the let down

i feel like after that last post, nothing i could come up with would be good enough. would it? could it? yeah, i'm not sure.

these days i use the phrase "eeeeeeeeeeeee!" a lot more than i ever have. and i have to say thank you to so many of you for all the phone calls and comments and emails and everything else. last friday i found out that darrel won't be leaving for the middle east until late november, so at least we'll get to see each other a few more times before he leaves. yay for that.


also, rachael, i love you. hang in there.

and now, for the rest of the story.

the day before i left for london, my boss sent me a panicked text asking what i was going to do about my passport. a few weeks earlier, i had gone to the wave organ with some of my girlfriends and when we got home, i no longer had my wallet. i accepted the fact that the waves had swallowed my drivers license and credit cards. i cancelled my credit cards and got a temporary drivers license, and took my passport with me to dc as my photo id.

am i the only one who finds it ironic that someone found my wallet the day that i left for london? i don't think i believe in coincidences anymore.

on saturday morning, i found myself in a cafe eating breakfast with darrel.

i could summarize my weekend in london by using the following words -

even when we got a flat tire going 80 miles an hour down the motorway.

even when darrel got to show me how manly he is by changing the flat tire.

even when helped me fulfill my dreams and took me to stonehenge.

and when he took me on a paddle boat in hyde park.

and when he took me to see his coworkers, the guards, at st. james palace.

and when we went to see the quintessential london icon, big ben.

especially when we carved/drew our initials in a tree in hyde park.

oh heavens.

In which I tell you why I went to London this last weekend.

And back by popular demand, here I am. My life has been just a little bit crazy the last week or so and I don't think my body knows exactly what time it is or where it is for that matter. I have been pretty vague here on my blog as to some things going on with me recently and since I usually bare it all for you here anyway, here is my latest attempt.

A few weeks ago, I met a guy while he was in San Francisco on vacation. His name is Darrel. I met his best friend while I was in Geneva for New Years this year and the two of them came through San Francisco over their two week vacation and stayed with me for a night.

Isn't he dreamy?
{yes. yes he is}

We hit it off. We had a little drama the weekend I was in Catalina.
And, I started to like him.

{Enter in about 4 phone calls and about a hundred emails over a 5 week time period. Also enter in one plane ticket to DC purchased for the express reason to meet up with him on October 9th.}

And there are some minor details that you should know; like....he is in the British Army and is going to Afghanistan for 7 months. He wasn't sure when he would be deployed, but he thought that it would be either late October or early December.

Last week I was in Maryland for work and on Tuesday, I got an email from Darrel saying that he received his deployment date and that he would be sent to Afghanistan on October 3rd.

gulp

A week before we were supposed to meet up.

The next 24 hours unfolded as such:
1. My boss's boss told me to forget my high school reunion and go to London.
2. I emailed my boss to see if I could take a few days off this week.
3. I talked to Darrel to see if he had plans for the weekend.
4. I bought a plane ticket to London.
5. I squeeled. A lot.

I have to say that I realize that people don't just go to London for the weekend. But in the same breath, I have to also say that I realize I am not normal.

And now that I've got you on the edge of your seat, you will have to wait until tomorrow for photos and stories from this weekend. Everyone say it with me "Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

let us review, shall we?

this last weekend, i spent approximately ten minutes in the airport in the below city.

then i finally ended up in this city where i ran 12.18 miles and enjoyed the scenery.

and now i am in this town for work all week.

remember how i was going to go here this weekend since this is where my high school reunion is??

well, i am going here instead.

on my way home on monday night, i will be sleeping here.

before i get here.

i am so glad i was able to catch you up on my life. you. are. welcome.

Stowe Lake

Last Monday was Labor Day and I came home early Monday morning in time to spend a nice day in the perfect weather that San Francisco was offering. Sometimes, this city really is irresistible. San Francisco, sometimes, I want to have your babies.

Kristine and Ryan came up from Palo Alto to rendezvous with me at Stowe Lake in Golden Gate Park. Just going to the boat house there makes you feel like you are back in the 60's. It is one of my favorite places in all of San Francisco and it had been years since I'd been over there.

We decided to get a row boat and have Ryan row us around the lake. No wussy paddle boats for us. ...err, him.

