E-V-A-C-U-A-T-I-O-N!

I tend to be a pretty heavy sleeper, so when I awoke on my own in the middle of the night—that was reason enough to be a cause for concern. I didn’t know what triggered it. I just remember waking up with my heart racing. I couldn’t remember having a wild dream that shook me awake, so what was it? Then I smelt it. . . and now I really was afraid. I jumped out of bed searching for the source. Had there been combustion in the radiator? Was the smoke only in my room? I opened my door to see what was going on, but when I did, a whole cloud of smoke spilled into my room, I could barely breath, I yelled for my roomy to wake up, but she was totally out. I came right up to her ear yelling, but she’d barely budge—I finally got her coherent enough to sit up, and told her to get out of the house. I ran upstairs and found my other roommate’s door closed, so I knocked loudly and then just opened it. Lex and her friend that was in town were just waking up, taking a second to comprehend what I was shouting at them, and then Lex got a whiff of it—that woke her up. She yelled, “I can smell it! We have to evacuate NOW!!! The smoke was getting so thick it was making us nauseous. We hurried down the stairs and into the street. I took a few breaths and then ran back inside to get everyone else on the upper floors. Just as I was coming back into the house I heard Thomas, our neighbor that lives on the top floor with his wife, bolting down the stairs. He’s a huge black man that is the man of our house, and is always doing everything in his power to protect his all of us, his girls, and let us know that we’re safe. So I was concerned when I saw him holding what appeared in the smoke to be guns in each hand, yelling, “Where’s the fire! Where’s the fire?!” As he got closer I saw that they were actually just fire extinguishers he was holding, I guess that made more sense ;) He bolted towards the kitchen, where my roommate was just emerging from, carrying a very large pot. She had accidently left something that she’d knitted on the stove to boil, trying to shrink it, all night. It was totally an accident, but it was scary to think of worse scenarios that might have been taken place. Well our house reeked, and was filled with smoke, so we opened all the doors and a bunch of windows trying to release all the smoke that was trapped in there. We got to sit out in the street for a while, waiting for our house to air out. I pulled out Fuzz’s blanket and my roomies and I wrapped it around all of us to help keep us warm while we waited. After a while, when we finally dared go back inside, Thomas took us into the kitchen and gave us a lesson on fire safety and taught us all how to use the fire extinguisher. We had the kitchen door open, still venting out the smoke in the kitchen, and Thomas told us to all try to get back in bed, and watched the door for us so that we could feel safe leaving it open. I’m so lucky to have such good neighbors! He is a security guard for a living, so he’s passionate about making others feel protected and safe. I had to keep the window open in our room because I was still struggling breathing in there. The smoke smell was disgusting, it smelt like burnt hair, not like burnt cookies—this was so gross, and the smell had permeated throughout the house and onto everything—even our food. I was just starting to fall back asleep when I heard something squeaky and squeally. . . I could barely make out my roommate Kelly clear across the room, trying to close her window. My heart was racing, I felt like I was suffocating, so I yelled across the room, “Don’t close the window—I can’t breathe—it’s still all smoky over here!” Poor Kelly, she was like, “But I’m so cold.” I told her that I would get her more blankets but that we had to leave the window open. She was persistent—so we compromised at closing it half way.
It took me a while to calm down enough to go back to sleep—I get very claustrophobic anyway and so I think that added to the stress of it all making me feel smothered in my bed, and my asthma was flaring up; in all honesty, I didn’t know how harmful the smoke was to our bodies—I was prayerful that we would even all even wake up the next morning. I was so glad when we all did;)
It was Sunday, so we all got dressed and ready for church. I put on so much lotion and perfume trying to mask the horrendous smell—but I could still totally smell it on me. I was sure that the majority of it would air off though on our walk to the subway, but it didn’t. I found myself profusely apologizing to those whom I sat by in church. I tried not to move, because each time I did—I’d get a strong whiff of myself, and was sure that those beside me were getting it as well.
I’m just so grateful that I didn’t wake up to flames, because it could very well have turned into that. Oh we laugh about it now— but I think some big time lessons were learned, and I think that we’ll all be a lot more cautious from now on, I sure hope we all will;)

I Love to See The Temple. . .

