College Tours, Take II

I never got to choose my college. My father wanted me to attend BYU. He convinced everyone he knew to steer me toward BYU. The only school we visited was a trade school in San Francisco I had heard of, so he could show me how poorly it compared to BYU. So I ended up--where else?--BYU. And it was a good experience . . . but I've always felt I missed some vital experience by not participating more in the decision. Now I know I did.

Last year Mykell and I had a six hour drive to visit the University of Iowa. The car discussion revolved around her hopes and dreams for the future, her insecurities and fears, and imagining her life away from home. When we arrived in Iowa City, we walked through the vibrant downtown area like students, got T-shirts, toured the campus, and stayed up late eating sandwiches and ice-cream in our hotel room. As a result of that trip, she made UofI her runner-up school, but more importantly, she knew her parents cared for her and would help her through all life's difficult decisions. I missed that experience with my parents.

This year I've been driving Bryce to his top colleges. A few weeks ago we visited the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Friday we saw Purdue. Rose-Hulman comes in July. The long drives and conversations are much the same as last year's with Mykell. Plans are being made. Options are being weighed. And the pressure of such an important decision is crushing. I can see why my father stepped in. But I think I could have made an intelligent college decision myself. That thought was brought home to me as Bryce and I walked across the Purdue campus to tour the different dorm rooms. Some things just feel right.

"I'm realizing just how little time I have left at home with my parents," Bryce said. "And I think I need to take better advantage of your knowledge while I'm around."

"Okay," I said, just a little curious.

"So, what should I look for when I buy my first house?" he asked.

Now see, that's how easy the college decision should be. It looks like we have a future Boilermaker in our midst. Next major decision, please.

On Second Glance Prologue

Okay, Blogger is being unreasonable. It won't let me import my file for you to read, so if you really want to see this, you will have to go to my profile on Facebook and then access my Notes page. It's there. I promise. And lucky for you, the prologue is only about 3-4 pages long. Nice and short. Enjoy.

Unfinished Symphony

It's wrong, all wrong! I can't say what it is. I don't have a name for it. But every time I work on my novel I feel it in my soul. There's something majorly wrong with my book!

So that's it. After a full year of work, I'm throwing it to The Shelf . . . . along the boulevard of broken dreams. Yeah, I feel like a loser. But why let that stop me? Plenty of losers go on to write perfectly good top selling novels. So I've heard. After ten years or something. But I've already started my new project, a young adult romantic comedy called "Mood Ring". I'll tell you about it later.



For the time being, my loss could be your gain. For those who have always wanted to read something I've written but haven't had the chance, I'll be posting the first part of my novel "On Second Glance" tomorrow. It's an intense romantic suspense that's actually pretty good. It just lacks an ending because I didn't get that far. And, yes, I know how stupid that sounds. I know HOW it's supposed to end, it just never felt right trying to take it there. So, stay tuned, enjoy some down time, visit my fantasy world, and if you detect the magical missing ingredient, let me know so I can put a merciful end to this unfinished literary symphony.

Waiting for inspiration.

Taste of Tokyo

Over the weekend, Mykell and I went to Chicago on another mother/daughter outing. We can't seem to stay away from that town.

This time we went for a Japanese Language Speech Contest at the Consulate General of Japan offices. Maybe Chicago isn't our city of choice but it doesn't hurt that the offices are on Michigan Avenue at Watertower Plaza, with Neiman-Marcus on the main level of the building. Anyway, seven Japanese judges listened to Mykell's speech and graded her performance. Talk about pressure. There were 4 divisions: the elementary/middle school division, then the high school division (all less than 3 years experience), then the college/adult divisions.

A traditional kimono at the Japanese Information Center

As the judges finalized their decisions, we got to eat caviar and sushi, which might be great for high society gals, but I still gag at the thought. We also got to play with a robot prototype that looked like a baby harp seal. So cute. And then came the moment of anticipation.

Traditional dolls to celebrate Girls Day, March 3

As the prizes were awarded, each contestant accepted their gift bag and stepped off the stage. Mykell was downhearted when the English-Japanese/Japanese-English dictionaries were gone, and when the Barnes & Noble gift cards were all given out. But then they announced the awards for third place. Mykell and I looked at each other. Third place already? How could she make it so far? She and one other girl were tied for the least amount of language experience. Mykell couldn't be in the top three! And then they read off the winners in each division for second place. What? Mykell still wasn't called! At that point we were both stunned speechless. All we could do was laugh.

She got first place!! Way to go, Mykell!

I still can't believe it, but it was a wonderful experience seeing her up on the stand accepting her award, knowing all the hours she has put in to get this far. You see, Mykell started Japanese a semester late (Erik and I thought Chinese would be a better language to learn, from a global perspective, but Mykell hated it and quit). Because she started Japanese winter semester, she had to take Japanese 101 as an independent study course, only meeting with the instructor once a week for pronunciation/culture instruction. Japanese 102 was also taken independent study, over her summer break, with no instructor assistance at all. Upon her return to campus in the fall she had to take the Japanese 102 final to see if she could continue Japanese 201 with the rest of the class. It was a very stressful time, but her perseverance paid off and she passed with a high score. So, with all that said, Japanese 201 is actually the only semester Mykell has had to speak the language with other students. And now Japanese 202. It is amazing that her instructor would nominate her to compete in this competition at all. And then for her to be a finalist? Wow. It says something of Mykell's tenacity.

All the contestants and judges
She doesn't stand out, does she?

Mykell and her instructor, Fumiko Chiuini, have worked so hard and put in so many hours to translate Mykell's speech to Japanese (It was titled, "The Importance of Motherhood"), get the speech memorized, intonation exact, etc. etc. Congratulations to them both. It is an award well deserved.

Now we'll have to wait and hear about nationals . . . .

From Me To You

Okay, I've been "awarded" the opportunity to share 7 things about myself with all of you. Bear with me and I'll try to make them interesting.

1. I love to schedule. Whether planning a trip itinerary, making goals for the year, or putting together a class schedule, I love to block out the sections of time, the activities, and get the details arranged so that everything comes together like a puzzle. It has to be the most efficient, cost-effective, smallest span of time imaginable. Family vacation? Done! My daughter's college schedule? Done! Heck, I've already taken care of her next four years. Crazy, huh? If you only knew how long it took to organize all those details in the perfect precise order, though.

2. I am a hermit. I work alone. I don't like to leave home unless absolutely necessary. I return calls, but hardly ever call anyone myself. I love silence. And I like it that way. Blame it on my past, dealing with disgruntled parents (at work, not my parents), disgruntled customers, previous jobs as an operator, kids kids kids, and relying on others only to have things fall through. This doesn't make me unsociable. I could hang out in a Starbucks anyday and be happy, but I'd be sipping hot cocoa in the quietest corner with my laptop.

3. I whistle while I work. Maybe that makes me a dwarf, I don't know, but I've had decades of practice and am REALLY good mimicking songs. It's one of the first things my husband noticed about me. He came from another room to see who was whistling Oingo Boingo without missing a note. Yep, I can hold a note while breathing in or out. I do classical, instrumentals, pop/rock, anything I've heard really. My favorite? The saxophone solo in Foreigner's "Urgent".

4. Don't even ask for any of my colored candies! You'll mess up my system. Candies like Skittles, M&Ms, Smarties, etc. have to be eaten by twos. You take two of the same colored candies and pop them in your mouth at the same time. And then you eat two more until you're done with that color, so the flavors don't get messed up in your mouth. You finish one color, you move on to the next. And if there are odd numbers, you eat them in pairs at the end. One left over? Get another handful.

5. I start out sleeping on my side, end up on my stomach. Unless I have a cold. Then I end up on my back snoring with a dry throat.

6. I have a mild form of Reynaud's disease, which means my body reacts to cold like yours does to snakes: all the blood in my extremities shoots the wrong way on contact. Okay, not exactly, but I do wear socks continuously (sometimes socks with my slippers), can't slice up one half-thawed chicken breast without needing to scald my hands back to life, get shivery from a ceiling fan, and never completely disrobe. No, I lied about that last part. How would I ever take a shower, people? I just wanted to see if you were paying attention.

7. One word: Bellydancing. Just started. And, no, this is NOT like stripping. Clean up your minds. But it is fun to wear my jingley hip scarf while I sweep the kitchen. Maybe if I could hear it over the vaccuum, I'd do more of that. Yeah, right.

Feel free to post your own 7 Interesting Things.

Vacation in Ruins

Two days visiting four sets of ruins can really do a person in. Here are the reasons why you need to see more than one.

You can climb all the ruins at Ek Balam and get the jungle view from the top. And Ek Balam has the best preserved artifacts, considering they were only "accidentally" discovered when an outer wall fell and the main tomb was discovered. (The palm frond roofs are to protect the carvings. They were never part of the original design)

The king's tomb, or Jaguar's Mouth.

For all you Elizabeth Peters fans, you can see real archaeological techniques: emptying the ruins to discover what they are, then sealing them back up with rocks or iron gates until they have time to return for full excavation.

Cenotes, or underwater lakes, are also an interesting phenomenon in the Yucatan. Since there are no rivers or lakes in the region, these places were once considered sacred, as they were the only source for drinking water. This one probably provided better water when the cave was sealed, but it's pretty to look at, and a nice refuge for several hundred pigeons.

Another cenote outside of Valladolid. This one has a tree growing at the top opening. Those are the roots growing all the way to the bottom. Incredible.

