Roadtrip!

Charla and I went on a roadtrip this past weekend! She wanted to visit a friend at BYU-Idaho and also go down to Southern California to go to her niece's baby blessing. As Charla is one of my best road trip pals and she is moving to Houston in a month, I couldn't pass up the opportunity. We spent a night in Idaho doing all of the best BYU-I has to offer: Craigo's Pizza, a tour of campus, Snoasis shaved ice, and hiking R Mountain.

On Saturday we made the 14 hour drive to Simi Valley, California. Somehow I didn't manage to snap any photos while were there! : ( We went to a baby blessing, had a barbeque, watched fireworks from the roof, swam in the pool, and got to hold baby Willow.

The drive home was eventful. The car had been overheating on the way down, but we had gotten it to cool down by turning on the heater and taking a break. A few hours in, the car started overheating. We let it rest for 2 hours while we took a nap in the car in a gas station parking lot, but it overheated again. We called a tow truck and got towed to Fillmore, Utah. At this point it was 6 in the morning. Charla and I were so tired, the wait for the tow truck seemed to take forever!Charla ended up staying the night in Fillmore, and I was lucky to find a ride back with Charla's roommate who was in the area.

Although Fillmore seems like a small town in the middle of nowhere, it is the very same place I met Kirby Heyborne my freshman year!

small talk

Bank teller: So what are you studying?
Me: I graduated.
Bank teller: What did you graduate in?
Me: Marriage, Family, and Human Development.
Bank teller: Oh, cool. I'm taking one of those classes next semester.
Me: Which one?
Bank teller: Oh, just the general how to be married and not suck at it.

Saturday
+ sunny weather =
bridal shower
+ ward slip n slide kickball
+ delicious free sandwiches from Chick-fil-A
+ surprise birthday party
+ bonfire
+ card games
+ porch sitting =
four different outfits
+ sunburn =
one tired but happy Alicia

Library

I love books.... I love to read. I went to the Provo Library yesterday to pick up a couple books. I hadn't been there for awhile, and I missed it.



Isn't it beautiful?

It was kind of funny, I was going through my list of books to read, and it is now dominated with nonfiction. I never really liked nonfiction before. All through high school, my favorite kind of book (I can't believe I'm actually admitting this) was cheesy LDS romance novels. The likes of Jack Weyland and Rachel Ann Nunes. It's still a guilty pleasure- those books are fast, easy reads, and I can relate to the main characters. And what girl doesn't like hearing about love?

Right now I'm finishing up To Have or to Hold by Josi S. Kilpack, and next up are Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood by Michael Lewis and The Observations by Jane Harris.

Scary

So maybe I don't have much experience with scary things happening, especially while driving (I have never been in a car accident), or maybe I just tend to exaggerate my emotions (especially while driving. One time I drove home from a mutual activity in tears because I was convinced that someone was hiding in the trunk of my car. I had some pants that I left in the front seat that weren't there when I came back. Obviously someone had stolen them, and then waited in the trunk of my car to attack me! In reality my mom had grabbed the pants before I left, and there were no stowaways or murderers in my trunk). Today I experienced what I feel like was one of the scariest things that has ever happened to me.

I was driving up 500 West on the way to a work meeting. I slowed down for a stop light. And when the light turned green and I put my foot on the gas, nothing happened. Starting to get freaked out, I fumble through my thoughts and think, emergency blinkers! I turned them on, checked to make sure I was still in drive, and still, nothing. Who do I call? What do I do? I'm in the left lane.... I thought I had already tried the key in the ignition, but I tried again and that did the trick.

But by this time my emotions had gotten the best of me. And I started to hyperventilate. By the time I pulled into the parking lot, a block later, my entire body was starting to tingle and I was crying. It could have been worse. Luckily, there was no one behind me at the light, and when someone pulled up later they slowed down and eventually got in the other lane. But now I'm a little freaked out about driving, I never want to go through that again!

Pasta Car

Yesterday we had ward FHE. When the people in charge announced that we were making cars out of dried pasta, I was not too thrilled. I am not creative. I had no idea how to make a car out of pasta. Luckily, we got put into groups. But I'm pretty sure that my presence in the group had a negative creativity effect. We joked around and made a "car" that was just sticks of spaghetti with cannelloni pushed around it. A couple of people in our group attempted to make some other cars, but they weren't able to get them to roll down the incline. So we proceeded to go to the ward-wide race with our "car". Other groups had intricate designs complete with multiple types of pasta, wheels, and an actual shape and structure.

Our little wheel did pretty well- it went down straight and relatively fast. We won the award for sturdiest design. And we were so proud of ourselves that we took the award, taped the car to it, and put it up on our fridge.

This morning, we discovered that the car had fallen off the fridge. We found it on the floor, BROKEN into pieces. Oh the irony.

Dating Diaries

I've been reading Blogger Brawl over at Mormon Times lately, and it got me thinking what I would write about if I were to write a dating blog. Here goes.

One day, my freshman year of college, my roommate Alex and I decided to donate blood for the first time. We were both sitting in the Cannon Center and filling out the paper work when I started to get a little nervous. The guy next to me started talking with me. He was cute. All I remember about him was that he asked me if I had eaten breakfast that morning, but when he asked he kind of tapped my foot with his foot (purposefully). I can't explain it, but that foot tap (and possibly the comfort and ease and friendliness that he did it with) had some kind of powerful effect on me. Right after the foot tap, they called me back to donate and afterward I looked around for him but he wasn't there anymore. I knew his first name and tried to find him on facebook, but couldn't. More than three years later, I still regret not getting his number or ever seeing him again.

A couple weeks ago, I had a similar experience. Craig invited me to come along to a bonfire and gave me directions. Alyssa and I got to the parking lot at the same time as a car full of guys about our age. As we passed, they asked what we were up to. We said hi but kept on walking, but immediately I felt like, "Man, those guys were trying to hit on us! Why didn't we talk to them?" We kept walking, and I was still feeling kinda regretful. The trail kept going on, and we came to a fork in the road. I was on the phone with Craig, trying to figure out where the heck they were. And guess what? Those same guys came up on the trail behind us. Sensing that we didn't know where we were going, they said they knew exactly how to get to Johnson's Bowl and told us they would take us there. I was a little excited that somehow fate had brought them back into our paths. We talked for a bit as we were walking, and they seemed cool. Until I noticed one of them with a six pack of beer. What I had thought was fate giving me a second chance was kind of humorous when I saw this. Who knows what would have happened if fate brought foot tap guy and me together again?