trentatre

After Church

Things to notice in this picture:

1. our nasty bathroom mirror that I will be windexing shortly

2. my ridiculous face

3. my bunched up skirt

4. my sweatpants under my bunched up skirt

5. my bridesmaid dress from Sammy's wedding

6. broken hook rack on the door

7. how excited I am to be taking this picture

8. there are two of me

trentadue

Mmmmm.. Thai Ruby hosted by Aaron for the Culturally Obese was amazing!

Also, fantastic service. I will be returning, mark my words.

trentuno

This is the ghost town that is BYU at 8:20am on Friday morning.

trenta

edamame

Suspicious People

Today, my blog post is inspired by a curious fellow who frequents the Center for Teaching and Learning, my place of work. I know his real name, but for the sake of anonymity, we'll call him Tyrone.

Tyrone first showed up a few months ago while I was working at the front desk. He leaned over the counter and stuck his nose all up in my business. (If any of you have ever worked as a receptionist or hostess--and I have done both--you realize just how annoying this is. People for some reason feel entitled to look at what you're doing because they are talking to you. THIS IS NOT OK. If you go into a restaurant and just have to see what the hostess is writing as she takes your name down, you are one of these people and should seriously consider changing your ways as quickly as possible. Also, if, like Tyrone, you feel the need to see what the receptionist is doing on her computer when you go into a place of business, reconsider your feelings. You can probably get just as much accomplished by not being a nosey SOB.) I'm already about to blow a fuse after he carefully examines my facebook page (because that just happened to be what I was doing), and his reason for gracing me with his presence was in no way helpful in his the efforts to un-annoy me.

Tyrone wants to "be involved with the CTL."

"Ummm.. what? OK."

Apparently, every now and then people come in and want to be involved in some way, which is understandable. Weird, but understandable. After all, we do a lot of work that effects students. But Tyrone wants to LIVE here. He's that interested. He shows up almost every time I'm at the front desk to chat with Russ. (For those of you who don't know Russ, he is better known as Pres. Osguthorpe. He's the general sunday school president for the church and he is also the director of the CTL, two very big and time consuming jobs.) Russ doesn't have infinite amounts of time to spend talking to people like Tyrone. And, while Tyrone waits for Russ, he asks me random questions about my job and classes I take at BYU. Weirdie.

Now, I must say that I should probably be following the example of the general authority sitting five yards away from me and be patient with Tyrone, but I think he is rude and highly inconsiderate. However, my level of patience for this man is irrelevant. He has become the talk of the office. Everyone knows who he is and wishes him gone because he's a time waster and he's odd. In short, he is a suspicious person.

What do I mean by that? I mean that I suspect him of being up to something at all times, I suspect that he's not all there upstairs, I suspect that some therapy would do him good, I suspect that he doesn't realize what he's doing, I suspect that he's pen pals with Flava Flave, I suspect that he's auditioned for Parental Control on MTV and his talent was making music by playing his armpit hairs like a violin, I suspect that he thinks he's some other race than he really is, and/or I suspect he's an alien.

Suspicious people in my life:

1. The guy who sits in the lobby bothering me about my job (Tyrone)

2. The incessant facebook commenter (who feels the need to comment on EVERYTHING despite the fact that he/she is not funny or interesting)

3. Backwards walking girl

4. Guy at work who plants farts everywhere (everyone knows it's you)

5. Little Ceasar's pizza dancer (some suspicious people are pleasant and welcome... but still suspicious)

6. Party girl

7. The tool in the front row of PGP

... and so many more.

Who are the suspicious people in your life?

ventinove

Thankfully, after the longest day ever (yesterday), I was able to come home a little bit early today (around 3pm) and have a nice, relaxing afternoon. Our apartment has been stinking bad lately and it seems I'm the only one capable of remedying that so I took the first opportunity I had (being this afternoon) to do a thorough cleaning of the kitchen. I turned on my Enya Pandora station, lit some candles, and got to work. The kitchen is now lovely and most of the smell has been eliminated, with only the inevitable remnants left that will hopefully be gone with a little air pumping through the place. So, once the place was finally clean and I could be at peace, I sat down and got some good reading in. I'm still exhausted, but at least I'm calm.

ventotto

Yesterday was one of the longest days of my life! Not that it was bad. It was just LOOONNNG. I woke up at 5:30am, went to the gym at 6am, came home, showered, went to class at 8am until 10:30am and then did homework on campus until 12pm when I started working at the CTL and then from there, I went home to change and then went straight to Los from 4pm to 8pm. I got home, called my mom because it was her birthday and then started on my homework which I finished at 3am. I went to bed and woke up again at 6:40am this morning so that I could finish up what I didn't do last night. But, in the midst of this endlessnes, I found this lovely note from Sammy on my car as I was leaving one work place to go to another. It was so cute and thoughtful. I loved it so I had to take a picture. :)

ventisette

Today for FHE, Aaron did the activity/refreshments and we had fondue. These are some glamor shots of my fondue.

