The Girls of Summer

In honor of the weather finally getting warm again (especially after the freak snowstorm we got on tax day . . . happy birthday, tom) and of the fact that people in Provo are turning their minds to summer with the end of winter semester this week (haha! i love not having to worry about that anymore!) (and i also love rubbing it in my friends' faces who are still in school), I am writing out my summer to-do list. I created one last year, and there were a lot of items on it, and surprisingly enough, I accomplished a great deal of them. However, it's a new summer, and I would like to do the things that I didn't do last year, as well as new ideas and goals. And I am posting this on my public blog in the hopes that people will check up on me and make sure I'm actually doing what I say I want to. Here goes:

1) Hike at least once a month.
2) Go on a road trip (or several, but at least one).
3) Visit home. (Oregon! June's a good month. The roses will be out.)
4) Go camping. (Guess that means i need a tent.)
5) Be outside. A lot.
6) Learn new music, hopefully two good pieces on the piano. (Suggestions, Mom? Kelly? Anyone?)
7) Cook. On a regular basis. And boiling angel hair pasta doesn't always count.
8) Go tubing on the Provo river.
9) See Timp Caves.
10) Go on dates. That's right. PLURAL! dateSSSSSSSSS.
11) Do service. Secret or otherwise; just do it.
12) Sing. My voice is so out-of-practice.
13) Write. In case you hadn't figured it out, I like doing that.
14) Read. (That doesn't necessarily need to be on my list because I do it all the time, but I should always be exposing myself to good books.)
15) Dance. Dancing is fun and it works off calories. Both good things.
16) Attend the temple weekly. Set a specific time and day, Megan!
17) Go to the Utah Shakespeare Festival. (They're putting on "The Secret Garden"!)
18) Visit Grand Junction.
19) If I can afford it (ha!), go to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. ("The Music Man" AND "Much Ado About Nothing"! Can life get any better than this? I submit that it cannot!) (p.s. am willing to give up utah shakespeare festival for oregon shakespeare festival.)
20) Don't sit around. Bad. Unless it's outside. Good.
21) Go to DC for Becky's wedding in May. That's a given that I'll be doing it, but I should put it on the list to be able to cross it off.
22) Laugh. I spend way too much time crying.

So that's what I've got so far. Any other suggestions? Music to play? Places to go? People to see? (everything for you and meeeeeee . . . name THAT musical.) So, bring it on, Summer 2009! We're going to make it a good one, even if I am a working stiff.

-Me

"It's a sure sign of summer if the chair gets up when you do." -Walter Winchell

When I Was Twenty-One, It Was a Very Good Year

So we're already a week into April. Wow! Time sure flies by quickly. The last day of March, I was particularly amazed at how fast the last two months of my life have gone by. Good times, all.

I think I may copy my good friend Charity and just give a brief description with pictures of my last week and a half, simply because I am just feeling too darn lazy to write my normal epic-length post. Not to say that I have anything of GREAT significance to write about, but anyone who knows me knows that I elaborate on even the smallest details, and I'll try to avoid that.

Friday the 28th, I drove down to . . .St. George, Utah, where my mommy was visiting her parents. It was a great family time, considering my sister and her kids were also there for a bit, my uncle Tom and aunt Tracy, as well, and my aunt Karen also lives in St. George. So a weekend of family! Hooray!

On Monday the 30th, Mom and I drove back to . . .

Provo. It wasn't nearly as sunny in reality as this picture is, but oh well. Had a good night's rest on my couch while I magnanimously gave up my bed to Mom.

Tuesday the 31st was another family day, which was awesome.
Well, technically Megan here isn't blood-related, but she's awesome and came with us all to the temple. Hooray!

The 1st was your standard April Fool's Day, when your boss decides to carry jokes so far that you just can't quite figure out if it's serious and it has just happened to fall on that particular day. Fortunately that crisis was over pretty quickly.

Then came the 2nd. What a wonderful day that was. And why? Oh, it was just my birthday! That's right, everyone! I am quarter of a century now!The amazing and awesome Birdhouse girls gave up their peace and quiet for a night by letting me invade their home for the party, and the finger painting stuff I supplied as a last-minute inclusion ended up being the run-away hit! Hooray! And I sure cleaned up on kitchen supplies for presents. Thanks, Mom, Becky, and Esther! Thanks also go to Charity and Lisa, who both unexpectedly gave me gifts! I'm surrounded by giving people! You're all amazing! (and yes, i am, in fact, blowing out a lighter rather than a candle . . . my guests were horrified that i wasn't going to make them sing to me and blow out candles, so chris and liz quickly did a make-shift arrangement with chris's piece of cake and liz's lighter)

Then conference. It was awesome. Or as Rhino the hamster would put it, "Beyond awesome. . . be-awesome!" Oh, yeah. Saturday night, once Esther and I reached her parents' house in Stansbury, we watched Bolt with her mom.
Yeah. It was good. People should see it. But really, conference was just inspiring. I always feel so good and motivated to be better after watching it. One of the best weekends of the year.

-Me

"They used to photograph Shirley Tempe through gauze. They should photograph me through linoleum." -Tallulah Bankhead