too late for a title

It's 2:51 MST. Pretty late. Really late. Even for my low-key, laid-back Utah vacation, this is late. But I want to blog; and if I don't now, it'll be next weekend before I get another chance. And you have no idea how true that will probably prove to be.

Today was my fourth full day in Pleasant Grove, and a delightful one at that. Far and away, the majority of my time has been spent at my sister Alaina's; mostly while she's at work, dinking around in my borrowed pajamas, surfing the web and walking to Panda Express for lunch. (One day I made the 1.5 mile trek to the Del Taco in gale force dirty wind. It was more than worth it... Mmmmm... spicy jack quesadilla.) I haven't spend this much time in Utah County since I graduated from BYU three years ago. It's been a different trip on a lot of levels--I have thoroughly enjoyed the time spent with my older sister and niece (even if she screams "no!" every time she even sees me after a tragic two hours I spent babysitting Monday night didn't go so hot), but I have loved revisiting my true Utah roots -- my time spent at BYU.

I've spent two nights in Provo with friends from my freshman year--kids I don't see very often. It's been super fun reliving old old memories. I've also eaten three Smart Cookies.

Speaking of the Utah goods I've eaten; Costa Vida, Cafe Rio, Brick Oven, the Del, my favorite Albertson's donut, Panda, cinnamon bears, and Chili's chicken enchilada soup (that's right, they don't make it in the 617). Did you know Utah is also the home of the Big Gulp? It's socially acceptable to drink large fountain drinks here--I've been a frequent user. I need to leave this state before I get fat.

I'm sleeping with a legitimate white noise machine. It's not the same as my fan and took a minute to get used to. I wouldn't even give waterfall, rainforest, ocean, songbirds, or running stream a chance. The closest noise I could find is static--imagine your TV on a channel without a signal and that's what you've got. After awhile it starts to sound like someone is in the shower. Using this machine actually makes me feel pretty high maintenance.

Utah is also home of the amazing deal. I'm a bargain-hunter, I can't help it. My new job will probably require me to dress up a bit; so I have a few(!) new pieces to add to my business-casual collection. And one vintage pattern to give sewing a go once get to Portland in less than two weeks. (Did you know I'm becoming slightly domesticated? We made jam on Monday for pete's sake.)

At dinner Tuesday night, Alicia dropped my new favorite saying. In reply to my saying "Every Jack has his Jill" (meaning wow! i can't believe he actually found someone to marry), she taught me "Every garbage can has a lid." Ha! I can't get over it. Genius.

Alaina takes pretty amazing people-photos. My other sisters have had their shoots, and she was insistent I have one. She also insisted I link to the post of my photos. Believe me, I'm lucky I got out with this many photos; I deleted at least 200 bad ones. I'd get kicked of Top Model for sure. Anyway, if you're in Utah and ever need family photos, she's reasonably priced and easy to work with. End plug.

Downloaded an "Umbrella" cover by Marie Digby. It's amazingly fantastic. Acoustic, folksy, and all around amazing.

You may have noticed I have a new header on my page. Time to switch it up. (I know it looks pretty crappy. It's 3:20AM and I stopped freaking over details an hour ago. Will fix soon. End semi-related tangent.) Funny story about the photo the image was cropped from -- just as we were headed over to shoot, a hundred-million pigeons landed on this tin-roofed shed. Hate hate hating birds, I had a mini-freak out (which always leads with riger mortis hands) and walked away. The photo was snapped in that instant. I feel it's a pretty good representation of who I am -- 1) hater of birds and 2) awkward hands. Update: Header image is updated. Still not an A+ project, but I can't be good at everything.

Big city weekend on the horizon! That's right folks, I'm headed to the bright lights and the big city--the Salt Lake City tomorrow. (Ever notice that people who haven't lived or visited Salt Lake often always call it "Salt Lake City"? It always feels weird to hear it called the full, formal name.) Dancing, the Real/Galaxy soccer game, G-parents back in town, the junk store, and who knows what other crazy stuff happens in the Capitol City.

No other randoms to report. Or rather none that I can remember. Or none that you care about. Are you still reading? Did you skip this post since there were no photos? Have you counted the number of grammatical errors? There are several I found in a reread, but now I've forgotten where they are and don't care to hunt them down. BUT, this isn't me asking you to point them out to me, believe me, I know they're there. And a their just to get all three in a five word proximity. You know? Their, there, and they're? One of grammars biggest faux pas? Oy. Now I'm going off on grammar errors. No one cares now, three hours ago, or five hours from now.

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