your 2012 guide for what to do when you're 2,300 miles away from family at christmas time : part dos

what are we on now..23? yes. 

23. go see "blink!" again but maybe don't because it might not come on for an hour so you (john) might get sucked into buying really expensive shoes from clarks because you (megan) don't want to stand outside because you (megan again) wore thin pants and were freezing.

..this you/me stuff is getting confusing but i can't quit now so just roll with it.

24. eat cannoli like it's your job 

(okay that was for five people and not two. we aren't that gross)

25. meet your boyfriend's family and ignore how sick your hair looks in this photo because everything else about it is nice

26. take said family to walden pond

enjoy showing them the site of thoreau's cabin

stop every two seconds to skip rocks/watch john and his dad competitively skip rocks

walk around the entire pond and enjoy the beautiful sunset

27. watch the original "miracle on 34th street" and then every other christmas movie on netflix because you accidentally took a 3 hour nap earlier that day

28. buy everything mint flavored that you can. 

be thrilled that the guy at tj's let you take the last box of candy cane joe-joe's from the back and be even more thrilled that the said man put a huge bow on it. 

(he knew giving you the last box was the best christmas eve present anyone could ever ask for!)

29. enjoy sitting around the christmas tree 

30.  eat minestrone soup (not pictured) on christmas eve night. we are told this is a southcott family tradition

31. spend christmas morning enjoying your company's company and eat nice things 

32. perhaps your significant other's family brought their dogs. 

close your eyes and do your best to enjoy them!

 (while also doing your best not to think about how much dog hair is all over your body)

33. be grateful for the baby amount of snow you received, actually getting dressed for the day, getting to see les mis, and getting to eat at your favorite thai place  (bless you thai friends for being open on christmas day!)

34. do NOT look at this picture of your cabin that your cousin posted on fb. this will only make you homesick and sad. 

35. you should definitely celebrate each day the out of control christmas house still (meaning post december 25th) has their decor up by taking a picture of yourself with it.

36. also celebrate finding the tiniest and cutest mini carton of milk. 

37. get really nervous about driving on the freeway in a snow storm so you can drive back roads all the way home in a magical winter wonderland 

38. go to the mall thirty minutes away just so you can have chik-fil-a.

 also - send yourself a thank you card from your boss because you will receive strict orders "not to take it out of the pile just to save 50 cents". even though this will feel weird, you will really enjoy receiving it in the mail two days later. (what you don't enjoy, however, is that boss calling you by your middle name now that he knows it. nobody likes being called brooke! unless your name is brooke of course)

39. ring in the new year with a failed attempt to face time your new years eve birthday father, eat dinner at anna's taqueria, drink martinelli's, watch "mirror, mirror" and secretly love it, watch the nye ball drop, and then try to take the first photos of 2013 with your boyfriend. unfortunately he will want nothing to do with this and will ruin every photo. 

40. while everyone else is trying to cut back in january, go ahead and spend as much money as you can. get lasik surgery even though your significant other likes your glasses (john), pay off the lasik surgery you had done two years ago (megan), buy a $700 vitamix (john), and what the heck - spend thousands of dollars on a new camera (megan)!! also, it is really thrilling if all of this is done within 48 hours! true story. 

41. the picture above on the left is really meant to show what most of your time could be spent doing during the holidays. watching seasons 1 - 4 of parks and rec is something no one regrets doing, ever. 

42. reconnect with an old coworker and realize that even though you like her a whole lot, you don't actually have anything in common with her anymore. darn it!

43. give yourself the gift of winter by driving through mount auburn cemetery. while you are at it you should self-time a nice snowy photo of you and not feel sorry when cars had to go around you.

