and they didn't get back to the room until like 3:30. And even though she is fine now, they still have no idea what triggered it. (MTC medical weirdness #2)

And the other main medical weirdness that had been going on here is with my companion. She's been having problems with her knee almost since she first got here; it has been swollen all of the time and twitching and causing lots of pain and such. She's had problems with it before, but never this bad and it seems to be getting worse every day. We told Sister Collins when she moved in that she had moved into the room of mysterious swelling (because of the Northrop shimai and Abraham shimai). We just really don't know what is wrong. We did get to take a field trip off campus to an orthopedic specialist, which was pretty exciting. But we had kind of been building up that we just needed to survive that long to find out what was wrong and then everything would be better, but that wasn't what happened. The doctor (who was really nice) said that it could be one of two things (nothing showed up on the x-ray), and that they have to start with the more conservative theory which is just treated by physical therapy, so we have to try that for two weeks first before she would have her knee scoped.

But that didn't really help with the pain now, and it is still continuing to get worse. Yesterday after gym and service (Northrop Shimai didn't work out, don't worry), while I was in the shower apparently Northrop shimai collapsed in the hall with pain so bad that the other girls had to call for a wheelchair and one of them, Soderborg Shimai, took her straight over to the health center. I went and waited for her with Walbeck shimai, Soderborg's companion, and the doctor sent her out on crutches and super drugged up. We tried to go to classes for a little while last night, but it was just way to hard for her. if you think teaching in another language is hard, try doing it with a companion who is on muscle relaxant and lortab. Ya, it's not really possible so we went back to the room for the rest of the night and our roommates brought us dinner. My companion slept for five hours, which is pretty impressive!
Today has been pretty good so far and we did make it to the temple with the help of a shuttle, which was really awesome to be able to just go serve the Lord. And we have a follow up doctors appointment for yesterday's craziness in less than an hour, and then an off campus physical therapy trip this afternoon so hopefully we'll be able to figure something better out for Northrop Shimai. I hate seeing her in pain so incredibly much! But I'm sure we're both learning a lot from this. My favorite scripture of the week is Mosiah 4:9. (I think that's it. i don't have my scriptures with me! It's about believing that God knows everything.)

And don't worry, this week has had fun stuff too. For example, pretty much all of the Elders in my class decided to write my sister awkward romantic letters and they were so funny they just made me die. Amber will have to pull a couple of good one liners for you. Plus, no week can really be all bad when you're on a mission! i wouldn't describe the week as bad, just ridiculously crazy. Thank you to everyone who wrote me!

Aisshte Imasu (love you)

P.S. I apologize for typos and typing weirdness. I'm pretty sure this is the worst key board in the world.

*Okay, this is Amber now. The letters I got from those Elders are hysterical. They were sprayed with perfume and had many wonderful drawings. They also all wrote what kind of animal they were. I could definitely tell they were having way too much fun with this. And as Natalie asked I will put quote a few lines for your enjoyment too. I mean, I could never hide such precious treasures for myself so here you go.
-"I'mma stealthy panda bear, and I'mma gonna sneak my way right into your heart. Seriously, that's how I roll. These other guys got nothing on me, guaranteed."
-"Out of all the Elders in the district I am the best looking."
-"My friends call me an eagle because I swoop up all the ladies."
-"The letters are sprayed with my cologne so now you know what I smell like."
-"I'm sorry I know basically nothing about you except you are awesome (so I've been told, and Crofts Shimai never lies)."

1-20-2012 Email: The Battle of the Humidifier

2012-01-21T11:32:00.000-08:00

Hello all of my favorite people!

First, can I just express how weird it is how fast time passed this last week? It was really weird. All of us Sisters were talking the other night and we all feel like we just had P-day yesterday! So if I can't think of much to say in my letter today, it's because time passed so quickly that I'm not even sure what happened. All of the missionaries who have been here longer say that it gets even faster at week 6, which will just be insane. And then it's supposed to feel even faster than that in the field... So I'll probably be home to talk to all of you in person in about seven seconds. Don't be surprised.

Let's see, what did happen this week? Oh, we started out Saturday with something really cool! We had our first ever visit to the TRC (which I think stands for Training Resource Center) and I have to admit that I was totally nervous for it, but it turned out to be wonderful! What happens is they have volunteers, just students from BYU or other members, come and be themselves and then we teach them a simple lesson. Can I just say how nice it is to teach members? It was so nice to have them understand that we were learning a language and such. They were super helpful, instead of just giving us blank stares like we sometimes get from our teachers when they're pretending to be Japanese investigators... We got to teach a Sister who served her mission in Finland and is really good at Japanese and she was really nice, and it was fun just to be able to have a friendly conversation in Japanese. I think we all went in pretty scared but came out really excited. I'm glad I get to go back tomorrow!

Here's a happy note I keep meaning to write about -- I've been able to see two of my old roommates since coming here! One was total luck. I ran into Kira Roerig, one of my roommates from Sophomore year just by chance in the dressing room of the temple and it was so happy! Especially since I hadn't actually seen her since before she went on her mission to Spain like three years ago. And then last week one of my roommates from Junior year, Nataly Arce, entered the MTC because she's going to the Dominican Republic for her mission! She already knows Spanish though so she'll only be here for three weeks, but it was so wonderful to see her. Yay friends!

Now for the story that goes along with the title of this post. I know you've all been waiting for it!

Once upon a time, my companion really needed a humidifier because the dry Utah air was being mean to her body. So we trekked to the MTC health clinic only to discover that if you want a humidifier you have to be placed on a waiting list. So we waited for days and days and days until finally, one cold day, we recieved a notice slip in our mailbox saying that the time for my companion to suffer no longer had finally arrived! Or so we had thought... We went and picked up to humidifier, and great was our joy. At least until that night, when it tried to kill us at two in the morning with noise. But we unplugged it and thought all was well, until the next night when it got even worse! And so it continued until any time it made one little sound I wanted to smash it. Wanting to kill things is probably not a trait missionaries should have. Just saying. So we took it back to the health center, where they said they would throw it away so it could never torment missionaries again and we were given a gentle giant humidifier to take it's place. And ever since, there had been peace in the bedroom and everyone could sleep so they lived happily ever after.

Ok, so that may seem like a silly story but sleep is a big deal. We get so little of it that if you're constantly waking up through the night there is pretty much no way you are going to survive. So being able to make the humidifier function right seemed like a huge victory! Every time I see the functional humidifer I feel a deep joy in my heart. Because we totally won. Take that noisy humidifier!

Before I close I feel like I should share a spiritual quote or two since we do spiritual things all day, and I've been learning a lot so I figure you might like to learn too! This week our Tuesday devotional speaker was Elder Kevin R. Duncan of the 70, and he had a great talk about missionary work and the like. Here are a couple of gems that I liked: "Perhaps his (God's) plan might not involve removing that hardship, but he will surely help you if you earnestly ask him" Successful missionaries (and anybody, really) refuse to let circumstances get them down... They choose to be positive... They think of how they will act, not react."

And ok, maybe you can have one funny quote too. Todd Sensei on not speaking in a monotone voice: "The Japanese may like robots, but they don't like missionary robots" Good advice to remember.

Sidenote, I apologize for if my English and storytelling is becoming worse. Sometimes by the time we reach p-day our brains have started to turn to mush from all the information that's been crammed in it the rest of the week... Plus it's stressful to try and type so much so fast!

I love you all, and thanks so so so much to everyone who has sent me mail! It makes me so happy! I'll reply as soon as I can. Hopefully I'll have time to get a batch of letters out today! Yay snail mail!

Me in my coat practicing for Sapporo.

Our new years eve celebration in our room! At…10pm. There were some girls who counted down to ten with horns and it was pretty funny. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever been asleep for midnight that I can remember. Northrop Shimai had the cool glasses and some mango martinelli’s that I’ve never had before.

My district except Northrop Shimai and I who were on the hill goofing off.

Pictures from the MTC

2012-01-16T12:14:00.000-08:00

Here are the first pictures we have gotten from Natalie! The captions are written from her too.

The group. We spend every moment together except for sleeping pretty much so I can already recognize them by voices.

A picture of us in front of the temple. We get to go on walks around the temple on Sunday afternoons and it is definitely one of the highlights of the week. Yet another reason why Sundays win. We get to leave the MTC grounds and remember that there is a sun and we get to watch church movies. Yes. Walking. Yes. Therefore, win.

(Me and Brianna Northop)

They put up Christmas lights on the trees and branches next to the main building in the area we walk through a lot and they were super cool! They took them down the other day and it was really sad. But the roomies and I got a picture with them before they were gone!

(Me, Brianna Northop, Stephanie Abraham, Kailey Lewis)

1-13-2012 Email: Native Speakers

2012-01-14T10:03:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!

Lots of things happened this week. You probably could have guessed that without me telling you though, so I´ll fill you in on the more specific details. I even tried keeping a list of some things as they happened during the week so I could remember to put them in this email. Aren´t you proud?

