Since I last posted...

• I became an aunt! 😆

  

• we both turned 32

• 9 + months strong with this dreamboat! 😍 

• I just finished my time with the Utah Democrats and am looking for my next Comms/Digital opportunity in SLC. (So if you know of anything, let me know? I'm open to FT opportunities as well as contract/consulting work.)

• We voted! (#WithHer, of course. 2016 was actually my first year voting a straight Democratic ticket.) 

Unfortunately, we lost bigly on November 8th, so....

• I took refuge in Europe (London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Brugges for 10 days) and had the time of my life with Stephie and Nif! #misadventuresineurope

Amsterdam ❤️ 

• Every time I read the news, it feels like the country is up in flames. But also, it's been incredible to see the goodness of the people around me in response.

March 4 Refugees in SLC

SLC Women's March

• I was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder. It explains a lot, and I'm grateful to A- still have health insurance, B- to have found just the right therapist, C- for modern medicine and all the ways in which it improves our lives, D- for an uber-supportive boo. I am so blessed! <3

• Went to DC for Kathryn's wedding!

• Spent our first holiday season together

• Some shopping. ;)

• Started ski lessons at Snowbasin. It ain't going so well. 😳  Last time I was there, I ran over a small child, got yelled at and shamed off the mountain, and basically cried all the way home.

Hope your 2017 has been good so far!

National Voter Registration Day 2014

* If you're already registered to vote, CLICK HERE to retweet a message to your friends to remind them to register to vote. If you're not, keep reading. :)

I'm back at work today, because... It's National Voter Registration Day! 

Have you registered to vote? No? CLICK HERE TO REGISTER RIGHT NOW.

Have you moved in the last year? CLICK HERE TO re-REGISTER.

Have you changed your name? (You know, like... if you got married?) CLICK HERE TO re-REGISTER.

Did you just get out of prison? (Ha. You never know...) CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.

Did you just become a citizen? (Congrats!) CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.

Do you hate all the political parties and want to become an Independent? (or just change your party in general?) CLICK HERE TO re-REGISTER.

Need a little extra motivation before you register?

--> Watch THIS, and then

--> CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.

So basically, REGISTER, REGISTER, REGISTER! :)

Hooray, democracy!

PS Hi, Roxana!

Perspective

A few months ago, I got to go to the White House for the President's Cinco de Mayo festivities. The food (by Chef Jose Andres!) was delicious, and the guacamole was TO DIE FOR.

The President spoke to the attendees, and I got this sweet shot to post on social media:





Awesome, right?? What a great view!

Wanna know a secret? Here's the view I really had during the President's speech:




I'm 5 feet tall, remember? The room was packed, and all sorts of tall people decided to stand in front of me. And then they all raised their cell phones up, further blocking my view, and this was honestly the view I had for a good portion of the speech. (If I stood on tiptoe, shifted right or left just a hair, or when people's arms got tired of holding up their cell phones, I had glimpses of a better view.)

So that awesome shot I instagrammed? Yeah, I got that by standing on my tiptoes, holding my phone waaay above my head, and snapping the camera.

And it made me think about how easy it is to scroll through someone else's Facebook/IG/Twitter feed and to feel jealous of their picture-perfect life. What we forget is that we don't really see a complete picture. We don't see the hard moments or the less-than-perfect days. We don't see the short girl standing on her tiptoes just tryin'a get a semi-decent shot and accidentally getting a pretty good one.

So I guess the moral of this blog post is to remember that the content we see online is filtered and represents just one perspective. Let's be happy and excited for each other, but most importantly, let's be happy for ourselves and for the awesome things we're all doing. With the right perspective, we can enjoy our lives both on AND offline. :)

Lately

VL team before NCL Capital Awards. Photo courtesy of Jimmy's GoPro camera

Lately, I've been really busy with work.

March 31st is around the corner, and since I work on Health for my org, we've been busy making sure folks know they need to get health insurance by March 31st! (Ask me about this if you have any Q's.)

We launched a new campaign at work to register Latino Millennial voters.

I got to participate at a presidential town hall about the Affordable Care Act. (I wasn't on stage with POTUS, but it was still pretty dang cool to have my name in the same press release as the President!)

We also have a conference we're hosting in NYC next month for which I'm managing communications.

Oh, and we hosted the DC red carpet premiere for Cesar Chavez (It's really good and opens in theaters this weekend! More on that later...).

I've also tried to squeeze in a few other things. You know, important things like... working on my callings (OK, that one really is important), joining Snapchat (who'da thought?), wondering every night whether there will be snow or sun the next morning, etc. And even some fun things like...

Playing the violin for Tory's baptism (& coordinating a string quartet to accompany our church choir)!

Yay, Tory!

Seeing friends sometimes (and sometimes, their babies!) -- though not as often as I'd like!

I was friends with Matt & Kara at the U before my mission. It was so fun to catch up & meet their sweet Baby E!

At a Jazz-Wizards game!

Celebrating Steph's birthday!

A Winter's Tale = worst. movie. ever.

