It Will be Amazing

In three weeks my Grandparents are leaving to be temple presidents in Recife, Brasil. They'll be gone for three years. Today I just sat outside my grandpa's class and listened to his voice. I'm going to miss them. :(

What do you say we leave for California, drive all night, we can make it by the morning...

Ok this is my first post in a verrrrry long time and tons of things have happened in my life and I don't really faithfully keep a journal anymore, so I figured I should document at least SOME things in my life these days. So I'm gonna write about me and Felipe's trip to Cali the weekend before school started.

Felipe's from Santiago and is an international student at BYU so the main reason of our trip was to renew his passport at the Chilean Consulate in LA. We were going to go with friends but everyone backed out so it ended up being just the two of us, but was still a ton of fun! We left Thursday night, drove all night, got to LA around 4 in the morning, and waited for the consulate to open. We spent some time in a Starbucks, just chilling, while we waited. Oh Felipe drove the whole way down, living off of 5 hour energy drinks, which he swears by. Ha.

We drove around LA for a while, just looking at the sights, and also stopped by my uncle Warren's office to pick up a suitcase to bring back to Provo. But we spent at least half an hour looking for some crazy cathedral that we never did find....

After the consulate we drove down Santa Monica blvd to the Santa Monica Pier and walked around, just loving being there and seeing the ocean.

I was really sick with mono and strep and kinda hated life the whole trip, but still really had a

lot of fun. We keep saying we need to go back when I'm not sick.

We borrowed Clarke and Carolina's (Felly's sis and bro-in-law) cooler (which we have yet to return...oops) for the trip and our food all got completely water logged from the melted ice...oops you live and learn I guess. But we saved money by bringing most of our food and still used the disgusting cheese in the sandwiches. Haha

Anyways Friday we played on the beach and took the freeway up the coast to

Ventura, where

we stayed the night with my friend Jess. Driving the coast was SO PRETTY! We loved it and we just stopped at random beaches on the way to play. We were both exhausted, especially Felly from driving all night, and eventually just wanted to get to Ventura and shower and crash. And the poor guy had to put up with my bad mood from being sick (he's really good at putting up with my bad moods).

Friday night Jess took us to this restaurant in LA (we moaned when we learned we'd have to drive all the way back to LA), but it was really good. We got there around

midnight and the place was crowded. It's called Roscoe's chicken and waffles. Haha I love Jess and his restaurants.

We slept and lounged most of Saturday, then packed up and left for Santa Barbara around 5 pm. This part was maybe one of the best parts of the trip!! We drove to my old house in Goleta and took some pictures...the "new" tenants took out the huge tr

ee that was out front. Sad day. We also stopped by my old church, my old elementary school, the Santa Barbara mission, and Stern's warf and enjoyed ice cream cones, which was so fun

. All in all it was a great trip and I loved it all (except being sick, that sucked). We left LA around midnight that night, stopped to sleep a few times, and got back to Provo with time to shower before Felly's 4 pm sacrament meeting. :)

Sweat Boy

There is this boy. At work. I had a crush on him for about a year before I even talked to him. His name is Sean but I have the hardest time remembering his name and always think that it's Andrew. Anyways, my roommates and I always refer to him as sweat boy, not because he's gross and sweaty, but because I used to have this insane reaction to this completely unfounded attraction and would start sweating whenever I saw him. Ridiculous, I know. That lasted a couple weeks and then I was just tired of it and got over it. Girls are so silly.

On a side note, I have this great nail polish (thank you mom and tim) that is glittery and silver, but turns pink when I'm in the sun. This is my favorite thing!! I love to keep one hand in my pocket when walking so I can compare the two colors when I'm back indoors--the pink on one hand and the silvery glitter on the other. Anyways, I was walking home with a friend the other day and I showed him my nails and told him how excited I was whenever they turned pink. He said it was the girliest thing he had ever heard of. Right. I didn't think I was that girly....

Carrier Pigeon?

