the sound

Morgan and his parents are spending Thanksgiving in Mexico with Tasha's family (the nerve...). I took one million pictures of him last night when I was briefly visiting because I hadn't seen him in a week and it's been AT LEAST 10 days since I posted pictures. And he will not be available tomorrow for Thanksgiving Indian/turkey pictures so I will instead have to see if I can get photographic evidence of the elusive Clifford named Sterling since he and Megan are in town for the holiday.

But dummy me left my camera cord at home (for like the first time ever), so unfortunately no Morgan paparazzi pictures today. However, I do have some Boston gems with me.

Besides Callie and Carl, pizza and Cadbury Christmas Balls (4 bags total by the way), there were some other things of importance too.

Like for instance, this hawk, eating a squirrel in Boston Common at the beginning of the Freedom Trail.

Or Callie talking about the size of horse balls on the Paul Revere statue.

Or how much I loved the design of the Boston City Hall building.

Then there was the fact that we ate at a Texas Roadhouse.

And that Katie danced across the living room floor without any provoking.

There was the trip to Newport, RI to hit up The Breakers which was awesome even if my ability to take a picture of us was not.

(but I did rule at getting Katie jumping with excitement to be in the presence of richness)

And even with strict NO PHOTOGRAPHY there was Katie sneaking pictures of me with the old school sitz bath behind me in Mr. Vanderbilt's bathroom.

And as an extra treat there was the slumber party with these two fantastic New Yorker women who are so much fun.

And with all the other delightful things that happened, it ended of course with public dance moves.


I love that sister and her city of beans.

weed party

Yesterday I came home from Boston (boo...). I had a layover in Detroit and when I turned on my phone in between flights I had a few text messages. One from my mom:

Funny. A sort of hip hop kid just walked up to me at the train and said do you know what time it is? I checked my phone and said, it's 4:20!

It is awesome on it's own and then it's extra awesome because she also sent that text to Callie.


Oh Jayne, what did we do to you?

leave this city

I am in Boston visiting the Clifford known as Katie. Hooray! But by a stroke of good luck, this girl is also here!

So besides that, running around Wednesday and traveling all day yesterday have already been worth it because of this,

and also this (I might have eaten a whole bag last night already).

sucker punch

Last Friday night I changed my gchat status to something I thought that my brothers and my friend Chris would find funny from a semi-recent Bike Snob NYC post.

However I forget that the internet makes me do/say things I wouldn't normally do/say in real life (insert testimony building experience here). I also forgot that my mom is often around gmail until she popped up yesterday.

But then she just started talking about Morgan right after that as though I hadn't just said something totally disgusting, so I guess my mom understands that what happens on the world wide web stays in the world wide web.

don't forget to breath

I rented the Sex & The City movie last week to finish out the month and a half of my Sex & The City immersion program (but it totally worked cus now I am completely fluent). I Redboxed it cus $1. But the problem with me is that I forgot and ended up carrying it my bag for 6 days.

All of you people who use codes for free movies and return on time, don't worry...I'm the poor slob who keep those guys in business.

hey muscles I love you

Perhaps you remember my desire to move myself into the those people category with the one hundred push-up challenge. But actually, like 5 days into it both Naomi and I crapped out. So whatever, my own laziness crushed my dreams.

However, in her ever present quest to increase physical toughness and her internet browsing talent, Naomi ran across a little thing called The 30 Day Shred.

And while I have no need of the losing 20 pounds in 30 days part, getting Jillian's awesome arms in 30 days is something I do need cus I'm totally the person who stinks at doing weights or anything but cardio workouts (oh yeah, and for the past 2 months I've stunk at doing ANY workouts at all).

So Naomi ordered it and we egged each other on as roommates should, and now we're almost 3 weeks into THE SHRED. I learned from my push-up experience to not post about something hastily which is why I am only mentioning it now because see, I totally didn't crap out on this one.

And it's cool, it's exhausting and that Jillian is as mean on the video as she is to the biggest losers but it's just because she wants us to get great abs!! I have definitely noticed my endurance and strength increase even if I'm not necessarily seeing it right now. Joel did remind me last night that change takes time and he still thinks its great we're doing it (thanks dad) so I realize that's true. Nate has been a big support too as evident by Naomi's recent post about him watching me SHRED.

The DVD is like $11 and the workout is just 25 minutes (even though the higher levels kind of do make you want to throw up). So how about you all get it too and then we can really be some of those people who have toned arms and say things like "this is fear leaving the body" (she really says that once and I HATE it every time).

down to the river to pray

Well Frances, Loy Krathong was a success. I totally suggest picking up this tradition to everyone because it was it was both a reflective and delightful evening.

We gathered to build our rafts, which ranged in skill level and effort. You see, they should have looked like this:

But they looked like this (I craft like a 3rd grader I realized),

and this:

and this because Chris does everything at a level of superb perfection:

And then some sexy stuff happened.

And then some hair stuff happened.

But releasing them was the best part

because all those grudges and anger looked really pretty floating down into the pond at City Creek.

And then, I bet this isn't part of the Thai version, but we lit them on fire completely before they fell through the grate because it looked AWESOME.

And we rounded out the night at Hire's for frosty mugs of root beer (cus still Mormon).

the world

Today, some of you may know, is Loy Krathong. In case you were like me and didn't know until Janelle told you, Loy Krathong is a Thai Holiday-ish:

“Loi Krathong” is traditionally performed on the full moon night of the twelfth lunar month, which usually falls on some day in November. The floating of a ‘Krathong' – a banana–leaf cup – is intended to honor and thank the Goddess of Water, Phra Mae Khongkha. Many Thai believe that floating a krathong will create good luck, and apart from venerating the Buddha with light (the candle on the raft), the act of floating away the candle raft is symbolic of letting go of all one's grudges, anger and defilements, so that one can start life afresh on a better foot. People will also cut their fingernails and hair and add them to the raft as a symbol of letting go of the bad parts of oneself.

So tonight, she and I and anyone else who wants to are going to create our own little rafts. We probably will not fill them with our fingernails and hair, but you never know how crazy things might get. Hopefully the rain holds off so we can float them down City Creek. Either way, I'm excited because I have SO many defilements to get rid of...

some things last a long time

When I was somewhere around 7 or 8 years old I remember once my mom speaking on the phone with my grandmother. I remember because when she hung up, she told me that my grandma had been shopping and ran across a dress that had Emily written all over it. And in my young brain I thought 'how exciting! it has Emily written all over it!' and I spent from that moment to when the package arrived wondering what it would look like with all those Es and Ms and Is and Ls and Ys everywhere.

The dress arrived and low and behold, it was white with big red polka dots. Oh. My mom said it definitely had me written all over it. And yeah, I mean I loved it, I realized that it did have Emily written all over it...just not quite in the way little me was expecting.

Move forward many years and I am fresh home from my mission in Armenia. I was in the car with my grandparents and my grandma said she had a watch to give me because, it had Emily written all over it. This time I was well aware of what that actually meant so when she handed me a little green box I was better prepared, and also delightfully surprised to see what something that looks like me looks like.

Which is apparently interchangeable watchbands and faces.

But that little watch and her many bands have been sitting in my jewelry drawer for a long time now without use. While the watch is adorable and functional, I severely lack on the functional so when the battery died a year ago, I just never got around to getting a new one. And when I was cleaning and organizing my jewelry drawer on Sunday (avoiding homework) I wound it just in case, and what a miracle, it worked. And it has continued to work the past two days I have worn it with two different colors of the bands.

So I'm going to just hope this is a good life sign that I can leave all my broken junk in a drawer for a year and it'll fix itself. Yes?

baby driver

Remember when I sent (some of) you mixes? And when I got your addresses you all said it was okay if I kept just posting photos of Morgan? Well just remember...you made this bed you're sleeping in right now.

He who is generally grumpy, or at least very serious around me, gave me nearly TWO HOURS of a happy baby last night.

At first there was The Fonz Morgan.

And then of course Serious Drool Face Morgan.

And then I had to take a picture of how cute his little tiny Tevas that Meikel gave him look at the end of his ever increasingly chubby legs.

And then Emily's Head Exploded Morgan happened

which was only amplified by Laughyface Morgan.

And then I got a peak at the old favorite, Bug Eye Morgan (which might be my favorite Morgan)

And then he giggled and played some more while generally remaining his normal Dignified Monkeyface Morgan.



