Happy birthday Matthew

Nathaniel (who was my special buddy two years ago) is talking to me finally! He was shy for the first two days but I broke out the big guns today with a glow-in-the-dark shark puzzle and the next thing I knew, I was the bedtime story reader of choice (he chose me over Shannon) and three stories later, we were still going strong talking about Star Wars figures.

Matthew also turned three today. He is super cute. He talks now - a change from two years ago. His favorite present was a Cars 2 LEGO set. He was sooo excited.

Hannah and I did part of our piano practice together today so we could quiz each other on the skill spots the Japanese teachers assigned yesterday. It was much more fun than practicing by myself. We even played the K.545 a few times in extra high and low octaves so we could play on the same piano at the same time. The standard piano keyboard isn't quite big enough to fit all the notes, but we had a blast anyway.

First rehearsal, walks, sports and rattlesnakes

Hannah, Lindsay, Shannon and I took a morning walk beginning about 7 A.M., in which we enjoyed watching for bunnies on the side of the trail and telling stories. Hannah did most of the talking. ;) Shannon showed us a rocky place where Lindsay almost stepped on a rattlesnake, Hannah told us about her "wonderful" dream last night and then shared her own snake stories, and I (not to be outdone) described the scare one of the moms from Graig's orchestra had recently with grapes and a black widow spider.

After breakfast, Hannah and I prepared for our first 10 piano rehearsal around lunchtime today. I thought the group practice went pretty well and even enjoyed it. The teacher assigned to my piano only had to correct me about a hundred times, and there was only one time when I was the only one to make a mistake. Hannah, on the other hand, said the practice was worse than she thought it would be (she was a little nervous going in). As piano 10, she's apparently responsible for keeping the rest of us in tempo. I told her they picked a good person for the job; she just shrugged. It doesn't help that it hurts her to play piano because of a painful cyst on her wrist (rhyme unintended), which is why she wears a black wrist brace most of the time (whenever she's not playing piano).

The afternoon and evening ended with a big water fight complete with water balloons, sand volleyball and tennis. I'm pretty worn out.

Drapers!

There was a moment in the plane above the world when I had misgivings about traveling to California. It's been nice being home. Then I considered the difficulty of going back after going to all this trouble to get to Cali and thought of the Drapers, and the moment passed.

Incredibly, my bag was the first one off the plane, I met the entire Draper family (minus Scott but plus Hannah) without mishap outside the baggage claim, and we've already picked up where we left off two years ago. I love my "real" family, but El Dorado Hills is definitely my second home.

Playing Slap Jack

(Hannah, Tyler, Lindsay)

Lindsay waiting for her turn in Around the World

Hannah celebrates after swishing a basket

Playing Ninja

The airport/ air travel experience

5:21 A.M. --SALT LAKE CITY AIRPORT--

Things I have learned already:

1. When traveling with a laptop, you are supposed to take it out of your bag and put it in a tray with the rest of your miscellaneous items
2. 3:30 A.M. is REALLY early

6:25 A.M. --TAKEOFF AND FLIGHT--

We headed down the runway slow, maybe 30 MPH, and for a moment I wondered why we weren’t going faster. Then we made a wide turn onto the real runway and accelerated steadily until we were past freeway speed.

You can feel the moment the wheels leave the ground. It’s like an invisible hand pressing on your head, pushing you into your seat. You sit back and watch as the buildings below grow smaller until they’re nearly out of sight – when you’ve reached flying altitude.

Then you get to amuse yourself – by reading a book, or looking out the window like I am now. You marvel that something as big and cumbersome as this plane can be so light in the air. You’re sitting there, marveling at it all, when a flight attendant stops by your row and asks politely,

“Would you like something to drink?”

I guess only first-time fliers like me are so intensely interested in staring out at the clouds and sky, watching the sun come into place, suddenly, in the east behind the tail, enjoying this new perspective above mountains. Above the horizon.

Oh yes, I’m enjoying this view.

CALIFORNIA OR BUST!

I'm so excited! Draper family (and Hannah), here I come!

The wallet-purse

Mom had a Look on her face when she picked me up at the bus stop after work yesterday. It wasn't guilt, exactly, but I knew something was up. I'd seen that expression before.

"I bought you something," she said as I got into the car. Immediately I thought of a conversation we'd had the evening before in which she criticized the size of my wallet bulging in the pocket of my shorts.

"Is it a new wallet?"

"No." She concentrated hard on the road. I sensed I'd hit close to the mark.

"It's not a purse, is it?" I watched her carefully. I will not lower myself to carrying around a purse. It's so much more practical (and fun) to cram things into your pockets and criticize the near-useless "girl pockets" that are so much smaller (and shallower) than the pockets of guys' pants.

"Nope." She grinned. I had a distressing thought.

"Did you get me a fanny pack?"

Now she laughed. "Hmm. I didn't think about that."

I laughed too, but inside I was relieved. A fanny pack would be more annoying than a purse - maybe even more humbling (read: humiliating).

When we got home, she showed me what she had bought. A small bag, sort of like a camera case in appearance, basically a purse but with too many little nooks and crannies for me to resist. As soon as I'd cleaned out my wallet into the little bag, Mom picked up my wallet, said in a solemn voice, "You have served Jessica well," and threw it away.

I christened my new Thing a wallet-purse, because you have to carry it around like a purse but it's too small to warrant full purse status.

I still carry my phone in my pants pocket. Mostly.

It still hasn't quite sunk in

My friend since third grade got married yesterday, only 19. Her new husband looks even younger in real life. Kiera, Dad and I were still having a hard time believing Summer is married even after we went through the line at her reception and gave her a big hug. She looked really pretty. He just looked really young (would you have believed he's 21?). At least they both looked happy.

Ten days to takeoff

I'm super excited to go back to El Dorado Hills and the Draper family! I have the opportunity to play in the International Suzuki Basics 10 Piano Concert at the Mondavi Center for the Arts in Sacramento Aug. 13 for a second time, and the Drapers agreed to put up with me and Hannah again for two weeks.

Originally, I was going to drive down with my two piano teachers (which would've been an adventure), but plans changed and now I'm flying for the first time in my memory (riding on an airplane as a baby doesn't count). Just 10 more days to takeoff - the time is sure going by quick.

Funny quick story from FHE

Every Monday at 6:30 without fail, my singles ward gets together to clean the church before our lesson and activity. Some times it's cleaned more deeply than others- job assignments depend on how many show up and when.

This week there was already a good number of people doing all the regular jobs like vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms and washing windows, when I arrived. After a moment's thought, Cleaning Director Ben asked me to dust the pulpit in the chapel.

There was a guy already there when I walked in. He was vacuuming. We nodded to each other and went to our separate tasks. Only a few minutes had passed when he asked a question.

"What does it say on your hat?"

"Just Bite Me."

He hesitated. "What?"

"That's what it says."

"Oh."

I thought this exchange was pretty funny, but I didn't laugh too hard lest I hurt his feelings. We chatted about baseball caps until we were both done cleaning.

My beautiful button

Every once in a while, I'm given a project I'm not quite sure how to accomplish at work. The most recent example of this is a "Register Your Interest" button for the department Graduate Students page. I probably spent a good two hours figuring out how to do it today, but I DID IT!!! Behold the finished product:

https://www.chem.byu.edu/graduate

My attempts at art... which I am proud of

Siberian Tiger

Digital version

Hard copy version (now the property of one Mikayla B.)

Hard copy version (prior to adding color)

aka White Siberian Tiger

Wyview 2010-11: The Blockbuster

Exclusive video! (one...)

Never-before-seen pictures! (some...)

Laugh and enjoy! (and don't kill me for putting these up...)

Playing Ultimate Spoons and making toffee for FHE

Hiking the "Y"

Boys group shot

(Aaron, Jared, Alex, Zach H., Spencer, JD, Joseph)

Girls group shot

(Mara, Sydney, Kimi, me, Sarah, Alysa, Madeline, Ayoung)

Speaking deer

Mara's mug shot

(from playing with my Atkisson cousins)

[This video is not yet uploaded]

Driving... :)

Jill charges Mara's glow-in-the-dark nail polish (which she used to make a sign) in preparation for *cough* decorating the stop sign by the multipurpose building

Playing Jenga Dominoes with JD

Sara on our Temple Square trip

Looking out the window at the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building

Sugar fell asleep on the way home

Best pizza/bread dough kneader ever :)

Step into Mara's beauty parlor...

