Volleyball! Frisbee! Indiana Jones! Shopping! Arrested Development! Volleyball! Clean House! Volleyball! Good Movie! Volleyball…

This is the recipe for a really nice weekend. Let me start from the beginning, shall I? Yes, lets.

I spent the day at the Capitol on Friday. It was exciting for little country girl me. Though I am still a peon and don’t mean much of anything to anyone connected or important, it was a step! It’s an environment I can completely see myself involved in – politics, legislation, change, discussion, awesome. That said – I also completed my MPA application for the UofU and am now waiting to hear of my acceptance…or denial…but mostly acceptance. One thing I’ve always been able to control, one thing that keeps me focused and hopeful, is school. School gives me purpose. I’m so excited to have that routine again. ANYWAY – I went to the capitol on Friday – so it was an exciting day and I was really tired when I got home. My roomie, Mary, and I decided we would have a nice slow evening at home. Even if we had boyfriends we would’ve chosen to stay home that night! I want that to be apparent. It wasn’t a forced “loser” weekend…though I have plenty of those. We took our “nice night at home” to Blockbuster, naturally, and tried to find a nice chicky flicky to watch. When we walked in – Blockbuster was hosting their “Buy 3 for $20” sale. I started perusing through their selection; never knowing what joys awaited me. I found several movies I would’ve considered purchasing, Persepolis, The Mummy (I love the Mummy), etc. My eye then fell on one Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. I’m a big Indiana Jones fan and though not many folks liked the latest installment – I know I sure did and have always loved all the Indiana Jones...es. In fact, for years I’d been asking for Birthdays and Christmas’s for the complete Indiana Jones trilogy – Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and the Last Crusade. Alas, they have eluded me, until this night. I began looking around eagerly to see if the table contained the “old school” Indies. Of course, I never expected they would have all 3 Indiana Jones installments on the 3 for $20 table. Maybe one or two of them, but never all 3. Never. Then, I found Temple of Doom. I picked it up just in time to see The Last Crusade resting next to it. My breath caught in my throat – could Raiders of the Lost Ark be here too? Dare I hope? I didn’t see it immediately. I feverishly began shuffling through the stacks of bargain previously viewed movies…Tomb Raider, Lions and Lambs, SAW IV (shudder), and…AND Indiana Jones the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Can we all say Tender Mercy? As Barack would say, “Yes we can!” I found all 3 (nay 4) Indiana Jones installments on the Blockbuster 3 for $20 table when usually it would be in “specialty” pack at Circuit City for $40. Sold! The first ingredient to a great weekend.

Ingredients two and three manifested themselves on Saturday morning. My friend Mallory texted me at 9am and said the only word I like hearing at 9am on Saturday morning, “Volleyball.” Done and done. I called my friend Ryan (who also loves that word at 9am on Saturdays) jumped in my car and played some saweet volleyball at the UofU volleyball court until 11:00am. Awesome. It was really great play too. I am a…oh…volleyball snob. And to be frank, it had probably been over a year since I’d played on a gym floor full court. I had played on grass in Provo (loved it. Miss it sooooo much), and had the awesome opportunity to play some half court gym volleyball about 4 weeks ago; so some full court volleyball was not only great fun, but a pretty decent work out. Dah! I love volleyball.

But it doesn’t end there. On my way home from volleyball – I got a texty from my friend Robby with two more words I really enjoy hearing “Ultimate Frisbee.” Done! Now, two summers ago I THOUGHT I was decent at Ultimate Frisbee. I was a hustler and rather accurate with my tosses. Well, upon moving to Provo, I found that I did not have the skills I thought I did. There are techniques involved! There are wrist flicks, specific tosses, forehands! Last summer I was taught all these things – and practiced them almost everyday. I’ve been antsy to try my new skills in a real game ever since. Winter makes this difficult – but when Rob texted me I knew my opportunity to prove my skills had come. We played “box” in the snow. You Ultimate Frisbee enthusiasts know what “box” is I’m sure – I had no idea. They explained it to me and we started to play. I would like to report that I quickly dusted off my skills and not only threw some accurate tosses the conventional way, but took a risk with my newly acquired skills at the forehand…and nailed that sucker every time. I was so proud of myself! Not only did I find out how much more fun the game was with my new skills (and possibly new respect from "real" players!) – I also realized how out of shape I really was. Yowch. I was huffing and puffing and so spent by the time we were done – I vowed to up my running regime from 3 days to 4, and from 3 miles to 4, starting Monday. It was so much fun though. It felt so good to be playing both of these invigorating sports all in one Saturday morning. How lucky can someone get? Eh? EH?!?!?!

I got home and my roomie had scrubbed the house. I can’t tell you how much I love coming home to a spick and span house. Loves it. This also inspired me to clean my room and scrub my bathroom. Clean clean clean. Lovely lovely lovely.

I then did some shopping. My friend Nik called me up and we ventured to La Nordstrom. I hadn’t planned on buying anything. I really like shopping. Okay, I love shopping. I really do. I like good clothes, unique clothes, and want to have a unique style. Of course, financial constraints have restricted and/or eliminated this hobby from my life for a long time and will continue to stringently limit this for a long while yet. At Nordstrom, however, I not only found some awesome dark blue skinny jeans on wicked sale, BUT, found them in the right size AND, even more importantly, the right LENGTH for my stubby little legs. Not alternations needed what. So. Ever. Yes We Can! I also found a great sweater on sale at Anthropology, some discount rings at Charlotte Russe, and a lovely baby pearl necklace at JMR. Shopping. A much needed ingredient in any good weekend – it’s like the cinnamon on your toast or the cream in your hot cocoa – great deals in great stores. Perfect. Oh – I also found these…

Didn’t get them because they were very much NOT on sale – but a girl can dream. If I were to marry – I would find my “wedding announcement outfit” in that store. Just a girl side note.

I then saw a fantastic movie. Now don’t snigger. With all my snobby reading and sports and movie ways – this may come as a surprise to many of you. But, I’m going to go ahead and say, “He’s Just Not that Into You” was an awesome movie. Hilarious. Witty. Touching. Smart. It hit everything and hit it well. I can’t believe how much I enjoyed this movie. I would go see it again – in the theater – for $8. I highly recommend this movie.

Sunday. Sunday’s are always good days. Am I right? So right. Church was great. And when the roomies and I got home, we made ourselves some pigs in a blanket (my choice), drank some Diet Soda, cooked up some Costco meatballs, and dished out hummus and pita chips. Then, my roomies boyfriend started talking about a show I’d started watching, started loving, and then stopped watching rather suddenly: Arrested Development. I mentioned how much I’d liked it and how sad I was I hadn’t been able to get through the rest of the second season and into the 3rd. Well! Roomie’s cool b/f had all the episodes on his I-phone and we plugged it into our TV and watched one of the best episodes ever. It was also extremely nostalgic and brought back a flood of memories from my month in California. Don’t you love it when you are reminded of old jokes you’d forgotten about over the months? Especially when they come back in all their glorious hilarity! This particular episode my favorite character, Gob (said Job), is told by his “wife” the she’s in love with his brother-in-law. And he just doesn’t grasp what she’s trying to say. Me? ME! One of those things you’d had to of been there – BUT – if you’ve not experienced this show – might I suggest you find some way to experience it? Yes. You. Can.

Those were the main events of my weekend. Too add some sprinkles, our piano is tuned which made for some great playing, I found a beginning guitar class I can take over the summer at the U, AND I’m going to finish my Dickens novel soon. It’s just those simple things that really make a weekend enjoyable, ya know? I don’t have to do anything extravagant; attend huge parties, go on dates (though it wouldn’t hurt - still working on Dr. Jack), things like that. But rather, I like doing a series of things that just makes me happy; the reading, the sports, the movie, the clean house, and I count it a successful weekend. I even got all my laundry done AND wrote a post. Productive and enjoyable.

And now, because of this weekend, I have hopefully a consistent volleyball and Frisbee group. My friend Rob said we’d perfect our skills and join the SLC Ultimate league come the summer.

It’s hard to move to a new (or "have been removed for a year") town – mostly because it’s hard to build any sort of social existence from scratch – but now it’s starting to bud. Hurray for social buds! Hurray for volleyball, frisbee, good movie, clean house, excellent ward, and Dr. Jack buds. I like it when things start to look up...I could get very used to it.