So this is love, huh?

About a month and a half ago (almost two months ago now), I went to the Seattle LDS Temple with the people I go to church with for the branch temple day. On the way up, I rode up with a couple of the leaders and one of the girls who recently starting coming to the branch. We somehow got onto the subject of relationships and the lady in the couple who owned the truck we were going to the temple in said that she and her husband never argue because "there's nothing to argue about." I can remember thinking at the time that I want a marriage like that -- one where I wouldn't argue with my husband. At least not have serious arguments with. And I'm pretty darn sure I've found that guy.

Jack and I argue, sure, but it's always over something that doesn't really matter in the long run. We agree on the stuff that matters the most. What are we arguing about? Stuff like whether or not he's good at solving the Rubik's cube/any other cube he has (he's amazing at this, don't let him fool you) or whether or not I can sing well (I don't think I can but he claims I can). In the end, that stuff doesn't matter. Some of the things we are agreeing on is stuff like how soon is too soon to get engaged, how ridiculously priced engagement rings are (I've unintentionally run across an $10,000 ring... Yikes), what life is most likely going to be like after getting married (oh boy on some of the conversations we've had about that).

What amazes me is that how easy I find it to tell him things. I don't run into too many people that I can talk to all day long and never get sick of them. Jack and I text all day and talk in the evenings until one of us (usually him) is tired enough to go to bed. And I don't mind telling him everything that's going on in my day. When most people ask what I'm up to, I try to give a somewhat vague answer. With Jack, I'm more specific on what I've filled my day with. I don't know why; I just am. I'm one of those people that has a harder time admitting to when I'm upset/need to talk about something because it's bothering me or whatever but it's so easy going to Jack and talking about whatever the problem is. Right before we got together, I was upset about something and wasn't really intending on telling anyone the problem. However, I was texting Jack at the time when I had gotten upset and because of him being himself, it prevented the worst of what could have been from happening and he got me to smile again without even knowing there was a problem on my end (and yes, I told him after about the whole being upset thing).

Jack is nothing short of an amazing guy. He's always a happy person and I can't help but be happy when I'm talking to him. I don't think words like "sad" exist in his dictionary. One text from him can make a bad day into an amazing one. He's always sending me the cutest texts that put the biggest smiles on my face, even if it's just a simple "Good morning, beautiful" text sent when he wakes up in the morning. Texts like that are sure to make anyone's day absolutely amazing. There have been plenty of times where I can't help but wonder how I got to be with someone as wonderful as Jack and I can't help but be grateful that I do have him in my life. My life has been so much better ever since he became part of it. ♥

It's nearly 1AM.

And I'm still awake. Like always. It was pointed out to me tonight by Jack that I'm always up later than he is (case in point, I'm awake right now and he's asleep in bed and has been for probably almost an hour now). I can never seem to shut down my mind at an hour that seems like a better time to go to bed than around 2AM in the morning. Too many thoughts like to run rampant through my head in the middle of the night. I try to drown myself out with music at night and just focus on lyrics or pull out some instrument (generally drums or piano, depending on what I'm listening to) to pay attention to, which helps but doesn't completely shut out everything. You know how you get those thoughts that just don't like to go away? I get those quite a bit. And they can be about anything on any given day. Just depends on the day. What really sucks is I'm generally up anywhere between 8 and 9AM, which is a little bit less sleep that my body needs but it decides it wants to be awake at that time anyways. Pretty sure I'm going to have to start forcing myself to go to bed at an earlier time.

Sleep, why must you evade me?!

Q&A

Over the last two weeks (well it'll be two weeks this Sunday when the information went public on Facebook), I've been getting hit with some of the same questions over and over again from various people. I thought it would be a good idea to just do a quick post and answer the main couple of questions I get asked about the new boyfriend.

Who is he? His name's Jack (pretty much everyone we both know remembers him as Elder Bartlett) and he's one of the greatest guys I have ever met.

How did you meet? The absolute first time we met, I only vaguely remember meeting him (he had to remind me that he was, in fact, there; he was so very quiet at the time that I kinda forgot about him until he said something recently). He was a missionary at the very beginning of his mission when his companion, Elder Jones, was to do my baptism interview to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He and both of my missionaries (Elders Cracroft and Strange) went off to play basketball or something while Elder Jones and I were in the interview. I didn't see him again after that because the area he was in was Lakewood and I was attending my home ward (Lake City) instead of the YSA branch in his area.  I started attending the branch the October after being baptized and, as luck would have it, Jack got transferred back into Lakewood the summer of 2010, where we got the chance to interact a bit more. I never saw him again after he was transferred back out of the area but because of the transfer that summer, I was able to recognize his name/face when he found me on Facebook in June of this year after he was released from his mission in May. I wall posted him the day I accepted his add with, "Oh my gosh! Bartlett! How are you?! I haven't heard from you in forever!" in the typical girl like fashion.