My roommate Stacie is dating her ex-boyfriend again. It's not that uncommon around here. But we all love him and they're happy and it's great and everyone's fine. But this guy she's dating, Seth, has an old roommate, Travis. I went downstairs into the kitchen about a week ago to find Seth and Stacie conspiring in whispers, and looking pleased when they saw me descending the steps. Would I like to be set up with someone? Um....I guess...sure. Great! You and Travis will have so much fun.

I have a lot of fun interacting with Seth and Stacie. We all have the same kind of humor: dry, witty, clever, and yes, very sarcastic. After talking a little bit I realized why Seth and Stacie were so pleased for this set up--Travis doesn't understand sarcasm. Oh dear. S&S kept saying how Travis did not deserve me and how excited they are for us and how they're going to love watching us interact (we're gonna double).

So last night Seth called Travis and asked Travis if he was ready to feel extremely awkward, then handed me the phone. I accepted the phone while glaring Seth down. Hello? Hi. (Travis sounds like my home teacher Jaron.) Travis says "Seth said you wanted carrier pigeons, sorry I couldn't do that..." Yeah, Seth asked me how I wanted Travis to ask me out, and I responded carrier pigeons. Thanks Seth. "oh yeah that's fine, smoke signals will work great." "what will work?" "um...smoke signals...don't worry about it". Poor Travis. I'll have to tone myself down a bit for him on Friday, I think. So we had an awkward conversation, our momentarily dislike towards Seth being the only uniting factor. S&S like to repeat that Travis is very philosophical. Stacie suggests I jump right in asking him about evolution and the gospel. I anticipate having a lot of fun with this....

Social Psychology

Rocky is in my social psychology class. THE Rocky. Legend of the 80's Rocky. He plays for BYU football and his neck is thicker than my thigh. He struggles with putting four words together. He giggles, a low, reverberating giggle, but a giggle nonetheless. I love watching him in class and just like his interactions with other people, like when he came into class with sunflower seeds and offered them to those sitting around him, spittle and shell stuck to his face. Or the time our professor asked him if he had a girlfriend and he sheepishly answered no. I love listening to him talk. It's fascinating. My favorite moment was when I walked past his desk and noticed that he writes his notes in cursive. Rocky writes in cursive.

My professor in that class is very quirky, but not as fascinating. He may be as off as "Rocky", but he gets on my nerves while Rocky is entertainment. My professor is in his mid-sixties and loves to commit social blunders to get rises out of people. For example, we took a test in class a couple weeks ago (in class because he forgot to schedule it in the testing center) and he sat at his podium in the corner, legs crossed, shoes off, sporting his rainbow colored toe socks. Or when he confides in us that he wears sneakers to church. Or when he delights in embarrassing students (specifically enjoys commenting when he notices students flirting in class). I have learned from him that if I don't study well for my tests, I will be left "whimpering in my beer".

This is my class. I usually skip it about once a week. It's my only class on Mondays and Fridays, so it makes for an easy three day weekend. To make it easier, the lectures don't tell me anything the reading doesn't, and one of the books he assigned for the class is really enjoyable to read. Could it get any better?

Swimming Adventures

Last winter semester Morgan and I and our now married roommate Karen would go swimming early in the morning at the RB at BYU. Morgan and I decided to start that up again so tonight after dinner we went to the RB and brought along our roomie Stacie. Let me tell you, it was quite the adventure. Morgan's not a BYU student, so we hoped we could just sneak into the pool without too many questions. We never had a problem last year, but then again, we never had gone at night.

We got to the locker room and got towels from the front desk, no problem. Then we started timidly walking into the actual pool area, only to be stopped by an employee asking if we were there for water polo. No? Then where were our wristbands? Um....wristbands? An entirely new concept. So we trooped back to the front desk in the locker room and told them we had forgotten to get our wristbands, hoping that if we were friendly enough they wouldn't ask to see our id cards...right. We were friendly, and they were warm, and we made jokes, and they laughed at our jokes, and then we were sent back to our locker to get our id cards. Hmm. Stacie and I had brought our cards just in case, but Morgan of course doesn't have one. She did bring her id card from BYU Hawaii where she spent last summer term, so we hopefully presented that at the front desk after our two legit cards were swipped. No go. We were told our options for Morgan were to either use up our one freebie for forgetting an id card (we implied that Morgan was still a BYU student) or pay $5 for a guest pass. No thanks.

