So sometimes I have a little bit of free time at work, oh wait a lot of time I have free time at work. Or at least I create my own free time. Something that I have found way too much fun doing is name generating sites. Even though I know it's completely random, it's a guilty pleasure akin to reading horoscopes. So here are a few that I have appreciated, what's your air guitar and mormon name??
I'm Jennilyn Celestial Glory and Jenny "airoholic" Corry. Fitting, no?
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Friday, June 1, 2007
Welcome to Duck Beach: Greased Watermelons, Crab Hunts, and hundreds of single mormons looking for love
There is a serious tradition that exists on the east coast that I was never aware of until I moved here. Every Memorial Day weekend Mormons flock from areas as far flung as California, Florida, Boston, and Canada (we even had a few Finnish guys to mix things up). Some come seeking love, some want to escape the city life, and some 'girls just wanna have fun.'
Basically you get a group of of your friends, twenty to thirty people, and you rent these massive beach houses for the weekend. Then the fun begins, there are parties every night, a volleyball tournament (which was extremely well organized thanks to my roommate Leanna), skin boarding, wiffleball, impromptu dance parties, kayaking, and just an excuse for everyone to hang out without the stress of work or school. Camille came to visit from Utah, and it was so great to have her here, so she can finally put faces with names and we could spend some much needed quality time. And as many of you know, I am on a quest to get everyone I know in Utah (and other far flung places) to move to DC, and Duck Beach is a major selling point.
See how we grimace in pain as Spence, Jeff, Reed, Todd, Odie and I fight over the greased watermelon.
Me, Dan, Sarah, Courtney, Reed, Odie, and Grayden enjoying the final of the volleyball tournament. Funny note to add to this picture. This is immediately after a few of these guys had decided to bury me in the sand. While I was laying there with my head propped up on a sand pillow perfectly content watching the game this guy trips over me and ruins everything even though my friends had warned him I was there. Well when I sit up I realized it was the ex-BYU volleyball player who had spiked the ball in my face earlier that day. Needless to say our relationship progressed no further.
This is the house we stayed in, and the parking lot which was the result of having thirty people stay in your house that was only supposed to sleep eighteen.
Hopefully, when I get some more pictures from other people of the crab hunt and other highlights of the trip I will post them for your viewing pleasure.
Basically you get a group of of your friends, twenty to thirty people, and you rent these massive beach houses for the weekend. Then the fun begins, there are parties every night, a volleyball tournament (which was extremely well organized thanks to my roommate Leanna), skin boarding, wiffleball, impromptu dance parties, kayaking, and just an excuse for everyone to hang out without the stress of work or school. Camille came to visit from Utah, and it was so great to have her here, so she can finally put faces with names and we could spend some much needed quality time. And as many of you know, I am on a quest to get everyone I know in Utah (and other far flung places) to move to DC, and Duck Beach is a major selling point.
See how we grimace in pain as Spence, Jeff, Reed, Todd, Odie and I fight over the greased watermelon.
Me, Dan, Sarah, Courtney, Reed, Odie, and Grayden enjoying the final of the volleyball tournament. Funny note to add to this picture. This is immediately after a few of these guys had decided to bury me in the sand. While I was laying there with my head propped up on a sand pillow perfectly content watching the game this guy trips over me and ruins everything even though my friends had warned him I was there. Well when I sit up I realized it was the ex-BYU volleyball player who had spiked the ball in my face earlier that day. Needless to say our relationship progressed no further.
This is the house we stayed in, and the parking lot which was the result of having thirty people stay in your house that was only supposed to sleep eighteen. Hopefully, when I get some more pictures from other people of the crab hunt and other highlights of the trip I will post them for your viewing pleasure.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Vamos a Ecuador
Meet Team Mojado: Reed, Grayden, and Jenny
Since now I am an adult and have a full-time job I sit at a desk all day and I am always signed into my gmail account. This ends up forcing you to become an instant messager addict because the people you email that have gmail automatically appear in an instant messaging window. Anyways, this is relevant to my post because in a way gchat is responsible for getting me to Ecuador. You can personalize your status on gchat and I had written "I need a vacation" and my friend Grayden saw this and invited me to go to Ecuador with him and our friend Reed. I don't think he thought that I would take it seriously since I do have a full-time job and they were leaving in two weeks. But I took it very seriously and by the end of the day I had talked to my boss and decided that I was going to go. It was just what I needed, even though it was too short (I was only there for five days) it satiated my need to flee that I tend to feel every six months and allowed me to spend time doing things that I love with fun friends in Latin America where I really wish I could spend more time.
