Even before I arrived in Salt Lake, I received a lovely email from Laura Moncur welcoming me to my new city. She was a friend of a friend and she had heard that I was making the move and wanted to be sure that when I arrived I knew that I had at least one person who was ready to give me a hug.
Well, Laura did more than that, truthfully. She came over bearing beautiful gifts! A hat and fingerless gloves that she had crocheted herself (I have worn them nearly every single day) and two different moisturizers that I had no idea how very very very much my body would appreciate. I also got a great Utah Geeks t-shirt (because, hey, now I'm in Utah!).
She has honestly become a very dear friend to me here. Especially when I find myself confused about the "culture" of Salt Lake. It can be confusing sometimes to this girl from California. Laura has lived here nearly her entire life and she's not Mormon, so she's able to give me a very down-to-earth explanation of things in ways that I can understand. Not that being a Mormon would make that more difficult, but it is just that some of my questions are actually about the Mormon culture and there are many Mormons who are so indoctrinated that they just say, "Well, because, that's the way it is..." without truly even knowing why. Isn't that the way it is with many organized religions?
This week, Laura and I met and went out for a delicious Indian meal. She's also been quite wonderful about making sure I know where all the best restaurants are for vegetarian food. Afterwards, she came over to my house and we had a little "Nakedjen" photo shoot. How fun is that? I finally have someone else besides me to take a picture for Naked Fridays!
She even featured me on one of her own blogs, Starling Fitness. I love what she wrote about me, because I do feel like she captured a lot of the heart of Nakedjen. I have been writing this blog for over 4 years now, and hoping that with each Naked Photo, I am touching at least one person and helping them to love their own bodies just a little bit more. It's really nice to have Laura in my life. She makes being in Salt Lake just a little bit easier.
