UVU Rocks!

A benefit concert was held for the Donner Galbraith Scholarship--bad economy means that endowments are suffering so there's less money to award in scholarships. So last night, November 17th, I went to a rock concert that was so touching. It was in honor of two students who died that were interested in social causes--and happened to be in a hardcore band. One of them was the main screamer. So a teacher of a history of rock class put together a concert to raise funds to help award the scholarship. Anyhow. Screaming isn't my favorite (though Adjacent to Nothing was amazing at it), but the whole concept of the concert to honor them and raise money for a scholarship to benefit a student that otherwise wouldn't qualify was rad. Fully support that.This picture is of Adjacent to Nothing. So good. And the lead is the new president of Carnegie's new company. Very cool. Rockers who give back? I can get into that.

My camera was dying so I couldn't get as much as I'd have liked. They ended up signing a few people to a new record label that focuses on giving back, Carnegie Records (headed up by one of the nicest people I've met, Stephen Carnegie). It was a pretty exciting night all around. Though the juxtaposition of going there right after the temple (where I was released from living ordinances--weird) was really interesting. The headliner at the concert was Mark Slaughter, who has an amazing range and pretty much... well, wow. He was good. (drat my camera for dying...) ATN was really good. This new chica, Hailey Hendricksen, is going to be so amazing. She's a junior at Timp and the man that produces Celine and others was there to agree to produce her. Anyhow. Got to go to an after party, picked up a nice man who turns out has done amazing things and was one of the original people with Sesame Street at the airport, dropped off another famous wheelchair bodybuilder/dancer (yeah, crazy to see, but really cool). The end.

The three men pictured below tell an interesting story. The one on the left is Academy Award winning screenwriter, Barry Morrow. One of the nicest people. He said that he wants to write movies that make a difference. He also GAVE Kim Peek (center, click on his name to read his story--he's the inspiration behind Rain Man) and his brother Fran Peek (right) his Oscar (which they lovingly call "Oscar"). Since then, it has traveled millions of miles and been held by thousands. So Lauren and I held it too.I think the donuts are a nice touch... :) The brothers live in Murray but travel extensively.
This first video is Steve Bush. He's an amazing artist. Later he was jamming with Slaughter and it looked like so much fun. I was jealous.

And then there was Mark who came out and played with a student who wrote this song (Steve Bush played too). This student, Brady Fullmer, is going to have this song produced and Slaughter is going to add lyrics and such. Pretty sweet. (Though for some reason it won't LOAD.)

This lady just sang for Steve Carnegie the day before the show and MAN she's got chops. So he decided to sign her too. She cried. It was beautiful.

Here's some Adjacent to Nothing for you: I didn't get the good bits. I really need to remember to charge my camera more often.

And, uh, yeah. Just the tuning?

I'm sure there's something better online, but here's from my camera of Mark Slaughter (and I'll add the rest of the song from youtube. You're welcome.). His voice was a little rough on the last song--though the earlier ones were amazing. But it was his playing skills that impressed me the most. And his humility. All of them stayed in the Hampton and wanted nothing special--they wanted all the money to go to the scholarship. VERY cool.

This is what the School of the Arts had to say about it:

11/12/09

Donner-Galbraith Memorial Scholarship Benefit Concert

Blake Donner and Jenn Galbraith were two socially conscious friends who shared a passion for life. After the two students died in a tragic cave accident in 2005, the Donner-Galbraith Memorial Scholarship fund was established in their memory.

November 17th at 6:30pm, in the UVU Ragan Theater, the waning scholarship will receive life as celebrities and entertainers perform and commemorate the lives of these two beloved students.

Sponsored by Dr. Stephen Fullmer's English 276R class and produced by Stephen Carnegie, the show will feature a wide variety of entertainment and be truly inspirational. Enjoy the evening with Oscar winning writer of the Rain Man and Emmy winning writer of Bill, Barry Morrow. Performing that night will be multi-platinum selling artist Mark Slaughter. In addition, local artists Broke City, Hailey Hendricksen, Brady Fullmer, and Adjacent to Nothing will share their musical talents. An unbelievable dance will be performed at the event by Aubree Marchione and Nick Scott, furthermore, Grammy award winning producer Keith Thomas, Curb Warner Record label President Loren Balman, and award winning producer of Children's Broadcasting Brad Smith, will also be attending the event.

Posted by UVU SOA

Another day with the cutest (local) relatives I have...

Zoo!

Mom was in town to watch Jo and Stevan's kids so we took them to the zoo. It was so fun! I spent the weekend up there too, so a fabulous time was had by all...

Starting Something Beautiful @UVU

So I serve on an advisory board with some very lovely and influential women--who chose to use their influence (and loveliness) to do good. If you're interested in knowing what it is about: go HERE or HERE. The second one isn't updated, but it WILL be. We had our meeting at one of our chair's homes... Jeanette Herbert--the governor's mansion. So fun! She's such an amazing woman. The other chair is Carrie Gandolph (Gandolfo's...yum...) and is also entirely fabulous. With Ali Johnson, who started it, Joy Astle, Lauren Bluth... yeah, like I said, lovely women.

AND for work I got to help out at the adoption conference (which because of Jo has always been really close to my heart)--and Michael McLean, of the Forgotten Christmas Carols, was the keynote. Went through several tissues. Lovely man. Lauren and I got our picture taken with him.Here's pictures from the SSB event:

Halloween

This makeup made my face red and gave me three large zits afterwards (TMI?). So I don't know that I would do that again... With roomies L-R Jewels, Erin and Brea. Tons of parties this year.

Rugby, Eric's 25th!, Pumkins, and Fall

So this is our front porch all lit up to welcome our ward. And below is my best pumpkin carving EVER (thanks to Wes and Ambria for insisting that I come be social and attend their pumpkin carving party). The others are Erin's and Jill's masterpieces. Pretty fun. We went to a pumpkin patch for Enrichment (which now is no longer called that, but you get the idea) and so I get to carve another one which will most likely be the traditional triangle faced jack.

Ambria's birthday is the day before Eric's and since Eric was down in Provo for rugby we actually got to hang out *YAY!* which of course means special pizza factory pizzas. He ended up eating pasta and I ate his birthday pizza though. These pictures are exactly backwards out of order. And you can see his great burn from hours of rugby. Mine is more covered up--though I spent 4 hours that Saturday playing tennis with Kristy and then Gretchen. This picture is Wes, me, Ambria, and Eric.


Cutie Gretchen. I love her. And MAN, she can hit hard. This is not the most flattering picture of either of us. But I don't have any others of her, so it must be included.
I should say that things at work are getting worked out. The person that started the worst of the rumors has since quit. The rest of things are getting smoothed out. My head has not loved all the additional stress, but I think I will survive and perhaps I've even learned something from all this mess. Become a better person and learned a bit more about corporate America. sigh. Exhausted but better is still good. :)

And happy late birthday to my darling Nanny! I only got to send you a text and I'm SORRY to be such a slacker in the calling department. I'm assuming mom is keeping you up to date on what's been going on, but by the time I'm available to talk it is generally late--or early. So yeah. No excuse, but still, a reason. Love you!

Such a Ball

I may go nuts at work sometimes with the sheer craziness, but I think our new president is great (and how about this great artwork by Katri and our cool marketing team?!). I went to the ball and it was at the end of a rather insane week... I won't even start going into detail. But I'm glad that it went well and I'm happy it is over. Life is good!