Relay for Life

After our burger extravaganza we stopped in at the Relay For Life - cancer walk I signed up for before I knew my dad was coming.  After stopping in at the wrong building we got there just in time for the Survivor lap. 

A bunch of people - including Dean Hutter (Dean of my school) were there. In this pic you can see Dean Hutter and his wife leading our school in a walk.

Dad was a good sport about relaying it with me... and here's an action shot of that. 

He told me he now understands what 

Matt says about me being camera happy.  

I maintain that Matt loves pictures... so thats a compliment.

This is Lindsey Jackson and me... she wasnt part of our BU team despite being in my class... But I did tell her to get a BU t-shirt... I mean come on... free t-shirt?... who wouldnt want that... two free shirts? thats impossible to pass up.

This is Lauren Greco, Amit Patel, Dee and me (all DMD 2012) walking.

Yay Dentists against Cancer!

I played a little frisbee and realised how long its been since I've been athletic and had to catch anything.  I really should work on that. The event was going on all night but we just stopped in for a couple of hours. 

Nuff Said.

I'm way more fun than media training...

Mr. Bartley's Gourmet Burgers - Best in Boston

Per David Alan's request we went and took pictures so he could see just how good it really is... and Dave... its really good.

We got there and it was a crazy long line.  The real Mr. and Mrs. Bartley were working and they handed out menus outside and took your order while you waited.

They had lots of different burgers to choose from.

The wait provided a nice opportunity for some daddy-daughter photos

Dad kept himself entertained by entering the location into his GPS... so he can find it again should he need to. 

The milkshakes are said to be the best in Boston... so of course we tried them... mmm... Milkshakes

The place was crazy packed.  As soon as a table opened up, people were in it... and they fit in as many people as the space would allow.  We even shared our table with some strangers.  

Its a really cool place.  With lots of random stuff on the walls.  

This is the burger I got... The "Tom Brady"

This is the "American Idol"

This pic is a little fuzzy but I like it.

Mmm... burger heaven.

It was a tight squeeze to get my mouth around this burger.. but well worth the effort.

Mr. Bartley's... definitely on the high five list.

No Name... Where you get the real deal.

Its Saturday night.  We've just Relayed for Life.  We're hungry.  And our feetsies are a tidge bit tired.  We know we want seafood.  Cause heck... I live next to an ocean.  But we have NO CLUE where to go.  So we turn to our dear friend Betty.  My Dad's GPS.  But while Betty is quite handy... sometimes her directions just plain ol' suck.  So while we were trying to figure out the cryptic clues Betty sometimes gives, we stumble across a little gem.  Called No Name Restaurant.  Seriously.  Its on the fish pier... so we decide to give it a try.

Can anyone say LOBSTER?

And how darling are those bibs?

For real tho... they came quite in handy.  My Dad totally had a piece fly at him, hit the chest... we thought it had gone to the floor for sure, but these bibs came with a little bottom catcher.  That P.S. works  

My dad told me about when he graduated from Dental school and his mom made tons of seafood dishes for him and his dental school friends... which included lobster.  I think the having eaten it before gave him the upper hand in being able to get to the meat. 

I managed to get a little out.

Every now and then though I'd take a look at what I was eating and I'd get grossed out a little.

I mean it is kinda like if you were eating some steak with the cow head staring up at you... Except it has super creepy legs.

Dont worry... I pulled through.  And this is what was left of our lobsters.

My dad really cleaned his plate.  I love this guy!

But no dinner is really complete without dessert... so after we went and found an ice cream shop (cause all weekend everytime we'd walk by one my dad would oo and aww.. ok I was too).

It was a great end to a good daddy-daughter day.

FHE

This is Millhoods at its finest.

And here's a little something something from my time in Edmonton

My Shadowy Corners

Lately my music mood has been very chill.  And lots of love songs.  Weird.  Here's a few favorites.

My Date with the Easter Bunny

So on Friday, I had plans to hang out with Portia.  So when school was finished in the afternoon I headed over to her house.  To get to her house I have to take a bus to Harvard Square and then transfer to another bus.  Well, the second bus is the one I was a tidge sketchy on.  In fact it was more than a tidge.  I didnt even know the bus number or the stop I should get off at.  But I felt like the bus number was 76.  And i looked at the different schedules.  Well 76 wasnt one of the options.  I didnt wanna hassle Portia with having to come get me, so I just kinda made an educated guess that the bus I wanted to 78.  

