Whoever said patience is a virtue didn't have to commute to Abington

We decided several weeks ago that it was time for us to get a car.  We really wanted to get it as soon as possible, since the reason we decided to get it was that I have far away clinicals.  Wow, it has been a crazy few weeks.  We spent a bunch of time car shopping, and finally found just what we wanted for a good price, so we put a little money down so they'd hold onto it for us, and waited for our loan money to come in... and waited, and waited.  Finally, I decided something must be wrong, so I called the bank, who told me they'd sent the papers to my school for certification but hadn't gotten them back.  So I went into the office at school (had to miss some class for this even) and they claimed they hadn't gotten the papers.  So I called the bank back and had them send the papers again, and the school finally got them certified and sent back to the bank.  The bank took its sweet time disbursing the funds to the school, and the school took its sweet time disbursing the funds to me.  Additionally, I was misinformed about the amount to be disbursed, which really screwed up everything.  Do you think it's the state of the economy that's making everyone hold onto their money like it's super glued to their hands? So for weeks, we've been telling ourselves that we'll be able to get the car in just a few more days.  Every long, long commute to my clinical sites on public transportation, I tell myself that I won't have to do it next week because we'll have the car by then.  And it doesn't happen.  So here we are still, carless as ever.  We're working out all the kinks, slowly, but I refuse to plan on having it by this time next week, as I have every week since the beginning.  Sometimes wishful thinking doesn't make things go faster, or work better.  So this week, I'll make the commute the long way, and next week, I'll be off for midterms (yay for no clinicals).  Maybe, just maybe, when I return to clinicals the week after midterms, I'll be able to get there in our car.  I owe my sweet husband many thanks for the hours he has spent on the phone working out various issues.  I know it has been frustrating to him, and it has taken up a lot of his time.  I know this is a little messed up but I gotta say it- sometimes it's a little nice when things don't work out as easily as we'd like them to, because it makes the times when everything comes together easily seem all the better.  Maybe that's just me.  

Here's hoping that this'll all come together sometime in my lifetime. :)

Will it ever be ours?

Mwah ha ha

I was just looking at the forecast for South Jordan, Utah, where my family lives.  I have it set up on my computer so that when I push F12, it will show me the weather here and the weather there. I like to compare.  Some days I'm sorta upset I did, like days when it's 20 degrees warmer there than here, but today I feel all snooty about it because it's almost 40 degrees warmer here.  40! Take that Utahns.  Still love you guys though.

Twice in 1 day

Yeah, I don't really have time to post today at all, but here I am again, for the second time.  There was actually something else I wanted to write about earlier, but I wanted to do that tag, so I'm back.

This afternoon, during my 1 hour lunch break, I walked out the doors of the New College Building (in the same building as Hahnemann Hospital, for those familiar with Philly), over 1 block to Broad Street, and then up the few short blocks to Broad and Spring Garden- the future location of the Philadelphia temple (or so I've heard).  On my way up, I took in the sights around me.  I walked past medical students rushing to get some lunch before moving on to the next thing.  I watched the traffic pass on Broad Street, which street name is actually quite appropriate.  I examined the buildings I passed on the way up there- the Philadelphia School District Building, the Philadelphia Inquirer Building. When I reached the intersection at Broad and Spring Garden, it was bustling.  Food trucks were lined up along the southwest corner of the street and the lunch crowd was lined up to get a delicious bite.  On the southeast corner, on the ground floor of a building was a rehab center, and the higher floors probably residential. On the southwest corner with all the food trucks was a tall-ish (I'm not talking skyscraper or anything, but decently tall) building, dated in its style.  In the northwest corner was a parking lot, stuffed with cars, advertising all day parking for only $10.  And there, on the northeast corner, was an empty lot.  It was fenced in.  No cars were parked there.  None of the lunch crowd was lounging there.  It was just an empty lot, with a few weeds, and a large mural on the building next to it.  Now I don't know for sure if that's where the temple is going to go, but it sure seemed like a good candidate to me.  So I walked over to the lot and stood outside the gate and just looked.  As I turned to make my way back down Broad Street, I again walked past the lunch crowd, and the people on street corners taking a smoking break, and the students rushing from one thing to another, and I thought about how life was going on in this city I love so much, and how so many people have no idea what special things are going to take place just blocks from where they stood.  I rejoiced in the thought that an inconspicuous street corner, unremarkable and probably unnoticed by so many who pass it, is going to become sacred ground.  I thought how it is going to be amazing that our temple will be in such a location, with a straight-on view of City Hall a 15 minute walk down the road.  I walked by the subway station at Broad and Spring Garden, the very same coordinates as the future temple, and knew that such a location could bless many lives.  I went back to school feeling different.  I know the people of Philadelphia will be so blessed because of this temple.  I know many who have made great sacrifices to get to the temples in Manhattan and Washington DC, who would go more often if they only had the opportunity.  In Utah, I have lived the kind of life where, in the time it takes the members here to get to the temple, I could drive by at least 5 or 6 temples.  I had no idea what kind of sacrifices people make to worship in that sacred place.  So, this comes as an answer to prayer.  God has been and continues to be mindful of the people of Philadelphia. Although we will probably not be here when the temple is completed, we will return to visit this temple- our temple.  I know my words on this topic are not as beautiful or articulate as my husband's but I wanted to express some of the feelings I've been having about it also.  What a happy announcement that was.

