And so this is Christmas

Best part of my day? The anticipation of sleeping under the Christmas tree. Every night in December Katherine and I are sleeping under the tree. Sometimes we read Christmas stories, sometimes we watch Christmas movies, sometimes we talk about Christmas traditions, but no matter what we do it's always magical. I recommend this tradition to all.

A performer?

This website analyzes the content of your blog and uses that information to determine your personality type.

Here is this blog's profile

ESFP: The Performer

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don't like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.

Accurate? I think the second paragraph is pretty spot on and the first paragraph is hit and miss, but it's entertaining nonetheless.

The ultimate resume

I have spent this weekend at home in Utah spending quality time with my family before Bradley leaves on his mission to The Marshall Islands. Highlights have included dinner at the Himalayan kitchen with Camille and Kristjan, the Meadows Hot Pots, impromptu dance parties in the kitchen to this song, trying to beat my dad at ping pong and tennis, watching the office, napping, thanksgiving dinner, meeting our foreign exchange student from Thailand Auz, and much more. But the best part may have just happened today when I was going through my old boxes in my parents basement and came across my resume. A resume applying for the position of ETERNAL COMPANION. Yes, that's what you do when you are 14 years old in your Mia Maid class, sigh. I love that the only two areas of qualification that we needed were spiritual and homemaking. So I thought I would post this gem so we can all laugh together.

You'll see from this resume that I'm obviously qualified. I have no idea why thirteen years later I am still single.

Resume

Position: Eternal Companion

Qualifications:

Spiritual:
- Mormon
- I enjoy studying the scriptures
- I have a testimony

Homemaking:

-I can make raman, macaroni, toast and most other ready made foods
- I can make bead necklaces
- I can vacuum and clean the kitchen, but I don't enjoy it

Other preparations I'm making:
- I am trying to live worthy by following the prophets
- I am getting ready to go on a mission

Talents, Hobbies, Interests:
- Collect buttons
- I am a tap dancer

My favorite time of the year

There are so many reasons why fall is my favorite time of the year. Just look at the view from out my bedroom window and that alone should help you understand why.

There are other reasons though. Like this one.
Des, Scotty and their new baby Kai visited me on a spontaneous road trip. I love them and I love it when my worlds collide. Only those two would take a six week old baby cross country or on a bike ride.

The beauty of democracy
Staci, Leanna and I on the day I got the closest I've been to President Bush at an arrival ceremony for the President of Ghana. Whether you agree or disagree with his policies, respect is due to the office of President and it was a delight to hear him speak.
This is the closest I got to President-Elect Obama when I heard him speak at the Woodrow Wilson Center in September. When I left the speech there were hundreds of people outside the Wilson Center trying to catch a glimpse of him coming out. It has been so exciting to be in D.C. during this historic election and you can also agree or disagree with his policies, but there is something to be said for a politician who has inspired a new generation to care about politics and remind us that despite the difficulties our nation currently faces the American dream is alive and well.
November also marks my birthday. I celebrated last week in style. Joe and Courtney planned an amazing party. A "birthday off" that included a cake off, punch off and poetry off. This party was the best I've had since my sixteenth birthday party at classic skating.
Birthdays are always a good excuse to make your favorite people feel obligated to hang out with you. Here are some of my current and former DC roommates and favorite girls.
I think my face in this picture describes better than words how I've felt this week. Again, thanks to all those who helped make this birthday a great one.

Dedications

Dedicated to DJN: Yes, I spent my Friday night working on a puzzle and no I'm not at all ashamed. 1000 pieces, 7 friends, 7 pm - 2 am. And isn't that a good looking bengal tiger?

Dedicated to my cat obsessed friends. Sonks, Joe John, and J Mill.
Dedicated to Tuesday, October 28. A beautiful night where five friends had free dinner here and then watched with thousands of other spectators the parade of drag queens who descend dupont circle for the annual high heel race. And these aren't two random drag queens, these two are actually friends of mine.

Another winning week

I had originally started a post about how I was feeling a little apocalyptic and preparing myself to trek west, but then last week I had one of the best weeks I've had in a long time, and I figured I would lighten the mood by sharing a few highlights.

Sunday: Joyce Street hosted a lasagnaoff. Over the past few months we have been holding a series of offs. The first off in the series was a granolaoff between Ryan Bessey and I. Some of you who have known me for a long time know that my mom makes great granola. In fact she sometimes ships it to me in D.C. However, I lost to Ryan Bessey, he won the trophy, the glory and the bragging rights with a recipe he got out of a missionary cook book. My pride was hurt and I set the next off, a pina coladaoff out, then I decided to reenter this time in the lasagnaoff. Once again, I was overconfident, and I took third place out of four. Nonetheless the evening was filled with laughs, good food, celebrity judges, foul play, corry's cronies, apple crisp and more which more than made up for the loss.

Monday: Columbus Day I was supposed to have work off, but I opted to work from home to take a day off later in the week. This was my first experience working at home. I was surprisingly productive, it was a beautiful fall day and in between spurts of work throughout the day I managed to also squeeze in a bike ride, a run and two games of tennis.

