Oh what do you do in the summer time?

I love when people ask me what I do over the summer. I get a really big smile and say, "Whatever the H*** I want." Of course, I omit the H for some audiences. It is very satisfying and makes me rejoice that I'm a teacher. Because really, during the summer I do whatever I feel like. Even if that includes watching full seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in waaaay too short a period. (It makes for some crazy dreams, in case you find yourself hooked on netflix streaming as well.)

But I know some people really truly want to know how you spend two months of free time, other than proving Twilight was not the beginning of vampire fiction by viewing multiple seasons of Joss Whedon's 90's imagination.

Also, I want documentation that I did cool stuff when I had, you know, money, time, freedom, and flat abs without stretch marks. So here is the 30 things I had written in The Book of Lists. The festivities began shortly after John parted with his sweet and loving appy.

"Things to Summer 2010" (Apparently I didn't have enough brain power to use all the necessary words when I started this list in March)

1) Girls Camp- Way different as a stake leader. Organized the hard hike (5 miles, five hours, 50ft chain to help up one of the cliffs), watched my YCL's totally mess up teaching certification *face palm* (WE PRACTICED THIS! Failure's good for character building though, right?), helped out with all the big events, had my hair braided into a hundred braids, and had about 14 hrs sleep total for the four days. Forgot my camera, and really didn't care because I was happy to be finally done with meetings :)

Get home, shower, go to baptism, repack suitcase, sleep 9 hours, and go on

2) Virginia Road trip- I'm a professional roadtripper. This means that I go on road trips with friends and they buy me tickets to fly home. This is my third time so I officially consider it a side business. I went with my old friend Katie Abbott, who was working there for the summer and had recently returned from her mission. Posing with the Pepe bread in this random little city in Tenessee, complete with small town TN accents.

We drove to Albuquerque the first day and stayed with my buddy Brian. The next day we heard the funniest thing from the GPS, "Get on the I-40 and continue for 1007 miles." And that was just to Memphis. We did find a lovely diner around 12am where I learned the true meaning of bacon. We plugged on Harrisonburg, VA after that. And let me tell you, I used to think that Texas was eternal, Tennesse about killed me it lasted forever. Of course we drive it at a diagonal...

After merry o Virginny, Katie drives me to DC where I spend the next four days hanging out with my old roommate Dantzel and her new roommates whom I have adopted as friends. John and I had visited her last October and did the touristy stuff so this time I spent a day reading in the hammock and trying out the Japanese soaking tub. Oh and checking out the firefly show in the backyard that would rival the Princess and the Frog. The rest of the trip was spent doing things like jet skiing on the Potomac, meeting Okapi while eating at the famous Ben's Chilli Bowl, wandering around Alexandria and seeing a guy play the "glass organ" outside the Old Torpedo Factory, the National Zoo, hitting up Eastern Market and eating delicious crepes while rummaging through the flea market, and going to the concert hosted by the Denmark ambassador featuring Little Red Suitcase, held in a little art gallery on U street. I recommend the Fairfax/DC area for anyone you know who is graduated college and single. The LDS scene there is one happening place full of intelligent, fun, event planning people who all seem to have finished grad school.

After flying home first class, I slept a day, did laundry, and packed again.

This time I drove to the other coast to camp in Carlsbad, CA on the beach. It was a Castillo fam adventure and I again, did not bring my camera. But here's a stolen pic of Alicia and my cousin's daughter to illustrate the perfect beach. To be continued...