Zapatos

To begin with, I should pick up where my last blog post left off.  Our flight DID end up being delayed and we spent the night in an airport hotel and left the next morning.  There were no flash mobs or other types of musical numbers, but I had some really great bonding time with my sibs and cousin.  More on that later, probably.

Thanksgiving was THE BOMB.  But that is not what I want to talk about today.  Today I want to talk about Black Friday.  I think that Black Friday is a terrible social convention and I never want to participate in it again.  I don't even care how much money I could potentially save.  I would prefer not to be trampled by Wal-Mart employees.  

On this last Black Friday, all of the ladies in my family, and I mean ALL, went to H&M and terrorized everyone in the store.  The fitting room attendants, random indie girls, the check-out girl.  They all hated us and our loud deliberating and the fact that there were twenty of us.  At one point the girls behind us in line said, "They seriously invited everyone in their family."  Aww, yeah.  We're that family.  Anyways, one of the things we deliberated about was whether or not I was allowed to buy these shoes:

Everyone thought that were ugly except for me and my grandma.  This is probably due to the fact that they are velvet, kelly green, have a large bow, and are tacky.  However, I still love them and I fought for my right to wear them.  In the end my awesome grandmother purchased them for me.  It was so nice.

I don't think anybody in my life knew how much these shoes would end up meaning to me.  They have brought Christmas spirit into my apartment.  Every night when I get home, I put on these shoes and put on a show for my roommates as we listen to Christmas music.  Some of the things I like to do in these shoes are:

1.  pageant walk 

2.  catwalk walk (same thing as pageant walk, except for no voice-overs by Haleigh talking about what I am modeling and how I like to give service)

3.  perform tap routines 

4.  shuffle down the hallway creepily approaching my roommate Alissa, who is just trying to brush her teeth, bless her heart

5.  step in time to Christmas songs by Celine Dion and/or Hilary Duff

6.  wear them with red socks
7.  spread Christmas cheer by singing loud for all to hear.

The point of all of this is that I am grateful for my roommates, for the Christmas season, for green velvet, and for photo booth.  Oh, and I'm thankful that we have the best Christmas tree the world has ever seen.

 Peace and blessings!

Give me the beat, boys.

I have always loved airports.  I think it started when I was fourteen and about to embark on my first solo plane ride on the way to see my best friend Haleigh and go to EFY with her.  It was such an exciting day.  I had all of my luggage neatly packed into my little suitcase and I was reading some silly book and drinking a Starbuck's strawberry frappucino because that's what you do at the airport.  For some reason the flight was delayed but I didn't really care or pay attention to what was going on... until this flight attendant came and pulled out a ukulele and started singing.  This song.  And then...THE ENTIRE TERMINAL STARTED SINGING ALONG.  Everyone was clapping and singing and getting lost in the rock and roll and drifting away.  It was one of the best experiences of my life.

And it's why I love airports.  Airports are one of the few places where everyone in the general public is just nice to each other.  You know?  It just makes me happy to be part of humanity.

However, this might all change today.  At 8 pm I'm supposed to get on a flight that will take me home to Arizona for Thanksgiving.  At 3 pm, a blizzard warning starts for Utah County that apparently "far surpasses anything that we've seen, probably for the past several years."  It looks like my sister, brother-in-law, cousin, and I are going to be spending a significant amount of time in the Salt Lake City airport waiting the storm out... if we make it there at all.  Eek.

Just kidding.  I'm feeling pretty confident about our chances of survival.  But I guess all I'm trying to say is that if I have to be stuck somewhere for an extended period of time, I'm glad that it's an airport.

Maybe there will be a flash mob.  Or something like this:



Wish me luck!

