And Now! Everything That's Happened Since I Got Back From England!

So, honestly, each of these things probably deserves its own post, but that's unlikely to happen, and probably by the time it DID happen, it would be, like, November and I would still be two months behind two months. So instead you're about to get a too-long but insufficiently detailed overview of stuff that's happened since I got home from the Epic Grad Trip.

Jules's Birthday 5K

 

I turned 32 this year. I know. I couldn't believe it either. There are things that happened that I remember happening that happened MORE THAN 20 YEARS AGO!!! And! There are things that I do (like speak/study Spanish) that I've been doing for 15 years or more. Not even kidding. Anyway, to celebrated I had a 5K run! I did this on my 30th birthday and loved it so much that I intended to do it every year of my life forever, but last year between the car accident and general life mayhem, there to was just no time. This year's was just as fun as the first time, though, and even included some repeat participants. (Thanks for coming out, Dixons!) The course turned out to be a little more challenging than I'd anticipated (a mean hill during the last half mile was definitely not nice), but I loved it!  And we finished up with smoothies and muffins. Such a great way to celebrate.

Fourth of July

I spent fourth of July with Amy Lou and some of her friends from work. We made and grilled and ate kabobs and sat on the back porch and chatted about life. Then we walked over to the Falls Church fireworks show, which was actually pretty good. I enjoyed spending a low key holiday with friends and thinking about how much I do love this country and what it stands for, even though here in the DC area the problems with the system can become really, really apparent.

Emergency Trip to Vermont

I got a phone call late on Friday, 12 July from my dad's significant other who was calling to let me know that he'd been in a pretty serious motorcycle accident. They were being transferred from the hospital closest to them in Rochester to one in New Hampshire that would be better able to meet his needs. I spent the next hour or so calling people and relaying the news. That's never a very fun experience. Everything from the awkward transition from "hey, we haven't talked in a while!" to "so I have bad news, actually" to having to repeat over and over "Dad's been in a serious accident. He has a fractured skull and is currently having memory problems. There are indications of bleeding on the brain. He's also suffering from fractured ribs and a collapsed lung." It was a lot.

When it became clear on Saturday morning that the hospital stay was going to be least a couple more days, I decided that I would drive up so that I could spell Leslie from bedside duty. There was a whirlwind of packing, making arrangements with work and church, and other places that I have responsibilities, and then then drive. It's not actually terrible, about 9 hours, but depending on which way you go, it can cost $50 in tolls.


Dad spent Sunday night in the hospital, and was discharged late afternoon on Monday. My job for most of the time I was there was to sit quietly in Dad's room, but be on hand in case he needed anything. Not a bad gig, actually. I was also in charge of contacting the local missionaries who came over to give him a blessing. I drove him home after he was discharged, and Dad said that I did "a pretty good job." Which is kind of high praise. He's doing much better now, although his vision and balance are still affected by the head injury. And on the upside, I got to add a state to my collection of "States I have gone on a run in." New Hampshire, woo!

Root Canal

Okay, this is two bummer tales right in a row, but I had to get a root canal at the beginning of August. I had had this horrible, awful toothache that laid me low most of the weekend and scheduled an emergency visit to the dentist, who discovered that I need an old root canal retreated AND a new one. The office I went to doesn't mess around, I was in on Monday, and done on Friday. It was horrible. I don't remember my other root canal being as awful, but they were also top teeth and not bottom back teeth, so maybe that's why. Three shots, and achey jaw, and many tears later and I got handed the bill for almost $3K. Hor.ri.ble. And I still need to get the retreat done (I'm waiting until I can add dental insurance to my policy at work).

Work Trip to Panama

Yes, these are the only pics I have from this trip.

Also at the beginning of August I ended up getting to go on a last-minute, whirlwind trip to Panama for work! We'd planned a virtual team summit-type meeting, but funds became available and we actually got to do it in person, which is SO much better for planning team strategy and hashing out tough questions. Because it was so fast, though,I pretty much landed, slept, went to the office, went to dinner with the office, slept, repeat. No times for fun adventures or monkey sightings or anything, but I did love being back in my favorite Central American country. <3 p="">
Tubing the Potomac

The local Single Adult ward planned a tubing trip down the Potomac in mid-August, and that sounded like a really great idea. So Amy Lou, her sister Becks, and I decided to go play. It was really, really fun (except for the part where Amy fell out of her tube and hit her head. That was sad.) (And also the part where it was not terribly well executed in the get loads of people on the river which means we were waiting around for an hour+) but tubing down a river is pretty much the greatest idea that anyone ever had ever. We did "whitewater" kind which meant sometimes there were rocky parts which was fun to go over, so basically, it was amazingly relaxing and amazing. You can see a bunch more pictures here.

