The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning...which is it?

I am completely frustrated with my biostatistics homework right now. Therefore, I blog. After this post I'll be all caught up on my summer adventures and ready for more adventures or ready to blog about nothing. So here we go... You know those dates in history when people predict that the world is going to end? Like when the Aztec, Incan, or Mayan calendars end? Or, just when some crazy guy says that the world is going to end? I remember that 9/9/99 was supposed to be the end. And then it was 12/31/99. And now it is 12/21/12 or something. Lots of those days have come and gone but so far, we're all still here. 08/14/2009 was supposed to be the end for me. Not the end of my life, but the end of my single life. I remember when I was at BYU that was the date that my roommate Cindy and I decided that it would be okay for me to give up the idea of ever getting married. 30 years old. Sooooooooooooo old. Surely we'd give up if we made it to that point alone. So we made little cards with our names on them and then the date of our 30th birthdays. Underneath that was the name of a handicapped kid we went to high school with. I know, that is horrible. It wasn't meant to be. It actually should have been a compliment to the kid because the card signified that if I wasn't married by 08/14/09 that it was okay to completely give up and just plan on marrying that certain handicapped kid in the next life. Hopefully he'd want to marry me too. I'm pretty sure that we either made these little "end of our world" cards really late at night, or right after finals week or maybe after one or the other of us had just gotten dumped and we weren't really being too rational. I hope so, because it sounds kind of crazy. I actually still have that little card. I came across it a few months ago when I was going through some old boxes of junk. And I thought, 'Oh, yeah, I can give up now,' which should have brought me peace and comfort but didn't. Because, what if I'm not ready to give up? What if I scheduled the end of my world for 08/14/2009 but now I want to move that date back a bit? I never would have thought I'd be an "older" single person. I mean, who would think that or plan for that? Nobody wants to spend life alone. You don't hear "I want to be a Spinster when I grow up," very often, if ever. I don't think that any of us go into life expecting to NOT have things turn out the way we want them to or they way that we think that they should be or have been taught that they should be. Recently I was talking with a little 12 year old that I know. She's at that age when kids are just like "chatter, chatter, chatter." She was telling me all about a book she was writing and how when she's older that she either wants to be a writer or a veterinarian. But that her dad said that she shouldn't be a veterinarian, but that she should marry a veterinarian because her dad doesn't want her to have to work. I didn't tell her this (because I'm not going to tell a kid that their dad doesn't know what he's talking about), but I thought to myself, 'Honey, your dad is wrong, dead wrong. There aren't any guarantees to life. You should get all the education that you can and then if you have to give up your career to raise your family, fantastic, but PREPARE FOR A CAREER. Not just a job, but a CAREER. Something you are good at and love doing and could see yourself doing for the rest of your life. Because, just because you want to get married and be a stay at home mom, doesn't mean you will. Or you might get married but then your husband might get sick or die or lose his job. Life doesn't come with a certificate promising you that things will be perfect and as expected.' Why didn't someone tell me that when I was twelve? I wish they would have. I would if I could. And that, folks, is why I'm pretty sure I'll never be called to be a Young Women's leader. (Yay, no girls' camp!) Because, although of course I would teach all those wonderful idealistic lessons in the manual, I would also have a lesson at the end called "Plan B: Planning for the unplanned," or something like that and tell the girls the truth about how life turns out for some of us...even when we try to do everything just right. But anyway, the end of my world came and went. Just like dates that crazies predict. They come and go, and life goes on. Besides, if all of our lives turned out "perfectly" then things would be pretty boring I think. We'd all just be a bunch of skinny, tan, piano playing, married ladies with perfect kids and perfect husbands and then who would want to read our blogs? There are enough of those out there anyway. B O R I N G. So, if you haven't already guessed it, this post is about my 30th birthday. And I just have to say, lest any of you judge me as crazy, I think that turning 30 as a barren spinster is a lot different, even harder perhaps, than just turning 30 as a "normal" person. It should be less traumatic anyway for "normal" people. So, don't judge me for hating being 30. So, I was kind of stressing about what to do for my birthday. My travel plans to Sweden fell through a few days before my birthday. I was in Idaho. My brothers and Kim were all going to be out of town on my birthday. My grandma was scheduled to be working at the temple that day. So, basically I was going to be spending my 30th ALONE. So, I figured that if I had to be alone on my birthday that I at least didn't want to be alone in my grandma's basement in Idaho. So, I decided that to celebrate growing old, I'd head over to the Redwood National Forrest and see some trees that are older than me, way older. I'd always wanted to see the Redwood Forrest and somehow when I was younger we could just never squeeze it in, between going to gopher museums, gun museums, old prisons, and old brothels, on our family vacations. The day before my birthday I got up and was getting things packed up to leave when my grandma decided to forgo her responsibilities for the coming week, and, on the spur of the moment, gathered her things and came with me. I think she thought that if somebody didn't come with me that I might "Thelma and Louise it" off a cliff or something.

But, just for the record, I wouldn't have. It was still fun to take a little spontaneous trip with my grandma...even if she did forget her toothbrush and about the 9 Chinese people that we're planning on staying at her house later that week. Oops. I guess I didn't give her enough time to plan/pack!

Later that week my mom wrote me an email titled "To Thelma and Louise," which said,

"Have you even heard of the show, Thelma and Louise? That is what I have been calling you and Gma. I have never seen the whole show. It was R. I saw part of it on TV once. It is two women going on a road trip in a convertible. I think they might have been running from the law or something. Back in the day it was sort of famous."

To which I replied...

