"Well I'm going home, Back to the place where I belong, And where your love has always been enough for me."

"May be surrounded by a million people.

I still feel all alone.
I just wanna go home.
Oh, I miss you, you know.

I'm just too far from where you are."

On Thursday at 12:30 my Aunt Carol drove to Alta Apartments in Provo, Utah. She was on a mission. This mission was very specific. It was time I take a voyage, a voyage home. It has been a year since I have been home, and I didn't think I missed it very much, but I sure did. I miss my bed, and my room. I miss my friends, and my car. I miss the parks, and the theaters. I miss my family and my house. I will admit something, I even miss the humidity.

2:00 pm We arrive at the airport and Carol insists on helping me. I should have accepted her assistance, but I thought I could do it on my own. It was difficult with how much stuff I had to wheel around all my suitcases, and then because I had so much stuff, I didn't quite pass the security check in the SLC airport.

Soon enough I boarded my plane for Phoenix, which I only got to 7 minutes before it boarded. And we were off. So... I got on after over half the people were on the plane, but lucky me there was an empty seat in the middle 2 rows from the front. Now, usually I would do anything for an aisle seat, but I figured this. A) Sit in the aisle seat and be a tiny less claustrophobic for the flight, and then wait forever for the whole plane to get off with their bags. OR B) Sit in the middle seat and sleep the flight, and be a little more claustrophobic during the flight but get right off the plane. yeah, I'd pick B), which is exactly what I did. Unfortunately I chose to sit right next to a lady who just finished fighting cancer for a year. She decided to tell me gruesome stories and told me every little detail down to the fact that one year ago she only weighed 97 pounds. I am about 97% sure she thought I had cancer, and was trying to sympathize with me and make me feel better. I didn't have the heart to tell her I didn't have cancer..

I had a layover in Phoenix, and randomly saw this guy that used to be in the ward back in Springfield that I attended in addition to my own. Turns out we were originally on the same flight too. So we chatted a little bit, but let me tell you this: He is an awkward guy, the situation was awkward as well, so imagine our conversation.. Awkward beyond all belief. It was great. Not really. So then we boarded the plane for Baltimore and I found a 5th row middle seat (I think 5th row). I sat between the absolute best people ever to sit next to on a 5 hour flight. The guy to my right didn't make a peep for the longest time, but after being extra nice to him, he warmed up a little bit. The guy to my left was so great at getting up anytime I wanted to use the restroom or get something out of my overhead bag. They were also good casual conversation buddies. Occasionally we would exchange a few words, and it always ended in laughs. Near the middle/end of the flight, I was just bored out of my mind. The shy guy to the right asked if I liked Seinfeld (he had been watching the 9th season for hours by now) and said that he had an extra headphones jack. So I plugged on in, and it was all giggles and laughter from there. The episodes we watched were just hilarious, and I had to quiet myself down because I would be laughing so hard.

We landed and got off the plane in Baltimore around 12:15 am. The first thing I said when I got off the plane is how much I had missed this humidity. It felt so wonderful to step into the east coast goop. Let me tell you. You may hate it now, but leave it for a while, and the love grows.

Since being home I have:

- Surprised Molly that I was home by popping out of no where

- Surprised the whole Ray family

- Karen: Didn't recognize me, had a double-take, got excited, gave me a huge hug.

- Joey: Didn't recognize who I was, said hello, said wait, got really excited, started screaming: "Its Jenny Baker, Its Jenny!" And ran upstairs getting Noah and Brandon.

- Noah: Happy, suprised, gave me a gentle hug, had a huge smile :)

- Brandon: He's a teenage boy, so I take pride in this response. He got a little happy, and slightly excited, and gave me a hug.

- KRISTINA: I knocked on her door, she opened (she was on the phone) screamed high pitch/loud, shut her door, screamed again, shut her door, and opened it up really excited and we gave each other huge hugs, and talked a bit doing as much catching up as we could. I mean, She's like my best friend and its been a year since I've seen her!

- Went to Katie and Connor's new apartment and had dinner and watched Monk

- Played with Trent and Lyndi and their kids

- Babysat Trent and Lyndi's kids as Lyndi's sister got married

- Saw Leslie Sides, and Ann Bush, when I picked up Molly from the stake activity

- Made a fancy dinner for my family including rotisserie chicken, buttered peas, garlic/golden brown diced potatoes, caesar salad, and ice cold water.

Now- my week before heading home wasn't that exciting... I worked every day, and the day before flying out, I had to represent BYU and my project/program (Project SEEL) at the Utah County Fair. It was hard at first to get people to come to our booth, but it ended up very successful. Now in line with work, little do you all know, I still have to work 6 hours every day while I am on this "vacation". It could be worse, right? It could be 8 hours a day, or no vacation at all. Thats for sure.

Anyways, thats all from this teenage drama queen. More confessions to come.

- J

"There are a lot of things I wish I would have done, instead of just sitting around and complaining about having a boring life." - Kurt Cobain

"Life is intrinsically, well, boring and dangerous at the same time. At any given moment the floor may open up. Of course, it almost never does; that's what makes it so boring."

You may see a theme in this confession. And that theme may be the absolute boredom in my life. I would say I have no life, but according to every definition I could find online, technically, I have a life. I already explained my day to you, so I won't make you suffer through that again, but let me make one thing clear. If I am in Provo, the most exciting thing I do each day is watch a new episode of some Disney channel show. Now, if I so choose to venture out of the land of Provo and get away from the boring life which has become my whole life, then I may be so inclined as to say I have a life.

For example: I went to Sandy for two weekends in a row, spending Thursday through Tuesday both weekends. Now, that was fun. I did something other than lounge and vegetate in front of my oh so tiny television. Previous to those weekends, I went to Holladay for a weekend.

This is where I expect some eyes to water up and a few gentle tears to roll quietly down your faces. Ok, so I am joking. But if you lived my life, you'd be disappointed you changed your mind too. I was planning on taking a little vacation (driving down after work on Friday, and coming back late Sunday night) to Lake Powell with my dad's friend Steve Smith and his family. Steve even tempted me by letting me know he had "bought some new toys" for the weekend. I really wanted to go, but as we all know I don't like driving at night (and for the sake of all others on the road at night, I will spare your life, and not drive). And since I couldn't find any loyal friends to go down with me (I am pretty sure I just don't really have any friends right now), I canceled my little vacay, and stayed in good old provo.

So instead of soaking up the sun, jet skiing, wake-boarding, and splashing in the waters of Arizona, I had the most boring weekend you could ever imagine. Ok maybe not the most boring, but compared to what it could have been... Friday after work I sat on the couch and did nothing until I fell asleep at 11. Then Saturday morning I woke up at 6 and cleaned my apartment. Then I laid around and did nothing. At 6, my friend Joe Denker came over and we make dinner. All my roommates were gone, so that was good cause it made my life a lot less awkward. So we made pizza, pasta salad, cut fresh cantaloupe, had biscuits with jelly, and chatted it up while we indulged ourselves. Then we went to Ozz which was way fun. Last night Goodnight Annabelle and Benjamin Burton opened for j.wride. J.wride is one of my all time favorite bands. Not only do they have a whole heck of a lot of talent, but they have an extremely unique sound. If you want to check them out just take a look here or here. I just love their music, and lucky for me, and anyone else who likes their sound, they are about to come out with a CD. Last night, they played some newer stuff, and I was so impressed. I always love their stuff, but last night, they blew me out of the water. They sounded just incredible. So thank you Joe for accompanying me on that date to see j.wride. The music was incredible, but the company, was even better :)

Saturday I also started working on my newest little fad of a hobby. I made one for Jesse, and Nathan (it was Nathan- the manager of j.wride,'s birthday yesterday). Unfortunately Nathan's was a little too big, but I hope he doesn't mind. I would like to thank those at the Dahl Family reunion who taught me how to make these cool bracelets. And for the record Mandi and Nick, I have learned to make thick and wide ones. Yesss. Be jealous.

And now it is Sunday, my most favorite day of the week. I have nothing I have to do. I have plenty of things I can do, but there is little stress and little pressure. I only have one thing on today's t0-do list. That is head over to Jesse Wride (lead singer and pianist for j.wride)'s apartment later. He and I are working on something for my dad's birthday.

WARNING:: Baker family, do not allow Mister D. Bryce Baker to read this next part. Thank you.

For his birthday (which is tomorrow!) I am working with Jesse on writing and performing my dad's own arrangement of his favorite song "Come Thou Fount". I hope he likes his gift. And seeing as I am in Utah, and he is in Virginia, that is the best I can do.

Ok, so sorry there is nothing interesting in my life these days. Hopefully next post I will have a little more to say. I am getting excited for this weekend, and next post, you will understand why :)

"Somebody's boring me. I think it's me." - Dylan Thomas (So maybe my life isn't that boring after all. Maybe I need to give myself a break, and just have fun with life... You know what? That's exactly what I intend to do.)

Anyways, thats all from this teenage drama queen. More confessions to come.

- J




ps. Bakers, Dahls, and Zemps- What do you think of this as a potential design? (If you click on it, you can probably see it better. Fyi.)

