All Swirlywhirl and Flew and Flung

Life Update

2012-02-01T10:42:00.001-08:00

That's right, get excited folks. You have been missing out on the thrilling details of my day-to-day existence for too long. And what is a blog for if not to regale my readers with information all about me? So let's just jump right in, shall we?*

*if you are bored by reading all kinds of strung together words, skip the next bit. I've suited the preferences of all possible readers by also including pictures to summarize my activities! You lucky ducks, you.

Job: My current job situation is AWE-some. I work at Fold3 (fold3.com) doing work for their website. They are a smaller company that belongs to Ancestry.com, if that helps you wrap your head around the obscureness of my company. I have two jobs with Fold3. One of them is less exciting, but it is the lovely little low-paying job that introduced me to my favorite job ever, which I will tell you about momentarily. Just hold on to your hats for a second, we'll get there. The title of my less exciting job is "Quality Assurance Editor," which sounds kinda fancy but really I just look at scanned images of old documents and make sure they match up with the typed-out version of the same page. In essence, we make sure that when you search for something in fold3, we can pull up documents that actually have what you searched for on the page.
The second job I have with them has another fancy title that I can't even remember. Specialty Content Editor or something. But in order to do this job I must.... write articles about history!! It's amazing! Yes, yes, I'm sure it sounds boring to the majority of.. humans... but I love it. I sit at home on my computer, I look up cool/weird/random military history stories, and then I write spotlights on them for the main website page. Go to the website. Go on, do it. See that "spotlights" section on the right? I write those! Well, some of them. There are three of us slaving away to make sure people are vaguely interested in what our website can provide. It's quite fun. I really do love it.
Also I clean the office where my mom works. I do not like this job.

School: This section is easy, because it doesn't exist. I graduated. In history. Over a year ago (sigh.) I am saddened beyond all expression about this reality. I want to go back to school, but alas... money. But hopefully I will be back in again soon, learning more about english, writing, languages... ya know, all the good stuff.

Boys: Ok this section is the most fun, because... well because it is. And because I have pictures! Oh yeah. Blog-stalkers dream come true. Hopefully this particular young man won't mind that I'm throwing around his image for everyone to see. I doubt he will, I'm sure he'd love to be oogled and oggled by all my admiring blog-fans.

Anyway my boy of the now is Mr. Joseph Robert Galloway, more commonly known as Joe. This is him!

I like him. I think I'll keep him.

He looks unenthused because he's very tired. I keep him up 'til all hours with my girlfriendish neediness. Although I guess "all hours" now means like 11:30, because we're old and employed and go to bed earlier these days. But he is nice and lets me cuddle him and watch tv and chat 'til we can barely keep our eyes open. I think he likes me too. :) He even takes random pictures with me. Aww.

Yay cheesiness...ok moving on.

Joe got a job this week!! Really exciting. He works at Tycon Systems Inc., doing accounting stuff and some other random things. So far he likes it, it's kind of what he's been wanting for years, this job. So if you're reading this, give a robust thumbs up to the chap for making his way in the working world.

In other news:

{July} Family reunion in Washington state!

{August} I went to Robber's Roost for hiking purposes. Highly recommended. Plus Joe finally kissed me there, so... bonus.

I... have no picture for this event. I'm sorry.

Also I became a True Aggie, with the help of Joe. You can see the magical "A" behind us. He thought it was ridiculous (it was) but came along anyway, cause he's nice.

{October} Joe 'n' I dressed up for Halloween. He is clearly a pirate. I am, not so clearly, a jester.

{December} We picked out our Christmas tree and drove it home. It was very huge and pokey. Possibly the best Christmas tree ever.

My beau took me to the Nutcracker in SLC for Christmas. We are so classy!

{January} I took my brother (or rather, he took my dad, Joe, and myself) snowboarding! It was Spencer's first time. He LOVED it.

I think that gets us about caught up. We have fun times. Coming up...ice skating tonight (maybe)! Snowboarding again on the 15th! Road trip to California for my cousin's wedding! The good times never cease. They really don't. Life's pretty awesome.

I feel like I should keep some continuity in my posts by putting a quote at the end like I used to. Let me go find one....

...alright, this suits my nerdy obsession that Joe and I share. 100 points to whoever can name what movie this is from. It's obscure, so I'll even give you three. My favorites :) 119342498290 points to anyone who can name the characters that say the quotes.

"Sometimes people have feelings. I'm referrin' here to people."

"I am a leaf on the wind. Watch me soar."

"This is the captain. We have a little problem with our entry sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and then --- explode."

Good luck :)

Love, me.

And this is why I'm going to start blogging again

2011-12-23T13:04:00.000-08:00

The other day I partook in what for me has become a daily activity - the Blog Stalk. As I stalked a blog, done by a coworker at my (awesome though occasionally mind-numbing) job, I realized that her comments about sleeping through classes and eating french fries with friends made me remember the silly pointless things that I used to do, which, although seemingly unimportant at the time, were really the tiny little pieces of fluff that come together to make the figurative stuffing for my "Tara Doll". The Tara Doll is a visual that I am giving you to better illustrate what I mean. But when I say "Tara Doll," I am really just using a metaphor. Tara Doll = Tara.

I was going to upload a picture of a slightly homely, freckled, red-yarn-hair doll, but it would seem that blogger forbids it. So just imagine it in your alarmingly capable minds.

{update: i figured out the photos. Turns out it was just my own incapability. Ha ha!...}

Just as you imagined it? Thought so.

The Tara Doll has a bunch of stuffing in it. This stuffing makes it full of life and vitality, and as a bonus, helps it be much more cuddly. Without this stuffing, Tara Doll is just a sad, limp shell of a human-shaped figure who does nothing but flop around, and even then, only flops if helped by a finger or perhaps a slender stick.

Recently I have come to find I have been pulling all of the coolest, most fun pieces of fluff from the Tara Doll to put on a shelf or in a box (presumably a shoe box because apparently I have a "thing" for those) and as a result, Tara Doll has recently been limp, boring, cranky and shaped weird.

I am determined to re-stuff Tara Doll with her favorite bits of fluff. She has been missing the following things:

1.Blogging
2.Reading ridiculously nerdy fantasy books
3.Wearing whatever she wants, EVEN if the clothes are manly and not fashionable at all
4.Saying funny stuff without staring people down self-consciously afterwards to make sure they thought it was funny too
5.Not being stressed about using her spare time to make up hours at work
6.Having spare time to do whatever she wants, including doing nothing at all
7.Not being stressed about driving. Her "mental chatter" during her drive to work has become increasingly appalling as the days, and construction, continue on. Jane Austen would not approve.
8.Watching Fantastic Mr. Fox six times in a row, in a huddle of blanketed, sick roommates who all decided that this was a MUCH better idea than going to all classes that day. Incidentally, they were right.
9.Sleeping through art history, or really any class that took place between 12:30 and 2pm. Those are the times of day that the universities test students by drugging the air to see who would be scholarly enough to resist going unconscious. Tara Doll always failed the test.
10.Wearing enough layers to become indistinguishable from Randy of Christmas Story fame, in order to make it from Richards Hall to Old Main without freezing to death.
11.Spending half-hour chunks of time watching the weather and trying to come up with an amazingly awesome book idea, one so incredible that the whole world will change because of her amazing book.
12.Saying weird, artsy, nerdy things like "yesterday I just sat at my window and watched the hills' warped reflections in the raindrops as they trickled down the glass," even though she hurts a little inside every time anyone else says mental things like that.
13.Being fascinated by art, history, fantasy books and biology...
14....and having time to indulge such fascinations.
15.Not being obsessed with Pinterest and Facebook and texting.
16.Watching poorly made, unrealistic chick flicks that I can't help but love anyway.
17.Other cool things. I'm sure you can think of the rest.

In short, all of my faithful readers must prepare themselves for some mind-blowing blogging. If you didn't notice, it's on the list of fluff. You too can profit from the reorganization of my life's priorities.

And Sarah, never stop pestering me to blog. "By Grabthar's Hammer, you shall be avenged!"

Moments that Matter Most

2011-06-17T16:41:00.000-07:00

We would to well to slow down a little, focus on the significant, lift up our eyes, and truly see the things that matter most.

-Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Red Egg

2011-04-28T19:21:00.000-07:00

Well....well.
I've decided that I'm going to be pretty loose with my "creative" posts, because clearly I don't post that often if I choose to be strict about them. Thus, I'd like to introduce you to my latest right-brained endeavor, Red Egg.

Isn't he just the fiercest? Awww...

So my singles' ward had their (apparently) annual egg roll tournament for our FHE this past monday. Here is how this goes down:

One brings a nice, plain, hard-boiled egg to the activid-nee (Brian Regan, anyone?).

One observes the fine array of markers that have been offered to potential egg artistes.

One chooses a selection of markers.

One marks up their egg.

One is put in a bracket with other eager egg fighters, against whom they battle one by one.

The one who's egg cracks...loses! The victor takes his unscathed egg up and up in the competition until he is a loser also.