Tuesday - Thursday: My little brother Brian and his friends Danny, Jason and Bradley were in town to see D.C. and this was such a treat. I love this city and love showing people the places that I love. We visited the national cathedral, the temple, amsterdam falafal, the white house, the monuments at night, the capitol, library of congress and eastern market. We cooked Moroccan food for my roommates, rode bikes to old town, stayed up late telling ghost stories and had impromptu dance parties. Although at times I felt totally uncool as I realized how out of college scene I was when they discussed the latest indie bands and took a break from touring to shop at Urban Outfitters and my roommate commented on how they use more hair product than any of us do.

See what I mean. These are the kind of boys that take pictures like this. I just can't hang with that. I can't be that cool I am "aunt jenny" for sure.What Corry siblings do when they're together, built massive forts from pillows and blankets and make ethnic food. Chicken Tajines with prunes, please.
J.C. and the boys enjoying Middle Eastern "Tacos" that's the best way you can describe a falafal.

Friday - Saturday: Dutch-Bike-Dutch
This is one of my favorite traditions on the east coast. I've already written posts on this event, so I won't say much, except that once again it was awesome. And this year we even had a sponsor, my old roommate (sniff sniff) Stephanie is a peanut butter heiress. And this comes with a lot of a perks, not the least of which is an unlimited supply of delicious all natural peanut butter.
This year was bigger and better than ever. The weather was perfect and it was just me and seventy of my closest friends traipsing through amish country and then having to endure jokes from a bunch of twenty something virgins when we decided to go visit intercourse, pennsylvania.
Part of the pack. This gives you an idea, but at times we were literally riding in a group of about 30, even though we were divided between four different rides.
Sarah, Amber, Will, Ben and I enjoying the sun and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches the jeanette and company provided.
Me with Lisa and Tyler. DBD vets from Spring '08 reunited.

So an OFF, four fun visitors and a road trip to bike in Pennsylvania truly makes for a spectacular week.

"I've got a bracelet too"

What I have and haven't been doing this summer

What I haven't been doing? Blogging. It's not due to a lack of material, just inspiration. Tomorrow I start my second semester of grad school and since I feel like I'm more busy now than I have been in my entire life, I have a feeling blogging is going to continue to drop lower on the list of priorities. That said, I would like to share a few highlights from the last month.

My time for the last two weeks has been completely consumed by "the cleanse" This is a 28 day detox diet that I have been doing with my roommates and a few other friends. And I must say, as overly dramatic as it may sound, it has changed my life. It has completely changed the way that I think about food and nutrition. I read this article by Michael Pollan a year and a half ago. I was so intrigued that I printed it out at work and saved it in my desk. I even purchased his book "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and was intrigued by his theories of natural eating. However, I never had the will power and the motivation to really change my diet. This changed when my roommate Leanna convinced our roommates plus a few other friends to participate. Your diet in the cleanse is basically a vegan diet, it also restricts any refined sugar or grain, no bread, even whole wheat, pasta etc. If any of you really want the sales pitch, call me and I'll give it to you. But let me just give you the highlights and changes I've experienced in the first two weeks of the cleanse.

• Waking up is so much easier. I sleep better and can't sleep in past 7:30, even on the weekends
• I have increased energy during the day, my workouts have been much better and if I feel a little bit tired, I just take a five minute nap and I'm fine.
• I don't crave sugar. One day I was having some intense cinnamon roll cravings, but other than that I have felt great and I never feel hungry.
  
• It's been so fun to discover and cook so many new foods like wheat berries, oat groats, tamari, tempeh, kuzu, wakame and many many more.
• I love eating all my meals with friends, it's so much more enjoyable
• I went off all products I was using for my skin before the cleanse to see the difference it would make, and it has cleared considerably
• I didn't weigh myself before, but I know my clothes are looser and I would guess I have lost five pounds so far

The big downside is the amount of time it takes to cook and clean, but overall the benefits have definitely outweighed the costs. And if you aren't sold, talk to me more and we can discuss.

My other major project these last two weeks have be refinishing a table. I moved two weeks ago and we've been working on putting our house together and I was inspired by my brother, and I don't have any before pictures, but this table was just a basic brown wood table before. And here's the after shot:
If any of you are curious to know how I refinished this. I sanded the entire table first, then I painted on three coats of black paint, then I sanded down some of the edges to give it that antique look. Then I took some green paint and used a q-tip to put a little on the edges that now showed through because of the sanding, then immediately after I applied the green paint I wiped the excess off with a towel. After everything dried I put on two coats of polyacrylic. This may sound easy, but I had a lot of mishaps, the major mishap was when I knocked an entire bucket of green paint on the porch, I think I found my next refinishing project. But with a free hour or two here and there it took me about a week and a half.

