I am wondering if this blog should continue to exist. Will anyone actually read this? I never post here anymore - primarily because I have my photography blog. (Which I also struggle to post super consistently on. Hey - blogging is time consuming stuff.) How many blogs should one person really have? How much does anyone really want to know about me? Granted, the photography blog is not as much personal information. Then, of course, how much personal information do I want out on the internet about my life?
I will continue to ponder these deep first-world issues, and let this blog continue to live for now. If you have any opinion, please let me know. In the meantime, I'll blabber away here right now.
You may have heard Jeff and I finally graduated with our bachelor's degrees. If you want to know more about this and/or see pictures you can check it out here . (See? More weird crossover between how many blogs do I need/where should personal information go etc. etc.)
You may also have heard that we are moving to DC. (I have learned that true Washington DC-ingtons just call it "DC", never "Washington DC". I have also learned that we need to refer to GWU as just plain "GW". I am grateful to have learned these things before we move there, so hopefully we won't automatically brand ourselves as dorky outsiders.) Jeff will be attending physical therapy school at GW (see that?) beginning in August.
We are beyond excited. I cannot wait - I want to move tomorrow. I am also a tad bit apprehensive. Moving is expensive. Rent is expensive. Jeff and I have always been blessed with good jobs and I had never truly appreciated how affordable BYU's tuition was. We have never really had the "starving student" experience. This is going to be really interesting.
Side note - I am so sick of complaining to people about how high the cost of rent is in DC only to have them say back (in shock) "Our mortgage is less than that!" Yes. Exactly. I know. You own a house here in Utah. Living costs are a lot higher in DC. That is my point exactly, and the very reason I am venting. Because living is just a lot more expensive out there, and I'm still experiencing a bit of sticker shock. Telling me your mortgage is less than what my rent is going to be is no big news to me, but thanks.
A side note off of that side note - I am so glad I didn't pay any heed to all the people who were telling me two or three years ago that Jeff and I should be buying a home. This is exactly why we didn't - it would be terrible to have three months to try to sell one right now. On the flipside, no, we are not looking to buy in DC. We will be there the next three years at least - possibly more, but who can say right now?
You know those people who have a baby and who suddenly talk about nothing else? To the point that you are thinking you no longer care about their child at all-wonder-why-we-were-even-friends-we-must-have-had-similar-interests-at-some-point-right? Jeff remarked to me the other night that we have become those people - only our baby is DC. He's right. I'm so sorry if I have recently talked your ear off about our upcoming move (no wonder you all talk about your mortgages, you are just trying to find a way to participate in a conversation with me) and to try to make up about it, I will now prove to you that I do have other thoughts that are not connected to DC.
For example -
My brother Anders and I are very similar. This should not be news, considering that we are siblings and grew up together. However, I keep seeing funny, random, odd little quirks that we share. For example:
I dislike not being able to see what I am eating.
About a year ago we went to Medieval Times with some friends. I had never been before, and it was an interesting experience. Questionable acting ("blah blah blah blaaaah, The Green Knight!" Exchange questioning looks with each other, then proceed to cheer madly because we at least understand "The Green Knight!" and the cardboard crowns on our head were green) the horses did some neat tricks, the jousting was entertaining, but the whole experience was somewhat ruined for me because it was too dark to see my food. I complained about it to Jeff later, "I couldn't see my food to see what I was eating! Plus, I had to eat my slab of chicken just with my hands! No utensils? Are they nuts?" Jeff looked at me like I was nuts - after all, this was Medieval experience. Or something.
So, later that year Anders goes to California on a band trip. They too go to Medieval Times. I ask him when he gets home how he liked it (not wanting to influence him with my own opinion beforehand.) He says it was fine...BUT he couldn't see what he was eating! And there were no utensils! Ahh, finally someone who understands my feelings.
Have my parents just raised a flock of extremely neat eaters? That's probably debatable. However, I will say this - we used knives growing up. You are probably rolling your eyes and thinking, doesn't everybody? But what I'm trying to say is we always used knives. As in I would go to girls camp or other similar ventures and would be handed a pancake on a Styrofoam plate with only a fork and I would stare at it stupidly, wondering how on earth you were supposed to get the pancake into bite-sized pieces. (Obviously using my hands was totally out.) I still struggle with having to eat something with only a fork - struggle both with the cutting and with the concept. Why use the side of a fork when we have this wonderful thing called a knife? It's faster and it allows cleaner cuts that are not in the shape of a crescent.
Another thought -
Skype is cool.
Clarification - Skype is cool when you are using it to communicate with family members who live in China or Mexico. Skype is not as cool when it's just me Skyping with my parents, who are only 40 minutes away. It starts to get boring then, and they start watching I Love Lucy while I stare stupidly at the cat sitting on my dad's lap and wonder why we Skyped each other when I just saw them three days before.
Skype is cool because we can play a game of Boggle with Daniel, and it's almost like we are all together. It is fun because my dad puts his paper right by the Boggle game, so the web cam is not only showing us the tiles but also every word he puts down. It is great because then Daniel actually plays with us, instead of hovering around the table making remarks about how if he was playing he would be wasting us all.
Skype is mostly cool because I can see Fredrik and Livia and actually interact with them, and maybe they'll have some vague idea that I exist as they grow older.
One final thought - teaching Primary is an interesting calling. Especially when you are put in soon after joining a ward.
I've heard lots of people say that they learn more from teaching Primary than any other way. I have to admit that hasn't been totally true for me. Granted - I've learned a lot about bribing children to be "good" (our definition of "good" has changed a lot and the bar is quite low, to be honest) and also developed some opinions on child rearing and what I plan to do with our children someday that may be controversial (so I'll leave them off this blog.) However, I think my own spiritual learning has come to a halt. I don't know any of the sisters in our ward. Actually, I don't know anyone in the ward except the 10 and 11-year-olds. I don't get visit taught. I don't visit teach. Yes, this is my fault. However, in my defense I don't know the ladies I am supposed to visit, or my companion. I choose to use the excuse of I'm-the-primary-outsider-therefore-my-companion-should-be-the-one-helping-me-and-I-shouldn't-have-to-do-all-the-work.)
On Mother's Day, all the women in our ward were excused from their callings (except the Relief Society teacher, I suppose) and so I attended Relief Society for the first time since December. This brought up weird feelings of anxiety that I hadn't associated with Relief Society before - who will I sit by? How will I sit still the entire lesson? What will I do without having to watch the row in front of me and deliver well-timed flicks and bonks on the head when there is too much talking going on? (Ooh - that may get into the controversial practices there. They are light bonks, I swear.) Will I actually have to/get to listen to what is being taught, instead of watching a paper airplane sail through the air and realize that it came from one of "my kids"?
Fortunately, I ended up sitting by my friend Emily (I forgot I did have a friend in the ward! I was very happy to see her) and her little baby girl, giving me ample opportunities for distraction.
Primary may not be teaching me much, but I sure do love our class. They are crazy, funny, and (at times) annoying. In a good way. They think we're awesome, which is the best part. They are not happy we are moving. (Shoot! I mentioned DC again!)
Well, now that I've made my way back around to DC again, it's probably time to end this post. Besides, it's long and has no pictures - which is one thing I couldn't do on my photography blog, I suppose. Plus it's probably too personal (who really wants to know all my random thoughts??) and most likely more information than I should be putting out there on the internet.
Signing off...