Thoughts on March 10th

I don't want to do anything today. Seriously, nothing. It may be the fact that the husband is out of town and I'm hopelessly depressed, (not really) or maybe it's the fact that I slept seamlessly from 11:30-11:30, (don't know how that happened). Or maybe it's just that today is the first official day of spring break and my body is taking full advantage of it. Who knows.

• Riss and I spent a good three hours at the pool today doing whatchu do best on spring break- catching some rays. It was interesting the entertainment we got- first from three college girls and later nine mommys. The college girls were decked out in string bikinis- spritzing on the tanning lotion and reminiscing on the seemingly-rockin' party they had last night heavy with drugs and alcohol. The mommys, just 20 feet away and obviously on a weekend vacation- were very different. These ladies sported modest tankinis and baseball caps, lathered themselves in sunscreen and reassured each other of their post-baby bodies in between incoming calls from the husband and/or kids simultaneously. It was quite entertaining actually, to observe how entirely different each culture was, despite the fact that the two parties were probably less than 10 years apart. It's also funny that I was right smack between them, both physically and relationally. (Does that even make sense?) I'm a college student, but I'm also a wife. I don't party, but I also don't have kids. I can relate to both cultures and yet I'm not really living either of them. No grand conclusion, just random observations I find interesting for some reason.

• So my awesome mother in law got me an Ulta gift card for my birthday party and I'm dying to go pick up a new Chi with it. I've never been able to justify paying 100+ for a flat iron that I'll likely drop a few times and/or coat in heavy hairspray and product, but after using my old roommate's Chi, uh... like every day after she'd leave for school... I fell in love. And since my gift card will pay for most of it, it's totally worth it right? K where's that 20% off coupon when I need it...

• You know as much as I hate to admit it, I love school. I'm a to-do list girl, and nothing gets me more excited than turning in another paper and/or finishing another test. Lame I know, but it must have something to do with that feeling of accomplishment. It rules me. I love going down a syllabus, crossing things off as I go and counting down the days until I can cross that class off my graduation requirements, or shoot just crossing "college degree" off my list of personal requirements. Feel free to judge. But really, it made my Monday when I found out I got a 70/70 on my first exam in Lying and Deception. It was mid-terms and I was slammed, so I went into that test already feeling like a failure because I hadn't studied as much as I had expected from my overachieving self. But when I got that test back from one of the most failed professors in the department with a winning grade on it, I was ecstatic for a week. I still am, especially after Dr. Wignall announced that a good 5+ students in our class cheated during the exam, despite our previous lecture about uh... lying. Idiots. Oh well, though, makes me feel better about myself. ;) Anyways, I'm pretty sure I'll be the only person ever to do homework on spring break. I may be ridiculous, but when the husband's not around I don't really know what to do with myself. Plus I'd much rather do my think piece, case response and research my final paper topic now at my own convenience and pleasure than at the end of the semester when everything else is due and my head's about to pop off. Saavy?

• On another school-related topic, this intercultural class I'm taking is really getting to me. In ethics we were going over our chapter about diversity and the two classes made me realize how grateful I am to experience the many cultures that I have. Jace and I are having that exciting conversation again about the future of our summer, and this time we get to choose just how far from home we want to go. I won't spill the beans, but if all goes well the next seven days we just might have a city in mind. And as much as I love school, I can't wait for summer to arrive so that I can experience yet another new culture in all it's glory, this time with a much smarter plan than last time. ;)

• Hmm you know what'd be another great way to start off spring break? A trip to Krave for their georgia peach, pineapple dolewhip and strawberry daquiri froyo. Mmmm I'm obsessed with this stuff. I usually don't top it with anything since the three flavors are good enough by themselves, but when my friend Leana and I went last week the lady in front of us recommended the poppers which honestly look like big yellow fish eggs. Lean had to convince me to try them and when I finally did I decided no peach, dolewhip and daquiri froyo should be complete with out them. Think it'd be acceptable to go out with no bra, no makeup and my hair still wet? Mmm maybe not. I guess I should probably get ready since it's nearly six. Oh but speaking of time...

• Is anyone else as thrilled as I am about daylight savings time?? Really, this is the best time of the year! This moment of changing our clocks back opens the floodgates of summer and the time suddenly speeds up until a new school year is all of a sudden upon us. Daylight savings should be a holiday where we break out our grills and ring in the summer like new year. Seriously.

Anyways, this portion of "Thoughts on March 10th" is brought to you by a lazy day of pure inactivity.

