General Conference weekend

General Conference weekend was a pretty eventful one, so being that I try to keep up with my blogging like a journal, I want to still blog about it.

Friday night it was a double header at the movies.  First was Stop-Loss.  I swear I've been seeing previews about this movie for like four months, not to mention have been reading about it ever since Rees Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe broke up.

It would make sense that it had a political agenda, but I just didn't think a whole lot about it.  It was definitely very anti-war.  Despite the fact that it was extremely liberal I could look past it and really enjoy the movie.  I liked it.

Leatherheads is another one I've been seeing previews for forever.  I was really excited seeing as how I love George Clooney (he's in my top 5), Renee Zellweger is one of my favorite actresses, and who doesn't love John Krasinski?  That being said, this movie was laaaaame.  I mean, I was really tired and struggling to stay awake about thirty minutes in, but still, it just a total waste.  I ended up surrendering the fight and went to sleep for most of the second half.

Saturday was a super packed day.  I got up early and schlepped up to West 95th Street to meet up with my fabulous new friend Adam, who'd rented a Zip Car for a few hours to head to New Jersey to go to Costco.  Since I was having a party that night Adam let me tag along.  Costco was great.  I've never actually shopped there for myself.  I mean, I've gone with my mom millions of times, but never have I personally bought anything.  I was able to get an amazing load of delicious treats for a super low price.  Thank you Costco and thank you Adam!

That morning I'd gotten a surprising call from my aunt Terry.  She and her husband Jon were in town for the day.  They'd been on a cruise and were staying the night in New York and wanted to meet up.  They were seeing Mama Mia! and wanted to know if I'd seen it.  I hadn't and they told me they'd get me a ticket.  Sweet!  

So as soon as I got my groceries home I changed and then headed up to Times Square to see the show.  It was kind of ironic because I never knew the story line, but the night before at the movies I saw a preview for the movie Mama Mia! and then here I was, seeing the show, twelve hours later.  I absolutely loved it!  I don't know ABBA's music, other than Dancing Queen, but enjoying it anyway.  It was super upbeat and funny.  Loved it.

After the show we ate an early dinner at Cosi.  I can't believe I'd never eaten there before this.  I'm officially obsessed with the chicken caesar and am so glad we have one by my work.

After dinner I headed home to get ready for the party.  This was something I was super excited about.  About a month ago I read a post on Amanda's blog about a party that sounded so fun.  They had an Enrichment activity where they had a Favorite Things party.  Basically everyone brought something that was their favorite.  It could be anything from a favorite recipe, to a favorite mascara, to a favorite hair towel.  Amanda said the party went really well.  It helped everyone get to know each other better, plus hear about a lot of super cool things they hadn't heard of before, and leave with a new little tricket.  I thought this sounded so fun and was meaning to tell someone in our Relief Society presidency that we should do it for Enrichment.  Then I got to thinking, we don't have to do this for Enrichment, we could just have a party.  I've really been wanting to get to know the girls in my ward better so I thought this was perfect.  I mentioned the idea to my roommate in the middle of the week and she mentioned that it was perfect timing since Saturday night all the guys would be a the Priesthood Session of conference and a lot of girls had been talking about getting together to do something.  So, we sent out the evite and it was a great turnout!

It was a really great party and there were some really interesting gifts given, that really helped me get to know interesting things about the girls.  One girl gave my roommate a gift, and while I don't even remember what the actual gift was, it was what was on the outside that was neat.  There was a super cool postcard (so we thought) on the outside.  Chels mentioned that she loved the postcard and I agreed, and then the girl who gave it said, "Actually I took that picture out of my window.  Photography is one of my favorite things so I thought I would include one of my pictures."  Super cool.

And maybe towards the end of the party we ended up blaring the music and having an impromptu dance party.  AAAAAnd Chels couldn't help but bust out this umbrella during Rihanna's Umbrella.

Sunday morning I made the General Conference typical Hope breakfast, Eggs on Toast.  MMM.  Although I can never make it as good as my mom's, it still was alright.  

We spent all afternoon on the futon and got a little bit of the sleepy sillies.  And, yes, that is my Ridge 04 shirt.  I still wear in proudly.