Shenanigans

My good friend Lindsay has been doing an internship at the LDS Church office building and this is her last week. Before she finishes I decided to take final advantage of one of her perks and go on a tour of the tunnel network underneath Temple Square. There are underground tunnels that connect the temple and conference center with all of the church office buildings and underground parking. She and I wandered over to the conference center and decided that since we were the only ones in there (after that pesky tour group finally left) we should take pictures of ourselves at the pulpit as if we were speaking at general conference. As we were heading back to go to lunch, part of the tunnels were temporarily blocked off because the Prophet and Apostles of the LDS Church were getting ready to head back from the temple to administration building. We didn't want to miss an opportunity to see them so we ran around another way and were waiting on a corner in the parking lot as they passed by on a caravan of golf carts. President Monson waved and said hi and was the friendliest. The only slight disappointment: Elder Uchtdorf was not among the group. If you're not a member of the LDS faith this experience might not seem that cool to you, but I was incredibly excited to see the Prophet and Apostles pass by only five feet away. Thanks Linds for making this experience possible.

On my way home I took a wrong turn trying to get back on the highway and ended up in a parking lot to turn around where a strange man flagged me down and asked if I would give him a ride to a gas station because his car was out of gas and wouldn't start. I know the general rule for young women driving alone when strange men want to get in their car: NEVER LET THEM IN. So I thought real hard for a minute then decided upon, "um, ok." Why not add another story to the day's events? I took the man to get gas and we had a nice conversation despite the fact that he is a graduate from the U and a total BYU hater. I dropped him back off at his car and the encounter ended anticlimactically, luckily.

I've Had a Crush on Apolo Ohno for 8 Years

It was fun to watch him win a silver tonight--his sixth Olympic medal. No matter how strange the sport or how little I know about it,

I just love watching whatever is on during the Olympics.

Good thing I have this coming week off of school.

Let It Snow

There are ways to enjoy this cold weather. On Saturday I went to a freestyle mogul ski competition at Deer Valley. The way those skiers flew down the slopes , over the bumps, and off of two jumps in under thirty seconds left me impressed (and a little scared for their safety).

The best part of cold weather activities?
The essential hot chocolate stop afterwards.

"A Trip to London is Always an Option"

This has been my life mantra since I was sixteen. One Christmas break my grandfather invited all of the grandkids to come to Colorado for a week to go skiing. My sister and I opted out as we didn't want to spend half of our vacation doing an activity we did not really enjoy at that time of our lives. My grandfather told my dad that he would take us on another trip if we wanted. Courtney and I proposed London, and that following summer we spent two weeks there! Many of our cousins were upset, saying that they didn't know going to London was an option when they accepted the Colorado ski trip invite. My response: a trip to London is always an option. You never know what you can do if you don't try for it. Due to cancelled Friday classes we spent the afternoon in SLC. We had a delightful lunch at the Beehive Tea Room.
We then did some antique shopping where we discovered many treasures. I left with several items from a local crafty woman who makes clothing and accessories from vintage pieces. She sells some of her stuff on Etsy.

We rounded out the afternoon by catching a matinee showing of The Young Victoria. It was a fabulous film and I think one of the great romances of history. I thoroughly enjoyed our British-themed afternoon and almost felt like I spent the day in London. Almost.

I may be only half-way through my time in Provo, I may be overwhelmed by school and job searching, I may have very limited funds and free time, and it may be freezing outside, but I will continue to enjoy myself doing fun things with my friends. If I can think of it, I can make it happen because, well, a trip to London is always an option.

Some Christmas Highlights

Cooking, baking, and entertaining marked my Christmas vacation. I like these activities on my own, but absolutely love them with my mother and sister. The fam on Christmas Eve.
Grandpa Dick turned 80. All of my dad's siblings came in town to celebrate, along with some of the grandkids.

We made it up to Park city a couple days to go skiing. We had some great, albeit cold, weather; however, disappointingly we had more fresh snow on our driveway in the valley than on the slopes in the mountains.

I hope you all had a merry Christmas--I sure did!

First Day of Class

In class today the professor told this joke:

"Why aren't lawyers allowed to have sex with their clients?

To keep them from double-billing for essentially the same service."

I think I will like this professor. I have him for both of my Mon, Wed, Fri classes. He'll be gone the rest of the week and cancelled class so I have two free days. It's almost as if I have that third week of vacation I was wanting!

I've Created a Monster

Do you ever get inspiration for your life from the wrong sources? I find the ridiculous messages on passiveagresivenotes.com wildly entertaining, and thought "Wouldn't it be funny if I created situations like that in my own house among my roommates?" Recently I had the perfect opportunity to try it out. When I came back after Thanksgiving weekend our kitchen sink was clogged and it was filled with filthy water. After a week and a half no one had done anything about it, or even mentioned, it so I left this note:

A response on the very sticky note I posted was exactly what I was hoping for. Karen did eventually call someone to come look at the sink and I was home when he came. He told me that the clog was due to someone putting potato peels down the sink! I was ticked that we had to deal with that messy inconvenience for over two weeks when the problem was completely preventable. By this time I knew who the culprit was, but I decided to post another public note in case anyone else in the house was unaware that potato peels cannot go down the sink.

Another roommate had other beef with this girl so she decided to follow my lead and leave her a note. Her note got a text response:

"Sorry i just saw your note. Id appreciate if you would speak with me rather than leave notes around and walk around being pissed at me. ive never done anything to try and disrespect you...only tried to be kind to you. Sorry if you feel that i have been but please come and talk to me if you have issues"

This girl then wrote the following two-page note to another roommate (instead of speaking to her like she recommended in her text):

Then she sent me a facebook message very similar to the note above in which she assured me that she "somewhat considers me a friend" and "hopes to speak with me face to face if I have any concerns." As she sent this message the day she left town for the holidays I guess I'll have to send her a response via facebook. I applaud her use of three different mediums of passive-aggressive communication. I had no idea that my note would set off this chain reaction, but I'm kind of thrilled that it did. One day I hope to learn to communicate like an adult, but until then I'll let you share in the absurdity with me.