Books > Real Life

So I finished reading Breaking Dawn last night -- and now I don't know what to do with myself. I literally spent the last two days sitting on my couch devouring this book, only taking breaks to eat and go to the bathroom. I pre-ordered my book on Amazon, being the deal-loving gal that I am. I thought my book would arrive on August 2nd, the same day everyone else was getting there book....but nooooo mine didn't arrive at my doorstep until August 5th at approximately 3pm. I almost attacked the UPS guy when he finally brought me my book. After I got my book I was totally useless until I finished it because my life could not go on until I knew the fate of Bella, Edward, and Jacob.

Now the real point of this post is not to pontificate about my hopeless devotion to the Twilight saga and Stephenie Meyer's amazing writing -- the point of this post is for me to talk about my devotion to any book I read. Whenever I get a new book I can barely put the thing down. It's not like I'm even reading anything that intellectually stimulating -- I tend to stick to lighthearted chick-lit most of the time. (I've read the entire Shopaholic series at least four times. Sad...I know) I get so into what I'm reading and I get lost in the world that the characters live in. For however long that I'm reading a book I become a part of that world.

For the most part when I finish a book I just move on to a new book that same day or the next and get lost in yet another world of fictional characters. However, when I'm reading something particularly fabulous, say Harry Potter or Twilight, I'm kind of a mess for a few days after I finish the book. It's not like I lay in bed all day with the covers over my head, sobbing over the fact that my book is finished -- it's more of a feeling that I'm still stuck in that book world and reality just isn't quite as interesting.

What I'm wondering is if anyone else ever feels this way -- or am I just completely crazy?

My obsession with books always reminds me of this line from You've Got Mail when Meg Ryan is writing one of her adorablely insightful emails to Tom Hanks.

"Sometimes I wonder about my life. I lead a small life. Well, not small, but valuable. And sometimes I wonder, do I do it because I like it, or because I haven't been brave? So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn't it be the other way around? I don't really want an answer. I just want to send this cosmic question out into the void. So good night, dear void."

I totally understand how she feels! I'm not complaining about my life or anything, I'm extremely blessed and have a great life...but isn't life always so much cooler in books? And maybe like Kathleen Kelly I don't really want answers to any of the questions I've posed in this post. Rather I'd just like to see if anyone else feels the way I do about reading. So get to commenting my dear friends.

Leggings + Bandanas + Diet Coke with Raspberry and Lime + Red Vines = Crazy Delicious (I think that's how the songs goes...)

Last Friday night at about 8:00 pm MST, Anne and I had absolutely no plans -- because that is just the kind of girls we are (the kind who have nothing to do on a Friday night). So we thought we would try and better ourselves in order to attract more Friday night fun by going running...but first I decided to rent Provo's favorite movie...(according to the people who work at Blockbuster)...the heartwarming story of a girl born with a pig nose who comes to love herself and finds a way to break the curse that gave her a snout and weird little flappy pig ears.

After going to two different Blockbusters I finally returned home triumphant, with my DVD of choice in hand. Then Anne and I decided that we didn't really want to go running and that we would rather just go to Maverick and get Diet Coke.

As we were getting ready to leave the house I said to Anne:

"Anne, if we are going to be uber-cool blogging girls from now own we really need to spice up our weekends. I propose we start having THEME nights."

Anne responded:

"Kaitlyn, I think that is a grand idea! What should our theme be tonight?"

And I said:

"Well it's a little too late to have a theme tonight so why don't we just wait until next week."

To which Anne replied:

"It's never to late for a theme night! Let's just think of something!"

Well...since I was already wearing my treasured black Gap Body spandex leggings I suggested that our theme be the ever popular Legging Night! Which, upon the discovery that i had a plethora of colorful bandannas, became...dah dah dah dum..."Legging and Bandanna Theme Night"!

Anne and I were sooo excited! We promptly called our trusty sidekick, Brillante, and informed her that she too had to wear leggings if she were to participate in the evenings activities. Then Anne in I jumped in my truck, turned up "I Kissed A Girl" (which is really the only song you can listen to on a Legging and Bandanna Theme Night) and sang our way over to Brillante's apartment and then on to Maverick!

After picking up some refreshing 32oz Diet Cokes and a $5 bag of Red Vines we jetted back to our apartment for a little pre-movie photo shoot.

So without further ado...ANTM -- Legging and Bandanna Theme Night Style.

Just look at those gorgeous girls all ready for theme night!

Watch out for Brijante!

Ummm...

IV Real!

B-L-O-O-D!!

Apparently holding on to a chair makes your butt look really good...who knew!

I just want to be alone with my Diet Coke.

Caffeine does strange things to Anne...

...and to me

Don't ever get between a girl and her Red Vines!

American Gothic...Maverick Style!

