Food, Food, but also Family

Today is my last full day in Utah. That makes me sad for a variety of reasons. But in true Kristen fashion, I am going out with a bang. A day or so ago breakfast plans with friends didn't pan out, so today was the day! It was great because we had a large group of people and it was really fun.

I was skeptical at first because the plan was to meet at Black Bear Diner- about 45 minutes away from where everyone lives. But I am glad we did because breakfast was amazing! The diner is a small chain that started in northern California. I kind of recall seeing other locations in such random places like Bullhead City, AZ. My family almost ate there before but the lines were too long.

I realized I must be missing my mom because I ordered the chicken fried steak- something my mom almost always orders. My horchata quest is like her chicken fried steak quest, we are always trying to scope out the best one!

After breakfast we had some time to kill so we wandered around the mall and got a new battery for my watch. We eventually wandered down to Springville to meet my sister and her friend Jen to go to the Museum of Art. To kill more time we wandered around the Walmart there and spent some money on our generous Christmas-gift gift card from the Morris family. I am proud to announce that Ross and I are the happy owners of our very first waffle iron. I can tell I am an official big kid cos I am really wracking up the kitchen appliances.

We then met up with Rissa and her friend Jen to check out the Springville Museum of Art. The Springville MoA always surprises me. It seems like such a random (and nearly rural) place for such an attraction. But the exhibits and works within are always incredible. For such a small looking building it is really quite large inside.

One of the main exhibits, and the first we checked out was the, "30th Annual Spiritual and Religious Exhibit." Being a religious and spiritual person myself, I was pretty excited about this one. I thought of the book God Is In the Mountain by Ezra Jack Keats. Meaning, there are so many different interpretations and personal beliefs that were expressed in the exhibit. It was really cool to see such a diverse display of art.

I did what you are supposed to at museums and made sure to take lots of crappy pictures of beautiful pieces of art.

These first two kind of go with each other I feel like. I've been thinking recently about how so many women hurt to belong. I love that my beliefs and upbringing give me confidence and joy in who I am. Maybe that's why I felt so drawn to these.





As we walked up to this exhibit Ross chuckled a little because he already knew that I liked it. It was behind glass so you can't see it spectacularly in this picture. It is done in a bright Latin American style. The bottom right corner shows, "The Descent of the Holy Ghost," and as the artist mentions, "many people from all five continents are shown in unity."



This was one of Ross's favorites. If you look closely you can see a phoenix emerging from the sun in the wolf's mouth. Also it is based on a Norse myth so he probably liked that too.



I was immediately drawn to this one because of the color (Salvation Mountain?!). But I liked the artist's description as well. I know the descriptions are hard to read without zooming in. The last part reads, "It is imperative that we are keenly aware of the straight and narrow path and do all we can to stay within the straight lines in midst of the temptations of life."



These three are all very intriguing in different ways. The first one, "The Cemetery of the Forgotten Books," really drew me in. I loved the frame with all the books, and the purples and pinks in the painting. THEN I realized she's almost 90 years old and her father was in Franco's army during the Spanish Civil war and I was speechless. What a life to live. I would love to see her other artwork and the stories they tell.

I took quite a bit of time on the middle painting with the hummingbird, "Above the Brambles of Life." The artist's description, "Something amazing happened when we free ourselves from a negative habit, rid ourselves from fears or anger, resentment and frustrations that occur in our lives. We become elevated. Have a greater perspective and can keep moving to better heights of happiness and creativity. I believe the Atonement of Christ can help us achieve that."



The last was just funny. I'm not sure what that style of art is called, it reminds me of the Valyermo Monastery. This piece, "Sometimes it is hard to be dead" was one of many displayed on a wall as part of a piece about ancestors. I like the ancestor looking over the kid and thinking, "I love you and appreciate what you are doing but you are often very stupid and it aggravates the crud out of me." I think about relatives watching over me and caring about me. But this piece provided a different perspective. It makes me laugh to think that my ancestors are sometimes banging their heads against the wall cos I am a knucklehead.

They had another exhibit ending soon, "Family Vacation." The retro and vintage inspired travel theme was fun. But what I found the most breathtaking were paintings of Utah landscapes. It is such a beautiful state!



They museum also had a section with children's artwork. It was pretty cool to see some of the amazing works of art elementary school aged kids made! These kids have some serious talent. One of my favorites is the little shepherd boy sitting with a his little lamb and looking up towards the star.



The last exhibit we checked out, and primary purpose for the visit since it was ending so soon, was a display of parable paintings by Liz Lemon Swindle.



