Phase 2 of the East...Wendi and DC

After teaching for a week, I went up to DC to see Wendi Maney and her family. Wendi and my sister Margaret were roommates in Ogden during their single days and have stayed good friends and consequently have become great family friends, so I was SO excited to visit her and play with her kids. They were so excited when I got there and had to tell me everything and I just soaked it all in. They are darling! Jordan, Spencer, and landon.

They had just gotten Butterscotch, their hampster, from Santa as an early Christmas via Scottie the Elf's report that they were being good. Scottie watches and reports to Santa on a daily basis.

Saturday we went to the national theater and saw a shortened version of The Nutcracker by a local company. Fun and Christmasy...the spirit is starting to catch on.

After the performance we went and saw the National Tree and all the state trees around. This is the Utah Tree, ornaments made by some local arts school in Utah. Fun national tradition.The White House. Next time I go, a tour is on the non-negotiable to do list.

Wendi, me and the kids. So fun to hang out with them. Landon is hilarious and no fear, not pictured here because he was running around somewhere.

National Tree with trains around it. So fun.

The new "King" memorial. The side of the momument has a quote about "out of the mountain shall come..." so he is slices out of the mountain in the background. Other quotes of his are etched in the semi-circle of stone in the back as well. Pretty cool and inspiring.

Saturday night Wendi and I had a ladies night out. We went to a free concert at the Kennedy center, a teeny-bopper rock and roll band, but they were actually pretty good and it was fun. Pretty funny juxtaposition of this rock and roll band playing in this grandiose classy building.

The inside of the Kennedy Center. Absolutely gorgeous! My first time and thoroughly impressed.

After the concert, we went over to National Harbor where...the PEEPS store is! All things PEEPS and more, Hot Tamales, Mike and Ike's...so fun! Totally thought of my sister Lisa who loves PEEPS.

Dinner at Elevate Burger...all organic and healthy...so no calories right? :) Very yummy!

Tree at National Harbor. The lights dance to music and change colors. Really beautiful place.

After church on Sunday at the 31-older singles ward (not quite my demographic yet), I walked around downtown DC and enjoyed the gorgeous weather. Here is the Capitol Bldg tree, imported from California. Washington DC and their trees...all these special trees from around the country. The ornaments were made from household items by kids in California including Shriners hospital to show how California 'shines', which was the theme of the tree this year. Kinda fun.

Sunday night I went to the temple to see Jenny Oaks Baker perform. SO great! And out walks Joyce Bennet with the rest of the group backing up Jenny. One song on the program was "What Child is This?" which is a duet with Jenny and an Indian Flutist. She found this guy through one of the museums specifically for this performance.

Her three daughters playing their version of "It's a Small World". INCREDIBLE. Ages 10, 8, 6...it was a medley with flavors of all the famous composers: Bach, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, etc. Absolutely phenomenal and SO fun, they are incredible talented. The cellist (youngest) was pulling faces and being funny during the performance. So funny.

So great to see Joyce. She was fabulous.

Me and Bonn in DC! With the hint of the Capitol building in the back.

After dinner at Casa Nonnas (it's own separate post because it was so incredible), we went to this whiskey bar...first bar experience, whiskey 101 lesson included. I think I thought it would be more fun. All you do is sit around and talk about not so cool things and drink. Clubbing might be more of my scene, at least there is dancing there. ;)

Temple session with Bonnie. Gorgeous temple, inside is even better!

Bonnie wanted a diner meal on this trip, so we stopped at the first one we passed and had and amzing corn beef sandwich. Holy cow, it was yummy!

After lunch, the Holocaust museum. Wow! Special propaganda display with a tour guide and the rest of the museum, awesome. I got more of the full story and context of this event and filled in some gaps in my own perception of what happened. The sculpture of the crematory is still vivid in my mind, wow. Really cool. Thought of Curt and Riss multiple times. And Curt called me while I was in there. Totally on the same wavelength. I love it when that happens.

Washington Monument. my stable landmark while navigating DC.

Bonnie met up her friend David and I went to Georgetown for the evening. Just walked along the shops and enjoyed the town.

