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.