Falling in Love. Again.

Dear Utah,

You sure do know how to tug at my heartstrings. Just as I get thrilled at the prospect of breaking up with you for a more glamorous, exciting dreamboat named Manhattan, you reel me back in with reminders of the great things you offer -- the best job ever with tons of amazing people I adore, living close to the best friends a gal could ask for and delightful cousins aplenty, loads and loads of nearby temples, and let's not forget your natural beauty.

Pfffft.

I'll never get out of the 801 if you keep making me fall in love with you again. (Which you seem to do every time I get disenchanted, focusing on your flaws with tunnel vision that blocks out the benefits.) So... ummm... stop being so wonderful so I can chase my dreams? Because right now you're making me think maybe it's time to trade in my East Coast dreams for something even better: the amazing life I have right now.

And I'm just plain not sure how I feel about that.


Much love,
ChristaJeanne

Lather, Rinse, Repeat

Funny how history repeats itself -- even in a personal scale. Like so:

• Go back and read this.
• Remember that my entire life changed within 10 days.
• Understand that I've been feeling like this again.
• And then I came across this a couple days ago (which is within my company).
• And applied. (With my boss's blessing, of course.)
• And told the sole person I know in that office -- who is higher in the ranks than I realized -- who immediately put in a good word with the right folks.

And here I sit... on pins and needles... waiting to see what and when and if my entire life is going to uproot and shift again. Knowing that this might be absolutely nothing (and preparing for being let down), but also knowing it could be something. Desperately hoping it will, but also being incredibly intimidated by all that will mean.

Oh, and having a blast considering the possibilities of living places like here and here and here. Swoon!!! Lifelong dream within my grasp, folks. I've dreamed of living in the Big Apple for as long as I can remember. Blame it on admiring Stacey from The Baby-Sitter's Club and listening to a lot of Billy Joel as a child.

I can hardly stand the anticipation!

But back to work I go, seeing as this craziness starts in less than a week, and there is SO much to do for it - I'm in charge of writing room host scripts, compiling room host binders, and editing all PowerPoints and handouts, in addition to writing just about every word on that website. Whew!

A New York State of Mind

This afternoon it hit me - I'm going to New York City a week from tomorrow!

OH.

MY.

GOODNESS!!!

Hence my new theme song for the week:



Friends, words fail to express just how danged thrilled I am about this trip. The reason for the trip is to see my best friend in upstate New York, but neither of us have ever been to the city, so we're kicking our Labor Day weekend off by meeting in the Big Apple a week from Saturday. ONE WEEK. When that clicked in my pretty little head this afternoon, I just about started doing a happy dance in my cubicle! Grinning ear to ear, my trip became all I could think about (well, in the background - I did somehow manage to focus enough to finish that briefing doc for a client and rewrite something else, but that's another story).

Anyways, I digress.

Going to New York City has been a LIFELONG dream of mine. Honestly, cheesy as it is, I think it stems from reading about Stacey's adventures in the city in the Baby-Sitters Club books as a kid. She was the coolest! As long as I can remember, I've DREAMED about finally going to New York City.

And now it's really happening!

Only one more week to prep, and I haven't even locked in an itinerary yet! So much planning to do. (I love planning stuff!) I've got a couple of ideas... but I'm not going to spoil it and tell you. You'll just have to find out when I get back in a couple of weeks. Or by catching my Facebook updates, because goodness knows I'll be doing updates aplenty that day! :) I will say, though, that I'm planning to stick to midtown Manhattan as much as possible - it seems like that's where most of the fun stuff is concentrated.

Meanwhile, I'm planning to try to squeeze in one NYC movie a night for the next week: 13 Going on 30, On the Town, You've Got Mail. Any other NYC flicks you recommend?

And if you had ONE DAY - and not a ton of money - to see the sights of New York City, what would you see?

A Different Kind of Marriage Protest

Heather posted this hilarious, award-winning marriage-protest spoof, and I just had to share it. Does the protestor look familiar?



(Yep, the "protestor" is the brilliant Ryan Simmons - we were at BYU at the same time, and while I didn't know him, I knew of him through friends and thoroughly enjoyed his antics at the Playmill Theatre. Kid's got SERIOUS talent!!!)

I guess this won the New York, NY Stake Film Festival (only in NYC or LA could you actually have a stake film festival!) - and I definitely see why. This is the first Prop. 8 satire that's gotten me laughing!