But first, a pet peeve. For some reason the Spanish speaking missionaries like to do something on the computer that deletes English from the list of possible languages to operate the computer in. So I had to use some of my precious 30 minutes to change it back to English so I could type. Ok, now we can move on.

This biggest thing that happened this week was probably the arrival of the Nihonjin (nihonjin = Japanese person). They closed the MTC in Tokyo a little while ago, so now they send the native Japanese missionaries who are going to serve in Japan here to get trained, but since they already know the language they only stay here for 3 weeks (compared to our 12). It's really cool to have them here! There are four Japanese sisters and then eight Japanese elders. The four sisters are living a room right next to ours so we get to attempt to talk to them a lot. Notice the word "attempt." Even though I can understand most of what my teacher says in class and what our investigators say, apparently I am totally incapable of having a remotely functional conversation with an actual Japanese person! Like one sister tried to start up a friendly conversation about it being really cold and where I came from (or at least I think that was what was going on?) and I couldn't think of a single thing to say! But they are so cool that I still love them anyways. And hopefully I'll know more soon! We'll get another batch of Japanese missionaries three weeks before we leave for Japan, so hopefully by then I'll be able to say more.

Speaking of speaking in another language, I gave my first sacrament talk in Japanese this week. I can't remember if I ever mentioned it before, but every week our entire church meeting is held in all Japanese. And every week every single missionary is supposed to prepare a talk on the same subject, and then two seconds before people speak, as in after the sacrament, they announce who out of all of us will be giving the talk. And of course I got to be the very first one to do it out of the newbies (last week was fast sunday, so we didn't have talks). Usually that would totally freak me out, but luckily I had written out a talk the day before and was feeling pretty good about so I literally just went up to the stand and read it and then sat back down. I think it sounded decent. I've decided I'm going to keep it though so I can read it at the end of my mission and laugh at how terrible it is.

The other really cool thing that happened this week is that for our Tuesday devotional Elder Russell M. Nelson, one of the apostles of the Quorum of the 12, came and spoke to us. He talked about the gathering of Israel and it was super deep, but still really cool since the gathering of the 12 tribes of Israel is what we're participating in right now. One of my favorite things that he said was that all of the prophets have been looking forward to this day, so isn't cool that we get to be a part of it? I took lots of notes because I do that compulsively after being a journalism major.

Um, what else. In case any of you are wondering how I'm doing without tv and movies we occasionally get to watch fun videos in class and on Sundays like "What is Stress" (which actually just ended up stressing all of us out by reminding us how stressed we were) and "The District" (which is like a church made documentary that follows missionaries in San Diego to show us what life will be like) and they help fulfill my TV watching needs. Plus, on Sundays we can watch things like the Joseph Smith video or old talks and I love it. Sundays win.

Oh also, I just heard about The Daily Universe becoming a weekly and some of the craziness surrounding it from Amber, who saw it while performing her sisterly facebook duties. And it hurts my heart so much. So if any of you are still in the know (being in the MTC is like as far out of the know as you can be) and have more information about what is going on you should totally pass it on to me. Because I like knowing things. Especially about the DU, where I spent the last few years of my life.

Ok, I'm out of time. Love you all so much!

Crofts Shimai

A How to Guide

2012-01-07T09:45:00.000-08:00

*I, Amber, am writing this post as Natalie requested in the last Email.

So, you like Natalie a lot. And you miss Natalie. And you want to make her day a little bit more bright. But, you can't find the time to pull out the pen and paper to write a letter. That's alright, it happens to the best of us. But wait, I have a solution to your problem! Drum roll please.... Use www.dearelder.com!

This is a website that allows you to write letters to missionaries as if it was an email. No pen or paper required! Writing letters to the MTC is free too! All you need to do is go to the website and sign-up for a free account. You then can click on the tab that says "write a letter". For Natalie, you pick "Provo MTC" in the drop box and then "write a missionary". The next step is to fill out your information and Natalie's.

Natalie's address:
Sister Natalie Crofts
MTC Box: 169
Mission Code: JPN-SAP
Estimated Departure date: 313

And that's all you need. Then you get to type away to your hearts content.
What happens is they will get your letter, print it out and bring it the the MTC. FOR FREE! It is an awesome website. Natalie won't be able to write you back in the same way but she'll get your letters a lot faster and then she can write you back a hand written one when she has time.
So try it out!

Once Natalie is out of the MTC and into Japan you can still use dearelder.com but it will cost a dollar or so. Still totally worth it though.

So go now. Write away. Natalie loves mail. And you.

1-6-2012 Email: Surprise!

2012-01-07T09:28:00.000-08:00

Surprise! My P-day is actually on Fridays!

Last week they just gave us the Saturday as a P-day so we could get our lives in order and such, but from now on I'll be writing today. At least while I'm in the MTC. Fridays must just be fantastic everywhere! And just so you know, it's typically the only day I have to write paper letters too, so if you don't hear from me for a week just know that I still love you. Thank you so much to everyone who has written me through Dear Elder! It makes me so happy to hear from people! Amber, maybe you should do a bloggy thing letting people know how to use it since it's free? Both the awesome Annie and wonderful Melissa seem to like using it a lot. I like it too because it means I get things fast! It's almost like texting or facebook. Almost.

Yesterday we got a little surprise -- Harukawa San (San is like Mr. in Japanese), the investigator we had been teaching since our second or third day here (I already can't tell the days apart at all...), is actually our second Japanese teacher! He was going to come knock on the door of our classroom and surprise us (we finished teaching him the day before), but a few of us actually ran into him in the hall because we needed to use the room he was in and ruined the surprise (I want to see how many times I can use the word surprise in this paragraph. Also, parenthesis). It was pretty funny, because at first we were like "Harukawa San! We love you! We never thought we'd see you again!" And then we totally saw his teacher badge. It turns out that his name is actually Todd Sensei (sensei = teacher), and he's from Utah (dad you might like this, he's from Roosevelt), not Sapporo. But he did serve his mission in Sapporo, as did our other teacher, Thurber Sensei. Brianna Northrop Shimai and I totally lucked out to have both of our teachers be returned missionaries from Sapporo, because in our class there are missionaries going to Nagoya and Fukoka too! There are twelve people in our class (there are three twelve person classes of missionaries going to Japan who reported the same day I did, just fyi), and only four of us are going to Sapporo -- Northrop Shimai and I, plus Stilson Choro (choro = elder in Japanese) and Galeria Choro. I think their companionship is kind of funny because it's the oldest guy missionary in our group, Stilson Choro who is 22, with the youngest missionary, Galeria Choro who will turn 19 in the MTC. But that is entirely beside the point. And I already feel like we're a really great group, but I'm probably biased.

But anyways, back to the investigator (which if you didn't know, by the way, is a person who is interested in learning about the Church) who turned out to actually be our teacher. Apparently Todd Sensei had been responding to our questions and lessons as an investigator he had during his mission who was named Harukawa. And even though it wasn't necessarily "real," it was still a great experience, and it felt pretty real. It gave a glimpse of how awesome it will be when we have investigators in the field who respond the same way-- on our last visit we committed Harukawa to be baptized next month and it was just so happy because we know how much joy that can bring to a person's life. We also learned a lot of what we can do better, i.e. for me things like being able to speak Japanese functionally. But I somehow doubt they expected us to be fluent the first week... I hope. And from now on our teachers will be taking turns acting as one of their investigators did, so we should be able to learn a lot more.

Overall, things are still going really well! We made it through our first week, which everyone says is the hardest in the MTC so that's good. It's an adventure! I hope all of you are having lots of awesome adventures too. If you ever get bored you should write me! I promise to write something awesome back. I might even draw you a cool picture too.

Love you all,Sister Crofts

12-31-11 Email

2011-12-31T10:34:00.000-08:00

Hello!

I'm alive and writing an email! But no pictures. I tried to attach it but it's totally and completely impossible! They only let you type, and you can't put pictures on the computer because there is no desktop. So I'll just have to mail them old school style.

Um, I don't know where to start! So much has been happened even though it's only been like three days. I guess I'll start from the beginning. That's generally a good place, right? First, let me introduce you to my companion, which is the person I get to spend all of my time with. Her name is Northrop Shimai (shimai means sister in Japanese), and she's from Vancouver, Washington! Small world, right? She's really cool, and actually knows a lot of Japanese because she did immersion school growing up so I feel like we will be a great partnership. She definitely knows a lot more than me, but that just means she can help me get better faster. And I've been remembering a lot of what I learned in school, but we'll get to that in a sec. I have two other roommates who are also really awesome. My friend Stephanie, Abraham Shimai, is one of them! She lived across the hall from me last year at Hampstead and is just a wonderful person. We don't have classes with each other even though she's learning Japanese too (she's going to Kobe), but we still see each other all of the time. And her companion is really cool too. Her name is Lewis Shimai and she's from Montana. I sleep on a top bunk, which is kind of cool because then I get to use to top of the closet as a shelf.

