a little bit of vegas and a little bit of love

i'm in vegas right now and loving every second of it. the air is a perfect 65 degrees and i am unusually content. i'm loving spending time with my grandma, not worrying about the enormous to-do list i have waiting for me at home, and being with my vegas people. our kyle got married yesterday to the lovely jess elmer (which is why i'm down here in the first place) and they looked so happy! she's quite the catch, kyle's lucky...

the reception was beauuuutiful, and so fun, complete with hawaiian haystacks to eat, and lots of singing and dancing. i didn't get a picture with the bride and groom (sad face) but i was just happy to be there for my friend on his big day!

tomorrow i head back to rexburg, where i hear the snow gods did some work. i guess i can't be too mad though because we at least had fall for longer than we usually do! but before that... i get some pin kaow and a night on the strip. yay for vegas.

highlights

i left for vegas yesterday. i had planned on going sunday morning with juelaine, but i decided i wanted to stay an extra day in provo, and also get up to rexburg earlier than she did as to find a job before all the good ones are gone. this week has gone by so fast though. i kind of woud rather it didn't end. because no offense idaho, i like utah better than you. this is what i've loved from this week.

1. the death cab for cutie and frightened rabbit concert

amber loves death cab. in fact, i'm quite confident she told me they were in her top 5 favorite bands of all time and forever. i enjoy death cab as well. especially this song. so i forked over the $44 and went with her. she wanted to be there eeeeearly so we could be in the front row. well, when we showed up at freaking 2 in the afternoon (the doors didn't open until 6:30) there were only 10 people in line in front of us. so, after i made her shirt...

...we left to go get drinks from the gas station. when we came back, and were getting out of my car, a man asked if we'd like to meet death cab. amber and i looked to each other, and after 30 seconds of trying to figure out whether or not he was for real, we followed him inside where we, along with about 15 other people, waited to meet the band. we got to watch a sound check, shake their hands, and take a picture with them. i'm still waiting on that picture, cause the guy hasn't emailed it to us yet (not happy about that).  but when he does, you better believe it'll be up here.

frightened rabbit opened for them. they're from scotland. and incredible. they kind of sound like mumford & sons. here's pictures from the show, and a video i took of "soul meets body":

2. craft time/story time/dinner time/sleepy time/all my time with amy lou

she helped me make the most fantastic craft for my apartment, of which i will post a tutorial probably tomorrow. my favorite was probably our drive home from slc saturday where we discussed the men in our life and i accidentally missed our exit and made us go through the rain and lots of detours. oops.

3. the pie in salt lake city with ihop boy

after death cab on monday night amber and i went to ihop for some breakfast and to further discuss the magic that we had just previously experienced. we had a waiter. his name was daniel. he was south american. he spoke spanish. yum. he wrote his number on my receipt and then we made plans to go to the pie. please, i beg of you, if you're ever in the salt lake area, make it a point to go to the pie. it's like a party/heaven/magic in your mouth. 

3. my reunion with cassie rae 

she had just moved into her new apartment, so we didn't do a whole lot. and by that, i mean we sat around, reminisced about ecuador, went to target, and slept together one night when i called and woke her brother up at 3am asking him to let me in. oops again.

4. squaw peak with baird

elder baird served in my ward in kansas. i blogged about him for about half a second on my mother's day post cause we had them over to eat. i said this... "we also had the missionaries over for lunch. i looooooooove missionaries. especially the ones serving in our ward. they're so cute. they both go home in a couple months. one's from washington and one is from orem. i plan on loving/dating/marrying the one from orem."  haaaaaa that's awkward. 

but anyways. amy and aubrey and chris and i went to hear his homecoming talk in orem the day after i got to utah. and then he and i decided we should probably hang out. so we did. we went to some mexican restaurant and squaw peak. i had never before in my whole life been to squaw peak but it has the cooooolest view of provo/orem/spanish fork and i like it a lot. if i lived in provo/orem i'd probably go every single day for the rest of my life.


5. losing a red box movie that i didn't even watch
k obviously this wasn't a highlight. but it happened. and i'm mad about it. COME BACK TO ME.


now i'm sitting at my grandma's in vegas whilst i wait for my laundry to be done. i love vegas. last summer i lived here for 6 weeks and now i'm back for about one, before i head to school. tonight i'm going swimming at juelaine's and then a bunch of are gonna hike lone mountain. tomorrow my car's getting serviced, and then thursday morning we head to californiaaaaa!


cheers to that.

guest post: juelaine

meet juelaine. she's a half hawaiian vegetarian and one of my best friends, as mentioned here. she grew up in vegas and last summer she showed me what it's like to be in vegas without being all touristy. and today she's going to share her take on life in sin city. enjoy!

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What is the city but the people?  ~William Shakespeare

Whatever you want to call it…Las Vegas, Nevada. Sin City. Vegas. Party Central. City of Lights… I call it HOME. When I hear "Vegas," I don’t think of "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" like everyone else does. I think of home, my family, my safe haven. It’s what is comfortable to me and what I love. I absolutely LOVE the city. I really enjoy living in a place that everyone is envious of. 

I was born in Seattle and when I was 9 I moved to Vegas. It's where I grew up. I live away from the strip so it’s away from all the craziness, yet still close enough. The strip keeps things interesting when we are super bored. We just go and people watch. The tourists who don’t know how to control their liquid consumption, they are the best to watch. Out where I live is kind of like a small town inside a big city. That’s how Vegas is broken up. It’s kind of confusing… but it makes sense if you don’t think about it. 

We have to be kind of creative to have fun. So we’ll hike a mountain, play fugitive, or my personal favorite… BOBA. Our boba game is all about getting a great smoothie from China Town with black balls (aka. boba) in it, then driving around and shooting people with those lovely black balls. For a visual...

It’s something everyone should probably experience sometime in their life. Yes, it sounds a little inhumane… but it’s so fun that it justifies it so you don’t feel too bad. It’s things like this I feel like you don’t experience anywhere else. I have a special love for the city. I love how busy it is. I love how aware it makes me of what is happening in the world. I have learned so much about life and myself by living in Vegas and going to high school there. I think there are people that are meant to be from small towns, and there are people who are meant to be from a city. I am definitely a city girl. Driving into Vegas at night and seeing the millions of lights gives me chills all over. Home is where the heart is, eh? Well my heart rests in VEGAS.





(p.s. for more boba magic, read up here)

i love it when you call me big papi

my day consisted of:

toast

driving downtown

the stratosphere with amalia

the big shot at the stratosphere

getting hit on by egyptian men

taking pictures with egyptian men

$20 memories

being annoyed by my family

thai food at pin kaow

driving around with tun

playing pool with amalia and tun

watching parenthood and glee by myself

and

sneaking apple pie at midnight

happy wednesday, all

:)

...and my procrastinative tendencies kick in

i should be doing homework,

or showering,

or doing something productive

but i'm not in the mood

so instead,

i'm listening to wordplay that i got in the mail yesterday thanks to a one david starkweather

whilst i look at pics from last night

last night

we went on a scavenger hunt on the strip

and when i say "we" i mean...

me

juelaine

shelby

kyle

joel

tun

dennis

kiah

jared

dallan

tyler

and a bunch of weirdos whose names i don't know

it was completely fantastic

the list included, but was not limited to:

shaking the change out of a teammate's pockets

kissing a teammate through glass (my personal favorite)

something about a goofy hat? i don't even know

have a cop pretend to arrest you (even though that was pretty typical of joel)

human bridge

walk out of the bathroom with toilet paper on your shoe

human pyramid

get a kiss from a stranger

trade clothes (he stretched out my northface, booo)

do the limbo

i just love my joel

...and my shelby

the rest we didn't get pics of cause we took videos of them

but they were...

propose to somebody (dallan prosposed to a lady in mcdonalds)

get somebody to teach you the duggie (these little black boys taught us, and their moms were all into it... so awesome)

get somebody to serenade you (this jamaican guy sung "take a look at my girlfriend" to me haha)

arm wrestle a stranger, and they have to lose

i don't remember the rest

but it was all pretty great

and then, like usual, we ended the night at in-n-out

happy (a)fternoon

hola lunes

welllll im back in vegas

it was the worst flight in the world though

there were like four couples in the two rows behind me and they were going to vegas to celebrate birthdays or something

well, they were really loud

and drunk

and continued to drink the entire 3 hour flight.

