Musings

Well lookie here...I'm blogging. Must be that the end of the world is coming. Or already passed. After all it is after May 21st. Anyway, I thought I'd post some random things I have been thinking about or rather some "Musings." Get it....ok, I'll assume you're not that stupid. So, good and bad, here we go.

Good:

Life - life is good. I know that sounds cliché, but it really is. The thing is though, it's only good if you make it that way. So as Nike said, Just Do It.

Apples - I never realized how much I loved them, but they're so good. You can eat them plain or with cheese or peanut butter or in pie or as juice. The list goes on.

Friends - I've got some great ones. Don't be jealous...yours are probably pretty good too, but in a fight, I'm pretty sure my friends could beat up your friends.

Family - the friends that don't go away. (That's a good thing.) Seriously, what do people do without family. If you don't have one, let me know. Maybe I can loan you part of mine for a while.

Camping - It may sound torturous, but it's really a blast. Plus, I can have an excuse not to answer any calls or texts for a day or two.

Watching Disney songs on YouTube with my niece - she's adorable. Do I really need to say more?

Scott Bodily - because I was chatting with him while I wrote this and he asked if he was in it.

Some other stuff....you know. Good stuff.

Bad:

Financial Aid Office - It's been over a month and a half and they still can't get it right. Now I'm thinking, I'm going to be looking for a job soon.....can I just have yours?

Pain - it's good sometimes, because it lets you know that something is wrong, but a 10 month headache for no reason? I'm pretty sure that goes on the bad list....plus I think I did something to my thumb. Who knows what?

Pop songs that can say what you're thinking when you can't - it's slightly ridiculous and a little infuriating when some cheesy song can come up with my feelings better than me. *Sigh* I'm ashamed.

And now, to leave you with a song that I love a lot. Enjoy!
Send Me On My Way - Rusted Root

It's not THAT weird

I have a confession to make. I don't eat sugar. I must be crazy right? Actually no. For the majority of the last 9 years of my life I have tried my darndest to cut sugar from my diet. It's not for fun, and it's not because I don't like sugar. In fact, I have one of the sweetest sweet tooths you've ever encountered. I love chocolate and pie and cake. I especially love brownies because they encase chocolate in a delicious baked good. So, if I love sugar so much, you may wonder why I don't eat it. It gives me migraines. This seems very reasonable to me. People who have diabetes don't eat sugar and people don't think they are freaks. If something makes you sick you don't do it right? Right.

Surprisingly, not everyone shares this same opinion. Most the time when I tell someone that I don't eat sugar I get one of a few responses. The first is, "you don't eat what? Seriously?" The second is, "wait, you don't like sugar? That's weird..." The third most common (and admittedly my favorite) is, "You don't eat sugar?! I would DIE!!!!" Then people get weird around me like I'm a leper or something. I promise you won't catch sugar intolerance for me. This strange behavior reminds me of a Jim Gaffigan sketch that I love, love, love. The sketch is referring to people that don't drink alcohol, but I think it also applies to my situation. Enjoy.

What a great way to start a Sunday

This morning I woke up and remembered this song. Annie and I got to sing in the choir that's performing it here when Elder Holland came to speak. What a great experience! I always feel so blessed and uplifted when I listen to this song and I thought I would share it. Enjoy!

I should get my hearing checked...

It's been one of those weeks where I misunderstand everything people say. A couple of good ones were when my friend was talking about her hair and I think a towel. I thought she said something about her head in Nutella. While that would be delicious, it would be a little messy. Also, my stake president got up and asked, "What do you think heaven is like?" Of course I heard, "What do you think Kevin is like?" I don't know, but if he's cute I'd like to get to know him. Awesome.

Beatlemania!

Yes, it's a miracle. I'm blogging. I have been reprimanded for not having posted since last March.... :S and also for having a Halloween background. (Give me a break Sarah and Kevin!) I know this doesn't make sense, but allow me to explain. I did try to post in October, but the computer ate my post and I was way too lazy to type it again. I had already changed the background though, so I left it.

Well, on to this post! I've had The Beatles on my mind lately and for good reason. 1) They are awesome. 2) I'm singing in a concert today where the theme is Beatles. 3) They are awesome. In case you were unclear about anything above: The Beatles are awesome. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I don't know every single one of their songs, but all the ones I've heard I'm pretty much in love with. One that my friend introduced to me has become one of my all-time favorites. Thank you James. Actually, it's the one that we're singing at my concert today. I've included it below for your listening pleasure. I hope you enjoy.

So guys and gals....what do you think of The Beatles? Let me know your honest-to-goodness opinion. I warn you though....if you start ragging on them I might have to unleash the power of the word on you (I would do it in person, but this is a blog so it makes it harder.) Have a Beatlicious day!

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!