home is wherever i'm with you

LANCASTER LOVIN'. Last week I flew home for Nic's graduation from high school, and I chose the BEST week to come home. Seriously. So many other happy things happened and I was so lucky to be home for all of it! East coast beast coast indeed.

My lil bro Nic received his mission call the same day I flew in! How lucky is that?!? The first text I received when I landed was a picture of his envelope. Once my family picked me up from the airport, we drove straight to Ocean City, NJ, where we stayed at this adorable little bed & breakfast on the beach for the remainder of the weekend. As soon as we settled in, we FaceTimed Ynna and Preston for the big reveal. Nic deferred his acceptance from BYU-I and has been called to serve an LDS mission in Melbourne, Australia, speaking Mandarin Chinese! He will serve there for two years and leaves for the Provo Missionary Training Center on Oct. 1st. So ladiezzz, hit up this righteous hottie because you won't be seeing that face for 24 long months. I will miss him so much but I cannot wait to hear all about his adventures and the Aussies he meets. I know he will be amazing in the field and learn so much. My baby's all grown up and saving China (or at least the Chinese people of Australia).

Sweet sweet frands <3 I love being in Provo for the summer, but I definitely miss hanging out with some of my best friends whenever I want. Sadly didn't get pics with them all, but I had such a wonderful time catching up with them at grad parties, Starbucks, bonfires, and some of my favorite Lancaster spots like Central Market and the new and impossibly cute Rachel's Creperie. I even tried out Skinny Park Juice, which Vanessa raved about in a past blog post of hers. Above are my cute friends Trevor and Alexa in Alexa's mystical garden for a bonfire on my last night home.

On one of the days I was home, I went to Philly with Chris. I looked up GQ's City Guide to Philadelphia (I remember Ynna referenced this list when we visited Philly over Christmas break) for some new places to hit up. Our first stop was the Mutter Museum. The description of this place was 'the grossest museum in America' so I was instantly intrigued. If you weren't aware, I love all things dealing with anatomy and the human body. I'm eventually going to take a cadaver dissecting class offered here at BYU. I have prints of organs framed in my room. If I could get my hands on a skeleton, I would want one in my future home. You get the picture. The museum is part of Philadelphia's College of Physicians and is full of medical oddities. We're talking Siamese twin specimens in jars, an entire wall of human skulls, and a colon that once held 40 lbs. of feces. It was a medical student's/horror movie junkie's dream. Sadly, you weren't allowed to take pictures in the musem, so here's a candid shot of Chris in the pretty garden outside of the museum. We then walked around old city to explore some of the shops and boutiques. I took Chris to Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, which is one of the chic stores I visited a few months ago. It had those hanging lightbulb bottles on the right, a Warby Parker station, sign language alphabet wallpaper, and Hillside ties. Favorite find of the day? Meandering inside this junky little thrift shop next to A.K.A. Music that was cluttered with floor-to-ceiling piles of books, creepy old dolls, and baskets upon baskets of records. I searched through the records (since we have a now working record player in our apartment!) and scored two: Touch Me by The Temptations, and Big Bands: Greatest Jazz Hits. They were gifts for Desireé and Drew respectively. I asked the lady working there (who looked about 104 years old) for the price; $3 !! I only had a $20 on me, and she said she didn't have change for that. I figured I could maybe muster a dollar or two in change. JK I only had 56 cents. SOLD. What a steal.

The last of the Padilla's graduated from Lampeter-Strasburg on Friday! Pioneers 4EVA. Nic was definitely the flyest graduate there in his cute chambray bowtie. I die every time I look at the picture on the right, which I snagged after commencement as the seniors exited the auditorium. #swaggie. After the ceremony and spending half an hour taking pictures of Nic and all his friends, we celebrated with dinner at Aussie and the Fox, a classy and fairly new restaurant in Lancaster City that I also made sure I visited before I left. I loved how this place was decorated and the color scheme of oranges and purples. The price was surprisingly not as fancy as this place looks. Ironically enough, this place serves Australian and American cuisine. Just tryna culture the kid before he heads to the land down under for two years.

I spent my last day at home attending church back in the home ward and celebrating Father's Day with my dear daddy. Also, Nic was ordained into the office of Elder this day and I am lucky to have witnessed such a special moment for him. I'm so happy I was able to be home for Father's Day, since I am usually away from my family for most holidays throughout the year. My time at home was a little too short for my liking, but very sweet like always. I picked a prime week to visit with my loved ones in my cute hometown. Hopefully I will be back real soon!

nothing comes close to the golden coast

This past weekend I was ~*C@Li4ni@ dR3@miN'*~ and by that I mean I road tripped to California with Drew, Desireé, Andy, and Thaddeus. I've never been to southern California before this trip so I was super excited to leave Provo for a weekend of daisy dukes, bikinis on top. Just kidding, but I still had a blast with this bunch on the legendary #CAroashram2k14.  