Labor Day Weekend: BYU Football and Hiking Shenandoah

 

I discovered that BYU's season opener was going to be in Charlottesville, VA, a mere 2-ish hours from me and therefore well within the boundary of Distances I Am Willing To Travel To Watch BYU Football. Once again Amy Lou and I decided that we needed to be there, and we went. There was a two hour weather delay, thanks to serious rain and lightning, and once we were back in the stadium, it started raining again during the 3rd quarter. But a little rain never hurt anything (Except BYU's offense).  By the time we were like "hey, maybe we should get out of the rain," we were so drenched that it was already too late. We just stopped by WalMart on the way home to get dry clothes. It was really fun to watch BYU play, even if the loss was just heartbreaking (they made up for it by their amazing performance against Texas last weekend, though). More pics here.

On Monday, Ames and I hiked Old Rag, one of the more popular hikes in VA. It's a really, really fun hike with about a mile of rock scramble just before you get to the summit. We picnicked while enjoying the view and then took the smoother, easier way down. Being in nature always leads my thoughts Gospel-ward and so we had really great discussions about the meaning of life and the beauty of God's creations. It was great. We got done rather sooner than expected and tacked on a side trip to Luray Caverns. I love caverns. I really, really do, and this one had one of the most stunning features I've ever seen -- a huge, perfectly still lake that reflected the ceiling so clearly you couldn't tell it was a reflection. Gorgeous. The picture does not do it justice.

And that's you caught up on my life. Hooray! Now I can get back to posting about the much lamer things that my life is actually made up of like making homemade marshmallows and trying to figure out this whole "career" thing.

Ballet

I'm heading out to ballet class in a bit, and so I thought it would be a good time to talk about it with you.

You can't tell because no one else is in the picture,
but my feet are totally backwards here.

Last summer when we had out little family reunion at Lake Tahoe, one morning I had Loo teach me some of her sweet ballet moves. At the time, she'd been taking ballet for something like 6 months or maybe even a whole school year and she was in love with it. I just wanted to spend some quality bonding time with the kid sis by having her share something she loved with me.

This picture clearly shows my typical "ballet face."
It's super awesome.

She taught me to plie and I think we did some tendus and holy cow, I LOVED it. I could really feel how the movements were engaging all of my core and leg muscles and it was great. Later, I was talking to Ames about it and she mentioned she had gone to a 'toning barre' class that was basically focused on using ballet movement to build tone. And I though that would be perfect for what I wanted out of ballet and determined that I would look for a similar class once I got settled in Virginia

I'm totally making this demi-grand rond de jambe look easy.

Several (okay two) months later when I was finally settled in Virginia, I started really looking into ballet-style toning classes. But as I thought about what I really wanted to get out of ballet, I decided that I would be better off looking for an adult beginning ballet class. I wanted to learn how to move my body differently, and to really 'live' in it. I know that sounds weird, but I'd always kind of had an 'inner me/outer me' disconnect and I decided that I didn't love that, and I had this theory that taking ballet classes would help me get over that.

Posture could have been better, but I didn't fall over.
And that's something.

I was right. One thing that I have learned to really love about ballet is the way that it focuses your mental energy on your physical movements -- to do it right you have to find that mind-body connect, that inner me/outer me union. When ballet is working it's you, your body, and the music and I love that. It's different from running, where you can set your body almost on autopilot. I like running for that reason, actually, it's physically hard, but it leaves your brain mostly stimulus free and I find running a really good time to contemplate life, the universe and everything.

Soutenu turns are my favorite.

Ballet for me is the opposite. It doesn't (yet) require the same level of intense physical exertion that running does (mostly because I'm still beginning), but it does require a kind of single-minded focus on the moment, the movement, that drives out all other mental considerations.

