Ingrid, Joshua, Alexa and one AMAZING concert.

Last night I had another exciting adventure with Erin Cotten. It is always good to have an adventurous friend around. It makes life so much more enjoyable. We went to the Joshua Radin/Ingrid Michaelson concert. Ingrid was here in Utah just a bit ago for Sundance, but I missed her. SO, when I found out last week that she was going to be here (and with Joshua Radin) I simply had to go!
We found our way to In The Venue and walked our little selves all the way around the corner and into the dirty parking lot around the back to wait in line. I was severely disappointed that the bouncers weren't turning ugly people away, but also relieved that I wasn't being judged. (I knew they wouldn't turn anyone away, but I felt cool standing in line, waiting to get into a club.)
Once inside we staked claim to our little piece of the floor that would be ours for the next three hours. And what a wonderful three hours it was.
Alexa Wilkinson was the opening act and we fully support her musical career. She could scat like it weren't nobody's business. I want to be her when I grow up.



Ingrid was next and she was a dream. I like her because she is a bit like me. I think that if I were on stage I would be a lot like here. Perhaps we are kindred spirits.
I am in love with Joshua Radin. End of story. He and Ingrid closed the show together and I am pretty sure that life isn't going to be better than it was in that moment for a long time. What luck I have. So, besides the parking ticket I got for having expired registration, it was a simply heavenly night.



The following are the highlights of the evening:

Most Embarrassing Moment: When some girls in the front row asked Alexa to sing "the hat". That's right, they thought she was Ingrid. Of course, she did have similar glasses...

Most Unexpected Moment: When the fire alarm went off at the start of Alexa's third song. No one saw any fire so she just improvised and we just stood there. It didn't last long, but it made for a silly new song that had something to do with "I don't see any fire."

Best Flashback Moment: Ingrid played (and everyone sang along to) the theme song for "Fresh Prince". West Philadelphia born and raised!

Most Precious Moment: Every second Joshua was on stage. He has the most charming and disarming smile. Love, love, love him.

Most Heart-breaking Moment: When Joshua sang a song about his recent break-up, he is still completely broken over it, and you can tell.

Most Ridiculous Moment: When the whole pathetic little crowd stood and clapped for 10 minutes and no one answered their encore. How sad.

Most satisfying moment: Getting in my car and being able to sit after 3 hours of standing and still listening to Joshua all the way home.

There Were Never Such Devoted Sisters

Yesterday my sister was having a rough day. It feels good to be needed and it feels just as good to have a legitimate reason to skip out on half a day of work. So, at about 1:30 yesterday I headed up to Kearns for some bonding time with my dear sister.
Things were crazy at her house and on top of it all her son was sick, when her husband came home we decided to go out on the town. We needed to wipe away our little-town blues.
And what do you do when the going gets rough? Why, you go shopping of course. We went to the most ghetto mall Utah has to offer. It consists of 1 Dark Fantasy Store (for all those sci-fi geeks), 1 Frog Crazy store (kitschy home decor), 3 department stores that made me ill, 8 skate/beach apparel stores and 39 cheap-clothes-for-17-year-old-girls stores. Luckily there was a Macy's at the far corner, hiding it's face from the rest of the mall.
We found success at the Macy's and were were followed by two mall rats who, no doubt, were out looking to get some digits on a Tuesday afternoon. Did I say the mall was ghetto?
We did, however, make it out of the mall and by this time we were nothing short of starving. Of course, nothing satisfies hunger like a banana-nutella crepe. Well, that isn't exactly what we were thinking, but we stumbled upon an adorable crepe place on our way to Jamba Juice. As I sat there, I thought, this is what it is all about. All this silly talk about families, this is it. I love my sister and I am glad that she is my best good friend.

