Okay, Rhonda

Happy Groundhog Day. If I read correctly the groundhog DID see his shadow, and as long as the however many more weeks of winter are like today and yesterday (not too cold, sunny, snow is melted) then I'm down. Otherwise...death.

We had cleaning checks 2 weeks ago or so. My roommate Jade asked me to put any dishes that were in the sink into the dishwasher and start it right before the checker lady came (Jade's job was to clean the kitchen but she was gonna be gone for cleaning checks). Well apparently I don't know how to start a dishwasher or make it run right or something.


It was gushing out. This picture doesn't even do it justice.



Neither does this one.
I swear I've done the dishes at home before. I don't know what the deal was. Anyways, it was hilarious but unfortunately I was the only one home to witness it.

Here's all of the roommates.
Katherine (notice she is not using a giant knife nor a nail file):

Mikelle:

Ashley:

Jade:

And me:

On another note, we have to do oral presentations (dang I had to ask Katherine how to spell that word, all I could think of was "presentaciónes"...oh! Thinking of mixing Spanish and English, yesterday I was talking to my mom on the phone and talking to my friend Tito, who many of you know, on Facebook. I was talking to my mom in English and Tito in Spanish and let me tell you, my brain did not like that. I kept trying to respond to my mom in Spanish and it just came out a garbled mess. Back to the sentence this set of parentheses is interrupting) in my Spanish class. So far I've done it on a singer named Julieta Venegas and a war called La Guerra Sucia. This is my last one for this class, which ends at the end of Feb. And I'm doing it on Lucha Libre!!!! (Mexican wrestling...like Nacho Libre.) While I was looking for Youtube clips I could show my class, I came across this and I fell in love.




His luchador name is El Rey Mysterio (real name: Óscar Gutiérrez) and I love him. Unmasking is really embarrassing/insulting/sad/angry/what have you so that is why he looks so distressed but oh my gosh he makes distressed look irresistable. I am crazy. I've watched this clip like 20 times. Anyways.

Well...as I told you, Rhonda, I would probably update my blog since I have tons to do this week and I often resort to blogging instead of homework. Tomorrow I have my Spanish presentation and a 5-page essay due in another class (I'm only on the third page and out of juice), then I have a finance midterm that is today through Thursday and another midterm for one of my family classes at the end of this week. Funny I don't feel too stressed. Good/bad.

Oh yeah and I got a job. It's at BYU Independent Study, I start next Monday. My cousin Matthew works there so he'll probably get to train me part of the time. 20 hours a week...hope it works out.

I love and miss you all!!!

The End.

A Log.

So I have decided I will start a log (and hopefully update it frequently) and document all the wonderful things my roommates do that are worth remembering.

Here's a summary of my roommates:

Katherine (20, 21 in Feb): Ballerina. Princess. Very gullible and lovable. Quite impressionable. Has her crazy moments and when I say crazy, I mean crazy. Loves to pretend she has a crush on me.

Mikelle (22): Great facial expressions. Hot librarian look. Super down to earth and blunt about everything, in the kindest and most hilarious way possible. Haunted (according to her). Out of control.

Jade (20): Normal. Very smart and responsible. Retires to bed early that she may not be weary. Arises early that her body and her mind may be invigorated. Sweet.

Ashley (18, 19 in 7 days): Gorgeous. Looks like your stereotypical hot babe who can get any guy she wants. Basically true. Fun to chat with. Loves dogs. Super motivated and independent.

Night of Thursday, January 14, approximately 8 pm:

Ashley and I had gone to In-N-Out. We got way too many fries. As a result, we threw a large number of uneaten fries into the bag. Threw the bag into the garbage.

Approximately 9 pm:

I looked up from the couch to see Mikelle hovering by the garbage can, eating fries out of the thrown-away bag. Yes, she was eating out of the garbage can. This gives a new meaning to "poor, starving college student."

Early Morning of Friday, January 15, approximately 1 am:

We have an issue with dishes. I don't know if we eat too much food or if we just don't have enough dishes/utensils, but everything is always dirty so we either have to wash something every single time we eat or we improvise. Katherine improvises.

I walk into the kitchen to find her eating oatmeal out of a teacup with a giant knife. Like the kind you cut a watermelon with.

A few moments later she ganders into the family room eating frozen Yoplait yogurt with a nail file that reads "Sterilized In China."

That is all.

New post below this one as well.

Hello World

It's been a while, friends.

As many of you know, I am in Provo now. I'm still trying to find friends so it's a little boring, but it's been good. My roommate is one of my old roommates from freshman year, Katherine, and we've been having a grand old time. I miss everyone terribly!!!!

Celesta, Jordan, Jorge, and Travis all stopped by to say one last goodbye to me the night before I left for Provo. I cried as Jorge and Travis were leaving haha. And it was funny, neither of them really knew what to do.

And here's the wonderful group of my best friends ever who came over for dinner the Sunday before I left! Many of you are pictured here :]

Here I am saying goodbye to Dwight :[

And the WORST!!! Saying goodybe to SCRUFFY!!! :[ I miss this little doggy so ridiculously much!!! He gets so excited whenever we come home and before we even get in the house we can hear him "singing" (howling) inside because he's so excited. Then when we open the door he just LOVES us. I miss his greetings!! My apartment is lonely without him!

On the way up to Provo, we spent the night in a town just outside of Vegas. Here's my family who I miss sooo dearly!!!

This is at our best friends the Olsen's house. New Year's Eve. I can tell I'm turning into a grown up (ew!!) because I asked for a Costco membership for Christmas and I fell asleep before midnight on New Year's Eve. Hmm...

Here are Lacey, Becca and I before school started. Becca is moving back home and she was up here for a family reunion so it's totally random that we ran into her.

First day of school. Yay.

And here are Katherine and I being ninjas.

And just being weird.

So yeah, I'm doing well. I seriously miss everyone so much though. :[ But I know things will be great once I get more into the swing of things.

Well I promised dearest Katherine that she could use my laptop so I must adjourn! I will post again soon! (If I think of something to blog about...) I love and miss all of you!!!!!!!! Aaaaahhhh

My Heart

doesn't feel very good.

I know going to BYU is the right thing for me to do right now but really why does it have to be so hard?...

How can I stand leaving Travis and Jorge and my family and my dog?

The thing with Travis and Jorge is that in all reality, this will be the last time our friendships will be the way they are. Because while I'm gone, they'll leave on their missions. And of course since I'll be at BYU (haha) it will be a possibility that I'll get married while they're gone. Then we can't be best friends anymore.

I know that when I get married I will be so happy and everything will fall into place. But as I'm not married right now, or I guess since I don't have that "significant other," it seems pointless to lose my friendship with Travis and Jorge. Does that make sense? I mean not that I'm basing my happiness on boys but just the fact that things have to change right now instead of when I actually meet someone. I'm not doing a very good job of writing what I'm feeling. Anyways.

I feel like there is an impending loneliness coming my way. I know I'll get through it and things really will turn out well in the end, that they'll turn out the way Heavenly Father has in mind, but the journey to that point isn't easy. Life isn't easy. It is emotionally draining. Gaaahhh. I love Travis and I love Jorge. I love my mom and my dad and my brother. Things will be okay. They have to change and the process will be hard, I just have to remind myself that it will be worth it in the long run.

I will really miss my brother Travis. We've had such a fun time together these past few months. We've grown a lot closer, we're best friends. It's going to be hard to leave him.

I will miss this period of my life. I move Tuesday.

Really really ridiculously long-looking.

So I have been quite busy since my last post. On Friday, November 20, my mom, grandma, aunt and I flew to Portland, Oregon for my cousin Paul's wedding. It was sooooo pretty there!! Oh my gosh. Here's a picture of me, Uncle Mark, Mom, and Aunt Donna. This was actually when we were all getting ready to fly home after the wedding but it's too hard to arrange picture on this blog.


So I saw New Moon in Portland (and have since seen it two more times). And I fell in love with Taylor Lautner/Jacob Black. I know I'm so lame! Haha! I'm not like a huge Twilight fanatic. I've read the books and like them (but HATE the fourth book) but oh man...I need to find me a man like Jacob!! I've decided when I get to BYU I'm going to see if they have a Native American club....if so, I'm joining! Anyways, it was so sad to leave Oregon because it was all foresty and rainy like Forks (the town in Twilight) and I felt like Jacob was really running around in the forest so when I was going home I was leaving him behind!! Hahahah oh my gosh I'm so......yes.

Anyways here are some of the pretty pretty pictures I took!! There's more on my facebook too.

Here's my mom and I at the temple inside the atrium. (Yeah there was an atrium inside of the temple! It was so cool!! And a nice warm refuge from the freezing cold...I don't know how I'm going to survive in Provo again haha.)

Portland, Oregon temple.

Me and my cousins Erika and Amy at the reception! They are Paul's sisters.

Tah-dah! Paul and Abby Carpenter.

