Strangers Meet Again

        Last night after baby-sitting I walked home in the dark. Katie, being the concerned sister-in-law that she is, armed me with her pink bottle of pepper spray before I left the apartment. I clutched it tightly, my thumb ready to pull the trigger at anyone suspicious, when I saw a guy about my age ride up to the stoplight next to me on his bike. You know that awkward feeling when someone looks familiar and you're not sure why so you stretch the comfortable time limit on staring to see how long you can get away with before you figure it out? That's actually what I was just starting to do when he looked at me for a second and then said, "We met at the grocery store."

        My friends and family laugh because I am always making random friends in random places, but I love it. It always makes a great story to tell later! I did actually meet this kid in the grocery store last week--I remembered the second he said it. Rachel and I had gone to Smith's last Saturday at 11:00 p.m., which is suprisingly a popular time for BYU students to buy their groceries, especially the weekend before school starts and no one wants to break the Sabbath by shopping on Sunday. I was transitioning between the fruits and vegetables to the condiments aisle when I stopped briefly to talk to a guy I'd known before my mission--exchanged some pleasantries and continued on toward the peanut butter. Matt (though I didn't know that was his name at the time) had overheard me say that I just returned from a mission in May and said from behind me, "Hey, welcome home!" That struck up a conversation between me and him and his roommate. I had an instant connection with his roommate because we were both searching for just the right peanut butter among at least 10 options and we bonded over that. So we talked for a little bit and then went our separate ways (I didn't get to finish my grocery shopping that night, if you were wondering). I didn't think I'd even be able to recognize either of them if I'd seen them on campus after that.

        I replayed that encounter in my mind once I realized I was talking to the same guy. He pulled his bike over to talk to me for a few minutes and then asked if I wanted him to walk me home. Yes, please! That would be great. By then I only had two blocks left, but I wanted to make sure they were a very safe two blocks!

        Matt was quite the gentleman. Walked me all the way to my door, great conversation, and then told me he would ask me out for ice cream except he was leaving for BYU-Idaho the next day (today). Too bad! What do you do with that? I thanked him and walked inside--not even knowing his last name so I could look him up on Facebook (sorry Dad, I forgot to ask), but I am so grateful he was kind enough to keep me company those last two blocks!              

Women in the Law

        My new favorite quote, given by president of the J. Reuben Clark Law School's Women in the Law club:

        “We know how tough it is. We also, specifically, know how tough it is to be in law school while raising children, while being pregnant, while being single and intelligent and beautiful and intimidating.”

        Bahaha! I love her honesty :)

Why you should want to eat seaweed

        I ate seaweed today.

        No, not ice cream, not sushi. Just straight-up crisp, lightly salted seaweed (I know, why does it need to be salted, right? Doesn't it come from the ocean?). As I smelled it, nibbled at it, and attempted to savor the interesting taste, I couldn't get this picture out of my mind:

        Despite the crisp saltiness of the seaweed, it still felt slimy and slightly fishy going down my throat.

        I know, you're probably wondering why in the world I was eating seaweed in the first place, right? It's because my curiosity got the better of me. I was sitting in the office this morning, chatting for a few minutes with my boss, when I asked her what the dark green cracker-looking thing in her hand was, and  why she was eating it. Humored by my look of disgust, she persuaded me to try a bit: "It's especially good for vegetarians!"

        Apparently it has a lot of other health benefits, as well. Like it contains a lot of pantothenic acid and lignans. Yeah, I have no idea what that is either. But the nutrients found in seaweed supposedly offer protection against cancer, cardiovascular disease, and birth defects; contribute to healthy thyroid function; and reduce stress levels.

        I heard you can find it at Costco. Come on, just try it! You know you're curious too! 

The Intentional Long Pause

        One thing I learned from my mission trainer is that people are much happier to help you when they think it's their idea. One useful way of guiding them to the decision to help you is the "intentional long pause." What that means is that you basically state your problem and then pause . . . until they offer their assistance!

