I’m not seeing the family letters out yet, so I’m hoping to get this one slipped in with the others. Yay, I’m writing a family letter! I mean to every month, and then it just doesn’t get done.
So, let’s see…as per my typical beginning of a family letter, it’s been so long since I wrote I’m not quite sure where I left off. Let’s just say all the basics are the same…I still live in a condo in south Provo with two roommates, I still work at Timpanogos Hospital in Orem, and I still am really bad at writing family letters.
Now for the month of August—August has actually been pretty full. I turned 27(!) at the beginning of the month and was thoroughly wined and dined by my wonderful, wonderful friends. Erika picked me up Saturday afternoon and took me to her place where she treated me like a princess—we watched a movie together and ate delicious (and nutritious!) snacks, she gave me a pedicure, and then she gave me highlights and cut and styled my hair!
Meanwhile, while I was out of the way, my roommates and some other friends were busy decorating our apartment and setting up for a shin-dig later that night. When Erika and I arrived back, freshly polished and sparkling, the whole apartment was rigged with twinkle lights, streamers, and purple décor, and a lovely spread of my favorite treats covered our counter bar and table. Friends started arriving and we had a great time talking and playing some hilarious games (including…charades! Surprise! Actually, it was reverse charades, which is a thoroughly entertaining game when you’ve got a big group and expressive, creative people). I had a ball and was very impressed by the planning and generosity of my friends. Little did I know that the birthday surprises weren’t quite over…That following Friday, I was shocked beyond measure when my roommates unveiled the “other” surprise, an electronic piano of my very own! Talk about blowing me out of the water! Come to find out, they’d been secretly contacting friends and family for the past 6 weeks collecting money, all the while meticulously researching for a keyboard I would love (remember, these are the same people that watched me research and shop for a car for 6 months last year). Talk about sneaky!! I’ve got a big grin on my face right now because it still makes me smile just to think about it. With my night schedule sometimes I keep odd hours, and my roommates were sure to include a good set of headphones J. I’ve definitely had some blissful times late at night playing for hours at a time in my room, and I look forward to many more sessions.
Later that same Friday night the piano was unveiled we had another huge shock, but this one was quite unrelated to my birthday. Late that night after my expressions of shock and my friends’ laughs of delight had wound down, we were going out our front door to say goodbye to our friend Ashlee. Ashlee and my roommate Evon had already walked through the door, and I was just about to follow when around the corner crawled a full-grown tarantula, right into the house! The huge hairy beast just crawled right around the doorframe and starting creeping along the baseboard heading behind the living room couch!! I was the only one who witnessed it and I was frozen in place, hands over my mouth, screaming in short bursts. Now, some of you may have encountered tarantulas before and might find this all a bit dramatic, but I was very unprepared to meet a tarantula face-to-face. Small spiders, no big deal, they’re in our house all the time, but this was no bug. This was a small animal, a very hairy and creepy animal. If you can’t tell, I’m still a little traumatized. I finally became unfrozen as it disappeared behind the couch and it soon became apparent that I was the only one who could deal with the crisis. Evon is mortally afraid of spiders, even tiny ones, and Ashlee, who charged back in the house to help, turned white at the sight of the tarantula and had to stay in the kitchen. Turns out that even though she is very brave and kills spiders all the time for Evon when she freaks out, she has an undisclosed fear of spiders as well and just couldn’t force past it on this one. So, with cake carrier dome in one hand and a broom in the other, I stood on the couch to confront the “spider” (aka monster). I won’t deny my legs were shaking a bit. After nudging it off the wall it was starting to climb, I crouched and aimed carefully, then half-threw/half-thrust the cake carrier down over the tarantula. Perfect aim! Trapped under the dome, the tarantula started crawling all over the underside of the carrier, its long hairy legs and huge body visible through the clear plastic. Gross. An earnest debate ensued on what to do with the thing. The girls were all for sliding it out the door and releasing it, but I was more insistent that it had to die. I didn’t want it lurking outside our house to bump into again! Problem was, tarantulas are kind of big and meaty. You can’t just squish them. We couldn’t actually think of a reasonable and sure-fire way to humanely kill the spider in one fell swoop. Someone wanted to call a man but it was 2:30 in the morning. In the end we went to bed leaving the tarantula trapped under the dome in the living room, deciding to deal with it in the morning.