Next, I'm sure you want to know how the Japanese is going! It's kind of crazy. But good and fun. Right after dad dropped me off I just got to drop off my bags in my room (the schedule here is so packed that they never actually gave us time to unpack, we just had to use the time we had to get ready for bed to do it), pick up my name badge and then report directly to the classroom where they only spoke Japanese. Luckily I could generally understand what they were saying and follow instructions as they told us what to do with computers and such since I took classes before, but I have no idea how the people who had never heard the language before did it! That would be stressful. It was kind of stressful anyways! After that they sent us to a bunch of classes about how to be a missionary where they would do things like have an investigator come in for the class to ask questions and it was kind of overwhelming because I had no idea what should be said. But I'm feeling more confident. We actually taught our first "investigator" yesterday (they don't tell us if the people who come in are actual investigators or just volunteers, but I'm kind of feeling this guy isn't real.) Wouldn't it be a bad idea to send investigators to people who have only two days worth of language? I think it went pretty well even though neither me or my companion really knows any religious words so we read pretty much straight out of the book. But I think the conversational bit in the beginning went really well and I did understand everything he said except a couple of words. When most of the Elders (guys) came back from teaching him they were just laughing about how they had no idea what just happened. We have to teach him again today though, and I'm running out of questions we could ask to make the lesson last longer before we just read out of the book... I have to admit I would be perfectly happy if he just talked about himself the whole time and we didn't have to say a single word. But I guess that probably wouldn't help us learn the language as much. Darn it.

Well, I guess I should share the computer with the other missionaries. Just know that things are going well and that even though the days can be long I'm surviving! We get an 50 minutes of gym time every day though and it's pretty much the best thing ever. I just run around the track and it helps me clear my mind and wake up some more. I hope you have an awesome New Year's Eve for me tonight. I'll probably be asleep since we're supposed to go to bed at 10:30.

Love you all so much! aishte iru.

Natalie

Natalie getting dropped off at the MTC.

Year in Review 2011

2011-12-26T12:22:00.001-08:00

I know it’s not quite the end of the year yet, but since I’m about to disappear for 18 months I think I deserve some leeway. I just loved doing my year in review so much last year that I wanted to do it again! Plus so many fun and important things happened this year there was no way I could skip this.

JANUARY

Locations: Provo

Included: January was a long time ago so I have to admit that I don’t remember exactly what I did with myself. But, I know that I was at school having fun doing things like going to basketball games and Sam’s swim meets. I also made a wonderful repeat trip to the Sundance Film Festival with Rebecca.

FEBRUARY

Locations: Provo

Included: What I’m gathering from my photos is that to survive school and the winter my roommates and I decorated our apartment with lots of fun Valentines stuff (most of which we never took down). And I made a lasagna.

MARCH

Locations: Provo, Orderville

Included: March is always an automatic win because it contains my birthday. However, this time there was a sad note when I had to say goodbye to my grandmother, but it at least came with a nice side effect in that I got to see my family and stop by Zion’s National Park for the first time.

APRIL

Locations: Provo, Houston

Included: So much happened this month it’s crazy! First and foremost, I graduated from BYU. And there were a lot of fun parties and such that went along with it. A couple of days after graduation Amber and I flew down to Houston for my roommate Sam’s wedding to Erick! It was so beautiful.

MAY

Locations: Honolulu, Portland, Washington D.C.

Included: My family and I were able to make it back to Hawaii! It was the just what I needed right after finishing school. I got to relax at home for a little bit, and then moved back to Washington, D.C. for another internship. This time I interned for my Senator, Ron Wyden, and it was an fabulous experience. Annie even came to visit me for Memorial Day.

JUNE

Locations: Washington D.C., New York City

Included: I continued my internship, and Amber came and visited me! We spent some time in the district before meeting up with Annie in New York City for a weekend of adventure.

JULY

Locations: Washington D.C.

Included: July in D.C. is always just a magical thing for obvious reasons. Plus, Annie came down and visited me again for the 4th of July weekend. Some other friends came a stopped by too!

AUGUST

Locations: Washington D.C.

Included: My internship ended in the middle of August, and then I got to have a fantastic time doing things like sleep in and survive Hurricanes. Kaitlin came up from Richmond to visit me too, so we got to play in the district together and check out the new MLK Memorial.

SEPTEMBER

Locations: Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Honesdale

Included: I decided to stick around the D.C. area while I figured out a more long-term plan for my life. I think I visited every single museum in the district. Best of all I was able to take a road trip up to Honesdale, PA to visit Annie at her place for once!

OCTOBER

Locations: Washington D.C., Portland

Included: I played around in D.C. a little bit more and hung out with some lovely friends before moving back home to Portland to put in my mission papers. I got called to Sapporo, Japan!

NOVEMBER

Locations: Portland

Included: I got to enjoy being home in the fall for the first time since high school, and because they are awesome friends both Melissa and Annie came to visit me. Amber even came home for an extra long Thanksgiving break.

DECEMBER

Locations: Portland

Included: Leaving for my mission to Japan! Well, in a few days. But it will be in this month.

I love you all and hope you’ll continue to stalk my blog while I’m on my adventures in Japan! It’s crazy that I report to the MTC this Wednesday, but I think I am ready to be busy again and am really excited to serve. This next year and a half will definitely hold a lot of changes, and I hope you stick around for the ride!

If you’re in the market for a new hobby, might I suggest writing letters to me? Amber will be keeping my address updated in the sidebar, and I would love to get anything from you, even if it’s just a doodle on a sticky note! I’m not picky.

Miss you already! But don’t worry; I’ll be back before you know it.

*song = Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing performed by Sufjan Stevens

A Merry Christmas to All

2011-12-24T22:48:00.001-08:00

Happy Holidays from the Crofts home!

We stopped downtown for some Christmas Eve happiness.

And yesterday I went with my sister and dad and enjoyed the beauty of Mount Hood!

I wish you the best for your holidays, and hope they include as much family warmth.

*song = I’ll Be Home for Christmas, performed by She & Him.

Sister Missionary Photos

2011-12-23T01:39:00.001-08:00

Since I officially have less than a week before I report to my mission, the past little while has been filled with doing an assortment of tasks that still need to be done before I leave.

One of the fun things I still needed to do was have some missionary pictures taken of me. My mom always loves any excuse for pictures, but I think part of the reason she wanted me to have one taken was because she has always had such a fabulous one of her mom.

Doesn’t she look classy? My grandma served in the Central States Mission in the early 1930’s.

I can’t guarantee that mine will be quite as timeless, but Amber and I definitely had a great time taking pictures! We thought it would be fun to have Amber take mine with my camera, so I got all dressed yesterday up in one of my new mission outfits and we headed to the Rose Garden downtown. I even had some fun mission-related Japanese books on loan from a friend in the ward that I used for a cool touch. Naturally, I took a bunch of photos of Amber too.

Here are a few for you to enjoy!

Amber did such a wonderful job it was impossible to narrow these down! So if you want to see the rest because you have a lot of free time to kill, just click on the album right here.

Sister Missionary Photos

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Also, in case any of you were wondering, when I’m gone on my mission Amber will be posting all of my letters home on this blog because she’s awesome. So be sure to keep checking back here! I’m sure I have a few more posts left in me before I leave too.

*Christmas song of the day = Coldplay’s Christmas Lights. Bonus: the video includes London.

Drink the Wild Air

2011-12-19T17:35:00.001-08:00

Amber requested I make this quote into something she could have printed on a canvas for her apartment, so tada!

I always love me a good excuse to design.

*song = Harry Connick Jr.’s (Must’ve Been ‘ol) Santa Claus

I Own A Mini Cooper… For Three Hours

2011-12-17T22:45:00.001-08:00

The moment I’ve waited for for ages finally arrived last month – I got to have full control of a Mini Cooper! Sure, it only for a few hours, but it was glorious. That mini and I were the very best of friends.

When I was still considering staying in D.C. there was an awesome Living Social deal for a Zip Car membership and I took them up on it almost solely because I knew it would let me rent a Mini. I reserved one to help me move while I was still in D.C., but the world conspired against me and I ended up having to drive a much less cool car, so I had to wait until I got home to Portland to make it happen. But when we were finally united it was a beautiful occurrence! I picked up a mini convertible downtown after having lunch with my dad and then took it on a long, scenic drive around the gorge.

It was magic. Now I just need to own one permanently…

*song = Winter Wonderland performed by Jason Mraz

City Safari

2011-12-07T22:16:00.001-08:00

-----------------------------------Rewind!-------------------------------------

-------------Old draft from September I’m finally publishing-------------------

Today I went into the district and I saw:

An orangutan

A playful tiger that wanted to be my friend… or maybe to have me as a snack

Stripy zebras

Sneaky cheetahs

And playful lion cubs!! So adorable!!! I could watch them all day. They made me want to watch The Lion King so so so bad.

I’m sure you’ve figured out by now that I went to the National Zoo. It’s a zoo that’s free! It’s like magic. I’ve been there twice in the past two weeks, and I’m fairly certain I should have gone more. (update: I totally did go more)

I topped it off with some pumpkin fro*zen*yo. What a perfect fall day!

