Four Words or Less

 

Black Hawk Family Day

Cute Mom so proud

Certificate from Sikorsky

Family Day again

So proud of him

Graduating class sitting patiently

Futuristic arms pin aviator

Band was there, too

Then started road trip

He once flew those

This is Alabama

Alabamans do this often

Thanks Mom and Dad!

We found a battleship!

JJ obviously thrilled

"Roam if you want to"

Passed through Biloxi, MS

I think says Louisiana?

"We're in Louisiana" faces

No wonder Katrina happened

Made it to Texas

San Antonio Riverwalk

We remembered it

Drove by Mexican border

Beautiful El Paso

Vegas was cool

Missed Bellagio Fountain Show :(

Graduated, though!

Genuine Fa smile!

Ma's purse model

Nerds, of course

High as my dreams

Obviously this happened, too

We hiked Stewart Falls

Carol Todd married finally!

Think where man's glory most begins and ends, And say my glory was I had such friends.

In my p. blessing, I'm told that I will find true and good friends with whom to associate. Thus far, this has certainly been true. It might be easy to give myself the credit for picking such awesome friends, but I know this is not the case. See, I've got this bad habit of kinda sitting back and letting people come to me. For whatever reason, I don't often do a lot of seeking myself. Yet somehow, all the best people have fallen into my lap. I think the Lord must've felt so strongly that I would need good friends throughout my life, and perhaps decided to cut me some slack on this one and just hand them to me. Whatever the case, I am very blessed.

Take my friend Stephanie, for example.

In all seriousness, Steph is one of the most extraordinary people you will ever meet. She's got one of those larger-than-life personalities that just brims with enthusiasm for life and love for people. I swear the woman has more passion in her little toe than I have in my body. What's best about her though, in my opinion, is her ability to hone in on whatever is good and beautiful in a person. And it could be any kind of person. Present her with a long-haired unwashed heathen druggie and she will find a way to love them, to honestly think they are awesome. It's really quite uncanny. Lucky for me, I ended up making her acquaintance about 3.5 years ago, and she went right to work at finding something loveable in me. I've been blessed by her love and example ever since.

Take my friend, Kathryn (aka Paul).

My little Paul is currently serving a mission in Spokane, WA. I miss her and her zany ways. I could not have possibly had a better freshman roommate than this one. Tell me, what freshman girl would sit in my room with me every night, interspersing bouts of personal homework study with thought-provoking discussions on interreligious understanding and neo-feminism? On multiple occasions? What are the chances I would have gotten a roommate who shared my same appreciation for tragic foreign films and straight-up honey butter? What I love best about Paul is that she brings out the maybe not-so-inner nerd in me, and that our conversations are never dull. She has a way of consistently elevating casual drivel to deep discussions of the soul, no matter the time or place. Zany, deep, a kindred spirit in things both meaningful and mundane; I just love that Paul.

Take my friend, Jody (Jojo).

Look at this face and tell me you wouldn't look forward to work every day, too. Jojo is one of the sunniest people I have ever met. She finds pretty much everything delightful, and I find that delightful. My favorite thing about Jojo, though, is her extreme thoughtfulness. For instance, just a few minutes ago she bought me a bag of cheetos from the vending machine, for no reason at all! She is always sewing pillows and tutus for the neighborhood children, and just generally spreading good cheer wherever she goes. Also she is the most maternal person I have ever seen, rivaling, yes, even my own mother. In short, she's just the coolest. My life is definitely brighter for her place in it.



And Collette.

This girl is so brilliant it's not even funny, not even at all. Reading her blog posts is like staring into truth, custom-made for my comprehension! What I love best about her, besides the fact that she listens to new age music, is a budgeting and meal-planning diva, and doesn't seem to care a whit what people think of her, is the way she understands and helps others understand the gospel. What I initially admired about her was the way she probed into deeper layers of doctrine, you know, the stuff that usually falls through the cracks in sunday school. What I admire most about her now is the way she manages to do all that, and still tie it all back in the end to the simple truths of the gospel. Collette is my personal guru, and I love it.


And Audrey.

As shown here, Audge and myself share a certain undeniable kinship. The first time I ever really got to know her, I remember feeling distinctly that I was talking to a (hotter, more athletic) version of myself. This was confirmed later when I heard her say one night that all she wanted to do was "eat the night away." I knew then that I had stumbled onto something good. To this day, she is one of my very favorite people. Awesomely chill, non-judgmental, hilarious, gorgeous, has a way of making people feel instantly at ease around her. I frankly wish I was her. But until that transformation happens, I love being her friend.