Our first day in Banos we rented bikes, and when you pay five dollars for an all day mountain bike rental you should probably know that you shouldn't expect too high of quality. We attempted to finish a sixty kilometer ride from Banos to Puyo. Which may have been possible, but we were too easily distracted by cable cars that you ride on like a zip line from one side of the river to the other, waterfalls, rainstorms, and riverside cafes. Not to mention our bike equipment that was definetly subpar, half the time somebody was either unable to shift gears, our chain had fallen off, or the gear pad was almost completely worn down (which is definitely sketchy on a mostly downhill road shared with blind corners that your sharing with buses and trucks driving Latin America style). But the ride was beautiful as we started in Banos, which is a village nestled below a volcano in the Andes, and as we descend thousands of feet towards Puyo you can literally see the change in the vegetation as we moved from the tropical high lands to the Amazon rain forst basin.
The next day we had planned to go river rafting, but it had been raining for thirty straight hours and the roads were a mess. There were landslides and rockslides covering all the roads out of the city and the water was so high, so they canceled our river trip. So I spent the morning getting a massage while the boys worked on getting a fire started in our fireplace. In the afternoon we visited the local Catholic church which is covered in murals depicting miracles that happened to people in Banos from saving men who were walking across bridges that collapsed to saving villages from volcano eruptions thanks to the Virgin Mary.
Our last day the rain stopped and we were able to do our rafting trip. This picture doesn't really do the river justice (the rapids were pretty large with consistent class 3 and 4 rapids) but you can see that it looks like the chocolate river in Willy Wonka. The water is silty from all the volcanic sediment in the water. And as we were rafting we could hear landslides all around us. We were lucky/unlucky enough to be on a trip with a bunch of drunk Russians which provided us with plenty of entertainment as we watched them struggle to paddle our boat. When our boat capsized and Grayden and I were pulled downstream the Russian boat rescued us and pulled us in. And as they chanted in Russian we can smell the alcohol with every stroke. And the kicked was that our rafting tour started at 8:30 in the morning.
Since now I am an adult and have a full-time job I sit at a desk all day and I am always signed into my gmail account. This ends up forcing you to become an instant messager addict because the people you email that have gmail automatically appear in an instant messaging window. Anyways, this is relevant to my post because in a way gchat is responsible for getting me to Ecuador. You can personalize your status on gchat and I had written "I need a vacation" and my friend Grayden saw this and invited me to go to Ecuador with him and our friend Reed. I don't think he thought that I would take it seriously since I do have a full-time job and they were leaving in two weeks. But I took it very seriously and by the end of the day I had talked to my boss and decided that I was going to go. It was just what I needed, even though it was too short (I was only there for five days) it satiated my need to flee that I tend to feel every six months and allowed me to spend time doing things that I love with fun friends in Latin America where I really wish I could spend more time.
Our first day in Banos we rented bikes, and when you pay five dollars for an all day mountain bike rental you should probably know that you shouldn't expect too high of quality. We attempted to finish a sixty kilometer ride from Banos to Puyo. Which may have been possible, but we were too easily distracted by cable cars that you ride on like a zip line from one side of the river to the other, waterfalls, rainstorms, and riverside cafes. Not to mention our bike equipment that was definetly subpar, half the time somebody was either unable to shift gears, our chain had fallen off, or the gear pad was almost completely worn down (which is definitely sketchy on a mostly downhill road shared with blind corners that your sharing with buses and trucks driving Latin America style). But the ride was beautiful as we started in Banos, which is a village nestled below a volcano in the Andes, and as we descend thousands of feet towards Puyo you can literally see the change in the vegetation as we moved from the tropical high lands to the Amazon rain forst basin.
