Confessions of a Bibliophile...

Now ain't that the truth? So tell me: what's your favorite book to "sink into"? My list is oh so very long. But recently it's been The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. And Midnight in Austenland. And The Devil in the White City. And  Death Comes to Pemberly. Did you know that I simply adore the smell of books? My very most favorite thing to do in the summer time is to go to King's English (an awesome independent bookstore that's been built in an old house) when it's raining. Why raining, you may ask?

Because King's English is so old that they don't have central air. Just a swamp cooler. So the humid smell of the swamp cooler mixes with the delightful smell of thousands upon thousands of book to create a perfume that I would purchase should anyone ever bottle that incredible mixture. Does this make me crazy? Quite possibly. Do I care? Not even a little bit. There is something entirely magical about a bookstore. Especially independent stores like King's English. Call me a hipster if you must, you definitely won't be the first. 

As much as I like shopping for books on Amazon and reading them on my Kindle (Amazon would have to do something completely horrible to shake my loyalty), part of me craves the sensory experience of shopping for a book. I love chatting with the sales girl at the register about what a sweetheart Shannon Hale is and how much we loved her latest book. I love that they have 'recommendation' shelves where employees get to list their favorite books and why they loved them. I love the faint smell of coffee that always seems to linger in the fiction section and they way the light comes in through the window just right when I sit on the bench to read the first few pages of each of the huge pile of books that I want to buy.

I love going to the Shannon Hale loving sales girl and asking her to tell me why she loved The Elegance of a Hedgehog more than The Lenningrad Madonnas. I love the sense of community that a bookstore creates. For just a little while, you're all friends. It's not odd to recommend a book to a stranger or ask the opinion of someone you'll likely never see again. I don't think there's anything more satisfying than that.

I'm not in the mood...

for a Monday. I know that I'm acting like a petulant four year old. I know that, as an adult, I need to pull up my imaginary bootstraps that those of older generations are forever referencing and get over the fact that Mondays happen. At least once a week or four times a month, depending on how you look at it. But to be honest? I'd rather just skip the whole affair all together. I hate pulling myself out of bed to take a shower and get ready for work. (To be honest? I hate pulling myself out of bed every day, but I reserve a special kind of loathing for Monday mornings.) I hate trying to convince myself, on Sunday night, that I don't mind going back to my regular work week. I heartily dislike feeling like I'm clearing cobwebs from my brain all day long. This Sunday I'm especially not loving the idea of Monday rolling around to take its place at the beginning of my week. Over the last seven days I've spent a lot of time with my mom and my sisters. Well, yes, if you must know, my brothers and my dad were there too. I mean, I like them a whole big lot, but you can't take pictures like this with brothers:

The answer you're looking for is no, you can't. In my experience, little brothers don't take kindly to red lipstick. See for yourself:

Whit got him on the forehead before she took the picture. Poor kid. He's too nice to physically move his sisters away from him as forcefully as Max or Cam would have. It sufficeth me to say that I had a completely fantastical week last week. Can you see why I don't want Monday to come? It means that I have to leave a simply lovely week behind and start one that just entails a whole lot of being at work and waiting around for a phone call about that secret government job that I mentioned a couple of posts ago. So, I must ask that if you find yourself with any spare time this week, you throw up a few extra prayers or some good karma on my behalf so I can get this job, okay?

What a difference a day makes...

So, friends of the blog world, can I please share with you that my weekend was full of craziness? I was literally surrounded by a sea of crazy for the better portion of it. It all began on Thursday morning when my sweet grandmother had an epic freak out session after I left for work which lead to my mother coming to the decision that it was time to move her down to Pleasant Grove for the duration. That meant that on Friday morning after class my mom, Kylee, Max and Cole all drove up to Sugarhouse to pack up 60 years worth of life in a house and haul it down to the padres' house. (A quick shout out to the darling Amanda who was a complete angel and worked all day for me so that I could run around like a chicken with my head cut off). What complicated this little plan was that Gram was sick when my mom got to the house. I had been in such a hurry get to get to class on time that I hadn't been paying especially close attention when I ran out the door, but my mom saw it as soon as she walked in (She's so observant that I swear she's psychic sometimes). So after lots of moving, lots of throwing things away and 4 huge bags of clothes for the DI, one trip to Pleasant Grove and back, Gram was off to her doctor's appointment while Squeegee and I did a little shopping. Now, dears, don't judge, but I was feeling weak willed and I let her talk me into purchasing a pair of skinny jeans. I told you not to judge! It's my blog! I'm the only one who gets to judge around here! And I look darling in them. AND they're a size smaller than the last time I purchased jeans, so take that! That's all we're going to say on the subject. Saturday brought a day full of cleaning (there was food in the cupboard that expired while I was on my MISSION) and work, followed by a long evening of cleaning my room and moving things upstairs with the help of Sara the Theatre Fairy. We decided to be spontaneous and get sweet potato Smashfries from SmashBurger AND shrimp tacos from Bajio for dinner. It was an odd combination, but throughly delightful all the same.