I'm totally in this moment, and enjoying it.

A couple weeks ago, as part of national dance week, the studio that I go to had an adult showcase for their adult dance classes. One of the other girls in the class and I decided to participate and our instructor put together an adagio routine and a little waltz. Mostly I did it to please some friends who'd been wanting to see me dance, and it was really fun to perform actually. Never mind that I started in backwards fifth and that obviously neither of us was at "we've been dancing since we were three" level of ballet awesomeness.

We were no corp de ballet in perfect synch.

And it was obviously not as pretty and graceful on us as it was on our instructor who had been dancing since three.

This looked AMAZING when Rachel did it.

But I looked through the pictures that Annie took of the recital and was pleasantly surprised at how well I'm wearing ballet these days.

Just like a real ballerina, right?

And Then it Was February

The good news is that I have definitely written in my journal every single day this year. The bad news, is that I've totally neglected Ye Olde Blog. I'm trying to decide if I actually care about neglecting the blog or not, so you people may have to be all "But Jules! We love reading your blog! Even more than your facebook posts!" in the comments section to remind me that I have a cadre of loyal readers who would be sad to see me go.

But how about an update on my life, eh!?

First of all, I think we should talk about how awesome I am. So awesome that I locked myself out of the house twice this last week. I really should get a spare set of keys made and deposit them with someone that I know and trust who lives close, but that would require leaving my house in one of the few unbooked hours of my week and going to the store, and kids, I haven't even made it to the grocery store (My fridge currently contains 2 almost dead zucchini, half a carton of cottage cheese, half a dozen eggs, and assorted condiments).

Or there was also that time that I went to the gym this week, and totally failed to pack hair product or makeup, so had to rock a ponytail/no-make-up look at work. That was also awesome.

Otherwise, I have been kept busy with volunteering at a nearby free medical clinic. I've been interpreting, which has been really fun, and also really good practice speaking Spanish. I go right after work, so volunteering makes for a REALLY long day, but I love it.

My other major weekly time commitment is ballet class on Thursdays. And, honestly, Thursday is the perfect night for ballet class. I'm usually starting to get that end-of-week drag going on and its lovely to set it all aside for a few hours and totally focus on beautiful music and beautiful movement.

Also, I don't think I mentioned that I got a calling, but I did, and it's Relief Society Instructor, and I taught my first lesson a week or so ago and I loved it. My lesson was on Ann Dibb's October General Conference talk, I Know It. I Live It. I Love It. and my lesson included an etymology lesson, so you know it was amazing.

Um... that might be it. I'm going on a cruise next week, though, so there will definitely be some exciting things to share about that.

Don't Worry, I Still Exist

So, 2012 has kind of been the Great Undocumented Year. But that's probably fine because on the whole 2012 was not the greatest year of all time. That's not to say that is didn't have its bright spots, but on the whole, not the greatest. Fingers crossed on 2013, though. And toes.

But I have been doing things. So, let me tell you about them.

Blackfriar's Theater

One thing that I did was drive down to Staunton, VA to attend a showing of Shakespeare's Cymbaline performed by the American Shakespeare Center at Blackfriar's theater. The theater is a replica of the indoor theater that Shakespeare staged his play on, and they try to stay true to the spirit of Shakespeare's plays by leaving the lights on the whole time and engaging the audience. This helps make the plays make a little more sense, since it turns out that there are a lot of audience asides in Shakespeare's plays. It was extremely well done and I enjoyed myself immensely.

After the play, we went to eat at this cute restaurant called the Depot where we had a lot of stinky cheeses and everything was amazingly delicious. While we were there we noticed a couple of the actors eating there as well. Turns out they noticed us as well, and when they were done they came over to chat with us. Which was exciting, because they had done a great job and gave us a chance to gush at them a little. But actually, they weren't there to chat with us. One of my friends had semi-accidentally taken a flash photo with her phone (she meant to take the photo; she didn't mean for it to be flash. She also speaks English as a second language and very young, so she didn't actually know that it was a bit of a faux pas). The actors had ACTUALLY come over to give us the "no flash photography" lecture. Seriously? Seriously! I mean, I understand the rule, but who made them the flash photo police? I think I would have been more okay with it if they hadn't come over all chummy like they just wanted to say hi to the fans. Unbelievable.

