February!

Oh, February, historically my least favorite month of the year due to illness (thanks allergies), and general cabin fever. Thank goodness I found ways to amuse myself, and others once in awhile. It helps I had a great trip to New York City to look forward to and then muse upon after I returned home!

Food!

I'm trying to photograph less of my food (it's more difficult than I would have thought), but here are a few things:

I've been making good use of the waffle maker I received for my birthday. Here it is topped with Nutella AND Biscoff cookie butter. Try it. You'll like it!

On a particularly rough Sunday, I had an interview with a member of the Stake Presidency to renew my temple recommend. After a short conversation and commiserating over my unemployed status, he offered me as many Jelly Bellies as I liked -- pear and sour apple. Weirdly, they cheered me up. It's the little things!

CPT's Hats Off party

Since I wasn't in any of the plays at CenterPoint Legacy last year (though I did sing at the Fairytale Festival), Chantryce was sweet enough to invite me as her date for the Hats Off "Thank You" party. Even better, Larissa and Jamie gifted me a new/vintage dress that fit me perfectly, so I'd have something new to wear. I felt so pretty, and I enjoyed spending time with a ton of dear friends. I hope to do a show there sometime this year.

Before

After.
The hair didn't work out the way I'd hoped, but it was nice to try something new.
I had a ton of compliments on both the dress and the hair. My friends are the sweetest.

It cracks me up that my hair looks pink in this light. I wish!

Natalie got to wear her gown from The King and I when she sang at the party.
The dress rightly had its own applause -- it's spectacular! 

Jason and me

A few crazies

A small group at Chili's after the party

Galentine's Day

Kate had the brilliant idea to commandeer Parks and Recreations' "Galentine's Day" party idea, and celebrate the women she loves most (or as many as she can gather together on a busy Saturday). I was honored to be included. Kate invited us all to Auntie Annie's Dessert Island, and made sure we all got to talk with one another, and play some fun get-to-know-you-better games, and my peach tart and "Princess Milk" was delicious. Kate's friends are my friends and I adore them all. It was wonderful having them all in one place. I'm already looking forward to next year!

These women are amazing

Valentine's Day

Since I had no official sweetheart this year, my Valentine's Day weekend was low-key. I liked it -- no sour grapes, I promise :)

One of my girlfriends hand-drew her own cards, and thoughtfully sent one to me.
It's the coolest Valentine I've ever received.
It now lives on my bookshelf; I display it proudly.

Valentine's Day was on a Sunday, and I spent it with my parents and little PJ. My nephew is my most adorable Valentine ever. I love this happy little boy!

Here he is squirting himself in the face with a water gun. He enjoys it so much. Almost as much as getting squirted by me - bwahahahaha!

My parents gifted me two lovely and warm sweaters. I wore them both in NYC :)

A belated Valentine's gift from Theresa. I can't imagine why she thought I'd like it.

Fun fact: I LOVE IT!

Evenings out

My friends continued to invite me out to try to cheer me up with the whole job loss thing. It's nice to be thought of. It's even nicer that they took action. I have such generous friends.  They love me for who I am and support me no matter what. I am grateful for every one and sorry that I don't have more photos!

I was lucky to win two free tickets to see one of the "Best of the Best" movies at the Sundance Film Festival. Gina and I didn't know until we arrived that we'd been viewing  Birth of a Nation, based on the true story of Nat Turner, a slave who lead a revolt against white slavers in the early 1800s. It was a beautiful, heartbreaking film. The distribution rights were sold for the highest bid in Sundance history. I'll be very disappointed if it doesn't receive a Best Actor (for Nate Parker) and Best Film nomination at the Oscars next year.

Liz and I happened to go to the Jordan River Temple on the anniversary of my endowment.
The temple was closed the next week so they could start renovating it. I'm sad they're going to make changes -- I was fond of it the way it was -- and looking forward to attending again next year when it's ready.

Chantryce invited the four of us to see a play at Weber State. Afterwards we had dinner at Chili's. These people make me think and they make me laugh.

