amendment: the band i would go see in a heartbeat if money and scheduling were no issue

i have to write something about arcade fire. i thought i liked them before, but after spending the past couple months listening pretty much non-stop to their first two albums in addition to the much-beloved the suburbs, my devotion is complete. every song is so beautifully melodic, so rapturous. the only word i can really use to describe their music is epic--it feels like every song is building me up to some important realization about my life.

the musicality! organ, horns, full strings, accordion, haunting harmonies floating in from the underworld or the heavens, depending on the song.

so, here's a playlist. i give you arcade fire.

                                       

in the early morning

this morning, for whatever reason, i couldn't sleep. maybe i was too excited for the stake seven peaks activity, but i couldn't sleep past five a.m. which is very uncharacteristic.

but i decided to make the best of it, so i grabbed provisions (read: reading materials. what else?) and went out to the balcony.

it was too dark, at first, to read, so i had my little flashlight. but i watched as the sky slowly turned from dark, deep blue to a lighter azure to crisp grey to, finally, bright white as the sun started to peak out from behind Y mountain.

and for a moment i closed my eyes, because i could hear the music of the spheres, or maybe it was the trains in the distance. but either way, what a sunrise.

but since i didn't have a camera, here are some other beautiful sunrises to inspire you.

via

via

the activities which propose to make my summer unforgettable

last year, at the beginning of august, i had to recommit myself to having fun. i felt like i had kind of wasted my summer and i wanted to really make something of the last few weeks before school was in again. this summer is a little different, for a couple of reasons. first, school won't really be "back in" for me come the fall. that is actually really weird to type out/contemplate. and second, i resolved early on this summer that i was going to make it awesome. the time is ripe for some incredible summer adventures. away we go:

lake powell
learn to ride a bike (yeah, i've been saying it for awhile. the time is now.)
mona lake
tuacahn
camp out (partially checked off for roughing it one night in moab)
outdoor movies
bonfires (s'mores=one of my favorite treats ever)
manti pageant
spend time with awesome boys (and girls, but i'm trying to make something happen here)
concerts (twilight concert series season pass? check)
art projects
wearing a skirt or dress every other day at least
write: thesis+essays
demolition derby
strawberries and cream (yummmmmmmmmmm)
swim. obviously. i basically live at the pool already.
boating
floating lanterns, legit style
float the provo river
learn to sew
read good books (like i wouldn't be doing that anyway)

so this is my list thus far. i will update it as i see fit. and my summer shall be unforgettable and un-regrettable (which apparently isn't a word? just kidding. it just isn't a word to blogger, for some reason.)

prom night

a few saturdays ago, as meredith and i were walking back to our house from the local 7-eleven redbox location, we came across a peculiar sight on the main stairs of the provo city library. congregating around the steps were what looked like parents, children and, most interestingly, teenaged couples in formal attire. as we loitered around the outskirts of the gathering, we gathered that this was an old-fashioned, honest-to-goodness promenade.

prom·e·nade

   [prom-uh-neyd, -nahd] noun, verb, prom·e·nad·ed, prom·e·nad·ing

1. a stroll or walk, especially in a public place, as for pleasure or display.

2. an area used for such walking.

3. a march of guests into a ballroom constituting the opening of a formal ball.

4. a march of dancers in square dancing.

5. a formal dance; prom.

so basically, it was a promenade in multiple senses of the word. a master of ceremonies announced each couple as they marched down the grand staircase amid the cheers and applause of their waiting families. 

to me, it was magical. how cool that this school makes such a big deal out of prom night, giving families the chance to see their kids, some of whom will be graduating and leaving the nest soon, all dressed up on what promises to be one of the most memorable nights of their lives!

it made me wish that i had gone to prom in my high school years. usually i don't care about that at all--i mean, i didn't really care about it at the time--but i guess every once in a while i wish i had some really awesome prom/school dance stories to contribute to the conversations that sometimes come up or to tell my own kids when they are getting ready for their own dances. it doesn't matter all that much (i don't think), but it's one area of life that i don't have a lot of personal experience with. 

this wasn't meant to be a pity party; i don't think i'm any worse off, socially or emotionally or anything, because i didn't go to prom. but i was glad we randomly came upon that promenade at the library last week. i should probably play dress up and go to a formal event sometime soon, right?

new catch phrase

i noticed a few days ago that i was saying "there you go" quite often, all of a sudden. like after every third sentence or so. a friend would say, oh, i just remembered what i have to do tomorrow, and i would say, well, there you go. it's a fairly useful phrase, if rather random.

i've been wondering why i've started saying it so much lately, why it's become such a big part of my vernacular. then, yesterday, in the car on the drive up to buffalo wild wings for 50 cent wings, i said something about it to meredith and jesse. meredith said, yeah, jesse says that all the time. and jesse said, yeah, i always say that. and that was that.

so i guess jesse is rubbing off on me, and i didn't notice. that worries me a little :)

the times they are a changin' (ever heard of that as a post title before?)

i'm still amazed at how quickly things can change. i am so happy these days, but for completely different reasons than the reasons i was happy just a few weeks ago.

in april, i started but never finished a blog post about how i felt like i was floundering--that was the word that kept coming back to me. i felt really good about a lot of relationships in my life, but i could feel myself failing in most of the other areas. and i was so stressed about it. the weight of a lot of struggles was on me. i was having the time of my life with my friends, but other important issues--school and work--were not falling into place.

now, i feel a million times better about my school and work situation. nothing is really figured out, but i have a plan and i have a knowledge that things happen for a reason. things are different with my friends, but they are different for good reasons. i'm having fun but also getting things done, which hasn't really been the case for quite awhile now.

so, i've come to terms with the fact that things change, but they change for good reason. life is all about adapting and succeeding gloriously, as elder scott puts it.

sometimes really simple things make me really happy

as most of my friends know, i have a thing for rainbows. i freaked out for days about how awesome our vast array of spray paint choices looked when it was all arranged in rainbow order. so, when i came to our fhe activity on monday and saw a brand new box of sidewalk chalk, i might have convinced a friend to take a couple pictures and send them to me.

isn't this the greatest? it makes me so happy!