- 3rd: Interview at Hallmark. It went wonderfully. I never got called. -

- 6th: Interview at GameStop. Also a great interview! -

- 8th: Happy Mother's Day mom! I love you so much! -

- 12th: My 22nd birthday! I spent the day watching all three Extended Lord of the Rings and lounging. It was a beautiful day and a great way to start this year of my life! -

- 13th: Interview at SmashBurger. No word. But I did get the job at GameStop! -

-19th: My first day of work at GameStop! Crazy times! It's a lot to learn. I think I'm finally getting the hang of things. -

- 20th: Drove with Alyson up to Salt Lake City. We met Julie and Cassie and we started our Cousin's Weekend by eating at Cafe Med. Then we laughed a whole lot at Laughing Stock. -

- 21st: Cousin's Weekend day two! We ate at Zupa's for lunch then went to Toad's for some arcade fun! Dinner at Olive Garden was the best way to celebrate that we didn't get raptured! -

- 22nd: We left our lovely cousins and met my beautiful sister Kristi and her boyfriend Ronnie in Provo. Kristi is so nice. She is letting me borrow her car for a while until I can get my own. -

-24th: My man graduated from College! He is amazing! I'm so proud of you Kevin! -

-27th: Alyson and I joined her friend Akilah and Akilah's friend Kisha and we headed to the airport. We took two planes and landed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We hopped in our rental car and drove to New Orleans where we had ice cream and walked around Bourbon Street and explored the French Quarter.

-28th: Louisiana Day Two. We had Po Boys for lunch and bought me a cowboy hat for the concert. We went a bit late to the Country Fest and saw Sugarland and Tim McGraw perform. Both were awesome! -

- 29th: Louisiana Day Three. We had Beignets for lunch! Oh man! So tasty! Unfortunately, it wasn't much of a lunch and I got really sick from hunger. The first bit of the concert wasn't so fun because of it. But Kenny Chesney got me feeling better! -

- 30th: We got back in the dreadful planes. But after hours of traveling, I made it home. Thank goodness. -

- 31st: I got my first pay check! Woo! -

Finding out that Kevin is going to be here for a visit in June! That phone call was VERY happy!

I only had either of these once this month, but I think they are tied for first. The Salmon Sandwich from Cafe Med or the Chicken Enchilada Chili from Zupa's. Mm!

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - Wonderful. But it was the hardest for me to read.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - My favorite of the series I think. I love this book!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Such a wonderful end to a wonderful set of books! I think J.K. Rowling is pretty much a genius!

The Tales of Beedle the Bard - Easy read. I've been meaning to read it since I read Deathly Hallows the first time. It was an interesting little look into the history of the wizarding world.

Ender's Game - Very interesting book. Not what I expected. It's good, but it wasn't my all time favorite.

Salt Lake City, Utah (and surrounding areas)

Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana 

I spent the last four days in good ol' Louisiana!

I have so many pictures and stories to tell! But I decided it would be better to break it all up rather than bombard you with an endless stream of photos!

So be sure to keep coming back throughout the week! I'll have a bunch of posts for you!

My sister's friend Akilah won a sweepstakes to Baton Rouge for the weekend. This included air-fair, hotels and most importantly, tickets to the Bayou Country Music Fest! (More on that later.) She invited Alyson, her friend Kisha and obviously, me! I was pretty stoked!

The trip started out with two different planes. I hate planes. Flying is not fun.

The actually up in the air part isn't so bad. It's the getting up there and getting down from there that freaks me out.

And I had to do it twice in one day.

Gag.

So, after a whole lot of flying, we were all in desperate need of a pick me up when we landed in Baton Rouge.

We hopped in our rental car and drove to New Orleans for some of the best ice cream ever from the Creole Creamery!

One problem. The shop closed at 11. It was 10 and we were just over an hour away from New Orleans.

I feared for my life on that drive.

But we pulled in with four minutes to spare.

And can I just tell you... That Cookie Monster ice cream was amazing! 

I'd fly on two planes and take a death cab just to have some more of that ice cream.

Yup. I would.

More stories to come soon!

Duke likes 'em hairy!

And skanky too, obviously.

Oh work.

The cousin's weekend was filled with a mess of fun things to do.

One of the funnest was probably our trip to Toad's Fun Zone.

The place had an arcade, laser tag, go-carts, mini golf, batting cages and probably a lot more.

Most of us had never tried go-carts. I had fun, but crashing is rather painful. Being in the middle of a three cart pile up was not exactly pleasant. I think I still have a headache. 

We played laser tag while we were there. I'd never played before. It's hilarious! But there were a few too many kids running around. We decided that it would be great fun if we got a smaller group of adults together to play. More strategy that way.

Skee Ball is by far the best arcade game there is! It's my favorite and I spent the majority of my arcade points there.

I passed on the batting cages because I'm terrible at sports. But Alyson was awesome!

Pretty much the only thing we didn't do while we were there was play mini golf. But we stocked up on the tickets and I bought some sidewalk chalk and some laffy taffy. It was great times!

What is your favorite part of an arcade?

21 Books. 7,969 Pages. May 26th-September 17th.

Complete!

Click the titles for links to video reviews of each novel!

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card 

I've always been a big fan of downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. 

It's just great fun. The buildings are interesting to look at, there are so many fun shops and the Off Broadway Theater (OBT) is one of my favorite places.

I could just walk around the area for hours and never get bored. Heck, I've done so countless times.

While hanging out with my cousins this weekend, we didn't get to spend as much time exploring downtown as I would have liked (Parking was way too expensive) but it was still nice to see the trees in bloom and enjoy the lovely day.

We hit up a great little restaurant called Cafe Med (which is actually a ways from downtown, but worth the drive). It looks like a total dive from the outside, but the food is great! Mmm Greek food.

I ordered the Salmon Sandwich. I almost died went to awesome food heaven. 

The four of us bought tickets to our favorite Improv group, Laughing Stock at the OBT.

Have you ever been to see one of their shows? It's two hours of hilarity. Symptoms include sore, cramped sides, watering eyes and bruises on the arms from the many elbow nudges and "did you just see his Beyonce impression?!"s.

It's a great show! And very affordable! Everyone that is looking for entertainment in the Salt Lake City area should definitely look into one of their shows.

It was a very enjoyable day. 

There are a few things that I don't enjoy about living in Las Vegas.

The heat.

The lack of green things.

But most of all, the mountains.

Yes. There are mountains in Vegas. But they are brown and ugly.

Growing up in Utah, I was always surrounded by lovely mountains covered with green and snow. It's been rough living in the presence of these brown monstrosities. 

This past weekend I was in Salt Lake visiting my cousins (more pictures to come soon), and I ran around feeling giddy about how gorgeous the mountains were.

I don't miss how cold it is in Utah, even in May.

But I do miss these mountains.