SF: Day 1

Hi! I am blogging on location from San Francisco. I am here visiting family with my mom and sister, my grandma is turning 80 and we're here to celebrate. I think I will have a fun spring break. I haven't been here since Sept 2007. My dad was supposed to come, but couldn't after all. My day today has been very long, I have been up since 2am! We had to be at the airport super early. Our flights were long, I am glad to be off the plane! It's really nice being here (and experiencing the things we miss in the west!) and I think we will have a good week. Sorry, the pics are out of order.

Us girls at the Erie airport:

At Nick's, our favorite place to eat (I have been photographed in front of these rocks for years!)

A kind stranger took our photo. Me, Melissa, Auntie Marcie, Grma, Mom and Laura:

De-icing the plane going from Erie to Cleveland:

A mural in the SF airport:

For some reason there were safari cutouts to pose by in Cleveland:

Stay tuned!

Faux Pas

I went to my drawing teacher's office to turn in my portfolio early so that I wouldn't have to drive all the way to school just to turn in my portfolio tomorrow. I said hi and then saw she had a big black mark on her forehead. "You have a big smudge on your forehead," I said, thinking it was from class (it's pretty common to come out of drawing class with charcoal smudges everywhere and we even had discussions in that class about letting people know if they has charcoal on their face). She was like, "um, no it's Ash Wednesday" and I felt pretty silly. My teacher is cool, she wasn't offended or anything. I'm sure I wasn't the first today.

Clearly I am not Catholic! I totally forgot it was Ash Wednesday. This is Catholic Country, but I haven't seen anyone else today with ash on their forehead.
Usually if I see people with ash on their forehead, I go "Oh yeah, it's Ash Wednesday" but it the context of her being my drawing teacher I leapt to other conclusions! I had to laugh at myself.

It's nice to know that other people are religious as well, especially in my art department. Most of my teachers and fellow art students are not religious at all.

Snow Conference

So what do you do in your spare time Liz? What do you do for socialization? Ummm, youth activities! It's pretty funny to be on the "grown up" side of things...and it's pretty funny to both be in the same boat when you are teaching your girls about marriage/childrearing! (That's what our lesson was about yesterday) I spent Friday night and most of Saturday at the Hawthorne Ridge campsite between Edinboro and Erie. All us youth and leaders were housed in some pretty nice cabins, it was a great location for Snow Conference. On Friday night we had a dance, then Saturday was filled with speakers, Iron Chef (secret ingredient: dough), marshmallow guns and fun in the snow. I had one girl, Katie, come and she had a good time too. Several other leaders asked me if I was a leader or a youth, I guess I'll take that as a compliment! It's kindof awkward being an unmarried chaperone- I'm not one of the "marrieds" and I'm not one of the youth, so I'm kindof stuck in the middle, especially at the dance. Thankfully I had my YSA pals Dennis and Bethany to hang out with. The weekend was good practice at being a mom....to teenagers!

Marshmallow guns:

Our cabin (shared with Franklin and Warren):

Iron Chef (the kids got to make donuts that were judged):

Sledding:

Main cabin:

Me, Katie and Miranda- we had fun together.

I napped real good when I got home!

Weekend

I had a really nice weekend, usually they are pretty boring. I heard about this YSA dinner in Pittsburgh that was held last Friday, so my friend Ame and I drove down with three other YSA in her backseat (they were party poopers, but oh well). We had a good time hanging out with people that we had gotten to know at our conference in January. I got home at 1 am (I haven't done that in awhile!) but was pleasantly surprised to find that Pittsburgh really isn't all that far to go, it's more do-able than I think. I have been a hermit the last couple of years, it's really nice to get out and do stuff with friends.

ELVIS LIVES!!! No joke, I saw an Elvis impersonator come out of Steak 'n Shake while I was waiting for Ame. He was in FULL Elvis gear- hair, mutton chops, white jumpsuit, everything! In Meadville, which is the middle of nowhere! I was highly tempted to ask for a picture with him, maybe one day I will be that brave. He came out with a normal-dressed woman, making him look that much more odd! I couldn't get my camera out fast enough!

We laughed that the room looked like a wedding reception:

Ame and I with our friends Adam and Levi (who knows how to strike a pose!):

With our friend Tracey (who came up from West Virginia):


Ame and I:

I spent my day on Saturday cleaning my room (I'm odd cause I find organizing FUN!) which was way overdue. I can now actually get into my bed without having to jump over a pile of papers. I'm still trying to "have a place for everything and put everything in it's place" and Cindy liked to help:

"Am I in your way?"

Somewhere in there, I got a couple of naps in and I didn't have to teach in YW because try as I might, no one was available to come. Monday was an extension of the weekend, as I only had Math since my other two teachers had canceled in advance (so broken up about it, not!). Mom and Laura dropped me off and then picked me up after class and we hit the President's Day sale at Joann's! I got a bunch of fabric really really cheap and quilt batting was half off- perfect for all these quilt projects we have. I also got several quilting templates and rulers since they were half off as well. I am the wrong person to take into a fabric store, haha.

It was really nice to get out of the house and be social (I get isolated out here) and also relax so it was a pretty nice time. I forsee more Pittsburgh events in my future. Now back to the grind...

Valentine

For us single gals, there are two sides to Valentine's Day...you love people and want to show them love, yet meanwhile you just want to kick Valentine's Day to the curb and make it bleed because it is such an awful holiday. I mean, what holiday makes you feel more pathetic? When I saw this valentine, I just had to buy it because it just summed up Valentine's Day so well:


Last weekend my mom had this wonderful idea to take a photo outside in the snow and send it out as a valentine...but since I'm the one with a tripod and a timer, I somehow get to do all the work! Dad has a sprayer and sprayed the snow with Kool-Aid and we posed. I would love a remote for my camera like Marleen's, but no, I get the job of setting the timer and running like mad through feet of snow. Here is the finished product (designed by me) that we sent out- it shows the progression of my attempts:


1) Didn't make it into the picture
2)Running into the picture
3)Sticking butt out in picture
4)In picture

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone- I do luv ya.

Lake Erie

Over the weekend, we drove up to Lake Erie to see it while it was still frozen. Lake Erie is HUGE, it functions more like a sea with waves and everything, so it's pretty incredible that it can freeze. We had a great afternoon looking at the frozen lake and seeing the sights at Presque Isle.

Ice fishermen on the lake:

Mom and me:

Standin' on the edge:

Laura and Mom on the ice

Me standing on Lake Erie:

The shoreline:

Gotta love lighthouses:

Afterwards, we had some good chinese food in Erie- a rare find! In all, a good weekend.

I Spy

...with my little eye:

Good friends

Cute babies

A temple sealing

The Golden Gate

Little girls from Fairfield that aren't so little anymore

Two of my six kitties

Goofing around at the Black and White Bash

Junior Prom my Senior year

Twin Day

My mommy as a little girl

Butterflies

Halloween 2001

Young Women's

Me wearing the same outfit in two photos

People from Connecticut

Brought to you by the letter "e"

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I re-did my ribbon board (from good ol' BB&B) the other day and updated and rearranged it. It's a good place to stick random photos that I don't really know what to do with. It hangs above my bed, I like to look at it and think about the people I love. There's still a few people that need representing, one of these days I'll get around to that. I bought the butterfly prints on either side at a couple of different antique stores (the large one from CT, the two small ones back home). My wall is too stark of a shade of white (the people who built this house made a lot of strange decor choices that drive me crazy), I want to paint my room a nice shade of ivory, which would go much better with my bedding and wall pieces. I miss a lot of people that I've gotten to know over the years and so I like to remember them with my ribbon board.

Ironic

So it was heat wave warm on Sunday (41 degrees!) and some of the snow melted. I was worried that it would freeze overnight and be nasty icy yesterday and sure enough I was right. Campus was terrible to navigate around. I was on the sidewalk that was pretty much bare, but I hit a patch of ice wrong and couldn't right myself- my heavy backpack, my pocketed hands and my horrible sense of balance all worked together to have me succumb to gravity's pull.

I landed on my knees on the sidewalk (primarily on my left one) and that wasn't enough to stop me.

I landed on my palms and that still wasn't enough to stop me.

I found myself lying face down in the dirty slush. My phone and keys went flying from my pockets (when my hands flew out to save me) and landed 15 feet away.

This was on top of the really crummy morning I was already having. I got up and limped to Math class. My knee is bruised and skinned, and I wrenched my right shoulder and wrists trying to stick the landing. I am pretty stiff today, it was hard to draw in class. I'll be ok though. I am really glad I was not hurt worse. Thankfully no one really saw me tumble, that would have been embarrassing.

After school I get the mail and pick up a box that came from my Aunt Terry in Alaska. When we opened it, there was a pair of these for each of us:


Yep, that's right. Those cleat things that you slip on your shoes so you don't slip on ice. On the same day. How ironic is that?

(insert Alanis Morrisette song here)