Escape

I know I’ve only been back in Provo for three weeks, but I am already excruciatingly bored with my life. Yet again. January has a way of doing that. I’ve decided the only way I can combat this is to find more exciting things to do within driving distance.

This weekend we escaped to the Sundance film festival. We didn’t end up watching any films, but it was incredibly refreshing to change up the scenery, even if we were still in Utah. And we might end up going to a show later if they have a film we want to see at the actual Sundance ski resort (as opposed to Park City, which is the central hub for the festival now, and is where we went this weekend to people watch. The ski resort is much closer since it’s only 15 minutes from campus).

Here are some pictures so you can pretend you escaped too.

{My traveling buddies}

{Story of our lives}

{There were lots of fun posters everywhere. The guy in the black coat talked to us and was putting up posters and top ramen for his film that was showing at Slamdance. He seemed nice. And really soft spoken.}

{Some random music happiness too. Someone gave us a free cd. I haven’t listened to it yet, but in my imagination it’s really good. My favorite freebie of the day was a really nice nalgene water bottle with Sundance 2010 written on it. We still can’t decide if it’s yellow or green though.}

{Other things I liked and Main Street}

P.S. I still LOVE my camera. Taking it places is magical.

P.S.S. Here is a bonus scene from my apartment this morning when we were cleaning out the freezer. It was terrifying. We found meat in there that was best by 2008.

Playing House

Lately I’ve really been wanting to find cute things to decorate my current abode, even though I literally have no more wall space in my room or authority to put things elsewhere. It would be a ton of fun to have someplace I could make my own. Every so often I dream that me and my roommate Sam could run off to one of those cute little townhouses across the street and make it our own.

But, despite the fact that I have absolutely nowhere to put it and can’t coordinate a room all cute to go with it, I just bought a nice photo from etsy because it was on sale and I’m weak. There is only one original! Someday I will have somewhere to put it. I’m going to justify the purchase by saying that it cost much less than the amount I got back for my textbooks on Amazon.

For those of you who want to play house with me and see what else this photographer has to offer go to check out Alicia Bock on etsy.com or on her blog. It’s fun way to avoid homework. And slowly eat away at your stash of money.

Egg Press

I’ve never been a huge greeting card person. I’ll walk down aisles of them in the store, read them and laugh, but I’ve never had much of a desire to buy them and just keep them on hand.

That changed when I was at home for Christmas in Portland. I was downtown with my Dad checking out the pop-up stores (this December since so many stores closed downtown because of the economy the city let local designers use open space in prime locations to sell their cool stuff) and we happened across one for Egg Press. I wandered in and fell in love.

I had to pretty much physically restrain myself from buying the Christmas cards that were on sale. Now I’m on their email list and just waiting for them to have a sample sale because I’m too cheap to buy them at full price. But in the meantime you can join me in admiring their work here.

They’re a Portland company that brings the art and home feel back into cards by using an old fashioned press to make them. For your enjoyment a picture of the press is below. The cards up top are from their new Valentines collection.

Love Her

To give you some more incentive to check out UPP I’m posting a link to the story I wrote. It’s right here. All you have to do is click on it.

http://www.utahpeoplespost.com/news/byu/the-ups-and-downs-of-life-as-a-byu-athlete

It’s on my roommate Sam. She’s really cool and on the BYU swim team. I met her freshman year and we’ve lived together ever since, minus London. So you should like her too.

Here’s a picture of us.

My (Imaginary) Spare Time

I’ve started working on a new project on the side that goes by the name of the Utah People’s Post, or UPP (think cute Pixar movie) for short. It’s a cool start-up company founded by a BYU alum and Harvard Law grad that aims to provide hyper-local news coverage of Provo.

It’s a lot of fun for me because we’re doing a lot of things that we talk about in my classes as being a possibility for the future of journalism. Not that I think print papers and newspaper institutions as they are will go completely extinct (please no, not ever), but things will definitely evolve so it’s been great to get some experience with the development of a new media site from the development on. It’s also a lot of fun because with this mini internship I can do any kind of project I want. I can write an article on any subject or make an audio slideshow or whatever else. You name it and it’s most likely fair game.

So the moral of the story is that you should check it out. We just barely launched the site two days ago, so it’s still hot off the cyber presses. Go to utahpeoplespost.com to check it out!

Wish Life Was a Musical?

Because you could just audition for Glee. The show was picked up for a second season and they're having open casting. So go for it.

go here for more details

I just claim one exclusive interview.

Chuck Reunion

So, the season two DVD of Chuck came out today, and needless to say, I bought it immediately after I finished at work. Then I proceeded to watch three episodes in a row. And I may have watched a couple from season one yesterday at Annie's...

I really just can't help myself. The last season ended last April, and the show wasn't even scheduled to come back on until after the olympics, so having it back again now is like a miracle. It will bring so much joy into my life. To me it's the perfect blend of action and comedy, plus it's not even dirty and there's great music.

I just wanted to make sure that you were all aware of the wonderfulness that will be on TV this Sunday, and then new again that Monday, so you don't miss out. Because that would just be tragic. You should all watch the season finale to prep yourselves as well, so I'm posting it on here for your viewing pleasure and convenience. I know all of you don't want to study or do any homework the first week of school anyways. I promise you won't regret it. No one I've forced to watch with me has disliked it yet!

For those who want to waste a little more time (although I think watching the episode of Chuck would actually just enhance it), I came across this funny blog post from a while ago about Chuck vs. Obama while I was looking for a picture. You're intrigued, admit it.

Decades

I feel like with this past decade coming to an end a lot of people are reflecting on the past, which is good, but right now I'm mostly excited for what will happen in the next decade. There are infinite possibilities, and I for one can’t wait.

I can't help but feel that whatever happens this decade will have a huge influence on the tone and direction the rest of my life takes. Hopefully by the end of the decade I'll have found myself a boy to be with for the rest of eternity. Maybe I'll have gone on a mission, or to grad school, or both. I'll have graduated from school, had my first real job, and moved to some yet to be determined place. And just think of all the new movies I've yet to watch and books I'll get to read.

On another note, thanks to all of you for being such fantastic friends! This past decade wouldn't have been any fun without you. In fact, it would have been quite lonely and horrible. For a Glee moment to accompany this thought click here.

And on yet another note, here are all the pictures I can find (or rather my mom could find) of me and my sister with the umbrella man downtown. I mentioned before I’d try to do it, and in case anyone cared, here it is. We started out taking this picture every year at Christmas after we visited the Santa downtown, but now we take it just whenever we’re all downtown at the same time and near the statue.

1995

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2005

2006

2007

2009 Summer

2009 Winter

AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!