the time will be off on this post, as i believe i have the default for eastern time and i'm currently in mountain. so i'll say that it's 4:07 p.m. as i write this.

so i'm in utah...dugway, utah, to be precise. a few quick observations:

- we think we have mountains back home. these are mountains. rocky, craggy (is this a word? c'est la vie, it is now), dotted with green, but predominantly shades of brown and gray. in order to get from tooele to dugway, we take "the pass"--an incredibly windy road that takes us through and over the mountains.

- i've seen tons of antelope, some deer, a brown eagle, five snakes, and the home of an honest to goodness polygamous utah family.

- the fact that there has been such an outpouring of help in the search for elizabeth smart is not at all surprising, considering what the people here are like. strangers will start conversing with you as you stand in line at places, and not just the "hi, how are you?" type of conversing. a girl at a restaurant started talking to me about college, as she found out i just graduated and she's just getting ready to go. an in-depth conversation followed, once i got past the "huh?" mentality. they're all like this here. as a new englander (and a pretty friendly new englander, i'd like to think), i was absolutely floored.

- the tabernacle in salt lake city's temple square is a theater technician's dream. the entire temple square is gorgeous, if not somewhat imposing (walking into the visitor's center, you can follow the paintings on the wall from jesus' birth to the resurrection, not to mention the stature they have upstairs...these mormans aren't messing around. and they love to walk up to you and start chatting, just like every other utahan i've met...it's an interesting experience (yes, i whispered "MORMANS RULE" when i entered the square).

- my aunt and uncle are insane. and they are corrupting me.

- i'm having a grand time, i am very much looking forward to las vegas on saturday. until then, i am relaxing, reading and enjoying the fact that for the first time in years, i have nothing pressing that i really need to do. it's absolutely bizarre.