I couldnt get a hold of Portia on the phone, so I was hoping that she still knew our plans to hang out were on.  So I wait for the 78.  I feel like it is the most unreliable, randomly scheduled bus.  Coming at odd intervals.  The last time I had tried to take the bus to Portia's it never showed up and I ended up cabbing it.  So I was a little worried that the 78 wouldnt show up at all.  But it did.  I got on and thought about asking the bus driver what stop I should get off of.  But I didnt know if the landmark of the temple would mean anything to him or help me in my quest to find Portia's house.  So instead I sat back and just hoped I was on the right bus and would be able to see the Temple so I knew where to get off (cause Portia lives like a block from the Temple).  But as i was people watching on the bus (a favorite past time of mine) - I noticed to young gentlemen in suits.  With name tags.  The missionaries!  At that point I was positive I had the right bus.  And I could double check I was getting off at the right stop if they got off too.  It was a fool proof plan!

So I got off the bus and walked the block to Portia's.  I got to her house to find it very dark inside.  I knocked on the door.  No answer.  I looked in a circle wondering what to do now.  I had brought a little bit of homework and thought about sitting on her door step and waiting.  But before I busted out Anatomy I wanted to make absolutely sure no one was home and it was my last option.  So I knocked again.  No answer.  I took out my phone and called.  No answer.  In my head I'm going "Crap.  This is why I dont do the whole just show up at someone's house.  I always call and check that its ok before I leave."  So I kinda turned in another circle.  Then I meandered towards the van in her driveway.  Then I started to kinda walk in circles as I head back towards the door.  Then the door opened and there was Portia!  I was more than relieved to see her.  She was just putting her kids to bed - at like 6pm!  Apparently the excitement of Easter + a few late nights that week had them completely ready to turn in for the night.  

Portia is an angel.  She just makes me feel so happy.  She pulled together some food for me.  She had this butternut squash pear soup.  It was totally delish.  And we chatted for a bit.  I just love spending time with Portia.  Bro. Thompson came home from work and we also got a visit from some UW ward members coming back from the Temple.  We had floats and talked some more.  Bro. Thompson drove Stephanie Brinton and her fiance Lindsay back to Harvard.  Portia invited me to sleep over and get to be part of their Easter celebration tomorrow so I stayed.  We watched a bit of a movie and Portia put together her kids Easter baskets.  I was super tired and fell asleep right after midnight.  

The kids were awake bright and early.  Its not often that I'm awake before 8am.  I just am not much of a morning person.  So it was crazy for me to not only be awake so early, but we also had chocolate chip pancakes and were more than done before 8:30 in the morning.  Oh and they had the most AMAZING syrup for their pancakes.  Apparently its a german version of syrup.  I need to get the recipe and share it because it was super super good.  Mary, Wesley and Henry found little Easter surprises around the house.  It was adorable to watch how excited they were.  The kids got dressed and when Bro. Thompson got home from the dentist, we all went to a Easter egg hunt the community was putting on.  We were late so we missed the hunt but they had little donut holes.  It was freezing out so we didnt stay long.  Wes was hilarious.  He had Easter treats in both hands plus a couple toys plus a donut holes, as we went to get him a balloon.  The lady took one look at him and burst off laughing telling me I needed to take a picture of how cute he was.  He was very cute.  

After that we went to Costco.  The Bishopric is putting on the dinner tomorrow so I helped them shop for that.  I still was super tired by the time we got back.  We had lunch and another visitor from a UW ward member who was coming home from the temple.  Portia and Mary drove me and Jonathan Suho home.  I got home and just fell right asleep.  It was a busy couple of days I've had.

Tomorrow, Derrick Call and Amit are putting on an Easter brunch.  With waffles.  I'm very excited.  Tomorrow should be a good day.  Oh and last time I was at church, I was trying to visit teach, but my girl went into the choir.  So I went to choir so I could visit teach her.  Long story short, I somehow got volunteered to sing in a quartet.  Yah... I was just there for the visiting teaching.  So I'm doing that tomorrow.  We'll see how that turns out.  Tomorrow should be fun though.     

Happy Happy Joy Joy

Thursday started out like any other day.

But as the day evolved, I just felt joy.

It was kinda surreal.

I've had those days where nothing is wrong and you just feel sad.

But a day where nothing is really amazing and you just feel great?

I had classes in the morning.  And it was just funny.  I've kinda been developing a good group of friends at school.  They are great.  And we were talking about Diabetes again and I kinda was zoning out... so me, Derrick and Lindsay did a bunch of facebook quizzes.  It was the most random thing but we were giggling like little school children... It was fun to just sit in class and goof off.  

Hilarious in fact.

And then in the afternoon I got to spend some "quality time" with my Boyfriend.

He's really great.  He never complains.  And he looks great in red.

Actually a funny story revolving around him.

