Staring Problem

I find myself staring at people as I walk to and from campus because they have peaked my interest for one reason or another. For some reason, I'm under the impression that when I stare at people, they can't see me. Like I don't exist and people can't stare at me like I'm staring at them. Am I the only one with this problem? I submit that I am not. And here's why... as I was walking to school the other day, some goofy kid was staring at me as I walked by. I was staring right back of course but neither one of us acknowledged the other, that is until his lack of attention to where he was walking caused him to trip on the ice and land right on his rump just after he passed me. I turned around to see if he was ok and I think he suddenly realized that when you stare at people, they can see it, because his face turned bright red and he continued on his way. Now this may just have been because he ate it, but I'm guessing it was possibly because he ate it because he was staring at me, and I'm sure it wasn't because I was attractive or anything, but probably just because I was walking by and was someone he could stare at. He just didn't know his staring at me would end this way. I tell you this story of this absent-minded gentleman to share with you some wisdom I gained that day, just in case, like me, you didn't already have it:

People can see you when you stare at them (unless you are doing it with binoculars up in a tree or somewhere else far away, and if I just described you, for shame).

So do yourself a favor and stop staring at people if you currently have a habit of it, because if we're not careful, we'll all end up like my new friend who didn't think people could see him until he fell on his rear end in public.

I One-Upped Eminem

I've been on this running kick lately. I always said that the reason I didn't work out was because I didn't have a car or a gym membership. I know that I could have been working out on campus all these years, and I did my freshman year, but let's face it, I'm the lazy type when it comes to walking to campus. I minimize the number of times I have to walk to campus in a week for good reason... it's no fun.

But, along with buying a car, I bought myself a gym membership to Gold's. Now, I would actually probably prefer 24 Hour to Gold's, but when I went to 24, I had kind of a bad deal and paid waaay too much a month and Gold's also has a sweet theater room that inspires me to run for entire movies at a time, which is much more tolerable than just counting songs or looking out the window for an hour and a half at a time. So, I was a little hesitant to make the switch, but I'm happy with my decision now, so that's good.

Now that I've explained the decision-making process behind choosing a gym to go to, which I'm sure was riveting, I'll tell you how successful I've been at actually going to said gym. Surprisingly successful, actually. I manage to go about 4 to 6 times a week, usually at 6 in the morning before I go to school or work, and it's been, for lack of a better word, delightful. I go to the gym, get my workout on, and then come home, shower, and have about a half hour to eat breakfast (which I didn't used to do either) and read my scriptures and/or a book before I go to school or work or wherever I'm headed that day. My mornings are just great, which is important because good mornings help you have good days and good days help you have a good life, so I'd say things are going pretty well.

I'm especially impressed by myself because I've actually been making goals with the running. I want to run a marathon or a half marathon, or at least be able to, this summer. Also, I just figure if I'm going to be working out, I might as well get good at something while I'm at it. So, I try to do my own made up training techniques so that I get stronger and faster and all of that, and they seem to be working. I know this is not terribly impressive to all of you actual runners out there, but I ran 9 miles on Saturday for the first time in my life! It wasn't too long ago that three was a stretch, so I'm feeling really good about it.

This is just a little personal triumph for me that I thought I'd share. I've always liked to work out, but have made whatever excuse for not doing it, and I'm so grateful that I'm finally in the optimal situation for actually doing it. And I'm proud of myself for actually doing it and not making another lame excuse for not. Anyway, running is fun, I recommend it. It also helps me feel like I'm actually accomplishing something, which is a nice feeling because school and work can often times feel a little mundane.

Here's the update you've all been waiting for: I did buy a new water bottle at Walmart. It's lovely and blue, but I forgot to bring it with me to work today, so I guess I'll just have to try it out tomorrow. I have, however, given up the regular water bottle at work because I don't thing feeling sick is very fun. I'm just sticking to the drinking fountain for today. Also, I went to the mall with Mallory and got two sexy pairs of jeans that I love and I owe Mallory my life for sharing her shopping expertise with me!

Something in the Water

I'm convinced that reusing water bottles is a bad idea. My reasoning behind this is that I have been doing so for about two years pretty consistently now and I'm pretty sure the nauseous stomach that I've been enjoying recently at work and often times in the past is a result of said action. Maybe this stems simply from the fact that I think it's doing me harm and so somehow my subconscious makes me believe that the sensation of goldfish swimming through my innards is real even though it really isn't. But, I think it's probably just that the water is rancid because I've been reusing my water bottle for too long. I think it's time for me to invest in a couple eco-friendly water bottles (as mentioned on The Biggest Loser) to use instead of reusing these meant-for-one-use-only bottles that are quite a bit cheaper. However, (also as mentioned on The Biggest Loser) in the long run, these meant-to-be-reused-eco-friendly bottles will be a much better investment and will save me a lot of money.

In the meantime, I'm stuck slurping down some Cup Noodles (that's right... it's actually NOT Cup o' Noodles) and drinking some Citrus C Odwalla concoction to get rid of this nasty feeling in my stomach. Hopefully it works.

New Jeans

I have a serious pants deficiency. I own exactly six pairs of jeans. One of which I bought in high school, but it fits and is decent-looking, one of which fits and is falling apart in every way possible, two of which have holes too big to be ignored in places too inappropriate to be ignored, one of which fits me in a way similar to that of your grandmother's stretchy-sort-of-jean material, light-blue-jean-colored pants do (those of you familiar with SNL might call them Mom Jeans), and one of which fits me a lot like a trash bag might (I bought this pair for my fat days, but it turns out my days are never quite fat enough to make them look good). In other words, I have two pairs of jeans that I wear, one of which is quickly becoming another pair with holes too big to be ignored. Most people in the financial position (not great, but good enough to buy pants at least once a year) that I am in, and with the level of intelligence (also not great, but good enough to recognize when new clothes are a luxury and when they are a necessity) that I have would have, by all reasonable paths of logic, come to the conclusion that a pair or two of new blue jeans should be purchased about two and a half years ago.

But, as I'm sure you can imagine by my current problem, I am not most people. So, what am I to do?

My initial reaction is to go to my default reason for not doing anything: I don't have a car. Then... I buy a car. So I move on to the next tried and true excuse for not doing anything: I don't have any money. While this one is still true, it's probably not very valid because I can rationalize spending the little money that I do have on things of much less importance, such as Tucano's and the sheet music for "Open Arms" as made famous by Journey. So, I feel that although my funds are small, they're plentiful enough to splurge on a pair or two of very useful and hopefully stylish jeans. Now that I've gotten past both of these hefty excuses, I make a few trips to the mall. No luck. No pants fit me. THIS, I discover, is the reason for my lack of pants.

Here's where the beautiful and talented Malba (formerly known as Mal Bop, formerly known as Mallory) comes in. She so kindly is going to tutor me in the art of shopping since it's one of my least favorite things to do, and I'm pretty excited about it. This story is to be continued after what I'm sure will be a more successful adventure at the mall than I've previously had. Wish me luck, America. I am finally going to find some jeans to add to my collection after about three and a half years.

Attendance

I have a history of not being good at attendance. Both of my classes this semester take roll and count it as part of our grade. I'm doomed. Either that or I'll just have to suck it up and always go to class. You might be thinking, "What's your problem, Becky? You only have two classes!" But I'm lazy, and that's a hard thing to get over. Also, the temperatures are dropping and that makes walking to school through the ice unpleasant not only because I tend to fall when I walk on ice, but also because it's now absolutely freezing. Other than that, it shouldn't be too bad. Just English classes, so I'm not too worried. No more Italian, thank goodness.

