In My Life

Anyone still read this?

2012-02-07T20:54:00.002-07:00

Yeah, I went to Florida about a month ago. No, I haven't blogged about it yet. Yeah, I was annoyed with my blog so I took it down. But I'm back. And better than ever!!

So I made a movie about Florida. It's about 15 minutes long and you'll probably get bored since it was a family vacation, but feel free to watch.

Here's the quick rundown though:

Getting my race packet took forever

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was better than I could have imagined.

There's two types of butter beer - they're both fantastic.

I like the slushy kind better

If you stick a straw in the soda kind, it'll explode all over you.

There are real extendable ears.

The Hulk might be my favorite ride ever.

Theme park food is super expensive.

The Kennedy Space Center was one of the coolest parts of the trip.

I never appreciated how much went into putting men into space.

I touched a piece of the moon. Honest.

There's a city in Florida named Christmas. Honest.

I ran a marathon.

My time was somewhere around 6:30 - I stopped to take pictures with the characters... so...

It was a beautiful run.

Disney World is so HUGE!!

I found out they have a marathon on the Great Wall of China.

I'm going to run it.

I had a great time.

My family had a great time.

I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

You're my child with a child from Destiny's Child

2012-01-10T16:51:00.000-07:00

It's great to be in a room where there's so much love.

2012-01-03T16:35:00.003-07:00

Brady and Mikey got married yesterday. It was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, I couldn't go to the temple because of work, but they had a celebratory dinner at the Empire Room in the JSMB (I've never heard that abbreviation until Brett or Jo - can't remember which - used it last week) for close friends and family.

Everything was perfect. Right down to the table decorations. They made a CD of their favorite songs as gifts for the guests.

After the dinner started, the families took turns giving speeches about why each of them would make a good spouse. Such kind words.

I wish I could link their wedding video on here because it was absolutely adorable. Shots of them walking/dancing around the streets of Salt Lake then individual interviews about when they met, when they started dating, when they fell in love, when they got engaged. Again, I wish I could link it so you could watch it. Not cheesy. So great.

Brady finished his little interview thing by saying that it was just so easy with Mikey. Everything just fell into place. "And that's how it should be. I wish everyone could have this! It's so great!"

He's so right.

My camera died so I took some on my phone and downloaded some from Facebook...

They are going to have the most beautiful kids.

There's a 30% chance I'm having a heart attack

2012-01-01T18:18:00.007-07:00

New Years Eve 2012

Spent with old friends from Logan, old friends from high school, new friends from Bountiful.

Dinner at Blue Lemon.

Maria's stubs.

Thurl Bailey performing at the Tabernacle.

McKay's awesome apartment.

Laughing at the descriptions for the events at Eve.

"You sound like Stefan from Weekend Update."

Taking over McKay's living room.

Flight of the Conchords.

Almost getting an Irish drinking song out of Jo.

Party at Daybreak.

Sweaters around the waist.

Dancing.

Missing the countdown because of dancing.

Skippy.

Party favors.

Fortune cookies.'

"What the shit is this?!

Rude, attractive men with long hair.

"He just turned around!"

Beyonce.

I resolve to...

2012-01-01T17:58:00.006-07:00

And here they are!

Different from every other year, I intend on achieving every one of these. Some are easier than others so I am expecting to have a very successful year.

Happy 2012, everyone!

One picture a day (I won't post them all here. That might get annoying, but my mom found a bag of film so I'm hoping to use them all.)
Scripture study. Every morning. Even if it’s at 5:30 AM…
Gym 5 days a week. Even if it’s at 5:30 AM
SLC Half Marathon.
TOU Half Marathon
Make a document of truth out of my driver license.
Go to a Radiohead concert
Move out of my parent’s house
Get a new job – more along the lines of a career?
Get into grad school…
Run a Ragnar on an Ultra team
Finally get around to reading the books on my book list
Go somewhere I’ve never been
Carry on my resolution from last year to say yes to things.
No purchasing of fast food. Period.
Pay off my student loans.
Learn to play a musical instrument that I don’t already know how to play
Take photography classes

Annoyed

2011-12-22T18:09:00.009-07:00

I'm annoyed with my blog.

So much so that I feel the need to apologize for how boring I feel it is.

I think I've realized why I'm annoyed with it though.

Not enough pictures.

I've stopped carrying my camera(s) around.

Brett pointed it out to me.

It's true.

That'll stop. Now.

Besides, I like telling stories with pictures more than I like telling stories with words.

I'm better at it.

So here's the last week(ish) of my life:

In Instagram and iPhone love:

I got sick and loaded up on Vitamin C.

Brett came home!

Scatter with the original ballers.

Got to see Dani. Wedding: February 18th.

Went to USU's first Bowl game since 1997.

Yeah, we lost. Yeah, it was in Boise. But at least we made it there!

Kimball and Tess were in town too!

Felt good to have the old group back.

"Look, I'm like Sydnie!"

I need to see more of Jo.

And of Jo and Kellen together.

So funny.

The lights.

[I don't know why I'm standing like that...]

I love Salt Lake.

I love my friends.

I love that we can get together after years being away and it's like nothing has changed.

It even started to snow.

I love the snow.

Merry Christmas.

Besties

2011-12-14T22:05:00.004-07:00

My mom and her best friend decorate my grandma's Christmas tree every year.
It's one of my favorite traditions.
And I'm not even a part of it.

They sit and talk and laugh. Reminisce. Gossip.
I sit and watch them like I'm 5 years old again.
They tell stories from when they were young. They tell stories from when I was young.
I tell them stories about my life.

Sheila makes bows like you've never seen before.
The pair together create a tree comparable to none.
Pam has so much Christmas stuff. So much ribbon. So many ornaments.

Favorite laugh of the night:
Me: "Yeah, I need to get a credit card."
Mom: "Well... Be careful. It can turn into one slippery slope."
Sheila: "Yeah... but it's such a fun slippery slope."

We all laugh.
I realize I laugh kind of like my mom sometimes.

They never run out of things to talk about.
I hope I have a friend like Sheila.
I know I will.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

2011-12-04T17:33:00.002-07:00

Church was cancelled today. That's never happened in my life.

"Meet at the Bishop's house at 9 AM to help with the clean up!"

There's another windstorm coming.

They opened the dump for the day specifically for clean up.

I loved seeing my neighbors driving around with their trucks full to bursting with evergreen branches.

Tree trunks sawed into little stubs.

Pine needles, literally, everywhere.

Bountiful currently smells like a pine tree air freshener. And I'm not exaggerating.

I think it'd be different if our little city was used to such high winds, but this has never happened before! No one was prepared.

However, I love living in a community where you know your neighbors and everyone is willing to spend a Sunday afternoon cleaning up trees.

Many hands make light work.

But there's one thing for sure... if the power goes out again, we'll definitely have enough firewood.

Emergency Situation

2011-12-03T11:15:00.008-07:00

Radio from Hell kept calling it "Windageddon." I laughed every time.

Someone else called in and said that Chuck Norris must have sneezed. I laughed at that too.

Now that it's all said and done, the cities of Bountiful and Centerville have estimated the damage between $4-10 million. They're still evaluating.

It was absolute mayhem. You know the footage of hurricanes you see on The Weather Channel? I felt like I was in that footage.

Trees uprooted.

Barbecues flying through windows.

Roofs being torn off.

Damaged cell towers.

Shingles in my driveway.

Passing a wall of semi trucks on the freeway since they weren't allowed to drive.

Power outages across the entire county.

Sleeping next to the fire in the living room.

Having to be a refugee at Kellen's house in order to charge my work computer and work phone.

It's so crazy that even though NOTHING worked in Bountiful, traffic was still able to flow. Slowly and inefficiently, but I still was able to get to work. I didn't realize how much we depend on power. We had to throw out some food that had been left in the fridge during our 24 hour visit to the past.

The streets were so eery. So dead.

But if we're being honest... it was kind of really fun.

Fun fact: Evergreen trees have a very shallow root base.. that's why they blow over in 100 mile winds. My advice? Don't plant one where it can fall on your house and/or car and/or loved ones.

Negligent

2011-12-03T10:23:00.003-07:00

I've been so bad with my bucket list.

Working on it though.

Here's a little update. (Kind of more for my benefit, but in case you're curious as to what my awesome, exciting life has in store in the near future... you can know too.)

In discussing my travels to every state:

Been to:

Utah (duh)
California
Nevada
Arizona
Oregon
Idaho
Washington
Montana
Wyoming
Texas

Coming up:

FLORIDA!!!

Currently that's all of the in-country trips I have planned.

But the Florida trip accomplishes multiple goals on my bucket list.

Another being... It's my first marathon!! If you'll remember, I've been excited about this for a while.

Not to mention, Florida is home to Harry Potter World.

In discussing my travels out of North America:

Kellen, Maren and I have been trying to decide where we will go on our "graduation" trip. The original plan was Greece, but we're rethinking due to the current political unrest
But... We talked to Dave Kuwada about it last night and he was so enthusiastic about it... he kinda persuaded me to just do it.
Anyway, this is going down late July/early August.
.s.t.o.k.e.d.

In discussing Ragnar Races...

I find myself constantly planning teams for Ragnar. Really though. Every weekend that there's a race (even if it's in Tennessee) I somehow start thinking of who to call.
So if you wanna run a Ragnar.... Let me know. Chances are I'll be doing one.

I'm re-realizing how great my life is after reading through some old posts.

Great friends.

Great family.

Great life. Logan was incredible. Being home has been fun. Salt Lake is going to be fantastic. Everything I have ahead of me, will be an absolute riot - even when it's not.

I love my life.

Baby of the 80s. Kid of the 90s.

2011-11-30T17:15:00.003-07:00

Please, please read this. And enjoy... CLICK HERE

Our Nation's Two Options

2011-11-21T14:56:00.004-07:00

I was told today that our nation has two options for our future. The gentleman I was talking to started discussing the amount of money that the United States owes various countries.

Enter our country's fate according to this man..

Option 1: We disappear. Like the Roman Empire, we become so big and eventually collapse.

Option 2: We all "start speaking Chinese." Since we owe the Chinese government so much money, we'll settle our debt by... giving up our country.

.......

He's a glass half-full kind of guy.

Forget it

2011-11-08T19:32:00.003-07:00

I've thought about it. Talked about it. And came to the conclusion that I seriously overreacted.

There's honestly no reason for me to make my blog private. Seriously. I'm not giving out my social security number. Not talking about my mother's maiden name. Or the street I grew up on. Or any other questions that they ask you when you create an account for... well, anything nowadays.

So, for all of those who were kind enough to want to continue reading this poorly attended blog, I appreciate it. And I apologize for any inconvenience.

HOWEVER... I have some BREAKING NEWS!

Dani got engaged this weekend! Congratulations, Dani!

Maybe this means we'll follow the pattern of the Gnomes. Go one right after the other. (McKay... Juje... who's next, girls?!?)

For the record... I did not mean I'm in some huge rush to get married.

My single life is still pretty great.

Well, anyway... I'm back! Back to my randomly updated, often ignored blog. You all can breathe easy again. Even you creepers who didn't give me your email addresses. Glad to have you back.

"The time has come," the walrus said...

2011-10-14T19:29:00.002-06:00

I have started to become a little wary about everything viral. A few weeks ago, I watched the Terminator series for the first time in a long time. Skynet... I'm tellin' ya. You can't think about that too hard or else you'll end up psyching yourself out.

I've also been reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. There's a lot of internet instability in those books. Hackers, dirty cops, unethical government officials.

The cherry on top of this paranoia pie was when Tess told us the story about how she got her job. She said they checked her Facebook photo and made her change it to one they preferred. Right there in the office. They checked her Facebook.

It got me thinking...

Moral of the story::

I'm going private.

Go ahead and call me paranoid. I'll probably agree with you.

Leave your address (or message me on Facebook if you don't trust your email to the internets and its many shady dealings) if you wish to keep reading my little blog.

Thank you, and goodnight.

Historical Christianity... Uh....

2011-10-12T22:03:00.004-06:00

When did we come to this? When did political debates degrade to personal insults? Are we that unintelligent? Is this really what we've become??

"We must do as we have always done and vote the platform and the person and not the pulpit." - great article found HERE (I recommend reading it all.)

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

"Oh man... I'm still here..."

2011-09-19T14:22:00.004-06:00

I think one of the most awful things I've ever done is actually planning a Ragnar. Such a pain. But the turn out is so worth it. The drop out runners, the annoying car rentals, missed flights, rental problems, multiple close calls in the car - all worth it the minute you start running the relay. Being stuck in a Stow-N-Go with six of your best friends for 30+ hours and 200 miles is just so fun.

Somehow - still not sure how I did it - but somehow I talked McKay into filling our last spot and it was the best decision ever. She was wigging out and would say the funniest things. She had an 7.8 mile leg - the longest she's ever run at one time. She woke up the day of the race and started saying she "felt nothing!" "I'm freaking out about not feeling anything!" Eventually, she started to see how much fun it is and how not serious we were about time and she loved it. I love that she loved it. I feel like the whole thing was a success simply because she was sold on it. But it was a success for much more than that.

McKay is always better at blogging about these thing than I am so check out her blog here. I'm taking her lead and just writing some highlights about this trip. I'm more than willing to explain the funny, funny stories behind these short sentences if you're interested, but I just want to remember them....

-Max's missed flight

-Frantically asking the man at the information desk at the airport where Max was

-Getting a Stow-N-Go at the last minute instead of a full size SUV

-Waking up in the Stow-N-Go to fog on every window and the funkiest smell I've ever smelled

-McKay waking up in the Stow-N-Go and saying nothing but, "Oh man... I'm still here."

-Spreading my enthusiasm for the Stow-N-Go

-Swerving out of the way of what looked like a dead black bear

-THAT THROW!

-Constantly being asked if we actually drove all the way from Colorado

-McKay owning her 8 mile run

-According to Brett, being the first from Utah to see his apartment. Although I don't know if it's from lack of trying... that place is a maze of jungle, like McKay described.

-Car games/stories

-Trying to sleep between our first and second legs, but who actually gets tired at 4PM?

-Those beautiful, beautiful people from Park City. We started at them for a solid 20 minutes.

-Having members of my own team realizing what Wu-Tang stood for... at the end of the race

-Awful post race pizza

-DOUBLE MEDAL!!!

-That awful, let down of a finish line.

-The biggest blister I've ever had

-My last leg was the worst run of my life

-The confused look on the stranger's face that gave me a water bottle when I asked if he wanted it back.

-Seeing how awesome the Burton's life is

-McKay's outrageous, incredibly entertaining stories

-Finding pictures of strange men on my camera taken while I was running

-Constant Arrested Development quotes

-Phone calls on the ride home...

So much more. I wish I would have written down all of the funny things people were saying. So fun.

I.love.Ragnar.

Are you related?

2011-09-07T22:50:00.004-06:00

I get told that I look like these two constantly.

Sister, twin, cousin, general relative.

You know that obnoxious saying, "I wish I had a [dollar amount] for every time..."

Well, it's true.

It'd be a good source of supplemental income.

I don't really see it.

But I'll take it.

Hashtag Admiration

2011-08-31T20:47:00.008-06:00

Aside from my curiosity as to when a number/pound sign became known as a hashtag, this blog is about all of the people I have come to admire and have instilled a sense of inspiration in me the last few months.

Emma Lou Thayne
I met this incredible woman around the beginning of August. She even has a [rather short] Wikipedia page:

Emma Lou Thayne is a Mormon poet, counted as one of the 75 most significant. She graduated from the University of Utah in 1945. She would later return there to coach tennis and teach English. She was on the faculty over 30 years.

She has all of the covers from the books she has written on her wall. She has her Bachelors Degree, Masters Degree and Honorary PhD on her wall. She wrote the lyrics for the hymn ‘Where Can I Turn for Peace?’ She’s in her 80s, I believe, and still as sharp as a tack. So witty, full of humor, full of life. She’s accomplished so much. Her family is quite large and she goes on and on about her daughters (she didn’t have any sons) and their children and their children. They are constantly in and out of her house and holidays are a grand affair. While I was in her home, she received multiple phone calls from people calling her “Mom,” but she informed me that none of them were her actual children. Some were friends of her children, but others were just those whose lives she has touched in a way to have them refer to her with such respect.

It is incredible to me that she has accomplished so much in her life. She must have constantly been moving, going, learning, DOing. It makes me feel a little guilty at how much time I waste in a day. Since meeting her, I’ve made a conscious effort to watch less television, clean more, read more, and just expand my knowledge in general. I bought my GRE study book the other day, but I also bought a Spanish text book. I’m attempting to teach myself Spanish. Anyone who speaks it will most likely get a laugh like none other at my attempts, but what can it hurt to try? That leads me to person #2…

Drew Van Dyke
I don’t even think Drew knows that I have a blog, so I’m not doing this to stroke anyone’s ego – although if he did know about this blog, he would most likely start singing Ego by Beyonce after reading that sentence. I went to junior high and high school with Drew and we found out this summer that we used to live right next door to one another when we were about 5 years old. Drew is one of the most energetic, out-going, confident people that I know.