With my clearly dominant and superior egg, I strode confidently to the tape line and faced my first opponent - a mere boy between the ages of 9 and 12 (one of the bishop's kids). His egg was decorated with a cutesy little bunny. How laughable! How weak! My angry toothy egg looked his adorable bunny in the eyes and sneered an eggish sneer. Oh, would that his strength had been equivalent to his confidence! We rolled our eggs and I lost immediately, the mouth of my vicious egg crumpled into pieces. A painful blow indeed for Red Egg.

You know that phenomenon where you stare at a word so long that it becomes unrecognizeable, and you begin to doubt its legitimacy as an actual word? Well I'm having that with the word "egg" right now, but I majorly had it earlier when I was filling out a.. personality survey that used "agree" and "disagree" in about every other line. I mean just look at it.

Agree. Agree. Agree.

...agree.

The phenomenon, by the way, has a name.

At least, I'm pretty sure it probably does. I have no idea what it is. If you find out, let me know.

{UPDATE!} : Thanks to my cousin Kelsey, Internet Researcher Extraordinaire, I have discovered the name of this peculiar word sensation.... Semantic Satiation! There, you may all stop fretting about what it could possibly be called and return to your normal lives wondering about one less thing.

A Nod to Lewis Carroll

2011-03-17T15:31:00.000-07:00

More like a violent head-banging motion than a nod. Not because it rocks, it's just not exactly subtle, particularly the part where I directly quote him. You get it.

I recently watched the new, slightly freakish Alice in Wonderland, and it reminded me of the Jabberwocky*, since that poem is in the book/movie. Sooo I decided to write something Carroll-esque, which didn't start out having a story but, lo and behold, one bloomed forth anyway.

*If you have no idea what 'Jabberwocky' means, go HERE immediately to further your poetic education and delight.

It doesn't have a title. Yet. Suggestions welcome. No sad eyes or glaring if I don't use them though, that's the rule.

Where slything sleek and sundersome
the gorgon gala weals,
out roils the frothy fettergale
and petulantly peals.

Within the nimble bowerways,
all flora boundabout,
come craggering the gorgonelles
to cast the bonner out.

No body dared there enter in
what gabed the wrinkled wags,
else in the leafy arbory
stayed borful stonely rags.

But dear and doughty Perseus'
ambrosial amber eyen,
when hearkened of the bulbadrum
did fair and seedly gline.

Minerva's steeling shield he glommed,
and Hermes' tortile sword;
Then he abaft and sails ahull
they frapped the shiply cord.

All gybing were the fearless few
which braved the walty sea;
Soon baffed upon grim craggy isle
the ship, the sword, and he.

His crew though blenching at the sight,
brave Perseus there strode
with shield in left and sword in right
while gloamy night forbode.

Came keening through a dreggy dark-
most grubious to be seen-
Medusadell, the crithy belle,
that ruled as gorgon queen.

Gripped cripply he the knurly blade
and whicked it near and nack
'Til fiend keeled dead, and with its head,
he went galumphing back.

Where mything sleek and mendersome
the hero Perseus bounds,
out blythes the frothy fettergale,
and galavantly sounds.

Cause I Said I Would...

2011-03-17T14:53:00.000-07:00

So... Ice Castles! Here are some pictures, and I guarantee that they are in no kind of order.

A castle...of ice!Squid arms.

Nauseating(ly cute) couple picture. Aww.

Cool little corridor - dad standing in for sizeability. frozen.

They were cool. Generally it was just a cool place. The castles were bigger than I expected, and the square footage of the overall castle...area...was less than I would have thought also. But I believe 'twas worth the drive to Midway. Go next time you can! It's cool in so many ways ;)

I'm pretty sure that my ineptness with Blogger caused me to delete a few of the pictures that I uploaded, but since I can't remember which ones I had this'll have to do. I'll be blogging a poem-y thing directly to excuse this non-creative post.

Happy St. Patty's!

The First Story

2011-03-08T00:18:00.000-08:00

Ok, well this is sort of cheating but here's a story for you guys:

A TERRIBLE TALE OF BLOGGISH DESPERATION

Or, The Night I Just Wanted Everything To Look Nice

Once upon a time there was a tired red head who just wanted wider margins on her blog. She looked and looked at the way her words seemed so sadly scrunched up on the page. She hesitated to alter anything because of her understanding of her own technological deficiencies. However, at long last she concluded that the tendency of her current template to allow only four or five decently-sized words into a column was not enough, and that despite the late hour, she would put forth all endeavors to create the visual blog that she desired.

Quickly and efficiently this young lady clicked on this link and that, working her way through the intricacies of templates and gadgets. To her dismay, she discovered that the blog preview function was not performing to its best abilities - that is to say, it was not working at all. But the determined dame was not to be deterred from her purpose. She painstakingly clicked on every alteration she wished, and fearlessly applied it to her blog with no idea what the outcome might be. The results, at first, were horrifying. Colors clashing without shame, margins swerving out of control, backgrounds weaving in and out of each other with complete abandon. It was the nightmare result of a brain not suited for the complex combination of html script and template settings (which as far as I can tell are set in stone and completely stubborn about being hidden away by any attempt, no matter how vigorous and/or pleading).

The young lady eyed wearily the slaughterhouse of fonts and hues that she had unwittingly unleashed. This could not be permitted to shame the face of her occasional cute pictures and witty commentary, no matter how infrequently the general public may choose to peruse it. So, with grim defiance and a few fingers to the spreading migraine in her left temple, she clicked on. Hours passed, colors and designs flopped on and off the screen like dying fish. Nothing seemed right, nothing seemed to fit. And then, at long last, she discovered something monumental.

The visually stunning blog that she was seeking...

...would definitely elude her this night.

She settled on a background that was vaguely more splashy and vibrant than what suited her mellow demeanor, but which seemed more upbeat and "swirly" than her last, and which thus became suitable thanks to her amazing, creative, original title. She scrolled through the result, pleased to see that her efforts had ended up in a relatively readable blog, and, at long last, slightly wider margins.

THE END

I apologize for using the word "blog" so often in this post. I guess it kind of came with the story though. It just is kind of an obnoxious word, said enough times repeatedly. Right? Maybe not. Lots of non-annoying things seem annoying after 1 a.m., I'm thinkin'.

That story was probably pretty boring. Or perhaps not. I liked it, myself. By the way if you're kinda nerdy and read this, and realized that I may or may not have invented some things, well then I'm pretty impressed at your perceptiveness, since I don't think I mentioned really anything of technological value. But also I apologize because I admit that I did make up some things.

Nevertheless this is a true story. Pretty much.

(Another annoying thing that also coincidentally involves blogging - every time I add pictures, it messes up my spacing between paragraphs and stuff...is this just happening to me? Cause Facebook does weird spacing things to me too, and I thought that was a universally experienced frustration, but apparently...no.)

Back to the point though, guys. I hope you all appreciate the semi-loveliness of the current state of my blog because it was really quite a doozy figuring it all out. I'll display my experience for you, in pictorial form.

First, I was like:And then I was like:And now I'm pretty much like:

Except a girl.

I'm pretty sure next time I get it in my head to do that, I'm waiting til the preview works, cause that was just ridonculous.

And, well, really that's it for me.
Night, folks!

Operation Blog Overhaul

2011-02-28T14:28:00.000-08:00

Ok, well clearly I failed to do the ice castles post like I claimed I would, but I'll get to it. Never you fret.

Here's some news, though. I've decided that if I want to ever get anywhere with writing stuff I should probably practice more than once every who-knows-when, so from now on (ideally) I'll include some sort of short story or... something*... with every post so as to hone my creative writing abilities and perhaps get some things out there for applications or whatever else. I've got nothin' today though and there's an unfurnished igloo in my backyard that is calling my name, so all this hooplah will start next time I post. Excited?? You should be!

Also feel free to leave feedback on whatever I write, be it a wild gush of unrestrained praise or a festering cloud of doomfull disdain, I'll take it.

I'll still be including the ever-thrilling details of my life on the posts as well. They'll be consistently put at the top or the bottom of my posts (haven't decided yet) so that if you want to skip to either my fascinating life adventures or my exquisite stories, without reading the other bit, you'll know where to go.

Alrighty that's all. Igloo time!

*disclaimer: I make no guarantee that any of my short stories or "somethings" will be of any lasting quality or entertainment. Read at your own risk.

A Post!

2011-02-26T09:24:00.000-08:00

Today I remembered that I'm supposed to be blogging regularly so that Sarah has something to read from time to time. Sigh..the demands, the demands.

So here's some pictures from Mel's wedding:

Int she lurvly?

That was a very cold, windy day, but Mel looked very happy and they .. got married! Yay!

And here's a comic that I enjoy:

Get it? Haha. Ahhh...

So, I guess I haven't mentioned on here that I'm no longer employed at Funfinity, haven't been for about 2 months actually. I'm trying to figure out what kind of job I'd like to go for, one where I can advance into a career that I will enjoy and feel is important. But now it's getting to the point where I really need to stop thinking and just go get a job, so hopefully I'll get on that soon here.

