Utah smelled pretty bad last night

When I got into Salt Lake City last night, Emily and I crammed our bags into Jeff's Honda Civic and then we crammed ourselves in. I was kind of really really crammed in, sitting on the skis and smashed between my bag and Emily's bag, bent double with my neck craned down.

Jeff had the heat on with the air coming from the outside air instead of the inside. So, this allowed all sorts of interesting smells to permeate the inside of the car while we drove back to Provo. Skunk. Industrial nastiness. Mystery stank. All of it.

Quote of the night? Kira: "This has been the smelliest car ride EVER."

We couldn't help but compare the smell with the fresh, clean air of Bothell, Washington, which Jeff described with the observation that Washington in the winter smells like a thousand pine trees everywhere.

Real pine trees smell so much better than the so-called "Pleasant Grove" that we passed on the way to Provo. But I like Utah. I really do. It is a great state. I love the mountains and the summers and the snow at the ski resorts. It just smells bad, especially on I-15 between Salt Lake and Provo.



I'm sad though that this is the final evening of my freedom. Over the break I had time to READ. I read The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley. Then I read Hunger Games really quickly. Then I finished reading my sister Ann Marie's Master's thesis. It was soooo good. Sooooo good. She is a genius, and writes eloquently. And then I finished reading Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy and it is my favorite Hardy book, even though Tess is technically a more powerful book. Far From is just happier, even though "happier" is, of course, relative when talking about Thomas Hardy.

Well here goes. School starts tomorrow. Good luck everybody.