JJ.



Whatever other status he has been, there's no getting around what an exceptional friend JJ has been to me, in the truest sense of the word. To be with someone who truly knows every ugly and vile thing about you, and to love you anyway - is this not the raddest dynamic two people can aspire to? I believe some souls come into this world a little purer in spirit than the rest of us, and JJ is one of those good souls. He sees people not only for who they are, but also for who they can become. I only hope that I can yet learn to see and love my fellow man the way he does.

Oh, Carol.

Twinner to my heart, lover to my soul, potential life partner if men don't work out for me. I've always known that I was lucky to have her, but the more I live, the more I realize just how rare our situation is, and how very very blessed I am. Friendship with Carol is as easy as breathing. She gets me. She, as well, knows every vile thing about me, yet still thinks I'm awesome. No one can make me laugh like her. She surprises me everyday with tidbits of wisdom far beyond both our years. Amid all the changes, the uprootings and surprises and goods and bads, she is constant. It is a rare thing to have a friend like this, I am finding, and I don't know how I managed to be one of the privileged few. But when you find a friend like this - one whose presence is comforting to you even if all you do is walk together in silence (literally AND metaphorically!) - well, eventually you stop asking questions. Instead you start pouring out thanks, you begin striving to be worthy of your associates. I am still working on that one.

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival. "
-Clive



Aren't my friends the greatest?

What's been goin' on

It's time to purge my camera of the various events I've remembered to document this summer.

Starting with, car-cleaning date with Carol! Brendan and Paula sure were grateful.

The best finds from our newly cleaned out cars: a card Carol gave me once that says something like, "Hey there, expectant mother", a super emo poem Carol wrote when she like 10 that ends with "and now I go to my watery grave", and a picture of Carol's mom graduating from college.

Carol and I also recently participated in the Pleasant Grove Strawberry Days Pie-Eating Contest. On the margin there you can see that I threw down some trash talk, which I instantly felt guilty about and tried to cross out without anyone noticing. No dice. Turns out it was justified though, almost, cause Carol won!

She got a shirt that said "Stick it in your pie hole." I was so proud of her that day, and only a little resentful that it wasn't me who won.

Every year Salt Lake City has a huge Arts Festival with vendors from all around the country. We knew if we went that there was a pretty good chance we would see unwashed crazies in their natural habitat. We were not disappointed. There was some pretty cool art, too.

Some entity known as Blazing Needles covered this car completely in knitting!

How cool would it be to have all these stone faces in your yard?!

I don't know if you can tell, but they really did look like photographs in person. This exhibit won best-of-show.

Carol really enjoys the fat-people art, and I must say it does have a certain endearing quality.

This man's sock was not strictly part of the festival. Or was it?

The guy who did these grapes paints all his stuff using his own blood. Pretty trippy.

Ok, so then there was this exhibit with blank pieces of wood that everyone got to paint, to be hung up on a wall as a collective mural.

When we realized they were handing out little cards with specific patterns we were supposed to be painting, and not just willy-nilly whatever we felt like doing with our brushes, we got up quietly and left with haste.

Moving on, here's me and Jdub at the Ft. Rucker 4th of July Bash! We ate gator-on-a-stick, and while I'm not going to say it tasted like chicken, it frankly did. Only a little chewier.

No your eyes do not deceive you, that is Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band! They rocked! And of course Gary Sinise plays a mean bass, cause that guy is way rad.

So this is unfortunately the best picture I was able to take of Jdub sitting in a TH-67 helicopter, which they had out on display during the bash. But this is proof he flies them. Look how natural he looks sitting in that seat! You can see it better if you pivot your monitor screen back and forth.

Here's a picture of a guy climbing a tree to get a better view of The Decemberists at the twilight concert series in Salt Lake.

Can't really blame him, cause this is the best picture I was able to get of the indie-folk band myself. They were pretty cool though.

We kinda thought the dude on the far left of the picture with his hand in his mouth looked like Inigo Montoya.

Tried to watch the sunset from Capitol Hill, but unfortunately were a little too late so the pictures are less than impressive. But the building was impressive, I thought.

Finally, look what Bob found when he recently opened this can of "pineapple tidbits."

I think it looks like moldy brains, he thinks it looks like a baby alien stuffed into a can. Either way... not cool, Del Monte. Not cool.