The good, the bad, and the family…
#142Five Things I Can’t Wait For:
So super happy to be back for another week of music, fun, sun, and friends! We’ve already seen some great music this week. Every time I come back I feel full and blessed – I have great friends! I have an awesome husband that sends me out here, and I have a little bit of good luck to find a great place to be and great opportunities to see shows.
Austin is such a beautiful and amazing city. The weather is great. Downtown is something else with so many people, and SXSW seems to have really expanded and managed that expansion well.
LC is keeping a journal for us this year, and JC’s pictures are coming out so much better than mine that I’m going to hold out on telling you all about my days until I can cheat and steal their info and pictures.
Utah is a funny place, make no doubt about it. After living in Seattle, San Diego, and Austin, well, Park City is special. I love my home town, it’s the cool hip island in an ocean of talk about ‘special undergarments’…I’m gonna let you look that one up yourself.
What I will share with you this week (while I’m on vacation!!!!) are some things I’ve noticed about ME here. Your location undoubtedly changes you, I’m proof.
How I Know I’m Becoming A Utahn
I quit working out last summer, and was really burnt out from the effort I’d put in before that. So it’s been a loooong break. I lost all my muscles. But moving to Park City beefed me way up. While bike riding and beach volleyball is fun, I wasn’t really getting a good workout with any sort of activities in San Diego.
But now I shovel snow.
I think real activity/doing things is a better body workout than going to a gym. It’s how we were made. My hard work after a snow storm is (probably only for this year) a super fun thing to me. It’s fun to go out in the snow and come back inside hot and cold and exhilarated all at once. And I’m ending up with muscles, total bonus. MK too. We get out there after a big storm and clear our decks. Utah is for workouts!
Utah is a funny place, make no doubt about it. After living in Seattle, San Diego, and Austin, well, Park City is special. I love my home town, it’s the cool hip island in an ocean of MORMON JELLO– seriously, they are serious about their Jello. I think we used to call it Ambrosia as a kid – the weird concoction of fruit and cream and vomit-inducing Jello. And yes, I’ve been to a party that featured some…
What I will share with you this week (while I’m on vacation!!!!) are some things I’ve noticed about ME here. Your location undoubtedly changes you, I’m proof.
How I Know I’m Becoming A Utahn
I mentioned in my last story that I ran in to the mall the other day. I was wandering through racks of SHOULDER COVERING shirts when I wondered why I was so at peace. I haven’t been to the mall in Utah since the last time we lived here and I was also shopping desperately for SXSW.
I love music. My droning on and on about SXSW every year should tell you that. Well, in Park City I get npr, and three Clear Channel radio stations. In Salt Lake you get that plus one more Clear Channel station that is usually playing the same song as one of the other three Clear Channel stations. If you’re not aware, that means there are 10 songs that make my ears bleed in rotation. HOLY MORMONS the radio SUCKS.
Our car is too old to have an AUX IN. We have a 6 CD changer in the trunk. I don’t even know what happened to the 1000+ CDs I used to own. MK says he has them but can’t get them for me. He must have lost them, if I was him and was getting this much grief, I’d find the CDs. I bitch every time we get in the car. Especially when in the off chance a good song is on, and we lose reception halfway from our house to the ski hill. UGH.
So in the mall, breathing slowly and feeling so abnormally good I take note of it – I try to figure out why I’m happy. Why? BECAUSE I’M HEARING A SONG I HAVEN’T HEARD BEFORE. Don’t get me wrong, I was at Macy’s. It wasn’t a good song. But it didn’t have the words “carry out” of “tick tock” or “call me Mr. Flinstone” in it. It was sheer pleasure. Living in Utah will make this year’s SXSW even better than ever- you might be able to force me to listen to anything and I’ll find the good in it!
Utah is a funny place, make no doubt about it. After living in Seattle, San Diego, and Austin, well, Park City is special. I love my home town, it’s the cool hip island in an ocean of FUNERAL POTATOES – much like Austin was the trendy surrounded by the redneck. I’m not going to tell you all that I’ve learned about the state, the idea you have in your head is pretty close.
What I will share with you this week (while I’m on vacation!!!!) are some things I’ve noticed about ME here. Your location undoubtedly changes you, I’m proof.
