December 29th

The date above has little significance really, unless you're a BYU student. In that case, that is the date that represents the culmination of all your sleepless nights, tears and death glares at professors. It is the day that students and parents alike scream and cry in joy or agony as final grades appear on a student's transcript.
If the student is a nerd like me, they're afraid to look because they're not sure if their final took them from an A to A-, or if they barely boosted their grade up in their hardest class. For others they're fearfully hiding their transcript from their parents because, well, they were lucky to pass at all.
In either case sometimes there are joyful surprises that are enough to make an atheist believe there is a God above. In my case it was a class that 40% of the grade rode on the final exam. 75% of the final depended on three essays. Normally essay questions don't frighten me, but in a law class the right answer is what the professor thinks makes the most sense, and she and I didn't always agree. Problem #1. Plus, the papers were ranked by which was best down to the worst, so my grade was completely dependent on how well other communication students could write about law. Giant problem #2.
In any case I turned everything in and the night of the 29th I screamed my lungs out because there next to Media Law on my transcript was an A.

New Years Resolutions

New Years is often a time when people decide they need to fill their already busy lives with things they've felt guilty about not doing. It's not that those things are particularly essential to their lives or their happiness. It's just they see other people doing them and feel they should too. I used to be the exact same way. However, after having a lesson in church on needing to simplify our lives in order to be happy, I have a very different list for myself this year.

1. Yoga in the morning. I realize this is something many people would do because they feel guilty about not doing it, but it is something I enjoy and often give up because I feel there are other things I have to do.

2. Time for myself.

3. Have real conversations with people, one at a time.

4. Focus on what I'm doing at the moment and do it "like crazy" (There's a story behind that one.)

5. Make sure the people I care about know I care.

My PR professors would tell me these goals need to be broken down into specific, measurable objectives for them to be accomplished. To a point I agree, but the main point of these goals or of any resolution, really, is to make sure my life is going the way I want it to, and sometimes the best way to be happy and to get done the things you really need to, is to just say "no" every once in a while, or maybe a lot, because saying "no" doesn't belittle anything. It only increases the worth of the things you decide to say "yes" to.

Summer Projects...mostly.

I went home from college last summer to visit for a month and immediately was assigned my ration of home improvement projects. My biggest project was to attack the upstairs bathroom that had mold growing out of the walls. A word to the wise...don't have the door and the window closed when scrubbing walls with Clorox...it leaves you feeling like you swallowed an entire glass of pool water. In any case by the time I finished with the Clorox and the Kilz paint the bathroom was a sparkling white. That just left me with the challenge of removing part of the toilet, so I could paint behind it. Unfortunately, the screw holding it in place was completely rusted, so though my little little brother tried to come to my rescue and hold the screw in place, his little arms just couldn't do it. Daniel, my older brother, and I then tried to do it. Well, that resulted in me yelling at Andy, my big little brother, to help me the minute I heard him walk in the door with the result of him running up the stairs and finding me with my head and half of my body squished between the toilet and the wall. Yes, it was as unpleasant as it sounds. In the end, Daniel and Andy were able to remove it and dump all the parts in the tub.

Another word to the wise, when you drill hundred of tiny holes in a cupboard for seemingly no reason, you make the poor girl having to fill those holes with putty hate you. Just saying.

Anyways, I finally got to the point where I could start painting. Soon the walls were a beautiful shade of green with a tan trim. Then came the most exciting part...decorating. My mom and I decided to go with a beach theme. Mainly because that's what Fred Meyer had that matched the colors in the bathroom. (Dear Fred Meyer staff: putting perfume on EVERYTHING only gives customers a giant headache.)

Unfortunately, the bathroom didn't get finished that summer because a lot of the hardware still needed to be replaced, but six months later when I came home for Christmas, it was all finally done!

The tale of a beat reporter...

For the past four months my life has been taken over by a newspaper. Some may say that's impossible, but those people have never been set with the task of writing two stories every week for a student newspaper on the health/medical beat. If I was lucky a story was actually sent to me, but most of the time I was digging through websites and other papers to find people I could contact.
Some people were easy to track down. It seemed it was their job to sit waiting for the phone to ring. It was the scientists flying in and out of the country that gave me the most trouble.
If there's anything I've learned from this venture, it's that I can call anyone, even a senator and they will answer my questions and try to sound good simply because I call myself a reporter. The power that comes with that is fun and kind of scary at the same time.
I'm glad this semester is over, and I can move on to focus on other things, but I will admit I'll miss seeing my name in print and being able to walk up to anyone I want and say, "Sit down, buddy. I've got some questions for you."

What Your Restaurant Cashier Doesn't Tell You...

You've been standing in line for the last ten minutes...you should know what you want already.

No, there is no earthly way possible to cook a steak in under five minutes.

If you need to be somewhere quickly...go somewhere with Fast food.

Continually coming up and asking for something ten times I've already said no to just makes me not want to help you.

I'm not your mother.

Get off the phone and order your food.

Yes, "we ran out" means there will be no more, at all, today.

There are twelve TV's blasting ESPN and a bunch of girls talking in the corner, speak up!

No, you cannot go to some far distance place and expect us to come find you with your food.

We make our pizza BY HAND. It will Not be delivered in under half an hour under Any circumstances.

Little Caesar's is cheaper.

Yes, the people that were after you got their food first because their food cooks faster.

Eat off your plate, not the table.

