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I'm home.

I'm dirty.

I'm exhausted.

Am I going to pack tonight?

Probably not.

Will I shower tonight?

Not likely.

Did I wear sunscreen this weekend?

Yes.

Am I sun burnt?

Yes.

Did I wear bug spray?

Yes.

Do I have a large bug bite on my neck?

Yes.

Did I hurt myself rafting on class 3 rapids?

No.

Did I make myself bleed/rip a couple layers of epidermis off my finger while rolling up my sleeping bag?

Yes.

What a weekend!

Laziness and River Rafting

I say this in the most humble way possible, I am an awesome river rafter!

I'm pretty much a pro!

Hey remember when I used to have bad teeth?

For the full caption of this picture go here. But to sum it all up, I am familiar with Olympic Class V Rapids.

Yeah, seriously.

I'm leaving to go tomorrow to go rafting on Kings River. It's been awhile since I've been so I'm pretty excited to go camping and rafting

So I finished everything for work today. I made my last trip to the office, emailed my recommendations, deposited my checks, etc etc.

I had all these wonderful glorious plans to go home, eat a quick lunch and then really buckle down and clean and pack.

But then I realized I had absolutely no energy. So I took a nap. Then I woke up. But then I fell back asleep again. It was just one of those times when you know you should be doing something but you are much too tired to really care. Holding my eyes open was more of an effort than I could manage so how was I supposed to scrub, sweep, mop, and dust my house into submission? How?!

But on the good side, I did eventually muster up just enough energy to get in a short work out and do the dishes. After a shower I hit the couch again.

And here I sit.

But to prove I haven't been completely wasting my life away here are some new songs I really love:

See, I haven't been wasting my life away completely!

Orange

I have recently become enamored with the color orange. Strange, I know, but true. I currently have orange toenails and a sweet new orange jacket I picked up at Ross.

Isn't orange such a warm, friendly, vibrant, happy color?

But of course it is!

I'm going river rafting this weekend (which I'm good at). However, it's going to be able 20 degrees at night at the campsite (which I'm not good at).

Monday I'm going HOME!!!!!

But isn't that an orangey sort of happy?

And so is the fact that Glee comes back on tonight!

GEE

Slacking

I've been slacking off a bit recently with the blogging. With an extended stay in a 3rd world country in my near future, I have devoted myself to watching movies instead.

I watched three this week.

Up in the Air
An Education
Bright Star

They were all beautiful films.

I spent my Saturday morning peeling and packing cabbage and oranges at the LA Food Bank.

After that I had a lunch of tamales I would rather not remember. Weird, stringy mystery meat . . . eww. 

And as of right now The Tipping Bucket is at 42%!! Care to make is 43%?! Give a dollar!

For all you people with disposable income

So I'm not one to beg for money . . .

BUT

this isn't for me anyways so here goes:



Give a dime, a nickel, a hundred bucks. You know, whatever you can afford. (You actually just need to give a dollar!)

This is a project to help implement and sustain eye care clinics in Uganda. Go HERE to check it out!

Tell all your friends!

Please!

Calorie Counting

I was once told by a friend that calories don't count on conference weekend.

The same friend also informed me that calories don't count at Easter.

So it only stands to reason that on a weekend (like this past one) when it is both Easter and Conference that calories actually count negatively.

Yes, that's right -- negative calories!

Which is why I enjoyed this on Saturday morning:

Recipe courtesy of Alton Brown:

• 1 cup half-and-half (I used milk instead)
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons honey, warmed in microwave for 20 seconds
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 (1/2-inch) slices day-old or stale country loaf, brioche or challahbread (I used potato bread)
• 4 tablespoons butter (for the pan -- I only used one)

Oh and I added some cinnamon and nutmeg! I was a little skeptical about the honey part but I found the recipe on food network so who am I to question it. And definitely stick it in the oven after you take it out of the pan until you're ready to eat it.

Yum!

I must say I do feel skinnier after this weekend.

Of course, this calories don't count nonsense may have been just to make us both feel better about the copious amounts of iced sugar cookies we were eating at the time. Hmm.

Easter

Easter is a wonderful holiday that I think gets a little short changed.

Let's just be honest here . . .

Christmas wouldn't really matter if there hadn't been an Easter approximately 33 years later.

