Monday, June 30, 2008

Ocean Waves and Our Savior

Saturday June 28

As an ocean waves dances onto the shore, there is movement in the sand. The wave carries sand as it washes up onto the shore. And as it descends off the beach, the wave carries sand back down again. This I call the cycle of waves and sand.

I stood watching the waves. Contemplating life in Pennsylvania. I'm exhausted. Tired from looking at the ground in New York to avoid bad images. Tired from being a face in the crowd. Tired from feeling so far away from those who mean the most to me. Tired from seeing more sin than righteousness. Tired from having to work a million times harder to feel the spirit of the Lord. Tired from feeling like an object to men as I walk to go eat lunch. Tired of seeing cross-dressers. Tired from being surrounded constantly by people drinking, people who just drank, people who are going to drink. Tired from having Satan working so hard to have me relinguish my testimony to him. Tired from being tired.

I stood watching the waves. Being tired yet still recognizing the wonder in the ocean made by our heavenly father. The song Beautiful to him came to mind.

So much noise. So much peace destroyed. I can hardly hear the voice, leading me through the noise. So much noise. The world's little eyes. Destruction in disguise. Oppurtunities to compromise. To make me beautiful in their eyes. I don't wanna buy the world's little eyes. I define myself and find my beauty in the light he gives. I'm refined by his divine intentions everday I live. It doesn't matter what the world believes. Or what they say that beauty means. It comes from within. I wanna be beautiful to him. I know how to shine. My life's not really mine. It's not about a worldy climb. It's all about his design. 'Cause in his eyes. I wanna shine.

By this time the cycle of waves and sand had occured so many times, I was left engulfed to my calves with sand. When I was embedded deep into the sand, it became easier to fight against the crashing waves.

Waves of temptation surround us each day. Sand particles of faith ground us to our savior. The more waves we withstand, the more grounded we become. So long as we resist the violent tug of the tempting waves, we will become more embedded in the sand of our faith. The more embedded in our faith we become, the more we will feel the savior's love. The more we feel his love, the more faith we have. The more faith we have the easier it is battle temptations. This I call the cycle of faith.

Firmly dismiss Satan to quickly welcome the Lord. All it takes is one wave. Destruction or Salvation?

I hope this makes sense. Some of the thoughts I had on the beach. Who could ask for a better friend than our heavenly father? He is always aware of me. He is always aware of you.

No wireless internet

Sorry to disappoint - this past week is being left off blogger. Since we had to stand on our heads and do the splits while juggling the laptops on our thighs in order to get internet connection at the driftwood hotel - I wasn't able to update as frequently. The details kind of slipped.

Sunday June 22nd

Went to church. Missed my ward. Loved my sunday school class. Attended relief society with the young women - weird. Different group of people out here. Different backgrounds, points of view, and reasons for believing the way they do. Made my first friend. Lily. Two years old. Adorable.

That ward is full of love. Just when I wanted Bob's lessons, Trina's insights, Bishop France's testimony - I was getting swarmed with a bunch of people loving me and hugging me just because i'm the bishop's niece. Who could ask for a better friend than our heavenly father? He is always aware of me.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Saturday June 21

I fell in love.

Ocean City, New Jersey. Mayor: Sal Perillo. Total Area: 11.1 sq mi (28.7 km²).
Land Area: 6.9 sq mi (17.9 km²). Water Area: 4.2 sq mi (10.8 km²). Population in Winter: 15,378. Population in Summer: approx 115,000.

Madre, Daddy, Me, and Janis* (our gps) found Ocean City in about three hours. The Atlantic Ocean bordered the entire city. Rows of beautiful multi-story houses lined the streets. Each street. From east to west of Ocean City and north to south of Ocean City. Classic movie scene. All the people heading one direction - the beach. Whether they were married couples with two kids, small children or an elderly couple. Walking, Riding old-school bikes with the handles (the kind of bike the girl at the beginning of Legally Blonde rides when she is taking the card to Elle), or driving.

Some of the local stores included: Sunoco Gas Station, Amco Grocery Store, Rite Aid Pharmacy, Hoy's 5&10, and Laura's Fudge. By some, I mean at least half of the local stores in OC.

Naps on the beach are my favorite. Warmth of the sun, sound of the ocean waves, feel of the sand being blown into your nose and mouth. (good thing you're sleeping right?).

Ever felt like you had a bloody nose or something because everyone is staring at you? That was me. The one of two girls on the beach not wearing a binkini. And the only girl wearing board shorts. High Standards Power.

Mack and Manco: Famous Crispy Pizza. "Best of Jersey Shore" since 1984. Bill from Hoy's 5& 10 recommended it to us; He said it's the best place to eat in town and we'd have a wait because all the locals would be there on a saturday night. We ordered a veggie pizza with full heads of broccoli on it (yum!). As we watched plain pizza crusts(aka white pizzas) or pizza crusts with marinara(aka plain pizzas) be devoured by local families.