But anyway, it was fun and now I have an awesome story to recount which I can conclude with a derisive "thesbians!" and that's awesome.

African Sweet Potato and Peanut Stew

I got asked to make a meal for one of the families in our ward who had just welcomed a new addition. Cooking for strangers is always hard, since you just never know what they are going to like, and in this case, the meal had to be gluten free. So, I decided to make one of Ed's favorite recipes: African Sweet Potato and Peanut Stew. It seems like a good choice because it was novel, had a nice spice kick without being spicy, and it also freezes well. So I made it and delivered it, and discovered there had been some kind of communications break down along the line, and someone else had already delivered dinner for the night. Oh well, though, like I said, the stew keeps well, and that would just be a few extra days of food they wouldn't have to worry about.

I didn't think much of it until the next day when I was heating up the stew for my lunch (Obviously, I made extras for myself) and discovered that a coworker/friend of mine had ALSO brought African Sweet Potato and Peanut Stew for lunch. What are the odds, right? I'm sure you can tell where this is going. They were the other family who'd brought dinner that night. And they brought the same dish as I did. Seriously, what are the odds? I don't think they were exactly the same, but still, that poor family. They are going to think that's all we know how to make around here!

Game Night(s)

I've been spending a lot of time with these people:

Doing this:

Obviously, that's a picture means "playing board games." The game pictured is actually not one we play often because it's kind of dull, but it works as an abstract representation. Anyway, games are funny because these boys are funny. So even though I'm not very good at games (I invariably come in second to last), I enjoy game nights. Yay!

Thanksgiving

I totally brought my camera to take pictures of Thanksgiving and completely failed to do so. Mine was pretty low key. I ran 5 miles in the morning to prepare for the engorgement, and then spent mid morning to afternoon crafting Thanksgiving dishes like homemade dressing from scratch (starting with cutting and drying the french bread I used), pumpkin pizzas (use savory spiced pumpkin puree as the sauce), and roasted brussels sprouts. Then I took my beautiful food creations over to a friend's house where we proceeded to eat many other crafted from scratch items, plus a beautifully roasted turkey and watch football. And then we had round two the next night because there were definitely not enough of us to eat all of the yumminess that there was.

I wish there were more to tell you, but there doesn't seem to be. I think one of my resolutions for next year might have to be "document my life better" and/or "have more of a life.

Today I...

...got up really early to make it into DC to run in the AIDS Walk 5K. I don't know what my official time was, nor could I even give you a best guess, but I'm betting it was a personal best because after mile two I decided that I needed to pass anyone I could see who was wearing pink, which kept me running strong through the end of the race.

...hurried back home to meet my visiting teachers at La Madeleine for lunch. That was yummy and fun!

...took my insurance payment (that FINALLY arrived) and paid off the balance on my car loan. I am once again consumer debt free.

...went to Target. It still sometimes blows my mind a little that I can just go to Target whenever I want.

...made a tutu and a witches hat for the costume I planned to wear to the ward Halloween Trunk-or-Treat/Chili Cookoff.

...checked the oil in my car, filled it up with gas, cleaned out the accumulated junk of the past two months, and vacuumed the interior.

...whipped up a batch of rice crispy treats.

...went to the ward Halloween Trunk-or-Treat/Chili Cookoff.

...wrote this blog post, and then took my exhausted self to bed.

I Rocked That

Here are some things that I've totally rocked lately:

• Ran the whole 3.6 mile loop that I've been doing. I'd gotten the first three down, but either direction I run, that last .6 is all uphill and it was killing me. On Monday, though, I totally rocked that run and could have gone further had time permitted.
  
• Two weeks of daily journal writing. Some of you are stellar journalers. I am not. But I totally rocked that journal writing these last two weeks and made an entry every day.
  
• Deep cleaned the house. I was just going to do a "presentable for guests" job on Saturday and then I rocked that cleaning job and my house is STILL sparkling.

Here are the things I'm planning to rock in the future

• The splits. I've been taking a ballet class and will probably add in some yoga, and hopefully in a few or several months, I'm totally going to rock the splits.

• The hymnbook. This week marks the start of Project Hymn Book -- I'm going to start with hymn number one and spend 20 or 30 minutes a day practicing until I know it, and then move on to hymn number two until I get through the whole book. This is obviously going to take more than a year, but I'm going to rock that hymn book.