Found this fantastic hat at one of the boutiques. GREAT piece, but couldn't justify $150...shoot.

National Gallery of Art. Inside Art Gallery. Great works and fun to peruse...haven't been to an art gallery for a while.

A high school choir was performing in the rotunda, got me in the Christmas spirit, so fun to gather and sing along with them on some of the songs.

Pennsylvania Avenue. Where the Star Spangled Banner was first sung in public. Put my hand over my patriotic heart and smiled.

Met up with Sherwitt, Bonnie's friend from High School in Italy, and her friend Michelle. Fantastic girls, fun conversation!

Hello Lexington!

I just got back from a trip to the east coast...Virginia, DC, New York, and Ohio. First stop: Lexington, VA to teach ballet for two weeks for my friend Chanel who was doing an internship in Europe working with some dancers and artists in Germany.
She called me this summer and asked, so I worked it out with my day job and before I knew it, I was on a plane to Dulles airport to meet Nancy Saylor, Lexington, and the students at Halestone Dance Studio.
I taught most of the ballet classes, ages ranged from 3rd grade to 18 and it was fantastic! The students, working with Nancy Saylor, and just being there was an experience I will always remember.
Picture above is the "dancer house" where Chanel lives and where I stayed. A woman in town donated this for Nancy's use for visiting artists, dancers, etc.

Brix is the tapas restaurant Nancy took me to when we arrived in town. We walk in and Nancy knows the chef and waitress...everybody knows everyone, gotta love the small town. :)

My luggage didn't arrive with me in Dulles because I had a short transfer. And to spare some hassle, I checked my carry-on, so I arrived with nothing but my ballet music and laptop. Nop problem, this is why we dancers take classes in improvisation, for situations like this.

The next day was Sunday, not prepared for fast sunday, so I stopped at McDonalds on my way to church in my jeans. Good thing it's not about what we wear...:)The picture above is the Halestone "Loft" where I taught all my classes. The studio is right through those double green doors and up the stairs.
Picture below is my feet from my ballet shoes after teaching for a few hours, wow, I actually miss my feet looking like this.

Nancy Saylor, director and owner of Halestone Dance, and female extraordinaire! This woman oozes grace, talent, and wonderfulness. So fun to work with her, observe her teaching, and see what she is creating with dance in the Lexington community.

The studios.

Nancy teaching the Ballet 1 class about alignment with a model of a spine. These girls are in 3rd grade and totally understand alignment and keeping their spine healthy-something I didn't learn til later in my dancing career. Nancy is a master teacher, it was phenomenal to observe her.

The main drag in town. One way streets and "No (right) turn on Red" signs everywhere. Charming town.

The Halestone "cottage" where Halestone Dance was started, now houses yoga and other dance conditioning classes.

The Loft is on Nelson and the Cottage is on Randolph. So this was my home base for two weeks.

Treated myself to the fine dining in town at the Red Hen. Butternut squash soup and the fish entree with gnocchi and radishes. Amazing and such a fun place.

On one of my last days in Lexington I got a reflexology session at the local reflexologist. Fantastic. The session was a glorified deep tissue massage on the feet, but it also came with a toe reading and a little bit of energy work. So cool. Never done reflexology before.

On fridays Nancy is involved with the "Moving Arts Initiative", which is a program she created to bring dance in to the public school. She works with the 6th graders at Lylburn Downing Middle School for 3 hours on Fridays doing movement and dance that is tied in with their language arts curriculum. Nancy teaches dance theory, puts together 20 minute productions, and involves them in journaling about the experience. It is incredible to watch her do this. This is all stuff we talk about in my classes, but seeing it is inspiring. Nancy donates her time and energy in to this for the sake of giving these kids the experience and building the reputation for dance in schools.

Imaginary tug o' war game, learning how to give the visual to the audience without an actual rope and work as a team. They also did DNA spiraling, lifting, dancing, and bunch of other creative stuff.