*Christmas song of the day = Slow Club’s Christmas TV

The Lost Blog Posts

2011-12-05T22:26:00.001-08:00

So, these next few entries aren’t going to be of the freshest variety of posts. For some reason I was under the false impression that when I got home I would have nothing to do other than sit around and blog about D.C. and eat pomegranates (those things are time consuming!). Of course, I didn’t take into account the fact that I would be putting in my mission papers in record time (start to finish = one week for all interviews and doctor appointments).

Moral of the story: some old gems will be coming on here in the next few days as part of my attempt to start tying up all of my loose ends before I disappear. Today I give you the examining of the Washington Monument after the earthquake. I was walking along the Mall when I saw this. Awesome, right?

Watching the guys all the way up there was super entertaining. They were so high!

Apparently I wasn’t the only one who thought so.

It’s closed, so the park rangers were showing people pictures of the cracks and chunk of the Monument that fell off!

I miss walking around there all of the time and people watching (there are some really interesting people to watch…). Now I have to get my does of D.C. from watching Covert Affairs. It’s not the same.

*Holiday song of the day = The Goo Goo Dolls’ Better Days (I can never decide if it’s actually a Christmas song, but it’s on an old NBC Holiday CD I own, so I’m going with yes?)

The Tree Hunt

2011-12-03T13:41:00.001-08:00

Todays was one of the most important days in December – the day we bring home our Christmas tree. In recent years we may not have cut down the tree ourselves every time, but as self respecting Oregonians we have always gone to a tree farm to pick it up! This year was colder than usual, but it was beautiful and I was happy because it was the first time I’ve been home to pick out the tree since high school.

Fun fact: did you know that Oregon is the no. 1 producer of Christmas trees? We love our trees (I wanted to link to an Oregon tourism commercial that said “Do you like trees? Visit Oregon” But I couldn’t find it. Sad day. You’ll have to imagine it.).

*Christmas song = N’sync’s Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays. Clearly a classic. PLEASE watch the video.

Week of Thanks

2011-11-30T19:45:00.001-08:00

My sister’s schedule this semester allowed her to be home for over a week for Thanksgiving, and it was wonderful to have her here. We spent a lot of glorious time just chilling at home on the couch, but we did a good amount of shopping too! Plus some munching at St. Cupcake.

Some things I’m grateful for? Family and Portland, of course!

*Christmas song of the day = The Christmas Waltz, performed by She & Him.

A Confession in Print

2011-11-26T01:43:00.001-08:00

There are some days where I really, really, really miss working at a newspaper.

This is one of those days.

Actually, this past week has been full of those days. I guess it should be expected that I would have withdrawals. I majored in journalism for a reason, after all. And I spent almost everyday of two and a half years of my college education in The Daily Universe newsroom working with awesome newspaper people, who are some of my favorite people in the world btw.

I just miss it. So much. Journalism, I will return to you soon! Just give me, oh, let’s say 18 months.

(The photo above is of the DU’s staff the last semester I worked there)

*Song = All My Loving by the Beatles, Across the Universe style.

Annie Finally Meets Powell’s

2011-11-22T19:45:00.001-08:00

Basically ever since Annie and I became friends I have wanted her to come to Portland really, really bad. We just love so many of the same things, and I love Portland so ridiculously much that I wanted to share it with her too!

And the place I wanted to share with her most of all?? Powell’s of course! I mean, it’s a whole city block of books, and we both have a major book obsession. Plus, it’s just magic. By definition. When she was here we finally got to go together, and we spent literally the entire day in there. We arrived first thing in the morning, went home after dark, and only left in the middle for a food cart lunch and a little wandering.

Here’s what it looked like:

We went through every single book in the children’s section, because we basically are still kids...

And found some real gems!

We visited adulty places too, but I won’t promise our tastes became much more mature.

Portland food carts guarantee happiness. (Also note children’s book in bag)

We brought the deliciousness to Pioneer Square, where I also scouted the distance to Sapporo… Have I mentioned recently that I’m stoked to go there?

And Annie finally got to make friends with the Umbrella Man!

We immersed ourselves the city.

And of course I had to take her to my favorite pizza joint, Old Town Pizza (it’s haunted, that’s why the pictures are dark)…

and Voodoo Donuts. (I guess we kind of had a spooky but delicious food theme?)

Then she left me, which wasn’t cool. It’s not like she needed to go back to work at a cool magazine or anything.

FYI, Annie’s account of this is way better than mine, so you should totally check it out! Go ahead, just click right here.

*song = Annie Waits by Ben Folds.

Annie and I Chase Waterfalls

2011-11-20T14:07:00.001-08:00

Day two of Annie in Portland! (Annie’s version of day 2 here!)

After church we decided to take a nice Sunday drive, so I took her to the Gorge and Multnomah Falls. It got dark pretty early, but it was still beautiful! If you haven’t been to the Gorge, it is seriously one of the most gorgeous places in the world so you need to get yourself out there ASAP.

See? It was shadowy and cool when we got there. And it looks a million times better in person.

My camera is so high tech it was able to easily detect the most beautiful part of this picture.

Pirate eye patch sunspots. Or could it be this?

Just chillin’ with a view.

Sunset shadows.

The old scenic highway is always picture perfect.

By the time we made it to Multnomah Falls it was already pretty dark (the sun went down at 4:54 with the time change! Not cool.), but as the second tallest waterfall in the country it is always impressive. If you want to see more of it, it was in the latest episode of Grimm. (Which is all shot in Portland, making it automatically awesome, btw.)

When we got home we had a delicious dinner and then watched lots of TV. A successful day!

*song = Home by Parlor Hawk

I Have The Most Awesome Friends

2011-11-14T21:30:00.001-08:00

Apparently I haven’t blogged in like 7 years. My bad… But I promise to make it up to you! Starting right now. I give you an entry featuring two of the best friends in the world – Melissa Alder and Annie Beer!

They both flew to Portland from far away, Provo for Melissa and Pennsylvania for Annie, just to be with me while I went through the temple. See? They’re awesome. Here are some pics from the Saturday. We went to the temple, and then celebrated with a dinner at the Newport Grille on the waterfront.

More of the rest of the weekend adventures with Annie will be up soon!

*song = Side 2 by Dressy Betsy

Pumpkin Patch Magic

2011-10-30T22:32:00.001-07:00

In case you didn’t already know, I am obsessed with pumpkins. And I absolutely adore pumpkin patches. So the first weekend I was home my parents and I headed out to one of my favorite places – Lakeview Farms. I haven’t been home to go there for ages since I’ve been at school, so it was a wonderful reunion!

Here are some of the happy moments:

Isn’t it wonderful? (And isn’t the warty one extra cool?)

Lakeview Farms even offers the absolute best in pumpkin transportation – a boat that evades sharks and pirates, and a train that drives through a spooky haunted house.

Here’s what this year’s hoard looked like. Quite nice, if I do say so myself. I got to carve the biggest one today!

The trip was even educational!

We stopped at the roadhouse (McMenamins) on the way home, where I continued my quest to find the world’s best mac & cheese. Mmmmm…

It was highly successful day. Hope you all have a magical Halloween!

*song = Werewolf Bat Mitzvah, compliments of 30 Rock

And I’ll Be Serving for 18 Months in…

2011-10-27T21:06:00.000-07:00

(Drum roll please)

The Japan Sapporo Mission!! It looks like the mission covers all of Hokkaido, which is at the very top of Japan.

I’m super excited!! So here are some pretty pictures from the interweb of where I’ll be.

And The Official Hokkaido Video. Which shows more prettyness.

And of course some stuff from the actual opening! My mom is still in Hawaii (see my latest posts) and Amber is at school at BYU, so once my dad got home we got my mom on Skype on the cell phone and Amber on Skype on my laptop and I opened up the call! It was great!

Here is what it looked like when it went down:

Plus video, if you so desire.

Yay yay yay! I report to the Provo MTC two months from tomorrow! So crazy!

*song = Turning Japanese by the Vapors

AAAHHHHHH It’s Here!

2011-10-27T15:11:00.001-07:00

MY FUTURE IS LITERALLY IN MY HANDS AND I WANT TO CARRY IT EVERYWHERE WITH ME. My dad already caught a train home from work but I have to babysit until 4:30, so T-Minus hours and counting!!!

AHHHHHH!

(Confession, I already almost ripped it open by accident because I’m so anxious)

From The Island Shack (or rather, nice condo)

2011-10-26T22:21:00.001-07:00

For today’s Hawaii related post, while my mom is still so rudely in paradise without me, here are some pictures taken from our hotel room in April.

So happy.

*song = Always Love by Nada Surf

Hawaii Revisited

2011-10-24T21:20:00.001-07:00

My mom is back in Hawaii this week having a reunion with her brothers and sisters, so I’m going to take advantage of this time to finally post some more of the millions and millions of photos I took when we were there this April!

