It's the circle...the circle of life.

At the tender age of ... sometime before 3rd grade... I watched a movie. A movie, that truly changed my life.

Because of this movie, I started playing softball. Because of this movie, I cuffed my jeans. On a slightly more morbid note, because of this movie, I started cracking my knuckles (you know, when the show the close up of Benny cracking his knuckles as he gets ready to pickle The Beast? Yeah, I do that now). Finally, because of this movie, I absolutely HAD to have these shoes

I grew out of the cuffed jeans, the shoes, and eventually the softball (never stopped cracking my knuckles...). But, as we know, fashion repeats itself. I saw tweens and "punks" buying Chuck Taylors again, but this time around it didn't hold much appeal for me. I joked that I was ahead of my time, wearing those shoes in elementary school, but not high school. It wasn't that I didn't like Converse high tops any more, it's just that you're paying a lot of money for a little bit of shoe. My blog confession is that I'm kind of a brand snob, and I didn't want the knock offs. But, I finally caved. I have some other shoes that are looking a little ragged, so I figured it's time to spend the money, and be hip. The bonus to buying P.F Flyers this time around? It's even cooler to buy them in colors other than black. My life, or at least my shoes, has come full circle.

One short weekend, in the Emerald City.

Considering my audience of Mormons, family members, and Mormon family members, I'm assuming you all know about the musical "Wicked" or at least know how to get a synopsis on Wikipedia.org. My gracious, generous, hip-happenin Mom hooked me up with a ticket (and one for herself, of course) to the musical of the year. Probably more like two years, but who's counting? I just had to provide a plane ticket for myself, to come to the ever beautiful Emerald City (Seattle, not in the land of Oz) this weekend to see the show. Done and done.

I've been listening to the soundtrack for about a year now, I know all the words by heart, and the only person I annoy with that is my roommate, who has to suffer through my car singing of the whole CD, on occasion. I read the synopsis of the story on Wikipedia, loved the characters, loved the story, loved the music, this was DEFINITELY going to be an amazing night. The closer it got to show time, I couldn't help get concerned. Maybe I was hoping too much. I'd been listening to the original cast soundtrack, and this would be the touring group. Then we see in the program that the girl playing Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) is a standby, not the girl that's been performing all week. What if this production was sub-par?

Of course, it wasn't.

The music started, the stage began to move, the characters began to sing, and I was mesmerized. I was mouthing the words to myself (but not audibly, to the relief of all around me) and sitting open-mouthed during the whole show. I don't want to be melodramatic, so I'm trying to keep this review low-key but honestly, it was spectacular. Elphaba was dynamite, Glinda was perfect, Fiyero was spot on, Morrible, Dillamond, and the Wizard were all superb. My favorite song from the soundtrack is "The Wizard and I" and I think I must've had my mouth open and my face kind of blank because my Mom leaned over and said "Well, do you like it?" I couldn't respond truthfully, because I had already started crying as it was. So, I feebly said "oh, yeah, it's great". She must've known what I meant, because she shoved a tissue in my hand. (Note: If you are a member of the Banks family, you cry whenever something great is happening. It doesn't even have to be that great, just a little out of the ordinary. So, of course, I cried for no reason at the play, just because I love the play. Judge not.)

I can't describe how beautiful the set was, how perfect the costumes were, how moving the music was, and how fantastic the characters were. You'll just have to go see it for yourself. Everyone, should see this play.

Law decrees every home football game changes Provo to Cougar Town.

Well, first week of school down, and I don't like to think of how many more to go. But, of course with the beginning of a new Fall semester brings the advent of BYU football. Last year, BYU football got a cleat in its mouth for making their slogan (which is broadcast across the student populous through 5 dollar navy tee-shirts) "The Quest". Confusing at first, word soon spread that "The Quest" was the abbreviation for the true motto "The Quest For Perfection". This did not mean perfect sportsmanship, this meant a perfect season. Two years ago the Cougars had an excellent season and fans and sports columnists alike thought they should've been given a BCS bowl. With that much pressure, what else could've happened but the whole team choking, and playing a season that I can't even remember, even though I watched every game. Bronco Mendenhall has been quoted as saying it was his fault for putting too much focus on something that extraneous, and that this season there would be no motto, just playing football.

When I heard that BYU would be playing Oklahoma University last night, I was unenthused. I knew that like classic BYU, they would choke and it would be another slap in the face to the Mountain West Conference. When I did get back from campus yesterday, to my surprise it was only 7-10. The game wore on, I won't bore you with those details, and probably the ones I've provided were too dull for you to wade through, but the important part is this: the after game.

As soon as it was over, I personally opened my apartment door, stood on the front porch and yelled a hearty "WOO HOO!" I watched the rest of the post-game commentary from Bronco and Max Hall and then started to hear cheers throughout the neighborhood. Suddenly, there was an outburst of fireworks. A few minutes later, my roommate and I went to get a pizza a few blocks away, and as we left our apartment, all we heard were car horns honking and people cheering. We drove around the corner to get onto the main thoroughfare through town, and people were literally running through traffic up and down the street. One person had a huge BYU flag and was holding it out behind them as they ran down the suicide lane. Groups of people were just standing outside of apartment complexes cheering at every car that drove by. It was Provo pandemonium, and I loved it. For every honk I heard, I honked. For every yell I heard, I yelled too. Cougar Town has not felt that kind of pride in a long time.

I heard about some of the aftermath today, of last nights festivities. Some people congregated at LaVell Edwards Stadium, even though the game was away, and started a raucous party. Some more groups literally drove to the Salt Lake City airport and greeted the team after their red-eye flight home. Fireworks and honking were still going as I fell asleep last night, close to midnight. If there's no other reason to go to school, it's just to be a part of college football.

P.S The title to this post is not a joke, it is an actual law. Google it.