Come What May and Love It: Part 2

Part 2: Rain and Mysterious Bottles of Goo

A couple of friends and I have made a goal to go on a hike every Saturday morning this summer. We were on a roll. We hiked Ensign Peak over Memorial Day weekend, and then we hiked the Mineral Fork trail the following weekend. Both hikes were awesome, and I have to admit I have become quite a fan. We were all set for another hike last weekend, but Mother Nature had different plans. It was cold, rainy, wet, and gross here all weekend. Boo!! When I woke up Saturday morning and looked out the window, the mountains were engulfed in a cloud, which usually means that it’s snowing up there. I’m not going to lie, I was pretty bummed. When life hands you rain and no hiking, go get a pedicure instead, right!?! That seemed like the logical choice to me. If I’m not going to be using my feet to traverse a large mountainside, I might as well get them all pretty-ified! I immediately started calling every nail salon in the neighborhood.

Some things in life are just too funny to not write about, and this is one of them. I don’t get pedicures too often, but I do love them! After calling a few places, I started to notice a trend. If the person who answered the phone spoke clear English, the pedicures were anywhere from $50-75 (Excuse me? They are feet! They will hopefully be jammed into tennis shoes next weekend and helping me hike my next mountain!). If the person on the other end of the line had a very clear Asian accent, the pedicures were $20-25. That is much more up my alley! Three chairs were booked for a 10:30am appointment for my girlfriends and me. Needless to say, I have never gotten a pedicure from someone who speaks English, and I probably never will! I have yet to be disappointed.

For everyone who has gotten a pedicure of the Asian variety before, this will be a familiar scene. You walk in, and a little Asian woman hops up from the couch where she was casually perusing an issue of People magazine, looks at you, says “pedicure?” in her thick accent, and quickly starts filling the tubs on three of the chairs. She puts in a mystery substance that turns the water blue, and tells you to pick your nail polish color. So you pick your color, sit down, and the little Asian woman tries to make a little bit of small talk with you. You understand about 3% of the words she is saying and ask her to repeat every single thing she says, and she doesn’t understand a word that you are saying in return. You both quickly find out that conversation will not be happening. Then all the workers there start talking in their own native language to each other, and you are positive they are talking about you and your mangy feet. Despite the lack of conversation, the massage chair is amazing and heavenly, and it feels so good to get all that dead skin off your feet. They really do a fabulous job! The little Asian (I say Asian because I’m not quite sure where they are from, Vietnam, Cambodia, somewhere in Southeast Asia. How do these people end up in Salt Lake…another mystery!) woman proceeds to put all sorts of different lotions, potions, sauces, and goo on your feet and toes all from unmarked bottles. These bottles always look the same, no matter what nail salon you go to. What are in these bottles? Where do they come from? Could these substances kill me or give me some sort of flesh-eating disease? No one knows! It is a mystery. Is there an Asian nail salon supply store somewhere that mass produces these shady unmarked bottles of who knows what? These are the questions that run through my mind. And by the time your pedicure has ended, the other mysterious substance that turned the water in your tub blue to begin with has now turned green. Does green mean your feet are officially disgusting? No one knows! When all is said and done, I could care less what is in those mysterious bottles of goo because my feet look fabulous!! No flesh-eating disease to date!

So even though my toes have been purple for 3+ months now, I have my little Asian woman re-apply purple toe nail polish because I am convinced that if I change the color of my toe nails during the NBA Playoffs, the Lakers will lose. We may just find out tonight that my toe nail color has nothing to do with Laker victories, but just in case they do, my toes are purple! GO LAKERS! And thank you to all the little Asian women who so faithfully perform affordable and amazing pedicures on my mangy feet! If anyone out there has ever gotten a high-end pedicure before, please report if their bottles are clearly marked and identifiable. Thanks! And if you have a hike planned and it's raining, go get an affordable pedicure from a sweet Asian woman instead!

Y Not?

