just a bunch of water loving pyros...

greetings from the best western parking lot in penn yan, ny, where i currently sit stealing wireless. it is virtually impossible to get any sort of wirelss connection at my grandmother's (no cell phones, no blackberries, no internet) so my communicative cousins have scoped out all of the possible wireless hot spots within a thirty mile radius of the house and this seems to have been the winner.

since i forgot to take care of a couple of things at work, i am taking advantage of their research and dropping a quick blog hello while here.

we arrived saturday evening and enjoyed time with larry and the girls who have been out from utah for the last week, and with scott and judy and fam, who came down from rochester.

after scott and judy took off on saturday (they will be back on wednesday to play with us), mom, dad, larry, angie, christy, sam, and i headed to geneva to check out 'lady in the water.' i've heard varying reports but for the first time since '6th sense', i loved a shyamalan film. and unlike many, i was totally okay with him featuring himself. if you haven't seen it yet, check it out.

sunday morning brought the first of many annual traditions--breakfast at the b&b. my grandmother is the owner/operator of a pretty sweet b&b and usually when we come we will be invited to go up the hill to have a gourmet breakfast with the guests. usually it happens on the tail end of the trip, but since larry and the girls were here, we did it yesterday morning. it's how breakfast should be done. main course (this time a ham and cheese concoction in a pastry shell, tomatoes and mozzarella, and spiced hash browns) followed by dessert (a brownie sundae). mmmmm.

of special note, i learned that my cousin is getting married on 7-7-07, and if it's a saturday, i'm stealing that as my new wedding date. afterall, she is out west, so the liklihood of the same family members wanting to attend is unlikely.

the rest of the day yesterday was spent in complete and total relaxation. with the entire 2nd season of 'entourage' in hand, i took my dvd player and my towel and camped out on the dock for a large part of the day. also got some reading done, and some napping. hard work this vacation thing.

last night, it was time again for another long honored and well-loved family tradition. larry had picked up fireworks in wyoming on the journey out, and we spent the evening ooohing and aahing. as it turned out, we weren't the only ones as neighbors and night boaters came out and paused to watch. one boat in particular enjoyed the festivities and we found ourselves giving them a play by play of the upcoming festivities. 'okay, now we are going to do a few small ones.' 'we don't want small ones!' came from across the dark lake. this group of onlookers also developed a rating system of sorts--1 honk=acceptable but not exciting, 2 honks=mildly entertaining, etc. the most we heard was 8 or 9 honks, and the fireworks that elicited them were well worth the 'applause'.

needless to say, a good time was had by all. we do love our fireworks. there were only two minor injuries, and no hair was set on fire, as in previous years.

today is hot. really really hot. it is supposed to be cooler up here, and maybe it is, but it's still hot and humid. i spent some time reading down by the water, and hanging out with the girls before they headed off to start their return drive to utah.

mom and dad are off to pick up dylan and kelly, and after a nap i headed into penn yan, where i now sit. perhaps a stop at the grocery store before i am back to the house, and the water, as i hate being away to long. this may well be my last update this week, since dylan and kelly's arrival will likely bring lots of boating and lots of waterskiing.

kelly is determined to teach me to slalom. in all my years of skiing i've never been able to pull off one ski. apparently she learned on one, and i can't help but wonder if our parents did us a disservice starting us with two, in our formative years. at any rate, since the wakeboard didn't not make the journey from portland, it would seem that if i'm looking for a challenge, this is the logical next step. wish me luck!

MY gift to you

i have updated the playlist a little earlier than usual, since i will be taking off tomorrow and will have very limited access to the outside world.

and this week's playlist is a little different than previous ones.

as far back as i can remember, there has been a tape in my family called the 'child's play' tape. it was a mix tape that my dad made during his music piracy years. he had a friend with a state of the art sound system, so they would buy records record two copies and take them back (i think i've got that story straight). as a result, there was always a lot of music in my house, and i grew up on an extremely eclectic group of artists and bands. his taste crosssed decades and genres, and one could never be sure what would be blasting through those headphones of his.

so it's no wonder that when he created this mix tape, it reflected that same diversity. as far as i know, there isn't a lot of rhyme or reason as to why these songs were selected, but it has always been fairly irrelevant. this was the road trip tape. whenever we would make the seven hour drive to grandma's, this was the music of choice. we came to know the songs backwards and forewards. we learned the harmonies and the melodies and picked our 'parts.' and then we would wait for the high note or for our turn in the round and sing with glee.

truth is, not much has changed. and since i am off tomorrow to make that same seven hour trek we've made every year since i could breathe (barring my unmentionable utah years), i thought it fitting to share the experience with you. i can't share waterskiing, but this i can share.

love it or hate it, i recognize the strangeness of it, but to me it somehow all makes sense.

p.s. i need to also mention that there is some contention in my family about whether 'happiness runs' should be included, since it was a late addition and not on the original tape (which was played so much it warped and had to be remade). but i like it, so include it.

true happiness this way lies

i've told the story before about the ladybugs..the story that was in one of my all time favorite movies; 'under the tuscan sun'.

the story is about a little girl who would spend hours searching for ladybugs only to inevitably fall asleep from her 'hard work', and wake up to find herself covered with ladybugs. moral of the story being, of course, that the quickest way to find what we are looking for is to stop looking for it.

you may or may not agree, i don't really care, but i find that it has been extremely true in my life. it probably has to do a lot with expectations. i have never been very good at handling expectations not met. for that reason, i try to manage those expectations, and as much as possible i try not to expect anything. sometimes i succeed, more often i fail miserably. but i try.

at any rate, not too long ago, i lost a big piece of tara. i don't really know what happened, whether it was just the winter blues on crack, or if i had taken stock of my life and found it to be wanting. that period is sort of a blur. but ever since then i have been trying to 'get back to me.' trying to get back to the good-time-happy-go-lucky-truly-in-love-with-life girl.

i've been trying really hard. i set a lot of goals, and i even made progress on some of them. i pushed myself and stretched myself. i tried and tried, but still found very little resemblance to the girl i once was. so i stopped trying.

and guess what happened? after more honest self-evaluation i realized, i am really happy. i started considering all of the things i was grateful for and all of the blessings in my life. i have come to a deep sense of peace about where i fit in the lord's plan, and a true understanding and belief that he would not have us suffer for one minute more than was necessary in order to fulfill his plan for us--a plan that i feel certain has an ending beyond my wildest dreams.

these are things i have been taught about my whole life, but at some point, when i wasn't looking, i began to not just to agree with them logically, but rather to completely internalize them. they have become such an important part of me that though i still feel hurt and disappointment about things that have transpired--expectations not met. i have full faith and confidence that i will one day understand. and until then, i find that acknowledging and appreciating the beautiful life i do have, has made me truly happy.

i've inadvertently (and rather healthily) dropped over ten pounds. i've redeveloped consistent scripture study (and frankly, church attendance) habits. i have found a renewed desire to interact with people instead of hibernating. i've been responsible. i have explored the country. i've read a lot of good books. i've kicked my diet coke addiction. i've listened to a lot of good music. i have had lots of laughs. i've made other people laugh. i've made plans. i have felt like a child again. i have found joy in the joy of others without envy.

and every one of these things happened when i stopped trying so hard to make them happen. ladybugs my friends, ladybugs.

p.s. my horoscope for today reads: after the emotional havoc you went through over the last few weeks, the period beginning today will be quite soothing. you can take advantage of these smoother, calmer waters to rediscover inner emotional harmony and improve the balance of your energy flows.

it must be illegal to have this much fun

with tubing looming on the horizon and the great camera dilemma staring me in the face, i just couldn't bear the idea of purchasing a waterproof disposable camera to take down the river. the quality is always barely passable and i have a great camera. so with corey's help, research was conducted and it seemed that a safe way to take my camera with me had been identified. but had i waited too long? the aquapac was easily orderable, but since we would be off early in the morning, that wasn't an option. after several phone calls, i finally located an aquapac at the ll bean in tyson's, which was even more perfect than hoped for, since i would be in the mall for another errand anyway. i was absolutely giddy!

after work, i headed to the store, picked up what i needed, and was off to anne's to meet up with she and corey for the nationals game.

the three of us metrod in, and were met by dan, who was coming directly for work. as a part of their 'paint the town red' promotion, we were all given nationals hats--which was only the first piece in what turned out to be an awesome night.

the temperature wasn't stifling, and thanks to anne's co-workers, the seats were excellent.


we enjoyed the company and the atmosphere. we sang along to 'sweet caroline' and take me out to the ballgame'.



we (well, everyone but me) enjoyed ballpark hot dogs.

and we (of course) took pictures.

the game had started slowly, but turned into a fabulously entertaining one as the innings wore on. we had originally intended to leave early, but were enjoying ourselves so much that we stuck it out to watch the nationals beat the cubs by one run.

after the game, we hopped in dan's car and headed to silver diner for a late night snack.

after playing with quarters, waiting for our song to come up (which it never did), and chowin' down, it was time to call it a night.

which was fine because saturday was tubing!!

tubing is a favorite annual tradition, so i put a group together, and then learned the shenandoah ward was doing an activity at the same place. so we pushed our time back to coincide with theirs, 'cause the bigger the group, the better!

we got signed in and paid up and went to wait with the others.

eventually, it was time to grab our jackets and tubes. i was slightly nervous about the waterproof camera bag. if it didn't work, i was going to be out one heck of a nice camera. but my concerns were unnecessary, and i was able to snap some pics of all the great action.

it was a beatuiful day and a great group.

things got a little crazy as we neared the get out point. apparently a girl (not with our group) had jumped off some rocks, and was not able to feel her legs. so we watched, up close and personal, as a helicopter rescue was implemented.


after they cleared out, we finished our little journey down the river, and met up back at butts tubes to enjoy some grub.

sunned and with battle scars, it was time to say farewell to tubing, and then it was nap time.

saturday evening was spent enjoying chipotle (thanks to jill and corey), and watching movies. fyi, we never even made it through 'the new world' but found that we all still love 'sneakers'!

for the rest of the pics from the nats game and from tubing, click here.

do you know what today is?

it's one day until tubing (yay!)
it's five days until i finally get my haircut by the stylist it took me a year to track down (yay!)
it's eight days until the lake (yay!)
it's one month and six days until i can no longer call myself a twenty-something (boo!)

but most importantly, today marks three months until the wedding date. regrettably, mr. right is stuck in traffic, and it does not look like he will make it for the october date. have no fear however, new date selection is currently under way--afterall, relationships are based on compromise. when a new date has been finalized, the appropriate parties will be notified.

and just for fun, some pics from dinner last night...


good times. good times. the rest of the pics are here.