Since my mom is going back home to Hawaii for a family thing, I thought I’d start with some family related pictures. My grandparents on my mom’s side loved Hawaii and lived in Honolulu for forever, so my family got a bench in their memory on the beach at Waikiki. You can see it below in photos, but you should definitely go check it out in person! You can sit on it, watch the waves and get a tan. I wouldn’t mind that right now.

I thought the birds in the tree above the bench that day were kinda cute, even if they were dirty pigeons…

(In case you’re wondering, despite how this may make it seem we actually don’t go to Hawaii all of the time. I think this is the first time my mom has ever gone back home twice in one year! And I’ve only been there twice… so far)

*song = Talking Bird by Death Cab for Cutie

Some Book Lovin’

2011-10-17T16:29:00.001-07:00

After being home for almost two weeks, I finally started unpacking today. I put on some records, and actually had a great time sorting my books!

First I found them all scattered about in the attic and other miscellaneous boxes from millions of moves.

Then I sorted them into nice piles.

And put them on my shelf! I sorted them into fiction and non-fiction, and then alphabetized them.(You can tell I’m a nerd by how excited I am about this)

Since I’ve been kind of obsessed with books my entire life, here are some unsolicited readings tips. I have the reading tastes of a 12-year-old, but it’s way more fun that way!

Absolute Favorite Authors: Rick Riordan & Ally Carter. Read any of their books, and I guarantee you will have a marvelous experience. Start with Heist Society and The Lightning Thief.

Newest Favorite Book: I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President by Josh Lieb (one of the writers of The Daily Show). It’s just brilliantly hilarious. Read it now. I picked it up at random and it was one of the best things to happen to me all summer.

honorable mention: I also just read Dust City by Robert Paul Weston, and it was a really cool, gritty, action, futuristic Grimm’s fairy tale mystery detective procedural. Totally worth checking out. Bonus? A pretty cover design.

What I’m currently reading: Wildwood by Colin Meloy (fun fact: he’s the lead singer in The Decemberists), and illustrated by Carson Ellis. So far it’s like The Chronicles of Narnia, but set in Portland. Very happy.

I would so love to work in a book store.

*song = I’m Reading a Book by Julian Smith. It’s so awesome, and I want you to watch it so much, that I’m going to embed it in this post.

Tasty Harvest Fun

2011-10-14T00:11:00.001-07:00

Rewind! Back at the beginning of September, Michele and I decided to take a fun little road trip. We went all the way down to Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello, for a fun little heritage harvest festival.

I’d never been there before, and it was beautiful! These are long overdue, but the pictures are still plenty enjoyable now.

This is us. At the market.

We listened to some music under this tree while eating a delicious lunch.

We also saw the world’s cutest donut truck!

We took lots of pictures. (I bet you didn’t guess that!)

And sampled delicious heirloom tomatoes, apples, marshmallows and watermelon.

The craft part was fun to look at.

As were the gardens!

Fin.

(look! I am actually catching up on these posts, just like I said I would)

*song = This is Not a Test, by She & Him

Farewell for Now, D.C.

2011-10-10T22:56:00.001-07:00

It seems crazy that it’s only been one week since I was frolicking around in D.C. But I spent my last weekend there having an amazing time enjoying all D.C. has to offer with Kaitlin, Caitlin & Alex. Thanks guys for being awesome!

Here’s some of what it looked like:

On one of my last days Caitlin & I played in Georgetown, including discovering a delicious fish n' chips place on the waterfront. It was lovely.

And Kaitlin came and visited again from Richmond! It was wonderful. We made the rounds to all of the classic D.C. sites and the National Zoo to see the adorable lion cubs, even though it was FREEZING! Apparently it was the coldest it’s ever been in the area during this time of year. But it was so worth the cold.

And this was our last trip to the heavenly Baked & Wired. I’m already suffering from severe OMG Bar withdrawals…

*song = Little Bribes by Death Cab for Cutie

You’re Waiting for a Train…

2011-10-05T22:29:00.001-07:00

Ok, I couldn’t resist the Inception reference.

These are bonus pictures from the very end of the Honesdale trip. On the way home to D.C. Annie dropped me off in the nearest hopping town to catch a bus, which is how I randomly found myself in Scranton, Pennsylvania, a.k.a. the place where The Office is set. Cool beans.

While I was killing time in the Steamtown mall I discovered there was some sort of train fun going on next door. And now pictures of them are here, because I liked trains a lot. This place would make an awesome set for a mock photo shoot with friends!

My transportation across the street was far less glamorous…

And speaking of transportation, I officially moved from D.C. back home to Portland just last night. Surprise! I’m actually working on my papers to go on a mission right now, and hope to have them submitted ASAP. I’m excited and feel great!

I have a backup cache of blog entries about the last few weeks of D.C. that will be coming here soon, but to tide you over you should check out the fabulous Caitlin’s blog entry about our recent adventures!

*song = There Goes the Fear by the Doves

**For those who want to enjoy the whole quote: “You’re waiting for a train. A train that’ll take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you, but you can’t know for sure. Yet it doesn’t matter. Now, tell me why? Because you’ll be together.”

Small Town Pennsylvania

2011-09-27T09:37:00.001-07:00

Soon I will tell the tale of the final installment of the Honesdale trip, featuring the Pennsylvania countryside.

But first, an adorable kitten! Bailey belongs to Annie. He’s a cat model.

Ok, now I will share our Sunday drive in the countryside. It was so incredibly beautiful and peaceful!

There were rustic farms and perfect yellow fall flowers everywhere we looked. I even caught a butterfly in its actual habitat (the Smithsonian was not quite as natural…), and there were stone walls that looked just like the ones we saw in the English countryside so we could pretend we were back there, which just happens to be one of our favorite things to do.

Thank you Honesdale, for being so cute and awesome. (And of course, to Annie for getting the Highlights internship and letting me come visit!)

*song = Pumped up Kicks by Foster the People (I love me a good song with a solid whistling section!)

Honesdale! Featuring Highlights, Aliens & Dinos

2011-09-22T18:26:00.001-07:00

Installment two of my trip to visit Annie in Honesdale! Honesdale is the small town of 5,000 that is home to Highlights magazine, and it is adorable. Below is the some evidence.

1) There are lots of cute restaurants on Main Street, like this French Patisserie. There was also a heavenly, warm chocolate croissant that was devoured too quickly to be photographed.

2) There are awesome antique shops… where Star Trek characters live? We wanted to buy the funniest one and then carry it around town to take pictures with soooooo bad!

3)There’s a magical place called Maude’s Alley, that features a delicious bakery and two stores filled only with things I wanted to purchase.

4)There are buildings with really cool architecture. Note super cute church, and the YMCA that looks like a castle.

5) Train tracks, which are always fun.

6) And of course… Highlights!! Where Annie is doing the most awesome magazine internship.

Annie has a dinosaur friend at work. First he tried to eat us…

But then we got along famously.

This is me trying to take over Annie’s desk because her job is so cool.

Fin. (Until the next post!)

*song = Get Better by Mates of State

Philly Philly Philly Philly Philly

2011-09-13T20:31:00.001-07:00

This weekend was fabulous because I finally was able to go visit Annie in Small Town Pennsylvania! It was magical.

I’m far too tired to edit all of the pictures of our adventures right now (you may have noticed that I was also too tired to come up with a decent title for this blog post), but this weekend was too much fun to wait any longer to share some of it with you. So, I give you documentation of the beginning of the journey – Philadelphia.

Annie is a kind soul, so instead of making me ride the bus all of the way to Honesdale both ways she drove the long 2 1/2 hours to Philly to rescue me on Friday. And as a result we got to play there, see some historical sites and eat Philly Cheesesteaks! Always a good thing.

See?

Visiting the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall was a must.

As was eating delicious sandwiches,

leaning on brick walls and hugging old looking lampposts,

and striking random photos. (Traditional poses can be overrated)

You should also check out my blog post from last year’s Philly trip, because it features some of my favorite photos from last summer. And because I say so.

More pictures from this weekend will be coming soon! Think small town cuteness, outer space antiquing and ninja kittens.

*song = Let’s Fall Back in Love by Slow Club.

Remembering Ten Years Ago

2011-09-11T00:30:00.000-07:00

It’s unreal that it’s been so long. It still seems unreal that it ever happened in the first place. I think that might actually be the best word to sum it all up – unreal. I remember my mom saying that the morning of Sept. 11 either she or Amber had been flipping through the channels on the TV before I woke up and had passed over the footage of the twin towers because they thought it was a movie. It just wasn’t something that could even be considered real. But it was real.

I think everyone has a story, and when you start thinking about that day you just naturally feel a need to share the way you experienced it. Because even though not everyone was there, it still had an impact on everyone.

