the colors of life

Cheesy title right?

Sorry, the brain couldn't think of anything more creative at the moment.

As this semester is drawing to a close this month, my life gets more and more busy. Bad thing? Nawwww, I love it! It helps me to feel like I'm accomplishing something.

Last weekend, my dear sister came down from Idaho for the Hindu Festival of Colors that was being held at the local Hindu temple. It's become quite the thing to do around here, and there were thousands that flocked to it this weekend. Insanity right? And this is just at one point during TWO days. There were people constantly streaming to and from the all encompassing cloud of colored chalk. Don't know much about the Holi festival?

I don't know much either.

You can read up a little bit about it here. Basically it's celebrating the end of winter and the advent of spring. Neat thing to experience!

More importantly, this week is the week before General Conference! My favorite time of the year. I looked back at my last post right before the one in October, and thought of the questions and thoughts answered and received during that wonderful weekend and I get even more ecstatic.

This week, me and a few friends decided to do something a little different than normal. We decided to not only prepare ourselves spiritually for all the wonderful moments this weekend, but also physically and mentally. Every day this week, I will exercise, read my scriptures and pray, and get enough sleep.

It's been three days.

I think I might just continue doing this after conference. There are few times when I have felt better, or gotten more accomplished than in these past few days. It's a reminder lesson to me that by small things, great things are really brought to pass. All of us, whether we be LDS or not, can benefit from living our lives well and taking care of ourselves.

Ideas you might have about preparing for conference or just enjoying life more.

Go ahead and post em.

Right....

...now.

San Fran Part Dos

You may have been overwhelmed by the last monster of a post. I told you to expect a lot. It was just simply a beast of a trip.

This post will be much shorter so don't you worry. Only one or two things...

-Fisherman's Wharf! Possibly one of my new favorite places ever just from the sheer amount of things to do there. And I just spent my time there on Pier 39! There were 50 other things to do and not enough time to see em all. Oh well, gives me a reason to go back. We found a fun little puppet place.. we had a good time.
This wonderful specimen of seal lion is known as Magnus. I mean isn't that what you would name him? Just look at him!
I had the BEST seafood I have ever had. You think I'm exaggerating? You should see the look on my face right now. Not exaggerating.

-Final big concert of tour! The Chapel of the Chimes. I mean the name itself is heavenly. The church and attached mausoleum were even better than the name suggested, the architecture exquisite. Plus we had, in my opinion, one of the best concerts we've ever had. The serene mausoleum (yes I had to look up how to spell that word).


-Dinner at Fenton's. For those of you who don't know what Fenton's is, think of the movie Up. At the end of the movie, Karl and Russell are sitting on the curb eating ice cream cones.

They are sitting in front of Fenton's. Pretty legit. Seriously had one of the most delicious ice cream sundaes I have EVER had. It's a San Fran MUST. PS- Those glasses that I have on. Pretty legit right? New favorites. Not real. But still love em.

-Last but not least, we got to sing in the sacrament meeting of my choir director's home ward. A nice end to a hectic trip...

But wait.. there's more?!

Due to a closing of the Donner Pass, our trip home was diverted on a different route than the one we had originally planned. Diverted about 5-6 hours. Therefore, instead of getting back home at 12 or 1 in the morning, we did not get home till 5:30 am.. we spent ALL night on Le Bus. Things got a little loopy.. Nuff said.

But that wraps it all up. Best choir experience. Ever. The End.

Rinse and repeat

Don't you sometimes wish there was a Repeat button in life?

It occasionally pops into my head.

I have to admit.

Take this weekend for example:

-Two birthday celebrations for two fantastic friends
Jessica's on Friday, Brielle's on Saturday
One with amazing cupcakes, the other with amazing Italian As you can see, James and Winston just couldn't contain their excitement.

-Seeing the movie Tangled for the 5th time in theaters (dollar theater of course.) Can one see it too many times? I submit that you cannot.

-A wonderfully spiritual Sunday. That can make or break a weekend.

-Having my very first experience directing a "choir" of sorts. It was intense and a bit unnerving. Not gonna lie. I enjoyed it. Conclusion: much rather be a participant and get to sing myself.

-Playing Monopoly Deal for a few hours and then have some conversation that was deeper than a kiddie pool with some friends I hadn't spent time with in a while. Usually file those type of convos underneath the file of "Good Times and Favorites".

-Getting to sing hymns at my new favorite place in the world, The Beehive House, to some of my new favorite women, the sweetest and sassiest you will ever meet. And all over 80. They are sharp as whips, I tell ya.

I mean who wouldn't want this kind of weekend on repeat? Of course there were a few things I wouldn't mind leaving out the next time, BYU and Carolina losing in their championship games and plus there was those 6 hours of work on Saturday...

But ya know those moments are part of life too.

Good and not so good.

I guess I'm kinda glad, though, that there isn't a Repeat button. That would mean that I would never get to this week and get to go to San Fransisco! That's right ladies and gentlemen, first time in California for the Joester. Bout to take it by storm, that you had best believe.

I might try and post every day that we're there in SF, just cause I know there'll be a lot to write about. Can't guarantee anything though. So you'll just have to sit tight and see...

NaNoWriMo

It's November! Halloween has come and passed. I hope each of you had a great one, I know that I sure did.(The one in the middle, with President Thomas S. Monson's face on it? Yep I helped carve that)

November. That means two months left in the year. Two months.

NaNoWriMo. Another word for November. Don't know what that means? Look like a bunch of letters to you? Stands for National Novel Writing Month. And guess who's taking part in it. Yep, that would be myself.

30 days. 50,000 words. One novel. That is the challenge. It's kind of frightening and invigorating at the same time. I'm pretty sure I can make it happen. It'll require some later nights and less free time, but hey that's all good with me. Just saying that I wrote a novel in 30 days would be a pretty cool accomplishment.

So I'll keep you updated, okay? Okay.

what happened today

Sleeping in till noon

Belgian waffles and hash browns
Mario Party 6

Life talks

Rainy, melancholy weatherFootball games

Dancing to my hearts content

Good friendsMovie time

A feeling of fall

Anticipation...

{mikes-table.themulligans.org}
{farrfeed.com}

What I wouldn't give to be a flat person

I have a visitor this week.

A letter came from Esther, my little sister, a couple days ago. I was a tad surprised. My birthday had been a couple weeks prior so it couldn't be that... What in the world?! There's a little man in the envelope! A letter emerged with the man.

Flat Stanley.

For those of you who don't recognize this beloved childrens character (and those of you who fit that description apparently had no childhood), Flat Stanley is a little boy who gets tragically crushed by a bulletin board, and becomes a flat-two dimensional figure. A blessing in disguise it seems, for now Stanley can travel around the world in an envelope having adventures.

He had been sent to me so that he could learn about the place where I live, work, play, etc.

Needless to say, I got kind of giddy. That may sound a tad bit dorky, but oh well. I felt extremely touched that my sister would trust me with him so that she and her class could learn more about the world. I immediately started planning places to take Stanley, planning to take pictures of all of it.

Look for one of the next posts to be devoted to this. It's gonna be fun!

book photo:{llworldtour.com}