Why Do I Bother??

I haven't officially made a list of New Year's Resolutions yet, but one of the things I've been thinking about is pushing myself to get out of the house and do more. Whenever I read Kristi's blog and see all the fun things they do in D.C. I find myself wondering how she does it and why. I am such a homebody that I have no problem staying home reading in the cozy, doing laundry, blogging, and so on...those things make up good days for me. It's not the stuff of great life experiences though, so I want to push myself to get out there more.

So last Saturday when Lori and Robyn were making plans to go see the Body World Exhibit I decided to go too. I had only heard great things about it and knew I'd be sad if I missed the chance to go.

Today was the day. I woke up early enough to shower and get ready, check my email, eat breakfast and basically be in good spirits for the day.


As we were driving to Salt Lake it was obnoxiously bright outside (freakish winter sunshine) but I was thinking happy thoughts, had my sunglasses on and was willing myself NOT to get a headache.


It was exciting to get there and see the huge sign on the building. I was feeling so proud of myself and thought "I'm doing it!" We got there right on time (we had tickets for 10:00) and got in the line for 10:00 ticket-holders. The employee said it takes about 35 minutes to make it through the line, and that seemed doable.

Robyn, Lori and I chatted as we moved through the Disneyland-like line so it wasn't too bad. It seemed like it was moving along well enough, but just when we thought we'd finally made it through to the exhibit we had to go up two flights of stairs and then stand in another line! ($%#!) Our total line time was just over an hour and I was already starting to feel DONE.

We were holding our coats and purses (I wish I hadn't even brought them inside) and standing for so long that even though I was wearing comfortable shoes (I'm no fool) my feet still hurt. I was totally psyching myself up though and recalling the Hellish waiting involved when the book club girls went to Giverny on France's Labor Day. That ended up being totally worth it, so I didn't want to give up before we'd even begun.

{Sort of fake crying after making it into Giverny}

We FINALLY got into the exhibit (hallelujah) but found it to be super crowded. Adam and Amy had warned us that when they went on New Year's Eve (and only had to wait 10 minutes to get in by the way) it was crowded when they first got in the door, but that they just moved on it was fine. Um...that was NOT the case for us.

We spent 2 hours shuffling around in the dark (except for the very bright spotlights on the exhibits) with hordes of people (who we were stuck with for the duration). It was overly hot in there (as museum exhibits always are, they're my curse) so carrying my coat and purse didn't help matters at all.


The items in the exhibit were amazing to see. As I looked at all the intricate details that make-up the human body I found myself wondering how anyone could look at this and not believe in God. The human body is no accident, everything was designed so perfectly.


I would have enjoyed the experience more if it hadn't been so crowded, but I'm still glad I saw it. This is embarrassing, but one of the highlights for me was the free notebook we got at the end.


We were so dead and so starving after 3 hours of that and were so happy to be sitting down to eat at Buca di Beppo.


It was like Christmas morning when the food arrived, and we began to perk up and talk more as we ate. We had seriously been running on empty at before that and had just been sitting there like defeated lumps.

{Photo from Lori's camera}

We felt so much better after we ate that we decided to go to a movie as well. I took a migraine pill after we ate because I feared my headache would escalate into something ugly, but was optimistic.

It was nice to walk outside in the cold (I love the cold after I've been too hot for a long time) and to be going to a movie. We went to see "Bride Wars" at The Gateway (I didn't even take pictures of us there, not even a self-portrait of the 3 of us). Towards the end of the movie I started to feel light-headed, flushed and panicky when I thought about how far away from home we were.

Poor Lori, the drive home was a silent one since I was trying not to lose it completely and since Robyn had a sinus headache too. I felt like I needed to apologize to her, but there is just no reasoning with a migraine.

I came home to an empty house (praise heaven) and went to bed for an hour then woke up recovered (4.5 hours after taking the pill). Sweet Fancy Moses, what a day! It was brutal in such a wussy way. Seriously, why do I bother to try to do fun things?

P.S. Congratulations and apologies if you made it through this post.

**Have you seen this exhibit?
Does standing in lines suck the life out of you?
Do crowds make you grumpy?
Should I bother?**