Guess Who's Back...Back Again?

I'm probably writing this post in vain--surely I've lost all of my blog readership by now. But just in case there are still a few of you out there, I'll fill you in on what I've been up to these last few months.

My friends and I love a good theme party. We threw our friend Sara a "1976" party, to honor the year she came into the world. I revived my old Mrs. Roper Halloween costume from high school days, even though 3's Company didn't technically air until 1977. Whatever.





(FYI, that muumuu I'm wearing in the above photo? You can buy one TODAY at your local Sears department store.)

Last month, thanks to the generosity of Greg and Bekah Dunkley, I got to join my former BYU roommates for a reunion in the Beehive State. We visited our old apartment, which seems to have fallen into some serious disrepair:



I mean, how much does a few gallons of paint cost these days?



We knocked on the door to see if the new tenants would let us in to look around. No one was home. Now, this is really where the story should end, but it doesn't. Some of my roommates went through the laundry room and broke in through the back door, being careful to wipe their prints from the door handles behind them. Clearly, a little thing like THE LAW isn't going to come between THESE nice Mormon housewives and the object of their desire. I had no idea what riff-raff I had been running around with all this time.

Anyway, then we toured the BYU campus. I hadn't been there since I graduated 11 years ago. I was glad to see that the candy counter in the bookstore was still selling the same fudge that contributed to my Freshman 15. I was also glad to see that the English department got a nice new home. On my list of disappointments was all of the new construction in the quad that prevents you from running past the statue of Brigham Young, which, if done at night, used to make Brother Brigham look like he was doing the "Funky Chicken."

We stopped by the Museum of Art on campus, and saw this cool installation:



and this glittery ram:



I love glitter. I really do.

We drove past the little yellow house we lived in our last year at college:



Some good memories were made in that house. And I'm glad the house is still yellow.

It was a wonderful reunion, and this is the girl who made it all happen:



Thank you, Bekah! The next reunion will be on us!

Very coincidentally, my best friend Rebecca was vacationing in Utah the same time I was, so after my roommates and I parted ways, I spent a night with the McAllisters in their swanky time-share up at Snowbird. The next day we went to Hogle Zoo:







Here, Rebecca's son Ewan is letting us know that he's had enough zoo for one day:



After the zoo, we went across the street to the This Is The Place Heritage Park. My great great grandfather, Lyman Curtis, accompanied Brigham Young on his first trip west, and it was cool to stand where they stood, look out on the Salt Lake Valley and see what they saw...minus all the McDonalds and strip malls, of course.





OK, this post is getting too long. I feel like we need to pause here for a break. So go to the bathroom, get yourself a glass of water and a snack, and meet me back here in a little while.