Starstruck
A couple months ago, Benton was invited to go to a youth conference in Calgary by some family friends. I was not-so-secretly jealous, mostly because of who the key speakers were. I mean, Stephanie Nielson is basically Mormon royalty, and Hank Smith? Hank Smith in the Froc home is probably about as close to idol worship as we'll ever get. Between my family and myself, I'm pretty sure we have every talk of his on CD, and we quote them all. the. time.
I immediately made plans to smuggle myself into the teenagers-only event via a large duffle bag which my little brother would heave into the building with him. Unfortunately, I don't have a large duffle bag, and Benton wasn't able to go. I said a lot of Mormon cuss words.
BUT THEN.
I got a text one day. From Aislinn. And it said: "Um, you should probably come to Calgary on this weekend because HANK SMITH IS DOING A TALK FOR YOUNG ADULTS TOO!" I don't remember what I said, but it likely involved a high-pitched noise and a lot of exclamation marks.
Fast forward to this past weekend. I drove up to Calgary Saturday afternoon. I was so excited, that even though I forced myself to drive exactly at the speed limit, I still got to the building half an hour early. The talk he gave is one of my favourites, "Being Happy in an Unhappy World". Aislinn and her sisters hadn't heard it yet, and we all enjoyed ourselves immensely. (Side note: Apparently Americans don't know what itchiban is?)
After his presentation, Aislinn grabbed me and whispered, "I WANNA HUG HIM. Let's go say hi!" She got her hug. And a picture. And then she pushed me forward to get a picture with him too. He was very good about it. Perhaps he gets into situations with awkward, starstruck Canadians often. Anyway, here's the evidence (Excuse the grainy phone pictures):
After the fireside, we were all hungry and booked it to Peter's Drive In. While we waited in line to order, I spotted someone familiar. It was Brother Smith! He noticed us and made his way over to tell us about his milkshake. At Peter's you can have only up to three different flavours in your milkshake, but somehow he sweet talked the lady into giving him four. (Banana, Chocolate, Marshmallow, and Coconut. He was trying to make it taste like a banana boat.) Then his chauffeur came over and he had to leave, so we said goodbye and left to eat our late supper.
And then Aislinn and I took pictures in the parking lot because we accidentally ended up both wearing houndstooth and it needed to be documented. The end.
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