Minnesota and Wisconsin and Illinois!

Our couple of hours driving across Minnesota was spent, in part, singing old songs: You Are My Sunshine, Down By The Old Mill Stream, Oh, Evaline and others - love it! My mom was teaching me the words to songs I've heard but never sung, and then we would sing in harmony. They're a lot of songs that she sung to me at bedtime growing up.

It's getting greener and greener the farther we go! Our time in Wisconsin was brief, and we're looking for a place to stay the night in Illinois. We're a couple hours away from Chicago, so we made our goal! It's been really foggy out tonight now that we've gotten closer to some lakes. I LOVE THE FOG.

Not the best picture, but it captures the fogginess.

Things in South Dakota

In Mitchell, South Dakota there is a Corn Palace. Yes. A palace made of corn. Well, actually it's mostly just decorated with corn on the outside. And we visited it! At the corn palace, or rather just outside it, they were hosting the South Dakota Youth Talent Show finals. We heard the returning champ singing Adele and Sara Bareilles songs - she was quite good. The girl who followed her was also quite talented, but sounded rather nervous. She also sang Adele. And they had a fried cookie dough stall - why have I never thought of such a wonderful thing?!? We didn't get any, but just the thought made me happy. Someday I will get a fried cookie dough stick.

After the Corn Palace somewhere along the highway we saw a sign for Laura Ingalls Wilder's house - the Little House on the Prairie! We didn't stop - we have to make tracks - but it was neat just knowing that it's REAL!



And then we saw this:

I'm not totally sure what it is.... But there it is.

81° Sunny
I-90 E, Montrose, South Dakota, United States

Road Trip Day 2

Good morning from the Badlands! Were on Day 2 of our road trip. It's true, after Mt. Rushmore South Dakota is pretty barren...but we're still having fun! Listening to conference talks and the Mormon Channel since it's Sunday. I usually don't like travelling on Sunday, but since we're working around my mom's work schedule and trying to get to Boston with enough time to set me up and do a little sight-seeing (maybe even hopping over to NYC to see Mike and his family for a day or so) Sunday travel seemed inevitable. Our goal is to make it close to Chicago by tonight.

66° Sunny
I-90 E, Kadoka, South Dakota, United States

First night on the road

Not quite as cheap as we had hoped to find (for money-saving purposes), but not bad. Turns out Wall, South Dakota is a hoppin place - it was the only room available on a street packed with hotels/motels. We're pretty cautious (paranoid) and we moved all my important possessions into the room for the night. It's funny how you can be tired when all you did was sit all day long. Mom drove all day - I offered to take a turn, but since she gets car sick it helps her to drive. So I entertain her with my variety of awesome medias. I'm going to download an audiobook tonight (free wifi!) that we can add to the mix of movies on my iPad, my awesome music, and our lovely conversation.

61° Clear
200–298 South Blvd, Wall, South Dakota, United States

Mt. Rushmore!

Mount Rushmore! So cool! We saw it in the light and then saw the lighting ceremony. I got the chills when I first saw it from the road outside the monument. It's quite spectacular. I'm definitely glad we decided to drive this way to come see it.

64° Clear
13024 SD-244, Keystone, South Dakota, United States

South Dakota!

I just fell in love with Custer, South Dakota! Such a cute little western tourist town, complete with Flintstones theme park. So CUTE! And we're almost to Mt. Rushmore!

70° Sunny
419–443 N 5th St, Custer, South Dakota, United States

Wyoming!

Rawlins, Wyoming - home of the Wyoming Frontier Prison :)

79° Sunny
301–399 W Spruce St, Rawlins, Wyoming, United States

The road trip begins!

We're off! The day I have anticipated with both excitement and dread is here! Off to Boston we go!

61° Partly Cloudy
Beef Hollow, Bluffdale, Utah, United States

(Note: I will be documenting the entire road trip via a journaling app called Day One, which includes GPS and weather info with each entry. So you'll know exactly where I am and what the weather's like when I write each post!)

Life in Technicolor

I finally assembled all of the video clips I've collected since January into a video. They are, of course, set to Coldplay's "Life in Technicolor." I tried so many different songs, but nothing but Coldplay would do. So here it is. It's not fancy, nor is it the best video I've ever made, but it is fun and it makes me smile, and that's all I was going for. Hopefully it will bring all of you (whoever reads this) some smiles too.

Enjoy!

Life in Technicolor

P.S. I will be filming the road trip to Boston, so look for that one next :)

Getting Ready

I leave for Boston on Saturday - that's three days from now...AHHH! I've spent so much time with it being far away, and now that's it's actually here I don't know what to think or feel.

People keep asking me if I'm excited or nervous or scared and I always respond with yes, all of the above. I'm excited to be somewhere new, to make new friends, go to a new ward, to take new classes at a new school. I'm nervous and scared about those same things - what if I stink at grad school? What if I'm in the wrong classes? What if I have a hard time making friends? What if my roommates don't like me? What if my car breaks down on the way there? What if I get lost in the middle of Boston and my phone dies? What if I forgot how to do the whole school thing? So many worries running through my head.

I just keep reminding myself that I prayed about it a lot and it always felt right. It will be good for me. I will grow up a little (on the outside - don't worry, the five year old boy inside me isn't going anywhere) and I will be a better person. I hope. Yes.

Official

It's official - I told everyone at work that I'm leaving. It's safe to say its one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. I love my job, I really do. Sometimes the work is tedious or a bit mind-numbing for me, but that's literally the only downside. I love the people I work with. I knew I had to tell them, and I spent all of Tuesday night bawling. Why did they have to be so wonderful?!? It certainly would make leaving a lot easier if they were jerks...

I told my fellow editors first, of course. Michelle was sad right away and asked me not to go, Seth was sad but encouraging, and Greg was pretty unreadable at first (he has since proven to be quite sad and daily bemoans my leaving). They are all so supportive though - each of them have said that if they were my age and single and such they would definitely do what I'm doing. It's crazy how much I love these guys. It was hard to tell them, but it was harder to tell John, my boss. Michelle basically dragged me to his cubicle and made me tell him, knowing that I was a bit of a chicken. After I told John I had to tell everyone, and everyone (including me) was sad. But excited! It's such a strange mix of emotions. Jeannie thinks I'm gonna get married, and most other people think I'm going to become a famous director (people outside of film don't understand the difference between studies and production). I told them I may come back to work here, and most of them looked at me ad said, "Why?" They think I should move on to bigger and better things.

Immediate talk began of a send off party with tons of food, and the editors have planned to go out to dinner one night before I leave. It's getting harder and harder to be motivated to work. I don't have any urgent projects to work on, and I can't start anything new. But soon enough - too soon - I will be in my little car driving across the country to my new home, a little girl in a big new city with no idea what she's doing. Sounds fun, right? Grand adventure.