We're going to take a break from our regularly scheduled programing so I can tell you all how freaky sleeping in an old house all by yourself is: double dose of freaky. Trust me. I didn't sleep at all on Friday night because every tiny noise had me jolting out of my bed to investigate. It's first time since I was 16 and saw What Lies Beneath that I purposely slept with all of the lights on. Hence the move upstairs. It's much quieter than the basement and not as freaky. Sorry for the interruption. Back to my life.

My Sunday morning started with a phone call from my mother informing me that my grandma was throwing a grand fit about having been moved to the Good Ole PG and that they were seriously considering moving her back up to Salt Lake. My bleary and sleep filled mind had some serious problems digesting this information, and the first thing out of my mouth was, "But I already moved all my stuff." I'm so intelligent sometimes that I scare myself. After a few tears, lots of prayers and yet another trip down south, we came to the conclusion that Gram would stay put in Pleasant Grove. While I was down in PG, trying to help my dear mother calm my grandma down, I got to hold and snuggle my Peanut and play with Joshie a little. It was a fantastic little trip. Immediately following my return home, I took my first Sunday nap in 3 months and it was glorious. I was then lucky enough to be fed one of my favorite meals: pasta alla Sara. Right?! The awesomeness of this was compounded by the fact that I also watched Guys and Dolls  for the first time ever and can I please just tell you all that I have absolutely no clue how I lived 25.84 years of my life without seeing that movie? I'm addicted. And I want to marry Sky Masterson.

Lucky for me I now have spring break to nurse my new found obsession and reorganize the mess that is my house.

The Weekend Update, featuring your favorite Girl...

I know what you're all thinking. Two posts in two days, how did you all get so stinking lucky? Feel blessed because with the whirlwind that this next week is going to be, you're not going to be hearing..er, reading, my delightful and charming comments on life all that much. Blame the biggest job interview of my young life and a whole lot of homework, combined with the fact that my weekend was entirely unproductive in the classical sense of productivity though you'd never know if you asked me how long I slept, total, between Friday night and Sunday morning (9 hours, for the record). What was I doing with all that time, you wonder? Whelp, I'm about to tell you, so get super excited. Um, excuse me, those are not your super excited faces. I can see through the computer. It's another one of my sidekick powers.  Okay, that's better. Where was I? Oh yes, what I did with my weekend. Well, young (and not so young) grasshoppers, I spent my weekend here, watching this and dying a little at it's sheer and complete awesomeness. But that doesn't take up the other 63 hours of my weekend, now does it? On Friday a good portion of it was spent at work, which is much less fun to talk about so we'll just skip that, now won't we? After the show on Friday night (which was beyond epic, seriously. I'm not even joking or exaggerating for dramatic effect) I was lucky enough to get to meet some of the cast and Jill Santoriello, who wrote the script, music and lyrics to A Tale of Two Cities (squee!!) and have dessert with them at Applebee's. I KNOW, RIGHT? Oh wait. Most of you are not the die hard theater nerd that I am. Well, show me your excited faces anyway, please and thank you. It was incredibly neat to get to meet some of my favorite characters as real people and made me love the show all the more (I know what you're thinking: that is outside the realm of possibility, but I assure you, it is not). This little party lasted late into the night, which pretty much meant that I only slept for 3 hours on Friday (sheer excitement + whopping migraine + a Diet Coke + 2 Excedrine = completely wired version of Mal that was literally vibrating). Saturday held another viewing of the show and dinner with my Theatre Fairy Sara and then, (because we're complete nerds) we went to the talk back with Jill and the cast. Sigh. It was magical.
   There are a myriad of reasons why I love theater (and not all of them have to do with ridiculously darling boys), but one of the biggest and most profound is that I love how much detail matters to a good performer during a truly epic performance. I love that those little nuances and tiny elements can change a character and flavor of an overall performance. And while I will never have the talent or skill set to be on stage and create that kind of magic for an audience, I love that I get to be part of that world, even if it's just for a little while.

