can i open my eyes now?

alright, i'm facing it, the christmas recap just ain't gonna happen. suffice it to say, i really enjoyed having my family here. we spent our time checking out the sites in la, experiencing disneyland through the eyes of a 5 year old, enjoying milkshakes on the pier, and just generally appreciating having the family all together again. the pictorial can be found here and here.

sadly, the good times did not continue as my family departed and the calendar year changed. i'm beginning to think that the whole 'broken mirrored closet door' thing may have had more of an impact than the bleeding forehead originally indicated.

i've spent the entire month of january trying to shake a bad luck streak that keeps getting longer and longer. it started with a toxic ingestion that resulted in an admission to animal hospital for kidney failure. $3k later and cordy came home mostly recovered and happy, while i took a turn for the worse. fighting some kind of random sickness, i couldn't take any time off as i prepared for my biggest event of the year. i did make it to that event, and that's something, but on my first night there i sprained or broke my big toe (there is some debate about which). since my glorified pedometer had me averaging 8 miles a day on that toe, you might imagine that there was a lot of crying. crying and vicodin.

just when i was sure i'd had my 'bad things come in threes' conclusion, and was looking forward to my arrival home and spending some time with deb (who was in town for the wedding of a mutual friend), i ended up with a flat tire in los angeles (an hour from home) at midnight.

you know, because all i needed after a $3k vet bill was to buy new tires.

not sure if i've got a shot at making it out of 2010 alive, but for the moment i'm going to focus on safely putting january behind me. the wedding was lovely though, so maybe there's hope afterall...

...oh, and i did manage to have a little fun in orlando. melissa recapped our shared adventures here...

did i miss something?

when did 2010 get here? oh, it must have been somewhere between my family's visit to california for 'a week in the life of tara' and my dog nearly dying of kidney failure!

needless to say, the last three weeks have been chock full of excitement, some good, some bad.

my folks arrived in california with my sister and my niece on christmas day - or rather, on christmas day night. we started our girl bonding, mom, sis, and i, by taking a late night drive up to lax airport (about an hour from home) to pick up their luggage, which, thanks to the inevitable holiday airline delays and changes, did not arrive with them in orange county.

fortunately, the drive and conversation were enjoyable and the luggage pick-up fairly simple. the only negative was that it meant i'd be in bed later than i'd have liked given the next day's planned adventure.

since we had decided to cancel our plans for yosemite due to concerns about weather and transportation, i agreed to accompany my dad on his own personal national park passport stamp hunting adventure. so at 7am on saturday morning, we were on our way to death valley national park.

i'll be honest, death valley is not a park i've been particularly motivated to visit. i mean, just the name of it alone is enough to make you want to stay away. but, i needed to get te stamp at some point, and truly there's no better person for me to go stamp hunting with!

our first stop made for a longer drive. it DID included a bonus stamp, though not much else. as a result, the mojave national preserve was a fairly quick drive by. we got out of the car, took a few pics, locked ourselves in jail, and demonstrated how to mount a saddle before heading on to death valley.


what surprised me most about the park was that i enjoyed it. the landscape was more diverse than i expected.


we stopped to enjoy a section that reminded me of the badlands, before heading on to my personal highlight, badwater basin. at 282 feet below sea level, it is the lowest point in north america.


dad and i made sure to stand in holes so we could TRULY be at the lowest point. silly tourists just walking on the well-worn path. ha!


i'm not sure if you can tell, but there's a sign on that wall of rock that indicates where sea level is.

how bout now?


after badwater basin we hit the golden canyon where we did some light hiking and a little climbing.

and then it was time to head home. remember how i said we left at 7am? well we arrived at home around 9:30pm, and of that time, spent all but probably an hour and a half in the car. needless to say, it was a long day, but we were happy to arrive and find that dylan and kelly had made it safely from oregon (via car). we spent some time chatting and planning for the week's adventures before i said my goodnights and goodbyes, leaving them to enjoy the donahoo's vacant and generously 'donated' home away from home.