Alright so the night before we flew to Oregon, there was this thing called Third Thursday by the radio station Edge 103.9. Basically not-so-well-known bands play. And Travis found out that the Crash Kings were playing. On their facebook fan page they only have a 1755 fans nationwide. So not many people know of them. Anyways I have fallen in love with them and they are definitely in my top 10, if not top 5 favorite bands. So I was delighted to find out they were going to do a free concert here!! Ahhh they're amazing. Here's Tony!!!! (Kaela this is the guy who looked so much like Derek!)

And here's the full band...Just keyboard, bass, and drums. But do you see that weird bar thing sticking up in front of Tony? It's attached to this keyboard that sounds like a guitar and he plays it and the stick is kind of like a pedal and it waves the sound...it's so cool. The bassist is Tony's brother....so he also looks like Derek. Haha.

I went by myself but met up with Travis and the guys from his band and a few other of his friends. We were in the very front and singing all the words and oohhh my gosh...I can't even describe this but I'm going to attempt it: So Tony plays the keyboard and he sings. And while he was singing he'd look out at us and just start grinning while he was singing, it was so attractive! And the way he would look out at us made me want to just marry him. Haha!! But they took our group backstage after their performance and they were so excited we actually knew who they were and that we had all their songs memorized. During their performance Tony was like, "Where has this crowd been all my career!?!?" Haha it was AMAZING!! So yeah we got to talk to them for like a half hour and we bought shirts and they signed them. This paragraph does not do it justice, I guess you had to be there.

Alright. So December 1st there was a concert down in Tucson I was so excited to go to. Forever The Sickest Kids and The Rocket Summer were playing. The Rocket Summer battles Muse for the spot of my all-time favorite band. So yeah basically I am in love with this band!! And FTSK is also in my top 5. Haha you guys don't care oh well. So like I said, I was so excited for this and had been planning on going for like 3 months. Randy and I were going to go together and Travis was gonna come too. Well lame news, Randy found out he couldn't ask that day off from work. And then Travis found out he had a stupid band concert the same night. So luckily Brianna wanted to go!!!!!

We left at 3:30 and got there around 5:30 or so. The doors opened at 6 and the concert started at 6:30. There were 4 other bands playing: Some sucky band I can't remember the name of, Artist vs Poet, My Favorite Highway, and Sing It Loud. I'd never heard of any of them but all of them were so good!!! This is a picture of Brianna, Nate and I. Nate is in the band Sing It Loud and Brianna LOVES him now, it's hilarious haha!!! She calls him Nate-alicious. And she got him to sign her wallet. Omg. <3>

Here's Forever The Sickest Kids!:

And THE ROCKET SUMMER!!!!!!!:

So for those of you who don't know The Rocket Summer, this is Bryce Avary. He's pretty much a one-man band...like he writes all the songs and records every single part then just puts them together. He is amazing. (Also his wife runs the merchandise table so I got to meet her and she was so cute!) But during performances he's got other guys that come out and play the instruments he's not playing. But he started the performance playing the drums then when he stopped, the drums kept playing through the speakers and while they were going, he'd slowly add each instrument one by one. It was cool.

Here's Bryce when he CAME DOWN AND PLAYED IN THE AUDIENCE!!!!! I touched his shirt when he was crowd-surfing back onto the stage!!! Haha!

So yeah the concert was brilliant. No words for it. It got over at like 11:30. We didn't get home til 1:30 in the morning haha. I definitely ditched my morning classes to sleep.

Lacey and Becca came home for Thanksgiving so last weekend we all hung out with Matt. It was so fun. It made me miss high school. Well not high school...just the always-getting-to-be-together aspect of high school. Here we are being creepers outside of Dunkin Donuts:

And here we are being best friends outside of Dunkin Donuts:

I think we all look alike in this picture haha probably just because our hair and eyes are all the same color. Anyways.

So yeah this is my extremely-boring-to-other-people-but-ridiculously-exciting-to-me post.

Oh but here is some news that those of you who I haven't already told might find exciting:

So he will remain nameless for safety's sake, but there is this guy who I was kind of liking, but he was confusing me and I couldn't tell if he was flirting or being buddy-buddy. And so I just decided nothing was going to happen and made myself stop liking him. Well...I guess I forced my liking him go dormant haha. We were still really good friends of course. I just stopped worrying about what was going on between us.

He and I are so similar it's kind of weird. Like he is basically the male version of me but more outgoing. So it's always really fun hanging out. Well we were texting yesterday and kind of flirting (it was obviously flirting this time so I was glad for that). And then I asked him if we were still on for hanging out Thursday. He was like "Darn I knew I had something going on!! Do you work Friday or Saturday?" I told him it was fine and not to worry, and that I don't work Friday. His reply: "Dang I'm such a jerk sometimes and always forget about plans I make. Can I take you out Friday?! Just you and me?! :]" !?!? So I said yes that would be fun. I was confused and wasn't sure if this was a) a hang out, b) an I'm-sorry-we-haven't-gotten-to-hang-out-lately date, or c) a date date.

