sing it with me.

She's thinking, "I am sooooo out of here...maybe I should  child-belt about it"

In honor of getting the heck out of dodge tomorrow... and also in honor of flamboyant red hair.... let's sing some ANNIE people.

The sun'll come out 

Tomorrow

Bet your bottom dollar 

That tomorrow 

There'll be sun! 

Just thinkin' about

Tomorrow 

Clears away the cobwebs, 

And the sorrow 

'Til there's none! 

When I'm stuck a day 

That's gray, 

And lonely, 

I just stick out my chin 

And Grin, 

And Say, 

Oh! 

The sun'll come out

Tomorrow 

So ya gotta hang on 

'Til tomorrow 

Come what may 

Tomorrow! Tomorrow!

I love ya Tomorrow! 

You're always

A day

aaaaaawayyyyy!

Everyone knows "old movie of annie" is better than "stupid new movie of annie" due to these three unbelievably brilliant broads. (Yes, I did just call Tim Curry a broad.)

IM OUT-E.

SO. ECSTATIC. LEAVING. TUESDAY.

I'll be heading home on Tuesday night and I literally feel like I'm going to pop out of my skin (that would be very bad, wouldn't it?) with excitement. I got the hair done today which was MUCH needed. It reaffirmed my love for the aveda co. and all of their awesome smelling herby products. I kept with the red it just looks a bit less...um.... "crappy" now (I had been negligent aka I'm an incredibly poor college student).

I could talk about going home all day. Really all day everyday until I'm finally shut up by.... actually going home!  Not that any special Phil-ish person is picking me up at the airport or anything, and not that I miss my loving fam with all of my heart and soul and can't wait to squeeze them, and not that my town is the best town of all the towns in the world of towns... or whatever... 

I cannot wait to be at the fabulous Oakland International. I can't wait to drive the back way through crow canyon and smell In-N-out beckoning to me as I get closer to the freeway.  If I didn't have class on monday I could have gone home TODAY. Isn't that a travesty? I think so. In fact if I didn't have any classes anytime... I could just stay at home! Funny thought laugh with me.

I'm dreaming of all the wonderfulness that awaits me in the homeland:

1. the family (subgroup: the most awesome cousins in the universe)

2. turkey (possibly shot by my Grandpa "the man") cranberry sauce and martinelli's sparkling apple cider aka nectar of heaven

3. this guy I kinda like

4. a blonde bestie (we can celebrate Hanukkah together)

5. possible unexpected high school encounters (I'm telling you people I LIVE for these, the more awkward the better)

6. Christmas Tree cutting extravaganza 2008. Let the search for the super sapling begin.

7. lolli my sassy diva puppy.

8. a certain 8 and under group that owns my heart (and Paige if you read this I have pre-begged Phil to come visit with me on wednesday-ish) 

9. completion of a very exciting and groundbreaking music video directed by Brian VB. (or VanNasty if you will)

10. DOMENICOS. last due to its near sacred importance.

also.

Pieces of a story everyone should read and remember.

oh sweet disaster.

Dear Apartment,

This week you took me for quite a wild ride.  I was feeling a little sicky and I thought it would be nice to spend some quality time with you and my comfy bed...I guess you had other plans.  

First you decided it was time for the light to go out in my closet. That was fine... I had lightbulbs...but what I didn't have was an extra four inches in height...it took me a few days to realize that there was indeed a way for my chair to fit through the closet door and save me from darkness.  

Then it was a smell of gas...ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME APARTMENT? It was your old friend oven...leaking. So repair man number one comes and he cant fix it. No cooking for Aubrey.  

Well I thought to myself maybe I'll have a nice shower.  You had other plans didn't you apt? The water heater broke and the water had to be shut off. No cooking, no dishwashing, no water to flush toilet-ing. You and me apt, we were reduced to a bath filled with cold water for flushing, and a jug left over from the hurricane for teeth brushing and face washing.  I even took my sore throated body to the gym to shower. Whatdya think about that apartment?! Couldn't you have thought of a better weekend for this breakdown? 

