Roadtrip: Provo to Ann Arbor, Michigan

My first real roadtrip. I'm going with my sister, Tye, and her husband, their daughter Millie, and his parents. How will I survive? I don't know. I suppose I will listen to a lot of music, read some good books, and wear earplugs whilst enjoying the scenery. Woot.

After viewing this map, I have just realized what I am in for. Do you see how far away Michigan is from Utah? Holy carp. What have I done? I already bought my plane ticket home, so I guess I'm in for the long haul. I just looked it up and it is approximately 1,616 miles to Michigan from Provo. Wish me well. I may not be coming back fully intact.

The really exciting part about this trip, though, is that we're going to stop in Nauvoo for a few days. I've never been there and I think I'll even have time to do baptisms and look up some history on a few ancestors who lived there. I'm really quite excited.

a part of me wants to, but I just can't get the motivation

To blog, that is. It used to be the highlight of my dreary days. Now my life is so relaxed (except for the boy situation) that I don't look at it in the same way. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy it immensely. You are all hilarious and quite enjoyable to read. But I just don't have anything to say that I don't say to you everyday.

I had a tragedy with the 7's thing. Meaning I totally wrote the whole thing in all it's glory and my internet stopped working when I tried to publish it. Lost forever. It nearly broke my heart, and Debbie's, when I told her what happened. I hope you can all forgive me for not completing that important task, but every time I think about doing it again I get really discouraged and think, "but it could never be as good as the one I wrote before." I'm sincerely sorry for my long absence and hope this will cheer you up and make you at least tolerate me again.
Okay, just kidding. That is quite frightening and you're allowed to hate me for making you view it. But now look at this:
See? Don't you feel better. I sure do. What a delight.

i don't know them, but they're ever present

Ever since we've moved in we have met a lot of new people. We meet people who live in our apartment complex. We meet people who are in our ward. We meet people in our dinner groups. We meet people at stake dances. We meet people who look in our windows. Most of these people fall into the category of Ward Members, but some do not. It's quite interesting, though, to see how we all react to meeting so many crazies. I think we all expected it to be much worse and anxiety-ridden than it really is. I mean, it's still sometimes nerve racking, but definitely survivable. And what with all of these activities and meetings we have to go to we're going to be around them a lot. I wonder if we'll get to know who they all are, really. And will they get to know the real us's? Lets hope so.

one good thing from physical science

This is a picture of peridotite. I like it. I saw it in Physical Science and fell in love. I hope you do, too.

Ultimate Frisbee Magazine

Yes, it's true. There really is one. Who knew? Maybe you, but not me. What will they think of next?

but, I thought you liked me!

You know how when someone at church is speaking and they mention names of people that they think are amazing and you were totally part of the experience they are talking about but they forget to mention your name? And then you feel like you didn't contribute anything? And that they don't like you? If anyone knows what I am talking about, congratulations. You win the prize for understanding my unintelligible somethings.

The reason I thought of this is because I was going to make a list of people who make my life great, but I knew I would forget someone and make them feel unwanted and unappreciated. Making lists is pretty tedious because you know you're going to have an impossible time of mentioning everything.

So, instead of listing everyone that makes a difference in my life, I would like to dedicate this post to all the people who know they mean something to me. You know who you are. And I like you a lot and would never forget to mention your name on purpose. You are far too important to me.

propagandistic politics

I have just finished a research paper on the Arch of Constantine, pictured above. I'd like you all to know that it was just about the most painful thing ever and I'm quite ecstatic about being done with it. I'm sure I could tell you a lot of worthless facts about this crazy guy, but I'll spare you the pain. As for now, let us ponder on the bliss one feels after they have accomplished something they've been procrastinating for weeks. Nice.

hey schplay

Will I ever feel comfortable in a swimming suit?
Will I ever feel like I'm ready to get married?
Will I ever have a pet ferret (again)?
Will I ever date a Russian?
Will I ever write and interesting blog?
Will I ever have a job that is fantastic?
Will I ever go anywhere?
Will I ever be able to tolerate children?
Will I ever not be socially awkward?
Will I ever learn to dance?
Some plaguing questions that have been on my mind once or twice in my life.

I need to find some peace

and I finally have for a while. I only have one paper due this week and no tests. Why couldn't this have happened last week when it was my birthday? I guess I'll just have to celebrate up the wazoo this week. Perhaps watch a movie every night. That's really all I want to do because I never get to watch movies anymore. It's time to live it up. Here are some of the films I'd like to view, some for the first, some for the second time....or twenty-somethingth time.