For now, I'm going to go volunteer at the Springville Museum of Art. I did a smattering of volunteer hours for them a few weeks ago, helping them register incoming artworks from high school students for an exhibit they've got going on now. I really enjoyed that, and I'm looking into applying for an internship there. Perhaps museum curation (that's a word, right?) is the place for me.

Other than that............hmmm....

...

I've read a lot of books recently. Here are some I recommend:

Graceling. Loved it.

Uglies Series. Interesting idea, quite entertaining to read.

Book of a Thousand Days. Cute and easy, I read it in a day, and will probably read it again every few months just cause it makes me happy inside.

I'm starting Elantris by Brandon Sanderson this week. It's pretty fantasyish in nature compared to those last few, as in there are a lot of made up words and weird names and elaborate connections between characters and religions and creatures... etc... it's confusing to keep up with when you have no idea what an "arteth" and a "denov" is, yet they are continuously referred to. But I think once I have gotten further into the story I will get more fully engaged. It's pretty interesting so far, as plotlines go.

Welp that's pretty much all I can muster for now. Actually I'm going to do another post on the ice castles in like two minutes so that was kind of a lie. But for now....that is all. Bye!

In honor of Mel's marriagement:

"What would men be without women? Scarce, sir...mighty scarce."

-Mark Twain

Hope

2011-01-27T14:41:00.000-08:00

So I found a random notebook of mine in my closet, and in it I found some writing. I thought it was nice, and I guess I wrote it, and it's my blog - I do what I want! SOOO here 'tis:

{not my art}

There is a part of every person that will not comprehend the impossible. The haven of faith, wishful thinking, hope. This place, tranquil and content, lives in the misty half-light of dawn, sunrise. This place, continuously surrounded by less optimistic neighbors -- despair, disbelief, fear -- pushes through these dark fiends, spreading sweet tendrils through each black emotion until light is all that remains, glowing, pulsing, breathing.

Then comes night, and dark descends again. Doubt is persistent, beating and crashing against this place like waves on ragged cliffs. To have hope is to constantly battle for the right of joy, peace, confidence. The right for life and light. Hope is not automatic, not free. It is an effort, but one worth fighting for.

-Past Tara

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T12:16:00.000-08:00

This post, so soon after my last, is partly happening because I feel the need to overcompensate for the negativity of the saran wrap incident. But mostly it's because....I LOVE CHRISTMAS! YAY!

This Christmas was fun because I was like, "I think I'll actually get presents for people this year! Good idea, me!" And then I did it*. Mostly for Mom, who probably got a record high big haul this year. It was splendid to be excited to give people things. Funny how a little bit of preparation does that.

(*there are at least 2 people for whom I still have not shopped. Not from laziness!!! ... well partly from laziness. But really they are so hard to shop for! And I know that even though they say they don't want anything, they want something. Also there is a third person for whom I've only partially shopped. SO I really need to get on that... starting Monday.)

This is also a grand time to mention that I love people, and how they're all different and weird, ofttimes endearingly pathetic or heartwarmingly silly, if those two adjectives can even go together, but regardless there are many people and they are all wonderful in at least several ways.
There is one person who walks by Funfinity several times every day, all day long. He is a middle-aged man with long hair. He wears a trench coat, and from what I can tell he does nothing but walk up and down Springville main street for hours. I bet he's very in shape. Sometimes I say hi to him when I'm outside putting plasmacars on their display rack, and he nods back. I like that guy.
There's also this girl in my ward, who is always excessively happy and makes me feel loved whenever I see her. She's even nice in the same superfluous way to people I'm less fond of, and it always makes me think that I really should probably be more fond of them, since she is, and she's awesome. She's going on a mission in ten days. She is delighted with her life and I'm delighted to know her.
My family also watched Mr. Krueger's Christmas last night, as it is a warm fuzzy Christmas-y movie and a good way to start off the eve before Christmas. Mr Krueger is, of course, not a real person but I'm sure he is very similar to many real persons in life. His sweetness and hopeful attitude make me happy inside, and every time those carolers are about to leave his house I want to say, "nooooo! go back in and have his chocolate!" Because if they did, they'd get to know one of the coolest people ever. Plus he's Jimmy Stewart (don't they know???) But really, I like people like Mr. Krueger in real life.
Summary: I'm super glad that I am surrounded by people. They are the jelly on the toast of life. Even though they sometimes do obnoxious or thoughtless things (like we all do), it is probably people's endless capacity for love and goodness and laughter that most keeps me in awe of the magnificence of God's creations, 'cause only He could create something so wonderful (like amazing people) that it fills you up from the inside like sunlight to watch them. That's kind of what I've been thinking about this Christmas.

One last thing -- I got a new camera for Christmas! (*rraaahbhhhhghhhh!* = wild applause from ALL my many blog-fans) This means that maybe now and then I'll take some pictures, and put them here, and this blog will then become the most amazing incredible masterpiece of the whole blogosphere!!! Since that's basically the only possible outcome of the whole camera/picture addition.

Merry Christmas!

Love,
Tara

Saran Wrap

2010-12-24T18:21:00.001-08:00

I learned this today:
If you are already irritated, don't even try to mess with saran wrap. It crumples up into a ball of malignant plastic meanevilhate which then sticks to everything but your pasta dish. And that happens.

A Storyful Story

2010-11-28T14:33:00.000-08:00

So last week in my email to Spencer, I was trying to fill up space and ended up writing what I have dubbed a "Six Minute Scribble", which is pretty much what my creative writing always is. It basically means I start to write with no idea what I'm writing about, for anywhere for 5 -10 minutes, and hopefully some kind of coherent story comes out of it. Since I never post anything, I thought this tale would be as good as anything to distract my few readers for a couple of minutes. (The art isn't mine. I wish.)
Ahem... Once upon a time there was a rooster who was very gloomy. All the time he waddled around, grouching at various animals on his farm that they were too loud, or too cuddly, or too annoying to exist. Everyone took his grumpiness with good humor, because he was the rooster and had to sport that ridiculous red floppy thing on his head, so naturally he'd be a little miffed. They didn't listen to him, however, and continued to remain loud, cuddly, and annoying.

One day the Sun rose into a beautiful, cloudless sky, and the rooster opened his crusty, beady, grouchy eye.

"Harumphhchc!" He half cackled, half gurgled through his stained beak. "Another stunningly bright, blinding, horrible day. I wish the Sun would never rise so I could live in my grouchy, uncuddly, annoying state forever in the cool darkness of night and never have to see all the other things around me."

Suddenly, the Sun revolved, and turned to the rooster with a face full of distress.

"Poor little rooster," said the Sun. "The world is full such beauty, such color, such lovely noise. Each morning I rise so that my Earth friends may have light to see all the pleasant things of the world, but you see none of it."

"Harumphhchh," gargled the rooster. "There is nothing beautiful about your light or the world. It's cute and fluffy and full of silly, loud creatures. I'd much prefer to live in a world that is always dark and silent."

The Sun thought for a moment, then beamed a bright and glorious smile.

"Very well, young rooster," he said with a voice dipped in ancient wisdom. "I will grant you your desire. Today I will go away, and I will not come back until you call for me to come."
"Not very likely!" The rooster cackled grumpily. And with that, the sun turned back around, and left the sky. All was dark again.

In the blackness the rooster could hear the uneasy shuffling and squawking and snorting of the other animals. "Serves you right for being so pleasant all the time," he grumped. Still, he was pleased that he had gotten what he wanted.

The day passed in muffled silence. No one knew what time it was (for this was in the days before time-keeping pieces were invented, though it would have been too dark to see them even so) and it was rather chilly. At first the rooster didn't mind the cold, for he had his layers of feathers to help him stay toasty. But when he thought several days must have passed, his beak began to chatter as he shivered.

"Haa--ruuu--mphhh!" He chattered. "N-nnoo ch-ch-channc--cee of eeev-verr call-ling back-k-k that an-n-noying Sunn-n!"

His crusty, grumpy eyes began to hurt from straining so hard to see all the time. And worst of all, thought the rooster, worse than anything else, the other animals began to realize that the Sun might never return. Slowly but surely their muffled noises of concern turned into screeches and wails and whinnies of full-on panic. The noise was so loud that the rooster greatly wished his wings were better able to block his ears and keep out the cacaphonous noise.

"Auughh!" He shivered and grouched. "Th-his is worst of all! I've nev-v-ver hear-d-d such an awfffful racket-t-!"

Stubbornly he stood, cold, hurt-eyed, and annoyed to the extreme by all the noise. All at once he could not take it anymore.

"Alright!" he yelped! "Alright, Sun! You win! I want to see! I want your warmth! And most of all, I want these annoying cuddly creatures to stop their racket!"

But the Sun could not hear his creaky, quiet old rooster voice over all the other animal's noise. What to do? Thought the rooster. Of course, he knew, to be heard he'd have to make the loudest, most obnoxious noise possible. So he gathered up all his stale rooster breath...

"COOOOCKKAAADOOODDLEEEEDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" He crowed!

All the animals went silent.

