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).
Wide awake at 4am. Too early and dark to go for a run, so I figure now is as good a time as any to catch up on blogging! I have so many posts planned out for the next couple weeks-- I'll probably end up doing two per day: one for Jordan/Israel, one for current Huntington Beach holiday happenings. And then I figure that it's been about a year since we went to Ecuador, and I still haven't written anything about that--maybe that'll be next up on my blogging list. Along with plenty of political and social commentary, as the Iowa caucuses are just around the corner.
...is it obvious that I'm desperately trying to find things to write about to occupy my time now that I have NO SCHOOL and NO JOB and NO BABIES??? :)
Since I am jet-lagged, I dedicate this post to the jets who got me here. After a day in Sderot and Jaffa (more on that in a future post!), we arrived at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv at around 8pm. We were SO excited to be heading home!
Our flight didn't leave until 5:30am the next day, but we got there at 8pm because everybody's flights left at different times (and it was just logistically easier for us all to dropped off at once). Right from the get-go, we decided to pull an all-nighter so as to ease jet-lag upon arrival in the States. Luckily, that isn't hard to do when you're surrounded by dozens of friends! We stayed up late making up superlatives ("Best Hair", "Best Laugh", etc) for every person on the study abroad--over 60 people. Brock and I won the "Old Married Couple Award."
Some may say that was based on our bickering, I say it was based on love.
That took a good two hours, and in the process we made friends with the female Israeli IDF soldier sitting next to us. After high school, every Israeli citizen must complete mandatory military service. I think it's generally two years for girls, three for guys, but it varies depending on the job you do in the military. The girl we met was 20 years old and worked for the Israeli public radio station. Apparently, an Israeli had just won the world surfing championship, so she was at the airport welcoming celebration to get a sound bite.
We all got to talking and it wasn't long before she was whooping our butts in Texas Hold 'Em. Little did she know that one of the players at the table--a guy from the study abroad named Sami--was a Palestinian! Sami said it was surreal to be playing a round of poker with an IDF soldier. That'll make for a great story to tell his kids.
We had such a fun conversation with her that ranged from politics (she was a socialist) to nature (she was an environmentalist) to cows (she was a vegetarian) to how--and I quote--"every source of evil in the world can be traced back to McDonalds." She spoke good English and even taught us a little Hebrew and Yiddish. When we told her we spoke Arabic, she informed us that despite four years of the language in high school, the only Arabic phrase she knew was "Stop! Stop or I'm going to shoot you!" And people wonder why there's so little understanding between these two groups!
At 2am Brock and I left the group to go check-in for our flight. It was interesting to get a taste for Israeli airport security--it's way more mentally intrusive than physically intrusive. (Then again, we were lucky with how easily we got through it. Some members of our group--just regular causcasian American kids--took a full THREE HOURS with security and one even missed their flight because of it!) Instead of naked body scanners, Israeli security focuses on what is essentially racial profiling. They ask you a lot of questions--where are you going? who are you with? did you buy gifts for people? what gifts? are you carrying an item in your suitcase that you accepted from someone you didn't know? They do this to both hear your answers and watch your reactions.
What I thought was interesting was their scanning of every carry-on item and every checked bag. Your checked bags are scanned before you get to the check-in counter, and your carry-ons after. There's also probably about six or seven different checkpoints en route to the terminal where they ask to see your passport and boarding ticket.
Prior to my trip to Israel, I had read so much about how amazing and efficient Israeli airport security was. But in general, I would say that it's as time-consuming (or more so) than American airport security. Where they do have a one-up is with the people who run security. TSA in America doesn't exactly have a reputation for hiring the cream of the crop, but the security personnel in Ben Gurion was comprised of mostly young people who were bright, personable, courteous, and respectful.
Anyway, we finally boarded our flight to Zurich and slept the entire way despite the annoying group of hungover "Birthright Kids" sitting around us. Israel offers each young non-Israeli Jews around the world an all-expense paid trip--a "Birthright Tour"--to Israel in order for them to get in touch their "roots." Some may call this an opportunity to promote Zionism and imbue life-long, blind pro-Israel fervor in young Jews worldwide.
