Color fest- the only place where people shove a handful of powdered chalk into your face and you say "Thank you!" No Joke.

So, here's the story. On Thursday, my awesome friend from work, Rachel, tells me she is going to the festival of colors on Saturday. I asked her if that was the thing that I see pictures of on facebook of every one covered in a color mess of something, and she says yes. I had been curious as to what it was and wanting to go, but since I found out about it so close to when it was happening, I figured there would be no way I could drive three hours to make it to Spanish Fork this weekend. But throughout the day, I had a change of heart and adopted a new attitude.

Why the heck not?

Instead of sitting at home planning on accomplishing a lot of school work and really accomplishing very little, I decided to have some fun and not worry about time or what I had to do. So I texted all my roomies and other friends to  see who could go with me. Most everyone was busy, But Jessica S. had always wanted to go too, so we decided to make a day trip of  it and have some fun! We bought fresh white t-shirts at walmart, loaded up on snacks, and hit the road.

We met up with Hailey and Jessica for lunch at In n' Out in Draper. For those of you who don't know, Hailey and Jessica D. were our roommates last year. We had a good little catch up session. Then I got to visit my brother at his work in Provo for a few minutes, which was awesome cuz I love my brother! 

Then it was on to the festival of colors, where me and Jessica would officially become "cool". We had to park about a mile and a half away, there were SOOOOO many people! And all these people were walking back to their cars COVERED in colored chalk. Only capital letters will do justice to explain parts of this story.  As we were walking up, we got a few small doses of chalk thrown at us, so we didn't quite make it, but it was all good.  It was like for that one day, everyone was your best friend, it didn't matter who you threw chalk at. Sometimes I would take a handful of chalk and just pat someone on the face. Others would pat us on the back, and the more chalk you had on you, the cooler you became:) The Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple where it took place was also quite neat. I had no idea something like that was hanging out there in Spanish Fork.

There was literally a cloud of chalk hovering over this crowd of hundreds of people, it was nuts!! It was so surreal, almost like an out of body experience. We took our pictures, made momentary friends, laughed at the craziness of it all, and loved every second of it!! Walking back to our car, people everywhere were wiping down with towels, changing clothes, just trying to de-chalkify before getting into their cars. The coolest part of it all was that there was no drinking, no partying (the bad type), every one was just having a good time! It was good "clean" fun.

Jess and I were so happy we went, we became cool because we now have pictures of ourselves at the color fest on facebook, and we just enjoyed being college girls on a mini adventure:) In case you want to learn more about the whole festival, look it up on this website.
http://www.utahvalley.com/events/details.aspx?id=1247

Cleaning up was another affair. None of my clothes were untouched, my ears were full of chalk. Never has blowing my nose been such a colorful occasion. I swear, I'll be blowing pink boogers for a month! Showering was also very brightly colored. When I finally washed and re-washed everything, it felt so nice to be clean!

 My pants.

 Jess cleaning up

But getting totally messy for one day, completely worth it!

Color-fest, something to experience!!

Fun things I've noticed

I've always been a watcher. When I was little, my dad said I used to just sit off to to the side somewhere sucking my thumb and watching people. Well now, I don't suck my thumb anymore, at least, not that I'm aware of. Maybe at night?...joking. anywho, whenever I'm in a large group, I just enjoy observing what is happening around me. Because of this, I have noticed a few funny characteristics that people have.

The intense nodder. This one is funny because sometimes, you will see two people having a conversation, and one of them will be violently agreeing with what the other one is saying by viciously nodding up and down for a good 7 seconds or so. Sometimes the entire upper half of their body is swaying like a see-saw. I love seeing this one.

The hard clapper. Sometimes at a sports event, someone's clap is distinctly audible above every one else's. It's usually a taller, larger man. They clap with cupped hands VERY firmly, so there is almost an echo to their clap. Very fun to find someone like this at a less than exciting game.

The bird watcher. These are the people that stair into space very often. Basically day dreaming. I really want to know what is going on inside these peoples' heads. Is it something serious and important, or totally random like, "Should I buy a box turtle?"

The intimidator. When I see someone who has an extremely serious expression,
looking around at every one in the room without the least bit of discretion, I feel like I probably will never talk to that person because there is no way I could measure up to that look. It's not their fault, they just don't care what people think. Hence the intimidation.

The quirky laugher. I love this one:) Usually, these people are young girls, possibly wishing to draw some attention to the fact that they are laughing. Sometimes it's a high pitched squeak, other times it's a loud intake of breath or a sound like the revving of an engine.

The trumpeter swans. Usually these are younger boys who haven't quite figured out how to control the volume of their voices yet, so they "trumpet" over everyone else without even trying. Don't get me wrong, I'm not making fun of them at all. They are lovable, friendly boys that are just very easy to hear over a crowd.

The perpetual smiler. I LOVE these people! They are sooo positive to be around. They have an everlasting bright expression on their face, and it's so uplifting to see. They can be talking about serious subjects and still be smiling. And something about it makes you feel like they are always interested in what you are saying, even if you're talking about the fact that you woke up late and missed your shower.

Don't worry, I'm not judging anyone. Just watching. No need to feel self conscious if you fit one of these, there's nothing wrong with any one of these quirky little traits. Just look around next time you're at a pot luck, or football game. You'll smile at the things you notice:)

Last Vegas Airport Run (for a while)

I know, two blog posts in two days. A little much maybe. But there are a lot of changes happening in my life at a fairly quick rate, I need to document!

For the last three years, I have been in and out of the Vegas and Reno airports more times than I can count. Okay, I could count if I wanted to, but I think it's somewhere around 6 times each year. Which is a lot of flying for someone like me, I HATE planes. Until recently, I would get stressed, sick to my stomach, and lose sleep over taking that little 1 hour plane trip to/from Reno. I say until recently because two plane trips ago, I was fortunate enough to sit by this really nice, grandpa-like man. He wasn't a creeper, I swear girls. My creeper radar wasn't in the least bit activated. This nice guy talked to me all about planes, pilots, and Southwest, which is the airline I always fly on. He told me that a pilot friend he knows always chooses to fly Southwest because those pilots take off and land more in 1 month than most other airline pilots. And I also happened upon an article online that named the top 8 airlines in the nation, and Southwest was number 2!

So this is one of the few little adventures I've had on my plane trips. Another time, I accidentally tried to check my mace. Oops. They pulled it out of my bag and I automatically started saying things like I forgot that was in there, you can keep it,... They had to take my information and put it in the computer. I took that to be my first strike. So after that I've always been extra careful in knowing exactly what is in my bags.

Mountains along I-15

Also, I had the good fortune to ride the St. George Shuttle quite a few times. A small van, usually pretty packed, and smells like b.o. occasionally. But not bad. It's only a two hour trip, and today, the driver knew more about the scenery around his route than I know about any one subject. He knew things like when Hugh Hefner would be at his Vegas club to how long it took the St. George temple to be built. Talk about wide variety.

St. George Temple, I get to see it a lot:)

So that's pretty much it. Today I finished my last trip. No more lugging around two suit cases and and backpack and purse. Hey, there are two types of people in the world, those who travel light and those who travel in style:) No more waiting in airports and no more panicking when bags don't show up (it's happened). Finally, no more saying goodbye to the fam knowing I won't see them for a minimum of two months. I'm a home body. I love my home in Sparks where my family is, and I love our little moth house here in Cedar. I know that someday when I have my own home, husband, and children, I'll love being there too. But for now, next time I go home, I won't have to say goodbye for a while:)

"Spring" Break

Yeah, there's a reason for those quotes around the word "spring". Reno pulled a fast one on me as usual, I came home with high hopes of warm-ish spring-like weather. It rained, the wind blew, and we got snow this weekend. So yeah. Thanks, Reno. But the trip has been niiiice. I love being home!!! My family is "the ba-i-s-t" (Said with Nacho Libre accent) To illustrate, my mom cooks me all the things I love. I get fat while I'm home unless I have uber self-control. Sidney loves to cuddle up with me while watching  movies and spends lots of time driving around with me doing errands for Mom. Gabe, well, I'm pretty sure he likes to have me home. He said in a relatively excited voice, "Savannah graduates in less than two months!" My dad always tells me how much he loves to have me home. So, it's a great feeling to come home to all the love:) Dwight isn't here though. He has to live in Provo or the time being while he works and goes to school. So we all miss him.

I got to catch up with some old friends as well, and see lots of cousins and little second cousins. And I almost forgot to mention, the fam moved into another, hopefully permanent new house, It's niiice as well. Super spacious, very comfortable, and pretty. Just what my parents were looking for. I am so happy for them because they have lived in many, many homes, and finally this is the one that they can hopefully stay in for quite a while. 

 

We had to make a pilgrimage up to Tahoe of course. This was the beautiful spring-like weather I'm talking about.

Kids crashed on the trip up.

Eating at the buffet. Gabe was in Heaven.

Awesome.

The ducks looked cold.

 So Tahoe trip was fun. Overall spring break was fun. 

Here's the new house. Pretty niiice.

Tsunami in Japan.

Pray for those affected. The tsunami has killed hundreds and directly affected thousands. I hope I can be a more grateful and patient person. My problems are so miniscule when compared to that. I have my family, school is going well, I have friends who love me and all are doing well and in good health.I can't even imagine the fear that my family might not be okay, wondering where everyone is and if they are safe. Pray for these humans in desperate need.