SLEEPOVER!

Using an orange bowl and spoon to help Sara eat her lunch... I know you're jealous

"Put the camera down or the cereal gets it!"

Jill's beautifully straightened hair

(I use this picture, not to show off my Photoshop skills -or lack thereof- but because I didn't think Jill would thank me if I used the original picture with the bathroom in the background)

Ah, the bounteous blessings of living close to Sara and K.T., both awesome cooks in their own right

Two of my favorite people in the world...

Note Zach laughing in the background

Dinner at my place on Tyler's birthday

JD and Jill go check out the swans outside Spring Haven

L to R: Heidi, Robin, Ashleigh, Destin

(Middle: Person with pole in front of their face- Evan, I think; Destin's roommate)
Thanks to Danielle for helping me name everyone... :)

Jeremy, Travis and Abby

Walking home with Sara

Tater Tot/ Chicken Nugget Night at the elementary school playground

Feels like a dream

It's funny how time works on your memories. Now that I've had time to stop sorely missing Wyview and all the friends I made there/lived next to - Jill F. and Jill R. and Mara and Sara and K.T. and Jacketh (Joseph-J.D.-Zach) and Anna and Leticia and Robin and the list goes on... - the eight months of memories I made have taken on an odd flavor.

It feels like it was a dream. Sara, Mara (and anyone else who reads this blog), tell me it all wasn't a dream.

Flashbacks

The boy spread out his big, yellow and white coat on the grass near the mall parking lot and lay down, half in the sun, half in the shade. Perfect. He slipped off his shoes and socks, tied them together and set them near his head, one hand twined in the shoelaces so they couldn't disappear while he napped. After a quick glance around the parking lot, he closed his eyes and relaxed, quickly dropping off into a light sleep.

Coming home from a long day at school. Jaron unlocked the door to his apartment and pushed it open. The presence of Jake's backpack on the couch told Jaron his roommate was home, probably shut up in his room, which he and Mark had nicknamed "The Cave" because of the amount of time Jake spent in it. Jaron had to smile to himself at the familiar routine as he dropped his backpack on the floor by the door, slipped off his shoes, and went into the kitchen for a snack.

Mark wasn't home yet, but Jaron didn't expect to see him until dinnertime. Munching on a handful of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, he wandered into The Cave to see what Jake was up to.

The scene changed.

He was sitting on the grass outside the main building of his apartment complex, listening to Jake strum his guitar. Jake had only been playing for a year or so, but the self-taught Tennessean had already worked up a respectable repertoire of songs, including two he'd written himself. He picked up new melodies fast, and the fact that most of the accompaniments he knew were just chords didn't slow him down at all. Jaron knew it wouldn't be long before Jake moved on to combining chords with individual notes, but he didn't think much about it.

At that moment, nothing mattered but the sound of the guitar.

Another change; another memory.

"Does Mark even remember I have a concert?" Jake asked. Something in his voice told Jaron his roommates' support mattered to Jake. Mattered a lot.

"He told me yesterday he was going, Jake," Jaron said, and some of the lines on Jake's face relaxed. "I'll be there too."

Jake nodded and gave a half-smile. "I bet you can't wait for it to be over," he said. "You're probably as sick of this song as I am."

It was probably true. Jake had been practicing hard for two weeks. Most of his practice took place outside the apartment, but Jaron still felt he'd heard the song Jake was performing a million times.

"Nah," he said. "I'm not that tired of it."

"Liar." Jake grinned.

Mark and Jaron were both in the audience at the concert the following night, as promised. So were Jake's grandmother and aunt, who lived nearby.

It was fantastic.

Jaron stirred slightly as a public transportation bus rumbled past to the stop only about two hundred feet from where he lay. He opened his eyes just in time to see a brown-haired girl in a black hat looking out at him from one of the big black windows. Their eyes met. She looked thoughtful.

The bus stopped and several people got off. None of them were the girl. Some people got on, the doors closed and the bus drove away. Jaron lowered his head, closed his eyes, and was soon asleep as fast as he'd awoken. Dreaming of another time and place.