Provo Tabernacle

When my roommate sent me a text with a photo of the Provo Tabernacle smoking my heart broke. We'd had stake conference there just a month before and that building has such a spirit by itself. That building was the work of the pioneers built between 1883 and 1898, but then remodeled in 1917. The wood work and architecture was beautiful. Inside there was a balcony and a gorgeous organ. Hopefully they'll rebuild it. It was the most beautiful building in Provo.

The tabernacle burning at night: click here

The day after, still smoking: click here

a little bite of the big apple

R.U.D.E.

Saw this posted on a friend's facebook that she overheard on our reading day.
Two girls were walking into the library next to a guy.

He says,"I don't hold the door for girls wearing sweatpants. If you're not going to try, neither am I."

Well rude guy, I'm not going to hold the door for guys with basketball shorts and sneakers or a five o'clock shadow. If you're not going to try, neither am I.

Then I found this comic, which applies perfectly:

Sweatpants don't usually complement the butt.

BUT WAIT... isn't holding the door just a common courtesy and not a decision based on how put together someone looks? A little bit of a selfish attitude there my friend. Only doing a little service if something is in it for him.

I liked one of the comments under my friend's original post. Something along the lines of how he's going to get stuck with a really high maintenance wife and a couple years down the road will hate his life. He'd deserve it.

Seriously, give the girls a break! It's finals week. I think sweatpants are a good sign right now. Don't you want a potential girlfriend/wife to care more about her education, during a time when it really matters like finals week, than looking good to try and impress whoever she might see in the library. I'm not saying you can't look cute and be studious, but don't hate on girls who just want to be comfortable.

After relaying this experience to guy friends I was surprised to see that any of them were on the rude guy's side.
What the?
But after explaining our reasoning they understood the situation and sided against him. Majority were already on our side, just fyi.

Then I said I was going to wear sweatpants for a month and they asked if I thought I'd get asked on any dates. HA! Every day I head to campus it's not just to try and get asked on dates.
Mrs. degree? No, I want a real one.

When a girl looks nice it's not just for you boys. It is partly for you, but it's majority for herself.
For example, if I feel like I spent time getting ready it makes me feel more confident to tackle my day, feel like my life is put together, and do things with more lady-like grace.

What's up with this BYU expectation that girls should look their best everyday?

That's it. I hope I run into that tool on campus sometime. Good luck with the ladies my friend.

warming winter

P is soon leaving for London and this weekend we went on 2 dates. First was just all over town trying on onesies, to The Chocolate and we got sugared out so we ended up at Sammy's to balance it out. Then the next night we went to our ward christmas party, which was a party up at the Aspen lodge and then I took her on a tour around Sundance. It's pretty chilly up there, but the lights are beautiful and so we took some pics. We really do love hanging out together, but it would've been 10x better to be on real dates after being surrounded by couples at the christmas party. Oh well...

I was just tagged in these photos from a fun date night for my birthday! S baked a caked cause there were actually 2 birthdays to celebrate. We carved ice cream (crazy right?) and it was so fun! You can see the JEEP we carved in the front right out of vanilla ice cream. It had the top down, seats, and even people, so it was no surprise we won first place. If you use your fingers to carve though they'll go numb....careful.

TMA 273 Video

Embedding test from vimeo for TMA 273:

The Festival of Lights from Lauren Merkley on Vimeo.

date night

So P and I really wanted to see the lights at Temple Square, so we decided to double it up one night. So it ended up being me, C, P, and J cruisin up for a little date night fun.
On our way there we stopped at a yummy falafal place P knew about just like 10 minutes out. It was so so good and we reminisced about Jerusalem and tried to remember our Arabic we'd learned while we were over there. I remembered a lot more than J, but they were all random phrases, like 'I'm not married'(I remembered that one).
The girl who ran the register was being really funny and didn't let J pay for dinner when he was trying to shove his card in front of P's. She was like "Oh no, I'm all about having the girl pay. I know how it goes." That made me wonder..."Wait, how what goes?" I don't know what she was talking about, I'm all about letting the boys pay if they offer. P and I were planning on paying since we initiated this and I think that's how it should go, for the record. She was nice though besides that weird comment.
So, weather conditions were not prime. Cold (always expected), but it was drizzly and wet wet wet too! It made me not want to take pictures out, but then I did and it was great.

We got there kind of late, so we snuck in one Visitor's Center, but then the others were closed right before we got to them.
They have the big nativity out on the lawn, with different parts lighting up as the biblical account is read and it's really cool. Then they have an excerpt from Pres. Monson at the end about remembering Christ and the real reason for celebration being the Savior's birth.

The lights and the temple are so beautiful and it makes everything seem so magical. This year I felt like we passed by TONS of teenagers on group dates too, which was really funny.
We finally found the best picture spot(see below):

P & J


Me & C

Post light-seeing we ran over to Gateway to look for mittens/gloves and get some yummy drinks at Starbucks. We parked by Urban Outfitters and ran in, but no luck on mittens. Starbucks was success though and we all got something different. P and J both got vanilla steamers with different flavored shots. I got peppermint hot choc and C got salted caramel hot choc. It hit the spot after the cold and wet.
Then we headed on home to P-town after a successful trip to the big city :)