And slowly, slowly from the east, pale light began to rise on the horizon. Tingles of warmth began to flow through his ruffed rooster flesh. The light grew brighter and brighter until at last the Sun rose, a glorious glowing orb in the sky that showed to the Earth the magnificent color and variety that abounded.
He turned once again to the rooster.

"Well," he said, "how did you like your time in the dark, grouchy rooster?"

The rooster looked grumpily down at his creepy feet.

"I didn't like it very much at all, Mr. Sun. All of the cuddly, annoying animals were even louder and more annoying than ever. Comparitively, their noises at the moment are quite pleasant. And besides that it was very cold and my eyes hurt from trying to see without success."

"Yes, there are many reasons why Earth needs her Sunlight," said the Sun. "And it seems you have learned your lesson. But from now on, every day when I'm about to leave my horizon bed and rise up into the sky, you must first call to me with your rooster cry. Then will I gladly climb the skies, bringing my warmth and happiness to even the grouchiest, weirdest looking old creatures that live."

And with that, the sun turned its face and continued its arc across the sky.
And that's exactly how it happens, every day.

The End.

So there you have it, my six minute scribble.

"There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein."
-Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith

Eggplant Girl

2010-11-10T22:16:00.001-08:00

Welllll, shockingly enough, it would seem that someone other than my family reads this blog from time to time (ahem...Sarah) and she, the paranthetical presence I just mentioned, has requested an update on my blog. I'm going to have to start getting creative here so that I can make frequent enough posts to satisfy her blog-stalking desires.

I have to admit, though, I'm all for blog-stalkers. I already have a journal which is not meant for prying eyes. This, on the other hand, is here so people will read it and ho and hum along with my annoyances, laugh graciously at my lame jokes, oo and ahh at my inspiring words, and so on. So please, if you are blog-stalking me right now, even as you read these words...read on, reader. Read on.

Since I have nothing to say, I shall tell you a sad tale.

Once upon a time I lost my camera, and ever since then I have not been able to post an original photo to my blog.

The End.

(I know, I know. This from the girl who wants to be a writer. Sigh)

I feel bad about not making my blog more visually interesting, so here is a picture taken by Yours Truly:

It's basically cruel for me to blog this picture unbeknownst to the subject, but I justify it because I have a reason for displaying my best friend's picture to the blogosphere. Melanie is Engaged! Woohooo! She and her high-school sweetheart/recently returned missionary are getting married in December, which means that both of my best friends, all the way from back in the days of Springville High through to our college years (so far), found mawwage in 2010. You go girls!

My other justification is that she posed for this pic. She had it comin', I say. But dang, eggplant never looked so good. Am I right?

In other news, I have a sticker on my bathroom counter that says "I Make A Difference". Why do I have this sticker? Why do I make a difference? Because...I donated blooood today! It was the most painless blood-draining experience yet, which is pretty good. One thing I find interesting is that the girl who stuck me didn't quite get the vein right off and had to fix it... but I'm not bruised. But the finger they had to poke for my blood test is turning all sorts of purple-y. Crazy! That's never happened before.

I guess I'll make a book plug too. I read Incarceron this last weekend and it was very imaginative. Kind of to the point where it was beyond my ability to follow along visually in my mind, because my mind was blown. Yeah. It was good though, really creative and engaging I thought. Read it. If you want. Maybe, like, if you're bored. Or mind-hyper.

Alright, one last by-the-by comment that I've realized (er, remembered) this last week: Choosing gratitude over complaint can help smooth out even the most wrinkly days.

And that's a wrap. Blog successfully updated. :)

"A friend of mine once sent me a postcard with a picture of the entire planet earth...on the back it said, 'Wish you were here'"

-Steven Wright

The Network

2010-10-20T22:03:00.001-07:00

This is going to sound pathetic.

Sometimes facebook (yep, I'm referring to that old beast again) crashes, goes super slow, glitches...whatever. It does something it's not meant to do, and in that moment, a brief spasm of frustration slices through my mind-numbed internet haze.
Which wakes me up, and I realize ... I'm still on facebook.
Ugh!
This just happened to me, and I thought to myself, "well this is interesting. Facebook sometimes comes along with it's own built-in repellent...imperfection!" Thank goodness it stops working sometimes, seriously. Every time that has happened that I can remember, I end up closing my computer, annoyed, and trot off to go do something else! It's truly amazing. I wish facebook crashed every other minute.

Anyway, I feel slightly idiotic even posting about something so menial, but it clarified my predicament (being...ahem...addicted to facebook) so nicely that I just decided to tell everyone about it.

Maybe I should have someone unplug the wireless every now and then... just to make sure.
(except not really, Mom. I am in online classes after all.)

At times my mind argues that anything internet related is similarly wasteful. Like blogging for example. Am I not wasting time still by sitting in front of my screen, watching these very letters appear one by one as I type? I would say nay. While blogging, my mind is working, my eyes turn ceiling-ward every now and then in actual thought, and that little place inside that is somehow linked to my creativity wakes up, warm and growing, eager to be put to use after a long and dusty wait. I love that little creativity creature that lives inside me, but Oh How I Neglect It!

Anyway, basically this is my public declaration of what I've already decided to do, what I've been trying to do, for the last few weeks.
No more turning to the dreaded social networking drug in any and all spare moments.
No more succumbing to Laziness, Laziness with a capital L because it's the pathetic kind with no excuses like "I just got back from track practice"... or "I just had a baby"... ya know, something like that.
No more feeling my life-minutes drain away as my friend browsing turns from useful updating to obsessive, bottomless time wasting.

It's time to acquiesce to that little being inside me who has been yearning for my growth, lingering hopefully for the chance to work its magic and give me a life that will be, if not extraordinary, then at least satisfyingly enriched with good and needful things.

"Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense."

-Ralph Waldo Emmerson

Autumn

2010-09-23T19:52:00.000-07:00

As usual I've got nothing enlightening or exciting to talk about, but if I'm going to have a blog I might as well write on it, right?

So here's some thoughts:
-why haven't I read Calvin and Hobbes in years? An oversight that ought to be immediately fixed.
-Community and 30 Rock started again tonight. They are both SO good, but I'm gonna have to go with Community for winner of current favorite show.
-since I'm on the subject of shows, I'll mention that I finished watching the last season of Lost, and it is aptly named. I'm totally lost on what happened.
-I still like my job. Not bad, not bad. I even actually do stuff, all the time, actual work ... and I still like it! Maybe my laziness is slowly fading away....
-I REALLY really REALLY need to start painting or drawing again. Why don't I ever do it! How can I possibly be so boring as to find facebook more entertaining??
-Speaking of facebook, time to get off, Tara! Do something fun or active.. or anything.
-I've started reading again, and I highly recommend it.
-Book is not going so well. Probably because I don't do anything with it usually.
-I'm feeling fall coming, and while I dreaded it those first few days (walking outside and hitting a wall of cool air was shocking and distressing) I've reached the "Point of Delight" which is the point in any season where I stop thinking about the negatives (e.g. fall = one season closer to winter. This is the only negative to this time of year) and begin to delight in the good things.

Good Things about Autumn:
Thanksgiving!
Pumpkin carving
Dressing up idiotically for Halloween with friends, going out in public, and feeling silly about it constantly but going along with it anyway because all your friends are having fun
Haunted houses/forests, which I actually hate but look back on fondly in my memory for some reason
Changing leaves
Perfect weather...for about 2 weeks
The colors complement my hair...well, they do!
The season premiers for excellent shows such as Castle, Community, and others (this is recently added and not really high on my list.)
School starts! (well, that used to be a reason)
The need to wear a light jacket almost daily

Ok that's all I can muster. If i'm being honest I could probably talk about how this whole post is one big attempt to procrastinate readings for my psychology class, but I'll just lie and say it isn't.

New

2010-07-31T20:09:00.000-07:00

Well, it seems that my blog somehow had it's background deleted so this is the new change.

I know, I know. It's grayish, darkish. Almost depressing.

{Shrug}

I liked this background but didn't realize how dark it was when I chose it. Howeverrr I also have changed my background now about 3 times, and with the way blogger is set up it's taken a while.

So! It's stayin for now til I find something bettah.

I had my Lauritzen family reunion last week - what a blast! You guys (since most who read my blog were involved) are so much fun, and I had a great time getting to know everyone.

and NICKELL & TERE thanks for planning such a fantastic weekend for us!

Despite looking around my house before I left for Colorado, I could not find my camera anywhere. Thus, no pictures. But rest assured my family is a fine looking bunch with the cutest kids on this good earth, if I may say so.

I GOT A JOB!

I now work for the fine establishment of Funfinity, here in Springville. I am the "book expert" and it is therefore my responsibility to make a good book selling environment and to know all about children's books, teens books, some adult books, cookbooks, and the like.

(By the way, if any of you have suggestions for MUST read books...especially in the children's books department...let me know! I'd love to hear input!)

Anyway I love my job so far. I've worked one week but I'm busy all the time, always on my feet, and work with some of the most fun and thoughtful people I know. They are great and really nice to me

(even when I accidentally knock over a whole shelf of toys and mess up customer check outs)

Life seems to be smooth sailing at the moment, I'm enjoying my summer, thrilled to be working now, enjoying my ward and looking forward to whatever comes next.

