Girl Power

Women are pretty awesome. Guys are great too, don't get me wrong- I happen to find them very attractive. And fun.  But there's something special about being surrounded by beautiful, strong, amazing women.

This week at BYU, women of all ages descended upon campus and made navigating the bookstore, getting to class, finding a table, and locating an empty bathroom VERY difficult.  Thanks to BYU Women's Conference, I almost lost it with the Wells Fargo bank teller because it had taken me more than five minutes to walk through one end of the bookstore to the bank and I was not in a very good mood.  I'm not sure why, but I was peeved with the millions of women walking around campus, encroaching on my personal space and creating unnecessary travel time.  Right in the middle of the height of my frustration, I get a call from one of my best friends, inviting me to the very conference that I had sworn to hate.  Darn.

So I went, rather reluctantly, to "Women's Conference."  I would be lying if I told you that the first class was wonderful and spiritual and changed my life and made me want to be a better person and have tons of charity towards all.  I actually left the first class frazzled, stressed, more frustrated with women than ever before, and completely covered in red yarn fuzzies (I was making some yarn project for a service project and was feeling anything BUT service-oriented during the whole thing).   I took a break and went to the library to do some research and meet up with a friend, but I promised Aims that I would go back to the closing session of the conference with her... So I made the long trek to the Marriott to hear Elder and Sister Bednar speak.

Yes, I've been to other large meetings of women, (and yes, I've been to the Marriott center wayyy too many times in the past week) but this one was incredible.  Nothing really poignant stood out, but I left feeling uplifted and rejuvenated. It was exactly what I needed.  I didn't get a single thing done yesterday that I had originally planned to do, but the day turned out to be perfect.  Thanks to the beautiful Gummow girls, I was reminded of the beauty of women and the power we have in each other's lives.

I have a lot of women in my life that I couldn't live without.  If I did a post about each and every one of them, I bet blogger would shut down because of the length and the amount of picture uploadage.   Grandmothers, Aunts, Sisters, Mother, friends, roommates, adopted families, teachers, co-workers, missionaries - the list is endless.  But I want to highlight a few of the amazing women who have touched my life this week:

First, My Mom.  She came to visit last week and ended up staying with me.  Like, in my apartment.  She is a trooper.  We had a lot of fun talking, laughing, going out to eat, shopping, and HIKING.  Monday was a beautiful, warm, bright sunny day- the perfect day (or so we thought) to go on a hike in rock canyon.  We started out happy and joyful, looking a little like this:

But ohhh how quickly things change.  About an hour into our hike, my mom kept saying "hmmmm it looks like it might be getting a little dark... kind of ominous.... I think a storm is coming!"  and I would say "no mom, it's just getting dark- it's like 6pm. You're being silly."  Within three seconds of my denial of possible weather issues, the winds changed. Like in Mary Poppins- when all of the little old ladies get blown away- that's how powerful it was.  My mother turned and gave me the glare of death as huge hail balls started raining down on us, lightning and thunder started, and a blizzard began dumping various forms of precipitation on our unprotected heads.  We were no longer happy and joyful- and we looked like this:

It was crazy, we almost died, and we had the time of our lives.  It took over twenty minutes to get back out of the canyon and to the safety of our car, but we were laughing hysterically the whole time.  I love my mom.

My next "ode to women" section is dedicated to my dear Aimee and Kelly Gummow. Aimee and I met four years ago in June, via email, when she sent me a message that said "hey I'm your new roommate!  Here's tons of stuff about me, all of my prom pictures and high school graduation pictures, family pictures, and my life history"  (not really- but I just remember thinking whoa there stranger...).  We hit it off immediately and have been best friends since.  Her dear mother has practically adopted me and has done more for me than she'll ever know.  I loved spending Easter with their family- I always feel right at home with them!

Since two of my roommates have moved out and my house is pretty lonely, I invited one of my dear friends from DC to come live with me for a few weeks.  Aubrey is seriously the coolest person I know, she inspires me to be a better and more hardcore person (in every aspect of life... school, sports, etc.), and we laugh like crazy around each other (especially late at night, while tie-dying, when eating, washing our faces, walking to campus, in the quiet library zone, and pretty much anywhere else). 



Aubs and I went to see Justin Bieber. the MOVIE.  I learned to never say never, because I never thought I'd actually want to say this: I love JB.  That movie "rocked my world," as Aubs would say. We have the Bieber Fever.

 My friend Bre is also inspiring and amazing.  She is going on a mission in two months and I'm going to miss this crazy girl.  She is so loving and fun to be around and she wears pretty sweet v-neck tie-dye t-shirts, which she showed us how to make last night.  My shirt is slightly reminiscent of the hideous souvenir t-shirt I forced my mother to buy for me one year in downtown DC- except that one had a massive yellow smiley face on it and it said "I heart Washington DC" with little pictures of the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials and the Washington monument.  I'm pretty sure my mom finally snatched that shirt from me and hid it- too bad mom.... the tie-dye has returned.  Hippie power round TWO.

I spent a fun and relaxing afternoon with my beautiful former roommates, Ashley and Joy.  We went to lunch and then sat and talked for hours.  I miss living with these lovely girls- but Ash is married and Joy is engaged, so I absolutely love any time that I can get with them!

I love all of the beautiful women in my life, and there are so many more that I just want to go on and on about... but I need to go do some research for class. That's the last thing I want to do on a good lazy saturday, especially since I woke up this morning and Provo looked like this:

I love love LOVE when those mountains are covered in snow- it feels so epic to drive straight towards huge masses of rock covered in white powder.  GORGEOUS.

I love snow.  I was so happy.  The only problem is that I sent my skis home to Delaware and can't take advantage of Alta's last week of the season.   Bummer. 

Alright. Time to go be responsible.  Peace out.