Filed under: life... | Tags: boston, chicago, east coast, love, summer, surprise, travel, trees
So, when June 22 came around, I packed my bags and jumped on a plane to Boston. Only, it wasn’t that easy…
The flight from San Diego to Chicago was no sweat, only I had a 30 minute layover (is that even allowed??) and the Chicago airport is not just big, it’s huge. And slightly confusing. I made it to the gate just in time to be pleasantly surprised by the fact that we’d been mysteriously upgraded to a gigantic airplane with too many seats, so seeing that I was seated near the front, I got bumped up into the extra leg-room zone (not that I need it or anything..). I also didn’t have to share my row with anyone. That is, until someone decided that friend #3 needed to sit closer to the rest of their rather annoying traveling crowd. Great. But, I can handle that. I’m a pro at airplane sleeping. ONLY… the time for takeoff had come and passed without us going anywhere. It was the Midwest, it was getting hotter in that stupid plane, and all I wanted to do was melt into the arms of the one I love. Apparently there were weather issues in Boston. They refused to deplane, so we sat. I called my man to let him know of the delay and he gave me some much needed company as we sat on the tarmac for THREE HOURS. By the time we took off, I should have already landed in Boston.
The plane ride was only 2 hours, but it felt like the longest flight of my life. I didn’t even sleep for a second. So, finally after engaging in holding patterns and some uncomfortable turbulence, we landed. I stepped into Boston… and, there in front of me was the guy of my dreams. I jumped into his arms, and the rest was fireworks. It was a beautiful moment, and just the beginning of many to come in the next week.
Off we went into the rainy night, picking up where we’d left off a couple months before, and it felt good.
In the morning the sun sort of came out and I saw what the night had hidden– trees. Everywhere. I was in a place that was charming and beautiful, that I’d only ever imagined after reading a book. Where the living was traditional, slow, and running to the store for whatever the heck you perceive to be so important isn’t so instantaneous. In that moment, a big chunk of my California heart was lost to the trees of the East. It took quite a journey to get there, but once I was at home, the adventures of travel were swept out of my mind and replaced with something infinitely better.
As the week went on, I found myself a spot with my new family. I fell more in love with the trees, and even more in love than I ever knew I could be with my Handsome Man.
Surprise #2: Even the California-est of them all can make room for the other coast.
[RACHEL]
Me!
I can count on one hand, the times I’ve won a prize…
1. The time I got peer pressured into using a canadian twenty-five cent piece to pay for a go on one of those stuffed animal grabber things at 1 AM in the wal-mart vestibule and I won G Love the reindeer.
2. The time I got peer pressured into filling out a BYU survey and I won a bookstore gift card.
(see a trend here?)
3. The time I singlehandedly decided to comment on a blog and won this:
as if the kitchen weren't already hot enough!!!!
Can you say spicy?
Aaaand…. the winning words:
My fiance and I love cooking together, and this cute apron will keep things spicy in the kitchen for sure!
Yeah, so I was commenting on a post in a wedding blog…
Thank you, Handsome Man, for making cooking quite the pleasure!
[RACHEL]
Waiting for surgery turned out to be more ridiculous than I imagined it would be. After reporting abnormal symptoms, my podiatrist told me that I probably had something worse than the previous diagnosis. Three choices here- Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, or the diagnosis still holds and it just hurts WAY more than it’s supposed to. Only an MRI and blood work would tell. My other doctor refused to do the blood work, on the grounds that he thought the podiatrist was full of crap… I didn’t find that out until later, though. So, I waited for an MRI as the previously scheduled surgery date passed uneventfully. Unemployed and lonelyhearted, I was left to my imagination as I wondered for a few weeks what a life of high-risk pregnancies, or slowly becoming completely crippled would be like. Not cool. The calm voice of reason (my man) put some sense into my imaginative mind, assuring me that no matter what, it would be OK. I stopped freaking out, went to the MRI (finally), and it was made known that the podiatrist was indeed full of crap. All I needed was physical therapy.
And, with that, my summer started looking a lot better. I instantly booked a flight out east, kept a little more busy with physical therapy sessions, and planted a garden that gave me two zucchinis before it completely died (it’s not my fault, I swear).
Surprise #1: No surgery.
[RACHEL]
ps. I’m getting married in 140 days 
I know I had all sorts of plans for this summer… back in January I debated over what I should call the summer ahead of me. At the time, I decided to call it the Summer of Learning to Love you More… based off of a really awesome website I found one day. As you can tell from my postings, I have not done a single one since summer started… in fact, I decided not to do them all by myself, which should explain the lack thereof. LTLYM will be back into full swing upon reuniting with my handsome man Another reason this moniker is a dud is this– the whole logic behind my naming it so completely died out. But I’m not crying about that at all! I think being crippled and in bed all summer would have been completely boring and awful… but the surgery didn’t happen… so I didn’t need to keep myself busy with the activities. I was not far off when I joked about calling it the summer of love… but I think I found an even more fitting name, especially since it was so obviously the summer of love, and I want to be creative here. I’ll spice it up a little… I think I’ll just call this summer The Summer of Surprise.
To quote my favorite Norwegian singer, “baby, be prepared to be surprised.” That’s really all you can do! Life has this funny way of taking your plans and rattling them around a little, just to see if you’re still paying attention, just to get you out of your complacent, perfectly orchestrated perception of reality, just to keep things spicy. In a few words, that is my story. In a few more words, I’ll give you a fantastic reason or fifty why… and I’ll even throw in this: they’re all AMAZING surprises!
But, that’s all for now folks… It’s like this lesson I just learned here at my desk- if you eat too many cookies at once, you’ll probably start to feel unwell. So, one cookie at a time, I don’t want anyone puking here…
[RACHEL]