Let that soak in for a minute.

It's true right?

Sure, Jesus' birth with Christmas. But His atonement, death and subsequent resurrection! That's what we celebrate! That's what should make us dance around filled with joy even when it seems like life kind of sucks at the moment. That was the point of His life. He was resurrected so that one day we can be too.

That's what Easter's all about Charlie Brown!

At first I was a little disappointed that general conference was on Easter weekend, but that was stupid of me because there is never a bad time for conference.

As always, the talks were uplifting, inspired and applicable. Everyone listening with the correct spirit heard exactly what they needed to hear, I am sure of it. Plus general conference always equals yummy breakfast (particularly french toast in my case) and pretty much an entire weekend in my PJs!



Isn't it wonderful to know that at one point before our life here on earth we knew and understood what the point of all of this is? Simply because we are here on our earth we can be sure that at one point we knew our purpose, we sided with God and chose to come here. Our Heavenly Father explained His whole plan and the purpose of our lives. He told us it wouldn't be easy. There will be pain, suffering, unfairness, despair, heartache and death. However, we knew that our eternal reward for passing this test of life would far outweigh the price we were asked to pay for it. We shouted for joy for the chance to live the life we are now living!

We knew that we would sin and it would be impossible for us to return to heaven without the help of our loving brother Jesus Christ. But we also knew that He was willing to do what was necessary to make our salvation possible as well as His own.

Here's President Monson's talk. He explains things much more eloquently that I can.

Death comes to all BUT . . .










And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

Revelation 21:4

For the rest of conference go here. I highly recommend listening to it!

He is risen!

Toes and Dresses

I got a long over due pedicure today. I've always wanted to be tan enough to have bright orange toes, and have it look good. However, I came to accept my NC15 complexion long ago and just went for the orange without the tan.

It turned out pretty well if I do say so myself . . . and I do!

You can't even tell that half of one of my toe nails broke off the other day. Go ahead, try and guess which one it was.

I have looked and looked and looked at multiple Ross, T.J. Maxx, Marhsalls, Goodwills, and so on and so forth for a dress like I wanted for my party. Unfortunately, the only one I could find in the color that I wanted was not my size nor would the cut have been flattering even if it was. So after lots of looking I found this one:

it's not this one:

but I do like it anyways.

This is much more pink that coral so I hope you don't mind Jessica. Finding a suitable dress that is both flattering and affordable is much harder than I anticipated. 

Should we get our hair done the morning of . . . maybe a nice big hair do or some pin curls perhaps?

I think that would be marvelous!

I won't reveal me in the pink dress yet because minus accessories, makeup and nice hair it would ruin the effect.

BUT

You can see me in the white I tried on.

I figured I'm already pale enough as it is, and I don't need to beg the comparison by wearing a white dress. If anyone sees anything is a seafoamy green color please let me know. The pink dress still has the tags and a receipt. My choice is amenable if a suitable alternative is found. Maybe I should just dye the white one?

I Want I Need

I'm going to Uganda.

I'm going to be there for almost four whole months.

I like to read.

In 2010 alone I have read:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The Lost Symbol
Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Avonlea
Anne of the Island
Anne's House O Dreams
Rules for Radicals
A Clockwork Orange
The Art of War
High Fidelity

Just how am I supposed to fit all that nonsense in my suitcase?

Which is why I need one of these for my trip I think:

It's a Kindle and this one is less than $70. I can upload enough books to last me for my trip and then I'm good to go for the entirety of my trip to Africa.

Brilliant, huh?

A Hilarious Misfortune

I took this picture when I was in England. We were at Stourhead which is where part of Pride & Prejudice a la Keira Knightly was filmed.

I took a picture of myself:

With the intention of photoshopping Mr. Darcy in later. This is the same place where he proposes to her the first time you know with the:

DARCY: Miss Elizabeth. I have struggled in vain and I can bear it no longer. These past months have been a torment. I came to Rosings with the single object of seeing you. I had to see you. I have fought against my better judgement, my family’s expectation, the inferiority of your birth, my rank and circumstances – all these things -but I am willing to put them aside and ask you to end my agony

LIZZY: I don’t understand.

DARCY: I love you. Most ardently. Please do me the honor of accepting my hand.

Look for these images in this scene:

But I digress . . .

The point was I wanted to photoshop Mr. Darcy into a picture of me in the same place. I finally got around to doing it today. I pulled up a picture of Mr. Darcy looking at Keira. I magnetic lassoed Mr. Darcy, masked and fixed the lines, cut him out, flipped him (vertically) and then dragged the picture into my original . . .

Needless to say, it failed miserably. I need to pay a bit more attention to file size next time perhaps. I didn't even both with cropping the original as I had intended because let's face it, what's the point?

Geeeez

Please Find It

I want this dress. If anyone can find it (or something like it) for me I would be eternally grateful. If you can find something like it for less than $40 I would really really love you!

Keep those eyes peeled . . . please!

I have to look my very best for the lawn party.

On Ridiculousness

I love when a weekend you thought would be completely boring turns out to be anything but. Originally, I planned on redboxing a movie on Friday night, sleep in on Saturday, clean, maybe go to the library or watch another movie.

Instead I ended up driving to a dance in Anaheim on Friday, going to Sonic and not getting home til 3 am. What more could you want from an evening than hanging out with people you barely know and getting forever stuck in a photograph with those people looking like this:

On Saturday I went to a birthday party that culminated in the birthday girl and several others (including myself) jumping fully clothed into the pool in 60ish degree weather.

Someone remarked that the pool jumping incident as peer pressure at its stupidest or something like that. Basically, it was implied that we did something stupid and pointless because we were talked or pressured into it.

Let it be known that I don't have to be pressured at all into doing something stupid or pointless. I did it absolutely of my own free will because I wanted to. Sure, jumping into a pool at someone's house you barely know in a pair of shorts that belong to said person you barely know in 60 degree weather knowing you have to drive home with wet hair and underwear is a little stupid. But aren't the stupid and ridiculous things sometimes the most fun?

And they are definitely some of the most memorable.

I honestly can't count the times I have jumped into pools fully clothed in my Mr. Gatti's uniform after work or that one time at Tiny's house or that one time at the lake in Knoxville etc. etc.

And I'm willing to bet more than one person regrets not jumping right in with us poor victims of peer pressure.

They'd probably make me eat a live chicken!

I'm going to a lawn party come April 24th. It's true! Complete with dresses, hats, pearls, bowties AND

CRAWFISH!

Doesn't that just sound like the epitome of Southern gentility and sophistication?

Well I don't eat crawfish. The eyes are still looking at you even after you boil them! uuuggghhh . . . you know how it is.

It's very Steel Magnolias of me if I do say so myself.

I cannot even wait. I think about 99.9% of women want and like to dress up at least every once in awhile. And as everyone knows from my post a few days ago I do love wearing hats. A pretty dress with a hat is even better. Add those pearls and I'm practically in heaven!

Maybe a little something like this:

I do always wish I could dress like the characters from Gossip Girl you know.

But seriously. I am very excited to go home. I'm from the South, and it doesn't really matter where I live or go for the rest of my life--I'm Southern through and through and that's not changing.

Pepperoni

I'm rather weird about my meat eating habits. A lot of the time I just avoid it altogether. I'm not a vegetarian by a long shot because sometimes I just want to murder a BigMac and whatnot. But seriously, I cannot think too hard about what I'm eating.

I think a lot of my aversion to various types of meat started as a child. I used to go fishing. So when I think of fish I associate it with yucky worms, dead fish hooked on lines, powerbait and that fishy lake smell. Maybe a little bit of Little Mermaid influence in there somewhere too.

I don't eat fish.

(With the exception of some sushi but mostly just the kinds with crab in it.)

I also used to help my grandpa, mom, aunt and cousins show sheep at county and 4-H fairs when I was younger. So when I think of sheep I remember that my first sheep that was my very own was named Sugar. I also think of smelly barns, poopy boots and the nasty way my hands felt after washing about 15 sheep in an afternoon.

I don't eat lamb.

I think maybe a combination of Bambi, dead deer pictures that hunters (i.e. my family) take of themselves with their kill and this beauty on the living room wall led to a general avoidance of deer meat.

Yep, you guessed it . . .

I don't eat deer.

And the only reason I can come up with for my distaste for pork is Babe. I mean seriously, I watch this cute little movie about a talking pig who wants to be a sheep dog. A TALKING pig mind you. A cute little pig given many human characteristics. Then someone fries up some bacon and expects me to eat it. I don't think so!

I don't eat pork.

Lucky I didn't have any emotional connections with cows and chickens or meat may have been entirely ruined for me.

Oh, the reason I bring this all up . . .

I was talking to Gage on the phone the other night. He was eating pizza. When I asked him what kind he said pepperoni. I then told him I don't really like pepperoni. To which he responded, "You try it next time you come home and I bet you'll like it."

All I can think of is Babe.

That'll do pig.

Seventy Times 7

I love music! Did you know that?

Directions for this post:

1.) Play this video




2.) Read this post while listening




I love how a song can transcend just being a song. It can be connected to a thousand memories. The song means so much more than just the original tune and lyrics that the artist records. Because of your experience with it you make it your own. It doesn't matter how many years go by or how your musical tastes may change. This song comes on and you can remember with almost perfect detail the moment that this song became something so much more. Unfortunately this can be a good or bad connection, and I have songs that qualify in both categories. But I certainly have more songs that remind me of some of the best times, friends and memories I have in my life than ones that remind me of the bad times.

I'm going to tell you about one of them.

While driving to work this morning Seventy Times 7 came on my iPod . . .

Immediately I was driving through the Smoky Mountains by the Little River en route to Gatlinburg. The car is full of my very best girlfriends. It is the perfect day in one of the most perfect summers of my life. All the windows are down, feet are hanging out the window and we are young, relatively carefree and anxiously awaiting our post high school lives. We weren't really sure what would happen come fall when we would all go our separate ways or how the years at college or wherever else we were going would change us, but I know at that moment we couldn't care less. All that mattered was that we were together and having an awesome time. I don't remember what we did in Gatlinburg, where we went that night, or even who's car we were driving, but I will never forget that drive and that song.

Using cell phones, water bottles or whatever we could find we sang (or maybe we screamed)

And is that what you call tact?

You're as subtle as a brick in the small of my back.

So let's end this call, and end this conversation.

and is that what you call a getaway?

well tell me what you got away with.

cause you left the frays from the ties you severed 

when you say best friends means friends forever

just as loud as we could into our "microphones".

It was definitely one of my infinite moments (see Perks of Being a Wallflower for explanation).

I will admit that if I heard Brand New's first CD for the first time today, I probably wouldn't think much of it. But Your Favorite Weapon and I have history, and I will certainly never forget it. How could I when it is the background music to practically every good memory from the summer of 2005? Or as I like to call it the summer of the Posh Elite complete with high school graduation, Warped Tour, hooker high heels, Kelsie's hot tub, Jessica's dad's pool, being water logged practically the whole summer, hanging out in Kelsie's basement, Tom and Blockbuster, my first job at Mr. Gatti's, scary movies and the circular conversations of which of us would survive in a scary movie situation, my brains falling out (i.e. nosebleeds) and perpetually loosing my contacts at Kelsie's house, driving down a curvy road at all hours of the night either to or from Kelsie's house, late night trips to Wal-Mart and late night meals at IHOP. 

Ahh . . . can't you just feel the nostalgia? 

Hats

I love them. Truly I do!

They are the perfect thing to try on when you go to a store. Trying on shirts can get a little tedious.

Off, on, off and back on again.

It gets even more complicated when you're trying on pants because then you have shoes to contend with as well.

But with hats, so long as you hair isn't in a pony tail you're good to go. (Sunglasses are fun too!)
I tried on so many hats at Disneyland I'm sure Laura got tired of watching me . . . and taking pictures of me too. But how could I resist when they had so many Nightmare Before Christmas and pirate themed hats? It was a lost cause from the beginning even if I had tried to resist.

Boys and girls of every age, wouldn't you like to see something strange?

Come with us and you will see, this our town of Halloween.

Yo ho, Yo ho, a pirate's life for me

We're devils and black sheep, we're really bad eggs

Drink up me 'earties, yo ho!

(Laura's face is priceless in this picture.)

Save Me a Spot

So I'm sure no one has missed the memo about the give a day get a day promotion from Disney. This year if you give a day of service with a partner charity you can get a free day pass to one of the Disney theme parks. 

