Andrew Bird comes to Salt Lake

Andrew Bird is a classically-trained-violinist-turned-folk-singer who I started listening to this year. When I found out he was coming to Salt Lake, I was worried I wouldn't be able to find anyone who would want to go with me... meaning I was worried I wouldn't have a ride to Salt Lake. But randomly enough I found out Leilani likes him too and she wanted to come with me. So Wednesday night we trekked over to Salt Lake.

I was so impressed by his versatility: he sang, whistled, and played the violin, guitar, and glockenspiel (sometimes all in the same song.)

this is the best picture I got of Andrew playing the glockenspiel

Martin Dosh. His drum kit was really sparkly

We got pretty close to the stage (maybe three people back) so we had a really good view (once this giant guy with a fro moved out of our way). I took tons of videos, so here's a little sample of the concert:

Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left

Oh No

I loved when Andrew would just talk to the audience and joke around. I'm still amazed by how good he is live.

how I survived winter

When you grow up in a place as beautiful as California, is can be difficult to spend upwards of four months with no sun and tons of snow. The only way to counteract the depressing effects of a Utah winter is to constantly do fun things. I can't say I always succeed in this, but I try, so I thought I'd show a few of my recent attempts to survive winter

My friend RT helped me make Crème Brûlée. The best part was when we got to use a cooking torch to caramelize the sugar on top. They turned out surprisingly good (considering my last attempt at making crème brûlée tasted like pure egg yolk)

The MOA (Museum of Art) typically has some cool exhibits. Currently there is an exhibit by Dan Steinhilber. I went to the reception with Alyx and Allison, and we got to meet the artist. The artist had some BYU students (mainly art majors) help him set up all his pieces, so Alyx and I both helped work on this one which is made up of balloons

This piece is made up of hundreds of packets of duck sauce. I thought it looked like a tile mosaic. The color was amazing.
When Ryan went to California for his volleyball tournament, I had the car for a week, and we definitely tried to make the most of our time with the car. We went thrift shopping in Salt Lake and then had lunch at the Bakery (which has the most amazing food). I got a turkey and avocado sandwich with French onion soup.
...which I devoured.

And of course we got dessert: you can't skip dessert at a French bakery.

We found an old phone booth near the bakery and had fun taking tons of pictures in it.
Allison brought me Valentine's Day cookies. I thought the cupid one was hilarious. Alyssa and I made tons of sugar cookies, and had a semi-party with people from my ward.

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Provo has been receiving ridiculous amounts of snow this week. Is this pay back for enjoying such good weather in California over break?

Bounce House Birthday

This post is a little late, but I really like all the pictures we took, so I thought I'd post about it. For Allison's birthday we rented a bounce house, and it ended up being a completely worthwhile expenditure. We had at least 10 people in it at all times, which meant it was in a constant state of collapse.I love that I am trying not to sit on Allison's face. This picture kind of sums up the whole night: someone was being squished at all times.
Trying to balanceAfter we finished bouncing, Allison, Alyx, and I decided to sleep in the bounce house. Here is a depiction of all five layers I wore to keep warm.It was FREEZING cold and everyone said we wouldn't be able to do it. Alyx ended up getting too cold, but Allison and I were champions.Happy Birthday Allison!! (a month late)

'Tis the Season... almost

My roommate Marissa is probably the biggest advocate of Christmas spirit that I have ever met. We've been talking about how excited we are for the Christmas season since... September. Being Christmas connoisseurs, we decided that this past weekend was the perfect time to put up our temporary Christmas Tree (after talking Alyssa into it, of course. She didn't want Thanksgiving to get overlooked but we assured her that Thanksgiving is a very friendly holiday and wouldn't mind sharing its space with Christmas). Our apartment was already in the process of its Christmas transformation (garland, a wreath, and lights had mysteriously appeared above our fireplace. I won't name names), and then Sunday, after ward prayer, we pulled out the tree and stockings.Overall, we're pretty satisfied with the results.After Thanksgiving break we're planning on getting a real Christmas Tree.

Pre-Halloween Halloween Party

While I was at JoAnn's I found a sewing pattern for a little boy's Robin Hood Halloween costume, and I decided I could make it work for me (even though I am definitely not a little boy). I used the BYU sewing lab, which was convenient, and I think it actually turned out decently. I added ears and a tail so I could be Disney's Robin Hood (the fox), which was probably my favorite part.
I went with Allison, Alyx, and Luke to a ward Halloween party, which ended up being a lot of fun. Allison was Hermione and Alyx was Ron.
Their Bishop lives a half hour up the canyon in the middle of nowhere. After the party we were amazed by how bright the stars were, so the Bishop let us lay on his trampoline which made it a lot easier to look at the stars. We saw a bunch of shooting stars, but no satellites.
Here are some pictures of my full costume so you can see my cape and tail.

Alice in Wonderland and the Getty

Allison and Alyx decided to throw a surprise Alice in Wonderland party for Alisha's birthday so I helped them plan and make costumes/food/decorations.

It turned out really amazing, mainly because everyone went all out on the costumes. I was the white rabbit, Allison was the caterpillar, Sean was the Ace of Hearts, Tim was Tweedle Dum, Carly was Tweedle Dee, Tom was the King of Hearts, Bryce was the Mad Hatter, Alyx was the Cheshire Cat, and Alisha was Alice.

We started off with a tea party.
Lemonade, Sandwiches, and a Doormouse
Alisha was completely surprised. After she came out and saw the set up, we had her change into the costume we had for her, complete with dress, apron, bloomers, and petticoat (I made everything but the dress)
After tea we played Croquet. I think Carly or Alisha won. Mainly I just remember that I did the worst.

Allison, Alisha, and Alyx
Saturday I met up with my roommate Sarah at the Getty. The Bernini statues and the Women in Art and Science exhibits were my favorite (this time). The Art and Science exhibit made us wish we were good at ink drawing and painting so we could draw pictures of insects and flowers.
We sat in the shade of the garden for a while


The garden was in full bloom.
The Art and Science exhibit had an art area where we got to color some pictures of bugs

We enjoyed it a little too much. We were also the oldest people coloring. After the Getty we got food at the Ye Olde King's Head near Third Street Promenade, were we ate Treacle Sponge Cake in honor of Harry Potter. It was fun hanging out with Sarah since I haven't seen her in months. We've decided we need to have art days when we get back to BYU since we won't be roommates anymore.