Walked the board walk until it rained. Then the four of us left for Home Sweet Home.
**Janis recieved her name because she is annoying like Janis from Friends. She starts talking at random times and scares us out of our craps when she does so.

Ooops

I totally forgot an important event.

I made my first friend. At the Malvern Train Station on King Street. I made my first friend knowing that this friend was a stoner. (Which I must say also is a first - at school I never went searching for stoner friends). She sat frantically smoking - nervous and "wired" for her bartending test. It is definately a different world out here. We talked to her for at least twenty minutes waiting for the train to come. She told us about her life. I tried extra hard to make converstaion because otherwise she would stare at madre and I. stare until we said something. She told us some tricks about the trains, that she walked everywhere because she didn't have her license, and all the places she lived. She stated her favorite place to live was her house right down the street from the bar. It is definately a different world out here. Train finally came. Loved every minute of it. We changed from route 5 to route 7 without any trouble. Got off the train in Cornwell Heights and met uncle to go boating.

Friday June 20th

I decided that I am going to try and blog a post about everyday for records sake. It'll be cool to have all of this written down for the future. Because the small experiences that don't seem much now, will probably mean so much to me later.

Friday.
Madre and I just decided to hang around hotel - maybe have a party with the maids because we're the only ones here in the day. All the mono-faced men are at work.

Our important laundry and exercise was interfered by a call from Uncle. Proposed to take us boating on the deleware river (*gasp*).

Lake Powell - freezing. Bear Lake - freezing. Just about any other lake in Utah - freezing. Deleware River - warm :).

I kind of got up on a wakeboard. (feel free to determine what kind of means).
Linds - I was wakeboarding at sunset. Thought you might appreciate it.

Sun is down. Ate dinner. Yes on the boat. Did I mention it was a barbeque? Oh yes. Barbeque on the boat. Can you say aaawesome? Sitting on the deleware river - eating bugers. yum.

And that concludes Friday.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Not Worth Blogging Day

For those of you that are still reading this- sorry this is a pretty uneventful blog. And even though today was a "not-worth-blogging-day" here I am. So you can skip it if you'd like :) We decided that we'll probably stay in Malven for the majority of the time if not for the rest of the time. Dad's work is five minutes from our hotel- and madre and I can take a train all the way to New York if we want to.
Went into downtown Malvern. Adorable. Malvern post office, Malvern Inn, the local butcher shop, etc. Oh, just near by is the Paoli Massacre Battlefield - we haven't checked it out yet. We will though.

Went to Kind of Prussia shopping center - second biggest mall in the world. wow. overwhelming. massive. heaven. We covered probably a 1/16 of the mall.

Played horse basketball with my parents. One of the greatest memories ever. Mom won. (in favor of her, I posted this blog).

Watching Oceans Eleven. Much love!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Day Two in Pennsylvania.

Did some random things today. Went on a walk. Found a really pretty park. That turned out to be the front landscaping of an office building. We had to have looked like ridiculous toursits. But I'm okay with that. Then dad came home for lunch and then later we took him back to work. Getting back to the hotel, our key to our hotel room wouldn't work. According to the front desk, It became demagnitized (what in the world?). Cellphones and Credit Cards will demagnitize it. You learn new things everyday.

My uncle came and picked us up. This is where the day became interesting. My uncle is a bishop here in Philadelphia. His ward is massive and he has the craziest stories. He began driving us around and showing us random places where people in his ward lived.

I saw some things that I thought only happened in movies. I am more naive then I thought. A group of five or six teenage boys sat on the steps of a house and just stared into the street. Barely talking. And just sitting there. I was appalled. I began to wonder their life stories. I wanted to know if they went to highschool, if they graduated or were even going to. And if they would do something with their lives... I hope that they do. I hope and pray that they do.

A four year old girl sat on the side of the street. By herself. No parents or adults around. I began to wonder once again. Where were her parents? Didn't they care? Did this happen very often?

Two older men sat on the steps of an abandoned business building. Holding a brown paper bag. Obviously covering a bottle of somekind of alcohol. The two men passed the bottle between them. And drank their lives away.

Where am i? If only these people I saw, knew what I knew. How hard it would be to change. But how much happiness they would feel once they did.

Shopping on South Street was our next adventure. The first store we went in was called Repo Records. *Background= there is a store called NPS Market Square located in Salt Lake City. This store was nicknamed "Cootieville" by my sister Jill. Because the place is pretty much diseased - and it makes your nose itch after you've been in the store for five minutes. * Repo Records is the next cootieville. we walked around and looked at a few vinyl records and my nose strarted to itch. Never thought I'd see the day where I found a cootieville in a different state.

We kept walking. Found several cool shops. Sunglasses, art, restaraunts, jewelry, etc. It rained at least twice while we were shopping. At some point I got cold and put on my mother's rain jacket which was way too big for me.

My Uncle recommended a place for dinner call El Tez. My mom and I are trying to eat healthy - we figured this place wouldn't serve the food we were looking for but how do you say no? We submissively agreed and decided mentally it would be an adventure.

We went at around six to put our names on the list - hour wait. Not a biggie. I looked around. It appeared to be a bar/diner. There was a herd of people in the middle of the restaraunt holding drinks and talking to each other very loudly. I've never eaten at a place quite like this. But no way to back out now. And I figured I wouldn't be amongst them - I'd be eating with my family and it would be just like any other restaraunt.

So we went shopping some more. Then went back to check our name and use the restroom. The only way I could to the restroom was to go somewhat through the herd of people. I've never felt so out of place. I walked through them feeling, acting, and looking like each of them held an explosive bomb that was about to go off. I was grateful no one said anything to me. I think my mother's rain coat acted as some kind of a visible sheild because it said "I am too young for this place - I'm just here eating dinner with my family." Thanks Mom :) Finally I made it to the stairs - relaxation.

I always knew the rest of the world was different from Utah - but I never really had to be in that world.

Dinner was enjoyable. Our waiter was nice, no interuptions, and was pretty much like a normal restaurant. I grew to ignore the herd in the middle of the restaurant. I talked with my family and ate some pretty delicious tacos. It also made me appreciate Utah. It was very eye-opening. I became less naive, and more appreciative. My love for my heavenly father and his plan of happiness grew. I felt grateful for my knowledge of the gospel. My faith in Christ. My hope for the world. And my obedience to the Lord's commandments.

Malvern, Pennsylvania

First blog.

There are first for a alot of things.
Like my first day leaving Utah for months/first night in Malvern, Pennsylvania.

Hungry Hour: Welcome to American Airlines. We offer many beverages, snacks and small lunches. There is just a small price for snacks or small lunches (Whaaaaat?). Beverages are complimentary though :) News flash! SPREAD THE NEWS! (they actually give you the whole can on American Airlines! Who knew? No more a cup full of ice with 5 ounces of your beverage.) Due to the new price on airline food (which doesn't even taste good) my meals consisted of cliff bars. Yum! they have never tasted so good.

Laughin Hour: Madre got hungry on our first flight too. Pulled out her cliff bar; she had some troubles opening it. Alas. Plastic rips. Cliff bar flies. Right into the lap of the stranger sitting next to her (ever seen a cliff bar? they look reeeeeeal attractive). Outcome: embarassed and hysterically laughing madre.

Tired hour: Going to bed at one thiry, waking up at four. Try sleeping. Poor mother who was the pillow of her grumpy seventeen year old daughter.

Layaway hour: "Welcome to Dallas, Texas. If you are making a connecting flight your gates are as follows "Philadelphia: Gate C17." "Attention passengers there has been a change, those going to Philadelphia, your gate is now C12." Awesome. We had lots of time to walk around. :) However, a little before our plane left we decided we should double check our gate. The next plane that departed from gate C12 was going to JFK airport in New York. Wrongo. Let's check our original. The next plane that departured from C17 was going to La Guardia airport in New York. Wrongo. We were in the completely wrong terminal. In salt lake, thats no big deal. Dallas Airport: MASSIVE. Its like Disneyland. You have ride the blessed monorail to even change terminals (or Disneyland's case to change rides). We did make it okay.

Exploring hour: I love airport shops - Stick of gum: $3.00, Fleece Inflatable Pillows that unzip to be a blanket:$29.99, Solar powered keychains: $7.99 - epic prices. I love airport shops. Usually you find unusal things. In the Dallas airport there were many Latino shops. Anyone know why? These shops entailed: tequila flavored lollipops with scorpions in them, jalapeno chocolate, and mini sombreros. (by mini I mean too small for a barbie). I love airport shops.

Tourist hour: largest vending machine I have ever seen. 16' by 10'. Yes feet. Pillows, teddybears, pretzels, any type of drugs, contact lenses, etc. *Why is that girl taking a picture of a vending machine?* It was cool okay?

Shopping Hour: Had to buy groceries. Went to the Local "Giant." Because the Walmart that was "close by" is a half an hour away and has the worst ratings in the world. Local grocery stores are funny - Tad Hamilton's fall in love with Rosie's. AND The cashiers are all over the age of forty and white. What country am I in? Its possible to have cashier who's not in highschool or speaks english? So we picked up some peach doughnuts (anyone ever heard of them?) and whole wheat tortillas. Yum.

Driving Hour: For father's day my madre bought my dad a GPS. It is really cool. It talks to you and says "Turn right in .3 miles." (and makes this cool little beeping sound that kind of sounds like a high pitched voice saying turn left). Well my dad being the genius that he is, likes to outsmart the GPS. Of course he can. He's Rex Maughan. It is just hilarious to listen to.

Spiritual Hour: Heleman Chapter 12-13. Wow. Mom. Wom. Mow. Those chapters keep me in line. Anyone want to sign up for everlasting damnation? No thank you.

There are first for a alot of things.
Like my first day leaving Utah for months/first night in Malvern, Pennsylvania.