I hung out a lot with Drew this summer. He knows more people in the Davis County/Salt Lake City area than I do and he was gracious enough to attempt to feed me into the social scene. He came on the annual Fourth of July trip this year, which is where I was initially impressed with this friend of mine. Many times, coming into this group of friends as a “newby” can be extremely intimidating. We have all known one another for a long time, we all have so many inside jokes, and we’re all just such good friends. But what I love about my friends is their willingness to be open and friendly with others. Drew falls into that category. In no time, he was as good of friends with everyone as I was.

What I love about Drew is that attitude of “what can it hurt?” He is one of those people who are always willing to have a good time. Up for anything, will try anything, but still responsible. Not too high strung, not too carefree. When he wants something, he goes for it. He doesn't care if it’s out of the norm, he does it and does it right. He thinks outside of the box. And all of these qualities, I wish I had more of. Too many times, I’m held back by my own insecurities or self doubt. I wish I had an imagination as vivid as Drew’s. He’s an artist, he’s a dancer, he’s an everyday comedian. He learns things from everyone he meets and adopts those things into his personality, his view on life, his view on the world. He was a tour guide, of sorts, to a group of Japanese school kids this summer and they absolutely adored him. Adoration bordering on reverence. They invited him back to Japan to come visit. I doubt he’ll ever forget them.

And, of course, he’d never admit any of this about himself and tell me that I’m being too flattering. But I’m not.

Mitchell Tanner Halverson
My brother. He turns 15 in a few weeks. His shoe size matches his age. He’s six foot four. He’ll get his driver learning permit in 6 months. He blows me away. In May he was diagnosed with scoliosis. Two months ago, a doctor told him that he had the back of a 24 year old and he would never be able to play sports again. This summer he worked his butt off with football training. Training in the heat of the day, two-a-days, but mainly core exercises to help his back. He’s in 9th grade right now, but at Bountiful High you can try out for the sophomore team if you are in 9th grade.

He tried out. He’s starting this season. Last week was their first game down at Mountain View in Orem. He got his first touchdown. I could have cried [maybe I did a little] when he did it. I’ve never been so proud of him. He worked so hard for it. Incredibly diligent in his exercises so he wouldn’t get hurt. He also trains for basketball, we played a little baseball this summer, he’s just incredible. He’s already so much more than I am.

But honestly… it’s a pound sign….

Speaking in General Terms of Ambiguous Anonymity

2011-08-09T16:24:00.007-06:00

I can't, geographically, stop thinking about Logan. The other day I needed to go to Ross and I immediately thought of where it is in Logan. It took me forever to finally place where it is in Bountiful. Today I need to clean out my car, but I keep thinking of going to Mooch's. It's the strangest thing. My parents have lived in the same place since we moved from California and five years away from Bountiful was enough to basically erase everything from my memory.

Just so strange.

Can't stop listening to this song.

Really love the whole album.

Yeah, it does sound a lot like Passion Pit.

You're right.

"I know they can't dance."

2011-07-26T15:58:00.007-06:00

Wanna know something weird?

I just got back from New Employee Orientation at Intermountain Healthcare. That's not the weird part. The weird part is that, as of today, I have a Pension Plan, a 401k, medical insurance, dental insurance, life insurance.

that.is.weird

Do I qualify as an adult now?

My parents keep saying it does.

During orientation, they would throw in clips from movies and TV shows to keep us awake and involved. This was one of them - I thought it was pretty funny:

Can't dance? They're not hanging out with the Mormon's I know, that's for sure...

You can also laugh HERE and HERE, if you like humor.

And now I leave you.

Remain calm and carry on.

Harry Potter and Sydnie's Deathly Hallows Weekend

2011-07-17T21:25:00.005-06:00

But really. Harry Potter. All weekend. It was the best worst (or worst best would work too) weekend of my life.

Thursday night was, obviously, the Harry Potter 7.2 premier. Kel and I went to the 12:55 showing down in Salt Lake and the Harry Potter freaks were out in full force. I love them. Walking into the Gateway felt like walking into the Wizarding World. They're so great. The movie was so great. I'm extremely biased though. I just love the story - inspirational, whimsical, humorous, intricate, yet often incredibly serious. I do wish they could have included things that were in the book, though. (They cut a lot of important dialogue - like between Harry and Dumbledore and Harry and Voldemort, but I guess I can live with it.) Everyone asked me if I cried. Yeah. Quite a bit. I'm not ashamed. The show ended around 3 AM, we made it home at 3:30 ish, then I had to leave for work at 5:30.

A few weeks ago, my mom and I decided that it would be fun to do a 22 mile bike ride on Antelope Island. It's an annual thing called Antelope by Moonlight. It's non-competitive, which is good because I'm not a biker... at all, really... Anyway, it was on Friday and this year's theme was "The Deathly Shallows." Obviously, I was in. The biking begins at 10 PM, but we got caught in traffic so we didn't start until 11. They have a best costume award and there were some awesome costumes. Glow sticks seem to be a necessity. They were everywhere. People got pretty creative. Finally got home at 2 AM and, again, went to work at 5:30.

It's safe to say that after work on Saturday, I was so so so exhausted. I would try to send texts, but I couldn't string a sentence together. I tried to listen to messages, but couldn't stay awake long enough to listen to them in full. My body refused to do anything but sleep. However, every night since the premier, I have had the craziest dreams. Harry Potter dreams. And oddly enough, they were some of the most vivid dreams I have ever had. It was great - sometimes frightening.

I'll miss waiting for the next HP movie or book. They're starting to make TV movies about JK Rowling and each of the actors (my mom said that Daniel Radcliffe admitted in some magazine that he was an alcoholic but he's been sober for a year - scary). It's not the same as waiting for the actual movies. I picked up the first book in 1998 and it's been such a great ride. I feel like going to the Harry Potter World in Florida in January will be like my pilgrimage to Mecca. I'll probably spend a lot of money. Good thing I already have the glasses, Nimbus 2000 and a Golden Snitch...

You know you've arrived when your phone stops autocorrecting words like "Voldemort" "Dumbledore" "horcruxes" and "Hermione."

(Pictures to come soon.)

Yesterday was a good day

2011-07-13T10:47:00.004-06:00

Emo – (if you still read this) if I were to contribute to your email thread, this is what I would write…

Ten things I loved about yesterday:

Two episodes of Pretty Little Liars. They will never give me answers... Such an awesomely lame show.
I got off work at 2 then was able to sit and read in the sun.
I went to work to the sweet smell of rain. I only wish it had lasted so I could go for a run in the rain.
Harry Potter is SOOOO CLOOOOOSE!!!!! I'm stoked.
Working on Ragnar Las Vegas team.
Fine tuning Ragnar Napa Valley.
House hunting online.
Great family time. Tuesday is also White Collar night with the family. I think I'm going to have to come back home every Tuesday to watch that with them once I move out.
New music Tuesday!
And (best for last).... I GOT A NEW JOB!!! A full time, big girl, eligible for benefits kind of job!

There’s a BBQ in Salt Lake tonight. I get to go and tell people that I’m moving to their neck of the woods in about 3 (ish) weeks. They won’t know what hit them.

After looking up a bunch of new music on YouTube, I got completely wrapped up in looking up covers. I kinda love covers... they can either be extremely wrong or wonderfully right. Here's one I love:

Happy Wednesday, everyone.

Go ahead... call me an optimist

2011-07-09T22:23:00.008-06:00

I had a very interesting lunch today. My mom and I went out and ran into some of her friends. The conversation covered many topics, but the one that stuck out in my mind centered around the nature of this world, what we expect from it and how we react to what we get.

At one point, someone said that the only difference between this world and Outer Darkness was that we have the Light of Christ and the Holy Ghost in this world. This woman kept saying things about how we came into this world with a vague remembrance of how it was on the other side of the veil and sometimes we expect this world to be like that - full of joy and happiness. She made it sound as if we have to scrape whatever happiness we can out of this life that is composed of mostly misery and unpleasantness.

While I agree with her that there is a lot about this world that is extremely flawed and imperfect, I don't feel like it is irrational to believe we can be happy. I don't believe that our lives were meant to be suffered through.

"Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured."

Gordon B. Hinckley

October 2001 New Era

It may be that I have been unbelievably blessed so far with a life full of love, laughter, friendship and family that makes it so easy to say/believe that one can find incredible happiness in this life, but I do believe it wholeheartedly. I am incredibly grateful for this blessing in my life and am overwhelmingly humbled that the Lord has entrusted such a gift to me.

I understand that some of my biggest trials are yet to come, however, I have always been taught (and, consequently, believe) that it's all about one's attitude and trusting the Lord. Elder Worthlin gave an address in the October 2008 General Conference about this very idea. Come What May, and Love It. It's an incredible talk. The one talk I remember from EFY (I was 16...) was from a woman who spoke about joy. She told a story about having broken her foot and was in so much pain, but she kept making jokes as she was carried out on a stretcher. She kept referring to 2 Nephi 2:25.

"Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy."

As much as I believe that, it is also important to rely on the Lord. He has given us everything, He understands what we are experiencing. He is our one infallible source of comfort and strength.

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Matthew 11:28

Over the last few days, I have had some great experiences that have reminded me how proud and blessed I am to be a Mormon. Some great discussions that have not only strengthened my testimony, but also helped me see my life and the Gospel in a new light. The great thing about this life and this Gospel is that there is never a point where one stops progressing. I guess it's the great thing about people too. Always a new insight. A new perspective.

So, sure... call me an optimist. But I hope I never lose that perspective. I've heard optimists live longer, anyway.

Keep an open heart and mind, my friends.

Carpe Damn

2011-07-06T19:14:00.013-06:00

I don't think I've ever been as appreciative, grateful, overwhelmingly fond of, impressed by, and gained a greater respect for my country, my family, my life and my friends as I have this weekend.

I spent Saturday night in Logan. I'll never stop loving that place. Sunday morning we left for Idaho Falls to begin the mother of all 4th of July's. Sunday was a blur of native Idaho Falls restaurants, volleyball, and laughter. So much laughter. During volleyball we split in three teams so we could rotate and have a break. There was so much activity going on all over. So fantastic. The whole weekend was full of it. I love that we're all friends - good friends - and good people. So friendly, so welcoming. Grab the closest person and start playing a game. Love it.

Monday. D Day. Left the Peterson's at 7 AM and, after a few stops, made it to Hoback Junction. The Snake River, running at 2300 CFS (or PSI, according to Doyle), just waiting for unsuspecting rafters to take it on. We did. After sending off the first two rafts, there was a lot of discussing the river with the park rangers. This rapid is huge, there's too much water for that one, Lunch Counter consists of 5 or so rapids one after another so paddle hard.

We set off. Fifteen minutes later, we reach a rapid called 3 Oar-Deal. Before we reached it, it just looked like a normal rapid, a rough one, but nothing special. We get nearer. We start to realize it's not so innocent of a rapid. Next thing I know, the nose of our raft dipped down and smashed into the base of the rapid and it was being sucked in only to be spat back out at us. Suddenly, I'm not paddling in water - just air. The raft starts lifting into the air. If I had watched from the shore, I think our raft would have looked like a reverse Titanic. We folded straight in half. I remember lifting into the air and turning to see bodies falling into the water below me. Eric said he could touch the front of the raft at one point while he sat in the guide's spot on the back.

There's a million stories because everyone had such a different experience. People exploded everywhere. I got caught in the rapid and just kept turning and rolling in the rapid. It's worth mentioning that one of the first thought that went through everyone's mind was that they needed to hold onto the oars - Tyler and Eric pounded that message extremely well into our minds. It got ripped out of my hands, unfortunately, but I decided my life was probably more important and started fighting my way to the top. By the grace of God, I came up by the raft. Colin pulled me in (infinite thanks, Colin) and we started getting everyone else in. There were people everywhere. Everywhere. We got as many people back in as we could, but we passed Dani, Melissa, Kellen and Kelsi before we could get them in the raft.

Come to find out, Tyler's raft (who had been behind us) ran into the same problem, but somehow they all came up right by their raft and got back in before they reached us. We pulled off to the shore and sat while Eric and Rhodes went to find the girls and get help to finish the river. After over an hour's wait, the heroes came down to help us finish and they were gracious enough to let me sit in the middle while they did the work and sang Disney songs. I laughed the whole way down the river.

It was terrifying at the time... but it was so incredibly fun. Eric's friend had told him that this would be the most memorable trip of our lives. And he wasn't kidding. Last year was fun, the year before that was incredible... this year topped it off! (Hayley's blog about this trip is great.. check it out. So is McKay's. Reading over this blog, it's extremely wordy. I'm not as good as they are at getting the point across in so few words.)

The firework show didn't let us down either. It never does. It was great to see friends who were there, but didn't go rafting. It felt like Logan did a few years back before everyone graduated, moved, got married, but it was in Idaho. Big thanks to Eric, Dani and Eric's parents for letting all of us loud, sometimes obnoxious kids to crash at their house. Great hospitality.

Next stop: West Yellowstone. McKay already blogged about West Yellowstone and pretty much said it all. Beautiful country. I wish I could adequately describe what it was like to play charades with the boys from Turkey. If you want to know, ask me when you see me about "lingere" or "mosquito" or "fireman" or "dab" the next time I see you. So great. It took forever to get home because we just kept stopping to take pictures, to dip McKay's feet in the river, to eat, to take more pictures. Whenever we wanted to stop... we did. A car full of great people who are great to travel with.

And here we go...

I love America.

Learnings from a Chronic Stumbler

2011-06-25T17:42:00.009-06:00

I stumble. Still can’t stop. Still love it. This quote came up today while stumbling:

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
— Steve Jobs

I had no idea Steve Jobs was on the verge of passing. If he is, I wish him a comfortable transition, but he’s right. There are very few situations where fear, pride, and doubt will leave one’s life.

Little update: In the month that I’ve been MIA from the Blogspot, I’ve been working, BBQing, playing, summer timing, etc. There are stories and adventures that I could regale my avid readers with, but I’ll hold off… for now. Well, that about brings us up to speed.

I’ve been attending my appropriate singles ward while living at my parent’s house and it is awesome. I was super nervous how singles wards would be outside of a college town because, let’s be honest, who hasn’t heard horror stories? But I am having a great time at mine. The boundaries encompass many houses from my home family ward so there are a few familiar faces. Not to mention many from my high school. One of those familiar faces is Nikki – from my home ward, few years older than me. She’s so great. A few weeks ago she taught the Sunday school lesson and she mentioned fear and doubt in our lives. She asked us if fear and doubt didn't exist in our lives, what would we do? What would we be doing differently right now?

Last week the lesson was on talents – recognizing our talents, sharing our talents, improving our talents. Great lesson. Included the following quotes:

The Lord, who endows us with these talents, tells us: “I believe you can. I believe you can.” While we are not all equal in experience, aptitude, and strength, we have different opportunities to employ these spiritual gifts, and we will all be accountable for the use of the gifts and opportunities given to us.
--James E. Faust

We have a responsibility to develop the talents we have been given. That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do; not that the nature of the thing is changed, but that our power to do is increased.
--Heber J. Grant

It’s a great thing when you hear something you need to hear that aligns with how you are feeling at the time. My list of things to do this summer keeps growing. Some things I never thought I would want to do. It’s awesome. I don’t know exactly what happened, but the last few months since leaving Logan have shown some great improvements (in my opinion). I can’t wait to find a place in Salt Lake. McKay wrote a blog about learning how to make sushi. That’s going to be great. (McKay, I’ll pay for supplies. I could probably eat sushi until I burst.)

Job Update: Got a couple leads. Have a few interviews in the next few weeks. Keep your fingers crossed. Pray for me. [Pray hard…]

Upcoming Activities: 4th of July 5k, August time concert at the Red Rock Amphitheatre, Top of Utah Half, Ragnar Napa Valley, Ragnar Las Vegas (in the works), Anetlope by Midnight, The Dirty Dash, all culminating in the Disneyworld Marathon in January. November and December are currently vacant of activity – besides Thanksgiving and Christmas, of course.

On another note, I told Jo the other day that two of the funniest things he does are Irish drinking songs and the Raptor, but I forgot about the fish jump….

This blog is all over the place.

And poorly written.

My apologies.

Take home points are to kick fear and doubt out of your life

and check out those videos.

Bye.

Diva

2011-05-24T20:48:00.006-06:00

I love Beyonce. I have since the Destiny's Child era. My childhood friend, Andra, and I would sing and dance to their songs in my front yard. [She ended up telling me one day that I had a good voice... and that I would be a great backup singer. I remember it as if it was yesterday. Kind of a backhanded compliment.]

