Tag Archives: Salt Lake City

State Fair

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The week before last I pulled on my cowboy boots, got in a funnel cake frame of mind, and headed to the state fair.

It was a grand time. I went last year, but this year I realized there were so many things I didn’t do before. This time I tried to see it all.

There were rides:

Courtney and Emily driving their bumper cars. We also went down this giant yellow slide they had.

And animals:

Cow, sheep, rabbits, goats, and chickens, oh my.

And fair food:

funnel cake. yum.

And many blue ribbon contenders.

They gave out ribbons for all sorts of goodies: pie, cake, bread, cookies, canned food, vegetables, etc. I had no idea there were all these contests. New life goal: Win state fair blue ribbon. Seriously, next year this is happening.

In addition to the edible entries there was also crops, flowers, and crafts at the fair. These giant sunflowers caught my eye.

Courtney modeling some agriculture.

We also found this “fun science” type room which ended up being very entertaining. One of the weirdest little “experiments’ was this two way mirror that merged your features with the person sitting on the other side. We also very much enjoyed the giant bubbles station and discovered that everyone makes really strange faces when you try to form bubbles around them.

Bubbles!

I think one of the only fair things we didn’t try was the “freak” show. They had an old fashioned style side show you could go see, claiming to have all sorts of oddities including a giant alligator.

A few days later I finished off the State Fair experience by watching the movie State Fair.* For those of you who haven’t seen it it’s an old-timey, musical jolt of happiness to the brain. If a bit melodramatic at times, haha. It was good way to round off the experience.

Currently: Craving a new book and some fun eyeware. I think I may try this Divergent everyone’s been talking about. As for the new frames, you’ll have to wait and see ;)

*You can see my friend Emily’s take on State Fair and the whole state fair experience on her blog Movies & Mayhem. She also has a video up of me inside a bubble making a really weird face.

Move Around the Corner

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So did I mention I moved recently? It’s not too far, so nothing earth shattering, but still a move. There are things I’ll miss about my cute little house (like the cherry trees outside!), but I’m excited to be somewhere new.

I feel like I’ve gotten a little bit better at moving (as a student I seemed to be constantly shuffling around), yet I still always find myself feeling exhausted and unorganized afterwards/ Things really were much more simple when all my belongings had to fit in two fifty pound suitcases and one obscenely heavy carry on.Essentially I keep finding myself looping through about, oh, 4 or 5 moving “stages.” The order varies but the essential components are the same.

Stage 1: Nostalgia

This is when you start taking old boxes out and emptying your bookcases and wrapping up fragile things. You rediscover old momentos or linger over old photos. Idealistic goals warp your brain into thinking someday you will finish that scrapbook or fix that something-or-other. This is the nice, warm fuzzy stage of moving. Don’t worry, it doesn’t last long.

Stage 2: Self Analysis

This is the part of moving where I become totally baffled and mystified at how much useless stuff I have. I question everything, practical or not. It gets progressively more severe. Yoga Mat? Why bother, nothing’s bringing that gym membership back to life. A swiffer and a broom? Wasteful. Snow boots? I’ll just stay inside all winter.

By the end of this stage you will most likely be torn between taking up a new mode of life focused on minimalism and zen or calling TLC to see if they can send one of their hoarder life coach’s to help you (Side note: This won’t work unless you bring some other freak show part of your life to the table for TLC. Unless you are in fact surrounded by stacks of decades old newspapers, a collection of tin cans, and curio case of doll heads as you read this; in which case, go ahead and make the call).

Stage 3: Desperation

The desperation stage usually occurs for me just as I think I’m about done with a room and then *voila* I open a drawer or a closet and it is crammed with stuff I could have sworn I packed. Generally this is followed by totally apathy concerning the welfare of my belongings. I no longer sort, organize, stack, or wrap. Instead I stuff. I just throw things in boxes and tape them shut.* Until I run out of boxes. Then I use garbage bags, coolers, laundry baskets — anything I can find until I end up playing car tetris as I randomly fit objects into the weird empty nooks and crannies of my Toyota.

*In fact, one time in a fit of desperation I accidentally threw all my underwear in a box… that was to be mailed separately… and very slowly. Oops. If you’re looking for an excuse to buy new clothes, that is one way to do it.

Stage 4: Stop and Smell the Ammonia

By this point I’m insanely tired and cleaner fumes are probably not the best remedy, but it can’t be helped. I generally spend a good amount of time scrubbing my house down and getting it ready for the next tenants, and most people I talk to seem to do cleaning of some sort. Yet I always have to do cleaning in my new place when I move in. Oh well.

Stage 5: Nesting

For some highly motivated, organized people I imagine this is sort of magical:

Day 1: Empty House.

Day 10: Beautiful Decorated (Or at least unpacked and functional) House.

For me it’s a little bit more like:

Day 1: Set up bed and investigate wifi possibilities.

Day 2-Forever: Clear the floor of tripping obstacles and proceed as you see fit.

In other words, I’m not done. I’m usually never done. I tend to have grand decorating ideas that take me a while to fulfill ( But they will all, of course, *actually* happen in this apartment, haha). But that’s half the fun, right? ;) Here’s hoping your next move is more organized then mine, but equally successful (I really am excited to be in this new apartment; there are definite good times ahead)!

Currently: lovin’ my new skinnies and thankful for all the people who helped me move into my lovely new apartment :)

Reading Makes Life Better

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It’s a fact. Reading makes life better. The other day I gave in and impulse bought two books and read them in two days. Which is honestly how I wish it could be all the time.

First up was Sweethearts by Sara Zarr. Sara’s a local young adult author who I had the pleasure of listening to before I actually ever got a hand on one of her books. She was a national book award finalist for her book Story of a Girl.

Sweethearts

Here are the basics (sans spoilers of course): On her birthday a girl gets a note from her best friend, a boy who supposedly died years ago when they were in grade school. I won’t tell you more, but essentially she has to deal with this boy, Cameron, reentering her life and all the complications that brings with it. What I liked most about this book was how much I identified with the main character, Jennifer. She is the kind of character that I connected so well with that when I took a break mid-book crisis I carried her with me (I was in quite a mood actually, haha). On a side note, it was a little bizarre to read a book that was set so exactly where I live. I know Salt Lake so much better now I knew practically every place mentioned.

You can check out Sara Zarr’s website sarazarr.com You can also follow her on twitter @sarazarr.

Next I finally picked up Mazerunner by James Dashner. He’s also a local young adult author who I’ve heard loads about. In fact I heard him address a writer’s conference one time and I was crazy impressed by him. He is the type of author that always writes and never gets up. The kind I want to be.

Maze Runner (Maze Runner Trilogy, Book 1)

It took me a while to get into this book, but once I was I really couldn’t stop thinking about it. Dashner creates a world that is unique and, honestly, a bit strange, but still completely relatable. I won’t get into the specifics, but the story centers around a boy, Thomas, who wakes up and finds himself in a strange box. He can’t remember anything except his own name and finds himself attempting to adjust to a strange and dangerous world (think distopyian setting). Things quickly change and progress and Thomas has to find out if he’s up to the challenge.  This book went by way too quickly. Good thing this is the first installment in a trilogy, and it’s been optioned for a movie. Although it does kind of bend my brain to think about how they are going to portray these things on the big screen.

You can see James Dashner’s website at jamesdashner.com and follow him on twitter @jamesdashner.

Oh yeah I’ve done a few other things too. I made homemade fruit snacks, rewatched Overboard (that movie always makes me smile, even if the real world version would be a series of terrible crimes), witnessed a live version of make way for ducklings, went on a little hike/campfire adventure up Millcreek canyon, and started a new job. But not all on the same day, thank goodness.

I made fruit snacks! Or fruit snack-like cubes anyway. They tasted pretty good (ignore the austerity of this picture, haha) and were actually quite easy. However, I don’t think they’ll replace those addictive little snack packs I’ve come to love. The best thing about this cooking adventure was my search for silicone ice cube tray/ jello molds led me to my new favorite store, Spoons n’ Spice.Seriously, this place is cooking heaven.

I followed these cuties all around Liberty Park. There were a few of us actually. The mom kept getting up on the curb and not understanding that her babies couldn’t jump that high.

We went on a little hike at church fork in millcreek canyon. Then we made “hobo dinners.” It turns out none of us are very good at outdoor cooking, but we still had a fun time. We couldn’t get the fire started on our own, so we ended up taking over someone else’s fire after they left to get ours started.

Currently: Happy that life brought me sushi today. Everything at Ginza was amazing. Oh, and eating dinner off paper Christmas plates, because some days I just can’t stand to wash another dish.