Respite in my Transience?

Ok, so I totally cheated on the last post and let Kara tell all the stories about Cancun. I love blogging but it just takes so much time- so I just cheated. In case you hadn't noticed, my blog is not usually the "look at these pictures and a short recap of my life" kind of blog. Although I'm sure we would all appreciate that. Well. Too bad for you. And me. Maybe one day I'll be known as the short-winded type. But not likely.

I am on a bit of a travel mania right now. (Well, not that I've been particularly non-transient the past year either. I've traveled quite a bit for work over the last few years) But now, ironically, traveling is keeping me anchored in life. I know that sounds strange, especially for someone who preaches the gospel of permanence, beauty in the every day, and being rooted and grounded in those things that immediately surround you. But right now travel helps me to keep my life in perspective. It's not just mindless hedonistic pursuit of pleasure (although I'm sure a bit of that is mixed in :) It gives me a break from the most demanding boss of all time: me.

In my life right now I'm in the midst of a very intense period, where most of my obligations I am solely accountable for. I know this sounds great, and it is in some ways. But it can also be very exhausting. For me, I feel like every day I have to re-create the purpose of my existence, prove to myself and others that what I am doing is worthwhile and productive, find purpose, the initiative to move forward in areas that have been untouched. Where every morning I wake up and have to ask myself if I am using my time well and going the direction I should, which leaves me pondering everything from birth and the cosmos. It gets pretty intense. Sometimes I wish I just had a plan or a boss that would take care of the thinking for more than a few days.

So next time you think that your job is mindless, boring, stupid or that you are underutilized, just appreciate that at least you have a plan and place to work, and the accountability for your time rests on someone else. And society doesn't wonder what you do all day. Generally people don't inquire how your life plans are coming and if you're making progress on a weekly basis. You are taken care of and the universe is satisfied in your plan. You have the luxury of not having to answer to yourself for every second of your day.

Anyway, the point is, it's pretty intense keeping myself satisfied that I'm doing all I need and it's not always super helpful to be thinking so much about that. Don't get me wrong, I don't sit around doing nothing....as per my norm I am very busy and over committed to too many projects and people and activities. Sometimes it's just nice to take off the pressure and get away and get my mind off of a life that is built all around me. And away from the pressure I can think more clearly, receive inspiration and actually get stuff done.

So enough rationalizing all of the travel. A quick recap of the last month: I went to Cancun with my dear friend Kara at the end of January- to get some warmth on my skin and to celebrate the official end of my youth- the 31st birthday. It was so nice to get away, enjoy the sun and spend time with my dear friend.

Immediately after Cancun I packed my bags and books and escaped to Idaho. I spent a week on the cattle ranch with Jamie and Sean- a place and lifestyle (and people) I love.

This Idaho trip was mainly to give me uninterrupted time to re-write my thesis, a task that had been hanging over my head since I had my thesis defense over 2 years ago. It's not that I can't work on this in Provo, but between institute, FHE, temple work, tutoring, working out, meetings, etc, my schedule actually gets pretty filled up. I really just needed to be off the radar and unavailable to be able to work for 18 hours a day, which is exactly what I did. I pretty much knocked the whole thing out while I was there. And got the added bonus of spending hours talking to my inspired, sparkly-eyed friend Jamie, who helped me gain perspective and direction in my life. And while I was in that frozen ranch land in Idaho, the Lord also told me he wants me to build a spaceship in the desert. I'm not quite sure how to do it. But I know if Nephi could build a boat, and if the Lord commands something, it can be done. So wish me luck with that. (it's not actually a spaceship. that's just a symbol)

After Cancun and Idaho, I found myself daydreaming about the beach again. 3 days was not enough. It left me wanting more sun and mild weather. Being a bit trip happy as it is, when a friend suggested going to San Diego over President's Day weekend I was in. Every day is a 3 day weekend for the unemployed. I haven't been to San Diego since last summer for work, and made lots of good memories there. I wanted to be able to go back and enjoy with some good friends. So I gathered up a couple of good friends and we headed west for a weekend road trip.