My first sign that something was different was when I came down the stairs to go to school. I was 12 years old, and I was getting ready to go to Five Oaks Middle School. It was actually going to be an exciting day for me – before school I was finally getting my first pair of contacts. But when I woke up and went down to breakfast the news was on, which was unusual for my house in the morning, and the most terrible footage was playing. It was unreal. The day still went on, but it seemed somehow tainted. It was a beautiful September day, and the sky was the most perfect shade of blue. But the fact that everything looked so perfect when everything was so wrong seemed somehow cruel. The beautiful potential of that fall day had been shattered, marred by a much more horrific reality. I still went and got my contacts. I watched the news in the waiting room at the Kaiser optometrist. I watched the news at school, on a TV set up on a rolling cart in the library. I watched the news when I got home. Partially because I’ve always been a news addict, but I think we were all glued to the news. Because if this could happen, what would happen next? What would the next days, weeks and months hold?

And things changed, but they stayed the same. What did Sept. 11 really mean? I went to a Smithsonian exhibit this week where at the end they asked visitors to write down how Sept. 11 changed their lives. I think that’s something we’re still trying to figure out. Maybe we don’t think about it explicitly every day anymore, but the consequences and implications of what happened are still playing out.

The picture above is one I took last year of a 31-foot piece of the broadcast antenna from the North Tower, as on display at the Newseum. Below are some pictures I took this week at the American History Museum. They had an intimate showing of some artifacts from the day, and since most of you aren’t here to see it I thought I would share the experience with you as best I could.

Pieces of Flight 93 recovered from the field in Pennsylvania

A crushed door from one of the first fire trucks to arrive

A clock that stopped when the Pentagon was hit

A piece of one of the planes that hit the Twin Towers

Also, here’s a link to President Monson’s guest blog for the Washington Post on 9/11 and spirituality. I think today is a fitting day for some reflection.

*song = Yellowcard’s Believe, which was written in honor of the firefighters and police officers who lost their lives trying to rescue people in the towers.

Butterfly in the Sky

2011-09-07T22:45:00.001-07:00

One of my adventures this week was going to the Butterfly Exhibit at the Natural History Museum – thanks Michele for knowing it’s free on Tuesdays and letting me tag along! It was soooo beautiful and I got to make friends with the butterflies. A couple of them used my head and shoulder as a perch. New goal in life: always have a butterfly on me as an awesome accessory.

For all of you who were tragically stuck at work or school or other places without lots of butterflies, here is a glimpse into what it looked like:

Also, note much bigger pictures. Yay!!

Because I have many, many more pictures of butterflies than makes sense to put in the body of this post, here’s an album. Go ahead and immerse yourself in the butterfly garden if you want!

Smithsonian Butterflies

VIEW SLIDE SHOW

DOWNLOAD ALL

*song = The Reading Rainbow Theme Song. And just because I love you, another RR Community clip.

Two Years Later, A Blog Makeover

2011-09-07T19:09:00.001-07:00

After two years, I have finally given my blog a redesign. I have to admit, it wasn’t entirely willing – I logged onto my blog last week only to discover that the cityscape background I loved had disappeared. Not cool.

However, I have decided it was a sign that I should change everything. I’ve been pining for some extra width to publish larger photos forever. Plus, when I started this blog, blogger was worlds more restricted than it is now and I hadn’t even started my design classes. Now that I’ve relinquished the old layout I was so attached to, I’ll probably be messing around with the way this site looks a lot more. Look forward to more changes in the future!

Coincidentally, it is almost exactly two years since I started this blog. And three years ago last week I started my first blog as I embarked on London Study Abroad (I can’t believe it’s been that long!). For those of you who think I deserve a grander celebration of my three years of blogging, like say a trip to London where it all began, I will gladly accept all cash and checks.

So, old design, I bid you adieu. You were very good to me.

(Side note: At the risk of jinxing things, I just want to express that I love my trusty old hp laptop so much because even after four years of my lugging it all over the world, it still constantly runs the 2000 programs I demand of it quickly and at the same time).

*song = Back Here by BBMAK (sometimes you have to indulge in a little boy band action. for my fellow Londonites, there’s some great London footage. Just sayin’)

Update: now I’m stuck in an endless loop of watching 90’s and early 2000’s music videos. Ooops. This best of the 90’s pop video is a Winner.

Thank You, Irene

2011-09-01T17:30:00.001-07:00

I have to admit that this whole hurricane thing turned out quite well for me. Because the power was out in Richmond, Va. until yesterday, Kaitlin didn’t have her internship and got to come visit me early!

Kaitlin is one of my best friends from home, so it was awesome being able to play with her over here. We went on a whirlwind tour of DC Tuesday, when the weather decided it loved us and was absolutely perfect. And then yesterday she helped keep me sane while I was moving into a new place (more on that later). So happy.

Wandering highlights included:

The Smithsonian Castle

The White House

The Jefferson Memorial

The week-old MLK Memorial

The Georgetown Serendipity

And the Kennedy Center Rooftop Terrace.

We’re going to have to do it again ASAP!

P.S. The cityscape blog background I’ve used for the past two years is no longer in existence, so playing around with my blog layout is going to be my next life project. Changes are coming!

*song = Hey Mama by Matt Kearney

I Think I Need Employment

2011-08-28T20:52:00.001-07:00

Here’s the really epic latest update on my life: I think I may have reached the point where I’m having too much free time. Granted, yesterday there was a hurricane so I couldn’t leave the apartment. But between today and yesterday I have watched:

8 Episodes of Doctor Who (the second half of the season started yesterday, so clearly I needed to rewatch the entire first half of the current season first)

5 Episodes of Community

(Troy is the best. Watch the episode with the Reading Rainbow.)

2 Episodes of Modern Family

1 Episode of Suits (but I watched five other episodes on Thurs)

1 Episode of Covert Affairs

The new Jane Eyre

And Inception.

TV is wonderful, but I am now a pile of mush. I think I shall run 20 miles first thing tomorrow.

*song = Fall Into Place by Apartment

Scenes from a (Pre-Hurricane) Walk in Alexandria

2011-08-27T12:50:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite things this summer has been walking from my apartment down to Old Town Alexandria. It’s just so cute down there, and there’s even an awesome waterfront that’s perfect for reading a good book.

Since I have nothing else to occupy my time right now, I’ve been spending a lot of time down there. So I thought you might enjoy seeing snapshots from my walk to and from the waterfront! It’s all the little everyday things that caught my attention, so you can get a feel for the whole journey. There are probably more pictures than you actually care to see, but I’m feeling reckless so I’m posting them all. Also, I literally have nothing else to do.

I know this picture isn’t very exciting, but I’ve decided that if I were going to buy a building in Old Town I would buy this one, no question. It’s bright blue! A gelato shop just opened in it.

Fun fact: George Washington brought produce from Mount Vernon to this square. There’s still a farmers market there today. It has delicious peaches.

There are a lot of hibiscus here, which seems kind of weird to me in Virginia. But I still like it, so I won’t complain.

One of my goals in life is to see a movie in this theater. It was built in 1914, with a theater and a dance floor.

The best bookstore here. It’s really hard to not give them all of my money every time I walk by.

I walk by the Masonic temple 70 times a day.

And a bonus section! Answers to questions you might have right now:

Hurricane status = It just looks like a normal rainy day for Oregon right now. The wind is barely starting to pick up. Kaitlin just texted me and said her power went out in Richmond already though! I have a box of Lucky Charms, a chocolate doom cupcake from Baked & Wired and a stack of library books, so I’m ready for anything.
Tuesday’s earthquake = I was on the way to the library in Old Town when it hit. It was entertaining. Except then they closed everything, which was annoying.
What I’m doing with my life = I don’t know. Still in DC, doing a lot of sleeping, reading and Netflixing. And wandering Old Town.

*song = Mumford and Sons’ The Cave. Excellent storm music.

My Umbrella-ella-ella-a

2011-08-21T17:57:00.001-07:00

I spent today making this, as per the request of my sister for her new apartment. There was a random thunderstorm in the middle of the day while I was working on it, which I thought was quite appropriate.

I watched three movies while doing it (The Cove, Coraline and How to Train Your Dragon), but that isn’t quite as blog worthy…

(Oh and in case you’re wondering, I am still in DC playing the waiting game. I’ll let you know when that changes!)

*song = the Glee Singing in the Rain/Umbrella mashup.

The Capitol Halls

2011-08-16T22:59:00.001-07:00

Just before four o’clock last Friday afternoon, great sadness entered my soul as my Senate intern badge was voided.

Luckily, on Thursday I had taken advantage of my last full day of free reign of the capitol building. I wandered the now familiar halls one last time after I got off work, and was literally the only person in the rotunda for a long time. I can’t even express how beautiful it is when you are alone in those historic rooms and halls, instead of crowded in with a million tourists. Hopefully these pictures will give you an idea. I miss it already.

Oh, and did I mention that it was ridiculously perfect outside that day? The sky was so blue.

*song = Living in Colour by Frightened Rabbit. So happy.

Portland Summers are Cute and Delicious

2011-08-04T20:19:00.001-07:00

From the “I should have posted about this forever ago” archives of my brain comes this entry about when I was still in Portland in May and hung out with the wonderful Leslie.

I was home and she was in town, so it was necessary for us to have a reunion. She was still in school at Portland State so I met her downtown during her lunch break in the Pearl at a new, adorable little place called Cloud Seven Café. I actually found out about it on my lovely friend Rachel’s blog (thanks Rachel!!). Much happiness ensued.