Nothing left to say, but since my cousin Kelsey (Grierson) and I have spent the last two weeks watching the Lord of the Rings movies, I think I'll end with one of my fav quotes, said by good ol' Samwise Gamgee.

(I wish I could put the music with it, ha ha, but I guess you'll just have to imagine.)

"And sometimes you don't want to know the ending,

because how could the end be happy?

How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened?

But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow.

Even darkness must pass.

A new day will come, and when the sun shines

it will shine out the clearer."

Summer

2010-06-24T10:47:00.000-07:00

Well I just wrote a whole lovely blog post and managed somehow to delete it just as I was finishing up. So in its place, imagine line upon line of incredible wit, unmatched humor, and mind-boggling creativity.

For a spot of news, I should mention that I'm going to attempt to write a book - a real one - to get published. It will take a while to get anywhere but so far I'm having a lot of fun writing it!

Also, in honor of the newly begun Summer that dawned upon mankind a few days ago, here's an ode to this glorious month that I wrote in my freshman year of College. Enjoy.

Summer Song

Warm Summer haze hangs heavy in the air

While sun's sweet breath blows long and softly down

Lazily the sleep bees bumble humming

To music in the cattails' swaying sound

The lullaby of sweet July floats throbbing

Pulsing to the rythm in the light

Dancing slowly, waltzing calm and breezy,

Keeping time with songbirds' Summer flight

Emerald beneath the golden days

Sways the song of Summer's lyric ways

Dreams

2010-05-29T00:01:00.000-07:00

When I was a child, nothing seemed impossible. My life opened up like the sky in my mind, a vast and endless universe of possibilities.

All of my dreams were within reach.

This wasn't wishful thinking - it was Truth.

I ran through the weeds of my sloped backyard and dreamed - dreamed big. I was an artist, a scientist, a goddess. I was anything I wanted to be. Anything within the realm of my imagination became a new possible future. I was an architect, a writer, a princess. Why not? Why wouldn't I be able to do these things? My arms branched out and surrounded these dreams, engulfed them, and they were accepted.

Everything was possible.

With age came responsibility, rationality, and quietly the dreams hid themselves away,

forgotten.

Forgotten. But not Lost.

Every now and then one peeks its grinning, eager eyes around a corner, and I catch it and watch it grow. Memory fills me up like sunlight, starting at my fingers, working its way deep inside me, radiant. It looks at me, expectant, with a casual determined smile.

And waits.

And slowly, I begin to learn once more how to Dream...

May 26th

2010-05-26T18:51:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to make a quick post to say....

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

I'm so grateful for your dedication to getting to know us grandkids better, and for the great advice you've given me. Thanks for showing interest in my life! I love you, and I hope you had a great day!

Now We Know

2010-05-25T00:35:00.000-07:00

It's a Colorful Life

2010-05-13T20:53:00.000-07:00

Every spring the sprawling lawn in front of the Sri Sri Radha Krishna temple is blanketed in bright greens, reds, purples, yellows, pinks and blues.

Thousands of over-eager teenagers and college students, most of whom have no idea what the festival is even for, gather in droves and wedge themselves into the crowds to enjoy a brief, thrillingly terrifying moment of blind, intoxicating asphyxiation.

Once again I made my way to the onion domes of Spanish Fork, visited with the llamas and shelled out my wages for a selection of fancy chalk,

Once again I smiled and swayed to the beat of the dancers who swirled and sang with the chime of the kartals,

Once again I found myself packed in with the varied array of human beings who had traveled from miles around to watch or personally experience the rainbow of dust as it was flung into the March sky,

And when it was all over,

Once again I joined the colorful exodus of young people as they wound their ways from the Lotus temple, on to their dust coated cars and ordinary lives that they will, hopefully, make a little more colorful

in their own ways.

Spring in California

2010-05-13T19:11:00.000-07:00

Well, this was a while ago but thanks to my finals, classes, and general laziness I haven't gotten around to blogging about it yet. Thus! Here it is at last, pictures and such from my first non-choir-tour trip to

California!

I missed a few days of school to make the journey but it was completely worth it (especially now that I'm done and know I passed all my classes :D) I went with Aaron and Nickell, and most importantly my exceedingly cleanly back seat buddy Kade, and off we drove into the sunset on our merry 9 hour+ way to the Golden State.

For five blissful days I escaped the school work and frozen weather of Utah and replaced them with a night trip to Santa Monica, and in particular... the pier!

Although I was gently mocked for enjoying such a low-thrill activity, I did enjoy my time on the ferris wheel, which sat on the pier and looked out over Santa Monica on one side, and on the other, the black void of the ocean.

...an activity which I shared with these fine-looking young people:

(sorry Nickell..personally, I think you look splendid)

Over the next few days I was able to partake in some other Santa Clarita/Valencia/California-in-general treats, such as the cupcake tree. This was just a small shop that sold (rather pricey but tasty) cupcakes of all designs and colors. More interesting to me than the cupcakes, though, was the HUGE bee nest in one of the trees outside - so gross, and sooo cool.

Also we went to a little fruit shop to buy some genu-ine California Oranges. I thought it was cute and delightful to look at. This was next to the shop. I call it "Rustic Groves".

Nickell offered to take pictures of me with the trees for this very blog.Kylee kindly came and joined me, and together we made art. Probably we should be featured in some hot girl magazine.. particularly with Kylee's "stripper pose".

I have to mention too that for the first time...probably ever...Kylee looks way whiter than me. Didn't even know that was possible.

We are... so cool.

We also spent a lot of time at the Jensen's, watching Kade doing things like this:

:) Fun! I also got to go again the weekend before finals - worth it!

Thanks Nickell and Aaron for willingly bringing me along, and to the Jensen fam for letting me crash in your living room!

"As one went to Europe to see the living past, so one must visit Southern California to observe the future" -Alison Lurie

DONE

2010-05-04T23:16:00.000-07:00

Turned in my last paper today.

Done.

Kinda hard to tell, but that's me. (not really) ;)

Stalling Just a Little Bit...

2010-05-03T15:48:00.000-07:00

Yes, it has been a while. And actually, I have things to write about!

But, alas, I have about 22 hours to write my last paper EVER of my undergraduate career, so I am going to do that instead. Let me tell you, I'd much rather be blogging right now.

Uhh.. here's a picture

Relay for Life! Go us! I'll write more about it later.

I graduate on Saturday!

Ok, paper time.

"Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday" -Proverb

Fresh Eyes

2010-03-10T13:30:00.000-08:00

I got new contacts today!

They replaced at last the one remaining pair in my posession, which were riddled with miniscule holes. I had no idea how bad they were until I put in my new ones about 5 minutes ago...

Feels like I just stepped on Pandora, everything is so sharp and colorful.

(yeah.. nerdy reference. whatever.)

Now I'm wondering what I missed out on during the last.. month... that I had to wear my

"holy contacts".

Did it affect my test scores?

Did it make my driving even worse?

(Is that possible?)

Did people wave hello to me between classes completely unnoticed thanks to my foggy vision?

On the down side, I can now see all the lint on this black shirt I've been wearing all day.

When I put it on this morning it looked quite sharp and lint-free.

Huh.

On another note, I'm pretty sure I rocked my Poli Sci mid-term today!

I walked (danced) home to the song "You Make My Dreams Come True" playing in my head. such was my joy.

Gotta love head radio.

Well I'm leaving for California in.. well pretty much now! Exciting.

So I guess I had better be going.

I will try to take lovely pictures. We'll see how it goes.

“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.”

- Jack Kerouac

You're Late for a Very Important Date!

2010-03-08T20:36:00.000-08:00

Alice in Wonderland was an interesting movie, which would probably not surprise anyone.

I wasn't as impressed as I'd hoped I'd be. The storyline seemed choppy, most of the characters dry and underdeveloped, and whole movie seemed to skim over the top of what could have been a deep and engrossing film. But...

Things I was a fan of:
The feel of the movie
the 3-d
The MUSIC!!! Sooo good.
The Cheshire cat and his creepy over-huge smile.
And, inexplicably, I LOVE Johnny Depp's character, the Mad Hatter. I'm not sure if that's because I have a soft spot for most roles played by Johnny Depp, or because, to me, he was the only character (ironically) that seemed to have depth.

Also I think his makeup and costume in general are just delightful. I love his creepy eyes!

Speaking of costuming, My friends and I did a little dressing up of our own for the event.
Miss Sarah Singleton graced the theater as the Cheshire Cat, Melanie as THE Alice, And I was the malicious Red Queen....who, now that I think of it, wasn't too bad in the movie either. She was tempermental and unkind and, in an unexpected twist, clingy and desperate for love.

I also am of the opinion that the Red and White queens may have a historical connection to Elizabeth and Mary of England back in the fifteenth century - a nice "perfect" queen who just wants to stop killing, and her crazy, vengeful, psychotic (redhead) sister who is older and thinks that's enough to give her rights to the crown.
Yes, this interpretation could be entirely from my history nerd brain. But I think it would be excellent if this connection was intended!