Anyway, since I don't have next school semester to look forward to and plan for, I need to make mini summer goals - or I'll drive myself insane. I clean the house everyday (I try to. I usually manage at least the kitchen). While I clean I put on Beyonce's World Tour DVD. I seriously love it. I'm slowly memorizing every move she makes. The following video is the first song on the DVD - so great:

So my mini goal? By July, I will have the dance to Single Ladies memorized. That'll give me a month. I doubt I'll look as good. But it's a great party trick.

Game on.

New dawn. New day.

2011-05-23T16:28:00.003-06:00

Good news!

Things are looking up!

I'm waiting for my June schedule for my job in Layton, but a gentleman in my ward told my parents that he has an internship opening for the summer.

$15/hour

It deals with public initiative surveys and letters.

More analytical work, but I'll see a lot of that in my future career.

I've also put together a team for Ragnar Napa Valley!

So stoked. Some of my closest friends all running together.

Matt hurt his foot and can't run the Wasatch Back like he initially planned so he asked me.

Brady wants to put a team together for Ragnar Las Vegas.

Looks like my dream of running all of the Ragnar Relays is coming to fruition.

I.love.it.

I'm Special Agent Jack Bauer. Today is the longest day of my life.

2011-05-21T14:22:00.005-06:00

My post graduation life is extremely surreal. I feel like I'm living outside of my body, but back in high school. It's the strangest feeling.

I've read a lot of books. I've re-read some books. I've watched a lot of movies (my parents got Netflix while I was gone.) It has rained a lot so I haven't been outside much.

I. AM. SO. BORED.

I love my family. This has been great family time. Mom decided to have me paint my room. We primed today. All of my clothing and things that I moved from Logan are all over. Some in the garage, some in my room. While we paint, there's no where to put any of it. It takes twice as long for me to do anything since I can't find.. anything.

I transfered down to the Legacy House in Layton... just so I have an income. I am grateful for it. But I don't love it. I need a job in Salt Lake.

This is the weirdest limbo that I have ever been in. I went to Pirates of the Caribbean with my family and I kept having flashbacks of going to the first one - which I saw more times than I would like to admit in high school.

I've started watching 24. Bad idea. Season one is on Netflix, but where am I going to find the other six seasons? Crap. I'm hooked.

I've watched (more listened to, really) Beyonce's world tour DVD everyday while cleaning.

I'm going stir crazy. Today is incredibly sunny and warm and wonderful. I am hoping with all of my might that it stays that way. I hope I get more shifts at work. Mostly... I hope I get to go on a road trip (even a short one) very, very soon. [I had no idea how cheap it was to rent a car.]

Sometimes I wonder if I should have stayed in Logan - then I remember all the reasons why leaving was a better decision. Then I wonder if I should have just immediately moved out of state. Maybe start working with the public health professors at University of Washington, get a foot in the door - then I remember I have no money... and haven't been accepted yet. I also remember that I'm broke when I wonder if I should have just moved to Salt Lake immediately.

This is a super bummer post. I'm really fine. I promise. Just bored and sick of the weather. [Did anyone see the hale the other night? The size of marbles at 3 AM. My poor dog almost had a heart attack.]

Whatever. I'm gonna go soak up some sun now! Here I am summer! I missed you.

It rained in Logan

2011-05-08T19:51:00.010-06:00

Probably because it's mourning the loss of me and my roommates.

Maybe not.

But I have great news.

I G.R.A.D.U.A.T.E.D

!!!!!!!

Graduate of Utah State University. Bachelor of Science. College of Agriculture. Nutrition Science.

Check.

And, yes... people DID wear their tassels on their cowboy hats. I did say College of Agriculture...

My Plan?

May and June: Live in my parent's basement, because that's what college graduates do, while I find a job.
For the summer: Mostly play, but work sometimes - I guess - and study for the GRE
Late summer/early fall: Take the GRE
Fall: Apply for graduate programs. Programs in order of preference are as follows: University of Washington, Oregon State University, Loma Linda University (still need to look into their program a little), University of Utah.
From then until they start sending acceptance/rejection letters: pray, work and worry.

Here's to hoping that all goes as planned...

{Is it possible to have a city miss you as much as you miss it?

Because my heart kinda aches...}

Gonna get a little Mormon on ya...

2011-05-01T23:07:00.003-06:00

I don't know if it's kosher to say this, but I love that prayer is a common denominator to most faiths. It's always been a huge part of my spiritual growth and I like the idea of being able to connect to, not only Christians, but other religions as well by exchanging stories about prayer.

Church was awesome today. I have been in the same ward for three years now. The bishopric was put in around the same time my roommates and I moved into Appletree Cove so, in my experience, they've gone hand in hand. Brother Howes (First Counselor, whose wife served in the same mission as my father and, subsequently, was the reason I was asked to speak in sacrament, play the flute, etc) opened the meeting by saying he had thought about what he wanted to say to us in our last testimony meeting of the school year. He said he wanted it to be special since this bishopric is to be released soon. He bore his testimony, then Sister Bishop got up to speak on behalf of her husband (the bishop...) who was out of town on business. She said that there wasn't a day that went by that the bishop didn't pray for us. Bishop Jarrett has been the best bishop I have had in my college experience. Such a nice, sincere, caring man.

It didn't take much to get the water works flowing. I started thinking about my years in this area. I thought about who I was when I first came to Logan. How I had a hard time finding friends/my place in Logan during my freshman year. How I changed my major during junior year. Who my best friends (not just my roommates) ended up being. How I never thought I could be so lucky, so happy, so full of love and life. Mostly, I thought about how much I have changed since I was an immature freshman. All of the trials, all of the tribulations. The one thing that was constant was prayer.

During the rough patch I had during my sophomore year, my dad sent me a letter telling me about his life when he was my age. He told me about his conversion to the LDS church and how, through the power of prayer, he was able to come to know the truth of the gospel. He gave me some of the greatest advice of my life by saying that I should never give up on prayer. I should never give up on the Lord, because he will never give up on me. He will always be there. I will always have that channel of communication. And for that, I am overwhelmingly grateful for I will need Him more than ever as I make some big decisions about my life. I hope that is a gift that I keep for the rest of my life. I guess, that is a gift I KNOW I will keep for the rest of my life. I can't imagine my life without it. Prayer works.

I love the gospel. I love my family. I love my friends. The church is true. The book is blue.

Miss WHO??!!? Miss JONES!!

2011-04-28T21:52:00.001-06:00

This is my best friend, Kellen Jones.

She is graduating college with me.

She has been my roommate for the last 4 (ish) years.

And..

She just got her dream job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She is a great teacher.

She is a great human.

I'm so proud of her.

I'm so excited for her.

She deserves it.

She is a great person.

Congrats, Kel!!

Next year will be the BEST!

Not Helping

2011-04-26T22:42:00.004-06:00

Why do the playoffs always have to be during finals?

There's no way my professors can realistically expect me to be productive.

Not to mention, this is what finals week is supposed to look like...

Oh.... and I have SEVEN finals...

[Why am I blogging/watching basketball instead of studying, you ask? I'm not sure... I really love basketball...]

Ron.. Ron.. Ron Weasley

2011-04-25T17:26:00.013-06:00

I apologize if the last post was a little depressing. I'm super excited about Salt Lake. I'm graduating, suckers!!! Holla!!

I bought Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I a few days ago and it has a preview for Part II... I'm dying. I can't wait. I'm doing this one right. IMAX and all.

Just in case you are as excited as I am...

"Name something wrong with Logan. It's the safest country in the United States."

2011-04-23T10:53:00.000-06:00

I'm leaving. No way this is happening. Logan has been my home for the last 5 years. I can't even type about without tearing up. I'll probably cry through writing this entire blog.

Change is good...? Change is good. Yeah... change is good. Sure. Yeah. Honestly, I'm excited for the summer, I'm excited for Salt Lake, I'm excited for something new. But this sucks. I absolutely adore Logan and Cache Valley. It has become my home. [Sorry, Bountiful. You're great... but you're no Logan.]

Here is a list of what I love and will, therefore, miss about this place I call home:

--Logan summers (THE best)

--Logan sunsets (THEEEEE best)

--Utah State University

--Wellsville mountains

--Logan Temple (My favorite)

--the weather (Normally thought of as bipolar or annoying... but in my current state of blind love, it's endearing)

--the locals

--my house

--small town feel

--Snow Shak outside of Hastings (Also, THE best)

--Logan Cemetery (I love cemeteries, but I've gone running through this one since I was a freshman)

--The Bluebird

--Logan runs (due to the hills)

--The Scotsman

--the Fight Song

--Aggie Basketball

--Aggie Football (even though we're not the greatest)

--Week of Welcome 80s Dance (Best dance of the year)

--the Aggie Station

--Scatterball (it won't be the same outside of Logan)

--Merrill-Cazier Library

--Logan Canyon

--Beaver mountain

--the people (I'm convinced that the people who live in Logan/attend USU are unlike anyone else in the world)

--Day on the Quad

--Anything else I failed to mention (I don't want to make this longer than it is now...)

Things I won't miss:

--....................

Yeah, that about sums it all up.

Run. Drive. Sleep? Repeat.

2011-04-18T19:33:00.011-06:00

Why do they call it Ragnar? Where did that come from? It doesn't make sense backwards either... I don't know...

Ragnar Relay. 12 person teams. Huntington Beach to Coronado Island. 200.9 miles. Three legs each. 33 hours of straight running. And... one of the best weekends of my life.

Michelle Anderson put the team together months ago and I was stoked. I signed on before we even had a team. We left Thursday morning, started running on Friday at 6:30 AM and for the next 33 hours, I experienced a whirl wind of running, laughing, cliff bars, sweat and the interior of a Chrysler Stow-n-Go complete with overhead limo lighting.

I have way too many stories... so here they are paraphrased:

After picking up the rental van, we followed the wrong gold Chrysler Stow-n-Go. Making us leave an hour late on Thursday morning.
The snow when we left was that awful hale-type snow. I was so glad to be going to 76 degree weather.
We needed to pick up one of our runners in Draper. He kept saying on the phone that he would be waiting on the side of the freeway. Literally, the freeway. I knew he'd be a lot of fun.
Loved meeting new people. New, great people.
For two days I ate nothing but Cliff bars, oranges and Gu.
Once my van finished our third legs, we had about 5 hours to just relax at the finish line until the second van finished. Got some good sun that day.. and one awesome tan line.
On the first day of the race, I pulled out my camera to start taking pictures and the worst thing in the world happened to me... the battery was dead. I was so sad. I took some pictures on my phone, but I really wish I had my camera!
Russ had created an estimated finish time by using our average pace from the Ragnar website. When we got done with our second legs, we weren't expecting to start our third until around 3:15 AM. However, I got a text from Max at 2 AM saying that Michelle had just started her leg and would be done around 2:45 AM. Max's second leg started with a nasty hill and when we had a minute to talk to the other van, they said he just sprinted at it which probably shaved off some time. But how could we be so far ahead of schedule? (Turns out two of the runners in van 2 had switched legs, which threw off our schedule. But I told Max that the story I was sticking to was the one where he put us an hour ahead.. all by himself. Ha!)
There were TWO Biggest Loser teams on the race. I was freaking out. Especially when they cheered me on when I was almost done with my first leg.
Max's In-N-Out picture creation.
Everyone crashing in a park, campground, Torrey Pines Golf Course. Reminiscent of Woodstock.
Awesome finish prizes.
Awesome team name.

I have so many more stories. I absolutely loved this trip. I want to do it again... next week...

24

2011-04-11T12:51:00.003-06:00

The last 24 hours have been some of the strangest of my life.

We watched a Sunday night movie - Saturday's Warrior - appropriate, no? The weirdness begins there. If you've seen it.. you understand. So strange.

Disclaimer: This movie was not made by the church, nor does the church support it.

It's just strange.

Coming back from watching the movie, I turned onto my street to see someone flashing their brights at me. Since that's the official-unofficial signal to watch for cops, I initially checked my speed. However, when I completed the turn my headlights fell upon a sitting duck. Well.. a goose. There was a goose in the middle of the road. Just sitting there. We chased it out of the road and drove home. Weird.

This morning I went to class. Not weird. Logan weather, being typical Logan weather, left lots of slushy snow on our porch. So when I left for school, I noticed paw prints in the snow. BIIIIIG paw prints. It's either one big dog... or some mountain lion is getting awfully hungry...

I know it's baby animal days... but this is getting ridiculous

She's a runner, rebel and a stunner

2011-03-15T17:08:00.006-06:00

I'll blog about spring break. And soon. I have lots to say and even more pictures.

But I'm a little distracted... by this...

I just completed my registration. It cost me a pretty penny, but I am so more than willing to pay it. My first marathon, my first time to Disney World, my first time to Florida. I'm going to cry. I'm so happy. This will probably be the most magical time of my life... despite the 26.2 miles I will be running.

The course goes through all four parks: Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and Animal Kingdom. It is lined with Disney characters. I've seen pictures of girls wearing tutu's and mouse ears. I get a Mickey finishers medal.

Just talking about this makes me want to jump out of my skin with excitement.

So if you don't have anything going on January 8th, 2012, please feel free to come to Florida and cheer me on!! -- or run with me, if you so choose --

Ess Bee One One

2011-03-02T15:35:00.002-07:00

Sporadic, spontaneous decisions. Most of my travels have started that way. Someone says something, gives me some idea and I make some rash, last minute decision. And it's fantastic.

Until last night at midnight, we didn't have any plans for spring break. Which starts, technically, on Friday. We've been keeping an eye on a cruise, but had given up on the prices going down on Monday of this week. Last night, things changed. Some people had dropped out of our planning and we caught wind of another group's plans falling apart so we did a little networking.

I'll leave this country on Saturday at 4 PM. In a matter of 20 minutes, I had my Mexican Riviera Spring Break 2011 in the bag.

So, will I ever learn?

I hope not. Technically, there's nothing to learn. I think we've perfected the art of spontaneity.

Catch y'all on the flip side.

Thank you StumbleUpon

2011-02-24T17:40:00.005-07:00

I can stop stumbling. I think I've found the one website that will keep me entertained for hours and hours. Weeks upon weeks.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1XXnXf/www.sembeo.com/media/Matrix.swf

Click the boxes and it creates a song for you. You can create chords and leave columns empty for rests in the song. You can unclick boxes slowly and make the song fade. I'm dying right now. This is so cool....

Every time, everyone, everything's full of life

2011-02-14T15:33:00.005-07:00

There will be a lot of links in this post. I would highly suggest that you check them out if you have time. I promise it'll be worth it.

It's Valentine's Day. The celebration of love. I've always had luke-warm feelings about this holiday. Never really cared either way. I wish people still traded the cheap valentine cards you get at the local grocery store. The candy is good, but let's be honest, it's no Easter candy.

This Valentine's Day has a different feel for me. I don't know exactly why, but I've narrowed it down to one theme. I'm in love with music. Especially the music I've been listening to lately. We watched the Grammy's last night. Award shows like the Oscars or other non-music related events, I get bored after about an hour. I could watch every minute of the Grammy's.

I love music. All of it. The only genre I haven't been able to get into is country, but I have nothing against it. Just not for me. I've always felt that music preference is a personal thing. People are drawn to different styles/singers/bands/genres/performers for a multitude of reasons. It's not my place to tell someone to listen to something or not.

But I digress. My point is, I would hate to live in a world of silence. Someone asked once if I wold rather lose my hearing or my sight. It's still an unanswered question. I'd hate to lose music, and sound in general, but not being able to take pictures would be equally as crushing.

AND NOW... A PLUG::

Discovering new music is my time waster of choice.

If you agree, or want something new to listen to, check out my friends' blog, But Also Mostly.

Written and created by Jo Olson and Brett Zollinger.

Two great friends. Two great men. Two great music tastes.

McKay wrote a Valentine's blog today. I love the song on her blog, but this version just killed me. Then I read the article about those two. It just made it so much better. I love when she yawns and lays her head on his arm. Such a great story.

I've been listening to the album Go by Jónsi, of Sigur Ros. [Choice tracks are Animal Arithmetic, Around Us and Go Do.] I've never wanted to live life to the fullest, every minute of every day, more than when I've been listening to this. I want to lose all inhibitions. Forget my insecurities. Throw caution to the wind and ignore some social protocols and do whatever I feel.

I'll listen to anything that makes me feel something and I've found that I can't limit my emotions to one area of music.

Live your life. Love unconditionally.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Physics is cool

2011-02-09T19:34:00.003-07:00

Stumbled again. Found this.

I'm completely enthralled by all of them, but number one is the killer. No one is probably going to read this, but I wanted it for my own reference. I'm loving it.

Number one discusses the Incompleteness Theorems. Simply put it says "that with any given set of logical rules, except for the most simple, there will always be statements that are undecidable, meaning that they cannot be proven or disproven..."

The last two lines are my favorite:

This is because the second of Gödel’s incompleteness theorems states that no consistent system can prove its own consistency, meaning that no sane mind can prove its own sanity. Also, since that same law states that any system able to prove its consistency to itself must be inconsistent, any mind that believes it can prove its own sanity is, therefore, insane.

It's things like this that make me want to be a hippie. Just give up on trying to figure this world out and embrace everything. I just love it. It's a mad, mad world.

One down from the bucket list...

2011-02-07T17:12:00.001-07:00

Do not regret growing older. It is a privilege denied to many.

You wanna know why I belong at USU?

2011-02-03T17:36:00.006-07:00

Because Mrs. Potts is an Aggie....

At the beginning of the games we have an "I Believe" chant. Apparently, my school has been getting a lot of attention from ESPN (i.e. Around the Horn) and someone took this chant and mashed it with pop songs - click here. I'm in love with it. [Just ignore Lil Wayne getting out of bed :40]

I bought Just Dance 2 the other day as a late Christmas gift from my grandma. [That sentence makes sense... trust me.] So that, along with Michael Jackson Experience is cranking up my swagga on the dance flo. Against my better judgement, here's a sampling: (We wanted to see if the sensor would pick up through the window. It gets so hot when we dance inside... Credit to Kellen for recording.)

I'm also going to Ke$ha's Get $leazy tour in a few weeks. So stoked. She's so outrageous and so much fun to dance to.

So maybe games on the Wii aren't helping me to be a better dancer... ok, fine. They're definitely not helping me to be a better dancer, but they're making me realize how much I love to dance even though I'm awful at it.

Life lessons to remember:

Laugh hard.

Dance hard.

Study hard.

All with the same priority.

I've got two turntables and a microphone

2011-02-01T14:53:00.004-07:00

It's here:

My uncle took me to the Beav the other day. It was the first time I tried a real run (not just stuck to the bunny hill and practiced.) Everything was fine until I ate it half way down Gentle Ben. I haven't fallen that hard in a looooong time. The last time I had the wind knocked out of me was when I broke my wrist in 5th grade. I'm still so sore.

But still excited!!

Kellen stumbled...

2011-01-26T19:51:00.001-07:00

... and found this....

Someday I'll be this creative. Someday I'll create something this cool.

Love and Memories

2011-01-25T23:49:00.005-07:00

I'm becoming obsessed with old pictures. I've started looking through all of the pictures that I have of my college experience - there's a ton! I want to make them into one of those photo books when I graduate. Just to chronicle the last 5 years of my life. I'm excited for it already and I haven't even left Logan yet.

But I came across the following pictures in my nostalgic endeavorer. And I absolutely love them. I want digital copies of all of my old pictures. Mom, get the boxes ready for me. Next time I'm home, I'll scan them all in. I don't know why I love them so much. I just do.

I can't imagine ever not loving pictures.

"And it's Horney for three!"

2011-01-17T19:24:00.005-07:00

If there are three things that define my last semester at USU it will be the following:

Running Charades

We've played three times in the last week. I don't have a picture, but I'm going to set up my camera next time. Talk about a great video...

Michael Jackson Just Dance Dance Revolution Experience

Kellen and I play every day. I'm in love with it.

Jeff Hornaceck

He was brought by the Arts & Lectures department. There was MUCH less anger about him than BJ Novak (stupid college kids.) Then we met him. And got his autograph. Just add it to my collection of meeting local celebrities.

Stumble

2011-01-14T09:50:00.004-07:00

I'm a stumbler. Chronically. I stumble and listen to Pandora and I've done it enough that both websites have been shaped into little pieces of me. My Pandora stations don't even think about playing stupid things like Green Day anymore and Stumble Upon always gives me photography blogs or do it yourself-ers. I love it.

Today I woke up 3 hours early. I'm having the hardest time memorizing my schedule for the semester so instead of being ready for my first class on Fridays, which is at 10:30 AM, I got ready in time for my 8:30 AM class that I have Monday and Wednesday. Awesome.

However, it was not 3 hours wasted. I ran some errands, got some reading done, went running. But even with all of that, I still had time to Stumble...

And I found this.

And I loved it. Read it if you have the patience, but if not, the last sentence is the part that I fell in love with:

We’re conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments. But great moments often catch us unaware – beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one.

Maybe I've just been in a contemplative mood since 2010 ended, but I just really loved this story. No one has ever defined any requirements for the term "defining moments." It's up to the individual. What in your life makes you want to change? What in your life teaches you a lesson that makes you a better person? A lesson that you will keep for the rest of your life? I think many people over look the small "beautifully wrapped" moments, assuming that their life changing event will be as noticeable as an earthquake. I've only had one of those events. Everything else has come small and unexpected, like the author stated.

I like to think he went back to visit her. I'm sure he did. He sounds like a good guy.

Yes

2011-01-02T18:00:00.007-07:00

They say how you spend your New Years Eve is how you spend the rest of your year.

If that's the case, then bring on 2011!

Mine was spent playing Running Charades. I didn't initially want to play. I was tired. A little ornery. But I should have known better. I always have a great time with that game.

So I have decided that the theme of my New Years Eve (and consequently, my entire year) is this:

Say "YES" more often

Of course, the one condition is saying yes to things within reason... But this is my last semester at USU. I'm moving in May and I decided I'm not going out on a luke-warm note. I'm going out with a BANG!

You want to go to Lava Hot Springs on a Friday night when I work the next morning? Yeah, sure. Want to go hang out in Salt Lake for the night? Why not. Road trips? I'm in.

Just ask. I'll try anything once....

Get ready, friends. This is going to be the funnest, most spontaneous version of myself that you've ever met.

Griswold's... Meet the Halverson's.

2010-12-25T19:35:00.008-07:00

Who doesn't love Christmas? There's a different feeling in the air during this time of year. It's magic. The snow, the cheer, the crisp air. I love it.

My Christmas felt an awful lot like a watered-down version of Christmas Vacation. My parents had planned for us to go to California to visit my grandma and come back on the 23rd. Just before Christmas Eve. Then my mom's parents would come down on the 24th and we'd open presents having had visited both families. Well, that was the plan. What actually happened was we drove all 12 hours to California in a car that gives me migraines to find rain everyday we were there. The rain wasn't that bad because it allowed us to go to the Reagan Library and hang out with my Californian family longer. Things went downhill when we went to visit my grandfather's grave, but they had closed the cemetery due to the excessive amounts of rain. After the long drive back, we found out that my other set of grandparent's had decided not to come down. And last, but not least, there was no snow.

It didn't feel like Christmas for most of the week. I was really bummed, but on Sunday my dad had the idea to go to the LDS Museum and walk around Temple Square. That's when it started to feel like Christmas. They have a new display in the museum that is centered around the testimonies/conversions of Latino Latter-Day Saints and there were some of the most beautiful stories. When we pulled into our driveway when we came home, my mom announced that she wanted us all to change out of our Sunday best and grab a rag because we were going to wipe down the walls so she could start painting this week. This is my favorite moment of Christmas 2010. Sharing stories, re-telling the standard ones, listening to my parents tell stories about their youth and their parents. That is Christmas. Family and Christ.

We stopped by my great Aunt and Uncle's house after going to Temple Square to chat and pick up the annual batch of peanut brittle that my great aunt makes for us. I wish everyone could meet my great aunt and uncle. They are two of my favorite people and ones I look up to the most. But while we were there, my dad read a story out of the December issue of the Ensign. It's beautiful. (It's the first story, although they're all good.)

Kudos to those who made it all the way through my rambling thoughts. For those who didn't, a picture says a thousand words, right?

Finals Week Observations

2010-12-13T17:27:00.007-07:00

This will be an on-going blog. It is currently 5:28 PM on Monday, December 13, 2010. The beginning of my personal hell. The beginning of finals week. I've been at the library since 11 AM. It's great to see how my environment has changed around me... and that's what I'll be documenting.

This is my life... in the library...

MONDAY

Ugly Betty is currently playing on three different computer screens. One boy is even watching The Sing Off.
There are five people that have been here as long as I have. We haven't said anything to each other. Just dutifully stuffed our headphones in our ears and kept typing/studying.
It is LOUD!! The first floor of the library is only ever this loud during finals week. That'll change as the week goes on.
I've only seen one girl in sweats. This will also change as the week progresses.

TUESDAY

Although they're fun to dance to, Kanye West makes some really awful songs that don't make sense. Exhibit A: excerpt from Flashing Lights

First class with the seat back I still see ya
In my past, you on the other side of the glass
Of my memory's museum,
I'm just saying, Hey Mona Lisa,
come home you know you can't Rome without Caesar

Mona Lisa, Rome and Caesar? One of these things is not like the others...

The missionaries are spreading the good word through the library right now.

WEDNESDAY

My hardest finals are over which means I didn't have to go to the library until about 4 PM, but you can still spot those dedicated students that have been here all day.
The Finals Week Howl should be happening tonight. I wonder if it will or if that's a dying tradition. I have a suspicion that the Howl is being replaced by this new "Silent Dance Party." [Everyone meets in the foyer of the library with their iPods and headphones and dances for a few minutes.]

THURSDAY

My last day. I won't be here for long. There is a noticeably big drop in the amount of people here compared to Monday. And more sweats.

FRIDAY

See ya next semester, Merrill-Caizer.

I am Thankful for Cache Valley locals

2010-11-28T19:29:00.009-07:00

Holiday shifts are luck of the draw at Legacy House. Well, kinda... they go off of seniority, but the CNAs are in a different pool than the Med Techs. These details don't matter. The point is, it just so happened that I had to work from 2pm to 10pm on Thanksgiving day. So when all of my roommates, except Dani, went home (along with most of the population of Logan) I had a whole bunch of time to do whatever I wanted. Like study...

Anyway, word got out that Dani and I were going to be at our apartment for the holiday and invites started coming from every corner of the valley. We, basically, had every friend of ours who is a resident of Cache Valley invite us to their Thanksgiving dinner. I was so overwhelmed by the outpouring of people who wanted to ensure that we had a Thanksgiving dinner. I had to graciously decline all of them however since I would be at work during the prime eating hours.

I've said it before, but it's still true... I have some great friends. For those who read this blog, [I should say for those who know about this blog...] this Thanksgiving, along with being grateful for family and the gospel, I am forever grateful for you {all of you, not just the ones who invited me to dinner} and the support, love, and lessons you have shown me in the time I've known you. If there's one umbrella-type idea that I've learned and gained a greater appreciation for during my college experience, it's that everyone I meet can teach me something new either about myself, about the world, or just life in general. Learning never ceases, which makes the pathways for said learning limitless.

I did get to go home to spend time with my family though. I had Friday off so I went home after my shift on Thursday night. My parents and brother had gone to my grandparent's place in Bear Lake and apparently, my grandma felt so bad that I had to work that she filled up three of the to-go boxes you get at restaurants and sent them home for me. Even re-heated, Thanksgiving dinner is so tasty. I don't think I've ever known a Black Friday that my mom hasn't gone shopping and this year was no different. She came home and asked, "Syd, do you want Christmas to be a surprise or do you want it to fit?" I said I'd rather have it fit so she had me try on some shoes and cardigans she had picked out for me. Later, we went to RC Willey to buy the family Christmas gift of a new LCD TV. I was super resistant to go out with the Black Friday crazies running around, but when we got there and the camera section was across from the TV section and Mitch and I got to sit on a couple of recliners and watch Toy Story and the Alabama/Auburn game, I was content. Family time is great no matter what.

Last thing about my Thanksgiving since this post is already forever long. My roommates and I decided to have a house-hold Thanksgiving dinner so we invited the boys to chip in a few bucks and we'd cook a full-fledged Thanksgiving feast. And it was fantastic. Mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, stuffing, roast (turkey was going to be too difficult... and expensive), rolls, jello, salad, deviled eggs, banana cream pie, pumpkin pie. Now here's the thing about the pumpkin pie... I made it. Not only that... I made it from a real pumpkin!!! Not from a can. Didn't know you could do that? Yeah, I've heard that a lot. But you can. And I did. And it was so tasty!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Bring on Christmas....

"I get all of my great ideas from you."

2010-11-26T10:15:00.007-07:00

McKay had a post where she took all of the little videos she had been recording and cut them up and threw them all together in one awesome video. So, I wanted to try. Hers is a lot better. She has a knack for making videos. And now she's in Thailand having the time of her life...

Well, here it is! It probably won't be funny to anyone but me, but whatever!

Rally for Sanity

2010-11-11T18:10:00.002-07:00

Funny. That's all.

http://www.funnyordie.com/stories/4e561641f4/the-funniest-signs-from-the-rally-to-restore-sanity-and-or-fear?ref=nf

Personal favorite: "Make awkward sexual advances. Not war."

Big Kids vs Grown Ups

2010-11-04T23:16:00.003-06:00

The housing department decided to play a little game on campus. If you signed up, you were assigned a role. Human or Zombie.

Goal for the Humans: Stay alive.

Goal for the Zombies: Infect as many Humans as possible.

If a human stays off campus for over 24 hours, they become a zombie. If a zombie doesn't infect a human in 48 hours, they die. The humans are equipped with Nerf guns that have the ability to stun a zombie for ten minutes allowing for get away time.

The problem? We're in college. I played these types of games with my friends in high school. Now... I'm going to college with children. There are kids that come into class late while slinging an automatic Nerf gun over their shoulder. There are kids hiding behind my computer in the library to avoid a zombie. There are kids traveling in packs acting like this is literally the end of the world. Then there's kids like this----->

The reward? Nothing. Nada. You get "bragging rights," according to a friend of mine. Your reward is your survival. Your life. (Remember that the participants lives have always been theirs. No one took the rights to their lives when they decided to play the game.) No monetary reward. No electronic devices. No temporal benefits.

I don't think anyone described it better than Trevor Blackwell:

"Trevor Blackwell was going to play Zombies vs Humans on campus this month but decided he's gonna play a different game called Big Kids vs Grown-ups. In BK vs GU the big kids run around campus with bandannas and Nerf guns while the grown-ups try to ignore them. (I'm going to college at Chuck E. Cheese.) The best part is the grand prize for the winner... a guaranteed decade of virginity."

Screw you, Grad School! I'm going to Hogwarts!

2010-10-30T14:31:00.004-06:00

It's been a long time since I've been genuinely excited to receive mail. Nothing good ever comes. Cable bill. Utility bill. Credit card applications. Stupid.

I graduate in May so I've been frantically trying to keep my head above the water that is this current semester as well as decide what I'm going to do afterwards. Grad school? Nursing school? PA school? If we're being honest, I'd rather take a leaf out of my dad's book and take off to Europe, but my mom would literally murder me. I've been leaning to the idea of grad school. Until October 28th, 2010 at approximately 12:31 PM - I'm not doing any of that anymore.

Why?

Because I, Sydnie Lyn Halverson, have been accepted to the 2011 freshman class (or year one) at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Don't believe me? You should. Straight from the stationary of Albus Dumbledore, the man himself, addressed to my room specifically and signed by Professor Minerva McGonagall. I've been accepted. I always knew I was meant for greatness.

I just hope I won't be in Slytherin. Say what you want about their cleverness, but we all know what that means. I want to meet the giant squid, explore the Forbidden Forest, become an Animagus, learn the secret passage ways, play Quidditch, frequent Hogsmeade and sample butter beer, and so much more.

Lots of people go to college for seven years. Yeah, they're called doctors....

...or wizards....

Adamnit Mecham

2010-10-25T19:07:00.009-06:00

I've said before that Adam Mecham is one of the funniest people I know. It's true. He is. But we set a war into motion that has no visible ending.

Last winter they threatened to pack us into our apartment with snow. They made good on their word.

Not to mention when he ate Kellen's fish:

I think it was in retaliation to these events... or we just wanted to mess with him, but we called him one night and said our faucet was leaking. When he came over, we took him to the faucet that is on the side of the house - which also is exactly beneath the kitchen window. We were prepared with buckets of water. He started to mess with it - being a good friend - and we dumped water on him. That was when he promised his revenge. See for yourselves:

He started by messing with our toilet. He unhooked the chain so it flushed funny. Then he and Laramie came into our house when we were gone and took every light bulb from our house. Yesterday we came home from church to find our shower curtains were gone. They had taken every piece of silverware except for one fork, one knife, one spoon. Maren and Kellen had to shower without curtains this morning. We've all had to wash the silverware immediately after we use it. Silverware has been turning up in places like the back of the toilet and our shampoo bottles - won't be getting that knife back until I finish the bottle of shampoo. Talk about inconvenient. Stephen had bought us a life size cardboard cut out of Justin Bieber for our house the night before. They took that too. And left this on our counter next to tomatoes with the butcher knives still stuck in them:

We've gotta get him back. And good. He doesn't expect it out of us. But the joke's on him. Any suggestions are welcome.

Ya Know What's Funny?

2010-10-21T19:29:00.009-06:00

Fall Break. I can't decide if I've just surrounded myself with people who love to travel as much as I do or if it's a characteristic of the area I currently reside in. Regardless of the reason, I love it.

