Spring is Blossoming All Over

I came home early from my Spring Break with my family (who are not LDS) to watch General Conference with all my Mormon friends in DC. My coworker Sandra says I brought the sunny warm weather from southern California back with me because spring finally arrived in DC! (Ultimate irony: this pic was actually taken in "rainy" Seattle on my trip!)

In case you don't already know, General Conference is an extremely exciting weekend every April & October during which our beloved president & prophet Thomas S. Monson, his counselors, apostles, and other Church leaders share gospel messages they have prayerfully prepared for us. It is widely accessible to anyone anywhere through live cable/internet broadcasts, and is available in Church magazines and on its website to review and ponder.

Everyone prepares for and experiences General Conference a little differently depending on their current spiritual needs, questions, preparation, and desires. I didn't have any specific questions this time - mostly just a hope that the inspired messages would increase peace in my life, help me find more "joy in the journey", and have a brighter hope for the future. I feel extremely lucky to not have homework (see end of last blog post) or job obligations to bar me from watching each session live. The weather all weekend (and week!) turned sunny and bright, reflecting the outpouring of light and truth from General Conference, so that I couldn't help but feel warm all over :) I got to keep my tradition of watching each session with a different group of friends!

Saturday morning - cozy @ home with Victoria, Karlie & Heather

Saturday afternoon - @ Cory's house with Cat, Ben & Katie.

We had an awesomely random potluck, as potlucks are wont to be :D Cory's lemongrass tofu & pork, Katie's rotisserie chicken, and my grapes.

Saturday night - I joined about 30 other ladies on a "Girls Night" while the men were empowered and instructed during the Priesthood Session. The amount of estrogen and the volume of happy chatter was staggering. I loved catching up with all my girl friends! Our mini army of Mormon women rode the metro to the waterfront to watch fireworks for the Cherry Blossom Festival; here's part of our company :D

Then Britt & I recruited as many as we could to Good Stuff Eatery for their seasonal cherry blossom milkshake. Mmm I love milkshakes...

Sunday morning - crossed over to C2 and went to Bishop Istook's breakfast party because I have so many good friends in that ward :)

Then I caught a ride to the church building for the Munch and Mingle in between sessions.

I enjoyed asking the guys about Priesthood Session and their favorite talks hehe
Sunday afternoon - @the church building.

There were so many powerful and touching talks but I think my favorite moment of Conference was when Apostle Quentin L. Cook mentioned the hymn "Where Can I Turn for Peace", which I performed in church the day he paid a surprise to our ward 2.5 months ago. His talk in Conference was called "Personal Peace: The Reward of Righteousness". What a tender mercy :)

Monday - finally got to use the class pass I bought at Fuse Pilates 2 months ago (I have 1 month left to attend 5 classes)! I went to my first class after work and found it a pleasantly short walk from the Dupont Circle metro on a beautiful afternoon. I learned some new moves like this harder version of a glute lift, but was disappointingly NOT sore the next day...

Also, I stopped procrastinating and filed my own taxes for the first time. It took 3 grueling hours, way longer than I thought due to annoying things like adding up all my untaxed online purchases, but at least I got a small refund!

Wednesday - the famous DC cherry blossoms finally bloomed! They were early last year and I missed them (moved to DC 1st weekend in April). They were late this year and perfectly timed between my Seattle/California and Boston trips. God loves me :) I met up with Britt after work to soak up the beauty. We ran into Michael, who was photographically enjoying the blossoms too.

I even wore pink flowers in my hair :D


Then I rushed back to Crystal City...remember when Tali bought my dance lesson that I donated to the ward auction? (see blog post) She wanted an encore, and I gladly obliged. Luckily Cory is still in town and willing to be the TA again. We did more waltz & foxtrot. I forgot to take pictures but both of them improved alot within that hour!

Friday-Sunday - Roadtrip to Boston! Stay tuned...