Well, it finally happened

It's snowing. . .

hard.

And sticking.

Crap.

I hate winter.


About a half an hour ago I was lying in my bed staring out my window and talking to my brother on the phone(he's in Arizona). We were chatting about nonsense when it started snowing, so I said, "oh my gosh! I'm looking out my window and it just started snowing!" I was hoping for some sympathy or something, but instead he went, "cool. . . .oh my gosh! I just looked out my window, saw how hot it was, and started sweating. Weird."
My brother makes me laugh.

Where did that come from?

This morning I was walking across campus and this song(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bC07e7PReM) popped into my head from out of nowhere. How's that for random? I was probably six years old the last time I watched that.
It's completely stuck now though. I keep catching myself humming it. That could be awkward to try to explain.

Random Thoughts and Things I'm Happy About

* I work at the Marriott center as an usher and it's basically boring. But I was working last night for homecoming spectacular and there were like a billion and twelve people there. So I was standing in my portal passing out programs and directing people to their seats and there was a few minutes where I was surrounded by like a bajillion old people wanting me to help them find their seat and give them a program. I was starting to feel frazzled and a little annoyed but was still all smiley and trying to be cheerful and helpful even though I was tired and stressed about how much homework I had sitting at home waiting for me, when the crowd began to clear and people started moving out of the doorway to find their seats. During this momentary lull, an old gentleman touched my arm to get my attention and then said simply, "you are beautiful." He turned away and went to find his seat. He can have no idea what an impact those three words had on my night. I'm so grateful that he took the time to pay a compliment to a stranger.

* It is officially fall and the colors here are so beautiful. The weather has warmed up a bit this last week or so and I absolutely love spending time outside. I should take some pictures. or rather, I should find my camera. . .

* Since I came to BYU I have been looking for my favorite study spot on campus. There are plenty of options, and I've tried a bunch of them, and found some that I liked and will frequent, but I had yet to find the perfect spot. Until Wednesday. On the fourth floor of one of the buildings there is a deck area with tables and chairs and potted plants and the most beautiful view of campus and the mountains. It is truly a perfect place to read during my long breaks between classes, and I'm only sad that it will soon be too cold to sit out there and I didn't find it sooner.

* So, I love to bake, right? This is pretty much common knowledge, but my very favorite baking of all time is fall baking. I love it when it's cold outside and my house smells like pumpkin and spices. Is there anything better than that? I think not. So a couple of weeks ago I made a pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting and it was divine. Then this week I made pumpkin cookies and used my leftover frosting and also made some with mini chocolate chips. They were so yummy. I'm trying to decide what it will be this week . . . maybe a pumpkin roll? Pumpkin pie? Pumpkin bars? Pumpkin bread? Are you seeing a theme here? I love baking with pumpkin. But maybe I'll branch out and try a spice cake or something. Hmm, any suggestions?

* Is anyone else out there obsessed with glee? It's pretty much my new favorite show. I really don't watch tv very much at all, but every once in a while a show comes along that catches my attention. And now that pushing daisies is cancelled and I've watched every episode on dvd enough times to be ridiculous, I'm happy to have a new show.

* Speaking of tv, Hillary, I'm sorry I made fun of you for watching Phineas and Ferb. My roommate and I have caught it a couple of times and it is surprisingly entertaining. You were right, it's hilarious.

* As of Tuesday I will finally be done with midterms. I just have to finish my take-home New Testament exam this weekend and then take my killer Russian midterm on Tuesday. Whose idea was it to take Russian, anyway? I'm telling you, this class is intense.

* I am literally counting down the days until Thanksgiving. I have to work, so I can't go home this year, but Cassie is coming to visit me again and I am seriously so excited. It cannot come fast enough. And then in December, my old roommate Kaila is coming to visit me and then a couple weeks later I get to go home for Christmas. I'm so excited, these thoughts are seriously getting me through my classes right now.

* I wish there were good movies out right now, I'm dying to go to the movies. Anyone seen anything good lately?

* So, I just read back over this and I asked like six hundred questions and the train of thought makes absolutely no logical sense. Oh well, I warned you it would be random.

* Happy Friday.

It's still September for crying out loud!

For those of you who may not know: I hate winter. More specifically, I hate the snow. I know, I know, people always tell me: "it's beautiful, it's clean, it's pure, blah, blah, blah." Really though? Winter means snow - snow means ice - ice plus my complete lack of stability/balance means that I fall down a lot. Seriously, I have trouble walking across carpet. Barefooted. No, really. I run into walls - often. Not to mention the other stumbling around and general slamming into things that is a daily occurrence. Put me in shoes and on ice and tell me I have to walk a half mile uphill to school everyday, and all I see lurking on my sinister horizon is ultimate disaster and humiliation, not to mention the bruises.

Now, not to be a total Bitter Betty(that's for you, Kaila), there are some things I kind of like about winter. Namely, scarves, fires, cute coats and hats, electric blankets, hot cocoa and tea, etc. Basically, I like the idea of winter, I just hate actually having to be outside so much when its freezing.

That being said, for the past few months, I have been living in a blissful world where winter doesn't exist. Anytime anyone mentions snow, ice, or winter, I usually ignore them and remind myself that there is no such thing as winter. You see, if I were to let myself dwell on the fact that Provo will soon be covered in treacherous snow, I would probably be curled up sobbing somewhere. Therefore, I'm much happier living in complete denial.

Last night, my roommate informed me that the news reported that it would be colder this week. I made a snarky comment and quickly pushed the thought from my mind. This morning, I got up late, threw on my usual capris, t-shirt and flip-flops and headed out the door to school with my hair still wet and pushed up into a mass of curls at the back of my head. It was fifty-five degrees out. Fifty-five. In Arizona weather, that's like negative twenty. But did I go back for a sweater? Of course not, sheer stubbornness forbade it. I practically jogged to school to keep from freezing and arrived unable to feel my fingers. It is now nearly noon and according to weather.com, it is a sunny fifty-seven degrees with an expected high of sixty-four. The sun is out and shining, but the traitor is creating no warmth, no pleasing rays, nothing but light. I'm freezing.

I think I may have to face the facts that winter is indeed coming, and actually dress for it tomorrow. It's still September, I should be able to wear capris and a t-shirt. Heck, in Arizona, I'd still be sweating in this outfit. I thought I would at least have until mid-October before I began freezing, but sadly it isn't looking like it.

Point being, if I catch pneumonia and die from dressing like this when its in the fifties, I want it to be known that the cause of death was not stupidity, but rather, sheer undiluted stubbornness. Also, the fact that my blood is 100% Arizonan.

I officially survived my first week back at school

It went something like this:

• Minor panic attack Sunday night about going back to school - overcome by making an amazing dinner for my friend Chase
  
• Survived day one of classes
  
• Made a fool of myself by begging a teacher to add me into her Lit. class and then promptly dropping it after one day
• Started driving to my old apartment instead of the new, not once, but three times
  
• Wrote my first paper of the semester
  
• Paid $124- for one textbook
• Did about three hours of Russian homework a night
• Called and complained to my landlord because nothing in my new apartment had been even remotely cleaned
• Slowly but surely began cleaning and organizing apartment
  
• Re-arranged the furniture in my living room twenty times before finally getting it right
• Was at school for eight hours on Tuesday, came home and did four hours of homework and fell asleep on the couch watching "You've Got Mail"
• Amidst the stress of moving and a new semester, consumed an entire package of oreos by myself, in one week
• Started diet
• Had dinner and watched "Sense and Sensibility" with my old roommates
• Went grocery shopping at twelve-thirty at night due to the full moon and lack of anything else to do
• Discovered that it is a bad idea to buy groceries in the middle of the night due to the random assortment that seemed logical at the time, but was actually sort of humorous this morning
• Am now celebrating the fact that week one is over and there is no school on Monday. Maybe I will finally have time to finish unpacking, cleaning and organizing. Maybe.
  

Happy Weekend!

Let's talk movies, shall we?

**Warning: this post was written incredibly early in the morning after being awake for nearly 24 hours. It may contain severe rambling and broken thoughts. You have been warned. **

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It is 4:30 in the morning. Why, you may ask, am I blogging? Well, why not? I'm certainly not sleeping. . .I have insomnia. Have I mentioned this? No? Well, I do. And it's lame.

I have been lying in bed for literally hours attempting to achieve peaceful slumber but instead, achieving nothing. Which is why I decided I may as well get up and find something to pass the time for awhile. So let's talk about movies. I L-O-V-E movies. I love going to movies, I love watching movies, I love basically everything about movies. I also love basically any kind of movie. Action, adventure, drama, romance, musical, comedy. The only kind of movie I really don't like are scary ones. Seriously. I am a total baby when it comes to scary movies. I can literally count on one hand the number of scary movies I have actually sat all the way through. I just can't handle them. Okay, now that I think about that a little more, that's not entirely true because I think Alfred Hitchcock is brilliant and I love his films, but other than that, I hate scary movies.

In spite of this absolute loathing of anything resembling a scary movie and the fact that I gett be way more terrified than I ought to be, tonight I watched a scary movie. All alone. In the dark.
Why? There are two basic reasons:

Reason number one: It was one in the morning, I was very awake and bored, and I discovered that the entire movie was on you tube (love that, by the way).

Reason number two: It had this kid in it:
Um, so confession: I love Shia Lebeouf. He makes me laugh, he's totally cute, he's great in everything I've ever seen him in, and I think that Even Stevens was one of the greatest shows on Disney, judge me if you will.

Point being, I watched Disturbia tonight.
Did you guys see that movie? It was basically creepy beyond all reason. No, really. It scared me. I had to watch something happy after I finished it because I was still creeped out. Which, by the way, is one of my pet peeves about scary movies. You spend two hours being totally scared and watching these characters you have come to like be chased by some crazy, deranged, psychotic murderer, and them bam - crisis averted, murderer/stalker/total creeper is dead. After forever of being totally tense, they give you like a maximum of two minutes of seeing the main characters happy and expect you to believe that the world really is good and safe and that they live happily ever after, and I can just turn out the light and go to sleep now. I think not.

That being said, as far as creepy movies go, I actually kind of liked this one. Sure, it had all the usual cliches, middle of the night chase, lightning storm, power outage, creepy music, dead bodies, etc. But it was still scary, but not so much so that it's going to keep me up at nights (though like it would really matter, I'll probably be up anyway). I think I would actually watch it again though. Someday. Preferably with the lights on. Also preferably watching it on my couch, holding the hand of some cute guy, rather than watching it on my laptop alone in my dark room trying not to wake my sleeping roommate.

Overall thoughts: pretty good, and if you like creepy movies, I definitely recommend it.

Hmmm, what other movies have I seen lately that I can ramble on about?

Julie and Julia



Last week my friend Kaila took me to see this, and I loved it. I thought it was adorable, though I have to admit that there were a couple of things that bothered me. For one, everyone constantly eating in the movie was kind of disgusting. Especially Amy Adams characters husband. It was pretty nasty, seriously. I have no problem watching people eat, it was just the ravenous way in which the characters were constantly consuming food in this film that was a little disturbing at times. And while Amy Adams was borderline creepy stalker at times and her haircut was pretty bad, I thought she was adorable, as always, and her clothes were amazing. Meryl Streep, on the other hand, was fantastic. If I hadn't known any better I would have thought that it was actually Julia Child, she seriously became her. It was unbelievable.

Overall thoughts: I loved it and I highly recommend it.


500 Days of Summer
Words cannot describe how much I loved this movie. It is cute, it is charming, it made me laugh out loud, it made me cry, it ended perfectly, Zooey Deschanel is fantastic and her clothes are adorable, the music all the way through is so great(gotta love The Smiths), it could very well be the perfect movie. . .except for one thing. Sad to say, there is quite a bit of smut in it. Much more than necessary, in fact. It definitely deserves its PG-13 rating, let's put it that way.

Overall thoughts: I totally loved it, but am unsure of how heartily I can recommend it.


Star Trek
I know this one has been out for awhile, but have you guys seen this?
Confessions of Alicia: I am totally a closet star trek fan. I know, right? Maybe I should be ashamed that my geeky side is showing? Oh well, it is 4:30 in the morning, who really cares? Up until this point in my life though, my theory on star trek has been that it is "Star Trek: The Next Generation" or nothing. I used to love that show, but had never had anything to do with star trek besides that until this movie came out.
That being said, I totally loved this movie. Seriously, I thought it was great. I may or may not have even seen it more than once. I liked it that much. What else can I tell you? It has action, adventure, romance, comedy, and is intense at times. And, despite what my mother may say on the matter, I think Spock is surprisingly handsome. I know, one minute I confess that I like star trek, the next I'm telling you a vulcan is handsome. Severe lack of sleep people, it does this to you. But seriously? Zachary Quinto, c'mon mom.
Maybe without the terrible haircut and creepy eyebrows?


Where was I going with this? Somehow lost my train of thought. . .

Overall thoughts: see it, its basically awesome.

Well, its after five now, I think I will try to sleep again. Wish me luck!

Coming up with a clever title: not as easy as you might think. . .

I'm back in the blogging world, and I've decided to change things up a bit.

For starters and a little update on my life, here are some of the random things my summer has consisted of:

• Finished up the semester and decided to not do summer school, but just work instead, not realizing how difficult that would prove to be.
  
• Moved out of the scary spider infested duplex into a beautiful condo around the corner.
  
• Looked for a job.
• Found a job doing custodial on campus.
• Passed out in front of the entire crew on my second day of said job.
• Scraped up my face, took an ambulance to the hospital.
• Was told it was a combination of stress, dehydration, and exhaustion. Awesome.
• Went home to reassure my mother that I really was fine.
  