From the looks of it, it seems to be a two-week vacation/bar-hopping extravaganza that young Jews around the world feel entitled to.
Brock and I were not impressed at all with the Birthright kids we interacted with. It was easy to see why local Israelis view them as a necessary inconvenience. They have a reputation for being immature, disrespectul, and of just not "getting it." Most of them aren't religious or interested in politics--they're just looking for a free vacation and stamp in their passport.
Then again, if the government of some country--any country--offered me a free vacation, I'd be loyal to them for life, too. So even if Birthright Tours do little to connect Jews with their heritage (as they claim is their primary objective), they do help garner life-long devotees to the Israeli cause. In that light, these tours are a good investment for the government.
Despite their hangovers ("OMG, I need some drugs. I'm going to take soooo many pills on this plane so I can sleep. Adderal, Oxycotin, I don't even know what I have in my bag. But I'm going to take it allllllll.") and Zionist blabbering ("Jamie, giiiiiirl, did you know like, like some study has been done and Jews literally have better brains than other people?") we managed to get some shut-eye all the way to Zurich.
Our four-hour layover in Zurich made us want to move there. Every Swiss employee we talked to was so nice and went out of their way to see if we could be helped--it felt like we were at a hotel, not an aiport! They always left with a smille and a "Merry Christmas!" Merry Christmas! I don't know what it was, but there was some about hearing that rather than "Happy Holidays" that made gave me warm fuzzies :) I read a book once called The Geography of Happiness that had a whole chapter dealing with Swiss culture--how they like things (airports, cities, service, etc) clean, efficient, and flawless. I saw much of this manifested in just the little time we were there--from an advertisement for Swiss Air reading "Perfection is not relative" to the modern, minimalistic, and spotless terminal we waited in.
At that point, the only thing standing between us and home was a 12-hour flight to LAX. Yeah, that sucker was long. But it was less tortuous thanks to the awesome entertainment system (a huge selection of on-demand movies, TV shows, music, and games) and little luxuries like Movenpick ice cream, Swiss chocolate, and warm towels :)
It feels so good to be back in the States--the first thing we did was grab some Mexican food at Chronic Taco :) And my sweet Brock even arranged for family to surprise me with a huge box of oatmeal creme pies! With Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and a box of 48 Fruit Roll-Ups waiting for me in the pantry when we got home.
I wish I was pregnant so I could have an excuse for that last paragraph, but I've got nothin'.
When Brock and I were dating, we used to go on walks at night while listening to music on his iPod. One earbud for him, one for me. The cold winter air rattled the tree branches as puffs of our breath twisted and twirled in the wind. Brock was scared to tell me he loved me. We had only been dating for a few weeks and were so young. So he would play songs on his iPod with lyrics like the rhythm of my heart is beating like a drum, with the words "I love you" rolling off my tongue--a subtle and innocuous way of hinting at his feelings.
It's been almost five years since then. And last night, lying in bed, we listened to music together again as we fell asleep. One earbud for him, one for me. The song "There's Your Trouble" by the Dixie Chicks came on and threw me home to my backyard in Fort Collins, ten years ago. I distinctly remember being thirteen and whiling away summer evenings sitting in the sky chair under our deck, watching colors melt over the prairie. I placed the purple stereo I'd gotten for Christmas on the concrete patio and listened to the Dixie Chicks until it got dark outside. It was daydreaming time.
Who is the boy who'll love me? What's he doing right now? What will our first kiss be like? Will he give good hugs? I bet he'll give good hugs. And he'll tell me I'm beautiful all the time and be hopelessly, stupidly in love with me. And he'll squeeze my hand and kiss my forehead and tuck wisps of my hair behind my ear just like they do in the movies. And he'll smell good, too.
I'd walk around my backyard and imagine holding his hand. I'd lie on the cool grass, watching ships of clouds sail through the sky, and imagine him lying next to me. I was lost in the waves of a Colorado summer--of the wispy cirrus above, of the prairie grass undulating in the wind--and the only anchor I had to reality was the sound of the Dixie Chicks coming from that little purple stereo.