This was my beautiful food. Probably the most delicious chicken salad sandwich I’ve ever had in my life.

Leslie’s food. She had a pretty smoothie too.

See? Cute and delicious.

Naturally we wandered around the area next to the café too.

The moral of the story is that Portland rocks. The end.

*song = Dog Days are Over by Florence + The Machine.

Meet Me in D.C.

2011-07-31T20:41:00.001-07:00

I absolutely love when people come visit me in D.C. It’s so wonderful living in a destination city! This Saturday the lovely Anastasia Borok, one of my favorite people from home, came down to play with me. She’s getting her masters at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore right now, which is only a 40 minute train ride away. It’s great!

We started with breakfast at Eastern Market. It was fabulous because I’ve been wanting to go to it forever, but haven’t had enough motivation to get up early enough to go… Seeing Annie was more than enough motivation to wake up!

Annie and I also napped on the capitol lawn while reading the Onion, went on a tour of the capitol, frolicked past all the monuments in the monumental heat, went to the air and space museum, hung out in DuPont plus other magical things.

Earlier this month, Ashley spontaneously came to the district for a food show with her mom. We got to have lunch together and it just totally made my week.

So if you’re on the east coast and are tempted to add D.C. to your itinerary, do it and let me know!

*song = July, July! by the Decemberists for obvious reasons. (clue, it’s July, and it’s a good song.)

And Then There Were More Fireworks…

2011-07-24T18:14:00.001-07:00

So, in case you haven’t picked up on this fact, Old Town Alexandria is super cute.

Here is another piece of supporting evidence: the Saturday after the 4th of July was Alexandria’s birthday celebration. It featured the Alexandria Symphony playing on the waterfront while fireworks went off and we ate free cupcakes. I went with Emily, one of the other Wyden interns, and it was absolutely perfect.

*song = Bohemian Like You by the Dandy Warhols.

Doodle Time

2011-07-23T12:54:00.001-07:00

Life has been so crazy that I never got around to blogging about one of my awesome birthday presents. Tired of having to use my finger on my touch pad when using Illustrator, I asked for one of those tablets where you can use an electric pen. And it’s like magic.

Now I can doodle like this all the time! Yay design.

*song = Camera Obscura’s Lloyd I’m Ready to Be Heartbroken.

A Capitol Fourth: Year Two

2011-07-14T20:24:00.001-07:00

Yes, I really am that lucky. Now I’ve been in the hands-down best city to celebrate the 4th of July two years in a row. This year was totally different from last year, but equally awesome.

For starters, Annie came and spent the weekend at my place. Unfortunately she had to leave just before the fireworks so she could make it to work on Tuesday, but we packed a ton of adventures into all of the time leading up to it!

Exhibit A: This time we explored Old Town Alexandria, the cute city where I live.

We wandered the historic streets…

… and supported a cute independent children’s bookstore…

… and ate ice cream…

… and frolicked on the waterfront.

Exhibit B: We made taco soup from scratch. And 4th themed cupcakes from a box (thanks mom!)

Note the dancing robot timer, recently purchased in NYC after years of desire.

Exhibit C: We attempted to go to the rehearsal for the Capitol Fourth concert… which evolved into something else exciting.

This is us staking out a spot on the capitol lawn.

This is us ten minutes later taking refuge in the American Indian Museum. (Photo stolen from the wonderful Bianca)

This is us being sad that we don’t get to see Steve Martin, Josh Groban, the teacher from Glee and others for free.

But then this is us going on (slightly damp) adventures under a beautifully colored sky.

Annie even made friends with a lightning bug.

And everything looked wondrous.

So we didn’t get home till late.

Exhibit D: We went to the 4th of July parade downtown.

We also got distracted by pretty flowers and Potbelly sandwiches.

Exhibit E: The 4th of July fireworks, naturally.

This year for the big night I hiked over to the Iwo Jima memorial in Rosslyn with some friends who are current Washington Seminar interns, after getting some delicious Ray’s Hell Burger.

From the memorial you can see the Lincoln, Washington Monument and Capitol building all lined up. Very American.

Soon the sky lit up with pretty colors.

And some of the fireworks looked huge enough to be the size of the entire mall. They made the monuments look tiny!

(I think my favorite fireworks pictures are still the ones from last year when I brought my big lens, though. So you should give them another look!)

The metro after was a mess. It took me over an hour just to get through the gate and to a train, but it was totally worth it!

Here’s an album if you want to see all of the good and bad pictures (code for: this is for you, mom).

A Capitol 4th Year Two

VIEW SLIDE SHOW

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*song = Tightrope by Janelle Monae. Also one of the coolest music videos, I promise.

A Saturday Morning in Alexandria

2011-07-09T13:52:00.001-07:00

Today was the first Saturday I woke up early enough to make it to the famers market in Alexandria before it closed at 11. I walked there and bought peaches and fancy french bread and corn and flowers, and then munched on my goodies while finishing my book on the waterfront. It was lovely.

*song = Looking at the Sun by Gramercy Arms.

A Mowtown Summer Evening

2011-07-01T22:12:00.001-07:00

If today was any indicator, this weekend is destined to be one of the best ones ever. Here are some reasons:

1) The weather was absolutely perfect. I wanted to stay outside alllll day.

2) My office let all of the interns leave two hours early. Four o’ Clock Freedom!

3) With this newfound free time I was able to wander the national mall and check out the awesome, and free, Folk Life Festival that the Smithsonian puts on every year. I actually volunteered there for two days of it last year.

4) While at the Folklife Festival I got a text from one of the other Wyden interns saying she was at the sculpture garden for the awesome, and also free, Jazz in the Garden they have every friday. I joined her. We dangled our feet in a giant fountain while chatting and listening to sweet live jazz.

5) When I was able to finally pry myself away from the fountain so I could return home to my clean my room (because Annie came tonight!), I found a marvelous distraction that pulled me in – Miss Martha Reeves. If you don’t recognize her name (I may not have… my bad), you’ll most definitely remember her songs, including Dancing in the Street and Heat Wave. And I got to hear her sing both of them live! Plus lots of others. She even taught us how to dance properly. It was fun hearing such classic songs, and she was magnificent live – funny, charming and a powerful voice. Hands down the best concert I’ve ever accidentally attended.

Here’s a cell phone snapshot of what it was like:

I spent four hours on the mall before I finally made it home.

And later this weekend there will be some more of this (!!):

I would love to have a repeat of last year’s 4th of July awesomeness, please.

*songs = both of the ones above! Click the links and watch. Do it.

Hawaiian Flower Power

2011-06-20T17:57:00.001-07:00

As more evidence that Hawaii is the most beautiful place in the entire world, I present the pictures I took of flowers while there.

I want a garden full of each and every one of these.

Laie

Hale’iwa

Honolulu

*song = Taylor by Jack Johnson

The Itch

2011-06-19T16:31:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I get the itch. It comes out of nowhere. Something just clicks in my brain, and it goes, “hey! do you remember when you were there?” And when that happens it doesn’t matter where I am, even if I’m living in an awesome city I love, doing an internship I always dreamed of. Or that I’ve just been to New York City and Hawaii and Houston. I mean, I always want to go there. Really bad. Back to the magical city where I spent the best four months of my life in the fall of 2008 (I can’t believe it’s already been almost three years). But when I have the itch I want to go really, REALLY bad. And it’s all I can think about.

I may have that itch right now. Anyone know how to teleport? Because that could be really handy. For a lot of things, actually.

*song = London Calling by the Clash

A New York Minute

2011-06-17T19:59:00.001-07:00

Those of you who are reading this should be applauding. Go ahead, you can do it right now. Why do I deserve your praise, you might ask? Because this year it only took me one week to blog about my New York trip. That’s right, one week. Instead of… six months, like last year. I’m totally becoming a better person.

Amber came and stayed at my place for almost a week, and we decided that since she had never been to the east coast before and New York is only a four hour bus ride away it was necessary for us to take a quick jaunt up to NYC. Annie, the world traveler, had somehow never been there before either, and since she was even closer to the city than us we all splurged on a hotel and met up for an adventurous weekend. We were only there for 32 hours, but we packed it full with all sorts of fun, which will be showcased in the pictorials below.

First stop: Times Square. We decided to embrace being tourists.

We accidentally found a Pylones store, which was the company that made almost all of the stuff we loved at our most favorite London store – Octopus. I may have bought a robot kitchen timer that I originally fell in love with in London. Is it the most important thing I could have spent my money on right now as an unpaid intern? No. Did I want it? Very much so. That won.

Annie and I are slightly obsessed with 30 Rock, so we made a stop by the grand building itself. Tour tickets were sold out already for the day, but we hung out in the area for a while content with ourselves.

We then pretended like we were going to get half price tickets for a musical. Until we realized they were still a million dollars and we had plenty of other things to do.