Here are some of my fellow FHE-ers and their fondue creation.

ventisei

The Best Tasting Terds in the World

I went over to Sammy and Chase's because they made churros. The churros looked like terds but they were oh so delicious and I loved the tasty treat. :) Thanks Chase and Sammy!!

venticinque

The Culturally Obese went to La Dolce Vita today for lunch. It was yummy but the service was a little weird. Either way, la vita E bella. :)

ventiquattro

Chase loves the Ice Cats.

Sue and her friend Jenny came down from Salt Lake and came in to Los for dinner with Sammy and Chase and then they went to one of the last Ice Cats (sadly now just the BYU team) games of the year and I got off early enough to come for the last period of the game. Go Ice Cats!!!

ventitre

That's right. This was my musical Valentine's Day card from my mom. Too bad I'm on Team Jacob.

ventidue

The man my man could smell like.

This is not the best pic because it was with my phone off my computer, but seeing this commercial for the first time was the biggest event of my day.

ventuno

Rex didn't want to be my pic of the day. Oops

Outside of Yourself

I know beautiful people who think they are nothing and terrible people who think they are the best thing to ever exist.

How do we get such terribly strange perceptions of ourselves? How can we be so totally off?

Seeing people that think they're something they're not worries me. Do I think I'm something I'm not? Probably--at least to some extent. Who doesn't? Do we imagine ourselves as we'd like to be and not as we really are? Do we magnify our faults until the good in us is obliterated in our own eyes? And more importantly, how does this effect us? When we think we're fantastic, does that limit our ability to humble ourselves and learn from others and even from our own mistakes? Perhaps. Perhaps what is more limiting is thinking that we are worth nothing and then not reaching our full potential.

So then, since our own perceptions of ourselves are inevitably flawed, which way is it better to lean toward? I think there should be a balance. But, when in doubt, I would say that if you are prone to build yourself up more than you ought to, maybe think for a second and decide whether what you're doing is really the right thing to do or whether you're sticking to it because of your pride. Pride is one of the most paralyzing emotions humans have. We all need to learn to put it aside a little more often.

And if you are prone to beating yourself up, take a minute to reflect on whether or not you need to be so worried. Maybe this particular thing is out of your hands, or maybe it's in your hands and you failed. You will live to see another day. Chances are, the world is not ending, even if the thing you failed at doing was pushing a button every 108 minutes.

Lastly, no matter who you are, watch this video. I get all teary-eyed every time (despite the fact that Kanye and Miley are in this). If there is one thing that we can all do to make our own lives better and to have a clearer perception of who we are, it is to serve each other and look outside of ourselves.

"He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." -Matthew 10:39

Was this post a little preachy? I may have gotten a little carried away. It's just that I don't know how you can not be inspired by a song featuring both Lil Wayne and Josh Groban.

Living the Dream

So my experience at the high school has been completely different from my experience at the junior high. For one thing, I haven't gotten five stars on everything I've done, which has been a little discouraging. But, I think I've learned a lot while working at the high school because the first time I taught was just not very awesome and I felt so lame. But the teacher gave me some tips and another opportunity to teach and it went a lot better. So, it was a little humbling, but I think it's good to be teachable and I think I am because I was able to successfully change the things that were not super effective the first time around and make my overall teaching experience better and hopefully got through to the students a little bit better too. It probably helped that the second time I taught (today) was to seniors who are like little adults and pay much better attention.

On a less professional, and I mean WAY less professional, note, me and Mallory have become "boarders." Actually, we probably shouldn't claim the title. At least I shouldn't because I can't even carve yet, but I'm starting to actually enjoy it as opposed to butt sliding down the mountain and going home exhausted, trying to convince myself that it was a good time. (The company is usually the only redeeming quality of the trip.) But anyway, we went twice this week, which is a lot for those of us who usually go once a year AT MOST. It's been PIMP. (I'm starting to talk like Mal, but she's also starting to talk like me so I don't feel too bad about it.) I'm way sore today because I took a couple of retarded tumbles, but it was well worth it. We also had some stimulating conversation with random strangers on the lift, which is always refreshing. There was one fellow who rode with us twice and I'm still debating whether or not that was just a coincidence. But he was a lovely man and shared with us his love for snowboarding. It was inspiring to say the least. One thing I recommend to all snowboarders ever is to bring the pod. Listening to my favorite jams really made the trip ten times more enjoyable... but then again maybe not everyone is as addicted to the magical goodness of the pod as I am. To each his own. To me, my ipod.

venti

Me and Mal went boarding at Brighton again last night and it was SO much fun! We're pretty much pros by now. We met some awesome people on the lifts... specifically a little fellow we like to call New Hampshire. He was lovely.. a little weird.. but mostly lovely. All in all, it was a great trip, but I'm left a little bit beat up today and in need of a good night's sleep.

diciannove

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!! and HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AARON!!! We started another tradition today after church inspired by Aaron's birthday where we cook a yummy treat and hang out for a couple hours. It was a lot of fun and there were some fantastic pictures taken, but I settled on just two: Big Pimpin' USA and the lovely cookies we made that my mom sent to me for Valentine's Day.