The Opportunity to Be Heard

It's true. I finally broke down and got a cell phone. Here it is. It was the free one. The fact that it's white and silver is pretty funny, but it's a pretty good phone. Just tell me to call you if you want my number. I'm pretty sure you're cool enough that I'd give it to you.

you want more?

I have heard a plea for a new post. When there is nothing to post, I don't post. Apologies thrown at you all. I don't know what you want from me but here it goes.

Here are some girl names I like:
Elizabeth (no shortenings)
Claire
Cynthia (just kidding)

Here are some boy names I like:
Benjamin or Ben
Georg (just kidding)
Kurt is okay...I guess

If you agree or disagree you can tell me, but what the heck. It's hard to think of names I like. That took me like an hour and I could hardly think of any. Man, I hope I never have kids.

Things you should do before you kick the bucket:

Eat at Tucanos (meat on sticks...what more can I say)
Shop at the outlet mall in Park City
Go garbage can riding (it's getting harder to accomplish)
Buy the car of your dreams (the one that is realistically obtainable)
Have yourself painted by a photo-realism artist, have it framed, and keep it under your bed
Write a missionary regularly (the association makes your life amazing)
Go on a mission
Get a cat
Write a crazy blog post that no one would expect from you
Read the Book of Mormon
Successfully make a batch of chocolate chip cookies
Go to the Louvre
Read Pride and Prejudice
Find your soul mate (or someone close enough)
Attend ward choir (at least once)
Clean the bathtub (no one's going to want to clean it out after you die)
Take your dog for a walk

What's not to want?

I went to the Utah Auto Expo today for the first time and it was pretty dang exciting. Let me show you my (relatively) new found loves.

The first and foremost on my list is the BMW 325, hopefully shown below (I'm not very good at positioning these pictures; sorry). It is just so beautiful. Unfortunately, it will never be in my budget. I think. Who knows. Maybe I'll marry a really rich guy who can frivilously throw his money into something worldly. Sweet.

The next car on my list is the Honda Civic Hybrid. This thing gets 49 mpg city and 51 mpg highway. That's insane. It's kind of futuristic looking (the picture below doesn't catch this look) which I usually don't approve of, but who cares if you don't have to buy gas? It's also a Honda, which means it's pretty reliable, except if it gets stolen...

The last beauty I will show you is my favorite SUV. I have always liked the Toyota 4Runners because they are so attractive. I must admit, I like the older models looks-wise, but these newer ones are pretty awesome. Just take a gander.

I guess the Toyota Highlander Hybrids are more environment-friendly, but they're just so large and imposing. So are 4Runners, but at least they are good-looking. I probably wouldn't buy an SUV just because of the horrible gas mileage, but they are nice to look at.

Disgusting

I have just spent $290.45 on my textbooks for this semester. That is competely obscene. $240 of those precious, hard-earned dollars went to anvil-size books for my Art History class. I'm not kidding about the size of those things, either. I can barely lift the heaviest one with one arm--even my extremely buff, toned right arm. I slightly terrified at the prospect of carrying all of these books across campus. Obsurd.

The semester starts in 4 days and I feel like I haven't done anything productive this whole 3-week break. YES! I reached my goal of being as lazy as possible and eating far more junk food than I ever should. No, but really, I just did whatever the heck I wanted these past weeks and I feel pretty good about it. I'm in for quite the long haul (a heavy haul at that) until April and I'm glad I had this break to relax.

Oh, and lets make this clear: I'm still planning on moving out in the summer. Unless my parents can talk me out of it, then I'm all for it. So don't make any plans without me, silly girls. I was in on this, too, and I'd like to stay in it if possible.

Tag Schmag (that looks too German for my liking)

I have no idea. Lets see....

1. I have liked SO many more boys than anyone has ever known. I never admit to having crushes on all of the boys I like.

2. I got like a 23 on the Science Reasoning section on the ACT. There went my chances for a scholarship.

3. I would rather have a cat than a child.

4. My parents paid $90 for me to take an Independent Study calligraphy class and I never finished it. I felt really bad and I never learned how to do calligraphy.

5. I have 35 + pairs of shoes and I probably only wear half of them. Same situation with shirts, except for I have a lot more of them.

That is all I will reveal at this time because that is all that is required of me. More confessions later if I can think of any.