This is how we feel about being at the beach in CA instead of work in UT.

N*gg@$ in Newport

Earlier last week Kishi Bashi released his newest album 'Lighght' and I listened to it non-stop at work that day. I found out a while ago he has a show at The Urban Lounge in Salt Lake City this month, but it's a 21+ venue so I just became even MORE bitter that I couldn't go after listening to his new music. I checked his website in the hopes that by some miracle he changed venues or something and saw to my happy surprise that he was playing an all-ages show in L.A. on Friday. HOW LUCKY IS THAT?!? I freaked out and told the rest of the crew so we could buy our tickets. So after leaving the beach on Friday, we drove to L.A. for the concert and it was absolutely incredible. It was so fun singing and dancing to his electro-poppy, violinist sound that is unlike anything I've ever heard. My favorite song of the night (and in general right now) was The Ballad of Mr. Steak and Drew deemed that song the summer jam of 2k14 which I agree with wholeheartedly. Since the Fonda Theatre is on Hollywood Boulevard, we walked around after the concert looking at the Walk of Fame. I was determined to find Audrey Hepburn's star because duh, she's my favorite person. I finally did and it was the perfect ending to such a fun, jam-packed first day in California.

Did you know I've never been to Disneyland?! Well, Drew did so he took me on Saturday for my very first Disneyland experience because he's the sweetest and it was the best day. Not pictured is the pair of Mickey Mouse ears I purchased and wore around the park for three minutes. But I did document how calm, cool, and collected we were on Splash Mountain. 

I may or may not have teared up during the fireworks show. Sorry that Disneyland

 is the happiest and most magical place on Earth.

After attending church at Drew's home ward with his parents, we made one last stop before 

the drive back to Provo at the Newport Beach Temple. This is one of the prettiest temples

I've been to and I love the peach color of it, making it unique to most other temples. 

The #CAroashram2k14 crew. This weekend was the chillest and I had the best time with these kids. It was so sad coming back to work and back to Provo on Monday. Hopefully I can go back again soon. However, I'm still excited for the rest of my summer here full of more adventures, trips, and summer lovin'!

goodness gracious i can't seem to stop

I think the title of this post encapsulates my attitude toward concerts perfectly (also they're lyrics to one of my favorite Ellie songs so like, duh). Anyone who knows me knows that I prefer to spend my time/money at a concert over most things in life. This past week was one of the happiest I've had in a while because I was lucky enough to attend three concerts by three of my favorites artists of all time. Spring and summer are the most wonderful times of the year not only because they mean no school and warmer weather, but also because summer tours kick off. It just so happened that these three particular tours all stopped in Utah within a week of each other. I'm not even mad. So here's a recap/review!

CHVRCHES- The Depot, Salt Lake City 4/22/14

When I first heard that CHVRCHES were coming to Utah on April 22nd, I had a minor heart attack because it was during finals week so I didn't think I'd be able to go. JOKES of course I still went. It was the last night of finals week so I justified this by making it a goal to finish all finals before the last day so I could party with CHVRCHES! ...That didn't happen either and I still ended up taking a final on that last day, but I did fine and it was still the best way to end the semester. I went with Drew, Desireé, and Andy and we all had a svper fvn time. This was the first show I've been to at The Depot and I loved it! It's small and intimate and the crowd was pretty chill. Lauren Mayberry, the lead singer, is so adorable and actually looks like a 12-year-old girl but she sounded just as good live. Dancing to the sweet synth-pop beats of CHVRCHES was the perfect way to say goodbye to winter semester. PS school's out, scream and shout! I love spring so far because I'm not taking classes and working at my receptionist job for BYU's Evening Classes office full-time. This means reading, snacking, scrolling tumblr, taking trips to the creamery, and occassionally answering phones and filling out excel spreadsheets for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. It rulez and CHVRCHES rulez and everyone should go see them. 