Fall Break and President's Day. Both just one day holidays. Yet, we always seem to make the most of it. Kellen's mom says we've got the art of the three day weekend get away down to a science. I'd have to agree.

Oregon was a blast. Long drives, but that just gave me time to start and finish The Hunger Games. (I recommend those books to EVERYONE! Read them. You won't forget it. I read the second book in a day...)

Highlights: body surfing in the freezing ocean (I'll go into the ocean whatever the temperature,) Tillamook Cheese Factory with it's 38 ice cream flavor tour, squeaky cheese, Cape Meares lighthouse cared for by the most darling couple, funny Zumiez man, friendly - although not so attractive - locals, Mo's diner, caravaning three cars that each had different departure times, the $12.99 store, watching the bumper car madness, Cannon Beach, incredible sunsets, my shoreline run, crabbing (although unsuccessful.) There's more, but they all go along with the pictures I took. Pictures always say more than I ever type here.

Not so highlights, but they make these trips and these people what they are: Never immediately deciding on a restaurant, lack of communication which resulted in a car in Cannon Beach and the others in Seaside, listening to phone conversations being carried out on a headset when the speaker's hands have been free since the beginning of the phone call, the amount of stubbornness from certain individuals -- eventually, the battles over where to eat, when to eat got to be quite comical. This didn't help the decision making at all since I usually ended up at the edge of our group of 15 laughing my head off.

I really should write these things sooner. There's always so much I want to say. This'll suffice.

Time of Times

2010-10-04T00:43:00.005-06:00

The local Top 40 radio station has started to have Throwback Sunday mornings. Here's a sampling of the line up:

Buddy Holly -- Weezer
Hand in My Pocket -- Alanis Morissette
Time of Your Life -- Green Day

Notice that all of these are from the '90s - No way. I'm not old enough to have the music I listened to in junior high and high school be defined as "today's retro." I'm only 23 for crying out loud...

I fear for the coming generation. Forever in Blue Jeans by Neil Diamond came on the radio at work the other day and a kid I was working with didn't know it. But worse than that, he didn't even know who Neil Diamond was. The world must be ending. I mean, this specific event isn't detailed in The Good Book, but sometimes you have to read between the lines.

Agricultural College

2010-09-22T14:27:00.003-06:00

I cannot, nor will I ever, be able to adequately describe my love for Utah State, Logan and Cache Valley. The weather is fantastic right now. I love fall.

It's also AgWeek on campus. This means...

--a mechanical bull in the middle of campus.

--free shish kabobs made from meat they slaughtered and prepared in the NFS building.

--free Aggie Ice Cream.

--lots of cowboy boots, wranglers and big belt buckles.

--and a petting zoo...

I can't get enough of it.

I love YouTube

2010-09-13T19:02:00.001-06:00

Don't Think. Just Run.

2010-08-30T14:31:00.005-06:00

13.1 miles. I, Sydnie Lyn, ran 13.1 miles on Saturday! A few months back, I decided to just bite the bullet and sign up for the Top of Utah Half Marathon. It's been a goal of mine for a long time. (I eventually want to run a full Marathon. Hopfully St. George.) So I signed up and just went to work training for it. And I did it. Excuse me if I'm bragging... I'm just so excited I did it!! My awesome friends and family came to watch me cross the finish line and, even though I persisted they didn't, I was so glad they were there. My roommates told me after that they had been taking a picture of themselves when I crossed the finish line. "We had been watching the race for like a half hour straight and then the minute we take a picture of us, you ran past!" Doesn't matter. It just was great that they were there. My mom had her camera anyway... I get it from her. I have zero regrets about this race. I ran it as fast and hard as I had initially wanted to. Now... on to the next one... I DID IT!!!! WOOOOOO!!!!!!! (And yes... I did dance across the finish line.)

I don't want to make you do anything fun...

2010-08-25T09:49:00.006-06:00

It's always weird to look back on busy weekends and think of everything you've done and everywhere you've been in such a short time. I woke up today thinking about how yesterday I was launching the raft into the Snake River. It was a short camping trip, but very fun. Adam Mecham is honestly one of the funniest human beings I've ever met. I don't know what goes through his head and how he comes up with the stuff that he does, but it kills me. We had a great run down the river. Stopped to cliff jump, fit 9 people on a raft that was probably only supposed to fit 6, pumped the raft with air while going down the river, Adam's skipper hat, and so on.

We arrived in the rain on Sunday night right at 9:01 PM. The camp office closed at 9:00 PM and they told us on the phone once that we would have to pay a night deposit once they closed. As we pulled up to the campground, Dani jumped out of the car and ran to the door to ask them to open up for just a few more minutes. The little couple who owned the campground were so cute, so nice. They opened up to give us a campground and when the sun rose the next morning, we found out that the site they gave us had the best view of the Tetons. When we were checking out, the lady thanked us for coming then said she had been wondering how we were doing. "You're just the cutest group of kids," she said.

Jenny Lake is always so gorgeous. I can't stop taking pictures whenever I go. We hiked to Hidden Falls and on the way back Adam suddenly became asthmatic and diabetic for the first time in his life. He developed a wheeze, was screaming about his low blood sugar, and started asking complete strangers for a shot of insulin. We went into downtown Jackson afterwards. I love the feel of that city. Everyone was exhausted after the hike so we crashed in the park and took naps. Classy. The sun just felt so good.

I guess I'm ready for school now... I guess...

Bear Lake

2010-08-07T21:50:00.002-06:00

It's amazing to me how one place can have such a big chunk of my heart. I love Bear Lake. It's such a part of my childhood. I went up today to help the grandparents figure out how to get some document off of the "damn computer." I'm always blown away at how beautiful it is. Great memories. The best Easter egg hunts I've ever had took place at my grandparent's house. It's a lot of yard...

It was Raspberry Days this weekend. I LOVE Rasberry Days. Except for one thing. Way too many cars. Too much traffic. It's fine if you're on foot (which is how you should be experiencing Raspberry Days anyway) but that main intersection in Garden City is a giant car accident waiting to happen.

I miss the days of riding Old Blue in the Raspberry Days parade and throwing candy. Back when parents would let their kids eat candy that they picked up off of the side of the road that were thrown by strangers driving in cars at 10 MPH. Those days.

Tuesday Night

2010-08-04T00:45:00.006-06:00

Summer is great.

College is great.

Life is great.

The stars were amazing tonight. Due to lack of technology/knowledge, there are some things I can't photograph (like the stars). And I love that. It's God's way of telling me to stop living through my lens and just enjoy the view.

So I listen.

Busy

2010-08-02T16:49:00.021-06:00

I've been meaning to blog. Although I haven't had much to say. But, of course, I have pictures.

To recap,

Memorial Day weekend: All my roommates/everyone in Logan was gone so I spent my day working and in Bear Lake then going to a Bee's game. First of the summer. There's nothing better than a warm night at a baseball diamond.
Thursday, July 29, 2010: Preston Night Rodeo. My first time to any rodeo ever let alone the famous (for it is famous) Preston Night Rodeo. Very fun night, except when we saw a steer be pulled too hard and had to get carried out in the trailer. (It's life is probably at an end... poor thing.)

Friday, July 30, 2010: Went home for Megan's wedding rehearsal. I got to meet all of her 'family' from Texas. Great people. Lots of laughs. They got funnier the more they drank, too.

Saturday, July 31, 2010: From 11 AM on Saturday to 2 AM Sunday morning, I was at Megan's house or running around Bountiful getting stuff ready for her beautiful wedding. It was amazing. Absolutely fantastic. I'm still in love with it. Beautiful. I'm so happy for her and Ben. They're a great couple.

Sunday, August 1, 2010: I got to go to church with my parents at my home ward for the first time in about 2 years.

Now to the present,

We threw Brett a going away party last night. In a matter of 5 short days, he'll be on his way to Santa Clara, California pretending to be an adult in law school. Brett has been one of my longest college friends as well as a collective best friend to my roommates and me. I think we're going on year 5 of our friendship? We will miss you, B-Reezy. But you'll love it and you'll be great.

Good luck, have fun and study HARD!!

Gonna love ya, gonna miss ya.

"If you're wondering why we keep switching guitars... we're just showing off."

2010-07-15T14:54:00.006-06:00

Their "200th gig" as a band was celebrated in Salt Lake City, UT on July 13th, 2010. And it was the best night of my life.

Paul McCartney. The legend himself. His first show in Utah. And I was there. I still don't believe it. It's been a dream of mine since I was a little girl. I couldn't be more serious about this. I GOT TO SEE PAUL MCCARTNEY LIVE!!!! Thanks, Mom!!!

He sounds as good as he did in the 60s and 70s. No joke. He's amazing. Still. I'm still so floored by the whole experience that I can't write in complete sentences. He played mostly Beatle's songs, a few songs from his solo career and one or two from Wings. (Let's not talk about Wings... what a mistake.)

He did switch guitars a lot. I didn't mind. They're all amazing. He even pulled out the guitar he had written the original Beatles songs on. It blew my mind. He gave a tribute to both John and George. He talked about having regrets due to what you did or didn't say to someone and how things would be different if you had the chance to tell someone something. He said he had written a song after John died. Then he started to play. Then I started to cry. It was beautiful. Honestly. Then he pulled out the ukulele and started talking about how George was amazing at the ukulele. Then he played Something. Then I cried.

There were fireworks for Live and Let Die. There were three encores. Three songs each. There were some awesome people. It was great to see people who are my parent's age dance and scream like they were actually my age. This kid went total Beatle retro. Plain white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, skinny dark jeans folded at the bottom, simple black shoes and the hair. THE hair. The hair with the part and the wave. Fantastic.

I've never felt the way I did during Hey Jude. The entire audience singing along with him. So surreal. So unifying. So delightful. Best feeling of my adult life.

We got to sit next to this guy during the whole show. He was loving life. But so was I, I guess.

Arby's for America

2010-07-11T01:39:00.013-06:00

Jo just loves that new iPhone of his. I don't blame him. I would too. I'm green with envy of that Polaroid application. I love it. He was on a roll last weekend. Absolutely hilarious from start to finish. From the BBQ at the Tool Box ("If it seems like I'm following you around this weekend, it's because I am") to pre-rafting ("Go on without me... It's so early... I'll meet up with you later") to getting on the river ("Ok... I love you, Diary") and everything in between. One of the funniest humans I know, that Jordan.

Everything seems right with the world when former Aggies are in town. Or even when they're just around. There were a lot of them last weekend - and at Modest Mouse - and I felt so content. It reminds me of the days when everyone was on their game all of the time. When monthly tea parties were in session (and people knew what those were and what they entailed.) Before weekly dodgeball became over run by Google and his people. The people I've gone through college with are a dying breed. They're getting married, they're graduating, they're moving away. Still the greatest breed, but one that's slowly ebbing away. I'm one of the last of my kind. I've always wanted to say that.

Great weekend. Fun old friends, fun new ones, and Jess getting paddled by Kade through Lunch Counter.

Favorite quote, turned compliment:
"I went to Utah State for a year before my mission. I liked it, I mean, I didn't hate it, didn't love it, but that's all Matt and Hunter talk about! They've been gone for a year and they still talk about Logan and the people and inside jokes and stuff. I never got it until this trip. The people who stick it out - stay for more than a semester, or a year, or graduate from USU - are some of the most passionate people I know." -- Eric Okelberry

Post Script:
Everytime I hear the word "freedom" used alone (and especially in July) I think of Trevor's videos. I laugh everytime.

Eat Arby's for Freedom - watch more funny videos

Plasma

2010-07-08T16:05:00.004-06:00

I love that Dani gives plasma on a regular basis. She always comes back with great stories. Last night takes the cake. Some kid sits down next to her and first thing he says is, "You're beautiful." Some small talk ensues, then his name is called to get stuck. As she leaves, he sticks out his hand to give her a lovely little letter he had written especially for her. We can't figure it out. But I laugh every time.

Glad I got to tell you what I wanted to tell you with the Rosenband and the
thing. Certainly would love to hear more about the King Arthur or the
Greece or just the Dani. If for some reason beyond me, you're a Danee, the
sorry. Or soree. Or if you've got a late night hankering for a fruit
like grapes, but not an overwhelming grip of cognitive dissonance towards
vertically integrated pastimes of high capitalism like Wal Mart, then
please let me know. I'd certainly love to hear more.

What a charmer.

How am I so lucky?

2010-06-28T14:22:00.025-06:00

I've always wanted to explore Mantua.

It's always been such a mystery to me.

I got my chance when I went home last week.

I had no idea where I was going or what I was doing, but I freaked out the locals.

It's one of those towns that everyone knows everyone else so as I came driving down the quaint little streets heads turned and people stared at the newcomer who was encroaching on their space.

I come in peace.

I came across an old, old gas station.

If my life were a horror movie and it was night time, I would probably have been killed there.

I love baseball.

Always have.

I love watching Mitch play.

His rec league just won the championship and my little bro got named MVP.

He blows my mind.

He's accomplished so much, but is incredibly humble about it.

And he's only 13.

I chose this picture because it shows the height difference so well

The kid behind him is in his same age group.

Again, he never ceases to amaze me.

First trip to Bear Lake was on Thursday night/Friday.
Beautiful night.
Perfect day.
Couldn't have asked for better weather.
I love sitting around a fire until 3 in the morning.
I love getting in the ice cold water when you've gotten too warm on the beach.
My grandparent's neighbors have this floating dock that is anchored into the lake.
Stephen refused to let Kellen onto it resulting in the best fight of the trip.
Kellen kept calling me a bad friend because I just sat there and laughed.
Pushing Stephen into the water would have made up for it if I hadn't unintentionally pushed him into her.
Stephen kept insisting that I get a picture like the one on A Lot Like Love,
but he would refuse to hold still for it.
There was a lot of fun picture taking that night.

Colin and Eric moved in for the weekend.
I love having a house.
I love having a full house.
People were constantly in our front room.
We hiked to the Concrete Jungle after our failed attempt at Scatterball. (Eric, seriously, it'll be worth it once you finally play.)
I came home from work to find my friends sitting on our porch with the Christmas lights on.
Summer.is.here.
And it's been so good to me.

So, back to my question... How am I so lucky?! I live in a great place. I live with some great girls. I have some great friends. I have a lot of fun. Too much fun. It's ridiculous. I can't ever forget to be grateful for all of this. I can't ever forget to be thankful for all of this. I almost can't believe this has all happened in real life.

And there 's no sign of it stopping.

Seventeen Years

2010-06-25T19:19:00.006-06:00

Am I everything you need? You better rock your body now.

I don't want my delayed blogging about this event to diminish it's importance in my life. I've just been busy since the concert. I'll blog about that later.

Backstreet Boys. THE Backstreet Boys were in Salt Lake on Wednesday. Ten years ago, on their Millenium tour, my mother was so so great and took me to their concert. There was NO WAY I was going to miss this. No. Way. It was magical. Adam Mecham is one of the funniest humans I know. I almost can't believe he came. He must have been THAT bored. He was so funny that night. Contrary to popular belief, the majority of those in attendance were girls in my age range. The fans who were in junior high when these boys hit it big. Brian even said something about there being only a few girls who weren't even born when they started making music. I most definitely was alive. And loving it.

Of course they danced like mad - and looked goooood doing it. Of course we have hundreds of picutres. Of course we have tons of video. Of course half of the videos are useless because we were either screaming too loud, singing too loud or jumping around too much for them to even be considered watchable. I had the time of my life. Nothing bad to say about it... except when Howie forgot some of the words... oops. I was a Kevin fan when I was younger. Too bad he didn't rejoin the band. He's so good looking... BUT something happened to Mr. Nick Carter in the last 10 years. He's somehow lost his boyish looks and has become a man. Seriously. Check out the video for "Bigger." I die everytime.

AJ's son introduced them. I recorded it. They came THROUGH THE SCREEN! They had filmed these weird spoof videos to keep the crowd entertained while they had costume changes. They did Fight Club, (where AJ played Brad Pitt's character, but it was singing not fighting... I know, I know...) Fast and Furious, (Howie played Paul Walker... I didn't really watch that one) Enchanted (Brian was James Marsden. Way cheesy. Way boy band. Would have loved it 10 years ago... kinda still did) and, last but not least, The Matrix (Nick. Oh my. So fine.) Nick's was the funniest too.

Some quotes:
"This was funny and kinda fun for the first song... but then they kept playing another song, and another song, and another song! It's not so fun now." -- Adam
"Adam Mecham sitting at backstreet boys and wishing I had some cyanide or jack daniels...one of the two. I would prefer a razor blade." -- facebook status

"Why don't you eat some MEAT!" -- Adam yelling to the two preteens who kept walking up and down the aisles.

"Just tell people I'm gay. It'll be easier." -- Adam... again...

Some pictures:

I tried to be more selective... still too many pictures for the blog...

Summer Skin

2010-06-21T14:57:00.013-06:00

Summer is finally here. Perfect weekend. I was in total and complete bliss. Summerfest, fire, sand volleyball, rope swing, Whit's wedding, televised soccer. I took 154 pictures in one weekend... and I didn't even go anywhere. The feeling of showering after a long day in the sun is the best in the world. I love life. We live in a beautiful world. Yeah, we do. Yeah, we do.

So many pictures. Too many pictures. I can't help myself...

His Name Is Marty

2010-06-20T17:28:00.003-06:00

I think the world of my dad. He is one of my heroes. Someone I look up to the most in this world. I still think of him as a 9 foot tall superhuman - the way I saw him when I was a little girl.

And yes, my dad could beat up your dad.

Happy Father's Day, Pops!!!!

Don't Panic

2010-06-15T10:26:00.020-06:00

I've said it before.

I'll say it again.

Logan has some of the best sunsets that I've ever seen.

Teri and I went running along the Bonneville Shoreline trail the other day and all I could think was how pretty it would be when the sun went down.

So Tess and I went up to take pictures for the hour long sunset.

We got to the highest point of the trail, but the power lines were still in the way.
I hate power lines. They ruin pictures.

In an attempt to get high enough to cut them out of the frame, I decided to turn on the spot and start climbing straight up the mountain.

Tess watched as I scrambled up the loose dirt - one step forward, two steps back - and made a fool out of myself.

"I didn't know what to do... so I just let it happen," Tess told me after.

Then I laughed at myself. (A trait, might I add, I feel I may have almost lost these last few months. I apologize for any repercussions.)

Once I made it, I turned around and just stood in awe.
Great view of the entire Valley.

One of my cameras can take panoramic pictures so I took about a million of them. I just wish I could see them on a larger screen. My little laptop doesn't do the landscape justice.

"Oh my gosh, you're like Taylor Swift." - Tess

A few days before this, Dani, Teri, Tess and I all ran outside our house to take pictures of the rainbow. The lighting was perfect.

More great sunsets.

I love pictures.

I love the rain.

I love rainbows.

I love sunsets. Especially in Logan.

I love summer.

I love Cache Valley.

I Think I'm Having a Mild Stroke

2010-06-08T15:15:00.015-06:00

"Bring a blanket, pillow and a bikini," Rhodes says. Naturally, I think we're going to be having a warm weekend. Wrong.
Despite the cold and rain, I had some more firsts last weekend.

First time to Island Park. Joe's cabin was so fun. Perfectly located in the thick of trees, rivers and lakes.

First time shooting a real life, grown up gun. Joe walked me through the basics. "Crash course in gun safety," he says. I'm still not entirely sure what I shot, but what I do know is
~~out of six bullets in the .22 handgun (maybe?) I got two to hit the clay pigeon resting on the mound of dirt
~~Joe loaded the shotgun, handed it to me, warned me about the kick and told me to hold it close to the pocket in my shoulder or I'd be bruised the next day then said, "Shoot it." I definitely wasn't ready. It knocked me backwards... and hurt a little.
~~Eric's dad's handgun was really loud. The warnings about the kickback lead to mental images of having a gun lodged into my eyeball.
~~I had a blast.

First time rafting down one of the slowest rivers in the cold and rain. McKay had the idea. Joe provoked. Nate, Rhodes and Joe drove us there. We sailed off down the river. It was a little cold. It was a little slow. It was very pretty. It was very fun. It was full of laughter. "It's making memories." -- BrettFirst time to Mesa Falls. Gorgeous.

Not to mention the non-first events like West Yellowstone, off roading, Ninja, What if?, Rockband, late night ghost stories, etc, etc, etc
Lots of fun. Lots of laughter. Lots of pictures. Lots of mem'ries.
"Look for it on the blog." -- Eric
Here's to the coming summer.

What's My Age Again?

2010-05-28T14:35:00.009-06:00

I feel like there's an inverse relationship between one's actual age and the age that one is comfortable being/admiting to. We go from waiting for the next grade, the next birthday, etc, to wanting time to slooooow doooooown. The third most popular phrase I hear from my home ward when I tell them about my life is, "Oh! You are having so much fun. Enjoy it. It goes quick!"

Questions one and two (in this order) are "Are you dating anyone?" and "Have you thought about a mission?"

If memory serves, I've only been anxious to be 16 so I could drive - even though I didn't have a car until I was 18 - and 21 so I could gamble.

I've never had a problem with people misjudging my age either. Then again, no one has really tried to guess. I might have looked a little younger than I am my whole life. Anyway, it was only until I started working at my current place of employment that I started asking people how old they thought I was. Most of the aides are 19 and just graduated from high school, so when I first started most of the employees figured I fell into that category. I get the most creative/confusing responses from the residents. Some avoid the question and say they don't know, others ask what year in school I am or what school I attend. I told one lady I was a senior and left it at that until I realized that there was a slight possibility that she thought I was in high school so I said, "At Utah State..." Her jaw dropped and she asked me if I was lying.

I asked another lady the other day. She's so funny. I absolutely love her. I guess I shouldn't have favorites... but she's one of them. Due to patient confidentiality, I'm legally not allowed to discuss medical conditions and give real names so to abide by the rules of the land all you need to know is we're calling her Lena and she is a little confused sometimes. This is how the conversation went:

Girl I work with: When do you graduate?
Me: Next May. Can't wait!
Lena: Oh, that's so fun! You'll love being graduated.
Me: *thinking she probably thought I was in high school* Lena,
how old do you think I am?
Lena: Oh... somewhere around 16...
Me: What if I told you I'm 22...
Lena: Oh, stop it.
Me: No, really... I'm 22 and going to graduate from
college
Lena: Oh, goodness. Good grief. *walks away muttering to herself and still thinking I
lied to her*

Sixteen?!?! Really?!?! The girls I worked with that day said I should take it as a compliment. I'm young looking. "At least you don't look like you're in your 30s" they say. True... but I don't look legal!? C'mon. Honestly. This is me at 16 years of age. Taken straight from my first drivers license. -------------------------->>>>

The other day at my brother's baseball game, my mom was talking to one of the other moms when the conversation shifted to the kids. I answered a few of her questions, nothing really important or consequential, but then she asked me what grade I was in. "Grade" being the give away word. I said, "I'm a senior." My mom followed with, "In college." She finished with a look of complete shock and the exclamation that she thought I was in high school.

My attempt at making myself feel better about this:

When you're new at my work, it's easy to go a little unnoticed. There's a lot going on and not a lot of time to talk ask about each others lives. I understand why people assumed I was younger than I am. I do it now.
Lena is in the assisted living facility for a reason...
Lena also can't see very well
This baseball mom has only known my family for the last two or three years. Sure, that's a long time, but when the Halverson's oldest daughter is always gone and never at her brother's games, one could assume she's a flighty high school-er.
It was raining when I went to the game, but I had left Logan with nothing but jeans and a tall tee so I had to borrow a jacket from my parents. The one I wore was my dad's rain jacket so it was very over sized. I either looked like I had gotten dressed without a care in the world or that my wardrobe was overly strategized. Both typical high school stylings. Not my fault.

All of these are feeble defenses. I really don't have anything else to say. I promise I'm not sixteen. Or eighteen, for that matter. I swear I graduated high school. I'm twenty-two. I'm 22. I'm twenty 2.... (until October, at least)

Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey

2010-05-22T16:29:00.006-06:00

My mother is fantastic.

At work the other day, the front page told me that

<--------------- he

is coming to Salt Lake in July.

That day I get a text from my mom.

"Paul McCartney. Yay!"

I say, "I wanna go, Mom!"

She says, "You are."

Come to find out, she had bought me a ticket.

We're going.

Together.

This will be our first concert since Backstreet Boys when I was 13.

Coincidentally, they're coming this summer too.

Thanks, Mom. I can't wait.

When I Blog, You Blog, We Blog

2010-05-20T15:22:00.011-06:00

Just some thoughts...

Texting while driving is illegal. But what if someone was texting in bumper to bumper traffic?

Is the "thumbs up" becoming more popular because you can 'Like' something on Facebook and the icon is a little hand giving said sign?

Without fail, Alejandro by Lady Gaga and Like A Virgin by Madonna will get stuck in my head at least once every day.

Why is it so rainy? This time last year, I was ditching work to go float Onieda or play sand volleyball.

I just saw a commercial for Alice In Wonderland on DVD. It said that it was the "#1 movie of the year!" How do they decide those kinds of things? I feel like every movie is advertised as the number one/best movie of the year. Cocky.

It was Cher's birthday today. She's 63 years young. Word is that she is going to spend it in the nude. No thank you. I wonder what she'll look and sound like when she's 80... or 100... I hope she gets there. There's enough plastic in her to preserve her body in its current condition.

I have mixed feelings about when people get so wrapped up in their cell phones that they don't know what's going on in the real life conversation. It's super frustrating because they'll chime in and have no idea what's going on... but it's hilarious because they say some of the most ridiculous things.

I just got a text from my dad about our dog. We've had the same black lab for 13 years and no one in our family can agree on how to spell his name. It changes every time.

Free on iTunes. I love that it's all backwards. When he breathes in (in real life) it looks like he's exhaling in the video. Very cool. Enjoy.

Moving. Working. Painting.

2010-05-17T12:56:00.010-06:00

It's all I've been doing for the last week. Moving. Painting. Working.

Phase One: Out of the Tree

I didn't really think about leaving Appletree Cove until the day we had to do it. After work, I hurried over to the place I called home for two years. Everything was fine as I started loading my stuff into my little car. I never realize how much stuff I have until it's time to move it. Once I had a full car load, I drove a whole twenty yards to my new home. Every time I thought I was done with getting things from Appletree, I'd make a final run through and realize I had left bags and bags of things. The excitement of a new home eventually started to dim and I started thinking about the decision we just made. We moved into Appletree Cove right when they finished building them. Brand new appliances. Brand new walls. Brand new everything. Most importantly, clean. At one point, as I heaved a couple of garbage bags full of clothes into my room, I stopped and just looked around. That was the moment I asked myself... "What did we just do?" The boys who lived in this house before us were a little miffed that they had to move out. [Short version of that story is they wanted a reduced summer rent, but our landlady wasn't willing to go as low as they wanted so we got the house.] Anyway, the state of our house could be due to the simple fact that they were boys, but when we moved in it was a mess. Dead bugs in the drawers kind of a mess. Food spatters on the kitchen walls kind of a mess. A. Mess.

Phase Two: Into the House

Let me give you an idea of my new home. It looks very new from the outside. Greyish green siding, white trim. However, you can tell from the inside that this little house was built a long time ago. My room is the very front room. From it's slanted ceiling and stucco that feels like someone just glued gravel to the wall, you can tell that it is an addition to the house. It was painted an awfully depressing grey color. That was not going to work for me. So I went to WalMart, grabbed some color samples, thought about it for about 5 hours, then went and got the cheapest can of paint they had. The color is called Inviting Warmth. It is inviting. It is warm. I love it. It took forever trying to go around all of the window frames on top of sanding the walls down (I tend to cut corners too sharply sometimes. I don't want any blood on my walls...) Six hours later, it was like I had a brand new room. All for only $12.

Phase Three: The Hole I Dug for Myself

I've always wanted to live in a house my senior year. Can't really explain it, but it's always been in the back of my mind that my apartment days would be over and I'd be a home... renter. Since it's been a goal of mine for years, you'd think I would have prepared better for this day. I didn't. I guess I always thought that I would just use my bed, dresser, night stand from home. I never thought about having a room too small for all of it. This means that when I moved in, I had nothing. No bed. No desk. No dresser. I was left with all of this stuff and nowhere to put it. None of us had anything, really. For the first week of living in this house, we made due with Maren's TV on the floor surrounded by strictly Love Sacs. Somehow word got out that we were sleeping on the floor and our friends rose to the occasion. It amazes me how great of friends I have. I live in a great community. I got phone calls and text messages from friends offering spare furniture. Couches, desks, dressers, beds. So generous. I love it. Seriously, heartwarming. We now have three couches; two from Colin, one was just left- Thank you, Colin. I have a mattress - Thank you, Rhodes. Dani has a desk - Thanks again, Colin. Kellen has a bed - Oh, thanks again, Colin. I have a dresser/desk - Thank you, McKay. Not to mention everyone who helped us move in. I have the best friends in the whole world.

Phase Four: Finishing Touches

So, we've been here for a week exactly. We should be done by now, right? Should be, yes. Are we? No. I've still got to get a box spring and bed frame, shelves and maybe another dresser if the bed I get doesn't have shelving. Not to mention the big canvas I'm painting for that huge empty wall. There's a lot of stuff left to do, but at least I have a room that I can comfortably live in. The next issue to tackle is getting it to not smell like spray paint from the desk. (Inspiration by McKay Orton.) Should have let that air out a little more. Oops...

Our landlady kept calling it The Porch House. It fits. It does have a great porch. And a fire pit in the backyard. It's no secret that I love Logan. I especially love Logan in the summer. Everyone leaves (no idea why) except the few people who understand how the city comes alive during the summer. It's going to be a great summer.

Dear Logan and its people,

Expect a lot of BBQs. Expect lots of S'mores. Expect lots of fun.

Come over anytime.

Love,

Syd

Her Name is Pam

2010-05-10T00:16:00.004-06:00

This is my darling mother.

She's probably going to hate that I put this picture up.

She's the greatest.

I loved spending the day at home with her.

I love you, Ma!

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Ya Know You're Lookin' at a Winner

2010-05-07T16:15:00.004-06:00

Finals are done. Finally. That's all I want to say about that.

I was mistaken when I thought high schools were the only ones to make senior shirts. Somehow, someone in ASUSU (I'm assuming it was ASUSU) made the decision to make senior shirts and got their hands on the money to do so. The shirts all had the same slogan on the front - discussed below - and the back read "Senior" with your college underneath. The front is what confused/disappointed me the most.

I Win. Utah State University 2010

Really? That's how creative we get, eh? Or is that how much the left over budget allowed us to print? If that's the case, feel free to just give me my money back. I could use it for better things than weird senior shirts. I got one, of course. It's an XL so it'll never fit... but I never intended to wear it so no harm done. Why did I bother getting one, you ask? Because I have had a vision of sewing all of my school shirts into one big, comfortable, bursting with school pride quilt for a few years now. It's going to be great. And I will love it. But now I have proof that I win. I win at college. No... I win college. I just win college. Hey college! I win you!

I've been keeping this next part under wraps. It's been a work in progress and I didn't want to jinx anything. Many months ago, I was sitting in my living room with my roommates when Dani says, "Oh! Kellen and I were talking... we want to go backpack Europe. Greece, maybe?" It took me less than half a second to make this decision. Yes. I'm in. We're going. Summer of 2012. Just the four of us heading out into the big, wide world. I've got a seperate savings account set up just for my funds for this trip. This story has relevance and here it is: I sold some books on Monday. $160. Thank you USU for adding to my Greece vacation. I appreciate it.

GREAT NEWS!!! WE GOT A HOUSE!!! We have been waiting... and waiting... and waiting to hear back from the land lady on this house we fell in love with when we walked through. She called last Saturday. It's ours! We move in on Monday. I can't wait. We're going to IKEA next weekend to get ideas for how to decorate it. Marvelous. Pictures shall be coming soon.

Graduation is on Saturday. Maren's the first out of the four of us to take the plunge. {Side note: she just got an internship at Zion's Bank in Salt Lake. She's all grown up.} Danny Glover is speaking. I'm glad I can be there. If he gets really inspirational, it's going to take everything I have to not stand up in the middle of the crowd and start waving my arms like in Angels in the Outfield.

Stupid Holga...

2010-04-26T16:16:00.016-06:00

The color film is here! It's been [five] weeks since I dropped it off...

They're not good. Not in the slightest. More frames were developed, but they are blurry. Having them up is more of a motivation to take better pictures. Inkley's doesn't know where my black and white film is though. I sure hope they find it. [UPDATE: They found it]

Goal #2 for the summer: Master that stupid camera and take a whole roll of in focus, beautiful pictures. {Goal #1 is to finish my book list.}

Things that made my day:

~Sno shacks are popping up like daisies in Logan.
~It's supposed to be rainy until finals are over.
~Sun, sun, sun today.
~They didn't put the track stuff away from their last practice so when I went on my run I got to high jump for the first time since high school.

Now... if you'll excuse me, I have to move into the library for the next two weeks.

I'll Know My Name As It's Called Again

2010-04-20T15:18:00.004-06:00

Call me Sydnie.

S-Y-D-N-I-E

I love my name. Even when Marty claimed that I hated it because it wasn't on facebook, I loved my name. Always have. It's not very common, but still easy to pronounce. It has one trick. Spelling.

Ever since grade school, it's been spelled wrong. I've gotten used to it. There's still that pang of annoyance when someone I know well does it, but it's dulled over the years.

