little things

1. Today I bought a BODY PILLOW.
2. I was able to hang out with both Grandma Janice and Grandma Colleen this weekend. They both just kept cracking jokes!
3. BYU basketball is my fave. Tyler Haws.
4. Still in love with that ginger. See below.
5. Amy came to church with me yesterday!
6. Awkward situations are best dealt with unawkwardly.
7. Anyone want to go to a monster truck rally with me on Saturday?
8. I tried to win tickets to OneRepublic on Friday. Apparently my text to the radio station that said, "PICK ME! RYAN TEDDER IS MY FAVORITE GUY!!!!!!!" wasn't enough.
9. Read a little book on Friday called, Lola and the Boy Next Door. I love boys next door. And I love chick lit. But this week's target is 1984, because I have never even read it. I'm reading a book a week this year, ps, alternating between real literature and sugary desserts.
10. this picture was finally posted to facebook:

read: I was in an interesting mood this evening.

11. and this one:

read: water balloon smacking me in the face, mid-cartwheel. And you can see the water splash.

12. Oh, and this one:

read: the dream team.

13. And, just for fun, let's hearken back to this gem:

just because there was a giant walrus. btw, drake's pants are about to rip.

ciao.

Options

So yesterday. It was Friday night and for several days prior I had all the optional activities swirling around in my head. Couldn't decide what my plans would be:

1. Go to Provo to do my laundry at Stephanie's before and after seeing Les Mis with her. She still hasn't witnessed the wonder.

2. Hit up Trader Joe's for some Speculoos and tart frozen yogurt (and that yummy granola) and then go ice skating with Audrey and Jessica-- 2 of my most favorite hilarious people. They were going to come down from Provo.

3. Hang out with a boy.

And this is what ended up happening:

After getting off work early because of massive snow storm Gandolf (that is seriously what they called it--although it's spelled wrong. And now the mystery is finally solved-- this must be how he went from "the Grey" to "the WHITE." A whole lotta snow.), I made a frozen pizza and watched "This Means War." I was cold and tired and actually kind of scared of the snow. And Lauren was home eventually-- and she watched the movie with me. Around 6pm we both settled into spots on the chair-and-a-half and couch in our front room. She was reading a book and I was doing my nails, still trying to determine the evening's plans. And then she had a suggestion. A book suggestion. A book I should totally read. So she got it from her room and I started reading--as if on command--and forgot completely about doing my nails. I am currently typing with only a base coat. The book was so delightful that by page 2 I started reading passages aloud. Lauren told me to keep reading. She put her book away and then just laid there... watching me, listening. We paused now and then to answer texts (we tried to give our home teacher a booty call, for example) She got me a couple glasses of water, you know, because my throat was dry, from all the reading-aloud. We took an hour break to shovel our driveway and jump into the snow (to a not-so-soft landing despite the 15 inches of snow, mind you), and then we resumed the story.

And then suddenly it was 2:30AM and we were on page 235 and my throat muscles are actually sore from using them so much.

Gatsby

"He smiled understandingly--much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced -- or seemed to face -- the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favour. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey."

I want to have that affect on people. Like Jay Gatsby.

And I'm reading Gatsby again. The trailer for the new movie was released last summer, and I've watched it about fifteen times. And then I saw it on the big screen before Les Mis.

I'm so excited.

I'm going to post the trailer, for your viewing pleasure, even though I kind of think that I posted it before.

:)

HOWWwwwwww?

How do I forget about blogging so much these days? It used to be like my favorite thing in the universe.

And so begins another blog post in which I don't really have anything to say:

1. ONE DIRECTION. The new album is bomb and I haven't stopped listening to it for 3 weeks. You read that right. Peep this video for a small taste. And if you find yourself suffering from a small crush on one of these darling boys, don't worry, they are all over age. haha.


2. I went ice skating with my roommates last week, and I have NEVER loved ice skating so much. I want to go back like once a week. Because it was such a blast. The skates didn't hurt my ankles, and I didn't even fall down ONE TIME! It was nothing short of a miracle. Look out Gallivan Center--- I'm coming back.