44. rid yourself of the guilt you feel from missing one of your bff's wedding by flying to her open house in maryland. 

and #44 my friends brings us to the first weekend in january which means the holidays are over and so is this 2012 guide. if you got through all 44 tips, bless you. 

lasik

yet another file of photos on my desktop i found that were never actually posted!

this would be the night before lasik day. 

felt like i should document the last night i would wear (prescription) glasses!

 so remember this post?

this is what happened that day.

my sweet dad agreed to tag along since i wouldn't be able to drive after.

this was the first time i had been in his new work van! 

we love vans!

i'm rarely embarrassed and i know there are worse things but i tried to keep this on the dl. 

 i had to wear clip on sunglasses!

 which really was the lowest blow of the whole wearing 

glasses for nine months and getting eye viruses fiasco i think.

SO SO glad i can say goodbye to those things. 

in case you have never had lasik this is how the whole thing goes down.

upon arrival i had to take a valium, take my shoes off,

 and put a really sweet hair cap/net thing on.

then they put multiple drops in my eyes to numb them

then she rubbed this awesome brown stuff all over my eyelids to make sure they were completely clean

then gave me cookies and had "jar of hearts" playing so i would be relaxed

(i guess this is a very stressful procedure for some people?)

after they know my eyes are numb and clean clean clean they 

began the first part of the procedure: the keratectomy

 (which is making a circular corneal flap on each eye with a laser)

they have to get your eye to be still so they place a type of suctioned ring on the eye to hold it in place. it kind of felt like a plunger was on my eye and even though it wasn't painful it was a rather odd sensation.

because they don't use blades, the laser just creates thousands of little air bubbles in my eye and you have to wait for them to dissipate until the flap can be pulled back so i just got to sit in a massage chair for twenty minutes and eat freshly baked cookies. it was awesome.

then i went back in for the second part which would be the actual lasik process.

they put saran wrap looking stuff over my eyelashes and then a clamp thing to keep my eye open. it sounds really awful but really you can't feel a thing! i was told to stare at a red light (or maybe it was green?) and try to hold still. within four seconds it was done and the flap was put back and the eye was done! then we moved on to the next eye. the whole thing took maybe ten minutes and it only smelled slightly of burning eye! not something you smell everyday haha.

then i was just sent out in the hall and told to keep my eyes shut. sometimes i accidentally opened them because there was the prettiest view through the window in front of me and it was the weirdest thing, it was clear and not blurry! modern technology rocks.

after sit in the hall with your eyes closed time each eye was checked to make sure the flap was placed correctly, then i was sent home with orders to sleep (because of the consumption of valium) and start using the prescription eye drops every few hours. 

i was also sent home with some wicked shades and a hoopes mug with candy in it and a packet of information to give to a friend haha. so if anyone is interested, i'm your girl.

after all that i went home and laid on our couch downstairs in the dark. 

at first it seemed okay but then it felt like this happened all over again.

(i just looked over that post and i think i really downplayed how much pain i was in with that virus. 

let's just say i have never been in more excruciating pain in my life)

as the numbing drops wore off my eyes began feeling like they were burning and they wouldn't stop watering. but i had to be careful to not touch them because there was just a flap on my cornea that needed to heal so that wasn't pleasant. 

but then sweet ryan came over to keep me company and i listened (with my eyes closed) to planet earth on dvd while he did some accounting homework. 

but every few minutes i would open my eyes (i can't not watch planet earth and just listen are you kidding me?) and it was so magical! i could see the animals perfectly! so then we watched my eye procedure (thank hoopes for taping that!) and he read me the scriptures (couldn't actually see up close for awhile, that was kind of stressful) and then after he left i tried sleeping but that whole valium makes you tired talk was crap and i couldn't fall asleep until 3 am. so i watched julie and julia with sunglasses on and the brightness of the tv down real low. haha it was awesome.

then, the next day i went in for a check up, then a few hours later drove down to provo and could see perfectly! i love miracles. 

then, the luckiest part (besides the fact that i no longer had to wear clip on sunglasses but could wear awesome ones again) was that my eyes were all good again for the mission reunion!

(which means that probably none of them even knew i had all that happen before 

and after the last one in october! funny.)