We talked a little bit after that on that wall post but stopped after that until the very beginning of September when, on one of those copy/paste fill in the name things that have been going around recently that Jack landed the "bestie in Kindergarten" spot, which got us talking again. At least on Facebook for a couple of weeks or so when he posted a status that piqued my interest but he wouldn't tell me what was going on over Facebook. He gave me his number and told me to text him. From there, we ended up talking on occasion through text. Maybe every couple of days or so.

Starting in the beginning to mid October, we were texting pretty much every day and were getting to the point where we were close enough friends that we were talking about dates and whatnot (the dates were his) when the realization struck me: Jack had quit talking about the dates going on. It took about a week or so for the why of why he wasn't doing so to sink in when I realized that he was flirting with me and I was flirting back. We pretty much together the day after that without either of us really asking the other out; we just kinda happened.

The first Sunday we were together, he pocket dialed me by accident at just before 8AM, effectively waking me up over an hour early before I wanted to be up to get ready for church. I texted him good morning (which by then was habit, although he was usually the one who texted it first [so I don't know how I was the one who texted him first that morning]) to let him know that I was awake. After about two texts, he tells me to go check my Facebook where I found out we were going public with the relationship. Which I was completely alright with.

When are you marrying him/Do you hear wedding bells? These two are the most common questions I get hit with. Everyone seems to want to know if we're getting married. Jack and I have discussed the future quite a bit and we know where we stand. Oddly enough, we're aligning on pretty much everything, which never happens to me. No one else has matched me this perfectly before. Whenever Jack and I get engaged is when we get engaged. It's up to him when we do. Until then, we're just going to enjoy being in a relationship with each other.

Life and Family

This last weekend, a member of my family died. I was never all that close to him, despite how closely related we are (grandparent-grandchild). Part of it was moving from place to place as I was growing up and, once I was a teenager, my unwillingness to get close to him (amongst other members of my family but for different reasons). The sad part is, he was the only grandfather I ever really knew (reasons why on that will not be mentioned here). Since I lived in a state clear across the country from him and even though I only saw him every couple of years, I could see how he was deteriorating into what he was before he died. By the time I was 18, I knew he wasn't going to live long enough to see me through my 20's. I just didn't think that he would die this soon into my 20's. From what I heard, things were looking fairly bad for him and now that he's gone, I'm glad his suffering in this life is over.

In a way, his dieing makes me more grateful for the LDS church. There's comfort in knowing that he's just on the other side of the veil and that he'll be given a second chance on the other side of the veil and that I can give him that second chance by proxy baptism in the temple and any other ordinance that I can do for him. In this way, hopefully I can get to know him better in the only way I can before I cross the veil myself. I already have a small list of people's names that I want to take to the temple in hopes of being able to do their work for them and my grandfather's name has been now added to this list.

Teaching

I'm pretty sure that I have a love/hate relationship with teaching Relief Society (or even Sunday School, at that, when I was asked to sub a couple of times for a friend when she wasn't going to be there for whatever reason). I love teaching, which is why I loved being a tutor when I was attending school (that and I didn't ever have to prepare lessons -- I just supplemented what the professor had taught through the last week and I was never exactly sure where each student was since they all had different professors who moved at different paces). I just hate the nerves that decide to show up the morning of the day I teach.

Today was my Sunday to teach at the branch. I don't like procrastinating on getting my lesson done, so I made myself sit down on Wednesday and got it planned out. Unfortunately for me, by the time I was ready to start planning, Bruce Almighty was starting the minute I sat down. So guess who got distracted while trying to plan her lesson? If you guessed me, you'd be right. So planning my lesson took about twice as long as it should have. Sad day. Going through the lesson today, it was a lot shorter than I thought it would be. As a result, Relief Society got out about 10-15 minutes before the priesthood did. Which isn't normal for us at all. The guys always get out before we do. Although for me, it was a nice change of pace to be out before them.