I've been so lucky to have a Temple here so close to me on this little island of Manhattan. It is literally a 15-30 min subway ride away.
I use to get in my car and have a nice, quiet drive into the temple, I'd park my car, walk down the beautiful temple path of the temple grounds, and then carry on into the temple, where I'd continue to feel that serenity, and even more at peace.
Here in the city, I ride the subway in, sitting next to loud strangers, no matter how clean I was before I went down there, as I take my seat, I always feel dirty--- most would concur--it's a filthy place to be.
When I finally come out of the dark hole in the ground, gasping for fresh air. . . I find myself at the beautiful Columbus Circle, but there is noise everywhere. I have to focus to keep the peace I need to carry with me up 7 more blocks to the temple. With such opposing settings, it almost makes the temple carry an added light, and spirit about it. The moment I walk in off the streets of the city, and into the Temple, an overwhelming familiar peace and calm come over me. It's such a tangible change of atmosphere; there is an absolute power there. It's a beautiful place. The interior radiates with a light that I've yet to find anywhere else, it's just like heaven! I don't remember heaven, but I know that it's where my Father in Heaven is, and the temple is another place where he resides. Every time I go there, I think, "I need to come here every day!" I love to see the temple!
Having the temple here has been one of my greatest blessings of this New York adventure. To have the consistency of the church, and know that the same things I'm being taught here are coming from the same source as what I would be taught in any other one of our church buildings is such a comfort to me. I had the opportunity to go to the Temple tonight. It was freezing cold outside, so I had to layer up—big time; boots, dress, coat, hat, scarf, leggings, foot warmers--layers. It made the trip into town that much more intimidating, but I knew I needed to go. I had called the other day to see when another group would be there for me to tag along with, and they had told me that I could join a group tonight. Well I finally made it to the temple. As I walked inside, I couldn’t help but notice all the other people that were there, pulling out their recommends, awaiting "the nod" and then kindly being ushered in. I was happy to see another girl from my ward there before me. She had come on her own as well. We began with a group of elderly Spanish women; all in white-- they were beautiful. A gentleman asked me if the friend I was sitting by was my sister, we giggled, and then said, "Yes, and these senora's over here are my sisters too!" Now they were giggling with us. The ordinance worker asked if I would interpret for him, because he could see that I was practicing my Spanish in light conversation with the women. I told him that I didn't know very much, and he said I'd be fine. He was totally Spanish, but he said that he needed me to interpret--- I was confused. So I humored him, and did my best to explain to them that the temple president was going to come and speak to us before our baptisms. He didn't speak Spanish, but he was very kind. The man continued to speak, but I didn't know how to interpret, he did it on purpose. He smiled at me and then turned to the women and spoke beautiful Spanish to them. They all looked at me giggling. . . you interpret for him--- he Spanish! haha k, joke was on me. As we waited for the President to come speak to us, the room continued to fill with so many different groups of people, it was so neat! There were fathers, with their children. Mothers, with their daughters. People from the Dominican Republic , and Africa, young men, and women, my friend and myself, first-timers, old-timers--- and my spanish sisters. Our numbers neared 30. It was a beautiful experience for us all.

Just Gettin' Cookin'

At the beginning of this year, I sat down and made my New Years resolutions, but with that-- I separately created a list of goals that I'd like to accomplish before leave New York in a couple of months. I have taken my list of goals and divided it all between the months I have left, so I don't near the end, faced with an entire list of things that I still need to accomplish. One of the things on my list is to cook more, so this week I've begun trying some fun new things;)

There's a restaurant at the base of my building, just adjacent to the lobby that makes the most amazing blueberry yogurt parfait's! I nonchalantly asked one of their employee's what their secret was to making them taste so yummy. . . and this is what she told me:

Take Low Fat plain yogurt, blend in blueberries ( I found out later, it's best if you blend the blueberries, and then stir them into the yogurt. Then you put a couple spoonfuls into the designated yogurt container, and top it with a light layer of honey, then granola (it's actually really yummy with raisins too) topped with blueberries, you can do as many layers as you want!

So I tried it. . . and tada! Oh this is such a yummy treat, and you can add something to it like a banana, or an apple-- separately;) and viola. . . You've got yourself nice healthy meal!

Here is a fun recipe that I made for all my rommies tonight, Broccoli Crunch, along with the following recipe, Chicken Cordon Blue:

I found this recipe on one of my favorite recipe blog sites: http://www.101cookbooks.com/ you should check it out! She's got so many awesome ideas, and fun, tasty pictures to look at ;)

Broccoli Crunch Recipe-

The success of this salad hinges on the broccoli. Buy good-quality bright green broccoli with tight florets. Now that you have good broccoli, do your best not to overcook it - you don't want it turning to mush.

4 -5 cups tiny broccoli florets (and chopped stalks if you like)

1 garlic clove, smashed and chopped

Scant 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

1/4 cup almond butter

3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 teaspoon honey

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons hot water

2 small crisp apples, cut into bit-sized pieces (if you aren't going to use the apples immediately, let them sit in a bowl of water with the juice of 1/2 a lemon)

1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced

1/2 cup toasted or candied walnuts or almonds

1/3 cup pan-fried crunchy shallots*

chives (optional)

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil and salt as you would pasta water. Boil the broccoli just long enough to take the raw edge of - 10 or 15 seconds. Drain and immerse it in cold water (or let cold water run over it). At this point, I like to spin the broccoli in a salad spinner to get the water off, but a few good knocks against the sink in a strainer can do the trick pretty well. Set aside.

Make the dressing by sprinkling the salt over the clove of garlic. Smash the clove and chop, smash and chop - turning it into a paste. In a small bowl whisk the salty garlic paste with the almond butter, lemon juice, honey and olive oil. Add the hot water and whisk until light and creamy. Taste, make any adjustments and set aside.

In a large bowl gently toss the broccoli, apples, red onion, most of the shallots and nuts with a generous drizzle of the almond dressing. Turn out onto a platter and finish with the rest of the shallots and chives if you like. Serve family style.Serves 4.

