hippity skippity.

So I was at the gym yesterday--ya know, just getting ripped--and even though I had headphones in, I could hear someone's voice.  I pulled out my ear phones and looked in the direction of the noise to find:

 

Yes, singing at along to her music with a smile on her face like she had just won the lottery, kissed a boy for the first time, and found out that DVR exists all at the same time.  But not only was she accomplishing grinning from ear to ear while singing, but she was skipping and marching (and I'm not exaggerating/adding fluff . . . literally skipping and marching) barefoot on the treadmill. 

I don't think I've ever seen anyone so happy to be working out.  Let alone anyone so happy with life.  I want to know her secret.  As I watched her, I was imagining ways to get a video for you all to see . . . but I don't think there's any way I could. 

Before Max Hall... there was my Dad

This is why I love my Dad.

Go Cougars

p.s. he's number 7 in the highlights

Ferry Friends

So just as a little update for you all, I am moved into my apartment and I cannot tell you how glorious it is. For the past two years I have spent my life sleeping, studying, hanging out, and getting ready in a 10x10 foot box of a room with two other people. I sometimes felt that I didn't have enough air to breathe. This year however I have my own room. A big spacious and magical place with my very own closet, bookshelf, window, bed, and room to dance and frolic in; and that is in addition to the vast living room area and kitchen and the bathroom I only have to share with one other person because, surprise, there are two bathrooms!!
If you can't tell, I am really excited!!

But back to the matter for which I am writing.

So on Tuesday, the 6th of September, after countless pointless delays caused by my family's inability to plan, my dad, sister and I headed out on the road to drive me back to my home in the Emerald city. We were of course situated happily and comfortably in one of my dad's many Volks Wagon Vanagons. My dad drove while I rode shotgun and my sister almost immediately fell asleep across the back seat near all my boxes of "life essentials" for my time up here.
We had driven about as far as Pocatello, Idaho when suddenly my sister sat bolt upright in the back and started shrieking for my dad to pull over. I turned in my seat and peered through a small hole between my boxes and saw steam billowing around my sister's head as the wind from my open window rushed in.
We pulled over and soon discovered we had broken a fan belt which had then in turn broken the heater in the back of the car. The broken heater was the cause of all the steam rising up around my sister as well as the cause of her impossibly high pitched scream of panic.
With the help of a happy-go-lucky police officer, we purchased a new fan belt, installed it and hit the road again.
After that incident, we didn't hit any more metaphorical bumps in the road and we made it safely to Seattle. Once we arrived in the city, we promptly boarded a ferry to take us out to the Olympic Peninsula to visit my cousins who recently had a baby and are now packing up to move to Hawaii. My cousin Jonah took my sister and I crabbing out in the sound where my sister and I pulled up a giant commercial sized crab pot with 46 Dungeness Crabs in it. It was really heavy.
We had fresh crab for dinner and headed out the next morning for the San Juan Islands.
For those of you have have met my dad, you know that he likes to talk; to friends, acquaintances, enemies, and strangers alike. He will basically talk to anyone who will listen. The ferry, however, seems to make him more chatty than ever. We would stand out on the bow to watch the beautiful mountain scenery and whales and dolphins and as soon as someone walked up next to us, my dad would strike up a conversation. Well, it was on our way to San Juan Island when my dad started making jokes about random things and a man standing next to me leaned over and said, "Dad's are always funny and right you know."
I smiled and replied, "Maybe you are always funny and right but my dad has a tendency to be funny and wrong."
Of course then my dad stepped in and started talking to him about everything from sailing, to cars, to waterskiing, to the story of my life as a college student. Normally people don't find these topics very interesting (or maybe I just don't because I hear them so often), but this man--John was his name-- seemed very interested. And it wasn't long before I discovered why. Apparently he is very much like my dad. They are interested in the same things and they both have children who are going into their junior year of college. John's child is a boy though and apparently my dad talked him into thinking it would be a good idea for Micheal (John's son) and me to meet. So John invited us to call him the next day while we were on the island because he lives there and was planning on taking his son waterskiing for one last day before he headed back to school.
As you can imagine, that is exactly what we did.
I won't lie, Micheal was pretty attractive and he doesn't go to school far away from me so maybe something could happen in the future there; we shall see. We have each other's contact information though now so that is a step.
The point here though, was to say, I guess sometimes my dad is right. I got to go waterskiing in the San Juans because he was right. I learned my lesson. Haha

Campaigning

Hey all!
Sorry I haven't been too good at posting or commenting but I am reading all the posts and they always give me a good laugh. So here is a story of my own:

Today I went to Delaware, yes Delaware. I had to be up at 7:30 this morning then drove 2 hours to a town festival in Milford Delaware. I was helping campaign for our one and only Mitt Romney. He had to get 500 signatures to be put on the primary ballot. So I walked around this cute town festival asking all kinds of people if they were republican. The dialogue went a little something like this:
      me: "Excuse me, are you a registered republican voter?"

The answers to this question varied:
      person: "Yes I am can we please get the democrats out of there?"
        Usually with an American flag on their shirt

      person: "haha you wash your mouth out little lady for asking me that question"
        These people were an old couple that looked like republicans

      person: "I am a felon and can't vote" (one of my personal favorites)
         All the tattoo folk

      person: "Is he that mormon guy? Well I like Perry"
           People sitting on their lawn chairs while eating hotdogs and drinking beers

      person: "I am a democrat but wished I was republican"
            Old grandma's and grandpa's

      person: "I am an independent" (otherwise known as I'm not signing anything)
              Everything else you could think of

Well I ended up with 21 signature and as a group we had 250 so I felt pretty good about it. And the best news was that along the way I got plenty of business cards to host jewelry parties, entered countless contests (none of which I won), and got to people watch till 5:00 at night.

sleep deprivation

Today I had to be at work by 6 in the morning... after having to work till 12:30 last night. Of course instead of being responsible and going to bed right away, I somehow thought it'd be a good idea to at least have some fun on my friday night.

This morning, I fell asleep on the ground under my desk.
I also fell asleep while on hold waiting for a different department.

Both of those times I had to be awaken by co workers.
Awkward.

story time

I was late for school today. I am almost always late for school.

I was walking briskly, my legs burning, my brow beading with sweat. I could hear the light grinding of small rocks behind me- the familiar sound of rubber tires against the concrete. 

I could tell the rider was getting closer. He appeared in my view, passing me on my left. It was not a bicyclist as I had expected. It was a young man on a unicycle, his immaculate white socks glaring at me as they clung to his wirey, hairy calves. 

"I hate unicycles." I thought to myself, suddenly filled with rage. "They hardly go faster than walking and they're so pretentious." I clenched my fists, staring at the idiot on the unicycle and decided today he would pay for his moronic choice of transportation. 

I saw my arms reach out in front of me, in disbelief of what I was doing. I hit him square in the backpack, shoving him and his stupid seat-clad wheel onto the ground, his face smearing against the grass and mud. He screamed in terror as I stood above him. 

"What is wrong with you?!" He asked me holding back salty tears. 

I looked him directly in the eye, staring deep into his poor, unintelligent soul. I looked to his mangled unicycle, laying incompetently in the grass next to him, its idiotic wheel still spinning slowly. I looked back to him and understanding and shame spread across his face. His lesson had been learned.

I turned on my heel and walked away. 

Wise Words from Africa

{Okay Liz, here's more.  This one is my personal favorite.  Aubrey, you'll have to tell us if this guy is legit. (And yes, opine is a word.  I linked the definition for your reference, because I definitely needed it.  This guy has a better vocabulary than I do.)}

 

Dear Reverend Professor Elder Cecil Samuelson and Brigham Young University


   Greetings!