General Conference

The LDS 181st Semi Annual General Conference was this last weekend and it was absolutely amazing! I definitely got the answers to the things that had been running around in my head the week before, which I'm grateful for. One of the things that I had been thinking about a lot before conference was prayer (of all things) and it just wouldn't go away. So when Elder J. Devn Cornish talked about prayer, I couldn't help but think of how this talk was meant just for me. Elder Boyd K. Packer's talk in some places stuck out for me as well and I learned quite a bit from him as well. I didn't get as much out of President Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk as I usually do (I got a few things out of it, don't get me wrong, just not as much), which disappointed me since he's one of my favorite people to listen to speak. I think I got more out of his talk at the General Relief Society conference about the Forget Me Not flowers. I really wish I could show my own father Elaine S. Dalton's talk as she talks about fathers. But he'll never listen. Elder Mattew O. Richardson's talk hit me in so many ways that I could have sworn he was talking about some of the situations in my life, especially with the teaching comments he made.

I'm surprised at how much of conference sounded like it was just for me. But since none of the speakers know me personally, there's no way they could have known what was going on in my life and what questions I needed answered but they were answered this last weekend. Looking at all the links and knowing that there was way more that caught my attention, you can only imagine the amount of notes I wrote down during each sessions.

Hm...

I haven't really been posting music on here like I usually do, so I figured I would link to some of the stuff I've been listening to for the last few days. I think people would be fairly annoyed with me for basically having the same three albums on repeat for almost a week now but for the moment, I'm attached. At least they're not all by the same group.

First up, Ne-Yo. I got a hold of his album Libra Scale earlier this year for someone since he wanted a specific song from it. I got the whole album for him (he had only heard the one song that he wanted and I wanted to give him the chance to hear the whole thing and decide which ones he wanted) towards the beginning of the year (I really wanna say it was in April or May, somewhere in there). I haven't really started to listen to it until recently. The songs I listen to are:

Crazy Love ft. Fabolous

One in a Million

Genuine Only

Cause I Said So

Most of the time, I'm mostly just listening to the music behind the words.

I just watched Disney's Newsies for the first time and absolutely loved it. Just like a friend of mine, I don't get how it did so poorly. Although, it definitely seems like a movie meant to be aimed at older kids and not the little kid I was when it came out. How does this correlate with what I've been listening to like crazy lately? I've been listening to the soundtrack of Newsies. My favorites have to be:

Carrying the Banner
The World Will Know
King of New York
Seize the Day
Once and For All

One of the other things that really clicked in my mind as I was watching was that the reporter for the Sun played the father in Casper and Christian Bale, who played Jack, was also in Little Women a couple of years later. Call me crazy but I felt smart for making the connection all by myself the first time I watched it. There have been so many times in the last few years where I'll have recognized the actor's face but not remembered what movie I've seen him in or what his name is. I hate when that happens. A friend and I actually had something similar to this happen to us about a week and a half ago or so. It drove us crazy.

Last band: Poets of the Fall (I seem to mention them a lot). I rediscovered one of the songs a couple of weeks ago when I constantly had my iPod on shuffle and it came on. I've been listening to the album like crazy lately because of it.

Psychosis
Fragile
Clevermind
Miss Impossible

Looking at all the songs I've listed, I think I've more than covered the last few posts with a nice baker's dozen of songs (bad luck, anyone?). And there's definitely a variety in the styles of each group.

Now to move past the music. As I was thinking earlier about this last weekend, I realized something: I have become ridiculously patient with a couple of the guys in my life (I'm not gonna name who). I know this is kinda bad to say I wouldn't spend too much time with other people who are like them or are going through what they are or put me through what they do. I just wouldn't bother to put up with it. But I do with them. Especially with the one that I've known longer. After everything we've been through, I'm starting to think that we need each other ways neither one of us thought of. Part of the lyrics to "Fragile" seems fitting for those two and I at the moment:

"So don't hide
If you're scared I'm here beside you
If you get lost I'm here to guide you
And I'll give you peace when peace is fragile"

Curve balls

Life keeps throwing me curve balls this summer. These events haven't exactly been small ones (for me, at least). I've been looking through previous blog posts and I can't help thinking that, in such a short frame of time, that I've probably grown up in ways that I hadn't seen coming. I find myself not wanting to do certain activities I had once found fun because the entertainment value of it has worn off for me. Growing up sucks sometimes.

Some of this weekend's events has definitely got me thinking about a few things and about where I stand on a few things that impact my life in big ways. Whether or not I can withstand the events that could potentially transpire remains to be seen but I think I'm ready to handle it. And if I'm not, I know I have the best support system that I call friends ever.