I guess I achieved my goal with dressing up, as I turned heads and EVEN had a couple people ask to take a picture with me! Now I can cross that off the bucket list.
Sometimes it's just fun to dress weird.
To finish off, I'd like to admit that I found the movie entertaining, and was not sad that I went to see it a second time this weekend with cousin Kelsey (dressed in normal clothes...). Overall, I didn't love it, but I definitely liked it.
(confession: this could be because I generally don't like Tim Burton's fondness towards the creepy and grotesque.)

Quick update for those who like to know (a.k.a. mom, :D) I have only one more day of school til my early spring break begins, as well as a Political Science mid-term that I have to take on Wednesday which worries me slightly, but should be ok. I hope. I'm excited for the 2ish-week break I have coming up and the chance to hang out with my favorite people - my family! Both immediate and extended. I'm going to California Wednesday which I'm thrilled about (warmth, please!) And that's pretty much all that's new.

Mad Hatter: Have I gone mad?
Alice: I'm afraid so. But I'll tell you a secret.
All the best people are.

Sign Language

2010-03-06T11:47:00.001-08:00

Thought I'd post about seeing Alice in Wonderland yesterday..but I think I'll do it later.
Instead here's a video I enjoyed :)

Because I wanted to post again....

2010-03-03T20:14:00.000-08:00

I have nothing of significance to say. Just wanted to blog.

Today was a good day. Mostly because it was beautiful! As I walked back to my apartment this morning
(after having to park in the outer limits of the parking lot)
the sky was spitting cold and heavy raindrops, sparse though they were, on my hoodless head.
I decided that was preferrable to snow, and so was optomistic about the day.
Then! I closed myself in my apartment for an hour or so and waited for my classes to begin, and when I emerged at last, my eyes were flooded with sunlight. I eventually decided my coat was overkill for the temperature; That's right - I was outside in short sleeves, and it was pleasant!

The student government elections have been going on this week and last. I'm slightly less than proud to say I got suckered in to voting for people I'd never even heard of.
There's one sidewalk that is a vortex of student propaganda and manipulative pressuring. This sidewalk just happens to lie directly on the shortest route from Old Main to my apartment.
I eyed warily the mass of homemade billboards and "Vote for [fill in the blank]" shirts swirling around. There was a possibility I could bypass the madness...but I would have to be sneaky.
I hunched over and pretended to be completely engrossed in my texts - clear signs that I was someone who shouldn't be bothered, right? Quickly I began the walk around the crazed circle, glanced to my right.
No one was approaching. I was almost there!
I eyed my goal: a small tree-sheltered sidewalk on the other side of the vortex.
So close! I began to speed up
"Hey there! Have you voted yet??"
Caught.
The painfully chipper young man was smiling at me triumphantly. He had me now.
I could have lied. I could have said yes, could have said I had a class to get to.
"Uh... no, not exactly" was my quick-thinking reply.
The grin grew larger and he threw a friendly arm around my shoulders, leading me over to his favorite's area of the vortex. I was not to worry. It was so easy - he had a computer, his friend was the best for the job, it would only take a few minutes!
Caught.
I sighed in resignation.
To my credit, I made him work for my vote, demanding that he convince me that I should vote for his friend. He did a very poor job (asking "why would you want a guy who has already been president before?" [his opponent is currently president], is NOT a convincing arguement.) but luckily his friend was nearby.
"Here he is now, your future president!"
My "future president" was nice. He said hello, asked how my day was, then very sincerely told me he was glad I was voting at all. He didn't want to pressure me into voting for him (unlike his friend) so he moved away while I voted.
That was good enough for me. I voted for him, then gave my manipulator a hug (cause he said he had to have one)
thanked him for manipulating my vote (cheerfully - he took it with good humor)
then meandered on my way, out of the voting vortex.
I was able to vote for some other people that I wanted to and had actually heard of, so overall it was good. Plus I got Costa Vida coupons and an extra ten minutes out of doors.
My "future president", by the way, did not win.

I went home and slept for an hour, missed dinner (whoops), went to my NRHH meeting, and finished off the night with a green star sticker on my hand and some cookies and cream ice cream (part of a program mel did for our floor about discrimination..)

To quote Jim Halpert of The Office,
"Overall...not a bad day!"

Things

2010-02-25T13:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I woke up and it smelled like summer.

I looked at my window (with the blinds closed) and it was gray and gloomy looking, and for a short moment there I thought it was raining, a rainy summer day, and I was quite pleased!
Then, consistent with my thinking habits in the morning, I forgot about it.
I got ready, made sure my hair was extra curly
(I was going to see The Cute Boy in my class)
opened the door...

I have to admit this was the first time I've ever been surprised that it was snowing in Logan. Which I guess tells you something about the weird weather this year...It hadn't snowed in weeks.
My imagination of the rainy summer day must have had me pretty convinced. I wasn't even wearing a coat.

It snowed today too, by the way.

{View from my front door - Not too exciting}

Next Random Story.
Last night I was pretty certain my body would forget how to breathe while sleeping with a stuffy nose. So as I lay there, trying to stay awake as long as possible, I thought about Things.
Like how half of the world writes and reads in the opposite direction that we do here. And most of that half is over on the other half of the earth. Weird.
And for some reason it made sense in my mind that if everyone started writing, and kept going for miles and miles, we'd eventually come together
(probably somewhere in the ocean)
and we'd realize, in that one spot, that really we're all just people.
I'm pretty that's about the same time I got up and made soup, because it sounded delicious.

Today all but one of my classes was canceled. The one I had to go to was French Cinema, at noon, and we watched a movie during the entire hour and fifteen minutes.
Best school day ever!
I slept in and even got to have breakfast with my roommates. It was delicious!

I have a little bit of homework today, but my classmate hasn't emailed it to me yet. SO instead of doing something boring and uneventful, like watching TV for the ten thousandth time this week
(that's a slight exaggeration)
I think I'll go paint something. Why not?

To Dream...

2010-02-24T21:54:00.000-08:00

I dream of being this way in 50 years...and every year in between! :)

Cute!

A Very Merry Un-Birthday to Me!

2010-02-11T19:56:00.000-08:00

So I have excellent roommates and friends here at this fine establishment, and since I'm going home for my birthday they celebrated by giving me an early birthday party! First they blinded me with an "ear muffler" (as we determined it should be called) and drove me around in circles through the town, to suprise me with a complementary dinner at...ARBY'S!! I actually was surprised that we ended up there, so they confused me well. Also pleased since it's the best fast food this side of the Mississippi. We came back to our apartment to enjoy the gourmet meal and they sprung THIS excellence upon me! :

They even had a bubble machine going to match the balloons

Jenna gave me my own special birthday dance: And, if you're in the mood to listen to several minutes of annoying noise making, lend an ear to this divine piece of music performed by my roommate Jenna and my "half roommate" Sarah.

I got some very interesting gifts... including some interesting/disturbing hair conditioner, food items of delight, pirate eye patches (which came into good use later on), socks, and celebrity items featuring Edward Cullen and the Jonas Brothers! Wahoo!

That last one's an octopus loofa (?) haha.

Soon enough we felt the need to use the pirate eye patches to their full extent.. and so.. we had a pirate dance party!

We topped off the night with a nice bottle of Martinelli's and various photoshoots of our pirate get ups.
My friends are the best! I almost forgot it wasn't really my birthday. Thanks for a fun evening guys! Now for the rest of my birthday present....a weekend back at home! :)

We are All Connected

2010-02-10T22:09:00.000-08:00

As I was reading blogs (instead of studying for tomorrow's exciting adventure, a test on the validity of political research studies...), I came across this interesting and slightly awesome video. It reminded me about the amazing world and universe that we live in, and how beautiful life is! The intricate nature of everything around us is miraculous, and truly a God-given gift.

"We Are All Connected"

OK, I'll go be responsible now.

Home for the Holidays!

2009-12-12T15:40:00.000-08:00

Well... finals over at last and nothing at all to do! So blogging can resume once again.
Finals were not too bad this semester; I had only two small essays and a 15 page research paper to turn in, which I did without too much stress or trouble....and voila! Tuesday of finals week and I was done! So that was really nice.
Now I'm back at home and read (for fun) to my heart's content! Ahhhhh... :)

I never did write about Halloween so I guess I'll throw in a couple of those pictures now. Our excellent friends John and Ted came to visit and join in the festivities for the weekend, and sometime during all that John and I went to feed the ducks. Those geese were not afraid of me at all, and eerily followed me wherever I went. They were rather large and gave me some fright, so I ended up spending a good amount of time standing on a picnic table, throwing large chunks of bread as far as possible in a vain attempt to draw them away from me.

As for Halloween itself. I kind of had two costumes... one I threw together quickly so I could be dressed up when I went out to dinner with my friends. I was a Masked.. Girl. Yep. It was very creative and oh-so-spooky. Mel put us all to shame with her intense warewolf costume that she put together herself.