I was asked to comment on this matter given my expertise as a a native African sexologist during a book reading in Durban, South Africa.I would opine that a young African American male having sex with his girfriend and in the capacity of an unofficial couple will not be frowned upon in most African cultures.Brandon Davies did not rape a young lady but carried out the commandments of God when he said "Go forth and multiply' which was a euphemism for "Go and have sex".In view of the national and international publicity that this matter garnered and given its devastating impact on Mr. Davies,I would opine that it is high time to put this matter in abeyance and reinstitute Brandon Davies back into the BYU Cougars Basketball Team.

A seek peak of my book reading in the link below as well as a review of my work here posted will reveal where I am coming from.

  Most sincerely,
  Boniface N.wewe

single and ready to mingle

{Just as background, I get a lot of weird e-mails at work.  Like a suspicious amount of weird e-mails.  The majority of them are like this, but I've also received some from princes, wealthy dead people, and an African sexologist.  A tiny part of me believes that this e-mail is secretly from Kamrin.}

Hello sweetie,

My name is Judy, i am 25yrs old, i'm a free minded,open hearted girl, i like to take life as easy as i could, i'm one of the few that still believes in friendship, love, trust and signs, am very much single and ready to mingle. was browsing through the internet and came across your contact,it will be my sincere pleasure to be your friend if you don't mind, i hope you will not take my request for granted,feel free to email me, i will appreciate it if you can send me some pics to my private email address, i look forward to hear from you soon.

Take care.

Judy.

BOOB SCARVES

coolest invention ever. i think we should all get these someday?

HELP

I need some opinions from the people who matter most. I NEED a change with my hair, its just been the same long mess for a long time. I'm thinking maybe a color is in the future? or a great cut. I am almost thinking going blonde-ish. I'm kind of desperate... any opinions?

Option A: No color and just cut?

Option B: just a color and no cut?
Option C: Neither and leave it...

Called to Serve

Last year, I was one of the first people in our new ward to be called into the bishop's office to receive my new calling.  I was excited.  I figured going so early meant that it must be something big and--as nerdy as it might be--I was excited to get my second real calling (I don't really think that YW pianist and Mia Maid president for a few months counts) . . . because as we all know, I kinda like responsibilities.

So I sat down with the bishop in his "office" (Provo/BYU wards don't really have set offices) and listened as he debriefed me on the importance and significance of my calling and saying that I was highly recommended for it.  I first wondered who they would call for recommendations, and then decided that it must be a pretty big deal.

He looked me straight in the eye and said, "We would like for you to be our ward greeter."

Yeah.  I know.  It was awesome, but I was laughing all the way home.

Anyway, I'm not here to talk about last year (because that is so last year).  I'm actually writing because I received my new calling last night.  And guess what it is?

Secretary of the Friendship Council.

As I asked the chair what that entailed, he said, "Oh just do break the fast, nice notes, and one of us will need to be a ward greeter." 

So I guess I obviously didn't learn what I needed to from my calling last year.  But hey, if you're in need of a pick-me-up, come on down to Provo any Sunday and I will be there with a bright smile and a program (and occasionally candy) in hand.

Off Again

So I don't really have anything interesting to tell you all yet, but I just wanted to say a few things.
First, Anna, this is an amazing idea and I am so glad you thought of it. Second, I love you all and I am so glad I got to see and hang out with you this summer. I miss you all so much!!
Thirdly, You are all the most wonderful people I know and I am so glad we are all friends! I feel like we have all had some interesting adventures since parting after senior year and I am ecstatic to see what adventures we all encounter next in life.
I want to ask all of you to please post pictures too because I tend to get overwhelmed by Facebook pictures and on here I feel like you can explain them better.
Okay, that's all for now. Love you all!!!

the first cheesecake outing

libby

Hey guess what. I have news! My sister is pregnant!

FABQs (Frequently Asked Baby Questions):
She is due March 7th. (Oh hey, isn't that our dear friend's birthday? Why yes, yes it is.)
She doesn't know if it's a boy or girl yet. (I'm definitely posting again later to update)
And yes, I can not WAIT to be an aunt!