Two weeks ago, in a land kinda far away but still really wonderful..

I've been slacking on my blog posts :(

I'm busy, alright?

But listen.

Two weekends ago, Katie and I took off on a semi-spontaneous trip to California to visit our cherished friend and roommate, Caroline. The reunion was tender, and it was as if we haven't been separated from her for the last 9 months.

Coronado was gorgeous.

Everyone who lives there is so friendly and relaxed. The sea breeze carried in the constant sound of waves and smell of the beach. It was basically heaven, is what I'm saying.

We enjoyed many a delicious meal

Spent several hours lounging in various locations

Explored Orange Street

Visited the Del where Marilyn Monroe filmed Some Like It Hot

(and stole some fancy hotel soap)

Beached it up, of course

Played in/got dragged through the sprinklers

Went to the mall (and I made a terrific spontaneous purchase)

Visited the USS Midway

Hit up some street vendors, where Caroline had her future told to her via taro cards

And we spent our last morning attempting to shape our bodies into the letters to spell 'love' but we clearly underestimated the level of difficulty.

And naturally, we took an excessive number of pictures of ourselves.

As you can imagine, I didn't want to leave. But it was good times and such a good opportunity to escape from life and just spend time with my best friends. And I'm so so excited to finally get my Caroline back in TWO WEEKS!!!

Happy belated 4th of July

It's late. I know. Can we just get past this?

I wanna talk about my Independence Day experience. I hope that's OK.

First of all, I got to experience the CRAZINESS of Provo the night before. Who knew people camped out? It was like a gigantic block party all along University Avenue.

I got to watch the parade from the comfort of my own kitchen.

And what did I do to celebrate 4th of July? I worked.

Well, mostly I sat around for 11.5 hours. But some of that time I worked.

The rest I sat in a room with my beloved coworkers, avoiding the crowds and waiting to get called to clean up a "code blue" otherwise known as a "combo spill" otherwise known as throw-up. My job is soooo glamorous.

Bright side: I got paid to watch Stadium of Fire. The Beach Boys came this year. I've never been particularly crazy about the Beach Boys. But it was a good show. Cell phones were waving left and right. They've still got it.

I got paid to watch an amazing firework show (and to clean up the shrapnel after the fact).

I got to get paid to go to the dance party held outside the stadium after the show. Specifically, I got paid to be pulled into a dance circle and twirled around by a stranger. It happened. And I liked it.

I got paid to eat Carls Jr. at 1 a.m.

And I got paid to hang out with the people that I probably would've been hanging out with anyway.

My 4th of July was a lot of fun. But the importance of it wasn't lost on me. I want to express my gratitude to everyone who has ever fought for this country, and who is fighting for us now. Our freedom isn't free, and I know that God has blessed this nation so that we could enjoy many privileges that we take for granted. I'm proud to be an American.

Somethin' kinda philosophical

I like things that will make me better.

It's why I like working out. It's why I like going to school. It's why I like having a job and providing for myself as much as I can stand to. It's why I prefer reading books to watching tv.

And. It's why I like to run.

It's why I like to run far. Sometimes farther than I've run since, oh, about a year ago when I did my half marathon. Yeah, haven't run much more than 6 miles at a time since then.

And sometimes, when I run that far, I stop before the last 3 miles of my run and sit under this big tree that i love and I collect all the thoughts that have been bouncing around in my head this whole time, jostled out of the far reaches of my brain by my steps, and I let them organize themselves into something coherent.

 Actually always. Always when I can trick myself into running that far, I do this. It's my peace ritual. It's my quiet place in Provo.

Today I ran this far. And as I sat under this big tree that I love, I thought about how imperfect I am. My Heavenly Father created me, and all His children, with an awe-inspiring potential, one He expects each of us to reach eventually. And today I thought about how depressingly not even remotely close I am to reaching that potential.

Specifically, I thought about how mean I am sometimes. Often, when my feelings are hurt, I lash out, usually at whichever unfortunate soul has managed to upset me (whether intentionally or not), and want them to feel my pain. Sadly, these people are usually those closest to me, because those are the people who have the power to hurt me. But hurting them back ultimately just makes me feel worse. I often can catch myself, and force myself to bite my tongue. But I'll be honest, sometimes I don't.

I was thinking about this nasty habit of mine, and I couldn't help but notice how carnal of an instinct it is. I think it is the natural human response to being hurt--you want to see justice met. It's wrong to hurt people, and you want to see them punished for doing something wrong. And who better to do the punishing than you, the victim who has suffered this injustice?
It's natural. But that doesn't make it OK. It is so far from the example Jesus set, and so animalistic and beastly in nature, and I realized it's a characteristic I have to learn to overcome if I ever expect to achieve my potential.

My mom always told me that anger is a secondary emotion, usually brought on by grief or disappointment, or some other variation of sadness. And so I set for myself a little goal. Every time I get the urge to say something mean to someone, something that I know will make them feel as bad or upset as I am feeling, I will take a moment for introspection and ask myself, what is the real reason I am upset? What is it about this thing that they have done that has made me angry? Because what I've found so far is that when I get down to the core of it, whatever action has been taken against me has conflicted with some selfish, egotistical interest of my own that actually is not fundamentally crucial for making me happy. And so, at this point, rather than take it upon myself to administer justice, I am able to admit that I'm really only mad because I'm self-absorbed. This provides me with the opportunity to humble myself and leave it to the Lord to chasten as He sees fit, release my anger, and forgive. Because punishment is God's job; forgiveness is mine.
Don't know if this will be helpful for anybody else, or even if it made any sense when written down, but it's what I've had on my mind.