My other costume came about thanks to Spencer. I was Kaylee from the tv series Firefly (or from the movie Serenity, based off the series). It was a completely obscure costume that probably about 2% of the general population understood, and most likely it was even less than that since I don't really look like her.

But I had a lot of fun doing it, and was proud of my DI-inspired outcome. Spencer would be proud ... In fact I need to send him the pictures since he's been bugging me about it for weeks.

John and Ted didn't bring costumes really, so Mel helped them out with some creepy makeup faces. Ted was a ghosty thing with glasses, and John was a rotten-toothed goblin. They looked pretty good!

So that was Halloween! We went bowling and had dinner and I think we might have watched a halloweenish movie but I don't really remember...

We had Thanksgiving here at home with a bunch of my mom's family. We ate delicious foods, teased each other endlessly, and had overall a marvelous time. I guess we don't have any pictures of it though, sadly.

The very day after Thanksgiving Mom, of course, went into a Christmas frenzy. We decorated gingerbread houses (see some of those photos here), put up garland and lights inside and out, created Santa's little area on our random front hallway shelf, and...ta da! bought and decorated our Christmas Tree. Isn't it Beautiful? It's kind of shorter than intended but still an excellent addition to our home for the holiday.

It's great to be Home!!

Well I've got to run, apparently our ward is having a Christmas Party in about 10 minutes that I'm supposed to go (woops) so.. until next time!

The Little (Big) Missionary Man

2009-10-27T13:53:00.000-07:00

"I hooope they call me on a mission,

When I have grown a foot or...five!"

(Spencer's - oh rather, Elder Grierson's - theme song! Seriously.. he is TALL.)
I went home every weekend this month to hang out with my "little" brother before he left on the big mission, and we had some fun times. We watched Firefly and Serenity with Nickell and Aaron.. played some rock band.. bonded.. ate the very best meal ever at Tepanyaki!!.. all sorts of fun stuff! (I promise there was more than that and there was actual fun taking place haha.) Alas I didn't take pictures of any of that, BUT I do have superfluous amounts of pictures from the last two days with him at home! I don't have much to say about the events, because a lot of it will be repeating what my mom said on her blog so... I'll stick to the pictoral version :)

These are from the night he got set apart - an official missionary!we were all still pretty normal that night, not too much weeping or wild flailing of arms or anything like that. And then! the day finally arrived...

mom calls this his "i'm-finally-going!" dance... or something like that. :)

Then at last we got to the MTC... and off he went!
Officially starting his mission Wednesday, October 21, 2009,
I give you......
ELDER GRIERSON! (applause!!)

and of course, afterwards we went to Baskin Robins to sooth our sorrows with a little bit o' chocolate happiness.And that's that! For anyone who wants to write him and reads my blog but not my family's (if such a person exists) here is his address:

Elder Spencer William Grierson
MTC Mailbox # 317
BRA-BRS 1222
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

Write him!

School Has Begun!

2009-09-26T10:55:00.000-07:00

Alrighty so some news... I really don't have much but I'll see what I can do.

I'm back in school now, taking 15 credits which isn't too bad. Classes are---

Slavery in the Atlantic!
History of the French Revolution!
Senior Topics: Political Culture! (Research Paper class)
Business French!
and Aerobic Kickboxing! yeah!

I'm also a UTF (undergraduate teaching fellow, basically a teacher's assistant) for a Greek History class with my favorite professor here, Dr. Frances Titchener. I tumbled into the job and I was thrilled! I still am. Basically I just help a small group of students in the class come up with good, succint essay theses that they can then use to write papers. It's a bit intimidating since I don't think I am that good at coming up with thesis statements, but Dr. T. thinks I am, hence the job I suppose. I also do whatever odd jobs she asks me to do. A couple weeks ago I got to punch holes in the students' tests and then alphabetize them! I'm glad my job experience at DMPG is finally coming into use.

I also went on a blind date to the Homecoming dance last night. That was unique. Not too bad though, we had fun and it was not so much a date as group mayhem. Plus I got brownies and ice cream at the end of the night - how can you beat that? The theme was Here, There, and Everywhere, and the attendees were supposed to dress up in clothing from the decade of their choice. My friend Muriel and I attempted a 50s look. Did we succeed? I have no idea, but I felt like I looked pretty awesome anyway. We took a handful of pictures, and once I get those I'll put them up.

Other than that not much is going on. Conference next weekend!! I am super excited, especially since I'm going home to watch with my family! And I'm pleased that fall is here, such a lovely season. Tainted ever so slightly by the winter season right on its heels. Oh well.

Oh I guess I did go to what my friends like to call a "bonfire" recently (really it's just a fire in an approved location in the canyon. Still fun.) We roasted hot dogs, sat and chatted, read scary stories while my friends acted them out in a charades-like manner... good times all around.

Jackie and I unintentionally wore matching high school sweatshirts. Oh the good old high school days...
Well that's pretty much all I've got. I will try to be more effective in my blogging habits and keep up to date with my life's doings. Til next time!

France!

2009-09-26T10:47:00.001-07:00

Ok. So let's just admit it, I am not going to get around to writing in depth about France. Ergo I've decided this shall be my France blog...

I went!

Maybe someday, when I'm not in school, I'll be bored and want to fill in the gaps. But for now I think this suffices. SO now I can start blogging about less intimidating topics and feel a little less silly that I have a blog that is stagnating in the online world. Yay!

Update

2009-07-18T09:59:00.000-07:00

Hello all!
This is just a quickie to let anyone who might actually read this blog know that I will soon be updating it with my adventures in France. Not enough time now.. but it is soon coming so have no fear. I guess I can update as to what i've been doing this summer, since that should only take about 2 seconds to explain.
Since being home I've just been working around the house for my mother, thanks to the extreme difficulty in finding a job in the middle of summer when i'm leaving for school again in about a month.
We had a family reunion last weekend and a bunch of the extended family came to visit. Most of you reading this probably are family so you already know about it... but I had a lot of fun! I'm very grateful for my wonderful family.
My friends and I recently saw the newest Harry Potter film, a midnight showing, and dressed up as the various characters - I was Ginny Weasley, Melanie was professor Trelawny, Jackie was "Cho" but was really more just Jackie the Hogwarts student, and Ben came too but wasn't dressed up since he'd just come from work. We also met our friend Jason, death eater, and his brother, a wizard, there. There were some very extreme costumed people! One guy dressed up as Hagrid and was quite convincing - he had people asking him to take pictures with them. I also saw a girl who had shaved her head and was Lord Voldemort ... kinda weird but I guess if you're really into it...way to go. I just wondered what she did the next day. As for the movie I really enjoyed it ... I think. Must go see it again at a normal time of day.
Soon I'll be taking a trip to Washington to my uncle's condo (yay!!) with my family. I'm quite excited for this because it's beautiful there and is one of my favorite places to visit.
And the only other thing I can think of is that I am going to attempt to paint a background for our christmas decorations. I have only painted once or twice before so I'm not sure how it will turn out, but it should be a fun project to try.
We also have a new baby lizard that is super small and cute. I'm glad we got at least one from the dozen! Check out my family's blog for that story, hot off the press.
That should be it for recent updates in my currently very normal life. I'm just enjoying my summer of relaxation (though I must admit i'm getting pretty excited/ready for classes to start again! August 24th ish) So I shall try and post soon some adventures from France, along with pictures. Until then!

Renaissance Festival and Fantasy Faire!....and Art Ball

2009-05-22T18:44:00.000-07:00

The weekend of May 15-16 was quite a delightful one for my good friend Melanie and me. Happily we chose to step out of reality for those couple of days (and a rather high fee...) to enjoy the wonders of the Utah Renaissance Festival on friday, and the Art Ball here in Springville on Saturday.

The Renaissance Festival took place in the (almost) scenic town of Marriot-Slatersville, in a very lovely and large-ish field about a mile from the freeway. Melanie and I chose to dress up for the occasion which was not only amusing, but also gave us entrance to the festival at half price (six dollars instead of twelve - quite a nice deal I'd say). Melanie dressed as a regal maiden, in a flowing white gown embroidered with pearls, and crowned her head with a tiara of the finest worked silver. (I'm sure it was pretty close to silver..) As for myself, I chose to dress myself in the browns and greens of a peasant's garb, but of course it was altogether quite flattering. I even created a woven flowery garland for my head out of the nearby weeds - I was very pround of that accomplishment. When we arrived we looked through the smattering of shops that dotted the area, there were many lovely hand-crafted trinkets that were very tempting, but also very expensive, so we managed to resist. The reason for us coming to the fair - the highly touted full combat joust - was not until the end of the day, so while we waited we watched a rather childish though pretty entertaining magic show and enjoyed a pleasantly medieval lunch. Then as we were watching Queen Elizabeth test the magical "tyme masheen"...(which ended up being NuSkin product or something nonsensical like that)....
A swashbuckling pirate approached Mel and me with this debonair line: "Dear ladies, this is not a grocery store so please stop checking me out!" He then laughed and told us we could check him out as much as we wanted. Then he took my hand and said to me, in utter seriousness "Your eyes are so blue, they are bluer than the water in my mother's toilet. And i'm serious, really I am." And he kissed my hand. What a suave pirate, eh? He urged us to find him if we were ever not having fun at the "Ren Faire" as he called it, and then he left and Mel and I had a good laugh. Captain Lefty was his name, and he is the one with the ridiculously feathered hat in the picture. The pirate to the right of him wielded a whip and was pretty cute too.

