Sakura

I remember playing this song on the piano when I was young. I would play it over and over (mostly because it was easy), thinking about what sakura--cherry blossoms--must look like. If someone took the time to write a song about them, they must be exquisite.

And that they are. Brock and I took the Bolt Bus down to DC this weekend to catch the last of the cherry blossoms. After navigating our way through an atheist rally (proper name: the "Reason Rally"), we meandered our way down with the masses toward the Tidal Basin (where we also saw the new Martin Luther King Jr. Monument--very cool!). It was the 100th anniversary of Japan's gift of 3,000 cherry trees to the United States, one hundred of which are still standing today.

There is something about cherry blossoms that makes you wax poetic; how delicate they are, how soft, how gracefully they hang from their branches, like ballerinas on a barre; how a small breeze is all it takes to wisk them away in flurry of fluttering pink snow. The life of a cherry blossom is rapturous--it isn't every day that millions flock to see anything, let alone a small pink flower--and, ultimately, tragic. How can something so timeless vanish so quickly? How can something so majestic be so fragile?

The cherry blossoms (or, as I like to call them, BL-AWESOMES!) weren't the only thing waiting for us in DC. Our dear friends Ryan and Tiffany were kind enough to let us crash at their place and we had such a fun time catching up with them. We ate way too much at Good Stuff Eatery (our beloved toasted marshmallow shake--how we've missed it!), moseyed around Eastern Market, poked around our favorite bookstore with our favorite crotchety old bookkeeper, enjoyed delicious sandwiches from Potbelly, had a fun movie night with All The President's Men,  gorged on Reubens at a Jewish deli, and sat around talking for hours (I'm pretty sure that's how you know you have good friends).

One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to the DC 3rd Ward on Sunday--where we went to church when we loved there. I can't even tell you how happy I was to see old friends there. It really felt like home. Halfway during Sacrament Meeting, Brock looked over at me and saw me crying. "I know why you're sad," he said, "because I feel the same way, too. You don't want to leave here, do you?" I was so choked up that all I could do was shake my head back and forth. I looked out the window and watched the wind carry cherry blossoms off the tree outside.

Once per month, Mormons fast on Sunday and donate the money they would  have spent on meals to the needy. It's a time for self-reflection and spiritual rejuvenation. On Fast Sunday, Sacrament Meeting takes a special form where--for most of the meeting--anyone  in the congregation is welcome to step up to the pulpit and bear their testimony of the gospel.

There is nothing like Fast and Testimony Meeting at the DC 3rd Ward. So many of the members come from storied pasts--many of them are new converts who come from immigrant families (many from West Africa) or have battled addictions to various substances. Having grown up in other churches, many of the nuances of Mormon culture are lost on them. And I love it! There is such a soulful, Southern evangelical feel to the DC 3rd Ward. Everybody who gets up to the pulpit greets the congregation with "Good Afternoon!" and everybody replies "Good Afternoon!" in return. Instead of the standard "I would like to bear my testimony..." opening that most members give, many say things like "Dear Lord, I would like to thank You for a beautiful day and for the beautiful opportunity to share my testimony with You."

You can always count on Sister Mack to be the first one up to bear her testimony every month. She's an old, short black woman with no teeth who always wears a hat to church. And she always says the same thing when she bears her testimony: I'm gon sing my testimony in a song, but I ain't very good at singin' and so you all need to sing along. And every month, we all sing the same song with Sister Mack:

You got to stand your test in judgement

You got to stand it for yourself

Ain't nobody else can stand it for you

You go to stand if for yourself

The testimonies you'll hear in that ward are simple, pure . . . filled with love and faith so strong you can feel their souls on fire. The speakers, many of them poorly educated, are not eloquent; their thoughts are jumbled and at times incoherent. Despite this, rarely am I not moved to tears by their words. Let me share one story that a sister in the ward recounted to us last Sunday. For context, know that this sister has overcome hard addiction in the past and has a very difficult time keeping her head above water financially.

Every week, I make tuna fish sandwiches for the homeless. But this past month was tight, so I couldn't buy the sandwich spread that I normally put on them. (She holds up a jar of Kraft Sandwich Spread and starts to get teary-eyed.) So I prayed to God that he would help me. Help me find money to buy the things I needed to make these sandwiches. Well, I go to church the next Sunday, and there's a family with a trunk full of that exact same sandwich spread. I couldn't believe it! And they were just giving it away, they had too much. I didn't want to be greedy, so I only took four. Each jar costs $2.65, so I figured I saved about $10 right there. So I used that $10 I saved to go buy five loaves of bread and some more tuna. From all of that, I was able to make about 25 sandwiches. And I just KNOW God is lookin' out for us because He helped me find a way to make those tuna fish sandwiches!

