my green eyes for your bow ties

Chicago! 04/27-31/2010

2010-06-20T14:22:00.003-06:00

I got a chance to visit some friends in Chicago this past week! Not only did I get to catch up with some dear old friends but, I made some new ones too! What an awesome trip! Here's a collection of photos from the trip. There are a lot of them so hang in there! :) Thanks everyone for making my adventure awesome!
We could be closer than you know,
-C

Goodbye Utah!

This place was crazy!

My awesome friend Jamie who I met in Savannah at college

Just like SLC it's Chicago! Bonezzzzz.

Seems like everyone has a cool moped there... yes i want one.

So we went to play bingo at this bar and I won within like 10 minutes of getting there. They had grape soda on tap!!! haha. I ended up winning a bag of random stuff that included the following picture of babyzilla!!!

Jamie's so cute!

The mustache ring!

Hair attack!

Smith's night dance partyyyy!

Dance Dance Revolution!

The CLAW RETURNS!!!

THIS IS THE BEST PICTURE I'VE EVER TAKEN! OH. MY. GOSH.

Jamie's cute living room and my surrogate bedroom.

Jamie and Heather at Thai food in Belmont. mmm

Afro Sasquatch!!

How Lovely is this book shop?

BEST DARN GAME EVER!

Jamie's Apartment

Aud has the coolest tattoo ever. Yay for bike community everywhere!

My girl Wojo and her fiancee (now husband) were so awesome to see. We played music just like old times!!!!

Yay Chicago!
We could be closer than you know!!!

Surprise Birthday Party!

2010-05-07T12:24:00.008-06:00

25 will now go down in history as totally awesome thanks to you guys. xooxox The potluck ice cream social was a great idea! (credit goes to Hawk who organized the whole thing last minute and TOTALLY surprised the heck out of me)
My fav part of the whole thing is that we had such a diverse group of people there! There were peeps from age like 4 months to almost 30! :) Not bad for last minute planning AND when competing with a huge film screening after party! Best party ever. Thanks thanks thanks!!!

Ok this one deserves some explaining. This is "angry eyes, smily face!!!!" it's very hard to do and, for the record, Melissa DID do it but she was quicker than all the others so when I actually snapped the photo she had already done it. hahahah It's so hard to hold it! muahahahahah.

This is the famous DJ Prayer. we love him and T-bone in the background. haha

My band mates and I!

Hawk organized the WHOLE thing. <3!

haha....

haha...

what would i do without awesome friends who ENHANCE photos?

Like I said... :)

We could be closer than you know,

Local Movie!

2010-05-07T12:09:00.005-06:00

A friend of mine, Dave Davis, shot a short local film and my house-mate was one of the leading roles! T and I went to the primer and it was just lovely! To see more pix from the event check out Dave's blog here: The Dada Factory Blog and... the poster above was made by Matt Delporto of Salt City Rag for the film.

Here we are, some of the bicycle gals, after the film screening. Jessie, my house mate who was in the film is the one in black toward the right.
Good work everyone! Woo for local film!
We could be closer than you know,

Mountain Biking take 2

2010-04-26T01:59:00.001-06:00

So I went mountain biking for the second time ever today and only cried once after falling off of a cliff. Ok, it wasn't a CLIFF but it sure felt like it. Stupid Bobsled. Anyway, I think I'm getting the hang of it... Gonna have to keep workin' it :) Utah is beyond cooler than I thought. Why didn't I do this years ago?! The only other time I've been mountain biking was at Boyne Mountain in Boyne, Michigan. Totally different but cool all the same. The views here are better fosho.

We could be closer than you know!

WE DID IT!

2010-03-16T22:52:00.002-06:00

WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!! WE HELPED RAISE OVER $9,000 for Revolution Reality! THANKS EVERYONE WHO HELPED!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/superherohq/sleeping-giant-and-revolution-reality

The Time Traveler's Wife

2010-01-14T09:26:00.002-07:00

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
interesting but not one of my favs for whatever reason. It was in no way BAD though... just not my style i guess. I can't quite explain why.

View all my reviews >>

strange

2010-01-13T18:03:00.001-07:00

I've NEVER liked mustard but today I had THE strangest craving for plain old yellow mustard. wtf.
And yes, I ate something with mustard and it was wonderful. Don't ask. I have no idea.

New video

2010-01-07T17:35:00.003-07:00

I help this ministry out with video work. If you help them it'd be helping me:) Check it out HERE at Kickstarter !!

We could be closer than you know!

So I moved into a new place with a girlfriend...

2009-12-18T21:04:00.003-07:00

and today I sleepily opened one of our kitchen cabinets than promptly had a heart attack. So that's how it's gonna be, huh? Well roomie, it's on like Donkey Kong!! muahaha.

2009-11-17T16:57:00.004-07:00

I'd like to offer some insight into my heart. My favorite songs of the week right now are "Death to Traitors" by Beloved, "Where the Streets Have No Name" by U2 (yes i admit it!!) and whatever Track 13 is on Madison Greene's old album "Think the Dancer's Mad". Track 14 too! Oh Michigan music so close to my heart. We'll also add every song ever written by little Few and Far Between since I'm kinda in the Michigan mode. Yes. Fewbie. <3

I rode my bike home tonight in the dark wearing way to few layers to be even KIND OF comfortable while freezing rain cut across my face and into my eyes. My shoes were as wet as canvas gets, not like my socks cover anything anyway with my ratty old pair of Tom's, and my glove-less hands were white and numb to the bone practically frozen to the handle bars. Was I miserable? Noo... I don't care what anyone says, U2 makes me feel like I'm in a movie and that I'm cruising toward the warm roads of Georgia. I breath and I smell sweet grass and cotton, I listen and the Atlantic's roll past, I squint and the car's lights rushing all around me are still, stationary, pick up truck spotlights illuminating the stage in the Lynch's backyard for AGAGAG headlining yet another backyard brawl. Thank you U2, for singing me home. Tomorrow night, Beloved. Saturday, Maddy Green. Sunday, Skynyrd.
I'm not from the South but I claim it as part of my upbringing. If anything, Georgia kept my college years ah... dirty and wholesome at the same time. I felt much more at home there than I feel here anyway.
Don't judge me and my U2.
haha

We could be closer than you know,

Two Creek Canyon Hike

2009-11-05T12:08:00.004-07:00

This is a shot of a trail in Two Creek Canyon. You can catch up with the trail about a mile and half from my apartment downtown. Kim and I rode our bikes to the trailhead and took off on a lovely Sunday hike. How amazing is it to have that just down the street and a way cool chica to explore it with!

It was like 70 degrees out. Yay warm days in late autumn!

Kim and the trail looking back toward the city.

We could be closer than you know,

Halloween 2009

2009-11-05T12:02:00.002-07:00

Yup.
haha

SAN DIEGO for Lauren's wedding October 15 2009

2009-11-02T11:12:00.001-07:00

Lauren, Newbie, and I at their wedding reception.
WOOOOOO LAUREN GOT MARRIED! Holy moly one of my closest friends got married and I was honored to be a bridesmaid in her wedding. I jumped on a plane and got to San Diego the Thursday before the Saturday wedding. The plan, show up, settle in, bachelorette party, help prepare for wedding, wedding! It was nice to fly somewhere for once instead of drive.

When I landed in San Diego I had to make my way to Encinetas. This means a bus, a train, and a bit of a walk. Good thing I only packed a backpack. The public transportation system was super easy to manuver and the train, the Coaster, was just lovely. You could compare it to Salt Lake City's "Front Runner". I sat on the top deck and was blessed by a lovely view of the coast along the way. Thus the name "Coaster".

After seeing a surfer moon the entire train and walking a little around downtown Encinetas I made my way the half mile to the hotel and checked in. There was going to be 4 of us staying in our room so I was happy to see two queen sized beds. Lauren, her sister Lillis, Briana (lauren's cousin) and me. Yes that's right ladies I was the last person to share a bed with the bride before her wedding! haha. That thursday night we batchlorette partied it up. Sorry, I cant say what we did...

The next day was a serious prep day with Lo's family. Her mom and dad came from the Congo and her sister Lillis came from Kenya so it was amazing to spend time with them and a rush to get everything done.

They don't look like they're from Africa at all ;) I love them.

We had the rehearsal dinner and I got to know some of the other people involved in the wedding. Good times. Good peeps. The rehearsal dinner was beautiful. It was a warm warm day and the evening was still 70 degrees or so. Our main light was candlelight and I loved hearing what everyone had to say about Lauren and her (then)fiancee Newbie.

So Newbie was like the total bomb. He was personable, good looking, and he seemed patient and honest. What he said at the rehearsal dinner was lovely and very insightful. I got to know him a little better Friday night after the rehearsal dinner. They opened up their new apartment to us all and we played guitar and sang and chilled. It was so refreshing! I am so proud of them and so happy that Lauren has such an amazing (now) husband!!! AHH! It's just crazy. Anyway..

The wedding was beautiful. It was on the lawn of their church that overlooks the city and the weather was hot and perfect! Lauren had us dance down the isles with our groomsmen and mine dipped me! We were for SURE the best dancers ;) well maybe. lol
I almost cried a million times during the ceremony. It was perfect. We decorated the whole place with wild flowers and there were butterflies everywhere. One even almost landed on Newbie during the ceremony. My fav part was that they wanted to do communion before they had their first kiss as husband and wife. That meant a lot to all of us. It was perfect!!!!!! Good job you guys and thank God! Lauren's brother who was stuck in Texas due to flight problems even made it JUST in time to see the ceremony. Praise God!

After the wedding we cleaned up and headed to a park for a potluck reception. It was perfect... except for the BEERLYMPICS going on right next to us. lol it turned out to be a good thing. They even provided the music for the first dance. I can't wait to get all of the pictures (not sure how to get them). We decorated Newbie's truck and sent them on their way. Ok, so, no joke, the second they left FOG rolled in- SO BAD that you could bearly see 10 feet in front of you. Good weather for the whole thing and the second it was over FOGGY- so much fog that when I finally made it to the ocean it was bearly visible! haha. So much fog that all of our flights were delayed HOURS. The night before, though, I meandered into a free concert at a downtown coffee house and there were peopel from the wedding there! I chilled with them then went out to pizza with some more of the wedding party. Lauren, your friends are the bomb.
Next day I made it home on time even though flights were delayed. What a wonderful long weekend.

Lets do it again!
We could be closer than you know,

SOZO Sacramento September 22ndish

2009-11-01T22:28:00.001-07:00

Krissi (pictured above with me), her husband Tommy invited me on a little adventure to Sacramento for a retreat... of sorts. I didn't know if I could go but after a little convincing I was on board. One round trip ticket to a ride in a packed explorer 12 hours there and back for a quick weekend. I'm in!

At first I thought it was just going to be K, T, and I but, when the car pulled up to pick me up early Friday morning, I realized every seat was taken. 5 people, 5 seats, 12(or so) hours. That's ok. I was down. Reminded me of that time we drove with a packed car 7 hours just to get hawk some Waffle House in Fort Collins. Good times! I hoped this would be just as good.

The drive was amazing. It brought back lovely memories of when T and I did it for our 2 year anniversary trip to San Francisco in the spring. We went the exact same way and took the exact same way back, the long way around Lake Tahoe. mmm.
The other two people in the car were Grace and Connie. It was Connie's car and she did most of the driving (thanks Connie!). They both turned out to be SUPER COOL and I'm so glad they were along on the trip! Connie, Grace, Me, Tommy, Krissi
Once we got to Sacrament we checked into a hotel and headed over for registration at this church that looked like a futuristic moon building or... like a giant gold armadillo. lol

The whole weekend was for this seminar, of sorts, that dealt with SOZOing. SOZO means to save, heal, preserve, and make whole in Greek. In short, the whole seminar was about forgiveness and how to help people into forgiveness. What I got out of it was a real revelation. I never realized how unforgiving I've been in the past 2 or 3 years. Technically, ever since the brake up I went though with the guy I dated for most of my college career, I've become a total bitch. Well not TOTALLY but I got sick not too long after that and forgiveness was not on my forefront of thought. I wasn't even thinking of it at all. It wasn't like I was CHOOSING not to forgive, it's just like I forgot about that all together.

The SOZO seminar helped remind me that, without our willing act of forgiveness, we are unable to partner in Love with the Lord. By being unforgiving we are imprisioning ourselves. It's crazy. I never thought of it like that. Like I am seperating myself from God's love with the more grudges that I hold. Crazy. So after I got back and processed the whole weekend I started really talking to God and forgiving the people He brought to my mind. A few specifically and probably more to come. It was amazing because I released them to him and blessed them and forgave them and it actually worked. Not just kinda like "ok i feel better" but I saw two of them that same day and I didn't get the usual choked up feeling or ANYTHING for that matter. It didn't bother me. I didn't think about them once for the rest of the day and it just wasn't a thing. During the process I asked God to replace the grudge I had, or whatever, with something good from Him and he did! For example, for one of the people I forgave He replaced my grudge with Joy and I couldn't stop laughing. Anyway, what a great retreat but I'd be lieing if I said it was a breeze. It was hard to take it all in at once but once we got back and I went through my own personal SOZO and then one with Connie and Grace, it was amazing to see the Lord move and work. AWESOME!

So on the way home we stayed with a family friend of Tommy's. Or his family or something. He lived in the biggest house I've ever been in AND they had like miles of land for horses and all sorts of cool stuff. It was amazing. His little daughter's room was bigger than my entire apartment... and it was pink. lol
We headed back Sunday and made it home by the evening. Good times.
Thanks Krissi and Tommy, Connie and Grace! I'll never forget the SOZO trip to Sacramento!
We could be closer than you know,

CAMPING near Oakley, Utah September 2009

2009-10-30T22:46:00.013-06:00

I can finally say that I actually went camping at least ONCE this year. I wish I went more but I need more friends who know how to camp to help me out. Kit and Jessie told me they wanted to do a girls night camping so I decided what the heck, right? I'll go! It was super fun (including the guy who crashed our girls night... he turned out to be pretty cool).We drove like 2 hours packed into kit's car: Kit, Jessie, Matt, Sadie on Jessie and my laps(the dog) my guitar on Matt's lap kinda, a tent, sleeping bags, fire wood, and any number of other things we'd absolutely need for a night in the wilderness.

We found an awesome camp site, paid our dues, and got a cookin! (i didn't have to cook because I brought fried rice that I'd bought earlier that day hahaha!) Jessie is apparently a gourmet cook when it comes to camp cooking and Kit had all the logistics covered at the campsite. I did the fire and Matt helped set up/ protect us from wild animals that wanted to eat us. We sang camp songs (i brought my computer that had lots of tabs on it haha yes i know i'm a true city kid bringing a mac camping) and we stayed up late talking about any number of things.... late enough to be witness to a bobcat fight (or something but it was TERRIFYING and loud!!). After that, we all smashed into the tent and fell asleep in the freezing cold. Good thing Sadie decided to sleep on top of me... mm warm dog. In the morning we checked out the area for a bit than drove back. WE ARE SO DOING THIS ALL OF THE TIME AND FOR MULTIPLE NIGHTS IN THE FUTURE... just an fyi, girls...and boy.
PIX!!!