Now where's my hairbrush, I'm goin' out to Krave.

Happiness in the Human Experience

“Life is sacred, that is to say it is the supreme value, to which all other values are subordinate” –Albert Einstein.

Last week in my intercultural comm class we were asked to write about a cultural documentary that really opened our eyes to the world around us. My classmates did their paper and presentations about California gang bangers (Crips and Bloods), sex trafficking in India (The Day My God Died), dieting fads in Utah (Fit2Fat2Fit) and the stories of Ethiopian women devastated by childbirth injuries (A Walk to Beautiful). Each presentation was incredibly inspiring and eye-opening, so much in fact, that I couldn't wait to tell Jace everything I'd learned. My paper though, was quite different than the others. I chose to speak about a topic much more broad than my classmates, focusing on a documentary that I would highly recommend on a universally-sought topic: the search for happiness.

Cliff and Jeff Azize were just trying to fit in in life. They didn’t fit in at home growing up, and they didn’t have the sense of security so many enjoy. Recovering from a devastating family life, Cliff and Jeff moved to a halfway house in Brooklyn, New York, where they formed the kind of family they’d always wished they had. Like the Azize’s, the young men living at the St. Francis House did not enjoy easy childhoods. They were moving on, however, and together the band of brothers decided to give themselves an opportunity to find out who they were. “We had a desire to see the world through someone else’s eyes,” they said. “We would learn about every race, religion, color and creed.”

They would call it The Human Experience, traveling the world in search of the burning questions: Who am I? Who is Man? Why do we search for meaning? Their adventure began in their own backyard—the concrete jungle. “We would join the thousands who spend winter living on the streets,” they said. “We would live homeless without money or food in NYC, attempting to find hope among the cities’ most hopeless.” And they did. Cliff and Jeff quickly learned how best to survive. Other homeless people advised them to sleep by a church—it’s safer from the cops, they said. They would gather cardboard boxes, creating ‘houses’ of sorts and simply doing their best to preserve natural body heat. At 5:30 in the morning, though, the cops kicked them out of where they were sleeping. It was five degrees.

Cliff and Jeff felt vulnerable. They felt humiliated and embarrassed. But one homeless man lifted their spirits with appreciation. “At least you’re willing to get to know us, to try to understand us. We have a mind, and a spirit, and a soul.” One homeless woman the boys interviewed told about an extra cold week where she witnessed a small pack of dogs wandering a park. Immediately people began calling their friends, snatching up the small dogs and taking them home. “Those people took the dogs so they wouldn’t freeze to death. They let me stand there. I just don’t understand that. When you see your brother, or your sister, you help them.” This mentality is so different than many cultures in the U.S. We learn to look out for number 1, and we often forget just how much we need our brothers and sisters, and just how much they need us.

A counselor they interviewed gave very sound advice. “No matter how bad it is, people know deep down that life is a treasure. Life is worth living… just because it is. The nature of life is to be hopeful!” The counselor spoke to a man years ago that jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge in an attempt to take his own life. He realized halfway down that he shouldn’t have done it. He survived, but he lived a very important lesson: Life is worth living!  Experience can be a generous teacher or a cruel teacher. Whether it is good or bad, you can always learn something from it.  Cliff and Jeff said their first experience living with the homeless left them feeling completely humbled. “My whole heart feels different,” they said. Later we learn that Cliff and Jeff spent the coldest week of winter on the streets.

The brother’s next experience was spent in Peru, volunteering at a children’s home. Parents who could not afford medical care could leave their little ones at the home where they would be treated until they became well enough to be sent home. Cliff and Jeff called them the lost children of Peru. They would learn quickly that many children were very sick, others missing limbs and even more with serious illnesses or medical conditions. One exceptionally happy boy had only one limb—a leg that he would use to eat with and brush his teeth. “Most people don’t understand how children can be so happy, despite their infirmities,” they said. “But it’s not what you give them; it’s what they give us.”

“Nothing could prepare us for what was about to come next,” the brothers said. In their third experience, Cliff and Jeff traveled to West Africa, right to the heart of the AIDS epidemic. With bugs the size of small birds and their beds collapsing under their weight, I knew I would be in culture shock if I had been with them. But for Cliff and Jeff, it was a search for peace. “My mom died of AIDS when I was seven,” Jeff said. “I never had a chance to speak to her before she passed away. Although this experience will be hard, I’m hoping that through their peace, I’ll find peace.”   One native said he sees at least two people dying of HIV every week. It was their perspective though, that really shocked. “The most important thing,” one native said, “is to have God in your hut. If you have God in your hut you have a very strong thing. You have everything.”

