day 2

Across Indiana and Illinois to Nauvoo. Geoff is a very entertaining driving partner. We have decided that I am much better at navigating and organizing and he is much better at driving (he makes up all the time that I lose while driving the speed limit and the only wrong turn we have taken so far has been my fault). We are greatly enjoying the use of the Tippet's GPS. I still have a head cold and a sore throat which is making life a bit less enjoyable.

Here is our favorite sign from today:
AVOID HELL. REPENT. TRUST JESUS.

Very sage advice and somehow more forceful in 2 foot letters.

We arrived at Nauvoo and checked into the Woodruff House. Geoff's favorite part is the really nice front door. He isn't sure about the rest of Nauvoo. My favorite part is that the bathroom is actually larger than the bedroom - where do you find that in a hotel. We went the visitor's center where Geoff promptly ran into a couple he knew from his mission who gave the low down of how utterly unprepared we were to visit Nauvoo as we had not yet reserved tickets for anything or reserved a time for a temple session. We now have a temple session reservation and found out that we don't actually need tickets for the pageant which was the main thing we wanted to do anyhow. We attended a performance of High Hopes and River Boats - a love story performed by missionaries. In the end the right guy got the girl (if it was done rather abruptly and made no sense) - caveat Geoff disagrees and thinks the other guy should have gotten the girl. We then went to find some dinner because Geoff needed something more hearty than yet another sandwich and lo and behold some random guy walked up to Geoff and said - "aren't you from the USU 18th ward?". That's right folks Geoff is pretty much famous. We were able to help this guy (Philip) and his new wife with directions on how to get out of Nauvoo and on to Cincinnati (thanks again to the Tippet's handy dandy GPS). We stepped back to the 1950's to a little cafe for a very strange dinner of fried chicken/catfish, potatoes, and vegetables. Now to get a good night's rest before we explore the rest of Nauvoo tomorrow.

day 1

Virginia - Washington, DC - Maryland - Pennsylvania - West Virginia - Ohio - Indiana.

7 states in one day. Indiana and Washington, DC made it by a hair.

Now for bed and seven hours to Nauvoo tomorrow.

reading and walking is not completely a lost art

This morning on my commute I passed a girl engrossed in a book as she walked down the sidewalk. It was gratifying to see someone else walk down the street reading a book because so many people (mostly complete strangers) make fun of me for doing it. I feel as long as I don't run into anyone or trip and land on my face it is a great use of time.

sunshine = happiness

The sun is shining for the first time in days and there is no rain falling from the sky. It just makes me happy!

Happy First Day of Spring

Today was a great day for many reasons.

#1Elder Jenkin White was born 20 years ago today! And the birthday care package I sent reached him before his birthday! How great is that. So in honor of his birthday I thought I would post one of my favorite pictures of Jenkin taken shortly before he left on his mission. The back story on the picture is this - it was a hot day and we had just gotten back to the trailers after a gorgeous ride down in Moab. Jenkin was sitting on the edge of the trailer with an open bottle of water in his hand. While his attention was elsewhere Thor grabbed the bottle with his teeth and tried to drink so Jenkin decided to help him out a bit. I wasn' t at the best angle to photograph but trust me it was hilarious!

#2 It is the first day of Spring - and it was even sort of warm :)

#3 A fashion icon told me she loved my skirt and tried to buy it from me (really she asked multiple times).

To put that in context - NMWA just opened an exhibition called Mary McFadden: Goddesses and as Director of Member Services I was in charge of planning the opening Member Day for the exhibition. To be honest before this exhibition I had no idea who Mary McFadden was but now I have to say - I love her clothes! She is all about clothes that look absolutely fabulous (like attend a state dinner wearing this dress and diamonds) even after being stuffed in a carry on and flown to Outer Mongolia - just shake it out and put it on. She patented a pleated material that is literally indestructible and flows like "liquid gold" over the body. Clothes that look fabulous without an iron or dry cleaners? I am in love.

Now I am not what you would call fashion-minded; fashionable; or anything really with fashion in it so when it dawned on me that I would be the one standing next to Mary McFadden to introduce her to members in the middle of a gallery filled with her haute couture dresses I was suddenly a bit distraught over what to wear. I settled on the one fabulous skirt that I own. I paid a forture for it but it has been worth every penny (especially after today).

When Mary (after spending the day together I feel that we are totally on a first name basis) was introduced to me the first thing she said was what a fabulous skirt I had. What a great ego boost! Throughout the day she keep saying how great it was and asked if she could buy it from me. Now maybe it would be a better story if I really had sold it to her or better yet just given it to her but really as I said it is the one fabulous skirt I own and it really comes in handy because for the vast majority of the days in my life right now jeans and sweats are just not an option. And I have jewelry that matches perfectly - all purchased on the same trip (it was a very expensive, splurging weekend). So no I am not ready to give it up yet.

I was extremely impressed with Mary McFadden - not only is she an amazing designer she was also wonderful to our members. She was at the museum for hours giving gallery talks, talking to members, signing catalogues, etc and was so pleasant to everyone - I hope in my 7th decade I will be so spry!

here's to Dad, Katie, and Allyson

I saw this in the grocery store today and had to take a photo - this was truly worth GOLD on the trail in Peru and here it is found in Northern Virginia for a mere pittance. Right above the non-alcoholic malt beverage from India. The world grows ever smaller.

Do a good deed...

...today by going to the breast cancer site and clicking on the "donate" box to help donate a mammogram to a woman who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford it. It doesn't cost you anything but the corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammograms in exchange for advertising space (and really you don't even have to look at the ads).

LDS PR statement

A very well written article about how to deal with negative publicity about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I think we will see more and more of it in the future.

happy birthday to me

Thanks to the many people in my life that love me I have had a wonderful birthday full of family, parties, balloons, pampering, presents, and love. Thanks to all that have made me feel so loved that I don't even mind being another year older!

Some people are born with a good sense of direction...

...and some people aren't. I fall into the group of people born without a sense of direction or a good sense of distance. What inspired this post? My commute home from work today.

We finally had a really nice day! I haven't had a good workout for weeks because of the cold weather, being really sick, working long hours, and having little to no self-discipline (another hour in bed helps you get well right? maybe a workout at the gym would had been better). So because of the wonderful weather I decided to walk to Foggy Bottom metro instead of getting on the metro by work.

I walked that route 4-5 times a week last summer so I felt that I really didn't need to pay attention to my surrounding plus I thought I would mix things up a bit and take a slightly different route. I saw great parts of GW that I had never seen before and now I know where the World Bank complex is located (it only took me seven years to randomly stumble upon it). I hit 23rd Street and turned left. Suddenly I looked up and the Lincoln Memorial. Apparently I should have turned right.

No worries I thought - I will just walk across the bridge and get on the Rosslyn metro - I was already this far and feeling great. It would have been a brilliant plan IF the bridge by the Lincoln Memorial was the Key Bridge that went to Rosslyn instead of the Roosevelt Bridge that goes to Arlington Cemetary (and the Arlington metro closes at dark and it was now dark). Luckily, I figured it out before crossing the bridge. So I looped around and spent 15 minutes crossing 4 lanes of rush hour traffic in the dark (apparently no has ever needed a cross walk across Rock Creek Parkway) and hiked up the hill to the Kennedy Center. Thank heavens for the the free shuttle back to the Foggy Bottom Metro Station.

Nothing like a nice 2.5 mile stroll on the way home from work. :)