2011 was an interesting year. I'm sure everyone has their exciting memories of all the special things that happened, but the following pictures document some of the most exciting moments of my year-- meeting famous people (mostly thanks to twitter) and having a great time doing it! So here it is, my 2011 highlight reel!
Last January, my parents and little brother came up for a day to celebrate Tommy getting good grades (or something like that) and we ended up at the International Auto Expo in Sandy. While there, we got to check out all the new models of cars, get a picture with a race car from Miller Motor Sports Park, see the
Lambo that Maverik was planning to give away, and I got to meet these two guys-
Alema Harrington and
Ben Bagley, both guys who work for 1320 KFAN sports radio. I knew who Alema was already, but I discovered Ben through twitter (I don't listen to the radio station much) and got my pic with them! Super nice guys, and a great way to start off my year. :)
In March, the
BYU Men's Basketball team made an impressive run in the NCAA Tournament, and the night they beat Gonzaga to move on to the Sweet 16, I helped organize (through a few connections on twitter- aka @BYUrally, @Voler, and @NatHarward) a pep rally at the Provo airport to help welcome our boys home. The flight didn't end up landing until almost midnight, and there were a few hundred of us (including my roommates and other friends) waiting out in the rain, but it was totally worth it.
The Jimmer himself walked past us, and afterward, we got to meet and get our picture with anyone else on the team- Magnuson, Hartsock, Emery, Collinsworth, and Abouo. Definitely another memorable experience!
A month later, the Shops at the Riverwoods had a Grand Re-Opening to celebrate new management. As part of their Grand Re-Opening event, they had planned a concert featuring local (and Rolling Stone Magazine contestants)
Fictionist opening for none other than Sugar Ray (yes, I know they were cool in the 90's, but it was a free concert, so how could I say no??).
We showed up early in order to claim our spots (front an nearly center). In fact, we were so close Jimmer gave me a high-five when he made an appearance, and Mark McGrath himself gave me a little hand squeeze when they opened with "Every Morning". haha. It was pretty awesome if I say so myself (and I do)!
It was a few more months until I had my next celebrity interaction. While I was watching my updates on twitter one day, I noticed that
Sondre Lerche had tweeted about his North American tour dates. Knowing that he had never come to Utah on a tour before, I wasn't too confident that he would be making a stop here at all. When I opened the page, however, I received a pleasant surprise! He was making a stop in SLC after almost 20 years of him going on tours. I was pretty stoked, but it was at the Urban Lounge (a bar), so I knew it wasn't a good idea to go by myself. Another problem is that he is a Norwegian singer so not many people have heard of him (although he did the entire soundtrack for "
Dan in Real Life"- that's how I first discovered him), so not many people would be willing to go. Eventually I convinced my friends Ty and Kyle to come along, and we had a great time, which included me meeting the man himself- Sondre! I'm really hoping he decides to make another stop in Utah soon. :)
Fast forward a few more months to the middle of the NBA lockout. I was desperate for some kind of professional basketball (I'm not a super big fan of college ball most of the time) and Jimmer made my dream come true with Jimmer's All-Stars! I convinced my friends Elyse and Jacob to come along, and we bought our tickets the morning of the game (Sept. 22nd).
During the game, while everyone else was realizing it was an "All-Star" game and not just the Jimmer Show, a certain player caught my eye. With a quick search on twitter, me and Elyse discovered this player to be known as Manimal, (
@KennethFaried35; @TeamManimal) a rookie player drafted to the Denver Nuggets (aka the Thuggets-- he totally fits in). He's incredible!!! We also noticed that he had agreed to meet up with some people after the game for pictures, so we tweeted at him and hoped for the best. After waiting for almost a half an hour after the game, and having the security people try to trick us into leaving, he came out the door of the Marriott Center, and we yelled to him, "Check your twitter!" He looked up to us and said, "Sure." So cool!
We were able to get our picture with him and also got autographs from him and a bunch of the other players, including Isiah Thomas! Such a great night, and it just got me more excited for Jazz basketball (whenever the lockout would be over. . . )!!
Then in November (11.11.11)
The North Face announced they were opening a new store in the Fashion Place Mall (along with Crate and Barrel and H&M). To promote the opening, they had a contest with their twitter account to enter to win something. They were giving away all sorts of things for people who followed them (beanies, duffel bags, t-shirts, and jackets-- like the one I won, a $99 value!). The only catch was that you had to be there sometime during opening weekend to claim the prize they messaged you about.
Me, Elyse, Dave, and Kelli went opening night to claim our prizes. After we got them, we decided to take a walk around the store just to see what they have. As we were doing this, I walked past someone I thought I recognized. I looked at Elyse with wide eyes, but she didn't recognize the person like I did. Next I looked over at Dave with my wide eyes, and he understood my excitement. We had walked right past
Greg Miller!! When we were far enough away from him, we explained things to Elyse who told us to get our picture with him. I was nervous, but luckily Dave is very confident, so he went right over and asked if we could quickly get a picture with him. He kindly obliged. :) (So pretty much, we met Greg Miller before it was "cool" to meet Greg Miller, see:
@dianaallen's experience: http://www.utahjazz360.com/diana/sitting-court-side-with-greg-miller/).
Basically, twitter is amazing and is responsible for most of my meetings of these cool people this past year. I can't wait to see what kinds of adventures and fun twitter will bring to me in 2012 (aka, #TwentyDozen)!!
I got distracted by my stereo for seriously point five, but that point five was long enough for me to fail to notice the vehicle in front of me was stopped. I had just gone through a green light on 960 N., so I thought I was good, but the reality was that the light at 800 N. was red and the cars had backed up to about 100 ft. past the intersection I had just gone through. My moment of distraction resulted in me smashing into (and under) the truck in front of me, totaling my car (essentially about where the car is in the picture above). When I say under, I mean it. I was going the speed limit- 35mph- and when I crashed, I had literally gone under the truck and lifted it's back wheels off the ground so they couldn't move. A tow truck had to come pull us apart. 
Some favorite songs-- although I really love them all!-- : 
