My New Year's Wish

I'm on my way down to St. George to ring in the New Year with a little bit more heat and a few new friends...

But I couldn't go without telling you my New Year's wish!

My hope for both of us – you and I – is that

we spend a little less time creating worry lines,

more time creating laugh lines.

That we live a bit more simply,

but also a bit more glamorously.

That we place fewer restraints on ourselves,

one another,

and God.

That our eyes might see those things that help us grow,

good and bad, happy and hurtful.

And, most of all, that we might feel each day that we acted

instead of being acted upon.

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I simply remember my favorite things.

Days have slipped by in blogging silence.  Desolee, my sweets.  In the interim between then and now have come finals, food poisoning, miracles, and holidays filled with laughter, merriment and – best of all – lots and lots of reading.

I have flipped through the pages of Tolkien (my first time!) and pondered the emotional life of boys in America.  I have procured, to my great delight, vintage beauties from an idyllic second-hand bookshop in Bountiful and stacked high tomes from the library.  I think I had forgotten this past semester what joy I find in reading.

That got me thinking about some of the other things that are such boons to me:

1. Waking up to NPR.
2. Falling asleep to NPR.
3. Ira Glass' infinite Ira-Glass-iness.
4. Making things.  
5. Giving (humble) gifts.
6. Writing letters... real letters!

My list is decidedly more pedantic than Maria's cat whiskers and brown paper packages tied with twine.  But, still.  

I'm not one to really make New Year's resolutions, if only because calling them such dooms them to failure.  I am, however, one to readdress priorities.  And so, I will say this:  I have found much value in pausing and engaging in those things that bring me stillness and fullness; this year – and, hopefully, much longer than that – I will place a higher priority on items that seem to continually get pushed to the bottom of the list in favor of the much more pressing, and stillness-snatching, idle to-do's.

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A Vintage Birthday

You guys, I love you all.  Thanks for making my birthday eve and my birthday day so. freaking. awesome.  I am so tired from the party last night (Mad and I stayed up until 3 partying and talking and generally being awesome), so this one's going to be short.

...But first some of my favorite pictures from the vintage photo booth we had...

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Dad: The Original Hipster

I recently scanned in a bunch of old family photos and found myself realizing that my dad was the original hipster...

He played guitar in seedy clubs...

...but his musical talent didn't stop there.  He also played the highly technical harmonica.

And look at that apathy!

He used the hipsterest of the hipster photo forms:  the classic Polaroid.

And, oh!  The facial hair!  How could we forget that facial hair?!

Look at his wonderfully un-ironic wearing of leather moccasins and stripy too-small track jacket (on the chair).  

And, yes, that is my mom. 

While we're on mom, take a look at these:

I guess now, all that's left to be said is that I come from good hipster stock.  Hence:

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Kim Kardashian and Marriage

No, you didn't read that wrong.  I am actually posting about Kim Kardashian.  (Well, sort of.)  Xochitl Gonzalez had a really fantastic article that was picked up by HuffPo today, and I want to share it and maybe make a few comments.

My compliment to Ms. Gonzalez:  you are absolutely brilliant.

Check out the main body of her argument, addressed to the Kardashian herself, below.

Kim, despite being an actual celebrity, you were still blinded by the excitement of starring in a wedding.

Actually, ladies and gentlemen, Kim K's extravagant wedding was a slightly larger than life version of what is happening all across the country: we are WEDDING obsessed. Not marriage obsessed, but wedding obsessed. We are obsessed with the opportunity to be, the experience of, and the reminiscing about being a bride and all that it entails. From the chance to take styled staged engagement photos with matching outfits down to the getting to "splurge" on $5,000 designer gowns and red-soled Louboutins the average girl would never purchase, the wedding celebration has become in our culture an occasion for grown women to treat themselves like a celebrity for a day, the allure of which is so compelling, even REAL celebrities can't resist it!

Okay, call me crazy.  I am just not into weddings.  Like, at all.  Not even a little bit.  And while I sit, planning on how to prepare myself for a rock solid marriage, it seems that most others around me daydream of a wedding fit for a princess, regardless of the costs (both monetary and otherwise).  To tell the truth, sometimes, I think I'm a bit crazy in my non-wedding interest.

That being said, when I read Xochitl's article, a big part of me just screamed YES!  She continues by asking

If it were suddenly a universally socially acceptable custom to take 20K-100K to celebrate our 30th birthdays in a lavish and extravagant way, would we have as many weddings? Would we have as many divorces? I ask this as someone who makes a living from lavish wedding celebrations.

I don't have an answer.  I have my own feelings, for sure, but no concrete answers.

...But I do think it's an important question to ask.

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Shock and Awe

So.  An amazingly huge number of people read my last post about last week's Provo Rooftop Concert Series with The Abbey Road Show, and continue to do so.  In the wake of this newfound traffic, I have clammed up.  My purpose in writing this blog is really just to share my little thoughts with friends from all around the country, and really, not that many people read it consistently.  So, to have blown up so quickly has been kind of intimidating.  To all of you who found me by accident, Google or had someone send you a link (a surprising number of views came from personal email accounts)... I'm about to get waaaaaaaay less interesting.  So, you know, either unsubscribe or buckle up.

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The Necessary Fourth of July Post

Some fireworks from my childhood.  Happy Fourth of July!

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Mass Stupidity

Here's an excerpt from an old episode of This American Life.  (By "old" I mean within the past couple of months.)  Just to give some context, Ira was talking here about this group of actors in a play who were tired of doing the same old rote song and dance (literally), and so they tried experimenting with their roles, all ending with each of the actors being totally exhausted.  In this story, Ira hits the nail squarely on the head of something I have wondered for some time:  why is everything more awesome with people than without?

"And the next day they did a lousy show; incredibly low energy.  And here's the disturbing thing:  the audience LOVED it.  They couldn't tell at all...which either means that, you know, A) they are such solid performers and this material – the River Dance material – is so solid, that even on their worst day they are pretty good, or B) – and it's kind of ugly to say, but I'm just going to say it – when you and I and a lot of people, when we get together in a mass group, when we get together in an audience, when we're sitting in a theater in an audience, we just get stupid."

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