I cannot emphasize how perfect the weather was. It is rare that I am able to wear short sleeves without a jacket, ever. really. ever.

After we got rowed around the lake for an hour, we walked around Strawberry Peak, which is in the middle of the lake. Just a little island with a few trails up to the top and fun things like:

Pose on bridges

And look at pretty pagodas.

And then we went to the Mary Poppins sing-along in the Castro. Yeah we did.

my actual birthday birthday celebrations

On Saturday, although it was my birthday, I ran 10 miles and I went to a mini family reunion and 90th birthday celebration for my grandma in Utah. The best part about it was that I was able to see a lot of family that I rarely get to see. For example, my Uncle Curtis. He's been reading my blog for some time now, so here's my shout out to you! He's my mom's oldest and only brother and reminds me so much of my Grandpa who passed away a few years ago; always happy and loving. Love you, Curtis.

His oldest daughter, Bethany, is so good at keeping in touch and coming to visit when I come to town. And she has the cutest kids. I feel closer to them than a lot of my cousin's kids and of course i didn't get a photo with them.

and then there is alex and erica. mmmm. i love them.
please note how tall they both are. i am shorty mcshorterson in this photo.

later on that afternoon when we were back at my parent's house watching byu beat oklahoma, my nephew made some awesome poses for me with the broccoli he was munching on. seriously, I doubt that you any other 13 month olds that love vegetables as much as my sister's kids do.

to finish off my birthday celebration, uzi picked me up and we went to the movies with matt and dalton up in salt lake. we went to see 'my sister's keeper' and cried our eyes out for a few hours. i didn't think that i'd like it, but it was actually much better than i thought it would be. uzi, thank you for taking care of me on my birthday. i sure love you.

28 years old and i don't look a day over 21. please agree with me.

the mint at its finest

i celebrated my birthday a few days early with some friends on wednesday night. i just thought i should show you some of the proof that i had a wonderful time. there are so many things to love about this photo. please name them in the comments. also, many many thanks to those who made this night happen. kristine and rachael, i don't deserve you.

what is on my mind.

These guys have been on my mind today. Did you know that they are called Coldstream Guards? Turns out that I know one. Is being a bodyguard to the Queen attractive to you? Please leave your vote in the comments. Rachael, your vote has been disqualified.

In other news, it has been 5 years since I made the decision to move to San Francisco. Really? Was that 5 years ago? I cried today thinking about that day. I don't think that Tara realized it was such an anniversary when she called me today from the Taco Bell drive-thru, but it made me smile just the same. Seemed appropriate since she was my roommate and closeset friend at the time. This song is always associated with that day in my mind.

5 years ago I was sitting in Provo, Utah, on Riverside Ave, crying over shattered expectations and trust. Today, I skipped running again for the 2nd day in a row, and ate out with my current roommate, who is also one of my closest friends. I think my life is better now, wouldn't you say?

my 3 year anniversary trip with ryan anderson

I was lucky enough to get invited to go to one of my favorite places on Saturday. And since I am so outdoorsy, here I am using my new back pack! I went to bass lake with 6 friends. i almost missed out on this yearly tradition this year, so i am extremely grateful that the weather permitted me to go on the last real weekend of the summer.

here's the view from the beginning of the trail. can you beat that!? doubt it. can you see all the great whites down there? pretty sure you can see them jumping up through the water every few seconds. (total j slash k)

this is how excited i was to be on my way to bass lake on such a sunny day. it was probably over 80 degrees outside, which was more than perfect.

i don't have any photos of us swimming around in the lake, but just imagine me swimming around in a lake and loving my life for an hour or so with my hot pink raft. see photos here and here if you need a visual. pure bliss and the weather. oh, the weather. so amazing.

did i mention that i went with these hotties again? oh, dear. you are going to get the right impression if i keep posting photos of us together, aren't you?

veronica and i are posing in front of the lake for you on our hike out. have you been to bass lake yet? it is kind of a locals-only thing, so if you live around here, i am happy to pass along the information if you want it.

dear bass lake,

thank you for the good times. i will love you forever.

love, steph

when we're not pretending to be outdoorsy, we like to eat out.

rachael and i have started going on weeknight dinner dates with some hotties in our ward. the first week, we went to la mediterranee, which is a mediterranean restaurant. i know - genius. it was so much fun and the boys loved the food so much that we decided to make our trying new restaurants a tradition.

round two took us into the mission to el cachanilla. the main restaurant was closed but the taco window was still open, so we practiced our high school spanish and ordered ourselves some nachos and tacos. the taco window lady -- or she might be appropriately called, the taco nazi -- even came outside of her volition to pose in a photo with us. coincidence, we think not. my recommendation is that if you go, make sure that the main restaurant is open, but if not, enjoy the mission weather and pull up a seat outside.

this was followed up by some birite creamery and boy howdy, that place never disappoints.

it should be called full dome. there is nothing half about it.

so where do i even begin in telling you about half dome. pretty much, i had absolutely no idea what i was getting myself into. if you don't know what half dome is, please check your california quarters from now on. it is a huge chunk of granite coming out of the yosemite valley in eastern california. also, please note that half dome is the inspiration for the north face logo. now i know why this hike inspired an entire sport brand.

there were 9 people with us - and we started hiking at 2am. we had people fly in from texas, new york, utah, and dc to go on this adventure with us. such an amazing group of friends. here we are about 4 hours later once we'd reached the upper valley. we were already getting delirious and throwing logs at each other people's faces around this time. or, in other words, scott porter was throwing giant logs at my head. below, dave haynie is just showing us how strong he is.

jason and i switched packs somewhere along the trail - here we are drinking from our own camelbacks. that would be half dome behind us. that's how far we still had to go. oh my.

hiking....

we passed this sign along the way. no biggie, right.....

and about 6 hours into our hike, we got to the cables. people die hiking half dome and this is where they die. i'm not kidding. you know how i like living on the edge. i am so outdoorsy - i was ready to conquer this thing. i will punch half dome.

and the next time scott porter asks me to turn around, i will. you can see here how steep the climb is.

i had climbed up about half of the cables when i realized that the shoes you see right there were not going to cut it. the little wooden boards that you can climb to are about 7 to 8 feet apart from each other, and after slipping and doing a pull up to the next platform to save my own life, i realized that if i went up one more step, i would slip to my death. i just stood there shaking. luckily scott took good care of me and helped me scott down half of the mountain on my bum while holding the cable in my bare hands. seriously - i was looking death in the eye for a few seconds there on the cables. i just knew that i couldn't do it. not that i didn't want to. but. i'd rather be alive than say that i made it to the top of the cables at half dome. maybe in a few years if someone invites me to go back, i will get some good hiking shoes and give it another go. here is an awesome photo of steph b at the top of half dome. what an incredible view.

i am happy to report that we all made it home safe and sound without sleeping for 40 hours and after hiking about 20 miles.

if a marathon is anything like that, bring it on. i am going to punch you, marathon. and a big thank you to scott porter for taking all of the above photos. your arms are number one, your shoulders are number one, YOU are number one. oh. and to jason boyd for carrying my bag like a super star. and for rachael - for being so damn good looking.

it should also be noted that a few years ago, a guy i was dating told me that one of his goals in life was to hike half dome. i told him that he was crazy and that something like that would never be on my list or would i do something like that. looks like i'm crazy. go figure.

the top 10 reasons i haven't gotten much sleep in the past few weeks

1. there were two boys from london visiting me while they were in san francisco. people who are on vacation do not care about the schedules of those who work. oh, but look at the one on the right. aeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeae


2. going to santa cruz on a work night is fun, but not advisable since it is 1.5 hours away.


3. hiked half dome starting at 2am and finished at 6pm the same day. there went that's night of sleep. lost it in the dark somewhere in yosemite. once i get some better photos for you, there will be a post in it's own right about this adventure.


4. although i already posted about it, here is my travel log of catalina.


5. with every day that goes by, i'm getting more and more stressed out by my 10 year reunion coming up. of all the hundreds of photos that have been posted on our reunion website, i have not been in a single one. shocker.



6. cute boys
7. cute boys
8. cute boys
9. cute boys
10. cute boys

oh, my life is so hard.