I can't believe that it's the 10th anniversary of 9/11 already. I can remember that morning so well (that afternoon at school is pretty much gone from memory). I can remember hanging out with and talking to my best friends at the time during study hall at school, playing with the class rat, going to the nurses' office because of said rat. The nurses' office is when I first heard mention of what had happened. At home, I can remember watching the news in my mom's room as they displayed footage of what happened in NYC. What was scary for me was the fact that I lived in New York. I might not have been living in NYC but to a 7th grader, just living a couple of hours away was enough to scare me.

Why do I keep doing this to myself?

Yesterday, I applied to Macy's to be a stock processing and placement associate when I found out that they were hiring for that position. I don't know why I keep applying there since this is my 4th (yes, 4th) interview with them in the last year just to be turned down the first 3 times. Maybe I'm just doing this to feel better about myself since I've always gotten at least a first interview with them since I haven't had an interview with anyone since around mid-May with Wells Fargo and T-Mobile. I just hope that things will go better this time around since I'm not interviewing for sales associate so I can actually get the job. However, the reality is that I will most likely be rejected. Must I keep doing this to myself?

Life is strange...

I think life is a strange thing. Especially over the last month and everything I've been going through during it. It's been an emotional roller coaster lately. I won't go into the details of it here(especially since some of it isn't my story to share on the Internet) but it's definitely been wreaking havoc on my life, especially over the last couple of days.

I think the only thing that's really got me to keep going lately is the thought of, "Things can be so much worse than they are right now." For example, this last weekend wasn't the best weekend (we all have those weekends, right?) and on top of it, I overslept by two hours on Sunday, causing me to be late in what I needed to do to get to church on time, arriving right when the priesthood and music were being released into the congregation. Which means no sacrament for me for the week. I still think things could have been so much worse -- I could have opted out of going that day completely and missed out on hearing a thing or two I needed to hear by doing so (especially in Sister Yearsley's Relief Society lesson).

I just got done reading Mosiah 20 out the Book of Mormon a few minutes ago, which is where the daughters of the Lamanites are kidnapped. While reading, I couldn't help but think of how this just reinforced what I've been telling myself all weekend. Things don't seem so bad in comparison to their being kidnapped. In some ways, I'd almost prefer the kidnapping to the last few days. However, we're all given our trials by Heavenly Father for a reason and He's decided this one is mine. I just hope I can make Him proud of me and have the strength in which to do it.

Blessed ♥

Over the last month or so that I haven't updated this, life has been crazy (when isn't it?). After getting home tonight after spending most of the day out, I couldn't help but think of how blessed I've been lately. Things have been going really well lately. I've been surrounded by friends and spending some time with family and trying to spend as much time as possible with boyfriend without dominating his time or neglecting my other relationships.

What really got me thinking about all this is this last weekend, I had to both talk in sacrament meeting and give a lesson in Relief Society. And for me, that's huge. Until now, I had never been asked to give a talk on anything in sacrament and have never held a calling in the two years I've been a member of the LDS church. To get both in one weekend just to put them both into action the following Sunday was, to be honest, frightening. Yes, I just said frightening. I knew I could do a Relief Society lesson no problem (basically do what I did when I subbed for Sunday School -- get everyone involved as much as possible and pose lots of questions). But to actually give a talk with no way to get an immediate response from the people that have to listen to me? No thanks. I'd rather not have to put my nerves through all that. My nerves felt fried after I walked out of the chapel when sacrament ended and I found myself making a beeline for boyfriend for a hug to feel better (with a few stops along the way because a couple of people stopped me to tell me that I "gave a great talk"). The ironic thing is I was hoping/praying for either a talk or calling. I just wasn't expecting to get hit with both at the same time.

Definitely grateful for this guy. He's been pretty awesome the entire time we've been together and I can't help but be happy around him, no matter what we're talking about. It's been a nice change of pace to date someone who is always making me smile because of something he says or does. Even just trying to do something as simple as get a picture of him usually turns into one or both of us laughing (with the exception of one picture and that was only because he didn't know I was taking it). And I don't think anyone has ever quite made me look forward to seeing them as much as he does. I'm always excited and can't wait until the next time we get to spend time together the days we're not hanging out and doing something.

♥

2 Year Anniversary

For anyone who has known me for a while knows that I'm a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that I was baptized exactly two years ago today. It's been a crazy two years but I've loved every minute of it. Even the day I was baptized was crazy. Lake City meets at 1PM every other year and two years ago was one of the years they met at that time, so that meant getting out of church at 4PM long enough to go home for maybe two hours just to come back to the stake center for my baptism at 7PM.