I accomplished something great last weekend, so I had to share. About 9 or 10 Years ago (honestlY can't remember, I've tried to block it out), a group of friends and I set out to hike the Y. I can't remember one positive hiking experience in mY life, but You have to hike the Y at least once, right?! I knew it was onlY one mile each waY, so it couldn't be that bad! Well, "bad" was an understatement. We hadn't even made it to the first switchback and I felt like those moments were going to be mY last moments on earth. MY head was throbbing, heart pounding, legs burning, and I was quicklY reminded whY I hated hiking. While all mY friends, seeminglY unphased bY the difficultY of this hike, scurried up the mountainside, I struggled (I'm prettY sure AmY and probablY RoxY and JooLin staYed back to go slow with me. Such a good sister and friends!). I hate struggling! I hate struggling at anYthing! And I hate not being good at things! Call it a blessing or a curse, but prettY much everything (not piano plaYing) comes easilY to me. I have a knack for just catching on to things quicklY. So it made me furious that I couldn't do this, or that I couldn't do it well.
Looking back now, I was largelY furious with mYself and so embarrassed! How had I let mYself get so out of shape that this was so difficult for me? Needless to saY, this experience was quicklY chalked up to one of the top 5 worst experiences of mY life. And since that daY if there was ever a ward activitY or group of friends going on a hike, You could count me out!
So I have been working hard at mY out of shapeness latelY. I dare saY that I'm probablY in the best shape physicallY that I've been in since I plaYed volleYball in high school (14 Years ago). I had to go back to the Y and conquer that demon and test mYself!
I enlisted the help of RYan earlY last saturdaY morning. The weather was definitelY not the greatest. We almost didn't even go because it was raining and You could tell from the valleY that the Y was right at the snow level. I didn't want to let this opportunitY pass, so off we went with the plan to stop if the weather got too crazY or we felt unsafe.
I was a little apprehensive. Was I reallY in good enough shape to maYbe enjoY this? Was I going to add another hiking experience to my top worst life moments ever? Again, we faced that first climb up to the first switchback. A pair of 60+ Year-old woman came jogging down. What??? If they can get to the top and run down, then surelY I can walk up and back. Those first couple of switchbacks are tough. ActuallY, the whole hike is tough, but we made it! And we even went up to the top of the Y this time (that adds a couple more swithbacks)...in the snow! BY the time we reached the snow level (Yes, it was May 22), we were so far that we couldn't turn back!
Here are some pics, and I have to apologize for the qualitY. RYan brought their camera onlY to find out when we reached the top that the batterY wasn't in the camera, so these are with mY cell phone.
Almost there RY!
The beautiful view of Provo. Oh how I love that place! It was so green! Well, green for Utah!

At the top and lovin' it!

We couldn't pass up this snow-covered sign without giving it a little personal touch! Woop woop!

So that was it! And I actuallY quite enjoYed mYself! It wasn't easY, but I reallY enjoYed the challenge. I would do it everY saturdaY if I lived a little closer! There are definitelY more hikes to the Y in my future and more hikes in general! HurraY for a healthier bodY! And now I can honestlY saY, I love the Y! Now when anY hiking opportunitY (or anyYthing physicallY demanding) comes mY waY, I can saY, Y not?! I can do anYthing I want to!

Thank RY for joining me on this small (but reallY huge) personal journeY!

Here's a little video of us at the top. RYan didn't know I was filming for the first part, so he's talking about something random in the background.

"And Becometh as a Child..."

Pardon me while I wax a little spiritual here. On Monday, I had a conference call at work, and one of my coworkers on the call had just returned home from her grandfather's funeral the previous weekend. She was talking about how it went, and then she somehow got on the topic of all the cute things her little nieces and nephews had said at the viewing/funeral. The one quote I remember was one of her little nephews said at the viewing, "Why did they put grandpa in a treasure chest?" One of my other coworkers (both of these coworkers are not LDS) said something along the lines of how we could all really learn something from little kids and their perspective when it comes to difficult situations. My mind immediately went to Mosiah 3:19:

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all thing which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upone him, even as a child doth submit to his father."

Little did my coworker know that she was pretty much quoting the Book of Mormon! Then my mind wandered to the only kid I interact with on a regular basis at the moment...my little Jack Jack. He taught my a big lesson this last Saturday. We were at Sugar House park for the annual Crohn's and Colitis Walk. We were waiting around for the walk to begin and listening to the DJ blab on and on about whatever he was blabbing about. Then he announced he wanted all the kids to get in a circle and get ready to do the Hokey Pokey. The minute the music started, Jack took off running toward action while saying, "Dance, dance, dance!". This kid LOVES to dance, and he is quite good at it, I might add. He ran right to the middle of the huge circle of bigger kids and started to get his groove on. Jack's groove consists of three moves. He either tilts his head to one side and spins in a circle, does squats, or he lifts his knees up and down as fast as he can while waving his arms. He did a pretty good mix of all of these in the middle of the Hokey Pokey circle. All of us adults were absolutely dying! He didn't care that he was the smallest kid out there, he didn't care that he wasn't doing the same dance that everyone else was, he didn't care that he didn't know a single soul in his immediate vicinity (though he did stop a few times to look over at us to make sure we were still there), and he didn't care that his shirt was all dirty from the cookie he had eaten a little earlier. He just danced because that is what he loves to do.
I hope he never grows out of that shameless, passionate, independent little spirit of his and always does the things that make him truly happy.
The lesson I learned:
* Do what you love to do and what makes you happy.
* It doesn't matter who is watching or if no one is watching at all.
* It doesn't matter if you are doing it differently than everyone else, sometimes being unique makes it even better.
* You can be standing in the middle of chaos and still be having the time of your life.
That is all so easy to do when you are not quite 2, and so much harder to do when you are grown up! But imagine how much happier we would be! Oh the lessons we can learn from children! I can't wait for all the things I will learn from Jack and his future siblings and cousins!