About driving

On the way to work this morning, a car pulled up next to me. I turned to look, and the man driving turned fully toward me and mouthed "I love you." Then he sped away, waving in the rear-view mirror.

At least, I think that's what he said. More likely it was "wash your car, dirty" or "stop putting your mascara on while you're driving." (For the record, I only do that at red lights.) Still strange.

Firsts

With very few exceptions, firsts are exciting. The first bite of a new dish, the first read of a great book, the first stamp in an empty passport, first kisses, opening nights, and new jobs and locations. Even the bad things--first car accident, first time getting lost, first surgery--have an element of excitement to them.

Yesterday was our first anniversary.

Thinking back one year, I have to say it was a perfect day, full of firsts and plenty of excitement. Sure, it was cold out, and we got stuck in traffic on the way to the reception, and someone broke into our car on our wedding night (a first), and BYU lost to Utah the next day, but still.

It was perfect because I shared it with someone perfect for me.

Here's to another year full of firsts!

p.s. If you happened to miss the main event last November, take a look at our wedding album here.

Promoting peace

Greg Mortenson, author of the New York Times Bestseller Three Cups of Tea, spoke at a BYU forum a few weeks ago and shared an interesting story.

The subtitle for his book is One Man's Mission to Promote Peace... One School at a Time. It's about how education--and especially educating women--is the best way to bring peace to a country riddled in war. When he brought the book to the publishers, they changed the subtitle to One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism... One School at a Time.

He objected. They said, Trust us--they'll eat it up. He objected still. But in the end, they're the publishers, and the book went to press with the edited subtitle on the hardcover edition. But Mortenson had worked out a deal: If the book doesn't do well in its first run, then we change the subtitle back to its original name.

And you know the rest of the story: hardcover edition did poorly, paperback was published with the original title, and, lo and behold, millions are sold.

Turns out we Americans really do believe in peace.

Night to day update

I have such smart friends. For your viewing pleasure, may I present to you the bizarre midnight meteor madness:

The night that turned to day

Something very eerie happened tonight, and I still don't know what to think of it. At around midnight tonight (or last night depending on when you read this) Ryan and I were driving home from a concert in Salt Lake. All of a sudden, the entire sky lit up, and, for about 2-3 full seconds, it looked like it was daytime outside. There was no accompanying lightening streak or thunder, no huge spotlight, no sound at all in fact, and the entire sky--plus the freeway and signs and cars--were fully lit as if it were the middle of the day on a cloudy day. It was so odd that my first thought was that someone must have turned on the light. And by the time I realized that we were outside, and that it was night time, and, oh, and that that was impossible... well, someone turned the light switch off again.

We immediately turned on the radio to find out what was going on, but all we heard were infomercials on solving lower back pain. Can any of you help us? Please tell me ONE of you was outside the same time we were. Anybody?

Conspiracy theorists--have at it.

Curves make you clever

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7090300.stm

I knew these hips were good for something :)

Hard work

I recently won an award at work, and let me tell you, this one's a resume builder.

Everybody dresses up for Halloween, and this year I won Most Creative (though I hear it was a close race). I happen to resemble (or so I've been told) one of the animated characters in our product. Her name is Alex.

So, after having been asked several times by new hires in the company if I was the model for Alex, I decided I ought to see how close I could get to looking like her. What do you think?

Turns out the real Alex has a bit of an attitude problem.

I cut the collar out of a Savers blazer, colored it a darker green, then pinned it into my shirt. Then, because the fake leather planners were cheaper at DI than the belts, I cut apart a planner and pieced it together with brads to make my extremely fashionable leather cuff. I cut the cuffs off of one of Ryan's white shirts and attached them to look like I had rolled up my sleeves. And finally, since Alex wears gold hoops, and I only have silver, I ate a bunch of rollos and used the gold foil to wrap around my earrings.

The rollos cheered her up a little.

Bijou Market

Have you been before? Three times a year, local artists, photographers, crafters, and designers gather in Provo for a big, handmade blowout. I've been browsing the vendor list, and, let me tell you, this is definitely worth coming out for. Anybody interested in tagging along with me? Let me know!

bijoumarket.com

Day late decorations

Because the 31st seemed to creep up on us so fast, per usual, we figured decorating for Halloween was already shot, and we waited for the clearance sales later. We scored some purple paper lanterns, a black creature embroidered tablecloth, a ghost candy dish, an insane asylum sign*, a black tabletop halloween scene, and a dark hooded head with blood red eyes.

We also got this.

I'm telling ya--those beady eyes'll follow you around the room.

Ryan was convinced it was the creepiest item of all, and now that I'm getting a closer look, he may well be on to something. Plus it was only $0.75.

We call it the little wiccan squirrel.

Someday when we're too old to remember, we'll tell our grandkids I made it from sticks--back in my day we only had sticks to play with, you know. Then they'll respect me. Or more likely hope they didn't inherit my creepy genes.

*Wanna hear some great real-life scary stories from the Provo mental hospital? (and no--the time ryan proposed there doesn't count.) Click here.

The day of the deer

Monday morning, as Ryan's driving up to campus, a couple of deer run into the road right in front of him. He swerves, barely avoiding an accident, and wonders what deer are doing running around University Avenue.

Minutes later, he turns onto University Parkway (another major road), and, out of nowhere, a few more deer cut him off. He swerves. Accident averted (again).

By this time, he's thinking that's pretty weird. We may live in a small mountain town, but, after a good six years of living here, I can still count the number of deer I've seen on two hands (give or take a couple toes). And only one of those times was anywhere near a major road in town.

So back to Ryan. He's sitting there driving and thinking how dumb deer can be and how happy he is to be alive. A few blocks down the road, almost as if the previous deer had joined forces and taken a shortcut to head him off, they reappear--right in front of Ryan's car.

It's like they were out to get him. Or on the fast track to meeting up with Bambi's mom. Or just really out of sorts from Daylight Saving Time. Whatever it was, it didn't work, and Ryan avoided his third accident of the day.* And it was only 8:30 in the morning.

Now, if it were me, that's about the time I would have ditched the car and crawled to a safe, secluded space where I couldn't fall off anything, nothing could fall on me, and certainly no deer could come near. It just doesn't sound like the beginning of a great day. But he seemed to manage it fine and came home to me in one piece.

Anyone else have any odd run-ins with the wild on Monday?

Best Halloween costume ever

Or maybe worst. You decide.

Ryan was walking on campus yesterday and suddenly hears Tetris music in the air. A girl passes him dressed as the upside-down L-shape in Tetris. As he watches, she drops into place next to a trash can (perfect fit) and then moves on, stopping momentarily to connect herself to other various objects along her way.

I say, Awesome.