Finding My Corner of the Sky

5 Lessons Learned from Forget-Me-Nots

2011-09-24T21:40:00.000-07:00

I just got out of Relief Society General Conference. It was an amazing experience. The last talk was given by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He used the metaphor of the Forget-Me-Not to teach five things we sisters should never forget.

The first was to be patient with yourself. The Lord is fully aware that we are not perfect, and doesn't expect us to be right away. We shouldn't compare our weaknesses to others' strengths. It gives us impossible expectations of ourselves. Eventually, the Lord will help us to turn all our weaknesses into strengths. If we stay on the path of discipleship and keep working towards perfection, one day we will reach that point. He told us to stop punishing ourselves. He commended us for being incredibly patient and compassionate towards others, but he reminded us to be patient and compassionate with ourselves. Our progress, no matter how slight, does not go unnoticed by He who created even the smallest flowers.

He reminded us to remember the difference between a foolish and a good sacrifice. He compared the sacrifice of losing sleep to comfort a small child who was wakened by a nightmare to the sacrifice of staying up all night to create intricate little handouts to distribute in Sunday's lesson. He told us to ask ourselves, "Am I committing my time and energy to the things that matter most?" We must keep an eternal perspective, and our priorities will fall into place.

We must not forget to be happy now. Recall the children's story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, when only five candy bars around the world had a golden ticket. People forgot about the simple joy of eating a sweet bar of chocolate and only focused on finding a golden ticket. If a candy bar didn't have one, it was a waste and a disappointment. The problem is when we put happiness on hold while we wait for something that we believe will bring us happiness. When you pin your hopes and happiness on one thing and forget to be grateful for the blessings you have, your unmet desires turn into bitterness and anger. If we spend our days waiting, we could miss the tender wonder of the small things in life. The message is not to abandon hope or worthy goals. But we must not close our eyes to each day's wonderful ordinary moments.

We need to remember the Why of the Gospel. Often we make a long list of tasks and turn gospel oriented activities into obligations. We know the what and how, but we forget the why. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a pathway, a pattern for living. When we embrace the eternal fire and majesty of why we should live a gospel-patterned life, it ceases to become a burden and becomes a joy. The what and how marks the way, but the why sanctifies our actions.

The last thing he reminded us was that the Lord loves each and every one of us. I can't really put into words how powerful and true his testimony of this fact was. He emphasized that You are never forgotten. We may feel small and insignificant, but we are precious daughters of the most powerful being in existence. It was a beautiful, sweet reminder that I desperately needed.

The Trouble With Nice People & One of My Greatest Fears

2011-09-08T23:02:00.000-07:00

The trouble with nice people is they are nice to everyone and you can't really tell when they are being sincere or if you are special to them. I've been on both sides of this. I try to be a nice person, and I try to treat everyone I meet with kindness and respect. Some people, when I am kind to them and listen to them and take the time to get to know them, mistake my friendship and reaching out for flirting. Then they feel hurt when they realize that I was only trying to befriend them and I had no intention of attracting them romantically. On the flip side, I have also been hurt in this way. It hurts to know that the little niceties and affections you receive do not make you special to someone, but are merely a result of the other person's good nature and desire to be liked. I know how good it feels to make someone feel loved and included, but I also know how much it hurts to know that you're nothing special. That is why one of my goals is to be more sincere with others. I still want to reach out to other people, but I want my actions and motives to be clear so I don't hurt anyone.

One of my greatest fears is disappointing people by not meeting their expectations of me. Today I let my ballroom partner down. I honestly thought he said we were practicing at 9, but he actually said that we were practicing at 8 and we could practice at 9 if we needed to. He waited 40 minutes for me to show up, but I was taking a nap and didn't hear him calling until 8:45. I feel awful, especially because we only practiced for half an hour (due to lack of space, sleep, and patience), and we were going to go through all our routines today. To make up for it, I'm going to get there half an hour early, practice spinning, and go over our routines by myself until he arrives. He deserves better. I also talked to another ballroom friend, who did basically the same thing I did. I think it's because we're all trying to adjust to our new schedules, and we're finding we need more sleep than we could get by on a few weeks ago. We're tired, frustrated, and napping through our commitments. Solution: earlier bedtime and making time to practice more and warm up.

My Book List

2011-09-07T23:54:00.001-07:00

For Fun

A River Runs Through It - Norman Maclean
Hunger Games (series) - Suzanne Collins
Fablehaven (series) - Brandon Mull
Wheel of Time (series) - Robert Jordan
Elantris - Brandon Sanderson
Undaunted Courage - Stephen E. Ambrose
Scott Pilgrim - Bryan Lee O’Malley
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis de Bernieres
Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
~~I Am Number Four, The Power of Six) - Pittacus Lore~~The Life of Sir William Ramsay - Morris Travers

Self Help

How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living - Dale Carnegie
~~The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens - Sean Covey~~

Religious

Believing Christ - Stephen E. Robinson
Broken Things to Mend - Jeffrey R. Holland
Miracle of Forgiveness - Spencer W. Kimball
The Infinite Atonement - Tad R. Callister
To the Rescue - Thomas S. Monson

The Power of Six, Jekyll & Hyde

2011-09-07T23:51:00.000-07:00

The long weekend was a nice breather after a hectic week of back-to-school insanity. On Monday night, I got to go to the Payson Community Theater's production of "Jekyll and Hyde: The Musical". It was incredible!! There was so much talent. Jekyll/Hyde was a one-man marvel. His voice was flexible and perfectly controlled, whether in the pure tones of Jekyll or the rough growls of Mr. Hyde. And his ability to warm the heart with the character's courage and virtue in one moment and make you feel sick with horror and fear the next was admirable. I had never even heard of this musical before, and I loved it. Even though it was a smaller community production, the talented cast members made it spectacular. The music was beautiful as well. But what made it most powerful was how it really made you think about human nature and the forces of good and evil. I'd love to read the book sometime.

I just finished The Power of Six, the second book in the Lorien Legacies Series by Pittacus Lore. I read it in two days (about 400 pages, mind you, with classes and hw). The series is about the last surviving individuals of a race of good aliens, whose planet was destroyed by a race of bad aliens. The good aliens are trying to survive until they can defend themselves and Earth and return to their planet Lorien to bring it back to life, but the bad aliens are trying to destroy them and Earth. That's a pretty watered down summary, but you get the picture. I read the first book, I Am Number Four during the roadtrip to and from the California ballroom competition this summer. Just for the record, it's a TON better than the movie. The movie makes it look like the kid had no idea what's going on, and his guardian comes across as a jerk. The book is a lot more comprehensive and dramatic, and there are powers and creatures and situations (that are kindof really important) that you never see in the movie. It's a pretty fun series. It makes it better that Number Seven's name is Marina. :)

Sunday Thoughts

2011-09-05T00:06:00.000-07:00

(private post on my Tumblr)

Squaw, Cougars, and Settlers

2011-09-04T23:40:00.000-07:00

This morning I hiked Squaw with my friends Jace, Rudy and Alex. I knew them all from my Freshman Academy, and they got home a few weeks ago from their missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The last time I hiked Squaw was spring of '09, when there was still 3 feet of snow. I wore my boots, but we had to head back about 5/7ths of the way up to the top, because the boys (in their sneakers) were afraid they were going to get frostbite. So, it was my first time getting to the peak, and what a view! Unfortunately, my camera's display is broken and couldn't tell me that there was no memory card inside. *cries a little* I "took" some pretty sweet shots too...

After a shower and a nice nap, I caught the last 15 mins of the BYU-Ole Miss game. Super intense. 14-13 win against Ole Miss, which means it's our first win on the road as an independent team. Go Cougs!

Then I was invited to a barbecue (chicken cooked by the grille of death and delicious wild rice with butter, chives and golden raisins). We played Settlers of Cataan as teams, and got our butts whooped by the newbies. And the only thing better than fresh squeezed, chilled watermelon juice is sparkling lemonade with watermelon ice cubes. *happy place*

Let the Weekend Begin

2011-09-02T23:21:00.000-07:00

School is still going swimmingly. It's nice to have my schedule set. It feel so good to have a plan for the day and to be able to fit little things in between so cleanly. It makes my life so much less stressful. And when I don't stress and get things done as they need to be, inspiration comes to me quicker than I can write it down.

I love making friends and keeping them. It's a wonderful feeling to be walking between classes and see a friend from two years ago and still be interested in each others' lives. Many of my guy friends got back from their missions a few weeks ago, and it's so wonderful to know that they are the same people I knew, but stronger and wiser. I'm so grateful to have friends that exemplify the values they believe in. It's such an affirmation of my own faith, and it gives me hope that I too can be strong and incredible.

