Winter Wonderland in Chicago

A Christmas Date

Ice skating at Millenium Park.

Macy's Toy Store Window on State Street.

Drinking an awful, awful, AWFUL German drink. Gross. Gross and Gross. At the German market off Randolph Street.

Stuffing my face with delectible bratwarst with suarkraut (sp?). Below, Matt stuffing his. It was delicious. Made up for the nasty drink above.

Winter officially is here

View from my office window. It is colder then the Antarctica.

maybe i did see new moon at midnight

maybe i did see new moon at 12 a.m. on opening night with mandy and amanda.

and maybe i loved it.

and maybe i can't wait to see it again.

and maybe i don't care what critics say.

and maybe amanda did pick up special edition new moon sweethearts and chocolates specifically for the movie.

and maybe it might have been one of the greatest nights of our lives.

but probably not.

absolutely adore fall

i absolutely adore fall.

crunchy leaves. leaves turning all different colors.

a fun walk downtown with a nice young man.

brunch in chicago at grand lux cafe with girlfriends, gretch and amanda, and boyfriend, matt, and a lovely smoothie (amanda and gretch not pictured here, unfortunately).

Dear Hippie Shower Head Attachment,

I very much appreciate all your efforts to be a sustainable fixture in our household as you attempt to help all three of us girls become more green and water efficient. But, can I be completely honest? I hate you. Somehow, you being attached to our shower head is supposed to help us consume less water in the shower. I think that's great. I'm all about using less water. However, I really look forward to my showers. I really like water pressure. It is comforting, relaxing and clean. I really like all three of those things. You just drip on me. And I don't even know where you came from really. All I know is that one day I was looking forward to a soothing shower after a long, hard day's work and you were there. I have tried to remove you, but you will not budge. I don't even know your name. And I don't care to know it. I just want you gone. Please leave.

Not Yours Truly,

Angelica

my brush with fame and fortune

so the other day i was in the slc airport. calling matt. when all of a sudden a i see a very familiar person walking towards me.

elder dallin h. oaks. he is just as regal and handsome in real person as he is via satellite. we didn't talk. he just passed by. all i could do was stare. we made eye contact. he smiled. and i think i was so stunned i just kept staring.

on friday, i got back from my first, official business trip. i was in houston for a client conference, attended by foreign and national business leaders and dignitaries. we stayed at the houstonian hotel. this is how posh it is.

when you walk in the lobby

when you walk in my room after two crazy days

after a beautiful, beautiful five-hour night's sleep that i wish could have lasted forever. it felt like i was sleeping on a cloud.

when you walk out of the hotel room.

really though. thank goodness i'm a simple, midwestern girl at heart.

grabbing a hot dog with matt at kojak's.

Eat Me Daily

Presently, I am at my desk in my office at work. Eating a slice of delicious Lou Manati's vegetable deep dish pizza leftover from a client visit yesterday. The goal was to write a few e-mails in between taking some of bites of bliss, but instead I procrastinated the e-mails and decided to surf the net. I started by checking my gmail, glancing through my friend's g-chat statuses. One friend always has great statuses complete with a funny/interesting news link. So naturally I checked his out first. And oh boy am I glad I did. You see, I have never had the privilege of seeing a Japanese Water Noodle Slide before. Please note how happy this cute family looks in the picture below. If this noodle slide can bring a smile like that to a face, I wouldn't be surprised if these are the hot ticket item this holiday season. Only $118 USD according to www.eatmedaily.com.

What has been going on

Whirlwind. Are you ready?

Labor Day weekend. Went to Utah to visit my boy-f Matt, my BF Mel and her cute little girls London and Brea. Please see the cutest pictures below for evidence.

Matt and I spent most of the weekend at his aunt and uncle's cabin in Brianhead, UT. Mountain biking, watching movies, eating and hiking in Zion's National Park. It was my first time mountain biking and like a pro I ate it going 30 miles an hour. I have bruises and scrapes to prove it. So fun.

And then this past Friday. We had a Cousin's Party at my place. Rock Band was the main highlight of the evening. So was fitting seven of us in my Toyota Camry.

Saturday night I went to an ice skating show. With my sisters and mom. Skate for the Heart. Sasha Cohen is in the picture below. I LOVE her. Love. The show will actually air on NBC January 31. Please look for me. I am the girl at the very back, top row in the dark.

A Tribute to Summer 2009.

I know, I know, I know.

A little MIA in the blogging world as of late.

My summer has been SO, SO, SO jam packed.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. So a video must be worth what - a million.

I am sad to see summer come to an end. It was such a fun one.

Here is my tribute.To both summer and LFO.

Enjoy.

News

This is Matt.

We're dating.

He is great. 

We have fun.

More to follow soon!

Can you find us?

My old mission comp, Emily Eland, who I will always and forever refer to as Sister Eland, visited me this weekend. We had a blast. We went down to Nauvoo, saw the pageant, went to the temple, toured Chicago, ate pizza at Uno's, got a hot dog at Millennium Park, tried Asian Nachos at Grand Lux Cafe, had Sunday dinner with my family in the burbs and of course did what we do best....Lot's and lot's of shopping.

Here we are trying on hats in Nordstrom's. Can you find us? Hint: Look in the mirror.