You can't climb the main pyramid, but everyone visits Chichen-Itza. We did too.

A typical vendor's table. They are everywhere--rows and rows of them--and will call out to you to buy their things no matter how many times you have said no, or even if you have already bought something. The bravest souls will leave their tables and approach you in person, promising unbelievable deals, until you decide to take them up on it, then the price goes up.

More for the Elizabeth Peters fans. If you look closely, you'll see that this section of wall has every stone numbered in chalk and placed in order, just as the archaeologists pre-assembled the wall after sorting the stones.

Chichen-Itza has a nightly light show. Who could miss that?

Coba has the tallest pyramid on the Yucatan penninsula. The only one taller is in Guatemala, almost twice as tall as this one. You're not allowed to climb that one, and with good reason. The stairs are treacherous.

Coba is one of the least excavated sites. Jungle-covered hills are all around the 26 square mile site, concealing ruins yet to be cleared. Unfortunately, the Mexican government only allows money for 3 months of excavations a year, and with the time it takes to keep the jungle from taking back the discovered ruins, there just isn't a lot they can do.

Coba is very spread out. We got a bike guy to pedal us around and save our feet. The poor guy. He earned his money that day.

Tulum had some of the least impressive ruins, and you can't climb anything, but it has the advantage of being the only remaining ruins on the seashore, which makes for some stunning photo ops (but also draws the most tourists. This was by far the biggest tourist trap area we found with respect to ruins).

Find the two iguanas.

After all that walking we needed a rest. Back to the beach for some R&R.

And that's our trip. A great week with the one I love.

Surf & Turf Special

Up for trying something new? We are too. While in Cancun we planned to snorkel, kayak, windsurf and parasail. But once we entered Aquanaut's Dive Adventures in the sleepy fishing village of Puerto Morelos, we got carried away--we scrapped all the other plans and took up scuba diving!

After a video and a short training session in the world's coldest pool, we were boated out to one of the world's best tropical reefs where we put our skills to the test. The ocean was a warm 80 degrees. Ahhh, perfect.

With 4 certified divers accompanying us, including 2 instructors, we were well taken care of.

When we surfaced and I said I was going to be sick, my instructor just smiled (almost laughing) and told me to go ahead. Pretty brave for a guy who's job it is to keep me next to him.

In my defense, they didn't tell us until later that those were rough seas that day: waves, swells, current, etc. Sheesh! I'm proud I did so well.

It took us a day or two to fully absorb the diving experience, but three days later we were scheduling our next dives. So cool! In all, we did three different dive sites and saw every fish I've ever seen in an aquarium, and a lot of other sea life including lobsters, lion fish, and even a barracuda.

Yep, saw a moray eel.

Saw whole schools of these, plus yellow tangs, angel fish, needlefish--everything imaginable.

We may never get fully certified, but it's fun to think where our next warm water dives may be: Australia, Belize, Tahiti?

Puerto Morelos Lighthouse. The Leaning Tower of Beacha.

Okay, we didn't really do any surfing, but it's a cute photo op anyway.

On another day we took the ferry to Isla Mujeres and visited the sea turtle sanctuary. We arrived right at feeding time and the little guys couldn't get enough.

But we saw three much bigger sea turtles while diving. I swam right over one and had to be careful not to kick it in the head or have it bite my flipper.

We walked for miles on Isla Mujeres, mainly avoiding the tourist areas where vendors bombarded us with shouts to rent their scooters, golf carts, buy their silver jewelry, baskets, blankets, trinkets, or what have you. All junk. It really got annoying. But for a country where the people barely subsist, it hurts to constantly say no.

I wish I had pictures of some of the typical Mexican scenes we saw away from the tourist zones: a man riding a scooter down the street holding a huge fish out to the side, taking it home for dinner. A family of three or four squished onto the seat of a scooter. A young man with a rifle strapped to his back, riding a bike next to the jungle road looking for dinner. A father and son next to their parked bike near the jungle, filling the cart with cactus leaves to eat or sell. Old men with heavy logs tied on their backs walking along small town roads, either to build a thatched hut with or to use as fuel to cook with. And all the wild dogs running loose, even in downtown Cancun. Unfortunately, these were all fleeting glimpses as we drove past, or as they drove past us on our walk. Too bad. I still feel that those scenes were the "real" Mexico.

The ferry to Isla Mujeres (Island of Women). Legend has it that Mayan women made pilgrimages to a temple at the end of the island for fertility blessings. I didn't bother to walk that far. Baby turtles were good enough for me.

Erik giving me the Can't we just stop walking? look.

He's always a trooper to keep up with my action-packed itineraries without complaining. But we both paid for this trip in blisters. We bought band-aids on two separate occasions. Ouch.