Team is going to be awesome. Betsy, our 2 O'Clock Team coach, is going to be choreographing the new Lindy-Hop for the Homecoming Parade in October. The routine hasn't been changed since 2005, so this will be fun. I'm so flippin excited for this year! And my ballroom partner and I got a new Cha Cha routine from Brent. It's crazy, but fantastic. Like our samba routine.

I finally saw Kung Fu Panda 2 and drooled a little bit at the gorgeousness of it all. The character design...and the colors...and the action sequences...and the animation... *speechless*

Watermelon Juice

2011-09-02T00:06:00.000-07:00

My goodness I love microbiology. We prepared agar plates today - it's like nerdy cooking class, except it's food for bacteria. And I learned that my professor used to live in Zimbabwe. He's white, older, and has that awesome South African accent. He asked me where in Scotland my family is from and I was blown away! No one I've met knows that the spelling of my last name is Scottish. Apparently he had some friends in Zimbabwe that moved there from Scotland who had my same last name. Genealogy time!

Among other awesome things we discussed, he brought up Schrodiger's Riddle: What is Life? and the interesting fact that just as Adam was commanded to name all the creatures he could find, we are still naming living organisms today (just in a highly organized, latin-based way).

Tonight were the ballroom auditions for the BYU Ballroom Dance Company. I went to help out and dance with the guys auditioning. Thankfully, both the guys I danced with got called back, so at least my shaky memory of social dance steps didn't hurt their chances! I'm really excited to see who got put on our team tomorrow :) Several of my friends from Summer Team got on. I think this will be a fantastic year.

I should mention that fresh-squeezed, chilled watermelon juice is an excellent beverage.

Goals

2011-09-01T00:06:00.000-07:00

+ to find a part-time job
+ to attack school with a tenacious fervor
+ to be sincere and reach out to those around me
+ to start a website for my art
+ to create 3 portfolio-quality works of art by the end of this year
+ to write a personal missions statement
+ to keep a journal-blog regularly starting August 29th
+ to learn and memorize names for ballroom steps
+ to no longer be a people-pleaser (be honest, keep promises, be realistic, keep priorities)

Today I had my first car accident. I was on University Parkway on the hill towards I-15, and the girl in front of me slammed on her brakes. It was all I could do to slam on my breaks, but I have an older car and the hill didn't help. She called the police and filed a police report. The only damage was an imprint next to her license plate of a screw from my license plate mount. My Shelly was unscathed (the tremendous dents in the front left are from my dear blind grandmother). I felt incredibly idiotic, fumbling around and apologizing. I just hope her husband doesn't ask $600 for the scratch.

But random visits from people I adore at eleven at night make everything better. :3

Also, Emmy Cicierega answered a question I asked her on Tumblr. My life is complete.

College is Hard

2011-08-31T06:50:00.000-07:00

Another busy "first day" of school. I had another MMBio class this morning. It's an intro to Mircobiology class, but there are mostly seniors in it. I love the teacher so far - he says he's a big softie when it comes to grading, but his main objective is to get us to think and discuss things. I love that. It excites me when teachers want students to really stretch their necks out and go deeper.
But my Chem 107 class, a lab, is terribly disorganized. Two of the TA's don't speak very good English and for the first fifteen minutes, my labmates and I just stared at each other and our tables like "what do we do now?" So frustrating, but I'll do what I can to make it less complicated for myself.

I got into Gold I Standard Ballroom! I'm so excited, I haven't been in a standard class for two years. Since my latin partner has a particular love of standard and smooth, and my team coach does as well, I figured I would return to standard and brush up on the technique. I do love quickstep and tango :D

I also had my first meeting with my new bishop. I'm gonna love this ward! More details next week.

Aaaaand I decided to join a fresh produce food co-op with some people from Blues. I am SO excited, you have no idea. You only have to pay once, and the cost is split between us. Basically, tons of fresh, delicious fruits and veggies and meat every other week for the rest of the season. My mind is swirling with tasty dinner ideas. [nomnom]

Wisdom from Ira Glass

2011-08-30T18:02:00.000-07:00

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

I've been doing research on goal setting and how to maintain the drive to work hard. This was very inspiring to me, both as a hard-working college student and an aspiring artist.

Back into the Fray

2011-08-29T21:56:00.000-07:00

This summer has been a marvelous experience for me. I took Spring and Summer terms at BYU which kept me delightfully busy. I now have a Latin Ballroom competition partner, and we've been having fun practicing, competing, and having various adventures (like breaking down in Vegas). My family got to visit Utah last week, and it was so wonderful to see and be with them! We went to Bear Lake and went tubing and soaked up some sunshine. I also got to go to several fantastic concerts this summer (Owl City, We the Kings, Ludo among others). Lots of my friends from freshman year just got back from their missions. Just so much awesome packed in to four months.

I have made some rather exciting personal discoveries. My mom brought me my copy of 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens from when I was in high school. I love that book. Maybe someday I'll read the grown-up version that Sean Covey's dad wrote. But it has so much good advice and uplifting, motivational stories. The friends that I have surrounded myself with this summer have been amazing; just being with them and watching them live their lives encourages me to be more than I am, that I can be more.I am living for the pure joy of life. It's hard work, but that makes it better. I have more confidence in myself and my ability to accomplish what I set out to do. It is such an empowering feeling.

First day of classes at BYU went well. I'm a Microbiology major for good. I had my first MMBio class today and Pearl of Great Price, as well as plenty of ballroom class auditions. I'll know tomorrow at 4 which ones I got into (crosses fingers). Probably doing Betsy's team again this year. Can't wait for homecoming! The Lindy Hop routine we do around campus is so much fun.

And here's a crazy, beautiful song by Imogen Heap that just makes me want to skip around

Propeller Seeds by imogenheap

Better-Than-Sex Cupcakes

2011-05-02T16:12:00.000-07:00

So my very good friend Mike Dymond who I've known since I started dancing blues gave me a link to the Best Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting Ever. The blog it's from is called Cupcake Project. On perusing the blog, I found this epic recipe for BTS cupcakes. They're very similar to the raspberry chocolate ones I like to make, so I decided to try it.

I adapted the recipe to my own taste and available ingredients. The batter was deadly rich - chocolatey batter with mini semi-sweet chips. I didn't like the recipe provided, so I improvised my own - heavy whipping cream infused with some nutella and cocoa powder, squirted into the center of the cupcake. Then normal dark chocolate ganache and some white chocolate drizzles. They are so adorable, and all three dozen were eaten by the end of the night.

Critique: I don't know how to compensate for the dryness of Utah, so they came out a little dry and crunchy. Best eaten with a sip of milk. But Mike said that it was a nice texture contrast; the inside was moist and fluffy but the outside had a nice crunch. It also probably had to do with the fact that I made mini ones instead of full size ones.

Mile High Blues Extravaganza!

2011-03-28T20:39:00.000-07:00

This weekend was absolutely wonderful! To preface, I have had this planned since the end of January. I am allowed three absences in my classes. I planned on using two for this trip, but since I got the flu, I could only afford one. It was like a fake spring vacation (since we at BYU don't get one, we get out early in April). It was just for fun, but it was also hard work. The workshops were extremely educational, and I learned a lot about lead-follow technique. I've found that since doing blues, I am so much better at following and maintaining my connection in ballroom. About 25 of us from the Salt Lake City and Provo areas of Utah went over. Everything was meticulously organized. We had vans and switched off driving, and no one got lost. It all went perfectly smoothly. We had schedules written up with the car piles, stops, who needed to be where and when.

Thursday, we left around 2. It's an 8 hour drive, and it was me, Laura, Scott and Josh. We were totally prepared with road-trip-worthy snacks, an excellent music selection, and conversations all about dancing. We got to Kat's house around midnight. Kat's parents were amazing, and let us all stay at their gorgeous mansion about an hour from Denver. They are a lovely Mormon family, and had a big old golden retriever. They even made us french toast and eggs for breakfast and sloppy joe's for dinner. Mmmmm :3

So the next day we had some time before registration, so a van of us went adventuring. We saw the sculpture garden, ate at a hippy-organic place called the Rainbow Cafe at CSU (had a dish just like the Big Fresh Special mmmm) and went shopping in downtown Fort Collins. We tried on old fashioned clothes at an antique store, perused the White Balcony, looked around a thrift store, and ran around a puppet-and-games kids store (I bought a mini art kit complete with a mannequin). We finished off by trying on dresses at Cira and getting the boys' opinions. I loved this one flowy black Monroe-style dress, and I would have bought it but it was $100.

