knock knock. who's there? orange. orange who? orange you happy to see me?

north end boston pumpkins.

surprise fall flowers from a friend.

i know i'm a bit late -- the last three weeks have been a blur, with crazy work deadlines, a happy sad weekend trip to boston, a little bad news, minimal sleepage (all of which was made slightly better when i came home one evening to a surprise bouquet of flowers waiting for me...thank you, sir) -- but happy october!

boston commons with kelly.

for an afternoon

we visited the swans and ducks in boston commons,

fed them dark chocolate

(because we didn't have any bread),

and recounted one of our favorite children's books,

make way for ducklings.

it's a story about a little duck family

searching for a home

and finally settling in the boston commons pond.

we're no longer six and two years old,

and we're both out trying to find our own homes in the world,

but for those precious hours in the sunlight,

sitting under a willow tree,

we were the same little girls we used to be.

i love you, kelly.

you know this.

this is why we're friends.

me: "explain my crazy to me."
so he did.
and somehow all the insane thoughts flying around my head

calmed down

made sense

and didn't seem so crazy after all.

a weekend roadtrip with Chad.

Charlottesville, VA

:: Crosby, Stills, & Nash concert with Brandon & Jaclyn ::

Definitely the youngest ones at the concert, besides the grandchildren dragged along by their CSN grandparent fans. Met Brandon, Chad's bff since they were babies, and his lovely wife Jaclyn.

:: Toured the University of Virginia campus ::

LOVED this. Pretty sure Thomas Jefferson designed it with my tastes in mind--he even planted cute Southern boys around. Grad school, maybe?

:: Michie Tavern General Store ::

I died over the quaint goods and homemade pumpkin butter, but wasn't so interested in the history of the place--still not really sure why it's significant, but Chad can tell you.

:: Colonial dress up ::

Found a jackpot of Colonial hats and costumes at Michie Tavern--obviously had to stop our tour to try on every single hat, I giddily, Chad begrudgingly.

:: Saturday afternoon bar visit ::

Clearly Chad's reprisal for the earlier forced dress up. Pretty sure we spent about 10 hours or so in a freezing sports bar to watch BYU lose a football game.

:: Monticello ::

The house was meh--there, I said it--but the views and grounds were beautiful...and I would now like to be buried in the Jefferson family cemetery.

:: Appomattox Courthouse ::

Where Lee surrendered to Grant. Where I almost surrendered to the heat.

:: Wandering around the central VA countryside ::

Highlight of the trip was taking the long, scenic way home, enjoying the scenery, music, and company. Significant resources were contributed to looking for a quaint, small town restaurant for dinner, but apparently Southern restaurants observe the Sabbath. We settled instead for fine dining at Country Cookin' Restaurant, where the Vegetable of the Day was mac'n'cheese, unironically.

Special thanks to Chad, who planned the trip and somehow allowed me to play Only the Young on repeat a zillion times without throttling me.

things i learned over the weekend, ed. 2.

:: you will fall asleep if you watch general conference in bed ::

Though you will have every intention to watch all four sessions of General Conference (the semi-annual internationally televised broadcast from the leadership of your church), you will also be sleep-deprived from a week of late night Keeping Up With the Kardashians marathons. Unable to resist the lure of spending four daytime hours on a Saturday and a Sunday in bed, you will prop yourself up in bed, armed with Junior Mints and Peanut M&Ms, ready to watch Conference. ...You will instantly fall asleep at the beginning of every single session. But but! You may be sleepy, but you are also brilliant! Having anticipated the inevitable, you will have set your DVR to record a few of the sessions, and you can read/watch/listen to the others here. You will spend the next several days catching up on what you missed (because you really love the consistently uplifting, inspiring messages shared at General Conference), and you will reach the end of the week just as edified as everyone else, but with more sleep under your belt.

things i learned over the weekend, ed. 1.

:: you can injure yourself by standing too hard ::

Apparently, if you walk a mile to a party in five inch high heel boots, then stand around for five hours at a backyard fall soiree, you will strain a tendon in your right ankle. As you are probably twenty two and stupid, not only will you neglect to ice and elevate your ankle that night, but you will also wear the same boots to dinner the next day. You will then notice that the pain is getting worse, and you will begin to develop a limp. As you hobble around for the next three days, the pain will steadily increase, and your mom (who is a nurse) will suggest that you acquire crutches. (You will absolutely not acquire crutches. Too dorky, and require arm muscles that you do not possess.) You will become slightly concerned that you may have permanently damaged yourself, but you won't really know how to fix the situation, as hopping around on one foot was only awesome when you were three (okay, twelve), but you'll definitely blog about it. The overall experience will confirm what you suspected all along: Mormon parties can be hazardous--attend at your own risk.

protected pies for the pie eating contest

julia, me, grant, and ally