So one day I was skyping with one of my Besties Ben.  And as we were talking I was like "Hey, do you wanna meet my boyfriend?"  And he got this really shocked look on his face (his expression being one of - what? I havent heard you were dating anyone) and he goes "He's there right now?  Uh I guess."  And so I'm like... just one sec and I go to my backpack and pull my boyfriend out and bring him to the computer.  When I showed Ben him he just laughed and then continued to proclaim what a cute couple we are. 

I do have to admit.  We are dang cute.

I did my first anterior composite filling.  It was weird.  But I just felt cheery as I left the lab.

As I was walking home I ran into Dee and Amit from my class.  Dee said she was having a post-SLC BBQ and invited me.  So I dropped my stuff off and walked with them to her house.

There was quite the turn out of people.  Above is Derrick Call, me and Nick Bacos. 

And this is Lucinda Barry and me.
I feel like I'm starting to really develop a little crew of friends.  And I like that alot.  Lucinda and I may even start a little running club.  I have no doubts that she'll kick my trash at running (especially since I've been a super slacker lately), but it makes me excited to feel like I'm making good friends at school.

This is Dee, Lindsay and Amit.

When we walked over to Dee's house it was beautiful outside.  Just a nice, warm sunny day.

We had burgers and this AMAZING chip dip thats made outta beans, peppers and like seasoning salt.  You'd be amazed at how good it tasted.

And the burgers... YUM!  I'm not usually a huge burger fan but these ones were great!

It was just so fun to hang out with people.  We laughed and told stories and ate.

And even checked our APEX placements.  Which are up.  Woot!

Robert and Amit were in charge of the burgers and they really did a stand out job of it.  I'm a terrible griller so anyone who manages to not have little charcoal burgers is pretty impressive to me. 

The deck did get a little nippy.

But it really was just a great time.

Above is me, Lucinda, Amit, Robert and Chris Baker.

I just really like my classmates.  They're hilarious and really great people.

I left the BBQ just feeling really great and pleased with the world.

The World Is Not Showing Me Much Love

So the last few days have been a little rough.  Tonite I decided that I couldnt go another day with no food in my house.  I've been living off of Easter Candy I bought on Friday.  It ran out Monday morning.  So after a pretty thorough search of every jacket, drawer and purse in my room, I found my bus pass.  So I pulled myself together and wanted to get it over with quickly.  But just as I was coming to the corner of my street, I saw my bus start to turn to go to the stop.  And not wanting to miss it I took off running.  So I'm running, chasing after the bus, just hoping that there are people at the stop so the bus has to pause.  But thankfully there are people and I make the bus.  I get on the bus and sit down.  As I'm sitting there, and I think "I should move my keys from my hoodie pocket to my purse."  And I reach down to move my keys, they're not there.  So I check the pockets of my purse, thinking I had already moved my keys.  But they're not there.  And slowly it dawns on me that while I was running to catch the bus my keys must of fell out of my pocket.  So I do the quickest grocery shop of my life... getting cereal and milk.  And half a pumpkin pie.  Just in case I dont find my keys.  So I wait for the bus to come.  And I swear it takes longer than usually.  I saw three buses in a row that were heading in the opposite direction.  What the heck?  But I re-track my steps.  Keys no where in sight.  I hate losing things.  Especially keys.  

But there is a bright spot in my night.  I call my parents to tell them, like I do.  And my dad tells me that he didnt get voted back into the Jedi counsel.  But this sad news means that he has a bit of time freed up.  So he booked a flight to come see me.  He said he is coming to give me a little extra boost of support to get me through the last bit of school.  He says he's not there to distract.  Just to take me out on the town a bit, and spend time with me while I study and go to school.  Anyways.  I'm happy about that.  Good thing I dont need the world.

I have a brother... he serves the Lord.

Sometimes I just miss Matt so much!

But he sent me photos today.  YAY!  

I included a few excerpts from letters from him.

Here's William, Jesse and Matt.  Will is in California and went to the MTC just after Mattie.  And Jesse got home from his mission in Texas a couple months before Matt left.

ELDER LOWRY

Hemosillo Sonora Mexico

This is Matt and his super short comp.  

I think the comp is Elder Rojas.

At least I know its definitely gotta be the comp he was talking about at Christmas.  

"One of the elders in my district in the mtc, is in my zone and he says that I have grown taller since the mtc.  I dont know if its true but maybe"

What do you think?  Is he taller?

This is an excerpt from one of Matt's letters explaining the next photo.

"Anyways this week I eat a habernero.  The hottest chile in the world and boy is it spicy.  My whole face turned red and I started to cry and my ears started to hurt.  It was quite the ordeal"

Matt is one cute missionary.

