10 Year High School Reunion

So, yesterday was my 10 year high school reunion. 10 YEARS. How crazy is that?

I mean, high school does seem like it was a long time ago... but even so, that blows my mind.

We met up at Palmer Park. If you know the park, it was easy to find the pavilion. I didn't know the park. I came from the wrong entrance and drove around for about 10 minutes before I finally found the right place. And even then, Hayley and I almost drove past it, because the pavilion was decorated for a little kid's Batman themed birthday. I could see a group of kids gathered around a Batman pinata, and there was a bouncy house set up next to it and everything. So we thought that couldn't possibly be our reunion--but I parked and hiked over to check things out, to at least find out the name of the pavilion in the hopes that I could figure out where we really needed to be.

And I found a couple people from Rampart Class of '06 hanging out there. They politely let the birthday party kids know that we'd reserved the pavilion--we didn't rush them out, because we didn't want to ruin the party. So with all that, it took about an hour for things to kick off. It was an awkward hour, with the birthday party, and with only a few people from our class standing around and waiting for more people to show up. A couple more trickled in, but... it was a very small affair, haha.

It got better once we ate lunch together. We all fit around one picnic table and talked and caught up. Some of us didn't even know each other in high school. :) But the ones that I did know... I don't know, there's just something special about hanging out with someone who knew you as a child/teen. Even if they didn't know me well back then, they still know things about me that no one else will ever know. There's a special connection there that you just can't fabricate with anyone else.

It came up what advice we would give our 18 year old selves if we could go back in time. I was surprised to realize... I don't have any regrets from the last 10 years. Sure, I made some mistakes in that time, but I learned lessons from those mistakes that made the experience worthwhile. Life didn't turn out as I hoped or planned in many ways, but it never does for anyone. That wasn't my fault. All things considered... life has turned out pretty well. I may not be a wife and mother like I wanted, but it turns out being a successful career woman isn't so bad either. :) I've had opportunities I wouldn't have had as a married mother, and I think it's okay to embrace that and be grateful for them. That's something I've struggled with sometimes... If I'd sought out those opportunities rather than marriage/motherhood, that would be one thing. But that's not what happened... those opportunities are what has happened in my life while I've been waiting. It's okay to be happy about them--actually, I probably should be happy about them.

Travel Bucket List

People keep talking about my trip to Europe as a once in a lifetime opportunity. That may very well be what it is... But oh man, I don't want it to be!! I have the travel bug so bad. I want to go everywhere and see everything. I'm already saving up for my next trip. :)

Now every time someone mentions somewhere, I'm adding it to my mental bucket list of places to go. So my tentative plan is to make my wishlist and just keep on adding to it for forever. Here is the wishlist in no particular order:

1. Ireland--I had ancestors from there long ago. :) While I'm there I'd love to stop at the Trinity College Library to see the Book of Kells.
2. Scotland--The McAllisters came from here! :)
3. Capetown, South Africa--One of my airport shuttle drivers told me this is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, surrounded on 3 sides by the ocean. I looked up the pics and he wasn't kidding!
4. Finland--Kristie served her mission there, so I want to take her back someday. In the summer when the sun is out ALL day! :D
5. Tokyo, Japan--Jason and I want to check this place out.
6. Norway--Kristie's friend Antti was telling us about this place to the north with mountains and the ocean visible and how pretty it is in the summer.
7. Caribbean (ALL of it! :)
8. Tahiti--the beaches here are supposed to be legendary
9. Hawaii--Polynesian Cultural Center, Honolulu Temple, Pearl Harbor
10. Germany--including Neuschwanstein Castle
11. China--especially the Great Wall
12. Austria--including where the sound of music was filmed :)
13. Australia
14. New Zealand--Lord of the Rings! (Yes, I'm a dork! XD)
15. City Museum, St. Louis Missouri

Week of Craziness

I think it's funny I had these grand plans to relive my Europe trip here in my blog, and I only got as far as describing the plane ride over. >< Haha, well, expect more to come out in bits and pieces now and then. There have been times I haven't let myself journal/blog about more recent things until I got caught up in writing about past stuff I wanted to record.... but when I do that, the list of things I need to write just gets longer and longer and I fall so far behind that it becomes impossible to catch up. So, this time I'll just keep blogging as usual, and every once in a while when the mood strikes me, I'll write about Europe. :)

This last week was crazy busy for me. I woke up at 3 am on Monday to head out on a business trip to Jacksonville, Florida. Unfortunately I was flying Delta, and their systems went down worldwide. I made my first flight okay, but I got stuck in Atlanta for 7 hours. They tried to switch me to another flight going out the next morning, but instead I canceled the second leg of the flight and took a Southwest plane the rest of the way.

The conference lasted for 4 days. It was great connecting with my coworkers--both members of Senior Staff were there, and I got to meet Kevin, a BYU Professor we've hired as a Local Evaluator, in person for the first time. It's always good to meet other grantees too, and I met our Federal Project Specialist in person too.

It was kind of funny--at each table during the conference, they provided Play-doh, crayons, and pipe cleaners for us to play with to help us stay focused. I had a lot of fun with those things--sometime when I'm in charge of a conference, I will copy them.

I came home on Thursday night, arriving home at midnight.

At 3 pm the next day, I headed to the church to set up for the One in Christ YSA Conference, my committee's biggest event of the year. I was there until about midnight that night--we had dinner (Brazilian, in honor of the Olympics--we tied that in to our unity theme because they are about international unity!), a wonderful fireside, and a dance. The fireside was presented by Brother and Sister Chatelain, the new seminary teacher and his wife. When they were married about a year, Brother Chatelain had an accident that has left him as a quadriplegic ever since. He was very open in talking about what a challenge that was and still is. Although his life hasn't played out as he hoped, he sees the Lord's hand in it, and it's still good and worthwhile. He shared some of the lessons he's learned from the experience. It was wonderful, and I think it helped all of us put our own problems into perspective.

The next day I was up at 6:30 to get ready and head over to the Evergreen cemetery in town. We did a BillionGraves service project--taking pictures of tombstones for their website, for later transcription, so people around the world can find their family members who are buried there. We had a decent turnout--30-40 people for that part--and I think we did over 2,000 names, although most of the pictures we submitted are still being processed, so I'm not sure. After that, we headed to a nearby park for a picnic lunch. Then back to the church for 3 hours of workshops, an awesome closing fireside by President Brock and Sister Brock of the temple presidency, another dinner, and international unity games (because Olympics is copyrighted. :) We had a better turnout for that part.

I think people had fun. I know of a couple that hadn't been to YSA stuff before who appeared at the YSA wards on Sunday. Another guy mentioned to me that before the YSA conference, he felt like he didn't know anyone, but afterwards, he felt like he'd met everyone. :) I think we did get some unity going and some new friendships formed. I'm calling it a success. And I'm a little relieved it's off my back until next year. ;)

Anyway, so that's what I've been up to of late. It made it hard to find time to blog. :) One of these days, though, I do want to go through all my Europe pictures and try to recapture that experience.

London and Paris--the Plane Ride Over

My trip to Europe was phenomenal. We ran around every day all day to pack in as many things as we could. I loved it--but I didn't have much time to write about it, and my head is overflowing with many many posts about what I saw and experienced. We'll see if I can rein it in, or if this post turns into a series of posts!

The trip started off great. I'm one of those people who usually can't sleep before I travel, for whatever reason. Even if it's just a little business trip, I'm often awake until the wee hours of the morning the night before. It's not because I'm worried or excited, necessarily... I don't know what it is. But somehow I managed to sleep just fine the night before. It seemed like a good omen. :)

Hayley recommended that on the flight there, I watch one in flight movie, eat dinner, and then go to sleep. So, I watched the new live version of the Jungle Book (I liked it, but I'm not really hankering for a rewatch), ate my dinner, and... conked out! Again, so surprised I could sleep.

Dinner was some chicken thing that was actually pretty good! And the cheesecake dessert was a very nice touch.

Amazingly, I was able to sleep on the plane. I had one of those neck pillow things--highly recommended! Usually I have trouble getting comfortable.

Hayley and I were on a row together--she was on the aisle and I was at the window seat. She booked the seats that way hoping that no one would take the middle seat, and no one showed up... but I wonder if someone booked the spot and missed the plane, because at meal times they would bring special meals someone had ordered and we'd tell them it wasn't either of us. So I woke up to the stewardess trying to deliver a special breakfast meal. She said, "Did you preorder breakfast?" I guess she didn't realize we were sleeping? We both popped awake and I just stared at her while she repeated herself at least 6 times as my fuzzy brain tried to figure out where I was and what was happening. This was the only time on the trip I had trouble understanding a British accent. Finally I noticed the tray in her hands and assumed she was offering me breakfast, which I didn't much want at that moment, so I said, "No thanks." She looked at me like I was a crazy person and tried one last time, finally getting through to me. "Did you preorder breakfast?" "Oh... no, sorry."

At last we landed. I was so giddy. Every little British thing excited me at that point because it was all so new. Look, the elevators are called lifts! Hey, their toilets look different. Wow, listen to all the British accents!

Customs was a nightmare. We were in line for 2 hours. But I got my first stamp in my passport, much to my delight. :)

Hayley's sister-in-law Anna was sweet and came to pick us up. For our first two days, we stayed with Hayley's brother's family while we attempted to recover from our jet lag. That first day, I felt like a total zombie. I didn't do much besides sit around the Carters' house and try to stay awake. I did try to take a nap at one point, and I couldn't even sleep! Craziness. Most of that day is a complete blur to me.

Haha, wow, okay, I've barely dipped my toe in here, but it's late, and I guess I'll post this anyways just to let people know I'm still alive. ;) The actual exciting trip stuff will come soon!