Moving to Virginia

I have arrived in Harrisonburg. It's a little weird that I live in Virginia now. There aren't very many pictures in this post (sorry), but I figured maybe someone out there might be wondering how things went with the move.

So let me catch everyone up a bit. I got everything packed and arranged to move my stuff down on Tuesday of last week. There were six of us there to move my stuff up into the rented moving truck and it took about 2 hours. (My apartment being on the 5th floor slowed things down; I mean, I don't even own that much big stuff -- not even a couch.) Once the truck was loaded (and thanks SO much to everyone that helped me load it!), my friend Emily drove down to Harrisonburg with me. Even though I had rented the smallest van Ryder had available, I was still really not jazzed about driving such a big vehicle. The hardest part was getting out of the city, but once we were out and on the freeway, it wasn't so bad.

We arrived at my new place around 4:30. My landlady met me there to give me my keys, and Emily and I started moving in. We were also lucky because the ward's missionaries showed up to help us unload everything. My goal was to just get everything out of the truck and into the apartment because we were going back to Baltimore as soon as we were done. The setup was much faster, and it took the four of us less than 45 minutes! Yay!

We then drove back to Baltimore. We were making so much better time on the day than I expected! We got to the place to return the truck and got it returned with no problems. Emily and I planned to take the bus home, no big deal. We used my smart phone to look up bus routes and times. It was about 9:30 at that point, and we asked the attendant how to get to a particular intersection to catch this bus. He looked a little concerned (not sure why, we weren't in the super sketch part of Baltimore or anything; maybe because it was far?), but told us. (Kind of....he didn't know where the intersection we were looking for was, but knew where to catch that bus at another stop. Sure, fine.)

So Emily and I started walking (I should also mention that we were both dragging utility dollies behind us, since I rented them from a place in town, since the truck place didn't have them; and they were LOUD). It took about 20 or 30 minutes to walk there. Long story short, we missed the bus. So we waited another 30 minutes for the next bus. The next bus showed up, along with another of the same number (but ending route in a few more stops). The bus driver opened the doors, looked at us (and the other two guys waiting), closed the doors, and drove away. WHAT?! So we all got on the other bus and the driver said, "I'll try and catch him!" But he didn't try very hard (it was clear), and when we got to his last stop, he shrugged and said, "Sorry."

So we all got off the bus. The other 2 guys seemed much less irritated and were like, "*Shrug*, I guess we'll wait here for the next bus." Pfft. Emily and I were supposed to take that bus to transfer, and discovered that the bus we wanted to transfer to picked up there. Okay, not all was lost. The driver directed us (sort of...rather poor directions) to where to pick up the next bus. So we walked over, dragging the dollies behind us. We arrived at the stop, though it was still a little unclear as to whether or not we were at the right place. (The direction of the bus was unclear, and we were in unfamiliar territory.)

The schedule online (checked my phone, whose battery was getting dangerously low) said the next bus we needed was a 40 minute wait. We were so tired by this point (it was after 10:30) and we were contemplating what to do. About a block away we saw a bus that I was pretty sure had the number we needed, but I couldn't tell if it was inbound or outbound. We figured we had time, so we decided to walk over and see. If nothing else, the driver could tell us if we were at the right place.

So we dragged the dollies all the way over, and asked the driver. (The bus was parked there; I guess the stop was the end of his route?) Without looking at me, he said, "The stop you were at is the right one." We thanked him and dragged the dollies back over. Within about a minute (no exaggeration) of arriving back at the stop, we saw the driver change his sign (indicating he was now inbound -- the route we needed), drove over to us and picked us up. Gah!! Why is the Baltimore bus system so crazy?!

Anyway, we didn't have anymore major mishaps, although we had plenty of funny MTA moments on the eventually VERY crowded bus. (Who takes the #22 into Baltimore City at 11:30 on a Tuesday night?! Apparently LOTS of people!) But we made it home. Yay! It only took us 2.5 hours to get across town! (By the way....it took 3 hours to drive back from Harrisonburg.)

