Thank goodness for amies...

What would I do without these girls?

Jody and I had a little girls' night out on the town last weekend. We went to this gourmet restaurant/lounge downtown where we had the best non-alcoholic apple martini EVER. Soooo good. Can't wait to go back next Saturday (check facebook for an invite pallies). After that, we went and got possibly my favorite dessert in the world: gelato. Jode got strawberry, I got hazelnut and alpen caramel. It was delicious.




Then, tonight my friends went up to Megan's cabin (? for lack of a better word) for ice skating, hot tubbing, catered dinner, and card games. Basically, it was the perfect after Christmas Christmas party.

Let it snow baby, let it reindeer.

Happy 200th Post to Me!*

Christmas of 08 was quite enjoyable. I got so many kitchen-related items that Becky asked if it was Christmas or my wedding. ha. I was happy though: blender, glass cake pans with LIDS, stainless steel pan, and a KNIFE BLOCK!!! I'm leaving it all in my basement though, until I move into my cute condo/apartment with washer/dryer in Aprilish. I also got a new straightner, thank goodness because my Chi has been on the fritz since May...you had to jiggle it around and it would often shut off randomly mid-use. Big present for my family: ROCK FREAKING BAND II. Oh yeah, it's been a blast. I made a girl named Quinn Vierge from Paris; she is totally rad.
We braved the snowstorm and made it to my grandparents' house for Christmas lunch with the rest of mom's side extended family. I love going to their house. Great food, playing games...although in recent years we haven't really had that much fun playing them...everyone's too cranky or too distracted. Anyway, it was fun.
New obsession grâce à Christmas break: House. On DVD. Becky got season 1 for her birthday (Dec 17th) and season 2 for Christmas, Jeff got season 3 for Christmas, so I have plenty of viewing material!!! It's so much fun. I've been missing watching tv shows on DVD since Gilmore Girls fired Amy Sherman Palladino and then got cancelled.

It's been a great holiday so far. I look forward to much more funness to come...

*Disclaimer: If you actually tried adding up how many posts I have based on what my archive says, you'd get less than 200 because I don't actually publish all of my posts....but I still have written up 200 of them, and I am very proud of this accomplishment

"How about a little MI3?" -dream president elect

Last night I had a dream that I went up to ask for Barack Obama's autograph at some show thing in a high school auditorium and we ended up dancing around the stage for like thirty minutes.
Weird, weird, weird.
He was a really nice guy.

What the festive?

Two photos for you:

My major purchase I mentioned forever ago: a '96 Honda Accord!!! Woot!!!

The view from my front porch. I'm snowed in. I don't dare drive anywhere today, and I think it just might make me crazy. Meh.

HEADER MANIA!!!!!

Check out these rad headers I made while bored on Saturday night (tehe, so pathetic), and then vote on which one I should use in the poll to your right. They've all got my blog title on them and I stupidly chose to put "small" as the photo size for all of them, so to see them properly you can click on them to enlarge. Shanks!

Option A:

Option B:

Option C:

Option D:

Amen

I...don't really know what kind of girl I am.
-Juno McGuff

The things that I should say more often

My mother sits on high school bleachers all day Saturday in a gym that smells like sweat, hairspray, and rhinestone glue just to watch me dance three rounds of Amateur Latin and Amateur Standard.
She speaks French with me even though I'm not that good, and she hasn't seriously spoken it since she taught it when I was three (? maybe? I can't remember how old I was).
She teaches well over twenty students private music lessons (drums, guitar, and piano) so we can pay for mine and my sister's dance lessons and everything else that entails, and still manages to cook a great dinner every night.
She reads to my little sisters, plays Polly Pockets with them, and acts interested in everything they have to say even though the rest of use are completely apathetic.
She doesn't care so much about a clean house that she won't let us fingerpaint or play with flour.
She graduated from college and married a great man, something for which I will be eternally grateful.
She was the girls' (or is it girl's?) camp leader for four (?) years much to the joy of all the young women. She was the crazy, cool leader who was a little bit of a rebel (our ward always had a boombox which would blare Stevie Wonder every morning to wake us up).
She served a mission in France and was better prepared to teach me and all of my siblings because of it.
She has good taste in books and music (something that I didn't realize for years...I always thought Earth, Wind, and Fire was so lame until just a little while ago).
She still drops everything to come help me even though I'm in college and should be able to work it out on my own (I can't usually).
She'll do my laundry, restock my pantry, buy me fake eyelashes and $7 hair spray. She'll chat with me on the phone while I walk from campus back to my apartment late at night when it's dark and I'm uneasy. She's the most incredible women I've ever met. She is my hero.

whhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeewwwwwwww

I am FREE!!

inhale...exhale...inhale...

Once upon a time there was a girl named Katie. She was very good at chemistry and once even got a 99% on her test for her 111 class. Then along came evil 351 which subtly beat all the chemical happiness right out of her. She thought she knew what she was doing and thought it was fun even, but then when it came time to go off on the magical final quest, she couldn't even slay the NMR dragon who had been tame and easy before. She choked back tears as she thought of her father, the King of O. Chem, and how disappointed he would be when she only got a B- or C+ for her efforts.

Maybe next semester princess.

Apathetic way to be.

I. do. not. want. to. study.
And I really really really do not want to go back and do ALL of the oral exercises for my French class...........meeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I just spent all morning doing the written ones....and I just want to get everything over with...but I really do need to study, but I just don't feel like it....all I feel like doing is overusing ellipses and whining on my blog....

On a happier note, I got my parking ticket reduced from $30 to $10. Thank goodness for online appeals. :P

Good luck on finals everyone!

What child is this?

Of all things of heaven and earth of which we bear testimony, none is so important as our witness that Jesus, the Christmas child, condescended to come to earth from the realms of His Eternal Father, here to work among men as healer and teacher, our Great Exemplar. And further, and most important, He suffered on Calvary’s cross as an atoning sacrifice for all mankind.

At this time of Christmas, this season when gifts are given, let us not forget that God gave His Son, and His Son gave His life, that each of us might have the gift of eternal life.

-President Hinckley

"A man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts than by any other book."

Today in mission prep we were talking about the Book of Mormon and it all sounded rather familiar...and then I realized it was because we had gone over the same chapter of Preach My Gospel in mission prep in my singles ward back home over the summer...and that reminded me of how our teacher had challenged us to write out some "questions of the soul" and then to go and see what answers we could find in the Book of Mormon. It was a neat little experiment. I wrote out maybe five or six questions and within twenty minutes had found specific, thorough answers to each of them in more than one place. I had expected to find answers, of course, but I hadn't realized it would be so easy...I ought to keep that in mind.
Then, just as I was thinking about the Book of Mormon in general, I remembered one night where I had been reading, and it really hit me how real it all is to me. I know that all the people mentioned in it really lived, and I love them! I love Captain Moroni's strength and tenacity. I love Pahoran's amazing example of forgiveness and not taking offense. I love Nephi's obedience and humility. I love King Benjamin's leadership. I can't wait to meet these people when I die.

And I should've raised my hand and said all that when the teacher asked if we had any thoughts on the Book of Mormon, but I didn't.
So I'm sharing it in the blogosphere.

Happy Sunday everyone.

Sometimes, you just want to scream.