Aaron called me up out of the blue and asked to take me out to dinner. Have I mentioned how much I adore this man? It's not very often I get him all to myself for a few hours. He gives terrific advice and is one of the people I trust most. Plus, he goes out of his way to have fun and it's fun to watch and play along. I'm lucky that one of my best friends is my brother.

Solitary entertainment

In the last year, I have had no less than four young men recommend The Way of Kings to me. I finally had a break in my ridiculously-full reading list and picked it up. I'm about a third of the way through now and it's awesome!

I have quite the collection of bookmarks. It seems wrong to use a bookmark that doesn't match whatever genre of book I'm reading.

I finally finished my book of Florida adventures. I did some heavy editing on my blog posts and finessed the text into the photo book. I'm quite proud of the result. It won't be the last such memory book I create.

To celebrate the 60th anniversary and donate to charity, Disney sponsored a "Show Your Ears" campaign, encouraging Disney fans to Instagram photos wearing mouse ears. I own many tiaras, but no ears, so I had to dig around to find this from my trip in 2010.

After months and months, I finally finished watching all 10 seasons of Supernatural on Netflix. I plan to watch the first 10 episodes of season 11 on Amazon, then finish up on Hulu. I'm so excited to be caught up!
To celebrate finishing season 10, I watched The Hillywood Show's spoof. I'm glad I waited, since it's basically the plot of season 10.

*SPOILERS*


And there you have it. Now that I've returned from New York, I need to focus on the job search. Hopefully there's some fun in there, too. Guess we'll see.

My first Sundance film!

Have you heard of the Sundance Film Festival? It was started in 1981 by Robert Redford and friends, runs in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, and showcases independent films each January. Filmmakers are given a chance to show their work and, if they're lucky, the films are picked up for more general distribution. (Fun fact: did you know that Napoleon Dynamite, The Brave Little Toaster, and The Blair Witch Project all debuted at Sundance?) In addition, a lot of these films feature established Hollywood stars, and the Festival is known almost as much for "star"-gazing as quality productions.

I have lived in Utah for my entire life, and have never attended the famous Festival.

Until this year!

My adorable friend Jenna invited me to come with her this year. She picked out a few films, and I chose one that seemed interesting and played on a date I was free, and before I knew it, it was Friday the 20th and I met her and her friend Heather at the Salt Lake City Library with ticket in hand!

From left: me, Heather, and Jenna

We saw Putin's Kiss. I admit, I had only read over the overview once several weeks ago, so I was a little surprised to discover it was a documentary... a political, Russian documentary! Haha! So appropriate for my first independent film! Lucky for me, my relationship with NPR helped me understand more of what was going on than I might have otherwise, and I don't mind films with subtitles. On the contrary, it was fascinating to get a glimpse into the Russian political system and see how the main subject changes throughout the film. Knowing that this was real made it feel just a little more brutal, a little more heartbreaking, and a little more hopeful. If you don't mind foreign films, I recommend this one. It was something different for me, but I'm glad I gave it a shot.

Plus, Jenna and Heather are delightful! We're all literary people, so we had no trouble finding things to talk about. One of my favorite moments was when Jenna bravely decided to approach her favorite Junior High school teacher, who she was sure wouldn't remember her. On the contrary, as soon as the teacher saw her she jumped up and climbed over everyone in her row to give Jenna the best hug! It's just so cool when teachers remember their students (even from ten years before). They chatted for several minutes and I could see how thrilled Jenna was that she didn't chicken out -- I'll always regret that I let my chance to thank my favorite teacher go by. Just such a cute moment!

Ah, Sundance. Bringing people together in the most unexpected ways!

I hope to have another chance to go in the future, and maybe (maybe, I'm not excited about the weather and crowds) I'll drive up to Park City sometime where much of the real action goes on. T'would definitely be an adventure!

Thank you for inviting me, Jenna!

Speaking of adventures, my photographer friend Mandie was contracted by the festival this year to take official photos of the venues and volunteers. Her photos are terrific, and her blog posts tickle me 'cause she has such a cute writing style (she is such an upbeat person and writes the way she speaks!) -- go check it out!

Have you ever been to the Sundance Festival? Are you going this year? What have you seen?