Ingrid Michaelson- In The Venue, Salt Lake City 4/29/14

This was the fourth time I've seen Ingrid in concert because she is one of my all-time favorite artists and I love love love seeing her live. She is so cute, funny and witty and has the voice of an angel. The second time I saw her was in Philly two years ago with Desireé. Desireé's mom drove us both and just waited for us until the concert was done. Sis. Miller is like a second mother to me out here at school and I was so excited that she bought herself a ticket too so she could enjoy the concert with us! She even brought us bags of Cool Ranch Doritos again. (But that's another story you should ask me about if I haven't told you already).We all love Ingrid and she never disappoints. I first fell in love with her when I heard 'Keep Breathing' on an episode of Grey's Anatomy, so that song was definitely one of the highlights of the evening. Her band is all so talented as well and I was a big fan of one of her openers, Storyman. Although Ingrid's sound has changed quite a bit over the years from her first albums, I love her just the same and will continue to see her when she tours again.

Ellie Goulding- The Great Saltair, Magna 5/1/14

This concert and this day will forever be one of my fondest concert memories because it was awesome and insane and perfect. I've said this before but Ellie is my #1 girl crush and I have been looking forward to the next time I would see her since I first saw her last February. I don't think I've been this anxious for a concert since the glory days of my Jonas Brothers obsession. Desireé and I planned on camping out all day long at the venue because we were determined to be front row center for this chick. And we did just that. We were the very first ones in line and I know we're crazy but IT WAS WORTH IT. In fact, the wait wasn't even that bad because it was a beautiful day outside and we made friends with some awesome individuals. Me, Desireé, and four other Ellie-obsessed fans were in line first so we figured we should get to know each other since we would be hanging out for the next seven hours. All of them were concert junkies much like ourselves. Not to mention they were all in high school. Listening to them swap concert stories about all the times they've roadtripped to shows and met bands made me realize how much cooler they were than I ever was in high school. They were all so sweet and I was glad we all made it to the front row for the show together. We even swapped contact info with all of them so I'm sure I'll be seeing them again soon at the Utah concert scene! OH and shortly before doors opened, Desireé and I carried our stuff back to the car and when we did a white van drove right by us and ELLIE GOULDING WAS IN THE BACKSEAT. She's so sneaky and had everyone thinking she arrived in one of the tour buses earlier but NOPE there was no mistaking her. She smiled at us and I'm pretty sure my mouth was agape and I almost dropped everything in my hands. So THAT was amazing and just made me even more excited to watch her perform in a few short hours.

OK SO ABOUT THE CONCERT. Easily in my top five favorites of all time. I was actually terrified once I was at the railing and had flashbacks of how terrible the Saltair was in the past and how rough the crowds got. I imagined myself getting trampled and thought I would probably have a more enjoyable time in the back. OH HOW WRONG I WAS. For future reference, if you are directly against the barrier in the front row, it's not even that bad. If you're toward the front but not quite front row...good luck and godspeed because the people directly behind me were getting the worst of it. Of course there were still moments when I thought my organs were permanently rearranged as I was smushed against the railing, but I've been in worse situations (like the time I had to be lifted up and out of the crowd at Passion Pit because I was scared for my life). So the concert was perfect and I had the best seat in the house. She is so fabulous and FUN. Below I added a video that I took during the concert so you can all witness what an amazing performer she is. Not only her, but her backup singers were flawless and I loved watching them. She had such a long setlist too and I didn't want it to end. When it sadly did, Desiree and I took our exhausted but exhilarated selves to In-n-Out, our post-concert tradition. If you did the math correctly that means YES we went to In-n-Out a total of three times in a matter of nine days. You can judge me because I hate myself too. Our diet starts tomorrow. I can't express how blessed I am to have a friend who is crazy enough to go to all the same concerts, and go to such lengths to make it the best experience for both of us. If it wasn't for her, who even knows if we would have attended the majority of the concerts we've been to together. Love ya Dezmillz. 

Anything Could Happen:

Congratulations if you've made it through this entire post as I gave you the play-by-play of my past week. It was certainly one for the books and I am so grateful I was able to attend these shows with my friends (and made some new friends in the process!) I've had the best time and I cannot wait for what the rest of the spring and summer concert scene has in store for me!

march madness

This picture is a little too accurate for my liking. I still don't care. To me, spring has already sprung y'all. My nails are the color of Easter eggs and the next few days are supposedly going to be sunny and in the 60s. I've been in a bit of a funk lately but this warm weather is definitely helping to lift my spirits. Let's hope this good fortune continues and we can say goodbye to snow and misery until next winter. And by winter I mean fall, because let's face it, this is Utah :( This point in the semester is particularly draining because every other school in the country is/was/will soon be on spring break while us poor, unfortunate BYU souls do not get that luxury. These past few weeks have been mentally and emotionally exhausting for me and I just don't want to do school anymore. All I want is warmth and bike rides and gardening and saltwater sandals and long boarding. Did I just say long boarding? Yes. After a few attempts, I've seriously considered cruising around Provo on my own set of wheels if I can get my hands on one. I will keep you updated on how that's going and whether or not I've died in a gnarly accident yet.

