finals

i should be studying for the final i have to take in a few hours. but i really don't want to. this can be proven by the fact that i'm blogging, which apparently i haven't done since september. i actually have blogged since then, but i saved it as a draft instead of publishing it. so, i guess it doesn't count. i would publish it now, but it seems a little silly since i'm talking about summer and i never finished it. i think it might be a little late to talk about summer since it's snowing outside!
to my chagrin, i woke up to white stuff falling from the sky. this makes sense since i fell asleep to white stuff falling from the sky as well. i love snow, but, wait, i take that back. i do not love snow. this morning was already difficult enough since i had to wake up at 6:30 so i could take an early test (i did really well by the way), but the snow made it really hard to get out of bed and walk to campus. i usually wake up around ten...or later, so waking up is a big obstacle for me. i'm going to have to change my habits since i'm taking earlier classes next semester. not too early mind you, i'm not suicidal!
ok, i've enjoyed these last couple minutes, perhaps i'll start blogging again. i would thank my readers for reading this stream of consciousness, but i'm pretty sure i am the only person who checks this site (i'm not really sure why i check it, since i never update it...and even if i did, there is nothing to check.
notice, i have been doing a lot of reading lately, as seen on my book shelf to the left. i guess that's what i've been doing with my spare time instead of doing blog-worthy things. expect an update soon enough!

trading spaces

my new apartment needs help! it has so much potential, but at the moment, we have nothing but a couple of couches and a tv...anyone have any good/cheap tips to make my apartment look like ones i see in magazines?

templates

i went back to my old template. i think i just like it better. plus, orange seems to suit me! i kinda wish i was smart enough to make my own design...but for now, i'll just have to stick to generic ones other people make for me.

hello again!

i've been slack in blogging since i've been back in utah, and for that, i would like to apologize to my readers. (there have to be at least two out there)...

provo has been good to me these past couple of weeks. the weather has been a bit questionable, but i'm learning to appreciate what life throws me. i moved into my new apartment which i love! with my new roommates which i love even more! i have my own room and a jacuzzi right out my front door. who could complain?

classes are good. i have a professor who could be steve carell's incredibly boring and akward twin (we all know he had to have one). i have another professor that makes me laugh the entire lecture, granted its a recreation management class, so how can you not have fun? my other classes are pretty much average, so i'll stop boring my avid readers with these details.

i'm looking forward to my first football game! go blue!

reuse

i have always loved target's plastic bags. they have a texture that no other bags have. they seem more durable, but still light weight. it's a great combo. but, they have added another feature that makes me love them even more! if you pay close attention, there is a list of 10 ways to reuse your target bag on the side! there are some really good ideas.

1. tiny trash can liner
2. doggy duty
3. water balloon
4. road trip rubbish
5. soggy laundry
6. ice pack
7. toiletry tote
8. kitty litter liner
9. tomorrow's lunchbag
10. care package padding

now that it has given me all these suggestions, i don't think i'll ever throw one away until i've reused it! way to be green target! and watch out for my gigantic water balloons everyone!

half dome

i've been doing some pretty amazing things this summer, but this was definitely the most amazing thing of them all. my mom, dad, melissa and i went backpacking in yosemite. i'll let the pictures tell the story...

me and melissa! this is at the very beginning. we just put our packs on and are headed for the trail head! we're in for a long couple of days...we just don't know it yet.

mel, me, dad and mom at happy isles trail head. and we're off!

one of many water/picture breaks! in this picture you can see nevada falls in the background. isn't melissa a cute little hiker?

nearing the end of day one. we made it to nevada falls. and really mom? real mature...haha

we reached little yosemite valley! or LYV as i like to call it. we'll camp here for the night. looks like dad needs a break...

a sampling of the wildlife we saw while on the hike. this is day two, after a terrible nights sleep. the advil pm was not adequate. but i'm ready for some more hiking! dad and i left mom and mel behind and mad our way to half dome. the animals we saw weren't scared of us at all. the deer was so close i didn't even use the zoom. we saw marmots at the top like the one on the right. this one was a little obnoxious. he was literally eating out of our hands! but so cute! so of course we sacrificed our own stomachs for this fat one.

we paused before getting to the top. part one is over and we are about to embark on the granite steps. can you believe went to the top of this?

granite steps were tough, but i was just about scared stiff on this part! it was so steep! i was basically pulling myself up the whole way!

view from the top! we made it! now we just have to get down...

i had to take one last pictures as we started downhill. look how tiny those people are!

the hikers! we're almost finished! it's downhill the whole way from here. do we look tired yet?

bucket list

i was looking through some of my old stuff and came across my fifth grade "life list." it's the bucket list i made myself back in 2000. some of them i've already done (probably the only ones i ever will do) like;

become nocturnal (college really helped me with this one)
type over fifty words a minute (i don't know many people who can't...)
do the splits
go on point
do not do drugs (yes that was on my life list...)

some of the things i will never do! i'm not really sure why they made the list...

be a well known pianist (i don't even know how to play)
grow my hair until it reaches my feet (did i know myself?)
be the richest woman in the world (i wish...)
be the first woman president (i was hoping hillary would beat me to it)
be neat and organized (HA!)
climb the five tallest mountains in the world (not remotely interested...)
visit all the countries in the world (i might still do this if i become the richest woman in the world)
and photograph wild animals (listed were field mice and ants)

the most interesting part of reading this list was realizing how little i knew myself and what i thought i would be like in the future. i was totally wrong, maybe naive, or maybe just stupid.

there are still some things on the list that i would still like to accomplish, but overall, i think i've outgrown this life list. i guess i should start working on a new one...