Mad-Eye Moody

One of my resolutions for this school year was to take more pictures.  So recently, I've been taking lots of pictures and subsequently uploading lots of pictures to my iPhoto.  Things were going great until I discovered the REDUCE RED EYE button.  You just click on people's pupils and their red eye magically goes away.  It's awesome.  I loved it until I realized that I was making my friends look like martians.  For example:

Me and all of my best friends from high school on a group date at the fair.  And our jet-black pupils.  You know, this was one of the funnest nights of my life.  There are so many things I want to remember forever about this date, but I unfortunately kind of can't handle looking at this picture so I just have to use my imagination.  All because I got a little too clicker-happy.  Sorry for destroying memories, friends.

The other thing this iPhoto feature has made me realize is that my pupils are two different sizes.  I got sick two summers ago and this thing happened to me...

(I have one massive pupil and one miniature pupil in this picture, in case you can't tell)

 ...but I thought I was better now.  I'm not.  Every time I use the reduce red eye feature on myself, I realize that my pupils are still definitely two different sizes.  So basically....I am the bomb.

In summary, take pictures.  Don't over-edit them.  Embrace your mutant characteristics.  Have a good Sunday!

You can just call me your own personal spider monkey

I've reached the conclusion that I really miss writing on this little blog.  I decided a while ago that I was just SO over blogging but, I'll be honest.  I'm happy to be back.  I always find myself thinking about things and wishing I had a platform to write a disjointed personal essay on a random subject.  And I do.  And it's THIS.  So I'm back.  I'm back and I'm better than ever.

Today, I want to talk about something that I think about way too much.  It's Twilight.  Yes, the book series.  Yes, that one.

Yes.  Just...yes.

All I want to say is, I don't get why everyone hates it SO MUCH.  People start foaming at the mouth when they talk about it and I think it is just ridiculous.  I'm an English major, and I can think of at least seven different instances this semester where the subject of "bad" literature has come up in class and someone has cracked the whole Stephenie Meyer, blah blah blah, stupid, emotional pornography, I AM SUPERIOR joke.  And everyone laughs and feels just a little bit cooler for being one of the people that's too intellectual for Twilight.  And here's the thing, friends.  Just caaaaalm down.  Twilight isn't the worst book ever written, it's just pop culture.

I would never, ever say that Twilight is my favorite book, and I can recognize that there is a great deal left to be desired in both the plot development and the writing quality.  But it doesn't keep me up at night.  There are lots of books that I've read and that I don't love.  And it's fine.

So I guess that all I'm trying to say is that the Stephenie Meyer joke is soooo not funny anymore, girl with the boots that sits behind me in Shakespeare.      

Bliggity Blog

I'm 27 pages away from finishing an awesome book (Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy, which takes place in South Carolina, which I'm visiting in exactly ONE MONTH FROM YESTERDAY! Woo hoo!) and I'm getting really sad about it.  I don't want it to end because reading it has been making me so happy.  This book has like been a part of my life for a while now and I don't want it to just go away.  You know the feeling?  So I'm procrastinating.  Which everyone knows in my world equals blogging.

Hi guys.  I have a few things to communicate.

1.  Regarding my last blog post, I would just like to clarify that the Tour de France's Spartacus is NOT Alberto Contador, but Fabian Cancellara, who is from Switzerland and a very good sprinter.  Thank you to literally every member of my immediate family for calling me out on that.  And thank you to Robby for explaining to me that Spartacus had nothing to do with the Clash of the Titans.  Different storylines both in the Tour de France and in mythology.

2.  Speaking of the Tour, I am devastated that Lance is out.  I love Lance.  He got a flat tire and was stopped for two whole minutes and then he crashed on several different days and now he is just not going to win no matter what he does.  Because of stinking crashes that weren't his fault.  There have been like a bajillion crashes so far, and they're all really really sad, but kind of amazing to watch.  For example,




3.  I've decided that my new favorite is this guy named Andy Schleck.  Mostly because of his accent, and because he's from Luxembourg, and who is ACTUALLY from Luxembourg?  Also because he's probably going to win the Tour de France.  I think they call people like me bandwagoners.  But his accent rocks because it seems so misplaced.  He just looks like an American guy to me, but then he has this hilarious accent.  Look...