Friday night was the first dance - everyone is in casual clothes. It was really fun having a live band, but they tended to do longer, faster songs, which wore me out quick. We all had a marvelous time. The finals for the social dance competition were held. A few of us left around 2 because we were tired.

Saturday - we got up early to go to the workshops. Next year I'm definitely auditioning for the advanced level. We had lessons with Dexter about how to dance with anyone, tips on social conduct etc. Chris and Campbell (so much loooove, saw them when they came to Boston) did a lesson on "Flomentum." They talked about how to match the momentum of your partner and how to control it, and flowing from one figure to another (lots of fun spins and turns, and elastic connections). They are my favorite by far. Another reason why I love Chris and Campbell: Campbell went to Stanford, and Chris studied Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech. Nerdy dancers are the best. Here's a clip of their beautiful dancing.

Then Scott organized a group private with Joe and Nell, and we worked on drag blues. It's a different connection that's more based on copying your partner rather than following, and it looks like you're dragging each other around, resulting in a very grounded effect. I consider Scott an excellent dancer, and I felt really proud that he was complimenting me on my dancing. I used to be really intimidated by him. I haven't danced with him since September. Kat is a gorgeous blues dancer and I love watching and learning from her. Mike, Laura and Josh were also in the group, members of the Provo Blues Ambassadors. Then we ordered lunch from Noodles & Co, rested for a bit, went to dinner, and then got ready for the next dance.

We all gussied up in our very best. It was amazing because we had met so many fabulous dancers earlier at the workshops, and I had fantastic dances, every single one. The two guys that posted on my wall were a couple of my favorite leads at the dance. Erik goes to the Air Force Academy, apparently there's a sweet blues scene there. He was super fun to dance with, we played off the music really well. There were a lot of people from Boston, which made me happy. I miss the Blues Union group from the summer. I didn't get to dance with everyone I wanted to though... I couldn't make it through to the end of the Late Night dance. I left at 3.
And then Sunday we got up, most people went to church, and those who wanted to went to more workshops and dances, but about six of us took a nap and then drove home through the sun and snow.

It was a truly inspiring weekend, and now I'm back in Provo with a body aching to dance.

MirrorMask

2011-02-20T18:59:00.002-08:00

I watched MirrorMask on Valentine's day - rather appropriate considering one of the main characters is named Valentine. :P A beautifully artistic, kindof trippy in an Alice In Wonderland kind of way. It's a collaboration between Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean and Jim Henson. The story is about a girl whose parents run a circus. She hates her life and spends her free time drawing and making up fanciful stories. She gets into a fight with her mom, who then falls ill. After visiting her one night, she falls asleep and seems to be transported to a world where everyone wears masks. The world is a compilation of all the drawings and creations she's ever dreamed up. Throughout her journey, she realizes that a darker, more vicious version of her has stolen her place in the real world. Throughout her adventures, she meets many of her creations, the good and the very very bad. The movie is filled with incredible creatures. My favorites were the creepy, slightly evil sphinxes.

they like to eat books

King's Speech

2011-02-20T18:59:00.001-08:00

Saturday night on February 12th, I saw The King's Speech. It has an amazing cast: Colin Firth as Bertie aka King George VI (Mr. Darcy from the BBC Pride & Prejudice), Helena Bonham Carter as Queen Elizabeth (Bellatrix in Harry Potter and Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd), Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue the speech therapist (Captain Barbossa in Pirates of the Caribbean), Jennifer Ehle as Mrs. Logue (Elizabeth Bennett from the BBC Pride & Prejudice), Michael Gambon as King George V (Dumbledore in Harry Potter), Guy Pearce as King Edward VIII (Count Mondego in The Count of Monte Cristo), and Timothy Spall as Winston Churchill (Wormtail in Harry Potter and countless other roles in my favorite movies). The reason why I listed all those actors is because they're wonderful actors from some of my very favorite movies. And King's Speech was also an amazing film. The first part builds up a lot of pressure and then you're taken completely off-guard by Logue's humor. Helena Bonham Carter is amazing as the queen; she is usually cast as a super crazy lady (ex: Bellatrix, the Red Queen, Mrs. Lovett) so this was a much different role for her.

The film as a whole was very well done - the cinematography and script were presented in such a way that it emphasized the little comedic moments in a time of great stress and seriousness. You could also see very clearly the contrast of English class and how each of them attempts to alleviate the pressures of responsibility and respectability.

It was rated R, not for sexuality or violence, but for language. Which was hilarious. The king stammers, a huge problem when you are an important public figure. In his therapy sessions, he discovers that he doesn't stammer when he is angry and/or swearing, so he goes on a cussing rampage. It's kindof refreshing for him (just going off and not having to be restrained to respectability) and for the viewer (seeing him let go of his tension and gain confidence).

It's also a great glimpse into history. King George V dies, and Bertie's brother is next in line, but he marries a divorced woman and steps down. This leaves Bertie to become the next King - right before World War II. He is thrown into the responsibility of kingship with a serious speech impediment. It's a really inspiring and heartwarming movie. I love the dry British humor and the personal look at history.

Also, I still love Colin Firth.

On Dreams and Sleep Deprivation

2011-02-14T13:29:00.000-08:00

Haven't been sleeping well for the past couple of weeks. Having young, spunky roommates who like to party late, get up early for jobs, and can still get by on a few hours of sleep can do that to ya. But other than being really anxious and fatigued, I've gotten some crazy dreams.

I was in our old house in Plymouth. We were in my parents' bedroom packing everything up to move. I picked up a broken umbrella. i was handing it to my dad when the umbrella got struck by lightning. Apparently this is how zombies are made. So, zombies started crawling all over our house and swarming us. But the zombies were celebrities and characters from movies. Either way, they still wanted our brains. So, my dad was being epic and using an ax to chop down any that came in the room. My mom had a rifle, Sasha had a pistol, and Lise had a mini chainsaw. But I couldn't find a weapon. After I tried in vain to keep the doors and windows closed, I found the broken umbrella again. I picked it up and tried stabbing the closest zombie. Amazingly, all the zombies collapsed and disintegrated. It sounds like a fast and unimpressive dream, but I was terrified for what seemed like hours as we struggled to keep from being brain-burritos.

The second dream was even more terrifying. I was walking around some sort of dance studio with two other girls. At the end of a hallway was this creepy little girl in a blue frilly dress, collapsed on the floor, the dress billowing out around her. We felt funny leaving her all alone in the studio. As we approached, her eyes unfocused, her smile got toothy and lopsided, and she ripped off the dress to reveal a tattered, yellowed dress and two saw-like appendages for arms. She used them like a pair of insect jaws, and the sawblade-like teeth were like shark teeth, jagged and overlapping. So she started running at us and we screamed and ran around the studio. One of my friends got sliced by one of her "arms," and my friend's arm started getting similar spines coming out of her arm. We all ran into a dance classroom and shut the doors. The injured girl started shaking and screaming and transforming. I struggled to hold the door closed, but the creepy jaw-armed girl was so much stronger (even though she didn't have hands...?). As she started chopping at the door, one of my fingers got cut off and my arm burned as it started changing. I struggled to keep her out, but the pain got so overwhelming that I stumbled back. I battled her with my one saw-arm and somehow got her to fall. As she/it hissed and spat, I pinned her down with my foot and tried to chop her head off with my arm. It only left little dents in her scaly skin. I fainted before I saw any other effect. When I came to, my friends and my arm were normal again and the saw-armed creature was grey and dead.

Freaky stuff.

GUSTER

2011-01-16T21:23:00.000-08:00

So Saturday night, I went to see Guster at In the Venue in Salt Lake City with my friend Sam. She had never been to a concert before, so I invited her to this one. I've loved Guster ever since my friend introduced me to their music my freshman year of high school. They're originally from the Boston area; the members met at Tufts. Their latest album came out late last year. I got the CD for Christmas, so I made sure I knew all the lyrics. Here's how the concert went.

Set list:

- Barrel of a Gun

- What You Call Love

- Demons

- Center of Attention (one of my personal favorites)

- Stay With Me Jesus

- Do You Love Me

- Then the audience called for Bury Me, and then Ryan was like "Okay, but Luke has to sing it". Luke is their new addition, and has neither played nor heard the song. so he was just screaming "BURY MEEEEEE"

- Beginning of the End

- I Spy

- Satellite

- Airport Song (disco version) - At the end of this track, the only sound is a ping pong ball bouncing back and forth, so a lot of fans bring ping pong balls and throw them at the band at the end of the song. The fans were prepared.

