Das Vedanya

After two and a half years, I am finally bidding farewell to this book:

Yes, it took me THAT long to finish Anna Karenina. Perhaps I'm not cut out to read much Russian writing. I think I put it down for an entire year before I started reading it again. But now that I'm done I'm glad that I read it. My first Tolstoy.

The Primary Program

Today in church we had the annual Primary Presentation. Having not been in a ward with a Primary for many years, I had forgotten how much I LOVE the Primary Presentation Sunday. Those kids are so stinkin' cute. And funny. Here was my favorite line, delivered by a girl who looked to be about four years old.

"Heavenly Father has given us lots of good foods. Like hot dogs. . . and apples."

I think her mom probably made her toss in the "and apples." So funny.

Welcome to the New Roommates

Yes, my friends, here we are. Me, Alicia, Ariane, and Heather. Believe it or not, this is the first time that Ari and I have actually been roommates. We're definitely having fun though! Please be warned that we don't have a ton of furniture yet, so if anyone comes for a visit, you may have to sit on a camping chair. But come anyway. We love visitors. And don't you love the pretty lights along our backyard fence?

We Lost a Tree

We had a HUGE storm here on Tuesday. Seriously. I haven't seen wind like we had since I lived in the Netherlands. We used to talk about the horizontal rainfall in Holland, and that's what we had on Tuesday.

Unfortunately, that means that we had a casualty in the backyard. Our poor tree, which we now know was a fruitless plum (thanks Steven) couldn't handle the rain and wind and completely tipped over.

A big thanks goes out to Pablo and his buddy who came to cut it down on Thursday. We still miss our purple tree though.

Some 'Splainin' To Do

I feel like I want to explain a little bit about why I’ve called this blog “The Adventures of Jenn” (emphasis on Adventures). I’ve realized lately that lots of people say on their blogs that their lives are adventures, but I really do have a good reason behind my titling. I’m not just trying to be like everyone else.

You see, you don’t get to be 31 and single without having been on a good number of bad dates. Especially bad first dates. Bad blind first dates. Now, not all first dates or first blind dates are bad. And sometimes a bad first date can blossom into a good second date. Not always, but I digress…

After extensive research, I have found that there’s one question that – when asked during the course of a date - almost always indicates that things are going sour. I can tell when it’s coming. There will be an awkward and uncomfortable pause in conversation. A little cough here. A head scratch there. Eye contact is averted. Both of us know that there aren’t many more easy avenues of conversation, and we’re hunting for something to bring up. Coming from a professional small-talker, if we get too far into the pause, I know that there are very few ways out without coming to The Question. It’s every bad date’s back-up. I start to panic a little, racking my brain for some topic to introduce before he utters the words. But I’m not fast enough. He opens his mouth and begins, “So, what are…” In my head I start yelling, “No! Danger! Danger! Abort! Don’t do it! Please – ANY OTHER QUESTION!” But before I can cut him off he finishes, “…your hobbies?” Long sigh.

My hobbies? That question is my nemesis. It haunts me. Why though? It’s not an uncommon question. People have hobbies, right? Wrong! I’ve realized that the reason I don’t like this question is mostly because I don’t have many traditional hobbies. Therefore, I have no good answer for this question. Sure I read. I like sports. My grandma’s teaching me to quilt. I definitely do NOT scrapbook. But that tends to be where the list ends, because I don’t think I can count watching TV. Pathetic in the world of hobbies. So, if you ask me this question, I just end up feeling like a loser who doesn’t do anything and the date conversation dies again. Maybe I should refer all potential dates to this post so they can avoid the question-of-death.

Anyway, after many hours (or at least a few minutes) of contemplating my lack of hobbies, I have come to a conclusion. I may not have many hobbies, but it’s because most of all I like to have ADVENTURES! I do like to do things! I like to try new things, go new places, and learn new stuff. Really my biggest hobby is adventuring. Is that a word? Today it is. And I like adventuring.

My roommates and I once made a list of adventures and put it on the fridge. The adventures ranged from going to Peach Days to snowshoeing to taking a tour of a chocolate factory to going to the MoTab Christmas concert.

My point is that adventures are everywhere, and at least a portion of this blog will walk you through some of my favorite current adventures. And every time you read about an adventure, you can know that I’m just keeping up with my favorite non-hobby. Thus, The Adventures of Jenn.

Enough ‘splainin’ Lucy.