• Bummed around with my family and friends for a week.
• Came back to Provo and played for the weekend with my sister Cassie who drove back with me.
  
• Looked for a new job after quiting the custodial job due to the total humiliation.
• Went to California for a fun-filled weekend, ended up doing nothing in California all weekend(it's a long story, you really don't want to know).
• Worked at the Stadium of Fire for July 4th (sadly, only a one day job).
• Continued looking for a job.
• Met up with my dear friend Kayley (one of the girls I went to Russia with and have not seen in years) and her husband Paul.
• Planned on meeting for lunch, ended up spending twelve hours together.
  
• Went home to AZ for three weeks:
• Nearly died from the heat,
• Chatted with my mom,
• Played with Linds and Chels,
• Was surprised with tickets to see Beauty and the Beast (thanks girls!),
  
• Held sweet little newborn Ruthie,
• Laughed with my brother,
• Played in the game room with my dad,
• Saw Wicked at Gammage,
  
• Went swimming,
• Bummed around with my sisters,
• Had my nails done by Annie about a million times,
• Visited with extended family at LJ's Pizza (my favorite),
• Turned 24 and was given Pushing Daisies season 2 and tickets to see Chicago (the band, not the play).
  
• Watched about a billion movies and relaxed.
• Nearly sang myself hoarse as I made the eleven hour drive back to Provo, looked for a job.
• Was visited by Hillary and James:
• Stayed up way too late every night talking and laughing,
• Went shopping all over Utah,
  
• Realized how much I have missed those two - love you guys!
• Looked for a job.
• Sat in absolute horror and tried my hardest not to giggle through the worst concert I have ever attended, but couldn't just leave because there were only like twenty people total there.
• Narrowly escaped being puked on by a poodle the size of a great dane. Still a little traumatized.
  
• Spent a few hours lying in a meadow in a sleeping bag up the canyon watching a meteor shower.
• Had the sprinklers come on and discovered how difficult it is to get out of a zipped up sleeping bag while trying to find your shoes, cell phone and keys, at the same time scrambling up a hill and attempting to avoid the jets of icy cold water while laughing and freezing.
  
• Continued looking for a job.
• Watched numerous lightning storms from my stoop, and was reminded of how much I love monsoon season.
• Registered for classes for the fall.
  
• Started packing to move(again).

That's all I can think of for now. The only other thing that comes to mind are the numerous drives up the canyon, movies, and excursions to my favorite Thai restaurant. Pretty boring, I know.

Speaking of drives up the canyon though, I took this picture this afternoon somewhere along one of my stops up the Provo canyon. I took it on my cell phone, so the quality is pretty bad, but it was a beautiful day and I was reminded of how much I love summers in Utah.


PS, while looking for the above picture on my phone, I came across this little beauty and thought I would share. This was taken while driving back this afternoon:




I know it's hard to see, but those are sheep. In the back of a truck. Cruising down the highway. Why? The world may never know. . .

Some days you're the bug; other days you're the windshield

Today I am definitely the bug.



Enough said.

I'm not dead, I'm just the worst blogger on the planet

No, really. I haven't frozen to death, I actually survived finals("wonder of wonders, miracle, a miracle" name that musical, anyone?) , I have lived through numerous snowstorms, I made it through Christmas and New Years with my crazy family and managed to get (somewhat reluctantly) back onto the plane to return to my own personal ice world, I survived my car window getting stuck down(*cough*again*cough*), I lived through the first four weeks of a new semester, and I drove through Orem in a snowstorm with a windshield wiper that wouldn't move. Not pleasant. But, I survived.

Point being? I know its been ages, and I really am sorry, but life has been insane and living without a computer is lame. Thanks for all of your emails, texts, phone calls, and concern. Just know that I am still here, still alive, still crazy, and still happy.
Also? I really have no stories worth sharing. All I ever do is go to school and do homework and occasionally sleep. Repeat those three things over and over, and you've got my life. Oh. My. Boring. I am still looking for a job, and still freezing nigh unto death, but other than that, life is pretty good. Boring, but good.

I will admit that I have recently discovered a passion for Russian literature. I highly recommend Pushkin's Eugene Onegin or Gogol's Dead Souls for anyone looking for a good read. Read it, and then call me, k? Russian Lit is fantastic, who knew? Also, I have officially decided to Minor in editing. It will put me here for at least one extra semester, which is ironic considering how much I loathe all things school related, but I am(surprisingly) really enjoying my basic editing class and think it will really help me when/if I ever actually graduate.

Anyway, I have put off homework long enough and am off to a study group for a big test I have next week. Wish me luck! Love you all!