YAY YAY YAY!!!

This weekend was fabulous! FABULOUS!!

I woke up Saturday morning to the carpet guys waiting outside my house. I hurredly opened the door, showed them my room and they got right to work. They laid the carpet and even vacummed up afterwards in about an hour, leaving beautiful NEW carpet! My room was ready to move into, and that I did. Here are a few photos which don't do it justice, but my room really is beautiful. Two brick walls and two wood walls make for a really unique and fabulous space. My furniture from my old house looks great and I am so happy I bought it, and I adore my queen sized bed! The photos don't do it justice but....

I also picked up my car! A 2003 Toyota Corolla. I really really like it! I feel so good about the purchase! I cannot wait to be able to drive my groceries home from the store, go outside of the metro area, drive to church and not have to take the bus.... It will be beautiful! I think my friends, from whom I have been getting rides from for 9 months, will be equally excited.

An adventure outside the beltway

Last night a friends who has access to an outdoors camp invited me and a few friends to go play there. The camp, Cavella, is fabulous! We started off the evening a little late, so it was getting dark, but that didn't stop us from going zip lining. This was my first experience doing this, and it was so fun. There is such a rush zipping through the trees in the dark wondering when and if you are going to stop. Great fun!!

After this, we were just getting warmed up, so we grabbed a canoe, and paddled the Potomac to a nearby island to float the rapids in life jackets. We canoed to where we thought was a good drop off location, and jumped in. The water was so warm, and floating was an adventure since it was around midnight and the moon was covered by clouds. We felt a little Navy Seal-ish, paddling through swamps. Whilst floating, Dave saw some people camping, it turned out he knew them from the camp, so we sat around their fire and they were kind enough to share some fresh peach cobbler they had just made. We also walked around the island and saw a tree house built by the camp.

The last part of the adventure was when we had to walk back to the canoe through the woods. We couldn't see anything, including the person in front of us or the path we were supposed to be following, but we made our way back to the canoe and paddled back to the car.

That was one of the best nights I have had in DC. I couldn't stop laughing at the guys I was with and the activities were awesome!! I have been longing for Montana lately, since I am rarely one with nature anymore. Last night gave me a little fill of my old outdoor lifestyle. I am now determined to find more adventures outside of the District.

Fed Ex has it Right.

So I moved from my house two and a half weeks ago. RR and CK have been kind enough to let me bunk at their houses while I wait for my room to be ready. My room was supposed to be re-carpeted and ready for me on July 3, at the latest. Well, here I sit, no carpet in sight for about a week. My things are now all at the house, bed on the dining room floor, clothes in my dresser in the storage room, just waiting.... I finally asked the landlord if I could just move in and forsake the new carpet. He said that wouldn't be good, it is on back order and I should just wait it out. Well, here I wait, on the dining room floor.

In other waiting news, I am buying the car. A 2003 Toyota Corolla. I am super excited, and I thought it would all be nailed down by the end of the week. Well, apparently this was wishful thinking. First off, the lady I am buying it from has a lien on the car. This means she has to pay off the car, and then it takes somewhere around 10 days to release the title so I can register it in my name. 10 DAYS! Then, to make matters better, the woman I am buying it from is out of town all next week.

It looks like I will have a bedroom around the same time I have a car. In February.

Decisions, Decisions...

I am indecisive. I am. I can barely decide what to wear in the mornings, which was incredibly difficult when I lived alone. Generally this lack of decision making power comes from the fact that I just don't care. If someone else in the group has an actual opinion, let them decide. I feel good about being able to mold to many situations, be happy with whatever happens. But there comes a time, when one has to make decisions all by themselves.

This is the week.

I decided (haha) that this week, for a whole week I am not asking another person "What should I do?" I will also not be using the phrase "I don't care, whatever." I will go along with plans happily, but I will be manning the ship, I will have a decisive answer for every question asked (unless I actually don't know the answer).

This is a big week to try this experiment. I found a car I am thinking of buying, okay so I cheated when I spoke to the mechanic, but I count that as a lack of knowledge. I also am moving into a new house and will be decorating my room alone. We'll see how it goes...

I love you James!

I have been a huge James Taylor fan since I was a little kid, riding in the back seat watching my parents sing along to his cassette tape. Since high school, when I stole my mom's JT CD, I have wanted to see him in concert. That finally happened Wednesday night. Through Paul's hard work finding tickets (Thanks Paul), Paul,. Tom, Blake and I went to Wolf Trap, an outdoor pavilion to see the show.

Before he came on, we sat on the grass, ate Popeye's chicken, notices that we were the youngest people there, and and saw Elijah Woods and that grey haired guy who won American Idol (or their lesser known twins).

James was at his best with his sultry smooth voice, dry wit and killer moves. He played a few more covers that I would have liked, but he also broke out some of my favorites "How Sweet It Is" "Sweet Baby James" "Country Roads" and "Shower the People." The concert just made me love James even more. Though he sounds better live, and I would love to take carry him around and listen to him sing all day long, I have to settle for the iPod which has been on constant James Taylor repeat all week.

Weekend Recap

Friday night I saw Rilo Kiley at the 9:30 club. I know that many tried and true Rilo Kiley fans are a little distraught by their new CD. Under the Blacklights employs a little more Disco flavor than I would have liked to have heard from the band too. That said, Rilo Kiley rocks. I love Jenny Lewis, I do, I think I have a girl crush on her, she's just so cool. The band puts on a great show, infusing new tunes with their older stuff. Highlights: Portions for Foxes, Silver Lining, and I Never.

Saturday morning/early afternoon I almost died of heat exaustion/ dehydration when I, in moments of stupidity, decided to go running. After the concert I was a little tired, so I hit snooze on the alarm and slept in until 10. I got up and decided to get in a little run for the day. Horrible idea. I left at about 10:30, and the temperature was already around 90 with the humidity at about one million percent. Even as I sit here typing at 10:00 at night it is 90 degrees outside and feels like 98 (thank you msn weather). I am not used to this heat, or sweating this much (note to self: don't give blog address to any potential suitors after describing my Saturday run here, they will inevitably be totally grossed out). I digress, sorry, back to the run. I left my house thinking it wasn't too bad. I ran about three miles, feeling like I may as well have been swimming I was so wet and the air was so thick. After about another half mile, I gave up, found a convenience store and bought some water, because I thought I was going to fall over right there on 23rd and P. I then drank my water as I found the nearest metro station. I got on the metro looked down, and my shirt was SOAKED. Sweat was dripping down my face. I didn't even sit down, I would feel too bad for anyone who used the seat after me. I don't know if I have ever been that hot in my life.

Another quick digression: I am so glad I moved here, I only missed the best ski year in recent history this past season, and it is the beginning of June and there are heat advisories... I heart DC.

Saturday night Paul invited people over to his house for a little BBQ/ Pool party. It was the ideal activity, until it started raining and we couldn't swim. During the lightning, we hung out inside, and I watched as my friends almost started a brawl over Pictionary. We then played a riveting game of pool basketball. I have no idea if we won or not, but I do know that I hang with a very competitive bunch. Cheap elbows, grabbing arms, scratching, more than once I was afraid someone would lose their suit in a scramble for the ball. Luckily all suits stayed on and there were no major injuries.

Duck Beach '08/ Find a Mate '08/ Birthday Weekend

Duck Beach is supposed to be the best thing to hit the East Coast LDS singles scene since caffeine-free Coke. It consists of hundreds of LDS singles spending their Memorial Day weekend staying in huge beach houses in North Carolina, strutting it on the beach, and kissing late at night in Hot Tubs. I have been hearing about it since October when I moved here, and people have been on Duck Beach diets, working out, and getting their back's waxed in preparation for this event. Though you all know how I love a plethora of sweet bra's, I was a little apprehensive of going, but I got the invite to a house and I do love the beach, so I went.

The beach is 6 hours from here, and I drove down with Tom. The car ride was great, and Tom and I now know way too much about each other. We rolled into town and had to drop food off at our house and then we had to camp the first night because our house wasn't open until Saturday afternoon. When we got to the camp site, everyone else was already asleep so we pitched our tent and fell asleep to the sounds of the nearby roadway. I felt like a kid sleeping in the backyard. It started raining sometime in the night but no worries because the tent was waterproof, I think Tom may have been a little peeved since we could have had spots in a house that night. We won him over with good chocolate.

The next morning we split from the group, popped on the aviators and Rachel, Tom and I got cozy in his truck while belting out Celine Dion and Timbaland, and headed to the beach. The cluds melted away to blue skies and the weather was perfect for catching rays, and zzz's since we were a little behind from sleeping on the ground. As we were laying there we got introduced to a few new people one of which said to me:
Him: "Your name is Destiny? I used to know a Destiny..."
Me: "Oh yeah? Where?"
Him: "Oh it was a while ago, in High School, in Bountiful, UT"
Me: "Yeah, That was me."

After the beach Rachel and I decided to walk and get our stuff, which was a much longer walk than we planned on, luckily we ran into an ice cream truck on the way, and we hitched a ride back to the house. Tom and Colton were talking up "The Dunes" so much, when they said they were going, I had to tag along. We went four-wheeling on these sand dunes by the beach, and we saw wild horses. We almost had to go Survivor style when we thought we were going to get stuck there and Tom's clutch was smoking, but we somehow made it out without being eaten by the wild horses.

We made it home just in time for the steel drum band and the hoards of people to invade, but left just before the table dancing started and the cops broke up the party for noise violations. Rachel, Michael and I went to his house for hot tubbing (again avoiding the sweet bra's).

Sunday was Rachel's birthday, and before she woke up we made her a card signed by everyone we knew, Sunday school by Preston in our bed with 6 others, more beach time, and I may have gotten annhialated at tennis with Michael. We went to a BBQ and I met two people who didn't glaze over when I told them about my job, it was great! We also had a birthday cake for me, Rachel and Allison, and introduced Michael to Rock Band. I feel a little dealer-esque, because I am pretty sure he is now an addict. We played it in the theatre room of the house, and it was money! That is the way to play Rock Band... but by the end my head was buzzing and I felt as if I had just left an actual concert.

Monday we took a small field trip to the house with the CRAZIEST name Jiggleitalittleitllopen. We sadly had to say goodbye to Duck Beach, and Rachel and I drove with Michael home, and we also now know way too much about each other.

Overall, the beach was a hit!