Huntington Beach

My 2013 can be summed up with one mysterious sentence:

DON'T WASTE YOUR HUNTINGTON BEACH.

Last December on the way home from finding out our IVF failed I asked Greg to stop at the USPS so I could buy some stamps from the self-serve kiosk. (Practical needs seemed to trump emotional wants.) While poking the touch screen my cell rang and it was Kenon. I was racoon-faced from crying and didn't want to talk to anyone but I'm so glad I answered that call. Kenon simply told me DON'T WASTE YOUR HUNTINGTON BEACH. A year later I can vouch that Kenon's advice was the best advice anyone could have given me at that point.

Long story short: Kenon used to be my neighbor here in Utah. Her husband got a new job in Virginia. They loved the trees and the people but Kenon realized she needed to get back to Utah, mostly for the sake of her kids. Kenon did everything humanly possible to get back to Utah. Her husband got transferred to Huntington Beach.

Kenon was so sad that Huntington Beach wasn't Utah that she didn't really exploit her experience there. She told me she was depressed, she didn't try very hard to make friends, she didn't capitalize on the beach (although she did take her kids to Disneyland a million times), etc. You get the point. She hated it. Unsolicited, out of blue, and nine months later, her husband was offered a job in Utah.

Kenon was my neighbor again and she had everything she originally wished for. It just came with a 9 month bonus trip to California.

So when Kenon said DON'T WASTE YOUR HUNTINGTON BEACH I knew she meant, "Look, I know you did everything you could have done to get pregnant. You hired doctors. You were positive. You had the whole neighborhood rooting for you. But you got transferred to Huntington Beach. Don't give up because time will pass and suddenly you will have everything you want. Don't waste this bonus trip."

Of course, Kenon was right and I was pregnant 11 months from that stamp-purchasing phone call. So what did I do the 11 months I lived at Huntington Beach? I milked its awesomeness dry.

I finally swam in the crater in Midway.

I found the world's best hot chocolate.

I snatched a quick getaway to Vegas with Greg.

The Three Musketeers went to Paris for a week, the preeminent trip we talk about daily.

We also went to the Sacred Grove, watched fireworks over Niagara Falls, went to the top of the world's tallest building, and smashed a lot of pennies.

I bought a brown halter top swimsuit with my birthday money and wore it out by swimming almost every day since.

I drove a golf cart through the Thanksgiving Point Gardens with my 90-year old friend Charlotte and I even drove her though the sprinklers because it made her howl with laughter.

I went to two plays at the Hale West Valley, attended the temple weekly, and made cards with my four female soulmates the 3rd Wednesday of every month.

I cheered at yet another Denver Broncos game, attended Greg's 20th reunion, and enjoyed complete family reunions with both sides of my family at our cabin.

I took RE to the Mindy Gledhill concert (on a school night!) and we ate chocolate mousse and SLAB pizza while we waited in line to enter the venue.

Greg and I went to Manhattan, toured the Met, and walked Central Park in autumn for hours.

I mastered pain au chocolat from scratch. Wolfgang Puck could hire me if he wanted to.

I had a fashion makeover, courtesy of Reachel Bagley, quite possibly the best anniversary gift Greg has ever given me. Then I bought a whole new wardrobe with the money Greg had stashed for me, decluttered the house, tied up my loose ends, did IVF again, and got pregnant.

Last but not least...drumroll, please...I grew out my blunt bangs, a feat easier said than done.

The year that started with a shred of hope and a month of depression ends today with the realization that it was also my best year ever, all because I didn't waste my Huntington Beach.

*Kenon is a rare name and an even rarer friend. You would not believe what she has been though, even if I could tell you. If you have a friend like Kenon make sure you listen to what she says. I honestly can't imagine how I would have pulled out of my slump without her sage advice and life experience.