So that was the adventure of moving my stuff. I finished cleaning and other odds and ends things (including getting my car fixed, yay!) and then drove to Harrisonburg on Thursday. And then I stayed there. I got on the road kind of late (due to my car being fixed, but it was worth it!) and so I stopped for dinner on the way. I pulled off at some little family restaurant in West Virginia. It was the kind of local experience I was hoping for. And the food was surprisingly good. Especially the free bread. WOW. I ordered a bowl of chili and couldn't resist trying these corn nuggets that I'd never heard of. They were surprisingly good.

This is the picture I had in my head as I ate the corn nuggets. Emily C, this is for you.

I'm gradually getting settled into my new apartment. I really like my new place. And Harrisonburg is nice, even though it's a much slower pace than living in the city. I spent a few days working on unpacking and getting oriented with the things I need to do. This week I've been going to a ton of orientation meetings, and it's exhausting. Monday after day-long new faculty orientation, I went to the opening bbq for faculty. Here's a view from campus that I liked.

I'm still working on getting my apartment together. I'll take pictures once my new couch is delivered (can't wait!!) in a couple weeks. (It was on back order.) (Can't wait!!)

Bejeweled

Remember how I recently posted about dejunking my stuff in preparation for moving to Virginia? I'm pleased to give a progress report, that I've actually been doing a good job! Right now I have 3 garbage bags and 2 boxes full of stuff to give to Goodwill. Additionally, I've condensed six boxes of stuff into 2. This includes tackling my horribly unorganized box labeled "Electronics" that was a mess of tangled cords. I wound up and put twisty ties on all the ethernet cords, and finally got rid of cell phone chargers from 2 and 3 cell phones ago.

My de-junking project tonight was inspired by one of my college roommates, Auburn. Auburn showed amazing foresight on more than one occasion. I remember how she owned an iMac, and I was baffled that it had no floppy drive. "How are you supposed to get files on and off?" I asked incredulously. "The internet," she said. "It's the wave of the future."* I had a hard time believing this (I mean, seriously...no floppy?!), but it turned out to be prophetic.

The occasion that inspired me tonight was also back in college. I remember Auburn bringing all her CDs into the living room and then spending the next few hours taking out each CD and its cover and putting them all into one of those big CD books. (You know, the kind with plastic pages.) After she finished doing that, she threw out ALL THE JEWEL CASES. I thought, "Yikes! But the jewel cases! How can you display your CDs?" Again, Auburn proved to have more foresight than I. But in this case it took me longer to realize the uselessness of jewel cases than it took me to realize that the internet really was the future of file transfer.

I mean, fine, keep your jewel cases if you have a fancy display case. But do I have one of those? No. My CDs have been sitting in a box for at least six years.

Inspired by Auburn's example, I tackled the CD box. It's a heavy box. In fact, I weighed it tonight. It weighed 25 lbs. That's a heavy box to carry all the way to Virginia. (Metaphorically.)

I took the box and spent a few hours taking out CDs and covers and putting them into a CD book, and tossing all the jewel cases into a bag. I filled an entire garbage bag with jewel cases. Anyone need some jewel cases?

The finished CD book weighs 10 lbs. That means I have lightened my moving load by FIFTEEN POUNDS, just by getting rid of these jewel cases. Isn't that the best thing ever?



* Might not have been her actual words. But that was the general gist.**
** Also, I realize this conversation makes me sound really old, but I promise, we did have the internet when this conversation took place. We also had floppy disks. Well, I did anyway.

Funeral Potatoes

It was recently (July 24) Pioneer Day. It's an official state holiday in Utah. Every 24th of July we have parades, picnics, and fireworks to celebrate* the day that the first Mormon pioneers entered the Salt Lake valley and established a community that would later become the state of Utah.