Morning came and after more debate, I was more agreeable to a release, provided it was far, far away from our home. We came up with a plan regarding its transport and release, but when I could finally could stomach looking at the tarantula again, I saw that it was curled up unmoving under the cake dome. I picked up the carrier to verify, and sure enough, the animal was dead. We scooped it up in the box my headphones had arrived in and took it outside to commit its remains to nature. My roommate Alisha made the mistake of handing the box to Evon, who thought she saw the spider move during the motion of the transfer. She screamed bloody murder and flung the box and its contents into the tall dry grass of the mountainside where we live. Once again I found myself stalking the tarantula, this time to verify its mortality. After some time, I found its body sprawled in the tall grass, definitely dead. Thus ended the saga of the tarantula, but only beginning were the retellings of the story and ward friends laughing at my terror. There have been several other sightings of tarantulas in our neighborhood and I’ve been warned I might run into one again. I just shake my head. We don’t use the front door at night anymore.
Well, that was an awful lot about my birthday and tarantulas. Believe it or not, there was actually more to my month, but I’ll be brief. Reid, Rachelle, and I took a weekend and went to Boise to visit Spencer, Heather, and little Maximus. Heather and Spencer did a great job entertaining, taking us shooting in the open plains outside Boise and floating down the Snake River. We played lots of games and Spencer went head-to-head with Rachelle for the title of Boggle champion. Maximus proved himself a very active and intrepid explorer and delighted us with his sheer cuteness and good-natured temperament. Late in the month, I started tutoring at Project Read again after a two-month break after the departure of my last student back to Spain. My newest student is a wonderful lady in her late-40’s/early 50’s who emigrated from Peru about 20 years ago. We’ve only had two sessions but are already friends, and she is truly delighted improve her reading skills and computer literacy. Wednesday we sat in front of a computer and learned the words “mouse”, “keyboard”, “keys”, “screen”, and “icons”. We also learned keys on the keyboard and how to use the shift key, caps lock, and tab. Spencer, do you think it’s funny I’m teaching someone about computers? J The cutest part is my student’s 80-something-year-old mother who comes to each session. My student is her caregiver, and the tiny white-haired Peruvian lady doesn’t speak a lick of English other than “hi” and “bye”. She sits patiently through each lesson and then as we leave she is all smiles and “gracias, gracias” and hugs. She only comes up to my rib cage but she sure has a big smile. J One more thing: I recently attended a neighborhood barbeque and you will never believe who I discovered there: Connie and girls!!! You may find this hard to believe, especially with all the updated addresses that have been flying around recently, but Connie and I had no idea we were neighbors! She lives on the street right next to mine, only about 5 or 6 houses up the hill. We have been neighbors since November and had no clue, with her in the family ward and me in the singles’ ward. My only consolation is that Connie was just as surprised as I was!
Well Family, I’ve rambled on and taken far, far more than my fair share of space. If you’re still reading here two pages later, just know that I express my love and gratitude for you all. I really like you guys. J
Love, your friend, cousin, niece, sister, etc.