The nice front desk student directed us to the office to go to in able to get our pass. It just so happened that the office was clear on the other side of the RB....so we wrapped our miniature towels as much around our bodies as possible, gathered our dignity, and trod barefoot out of the locker room and down the hall full of steaming, sweaty, and seemingly staring students down to the office that seemed leagues away, our barefeet slapping the cold tile. One girl asked us if we were looking for the pool...no, thank you, we're not, but thanks for asking. Then another boy (I tried not to make eye contact with him, hoping he wouldn't notice us) recognized us and said "158th ward, 158th ward, 158th ward" each time pointing at a different one of us. Yes, thank you for noticing.

We made it to the office and I hid my arm that all ready had the wrist band, while Stacie told the student worker there that I had forgotten my id and needed to use my freebie. Morgan couldn't have done it because the worker looked me up in the student database. We walked back to the locker room and Stacie used her two hands to get my extra wristband off, which was promptly transferred to Morgan's arm.

Once in the pool we were only talked to once because Morgan was wearing a tankini, but then we were fine. Phew!

Dad's birthday

My Dad's birthday was a little bit ago (January 16th). I never know what to get him so I did the logical alternative and got him what I know I like :) I bought him a book from the BYU bookstore that I really like (The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis) and then had my roommate Morgan take a couple pictures of me mock reading it. Then I took those pictures and then a few other choice ones to Cougar Creations in the Wilk and had them laminated, explaining to Dad in his card that these pictures could be used as bookmarks. I also burned him a CD of some of my favorite songs. Cheap? Yes. Easy? Yes. But I really enjoyed doing it and I feel like he knows me a little better and we're a little closer. So here are the pictures I sent him:My friend Cade from the Brazil study abroad took me and another girl from our trip, Mary, to go shooting up by Utah Lake last September. We talked about doing it while we were dating, but didn't actually get around to it until after we broke up. All well. It was still a lot of fun!


Katelyn's (my 17 year old sister) clothing syle has evolved a bit with the years...



Katelyn took this shot of Brennan (10) for her photo class and I love it! It's such a genuine smile, which is rare on camera from him, as he's such a ham.


This resulted from studying in the library with a friend.



Jayden (now 14) thoroughly enjoying his chore. What a happy guy!

Funny prank! We "news-papered" a boy apartment and got so messy!!

My intellectual and reflective look.





Here's the list of songs that I burned for him. They're some of my favorites, but by no means comprehensive:

"Everything" Michael Buble
"Lollipop" Mika
"Eye of the Tiger" Surviver (The Rocky Story)
"Nobody Else but You" Goofy Movie
"Trabalhar iqual o meu"
"Look at me Now" Sixwire
"Stickshifts and Safetybelts" Cake
"New Soul" Yael Naim
"Everytime" Hawk Nelson
"Grace Kelly" Mika
"Con Te Partiro" Andrea Bocelli
"You Are Loved (Don't Give Up) Josh Groban
"Stay Beautiful" Taylor Swift (This song always reminds me of my step brother Corry
"The Call" Regina Spektor
"Garota de Ipanema" Chico Buarque
"February Song" Josh Groban
"Viva la Vida" Coldplay
"In Her Eyes" Josh Groban
"Elgar/Something Inside" Jonathan Rhys Meyers
"Love you Forever" I got this song from Jens, via Heather
J.S. Bach: Prelude, from Unaccompanied Cello Suite No. 1 In G Major, BWV 1007 Yo-Yo Ma

I'll admit...I'm addicted

Ok I'll admit it, I'm addicted. I keep thinking of what to write here, and wondering what other people are writing, and wondering when it'll be socially acceptable to post a new post, and wondering how many times you can look at someone else's blog before it becomes stalkerish. Ha but all well. Maybe it's just a fad and will die down completely, or maybe (hopefully) it'll just balance out soon. In any case, here I am again. I just watched a video of my cousin Joseph "driving" the new car he got as an early birthday present and it's so cute! He just loved getting in and out of the car. I hope his family comes to Jon's wedding on Friday.

