The Great East Migration: Day 10, 20.APR.2011

So, this post is not going to do the last few days justice, I haven't had internet for a while.

All the fam-bam arrived in Salt Lake on Thursday for my grandmother's funeral. I got to see Linds and Huss that day, we had lunch at La Terra Mia in Provo and then dropped off happy-hour slushies from Sonic at J and Amelia's work-- Amelia got called out frantically for a "Code White", which was funny to see her scuttle off, but also concerning to be in a hospital when a code was called.

Thursday night I played my dulcimer at the first of grandmother's viewings and then we had a big family dinner afterwards to chill out. I got to listen to a lot of ppl from the family that I don't know where well-- cousins and aunts of my dad and aunt-- they are seriously funny. I learned that my sense of humor is very "john" like... meaning, like that of my john family. One of Grandmother's sis-in-laws was practicing to play at the funeral and turned around, looked at me and said "well that one takes after the johns" and I had to laugh. I guess my looks and personality are really a product of my family, which is cool!

Friday was the day of the funeral. I played my dulcimer for the second viewing and then we had a nice family prayer and closed the casket. The service was nice, but felt long. My sister sang and my Dad and Mom gave talks and my Dad sang "Hawaiian Wedding Song". We all got to wear leis b/c my grandparents loved Hawaii.

My brother and I were pall bearers and it was my first time actually functioning in this capacity (I think), as other times I have just been honorary b/c I wasn't able to attend the ceremony. It occurs to me that I may have been one for my grandpa's funeral, but I don't recall. I was wearing heels this day though, and fearful of sinking into the ground under the weight of the casket and loosing my shoes, I just stole my moms'. :)

We had a nice lunch after the funeral and then didn't do too much until another family meal that night in SLC.

Saturday I got to go to Chel's baby shower and deliver the diaper cake, which was a hit. I also got to see a lot of other ppl who I don't generally have time to see when I'm in town. It was fun, all of these ppl who are now married or w/ kids and I had no idea, so it was good.

That evening I got to see some of my Field Studies peeps, whom I love and don't get to see often enough, then I jetted back SLC for a baby shower/birthday part/final farewell w/ my family.

Sunday we had an awesome time! Well, except for waking up freakishly early to have a farewell breakfast w/ my siblings. We went to see the tabernacle choir perform along w/ a Phillipine Madrigal group called MADZ. They are an amazing group! After the taping of 'Music and the Spoken Word' the group did two more numbers just for the audience in the tabernacle and it was outrageously hilarious. Lloyd what's-his-face (the 'voice' of the program and the LDS church) announced that MADZ was going to sing and then handed the microphone over to the director of the group to say the titles of the songs b/c Lloyd didn't want to butcher the Phillipine names. The director announced them: 1) The William Tell Overture and 2) In the Mood. The audience seriously erupted w/ laughter. And it wasn't a joke! They really performed "The William Tell Overture", cymbals and all, vocally! The audience had a fit it was so hysterical. You can see the perform this on youtube, but it was better when I saw it in person b/c of all the actions and expressions of the performers, they really hammed it up. "In the Mood" was equally as good.

We didn't make it to church after that b/c we opted to hang out w/ my aunt/uncle/cousins one last time before my brother left to go back to OH. We did have steaks, however.

Sunday night I got to go see my Field Studies buddies again and we played games and ate delicious food and generally had a great time. :) Spent the the night w/ J but J had other business to attend to, so I didn't see her.

Monday I spent all morning emptying out my storage unit. :P And also catching up w/ ppl like Janelle (and her kids, she has 2 1/2 now!) whom I haven't seen in ages. I also got to meet w/ a girl to talk about doing research on architecture and use of space in Italy. It was rockin'. I'm really excited about this girl's Field Studies project and felt a pang of jealousy that I wasn't going myself. Monday was kind of a heart-achy day, I had a weird dream about dating someone I care a lot about and then I woke up to realize that I'm not dating that person, and then I had to see and say goodbye to a bunch of ppl, and I missed seeing other ppl, and it was just kinda sucky. The thing about leaving Utah though, is that you know you're never far away. Any time I leave I know it won't be long before I'm back, and as much as I don't really love Utah, that is a nice feeling. Surprisingly, I made alright time getting all this stuff done, however, and then went back to Bountiful to be w/ los padres and to finish sorting through all my crap.

On Tuesday we mailed 9 boxes of books to my new place in D.C. Not surprisingly, books make up a majority of my belongings, and thankfully, there is a great rate for shipping boxes of books... its a good thing too, b/c it took us until about 2:30 to get the boxes shipped and the car packed, and there is now basically no room left in the car. It then took us an additional 30 minutes just to get the stupid bike rack on the car and the bike affixed. We finally beat it for Provo, where I dropped off a card for a dear friend who got married that day, but I wasn't able to go to his reception. :( Then we were off for Wyoming.

Last night we slept in Rock Springs, Wyoming.

The Great East Migration: Day 4, 14.APR.2011

Today started out tired and slow. After breakfast I worked on my taxes and then dropped my Dad off at the airport to get a rental. I then headed down south to happy valley to visit some dear friends of mine. We had a delicious lunch of real Neapolitan pizza and then dropped off Sonic slushies to two of my favorite people at work, after which I returned up to Bountiful for the viewing. I arrived in Bountiful a bit late b/c of nasty traffic caused by dirty rubber-neckers. But all was not lost, I quickly got dressed upon arriving at the hotel and beat it for the funeral home, Russons, in Bountiful.

My brothers were there and the wife of one of my brothers, my sister and other sister-in-law are to follow.

A friend met me at the home and it was great to see her, its been quite a while. There were also quite a few ppl from my aunt's work at the county sheriff department, and they all seemed pretty nice and friendly. After visiting with my friend I played my dulcimer for the rest of the evening. I played a lot better than I usually did. I'm not sure if that's because I couldn't actually hear what I was playing so it just sounded ok to me, or if it was b/c the angels were there playing along, I think the latter (well, maybe both...). I didn't spend much time looking at my grandma, I figure I'll see the real thing at a later point and don't need to dwell on the body.

After the funeral we all went to Marie Calendar's in Bountiful for a very late dinner. I sat next to my grandmother's sister and across from two of her nieces. They were a kick in the pants and reminded me quite a lot of my aunt. It was good to see a new side of my family, one that I see very rarely, the last time I spent much time with them I was too young to enjoy it. I found that my 2nd cousins or great cousins or whatever they were had a sort of humor that strikes a chord of nostalgia with me. I've decided it must be the John humor, b/c the John family is the only connection we had, and I recognized some of their humor in my memories of my Grandma. The nice thing about funerals and other family gatherings is that you learn a whole lot more about where you came from than you might otherwise learn. You see people in their true colors, which are often telling of who they are, who they are related to, and where they came from.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day, another viewing, the funeral, luncheon and cemetery services. I hope it is a good tribute for my granny. With much love and good wishes-

The Great East Migration: Day 3, 13.APR.2011

Bountiful... the land of milk and honey, also the land where my hair is so dry it stands on end, and it went from 75 degrees and sweating at one point during the day, to rain, slush and snow by the time I went to bed. Go figure.

Today I didn't do much at all and it felt great. I practiced my dulcimer preparatory to the big viewing debut, and then I went shopping for a baby shower gift. One of my best friends is having a baby, so this gift had to be something special. After a Michaels, Dollar Store, Shopko and a Kmart, and two hours of rolling by three participants (myself and my parents), the gift is done, and it looks swell. The end product is a diaper cake, you saw correctly, a four tiered faux-cake made of 86 diapers. The inside base is bath salts and a candle, and it is decorated with ballet slipper socks, a binkie, a headband, a baby toy and a receiving blanket. I'll post a picture, its darling.

I met my aunt's beau tonight, we all went for dinner to Lorena's in honor of my grandmother. She loved that place. I did not, however, order her favorite dish, a ground beef enchilada. But I DID order horchata, which is the best drink known to man. For lunch we also honored grandma by going to Wendy's and getting a frosty. Good times. Can't think of much else to say. With much love-

The Great East Migration: Day 2, 12.APR.2011

This post is going to be quick b/c it is late. Yesterday we left little Hermiston around 10:30, after a nice swim in the hotel pool. I was pleased to see that neither my bike nor bell had been stolen in the night as we had had to lock the bike to my car. :P

So, we got on the road fand hadn't gone far when we came upon the little town of Pendleton. What is significant about this trip/finding is two fold. First, my mother made this same trip (from Seattle to D.C.) with her mother, just as I am now, when she was about 27, except I'm 28. Mom was eastward bound then b/c she had been hired by the State Department. My mom and her mother stopped at the Pendleton Wool Mill store on their way east and got some wool cloth. So, we stopped at the Pendleton Wool Mill and got some cloth, which my mother is going to sew into a dress for me. It was a historic occasion.

