A Month In The Life...

Obviously, I've not been updating my blog for a while. Just sporadic posting here and there. I've been running around, mainly between Utah and Idaho, and every time I've thought about updating, I've just gotten a bit overwhelmed and decided I'd rather make memories than record them for the time being. But there's something to be said for journaling and for updating those of my friends and family who are interested, so I'm catching up with the Cliff's Notes version of my last month or so. I know it's a lot, so skip what doesn't interest you (for many, that may be the whole wretched mess, which is fine with me). :-)


DISNEY WORLD
(Pics posted separately)
I flew from New York to Orlando to meet my parents and Sidney, just missing the tail end of...was it Ida? The change to warm, t-shirt weather was welcome after the blustery last day in New York. Jason and his sister, Ashlee, met us there for part of the weekend, having flown in from Georgia and California. Friends and family in Disney World: GREAT way to follow a last-minute job interview in New York. We had a great time in Disney World, hitting all the theme parks and Treasure Island (including DisneyQuest--the Pirates game was pretty dern fun--and Cirque du Soliel's La Nouba, which was great as usual--my third Cirque show so far [Varekai and Ka being the others]). Some highlights:

• Slumber party with room service pizza and a ridiculously expensive in-room movie.
• Toy Story 3D game in Hollywood Studios, which Maw, Sid, and I went on a total of...three or four times? You should see Maw when she's shooting stuff to bits. It's intense.
• Sid and I ate at Il Mulino at the hotel and had a good talk and some pretty much amazing food (perfectly cooked pasta certainly didn't hurt and is surprisingly rare), particularly the gelato and sorbet we took back to the room to share with the grandparents/parents.
• Gummies and chocolate and dessert buffet.
• The gorillas at Animal Kingdom.
• The Italian pavilion "cast members" and the greeter at the French restaurant.
• Dad in the Frogman gallery.
• Bluezoo butternut squash pasta and scallops, which made my soul resonate with culinary joy.
• "You're hairy." -Sid during lunch at the Magic Kingdom.
• "Oh shhhhiii-oot!!!" -Ashlee on the Jungle ride in Magic Kingdom.

JETBLUE FLIGHT ATTENDANT?
*BZZZZZT* No-go. Rejected. I wasn't all broken up about it, but it was disappointing. I have no idea what the reasons are. I may have to contact one of my interviewers through a friend to see if she has any suggestions for me.


COOKIES, GAMES, AND A CRAPTASTIC MOVIE
Got together with some acquaintances before Halloween to frost some holiday cookies. Here's a picture of a dry one I frosted.

We also played TriBond, which was much fun, then watched a movie, which a couple of us pushed on the others, remembering it as a really funny movie from when we were younger: Haunted Honeymoon. It was...well, not as funny as I remember. But I still love Gilda Radner and Dom DeLuise, and Gene Wilder is pretty good, too. And the scene with him sitting on the other guy's legs = classic comedy. But I think the highlight was when someone commented that the maid looked like Elder Bednar in drag:

DIAMOND FORK HOT SPRINGS #1
Four of us hiked out to Diamond Fork Hot Springs up Spanish Fork Canyon in October, braving newly cold temperatures. About halfway up the trail, we were startled to happen upon the rear ends of several cows, including a calf or two. As we shrugged and started following them up the trail, the rear-most calf scampered forward into the small herd, and the rearward cow turned and postured at us. We stopped and slowly stepped back a bit, leaving them some respectful distance. So we continued, slowly plodding along behind a bunch of moseying cows. As soon as they veered off onto a higher trail, we scurried forward to avoid meeting them again where the higher and lower trails intersected. The rest of the hike up was pretty uneventful. After an hour or so of soaking, we headed back down. We had a good laugh when Steve, who was in front, came running backwards into the group clapping his hands because he'd seen something of non-negligible size dart through some shadows. A short while later, we heard something in the brush just off the trail and, as we walked on, slightly faster now, questioning what it was, we smelled it: it was a skunk, and it was spraying. We ran. As we bounced down the trail past another group, we warned them. As they reached the point we'd darted from, we heard one of the girls behind us say, "I think I got some in my eye!" We laughed, of course. Around the bend, Steve again jumped with a start as he looked to the right and saw a ghostly outline of a large skull in the shadows just a few feet from the trail: the white head of a large, brown cow. Naturally, as he jumped, he yelled, "Aa, cow!" Again, laughter. ...until the nearby calf acted scared, and the cow started to get up. Again, running.



DIAMOND FORK HOT SPRINGS #2
Late November, another group headed up the canyon for a dip in the hot springs. This time, the trail was packed snow and ice much of they way, so the hike was an adventure in an entirely new way. Apparently, we needed more excitement, though, so Randall turned all Rambo on us and started throwing snowballs from unseen hiding places. Up at the springs, one of the guys found a great pool I'd not been to. I was really skeptical at first because it was more shallow than the one I'd been to before, but it was great. Out of the way, right near the waterfall, and totally adjustable temperature. It started out too cool, so we put some rocks around the inlet, and we roasted ourselves, then found the perfect balance. I also discovered the joy of holding the empty water bottle at the bottom of the pool and letting it go, resulting in a rocket (demonstrated in a photo below by one of the cohorts). Simple pleasures, I tell you. The trip down, in the frozen dark, was slightly more treacherous, and in a few parts, all we could do was hunker down and slide down the trail for a few feet, hoping we'd slide straight rather than off the side and down the hill. I wish I'd taken pictures of the sliding.







