Adjectives

Adorable:

Fetching:

Delightful:

Perspicacious:

Precious:

Punky:

Mr. Suavey:

Boisterous:

Goofy-licious:

Attitude-y:

Scrumptious:

Intrinsic:

Delectable:

Nerdy:

Pulchritudinous Nerdy:

Faux-hawky:

Seductive:

Double Seductive:

So Big, So Small

I spent the last week in Utah, loving my family, and yesterday I flew back to DC.  

I love flying, but mostly, I love the window seat.

Whenever I look out an airplane, one thought runs through my mind over and over again:

And I am so small.

This world is an unending source of unduplicated, awe-inspiring creations and I can only look and be reminded of how little I see, how much I don't understand, and how often I forget.

It was an interesting feeling compared to the feeling that was pressing on me each day while I was at home.  I would look at my parents, my siblings, their spouses and children and one thought ran through my mind over and over again:

My world fits into one tiny frame.

They are an unending source of unduplicated, awe-inspiring love and I can only be reminded of how much I need them, how desperately I always want to be near them, and how little the world would mean without them.

Guinness World Record

By the way, we only saw Air Supply because we just happened to be downtown breaking a Guinness World Record.

I promise that just because I gained eternal fame and glory by breaking a Guinness World Record, I will still treat all of you as equals.

Saturday, at approximately 5:37 p.m. EST, the largest group of angklung players ever assembled joined together for five minutes to play "We Are the World."  We were given our instrument, taught our hand signal, and together we became one.

Here are our fellow GWR breakers.  Those shiny hats are what all the men were given, the women were given fancy scarves. (On top of breaking a record, given free accessories, getting to take home our angklungs...we were still given a free Air Supply concert!  Indonesia is the most generous country in the world!)

Here we are practicing "We Are the World."  What I love about this video is that Adrienne thought she was taking a picture.  That singing and smiling and swaying to the music that's captured in this video, that's all real folks, we didn't even know she was filming.

Honestly, "We Are the World" was cool, but what really gave me chills was the warm-up song, Home on the Range.  If it is possible for Home on  the Range to be achingly beautiful, I did not know it until that afternoon when the wooden chimes of the angklung rung up and down the hill of the Washington monument in a wave of soft melody.  Little Morgan, I so wish you'd been there to hear our song together played in such a sweet way.

I wasn't even trying to take this video - I just bumped my camera on!

Our conductor, Dr. Udjo, was the coolest, happiest man alive.  I don't think they could have found a better man for the job.  He built our confidences up with a few warm up songs (including Country Roads!) and then we were ready.

We weren't allowed to take pictures during the record song (everyone had to be holding their instrument and playing the song or we were all disqualified).  So I used what God gave me (my chin) to hold my camera up and film the song (I just had to document history). 

(what's with the sour puss girl at the end?  Does she hate unity and record breaking or something?)

And when we were done, you could not contain the crowd's excitement (except for that sour puss at the end of the video)!

We had done it.  We had battled the world record and together we conquered!

I just love it when a group comes together (I'm a lot like Hannibal Smith that way). It brings tears to my eyes.  And it makes me want to sing the Indonesian National Anthem.

So once again, please don't feel awkward around me just because I happen to be in the history books.  I may have a certificate to prove that I am awesome...

But it does have a typo.  Which means it could all be fake.  Hmm.

"Something Finally Went Right"

Five years ago, I did the best thing I've ever done in my life.  I drove five and a half hours with one of my favorite friends of all time, Kathryn Pugh Alexander (fashionista, humor mentor, crossword puzzler extraordinaire, 1st runner up in the Ice Cream Churn Challenge) to see an Air Supply concert in St. George.

On that trip, I discovered the beauty of Air Supply and my life has never been the same.

Five years later, I found myself once again in the powerful and passionate presence of Air Supply, the band that has solidified itself in history books as the darling of the 80s, king of the power ballads, master of the dramatic pause, and the ultimate goal of all professional karaoke-ers.  And yes, Katie, they are still the reigning champions of guiding their audience through their lyrics with primary actions.  Simply put, they are an unstoppable force of love.

Their force of love carried them all the way into the audience, where we got so close to Mr. Graham Russel (lead guitarist, singer/song writer, voice of an Australian angel) we could almost touch him.

Kelly and Becky were no match for the unstoppable force of Air Supply.  They were sitting on the grass, quietly enjoying the music, when Mr. Russell Hitchcock (lead vocalist, international superstar, primary chorister in a previous life) pointed at them, gave them the shame on you hand signal (like any good primary chorister) and motioned for them to stand up and clap and dance until they did.  There was no resting for them for the remainder of the concert.  Russell continued to monitor their participation throughout the concert, pointing to them, encouraging them, imitating their dance moves, getting annoyed by Becky when she had her hands on her hips, making weird suggestive hip movements to Kelly as he sang "I only want to feel...part of you...next to me"...there was just no escaping his attention.

Kelly, Adrienne, and Becky were even featured on the big screen as audience dancers (never mind the fact I was dancing right next to Becky and that I was the true Airhead (Air Supply fan) to begin with, for some reason they decided to cut me out of the shot).

When Air Supply left the stage, we single-handedly got them to come back on for an encore by chanting All-Out-of-Love!  All-Out-of-Love! (The only song Becky recognized from their numerous world famous hits).

It was a truly beautiful night, with a lot of love and a lot of good-wholesome awkward moments.

I would like to share the unstoppable force of love with you and suggest that you immediately go listen to some Air Supply.  I dare you not to burst out singing at the top of your lungs when listening to "Here I Am" or not to feel the true depth and power of the lyrics in "Making Love Out of Nothing" or not to smile and shyly sway to "Two Less Lonely People."  And above all, I dare you not to use primary actions at any time throughout any of those songs.  Good luck.

D to the Licious: Grilled Cheese

I have, unfortunately, been reading this blog: http://www.grilledcheesesocial.com/

Which makes me come home and immediately make these:

Van Gogh Cheese on Honey Whole Wheat with Onions

Cooper Cheese on Jalapeno Bread

Making Sense

Somewhere in the not too distant past, I was walking around downtown on a sunny Saturday.  I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt and I hadn't taken a shower for a couple days.  Two men called me beautiful as I walked by.  As I was crossing a crosswalk, a truck stopped in the middle of his turn, and rolled down the window to whistle at me.

I met up with my roommate to go to a movie.  After the ticket man ripped my ticket and called me beautiful, I told my roommate as we walked away that something really weird was happening today...something just didn't make sense.

Then she said, "No, it makes sense.  You step out of the Mormon single world and things just start making sense."