The beginning of the end...of my 20's.

WARNING: PICTURE HEAVY POST
Seriously, there are a lot and I feel like I need to warn anyone who reads this.
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This last week I turned 29.  

Wahoo...

Right after Pond left the first week of August I decided I needed a break.

I was tired, burnt out, and turning 29 at the end of the next month.

So, I got on my favorite flight trackers and looked for the cheapest ticket to a sunny place for the week of my birthday.

And I bought it.

And I went.

Hello, Malaga, Spain.

Happy Birthday, Aliswan!

Here are some pictures from my trip to Malaga.
Obviously, some have already made it through Instagram filters and others have not.
Instagram - so quick and addictive.

Day 1: September 24th

Leaving Durham first thing in the morning:

Arriving in Malaga and going on walkabout on the 24th:

Day 2: September 25th

The 25th was spent on the beach swimming and reading and swimming.

Walking to the beach around 9am:

The Malagueta Beach:

I stayed until it got really hot about 3pm, went home for a shower and nap, and then spent the evening wandering in the alleys in the Malaga city center.

Day 3: September 26th

The 26th was also spent mostly on the beach and quite a bit of time swimming in the Alboran Sea.

Yeah, I had to look that up.

I actually went around 7:30 and caught quite a bit of the sunrise with my GoPro.

I will put the video of the multiple Malagueta sunrises near the end of the post.

Gosh, I love that camera.

This was the biggest shell I have ever found.

It was awesome.

I also found shells, sea glass, and cool pebbles.

The second large shell came from a middle-aged Spanish man whose stuff I watched while he swam.

He knew minimal English and I kept answering in Arabic instead of Spanish.

So, a conversation was a little rough.

He did figure out I was Mormon though when I said I was from Utah.

I thought that was unusual until I was walking home from the beach and passed a group of about six Elders riding bikes.

That was pretty cool actually.

The church is everywhere.

Speaking of things that are everywhere, one of my favorite things to see while wandering in the evening were the street performers.

Day 4: Happy Birthday to me!!!

On my birthday I started the morning walking to the beach, walking about and taking photos, and then I played tourist for the day.

The gardens on the way to the beach:

 The Malagueta Beach:

After the beach, I followed a walking path to see the major sites in Malaga.

It was a lovely way to spend my morning/early afternoon.

 

One of my favorite places was the Alcazaba.

Lovely gardens and great views.

Then, because I truly cannot help myself, I went to the Roman Theater.

Yep, that is a face of shame.  ;)

After the theater, I continued on the walking path and just enjoyed Malaga.

That enjoyment came from street art,

street performers,

awesome architecture, interesting alleys,

(The inside of the Iglesia Del Santo Cristo de la Salud was pretty awesome.

It was small but that has yet to stop the marvelous GoPro.

 and of course, food with a view.

I finished off my birthday eating lasagna outside the Malaga Cathedral and finishing off with gelato.

Yeah, I think it ended up being a pretty good birthday.

Day 5: September 28th

Today I went to the beach early to get my final sunrise timelapse with the GoPro.

I then spent the majority of the day at the beach, again, reading and swimming.

It was glorious and just what I needed.

The sunrise was phenomenal.

By the way, holy shells!!!

Post-beach time (I was burnt and decided not to spend the whole day there) I wandered,

got some more gelato (oreo and pistachio this time),

and visited the Malaga Cathedral.

I seem to have a thing for cathedrals and this one was absolutely lovely.

Day 6: September 29th

I left early in the morning, caught my flight, and then arrived back in Durham.

I loved this holiday and am so grateful I went.

New schedules

In 2014 (I actually had to look it up) I went with Bug to a lecture at BYU by Ed Catmull.  It was fantastic and I have thought about it pretty regularly since I went.

I am really struggling right now in a number of ways.  I am beyond exhausted, I am behind in my work, and suddenly I have a lot of non-thesis/life tasks being thrown at me.  Honestly, that is just how these things go for everyone, not just me.  When it rains it pours right?

So, after downing not one but TWO pints of Ben & Jerry's ice cream on Monday and not leaving my room except to pee on Tuesday and Wednesday I realized I needed some major changes or I would not survive the next bit.  This is where Ed Catmull came in.

I remembered him speaking about his creative teams and management techniques during his lecture and the absolute necessity of constant re-evaluation in order to encourage and facilitate efficient creativity.  He said that what worked before, even with the same people, may not work again and that what worked yesterday may not work today.  I realized I needed to make some changes, starting with my schedule because honestly, I don't believe that I can control my mental illness anymore than I can control a cold after I have caught it.  I need to cope and let it run its course.  Schedules and structure helps me but only if it is in the right way.  So, late Wednesday night I worked on a schedule and tested it Thursday and Friday.

