4.28.2009

Quote(s) + Photo of the Week

Photo: May 2007 The Reichstag, Berlin

So...as I graduate and move back into the land of the living, I have been so excited to do normal things. You know, like cooking dinner. Doing the dishes. Cleaning a closet. Taking Chica for a walk. Getting my hair done. Chatting with a neighbor. Going to work. Washing the car. Reading a book for no other reason but that I WANT to. Ahhhhhhhh. I just can't wait to feel like a normal person again. So, my first thing on my agenda of things to do is to go buy some books that I have been dying to read. One of my favorite authors to date is Kurt Vonnegut and my next read will be Galapagos as recommended by my big bro Antonio. To get back into the Vonnegut frame of mind, I googled some of his greatest quotes and they reminded me why I love him so much. I thought I'd share a few....



"Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile!"—Mother Night, 1961



"I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center."—Player Piano, 1952



“Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the universe.”—Hocus Pocus, 1990



"I thought scientists were going to find out exactly how everything worked, and then make it work better. I fully expected that by the time I was twenty-one, some scientist, maybe my brother, would have taken a color photograph of God Almighty—and sold it to Popular Mechanics magazine. Scientific truth was going to make us so happy and comfortable. What actually happened when I was twenty-one was that we dropped scientific truth on Hiroshima."—Bennington College address, 1970



"Artists use frauds to make human beings seem more wonderful than they really are. Dancers show us human beings who move much more gracefully than human beings really move. Films and books and plays show us people talking much more entertainingly than people really talk, make paltry human enterprises seem important. Singers and musicians show us human beings making sounds far more lovely than human beings really make. Architects give us temples in which something marvelous is obviously going on. Actually, practically nothing is going on."—"When I Was Twenty-One," Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons, 1974



"I was taught that the human brain was the crowning glory of evolution so far, but I think it's a very poor scheme for survival."—quoted in The Observer, December 27, 1987




4.23.2009

Sloppy Seconds...

Okay, so Brittany totally beat me to the punch on a post dedicated to our friendship...but I had to respond to her post. Brittany and I met in 8th grade and then lost touch but have become the best of friends since we both started the architecture program seven years ago. We have been able to go on so many fun trips together for school in that time...New York, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, New Orleans, Butte (haha) and Zions. We have the best time together and can completely be ourselves. Isn't that what makes a great friend? Someone who you can say whatever is on your mind and trust that they will listen without judging you and will be honest with you. We have the best times together...and we've gone through some very stressful times together in school. Can you believe it's over Brittany?? Seven years?! Wow. I can't imagine what it would've been like without such a great friend. You are a passionate and incredible woman...I'm priveleged to call you my friend. Thanks for your friendship and for all of the support through school. I love you!



Cheers to our graduation!!!!!!!
"The friend is the [wo]man who knows all about you, and still likes you." ~Elbert Hubbard, The Notebook, 1927

4.20.2009

Exhale.

Presenting my Thesis to architects from around the country....
....and my celebratory cartwheel in the grass. Yay!






4.15.2009

Querida Nani, Te queremos mucho.

Tata y Cassidy

Amor Eterno

We each placed an individual rose on the casket to say goodbye to Nani.


Pallbearers



Grandma explaining to the grandkiddies how Nani will be buried.

A beautiful spring day in tribute to Nani.







The Portland Clan



Amanda and Emily

It's hard to say goodbye...te quiero cincuenta mas Nani.
"Where there is love there is life."
~Mohandas K. Gandhi

4.09.2009

A Celebration of Life

We will be celebrating the life of Maria Ines Briceno Llanos on Monday, April 13th at the LDS Church located in Riverton at approx. 12476 S 2700 W.

An open gathering of family and friends begins at 10 a.m. Please pass along the information to all who knew and loved Maria (Nani) ♥

4.07.2009

Nani

I love you Nani. More than I could have ever expressed to you.
You are beautiful.
You have an amazing passion for life.
You have lived a long and perfect life.
Thank you for my beautiful mother.
Your life is an inspiration to me.
I will miss you.

Te quiero cinquenta mas.
~Nanelle

4.03.2009

Two weeks to go on my thesis project...

Photo: Site for my Thesis project in Springdale, Utah

"Emptiness in the desert is the fullness of space, a fullness of space that eliminates time. The desert is time, exposed time, geologic time. One needs time in the desert to see. "
~Terry Tempest Williams