So I thought, with all that's been going on, it might be easier to do a quick catch-up. Deal? Here's a quick recap of my life, for all you living vicariously through me (aka, my siblings. I know it's not really true, but I appreciate when you say you live through me...)
I played volleyball on Wednesday night - and ROCKED IT. Seriously, I was on my game, and it was awesome. Sometimes I'm pretty good and other times I struggle a bit, but this night was a very strong one for me. Which made it much more fun. It's always more fun when you're actually good at something, I think. Anyway, I {heart} volleyball. End of story.
I gave a talk at church today. The topic I was given was this beautiful talk by Elder Holland, "Lord, I Believe." I really love his talk, but I find it difficult to write a talk on a talk, so I used it more as launchpad for some thoughts on faith. I think it worked out better this way, since I'm pretty sure that talk has been used in everything these last few months, so we all pretty much have it memorized at this point anyway. About halfway through my talk, the thought ran through my head, "this feels really confusing. I hope it doesn't sound confusing; I hope people are getting what I'm saying." Because when you've read over something a million times, it makes sense to you, but you just don't know about how it comes across sometimes. But a lot of people came up after the meeting and thanked me for a really nice talk, and they said it in that sincere, genuine way, where you really believe they meant it, so I think it went okay. A friend asked me for it, even, so I just handed over my talk - I knew I should've added a copyright note at the bottom...
I rearranged our living room Friday night. It's a little more open now. The old setup had been in place since before I moved in, and I just couldn't handle it anymore. I bought a rather large tv from a friend a few weeks ago, and we put it up above our fireplace, instead of right next to the front door, where our old, little tv was, so I finally moved the cords and cable box to the new tv, and moved the couch around, and blah blah blah, it's like a different room. My roommates were gone for the weekend, so they had a surprise to come home to! Now we just need to find another couch/loveseat to round the room out, and a new rug because I hate the one we have...I love having the house to myself, I get to do whatever I want to the order of the house!
I went to Utah last-minute for my uncle's funeral, and I was so glad I could get out there. It was a beautiful service, and I'm just really happy that I got to go home and be with family for this. I think I've got the best family in the world, so I wanted to be there to support them and enjoy beautiful memories. Shout-out to my coworkers who worked extra hard to keep the office running {relatively} smoothly while I was gone for a few days of the busiest week of the Summer...I really appreciated their support.
And then I went to Utah again! For a planned vacation this time. And I had a blast. It was superb. Friday, my parents and I went on a shopping spree at the outlets at Park City (the best outlets), and I spent a little too much - but I'm sooo ready for Autumn now. I got me stocked up on sweaters and everything, so it will be a fashionable Fall :). And then in the evening, I visited with 3 old college besties - for a number of hours. I love these girls; I hadn't seen 2 of them in almost 3 years, and we still could gab late into the night like the good old days. I will always cherish this friendship. I also got to visit with two other Utah gal pals on Saturday night, and just loved being with them as well. Gah, I'm so blessed to have so many good people populating my life.
And the second half of this trip was the SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL!!!!! Cedar City, UT, hosts a Shakespeare Festival every year, for about 6 months, and I've heard it's fabulous, and I've wanted to go to it forever. Or at least since I was a sophomore in college, taking a Shakespeare class, which is where I even heard about this event. I've never really been to Southern Utah at all, either, aside from a trip to Lake Powell once when I was younger, so I was excited to just go down and explore a bit as well. We drove down Sunday night, walked around the grounds of the Festival quickly - it's on Southern Utah University's campus, and they built a replica of the Globe Theater in London, so we went and sat in there for a few minutes, and then enjoyed an evening of clear skies and Taco Bell as we sat on the hotel patio by the indoor pool. It was so serene. Then we saw two plays on Monday - Love's Labour's Lost and The Tempest. I liked them both a lot. I was probably more enchanted by LLL, but I thought both were really good. LLL was just really funny. The main male lead was also extremely attractive, which just doesn't hurt a performance either. But all the actors did a fabulous job in that production, and aside from the mortification dad and I felt when we saw mom had fallen asleep for a few minutes, though we were sitting in the FRONT ROW, it was just really great. And I loved sitting in the Globe Theater for the Tempest - it's now on my bucket list to go to the real Globe Theater in London one day (I've always wanted to, but I just decided I should have a bucket list, so...that's all I've got on it so far...). We were all speaking in the Shakespearean tongue for the whole day - because that's what Barlows do. We experience something and then spend the next several hours pretending like that's just our life. It's cool. And then Tuesday, we explored a state park and a national park and saw some of the red rock southern Utah is famous for. It was lovely and I really enjoyed it, despite dad's efforts to assume that I wasn't enjoying it very much.
And then I came back home to Virginia...which wasn't really eventful at all. Though it was to the mother-daughter couple next to me, who had never been out east before. I hope they enjoyed the wedding they were attending! And I did meet 2 guys coming back for school in Annapolis - one is hoping to become a pilot, and one is going to go the direction of submarines. They were also newly returned missionaries for our church, so as one of them started talking to me, I couldn't help but want to take them under my wing and guide them back into the real world! Good luck, boys, enjoy school!
Uh...that's about it, actually. I guess that's a lot, really. It all just seemed to fly by so fast. I guess I'll just go back and enjoy the brutal work schedule that is August Recess. There's just so much to be done - like deciding where to go to lunch, and reading the 2 emails I might get during the day.
I tell you what, July just about killed us all, so I think we deserve the few weeks of bed rest we get this month...
Oh, wait, what? You wanted to see some pictures? Okay, I can suppose I can do that -
It's a blue cougar. Duh.
Our Play schedule on Monday.
The set of Love's Labour's Lost
The set of The Tempest. The lighting was lovely.
The actors started acting before the play officially started. It was a long voyage, after all. (We weren't supposed to take pictures during the play - but if it hadn't started, I wasn't breaking any rules, right? Dad was considering disowning me, all the same...)
My boyfriend. Such a charmer, the rascal.
Hope that's enough - because it's all I've got!