Each set had an ancient and modern interpretation of the parable. Her paintings are breathtaking. I can't even begin to comprehend a masterpiece like that. Which, in and of itself was a cool lesson to think about when looking at religious paintings and paintings of Christ.

My favorites were The Good Samaritan,



And I Would Gather Thee



Obviously the pictures don't do them justice. That's why you go to a museum. But I took them anyway so I could remember the thoughts I had while I looked at them. The lighting, the emotions, and mostly the tender care from our Savior that is so wonderfully portrayed.

Throughout the museum they have interactive portions. This one you could take an inspirational quote from the jar and then write one of your own to hang on the wall. Not sure if this kid got the memo but it summed up my experience at the museum very well, "I liket err ething" Because indeed, I did like everything!

Afterwards Rissa told us about this really cool diner that we just had to go to. We joked about what a must-try place would look like in Springville, but it was a really cool place. Art City Trolley is a hip little diner inside of an old trolley! Did I mention that it's hip? Also the food was great. I got a spicy avocado chicken sandwich with a side of mac n cheese. Rissa got us all a plate of rosemary garlic fries that were amazing. Nice and thin and crispy.



We hung around and chatted for a while before we had to get going but it was great to try a new place and see an old place with new (exhibits) stuff. I can't believe it is already time to get back to real life back home. I don't want to!

Things that Must Go

One of my favorite things about my time in Utah was making friends with Kerry, Bill, and Gina.

Kerry, Bill, and Gina have no idea who I am, but every time I listen to them, I laugh.
When I watch movies I don't always laugh out loud. When I listen to their morning radio program, "Radio from Hell," it is impossible for me to not laugh out loud.

The have a bunch of different fantastic re-occuring segments, but my favorite is on Wednesday mornings. It's called "Things that Must Go." Some weeks the hosts read their lists, other weeks they read ones from listeners. Either way, it's perfect timing because those fateful Wednesday mornings can prove to be dreaded for so many reasons. It makes it the perfect day to air some grievances.

I usually try to stay pretty optimistic and outta people's business, but for comedic and health purposes, here is:

Kristen's List of Things that Must Go

1.) Unreliable people.
I don't think anyone generally likes unreliable people. But my beef is, just don't make the promise in the first place. It's cool, I'm afraid of commitment too. So just don't commit.

2.) Ambiguous baby announcements. What happened to the good ol' days when you could call people up and tel them you were pregnant? Or for the people that you don't actually care to tell- what happened to the good ol' days when there was the church rumor mill? I miss it. Because now, you have to tell everyone on Facebook. But even those good ol' days are over. Now, you have to make it cute. and great. but not just great... MORE GREAT than everyone else.




Pretty much anything is a baby announcement. As long as it involves one very small object and two larger objects. But also, please feel free to incorporate your pets.

3.) People who are obsessed with being skinny while pregnant. I'm not so sure about these pregnant ladies. They seem to be on my bad list. But this one I struggle with the most.

YOU ARE GROWING A HUMAN LIFE INSIDE OF YOU WHY DO YOU WANT TO BE SKINNY AND MALNOURISHED.

Maybe because these women look skinner with a baby in them than I look now. Maybe I'm just jealous.

5.) Obviously I have issues with pregnant ladies. But I guess I have issues with (psycho) moms too. I used to love Pinterest and all the great ideas on there. Now, I get bored by looking at the inherent doom of motherhood looming before me. Pretty soon I will have to plan all these insane parties for my children's friends. Of course, I am not planning the party for the kids, but the parents. Because WHO ELSE CARES that Oreos resemble tractor wheels, and are therefore the perfect snack for your son's farm themed party?



Also, I need to start saving now and using my weekly Michael's 40% off coupons to buy the most adorable vases and jars to hold all this crap in.

     

What I am saying is, cute little title themed foods need to go. MOMS: cotton candy being unicorn fur actually kind of creeps me out and no one under the age of 20 knows who Pete is or appreciates the value of a good alliteration (given that they can actually read). Don't get me started on these "Pirate bananas"



Why can't you just eat bananas at a party? Why do they have to don a bandana and an eye patch.

4.) People who have an emergency. I'm not talking about the Emergency Room. I'm talking about my job... which is not in an Emergency Room, nor Urgent Care. So why I get yelled at because "WHY DON'T YOU CARE ABOUT ME, THIS IS AN EMERGENCY," is beyond me. I know this sounds insensitive given the amount you probably know about what I do for work, but I'm already done talking about this.

That's enough kranky kristen for one day! What is on your list of things that must go this week?

