Payback's a...well you know.

Payback. Sometimes payback is a great thing. For example, when you get that nice tax return check...that's a great payback! However, the payback to which I am referring is not so pleasant. At my home, our oven timer doesn't just beep three or four times and then shut itself off. Once that timer starts going it won't stop until the cows come home...or until someone shuts it off. A few weeks ago we celebrated Pi day by baking nine pies. This took a while, and being a procrastinator I pushed a couple until right before the party. I made an apple pie that finished right before we left to go to a wedding reception and stake conference. There were only a few minutes left on the timer when we needed to leave, so I just turned off the oven and opened the door so the pie could cool while we were out. The one thing I forgot to shut off was the timer. We arrived home roughly three hours later and as we approached our door we heard an annoying beeping sound. That's right, our timer had been beeping the entire time we had been gone. Now for most timers this would be a minor inconvenience, but these timers are built like smoke alarms. They're loud and piercing and I'm surprised all our neighbors didn't break down our door to shut it off. Tonight as I was sitting on the couch I heard a familiar beeping sound coming from the neighbor's apartment. Their timer was going off. I guess they decided it was time for payback, because that baby kept going for over an hour. I wasn't too annoyed though. At least I didn't have to put up with it for three hours.

March Madness

We've all heard the saying, "When it rains it pours." I'll assume that we've also heard the saying, "April showers bring May flowers." Well, I'm hoping that April will bring me flowers because March has been a freaking monsoon! To start off the madness my usual headaches got exponentially worse. They were bad enough that one headache would last about five days. Not so fun. Next the flu got piled on top of the headaches, knocking me out for about a week and finally forcing me to go to the doctor to deal it. My next medical trick was my eye that has started twitching and that they thought might have been pink eye. I'm not sure why, but that's pretty gross. Because of these lovely health debacles I missed quite a bit of school. This threw in makeup tests, overdue papers, and interviews with teachers to my March mix, not to mention the fact that some of the tests I did got lost, so I'll probably get to do them again. Amidst this, my sister and roommate got a new job. Sounds great, right? (It is great! I'm really excited for her!) This led to construction. We needed to paint and put up a new doorway as well as fill in nail holes and paint over them. Next, I found out that the three dollar tip I left on a fifteen dollar meal got charged as thirty dollars. Now, I like to think of myself as a good tipper (I'm not sure that's really a word), but I think a 200% tip is a little extreme. This wouldn't be so bad, except for the fact that the extra thirty dollars led to my account being overdrawn, and the restaurant was in Puerto Rico, so I couldn't just go talk to them and get it fixed. However, I did go talk to the bank and they're going to try and get it settled. (keep your fingers crossed!) For the cherry on top, my windshield cracked. It's the first time I've ever had a crack in my windshield in all my driving years. It made me a little sad. I guess now it's not so hard to see why my eye is twitching.

Well, even though this has been a month of craziness, there have also been quite a few good things that have happened too. As happens every March, we had Pi day, and boy did we celebrate. Annie and I ended up making 9 different pies, all of which were pretty delicious. (Apparently I'm so humble.) My little niece Isabelle turned 1 on St. Patrick's day and we celebrated with pancakes and scrambled eggs, because those were foods she could eat. Also that day my younger brother got his mission call. He's going to the San Juan, Puerto Rico mission, which was interesting timing and leads perfectly to one of the major highlights of my month so far. I got to go on vacation to none other than San Juan, Puerto Rico.

San Juan was a blast! I went with Sharolyn and the first day we both crashed in the hotel room and took a four hour nap. This may seem ridiculously long, but when you've been on a plane and transferring flights all night, it doesn't seem quite so silly. The next day we took a taxi out to Old San Juan to see the sights and do some shopping. Our timing wasn't so hot, although the weather was, and that was delightful. The first place we stopped was the El Morro fort. As we were walking in there were some other people walking out who informed us that the fort was closed because there were bees, and they wouldn't be open for an hour or two. We decided to go see the other things in the city and then circle back to the fort. Next we stopped at Casa Blanca (not the movie) where Ponce de Leon and his family used to live. We were going to go through the museum, but when we got up to the gate we talked to a lady who said they were closed for lunch. I looked at my watch and it was straight up noon....exactly when they closed for lunch. We got to walk around the grounds and saw some pretty cool things like a banana tree and a lizard. After that we stopped at lots of boutiques the rest of the day and got to see the beautiful San Juan cathedral. I also got to play the part of bird lady and feed a bunch of pigeons. By the time we finished with that the places we had wanted to go were closed so we decided to come back the next morning.

The next day we woke up and took the bus back to Old San Juan. We started at the lower fort and saw a lot of interesting stuff like the dungeons. After that we made our way back up to the El Morro fort which was now bee free and ready for us to explore. At both forts there were some amazing views of the ocean and the city and we took pictures to our hearts' content. When we were finished with the forts we went back to the hotel to eat and then hit the beach. Sharolyn got a good start on her tan by laying on the beach, but I was a much more restless creature, so I decided to build a sand castle. It had a bridge and towers and moat. I was pretty proud of my accomplishment considering the waves took my first two attempts and demolished them. That night I fell asleep watching "The Princess Bride" and the next day we came home. It's amazing what a good vacation will do for you. I woke up this morning and I wasn't quite as disappointed with the fact that I had to go to school. Also, my eye has been twitching less. Thank goodness!

L'amore and Movies Galore

Ah, Valentine's Day....a day when the commercial industry pelts us with the ideas of chocolates, flowers, and anything pink, fluffy, and cheesy. As a single gal, most people would think that Valentine's Day would be a day of loathing and suffering. This just isn't so. I think Valentine's Day (I'm tempted to abbreviate, but the end result isn't very good.) is a great way to remind people about the love they have for each other. I don't think it's just for ooey-gooey couples who use this day as an excuse for an abundance of PDA, but I think it's for everyone. I love lots of people in my life. I love my family, friends, ward members....even some people at school. Shocking huh? While I don't think that Valentine's Day is the only day to show our love for each other, I think it's great that we stop and take one day out of the year to remind ourselves, "yeah, life is good. I have lots of people in my life that I love, and lots of people that love me."

This year, to celebrate Valentine's, Annie and I went and saw the movie, "He's Just Not That Into You." It wasn't quite what I was expecting, but it was pretty good. It was witty, but serious, and optimistic. I like a good optimistic movie. Even if the ending isn't exactly picture perfect, I think it's good to show optimism.

As we were in the theater, there were of course those people who gasp, or make comments so loudly that they share what they are thinking with the entire theater. At times this can be annoying, but in small doses I think it's pretty entertaining. I think it's great when movies surprise you so much that you just can't hold in that extra loud gasp. Heck, it makes the rest of chuckle a little. One of the trends in theaters that I don't understand is clapping. When a movie ends, why do people clap? Do they think that the actors and producers can actually hear them clapping? I hate to break it to you, but they have no idea if you're clapping. The only people that can hear this show of appreciation are the teenagers waiting outside of the theater to clean up all the garbage you leave. As much as I dislike this tradition, a small part of me has come to accept it. It happens. I shouldn't let it bug me. I still find it silly, but I choose to laugh instead. Yesterday the clapping silliness went to a whole new level. In the middle of a movie someone started clapping. I guess they liked that part. I was puzzled....were we in a concert and I didn't know? Had someone just finished an amazing solo and I was unaware? I think it would be interesting to see what was going through this person's mind when they decided to start clapping for a projection in the middle of the showing. What would be more interesting is watching television with this person. Do they clap at home? It would definitely be amusing....for a little while at least.

Homework? I'd rather play.

This morning I was procrastinating doing my homework and started reading others blogs. It has again inspired me to try...yet again. What topic pushed me to start writing? Homework. That's right...that nasty stuff that teachers give out as they laugh wickedly at the looks on our faces. This is my rant on homework. I hate it. I hate doing it. I hate getting it back. It seems quite pointless to me most of the time. I'm a fan of the classes where they say, "this is what I'm going to teach. If you learn it and you're able to show me on the test...good for you." I can do that. I'm great at taking tests. Right now I'm trying to do an impossible assignment for my Aural skills class, and I've finally given up.

Ok, I feel like I should point out a few good things about homework. (I know it's shocking, but there are some good things.) For many students, homework is a good motivator to actually learn the material for the class. It breaks up the book or the lectures into manageable chunks instead of leaving them hanging until they are tested. I think that's a great idea. Other than that, my argument stands...homework sucks.

This is a picture of my unfinished homework. :(



Well, now that my ranting is out there, I guess I could write something more positive.
Lately I've been thinking about vacations, and for good reason too. My boss is thinking about taking me on a weekend working trip to somewhere warm in the next month or two, and I've got a trip planned to NYC and Washington D.C. in May. What more could a girl ask for? Not much. As I've been thinking about vacations I've thought about vacations growing up. Now for most people the word vacation means going somewhere to relax and have fun, right? Our family was a little different. Of course we had fun, but I don't know if we ever really relaxed. We packed so much into our vacations that we were usually more worn out by the time we got home than we were before we left. For example...

About two and a half years ago I had the chance to go to Europe with my parents and my brother and sister. It was great! When I tell most people I went to Europe they ask, "Where?" This should be an easy question, but as I said before...we pack it in. In a two and a half week trip to the European we managed to hit a total of nine countries, not including the United States. Impressive huh?

Another example has a funnier ending in my opinion. I have a sister whose husband is a foreign diplomat. They get to live in different countries for a period of two years, and between those countries they come back to Washington D.C. for training. This is great for us, because it means that we can go to D.C. for an extremely cheap price (as we are doing in May.) A few years ago my family went to D.C. to visit my sister and see a bunch of the sights, and boy did we see a BUNCH of sights. We saw famous documents, monuments, museums, street vendors, and much more. On the last day of the trip I was so worn out that the following story occurred: We were looking for a pin for my sister because she collects them, and we had one more place to look. It was a monument about seventeen blocks away. Me, Annie, Natalie, and my brother Matt decided that we could walk that distance, check for the pin, and then come back and find the rest of our family again. This made for a total walking distance of about 34 blocks. We got going, but soon I started to fall behind. I was pushing myself as hard as I could, but I still couldn't keep up with my sisters and brother. I finally fell so far behind that Annie and Natalie decided to grab my hands and pull me along. I was in high school, so of course it was embarrassing to have my sisters holding my hands. I settled for letting them drag me by the wrists (why this was better....I'm not sure.) It was at this point that a taxi cab drove by, honked his horn and gave us a thumbs up. We were confused at first, because we are innocent little Mormon girls...then it dawned on us. He thought we were a threesome!!! How awkward. Needless to say, I didn't let them pull me along after that.

As I look forward to my trip in May I think of that fateful walk. I'm hoping nothing like that will happen this time. At least if it does, we can get another good laugh out of it!