My favorite part is, "I got a new bike, isn't it cool, no?"

4.  I realize nobody cares about the Tour de France and that I'm being really boring/snotty right now.  Sorry.  I will stop.

5.  But I can't think of anything else to talk about right now, so I'm just going to stop here.  Bye!

Spartacus

Two things that I love are apple pie and summertime.  (So American of me, right?  Happy 4th!)
Two things that I hate are reality television and sports.

Yes, I just said it.  I hate sports.  Love me anyways.

Fortunately, summertime is such a glorious thing that it can even cure me of my hatred for ordinarily awful things.  Like reality TV.  I hate The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, American Idol, America's Got Talent, For the Love of Ray J, Survivor...but I love So You Think You Can Dance.  I think that Cat Deeley is the most adorable person alive, and the best TV host ever, ever, ever.  I want to be her best friend.  I love the fact that she is a foot taller than most of the dancers, but still wears four inch heels every show.  Good for you, Cat Deeley.  Look!  I found a slideshow of her outfits this season.  I also love watching the dances.  Like this one from last week.  And this one from last week.  And, of course, this one.  Man, I love that show.

As far as sports, summer brings with it what is hands-down the BEST sporting event in the whole entire world. The Tour de France.  The Tour de France is the most exciting, complex, classy, mind-blowing sporting event ever.  It's like the opera of sports.  There are crashes, passes, peaks, valleys, rests, and climaxes.  It's all very exciting.  And I think that cyclers have the most incredible sense of teamwork.  They're all about drafting, which is so awesome and noble.  Every team has a star that's really good at sprinting, and the other team members will draft for him and let him rest the whole ride until the very end.  And then he sprints.  Really, really fast.  And so do all the other stars on all the other teams.  And all of the other sprinters feel this huge sense of loyalty for their other team members and don't want to let them down, so everyone is just trying really hard to win for their team.  It's really intense.  Thank you Mom and Dad for explaining all of this to me.

Except for last year, the whole team loyalty thing got totally messed up when Alberto Contador TOTALLY PASSED his teammate Lance Armstrong on one of the stages.  It was completely not allowed, but Contador ended up winning the whole Tour.  Which is awkward because they were on the same team.  But this year, Lance took the coach and all of the other good members from last  year's team Astana and made a new team.  Team Radio Shack.  And he is like seeking vengeance.  Lance vs. Contador.  To the death.  No, not really.  The little British announcers on the cycling channel are calling it the "Clash of the Titans" and they keep using the word Spartacus, which I think is funny.  I think they're talking about Contador.  For the record, I'm Team Lance.  Feast your eyes and ears upon this video.



I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE this sport!

Oh, and I just think that apple pie is delicious.  I made the best apple pie I've ever made today, in honor of America's b-day.    
  
 

Thoughts from my sickbed

You guys, I think I'm dying.

 Okay, not really.  But I do feel really sick and I have the most random symptoms.  Like yesterday my eye swelled up.  And today my ears hurt REAL bad.  And two days ago my wrists ached every time I turned a door handle.  I feel like a mutant or something.

So, I've been lying in my bed trying to muster up the energy to get started on the massive and overwhelming amount of homework I have.  But I can't do it.  Instead I've been just chilling here thinking about really random things.

Like about how I really wish there was a new episode of 30 Rock for me to watch.  Tina Fey rocks my world.  Seriously, check her out.  MOUSE EARS.  And a LEOTARD.  On top of a SKYSCRAPER.  I think they should make a 30 Rock episode about the taking of this picture.  That is what I want to watch.


Also, I've been thinking about how I really need to read a good book.  I want to read a book that's going to change my life.  I have all of these books I want to read but no time to read them.  It makes me sad.  I love reading.  I  miss it.  Any good book suggestions?  Any good time management suggestions?

I've also been thinking about how this video simultaneously rocks my world and really stresses me out.  Like, did she break out really bad after they filmed this?  All of that paint can't be good for her skin.  Also, did they do this all in one day?  I can't imagine that being possible, for some reason.  What part would they have done first?  She has really pretty hair though.  And I like how everything is so sparkly.  I've watched this like five times today.

But, this video is so much better.  I just watched it and I feel really inspired.  I like the music.  I like the message more, of course.




Also, I want an ice cream cone.  Graham canyon.  In a waffle cone.  Okay, bye.

Words

This is the wordle for my blog.  Isn't that cool?

I kind of think so.  Is it weird that the word I say the most is "going"?  

You've Got HAAAAIL.

Friends, I am writing to you all today to ask you for help.  I want your opinion about a thing.

The thing is online relationships.

No, no.  Not like online dating relationships.  Like you know someone really well but the only way you communicate with them is through the world wide web.  Or you are dating someone but they are far away so you text and facebook each other all day.  Or you are fb friends with a random person and you are obsessed with their lives, but they have no clue who you are.  Or someone adds you as a friend and you don't know them but then you meet them and it's awkward.  Or you exchange emails with a charming stranger for like a year but neither of you know that you are business rivals and he's the person that you put you out of business so you swear to hate him forever but then, once your store closes, you kind of become friends and when you finally meet your online boyfriend it's him and you say "I wanted it to be you.  I wanted it to be you so badly".  Oh, wait.  

 Sociologists call these "parasocial" relationships.

So, what do you think?  Are they weird?  Are they normal?  Are they healthy?  Do you have any cool stories?

I'm writing a paper on this and it BITES.  If you love me, you could help me. 

The Juice.

Today in my English class my professor described to us his struggles with coke addiction.  As in coca-cola.

I feel ya, Dr. Burton.  (Diet) Coke addiction runs in my family, and is extremely detrimental to my life.  It also poses a moral dillemma for me as a mormon.  In his words, "Is it against the Word of Wisdom?  No.  Is it against the spirit of the Word of Wisdom.  Absolutely."  Oops.

Ultimately, this stuff makes me so happy that I'm not ready to give it up just yet.  My friend told me that a drug addict goes through rehab an average of 8 times before finally succeeding.  I'll get there.

P.S.  My professor talked about this struggle through sonnet. Seriously.  It rocks.  Read it here.

schtemperance.

At the beginning of this year, one of my new year's resolutions was to have more temperance.  Like, to avoid extremes in my behavior and opinions and activities.  Ha.

Here are the extreme things i've done this week.

1. Slept a total of six hours over four days.  Seriously.

2.  Combatted this by consuming ten times my weight in caffeinated beverages.  Bad move.  I'm still feeling the effects from this.  This is what I had for breakfast today:

No, of course I haven't been drinking straight out of the bottle.  (I am, HELP ME).  I think I'm officially an addict. 

3. Spent an average of twelve hours a day with someone I'm not going to see for four months.  This was dumb, and now I'm sad. 

4.  Packed the entirety of my dorm room into my VW bug, Jose, in under an hour, BY MYSELF.  This was kind of a big deal.  I have no clue how I got it all in there, but all I know is that I can't see out of my rearview mirror anymore.  Also, it was raining.  Really, really hard.  

***POST EDIT:  I would like to give a shout-out to my wonderful sister Aly for helping me in the moving process, by doing, for example, things like vacuuming my room and keeping boxes in her car and being nice to me even though I was sassy and frazzled.*** 

I kind of thought that the next few days were going to be boring, and that I was going to be sad and lonely and have nothing to do.  But i've honestly never been so productive slash manic in my life.  I don't think this behavior is going anywhere, either.  My blood pressure has permanently increased.   Spring semester, BRING IT ON.  

Who needs temperance when you have diet coke? 

finals week?

I'm supposed to be studying for my astronomy final.  But I really, really don't want to.


So instead I'm going to blog, okay?  Here's what's been on my mind lately.

Isn't it weird how when things change, they usually change really fast?  I keep noticing that this happens in my life. For example, I recently went on a weeklong trip to New York for Model UN.  I was terrified to go before the trip.  I thought nobody was going to want to be my friend, that my committee was going to eat me alive, that I was going to fail all of my classes when I got back, and that I was just going to be so lonely and stressed all the time.  As it turns out, I started making really, REALLY great friends almost immediately.  Like on the plane ride.  From then on, I had nonstop fun all the time.  And now, looking back, that New York trip will probably be one of the best memories of my life.  Isn't that great?

The part where I fail my classes was probably accurate though.  Dang it.

Another example.  I used to hate nerds candy.  I thought they were hard and sour and gross and just weird.  But then, Haleigh and I each acquired a gigantic box of rainbow nerds in a nice, little finals survival kit from our darling cousin/uncle Randall.  Haleigh is on the phone with him right now, as a matter of fact, and he's apologizing for not putting our treats in a gift basket.  Seriously?  Sweet thing.  Let me tell you, that man is a gem.    

Our respective boxes look exactly like this.  And initially, I was super disappointed to have nerds and not some other candy.  The metaphor is cute though.  But then Haleigh let me on a little secret.  

Here's what you do.  Pour an excessive amount of nerds into your mouth and then suck on them for a really long time.  They will CRYSTALIZE.  It is delicious and so fun.  

I now love nerds the best.  I'll be the first to admit that this was unexpected, but I'm happy.  You should be too.  

TRY THIS NOW!      

Have you heard

 of stumbleupon.com?  It is the most fun time-waster ever!  I love it.  I stumbled upon this the other day:

Sorry that I'm so obsessed with really random quotes-I've clearly been on a little bit of quote kick lately, as evidenced by my last three blog posts.  Oops.  It's just that all  of these scholars and philosophers say it so much better than I ever could.  And this one just seems especially relevant today, especially when interpreted a little bit broadly. :) I hope you all like it as much I do.  Have a lovely afternoon!  I'll spend mine writing a ten-page research paper. Boo.

I wasn't going to press "publish post". But...I just can't help myself.

Hello, there.  I'm going to try and direct a little bit of frustration I'm feeling into something constructive.  I would like to talk about politics.

Political parties are not like sports teams, and there is therefore no place for sports-like rivalries in the political sphere.  Because, guess what?  Nobody wins.  It's not a game, it's people's lives.  It's their freedom, their basic rights, their safety, their welfare.  It's not a game, and it's not a fight.  Ideological differences amount to nothing in the scheme of things, because political parties are just a means to an ends.  The end goal should be the best possible society with the highest possible level of happiness.  Ideally, this can be accomplished through conservative and liberal practices.

I think that people should start focusing on what can be done to improve American politics instead of name-calling and hate-mongering.  I think that people should shift their points of view to include the possibility that consensus might be the best option.  I think that people should stop assuming the other side is morally wrong, because they aren't.


I'm not an apostate.  That's all.  

"People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they are not on your road does not mean they have gotten lost"-Jackson Browne

Cherishing

I found this quote today.   It says,

"Cherish your solitude.  Take trains by yourself to places you have never been.  Sleep alone under the stars.  Learn how to drive a stick shift.  Go so far away that you stop being afraid of not coming back.  Say no whenever you don't want to do something.  Say yes if your instincts are strong, even if everyone around you disagrees.  Decide whether you want to be liked or admired.  Decide if fitting in is more important than finding out what you're doing here.  Believe in kissing."

This is good advice, right?  When I first read this, it kind of blew my mind.  I love it.  I think we should all be secure enough in ourselves that we can truly cherish solitude.  How beautiful of a concept is that?  I've found myself alone this week a lot more than usual since i've been so busy with classes.  And I've had a really great week.  Sometimes, solitude is very refreshing.

Anyway, that's all I have to contribute to the internet for today.  Enjoy your weekends!  

