Signs of the Times

I really loved all the old signs, storefronts, and architecture in Richmond, so I put this little photo essay together. However instead of trying to put a written essay with it, I'm just going to put titles or little stories from my trip.

Our hotel was actually an old department store, Miller and Rhoads, that they renovated and restored. They kept the original sign on the building. When the hotel was finished they had an old employee who had written the history of the hotel come stay in one of their suites, which happened to be his old office.

Coca-Cola

The American Wholesale Barber-Beauty Supply.

Wise words from Jim.

Amazing pancakes. And biscuits.

This saying was on a small plaque that was sort of hidden on the wall of a doorway of a small fabric shop. The shop was closed when we walked by, but we peeked in the window and it looked like they still lived by their motto of quality.

Currently: sightseeing. I visited the Jefferson Memorial today.

Richmond

I recently took a weekend trip to Richmond, Virginia. We managed to pack a lot into that weekend. We ate good fun, found some great shopping, and I got to take a lot of pictures. Oh and the art museum was amazing!!! I highly recommend it. I don't have time to talk about everything we did on our trip right now, so I'll just highlight one of my favorite things for now.

This is possibly my favorite shop that we found, Halcyon Vintage Clothing. Even though I didn't buy anything, everything in there was really nice and carefully selected so it was fun just to window shop (although I was extremely tempted by an adorable yellow dress!).

The owner's dog, Olive, stayed in the shop window the whole time.

Another thing I loved about Richmond was all the old architecture and building signs we saw. Some of it was quite run down, but it was still interesting and beautiful. I'm going to try and throw together a short photo essay of my favorite buildings and signs.

Currently eating: red velvet cake
Currently watching: Closer and Glee

Airplane miracles

So, I'm back in Texas. School and finals are over (Thank goodness), so maybe I can have free time again. I am just glad to be done with moving and traveling. Moving is such a pain. It always ends up being rushed, and you always, always (!) end up forgetting or losing something. This year that something is my makeup bag. I have no idea where it went. I got upset about it for awhile, but my Mom took pity on me and offered to replenish my supplies. It's sad how dependent I am on that stuff! Anyways other than that the move went fairly well. My aunt and Jamie had to help me cram everything in at the last minute, but it all worked out.We fit everything in my Aunt's car and managed to make it back to her neighborhood in time to make it to her Zumba exercise class.

I also experienced an airplane miracle. In both my flights (I had a layover in Pheonix) I managed to snag window seats AND nobody sat next to me. This has never happened to me before. I am usually on extremely full flights populated by noisy children. It was nice to stretch out and relax. Then there was a big storm and we had to circle for a while. They were just about to send us to another airport (most likely Dallas) to wait out the mess, when the sky cleared and we were cleared for landing. It was amazing! Plus by the time we got my luggage most of the street flooding had drained, so the roads were easier to navigate.

Anyways I am just glad to be home. I have a week to catch my breath and then it is time to start work! FMC here I come.

Currently missing: Roommates
Currently rediscovering: Cooking!

Mesa

So first order of business, last weekend I went on an amazing road trip with some friends ( I haven't had time to post anything so I am starting with last weekend). We drove from Utah to Mesa, Arizona and back in two days. For those of you who have not done this let me just inform you that this means your trip is about 80% driving. But it was worth it. We were celebrating Pasha's Birthday, and we were celebrating in style. We also got her a Snuggie, so basically there was nothing else left in the world that she could want. We passed all these cute little towns,at least 3 Lotsa Motsa pizza places, and just plain gorgeous nature. We also fell in love with the Manti Temple. I had seen it before, but no one else had so we gushed over it for a good 15 minutes.

We also stopped at this canyon, which was breathtaking ( we never made it out to the Grand Canyon). Everyone jumped out of the car and we had an impromptu photo session (ok maybe not impromptu seeing as the cameras started clicking whenever we left the car, but honestly everything was so pretty...)and then we all good scream into the canyon (and it screamed back).



We eventually made it there, where we discovered that the Mesa motel industry is controlled by a small Indian faction ( and no I do not mean Native Americans, if that it was I meant I would have said it). Mesa has an unhealthy amount of hotels and motels to chose from, but we ended up at the Starlite motel. It's most persuasive feature was probably the flashing neon sign of a girl diving; apparently Pasha has always seen that sign and wanted to go in, lol. As wonderfully classy as the Starlite motel sign was I actually never slept there. I ended up going to my cousins' apartment and spending the night at their place. I hadn't seen them in forever, so it was nice to see them even if I was half asleep the whole time.



The next morning we were back on the road. We ended up listening to country music, even though none of us are really big country music fans; it just seemed to fit. Granted alot of it was more on the pop crossover side, but it was country none the less. We also listened to Harry Potter on tape. I kept falling asleep so I only heard one chapter; I am not very good with audio books. Lara however loves them. One summer she listened to 2 or 3 of the Harry Potter books in a row. She now claims that Jim Dale narrates her life.


Anyways we finally made it back to Provo, safe and sound. It was basically amazing. There was so much more: picnics, jumping photo shoots, McFlurrys, failed surprises, High School Musical Fruit Snacks, the disease game, In-N-Out Burger, citrus trees, mash, and QT. I wish I could have told every little detail of this trip, but then this post would have been twice as long.

Currently reading: All the King's Men
Currently listening to: Love Story, Taylor Swift

Weekend Update

So this past weekend we had an extra day off for President's day, so Lara and I decided to take a road trip. We went to Idaho to visit some friends at BYU in Rexburg. I was a total wimp about the cold though. I had to bring out my blue puffy coat from retirement :) Anyways, we did a bunch of things, I got to:Visit Kimberly and David, eat snow, pretend to be one of Karen's roommates for 3 days, go sledding for the first time, eat at Jack in the Box [Oh! J in the B how I have missed you], play psychology, explore BYU-I Campus, discover the only pizza place in rexburg that will deliver after 11, find all our doppelganger apartment complexes (they have a Riviera, a Carriage House instead of Carriage Cove, etc.), and... Lars and I even managed to hit up Mayan Adventure for some jungle themed madness on the way home. So all in all a pretty awesome trip.

After that it was just back to life as usual. Which basically means I came home and watched SNL (Alec Baldwin and Jack McBrayer!!!) on my tivo when I should have been doing my never ending amount of French homework. Which might explain why the test I took tonight pretty much killed my brain. Although in my defense there was a good amount of studying done today before said test. I just wasn't in a good test taking mood. The testing center was unreasonably warm and completely full, giving it that claustrophobic feeling. Also, I feel I am never really done with French homework. It is pretty much constantly happening. You'd think with this constant exposure to the language I'd be pretty on top of it by now, yet I still confuse How are you with What is your name? But don't worry my education has not been a complete waste. I can tell time, point out items at a grocery store, sing the Flight of the Conchord's Foux de Fa Fa song, and say a variety of generally enthusiastic expressions. C'est Incroyable! Quelle Chance! Super!

Currently obsessed with: Boba drinks from DEW
Currently reading: As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner