Countdown

5...4...3...2...The problem with counting down to something is that I tend to shift focus, like a laser beam, to that moment when the countdown will hit "0", and patience is not my strong suit. So instead, I try not to think about the exciting things ahead, and focus on today. Notice I said "I try," not "I do," because I'm not too successful at it. Currently I have two countdowns going: the one until I fly "home", and the one until PETER GETS HOME. Oh wait, there's a third countdown: the one until Santa arrives (I've been very good this year).

The top 10 Things I'm excited to do over Christmas break...

1. SHRED. My prayers have been answered, the heavens are dumping snow, and it's going to be a very White Christmas. I also have a stellar lineup of ski buddies this year...

2. Nights spent soaking in the jacuzzi...104 degrees and a starry sky, need I say more?

3. Christmas puzzles and working on my needlepoint stocking

4. Christmas movies, pool tournaments and testing out the new couch

5. FOOD. Park City has some of the best food around, some of my favorite restaurants- High West, Teriyaki, Szechuan, Loco, Adolph's and Flying Sumo. Escargot or Tokyo Nachos, anyone?!

6. Mornings spent at the kitchen table in front of a roaring kitchen fire, reading and drinking tea, then yoga.

7. Music: playing the piano, singing on Christmas Eve and attending church with my family

8. Tennis. Potter family tennis tournament is already in the works, and whether it's Florida or PC, my mom is a steady challenge for me to improve my game.

9. Gift giving. I absolutely love watching people open gifts, and the older I get the more I look forward to giving my own gifts! Sometimes surprises are the best :)

10. Spend time with my family and those I love most. Whether it's ice skating, bowling, xc skiing, sleepovers, running errands in the car or heading to the gym, I love each opportunity to spend time with such a uniquely wonderful and talented family.

I've been ping-ponging between busy work schedules, insomnia, and an overbooked social calendar for the past couple of weeks. It's led to this culmination of total and utter exhaustion, and drinking diet coke at 7 AM. This morning started out just like that, except with some cab issues on top of it all. Today's my work holiday party, which means I know I won't be getting extra sleep tonight anyways. Safe to say I was already in a pissy mood. The one nice part was that I chose this super cute, white/gold dress to wear for the holiday party. I was getting so many compliments on it, down to how great it looks with my skin tone.

At 11 AM I'm leaning over my keyboard, working on a project, when I hear a pop. Hmm. I sit straight up. I become aware that something has occurred with the zipper on my dress. I feel in back of me, and there's a small slit that has come unzipped. In about 5 seconds I have managed to widen that slit to halfway down my back. Talk about wardrobe malfunction disaster. I surreptitiously walk over to my jacket and slip it on, then hurry over to my coworker.

Her solution is to take off my dress and try to fix the zipper that way. Makes sense. I head to the bathroom, shimmy the dress over my head, and try to work the zipper. It's not budging. Not even a bit. I can zip the top half of my dress, but the part from my bra to my bum is fully exposed. Stumped, I'm considering my coworker's needle and thread idea, although it's quite a large area to sew. And my sewing skills pre-date home-economics class in 8th grade. I slip the dress over my head and try to shimmy it back down. It's not budging. I'm literally stuck, my dress bunched up around my head, trying to ease it down. That's when the second pop happens (let's be honest, it was coming) and the zipper flies completely off and the entire back of my dress is now wide open. I'm in shock. How did this happen?! How did my day get to THIS?! It's not even noon.

Fast forward 30 minutes later and I'm on an emergency "lunch break," wearing my trench coat, in search of the exact same dress. My reasoning is, if I can find the same dress, no one will Ever Know!! And given the fact that I've already had at least 15 compliments when I was wearing it, if I switch dresses everyone will ask about it. I locate the store, locate the dress and there is one left in my size. DONE. Then, to be extra safe, I swipe a similar, second dress off another rack. Close enough in color. I thought about explaining the fiasco at the register but let's be honest...it's a $20 dress. You get what you pay for. And it honestly does look super cute and quality made--clearly they cut costs on the zipper. So here I am, sitting straight up, same dress, more compliments, and  no one the wiser.

