A Visit from the Histands

      Ben's parents, Gary and Carla, stopped by the Bay Area on their way to China for the summer. They're helping to lead an English-teaching program that's somewhere north of the Korean border. Gary tried to show me where, using an elaborate hand-model of China, but my Chinese geography is limited enough that trying to use one's thumb to illustrate the Korean peninsula was not going to be of much help. They spent most of their time with Ben, but on Saturday, we all piled into Ben's little Festiva and headed into Marin county to see the redwoods.

      We hit Muir Woods at 4 minutes to 9am, which was AWESOME, because the second parking lot was only partially full AND we didn't have to pay admission! A little tip for you Bay Area folk – get there early, the place fills up like you wouldn't believe! It was a little “chilly,” so we got some hot beverages to warm us up, and then headed into the forest. It was very beautiful. Here are a bunch of photos.

       After Muir Woods, we drove up Hwy 1 a little ways to the town/beach of Stinson Beach. It was getting hot by then, and the beach was crowded enough that we had to park the Festiva in this weedy overflow lot. It was like parking at the State Fair! The sand was super hot. We had to run really fast over it or else our feet would burn! We walked down the beach maybe a mile or so, then came back.

We drove back down Hwy 1 and stopped at a few scenic places to hike around a bit.  

        Once we were away from the ocean, I realized that I was totally pooped, so I slept on the ride home. And then I took a nap while Ben's parents packed up their stuff. We drove them to the airport and then stopped by at our friend Katie's house. It was her 1-year SF-versary party, so we met some of her work friends, and chatted with the SF VSers and the Fresno VSers who were unexpectedly along. It was a good night. 

MCAT

      Well, I got my results back from the MCAT.  They were less than satisfactory but I still have a fighting chance at getting into medical school.  So that’s the plan for the next year or so.  Ben also wants to go to business school for a Ph.D, and being the smarty-pants that he is, has the pick of pretty much any school in the entire world.  So now we’re on the lookout for doctor schools for me and smarty-pants business schools for him that are located in the same city, or at least within a few hours of each other.  Complicating this whole deal somewhat are my scores, which as previously mentioned, are somewhere between “abysmal” and “mediocre,” which shuts me out of smarty-pants medical schools.  It’s probably for the best, though.  I think that if I graduated from a place like Harvard Med or Yale Med or Johns Hopkins Med, I’d have my nose in the air to such a height that I’d drown if it rained.  Ben is more modest than I, so graduating from a smarty-pants business school would probably have no effect on the vertical tilt of his nose. 

       Nasal position aside, the plan for the moment is to apply to an osteopathy school, which is something that I’ve been looking into for quite awhile now.  A doctor of osteopathy (D.O.) has the exact same abilities as a medical doctor (M.D.) to write prescriptions, see patients, prescribe treatment, etc.  Additionally, and this is the part that I like a lot, osteopathic physicians receive extra training in holistic patient care, meaning that they are more inclined to check out underlying causes for, say, back pain, rather than just blindly tossing muscle relaxants at it.  They are also trained to do some musculoskeletal adjustment which can also be used in lieu of medication in some cases. 

      I’m looking at a D.O. school in Des Moines pretty hard, as well as others in Philadelphia, Indiana and Chicago to appease Ben in his search for a smarty-pants business school.  I’ll probably also apply to KU Med, since it’s in Kansas, and as a Kansas resident, I should have somewhat of a leg up on the competition.  At least that’s what I’ve heard.

      So that’s the story for now.  I am cautiously optimistic. Guess our summer will be spent on applications and other boring things like that.  We’ll see what happens.  

BILLIONS OF CHILDREN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

          Ok, not billions. Fewer than ten. Between 6 and 9. It's hard to count them when they're all running around like adorable little juggernauts. The San Francisco Mennonite church is experiencing exactly the opposite of pretty much every other Mennonite church I've ever been to. Rather than being full to the brim of adorable old people with big glasses and quavery voices, our church is full to the brim with young people, particularly young adults between 20 and 30 and small children. It's really the best thing ever.

          As I've mentioned before, the FMCSF people living in the East Bay (Berkeley, Oakland, Alameda, etc) have a long-standing tradition (maybe not, I've been here for less than a year, it could have started 12 months ago and I wouldn't know any different) of getting together at one or the other of their houses for supper. Just supper, just an hour and a half or so of eating together and letting their children run around and scream and play with each other's toys. They also play fun-sounding made-up games, like “Super Sneaky Spies” that I'm really jealous of. All my sister and I ever played when we were that age was “Meet,” a game in which we ran in circles around the house and screamed loudly whenever we crashed into each other. It was super fun back then.

         This week's supper club was in Oakland, at a park overlooking Lake Merritt. Grillmaster Dave and his wife Heidi were hosting a BBQ. We had cheeseburgers, watermelon, chips, beer, and croquet. Also grilled strips of red bell pepper, which at first glance looked enticingly like bacon, to which Dave replied “.... Yeah... this is the Bay... not Kansas...” I'm just going to fill up the rest of this post with pictures of everyone's kids, because they are seriously the most adorable kids I've ever met.

Grillmaster Dave

The Gray's son Gabe; Jake and Leila

Leah, demonstrating her thoroughly Cheeto'd fingers

Nora.  Probably the most adorable child I've ever met. 

Gabe.  A.k.a. "Calvin."  All he's missing is a stuffed tiger. 

Supper club in the park!

Karin and Leila

Grillmaster Dave and Nora

Kevin got in on the fun children's games

Karin, Jake, Leila

Friesen/Gonazalez Wedding, Denver

       Last weekend, I flew to Denver to do the photography for Elizabeth Friesen's wedding. And may I just say, it was a great wedding, and wonderful to see my friends again. But first, the story of the WORST DAY OF TRAVEL EVER.

        My flight was supposed to leave at 10:35, so I made sure to give myself an hour to take BART to the airport, and an hour to be sure that I have enough wiggle room. I left the house at about 8:00, just to be safe, and walked to the BART station. The announcements were saying something about a delay in the Transbay Tube, under the Bay, but I figured “eh, they're city people, a delay is probably like 20 minutes or something.” So I squeezed onto the train and went to the next stop.

         We were held at that stop for 20 minutes, waiting for congestion on the track ahead to clear up. One of the 2 tracks under the bay had malfunctioned, leaving just one track for to-and-fro traffic under the bay. At rush hour. I freaked and called Ben, who said he could come pick me up and get me across the Bay in about 15 minutes. Five minutes after that, the train left the station, so I told him not to worry about it and to just go to work. At the last stop before the Tube, our train was held for FORTY-FIVE MINUTES. It was awful and I was positive I would miss my plane. Finally, we were allowed to go through. Then we were held at the first stop across the Bay. I deboarded, determined to find another, more reliable transportation to the airport (I'm not sure what I would have chosen, had it come down to it). As soon as I made it up the escalator, the train left. Fortunately, there was another train to the same destination just behind it, so I hopped on and rode all the way to the airport.

          Once I got to the airport, I SPRINTED through it, trying to find the correct security screening point. By the time I reached it, I was sweaty and nervous and shaky because I was sure I was going to miss my plane. I was also positive that I would be pulled aside by the TSA for acting suspicious! Luckily, I wasn't, and I made it to the gate on time, and got on the plane, where I proceeded to pass out for almost the entire flight.

          One of Elizabeth's aunts picked me up at the airport and drove me to the wedding site, near Grand Lake, CO. We got spectacularly lost, but saw some beautiful scenery. Like I said, I was doing the photography for the wedding, so I threw down a quick supper of buffalo chili and fudge, chatted with the 9C girls and Brian, and then took a quick walkabout with the director of the place to see the available scenery.

The next day, I got up INCREDIBLY EARLY to check out the lighting and to go see a location that the director had recommended for some post-wedding couples' shots. It was a very beautiful spot, and on the way back, we saw a giant moose! I took some pictures, naturally. After that, it was time for a nap before the pre-wedding photography and then the wedding itself.  

The wedding went very well, and the photography, though pretty stressful, was a good challenge for me. I had borrowed Alyssa's hot-shoe flash for some of the indoor shots, and I'm really glad I did, because there's no way I could have done it with just my pop-up (not to mention, I'd look like some sort of amateur!) After the wedding was the reception and a dance. Brian and I did some swing dancing, which was awesome, and then all the Bethel folk gathered into a circle and belted “Wagon Wheel” for the last song. That was really a nice end to the evening.

But the evening wasn't over yet! There was an afterparty in one of the lodges, and we all stayed up til past 2, playing games and catching up.

The next morning, we headed out again for some couple's shots. For some reason, I had assumed that 8am would be early enough to catch the magical morning light. It wasn't. So that was another challenge to deal with – direct, strong mountain sunlight. But I think I got some good shots. I've included a few here, a preview of sorts.

      After the photography, I hitched a ride to Denver to hang out with Martin Olson until my flight left the following day. We had delicious falafel with his family, and then walked down the Denver Mall, an outdoor shopping center that is actually way cooler than I thought it would be. We even ran into a chalk art festival!

       

        The next day, we walked Lady the Airdale terrier, visited a park that was once a cemetery, saw the new Star Trek, and then, unexpectedly, Nicky Smith was in town! So we met her, walked more dogs, had tacos, and then we both had to leave.

 It was good to see them again, even if I had just seen them two weeks ago at Bethel. Whatever. At this point in my life, I'm not going to complain at the frequency with which I see my Bethel friends.