I'm assuming that this is him and Elder Gracia in front of the Hermosillo Sonora Temple.

I'll leave you with something I hope Matt wont mind me sharing.  

I love my brother.  So much.

"I have faith that I can teach the people, that I can testify of jesus christ.  I know that the book of mormon is true and that joseph smith is a prophet of god.  I know that Jesus Christ suffered for us.  And that we cannot comprehend his sufferings.  He has felt everything that we have felt in our lives and he knows us perfectly.  I know that God has a plan for us and that we can become like him and live with him and that we can live as a family forever.  This is my testimony and I say these things to you in the name of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Amen"

To write this wonderful servant of the Lord:

ave garcia conde #301

colonia pitic

hemosillo sonora mexico

c.p. 83150

..:42 Days:..

The thing with being away from home, is that its made me realize how completely in love with Alberta I am.  I dont have a little flirtation going on with the beautiful plains and mountains. Its the intoxicating, to the point of obsession, kind of love.  And the closer I get to coming home the more I feel like I can't quite breath here in Massachusetts.  I have my plane ticket.  I know the moment I will step on Albertan ground.  And I relish the thought.  Its not that I'm unhappy here.  Cause really I've been feeling a certain contentment here this semester.  Its just that with Alberta, its no passing fancy.  The thought of being there, brings me this ridiculous sense of joy and longing.  And being separated breaks my heart a little.

But I've been figuring out the different aspects of my life lately.  I saw lots of different places for housing.  But after a few talks with my dad, I knew what I needed to do.  

I'd gone to see a place that is a couple houses down the street from me.  A girl in my ward (who until last week I had never met), lives there and contacted me saying she saw I was looking for a place.  Well I went to have a look at the place.  Its a great location.  The apartment is nice and doesnt feel cramped.  Except for the room I would be in.  Its a bit like a closet.  And I was worried about Sheila (the mormon girl) and her roommate Lauren.  Cause its not like I know them, and this year with Leyla, I've been spoiled.  I know that.  Leyla really has been amazing.  She's probably the sweetest girl I've ever met.  And the perfect roommate.  We never fight, and she's so considerate of me.  And the thought of not having that kind of peace next year, well it fills me with an intense dread, paralyzing me from being able to make any rational decisions. But thats ridiculous because no matter what, I'm going to have to live with someone.  But jumping in on someone else's apartment, not picking the people I'll be sharing my space with, it makes me feel out of control.  

But I talked to my dad.  And he proceeded to tell me a story that goes something like this.

"You may or may not remember this, but the house I grew up in, had two rooms.  And one of those rooms was the adults room.  So nine of us siblings shared one room.  We slept wherever we could find a spot.  On a couch, if we were lucky or on the floor.  The attic room wasn't a room until in highschool I decided to fix it up, so I could have a space.  So this room you're worrying about, it's really not that bad."

Hearing that, and knowing how privileged I am, I immediately felt such shame for complaining at all.  I have so many opportunities and blessings.  Cause really, my situation isn't that bad.  I'll have my own room.  A bed.  A space of my own.  And the rest of the apartment is perfect.  And picking this place would mean that I wouldnt have to find roommates on my own.  They'd already be there.  And the rent would be almost 300 dollars cheaper than where I live right now.  So I buried my selfishness and told Lauren and Sheila I would take the spot in their apartment.  

Housing.  Check.

And really, it is a relief to have it figured out.  Not having to make appointments with realtors and spend all my time looking at listings.  And not worrying about being able to find people. Because finding an apartment is time consuming.

Now all I need to do is make sure I pass all my exams.  And I'm home free.  

So this summer, I'm doing APEX, aka Applied Professional Experience.  Its a school course, that luckily gave me the option of doing it in Alberta.  And boy oh boy did I jump on that.  Even though I'll still have assignments (the adorable journal entry type), I feel like its going to be relaxing.  I talked to a friend who is in dental school in Saskatchewan.  And he told me he gets three months off for summer.  I get 2 weeks.  But I feel like being in Alberta, living with my best friend Cathy again, being able to see my family whenever I want... Thats enough like a vacation for me.  And the APEX really wont be bad.  Basically what it is, is that I am assigned to a dentist that has agreed to mentor me.  I work in his office (for free of course), and he shows me different aspects of the office.  I get to assist, work at the front, learn how to manage the business side.  And its not like I've ever really not worked during a summer.  So i think it'll be like every other summer I've ever had.  Except my job applies to my life, unlike working at a chinese food place.  And I'll try to soak up as much Alberta as possible before I go back to school.