- Manifest Destiny (another favorite)

- At this point Ryan said that they had just had the best effing tacos in their entire lives just half a mile from the venue. I'm gonna have to go check out them tacos.

- Hang On, combined with Billy Joel's "My Life." and he started crawling onto the audience's shoulders. He came back to the stage and was like, "well. that was weird."

- Backyard

- On the Ocean

- Come Downstairs and Say Hello

- Bad Bad World

- Homecoming King (with Chariots of Fire outro)

- This Could All Be Yours

Encore 1:

- Diane (two cute boys from Ogden we were standing next to asked us to dance ^_^)

- Architects and Engineers

- The Captain

- Happier (another favorite of mine)

Encore 2:

- The band came out again, Brian the drummer was like "I got this" and they started playing "Under the Bridge" by Red Hot Chili Peppers. His voice was totally shot, and hoarse, and cracked several times, much to our amusement.

Encore 3:

- Their final offering to appease the ravenous fans was a lovely acoustic version of Jesus on the Radio, with the audience harmonizing quite well. Then we finally let the band go rest.

Amazing fans, amazing band, amazing atmosphere. One of the best concerts I've ever been to.

So This Is the New Year...

2011-01-04T15:54:00.000-08:00

I actually do have some resolutions. Each New Year's, our family has a tradition where we give each other goals and resolutions. Here are mine:

- study in the library at least 5 times a week, and keep in contact with academic advising (from Mom)

- get more organized (from Gramma)

- call when I need motivation (from Dad)

- go to bed at 11 PM on weekdays, 1 AM on weekends (from Lise)

- turn off the internet when doing homework (from Sasha)

and

- break one boy's heart every week, at least (from Dad of course)

Pretty serious stuff from my family, no fun ones this year. For myself, I aim to blog at least once a week, and eat breakfast every day. The thing about all these resolutions is that they'll undoubtedly make me a happier and healthier person.

Today was the first day of school. I've been running around trying to make my schedule fit, always a stressful process. I can't wait to have it set in stone so I can schedule other things. The break was very much needed, and it was really wonderful. Pictures and stories coming soon.

Awesome Week: Part III

2010-10-15T12:37:00.000-07:00

Friday

My dad recently informed me that my beloved car Shelly is being shipped on Monday! I love my car, and have been wanting her with me in Utah since I started school at BYU. She is a green-blue 1998 Ford Escort. She's pretty old school, with her manual windows and cassette player. She still has a couple of dents from when my dear blind Gramma refused to give her up. But I love her ever so much. She's my freedom. And now with her in Utah, I can visit my Grammie anytime I want, or go get groceries for dinner super quick, or drive up into the mountains with some friends for some peace and quiet. I'm so flippin excited!! :D

My lovely Shelly (taken a few years ago)

In other dance-related news, Sam and I practiced Thriller for two hours today. We have it down solid. It's so fun to learn new choreography and master it. Later in the night, I went on a group date with Justin from my ballroom team and his roommates. We went to the Haunted Forest in American Fork. I'm really not one to like getting scared, but I had a great time! I did discover, however, that I simply cannot handle chainsaws or Freddy Krueger. I think I clawed Justin up a bit...oops. While we were waiting in line to enter the Mansion section of the hauntedness, they played the Thriller music video, so I got to show off some of my skills :) Also, Ghostbusters. 'Nuff said.

The Ghostbusters Mobile. There were three guys fully dressed as Ghostbusters, but I didn't get a chance to take pictures of them :'(

Saturday

After going to bed at 2 AM after a wonderful night of creepiness and hot chocolate, I woke up at 6 AM the next morning to stand (or sleep) in line for BYU's annual Lost and Found Sale. It's pretty amazing how many people are honest enough to turn things into the lost & found here. But it's also amazing some of the stuff people never pick up. So the Lost and Found sale has some awesome stuff for dirt cheap. This year, I got about 14 things for $20. I got some black dance warmup pants, a latin skirt, a shirt that I'll use for a painting smock, two necklaces, a pair of earrings, a bracelet, a pair of Skullcandy earbuds with great bass quality, a headset I'll use for Skype, a pair of fingerless gloves, a hat, a nice black umbrella, and some other fancy cheap stuff. I didn't participate in the auction, but they had iPods, iTouches, a Dell projector, digital cameras and more. And all the money goes back to the students.

Later in the evening, I went to the Haunted Forest again on a different date, this time with a group from the Tour Team. Oh my. Those kids are ca-ray-zee. You'd never tell from how focused and motivated they are in school. It was actually kindof interesting - my date was my silver latin TA last fall, and one of the girls was my teacher for the same class. Seeing them all be ridiculous was quite enlightening and refreshing. By the end of the night when we were at Coldstone, the boys were just slapping each other around and generally being ridiculous. I love dancers. They have the best personalities. :)

Awesome Week: Part II

2010-10-14T17:42:00.000-07:00

Wednesday

Today I tackled on of the things on my BIG To Do List: decide on a major. Well okay, I actually didn't get as far as actually declaring it, but I narrowed it down to three. It's going to be Micro/Molecular Biology, Environmental Science (w/ Micro/Molec emphasis), or Genetics. And the nice thing is they have very similar required Chem and Bio classes, and some even have interships abroad! I can travel for my major! :D We'll see how this plays out. I do know I'm officially a Ballroom Minor, so at least I have that covered.

Work was actually really enjoyable today too! I finished all the data entry, and then did some manual setting changes on a virus-eaten laptop, and then played with a couple of disastrous Macs. And my boss and I decided to take a break and bought the domains for me and each of my sisters. We're kinda weird. To top it off, he gave me an early birthday present: a freakin' Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch graphics tablet. I kinda freaked out a little bit. It's been on my wishlist for six years, and I've been trying to save up money for one. Gleeeee! To my father if he reads this: I promise I won't let it distract me from my studies. It just sits under my desk, pleading for me to finish my homework quickly.

Thursday

One of my friends gave me a pleasant surprise this morning. He whisked me away at 7 am to Kneaders for breakfast. They have THE BEST bread I've ever had. I had a breakfast sammich on a croissant and we shared a humongous cinnamon roll. Pretty much the perfect way to start the day.

Then after working hard and braining good all day, I went to Blue Tango, where we are learning the Thriller dance! We're having an hour rehearsal every Thursday until the week of Halloween, where we will perform it. We're using a really good tutorial on YouTube. I'm also watching the original music video over and over to get down the awesome Michael Jackson-esque styling and moves. It's been one of my life goals to learn the Thriller dance, so it's a dream come true! I'm totally going to be a zombie flapper for our Halloween Blues night.

Spotlight! Mike Tompkins singing Dynamite and Fireflies. He sings all the acapella parts himself, and then fuses them together. Super fine.

Awesome Week: Part I

2010-10-14T16:10:00.000-07:00

Monday

Today, I went serious clothes shopping for the first time in a year. I really don't like shopping. Being stuck in the mall and trying on piles of clothes makes me really anxious and growly. I like to go in knowing what I want, buy it, and leave.

Somewhat reluctantly, I let my roommates steal me after school and take me to the University Mall. I was pleasantly surprised! They are incredibly efficient - they knew what would look good on me and what's in style, and so we went to three different stores and got fancy stuff for me. Two pairs of dark jeans and a black cardigan at Wet Seal. Two dresses, a sweater, a fancy top, black leggings, and fingerless gloves from Forever 21. And some black flats. And they taught me how to curl my hair! I feel so girly. And I think it might be a good thing.

Tuesday

One of my friends from blues invited me to see a movie called Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. He thought that out of his friends, I would appreciate it most. And boy did I ever. It's about a boy who lives in Canada and falls for the American delivery girl. But in order to date her, he must first defeat her seven evil exes. And it's in video game format. I was geeking out, because it pokes fun at practically every video game ever. DDR, Guitar Hero, Rockband, skating games, Mario, Zelda, Portal, you name it. It was so fantastic, and the humor was spot on. And Scott Pilgrim was played by the adorably gawky Michael Cera. ♥

The movie is based on the graphic novel series Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley. I did a little research, and I'm in love with his art style. Guess what I'm doodling in lecture tomorrow...