But here are some things I learned the past couple of days:

1. You absolutely can not cook easy mac in a styrofum cup for the time required (3 1/2 minutes). It will overflow and you will look like an idiot.

2. Do not touch your face with the sleeve of your white jacket or you will get make up on it, and when you randomly run into your uncle on campus, he'll comment on your "cheeze-it like stain" on said jacket. Right. Is that really the color of my make-up?

3. Do not go to a forum on "Microwaves, iceburgs, and global warming" and expect to be entertained. In fact, if you leave said forum to fill up your water bottle, do not expect a speedy return. They look the doors and you'll have to wait for someone to leave before you can get back in.

4. Do not use the phrase "But it's ethnic" to entice a friend to eat dinner with you if that friend is Asian and you've only met him once.

5. Give your friends the benefit of the doubt.

6. Don't let other people determine your happiness.

7. Running on the track in the smith fieldhouse at 9 pm is like driving on the Ottobon, except no one has bumpers or blinkers, and everyone smells.

8. If you're in charge of dividing an assignment and giving different parts to different people, make sure you email them the right assignment. Or again, you will look like an idiot.

9. If you are best friends with someone, and they break up with their boyfriend, don't be good friends with the boy too or you'll have to choose between them and it's a lose lose situation.

10. If you have a dream your Mom dies, call her when you wake up and tell her you love her. The tears and emotions from your dream sure seemed real.

I also want to include a joke my friend Matthew texted to me this morning. It made me laugh out loud in class...oops: "Spanish word of the day is "cheese: the teacher asked Pepito to use the word in a sentence. Pepito replies: "Maria likes me but cheese fat". :)

Happy Birthday Heather!

Ok so it's a bit late, but I forgot about my blog for a while. I'm going to try and figure out how to post links and pictures and videos and turn it into my tribute to Heather. So here goes....

We went to the Tumbling Gym in Springville, just south of Provo, and it was so much fun! Here are some clips of the amazing gymnasts I associate with:

One month later....

Yeah, so, it's been a while. I feel like I get a little redundant if I write in my journal and blog all the time, so the journal sticks and the blog flounders. But that's ok...

I saw a link to my Aunt Dorothea's blog on facebook yesterday and went to it and I've actually become a little addicted to her and Warren's life, and to my beautiful cousins Rebecca and Joseph. I saw a link to her friend's blog, and read some of that. She writes a lot about her baby girl who died a couple months ago, and it's so personal and heart-rending and I feel guilty for treading in her grief. But I want to say that her words hold so much hope. She has real grief, and pain, and anger, and worries, but she also has hope, and faith, and courage, and strength. I want to thank her for that.

Right now I'm sitting in my room, to the left of me the text book that I'm supposed to be reading, my pants wet and cold from walking in the snow, and a guilty tug in my mind everyonce in a while when I let myself remind me that I really should be at work. This semester I've really only had time to work once a week (my job is really flexible, which is great), and that day has been Fridays, but this Friday my Unlce Jon is marrying Lisa Whitaker, and that day will be taken up in family. I am so excited.

Jon has always really been my big brother, especially since we lived with him for four years when I was younger and he was in high school. He has been such an example, and so cheerful too. We are all really happy for him, and I want to get to know this woman who won Jon away a little better.

On another note, when I looked at my last post, I realized that I never really wrote down my goals for this year...quite possible the first time in my literate life that I haven't done that. Oops. But thanks Mom and Dad for creating traditions, and thanks for the freedom to break them.