I loved every second of my Hale filled weekend.

The Weekend Update...

Yes. That is a completely obvious and blatant reference to Seth Myers and Saturday Night Live. I won't lie to you. Anyway. It is Sunday night, so this isn't much of a weekend update, but I liked the title. My weekend completely lived up to all and any expectations. There were naps. There was a temple trip. And yes, my friends, there was even a little Shia LaBeouf (via Transformers and Disturbia) in my weekend. Looking back on it, I'd call it a success. My team even won...Which almost didn't happen. I need to have a talk with those Ute football players. Almost losing to Air Force is UNACCEPTABLE. (Though I'm positive that Coach Whitt is a whole lot scarier than I am, so maybe I'll let him give them the talking to and I'll just stand behind him and nod, with my arms folded across my chest and a scowl on my face). There were even a few unexpected surprises some of which included: dinner at my aunt's house, a movie night with girls in my ward and a visit from a friend who lives in Orem. All in all, I'm sad to see my weekend ebb away and my week begin again...that is until I remember that I get to go to Karlie's class and help out with their Halloween parade. I even get to dress up. If you haven't read Percy Jackson you will have no idea who I am though. And that means that you're not cool and you misread the requirements of being my friend. Better jump on that one.

Here's to Looking at a Weekend...

...filled with this:

and a little of this....

Hopefully a little of this....

and a whole lot of this...

And if I'm really lucky, maybe even a bit of this....

Don't you just love Fridays?

Long Weekends Rock My Socks Off...

This weekend was absolutely fabulous. It all started on Friday night when Karlie and I decided to have a hot boys movie marathon. We thoroughly enjoyed the lovely array of gentlemen we gathered at our new favorite movie renting gallery, Hollywood Video on 4th south. Saturday was a full football day, which let's be honest Karlie and I didn't mind at all. After BYU's upset, we headed back over to our movie mecca with Lindsey and found a nice thriller collection: Enough and Disturbia. We thoroughly scared ourselves before going to bed. One of our most fabulous ideas yet, if I do say so myself. Sunday brought church and an AMAZING dinner at my parents house, followed by a deliciously scary viewing of Disturbia. I was lucky enough to spend Monday morning with Aubrie and Corey in Provo, eating amazing zucchini bread and pineapple. I also go lucky enough to see Jalayne and Shelisa for a minute, and they almost made me want to move back to Provo. After a little bit of studying, Karlie and I hit Cafe Rio for dinner where we were joined by my friend Cam, who finally made it back from Canada. All in all, it was an incredibly successful weekend.

Happy...

You know those times where you're just happy? For no particular reason, happiness has decided to settle it's self upon you and let's be honest, you're grateful for it? Today is one of those days. I'm just happy. There's not a specific event that has contributed to it, no exact person, it's a general thing. I think that part of it has to do with the fact that my dreaded Spanish presentation is over and done with for the semester. That was a huge load to get it out of the way, because let's be honest my Spanish teacher is scary. But it's spring now, and that makes evil Spanish teachers not matter as much. My friend Julina got her mission call today and I'm so excited for her. My headache is better today, which makes things much happier. Basically, there's just lots of really great things. While I'm at it, I'll tell you a few more, because let's be honest, who doesn't want to hear about great things?

*Contracts are selling like crazy at work
*My apartment is actually staying clean, which is a miracle in and of it's self
*It's Thursday which is my absolute favorite day of the week
*I get to watch The Office tonight, I love The Office, a little Jim and Pam makes the world a better place, plus, come on, how could I forget Dwight?
*I get to have a friend in my office again today. Sherry and I have fun when we get to work together
*I only have 105 Spanish problems to do, but it's all subjunctive, I love subjunctive.
*I made a new mix last night that is amazing and I have time to listen to it at work. I love music.
*I ONLY have 3 exams next week, which could be 4, so I'm looking on the bright side.

Isn't my life seriously SO blessed? I'm almost as happy as TAMN...