"Is that in reference to the car we just passed???"

So we're down to the last few weeks of school....this means stress and worry and juries and finals and lack of sleep and people being short with each other and feeling like you can't breathe and teetering near the edge of the cliff and hitting the point where you decide that you have to laugh or else you'll cry......

I know..sounds fun, right?

So the week before Thanksgiving Break, I'm sitting in the Snow when Naomi comes up, freaking out, "Dude. Dude, check this out." The Utah Symphony. Playing Saint-Saens Cello Concerto. Friday, December 3, 2010.

               "How cool would it be to get a bunch of cellists and go down there???"

                                                   "YEAH! Let's do it!"

And so the plan was formed. I won't go over all the many difficulties and frustrations we had with trying to get people to commit to going (you know who you are). I'll just tell you that we went. And, oh, was it epic.

This was our little group! Spencer, Sarah, Naomi, me and Kellen in front of the huge, beautiful Seaweedy Thing in the lobby of Abravanel Hall. Kellen, Spencer, Naomi, and I left Rexburg at 3ish and headed down to Salt Lake (all thanks to Kellen for getting us there safely). One of the best car trips I've ever had. I can't even describe the discussions we had. We met Sarah in Salt Lake (cuz she's at U of U doing her grad work right now :) ) and then spent the next two hours being total music nerds. It was heaven. The concert was ... almost indescribable. The Utah Symphony played Saint-Saens Cello Concerto No. 1 and Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 3 and Ives Symphony No. 2. The cello soloist for the Saint-Saens was incredible. He had such incredible and beautiful tone and sound, and was so confident and collected during the piece...and he made the funniest faces. We were dying. Beethoven's Leonore was so beautiful, and the opening is so incredibly soft; the Symphony pulled it off perfectly. Then we got to the Ives. "It will not take even the most casual listener long to recognize that musical quotations pervade this symphony---everything from classics like Beethoven's Fifth and Brahms' Third, to "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean" and "Turkey in the Straw."-- Direct quote from the Program Notes. We were all a little unsure, not knowing what to expect, but the piece fit together beautifully...until the very last chord. Listen to it. It is every note of the chromatic scale except one. After the piece was over, people were on their feet, clapping...Well, so were we, but we were dying with laughter. When the whole thing was over, we all turned to each other and just had huge grins on our faces. It was one of the most musically satisfying experiences we've had for a while.

So, after the concert we were hanging around, taking pictures by the big, beautiful Seaweed Statue, just waiting for everyone in our group to get back together when this happened:

This girl pushes this random, nerd kid up next to us and says, "Hey, this is Joe Schmoe (okay, I don't know what his real names was...) Don't you want a picture with him?"

Naomi: "For what possible reason???"

Before we could say anything else, though, he had jumped into our midst, and was putting his arm around Sarah. I love Naomi's expression, because right before Spencer took the picture, she goes, "This is awkward!!"

And it was.

I just love this picture. It's a view of Temple Square taken from inside the lobby of Abravanel Hall. Beautiful.

After the concert, we hurried over to Temple Square to see the lights. I'm not kidding, as we were walking across the street towards the grounds, most of the lights went off. Depressing. But we still found a few as we wandered through the grounds. We took this picture right in front of all those little channels and waterfalls they have along the grounds. We started out with the guys standing on the ledge, and the girls on the floor in front, but then switched it up after Kellen goes, "Wait..why are we up here? We're taller than you girls!" So, then we proceeded to climb up on the slippery, wet, ledge. This was challenging. I was holding on to Sarah and Naomi and Spencer and Kellen were making sure I didn't fall. Then I get up on the ledge, and almost lose my balance. After they all "rescue" me, Kellen says, "Ok...not gonna lie but it would be hilarious if you actually fell back into the water..."

Sarah says, "Yeah, until you have to drive her all the way home in your car!"

Oh the love and support I get from my friends. :)

After we left Temple Square, we were walking back towards where we parked our car, and we get stopped by this guy, "Hey, are you guys Mormon?" The Readers Digest version of this story is that this guy had just moved in from Chicago to go to school, and had just been informed by SLPD that his roommate had been busted for selling drugs, and his apartment was under lockdown. He asked us if we could help him get to $17 to stay at a local hostel/shelter. I am so bad with things like that. I don't know what to say and it makes me nervous.......I was so grateful for Kellen and Spencer at that moment. First, they made sure to stand in between us and this guy, just in case. Then, Kellen basically took the lead in handling the situation. He spoke to the guy and decided our course of action. It was a very interesting experience for a lot of reasons. 1) because, since the guy started his conversation with asking us if we were Mormon, our reputation was somewhat at stake. 2) It was great to have Spencer and Kellen with us to handle the situation. They really are such good guys.

Then we started back on our 4 hour drive. For the first hour and half or so, we were all chatting and geeking out over the concert and laughing and just enjoying our night and being together. Then Naomi and I fell asleep, leaving the boys to stay awake for the whole drive. They were great, and got us back safely and in good time. We got in at about 2:30am, and were exhausted all the next day, but it was so worth it. It was an incredible, healing, wonderful, hilarious, rejuvenating, much needed weekend with people I absolutely adore. Bring on these next two weeks...I'm ready! :)