I'm in California only about an hour from Disneyland so it was perfect! I looked through many of the possible options. Many of them were full, required a long term commitment (which I can't give because I'm only here for a few months), or required extensive paperwork and application processes.

I finally found the one that was perfect for me. It was a volunteer judge position with the Save Me a Spot in College contest. All I had to do was read a batch of 30 written entries for this contest and submit my top three favorites. Easy enough right?

I found out this morning after I received and read my first batch that it is far from easy. 

My particular batch of essays comes from a group of 8th grade children. A lot of whom are the first generation of their family to be born in this country. Even more of them have parents who did not get to go to college. 

Now the task of picking only three out of 30 children hoping to go to college seems really, really hard. How do you decide which of these deserving and needing children gets an opportunity for a college scholarship? I only get to know about these kids in 400 words or less, and it is both not enough and way too much. Getting a scholarship to college could potentially change the lives of these students. How am I qualified to decide this?

When I know what doors college has opened for me, I certainly cannot take the responsibility of giving a child a chance to go to college lightly. 

Notes: These are paraphrased not direct quotes:

One essay said:

I bet you dreamed of going to college too. Now look at you! You reached your goals and now have the chance to give kids like me the same opportunity.

another said:

I want to prove that poor girls can graduate college just the same as rich girls.

One thing all the essays had in common was their complete faith in their ability to make a difference for good in this world. Almost every essay mentions how if they are able to go to college and make something of themselves they will benefit the entire state and its residents and improve the lives of their parents and their future children.

Nearly every essay also mentioned how their peers deserved to go to college as well. While they were competing for a scholarship, hardly any of the essays focused only on the writer. They used a collective we:

We deserve to go to college.

We can change the world.

We can have a better life with more opportunities than our parents.

My peers and I need your help.

Etc., etc.

But I do have to choose. Why don't we just instate a logistical nightmare known as free college education? Public college? I like that idea!

So the point of this post is I have a lot of thinking and decision making to do.

Oh, and I miss my job at the elementary school too.

And shame on the writers of The Office for the ridiculous Scott's Tots episode.

It wasn't funny.

This isn't what it should be

I had this glorious post all planned out for tonight. However, after watching 30 Rock, Community and The Office I have no energy left to put in the time and effort this post deserves.

So here is another one of my favorite things lately:

Post Secret

No, these are not my postcards. Just examples of post secret ones.

Also, I was told about this by a friend. Which is true of most of the things I like. Sometimes I like to think I'm original, but I'm really not so much.

Welcome to the Magical

I enjoyed Disney the second time around much more than I did when I went as a 13 year old on an 8th grade field trip. I finally got to ride Splash Mountain and was able to release someone from a long held grudge that he most likely didn't even know I had. I'm sure somewhere around 9:00 pm Pacific time on Friday March 12 he breathed a big sigh of relief for a reason unbeknownst to him.

We spent half the day in California Adventure riding the roller coaster, soarin' over California, and watching the Aladdin show. Then we rounded out the night with a parade, space mountain, splash mountain, fireworks and a few other classics at Disneyland. We even saw Tinker Bell fly! Yes, that really happened!!

Oh, and I was recommended for admission. More on that later!

Quake!!!

I was in my first earthquake ever this morning. It was at about 4 am if you want to be precise about it. Naturally, I was dead asleep at this time. I'm still not entirely sure if it was the shaking or the screaming that woke me up. All I know is that by the time I did wake up somebody was already screaming. So I guess I slept through at least part of it.

My first thought, a stupid one of course because most thoughts when I first wake up are, was that somebody in the apartment next to mine had just been thrown into the wall with considerable force and quite a loud shriek too. This is nonsensical of course, but I've never been in an earthquake so give me a break.

When I finally had my wits gathered about me and realized what was going on it had already went on. Because I missed it really. I only realized I was in an earthquake after it was completely over. Lame huh?

I then proceeded to get up, go to the bathroom, stare at the ceiling and wait for those nasty aftershocks I hear tell of.  They never came. I went back to sleep. Still not entirely sure if I had assumed correct, I asked my roommate, a veteran earthquaker, if it was an earthquake.  It was . . .


a 4.4 from what I hear.

I'll update about the weekend tomorrow. Here's a little preview . . .