Good Things

I don't love being cold but I do love pretty Autumn trees.

And getting cozified with piles of blankets.

Also, I found a replacement for Big John's. It's nice to have a regular place again.

I don't actually love these shoes, but I'm muchly enjoying my ballet class.

And I'm enjoying being one of those active people and having a running trail right out the back door.

I'm in Trouble

Walked out the door today to head to work and with a shiver and a groan of dissatisfaction thought to myself "Why is it Winter already?"

This is a problem, because it's not Winter. It's barely the first breath of Fall. I will never be warm again.

This Is a Post About Running

New running shoes in bright red? Of course,  I can totally run faster and jump higher in them.

I took the month of August off of running. Mostly because I dropped heavy things on my feet while moving and one was starting to twinge bizarrely when I ran and the top of the other one was just sore. I thought to myself: perhaps I should take some time off running. And I did. Instead I spent a lot of excruciating on the elliptical machine.

A very distant secondary reason that I took August off of running is that I had worn through the soles of my running shoes and I used August's clothing budget to build up my work wardrobe, and I had to wait until I engaged the September clothing budget to buy new running shoes (sometimes the budget goes to September before the year does)

So anyway, all through August I'd been telling people that in September I was going to start running again, and I was all "yeah, running, whatevs" like it's just what I do to burn calories and maintain a healthy cardiovascular system. Then I engaged September clothing budget early so that I could have new running shoes available at the beginning of August. I went to a running store, but they were exceedingly not prompt in attending to me so I ended up just ordering new shoes off of Amazon.

And then something magical happened. As I completed my order, an excited feeling started to swell within my breast. And I said within myself "you're getting new shoes to run in and on Monday, you can GO RUNNING!" and my soul squee'd in delighted anticipation.

Guys, I WAS EXCITED TO GO RUNNING!

I think that this officially makes me A Runner.

And you know what, I WENT running on Monday. Sure, it was just an easy mile -- have to break in the shoes and the feet -- but it was a-MAZ-ing. 'Cause, you know, *Jules nochelantly shrugs her shoulders and makes her "it's no big deal" face* I'm A Runner now.

Sunday Evening

Went with one of my favorite people to one of my favorite places. Love.

Four Lists of Five Things

Five Things I Miss About Key West

1. The sun. I feel like I somehow managed to be outside much more often when I was in Key West, but that might just be because Reston is a super shady (as in there is a lot of trees and therefore shade) town, so even when I am outside, I'm still not getting that full Sunshine effect.
2. The people. This should probably actually be number one, but oh, I miss the sun. Facebook is nice because I still feel like I know what's going on, but also sad-making because I wish I was there. Yay! for staying clued in, Boo! for making me miss all my awesome friends.
3. Annie's. I did not realize how great of a deal Annie's Buying Club was until I starting having to buy veggies individually from stores. And I also am still not sure about this whole, plan your menu and THEN go to the store business.
4. My tiny office. I work in a huge office building now filled with strangers (and some familiar faces). I miss both the closeness of a small office and the feeling of being a big fish in a small pond. I'm now just a regular sized fish.
5. The Cafe, Matheessen's, Big Johns, Thai Life, Goldmans, etc. Sure, there are a ton of restaurants here too, but I haven't discovered my favorites yet. And none of them is a floating restaurant.

Five Things I Do NOT Miss About Key West

1.  Living on base. Ordered pizza for lunch today, and just gave the dude my address. And then he came and knocked on my door. No need for a call from the corner of Whitehead and United. Invited my friends over, same thing: just gave them the address and they knocked on my door. Genius!
2. Geckos. They aren't cute.
3. That stink that sometimes happens in the late summer. If you've ever been in Key West during the stinky times, you know what I'm talking about.
4. Mopeds. I'm sure they are great for the people who drive them, but I hated getting stuck behind them.
5. Tourists. Luckily I live far enough away from the tourist hot spots that I just don't have to deal with them anymore. And it's glorious. I love being a tourist, but I don't love living in an area that a lot of people tour to.