*Stir together the shallots, a splash of clarified butter (or olive oil) and big pinch of salt In a large skillet over medium heat. Stir every few minutes, you want the shallots to slowly brown over about fifteen minutes. Let them get dark, dark brown (but not burn), and if needed turn down the heat. Remove from skillet and onto a paper towel to cool in a single layer where they will crisp up a bit.

Chicken Cordon Blue:

I found both of these recipe's on http://www.kraftfoods.com/, but couldn't decide which one to use, so I tried a little bit of both, and created my Chicken Cordon Blue Combo ;)

Chicken Cordon Blue #1

4 tablespoon butter
1 cup flour
4 boneless, skinless breasts of chicken
2 eggs lightly beaten
4 very thin slices smoked ham
2 cups bread crumbs
6 ounces Lorraine Swiss cheese, cut into four chunks

Directions-

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Melt butter in glass baking dish. Lightly flatten chicken breasts between plastic wrap with mallet. Lay 1 slice of ham and 1 piece of cheese on flattened breast, fold in half and seal close with toothpicks. Repeat process for remaining chicken breasts. Coat each piece with flour, then eggs and then bread crumbs. Place chicken pieces in glass baking dish. Turn to coat with butter. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with parselyed rice and steamed broccoli

Chicken Cordon Blue #2

4 chicken breasts skinless and boneless
4 thin slices prosciutto di Parma
1/2 pound Gruyere, grated
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup panko bread crumbs
4 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only
1 clove garlic, peeled and finely minced
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs
Extra-virgin olive oil

Directions-

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Lay the chicken breast between 2 pieces of plastic wrap. Using the flat side of a meat mallet, gently pound the chicken to 1/4-inch thickness. Remove the top sheet of plastic and lay 2 slices of prosciutto neatly over the top to cover the breast and sprinkle a quarter of the cheese over the prosciutto. Tuck in the sides of the breast and roll up tight like a jellyroll inside the plastic wrap. Squeeze the log gently to seal and twist both ends tight to form a nice log. Repeat with remaining chicken.

Season the flour with salt and pepper. Mix the bread crumbs with thyme, garlic and kosher salt, pepper, and melted butter. The butter will help the crust brown. Beat together the eggs and season so the flour, the eggs and the crumbs are all seasoned.

Remove the plastic wrap. Lightly dust the chicken with flour, dip in the egg mixture and gently coat in the bread crumbs. Lightly coat a baking pan with olive oil and carefully transfer the roulades onto it. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until browned and cooked through.

I really liked both the Chicken, and the Broccoli, but the Broccoli recipe called for so much dressing, and I just drizzled it over the top and then mixed it all together. I only used like a third of what the recipe called for-- and that was plenty! I also added pears to it, because I ran out of apples, I actually preferred the improv ingredients- my roomies concurred, it was delish.

Well that's the first three of my "New Recipe's", with those 3 down. . . only 17 more to go! haha if you've seen Julie and Julia, then you can see where I got my inspiration-- loved that movie! I really just think it will be fun to learn to try some new things-- and I better take advantage of these amazing farmers markets while I have them!

TNT Meets Orlando

I just got home from my weekend in Orlando, where I finally got to run this race I’ve been training so many months for! The race was so much fun—I’d love to run it again someday!
We arrived on Thursday and spent the day getting settled and fueling up on carbs to prep us for the big race. Later that night, we went to the running expo where we got to look around and test out various new running equipment. We picked up our numbers, and got all checked in for our race.

This was Thursday nights dinner with some of my coaches, Tom, Dari, and Jacklyn. I LOVED My coaches!

Friday we slept in and then headed over to the Epcot for our TNT Pasta Party with the thousands of other participants from our team, Team in Training.

Here's a good handful of my team- We Love NY!

Here's a glimpse of our TNT Ceremony.

Me with my Roomie- Jocelyn, and my mentor Bethany.

There were 49 chapters that all met together there! I’m with the New York City chapter, so we all wore our “I (heart) NY T-shirts”. We had a really neat motivational speaker, and listened to a bunch of recent stats on actually how much money was raised and where all the money would be going. We made 5.4 million dollars this season in this event alone-- (we all have teammates that are raising funds and running other races throughout the US).We took a moment of silence for the Puerto Rico coach that had just recently passed away from cancer, who in his lifetime had run over 100 marathons, and over 300 half marathons--he was amazing. The food was awesome, but more importantly, the presentation throughout the event was heartfelt, and touching to all that were in attendance. There were hundreds of pictures that came up on the screen throughout the dinner of people that our teammates were running for, or in memory of. There were so many people involved that are still fighting for their lives, and they were my motivation. Later that night, we decorated our jerseys and got to bed early, because we would be waking up at 2:00 to get ready for our race. We could hardly sleep we were so excited!

We got back to our hotel and I wanted to go swimming soooo bad-- the pool was heated, the steam was luring me in. . .

I was ready to jump! My pants were already soaked from the rain.

Race Day:

2:00 am We awoke-- yes it was finally that time! We filled up on our bagels, peanut butter and our bananas, and headed down to the lobby to meet our team. We got on the first bus to leave, and were so excited because that meant that we could check our bags in at the race and wouldn't have to wait very long outside.

