Life in Utah

Two full days of living in Utah doesn't really qualify the title or the subject of this post, but still, I figured since I haven't posted ANYTHING since the announcement of my move, I should give something of a report concerning post-move things:

Since I didn't think I had internet access at my temporary address, I went to Church with the lady who lives upstairs. It was of course a family ward. Not a single single person in sight...Church was at 2PM. So I did some serious sleeping in, had a nice long chat with the lady upstairs, got ready for Church, and went. Church was the same as any other place. It's fun to note the differences in how the Aaronic Priesthood line up for their return to the Sacrament table...someone always screws up, and for some reason I find this very entertaining. I think it remarkable that these young men, mostly 12 and 13 years old, are really acting on behalf of the Savior in passing the Sacrament to us.

Anyways, after Church I enjoyed homemade gourmet pizza made by my lovely cousin John, whom I have been reunited with after years of not seeing each other (Madsen side, I have a cousin John on both sides so I thought I should clarify a bit...). I got to hang out with his wonderful wife Lora with whom I have great hopes of becoming amazing friends with and their darling baby daughter Maya!!! I am getting my baby fix! Woot. The pizza was AMAZING...one of them had squash and chicken with BBQ sauce...amazingly fantastic! For dessert we had homemade chocolate chip cookies and I seriously need to get her recipe because they were PERFECT.

Monday...went into work, and after 1 1/2 hours of training he said 'come back tomorrow'...it was 12:00pm. So I took myself up to Temple Square. It was FREEZING cold for a summer day, but I didn't let that get me down. I visited all the buildings I have always wanted to visit and never have, including the Relief Society Building in which I saw Sister Dibb, the General YW 2nd Counselor (also Pres. Monson's daughter)...didn't say hi to her, but I know for a fact she is about 4 inches shorter than me now. Anyways, I digress. The Relief Society Building is absolutely beautiful. This lovely hostess took me on a personal tour, and I just loved it. I even saw where the general RS, YW and Primary presidencies have their offices. Totally cool! I went into the Church Office Building and went up to the Observation Deck. Now THAT is an amazing view...I also check out the Beehive house and had linner (or dunch...what ever you feel like calling a meal between lunch and dinner) at the Lionhouse. Saw an organ recital in the Conference Center...and unfortunately I wasn't all that impressed...he isn't my favorite organist, so...his rendition of Come, Come Ye Saints was interesting though. And he ended well, so that was good. I poked around the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, and discovered there are stake offices in that building...I just love that lobby in there though...such a beautiful room. I sat there for quite a while just taking in the detailing and listening to the pianist perform. She was pretty good. When she made a mistake, she made it sound like she did it on purpose. Good musician...

Drove around a bit. Enjoyed I-15 rush hour traffic all the way down to Orem and decided I would NEVER drive in that again. Tried to figure out my way around the Provo area. Will take a bit, I can already tell. The grid is great and all, but I like Arizona's style of addresses a bit more, to be perfectly honest.

Called Mom. Called sister. That constitutes FHE. :) Actually, I still didn't think I had internet access, and I have bugged certain friends of mine who are single and live in the area enough over the last few days, so I decided to sit this one out. Next week, though...:)

The best news of all: There is an In-N-Out not 10 minutes from where I am. I know where I am going for lunch tomorrow...:) happy happy joy joy...

Moving AGAIN...but this time to:

Utah.

Yes, you read that correctly. Utah.

Thursday I get a call asking if I would come up to Provo for an interview. I say sure! It's only a 8-9 hour drive. Why not.

Emily and I make it to Price at 3AM after we left after work Friday and just couldn't make it any further. We took advantage of her military discount and got a hook up on a room, took off the next morning and got to my interview. It went LOOOONG.

I will be working for a music academy in the Provo area that offers private lessons for many instruments. They have been around for over 20 years, and in addition to the music lessons they have a music theory lab and a dance studio they have begun. They are adding cello to their curriculum, and that's where I will be filling in. I will teach, I will assist with the lab, and I will help out in their office...at least until I get a full studio or I am able to convince the local community college to use me as an adjunct for music theory or really any of their general music courses to teach.

I am a bit nervous, but it's a start. I found out I have a cousin who is likely starting her masters degree at BYU, and I have a few other cousins on my Dad's side who live in the Provo area, so I will have a good group of family. Plus I have a few friends attending BYU as well, so I won't be without people I already know, unlike when I first moved to Alabama.

I am feeling pretty good about it, despite being nervous. It's a start. It's something to put on my resume. It may turn out to be something that I will keep doing for a while...or it may turn out that Utah and I really don't get along. :) It will be cool to live there and check out all the temples, for sure. And I will be able to attend conference at the conference center for the first time in my life. I am really looking forward with hanging out with my cousins...I haven't been around the Madsen clan in a LONG while...last time I saw most of them was at Grandma's funeral.

So. There you have it. Emily and I were SO glad to get back. I now have to figure out how I am getting all my stuff up there, where I am going to live, and all kinds of logistics along those lines. Going to be Goodwill-ing a few things, I think...

You know you have a good group of friends when...

...they will watch Seven Brides for Seven Brothers with you...and they already love it and know all the words to the songs...

...after you suggest a practical restaurant, they suggest one of your favorite restaurants instead and you have a fabulous time NOT counting calories...

...you can talk about boys, past, present or future (you know, what you want in a guy) and they will just sit there and listen...and then sympathize/empathize/emote the emotion that is required...

Grateful to have good friends. Feeling blessed in that category, for SURE...

My Day Stranded in Santa Fe

So a couple of weeks ago a group of us adventurous young single adults thought it would be a lot of fun to take the train from Albuquerque to Santa Fe for the day. The reason why we thought of this in the first place was we were informed that the drama department from UNM performs a Shakespeare play on the first car of the train on Saturdays during the summer. We thought that was such a wonderful thing that we had to see it for ourselves. Our plans went into effect this last Saturday. However, they didn't exactly go as planned...

We decided that we would go up to Santa Fe early, get lunch, walk around the Plaza and the state capitol building and then head back on the 4:4something train and force our way into the first car to watch the play.

We get up there, have lunch, walk around the Plaza and the state capitol, consider going to the Miraculous Staircase but decide against it due to the fact that it wasn't free, and head back towards the train station. By this point the clouds have gathered strength and were lovely shades of dark gray.

Get to the train station, notice an oddly large line of people waiting for a shuttle, and plant ourselves where we think the first car will be.

This is when the fun began.

A man in overalls and an old-timey train cap pulls out a speaker phone and informs us that they 4:4something train has been cancelled, and that there are shuttle buses waiting to take us to another train stop where we will board buses that will take us back to Albuquerque.

The moment he gets off the speaker phone, the heavens opened.

Just a little at first, but it slowly gained momentum. We had ONE umbrella between the 4 of us. We got very close during this ordeal...and despite the umbrella, oh so very wet...

We were shuttled. To a place where we had even less shelter and NO official looking train office with employees we could harass.

We were rained on. It rained even harder at the place where we were shuttled. We met a group of people who were in NM for a family reunion...and we made it into their scrapbook evidently...and it rained and rained and rained.

We were NOT bused. We passed the time creating masterpieces out of doodles another one of us made on a square of paper. We made friends with a young couple from the South who met in Albuquerque. We took advantage (once the heavens clogged) of the travel savvy one of us who brought his iPad and looked for nearby restaurants...with no luck. We contemplated checking out a cool looking cemetery nearby, but decided it wasn't worth the risk of missing our ride home.

We were starving. Luckily I brought 3 granola bars...I went without, telling myself that I am on super-diet mode anyways, even though I was super-starving...and I totally lied to my companions, saying I wasn't hungry...

The buses that were coming were a grand total of TWO. For 500 people. Ha! Luckily, by the time they showed up, we found out that the tracks had been reopened and a train was coming. We waiting 2 1/2 hours to board our train. Luckily, the heavens were plugged up for a good bit, so we were mostly dry by the time we claimed our seats on the train. Halfway home I did state the fact that I was starving.

No Shakespeare. We did spot some amazingly steady lightning/radio towers though...(inside joke...you had to be there)

We are thinking about going next Saturday...