Muppets, Makeouts, and Minions

It has been said that good things happen in threes. (Bad things too, but let's ignore that.) This last weekend, I can name at LEAST three good things that happened to me! Let's go in order:

1. Three sisters reunited. Nicool came to visit! She is the third child in our family and also my third-favorite sibling. Haha just kidding....I could never have a favorite since they are all way too awesome! Anyway, she got here on Friday afternoon. Since we met up on campus, we had to walk by the HFAC on the way back to my apartment and took an impromptu trip to the art exhibit.

I took some pictures of Nicole there, but they aren't on facebook so what can ya do. We then started walking back to my humble abode. It wasn't awkward at all when we ran into this boy Nicole really wanted to set me up on a date with on the way back to said abode....

2. Three-course meal. We met up with Kelly just before getting to my abode at the finest dining corner in all of Provo. There we introduced Nicool (the foreigner) to the local cuisine with a delicious dinner of one J-dawg, one savory crepe, and one sweet crepe. It is fun eating with two sisters because you get more variety in your meal and because it is fun eating with your sisters!

3. Three-game win. The Cougars faced the Tigers in volleyball this weekend, and we were privileged to be in attendance for two of the three games won by the Cougars. We cheered and danced around. I love when volleyballers are scrappy, and the Cougars were very scrappy. I was digging all the digs. (It's fine if you groaned when you read that....)

The caption for this picture says: "The BYU men's volleyball team is back and ready for action in 2012." I, too, am back and ready for action, so it was just a great time had by all.

4. Three-year-old fans. Cosmo the Cougar is probably the same hotness as the volleyball team. Nicole was overcome when she saw him. She screamed about how she needed a picture with him and ran over, smile and camera ready. The people gathered around Cosmo saw her coming - at least, the lucky ones did. They saw the passion in her eyes. They knew they needed to evacuate. I didn't get a picture, but one of them looked kind of like this little girl:

She was one of the lucky ones. The rest were pushed unceremoniously out of the way as Nicole elbowed her way to Cosmo as if it was Black Friday and he was a $129.99 flat-screen TV. Cosmo turned to Nicole. It was a magical moment when their eyes met. Cosmo dropped to the ground and said:

"Hey."

Nicole couldn't respond. Cosmo stood up and gave her a hug. I got the camera ready and looked up just in time to see Cosmo kissing my sister. Verrrrry passionately. !!!!! Welcome to Utah, Nicole :)

The happy couple calmed down long enough for me to take this picture:

And then DahlPal took one with Kelly and me, too.

5. Three-sister couch. Three sisters sitting on a couch watching Surf's Up can turn into three sisters with their legs draped all over each other and insisting that The Husband take a picture of their cuteness.

And that was just Day 1 of our awesome weekend! Stay tuned for muppets and minions.....and much, much more :)

Creepers in Idaho

do exist. I met several of them in Idaho Falls after the fireworks.

Here was my situation:

-armed with about 1/8 of a phone. (It randomly broke on Monday morning. Still do not understand why. I could still call some of my speed dials and answer some calls, but couldn't see anything on the screen.)

-I had made it made it to Idaho Falls by finding my friend Sean's number on facebook, calling him from Nicole's phone, having him call his roommate, who then called me, and then gave me a ride to Idaho Falls.

-I was planning on getting back to Utah by way of Ride Boy, who was also going to be at Idaho Falls for the fireworks.

-Nicole didn't go with me to the IF fireworks.

-I did, however, find Olivia and hung out with her ward. We played Uno, walked around looking at the food, and then went back to Sean's car to get my stuff, since Olivia's spot was closer to the Phillips 66 gas station we were going to be meeting up at.

So to summarize, after the fireworks when I split from Olivia and her group, I found myself walking all alone through the business district of downtown IF, carrying my backpack, purse, and a lunchbox, unable to contact anyone on my phone. You can accuse me of being addicted to my phone, and I won't even argue. I kind of am. So I was a little nervous.

Especially when I reached the end of the business district (the road dead-ended at a museum) and I still had seen no sign of the Phillips 66 gas station or the Olive Garden it was supposedly next to. I stood on the street corner, shifting my weight from one foot to the other, trying not to look too lost or vulnerable.

The police officer directing traffic looked at me inquisitively, ready to stop traffic in whichever direction I wanted to go, but I shook my head and shrank away from the curb. I called Nicole, who called Ride Boy, who called me. We figured out that he had told me the wrong way to go, and I started walking back along the same street.

Here are some of the unsavory characters I encountered during my trek:

1. the longboarders with colorful mohawks who were smoking behind the portapotties and called out to me as I passed. Did they think I was somehow similar to them in any way?? Because I do not.

2. the policeman who leered at me as I crossed the street and said, "Be careful, it's dangerous," with a wink. .....Ew. That's not in your job description. I just said "yeah, thanks" because I think he's the kind of officer who would let you off with a warning if he pulled you over and you were cute enough.

3. the (intoxicated?) hicks who honked at me for a solid 30 seconds and then practically fell out of their ridiculously jacked-up pickup truck laughing.

4. the car full of boys who rolled down their windows when their car got close to me and called out, "hey, pretty!" "Dude, she's a lady." "Hey lady, do you need someone to carry your backpack?" "I'll carry your backpack..." "Is that a euphemism?" "Dude, you sound like a creeper right now." I actually think I would have thought they were funny under any other circumstances, but I just shook my head and said, "no thanks," and kept walking.

Here are some of the savory ones I met:

1. The cute family who told me which way I-15 was from the museum.

2. Yep.

By the time I got to the Phillips 66 gas station, I thought I was going to cry with relief when I saw Ride Boy's (kind of) familiar face. He smiled at me as I approached his car and said, "Garhett. That was like, a freaking creeper-fest!"

"Oh man," he said mildly, taking my backpack. "I'm sorry about that, getting you lost and everything."

I waved his apology aside. I really couldn't have asked for a better Ride Boy. We left the gas station ten minutes later and arrived in Salt Lake in under 3 hours.

Shut up and Drive

When I was little, I was told never to get into a car with a stranger. I used to be really obedient to this rule. But this weekend, I discovered the ride board.

I decided kind of last minute that I was going to spend my 4th of July weekend in Rexburg with Nicole and my friends at BYU-Idaho. I started looking into how I could get there and found that the Salt Lake Express could get me there for only $54 each way! .......Yeah no thanks.

I tried the ride board at BYU, but everyone I txtd was full. So Alyssa looked on the BYU-Idaho ride board and found me a ride! It was a guy who was going up to BYU-I from Salt Lake to visit his girlfriend. And he still had room in his car.

Even after (I'll admit it) facebook stalking him to make sure he wasn't a creeper, I had my doubts. Facebook doesn't tell you everything. What if he smiled nauseatingly and said everything as an exclamation and expected me to be enthusiastically engaged in conversation the whole way? Suppose he only liked screamo and I arrived in Idaho half-deaf and crying?

Then again, what if he was normal, but his car was a total piece and we barely crossed the state line before it broke down? I imagined standing outside in the rain, sniffling under an umbrella as the ride board mystery man tried and failed to fix the problem. Eventually he would give up and thrust me into the road, hoping that someone driving by would take pity on me and give us a ride the rest of the way. But then....what if that person was even worse than he?

Besides that, I had no idea who the other passengers would be, and I had no way of facebook stalking them. I'm not thattt good. Thus, I was plagued by visions of smelly co-passengers who sang along to the radio off-key, or fell asleep with their heads lolling around on my shoulder as they drooled on me.

This was, thankfully, far from the reality. All my ride buddies were refreshingly normal, charmingly witty, and low-maintenance. I spent the first two hours of the trip deliriously happy with my good fortune. I was this close to pledging my allegiance to Garhett - the pleasantly tanned, 80mph driver with a firm handshake and good taste in music - and never accepting a ride from anyone else, when one of the girls said that she'd actually never had a bad experience with the ride board.

So apparently my fears were irrational, but I was still relieved.