Although it's primarily a Utah holiday (you can understand why), Mormons everywhere like to think about Pioneer Day on July 24 to reflect on the immense sacrifices of those pioneers (and be grateful that we didn't have to walk from Illinois to Utah pulling handcarts), as well as to think about "modern pioneers" who also make sacrifices to join the Church.

So anyway, this year Pioneer Day was on a Sunday, and my ward (congregation) normally has a potluck meal after church on the fourth Sunday. So this month the theme was to bring "Pioneer Foods," or just cliche Mormon foods in general. I decided to bring one of my favorite dishes, funeral potatoes.

For those of you not familiar with the dish, funeral potatoes are a type of a casserole that combines shredded potatoes with creamy things like sour cream, cream of chicken soup, and cheese, and tops it with crunched up corn flakes. They're amazing. The name is a bit tongue-in-cheek, and refers to the idea that they are nearly always served at the luncheon that follows a Mormon funeral.

I woke up early that morning to make them before church. They were super easy, and I got them right in the oven. When I pulled them out, I thought, "I should take a picture. This might be the most beautiful pan of funeral potatoes mankind has ever seen." I don't doubt that's true. But I didn't have time. I was running a bit late.

So I loaded the hot dish and my other things into the back seat of my car and headed to church. As I was driving, I approached an intersection. (It was 33rd and St Paul, for any Baltimoreans out there.) I had a green light, so went to cruise through it. But then the oncoming driver decided it'd be a good idea to try and turn left before I got there. They severely misjudged the situation, and I had to slam on my brakes and swerve to avoid hitting them. But, the good (actually great) news is, we avoided colliding and both drove on our way.

However, there was some bad news. Remember that beautiful pan of (hot) funeral potatoes I had sitting in the back seat? Unfortunately, the pan responded as predicted by the laws of physics (curse you Newton!), and slid forward to the edge of the seat, and dumped right into my church bag (which was sitting on the floor). I pulled over as soon as I could (about a block) to rescue the pan and perhaps salvage the contents of my bag. (Mostly my spiffy new heels that I had put in my bag, as 5-inch heels aren't very easy to drive in.) I was in a hurry (oh yeah, I was conducting Relief Society today, and already going to be late), so I couldn't do much besides put the pan back on the seat and rescue my shoes as well as the items I needed for the Sunday School lesson I was teaching. (Oh yeah, that's my other calling.) At red lights I cleaned my shoes out with napkins in my glove box. (I had plenty, thanks to my addiction to McDonalds ice cream cones.)

So what's the point of this story? The point is, despite the mishap, half of them remained in the pan and still salvageable, so I decided to serve that half anyway. People liked them. Except that most of what dumped out was the crispy corn flake topping, which we all know is the best part! I had a couple requests for the recipe, so here's the recipe I used:

Funeral Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 1 bag shredded hash browns (thawed)
• 2 cans cream of chicken soup
• 2 cups sour cream
• 1 1/2 cups cheese
• 1/3 cups diced green onions
• 2 cups corn flakes crumbs
• 3 Tbsp melted butter
  

Directions:

1. Mix together soup, sour cream, green onions and cheese.
2. Grease a 9x13 pan. Put the potatoes in the pan.
   
3. Pour the soup mixture over the potatoes.
4. Combine corn flake crumbs with butter. Sprinkle evenly over entire top.
5. Bake uncovered at 350* for 45 minutes, or until bubbly.
   

Notes:

• I substituted plain yogurt for sour cream because I'm like that. You can't tell the difference, I promise.
• If you want, you can mix the potatoes with the soup mixture before putting them in the pan. Either way is fine.
  
• Honestly, this recipe is extremely forgiving, just make sure you have the basic ingredients; you can fudge most the rest of it.

Well, I didn't take any before pictures, like I said, so you have to just imagine what the most beautiful pan of funeral potatoes known to mankind look like. (Sadly, I'm the only one that saw them.) But here are some pictures of the aftermath. Sorry, no pictures of the car pre-cleaning. (And seriously, my friend/visiting teacher Emily K is a saint, she really did most of the cleaning of the backseat. Ashlee also helped clean my front seat, where I had (perhaps stupidly) put my bag at some point.)

Post-accident, pre-serving. Trust me, they were more beautiful.

My bag is in a sad state. I threw it away. After continuing to bake in my car for a couple hours, I decided it was unsalvageable/not worth salvaging. Sad, I know.

I should have taken a picture of my new shoes because they are seriously amazing.


* One of my favorite commentaries on Pioneer Day festivities is by Eric Snider, who used to write a Dave Barry-esque column in the BYU paper when I was there. In his column, "Born on the 24th of July," he says: "My beef is with Pioneer Day festivities -- fireworks, parades, flag-waving -- all of which were ripped off from the Fourth of July, just because they're close to each other on the calendar. If the pioneers had gotten here in December, we'd celebrate it by giving gifts and decorating trees. If they'd arrived in October, we'd all dress up like pioneers and go door-to-door asking for rations of flour. Frankly, when it comes to thinking up original holiday-celebrating ideas, we suck." For the complete column, go here.

Knickknack paddy whack

This might be one of the most embarrassing posts I've ever done about myself.

Confession: I'm a packrat. I keep some things that probably don't need to be kept. (I always think, "I don't need this NOW, but I might need/want it someday!") I like knickknacks. I'll admit it. I mean, not when the knickknacks that decorate a house are overwhelming.* Just the kind strategically placed on the edge of a shelf or on a computer monitor. Whenever I think about the knickknacks I have that are useless, I tend to think of this:

Yes, you're seeing this correctly. This is a toy I got in a kids meal, either my first or second year of college. I mean, who doesn't want a miniature Plucky Duck sitting on a giant inner tube? He looks so relaxed, doesn't he? I like being relaxed. Back then I put him on the top of my computer monitor to remind me of being relaxed.

Whenever I think of de-junking my stuff in general, I almost always think of Plucky. For some reason, this symbolizes all my useless stuff to me, even though most of my useless stuff isn't quite as useless and/or silly as this. But I haven't had Plucky out and displayed in years. YEARS! Why am I still carting him around? He's spent years and several moves in some box labeled "SORT." Honestly, I have no idea why, except that I feel a little bit sentimental about him.

As I'm preparing for my 13th move in the past 8 years, I'm trying to get rid of more stuff to make my load lighter. My packrattedness actually gets better every move. (Mostly because I see things and think: "Do I love this enough to carry it up three flights of stairs?") I've actually gotten rid of a lot of stuff over time. I particularly like remembering about this time that my friend/then-roommate Shaleen (who is a master de-junker) helped me. When I brought things to her and explained why I didn't need it, but didn't think I could get rid of it, she'd say, "Here, let me take that." Ha! Anyway, but I still have a bunch of useless stuff.

So this time as I'm preparing to pack (and actually trying to give myself more than a couple days or less), I'm asking myself three questions: (1) Have I used this in the last 2 years? (2) If this is useful, would I remember I have it/be able to find it if I ever needed it? (3) Is there any actual legitimate reason as to why I would keep this? If the answer to all three is no, then I'm thinking long and hard about getting rid of it. (Such non-committedness still gives me final say as I evaluate things on a case-by-case basis.)

Anyway, enough of that. Time to get back to sorting.


* Always reminds me of that episode of the Simpsons where Moe turns his bar into a family restaurant: "If you like good fun, good food, and a whole lot of crazy crap on the wall..."

Birthday 2011

This is my annual blog post to document the events of my birthday celebration. One of my usual goals of having my birthday be fairly low key was successful, but it was also still a lot of fun, thanks to some great friends that I have here in Baltimore.

First picture is to document my EARLY birthday present from my friends Emily C and Lauren. We went biking together at Assateague a little while ago, and they were both horrified that I didn't have/never wear a bike helmet. (I know, I know.) Anyway, Emily and I went biking this past Saturday on the B&A trail. (We biked to Annapolis! It sounds impressive, but since the trail starts closer to Glen Burnie and not Baltimore, it's only about a 27-mile round trip.) On the way, Emily gave me the early birthday gift from her and Lauren, a helmet! Haha! We took this picture on the trail, to send to Lauren. (She couldn't be there; she's currently home in Michigan for a few weeks studying for her med school boards.) Now my "precious cargo" (as Emily says) will be protected.

Anyway, now for my actual birthday. First of all, I've been needing to get a haircut, and I had an appointment at a salon downtown (well, Fells Point). Although I think it might still be a bit too long. (But she cut it exactly how long I told her to; I think I need to readjust my thinking. :) )


Afterward, I got a croissant at a bakery near the water, and enjoyed it while walking along the harbor.

Then I needed to head into work. While I was driving, my car (which has been acting up the last few months) started doing more weird things, so I decided I should drive to my mechanic first instead. That thought was apparently prophetic, because as I turned the corner to enter the freeway, my car stopped accelerating, and I knew something was wrong, so I pulled off to the shoulder. My car was in fact totally dead, wouldn't even restart. So I was stranded on the side of the interstate for awhile.

But I called AAA and they sent a tow truck out to my rescue and we took it to my mechanic. And they fixed it. So for my birthday, I got a new alternator! (Which isn't actually that exciting, but fortunately, the repairs were cheaper than I thought they might be.)

I did eventually make it into work. I had a birthday lunch at the cafe at Space Telescope and ordered my favorite menu item, the mozzarella, tomato, and basil sandwich. And I'm convinced that the sandwich is bigger when you order it for dine-in, as opposed to go. Okay, maybe not. But it was still tasty!

For dinner I met up with two of my friends, Emily C and Emily K. (Have I mentioned that we have at least five Emilys in our ward right now?) We ate at Paper Moon Diner, which is one of my favorite places to eat in Baltimore. Emily K brought me these lovely flowers!

Emily K's dish came with a pickle on the side, and so Emily C asked for one too, and our waiter brought us a plate of pickles. (I don't actually like pickles.) Here they are chowing down on them before our dinner came out. Our waiter was passing by as I was taking a picture, so hopped in, unbeknownst to the Emilys. Ha!

Why yes, I did order a plate of mac and cheese and sweet potato fries for my dinner.

Me and Emily K.

When we ordered drinks (waters all around!), Emily C told the waiter to bring her a really big glass of water. He brought her two glasses initially, and this is what she had by the end.... (Yes, those are ALL hers.)

After dinner, we met up with a few more friends at Emily C's apartment because she had made me a cake. (She was pretty eager to volunteer to make one earlier in the week, even when my first response when she asked me was, "I'll think about it.") But clearly she knows me, she made me an oreo cake!

There were no candles for the cake, but fortunately, Emily C had candles already on her table so she lit them up and they sang to me. (And you can see Lori and Jessie too, proof other people were there.)

I blew them out in one breath.

The cake was amazing! Not only was it chocolate (my favorite) and had crushed oreos in the frosting, but she also put a layer of oreos between the two cakes. Brilliant! It was a little tricky to cut through, but it tasted amazing! We topped it with mint chocolate chip ice cream, and it was perfect.

All in all, a good birthday. I picked up my car today (day after) and it's working much better. (For example, it turns on now!) It's still acting a bit quirky in the way it did before it died, which is sort of disappointing because I was hoping the problems were related and would all be solved. I guess it's like when you bring someone to the ER and they have a broken leg and no heart beat, the doctors will solve the heart beat problem first. I'll keep an eye on it for awhile and see if things get worse. I guess it's just showing its age (it's 11 years old), and trying to keep me on my toes. And who knows....maybe it'll require MORE repairs and soon I'll be paying more in repairs than I would in car payments which would mean I'd get a new car. Not that I want to get a new car. Filbert and I have been through a lot together and I really like having him around! Anyway, we'll see.

