Emily Romrell

Live The Vibrant Life

Music

Estimated Reading Time

What I Learned From Mexican Food

385

Estimated Reading Time 2 MinutesLast weekend, I went with some friends to a little hole in the wall Mexican restaurant in Orem, UT called “Mama Chu’s”. The atmosphere is a little ghetto, but the food is great. I recommend the carne asada. The service is pretty good, and it’s awesome if you’re tired of eating at chain restaurants like Chili’s or Olive Garden etc.  If you’re ever in the area, you should definitely check it out; preferably right before you head up into Provo Canyon, which is what we were doing. (Just a couple shout outs about the scene here in Utah County. I love living here!) Anyway, everyone was laughing and joking around when one of my friends said something that really resonated with me. She said, “Mexican food is all the same, it’s just packaged differently.” This of course is true, which is why we all laughed. But it struck me as a wonderful metaphor for the human race. Everywhere I go lately, I feel bombarded with messages about how labels divide people. Fill out any application and they ask you your gender, age, and ethnicity. Stereotypes abound. Are you a hipster, a jock, or possibly a thespian? Are you introverted or extroverted?…

My Mind At 3 A.M.

Estimated Reading Time 2 MinutesSometimes I catch myself watching “What Might Have Been Movies” in my brain. Glimpses of an alternate reality that I can see so clearly it’s “almost” real. Like a black and white movie that came out a week before it could have been released in color. I’m stuck watching Dorothy before she went to Oz. Just a slight layer of richness is missing, but what a difference it makes. It’s like unfolding a crumpled piece of paper to discover song lyrics that didn’t measure up. When I read the words I want to cry, and I think about the difference such a song could make if only the artist finished it. But the artist has moved on. The creator of that song no longer exists, and scribbled words on a wrinkled page are destined to live forever in the land of “almost was” or “could have been”. I think there is actually a chain of islands with names like that located in the realm of possibility. It’s a favorite vacation spot within the world of imagination. I find myself visualizing these “might have been’s” so vividly, and I wonder about the choices I’ve made and the…

Two Sentence Horror Stories

Estimated Reading Time 1 Minutes For some reason, some friends and I have been on this kick lately of getting scared.  There have been some minor pranks with rubber snakes at my house, and last Saturday we watched a great old movie called, “Wait Until Dark” with Audrey Hepburn. It was fantastic; nostalgic and suspenseful at the same time.  So there has been this theme the last couple weeks with the thrill of fear. Anyway, my friend introduced us to a wonderful literary device called, “The Two Sentence Horror Story.” If you google the term, you will see that there are a lot of them out there. Some are really frightening.  So we decided to have our own little competition today, and I think I came up with some pretty good ones.  Check them out below if you dare . . . . Bwah hah hah ha ha ha. My mouth watered as I bit into the ultimate American cheeseburger. Then I tasted blood. The night crept its way into pure blackness. I reached my hands in front of me, and I felt hot breath and a long protruding nose. I sighed with relief when I woke up from the…

Farm Reflection

Estimated Reading Time 1 MinutesI remember driving in gravel; hot and dusty on a summer’s day. We called it the “Rocky Road”, bumping along to the rhythm of the car as we drove into my father’s past. Visiting your grandparents is always exciting when you are a child, but when they live on a farm it’s a double blessing. There is something about life on the farm that never changes; a constant sanctuary in an unstable world. There are smells of “real food” in the kitchen, rich clean dirt, and grease from the farm machinery. There is the sight of millions of stars on a night unclouded by city lights. Warm breezes in summer and biting winds in winter both ruffle your hair in their respective seasons. Birds can be heard singing, bees buzzing, and the cycle of life marches on. There is a solemn quiet that comes from the respect of life and growing things, but also a joy in the air that makes you feel you could laugh at any moment. At twenty-eight everything feels the same as it did when I was five years old.  The farm probably held that sameness when my father was a child…

Lighthearted Lily

Estimated Reading Time 1 MinutesI sat once in a garden swing enjoying a sunshiny day, When on the breeze I heard the talk of flower sprites underway. “Come and sing a song with me,” said the Lily to the Rose with sport. “I’m much too dignified for all of that,” was the red flower’s stuffy retort. So to the Daisy the Lily asked, “Won’t you join in my fun?” But the Little Bud was busy, soaking up the sun. She continued with effort to find a friend, but with no luck it came That the Lighthearted Lily decided on her own to play a game. She sang a song pure, simple, and sweet with a voice born in the dew; It made me forget the troubles of life bringing joy and spirit renewed. I too began to sing with the lily on the wind The song that all the lilies sing of how to be a friend. And one by one the song was joined by other garden dwellers; Such a chorus I’ve never heard like that of all the flowers.