By the way, I got my first car ever :)

Memorial Day Weekend

I was gonna post. And then I wasn't. And then I decided I need to, because it's been entirely too long since I last did.

Probably because I've been enjoying my summer, but what right does that give me to keep my adventures all to myself, and away from you fine people?

The truth is, it's not just because I've been enjoying my summer, even though I have. I really have.

I mean, pruning shrubs has its rewards, definitely. Like hand-crafted leaf hearts of love. What's life without that? Nothing.

And bachelor sandwiches consisting of nothin but Pringles folded into a slice o' bread being enjoyed by the most ravishing girl on the planet. I certainly can't think of anything to top that. 

Except maybe a personalized bouquet to the day's MVP (Most Valuable Pruner).

This is the life I lead, people. If it's wrong to live a life this amazing, then shoot, I don't wanna be right.
And this year, as opposed to frying myself, I've gradually been spending more and more time in the sun, and gradually become more and more tan. Honestly! I'm the tannest I've been since 5-ish years ago when I went to Hawaii! This is such an accomplishment for me.

Like I was saying, the truth is I haven't posted in a while because I haven't been feeling very witty lately, and let's be honest, most of the reason people read blogs is to entertain themselves.
But sometimes things just need to be documented. That was this weekend.

This weekend was Memorial Day weekend, meaning we had Monday off. So a bunch of people from my ward took off to Cedar City to stay in some sweet cabins belonging to the family of a girl in our ward, and made a trip to Zion National Park out of it.

There was lots of eating involved

And even though plans for repelling and cliff jumping fell through because of the unfavorable weather, the hike up Angel's Landing was supreme.

I know it doesn't seem like much, but I enjoyed it thoroughly. I got out of my comfort zone, got to know some new people, learned some new games, gained a few pounds, and saw some neat sights. And I don't wanna forget it. So now it's immortalized on the internet, and I can now rest easy for another month before I post again.

Just kidding ;)

Musings of a little Mormon girl.

Today I was thinking.
I was thinking about how blessed I am.
I'm blessed because my life is so good even though so many things in it have and should have or could have gone wrong so that it didn't turn out this way.
I'm blessed because I was somehow born into, out of the millions of families on this planet, one that has a knowledge of and lives by the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I'm blessed because even though they weren't the best at teaching me the significance of this as I was growing up, they made sure I'd be put somewhere where I could learn.
I'm blessed because even though I didn't work all that hard in high school, I somehow got into BYU.
I'm blessed because even though I didn't want to come here at all, my parents saw the importance of my being here and they made any and every argument they could muster to make it the most desirable option I had to choose from.
I'm blessed because even though when I got here I didn't make friends with the best people, the best people to be my friends saw something in me that they liked, and they reached out to me at JUST the right time.
I'm blessed because for some reason, every person I needed to learn something from was placed in my life at exactly the moment I needed them.
I'm blessed because through this series of incredibly fortunate (too fortunate to be merely coincidental) events, I was able to gain an understanding of the atonement of my Savior and use it to become someone better than I ever knew I had the potential to be.
And I don't know why I, out of the billions of people on this earth, received all of this divine intervention, so that somehow MY life could be so good and so meaningful and so bursting with joy and happiness when I know so many people who are struggling or miserable or lost.
I was thinking it's because maybe I needed the help more than those people. Maybe they're stronger than I am.
But I'm not so sure that's it. I'm pretty sure it's more about the expectation God has for me to use these blessings I have been given to help others.
And I want to help make other people as happy as I am. I really want to.

What do you do when...

You might remember the bridal fair I mentioned attending in February. While I was there, I submitted my name into several drawings for soon-to-be brides. (I was expecting to soon become a soon-to-be bride, mind you.) Tuesday I got a call from a woman informing me that I won.

What did I win? you ask.

Oh, nothin. Just a pair of engraved champagne flutes.

Oh, and for my name to be entered into another drawing for a Harley Davidson and a 4-day trip to Jamaica.
Oh, and $1000 in coupons.

OH, and a FREE pair of wedding bands.

OH! And I almost forgot. Also an all-expenses-paid 3-day 2-night vacation at a resort in the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, or Mexico.
All for the low, low cost of sitting through a 90 minute demo of Royal Prestige nonstick cookware.

Ahh, the poetic justice of life. I get dumped and win every broke newlywed's dream. How fortunate am I?!
So what do you do when you win such an awesome prize that you can't really even use? You take your ex-boyfriend to the demo and pretend to be engaged, get suckered into buying an individual piece of impressive but exorbitantly-priced cookware, then sell the prizes to make up for it.

Therefore, I'm giving the trip to my parents, but if any engaged couples need to buy wedding bands, I'm willing to sell the pair of rings for $400, which is way cheaper than they're worth. If you want to look at the options, go to JVLjewelry.com
I'll also sell the champagne flutes if anyone wants them, but I haven't researched how much they're worth yet. Let me know if you're interested.