It worked, and not just a little bit.  It crazy worked.

I did an hour of free-write on my thesis everyday followed by 7 HOURS of productive work.

So eight hours total.

Full time work.

Guess what?

It was easy.

In fact, I had to stop myself from working so I wouldn't burn myself out.  Then I had HOURS in the evening to clean, stretch, read, relax, shut down if I need to.  And I did.  I did all of those things at one point or another during that time.  I also made dinner.

So here is what I am realizing about life.

It isn't necessarily the difficulty of the tasks but how we approach them that makes the difference.

Right now I am sick in my soul and so very, very tired BUT it is not stopping me.

Until it does.

Then I will re-evaluate and fix it again.

AND IT WON'T STOP ME!

Cheers!

I am a cheapskate.

I don't know exactly what that word means but I am a cheap person.

Meaning, I teach myself to do things so I don't have to pay for them.

Like cutting my hair.

I had my first short hair cut in YEARS last year.

I loved it and didn't want to lose it but the cost of a haircut here in England is ridonculous.

Ergo I had to either grow my hair out or cut it myself.

There were really no other options in my mind.

The first time I tried was in February.

It went ok but to get it right I actually cut my hair over several days.

The first looked like this:

Meh, ok.

Here it is straightened but it was really choppy and when it dried naturally it was super funky.

So, a day or so later I trimmed off the irritating bits.

I liked this better...but only when blow-dried.

I had to accept it, I didn't do so well my first try.

So I cut a little more added some (very choppy) layers and called it a day...or week as the case was.

Not my favorite but manageable.

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This go around (today) went MUCH better.

Here is the final result:

The layers are better (blended in the front and funky in the back), 

I love the length, 

I can part it on either side, 

it is versatile,

and it has passed my true test:

IT AIR DRIES BEAUTIFULLY!

I don't style my hair 90% of the time so this is important to me.

So, because I have a GoPro, it went well, and I wanted to remember generally how I did it I made the following video.

I had to speed it up because learning as I went took an awful long time.

Thank you YouTube video people and all the knowledge that you share.

It saves me pennies...and pounds.

Cheers!

Oh working...

Once the Padre told me that he didn't think heaven would be heaven without work.  He said it would be boring and boring was not happiness.

I got back to work this week.
My dad was right.
This is heaven.

It has been...since sometime in April...I think...since I have worked on my thesis full-time.

First it was field work in Jordan - partially my thesis my actually a lot less thesis than I thought I would have time for.

Then it was running back to England to do my formal review.  Technically thesis but more desperately trying to summarize what I have done and then figure out where I am going rather than what I am working on this second.

After that is was Bethlehem where I did not work on my thesis...at all.  I think it was the first time since October 2015 that I did not touch my thesis for more that 2 days.  It was 2 weeks of non-thesis time.  It was also kind of stressful and a little miserable.  Coincidence?  I'll let you decide.

Finally I was back for a week - enough time to do some laundry and cleaning - before I left AGAIN to have a pseudo holiday with Pond.  I worked on my thesis a bit when we were in Durham but mostly I ran Pond around the country until her feet were exhausted and we had to sleep a full day.  Literally, a full day of rest to recover from London.

Now I am home and I have spent the last 2 days working full-time on my thesis.  It is lovely.  I am really glad I like my work.  How do people write a PhD thesis on something they don't like?  Is it even possible?  Although, by the end of this maybe I will hate my thesis.  :(  I hope not.

The Christmas Break

I really meant to post over the break but let's be honest, I really mean to do a lot of things that I don't end up doing.

This was just another one of those things.

I am - based on my posts for the last couple of years - pretty good at quick recaps with photos.

Due to some awesome circumstances over the break this will also include videos.

So, here goes.

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At the beginning of November I decided to surprise my family when I came home for Christmas by coming a week early.

I used my self-control super-power and did not even hint at it.

I took pictures as I went because that is how I roll...and I was super proud of my use of public transportation without asking for help.

Independent woman - right here.

Step 1: Bus from Durham Cathedral

Step 2: Train from Durham to Newcastle.

Step 3: Metro from Newcastle to Newcastle Airport.

Step 4: Newcastle Airport waiting for flight to Paris.

Step 5: Paris airport - 15 HOUR LAYOVER!!!

Don't worry, I had a chocolate croissant and a HEAVENLY lemon muffin for breakfast. 

Step 6: Paris airport - waiting for flight to SLC. 

There is my plane!!!

Step 7: Arrival in SLC and TRAX from airport to North Temple Station.

Step 8: Frontrunner from North Temple to Provo.

Step 9: Call Cita from train and ask her to pick me up for old times sake.

Yeah, there was much screeching and happiness in that phone call.

Step 10: Arrive in Provo, get picked up by Cita and have the Padre show up at the station to also give hugs.

