HARE HARE KRISHNA!!!!!

(what's with this blue line??? whatev.) Okay, brace yourself for these pics, because this cultural experience was off the heeeezzy!!!  haha. Okay, so we went to this Hare Krishna hindu temple place in Spanish Fork for the annual festival of colors. We watched little videos online of people dancing and throwing coloring chalk everywhere, and knew that this was something we did not want to miss out on. So we went, and it was everything I dreamed it would be!!! A live Indian music band, chanting, dancing, and colored chalk flying everywhere. I think the whole purpose is to celebrate spring by throwing colors around, which is a pretty cool way I guess. I definitely have to go to this again next year!

Before the festival: nice and clean. Adam's shirt is embarrassing me. ha.

The temple from a distance.

Hindus really know how to throw a party.

uh-huh...

I really can't believe what I am seeing!

Dang.

What's in this stuff anyway????

Hare Hare Krishna Krishna! Hare Hare Krishna Krishna! Hare Hare Krishna Kri...

The band. I guess it was pretty easy for them to write their lyrics... 

I blew my nose when I got home, and my boogers were hot pink.

Me and the fam. All of these guys are related some way or another.

We LOVE this Church!!!!

Adam made me take a pic by the shrine. We had to take our shoes off in here.

And... I learned some new dance moves.

Text messages

Okay, so today I was going through my phone deleting a lot of random text messages, when I came across some that really made me happy. We'll start with the oldest:

From: TJ

Received: June 16, 2005

"Hey dummy ive called u 5 times"

Commentary: I liked this one a lot, which is obviously why I have had it saved on my SIM card for almost three years. It says a lot to me in very few words. Firstly, I like the way he called me "dummy." It's one of those names I haven't been called since Elementary school, but for some reason, when TJ texts it-- it works. It also reflects the tendency I have (and my entire family has) not to answer the phone. TJ was obviously frustrated, but we know that all of us Hales (now some glovers/campbells) have been guilty of it.

From: Spencer (currently Elder Carlson)

Received: April 18, 2007

"Global warming, my a@#!"

Commentary: Ha ha... This one had to be censored. It was the result of a texting conversation with my good friend Spencer. I was texting him from Rexburg, Id complaining about the fact that it was snowing hardcore in April. His response pretty much made my day.

From: Sky

Received: March 2, 2008

"Get a life"

Commentary: I love the fact that I can joke around with my lil' brudder via the airwaves. He cracks me up. Texting Skyler is always interesting. He always insults me, but I like it because he's a funny kid.

From: Taylor 

Received:March 10, 2008

"u make me happy"

Commentary: short. sweet. uplifting. Taylor Brimhall makes me happy too.

From: Adam

"Okay... b."

Commentary: I was mad at Adam because he always texts me one-word messages like "okay" or "yeah." It is just really annoying, and such a waste of a text. I texted him saying, "If you text me one more one-word message, so help me...." This was his response. Obviously the letter "b" is just an abbreviation for... another word. This message made me angry and and laugh hysterically at the same time. That's hard to accomplish.

From: Kaylee (From Jheri's cell phone)

Received: March 1o, 2008

"I love you and miss you already"

"Hey great singing today one last thing i hope to be like you when i grow up i really do"

Commentary: Love love LOVE getting texts from my niece, Kaylee, from Jheri's phone. They re always so sweet, and make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

From: Amy

Received: Today

"This mexican guy in a banana suit just gave me a banana!!"

Commentary: Oh the finer things of life!

Afterword: I'm pretty sure that I have deleted lots of really great texts from other people that deserve to be up here, but I think that I'm going to document the good ones more often. In a way, they are little artifacts and mini-histories if you think about it. and of course, they always brighten my day. It's like carrying my people in my pocket.

the rumpus room

Here's another part of my house that I love, and sometimes desperately miss when I'm at college. In our house it's what we call "the rumpus room." (Definition: rum·pus   [ruhm-puhs] noun, plural 

1. a noisy or violent disturbance; commotion; uproar) I don't know who originally coined the term for the room, but as a kid, I never knew what it meant. I rightfully thought it referred to a place we could make messes with all of our toys and be wild. Not that we didn't do that anywhere else in the house, but in was somehow pardoned in this room. After we grew up, and the action figures, toy weapons, and "my little ponies" were packed into boxes and given away, it became a room for punching bags, old couches, air hockey, storage, etc. One christmas, an extravagant weight set was a clanking contraption and underused addition to the ecclectic room. It still was the room for an older sort of play time. Now, with the aging of our family, the room has continued to evolve. And I'd even go to say that the meaning of the word "rumpus" has metamorphosed and taken on a new meaning. This came with a sort of renaissance in our family. The age of the dance studio, little league, and guitars. When I am home these days, I say it isn't home without waking up to Skyler shredding on his guitar blasting over the amp. Throughout the day, music and voices of girls and young women can be heard from Tricia's dance studio. (once a garage, though I can hardly recall it being one) This music often accompanied with the sound of taps on clogging shoes, as Jheri teaches her classes.  After school, in the afternoon, the boys have returned wit their friends and are having a serious jam sesh, or just showing off for each other the most insane riffs they can manage to strain. Brock is probably pounding something on the rickety drum set. Overall, it might sound like a weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth for the mothers coming to pick their daughters up from dance lessons, but for me it is sort of beautiful. I often miss the chaos of my the rumpus room in my small, quiet college apartment. On the other hand, it is not always chaotic. At opportune times, I have found this room to be one of the most private and tranquil in the house, affording me the privacy to play and sing with an audience of baseball gear, silent amps, and electric guitars. Just me and the acoustic. In fact, this is the room where I started teaching myself how to play. It's where I wrote and recorded my first song, and basically began discovering a part of myself that... I'm still trying to figure out in many ways. The room isn't anything beautiful that anyone should desire it, but I must say it's precious to me. Here's just a few random shots in the rumpus room:

I brought the Dean guitar home for the weekend, as Skyler requested. Him and my dad have been so generous to let me take it to school with me. I know that Skyler loves it just as much as I do. It is a beautiful guitar. Skyler got to practice some of his acoustic songs.

haha... I stole this from Jheri's blog. I wanted to pose in front of Sky's new, red Marshall amp.

Keyboard on African Drum... random.

Skyler helping Gracie make racket.

the backyard

So while I was home in AZ, I spent a lot of time out in the sun in my backyard. Coming home after being away from school makes you look at your surroundings a little differently. A friend once told me that my backyard had an artistic/eclectic look to it, which wasn't a way I had really looked at it before. Exploring my backyard again made me feel pretty nostalgic, and so I went around taking snapshots of little things that amused me.

shadow on the cracked court.

oh so many citrus trees!

the path that is always wet for some reason.

random unicycle.

the line.

In the scary shed.

 weird lumpy orange.

tools hanging from inside the scary shed.

deflated soccer ball in pretty weeds.

little slide.

big slide.

Sky doing tricks.

tropicana model.

Little boys. Big swings.

In each other's showers.

atrophied backboard in overgrown paloverdes.

batting cage.

court.

palm tree.

ol' rusty jungle gym.

the back yard of my childhood.

Gate life.

this is my pound puppy face, aka airport face. "somebody take me home!"

So after my little trip to AZ over the weekend, I sort of missed my flight back. Southwest is cheap, but it is always pretty crowded and the lines for ticketing and security were insane this morning. I honestly thought I was going to make the flight beacuse Southwest usually takes a long time to board, but the 6:00 A.M. flight was already gone by 5:58.... bummer. 

So now I'm living the gate life here at C12. They put me on a flight at 8:00 with no extra charge, so that was nice. Sky Harbor Airport also has free wi-fi, which is amazing. As I write this blog, I am also catching up on Lost season 4 on abc.com, and wondering what it would be like if I was stranded on an island with all of the people sitting at the gate with me. This group of passengers do not look hardcore enough for that sort of thing though. We'd pretty much be toast. Provided that I probably won't crash on a deserted island, I will probably make it back to Provo just in time for class.

Later!