I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,


I SOUND MY BARBARIC YAWP OVER THE ROOFS OF THE WORLD


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

His last words to us

"For me, the Lord has opened the windows of heaven and showered blessings upon my family beyond my ability to express. Yet like everyone else, I have had times in my life when it seemed that the heaviness of my heart might be greater than I could bear. During those times I think back to those tender days of my youth when great sorrows came at the losing end of a football game.

How little I knew then of what awaited me in later years. But whenever my steps led through seasons of sadness and sorrow, my mother’s words often came back to me: 'Come what may, and love it.'

...We can...seek for the eternal. You may feel singled out when adversity enters your life. You shake your head and wonder, 'Why me?'

But the dial on the wheel of sorrow eventually points to each of us. At one time or another, everyone must experience sorrow. No one is exempt.

Because Jesus Christ suffered greatly, He understands our suffering. He understands our grief. We experience hard things so that we too may have increased compassion and understanding for others.

Remember the sublime words of the Savior to the Prophet Joseph Smith when he suffered with his companions in the smothering darkness of Liberty Jail: 'My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;

'And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.'

...We can...understand the principle of compensation. The Lord compensates the faithful for every loss. That which is taken away from those who love the Lord will be added unto them in His own way. While it may not come at the time we desire, the faithful will know that every tear today will eventually be returned a hundredfold with tears of rejoicing and gratitude.

I know why there must be opposition in all things. Adversity, if handled correctly, can be a blessing in our lives. We can learn to love it.

As we look for humor, seek for the eternal perspective, understand the principle of compensation, and draw near to our Heavenly Father, we can endure hardship and trial. We can say, as did my mother, 'Come what may, and love it.' Of this I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

-Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin 1917-2008

full talk

!!!!!!

HEY!

All you people who've been voting in my poll (thank you very much by the way, your feedback is much appreciated), why dontcha leave me a comment or something?

It's not like I'm attention hungry or anything. :P

I made a major purchase. Photo to come shortly.

Postcard From Afar

Someone at my church yesterday said that they don't believe in coincidences.
I have to, or I'd go crazy with all the implications floating around out there.

Take my poll. :)

Kadoodle Cloodle

So you may be wondering where I got that picture of words at the top of this page....

Okay, so maybe you haven't.
But if you were, I'm about to reveal from where exactly it came....
Be eXcItEd!


I got it off of wordle.net. You put in some words or a quote OR the address of your blog and it'll pull up a bunch of words and make them into a picture where you can change the font, color scheme, how they're arranged, etc. It's super fun; I think I've made at least five. Anyway, it's interesting to see what words it pulls from your blog, like elevator. Where'd that come from? When did I talk about elevators? Good getting think love miss know go chemistry. Pretty much sums it up, don't you think?

Glass of water

So I miss having friends and doing stuff with people in my ward.

New Goal:
Stop skipping out on church activities such as...
combined FHEs
Relief Society enrichment activities
ward prayer
ward socials

It's not that I just don't go, it's that I always have other things going on...

Two days after Thanksgiving...

...I am thankful for:
friends
who will go on random Border's runs with me whether or not it's actually open
who will stay up until 3 AM watching movies because we can't stop talking to each other
who will indulge me in my weird movie obsessions..."Amelie"...what more can I say?
family
who lets me sleep until 1 (disgusting, I know. I've since repented.)
who will go to Maestro's for crepes and gelato (and will pay for it!)
who takes me shopping at 11:30 PM at Walmart so I don't go back to my apartment sans yogurt and other necessities
a boyfriend
who texts/calls me even when he's half way across the country
who buys me ridiculous cute outfits at Savers....ha
who bids forever on Coldplay tickets, only to be outbid at the last second :( It's the thought that counts :)
random stuff
getting paid to do what I love (yeah chemistry in any of its forms!), good books, good food, good movies, good music, having survived the college application process (my sister's in the middle of it...helped her with one of her essays ALL morning long), the gospel (really, this deserves a post all on its own), being. in. a. physics. class. (maybe if I say it, the physics gods will smile upon me and then eventually it'll be true), curly hair, cute boots, harvest peach yogurt, Coldplay albums for 99 cents (LoVe Amazon.com), getting paid, having a car for the weekend, computers with working CD burners, Border's coupons, Costa Vida punch cards, little sisters and a mom who clean, free laundry!!!

I love my life. I know I complain a lot of this blog, but you know what, that's what blogs are for...at least in my opinion.
C'est belle la vie. That's all I have to say about that.

me in a nutshell

I push the elevator button and then walk away and take the stairs.
That pretty much sums it up.

Colds, chemistry, and the College Board

My high school chemistry teacher Mrs. Snow swore you could talk yourself out of any sickness. She was always telling us, "You are NOT allowed to get sick and miss class! You are NOT getting a cold!" And you know what, by the end of the year, I believed her. I don't think I was ever sick.
I could feel a sore throat coming on yesterday and this morning I was whining in my head about it when all of a sudden I could hear her voice...."anyone can talk themselves out of getting sick! It's all about willpower!".....so, everyone, I. do. not. have. a. cold. :P

I miss Mrs. Snow. She was great.
In fact, I miss all of my AP teachers...

You know what job I think would be kinda fun? One of those counselors who grooms students to be accepted into Ivy League schools. It'd probably be good idea to have actually attended one though...I also think it'd be fun to be a tutor to get kids to pass AP tests. I really love the College Board, haha. They kept sending me good news in the mail. Now no one sends you an envelope showing your midterm exam score, and you don't get to be a scholar of distinction if you pass more than 5 of them (or whatever the requirement is).

Good news though: I only missed 3 questions on the multiple choice section of my latest o chem test!

be kind, react with alkynes.

sorry for the violent chemistry related post titles.
i can't help myself; i have an o chem test next monday.

anti markovnikov this!

PA9EWINAFNACI#9OARYGHAHHG
LSKALHVIACHALDHFHAHFAWIGAS
ERHGB'A'B'AO9IHGNAIDSCH;AKHF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm going to go to my room and drink some dihydrogen monoxide!! So there!

I decided that I would really like to live in a condo next year.

Preferably with a washer and drier. And rent under $350/month.
And one on the south west side of campus.

I'm just kinda sick of living in crappy apartments, ya know?

Another thought: it really drives me crazy how people have stolen the tour team's lockers in the dressing room. We have the three end columns, and I always see one or two girls who are not on the tour team putting their stuff in those lockers and then sticking their own combination lock of them. What the crap? Those are not for you, honey. We need to keep our gazillion pairs of shoes in there. You're going to have to keep your clothes with you or leave them on the bench. :P

so there.

DANCESPORT!

This Friday and Saturday are the dancesport championships at my university!! Events will be going on all day starting around 8 and going until 11 or so at night. I'll be dancing in the Amateur Standard, Amateur Latin, Gold Bar Standard, and Gold Bar Latin events which will all be later in the evening. It's held in the student center ballroom, and tickets are somewhere around $8 for students. It's going to be awesome because the professional show is going to be done by.....

Victor Fung and Anna Mikhed!
4th place in the world for pro standard, freaking amazing.
It's going to be great. If you're not busy or anything...you could come if you want to...I'm going for the 10 dance trophy...should be pretty exciting...;)

Wordplay

I had this idea.

I used to write down words all the time when I was reading that I didn't know or wasn't exactly sure what the definition was and then I'd look them up later. BUT, I never actually used them in conversation after that, so I never remembered what they meant. This is what I'm going to do: I'm going to make a list of seven words that are really cool (either in meaning or sound) and then use one each day in conversation randomly. Then, I'm going to write up a blog post for each of them describing how I used the word and the weird looks people gave me.

Fun, no?

Yay for boggle/scrabble/reads "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves" (highly recommend it if you're into punctuation) grammar nerdiness!

Anyway, if you have any interesting words you'd like to suggest...well...be my guest. :)

i'll be okay tomorrow.

Saddest lyrics ever:

Anyway, i can try anything it's the same circle that leads to nowhere and i'm tired now.
anyway, i've lost my face, my dignity, my look, all of these things are gone and i'm tired now.
but don't be scared, i found a good job and i go to work every day on my old bicycle you loved.
i'm piling up some unread books under my bed and i really think i'll never read again.
no concentration, just a white disorder everywhere around me, you know i'm so tired now.
but don't worry i often go to dinners and parties with some old friends who care for me, take me back home and stay.
monochrome floors, monochrome walls, only absence near me, nothing but silence around me.
monochrome flat, monochrome life, only absence near me, nothing but silence around me.
sometimes i search an event or something to remember, but i've really got nothing in mind.
sometimes i open the windows and listen people walking in the down streets. there is a life out there.
but don't be scared, i found a good job and i go to work every day on my old bicycle you loved.
anyway, i can try anything it's the same circle that leads to nowhere and i'm tired now.
anyway, i've lost my face, my dignity, my look, all of these things are gone and i'm tired now.
but don't be scared, i found a good job and i go to work every day on my old bicycle you loved.
mochrome floors, monochrome walls, only absence near me, nothing but silence around me.
monochrome flat, monochrome life, only absence near me, nothing but silence around me.

Last year I was good at everything. This year I feel mediocre at everything.
Slipping
slipping
slipping
spreading
spreading
spreading too thin
too tired
too lost.
I...don't even know what to say. I'm struggling to remember how to work my magic, how to make it all pull together in the end. It's all just falling apart...I don't even know what I do with my time anymore. I rarely practice, I never study chemistry or French or physics, I never work in the lab, in fact the only thing I do consistently is read for my D&C class, but I'd be doing that anyway so it doesn't really count. And yet I still feel like I have no time, that I've always got "something" going on. What am I doing?! Well you know what, I need to snap out of it already. This is ridiculous. I can't believe I am practically throwing away everything for which I have worked so hard for 10+ years. I have never gotten anything below an A-. Never. Not in elementary school, not in junior high, not in high school, not in college so far. Everyone says this crap about grades not mattering anymore, but you know what, when I get As I earn them because I learn the material. I'm not learning anything now. I'm just going through the motions. In fact, I'm often not even doing that much. D&C: I haven't stayed awake in that class in months. Physics: I think I just scored below 20% on my last test. I hate it. This is not me.
Someone please slap me and spoon feed me self control. I can't handle anything.

And why the akjflk;dja;dfahdnc is BYU's website so dang slow? I just want to register for classes so I can go to bed.

:'(

Rock the Vote

France, here I come?

I went to the French majors/minors meeting today and got some saddening information:
They don't do summer term study abroad programs.
Meh!
Being a member of the ballroom tour team means you rehearse all fall and all winter semesters and then tour during the spring term. So my only hope to get to do study abroad in Paris was to go summer term, and that is apparently not an option.
I guess I'll just have to go on my own. I have the money already set aside, I have a mother fluent in French who wants to come, and I have three weeks in July or August. I can either go this summer after I tour the East Coast with the team, or I can wait until the summer after that, when I'll already be in Germany/Austria with the team, and I can just stay in Europe for the rest of the summer. OR, I could just up and quit ballroom already and spend the rest of my life in France. :)
Anyway, I'm seriously considering putting together a trip to France/Europe next summer. Anyone interested in coming?

Check yes Juliet

“You may not like what comes from the authority of the Church. It may conflict with your political views. It may contradict your social views. It may interfere with some of your social life … Your safety and ours depends upon whether or not we follow … Let’s keep our eye on the President of the Church.”

-President Harold B. Lee

"Sometimes there are those who feel their earthly knowledge on a certain subject is superior to the heavenly knowledge which God gives to his prophet on the same subject. They feel the prophet must have the same earthly credentials or training which they have had before they will accept anything the prophet has to say that might contradict their earthly schooling. How much earthly schooling did Joseph Smith have? Yet he gave revelations on all kinds of subjects. We haven’t yet had a prophet who earned a doctorate degree in any subject. We encourage earthly knowledge in many areas, but remember if there is ever a conflict between earthly knowledge and the words of the prophet, you stand with the prophet and you’ll be blessed and time will show you have done the right thing."

-President Ezra Taft Benson

“I say to Israel, the Lord will never permit me or any other man who stands as president of the Church to lead you astray. It is not in the program. It is not in the mind of God.”

-President Wilford Woodruff

Good thoughts, n'est-ce pas?
So when a prophet of God tells us to do all we can to get Proposition 8 to pass in California, it'd probably be a good idea to comply. I really think it's ridiculous that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints would make a petition and send it to the first presidency informing them of their opposition to Proposition 8. Did you or did you not sustain President Thomas S. Monson as a prophet, seer, and revelator a few weeks ago? So why are you blatantly disregarding his council? I'm not saying that we should blindly follow our church leaders, but it really says something to me when the church gets this heavily involved in political matters. It's because this isn't about politics anymore. Should Proposition 8 be defeated the decline of the family as we know it will greatly increase.

There's less than a week left until election day. With whom will you side?

This afternoon I had nothing that ABSOLUTELY needed to get done. It was the most delicious feeling.

Every month, I write an average of 14 or 15 posts.
It is October 27th, and I only have 7 (soon to be 8 as soon as I publish this) posts. Something is wrong with the world! How did my blogging drop off?

Oh yeah...I jettied (isn't that a great word? it just came to me) off to Washington and Oregon for 10 days and spent the week before and after that in complete academic freak out. Now I'm in academic relief/dulled freak out that will probably resurrect as soon as I get all my tests back.
Except for my D&C test which I already know my score and is the best I've done on a test all semester: 153/155.

Amazingly enough, studying until 1 AM does seem to help! At least this time around...wouldn't recommend it and will hopefully not be resorting to it in the future...and ok, it probably wasn't so much the last minute cramming as the many, many desperate prayers offered up in hopes of that result.
You do all you can and God will take care of the rest.
I can't tell you how many times that principle has popped up in my life. Thank goodness, because I could never do this chem major/French minor/ballroom dance tour team/attempt to have friends/boyfriend thing alone.

Let's see...I had something else to say...oh yeah! Election day is in a week and a day! You had all better vote, even...gah...ok, I guess I'll say this...even if you're voting for Obama. Voting is our civic duty as American citizens and we should feel privileged to have that opportunity. Now, go take advantage of it! I'll be partying it up with Fox News and some sort of red, white, and blue dessert all night. Go McCain/Palin!

Just like glass

I feel so fragile.

I want to come home and make myself dinner. I want to love my classes again. I want to stop feeling guilty for every moment I don't spend with my head buried in a textbook. I want to learn concepts instead of just throwing answers on a page because it's due in two hours. I want to feel smart again.

I can't...can't I caan't take freaking physics for two and a half more semesters!!! GAH it's killing me!!

I just want to sleep for days. Wake me up when my life is back to normal, and I have good grades again please.

I miss myself.

Take a breath

"While the world was racked and distracted-while millions were groping as the blind for the wall, and while all men were resting upon uncertainty, as a general mass, our eyes beheld, our ears heard, as in the 'blaze of day'; yes, more-above the glitter of the May sunbeam, which then shed its brilliancy over the face of nature! Then his voice, though mild, pierced to the center, and his words, 'I am thy fellow-servant,' dispelled every fear. We listened, we gazed, we admired! 'Twas the voice of an angel from glory, 'twas a message from the Most High! And as we heard we rejoiced, while His love enkindled upon our soulds, and we were wrapped in the vision of the Almighty! Where was room for doubt? Nowhere; uncertainty had fled, doubt had sunk no more to rise, while fiction and deception had fled forever!"
-Oliver Cowdrey's footnote * to Doctrine and Covenants 1:71

May I avoid groping for the wall and resting upon uncertainty. May I listen, gaze, and admire as my doubts sink no more to rise.

It's nice to take the time to remember what's important sometimes, especially when you don't think you have the time.

Life in Technicolor

I'm home!
Tour was awesome; being on the team is just fabULouS.
Sometime in the next week look for a post filled with photo evidence of this fact and another about proposition 8 and some related thoughts about that.

Wish me luck with catching up on school. I'm considering changing my major. :P

(Ok, not seriously, but it's nice to fantasize about having facile homework for once)

And it was really fun to mess with FoNtS and colors on this post, as well as typing a bunch of one liners. Time to go to bed for sure.

Ok, ok, I give in...

Just one quick post, since I'm online and reading everyone's blogs and commenting on them anyway:

Washington is so gorgeous. I've had people from there say there aren't any trees where I live, and I'm always like, "What do you mean? There's lots of trees here!" But no. I was wrong. There are TREES here. And they are so pretty! I think I'm adding this state to my list of potential fantasy places to live eventually in the future.
Tour's going really well. Being on the team is such a blessing; everyone's amazing. It's been quite the experience performing every day sometimes twice a day...you get all sorts of interesting things happening backstage in all the chaos...missing costumes...props...people...haha for the first couple of shows people sometimes didn't changed quite fast enough to make it on stage on time so the show went on without them.

Anyway, this is getting too long, and I've got a long day ahead of me.
And now I'm really swearing off blogging for the next while.

So this is goodbye...

Well folks, thus begins my incredibly hectic, potentially scholarship/GPA/graduate school future destroying three week period of before/after mid semester tour.
I have zero time to spare, so I'm swearing off facebook and blogging for the time being. See you all in the cyberworld after the week of the 19th...

Details

Someday, I can't wait to have my own fridge.
And my own washer and dryer.

That's all I have to say about that.

La Famille

I really, really love my family.
This Saturday was my little sister's baptism, and I got to see not only my parents, brother, and sisters, but I got to see my grandparents, aunt and uncle, and cousins. It was awesome. I only live fifteen minutes away from home, but I only go home maybe once or twice a month. I miss those guys.

I'm so proud of my little sister, for getting baptized. I'm proud of my brother for being worthy enough to baptize her. I'm proud of my other sister who sang harmony in a duet (which I had no idea she could do) at the baptism. I'm proud of my other sister who presented herself so well as the homecoming pageant this week. She was beautiful. I'm proud of my dad whom people keep telling me they loved as a professor. I'm proud of my mom who teaches 20+ students drums, piano, and guitar, and still has time to call and check up on me.

I went to the relationships Sunday school class with my roommates a few weeks ago because we thought it would be amusing, and instead it was really inspiring. It really hit me that this is what I want most out of life. I want to marry my best friend in the temple. I want to raise righteous kids. I want to be a mom. I have never been the kind of person who responded with that when asked what I want to do with my life. I want to be a chemist, I want to go to France, I want to compete in Blackpool, etc etc. But you know what, none of those are really that important. I want a strong family. That's all that really matters.

I've blogged a lot today. I really shouldn't study near a computer.

A direct quote from my chem text book:
"Consider college students living without CDs and spandex!"

I don't think I've touched a CD in months...and I haven't worn spandex since....I can't remember when. It's the second edition copyrighted in 2008. Someone needs to update these authors. Show them an iPod or jeans or something.

Sometimes, I just don't feel like being very peppy. :P

Just a couple thoughts:
Guys, it's probably not a good idea to tell a girl she looks tired, even if she does. You're not winning any points there...
Also, being excessively complimentary is not neccessarily a good thing. Hyperbole is only effective if used in small amounts. The more overly dramatic compliments you give out, the less they mean.
That's my opinion anyway.

Today I am grateful for:

Sunday game nights with friends*rain*hair that stays curly overnight*lessons with pros*quick French homework*a mom who brought me food because I didn't have time to buy it myself*a job well done at World of Dance*mechanical pencils full of lead*new books to read*kudos granola bars and cherry tomatoes*flowers*slowly starting to speak more French with the rms and not feeling quite so stupid*learning new lab techniques (TEM)*getting an 88% on my multiple choice section of my o chem test with the little prep that I had*scriptures and missionaries*an office on campus*study groups*not being sick*getting my o chem binder back (thank you thank you thank you Lance)*good friends*good roommates*a good life*

I'm sorry that I oscillate so frequently between despair and joy. I promise I'm a pretty even-tempered person for the most part. The extremes are what drive me to write though, so that's why you end up with so many of them on my blog here...

It's just been raining on my face

WHO THE HECK TAKES AN O CHEM BINDER?

Come on people! If you're going to be a thief, at least steal something good!
I have this organic chemistry test on Monday, and being the organic chemistry professor's daughter and probably the only chem major in my class of 250, it's important that I do well. Plus, I want to do well, because that's just the way I am. So I took my binder with all my notes and my review sheets, not only the ones I've taken so far, but this has all of the lecture outlines for the rest of the semester to the concert hall tonight. I was studying in between numbers, working out problems, reviewing as much as I could, since I haven't had a chance to do so all week because of World of Dance. I set my binder under my notebook while I ran to dance the west coast swing, and when I came back after the show, my notebook was there, but my binder was gone. If this was a joke, my gosh, it is so not funny. I have no notes from which to study, I have no lecture outlines for the rest of the semester, I have no review sheets. GAh I am so ticked. I am sobbing. It's like everything from the past week has all built up and built up, all the nights of no sleep, early rehearsals, full days where I leave at 6:45 AM and don't get home until midnight, stress of trying to figure things out and get my homework done, try to do the best I can for these performances, and study for this FREAKING TEST AND NOW I HAVE NOTHING. ;ahoawgh'aqhi'oaqgvabvae'vhia;skhndvahsva
vavacasvjav;hab
I was going to go see a movie tonight, but if anyone says anything in the wrong way to me I'll fall completely apart.
Like I did as soon as I got out of Toffer's car.
How embarrassing.
It's not like I've never failed a test before.

Porcelain Fists

My prayer:
Please let me get through this week without completely alienating myself from everyone I love due to my stress-induced irritability.
I apologize in advance.

Square this.

Ok, so you know in math you do all of these "application" problems where they say, "If you know the trajectory of a ball is given by this equation, after how long will it hit the ground?" or something like that? Where do the equations come from?! If we are really supposed to be applying stuff, we should know how to make these equations! It's not like you walk around every day and see a bird flying and know, "Well it's flying northwest in a parabolic pattern at a speed of 10 mph, so I know that in X seconds it will be directly above my head." Equations aren't just handed out to you! So where do they come from and why hasn't anyone taught this to me? That would be the really useful thing to know how to do. Who cares if you can solve an equation if there's no equation given to you from your loving texting book to solve?
This has bothered me off and on since high school. I just really needed to let it out. :P

Wow

People, ask for things via blog. It totally works, even if people don't read your request.

Thanks Lance ;)

Meh.

Ack, I give up!

I cannot come up with a decent blog post to save my life, but I want to post something. And I really want ice cream or a cookie or a brownie or something right now. So if you read this and you happen to have one of those in your possession and you want to bring it by, feel free. Really, it won't be a problem at all. :P
Wish me luck. I am filling out an application to get $1500 toward my research for this semester right now.

Be brave. Not beige.

I can't believe I was able to find this online actually.

It's a little fuzzy, but it says, "Masquerading as a normal person day after day is exhausting."

Ain't that the truth?

Knowledge is Power

The Back to School Run Down:

Team- I love, love, love it. Sorry for my earlier whining.

French- Small class, great subject. I really like the professor, and his accent is incredibly beautiful. There are quite a few return (or returned?) missionaries like I was fearing, but I'm excited all the same. I miss speaking French souvent, alors si vous parlez francais et vous voulez converser (I think I just made that verb up) avec moi, telephonez a moi! :)

Organic Chemistry- HUGE lecture class, small recitation section full of pre med/pre dent/ pbio etc. I miss my chem major friends! The professor is really a great lecturer though, so I think I'll enjoy it. Plus I have friends in the class....not chem majors...but still cool people. :)

Chemical Safety-super easy class I've heard. The professor is totally chill, and we get to do stuff like clean up mercury spills and start fires (so we can put them out).

Physics-also a huge class. The professor is French and speaks with a strong accent, and I can't help but smile the whole time. I love it! I think that'll help me stay awake. I'm nervous for the subject, though....have never taken physics in my life. BUT I know people in the class, so yay for study groups.

D&C- really like my professor. We don't have hardly any busy work, we just have to read well, the D&C, the student manual, and various conference talks he gives to us in addition. He has really interesting lectures, too.

Latin/Standard situation-well....I still haven't taken Gold II Latin, and that's what I got put in (which is slightly embarrassing, not just for me, but for the tour team as well seeing as I'm on the latin team and in the 3 couple chacha). And I'm in Gold Bar Standard (thank goodness).
I may see how long I can go without taking a latin class before someone gets mad at me. hehe.

It's going to be a great year.

I just realized:

I have not cooked for myself in my apartment since...ever....
except for breakfast yesterday, but that wasn't just for myself.
It's weirding me out a little, haha, because I have all these Martha Stewart recipes I've been getting by email all summer I've been meaning to try out.
Also, forgetting your planner at home when it contains your schedule is not a good idea. Whoops. Had to make a quick dash to a library computer to find my French class (which is going to rock, by the way. Oh, and I've decided that all French teachers are tres chic and have great taste in clothing). Next up is organic chemistry just downstairs! (I'm in the lab right now.) I'm excited!!

Well, this was sort of a pathetic little post. Sometime soon I'll do a big back to school run down.

Fig Trees and Pisces

I wrote this earlier today. I'm feeling better now. :)

I have a nagging feeling that I am teetering towards drowning in things I do not understand or do not want to face. I have no control, but at the same time I have all the control. I am the master manipulator.
I promise I'm a nice person.
So why do I feel like such an ice queen?
Or maybe I'm just freaking out again, like I always do. Or maybe I just let things get too far. I don't know. I suck at soul searching and figuring myself out. Could someone please tell me who I am and what I'm thinking? I'm having a hard time piecing it together.

School started today. The weather was a perfect Indian summer. I enjoyed my classes. I went to work. I got food (finally).

I should go befriend my roommates or something.
But I just feel like crying.

Je cherche...

I am looking for my Amelie DVD. I can't remember if I lent it out to someone or if it just disappeared in my room somewhere. It's an edited copy that was hard to get a hold of...so...if you have it...I want it back! :)

Pas Si Simple

Gah, I hate coming back from trips. I hate unpacking, I hate having to wake up on time again, I hate returning to the same old. I hate the let down of knowing it's over, you're not going to go watch that amazing Russian couple dance tonight, you won't see Katusha's perfect reverse wave. Just as you get all excited and hyped up on ballroom, you have to come home and start thinking in numbers and figures instead of feelings and movements. Everytime we go to a huge comp like this someone always says, "They're great dancers and all, but this is their entire life. I don't envy them at all." And you know what, sometimes I disagree. I wonder what it would be like to live ballroom just for a little while. When I'm not thinking about anything, I'm thinking about ballroom. I'm planning my next dress or how I'm going to do my hair for the next comp or what I'm going to do to improve that back break in rumba. I love it. I love it. I love it.

It kind of scares me to think I'll have to give it up someday. I don't know how I can.


P.S. Way to go McCain on the VP pick. We'll see how much the liberals are for a woman in the executive branch when she's a conservative. :P

So long, so long (I've been on a Dashboard kick lately)

Some random thoughts:

I've had a change of residence.
I live near campus, finally! It feels so good to be back in an apartment.

I think my intestines are whacked. Sometimes, it feels like they've been filled with lead and they're weighing down on each other crushing my abdomen, and the only way to relieve it is to lay down. Other times I can feel food or whatever moving through them. It's weird.

Tonight I'm headed to California! All night...on a bus...woot....and on the way home we're driving all night....on a bus...whatever it takes to get there, right?

My hair is all competition ready, and it is the funniest thing walking around in the real world, seeing all the looks I get. hahaha

Ummm, I'm pretty sure I originally had a point to this post, but I seem to have lost it along the way. Have a great weekend everyone!

I'm going there someday

I went to the temple yesterday. It'd been over a month since I'd been, and oh my greatness, it's like every time I go I've forgotten how good it feels to be there. It felt like coming home. It reminded me of what Peter said on the Mount of Transfiguration with Christ, "Lord, it is good for us to be here." Amen! It's good to be at the temple! I really want to be able to go on a regular basis this upcoming semester. Last year was a little off and on...the beginning of the summer was better...but still. It's going to be uber tricky finding time, but it's a commandment, right? And the Lord giveth no commandments save he shall prepare a way to accomplish them, right? So I'll do what I can.

New Favorite Song:

My heart is yours to fill or burst, to break or bury, or wear as jewelry, whichever you prefer.

La voiture de mes reves...

I am the opposite of claustrophobic. I love small spaces: crowds, bathroom stalls, my walk-in closet, the lifejacket cubby in Jody's boat, etc.

So...I think I have found the perfect car for me:A smart car. Admit it, it's the cutest car you've ever seen. It gets great gas mileage, is fairly inexpensive, and it is so European. If you want to buy me a Christmas present...you know what I want. :)

Afterthought

I think this every day on my to and from campus, and I really just need to get it out of my system before I go a little crazy:

I hate, hate, hate it when people go 30 on a 35 mph road or 40 on a 50 mph road, especially as they're passing the speed limit sign. Hello! People have to get places, and I understand if you don't want to speed, in fact, I commend you on your desire to be safe, but could you AT LEAST DRIVE AT THE SPEED LIMIT? IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?

Whew.

Another small item of interest: I got a new phone. Never in my life have I had a "cute" phone because quite frankly, I don't really care what my phone looks like or what features it has, so long as I can call people. But...my family was up for an upgrade and the blue chocolate phone was free, so I got it. And it matches my blue camera. And I love it.