and i just had to sit in front of them

bad move on my part

and there was a 40 something yearold man in short shorts sitting next to me

he was asking me all sorts of questions about why i was going to vegas and where i was from

little bit not okay if you ask me

he also told me lots of random facts about vegas that i didnt care to know

i just wanted to sleep

and read my trashy magazines

thats all i wanted

but apparently we dont always get what we want

however i am heeeeere and very happy about it

OOH AND GUESS WHAT

im gonna be in provo for labor day weekend

i get to see

calaigh

sterling

justin

jimmy

the barrows

and casey

im pretty happy about it

but really, i just wanna be in rexburg

cuantos dias?

solamente 14

yesssssss

"we'll take control of the world like its all we have to hold on to"

i feel strongly that everyone would benefit from listening to this song right about now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGGt5VoHX_o&feature=related. its been on repeat for the last two days and i just cant get sick of it. also, i think everybody in the whole wide world should read "the last lecture" by randy pausch. probably one of the best books ive ever read.

ive decided i need to stop counting my life away. im always counting down to the next thing. right now its california (today), home (5 days), rexburg (24 days) and ecuador (142 days). like, yeah i cant wait for all of those things, but ive decided to be better about living in the moment. time is one of the few things we can never get back. its irreplaceable and valuable and i spend way too much time wishing it away.

however i am excited. i get to see my mom today! we're picking her up from the airport a little before 7 and then were headed to the tarranea resort in rancho palos verdes, california. i am beyond excited. i havent been to the beach since before my grandpa died. and that was over a year and a half ago. in other words, its been too long.

also, the boy ive been crushin on talked to me yesterday. that was exciting. too bad he's leaving tomorrow. what a buzz kill. oh well, at least i have something to look forward to now when i come to vegas.

also, i really miss riley's backrubs. only because they were probably the best ever. im just really a fan of backrubs. a boy who can give a good backrub is just as attractive as one with good grammer and a good taste in music.

the other night me and juju and shelby went down on the stip. highlights: we were driving down las vegas blvd with our windows down blasting "somebody who loves me" by whitney houston (because it seemed like the right thing to do at the time) and the 4 guys in the cab next to us started singing along too. so awesome. i wish more people were like that.

also, we were walking into the venetian on the little moving sidewalk things that just LOVE and at the end there was this guy who asked me to take a picture of them. he had an accent. i love accents. well, they were from spain. and they started singing "yo soy espanol, espanol espanol" but it sounded more like "yo soy epanol epanol epanol" because spanish people sound... well, gay. and like they have a lisp. nonetheless, they were attractive. and we sang with them for five minutes. and spoke spanish, cause i can do that you know. i officially love spainards.

i love lots of things. im a love whore okay? i see nothing wrong with that.

shootin the bobaaa

im really liking vegas. quite a bit, actually. last night i hungout with juelaine, shelby, kyle and joel again. first we went to this place called rainbow to shop. however, i have zero money. and any money i do have is for ecuador/school. so i didnt get anything. boo. then joel and i walked over to walmart cause i had to use the restroom very badly. and some guy asked us for money, but we had none.

then we went to pick up ky ky. he lives in the ghetto of vegas. like pretty much 2 minutes from the strip. then we went to the fashion show mall. one of God's greatest creations, in my opinion. soo effing amazing. it has the biggest forever 21 in the whole wide world. so me and shelb and ju headed there while the boys found another way to entertain themselves.

beautiful, right? its so huuuuge! its 126,000 sq ft, has 650 employees, 132 fitting rooms, 36 cash registers and all that on 2 floors. its absolutely completely fantastic. we spent a whopping two hours in there. it wouldve been more if joel and kyle hadnt been calling and texting us to leave. i am proud to say that i only spent $43 in there. it was hard. but i did it. haha me and shelby played dressup.

