:::Fruity:::

On Saturday my sister came by and took me to Eastern Market so she could get some peaches. It was only my second time going there during these summer months, and the first time none of the farmers were there yet.


Clearly, that's the best part.


I've learned to like okra. Not fried though. Still, dad would be proud.


I love this picture. I love that oooone berry stuck precariously between two baskets.


All the farmers that come in offer free samples. This particular farm is very generous with their samples. The woman in the picture goes around from row to row slicing the fruit into big fat quarters. When she's made it to the end of the rows, she goes back to the beginning and starts all over again. I must have eaten what would amount to almost two different kinds of pears, half an apple, half a nectarine, and a small piece of this yellow watermelon. I could have had more, but we didn't stay long.


I really love fruit. I could eat it all day, every day. My absolute favorites are watermelon, peaches, nectarines, strawberries, cantaloupe, casaba melons, grapes, honeydew, oranges, tangerines, plums, apricots, guava, papaya, and coconut. And apples and bananas aren't half bad either.

:::SFLC Forever:::

BYU Photography

As the new school year begins at the old alma mater, I feel duty bound to share some advise with BYU students new and old based on my own time as a cougar. Learn from my mistakes, chickens.

1. Don't waste your time being bitter. You won't win any awards or gain any friends.

2. Be thankful for who you are and what you have, but don't be afraid to improve yourself.

3. Realize that you're jealous of most of the people that you make fun of. Figure out why.

4. The gospel always comes first, even before all the edifying things you will encounter in art and literature and philosophy. Everything of beauty points to the gospel, but they do not replace it.

5. If you really hate BYU, if you think the atmosphere is crazy oppressive, if you honestly think Utah is lame, then leave. You aren't gracing anyone with your presence.

6. Sarcasm doesn't make you cool or intelligent or better than anyone else.

Oh, young ones, enjoy it while it lasts. It is the best of times.

:::Snapshots -- Thursday, August 27, 2009:::

1. I left work early today because I was feeling really fatigued. I took a cab home -- which I'm always game for -- and got a little sad as I drove past all the museums and realized how much I missed the hospitable weather of fall and spring. Pretty soon I'll be able to move about comfortably again. See ya later summer, you won't be missed.

2. When I was talking to my mom tonight I heard my dad break out into laughter in the background. Apparently he was watching football bloopers. I always like hearing him laugh that way.

3. I've started reading the Book of Mormon again, and I'm highlighting every instance when someone directly asks the Lord for help in a prayer, how the Lord answers back, and what the outcome is. I'm using a new paperback version, so the pages are free of previous marks. This will be exciting and should give me some good examples and guidance.

4. Why haven't there been many pictures on the blog lately? To be honest, I'm not loving the new camera. I guess that in the few years between when I bought my first camera and when I bought this one, Canon decided to be cute and switch up some of the functionality of the A series. I feel like I have less control now than I did before, and the way the buttons work annoys me.


5, Yeah, ate the whole thing.

:::Made My Day in 5 Seconds:::

Here is a story about a real act of service.

My blogging friend Jill came up with a brilliant way to assign not just chores to her kids, but also to teach them some life skills, give them an awareness of what it means to take care of and run a home, and have them participate in enriching activities. She simply took some popsicle sticks and wrote a chore or task on each one, then threw them in a bag. Her kids each draw one stick every morning during the summer and have to complete whatever is listed on that stick. Examples? Learn to make a treat, write a letter to a grandparent, read for half and hour, clean baseboards, go for a walk, plan and make dinner, etc.

Really, this is such a brilliant idea. It's simple, it switches things up a bit, and it works.

Here's a quote from Jill's blog about a recent experience her kids had with the sticks --

Whitney had some serious, morning grumpiness about her Popsicle stick job yesterday. She got "clean a bathroom" while Landon got "learn to make a treat" so she thought that was unfair. I don't know what fair has to do with anything, and am sure she wouldn't have had an issue with it had it gone the other way.

(Here are two links to read more about Popsicle sticks year one, and this summer's sticks in Return of the Popsicle Sticks.)

That is why I love this idea so much. Life isn't fair, but we can have balance. We all have to learn how to do things that we don't want to learn how to do, and we all certainly have to do things on a regular basis that we absolutely dislike. Some days you get 'clean a bathroom,' and some days you get 'make a treat.' There are a lot of good days, and there are also many days when you just have to deal with bothersome but necessary life *stuff*.

I thought this was such a brilliant idea that on one of Jill's post I jokingly commented that I wished someone would make Popsicle sticks for my life. Well, could you possibly guess what arrived in the mail shortly thereafter?!


MY OWN SET OF POPSICLE STICKS!!! Courtesy of a very thoughtful and caring and wonderful lady who I have never even met in person. Now that is just awesome. Jill has kids, a husband, and a house to take care of, plus church and sports and friends and all her blogging friends to keep tabs on, but she still took the time to do a seemingly simple act of service for me. If I was my own mother I would be crying right now because someone took the time to do something so nice for my daughter.

I could not believe it when I saw what she had sent me. When I opened the package I actually did a dorky air punch, then hugged the sticks to my chest and bounced around in a circle. This is easily and by far one of the best gifts I have received in my lifetime.

I have not been good about documenting my stick jobs, but now that I have a camera again I'm going to share every task with you. Tonight I came home nearly comatose and really needed a pick-me-up, so I pulled a stick out of the bundle.


I worked on my list as I sat downstairs waiting for my Thai food delivery, and it totally cheered me up. Isn't nice to have someone tell you what to do once in a while?


Three Disney movies? A feature length film about dinosaurs? I guess movies are more about dreaming and wishing and relaxing to me, and not about being intellectually stimulated! Hmm, maybe I can sneak something impressive in at #20...

This just goes to show you that some of the most crucial service we will give to people may have nothing to do with natural disasters, poverty, illness, or other tragedies. Jill's gift has made me realize that the Lord isn't joking or speaking lightly when He commands us to use our personal gifts to help others. This was Jill's idea, so only Jill could have sent me this gift. Look at how happy it made me.

What service opportunities do I miss because I'm only looking for the big ones, or the ones that are easy to spot? Likewise, what can I do beyond the generic opportunities to serve? Almost anyone can take a meal to someone, but what can I, Rebekah, do for someone that only I can do well?

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you Jill! I haven't been this jazzed up about something in a long time.

:::It's a Jungle Out There:::

This is why I don't leave my house during the summer. Do you see that?!! 78.4 degrees.

'But, that's nice and cool, Rebekah.'

Yeah?

87% humidity!!! What the heck, people!

Some of the downstairs windows are fogged up, not because it's nice and chilly and refreshing outside, but because it's like a steamy, hot, wet blanket out there.

And it's only 11:14 am!

Oh, and I forgot to mention that those blasted bugs are out! They hang out in the trees and make this rolling, vibrating, buzzing sound.

It really is a jungle out here.

:::Hurricane Bill:::

We are in the beginning of hurricane season here in the Atlantic Basin, and I'm as excited as ever. I love all types of severe weather that aren't related to heat or humidity. Give me your blizzards, your hailstorms, your downpours, your raging winds any day. I love watching the earth and the atmosphere step up and show off its power. Of course, I realize that weather can cause severe damage and deaths. I never wish for that. I just love the proportions -- the sublime nature -- of a good show.

This weekend Mr. Bill is making his way up the seaboard, currently about 600 miles off the coast of North Carolina. The great thing about living in DC is that we rarely get the full brunt of any of these big storms, just the fun side effects like ear splitting thunder and blinding white lightening that flashes in rapid pulses across the sky. I love to count how many miles away the storm is between thunder crashes and lightening bolts...one, one-thousand, two, one-thousand, three, one-thousand...it actually works, it really does. The rain never comes until these sky theatrics are over, that is something I've learned over time. You still have time to run for cover while the sky is rocking and rolling. But after that, the faucet is turned on full blast and streets flood within seconds.

I remember my first summer here I was waiting on a street a few blocks away from here to pick up a Zipcar. A storm fell on the city, and the thunder was so painfully sharp and deep and LOUD that I had to plug my ears. There is so much concrete and brick and stone here that the sounds are amplified a million times over. This thunder is BIG. You can't be heard over it. It literally resonates in your rib cage.

After a few minutes of thunder and lightening and hovering under a pine tree for meager shelter, the rain came tumbling down. I watched the street completely flood within 3 minutes. It was one of the most amazing phenomenons I've ever witnessed. Needless to say that I was completely soaked through and through, and when I finally got into the car I could hardly drive because the windshield wipers couldn't keep up with the downpour.

And then, as quickly as it began, it was over. The water washed away and the storm clouds moved on. Within a half and hour the sky was blue and clear. Sciz-o, for certain, but I love it.


During the summer I sleep with my window open at night to let the cool air in. Early this morning at 4:20 am I was jarred out of my sleep by the sounds of warfare in the sky. I laid (lay?) there in complete awe until I had to shut the window because my ears started to ache. Just imagine having both ears pressed up against shooting rifles. It's so cool to hear nature make sounds that big and broad.

When the lightening came, I finally got out of bed and grabbed my camera. My window was shut by this point, and the best of the thunder had passed, though you can still hear some rumblings over the sound of my fan. You have to see this lightening though. When it's really going good it's like someone is holding a strobe light outside of your window.

This time the rain that followed was very tame and, par for the course, lasted only for a few minutes.

I think it's funny how easy this post was for me to write, when usually I really struggle to put something together and give words to my thoughts. I just really like weather. Growing up in Southern California I was always so annoyed by our tame weather. One of my favorite memories happened when El Nino passed through and we all thought we were going to die. I was sick during the worst week of it, and I remember laying on the couch near the tv and watching nothing but weather reports all day long. By the time I went back to school I was a weather guru. During PE my friends kept coming up to me and asking me questions about the storm and I would tell them all about storm cells and pressure zones. Seriously, I have two good memories from high school, and that is one of them.

Continuous coverage here and here. It looks like Bill is going to stay out to sea and cause most of his problems further north and into Halifax and Nova Scotia, but you never know. Landfall! Landfall! Landfall! Cross your fingers.

:::Whaddya Know, Joe?:::

I think a helicopter that's meant to pick up the Vice President just flew past my bedroom window. No biggie. He's supposed to travel to Chicago today, so that's my best guess. I was just checking my email and all the sudden my windows started rattling.

See ya later, Joe!