besties.

so tonight, ahlin got her facebook back for like .2 seconds. so i decided to grab some of her pictures while i had the chance. and now i'm going to share some of my favorites with you that i feel best represent our friendship.

7/24/09. the day we became besties. yes, we can pin point the exact day. we're cool like that. we were celebrating our self-declared "asia" day.

january 2010. at the ice rink. not iceskating.

february 2010. this picture is classic for several reasons: 1) ahlin and i taking a picture of ourselves. 2) jeff is in the background in the lovesack. [where you could usually find him.] we basically relived this image every day for the next 6 months.

february 2010. bonding over good music and beautiful people.

july 2010. this is one of my favorite pictures. ever. our boys had left us. and so this is how we began to spend our time. in their house. wearing their clothes. pretending to have adventures in the clouds. don't worry, they knew. we are not [totally] creepy. 

july 2010. infra self portraits are always a must.

july 2010. the original caption for this snapshot was, "we be B.A. espesh wit mah new fringe." i think that tells you a lot about us.

august 2010. post ahlin's half-marathon. a great candid shot showing we support each other in our goals.

august 2010. lastly, another favorite. i love this picture for the following reasons: 1) i have my arm around nick. who i had known for [a total of] 24 hours. 2) will looks tiny and feminine in the background. he's not tiny. or feminine. 3) jeff and will are wearing the same shirt. 4) jeff's beard. 5) this would be the first [and last time] we would all be together at one event. 6) i think this picture sums up summer 2010.

thank you ahlin for taking me on a trip down memory lane. i thoroughly enjoyed it. and was pretty much laughing hysterically the whole time.

james.

while we were in england, nikki introduced me to the beautiful, brilliant and british james morrison. this is one of my favorite songs by him and totally my jam right now. love him. :)

carl bloch.

yesterday i took some time and went to the carl bloch exhibit, "the master's hand", at the byu museum of art. i had heard such wonderful things about it from my german teacher and this girl. and let me tell you, it definitely lived up to my expectations. i'm an art history major, so naturally, i love this kind of stuff. but i think carl bloch's work is something that everyone could come to love and find meaning in. 

carl bloch was a nineteenth century danish painter and is known for his beautiful depictions of events from the life of the savior. over his lifetime he was commissioned to do several hundred paintings for various chapels and altar pieces. there's something so powerful about the way he depicts these scenes - even though some of them are heart wrenching, there is a feeling of comfort and hope.

bloch also painted the overlooked, the lonely and the oppressed. i loved the way sigmund müller put it, "to him nothing was foreign because nothing was unimportant to him ... he grasps all of it in sympathetic understanding."

needless to say, bloch's artwork is inspiring. if you live near the area, or are in town (before may 7th, 2011) i highly recommend that you go see it. 

while i absolutely loved the paintings, i think my favorite part might have been the words from bloch at the start of the exhibit:

"god helps me - that's what i think, and then i am calm."

so beautifully and simply put. :)