And yes that is a woman's scarf -this woman's scarf to be exact- but last weekend he grabbed it from around my neck and according to his mother has refused to be without that sparkly, girlie thing ever since. Which is fine because his parents are totally liberals! They probably want him to be a gay!

i must belong somewhere

Last night I showed Joel a shirt I was going to buy for a friend's birthday that had bikes on it because he loves bikes. Joel said if he was going to get me a shirt with something on it that I love it would be Facebook.

Which is a TOTAL roast.

I have to figure out a way to a) get some hobbies, and b) make sure people know about my hobbies.

But then also, I do love the internet. I love to buy crap from the internet. And I love to read about crap on the internet. So when I can buy crap from places I love to read it's a win/win for me (or so I thought until I was presented with it possibly being the one thing I'm good at in this world). I pretty much check out Jessica Jones' How About Orange daily and when I recently visited her Etsy shop too, I found a great little treat for my desk at work.

It's adorable and it was $10 and yeah...I'll probably dedicate a Facebook album to it.

ways and means

Dear Wasatch Weather-

How can you go from this,

to this,

in 24 hours and with no warning either way?

And dear face-

Why are your eyes always droopy?

Sincerely,
Emily the Cliff

wishful thinking

I voted for Barack Obama yesterday, so today I am happy. And I know, blah, blah, blah politics, everyone with a blahhhhgg is posting opinions today. But I was moved by the dignified and heartfelt concession speech given by Senator McCain and I was moved by the sincere and inspiring acceptance speech given by Senator Obama. It is fascinating to think about how in my excitement and hope there are others feeling defeat and sadness. The right guy won. The wrong guy won.

So in my thinking for my opinion posting, my thoughts have specifically been directed toward how through this long, long election haul there is something to be said in that idea about just loving everyone. Not in agreeing to disagree, not in simply tolerating, but in loving. Because, ummm...how do you do it?

I feel strongly about what I believe. You feel strongly about what you believe (well I hope you do). And I could go so far as to say I am right about what I believe. But probably you can go so far as to say you are right about what you believe. And it's true that some friends or people at church have actually made me feel like I can't be a Mormon and liberally minded (but I can!) and it's true I have actually rolled my eyes at what appears to be close-minded or possibly racist (but it isn't!).

So how do you actually have a difference of opinions and beliefs? Because neither side did it very well. I have been shocked by some of the offensive t-shirts and bummer stickers out there. I am surprised by the self-righteousness of many. And I have been saddened by some of the mean comments said to each other or left as comments on the blogs of like, just nice normal people.

I know though, that none of that behavior is what God wants from us. And as a person who cares pretty deeply about what God wants from me, I am concerned that so many of us have participated in hurting feelings and assuming superiority whether intellectually or religiously (me included in both those categories, ask my mom). I believe that God cares about the state of the world and governing ourselves with a faith in Him, but I also knows he cares deeply about each of us individually too. And He wants us to care and be kind about each other. My oh my is it hard to swallow a mouthful of pride and look at a person whose opinion I do not like, and still love and accept...really and truly love and accept.

I am not good at it.

But I want to be good at it.

And I want this country to be good at it. So please you try to be good at it too.


(if you aren't done reading about this boring junk my dad said some nice things over on his blog...)

electioneering

I voted in the early morning at the pretty church on G Street.

I got a little emotional when I stuck my voter card in the machine and the candidates popped up on my screen. What an exciting election, I love America.

I got a different kind of emotional when I opened my e-mail today and found these, I love Morgan.

when the night comes falling from the sky

It happened today. I was leaving campus this afternoon and I realized the world is almost dead.

The chill in the air isn't fall crisp, but rather, winter cold. The cloudy sky feels gloomy and threatening instead of cool and refreshing. The trees have only their final layers left to shake off. The sun is asleep and gone at 6:00. I want to knit.

I don't have a terrible relationship with the winter, there is a beauty unmatched by the quiet of a heavy snowfall or the sun bursting over a city covered in white. And I love the closeness and warmth of friends and family that dark nights foster...plus of course, holidays (including this winter baby's birthday). But I always feel a sadness, and a little bit afraid, watching the colors and spectacle of a well worn summer and a beautiful fall fade into a lot of bleak and slush.