What Not To Wear

Although I almost never watch television these days, I do have one show I watch anytime I can— TLC’s “What Not To Wear.” I relate on a deep level to those girls who can’t seem to put together an outfit and are frustrated with a body that clothes just don’t seem to fit right.

So, last summer when my boss asked me and my co-worker Kelsey what kind of incentive we wanted to complete an enormous training project, I convinced Kelsey that what we really wanted a What Not To Wear shopping spree with my sister Anna acting as Stacy and Clinton.



This took a little longer than initially anticipated as we worked to get down to a
size we wanted to buy clothes for, but in April we were finally ready. I did some pre-shopping in Park City and came home completely depressed because none of the new styles looked good on me.



Enter Anna and her magic.

She’d been collecting coupons and analyzing my existing wardrobe for months, and called me one day saying the sales were on and she’d already had clothes on hold for me at the mall. I took an early lunch and met her there. As I tried on the stacks of clothes she had waiting for me and looked in the mirror, I gasped . I was stunning! She chose exactly the right styles and colors and put them together like a work of art. We’d go through stores and she would run her fingers through the racks of clothes and come up with the perfection. And she did the same thing for Kelsey.



This went on for several days. One of those days, Anna had to bring all 4 of her boys (5 and under) with her. My co-worker and I would take turns entertaining the boys in the dressing room or playing hide and seek in the shoe store while the other tried on and got the approval nod or disapproval shake from Anna. Another day, we brought our entire closets to her house, tried on every piece of clothing we owned, and she told us what we had to get rid of. I could tell that there were things she’d been dying to have me get rid of by the look of satisfaction on her face when they hit the discard pile.

The whole thing was like a college-level education in fashion merchandizing with classes in ensemble, the rules of shoes (my worst subject) and what you should and shouldn’t match. I was one of the most purely fun experiences of my life and I’m so grateful to have such a talented and giving sister. Everyone I told about it wished they had an Anna!

More Race Pictures!

The Cursed Race

When I was offered the chance to run the Wasatch Back (a 178 mile relay race from Logan to Park City with a team of 12 people) at no cost, I thought, “What could be the downside to that?”

That was before I realized that this particular race was cursed.

The opportunity came through work, and as the captain, I originally had my co-workers signed up and ready to go. The curse began as, one by one, they dropped out for various and sundry reasons (which were mostly medical and all valid) and their replacements continued to drop out up until two days before the race.

Add to this major issues with providing volunteers, online registration breakdowns, transportation miscommunications (we almost didn’t have cars to run this race) and the whole experience was topped off by me locking myself out of my condo the night before. Ohhhh, I positively hated this race! Usually when so many things go wrong, I figure it’s just not meant to be (especially when it’s supposed to be for fun) and let it go, but to my surprise and chagrin, this experience somehow kept saving itself.

But once we got safely off the starting line, the whole thing became a fabulous adventure. We all ran 3 legs of 5-8 miles ranging from easy to extremely difficult—riding along in the car and giving water breaks and cheering each other on when it wasn’t our turn.



Our van had me, my one co-worker, my sister, and my nephew and two of his cross-country friends. Our cross-country kids were incredibly inspiring—we could barely keep up with them in the car for their water breaks (we had to throw out their water to them from the car at times) and watching them sprint up and down mammoth canyons was amazing. We had people along the route spraying us with water, throwing candy into our car, and my sister crossed one exchange point with a popsicle in her hand! :)

My nephew got really sick (heat exhaustion) and started throwing up, but was able to pull it out and finish his legs. My co-worker found out later she ran her last leg on a hairline fracture—and did it in really good time!

We ran into the night with headlamps and reflective vests and had to call out to identify each other. It was so odd being at these remote locations in the middle of the night with hundreds of other people. At 12:00 a.m. we went to one of the break areas where they’d laid down wrestling mats on a school gym floor for us to sleep on. As I walked in and saw the huddled masses beneath their blankets, I suddenly felt like a Katrina victim!

In the end, our team crossed our finish line almost 24 hours later, all in one piece and feeling very happy. And no, I’m not planning on doing it again next year!

Disney Princess

You Are Aurora! (A.K.A. Sleeping Beauty.)

Thoughtful and loving. Authority figures probably have been sheltering you all of your life. Thankfully you're a very tranquil person who is content with what life has given you, but secretly you want to know how the outside world works.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

Done

I'm grateful, incredulous, and supremely relieved to announce that the book is done.

When Jared and I drove up to Salt Lake to pick up the boxes of books, he asked me if it felt like an anticlimax. I responded that of course it was, but I didn't care. It was done!

When my co-worker and friend said we needed to go and celebrate, I picked up a copy and said, "I don't need a party or a bonus or anything. This is enough!"

That said, it has been very fun to have family and friends call telling me they just finished reading it and to be able to talk to them about it.

I'm very grateful to all the amazing people in my life who contributed offically or unoffically to this moment (which sounds a little Academy Award-ish but I really mean it).

Did I mention that I was really happy about this?

Stranger Than Fiction

Have you ever had an experience that made you feel like you just
stepped into a movie script? I had one the other day in my parent’s
storage room.

Backstory

One of the reviewers of the play I directed surmised by my having the
same last name as my brother (the playwright) that I was single. He
put a line into the review pretty much asking for my number. Which
was funny because he didn’t even know what I looked like—he was
apparently just mesmerized by my amazing directorial abilities!
My brother didn’t know him very well and wasn’t sure he was my type
anyway, so feeling protective of me, he put him off.

Fast-forward several months.

I stopped by my parent's house to get something out of storage. My
brother (who lives in their basement) was having a big game night
with all of his theater friends. I stopped for a second to talk to
some people I knew and noticed another guy at the table was paying
particular attention to our conversation. I went into the storage room,
and started digging through my stuff when I distinctly heard this guy
(who obviously didn’t realize I was in the next room) ask the
other people if I was my brother's sister.

I froze, and listened in astonishment as he proceeded to tell them
how he begged my brother to give him my email and how he wouldn't.
Then he started planning his strategy, “If she comes back down here—
I’m going to get her number.”

Yikes! Doesn't stuff like that only happen in movies?

I had no idea what to do. It would embarrass him to walk back out
and I would be totally uncomfortable if someone I didn’t know
asked me out in front of a whole group of people. There was no other
way out of the house (although I briefly did consider the window :))
so I just worked up my courage to eventually go back out and brazen
it out. My admirer apparently choked when faced with reality and I
quickly escaped into the other room.

The funny thing is that if I’d have seen that scene in a movie, I
would’ve made fun of it as completely unrealistic!

Book Jacket Photo Shoot

Jared and I enlisted the services of our very talented younger sister Naoma to take our official "author" pictures for the dust jacket of the book. Luckily, I had my braces taken off in the nick of time--1 week before these pictures were taken. I'm not normally a fan of my own photos, so it says a lot that I really liked most of the pictures Naoma took. This blog only will let me upload a limited amount--so I chose some favorites to share.