And I hope you all have wonderful weekends. In exactly one week I'll be back in California!! Cheers!

Like Vines...

Hotsprings are a beautiful thing.
That's all I have to say about that.
:D

Viva Las Vegas, Baby!

I do not pretend to like Las Vegas; in fact, it is one of my least favorite places in the world because of: bugs, heat, sketcho stuff, casinos, cigarette smoke, heat, heat, heat.
BUT, last weekend I found several reasons to enjoy it all the same.
1. Ballroom competitions- the whole reason for this trip. I haven't competed since March, and oh my greatness, it was a blast. 3rd place wasn't too bad of a placing either ;)
2. Shopping- although I didn't actually buy anything (I'm still broke from California and the H&M at Planet Hollywood is crappy), it was still very enjoyable.
3. Pool parties until 3:30 AM- really, need I say more?
4. Cheesecake Factory- sooooo delicious. I'm hungry just thinking about my raspberry lemon cheesecake right now...
5. Chilling in hotel rooms- I don't know why, but it's really fun just to hang out with friends in hotels. Maybe I'm a little weird..:s
6. The company I kept- Basically, I went down with the most fun people. It was awesome!

Errr...(I'm feeling British today)

Hmmm.
You know, I'm almost constantly writing blog posts in my head (anyone else do that?), but I really can't think of anything to say. I've been really lazy politically lately....have been deleting all of my Washington Post emails without even reading them, barely skimming my Glenn Beck newsletter, and I've got 6 (maybe 8? can't remember) Bill O'Reilly podcasts to which I have yet to listen.
Pretty much I've been doing exactly what I wished for some four months ago. My time is equally split between practice at the RB and working in the lab (although it's been a little tipped to the RB side lately...).
And now I have to go back to practice.
This post really didn't have any point, it's just been a few days since I've written anything publishable...I wrote a couple of things earlier this week, but they were definitely only meant for my eyes.

Vegas comp is in: 1 day
Embassy is in: 14 days
I move into my apartment in: 14 days
Classes start in: 19 days

One minute you're down, the next you're...

It was announced this morning: I am competing the medley at Embassy after all.

Rollercoaster, I tell you. Ballroom is one long rollercoaster.

The Minnow and the Trout

Well, this post was nothing like I was planning on writing. Read on though, it's a little interesting.

I took AP chemistry my senior year of high school. I hadn't taken chem since I was a sophomore, so I was a little nervous...it was hard. Really, really hard. It'd take me a couple hours to complete three problems on the homework. I was getting 70% on tests (which back in high school of course was entirely unacceptable to me), and I wasn't understanding the material like I was used to when I'd taken it two years earlier.
One night I snapped. I couldn't figure out a problem so I moved on to the next one. Couldn't solve it either. Moved on to the next, couldn't do it, etc etc, and finally I just lost it. With angry tears streaming down my face, I threw that textbook as hard as I could at my pretty yellow bedroom wall. That wall still has a dent in it almost two years later. That textbook lost both its front and back covers.
But I pulled it together eventually and went on to get a 5.
I react violently to change sometimes, especially when it doesn't go my way at first. I fight it tooth and nail until I finally sink into a routine again, and then I'm fine. Then I excel. But until I get a grip...it's not pretty.
Big change: I started rehearsals for tour team. They are hard. I feel like a crappy dancer. I get corrected a lot, and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to compete the medley in Embassy. BUT, I haven't cried yet, and give me a couple weeks and I'll find my stride again.

I want to learn Mandarin. Just a parting thought.

Chapstick and Chapped Lips and Things Like Chemistry

It's now less than a month until school starts and in honor of that, I have changed my blog template to a more festive layout. Enjoy!

A Picture's Worth A Thousand Words

I adore California. And my friends. Put them both together for five days, and it's wonderful.

Ender Will Save Us All

Oh goodness. I am such a silly girl.
This is what I have done for the past, ok, my entire life: every time any guy shows any interest in me, I back way off. WAY OFF. Even if I liked the guy in the first place!
I think I am afraid of relationships. I just cannot get comfortable with the idea of tying myself to someone else, even in the loosest of ways!
I don't know how to play this game. Every scrap of ability I have was not put into anything people-related.

And I'm sorry I'm such a control freak. Gosh, sometimes I look back on what I've done, and I'm like, what the heck was I thinking and why did no one slap me? Every project, every event, everything, I just have to bestow it upon myself to get my hands in all the details. Probably a good trait when it comes to school, but you know what, sometimes I should just chillax and let other people do something.

Ah, deedge. I ought to write something peppy about California. Soon to come, I promise.

I get by with a little help from my friends

So help me out guys: I'm going to be on a plane and on the beach this week, and I'm fresh out of ideas of books to read. Suggestions please?

Things I overheard when talking to myself

One year ago:
I was full of excitement and fear and anticipation for college. I was devastated to lose most of my friends to other schools. The thrill of being a valedictorian, national merit scholar, and rocking my AP tests was just beginning to wear off, and I was scared for chemistry.
I didn't even know how to use a balance.

Now I can run XRDs in my sleep.

I was thinking about that yesterday, how much has changed in just one year, how much I've learned at college. At the same time though, coming back and living at home and being with all those friends I felt like I lost has shown me that things maybe haven't changed as much as I thought. We slid right back into old routines of watching "So You Think You Can Dance" and hanging out whenever we didn't have work and I don't know...it's all so easy. I missed you guys last year, I really did. I missed that feeling of being with a big group of friends who have all known each other for years and who have so many memories together. It doesn't feel like we have to do some huge activity every time we're together unlike when you meet new people and if you don't have something to do it gets awkward fast. With us it's so comfortable.
Bah. It's almost over. Can you believe it's nearly August? I'm really excited to go back to school...I just wish you were all coming with me.

You know what, I really like Garrison Keillor's writing style. I completely disagree with him politically, but I like his style.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHAAAAAAAAA?
I'm in the 3 couple cha-cha!!!!!
And I can't change my facebook status to reflect my excitement because I'm using it as advertisement for selling my dresses, so I have use this as an outlet!!!!
AHHHHH!!!!! I can't believe it!!!!! New team members are never in those kinds of numbers!!!!

Also, I am in: west coast, viennese waltz, pirates (I'm a pirate, not a soldier), MicGalaxy black light dance, samba (!!!!), and the latin medley. I'm so excited!!!!

Okay. I'm done now.

Wake up, mud frogs, wake up!

She was elusive. She was today. She was tomorrow. She was the faintest scent of a cactus flower, the flitting shadow of an elf owl. We did not know what to make of her. In our minds we tried to pin her to a corkboard like a butterfly, but the pin merely went through and away she flew.

***

It was wonderful to see, wonderful to be in the middle of: we mud frogs awakening all around. We were awash in tiny attentions. Small gestures, words, empathies thought to be extinct came to life. For years the strangers among us had passed sullenly in the hallways; now we looked, we nodded, we smiled. If someone got an A, others celebrated, too. If someone sprained an ankle, others felt the pain. We discovered the color of each other's eyes.
It was a rebellion she led, a rebellion for rather than against. For ourselves. For the dormant mud frogs we had been for so long.
I was used to peering through the lens, to framing the picture, and I could see it. I could feel it in myself. I felt lighter, unshackled, as if something I had been carrying had fallen away. But I didn't know what to do about it. There was no direction to my liberation. I had no urge to color my hair or trash my sneakers. So I just enjoyed the feeling and watched the once amorphous student body separate itself into hundreds of individuals. The pronoun "we" itself seemed to crack and drift apart in pieces.

from the book Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

THE Cruise Post

Cruises are weird.