Blessings

2010-10-14T12:41:00.001-07:00

Church on Sunday was one of those really amazing, uplifting meetings that helps you float through the rest of the week. It was Fast Sunday (since we had General Conference last week) and therefore testimony meeting instead of talks. A lot of people talked about the blessings they have received from keeping commandments. Which makes sense, given the Prophet's talk last week about gratitude. But some of their stories were really amazing. One guy had a very interesting story. Last month, he shared in sacrament that he had been praying for a challenge. About a week later, his knee got completely busted playing basketball - his patella detached from his knee. He has a brace that he has to wear for three months. But he told us that since then, he's noticed nothing but blessings and the kindness people show him. He's noticed people who take the time to stop and talk to him, ask him how he is, help him out. Friends who stop by just because, or strangers who see him and ask if there's anything they can do. He also said something I really liked:

"If we're doing the right thing, the wrong thing never happens; good and bad things might happen, but never the wrong thing."

Personally, I'm trying a few things myself as an experiment on faith, if you will. My Chemistry 106 teacher gave us a challenge to not do homework on Sunday. He said that when he was in college, he took the same challenge and saw many blessings in his life, both spiritual and secular. Sometimes, a homework assignment he didn't have time to do on Saturday would be cancelled or postponed. And he felt his Sundays were more spiritual and he had more time to devote to his church duties. I've been doing this for a few weeks now, and I'm beginning to see the results. Sundays are certainly better. I'm using the time I would have been studying to talk to my family in Boston, talking to friends that had a rough week or were sick, reading scriptures, and reviewing my conference notes. Having such a peaceful Sunday seems to make the rest of my week go so much better.

PS This is a picture of me and Kaylee the night we found her. I miss her dearly, but I was told she was adopted into a wonderful home :3

BYU Homecoming!

2010-10-10T10:24:00.000-07:00

After a couple weeks of exams and pain, we had Homecoming week at BYU.

This is my third year at BYU, and this is the most involved I've been with campus events. Homecoming here always starts with an opening ceremony on Tuesday with tons of presentations and a keynote speaker. Homecoming is always themed after an important person in BYU history, and this year it was Harvey Fletcher, the father of stereophonic sound. So homecoming was very science-themed. Apparently, BYU has one of the biggest Homecoming celebrations in the country. I believe it; there is always something going on homecoming week! Free cookouts during lunchtime at the Student Center, alumni reunions, True Blue Football (everyone gets covered in blue foam), Light the Y (people go up to the big white Y on the mountain and screw in lightbulbs that light up at night), the BYU Spectacular (basically a huge variety show of all the choral, dance, and acting groups), and all sorts of fancy dances.

Practicing our routine before the parade started - Jordan and I are in the middle back

This year, I got to be in the parade on Saturday morning. The BYU Ballroom Dance Company always does a lindy routine down the entire route, and since I got on team this year I got to participate! Our Tour team went to Blackpool, England this year (and won again, of course) so they got to show off and be awesome while we shook our tail feathers. Iting. But we had such a blast. It was a two-minute Lindy Hop routine with charleston, lifts, jumps and dips. The video link is from last year, but we did the same routine. Which we repeated over and over again for three miles. But we were laughing so hard trying to run and catch up with the truck, and high-fiving the little kids on the sidelines. We were so pumped with adrenaline by the end that we were just bouncing off the walls at the social. People were still dancing to the party music and goofing around. I love being on the ballroom team :) I love the people, the energy, the chance to perform and share my love of dance.

((brief side note: after the parade, I ran and beasted by MMBio exam. Booyah))

I then went to my first homecoming dance :3 We went as a double date, and got in free because we helped with the BYU Swing Kids charleston demonstration. So much dancing, my legs were dead the next day. It was super fun though! It was Dancing Through the Ages themed, so it started with 20s music and dance, and then went through every decade until the present with hip hop. People were dressed from all the different decades too. I had an amazing time. It was definitely a good day.

And the football team finally won another game. Thank goodness.

Conference Weekend

2010-10-02T09:45:00.000-07:00

This week has been surprisingly good. Hard work and prioritizing correctly really pays off and makes life a whole lot less stressful. If only I knew and employed that knowledge two years ago... So far, my exams have been going splendidly! I took Calculus II previously and didn't do too well (failed miserably), and my first exam I got a 100% on the multiple choice. I felt pretty good, not gonna lie. :) Still waiting to get the open response grade back. I also took my Old Testament exam this week on all of Genesis. My friend Katherine and I were freaking out about how much material we had to know, the genealogies and the covenants and the locations, but it turned out not to be so bad! I got a 98% on that multiple choice, but as with the calc exam, I'll have to wait and see what my open response grade will be. I have my Chem 106 and MMBio exams next week, so I'll have to study harder to even hope for grades like the ones I got this week.

It's been a week full of little blessings, though. Keeping focused and taking breaks when I need them have given me so many opportunities to learn and help other people. Finding Kaylee was definitely the highlight. By sharing her story, I met a bunch of guys in my apartment complex that are obsessed with the Firefly series, and we've agreed to have Firefly nights! The people in my ward are so amazing. I love walking out at night and joining in singing on the steps, with two guitarists and a uke.

Today was also the Saturday session of General Conference. It's a semiannual conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints where the First Presidency, members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and other authorities give messages of inspiration, and guidance. I woke up at 9:30 to watch the morning session, took a shower, and then watched the afternoon session. I love Conference weekend because it's like going to church in your PJ's! I always take lots of notes because otherwise I don't think I'd be able to stay awake. My favorites today were by Elder D. Todd Christofferson on consecrating our lives to God's purposes, and one by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf' on refocusing on the basics, simplifying our lives so we can make time to nurture our relationships with God, family, fellow men, and ourselves. It was a wonderful day and I'm so excited for tomorrow.

Cat Rescuers!

2010-09-29T23:21:00.001-07:00

It's not every day that you get to save someone's life. Today I rescued an abandoned kitten.

Today was pretty great: went to all my classes, ballroom team is going splendidly, did freakishly well on my calculus II exam the previous night. After work, I hung out with my friend David. We went to the Rock Canyon Park at the foot of Squaw in Provo to run around and dance. While we were talking about being a cat or a dog person, this little cat comes running up to us. We played with her for a little while and then walked on. When we came back, she was still where we left her. On further notice, her pink bedazzled collar was lying in the dirt a few feet away. I guess only a few hours earlier, someone had dumped her off and taken her collar off to face the elements. We were so afraid she would get run over by a car or eaten by a cougar, we took her with us. She was the sweetest little thing! She was perfectly tame, remarkably calm, friendly and sweet. We fed her a few cheesy crackers and some clean water and took her for a ride to the police station to figure out what to do next. Turns out, the nearest animal shelter is in Spanish Fork, and is only open during daylight. So we took her to David's friend's house, where she can be safe until one of us finds a home for her.

We named her Kaylee, after the Firefly character. I wanted to keep her so badly. I miss having a pet.

Back at BYU

2010-09-26T17:32:00.000-07:00

Well, it's only a few weeks into the semester, and a lot has happened, both good and bad. Due to the more recent events, I've been really upset and I realized I'm not nearly as happy as I was at the beginning of last school year. I'm on a mission to get that Me back. It was that Me that attracted friends and made other people happy, and that made me happy. I was funny, silly, always found with a smile and something to talk about. Always ready for some new adventure, whether that was late-night park games or splashing in puddles with equally ridiculous friends. Now I want to find the balance of happy-friendly-fun Me and productive-scholarly Me. I know it's possible. I'm also trying to be better spiritually. I haven't been doing some of the basic things I know I should, like praying and reading my scriptures, not with real intent.

Maybe I'll be blessed with that artistic inspiration I've been missing for so long.

*So as not to seem so bleak, one of the awesome bits of news is that I got onto the 10 o'clock BYU Ballroom Team! It's an entry-level team, so we compete with each other to move up to the higher teams. BYU has five teams within the Ballroom Company, so there is plenty of room for improvement.

"Don't You Know You're Beautiful" by Seabird

Work & Play

2010-07-28T13:41:00.000-07:00

I love finally being able to work! I've been so depressed this summer not being able to get work and make my own money. It's a wonderful feeling to be given a job and be rewarded for what you do. I work for a temp agency in Boston, and I've been assigned to do receptionist work in a couple companies so far. Though lately, since people have been going on vacation, the number of calls has been minimal. Thankfully, they allow me to surf the net and bring stuff to entertain myself. I've crocheted an iPod case, a fluffy pink yarmulke and matching coin purse (don't ask - I really don't know), and I'm in the process of making a blue teddy bear. I have his body and head done so far. He is lovingly referred to as "Frankenbear," but not due to my sloppy work. :I I've also drawn a client's cat as a thank you - I'm also pet-sitting on the side this summer for some extra cash.
I'm also FINALLY catching up on all my friends out on missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. A lot of them are young men who I went to school with freshman year of college. Two of them have their moms post their emails and letters on a specific blog, Elder Rudy Wright's and Elder Jeff Powell's. I love seeing all the pictures and reading about their experiences. It really helped me catch up on their lives, and I'm writing them each a rather substantial letter, since I haven't seen either of them for about a year now. I have many other missionaries to write as well, so this is just the first batch!
Also, on Sunday, I hung out all day with my dad. We went to church in the morning, and I subbed for one of the Sunday School teachers. The kids were really good, probably because I brought four dozen freshly baked peanut butter cookies. Then we went to brunch at Mel's and made silly faces. Then we went home and watched a BBC production called Wives and Daughters and ate ice cream cake. It was glorious. And the BBC movie was incredible! We had fun pointing out all the actors we'd seen from different versions of Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, Pirates of the Caribbean, and others. And the story was so beautiful! I really want to read the book now. I'm also kindof in love with the actor that played the 2005 Mr. Collins and the evil East India Trading Co. dude from Pirates. He had such a sweet, tragic character in the movie, I just can't get over it.

