So, love, don't leave me.

March really is a month of madness.
So much has happened!

First of all, a couple of Sundays ago, I got to attend a fireside where Hank Smith spoke. Now, if you don't know who he is, you should probably check out some of his talks. I've actually only heard "Break Up with the World" but I love it. He is hilarious but he also brings up really good, insightful things about gospel. He was so nice, he let us take a picture with him and he wrote a letter to Jacob for Camille. It was great! His talk was about temptation killers. He suggested finding five or so scriptures that would qualify as temptation killers and memorizing them so that you can always have that on hand. I thought that was a really good idea. My favorite example he gave of this was Ether 11:14. The end of the verse says: "And Moron did that which was wicked before the Lord." So when you're tempted just think "only a moron would do this."

Last Thursday I went to see the midnight showing of The Hunger Games. It was actually really good, although I wish I had re-read the books right before because I'd forgotten a lot. I do wish they hadn't downplayed Cinna's character quite so much, he is one of my favorites in the book. I thought they did a pretty good job overall though. I still liked the book better of course. I went to an English Symposium at BYU the next morning and one of the presenters talked about The Hunger Games book series, specifically the first one. It was really interesting to learn a little more background. The story was based off of the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur which as she related that story and the similarities between it and Hunger Games it became pretty obvious that was the case. She also talked about how Suzanne Collins grew up as the daughter of an Air Force Officer. She moved around constantly and her dad made sure she was really aware and educated about the politics around her. Hunger Games is influenced by that because she wanted to help people recognize that government can become really corrupted and that people will go to crazy extremes to gain power.

Last Saturday some friends and I went to the Holi Festival in Spanish Fork. This was my third year and it was pretty awesome especially since it was way warmer than last year (it was wet enough to make a mud slide down the hill last time). So we pretty much just threw some colors around. There were like 80,000 people. It's funny how like everyone I know goes to Holi, but I rarely see anyone I know there unless I planned to because there are just so many people.

Yesterday Jamie and I went to see Joshua James vs. Isaac Russell at Velour. It was really, really good. I've seen both of them separately about three or four times each but this was definitely the best I've seen of both. There's something so amazing about hearing music live. The whole experience is just better. It was really fun to hang out with Jamie too.
Isaac Russell played the song I have heard him perform a couple of times but never been able to find anywhere online. I guess it's coming out on his next album but I think it is beautiful and I really want to learn to play and sing it. After the concert, Jamie and I ran into someone we knew from high school, he wasn't doing so great so we called up his best friend from high school and the four of us went to midnight dinner at Sammy's, I love doing that. It was pretty interesting catching up with them both, seeing how all four of us have led pretty different lives just since high school ended. I decided I'm pretty content with the choices I've made so far.

Other things that happened this week: Wedding dress shopping with some great friends. :) Stephanie didn't think she would find the dress she wanted, but it ended up being the first one she tried on! She looked gorgeous and it was so great to just have a girl's day. After we found Stephanie's dress, we started searching for our bridesmaids dresses. Amanda found hers, a mint green one from Deb. I thought I'd found mine but I actually discovered another one at Cotton On that I like better. It is also mint green. I'm loving mint green these days.
Gloria's Little Italy is amazing. I love their pizza, it's like the best, seriously.
This song for some reason: 

Also, I have the best family and friends. I just have to say.

And Jamie, Robert, Hilary, and I are going to see Fun in concert tonight. Yayy, hopefully it will be good... I don't know a lot of their songs. And I'm not feeling particularly social today. I'm sure it will be great though.

At my work's student employee appreciation party I got the award for "eating like a pro but looking like a super model." hahaha.

Also, the sunshine lately. It Makes me happy.

And General Conference. Watch it. :) I am right now and I'm liking Quentin L. Cook's message about not judging. We just need to show love and respect to everyone, even if they hold different beliefs than us. Yes!

Anyway, here's the video I took of Isaac Russell playing that song I really love. It's "Love Don't Leave Me" by Isaac Russell: 
Untitled from Maren Hauglid on Vimeo.

And that's it.

Loop pedals.

winter.

fun times.

I love weekends! They are always crazy busy but packed full of good stuff.
So this week, I went ice skating with wonderful people. Which was quite nice, I think I need to go more often though because I have pretty much forgotten everything I learned in my skating class 6ish years ago.
On Saturday we went snow tubing at Soldier Hollow with my ward. It was really cold and I ruined my brand new boots (they're wearable though) but it was awesome! Then Jamie and I practically froze so we went back to the lodge and became acquainted with some people we hadn't talked to before. And we ate doughnuts. So that was fun.
The best part of the weekend was seeing Unicorn City on Saturday afternoon. I had seen the trailer but didn't really know what to expect and wasn't that interested in seeing it. Robert and Jamie were going and they invited me so I figured why not. It turned out to be pretty silly, and funny in a very awkward-nerdy way. We loved it! Turns out I know two people who make appearances in it. Jamie and I were shocked when we saw someone we'd gone to high school with. He got a lot of screen time too! After the show, we were surprised to see the director (I think?) and one of the main actors, Matt Mattson, standing by the exit. Matt Mattson signed his autograph for us and we got a picture with him. It was great and all three of us were pretty much ecstatic and couldn't stop talking about it on the ride home.

I'm excited to see what adventures this next week holds. :)

Haha.

Simple Song