Jean
Later that same Friday night the piano was unveiled we had another huge shock, but this one was quite unrelated to my birthday. Late that night after my expressions of shock and my friends’ laughs of delight had wound down, we were going out our front door to say goodbye to our friend Ashlee. Ashlee and my roommate Evon had already walked through the door, and I was just about to follow when around the corner crawled a full-grown tarantula, right into the house! The huge hairy beast just crawled right around the doorframe and starting creeping along the baseboard heading behind the living room couch!! I was the only one who witnessed it and I was frozen in place, hands over my mouth, screaming in short bursts. Now, some of you may have encountered tarantulas before and might find this all a bit dramatic, but I was very unprepared to meet a tarantula face-to-face. Small spiders, no big deal, they’re in our house all the time, but this was no bug. This was a small animal, a very hairy and creepy animal. If you can’t tell, I’m still a little traumatized. I finally became unfrozen as it disappeared behind the couch and it soon became apparent that I was the only one who could deal with the crisis. Evon is mortally afraid of spiders, even tiny ones, and Ashlee, who charged back in the house to help, turned white at the sight of the tarantula and had to stay in the kitchen. Turns out that even though she is very brave and kills spiders all the time for Evon when she freaks out, she has an undisclosed fear of spiders as well and just couldn’t force past it on this one. So, with cake carrier dome in one hand and a broom in the other, I stood on the couch to confront the “spider” (aka monster). I won’t deny my legs were shaking a bit. After nudging it off the wall it was starting to climb, I crouched and aimed carefully, then half-threw/half-thrust the cake carrier down over the tarantula. Perfect aim! Trapped under the dome, the tarantula started crawling all over the underside of the carrier, its long hairy legs and huge body visible through the clear plastic. Gross. An earnest debate ensued on what to do with the thing. The girls were all for sliding it out the door and releasing it, but I was more insistent that it had to die. I didn’t want it lurking outside our house to bump into again! Problem was, tarantulas are kind of big and meaty. You can’t just squish them. We couldn’t actually think of a reasonable and sure-fire way to humanely kill the spider in one fell swoop. Someone wanted to call a man but it was 2:30 in the morning. In the end we went to bed leaving the tarantula trapped under the dome in the living room, deciding to deal with it in the morning.
Morning came and after more debate, I was more agreeable to a release, provided it was far, far away from our home. We came up with a plan regarding its transport and release, but when I could finally could stomach looking at the tarantula again, I saw that it was curled up unmoving under the cake dome. I picked up the carrier to verify, and sure enough, the animal was dead. We scooped it up in the box my headphones had arrived in and took it outside to commit its remains to nature. My roommate Alisha made the mistake of handing the box to Evon, who thought she saw the spider move during the motion of the transfer. She screamed bloody murder and flung the box and its contents into the tall dry grass of the mountainside where we live. Once again I found myself stalking the tarantula, this time to verify its mortality. After some time, I found its body sprawled in the tall grass, definitely dead. Thus ended the saga of the tarantula, but only beginning were the retellings of the story and ward friends laughing at my terror. There have been several other sightings of tarantulas in our neighborhood and I’ve been warned I might run into one again. I just shake my head. We don’t use the front door at night anymore.
Well, that was an awful lot about my birthday and tarantulas. Believe it or not, there was actually more to my month, but I’ll be brief. Reid, Rachelle, and I took a weekend and went to Boise to visit Spencer, Heather, and little Maximus. Heather and Spencer did a great job entertaining, taking us shooting in the open plains outside Boise and floating down the Snake River. We played lots of games and Spencer went head-to-head with Rachelle for the title of Boggle champion. Maximus proved himself a very active and intrepid explorer and delighted us with his sheer cuteness and good-natured temperament. Late in the month, I started tutoring at Project Read again after a two-month break after the departure of my last student back to Spain. My newest student is a wonderful lady in her late-40’s/early 50’s who emigrated from Peru about 20 years ago. We’ve only had two sessions but are already friends, and she is truly delighted improve her reading skills and computer literacy. Wednesday we sat in front of a computer and learned the words “mouse”, “keyboard”, “keys”, “screen”, and “icons”. We also learned keys on the keyboard and how to use the shift key, caps lock, and tab. Spencer, do you think it’s funny I’m teaching someone about computers? J The cutest part is my student’s 80-something-year-old mother who comes to each session. My student is her caregiver, and the tiny white-haired Peruvian lady doesn’t speak a lick of English other than “hi” and “bye”. She sits patiently through each lesson and then as we leave she is all smiles and “gracias, gracias” and hugs. She only comes up to my rib cage but she sure has a big smile. J One more thing: I recently attended a neighborhood barbeque and you will never believe who I discovered there: Connie and girls!!! You may find this hard to believe, especially with all the updated addresses that have been flying around recently, but Connie and I had no idea we were neighbors! She lives on the street right next to mine, only about 5 or 6 houses up the hill. We have been neighbors since November and had no clue, with her in the family ward and me in the singles’ ward. My only consolation is that Connie was just as surprised as I was!
Well Family, I’ve rambled on and taken far, far more than my fair share of space. If you’re still reading here two pages later, just know that I express my love and gratitude for you all. I really like you guys. J
Love, your friend, cousin, niece, sister, etc.
Jean
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