Oh Hai Utah: Part II

Friday morning we set out to Salt Lake City, making a few stops along the way. One of which led us to run in to this lady, bringing her pet bird into the store with her. The bird just very nicely sat on her purse, in the cart while she shopped around.

In Hollywood we get puppies in purses, and in St. George you get parrots on purses. 

Since California is experiencing a pretty massive drought, it was incredible to see how green southern Utah is! They had some huge rainstorms come through, and although they resulted in road closures and flooding, looks like a bunch of green popped up. The colors, reds, blues, greens, were really bright. 

We made it to Utah and had a fun time hanging out, and playing with Jen's dog, Corndog. 

Corndog tends to steal the show whenever she is around, mostly because she is so cute, partially because she is pretty hyper.

This weekend is what we call in the LDS church, "Conference Weekend." It comes twice a year and it is the opportunity we have to listen to church in our jammies hear from Church leaders and our Prophet. We projected it up on the wall so we could watch in IMAX style. Although the event spans two days, we still had time to do some fun things. We made some delicious personal pizzas, took a walk in the park, and did some shopping. 

But the biggest event of the weekend was celebrating Rissa's birthday!! She is going to be out of town on her birthday, so it actually worked out great to come to Utah and celebrate early. You can tell my sister is a genius because she chose a variety cheesecake.

Rissa also finally taught me how to make these cool crepe flowers! 

Sadly we had to say goodbye Monday, and we headed back. Quite unfortunately for us, we were hungry right around Payson, which next to maybe Beaver, couldn't be a more fantastically horrific place to be hungry in Utah. I might even take mid-southern highway weeds to eateries in that area, particularly after my mom's bout of food poisoning on the way up. 

But, mom, always giving people the benefit of the doubt and searching for the next big thing, was convinced we could find something. Ali and I, thoroughly unimpressed and jaded from years of sub-par "mexican" restaurants in Utah, were fairly unenthused about Don Chuy's. We sat in the parking lot awhile convincing my mom that we shouldn't go in. 

But, as you might imagine, mom won. And it wasn't half bad (given the circumstances). The carnitas was crispy and flavorful and the carne asada was a little spicy and didn't have a bunch of gristle. The employees were super friendly and helpful too. But the best part? No food poisoning yaaay!

Our next food stop was just outside of Vegas at a Triple D restaurant. It took us forever to navigate to it, and we were pretty hungry when we arrived, but it was worth it. It's a place called Lola's, a Louisiana kitchen. And the food was incredible. I would definitely go out of my way to go back there. 

After a stop at State line it was the long boring drive back, but at least we got a beautiful sunset.

Oh Hai Utah: Part I

This morning I woke up in Mesquite. Here was my view. Deja vu to only two months prior.

But first let me back up so you don't think I woke up from a drugged induced coma, gagged and bound in the middle of the desert in Nevada. 

Ali and I, being consistently unemployed, have talked about going on a road trip. I, being the crazy and somewhat financially irresponsible one, said it should be a long one. A BIG one. Just leave one day and start driving. Doesn't everyone secretly want to do that? Well I do. Ali suggested a road trip to Utah, having family, friends, and specifically two sisters there, we thought that would be a good destination. Ali gave in to the idea that maybe we could stop at the Grand Canyon at some point. 

BUT, as things turned out, momma was able to come! It kind of happened really fast, and we knew it would have to be a quick trip so mom could get back to work (work?! what's work?). But nevertheless we wanted to see my sister for her birthday. 

We set out after work on Thursday night, stopping of course at the coveted Mad Greek Cafe. I got a Baklava shake which was actually 10,000 more times amazing than you would hope. Sometimes, I still have dreams about it, faint sweet delicious tastes of it in my mouth. 

Mad Greek is absolutely classic, and we all know my love affair with Greek food, so it was a good time.

In fact, maybe a little too good. Funny story. I was standing by the table as we were getting ready to leave, Ali was still sitting in the booth. When I hear, coming from the booth a couple away from us. 

"Must be good."

I guess I was in my baklava shake happy place because apparently I was staring out the window slurrping up the last but of flaky pastry goodness from the cup. Embarrassed and surprised by him calling me out, I did my classic nervous laugh, accompanied by some stupid comment about, "Oh yeah, it's a baklava shake, and it's pretty good." Then did a Napoleon Dynamite dash out of the restaurant. Okay people, I AM SORRY THAT I NEED A MOMENT WITH MY SHAKE. #noregrets

We stopped for the night in Mesquite, saving the rest of the trip for tomorrow. That just about brings me to the beginning of this post, but not without mentioning my engineering genius. 

