My best friend, Alisa, turned 30 a couple weeks ago. She threw my 30th birthday party but decided she didn't want a party, but a girls weekend in Disneyland instead. Before I even share what happened this weekend, I wanna share a little about her. If you don't know her, or aren't in a "mushy" mood
(and it's gonna be long I promise), you can skip down to the "celebration" portion- that's less "cheesy" stuff.
Alisa-
Alisa is quite honestly one of the very best people that I know all around. I lived with her just shy of 5 years, and minus Heavenly Father, she is the main person who helped me survive
(and stay sane) through grad school! I needed her so much at that time in my life and still need her now. She has a talent for kindness and being a good friend. She has one of the best and purest hearts. She is loyal. She is honest. She always puts herself further down on the list to makes sure everyone else is taken care of. I can't even begin to count how many times she cooked for me, cleaned up after me, prayed for me or even helped me as a "lab subject" . She is the BEST listener. She gives much needed help and is very careful in her advice. She never judges me even when I should be
(haha) and always supports me. Even when I've made mistakes, that I whole heartily admit were mistakes
(yes, some boys names could be inserted here too haha) she always says, "Well no, that wasn't a mistake because you needed to learn this or that".
We once took a personality test
(that letter test like S, J, E, I etc) at a stake church activity, and she and I are exact opposites minus the "J". It's funny how that works as friends, but it has. We don't even like the same type of guys, and I've had to tell a few of them, "If you are interested in both Alisa and I, it's guaranteed that one of us isn't into you because we have yet to have the same taste!"
(My 10 is her 7ish and vice versa). She and I did go on a "polygamist" date together to a Brad Paisley concert when a guy was "deciding" between us...awkward...but funny story for sure.
Alisa's the kinda friend who will reach over and pluck out a "stray" eyebrow that I'm not aware looks funky
(yes she has done that. It's the aesthetician in her, and I think because she still feels guilty about a botched eyebrow waxing she gave me once upon a time. We've learned hard wax is very bad on faces!), and she is the friend who painted my toenails after I had surgery. She is also the person that I text the most on rough days and say, "Please pray for me!" because I know she will. She just takes care of me! We've traveled a lot doing fun things together. We've visited Hawaii, San Francisco, Vegas and Bisbee
(best singles Christmas ever!)
We've been done some 'crazy' random things like skinny dipping, riding down hills in shopping carts, killing scorpions (Big Daddy ain't got nothin' on us) and stalking cute boys (one of my first experiences with her involved a certain Mr. S. who, no, I still don't think saw us). We camped in our backyard so I could try out my new tent (never mind the sprinklers coming on or landscapers coming over either). And one time, on our regular walks at night, we once found a porch swing that someone was going to trash and asked if we could have it. We decided to carry the heaviest part (the actual swing) several blocks to our house, and then called some guy friends to bring over the posts that weighed almost nothing- what were we thinking?! We've also carried numerous couches home, and also had very good Craigslisting business when we needed to get extra money for vacations. We've floated (knives and all hahha) on the Seahawks 200 and 400, sat underneath the stars listening to the wind and stopped and smelled the roses together. I can honestly laugh (hysterically), cry ( bawl...), chill, or dance like a wild woman with her, and it's always the best time. We've eaten lots and lots of microwaveable molten lava cakes and hit up more Sonics than I can count. Even the day-to-day things like cooking together, exercising, getting ready at night before bed, or random CSI marathons, have been fun because of her! She's just....one of my BEST friends!
She's not perfect, and she'll be super embarrassed reading this
(she hates being in any sort of spotlight) because she's too humble to ever see her total awesomeness, but she's pretty darn close to perfection in my book, and yes, that's after 8 years of knowing her. To make her feel a little better, I will admit that I think her only "flaw of note" is her driving skills when she's tired or distracted
(ummm I had to make her let me drive when 3 times in one night she stopped for greens, almost ran reds, and went into a men's restroom) but that's probably the only thing holding her back from being
translated.
I've seen her upset and stressed, but she's way better at handling those situations than I am and admire her. She never complains- like
never- I kinda have to pry stuff out of her. I've often found out days after the fact that she was injured or hurting or stressed and had no idea! Now, I try to be more observant and ask her direct questions and can glean from her responses more how she's feeling. She's super beautiful- honestly gorgeous- I think she looks exotic
(even with no makeup on and 'lizard' eyes) and I have yet to meet a guy who doesn't think she's pretty as well (
at this part Alisa is rolling her eyes and saying, "Whatever" but I have surveyed the guys we know and none of them- none of them- thinks she's anything less than beautiful and that's no lie!)
She doesn't know how strong she really is, and she can never know how many times she has been an answer to my prayers. She is very in tune with following the Spirit, and has, countless times, done something 'simple' that just made my life so much better. I love Romans Chapter 8 in the Bible because of how she's quoted it in times of need. Her middle name is very appropriate for who she is
(I won't say it on here since she doesn't like a lot of person stuff online about her) and the kind of heroine I know she can be. I love her SO MUCH! I count her as one of the biggest blessings the Lord has given me. She truly has been a much needed friend to me! Happy 30th Birthday Alisa!