Not sure if you can tell but, on the ride back, the leaves in the mountains were already changing red and gold! Beautiful!

Until next time!!!!

First Two Revolution Rality Videos

2009-10-23T23:36:00.003-06:00

Revolution Reality is getting some play time on channel 20 here in SLC. This is a little fun example of what I've made so far for them. More and better to come!

Revolution Reality 01 Tomatoes

Revolution Reality 02 Debt

I'm a writer so don't fight it!

2009-10-21T11:41:00.006-06:00

So incase you might not have known, I'm writing a book! I'm about 1/4 of the way though (i'm estimating it to be about 200-250 pages long). I can't give you the actual page count finished because I'm writing it on a huge blank paper sketch book note pad (like 17 inches) and by hand. For every page I write out by hand on the pad it comes out to be a page and a half or even more typed so I'm at about 50 pages in my huge notepad and done with the first section of the book anyway. It seems about on track to me.

This is the first of two pens that have run out of ink due to my writing. lol
Ok so I'm done with the first section...and I have been for over a month. I just couldn't bring myself around to start part 2 but.... today I started it and let me just say for the record that I'm terrified. Starting this new section (which is actually the begining of the book so today I wrote page 1 and then freaked out and logged onto the internet to type this) is so difficult. The writing isn't actually difficult- it's the fear of failure and success and everything all at once! Before, I was just writing out the main character's flashbacks which I set out to have cover at least 1/4 of the book to help the main story along. These flashbacks that I've completed writing will be interwoven through the rest of the book but now I'm actually starting the book itself. FREAKY. I'm trying to force myself past this hump by writing every day at a scheduled time in the AM and not leaving my desk until that time is up. I can push through this!

In my giant notebook I have this quote written on the first page to help me through the scary stuff like this.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It's our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeus, talented, fabulous?" Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.
It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone. As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." -Marianne Williamson "Reflections on the Principles of a Course of Miracles"
WOO! Ok, so once I get comfortable writing again and I get past this initial fear of "oh my gosh this is the book!"(haha)...I'll start cruising like I did with the other 60-70 pages (i wrote those in just about a month and i took it slow!) My goal is to have this novel done in about 3 more months- one section a month. It's a much slower pace than I originally started out for but I feel it's doable. I want it done, typed, and revised, before winter is over FOR SURE.

Oh my gosh this is terrifying. haha
I'm a writer so don't fight it!

We could be closer than you know,

i hate hair

2009-09-29T19:34:00.009-06:00

Due to uncontrollable damage done because I don't know how to take care of platinum hair and then dyed it back myself doing a horrible job then going to a salon and asking for super dark brown and then getting SURPRISE! Black.... I am now going to post the progression here. Starting with the current and going backward. Looks like Black is where I'm going to stay. I just want healthy hair!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will never dye it again... well not for a year or so anyway. lame.

What I got now. I like this a lot but I just want it to be longer so I can wear it wavy. I like it blond the best but I have to grow out my hair so it's healthy before attempting it again. Black can be hott right?!

I freaked on the platinum and dyed it back to brown myself. That dark brown lasted like one week before fading miserably to an ash brown. When I finally went to a salon I wanted to keep the chunk that I left platinum which is why you see white on the right side in the picture of black hair.

Beautiful Platinum!

Beautiful Blond!

This hair might look good in the photo but at this point it was just plain yellow. Not a good color in proper light. The cut was nice though. Trying to grow it out now to match that.

Inbetween caramel and blond.

This auburn caramel color was ok. This picture doesn't show it as well as I'd have liked but it's the only one I had.

What I started with. Plain jane brown.

A movement everyone should know!

2009-09-06T23:12:00.002-06:00

This is the most beautiful poem I have ever read. It is the poem that inspired my favorite song (of the same title): the third movement of Suite bergamasque by Claude Debussy. Appreciating beauty is worship in itself. I think God listens to this song as much as I do and digs the poem that inspired it. How some people can write music to so perfectly match someone else's words is a marvelous mystery of art and intelligence.. in it's own sense, empathy.

Claire de Lune
by Paul Verlaine (1844 – 1896)

Votre âme est un paysage choisi
Que vont charmant masques et bergamasques
Jouant du luth et dansant et quasi
Tristes sous leurs déguisements fantasques.

Tout en chantant sur le mode mineur
L'amour vainqueur et la vie opportune
Ils n'ont pas l'air de croire à leur bonheur
Et leur chanson se mêle au clair de lune,

Au calme clair de lune triste et beau,
Qui fait rêver les oiseaux dans les arbres
Et sangloter d'extase les jets d'eau,
Les grands jets d'eau sveltes parmi les marbres.

Click to read it in English

Zombie Prom 2009!

2009-09-02T11:35:00.008-06:00

Yes, Tyler and I went to this. You can imagine my excitement when he asked me over the phone "want to go to zombie prom with me?" I'm all like "um.. yes, duh!"

Zombies in love!
Anyway, we went with Zed and a friend of his, Martina. Good old Zed for always telling us about stuff like this! Basically you dress up like zombies and go to this prom. The money raised form ticket sales, the auction, etc, all goes to childhood diabetes research. Tyler and I did some research into zombie makeup and I went out and bought a ton of liquid latex and stuff from a local costume shop. I think our makeup turned out pretty good! Once we got to the prom I think I can seriously say that we were the best made-up there... or at least in the top 4.
Zed, Ty, and Me

The Prom! There were probably around 200 people there
till death do us prom
Zed & Martina
Zombies dancing! haha
woo!
So, yes, I can finally say that Tyler and I went to prom together. What a fun night. We're totally going to do it again next year and bring a ton of friends. Now we can't wait for Halloween!
This whole thing reminds me of a post I wrote for the Snowboarder Order about Zombies here: Holy Week and Death

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

The Road

2009-09-01T22:41:00.002-06:00

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Eerie book if I've ever read one. It was an awesome quick read full of imagination. I wish he gave us a better look at how the situation got so grim, though. It left me wanting more.

View all my reviews >>

Michigan August 09

2009-08-29T15:39:00.013-06:00

Every year in August (usually) the family gets together in Michigan to visit and vacation. We went up to Boyne this year for a few days and then spent the rest of the week down in Metro-Detroit.

Boyne was really fun. My Nana and Pops were there as well as my Aunt Happy along with my Mom, Dad, and brother. Geeta is still in Aspen so I missed her all week.
We spent a day in Petoskey and I found a few Petoskey stones! I don't remember if I've EVER found one before and I came home with a bunch! ( click here if you don't know what a Petoskey stone is)
We also made sure to eat at the BRI (boyne river inn) for fish-fry night and go to a movie as a family. We went and saw Julie and Julia together and it was fabulous. We were saying "booon appetitttt!" and laughing our heads off for the rest of the trip.

The last night I was there I took the old two person chairlift up Hemlock (they had it open till 10pm every night) at about 9:50pm and got to see the lights from Boyne Falls as well as the Polish festival they were having. I'd been up there at night skiing before but I'd never been up there at night during the summer. Usually when we hike up the hills it's during the day. The lights were beautiful and the full moon was hot pink! Instead of riding the chair down I decided to hike down South Boyne. As I walked down I reminisced about the first time I'd snowboarded down South Boyne and how proud I was of myself for sailing it without falling. Since then it was always one of my favorite routs to the 6 chair (as long as it wasn't too icy). Walking down it in the dark was fun... there were lights periodically but the light only lasts soo far out there. The entire mountain was alive with sound and movement- deer, grasshoppers, bugs, whatever. Once it flattened out a little I started running. I haven't run down a huge hill in so long... it's like your legs don't need you to power them anymore- they just go on their own. The whole experience made me laugh like crazy. Some people taking the lift down who saw me through the trees yelled "What are you doing?!" I replied "Staying young!" I felt like Frauline Maria.

After my epic run down South Boyne I went by myself to the Polish festival down town and watched people ride the ferris wheel. Once things dyed down I followed the music to the beer then and joined the hundreds of people inside. They don't call it the Polish Festival for nothing. Everyone and their mom was polkaing and, much to my surprise, the polka isn't really that lame. I thought it was going to be tottally lame but there are a bunch of different kinds and some people can make it look quite beautiful. Everyone was doing it (except me). It was super fun to watch and an interesting feeling to be surrounded by people of a similar ethnicity to me. I swear about every other person in that tent looked like they could have been part of my family. It might be because my dad's 100% Polish and my mom's 60%. haha.

Drove home the next day and hung out with Kev (sushi!!!) then with Mitch, Ryan, and Aaron: my old neighborhood bro's. I miss 'em all like heck. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the UFC fight. Ryan taught me so much about the fight that I actually ended up enjoying it! No mafia this time around but I'll have to make sure to get a game in next time I'm in town.
The next day I got a chance to catch up with Lynette. Later that night we went to go see a concert at the Cro's Foot in Pontiac (mitch hooked up the tickets) and I discovered an awesome band from Ann Arbor. It was such a treat and free! Lynette loved them too. The last band, though, thought they were nickleback ad they sucked so we left early.The next day I got a chance to catch up with Theresa over a quick cup of coffee and laughs, and then Mitch and I went on an epic adventure.

I ended up in Ann Arbor the next day visiting Stepppphhhhh and she showed me all around her life there. (on the drive I went to Detroit Bagel to get a maple-walnut bagel but they were out!!!! I only go once a year and they were out!)

Yea that's the Ann Arbor gum wall haha
Steppppph and I got Indian food in Ann Arbor, planned a documentary we might be shooting later this year, and did some shopping downtown. I miss Ann Arbor. Kate, I went by your condo!!!!! She also took me to the new church she was working at in Ypsilanti and I got to meet a bunch of cool people. After a jam-packed morning I headed back to Detroit and had dinner with My aunt Mari and her family. My two little cousins Lilly and Emma are getting so grown up!

Detroit sewers STILL smoke. why is that?
I only stayed there for an hour and a half because I had to head down to Detroit proper to hit up the community bike shop: The Hub.
THIS PLACE WAS SOOOOOO WAY COOL.

Turns out they are doing some Open Sprints so we all got along right away. They all knew Jonathan from the SLCBC so we were only separated by one degree. I had to fix up a few things on the bike I'd built my sister last September (she brought it home to Michigan for summer vacation) so I wanted to do it there and also to see what kind of an operation they were running. As it turned out, it was their WOMEN'S NIGHT!!!! How freakin' cool is that??!?! Even crazier, girl who started the women's night at the Hub lives at the Trumble Plex!! It was way cool to hear that the Trumble Plex is still going strong! I made some awesome friends and will be keeping up with them next time I'm in town. I was promised a complete bike-tour of downtown Detroit when I get back. It was totally serendipity.. divine.

Came home after that and just chilled. My last day, I didn't have to leave until about 5pm, so my brother Mike and I met my mom for lunch at Leo's Coney Island.

Salt Lake City really needs a Coney Island. period. I had my fav chicken fingers peta and enjoyed every bit of it. Afterwards mom and I went over to see my grandpa and grandma on her side for an hour or so then left for the airport. What a jam-packed visit... like usual.

My flight ended up getting cancled. We were all seated and ready to go when they told us that the fuel tank pumps weren't working and that they were trying to fix it. 30 minutes later they kicked us all off of the plane. I had gotten off earlier to get some food (can't not eat... yay bloodsugar problems) so by the time I got back everyone was getting off. I went back onto the airplane to grab my bag that I'd left there and someone had taken my book! I'm actually writing this blog entry waiting for the next flight which won't leave for another two hours or so. Who the heck would steal my book? At least that's all they took... maybe it just droppend and slid down the isle? Who knows. Anyway, it will be good to be home... kinda. It will be good to see Tyler and a few other people anyway and to be back at my own little apartment. As for Utah, I'll write an entry about that after I go find another book to read.

My trip back was safe and sound after finally getting an airplane that works.
Until next time Michigan! See you this winter...

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

Ender's Shadow

2009-08-29T15:35:00.000-06:00

Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Excellent book! I have never read any of the other books Orson Scott Card has written but my friend John advised me that I didn't need to read Ender's Game first in order to understand this interesting parallel story. I absolutely loved it and I couldn't put it down.

View all my reviews >>

A Mercy

2009-08-20T14:21:00.001-06:00

A Mercy by Toni Morrison

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
A Mercy was a quick read and an interesting story. It was a little hard to follow each character's perspectives but I can appreciate what she was doing. Don't pick this one up if you are looking for a nice "by the beach" book. It's a realistic picture of the sad part of American history that was a gateway to pain and suffering for so many families slave and free alike.

View all my reviews >>

Aspen July 09!

2009-08-11T20:16:00.013-06:00

My sister is spending her summer vacation from Columbia and Julliard in Aspen, Colorado for a music program so my family and I decided to go out there and visit her.All of us in Aspen (minus Mike who couldn't make it on the trip) at the Maroon Bells.

I flew to Denver where the parents picked me up along their drive from Michigan. Once all in the car, we made our way from Denver to Aspen, got settled into our hotel, and met the little sister for dinner. I hadn't seen her in almost a year so it was awesome to catch up!
If you have never been to Aspen I highly recommend it. It's killer expensive but Geeta and I got to check out a bunch of awesome camp grounds with bike trails right to downtown. It's a perfectly bikeable city with free public transit downtown (a bus system kinda like the park city one but a little smarter when it comes to the layout and it cover a lot more ground)and tons of awesome stuff to do from hiking to shopping. There is even a couple who fix up old road bikes to be single speaders and fixies and they display/sell them every Saturday downtown. These bikes were custom and SUPER CUTE!

Can you imagine all of the tourists and old folk living in Aspen riding these fun fixies around? Well they are!
They have scooter rentals for a pretty decent price, white water rafting, free classical music concerts, rides up the gondolas, etc. There is the ski resort there and plenty of rivers and wildlife. (Brigid has seen a bear twice and just outside of her apartment there!) The place is just so refreshing and life-affirming I honestly didn't want to leave. It's like the artist's dream town. I could see myself getting all sorts of inspiration being in a place like that. No wonder all the musicians go there for their summer programs.
Me at Maroon Bells
My fam at the Bells
Dad the photographer/naturalst
The only 54 year old who still hikes with a butterfly net. Got one!
Tiger swallowtail or some other butterfly that Geeta is trying to eat.
Waiting for the bus to catch up

Geet and me on the Ute trail
View of Aspen from the top of the mountain!
I think I want to live here some day.
Who wouldn't enjoy beautiful classical music on every street corner, mountains, wildlife, a downtown life, water, and snowboarding all in one epic valley? Aspen, I'm coming back but next time I'm bringing my bike and my man!

After our time in Aspen, the parents and I headed out to Salt Lake City for a super epic single day on the road...

