Happy Halloween! and two short stories

Happy Halloween! Kate and I have been carving pumpkins since Saturday so that we could put one on each step of the stairs going up our driveway. I carved a BYU pumpkin (with a cougar and everything) but Jacob took it down to Provo to put on his porch. It's probably for the best because it was destined to be smashed with all the Ute fans that infest the neighborhood that I live in. One of the pumpkins I just finished carving got it's face eaten by Jerry, so I had to throw that one away. I love answering the door to give out candy and seeing all the kids in their costumes. We give out regular sized candy bars and I love to hear their delight when they see this. We have to make it worthwhile for the kids to come all the way up to the top of the hill where our house is!

My first short story: Last Friday I went down to Provo with my mom to see one of my childhood friends, Brooke Bosler Robbins, who I knew when we lived in California, perform in Mozart's opera, "Le nozzedi Figaro" or "The Marriage of Figaro." Jacob met us there because he's friends with Brooke's younger brother, Jason. Brooke played the part of Susanna and has an amazing voice. I found the opera to be very entertaining. It's a comic opera and had many outrageous plot twists. Read the synopsis online if you don't believe me! It's crazy! Anyways, it was good to see Brooke and her family. Here are few pictures of us visiting her backstage after the performance.

From left to right: I don't know, Jacob, me, Brooke, her husband, Jason, Jason's date, I don't know and Kaitlyn (Brooke's younger sister)

Jacob, Brooke and Jason

My second short story: My mom went to "The Store" (that's really the name of this grocery store) on Saturday night to do some grocery shopping. She went The Store that's down on 20th East (there is also one on Holladay Blvd. that's closer to our house but it's smaller). The Store is notorious for hiring high school kids, in fact, that's basically the only people who work there. My mom was just finishing and was about to turn the corner of the aisle she was down to go the the checkout stands when the store got really silent. My mom had a feeling that she should stay right where she was. After a while she heard the girls at the checkout stands start screaming that they'd been robbed. At this point, my mom turned the corner and one of the girls ran to my mom sobbing and hugged her saying that the guy and put a gun to her head. My mom soothed her and she seemed to calm down.

Apparently, there had been a guy sitting in his car and waiting until there were no customers at the checkout counters. As soon as they were clear, he ran into the store and demanded the money from the two girls who were working the registers at the time, holding his gun to their heads in turn. A couple of customers got a good look at the guy and were able to give the police a description of him. I haven't heard anything about whether they found him or not. The funny thing is is that Kate wanted to work there but my mom would never let her apply because she didn't want Kate working at a place that was open at night. Sorry Kate, now you really have no chance of convincing her!

The Flying Dutchman

Last Friday I took my mom to the Utah Opera's performance of Richard Wagner's "Der Fliegende Holländer." This was one of the birthday presents I gave her. The other one was "Power to the People" by Laura Ingraham, an excellent book from what she tells me. Anyway, the performance was at the Capitol Theatre and we had my dad drive us so we didn't have to worry about parking. I was surprised by how many opera fans there are and the fans aren't just old people; there was a wide range of ages present. It was fun to see how dressed up some people got. There were a lot of old ladies wearing black sparkly clothing and there was actually a guy wearing a kilt!

Although I've listened to music from various operas and watched some on TV, I've never been to a live performance of an entire opera. I enjoyed the whole atmosphere, from the live orchestra to the amazing vocals. It was all sung in German with English super titles projected above the stage. When I get the chance to go again I want to go to an Italian opera. The Utah Opera's next performance is Puccini's "Tosca," which I'm more familiar with and that might be my chance.

On a side note, I recently finished Charlotte Brontë's "Villette." This is the first book, besides "Jane Eyre," that I've read of hers. I decided I really like her and now I've discovered some of her juvenilia and I love it. She and her brother, Branwell, and sisters, Emily and Anne, came up with a whole imaginary kingdom that they wrote stories about with reoccurring characters, some of which were named and based on Branwell's toy soldiers. I think after I finish reading some of her early novellas, I'm going to read "Shirley."

Happy Birthday Mom!

My mom's birthday is October 14th and I wanted to wish her a happy birthday. She truly is my best friend and I love her so much. She is such an influence in my life. She graduated in graphic design from the University of Utah and I followed in her footsteps by also graduating in graphic design, except I went to BYU (sorry mom!). We have many common interests, especially decorating for the holidays and I love doing things with her.

My mom has raised seven children and as I look around at my siblings, I realize that she has raised wonderful, good people and it is all because of her and what she has taught us. She makes sure that she is always available for her children. She is selfless and would do anything for us. How did I get so lucky?

Mom: I love you and I'm so grateful to be your daughter. Happy Birthday!

