The best weekend ever (at least the best Oct 9-11 Weekend in 2009)

Wow. I had the best weekend ever. A bunch of people from my group were considering a trip to New York for the weekend because it was Columbus day (no work) and we got class off (halleighluyah!) I wanted to go, but was finding more reasons why I shouldn't rather than why it would be good/fun. I finally decided to just go for it! Me and a buddy left Friday AM EARLY around midnight to catch a 1:15 greyhound bus. Its lucky we go there early because we barely made it on! (Greyhound is weird and does this first come first serve thing...and they were more than a half hour late. He and I were basically the last people on board. We sat on the back back row (which was nice, we got 3 seats to fit two people) and it was right next to the bathroom. Needless to say, with a ghetto Grehound, anytim

e someone went to the bathroom we had a lingering "porta-potty" smell to perk us up.

We finally got to NY after 4.5 hours at around 6 a.m. Washed our hands and heade

d off to Rockefeller Center. No one was in line for the Today show! We then were told to go around the corner to where the line was...there were at least 100 people if not more. So we jumped in line and started chatting with the people there. Great people...LOTS there because they were turning 50 or something.

They finally let us into the complex and we all tried to find good places to stand. Jeff and I got in a front row seat right next to where they come out of the complex. Actually, it was really cool. We waited until the show started and then got to practice hooting and hollering for a while.

Al Roker came out. What a stud! He definitely knows how to work the people. He went and basically shook everyones hand before the end of the show.

to start off...I was on the TODAY show! Here is proof...

Meredith Viera came out with Matt Lauer, and Ann Curry too! I got to get a picture with Meredith and Ann, but Matt was too

busy. Ann just sat there and talked to me for a good 3 minutes! We talked about internships and broadcasting. She is such a nice woman.

In the midst of all this I started asking one of the security guards (I didn't know thats what he was at the time) who ended up being Matt Lauer's personal body guard about internships with NBC. We became friends and because I am majoring in Broadcast Journalism, he went and got me the show rundown! It was actually really cool. I could tell exactly when things would happen and when everyone would be back outside again. Way fun.

We had already made it on TV (as verified by one of our co-workers in DC) so we decided to go get in line for standby tickets to the Jimmy Fallon show. We got over there around 8:30; there weren't very many people in front of us at all. At 9 a.m. they gave the people tickets and we were off. We walked around the block and then went to St. Peter's Cathedral. (I needed to go for school). We started looking at the architechure there, and who did we run into? ELDER RICHARD G. SCOTT! (He is one of the 12 Apostles for my church. Pretty high up in church leadership). He was there with Elder Jensen (not Marvin). We chatted with them and the archbishop for a few minutes. All were very nice. THe Archbishop tried to convert me :-) It was really funny. THe organ played (which was amazing). And then we were out. Off to another adventure. I think by this time it was only about 9:30 a.m. So much in only 3.5 hours!

We found out that Jimmy Fallon was going to be doing an appearing back at NBC, but we wanted to see if we could get over to the Statue of Liberty. We walked a ton, navigated the subways, found (a little bit too much of) the Wall Street Bull (which isn't on wall street), the

trinity church (National Treasure), got chased by some homeless people and a crazy Statue of Liberty Person (don't ask why...haha jk) and finally made it to the Battery Park ticket booth. Sold Out. Except, the great thing is NY offers a close view for FREE! We jumped on the Staten Island ferry and were off. We went right by the Statue and got some great pictures of the scenery after which we . . . fell asleep. I was so tired! I still didn't know where I was

going to be staying that night! We got off the ferry and made it back on before it took off back to Manhattan where we (almost fell asleep again . . . long morning; can you blame us?) Anyway, we got back to Manhattan and went uptown to Times Square. Both of our phones were about ready to die so we needed to find somewhere to eat that we could sit down and charge our phones (hehehe). Olive Garden it was with unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks. Yum! We had a great view of the street and got everything charged on top of that. When we were done, we went down to look at getting tickets from the

TKTS discount line. People had already been lining up for more than a half hour; luckily we found some people from our group in the line and we all started making plans for which shows to see together. A few of us ran up and down Broadway looking for student discount tickets, which by far are the best deal ever. I love being in New York as a student!

