Olympic Thoughts

Olympics, once again I cannot stop watching you. Here are some of my thoughts after being glued to the TV for the past week and a half...

The U.S. freestyle skiing uniforms:

(Image from http://www.kansascity.com/495/story/1747246.html)

Come on America. Can't you come up with a uniform that doesn't look like the pajama set I owned in the 3rd grade?

Vancounver's medal stands:

(Image from http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancouver/blog/fourth_place_medal?pg=8)

Canada, I know you've gotta make budget cuts somewhere, but did you really have to make the medal stands out of cardboard?

Luge, bobsled, and skeleton:

(Image from http://www.ocw.cn/NR/rdonlyres/Global/2/2166AC8C-6DFF-41CC-A6D5-A1183C12D0D7/0/chp_bobsled.jpg)

Ok, so sue me - I have a hard time watching these events, mostly because I have a hard time telling how each person stacks up against each other. However, I came up with something that could make them a heck of a lot more entertaining - stick two competing lugers, boblsedders, skeletoners (wow I made up three words!) in the lane next to each other, then let 'er rip. Maybe for safety purposes they could put up a divider to form two separate lanes, but srsly, way more entertaining.

Bahhhhston

Things we learned in Boston:

1. There are no blondes in Boston. As Annie would say, "We're a national treasure."

2. Never, ever, try driving in Boston unless you have a GPS. And even then, don't believe it all the time.

3. Do whatever you can to get tickets to the BSO, just so you can see James Levine's happy feet.

4. Elliott Carter is 101 and he is STILL composing. What?!!?!

5. If you ever get sick, call Annie freakin' Elmer. She will make you homemade chicken noodle soup. What a star.

6. Boston has weirdly-named restaurants that you can't remember, like Zaffie's and Birdy's...or something.. But they're good.

7. Don't go to Boston in February.

8. I want a Neti Pot.

2009: Year of the Swine (Flu)

Well guys, it's official. I am the worst blogger ever. But to make it up to you, I give you 2009: A Year in Review (Nibley-Style).

January: Angie and Lulu came to visit and we celebrated Lulu's birthday. All I remember is her reaction to her presents - "OH MY GOODNESS!!!"

(She definitely takes after her grandmother.)

February: I can't remember a single thing about this month. February's a crappy month anyway. Moving on.

March: I played my senior recital! Halleluiah! And Joe played on it.

Pumps of Justice.

April: Joe and I took a trip to University of Michigan to take lessons with the bassoon and trumpet teachers, get to know the campus, etc. It was awesome and we had a great time staying with our friends the Bergmans!

May: This month was all over the place! We went to University of Maryland to take lessons with the bassoon and trumpet teachers and got spoiled rotten staying with my parents in Ashburn. Also, we went on a week-long tour to Oregon with the chamber orchestra, I took a trip to New York for my Grandpa Killian's funeral, and I got called as Relief Society secretary! Insanity.

Outside U of MD's School of Music. Uber-cute!

Beautiful view of the Oregon coast. I love that place! So many hippies.

June: I got my second gum graft, Joe and I had a great time working as Summerfest counselors (and got to eat at the Morris Center for a week...delicious?), celebrated my 22nd birthday, we celebrated our first anniversary (I roadtripped to Boise with SSASS for Sister Weiner's farewell...worst wife ever), and most importantly I discovered the greatest baboon who ever lived - Jackie.

Delicious.

"I am Lars, your new friend and counselor!"

We miss Sister Weiner!!

July: We went to the American Idol concert! I am still verklempt.

August: I graduated with all that I could've asked for from BYU - a degree and a cute husband.

Yah, I graduated - no big deal, vhatever.

September: Back to school! I started my Master's degree at BYU and realized that being a grad student is freaking awesome (perks include free donuts and bagels on Thursdays, primo parking, and convincing the freshmen bassoonists to take us out to lunch with their Dining Plus cards in exchange for our sage knowledge). Joe started his last year of his undergrad. Good times all around. Also, Angie and Lulu flew out and we went to the zoo. Highlight of my life.


October: Halloween! We went to Denny's and bowled in costume with other married couples. We are cool, I know.

From L to R: A pencil, a pregnant woman, vampires, Albert Einstein, a black woman (only in Utah could you dress up as a black person and not get shot), and a slumber party.

It has been proven that cigar smoking can improve your bowling score.

November: Thanksgiving! We stuffed ourselves silly at Joe's dad's and made a gingerbread house with the girls. Also, we auditioned at ASU and enjoyed the sunny warm weather for a couple days. It was pretty depressing coming back to the snow in Utah and realizing we still had 3+ months of winter hell to endure.


December: Joe, Sarah, and I headed to Virginia for Christmas break for a Smith Family Christmas. We enjoyed the down-time and basically did...nothing. We spent about 90% of our time looking up Bruno clips on youtube. Ach-ja!

(Picture taken from http://www.aceshowbiz.com/images/news/00023573.jpg)
Uber cute!

We also did a little shopping. Joe had fun.

And here we are now, in 2010! Joe and I are embarking on our grad school auditions...we'll be hitting five different schools in the next two months. Insanity!! I'll keep you posted. Maybe.

Promise me.

One day when I have kids, promise me that if I ever...

1) Blog about my kids' bodily functions (poop, pee, barf...really anything)
2) Narrate my blog as my kid "Today my Mommy gave me rice cereal and I gobbled it alllll up!! YUMMY!!"
3) Post a picture of my "positive" pee stick on my blog

...you'll punch me in the face. Ok? Ok.

(DISCLAIMER: This is in NO WAY hinting that I am pregnant. Don't even think about it.)

Where have I been all your life?!?

Well friends, it's taken me ten years, but I'm finally posting. Sorry for kind of dropping off the face of the earth!!! I suck.

Anyway, I've had all kinds of ideas for blog posts over the past (three) months, but I've forgotten all of them. So I'm going to take a moment and reminisce on the summer and get you alllll caught up to where we are now.

This summer we...
-Went to the University of Michigan to take lessons and got to know the trumpet and bassoon teachers there. Had a good time. We'd never been to Michigan before, so we checked a new state off our list.
-Went on tour with the BYU chamber orchestra to the Oregon coast. Another state checked off. Enjoyed being the Bus Fun officianados/reinstating the Katie and Joe Talk Show.
-[I] went to New York for my Grandpa Killian's funeral.
-Went to the University of Maryland to check out their teachers. Also had a good time and were amazed by their impressive brand-spanking-new fine arts building (complete with coded practice rooms! Oh baby.)
-In the process, stayed in Ashburn with the Nance and Randinator. We were spoiled rotten and gorged ourselves on Mom Smith's culinary delights.
-[I] had my second and hopefully last gum graft. FUN!
-Worked as Summerfest counselors for the second year in a row. Best. Job. Ever.
-In the process, ate at the Morris Center for a week straight.
-Went to the American Idol concert for my birthday present. You read the posts. Enough said about that.
-Dropped off Sister Weiner at the MTC. Saddest day of my LIFE!
-[I] took my very last GE's during summer semester. For a few weeks, I was convinced I wanted to be an anthropologist and live among the African Bushmen. Then I realized I'd have to live among the African Bushmen. Drinking blood to hydrate onesself = not enticing.
-[Joe] worked hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours as a performance librarian.
-[I] worked not so many hours at BYU Independent Study.
-[I] went on a crash diet a week before graduation in an attempt to look good in my graduation (tent) gown. It consisted of only two foods - celery and peanut butter. It lasted seven hours. I good food poisoning from some dirty celery. The end.
-[I] graduated with the two things I wanted out of BYU - a degree and a husband (and a dang cute one at that!)
-[I] quit Independent Study. After one year of working there, I abandoned my life as an office lady in favor of teaching some undergraduate music classes. Just give me a tweed jacket and call me Professor Nibley!

Which brings us to...now! Joe and I are busy working on graduate applications, practicing our guts out, and still trying to keep it awesome in the process. Joe is also crazy and has his senior recital coming up in just a few weeks!

Sorry for the somewhat boring play-by-play, but I felt it was necessary after my long absence. More entertaining posts to come!

Behold, the smooth pits.

You guys, this is my LAST post about the American Idol concert. I promise. Cross my heart. I swear upon Adam Lambert's baby-soft armpits.

BUT.

I found raw footage of Glambert's performance in Salt Lake, featuring THE PITS. Up close and personal. Yes, I know this is your dream come true. Yes, I know you probably never thought you'd be able to experience it (except vicariously through my previous post, complete with fuzzy, low-quality pictures). And yes, even I never thought I'd see it again, except when I replayed it in my mind as I fell asleep every night [creeper alert]. But now, you too can view the silky-smooth armpits, just as I did on that fateful night. I decided the only thing that would make them better is if he glued rhinestones to them. That glamazon would be unstoppable.

Annie, if you have made it through this whole post and the video without either of them invoking some kind of gag-reflex...well, you deserve a prize.

I would also like to point out that approximately 50% of the screaming you hear in the background was probably me. The other half was Brooke.

An addendum.

For some far, far better pictures of the American Idol concert than my own, go here. Thanks, Yahoo. My personal favorite? Number four. Just read the caption.