You Can Teach an Old Dog New Tricks

Nothing to do on a Friday night? Why not take up a new sport? After participating in my two favorite activities, namely; shopping and eating Hatch Family pots de creme, Hali and I ventured over to the Olympic Oval in Kearns. $10 gets you two 2 hour lessons in curling. If you don't believe me you can check it out at www.utahcurling.com

I am always up for new thing, especially when I have someone else to experience them with. Going with Hali seemed like a fine plan, until we arrived and they separated the people who had been the week before from those of us who didn't even know what the game consisted of.

I was on my own. It was just me...and curling. As I stood there feeling incredibly alone amidst the strangers who stood with me on the ice, I thought that this was possibly the silliest thing that I had ever done.

However, by the end of the night I was sold. I wish I could describe it, but every time I try people laugh at me because they just can't wrap their heads around curling. But you should give it a try.

We were pros by the end of the evening. We played a game with the "old-pros". Hali and I were stellar sweepers. I am pretty sure that between her stone delivery skills and our sweeping talent, we single-handedly won the game. It was amazing.

I personally, am going to have to go back because I didn't get a chance to be the Skip.The Skip is the Yeller. That is what I called it, before I was so intimately acquainted with the sport. They get to yell at people. "Sweep! Harder, faster, harder, faster!" I love this idea. I used to just laugh about curling and tease about starting my own team just because it was funny. Now, it is more than a tease. This is it folks, the future is in curling.

Awards Shows

I watched the Grammys last night, and may I say, I was more than pleasantly surprised. In fact, I had so much fun that my roommates thought I was nuts. I cheered, sang along and gave plenty of encouragement and criticism to all those that performed. I wish they could have heard me, but instead I will just make my friends read what I had to say.

Alicia and Frank: Classy. I knew it was going to be a good show from the start. How can the grammys go wrong when they start out so blasted classy?

Rhianna: I think you are pretty. I don't think anyone can deny that, but it does not give you license to parade around in ridiculous clothing. Feathers and corsets should never be worn, let alone together. But you still looked pretty. I kind of hate you for that.

Cirque du soleil: I could watch you ALL DAY, even if you can be a little creepy.

Cute little boy who sang "Let It Be": Where did you come from? Why haven't I seen more of you? When can I hear you again? Can I have children like you?

Beyonce: You are an all-around, true-to-life performer. An Irreplaceable performer, if you will. Not many of those around these days.

Tina Turner: You are still alive and rockin'. Bravo.

Kanye: Stellar glasses. The end. P.S. Loved the TRON guys. Thanks.

Foo Fighters: Dave Grohl, cut your hairs.

Alicia Keys and John Mayer: Yes.

"Rhapsody in Blue" performance: This was not even human. Sheer musical perfection.

Amy: Girl,rehab will do you good. Obviously, you are not quite out of the woods yet. I had such high hopes, but just getting up and shaking those little chicken legs of yours does not count as a good performance.

Will.i.am: Who gave you that camera time and are they fired yet?

There are the highlights. Overall, I give it a thumbs up.

All Grown Up

When I was younger I used to always day dream about how my life would be when I was older. I saw myself at about 25, I had graduated college, I had a great apartment, a great job, and, of course, fabulous clothes. I would travel to New York, relax on a beach in Hawaii and backpack across Europe. My life would be just like the movies.

As I got older, and realized that life wasn't like the movies, I started to think a little bit differently. I saw myself at 25, married, possibly with two children by then. I was ok with that. That became my dream.

Then, one day, I looked around and realized that I was 25. I was the girl that I had dreamed about all my life. And let me tell you, I was shocked to find that everything I had dreamed of when I was little had come true. I have a great job, I live in an adorable house, I have a fabulous car, a college degree. How did all this happen? Last year I went to Hawaii, Chicago and New York and now, the last piece of the puzzle is coming together. Yesterday, I booked a ticket to London. Erin Cotten and I are taking our backpacks and heading out for 14 days of European bliss. This is unbelievable. I am a hopeless romantic, but I didn't know that so many of my dreams could really end up working out. I am one lucky girl.