My Roommates Rock!

This post illustrates just one of many, many reasons that I love my roommates.  :)

So today I got home from campus and was in the middle of making lunch for myself when my roommate Jill came into the kitchen and said, "I have something for you."  I couldn't imagine what it would be.  If there had been some occasion close at hand (birthday, Christmas, etc.), I might have suspected more what was coming.  As it was, I wondered if it was just a piece of mail or something more mundane.  Then Jill put her hand in her coat pocket...and pulled out the "How to Train Your Dragon" soundtrack!!!!!

AHHHHHHH!!!!  That basically describes my reaction.  :)  I was so excited I think I hugged Jill a total of five different times.  I'm pretty sure she wasn't expecting that much.  :)  It was pretty similar to the reaction I gave my former roommate Allie when she gave me the Steven Sharp Nelson Christmas CD.  I really like my music, okay?  :)

But I'd been wanting the "How to Train Your Dragon" soundtrack for a long time, so I was super excited about it.  Apparently Jill had been thinking for a couple of weeks that she wanted to get it for me, and then when she finally did get it, she didn't want to wait until Christmas to give it to me, so she gave it to me as a late birthday/early Christmas present.  I'll go for that.  :)  Basically, I have awesome roommates, both past and present, and I love it!  Love you, Jill and Allie!

Crazy

Yes, I went to school without a coat on today---on purpose.

Yes, I am aware that it's currently 36 degrees outside.

Yes, I was actually comfortable outside without a coat.

And yes, I am aware that I am crazy.  Deal with it.  :)

Music, Music, Music :)

Yesterday I gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting.  Though the other two speakers were speaking about a different topic, I had been asked to speak about music (I can't imagine why! ;)).  I had actually been asked to speak about that topic last Sunday, but I'd been out of town, so they had me keep the same topic for this Sunday.  I was thrilled to give a talk about music!  I had a hard time at first figuring out what direction I should take with it, but then I felt prompted to go through and discuss the various points laid out in the preface of the hymnbook.  Once I did that, everything just kind of fell into place.  I think it went pretty well, and I was even able to sprinkle my talk with a couple of humorous comments that got some good chuckles from the audience.  :)  I got a ton of compliments afterward (including several people who mentioned that my choice of using the preface was a good approach), and I hope I brought the Spirit and was able to touch someone through what I said.

And for those who are wondering, I did make a plug for ward and stake choir during my talk.  But I only did it because the bishopric told me I had to!  :)  I don't like being the annoying ward choir director, so I try to keep my nagging to a minimum.  :)  But I did express how much I love my callings.  Because, hey, I do!  :)

Speaking of my callings, ward choir went well, though we seem to be losing girls.  We had five or six men yesterday and only two girls.  Weird.  Hopefully that will pick up.  But stake choir...oh, stake choir was AWESOME!  We had probably around fifty people there!  Ideally I'd like to have between eighty and a hundred, because we're doing two Mack Wilberg numbers, and I really want a big sound.  But even if we don't get any more than what we had, it'll be fine.  Yesterday we ran through both numbers a couple of times, and I definitely got chills!  It was amazing!  I'm so excited for Stake Conference.  It's going to be great!

So basically, I love music.  That's all.  :)

Cinnamon!

So, I may or may not be addicted so cinnamon.  I may or may not have recently discovered that it tastes incredibly delicious on oatmeal (thanks, Jill :)).  I also may or may not have put it on my frosted mini spooners as an experiment and discovered that it makes their flavor slightly (ever so slightly) reminiscent of Cinnamon Toast Crunch or Life cereal.  I may or may not be eager to try the idea I got from a friend of putting cinnamon in hot chocolate.  My favorite dessert may or may not be cinnamon chocolate cake.  I may or may not love putting applesauce, cinnamon, and sugar over my waffles.  I may or may not occasionally get a spoonful of peanut butter and sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on it and eat it straight off the spoon. I may or may not adore my cousin's recipe for cinnamon syrup.  I may or may not love snickerdoodles because of their sweet cinnamony goodness.  I may or may not be tempted to add cinnamon to every dessert I make from now on.

And I may or may not need a bigger container of cinnamon soon.

