Utah Trip, 2013

Before this trip, I hadn't been back since I had graduated in August 2012. What I missed most about Provo were the people. I loved my classes and campus life, there are some good places to eat, but I really missed my buds.
Naturally, my agenda was: friends, eating, eating with friends, General Conference, friends. Because that's really all I did in Provo when I lived there. Besides watch basketball #gocougs
I drove with some peeps from my ward. I took the Frontrunner from SLC to Provo for the first time once we got there. Uhhh why did we get the Frontrunner, Chik-fil-A, AND H&M AFTER I move away from Provo????? Dumb planning on somebody's part.

I stayed with my most recent roommates, Kimberly and Hilary, (#224 #roomies4lyfe). I walked in to Hilary presenting me with Cafe Rio. Come to Oregon, you delicious barbacoa salads, you! In true fashion, we then went and saw "Gravity" at Wynnsong. Wynnsong really is our home away from home. Once we found out about $5 movies there one summer, we were there every week. I wish I was exaggerating, but I'm not.
Saturday was the start of Conference weekend for us Mormon folk. It was an uplifting weekend and I always look forward to it at least a month in advance. I stayed in my sweats, even when we went to breakfast at Kneaders (unlimited French toast, also a tradition), until we went up to SLC to meet with our fourth 224 buddy, Meagan. Meagan was getting married the next week and I was bummed that I couldn't stay for the festivities. But we ate yummy food at my favorite downtown, Buca di Beppo, and then helped Meagan choose her wedding shoes.

Sammy's pieshakes because duh.

Love these girls.

Allie happened to be in Utah that weekend, also, so she dropped by.

Photo c/o Allie

Sunday, I had tickets for morning session of Conference with my wardies, so we met up and enjoyed that amazing session together. "Music and the Spoken Word" is right before every Sunday morning session, so Asia and I made sure that we were there on time for that. If any of you haven't attended Conference, I HIGHLY recommend getting into a session, especially one where the Prophet speaks and when the MoTab sings. It's 1000000xs better than watching on TV.

Asia - Me - Roy

Lovely day in Temple Square

On the drive back to Utah, we drove until the wee hours of the morning. It would have been less painful if we hadn't blown a tire on the way back. Of course, I was driving (crazy things always happens when I'm involved) and we were in the middle of nowhere at 12:30 at night. Pitch black. Freezing cold. Thankfully, we had some studly men in our car who were able to fix it and get us going again. Always an adventure.

It's GONE.

As much as I was ready to move on from my time in Utah, I miss the times I had with the AMAZING people that I befriended while I lived there. You guys rock. Move to PDX so that we can hang out more, k?

It's A Wonderful Life

My life, let me tell ya.
I feel like I've put some parts of me on the back burner and some parts have exploded into every part of my life. Like writing (and this blog) has not been on my mind. I haven't had the urge to write anything in about 6 months. That's weird for me. But then music, which has always been a big part of my life, was diminished during college to make room for English and Humanities. I think I also felt self-conscious being a musician at the (in?)famous BYU music program. EVERYONE was musical. But now that I'm back in Oregon, I find myself doing music every day, again, and it consumes me. When I used to think about things to write about, now I think about what song I am working on, or what my student needs in order to keep their fingers curved.
Funny how life works, huh?

These are the reasons why I haven't blogged in an embarrassingly long time. I'm forcing myself to catch you up on the important things today. Hello, writing. It feels good to be back.

First of all, one musical thing in particular that consumed my time and practice hours was the Lake Oswego LDS Stake Musical that went from September to November. We performed "It's A Wonderful Life," musical edition. I was one of the piano players for the rehearsals and performances. It was a blast! [I tried to give photo credit where it's due. I hope I didn't mix anyone up!]

That's me by the harp in our tiny, squished orch pit. It was a party every day, which usually involved cookies.

c/o Brittany Bigelow

Cecily and I

c/o Cathrine Martell

The musicians. All of us crammed into this little tiny space.

c/o Cathrine

c/o Cathrine

The leads, "Mary" and "George" (The Thompsons-they are awesome)

c/o Cathrine

Then we had the cast party closing night, of course.

c/o McKenna Fox

c/o Brooke Jeppson

But the crazy party came when Scott Thompson put on some jams and we had a dance party after the cast party. A post party dance party, if you will. (photos c/o Brooke)

shreddin

And since we are musicians, we sang at the top of our lungs.

But the important part of this musical was the fact that a few different photographers captured the many concentration faces of Michelle. This face just happens to be at it's finest when I'm playing piano.

"The Lip Bite" aka "Turtle Turtle"

(photo c/o Brooke Jeppson)

"The Scowl" aka "I Hate Life" (I really do love playing piano. It just sometimes looks like I don't)

(photo c/o either Brooke or Cathrine Martell)

"Numb" aka "What I Do When I Realize Someone is Taking a Picture of Me Playing and I Have a Scowl So Look Natural"

(photo c/o McKenna Fox)

It's cool, guys. I'm a professional.