Just so this post wasn't a complete waste of your time, I've posted my most recent Spotify playlist: march madness. That's where the title of this post comes in, ja feel me? (Sorry if it was misleading and you thought I'd be talking about basketball. But just know that come March 18th I will indeed have my bracket ready and keep a NCAA tab open on my laptop at all times and in all things and in all places). Should I become one of those people to post a Playlist of the Month? Vote Y or N. If you like what you hear, then I will! So gimme yo feedback. It's a conglomeration of new releases and other songs I've recently found and/or can't get enough of. My most played song for the past few weeks has been 'Somethin' by Mvscles. I don't know what it is about these bands using the Roman 'u' in their name (I'm looking at you CHVRCHES), but I can dig it. I listen to this song every day walking to campus and I'm itching for them to come out with more tunes in addition to the ones I have already killed at this point. Hope you enjoy listening and thanks for reading!

a vday bday story

Whenever people ask me how I feel about sharing my birthday with Valentine's Day, I make some joke about how it has the potential to be the best day a girl could ever dream of, but in actuality (or at least every year in the past), it is just like any other birthday. A new response I've been getting lately after I tell people when my birthday is has been "oh, I'm sorry, that sucks :/" UMMM THANKS? BYE. Granted, there have been years where a lot of my friends were dating when my birthday rolled around, but I still didn't mind all that much because pink is everywhere, and birthdays should be a fun time regardless of your relationship status. In fact, this past birthday was probably the happiest birthday I've had in two decades (get it? cuz I'm TWENTY). Well let's just talk about how bomb my entire birthday weekend was. It started Thursday night when my roommates surprised me with PUPPIES via Provo's greatest business endeavor: Rent-A-Puppy. This is a real thing and everyone should do it at least once. We played with twin golden retriever pups named Ben & Jerry for one hour. It was really a present for all four of us. Thursday night ended -and I guess my birthday began- with a viewing of The Lego Movie, which I HIGHLY recommend everyone go see, pizza, and coming home to the arrival of my dear friend Kaity, who drove from Idaho to spend the weekend with us. It's always a party when she's in P-town ;)

John and I decided to co-host a vday bday dance party after my original plan to go out of town for my birthday weekend fell through. Can I just say that I am so thrilled those plans didn't work out?!? Instead, I spent the night partying with some of my favorite people in Provo. I was so pleased with how the treats, decorations, and especially the music turned out. I made a party playlist on Spotify (see bottom), but Desireé and I also made a dance mix especially for this night, which you can listen to HERE. And by Desireé and I, I meant I chose the songs and what order I wanted them in, and she was the one to compile them into one single mix on GarageBand. I am the worst. Warning: this was our first experience with GarageBand and we are fully aware of the lack of smooth overlapping and presence of choppy transitions. We're working on it, but before long we will be dj mix masters. It was still sick and makes for a great workout playlist, so check it out! Thank you again to John, my friends involved with any of the party planning/prep, and all of my fabulous guests who showed up to party with me.

There is always a huge outpour of love from people on your birthday, but this whole day was especially full of hearts and sweets and love and dancing and happiness. I don't think I would've been able to handle any more...even if it was just for the sake of Cupid. So I guess having my birthday on Valentine's Day really isn't so bad. In fact, it can turn out to be pretty perfect. The rest of the weekend consisted of Abby's Galentine's Day party, leftover cupcakes, lounging, good movies, and even better company. All of my favorite things. I never wanted it to end. Especially because that was our last vacation until the semester is over in April. But we're not talking about that. Just focus on the happy. I'm feelin' so #blessed for all of you beautiful people and I cannot wait to spend this year with you. 20 is gonna be good. 

Love you long time <3

films, fangirling, & furs

DAY 1-Park City: 

     Sundance Film Festival 2014 is winding down in Utah this year as it approaches the end of its 10 days of movie premieres, concerts, celebrity panels and parties. I was lucky enough to go three different days, at three of the four locations of the festival (Park City, SLC, and Ogden). Last Saturday me, my roommates and our good friend Ethan ventured to Sundance in Park City. After seeing just how many celebs flew in on Friday and would be there opening weekend, we decided to go up and make a day out of stalking celebrities and roaming all of the fun shops and restaurants that Park City Main Street has to offer.

     Our celebrity sightings this year were significantly more impressive than last year. But aside from going in the hopes of meeting celebrities, Sundance is easily one of the best events to go to people-watch. So. Many. Fur. Coats. I will admit that I do eventually want to own a fur vest, and Sundance is one of the few places it is socially acceptable to wear one. So now I just want one even more. But seriously, the get-ups at Sundance are like none other. You see some of the most stylish and hip-looking people, but then you also see half-naked girls sitting on top of cars with massive wigs resembling ice cream on top of their heads. I spotted the following A-D list celebrities along Main Street, and I even shook hands with Mark Ruffalo as he walked by! 

Zoe Saldana

Mark Ruffalo

Zach Braff

Matthew Gray Gubler

Joe Maginello

Naveen Andrews

Alex Ebert

Richard Ayoade

Melissa Benoist

Rhett & Link

I may or may not have crept on Mark Ruffalo and Zoe Saldana through
a glass door until they were done with an interview outside on the balcony.
 they had to come inside at some point, right? hehe

one big, happy, polyg family (it's okay, we can joke about it because we're mormon. what?)

AirBNB Haus. this fun little lodge/cafe looked pretty cool from the outside, so I ventured inside to
a). use the bathroom
b). get a closer look at the vintage/country/cabin-inspired décor

Olive & Tweed. suuuper cute clothing store along Main Street.
it's like an anthropologie/francesca's mash-up of wonder.

oh yeah, and then we stumbled upon some of Banksy's artwork too.

DAY 2-Salt Lake City: 

     When the announcement of the Sundance line-up and schedule came out, I was prepared to do whatever it took to buy tickets for at least one movie. After many stressful minutes on my work computer and panicking with Abby on the phone while the site repeatedly crashed on us, I bought four tickets for "Happy Christmas," a movie directed by Joe Swanberg starring two of my favorite female celebs: Lena Dunham and Anna Kendrick. Let me tell you, it certainly did not disappoint! Joe's movies typically do not have much of a script, so a lot of what you see is totally improv, which makes it that much funnier. All of the actors were so hilarious and candid and I loved every second of it. Best part of the evening? After the movie, Joe Swanberg himself came onstage to answer questions from the audience and afterwards, we bolted out of the theater in the hopes of meeting him. AND WE DID. He was so friendly and humbled that we even knew who he was, much less asked for pictures with him. Cori was brave enough to ask him a question and she did so quite eloquently. You could totally tell he was impressed because she actually knew what she was talking about. Go Cori! Also, shout-out to Abby for introducing us to Joe Swanberg in the first place. She has been trying to get us to watch another one of his movies, "Drinking Buddies" and has been raving about his work and the mumblecore genre as a whole for months now. We continued fangirling on the ride home and it was totally worth having to wake up four hours later for work the next morning. It was the perfect ending to my MLK weekend.

necessary 

illegal spy pics in the theater

Q&A with Joe 

OMG [JOE SWANBERG] I LOVE YOUR WORK.
(10 points to gryffindor if you can name that quote with the correct celeb)

roommates that obsess over indie films together, stay together

DAY 3-Ogden:
Sadly, tomorrow is the last day of the festival, but last night me, John, Desireé, and Garrett were able to go for one last screening and saw "Mitt," a documentary about Mitt Romney. After watching the trailer (five times), I was so excited that I snagged tickets to watch it at Sundance. But don't fret, it's now streaming on Netflix and I advise everyone to go watch it. It was such an intimate look at his life during the 2008 and 2012 elections, and shows how brutal a presidential campaign (much less TWO) is on the candidate as well as his family. At certain parts I felt as though I was re-living the election, so I became sad all over again. I loved the scenes that showed the Romney family talking and joking with each other, and there are several scenes of them praying together. The documentary has been said to have a 'humanizing' effect on Mitt Romney, and one friend of mine even said "if I watched this movie before the election, I might have voted for him." I loved it and I wouldn't be surprised if future candidates release their own documentaries before election night.

Sorry for the novel, but I had such a wonderful week at Sundance and I feel so lucky that I attend BYU and I can go every winter. My goal for next year is to meet Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I am determined to do so before I graduate/leave Utah. I had such a fun time with friends and I loved having the opportunity to watch these amazing films and see the talent of everyone involved in them. I just love movies a lot. Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your weekend!