A View From the Top

Today was kind of a hard day. Nothing bad happened, but I was both physically and mentally exhausted. I work up for a 7 am doctor's appointment, and it was all downhill from there. I just got sleepier and sleepier. I don't know if it was because of or just in addition to the exhaustion, but today was also a very unsuccessful day at work.

We were in a heavily Korean area, and people who understood English were far and few between. We have an informational paper in Korean, but it didn't do us much good. It took the people a long time to understand us, and once they finally did they mostly said no.

We only ended up with two letters today. Definitely the worst day so far without contestation.

I didn't even have the energy to run after I finally got home.

In other (more cheerful and less sleepy) news, we were in the Hollywood area yesterday. Since we were already so close we decided to drive up and check out the Hollywood sign. It was quite the uphill trek (drive) to get to the prime photo op location.

Did you know:

The sign originally read HOLLYWOODLAND and was an advertisement for housing available in the area. It became famous after they decided to leave it up. As the Hollywood film making business became popular, the sign was a recognizable symbol associated with the area.

Art . . .

made funny.

I have discovered yet another complete waste of time. It comes in quite handy when you have nothing better to do or are waiting for the good parts of the Olympics to come on.

That is Priceless.

Or for another quick laugh . . .

Waiting

Isn't it just the most horrible thing? Waiting for a phone call, to see how you did on a test, to hear from that guy that got your number, for the next Harry Potter film installment, and so on and so forth.

I can't stand it. Of course, it easy to get distracted during the day when I'm working, but at times such as these I just get anxious and jittery just thinking about the long weeks of waiting ahead.

Oh, I'm talking about my graduate school applications by the way.

They are submitted and as of this afternoon all of my references are submitted as well.

I don't like this not knowing business. I am not a patient person nor have I recently asked to learn more patience. Theretofore, I do not enjoy this one little bit.

Just the thought of the long month of March makes me angry and resentful. Not that March every did anything to me, but (and take this as impersonally as possible you month of March) I sincerely hate you, you dreaded approaching month.

Waiting a whole month before finding out whether or not I get into a graduate school program I've been wanting to attend since freshman year of college or to find out that my graduate school hopes for next year are shut down. In any case, once I find out I'll have little more than a month to figure out what to do with my life next fall before going to Uganda for the summer.

If accepted, there's housing, moving, part time work, etc. to figure out. If I don't get in there's the whole finding a job nonsense (not to mention the disappointment of graduate school rejection).

I hope the glimpse into the inner workings of my mind and subsequent mood was exciting.

I applied to:

NYU

and

BYU

and for your musical entertainment and mine whist I wait here is a band I recently discovered. Yes, I know this is a Christmas song, but it is good nonetheless so just enjoy!

What is . . . ?

The highlight of my day is, I must admit, when 7 pm comes around. Jeopardy! comes on and I proceed to spend the next half hour shouting out every answer. A lot of which I know, and yes I am most humble about this fact. Of course, even when I don't know it I usually shout out something anyways just in case.

This leads me to a new goal in my life which is to be on Jeopardy!. Yes. I'm serious about this. If my random usually useless knowledge could win me thousands of dollars in one night then I don't see any problem with this plan.

I can add it to my list along with doing a polar bear dip, learning to play the guitar, traveling to practically every country in the world, owning a Volvo and becoming a pro cake decorator/music executive/chef.

Isn't Jeopardy! just so much better than Wheel of Fortune. Certainly it's more dignified, right?

Think about it!

Dream (and some other stuff too)

I had a dream last night I got accepted into NYU's Master of Music Business program.

It was certainly a very good dream. I also bought myself some green contacts. Not sure why dream me wanted green eyes since I have been pretty satisfied with my own blue eyes, but hey I was sure happy about it in the dream so I'm not complaining!

I'm going to take a little trip back to my previous post about Olympic skating turning into real life Blades of Glory. First of all, ice dancing? Not too sure how I feel about this as a sport. Do we need pairs and ice dancing? Who's to say.

I do not think anyone ever expected or thought the band Linkin Park and the Olympics would ever be in any way at all related. However, we were proved wrong tonight.







Not only did they skate to this song, but they took first place with it . . . at least til the next team performed.
Tomorrow we get to work in downtown L.A. I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty excited!
Here's a little sample of the work we did today:

It's in Thai!

I got to talk to my nephew Gage on the phone. He informed me he got a 10 in daycare today (that means he was good). I told him if I was with him I would give him a high five. He said I could give him a kiss instead. I proceeded to blow him a kiss through the phone. After he said he got it, I asked if he wanted another. Of course, he said yes. I then blew him another kiss. However, this one flew right past his cheek and ear and hit papaw Johnny (or so I was told). So I blew him a third and final kiss that thankfully landed right smack on target on his cheek.

