Estimated Time of Arrival: Not Yet

This picture is to illustrate me just floating around. I haven't gone into a state of shock and I haven't felt ripped away from the norms of life. I just feel like I'm hovering above a new city and haven't yet planted my feet here. It's a nice, fuzzy feeling, but I feel gravity creeping in little by little.

Hi World! I am here...in Maryland. The concept of D.C. is very hard to grasp, one second you're in Virginia, and then you're in Maryland but you're always in D.C.?!? I'm sure I'll figure out how to navigate around this place, eventually.
Well anyway, my travel with jetBlue was one of 0 complaints, except for the very unhappy baby on my red eye out of salt lake city. A friend of my dad's picked me up from the airport. We've never met before, but we recognized each other very easily at the passenger pickup. It was nice. We drove home on route 66! One of the busiest highways in the nation. It was 8:30 in the morning so I got a taste of the daily commute in D.C. It was crazy awful, I don't know why more people don't take the metro. At 8:30 in the morning there was bumper to bumper traffic on a 4-lane freeway for as far as the eye could see! The metro train ran inbetween the highways which was cool to see. I guess I shouldn't be so surprised to see traffic like this coming from Hawaii and all, but you don't see stuff like that in Provo.
The most exciting part of my day was seeing the D.C. Temple from the freeway! Walt pointed it out to me, and with the most sincere kindness told me that if I ever wanted to go visit it, he would take me to see it. He knows how special it is without really knowing.
I can't find my camera cord to import the pictures I took, so I will describe it to you. Picture yourself driving down the freeway. The asphalt ahead of you framed by the lush greenery of the thick trees thriving in the humid city. To your left, you see four golden spires shining in the morning sun peeking above the dark green trees. Then to confirm the beauty and strangeness of what you're seeing, you glimpse a small statue on one of the spires, a blinding light glinting off a musical trumpet. You sigh and exclaim, the Temple. You whip your camera out to capture the new energy coming from this beautiful structure. The morning isn't just a drive from the airport anymore, it's a drive to a new place with an old, familiar spirit.

Yellow is for Bananas

Yellow cat, yellow cat, who spilled citrus smart water on you?
Yellow cat, yellow cat, it wasn't nice because now we all point and laugh at you.
Brooke found this kitty outside Kilby Court last Tuesday. Brooke would never
point and laugh - she is really just admiring from a safe distance.
But seriously, what are they feeding you, yellow cat?

Piano Recital

Molly's piano recital was last night. I have been teaching piano to Molly all semester. I love teaching. Both my parents are teachers and I've witnessed some trying times for teachers, which has taught me to give them the respect they deserve, but consequently extinguished all desire for me to become a teacher. Teaching piano is different than teaching academics, granted, but it still creates that teacher-student relationship where you want this little person to succeed and never give up! It has been a really eye-opening semester.
Since, I'm leaving for D.C. next week, I had to discontinue her lessons, but what kind of teacher would I be if we didn't have a recital with cake and brownies???


















Molly and the keys
















Student and teacher and pretty, pretty flowers



















Molly and family and me

Thank you, Hansens!