One of the valuable things for me on this trip was watching my growth as a teacher, with the small classes, I was pushed to focus on the individual students more and this was so good for me. Instead of overlaying a generic ballet class, I zeroed in on the students, focused on a couple of key principles for the two weeks, and taught them as individuals, connecting with them more one on one. I found it more satisfying for me and the students, and not as exhausting.

Ballet-ing :) I loved it.

Okay, the day after Halloween, Bonnie and I took some dudes (Rich and Brett from work) to Ballet West's Dracula. Both of their first ballet experience and they did really well. :) The second act introduced the lead dancer and they put him in purple tights to stand out from the villagers who wore brown. The best line from the night...when the lead came on stage, Rich subtly comments, "Oh boy."And Brett just looked seriously concerned. Bonnie and I were in stitches trying to cover up our laughs during the performance.

Then at intermission when the guy gets the girl, Brett turns to us..."I think she chose him because of his pants. The other guys didn't stand a chance."

"But Brett, you looked so concerned when he came out."

"Well...did he know that he forgot his pants?"

Needless to say, the entertainment on and off the stage was phenomenal. Thanks for being such good sports about the Ballet guys! :)

p.s. the Ballet was GREAT...loved the costumes, the dancing, choreography, sets, loved it all. Of course...my first true love is Classical Ballet...I am kind of a sucker for it!
This is how much we loved the show! :)
And what Rich thought about it. :)
One of our spontaneous celebratory events at work this week was our "1st Year Anniversary of being in this building" party. We moved from American Fork to Lehi 1 year ago and we LOVE our new building...and we love to celebrate. So Heidi and I put a little something together, including an orange wedding cake...that had a little accident on the way from the bakery to the office. A little traffic and some brakeage...and shoot. the cake went into the seat.

We salvaged it, and it was yummy. No big deal. It added to the party. :)

Friday was my roomie Leah's birthday...26!! We decorated and greeted her with happy birthdays in the morning, then we went out on the town with a couple of her mission companions for the evening. Mama Chus for dinner...she got toquitos, her favorite.
And here is the groupie for dinner...mmm, it was yummy.
Then after dropping off her cute friend who was feeling sick...aka vomiting out the car door at every stop light from Provo to Orem. She got out of the car and we all agreed that this story will be great when we're all best friends. Ha ha.

Anyway, Coldstone for dessert...mmm. Bonnie and I shared Pumpkin Cheesecake ice cream with graham cracker crust and caramel. MMM.
And they loved their ice cream despite the eek faces...they weren't sure how they felt about the picture taking.
Saturday night I volunteered at the Ballet West GALA at The Grand America Hotel...LOVE that building. Oh my. I simply directed traffic and smiled at the guests. And then guided them to their tables in the ballroom. The event was AMAZING, and so fun!

And you can't see my earrings, but they were FANTASTIC...and my earlobes were down to my sides by the end of the night. But I looked great! :)

Catching up with High School friends and Momma

This week was good, caught up with some significant people and worked a lot. Tuesday night I went to the temple and there were about 6 people receiving their endowment for the first time, so the session was a little extra tender and made me think of my first time...

After the session I felt like I needed to go visit my parents and indeed I did. My dad cooked us up some midnight scrambled eggs with zucchini, then went to bed and mom and I stayed up til 1:30 am just chatting and catching up. I learned some things that I never knew about my mom. She told me the story of when she was in 1st grade and she and her sisters were singing on television at 3:30 pm and school got out at 3:20 pm. Her sister Annette came to pick her up from her class to hurry off to sing, but even though my mom's row was sitting with their arms folded and quiet, they were not being excused by the teacher. My mom was anxious and needed to go, but was not being excused and did not want to disobey. Well, it came down to the wire and she just had to go...she was singing on television...so she finally got up and left without the teacher's permission. The next day she was kept in from recess and punished for it...such an injustice.

Anyway, fun stories like that came out of the woodwork and we caught up on everyone and everything inbetween. Love my momma.

I was of course dead at work the next day and ate my way through the work day with chocolate...not friendly to the waistline.