A World Apart

2009-07-19T21:32:00.000-06:00

A World Apart: Women, Prison, and Life Behind Bars by Cristina Rathbone

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Surprisingly, I couldn't put this book down. I had picked it up to do some research for a project I'm thinking about starting and not only was it killer interesting but Rathbone's writing style is so seriously engaging that I caught myself wishing that I could write just like her. Her dedication to her work is inspiring and I'd read another of hers in a heart beat.

View all my reviews >>

Tallbike Joust June/July 09!

2009-07-06T16:05:00.006-06:00

For those of you who have never been to a bike joust- you are missing out. Lots of different cities have em' either officially or unofficially. Here in SLC we try to keep it moderately underground. A friend of ours organizes the bout and we all advertise in one way or another. Most recently posters were made (left). Everyone rides their bicycles to a pre-determined location to meet then we all ride together to a secret location that only the organizer knows about. We have had up to around 200 people at one event! This past event last friday wasn't quite as large but got a pretty good turn out all the same. Once at the secret location, everyone sets up and signs up then the jousting begins!! Usually there are a few tall bikes being used and a few different jousting poles made mostly of pvc pipe and with a punching glove at the end or even a stuffed animal. Yes I'm talking about riding double (sometimes triple) decker bikes toward each other with huge poles and the intention to knock your rival off of his/her bike. No joke!!! Usually, after one of these events, I've laughed and smiled so much that my face hurts the next morning.

Some photos from the tall bike joust we had in June

3...2...1...JOUST!

We could be closer than you know,

familiar faces and random graces

2009-07-05T22:57:00.003-06:00

gangstaaaa! haha
We got a quick visit from John McClay (find him here)and a new friend Laura on their way out to LA June 5th. John is following a call to be an intern at a church out there and is on fire!! We all went to an art show at Captain Captain Studios, rode bikes around, went hiking/exporing, and John even got to visit the SLC Bike Collective. It was super refreshing hanging out with both of them and we hope to see them again soon!

We could be closer than you know,

mewithoutYou

2009-07-01T13:39:00.003-06:00

I went to go see my favorite band, MewithoutYou play the other night. I haven't seen them live for over 2 years and the show was quite refreshing. It didn't match up with the shows of theirs I've seen in the past at Cornerstone, however, it was lovely. Check them out here: MewithoutYou.

San Francisco/ Lake Tahoe trip May-June 2009!

2009-06-14T12:21:00.066-06:00

FROM Friday May 22 to Tuesday June 02, 2009

Tyler and I have been talking about going to San Francisco for months and months! Finally, we were both able to follow through with it. We left friday morning around 8am driving Tyler's car with a cooler full of sandwich making materials and, in my case, more clothes than I needed. (this tuned out to be a good thing upon discovering how much colder SF is than Utah. I almost didn't bring my colder weather clothes but now I'm so glad that I did. For once over packing paid off.)
The trip is normally a 14 or so hour trip. We got there by just a little after 7pm. WOO! Ty and I've decided that we're good road trippers.
Here is a recap of each day with pictures to accompany each:

Day 01:
Drove to SF, arrived at Will and Megan's place. Will is an old friend from college. He and his lovely girlfriend Meg have a way cool apartment in just the nicest part of SF right by Golden Gate park not a mile from the ocean! Went out to eat with them at a place called "Q" and met some of their friends (they have awesome friends!). Got settled in, played some Nintendo Wee and crashed.

On the way there! woo!

The Salt Flats on the way

Outside Will & Meg's place

Day 02:
Went with Will and Meg to the rainbow grocery store ( rainbowgrocery.org). As it turns out SF has the way coolest grocery stores ever with everything I'd ever be able to eat with all my dumb eating restrictions! You could buy stuff in bulk and bring your own jar for it or buy one of theirs. I got some peanut butter and I swear it was the yummiest peanut butter I've ever had. I'd move to SF just to be able to shop at their grocery stores. Anyway, we took the bus downtown after that and did touristy stuff. Saw Lumbard St. Scoped out Trolleys and those huge hills. Saw the ocean from the top of the hills and this huge super awesome ship! We then went parrot hunting on Telegraph hill!!!! Parrot hunting was by far my favorite part of the day. Learn about SF's wild parrots here: (wildparrotsfilm.com). I couldn't believe we found them!!! With a little patience we got a few good photos! Then we went and explored Chinatown. Nuff said. Ty took me to some famous skate spots and then, exhausted, we headed back toward Will's house and met him and more friends for sushi at a place called Drunken Sushi. The sushi was AWESOME. They had this roll that was a CA roll but with melted american cheese on top- sounds nasty right? wrong. It was delicious!

ALCATRAZ!

T & me on Lumbard St.

Lumbard St. The curviest street in the world.

Tellegraph Hill from afar

The Parrots!

China Town!

Mmmm Sushi with our hosts Will & Meg and our new friend Mike

Day 03:
Today we went shopping in Berkley all day! They have a ton of fun thrift stores. I bought three pairs of earrings, and 4 pairs of pants!!!! haha. Tyler bought this sweet old school cycling jersey and a cowboy button-up. All super good sales. I love that my boyfriend set aside an entire day for shopping in our vacation. I even got to see where he got his lip pierced when he was younger. Later we walked around the the campus there and I saw my first fo-real redwood tree!!! We had a lot of fun in Berkley.

Thrift Store

dood's fishing for change

Day 04:
Today I took an early morning run down to the ocean. Holy crap! Why don't the people who live here spend every morning running to this beach?! Then we all went to this Indian restaurant with an all you can eat lunch buffet for only 10 bucks!!! Will had the day off of work and he treated us all! THANKS WILL! Later we ventured across the golden gate bridge out of the fog and into the warm and sunny Muir Woods National Park. Muir woods makes you feel like either a dinosaur is going to jump out from somewhere and eat you any minute or maybe you accidently got lost in Star Wars. Once you get above the forrest the fog in this place is unreal. It moves SO fast and just whites out the view then just dissapeers! We hiked there for hours and got only moderately lost. We found out way back via goat path and then crossed the bridge back into the city. When we got back we chilled with Meg, Will, and friends at a beach BBQ! It was freezing on the beach but we grilled hotdogs on skewers over the fire anyway! haha.

view from the beach on my run (taken later haha)

Redwoods in Muir woods! See me at the bottom right?

The fog rolls in SO FAST!

Tyler at the fog cut-off

click it to see a larger photo. Check out the tiny ppl at the bottom

Day 05:
The first thing we did today was go to lunch at LMI (the visual effects branch of George Lucas's whole opperation) That was lovely! Will works there and he gave us a tour of his whole building! We weren't alowed to take photos so all we did was get some of the outside campus. What a pleasure to get a personal tour of LMI!
After that we went to Pleasenton. Ty lived in Pleasenton for his high school and early college years. We walked around downtown Pleasenton and he showed me his high school (which was the most epic high school i had ever seen. Everything opens to the out doors and it's like exactly what you'd dream of if you were 14 and about to go to high school in California!) We then got a chance to go to his old neighborhood and he showed me the house he lived in and a ton of other things. We got out and took some photos around the beautiful club house his neighborhood has. I was most excited to see his church. When we got there we found out that the door was open so as we were walking in an old friend of Ty's named Josh was walking out!!!!! He was the old high school music minister when Ty was in high school! Josh invited us out to dinner with his wife Carrie! We met up with them later and had thai food. This was the first person I had ever met from Tyler's life in California and was one of the people who the Lord used to reveal Himself to him!!! I feel totally blessed to have met Josh and Carrie. What's better is they offered us a place to stay if we needed it. You never know, right? We went back to their house and played some music. (josh's band Ivory Owl can be found here: Ivory Owl Myspace ). Then we drove back to Will and Megan's place.

Walking through the land of George Lucas

vineyards next to T's old neighborhood

T's old house

view from T's old neighborhood

some pix we took from the clubhouse in his old neighborhood

Day 06:
The agenda today called for a trip to the beach at Capitola. The problem was, though, that it was supposed to me moderately cold and, even so, I didn't have a bathing suit. Let me just add in here, it is AWESOME to go to a place like SF with someone who grew up there and knows all the fun little things to do. Thanks Ty for always knowing whats the best of the best! I don't think I would have had nearly as lovely of a vacation if I went with someone who didn't know every fun little thing about SF and the surrounding areas! So, naturally, we drove up highway 1 along the cost(instead of the quicker way where we would have had to drive through city after city) and the drive was lovely! When we got there we parked and walked around downtown Capitola. We watched some people surf near the kelp beds and I saw a harbor seal! I bought a swim suite and then we headed to the beach that Tyler used to go to with his friends who's father used to have a beach house right down there. The beach wasn't very warm but we kicked it in our swim suites just to say that we did. We walked all along the beach and saw crabs and sea anemones in the tidal pools! Once the sun started to set it got a lot colder so we headed into the little skate and surf part of town and ate dinner at Pleasure Pizza. After that we started the drive home but we HAD to pull off at this little spot we saw on our drive in. It was this crazy cove with caves and cliffs. We explored that till it got dark, jumped back in the car and drove home. (passed by this church called vintage church! haha)

Inside Pleasure Pizza

The cove near the highway and the railroad tracks that we explored on the way back. It was super creepy and cool at the same time.

Didn't have a light so we didn't go in far.

Day 07:
This morning we learned that Megan's parents (who were going to be visiting Will and Megan the day RIGHT after we leave which was supposed to be tomorrow) were going to be coming earlier than they thought so we had to figure something out if we wanted to stay one more day (and we did because critical mass was what we had planned for day 08 and we couldn't miss that!!). Will offered us the opportunity to stay at the apartment he had just moved out of because he was still paying rent there. We figured, why not? We packed up our stuff and put it in the car then jumped on the buss and took it down to the piers. We had on the agenda to go whale watching in the early morning but it was canceled due to high winds :(:(. I was bummed because I really wanted to go- next time maybe! Anyway, we did get a chance to follow the rest of our agenda which was to walk around the peers, go to Embarkedaro square, and then take advantage of the SF Museum of Modern Art's half price night (only cost us $6 haha)! We got a chance to do all of that!Hillarious! We also ate at Bubba Gump's (i know i am seriously unworthy because i STILL haven't seen Forrest Gump), went to an old school arcade game mechanical museum (terrifying), and walked around the old ships they had docked for visitors to see- like a floating museum. Seeing those old ships that we got a picture of the first day just heightened Tyler's dream of living on a giant old sail boat. I'm game. A highlight of the day was watching a bum hide behind some cut tree branches and scare people as they walked by. The single best thing that happened all day was, however, that while we were at the Museum of Modern Art, we found Waldo. After all of that we met up with Will and Meg for their friend (whome we have decided we absolutly LOVE) Mike Jutan the Canadian's birthday! We met up at a BBQ place near their apartment then went to this way fun bar where we played all these cool games like ski ball and stuff and then took those booth pictures. Yes we had to do it even though it cost like $3. Happy B-day Jutan!

When we got back to the car we headed out to find Will's old apartment. We got kinda lost and decided we were hungry. The first place we found that accepted cards (everyone only takes cash out there!!) was a Jack-in-the-Box so we went in to get some dinner. This bum approached Tyler and me and was like "pappa, pappa, get me some food!". It was so surprising that Tyler was like "uhh ok!" haha. I asked the guy what he wanted and he's all like "umm I'll have a number 1 with a large fries and coke". To which point I just kinda looked at him. He got the hint and changed his mind to getting a 99 cent burger with a small fries and coke. haha. It was all just really funny. We hooked him up and got ourselves some food then took off. After we found the apartment we settled in and found the air mattress Will said he had. He had the mattress but didn't have a pump. After about 5 minutes of unsuccessfully trying to BLOW it up- yes impossible, i know- I found a little foot bike pump. Tyler McGivered a plastic rig where the foot pump would work and, an hour or so later, we had the thing pumped up! hahahah. It held it's air all night and we were out of there first thing in the morning. What an adventurous day.

The cycling game we played at the arcade museum

The Gypsey Queen never actually gave me my fortune! SCAM!

No joke you pay this creepy thing to just shake and laugh it's terrifying

This one said "look inside to see a real monster! haha this is what we saw

Here Tyler paid 25 cents to see what a belly dancer did on her day off- turns out she undresses behind a curtain then takes a bath. 25 cents and not even a booty! haha. For the record- I was the one who was curious hahaha

Bubba Gumps- I'm tottally in Forrest's shoes. tottally

Thought this was a cool food stand fosho

Embarcadero Square was empty and the fountain wasn't on! wtf!

Enterence to the MOMA SF. Honestly the museum wasn't very impressive but it was fun to go anyway. Saw some sweet sculpture and was graced by an Alexander Calder piece (pictured next) so that was sweet. It's not every day you see a Calder in person. Made me think of you Geeta!

I love some of the art that makes it into museums haha

THE BEST PART OF THE WHOLE DAY WAS WE FOUND WALDO!!! This was taken out the window near the cafe at the MOMA SF! Click the photo to zoom in and see Waldo yourself! BUSTED!!!

Day 08:
Getting back to the city from Will's old place kinda out by the ocean we somehow got totally lost but ended up on St. Francis St. San Francisco I guess was named for St. Francis which made me kinda excited. If St. Francis saw the street named after him, though, he'd like flip in his grave. The houses had to have been worth millionS of dollars. haha. Today we decided to hit up the downtown area again, catch up with critical mass, and then go stay with Josh and Carrie before heading out to Tahoe and then back home. Before we deiced to park and jump on the bus again, Ty came with me down to the beach I had gone running to a few days before. We spent way longer than we expected on that beach collecting sea glass and trying to advert our eyes when encountering a naked man tanning by the rocks!!! ahh! haha.
We finally realized how late it was and took off for downtown to try to catch Critical Mass! Originally we were going to bring our bicycles and ride in it but we decided against that. Maybe we'd rent bikes but we decided against that too (because it was so late in the day!). Instead we just went to where all the cyclists meet and just tried to take it all in. In SF there is actually a legit police escort for critical mass so they can go through lights and stuff. Good thing because there seemed to be about 800-1000 riders. Tons of fixed gears and mountain bikers but not ONE tall bike. No kidding! It was way cool. We'll ride in it next time fosho. After that we decided to walk around. We hit up China town for a bit then decided that we HAD to take one of those street cars we kept seeing so we took a ride in one of those too. Tyler got to see his favorite building in all of SF and I got to get one last walk through downtown before heading out that evening. We took some photos, took the bus back to our car, ate some curry at this place called Volcano Curry, and then took off toward Josh's house across the Bay bridge. Josh had his guest room all ready for us and we crashed! Goodbye SF!

The beach near Will and Meg's house again

SF Critical Mass! With a police escort!

Cable cars were just part of the normal bus system so we took a ride!

interior of the cable car

more china town

T's fav building

We <3 SF

Day 09:
Woke up and had a big breakfast with Josh and Carrie as well as their roommate (Eric?) and his girlfriend Jess. As we were telling them of our plans to go to Lake Tahoe for one night Jess offered us her family's cottage to stay in! Holy crappp! So we drove to Lake Tahoe (and stopped at In&Out burger along the way! WOO!), pulled into their BEAUTIFUL cottage in the Tahoe Keys, unloaded then went.... MOUNTAIN BIKING TO THE BEACH! We met one of their neighbors named George and he showed us the trails to take. We watched the sunset, made dinner, and just had an overall fab night. They gave us permission to stay the next night too!!!!

Our drive to Lake Tahoe. T is wearing a new shirt he got in Berkley

My first peek at LT

Our own private cottage in the LT Keys!

a peek inside

The view from their balcony in the back

biking to the beach

Sorry Lake Michigan but Lake Tahoe wins when it comes to beauty!

Tyler lived near Lake Tahoe too and thanks to him we were right at home in this place, one of his favorite in the wold.

The water was FREEZING but that didn't stop us from swimming the next day

I have the best boyfriend in the world

We are cuter than you.

Sunset from their back balcony

epic

Day 10:
Went to the grocery store to prepare for our trip home tomorrow and got some chinese food for lunch! Went kayaking through they keys and then out into Lake Tahoe. We got rained on while we were out there but not bad. We watched ospreys dive for fish and Tyler saw an Otter- scared an otter I should say. The poor thing almost got nailed with a paddle! After we got home we decided to go mountain biking again back to Pope's beach where we were yesterday. I layed out while Ty bummed around the beach. FINALLY A BEACH WHERE IT WAS WARM ENOUGH TO BE IN BATHING SUITES! We even went into the water looking for pyrite (fools gold). The water was insanely freezing so we didn't do that for long. I went out up to my shoulders and Ty up to his chest! hahaha people on the beach probably though we were nuts, wait- NOBODY WAS ON THE BEACH. We were at Lake Tahoe like practically ALONE! It was insanely beautiful and awesome.
When we got back we went FISHING off of their dock and I caught 3 fish! (not like it was hard- they'd acutally jump OUT of the water for a piece of cheese.) The first was a bule-gill, the second a sunfish and the third was a small lake trout! We saw a HUGE bass and we got it to bight but didn't catch it. I think the hook was too small. We saw tons of wildlife while we were in Tahoe- A beaver, an otter, a raccoon, bats, mice, voles, fish, lizzards, birds, eagles, hawks, you name it! Once it was way to dark to even see the bats catching water bugs we went inside and made burritos. We watched some TV, read some of the fun fact books they had laying around, talked for hours, and finally hit the sack. What a great day to end a great vacation!

view from the Tahoe Keys

KAYAKING!

in our boats!

The water is so clear you can see through it like forever.

click it to see a larger and more epic photo.

FISHING!

Tyler didn't catch anything so sad

Probably because God knew if he caught a fish he was gonna throw it to this guy and everyone knows there's no such thing as a free lunch

fish # 3 caught by me

brown bat caught on camera by T. Click the image and you'll see a sweet close-up

Day 11 (the final day):
We woke up and cleaned the house before taking off. We wrote in their cottage journal (that was the one request Jess's family had of us- "write in the journal!") alongside all of the other people who had been blessed with a stay there. When we drove through South Lake Tahoe we stopped and picked up a few "Keep Tahoe Blue" stickers. As of right now that sticker is the ONLY sticker tyler thought worthy of putting on his car. The ride home was rainy. The desert was green and in bloom and the rain just kept coming. At one point, when we were in a mountainous area, we saw a land slide JUST starting. If we were five minutes later the road would have been closed and we would have been stopped indefinitely! We were lucky and snuck through before the whole mountain turned to mud. Out there in the country there is no trees, only desert and dust. Flash floods were everywhere and then.... HAIL! Yes it started hailing marble sized hail on us. It stopped as quickly as it started and we kept going. The desert seemed to be under water. Same with the salt flats, so much of them were submerged. Crazy!
Despite all of the storms we made it home safe and sound. Yet another epic Tyler and Chelsea adventure under our belts (as well as over a thousand photos that Tyler and I took with his new digital slr camera. oi). What's next for us? Who knows!
Thanks to everyone who welcomed us and made this trip possible!!!

hail!

Wendover and the Salt Flats beyond

epic death over the salt flats which were pretty-much underwater at the time
Alas, we made it home safe and sound! I'd do the whole thing over again in a heartbeat.
God bless you all!

We could be closer than you know.

2009-06-04T19:29:00.000-06:00

The Name of the Rose: including Postscript to the Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
This book's historical contex was the best part. Other than that I just personally didn't like how it was written. The author is great, just not my style.

View all my reviews.

oh so updated

2009-05-18T22:27:00.002-06:00

WOO! Life has been pretty awesome lately. Although job hunting is hard, it's exhilarating and it's also nice to be in the change-mode again. I love change!!! If anything, it's taught me that I have many skills and, although I've been trying to develop one specific set of those skills, the others are still there. Sooo, instead of sitting around in Utah, I'm looking for jobs all over and will be headed to San Francisco for a while to be available and do an extensive search out there. Thank you Will for letting us crash at your place! I'm super stoked. Of the million jobs I've applied to in Utah, there are like 3 jobs that I know of right now that I would be super stoked to get. The others are just lame but hey they're jobs.

I make it sound like I don't have a job. I do have a job- I've developed a sales position for a catering company, built them a website, and will be doing all of their sales for 10%. Not bad if you ask me. We won't be starting just yet but soon. It's awesome because it will be something I can do in my spare time and still benefit from. Some nice extra income. I assume it will take a while to kick off... who knows. So that's good, right?

Other than that, I've been running again and have lost almost 10 pounds. haha. It's a good thing, too, because summer is here and the less extra weight the better. It gets HOT in Utah but it's not nearly as bad as it was in Savannah. In Savvy it would get to be 100 but the humidity would be so bad that if you didn't have your de-humidifier on you would have puddles all over your house just from the atmosphere. Every time I think that Utah heat sucks I remember that humidity and it gets a little easier to commute around.

Anyway, that's my quick update. No internet at home so I've grown a lot and have read a lot and am much more social. I've realized that being online all day with all that crap kids do online really makes life boring and crappy. Never again! I will, however, continue this blog more often (hopefully) if I even think of it. I'll fosho post photos from SF and updates on if George Lucas wants to hire me. haha

We could be closer than you know.

acupuncture!

2009-04-07T11:07:00.002-06:00

My doctor prescribed acupuncture for my adrenal and blood sugar issues. I have been doing this twice a week for the past 2 weeks. It's worked. No kidding!

Almost platinum

2009-03-15T22:36:00.003-06:00

'nuff said.

Oh there is hope! CALL FOR DONATIONS!

2009-03-05T11:48:00.002-07:00

My closest girlfriend in Salt Lake City is having a BABY! Her husband and her are super excited but are on a super tight budget.
They don't have health insurance and so I decided to start a little donation fund for them. My goal is 5,000 bucks(the apx amount of delivery fee)! If you can help in any way please contact me and let me know!!!! I'm SO EXCITED!!! Lets do this!
If you have any other ideas on how I can raise money please let me know as well. I'm thinking of doing a benefit concert. Anyone interested in helping?

I'm throwing in 100 and my family threw in 100. I got 30 from some other friends so the meter is already at 230!
Lets continue to prove that THERE IS HOPE and that we are not controlled by money! We can ban together and take care of each other in times of need. fosho!

Thanks! Everything helps!

WE

2009-03-04T15:56:00.001-07:00

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
We was the first fiction book I've read in about 6 or 7 years. How refreshing to finally open a fiction again! I got the book by walking into a used bookstore and saying "I think it's time for fiction and have no idea where to start... maybe science fiction?" The guy behind the counter smiled and led me straight to this book. The history behind the author's struggles was enough to catch my attention so I gave it a try. I couldn't put it down! The story is provocative and captivating- quite a thinker fosho. I really enjoyed it and now I'm honestly toying with the idea of reading all of the books that it inspired: brave new world, 1984, etc. No. I haven't read either of those yet. haha

It's a pretty quick read and well worth the time.

View all my reviews.

Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science!!!

2009-02-20T21:51:00.000-07:00

Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science by Jeff Meldrum

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I'm moderately embarrassed that this book was so compelling. I loved it and I'm going to send it to my dad right away because I know he'll love it too. There are like no words for how much fun this book is. I just think it's so amazing that the Earth is so vast and that there's so much possibility. Just awesome.

View all my reviews.

Got another article published!

2009-02-06T16:05:00.004-07:00

SLUG MAG (Salt Lake Underground) published another piece of mine. I love being able to pick up a monthly magazine (at like ANY store in SLC) and see an article I spent time working on! Thanks SLUG! You can view the article online at their website here: http://www.slugmag.com/article.php?id=1571

We could be closer than you know.

Book Review: The Irrisistable Revolution

2009-01-02T09:42:00.002-07:00

The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical by Shane Claiborne

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is by far the best book I have ever read... ever.

Don't be fooled by people's bad reviews of the book- Many are called but few will follow. Dive in and dare to dream!!!

View all my reviews.

Book Review: The Good Life

2008-12-29T09:36:00.000-07:00

The Good Life by Helen Nearing

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
The ideas presented in this book were both daring and delightful. It was such an appropriate read for the financial scare we've been in (and comforting!. How empowering that two people with no farming experience learned to care for themselves and their community through their studies and just trial and error. I picked up a ton of tips in this book that can help even the deepest city dweller appreciate the world around them and communities they live in. The book also helped me understand why some people choose to live outside the concrete jungle. I won't lie- they do paint a fairly romantic picture of a simple way of living off of the land in the country and, as they point their fingers away from materialism, I wonder if every Christian couldn't learn a little something from the Nearings. It was a very refreshing read.

View all my reviews.

Book Review: St. Francis of Assisi

2008-11-12T11:35:00.005-07:00

St. Francis of Assisi by G.K. Chesterton

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
There are quotes from this book that I will forever hold dear to my heart. He also painted a lovely picture of Christ and His love for humanity- one I have never considered or seen before.

I really had a hard time, however, getting through the first few chapters of this book. I had originally decided to give it only 1 star UNTIL I got to the last 3 chapters. In the last 3 chapters everything from the first few chapters, of what I thought was just garble, came together to make the book a real worth-wile read. I won't lie, though, G.K. Chesterton needs to learn to use better grammar and say things only once. He has this habit of repeating the same thing over like 4 times in different ways before moving onto the next point. Above all, though, this books was worth the quick read.

View all my reviews.

Bigger Better Game 03

2008-10-21T10:16:00.003-06:00

A few weeks ago someone finally traded me this computer monitor for the Red Butte Garden Tickets. I estimate the price of this used monitor to be a little more than the tickets were worth so that's good. I have only gotten a few bights at it on craigslist so we'll see.

Last Value: 6 VIP tix to Red Butte Garden $36.00
Current Item Value: Sylvania SC171 17" computer monitor Apx. $60

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

Book Review: An Eames Primer

2008-10-20T00:32:00.001-06:00

An Eames Primer by Eames Demetrios

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. It can be slow at parts if you aren't interested in the art-form being discussed but, overall, it's awesome. The perception of the process of art and how Charles and Ray Eames brought perspective to design through simple humanity and problem-solving techniques really elevated my understanding of the design world. It also gave me a new found appreciation for the warehouse art studio I currently work in as well as a history to grab hold of when it comes to my own struggles as an artist pursuing honest art as a way of life. Woo!

View all my reviews.

Hawk!

2008-10-12T13:35:00.000-06:00

New York City, New York Day 2

2008-09-27T13:58:00.000-06:00

So my second day in Manhattan was everything I hoped a second day could be. Brigid's birthday was actually this day and her friends made her lots of cakes of all sorts.

In the AM we went and got some of that lovely oatmeal and then planned our day. I wanted to hit some art museums but we slept in pretty late so we decided that it would be smart to just go to one and try to give it an appropriate amount of our time. I chose the MET. Next time in in NYC I'll check out the Guggenheim and the MOMA.

The reason I chose the MET was because of my college graduation ceremony. The director of the MET, Philippe de Montebello, was our speaker at the ceremony. Honestly, before that I didn't know a think about him or the MET. His speach was so astounding and encouraging that I just had to go to the MET while he was still the director. He announced earlier this year that, after over 30 years of service to the MET and the USA as a whole, he was going to be retiring by the end of 2008. His story is quite remarkable and, if I could find a biography of him I'd post where to get it here but I can't, I'll try to get the transcript of the speech he gave and post it someday because it's definitely worth the read. Anyway this is why I chose the MET.

And what a good choice it was!

Man, I think Geeta and I could have spent like 48 hours in the MET and we still wouldn't have seen everything. To keep things short, my favorite parts were:

1. The Egyptian Temple of Dendur (c.a. 15 BC) that they moved stone for stone from Egypt to the MET in order to save it from flooding in Egypt.
The best thing about this Temple is the graffiti carved into the ancient ancient structure by fools from the 1700's and the 1800's. Literally "Joe-schmo was here in 1816" types of stuff... in all different languages and stuff. Hilarious! Those "tags" are now forever preserved at the MET. What an honor. haha

2. Chuck Close's work. I studied him pretty thoroughly during my years in Art School but have never actually seen any of his work in person. It's amazing and just makes me enjoy humanity.

3. Georgia O'Keeffe's work. I've loved her work since like 3rd grade when I had to do a report on her. I've seen some of her paintings in person before but never so many at once.

4. And this.
Yes folks that's bike frame art on display in the middle of the contemporary art wing of the MET. Not sure much about it I just thought I'd add it. Pretty appropriate considering why I was in NYC in the first place. haha.

I was pretty sad to leave the MET. Next time I'm in NYC I'm going to dedicate a WHOLE DAY to it. Oh, here's a fun fact- the MET has a huge cafeteria with it's own sushi chef! Yes, for a snack you can have MET sushi. Yes, of COURSE we did it. This museum really got me thinking... about war. Yes, war. If another nation decided to attack us and bomb the heck out of New York, or any other city for that matter, it's not just an attack on one group of people- it's an attack on all of humanity. We have HUMANITY's history and art in that museum and many many originals. We have art form the WORLD that makes up such an important human history. I can't imagine our loss if it was destroyed because of diplomatic differences. The same, however, can be said of any nation. How many museums have we Americans destroyed in other countries. How much of our own history has been lost alongside it? Art is such a unifying aspect of life. It's an international language and can ignite more feelings and meaning than almost any other form of expression. A book can be written about ideas or a story and then translated but you never have to translate a painting, a sculpture, a photograph. It just all hit me at once how petty our differences are and how precious our history is. How man cultures are there in humanity's past that we know NOTHING about?! If NYC ever got nuked so much of the earth's history would be lost. How much is lost already?
ugh
Anyway,

On the way to the MET we strolled through Central Park. The whole walk only look us like 30 minutes IF THAT. She is so lucky to live so close to all of these wonderful things.