I mentioned above that I moved, I hate moving and this is my fourth move in two years, but I had help from a group of my favorite guys. I was well taken care of. They not only helped me move, but Dan and Joe also helped out before and after to pick up random furniture that was purchased or free off craigslist. I love my new house, but it's always hard to move, I honestly love all the girls in both the houses on Joyce and Uhle, and continue to feel like I have 11 roommates (13 if I count the newlyweds)
Speaking of newlyweds, that's been another major part of my summer fun. Celebrating with Sarah and Hollie in Utah and Dallas on their beautiful wedding days. Their weddings were so different, yet so appropriate for both of them. I am so happy for them and for the amazing men that they chose to marry. I am truly blessed to have them as my friends and look forward to continuing to stay close despite this major life change.
That's about a wrap. Although you may not think the pictures can get much crazier than the one above. How about I try to top it by a picture of my slip and sliding into the ocean. Gracias Matt Fischer.

Pioneer Day

I haven't even been in Utah for twelve hours and it's been the best Pioneer Day I can remember. Despite spending four hours on the tarmac in DC yesterday due to "thunderstorms" and of course missing my connection from Dallas to SLC and spending the night in the Dallas airport last night (where I found an ipod vending machine, srsly?), the day has turned out to be fantastic. I am here for Sarah's wedding, but I didn't tell my parents and surprising them has been a real treat.
I love my life in D.C., but I definitely miss Utah. It's been almost two years since I've been here in the summer and can I just say dry heat is where it's at. In these twelve hours I've managed the following and I'm really wishing I had more than four days.

• Saw the new house my parents purchased in sugar house that my brother will live in while he attends the U and helped to refinish and move furniture. I'm in love with this house and it seriously adds to the temptation to move back west.
  
• Rode a vintage schwinn bike up 21st street
• Played basketball and sharks and minnows in the pool with my family
• Ate a delicious home cooked meal
  
• Took a nap
• Rode with my dad on a motorcycle up American Fork Canyon
• Enjoyed an evening around a bonfire with my family singing songs and telling stories from our ancestors. It may sound cheesy, but I loved it.
  

And finally, I can't think of a more fitting pioneer tribute than to share a poem that my grandmother wrote about Nellie Unthank, a member of the Martin Handcart Company and one of the first pioneers to settle in Cedar City where my Corry side of the family is from.

Nellie Unthank

aged ten,
walked, starved, froze
with the Martin Company
and left her parents in shallow graves
near the Sweetwater.

The Richards on First South
hugged their children's heads to muffle
Nellie, strapped to a board, without anesthetic,
screaming, her frost-black feet
removed with a butcher knife
and a carpenter saw

After that she walked on her knees,

married in polygamy to
William Unthank (of Cedar City)
who took her home to one room with a dirt floor
She damped and scraped the floor
hard and smooth as sandstone,
washed it every day;
clean muslin curtains at the window,
on good box cupboards,

Saturday nights the hearth whitened
and Nellie made her way
knitting, crocheting, carding wool,
kneeling by the washtub set on blocks
scrubbing townspeople's clothes on the board
and trade a yeast start for
a handful of sugar sent in the jar.

Said never to another operation --
waddled on leather kneepads in her little skirt
dragging her unhealed stumps
or pushed herself on a board on wheels.

Once a year Nellie and her six children cleaned
the meeting house.
The boys fetched water.
Annie, Martha, Polly washed the windows.
Nellie scrubbed the floor.

--Iris Parker Corry

A few summer requirements achieved

I realize it's been almost a month since I updated, and this is not due to a lack of inspiration, but to the priority that I've placed on blogging. But I've committed to do a mini update tonight of what has been consuming the month of July, which includes a few requisite summer activities listed below.

1. Summer Reading
I'm obsessed with this book that I'm reading Three Cups of Tea if you've talked to me in the last few weeks chances are that I've brought it up. It's a truly inspirational story of former climber Greg Mortensen who recovers from a failed attempt at climbing K2 in a small village in Pakistan and vows to return and build a school there after he sees the longing for the children there to receive an education and the inability of the government to provide it to them. It is a story that I think anyone who has traveled to a developing country can relate to as you visit for a short period of time and I think in our most idealistic moments we all make promises or at least think to ourselves how much we would love to come back and try to do or create something for this community that has taught us so much. Greg Mortsensen is someone who did this and more. Nicholas Kristof wrote this article in the New York Times that acurately portrays what I think our approach to foreign policy and national security should focus more heavily on, building schools instead of bombs as he says.

2. Gardening
What started as an herb garden earlier this spring become much more a few weeks ago. I had a friend introduce me to the concept of square foot gardening, then we held a workshop where we had a girl who had taught square foot gardening on her mission teach us about gardening and composting. I was fascinated and the thought of becoming a little more self sufficient and watching something grow was very appealing. Setting up the garden really wasn't that much work or that expensive. And here are some pictures of my garden after three weeks. I'm hoping that it continues to grow and produces despite my late start. I am growing tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos, cilantro, cucumbers, beans, lettuce, carrots, basil, rosemary, squash and zuccini. If any of you have minimal time and space for a garden I strongly recommend this method. Email me or do your research on the internet, there is a lot of information available.
3. Road Trips
Definitely an essential part of any summer and this summer has been no exception. I spent this weekend in Cincinnati, and thanks to the Jensen's and their hospitality and letting us take advantage of their "all inclusive suburban resort" we had a weekend that struck just the right balance of relaxation and fun.


