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.