Party in the U.S.A.

If you'll be in Utah January 2nd, please come

Ode to Joy

I have been spoiled by the 3 month fall on the east coast, I never knew what I was missing. I really can't bear the thought of returning to a two week fall in Utah. Utah, you're gorgeous, but really you only have two seasons: Cold and Hot. Fall and spring in Utah are bouts of indecision where it snows one day and then is hot the next. Today the temperature is a blessed 62 Degrees. Yes, please.

Other reasons to love fall:
1. The Music: My soundtrack has been Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes
2. The Fashion: Layers, scarves, hats and tights. I especially love this girl's taste.
3. The Food: Warm, rich and flavorful. I made this last week.
4. Random Government Holidays like Columbus Day and Veteran's Day

Tonight I'm planning to watch the Leonid Meteor Shower, I invite you all to do the same.

Let's play catch up

Blogging has fallen far down the list of priorities when it competes with work, school, social life, my church calling, watching Top Chef, learning Chinese and planning a cross country and then international move. However, I know that at least my parents miss getting a visual of what I'm doing. I'm stealing an idea from my friend Jenn (who was recently published here) and I will give a quick update of memorable weekends from the last five months. Never mind that I should be paying attention to a lecture on cap and trade right now.

What: Rooftop Birthday Bonfire
When: November 6
Who: Most of my D.C. favorites
After 16 birthdays tend to be anticlimactic. Especially if your 16th birthday was a surprise party at Classic Skating. Even though I've learned to temper expectations, my friends and family never fail to deliver. This year was no exception. For my birthday my roommates decorated our living room and we had a birthday tea time with Mexican hot chocolate provided by Ben. Kathy and Annie threw a "camp in" on their roof complete with a bonfire, tin foil dinner and smores. I felt so loved and I'm convinced if everyone felt this loved on their birthday we'd all have a permagrin and every Miss American's dream of world peace would come true. Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes, they were much appreciated.

What: Halloween cabin getaway to West Virginia
When: October 31st
Who: My roommate Jenn pulled together a group of ten for an ideal Halloween
We read Edgar Allen Poe by the fire, watched Watcher in the Woods (the first 2/3rds really is scary), Biked through the woods, rode through the countryside on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad, ate at a small town diner and told ghost stories (I believe). It was perfect.

What: Fall Camping
When: October 16th
Who: Sloan, Cobb, Jill and Pete
The forecast for rain was 100% and the temperature was 34 degrees. I reluctantly agreed to go because I knew Peter would tease me for the rest of my life if I bailed. No regrets, no rain and I was warm and well fed.

What: A road trip through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Lousiana
When: October 9 -14
Who: Brian, Baby and Bison
The decision to go on this trip was pretty last minute. But I knew with these boys it would be cheap, original and I would laugh a lot. The hipsters didn't disappoint. The south amazed me, the scenery is beautiful, but the people that we met are really what has stayed with me. For example: Knox the gas station attendant who hung out with us when we locked our keys in the car gave us slurpees and invited us to shoot some pool. Southern hospitality is not a myth. More pictures here.

What: Katherine and Verlan's wedding
When: September 26th
Who: These two have a lot of fans. Two of the nicest people I know and they come from huge families.
The wedding was perfect. Katherine looked more beautiful than I've ever seen her. This girl has a heart of gold and deserved a fun and lovely wedding, which is exactly what she got.

What: Work Convention in Pittsburgh, PA (My new favorite city)
When: September 10-17
Who: Me and 100 of my coworkers
I love Pittsburgh. It's a gorgeous city, it has a very European feel and it's just the right size. I think having low expectations helped, but it really is charming, surrounded by water and lots of interesting architecture. The majority of my time was spent in a convention center, but I did manage to see the Andy Warhol museum, Visited Carnegie Mellon, Rode the duquesne incline, and I was really excited that I had the opportunity to bat at the Pirates PNC field.
What: Visiting the Malone's in WV part II
When: August 22
Who: Ben, Court, Jenn, Michael, Kathy and Ryguy
Our second visit to the Malone's lake house and it was the perfect summer trip. We spent the day on the lake wake boarding, bridge jumping and swimming. We played tennis in the afternoona and had a bonfire at night. The Malone's were gracious hosts and I really love meeting my friend's families.
What: Ben's inaugural D.C. visit
When: August 7-10
Who: Ben and Jenny. Friends since 6th grade
Ben and I have a long history. We've both seen each other at our best (surviving waking up to a moose charging at us) and the worst (song and dance group showcase U.S.A.). Our friendship has endured a lot and I'm really grateful that his sister's moving out here finally gave him enough of an excuse to visit. We went to the national air guitar championship (a bust), biked around d.c., visited the zoo, ate a lot of good food and slept out in the backyard. We were long overdue for some quality time and it was so good to spend time with him.

What: Annie's 30th Birthday
Where: My backyard
Who: D.C. Favorites dressed in 20's garb
One of my favorite D.C. parties. Annie has an eye for detail and fashion and threw a fabulous party that I was so happy to be a part of.

What: New York and D.C. with Kristjan
When: July 2-5
Who: Kristjan and Jenny. Friends since our freshman year of college
Kristjan and I had a great whirlwind tour of the east coast. We stayed with his friends Dana and Marlon in NYC and did as much as we possibly could with 36 in New York. We were on a quest to find the best pizza, ate a cannoli, walked the brooklyn bridge, took the staton island ferry, central park, wall street and so much more. Then it we headed to D.C. to celebrate the fourth of July by watching fireworks in our nation's capitol. Hopefully he'll be back.

China - Long Overdue

I went to China for three weeks in May. I posted once in Hong Kong, I attempted to be that travel writer sitting in front of a coffee shop finding inspiration in passing pedestrians. Then I came home and reread the post, and found so many grammatical errors that I took it down. You would think 18 years of education would teach me to at least use spell checker.

