home for christmas

It's sort of weird being home for Christmas. This is the first time that I've been home for this long and I've felt like a visitor the whole time. I don't live here anymore and that is both exciting and strange. I guess this is what it feels like to be a grown up...

flash back

My littlest brother, Garrett, has been bugging me to post pictures on facebook from our family trip to England and Ireland this summer "so kids'll know how cool I am," but my internet has been sketchy slash there's so much pressure to come up with good captions on the faces book that I chickened out and I've been emailing them to him in increments of 4 so he can post them himself.

However, all this photo viewing has made me a tad nostalgic for those 10 days in the UK. I figured the least I could do is post a few photos here since I know I did a terrible job of picture posting while we were actually on the trip. So, here are some random highlights, aka mostly things that make me laugh:

On the plane ride over Garrett and I watched the movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid. There was this one part where the nerdy redheaded kid gets so excited that he's having a sleepover with Greg Heffley, the main character, that he is bouncing around his room. In the midst of his bouncing, he jumps over to this large, taxidermied rodent by his dresser, cups its chin in his hands, and says, "Greg Heffley's in my room, Rebecca!" There are so many strange things about that one moment and Garrett and I loved them all. It was a phrase that was oft repeated throughout the trip, although, I must admit, we couldn't remember Greg's last name so we called him Greg Hurley instead. Oh well. This photo was taken in Stratford-Upon-Avon (where Shakespeare is from). These lovely taxidermied specimens live on the second floor of what looked to be an antique shop, and yes, it does look as if they are about to spring to freedom.

Garrett took this picture as a joke when we were at Anne Hathaway's house (no, not the famous actress, the wife of Shakespeare). I was standing in the doorway of a willow hut, where people used to go when they were heartbroken (or something) and I asked Garrett to take a picture. Instead he took a series of strange mostly ground pictures. Nerd. However, I think this one turned out kinda cool, even better because it wasn't supposed to be cool. You know?

My mom getting on to Platform 9 3/4. She was by far the best at posing out of everyone. Just look at that face!

All of us kids trying to look scared on the Ghost Night Bus in Dublin. I love that Garrett the Carrot is there, of course, and also that person Garrett looks like he's about to cry. Carter and Brinden just look terrifying all on their own. Also, fun fact: when we boarded the bus my parents sat down first, and all of us intentionally sat behind, not in front of them: we all knew that sitting in front of the dad would just be asking for pretend spiders to crawl up our backs or for our shoulders to be grabbed in an alarming manner in an effort to make us scream. No thank you.

We were at a castle or something eating lunch in Shannon and playing the game where you say an emotion and the person has to quick make the face that illustrates that emotion and you take a picture. This was the face my dad made when I said, "Pretend like you're on vacation with your family but really be secretly working the whole time!" Clearly he didn't think it was as funny as I did, but he was just asking for it by being on his phone either conference calling or emailing most of the time. Oh the dad. How I love him. Plus, check out that fancy shirt. Amazing!

A jumping picture where Brinden jumps right in the middle and ruins everything. Classic. But also hilarious. Plus, it was clearly a pretty epic jump. Look at how high he is!

Wow. That was a lot more than I was planning on posting. Also they don't really tell you much about our trip, but that's ok. If you wanna learn more about that you can check out Garrett's facebook album which will be growing by the day, I'm sure. Cuz without it, how will kids know how cool he is?

dublin

Dublin! As in, Ireland! We've only been here for three days, but it was a lot different than I'd expected. The city itself is pretty small and after our first day I sort of felt like we knew it all. We're staying in a fancy hotel this time since it's a Marriott so the dad can use his hotel points for it. Normally fancy hotel = no internet, but this one has a lounge that we can use that has it. Hooray! It's nice to be connected again, though I've been impressed with how easy it's been to be without cell phone or internet for most of this trip. I think it's good to have to cut yourself off every once and a while to remember how to live in the moment and not always be worrying about what's going on other places.

In the city there is a main shopping area with wide sidewalks and street performers everywhere——that was my favorite part. There were several musicians that were actually really good: all of them had cds for sale for €10 which is pretty expensive, I thought. Among my favorites were a family-type band made up of 2 sisters, 1 brother, and 2 other guys whose relation to the first three was ambiguous. They played guitars, upright bass, harmonica, breath-powered keyboard (kind of amazing), and (my favorite) washboard and jug. I have been kicking myself all week that I didn't even write down their band name. I tried to convince my mom that buying their cd would be a great thing for the family, but she didn't go for it. Sadly I'd already spent all my money on other things, so I had to do without. Another guy played an upright piano with the strings and hammers exposed and he was incredible. His name is Luke Slott and I highly recommend checking out his website. His music reminds me strongly of the soundtrack from the movie $9.99 which I haven't seen but did in fact buy the soundtrack for. My last favorite was this band called The Riptide Movement. Sort of lame name, but their music was pretty great. It reminded me strongly of my punk rock days, not because of their style but because of their energy. One of the things that drew me to punk rock was how you could feel the music in your whole body, not just your ears, and so it almost consumed you while you listened to it. This band had that feel to it. The drummer played on a box with a bass drum pedal attached to it that he also beat out a rhythm on with his hands. The fact that he could keep a steady beat while playing that way was pretty impressive.

Another favorite thing was seeing The Book of Kells at Trinity College (Ireland's oldest college and the second oldest in all of Europe). We'd seen a movie about it (The Secret of Kells) as a family months ago in semi-preparation for this trip, and it was fun that we had because then we already knew some stuff about it. The book itself is incredible. The detail work on the illuminations is so fine that even when it's blown up a hundred times its actual size it's still impressively intricate. I don't know how the old school monks did stuff like that, but they did an amazing job. Super intimidating as an aspiring book artist, I must say.

Brinden and I also went to the Irish Postal Museum. Postal museums have sort of become my thing after Missy and I started the tradition on our Spain study abroad two years ago. No one else in the family wanted to go, but Brin came with me like a champ. It was pretty basic stuff, but we learned some cool things, like that the post office was taken over by Irish Independence rebels on Easter Monday in 1916. Also when they started to deliver mail via train they used this sweet thing simply called The Apparatus, which was basically a giant net. What would happen was smaller towns along the tracks where the train didn't actually stop would pack up all their mail to be sent out in an intense leather belted sack and would hang it on a post by the tracks. The train would go by and they would use this net on the side of the train to scoop up the bag and fling it in the mail sorting car to be sorted. The same thing would work to drop off mail, but in reverse: the net would be by the side of the tracks while the mail would be bagged up and hung off the side of the train. They had some actual footage of it in action and it was almost frighteningly powerful. The museum renewed and strengthened my love for the postal service and actual, handwritten and delivered mail. Not that it was waning by any means, but it was nice to know that there are others out there who share my love for mail of the stamped variety. Additionally! We learned that the someone who has the hobby of stamp collecting is called a philatelist. Awesome.

This afternoon we head off to Shannon! Who knows what the future will bring? (Hopefully not any accidents, though as we've rented a car and the parents will be driving on the wrong side of the road {read: left side, as Ireland is part of Britain and they all do that switcheroo driving here} who knows what could happen?)

one time, i was in london...

Day 3 in London. Highlights so far:

• Kensington Palace—underconstruction, so we saw this cool interactive modern art museum exhibit thing called the 7 Sleeping Princesses. Loved it.
• Lunch at the Hard Rock!—original restaurant, no big deal.
• London Towers
• Trafalgar Square—climbing lions and crab-walking picture taking
• Double-decker bus tour on probably the only sunny day we'll see while we're here
• Getting locked out of my hotel room at night in my pjs—thanks, Brin.
• Learning how to cross streets again: who knew the left/right flip flop would be so confusing?
• Portabello Road shopping—wooden type galore!!!
• Nap in Hyde Park
• Still on the hunt for an egg cup. 
• The Underground? Easy peasy. After the New York Subway, though, anything is a breeze. Fact.

Not to worry, pictures and expanded stories to follow, but with limited internet access all I could manage today was this little teaser. Stay tuned for more details!

Additionally, on the trip I'm trying out the Six Items or Less experiment while we're on our trip. One pair of pants, one white shirt, one black, one scarf dress, two cardigans. So far, so good!

sunday at hyde park

Today we went to the first hour of church at the Hyde Park Ward. Since our plane got in at 7 am this morning and I slept about a total of 2 hours on the plane, it made the day a long one. Luckily after church mom and I went to Hyde Park (the park, not the church) and took a nap on the grass. It. Was. Amazing. We only slept for like an hour but it was just what we needed. It reminded me of siesta time in Spain when a group of us would find a park, cuddle up en-mass and sleep for an hour or two before going back out into the city. Siestas were one of my favorite things in Spain and, even two years later, I still miss them.

Today was also the first official day of my 6 Items or Less experiment. I first read about this experiment in The New York Times and was especially impressed with how one of the founders, Heidi Hackemer, was able to make so many different looking outfits with only 6 pieces of clothing and wondered if I could do the same. I find that I normally wear pretty much the same thing all the time anyway, the same t-shirts and same jeans/shorts, so even when my closet is still full it seems like I have nothing to wear. I figured this would be a good way to stop fighting my inner impulse to wear the same thing all the time and see if I could really cut down on my wardrobe in a real way. Since I am moving the day after we get back from out trip, it would be nice to get rid of some of my clothes instead of dragging them half way across the country with me where they will still remain unworn.

I decided that this vacation would be an ideal trial period, seeing as we have to pack small bags anyway. Besides, it's better on trips to plan simple outfits and it's easier not to worry about what you're wearing too much since you're doing so much other stuff. After some deliberation I chose to bring 1 pair of jeans, 6 white v-neck shirts (which count as one item since they're all the same), 2 black shirts (ditto the white shirts rule), 1 scarf dress, and 2 cardigans, one turquoise, one gray. I also brought an assortment of scarves and jewelery to switch things up a bit. Here's my first day outfit:

Remember, it was church day, so the dress or skirt was essential. The cool thing about the dress though is that it can also be a skirt or a shirt, so it's a good, versatile piece of clothing to have. It was a little chilly, so I was glad to have the cardigan, and I wore a dress slip underneath too so that added some warmth as well. As an added bonus, the dress was actually comfortable to wear pretty much all day, despite the fact that I normally change out of my church clothes asap. All in all, day 1 was a successful one! At least, in terms of The Experiment.

beautiful british columbia

Last night we stayed at this über nice cabin up in Whistler. It was one of those places that looked like how things should be made, you know? Like everything was designed down to the last detail in a way that made it look easy and obvious, similar to watching Shaun White snowboard. It's funny how when something is done well it looks so easy, but when something is done poorly it's not always obvious how to make it better.

This morning the dad and I, then later the brother, "had a hot tub," as my Uncle Jon says. It was pretty great. We woke up at our leisure, had a bowl or two of cereal (the breakfast of champions), then soaked in the hot tub for like an hour. It completed me. I have decided that I am hot tub folk.

There weren't any events up in Whistler that we wanted to see that day, so around noon or so we packed up the car and took a leisurely drive back to Vancouver. We stopped at a couple of the scenic overlooks which was kind of fun. How often do you see signs for stuff like that and never stop? British Columbia is really so beautiful. It reminded me of my visit to Portland—hooray for the Pacific northwest—and my desire to move to this area of the world was rekindled. Perhaps after bookbinding school I'll move out to Portland and get those chickens after all.

lugers...also winners

Today the dad, the brother, and I went to the women's luge up in Whistler. This picture is me and Carter flashing gang signs. That's how you can tell that we're cool. The luge track is hidden on the other side of that line of people in the background. We were standing there for a while but we couldn't really see much because they would shoot by so fast! I took a video of one of the ladies zooming by but now I don't know how to upload videos with the new blogger format so you'll just have to take my word for it that literally if you blinked you missed it. In fact, just try blinking. Right now. See? You missed it.

See the second picture? This is another part of the track that is vertical. That's right, perpendicular to the ground. Can you spot the luger on the track? I'll give you a hint: it's an American luger so her suit has flames on it.

these olympic games

easter

Easter Sunday was a great day! I spent it in Sandy with my aunt and uncle, their kids, and their kids' kids. It was a lot of fun. One of the things I noticed while hanging out with my aunt Taunya and cousins Ade and Rayne is that we all laugh the same. Someone would say something funny and we would all laugh in the same way but different tones. It was one of those family connections, you know? It reminded me of when my parents came down to visit for Christmas and came to my house Christmas party. I introduced my mom to my friend Bryce and as she and I were talking he looked back and forth between the two of us and got this kind of scared look in his eyes. I asked him if he was ok and he said, "It's like Cassi in surround sound." Haha. My mom and I are the same person.

My cousins-once-removed (aka my cousin's kids) are pretty adorable. For Easter my cousin Rayne (their aunt) gave all three of them these adorable skirts from the Gap, for which she works. The littlest Martin, Rylie, had a yellow skirt and she looked like a baby chick, or possibly, because of her stripped leggings, more like Big Bird. All three of the girls were colorful and pretty much the cutest kids on the block.

We went to Jenny and Ryan's new ward for church and there were lots of old people. Stephanie would have loved it. We felt a little bad all visiting today because they were all so excited to see new young people in the ward and we were not really there to stay. One woman, Claudia, was very excited to see us and super friendly. She introduced herself to my cousin-in-law Jenny and then when Jenny introduced her to someone else a minute later Claudia looked at her surprised and said, "How do you know my name?" It was hilarious. She is my favorite.

When we got home from church Ade, Rayne, Taunya and I had our own Easter egg hunt in the house. It was Ade's idea, of course, and it was actually a lot of fun. Sadly there wasn't any candy in the eggs because we just hid some that Taunya had on the table for decoration. Speaking of candy, I need to go buy some candy eggs because now they will all be on sale and they are my favorite candy in the whole world...