DANVILLE!

Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville! Danville!

HI CHRISTINE!

band of brothers

i just finished watching the band of brothers series. it was so good! today alone i watched four episodes. i just couldn't stop! i don't know what i'm going to do now that i'm done though. it made me laugh and it made me cry. i loved that each episode was totally different because they each had different writers and directors. i really got to know and love the men of easy company. this series comes highly recommended by me.

recreation

i've finally decided what i want to be when i grow up! well, not exactly...but i know what i want to major in at least! after this summer, i have decided that i want to be a recreation major. i want to be an event coordinator of some sort! whether i'm doing it for a company, managing youth programs, or having my own business, i would love it! so, i'm going to do something i'm good at and love! now i just have to work on signing up for classes...

santa cruz!

last week i went camping in santa cruz for work! i had been there once before, but i had a lot of fun! we went to the mystery spot which was really weird/cool. i don't know if i completely buy it, but after being there, it's pretty hard to say that weird stuff isn't going on there. we also went to the boardwalk and had a blast on some rides and to this amazing ice cream shop! we saw the amazing chinese acrobats perform at the boardwalk, and i had falafel for the first time too! on the last day, we all had a surfing lesson. i love surfing now! it's hard work! but really fun. maybe i should have done more of that when i actually lived close to the beach...

at the boardwalk

anthropologie

this has got to be my all time favorite store. the new one just opened in blackhawk and i almost died when i walked in. they have so much cute stuff! it was melissa's first time in the store and she wanted to buy everything. i think she touched every item in the store at least once, many things twice. i got an anthro card, and it came in the cutest little pouch. if you haven't experienced the magic that is anthropolgie yet, you are serisouly missing out and need to get to the nearest one asap!

frisco!

i've had a few days off from work and have been having some fun! the fam drove across the bay bridge to show me the house my grandma lived in when she was a little girl! after that, we went to china town and ate at a japanese restaurant called the floating sushi boat restaurant. whoever thought of that name must be really creative. it was really good though. i def recommend it! we also went to a fortune cookie factory :)

the boats

the next week, me and my mom went to fisherman's wharf. we went to pier 39, and then ate at boudin. we got off bart at embarcadero and walked all the way! we kept trying to get on muni, but there was absolutely no room on any trams! by the time we were half way there, we gave up waiting for it. there was a guy making bread animals in the window at boudin! i wanted to get one, but didn't. we walked down the ghirardelli sqaure and back too, after seeing the sea lions we got on muni and headed home. there was a guy at the bart entrance handing out those new jamba juice juicies. they are really good in case you anyone was wondering.

at boudin. we had clam chowder in a bread bowl and diet black cherry soda. so good! we had to sit by the fire because it was so cold, and it was the middle of july!

let's run away...

...and join the circus!

with my summer camp this week we did some of the funnest things! i went to great america and six flags discovery kingdom for the first time ever! i rode a bunch of rides and got kinda dizzy--totally worth it! plus, i got paid! woohoo!

but, i also did something nowhere near anything i've ever done before! we went to this place called trapeze arts! i learned all these skills that circus people have! i jumped on a trampoline, climbed up a silk rope, spun in a swing thing, learned how to juggle, walked a tight rope and did the flying trapeze! the trapeze was so cool! my arms were so sore the next day. i would swing and then flip up and grab on with my knees and then let go with my hands and hang upside down! after doing that a few times, they said i was good enough to do a catch. i was kinda scared, but it was so much fun! i hanging from my knees and swinging and then grabbed onto someone else doing the same thing! i felt like a pro!

right before the catch!

everyday i write the book!

taylor, my mom, my dad and i all went to see Elvis Costello and The Police in concert! it was really fun, and i'm pretty sure i was the youngest person there (the the exception of the tiny baby whose parents put headphones on her head to block the noise). so, i was the youngest one who was still able to hear the concert. Elvis Costello opened and i loved him as usual! he sang all the songs i love including the one named after me! the fact that i was born after the song came out is irrelevant. sting came out to sing the chorus of before said, "alison," with elvis. i felt like they were singing to me!

dad, me, taylor

sting and elvis serenading me

then the police came out. overall, it was just a really good show. a few of the stand out songs were message in a bottle (which was very recognizable because of g-hero II), wrapped around your finger (loved the percussion!), roxanne (which reminded me of the episode of friends where phoebe sings, ross-can!), every breath you take (part of second encore), and fall out (dad and taylor's favorite).

sting!

angels in the outfield!

melissa and i went to the oakland a's play the anaheim angels at macafee stadium on saturday! it was quite the adventure. we drove to walnut creek and got on bart and then took it straight to the game. we bought the cheapest tickets we could, and then tried to sit in the best seats possible. we got kicked out of them and ended up going to sit in the outfield where our tickets told us to go. we ate hot dogs and cheered our angels on! there was a huge group in front of us and they were really entertainging to watch throughout the game. they were all wearing a's hats, because apparently that was the free giveaway. (we were late and didn't get any) but, one of the guys had turned his inside out (obviously an angel's fan!) about halfway through the game, he started flapping his arms like wings! after every good play the angels would do, he would do the classic angel's in the outfield movement! don't worry, we took pictures.

sporting our angels paraphernalia in the midst of a's fans!


his friends started to join in! melissa and i might have done it too...