The boy I was dreaming of was lost in waves, too. Except he didn't watch them in the sky or on the prairie. His summer evenings were spent on a surfboard, waiting for one last swell to come in before the ocean swallowed daylight. Sometimes swells would come, sometimes not, but it didn't matter. A surfboard isn't just for surfing.
Years later, this boy told me how he once found a ladybug crawling on him as he waxed up his surfboard. (I love that he noticed that little ladybug.) He tried to shoo it away, but after paddling into the ocean, he realized it hadn't budged. It had found something good and wasn't moving.
Our summer nights of daydreaming apart turned into winter nights together, and now here we find ourselves in summer again. Dreaming again. Maybe in ten years I'll be thinking or doing something, and whatever it is will trigger a memory of last night, when I realized that those waves had become a memory, and those dreams reality.
I'm sitting in the Huntington Beach Public Library trying to write a paper when my dad calls to chat. I don't want to be distracting, so I look to see if anyone is near me. A couple girls are studying on my floor, but they're not in close vicinity. Plus, there's a HUGE, CASCADING fountain IN the library (Huntington Beach tax dollars hard at work...) that will drown out any noise I make with my call. I figure I'm safe, but I'll keep the call brief.
I answer the phone and start talking to my dad as quietly as I reasonably can. We're chit-chatting about Amman and having a gay old time, when an old lady bearing a striking resemblance to Yzma (from The Emperor's New Groove) approaches me:
Imagine Yzma with an orange "tan", bright pink lips, fake nails, leathery skin, bleached hair, and last season's Talbots clothes. I see her slowly walk toward me out of the corner of my eye. I know I'm in trouble. Pretty soon she's in the MAZ--the Must-Acknowledge Zone. Three feet away from me.
"Can I help you?" I say.
"You know," she says, "phone calls are not allowed in the library." The words are oozing out her wrinkly mouth like tar.
"Really? Not at all?" I ask. I'm a little taken aback that short phone calls are not permitted in a library WITH A GIANT, ROARING, INDOOR FOUNTAIN.
"No . . . didn't you read the signs??? There are signs posted everywhere as you walk in."
No, lady. I didn't. I come to libraries to STUDY. (And to blog about the shrews I meet in them.) So while YOU may have all the time in the world to read the signs, I come to sit SIT MY BUTT DOWN, CRACK OPEN MY BOOKS, AND WORK ON MY CAPSTONE PAPER. What's that? A Mary Higgins Clark novel in your hand? Must be nice. Don't you have a Senior Citizen Special from IHOP to buy???? Some Depends to change???
"Sorry," I reply, "this is my first time here. And I just walked in and took a seat."
She's noticeably annoyed. "Well, no phone calls are allowed."
"Fine. Let me finish talking to my dad."
She gives a sigh of exasperation and proceeds to walk ten feet away. She STANDS THERE WAITING while I finish my call. Then she returns to whence she came from--two floors up the stairs. Nowhereeven near me.
What is she?? The Library Falcon who uses her keen eyesight to spot phone-call-making prey from miles away? Who then swoops down with her outstretched bitchy talons to attack all those who dare enter a PUBLIC LIBRARY without having read every sign, bulletin board, and placard on their way in????
Is this what old ladies in Southern California do when their Botox appointment gets pushed back???? Doesn't she have some Rx drugs to buy?? Some vodka to drink??? A pool boy to sexually harass???
***
UPDATE: I just left the library. THERE WAS NOT A SINGLE SIGN SAYING ANYTHING ABOUT CELL PHONES ANYWHERE. And I scoured that place.
Also, my dad gave me a retort for if this ever happens again: "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm talking to my oncologist."
In my conscious effort to not be one of "those" bloggers--you know, predictable, saccharine, and boring--sometimes I forget to blog about actual life events, as opposed to just random embarrassing personal stories. So prepare yourself for THANKSGISTMAS: the post where I blog about two months' worth of holiday happenings.
