sessanta

Festival of Colors

Change

What do you do when you need a change but you're stuck in the same town doing the same thing in the same apartment with the same people while working the same jobs and having no real opportunity to get out of any of these things for at least one more year, possibly two?

I'm slightly bored with my life. I think that's a bad sign.

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Went down to Spanish Fork to pick up colors for the Festival of Colors tomorrow and stopped on the side of the road to take this sweet pic.

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Time to change my wallpaper on my desktop from a winter wonderland to a more summery scene. Also, Gchat with Mal.

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I know, I know.

Not only can you not really read this, but I did two candy heart pictures in a row.

Deal with it.

Click on it to read.

I created this little passage during PGP today. My attention span in class has really gone downhill lately.

cinquantasei

Today was a good day.

During devotional, Mallory and I solved the health care problem. Not too shabby. After work and school, Mal and I went to Walmart (hate Walmart) to get me a shoe organizer, then we went to Los to get some food and to party, then we went to Smith's and loaded up on grub and ran into Chelsea and Eric and also found these gems (Edward and Jacob Sweethearts: Fire and Ice), and then we came back to my place and studied for and took our PGP quiz. It was a really good version of what could have been a really crappy day.

While Mallory and I are great friends, we do disagree on somethings. I just can't connect with a person who prefers ice cold vampire blood to the hot-bodied, sculpted torso of a werewolf man!

Politics

I have tried for most of my life to steer clear of anything having to do with politics, but I came to the realization today that there is no way to avoid them. You know what it's like to have something gnawing at you for years and years but you continue to ignore it? Well, I've actually got a ton of those things, but one huge one has been politics. I have distanced myself from all kinds of politics because they scare me. I am a very opinionated person and looking back on an experience I had my senior year of high school when I participated in a debate about abortion, I know that the way I express my opinions can sometimes be explosive. So, I have tried very hard to avoid having an opinion about anything political from that point on.

I have done this by remaining ignorant. I have never voted because I have never known enough about the candidates to justify supporting one or the other and I refuse to blindly follow one party or another. I don't claim a political party because I have views that agree with both and because I refuse to educate myself on what each really supports. I never watch political speeches and I never take a stand on any issues. I argue that it is because of my general lack of knowledge that I keep quiet, and I do feel that if you don't know what you are talking about, you should educate yourself before taking any staunch position. However, I am finally facing my fears and trying to become more involved.

I have been taking education classes and they have a lot to do with the community and the government because, let's face it, that's where I'll be getting my paycheck for quite a while probably, and the more educated I become, the more involved I want to become. I was hoping this would never happen, but I think, despite my previously avoiding the subject entirely, that it is my responsibility as a citizen to contribute to the betterment of my community. I think it is especially true if I want the right to complain about things like (dare I say it?) Healthcare Reforms and No Child Left Behind... because I plan on complaining for years and years to come.

So, with my new found love of politics, I am open to learning all I can and would love any information any of you might have.

Also, I figure since I've been perfectly capable of and willing to get involved in politics on a smaller scale (such as those at Los and my other places of work as well as in classes), I should be just as willing to get involved in politics on a larger and more important scale. Because, just as it is important who is managing a restaurant so that they can make good policies and make good lead servers, which will affect the employees at the restaurant on a more personal and immediate level, it is important who we vote as president and what bills are passed because the decisions made at the top really do trickle all the way down to every single one of us in one way or another.

cinquantacinque

We made posters... again... in Adolescent Development today.

This class is so riveting that I had to line up the markers and take a picture in order to stay awake.

I do learn things in this class though. For instance, the ability to understand that I was just being sarcastic when I said that the class was riveting is a cognitive skill developed during adolescence. Good work, teens. You can understand my blog.

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This little dude is my new best friend.

He's Emily's baby, Nathan.

We had a Rock Band party tonight and he is looking at Danny play the drums in this picture.

It's fascinating.

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I really wish I hadn't taken this in front of metal. I took some with Elise in the background, but they were a little out of focus. So this is the best I could do. This little beauty is a fork that Russ turned into a flower/heart wrenching tool at work yesterday.

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The Drive Home

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Sting making this face made my day.

Watch this. It's unbelievable.

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Yamato two nights in a row. Sushi=Happiness.

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Cash

Things I Learned Today

1. If you want to shut down BYU for an hour when it's not Sunday or 11am on Tuesday, get the basketball team in double over time in a NCAA game. The results are phenomenal. This happened today.

2. I'm not the only one who does weird stuff in front of the mirror in public restrooms and then freaks out when someone comes in and tries to pretend like they're doing normal bathroom things. I walked into the bathroom and some girl was doing something strange in front of the mirror and when she saw me, she immediately freaked out mentally (I could see it in her eyes) and then as casually as possible walked into the nearest stall to do her business.

3. I'm a terrible receptionist. I spend a lot of my time saying "I don't know" to people. At least I do it with a smile... sometimes.

4. I don't have as big of a bladder as Stacey, my roommate. Stacey came home last night and informed me that she has a huge bladder and that she knows this because they got a new bladder scanner at the hospital she works at and they scanned her bladder and it's huge. I have taken like 90 trips to the you-know-where today because I've been drinking a ton of water. Her bladder could beat up my bladder any day of the week.

5. Caffeine withdrawals can be UGLY. I will never do drugs since I'm pretty sure it will be worse than what I'm experiencing right now. I have been exhausted for the past two days and I now have a splitting headache. There's no explanation other than the 8 cans of DC I had on Sunday at the Phillips' and the 6 cups of DP I had Tuesday night at Los and then the complete lack of caffeine since then.

6. BYU campus is a prison when you need to finish something at work and you're having caffeine withdrawals. There's no caffeine within a one mile radius of me and I'm going crazy. My boss gave me something important to do before I leave today and it's taking me longer than expected. I have no access to caffeine and I need it like LOST fans need answers... and meds.

7. Sugar can help with caffeine withdrawals but it is not the cure. I thought I would grab something from the Twilight Zone so I got some Red Creme Soda hoping that they slipped some caffeine in there without BYU knowing and some Twizzler's Nibs. It's helping slightly but what I really need is a good solid 32 oz. Dr. Pepper.

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I got my hair done on Saturday and I really love it so I had a little MySpace photo shoot in the bathroom today. I deleted 90% of the pictures but I liked this one for some reason, so here it is. New hair cut by Claire. :)

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I had another fantastic evening with the Phillips family last night.

We celebrated Garrett's birthday with about 19 cakes and Garrett celebrated with some DC.

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We decided to go out to dinner just like in the old days.

The turn out was epic and it was super fun!

Afterward, me, Jenn, and Brad went snowshoeing which was also epic, but in a different way.

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Went to lunch with Rex yesterday at Red Robin and Kelly WASN'T THERE and he got two stuffed animals in one try with one of those impossible claw things. What a stud.

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Mallory's first experience ordering at Training Table. Next time, we're sharing the onion rings.

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I went snow shoeing for the first (and hopefully not the last) time this year tonight. Epic. I went with Mike and his friends Danny and Amber (who worked at the CTL last year). I also got the chance to try out my new headlamp I got from Kelly for Christmas. It is such an amazing headlamp. I could see everything and more.

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early morning/last minute homework for my disabilities class

apparently, education classes are just a ton of busy work

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Leah clearly didn't want this to be the one. Too bad, missy.

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Tanner, the master sculpture and his ice cube tray

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Late night Chili's with Aaron

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left work a little early to spend some quality time with malbop

went a little crazy at the salad bar

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Kelly

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This little guy helps me find my car all the time so I thought he deserved a little shout out. Holiday Ball shout out!

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Hands down the best part of my day: taking a nap/reading my scriptures on my favorite chair during my hour break in between jobs.

Happiness

... is just an illusion, filled with sadness and confusion.

(Name the song/band and in return, you will get my respect, a retail value of $475.)

This is not how I really feel, although that is a great song.

I was inspired by Rachel's blog and decided to make a list of ten things that make me happy as well.

1. the beach

2. the mountains

3. camping

4. walkabouts in the summertime

5. road trips

6. running

7. reading a good book

8. having a good conversation with a friend

9. the gospel

10. laughing

I found that there are about 9000 more things that make me happy as I was writing this. This is an uber condensed list. Also, I thought the picture above was a good representation of my list because it includes at least four of the ten things. It is of the beach, taken on a road trip with Kelly, who I was probably having a good conversation with, and I know for a fact I laughed at some point that day. Also, this could probably be considered a walkabout because we were in nature and it was the summertime.

It put me in a good mood just coming up with this list, so if you comment, tell me some things that make you happy and we can all be happy together! It will be like virtual hand holding... in a friend way.

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This is only half of the sources for my Pearl of Great Price paper. Excessive? To say the least.