Okay, that's a definite yes to all of the above.  :)

Each Life that Touches Mine for Good

Yesterday at Institute, I received a lot of insight and inspiration.  I also heard several great quotes from our latter-day prophets.  There was one quote that really stood out to me.  The teacher didn't quote it verbatim, and I haven't been able to find it to make sure it's right, so this is probably a paraphrase, but I like the message: "If we believe that God placed planets in their orbits, then we must believe that He place people in ours."  After this past week (or more like this past year, but I'm particularly aware of it this week), how could I not believe that?

As many of you know, I was sick for a good part of the past week, starting about Wednesday of last week and going through Monday of this week.  I even went to the ER Sunday night because I was exhibiting symptoms of appendicitis.  It turns out I didn't have appendicitis (thank goodness!), but that's an indicator of how bad it got at times.  In all of this insanity, I had amazing friends and family who helped get me through it.  My parents were wonderful, as they always are.  We've called, e-mailed, and texted each other frequently, and they've always asked me how I've been doing and always been there for me.  My roommates were incredible!  If I'd had a choice of which people to have near me when I was sick since I couldn't have my parents, I would have picked my roommates.  They've shown their love for me in so many ways, and I'm so grateful to have them in my life.  And I have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love I've received from my other friends over the course of this week.  So many people have expressed concern and love via text, on Facebook, and in person when they've found out what I've been going through.  I know that the Lord put me in this place at this time for a reason, and the biggest reason is because of the people that are here with me.  Now that I'm almost back to normal, I hope that I will be able to return that love and kindness, or at least pass it on to others into whose orbits I've been placed.  I'm so grateful for the people in my life and how they have touched my life for good.

Let's Just Dance!

So today I woke up and knew it was going to be different from yesterday.  I felt SO much better, the weather was beautiful, and life was wonderful!  Thank heaven for being pain free!

I celebrated my recovery in two ways.  First, I video chatted with Allie and Jill for nearly two hours, which was super fun!  I'm still exhausted from having been sick, so I was a little punch drunk and slap happy, which made it all the more interesting.  :)  It was the first time I'd seen Allie's face or heard her voice since she moved, and it was so wonderful!

Then I celebrated in one other way: I played Just Dance 2 for the first time in my life!  I know, most people are probably thinking, "How have you gone this long without playing Just Dance 2?"  My answer for you is I don't know, but I'm glad I have now!  I had an absolute blast!  Even though I'd never played it before, I was actually holding my own pretty well against Jill, and I even beat her on one song!  :)  I can imagine that this is going to be the beginning of a lot of dancing sessions with her.  :)  Yay for roommate bonding time, both with past and current roommates!  I love life!

Pain--The Bringer of Polar Opposites

I had a very interesting deja vu experience this morning.  I had something happen this morning that was almost identical to something that happened last night.  And yet, the two events felt completely different.  Yesterday, it felt like the end of the world; today, I couldn't have cared less.  The change?  Yesterday I was feeling more rotten than I've felt in a really long time.  I've experienced things like this before, but it has always been fascinating to me how much pain and/or illness can make the simplest of irritating events become the worst thing that's ever happened to you.  Here's what happened:

Yesterday evening, I was waiting for the bus to take me home after a long and exhausting day at school.  I was tired and hungry, and I had been in pain for most of the day.  When the bus arrived, I breathed a sigh of relief and opened my purse so I could pull out my bus pass.  But I couldn't find it.  When it wasn't in my wallet, I didn't panic right at first, because often I just stick it in my purse after using it without actually putting it away.  But I searched my entire purse, and it wasn't there.  So I had to watch while the bus left without me.  Then I had to figure out where my bus pass was.  I decided to empty my purse just to make sure; if it wasn't there, I was going to have to start searching campus to find out where I'd left it.  When I set my purse down and completely emptied it, I found my bus pass lying right at the bottom, hiding under my hand mirror.  Really?!  So I had missed my bus for nothing.  And this was later in the evening, when the buses only run every half hour.  So I had to wait another half hour (more like forty minutes, since the next bus was late) to get home.  Had I not been so tired and in pain, I probably would have cried.  As it was, I was too tired to do even that.  So I just sat there numbly, wishing I could be home.

