#52 Stories-Story #43

Do you have one special vacation spot that you return to again and again? How did you find it? What draws you back? What do you love about it?

My favorite place to visit--at least one that I have visited more than once--is Disneyland in Anaheim, CA.  Genius Golfer and I visited it first together on newlyweds on our honeymoon. It is a place that holds my idea of fun, cleanliness, family, and magic.

For our twentieth anniversary, GG surprised me with a pair of annual passes.  We repeated that year long celebration for our 25th.  This past year we were able to visit 5 or 6 times in the celebration of our anniversary annual passes.

When The Boy asked me not long ago what it was that made me like visiting Disneyland so much as an adult. Trying to help him understand, I told him it's a place where optimism rules the land; where streets, attractions, and outward appearances are clean & tidy; and where "family" is catered to and celebrated no matter what it looks like. It's an imagined alternate reality that purposely reflects a simpler time. I still feel all those things when I visit. All of those reasons make me feel the "magic" of this place each time I get to visit. And, really, can you ever really outgrow that kind of magic??!! I hope I never do.

 

Oh, SNAPple!

Since I started working in April, I have enjoyed a surprising beverage with my brown-bagged lunch: A bottle of Snapple fruit juice from Costco.  Last weekend I went to the big box giant and discovered to my dismay that they no longer are carrying my Snapple drinks.  There is still the diet tea version, but not the regular kind.

My regular kind came in three flavors--in a 24 pack.  I had fruit punch, kiwi strawberry and mango madness. Each of these are delicious and tasty.  And the 20 ounce bottles were a perfect fit once I emptied the water in my insulated mug each day.

What could make Costco pull this item from their shelves? I mean, besides me being the only one who apparently was buying them?

Sad.  And a little thirsty.  A Capri Sun pouch just doesn't do it like these did.  And considering that I have been off the Diet Coke for a week short of 50 months now, I thought I found something I could enjoy as much as that.

True, I'm a water drinker now, but a bottle of flavor sure tasted good while it lasted.

A Few of My Favorite Things

Well, 2010 is headed out.  Some days it seems like it would never end; others like I couldn't catch my breath.  So as part of the "ring out the old" idea, I thought I'd share a few things that I really liked this year:

♥ Girls' Camp--Stake Girls Camp is the best, I must say.  I loved hanging out with 150+ girls from our stake and hiking, canoeing, singing, teaching, playing, sleeping, cooking, and eating all together for a week.  The best part was watching them grow.  They are marvelous young women.  They have huge hearts and really want to do good things.  They inspire and encourage me.  I love getting to work with them.  I feel 17 again, until my body reminds me it has been decades since I really was.

♥ Swim Team--The city recreation team each summer gives me more fun than I probably deserve.  I love hanging with the kids as we sort them in the "bull pen" and doing whatever I can think of to entertain them and make those meets go just a little better for them.  They are so much fun, and give me a chance to relive some segments of life over again--without having to relive ALL the segments of my life over again.

♥ PTA--I know some times I sound like a whiner when I talk about PTA.  But really, I love being at the schools, and seeing all the great things our teachers, administrators and faculty do with our kids.  And the kids hold their own in the "good works" department themselves.  I am lucky enough to work along side some of the best women in our community as they dedicate a year of service to their schools--elementary, junior high and high school.  At each school they are making a difference.  It is an honor to call these women  my friends.

♥ My family--I realized driving across the salt flats in the dark Monday evening that I love just being with my husband and kids.  They are my favorite people ever.  When the kids were both small, I wasn't sure we'd all survive.  But they are turning into terrific people that I really enjoy.  I guess that is a life lesson in and of itself.  If I have a chance to be with these same people forever, why not figure out how to enjoy them now?!

New Year's Eve is tomorrow night.  It is supposed to be all of 4 degrees around here then.  Then we all start over again, don't we?  I think I am ready to flip the calendar to 2011, but I will take many fond memories and good lessons from 2010.  And I think that is a pretty good way to end the year.

Never Judge a Book....

I happened on an article in a magazine that asks "famous" people for the 5 most influential books they have ever read. Obviously, some celebretants (Paris Hilton, Lindsey Lohan, etc., etc.)would have to be excused from this exercise, as they haven't read anything save their own press clippings in years.

This particular article was a list from Ben Affleck. His list is a bit heavy on foreign policy type reads, but the article in general made me think. Which books have really and deeply affected me?

I'm just going to exclude all Scriptural texts from the list, albeit they are the most influential books in my life. Just assume that the Bible and the Book of Mormon have had the most impact in my personal life than anything else, but if read in the correct spirit that would be the outcome for anyone else too. So let's keep this list secular in nature, shall we? My list, by the way, is in no particular order or ranking.

In eighth grade homeroom, my teacher, Mrs. Alarcon, read aloud to our class To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I don't recall ever feeling so much as I did during that reading. What a powerful story. What a promise of justice and fairness. What an example of a well-read, well-respected, honorable father. I loved the relationship of Atticus and Scout. I still do.

A little later in my life I read the J.K. Rowling Harry Potter series and fell in love with the fantasy. It came along at the right time for me to renew a love of literature--even fantasy. I love that this woman has written a complete and total universe that I otherwise couldn't have visited. Plus, don't you wish you could just wave a wand and say "Scurgio" and the house would be clean? Sure! Who wouldn't?

Gap Creek by Robert Morgan was one of my favorite books from our RS book club. I know that the draw of this book was the strength of the heroine and the struggles she faces. The other draw was that this story was written by a man. Not to be sexist, but he really "got" this woman character. While I have never scalded a hog and made lard from its fat or birthed a baby on my kitchen floor without help, but I suspect this guy hasn't either. That is good storytelling.

During high school and college, I think I read almost all of his published works, but my first Shakespeare read was The Merchant of Venice, even before Romeo and Juliet. What drew me into his writing was the universality of themes. Vengeance? Mercy? Forgiveness? Who hasn't felt some of that? Plus, what a cool dad that names his daughter, Portia--yeah, well. But people are people, still.

And I can't leave this list without including Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I read this as part of the required reading in freshman English at BYU. It was a mental block at first. then I began to see Lizzy Bennett as one of my friends, she would have been if she were a real person, you know. This book was so funny and witty and clever and man, did Jane just nail relationships?! This was years before I saw the 1995 A & E version with Colin Firth, I might add. Now I am a Jane Austen addict--and I am reading or listening or watching her characters and her words nearly all the time. And like Shakespeare, she is dealing with topics still relevant today and to me. Plus, I love British stuff in general. You can't get much more British than Jane Austen and Shakespeare.

What I love about reading is the escape and the examination you can achieve when reading a really good story. I can identify issues in characters and then see them reflected in my life. I can also explore solutions theoretically before I try in real life. Plus, when I am reading something worth my time, I get the feeling that my brain is not turning to mush, as I had previously feared.

Any reader favorites I should also have considered? Five books is a very short list, I know, but it is a good exercise to pare down the list to what I REALLY love. Feel free to drop a comment with your favorites. Let's compare. Plus I just finished Pope Joan yesterday, and need a few new suggestions. I'm headed to the library later today.