Meet the Author

Tonight I got to meet my favorite modern author. Her name is Jodi Picoult and I've talked about her a couple times before. The book to the left is her newest novel that came out at the beginning of the month. She comes out with a new novel every year. Since I've been following her, they've always come out in March. Anyway, she read a few passages from "Handle With Care" and then took some questions.

The answers to the questions were so interesting. I'm sure she's answered the same questions a million times, so, in a way, her answers are prepared, but I loved hearing them. It takes her 9 months to write a book. Usually, she spends 2 months researching and 7 months writing. Her favorite part is the research. She's gone out with the fire department, been on death row, lived with the Amish, gone out with ghost hunters, observed open-heart surgery, lived on an Indian reservation, and I can't remember everything she said. How cool would that be though? It made me want to be an author!

For this latest book, Jodi spent time with several families that had a child with Osteogenesis Imperfecta or Brittle Bone Disease because this is what one of the main characters in the book has. She did everything with them so that she could know exactly how to write about it. This is how all her novels are, which is why I find them so fascinating. Her novels are usually controversial, but she's good at presenting both sides through her characters and leaving out any personal bias she may have. They always have a twist ending, but she doesn't just tack one on at the end. Throughout her books, she includes little clues or foreshadowing, if you will, as to how it's going to end.

Hopefully I've intrigued you enough that you'll want to read one of her books now. I recommend "Second Glance." It's my favorite and tonight, Jodi said it was her favorite too! It's the ghost hunting one and I've always loved paranormal stuff. "Plain Truth" is also really good. It's the one about the Amish. "My Sister's Keeper" seems to be most people's favorite. The movie is coming out June 26th, the cast of which includes Cameron Diaz, Alec Baldwin, and Joan Cusack, to name a few. Jodi just got to screen it and said it was really good, but as an author she has no say in anything about the movie. For that reason, she could do nothing about the fact that they changed the ending. When she told us this, there was an audible gasp in the auditorium and if any of you have read it, you know why. How could they even think of changing that perfectly tragic and brilliant ending?! Jodi actually got thrown off the movie set for arguing about the ending. She said to just close yours eyes for the last 10 minutes and then go home and read the real ending.

It was cool to listen to and meet her and I got my book signed with my name and everything! I'm looking forward to her upcoming books. 2010's book will be about a kid with high-functioning Autism that goes on trial for murder and 2011's will be about embryo donation and gay rights. Like I said, she likes to choose the controversial topics, but it sure makes for an interesting read.

Spring Break in Arizona

My spring break consisted of this past weekend plus Monday. These are the times I really miss school, even though I didn't get a spring break at BYU. Still! Anyway, I went down to Phoenix and stayed with my friend and her husband, Paige and Jeff, in Gilbert, Arizona. Kate's spring break is this week, so she drove up from Tucson on Friday night and stayed at their house as well. The weather was amazing. It was sunny and about 80 degrees. I even got to go swimming and layout! Wow, am I white! We also did a bit of shopping since there's so many places to shop.

So Paige and Jeff got a white Lab puppy back in the fall and now he's 7-months-old. He's huge (60 lbs.) and still growing! He's really sweet and LOVES to play, as most puppies do. We took him to the dog park one afternoon. I've decided we really need to get a dog park in Utah. This place was amazing. There were literally hundreds of dogs running around and there was a pretty big pond that the dogs could go swimming in. We were there for a least an hour just watching Nacho play tug of war and steal other dog's toys.

It was a great weekend and I really need to make my way down to Arizona more often. Just not in the summer!

Me and Paige.

Me, Nacho and Kate.

Paige live right next to Megan Street. She can move all the way to Arizona, but she'll never be rid of me!

Engaged!!!

Jacob and Heather are getting married! Jacob proposed to Heather last night and she said yes! This is how it happened . . .

Heather's birthday is today, so last night, Jacob tells her that my parents want to meet them for dinner at The Roof restaurant in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. When they get in the elevator to go up to the 10th floor, Jacob tells Heather his mom wants them to look at the reception rooms on the 9th floor to see if they want to have their luncheon in them.

They go down the hall to the Kirtland Room. I'm sure most of you have been in this room. It's the one that has the windows right across from the Temple. It's a great view. When they go into the room, Jacob plays it cool and pretends like he is really looking around. Just then, the marketing director (or some sort of title like that) comes in to talk to them about the particulars of the room. This was not intended. I was really hoping something like this wouldn't happen, but luckily the timing was perfect and Jacob wasn't proposing yet.

After the guy leaves, Jacob tells Heather to come look out the window at the temple. On the ledge are some scriptures (which I had previously placed there). So Jacob says, "Hey look! Someone left their scriptures here." When Heather looks at them she notices a name inscribed on them. This name, of course, is Heather Zurcher. Jacob then tells her they are a present for her birthday so she takes them and opens them. On the ribbon marker in the middle of the book, is the ring. Jacob takes the ring off the ribbon, gets down on his knee and puts the ring on her finger while asking her to marry him. She says yes.

So that's the story. The best part of the whole thing was that Heather had no idea. Since she knew it was coming at some point, we knew it would be difficult, but Jacob did a good job pulling it off. It was fun for me to come up with the plan with Jacob and it was really cool to be a part of it. They are a cute couple and we're looking forward to the wedding in August. Have a look at some more pictures.

This was how the ring was placed in the scriptures. The book actually closed and you couldn't tell there was anything in it.

Heather's soon-to-be new name.

This was right after the proposal and here's the view of the temple from the Kirtland Room.

Here's a close-up of the ring.

The lobby of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. They had these cool-looking fake flowers.

And since the proposal was so close to temple square, we had to get some pictures.

Here they are pretending like they're talking and I'm not behind them taking pictures.

Grand Opening

After work today, my parents and I went to the new Nordstrom to partake of the shoes, formal dresses, white chocolate bread pudding, etc. It was great and highly recommended. You should all go when you get a chance. I just had to buy something, so I got this dress:

What do you think? Should I keep it?

Anyway, I bet you thought my birthday was over. I thought it was over too, but I got two packages in the mail this week.

First, Kate sent me this shirt. I think she's trying to get me back for all those years I bought her BYU paraphernalia.

And then tonight, I got a big package from Emily. I LOVE the box it came in. I'll definitely have to figure out a use for it because I don't want to throw it away.

Inside was a bag that she got me for the purpose of "taking my crap to the gym." Since I was using a bag more suited for the beach, I greatly appreciated this.

I have the best sisters anyone could ask for! Thank you Kate. Thank you Emily. And thank you Nordstrom.

Another Celebration!

My birthday isn't over yet . . . well, now it is, but earlier today my family and I had one last celebration. It was the Sunday Birthday Dinner, of course. At my request, we had steamed artichokes for dinner (obviously with other stuff too) and a lemon curd cake from Normandy Bakery. It was really good! Enjoy a few pictures. My dad was there too, but he was taking the pictures.