Of course, there's always cooking, baking, and eating:

And I even managed to sneak away to ward temple night.

I sure love this temple!

So, basically, I've been busy with life. :)

Are you watching?

Guys, it's the State of the Union RIGHT NOW! (Tuesday, 9pm EST/6pm PST). Watch it now

HERE!

via

I'll be live-tweeting HERE (@utahgirlami).

Make sure you watch! Whether or not you agree with the President's policy positions, it's important to be educated and informed.

A Big Day

Today was a big day at work.

I feel... EXHAUSTED (I only slept 3 hours last night), shaky, void of energy, more ready for bed than I've ever been... But mostly, I feel... proud!

I was asked to speak on a panel (at-a-conference-where-VPOTUS-also-spoke-NDB!) on how to use online tactics to engage minority communities. I felt really proud (also humbled?) to be asked to speak, and I was surprised by how much fun I had presenting! 

It sort of took me back a little to my Visitors' Center days -- especially since we had to use a cordless microphone. I will never use a cordless mic again without remembering my VC Director, Elder Pedersen and how he would tell us over and over to either A- not fidget our hands while holding a mic (it makes the sound all wonky) or B- hold the mic to our chins and leave them there the whole time! Ahhhh, good times. :) 

Hopefully the folks in the workshop had fun, too. :)

with the other panelists (also, #BANGS!)

(photo from Elianne of #LATISM)

(The folks at the conference even SPELLED MY NAME RIGHT!! Accent mark and everything!)

Today, we also saw the fruits of a lot of hard work from our team. To make a long story short, I manage an issue campaign for my organization, for which I've launched a series of Google Hangouts to inform our audience about the Affordable Care Act. Normally, I moderate them, but today my boss did, because our guest for this Hangout was Secretary Sebelius of HHS. I honestly just could not have been prouder of this event and especially, of my team.

I can't stress enough how much I love and appreciate the people with whom I work. Whenever I feel like I'm about to fall apart, I know I won't, because my team has my back. When unexpected crises arise last minute, I know I won't be dealing with them alone. The work we do is often extremely stressful, but as long as we keep looking out for each other, we're always going to be just fine.

I had a surreal moment during the Hangout (I was in the studio during the filming) where I thought, "Holy moly, I can't believe this is actually happening!" The event was successful, and we got good press and social media coverage (we even had celebrities and Members of Congress tweeting about it!), and I really just can't say enough how proud I was of this event and of the work that we do to inform the community. The law is not perfect, but it affects everyone, and we do our very best to make sure we share information that is actually helpful -- and not fluffy. It was nice to see our hard work paying off in a very big way.

getting mic'd and prepped

LIVE!!

my boss is the most adorable pregnant lady :)

And that's all for tonight. Buenas noches! I'm off to bed...

The Weekend With a Positive Attitude

Sometimes, I have a really hard time managing my to-do lists. Sometimes, it's really hard for me when I'm not able to accomplish EVERYTHING on my usually-miles-long list. But I'm slowly learning that making myself feel more stressed and more... bad for what I didn't accomplish prevents me from enjoying the things I did get done.

So, this weekend, let me tell you about all of the good things I DID do.

I ate pupusas with Janan (her first time! she liked them!)

and then we watched Pride and Prejudice (she had never seen OR read it!! thankfully, she also loved it!) and had a sleepover.  (AND I multi-tasked during the movie by baking a cake for C-lin's birthday festivities the next day! Go productive me!)

Next day, Janan, Steph, and I got our political networking on at the Young Democrats of Maryland State Convention in College Park. We met a lot of awesome people, and we hung out with Kermit the Frog and Jim Henson.

I tried really hard to be productive in the afternoon but mostly, I just finished the birthday cake.

And then we celebrated C-lin's 27th birthday with an all-girls karaoke night! So much fun!

Saturday night after the party, there were still a few hours left to try to be productive with homework and such, but unfortunately, I didn't get as much done as I needed to...

Sunday at church was lovely (it always is!), and we learned about the true nature of love (we learned that it's important to love yourself first, so you have the capacity to love others) and also about spiritual conversion (it's a life-long process, and a continual one).

Church ended with the Elders' Quorum (ie- all the men) serenading all the women and giving us red carnations and chocolates. So sweet! In exchange, we gave them valentines and candies, and mine may have included a really funny (to me, at least!) Mormon pickup line. ;)

Sunday night was more C-celebrating (Sunday was her actual birthday), and oh, gosh, the food at this shindig was delicious! (Brynn made Cafe Rio dressing, and it was taaaaaaysteee!)

And THEN (yep, it keeps going...), we went to a fireside (spiritual church lecture) in Virginia.

You might notice that almost totally absent from this here account is any mention of "homework" or "errands." Although I could choose to freak out about everything I didn't get done, I'm actually quite proud of myself for being able to focus more on what I DID accomplish and for celebrating the fact that my weekend was full of good friends, good food, good politicking, and spiritual nourishment.

Here's to a productive rest of the week and to the continued ability to celebrate the little victories!

xoxoxo, and Happy Valentine's week/Lent begins week!