Blogging Block. So. Life.

Warning: This post is super boring. It doesn't even have a point. So you don't have to read it. 

So. Blogging. This is only my second post this month. Which is weird, because I usually have at least a weekly post, or if happens to be December 2009, somehow I manage to post 11 times. Don't know how that happened. But now, I don't even know what to write about. And it's not that my last couple of weeks haven't been awesome and exciting and great, I just don't have anything to say. Which is weird for me, because I always have loads of things to say. In fact, most of the time, I have WAY TOO MUCH to say, and that leads to really, extra long posts that nobody but me wants to read. Yes, I do go back and read old posts quite often. Rachelle thinks that's weird.

So. School. Love/hate relationship. I came into this semester thinking that I was going to love my classes more than ever before. But honestly, it's really hard to love your classes when you a) don't do your homework, b) don't listen in class, c) don't do the assigned reading (most of the time) and d) do kind of poorly on 50% of the quizzes that you take. It's a problem. But not an unsolveable one. I've just been... distracted. That's all. I'll get back on the good student train soon, I think. Starting with tonight. It is a Friday night, and you know what I'm doing? Staying in and doing my homework. Or blogging, whichever one seems most important (you can see that my blog is winning that battle...).

So. Work. Love/hate relationship. I really do love my job. Promise. But lately, I've just been getting bored and so excited to get out of there at the end of the day. I think it's because I'm nearing the end of the first stage of a big project, and I'm a little uncertain about what is going to come next, how time consuming it will be, and how difficult and challenging it will be. Just a little nervous, and just a little bit lazy. Such is life. But Nellie Gubler and the St. George stuff is coming along quite nicely. Love the old wedding announcements. And the LOVE LETTERS. I've been reading love letters for the last 2 weeks, and they are super fun. Most are just normal and cute at the end, but some are SUPER SUPER SAPPY, and it's hilarious- I actually felt bad for the guy writing the sappiness. So fun to read, though.

Aaaandnnddd... I just want to read good books and hang out with people all the time. That's all I want! I don't want to read stupid online articles from the English Journal for all my English teaching classes. They are boring and pointless, and let's face it, the goal isn't to teach English ANYWAY! I'm just so annoyed about having to buy textbooks and then only using them for 1/4 of the class reading assignments. HEY. English teaching department. FIX THIS.

I am wanting to be a teacher less and less. Mostly I just want to be a wife and PTA mom. But I still want to go to library school and be an archivist. I would just love doing that for my life- after my kids (whenever they and a husband choose to come along--obviously in reverse order) are grown up and everything and I get bored with cleaning, scrapbooking, shopping, playing kid games, blogging and cooking all day.

So that's it. A boring post. Hopefully this will get me thinking about blogging again, and the good idea train will come back around the bend. But if not, this was at least an update on my life.

And by the way, Percy Jackson comes out soon. February 5.

My Current Playlist

So, for the past two years, my music listening has been devoted almost entirely to Michael Jackson. There have been some obsessive peaks and some lulls, but most of the time, the song I want to listen to when I get on the computer or need to pick some laundry-folding music was written and/or recorded by the one and only. I had a Beat It phase, a phase of the whole Bad album, a Dangerous phase, Man in the Mirror, Dirty Diana, Earth Song, Jackson 5 phase, The Jacksons phase, a phase of collaborations with people like Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney-- I even had phases for similar types of music that didn't feature Michael- like Prince, Janet Jackson and other Motown artists like Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, the Temptations, Smokey, and Stevie. It has just been never ending.

BUT, I am currently in a lull. Michael has been gone for six months now, and I am slowly moving on. Don't think I'm forgetting about him, though. I'm still the number one fan in Provo. And I'm still going to buy the DVD of "This Is It" at midnight when it comes out on January 26.

But there is proof of this movement in my current playlist of "have to listen to all the time" songs. I mean, check out the variety!!! This is totally a new thing for me.

They are as follows (keep in mind, I would definitely recommend any of these. But you may have to find the clean version)
1. Bigger, The Backstreet Boys
2. Shattered, The Backstreet Boys
3. Cold Case Love, Rihanna
4. Firebomb, Rihanna
5. Crawl, Chris Brown
6. So Cold, Chris Brown
7. Time for Miracles, Adam Lambert
8. Empire State of Mind, Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys (look for the clean one)
9. Call the Man, Celine Dion (an old classic!)
10. He Could Be The One, Hannah Montana
11. Party in the USA, Miley Cyrus (It's taken a long time for this one to get old!)
12. Wait For You, Elliot Yamin
13. Fifteen, Taylor Swift (yeah, I NEVER thought she would be on my playlist, but I kind of think this girl is AWESOME.)
14. Unbelievable, Craig David
15. Touch My Hand, David Archuleta
16. Down, Jay Sean
17. Whatcha Say, Jason DeRulo
18. Knocks You Down, Keri Hilson feat. Ne-Yo and Kanye (get the clean one!)
19. Run This Town, Jay-Z feat. Kanye and Rihanna (it's this one, specifically, that requires a clean version. Be careful.)

Below is a phase of songs I JUST RECENTLY got over. This marks the end of all the phases I'm talking about above.

1. Purple Rain, Prince
2. When Doves Cry, Prince
3. Escapade, Janet Jackson (LOVED THIS SONG.)
4. Miss You Much, Janet Jackson
5. Blame it on the Boogie, The Jacksons
6. Cheater, Michael Jackson
7. This Place Hotel, The Jacksons
8. The entirety of the "Off the Wall" album, Michael Jackson- particularly the song, "Girlfriend" (written by Paul McCartney for Michael) This album literally got me through finals. We made it through some tough times together...
9. This Is It, Michael Jackson. (So emotional!!)