"I'm pretty sure that Thelma and Louise commit suicide at the end of the movie, so hopefully we won't be too much like them. Thanks for the birthday wish. Have a good one. Becca"

And luckily we didn't drive off any cliffs even though the road from ID to the Redwoods was long and winding.

Anyway, here's a picture of some of the beautiful redwoods. I was amazed at how amazing they were. Those huge trees are just awe inspiring. I want to go back sometime with more time and better gear for hiking. The California coast near the Redwood Forrest. I actually really like northern California.

And I got to drive my car through a living tree...a life-long dream of mine for some weird reason.

My grandma, the navigator...

and the tree-hugger. I'd better not let anyone who's on the Republican Women's Committee with my grandma see this picture.

So after the the Redwoods we headed up the coast to Seattle to visit my aunt and uncle who are on a mission there. They are institute missionaries and we just happened to stop in during a school break at U-Dub, so they had a little time off and were able to take us on a little trip.

First we went to Orcas Island, which is part of the San Juans.

Here is the view from Orcas Island.

Here are me, my Aunt Jenny, and gma. I feel like such an Amazon around my grandma, so I was a bit slouchy. Here we are on Orcas Island, in front of the Moran State Park sign. I guess that Moran is close enough to moron that we thought it picture worthy. And speaking of morons, we kind of look like some. I think my grandma is doing the chicken dance or something, my aunt is looking out for cars, and I'm a big enough moron to just be standing in the middle of the road and not looking for cars.

Okay, that's better. At least we're all looking at the camera.

Still on Orcas. So beautiful and peaceful.

And then there was this little peninsula/island that Mike, Jenny, and I thought it would be a good idea to walk out to...just as the tide was coming up of course.

Someday I want a cute little house like this. Except instead of facing the ocean it will face a potato field or a feed lot.

My grandma thought that this sign was SO funny. And I thought it was SO funny that she thought it was SO funny. She couldn't stop giggling. (It was almost the same as after the "What in the H does X stand for?" incident, for those of you who know what I'm talking about.) After Orcas Island we headed to Victoria, B.C.

So, I did get to leave the country again this summer, even if it was just to Canada.

I loved Victoria. It is the kind of place I could call home.

We stayed overnight in Victoria and the next morning went to Butchart Gardens, which was super cool and gorgeous. We, thanks to my Uncle Mike, were the first ones there in the morning, so we even had the place to ourselves for the first 30 minutes or so before the busloads of Chinese people with bright matching hats started pouring in. (I don't know why the Chinese have come up in my last like 5 posts. Weird. I don't have anything against them, really. They are just everywhere.)

Here are part of the gardens. Someday when I'm rich I'm going to have a big fancy garden too.

Proof that I was there.

We spent the afternoon wandering around Victoria and watched a kind of dumb IMAX movie and then took the ferry back to Seattle that night. We had to take a BUNCH of ferries to get to the San Juan Islands, then up to Victoria, and then back to Seattle. I swear we took like 6 different ferries but I really can't remember.

But every time before you can drive your car up onto the ferry they sort of check your car to make sure that you aren't a terrorist, etc. They asked my uncle if he had any weapons in the car, and he said, "No, I don't. I'm just going to wait until we get on board and then I'll take one of the big axes off the wall and use that to raise havoc on the ferry."

Just kidding. He didn't really say that, but he wanted to. We all thought it was pretty funny that they had these man killing axes just hanging barely attached to the walls. So much for preventing terrorism.

We got back to Seattle and had a day just to hang out there. We toured the institute building and the U-Dub (University of Washington) campus. The Dub is for W, as in Washington. It took me awhile to get that, so I just thought I'd share that little bit of information with you all.

Then I went by myself on a little self guided tour via bus and foot of the Pike Place market, Chinatown, and even accidentally took a tour of the Pioneer Park of Seattle where all the homeless people live, which I believe is also really called Pioneer Park, just like Salt Lake's homeless hub. So, lesson learned here. If you don't want lots of homeless in your town, don't name a park Pioneer Park.

I love, love, loved Seattle. It was my first time there. But even before going there I always knew I loved Seattle and at one point in my life was even planning on moving there, without even seeing the place. And if I lived in Seattle I would be at Pike Place every weekend buying fresh flowers and fruits and veggies and just people watching.

So, if anyone knows of any good microbiology/public health jobs in Seattle, let me know and I'll probably still move there because I love Seattle. With or without the homeless people.

Here we are in front of the institute building.

We had such a great time in Seattle, Victoria, and the San Juans, so thanks to Jenny and Mike for letting us stay and driving us around everywhere and taking us to eat yummy Vietnamese food, etc. It was fun.

And thanks to my grandma for road-tripping with me. I had a good time.

And, 2300 miles on my car later, when I got home from my little week long 30th birthday bash adventure, I celebrated my birthday with my brothers and Kim by eating some yummy Baskin Robbins Pralines and Cream with chocolate cake birthday cake...a family tradition. Thanks Lee and Kim for buying the cake.

Lee did his best to get as much "lard frosting," as my family calls it, on the cake because my brothers love lard frosting. (Sorry dad to even mention lard frosting because I know that you love it too.) But apparently the girl at Baskin Robbins wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed because instead of lots of lard frosting we got lots of whipped cream and nasty, hard, red roses. How did she know that red roses were my favorite? Also, even though Lee told her his name about 10 times, she still had "Lee Beck" written on the slip when he picked up the cake. Oh well.

So, happy birthday to me. Really, the worst part was just turning 30. Being 30 isn't too bad.

So far.