i was THIS CLOSE to buying those cheetah print pants/leggings. i liked them so much. wayy comfy. i would probably live in them if that was socially acceptable. forever has sick glasses tooooo.

sorry, i just am basically in love with forever 21. moving on. welllll we went to wet seal only to find out that joel and kyle had gotten bored enough that they walked to in-n-out. they walked. it was like 10 minutes driving. i have no idea what those idiots were thinking. butttt they got there like 5 minutes after we did so they had to have been walking for awhile. we like in-n-out. we like it a lot.

that would be juelaine's nasty grilled cheese she gets, as she is one of those non-meat eating vegetarians that i dont understand.

next was boba. theyd been talking about it the whole night. but i had no idea what was going on. i felt so left out. we went to chinatown and got smoothies. which had boba in them. wtfff is boba? well after i ate one they all freaked out and told me they were roach eggs. apparently the vietnamese eat them to suppress hunger. so of course i was all concerned and wasnt sure if i should try to puke up these little sticky boba ball things. then they told me i was fine. idiots.

now, this is the game. you suck up the boba balls into your straw. and... well... you shoot them at people on the street. cruel, right? its so so wrong. but so verrrry fun :)

BOBA!

well, the end. my first experience shooting boba... and id say it was a rather successful one. it is my new favorite activity.

okay, maybe i overreacted

ive decided vegas isnt too terribly bad

its quite great if you have things to do

that always helps

yesterday i went to lake mead

with;

troy

derek

tj

cody

gregory

dj

and paul

we went cliff jumping, tubing, skiing, wakeboarding, swimming, etc

it was absolutely wonderful

i wish my camera wasnt broken though

i find greg very attractive

is that okay?

hes 23

we can get married

after the lake we went to smash burger

aka the most delicious burger on the planet

i dropped my phone in the trashcan

troy dug through the trash for me to find it

only a liiiiiittle embarrassing

last night i went to flip-n-out

with;

juelaine

shelby

joel

kyle

and ashleigh

we were there for like an hour

then we went to the 7eleven where shelby works and we got slurpees and comida

at ju's house joel and ju and kyle watched 2012

but me and shelby swam

we bonded

we discusses the 90's

and how much we miss being younger

i miss boy meets world

and disney princess movies

ive always wanted to be a disney princess

a whole new world, colors of the wind, and part of your world often randomly get stuck in my head

is that okay?

i think so

fjdklaf; life in vegas isnt tooooo terribly bad

welcome to the city of sin

so its day five in las vegas. i met a boy on the plane here. his name is matt. i sort of am maybe attracted to matt. we made a bet. i won. we played a game. i won. i basically am just better at everything than matt.

in other news, vegas it hot. effing 110 degrees. but its not humid. yayyy for that. saturday night i went over to linda and troy's to have birthday cake for tj's birthday. he's so big! he's as tall as i was! i havent seen that guy for yearssss, like 9 maybe. and dereks hot. hes 7. im comfortable with that. then juelaine came over. and then she took me to her friend shelby's house. we played spoons with kyle and joel. then we went to in-n-out. i like that place. its delish.

monday night i went to singles ward fhe with juelaine and shelby and kyle and joel. i sort of feel a part of the group now. i like that. we played beach volleyball. that was enjoyable. except for i scratched my knee. ouch. then we went to juelaine's and ate; pizza, toy story 3 mac & cheese, peanut butter pretzels, the end. and then we went swimming. and hottubbing. and played truth or dare. i told a secret.

tuesday was sort of blahhhh. except i went to mimi's cafe with my grandma and her old lady friends. i got a sandwich and salad. yummmy. nada joy likes me a lot. she wants me to go see a movie with her and my grandma. thats funny i think.

yesterday and today ive been babysitting the foggs. they have four babies. well, two babies and two kids like 10ish maybe? the babies are madelyn and riley. yesterday maddie puked on me. today riley puked on me. i didnt know i had the effect on people. the puking effect. i made $108 though, so i suppose that maybe that makes up for the puke.

oh p.s. IM GOING TO ECUADOR :))) its official and im very happy about it.

fjdklaf; i like vegas, but i like kansas more