A story of freindship

Things you do when you don't have friends:

From June 17, 2014

Inspired.

Hey "friends".

I'm really good at getting free stuff. 

Click here if you want do do the same, corporate slime.

Recap: California Dreamin'

Fitting for today, some old photos from a trip to visit Sarah.

Click here for your soundtrack.

Riding in the back of a minivan with my two moms

Our hostess with the mostest was an excellent tour guide

and took us to get the best food. I'm still dreaming about

Vishnu's Indian buffet...

Look at this cute Popchips advertisement that Google made for me.

Sarah's apartment is just like The Hills; hot tub and all! Sort of.
Where's my Justin Bobby?

Wetlands refuge

Paddle Hi-5

California tree, man.

Cuties

I'm luck to have such a generous, patient, wacky friend like Sarah. If you want to meet her, you can stay at her place. For reals. She is a hustler.

Recap: The Tetons

Must be *this tall* to hike.
JK anyone can hike, but no whining.

Now that the old Facebook photo albums are sort of passe I needed to find a new place to show off. Here are some photos from a trip to the Tetons with Ingrid, Suzy, and Julie from September.

We knew the trip was off to a good start when we found these hats at the Family Dollar

First of a million selfies

The team forges ahead

Paying reverence to the mountain gods

:) :) :) :)

This is real life

Girls on the move
One of my favorite shots

We saw bears!

And bison!

This is just a fraction of the photos I tool. I was overcome by the beauty of the Tetons. None of these photos do it justice.

We all gotta get outside.

Should have told you what you meant to me

After George passed away, I promised myself that I would try to be more like him. He was driven to create, and took joy in sharing his creations whether it was fashion, or cooking, or music, or art. George was unafraid of experimentation. He tried and loved everything.

For so much time I've been far too cautious and embarrassed. So here's a dinky little thing I recorded while I was missing George. We used to sing it together. It's breaking my heart that he isn't here to harmonize with me.

It's not perfect, but it's a start.

The dream that you dared to dream

Thinking about George today and wishing he was here to see all this. I guess the best way to commemorate the day is to share this video of of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing "Somehwere Over the Rainbow" during the Gay Pride festival last summer. Coincidence? I'll let the rainbow behind the organ pipes speak for itself. Song starts at 18:09

Love to George.
Love to everyone.

"Don't let them win"

Coming live at you from Sweat Lake City! Another cover for your moody summer:

We had been meaning to record it for a while, and finally got around to it Thursday. Feels apropos with everything going on the past week. Watch it and share it a few times so that we can afford air conditioning for our sweltering apartment.

A time to weep, and a time to laugh

Last week, I went to George Parkinson's funeral. I had seen him just a week earlier, and couldn't reconcile our recent conversations with the fact that he was gone. It's still hard for me to wrap my head around.

4th of July, 2013

It's hard to know where to begin with George. He was unequivocally himself. He was creative, and talented, and funny. We bonded early over our shared love of music. He first remembered me because I told our second grade class that my favorite band was Ace of Base. I first remembered him because he taught me how to suck the helium out of balloons and sing the munchkin song from Wizard of Oz. He jumped at any opportunity to share his talents, something that I hope to emulate. I wish that everyone could know him.

Campfire at George's, September 2012

The events of the past couple weeks have thrown me back in time.

I've relived my last moments with George in my head a thousand times.

I've pored through photos and videos, reminiscing over the past 20 years of friendship.

I've felt the familiar pangs of grief and mourned again for the loss of my dad.

Death is senseless. Even with a belief in a creator, it feels cruel. I'm trying to stretch my vision into something more eternal, but my perspective is still constrained. Despite that, I've been able to find moments of peace. I am blessed by kind, thoughtful friends with patient ears.

A moment from this weekend's escape at Jacob Lake

I know from experience that I will always miss George. That pain won't lessen with time; his loss will always be felt. There is little I can do, but honor his memory by trying to be more like him. I hope to make some major course corrections, and live my life with same passion that George did. My dear friend Linds has been sharing words of comfort and encouragement with us. I especially love this quote from one of the articles she passed along:

"Our Heavenly Father ... knows that we learn and grow and become stronger as we face and survive the trials through which we must pass. We know that there are times when we will experience heartbreaking sorrow, when we will grieve, and when we may be tested to our limits. However, such difficulties allow us to change for the better, to rebuild our lives in the way our Heavenly Father teaches us, and to become something different from what we were--better than we were, more understanding than we were, more empathetic than we were, with stronger testimonies than we had before." 

- Thomas S. Monson

Sending love to George, and love to you all.

Recap Attack: Starting the Holidaze

Here are some pics from the past month or so. I need to be better at documenting things, mostly.

Post-Friendsgiving goofing around

Knees

My brother Jeremy and I playing frisbee
in the dark after Thanksgiving dinner

One of the worst things about short hair,
is everyone can tell how you sleep
just by looking at you

Real Salt Lake Tree at Festival of Trees...
IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL

DABAS girls out on the town

The beginnings of a cake I made that was really good

Stained glass and icicles at the church where my Sacred Harp group sings

Gotta start taking more pics!

Recap Attack: Rash decision, pretty things, not acting my age, and the death of an onion

Home sweet home

Home Sweet Home

We got Kara a new boyfriend and she was terrified

In case you want to know what to get me for Christmas...
They sell it at Harmon's

Artsy shots in the back yard

We found some treasures going through our old school projects.
Jeremy was a cool dude.

Scored free tickets to In The Heights. It was really great and made me
wish I was a theater kid again. You can listen to some of favorite tracks on
my Nerd Alert Spotify play list. It has all the best picks from
some of my favorite musicals. 

I also won tickets to see Surfer Blood play at Urban Lounge

(I win things a lot). It was a weirdo funny show

This bearded fellow set his chair right up on the stage to watch the show
and received the equivalent of a musical lap dance.

Remember when I was on my mission and I wanted to being back Latin music but all the girls were dressed immodestly, so I used a sharpie to give them more clothing? I just found those CDs again

Pumpkins at FHE. Mine is the day of the dead one.

I went to Panguitch for the weekend with some friends. I was camera happy.

We went to this great old movie theater there. It burned down in the 80's, and this is the sign that survived the fire. It has since been reconstructed, and it is neat-o. Seriously, you should visit it sometime.

We made it over to Bryce Canyon National Park. It was beautiful.

Then we took 50 million photos trying to catch a shot that was flattering for each of us.

It was a struggle...

Caitlin, open your eyes!

Too excited... and bunny ears.

This one's my favorite.

I dressed up as a burglar a couple times for Halloween,
but the makeup didn't hold up well during a dance party

So I opted to be Mother Nature on Halloween night instead...

...along with 3 of my roommates! Mothers Nature.

Eight of us squished into a two-door car. Shiny faces from
using eye shadow as lipstick, blush, and pretty much everywhere.

Trying to drive with cardboard Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp can get a bit tricky/crowded.

Will Turner hiding in the bushes outside the house...

We made macarons!

My hair before...

...and my hair after.

Death of an onion. So violent. Rated R

As you can see, I've spent the last few weeks pretending I'm 22. It's pretty nice.