summer of service

i worked at a different camp last week, and i had so much fun! it's called summer of service, and we did exactly that! we spent the whole week doing service! it was such a great week too! there were only seven kids at the camp. it was a small group, but we had a ton of fun! the first day, we stayed at the teen center and made blankets for the homeless. it was going to be a disaster because we only had two pairs of scissors (of course, i don't know if you can call them scissors if they don't actually cut anything) but then, we found two more and made a million blankets! over the next couple of days we went to the food bank of contra costa and sorted food, books for the barrios and packed boxes of books to send the the phillipines, and then finally to the don edwards wildlife refuge to pick up trash.

at books for the barrios! we packed so many boxes!


rico and conrad picking up trash!


the gang!

a portrait

I began a new book on the airplane ride home from Chicago. It is James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I've barely read any of it yet, but I must say, I LOVE HIS WRITING STYLE! So far, i've just been getting to know Stephen Dedalus. And I say it like that because I really do feel like I have been getting to know him. The way the book is written, I really feel like I can get inside his head. I know how he thinks and how he feels, not just what he thinks and feels. I love it! These are my favorite kind of books. I love the language James Joyce uses. He isn't trying to make his sentence structure or flow perfect or even make sense. In fact, for the first couple pages I was just really confused. But after I got through those, it all totally made sense. It's just a constant stream of thought. It reminded me of when I had to do journal entries in middle school everyday. Some days we would answer a question and other days we would just have to write whatever was on our mind for the full five minutes or whatever. It's a good book so far...I'll let you know what I think when I'm done.

Job #3

So I’ve blogged about my summer jobs before, but I have a new one! Since I’m done with my stint as an official nanny, I am starting a new job with the Town of Danville. I am a summer camp site leader or something like that. I’m not a counselor, but kind of like it. I do more of the organizational and logistical work rather than the grunt work. But, I work with the teen camps, formally known as the DesTEENation Camp! Haha…funny name. I am going to be a doing a lot of fun stuff with them this summer! We will go somewhere new every day, including places like the Great Mall, Great America, Aquarium of the Bay, Trapeze Arts, Oakland Zoo, Alcatraz, Pier 39 and other Bay Area sites! I’m really excited! I haven’t been to basically any of these places since I haven’t lived here long, so I’m really excited to get paid to do all of these fun things! When I’m not going to all these cool places, I’ll be working with other camps with littler kids and the summer of service camps. I’m really excited about this job! It’s going to be so much fun!

Friday the 13th!

On this glorious day in June, I had the strangest assignment ever. Today was the last day I was Alex Wick’s nanny. Sad day, but it’s been fun so I’m happy. This morning I drove to the Oakland airport and met Debbie and Alex. Then Alex and I got on a flight to Chicago! So exciting! We both slept for most of the flight with a little word search and Sudoku mixed in. There was a baby crying just about the entire flight and I wanted to die…it was so annoying! And the turbulence was a little ridiculous too. We arrived at Midway Airport right on time. We met Alex’s dad’s assistant and then he was off! Bye Alex!

I wandered around the airport for a couple hours. I bought stuff I didn’t really need. I bought a bag of popcorn to deliver to Lapondza at Ann Taylor. When I told her I was going to Chicago she told me I better not come back without a bag of popcorn from “Nuts on Clark.” I bought Bowfinger on DVD to watch on the flight home (just finished it and it was just as hilarious as ever). This is where the bad luck started…

My flight was an hour delayed. It was coming from Boston through a storm so it took longer than usual. I waited at the terminal and finally got on. When I got settled and we were in the air, my headphones broke. I’m really mad about it actually. They are really new! They still work, but the outside covering fell off. Ugh! Then, the woman next to me spilled her drink…on me and my stuff. My laptop case now has a coat of ginger ale and so do the jeans I was wearing…it’s kind of uncomfortable.

I’m usually not a superstitious person at all, but when the drink flew from the tray and onto me, I knew it had to be because it’s the 13^th. I guess I can’t complain too much though. I got paid to sit on an airplane all day! Happy Friday the 13^th!

Crepes de Paris

There are these really funny French guys who come to the Danville farmer’s market every Saturday morning. They make and sell crepes! And they are so good! They come from Brittany, a region in France and their crepes are strictly Brittany inspired. I’ve only tried one, which Melissa and I recreated at home the other night, but it was so good! It had bananas and chocolate with a little Chantilly on top. I think I will go every Saturday for the rest of the summer.

Water Balloons

I took Melissa to Blockbuster tonight and on the way home, the car in front of us was throwing water balloons out their window! We saw the first victim, a runner on the side of the road. Sad… but we sped up to see who they were, we didn’t know them. We were almost home and I had forgotten about the car completely, until I heard a splash directly to the left of me. HA! They missed! And then, SPLASH! Right on! They hit the passenger side! Melissa totally got wet too! I forgot that the back window was open…sorry about that Mel…

i've fallen part 2

bike crash

bump on the head :(

his arm is completely straight, i swear.

poor guy...

perks

i just finished the book i wrote about starting in my last blog. it is called, "the perks of being a wallflower." i really enjoyed it. it was a quick, fun read. it only took me two afternoons, which is the perfect kind of book for my attention span right now. it was about a boy getting through his freshman year of high school. it was kind of sad sometimes, and disturbing at other times, but overall had a really good message. it changed the way i think about a lot of things.