When I write papers, the spell checker always asks me to correct it. "Did you mean 'Sydney?'" No. Thank you though. I'd like to go there someday. I meant "Sydnie." It is my name, after all. It asks me to correct my last name too. Most creative one I've come across is "Helvetian" which, apparantly, is a geographical name for the Swiss. {I'm Norwegian...}

When I get emails from professors or classmates, it's always "Hi Sydney." Usually they end up changing it when I reply back with a signature of

Sydnie Halverson
Nutrition and Food Science

My yearbooks are riddled with "Sydney." Everyone just called me (and they still do) "Syd" so I'm not sure why they decided to write out my full name. I can't decide if I should be embarrassed by that....

Check your phone. If you have my number, there's a good chance it's spelled wrong. For example: I've known and been good friends with Kimball Burton for two years now. It was only a few months ago that he realized he had my name wrong in his phone this whole time.

Many times, people will remember that it's spelled differently, but they can't remember how so I get "Sid," "Cid," or "Cyd" with a whole variety of endings.

It's a completely understandable mistake, especially when you haven't ever seen it written out. It's an unusual spelling. I get that. My favorite part about it is when people look at it like it is a foreign word. This usually happens at work because of my name tag. And when I finally pronounce it they say something like, "Oh! That's an unusual spelling. I've never seen that before."

But I've finally been redeemed.

They hired a new girl at work. Sydney. S-Y-D-N-E-Y. However, since I was the first to start working there, everyone has gotten used to writing my name. So now...
--her folder says Sydnie
--her name tag says Sydnie
--her schedule form says Sydnie

They're changing it, of course, but for now it is so sweet. It feels oddly satisfying. Like I said... I love my name. If you're among the many that have fallen victim to this common mistake, don't worry about it. Again, like I said... I'm used to it. I just find this whole thing so funny. Here I am at 22 years old and the spelling of my name is used as the default. I bet this new girl has never had this happen to her. I feel like I have to bask in the glory of this feeling while I can because it'll never happen again. Thanks for basking with me.

Happy 4.20, kids....

Earthquake Weather

2010-04-15T18:44:00.003-06:00

Act One: History

On October 1st, 1987 at 9:13 AM my grandmother got a call from my father to tell her she had a new granddaughter. My grandma, however, couldn't take the call because the part of California where they were living was in the middle of an earthquake. It's a great family joke. I shook the Earth when I came into it.

Act Two: Buildup/Backstory

We played soccer last night until about 12:30... so technically, we played soccer until the early morning. Due to the late hour (and a paper I forgot to write) I didn't end up going to sleep until very late which made waking up for work at 6:00 the worst thing in the world. By the time I got off at 2:30, met with my RA about my paper, finished some homework then crashed on my bed, I was exhausted.

Act Three: Climax

Slipping into unconsciousness, I barely noticed when Kellen came in. I have no idea how much time passed, but all I know is that I woke up to Kellen getting a text. I watched as she read it and a confused look slowly came across her face. She saw I was awake then asked....

"Did you just feel an earthquake?"

Act Four: Conclusion

No, I didn't feel anything. Did you? No. Dani? No. Maren? No. People on Facebook? Some of them. University of Utah seismographs? Most definitely.

Five miles north of Randolph, UT was the epicenter for a magnitude 4.9 earthquake at 5:59:38 PM (MDT). And I, ladies and gentlemen, SLEPT through it. Could I really have been THAT tired?!

My resolution: I'm never sleeping in the daytime ever again. Never. Again. Even if it kills me.

Charmed Life

2010-04-11T22:13:00.012-06:00

I have the best life. Saturday, April 10th, 2010 is a testament to that fact.

--My first day off in two weeks. Didn't set an alarm. Just slept.

--Got a call to play the first sand volleyball of the season. Great weather. I was even ok with not being able to see the ball because the sun was in my eyes. The point being there was sun!

--For Stephen's birthday, he was able to get free tickets to the ReAl Salt Lake season opener. Another great way to kick off Spring.

--We wanted to eat before the game started so we initially went to Spaghetti Mama's at Jordan Commons, but we changed our minds and went to Ruby River. It was an inspired choice. The wait was kind of long and we were starting to doubt our decision when Brian comes over and says

"Hey, Syd. Jerry Sloan just walked through the door."

I was so excited. Too excited. I ended up ordering the wrong thing because I couldn't speak. The waiters all kept saying things like, "Oh yeah. He comes in all the time." I asked if they thought he would be annoyed if I asked for a picture with him. They said no. Kellen told me to just do it. "When are you going to see him again!? It's Jerry Sloan!" Did it. Best decision I've ever made. He's not a warm, fuzzy kind of guy so taking that into consideration, he was quite pleasant when I asked for a picture. I would have hated myself for years if I hadn't done it. He's not really into smiling either, but that's ok because I think I'm smiling enough for the both of us. When I get that excited, I can't smile like a normal person. The first person I called was my mom. She was just as happy for me as I knew she would be. I addressed him as "Coach" and mumbled something about how much I love the Jazz as I walked away. I don't remember the fine details. It all happened so fast.

--The game was great. A tie, which is a bummer, but so fun.

--At half time, they brought out the sweetest little boy, Jonah, who is a huge RSL fan and a great soccer player (so I hear.) Then the announcer comes on and says, "Jonah, we have someone else here to meet you!" And out walks David Archuletta. Utah's own. It's not so much his musical talent that I love. It's more the memories I have of belting his songs in the car and when getting ready in our tiny bathroom. They sang a song together. Jonah knew every word. He would mimick David so when he reached out his hand, Jonah did too. It was great.

--After the performance, they marched out some Utah-native Olympians. We're watching the big screen to see who's all here when suddenly Louie Vito appears on screen. That was exciting and I wasn't anywhere near him. Just in the same staduim. Jerry Sloan, David Archuletta and Louie Vito all in one night. Awesome.

--On the drive home there was an ad for a concert this summer. June 23rd. Delta Center (I will never call it the Energy Solutions Arena.) That's right... BACKSTREET BOYS!!! I went to their concert waaaaay back when. It was my first concert ever. {Thanks, Mom.} Kellen cried because she couldn't go to that concert. We're going. No question. Wanna come? Call me.

--[This one took place on Sunday, but whatever.] We finally took a picture with our red cars outside of our home for the last two years. It's a beautiful thing.

{Post Script: I feel like I've been blogging a lot lately and I've been blogging a lot of pictures too... I'll try and ease up on the next few posts. It makes my blog page a lot for the eyes to handle sometimes.}

A Little Bit of Love... A Little Bit of Not

2010-04-09T14:59:00.020-06:00

This week was a busy one on campus. I got to campus on Wednesday to find out it was the rape awareness event. I'm all about rape prevention/awareness. I am NOT all about how they go about promoting it. I think they do this every semester and I thoroughly dislike being on campus (especially in the TSC) on this day. In order to get people's attention, they have grown men walk around in heels. They call it "Walk a Mile in Her Shoes." They map out a one mile route on campus, starting in the TSC, and these boys carry posters with rape statistics and other eye-catching info while they roll up their jeans to emphasize the fact that they are walking around in two inch heels. I appreciate what they are trying to do. It's a serious issue. I just don't understand how that is supposed to help. The men who participate (or have even worn a pair of heels) get a better understanding of what it feels like to have your toes squished, the heels of your feet ache and the slow progression of lower back pain... and that's about it. The good thing about it is the good jokes that come from watching them stumble across campus. I guess that's the case in point. People pay more attention to these kids making fools of themselves rather than looking at the cause they're promoting.

Today, however, was great. It's the End of Year Bash and they had events planned all day. The Easter Egg Hunt, that was supposed to start at 10 AM, ended up beginning much earlier than that because the dirty cheaters I go to school with started picking up the eggs before the actual hunt began. Ok... I called them "dirty cheaters"... but did the event planners not expect that to happen? We're poor college kids....

I got this text from Kellen today...

They have a photo booth for free! We're going at 12:30. Be there or
be square.

If you know me, you know I'm a sucker for pictures. I want to say that I love photobooths, but I feel like that's not strong enough of a word. I adore them. I love the pictures, I love the atmosphere, I love cramming you and your friends into a small box to have a machine take your picture. I just do.

I miss the old film photobooths though. If they still exist and the film is still being made, you can bet I'll

own one at some point.

It's long, but it's two years worth of memories

2010-04-05T21:00:00.068-06:00

WARNING: THIS IS A VERY, VERY, VERY LONG POST!!!! I do NOT expect anyone coming across this to read it in its entirety. This is just my attempt at keeping these memories. You’ve been warned.

Our time at Appletree Cove is done. Well, technically, we have one more month. We’ve been here two years and now it’s time to move. It’s bittersweet because I’m getting more and more excited about our house. I got nostalgic and started looking through the pictures I have of everything we’ve done for the past two years. There are a lot of pictures. I started picking out my favorites, but quickly found out there would be too many for a blog post. So I downsized to just pictures taken in the apartment. Still too many. So I downsized to the pictures that held the most memories. Staple events, if you will. Things that defined our time in the ATC. Result: Fourteen pictures that I cannot comfortably downsize any farther. And here they are…

August 2008: The day Kellen and I moved in. Dani and Maren had been living here for about a month (as soon as they finished building the apartment complex) but Kel and I had to work in Salt Lake so we came later. They had sent us pictures over the summer so we could keep tabs on the development. I wish I could find those. We were so, so excited. I’m on the left, Kellen’s on the right. We discovered we had captain’s beds rather than the bunk beds we were expecting. Our running joke for the past two years has been that we can reach everything in our room without getting out of bed. It’s funny, but true. Our beds came with the added bonus of being able to fit a human underneath. Maren willingly climbed in. We didn’t make her.

Conference weekends were so much fun (except this last one since I was alone.) Kellen and I would pull our mattresses to the front room and the four of us would binge on Muddy Buddies and Carmelitas. The left picture is the weekend we decided to have a community brunch in between sessions. Chico is an amazing cook and he made the Kidd Family breakfast casserole. I’ve never had anything like it, nor will I ever again. Jazzy made the pancakes while Emo made her buttermilk syrup. I fell in love with her and that syrup that day. The picture on the right was the time we watched Lost in between and after sessions in order to get my roommates caught up for the upcoming new season.

Dead Weight, Keep Away, UFC and Throw Up. Winter of 2008 will always be linked with Garrett Child and Eric Avery. It all started when they decided to show us a few UFC/wrestling pins. It all went downhill from there. The middle picture was the day Maren demonstrated how to get out of a Full Nelson. I can only remember a handful of times where I’ve laughed that hard. It got to the point where they would come over in basketball shorts or sweats with the specific intention to wrestle. One night after wrestling, we all laid down with our heads on Maren’s red pillow and invented a game. Enter: Throw Up. I know how it sounds. How to play: everyone closes their eyes while someone randomly throws the ball into the air. You wait until it comes down (preferably on someone’s face – no guarding allowed) and whoever it hit gets to throw it again. So simple, so fun. Keep Away is self explanatory, but we played all the time. Garrett and I tried to get a game going during Maren’s Farewell party, but everyone looked at us like we had just insulted their mom. Dead Weight came from one of those conference weekends. Mar would lie on the ground and go completely limp (she’s the best at it) while the rest of us would take turns trying to move her up to the couch. Dead Weight eventually developed into Relaxi Taxi in Seattle.

Painting. The first picture is the first round of our individual paintings. I can’t remember who had the idea, but we each painted a canvas however we wanted. We made Christmas ones and Spring ones which are hanging right now. Tyler then made four more to fill our apartment with. Our impulse to paint was followed by our Painting Swap with Clarke and Bryson. Dani and Maren met them in the summer of 2008 and they came to Maren’s farewell party where Kel and I officially met them. This was the night we discovered we all loved Harry Potter [maybe] a little too much. The three of us later made Harry Potter shoes for the midnight premiere (Dumbledore and the Weasley family were there as well.) That is one of the pictures I had to cut out. They introduced me to Sigur Ros while sailing in Bear Lake. It was picture perfect, existential night.

Our ‘prank’ on The Cube, our trip to Seattle and the retaliation. One day, we (plus Jenna Walker and Whitney Burton) were driving around and decided to go take the cartons of water bottles that Marty buys. We took it, left the house, went to a magic show and left the bottles in the car. Jenna accidentally left her car unlocked so the boys came and took them back and promised revenge. All of this happened back in October (ish?) so by the time we went to Seattle in January we figured nothing was going to happen. President’s Day weekend in January 2009: we decided on a Monday to go to Seattle. Didn’t have a place to stay until we were two hours away that Friday. I’ll forever be grateful to my Aunt Ginny for letting us crash in her sewing room. Great trip. Had to cut those pictures too. We came home to find out the boys had been “recycling” their water bottles since we took them, had broken in through Dani’s unlocked window and decorated our apartment with hundreds of water bottles. I was finding bottles up until Kellen and I switched sides of our room. To get them back, we made doors out of the bottles, took them to The Cube then replaced their doors with the new ones.

Easter 2009: First time dying eggs with friends. The group was what made this memorable. I remember Jess Reese and I really clicked that night. We were really funny together, but I don’t remember why. Maybe it was just her who was funny. That’s just as probable.

I broke my rule of only pictures taken in the apartment for this picture and this picture only. This is our fifth roommate. Not many people knew she existed. This is Jill. She lived downstairs and shared the bunk beds with Dani. She stayed for a semester then moved out and got married to Jordan Nield. It’s been the four of us ever since. This was taken at a fire we all attended together. This picture (plus a few accompanying it) is the only documentation I have of Jill.

The rest of these are highlights from looking through my pictures and those I had to refrain from posting. I linked the events that have already been blogged about.

Our combined birthdays. Maren, Kellen and I have our birthdays within a week and a half of each other so we’ve had combined celebrations every year. When we turned 21 and became legal, Jon Parrish, Grady Brimley and Jon Kidd took us to the White Owl. The White Owl is the only bar in Logan and they give you free burgers on your 21st birthday. As a DeFries tradition, we got a Cardiac Basket (deep fried potato chips with your choice of ranch, fry sauce or bbq. It’s Eric’s favorite.) Turning 22, my mom got the cabin for me to throw a party with some friends after the BYU v USU football game. It may be just because it was a new experience, but I look back on that cabin trip as the best one. Running charades, getting our DI gifts from Adam and Keenan, Jess having to tell everyone she fell out of a tree and that’s why she’s on crutches, surprise attendance by Brett and Doyle, and lastly, finishing off the weekend with a cupcake to Kellen’s face, courtesy of Brett and Eric.
Before everyone left for the cruise (Spring Break ’09) JP threw a “funeral” for Lauren and Grady. Their wedding was going to be the day we had to board the boat so we had dinner at the Bluebird before leaving. The program was complete with a skit, Sam Boyle yelling whatever he wanted to, a slide show and a candle light vigil. That was a good time.
Aggie sporting events including the random football games we attended. We won one once. Basketball games including going to Boise to watch the Aggies lose. I got heckled by a drunk Boise State fan afterwards and laughed in his face. He didn’t like that.
Week of Welcome with the annual 80s dance. Top three best dances of the year.
Spring Break #1 – Mexico Cruise. Looking back, I have 1,500 pictures from that trip. Spring Break #2 – Spring Training and Rocky Point. It just happened. I already blogged about it. I’ll never stop if I start talking about it again.
Fall Break #1 – St. George and Vegas. Visiting the NuSkin Estate, impulsively deciding to drive to Vegas for the day then decide not to leave until 11 PM, learning Japanese from Matt Innus. We met up with the most random groups of friends on that trip. Fall Break #2 – San Francisco. I already blogged about that too (and so did McKay) and this is already wayyyy to long… but both of these trips I laughed so hard.
Ugly Sweater Parties. First in The Cube where Coy and Jon painted their sweaters on then at Spooner’s with the random mistletoe upstairs and dance party downstairs.
Thanksgiving Skit. Written by Adam Mecham, narrated by Brett Zollinger, dramatic recreation of birth by Nate Robinson. I need to get that video from Whitney.
The Last Tea Party. Grady and Jon started Tea Parties in order to “find a wife.” Grady is now married. Jon is not. They still are a highlight of my college experience.
Meeting McKay (undercooked tin foil dinners) and having her introduce me to scatterball. I can’t describe how much I love that game.
Discovering my deep love for snowboarding and the thrill of the hunt after one.
Jon Kidd’s Holi Festival Birthday Bash followed by illegally rinsing off in Cambridge Court’s indoor pool. That’s one of my favorite pictures, but it didn’t happen in my apartment.
There are a lot of pictures from this summer that I love, but don’t have room to put up. Onieda, trips to Bear Lake, going to Bee’s games and Tim forgetting to put the cap back on the oil in his car, Incubus concert, fireworks in Hyrum, Best Week Ever in Idaho Falls/Jackson Hole, “family vacation” to Vegas, Twilight Series concerts, Boys II Men, drive-in movies, Star Valley weekend.
The picture we took of our “bike gang” is also one of my favorites from the summer. It wasn’t so much of a gang as it was just us with Whitney, Matt, Doyle, and Brett riding around town on our bikes a few times. Whitney and Dani handled the tandem… perfectly.
Maren did the Huntsman Scholar Semester Abroad last summer so we threw a party to send her off. We made her pop a balloon for each day she was going to be gone. She hated it. When she came home we made her a poster and everything, but she had called her mom beforehand to tell her to make sure we didn’t embarrass her. Like we would do that.

