Monday, May 28, 2012

Happy Long Weekend

Ugh, I forgot I needed to write an entry until now, and now is 11:30 at night, so this might not be too long.

The biggest thing that happened this week was that I started work. 20 hours so far, which means I've already made almost $200, (I love that minimum wage here is so high) but that isn't accounting for everything that gets taken out. Who knows how much for taxes, 10% for tithing, 5% for my savings account and 5% to pay of my student loans, but hey, it's better than nothing right? Work is alright so far. I touch lethargic at times, but nothing to complain about. I did get the makings of a pretty wicked farmer's burn/tan, oh and yesterday some kid did throw up in the pool.

I worked Thursday-Saturday and the rest of the week was pretty relaxed again. On Monday I watched Speed Racer with Grant. That movie is so great! Watching Lost has been making me want to watch it since the actor who plays Jack also plays Racer X. While the whole movie is fantastic my favorite part is Racer X's "you do it because you're driven" speech.

I feel like every time I go to the temple crazy shenanigans ensue. At least the last two times. This Tuesday was one of those times. I went to the church for the missionary meeting unaware that it had been canceled. When I got there though I did find a group of 15 or so people from my ward standing around. I asked them what they were up to and they said "We're going to the temple, want to come?". Well what was I going to say? No? So I jumped into one of the cars, we stopped by my house so I could grab my stuff, and we were off. We didn't get home until around 10:00 but I'm glad I got the chance to go. I remember one of the guys I was able to do work for was named Thomas Thompson. I wonder why you would give someone a name like that.
 
Wednesday we had a crazy rainstorm here. It was some of the hardest downpour I've seen in a long time and it lasted all day. It reminded me of in the summer, we had one crazy rainstorm like it in Provo. As I was walking to campus, it started raining a little. I passed a guy I knew going the other direction who kindly offered me his umbrella, but I turned him down since the rain wasn't too bad. So it figures that right after that it started pouring buckets. Honestly, I felt like someone was standing above me with an endless number of buckets of water and was just pouring them on me. Not only was I soaked, but all of the books in my backpack were too. We had a storm like that Wednesday. Although, it did make for a pretty awesome sunset/ rainbow view on the way home from institute that evening.

Friday Grant had some of his friend over to watch all of the the Back to the Future movies since one of them hadn't seen them. I thought it was the greatest thing since at the end of my Sophomore year, I had a friend who hadn't seen any of the Back to the Future movies so a few friends and I watched all of them back to back to back. So Grant doing in at the end of his Sophomore year was like a Back to the Future repeat of the past, in the future! Or something like that.

Well, I guess that's about it. I hope everyone's had a grand Memorial Day weekend thus far and you all have a wonderful Memorial Day. Until next week, stay 5x5!

Monday, May 21, 2012

Adventure Time

This has been one of those strange weeks where it feels like it went by really quickly, but when I think back to last Monday it feels like it was a long time ago. I suppose the most important thing I did this week was secure myself a job. I went to that interview on Tuesday and got the job, so now I'm officially a pool attendant at a local camping club.I start work this week. Soon it can no longer be said that I've never worked a day in my life. So, if some time in the future I end up a stay at home mom and my husband decides to run for president, I'll be good. At least on that one tiny aspect.

The most interesting thing I did this week was go see my favorite associates up at their university, about a hour away from here. I spent Friday and Saturday there and we did numerous mature, responsible, adult things, such as: watching various cartoons, buying and reading comic books, having pizza, brownies, and juice boxes for dinner, making up a back story for Ken, the boyfriend of Barbie, that involved him having super powers and having some kind of horrid vendetta against sharks, researched the history of Barbie and her various associates, going on a quest to find "the worst book ever" (a book that I had read several years ago but couldn't remember the title of), and staying up to obscene hours of the morning. To our credit though, we did spend time watching the failed NASA launch, walking around the city, going to a brunch in the park thing, going to the store, and discussing politics, religion, abortion and a few other similar subjects. So I feel like the childish activities and the adult like activities about equal each other out, which is really just the way I prefer it. That way you (supposedly) have the wisdom and maturity of adulthood while still keeping the whimsical and fun nature of childhood (no one likes a fuddy duddy).

It was kind of nice when I was up there, there was a constant layer of mist, as opposed to Utah where sometime I feel like there's a thin layer of dust in the air everywhere. The streets however, were terrible. Instead of having regular streets where there are two lanes that go opposite directions, something like every other road is one way. It was annoying and I hope the designers regret their decision every day when they are I assume cursed to navigate around in their labyrinth of lameness.

Aside from those two things this week has been pretty lax. I've mostly just been watching Lost and crocheting. That reminds me, the bag I was trying to make horrendously failed, but I'm trying something similar now that hopefully will turn out well. Oh, I did today though gain a greater respect for bow ties. One of my friends at church today was wearing a real one and it was kind of the greatest thing.  

Something that I've noticed as I've been watching Lost is that the music in it is phenomenal. It really does a lot to contributing to the show. I remember someone telling me once that scary movies really wouldn't be that scary without the music. Sure they have the creepy story factor and no good horror film can survive without that element, but music can make a mediocre scary movie into a good one and a great scary movie into the reason a grown person  finds himself sleeping with the light on, stuffed animal in hand, for a week or more. I think the same thing can really be said about any situation giving the emphasis of proper music. Think about your favorite movie and about what it would be like without the music. Still wonderful I'm sure, but missing something. While movies are the first thing that I think of, like I said, I think the right music can add to almost any situation.

In Provo there were always multiple wards meeting at the same time and the walls in the church building were thin so sometimes we could hear the music from another meeting. Usually it was just random hymns but every once and a while the music went along astoundingly well with what we were discussing. One particular instance that I remember was on a Sunday evening during ward prayer. I don't remember why, but the spiritual though that was being given involved the person telling us in his own words the story of the First Vision. A sentence or two into the story from the room behind us comes the soft and gentle sound of another ward's talent for the evening, someone playing Joseph Smith's First Prayer. The timing of everything couldn't have been more perfect if it had been arranged.

Anyway, back to Lost, the music in it is good, is pretty much what I'm getting. Here's one of my favorite songs from it so far. Don't mind the video, for the most part it's irrelevant. I just like the music.







Sunday, May 13, 2012

Two week triumph

Hello all and happy Mother's Day! I know it's kind of late in the day, but hey, it's still Sunday. Today's been a particularly eventful Sunday at that. Regularly we go to church at 11:00, but since Austin was calling today at 1:00, we went to an earlier 9:00 am ward. Man those early wards are brutal, 11:00 is by far the best time. After  we got home, we had the opportunity to talk to Austin for about an hour. He doesn't have a southern accent yet, but I'm still hoping. He's doing well, but he's in a poor area. Their only real store there he said is a Piggly Wiggly. Historically I thought that was kind of cool, but I guess it's not that exciting when it's the only store you have. This afternoon I was also able to attend my friend Joseph's open house. Wednesday he'll be leaving for the MTC. He'll be serving in Sweden. It's so strange, I know so many people that have recently left or are leaving soon. I remember being a little kid and thinking that missionaries are so old but, they really aren't.

So, that was today. The rest of the week has pretty much been occupied by various job interviews. Every day this week except for Monday I had a scheduled interview, although a few ended up getting rescheduled. It payed off though. Right now I've been extended a job at K-Mart, but I've got one more interview on Tuesday before I decided exactly what I'll be doing. Either way though, it looks like I've got a job for the summer and that's really all the matters. I'll be able to fit the bill for another year of school, yay!

Let's see... this week I also started reading Jurassic Park. I'm about 1/4 of the way through it and so far it's great. Very similar to the movie. It's got the music stuck in my head, but that's alright, I like the music in that movie. I've also started crocheting something awesome. I'm making a bag. I know that doesn't exactly sound awesome, but I'm hoping it will be when I'm done. Ha, my skill level, anything that I crochet successfully is considered awesome. So I guess that I'm making progress on my goals for the summer, which is good. Once I've got this job thing figured out I'll be able to mark one whole item off the list, but hey, it's a start. I ran a little this week as well. Now I'm up to 10.6 miles.

One awesome thing that I was also able to this week was attend the baptism of one of my friends. She's been waiting for about two years to turn 18 so that she could be baptized. I was really glad I was able to be there for it. I think part of my responsibility as a ward missionary will include teaching her, and a few other people lessons. I'm super excited, but also super nervous for that. I've never taught a discussion before! Well, hopefully if I start off with someone I know, she'll forgive my weaknesses while I get the hang of things.

Something strange that I've been thinking about this week is smell, and how eventually certain smells go away forever. Obviously some smells will always be there, like food and flowers and stuff but the scents that I was thinking of were of people. I have a pillow that came from my grandma's house and it smells like it, but I was thinking that eventually, that pillow will stop smelling like my grandma's house and start smelling like mine, because that's where it is now. New people have moved into that house too. So soon the house will smell like them, and without my grandparents around, that unique smell will disappear. Some day, 10 or 15 years from now, when the last thing that belonged to my grandparents eventually acquires the smell of its new location, no one will ever be able to smell that scent again, and no one new will ever know what it smelled like. Similarly, someday, I'm going to die and 10 or 15 years afterwards no one will be able to take something that used to belong to me and say "oh, this smells like April, or like April's house" because that smell will have worn away and will be gone forever. Kind of a silly thought I guess, but also kind of interesting. I wasn't really something I had considered until recently. Every single aspect of a person is so different, so individual, right down to the scent they leave behind.

Well, that's all I've got for this week, so I guess I'll talk to you all later!      

Sunday, May 6, 2012

I... Have... Returned!!

So..... I haven't posted in over two months and I really only made one legit post last semester. Lame, disgraceful, I know, I'll do better, promise. Here's me, committing to it. But look on the bright side guys! My first post on this blog was on April 13th 2011 which means that I've been keeping this for over a year! Yay! One year resolve, write once a week. I'm thinking Sundays, that seems like a good writing day.

Right, well... way too much junk has gone on since I last wrote to recap but I sufficeth me to say (can you tell I've been studying the scriptures this year? Oh, and think about retrospect guys, Mormon condensed 300 years in 4th Nephi into like 4 pages, so I'm not doing too bad) that things got better with my room mates, not perfect, not exactly friendly, but "that 'friend' you've got at school who you talk to because they're the only person you know in the class but you would never actually ask them to hang out with you"..ly. If that makes any sense. I got all A's this semester and as a result I got a scholarship for next year and my GPA is now a solid 3.8 (which is always awesome, but is particularly important since I'm hoping to get into the Advertising program next year).  I found a new apartment for next year where I'll be living with Autumn and 4 other strangers. It's a lot closer to campus than Wyview and you can paint, so here's hoping the people we room with turn out well. I fell in love.... with advertising (admit it, your heart skipped a beat or two there) and I'm crazy excited to work in the Ad lab next year and really really want to get into the program. And now I'm at home, trying to get a job, hanging out with my wacky family, and planning my attack up to Bellingham to see the associates. Right now I'm waiting for phase two to complete.

Next year I'll be taking Social Dance II, Doctrine & Covenants I, The New Testament, Japanese I, Fundamentals of Literary Interpretation and Criticism (oohhh, exciting), and Composing Personal History (although this might change). My schedule's a little wonky but not a lot I can do about that what with classes being when they are. After Fall semester I'll be finished with my generals except for two, and I'll be started with my English minor. If all goes according to plan (because that always happens) I'll be done with school in a little more than 2 years. Hmmm, out of school and knocking socks off at an ad agency by or before I'm 21? Sounds like a good plan. But, who knows, life plans get kinks in them all the time. I guess we'll just see what happens. 

Right now, I'm just going to focus on the summer. I've got a lot of things I want to get done, but we'll see how many of them actually get accomplished. To keep myself a little more accountable, I'll share them with you. 
  • Run/bike/swim/hike/etc. a total of 80 miles, roughly the distance from house to the Canadian border. So far I'm at 6.6 
  • Get a job! (I've been working on it, but I think my parents might exile me if I don't find one soon =P) 
  • Complete the beginner guitar course. There are 99 lessons, I'm currently on lesson 15.  
  • Keep my blog updated 
  • Keep a journal again (I'm so bad at keeping one) 
  • Make that darned Scrapbook 
  • Operation "Secret Cookie Mission 2: WITWIJB" with Hillary and Scott if he wants to come 
  • Crochet something awesome, or knit something if Hillary teaches me how 
  • Bug the heck out of my associates in Bellingham 
  • Go camping at least once 
  • Go hiking at least 3 time 
  • Have at least 1 movie marathon
  • Watch some of the half dozen or so show the associates have been trying to get me to watch (Star Trek, Firefly, Legend of Kora, Sherlock, Merlin... I think that's it) and watch the rest of Lost  
  • Go to the beach at least once 
  • Learn to play at least 1/4 of the hymns, although this might be a problem if we don't have a hymn book, so maybe just practice the piano, I've got a book I can work from.  
  • Finish my mom's super secret awesome birthday present 
  • Create my portfolio and commercial to apply for the ad program and study for the test 
  • Make a dent in my "to read" list (currently consisting of 23 books) 
  • And of course magnify my new calling as Ward Missionary (got to admit, pretty excited about that one) 
I think that's it, but I'm sure other things will be sure to show up as the summer lulls on. Well, I'm off! But  I'll be back next week, if not sooner. Pinky swear!