He did warn me their was a good chance it would come off onto the pillow when he went to bed though. Since he's a good kid he said he's try his best to lay on the back of his head instead of the side so it would stay.

I do love him!

Happy Sabbath

I had a pretty awesome Sunday complete with church, nap, tortellini, fireside and cookies. Nothing eventful, but that's how it should be.

In other news, I have a new favorite way to waste my time. I can add this to the list along with CakeWrecks and My Life is Average.

Perez Hilton

It's the real life Gossip Girl don't you know?!

And where else could I possibly hope to get my daily fix of R-Patz? Where?

Party in the U.S.A.

I went to two parties this week. I've been a little busy and too tired to blog recently. Sadly that includes tonight, but here I am nonetheless. I am quite exhausted though.

I went to a birthday party on Thursday. Any excuse for me to make a cake of course!

After the party I went to a show at a club in Chinatown with some people in the ward. It was a fun time, but made for a sleepier than usual Friday morning.

Friday night was Glendale 7th Ward's Chinese New Year Dance. As a member of the dance committee I helped decorate. I have never seen such a decorated church dance. It was also a fun time . . . they played all my favorite current pop songs. Not to mention the fact I got to dance to my heart's content.

Happy Year of the Tiger!

Does this make anyone else want to start singing Eye of the Tiger?

Or maybe that's just me?

Ok, now I am officially worn out, drained and fatigued. Blogging took a lot out of me tonight. Whew!

I'm in love . . .

with these buns. Really. This is not a joke. These things are delicious. It doesn't matter that my legs hurt, my feet are tired and I swear I was walking down the street with my eyes closed in Pasadena today. It is all worth it because I discovered these:

Yum.

Oh, and since when did Olympic figure skating turn into real life Blades of Glory?

 Rock music, twangy country music, did you see the guy in the overalls? His name is Samuel Contesti and believe it or not he's from . . .

wait for it . . .

Italy.

Yes . . . Italy.

He's cute though so I guess he can do what he wants.

And how about that Johnny Weir?

And here's the article to go with it.

Happy Tuesday!

Day Off

I didn't set an alarm this morning.

It was fantastic. I woke up at 11:30 all on my own. It doesn't matter how pleasant an alarm might be (mine is Bowl of Oranges by Bright Eyes) in theory, I still resent when it goes off to wake me up when to be honest I really don't want to get up. And you can't really get much pleasanter than Bowl of Oranges.



So anyways. I woke up at 11:30 with lots of good, sunshiney filled intentions. I was set on wandering to the park up the street and hopefully coming home a little less pale and a little blonder than I was when I arrived. However, I was sidetracked when I realized how desperately my house needed cleaning.

I proceeded to don my most comfortable cleaning clothes, open every window in the house and set to work. With the Gossip Girl season 1 soundtrack in the background, I worked from noon until four and am quite happy with the results. I did a little redecorating in the process. No more half burned candles or dead rose bouquets in this living room!

I'm still not sure how I feel about this thing filled with what is basically dried grass, but there is no help for it despite my feelings.

Wouldn't it just be lovely to be a figure skater? I am currently watching pairs figure skating, and they are just so graceful. Sadly, I don't have that much coordination walking ice-free surfaces so I guess I'm just out of luck. Add in the jumping, spinning and the fact that wearing ice skates is physically painful for me; basically I'm doomed.

Flowers brought to you by Flowers

I had this whole saturday open to me – no plans, no one to share the car with, beautiful sunshine and  LA just down the road practically begging me to go explore. With the plethora of possibilities before me, I finally decided that since it was the day before Valentine's a trip to the flower market was in order.

No, I don't have anyone to buy the flowers for or any particular pressing need for flowers, but when has that ever stopped me? I figure if you don't have another person in the house with you at least you can share space with some flowers. They do brighten things up quite a bit. Plus, it was a nice little way to celebrate Valentine's. Not to mention they made a nice table decoration at church today.

I know a lot of people who don't have a special someone in their lives seem to get a little bitter around Valentine's Day. However, I don't see why Valentine's Day has to only celebrate romantic love. I think I can be perfectly happy and content today knowing that I have amazing family and friends who care about me and love me. If that's not something worth celebrating then I don't know what is.

How great is it that we live in a world where there is an entire area of a city designated as a flower market? Plus pretty much anyone in their right mind would want to do something outside on a day such as Saturday:

After I came home from the flower market and the gym, I had another surprise waiting for me.

Look familiar?

I went to pick up my V-Day basket on Friday because I knew I wouldn't be home much Saturday. Turns out Snookie's Cookies had a slight communication mishap, and someone missed the memo that I had picked up the basket already.

So now I have two! I ended up taking all the cookies from the second basket to church today for choir practice, and wouldn't you know they went and canceled it! However, I'm sure I was a personal favorite of many church members today as I wandered the halls after church disposing of two plates of cookies.

With the cookies and teaching relief society on top of that, I'm sure a lot more people in the ward now know who I am. 

I was invited to a pancake party tonight. I must say that I don't think I have ever been in a more friendly, welcoming, loving, close-knit ward than the Glendale 7th. That's saying quite a bit since I have regularly attended 6 other singles' wards. In other places I sometimes felt like I really had to put myself out there a make a sometimes out of my comfort zone effort to make new friends. But here it has been easy. People introduce themselves to new members. On many first meetings numbers are exchanged, plans made, and suddenly I have a new friend. Members of the ward call just to check on us or invite us to an activity. I was asked to teach, quickly extended a calling, and have been invited to at least one activity every weekend since I've been here. 

The caring and love I feel from members of the ward in amazing. Many of the people I've met introduce themselves with a hug rather than a handshake, and the rest give you a hug on the second meeting. The girls in Relief Society were very helpful and fully participated while I taught and many girls made sure to thank me and tell me I did a good job. I'm very grateful I get to be here even if only for a short time. Not only that, but I am also thankful that people have been so kind and welcoming even though they know I'm not going to be here long.

I've now been staying alone in my apartment for three days. I have to say that I haven't had a chance to get lonely yet . . . not even close.

Thoughts and Confessions

I sent in my final check for Uganda today. Unless some unforeseen circumstance arises I will be summering in Uganda this year. HELP International is a pretty amazing organization. Check them out!

So I'm watching the opening ceremonies right now. I do love the Olympics. I have been excitedly waiting for this for quite a while now. Someone is now singing Hallelujah. I really, really like this song. I have two different versions of it on my iTunes, and I am very happy they chose to sing it and labeled it as a "song of peace."

I have really enjoyed these opening ceremonies. A little calmer than Beijing, but entertaining nonetheless. The one thing that has left me slightly confused about this whole affair is who in the world decided that McDonald's chicken nuggets were the preferred Olympian food. Who? I mean really...Who would claim such a thing about even the best of foods? But chicken nuggets? McDonald's chicken nuggests!?

Favorite quote of the night: "Shawn White: Always ready to party."

Oh, and how about that Icelandic flag bearer?

I was gifted a Valentine's Day goodie basket from Snookie's Cookies by my parents. I must CONFESS I ate 4 cookies


...


and a muffin.

Ooooh.

Needless to say, It is good I went to the gym today because I probably ate more calories than I burned, but at least I did a little bit of preemptive damage control. hahahaha

Another CONFESSION.

My roommate left really early this morning to go to Idaho for the weekend. I have spent the day alone running errands and what not.

But I have also spend a pretty darn good portion of my day watching Gossip Girl. I do love this show. There I said it. I'm a little bit addicted.

 Ok, so I'm hopelessly addicted.

 I blame this show for my disdain with most clothing stores these days, and the general lack of glamour I sometimes notice in my life.

Shouldn't I have grown out of these types of shows in high school? I suppose not. Oh well, I choose to embrace my guilty pleasure rather than be ashamed of it. i guess it's not really a guilty pleasure at all then. Hmm . . .

100

Today is my 100th blog post.

Sadly, rather than celebrating this monumental occasion I must report yet another minor car mishap. Fortunately enough for me, I was not driving or the cause of this one. I was merely an innocent passenger in the car with the drive who was not at fault. I must say, I thought driving in Utah was bad. California interstates are just downright crazy. To be honest I don't see how anyone gets anywhere without at least almost getting in an accident.

Anyways, Lady (I think I forgot to mention that our car was christened Lady) is no longer in our possession. We sent her back because after barely a month with us BYU girls she is in desperate need of  repair, rest and relaxation. We both wore her out and bent her out of shape (literally).

At least she was still drivable. 

The silver lining to this situation?

We are now driving a silver (silver lining, get it?) 2010 Chevy Cobalt. I always thought the tomato red car was a little too ostentatious for my style. The car was basically just asking to be involved in a wreck being painted that color. 

I finally took my camera to downtown LA with me today. Here's a little peek:

We ate lunch right outside the library. 

In this little park area.

While it looked like we were in a park, we were surrounded by buildings such as these.

This has been a week for birthdays. Yesterday I went to a birthday dinner at the RS president's house, tonight sushi dinner for a friend from church, and today was Wewe's birthday too!!

Happy 100th to me!