Can you see why I want to move back? :)

Brock left Sunday night so he could make it to work the next morning, but I decided to leave Monday afternoon so I could have time to visit old friends in Congressman Chaffetz' office! 

Early Monday morning, I bid adieu to Ryan and Tiffany and headed for the Tidal Basin again. I wanted more pictures of them since Saturday was overcast and rainy. When I got there, I couldn't believe how bare the trees were! Only a few blossoms left! I was happy have have them all to myself.

As it turns out, Monday also marked the opening debates of the Affordable Care Act at the Supreme Court!  I got in line about an hour before everything was set to start, hoping to get a front-row seat to the action. It was fun to be there and watch/listen to all the demonstrations outside--democracy is so freaking rad. I even got interviewed by NPR! Don't know that I made it on air, but it was still cool (and nerve-wracking!) to talk about my opinions with a major news source.

The time came to hand out red tickets--those going to the people in line who got a seat inside for the full 90-minute argument. There were 120 red tickets. I was the 121st person in line. Suuuuuuuck!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it! Such a bummer! If only I'd caught that one metro that pulled away from me at the last second . . . maybe I could've gotten there three minutes earlier and been #119. ARRRRGHHH. Oh, well. That's life.

As much of a drag as that was, it meant that I was the first person in line for a yellow ticket, which entitles you to a sit in on the case for 3-5 minutes. So I did get in! What an amazing mental picture I'll have for the rest of my life: All nine Supreme Court justices sitting on the bench, listening to the Solicitor General Donald Verrilli's opening statements. Amazing! There was even a funny moment when Justice Kagan asked Verrilli what exactly was being challenged: The constitutionality of the individual mandate or the sanction? To which he responded, "Well, I will not argue that this statute is a perfect model of clarity." The courtroom hummed with chuckles! 

After sitting in on history, I stepped back into my past: 1032 Longworth! I spent about fifteen minutes catching up with everyone there: Tanner, Troy, John, Fred, Justin . . . all the women in the office had left for motherhood! Things in the office had changed a lot, but personalities were the same. Just like old times, it wasn't long before conversation devolved into base humor :) Hey, it's not my fault that I happened to be holding giant rubber band balls and that someone in the office made a comment about it. (It is  my fault, however, that I couldn't refrain from a slew of raunchy innuendos thereafter.) MAN, I miss those guys! 

Not a bad weekend. Not bad at all.

2011 (Part One)

I got this idea from my beautiful friend Sadie, and in return I am paying her back with these:

Oh yes girl, you BEST believe that I saw these in J-Town and totally thought of you! And that I carried them on the plane so that they wouldn't get smushed. Message me with your address!

JANUARY

Brock and I went to Ecuador with my family. This was such an amazing experience, but unfortunately I lost my camera on the last day of the trip. I may or may not be over it by now. OKAY SO I'M NOT. 

Nevertheless, it was incredible (obviously). My family was able to volunteer in an orphanage in Quito for a few days, and then we traveled via motorized canoe up the Amazon River to a remote community along the Napo estuary. We ate grubs, visited the local shaman, hiked in the rainforest, learned how to hunt with blow dart guns and spears, and played in the river with the local children every day (I have literally never laughed so hard in my life as I did when playing with them).

Me playing a made-up game called "La Cocodrilla" with the kids.
I was a crocodile who tried to gobble them up as they swung past me.
You would not BELIEVE the acrobatics they were capable of!

Don't let Ofelia's sweet smile deceive you...she's a firecracker!

My brother, Caden, hanging out with some of his new friends.
Check out the muscles of the kid in the foreground! Unreal.

FEBRUARY

Went to a taping of the Conan O'Brien show in Burbank, CA! The guests were Marisa Tomei and Harland Williams (of "Rocket Man" fame...so funny). Fitz and the Tantrums performed "Moneymaker" at the end of the show--I'd never heard of them before, but they were awesome!

Where the magic happens, baby.

Our spot in line and our tickets!

MARCH

The entire campus was swept up in Jimmermania, and we were no exception! 

We went to the last home game he played at BYU. 