As the conclusion of their third experience the brothers visited abandoned lepers in the forest of Ghana. “We went into the forest knowing we weren’t the same skin color as them, we weren’t the same culture as them, in fact there were more differences than similarities,” they said, “but there was one thing that united us: Our humanity. They have all these problems, and yet he’s explaining to me that he’s excited to see me. They accepted me because I was a human being.” The documentary showed many lepers with missing arms, legs, and sometimes both. Others had cloudy and/or missing eyes from the disease. “They are missing everything on the outside, but they have everything on the inside,” Cliff said. “They are happy.” The brothers said they learned more than ever before that it’s not what’s on the outside that matters. They went into the experience wondering “What is this person really made up of?”

 This documentary has hung in my mind for days. In every one of these cultures, these people experience a certain deficit in their lives, whether it is money and a home or health and wellbeing. Yet in every one of these cultures these people show us that they do have a reason to be happy. They have a reason to live. Later the Azize brothers said of the documentary: “We wanted to see what life is through other’s experiences. It’s about the beauty of life. Because whatever happens in life, life is still good.”

Birthday Bashing in AZ

While I'm on the subject of February vacays, Jace and I took a fabulous little getaway down to Phoenix for the first time together last weekend.

Jace worked in Tempe a few years back, so he was more than thrilled to show me the places he used to frequent back when he was a lonely bachelor. ;)

We did a bit of playing, but as usual it's the simplest things that bring the greatest happiness.

Case in point: ChickfilA chicken oh so missed in little 'ol St. George. It must be a novelty though because they're building one in town, right next to the new Ulta. But until that grand opening we're getting by!

We made new friends in Scottsdale, spending the night at a fun "Western town," checking out candy shops, downing some ribs and panning for gold.

When my birthday came up, we spent the morning at a happy little farmer's market at the Wigwam Resort.

Homemade salsas, freshly grown vegetables, mascarpone cheeses and pretty jars of honey caught our eye, but when I scored authentic-made tamales I was sold. :)

We walked around the resort, promising to come back one day to stay in their cute little villas.

It was hot though, very hot. So we rolled outta there with windows down, and headed to the pool. Can't get better than that!

Over the weekend we made a few trips to the Tempe Marketplace, the most adorable outdoor mall that I quickly fell in love with. Jace and his friends used to take dates there, so he was excited to show his now-wife the outdoor furniture and fireplaces, blaring concerts, huge movie theater and great shopping. Okay maybe not that last part... ;)

ASU has always been on my list of go-to schools, so when we were in the neighborhood we made a little stop to walk around campus and buy our traditional tourist playing cards.

Checking out the Sun Devil Stadium.

Check out the beautiful building behind us. Wish I knew what it was!

Returning to the church Jace went to by ASU.

Call me naive, but I had no idea AZ was so full of oranges! Jason's grandma told me Phoenix always smelled like oranges to her and now I know why. Look at these beautiful orange trees!

For my vacation birthday cake we finally made our trip to Sprinkles! In June we made a trip into NYC to check it out, but movie filming in the city kept us away. :( "We'll go another time," I said.
Who knew I'd make it on my birthday!

Sprinkles was the first cupcake bakery in the U.S., beginning in L.A. and quickly moving to NYC. Some people say Sprinkles began the cupcake epidemic that surged throughout the country. Whatever it was though, I was stoked to go when Derek and Tianna (okay pretty much just Tianna, hahah) suggested we hit the Scottsdale location.

Sweet Jace made sure to top my vanilla on vanilla cupcake with a pink candle, and he performed a stirring rendition of Happy Birthday right outside the bakery. Thanks babe!

And let me just take a minute to rave about their sprinkles! Seriously though, the best sprinkles I've ever had are at Sprinkles! Ironic eh? ;)  I think I'll have to be visiting the Vegas location sometime in the near future.

The final day of our trip we met up with my lovely cousin Leanne and her sweet baby Anilee! I had never been to AZ to visit her so it was about time we met up outside of a family reunion.

Cute Anilee was quite steady on her legs!

We hit up Olive Garden soup and salads to catch up and make future visiting plans. I wish we'd gotten together more when she lived in Provo, I had a great time with her. Love ya Leanne!

:)

I'm loving our mini vacations lately. It's always a good time getting to know my hubby better on the roadtrips we take as well as making new friendships and appreciating old ones. Keep em comin' keep em' comin!