Amber's family didn't seem to mind that at least one of the guys that went with us was trying to mold his tastes in baseball and music. There was also second cousin uncle Dan and Andy competing with Joe to be the competing to be the new favorite.

Cooling off after a morning of tennis and preparing for the first decathlon event, a race across the pool on inflated mattresses.

First and second row seats directly behind home plate with the diamond club. That's just the way we roll. I was agog I was aghast when we walked in an they handed us a gift bag, told us there was a gourmet all you can eat buffet, followed by full service during the game. Hot dogs, slushees, peanuts, nachos, ice cream and any other ball park fare on demand and included with the ticket. Diva Dan even wanted a Red's hat and so one of the workers brought him hats of varying sizes for him to choose from. I called my parents and had them turn on the game and they were able to see us on tv, my mom said she has never been more proud of me, I don't know if that's something that I should be proud of.

The game was great, and the reds won and don't you worry as if the best seats in the house, great company and perfect weather weren't enough. They had a softball home run derby after the game followed by one of the best fireworks shows I've ever seen.

Saturday we went to King's Island, conquered the beast, ate skyline chili and had a hot dog-off. Who won is subjective and controversial, like most offs that have happened this summer. If you could the number of hot dogs that would be Joe, but if you think most food should win that would be Dan. That night we saw The Dark Night, which I'm sure everyone has or will see. It was incredible. We spent Sunday afternoon in Columbus Ohio and met up with my roommates Stephanie and Erika and our friend Kristie. Steph is from Columbus and it was definitely a treat to meet the Sonksen's and Stephanie's mom is incredibly kind and entertaining, just like her daughter.

I am recommitting myself to better document the rest of the summer and catch up on a few of the events that I didn't get to in this post.

Life Plan

Every couple of months I tend to come up with a new life plan. The plan usually involves me quitting my job in the next 3-6 months and traveling to some exotic location. Then I find a reason to not do that and 3-6 months later I make the same plan. I've realized there is a pattern here and this has been going on for at least a year and a half. Hmmmmm.

In the meantime I entertain myself by thinking of funny (in my head) captions to go along with pictures like this one. Please caption away.

The art of losing

Anyone who knew me when I was attending BYU knows that I always joked that I was best friends with the students that worked in the lost and found. If I would lose something as insignificant as a folder or as significant as a credit card or a cell phones, without a doubt I would head to the basement of the wilk, ring the bell and a friendly zoobie would return my property to me. It became a running joke with my roommates about my bestfriendship with the lost and found.
So one might think that once I moved away from Happy Valley to Washington D.C. that my luck wouldn't follow me. That assumption couldn't be further from the truth. I remember the first month I moved out here twice I was walking downtown on my lunch break and somehow my credit card fell out of my pocket or purse and onto the sidewalk. And both times I had on my headphones and was chased down by some good Samaritan who returned it to me.
Since those first few incidents, I have been more careful, but on multiple occasions I have left my ipod in the gym locker room at work and it was always returned to me. But this last month has been particularly difficult for me to keep track of my stuff. However, to date I have only lost what was stolen from me in Costa Rica. I have left the following items:

• In New York I left my credit card at the register and it was kindly returned to me
• In another restaurant in New York I left my camera on the table after we left and the waiter chased us down
• I dropped some tickets from my purse in the metro station and some lady chased me down and ran up the escalator to return them to me
• Last week there was a banging on our door at 11:30 pm and Jeanette answered it and it was someone in our neighborhood returning my wallet that had been lying in the road for a couple of hours

My favorite DC story actually happened last year. I was going to "the melrose" to visit some friends and watch the office when I tripped and fell pretty bad on the sidewalk. All my belongings went flying and I thought I had gathered everything. However, as I was being bandaged up by Doctor Tina there was a knock on the door and some lady was there and she was returning my wallet. How did she know where to find me in a large apartment complex? My BYU ID, she knew Mormons lived where I was and assumed I was there.

Brilliant. I may lose a lot of things, but they always come back to me. And BYU, I thank you for that.

NYC

This past weekend I went to New York City to spend time with my friend Jen who I had met on a bike trip the previous month. It was so great to meet her because I had heard a lot about her, been compared to her and I already knew we had a lot in common. Although I'll admit I had no idea what a connection we would have. She's amazing, but if I feel like if I say too many great things about her, I will sound narcissistic, since essentially we're the same person. But we had an amazing trip and I'm so glad I was able to spend some quality time with her before she moves to the West Coast.


Here I am with Jen and Lisa at lunch after our initial meeting and bike ride in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I think it was right about now that we decided we had to go up to New York before Jen moved to San Diego. Unfortunately Lisa had a work emergency and wasn't able to join us in NYC. I'm still in mourning. Nevertheless, I went, and I'm so glad I did. This was my fifth trip to New York, but definitely my favorite. This was the first time I had gone specifically to visit a friend who lived there and seeing New York with a local is the only way to do it.

Highlights from the trip:

• People watching outside of Penn Station and seeing such treats as a very pregnant woman who was wearing a shirt that said "I'm single" on the front and "Call me" on the back
• Walking back to Jen's apartment in Harlem at 1:30 in the morning after grocery shopping and seeing police tape blocking off a large area and seeing a helicopter overhead with a huge spotlight patrolling the area. I ask "Was someone murdered?" Jen responds very casually "Yea, probably."

