Bizarro Temple Trip

This is a blog post about the temple. Let me first say this: it was a wonderful experience, very spiritual and uplifting, as it usually is. But I wanted to actually blog about the other non-spiritual weird things that happened to me here.

The Draper Temple. Who has been here? It's a beautiful temple. I haven't seen the "Oak-er" (I am not going to attempt the spelling) yet and I've heard they are similar. But here were my impressions: Gorgeous location overlooking Salt Lake Valley. You can see the SLC skyline in the distance. Windy as heck. Surrounded by small castles. The mountains are what I imagine Europe to be like.

It was one of the more interesting sessions I've attended. First of all, I didn't bring my clothes with me and did not know this temple doesn't have clothing rental. Fun Fact: I have now seen the inside of the Draper temple laundry room. They were all very impressed that I was 'in from out of town.'

Since I was alone this time, I was relieved to not be the witness couple (for some reason we seem to get this responsibility a lot in Mesa) seeing as I, for the life of me, can NOT stay awake during the whole video. I have just accepted it. And it's just a lot more obvious to sleep when you're in the front row. Temples are way too warm and that combined with a dark room and a movie you've seen a lot...well you can understand.

Anyway, as I walked into the room and people started taking their seats, I soon discovered that I would get the honor of sharing the double-wide seat. Fortunately the lady next to me was cool about it, although it definitely took some getting used to. We had to coordinate our standing up and sitting down.

The other weird thing was that the session was the fullest session I've even been to. I'm surprised they didn't have people sitting on the floor because they had to bring in several folding chairs. The room was small, granted, but I was just kind of surprised they allowed that. Anyway, since it was so small, the next room (yes this is one of those temples where you move into another room to finish up) I got to sit on the OPPOSITE side. It was like something out of a dream, people. Well, maybe not MY dream, per se. Maybe Pres. Monson's. I'm sure he dreams of sitting on the wrong side in the temple and wakes up in a cold sweat.

The Celestial Room is awesome. Not as in 'surfer dude "totally awesome!"' but like awe-some. I first walked in and looked up. and up. And then more up. The ceiling was so high it never ended. I spent half my time in there just staring up, looking like a geeky tourist in NYC.

And that was it...I took the scenic route home, feeling like Audrey Hepburn sans convertible and scarf blowing in the wind, but still driving the windy mountain road almost wondering if I was still in Utah.