You can all now clap your hands for me. I'm expanding my music-listening. It's great news, really. Just don't think that I like Michael any less, because that kind of betrayal is NOT going to happen. But seriously, good good songs on this list. Look them up. I'm particularly into the new Rihanna ones at the top. And the new Backstreet Boys CD. I love those guys.

By the way, Happy Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy back to school, and everything like that. I've been MIA for a while, but I'm back on the blog. YAY.

That's better.

Click on this LINK.

Maybe I just need to move to the UK.

Notice that Meyer woman at #23. JKR is #1. Yep.

And notice JRR Tolkien. #25. Still at the top after all these years. Shakespeare, Dickens, and Dr. Seuss are on their too.

This website places Harry on the list, and NOT Twilight. I like them.

This one includes HBP (Half-Blood Prince), and not ONE of the Twilight books. It is a list of best books of the last 20 years, and they were voted on by ACADEMICS.

Sorry I suddenly got so fierce about this. That's all.

ATROCITY.

So mad right now. Are they serious? Twilight before Harry Potter??!?! I can't even speak.

I just don't understand.

There is not a single person in the world that can claim that Twilight is better literature than Harry Potter. THERE ARE FREAKING TYPOS IN THAT MEYER WOMAN'S BOOKS!! (and I don't use that word!)

Click on the link above if you are confused. And then scroll down to the list of "top 10 books of the 2000s."

And I know that some of my readers with laugh at this. But let me make myself clear: THIS IS NOT FUNNY.

I'm officially excited.

Yes, Audrey P., you have me hooked. Everybody, you should read these books, and then you can go to the movie:

Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Coolest series since Harry Potter (obviously not nearly AS COOL, but still very fun).

I couldn't pick which trailer I like the best, so I embedded #2 and #3.





Coming 12 February 2010.

As a side note, I am officially enjoying the Christmas season through Elvis Presley music.

An Ode to Max, Dennis, and the gang.

I love BYU football, and I love that we totally creamed Oregon State tonight. A perfect finish to a kind of messy season.

But remember at the very beginning of the season WHEN WE BEAT OKLAHOMA? That was incredible. I feel like a lot of people forget that happened. But I sure didn't. And remember how we celebrated in the streets in massive, but very controlled riots? Remember meeting the team at the airport and yelling our guts out and feeling like fainting? Yeah, I remember that. (And did I mention that OU has a TOTALLY HOT quarterback who was injured and stood at the side of the field without his helmet the whole game? Could it have gotten any better?)

And then we lost a couple games, and won a couple games, and it was all very peachy and normal and fun.

AND THEN, we beat UTAH a couple weeks ago, and I was happier that I had been since Andrew's wedding. It was a fantastic game. And I sat in the front row, and I rushed the field, and the players wore the old royal blue uniforms. Beautiful.

It was a good season. And even though I kind of complain that I'm not graduating for another year, I'm actually just really glad that I get to be around for another football season. All-Sports Pass HERE I COME!

Now I'm just excited to see how the new quarterback will perform. And who will it be? I'm betting on Riley Nelson.

Anyway, see ya.

I love Shopping on Amazon

First, to recap, finals week was last week, and it was horrendous-- except for the fact that we ate out four nights in a row. Like at real restaurants (Carrabbas, Zupas, IHOP, and Pizza Factory). Yeah, I don't really know how that happened, because I promise that it was amidst massive amounts of studying, stress, and chaos.

But somehow, I made it through, and I have been able to enjoy three days of Christmas break so far. AND, I got to meet Jenny's baby today, who, by the way, is just so precious and perfect!

Second, I promise that Michael Jackson ISN'T the only thing that I ever think about. I know that my posts are in regards to that man a lot, but that's only because I listen to him when I'm on my computer a lot, and then I'm thinking about him, and then I usually have something to say about it.

The same thing happened tonight, except I was actually listening to Rihanna, and not Michael. Steph and I just decided, for some reason, to look up Michael Jackson memorabilia on Amazon. Best idea I had all day. We looked in the apparel and accessories section, and found some gems. Here they are for your viewing pleasure:

1. Michael Jackson wigs (whoever thought this was a good idea?) AND WHY DID THEY KEEP USING THIS AWESOME/TERRIFYING MODEL?
So funny Stephanie and I almost cried.
2. Please buy this for my first born child, boy or girl. NOT.
3. Excuse me, I actually really want this.
The piano shirt from the Beat It video. Too cool for words.
4. Michael Jackson+A little bit of David Bowie+Adam Lambert's 80's comeback style=Total awesomeness. Am I right?
5. Why ANYONE would wear these on their ears I have no idea.
6. And last, two T-shirts that would serve very well for pajamas and wall decorations. Pajamas because I would never wear them in public, and wall decorations because of their double layeredness and intensity.

Is this too much? I just think it is hilarious. And can I just say, I am LOVING the Michael mania that has followed his death. Do you realize that before June 25, 2009, there was hardly ANY MJ memorabilia online? There is a ridiculous amount now. A ridiculous amount of lots of ridiculous stuff. And did you know that a person could not find a copy of his autobiography, "Moonwalk" anywhere? Well, now... a person... can. YAY.

Love you guys.