santa cruz

i went to santa cruz today! first time i've been to the beach in about 10 months! it was a pretty good day. solely for the fact the it was spent at the beach. i left danville at about 10 and picked my brother up in berkeley. we drove to santa cruz and ate lunch at the santa cruz diner. i had a cobb salad and taylor had some sort of sandwich on french toast. the best part of the restaurant was that they had trivial pursuit cards on the table. taylor is basically the smartest person i know. when we were finished, we drove to the beach. i made a few circle to find parking and then we walked to the boardwalk. we layed on the beach for five hours. it got really hot, and then it got really cold. we took a few breaks for bathroom and drinks, but overall got some really good tanning time in. i started a new book that you'll be reading about soon.
when it got too cold to stay at the beach, we packed up and drove to ucsc. we parked and walked around. they have a really pretty view of the bay. after we were bored of ucsc, we went to caffe pergalesi. taylor's friends' band from berkeley was playing there. we had some vegetarian dinner and then tempo no tempo's set started. they were pretty good. i left taylor in santa cruz and started the long journey home. it took me and hour and 30 minutes to get home. i am not used to a drive like that for the beach. i hope it was worth it...do i look tanner?

at the ball game

the angels played the a's this weekend! it's been so long since i've been to an angels game! it was nice to see them again. on friday night, my mother and father and i were on our way to oakland. taylor called us and said he was taking bart and would meet us there. we sat behind the first base line on row 26 and tried to cheer over the obnoxious a's fan sitting right behind me. the hot dogs were good and hot chocolate was especially good. there were a few angels fans to be found, which was a good thing.
the a's have a new rally movement. they call it "trumpet time." sound familiar? if not yet, it will. they played a movie clip on the jumbo-tron, and then the chompers, the elephant comes on the screen (i was half expecting a monkey). then the words, "if you make noise, he will come" come onto the screen. i just shook my head in awe. then the elephant is shown moving around on the screen and "trumpet time" flashes all around. the a's totally ripped of rally time! i couldn't believe it. but of course, it didn't work, because it was a copy and the angels won. go angels!

no more future blogging!

wow! i just tried posting a future blog, and the coolest thing happened! i set the time i wanted it to say it posted, and it told me it owuld automatically post it at that time! crazy! now, nobody will be confused anymore about why there is a blog that says i posted it on monday when it's only sunday. i think i'll 'past blog' this and see what happens...

summer!

yes, it is summer. this means that i'm living in danville, enjoying some time off from school, and having oh so many adventures. right now, most of my time is spent working though. while it is fun at times, and nothing can beat the money, sometimes it feels a little something like work...

i am a nanny. this sounded completely normal to me until i was picking up "my kid" from school and somebody asked him who i was. he replied, "my nanny." it sounded so weird! but i love it! i wake up every morning at 6:30 and leave by 6:45 to get to alex's house at 7:00 (which really means i get up at 6:45 to leave my house at 6:50 to barely make it to alex's house by a little after 7:00). i make alex breakfast and a sack lunch and drive him to sixth grade. while he's at school i fill my time with job #2. i come back at 2:30 and pick him up. our afternoons are filled with after school snacks, little league games, baseball practice, and video games. it's a wonderful life.

job #2 is at ann taylor in blackhawk plaza. you should all call me while i'm at work...it gets really boring. hardly anybody ever comes in and i love it that way. i work with some really funny ladies. my favorite part of work is when crazy people come in and need you to help them find outfits. it's really not that hard to pick out an outfit for yourself...is it? i really don't have any extra skills in doing that. just because i work at ann taylor doesn't give me good taste! (although i do consider myself an excellent personal shopper). like i said before, hardly anyone ever comes into the store....but when they do, they SPEND! people who shop at blackhawk plaza are rich. they don't really care if anything is on sale. when they find a shirt they like, they have to get the shorts and the jacket to match, and after they try on the shoerts, they need those in every color. oh! we sell jewelry too? yes, and shoes. i've sold more commplete outfits in my time there than separates.

happy summer!

i've fallen and i can't get up!

when people reach a certain age, their bodies start behaving differently. they can no longer read without their glasses, they start buying shoes for comfort and not cuteness (this will never happen to me), and their balance seems to leave them. this, unfortunately, has started to happen to my dear old dad. since the time we have moved to danville, my dad seems to fall a lot. the first time i remember, was when he was stepping in from the back porch and slid on the wood floor and fell flat on his back. i was in the next room and heard a loud crash. when i looked around the corner my dad was just laying there. he couldn't get up. he was fine, just a little startled i think.

although this was kind of funny looking back, it is not the funniest by a long shot. the other night, i was sitting on the couch and it happened. i look back after hearing my dad make a strange noise to see him letting himself slide to the floor slowly and quite gracefully. the chair he was sitting on had completely split in half, right down the middle. he sat sprawled on the ground while i laughed hysterically! he decided it was a good time to start his diet.

durian

i tried something really disgusting today. this happens more often than it used to. my roommate is from china and often brings home random foods from the asian market down the street. i usually just say no, but i thought, why not? i'll tell you why not. i just tried the most disgusting "cake" ever made by human hands. it was a cream roll cake type thing made from the nastiest fruit that ever did grow on a tree. this fruit is commonly known as the durian. it smells SO bad. in fact, i looked on wikipedia and in every paragraph it talked about how badly it smells. in case you were wondering, i do not recommend this fruit or any byproduct (such as the cake i sampled) to anyone. not even my worst enemy. the taste is still in my mouth. it's been forty minutes, i've brushed my teeth, scraped my tongue and have gone through three pieces of gum. the recovery time just isn't worth it. but, i think i just got an idea for my next prank...

I...

...looked out the window and what did i see?

POPCORN POPPING ON THE APRICOT TREE!

ok, so it's not popcorn. in fact, it's not even an apricot tree. but still, you can finally tell it's spring! the trees are blossoming and it's so beautiful! not incredible for allergies...but beautiful nonetheless. i wish it could look like this all the time!

stat counter...

today is a sad day. my stat counter is no longer working...the last entry i got was on march 28, from paris, france...
i don't know how big of a secret this as been, but for those of you who don't know, i've been tracking you for years. i had a tracker on my blog so i could tell how many viewers i had. it was quite a handy little thing. it could tell me so much information! when you checked my blog, how long you were on it, any referring links, your ip address, the location of your internet connection, what type of browser you had, etc. it has been amazing! if i knew you, i could probably tell who you were and labeled your ip address for future reference. but now that my stat counter is broken, i can no longer be creepy and stalker-ish...bummer. so, feel free to roam my blog with reckless abandon! i'll have no idea who were on. now you can be the creepy stalker, and i'll just provide you with endless entertainment, as always.

guilty pleasure

i saw the movie penelope (see below) for the third time tonight. i'm a little embarrassed to be admitting this, but what can i say? i'm a sucker for happy endings. plus, it's playing at the dollar theater...so why not, right?

cookbooks

probably the biggest undertaking since i took math 119. my ward relief society decided to make a cookbook so we could all remember each other next year and have something to feed ourselves with. my idea actually, so i did it. i'm kind of a perfectionists so it took me a little longer than others to put it together probably, but hey, it better that way! i dropped it off at the copy center yesterday afternoon and they called me this morning at eight o'clock no less, and told me it was ready to picked up at my earliest convenience! so it's done! i don't have to deal with it anymore! you can't understand the happiness i feel right now. except now i have to focus on finals...yuck.

penelope

i saw the movie penelope tonight. it was playing at the dollar theater in provo. i was so surprised! i really liked it! i wasn't really expecting much...and it turned out to be good! that doesn't always happen you know...
you should go see it!
i'm going to have to admit...i was a little confused at times. for instance, i never did figure out where the movie was supposed to take place. everyone spoke with a different accent...kind of surprising at times. and also, main character played by james mcavoy, above, spoke with an american accent. he's scottish...so this surprised me a bit. it would have been expected except half of the cast had accents from all over the place, ireland, england, etc. so why couldn't mcavoy keep his? we may never know...it did slip through a few times. nobody's perfect.

best books of all time

possibly my favorite books of all time, confessions of a shopaholic (and series), are being made into a movie. and i'm not happy about it. these books made me laugh, made me cry, made me hate and love, and so many other things. i just couldn't get enough of becky bloomwood! and there's never enough luke brandon to go around. while reading these books, i felt myself become the becky we all know and love. (this is a dangerous thing at times) but nonetheless, i love her! i am her!
from the talk on the street, the movie isn't going to be like the book at all! first of all, it's set in New York, and Becky is an american. really? this is not ok with me at all. becky lives in london! she is british! and she does not look like isla fisher! i really want to boycott the movie...but i don't think i'll be able to. i think i'm going to go re-read the books now. maybe that will make me feel a little better. comments?

school's out for summer!

i only have six more class days! you cannot know how excited i am! no more snow! (which i thought i was finished with weeks ago, today proved me wrong)
byu doesn't have a spring break, and i have been needing one badly! it's a good thing i get out in april or i might just have a mental breakdown!

mom's visit!

my mom came to utah for my folk dance show and it was so much fun! we went to pudding on the rice, we hiked the to the top of the y, we got our nails done, we went to pudding on the rice, we drove around, we went out to eat, and slept in a hotel! it was way fun.

hiking to the top of the Y was really fun, until we started coming down. it had snowed a few days before and there was frost on the ground from the night before. we didn't think it was going to be a problem but i was practically skiing down the trail. it was no good. every step we took, a new layer of mud clung to the bottom of our shoes. it was impossible.










at the bottom of the Y, thought we could get a better picture there.











this wasn't even the worst of it...

folk dance!

i had my folk dance show this week! it was a ton of fun! my favorite part, by far, was my costume. it was legit. my team did a dance from poland. i would tell you what it was called, but i have no idea how to spell it. it comes from krakow if you want to wikipedia it.


the flowers on top of my head are the best. my mom had to fly over special to help me put my hair in a french braid!

foot poetry

i'm in a tap group here in utah! it's really fun! everyone should come to our show! it's pretty legit. we even have a website!
footpoetry.com
check it out, my picture is on it and everything!

happy st. patty's day!

did you wear green today? i did! and i also got a polish dog at j-dawg's today. my bun was green! i felt really special.

dixie cups?

so last weekend i had one of the best night's ever! me and brittney discovered pita pit! (why has it taken so long?!?!?!) and then we headed over to hannah's ama-za-zing st. patty's day party. the night couldn't have been better, because after that, we went to the jacuzzi! oh it's been too long...
later, carson picked me and brittney up and then we decided to dixie cup hannah's house! it was hilarious! we didn't have coolers, so we took the recycling bins from my lobby and filled them up in the showers and longboarded them over to carson's car. amazing. we kinda got caught by claire, hannah's cousin because she opened the door to cool off after her shower...perfect timing...
we weren't aware of this and thought she had heard us or something. so, we ran away and killed some time at wendy's. when we came back, she opened the door again! we decided to go talk to her since she kept catching us! apparently, carssn had left his jacket when we ran the first time and claire was just putting a ransom note on the door...perfect timing yet again, huh?
so...i guess we were a little rusty with the dixie cupping, but we can only get better, right? so watch out provo! the dixie cups are back in full swing! and we don't plan on getting caught next time!