We have this running joke about going to Disneyland. Our answer to everything is "Let's go to Disneyland." So like an hour later, he texts me: "Want to go to Disneyland for our date?!" He used the word date. And I have talked to a few experts (namely Mom, Anamin, Brianna, Kaela, and Brad) and they all said it's definitely a date date. Sooo....!?!?!?!? Maybe something will happen after all. But then it's lame too since I'm moving in a month. But at the same time he has two sisters who live in the Provo area....ahh the end.

Okay one more thing. Sorry this post is so long. Yesterday I hung out with Jon Reyes. I went to his apartment and we watched Up. By the way I LOVE that movie!!! So cute. During the movie we somehow ended up closer to each other than we were when the movie started (not my doing) and he kept like making our knees touch and he kept teasing me about stuff and kind of doing that elbow nudge thing to me. And in my head I was thinking, "Oh great. He likes me." After I left I began just hoping he was being silly and that it was nothing more. Because he knows what I want in a guy. And he knows he's not it. And he knows I'm moving in a month. Well, last night he texted me asking me on a date. WHY!?!?!?!?!? Also, why do NO as in ZERO guys ask me on a date for almost an entire year since Stephen and I broke up but then two guys ask me in the same day, right before I move!?!?!?!? Ahh. Whatever.....

The end.

In Between

I thought that the BYU semester started towards the end of January, like it did my freshman year. What a nasty shock it was to learn that it in fact starts January 5th, meaning I have to move almost a month earlier than I planned. Ugh.

Don't get me wrong, I am terribly excited to go to BYU. But at the same time I'm dreading it. Leaving people. Worst. Thing. Ever. Leaving my family....Travis...Jorge...Matt, Randy, Celesta, Brianna S, Brianna B, Anamin, Kaela, Jordan, Frhonda, Linda, Brad, Stephen, Trevor, Clarice...SCRUFFY....everyone. Ugh. How am I going to do this!? I feel sick whenever I think about it. It sort of feels like my body is being torn in half. Or more like my lungs and my heart are being pried out of my chest. Did you know that I hate change? Because I do!! It is so hard for me to accept the fact that this last month is more than likely the last time my friendship will be the same with Travis and Jorge. Because they are both leaving on missions soon. And if I follow the popular Mormon trend, I'll be married by the time they get home. Then we can't be best friends anymore. And that thought breaks my heart. I will miss those boys so much. They have changed my world. I know I'll be so happy with my husband, but the fact that I don't have him now makes "losing" Travis and Jorge seem stupid and pointless and ridiculous. Ughhhh my heart!!!! I sound like an idiot.

Anyways. In between. So I am in between here and Utah it feels like. In a way I'm almost afraid to have fun down here and allow myself to grow closer to my friends during this last month. Because the closer you are to someone, the harder it is to leave them. But there is no way I am going to avoid letting this happen. It's silly to stop a perfectly wonderful friendship from progressing just because I'm afraid of hurting.

Then at the same time I just can't wait to get up to BYU to be with Lacey and my old roommates and my cousin Matthew and make new friends. Get a new start. Be whoever I want.

I just keep on writing and writing because I don't feel like I'm adequately expressing what I'm feeling! Haha. Okay so is this weird? I am paranoid about EVERYTHING. Mainly I am paranoid that someone will die when I'm in Utah. (Don't worry, I literally just knocked on wood.) My worst fear I think is losing someone when I'm away, be it a family member, a friend, or my Scruffy dog. I am so afraid of losing someone. At this point, I'm most afraid of my dog dying (he's 11 I think), or my grandma, or my mom, dad, or brother getting in a car wreck and stuff. I can't even write it!!! I think I am crazy worrying about this stufff. It's so cynical of me!!! That is what I don't like about the distance that this move will put between me and everyone I love down here. I hate it.

Another thing that hurts is this is the last month things will be the same with Travis (my brother) and I. Because he'll turn 19 in April 2011, while I'll probably still be at BYU. I guess I just mean that this is really the last month we have together-together before he leaves on his mission. And that makes me so sad. I wish we were closer. We are very close but I wish it was closer. I want to do more things with him. But it's hard for two reasons. 1: He is always playing computer games and usually doesn't prefer other things over this. Not in a rude way. He just likes playing the computer all the time (which I think is sad). 2: I'm a chicken. I'm afraid to tell him how much he means to me. I know that's lame, huh? I am not criticizing my parents in ANY way, he and I were just never really raised expressing our feelings to each other. I mean feelings as in love for each other. And so I guess you could say it makes it a little awkward. Whatevvv....I should just do it.

So pretty much this post was pretty pointless and probably extremely boring to anyone who read it...I just needed to get this all out. I feel like crying!!! Change is the worst! But at the same time it is so necessary!! Whyyy???? aahhh......

I Hope You Like My Face

Because you will see a lot of it in this post.

Right now I am taking a break from writing an essay that is due tomorrow. Distracting myself with the appropriate things....eating super healthy non-fattening ice cream (yeah right), playing with my webcam, listening to music that I love way too much to listen to while I write an essay because it would completely distract me, writing a post.

I am going to tell you all a story. It is called "The Many Emotions of Lisa When It Comes to Her Sociology Class and All That It Requires."

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Lisa. She was in college. She had a sociology class. The teacher required many essays of the students. Lisa didn't have too much of a problem with this because the essays didn't require much research; much of it was simply opinion. However, one week Lisa had an essay due two consecutive class periods. This is how she felt:


However, Lisa didn't really care. She generally got good scores on her essays, mainly because she was pretty good at reading her teachers and figuring out what would please them in her writing. This resulted in her receiving 50 out of 50 points on the two previous essays. She quickly wrote the first essay that was due on Monday. Then she figured the next essay would be no big deal. Here is her "no big deal" face:

The second essay, which was due Wednesday, was only assigned to a portion of the class. At the beginning of the year, each student signed up to read one of four books. And the essay due on Wednesday was about the book Lisa was supposed to read, so only a small portion of the class had two essays due in a row. The previous week when Lisa went to the library to retrieve the book she was to read and write about, she discovered the book was nearly 400 pages. She also realized she had less than a week to read it and write about it. Here is her disgusted face:

Well, it was Halloween weekend. And Lisa had a cold over the weekend. Needless to say, she didn't work on the book essay. She figured that she would be fine with skimming through a few chapters and reading cliff notes and summaries of the book online, and just using her own knowledge to complete the essay. Monday she began searching for said information online. To her disappointment, she found zero, as in none, nothing, nada, zilch, goose egg, information. This is when she started freaking out because she basically had two days to read 400 pages, write a 5-6 page essay, and do homework for other classes. Here she is freaking out:

Monday afternoon Lisa read a little more than a chapter of the book. Then it was time for work. So she left and went to work, which was acceptable. When she got home, Lisa felt extremely tired due to the minimal sleep she had been allowing herself and the cold she was suffering. The thought of reading more of the book that night made her feel like this:

So Lisa decided it would be best to just go to bed at 11:30 and save all her freaking out for the next day. The eve of when the essay was due.

When Lisa awoke in the morning, she was in a surprisingly good mood. She went to school, carrying with her the essay requirements. During one of her classes she outlined what she could of the essay without having read the book. Not too bad. And then she realized the hilarity of the situation she had placed herself in. Read 350 pages and write a 5-6 page essay in one afternoon? Haha yeah right. But alas will this one essay make that much of a difference in the eternal scheme of things? Absolutely not. So here is Lisa laughing at how much she had been freaking out and at the mere fact that what she had to do was nearly impossible:

When Lisa got home from school Tuesday, instead of rushing right into figuring out her essay, she played the piano. After the piano, she promptly got on Facebook for a few minutes and read people's blogs. After this she started her essay. Just kidding. After Facebooking and Blog Stalking, Lisa read her scriptures. Mosiah 2. Yay. THEN Lisa started in on the essay. She just didn't really care. She no longer felt the need to freak out. She began writing what she could of the essay without having read the book. And to her ferocious happiness, it was not hard at all. She realized she could completely pull stuff out of her head, out of class, and off the internet (the book was about Hurricane Katrina and all of the racism, poverty, and government failure that contributed...and many articles have been written about this same thing) to write the majority of the essay. Then she could flip through the book, praying for luck, and find the additional information she needed. She realized she was not going to die. Here she is being happy:

After a mere 45 minutes or so, Lisa was about halfway done with the essay. Granted, she still had to find her luck and pull information out of the book. But she had allll afternoon and alllll evening. No biggie. No need to freak out. What relief. She had definitely prayed for relief and calmness and she got it. So here is Lisa's "Heavenly Father really has my back even when I make stupid mistakes and create these situations for myself/I really like this great music I am listening to while I'm taking a break/In 24 hours this will all be over/Life is good" face:

And so concludes "The Many Emotions of Lisa When It Comes to Her Sociology Class and All That It Requires." The end.