I warned you. Thank you for your patience, if you made it. See ya, Appletree! You've been great.

God Opens the Sea with a Blast of His Nostrils

2010-04-03T22:16:00.005-06:00

I love Easter
--the candy
--the General Conference
--the Ten Commandments
--to name a few

The Ten Commandments is such a staple to my Easter experience. When I lived at home, I'd wake up, watch* the morning session of Conference, sleep between sessions, watch* the afternoon session, sleep/clean/whatever, then watch The Ten Commandments. I love that movie. Awesome graphics (i.e. the burning bush, the parting of the sea, the plague that took the first born, etc.) Awesome script. Great one liners (which, in turn, makes for great blog titles.) Great interpretation of a classic biblical story... oh, and Charlton Heston. I know I like that movie more because of tradition rather than it's worth as a piece of cinema.

"You like this movie?! That was the longest four hours of my life!"
-Kellen
"The Ten Commandments? Isn't this like 7 hours?"
-Maren

My roommates (and practically everyone else in the Valley) went home this weekend so I was left to entertain myself in Logan. Good thing I had stellar television programming. Curled up on the couch after work, watched all four hours of that great movie, then finished the last hour of Aladdin on ABC Family. And loved every minute of it. I'm such a grown up.

*Let's be honest. When I say, "watch" we all know how conscious you are during Conference (aka The Mormon Holiday), especially when you were younger.

Happy Easter, errbody!!!

Mr. Jingles

2010-03-30T20:23:00.004-06:00

There's a cat that roams the block I live on. He's been lovingly named Mr. Jingles by the girls in Hampton Ridge because of the bell collar he wears. I've never had a problem with him. On the contrary, he's been a nice neighbor. Some days when I walk down the sidewalk from campus, he'll come out and say hi and leave. He doesn't follow me home. Doesn't beg for food. I'm a dog person, but I don't mind cats like that.

Joke's on me.

Three times this week, Mr. Jingles has decided to jump in front of my moving car. There's no doubt in my mind that it is intentional. He'll be sitting there... wait... then bolt! Suicidal, much? It's like he's charging my car. A bull and matador relationship, if you will. My fault for having a bright red car, I guess.

I'm not into needlessly killing animals. No, that isn't a anti-hunting or animal-rights statement. I would rather tap the breaks rather than run him (or the possum that ran in front of my car in California during the break) over. If he does it again I'll do my best to avoid him, but in case my best isn't enough... let's just say I won't feel that bad.

**Update from my last blog: On the last post, I commented and said the milk rain was due to regular rain followed by a dust storm. I was misinformed. We've had dirt rain twice in the last week. There was even an article about it in the paper. So weird. But it snowed today. A LOT! So now, my car will be clean and so will the air.

Sometimes I Wonder

2010-03-26T11:54:00.029-06:00

[First]

I DVR Important Things with Demetri Martin. This week's important thing was "Lines." He's so clever, but sometimes I wonder if his jokes come straight from his real life. Like this one...

I went to get a sandwich at the deli the other day. There was a sign
that said, "Form line here," but I was the only one there. So, I had to
lay down in front of the sign. There. Can I get my sandwich
now?

There is very little doubt in my mind that this didn't happen word for word. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if he walked into the deli, read the sign, and immediately laid down while the employees stared in awe and confusion.

[Next]

Why did the rain look like milk the other night? Didn't it snow over Spring Break? So what was left in the atmosphere that would make rain look like this? I don't understand how this happened. This is the hood of my car the other day when I went to work. I don't get it.

[Trios]

Got a call from my dad today. Went like this:

Dad: Syd, what are you doing tomorrow?
Me: I'll be in Provo.
Dad: Why?
Me: For the Festival of Colors at the Hare Krishna temple.
Dad: ... Hare Krishna and a tattoo in a week, huh? Oh, your
brother asked why you got one of those, bytheway.

Hindu festivals and supporting bands with songs such as Freak on a Leash. I wonder what my family thinks of my antics sometimes.

[The One After Three]

I saw a girl I work with on campus today. We exchange the standard "Hey, how are ya?" and then she says, "You look way cute when you're not in your scrubs!"

.... Thank you?

[Last]

Why do they make Girl Scout cookies so hard to find? There's no regular selling hours. No phone number to call. Pure luck. I've gone hunting for them on three seperate occasions. I drove all the way to Providence specifically for those cookies. Nada. The paper said they would be selling them at 7-Eleven, Lee's, and Macey's today.

Liars.

No One Takes A Picture of Something They Want to Forget

2010-03-24T12:41:00.011-06:00

Mexico. In my mind, I'm still there. What kind of person has tests and paper deadlines the week after Spring Break? A bad kind of person, that's who.

Finally got my pictures up yesterday. For once in my life, I feel like I didn't take enough... even though I took 300. {I took over 1,000 last year...} I just always need my camera. I don't know what I was thinking.

I finally finished the video today too. Thanks for the idea, McKay. I wish I had footage of Rhodes dancing, Doyle running, Dead or Alive, dancing at Manny's, etc. Maybe I'll just hire someone to film my vacations. That'll work.

I'm taking my Holga film into Inkley's today. I'll post the pictures when I get them. I hope with all my heart they turn out alright. Stupid things take 4-6 weeks so don't hold your breath...

**For some reason, it left off the 'O' in the title page... Don't know why, but I know I don't want to spend the time to fix it.

I don't know what to wear

2010-03-10T16:06:00.007-07:00

It's a common female motto. Despite massive amounts of clothing, females of the human species suffer from the inability to efficiently decide on what to wear, resulting in numerous wardrobe changes in the initial dressing period that occurs after waking up as well as throughout the day.

Most days (definitely not everyday,) this isn't a problem for me. I can recognize the magnitude of spent money I have in the form of cloth that has been strategically placed in my little closet which I happen to share with someone who has a collection of clothing that is greater than or equal to mine.

So, lack of clothing isn't an issue. My darling mother will gladly back me up on that fact. I blame my issue on the weather. Mother Nature, in all her glory, can cause me to wear the completely inappropriate outfit. And I'm sick of it.

Suggested solutions

Determine the temperature when waking: Ineffective for me. I wake up at 6:00 am. It's always cold at that time.
Determine the temperature after working: Effective 2 out of the 7 days of the week. Monday and Wednesday I get off around 9:00 am, which leaves plenty of time for the day to change. Besides, I don't leave for campus for an hour after that having just showered so my perception of temperature is a little skewed. (Tuesdays and Thursdays don't matter because I get off at 2:00 pm then go running or to my lab, respectively.)
Text Google: Hardly ever accurate. Doesn't account for the wind chill factor. Contrary to popular belief, Google doesn't know everything.
Look out the window: It's that time of year where the clouds start clearing and the sun starts shining on God's favored land. However, Logan can look beautiful and sunny, yet be deceivingly chilly. Today was one of those days.

Today, I leave my house and get to campus without a problem. I was still warm from my shower and I thought my light cardigan was doing it's job perfectly. Go to class. Answer a few questions. Class ends. I leave. The air coming from the door that leads outside of the building felt like minute icicles piercing through my previously perfect cardigan. In the warmth of the sunshine, it wasn't so bad. It felt good to have the little cancer causing rays on my face. Crossing into the shade was awful. I started to speed up whenever shade came like some weird game of red-light-green-light. I tried writing something down before I got to my next class, but the ink in my pen was too cold.

At least my eyelids aren't freezing together anymore.

Dear weather,

If you're going to be sunny, be warm. If you want to be cold, don't tease me with the bright, border-line summertime sun. I appreciate it. Please and thank you.

Syd

Why is a raven like a writing desk?

2010-03-06T01:13:00.010-07:00

I have been waiting for this movie for a year.

I love Tim Burton.

I love Johnny Depp.

I love Alice in Wonderland.

I hated the couple next to me who decided to eat their bags of Skittles and Reese's Pieces half way through the movie.

The crackle of the bag could drive me insane.

I hated the other couple who talked at full voice for the last 15 mintues.

Excellent movie, regardless.

Great colors.

I'm willing to see it again...

...and again...

...and again...

as long as there aren't any bags.

The impossible is possible with the right amount of muchness.

{Came home to a house devoid of light bulbs and bathroom doors. Thanks, Adam and Laramie. Way to take advantage of those who don't live with their parents.}

"Mom, can I have a snowboard for my birthday?"

2010-03-03T22:44:00.008-07:00

Last Saturday, Maren was gracious enough to go snowboarding with me for the first time in my life. First ever. Cross that off my list. McKay joined us and we all hopped in the Rav (who looks great with a couple boards strapped to her) and headed to Beaver.

I was terrified. They kept talking about their first experiences and how they just fell the whole time and were so sore the next day. They told horror stories about their first time off of the lift. In reality, they weren't that horrific, but my nerves made everything more intense.

We get to the Beav and it's packed! Not surprising. It was a beautiful day. I go rent my stuff and we get our tickets. Still so nervous. Because of that, I put the metal hook on wrong. Ended up tying it to my sweatshirt. It worked fine.

Started to get on the lift with Maren because she's my tutor, but we misjudged the width of the romantic two seaters so Mar rode alone and I went on the next one with McKay. This picture was taken on that lift ride. McKay gave me a few pointers and I started to feel alright about it. If I fell... not surprising. Whatever. I knew going into this that I had to be all in or go home. I was totally in. What actually happened will be one of my favorite memories of my winter life. We get near the top. I slide to the edge. I wait patiently for my board to hit ground. It does. I place my other foot on the board. Push myself off of the lift and shift my weight to my feet. I'm up! Home free... I thought. Suddenly I have McKay's hands in my back and my face flying at an alarming rate towards the white ground. Game over. I roll over laughing my head off while trying to obey the orders to move to the right.

Great way to start the day. Honestly was. The rest of the day was full of the expected falls and frustrations, but I had the time of my life. I wish I had done this a long time ago. I love it. I called my mom when we got off the mountain and asked for a board for my birthday. She told me to start looking. Hm. Alright!

By the end of the day, I was able to go straight then plow heel side and toe side. I could also zig-zag across the mountain on both sides. Trevor showed up and taught me how to turn. All of this was done without any falls... kinda. I can't wait to go again. I can't wait to go with my own gear. I love the simple quaintness of Beaver Mountain. You can always count on seeing someone you know there. I can't wait to be a season pass holder. Winter just became a whole lot better.

The best news in Cache Valley

2010-03-01T13:21:00.004-07:00

It's back! I don't know if I've just been missing it in the Monday paper or if it actually hasn't been there, but the Police Blotter is back. And oh, how I've missed it. Here's a few highlights:

Sunday, February 21

USU Police stopped a vehicle for a faulty brake light. The driver was arrested for an outstanding warrant. The driver was transported to the Cache County Jail and booked on the warrant.

Eric? You were in Logan on Sunday?

Monday, February 22

Police are investigating a possible theft that occurred in the Merrill-Cazier Library. Complaintant informed the police that she left her backpack unattended for a short time and when she returned her backpack was missing. Upon further investigatoin it was determined that the complaintant accidentally left her backpack in the Health, Physical Education and Recreation Department. There was no further action taken.

First, if no further action was taken then why are police still investigating? Second, she's probalby feeling real stupid right now.

Friday, February 26

USU Police responded to the HPER building for a medical assist. A female fainted in the hallway. The female was located and it was determined that she was intoxicated. The female was transported to Logan Memorial Hospital and was issued a citation for public intoxication.

Because the logical thing to do is get drunk then go workout.

Today was/is a great day.

2010-02-25T16:12:00.003-07:00

--Got paid double today.
--Got a raise today.
--Found out the raise is retroactive so I get paid at my new wage since the beginning of February. This paycheck is going to be the best of my life.
--Lab was only an hour.
--Finally had time to watch this week's Lost.
--Cycled my little heart out.
--Aaaaand, it hasn't happened yet, but I've never been more excited... 3 BALL SCATTER!! It'll be out of control. Nevermind that I have a test tomorrow.

Sometimes it hits me like a ton of bricks how great my life is. I have special playlists for days like today. It's like icing on the cake.

cannot.stop.listening

2010-02-24T16:44:00.011-07:00

I get addicted to songs really easily. This is one of them. McKay already blogged about this song, but I had to as well. I can't stop listening to it. She and Jon are right... happiest little synthesizer. My favorite part of the song.

Help me, help you, help me

2010-02-22T15:54:00.003-07:00

I’ll never understand people. I know and accept that fact, but it never stops them from surprising me. In the last two hours of my life, I have witnessed some of the most odd, intriguing, make you tilt your head kind of things. Here they are:

Kimball pointed out that there’s a kid in our chemistry class that gets up and leaves at least 3-4 times a class period. Why? No idea. He doesn’t take his phone so he’s not answering a call. I’ll give you one absence for a bathroom break. I think I’ll follow him next time.
On my way to stats, I see a man talking on his phone through his Bluetooth. Bluetooth: smart when driving, stupid in public. However it’s not the fact that he was using a Bluetooth… It’s more about how he was holding his phone by his face. Why? I was under the impression that Bluetooth devices were to keep your hands free. If you’re keeping your hands exposed to the frigid winter air at the same level of your ear, why not just talk on the phone?
On that same walk, I pass a girl wearing shorts and flip flops. Why? Sure, it’s super sunny, but it’s still 22 degrees here! Put some pants on.
Finally get to stats to find out they have the air conditioning on. Why? Just, why? (On the same note: Why does the air coming out of the vents at the library NEVER feel warm? I know I spend most of my time there, but I’d rather not see the end of my life there.)
Before starting the lecture, my professor tells us that he received a complaint of someone watching inappropriate material on their laptop during the last class. Would you even bother coming to class if that’s how you’re going to spend your time between the hours of 2:30-3:20 on a Friday?

I’m sure I’m just as weird as I think other people are. Everyone is weird. Some are just better at hiding it. I was reminded of this fact when I shared a “secret” with someone today. It’s not technically a secret, because I talk freely about it, but it’s weird. People look at me like I’m the strangest thing they’ve ever seen. Kellen flat out tells me it’s the weirdest thing she’s ever heard about a person. I don’t think I’m ready to tell the world of internet yet.

Moral of the story: It’s been a great two hours.

On To The Next One

2010-02-17T18:43:00.002-07:00

Last night was a night of firsts for me.

First: It was the first time I was able to cross things off of my list of Things To Do Before I Graduate. It's not very long, but it's growing rapidly. I was realizing that I'll have to cram all summer activities into this coming summer because it'll probably be my last in Logan.

Second: Last night was my first experience with the Indian Oven. I loved it. The Indian Oven is a Logan original Indian resturaunt. {Obviously} It's owned by the sweetest couple who wait the tables, cook, clean, etc. The husband, who took our order, told me to just go ahead and get the highest spice level possible. I handle spicy food quite well so I took the challenge... then asked him for more hot sauce.

All I've heard about the Indian Oven is the overwhelming smell, but it didn't bother me. That may be because I think I'm losing my sense of smell. However, I could smell the incense. I love the smell of incense. It's so calming. I'd burn it in my apartment if my roommates wouldn't kill me.

Third: Chris ordered Lamb Saag and had me try some. Looked awful, tasted wonderful. It was my first time eating lamb. I'll have to order it next time.

Fourth: And most important... Last night marked the first time in six years that I've been frustrated to the point of anger at Lost. Yeah, ok, J.J. Abrams. You'll "give me answers" this season? My eye. Is it really necessary to pose more and more questions before it all makes sense? WHY?? Why are you doing this to me?! I've been so loyal to you. I'll be absolutely heartbroken if you let me down. Don't do it.

I love first time experiences. I love being able to cross things off lists. It's like proof that I'm living. Pictures are like that too. I need to take more of those... like I used to.

Maren and I set a date for when she can teach me how to snowboard. That'll be another first and another thing to cross off. She wants to go again now that her elbow has healed. Perfect timing. I can't wait.

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-11T16:02:00.006-07:00

To the obnoxiously engaged couple in my Chem lab:

--A moment where your NOT kissing is NOT a moment wasted.
--Thank you for contaminating the entire sample because you were kissing your soon-to-be wife.
--And please, PLEASE stop making jokes about your "chemistry."

To my facebook friends with the following statii, "To Celebrate Valentines Day, Change your profile picture to a pic of you & your spouse/significant other, & tell how long you've been together! (Copy and Paste this as your status)..."

--You're lucky you're a good friend of mine.
--Be prepared for people to thank you for reminding them that they're single.

Thank you, and goodnight.