Things got a little wild when we decided to head into the great outdoors...
P.S. Did anyone notice that I suddenly grew a valossa raptor like thumb?

Brillante just had to sit on top of a parked car...

...forcing us to run from the Provo po-po!

But just when we thought we were cornered...

...we busted out our amazing leaping moves!

Which, of course dazzled the po-po into letting us go!

I guess all those years of dance class finally paid off!

And finally the feature presentation!

NYC Whole Foods = Grocery Store Heaven

Is it wrong to have a love affair with a grocery store...because I do. It all began in New York City. One night my friend Allison and I were searching the streets of Manhattan for an affordable dinner option when we stumbled across heaven in a grocery store right in the middle of Columbus Circle. That heaven was called Whole Foods Market and it became one of our favorite places over the next few weeks.

Whole Food lures you in with their free range chicken, organic strawberries, bags made from recycled toilet paper, and of course the $7.99 a pound salad bar! Why would a salad bar elicit so much excitement you ask? Well the Whole Foods salad bar is no ordinary salad bar -- it's row after row of couscous salad, rice, cold pasta, Indian food, soul food, crisp lettuce, fresh baked bread, homemade sandwiches, and the world's best mac and cheese. And it all costs $7.99 a pound! You just grabbed your preferred size of recycled container and load up on whatever you want! Then you stand in line for 20 minutes with all of the other eco-friendly New Yorker's until you can pay for and enjoy your organic rice with a side of orange Vitamin Water (it's all the rage in NYC).

Whole Foods is one of the things I've missed the most since I've left New York -- so how delighted am I to find out that they have one in Park City! And luck would have it I was in Park City with my family this week! So this morning I drag my parents to Whole Foods while espousing the deliciousness of the organic salad bar only to find that the Park City Whole Foods does not have one-tenth of the salad bar that the NYC Whole Foods has. I wanted to sit right down on the recycled floor and cry because I was so disappointed. But luckily I pulled myself together before I had a breakdown and settled for buying a box of all natural frosted shredded wheat, a bag of frozen organic soy beans, and a bottle of un-pasteurized apple juice -- oh and an organic oatmeal raisin cookie the size of my hand.

I guess those purchases will just have to tide me over until I can go back to New York and get my fill of the earth-friendly megastore that is the Columbus Circle Whole Foods...sigh...

Blogs Rock My World

I have a confession to make....in the last week I have become completely, and utterly addicted to blogs. Well, mostly just one blog...

My roommate, Anne, introduced me to a blog that is written by a friend of a friend and we are both totally addicted. I mean, I could spend days reading this girl's blog because she is so dang funny (Anne and I have this secret desire to be her best friend and model our lives after her's...which I guess isn't so secret anymore). My future best friend's name is Allison and her blog is She Blogs, She Blogs.

I knew Allison and I were meant to be when I read her post about Diet Cola -- for anyone who knows me, you will understand after reading this post why Allison and I are indeed best-friend soul-mates.

Alas, in my quest to be just like Allison I've decided I need to start blogging again -- because that is what all ultra-chic girls do. My blog will never be as cool as Allison's but at least it can serve as a creative outlet in my quest to reach my full ab-fab potential sometime in the next decade.

Hopefully someday, someone besides my mom and my grandma will read it....one can only hope.

P.S. To Allison if you ever read this -- I promise I'm not some weirdo, creepy girl. I do have friends who love me despite all of my eccentricities. But your blog speaks to me in a way that no blog ever has or ever will and because of that I find it necessary to publicly declare my love for you and your blogging ways. Live long and blog.

Wednesday, May 14th: Chorus Line - Mario Lopez = So not worth my $35

I decided to skip over Tuesday because it was a totally boring day...but Wednesday was fun. Nothing exciting at work to report on but after work I went with a bunch of the kids from BYU to try and get tickets at the Wicked lottery. All of us were unsuccessful in that venture but we ended up going to dinner at this fun place called Ellen's Stardust Diner. The place has been around forever and is famous for its' singing wait staff. The food is really not that amazing but the atmosphere is what counts. The whole time your eating, the waiters are belting out show tunes. Everybody that works there is trying to get onto Broadway and so halfway through your meal they bring around a collection tin where you can give money to help support the talented waiters. The diner uses that money to pay for singing, acting, or dancing lessons for the members of their staff.

After dinner some of the kids went to see Mamma Mia, but I already seen it so Allison and I decided to go try to get tickets to A Chorus Line. We literally walked up to the box office 20 minutes before the show and ended up getting student rush tickets for $35. Mario Lopez is performing in the show this summer but he was on a short hiatus when we saw it. The show was very well done but it just wasn't my cup of tea. I thought it was set in the 40's but it's actually set in the 70's and is pretty sad a depressing. The first half is pretty funny, but then the rest of the show is mostly monologues and sad songs. It just isn't a very uplifting kind of musical. There aren't any elaborate sets or costumes, and the kick-line (which is what I thought of when saw that Chorus Line was playing) lasts all of about two minutes. I wills say that the actors were very talented but I probably would not recommend this show to anyone.

Sorry I don't have any pics from this day! Allison took them on her camera and I haven't gotten them from her yet.

I heart New York!

Ok guys so because I haven't posted in a week I'm going to give a very brief description of what I've been up to since Monday...

Tuesday:
-Work = boring
-Found out I was supposed to go in early to help with a fashion segment on Wednesday but got a call from the producer saying she didn't need me anymore (yo = muy triste)
-Went shopping with Allison at Anthropoligie and H&M and then to dinner at Chipotle which made the day much better!
-After dinner Allison and I watched Gossip Girl online!! And I totally called it that Serena had killed someone!!!!!! We were freaking out!!!! Love that show!!!

Wednesday:
-Got up a 6am to call my internship supervisor to find out if I could still come in to help with the fashion segment -- found out the first segment had been canceled so I went in at 9am instead and helped with another segment. (If anybody watched the show it was the one about getting your legs ready for summer.)
-Ok funny story -- I was in the green room and the guys walks by me and one of the models for the segment was like "Oh I just saw you on TV!" and the guy was like "Oh actually that was just a video of me playing, I'm about to go sing right now. By the way, I'm Dierks. It's nice to meet you." It was totally Dierks Bentley the country singer! I totally didn't recognize him and he was standing right in front of me! Crazy huh!?!
-Went to a NYC LDS Professionals meeting that night where all the LDS Professionals came and talked to the interns about their experiences in NYC. The meeting was pretty sweet and they gave us some great advice. Only problem was that almost everyone who spoke was in advertising so it got a little boring after a while.
-Oh and I almost forgot that before the meeting Allison, Sarah, and I went to the American Girl Place on 5th Ave and relived our childhoods!! That place is soooo cute!! They even have a restaurant that is all decked out in pink and polka dots and you can apparently get food there for your doll!! Seriously if any girls come to the city who had an American Girl doll when they were little you have to check this place out!

Thursday:
-Work = not too exciting. I just did the normal stuff like logging tape and making dubs.
-I went shopping after work to get a mother's day present for my Mom and my Grandma at Anthropoligie. Also went shopping for myself at H&M and Banana Republic:) and I went and explored Saks. That place is AMAZING!!! Totally waaaaay too expensive but amazing none the less.

Friday:
-Got picked up by a chauffeured car at 6am to take me to work! I have to say I felt very cool driving through the city in a black car with tinted windows. It was very NYC.
-I helped with the Ambush Makeover segment. I didn't actually get to do that much but I got to be in the studio for a while. I did get to see Al Roker, Anne Curry, Kathy Lee, and Hoda Kotb up close which was very cool!! I also saw Mary J. Blige doing her soundcheck! She sounded awesome life!
-That night I went out to dinner with Allison, Sarah, and Jared at this sweet bar-b-que place just a couple of blocks from I-House. It's called Dinosaur Bar-B-Que and the food was really good and not too pricey.
-After dinner we had a surprise b-day party for Christ Cutri, our faculty advisor, and then I went up to the ESPN zone in Time's Square with Allison, Monica, and Tara and watched the Jazz beat the Lakers! Woohoo!

Saturday:
-Left the house at 10am to get Legally Blonde tickets. Allison and I got front row seats for $26.50 with the student rush discount!! For any students coming to NYC this is such an awesome deal! You just have to have your student ID. Check out this website: http://www.talkinbroadway.com/boards/index.php?rush=show for a list of all the shows that do student rush or discounted tickets. It's totally the way to see all the shows.
-Allison and I then went up to 5th ave and explore Bergdorf's which is the coolest looking department store ever. The place is seriously gorgeous! Then we went to Tiffany & Co. and looked at all the amazing jewelry.
-We then met up with a bunch of other BYU kids on Canal Street (which is the place for the all cheap designer knock offs) We walked through SOHO and Little Italy and then had lunch in China Town. My friend Monica speaks chinese so she ordered us lots of yummy food at this chinese restaurant.
-Then we wanted to buy fake designer purses. What an experience! So like everywhere you go in China town there are these little Asian ladies that stop you and are like "You want purses?" and if you say yes they lead you to where they are selling these purses. Monica is an old pro at this so she knew what to do. The first lady she talked to leads us to a van parked on the side of the street and Monica pushes Allison and Tara and I into this van!! The van was full of fake designer purses and this lady was like pushing them at us trying to get us to buy some!! It was seriously crazy!! Then the next lady takes us into this office building and into a room that said "Attorney at Law" on the door to throw off the police. So in this office they have all these purses and there are all these women buying these designer knock offs. It was seriously the weirdest experience. And these Asian ladies are so worried that they are going to get caught cuz it is totally illegal. These purses are like the best knock offs I've ever seen. But what's funny is that if the cops wanted to bust these people it would be totally easy because they are everywhere in China Town. It was seriously an experience to remember!
-After China town we went to Ground Zero and saw the WTC site. They've rebuilt a lot of the surrounding building but they are still working on getting the building up that will replace the two towers. It's really sad to go and look at all the destruction that took place. There was this funny guy there that was telling the story of 9/11 and had all these pictures and he had a bucket around his neck that you could put money in. There were also street vendors that were selling books that told the story. It was sad to see all these people making money off of such a tragedy. It's like you want to hear the story but you don't want people to be profiting off of it.
-We all went to this awesome yogurt place called Pink Berry after ground zero. They have delicious yogurt! It's kind of like Yoasis for those of you back in Provo but a little bit better.
-That night I went and saw Legally Blonde: The Musical and it was sooo cute! The music is really fun and happy and the dancing is great. I would definitely recommend it to anyone!
-After the play Allison and I went to the Carnegie Deli and got cheesecake! Sooo yummy!!