Amber had a short list of things she wanted to do, one of which was going to Tiffany’s to pay homage to the classic Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Also on the list was the never-ending and magical Central Park, where we spent many hours on a quest to find The Sidewalk and Rom Com bridge.

Amber made friends with the bubble man, who was super nice and let her become his bubble apprentice. He also fulfilled Amber’s requirement that she see a famous person, because he was totally on the last episode of Glee.

Annie was really excited the whole time we were in FAO Schwartz.

We played dress up and princesses and colored pictures and made friends with Indiana Jones and played on a giant piano and did whatever we wanted.

Ginormous stuffed animals are still really desirable, in case you were wondering. They’re just so fluffy and friendly.

Now that I’m thinking about it, this wonderful toy store totally could have had it’s own post…

As you’ve probably noticed, none of us ever really grew up. So we needed candy for fuel.

Times Square at night. You didn’t think we’d only go once, did you? Our hotel was actually super close.

We went other places too, like Serendipity and Grand Central Station.

Our final stop together was The Strand, which is a fabulous and famous bookstore with a funny little coincidence – the wife of the Senator I’m doing my internship for, Senator Wyden, actually owns and runs it. We came away with a stack of books we recommended for each other.

We parted with Annie because her bus left a little earlier, and then Amber and I went and chilled on the steps at Times Square, watching the pre-Tony’s crowd. A wonderful trip all around.

Annie blogged about it too, so you should check hers out because she’s cool. Amber, when you read this you should be cool like us and write something too. Just sayin’.

*song = Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. Admit it, you would have been disappointed if I choose anything else.

Graduating Does Not Make You Less Klutzy

2011-06-16T06:14:00.001-07:00

For some reason I’ve been excessively accident prone since I moved back to DC. And since I know the only reason you read my blog is for slap-stick humor gems like the shower incident and the time I was a little too excited to watch Psych, I thought I’d let you in on my little adventure from this morning.

Every day I have to walk from my apartment to the metro to get to work. And every day I am able to execute this plan without a hitch. Today, however, there was a new factor – it had recently rained. So when I hit the slippery metal bit on the overpass just around the corner from the metro in my worn flip flops I unexpectedly hit the ground, splitting my skirt all the way up past my underwear and breaking my sandals. I was not aware that this sort of thing happened in real life.

Now if my life were a movie, slipping and splitting my skirt would have actually have been the best thing to happen in my life. This is because there would have been a really hot, available man standing nearby who would run to my rescue. We would then promptly fall in love. In reality, I just got to tie my blazer around my waist like it was the 90’s and enjoy a light breeze during the walk back to my apartment. I’m still hopeful that later today a hot guy will walk up to me, tell me an embarrassing story about how he saw me biff it on a freeway overpass – and how that was when he knew we were meant to be together forever. I’m just saying it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility.

Well now that the five minutes I allotted myself for a break (since I had to walk 15 minutes to the metro and then 15 minutes back to my apartment) has been spent, I should go to work. Wish me luck on attempt number two!

(Oh and don’t worry, I’m not hurt at all. I don’t think it will even bruise. It was just a hilarious surprise.)

*Update: When I showed the skirt to the tailor he laughed.

*song = Loser, by Beck. (I’ve been forgetting to do this lately. My bad)

Memorial Day, Annie and I

2011-06-03T18:11:00.001-07:00

Three day weekends are the best. Especially when one of your very best friends is only a few hours drive away at a rad internship at Highlights magazine in Pennsylvania and decides to drive down in their new car named Jacques to visit you. Just sayin’.

Since you probably already gathered that this is in fact exactly what happened to me this past Memorial Weekend, I shall provide you with some pictoral entertainment of our adventures.

Disclaimer: It was super hot and humid when we took all of these pictures. So, ya.

First stop after the requisite sleeping in on Saturday was the ever wonderful Eastern Market.

With the heat, lemonade became a necessity. Water is just not as good. And by good, I mean deliciously happy.

Annie channeled the mystery section at Capitol Books.

We then wandered past pretty, historical buildings. I may work in the most awesome one.

Mid-Post Review: This person is Annie. She is really cool.

We visited the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Not just because it had air conditioning and water fountains, but because we’re cultured people who developed a love art in London together. The second picture illustrates me wishing someone would teach us how to teleport.

Since that didn’t work , we went to Nando’s and just pretended like we were back in England. It was cheaper than a plane ticket.

One thing you should know about this city – it’s obsessed with cupcakes. They even have trucks that drive around selling cupcakes ice-cream truck style. But the absolute best place for cupcakes in the district is Baked & Wired. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, because they are just lying.

If you told me that you didn’t want this, I would not believe you. I mean, look at it.

Because cupcakes are so popular here, we may have had to visit another shop too, though. The second time we went to the new Sprinkles because the owner is on a show Annie watched. Personally, Baked & Wired will always win for me, but Sprinkles was super cute too!

Fin.

Yes, I am in DC and Still Alive

2011-06-01T18:38:00.001-07:00

For some reason moving back to DC has turned me into some sort of zombie that doesn’t even have the energy to blog when I get home, even though all I have going on in my life is work. If anyone has any tips on how to make this problem go away, other than nonsensical things like getting more than five hours of sleep a night, please let me know.

In the meantime, here is a picture from when Annie came and visited this weekend to tide you over for the awesomeness that will come your way when I wake up from my daze!

Sneak preview of some posts that should exist in the near future:

1 Million Hawaii Photo Essays
Portland Perfection
Ikea – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Wild DC Memorial Day Adventures
And many, many more

Love you all! Even though I haven’t been on my computer!

Hawaiian Tasty Deliciousness

2011-05-18T22:49:00.001-07:00

Since I know everyone loves food, and I don’t tweet everything I eat but I know you wish I did, I am bringing you this special edition blog post composed only of pictures of things that I ate in Hawaii. You may commence the celebrating now.

Delicious Food Item I Devoured #1: Hot Malasadas from Leonard’s Bakery

Not only is this bakery famous for it's delicious malasadas, a portugese donut, it was also one of the places my mom worked in high school. Yep, she was really cool. So it was only natural that we made a return visit. I was an especially huge fan of their warm malasada filled with banana crème. I’m fairly certain it came directly from heaven.

Delicious Food Item Devoured #2: Matsumotos Shaved Ice

This spot on the North side of the island in Haleiwa is also really famous, this time for it’s classic shaved ice – including shaved ice on top of ice cream or beans. I always opt for the ice cream bottom. It’s been there forever; some of my aunts and uncles remember stopping by there on trips to the other side of the island in the 50’s.

Delicious Food Item Devoured #3: Miso Ramen from Hawaiiana Cafe

I happen to love Japanese food, and there is a ton of Japanese influence in Hawaii, so I knew it would be necessary to stop at one of the little Japanese food shops at some point. I noticed this one in a little garden on a stroll only a couple of blocks from where we were staying.

Delicious Food Item Devoured #4: Fresh Mango from a Cute Fruit Shop

We walked past this tiny hole-in-the-wall fruit shop on the way home one afternoon and it called to my dad and I. Inside it smelled like a tropical fruit paradise, and we purchased mango.

Delicious Food Item Devoured #5: Kailua Pork from some Lovely Place in Kailua

I figured it had to be ordered.

More Hawaii updates soon!

Song = Country Road performed by Jack Johnson with Paula Fuega. It’s really pretty. Listen.

Postcards from Paradise

2011-05-15T21:51:00.000-07:00

Aloha!

In case you had any doubt, my graduation/parent's 30th anniversary/dad's birthday/mother's day trip to Hawaii was perfect in every way. I may not have wanted to come back, especially becuase I don't have any committments until next Monday...

One of the reasons Hawaii is so beautiful for me is because it is not only a perfect island paradise, it is also the place where my mom grew up (Honolulu) and still has two brothers and a sister living. So not only did I get to relax on the beach while I was there, I also got to see some family for the first time in like eight years. I actually haven't even gone through all of my pictures yet (I may have taken an especially gianormous amount of photos), so here are some pictures of happiness from my mom's camera!

I'm ready to go back there now.

This is my Uncle LeRoy's backyard in Lanikai. Like you literally walk out of his back door and this is where you are. See why I didn't want to come back?

My Aunt ReNel lives in Hawaii for most of the year when she's teaching at Hawaii Pacific University, where she's an awesome professor of nursing. Still in my Uncle's backyard.

And this is inside my Uncle's house, with the new additions being my cousin Michael and Uncle LeRoy and Aunt Margie. They are all very cool and I like them all a lot.

The fam at the famous Matsumoto's for delicious shaved ice.

On Saturday we met Aunt ReNel at her apartment in Kailua...

to go to the Lanikai craft fair, where we visited my Aunt Margie, who was working at one of the food stands.

And my mom got what is quite possibly her most favorite picture of the whole trip.

We also took a fieldtrip the next day to my Uncle's office in Honolulu where he does awesome film things for Production Partners.

And to finish we had a delicious mother's day brunch on the beach on Waikiki.

It was all rather lovely.

More pictures soon!

*song = Jack Johnson's Pictures of People Taking Pictures. Rather appropriate, I think.