Then Wednesday night I met up with my best friend from High School, Tishna Campbell. We met up at Magleby's and had a great dinner and caught up for 3 hours. It was SO good and SO fun. I was pleasantly surprised at how real our conversation was. It was so refreshing. We have been doing our own things for the past couple of years with just a facebook message or birthday wish here and there, so it was fantastic to get in and see how she is really doing and she is doing fantastic! Here we are after a night of yummy food and conversation. Love this girl!

Thursday night I stayed late at work supervising the installation of a wall graphic for a "Core Value" that we were launching at work on Friday. I went to the gym to unravel and read another chapter in "Leading Through Conflict". I love what I do at work so much that sometimes I just want to keep working, but taking a break is really good in those moments. This was one of those. Anyway, I felt really good about the Core Value launch on Friday, I was in charge of setting everything up and I was pleased with how it went. I am getting better at the details!

Friday night I met up with Wayne, my high school crush, for dinner before we met up with Tish and other friends for hot chocolate. It was great to catch up with Wayne, his life and his family and the latest from the past 2 years. Then we met up with Tish, Dave and Allison for hot chocolate at Denny's rather than frozen yogurt because it was freezing out side. Did winter come overnight...pretty sure it did.

Anyway, Wayne and I got the last 2 hot chocolates they had. So I came in cold and left cold. But the conversation and get together made up for it. It was fun to catch up with everyone, but on the whole I wish we were a bit more real with each other. We brushed off and joked about our single station in life and I am the only one graduated out of the group, so they laughed about their still being in school. But...who cares. I am interested in knowing what's going on in their life, but I couldn't get past the jokes. I am much better one on one, but a little disappointed that i couldn't steer the conversation to be more meaningful.

I crave deep conversation...have you met me?...but my family and roommate are always telling me to just chill and go with the flow. Sigh. I know it doesn't have to be deep and intimate every second, but come on, just a little bit? It's been forever. I obviously have to work harder at surface conversation...still not my forte, but I am working on it. :)

On the whole it was fantastic to see these people. Still the same great individuals. I think it was only yesterday that we were going on Marching Band tours and giving high fives in the halls.

I think Dave was attempting the Thunderbird hand motion...no idea. We had to remind him what to do in pictures.

Here it is...The Thunderbird in all it's glory. :)

Dave was sporting the crocheted beanie...ha ha. His style choices sometimes crack me up because he is so not stylishly stuffy, he's just Dave.

He was practicing his romantic moves the whole night...of course all of them were accompanied by this kind of face or roaring laughter. He kept the whole evening light.

Then Tish and I crashed at my place with The Proposal and laughed like old times. We of course analyzed the dinner and talked through our thoughts. So fun.

Saturday I didn't get up til 11:30...so nice. Then I stayed in bed most of the day preparing my sunday school lesson, journaling, planning, pondering, and just being creative. Ah, I love those moments. I had all the time in the world to do what I love most and it was absolutely juicy.

I finally got up and hit the gym and then ran some errands.

I found some dynamite shoes for Rosey's wedding. Magenta/purple peep toe booties! Slightly more purple than magenta, but I think they will work fabulously. All I have left is deciding on accessories...you know, earrings, necklace, hair pin...I must decide what to wear. :)

Today I taught Sunday school for the first time as part of my calling and it went well. I procrastinated a little long, so I didn't get into knowing the scriptures as much as I would have liked. It was on Paul's epistle to the Hebrews and I got kind of jumbled when I was reading it. Anyway, the gist was that Paul was moving the church members from practicing the Law of Moses...to...the new and higher law of Faith on Jesus Christ. Part of my lesson was outlining the story of our faith...since Jesus is the "author and finisher of our faith". How our faith goes from belief....to...testing, hoping, trusting...to...knowing. Anyway, I could have involved more discussion, but I was so focused on setting the stage. Always learning about how to teach better.

And now I am looking forward to relaxing for the rest of the Sunday and reading more in this fantastic Leading Through Conflict book....I am really loving it!

Catching Up...

Wow, it's been a while. I have just been so busy dating that my blogging has taken a back seat. ;) That's right. Dating. Who knew I would actually enjoy this and bump it up on the priority scale. :)

Anyway, a brief update on what's been going on...

