Last Spring Break ever

I treasure my Spring Breaks. Why? Because I never had one during undergrad (except once, sort of, when they needed the students to clear out for the Olympics). I remember thinking it was really great that we got out of BYU a week earlier and whatnot, but I sure am glad AU doesn't follow the same policy. With this in mind, I've tried to make the most of the two Spring Breaks grad school has bequeathed to me.

How do I take advantage this year? I go to Fort Lauderdale to meet up with David after his work trip, kick it with Leslie and Alex, and get Scuba certified!

We had so much fun hanging out with Leslie and Alex. They took us to Miami (bienvenido) for Cuban food, and they practiced one of their taco truck dishes on us (I think it was borrowed from Lori?). T'was divine. If I could find a taco truck here that sold this dish, I would go there every day. Just saying.

We also got to spend a little time on the beach by their house.

Turns out there's a pirate alley on the beach with a pirate gift shop, pirate bar, pirate wax figures, and a pirate photo op. Of course, we had to partake.

Obviously, David makes better pirate faces than me. I'll have to practice.

Leslie also took us for an airboat ride in the Everglades! Trivia for you: Did you know the Everglades is actually an extra-wide and extra-slow-moving river?

On our way down, we tried to figure out the difference between Okeechobee and Okefenokee. Mostly because they're just fun to say. Do you know the difference? Without asking Google?

We saw a lot of birds and one single alligator. Then we celebrated when we got back to land by sampling some fried gator. They did the same thing at the Mamba village I visited in Kenya. Both times, I was a little disturbed that they show you the wildlife and then feed it to you. Both times, I partook anyway.

Scuba certification is something I've had every intention of getting done before now - but I didn't. David thought it might behoove me to get that taken care of. In case I might need it. In a couple months. For whatever reason.

In short - I loved it. It was a surreal experience. Once I figured out the buoyancy, I felt so freeeeee! On the open water dives we saw sea turtles, lots of tropical fish, a couple of nurse sharks, and a lobster - which my instructor, Erin, proceeded to catch with her bare hands.

Even though the paces are completely different, I would compare the sense of freedom to how I feel when I'm skiing. And that says something! I can see myself getting hooked on this hobby. Or maybe I already am?

You are my Muse

This semester's round of midterms were the most intense I've ever had. Fitting, I suppose, since it's my final round. For about a week straight, I spent most of my waking hours studying and reviewing (except for my blessed study-restricted Sunday). After all that, I still felt like I needed several more hours each day to feel like I was actually prepared for all five of my exams.

I knew, going into midterms, that things would be this way. So I scheduled in a few moments of mandatory respite. Because sometimes, you just need to burn off some stress, else you just won't make it out with your sanity intact.

One night I took a cardiovascular respite, and I ended up swimming a mile. I've only gone that far one other time ever, and it's been awhile since that happened. Apparently I had more to burn off that I realized.

An unscheduled moment of respite was brought to me by the reliable ingenuity of a old quality standby, OK Go. Their low-budget, creative music videos (like this one and this one) never fail to impress and bring a smile to my face. I'm always wondering, what brilliance will they come up with next, and how can they possibly outdo their last vid? Answer: They'll recruit a high school band to remind me that this too shall pass. Well timed, boys. Well timed.

And then there was Muse.

Oh, delightful respite of wonder and bliss. How I love thee and thy awe-inspiring musical abilities. When I saw Muse open for U2, all I wanted was for them to come back and headline in a smaller venue. Wish granted!

I actually neglected to bring my camera, which only enhanced the experience because I wasn't constantly interrupting my experience to document it. I was only able to catch a few shots and low-quality snippets on my phone - and leave a fun voice mail for traveling David. (I don't regret that he had to miss Midterms-Crazed Abby, but it is a shame he didn't get to partake of the goodness of Muse.)

I had some pretty seriously high expectations. Unsurprisingly, Muse delivered. If they're coming to a city near you...go. See them. Run, do not walk, to the ticket office and get some seats before they sell out. Please. And you're welcome.

And you know what? Thanks to the reprieves and lots of prayers, I survived the mighty midterms. Queue the wind-down (my favorite respite of all - details forthcoming)!

From snowfall to a shower

I just took a whirlwind trip to Idaho last weekend. I had high hopes of spending some quality time with a few people, but this trip was strictly business - only time to take care of a few wedding details. About 36 hours after I arrived, I was already headed east back to my DC.

Granted, some of my "business" happened to be a wedding shower put on by a dear friend from the good ol' 2nd ward. I got to see many ladies I grew up with but haven't seen for quite awhile, and my best friends in town also showed up to celebrate with me. I felt so loved and supported. Thank you, ladies (and especially Michele), for making me feel special. It was exactly what I needed.

Nice to be home. :)

Snowpocalypse

Thought I'd come up for air before midterms hit next week.

DC got hit by "the storm of the century" a couple weeks ago (it has also been called Snowmageddon and Snobama). It was the most hyped-up storm I've ever seen, but it actually ended up living up to all the hype. And I've got documentation! It literally paralyzed the entire area. School was cancelled for a full week , church was cancelled two weeks in a row, huge trees were falling down all over the place, over 200,000 people lost power, and some days I didn't even leave my house. And I'm from IDAHO. I have to say, even coming from the good ol' Rockies, this was a pretty fantastic series of storms. Check out this progression...

Friday afternoon:

Saturday morning:

Saturday evening. Anybody seen my car?

Some people said it was like I had an extra spring break, which is not quite right. Not just because it's the dead of winter. Class was cancelled one day at a time, so I still spent the bulk of my days doing homework and shoveling, just in case the folks at AU decided the roads weren't really all that bad and class should take place. Every night I'd anxiously await my AU class cancellation text update for the following day...then like Pavlov's dog, I'd start jumping up and down in celebration every time it came.

How I love snow. Cold is so much more bearable when it's accompanied by snowfall. I waited almost five years for a winter like this in DC.

When I'd get cabin fever, I'd go out to play and try to dig a path out of our house. Not like we had anywhere to go, I just wanted to be out in all the beautiful whiteness.

The world just seems so fresh and peaceful when it's all covered by 23 inches of snow.

I also went out for a stroll a few times. I just loved being outside! I took a walk to David's one day and captured these beauties.

Marcia and I had our playtime out there, too.

We were solicited by some friends of ours to come over for dinner and Rock Band on the night of Snowpocalypse. How do you say no to that? Sometimes the sidewalks were nonexistent, but no matter, the roads weren't being used either.

This is King Street, one of the main busy streets by my house. See the other pedestrians up there who also opted for the street instead of carving their way down the sidewalk?

I must spend just a moment defending DC, because this is something I just didn't understand when I moved out here. I've seen plenty of crazy bad snowstorms in my day, where the next day life went on as normal. School was rarely cancelled for weather, especially if you were in college. So why does DC literally shut down every time we get a little flurry? It took me a few winters to understand that they're not just all a bunch of sissies. #1 - Since it doesn't come down like this on any kind of a regular basis, they're just not equipped with all the snowplows needed to take care of anything of this magnitude. So...everybody panics leading up to the storm and cancels everything based on the predictions alone. It also takes them a LOT longer to clear off all the roads (lots of roads, by the way) with what they've got. #2 - Black ice. That ol' DC humidity wreaks havoc on the roads, I tell you. So next time you're tempted to scoff at DC's wimpy reaction to a storm, be gentle. That being said, I can't resist poking fun at a DC-ism that has always made me giggle.

Honestly now, is it going to make things better to put the wipers up when you're up against Snowpocalypse?

Reclaiming the weekend

I love Sundays. It is my self-enforced break from my work and school labors. I may have some major group projects or tests on the horizon, but Sunday is off limits. My classmates and bosses know it, and they've learned that I'll always get my work done - just not that day. It takes a little self-discipline up-front when big things are coming due, but it's always such a relief when Sunday gets here. In many instances, it's my day to regain my sanity, and I think it shows in my demeanor throughout the rest of the week. (I've had classmates comment before that maybe they should give themselves a day of rest, too. I tell them it's a start, but there's a little more to it than that.) It's not that I don't do anything that day - I often spend much of my day taking care of churchy duties. It's just that I set part of my life aside - and the cares and stress that go along with it. I've been asked before if I can really afford to do that every week...in all honesty, I don't think I can afford not to.

That being said, this post is brought to you by AC's day of rest.

DC got hit with a snowstorm all day yesterday. It was delightful. I had been mourning the fact that I missed the last huge storm in December, so this was a welcome sight indeed. Naturally, when David suggested that we go to town to take pictures of the monuments and trees in the snow, I was immediately on board.

I didn't actually take many pictures. I let David be the photographer while I made snow angels and watched in delight as the big, fluffy, white flakes just kept on coming down.

We passed by our good friend Mr. Lincoln and I couldn't resist asking a passerby to document our 2.5-month mark since the last time we were there.

(It was so cold that I had to massage my face a little bit before I could make my mouth form a smile.)

Hooray for winter. Especially when there's snow.

The end.

School update: I really like all of my classes - even the ones that go until 10:30pm. A couple of them are going to be doozies, but I enjoy the content very much. I think I can pull everything off - in and out of school - this semester, but it means I need to be more disciplined with my time in the mornings than I was last semester. Please pray for Abby to have more discipline. Many garcias.

One year ago today...

I met David.

Did anything else big happen around here on January 20, 2009? I forget.