fresh looks

(named after brand of contacts)

part of spring cleaning undertaking: change look of blog

NECC

(i think this counts as a type of spring cleaning)

NECC is an exclusive group - the No Easter Candy Club! The rules are simple:
1. Don't eat ANY Easter candy before or after Easter,
2. You can eat Easter candy on Easter Sunday, but only for a 5 minute period.

you can join the group on facebook!

spring cleaning

i have the urge to clean! i'm not sure if it's because i'm ready to move out of my dorm and getting rid of things and cleaning is a sign of moving out. or, it could also be that i feel like if i start my spring cleaning now, the weather will get more spring-y. but, most likely, its probably just because i am procrastinating doing thing that are more important. regardless the reason, i still have the urge! i just finished all my laundry (there was a lot...there always is...) and now i feel like giving half of it away! the only problem, is that i don't have a million dollars so i can't replace it all. so, i guess i won't get rid of it. but i also feel like getting rid. like really random stuff! if you knew me in high school, you might remember some of this...
i can't stand having this many pens. and they aren't even all the same! so, now i'm just using one pen at a time until it runs out! this is a form of spring cleaning. it makes me feel like i'm getting rid of stuff but only after it's been put to good use and not wasted. (in reality, it is getting a little wasted because i'm just writing/drawing all the time just to use up all the ink, but don't point this out to me, i'll just get annoyed.)
also, i hate having a million notebooks. i prefer to have one notebook and one calendar at a time. this is a problem because somehow i have accumulated three new notebooks and an extra calendar just this year! so naturally, i must use up these extra notebooks! i find myself writing all sorts of random things down. such as conversations i happen to be having at the time, or multiple to-do lists all outlining the same day. this practice also helps in the pen issue above.
another spring cleaning practice of mine is cleaning out my contacts in my phone. i hate having people i never talk to in there! it wasn't so much a problem before when i had about 200 contacts. i could get a hold of virtually anyone i wanted! but since my phone broke, i only have a select few numbers....and if i'm only going to have a few, i better talk to you on a regular basis! hopefully i'll be able to handle this mess of a contact list until i have enough numbers to not care who is in and who is out.
i'm carrying the previous compulsion over to facebook. this week, i am going to attempt to clean out my friends on facebook. i get really annoyed when i get an application from a "friend" only to realize when i open it, i've never talked to this person in my life! just because we went to the same high school and you were trying to get as many friends as possible on your facebook list when you first joined, doesn't mean we're friends!
i realize that this is getting really long which kind of bothers me and makes me want to "spring clean" it, but i'm going to stop soon so i can resist. if i think of any other ways to spring clean, i'll let you know.

do twinkies last forever?

while watching a re-run of law and order: SVU (what else would i be doing on a friday night?) i came across this question. in the episode, a playground in nyc was being redone and the workers found some teeth and the lower jaw bone. they called in the police and after doing somemore digging, a battle star galactica lunch box was found. fin opened it up, this is how it went down:
fin, "ok, i always wanted to know this"
munch, "what?"
fin, do twinkies last forever...give you twenty bucks, take a bite."
so, now i'm really curious! i'm buying twinkies tomorrow...let's see how long they last.

chris williams

our dear friend chris williams went into the mtc today!
so, here are ten reasons why i love chris.
(they are incredibly random, don't judge.)

1. he loves kanye west
2. he has chubby cheeks!
3. he says "get off my back" a lot and it makes me laugh
4. he's going to new zealand!
5. he gave me a goodbye hand shake
6. he was employee of the month at the canc!
7. he touches his nose all the time
8. refers to me and brittney as "you guys" forever and always
9. he dropped me swing dancing the first time we met
10. why not?


feel free to comment and add your own reasons!



brittney, andrew, chris, alli (w/blue jacket), natalie

definitely maybe

i saw this movie the other day! it was cute. and she's wearing my jacket!

happy valentine's day!

(found this on a candy bar wrapper)

Falling into that beautiful thing called LOVE
(ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can't-live-without-each-other love.)

attraction, flirtation, euphoria, doubt, the truth
(the longer the better)

...And so you dance around it.
You draw it out. You tease towards love.
This is the pure physical poetry. It's the thrill of communicating
by give and take, the simple charm of tugging at another
heart and waiting (hoping) for a response.
It's the improbably joyous celebration of going absolutely
nowhere for a long, long time...all in the anticipation that
you're actually on your way (slowly, tiptoe-ingly) to
somewhere truly marvelous...

Never stop falling in love...

stop inviting me!

i'm sick and tired of these stupid facebook invites. if you are adding an application, don't invite me! just because you don't think i'll care, or my name is close to the top of your list doesn't mean you have the right to invite me! and especially if you haven't talked to me in the past few months...a facebook application invite does not qualify as a "hello, how have you been? i've been too busy for you lately." do we all understand? only invite me if you really think i'm interested in adding the application for myself. but let me warn you, i'm probably not interested. i have very high standards for my facebook applications. so next time you have to add 15 friends to find out who is in love with you, skip my name!

look at the silly pretzel i found!

it didn't taste very good...

top 10 reasons why today was great!