The Celebration-
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Al hates this photo but Sal and I
in the mirror reflection is priceless |
So the real fun started in the Orange County Airport. Now, I've flown into many airports, even several in California
(LAX, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland) and I've never experienced the fanciness of
Orange County. It a very prim, proper and beautiful airport. Most of the people I saw were dressed in business attire and everyone was kissing each others cheeks upon greeting in the pick up area. It felt kinda "hoytee toytee
(sp)" to me but still fun. Well Valerie, Salaina and Alisa drive up to get me, and Valerie, slightly hanging out the window and unaware of the fancy prim and proper procedures I had just witnessed, yelled out "NAAAATTTT!!! We're here to pick you up!" Everyone, in silence, kinda looked at me, and I thought, "What the hey- gotta have some fun" and yelled back, "WOOWHOOO!" then ran to the car.
We stopped at a Subway
(they had all driven from Arizona that day- Alisa had traveled 9 hours, Valerie and Salaina about 5-6) and then to the Anaheim Hilton. We stayed up till after midnight and wished Alisa a happy birthday. She brought her own blow up mattress
(she's a light sleeper so it's hard to share a bed) and decided to squish in between the other two hotel beds. After a series of very entertaining jumps and falls the mattress landed in a semi acceptable way for her sleeping. Valerie, Salaina and I woke up, as soon as Alisa got in the shower, and decorated the hotel room for her. Salaina and I had pre-measured the streamers and blown up all the balloons the night before when Val and Al went to do a little "grocery shopping". The decorating went quickly, and we waited for Alisa
(muffin with candles in it ready to be lit the moment the bathroom door moved). She was taking her time so finally I asked if I could use the bathroom, and she came out to a decorated room and us singing. I think it was a fun surprise for her. Salaina also surprised us all by having purchased Minnie ears that we wore the majority of the time
(thanks Sal!). That was super fun- I've never had Minnie ears!
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| Indian Jones ride in progress |
We finished getting ready and went to the park about 8:30. Salaina has been to Disneyland 20+times in her lifetime so we kinda just let her plan things and she was great at going to get our fast passes and keeping things moving.
(Sal, ironically, had already been to Disneyland that week when she came with her sister for a job interview- super random and funny.) We honestly didn't wait in lines very long at all and got to go on pretty much every ride we really wanted too. Alisa doesn't like "drops" or roller coaster situations so she held my hand on both the Indian Jones ride
(which I had never been on before...when I went on my 27th birthday with Ashley we thought we'd been on it only later to discover that we hadn't- long story) and Space Mountain. I've never "held hands" with someone at Disneyland and commented about it to Alisa. She said, "That's why I need to get a man. You're adequate but not like...ideal...ya know?!" Yes, I do know, but what are friends for?
Right before our first ride, a group of high schoolers saw Alisa's "Happy Birthday" button and announced, "Looks like we have a birthday!" They then sang to Alisa and screamed "GROUPPPP HUGG" and surrounded her and did a little back and forth jig kinda hug. It was super funny and cute and got the day started right. I loved how those teenagers were open and fun like that. It really made her feel special I think. Way to be positive youth =)
I went down Splash Mountain with Val- she's super funny. We sang Zippedy doodah together and held our ears on while screaming the whole way down. Valerie is very awesome, and it was great to catch up with her too. Plus, she's not above singing on
any rides with me- I loved that
(and yes we did it numerous times) OR skipping with me. Did you know that when your feet are sore, skipping hurts less? Well it's true and Val and I were not ashamed to skip around towards the end of the day haha.
I rode the most annoying ride
(a.k.a It's a small world haha) with Sal, and we decided that having the ability to paddle through it would make it more enjoyable so you can escape it sooner, I think we will present this to the Diseny board some day =). Salaina is also very cool and chill.
We ate the obligatory soup bowl and churros. We rode the train. We had our voice "stolen" by Ursula and found out what Disney character we were most like
(Sal= Belle, Al= Lady, Val= Ariel, me=Nala). We also watched "World of Color", which is a Bellagio like water show only much cooler
(now I love the Bellagio show- it's been very romantic for me at times- but this was times 10 in awesomeness I think). We watched the fire works, and we had a birthday celebratory dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. We walked until our feet couldn't walk much more. Val and I escaped with no blisters but Al and Sal were not so lucky. It was such a fun time! We laughed a lot, we talked a lot, we rode fun rides and just enjoyed the day. It was perfect weather and perfect company. It was a fast tip, but I hope it was a great birthday for Alisa. I love her and she deserved to celebrate in a fun way. Thanks Salaina and Valerie for helping make it an awesome trip! HAPPY 30th ALISA!
(Side note flying home- The pilot got over the PA and said, "If you haven't flown out of Orange County before you should know that we will have the engines up for take off but once we have lift, we quickly decrease the engines by half to decrease engine noise. Don't be alarmed when we do that. Things are fine. We just have to obey the noise ordinances." I thought he was joking, but he was not. When the engined reduced one of the pilots got over the PA system and whispered, "Don't disturb the rich people." So funny OC!)