I bought a laptop.

It's really exciting, but I really don't need it that much. Yes, it will be really handy for school, but I didn't NEED it. I don't really know very much about computers, though, so I don't really know what to do with it. It's a Dell. I can watch DVDs on it and burn CDs. That's pretty much the extent of the exciting stuff, besides wireless internet (this is one thing I still need to figure out, though). Maybe Teri will have to help me out in the laptop department...or at least ask Matt about it for me. Ha ha.

Other than that fantastic news, I really don't have much else to say. Today I gave a presentation on low carb diets for my biology class. I had to stand in front of my poster for 50 minutes surrounded by people I don't know after I gave my 2 minute presentation at the very beginning. Luckily, Phil and Trisha are really good friends and came to visit me. We had a good chat and they prevented me from becoming bored out of my mind. What great pals.

I also came home from work early today because I have a headache and I'm having a bad hair day, if you know what I mean. I also got about 4 hours of sleep last night. No good. I really need to work a lot, though, to pay for this blasted laptop. It's worth it, right?

Teri, I'm having problems with blogs on my laptop. Didn't you have some initial problems that eventually went away? It won't let me look at them--it says they don't exist. I don't think yours was this extreme, but if you have any words of advice, please share them.

What in the heck?

I just got home from a rather boring day at work and was thinking about what I was going to do with the rest of my day. While eating lunch and blogging a bit, the phone rang. I couldn't understand what my caller ID was saying because it is pretty illiterate and sounds things out really crazily so I didn't know who was calling. Pretty soon my mother is hollering my name and I'm thinking "who they heck wants to talk to me on a Saturday at 3?" Boy was I in for a surprise.

It was Spencer Olsen! I'm going on a date with him in approximately two and a half hours. This is all insane. What are we doing? I don't know. Who else is going to be there? I don't know. Why is he asking me on a date? I don't know. Hopefully by the time I get home from this date I will have all of the questions answered and can tell you about them. Wish me luck.

Oh, and I have another boy story, but it is too hard to write, so if you want to hear it I will tell you in person. Kind of complicated.

The blogging world has run amok.

It really has. One of my favorite past times used to be reading everyone's blog and submitting rather pointless comments. How can I continue on with this practice when there is nothing to comment about? No one write posts anymore, including me, because we are all too busy for such frivolities. It's got to stop. I need blogging in my life. It's a great way to procrastinate from computer homework. Lets all get back to work. BREAK!

Life IS a butt. At least the dating part of it.

So, lately I've been going kind of crazy with the whole dating thing. I mean, I like Jake, but he's leaving....eventually and I felt like I maybe needed to go on some dates with other people to get back to reality. Tye and Kyle agreed, and said they would try to set me up with some people. Now, I know that sounds like the most insane thing ever, and that no girl in her right mind would want to go through with any of it, but it sounded appealing to me that night at around midnight.

Here are the problems: Tye and Kyle only know people who are their age (about 25). They asked me how I felt about dating older men (I thought the wording of this to be quite funny) and I said that I was okay with it. I mean, yeah, it would be weird at first, but I really don't think age is that big of a deal. I also told them, though, that "older men" would NOT be okay with going out with and 18 year old. They might do it to be nice, or to do a favor for someone, but they wouldn't take it seriously. They would probably feel really awkward on a date with an 18 year old, and I don't blame them. Kyle agreed that this was probably the case, but that he would still look into it, anyway. I'm slightly anxious and nervous about this whole thing, but maybe I should give it a try.

Wow, I got so carried away with that problem of dating that I forgot to mention the other one: All boys OUR age are leaving us. Basically, our only option is to date "older men" and pretend like they don't think we're little girls (which they SO do, you can just tell). DATING is a butt.

"Wherefore men are free according to the flesh..."

If only I knew the rest of that scripture, I'm sure that I could pass the entire B of M exam on Wednesday. I just can't do this memorizing thing. I'm no actress; I'm not used to having to memorize lines and other such things. Now, Art History flashcards I could do. Words = no good. I'll just have to wing it.

I hope I will have any time to hang out with Becca while she is here. This is the busiest week of my life. I have to take tests on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. It's going to be a blast. Hopefully I'll be able to hang out on Thursday and Friday nights.

Well, I'm late to FHE, so I better stop this craziness. I wonder what we have in store for tonight....probably a really boring lesson, but some good refreshments. They cancel out to equal absolutely nothing.