WE THANK THEE, O GOD, FOR A PROPHET

Gordon B. Hinckley, prophet and president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, passed away last night at age 97. I received the news through several text messages while at work.
President Hinckley was the man! click here to read all the amazing things he accomplished in his many years on this earth. If I could do like 8.9% of all of his accomplishments, I'd be the raddest girl you knew. He was incredible. I was able to attend the Draper Temple groundbreaking ceremony in 2006 with my black girlfriend Michelle, Pres. Hinckley, and the Twelve and it was an experience I'll never forget.

We thank thee, O God, for a Prophet
To guide us in these latter days;
We thank thee for sending the Gospel
To lighten our minds with its rays.

On a side note, if I die soon I want the songs If I Ever Leave This World Alive by Flogging Molly and Baby Blue by George Strait played at my funeral. I also don't want everybody to be sitting around crying. Sure, put up an open mic and everybody can say good things about me...if you can't think of any go ahead and make some up. Then throw in some greased pig wrestling and pizza or something. And put together a slideshow because I have lots of photos from this world, that's for sure.
xoxoxo

SECOND DATES

.......Next few days.......

(Thurs & Fri Jan 24-25, 2008)

I had a date with a bottle of Nyquil and bag of cough drops Thursday. It went so well, I decided to try it again Friday night. But Friday I did rise from my bed and travel to Park City to meet Jimmy Hu at the Filmmaker Lounge (director guy in photo from Day2) to get tickets to a film coming up on Monday. I was also supposed to meet my new friend Sean(from the Broken film Day1) but he called and couldn't make it up. Jimmy took me into the New Frontier Lounge where I was in awe of the technology genious around me. I made a friend at the information desk and Jimmy bought me a hot cup of herbal tea because I sounded like Marge Simpson's sisters Patty & Thelma. He was sick also from "too much partying" and the cold, cold Park City air. So we called it a night. Don't remember much else.

FESTIVALING ON

As mentioned from the Sunday story, Jenny and I scored red carpet tickets from director Al Massad to see his film Recycle, so we headed up to Park City again. I grabbed some cold medicine on the way because I was feeling a little under the weather...nothing bad just a little congested.
We park and walk like 3 blocks to the theater, not realizing there was a shuttle or a parking lot at the local Albertson's grocery store nearby. Don't worry we stopped halfway between the theater and our spot at the local 7-11 to warm up under the hand dryer in the restroom.

HOW ANYONE CAN LIVE IN PARK CITY AND NOT DIE FROM THE FREEZING TEMPS IS A MYSTERY TO ME.




Upon entering the theater we were seated with the director's entourage. Pretty sweet. The film was grand. Go here to read about it. After giving our director friend a hug and high-5, we braved the cold on our walk past our car to Main Street. Good gosh it must have been like 2 degrees F. Jenny and I stalled until Patrice showed up and then we met our 3 friends from Sunday that we met in the Director's Lounge at Irie for some Cajun dinner. Nice boys from Biola University in LA. The conversation was spicy and the food was never dull. After promising maybe a midnight movie this weekend or breakfast before they go back to LA, we girls headed home to Provo...a drive that is becomingly beautifully routine it seems.

DEAL OR NO DEAL

.......End of part 2...Intermission...End of intermission...PART 3........

Day 3 (Tuesday, Jan 22, 2008)
That's right, Jenny, Dane, and I decided to recover from Day 2 of Sundance festivaling by taking Monday off and came back up on Tuesday night with the hopes of getting into a party for the movie The Deal. Only problem was we couldn't make in the door. Our friend Keith Fox tried his best. But, alas, tonight was a bust. All we got was some sticky gum and hot chocolate on Main Street then we headed to Albertson's to drown our sorrows in some gatorade, deli wraps, and gummy worms. Sorry no big stories today.

PARIS HILTON & THE SUNDANCE KIDS

......Part two........
DAY 2 (Sunday, Jan 20, 2008)
After accepting my new calling to the party class at church Jenny, Hannah, and I decided strolling along Main Street would be a great roommate sabbath activity. Little did we know what the night held for us...

We arrived at the Director's Lodge and I suggested we go in. The security was real tight--
security thug: do you have a badge?
me: no
thug: uh...ok go in, I guess
but we managed to make it in just in time for wine and mini hors d'oeuvres (which meant water and raisinettes from a bowl for us Mormon girls). Met a few directors and film students who we will rendezvous with in later blogging.


We leave and continue on our journey up Main running into a crazy space cadet man who interviewed us about buying real estate (www.wellcomemat.com look for us on the site maybe), free cucmber water at an art gallery, an australian with a fuzzy pink shirt and amazing eyes looking for a cheeky drink, chocolate bananas on sticks, a celeb or two, free gorgeous watches, one of our director friends Al Massad who gave us red carpet tickets to his film premiere Recycle on Wednesday...then our friend Dane.



Dane had been waiting with fellow fans for Paris to come out of Fred Segal. I was just interested in warming my hands and feet. So we walked around the Green Room. While I was standing around an outside heater some guys come walking out of a private party saying "Keith Fox is leaving so there is no point in trying to get in to the party anymore folks." I chime in and tell Keith I love him. He responds with a thank you. My friend go inside to use the bathroom and we run into the same gentlemen leaving the party with Keith. I say, "Keith, we meet again. And those are ridiculous gloves you're wearing." He shows them to me and describes how they help him climb things like spiderman... Then one of his friends mentions something about Modesto, CA. How many people know about Modesto?! So I jump into the conversation. Before I know it the guys are walking away and inviting us to go to Erik's party with them. I shrug my shoulders and we pile into a club wagon musical taxi full of christmas lights, glowing lips, a disco ball, and a driver ready to play any song we requested. Later in the night we requested the same musical taxi and discovered there was karaoke and fun masks in there too.


So we play at Erik's and dance up a storm there making new friends, eating pizza, and taking more photos. Thank you Erik.



We leave with our friends to their condo they are renting for $15,000 for 5 days at Deer Valley. Eat some pizza, get ready for the next party, sit by the fire...it's all pretty relaxing.



Dane and I go on a mission to move our cars so they don't get towed at 2am...lame parking enforcement...and make it back as our crew is loading the musical taxi again to head to the Green Door Mansion for a party where we hung with Paris Hilton, grabbed some free designer Chip & pepper denim, played some indoor basketball, rapped with Cisco Adler and danced on the table until 5am because we were snowed in and no taxis could come up to take us home.
Our Hollywood friends blogged about us and posted a picture with Dane and Paris here...hooray for the local Mormons...only sober people at 5am and still partying.
Barely making it back to the condo and to our cars covered in snow we realized there was no way we could make it out until the roads had been plowed. So we stuck around and I borrowed some socks so I could sleep for about an hour and a half before braving the roads back to Provo. Wake me up because I must be dreaming...how in the world did that night ever happen?!
Read up on Dane's version of the night on his blog also.

SUN-DANCING WITH THE STARS

.............PART 1...........

"Just heard about some music festival you have there today on the news. What is this?" What?! I received that text from my friend Wayne in England. How could he possibly have heard about the Sundance Film Festival in Utah all the way in England?! I had to find out more. So I put on my snow boots, wool coat, and hat and packed up the crew to find out how big the Sundance Film Festival really is...PARK CITY HERE WE COME.





FIRST NIGHT (Saturday, Jan 19, 2008)
David Rampton came all the way from Cali to hit the scene. Senses telling me it might be big. Patrice, Jenny Baum, and I meet Dane, Danny Wilson, Katie G, Patrick, Jessica Brothers, and some other girl friend for sushi on Main Street after parking at Deer Valley and shuttling down. OK so parking signs are out...doesn't mean it's big just means it's crowded. After dinner with our lovely waiter Will (who had amazing hair... so amazing I asked permission to touch it), we grabbed some hot chocolate and went to get numbers to wait to buy tickets to see a movie at midnight...that was a mouth full. Met some boys along the way from Estonia, Latvia, and Oregon all in town JUST for the festival. OK learned some phrases from their various native tongue. As we were waiting for the film to start we went inside a mall to stay warm. The power went out on Main. The bets started among the girls to sell our kisses for $1 to strangers (a great way to pay for the $10 movie ticket in my opinion and to meet new people). Final score- deanna: $4.25, a slice of pizza, and a wristband to a party hosted by Quicksilver. Other girls: $0. Looks like deanna wins again. Once we escaped the wait line run by friendly staff Eric and John McNally, we made it in to the theater to see the show The Broken (yes my movie was paid for by the end of the night). Good gosh the only thing scarier than the film we saw were the people on the same row who wouldn't move down 1 seat to allow me to sit with my friends. One seat! And they wouldn't move their legs for me to get by to sit on the other side of them...beasts! However, it proved to be to my advantage because as I walked around the row I made friends with two lovely fellows sitting in front of me who got my digits. There really are people like that out there...

ACROSS MY UNIVERSE

Not sure how I hadn't heard a thing about this film, but 50 cent Tuesday came around and I went with the roommate Danny Wilson to see Across the Universe. At first, I was skeptical wondering if this was like a High School Musical set to Beatles songs. In the middle I was a little confused. By the time it ended, I walked out of the theater in love with this film. It might be because I believe the Beatles were music gurus, because I just returned from London and am smitten by the English accent (Jude is just gorgeous), or maybe because the cinematography was grand...oh and the love story behind it all was super too. Hopefully this show crosses your universe one day.
xoxoxo

POSH TUBING

The new ward sprung for us all to go to Soldier Hollow to go sledding. Now this isn't your average type of sledding...this is choose your tube, hook it on to a pulley and they PULL YOU up the mountain, then you sit down and sled on the man made tracks. Maybe not as adventurous as finding some steep hill and building jumps to go off but hey, we can be posh. Tubing is tubing.
xoxoxo

ROOMMATES ASSEMBLE

New roommates mean new rules. So after a roommate council held at the Chuck A Rama, we transcribed a document, signed it in blood (or red dry erase marker), signed it in ink, and sealed the deal with a chug of the pink catawba straight from the bottle. ROOMMATES ASSEMBLE!
xoxoxo

TWO-OH-OH-EIGHT

Time for a new year and where better to celebrate than LAS VEGAS?! We drove there Monday night, some hit the craps tables while others walked the strip with a video camera, we made new friends, kissed lots of boys, drank some sparkling cider, and hit the pillow at about 5am just to drive back home the next day (after a great buffet in Mesquite, of course).

2007 was full of new friends, new continents, new loves, new jobs, new looks, new rules, new residences, and new knowledge. May 2008 bring the same and more to all who read this...and plenty of new blogs. deanna loves you!
xoxoxo