SURPRISE COMPLETE!

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The next weekend we headed to St. George to spend some time with the familia Juan.

St. George was an absolutely awesome idea because it was about half-way from Provo and Vegas, and it was a wonderful escape for all of us.

The day before we left I splurged and bought a GoPro camera.

It is right up there with my favorite purchases of all time.

I was adamant about buying it when I did so I could practice using it on the St. George trip.

Here are some of the results.

Timelapse of part of the drive down.

Oh, I didn't mention, this was also the week of the BYU vs. U of U bowl game and that there were A TON of people heading to Vegas?

Yeah, I am pretty glad we stopped in St. George.

Timelapse of watching the game.

The Padre and Trav had a pretty good time there in the middle of the shot.

Various pictures from weekend fun.

This is how Deruda slept all night.
No comment.

The view on the way back.

Swimming video!

This was my favorite part because Trav actually was totally fine holding the camera.

More on that later.

Overall, a marvelous weekend!

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Soon after we got home from St. George, Step-On-This and I WENT TO TOWN on the house.

This is just what we do, we come home, we re-organize, we re-decorate, and we bask in the awesomeness of our work.

This year I taped our efforts with...you guessed it, my new gopro.

Gosh, I will never get sick of this camera.

I also took a timelapse of Christmas morning.

We missed Juanita, Morgan, and Trav but she was just too close to having baby 2 to travel.

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Speaking of baby number 2 - Luke, I am your aunt!

On January 7th, we got a 5 am text that they were in the hospital.

Step-On-This and I immediately left for the land of Vegas and arrived minutes after Luke was born.

After spending some time with our new nephew we took Trav back to the house for some quality auntie time which included watching the penguin movie about 3 times.

He was struggling at first with all the changes but we had a good time.

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The rest of the break was spent working on my thesis (updates about that on a different blog), learning Adobe Premier, and spending time with my family.

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Several times over the break I began to have anxiety attacks about my flight home.

I checked and re-checked my itinerary about 20 times and everything seemed ok.

Sunday night I was thinking about how I would be leaving Tuesday and planning all of those last minute things I wanted to do before I left.

Going to the gym one last time with Cita,

hitting Cafe Rio one last time,

watching a movie with the Padre,

and finally packing all my stuff in a relaxed, orderly manner.

Well, at about 11 I was trying to fall asleep but had this INSANE anxiety attack and DESPERATELY felt that I needed to check my itinerary....AGAIN.

It is a good thing I did because I found that I wasn't leaving on Tuesday but Monday.

I would have missed my flight.

I ran into the parentals room, had a meltdown, a priesthood blessing, and we made a plan.

Including the one above, there were a CRAZY amount of miracles that day.

I was able to get everything done in the 6 hours I had in the morning.  In fact, I finished with enough time to burn my MA thesis in the backyard.

(another miracle here - we didn't realize how big it would be...the snow kept us from lighting the yard on fire)

Dad had felt impressed to go into work the previous Friday to get a project completed.  Sunday night he got sick and called into work, before I found out that my flight had changed.  Because he had his project done and he was ill he was home to help me keep my sanity and take me to the airport.

Mom has a student teacher who was supposed to be evaluated so there was not way she would be able to come to the airport.  The student teacher's professor forgot and the evaluation was canceled so my Mom was able to come.

In the airport I found out that my flight from Paris to Newcastle had been canceled and rescheduled for the next day.  Rather than be discouraged I decided to use it as an opportunity to see Paris - that didn't happen but it was a miracle I didn't lose it again, believe me.

There were 50 empty seats on my flight from SLC to Paris and the woman next to me decided to move and take one in the back, giving me two seats and the ability to lay down most of the flight.  That was a awesome miracle and I was so grateful.

In Paris, I found out that because there was a flight to Newcastle that evening Air France would not cover a hotel room.  Initially I was very concerned because reception would be closed and I didn't have my key.  But I said a prayer, waited in the airport all day, and flew to Newcastle that evening.

I was able to get a taxi to the DSU and walked to St. John's (a bit tiring after my day but not too bad) and I had the resident tutor's number in my phone so she was able to let me in my room and I was in my own bed by 1 am on the 27th.

So, found out my flight change at 11pm SLC time on the 24th and arrived in Durham and was in bed by 1am on the 27th.

It was the craziest couple of days that I have had.

BUT, also the most miraculous that I have had in a while.

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It took a couple of days to recover from jetlag, crazy emotions, and homesickness but the whole experience really testified to me that Heavenly Father truly looks out for us, He is loves us dearly, and that being here is the right decision.  If I doubted at all before, those days of miracle after miracle to get me back home in Durham would (and has) changed my mind.

Long post but there it is.

Cheers.