"My Stories Are Always Cooler in my Head"

Monday morning I was still in Sandy visiting my cousins, so I drove to Provo from there to go to work. After work I drove over to my cousins’ house in Orem and washed and vacuumed my aunt’s car that I had been borrowing. I then drove it back to her in Murray. My cousin Janae, who then took me back to her parents’ house, picked me up from Murray. I went and spent the night Monday night in Sandy. We had family home evening, and it was so neat because Janae has a 1, 2, and 3 year old, and so the family home evening lesson was directed to them and something they could understand. We got taught about how our bodies are like Heavenly Father’s and we showed our two hands, two eyes, and our nose that Heavenly Father has as well. It was a neat experience to observe the 2 and 3 year old and their excitement realizing that they had bodies just like Heavenly Father’s.

I drove back to Provo for work on Tuesday morning, and I got back early, so I went to work an hour early. It was unfortunate that I went early that day, because I didn’t even get to leave early like usually because I had meetings with my student team, and with the administrative team. But, it was alright.

Thursday I went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. I went with my best friend Emily. She had flown into Utah (she lives in California) to apply for the industrial design program at BYU. So she came with me. She also went to the Draper Temple Open House with me a few months ago. It was a neat experience going throughout the temple, especially since I will not be going through the temple to go through for a few years. I always am so moved as I walk though the Celestial room and the sealing room. Knowing that these ordinances last for an eternity, it is a great knowledge to behold.

Thursday night I went back to Sandy and spent the night. I have a family reunion this weekend so my Grandma Baker was staying with my family there, so I wanted to spend more time with her while she was here. As such, I am in Sandy. I woke up and drove back to Provo for work Friday morning. (I know… All this commuting is making me car sick too ;). ) Anyhow- after work on Friday, I headed to our family reunion. We met up at the Stake Park and just hung out and played games and socialized with the Dahl family. The Dahl’s are my father’s mother’s side. At 5 we had dinner. For dinner we had corn on the cob and fried chicken and chips, and other picnic-ish foods.  After dinner, we had the Veteran’s Pool place reserved. It is at 500 N 500 W in Provo. It has a decent sized pool, 2 water slides, and a kiddy pool that was the coolest thing ever. It was really fun to spend time with my family there. Afterwards, we all changed and a huge chunk of the Bakers went to this new lounge called Sparks. It is a lounge/bar but mormonized. Every drink is virgin. But they have the coolest foods, drinks, and desserts. I sat at a table with my uncle, cousin who just returned from his mission, and my first cousin once removed Doug.  I got this mixed berry martini. It was delicious! I drank 2 of them, which is actually a lot, and had a crème brulee. I had such a good time with my family. They are great company. Doug and my Uncle Darryl are so funny. I just loved sitting with them.

This is where the real story starts… So then it was midnight, and I was driving back to Sandy. That’s atleast a 45 minute drive. I realized recently I could not afford to drive at night. I got too tired/exhausted/out of it to drive safely. As such I haven’t been driving at night. Well, that night I decided I needed to drive back.  So I drove back. Yeah, it took me two hours to get back almost. I took the right exit, wrong road, ending up back tracking 30 minutes. Then went back, and took the wrong exit, got lost. And in the end, I FINALLY got home.  Everyone else all got back in like half an hour. Insane. Anyways, It was scary, and I go back to the whole I-am-not-ever-driving-at-night-again thing.

So Saturday my cousin on the other side, Caden, got baptized. So I went to that at 2, and then met up late for the Reunion which got back together at 1. 

Caden’s baptism was one of the most spiritual baptisms I have ever been to. The spirit was so strong. I was just so moved by the ordinances performed and the power behind them, in addition to the spirit brought to the meeting by those who spoke to Caden and those who provided the music.

This week so far has been a remarkable experience. I've been feeling that family bond. I really appreciate my family and all they do for me. They are incredible.

Saturday’s part of the family reunion was even more incredible than Friday's. We didn’t do anything cool or intense, but I just spent good quality time with some of my 1^st and 2^nd cousins, and my first cousins once removed and everyone. It was weird because I was the only one from my immediate family. Everyone else had atleast a few others, if not the whole family. But it gave me the option to step out of my comfort zone and visit with my family who I didn’t know very well. We laughed a lot, and just had a great time getting to know each other better. Now the key is staying in contact. Hopefully facebook will help with that. J But they really are just remarkable people. I love my family.

Anyhow, I am still at Ole and Dena's and am loving spending time with everyone (and Ryan just said this, "My stories are always cooler in my head." bahahaha.), especially my Grandma Baker. She is one of my favorite people ever.

To all you Baker/Dahl's who missed the reunion, schedule it on your calendar for July 1, 2011 Raymond, Alberta, Canada. It is going to be oh so great, and I am going to design the t-shirt. It will look sort of like this probably:

 

But who knows.

Anyways, thats all from this teenage drama queen. More confessions to come.


- J