After a trip to the stocks, it was finally time for the joust! The watchers were split in half, and one side was told to root for the knight of Ireland, and the other side was told to cheer on the knight of England. Melanie and I were seated near our good Queen Elizabeth and so were among those who were fans of England. Then each knight got a rose, and went in search of a lady that he favored among all the ladies who cheered for him. Our good Sir Michael of England stopped in front of me and asked "My lady, may I joust for you today?" To which i made some witty and appropriately dorky response like "Yes, of course.." and accepted his rose with a lovely nerdy-teenage-girl-who's-way-too-into-pretending-she's-in-the-sixteenth-century curtsy. Then the announcer said for all to hear "Of course, by accepting this favor you know that you must bestow upon your knight a kiss for good luck!" Which I didn't know, actually, but so it was. SO I ducked under the fence and entered the lists, and ascended this wooden platform that brought me to the same height as the knight (he was on a horse after all) and the announcer said "Wait! how old are you?" "twenty," said I, and he replied "Good enough!" And so I gave my knight a kiss (on the cheek...he was probably twice my age and bald besides haha) and the crowd cheered. Then they jousted four passes, and sadly Sir Michael lost, he had to forfeit after he injured his hand. And then we went home. It was a very good time for all.
The Art Ball is much shorter to explain. I promise. Every year the Springville Art Museum throws a ball in which they pick the Art Royalty for the year, display new paintings, drawings and sculptures, show off student artists who do their art throughout the night, and have a dance with live bands. This year they opened up the newly fixed up garden,which was lovely, especially with the perfect weather. Mel and I went without dates, which was kind of weird once the dancing started but we had fun anyway. We wore our prom dresses (because what else can you do with those after high school?) and looked gorgeous indeed. Overall it was a great weekend and well worth the cost. I recommend both events for anyone who likes to dress up and have fun escaping reality for a while! :)

Back Home

2009-05-11T09:49:00.001-07:00

It's been a while and I feel I must post something. . .

I'm back home! wahoo!!
And before we left, my roommates took cute pictures in Logan. here's all of us roomies together. Even Xue Fei came :) (right bottom corner, in the yellow)

Getting out of Merrill Hall back in Logan was sort of the worst thing ever. It ended up taking four hours longer than I had planned...all of my roommates had chores including me...and I was on bathroom duty! Gross. But it sparkled when I was done. :) Packing was sort of just throwing things into boxes so that wasn't too bad, though it took hours even still. And... I was also in charge of mopping the kitchen and vacuuming all the floors so I had to wait til everyone had their stuff out of those rooms so I could do that. But my nice neighbor Harold helped me pack everything into my cute little car and off I went!

And now I must say, unpacking was far worse. haha. But after three straight days of diligent work my room now looks like I've lived here for years. Perfectly messy with stuff shoved away into any nook and cranny I could find.

I tried to get a job at a greenhouse but they, alas, were not hiring so I guess I'll just wait until July, when i'm back from France, for which i'm leaving in two weeks from yesterday!!! I'm very excited and I'm sure I'll write all about it. For now I just am at home by myself while the rest of my family works, and I clean stuff from time to time. It's very quiet but nice, though I sometimes wish I could see people more often haha.

Being home with the family's been fun though, my dad had his birthday recently and got geocaching stuff so we've been entertained with that for a while. And we went camping for mother's day weekend, which was quite enjoyable.

So that's my rather boring update. But now I think I'm going to go put on some music and clean my house! Hopefully I'll have something interesting to talk about soon, and if not, there's always my upcoming adventure to France!

'Til later...

Puddle Jumping!

2009-04-23T20:37:00.000-07:00

To start off with, a little update.

Finals are next week, and this week has been crazy! Sure, it's "no test week"...but all the teachers have assigned papers and projects up the wazoo to make up for it. 'Tis a shame, such a shame. Luckily I only have two finals (technically) next week, but i have a few 10 page papers due as well. Pretty bad timing for the library website to quit working for a whole day! Well, hopefully it'll be back up tomorrow, and this weekend should be fun-filled with studying and paper writing galore...

But!

In just one week, I'll be done with all my assignments and tests, and it'll be summer! Wahoo!

Anywho, on another note, one day a few weeks ago our neighbor Amanda and Jackie and I noticed that it was slightly drizzling outside, not very warmly but better than snow nonetheless, and since Amanda is an avid puddle-jumper, out into the rain we went! We were rather soaked, but not really since the rain wasn't very intense. It was extremely cold - Jackie and I were wearing flip flops...we couldn't feel our feet! But it was worth it, a nice stress reliever, and we even got a car to drive through a puddle and splash us :)

Here's the after effects:
(that last one is kind of a creepy Tara face. haha. sorry)

yeah.. you can't really tell how wet we are. But it was way fun!

Recently the weather has been awesome. Warm and breezy and absolutely beautiful! Hopefully it'll be like that again tomorrow, so I can go study out there :) I'm really excited for the semester to end, and to have a month of freedom (and then to France for more school, which I can't really say is bad cause, let's face it, it's way cool!)

Finally, I have a concert this Saturday. Our school's two choirs (Chorale and Chamber Singers) along with the American Festival Chorus and the USU symphony orchestra are attempting to perform Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. It's quite the adventure! If anyone cares to experience this, or can, or is interested in knowing the facts about it despite their lack of desire to come ;) it's going to be at 7:30 pm in USU's Kent Concert Hall. $5 or free with student ID. Come enjoy a very lovely cultural experience! It's sure to be quite the concert.

Anyway that's all I've got for today. And now I need to go continue my studying! (Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...)

:)

Great Song :)

2009-04-18T16:31:00.000-07:00

As I was once again wandering around facebook, I saw one of my friends had posted a link for a song composed by Jon Schmidt, a mix between Coldplay's Viva La Vida and Taylor Swift's Love Story. It's a piano and cello duet and I think it's so upbeat and happy! And also very pretty. So, I'm going to post it cause I really enjoy it -- click here to experience the delight of Jon Schmidt! (warning: the song is 6 minutes long followed by his explanation of why he wrote it. But it's worth the length!)

By the way Spencer, if you haven't heard this I think you'll quite enjoy it.

Also, by way of an update, I must mention that the snow has left Logan again, and it is absolutely beautiful outside today! Hooray! It's about 65 degrees and is only supposed to keep warming up this week. I'm very happy about this. :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....oh, wait....

2009-04-15T14:22:00.000-07:00

If you're alive and in Utah, and you have left the house today, then you've probably realized that our dear month of April has become a bit confused with her responsibilities. Today I mournfully grabbed the camera to take pictures so I could blog about the SNOW that has recently graced us with its presence here.

That's me, sad, because I'm on my way to take pictures of snow...These Pictures, in fact:So yeah. I'm really not that surprised since it snowed until May in Logan last year, and I'm really not all that upset about it. But it is not sun, which I am sad about. However sun is on the way, so I'll just keep remembering that as I walk from class to class in this lovely weather! And our apartment is glad to know we can no longer be blamed for bringing this curse to our fair city :)

Just wishing for Spring!

2009-04-13T17:58:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of the wintry season here in Logan, my roommates and I created a marvelous snowflake artwork that hung on our window and from our ceiling. We spent hours cutting out paper snowflakes for that purpose, and the result was actually quite pretty. Then winter dragged on as it always seems to do, and when March rolled around and it was still snowing, we began to get suspicious. The few warm days that we had were cruely short lived, and the snow would always come again and dump all over the town. Finally we decided that we were cursing Logan with our hanging snowflakes and that we had to usher in Spring some fresh, new, spring-like decor. So my roommate Manda and neighbor Karla bought some of those big foam noodles, that one might use when swimming, cut them into slices and, voila! Instant foamy flowers to hang on the ceiling. That combined with some streamers made our ceiling just delightfully springy (and very girly i might add) But it is very cheerful -- and the weather has slowly been improving! Today was beautiful with 60 degree weather and an almost cloudless blue sky. My roommates and I celebrated by being weird college kids out on our catwalk. I just hope the good weather keeps coming!

Fun audition video :)

2009-04-12T22:38:00.000-07:00

So as I was browsing about on facebook as I all too often do, I was sent this link to watch from Britain's Got Talent. I rather enjoyed it so here it is if you'd like to watch also.
Awesome Lady's Audition!

New Blogger!

2009-04-12T15:07:00.000-07:00

So I wanted to be a fancy blogger too, and have a fun place to put some pictures and keep people who wish to know what i'm doing with life updated! Here is my new blog -- I have no idea what I'll put on it since I don't do a lot of interesting things, but maybe with this I'll be more motivated to make my life fascinating! :)