Adventures and Misadventures of Christmas Break

Perk to being in school: extra-long Christmas break.

Potential drawback: most of said break will be spent recuperating from school.

Despite that, it was great to spend some quality time with a small portion of my family and focus on the important Christmas-type things. Sadly, there were zero nieces and nephews in the house this year. I didn't know what to do with myself and all the quiet time!

David and I decided to celebrate the new year with a race. SLC has a 5K that begins at 11:30pm, and if you beat the new year to the finish line, you get a nice wooden commemorative plaque.

How could we refuse such an invitation for competition?

For the record, it was HARD. I can definitely feel the difference between DC and UT altitude. Living in the east has made me weak! The race started late, but we still beat 2010 by about half a minute. Aw yeah.

I used to always say that I would marry the first guy who took me to see the lights at temple square. As of New Years Eve, it hadn't happened yet. (I may or may not have tipped David off to this fact.) In any case, after the race we had plenty of energies, and wouldn't you know it, they kept the lights on after midnight! So we stopped by, still adorned in our running paraphernalia.

Guess that means I have to marry him now.

There was one misadventure of the break, although I don't feel totally right calling it a misadventure. Because hey, sometimes crazy bad things happen, but sometimes you get really really ridiculously lucky when it comes to the timing of said bad things.

Case in point:

* Bad thing: My hard drive crashed on my lappy the day before I left Idaho.

(Mac owners: if this pops up on your screen, run - do not walk - to the nearest Apple Store's Genius Bar. But be sure to schedule an appointment. Those stores are POPULAR. I asked Davy, my Genius assistant, if it was always so busy. He said, "Are you kidding?! This place is absolutely dead right now!")

* Luck: It was still under the extended warranty I got before school started (because I didn't want to have to worry about it while under "starving student" status).

* Serious luck: I took it to the Apple store in Salt Lake to get a diagnosis before I jumped on my plane back to DC, assuming they'd have to send it in to HQ and hoping and praying that they'd get it sent back to me by the time school starts next Monday. Within the next half hour, not only did they replace my hard drive (with an upgrade too, since they don't make 'em as small as they used to) and update the operating system (I can now get Boot Camp, hooray!), but they also cleaned out all the dust (which I've wanted to do since Kenya) and fixed some little cosmetic things that I was putting off until a later, more convenient date.

* Real real ridiculous luck: I got an external hard drive for Christmas - I think it was from Santa? Just two days prior to the crash, David helped me to back up the last year and a half of my life of pictures, music, reports, presentations, resumes, you name it - the first time I've bothered to back up my lappy since I bought it. I literally did not lose a single thing. When you're one semester away from finishing grad school, that's kind of a big deal. In case I needed more signs that I absolutely need to marry David, that one sealed the deal for me. Not like I was at all unsure before - I mean, he did take me to see the temple square lights, after all - but a little reinforcement is always a good thing.

* In summary: What could have been an extremely traumatic experience ended up being more like, "Oh, hum. Well, good thing I got that extended warranty!" (I do need to replace my MS Office for Mac software, but that's actually replaceable. I can handle that.) I love when blessings are so perfectly timed that you have no choice but to recognize them for what they are.

iHeart Mac.

Now, for my next act! I will attempt to hold two jobs, find a post-graduate career, train for a half marathon, complete a 15-credit semester, graduate, and plan a wedding - all in a mere 134 days - blindfolded, with one hand tied behind my back! (Read: I might fall off the radar for a bit.)

Here we gooooooooo....

A reenactment...

...of David's birthday surprise:

One of the David masks that me, his siblings, nephews, and niece put on before David got to his sister's house in El Paso (where he didn't know I would be):

What David saw when he walked in the front door:

(He actually missed his flight and was a day late, which meant more time to plan a more elaborate surprise and extra bonus day with the siblings and kids! It also meant hiding in quiet rooms and faking my way through a few phone calls before he arrived.)

His initial reaction when he saw us:

What he did when I took off my David mask and he discovered that I was actually in El Paso, not Pocatello:

What the kids did in response:

Yay for surprises!

The next morning, I was on the road back to Idaho. Totally worth it!

Happy Birthday, David C!

I'm actually on the opposite side of the country for David's birthday. Sad, I know. :(

But don't worry, it just means that we got to celebrate a week early, when I was still in DC!

We took a trip to the National Geographic Museum to check out the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit. It was fascinating stuff. And isn't he an attractive guy?

Naturally, said trip was followed later by the movie "Hero." Because we're cool like that. And also because David is mildly obsessed with everything China. Makes me feel pretty awesome, for beating out all the Chinese ladies for his attention. :)

We also took a trip up to the temple to check out the lights and listen to the Northern Lights Dance Orchestra play some big band-sounding Christmas tunes.

Yay, Christmas.

And yay, anniversary of birth of David. :)