The next day we had planned to go river rafting, but it had been raining for thirty straight hours and the roads were a mess. There were landslides and rockslides covering all the roads out of the city and the water was so high, so they canceled our river trip. So I spent the morning getting a massage while the boys worked on getting a fire started in our fireplace. In the afternoon we visited the local Catholic church which is covered in murals depicting miracles that happened to people in Banos from saving men who were walking across bridges that collapsed to saving villages from volcano eruptions thanks to the Virgin Mary.
Our last day the rain stopped and we were able to do our rafting trip. This picture doesn't really do the river justice (the rapids were pretty large with consistent class 3 and 4 rapids) but you can see that it looks like the chocolate river in Willy Wonka. The water is silty from all the volcanic sediment in the water. And as we were rafting we could hear landslides all around us. We were lucky/unlucky enough to be on a trip with a bunch of drunk Russians which provided us with plenty of entertainment as we watched them struggle to paddle our boat. When our boat capsized and Grayden and I were pulled downstream the Russian boat rescued us and pulled us in. And as they chanted in Russian we can smell the alcohol with every stroke. And the kicked was that our rafting tour started at 8:30 in the morning.
Monday, April 23, 2007
NYC Baby
So this weekend I spent exactly 24 hours in New York City, and I had a great time. It's funny comparing road trips in DC to Utah. Instead driving four hours to end up in the red rock heaven of Moab or charming quaint Jackson Hole we have Philly that's two hours away, New York is four hours and Boston is eight. It's a different kind of escape and the adventure always brings the unexpected. For instance on this New York trip we were in China town looking at knock off purses. My roommate Staci (in the middle in the above picture) wanted a particular bag that you had to go a hidden room in a warehouse to see. So we followed this women three blocks away into an alley and through a huge metal door. We climbed four flights of stairs and when she opened the door I was shocked to see about thirty Asian men and women at sewing machines with fabric everywhere working at creating these designer knockoffs for the tourists. I felt like I had stepped back in time about fifty years, or at least crossed the border to a different country.
On our whirlwind tour of New York we visited Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhatten Temple, and Times Square. We also helped my roommate Staci prepare for the annual "Wheeler Party" that her and her brothers host. There were probably around 200 Young Single Adults from the area who came to their Hawaiian themed party, however I was exhausted and really not in the mood to make small talk with a bunch of people that I probably would never see again so I went and took a nap for about an hour and a half, then woke up in time to dance for about a half hour before the party died down. New York is an amazing city, but I was just reminded of how I really don't ever want to live there, when we came back to DC it seemed so small, clean, and familiar. Home.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
My latest obsessions....
Okay, so I'm at a loss for what to write, but feel like I should write something here at least weekly. So here are a few books I'm reading, songs I'm listening to, websites I'm digging, hobbies I'm cultivating etc.
So yesterday my roommate Leanna was so excited to show me this website she has found www.bfro.net look it up and you'll understand. It's a website run by the scientific research organization dedicated to exploring the bigfoot/sasquatch mystery. Folks this is no joke. It's actually a girl in our ward who's brother runs the site. Anyways they have bigfoot expeditions all around the country where you spend the weekend in a place that has had numerous bigfoot sightings. Conveniently there is an expedition in South Carolina on November 8...I'm really pushing to head there for my birthday next year, can you think of a better way to spend 26? Me neither.
So here is a playlist of some songs that I'm listening to, anyone who knows me knows that I love finding new bands and sharing my discoveries so here goes:
Concrete Seconds - Pinback
Shiver - Chris Velan
In the morning - Junior Boys
Concerning the UFO sighting near Highland, Illinois - Sufjan Stevens
Decatur, Or round of applause for your stepmother! - Sufjan Stevens
Come and find me - Josh Ritter
Big Sur - The Thrills
El Salvador - Athlete
Wake up - The Arcade Fire
Baby Boy - Beyonce
Its Too Late - Evermore
Saint Simon - The Shins
Skeleton Jar - Youth Group
Nothings Gonna Change Your Mind - Badly Drawn Boy
A House Is Not A Home - Field Music
Be Without You - Mary J. Blige
July, July! - The Decembrists
Ruby - Kaiser Chiefs
I have self diagnosed ADD when it comes to finishing books...I am currently in the middle of two (but that's only counting those I've picked up in the last two weeks) They are "A Long Way Home" which is a really sad, graphic, but interesting autobiography of a boy soldier in Sierra Leone. I'm only half way through, but it has totally changed my perspective on war and what it does to people. Especially seeing it through the eyes of a child and how you can become so totally hardened. There are constant reminders of the evil that exists in the world as was evidenced this week by the shooting this week at Virginia Tech. The other book is not as fast of reading, but is very interesting. "The Omnivore's Dilemma" which talks about the evolution of the human diet and how far we have come from eating actualy "food" I can't give too much commentary though because I'm only about twenty pages in.
