To the peninsula!

This weekend, I went camping with a bunch of my friends out in the Olympic National Park. I saw more Olympics there than I did in Vancouver *rimshot*. The ONP is a pretty special little park as it has temperate rainforest, high alpine meadows, aandnndnndnndddd rocky beautiful beaches all-in-one. Here is Tyler, Steve, and Whitney admiring the gorgeously wetish waterfalls of Marymere. After this hike, we decided to try out the Mount Storm King trail that gains over 2000 feet of elevation across 648 feet of trail. After about 38 minutes of steep switchbacks, I decided to commune with nature a bit. The rest of the gang decided to push on another 200 yards and then came back to find me enjoying the sweet life. Then we ran down the trail of treacherous steepiness and headed to Sol Duc Falls. It would be an absolute dream to swim in lovely rugged exciting water like this but it would also be the last dream you had. Very cold, very pointy rocks, very pushy water. We camped in the Hoh Rain Forest near the Hall of Mosses (as in moss, not the Charlton Heston guy with an extra "s") and after what is getting clocked as one of the three coldest nights in my life (turns out that a temperate rain forest a week past winter is brrrrrr)we were off the beach where it was delightfully warm.It was an absolutely perfect trip. Seventeen thousand thanks to Steve for planning the whole thing, Jen for pointing the way, Tyler for driving, and the rest of the gang for you know, the blah blah blah.

Body by Humanity.

About once a week since the beginning of February, I've been going down to Rainier Vista (one of the sketchier parts of Seattle which is actually pretty nice) to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. First off, I love these people. Their orientation process was only 45 minutes and bam, you're off to building houses. Although after today, I'm beginning to realize that "building a house" is just a sneaky way of saying, "here, dig this trench". I actually enjoy digging trenches and shoveling muck in the rain because dang my friends, my nightly push-up routine has shot from a mere 10 to a solid 50. So, if you feel like a new fitness plan, go with Body by Humanity. The other reason I love these people is because of their infinite confidence in your ability to do anything. That's kind of not at all like graduate school. They'll walk up and say "here, cut this inch piece of steel", "we need you to take this roto-hammer with a three inch drill bit and punch a hole through the concrete", "go over there and build a wall so that we can pour the concrete tomorrow", and my favorite "install the sub-flooring, the materials are over there". As for that last one, it was a two day project and the city inspector said of my work (and the five other volunteers) that it was "the best installation he's ever seen. Ever." Bam! Science doesn't work out, I'm moving over to Visqueen. This picture is hard to tell since I'm wearing brown pants but believe you me, this is me caked in muck and mud after shoveling in the 40 degree rain for about five or six hours. And those gloves (light tan leather) had only been used once before. Love it!!!

You take your car to work, I'll take my board.

The first day of spring, since ancient times, heralds in the opening of surfing season. Basically ever since Daniel, Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego were called to the Babylonian 5th ward activities committee and wanted something more fun to do than endure the wrath of an angry king. Well, nothing's colder than surfing. Especially in Ocean Shores, Washington on March 20th. The surf was pretty alright such that you could just jump into the wave and ride it all the way to the beach without any of that pesky swimming stuff. The wind provided an interesting challenge it that it was causing cross waves, rip tides, and something called a wind chill. Basically, we had to huddle down next to the salty ice cubes in the ocean in order to stay warm. Thank goodness for the wet suits and boots. We naysayed the use of hoods which caused the shop owner to say, "wow dudes. you like couldn't have picked a worse day for surfing. you guys are totally hard core." That's right we are! Here's a picture that better shows how windy it really was.That's Megan. I'm behind the board on the left, not too keen on having yet another picture of me in black neoprene be taken. But hey, after being soaking wet with wind, water, and well, sand . . . we clean up pretty good. Here's Megan, Rachael, and I all at Kurt and Charity's wedding reception.

Snowshoeing at Rainier!

This past weekend we all went snowshoeing as a ward down at Paradise on the southern slopes of Mount Rainier. We loaded up at 7:20 am into four cars and sped toward our date with Ranger Casey and the sunshine. We couldn't have custom ordered a more perfect day. Clear blue skies. Bright sunshine. Packable and whitewashable snow. Perfect. We met up at the Jackson Visitor Center at Paradise with Ranger Casey from Virginia. This is his first post in the National Park Service and he loves it. He wasn't sure what "U2 ward" meant. He thought maybe we were a bunch of senior citizens from a retirement home. I think he was pleasantly surprised to find a bunch of spry 20-somethings. And here we are going for the synchronizing gold pairs in both hydration and solar protection. I love my friends. So talented. Not all fun and games though. This is basically the type of punishing conditions we had to deal with:On our 1.5 mile meandering mosey through the trees, we learned about how to deal with change. Either you sleep through it, run away, or deal with it. I think Ranger Casey's lesson on life will stick with us forever. We also learned that foxes don't catch snowshoe hares when the snow is fluffy but they do alright on icy stuff. And that the key to a good old fashioned whitewashing is tenacity. They may tell you to stop stop but you just need to persevere. This is Steve and Aubrey. I think we can see who won this fight. It was a spectacular day and I was tickled pink that it turned out well. It was Matt's and mine (we're the new activity co-chairs)first go at a ward activity and it was an absolute blast. People talked to each other, found new friends, and enjoyed each other's company. What more could you want? (Besides a whole bucket of sunny vitamin D pouring down on you!!!)

Create!

Back before our traitorous tv demoted our options from eleven channels to three, we would sometimes watch the PBS station nine dash three which features such specials as that attractive guy from ALIAS traveling in Peru or less interesting shows like old ladies painting daffodils. At any rate, in-between the gorgeous men and the not as entertaining watercolors, they would have commercials for their own station talking about how much fun it is to create things. This was of course affirmed as true by President Uchtdorf seventeen months ago. And by me in my art class. We've moved on from graphite pencils sketches and learning about line to using messy dirty charcoal and experimenting with value. It took a bit to get used to pushing around shades of grey instead of wanting to outline everything like with a pencil but I love the different kind of work that can be done. So friends, look up your local community college and scroll down to find their community education classes and sign up to learn something new. Next step for me, upholstery. And maybe pastry. Not together.

one rotten apple spoils the whole bushel

So when I got home last night, I checked my email and found that one of the six referees for my Newton Fellowship didn't submit on time so that's that. Cambridge is out. It's pretty lame to be disqualified before the race even starts but that's life yeah? Someone pointed out to me that it must be difficult to realize that I worked so hard on the proposal only to find out that it is worthless. I had to admit that it didn't even cross my mind, probably because that's science in general. Ah well, guess it really is time to find a jobikins. Gosh this probably sounds a little sour but naw it's not it's um, mild annoyance mixed with a dash of "well shoot. now i actually have to get a job sooner than later. boo." I already learned all I wanted to from the Newton process. It just had an extra lesson at the end. To wit, error on the side of pushy when getting references to submit. Okie doke. Lesson learned. Onward and upward. Don't worry, by February 24, 2011 I'll definitely know what I'm up to. This February 24th, it's a bit hazy.

We went to Vancouver and all we got was a spork.

Seriously. Well before I explain, I better explain that my roommate Bridgette actually does have a real job working as a nurse in a neuro ICU and so often has days off, that's why she's on these adventures with me. I'm on 'em because as you'll remember, I don't have a job. So anyway, we drove up to Vancouver this morning to bask in the warm glow of Olympic light. After a quick border crossing with a surly guard (why does your car have arizona plates if you say you're from seattle? well canadian friend, the 'united' part of usa means we can kind of drive around down there with reckless abandon/don't worry about it.) we were on to Vancouver, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics! I haven't been to a games since 2002 when I was a cute-as-a-button volunteer. I was anxious to once again feel that excitement of a global event, drop in my Irish buddies at the Irish House, and maybe spot some dish delish Norwegians headed up to watch the biathlon. Unfortunately, apparently the Olympics are somewhere else. Vancouver, BC right? Like the one on the left side of Canada? Maybe? Anyone? Guess not. For real.We couldn't find anything to see or do or see or do. Here's a line for 45 minutes to get into the store to buy stuff that says "Canada" on it. We also spotted a 7 hour line to look at the medals housed in the Royal Canadian Mint, and an hourish long line to get into a museum hosting these events.But let's be honest, a Sasquatch Prom AND Sophisticated Cavemen! That'd totally be worth it! So after two hours and a decision to not spork over $80 to see Switzerland fight Belarus in hockey, we jetted out of town to visit Squishee. I mean Squamish. Squishee is on the Sea to Sky highway that runs along the BC coast up to Whistler and is super popular with climbers. I know about it since my friend Matt climbs at Squishee all the time. Here we saw some Olympics! We don't have a tv per se so these were the first bits of Oly action I got to see . . . including those hot argyle pants the Norwegian curling team is sporting. Hi-ya Norge! Oh but seriously, the only souvenir we could find was this spork. Really.Well, a spork, and some postcards at the duty free shop at the border (couldn't find 'em in Undercouver) and well, a square of paper with some duty free Acqua di Gio spritzed on it (best cologne ever, thanks canada!). However, BC stands for Beautiful Country so although the Olympics weren't there, the visual bang for the buck definitely was.