Work: Still love my job at One on One. I feel that I am moving and growing to the next level, I have been zeroing in on my relationship with my boss, adding in a little more personal touch to the business talk so that it is enjoyable for both of us. I know, weird that I would struggle with bringing warmth and personality to a relationship, but I am hypersensitive to making efficient use of his time and our conversations...almost too much as I see, so I am coming back into better balance. I am currently planning our Christmas Party, preparing presentations and meeting agendas, and leading out on most of our giving back initiatives, we just finished a 7 day food drive and gathered 5086 lbs. of food, so great! Anyway, needless to say, I am learning a lot and growing tons which is my number one that is nonnegotiable in my work.

Love: My dating/social life has exploded and it's actually really fun. I have had a few girly get togethers with sisters in my ward and it has made the biggest difference in feeling that I am part of a ward family. My singles ward lacks a cohesion that I am so used to and it has been a big disappointment to be part of...and yet a blaring opportunity for me to create some, I know that's why I am in this ward and am working on stepping up to the plate in that regard.

I just got called to Sunday School Teaching (Hooray!) and released from VT supervisor, so I am excited to create some unity through that vein as well as continue my VT efforts, attend activities, and create some of my own to bring people together. I am a people person and Heavenly Father knows that. Shoot. It's time to step up. :)

Okay, so the juice on the dating scene. I have been working the online dating scene (eHarmony and Match.com) and thanks to my brilliant roommate Bonnie, who is a PRO at online dating, I have had a lot of success with meeting and going out with lots of different guys. It feels very much like kissing frogs at times, but on the whole, it has been a lot of fun. And I learn ALOT about who I am and who I am looking for. It's GREAT practice and it feels very much like a 'Dating Lab"...haven't found the ideal partner, but plenty that are willing to do a little experimenting ;)...to be continued...

Home Life: Still love my roommate Bonnie and we got another roommate, Leah, from Tennessee with no accent because as a vocal performance major, she worked with a diction coach to change it. She does still say "Y'all", so we can believe her that she is indeed from the South.

But life is good. Bonnie is the best roommate I could have ever asked for, one of the greatest blessings for me in my life right now. Not only has she shown me the ropes for online dating ;), but she is a great confidant and coach on professional performance, wardrobe, and other critical questions...:) Love this girl.

Church: I know I touched on my callings, but I just wanted to include an interesting experience. I finally found (well, her dad called our Bishop with her correct contact information) a sister that has been on my VT list since January. I stopped by and finally after a few months caught the current residents home with their dogs and they had no idea who I was looking for. It was like having a lost lamb and not knowing the first place to go look. It was frustrating and very cool at the same time to feel the stewardship and connection to this sister. I admit that I semi gave up until further notice. Then this past month I was handed my VT assignment and an updated phone and address was next to her name. Unbelievable joy and excitement rushed over me. I saw her that night and learned her story...and alls well that ends well. She is coming back to church after 3 years and expressed that "it's like Christmas!" Wow! Going to Sacrament Meeting is definitely not like Christmas for me every week...but talking with her freshened up my perspective for sure.

And that same day that I saw this sister coming back, I met with another sister who is leaving. No hard feelings, just pursuing another path with God right now. Super interesting to talk with her...and a great experience for me. Thank you Heavenly Father.

I am looking forward to Rosey's wedding at the end of this month to celebrate with everyone. Weddings are one of my favorite things in the world because it means time with the fam, and dancing the night away...what else is there? Honestly.

My Beard?

In the middle of a conversation...I don't even remember what we were talking about...Bonnie tells me...

"Meredith, don't play with your beard while you're talking to me." I was touching (okay maybe pulling at) the peach fuzz on my neck. (see picture for reference)

Bah HA HA!! Tears from laughing so hard. It was one of those moments.

My response through the bursts of laughter...

"I think that's the most disgusting thing you've ever said to me"

P.S. Bonnie eventually apologized after we both recovered. She originally came in to tell me great job on the fabulous Burger Supreme lunch today...she really is a nice roommate. I promise.