Five Things I'm Loving About Northern Virginia

1. Old Friends. I do miss my Key West friends, but it's been great to start integrating old friends back into my daily life. And I don't want to sound elitist or anything, but it's been awesome that so many of them are single.
2. Target. And Macy's. And specialty running stores. And specialty grocery stores. And DSW. And holy heck how did I live my life without such convenient commercialism!
3. Smart people. I'm not saying that people in Key West are not smart, just that if you've decided to live in Key West, it's for a reason, and the reason is not so that you can randomly start talking about the Napoleonic Wars and expect five people to join in the conversation.
4. Bike paths. Everywhere.
5. Cultural Events. All the time. 

Five Things I'm Not Loving About Northern Virginia

1. Traffic. And roads that make no sense. And the people who drive here.
2. Rent. I'm getting a great deal for my area, but its still substantially more than I was paying. And also, it's not just being withheld from my paycheck like it was, so I actually see that giant chunk of money disappear.
3. The lack of a horizon. Between the trees and the hills and the wonky curvy roads, you just can't ever see that far ahead of you. Sometimes it's cozy, and sometimes it's claustrophobia-inducing.
4. Having to put make-up on every day. I sort of hate feeling like I have to look good all the time.
5. Slow hymns. Our pianist at church in Key West always played the hymns at a wonderfully fast pace and I loved it. Now I feel like I'm singing dirges all the time.

In Unrelated News, ...

...it's a beautiful day out today. You know how I know? Everyone and their dog was out for a walk on the trails while I was riding home for work. Every. Single. One.

... I just made enough not-quite-authentic pasta carbonara to feed all those starving children in Africa.

... I believe in brunch. I had brunch yesterday with Tim and Adopted Family, and it was both delicious and delightful. People should brunch more. And by people, I mean I should brunch more. My contribution: Watermelon Gazpacho. Yes, it was as awesome as it sounds.

... I may or may not have finally gotten around to signing up for Pinterest.

... my sister-in-law gave birth to Niece #2 yesterday-ish. Through a series of convoluted logic steps, I'm claiming the baby is named after me. Since I am the favorite Auntie after all. (I make sure this is the case by buying lots of fun presents.)

On Eating

When I lived in Key West I participated in this organic vegetables co-op called Annie's Buying Club. The theory was that sourcing organic food in bulk reduces the cost, so a bunch of people pool their money, Annie orders bulk organic items, and then distributes a box every week. Or in my case every other week. I didn't care so much about the organic part (I think that organic farming has it's own tradeoffs), but when I joined I was looking to add vegetables in my life, and I was sick of broccoli. The co op forced me to learn new cooking techniques and to use tons of different vegetables, some of which I'd never even heard of.

The thing I liked most about the box was the Iron Chef like element to it. Here's a pound of green beans, kale, and and an eggplant... Go! Annie's provided an extensive list of recipes for the produce in the box and it was fun to scour the Internet to find a recipe because all I had left was, say, carrots and kale. It actually made menu planning really easy because I had to plan around the box.

By the end of my time in Key West, though, I was starting to feel like I wanted a little more control. I discovered that I'm not a huge fan of most root vegetables (though unlike many people, I do like beets), and I learned that I have exactly zero skill with Asian cooking which means that daikon radishes and bok choy were a major cooking challenge for me. So while I did look into the CSA option when I moved to maintain that same "here's a bunch of ingredients, go!" thing, in the end I decided that I didn't want to join one, first, because I wanted more control, and second, because CSAs source from a limited geographic area (unlike Annie's which sourced globally) which limits the kinds of produce you get.

It's been kind of hard, though, to make the shift between "here's a bunch of ingredients, plan a menu" and "here's a menu, go buy a bunch of ingredients." I'm still learning how you decide what to make, because there are SO many yummy looking recipes in the world, it's hard to decide what I want without any limiting factors. So, all of you people who regularly make menus and then go shopping, how do you decide what your menu is going to look like? Where do you get your inspiration from? How do you avoid getting stuck in ruts? How do you sort through recipes?

Tangentially, here is what I'm planning to make this week (totally stole this idea from Erin):

Tropical Black Bean and Collard Green Soup

 by Fat Free Vegan

Pesto Stuffed Zucchini

by Simply Recipes

Zucchini, Corn, and Poblano Tacos

on Serious Eats

Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Charred Chile and Corn

by Serious Eats