"Go, confront the problem, fight, WIN! And call me when you get back, dahling, I enjoy our visits."
~ Edna Mode from The Incredibles

A Day of More Cooking!

2010-06-15T20:59:00.001-07:00

When will the foodings stop??

I swear I talk about and do other things than cook and bake. But I have more to share.

So, another thing on the Frister List was a summer meal I like to make called the Tomato Steak and Baked Goat Cheese Salad. I was finally able to make it today since everyone was home for once.

The delectable salad. Everyone saves the cheese for last.

Then I did another baking experiment. We already know I love red velvet cupcakes. But we found that Bread and Chocolate had another cupcake recipe video. Theirs had a bit more cocoa, and added cinnamon and balsamic vinegar. It was simply delightful.

I made a dozen of these enormous delights and gave them to friends

Celtics Cupcakes

2010-06-13T23:35:00.000-07:00

I think I'm addicted to making cupcakes. It's so terribly fun! And it's delightful to watch as you make everyone around you happy and fat ^_^

I made these at my friend Zach's house. We knew we wanted to make cupcakes, so we walked into the house and his parents were watching the Celtics game. Then Zach made a suggestion: instead of red velvet cupcakes, how about GREEN velvet cupcakes? And then, in the middle of making them, when the scores were really close, he announced that if they lost, we could not eat the cupcakes and would have to simply stare at them in shame and sorrow. So, we were a little more fervent in our support for the team. Good thing they won, or we wouldn't have been witness to the deliciousness of green velvet.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

2010-06-10T14:27:00.000-07:00

So my sisters had their end-of-year bake sale for Boston Ballet this weekend. I made a few dozen red velvet cupcakes for them to sell, and to give to teachers. They are soooo delicious. I used a recipe courtesy of the blog haute from the oven. They're sweet and moist and bright red. It's my favorite cupcake, I think.

AAAH so much sushi.

2010-05-14T19:42:00.001-07:00

Okay okay. I kinda went crazy.

Here we have four different types of yumminess. The nigiri around the plate are prosciutto, tofu, and sweet potato. In the middle there are sweet potato and tuna sushi. I shared with the family. The tuna was everyone's favorite.

Dad came home last night! It's so nice to have him back ^_^ He's always going to Saudi every few weeks for work. Here's the blog he sometimes updates about his adventures.

Tonight was a standard ballroom group lesson for waltz. It was great! I haven't done any standard ballroom in like, two months. And I got to wear my new fancy standard shoes. Hee.

All considered though, I'm kinda bummed. It's pretty lonely out here. There aren't many people who are interested in dating socially, and most of my friends from high school are still in school, so they can't play. I've been keeping myself busy, of course; ballroom three hours a night, blues on Thursdays, driving my sisters around to ballet, and making sushi. I still haven't found a job, so I feel a little useless. But soon, friends will be done with finals and come back to Suds, and I will find a way to make some money! And being home is pretty wonderful. I missed the trees and greenery, hanging out and rockin to rad car jamz with my sisters, talking to my dad, and having breakfast every morning with my mom.

Determination!

As one of my friends told me, "If you give up, I'll never dance with you again."

Dance-related threats work on me, I guess.

PS. I really want a Toothless figurine. Maybe I'll make one...

More sushiiiii.

2010-05-14T07:21:00.000-07:00

We did another mad-dash sushi dinner today.

tofu nigiri, prosciutto nigiri, sweet potato sticks

I think my favorite was the tofu. But the prosciutto was pretty good too, it didn't need soy sauce at all.

Misomisosambaaa

2010-05-12T11:28:00.000-07:00

I made homemade miso soup today! It was ever so tasty ^_^ This is the recipe I used:

Ingredients:

4 cups water

1/3 cup miso paste

3 green onions, chopped

1 tbsp shredded nori or wakame (seaweed)

1/2 block firm silken tofu, cut into 1 inch cubes

Dash soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

Bring water to a slow simmer and add seaweed. Simmer for 5-6 minutes, or more depending on your preferences. The seaweed will taste less salty/fishy if you simmer it longer. Reduce heat to very low and add the rest of the ingredients. Stir until miso is well dissolved. It is best not to boil the miso, because it will lose some of its nutritional value and the soup will taste different.

It was kinda rainy and cold today, so it was pretty much the perfect thing. Nice and warm and salty asian goodness.

Ballroom tonight was painful but productive. The first hour was a group samba technique class, and we did a full hour of crusado walks. SO much technique in my poor little brain and for my body to pick up. Practice makes near-perfect, I suppose. Then the next latin class was rumba. I had such a hard time with the spin turn to aida(sp?). Good thing I have all summer to practice!

My new favorite quote: "I don't practice until I get it right, I practice until I can't get it wrong!" (stolen from my friend on the BYU ballroom tour team)

Sushi!

2010-05-11T20:33:00.000-07:00

Today was crazzy! It was the day of mad-dash sushi! It's kinda hard to make sushi for three hungry girls in an hour and a half before rushing off to ballet and ballroom. But we did it! We ate it on the drive over.

left to right: sweet potato & avocado cucumber sushi w/ roe (fish eggs),

salmon nigiri, plain sweet potato sticks

It was incredibly tasty, and the nigiri turned out perfect. I got the sushi salmon from Whole Foods, and it was perfect.

The rest of the night I did salsa and worked on cha cha with Ray, my partner for the Am-Am comp at Yankee Classic on January 20th. I forgot how very bad I am ^_^; He gave me CD of some rad swing/blues guitar by Stevie Ray Vaughan. I can see how John Mayer got his inspiration from this guy, his singing style is very similar. I want to see how it works as dance music.

Ginger peanut somen noodles dinner

2010-05-10T17:33:00.000-07:00

clockwise from top: ginger-lime dressing, soba noodles, scallions,

crushed peanuts, and rice noodles for mom. everyone had coconut juice to drink :3

My sisters have what we call The Frister List. It is a list of places to go, things to eat, things to bake and cook, etc. while I'm home for the summer. One of those was to make the ginger-peanut soba noodle dinner they love so much. We had quite the adventure food shopping, and dancing down the grocery aisles. I love cooking with my sisters. It's like I have a small army doing half the work magically.

Now, this little dinner was supposed to be only part of a enormous feast for my mom for a belated mother's day gift. It was going to be appetizers of various seasoned edamame, then miso soup, the ginger-peanut noodles as a side dish with all sorts of sushi as the main feature, with mango sticky rice for dessert. *sigh* I think it's going to end up being spread out over the week. We'll see how it goes!

Mother's Day & Snow White

2010-05-09T21:09:00.000-07:00

Today was Mother's Day! So I'll spotlight me mum's blog. Go say hi! My sisters made her a lovely breakfast-in-bed, complete with fresh fruit and gluten-free pancakes. I love you, Mom!

It was also my sisters' last Snow White performance. The Boston Ballet School in Newton had a showcase of all their classes for three days, coupled with a short ballet. It included dancers from the Boston Ballet Pre-Pro program, as well as from their more intensive division classes. My sisters were tree spirits for one cast, and members of the Evil Queen's court for another. There are some watermarked professional photos of the ballet here, if you feel like taking a look. I was very impressed with the performances of both casts, but my favorite was today's. All the lead dancers were focused and expressed their parts perfectly. The ballet was originally created to be a way to get the younger generations interested in ballet dance performance. I'd say it does its job well, but it's also very well done as a short ballet on its own.

Congrats to Lise & Sasha!

Day Before Mother's Day

2010-05-08T20:33:00.000-07:00

One of my best friends at home is my friend Jeremy. Today we finally got together (family and New York adventures prevented me from seeing him in any of his end-of-semester concerts) and caught up on life stories. We went to Big Fresh (an amazing stir-fry, organic, hippy food kinda place) like we usually do when I'm home. Then we went on an adventure to find the perfect mother's day gifts. I already had mine planned, so I was along for the ride. We forgot that the mall was swarmed, so we got out of there speedy fast. That's one weird thing about me. I really don't like shopping. The shopping part of shopping that is. I love being with people and talking and running around together, but I hate spending money and trying to figure out what fits/what matches/what "just works". Happy ending: we found the perfect gift. Then we went back to my house and made cards out of construction paper, markers, and stickers. It was so fun!

My mom has given me the task of backing up and ultimately clearing the home computer. It might be slow because it's just dang old, but it doesn't hurt to virtually tidy things up. I'll be happily occupied for some time with this. :)

~Me

New York Trip!

2010-05-07T20:51:00.000-07:00

I got to visit Sarah at Bard!! The drive up was so gorgeous, sunny skies with lazy poofy clouds and gorgeous rolling hills for miles around. I really like driving, especially on the highway. I love being able to go fast.

Stopped somewhere nice to eat my sushi

I listened to the "Car Jamz" CD Sasha made for me. Lots of rockin tunes like "Fergalicious" and "Love Drunk" and "Human". The Volvo has a pretty nice sound system, so I took full advantage of it. I also listened to the Owl City Concert mix I made after I saw them in Salt Lake. It was so happy and chill.

I finally got to Bard after three hours and found Sarah. We ate the delicious food from the mess hall and listened to hipsters talk of scary things that happen when kids do drugs. Sarah took me on a mini tour of the campus. We:

played on an art exhibit

ran through the courtyard

and took a trail to the edge of the Hudson River

Then we bought veggiemonster food and candy and watched three episodes of Battlestar Galactica (season finale of season 3!) with Martin & Sarah. I was a huge BSG fan my freshman year. Katherine and I would watch an episode every week. I still haven't watched the very last two, so no spoilers please. Then we listened to Matt play the uke and sing to Beirut until we fell asleep.

The next morning was so sad. I really wanted to stay but I was tight on time. Right when I was almost home, I got hopelessly lost in Framingham for an hour. I was so stressed and upset with myself that I broke down in tears at a nearby bank. I think I need a GPS next time. I was fine going to NY, got there in less than 3 hours with just Mapquest directions. But the lack of roadsigns in Massachusetts does not help at all.

I calmed down though and went to the opening night of the Boston Ballet School's production of Snow White. It was really quite amazing! I took notes on sisters' technique and ideas for myself. And now I REALLY want to complete the Imogen Heap dance I started choreographing months ago. Maybe I can find a few high school girls that would be willing to do some modern-ballet kinda stuff.

We'll see.

You Keep Staring Like You've Never Seen the Stars...

2010-05-04T20:47:00.000-07:00

If you need me to remind you who you are...

Yeah, I'm on a little bit of an Elbow kick right now. They've got such chill, lovely music.

[Station Approach, The Stops, The Bones of You, Mirrorball, Grounds for Divorce, Weather to Fly]

Basically the biggest thing I did all day was eat a slice of pizza at Sweet Tomatoes. I talked to a mom there who has a job in nutrition, so it was a huge treat for her kids to have pizza. :P They were super cute and were telling me all sorts of crazy stories. I also planned my trip to Bard to visit Sarah. Hopefully that will happen Thursday. I need to get cracking on studying calculus, I'm going stir crazy without a job! And I really want to paint something. Inspiration just seems to elude me. Maybe if I find the right song... "The Stops" is really stuck in my head.

...and I'll miss you the way you miss the sea.

~Marina

Summer 2010: Week 1

2010-05-03T08:01:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, April 27th:

Mokay. So this morning, I awoke to my phone buzzing from several txts from my sisters telling me to wake up and get my butt over to the high school, so I went and gave them their presents (Lise got a BYU sweatshirt like mine, Sasha got the first book in the Wheel of Time series called The Eye of the World), talked to my old science and calc teachers (below are the doodles I drew on Dr. Pegram's board), and then drove my sisters home (with much car jamz). Then I took them to dinner at Sweet Tomatoes (DELICIOUS italian thin crust pizza with crazy awesome tomato sauce), then to ballet. While they were at ballet, I went and hung out with my ballroom teachers. Everyone was super excited to see me, and I talked to Ray for a while. He knows some awesome lindy and blues places, so I'll be going this week. ^_^Then drove my sisters home, screaming lyrics all the way, making people look at us weird. Came home. Kinda worried about finding a job. The end of day 1 home.

Wednesday, April 28th:
Today I was going to do a lot of stuff (like laundry, visit more teachers, talk to students about college, etc) but no. I was lazy. SO I ended up visiting my awesome friend Steph after I dropped my dad off at the bus station on his way to Saudi :'( . We made tortilla soup. It turned out SO GOOD. I don't even know how, we didn't follow the recipe. We just threw stuff in we thought would taste good, like black beans and corn and peppers and chicken. It was so so fun. After that, I drove over to my sisters' ballet studio in Newton. My old ballet teacher was there and she was so excited to see me! Ms. Busch was so nice, and she let me come in and watch the class. My sisters have gotten so incredibly good. I'm really amazed. I do miss ballet a lot, but not quite enough to go through the pain again ;) Turf Toe once is good enough for me. So then I went to dinner at Lam's with my mom (really good Vietnamese food). I got tofu vegetable red curry with summer rolls and coconut juice. It was so amazing. The guy next to us had a ridiculous accent and was really loud about how awesome he was. He and his date(?) even started singing some hokey song at one point. It was all we could do not to laugh out loud. I could barely contain myself. After our lovely dinner (and me being interrogated on various points of my life), I drove off to ballroom for the group lessons. Everyone was so happy to see me, but I can't believe how out of shape I've gotten after only a few weeks! I'm going to be there so much this summer. It's gonna rock. BYU ballroom team, here I come.

Thursday, April 29th
Today was pretty dang sweet. I took apart my mom's MacBook (because the hard drive died) and went Blues dancing. It was pretty cool because there's basically a clone of every blues dancer I know in Provo. But now my toe is acting up again. Joy.

Friday April 30th:
Ordered the harddrive for the Macbook. I plan on taking apart our other two MUCH older computers for kicks. I went to ballet (took the Tahoe, man that thing is a monster) with my mom and sisters. I helped weed and water the ballet garden, which was quite nice given the uncharacteristic warm sunny weather. Then when my sisters got out of ballet, we went to dinner at a Middle Eastern restaurant called Karoun with my relatives from Alaska. I also discovered, while I was chatting with some of the ballet people, that Mr. Anderson has a huge thing for ravens! I think I might make something raveny for him, like a tribal raven painting or something.

Saturday, May 1:
LOBSTER DINNERRRR that I have been dying to have for YEARS. We had lobster and mussels and clams and oysters on the half shell. I've never had them on the half shell, so it was a pretty fun experience. And I've heard that they are an aphrodisiac? I'll have to test that out one day in the distant future :P Must be the zinc.

Lobsterrrrr. He's looking at you.

Lise...you're doing it wrong.

Sunday, May 2nd:
Drove my sisters to Snow White rehearsal. Then Mom, Lise, Sasha, and the Alaskans went to theCoach Grill for dinner. Whoa-expensive, but really tasty.

Left to right: Granny, Grumps, Lise, Me, Sasha, Mom, Roz

in front of the picture we were talking about all night

Monday, May 3rd:

Basically lazed around the house all day. Cleaned up a bit, did laundry. Alaska people left on a plane today.

The hdd I ordered Friday for my mom's broken MacBook came around 4 pm. I didn't have the proper screwdriver for extracting the old hard drive from its protective little metal home. So my friend David ran over with a Torx driver. Installed it beautifully. Then we went on a Best Buy adventure to find the Mac OS X Snow Leopard. The hunt for the snow leopard was a success. After a bit of confusion formatting the new hdd, it's now installing smoothly and happily. I'm actually really glad about this because now I can just put all my music on the mac for my sisters to use! The hdd I bought off NewEgg is 320 Gb, so it has more than enough room for what my mom/sisters need it for. Happiness!!

Until next week ~ Me.