GOOOOOOOOOO COUGARS!

Conference champs! Now on to the Sweet 16!

APRIL

Brock finally graduated from BYU! HALLELUJAH! He left with a B.S. in Mathematics, a B.A. in Communications, and a minor in business management.

A long time coming!

I got SO lucky in the in-law department.

MAY

Moved to DC for internships. I interned on the Hill for Rep. Jason Chaffetz (UT-3) and Brock worked for the Brookings Institution.

The first weekend we were there, President Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been assassinated. We were living at 2600 Pennsylvania Avenue, so we ran down with a bunch of friends to the White House (on 1600 Penn, about a mile away) to celebrate with the masses!

Watching the news with all our Washington Seminar friends.

MADNESS!!

Flags of the US and Pakistan. Yeah, thanks for the help, Zardari...

Says it all.

We also had the opportunity to watch the President give an address on Memorial Day at Arlington Cemetery. It was an extremely hot day, but an extremely cool experience :)

JUNE

Celebrated our fourth anniversary in Baltimore. (Brock stayed for an extra day to take the LSAT. HA! Remember when he was gonna do law school???) I ate my beloved corn cakes at the Cheesecake Factory, and Brock saw his beloved Vladimir Guerrero play for the Orioles at Camden Yards.

JULY

My dear momma came to visit me us in DC! She arrived the same weekend that my cousin Phillip was inducted into the A-100 class for the State Department's foreign service officers. He's headed to Djibouti, Djibouti, so we had a fun dinner together at an Ethiopian restaurant (since there is obviously no difference between Ethiopia and Djibouti . . . hey, it was as close as we could get!).

We also took everyone on an EPIC night tour of the Mall using bikes from Capital Bikeshare. Brock may or may not have gotten in a fight with a guy at the Washington Monument. Okay, so he didn't.

A hilarious show that we saw at the Kennedy Center!

Goofing off in the Library of Congress :)

Crazy Ethiopian bread called injera. 

Beautiful night for a bike tour!

AUGUST

We had a great month visiting family before heading off to Amman. We spent a couple weeks with my family in Fort Collins and a couple with Brock's family in Huntington Beach. Summer perfection!

Chicken fights at the watering hole with the fam!

Wakeboarding at Horsetooth.

Tubing in the creek.

Beachin' it in Huntington.

Californian Mexican food...nothing beats it. Not even Mexican Mexican food.

We bid adieu to Allie as she drove off into the sunset (for BYU!) and then drove back to Utah ourselves (with fun pit stops in Vegas and at our favorite B&B in Ogden).

Lemme smang it guuuuuuurl.

We got a great deal on a room at the Stratosphere.

I left Vegas a winner! I won a whole whopping dollar on the Deal or No Deal game.
In the black, baby!

The Alaskan Inn--our favorite little B&B in the mountains!

Whew! When I started this post I had no intention of it getting this long (story of my blogging life).

To be continued!

False Summits

I just took the test that concludes my journey into Arabic.

I still have other finals to take this week (writing, reading, and the dreaded OPI), but this translation test was the big kahuna: Four hours of deciphering newspaper articles that I'd never seen before. I so vividly remember my very first day of Arabic classes when Ustaaz Doug taught us the words for "he," she," "you," and "hi."

You know what it feels like? It feels like I've been climbing in the Himalayas this whole time, and I've been going and going and going and working like crazy to bag a foreboding peak.

And here I am. Looking out over everything below me thinking I DID that?!? And although I'm proud of myself, I'm also very humbled because now, from this vantage point, I realize that the goal I'd been reaching for this whole time was a false summit. It's not over for me. Life does not end at this study abroad.

The thing is though, I get a buzz off this. I love false summits. I am the World's Most Annoying Hiker (ask Brock) because I never want to turn back. Just one more corner! There might be something really cool around there! Just this one last hill! What if it opens up into a sweeping valley with deer eating wildflowers and scratching their antlers on aspen trees?!?

I enjoy false summits because they psyche me out. They make me push past the exhaustion and dig deep so I can finally get where I'm gettin'. And digging deep has a way of teaching you about life and God and all the uglies and pretties about yourself.