(in no particular order)

1. it was my birthday!
2. it was unusually warm!
3. i ate smart cookies!
4. humanities got canceled!
5. humanities got canceled again!
6. i got flowers!
7. i had a lot of facebook notifications!
8. i got a case of diet pepsi!
9. i didn't do any homework!
10. i slept in till 9:40!

house hunting

i spent a few hours yesterday and plan on spending the majority of today looking for an apartment to live in come fall semester. does anybody have and helpful hints or great places to live?

salsa chocolate!

on thursday i went to salsa chocolate to get my salsa on! i think about not knowing how to salsa until i actually walked onto the dance floor. it was a sad realization, and i thought that the night was going to be a waste since i was just going to be standing around all night watching other people who know how to dance. but, i didn't even have to wait for the song to be over before i found my teacher! this really good salsa dancer taught me some basics and then i was off! the whole night was a blast! i'm still not very good at all, but at least i can move!
my favorite part of the night was watching this gay couple dance together. they were so good! i couldn't even believe it! and i loved the short one's shoes!
my other favorite part of the night was natalie being asked by all these old men to dance. it was pretty hilarious!

the day i almost died...

after the concert, we stayed in salt lake at natalie's aunt's house. driving home on sunday morning was ridiculous. we had to leave at 8:30 in order to "beat the storm." too bad we ended up leaving at possibly the worst time of the day. it took us forever to get home driving 30 mph the whole time. even though we were being really careful, we spun out! twice!
the first time, we spun to our left and did a 360 and then spun the other way and did a 180. if you haven't already figured it out, that means we were in the middle of the freeway facing the wrong direction. luckily the two cars behind us were going really slow and we were able to turn around without stopping too much traffic.
the second time, was seemed a lot more intense. we only 3/4 of a turn this time, but we were spinning much faster. we were in furthest right lane and spun all the way to the left side of the freeway! natalie maneuvered the car so we gracefully backed into the median area and waited for traffic to pass. her car wouldn't turn on though and it was a little scary. but, it eventually started and we were back on our way to provo!
and that was the day i almost died...

louis xiv, hot hot heat and the editors

last weekend i went to a concert at the avalon in salt lake. it was a lot of fun. here are some pictures i took!

Louis XIV


Hot Hot Heat


The Editors

new hobby?

apparently my new hobby is comparing real people with character/actors (which i guess are real people too). in honor of super tuesday...which doesn't really need to be honored...i will compare presidential candidates!
ok, i actually only have one. i attempted to think of more, but they just weren't all that great.
mike huckabee and charles logan (corrupt president from 24). do you see it?

i thought i was a genius for recognizing this resemblance, but after searching google images for a picture of charles logan, i came to find out that i wasn't the first...

stupid camera

i guess it's not really the camera's fault...more like mine, but i went to a concert tonight and started taking a bunch of pictures only to realize that i didn't have a memory card in my camera...i guess it's still in my computer. so, i could only take 20 pictures and they went onto the internal memory. this is kind of a problem, since i lost the chord that connects my camera to my computer. oops...does anyone have one? i have a kodak c315, help me out!

smell my mango

i went to the international cinema again last night and saw "the scent of green papaya," a vietnamese movie. it was really strange. i guess i'm used to hollywood, because whatever this was, it wasn't that. it was one of those movies where you're just supposed to relax and listen, and look, and feel. but after a day like yesterday i really wasn't ready for that. the end was satisfying enough...a little abrupt, but happy which is always nice.

substitutes and stepsisters

i had a substitute in art history today. it was really annoying. i had to sit through two and a half hours of annoying. she totally reminded me of one of cinderella's evil stepsisters! she had red hair, and wore a head band with a feathers on one side. it confused me. she had pale skin and pointy shoes. her nose was turned up, pointy and long. did i not just describe evil stepsister number one? after i figured out what she reminded me of, i couldn't help but think that she was mean too. but then i realized i was being irrational and got over it.

amazing grace

i was walking back from campus tonight and heard some bagpipes playing in the distance. i looked up and there was a man in a kilt playing amazing grace in front of the hinckley alumni building. i really love that song, especially when played on the bagpipes.
my dad bought himself a chanter and is trying to learn how to play it. i can't wait until he can play that song! have you figured out how to make noise yet dad?

FIRE!

i was woken up this morning by a fire alarm...it was really annoying. it kind of screwed up my whole day...everything was just a little off. let me tell you, fire alarms are much more annoying than alarm clocks (which used to be the most annoying things to me). the worst part about it was that i had to evacuate the building. need i remind you that it is actually below freezing in utah? i rolled out of bed, put on some crocs and a coat and walked outside. we were waiting for the fire department to show up (they took their precious time) only to tell us that a furnace in the hallway was broken and it was ok to go back in. so i just rolled back in bed and waited for my friend, the alarm clack, to wake me up.

this one's for you, utah!