This is all beside the point. I had an amazing time in China. So amazing in fact that I am planning on moving there for five months in January. An opportunity came up when I had a meeting with a business associate of my uncle and he offered me an internship to work in the city of Wuxi an hour outside of Shanghai. I've started Chinese classes at USDA graduate school. I thought that since I can passably speak and understand three languages Chinese would be manageable. Wrong. There are tones, characters, different sentence structures, my mouth feels sore when I'm done with class. I even have podcasts I listen to and CDs in my car. Yet after two weeks of honest effort I still am only confident speaking about six words. But the trip was the perfect mix of adventure and intellectual stimulation. I also met a lot of new friends and got to spend time with old.

When I uploaded my pictures at the end of the trip I realized I had a dispropriately high amount of pictures of children, doors and food. Just an observation. Here are ten of my favorite photos and there are more here.

Old man overlooking the river at a temple in Heifei.

Taking in the beauty below moon rock in Yangshou

I noticed more women working in the fields than men in China. This was in Yangshou.

Adorable girl in a small village outside of Yangshou.

Content baby we saw on a walk through the backstreets in Shanghai.

Favorite moment of the trip was hanging out with this lady who we met on a hike. Through gestures she was able to invite us over for some fruit.

Sitting on the glass floor of The Pearl Tower hundreds of floors above the city.

Hike in Hong Kong

Hiking the Great Wall = Highlight of the trip

Ben and Court in the Yuyu gardens. My favorite place in Shanghai.

The best season (but ask me again in September)

I am always torn between my love for fall and my love for spring. I think that whenever it is either of those seasons, I claim that season to be my favorite. And so today, my favorite season in spring. The sense of renewal, a new found vigor for life, Sunday lawn games, BBQs, strawberry lemonade on the porch swing and blossoms. Oh the blossoms.

Dogwoods might be my favorite. This purple is rich, unlike any other blossom.

Nature's confetti on the sidewalk. A post earth day celebration.

Half way through my third year in D.C. and I'm still allergy free. Luckily I don't have to harbor any negative feelings towards these flowers.

Panamania

I recently returned from a quick jaunt to Panama. And like most of my Latin American jaunts it was too short, but we had a good mix of jungle, beach, and really good food (out of the nine of us who traveled together we had nine seafood lovers, unprecedented). We rented a ridiculously beautiful house right on the beach, the good life.

Also, as has become customary for me and my travels our house was broken into, luckily the guard next door scared away the intruders before they could take anything too valuable. I really think that if my passport had been stolen again I would never leave the United States again or I would have just stayed in Panama.

Here are a couple of videos that have been all over facebook, so you may have already seen them. I'm also including a couple of pictures in case your attention span can't handle a three minutes slide show.




¡Panama, Te amo! from baci on Vimeo.

Worry

I'm a worrier. When I tell this to friends, even those who know me well, the reaction I get 70% of the time is laughter. To me this is understandable, I come across as care free and laid back, and that is a large part of who I am. But I also worry, a lot. I think part of it is the oldest child in me and part of it is the obligation that I feel to take on the problems of the world. However, my history has shown that a lot of times my worrying is unjustified and an overreaction.

I remember when I was eight or nine I was babysitting and I called 911 because there was a car I didn't recognize in our driveway that had been sitting with the engine running and the lights on for about fifteen minutes. I hid with my siblings and kept my head poking up just enough to look out through the window. I stayed on the phone with the dispatcher who tried to keep me calm. I waited as the police pulled up behind the car and went to the window. When the door opened there was my mom, looking surprised, who was returning from dinner with a friend.

Then there was the time in sixth grade and the foothills behind our house were on fire. I panicked and started packing all the family albums and important documents (as well as my favorite new outfit I'd gotten that year for school that I hadn't been able to wear yet) in boxes and put them in our car. To me, we all needed to panic, but the atmosphere in my neighborhood felt more like we were having a block party and watching a fireworks show with everyone out, and families watching the fire from their roofs. It seemed to me that I was this little 6th grader jumping up and down and take everyone by their shoulder and say "can't you see how seriously this is?" Of course, another overreaction, the fireman took care of the fire and no one's house was ever seriously in danger.

Fast forward to 2009. The stock market goes below 7000 for the first time in over ten years, unemployment continues to rise, consumer confidence is plunging, and growth rates around the world are falling. On a personal level I have many close friends who are unemployed, and my family has suffered from the housing bubble and stock market drop. I am young, and even though I lost half of my 401K, I know that I have plenty of time to make up for it. It hurts me much more to think of my parents and grandparents, those who have much more invested and were much closer to retirement. I also know that there are millions living on fixed incomes and dependent on that money to pay their mortgage and for their prescription medicines who are in much worse shape than anyone I know personally.

I think that what worries me most is the fear that my children won't have the same quality of life that I have been blessed to have. My generation has lived in the most economically prosperous time in civilization, we don't know how to differentiate between needs and wants nor do we fully understand the sacrifices that we'll be forced to make. When you have an economy that depends on debt and beliefs in future appreciation in the stock market or housing values, eventually the bubble will burst.

However, despite all the bad news, I am hopeful. I have faith in God and His communication through a living prophet to guide and direct us. I have a family that loves and supports me to fall back on. My friends and I have half jokingly, half seriously, developed a "team apocalypse" and we regularly throw out hypothetical end of the world scenarios and discuss how we would respond. I purchased a emergency survival kit from costco and have been working on gardening and other "life skills" to help me survive if we return to an agrarian society. In six months, I could look back at this post and laugh that I was even worried that American was facing a permanent economic decline.

I honestly hope so, I do have a history of overreaction.