Today I learned I am Epic

I turned 25 two weeks ago. Below is the cake my family used to celebrate.

You may think they did this as a joke. My family is not that funny. Actually, my mom didn't have a #2 candle. So, she said, "You know that 1+1=2, right?" So please keep this formula in mind when you stare at this picture. I am not 115 years old. Yet.

That evening Amanda threw me a surprise birthday party. It was so nice. Best friends are the best. And the cake was so good with exactly 25 candles on it.

Despite all of this. I still felt a tad...well quarter of a century. Because of my career in PR, I am very conscious of the fact that retailers, marketers and advertisers now lump me in the demographic of - single female between ages of 25-30.

Today, however, I learned something that changed my whole mindset of my age.

Today I learned my age is Epic. Just so we're all on the same page as to the definition of Epic, dictionary.com attaches the following synonyms to the word: Heroic, Majestic, Impressively Great.

Today, I attended a Web Writing Seminar on behalf of my firm.

Great seminar. Very useful.

The instructor shared the following stats in regards to generations and how marketers, advertisers and retailers like to clump them:

Baby boomers

People between ages of 45-62. There are 80 million of them.

Gen X

Ages 30-43. There are 44 million in the world today.

Gen Y
Ages 10-29. 77 million of us going strong. (love this demographic)

And do you know what marketers, advertisers, retailers think of us Gen Yers? According to my Web Writing Seminar they think we are: Epic, Awesome and Technological. And they think everyone wants to be us because we are Epic, Awesome and Technological. Everyone is basing what they do on the Web to revolve around US. So when your mother told you the world does not revolve around you. She was wrong. It really does. Why? Because you're Epic, or in other words Heroic, Majestic, Impressively Great. That's why.

Whatever gets me through it.

A Breakout Star - Top 10 Michael Jackson Moments - TIME

My favorite Michael Jackson moment.

A Breakout Star - Top 10 Michael Jackson Moments - TIME

Shared via AddThis

Last night we had a memorial service in his honor. Dance party straight MJ.

Got a little emotional during Man in the Mirror. My second favorite song.

RIP.

Kinda Crazy

I love having a map at the bottom of the page that shows all the visits to my blog. It makes me feel so much more connected with the world. Exhibit A: According to my map stats I had 1-9 visits from South Korea. How international.

Saturday night, I was treated to dinner and a late evening of entertainment at Howl at the Moon, a dueling piano bar (way fun).

Dinner. Here is a direct description and photo of the dinning experience we had straight from the restuarant Web site. So posh:

"Vivo is a sleek, chic Italian restuarant with simple, therefore beautiful food. Opening fifteen years ago, it is easy to see why it is still a trendsetter. Requested weeks in advance, Vivo boasts the most exclusive and romantic table in Chicago which has been seen by the likes of Michael Jordan and Oprah Winfrey."



Now, I did not see Jordan or Oprah. But, I did see my office building's janitor. A little random. It was one of those our eyes met but quickly broke connection. Zero acknowledgement. But, we knew, we knew. In all fairness, he looked away frist. Monday morning, I step on the elevator and who is there? The only person there? The janitor. He looked up at the elevator ceiling and I looked directly at the button I had to press to go to my floor. Complete silence. I stepped off. And I haven't seen him since.

Fishing in Colorado

Once upon a time I was a missionary in Baytown, Texas. I had a companion named Emily Eland. It was Christmas Day and she opened a package from her family. It made her miss them. They lived in Colorado. She said one of the things she missed the most was fishing in Estes Park. She said to me, "You need to come fishing in Estes Park." Two yearsish later. Here we are. 

St. Mary's Lake. The prime fishing location in Estes Park.

I woke up the first day of our fishing trip and looked out over this. Breathtaking.

Every good fishing trip must begin with a trip to the doughnut shop. No?

Every good fisherman knows being relaxed and taking your time is very important. So Em and I did this very thing. 
And I thought I caught one. But, it was a false alarm.

But, then a little bit later, I actually did. 

I was excited. 
But, the rest of Em's fam caught waaaay more. 

And then we sat around and waited somewhere. I had a good book, good company, good red vines, good hot, spicy cheetos. It was great. 

And then I somehow caught another one. Kind of. 

See here. 
Post fishing we found a Texas classic. Blue bell ice cream. Mmmmm. 

I loved this store. We did LOTS of shopping.

Las chicas.

My old companion. So man good memories. Wonderful moments with this girl. Somedays we thought we would never not be missionaries. Now we only wish we were again.

Okay. This next part is spooky. You know The Shining by Stephen King? Well we went to the hotel where Stephen wrote it. This very room above in fact. Apparently one time Jim Carrey once stayed there and left in a hurry after 10 minutes. It's haunted. 

There's ghosts on this staircase. Apparently. You just can't see them. Or can you? Let me know. 

Doesn't it just look like the perfect place for a spooky story?

Right now they are holding the hands of two little girls. They are ghosts. Hence why you can't see them. 

More ghosts I guess. 

And more. 
See the people at the end of the hallway? No not ghosts. But, they're about to have a little race with them. No joke.

The door knob to the Stanley hotel. And haunted place. 

The entrance. 
This cave may be haunted.

I LOVE Colorado and Estes Park.
Best dam store I've ever been to.