(click to enlarge)

international cinema

my new favorite thing to do is go watch the movies playing at the international cinema on campus! last weekend i saw amelie and volver. i highly recommend amelie, it was really good, and funny. last night i went and saw shall we dance? the original, mind you. it's much better than the american remake. everyone shoudl go to these international movies! it's like you're reading, but you get to watch the movie at the same time! best of both worlds...

what's wrong with this picture?

proportions

i wasn't planning on writing about this, mainly because it means i have to publicly admit (and announce) how disproportional my body is, but due to recent events, i just have to get it off my chest.
over christmas, my family got into a discussion about how the length of you arms is supposed to be equal to that of your height. we decided to see if this was the case. of course, lindsey was perfect. but she was the only one. my grandpa's arms were way longer and so were mine. but, on top of the lengths being off, i also have another huge problem. as most of you know, i am only 5'2''. but my legs are as long as my brother's (who is 5'9''). to compensate for this fact, i have an unusually small torso.
now that you've got the background, let me tell you what happened today. in my humanities class, we are studying ancient egypt. we were discussing a statue of the pharaoh chephren , you may recognize him as the commissioner of the sphinx.
my teacher was saying that the artist made chephren disproportional in order to better preserve it. does it look disproportionate to you? apparently his upper arms are elongated so that his lower arms could rest on his legs and not get damaged over time. she asked us all to try having our arms lay flat on our legs. i sat up straight and put my arms down, and guess what, i was the spitting image of chephren. the combination of having longer arms than a normal person and a shorter torso sealed the deal. so i make this suggestion; maybe i'm not the only one in the world who is disproportional. couldn't chephren have been the same?

water for elephants

i finished this book tonight! it was really good. i definitely recommend it. it's about the circus! at first i didn't know what to think because i wasn't really expecting much out of a book about the circus. but i'm happy to report that i was very pleased. so read it! enjoy it!

jelly belly jelly beans

perhaps i had a few too many jelly belly jelly beans tonight. me and a few others dumped all of them out and tried to follow the recipes and make yummy creations in our mouths! it was all going well until i made "mud pie" and accidentally mistook a dr. pepper flavored bean for a chocolate pudding. let's just say it tasted a little worse than mud...

law and order?

so my econ professor looks exactly like sam waterston, probably better known as A.D.A Jack McCoy from Law and Order. it was bugging me so much today in class and i wasn't able to pay attention until i figured it out! luckily, i watch enough law and order in my spare time that i was able to come up with the resemblance quickly and listen to another lecture about opportunity cost.

so-cal

in humanities the other day, this guy in front of me had a jacket on that said "so-cal" in big gold letters. i didn't know we did that. i know if you're from northern california, everyone knows it because its written across your shirt, you have a bumper sticker on the back of your car and if you have a tattoo, chances are it says "norcal" but so-cal? i'd never seen it before. i guess it's a new fad that i'm not aware of because i don't live there anymore?

folk dancing

i decided on a whim to try out for the folk dancing team at byu. random right? but i spent my wednesday night auditioning and found out it's a lot harder to do than it looks! or maybe i'm just out of shape...but i made it! i'm a folk dancer now! i think it'll be a lot of fun and a good thing to keep me busy with. it's not like anything i've ever done before which is good. i hope you come see me perform!

right to read

i've started to read again. if you didn't already noticed, i added my shelfari list to my blog. now everyone can see every book i've ever read (except for the ones i can't remember). so, if you have any suggestions of what i should read next, let me know! favorite books, recent books, books that make you laugh, books that make you cry, anything!

100th post!

this is my 100th post! if i were oprah, you would all get a new car or something!

the town of danville

i spent what was left of my vacation in danville, ca. it's a pretty cute little town if you ask me. i went and saw national treasure, watched a million episodes of monk, saw pride and predjudice, sense and sensibilty, and gone with the wind. i explored shopping opportunities in pleasonton and dublin and got my make up done at the clinique counter just for fun.
i also went to the jelly belly factory in fairfield. it was pretty interesting. it smelled like sour apple when we drove up. i learned all about how jelly beans are made and even got a free bag of jelly bellys! i had to prove that i had gone, so i bought a jar of assorted flavors and a bag of belly flops ("irregulars"). its been fun making all the recipes on the side of the bag and inventing a few of my own.
ARF was another incredibly memorable event that i attended in walnut creek. i can't believe i went, in fact. ARF stands for the animal resuce foundation and was founded by Tony LaRussa (manager for the Cardinals). people are giving thousands of dollars a year to benefit other people's pets. the whole time i was there, i not only felt like the poorest person, but also that these rich people should be spending their time and money on something else, like saving poeple? now maybe i'm a little biased (since i wouldn't say animals are my favorite thing in the world) but really? this benefit made me laugh quite a few times.
performing at it was; Aja Vu (Steely Dan tribute band), Brian Copeland (not a genuine black man), Craig Chaquico (really good guitar player from Jefferson Starship and he stood on the seat next to my mom and started playing with his teeth), random dancers (only in the show because it was Tony LaRussa's daughter), ZO2 (random band from brooklyn), Marty Casey and the Lovehammers (who i had actually heard of before), Dana Glover (who no one has ever heard of before but was quite talented), Rob Schneider (my favorite part of the night, but was totally unprepared which probably made it a lot funnier) and Kevin Cronin and Dave Amato (former members of REO Speedwagon). It was a memorable show to say the least. i don't think i'll be going next year, but i hope Tony LaRussa's dogs continue to live more comfortable lives than most people in Africa...

i-town

i made a trip to irvine for new years! i drove melissa down to visit her friends and thought i would visit mine too!
what i did while in orange county:
stayed with lindsey in corona del mar
ate at wingstop
shopped at south coast plaza
witnessed some beautiful sunsets
hit up the OC swap meet
went to lindsey's birthday party
celebrated new years eve
ate at in-n-out
...and a million other random things...

it was way fun, and i'm glad i got to see a bunch of people i haven't seen in such a long time. but, i think next time, you all should drive up to danville and we can have a san fransisco adventure!