How I Know I’m Becoming A Utahn
I’m 5’2″. On a good day. And it snows a lot here. I’ve spent the whole winter getting used to the idea that I’m a short bundle of nerves and giggles that most people think might be a little person. Snow boots are not slimming, and they don’t have heels.
So the other day, when it was warm and sunny in the valley and I was going out to meet some friends, I put on HEELS. Skinny jeans and some of my highest heels. Well, to tell you the truth, I put boots on at my house and changed in to my heels after I got away from Park City.
I ran into the Mall to get something (read more about that tomorrow) and walking back to the car I felt like a hussy. I’m almost positive I got some weird looks from Mormon mommies in track suits. I looked down and my tight jeans and sky high heels and then caught my reflection in my car, which was clean for the first time all winter…and I saw this tall crazy lady leering back at me.
I almost changed. But since I wasn’t really going any place special, I went with it. I was in a T shirt, for crying out loud. If I had put the boots back on, they would all KNOW I was from up the mountains, and I decided that bugged me more than looking like a giant. I reminded myself I was normal at 5’7″ with the heels and rocked them until the wee hours of the morning. And woke up with feet cramps…
Just a little bit longer until I get there and stop being jealous of KD in the sun and JC party-hopping…
So today I’ll remind you all that this is the SIXTH year that I’ve done brackets for March Madness.
And since I stopped watching basketball immediately after Uconn beat UT and both teams started sucking, I plan on doing very well in the brackets this year. But I think I should make a prize for DEAD-F-word-Last, don’t you?
Want the password? Ask for it!
Per request, this is the first picture of the white fireplace, after three coats. I put the silly vases and the whale for reference. As in, LOOK HOW WHITE IT IS! AND HOW BIG! And clearly not decorated!
I have a couple of ideas.
First, where I put those itty-bitty vases, GIANT vases. Some kind of large tall glass stand, either to hold candles or some sort of those sqiggly sticks. I think it will add height and hide the massive amount of white brick.
Something like this, maybe:
And then, a new mantle. To cover the two rows of brick that the whale is resting on, that hardly counts as a mantle. Either some wood that we make ourselves and paint black, or something dark like this:
In fact, I like that whole picture. I wish that was my fireplace. *sigh*
We’ll get there someday…
First time for all of this.
#141Five Things I Saw Skiing Deer Valley This Week:
What are the chances that THREE headlines were just too funny for me not to share?
I’m not even going to name/explain them. My blog, my rules.
Just reposting. Read and laugh.
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/nation_shudders_at_large_block_of
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/houseguest_just_going_to_lie_there
http://www.theonion.com/content/amvo/wine_may_help_women_moderate
There are a few rules that MK and I made for the house. We had to ditch a few that were made deliriously in the UHaul on the way from Austin (it is way too cold for the nekkid rule). 😉
It was hard having to settle down, we might not still be ready for it. We weren’t excited to go to the store and get stuff that just hangs or sits around. One of our rules was to have a story behind our things. Even wherever we rented, the things that were most meaningful were never just things. They had a story, and not just that they were on sale. Each koozie is from an event. Front and center in my kitchen is the vase my Grandma gave us for our wedding. Now, the table by our door is funny because we got it at an auction. And I swore I wasn’t going to buy crap at Bed Bath and Beyond (I don’t think we have, yet!). I was going to make our own art.
But here’s the thing: I suck at art. I am a perfectionist. It is possible that getting a Thank You card in the mail from me will take months because I’m trying to choose the right words. And have a good handwriting day. It’s true. Things I paint have a great idea, but the execution, not so much.
SO THANK YOU JB! JB painted two pieces of art for us that are going to be a part of our house, and our story forever! You remember that JB is freaking artsy, I told you about her soaps here. So she was willing after skiing like an awesome lady to paint me a painting that I mentioned that I liked, and a monogram I tried and sucked at.
How lucky am I? The first painting will go in our living room over the arch (of course first we have to tear down some wood) and you’ll see it when you first walk in! And how cool is the monogram? It matches our bedding! It’ll get a big black frame and hang in the master bedroom. I am so blessed!
Cat Killfoil 