The Return of the Laptop

Hey, (mom), sorry it's been so long since I updated. In my defense, I haven't really had a computer until now. I finally picked my laptop up from BYU Computer Repair. They had to repair the motherboard and lost my hard drive in the process. I was pretty angry, especially because all my pictures from the past 3 years are essentially gone. It is my fault I didn't back them up, but it's still irritating. But on the positive side, I essentially got a brand new computer. Just in my old laptop's body.

A lot has happened in the last month and a half, though! If you care to read... (I apologize about the picture quality. They're all pulled from Facebook.)

• The last weekend of Sundance Film Festival was a success! I didn't really see any celebrities since they leave after the first weekend, but Park City was beautiful and the movies were good. Safety Not Guaranteed (Aubrey Plaza, Jake Johnson) was my favorite by far. PLEASE check it out when it hits theaters. It's funny and heartwarming, with just a hint of time travel.





Beautiful Park City with Leah, Kristen and Steph



Props from Napoleon Dynamite






Director and screenwriters from Safety Not Guaranteed






With Shirley, Whitney and Kailee in front of the Egyptian Theater










• Enough Is Enough's "Power in Prevention" conference was a success. Donna Rice Hughes came down and gave several great presentations on Internet Safety. The presentations actually scared me a little. There's a story of this 12-year-old boy who would secretly videotape his mother on the computer so he could find out the password and look at porn. Not to mention all the stories of predators and cyberbullies. My kids definitely won't get on any social networking sites until high school. At least.  Check out some stories of the event at KSL and the Deseret News.
• In addition to the conference, I also helped put together a booth for Enough Is Enough at the Safe Kids Fair. We talked to thousands of concerned parents and helped spread the word about the cause. We enticed them to come to the booth with candy, which I felt was pretty ironic.
  

  

  Come to me, children.

  
  

  • Vegas! Jess, Kristen, some of Kristen's friends, and I went to Vegas a couple weekends ago for the WCC Tournament. We watched the men's and women's games, which were really fun until the Gonzaga game. I love our team, but man that was a hard game to sit through. We also walked around The Strip, went shopping at Fashion Show Mall, and rode the New York roller coaster at midnight. It was fun to get away from everything for a weekend and enjoy the city of sin. Mormon style. 

  

  Cheering on our shooting-addled boys

  
  
  
  
  

  

  Eating some Terrible food. For only $9.

  
  

  

  Bellagio Gardens.

  
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
  • Our event in my event planning class went off without a hitch! Our group had to come up with a family event, so we threw a Surprise "Sweet 16" for our professor. Our colors were black, white and mint, we had a surprise appearance by Justin Beiber, some amazing food, and adorable decorations. Check out Hayley's blog for some great pictures, courtesy of our photographer Ali Kirk. 
  • Kailee threw an AMAZING Hunger Games party last night. We had to put our names up for reaping according to what district (our birth month) we were in. And if we took food, we had to put our name in again. I got chosen but was killed in the first round. Still so much fun. And then Hayley and Ali threw a great St. Patrick's Day party. I love being a Comms major. No one else would understand my blog and Twitter jokes. And laugh when #courtmann says that he needs to stop being so mainstream. Or laugh at anything concerning Joel C. Campbell. Good times.
  
  Some upcoming events:
  
  • Adobe Summit. This week is going to be crazy. I'm working around 30 hours at the Adobe Digital Marketing Summit this week for my event planning class. I get paid and they give us free hotel rooms. For class credit. I freaking love this class. And some high profile execs are coming to this event (like Ariana Huffington and the founder of Twitter). Maybe I'll get to see some of them and network. You never know!
  • Ward Service Auction. We're donating canned goods instead of money in exchange for various services people in the ward are auctioning off. I'm auctioning off my editing skills. And amazing event planning skills. (just kidding about that last one. slightly).
  •  One month until I go to LA! 
  
  On another note, my bracket is completely dead. I had Missouri going all the way...