65

My dad's Birthday was on Saturday. And I got a new camera. Here are the results. Enjoy!

It's a Nikon. I think this is the beginning of a very happy relationship! Sorry, Kodak but I will not miss you.

Now it's back to school. 3 weeks and I will be officially done with my undergraduate. YES!

Deuces Deuces

Deuces Deuces Double Magooses!

That pretty much sums up Posh Elite Thanksgiving #5. Does it make any sense? Of course not! Therefore things are as they should be!

After some trouble with the Blaze (Michael's way overdue to be replaced car), I finally made it to a 12:50 showing of New Moon with Michael, Jessica, Wewe, Elizabeth and Tiny. Though not quite as hilarious as Twilight, it was as entertaining. Definitely a much better quality movie than the last. Then we had burgers from Red Robin....YUM!

After that the group dispersed for work and whatnot, the larger portion of the day was spent driving around Knoxville with Jessica and Michael...just the usual shenanigans. Darn my full memory card because I am unable to share the chicken dance (not like in Arrested Development), our gigantic cupcakes, and other nonsense. Then we watched STAR TREK! I love love love this movie. Go watch it, if you haven't seen it! You won't be disappointed!

Then we took some more pictures after the movie:

The one of Michael is my personal favorite! I'll add more later when Jessica uploads her pictures to facebook.

(hint hint Jessica!)

A Classy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was WONDERFUL! I love my family and my friends, and it was altogether a good time. I was very happy that my sister got of work and came to the cabin. I was worried I wouldn't get to see her.

Gage got sooo big. I picked him up when I saw him, and he is so much heavier now than he was in August. He is hilarious too!

At our Thanksgiving dinner, Travis, Stephen and Phillip realized that Gage would do pretty much anything you asked him if you would laugh after. This led to him prancing around the kitchen singing about how people are crazy. He also downed an entire packet of spicy brown mustard. I love him!

And speaking of huge, take a look at my 16 year old cousin David:

He's got another 5ish years to grow and the kid is already 6'2''. WOW!

Rebecca cut my hair too! She is quite the hair stylist and I enthusiastically recommend going to visit her after she graduates in just a few weeks! (Give her your money please! You won't be disappointed!)

Don't worry, the look of terror on my face in this picture is purely a joke!

And of course:

LOTS OF FOOD!

I enjoyed just sitting around talking with my cousins I don't get to see very often. I find them all very entertaining. We discussed Turk Bass, Jamestown staple celebrity, and how he once did a live report on the radio about a fictitious tornado. It went a little something like this:

"I can see the funnel cloud. It's touching down. God help us all!"

And speaking of Jamestown, here is there local news from the Wednesday the day before Thanksgiving.

• There was a car wreck last week. One driver received minor injuries and the car was moderately damaged.
• They announced the entire flag football league schedule, including the names of every single one of the teams. (My favorite name was the long shots.)
• Tickets to ride the coach bus to the state semi-finals for YAI (the local high school) are $40.
• The end.

Jamestown is a happening place. Obviously!

The discussion then turned to a bar fight Stephen and Travis got into the other night. Stephen (drunk I presume) started a fight with some other drunk guy in a bar and Travis stepped in to break it up. He got punched in the forehead (who punches someone in the forehead?), and the marks were still there. Then we talked about Travis' tattoos and recent ear piercings. He told us he had decided on the specific size of gage's he had because it was the most classy.

"Yeah, if our family is anything it's classy," I said.

to which Travis replied, "Shut the hell up!"

Altogether another awesome Patton family Thanksgiving!

I've already posted today BUT

What I'm Really Doing When I Should be Doing Homework

Silly String fight during break:

And what my kids did last week in school:

I also got bored and baked a turkey pot pie which is currently in my freezer and an oreo pie is sitting in my fridge right now. Going home tomorrow!!!! SOMEBODY SCREAM!

Culinary Arts

I cooked dinner tonight for some friends: chicken and dumplings, asparagus, carrots, biscuits, and cherry pie. Might I just say I love to cook. For some reason, I find joy in making food for other people (particularly food they like). I get the "I feel bad" line a lot from people, but I'm here to say stop it! If I didn't want to give you my food I wouldn't. I honestly enjoy cooking and how will I ever know if I'm any good if other people don't eat it!

Experimenting with new recipes, wearing an apron, standing over a hot stove, using a rolling pin--I love it! Cooking is always a fun time for me. I feel like it's about as close as I'll ever get to an artist. Running around the kitchen while cutting, stirring, chopping, steaming, baking, etc. multiple dishes at the same time while managing not to burn anything AND on top of that to make it still taste good qualifies as art to me.

I decorate cakes/cupcakes too, don't ya know!

Yes, those are squirrels and acorns for our favorite little actor Tiny Elizabeth Walker! And thanks to Jessica and Wewe for lending a big hand in the creation of these particular cupcakes.

So yeah, I've spent the past four and a half years studying to start a career as a public relations professional. I am fixing to move to Los Angeles to spend another four months interning for a PR firm, and then I plan on attending graduate school here at BYU in the fall to receive my MPA with most likely a human resources emphasis.

However, I would absolutely love to go to culinary school some day. Yeah!?

Why not make the world a happier place by baking cookies like Maggie Gyllenhaal in Stranger Than Fiction? I think that is a job I could be proud of.

To Tennesse: Tuesday

Thanksgiving with the family in Jamestown: Thursday

New Moon/Posh Thanksgiving ft. Star Trek: Friday

Dad's Birthday Party: Saturday

This week is looking wonderful!

Song O'the Day:

Graduate School Here I Come

My friend introduced me to this site. Some of it is stupid, but for the most part I find it completely hilarious. Go check out My Life is Average. It rivals fail blog in my humble opinion. Here is my favorite I read today:

Today I was sitting in my math and my very pregnant math teacher made a joke earlier about if her water broke at school. While she was up at the board, she turned around slowly, grabbed her stomach, and screamed. Everyone was scared because we thought she was really having the baby and then she runs to her computer and yells, "I forgot about my strawberries on Farmville!" New favorite teacher? Indeed.

and this one too:

Today I discovered that if you type in googlegooglegooglegoogle.com, you get one page with four different Google browsers, and they all run independently. I have no idea how this is useful in any way but that's not going to stop me from doing it.

Oh and who has two thumbs and scored a 1240 on her GRE today:

THIS GIRL!

It's lucky I scored that well too. I had a rather dramatic and disappointing experience with a breakfast burrito covered in extremely spicy salsa just before the test (or at least extremely spicy for 8:15 in the morning). That will teach me to go to McDonald's again. What happened to the classic bland breakfast burritos. Egg and cheese rolled in a tortilla--that's all I wanted! :(

This score qualifies me for all the graduate schools I am currently looking into. How awesome is that? It makes me very happy to know I will never have to sit through that test again. I mean, my experimental section was a writing one. I didn't even know that was an option.

Also, I am quite excited to go home on Tuesday. Have I mentioned that recently?!

In honor of the South and my love for country/folk/bluegrass music here is a video from my favorite female artist who I also coincidentally grew up listening to:

How amazing must it be to be able to sing that beautifully live? It is only one of

my greatest desires. We were playing a question game the other day, and were asked

what our dream job was. I immediately answered Hayley Williams from Paramore.

However, I would be perfectly happy with Alison Krauss, too.

And a big thanks to my friend who procured me a ticket to the BYU football game

tomorrow. I am rather looking forward to it!

Freeeeeeezing

It got cold real fast today as soon as the sun went down. I hate being cold. When the weather gets like this all I want to do is put on a lot of clothes, wrap up in a blanket (preferably a fuzzy one), and drink copious amounts of hot beverages (preferably of the chocolate variety). Being cold just brings out the miserable side of me. But doesn't it to most people? I become much more likely to complain, and let's be honest--it's hard not to want to complain when you are covered in chill bumps, your teeth are chattering, your body is convulsing and your fingers are going numb. $5 cheeseburgers from Red Robin made me feel marginally better though...but only marginally!!!

But back to why I don't really like the winter. My lips are so chapped these days. Despite inordinate amounts of chap stick and vaseline, my lips are still painfully dry, peeling, and pretty much gross. (sorry if that was a TMI) I honestly think the last time my lips were this chapped was the time I spent several weeks unconscious/insensible in the hospital with a tube down my throat. And no, I am not exaggerating here. It's the only comparison I can draw.

I spent three hours in the sewing lab today. I felt very good about what I did until I tried my shirt on. I knew something was wrong the second I started trying to button it. Something just didn't feel right. After checking, double checking, AND triple checking with people about which side the buttons go on, I still ended up sewing the darn things on the wrong sides. Really? Come on, Rachel!

Despite the fact I will most likely receive compliments on this shirt (I already have as a matter of fact), the truth remains that I will not get a good grade on it. There are waaaaaay too many technical problems (refer to the previous paragraph).

I take the GRE in the morning. I feel just a bit nervous. But it will start off what promises to be a pretty darn good weekend including Dr. Seuss themed parties, movies, games and chicken and dumplings (and maybe even some pie). If only the weather would would get a little warmer!

I can look forward to warm weather soon enough though:

Oh, California in the Summer
Ah, and my hair is growing long

I'll look for work today
I'm spilling out the door
Put my glasses on
So no one sees me
I never thought that
I'd be living on your floor
But the rents are high
And LA's easy

Oh, it's a picture of perfection
Ah, and the postcards gonna read
We can live like this

My Little Car

I realized something important today. I mean I already knew it was true, but I saw it in action today.

My car horn is completely useless.

The pathetic little thing has never done much good, try as it might. For example, Wewe was meeting me in the parking lot of Food Lion once, and I blew my horn over and over and over. Alas, she heard nary a thing. Of course, a short phone call solved this problem.

Note: This isn't actually my car, but it's the same model so it'll do.

Today, however, I almost got hit not once but twice, and my poor little horn failed me yet again! When somebody started t0 pull out in front of me, I blew my horn and they didn't even slow down. Then tonight in the parking lot at Smith's when an SUV started backing out straight towards my car when I was half-way through backing out, I laid on the horn once again, and the car got dangerously close before they finally stopped. I suspect they saw my car rather than heard my horn. (sigh)

I do love my little Saturn though. It has served me well as a first car. I bought it in 2004, and it still has less than 60,000 miles on it. I suspect I will miss it a lot when I leave it in Tennessee while I go to California and Uganda in the next 8 months.

***********

My song of the day:

How could we know that night would bring us into daylight? Combinations all around us.

Fortis Fortuna Adiuvat

Fortune favors the bold.

I responded to the inyernship offer in L.A. today. I'm diving in, taking the plunge, leaping. I thought long and hard about it both today and yesterday, and realized that I just need to do it. This is a once in a lifetime kind of opportunity. It will provide incredible job experience, not to mention enough money to fund my expedition to Uganda with HELP this summer. Yeah, I do love the way my life is going in Provo right now, and yes I will most definitely miss it. BUT the good stuff isn't going anywhere. I will make new friends and have new experiences while keeping in touch with the old. The people/stuff that really, really matters aren't going anywhere, and I can pick up things again here in Provo next fall.

Right now I'm in a very comfortable place. I think I want things to stay the same because of that reason. I have a set routine, reliable friends, a good job, and a nice house. Yeah leaving is scary, and I know I will miss a lot about Provo. This job may be hard, and I may be homesick. I might downright hate L.A. Who knows?

BUT

Fortune favors the bold, and I'm going to be bold on this one.

No regrets.

Listening to Holiday from Real by Jack's Mannequin helped solidify this decision.

This isn't holiday from real, but yet another rather convincing song by Jack's Mannequin.

Viva Las Vegas (and some other stuff too)

I went to Las Vegas this weekend! I had a most splendid time with these fine gentlemen:

We started the weekend out with a Third Eye Blind concert at Pure in Caesar's Palace.

With admission to the concert we were allowed to stay in the club that night, too. Unfortunately, the hooligans who went to Vegas with me did not meet the dress code of the posh club, and we drove to Wal-Mart to purchase dress shoes and a collared shirt before returning to the club.

We all felt pretty important when we came back, skipped right to the front of the line, showed them our stamps, and were let in without further question.

The family we stayed with treated us very well. I slept in a bedroom all by myself (no sharing with the other girls or air mattresses for me!) and they fed us cereal for breakfast every morning.

Saturday was a fairly uneventful but still really fun day. I took advantage of the family and friends sale at Gap and bought the sweater I'm wearing in the picture at the top! For lunch we all enjoyed an overpriced Korean buffet in Las Vegas' lame excuse for a China Town.

We watched parts of the air show going on that weekend from the car, and returned the aforementioned dress clothes to Wal-Mart. The rest of the day was spent exploring Las Vegas, walking the strip, watching Mason and Dustin loose spectacularly at craps, and other Vegas touristy stuff. Between the late night on Friday, the walking, and the general mayhem of Las Vegas (roller coasters, buffets, LOTS of walking, roller coasters, M&M World, etc. etc.) we tired out around 9:30. After a yummy meal at In-N-Out we crashed...hard.

And my favorite part: Visiting Tiffany's, pretending to be interested in buying a ring and subsequently trying on a $19,000 engagement ring! Probably the closest I will get to actually owning one.

All in all, a good weekend!

I checked my e-mail on Saturday night before the crashing. I got the internship in California. To be honest, I felt nervous. Not excitement or happiness--just nervousness. In the midst of my carefree weekend, I received news that my life as I now know it may soon be changing pretty much forever. Maybe I'm being a bit overdramatic, but I feel that way right now. I know how amazing this opportunity would be for my future, but I love the life I'm living right now. I'm not entirely sure if I'm ready to give it all up yet. Sigh. I've got some BIG decisions to make.

An Ode

To Nutella!

I love this stuff. It has become a staple in my cabinet. It's also very versatile. I can eat it for breakfast on toast or just plain bread when I'm in a bit of a hurry. When I'm in a big hurry, it's also good to just grab a spoonful for a quick shot of fat and sugar to get me through to lunch!

It goes on fruit. My favorite ones to eat it with are bananas and strawberries. It's good on crepes and even on tortillas, which are afterall only a slightly thicker version of a crepe.

The other day when I realized there was no chocolate syrup for the frozen yogurt I bought, it tasted pretty good on that too!

I sure do have lots of things to be thankful for!

On a completely different note, I'm going to Las Vegas tomorrow. I should not go to Las Vegas tomorrow. I have a homework assignment due Monday morning that requires access to inDesign to finish it, and a major sewing project due on Wednesday. Not to mention the fact I need to get started on a 10 page and a 15 page paper.

While next week may find me curled up in a ball contemplating whether it's really that important to graduate college, I intend on having lots of fun this weekend.

Throw that caution completely to the wind! Pictures on Sunday!

FAIL

No, I didn't fail a class or test or anything, but I do need the word fail stamped across my forehead. I was a fail blog unto myself today. I burned my dinner because I left the stove on too hot for too long before actually putting my tortilla on the pan. Needless to say, it burned in spots and never really cooked. My food supplies are a bit low, and every little bit counts. Therefore, my dinner tonight consisted of a partially burnt and mostly raw tortilla with the chunks of cheese initially meant for what was supposed to be quesadilla on the side. FAIL

I then forgot to turn to stove off, which my roommate conveniently noticed about an hour later. FAIL

As those who are around me quite a bit know, when I get tired I develop a mild speech impediment. I couldn't get my words out straight to save my life for a good hour this evening. FAIL

I showed up very late for a group meeting because I was watching The Biggest Loser.

FAIL

After showing up late for said meeting, I proceeded to leave early in order to show up late for a visiting teaching appointing. I prepared the lesson for this appointment en route, which means the block and a half walk to her apartment building. FAIL

BUT I rocked my buttonhole sample in sewing class.

Thanksgiving break is right around the corner. Thanksgiving is quite a big deal in my family, and I fly home every year. For some really good reasons in my opinion:

and to round it all out terrible toothed me with wewe from way back when.

I certainly have a lot to be thankful for!