Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Sweet Home Washington

This last weekend I made a trip up to Washington. Christina came too! This was a weekend to not only see each other, but meet each others parents since we are both from Washington. She picked me up Thursday night from the airport and we went down to my house. Most of the pictures in this blog will feature my adorable niece--cause she's really cute (well, so is Christina, but she gets tired of me trying to take pictures of just her). Friday we went to a small water park. That was fun and the weather turned out nice, but the water was still super cold.

That afternoon Christina and I went out to the Chambers Bay park overlooking the water in my city (University Place). That evening we had pizza with the family and played some games.


In the morning we went over to my sister's to play with my niece for what we thought would be the last time and to say goodbye. She was soooo hyper and excited to see us. She would run up her slide and come down over and over, stomp all around, and squeal as I chased her around.

On Saturday we went up to Poulsbo, where Christina is from. I always tease her cause she says she doesn't live on a farm--but she does. There's a barn, cows, and five acres. But it's a nice farm. I met her whole family (her oldest brother wasn't there, but I'd already met him). We went to a ward activity, walked around downtown Poulsbo, watched some old home videos, went mini-golfing. Then the young couples (her sister and husband and us) went to her sister's house to watch a movie. Here's the one picture I took in Poulsbo.

Sunday was relaxing and we went to church. Because I forgot my sandals at my place that gave us a reason to go back there (I didn't do it on purpose!) on our way to the airport and I got to see Daysha once more. A very eventful and great trip.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Why Giving Matters

This article was probably the most memorable speech I have heard while at BYU (I've heard a lot!) I actually watched it again (on the BYU TV website) afterwards. I'm really glad BYU Magazine decided to publish it.

It talks about how giving makes us happier (and more successful) people. He doesn't talk about it from a religious perspective (he's not LDS, but he is Roman Catholic), but from a scientific perspective. He has seen data that shows that the more people give, the more they make and the happier they are. Not because they are making more, but because giving makes us happier.

I suggest everyone take a moment to read this and think about the importance of making giving a priority in our lives--not only of money, but time and talents.


Accidental Text Message

We've all done it (except for those few that don't have text messaging)--accidentally sent a text to the wrong person. Sometimes this isn't a very big deal, while other times . . . it's very embarrassing. Here's an example of one today which turned out funny.

Jordan --> Nathan
(supposed to go to Christina)
"Okay . . . If you're already thinking of birthday gifts, I'm not sure if flowery lotions would be my first choice . . ."

Then this is how I realized I had sent the text to the wrong person.
Nathan --> Jordan
"That my dear friend was a very random yet funny comment. I was in fact not considering sending lotion in any form."

Now the context of that is Christina was asking me which lotion scents I prefer, vanilla or flowery ones. That's what I get for having Nathan and Christina's speed dials so close to each other.

I seem to be doing this a lot. Twice in the last few days I texted someone I home teach named Jackie, only I still had this other Jackie in my phone (who ironically enough I home taught two years ago). That's right, I texted the wrong Jackie. Oh well, no harm done, usually.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Coldplay Concert

Last night I went to the Coldplay concert. It was a very enjoyable night. They played almost all of the songs from their latest album (also my favorite), Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends. There's nothing like huddling really close together at the front of the lawn for two hours. I do have to say the two opening bands were very . . . different. Here we are waiting for it to start.

They also sang their first big hit--Yellow. Coldplay had some awesome visuals along with their concert. During Yellow they released a bunch of big yellow balloons with confetti in them. Even us on the lawn got to bounce them around to each other.

So there was NO zoom being used on this next picture. They really came that close to us. I was standing at the front of the lawn seating and they had this little stage they came up to and performed three songs on! It was awesome! I was five feet away!

Here's a bunch of butterflies being released during Lovers in Japan.

My favorite song was the one I waited till just about the end for them to play--Death and All His Friends. That was a moment that I really got into it. All in all it was a great show.


Here's a ranking of my favorite concerts from the ones that I've been to:
1) John Mayer (simply AMAZING! he didn't put on as much of a show, but incredible musician, and he did have a lot of personality)
2) Coldplay
3) Dave Matthews Band (it was right after their release of their worst album, Everyday)
4) Third-eye Blind (I'm pretty sure the main singer was in a dress for part of it)
5) Alabama (I didn't see them on purpose, I was forced to as part of EFY watching Stadium of Fire when I was a participant)

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Random thoughts on Palo Alto

-The grocery store has about half an aisle of cereal and about an aisle and a half of wine-like beverages. Definitely not Provo

-Two good jazz stations on the radio! In Washington they only have one during certain times of the day (other times it's NPR), and the Utah one is hard to get reception.

-The city is beautiful and green.

-There are lots of public tennis courts--lit even! Of course, they are normally filled even though there are a lot. But I can wait a little bit.

-California drivers--the stories are true. And the roads here don't help. I think I'm gonna get hit each time I use one of the on or off ramps, they're so short.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Wonderful Weekend!

So I finally get a chance to post about my weekend. Christina came to visit! It almost didn't happen, but she bought a plane ticket out here on Thursday and after a lot of plane problems arrived at 8pm Thursday evening. On Friday we headed up to San Francisco. The first stop was Golden Gate Bridge (further away from the main part of the city than I thought).


Next stop was parking the car in the city. There were some steep hills! And this is coming from a quasi Seattle-ite. This one was like a roller coaster, especially with the trolley tracks there.

We stopped by Pier 39 and walked around the water.

Here's a view of Alcatraz. We didn't have time to go out there.

We then walked about 40 minutes to the theatre where Wicked is playing. We entered a raffle to get 2 tickets for $25 each. I really wanted them! With the amount of people there we probably had about a 1 in 3 chance of getting them. After about ten or so people they ran out of seats next to each other. Christina's name was called out for seats on opposite sides of the theatre. We turned them down--she's only here for the weekend! We didn't want to be apart. She's already seen Wicked and I'll go with some friends to see it sometime this summer.

We decided to go back to Palo Alto, walk around the fun (and much cleaner than San Fran) downtown. We looked at several places and decided to eat at Bella Luna, a nice little Italian place with live piano music.


On Saturday we went to a barbecue/pool party with some ward members. Then we went to a place called Half Moon Bay.


Because of the clouds we decided to go to Foster City for fireworks--a pretty good show. (And yes, I did find these last two pictures on the internet to liven up the last bit of my blog where no pictures were taken. But these fireworks are from the Foster City Firework Show.)

Sunday we walked around Stanford campus in the afternoon after church. Very nice place!

You are a true Jordan Hochstrasser blog follower if you have read through this whole thing. The next day I took Christina to the airport bright and early--4:50am. It was a wonderful trip for both of us. I'm really glad that she came out to visit.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Oakland California Temple

Last night my ward went to the Oakland Temple. I am now 11% done with my life goal to visit 100 different temples.