Time was getting close to when we needed to get back to NBC for the Fallon show. They said we would have a good chance of getting in, so we were eager to get back. Problem was, we weren't done buying tickets for the shows. When we finished, we had about 7 minutes to run and get there. We tried hailing a cab 5 or 6 times to no avail. So we booked it. Jeff was a great sport and we made it. Funny thing is that we had a half hour window to get there (they didn't tell us that) and they ended up turning us all away anyway. Bummer.

So we started walking and found ourselves in a park close-ish to Times Square. There was going to be a free Jazz concert that night (and I needed to listen to a Jazz concert for some homework stuff) so we sat down for the hour before. I was out its not even funny (ok...it is pretty funny. If only I had a picture to show you how funny it really was...) The jazz was good, but since it was just a quartet, I really feel like they were missing a piano. I think it would have really taken things to the next level in the Quintet.

It was getting closer to show time so we found McDonalds (who can beat a dollar sundae!) and got all fullish on ice cream. I think I had 5 or 6 sundaes over those 3 days. Don't judge me. :-)

Mary Poppins was Friday's main event. Great show. Have to admit that I didn't understand the first 15 minutes of the show simply because of the thick accent. I don't know if I just got used to it or their speaking got more clear, but the first few songs were rough because they were speaking in heavy british accents. Still, one of the best musicals of the weekend, hands down. Great music, acting, themes, and everything.

The group migrated to Times Square, where we sat on the big red steps and just hung out and chatted. I'm always amazed at how light it is...at midnight - or later. It worked out that I could stay with a friend of a friend, so I was happy about that. I was thinking about standing in line for SNL tickets, but this seemed like a much more appealing arrangement.

Saturday started off as temple day. I had planned to go early AM, but decided later to sleep in a bit and go in the later morning. Garrett met up with me and we got to the temple just in time. We would have to rent clothes and everything. We got to the clothing rental and no one was there. We waited...and waited...and waited...for more than 5 minutes. Finally, I just went back there because we had tried multiple times to get help and no one would come. About 30 seconds after I started pulling clothes for myself, someone came to help. We told her we needed everything except a white shirt, so what did she go try to find for us? A white shirt :-) Bless her heart. She was doing her best and we were grateful for it. Another woman came and took care of everything else. We barely made it (they held the session for us. Amazing in itself).

The temple is beautiful. It will be nice to go back.

I met up with Jeff again and we got all set for Shrek that night. Picked up some lunch on the way and then made it in time to go to Finian's

Rainbow. I'd heard of it before, but never really seen anything about it. A friend has a friend in it, and since it just barely opened for previews (Actually, on Thursday night 10/8) we had to go see it. If you are going to be in NYC within the next few months, GO SEE THIS SHOW! I laughed and had a great time! The show is fun, music is entertaining, and the cast does really well. Hopefully we can all get a little bit more of finian's rainbow in the world.

We found another place to eat and got all set before Shrek. I have to admit I was really excited because I love Sutton Foster (who was playing Princess Fiona), and I am a fan of Christopher Sieber (Farquaad). All in all, it was a fun show. Definitely had some fun laughs.

Sunday was a really relaxed day, as it should be. I wanted to go to another church, so I picked the Trinity Church on Broadway and Wall St. The organ and choir were wonderful. I loved seeing how devoted the people were. There are so many wonderful people in the world.