Now, fast forward to this morning.  I was waiting for the bus to take me to school, and when I saw it coming around the corner, I started looking for my bus pass.  And I couldn't find it again!  REALLY?!  This time, I didn't want to wait for the next bus to come, so I just pulled out my wallet and paid the silly fare to just get me to school.  Then it occurred to me that I might have actually left my bus pass in my apartment (since I came home in such a state of disarray last night that I might have just dropped it somewhere when I got home), which would mean I'd have to pay the fare again in the afternoon to get home.  Great.  But before I resigned myself to that fate I decided to search my black hole of a purse to make sure I hadn't pulled the same stunt I'd pulled yesterday.  Sure enough, I found my bus pass, sitting in almost the same spot as before.  Excellent.  It was pretty funny, because I had been sitting with a friend in my ward, and so as I'd been searching for my pass, I'd told her my story from yesterday.  When I found my bus pass, she groaned in sympathy for my having to pay the fare when I hadn't needed to; what was really funny was that the bus driver had overheard me telling my story to my friend, and when she found out my bus pass had been in my purse all along, she felt so bad!  She said she'd have given me a complimentary token if she'd had one.  But my reaction was completely opposite from yesterday.  I just laughed.  What were the odds that I would have the same thing happen to me twice in a row?  Normally I would be really ticked that I'd had to pay $2.25 for no reason, but I'm just happy that I don't have to pay it again to get home this afternoon, and I'm just happy to be feeling better.  It really is amazing how much pain can affect a person's disposition.

So, if you're ever talking to me, and I seem particularly distracted (like more so than usual :)) or I say something grumpy or rude (I really hope it doesn't go that far), I apologize in advance.  More likely than not, it's because I'm in pain and trying not to show it.  I can never guarantee what I will say or do in that state, since apparently pain is the bringer of polar opposites.  You have been warned.  ;)

Oh What a Beautiful Morning!

So when I first got up this morning, the sun hadn't come up yet.  I came out into the living room to work on some various things on my computer, and it was still pretty dark.  I opened the blinds to let in what little light there was outside so I wouldn't have to turn on the lights.  As I was working, the room slowly started to get lighter and lighter.  Then Jill came in and commented on what a beautiful morning it was.  I looked out and saw that the sun was about to come out from behind the mountains that there were sunbeams cascading from between their peaks.  The sight actually took my breath away.  It was beautiful!  Within five minutes, the sun had come up, and now it's shining through my window in all it's dazzling glory.  What an incredibly beautiful morning!  I feel like it's an omen for a good day.  How does that song on Oklahoma! go?  "Oh what a beautiful morning!  Oh what a beautiful day!  I've got a beautiful feeling everything's going my way!"  :)

Reconnecting

I just spent the last two hours on Gmail, in a three-way chat with two of my favorite people in the world!  One was my current roommate, and the other was one of my favorite former roommates.  First was Jill, which was pretty funny since she was sitting about two feet away from me the entire time.  :)  The other was my former roommate of two years, Allie, who's now in law school halfway across the country.  I hadn't talked to her...almost at all since she moved away.  I guess we've both been so busy that it just...didn't happen.  However, three months is much too long to go without any kind of contact beyond occasional comments on Facebook statuses and photos.  I intend to not let that happen again.

Tonight was a good step in that direction.  We had such a wonderful time catching each other up on everything that's been going on.  We talked about everything from boys (naturally :)) to school to work to roommates to Disney movies to typos to emoticons.  :)  When we finally had to say goodbye, Jill and I were both shocked to see how much time had passed.  Time really does fly when you're having fun!  So basically, I love reconnecting with dear friends, whether the time since I last saw them was two minutes (ahem, Jill ;)) or two years.  It's been a good evening.  :)

Confrontations

I just had an interesting experience.  For the first time in my life, I was involved in a pretty in-depth discussion about my religion with someone who isn't a member.  I can't necessarily say it was a good experience.  This person was pretty confrontational about things that I hold dear to my heart, and I was not in a situation where I could really address them satisfactorily.  I would love to have a one-on-one conversation with this person and be able to more thoroughly answer all his questions, though I don't know if the results would be any different.  I felt like my answers were pretty solid, but he didn't seem to even be listening to me.  It was like while I was speaking, he was just formulating another question instead of listening to my answer.  And we were definitely bordering on "Bible bashing," which I know we're not supposed to do.

However, I'm actually glad I had that experience.  It's one thing to tell yourself what you're going to do in that kind of situations, and it's a whole other ballpark to actually be in that situation.  And since I'm thinking about going on a mission, I really need to be prepared for that situation, because I'm sure I'm going to meet as many confrontational people as receptive people.  But let me just say this.  I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I know with all my heart that it is God's true church on this earth.  If you want to know more about it, I would be more than happy to share my beliefs with you and answer any questions you might have.  If I don't know the answer, I will tell you straight out, and if possible I will refer you to someone who can answer your questions.  Just please respect my beliefs, as I will respect yours.

What really bothered me was the discussion we had later.  One of my friends said that she had gone to deliver food to a homeless shelter, and another friend said, "I hope you brought a guy with you!"  At this point, the guy with whom I'd been conversing earlier jumped on that comment and said that it was very disrespectful, stereotypical, and judgmental.  I responded by saying, "We (women in general) are not worried specifically about homeless people; we're worried about being out at night in the evening on our own."  His response was, "Well, I've been out in the middle of the night plenty of times and haven't ever been threatened."  My response: "That's because you're a guy."  His response: "But I'm not all that big.  All the guys here are bigger than me."  My response: "You're still a guy, and believe it or not, that makes a big difference."  He wasn't convinced.

Are any other girls out there fuming right about now?  Because I certainly was.  Guys, in case you didn't know this by now, let me spell it out for you: it is not safe for a woman to be out and about after dark alone.  And I don't care how small or short you are; if you are male, you are much less likely to be attacked if you are out walking alone.  So please respect us women if we get a little paranoid.  I think we have good reason to be.

"Quench Not the Spirit"

Today I've had a lesson in learning to stop fighting the Spirit.  I've been trying to make a decision about something for quite some time now, and up until today it had felt to me that the answer was always eluding me.  I fasted about this decision today, and at the end of the day, I basically had a prompting that felt like the Lord was telling me, "I've given you the answer; you simply need to stop fighting it."   Once I had that prompting, I realized that as I had been weighing the pros and cons of each side of this decision, I really had known the way I should go, but because I'd wanted things to go the other way, I kept fighting it without even really realizing it.

As I was talking to Jill (whom I've talked to about this decision before) about my realization of what I'd been doing, she said that during the time we had talked about it before, she had felt like I was leaning one way when I really knew I should be leaning the other way.  My mom is that way all the time.  She always seems to figure out what I'm going to decide before I decide it.  I guess that's what mothers are for.  But now my roommate's doing it too??  I guess I'm always destined to have someone else figure out what I'm going to decide before I do.  ;)  Fortunately, my mother has always refrained from telling me about her revelations about me until after I figure it out myself so I can have the opportunity to learn and grow (although sometimes I wish she'd tell me so I didn't have to figure it out :)), and Jill did the same thing in this situation.  It's a little embarrassing to have my roommate see through me so easily when I can't even see through myself, but I guess that's a mark of when you know and are close to a person.  Or maybe I'm just ridiculously easy to read.  One of the two.  :)

Anyway, my experience today reminded me of a talk I just listened to the other day.  I've started going back through the Conference talks from past years and listening to at least one a day, and right now I'm listening to talks from the October 2007 General Conference.  I just listened to a talk by Keith K. Hilbig entitled "Quench Not the Spirit Which Quickens the Inner Man."  The entire talk can be found here: http://lds.org/general-conference/2007/10/quench-not-the-spirit-which-quickens-the-inner-man?lang=eng&query=quench+spirit

One line that stood out to me said, "We too must be careful not to hinder, disregard, or quench the Spirit in our lives" (emphasis altered).  When I listened to that talk, I noticed the quote, but I didn't really think about it.  Then it came to my mind tonight, and I'm certain it was because the Spirit brought it to my remembrance.  So I'm going to try to keep that in mind and not quench the Spirit when it tells me what I should do.  I'm grateful for these reminders tonight.

Candy. Glowsticks. Love.

So I pretty much love BYU Divine Comedy!  I have been to several shows throughout my time at BYU, and I’ve loved every single one.  I reconnected with good friends, made new friends, laughed immoderately and didn’t get weird looks for it :), and had an all-around good time.

And I caught a glowstick chain for the first time ever!  I’d been telling my friends that in the past I have always managed to sit in the section that receives the fewest glowsticks during the show.  Not this time!  My grand total was 24 glowsticks!  Woot!

Now I just finished watching the BYU game (go Cougars!) and playing Wii Sports Resort (2092 on 100-pin bowling!) with Jill.  It’s been a good day.  :)

Happy 50th Post!

It's kind of weird to think that I've already posted on my blog fifty times.  I guess that prolific writing that my brother noticed has been put to good use.  :)  I'm going to celebrate by doing something that one of my friends just did on her blog.  Mostly it's an experiment to see if anyone actually takes me up on it.

1. I will make a little something for the first 3 people that comment on this post. It will be a surprise and may arrive at anytime in the next 365 days (yes, a year).

2. To sign up to receive a gift from me, you must play along too. Share the giving love on your blog by promising to send a handmade goodie to the first three people that comment on your blog post.

3.You must have a blog.

4. After commenting on my post, you have to post this (or similar) on your blog to spread the love. Leave me your e-mail address and I will contact you (or I can always contact you via Facebook if you have it).

If nothing else, this might get people to comment on my blogs!  I like getting comments, but rarely do.  ;)  I guess we'll see what happens.  :)

REL = Random

Yesterday I spent an incredible evening doing things that I love with people I love.  On Wednesday, I'd decided to work hard during the day yesterday so that I could be done with my homework by early evening and then be able to play guilt-free.  Of course, the whole flu shot saga kind of made that difficult, since it took four times as long to get the shot as I had planned (but after one more failed attempt beyond the ones I talked about yesterday, I did finally get it!  Hooray!).

But I still managed to get my homework done before too late.  So Jill and I watched the movie Rio.  Neither of us had seen it, but we'd both heard good things about it.  So we watched it together and completely loved it!  It's such an adorable movie!  Both of us were dying of laughter almost the entire time.  :)  And I cried at the end...surprise, surprise.  :)

I also started to play with Jill's hair at the beginning of the movie, and I ended up doing so the whole time!  We have a mutually beneficial relationship: I love to play with people's hair, and Jill loves to have her hair played with.  :)  I think that the fact that I like to play with hair is probably one of the few attributes I have that would label me as "girly."  :)  I'm not exactly a tomboy, but I've never been particularly girly, except when it comes to playing with hair.

After the movie was over, my friend Toni came over, and the three of us had a wonderful visit together.  I love that girl!  And after she left, Jill and I discovered something: CDs make great Frisbees!  :)  I've been burning all my music from my computer onto CDs to replace the CDs that were stolen from my car last week, and one of the CDs didn't burn properly, so I knew I'd have no other use for it.  So instead of throwing it away, I decided to have some fun with it.  :)  So I started playing with it, and then I tossed it to Jill, and we ended up tossing it back and forth for nearly half an hour while we were just chatting and laughing.  Good times.  :)

So it was kind of a random evening, but hey, I thrive on random!  :)

 

 

It's Common Courtesy, People!

So I have for the second time this week attempted to get my flu shot and failed.  Why?  Because the stupid health care people have no regard for my time and money whatsoever.

On the website, it plainly states that a flu shot "clinic" will be available at Wal-Mart from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday of this week.  So you can imagine my irritation when I arrived at 12:30 on Tuesday to find a sign that said they would be gone until 1:15!  Oh, but the sign said "Sorry for any inconvenience," so that makes everything better...  And I'm sure you can imagine my further frustration when I arrived today at 11:20 to find no one there and waited fruitlessly before I finally decided at noon that I couldn't afford to wait any longer (I have places to go, people to see, things to do!) and left.  Now I'm sitting here fuming.  If you're going to announce that something is happening in a certain location at a certain time, it would be really nice if you could actually be there at that time.  And if you're not going to be able to make it, you could have the decency to adjust the announcement accordingly.  Whatever happened to common courtesy?

By Any Means Necessary

This afternoon, after the second session of General Conference, I was able to go watch my sister participate in a marching band competition.  It was pretty cool!  Although it's pretty difficult to pick out the person you're there supporting when she looks exactly like everyone around her.  ;)

After the competition, my sister came home to ask me how the afternoon session of General Conference had been.  She'd had to meet with her band at 2:00, so she'd been unable to watch the afternoon session.  When I briefly recounted which apostles had spoken (she'd been hoping she hadn't missed Elder Holland, though that hope was dashed when we found out that he spoke at the Priesthood session.  Blast!  :)), she said that she'd actually been able to listen to a small portion of the first talk of the afternoon session on the bus.  She (or one of her friends, I can't remember which) had been listening to her iPod radio during the sustaining of the church officers and repeating it out loud to the others in their group so they could all participate in the sustaining of the church officers.  I thought that was really cool!  Here were a bunch of high school kids on their way to a band competition, and they still chose to literally participate in the sustaining of their church leaders, using the means that were available to them.  Way to be!  Hearing that just made my evening.  :)