Yee Haw

I spent the past weekend -- courtesy of BYU -- in Austin at a conference hosted by the National Association of Graduate and Professional Students. It was quite the experience. I had dinner with my mom and cousin Paul before I flew out of the SLC airport Thursday night -- it was just wonderful to see them both, especially since I will be in Provo for Thanksgiving. The flight was SO long -- I could have read my In Style magazine about twenty times over. Sick! When I got to Austin, the airport was deserted. It was really creepy. My friend's friend picked us up and we headed to the DoubleTree in Austin. However, there are three DoubleTree hotels in Austin. But we didn't know that until we had gone to all three :) By 2 a.m., we were settled in our room and trying to drift off to sleep.

The conference started bright and early Friday morning . . . we had a lot of fun workshops to go to that helped us come up with some stellar ideas for the BYU Graduate Student Society. We had baked beans at both of our meals. Go figure! And we went to a famous BBQ place called the Salt Lick for dinner. I really liked the boot centerpieces on the table. Greg and Rachel H. kept making me eat a ton of food that I didn't want to . . . and Rachel B. represented BYU well during the square dance instruction. If you look really close at the picture, you can see the sweet Texas Baseball shirt I purchased for $9.95 at the biggest college bookstore I have EVER seen. It was heaven -- except decorated in burnt orange instead of BYU blue!

The next day we had a ton of meetings in the Texas State Capitol. It was a pretty sweet building. The meetings were a drag for a while -- then the mudslinging began! It was pretty sketchy for a while, but at least things got a little more exciting. We had two more delicious meals with more baked beans. By the end of the trip, I was pretty sure that at least 80% of my blood was made up of that sauce that is baked beans. My stomach was crying bloody murder too . . .

Saturday night we went on a cruise of Lake Travis. The conference chartered a bus to take us to the lake via the most windy and foggy road in all of Texas. The bus driver started freaking out . . . I think she said a few bad words and was about ready to stop the bus in the middle of Texas nowhere. By the time we got to the lake, it was all dark. Hence, we couldn't see the beautiful scenery that was so highly touted. We had a great time with all of our new friends from all over the country.

It wouldn't be a good blog post without a good awkward story. Here is a quick exchange I had with somebody from Virginia Tech at the conference. M stands for me.

M: Did your football team win today?

V: Yeah -- do you like football?

M: Totally. My husband called this morning to tell me that Oregon State lost.

V: Whoa! Did you say husband? How old are you?

M: 23.

(Editors note: I am not 23. I just barely turned 22.)

The Rachels give me a weird look.
M: Oh just kidding -- I am 22.

Go team! I really am in grad school!