3. My heart is still a little bit stuck in Provo... but I'm slowly transitioning to Salt Lake. I go to Provo a heck of a lot less. That saves me lotsa money on gas. And I'm making more friends in Salt Lake....but still....most of my favorite people are in the land of BYU. And I'm really starting to see Salt Lake City as a place where I could be for a long time. I really do love the city. There is SO MUCH to do around here. So many cool things to be involved in. I'm really starting to see the sort of opportunities that living in a big city can offer. And I've actually made a list of things that I want to have as hobbies someday. Since moving to Salt Lake I've been evaluating my life and my whole person and starting to see exactly who and what I want to be. I have so much to learn and so much to discover! So many people to meet and so many places to see. And so much to grow from in this one place. Utah is such an amazing place. It really is. What else do I actually need? Since my first semester in DC I've had all these ambitions about working at all sorts of cool places and living in famous cities and being this awesome person that people talk about, like, "I know this girl who is so awesome and beautiful and smart and she lives in Boston and works at the Kennedy Presidential Library," because how cool would that be???? But you know what is cooler? Being close to family and the people who love you. And working at a place and doing work that is so important. I had a sort of epiphany about my job last Sunday-- I was kind of struck by how important it is to keep a record of the church. If you think about it, the Book of Mormon was compiled by Mormon, right? And he got all this information from all the historical and spiritual records that had been kept by his people. And who knows how many thousands of volumes and chunks of gold plates he went through to get all the information he needed for this one book. The Nephites kept a record so that one day we would have their history and see the hand of God in their lives. And that is what I do at my job. I make sure that the records are kept and preserved. I keep things organized. And isn't that so amazing. I am forever grateful for a job that I love AND have a testimony of.

4. I had a conversation with a boy at work today which was prompted by him asking the following question: "What is it like at BYU?" This boy went to the U. I don't think he realized what he was getting himself into by bringing up like my #3 favorite topic in the world (numbers 1 and 2 being HP and MJ, respectively). I am a person who likes to talk. And I like to talk about the things that I like, especially when whoever I am talking to doesn't know much about what I'm about to say and/or they are acting very interested. I told him all about what a dreamland BYU is and how the wards work and what it's like to walk around campus and see everyone you know. And all about the HBLL and what kinds of people study on which floors. And I told him about finals week and how I could eat like 3 meals a day on campus and I would just leave my stuff sitting out in the library to go grab food really fast (b/c why would you want to pack everything up when there are people at the table who are perfectly willing to "watch" your stuff??) I told him about how heavenly the summers are and how everyone is involved in Church stuff and how everyone is best friends in the summer. I was about to launch into the story of Epic Summer 2010, but I ran out of time (and that story would have included Slickgangin and the Wink at the Stranger Initiative! the boy missed out). But I guess that the summary of all of this is that I am so grateful that I was able to have the college experience that I did. I met SO MANY amazing people who have changed my life--and will continue to impact me for the rest of my existence. That's what good friends do for you. They change your life--make you see things in new ways and teach you things. I am a much better person for having gone to BYU and for having been involved in BYU wards and with BYU students.

5. And what else is going on in my life? Thanksgiving was rad. 2 days off work with holiday pay!

6. I wish I could go to Disneyland....like tomorrow.

7. I miss all my friends that live far away.

8. My siblings are hilarious.

9. I just read Lois Lowry's "Gathering Blue." I liked it. But it wasn't life-changing like "The Giver" is. Oh well. But it made me want to read "Messenger" despite having been warned against that one. Thoughts?

10. Why can't I keep my room clean? It's a disaster so much of the time. I just don't like to put my clothes away.

11. Also I hate doing the dishes. I would like a dishwasher for Christmas, thank you very much.

12. And a washer and dryer would be very nice.

13. What else? We have a next door neighbor who we thought was really nice but recently he started getting super snooty about other people parking in front of his house. We have 4 cars that are all leaving at different times of night and morning, so, naturally, one of our cars is usually parked in one of the spots in front of his house. Just like the corner of his house, really. Our car is mostly just in front of his side yard. For realz though. So anyway, the last couple of days he started parking his own car in that side-house-extra-spot instead of his own driveway (which is now empty, btw), just so we can't park there. For real, dude??? You don't own the street.

Anyway, that is all.