Some days the crises are all your own.

the original dress when I first bought it

 

RED

"This is a state of grace

This is the worth while fight

Love is a ruthless game

Unless you play it good and right

These are the hands of fate

You’re my Achilles heel

This is the golden age of something good

And right and real"

-Taylor Swift

 

Like the danger flags waving in the wind on the beach, like striped candy cane Hershey kisses, like Taylor Swift's latest album (which is A-MAZING), like the furiously blinking light on my blackberry that says I have emails to answer, like the majority of my wardrobe purchases in the past 6 months (a fact I just recently discovered), like the color of my favorite time of the year, like loving hearts, like the stripes that make up our national flag, like Five Guys Burger & Fries, like the Sun coming up over the horizon, like Santa's coat and like the color for passion and A-type personalities, it would appear...that I'm obsessed with RED.
 

Gearing up for November I wanted to dedicate that month to service, promising myself that I'd try to make time for one act of service each week. Then Hurricane Sandy hit, and I was marooned in Florida with 5 of my closest friends for 10 days. NYC was shut down, so while everyone else was figuring out how to get around a city with no public transportation or electricity below 38th Street, I baked to a golden brown on white sandy beaches. I surfed, paddle boarded, rode bikes and played tennis so much that by the end of the 10 days my body could barely get out of bed to catch the sunrise each morning. I quickly forgot about the promise I had made.

 

But God didn't forget. By the time I got back to the city, Mormon Helping Hands and the Manhattan stake began organizing service weekends. Time to bring my yellow shirt out of retirement. Technically our wards were assigned specific days (Saturday or Sunday), but since the YSA wards were always assigned Sunday, I decided to help the work go faster and contribute my time on both days.

For the past month I woke up at 6 AM on Saturday mornings, donned up to 5 layers of clothing and topped it off with my giant yellow shirt. Then I rode the subway an hour to Brooklyn. Then loaded myself on a bus, to get shipped out to the Rockaways.

It looked like the set of a Hollywood "end of the world"-type movie. I swear I saw tanks rolling by (although Doug keeps asking for proof).

My first day volunteering was the worst of them all. I struggled getting out of bed, unsure if I wanted to go when all of my friends were going Sunday. I was one of the last people to arrive on the subway and somehow found myself on a bus with the Chinese branch. No one spoke English. When we loaded off the bus I quickly distanced myself from the Chinese, only to find myself in a group of members from the Spanish branch. Who also didn't speak English. We loaded up on masks and gloves and walked to find our assigned house to work on.

Where would you send a group of Spanish speakers over the age of 60?! Surely not the sand house. I affectionately call it the "sand house," because the Entire house was full of sand from floor to ceiling. Our task was to shovel the sand into buckets and dump those buckets outside the house.

It was grueling, tough work. I was worried about the other members of my group, the buckets of sand were so heavy. I have no idea how my team members managed. I worked feverishly, from 9-4, 7 long hours of shoveling and carrying buckets of sand. My arms ached, the pads of my fingers had blisters forming, and my back felt like it would break in half. Despite the physical exhaustion, it was an emotional high. I picked up some new spanish words, and my team members led us in the Spanish version of "Count Your Many Blessings."

When we started doing hurricane relief, we'd be walking down the street wearing bright yellow vests/shirts and carrying tools. People would stare and sometimes we'd stop to see if they needed help. They seemed unsure of us, By the end of  November, we were local celebrities. "The Mormons are here! The Mormons!" I can't tell you how many times I heard that phrase be exclaimed with such joy from streets we walked down. Every single person we helped was so appreciative- I received countless hugs and words of gratitude. A guy in my stake is a professional videographer, and he made a film from one of our days helping. The film was an overnight hit!! CNN, GMA, Washington Post and countless other media outlets called attention to this film and the work we were doing. I'm posting it here, if you look closely you'll spot me at the end: Hurricane Sandy Helping Hands

In total, we had over 42,000 people help out during this period. We did over 242,000 hours of hurricane relief service. That equals almost 27 years for a single person, work that we did in a month.

"He who gives money gives much. He who gives time gives more. But, he who gives of himself gives all." --President Thomas S. Monson. I could not be more proud of everyone that gave not just their time and money, but themselves. For me, these acts of service make the holidays the most wonderful time of the year!

Merrily yours,
Lo

Made it on CNN during Election Night

 

Harry Potter World!!!