A Recap of Denver, in Photos

Picture 1:  Happy Denver. When we wandered around town we took some pictures of the city. Doesn't this first one look like a smiling face? I thought so.

Picture 2: Our cute feet.

Picture 3: An artistic photo taken as we walked downtown.

Picture 4: Creepy Mark Twain at the Museum of transportation. My ginger man approves.

Picture 5:  Our cute and smiling Denver faces.

Love! Cookie

Ants in my Pants

This weekend I wanted to attend President's Ball at Westminster College.  I searched the web for details and lo and behold, I cannot find it listed anywhere.  This, dear friends is a tragedy, because I most certainly have ants in my pants and I want to do a dance!  I am so eager to get out of Nephi for any reason.  My days are getting a little blurry and I am sinking into the lack of social life that the school year always seems to offer.  I need to shake things up!

This summer I purchased a Vera Wang skirt from Kohls.  It is a $98 that I bought for 90% off.  It is too fancy to wear to school, and too fancy for church.  Can you suggest another use for such a frivolous skirt?  OR, does anyone out there know details for President's Ball?  

:) Cheers!

Oh, the Greyhound

I just travelled to Phoenix, AZ, via the Greyhound.  For those of you who are not Greyhound veterans (as I now surely must be...34 hours on the bus makes it official), let me tell you that being on the bus provides an education that I never knew I was missing.  It gives me the chance to interact with people who are life affirming and enriching.  During my bus ride during the stretch from Phoenix to Vegas, I sat near:

-A 23 year old Chinese girl traveling alone to the Grand Canyon to work.  I gave her a fruit roll up and saw her triple check handwritten notes that provided her with step to step directions in a broken English.

-An African-American woman who was just released from Perry (a Women's Penitentiary) after four months for smoking pot.

-A Latina, drunk beyond belief, who borrowed my phone to call an ex-love who was refusing to pick her up from the station in Flagstaff.  She sobbed as the passengers around her listened, pained.

-A proud grandma who was heading to California to see a first grandchild.

As you can tell, I stayed around women as much as I could.  The one time I sat next to a man it was during the home stretch.  He may or may not have caressed my arm as I slept.  

There is some lesson from a Greyhound journey that cannot be learned in any other way.  I can't make sense of it.  It was a lovely, long journey.  I read two books and ate at McDonald's a whole lot. And, the destination of Tempe was  really what made the trip so much fun.  I loved spending time with Chris and Rebecca, whom I have missed most dearly.  We watched movies, received pedicures, ate Ethiopian and Thai food, and talked a whole lot.  It was difficult to come home and be in the real world once more.   

Help from the Homeless

This weekend I was downtown SLC for most of the time.  I attended the Living Traditions Festival with a handful of friends and had a good old time.  On Friday night I was running a little late (got distracted by Whole Foods, formally Wild Oats) and rushed downtown to find a parking spot.  The streets are free on Saturday, so I was hopeful and really excited to see curb side parking.  I was driving the beast of a Yukon and thought I could real quick dart into the spot without holding up traffic.  Well, I darted so quickly that my front tire went into the gutter (a sharp, steep gutter) and I was trapped!  I could not reverse, I could not go forward, and I could not move my steering wheel.  Every time I tried to budge my truck made horrible grinding noises. There was a "bum" (not politically correct, I know) on the sidewalk who was watching my whole fiasco.  He walked over to me and motioned for me to roll down my window, which I did.  He then told me how to move my steering wheel to get out of the gutter. It didn't work, and he motioned for one of his buddies to come and push me out.  With my truck in reverse and the help of two kind homeless men, I made it out of the gutter and to the festival concert.  I did not end up parking in the space because I was so terrified of making the same mistake again.

Say Cheese

I pretty much love this picture.  I was just browsing through my England photos and I realized that one of my favorite of the batch is a cheese sign.  I know, it's a little odd, but look at the composition of this photo!  Mind you, I did not create this lovely cheese sign against brick wall concept, but I am appreciative of it all the same.  Plus, it matches the colors of my blog.  While I was in England last summer, Martin offered me a variety of delicious cheeses of which to sample. It was cheese heaven.  

Also about cheese: my roommates thinks that cheese is the most perfect addition to practically any dish.  Just as dad eats cheese with his cookies (yes, like a sandwich), Nancy will put cheese with any other item and call it a meal.  She definitely needs to travel to England  to taste her cheese options, or at least get out of Nephi, where one has to go to buy actual cheese.