Tag

I got tagged, and since I completely dropped the ball last time someone tagged me, I thought I'd play along this time.

8 TV Shows I Love to Watch:

In no particular order, and yes, I know I watch way too much TV.
1. House
2. The Office
3. Monk
4. Bones 
5. Psych
6. 30 Rock 
7. Prison Break
8. Pushing Daisies

8 Favorite Restaurants:

This is a tough one for me.  I can be a wimp.  It's not that I don't like to try new things.  I just figure that if I'm going to spend money on a plate of food, I darn well better know that I'm going to like it.  So I end up going back to the same places over and over.  Again, in no particular order.

1. PF Chang's- the honey chicken is divine
2. Outback Steak House- we actually just went there for the 1st time a bit ago, and we stuffed our faces.  Yum!
3. Chili's- We go there a lot because it's close and I'm boring.
4. IHOP- no joke, I could live on their stuffed french toast
5. Sconecutter- This may or may not actually belong in this list, but I have been craving it so bad for the last little bit, and since there aren't any here, I'm outta luck until we visit Utah in December.
6. Allegro's- a little pizza (and pretty much any other food you can imagine) place around the corner from us.
7. Philly diner- another cute little place sorta nearby.  It's the kind of place you go to at 11 at night to fulfill that craving for delicious breakfast foods.
8. Naked Chocolate Cafe- does that count as a restaurant?


8 Things That Happened Yesterday:
1. Slept in ridiculously late (I had to get up at 4 AM on Saturday so I felt amply justified.)
2. Took a shower but put pjs back on when I was done
3. Watched conference morning session (except that it started at noon, so not really morning).
4. Went and ate lunch with our cute married couples group.
5. Watched conference afternoon session with said group.
6. Sang Happy Birthday to Natalie (Yay!)
7. Studied for my 2 quizzes today.
8. Went to bed.

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To:

1. Finishing this nursing program!!!
2. Symphony concert this Saturday
3. Getting our car (any time now...)
4. Halloween.  It's a great holiday.  One of the best, really.
5. Visiting Utah for Christmas time
6. Getting a grown up job 
7. Seeing my husband tonight
8. Eating- I'm starved.

8 Things On My Wish List:

Ok, so I'm superficial.
1. A haircut.  I pretty much hate my hair.  Which is why I'm always chopping it off.  And why I want to again.
2. I wish I were done with this nursing program (ha ha)
3. To be loan free now instead of maybe 50 years from now or something
4. I wish I had more Halloween decorations besides just the little candle holders my mom sent me and the completely adorable ghost pot holder thingy.  Those are cute, but I want more!  (Wow, I sound like a nasty, greedy little thing)
5. I wish I could lose the 20 pounds I put on when I went on my medication.  I've been carrying the weight around for a while now, and I've sorta given up hope.  Maybe once I'm done with this nursing program (anyone detecting a theme here?)
6. I wish I could sleep in on Saturdays
7. I wish all my cute little friends here could know how much I adore them, and, in conjunction with that, I wish we could hang out more.  Everyone is so busy.
8. I wish I could be as good in my calling as all the people I see around me.  They are all so sweet, and so genuinely care about those Primary children.  I'm still kinda grumbling to myself about being "exiled" to Primary.  I know very well that it's a bad attitude, but I'm having a hard time shaking it.  Guess that's why I am where I am.  I definitely have a thing or 2 to learn.

