Home is where the heart is

Andrew and I had a GREAT weekend in Idaho! I showed him my favorite bridge (which is where most of these pictures were taken), my favorite park, and my favorite people -- my family and friends, of course! We got to hang out in fabulous St. Anthony for two days, driving my cute little car all around town.

My mom made her famous cinnamon rolls (they aren't really famous, but they should be), pizza and Italian chicken. She even made crepes, my favorite. I felt like I was a little kid again. And on Saturday morning, she came into my room and gave me a hug in my bed, just like she used to do when I lived at home. I have a really nice mom -- and a really nice dad. He went through my owner's manual with a fine-toothed comb and discovered that my anti-lock brakes were not working (and I thought that red light meant they WERE).

And after my brother shot me in the eye with a Nerf gun and my sister and I sang the entire "Poor Unfortunate Souls" song before church, it was time to hit the road again and come back to Salt Lake City.

I realized something when I drove back into town this time, though. I miss Idaho. I'll probably always miss it. For 22 years, it was my home. But Salt Lake is my home, too -- and I love living here, too.

Aren't road trips just fantastic? :)

Things Bryson, Lindsay and Veronica learned during a road trip to SLC

16. Veronica goes into “Mormon 500” mode when driving in Salt Lake. Also, it is not safe to speed on slick freeways.

15. A sale at Anthropologie is not really a sale.

14. Lindsay does not know her way around Provo, despite what she may have said. And there are not two University Malls in Provo.

13. Some LDSBC goers have not realized that it is, in fact, a two-year school. And no, you can’t have “a bachelor’s in your associate’s.”

12. Lindsay can eat an entire Café Rio salad, a Tres Leches dessert, and a Lion House roll — all in a two-hour period.

11. Veronica and Bryson know an odd black man named Alfonso who washes dishes at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

10. Lyric is not only the name of a line in a song or poem, but of a beautiful little girl with awesome curly hair.

9. The words “skrrr” and “errr” are two very different words, especially when used by Veronica and Bryson to describe a car screeching to a halt. Actually, they’re not words.

8. Everyone in Salt Lake that’s weird is “off-the-chain” or “ballin’.” And Lindsay is totally gonna get boxed.

7. We need to holla at deaf boys.

6. Don’t be alarmed on University Ave. in Provo when it sounds like you’ve lost your rubber. No, your tires are not flat.

5. It is not OK to make out with your girlfriend at church. Nor is it OK to write stories about princesses and heroes named Carr during sacrament meeting.

4. If a man with a head lamp, a flashlight and a notebook stops behind your car and starts writing stuff down, he is simply recording your license plates for “visiting records,” despite the three people still sitting in the car.

3. Veronica and Bryson DO NOT like souvlaki.

2. No one at the Friend magazine stays at work on a holiday until 2:30 p.m. And the Joseph Smith Memorial Building has complimentary fruit tarts.

1. You can have a “fakecation.” And we’re going to need one after this trip.

missing utah

So, I never thought I'd miss a place so much, but I miss Salt Lake City. A lot. I've been scrapbooking my pictures from this summer, and I want to go back so much that it hurts. I love Temple Square so much, and I love all the stuff there is to do in the city. Here in Idaho, it can get pretty dull. Don't get me wrong - it's good to be home. But after looking at these gorgeous flowers, who wouldn't want to go back?

Julie

I have a roommate. Her name is Julie. This is the beginning of her story.

About six weeks ago, I moved to Salt Lake City to start a new job for the summer, and moved in with an eclectic mix of girls. Let me give you an example – just minutes after I had begun unpacking my clothes, making my bed, and organizing the room, Julie came in to…chat. An hour and a half later, I had heard the entire story of her gigantic crush on this guy she’d met and the tragedy that he was a bonehead and didn’t talk to her anymore.

At approximately 1:30 a.m., I went to bed, knowing all about this hot guy and not even knowing my roommate’s middle name (by the way, she has two).

And that was just the beginning. I would come home each day to find her watching a different movie – our other roommate had a gigantic movie collection that she was continually expanding. I took her to Lava Hot Springs with me and the most she would put in the water was her big toe (and maybe a few other toes wiggled in too). We went to Smith’s and she left me to find my way around the enormous store alone. She called me on my cell phone half an hour later to inform me that she had finished shopping and was waiting for me at the check-out line.

We drove to the institute building for a fireside and not only was she unsure of how to get there (though she’d been there before), we got lost inside the building and only narrowly escaped an encounter with the men’s bathroom before finally finding the chapel.

And yet…there’s been some fun times, too. I took her shopping and had her take pictures of me with her phone in front of this gorgeous dress in Anthropologie – only to realize that I had my camera in my purse. We took a trip to Wal-Mart to get movies, left a bag there, and had to drive all the way back to get it once we realized it was gone. Then we watched the movie, a scary, creepy one, when we got home, and I’m still not over it. But best of all, Julie was a shoulder to cry on when I was having one of the worst days of my life and I needed to know that someone loved me and that I would get through it.

That’s Julie. Big green eyes, black hair, funky pajama pants, and a huge laugh. My summer just wouldn’t be the same without one crazy roommate to mix things up. And (since I’m writing this for her benefit), life when I return to Idaho probably won’t be quite the same either. A little quieter, perhaps. But definitely not the same.