Shortly after, we continued on our journey eastward. We stopped at a scenic view, which is apparently protected in Oregon. A sign at the site said over 7,000 signs and billboards had been removed from the transit area as part of a scenic overlooks protection act or something. I thought that was very liberal of them.

Continuing on, we drove on I-84. I can't remember anything really noteworthy happening for most of the day. My Mom and I finished listening to "Around the World In 80 Days", which is part of my goal to be more literature-ified or educated or something.

We drove like the little steam engine that could until about 7:30 pm when we realized we needed some gas and also some food. At that point we had a little under quarter tank. We stopped at the first place we saw, a sinclair station in a little podunk town. The sign on the door of the station said "Enter Carefully, Baby Rattlers Display". Unfortunately, the door wouldn't open b/c the station was closed, and the pumps were all pre-pay. So... we got back in our car and continued down the road, knowing that we didn't have far to go on the tank of gas we had, and also noting that we were in the middle of nowhere and we often went 30 miles before another exit.

So, we continued on our way. We knew Snowville was about 38 miles away, but told ourselves "surely we won't have to go that far, there will be something sooner." There was nothing sooner. I slowed down from 78mph to about 65 in order to get a little better gas mileage. While the semis were passing us by, we were just looking ahead, waiting for an exit with a gas station. We looked at every exit between us and Snowville for gas and niente! Nothing. About 10 or so miles from Snowville the gas light came on, and at that point we weren't even sure Snowville would have gas, but like the little engine that could we just kept saying "I think I can, I think I can." We knew that when the gas light came on we had a couple gallons left, so when it did, we knew we could go 20+ more miles. My Mom was pretty stressed out at this point, but I just suggested she make sure we had phone reception, check the GPS for gas stations and not worry. She worried, I didn't worry, but I was giving God a little shout out for some help. I felt sure we would be ok. Then we saw a sign for Snowville, which was 7 miles away. I let God know it would be good if there was gas there, and I think he concurred. 7 miles later, we puttered into the gas station, and I was sure the car was about to give out. We thankfully filled the tank, the 15 gallon tank, to 15.3 gallons. Does that mean we were running on celestial gas? I think so. We said "holla" to God in each our own special ways, grabbed some food (it was not around 9) and made a break for Utah, arriving in Bountiful around 10:30.

Thank goodness for miracle gasoline and for faith and for "Around the World in 80 Days". This is going to be a long trip, but also monumental and memorable.

Today is 'get ready for the funeral day', our journey will continue on Monday.

The Great East Migration: Day 1, 11.APR.2011

Today was the first day of my next big adventure. Three weeks ago last Thursday my Grandmother, whom I had been living with since October, departed this earth to return to live with God and her loving husband. The following week I decided a move to D.C. was imminent. Two weeks later, on Friday, was my last day of work, and also the day of my father's mother's passing. So, after all of this craziness, the first day of the next phase of my life begins. The D.C.-bound migration phase.

We left Seattle late, but had time to pack like crazy people about 3 tons worth of stuff into my little baby cakes the 2001 Taurie, take final pictures with my cousin's little tykes, enjoy a wonderful Somalian lunch, and stop off at REI one last time for that ever important U-lock. On the road to our present location, Hermiston, Oregon, we traversed rain, hail, snow, sun and wind. In Sunny Side, Oregon we stopped at a Shell gas station just off the Interstate and saw an awesome old barn on a small hill overlooking where we were standing. The walls were bowed, so it was sort of shaped like the hull of a boat. Since it was on the top of a hill, the builders were able to cut out a basement area w/ big doors and erect concrete retaining walls that were opened to the valley. I'm not sure what kind of barn it is or what it was used for during the time when it was being used, but it was really cool, and not like anything I've seen before. We saw a few other barns on the way which were cool, but maybe not nearly as cool. This one doens't seem to be under anyone's care, at least it isn't being kept up, and it shares a lot w/ some hotel chain.We took some pictures and I'm thinking of looking it up later.

From Sunny Side we trekked onward to Hermiston, which is a little over the border of Oregon from Washington. Tomorrow we head for Salt Lake. Grandmother's funeral is to be on Friday and I will be playing my dulcimer at the viewing the night before and hte morning of. Julie joked about me accompanying her on my dulcimer in playing "From A Wig Wam", at least I think that was a joke.

All in all, it should be a fun and interesting few days. I'll make it there just in time to be at my friend's baby shower and meet up with a few others before everyone takes off for the end of term. We'll see how it goes, and I'll try to keep an accurate record to share. With much love

-Rose