True Grit

True Grit is truly gritty. I didn't know whether to cover my eyes at the gruesomeness or laugh at the humorous dialogue, so mostly I just covered my eyes. Enjoyable, but I'll let you decide for yourself. I heard someone said Jeff Bridges is the new "Sexy" or something along those lines. I must say he played the role very well, though I'll need to see Tron for the final word on whether or not he's deserving of the title.I myself would just as soon give the sexy title to Josh Brolin. He may have played one of the bad guys, but you must admit... he's hot.

The Washington Chorus

Today a couple friends came with me to see our other friend perform with The Washington Chorus. Here we are the Kennedy Center. Me, Shannon (the one in the chorus), Beth and Cindee. We had a great time, the music was awesome!

Theory: Black Holes Contain Universes

"According to a mind-bending study released this past spring, a black hole is actually a tunnel between universes—a type of wormhole. The matter the black hole attracts doesn't collapse into a single point, as has been predicted, but rather gushes out a "white hole" at the other end of the black one, the theory goes."

Read more here!

This theory is very intriguing! It's like, God's way of recycling! I love this, because we believe that matter has always existed and always will exist. And since God follows the same laws of the universe that the rest of us follow, isn't it nice to know that the rules can account for the purpose of a black hole too?

Isn't the universe amazing?

By the way, this totally makes me think of Carl Sagan's book "Contact". He has similar ideas about the purpose of black holes. Though this theory goes a little further. Either way, I find them both very intriguing. If you like this type of stuff at all, you should read "Contact"! I'll even let you borrow my copy. :)

Nerd out.

Christmas in DC

At our ward Christmas party, here I am with Santa and my friend Emily...
Got another shot with Santa and my friend Shannon!
Thursday night I attended the National Christmas Tree Lighting with some friends! Me and Amanda...
Zack, Carmen, me, Amanda, Amanda's two friends (forgot names), and Brandie!

Tragedy

Two cameras in two years. I took my camera to a parade last weekend and snapped some brilliant shots of a Scottish Santa with bagpipes (you heard me right) but ever since then, my camera has decided to stop reading my memory cards! I think the cold was just too much for them. :(

My friend's blog

My friend John is an amazing photographer. Check out his blog here or by clicking "John's photo blog" on the right hand column.

Christmas time is here!

I got a tree. :)

Thanksgiving

This year the winds took me to New York for Thanksgiving to visit Brenda. And what would a trip to New York be without a stop in to Macy's and the wooden escalators!
Check out Brenda's cute hair! Some of my DC friends also came to the Big Apple... L to R, Brenda, Heather, Chad, Andrew
I forgot to snag a pic of me at the parade... this is what it would have looked like, obviously...For breakfast on Thanksgiving we went to Crumbs. That's right, we ate cupcakes for breakfast. Well... I actually ate a muffin (mom).
Central Park! Two things- I'm short! and- Central Park is pretty.
Yellow anything in nature is the best.
As are my sneakers...
Thanksgiving dinner- my people plus 8 of my closest friends I'd never met! Sweet potatoes are totally the "new" mashed potatoes (in my opinion).
Happy Thanksgiving!

GO PRO

A friend and I hit the trail this past weekend to test out his new toy. Aside from discovering that I am a terrible off-road biker, it was super fun and we got pretty muddy (which is also fun). For now, a couple choice screen shots. (video is forthcoming)The tiny video camera has no screen, and the record button is on the front... so every time we hit record we get a nice shot of ourselves (some better than others!)In this shot, we set the camera on the ground pointing straight into the sky and rode by it. I love the angles!

I almost made it.

Well, it took some real effort this year (as it does every year) to stop myself from listening to Christmas music the day after Halloween. I had been doing really well... until this morning. A great song came into my head and I couldn't resist! By the time I got to work I was belting "Sister's" at the top of my lungs. At least I made it to one week before Thanksgiving!

It got cooooold!

All of the sudden and without warning (considering a week ago it was hot and humid and my hair was outa control) the weather dropped into Fall bordering on Winter temperatures! Well, my hair is under control again (thankfully) but the rest of me is quite cold! I wish I had a fireplace.This is my fireplace in my imaginary/soon to be real home. By next winter, I'd like one of these for myself. There. I threw it out to the universe. Let's see what happens...

Secret of Kells

Cute little movie about the creation of the Book of Kells... I liked the animation, it was original, backgrounds were very pretty and crisp. The story was alright, and I especially liked the characters and the music.
The main girl was Aisling- pronounced "Ash-ling" which sounds like Ashley :) She was a forest spirit. And the kitty was Pangur Ban... suddenly have the urge to get a white cat and name it Pangur Ban.


The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript Gospel book in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the New Testament toegether with various prefatory texts and tables. It was created by Celtic monks ca. 800 or slightly earlier.

November

Can you believe it's already November?! I certainly can't. Where has the time gone...Here's another pic from home last week... Jon, me, Ryan.

Drag Race

The Tuesday before Halloween, DC has this thing called the "High Heeled Drag Race" where men dressed in drag race for two blocks in high heels. While this was definitely not something I would have gone to on my own, I ended up at the event with some friends and made it all the way through the race where I found myself in complete shock. I'd seen this Tina Turner wig run by and joked that it was my friend Jimmy, only to find out at the end of the race that it WAS my friend Jimmy! He dressed up, not in drag, but as Jareth the Goblin King from "The Labyrinth" movie starring David Bowie. In high heels, mind you (just like David Bowie) and he ran in the Drag Race.

Jimmy and me (still in shock...)

A still from "The Labyrinth" movie of David Bowie and Toby, the baby he kidnaps.
Andrew and Jimmy (and baby Toby)
Jimmy and Toby

Jimmy, Toby and Whitney

Halloween

So I put together a fun little Halloween costume this year, but didn't have occassion to wear it. Saturday morning I ran a 5K (woot) and when night time rolled around, I felt like staying in and watching a zombie movie with friends instead of going out. BUT in all the excitement of the holiday, I did manage a trial run of my costume. I wasn't going to blog about it (since I didn't actually go anywhere) but Shelby specially requested that I do, so here I am in all my glory. The only evidence that I dressed up as an Avatar (since no one physically saw me) are the following photographs. Enjoy!(you can kinda see my tail in this one...)(I would have blue-ified my white neck on the actual wearing, but since this was a test run I decided the face was enough...)

I carved a pumpkin

At FHE. Isn't it scary? It was a collaborative effort.

The Count of Monte Cristo

I just finished reading this book (which has consumed my life for the last few days) and I loved it. Each character is written so well. The best descriptions in the entire book are of people's eyes. The author vividly draws expressions and details that make me feel like I'm actually seeing these people suffer or rejoice in front of me. It's really quite a good read, never a dull moment. Someone asked how I could read the book after already having seen the movie, "isn't it boring cause you already know what's gonna happen?" I would just like to say that while you get the general gist of a book from a movie, the book is always better. And in this case, the book blew the movie out of the water.

If you like scandal, intrigue, heroism, bravery, insanity, love, and living on the edge of your seat, you should read this book.

More Home

Dinner at Binh's... me, Shelby, Allie, Chris, Binh, Lexie, Bryce, Kyle
Court and Matt!
Sacramento Temple at night
Honey Treat Yogurt- Shelby, me, Binh
Jon and Binh at Honey Treat
Shelby and Stella
Stella!
And now I'm back in DC. It was a great trip, and I took far too few photos! Thanks especially to Mom and Dad for the fabulous week and a half! Miss you all already!

Home

Me and Shelby with baby Luke
Courtney and Luke

Day 6 Ireland

Dublin! On day 6, we hung out in Dublin in the morning before catching our flight to Paris. We decided to check out the Dublin Castle first. They were filming a movie called "Neverland"
Lady Hazel Lavery is best known for having her portrait printed on the banknotes of Ireland. One of our friends told us we had to go to this place called Queen of Tarts. We tried to take a picture with the sign, but it was so bright, after this one pic we went inside.
Saint Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin.