The best friends wedding

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit of a basket case yesterday. Tori and Billy were wed in the SLC temple and it was just a perfect day, minus the ice covered roads requiring us to drive 30 mph from Provo to Salt Lake.
They are such a pair; so happy together and such quality people. It's exactly the way that things should be.

Yeah this is really the best picture I got of them from the day haha. Her dad conducted a really eloquent ring ceremony. Something he said that stood out to me was that it is great to be in love and in that state of complete happiness and infatuation but that thankfully it doesn't last. It develops into something much deeper and longer lasting. And sometimes, you don't feel that strong sense of attraction etc at all and that's when it's important and necessary to remember that you've made a promise to that person, that you're bound to them by your choice and by a covenant. That might not sound very romantic the way that I worded it but I was really impressed by it. And honestly I think there's not a lot that IS more romantic than the responsibility that comes along with that bond to another one person. Anyway, I'm so excited for them and feel so blessed to have them in my life!

 I had a nice date too

Pardon the fact that my dress is so short, I'm tall enough that all bridesmaid dresses look a little scandalous on me, even when they don't on the other girls.

Happy new years!

Chance meeting

I love when you meet someone and you can't help but think that it was somewhat fateful.. The mom and I were in WinCo today, browsing the great selection of giy spices and met and spent an hour talking with a lovely southern belle. I think that it started off with me asking my mom what would go well with fried green tomatoes and said lady piping in.. How did you come to know about fried green tomatoes? Well, I was born in North Carolina of course so I can and do hold some claim to knowing the basics of fried cooking. (Even though honestly I'm a little morally opposed to it--public health major)
Anyway, long story short we quickly learned she has quite the adventurous spirit and then drank in everything she had to say. Getting to the point.. She told me about something her daughter, Claire, (a great sign already because I love love that name) had done where she moved to New Zealand for a bit and worked a few hours out of the day to earn room and board and spent the rest of the time exploring etc. One of the families she stayed with completely took her in and the woman spent hours every day teaching her how to cook. Could this sound any more appealing to me? Nooo it could not.

I've been toying with so many different ideas like this I just need to do it. Or something like this. Now.

But we had such a nice time chatting we're meeting up for coffee and cupcakes next week. Yay.

Those Christmas Lights

Give it a listen

If you love Coldplay or you don't
(I know there is a better way to post this as a video on here but I don't know how)

Weird thing about finals week this year is everyone I've ever met seems to be coming out of the woodwork. People I haven't seen in years popping around the corner every five minutes. It's been fun. But the fun ends there, finals are finals and when your mind has the attention span of a three year old it always complicates things, esp studying.
I'm curious if this is something unique to BYU, girls are always real dolled up when they come to the library. And they like to come in packs. Girls in Provo never miss an opportunity to impress men, you can't go to the grocery store in a sweatshirt and shorts or people will assume you are married.. or a lesbian. It's so draining sometimes. Plus there is no competing with these women, they make it their full time job to be as attractive as possible on every level. I commend them for their diligence but forr real..
Despite all my complaints, I have true love for this town. It's an awfully weird place but it is home and I can appreciate it 99.9% of the time.

So it's been said

A million times and in a million different ways. But, exercising my civil liberties, I'm going to take a crack at it and give my two cents.
Driving today I was cut off by a truck bearing the bumper decal:
So how's all that hopin' and changin' going for ya?
And I had to wonder whether the manufacturer of this particular message started making these stickers before the new president was even put into office.
I appreciate that there are real issues that lead a person to choose a party to affiliate themselves with but I have to ask myself whether politics has become much more trivial than that. Have we started to view something as serious as the direction and state of our nation for ourselves and our successors (not to mention our effects on our brothers and sisters of other nations) as something that could be likened unto our affiliation with a favorite sports team? I worry that we view the leaders of our country with the same bullheadedness that is admissible when dealing with our alliance to the Colts or the Lakers, but inexcusable when a real problem has presented itself and we refuse to reach across the table and compromise.

I'm not going to pretend like I know enough to divulge into any particular issues, rather leave it at that and hope that we can separate ourselves from the political chains binding us to one mindset and halting our progression. The political standstill we've come to based on poor (not to mention stupid) attempts to please the other party is another issue entirely.. and not the solution or the path of which I speak... ha ha