The first picture is of my mom in 1977 in Hawaii. This picture is of Emily, my mom and me at one of my Aunt Janet's art exhibits.

This is me and my mom at my graduation from BYU. She was the only one who came! Can you believe that?

Tag, you're it!

Paige Hawkins Hanks tagged me!

What was I doing 10 years ago?
I had just moved from Northern California and was starting the 8th grade at Churchill Jr. High in Salt Lake City. I was immediately adopted into a group of friends which included, Paige Hawkins, Nicole Pace, Natalie Evans, Muggs Hicks, Brittney Saxey and Makenzie Waltman. Our favorite things to do included going to dinner on the weekends to the Training Table and T.G.I. Friday's, making rice krispy treats and walking home from school almost everyday. Those were the good old days!

Emily, Kate and me in August of 1997 at our old house.
We were there because Briton had just come home from his mission.

What was I doing 5 years ago?
I had just graduated from Skyline High School and was starting my Freshman year at BYU. I was rooming in Helaman Halls (3rd floor of Hinckley) with Natalie and Paige was next door. We made a lot of friends on our floor and we did some crazy things that year. We put goldfish in the toilets, covered one of the halls in knee deep crinkled newspaper and water ballooned cars and people. Oh yeah, we also threw dead goldfish at cars (that one was gross). I was taking a ton of art classes in order to establish a portfolio to apply to the graphic design program. Those were the good old days too!

Me and Paige at our high school graduation in May of 2002.

Me and all my Freshman dorm friends in December of 2002 at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

What was I doing 1 year ago?
I had just graduated from BYU and in my second week of working as a graphic designer at the job I am currently working at, Fluid Studio. I had just moved back into my parents house, where I still reside with my mom, dad and two sisters, Emily (26 and in her fourth year of Medical School at the U) and Kate (17 and in her Senior year at Skyline).

What was I doing yesterday?
After I got home from work I went to Koyo with my mom and Kate. I love Japanese food! I ate miso soup, vegetable tempura, and teriyaki steak with white rice. Mmmmmm! When we got home Kate and I took Lucy and Jerry for a walk. It was really warm last night and it was such a nice walk. There were so many fall smells and the leaves crunched under our feet as we walked through the street. When we got home, I played the piano, took a shower, watched the first part of Jay Leno, read and went to bed.

Five snacks I enjoy are:
Kashi cheese crackers, Tootsie rolls, peanut butter m&ms, cinnamon toast, and popcorn.

Five things I would do if I had $100 million are:
First I'd divide it between my parents, siblings and myself. That would leave me with about $14.3 million which, secondly, I would use to invest in the stock market. Third, I would buy a house and possibly a vacation home as well. Fourth, I would buy a new wardrobe (probably all from Anthropologie). And fifth, I would visit all the places in my answer to the next question.

Five places I would love to run away to are:
LONDON and the UK in general, everywhere in Italy, Hawaii (I'm going to Maui in February even though I don't have $100 million!), New York and Carmel, CA.

Five TV shows I like are:
The Office, Heroes, Prison Break, Dexter and Project Runway.

Five things I hate doing are:
Drying my hair, getting ready in the morning, work from 4-5 PM (it lasts forever), traffic, and laundry.

Five biggest joys of the moment are:
Being able to play with Kate before she goes away to college (we went to a haunted house last Saturday), having my whole family (except for Danny) live close so I can see them a lot, the Autumn and Halloween season, I just went shopping with my mom at World Market and we bought Christmas ornaments so now I'm excited for Christmas, and I've worked at my job for a year now and I don't feel like the "new girl" anymore.

Friends I'm tagging are:
Aaren Esplin, Tara Shirley, Jessica Zurcher, Amanda Dambrink, David Grover, Emily Mitarai and Kristina Smith. You better do it!

Designing for the elderly

For the past 2 years, I've designed the sweatshirts for the Vacaville (my hometown from 0-13 & 1/2-years-old) Festival of Trees. They've been pretty cheesy designs; take a look. 2005's theme was "Ringing in the Season" and 2006 was "Feliz Navidad."


This year, I wanted to depart a little from the usual design and do something a bit more funky. The theme is "Star of Hope," so I came up with the picture below on the left. It was sent to the committee to be reviewed. Well, apparently the only people who really buy the sweatshirts are the senior citizens. This meant that I needed to alter the design just a bit to suit the tastes of the old people. So I came up with the one on the bottom right. It's basically the same idea, just not so many color variations (however, I didn't change or get rid of any of the colors; I love pure cyan on dark navy blue), a script typeface (always guaranteed to appeal to older people) and more realistic looking trees. So, hopefully this will be approved and I'll be done with my charity work for the year, unless my mom volunteers me for some more. . . oh yeah, she already has! Why did I major in graphic design?