While downtown, I stopped by the NYSE, and Federal Hall (where George Washington was sworn in as President). Made a quick stop at a museum (a Smithsonian no less), and then headed back uptown to the Theater District. I met up with John and we hung out for a little bit. I had gotten tickets to Mamma Mia, and since he couldn't get into the

other ones he wanted to, he came along. It definitely wasn't as good as I remembered it. But it was still fun. We went over to try and get tickets

for the evening show and had to wait to put our names in for a drawing. As irony would have it, we actually ran into Matthew Morrison, who was in the original cast of Hairspray (my first "on broadway" show ever...though he wasn't in the

cast I saw) and took a picture with him. He's better known now as Will Schuster, the teacher on Glee. But continuing on to other things. I had found out that a producer from CBS was going to let me into the building to see what she did as a producer. I was ecstatic! While John tried to get tickets, I ran uptown (only a few blocks) and met with her for an hour or so. I stayed longer than I should have, but less than I wanted to. She was absolutely amazing and answered a lot of my questions. Hopefully I'll get to go up and talk to here more about her

experiences and work again soon.

John got into In the Heights and I missed out. I was okay with that (I'd spent a ton of money already). I found a Famous Daves (yeah!) and ate there. Garrett and Malcolm's group was up by the

temple so I headed up and hung out with them at Lincoln Center for a while, which was really quite beautiful. I'd love to see some performances in that area at some point of my life.

The day was drawing to a close, and I was more than tired. I got ahold of a great friend - Jeff Pew - and his wife and was able to make it up to see them in their new apartment before I had to leave. We had a great time catching up. Hopefully we'll get to spend more time chatting when I'm back up there.

I jumped on the subway and headed down to where my bus was going to leave from. I hadn't been down that way at all and so I wanted to make sure I was early. Go figure, it was right next to Herald Square, the Macy's on 34th street, and Madison Square Garden. I had such a fun time walking around that area that I nearly missed my bus! But I caught the midnight train and made it back to DC a half hour earlier than expected. Can't beat that! (I suppose it somehow makes up for being almost an hour late getting TO DC on greyhound....whatev).

I just have to say...I have never been so happy to own a sweatshirt that can cover my eyes on a bus ride, or ear plugs. They are amazing :-)

I walked home and finally made it to bed around 4:30 a.m. Threw in some ear plugs and didn't wake up until nearly 1 p.m. My roommate and some other people were going to the Holocaust museum, so I tagged a long and had a great time. We went to the Botanical Gardens as well as the National Portrait Gallery. And nothing finishes the day like a great trip to Costco. :-)

It was by far the most busy and event ful weekend I've had in a LONG time. ANd it was 110% worth it :-)

Cheerio!

(Pictures to come later)

Here we go!

Okay, so I'm not the best blogger. I'm still trying to figure out layouts, how to make things look nice and all that stuff. I forget, procrastinate, yadda yadda yadda. I've been out of Utah for nearly over two weeks now, but I will do my best to chronicle at least from when I left till...well we'll get to that when I get there. :-)

I left Utah and had a blast on the drive. The drive was nice, but there was way too much wind. It really made the drive semi-frustrating. I passed a terrible wreck and even saw them life flight the person out. I actually got blown into a construction cone, which thank goodness only hit my mirror.



Now, I had an interesting experience the week before I left. They say the pen is mightier than the sword, and I really believe they are right! I washed my clothes (as is a good thing to do...at least once a semester) and promptly put them into the dryer. When I started folding after, things just seemed really sticky...with something that was getting on my hands. What was it? Pen ink! I had missed one pen and thus ruined 90% of my clothes! :-) I bought some hairspray and spent a few hours trying to clean out the mess, but it was to no avail. My clothing was surrendered to the angry pen god.

So, after getting back to CA, I spent some time getting new clothes so I didn't have to walk around DC naked. My parents and I got to go to Wicked in San Francisco (which was AMAZING!!!), and then after some final prep I was on my way to the east coast!

I flew from SFO to Richmond, Virginia (after a brief layover in Chicago), and then stayed with my sister and her family for the night. Then, Saturday evening I took an Amtrak train (which was an hour late) to Washington, DC. THEN, I took my two bags (one buckled on top of the other one like so) and found the DC Metro system, nearly got swindled by a guy who was trying to sell me a train ticket (I only would have lost $5 or $10...not bad..but I didn't fall for it!), got on the metro, transferred to a different train (remember this is all with baggage), found the right stop, and then started walking to my new home. I did make a wrong turn...The metro lets you off right at a roundabout and the signs aren't the easiest to read--so I started heading the wrong direction! But I caught on really fast so I was only 5 or so minutes behind. I found my apartment, but for some reason they thought I wasn't coming until Sunday night. Weird! But I got my key and got all checked in. It was glorious :-)

Over the next few days we went around to see a lot of the museums and sights. To start everything off was of course, the White House! We even saw Obama....land in Marine One. From a a distance, but nonetheless. There were actually three idential choppers that came in. The first two came in a swopped off as in fake landings. Interesting all the protective measures. We saw his chopper descend into the trees :-)




More coming because I've only gotten through Sunday the 30th! , but thats all for now!

A brand new adventure

So,

I've officially been offered an internship in Washington, DC. The experience should be fun, and put me in a new area i've never (really) been before--minus when my older brother Greg got married. So...this fall I'll have a new adventure to have out on the East Coast!

Its the 4th of July!!!...well a few days after the fourth to be exact. But I had one of the most fun filled 4ths than I've had in a while. Definitely busy and full of fun.

It started off nice and early--around 6 a.m. Considering I didn't go to bed until about 2 a.m. (I stayed up with a former mission companion who was camping out for the parade with his family and girlfriend for a while and then got sidetracked at home...go figure...) it was an early morning. There was the annual hot air balloon launch and throw competition. It was really cool because you get to be up close and personal with the balloons. I've never seen so many or been so close. I definitely want one for my birthday. (Mom and dad...are you reading this? haha...ya right)

Then, I met up with Drew and his girlfriend for free breakfast courtesy of UCCU (they paid for the tickets). They walked back to their parade spot and I tried to make my way back by scooter. It only took me close to an hour. Stinking blockades. I was a block away from home and still couldn't get home. Haha. Such is the joy of parades.

Got back to where Drew's crew was parked and hung with them through the parade. Overall, it was a good show. Definitely fun to watch. Here is a picture of Drew and Camille in their native state. If you see them...chances are, this is how they look :-)

Honest Abe even showed up

...and so did Captain America...but he wasn't looking so good.

Came home, did laundry (so glamorous, I know...) and then went to work at the Stadium of Fire.
Its one of the most awesome fireworks displays, they throw on a concert and its an overall pretty good deal. This year was hosted by Glenn Beck, and SheDaisy and the Jonas Brothers were performing. I got asked to help cater for the Talent, which would definitely prove to be interesting. Since we aren't allowed to talk to any of them unless they talk to me first, there are no pictures or anything like that. And to start off, if I had a dollar for ever time I heard screaming girls, I'd have at least an extra 500 bucks in my pocket today! And everyone was very nice.

Glenn Beck was by far the most visible of the group. He had his family there with him and he just kind of hung out and enjoyed the 4th. He seemed really nice. When we got to go out and watch the show and fireworks, he was actually sitting right behind me. I was within a few feet of him multiple times during the day. Good man.

SheDaisy--honestly I couldn't pick them out if you asked me to. But I did make a flavored soda for one of the singers' nieces and then talked to the (I think) singer. She was very nice.

I know what you are really interested in the Jonas Brothers. Actually, I got to sit down and eat dinner with them (ya right). So, they really weren't around until about an hour or so before the show. Their family was in our area a ton, though. I made friends (without knowing it at the time) with their little brother "Frankie", who the girls walking around were going crazy over as well. It was acually hilarious (if you need a demonstration of the proceedings, I may have to demonstrate...its that funny). He really liked the super sugary flavored sodas I made. Met the mom, fiancee--super nice, band members, and all that fun stuff. I was taking some extra food to a co-worker from another job (Ya...its your fault Melinda) and apparently all three came out and talked to most everyone. But when I got back, the oldest one and the fiancee were out. We walked around the corner and the youngest one and middle one were taking pictures and then later on, I was fixing something on the table and backed up after I was done and accidently bumped into someone and I hear..."Oh, I'm sorry, sir." It was the middle one--the main singer.

Overall, they were very nice people with the little interaction that I had. They had their own compound, which actually made things nicer for us to do our work.

We got to go out and watch the show and fireworks on the field which was really cool. I had firework guts falling on my head. haha. And I was on the field. I need to figure out how to do that more often.

We finally got to clean up everything and left the stadium around 1:30 am. Here is a picture of the stadium right before we left. Things are half way cleaned up. You can see the big water hoses cleaning up every ones messes on the bleachers. Then we went back to the shop and cleaned up two days worth of dishes which took forever and finally got off at 5am. I got home at 5:30 and had to be at church at 7 so...I decided to just wait and take my nap after :-). Such a fun weekend!

On a side note, I want to start a business. Any ideas on what I should do?

I just can't believe it...

I really can't believe how fast the time is going. The last time I blogged was more than a week ago and it really seems like it was only yesterday. Its almost the middle of June! Holy crap! In any case, all we can do is just keep moving forward and try to tackle things one day at a time.
I get asked a lot what i'm going to be when I grow up. My answer right now is that I'm "majoring" in Communications (Broadcast Journalism) but haven't decided if I want to do that, dentistry, business, a mix of them all, or none of the above. I had an interesting visit with one of my professors the other day (if you really want to know what happened, you'll have to ask me) that made me start thinking about journalism a little bit harder. I know already that I don't want to be a reporter for the rest of my life. Reporting is fun, I will admit, especially when I am talking to people and doing fun things; but the stress of trying to film everything, organize interviews, figure out a stinking story, and everything else is real pain. Being an anchor or weather man would be fun though...I suppose I'll have to try it out first and see what I think. I still have a LONG time before I graduate so I'm not in a huge rush or anything.

I also had an interesting experience today. I am working on another story for the news that happens to be about something on BYU campus...and I've been asked to leave so many times today..even in public areas. It makes me laugh. I tell them I'm with BYU...and it doesn't matter. Oh well..I hope it all comes together! I'm sure it will. It usually does.

And since i'm terrible at posting pictures on anything, here is a picture from an adventure I had last January. Indoor Skydiving. WOW. Can I say A RUSH! This was the best picture I got. In any case, I highly recommend it!

So...a month ago today I was in Guatemala. I finally caught up with my group (I had passport problems). In any case, the trip was a blast...and definitely worth it. Here are some highlights from the trip.

Here is the trip in 10 pictures.

I had passport problems so I had to stay in Houston while everyone else went on to Guatemala. But I had a BLAST!

I did get my new passport (only took about 6 hours of waiting in line and the like...it actually was kind of fun....except the fact I got pooped on. Go figure.

I met a lot of cool people. Got back to the airport, got to guatemala, found a taxi, got a hotel, got back to the airport, and rode this awesome plane up to northern Guatemala.

We got to see Mayan ruins...and I climbed most of the temples that they had there. WOW they are amazing.








Ate a fruit called a "Snot fruit" You can see why...
(if you didn't get it...it looks like snot...see...) haha



Then we got to work. I mostly filmed for my school work (thats how I got to go in the first place) and did some assisting here and there...pumping and such. In fact...I even learned how to give shots of anesthetic and how to pull teeth. Man...I am cool haha.









Its actually a lot harder than it looks. Especially with a fro in your face. I knew I should have gotten a haircut before I left! But still way fun. Should I be a dentist? (Vote...)


Stood on top of red hot lava (some people's shoes melted) ...







And I think the best part was this kid made me give him my sun glasses in order to get a good enough deal for some souveniers. Haha. It was a pretty good deal though..glasses included!

Overall, it was an amazing trip...and I wish I could go back. It was definitely an adventure!

I'm kind of excited

So I have to admit that there are a lot of things in life right now that I'm really excited about. First, I'm excited school is almost over. Second, I'm excited that I got into a major. Third, I'm excited to go to Washington, DC for the Fall Semester, and surprisingly enough, I'm quite excited that I get to be here again for the Spring and Summer Terms. Ya, there are a lot of things that happen that I'm not as happy about, but overall, there are a ton of really neat things that are in motion right now. The exciting thing is the hoping and watching of everything come to pass. Welcome to the new blog!