        For example, one morning on a campout, we really wanted to make pancakes for breakfast. We had hiked the griddle up the mountain and everything (ok, well we hadn't, but one of our strong, manly friends had), but had no butter. Without the butter, our pancakes all failed. We knew, however, that a group of boy scouts was camping nearby and, by definition of their title, would be prepared with butter. My friend went to find them and said something to the effect of, "We really wanted to make pancakes this morning, but the problem is, we don't have any butter. . . ."

        And then, within seconds came the response, "We have butter! You can borrow some of ours!"

        "Really?! That would be great! You guys are the best! Always prepared like true boy scouts!"

        Ok, well I actually don't know what her response was because I wasn't there, but I can imagine it was something a lot like that. Anyway, I may be giving away some big secret here, but really, you should try it! It's brilliant!

        Because my friend has had so much success in this area, I have really tried to employ it in my own life. Today, for example, when I realized I had written down the wrong classroom number for my Creative Nonfiction Writing class when I found myself outside the mechanics closet. Being resourceful, I first attempted to use my phone in order to access my class schedule online and thereby my classroom number. When my phone refused to cooperate, my thoughts went to my next resource: a public access computer that usually exists in multiple places within each building. So I asked the two guys (both on their laptops) with me in the lobby if they knew where such a computer was in the building. When they didn't, one of them offered to look up the closest one for me on his personal computer. 

        That's silly, I thought. In the time it takes him to look up where a computer is, I could have already looked up my classroom number. Unsure how to ask this friendly stranger if I could just use his computer to look something up, I simply said, "Actually, I just need to look up my classroom number really quick. . . ."

        Long pause, hoping he would put two and two together and just offer me his computer.

        Longer pause.

        Please don't make me say it. That defeats the whole subtlety of the long pause!

        And just when I had taken a deep breath, about to straight up ask him if I could use his computer, he turned it around and offered it to me.

        Whew.

        It was a little awkward.       

Monsoon

        At first I was unsure about moving to the Arizona desert during the hottest time of the year, but once I remembered that August is monsoon season, I began to really look forward to this new adventure.

        When I experienced a lot more 110-degree + days than storm days, I was pretty disappointed. But then I was SO BLESSED to experience this crazy storm just my second to last day in Gilbert. And I mean crazy. This video definitely doesn't do it justice, but at least it gives you an idea of our experience. The funny thing is that the storm seemed to only be at this hotel. When we drove back to Carly and Rich's house (about 10 minutes away) afterward, there were no signs of a raging monsoon there! I never heard anything about it from anyone else!

       

Deer Hunting

        One morning last week when I woke up and walked out of my room, I was approached by Audra and Bella crawling up the stairs, eager to show me what they had built with Legos. What they had built were some very simplified "guns." "Let's play, Abby!" Audra said, followed by Bella, "You be the bad guy!" I tried to picture in my head how this would go, and then asked, "What does the bad guy do?" Bella thought about it for a minute. "Ummmm . . . he kills deer!" I laughed out loud. Of all the responses she could have given, I was grateful that was it! Soon all desire to play Good Guy/Bad Guy was gone, and Audra, in her innocent little girl voice and bright eyes, exclaimed, "Yeah, let's go deer hunting!" And so we did :)  

Wanted: A good-looking man with an August birthday

        The trend in my family is for the brothers to marry women whose birthdays are in October, and for the sisters to marry men whose birthdays are in August. Seriously, it's worked out perfectly for five children and now it's my turn to make or break it. Ideally, the man I marry will have a birthday on the 13th or 16th of August because my brothers-in-law were born on the 14th and the 15th and that would just be a neat little line. That's a lot of pressure!

        I've considered asking all potential suitors about their birthday before agreeing to a date. Criteria like that would really cut down on the fish in my sea, don't you think? It would save me a lot of time, that's for sure!!

        But really . . . I do usually ask by the second or third date because my family always want to know!