I only have two hands, so if you ordered three things, I won't bring everything the first time.

If you insist on giving complicated orders, the likelihood of it getting messed up goes up exponentially.

You have legs, get it yourself.

Thank you for letting me vent.

My Three Week Marathon

I've had lots of random jobs since I was 16. I've done everything from teaching piano lessons to running vitamins through a metal detector. My most recent job has by far been one of the most challenging. The BYU football team has about 75 players who on average need to eat around 5000 calories a day, and during their training table in August it is my job to make sure they get all those calories.

Everyday at my job I arrive at noon to keep the buffet stocked with food while the players eat. Then I cart all the food back down to the kitchen and clean everything up. Then we prep dinner, take it up, serve it and take it back down. The first couple weeks this meant that I didn't get off work until about 9:30 at night. Then I'd come back and do the same thing the next day.

At times you started to feel like a slave carting giant tubs of steak and potatoes, but there was always the coach who would help you out or the player who would tell you that this meal was his favorite, and somehow you found the gumption to keep going. Mostly, you started to feel like you were part of a team as the players would ask you which carbs are healthier and if some fats are good for you.

Spring training is over and so is my marathon, but the burns and bruises I got along the way are manifest to what I was able to accomplish. (The leftover ribs sitting in my fridge are a nice touch too.)

Camping

For the past three years my family has gone camping for our family vacation. For the first two years we traveled to see some of the greatest sites in the great Northwest: namely Mt. St. Helens and Crater Lake. This year, however, my parents decided to stay a little closer to home, and instead of guided tours and information centers, we did whatever we wanted. It's amazing how interesting board games become when there's no cell phone service and no Facebook, and to be honest I think it's the most fun I've had in a long time. We stayed in an old ranger cabin right under Mt. Hood and next to a huge, beautiful lake. It was absolutely incredible. Gilbert even thought the dirt was wonderful.

Through the eyes of a five year old

If you need a look at the world with a more simplified view, spend some time with a five-year-old. My baby brother, Gilbert, turned five last May and though the rest of us are all very excited for him to leave the house and start kindergarten, his current interests consist of Scooby Doo, junk food and collecting quarters. He has curly blond hair, giant blue eyes and very strong opinions. (Proof that it's not just the redheads that are stubborn in this family). To top it off he has enough energy to light up New York for a year and generally exerts it either running all over the place or talking unceasingly.

Last night my boyfriend, Todd, and I decided to take Gilbert out for the night. The festivities began by asking Gilbert where he wanted to buy ice cream. It was a toss up between McDonalds and Dairy Queen, but after changing his mind several times and weighing the pros and cons of each one, we finally headed off to Dairy Queen or "that other place" as he called it. Gilbert loves riding in Todd's truck. I'm not sure which reason it is exactly, but it could be that he gets to sit up front where he can reach all the controls, or it could be the fact that Todd has a coin tray overflowing with shiny pennies and nickels. Either way Gilbert loved turning the air conditioner on and off and shoving all the pennies down his shoes.

When we finally arrived at Dairy Queen, Gilbert and I shared a chocolate chip cookie dough blizzard of which he ate five scoops of before he was tired of it and ready to move on to the next thing. (Reason number 212 that my healthy diet plan is failing.) Next, we made a stop at Target where Todd allowed him to choose a box of candy from the dollar section. After watching him eat almost an entire box of Mike Ike's, we decided to let him burn off some energy at the park before returning him to my mother. He was quickly all over the play scape sliding down the middle of the two slides instead of picking one and insisting on swinging on his stomach.

The crowning moment of Gilbert's night, however, was as we were walking up the front steps to my house. Todd asked Gilbert if he wanted a couple more coins to take home with him and held out two shiny quarters. Gilbert's eyes immediately lit up as he hurried back to get them. The reason for his excitement was revealed this morning when Gilbert dumped out his piggy bank and informed me that he now had a dollar he could spend at the dollar store.

Though I don't think I will ever have as much energy as Gilbert does now or will be shoving pennies down my shoes anytime soon, I believe there is a lot to be learned from a five-year-old. Sometimes it seems that life is just one problem after the other and yet I've had more ice cream cones and boxes of candy than I can count. I think if maybe we all remember to be excited about eating our favorite candy or getting two shiny quarters, life would be exciting everyday of our lives.

First Blog

I decided I could label this post as my first blog since every other blog I have previously created was to fulfill a school assignment and that simply does not count. Just as, as any other college student will probably tell you, I go eight months every year without reading a book. Now don't get me wrong, I use my textbooks and do outside reading like a good student should. Last winter I read approximately eight of Shakespeare's plays, but all those hours I spent studying were simply not the same as the many hours I spent reading while I was a kid.

I chose a set of books as the background for my blog because ever since I was four years old books have made up my life. They took me on adventures, showed me a different way of life and filled my head with ideas (some good, others not so much). There's just something about a good book that inspires you to be the heroin in your own life and go out and stand up to the bully on the playground. My mother, of course, is thankful that I never actually did, but it was an exciting thought.

There are endless numbers of books out there and generally I believe people should read what interests them, but there are certain books I believe everyone should read because the authors capture both the nobility and shallowness of humanity so brilliantly.

A Tale of Two Cities
David Copperfied
Charles Dickens

Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harry Potter Series
J.K. Rowling

King Leer
Taming of the Shrew
William Shakespeare

Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen