Feelin' XXII

out for sushi in celebration of my XXII birthday – photo cred goes to Regan

I live in Ecuador and I had pumpkin pie for my birthday.

I don't know if you realize how remarkable that statement is. You see, pumpkin…you can't find it in Ecuador. It just doesn't exist. No pumpkin seeds, no canned pumpkin, nothin'. This posed a problem to me; I've had pumpkin pie for my birthday for as long as I can remember, and while there's certainly nothing unpleasant about eating chocolate cake for you birthday (or anytime, for that matter), pumpkin pie makes the experience so much more special.

pumpkin pie with my twin

pumpkin pie with dragon hair

because two is better than one

pumpkin pie with my twin (again)

pumpkin pie in ECUADOR

pumpkin cupcake

pumpkin ice cream

Okay, I just really have this thing for pumpkin.

So we flew Jeff to the states and had him lug back several cans of pumpkin in his carry-on (yeah, bet that was fun). Yay!

The night before my birthday, Emme took me out for sushi, then she and Regan hauled me through several clothing stores and probadores until finally determining I looked cute in a pale blue blouse (with ruffles!!) and floral skinnies. I have always wanted floral skinnies.

On my birthday, I awoke to the smell of Happiness, which, in case you didn't know, is a mixture of citrus and apples and cinnamon. To me, it smells like Autumn and Christmas and the holidays and… and happiness. The source of this Happiness was a potpourri blend Regan found on pinterest. She and the girls made me breakfast which included an apple-cinnamon smoothie (drinkable happiness) and mini muffins (bite-sized happiness) and crêpes with strawberries & nutella (I don't even need to say it, do I?)

Throughout the day, I felt so blessed to be with such a wonderful family for my birthday. We listened to Taylor Swift's "22" more times than I care to enumerate and made pumpkin pie and cleaned the entire house (clean is fun, really). And then I ended up drinking the Happiness potpourri (I'm still alive; that's not a euphemism).

Thanks to everyone for all their birthday wishes! It's going to be a good year. :)

TORI'S TRAVELS: My life's a beach

Why, hi there. Things are going amazingly well here in Ecuador. I love the family I live and learn with, I love my sweet new fellow mentor, I love the fact that Daylight Savings doesn't exist in this country––so many good things. I can't believe I only have TWO MONTHS before heading back to Jersey!

A few weeks ago,we all piled in the car and left the mountains behind, spending the weekend in a lovely little coastal town. A note on driving. I've driven in Philadelphia, Rome, Paris––nothing is as crazy as Ecuador. Basically…ANYTHING GOES. Stop where you want, go where you want, pass where you want, speed where you want. It's total anarchy! Cars fly around blind turns shrouded in thick clouds like YOLO.

At first I was terrified, clutching the steering wheel with such intensity I was in danger of giving myself CTS. I kept my eyes glued to the road, ignoring the viridescent cloud forests flashing by. Obviously, looking at the road while driving is a pretty good philosophy for any scenario––even in my farmland hometown in Jersey––but it is especially smart when driving around sharp turns in the Andes. Why? Remember how I said anything goes? Well, that applies to which lane you drive in, too. Several times, coming around a curve, I had to hit my brakes because a car was flying directly towards me! Crazy, right?

The good news is that I survived, and after five hours of motor anarchy, I stepped out of the car to bask in that glorious thing called humidity.

Well, the humidity wasn't so great when the elevator broke and we had to repeatedly hike up seven flights of stairs to our condo. The view was worth the climb, though. (Um, in retrospect.) After living high up in the Andes for so many months, the tropical air was so warm, thick and moist I felt like it might get stuck in my lungs. 

At the beach, I didn't get sunburnt, go swimming in the ocean, or build any sandcastles. I did buy one of those floppy sun hats I've always wanted, see a magnificent frigatebird for the first time, and taste several delicious local foods (chifles are my new weakness).

HashtagCountYourBlessings

Hey! Sorry to have been MIA for so long (I'm sure you noticed), but a month ago my dear, aged laptop died for good. The poor thing was literally wheezing and displaying a flashing question mark. Luckily for me, I have a father who works in resuscitating deceased computers. Even wheezing, fatally confused computers. So now (spoilers) I am happy to announce that after one month of an electronic dark age, I am posting from my old computer.

It wasn't an easy road, though. The Ecuadorian mail system is so corrupt you can't ship anything anywhere, and computers here are double the cost of computers purchased in the States. When my computer first displayed the dreaded question mark, I was sprawled on the floor (coincidentally, the only location in my bedroom that gets a signal also seems to be a favorite gathering spot for spiders––we've had many close encounters) and I was bawling. HOW CAN I LIVE WITHOUT A COMPUTER?!? The question initially had me baffled.

I'm teaching the Old Testament in Primary this year and, thankfully, it gave me some perspective: Job's family was squashed, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, Eglon was so obese that the scriptures record him as a "very fat man" (sure would love THAT to go down in history), Samson gets his eyes poked out and dies, Jonathan should've been king but his father is wicked and they both die, Prometheus gets his liver eaten out by an eagle every day for all eternity because he CAN'T die. I mean, these are real problems (well, except for Prometheus, who doesn't actually exist––lucky for him) and, upon contemplation, the plight of not having a computer for three months was belied in their light.

This is what we call "photo editing by hand." Classy, right?

I'm pretty lucky. Probably. For one thing, I will not go down in history being known as a "very fat man." I also have the afore-mentioned computer-resucitating father. He's amazing. He loaded a new OS onto a flash drive, mailed it to a friend in Utah who flew to Ecuador a few weeks later, FaceTimed to walk me through the entire process of rebooting my laptop, and has patiently been responding to all my messages throughout the past several days in which I bewail any new problem that arises.

Mainly that my computer has mechanical asthma. And sometimes crashes. And responds with the speed of a slug in the sun.

So, yeah, perhaps tomorrow I'll be posting about how my computer is dead, but the alleviation lies in the knowledge that I can take it. I can continue writing novels (I wrote a 5,000-word short story on my iPod like a boss. Then wore a wrist brace for a week. Also like a boss.) by hand, and planning school projects by hand and doing internet blogging by hand and, um, storing and editing photos by hand…

OKAY. Without a computer I can't do everything I want to do, even though they're righteous pursuits, but, just like the millions of people on this earth who have lived, loved, accomplished great things and died without ever seeing a computer, I know that I can utilize a little creativity, a little industry and a little gratitude, and get by––even thrive––without a laptop in front of me.

Just don't take my hot showers.