Thanks to my friends in Baltimore for making my birthday great! Thanks to my family for singing happy birthday to me on my voice mail! And thanks to all my friends who wrote on my Facebook wall. Seriously, I love birthdays because they make me feel like the most popular person on Facebook. Here's to another great year!

San Diego roommate reunion

I've just returned from some wonderful travels! I'm going to try and blog about them all in the next few days or so.

It all started when I flew to San Diego for a great reunion with some of my roommates from BYU. We weren't all there, however. Angela and Becca, we missed you guys lots!

I flew in Monday, and Amy and Christy picked me up at the airport. Every time I go to California, I always think the same thing: why don't I live here? The weather is perfect all the time, why go anywhere else?

Well, anyway, over the course of the next few days, we did lots of fun things including going to the San Diego Zoo (my first time), eating pizza on the beach at sunset (why don't I live in California again?), going to Disneyland (and eating lunch at the Blue Bayou!), and going to Sea World (also my first time). Here are some pictures.

Me and the flamingos at the San Diego Zoo. Part of my usual series of pictures that Amy calls "Elizabeth in Front of Something Interesting." I guess it's true, I do take a lot of pictures like that. Ha!

Amy, Auburn (plus Maren), and me at the beach. It was really bright. I cheated and kept my sunglasses on.

Seth was pretty much Christy's best friend during the trip. It was cute and funny. (He never wanted to ride the rides with anyone else!) Here they are on the Bug's Life caterpillar ride at Disneyland (California Adventure? I don't really know). I think this picture is super cute.

Amy and I on the Buzz Lightyear ride (my first time on that ride/game). I was just shooting randomly, I have no idea how I got any points.

We celebrated Amy's birthday by going to brunch at this delightful little outdoor cafe overlooking the beach. (I think it was in La Jolla?) And Seth is pretty much one of the cutest kids ever.

Brunch.

Also went to Sea World. I thought the turtles were really cool. (Again, "Elizabeth in Front of Something Interesting." :) )

Christy, Amy, Auburn, and Maren in the walk-through shark display. Cool.

Me, Auburn (and Maren), and Amy hanging out. The lighting wasn't the best for pictures in there.

We even saw Shamu. (I wish I had taken pictures at the dolphin show. The theatrics cannot be described in words. Haha!)

The next morning I managed to wake up early enough to go to the temple before flying out. (Auburn told me she was sure she'd come out the next morning and find me still asleep. Yes, clearly she has been my roommate. :) I even surprised myself in this instance.)


It's been far too long since I've seen these great friends of mine, so I'm happy that we were able to reunion this year. As Amy said, you know you're good friends when you can not see each other for eight years (as was the case with Amy and me) and your conversations start right back up as if you'd never been apart. I'm so lucky to have been roommates and friends with such great girls! Let's hope it's not so long between the next time we get together! :) Thanks again for the great time!!

Smarter Phone

So I recently got a smarter phone. It's a Samsung Fascinate. I chose it because it seemed decent enough and I could get it for free by renewing my current contract. So why not? I've been putting off getting a smart phone because I probably spend too much time online as it is. Though typically when I travel, I curse the world that I don't have one. I'm traveling next week (first San Diego, then the Great Utah National Park Tour of 2011*), and not bringing my laptop (shocker I know), and decided it was high time.

Besides the fact that I've just been needing** one for some time, I thought it would fun to be able to update my blog (and Facebook) with pictures from the road, since I won't have my laptop and will be away from civilization.*** And good to have access to email on the road. And, I'm sure, comforting for you all to know that I'm not stuck in Blue John Canyon preparing to cut off my own arm.****



* I'm still searching for a killer title for a trip that will be most epic.
** i.e., wanting
*** They have cell phone reception away from civilization, right? j/k
*** Although Aron Ralston recently became one of my new heroes, I definitely don't plan on reenacting his fateful hike. (Unlike other morons in the world.)