Friday
Amanda, Jen and I hit the road around 3pm on Friday. And, my favorite part, we talked and talked and talked and talked. I love learning about people's lives, their family, what makes them tick, what they are passionate about, what their relationships have been like. I feel like road trips are friend magic: once you go on a road trip you are bonded for life.

We met up with Kara and Becca in St. George for dinner who were following us down, and had a lovely dinner at Cracker Barrel. We pulled in to our hotel in Huntington Beach about 1:30am.

Saturday
Kara and Becca were ambitious and left early for Disneyland. Our crew was the bunch that thought part of vacation means sleeping in. :) So we took our time getting out of bed and finally landed at Universal Studios at 10:30am.

We had a blast. First, I want to say that I enjoyed Universal so much more than Disneyland. I've only had 1 exposure to all of these places, but Universal seemed so much more reasonably priced, geared to adults (loved watching The Simposons in line at Krustyland) and just more fun in general. The food was amazingly delicious and less than $10 for a very large meal. We never waited more than 15 minutes in a line I think. We just had a great time. And we hit all the shows and the rides we wanted to go to. I felt like with Disneyland I still had no idea where I was or what was there after a whole day in the park. Anyway, we had a blast. I loved the back-lot tour of the studios to see where they did the filming of movies. And I loved that everything was a ride that somehow found a way to spray you with water that was supposedly spit.

Anyway, we had a blast (although we were freezing cold by the end of the day. Turns out Cali is warmer than Utah but 55 degrees is still cold when you've been sprayed on all day long.) We ate ourselves silly, rode all the rides, and left around 7pm.

While we were in the LA area, we decided to hit up Hollywood as well. I have always wanted to go there, so we just pulled off on Hollywood Blvd, parked the car, and walked to the Chinese Theater, the Kodak Theater, and took some pictures with Michael Jackson and Johnny Depp. We definitely got the most out of our Saturday.

Sunday
Traveling on Sunday is always a little tricky because I want to keep the Sabbath day holy, but you often have to make exceptions- like buying gas or food. Although I think we pulled things off pretty well. Amanda and I decided to go to an earlier ward than the rest of the girls, to meet up with my good friend Alisa Rogers, and to head down to San Diego for the rest of the day. Alisa is recently engaged and while she was monumentally busy before, now she is scheduling people 6 weeks out just to return a phone call. I've come to terms that this is pretty much the end of our epic friendship for the greater cause of marriage, but I'm glad I got to pin her down on her trip to Cali for the weekend and chat for a bit.

After church I got to head south to have lunch with my old boss and her husband. It was delightful to see them again and we were glad for the non-dine-out option for food on Sunday. Afterwords we decided we couldn't go to Cali without going to the beach, and headed to Oceanside Beach for a few hours. Amanda built and epic sand castle, we gathered some sea shells, played in the water a bit, and headed home at sunset. Then we spent the rest of the evening in the hotel with our other lovely ladies, chatting and watching Brother Bear.

Monday
Monday morning Kara and Becca took off early to get back to Provo at a decent time. But again, crew get-the-most-out-of-your-vacation Amanda, Jen and I decided to hit Universal Studios one more time on the way out (our day passes were good for 6 months) and hit up all of the bigger rides a few more times. So we rode The Simpson's ride again, and Jurassic Park about 5 times, had lunch and hit the road. We had a blast and loved that there was no wait to go on the big rides.

Headed back home to Provo about 2pm and knew it would be a late night. But that didn't stop us from stopping in Primm Nevada to go on the Buffalo Bills roller coaster, the highest and fastest roller-coaster in the world in 1996, going over 90 mph and dropping you over 225 ft. It was pretty intense. Let's just say we quickly regained an appreciation for life after those 2.5 minutes. It was nuts.

Headed back to Provo and dropped everyone off around 1:30am. I felt bad for Amanda and Jen who both had work in the morning, but we all agreed it was worth getting a few more thrills in before returning to Provo.

So hurrah to another successful adventure with friends. We had such a wonderful time and I hope there are many more to come!