This is a good gauge of whether you studied the right thing in college (learning about the uglies and pretties of yourself, I mean) It's important to not confuse a good major with a difficult major--just because a major challenged you doesn't mean it challenged you.  Did your major make you re-evaluate yourself? Not your opinions or interests. You. You as a soul. Studying what you love is important, and I did that with political science. But I'm grateful for my Arabic minor because the lessons I've learned from it--particularly this last semester--have been life-altering. Between political science and Arabic, I feel like I got the perfect mix of learning about my interests and learning about my character.

It's been the year of false summits for me. I left BYU behind for good in April, but still had more credits to finish.Then came August, when I completed my internship in DC (and a B.A. in Political Science along with it). But again, there was still more to do. And now here I am in December: wrapping up my two-and-a-half year journey into Arabic and my entire college experience in general. It feels like I've finally reached the top, but I've been on the trail long enough to know that's not true.

The only thing that's weird now is not seeing the next summit--false or otherwise--in the distance. It's a white-out and I can barely see three feet in front of me, let alone three years. (Or hell, even three weeks!) Come January, I'll hit the trail again toward whatever and wherever it is, but it's nerve-wracking not knowing which direction to take to get to . . . someplace.

The call to prayer is happening outside my window right now.

Maybe I should start there.

Belated

A whole week without a blog post?! For shaaaaaame! Fear not. I fully plan on catching you up on these past couple weeks. Okay, let's be honest. These detailed day-by-day posts aren't really for you as much as they are for me. I know you don't care. But I do and I want to document these things. Because I suck at journaling. Are you annoyed with this yet?????

Let us start with something long overdue--a detailing of our last week in DC.

Monday 8/1: House and Senate approved a debt ceiling plan! YAAAAAAYYYY

Tuesday 8/2: Went to the Museum of Natural History after work with Brock. They had some cool exhibits, but the whole museum was definitely geared toward kids. There was an awesome exhibit on nature photography, and we saw the Hope Diamond! Can you believe that this is only a fraction of its original size?!

Later that evening we had a final game night with the Deckers. It was so fun having a summer to spend with them in DC and we're already missing them!

Wednesday 8/3: Brock and I headed to Lincoln Park after work--I wanted to see the Emancipation Monument there. It was a pretty little park north of Eastern Market. We sat for a while and watched a pack of dogs play with each other. It made us miss our own pup back home!

Afterward, we met up with our old friend, Melissa, in Crystal City for wings. We all worked together at Tucanos years ago. She was the baddest bartender around who always got us our drinks quick and kept the water pitchers full! :) We spent a good couple hours talking, laughing, and catching up. Melissa reminds me a lot of myself . . . only she's way more badass. I'd tell you why, but I'd have to kill you. (Melissa, if you're reading this, that last line was for you.)

Thursday 8/4: My last day of work! I sure will miss that office. Everybody there was so great! Jason, Justin, Mike, KA, Alisia, Fred, Troy, Jonny, Tucker, Militant Smith, Travis: I love you all. I think it's pretty rare for a person to work with eleven other people and not dislike a single one of them to any degree. From our West Wing re-enactments, to paper-tearing competitions, to well--everything--1032 Longworth HOB was Legit City.

The office ordered in pizza for lunch as a final goodbye, and forced me to talk about my internship experience. Which was easy to do, because it rocked. Even though I came away from it all hating DC and with a distaste for government work, I honestly loved my internship because of the people. Later that afternoon, Tucker took me and the other interns onto the House floor! So freaking sweet. Did you know all the wooden chairs are actually reinforced with bulletproof metal? And beneath each seat is a safety kit to use in case of a biological attack.

That evening, Brock and I finally got around to visiting the Washington, D.C. temple! Or, as the non-Mormons like to call it: Oz.

Friday 8/5: I ran myself ragged with last-minute museums! I went through the three underground Smithsonian museums on the Mall (they're all connected to each other--a great way to escape the heat!): the Freer and Sackler Galleries, and the Museum of African Art. The Freer and Sackler Galleries had art from all over Asia--even some Iranian and early Islamic pieces! I loved this one:

My favorite of the three underground museums was the African Museum. I remember thinking "Art from the Congo/Mali/Botswana/etc? These people are literally trying to survive. Who has time for art in that environment?!" But they do. And it was beautiful--such a testament to me that art is an integral dimension of the human experience.

After finishing the underground museums I walked around the beautiful Haupt Gardens for a minute, and then headed into the Hirshhorn Museum (which is full of modern art). I consider myself to be pretty "artistically open-minded", and I actually love modern art more so than I'd imagine your average person does, but the Hirshhorn Museum was really weird. A few cool pieces here and there, but most of the time I found myself thinking "Um . . . this is stupid."

Later that night, Brock and I went out to a restaurant we've been wanting to try for a while. Our reservation wasn't until 9:30, so we decided to spend the first part of the evening kayaking.

Afterward, we made one last trek to Sprinkles to complete our DC cupcake saga. We were sad to see it end! (As you can tell by the following emo picture):

The restaurant we were going to was in Georgetown. It's one of the best Italian restaurants in the country--Filomena. As we were waiting to be seated, we struck up a conversation with a woman standing near the dessert display case. Her name was Joanna, and she turned out to be the owner! What a coincidence. Our waiter told us that she is rarely at the restaurant herself, but today happened to be her birthday.

Filomena is incredible from the minute you walk in the door and see women hand-rolling pasta in an adjacent room. It's an underground restaurant that is decorated in true Renaissance style--pure extravagance with romantic lighting, soft music, and thousands of fresh flowers. The service was absolutely incredible and my mind is still boggled at how the waiters kept their tuxes impeccably clean despite working in a cyclone of red sauce, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.

We ordered bruschetta to begin with, and I'm pretty sure Filomena's tomatoes come from heaven. Our waiter told us that one of the secrets to their amazing red sauce is using old, squishy tomatoes. "The tomatoes that you would probably throw out because they're so mushy? Yeah, those are the ones we use because they pack the most incredible flavor in sauces."

As for the main course? The menu describes it best. (Pardon the haphazard capitalizations--why do restaurants do that!?)

Brock: Penne Con Salsicce. When Bono ate this pasta dish here, he wanted seconds!

Penne Pasta tossed with roasted & ground Italian Sweet Sausage, sautéed Mushrooms, Onions, Herbs and Chianti Wine in a Abruzzi Country Style hearty Tomato Sauce with sautéed Link Sausage Pieces.

Me: Tortellini di Michele. Brisket of Beef Braised slowly for many hours with Wine and Vegetables then stuffed into Housemade flower shaped pasta in a light sauce of Pine Nuts, Sage, Crimini Mushrooms, Brown Butter and a touch of Veal Stock and a touch of Cream.

That's right . . . tortellini stuffed with beef brisket.

The best part of dinner, however, was the conversation we struck up with the two people next to us--a father and daughter visiting from Dublin, Ireland. The daughter, Yseult (such a beautiful, traditional Irish name), was in town presenting research at a conference. She had her PhD in psychology and was one of the most poised, kind, articulate women I've ever met. Not to mention gorgeous. I love meeting women like her. She personified the word "pleasant." Yseult's dad, Paul, looked like a rockstar (in reality, he's a mathematician who works for an Irish investment bank). He had short grey hair, cool jewelry, and was wearing slim-cut jeans, European-style dress shoes, and a deep V-neck t-shirt with Mick Jagger on the front. Brock officially lost his title as The Coolest Math Major Ever.

Our conversation began with a quip about how huge the portions at Filomena were, and evolved into an hour-long conversation about politics, economics, religion, and life in general. Paul was extremely left-wing and outspoken--such a refreshing personality to talk to! Yseult was a little more demure, but no less interesting.

Near the end of our conversation, our waiter approached our table. "Joanna called," he said. "She asked me if the couple she spoke to earlier was still at the restaurant, and that if they were, she insists that they try her tiramisu. On the house."

As you might expect, the tiramisu was exceptional. A thick velvety cream, flavored in the Italian tradition with mascarpone cheese and espresso, generously slathered between layers of lady fingers. We wouldn't normally order tiramisu because of the espresso (Mormons don't drink coffee), but we thought it would be extremely rude to send back a gifted dessert only because it contained a trace amount of coffee. Especially since our waiter was literally standing over us waiting to see our reactions as we ate (presumably, so he could report back to Joanna).

And so ended out last evening in DC. We exchanged contact information with Yseult and Paul--hopefully our paths will cross again in Dublin :) Although kayaking, Sprinkles, and Italian food were high points, what made the night were the people. Isn't that such a testament to how life is? Your days may be fun because of the things you do, but they will be meaningful because of the people in it.

As I look back on my time in DC, I realize how true that's been. The best part of my internship wasn't the actual work, but the people I worked with. In church, at the Barlow Center, anywhere--people gave depth to my summer and to my life. This world is filled with beautiful souls, and I feel privileged to have spent a summer meeting so many of them.