• Biking almost the entire perimeter of Manhattan. Although at times I feared for my life dodging cars, and had to bike in weather that was 94 degrees and very humid (after I wiped my face on my sleeve there was black exhaust covering my shirt sleeve). It was still exhilarating and I think the best way to see the city, we biked along the Hudson, through Battery Park, up Fifth Avenue and through Central Park. Here we are right next to the Stock Exchange on Wall Street.

• Front row tickets to the Broadway show Curtains starring David Hyde Pierce who we found strangely attractive.
  

• Eating this truly decadent dessert at Max Brenner Chocolate by the Bald Man and catching up with old friends living in New York. Jane a good friend since elementary school and Julie who I met in D.C. and recently moved to NYC for grad school.

• Sleeping out on the roof of Jen's apartment
• A random picnic in the primary room after church and an exercise where the boys in town for summer gave Jen their security sales pitch and she tried to convince them to vote for Obama.
  
• Waking up to a brunch Sunday morning that Jen had made of corn pancakes with strawberries and yogurt.

• This is as close as it gets to the beach in Manhattan. It was close to 100 degrees that day and anytime we saw even a tiny piece of grass there were people laying out. Hilarious.

Here are some other noteworthy recent events that I won't dedicate an entire post to.
Bowling at the White House. Strike. And I do have two fully functioning arms, even though this picture would indicate otherwise.
Mormon night at the Death Cab for Cutie Concert. We smuggled in KFC and Bobby hid his chicken snacker under his hat.
Another sign that Jen and I were destined to be friends. She would do yoga with me in the parking lot after biking in Pennsylvania.
Dutch Bike Dutch. This was the second time I attended this event that has become a D.C. favorite. A great activity no matter how avid of a biker you are. We drive up to Amish country and bike through the rural countryside. And I just have a bond with bikers, here are more instant best friends, Lisa and Tyler. And yes I know right now the song "primary colors are one, two, three" is going through your head right now.

Costa Rica in short

Yes we were robbed
No there were no weapons, my friend told me that if I wanted to be technical I need to say burglarized, but all I can think about when I hear the word burglar is the image of the McDonald's Hamburglar
Yes we came home early
No I didn't swim in the ocean while we were there
Yes I did laugh so hard I cried and my stomach was sore the next day
No I didn't find my one and only, but Courtney did
Yes after we were robbed one of our few possessions was three full decks of cards to play nertz with at night
No we didn't have an oven in the hostel, but that didn't stop us from making delicious brownies in the microwave
Yes we did find a disgusting monster of a crab in one of the rooms we stayed in. I think crabs are my least favorite animal.
No it did not escape alive
Yes we did fly over a tropical storm on our way home. The plane had some major bumps, people on the plane screamed, the scene from the plane going down on lost flew threw my head
No I didn't need to worry, we were flying on the premiere airline based in El Salvador: Taca.

Needless to say the trip was not all that we expected, but what I did expect was to have a great time traveling with two of my dearest friends from D.C. Sarah and Courtney. That made everything worth it and we were able to laugh and joke the entire time despite a few setbacks. And we had one unforgettable day in La Fortuna that included a horseback ride galloping through the rainforest at the base of a volcano and around a beautiful lake with our Tico caballero Jonathen who would pick flowers to put in our hair. Drinking Pina Coladas served in a pinapple from a bar that had seats in the pool, a zip-line canopy tour, soaking in thermal hot springs, and a dinner where I have laughed more hard than I have in months.

Here are a few pictures. Enjoy!
The small joys of traveling. The volcano in the background was expected. The delicious watermelon we enjoyed while watching a group of local teenagers perform capoiera in the park wasn't.

We joked about how in all of our pictures we were either wet from the rain or pool or else eating.

The horseback ride a relaxing afternoon at a beautiful water park were both parts of what was truly one of the best days of my life.The crab hunt. See how resourceful we are using a mirror to spot him hanging upside down under the armoire and nudge him out with a giant tropical leaf.

These are the crocodiles we were looking at when the heinous crime occurred. They might look like floating logs and you think I'm just saying they are crocodiles to make myself look not as stupid. The belongings we were left with. About ten magazines. some wet ones, three decks of cards, one Book of Mormon, two ipods, granola bars, some wet wipes and three decks of cards.

Life Lessons

Today I had an experience with a homeless man that touched me profoundly. I am not sharing this story to boast or say what a great person that I am. In fact, daily I walk by panhandlers and beggers and don't even notice or even become annoyed at their persistence in asking for a handout. I have found plenty of reasons to justify not following King Benjamin's council to "succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish". However, today something happened reawakened my idealism and reminded me of the inequality that exists in our society today.

I was walking through Lafayette Park on my way to lunch when I saw an older man rummaging through the garbage. For those of you not in D.C. this park is right along the back side of the White House. It is beautiful and well-maintained and full of security so it seemed a little out of place. Then I noticed that he was taking leftover soup from bowls in the trash can and pouring them into a cup that he was holding. I could not bear to watch this. I opened my wallet and I only had a ten and a twenty. I walked over and offered him the ten dollars and he shook his head no. I asked him why and he asked if I had a dollar bill. I told him I didn't this was all that I had. He held out his hand, and I assumed that he wanted the money, but he wouldn't take it. Instead he took my hand and kissed it. I didn't know what to do, I felt tears coming and I walked quickly across the street to potbelly's. I wanted to buy him a sandwich and get change for my ten. However, by the time that I had returned he was gone and I walked around the park, but was disappointed that I couldn't find him.

I know that there are no easy answers to these kind of problems. I was reminded of an experience last year when I was meeting up with some friends for lunch and as my friend Staci was walking to meet us she ran into a good friend and neighbor from high school asking for money on the street. He was homeless and had been living on the streets of D.C. for a few months. Obviously we all wanted to help him and Staci used all her resources and connections to find him a job and housing and reconnect him with his family. However, he wouldn't accept the help and he was mentally ill, it was really difficult to know what to do to help. Until all of us became disillusioned and decided you can't help someone who doesn't want to help themselves.

These problems are difficult and they have been addressed for years by politicians, activists, non profits and religious groups. There are no easy answers. I studied international relations as an undergraduate and used to really want to work in international development. Now my view has turned more inward as I have realized that there is so much that needs to be done in my own community where I can be more effective. But I ask you, where and how do you feel that you can or have made the most difference in your life?

Final(ly)

I know I haven't updated for awhile. But let's face it, I'm in finals, and my family came and visited a few weeks ago, which I will have to dedicate a post to as soon as I'm finished. I'm almost done and today, to get me excited for summer, I made a list of projects to begin next week while I'm at work with all my free time when the semester is over.

• Make a list of summer concerts I want to attend and invite interested friends
• Research a triathlon for August or September
• Plan a weekend beach trip to Rehoboth in June
• Plan my Costa Rica trip with Sarah and Courtney at the end of May
• Plan a Brazil foreign film night/screen on the green
• Research tennis tournaments
• Sign up to be on the event mailings and lunch seminars for think tanks and non profits close to work
• Expand my group project on greening Baltimore’s fleet and work with the city to present it
• Create a VA biking group
• Create an environmental group that looks at the issue from an LDS perspective

And although I'm not going to give the Corry's trip to D.C. the full post it deserves (now), I do have to give a shout out to my Mom. It was her birthday on Monday and although it's cliche she really is the most amazing woman I know. Even though she screened my phone call last night because I called during American Idol. I still love her.

She is the kind of person that puts everyone else's needs and wants before her own, in fact she always put our wants before her needs. She would pull all nighters with me working on school projects, be my partner in crime for party planning, invite me on bike or ski trips with her fun friends, plant tulip bulbs in the neighbors yards at 6:00 a.m. before anyone in the neighborhood woke up, she still sends me packages just for fun, and she helped found the "shadowlight foundation" which has brought Christmas to hundreds of families. Pretty much whenever I call her she's taking someone to a doctor's appointment, visiting, helping my sister with her horses, or doing genealogy. She's seriously an angel, my inspiration and I love her so much.

Here's Steph and my parents just hanging out in Dubya's rose garden.

Excuse me Miss, but what exactly are you doing?

This was the greeting I got from a D.C. cop yesterday when I was driving downtown looking for parking after I had picked up my family. He knocked on my window so politely I thought he was going to help me find a parking spot. No, he was knocking on my window to ask me why I had been driving on the left side of the road. I looked at him confused and said "but I thought this was a one way road." I looked to my right and saw a long line of cars being entertained by my mishap and confirmed that there was a double yellow line. I definitely put the car in reverse and backed up half a block to the end of the line my head bowed in shame. Arguably putting myself more at risk than driving on the wrong side of the road.

GRRRRRR

This weekend a couple of things happened that made me feel like I could justifiably be in a bad mood, and I tried hard to be grumpy and here's why:

• Taxes - as if the sucker punch of finding out that I owe the IRS a significant amount of money wasn't enough, technology decided to go ahead and kick me while I was trying to recover and my e-file was rejected twice and I can't figure out why. I just want to give them my money, why won't they take my money. I'm beginning to question the quote Jeanette showed me by Emerson: "The state is a poor, good beast who means best, It is a poor cow that means well by you, do not begrudge it its hay."
  
• New Laptop - I purchased a new dell laptop one month ago, and apparently I should have heeded Grayden's doomsday prophecy because sure enough the operating system failed on Friday and I lost all my data. The good news is that I did only have the laptop for a month so I didn't lose that much and most everything is backed up. The bad news is I only had the laptop a month and it makes me fearful of what is yet to come and of course the warranty is only 21 days. Dell's customer and technical support has been less than accommodating as well.
• Dogs - two of them, I don't really need to say anymore on this.
• Losing to Peter at tennis - it was the only thing I could hold over his head in our rivalry, that I had beat him, now I have nothing and he is the most competitive person I know.
  

I really want to just mope around and be grumpy about all of this, but several things have kept me from jumping off that proverbial bridge.

• The Corry's (Mom, Dad and Steph) are coming to D.C. this week
• I got an A on my midterm and school is over in four weeks
• Serendipitously running into several friends randomly in downtown D.C. the mall and Kabob Palace this weekend
• Roommates who offer to take me for a ride in the bug with the top down and buy me ice cream (but wait I was off sugar this week, it really was the perfect storm of bad events)
• Spring blossoms and warm weather
• This song that Kristjan introduced me to
  
• Haircut and a new dress
• I have a week in Costa Rica to look forward to next month with Sarah and Courtney.
  

Lo siento that I don't have new pictures, but everything is on my other laptop, ugh, remembering the positives, remembering the positives.

The world as my class room...

Recently I've been trying to take advantage of my downtown office location and attend more of the ubiquitous free lunch and dinner seminars and events that are held at different organizations downtown. There are opportunities for education, entertainment and networking in pretty much any field you're interested in. Here are some of the perks: you get to rub shoulders with people who you can name drop later (that's a joke, no one outside of small policy circles would know who these speakers are), yummy free food, learning new, albeit generally useless, facts that may impress your friends later, avoid homework and put myself in uncomfortable social situations.

The uncomfortable social situation one has been a good way to push myself out of my mini-BYU world that I live in because some of these events I have attended alone. I soon realized that it's really hard for me to talk to guys that aren't Mormon. I need to work on building a small talk repertoire that works better for a general crowd. This is how the last couple of conversations with guys I've met at these events has gone: Names, jobs, where we're from, if they're from the west we talk about how we miss the west and differences between east and west, school and then there is two seconds of silence, I freak out and say I've got to go. And by go, I mean go get a mini-quiche and stand alone in the corner and try to avoid further eye contact. Yes I am 26 not 16, but I'm working on this.

Last week I attended a movie and reception for the movie Illicit: The Dark Side of Trade. It was a fascinating film at National Geographic about the illegal trade, which is estimated to total one trillion dollars a year. No small sum, but it talks about the effects on us as consumers of sometimes tainted products and on innovation and creativity if intellectual property cannot be protected. Here's the trailer:

Last night I attended The Human Footprint. This visually showed how much an American will consume in a lifetime. The presentation was creative, but the dramatic effect faded a little after the first twenty minutes, we ended up leaving early. It definitely helps to reinforce the fact that Americans consume a ridiculous amount of energy and goods, but at the same time it can be a little depressing because there's not a whole lot you can do to change the fact that we have to shower, eat and cloth ourselves. But I think we can all take steps to decrease our consumption without negatively affecting our standard of living. Here's the trailer and a few visuals for this film.


I have also been attending lunch events at different think tanks and non profit groups in the district. I will not bore you with anymore details, but I will put in a plug for those of you living in D.C., come learn with me!

Best practices week

Right now I should be asleep. But I realized due to bad sleeping habits I tend to get into over the weekend (staying up until 2 and sleeping in until 10) I can't sleep. So naturally I started thinking about goals and improving my life, okay I wish it were more naturally, but tonight I actually was thinking about this. I thought about how I'll get an idea of how to improve my life and I'll resolve to implement this everyday for the rest of my life. I try and it lasts maybe two days until I realize that this is totally impractical. It hasn't worked yet and I don't know why I expect that it will start working now. So I decided I need to not make five huge lifestyle goal changes at once, and I need to not expect that I can make goals that are all or nothing.
My new goal is to implement one "best practice" a week. This would be something that I wish I would do everyday for the rest of my life, but call me a pessimist, but I realize I won't. I hope that by following these best practices for a week, I can realize the effect it has on my life and at least make it somewhat of a more regular habit. Here is the beginning of my list, some are definitely easier than others, I figure I'll do easy, hard, easy, hard. What are some of your ideas?

• Pack lunch everyday for work
• Work out one hour a day
• No desserts
• Sleep eight hours every night
• Wake up at 7:00 a.m. each morning
• No internet after work (unless it's homework related)
• Scripture study one half hour a day
• No money spent on conspicuous consumption (only food other daily necessities)
  
• Eat Vegetarian
• Don't drive a car
• No gchat
• Call or email one friend I haven't talked to in the last three months each day
• Ten minute prayers night and day
• Listen to only classical music or church talks on my ipod
• One sincere, thought out act of service each day
• Don't go to bed until my room is completely clean
• Don't leave work until my desk is completely cleared off
• Don't leave a dish in the sink
• Invite one person that I don't normally hang out with to every activity I go to that week
  

Adventures with interns

Since I started my job almost (gasp) a year and a half ago, I have worked with the same four people, but occasionally we get an intern, it's fun to mix things up and add a little youth to the office, since the rest of my co-workers are all older than my parents. This last week we had a one week intern from Georgia, and she was a treat, for so many reasons. Thanks to gchat I was able to give my friends instant updates and ask for tips on what to do with my intern.

First I try to validate my need for an intern:

RKB: Since when did you have enough work to need/deserve an intern?
me: Ouch Ryan. I have been doing very important things today...ok not really.
RKB: just be sure to use and abuse him/her
me: of course send them to the copy machine to copy a 1000 page book
RKB: yes, and make sure it is a bound book so they will have to do it one page at a time

PK: I wouldn't really call your job work
me: whatever, I have an intern, I have arrived
PK: ooohh an intern, send em out to get you food
me: she did bring me back a cookie the other day
PK: How sweet
me: I'm a good boss
PK: so not a male thing to do

Then the intern comes...but I don't really know what to do with her. She just sits there and stares at me blankly (I know, I do have the tendency to cause people to become awestruck)
Luckily Grayden was full of ideas

G: just use for entertainment, make her stand on one leg, out in the middle of the office. Or sing "come sail away with me" when anyone says a secret word.

How I wished I worked the friends....

Then the fun really began when I related stories from my intern, who it turns out was a college freshman. We walked to lunch one day and she told me that she had thought about law school, but she was worried that she would be convict someone of a crime then they would escape from prison and murder her...right that happens all the time.

G: you should tell your intern that she's right to fear becoming a lawyer, I have to avoid death squads almost daily
me: but is that because you're a lawyer, or your mysterious/shady past
G: oh, well yeah, I guess you are right, but I always thought it was the lawyer thing
you should tell your intern that you have a friend who is a lawyer and who was almost kidnapped by the taliban and survived attempts on his life by the Fedayeed Saddam and who has a wicked scar on his chest from a knife attack

DJN: I love your intern, assassinated? WTF
me: and she was dead serious
DJN: Did you laugh
me: best intern moments from today
a) she brought me back a cookie from her lunch at potbelly's, I could really get used to this
b) she asked me if on a white house tour you get to meet the president
c) she told me that office supply stores smell better than any other store
DJN: spectacular on all fronts

Note: To those who I quoted, there have been some minor edits and combining of multiple chats.

And on an unrelated note. Happy Easter. Easter is fast becoming one of my favorite holidays and a tradition has begun for Sarah and I to play Easter Bunny. I think that was actually one of my very first blog posts. So we did it again this year followed by an easter dinner for 25, eggceptional! And nothing says spring like a picture of us posed among daffodils.

Life is a balancing act

This week has been action packed to say the least. I got TEXT announcements (what is the world coming to) that my dear friend and college roommate Liz is getting married. And that Des is pregnant. Those who know me well have heard Des stories she forms 1/3 of the formidable threesome Jenster, Mills and Deslee. As if that wasn't enough this weekend Uhle Street hosted an engagement party for former Uhle Streeter Suzy and her husband to be Stewart and all this made for an introspective, exciting and nostalgic week. I have realized that it hurts me to see that I can't relate with a lot of my good friends as they are going through this life changes, but at the same time I am so happy for them and this change and progression in their lives.
All of this excitement was compounded by a quick spring break trip to the Dominican Republic (I got back last Wednesday), Courtney's birthday party at Medieval Times Friday, a trip with good friends to Cici's (an all you can eat pizza buffet) Thursday, the arrival of spring in D.C. that prompted a morning roommate run, an all girl brunch, doubles tennis, and mountain biking at Foundtainhead on Saturday, and visits from D.C. ex-pats and good friends Jeff H. and Katy V. left me not hurting for fun. Then there are the logistics of my truly adult world with mid-terms this week, entertaining an office intern (she merits her own post which will come later) and prepping for Easter weekend.
Now that I've mentally vomited my last week onto this keyboard, let me post a few pictures to accompany the sound bites.
Here are the roommates (minus Steph) reunited and proudly showing off the results of an impromptu bridal shower for Suzy. We all painted our fingernails, I know that all these hands look a little creepy so I had to explain myself. We asked our friend to tell us which girls he would date based on our finger nail color only. After looking at our hands he decided Katy's color was hooker red and she would be easy, Erika was high-maintenance, I was fun loving and Jeanette was a hippy. Infer what you will, but it was an entertaining exercise.
That blurry body there is me. Coming down one of the 27 waterfalls on a hike we did in The Dominican Republic, which was called appropriately, 27 waterfalls. It was my kind of hiking, scrambling up rocks and swimming through crystal blue pools for two hours and then on the way down you jump off rocks and slide down natural water slides. B-L-I-S-S
This is Playa Grande in Dominica Republic. The beach was beautiful and relaxing, but getting there and away was another story. Our means of transportation included cramped mini-bus, three people on a motor cycle taxi, racist French surfers who picked us up hitchhiking and then finally a car where another passenger had an open container of alcohol he offered us and there were ten people in one sedan. The driver sat on someone's lap, there were two others in the passengers seat, four in the back seat and then two in the trunk. I loved every minute of it, while fearing for my life.
Friday was Courtney's birthday and to celebrate we went to Medieval Times where you are transported in time in a castle that is attached to the mall to the 1500's. It's unlike anything else, you wear a crown, eat with your hands, watch a performance where knights fight for the affection of a princess and battle each other in jousting and hand to hand combat.
Spence isn't sure if this piece of chicken is big enough for him. And yes we are a bunch of adults in our mid twenties and early thirties who consistently engage in activities better suited for nine year olds, I know, I know.