diciotto

Today was yet another successful adventure of the Culturally Obese. We went to India Palace on Center Street in Provo and it was FANTASTIC. High reviews from all of us, although I liked mine the best. Highlights of the trip included: Kate's little behind, the rose, the eight servers we had to help us, the continual water filling, and the naan. Oh, the magical wonders of naan. I couldn't resist putting up this picture because I think it captures the essence of Aaron and Lisa so well. I also wasn't settling for just one picture. This was quite the outing.

diciassette

Last night, Susan and Sammy had an Olympics Opening Ceremonies party. It was a lot of fun and it was good to see Sue and Tyler again. I wasn't quite as excited as Susan, but I enjoyed the opening ceremonies and the company. Go USA!!

sedici

We thought we weren't going to get to make our annual snowboarding trip to Brighton with Mallory's brothers this year because we thought it would be on New Year's but I had to work. But we did it on Thursday instead and it was so much fun! We went with Matt, Mike, Mike's friend Kacee, and Matt's friend Sam... same crew as last year + Sam. It was pretty epic. There were fireworks during our last run and then afterward, we went to dinner at a mexican restaurant I can't remember the name of. But it was SO much fun! Can't wait until next year. I wish I had gotten a shot of the whole group but I spaced it so this will have to do. :)

quindici

I have been terrible at putting my pictures up this week, but don't worry. I took them. So I'm making up for it now. This is from Wednesday. Me and Kelly went in to Los for dinner and Elise was our server. It was good times.

quattordici

I found this valentine on the back of my box of yummy heart nastiness treats and I gave it to Stacey. It's probably one of the ugliest and best valentines I've ever seen so I thought it only fitting to document it.

tredici

I spent a lovely evening at the Phillips' in Tville last night and played with cute babies and other people and only managed to take three pictures. This was the best out of the three... Mallory's little brother Matt catchin some Z's on the couch.

dodici

SUPERBOWL SUNDAY!! Chase and Sammy had a party at their place and although it ended badly with the Colts losing, it was still fun. I had everyone take pictures with my camera. This was the most amusing and appropriate of them but I don't know why the quality is so crappy. I think something odd was pushed or something during the passing around of the camera. I wasn't sure if this could count as my picture for the day since Cohan took it, not me, so here's another one, taken by me, of everyone watching the game...

undici

We had another meeting of the Culturally Obese today. It was epic. We went to my favorite place, Yamato and everyone LOVED it even though we left WAY too full. We were obnoxious and got into their garden though. Oops! Clearly I didn't get the Asian hand thing memo. Next time, I will have the best Asian hands of everyone.

Sorry... picture overload. Today you get two. I also got this fancy new air freshener for my car. It's fancy.

dieci

I spent a lot of my day reading this book, so I thought it fitting to take a picture of it and put it on here. It's a good one--a real page turner. I'm only about half way through but I'm hoping to finish it this weekend. Wish me luck!

nove

This is the postcard I got today in the mail from my mom when she and my dad went to Lake Arrowhead. They thought they were all cool because they saw snow. Psh!

otto

This is one of my favorite views of all time. It's the view that you get when you're leaving the Provo temple. Not only is it beautiful, but I always am happy when I see because I'm leaving the temple and I love the peace that being there brings.

sette

I covered the front desk at the CTL today for three hours (longer than normal) and I thought I would take a picture to celebrate the fact that after three years at the CTL and two years of helping cover the front desk, I FINALLY got my own name plate thing. It's a pretty big deal.

Chronic Pain

I have no idea what it must feel like to have chronic pain, but I think I got a little glimpse of it this week. I had the work out of death on Saturday morning and here I am Tuesday afternoon still barely capable of walking straight. Each step is painful and awkward and it takes me twice as long to do just about anything. And I'm feeling much better than I did yesterday. I had no idea how debilitating a workout could be. But wow. I now have an idea. Anyway, it got me to thinking about people that might feel something kind of like this on a regular basis and how annoying that would be. I still don't understand quite what it would be like, but I'm sure glad I don't have chronic pain of any kind and even though this experience has been (and still is) painful, I think I have a little better idea of what people go through who suffer from it. So, ha! It's a blessing in disguise! Kind of. :)

Other than being all obsessed with how difficult it is to stand up and sit back down, today I started at Lone Peak High School. That place is like a palace!! Holy crap! My high school (good old Troy) was a prison compared to this place. It smells like a mall! What high school smells like a mall?! I don't know if it was because the classrooms were new and clean or if the kids all just walked in with brand new clothes on. Either way, this high school is way different than anything I've ever seen. They have a huge knight statue! Anyway, it blew my mind. But it's going well so far. I just wish I didn't have to hobble everywhere like I'm handicapped or something. But whatever. This too shall pass.

sei

We had "home evening" (my ward decided to get rid of the family in the term) at my apartment with another group tonight and played a game where we write famous people's names down and describe them and our team mates have to guess who it is. It was a lot of fun even though our team got killed. Good old FHE.

cinque

Me and Kelly threw a superhero party tonight and it was uber fun. This was definitely the picture of the evening though. This is what happens when me, Kelly, and Susan try to take a "cute" picture.