Finally repair man number 2 fixed the oven, and then super plumber life saver man brought you a new water heater. I've never enjoyed a shower so much in my life...I was a little stinky...I learned I don't like the voyage-to-gym-to-bath on day one.  My sink was a little stinky too and full of dishes.  

Everything is fixed now madame apartment. What a weekend.  I love you, your cute and quaint like a nice old granny, but please apt. stop the madness. Just work, come on you and me apt. like the little engine that could. Chug chug chug. come. on.

love,

miss aubrey

DANVILLE-OCITY

I MISS THE VILLE. I've been consoling myself by counting down the days till my holiday breakage and dreaming about its suburban glory in my spare time.

I love Danville as if it were its own mini nation.  If you can't see Mount Diablo...you've moved too far away.

There are so many things I love about my little town. 

1. seeing all the plastic ladies eating brunch in the morning (there are some things you love to be scared of...like halloween, or rollercoasters, or a fifty year old who looks not a day over 20) 

2. driving down Diablo road

3. hiking the trails and crawling around rock cit-ay

4. town history...that's because I'm a nerd...

5. being a Bart ride away from the most gorgeous city on the planet

6. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the 4th of July parade and plan to participate in its wonders TILL I DIE... my cousins and I still scream bloody murder for candy and prizes...we're starting to get funny looks...also a great place to see who looks trashy from high school...

7. Hartz avenue

8. the every-danville-teen-tradition of trekking down to the beautiful beaches of crusty santa cruz to sun-bake and bonfire.

9. that stinking oak tree...I love that thing and I love that we propped the old dying hunk of wood on a big steel walker just because everyone feels affection for the big shrub.

10. taking walks with the momma and sisters around "the loop"...I love that everyone walks in Danville or jogs...or bikes in tiny awkward spandex...it's like everyone is secretly training for the olympics. 

11. living a grand total of 2 minutes away from the boyfriend (if all stoplights behave) in those oh so perfect times where we're not three billion miles away from each other... which yes is one of the stupidest circumstances of all time.

12.  knowing every traffic pattern, and every neighborhood, most last names, and many streets.

In living other places I've learned only to love it more. Love it miss it can't wait to kiss it (not really possible...maybe I'll go hug the oak tree) Thanksgiving in less than 2 weeeeeeeeks.

sister sister.

Tara came to visit this weekend! It was such a needed treat... sooooooooo nice to see family.  I am literally counting down the days and weeks till the end of the semester...guh.

We had a le ton of fun... made a rap video, went to Tapas (I like to make everyone go), shopped (we especially browsed at soho, a boutique we are obsessed with and can't afford...hooray for the sale rack!), went to class (T wasn't a fan of music history), cooked, went to mexican with Lynds, goofed around, became obsessed with Onch the filipino transvestite from Paris Hilton's new BFF show (why why why did she cut the fabulous Onch?), ran through a torrential downpour in rice village, drank yummy hot chocolate (sbucks new hot chocolate is inspired, it has some pretentious name like selective or elite and it ROCKS).. we had fun-as-if-at-home sisterly time....I was of course sad the whole fam couldn't be there but Im thinking we couldn't fit the parents the courtney and the breiners all in my tiny apt.

CRAZY HIGHLIGHT OF THE VISIT (so crazy that it makes me think, Aubrey how do you fall into these wild and hilarious situations?) happened Saturday night...  

We were driving to Target to get light bulbs when in the middle of the road on one of those large grassy medians we saw something strange. So on T's suggestion we pulled over and hopped out, cameras in hand.  It was some sort of big crazy funky undergroundish car show. They weren't just your average vehicles either...they looked more like craft projects created by... I'm not sure... someone in an altered state with a great sense of humor.

There were the CA-RAZIEST cars.  We saw car made to look like a hippo with blue glowing eyes, a chicken-car as tall as a small house, a FLAME THROWING CAR PEOPLE (nearly gave us a heart attack), a car covered in mirrors, a christmas car, there was a zebra car towing a zebra band...oh and how could I forget the Jesus-and-other-well-known-icon-figurines-car...

This creepy mcCreeperson lady told us it was the "illumination cruise" (when I say she told us I mean she tapped us on the shoulder and invited us to go on a ride in one of the cars...we thought "no" was the appropriate and "i want to live to see tomorrow" answer.)  The show was so amazing and it was so neat to just stumble upon it and feel like we were in on some magical secret.  I hope to stumble upon many more adventures in my lifetime. 

A salute to princesses.

While I was visiting Phil...

I put on a sparkly headband....

because all headbands should have sparkles if at all 

possible.

I looked at him, smiled, and said:

"A crown for the princess!"

I started laughing.

He just dropped his head into his hands.  

Someone must have warned him about 

princesses.

I'm still laughing.

Poor PG.

daybreak in alabama.

I'm not going to get all political ferschmitical on anyone via blog or really via any other avenue of conversation (also because I have no say. why you ask? well ask me personally about my embarrassing shameful voting fiasco story).  I try to respect the sacred right we all have to cast our vote, to believe in our own principles, and to live in the way we see fit.  I think everything has been said...and let's face it...I like to play nice nice (or maybe you just caught me on a good day?).  Election day is done and I hope that everyone enjoyed exercising their freedom to vote.

I would Like to talk about one thing;  the incredible stride we made socially as a country in electing the first African American president in United States History.  I cannot express my amazement or my pride for the progress we have made in the last 50 some years as a nation.  In most of our parents lifetimes black men and women in many parts of the country could not use the same restroom, drinking fountain, school...as their white neighbors.  Neighbors being a very relative term as they often couldn't even walk beside their fellow white citizens on the sidewalk let alone live down the street.  They were laughed at, jeered at, publicly shamed, and privately terrorized.  Murders and violent acts were overlooked by a distorted culture that saw the African American people as less. 

 

Racism is a far from gone problem.  During this election time I have been appalled by the comments, even those in jest, that I had the unfortunate experience of hearing.  (I love an inappropriate joke... inappropriate is one of my favorite words...  but not so full of spite people...come on.) I would invite everyone to remember that in many cases our ancestors struggled with similar persecution, similar jokes, similar judgements, similar acts of violence.  DO NOT forget the minute it's not you being called different.

So in opposition to all of that yucky-ness I would just like to say how thankful I am that another step has been made towards a society based on respect and equality.  Many people paved the way in all manner of sacrifices.  No matter our political leanings we should all take time during this crazy week to think about what this means and how this event fulfills many of the valiant efforts of those who have laid down their lives for civil liberty.

Daybreak in Alabama

When I get to be a composer I'm gonna write me some music about Daybreak in Alabama And I'm gonna put the purtiest songs in it Rising out of the ground like a swamp mist And falling out of heaven like soft dew. I'm gonna put some tall tall trees in it And the scent of pine needles And the smell of red clay after rain And long red necks And poppy colored faces And big brown arms And the field daisy eyes Of black and white black white black people And I'm gonna put white hands And black hands and brown and yellow hands And red clay earth hands in it Touching everybody with kind fingers And touching each other natural as dew In that dawn of music when I Get to be a composer And write about daybreak In Alabama.  Langston Hughes

PHANTASTIC PHIL PHUN

YES, I plan on completely over-using the "ph" thing.

SO...here's our UtahMAS countdown in its entirety:

12 tease haired ladies

11 creeps a creepin

10 tots per family

9 ill-named babies

8 guys in girls jeans

7 salons for tanning

6 suburbans swerving

5 rings for my wives!

4 dates on fridays

3 pounds of gel

2 (too) many blondes

and a Philip in love with Aubrey!  

(I had evens PG had odds) We plan to do this for many a countdown.

I didn't think a weekend could top Phil's last visit.  I was convinced my trip to Utah could only at most be equally amazing.  WRONG.  I don't know how it's possible but every time we 're together it completely tops the time before. IT. WAS. EVERYTHING AND MORE OF WONDERFUL. (Ok yes... you can go vomit now.  I know it's nauseating.) 

SO. The weekend started late Friday night when a cheetah cat (that was me) was picked up at the Salt Lake airport by a PENGUIN. So fun.  We didn't get a picture which is very upsetting but you can imagine Phil waddling over to me in full penguin gear. I'm so glad he waddled. That's real commitment.

I stayed at Jaicy's for the weekend. SO NICE. She has a darling house and I canNOT believe she's grown up and married.  Jaicy is an extra sister in my family and I imagine her probably in and around the third grade if not in diapers with courtney crawling on a blanket. I totally got emotional.

I got the full BYU tour on Saturday which was great.  It was so awesome to get a feel for the campus and see where PG is slaving away everyday. The fall leaves were breathtaking this weekend. I've never seen Utah so pretty...and it was nice to see some mountains. Ok...there I said it...it was beautiful. 

We got to stop in the school's art museum which of course made my day and PG sweetly went along for the ride... he also touched a "do not touch" art exhibit...I'm sure no one's surprised. 

Saturday night we all went to see Dallin VB's new band Belief Transit do a concert @ muse; a little music house in town.  It was a really cool venue and the band was awesome. Phil and I were entranced by this red neon sign and took too many pictures. 

After the concert we headed out to some hot springs which were really cool. Actually... they were really HOT at 100 and some degrees, and especially hot that night according to everyone there. For some reason I had a pretty incredible tolerance for the water (which was cooking us alive) but after a while we were both turning into boiled noodles and decided to head out on another adventure.  

Adventure two was totally on a whim.  We went up to a look out point we found (let the jokes, comments, riots, and teasing begin).  We could see all the lights of provo and the black expanse of the lake.  On the drive up I thought I saw an opossum...and on the drive down we realized that a lot of the rocks looked like opossums.  From this experience we cemented this important rule of thumb: all rocks are not opossums. For some reason Phil saying this sends me into total laugh hysterics. I can't explain.  

Later that night (night being totally relative because we basically slept for eight hours this weekend) we went to walmart and in our exhausted state laughed at everything. I mean EVERYTHING. LOTS of Michael Jackson jokes and utah accent references. I didn't know I could possibly laugh as much as we do together.

I met some of PG's friends up at school who are all SO.NICE.  I wouldn't expect any less.  I got to see  "THE Brett and Elliott" and met Brett's a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e girlfriend (Who looks like the missing Candland. so crazy.)  We went out to CPK (the best) with some of Phil's pals which was a blast and a half.  I saw Kristen and met her awesome hubby and her cute little puppy (that I wanted to steal SO BADLY).  I ran into scotty blatty at church today which was hilarious (he didn't know I was in town I think I scared him half to death).

Thennn...I slept the whole flight home. I mean the WHOLE flight. (Did I mention we barely slept?) The flight attendant actually commented on my comatose plane-nap when I was leaving.  

Annnddd...Now I'm just upset.  To be completely mushily honest, I don't like being apart from Phil for one minute let alone weeks and weeks. ALAS.  At least it's not so many this time.  Thanksgiving is just around the corner and then we'll have almostttt a week together. bliss! 

THE ALL AND ALL IS... I'm really becoming convinced that I am in fact the luckiest person ever (3 billion miles from perfect? yes. but luckier than lucky? absolutely.)  I'll save you all the extreme pouring out of emotions and just say I am so thankful. so SO so SO thankful for PG.  Isn't it twilight-zoney? Does anyone remember when Phil and I were teenie boppers and our social exchange was sassy comments during seminary? (and yes I did always laugh at his jokes.) Does anyone remember his not so sweet nickname for yours truly?? ("trunkie"...ask at your own risk.I believe there was also a mean cartoon to go with it.) And all of THAT was when he was awake and I was actually there. life's a kick.

.