Ok fast forward to that evening. Brigid and her friends all decided they should have a birthday dinner at the Chinese food restaurant right across the street from Columbia. We did this and I invited a few old friends. Margot, my very best friend from high school who I haven't seen in like 4 years came with her girlfriend. One of my closest friends from SCAD, Abigail, came with another friend who just recently moved to NYC from Utah, James. OH MY GOSH IT WAS SOOOO GOOD TO SEE THEM!!!!! Margot only stayed for a bit but I got to catch up with her and finally meet her girlfriend! They look awesome and I'm so glad they are doing well.

I didn't get a photo of Abigail, James, and I for some stupid reason but we hung out much later into the night. We took a few laps around the block that Geeta lives on and talked and talked. It was sooo refreshing to see them. Abigail is one of my most esteemed friends and what she brings to the world is so important. She has her priorities straight and constantly encourages me to continue to follow my dreams. I love her a lot. It was great seeing James too because we miss him so much here in SLC! James was my very first friend here in SLC because he knew Abigail and she helped me move in! It's good to know I have friends like these in New York. I can't wait to see them again. Oh my gosh I almost forgot, while we were walking and catching up a RAT literally ran over all of our feet. Abigail FREAKED out and that got me freaking out an James like KICKED it into the park. HAHa we survived a NYC rat attack!

So we finally got to bed late, but only after getting some music from Geeta's awesome friend CHRIS. YOU ARE AWESOME CHRIS THANKS FOR THE HOOKUP! Thank God there's at least ONE hardcore kid at Columbia. He lives down the hall from Brigid and even helped come and pick me up the first night I was there... good because two girls alone with a HUGE BOX on the subways at 3am without a big hardcore kid is not a good idea ;) Thanks Chris!

So the next morning we really just took it easy. We got up, ate some food, went to this church down the street from her school, and then I went back to sleep untill like 2pm.

The view from her dorm room on this rainy morning
I said my goodbyes and then Geeta and I jumped on the subway to Penn Staion where it was then up to me to figure out how the heck to take the train all of the way to NJ to my airport in Newark. It turned out to be not as hard as I thought although it was like, um, total chaos. There are seriously like NO rail-station people around to help you... you have to do everything through computer and then when your train comes you have no idea what rail it's going to be on until it actually GETS there and then you have to like RUN to the correct door that leads to it's tracks. Then you have to fight your way through the door and get your luggage stored (i didn't have anything but a backpack thank GOD) and then sit as fast as you can so you actually have a seat. THEN you look around and realize that the train is tottally packed and there are people seriously standing. I mean do they ever cut off the tickets at capacity??! I guess not. I mean seriously! Then you have to listen and MAKE SURE you get off at the right stop because there are NO MAPS IN THE TRAIN so you have to talk to like random people and make sure you know what's up. The problem is that most people don't have any clue what's up. haha. Somehow by God's good grace I ended up at the airport checking in only to hear....

that my airplane is like an hour behind and that it was going to be literally impossible to make my connecting flight in Dallas. Yes the flight I was absolutely going to miss happened to be the last flight of the night out of Dallas to SLC so, before I even got through security I knew I was going to be spending the night in my connecting city. Gag. Even better, I guess the plane with late because of weather so here's the guy at the ticketing booth telling me that not only will i have to spend the night in Dallas but that they won't pay for a place for me to stay so my options are either pay 50 bucks for a hotel room or sleep in the airport.

The flight was lovely but Dallas... DALLAS?! Lame. Anyway I ended up going the hotel rout and after waiting over an hour for the shuttle to pick me up I ended up at a relatively nice hotel. I saved some money on the room because I got some sort of discount but it was still 50 bucks and I had to get dinner. There was a sleezy sports bar next to the hotel (the only restaurant around) and six flags was literally in my backyard but closed for some reason. Closed? It was only like 10:30pm. Maybe the season is over for 6 flags? Who knows. Anyway I got a sandwich to go from the bar and then watched TV till I passed out. Got up the next morning, got free breakfast, and got GOING. I was back in SLC by 1pm and went straight to bed.

What a trip. Would I do it again? Yes of COURSE.. however I'm going to wait until I have enough money saved up to do it next time. No more credit card trips fosho. It's ironic isn't it? I'm in NYC during Wall Street's demise and I'm doing exactly what crashed the markets- living beyond my means... for the last time. woo!

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

New York City, NY Day 01

2008-09-26T22:27:00.000-06:00

I'm starting off this blog with photos of the market where my sister gets groceries. It's actually a pretty big market and has everything you'd ever need but it's so intensely small. I mean I never really realized how relaxed we are in downtown SLC until I set foot in this place. I mean our grocery stores take up like an entire square block... hers is about the size of my apartment but I'd argue maybe has even MORE food and choices than your local Smiths or Albertsons. Seriously, forget using a cart. The isles aren't even three feet wide.

I know a few ppl in SLC that wouldnt even be able to get through that isle to buy food... time to slim down just to grocery shop. awesome! haha

Oh stop it. I haven't been to NYC in like 10 years so I can get excited about whatever I want to get excited about. haha
So here's the breakdown. I haven't been with my sister on her birthday in like 6 years (maybe 7). She just graduated from high school and is attending Columbia AND Julliard in New York City on fat scholarships for a 5 year duel program. For a birthday, graduation, and congratulations present I decided to build her a custom bicycle to use while she lives in NYC. I compiled all of the parts, painted, shined, etc. all in SLC and then boxed them up and brought them via airplane all of the way out to NYC to build her up a bike on her birthday. Woo!

I arrived last night (thursday evening) at 3:30am. After catching train after train and meeting some wonderful people (2 new friends made from London and Ghana!) and getting soaked in the rain, I finally plugged in the blow-up mattress that my sister rented me for the weekend. I'm staying with her in her single dorm room at Columbia University. I laid down, closed my eyes and, then, before I knew it, it was 10am.

My sister stayed up a little after me and was awake before I was. It feels AWESOME to be chilling in a college dorm without any deadlines above my head. While she was finishing a paper I was sleeping. It was the best feeling ever. (sorry sister!) haha. Columbia has a beautiful campus. Their library alone seems to be larger than Utah's state capital... and dare I say... much more majestic. Aside from the constant rain and the very slippery ground surrounding each building, it's a nearly perfect university. It's not too large, not too small. The campus doesn't go on forever but includes everything it needs AND they have tons of great food I can actually eat in their cafe. This morning I had perfect oatmeal with grapes and flax. It was yummy.

After breakfast I spent the rest of the time building her bicycle. The only thing that really gave me trouble was her front break. I brought the wrong size break and so we had to make a few stops at bike shops to get it right. We finally found one that could help, however they didn't do a very good job. It's workable but I have to get it to a better shop tomorrow morning to make sure that it's in perfect working condition for her before I leave.

The box I dragged across the country

Workin' on Geeta's bike

I am SOOOO proud of this finished bicycle. Here it is in all of it's glory!

I rented a little commuter bike downtown for pretty cheap (since it was raining the shop gave me a pretty good discount) and we tried to catch the NYC Critical Mass but missed it by about 30 mins. This is a total bummer obviously but not to worry... we still had a grand time on her maiden voyage! We rode alongside the Hudson River on what is called (and appropriately so) the Riverside bike/ped path. It is GORGEOUS and bypasses all of the nasty roads. It runs throughout Manhattan island from top to bottom. What a great resource for commuters! It even has bicycle lights that are little lit-up bicycles that coincide with the traffic that sometimes runs alongside of it. We rode almost the whole thing.... in the rain!

Geeta on her bike in the rain with the Hudson River behind her.
After riding down Riverside for a while we ended up in Chelsea! How cool is that? We didn't even plan it. ANyway they have this huge complex called the Chelsea Peer that actually has an ice-skating rink on the roof of one of the buildings. We took a break there and re-grouped to plan the rest of the night.

Riding bikes on the roads here is like riding on highways so when we ended up in Soho and decided to walk the bikes around and find some food to eat. We both decided that my sister should get more used to her bike before we attack the roads. We found a burger joint and had a really filling dinner. I haven't had a burger in forever so it was a treat fosho! Afterwards we followed our noses (literally!)to a super cool little cookie place in Soho called Insomnia Cookies that is open late and even delivers their cookies right to your door. NO JOKE. Apparently there is one in Ann Arbor Michigan too.. just never knew it. As we all know I can't eat cookies but Geeta can so she went in and bought some. The guy actually gave her a free one for me just to be nice and she took it to give to a friend back in the dorms. She also took a carry out menu to try their delivery service during those late-night study sessions. Why wasn't there an Insomnia Cookies near my dorm when I was in college?!

Waiting on the burgers

decided to avoid the rain and catch the subway back

I'm always on trains with bikes.
I've rediscovered that my hair can actually look nice without a straightener... and that in humid places it is wavy and STAYS that way. I'm bent on growing it out now- my sisters hair looks amazing and it's long and actually low maintenance. Oh humidity. Funny, when I lived in Savannah and it was SUPER HUMID (wayyy worse than NY) I never had hair long enough to curl. Half of college I had dreads and the other half i had shorty hair. Anyway, bed time. We had a great day!

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

Working a real job 01

2008-09-22T13:16:00.000-06:00

So a few weeks ago I finally landed a full time "real" job in my field (not that freelance isn't a real job but... you know). I've been learning a TON and our studios are relatively close to where I live so I can just ride my bike every day which is totally a plus seeing as though I don't own a car...

Anyway, so today I get to work and I have a chance to sit down with some of our story board artists. Apparently they are in from New York to get some work done. Although I've been working with their storyboards since day-one of me working here, meeting with them really opened up my eyes to the behind the scenes aspects of story telling. I understood what their job was before this meeting HOWEVER I've never seen them work through some of the story's problems in person. Their workflow and ideas are brilliant. These guys are seriously master story-tellers and I feel so honored to be able to be part of their world. Luckily I'll get access to their ideas in person all week!

It's amazing how much you can learn while on the job. I think that I like this field of work more and more each day. The more I learn the more I'm convinced that I chose the right school, focus, city to live in, and so on. I mean how blessed am I to be absorbing and learning from these skilled artists and to be sitting right beside them as part of a team that is slowly bringing a huge piece of art to life?

So far so good.
We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

Bigger Better Game 02

2008-09-12T19:07:00.000-06:00

After ALMOST making a trade for a brand new blender, I finally hooked up with someone else and made a trade for these 6 VIP passes to The University of Utah's Red Butte Gardens. Eh, they are each worth like 6 bucks and expire the last day of the year. Already one of my co-workers is interested in trading me something bigger or better for them. I just posted an ad on Craigslist as well.

Last Value: Original Painting (cost to make) apx $6.00
Current Item Value: 6 VIP tix to Red Butte Garden $36.00

mooovin on up!

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

Bigger and Better Game 01

2008-08-03T18:33:00.000-06:00

So I started playing the bigger and better game online.

Explenation here
I'm not expecting to get a house like the guy in the article but, after reading a handfull of articles online JUST like the one I linked to above, I figured I'd be stupid if I didn't at least have my OWN bigger better game going. It's not like it's going to take up a lot of my time. Get object, put object online, trade for something fun, rinse and repeat.

I put two items up for trade: An old mountain bike I got from a friend and a painting that I did in like 2 mintues on a 2 dollar canvas with left-over spray paint that I was SURE would never sell for anything.

As it turns out the painting was worth a $55 brand new never opened blender to a guy who wants it in his newborn's bedroom. I get the blender tuesday. I'll be following up with updates here. I'm still laughing about my quick trade. Maybe this will actually work.

...it starts...
-c

Another Flyer I made

2008-08-03T13:09:00.001-06:00

I'm starting to like making flyers for things... I'm also learning a ton. I'm going to keep posting them here:)

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

The death of common sense...

2008-08-02T15:22:00.000-06:00

This one is shorter but shares tottally different info AS WELL AS A SOLUTION:

I won't say I told you so..

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

The first SLC girly bike gang

2008-07-26T18:11:00.000-06:00

...The FTP hosting our first official weekly ride! I'm so proud of this flyer I could squeal. I'm no graphic designer but I figure it looks pretty good, eh?

I rode around yesterday and gave this flyer to every woman I could find on a bike. I'm excited to get this community growing. Now if only people were just as easy to convince about faith as they are about icecream and bicycle riding.

(and no i cannot eat ice cream but I'm so over it)
We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea
ps> Remember "Hands and Feet" by Audio Adrenaline? I like that song. haha

GoodReads

2008-07-24T17:06:00.000-06:00

I just joined an online book club. Yes I know stop laughing. It's aweosme:

my profile is here
so check it out! You should probably join too because knowledge is important and awesome. There is this group on there that I snagged a membership to called God Books that Don't Suck. How great is that? Oh yeah, and they have a little book shelf widgit thingy for the sidebar of my blog. Super excited about that so I can show off how intellectual I am. haha. Anywhichway check out what I've been reading! If you scroll your cursor over one of the book images it shows you my rating for that book, etc. If ya click one of them you will be taken directly to my review of it.
Anyway check out WWW.GOODREADS.COM if anything.

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

Bike-IN movie!

2008-07-20T16:02:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago some friends and participated in the first-ever Salt Lake City Bike-IN Movie!

My boyfriend and another part of the cycling community organized it and it turned out great! We had about 20 people who came with us and saw Zohan (lamest movie ever but oh well it was fun). We had a dude in a car meet us out there with these portable speakers he had hooked up to his vehicle. They were loud and booming so we heard the movie great. We'll be doing another one pretty soon. Woo!

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

Bloomfield Hills, Michigan July 2008

2008-07-20T11:26:00.000-06:00

It's not that I hate to admit it... It's just that... well... YES. I'm one of them.

The Babbish family have long been great contributors to the world of sports- specifically Golf. My grandpa "Pops" was a world class golfer and he knew many famous people because of the sport. He golfed with President Eisenhower, Bing Crosby, and even Chuck Taylor (used to get 2 pairs of Chucks in the mail for free every year). Now, even, at 93 or something years old, my Pops still golfs 3 times a week. Don't get me wrong, I love sports and I think that athleticism runs in my blood BUT I have never once golfed. My immediate family golfs once in a while but, lately, we have decided to contribute to the world of Croquet and, like I said, YES i'm one of them.

There was a better shot of this last one but for some reason I liked the blurry one better. Anyway, finally getting a chance to go back to the BFH was nice. I didn't stay long but got a chance to see almost everyone that I wanted to. I felt pretty good (not PERFECTLY on top of my game but ok) and had a great time. I'll be back again in November if all goes well. Woo! It's nice to be able to travel again and not be so freaked out that I'm going to be sick and freaking out. Thank the Lord.

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

Mel Bay's Flatpicking Guitar Book

2008-06-26T14:37:00.000-06:00

So, along side reading and leisure time as a healing precaution, I decided to GREATLY narrow down my extra curricular artistic interests to.... say.... ONE.
This doesn't count film/production work since that is my chosen vocation and job. What I'm talking about is the art I do outside of my normal work. Previously, here was the list of things I was either doing, or working on learning to do:

Painting
Scriptwriting
Digital Design
Web Design
Drawing
Playing the guitar
Sculpting
Spray Art (different from my conventional painting)
and illustration

I finally realized that, in trying to do and/or learn all of these separate things as extra-art hobbies I wasn't getting good at any one thing and, that particular fact was just one of the things stressing me out. I WANT TO DO IT ALL! Yes, but, for the time being I decided I will just focus on ONE so... after a few weeks of hard-pressed decision making I made a significant realization:

My WHOLE life has been influenced by music- specifically songs written with words. Since I was bearly walking my dad had me playing a musical instrument- the violin. That progressed to the trumpet, I snacked on the french horn for a bit, and then moved full-fledge to the guitar. Whenever things got rough in college or I was too "stressed out" and my life wasn't "going as planned" it was obvious right away from a notable lack of music surrounding me- not listening to it and absolutely not playing it. I even made a list when I was a freshman in college of all of the things that make me feel like a whole person- Faith, Sports (snowboarding and lacrosse) and playing the guitar/writing&enjoying music. 3 simple things that I Have to make time for in my life in order to feel like a complete person and I rarely make time for 2 of them. When the heck am I going to learn?

Anyway, point being, I chose the guitar. I CHOSE THE GUITAR. I threw away the list and chose for music, once again, to enter the book of my life as a dominant character. With music comes poetry and songwriting and then, blam, Chelsea is moderately whole again.

For an example of old-chelsea style scope out: my old poetry

I celebrated this decision by going out and buying a flatpicking bluegrass guitar book. Time to learn the basics that I skipped when I started playing in highschool. I'm going to make time every day to get through this book. My goal is to get through it by mid autumn. If I don't reach my goal I'll take a few lessons to boost my learning curve. The prob with my guitar playing is that I never crossed over the plateau of chords to lead and I didn't even know how to START. My songwriting has gotten boring and monogamous and needs to be spiced up. It's time to take the next step. After I learn a little more I hope to start playing with people again. I'm excited.

The book I got is Mel Bay's Complete Flatpicking Guitar Book (snore). Right now I am struggling through learning to "bass walk" and feeling like a total idiot.

I can't believe I never learned this stuff. Practice makes perfect I guess.

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

Plenty Magazine

2008-06-26T10:46:00.000-06:00

So, in light of me trying to heal and not over-do it getting myself into trouble by staying up late and doing too many crazy things... I've taken up all sorts of reading. So I'm not usually a magazine person but I just randomly grabbed this mag a few months ago at whole foods:

Funny, this month's issue happens to be about adventures, road trips, and the like and that is exactly whe I'm avoiding for at LEAST one more week haha.

I think this is the first magazine I've ever read cover to cover. The whole darn thing is interesting. It comes out every 2 months and I can't wait until August to get another one. There are so many progressive ideas in there- I feel like everyone should read it and that ANYONE could enjoy it. I haven't been able to find it anywhere but Whole Foods, and not just any Whole Foods carries it. The one nearest to my house doesn't have it- I stumbled upon it by accident at one a few miles away. I'm seriously not sure why I picked it up but I'm sure glad I did. I just read my second issue and I'm probably going to subscribe. www.plentymag.com

2008-06-15T00:13:00.000-06:00

WOO! We need as many people as possible to go to this or else we risk being turned away!

The Omnivore's Dilemma

2008-06-08T20:53:00.000-06:00

I officially finished Michael Pollan's "Omnivore's Dilemma" and I'm happy to say that it was great. Joe at Nobrow Coffee recommended this book to me just short of a year ago and, although it took me a few months to actually consider and another few months to read, I'm super glad that he did. I actually enjoyed it's depth so much that i mailed a copy to my dad before i was even finished with it. This book is so meaty (and Pollan likes to tell long stories which isn't bad just, well, long). While reading it I decided to do some other reading and take breaks in between the different sections of the book and that did me well. Again, I'm super glad I've read it and I feel like it was a good one to accomplish- especially in light of my new eating issues and medically-forced-upon-me diet. My eyes have been opened to so many issues surrounding what he calls "America's national eating disorder." From McDonalds, to the Big Organic Industry to the Polyface Farm to hunting and gathering I feel like a much more well-rounded consumer now that I've been through this book. You would not believe the secrets hidden inside. This book is absolutely for any American who wants to be a conscious consumer. Thanks Michael Pollan!

I have 3 new books that I've acquired during my time reading this book. I don't know what one to choose next. I'm excited to choose though and start a new literary journey tomorrow. I have a feeling it will end up being something related to the art world. We'll see.

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

C+T=<3 (Dinosaur, Colorado & Zion National Park, Utah)

2008-06-07T13:42:00.000-06:00

So Tyler and I have been officially together for over a year now. At our 6 month and 1 year anniversaries we took a road trip.

The C+T 6 month anniversary trip (last October 2007) had 3 goals:
1. Go to Dinosaur, Colorado
2. Scope out some beautiful autumn leaves in the mountain canyons on the way
and 3. Stay in Grand Junction at some fun hotel overnight and drive home.

So, because we didn't bring a map and didn't really care to much to plan, our trip ended up being a "drive-until-you-are-totally-lost-exhausted-and-out-of-gas-and-then-sleep-in-the-back-of-the-station-wagon-in-Vail-because-you-thought-you-were-in-Grand-Junction" trip. At least we made it to Dinosaur, CO and met ONE of our goals.

I think we saw about 5 minutes of cool leaves. Don't get me wrong the trip was really fun. Sometimes it's fun to just go.

The C+T 1 year anniversary trip had 2 goals:
1. go camping at Zion National Park in Southern Utah
and 2. Try to keep Chelsea's blood sugar stable so she can enjoy herself

WE ACCOMPLISHED BOTH GOALS! Here are some photos from the trip. We stayed in Zion for 3 days and slept for 2 nights all "camping-at-the-park-tent-luxury-style". We did learn, however, to plan a little better next time we go camping. It was super fun though and I love my boyfriend so much for being cool and liking to do things like this. woo!

YAY! I'm so lucky to have him....
We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

RED for my hunny, GOLD for the money!

2008-06-06T09:42:00.000-06:00

So my bike is moderately finished. Ok it's not even closed to being finished BUT it's ridable and I'm super proud of it. Eventually I'll get all gold components- for now, my spray painted handle bars and chain ring have worked out fine. It's a work in progress.

I love this bike!

Filmmaker's bible study

2008-06-05T12:23:00.000-06:00

This idea came from a subway lunch I had with Brother Robert yesterday. Finally! This is the perfect way to get involved at St.C's.

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

LIFE CHANGES fosho

2008-03-12T16:36:00.000-06:00

I guess everybody has to do it sometime... I have made some significant changes to my every-day life. Here's the list.

1.I am now part of the "fixie kid" epidemic because I finally finished building my fixed-gear bike. Sorry guys.

2. I have completely changed how I eat. As of February:
-there are ABSOLUTLY NO refined (table or other) sugar in my diet.
-there are ABSOLUTLY NO foods in my diet with sweeteners of any kind including natural sugars, artificial sweeteners, and honey. (this includes anything canned that contains any form of the word "sugar" in it's ingredients- even soup)
-I eat NO bleached white flour or white flour in general no matter how little of it is in whatever food has it.
-I eat NO yeast
-I consume no products with any caffeine
-I consume absolutely no alcohol
-I consume absolutely no vinegar
-there are no traces of potatoes or white rice in my diet at all

Will this diet last forever? Hopefully not. It does seem a little excessive, but, from everything I read it is exactly what I should be doing right now in order to start moving forward in this whole healing process. You can thank Hypoglycemia for this diet-change. Thank you.

3. I have totally changed how I LOOK at food. This can be attributed to the book

"The Omnivore's Dilemma" and the book
"In Defense of Food"

both by Michael Pollan. I am so greatfull for these two books and I recommend them to every single person on this planet. Start with the first then dive into the second. It really gives you hope for your health in the future through education about our eating habits and, well, good story-telling!
-note: my diet restrictions in #2 are NOT because of these books- they are because of an illness BUT these books have helped me find balance through it all.

4. I have gone and gotten myself a job outside the art-world!
-As of yesterday I've officially started my new job at Oakley School. The boarding school is for kids finishing up their treatment from all sorts of life's problems. I'm taking a position as a "House Coach" which means I'll be a mentor of sorts for them living with them for half a week at a time. There are so many perks of this job that I couldn't begin to list them. Best of all I'll be able to work with girls my little sister's age and help them love the life God's given them and live it to the fullest. I figure I can help them be the best that they can be and, all the while, LOVE doing it. I'm super excited.

-note: I will be able to continue all of the art stuff that I am into here as well as keep a moderately free schedule because I get in a whole weeks worth of work plus a TON of overtime over at the school during just one of my shifts since I sleep over. I'll be working 3 days at the school and 3 days off, then 4 days on and 4 days off. Perfect because I won't have to stop my current art stuff here in SLC yet I'll still be making a steady pay-check. It will be nice to not always be in search of freelance work I think.

5. My sleeping schedule (thanks to this new job) has and is still in the process of changing from: 4am-11:30am to 11pm-6:30am (ug... it's like I moved to Hawaii or something. I have jet lag from staying home. haha)

and

6. I've decided to start bringing my OWN grocery bags with me to the grocery shop. (I know this is like so minor but I thought it'd be worth adding haha) I started this today and was very successful except for the part where I wasn't thinking and used like 5 plastic bags when buying fruit and veggies. When I got home I was like ughhh... that was so counter productive seeing that the whole point of bringing my own bags was to reduce my use of plastic. I'll probably just re-use those plastic bags now that I have them. haha. I know this isn't a HUGE life change but it was nice walking the (exactly) 1/2 mile to the grocery store today instead of zooming on my bike. It enabled me to carry more AND I got a chance to break in my new running shoes. I feel nature-friendly.

Remember- Health=Farm Shelf=Harm I"M SO EXCITED for the farmer's market to start. I think it starts next month? Not sure. It will be nice to buy everything local again.
I'm proud to be part of SLC.

Anyway, talk about a serious Lenton season. I always DID get a lot out of Lent I guess.

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

SLC has been lovely

2008-03-04T17:50:00.000-07:00

So I'm all pumped about this new bike I've built up and how bling it is (see previous post and picture of it almost finished) and I'm cruising down the street and what do I see? This thing:

I was like oh my gosh seriously now I've got NOTHING. As it turns out, this kid had no idea about any of the SLC bicycle community as I know it- he just liked building fun bicycles. I've seen bikes like this before in magazines or online but not in Salt Lake. Pretty rad. He says there are plenty more where this came from (meaning he built more). Note the re-upholstered bananna seat that is now like purple zebra or whatever. How fun is this kid? The best part is that he actually rides this thing everywhere. I told him all about the U-bomb and other SLC rides that would be perfect for him. Hopefully we'll see him again soon.

It's getting warmer and it's lovely here! It is supposed to be 50 on Saturday :)
Just like Utah, the warm usually holds pretty well through the night so if it's 50 during the day it's usually in the 40's at night which is still nice. Spring is here?
There will still be few snows I'm sure but.... it looks like it!

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

sweet new ride...

2008-02-20T17:53:00.000-07:00

I've been slowly workin' on a new ride. Right now the whole thing is built out of recycled parts with the exception of the rims.

There are a few more components that I need to make gold before it's "finished". Yes I also need tubes with GOLD stems(the tires arent' shown here but i have a nice pair chillin just off frame) and... wait for it.... a GOLD CHAIN. I already technically have a gold chain- my buddy Patrick is giving me on he used to use on one of his old bikes. I'm just waiting for him to get his new one so I can grab it from him. I'm going to paint the cranks gold as well as the seat post. Eventually I'd love to buy this gold chain-ring and crank set online thats gold with little hearts in the negative space but that is pretty far off. For now it's chill being recycled and rattle canned. I got some car rim paint and a finish and primer that adher to metal really well. muahaha. so bling.

Notice the pedals and the "poof" pad. That's right- plastic pedals from a little kids bike along with a fun little poof pad. I have to go in with a sharpie and darken the diamonds on the poof pad though but that shouldn't take long. Haha I'm still laughing that I'm actually building myself a fixed gear. Well my boyfriend is building it with me- he is like the paint master fosho.

Some of you might remember my old little road bike:

I'm still on it every single day and will continue to be. I just think it's probably important to have two bikes ready to go incase one of them gets clobbered. The story might be different if I had a car... eh... naa I'd still build up the goldy:)

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

.home.

2008-02-09T17:09:00.000-07:00

Read this

As many of you have already heard, I have been dealing with a certain illness that has to do with my blood sugar and will probably continue to have to deal with it for a long time coming. No worries though, it's not the end of the world. I would, however, appreciate your prayers and patience with me during this trying time as I learn about what diet helps me the best. Darn sugars.

Other than that I'd like to say that I'm home and happy to be so. I have a few new adventures planned- one of which involves the season of LENT which is already upon us. This time last year I started another blog called the The Snowboarder Order to try to stay current with my beliefs and dig a little deeper into what Catholicism really means to me. haha. I haven't kept it up much aside from a quick blurp about Ron Paul and how important I think he is to Christians who believe in the freedoms we have been promised as Americans. I haven't canceled it, just haven't had something to post for a while. Soon, I'm sure. Anyway, when it comes to this lent I have a few other things planned. Keep your eyes peeled.

Lord, you'll get no sleep from my eyes.
We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

Portland, OR 1/28/2008

2008-01-29T18:01:00.000-07:00

First I'm going to spill the beans. I'm writing this from my home in Salt Lake City because Lydia and I decided that it would be the best idea for us to both fly home early instead of sticking it out until the tour comes through SLC (Feb 01). We were both just getting way too sick and, after one terrible sleep-less night, I made the decision- weary of possible future nights like this and the severe effects it might have on my oh so unsteady blood sugar related health problems. I later found out that our decision was a reallly smart one and I'm absolutely glad that I made it.

In my last post I explained that, instead of staying in San Fransisco, we decided to
start the treck toward Portland. The trip was supposed to take us around 10 hours and, we figured, between the 7 of us we would be able to drive all night and make it without a problem. I started the night driving because we were planning on staying at a friends house so the boys all celebrated Chris's 21st birthday. Lydia and I being the only two who didn't drink that night made me the pre-determined driver by default because Lydia was sick. This was fine and nobody was drunk or anything- after-all we were planning on only driving the mile or so to our friend's house. When we all made the decision that it would be safer to just start our treck north to Portland it was also me, by default, that would be the first to drive and that was just dandy by me. I love driving and, since I had sold my car in November, haven't had much time to drive at all in the past few months so I gladly took the wheel. Everything was great for the first 5 or so hours and Chris sat up front with me as my wingman while everybody slept. I love Chris and I enjoyed our conversation during those hours.

Things started to get a little shaky when, on the road, we were stopped and told that we would need chains for our tires to continue through Northern California. We were caught slightly off guard by this request so we had to turn the whole rig around and go to a walmart a few stops down. There we bought chains for the drive tires and what-not and then continued on our way. Chris took over the driving and Mattie as his wing-man while I sat in the back and tried to get some shut eye.

Sure enough, when we got to the out-post where everyone was stopping because of this required chain-thing, we found out that we were mis-informed and that, instead of putting chains only on the driving tires of the van, we would need chains on every single tire in our rig INCLUDING the trailer. Not having these and not wanting to go alll of the way back to the walmart, we decided to stop in that little mountain town to make a bathroom break and, hopefully buy the extra chains we needed at the gas station there.

When we stopped it turned out that the gas station wouldn't even be open officially for another hour. Good thing the bathrooms were outside because I really had to go. It was cold, we were all uncertain of what was ahead when it came to ice and cold, and everybody was exhausted, so we decided that the best thing to do would be to sleep until sunrise. This, however, turned out to be quite impossible for me for whatever reason- partially because there was little room in the van for sleep, partially because I had an energy drink of some sort not too long before, partially because I was freezing and didn't have a pillow or a blanket because I wasn't planning on sleeping in the car, and partially because I was already exhausted, hungry, and my blood sugar was going crazy.

After a ridiculously long night of me not sleeping but my brain starting to freak out because of this hypoglycemia problem, getting started again at sunrise after spending like 30 minutes figuring out the chains and then driving for .10 miles only to realize that they weren't required when the sun was up, and having like a mini mental freak out due to blood sugar and exhaustion, I made the decision to call someone up to buy me a plane ticket home from Portland (assuming we ever make it). It was a terribly long day of driving and trying my best to rest and stay calm while boys from Georgia (with next to no snow experience) navigated the icy and snowy mountain roads of Northern California and Oregon before we actually made it to Portland that evening. I think it took us around 17 hours in total of actual driving time to make it from San Fransisco to Portland. Oi.

Once we got there we hooked up with an old friend of the band's from Georgia. After everybody got settled, Mattie drove Lydia and I to where we were staying that night. We decided to stay with my old friend Rudy and his room mate and now awesome friend Michael in Portland instead of staying with the boys.
Michael and Rudy
Part of this decision was because I knew that it would be a good idea to stay someplace quiet where we could get some much needed rest although it was also in part because I promised Rudy that I'd stop by if I was ever in Portland. Here we were. What a good decision. Michael and Rudy was awesome to Lydia and I and made us feel comfortable with their warm hospitality. THANKS GUYS!
The Hiku board at their house. Mine is the first outsider's hiku! It reads:
We're here last minute
There's nothing like a rescue
The flat bed couch rules.
The next morning Rudy drove us to the airport and off we were on a direct flight (thank GOD) to SLC. My lovely boyfriend picked us up with flowers for both of us! The rest is history.

Although I backdated this entry to appear on the date I would have LIKEd to post it, I am actually writing this on February 4th. just short of a week from my flight. I have been sick and in bed for most of that week and am not FINALLY feeling good enough to venture out into the cold on my bicycle and look for jobs.

When I got home I found out that the job I was looking forward to coming home to is still so slow and has no accounts for us artists to work on. This means that all of the employees are out of work and we all need to probably find new jobs either indefinably or until they get enough work for us that we can come back. Who knows what will happen. All I know is that I need another job again and soon so I can pay bills for March. All of your prayers are greatly appreciated ;)

Chase and me on tour!
So, wait- Why was it such a good decision to come home early? As it turns out, the band got stuck in Portland and ended up missing a FEW shows. This delay put them about 24 hours behind in driving and they had to make, in their own words, "the most epic drive of our band's history" from about Portland to Denver and possibly further without much sleep and rest. They told me later that they are glad that we got to come home and that it would have been a terribly difficult drive for us two sick kids. What a blessing that we were able to be warm and at home while we were beating this illness instead of on AGAGAG's most epic drive ever. haha. I love those guys.

Oh what a life this is! Honestly I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm blessed to have a supportive family and an absolutely incredible and loving boyfriend who is always right at my side through thick and thin.

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

San Fransisco, CA- 01/27/08

2008-01-28T15:35:00.000-07:00

We made it to San Fran! I can't believe Lydia or I haven't died yet. (JUST KIDDING). Alcatraz!

Although Lydia is still really sick. She is a trooper and is pulling through pretty well. I still have a tough cough but, other than that and the fact that I realllly need a shower, I'm doing dandy. We drove the few hours it was from Sacramento to San Fransisco and go to Slims, the venue, a little early. Sadly, they didn't have a shower room or anything like that for the bands touring through so, instead of a full shower, I washed my hair in one of the band's private bathrooms sink style. The chill rooms for the bands at Slims were actually pretty nice. All of the bands got their own rooms far away from the crazy crowd. Most venues have rooms like this. These types of band-only chill-out rooms are commonly referred to as the "Green Room" or Green Rooms. When a venue has a nice Green Room then the venue is a nice venue.
To the left is a pic of Lydia at Slims feeling a tad bit better. Better enough to come in, sit down, and use the computer for a bit. While she was online I decided to walk around a little bit. I went by a few of your typical city blocks only to find out that I was a little out of the way from where I would rather be DOWNTOWN. It's chill though and I had a nice 30 min walk.

Yes, I agree, SanFransisco is weird.

So I'm all walking around SanFran and am finally getting a chance to talk on the phone with Tyler without tons of people around... FINALLY... when lo and behold. You would not believe what I walked by. Right there, on this off-broadway and out of the way street and block is, probably, the only thing that I know of San Fransisco: The Chrome Bag store and factory. Yes, folks and fellow cyclists, of all the places I get dumped out onto in San Fransisco I just happen to get dumped right down the street from the Chrome shop and walk right by it. haha. I don't even have a Chrome bag but I just thought it was hilarious that this was the only place I was at and the only thing I really saw of SanFran. Fixed Gear kids, eat your hearts out.

For those of you who don't know what Chrome is... A Chrome bag is like the trendiest bag of choice for cyclists around the United States and often the bag of choice for those most privileged cyclists who ride as bike messengers and bike couriers for a living. Nike is to basketball as Chrome is to cycling. Urban Outfitters is to indie-pop kids as Chrome is to fixed gear culture. It was hilarious. I'm so glad to have walked by that place.

The show was pretty cool. Again, I really liked this venue and had a good time at it. Although I wasn't technically allowed to film, I got away with it anyway and got some awesome shots of the AGAGAG show.

An old friend of AGAGAG named Frank who used to be in a band called Showbread (from Savannah just like AGAGAG) for a short while lives in SanFran and came out to hang out with us for a little. He offered us his house to stay in and we greatfully took him up on it. After the show, and Chris's(AGAGAG's bass player) 21st birthday celebration, we headed over to Frank's house. Frank lives like right smack dab in the middle of SanFran and, after looking for a safe place to park the van and the trailer we all decided that no such safe place exists at ALL anywhere near where Frank lives.

Our most logical option at that point was to try to get a few hours of driving in toward Portland where we would be staying for the next few days. Portland is a bit of a hike from SanFran so I decided to take the wheel and let everybody rest up for a long night's haul. We figured we could take it slow since we had the next night off before having to play in Seattle which is only a few hours from Portland. We had a few contacts in Portland to stay with so without further adoo, we took off.

All I have to say is that we absolutly should have just risked parking the van on the crime-ridden streets and stayed with Frank that night. I'll explain why in my next post.

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

Sacramento, CA- 01/26/08

2008-01-27T15:21:00.000-07:00

Seriously, for as lame as Palmdale was, Sacramento was awesome. I was still feeling really sick but, believe it
or not, you can really get better quick when the girl who had been picking up your slack when YOU were really sick gets... really sick. So Lydia had a fever today and so I had to pick up the slack. About 10 Day-time cold pills, 4 cups of mint tea, 7 cold-eeze zinc cough drops and 2 boxes of tissues later, I was running merch and selling out the best night of the tour so far! The shows were awesome, I got some video work done, and I made a few, as Tyler Durdan would say in Fight Club, single serving friends. I actually had a great time and really loved the venue. Everything about the night ruled except for the fact that I was worried about Lydia. She has it bad now. Thank God I'm getting a little better and we can trade off so she can sleep.
Oi Oi Oi.

This is Chase chillin with me behind the merch after the show. I love this kid.

I'm totally excited about going to San Fransisco tomorrow! I don't think the venue is downtown-downtown BUT it's not in a suburb that's for sure. I'm excited and I hope I feel good. We stayed in Sacramento tonight with a band we are on tour with called Dance Gavin Dance. They are moderately nice people but the house they let us stay in is the pits. They don't pay for heat so it is freezing and there isn't any toilet paper. We bought some for them so the girls could use the facilities but you can kiss taking a shower goodbye. It's FREEZING and cold in there. No hot water or anything. Lydia and I slept in the car instead of on their cold floor. I hope Lydia feels better. She has a fever and is sleeping in the van (which isn't really that bad at all. It stays warm and stuff but I'm sure she'd feel much more comfortable in a nice warm bed with adequate bathrooms, etc.) Tomorrow should be better... At least we are in a nice neighborhood.

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

Palmdale, California- 01/25/2008

2008-01-26T15:10:00.000-07:00

No offense to Palmdale but it was the worst experience ever. Not only was I sick and I slept in the car for the second half of the show, but, the show itself was lame. The kids were lame, the venue was cold and damp and lame, and we had to pay for food which was pizza which was lame. The only cool part of the show was the part where I sat behind the merch table and watched one of Jeff's (from Poison the Well) movies he let me borrow: Man Bights Dog. It was totally interesting and he rocks for letting me watch it.

Oh yeah...

We saw a rainbow on the way. Yay.

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

San Diego, CA- 01/24/08

2008-01-25T12:56:00.000-07:00

San Diego, CA

I woke up yesterday morning at my girl Lauren's house in San Diego and man I felt horrible. Thanks Glass House for keeping the doors open throughout the show keeping the whole place freezing cold and damp. (the temp was low and it rained all night) There is a bug going around and every body's band has been effected. I guess it was my turn. I had a fever and couldn't get very far without feeling very week. I sucked it up anyway and went with Laurena and Lydia to take Lydia to the beach for the first time in her life. She had never seen the ocean!!! That was a fun experience... except afterwards I felt like crappp. We stopped to meet one of Lauren's friends on the way back to her pad but by the time we got back I thought I was going to die.

SO- when everybody else went to the show, I stayed at Lauren's house to sleep. Thank GOD we were staying there for two night in a row or else I wouldn't have been able to do that. After sleeping almost all day except for the few times I ate, and listened to The Rock pod cast, and talked to my wonderful boyfriend, I felt a lot better. I slept all night and now, the next morning, I at least have enough strength to chill with everyone and push forward to the next show. This was a day of much needed rest.

My best sick pic
We just ate like the best breckfast I've ever had (including the worlds most amazing bacon!) and I'm ready for the rest of the day. Don't get me wrong, though, I think we are all going to try to take it easy for a few days. xo

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

Pomona, CA- 01/23/2008

2008-01-24T19:52:00.000-07:00

Pomona, CA
I was excited to go to the Glass House (the venue we were playing at) again. Tyler, Hawk, and I had all been there like 6 months ago for Facedown Fest and we had a great time. It was awesome going from a place where I have bad memories to a place where, not too long ago, I had experienced very good times. It was my last trip to Pomona with Tyler and Hawk that really made me aware of my feelings for Tyler. I had liked him for a while before we went but, for some reason, our road trip really drove it home for me. So, anyway, yea I love Pomona. Not to mention it's a way cute little city.

Too bad it rained and was freezing the whole time. The show was fun and I got some really pretty video footage of the boys but at the end of the night we were ALL getting sick. We decided to just drive to the place we are staying just north of San Diego so we could just sleep in and try not to get even more sick. Best part of this decision was because the girl we are staying with is one of my most trusted and beloved friends LAUREN WEEKS! YAYYYY it feels so good to be with her. I feel at home wherever she is and, I know she'd take care of us if we were sick (which we all pretty-much were after the damp cold venue and weather). So we drove to her place in Encenitas, CA and crashed... HARD.

Oh yeah, while at the Glass House, I got a chance to talk to a guy named Martin who was just plain awesome. It was awesome having his company for a good conversation! Thanks Martin! He is from a band that jumped on the tour for a few shows in California. Another member of his band named Matt has also been an awesome comrade for the last two days. I'm glad to have met the guys in that band.

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

Hollywood, CA-01/22/2008

2008-01-23T19:50:00.000-07:00

Hollywood, CA

We rolled into CA today just in time to load into the venue. The guys were playing at the Trouboudour in Hollywood and, apparently, that's a big deal. Hahahahaha. Sometimes I love being
clueless about certain aspects of pop-culture because it makes some people so angry. The fact that I had never even heard of this venue made some of the people working there so annoyed but I got a kick out of it. Turns out it's just one of the more famous venus on the planet or something and every famous musician has played there. It was a fun show but I seriously don't know what all the hype was about. They wouldn't let me film and stuff but I got some fun pictures. I've been taking pictures with this little point-and-shoot camera and, to sound perfectly pretentious, I'm used to a Digital SLR so it's been slightly frustrating learning how to make these pictures look good. Anyway I was sure to get the sign for the venue in all of the photos.

...Except this one :)

We stayed that night with a girl we knew from living in Savannah named Amanda. Her house was soooo cute! She lived in North Hollywood in this normal little neighborhood. It was very very different from what I remember of Hollywood from the times I'd spent there amid the hustle bustle and difficult relationships. I have to admit, I'd rather not ever be in the LA or Hollywood area after my experiences there. It sucked driving in and seeing so many familiar places. All those places reminded me of sad times and well yea whatever. I'm glad that now I have another HAPPY memory to add to the plethora of LA and Hollywood crap welled up inside of me. haha. Thank God for second chances!

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

Tempe, AZ-01/21/2008

2008-01-22T19:49:00.000-07:00

Tempe, AZ

Tempe was awesome! When we got into town it was warm... like 70 degrees warm! I had driven almost all night so I felt exhausted and wanted to sleep before the show. Thank God right there next to where we parked the van was a.... CATHOLIC NEWMAN CENTER! In case you don't know what that is, a Newman Center is connected to the Catholic church near a University and is like a building that serves as a safe place for students and the congregation alike. I walked in and there was a group meeting. I explained that I work sometimes at the Newman Center in SLC and asked if I could crash on their couch/use their bathroom to freshen up. They were soo cool. So I got to take a nap on one of their couches and even sing some worship with them. How awesome. Best part was that they all knew people from my church and there was even one guy FROM my church there that gave me a hug and said hi. How good is God?

Afterwards, Lydia and I had falafel and walked around in the wonderful temperature! I got a chance to buy the book that I left on the airplane on the way here, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and I also got a chance to mail some postcards. After walking around for a bit and seeing tons of bicycles everywhere (Tempe has more bicycles in it than I have EVER seen in any other city) we decided we wanted to rent some bikes and go riding before the show. The problem was, though, that we were on foot and had to walk to this bike shop across town to rent a bicycle. We walked to the shop (like 1.5 miles) just to find out that we have to walk to the OTHER side of town to their OTHER shop to rent a bike (3 miles or so). So we did that and, by then, it was getting late. The prices were too high to rent anyway so we decided to just walk the rest of the way to the venu which turned out to be another 1.5 miles or 2 or something. All this walking was terribly painful only because we were wearing crappy shoes. Turns out fashion flats aren't made for walking. I'm writing this post like 3 days later and my right foot STILL hurts really bad. haha.

When we made it to the venue the rest of the night was smooth sailing... except for the part where we stayed with some random chick that they knew who was not too cool and our van almost got stolen by tweekers. We made it through, though, and were off in the morning toward California.

I would like to take this time to re-illiterate how much I LOVE cacti. Seriously, folks, what cool plants. The deserts of Arizona are way cool to drive through and, when you stop for gas, it's like being in a road-trip movie. I want to go do that drive again someday on a motorcycle.

Yes, Arizona is cool.

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

San Antonio, TX Day 02-01/20/2008

2008-01-21T16:12:00.000-07:00

San Antonio, TX Day 02

Today we had the day off and I woke up in a lovely comfortable bed all well rested.What was the noise that awakened me at 10am? Chase was getting a tattoo. Matt, the guy whose family we were staying with (him, his wife, and his children) was tattooing Chase and getting ready to tattoo the other guys. They were getting the Team Zissou logo, each in a different place on their body. Chase, Danny, Derrek, and Chris all got this tattoo. We all ate breakfast and decided that we should go see CLOVERFIELD. We had talked with Poison the Well about it earlier the last night and they said they were going to go as well so we called them and decided to meet at the theater.
Cloverfield was one of the gnarliest movies I have ever seen. I can absolutely say that it was THE scariest movie I've ever seen fosho. Please go see it.
After watching the movie we all freaked out and talked about it for hours, chilled back at Matt's house, visited him at work at the tattoo shop, and got on the road to Arizona.

Welcome to Texas 01

Welcome to Texas 02
I drove a lot of the way to Arizona and Danny and I listened to "Coast to Coast" for a little while. I love talking to Danny- he's right on and straight up. Yay. Our plan was to drive all night and just deal with getting to Phoenix during the day. We figured we'd sleep at the venue or in a coffee house or something. What a crazy night.

Oh yeah, and I got to see cactus for the first time when we were going through New Mexico. I'd never been there... I've never been to Arizona for real too. This tour is really starting to be fun:)

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

San Antonio, TX Day 01-01/19/2008

2008-01-20T18:09:00.000-07:00

San Antonio Day 01, TX

So as we pulled into San Antonio it seemed like it might be another less than awesome night. Don't get me wrong, I've been having fun, it's just that yesterday was a harder day and we were rolling up into what seemed like a little more run down part of town. Nobody knew what to expect. Here are my beefs:

1. We aren't selling much merch so we're not making much gas money. We have to drive to Phoenix next and, before the show, we didn't even know if we'd have enough gas money from the band. The boys do NOT want to dip into their own pockets.

2. For myself, I just wasn't really feeling it from the other bands. I've introduced myself and everything but everyone still seems really awkward. I was worried that I'd never really get to know anyone else from the other bands and that we'd always just be random ppl on tour with the opening band.

3. I haven't started filming anything yet and I'm having trouble getting good ideas about what to do. I feel insignificant.

AND

4. It seems like the Dallas crowd just wasn't feeling the AGAGAG set. I mean not only was there hardly anyone there but we sold almost nothing and got almost no feed back.

SO.... I'm going to dedicate this post to how all of the above four points CHANGED for the better thanks to our time in San Antonio.

1. After the guys played (a killer show) people started flipping about them and were coming out to us kids selling merch pretty steadily. We were warned that night that we might not make any tips, and, we ended up getting tipped better than both the previous nights. We sold more than enough merch to get us to Phoenix and I'm sure the guys benefited from the on-rush of positive feed back. This really brought everybody up a notch in the excitement scale.

2. All of the other guys on tour were very friendly and outgoing tonight. It was like a 360 from the last night and I realized I was just jumping to conclusions and wanting too much instant gratification. People need to warm up to people and, as we all decided, a little kindness goes a long way. I had a great time getting to know some of them better today and am looking forward to the rest of the tour.

3. We all came up with great ideas on what to film.

4. See Number 01 :)

That night we crashed with the boy's tattoo artist: Matt. He moved from Savannah to San Antonio a while back and they were all excited to take advantage of his tattoo skills. It's wonderful staying with families. They had lasagna for us and comfortable sleeping accommodations. They even let us do our laundry and put popery on top of the clothes in the basket to make them smell wonderful. They were just plain great. They also introduced me to sweet potato muffins. No joke. They tasted AMAZING like a pumpkin spice late. No kidding, folks.

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

Dallas, Tx - 01/19/2008

2008-01-19T00:23:00.000-07:00

Dallas, TX - 01/19/2008

Before I write anything.... We got our passes last night!!!! Oh how cool we feel:)

Man, today was a hard day. Lots of miscommunication and driving around the airport \ trying to pick up a package allegedly mailed via Continental Cargo. Danny (drummer) and I straight up RAN all around the airport like connecting the dots and trying to follow the bogus directions people told us over and over. Long story short we all waisted about 2 hours after driving 5 hours and making ourselves late ONLY to find out that the package was at the OTHER airport. Oh the discouragement.

So the boys go later to the airport after their show and the guys that told us they would have it waiting for us weren't there so... right... more disappointment's. See, we wanted to go to San Antonio tonight BUT we found that we were stuck because we now couldn't get our package of new merch till the morning.

Thanks to God there was a cool dude and his girlfriend from Agusta, GA at the show that GRACIOUSLY let us crash in their apartment. These kids Jon and Erin are just awesome. Jon has a "LOVE LIFE" tattoo all down his side from his armpit to his hip. Strange, too, because today I was reading 1Peter and I specifically wrote down a verse that commanded us as believers to "LOVE LIFE". It was important enough for me to write it down and then, right when we needed some answers about where to stay, some guy from the band's home state offers us a place to stay with the words "LOVE LIFE" tattooed to him. How great is our God?

The show was good. They did really well and I got to jam out. Other than that it was slow and I'm ready to crash. Weird because people don't really move much when it came to the music and what-not. It was probably the most static crowd I'd ever seen.

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

Houston, Tx - 01/18/2008

2008-01-18T00:17:00.000-07:00

Want to see pix but don't feel like reading the blog? Check out my Flickr page: RIGHT HERE Don't forget to bookmark it or write down the URL when you go there. I won't be posting it every time.
___________________________
DAY 01 of our Trip: HOUSTON, TX

So Lydia and I took off from the SLC airport for Houston yesterday on the 16th. Tyler drove us (thank you T) and off we went on the adventure of a lifetime... i hope.

It all started with Lydia turning to me on the airplane and saying "hey where do you find those throw-up bag thingies?" To which I promptly found the barfo-baggo and handed her one. Please note that I thought for a second she was joking. Poor gal. Needles to say the rest is history. I thought about taking a photo but decided that, as she says, discretion is the better part of valor. haha.

We arrived in Houston and my Aunt Happy picked us up. That's right her name is Happy and she is one of the coolest people I have ever met. She was putting us up for the night and we were totally grateful. We weren't going to be able to meet up with the boys until the next day so it was fun chillin' with her! Thanks, Hap!

She took us to a way cool farmer's market near her house. I seriously need to learn more Spanish. Did you know people ate cactus? Lydia and I saw probably the world's largest chili spoon there.

We walked back to Hap's place and on the way talked to some cop whose son knew the band Blue October or something. Funny thing was.. .I had no idea who that was so I wasn't impressed. Before long our guys showed up and Happy released us into their.. uh... van. Their new red van was appropriately stickered "Oh DANG!"on the front windshield.
After proclaiming that the boys scare her and that we should eat our veggies and take our vitamins, she waved us goodbye and we were off to downtown Houston.

It starts...
Downtown Houston, TX
Before the show, Lydia and I got a chance to walk around and explore Houston a little. We met some interesting people and found some places to eat. Downtown Houston is pretty cool. I had never been downtown and we got a good little taste of it.

At the show the bands were all friendly and nice. We met Dance Gavin Dance at a guitar center before we even got to the venue. As we set up, watched, and then tore stuff down I realized there is a lot to be learned in this little realm of the world. It was very intense and I feel overwhelmed. Not to mention that tonight was the first night I've ever seen Poison the Well live. I grew up with them being on my "fav rotation" and tonight was the first night. They played a ton of old songs and it was sweet.

I was looking forward to seeing a friend, Josh, from a band called Sivan tonight but he had to work. Next time Josh. :(
This is Mattie watching Poison The Well
I think it's safe to say we all love that band.

After the show, loosing mattie, and getting lost in the van, we made it back to Derrick's aunt's house outside of Houston. Her name is Aunt Carol and she seemed totally excited to have us. She had food and beds all ready for all 7 of us. We can only hope to be so lucky the rest of the trip. Ok that's enough for now I have to sleep. I'm exhausted from just being overloaded with new experiences. Tomorrow off to Dallas.
Anyway, more to come. I need rest first.

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

TOUR DATES!

2008-01-17T15:55:00.000-07:00

The Official Tour Dates for the
A Girl A Gun A Ghost Shows Lydia and I will be on:

Jan 17 2008 8:00P
Warehouse Houston, Texas

Jan 18 2008 8:00P
The Door Dallas, Texas

Jan 19 2008 8:00P
White Rabbit San Antonio, Texas

Jan 21 2008 8:00P
The Clubhouse Phoenix, Arizona

Jan 22 2008 8:00P
The Troubadour Los Angeles, California

Jan 23 2008 8:00P
Glasshouse Pomona, California

Jan 24 2008 8:00P
Epicentre San Diego, California

Jan 25 2008 8:00P
Palmdale VH Palmdale, California

Jan 26 2008 8:00P
Boardwalk Sacremento, California

Jan 27 2008 8:00P
Slims San Francisco, California

Jan 29 2008 8:00P
El Corazon Seattle, Washington

Jan 30 2008 8:00P
Hawthorne Theater Portland, Oregon

Jan 31 2008 8:00P
The Venue Boise, Idaho

Feb 1 2008 8:00P
Avalon Salt Lake City, Utah

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

2008... it starts...Western Tour

2008-01-07T02:37:00.000-07:00

So, in light of my almost 6 month streak of working with small companies that don't always HAVE work for me and the fact that the winter is VERY slow for freelance video work , I have decided to take advantage of a few other opportunities that have been presented to me this new year. There are many adventures a-brew and I'll reveal them slowly as they actually unfold so keep your eyes peeled. (I know how oh-so important I am in the scheme of the world lol just kidding). Anywhichway I figure I'd keep all of you updated even if just to make sure that my closest family and friends know where I am incase something "happens"- mom that was for you. Rest assured, though, I'm not expecting anything to "happen" other than some good old life experience and possible future opportunity. As the campus minister at my church, Seth, told me today: "You never know where God will send you, right?" I am deciding to embrace something new instead of sitting around and loathing in my lack of money and lack of a job option that will be making me 50 grand a year.

Goodbye self-loathing...
HELLO ...Western tour with a bunch of crazy rock and roll bands.

That's right folks I'll be touring with my long time friends Mattie, Chase, Derrik, Danny, and their band called A Girl A Gun A Ghost as well as a few other bands including Poison the Well. I know these guys from college days and Mattie is one of my most trusted friends. I'll be touring with them for about 2 and a half weeks hitting the entire west coast as well as some other western states including, and starting out in, Texas. As usual I will be keeping track of my travels via blog and documentary style video.

Along with me I am bringing a friend from church. Her name is Lydia and we've decided to make this short trip a ministry opportunity. Most of the bands playing these huge concerts we'll be working are secular bands. For a few dates there will be one Christian band playing (the chariot) but for 90% of the dates the bands are secular only. I'm very excited to have Lydia along to spend some quality time with my buddies and me Christian-style. The Lord sends his followers with support so I made sure to include Lydia on this adventure to make sure that we are effective and safe along the way. She is from the non-denominational church that Tyler and I frequent called The Rock and has been a good girl friend to me since I moved out here.

My travels will start with me going to Houston shortly after mom's visit to Utah. I might drop in on Happy in Houston and see how she is before the tour actually starts. Lydia and I would appreciate your prayers during these 2 and a half weeks of rock and roll goodness! Keep an eye on my blog for pictures and updates.

If you are a friend of mine who lives along the west coast and is reading this blog, expect a phone call soon:)

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

I'm a published writer!!

2008-01-06T18:11:00.000-07:00

You can read the article in this month's issue of Slug Magazine (you can find it for free anywhere downtown in Salt Lake City) or just click on this link:

RIGHT HERE

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

Day 26 of the No Car- 12/23/2007 current mileage: 0087

2007-12-23T10:20:00.000-07:00

It's been almost a month now since I've been car-free. Before I sold my car I thought that it would be somewhat difficult because I thought there would be many cases where I'd need a car. This speculation has turned out to be absolutely wrong. Only three times during this period have I REALLY needed to ask for a ride or use someone's car:

1. To Take and pick up friends from the airport (which will soon become a no car no problem task as they will be extending the train out to the airport soon!)

2. To pick up this new coffee table I bought from craigslist.

3. Yesterday I felt sick and it was realllly cold out so I asked T to drive me to the store to get Christmas lights.

So yes, I haven't ONCE thought "Man I wish I had a car". No kidding! It's like not even a thing! I don't even think about it!

The train has been way good to me and I have yet to have to take the bus. One of the cool benefits that I've found is I've discovered all sorts of things that are very close to my apartment that I didn't know about before. For example I needed some art supplies and the store I usually go to is a chain art store about 3.5 miles away in Sugar House. It was pretty cold the day I wanted to go so I looked it up online and found that there is a mom and pop art store only about a mile from my house and real close to trax. I decided to go to that one instead and not only did I like it much better than the other art store but I also found myself supporting a local business over a big box store. As it turns out, that art store has been operating for 80 years and I seriously would have never searched for it had it not been for the fact that I didn't want to ride my bike to Sugarhouse in the cold:)

So yes, life has been good. T is buying me the wheel-set I want for my second bicycle for Christmas and I need a few things for my current commuter like a back fender to ward off the wet snow and rain from this season as well as a new front light. Wait a second... another bicycle you say? Yes I have been building a second bike for some time now because I think it's important to have two if you are using it for your main transportation. In case one gets run over by a car or something I can't be left without ANY transportation but my Legsus (legs haah). My work, for example, is too far for that and It's COLD OUT! haha. It's taking long to build though because I've been a little picky about the components I have on there. As soon as I get the wheels, though, it should at least be in working order.

So, for now, I'll leave it to a Merry Christmas and all that jazz. Godbless you on your walk, ride, or drive.

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

Day 02 of no car- 11/27/2007 current mileage: 0002

2007-11-27T22:29:00.000-07:00

So today was my first official day without a car and what does it do?...

It snows and snows and snows!
Before it snowed T and I got to ride through some freezing rain on our way home from going to the bank and opening me a saving account to put the money from my car in.

An omen?
Hopefully not!:)

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea