Newsflash

Unfortunate news...my good friend Celine is dealing with a nasty bug and has had to reschedule her Salt Lake concert until Feb 22 (so far away!!!) To everyone out there anxious for a detailed description of the concert will have to wait just a bit longer. The silver lining in this terrible news...there might be more tickets available for those unable to attend the later concert. More good news...you still have time to save money for tickets :). Good news for me...the concert is now more of a prelude to and celebration of graduation instead of motivation to help me get through school and stupid papers (as I do not foresee this next semester to be extremely difficult).

As for me, I will be viewing Celine's A New Day DVD to help me endure yet another long period of waiting.

Too Much to Contain

It is official...I can no longer contain the excitement (that and it has been awhile since I wrote a post and I figured this would be a good one). Yes, yes, as those of you who know me well, you know of my little crush on Celine Dion. Also, as you may know, she is finally coming to Salt Lake City! Being Mr. Prepared and Mr. On-Top-Of-Things, I signed up for tickets last November (like I said, it's just a little crush) and have been holding on to them since that time. I bought two because I wanted to take a date...and I had no idea who the lucky girl would be (double lucky...she gets to see Celine Dion live and she gets to see her with me!)

I had a couple of options of finding a girl to go with me. The most creative way that was suggested to me (by my internship supervisor) was to put a listing on KSL, Ebay, or Craigslist for one free ticket to the concert (and a free date). After much deliberation, I figured I'd be safest and most guaranteed to have a fun time if I chose who I took.

Anyway, the big day is November 21 at the Energy Solutions Arena and it's going to be amazing!

This Was Inevitable! (Cont'd)

So, I tried to put a few of my favorites on the post, but it would only let me upload so many (I guess), so I'm doing a second post to put the rest on (I couldn't leave any of these out!) These albums come highly recommended, especially by myself. By the way, the picture inside the LDS Conference Center is there to represent the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra on Temple Square (I couldn't find a satisfying picture). That picture also represents the concerts given by Sissel, Bryn Terfel, Audra McDonald, Frederica Von Stade, and Angela Lansbury, along with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They were absolutely fabulous! ENJOY!

This Was Inevitable!

I do not apologize for this! No matter how hard I try to wait until after Thanksgiving to play Christmas music, my efforts were futile. With the little snow that fell last weekend, the sudden cold weather, and Faith Hill's new Christmas cd that was released at the end of September, I am now completely immersed in Christmas music. For those of you who enjoy Christmas music whenever, I am sure you understand. For those of you who insist that Christmas music only be played after Thanksgiving and before New Years, I will try to keep it to myself until November 28, but I make no guarantees.
PS, Happy Halloween, Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Hanukkah, and Merry Christmas!

Autumn in Utah County

Because I had not been to the canyons to see the leaves as different colors, I decided to do so before the cold and, possibly, snowy weekend. The day actually turned out to be a perfect day for touring the canyon (Alpine Loop and Cascade Falls...and surrounding areas). The photos really don't do it justice, but they're still exceptional (and not just because I took them). These are only some of the many that I took. I hope you enjoy them!

Cultural Experience

It seems that every year, for as long as I can remember, I would look at the calendar and notice holidays like Boxing Day, Ramadan, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Kwanzaa, among others. In high school, we had a display in one of the halls that had a display that showed up around November with wishes such as "Happy Kwanzaa", "Happy Ramadan", "Happy Hanukkah", and "Merry Christmas". I was impressed and wanted to learn about these holidays and be able to experience them. My first experience was Rosh Hashanah.

After reading about the significance of Rosh Hashanah, I learned that it Rosh Hashanah it is the celebration of the Jewish New Year and that it also represented the day man was created. In addition to this information, I found some food information. Three examples of food were apples and honey (which was very tasty), tzimmes, and glazed apricot carrots with peppers. Here are some pictures of the tzimmes and glazed carrots:

Both dishes were quite tasty, but my preference were the glazed carrots! My roommate, who decided to participate as well, preferred the tzimmes. However, we both really enjoyed the apples and honey.

Overall, Rosh Hashanah was a great experience! My next experience will be Hanukkah and I'm pretty excited!