It's either gray or blue.

Blue skies are something I miss terribly. Pretty much every day when I would get out of school last year at Mountain View, I would walk outside and be stunned by the beautiful, beautiful, gigantic, blue desert sky. Sometimes you can see the curve of the earth because the sky is just so expansive and overwhelming. It's one of my favorite things.

You just don't get the same sky in Provo. And that's okay with me, because otherwise I wouldn't be able to appreciate how special it is when I go home. Anyway, I didn't intend to write this post to come across as all homesick-y. My point is that a clear blue sky is something that makes me terribly happy. I'm going to steal an idea from one of my favorite stranger's blogs, the rockstar diaries, and tell you ten things that make me terribly happy.

1. clear blue skies (obvi)
2. learning about things i've heard of, but never knew anything about
3. watching my humanities professor describe classical music and look like the happiest person in the world
4. online shopping for things i could never afford or actually wear in public, like wedding dresses and business suits and four hundred dollar sweaters and fabulous shoes
5. finding inspirational quotes by very smart people
6. orbit spearmint gum, coupled with bath and body works peppermint lip gloss. yum.
7. ballet flats
8. going to bed early, as in before 1 am
9. when the cannon center has pine nuts in the salad bar
10. literal, direct answers to prayers

Sometimes, I think it's good to count your blessings. It's also super fun. Anyway, that was a great exercise. I'll probably remember I have a blog again in like three months. So...see ya!

Bipartisanship

So, I love this article.

No matter how much people rag on me here at BYU for supporting Barack Obama, its things like this that make love him even more. He is a gem, and he is so cooperative and classy in his dealings with everyone from dictators to Republicans.

I just love my president. Thought you'd like to know.

my triumphant return to blogging-brace yourself.

Okay, so after some very deep introspection and a little bit of encouragement, I've decided to make a comeback into the blogging world. I know all of my faithful readers (i.e. my mother) were missing me, and, you know, I'll do anything for the fans...

However, I don't really have anything noteworthy to say. Bummer, huh? Which is why this blog is kind of the silliest thing I've ever done, and its also why I update it so sporadically.

So, I think I'm just going to go stream of consciousness (sort of) on ya'all and say everything that's floating around in my subconscious right now. Sit back (in the reclining couch), relax, and stare deeply into my eyes:

I'm currently eating chips and salsa. For dinner. I haven't had chips and salsa for a long, long time and I really appreciate them.

Writing that made me realize that I was actually out of salsa, so I just got up to get myself a little bit more and i poured out waaaaaay to much and then i tried to put it back in the jar and it spilled down the sides a little bit and my hands got covered in salsa juice and I was mad because i just cleaned my desk for cleaning checks (PASS!) and I was going to get salsa juice all over it. So i went and got a fork to scoop it all back up and it all worked out and me and surroundings are now clean and peaceful and happy.

Right now, my best friend Alissa is making a collage of attractive men to hang up in her bedroom. I think that is a hilarious thing to do. One of the men she included was Joseph Gordon Leavitt. I think he is so so darling and I really want to date him. I like it when he wears a suit.

I watched 500 Days of Summer four times over Christmas break, unintentionally. I'm not an obsessed crazy-fan, but I think I have it memorized now. I am someone's Summer, I think. It stresses me out.

On a related note, how cute is this?



There is another one that is so funny, but there is some excessive swearing in it and I don't want people to get the wrong idea about me. But you should look it up. It's Tom and Summer as Sid and Nancy. Hilar.

Also, lots of times when I'm hanging out with Haleigh and Alissa, someone will abbreviate a word by cutting off the last syllable. And then someone will say, "let's abbreviate everything we say" and then its so funny because its impossible to think of an abbreviated response to that. We've tried "su" for sure, "o" for okay, and today I said "s g" for sounds good. It just doesn't work out.

Also, Haleigh just walked in and said it smells like salsa in here. Hehe.