Well what we came to find out--the hard way-- was that the place we would waiting after we checked our bags, was also outside.
3:00 am-- we were dropped off in this huge parking lot, and told that we would just have to find some way to keep ourselves warm--for 3 hours. Everyone went ballistic because nobody was prepared for this. They started taking trash bags out of the garbage cans to use as windbreakers, as there was nothing for us to sit behind to block the wind-- that was continuously blowing-- did I mention that it was 26 degrees—later reported to be the coldest day in Orlando in over 40 years!? None of us had outer layers on like our winter coats, just little light jackets, some people were even in shorts. So we're all going crazy after about ten minutes of it, and then it starts sprinkling. We all went to the tents where we checked our bags in, but were forced to leave. There were so many people accumulating in the parking lot, everyone shivering, it really was unbelievable, but we didn't really have much choice.

I know I look like a zombie. . . this is what I look like at 3:00 in the morning-- I actually look pretty darn happy for bein so miserable! And it's those girlies right there-- that I have to thank for it! That's me, Kerry, and her friends from Montana-- Jessie, and Muppy.

Finally at about 5:00am we were allowed to start heading down to our corral, I was a different number than my friends, so we all had to split up. I was totally alone, well- with 20,000 strangers- in the dark, and now it was starting to snow. We were walking now though-- and I was lucky to find my friend Kerry, whom I've never run with before, but I just recognized her from our group. She was so nice and actually introduced me to a couple of her friends that had come out from Montana. They were hard core runners, but were super nice. I was so blessed to have found them. They were good at keeping my mind off of the cold, and had lots of fun stories to tell about how they trained in Montana, with all the packed snow they have there consistently throughout their winters. I was getting a little nervous as I listened to them talk about other races they'd run, and what their pace was. Their time was approximately 2 minutes per mile faster than mine ever was. This is a lot. I resolved that I would just do all that I could to keep up with them and only slow down if I thought I was going to die, but to try not to think about that, ;) and just have fun running with them-- acting like that was a normal pace for me too. I was still insanely nervous.

We waited there for another hour, and then finally the fireworks went off, and it was our waves turn to begin! There were so many people huddled so close together in the beginning that all I could see and feel were elbows- they were unavoidable. Muppy, one of the girls from Montana, saw her mom on the sidelines cheering her on and ran over to her, by the time we'd realized this, we'd lost her, we started running slower looking around and calling out to her-- we weren't going to lose her now, so then we started going back and over to the side, off of the road continuing to call out to her. We didn't know if she had somehow passed us or if she'd gone back looking for us too-- we added about ten min to our time—but our efforts were not in vain, because we finally found her. The running felt great, it took about the first mile for me to start warming my body back up. The weather fought against us for the remainder of the race; we had sleet, and snow, and rain-- lots of rain. We ran all through the Magical Kingdom, and then different areas of the rest of the park. The run was so much fun! The girls kept at their quick pace and I somehow survived keeping up with them- I’m sure it was just the adrenaline rush of it all. They both had to stop for the port-a-pottys, and the lines were pretty long. I was determined to run the entire race, so I just circled the group of port-a-pottys and the trucks, vans, and cars around them. There was a man in the van-- I didn't even notice until about the fifth time I ran around him-- he was laughing at me looking at me like I was a psycho. I know I was--but I just couldn't stop yet.

The race finally came to a finish-- it was so exciting to finally get there! We were instantly wrapped in aluminum- tissue-like- blankets, but I couldn't understand why, as I was so hot running, until an about 20 seconds of time lapsed, and then I understood perfectly. It was freeeezing cold outside! It was raining, and I was soaked-- I couldn't stop shaking. I had to wait in a line to take a picture with my medal before they would let me go get my dry clothes from the bag check-- that took a while.

Look-- we all won! haha we finished, so that made us winners. I wonder what it means when they put your medal on you backwards. . .

Finally I got my bag, but they had sealed it with plastic so that nothing would fall out I guess, but that meant that I wouldn't be getting into my dry clothes in there any time soon. There were a million people trying to get onto the buses and all the lines were meshed together, so people were just forcing their way onto the buses as they curb-sided one at a time. I was so excited to finally get on the bus-- it was sooo warm in there! I came back to my room called mom, showered, and crashed. I slept a good hard 4 hours or so and then my roomy and I decided to go hit the park while we still had daylight. We had so much fun playing on all the rides, and we were there late enough that we got to enjoy the light parade and the fireworks--which were awesome~!

Jocelyn and I were stoked for our first ride of the day. . . Space Moutain! I rembered it being scary, but I got the front seat this time-- I couldn't stop screaming! Haha but I loved it!

Here's the castle I've been waiting my whole life to see--- it was beautiful!

Just getting ready to face the Pirates of the Carribean.

I found some new friends. . . like this guy. . .

and Woody! . . .

Captain Jack Sparrow. . .

Mr. Potatoe Head ;)

And Kermy!!! . . I love Kermy, but ya know who I love even more than him. . .

My Army Boy!

Here we're all getting ready for the Tower of Terror. . . Yes it's that scary!

Look how happy we are. . . this is because I have no Idea what I'm about to get myself into. . . I thought the Tower of Terror was like a haunted hotel, not a thirteen story freefall! haha I couldn't stop screaming-- I could barely catch my breath between them. . . but the best part of the ride was seeing our pictures at the end. Both my friends were turning towards me holding my arms and asking if I was okay with my eyes and mouth open wider than I thought they could even go-- screaming for my life! Ohhh. . . I should have gotten it! Haha it was soooo funny!

We all bought yellow glasses to go with our yellow medals, haha just kidding. We were getting ready to go on the Toy Story 4D-- this was totally my favorite ride!

More fun TNT friends, we surprising all met each other not through the training, as we didn't all train together. We met each other all at the Children's Hospital, when we went to help the children in the cancer unit make decorations during the holidays. It was such a neat experience for all of us to be there with them these sweet kids-- and to get to know one another better.

I couldn't help but sneak another picture of this gorgeous castle after the sun went down. . . it really was magical!

Sunday was truly a day of rest. That night we had our victory party- which was outside- Wahoo! And consisted of leftovers from the big pasta party we had two days prior, haha but it was food, so I was grateful. It got even better when I went to the outdoor bar to get us some drinks—soda, water, etc. and was told that I had to pay for them. I told them that I just wanted to get the free drinks that came with our dinner, and they said there wasn’t such a thing. But, they were more than happy to offer me a bottle of water for $4.50, I inquired about the cans of soda, they were cheaper—only 4 bucks a can! Seriously. Haha I decided to just wait it out for something a bit more in my price range—the drinking fountain! Other than that, it really was such a fun night. It was a good last-minute-chance to hang out with each all of our friends, take some fun pics, and say our goodbyes.
We flew into Newark-- not to be confused with Newark around noon on Monday. Yes, now listen to yourself say that out loud , . . here it? haha yes, this could cause some serious confusion.
So I finally made it home from my adventurous weekend. It was one of the neatest, toughest, craziest experiences of my life, but absolutely worth it!

*Satur-snow-day*

This morning I woke up at the crack of dawn to go on my final run with my team before our race next week. I didn't notice until I walked out my front door that it was snowing again! This is something that I have been fortunate enough to sneak past in my training-- thus far. There hasn't been a team training day that was in the snow, until today. We followed the rim of the Hudson down to the Brooklyn Bridge and then we (those of us that have our race next week) turned around and ran back to where our bags had been stored, at one of our coaches offices. . . fortunately for us, he's a physical therapist. I dare say that today was one of my most challenging runs yet-- it was freezing cold the entire time, the path was all icy so we had to kind of stomp while we ran so we wouldn't slip and fall, and the wind was blowing so hard on our way back that I couldn't even pull my hood on against the wind! We were all so numb when we got back, and there were lots of injuries too. They had prepared a yummy breakfast for us, and awesome bloody Mary's-- haha and no, I just chose to stick with the orange juice. As I went to collect my things to head out I saw that almost all of his rooms for his patients were filled with our teammates! I was still trying to unthaw, and so I knew that they must have been really hurting if they would let him wrap bags of ice around them! There were bags tied around feet and shoulders. . . it looked like it was a tough day for a lot of other people too. But one more week-- were almost there!

I have been meaning to go to this store since I first heard about it, about a year ago, and today I finally went! It's a new and used bookstore-- and there are a million books there! I literally got lost in the labyrinth of bookshelves in the Christianity section-- which was no Deseret Book! I spent way too long, and bothered way too many people trying to find the CS Lewis section-- which I finally found on my own-- it had just been mistakenly put on the wrong shelf. I only found one of his books though, and there were a handful of them. There may have been more somewhere, but there are literally 18 miles of books--it's in their name-- haha, and I didn't have time to go through all of them. Oh but it was such a great store-- a definite must see for anyone that likes anything to do with books, and ever comes to this city!

Home for Christmas

12-18-19

Airport Nightmare:

Last night I spent the evening preparing for my flight home. I packed, and did laundry, and packed some more. . . and then set three different alarms on my phone to wake up to—one at 4:30 one at 5:00 and another one after that. I knew that I needed to leave my house by about 5:30 to be sure I’d make my 8:30 flight— I was sure that I wouldn’t have a problem waking up—as I didn’t actually go to bed until about two. I assumed that it would be easier for me to wake up, because I wouldn’t get into as deep of sleep by then. . . well we all know what happens when you assume. . . ! I woke up this morning at 7:14---- totally slept through all of my alarms! I don’t know how this happened—I don’t normally do this! I started freaking out and called the airline—they had to transfer me to a couple of people and put me on hold for plenty of time in between, so I just got dressed and ready as I waited for help on the phone. They were able to change my flight to the one that left at 9:30 but that would mean that I’d have to book it to get there on time. The gentleman from the airline said nothing about me being there an hour early to check in—I told him that it would take me an hour and a half at least to get to the airline and since I only had my carry-on I would save time not having to check in—but that I would barely be able to make it! He said that was fine, told me to just get there as soon as I could, and wished me luck and switched my flight over. I got insanely lucky on the trains—I had to ride two different subway trains, and then the air train—and arrived at the airport an hour and a half after I’d left my house-- record time! I was feeling so relieved when I went to check in to my flight 40 min before my flight departure, until I went to check in . . . and they told me that it was too late ;( They said that they had already given my seat away and that I would have to pay $200+ to get another flight, and it doesn’t depart until 5:40. I started bawling, and then told the kid at the desk that this was my second flight that I’d miss this morning and that I was never told on the phone that I would have to get there an hour early—or I would’ve never rebooked my flight for that time. I’ve flown a million times since I moved out here and this had never happened before! He said that because the storm was coming in that there were a ton of people trying to get on earlier flights. He said that there was nothing that he could do. They cannot even book me on another flight until three hours before it departs. So I guess we’ll see what happens… I’m just chillin right now in the food court that I had to take the air train to get to as my terminal wouldn’t allow me to go through security until I get my boarding pass. . . at 2:40—yea, so I’ve got about a 6 hour wait or so. There weren’t any chairs there to even sit on—haha I know that I’m learning a lot of awesome lessons while I’m out here—and I may never find out why things like this happened, but maybe it’s just to teach me a little bit of patience;) and to go to bed early or I might not wake up to my alarm—I’m not invincible. Or maybe someone had a more important reason to get home earlier than I did. So instead of getting into Vegas at 11:00am I probably won’t get there until 9:40pm—I don’t expect to get into UT until about 1:00am . . . it’s going to be a very long day! Haha but it’s totally worth it to be able to go home and be with my family for Christmas! The suspense is killing me—I just can’t wait to see everyone!
So I wasn’t able to get booked on this later flight because they have this rule that I can’t change my flight unless it’s within 3 hours of departure— so I had to wait around until about 2:40 just to be sent to another line to stand in for an hour, and then I’m told that because my first flight was changed, all the rest of my flights got cancelled! And in the meantime—while I wasn’t allowed to rebook my flight until 3 hours prior to its departure, the flights that I had been set up for on my return had gotten overbooked! Now there wasn’t an open flight for me to get back to New York without paying 700 minimum added onto the previous flight that had been cancelled. Nightmare--- I started sobbing right there in front of everyone, I felt so hopeless. I called Mom and just started crying harder—and the gentleman behind the desk started making some “special phone calls.” He was able to get me on a flight coming home a day later than I had originally been set up for, and I only had to pay just under $200—which was so much better than the earlier figures he’d quoted me. I was so relieved though—it really was such a blessing.
There was a huge storm coming in the next day so the airport was packed with passengers that wanted to move up their flights so that they wouldn’t be cancelled. The lines all meshed together and everyone was either yelling or crying—so many people everywhere! There was a big man at the front of the lines, taller and wider than anybody else there with a big red Delta jacket on. He was who we went to-- to plead our case. Some people would tell him their story and he would walk them to the very front of the security line, which people had been standing in for hours! Other people just got the regretful hand on their shoulder gesture, with the apologetic, lowered, shake-of-the-head . . . no. That’s when the tears came—for some, tantrums for others, yelling, swearing, all kinds of fun entertaining exasperations. No, really, I felt for them. I was in the same boat—it was just kinda funny to see all of the different responses to similar scenarios.
The lines were long—but I literally had all day. I’d rather stand and move a little every few minutes than stand in the corner and not move, or be stuck at the food court again with all the people sleeping on tables and benches. I confess, I was one of those for a second, but I just slept on the chair with my head on the table— not something I hope to ever have to do again—but I sure appreciated my bed a lot more when I got home later that night!

Dinner with a Communist:

I was finally through the gates and still had about an hour before I could board my flight, so I thought that I’d go find some place to grab a quick bite. I found a cute pizza place—everything there looked sooo good! Not long after I’d taken my place in line, a couple young girls came up behind me and started eyeballing the pizzas on display behind the glass. The pizza that had just been sliced was cut crooked, so there was one slice about twice the size of a regular piece—which meant someone else was 180 degrees away from getting jipped! The girls started to quarrel over which one called the monster slice first . . . their quarreling began to fade as the Pizza man reached toward their slice and slipped it onto a plate. He looked up at me and said, “Here ya go miss.” I wasn’t about to take this coveted slice away from the girls that were still drooling over it! I said to the gentleman, “Oh no, that is their piece,” he looked confused. “Ded you or ded you nat want a slice of dis pizza?!” I told him that I did, just not that specific one—now look who’s sounding picky! I told him that I just wanted a normal sized slice. Still confused, he shrugged his shoulders and made a new selection. I got up to the front to pay for my meal and added a Diet Coke from the soda fountain . . . with a special request to add a little bit of lemonade in it for taste. . . the girl at the till started giggling and commented on my bizarre request—but admitted that she was curious about the combo and would have to experiment with it sometime. I had just found my seat, all by my lonesome in the middle of the food court when a young man approached my table, I just ignored the uncomfortable awkwardness as he stood there peering down at the seat directly across from me, until his abrupt clearing-of-the-throat icebreaker. “I saw what you did back there, and I must say, that was very diplomatic of you.” It really was nothing. He continued, “. . . and. . . I’m delighted to tell you that this beverage combo is brilliant!” I was kind of confused. He must have seen that, for his clarification followed. . . “ Your Diet Coke and lemonade—brilliant!” This is the part where he cheesed up his smile, and acknowledged the empty seat below with a nod. I’m not use to eating meals with foreign strangers, but I had no legitimate reason to say no. He had to have been in his late twenties, trying to sound like he was a sophisticated gentleman, no less than twice his age. It was hilarious actually- he was from Hungary. He had the most "different" views of anyone I think I've ever met! And people generally think a lot different than I do out here. He talked about how I was from Utah. . .home of the Mormons. . . haha I concurred. He said that he had met plenty of Mormons before and that they were nice enough people, "at least better than Catholics!" he commented. He said that every Mormon he'd ever met was trying to convert him though! haha He also said that Mormons taught him the importance of praying vocally, but he said that unlike the Mormons view on communication with God, he was a Lutheran, and claimed that God is only there when they need him. And that the only time that they need to pray to him is if they need help with something. I kept trying to act like a Mormon, but no matter what I said in their defense, he kept talking like I wasn't one! I would say, "Well we do that because. . . "And he would still talk about Mormons like I wasn't one of them! Finally . . . he was like, "Wait you keep talking like you are one! You're not a Mormon!" I was trying not to be offended by this exclamation, but listened as he gave he explained. "Every Mormon has a tag on them-- haha you're trying to trick me, because I have met Mormons before and they always wear their black name tags!" haha I couldn't help but laugh out loud as I recalled the comment made earlier in the conversation and explained to him that all members are missionaries-- yes this is true, but some are actually called on missions, and that is their "job" for 2 years (as a service, they don’t get paid for it.) they just go out and spread the gospel! Missionaries with the tags are a little bit more aggressive than the typical member, because that's what their mission is-- to teach! He continued talking about the most bizarre topics, such as. . . "SUV's-- hate them. They have no purpose-- and shouldn't exist!" What a ironically random comment to make to someone that comes from the land of SUV's haha. I asked kindly for his explanation . . . which was simply “They're ugly and if you need a truck for whatever purpose a truck might be used-- then get one, but to have one with a covered tail-- gasp!!!” haha "Ewe-- Their just Hideous!!!" I asked what his alternative would be. "Get a Porsche, or an Audi. My personal preference is the Volvo, but Mercedes has some nice models as well." ha, seriously? I reminded him of people like soccer moms, or just people that live in a climate where they might need a truck and have too many children to all fit in a two-seater. . . he recommended something that I'd never heard of before, he clarified that it was something similar to a limousine . . . yea, haha. I'm sure he would understand what brilliant idea that was, if he ever had the opportunity to visit our state, just as I'm sure I would have a fair understanding of his perspective had I seen things table turned.
Our next subject of conversation was politics. A subject that I confess is one of avoidance for me here in this city. People were raised differently here, and have different morals and values and opinions, which they are certainly entitled to, but one must tread very lightly on this soil of conversation for it is a very, very sensitive, serious subject around here. As we begun discussing the topic, the gentleman across from me exclaimed, " I don't like your president!" haha I giggled, and whispered, "I'll tell ya a secret. . . I don't love him to death either!" haha he was shocked at my response, and told me that he had been curious to hear my rebuttal. I asked him what he would have said had I answered differently. Here's where it gets good . . . haha. He said, thinking very hard, too hard, like he was making this up as he was saying it. . ."I would say. . . that the change Obama brought. . . is like the change. . . I get from the grocery store! Yes, that's right! Like when you go to the grocery store and they hand you back a handful of. . . . of . . . pennies! Yes, a handful of pennies. . . . They’re worthless! And in fact, embarrassing to even look at!" he said with his nose up in the air! haha who was this guy?! He began to delve deeper into how our country is run, and what I thought I thought of his opinions. "You claim to be a Democracy! But you are clearly a Republic. The people rule here, not the government. That's why you will never succeed. America will fail as long as it gives power to the people. Obviously this was just his opinion but I asked for his suggestion on what we should change. His next words were these, I kid you not, "Communism—it is the only way! And someday America will learn the hard way." This is where I told him he sounded like a psycho-freak and said that he was no longer invited to sit at my table. He tried to give me all the reasons why he was certain this was the only working system, the only way to have order in our nation. . . I rebutted with various examples of history proving his resolve false, time and time again! He claimed that the only examples that I used, including China, were examples of Capitalism, and that they had been misinterpreted as Communism, and then gave his creative definitions of both . . . which are far from comparable with Webster’s. I told him he was a crazy man-- but that he was entitled to his opinion as was I, but that it was offensive, and disrespectful to say such things on American soil. He was only in this country to get an education, and began dissing on everything that is wrong with it, he kept going and going, really-- he was on one . . . until I interrupted him. I reminded him simply that he had come to this "terrible place" to receive an education. And that there were American citizens that weren't able to get into his American College because we have made room to include in each student body a percentage of students foreign to the US, because we are open to including others in there pursuit of better education, and with that kindness in mind, I dared him to go back to the country he came from and find that same kind of education there! After a short pause. . . watching him digest all that he'd just been condemned of . . . he solemnly said, "Point very well taken," and then he just had to add, " but Communism is the only way, and as I said before, that someday America will learn the hard way!” I accused him of the contradicting liberties he was taking of our freedom of speech, and reminded him of where he was again. He was making me angry."Don't you dare come here and get your free education and then make threats about taking it back to your country and using it against us!" he shrugged his shoulders, as if to say sorry that's just how I feel. Serioulsy, he was so confused. I compared him to Hitler, he didn't totally take offense to that. He remarked that although Hitler did some very evil things, he was a brilliant man. I told him that he was a creepzoid, and then realized that I sounded like I was in elementary school again with all of this name-calling . . . and decided to stop. I got up to leave, told him it was interesting speaking with him, and that I needed to leave before I missed my 3rd flight of the day. He asked me if I had facebook-- which I thankfully didn't. And then we parted ways.

