General Conference, Hilary Weeks, and other awesomeness...

This weekend is General Conference and that is my favorite time of year. Partially because General Conference in itself is always uplifting, motivating, and inspiring but also because it always seems to snow and/or rain on conference weekend marking the beginnings of winter. Today both of those things happened. I'm spending the weekend at Kassie's house with her daughter because Steve and Kassie are out of town. This morning I got up and watched both sessions of Conference and then Krissy and I went to Arctic Circle for a shake, went shopping for some final trip necessities, and rented a movie. We came home and watched the movie and when it was over I headed to Salt Lake.

One of the other things that I love about conference is Ladie's Night at Deseret Book during the Priesthood session. Hilary Weeks was performing at the downtown Deseret Book. I've met her before (see May 4th blog) and absolutely love any interaction with her. I wanted to see her perform tonight and hoped to get my new CD signed. When I got there she was performing so I watched her sing a couple of songs. When she was finished as she made her way back to her signing table she stopped and shook my hand. I asked her if she had a sharpie in her pocket. She patted her pockets and with a smile said, "Nope." So I went to her table and waited in line.

Now let me back up a little in the story to bring you up to speed...

Last May at BYU Women's Conference Hilary sang two songs that would be on her new CD that wasn't going to be released until September. Last Saturday, just two days before the release of the anticipated CD, I received a call that a very dear friend is battling cancer. Suddenly these songs took on a much more personal meaning and I was very anxious for the release of the CD. Last Thursday when the CD was released and I went to Deseret Book to pick it up. While there I found a book that Hilary had written so I, of course, bought it too. Turns out that the combination of the CD and a chapter in that book are exactly what I need at this very moment.

So back to tonight...

When it was handing my CD to her she looked at me and said, "Have we met?" She seemed to almost remember where we had met (which was impressive considering the fact that she meets LOTS of people coupled with the fact that she is pretty old) so I asked her if she wanted to guess, and then I laughed and reminded her of Women's Conference. When I told her that my cousin, Julie, was the one from Texas she totally remembered us...or at least she did a good job of pretending. :-) I shared with her my personal experience with "If I Only Had Today" and "Just Let Me Cry" and also shared my gratitude for her book.

Hilary Weeks really is the greatest lady! I first heard of her shortly after I was baptized 6 years ago. Hers was the first LDS music I ever heard...besides hymns, of course. I'm pretty sure that I've been her number one fan ever since! Too bad she's all famous with paprazzi and secret service agents or maybe we could be friends!

So all in all, tonight was a great experience and I was again reminded of how wonderful and funny Hilary Weeks is...I only wish my two partners in crime could have been with me. Jaymee and Julie, I miss you guys terribly!