So yesterday my roommate Leanna was so excited to show me this website she has found www.bfro.net look it up and you'll understand. It's a website run by the scientific research organization dedicated to exploring the bigfoot/sasquatch mystery. Folks this is no joke. It's actually a girl in our ward who's brother runs the site. Anyways they have bigfoot expeditions all around the country where you spend the weekend in a place that has had numerous bigfoot sightings. Conveniently there is an expedition in South Carolina on November 8...I'm really pushing to head there for my birthday next year, can you think of a better way to spend 26? Me neither.
So here is a playlist of some songs that I'm listening to, anyone who knows me knows that I love finding new bands and sharing my discoveries so here goes:
Concrete Seconds - Pinback
Shiver - Chris Velan
In the morning - Junior Boys
Concerning the UFO sighting near Highland, Illinois - Sufjan Stevens
Decatur, Or round of applause for your stepmother! - Sufjan Stevens
Come and find me - Josh Ritter
Big Sur - The Thrills
El Salvador - Athlete
Wake up - The Arcade Fire
Baby Boy - Beyonce
Its Too Late - Evermore
Saint Simon - The Shins
Skeleton Jar - Youth Group
Nothings Gonna Change Your Mind - Badly Drawn Boy
A House Is Not A Home - Field Music
Be Without You - Mary J. Blige
July, July! - The Decembrists
Ruby - Kaiser Chiefs
I have self diagnosed ADD when it comes to finishing books...I am currently in the middle of two (but that's only counting those I've picked up in the last two weeks) They are "A Long Way Home" which is a really sad, graphic, but interesting autobiography of a boy soldier in Sierra Leone. I'm only half way through, but it has totally changed my perspective on war and what it does to people. Especially seeing it through the eyes of a child and how you can become so totally hardened. There are constant reminders of the evil that exists in the world as was evidenced this week by the shooting this week at Virginia Tech. The other book is not as fast of reading, but is very interesting. "The Omnivore's Dilemma" which talks about the evolution of the human diet and how far we have come from eating actualy "food" I can't give too much commentary though because I'm only about twenty pages in.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
A very happy Easter
Nothing says a perfect Easter weekend like an egg hunt with a group of people in their mid twenties to early thirties, a trip to West Virginia to watch horse races and eat at a buffet, a rocking birthday party for my roommate Leanna, and a job that gives me holidays that I don't even really know how to celebrate (Good Friday) off from work.
Since I am a self-proclaimed novice in the world of blogging I don't know how to put captions on pictures....so starting top to bottom we have our favorite horse "splendid frolic" brining home the money, my beautiful roommates at rock & roll bowl, Leanna showing off her precious golden egg to Courtney, and Sarah and I enjoying watching all the "kids" hunt after playing Easter bunny.
p.s. can someone please help me figure out to layout a page....s.o.s. I'm self-conscious enough at times about having a blog...
p.s. can someone please help me figure out to layout a page....s.o.s. I'm self-conscious enough at times about having a blog...
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Apparently the national cherry blossom festival is a big deal. I’ll be honest, I’d never heard of it until I moved here, and even then I didn’t fully comprehend. Well this weekend I understood. The Japanese donated 3,020 cherry trees to our nation in 1912. They have been planted around our national monuments in Washington D.C. and it is truly spectacular. The trees surround a reflecting pool that lies between the Jefferson and Washington monuments. Yesterday my roommate Sarah and a few other choice souls (a 6 a.m. departure time for a bike ride is a great weeder to find the truly hard core) packed a crepe breakfast and headed to the monuments for a pre work picnic at the cherry blossoms. It was incredible, I think our friend Cristy put it best when she said we were privileged to see “dawn’s rosy fingers trail across the blooming sky.”
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