..........to be continued............

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

'tis the season

i realize i still have some updating to do on my recent adventure, but that is going to take a little bit of time, and i don't want to hold myself up too much.

so! i have friends, i have friends!

okay, so i know it sounds strange, but after two years in california, i finally feel like i am making friends! okay, okay, i know that probably needs clarifying. obviously, i have had friends here, but they have been pretty limited in number. i've developed a lot of acquaintances, for sure, but friends are a whole other category. friends are people that you can call when you want to see a movie, grab a bite to eat, or need an airport pickup at midnight at lax the night before thanksgiving. acquaintances are people you recognize and enjoy conversing with at church or fhe, but you never graduate to the random phone call invites. you with me?

jami, the friend who picked me up from lax at midnight on the night before thanksgiving

i can honestly say that for the past two years i can count the total number of 'friends' i've made (not counting the one i had prior to my california arrival) on one hand. one from my first job here, two from my current job here, one from my ward, and one of my roommates. i adore every one of these people, and they have been wonderful additions to my life. in fact, i don't know that i would have successfully weathered the last two years, frought with change and challenge, without the support of my family and these few people. the only thing that's missing from this particular group of friends however, is a y chromosome.

our christmas tree

historically i've been someone who has had at least the same quantity of male friends as female, if not more. there is balance in that. men provide different perspectives and different kinds of encouragement and friendship, and i have felt the absence deeply. i've even made a conscious effort at times to remedy the situation, but those efforts have consistently been thwarted by a strange singles culture in which, if you are friendly to a person of the opposite sex, they assume you want to marry them. this has one of two possible catastrophic results. the first is that they make this assumption and are excited about it, leading them to make unwanted romantic gestures. the other is that they have no romantic interest in you and don't want to risk leading you on, so they shut down and avoid you.

neither, as you might imagine, are conducive for developing a strictly platonic friendship, which is why it has taken me more than two years to begin developing friendships with some of the local single mormon boys. and it probably would have taken longer were it not for my roommate.

my roommate, heather, and i

my roommate, you see, loves to play hostess (a desire i lost long ago thanks to spending my days planning things for other people and getting paid for it). she enjoys and participates in all types of social activities, but she seems to especially like having people in her home, where she can share her love of and talent for good food and good company.

we've been in our new home (yes, i call it a home, not a house) since april, but between my travel and her need to resolve some challenges in other areas of her life, it's been a quiet home. ...well, as quiet as three girls and three dogs can be, anyway.

when fall hit, however, i was traveling a bit less and she began feeling more settled. the gastronomic result was a halloween dinner at our place. it was the first of many future gatherings, and we both really enjoyed the opportunity to interact with people on a more personal level, in an environment better suited to actually getting to know someone. i felt the seeds then of some potential friendships beginning to take root. those friendships have continued to develop, thanks to other gatherings, and my actually having been in town for a decent stretch.

xmas dinner

last night, heather hosted her annual christmas dinner - something she enjoys doing to kick-off the season, and we had about 15 people join us to partake in a feast fit for kings. for me, it almost felt like a thanksgiving do-over, since i spent my turkey day solo working on pics from my recent adventures.

my friend jesse drove down from santa barbara and was a welcome addition to the group.

jesse and i

we were also joined by scott, a long-time friend of heather's who recently moved from the dc area, and with whom, as you might suspect, i was able to play the 'who do you know, how did you get here?' game.

laura, scott, and i

i was also pleasantly surprised that despite being sick, brandon (someone i'd consider a 'new' friend) came to help us celebrate, which, as has been typical, resulted in some depthful and engaging conversation. i'm currently trying to make him my new bff, and so far, he's playing along!

me and brandon

we had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, etc., etc. and it was delicious (well, the turkey and stuffing were -i'm not a potato or yam girl). our living room was lit with candles and the glow of the christmas tree, and filled with friends, both old and new. after dinner, we played games and watched the first presidency christmas devotional. it was all pretty perfect.

updates pending

in the meantime, pics are here!