A Return to the Y

2009-09-18T10:23:00.001-07:00

It's soo good to be back at BYU. Utah is a very special place to me. However, I miss my family immensely. So my sister Lise and I have decided to create a DropBox. This is a two-person filesharing system. It started because I took all my music with me when I went off to college, and she and her sister Sasha just got mp3 players, and had no music. Lise is basically addicted to my musical taste, so I drop some of my music into our dropbox and she downloads it. We also have a Word document going that is something like a penpal/letter/email/blog between us. It's really quite fun! Every time we add something to dropbox or add to the Sisterlog, we change the title of the document to something ridiculous and usually having to do with an inside joke. For example, the first time I sent it, it was entitled BACON!!, as a nod to one of our favorite standups, Jim Gaffigan. We talk about what's been going on in our lives, what music we want from each other, and really silly and stupid stuff we think will make the other laugh.

So the spotlight from our very first correspondence was Imogen Heap's new album Ellipse, Mika's new album The Boy Who Knew Too Much, and Regina Spektor's new album Far. So far, I only have Imogen Heap's album, but what I've heard of all them is AMAZING.

Eheh...er, hi there.

2009-07-23T21:37:00.000-07:00

Heh, um hey guys. It's uh, been a long time, yeah? Well, I won't even try to catch up now... I'll just do it in small increments. But not right now.

I've been slightly to really obsessed with bento and onigiri and sushi lately. It's so delicious and healthy and cute and artistic, I can't help myself! So here I give you my favorite Bento sites. Plus some. Will post pictures of my own little things later.

AnnaTheRed’s Bento Factory is the blog of a Japanese-American woman who loves to make bento, plushies, and go to random anime conventions. She makes bento for herself and her boyfriend, and they are incredibly detailed and colorful. Lots of well-known Japanese characters from anime and movies, like Spirited Away, Totoro, and Pokemon. Some of the instructions are very detailed, sometimes bogglingly so. Her index contains all the bentos and the how-tos. Go to her flickr account for a complete gallery.

Cooking Cute is another bento site by a Vietnamese woman who makes bento for herself, her husband and new son. Being a mom, she knows all the easier tricks to making bento. Her recipes and instructions are very easy to understand. Her bento is mostly normal, colorful, tasty creations, but she does have quite a few remarkable character bentos in her gallery. The recipes section is very detailed, and even has sections for vegetarian, gluten-free, etc.

Just Bento is an online Bento community. They share pictures of their creations, stories, recipes, cultural knowledge, and dietary specifics. The section entitled “Bentos” Has pictures and detailed descriptions of each, including time needed, calories, culture, and diet type.

Just Hungry is Just Bento’s sister site. A blog created by a Japanese woman in 2003, her site focuses on Japanese cuisine and home cooking. She also comments on food wherever she travels, and discusses “healthy and casually ethical eating and cooking.” It looks nummy :3

Lunch In A Box is a blog by a mom in San Fran who started making bento because they found out her husband had celiac disease. She is fluent in Japanese, and loves making bento for her family. She makes bento from all sorts of cuisines.

I used the search engine on Lunch In A Box to find a bento store closeby to Boston, and the nearest is in Quincy, called Kam Man Market. I’d like to go there sometime, because commenters have said it has a dollar store for bento boxes, accessories, and tools for bento, as well as a big asian grocery and POCKY.

I’m really excited about this new edible hobby. It will be a great skill for me in college and in the future when I’m a mom, because it’s perfectly portioned, very healthy food, and cute to boot!

*noms leftover onigiri* Buh-bye!

In Which Marina Exemplifies ADD

2008-10-28T11:15:00.000-07:00

Another week of stress-induced mayhem!

I took the physics test last week, and miraculously got a 78% overall! Huzzah! Since the class as a whole didn't do very well, he's offering a makeup test to get half our points back, and I'm definitely taking advantage of that opportunity. Today I took a Book of Mormon exam, and tomorrow I have a calculus exam and a quiz.

Last night was really wonderful! I went to Dance Lab, which was basically a huge dance in the ballroom specifically for Social Dance students. It was amazing! I've learned Foxtrot and Cha-Cha, and a little bit of swing and waltz in my class so far. My favorite by far is Cha-Cha. The whole attitude and social interaction (aka flirting) of the dance is so exciting.

Halloween is tomorrow! I'm wearing my costume from two years ago, Jemima from the musical CATS. I'm going to wear it aaaall day. I'm really excited! I'll definitely post pictures.

And as of now, I have three days left of my childhood before I officially become an adult. Aaah! It's a weird thought...

Randomness time!

First spotlight: Last.fm

This is an amazing site where you can make an account, and then favorite lots of artists, composers, groups, and songs you like. You can listen to full tracks up to three times. Your library of favorites becomes your own "radio station" and you can listen to all of your favorites on random as much as you want! I absolutely love it. I like to leave it on when I'm doing homework, and I've found a few new groups that I really like. For example:

Your Vegas. This group, to me, sounds like the grandchild of Coldplay, and the child of Keane. The smooth height of the singer's voice reminds me a lot of Keane, and the calm, catchy beats in their songs are similar to Coldplay. A few of my favorite songs are "In My Head", "Up Until the Lights Go Out", and "Troubled Times".

Another group I've discovered is Phantom Planet. I just like 'em. :3

While we're on the same note (haw haw), if you haven't seen Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, you should do so right away. Click the the link that says "watch it right now". Give yourself about 45 minutes to watch it. It's an amazing little comedic-tragedy musical that was written during the writers' strike. They wanted to make something professionally made, while still being very low budget. The songs are very catchy and funny! *sings* "With my freeze ray I will stop! the world..."

In the world of literature:

John Green, a young adult writer, is still on his tour for his most recent novel Paper Towns. I read his other two books, An Abundance of Katherines and Looking for Alaska. I absolutely love his writing style. He expects a lot from his readers (who are generally Nerdfighters), in that he expects them to think critically and analytically about the symbolism and messages he is trying to convey. Basically, he likes his audience to be active readers. Paper Towns was #5 in the New York Times Bestselling list, and is #6 this week, in a large part due to the huge population of Nerdfighters who watch him and his brother, Hank, on their YouTube vlog Brotherhood 2.0. I'm looking forward to when I can escape campus to Borders and buy a copy! (I think I'll get one with happy Margo on it...)

DeviantArt spot!

Visit the amazing art gallery of Leonidafremov! His stunningly gorgeous work is done in oil paint in a style that he has created and practically perfected. He uses strong, bright colors in scenes that dazzle the eye and warm the heart.

And that concludes my spazzy ramble!

Best wishes!

M Scribble

Randomosity!

2008-10-24T11:14:00.000-07:00

I'm in the library, er, studying for physics with Rudy and Katherine in the No Shhh! Zone. I feel like I understand most of it conceptually, but writing equations for systems confuse me a bit. We've been doing conceptual and calculation practice problems like crazy.

Thanks to Jeff, I recently discovered the genious of an LDS composer/musician named Jon Schmidt! His work is so passionate and exhilarating! Go listen to his music right now! My favorites are "All of Me," "Waterfall," "Game Day," and "Pachelbel/U2".

College is very difficult but an absolutely wonderful experience. I have so many stories to tell from within the past two months, I'll just blog them whenever I suddenly remember one! For example:

A couple of weeks ago, a bunch of us went to the projector room in the LRC to watch Jurassic Park. I'd never seen it, so it was really exciting for me! We brought blankets and pillows, and the girls crowded together on the floor and most of the guys sat in the student chairs. Everyone got really excited when the granddaughter came on, because apparently I look a lot like her. I absolutely love the soundtrack/theme of the movie, of course. Who doesn't love John Williams? I remember playing the theme in middle school and loving it. As we were watching the rest of the movie, when the raptor burst out in the basement, I screamed so loud! Everyone laughed, since they knew it was coming.

Another movie story! At about midnight, we all decided to sneak onto the track near Helaman Halls and watch "Stranger than Fiction". Everything worked perfectly. I got my speakers, we all snuggled up together in blankets and pillows, some sat on a covered bench, and the laptop was propped on the ___. We watched until 3 AM or so, and the laptop still had 12 minutes of battery power left. We packed up, left no trace of our having been there. Just as we were walking out, we saw a little golf cart pull up. Some of us started running away (stupid!), but we were pretty much caught. They shone the light in our eyes, and Katherine spoke up:

Campus Police: Why do you think you guys can be in here?

Katherine: Well, the other day a janitor told me that if you lived in Helaman Halls, you could use the track any time you wanted.

(all of us thought she was BSing, but she was telling the truth! a janitor really did tell her that. probably to see if she'd get in trouble...)

CP: How did you guys get in here?

K: Um, we crawled under the fence...

CP: And is that a good indication that you're welcome in here this late at night?

All of us: Nooo....

The funny thing is, they let us off without a hitch! It felt strangely good to get away with it. See what Mormons do for thrill-seeking??

Until next time, DFTBA!