the marriage plot

I finished reading The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides last week and thoroughly enjoyed it. In 8th grade I was obsessed with The Virgin Suicides after reading it and seeing the movie, so I was excited to finally read another book by the same author. This book takes place in the early 80's and the main characters form your typical love triangle. Madeleine loves Leonard, Leonard sometimes loves Madeleine and Mitchell loves Madeleine. Leonard suffers from manic depression and the majority of the book is an insight into his life and the lives of the mentally ill. Each character takes a turn narrating and it's really beautiful and heartbreaking to see how they see one another. I think another reason I enjoyed this book so much was how well I felt I related to Madeleine sometimes. I dated someone in high school very similar to Leonard and felt the same desperation Madeleine did in hoping her love would be enough to change the person her boyfriend became as a result of his disease. My absolute favorite lines of the book were these:

(Madeleine is searching for Leonard after hearing he is in trouble and runs into one of his roommates or friends, I can't remember which)

Madeleine- "Who are you anyway?"

Roommate/Friend- "Just someone who knows, from personal experience, how attractive it can be to think you can save somebody else by loving them."

Uggghhh. Right??? Because who hasn't thought they could change/save/cure/rescue someone with their love? We all just want to be heroes to someone.

The whole time while reading I kept thinking, "This would make a FABULOUS movie." The mental illness love story is very in right now anyway. I propose Ben Whishaw as Leonard, the perfect Natalie Portman as Madeleine and Anton Yelchin as Mitchell. If you ever read it, tell me who you would choose.

hand in my hand a pocket full of soul

Lately we've been teased with warm weather and by warm I mean upper 40's, but you take what you can get in this Arctic tundra. The occasional warmth plus honeymoon planning has me daydreaming about sweet summer time. Here's my warm weather wishlist:

1) That anchor swimsuit

2) Skinny

There's probably dozens of Madewell sundresses, floppy hats and sandals I could add, but those are the two things I can't stop thinking about.

I've been getting e-mails about graduation and it makes me heart heavy. Graduation? When did I become an almost college graduate? The other week I went to my last game in the Marriott Center as an undergrad. That really made me nostalgic and had me reminiscing on my favorite memories at BYU. I won't turn this into my college tribute post (but you KNOW that's inevitable) but I have made some of my best friends here and had the best nights and days of my life. I effing love this school. 

Last weekend Preston, some friends and I hiked up to Squaw Peak. It was great weather on the way up because it was warm enough to wear one or two layers of clothing, but cool enough that you weren't sweating the whole way. On the way back I wanted to kill myself because it was mostly snow and I slid all the way and I don't enjoy not having control of my body while sliding down a mountain. But above is a happy me enjoying the pretty view.

Old news, but we got our engagements back a few weeks ago. They've made their debut on social media, but not on this little blog. Our friend, Macy Baker graciously took them for us. Aren't they fantastic? I guess isn't this one picture of us fantastic? But really, all of them are lovely. We took them on a frozen Utah Lake. Everyone asked if we were cold, but they were taken on a 30 degree Saturday morning after a week of 0-10 degree weather, so it felt warmer. I'm really pleased with the way they turned out. Macy is awesome and Preston is so handsome always.

It makes me giddy to think that after graduation NEXT MONTH all my energies will be directed towards prepping for weddings, especially mine!!! People ask me if I'm stressed and I can honestly say no. My mom has been taking care of everything and I basically say yes or no to pics she sends me via iMessage. I'm sure stress levels will increase when I go home in June, but as of now, I'm just counting down the days until I marry Preston. 

Also I'm proud to announce this blog has been going strong LONG BEFORE this wedding mania and LONG before I will be Mrs. K, so don't even think about lumping me in that newlywed-mr-and-mrs-dot-blog-spot-dot-com category. Please. I already told Preston if he thinks the name of this blog is changing, he is sorely mistaken. 

Here's what's been on repeat as I walk to and from school:

Mirrors - Justin Timberlake [I already know this will make my top songs of 2013]

Firefly (Ellie Goulding x The Lumineers x Kendrick Lamar) - The White Panda

Grammy - Purity Ring

Stay (Erol Sabadosh Remix) - Rihanna feat. Mikky Ekko

Grace for Saints and Ramblers - Iron & Wine [New album April 16!!!!]