Sunday:
-Just church and relaxation after a long week!

The Fun Continues...

Ok so I guess the last time I wrote was last Thursday so let me update you all on what I've been doing since then...
Friday I went to work of course. It was kind of a boring day. The only interesting thing I did was help one of the producers get some of his b-roll for a segment he's working on. He's doing a segment on like the health of your teeth or something and he needed shots of someone using this Crest mouthwash. So watch the today show for a story on mouthwash and you might see my hand pouring the mouthwash and then my mouth swishing it around.
That night I went to the Museum of Modern Art which I highly recommend to anyone who visits the city! It is seriously awesome!! And the best part is that every Friday from 4pm-8pm the admission is free!! The place is seriously huge. There are six floors full of amazing artwork. I barely saw three floors in 2 hours. A lot of the stuff is a little bit weird but the permanent collections include tons of Andy Warhol, Monet, van Gogh, Picasso, Matisse, Pollack, and about a million others. "Starry Night" is just sitting there on the wall with hardly any protection and you can take as many pictures of it as you want. I seriously stood there staring at it for a good five minutes because it is soooo gorgeous in person. The prints just do not do van Gogh justice. I seriously could not talk enough about this museum. I just have to say do not miss out on it if you ever get to visit New York.
After the museum, my friend Sarah and I went to the very famous Carnegie Deli for dinner. It's just a few blocks away from the museum on 7th ave. We had sandwiches the size of our heads that were so delicious. And for dessert...the best cheesecake of my life!! Like seriously, the stuff was incredible!! It would be impossible to describe. Just come to NYC and try it for yourself...you won't regret it.
Saturday I slept in late and then it the grocery store to get a few snacks for my room. Then that night Sarah and I went and saw Mama Mia and loved it! We got standing room tickets for $21.50. I know standing room sounds pretty sucky but it really was not bad at all. I wouldn't recommend doing it for a lot of shows but it was great for Mama Mia. The bottom level of the theater only has 21 rows and you stand right behind the last row. We were dead center and they have this bar thing that you can lean on the whole time. Plus, you are paying attention to the show so much that you don't think about your sore legs. The price could not be beat -- the cheapest normal seats for the show are about $67! So we saved a ton of money and saw a really awesome show!
Sunday was pretty typical. Church wasn't until one so I got to sleep in. We would normally go to church in the Manhattan temple building but it's under construction right now so we're going to a building on the upper east side. It's a little tricky to get to but it seems like it will be a pretty good ward.
Today I went back to work after a very nice weekend. I went in early to escort a guest from her hotel to the green room. I was supposed to be able to stay on set but they didn't end up needing my help so I hung out at the front desk and watched the show from there. My internship coordinator later told me I should have pushed to stay on set but I didn't realize I could do that. I felt a little stupid after she told me that and it kind of ruined my morning. I guess I'm going to have to learn to be pushy if I'm going to make it in this business. I think she was kind of disappointed in me for not being more aggressive. I was also bummed out that I didn't stay on set because right after I went back up to the office Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher were on the show!! I totally could have seen them!! And then later Christina Ricci and Emile Hirsch were on the set as well. But I did get to see Matt Lauer! He came into the office and walked right by the front desk a couple of times so that was actually kind of cool. I also found out today that I'm going to be helping out with the Ambush Makeover segment that they do every Friday, which should be really fun, and...I'm scheduled to help with the Fergie concert!!! I'm soooo excited for that!! That was the concert that I really wanted to work on!! So that was basically the highlight of my day. I was on front desk duty all day so nothing too exciting happened. Hopefully things will get more interesting this week. Peace out ya'll!!