I'm gonna be a party pooper and not tag anyone else.  Feel free to feel tagged if you'd like.  I wouldn't complain.

The good Lord giveth and the good Lord taketh away

Philadelphia is getting a temple, but the Cubs got swept out of the playoffs. I will be mourning and hoping that 101 is the magic number.

My Lord, my God... my city

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true.

I have a love-hate relationship with general conference. I love the all the talks and I think it's hilarious that President Monson always reads the stage directions when he conducts ("Singing by the choir"). But, as anyone who knows me and also knows some more valiant members of the church can attest, I'm not the most spiritual person in the world. Sometimes my friends at school think I must be incredibly spiritual since I actually go to church and they know I pray and read my scriptures and such. But anyone who knows my wife or some of my other friends knows that I am a complete weakling where things of the soul are concerned. So ten hours of church services tends to be a little much for me, especially since it's so spread out.

I've had incredible experiences, revelations, and epiphanies while watching conference in the past and I was sort of hoping for something kind of similar. In short, I was determined to get something out of conference. And not twenty minutes in, I did get something out of conference.

But I didn't wake up this morning expecting it to would be something so tangible.

I got all ready for conference. I update the video plug-in on my computer, I attached the speakers to my computer and sat down in front of the computer to watch. I enjoyed the opening songs and then I got ready for the good stuff as President Monson stood up. I always get a little excited every conference that there will be some kind of exciting announcement -- whether made on Saturday morning or (if it's secret Priesthood stuff) in the evening Priesthood Session. I still remember vividly when President Hinckley announced the Perpetual Education Fund and how excited that made me.

Well, this news topped it all. And I think I got the news a little early. As President Monson started to speak about dedicating some new temples, I had the distinct impression that Philadelphia would be getting a temple. I was getting excited and sitting on the very edge of my seat for the next several minutes as he talked more about the programs that church members put on and so forth. All the while, I was trying to kick against the pricks: "Well, that would be nice but we'll see." "Maybe they'll announce one in a couple years." "Is this even the way I would find out if they were going to build a temple here? Would they just say it in Conference or would there be a letter or a fireside or a meeting? Certainly there would have to be some kind of meeting. The Church loves meetings." But then, President Monson said that the Church was announcing five more temple sites and the Holy Ghost said to me, "See, I told you so. Philadelphia will be on this list." When President Monson read "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,"  I think that maybe I raised both my hands in the air and cheered. The Spirit and gratitude rushed over me. I sent a message to ShaNae letting her know since she was at a clinical assignment.

But I got out of my chair and started pacing back and forth as I poured out my heart in gratitude to the Lord. (A good indication of my level of spirituality: I tend to pace while I pray.) I thought of all the wonderful members of the church I have come to know and love and what a blessing a local temple could be to them. I thought of how much more often the Philadelphia First Ward would be able to attend the temple and the incredible work it could do. I thought about the incredible impact that a temple would have on missionary work and how many wonderful Philadelphians would come to know of the truthfulness of the gospel because the temple piqued their interest.

I thought about the amazing things that had transpired. Of course the Lord would bless Philadelphia with a temple. The Church has been growing incredibly fast. Last year and the year before, I know that our ward baptized incredible amounts of people and that many of them are active, faithful members to this day. I never cease to be blown away by the real sacrifices made by members of our ward. If anyone in the world deserves a temple, the sweet members of our ward do.

In short, I "remember[ed] of how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that" President Monson announced the construction of a temple in Philadelphia. I thought of the incredible blessings that have come into my life because of the restored gospel. I thought about the blessing of priesthood ordinances and I thought about the remarkable grace of Jesus Christ. 

Gratitude invites the Spirit in a very unique and very powerful way. I noticed after a few minutes that I hadn't really payed attention to much of conference because my mind was entirely elsewhere. Eventually I made it back to my chair and sat through the rest of conference with a huge smile on my face. I paid a lot of attention to the talks and all, but mostly I just got more and more excited. I dinked around on the internet hoping against hope for more information -- first, and foremost, where it will go.

"Please let it be accessible by public transportation," I kept thinking to myself. I want everyone to have the ability to access it easily. I want the temple to be site. Put it on the parkway. Put it on Broad Street. Put it in Old City. I kept thinking about all the possibilities.

I started thinking about what a blessing the temple would be to the city as a whole. Performing vicarious saving ordinances for the dead would mean an added measure of the Spirit on Philadelphia. The Spirit of the Lord is already so strong in this remarkable city where people are so wonderfully kind and tolerant. I started thinking about how amazing it would be to add more of the Spirit of Elijah on top of that. If you're planning on moving to Philly any time soon, you'd better come fast because I think this place just might be heaven-bound pretty soon. ;-)

Obviously, I'm exaggerating a tiny bit with the translation part of that, but I really love Philadelphia. People ask where my wife and I want to end up and I always let my wife say "back West somewhere since that's where our families are" but a part of me is always screaming, "right here!" The longer I live in Philadelphia, the more painful it gets to imagine leaving this magical city. I really would love to live here for the rest of my life. (Don't tell my wife. She's not going to read this, is she?) In my mind, the proximity to a temple was one of the greatest marks against Philadelphia as a place to live and raise a family, but soon that will be out the window.

Honey, let's come back to Philadelphia and live here forever after I finish school.

Anyone who thinks that Philadelphia is no place to make a home has been proven wrong today. If Philadelphia is good enough for God to call home, certainly it's good enough for any one of us to call home.

My heaping mess reminded me

As I have written about before, I do not like Wednesdays.  I consider it to be the worst day of the week in general.  This term may be a bit of an exception.  I have an afternoon clinical on Wednesdays for all except 2 weeks this term, which equals sleep in.  Yay!  It's especially nice since I gotta be up at 4:30 AM on Thursdays and around 5 AM on Saturdays.  I am NOT a morning person.  4:30 shouldn't even count as morning.  It's still the dead of the night if you ask me. Anyway, that was an overly long preface for my little story.  In my time home before clinical this morning, I was getting caught up on some things that needed to be done around the house.  As I was vacuuming, I was thinking (again.  I have thought about this a lot) about how it's funny how easy it is for everything to fall to shambles.  What I mean is that a week and a half ago, I was on break from school, and at that time, my clothes were clean, my dishes were clean, my fridge was stocked, my apartment was nearly spotless, and I wasn't really behind on much of anything, unless you count my scrapbook, which is sorely neglected.  And here I was, a week and a half later- I only had clean underwear because my husband stayed up until all  hours washing them.  Our kitchen was (is) a pig pen.  Our fridge pretty much contains a few slices left of our bread loaf, 2 bags of mozzarella cheese, and my 40-bzillion water bottles.  We have no food, our stuff was strewn everywhere, and it was (and still is to some extent) just a big, chaotic mess.  What a change- all in a week and a half.

So I got to doing one of those cheesy analogies in my head.  I think that's the way it is with many aspects of our lives.  If we don't do constant maintenance, things can fall apart really quickly.  Certainly groceries run out and laundry piles up if those things are neglected.  But spirituality can really suffer too, if we neglect it.  If I were to go a week and a half without reading my scriptures, I know I would feel the difference.  If I choose not to repent, my sins pile up to a heap that is intimidating, and takes much longer to clean up.  If I take the time to take care of these things every day, I hold it together a lot better than I do when I neglect them.  I am a better person.  I know everyone already knows and understands this principle, but it really hit me again this morning as I cleaned up my physical messes that had piled up.  And I'm glad it did because now I feel a resolve to do better.