Westbound—Finally!

I was on time for this flight! We made it home in record time-- actually a whole hour early. I think they said that they took another route or something. I sat by some fun people, always seem to haha. I sat down with my backpack, and the kid next me immediately commented on the infrared flag-- I had no clue as to what he was talking about, and then he asked me who I stole my backpack from. I laughed and told him that it was my boyfriends, and that it was his Army backpack, and he just left it here in New York so that I could use it to bring my groceries home. He started asking me a million questions about him, where he was stationed, what he was doing, and used a lot of big army terms, I didn't need to even ask-- I knew he was in the military too. He was, and had been stationed in Italy for the past 2 years, without ever taking leave-- that's like a mission! He was on his way home to stay with his family while they restationed him. The girl on the other side of me started talking over me to him and started asking him a million army questions-- she spoke the same language as he did, she had to be military too. Come to find out, she wasn't, but her boyfriend was. He was actually a ranger, and she told me all the nightmares that she and he had to go through, and continue to go through as he will never be the same again. She told me plenty enough for me to just sit there counting my blessings that Fuzz has been so protected and his body is all intact, and grateful that he doesn't scream out because of his horrific nightmares every night, or has never had to witness a friends murder. He's been so lucky. He's just as brave as the rest of them though, I know that he wouldn't hesitate to put his life in danger to help someone else. I just hope and pray that he never has to. The two new friends I made kept me company for the 5 hours of the flight. They were really nice people, and it felt so good to be around people like that at the end of such a long day.
Shaye and my dad were my hero's that day. They waited around for me all day, and then as soon as they sit down and order their dinner, I call and surprise them with my early arrival. It was so good to see them! Shaye is a monster-- he has grown so much! We finally got home that night at about midnight, and with all the craziness of my day--- it was so worth it just to finally be home!

Celtic for Christmas:

My family had spoken with the college and had been given special permission to use the concert hall at the Eccles for a charity concert that we wanted to do to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. The Spectrum got wind of it and decided to use us for the cover of their entertainment section of the newspaper. Here's a link to the article they published:

http://www.thespectrum.com/article/20091218/ENTERTAINMENT01/912180335/Celtic+group+fights+cancer+with+Christmas. I'd really been struggling raising funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society- and was at my wit’s end. I had set a previous goal of $3,700.00 with a deadline closing in on me with the race being the second week of January. This concert really was one of my last hopes. I was overwhelmed by the support of our little St. George community! The concert ended up being packed, with people even standing for the full 1 1/2 hour performance. This I dare say was the most significant performance of my life. We were so touched at the conclusion of the show to shake hands with meet people that had come to support us and our cause. We heard their stories. We cried with them. They were there supporting us, but were so gracious for us supporting them. It was such a special experience for me and my family, one that I know I will never forget. Even little Shaye, who was accepting the donations at the door, was touched at all that these people gave. Some even brought food because they had no money to give. He later hugged me and told me that this had made his Christmas. We all felt just so warm and good that night. We were just so so overwhelmed by the sweet spirit of what Christmas really is all about, the spirit of giving. The next morning we started off with are traditional Christmas Adam-- the day before Christmas Eve-- (because Adam came before Eve haha get it?) where we go out on the corner with our cousins, early in the morning, and sell hot chocolate to raise money for Sub for Santa or some other charity organization. This year everyone agreed to donate money towards the Leukemia and Lymphoma society-- and after the concert the previous night, we only needed one hundred dollars to make our goal! We ended up raising close to $300.00, and so with the extra money we put it towards paying for orphans in China to go to school. It costs only $20.00 to send one child to school for a year-- that includes food and everything. We were so glad that there was enough to support both causes!

We filled my week in St. George with lots of fun performances, late night movies, eating, shopping, more eating, and just fun with the fam! I found out that Fuzz will probably be coming home early than we'd expected, so I'll probably be home again in just over 3 months! I can't wait! I have made a long list of goals that I hope to accomplish before I go home-- better get goin’ on 'em! Oh yes, and Happy New Years! I have a feeling this is going to be an extra special one! Wish you all great health and happiness ;)