Every day our "stateroom attendant" would come in and clean our rooms and fold our towels into different animals. We got a monkey, an elephant, and a person sunbathing.
One night at dinner our maitre d' announces that all of our servers have a special performance for us. The song "Feeling hot, hot, hot" comes on and in parade our servers dancing with various objects on their heads (dessert plates, vases, bowls, etc). Then the macarena comes on and he invites us all to get up and dance!!!! It was really funny actually. The night after our servers sang this one Italian song that supposedly everyone knows, but I don't...
Every chance they could, the cruise photographers had backdrops and things set up so they could snap our pictures and then charge us an arm and a leg to buy them. Every night was like the prom. People would be all dressed up, lined up to get their photo taken before going in to dinner.
Sometimes it felt like I was at EFY. There were all of these activities planned out every day for people to participate in and have lots of FUN!!! Also, about an hour after we boarded we had an emergency drill where we all got herded around wearing these life jackets that were probably from the 1940's and wouldn't hold up anyone if we had to abandon ship. We all lined up and headed up to the proper decks with cruise employees directing our path just like EFY.
The Windjammer where we ate breakfast, lunch, and late night pizza smelled like burnt crayons and wet rags.

Cruises are fun.

Food was constantly available. Breakfasts had every possible breakfast food item you could possibly want (and some that you definitely didn't...grits, anyone?). Dinner was like eating out at a top quality restaurant every night. Pizza was available in the Windjammer until 2 AM. Bartenders were always walking around willing to get a drink for anyone. Room service was free since we'd already paid for all of this food with our ticket.
Sure, the two pools were filled with salt water, but even that was kind of part of the fun. It was like the ocean minus creepy seaweed and sharks.
There were all of these excursions you could sign up to do. I signed up to snorkel! It was the most bizarre feeling, sticking your head under water and breathing air...I had to remind myself to stop holding my breath. I saw orange geribaldi, petted (? maybe poked is a better word) a sea cucumber, and saw a bunch of other fish. I managed to avoid sea weed and other aquatic plants, thank goodness.
Our tv had a million movie channels all showing "Enchanted" and "National Treasure 2" in different languages. I watched them both in French for a while, which for me is definitely a fun activity. Also, E True Hollywood Story was on every night and Becky and I would watch it until we fell asleep. We learned all about the lives of Will Smith, Nicole Kidman, and Vanessa Williams (totally didn't know she was Miss America).
I saw dolphins. A whole entire pod of them was swimming near the ship while I was walking out on one of the decks. They were so beautiful!

Cruises are eye-opening.

On the dining staff alone were people of almost thirty different nationalities. We had servers from Panama, India, and the Philippines. The passengers were equally varied. I overheard native French speakers on several occasions, much to my pleasure.
Living where I do, people don't really drink...like ever....I don't think I'd ever been around drunk people before the cruise. People drank pretty much all the time on it though. The "general store" on the ship was 5/8 alcohol, 2/8 cigarettes, and 1/8 candy. Drunk people doing karaoke...I have to admit, it's kind of entertaining.
We got to visit another country!! Going to Mexico was really interesting. We got to go shopping in all of the little stores packed with touristy items (and shirts saying the F word...not sure those are big sellers, but whatever...)and haggle with the sales people and whatnot. The best part: seeing a huge Mexican flag flying and realizing that we were definitely not in America anymore. So cool.

Anyway, cruises are pretty darn fun. I love the feeling of the boating rocking in the water. I love the gorgeous sunsets with the light reflecting off the ocean. I had a blast. :)

I'm going back to the start.

Hmmm, what to say, what to say....here's a few unrelated thoughts (posted under an unrelated title. It's a line from a Coldplay song):
I'm going running tomorrow for the first time in weeks. I can't wait.
Do you ever just get that antsy feeling in your body where your muscles just want to be used? I get that sometimes, where I just feel like running or flinging myself around dancing. Maybe I'm just a weirdo...but I've been feeling like that a lot lately. I crave movement. I guess it comes with the territory of being a dancer.

Today I went through and did the "assignment" we got from mission prep last Sunday. We had to come up with five questions of the soul and then find answers for them in the Book of Mormon. So I came up with five questions and then starting flipping through the topical guide and sure enough, I found answers for all of them in more than one place. It was a nice reminder that if you have questions, you really can search through the scriptures and find answers. I love it. The church is true guys, the church is true. :)

I'm really annoyed with the Obama glorifying in the press. It's not helping him out at all in the polls. It's still a dead heat between him and McCain. And if he cozies up with the Europeans it's not going to make him any more popular back at home. And that was really ugly and boring syntax for this paragraph. Just think about the ideas behind the words, not the sentence structure itself...

I need to go to bed.

I love it when the weather matches my mood.

I'm in a really meh mood right now so I do not want to gush about my vacation.
I guess I sort of forgot about the competitive aspect of team over the summer. I really hate the feeling of trying to be better than everyone else so that you get chosen to do the comp or be in that routine or get that spot. I hate it!

Ok, so I'm overreacting, and it's the first rehearsal of the year, and there will be many more, and Embassy's not until the 28th, but still!
The email I wish I could send to my director (highly censored, you never know who reads these things):
Dear [director],
I do not understand why you put me in this medley since the choreography is obviously so awkward on me. May I also remind you that I haven't even taken a [particular dance style] technique class yet? I respectfully ask to be moved to the [other medley], which is so much more of my style and body positioning. I'm not sure how you missed that during the auditions. Maybe my height is a problem? Although I know of three girls on the other medley who are the exact same height as me. Just saying.
Thank you very much,
Me

And yes, I'm very grateful to even be on the team. I cried when I found out I made it I was so happy. I'm just not feeling the love for this medley right now! So shoot me. Meh.

Land Ho!

I'm back on land, but not back at home yet.
I'm at my grandma's again, waiting to eat lunch and then begin the awful drive home....we'll probably get back around midnight tonight. yuckyuckyuckyuckyuckyuck.
More on the cruise to come. It was a blast. :)

Bon Voyage!

In 48 minutes, more or less, I'll be departing for the harbor for my cruise! I've never been on one before, so I'm very excited, even if it is just a small one along the coast of California and Baja Mexico. Keep your fingers crossed that I'll get tan...the tanner I get naturally, the less fake stuff I have to put on next month before my Vegas comp.
Anyway, I went to Urban Outfitters this morning. It is quite the cute little shop. It sort of reminds me of an edgier Anthropologie with guys' clothing too. They had really cute home furnishings and kitchen accessories and things. I noticed these Obama and Hillary mugs, so I went over to see if they had a McCain one, and yep, I found one. Too bad it was an ANTI McCain mug. What the heck? Democrats aren't the only ones who like quirky, funky stores. Young Republicans can like that kind of stuff too! So why are you only catering to them? That annoyed me a bit, but I put it aside to enjoy the really cute lampshade with black velvet birds all over it (sounds retarded, but it was cute, trust me), and the mouse cheese grater. Maybe I'll write them a letter, just to see if I'd get any sort of response back. I'll look into that when I get home.
36 minutes left now. This may my last post for the next week, so au revoir, mes amis! I'll be seeing you! Check out Urban Outfitters if you can (even if they are totally politically biased). Loves!

100th Post

Post writing warning: This post basically is a long rambling after having my brains shaken around at an amusement park all day. Read on at your own risk.

This is my one hundredth blog post. Congratulations to myself for being such a busy little blogger.

I'm not really in a celebratory mood, though. I just got back from Magic Mountain, and holy cow, that place will wipe you out. My brother, sister, and I went on Revolution, the Viper, Colossus, Goliath, the Batman ride, bumper cars (now those were intense), and this "family friendly" log ride that was not in fact, family friendly by my definition. I have never been on so many crazy rollercoasters in such a short period of time in my life. I still feel like I'm weightless dropping down a huge descent. And it's been well over an hour since we got home. It was great, though, it really was. :)

Do you ever have it happen to you that after you read a novel you really got into you start thinking or writing in the same sort of voice as the book? I finished Davita's Harp (no underline function available, so we'll go with italics) this morning and I keep thinking a bit like the main character, a sort of melancholy, innocent, serious voice. I love Chaim Potok. I wish Mormon culture had a Chaim Potok to write about our religion. I read his books and find myself so intrigued with Jewish culture. It's so interesting. I wish someone would do that for my religion, make it accessible and interesting to those who know nothing about it, not these cheesy Mormon romance novels and Jack Weyland books...ugh (no offense if you're a fan, I'm just not, hehe). Also, I'd really like someone to do that for ballroom culture as well. Believe me, it's its own sub-world.
Back to the book. Now that I've finished it, I really want to see Picasso's Guernica (italics work for painting titles too). I wonder where that painting is. If this internet wasn't so darn slow I'd google it. Is it even in America? Maybe the Metropolitan Museum in New York? I'm going there (the city, maybe not the museum) next springish.
Which brings up another point. I love art museums. I think they are so fun to visit. The only problem is, most of my siblings do not, so every time we go on vacation we don't stay very long. When I went to DC two? three? summers ago, I had to drag my brother through the National Art Gallery so I could see everything I wanted (it still wasn't enough). I once heard that the average person looks at a painting for less than thirty seconds. That's kinda pathetic. So I try to look longer.
And that reminds me of something else. We went the the Huntington Gardens a couple of days ago (which I highly, highly recommend if you're ever in the Los Angeles area) and I finally got around to seeing their old book and manuscript collection. It was amazing. First editions of Shakespeare's plays, a Guttenberg Bible, tons of old illuminated manuscripts, letters written by George Washington and Charlotte Bronte, an original copy of the Canterbury Tales, one of Thomas Paine's pamphelets, and much more. So cool! After I amass my fortune I want to collect old books and art. (Which reminds me of something else: my parents are letting me have a drawing by my great Uncle Roman who was an artist. Thus begins my art collection.)

All right, I think this has gone on long enough. Congratulations if you read all the way to the end! You deserve something great. Go get yourself an imeem account and listen to free music. OR, go to youtube and watch videos by frezned and get a free laugh. OR, even better, do both.
Have a great weekend guys :)

I could not think straight enough to come up with a title for this post. Pick your own.

Hello from beautiful California!!

Actually, since I'm visiting in July the weather is exactly the same as back home. BUT, there are lots more palm trees and kitschy old houses so I'll stick with my original statement.
I'm at my grandma's house using her computer which has....dial...up...internet...(remember my rant about slow internet from a little while ago? I think this is my payback...)

You know what, I don't think I've ever really been in LA as a touristy-tourist. First of all, whenever I come with my family we always stay with my grandma, never in hotels. We go to beaches that are unknown and not crowded, we only do the Disneyland thing every few years, I've only been to Hollywood once and it was because my uncle really wanted to go, and we always go to Griffith Park. Who on earth comes to LA and then goes to Griffith Park? How many people have even heard of Griffith Park? Exactly, I bet none of you have. That's because it's not a touristy-tourist attraction. I don't even know what the touristy-tourist attractions are here. I know there's a 7-11 around the corner and where all the cool rock caves are on Leo Cario (spelling...?) beach and which famous paintings are in the Hunting Gardens gallery, but that's about it. Oh, and I know about the pony ride at Griffith Park. It's a real treat. I had to do some major research for my trip in a few weeks with my friends here to figure out what normal tourists do in LA. It's kinda nice actually. I can only handle so much Disneyland. Coming here is what a vacation is supposed to be: unplanned, relaxed, wake up late (which I do anyway at home actually since I can set my own hours), go to a quirky museum or a random concert, get some shopping done, go home feeling refreshed.

Question: capitalization or no capitalization on facebook? I honestly cannot make up my mind. (Did I already write a post on this? I can't remember.) No capitalization is nice and informal, but it can also come off as unintelligent. Capitalization makes you look like a grammarian (so long as the rest of what you're saying is correct I guess), but it also feels a little uptight unless you throw in a million smilies or ellipses (which I do anyway whether I'm capitalizing or not...see?) to lessen the blow. I usually just go with whatever the person I'm talking to does, but that's a little wishy-washy. I should just make up my mind once and for all. Am I a capitalizer or not? Hmm...

I have spent far too much time in a vehicle with six other people today.

Something I should try to keep in mind:

Shut up and dance.

Meh.

God Bless America.

I am an American.

I think we've all heard that line way too many times as a result of that lame commercial on Channel One all through junior high and high school. I finally feel like I appreciate the sentiment of it, though.

I went and heard Glenn Beck speak as part of all the Freedom Festival festivities. At the beginning of the fireside (hmm, not quite the right word for it, but it'll do), the band played all of the theme songs for the different branches of the military. As each was played, people who had served in that branch stood. The center was completely packed, and there were the people standing who had given so much to our country. I was fighting to hold back tears. That's never happened to me before! I've never gotten emotional about anything military, but there I was rapidly blinking, being fully overwhelmed by gratitude for their service. How lucky we are that we don't have to physically be on the battlefield fighting for our freedoms. How grateful we should be to those that are.
I think though, that we do have a responsibility to fight for our freedoms back at home. I think that it is our job to ensure that the constitution doesn't get twisted into whatever people in power think it should mean. I think it is our job to fight for the values that we hold most dear-families, faith, virtue, hard work, service, love of God and of man, etc etc. We can't just sit by and let this country turn into a politically correct, socialist society. Get out and vote guys! Do your homework, research the candidates, figure out what positions they have on issues. Don't let the left-wing media feed you an opinion. We cannot afford to become politically apathetic, something of which I have definitely been guilty...but no longer :)

I can't believe it took me nineteen years to come to this, but I love America. Of course, I've always "loved" my country, I think everyone does (except for liberals who hate America and everything for which it stands, but that is another topic for another day), but I finally realized today that I love America in a very concrete and real way. I love this country. It is my home. I love the western mountains, the east coast trees, the southern rivers, the west coast beaches, the midwest corn fields, I love it all (don't peg me for an environmentalist though). I love the good people here who are trying their best to make this a better place. For all of my complaints about liberals, taxes, and the government in general, I'm not immigrating to Canada anytime soon. This is home. "I pledge my life, my fortune, and my sacred honor." I want to spend the rest of my life serving my God and my country in whatever capacity I can. I am so very proud to be an American!
(ah, so cheesy, but at least I'm sincere.)

Happy Fourth of July, guys. For once I'm going to try to remember why we celebrate in the first place.

God bless America, my home, sweet home.