I realize that is a bold assertion when Ali is right there, but I do not take it back. My sister has a bit of a foot issue, meaning, she hates when people touch her feet. On accident or intentionally, doesn't matter. Now of course, that makes sharing a bed a bit tricky. But I came up with a great idea... a pillow divider down by our feet. Now the feet shall remain separate but equal, along with the added benefit of some nice air circulation. Voila!

And that ladies and gentlemen, is how I woke up in Mesquite.

Back to California

I've been traveling a lot this summer. Planes, trains, cars, just short of boats. Which has kinda made my final summer trip destination very unreal. It was a two day trip but it's just dawning on me that this isn't another quick trip. Next weekend I can't just run up to Ogden for some Farr's ice cream.

Long story short: Ross and I were unable to secure a car before we left. Lucky for us, my grandparents were up in Utah for my second cousin's wedding (you know, the one we couldn't go to because of car problems?!). And they just so happened to be willing to give us a ride back to California. The plan is to secure an apartment first, then Ross will fly back to Utah, load up the moving truck, then drive it down. The timing is all fairly precarious.

But for the time being, we have a couple days to hang out with my grandparents. I don't blog about my grandparents nearly enough. They are my favorite people. When I was living in Palmdale I would visit them about once a week. Everyone in my family was super jealous that I got to go on a road trip with them!

It was a pretty luxurious trip. My grandparents like to break up the drive and stay the night in Mesquite. Traveling in their jaguar was really really nice. I have never been more comfortable on a road trip.

We took our time and my grandma wanted to make a couple stops before we got to Mesquite.

We took a tour of a couple places of Church history interest. When I was younger I was really into historic fiction. I think my creative mind allows me to really be interested in history, because I can see it in my mind.

We took the of the Brigham Young Summer Home with one other couple. The guide would ask us if we knew what certain contraptions were in the home. And my grandparents, being avid antique collectors, knew everyone and could answer right away. I was pretty proud of that. The guide would mention how "back in the day" this is how they would iron their clothes this way... So I wanted to laugh out loud when my grandpa said, "Yeah, that is what my mom used to iron when I was a kid!"

My grandparents are pretty funny.



Yes, historic stairs, must be steep to be historic. Also, did someone just get done sleeping in that bed? Why is it so disheveled? Yes. That concerns me.

Before too long we were back on the road headed to Mesquite. the casino we stayed at was pretty cool. Old, but not dingy. It was called Casablanca and had a huge rock waterfall out in front. My grandparents were pretty impressed that it had a valet too. I wasn't impressed with the hallway from The Shinning replica.





Before dinner my grandma and I hit up the $10 and Under! store. You know, the things that cost about ten cents to make in China?

I found this funny cheapo ring. My grandma looks over and goes, "It looks like someone took a poop!" Haha. So great. She also gave me some good advice on buying cheap jewelry. She advised me to buy one that is believable. If they are fake diamonds you can't go over the top. Here are two examples. Make wise choices kids!

We went out to dinner at the restaurant in the casino there. My grandparents were pretty beat so they headed up to their room. But right before they left my grandma grabbed my hand and said, rather sternly, "GO HAVE FUN." I laughed a little.
"I mean it!  Don't let us old people slow you down! Have fun."

My grandma is the best. Who else has a grandma that encourages them to run wild in a casino?

Didn't think so.

Ross and I wandered around a little, mostly out of boredom, but also because we needed to stretch our legs. The hotel has a cool lighted pool area with a rock waterfall. We found out that we would be horrible gamblers. Not because we don't have good sense, but because we have no clue how to play the slots. I didn't know there was an art. Apparently I need to read some directions somewhere because I had no clue what was going on.



Another thing I learned, Mesquite is pretty much Vegas for the 70+ crowd. It isn't as far as Vegas, and is a lot cheaper. You know you are hardcore if you are playing the slots in Mesquite on a Monday night. There were lots of older people just zoned out with their game card around their neck, and a cigarette in the other, poised over ashtrays already filled with butts. Classy place.

Ross and I got hot chocolate before going to bed, because there wasn't much else to do in that place.

The next day we hit the road pretty early. We pretty much went straight through. Ross even got the opportunity to drive the Jag! Favorite status immediately granted.

Whole lotta nothing on the road.

We headed to my grandparent's cabin to check on a few things. My grandpa doing the rounds with Ross, and me chilling with my grandma checking out the critters hanging around.

After that we headed to my parent's house. It was fun to be able to see them again. I hadn't been home since I surprised my mom for her birthday, though in fairness, they came up for the Fourth of July. 

And of course I can't forget how much I missed this lovable lump of fur. 

The road trip is over, and apartment hunting starts tomorrow!