THANKSGIVING: We spent this holiday in Huntington Beach with my in-laws, and it was grand I tell you. Just grand. Tammie (my MIL) made an unbelievable homemade Thanksgiving spread for THIRTY PEOPLE. It was rockstar status! Around this time, the news story had just broke about the guy who told TSA not to "touch his junk." Grandma Tanner didn't quite understand what this terminology meant, and had us all rolling on the floor when she proclaimed that she wouldn't mind this at all, and would in fact wear a shirt to LAX with "TOUCH MY JUNK" displayed in bold letters on the front. Awesome. Later that evening, we all headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Tanner's for--what else?--Santa Bingo. 25 rounds (and eight boxes of See's Chocolate) later, we all exchanged our winning tickets for small gifts, ate leftover turkey sandwiches, pie, and Grandpa's famous "slush." I just about needed a dolly to wheel me out of there!
The best part of Thanksgiving was that Gary and Tammie surprised us all (me, Brock, Ryan, Tara, Allie) with a quick trip to Catalina Island! We sailed on over the day after Thanksgiving and stayed for three nights and two days. During the first day we played a killer round of family mini-golf (SURPRISE: I lost) and ate dinner at a pizza place with extremely suggestive cross-stitches on the wall (you don't want to know). Later that night, we all played 99 (a card game) and read the gossip magazines that Tammie had bought at a grocery store :)
The next day, Brock and I enjoyed a nice morning run together before family pictures at the beach! Our photographer was--well, he knew how to physically take a picture, but not much beyond that! Consequently, we ended up with some very funny photos, but eventually managed to get a good one! Later, Brock and I rented a tandem bike that we rode up to botanical gardens, and then met Gary at the pier to catch some fish (line of the day, by Tara: "PEAS FOR EVERYONE!!!!"). The vacation ended with a yummy seafood for dinner to celebrate Tammie's birthday, overpriced ice cream at a place called Big Olaf's, and a movie night back at the condo :)
CHRISTMAS: Hmm. This post is already getting quite long. I'll spare you all and just list highlights:
1. Visiting the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya in Red Feather Lakes, CO. Seriously awesome. All of you Fort Collinsers need to go if you already haven't!
2. Seeing the Trans-Siberian Orchestra LIVE at the Pepsi Center! My eardrums are still ringing. And my eyebrows are singed.
3. My best friend's wedding!!!! (Always wanted to say that.) My dear friend Tiffany Whitsitt (née Christensen) had a beautiful wedding at the Denver Temple on December 28th! The entire day was beyond fun (we probably shook our groove things a little too much at her reception), and their wedding dinner at Sonny Lubick's Steakhouse was awesome. Brock and I also went on a fun double date with the to the Cheesecake Factory in Denver a few nights prior, where we saw the true extent of their fanatical healthiness. Get this: They didn't order cheesecake. AT THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY. However, they did eat out at Uno's once the got home to Chicago, so they are forgiven.
4. Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without going the movies! We saw "True Grit," "RED," and "Unstoppable," which were all fantastic!
5. Movie night with the family. One night Connor (6) suggested we "make hot chocolate, curl up with blankets, eat popcorn, and watch 'How to Train Your Dragon' as a family." Too cute! :) So that's exactly what we did.
6. PING-PONG. I pwned Brock multiple times.
7. Rock climbing on Christmas Day on the cliffs above Horsetooth Reservoir.
8. Avalanche-Redwing game for Brock, Caleb, Colby, and my dad. I let Brock go to this instead of Tiffany's wedding dinner . . . yes, I am a good wife. Although he missed out on killer filet mignon.
9. Playing games at the church's cultural hall. All us kids got together and played epic games of dodgeball, freeze tag, soccer, tail tag, and kick the can. Straight up Brady Bunch style.
10. Family pictures. Always a joy.
11. Sleeping in!
12. ANGRY BIRDS.
13. Having the whole family together for the first time in years.
Well hello, hello! If you're still reading this--congratulations. That probably means you're my grandma, and my grandma is AWESOME.
*sigh* Where to start? I'll post my Christmas letter within the next few days, where there are muchos detailos about the Boyce family, but I'll give you a quick rundown right now.
1. The semester is OVER! Hallelujah. Brock and I both took on heavy school and workloads, and next semester won't be any different. But we're glad to get a break while we can! I took classes in political philosophy, economics, statistics and Model United Nations, and Brock took classes in Java programming, mathematical analysis, differential equations, and something else that will make you feel inferior for not knowing how to pronounce.
2. We're celebrating the Christmas season in Huntington Beach! As much as I love Colorado, it's nice to have a Christmas with balmy 75-degree weather. We've had a TON of fun so far!
3. A few nights ago we went to a Brian Setzer concert--he was the lead singer for the Stray Cats, a popular rockabilly group from back in the day. His concert was AMAZING! Brock even schmoozed the ticket administration office and upgraded our tickets to the pit, where we stood real close to the Setz Man and swing danced the night away! He played ALL our favorites--"Rock this Town", "Sexy and Seventeen", "Stray Cat Strut", along with a load of rockabilly-style Christmas songs! Seriously, though. What a performer. This guy is one of the best guitarists in the world, and he has some of the best trombonists, trumpetists, bassist, and drummers in his orchestra. SO LEGIT.
4. We ate dinner at The Original Pantry in Hollywood--a diner that has NEVER been closed since it opened in 1924! There's not even a lock on the door. Pretty cool!
5. We took the ferry over to Balboa Island and got ourselves some world-famous Balboa Bars! It's vanilla ice cream dipped in chocolate, and then covered in whatever toppings you want. Sooo yummy.
6. We went to the MAGIC CASTLE--the oldest and most prestigious magic club in the world. It's a HUGE 1920s mansion that sits atop Hollywood Boulevard (where the Chinese and Kodak Theatres are, and the Hollywood Walk of Fame). You have to be a member to get in. Or, you could be like us and be friends with one of the magicians who performs there! :) Our good buddy Seth got us in, and it was such a cool experience. There is a very strict, very formal dress code, and at the end of the night you see the valets pulling up in Maseratis, Bentleys, and other ridiculously expensive cars. It feels like you're in a James Bond movie! We didn't see any celebrities there, but Seth says he sees them frequently when he performs.
Anyway, this mansion is jusb absolutely gorgeous, with all the intricate detailing that was customary for mansions at the time. One of my favorite parts was the Haunted Piano, where a ghost named Irma plays any song you want! You just go up to the piano and say, "Irma, will you please play Clair de Lune?" and the keys will start playing! And then at the end, if you say "Thanks, Irma!" she plays three quick chords in succession, as if saying "You're welcome!" And if she doesn't know how to play a song (for example, the theme song from The Office, which I requested haha) she bangs on the low end of the piano. It was soooo coool!!!!! And totally magic.
In the Magic Castle, there are different magic shows throughout the night in different rooms, and they give you a program at the beginning of the evening so you can choose which ones you want to go to. My FAVORITE magician was a guy named Jason Latimer, who recently won the equivalent of a gold medal in the magician Olympics. He majored in economics, mathematics, and applied physics, so there's incredible intelligence behind the tricks he does. Which are nothing spectacular. Like, you know, bending light with his hand and making liquids float in the air. No big deal.
Seriously though...he blew my mind.
GOOGLE HIM. If he EVER does a performance within three states from where you live, GO. I am not kidding when I say that he did some of the most amazing close-up magic I have ever seen. And what's more, he did it SLOW. No quick flashes of the hand, no trying to trick your eye to look elsewhere. He literally would RE-DO tricks in slow motion (magicians NEVER re-do tricks), and STILL pull everything off seamlessly! And what's more, he was SO charismatic and funny. Not one of thos magicians who just thinks he's so cool or puts on a puffy air. He was just some 27 year old kid doing magic and having fun. I absolutely loved it.
My second-favorite performance of the night was a guy who did a stage show with doves. He turned a handkerchief into a dove! And then he made eights doves in a cage disappear! And then they all came flying right back to him from the rafters above us! It was just crazy because you can't like shove a dove up your sleeve, or squish it, or hide it in your hand--how do you do magic with LIVE ANIMALS? So insane!
Anyway, that's the fun that we've had in California so far, and I'm sure we'll have plenty more. I'll keep you updated this Christmas break, I promise! Because as soon as school starts again, I probably won't post for another four months :)
