I Took a Trip!

Yikes! About a month ago I took a trip to Utah for my best friend's wedding, and afterwards I swung down to Arizona to see my sister and her family. I have been wanting to write about this very fun trip for the past few weeks, but I have been a little busy. I even started writing it but it was taking too long. So now I am trying again.

As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, I headed to Salt Lake for a wedding, but I took advantage of the trip to visit friends from BYU. In fact, I visited with two friends that I have known for ten years. For me, that seems a little mind-boggling. My family moved around quite a bit and I'll be honest I'm not super about staying in touch. (That's why blogging ROCKS!) So I was more than pleased to visit friends that I have known for an entire decade. It really is the mark of a great friend. So, if there is a theme for my trip it would have to be "The Tour of Super Fab Friends."

My first visit was with former roommate and creative superstar Michelle (author of the Where Flowers Bloom Blog). Since she manages a craft store at BYU, we met for a quick lunch at the Cougareat. We had salad wraps and a whole lot of fun. We reminsced about that crazy semester we lived together in 1997 (seriously crazy, complete with Honor Code violations and mental illness--umm not us, don't worry). I adore Michelle. She is amazingly creative and has a very uplifting personality. I just wish I had more time to visit.

I also wish I had a chance to shower before seeing her. My alarm clock didn't go off that morning, so if I had taken a shower I would have missed my flight.

Since the wedding took place in Salt Lake, I decided to stay with my friend Mary and her family. Mary is the other friend I've known since 1997. She, however, was a coworker from my days as a custodian at the Conference Center. She was also my most faithful non-familial corresponder on my mission. I was very glad that she let me stay with her. As I've mentioned before, I'm not so good with emails and calls, but we had so much fun at BYU (toilet papering, "scavenger hunts," X-Files, ballroom dance...), and I have really tried (could be better) to stay in touch. Mary has a sweet little boy that I bonded with rather quickly. I was so glad that he wasn't shy around me. We read, played basketball and gave eachother manicures. Funny story. He pulled out the nail clippers and asked me to clip his nails. When I was done, he decided to return the favor. So I had a few really short nails for the wedding, but that's ok because short nails are preferred when using black nail polish. Anyway, I had fun with Mary. In a lot of ways it felt like we were back at BYU, but with less X-Files.

The Friday night before the wedding, I hung out with my friend Carrie whom I've known since my last year at BYU when we both lived in the Foreign Language Housing Complex. She knows loads of languages and for that I am totally jealous. I just know two. We ate Thai food and saw Lars and the Real Girl. Very unexpectedly hilarious and not at all what you may think. So see it. Anyway, it was fun hanging out with Carrie. I always wanted to know her better at BYU, so I'm really glad I have managed to keep contact. (See self, it's not too hard.)

Saturday was finally wedding day, and I am so glad that I was able to attend. Erin and I were pretty inseparable in Seattle, and I must say there have been times that I wished I could have convinced her to move to New York. But obviously she had an excellent reason to stay in the city. I miss my shopping, tv, music, food, magazine, etc...friend. As you can see from the pictures I posted of the wedding, she looked lovely as usual, and I looked pretty stylish in that trendy boutique dress I bought for the occasion. I really wished I had a chance to spend more time with the bride. We had lunch and hung out for a bit on Friday, but what with wedding stuff and family, it was limited. But I enjoyed every minute of it.

The reception, held in a beautiful room at the Joseph Smith Memorial, was great. We ate good food and there was this terrific jazz combo that covered songs from Coldplay, A-ha, Alphaville and other cool bands. I also sat near a couple of other friends from Seattle: Sarah and Torrey. (Yeah friends!!)

The next day I was off to Arizona to see my sis, her spouse, my niece and nephew. Did you know that in the fall it is still warm in Arizona? It is. My sister thought I was silly because I was wearing my green fall/winter coat when she picked me up from the airport. It didn't fit in my suitcase.

Since it was Sunday, I attended church with the fam. I also got to help my sister out in the nursery--a little place that I like to call instant birth control. haha. Actually it wasn't that bad, surprisingly. The kids didn't scream, and one or two let me hold them. There was one little girl that had this icky snotty nose and she refused to let us wipe it. She used her hand and had a great snot stripe across the cheek.

Monday evening I had dinner with another friend (I know, that's a lot of friends. I must be kind of cool) from Seattle. LeeAnn moved to Arizona about the same time I moved to NYC. She really is having a good time in that brown state. We ate at Mimi's Cafe and they gave us free muffins. Afterwards LeeAnn showed me her fancy condo that is, yes, bigger than my apartment. One of my favorite things about LeeAnn is her giggle. It is very infectuous. So, to entice the giggle, I showed her my favorite Flight of the Conchords song on YouTube. If you have never seen "Business Time" I demand that you stop reading this and check it out. Then please come back. Come to think...you should also see "Can I Have Your Number." As desired, LeeAnn giggled.

I was really fortunate to be with my niece and nephew at Halloween. I got to carve pumpkins with them, see them in their costumes and teach them how to greet Trick or Treaters. I pretty much said it was o.k. for them to talk to the kids who came requesting candy. Outside of the holiday, it was fun hanging with Sam and Liz. They played their musical instruments for me and I got to find out a little about their friends and such. I even impressed Sam with my Converse sneakers. Oh yes, I am that cool. Liz and I shared a room and we even got to tidy up together.

I really liked spending time with my sister. We didn't always get along when we were adolescents, but over the years our relationship has gotten better. However, I do blame her for my new-found Nutrageous love. That is a mighty good candy bar. I am glad that she let me chat her ear off, and she indulged my desire to try In-N-Out burger.

I have a great-uncle who lives in AZ as well. He took me and my sister out to lunch at his favorite restaurant. He knows all the waitresses there, and he flirts with each and every one of them. It's kind of fun to watch. I ordered the meatloaf sandwich. I know, rare choice, but when you crave meatloaf you just have to indulge.

I think that is all I can remember from my trip. Oh! One more thing. Congrats to my brother-in-law for taking 8th place in that shooting competition. And, that was some tasty acorn squash.

So now I am back home from that much needed trip. Please allow me a quick moment to wax a little personal. Here in the big city I feel have struggled to find good friends, and I have felt lonely a lot more than I admit. This trip reminded me that I do have good friends and I need to do better at staying in touch. An added bonus to the trip, upon my return Heavenly Father has helped me see that I do have good friends here as well. And yes, I have to do my part to stay connected to them as well. Lesson learned.