CHRISTMAS AROUND THE WORLD
Justin and Derek were visiting Utah from Seattle for the weekend, and we all went to Christmas Around the World, a performance by BYU's international folk dance teams and alumni. This one was far cheesier in some ways than the other one I went to a few years ago, but it was very fun, and it was great to have some Seattle friends visiting for the first time in quite a while. Visiting other friends, playing Blokus, eating at Mazza, watching 80s movies, good times.


WII WITH THE PARENTS AND OTHER IDAHO FUN
I've been spending quite a bit of time in Idaho lately, between Thanksgiving, getting my car fixed by the dealer they trust up there, and just needing to get away from Utah and have some quiet "me" time in solitude to read, edit photos, look for jobs and housing, etc. It's also been fun to connect with a couple of friends up there and get to know them a little better. I even found someone else who knows and loves Big Business, a movie starring Lily Tomlin and Bette Midler I hadn't seen since I was pretty young but used to love. I have to admit I loved it more then, but it still brought joy to my heart to watch it again. And of course I love playing the Wii with the parentals. We take turns winning at bowling (mostly Maw), and I thrash at MarioKart (until I play online with gamers who humble me). Yes, my parents own a Wii. I know. Weird. :-)


VIENNA TENG IN PARK CITY
After my last trip up to Idaho, I swung by the Salt Lake airport to pick up Ty and whisk him off to Park City for the Vienna Teng/Alex Wong concert, which was great as usual. I enjoyed hearing old favorites re-created with percussion and performed on a large-ish stage with lighting effects at the Eccles Center. I'd only seen her perform at small-venue concerts before, so this was a fun change of pace, even if less intimate. In the lobby, I asked Vienna and Alex to sign a couple of things for me, and as they did, I did the stupid fan thing and told her how much I enjoyed the concert and then told her that of all the musicians I like, she's the one I most want to have a conversation with over dinner or sipping steamers in a jazz cafe or something. She said, "Well, I hope we get to do that sometime. Are you coming to the thing after this?" My first impression was, "Wow, she actually put that out there. Interesting. Maybe she doesn't think I'm a total creep." Then I talked myself back, "Well, maybe she's trying to avoid you asking her out by thinking of a neutral, public setting she can give you a token word or two." With this dialog going on in my head, I said I didn't know what that was, so she asked one of the organizers about it, and the organizer said they were having a reception. Alex asked the organizer if it was open-invite or list-only, and she said it was kind of a list thing. Meanwhile, I was thinking, "Wow, this is kind of awkward, waiting to find out if I might be invited to something but wondering if I should just say something to relieve them of trying to gently let me down...but what if I could get a chance to talk to her just a little...that would be cool...no, no, let the poor girl go." I said, "No biggy, I'm not trying to sneak an invite or anything, I'm just saying if the opportunity came, I wouldn't reject it." She repeated she hoped we get to, and I, not wanting to force myself or be all creepy (I mean, she has no reason to believe I'm an interesting person, let alone a sane one) just smiled and thanked them for the concert and wished them a good night. On the way out, Ty basically called me a wuss: "So...y'know...maybe...if someday...we were able to talk...maybe in the next life of something..." Jerk.

We then headed to the family cabin/apartment of one of Ty's friends, in downtown Park City, where I related my little awkward exchange with one of my favorite musical artists, and Patrice informed me I'm a total wuss and should've asked for Vienna's contact info and let her know I was going to be in Park City. I said I didn't want to come across as creepy or pushy, and she said if a guy's creepy, anything he does is creepy, and if he's not, such an invitation or request is flattering, so I had nothing to lose. We discussed briefly. I learned a thing or two about how smooth I am not. But I wasn't exactly looking for a date! Just letting her know that I think she's an interesting person I'd like to have a conversation with...of course, if I really want to, why not try to? In my effort to not be creepy, I ended up being all awkward and wussy. Ha, lessons learned (hopefully). Better luck next time!


TABERNACLE CHOIR CHRISTMAS CONCERT
The next morning, rather than linger and loiter as cabin-apartments are meant for, we woke up early to get down to Salt Lake to the Conference Center for the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert with Natalie Cole. We woke up to well over a foot of new snow. The Jeep was buried, but I am loving 4-wheel-drive more and more as we get deeper into winter. Love it. Michael wasn't so fortunate, and his little sedan was too low to clear the snow, so he had to dig out to get out the long driveway. Unfortunately, Ty and I had already left, thinking the other two would get out fine, so we happily went to the concert while the others dug out of the snow. I felt bad about that. ...but hey, by the time we found out, they were already leaving, so no sense in losing sleep over it: on to the concert! It was great (sorry to those who missed it) as usual. I've been to five of these in a row: fun tradition I highly recommend. Tickets are hard to get, but if you just show up, you'll often find someone giving away tickets, much more so on Sunday morning, which doesn't even always fill up.




There have, of course, been other goings-on, but most don't inspire narratives or would otherwise not make good, light-and-fluffy blog entries. Yes, life's been busy, even in unemployment. Oh right, I'm supposed to be job-hunting...