Perhaps I'm also being a tad pessimistic about the upcoming semester because I'm back to work and school after having a two week vacation that was much more fun than anticipated. I went home, which was really nice. It was nice to see my family and friends from back home. I would even venture to say that it was relaxing. Then I spent quite a bit of quality time with Mallory and her lovely family, which was fantastic. This quality time included meeting a sexy Brazilian surfer/snowboarder who made us eat chicken hearts and offered us shots on his break, snowboarding, watching the long but well done Curious Case of Benjamin Button, making an appearance at an incredible institute dance where we saw alot of cha cha-ing and charlie brown-ing, alot of slumber parites, Mallory's 21st birthday, and alot of delicious grub. I couldn't have asked for a better break, but that just makes going back to the boring that much harder.

Bittersweet

Coming home this time has been weird but not for the usual reasons. I'm not stressed out or grumpy or missing anyone from Utah. I miss people here. I miss my life before BYU and I wish I could somehow live a million different lives so that I could be close to everyone I want to be close to and still have time to work and go to school and all of that. I just wanted to take this blog post to say that I'm so grateful for everyone in my life and I'm sorry if we don't spend a whole lot of time together. I miss everyone so much I wish I could see everyone all the time, but I can't so just know that if I haven't seen you in a while or don't see you very often, I love you and I hope you have an absolutely WONDERFUL Christmas!! :)

Arrivederci

This is a big day for me. I took the last Italian final that I will ever take in my life and I did pretty well on it. At least the professor said that we did a good job and that he was impressed, so I'll take that as a good sign and hope that means a B in the class. Anyway, all that really matters is that I passed and I'm done with Italian and I can start focusing on becoming a better writer and reader in the English language which is what I signed up for in the first place. You have no idea what a relief this is for me! It's like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders that was put on them two and a half years ago! That's a good feeling, lemme tell ya. But the good thing is that I now can get by speaking Italian and can appreciate the beauties of Italy and dream about going there instead of just dreading my next Italian exam. And this means that I'm just that much closer to graduating. I knew once I got to be a second year senior, I would be less thrilled about being here. But the good news is that the end is in sight and I still have a little while before it just gets really sad because I have to say goodbye to everything and everyone.

Speaking of saying goodbye, me and Sue had a really sad goodbye to say today to our friend Mr. Dan Blackner. You may not know him, but that really is a shame, sort of like how it's a shame that he's moving back home and we may never see him again. He is such a great guy and Dan, if you're reading thing, we miss you already. :(

It really is way sad saying goodbye to people because they have to leave and there's nothing you can do about it. The world is too big and there are too many people in it. That's what I think. If there were less of us, we wouldn't all have to say goodbye so dang much. It's just a huge bummer. But, like everything else, goodbyes are a part of life and that's ok. Hopefully one of these days, I'll have to say goodbye to everyone so that I can go to Italy and use all that I've learned over the past two and half years. I better get something out of that painful experience.

I also just want to put a little plug in here at the end of my blog for the band Thriving Ivory. They are not amazing by any means, and the lead singer is a weirdie for sure, but the odd way in which he moves his mouth when he sings and his one of a kind crazy sounding voice have won me over. Watch the music video/listen to the song "Angels on the Moon". It's nuts. I love it.

Plug number two: Enya's new Christmas CD, "And Winter Came..." is a gem. I got it last night and I've already listened to it at least three times. Thank you, Sammy! :)

Busted Tube

I've been a little stressed for the past few days because it seems my car is out of commission. I'm so grateful for Brad though. He's so great. Every time I have car troubles, he come to my rescue, saving me from going to a shop and having them tell me a thousand things are wrong with my car and that I need to get them all fixed because I'm just a stupid girl that knows nothing about cars. Anyway, I guess the problem is that one of the power steering tubes fell down and got scrapped on the ground so I just need to replace it. So it's really not a big deal and should be fixed in no time really (and by no time I mean like a week) but that means that I'm back to having no car for a week, which really isn't a big deal, but walking to work won't be fun. That's ok though because I think it's been a bit of a blessing in disguise. I have been forcing myself to go to the gym every morning at 6 and while I love it, I've been a little stressed lately and in need of more sleep and my lack of a car lets me sleep in an extra hour, which it turns out I really needed. So, not having a car for a while has made life slightly more stressful in some ways and less stressful in other ways, which means it's kind of balanced out and it's not really that bad.

On another note, we took roommate pictures on Sunday. They're a little dark, but since it's taken four months to get these, I'm just going to take what I can get. Other than them being a little dark though, I think they're pretty cute. I've got fantastic roommates. We also had our annual Christmas dinner last night at TGIFriday's and it was delicious and the company was wonderful of course.

Also, for all those who are interested, I'm making a mental list of all the restaurants that have vanilla Coke/Pepsi because it's my absolute favorite, and they include Iggy's and TGIFriday's so far. Also, the gas station next to Teleperformance and the Home Depot in Lindon, which I can't remember the name of to save my life. But! If you are a fan of vanilla Coke like I am, those are the places to go.

Once Bitten and Twice Shy

I'm getting in the Christmas spirit, listening to my favorite Christmas song, and wondering what the line, "Once bitten and twice shy" means. Is he talking about a hickey? And being shy? Please share with me your thoughts because I can't figure it out. I have a few theories though...

I was thinking it might be that he was bitten by his lover's viciousness. That happens all the time. In fact, I know exactly how the sting of that poisonous bite feels. Or is he talking about something entirely different? Did his lover actually used to bite him? Is that like an inside thing? Twice shy I think is a little bit easier because it probably just means something about how he's shy and couldn't talk to her or he's trying to be shy now, or maybe she was too shy to give him any and it was really frustrating for him. Anyway, these things cause him to keep his distance, but she still catches his eye. I wonder if she recognizes him. I mean, it's been a year, so it wouldn't surprise me if she didn't, but still, I mean, he gave her his heart. If George Michael (no not the one from Arrested Development) gave me his heart, I'd take it and guard it with my life! I only wish I were the someone special he gave it to this year because I would definitely save him from tears, unless we're talkin tears of joy. Those I could not stop from flowing.

For Mal Bop

It's that time again.. I've not posted anything for quite a while and my vast audience is getting anxious for some new material. So, here it is...

It's Christmas time, which I both love and hate.. but more love, because whilst there's Christmas cheer everywhere and the decorations are pretty and you get to go home for the holidays and such, it's also finals time and a great opportunity to become so stinkin broke it's not even funny. Soooo.. I'm droppin Benjamins everywhere and wondering how long it's going to take me to get back to my comfy spot where I can buy clothes and go out to eat without feeling too terribly guilty, but that's ok, because there are lights and trees and starting today, a little bit of snow.

Bad deal though. I had some car trouble this lovely morning, so I missed my first class, which is fine I suppose but means that I'll have to steal notes from someone because the final is very important to my grade, but that's ok too. No biggie. Just a little bit of a pain. The day has only gotten better though. I went to Italian and found out I didn't do so hot on the midterm, but that the final is going to be an oral exam, which is good news for those of us who suck at grammar on paper, but can stutter for twenty minutes and get a decent grade. So that's a good thing. Also, my other final is not comprehensive, thank goodness! So finals are not fun, but they're looking doable this semester so life isn't so bad after all. And if all goes well, not next Christmas, but the Christmas after, I will be graduated and finals free and have enough money to buy Christmas presents for all without feeling it too bad. We shall see though. As we all know, plans change.

On another note, I think all the adorable couples that just love each other and go walking around in all the Christmassy places and being all Christmassy are just great. I love love, even when it's not me that's doing the loving or being loved. I think it's fantastic. And while some might see it as a bad thing that there's so much marriage here in Provo, I think it's good. Sometimes depressing, but overall good. Love is a good thing and families are a good thing too, so I've decided to just embrace it this holiday season and be happy for everyone that's happy and nice to everyone that's not.