The most open of houses welcomes friends and those in need

By Kelly Greenwood

May 6, 2009 | It's Sunday afternoon at the Martin place. The scent of bacon wafts through the apartment's cozy chambers while siblings and friends gather tightly at the dining room table, hovering over their strategy game. Two men have retreated to the living room's cushy couches for an impromptu guitar jam session. Jangly acoustic chords join the bacon scent and permeate the room. An older, mustachioed man with a face full of wisdom sits apart from the gamers at the table and makes wise cracks and lighthearted observations. This is her father -- the man she looks up to.

Twenty-three-year-old Mrs. Randi Olsen Martin parts through the crowd and surveys the kitchen, making sure there's enough food for everyone. She glances at her brother, Matt, who is expertly frying bacon and French toast. Randi's husband, Chris, sidles into the tiny kitchen and takes something out of the 1970s olive-green oven. Someone is cutting mangoes and someone is chopping onions. Red-haired, brown-eyed Randi postulates they might need to get more food.

More friends filter in, sharing extra eggs and stories from church. Randi Martin has apparently invited the whole world over for Sunday brunch, but she doesn't seem to mind. In fact, she just might love the company. Since they were married in January 2008, Randi and her husband have let countless numerous friends and family members stay over at their apartment for reasons unimportant. They simply want people to have a place where they can feel welcome if they have no where else to go, she says.

She and Chris were inspired by the hospitality they encountered on their travels across New Zealand in the summer of 2008, she says. "Chris and I have been so grateful for people that have helped us out . . . we want to return the favor."

Getting to know Randi, one might think that the multi-tasking woman might not have time or energy to "return the favor" and play host to big Sunday brunches, overnighters and such things. But she wants to. "I grew up in a house where everyone was welcome," she says. "I want my house to be like that now."

This particular house was in Fargo, N.D., where her family moved to when she was 10 years old. Before then, they lived in Bloomington, Minn., and Alexandria, Va., where Randi was born. Now, she's landed in Logan, Utah.

After stints with a handful of Utah towns, moving back to Fargo, and serving an LDS mission in San Diego, she settled in Logan with Chris when they got married. She says people always told her she would love Logan-and she does. But Fargo will always hold a special place in her heart, she says-so much so that she wrote a song about it.

The French toast is finished and the brunch crowd has gathered tightly in the living room. Randi's father, Michael Olsen, is suddenly thrown into the spotlight as his daughter hands him a guitar and urges him to play a song. He launches into his version of Randi's song, "Thank You, Fargo," and his daughter soon joins in, while her acoustic guitar and her voice, a folksy hybrid of smoky jazz and classical soprano, create a smooth descant over her father's warm folk tenor vocals.

This is not the first dad and daughter duet, however. Randi and her father frequently performed together onstage when she was growing up, she says. Michael was a well-known musician in Fargo, and Randi, influenced by her father, picked up the guitar and began singing and writing songs when she was a freshman in high school. "I started really getting into it the summer after my freshman year of high school," she says. "I wrote my first song about some boy."

Since that boy, she's performed in a gamut of venues with a varied spectrum of musicians. But as of right now, the music has taken somewhat of a backseat to other things like school and work, she says. But she aims to "get better at the guitar" and start performing again. "I'm optimistic about getting back into it," she says.

Randi's father hasn't been her only source of inspiration. She has also performed with her mother, an opera singer and a stage actress. Not only does the natural vibrato in her voice manifest her mother's influence, her knack for the stage also speaks of a talent that runs in the family, as both of her parents were theater majors. "I've done theater most of my life," she says, though she mentions she recently came back to it after a five-year break. Since she came back, she has had leading roles in two performances put on by the Utah State University theater program. She played Emily Plain in the program's Halloween production, and recently portrayed Squeaky Fromme in the musical Assassins.

Though she had doubts about getting cast in Assassins, she says she finally got up the confidence and auditioned. "I realized I missed it," she says. "I'm just grateful to have had a positive experience in theater again. It was a really cool gift." That said, she says she plans on being in more productions in the future. Meanwhile, she has other things to keep herself busy. School is just example.

With a year of school at Utah Valley State College under her belt, Randi began school at USU in the fall of 2008. Currently, the creative writing major is working on getting her generals underway, and in the meantime is having fun learning. "I'm just enjoying being back in school," she says.

Alongside her studies, Randi also rubs people the right way-she is, after all, a licensed massage therapist. After working at the now-closed Divine Health and Home in Logan, she obtained a business license in August 2008 and began operating her own massage therapy business out of her home. Straight down the hall, past the Martin's kitchen, Randi's massage room waits. Her certification hangs on the serene green walls of the quiet room, while her equipment sits, waiting for the next client. She says the most popular massage with her clients is the one-hour Swedish massage, though she does a myriad of other types, such as deep-tissue, Tai Yoga, and pre-natal massage. Although she is passionate about massage, it is a challenge to do it on the side while being in school, she says. Even though she may have other interests and jobs in the future, massage therapy will always be important to her, she emphasizes. "It is something I always want to do, even if it's something I do on the side."

Speaking of doing things on the side, Randi has managed to travel outside the U.S. several times throughout her life. In addition to New Zealand, which she says was the trip she'd "always dreamed of," she has been to Peru, Poland, the Netherlands, and Mexico. And she's not finished. Thailand, where she wants to study Thai massage, is her next dream trip, she says, while South America is her more "practical" trip. "I love everything about traveling," she says, and mentions that she loves to learn other ways to live life. "The world is just so beautiful. I want to see all of it."

Aside from traveling, Randi finds other ways to occupy her spare time. She and Chris have memberships at the local climbing gym, and they like to go rock-climbing when they can, she says. She also has a more unique hobby-she has other men in her life. But her husband doesn't mind. She collects miniature men, also known as garden gnomes, which she has been accumulating since high school. "It started out with people stealing them for me," she says. "But now people buy them for me." The little statues stand like little ambassadors throughout the Martin's apartment. Some sit in the living room, while others sit in the bathroom-sometimes surprising the unsuspecting lavatory-goer. With names like Phil, Phillip, Shlotzky, Homunculus, and Peanut Buttah Nutty Butty Scooty Booty, the little guys add whimsy to the Martin household and showcase the quirkier side of Randi. If anything, they seem to make good conversation pieces.

With her diverse, demanding interests and full life, Randi seems to be managing a colorful balancing act. But though she may be multi-talented, she wears humility on her sleeve. "I don't feel like my life is that cool," she says. "I just do what I do." And while being humble, she is content with her life. "I feel like I've created a really great life and Chris has a lot to do with that," she says. "I'm the happiest I've ever been right now."

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