 My missionaries have been two of my absolute favorite people. They taught me so much in the few times we met in the weeks prior to my baptism. Two years later, I still can remember the lessons we went over and the explanations that Elders Strange and Cracroft gave me to my questions. I couldn't have asked for a better set of missionaries to teach me. ♥

I can't help but smile when I see the pictures of that day and remember everything that's happened since that day. I've talked to missionaries about Elders Strange and Cracroft and they've had nothing to say but absolutely wonderful things about them. I must say I agree with them -- my missionaries were amazing. And they're amazing people in general. They've given me something that no one else has given me -- the chance to learn the truth and be happy and I'm so grateful for that.

I consider myself to be lucky in that I had the chance to see my missionaries for a while after I was baptized (Strange left first and Cracroft was in Lake City forever) but I look at my boyfriend now and he's already lost the missionary who did his confirmation (he was confirmed the 12th) since Elder Penrod's going home and I think Elder Burgess (Burgess baptized him on the 5th) got transferred. I would have absolutely hated losing both of my missionaries in the same transfer meeting. I'm also lucky in that I have both of my missionaries on Facebook and have the ability to write them whenever I miss them too much. Since the boyfriend doesn't use Facebook, he doesn't get that ability. I would go crazy if I couldn't be able to talk to my missionaries or any of the other amazing missionaries I've meet since joining the LDS church.

Resurrection!

Yeah, you read that correctly. Gir has been raised from the dead! I'm so happy to have him back, despite the fact that I can't edit the playlist that's on him. The important thing is he works and he charges when he's plugged in to the computer.  So excited!

 Life just doesn't seem to want to slow down. I feel as if I've been going nonstop for the longest time now. I don't know how I manage to get sleep with all the stuff I've been doing. This last week or so has been pretty awesome, though, and this weekend was worth the lack of sleep since it was YSA Conference weekend! It doesn't really get much better than hanging out with a whole bunch of people who you don't know to make new friends and learn something new. Friday night's baseball game was so much fun! It was the Tacoma Rainiers against the Salt Lake Bees. And we lost. By a run. Final score was 5-4 Bees. At least it wasn't a shut out. The only real major downside to the game was that we started almost an hour late due to one of the teams not being there on time. It sucked for those of us who had arrived on time.

 

Becky totally took me by surprise by finding me at the game! I knew that she was going to be there but I didn't realize that her tickets were for the section next to mine, so I got to see her! I was super stoked when she came to say hi. It doesn't get much better than when you run into an Odd Squad member. I thought I was going to end up near first base or something with what I had been seeing online for where the sections were for seats and didn't know that section B was one of the places to sit, so I got to sit behind third base. For the most part, it wasn't a bad game to go to for my very first ball game. Free game, free food, friends.... Doesn't get too much better than that.

 Steven and I were so bored during the extra hour wait. There wasn't much to do the whole time except talk, get food, wander around Cheney Stadium. And that, weirdly enough, gets boring. I think by this point we were just flat out complaining about the late start of the game and how the Rainiers were making the Mormons look good (the Rainiers were the ones who were running late and the chances of at least half the Bees being LDS was pretty good). All in all, we somehow managed to survive the boredom during the extra hour long wait and were able to sit through the game. It'll most likely be a very long time before I go to another baseball game again since it isn't too entertaining a sport to watch and I'd rather not have to pay all that money to spend time socializing when I can do that for free.

Poor Steven got bored after the game and before the fireworks as we were waiting to try to leave the stadium to go to the ice cream social at the 12th and Pearl building. It took forever to get to the parking lot and even longer to get to where we were parked since the gate was locked until after the fireworks show, so we were forced to stick around and watch, despite our efforts to leave before the line of vehicles leaving got too horrible. Being bored that night seemed like it was a theme with him. At least while we were at the game, it did.

In the meantime, I got to spend time with this guy on Saturday (Sunday, too)! Definitely fun seeing him. He was trying to avoid the camera by this point, even though lunch was the first time I had brought it out to take pictures all morning (I had it out during breakfast to show him the pictures and videos I took with him in mind) since there wasn't a point to taking pictures during breakfast or devotional. He was so lucky that I only took the two pictures of him that day. Actually, they were the only two pictures I took of him all weekend. So he got off really easy. Lucky boyfriend.

What a weekend

This weekend was one of those weekends where I had nothing planned for activities (outside of church/break the fast today). However(!), I ended up doing a whole bunch of stuff that is now causing me to be really tired at the moment. I got a text Friday from a friend asking if I wanted to go to the trail clean up at Point Defiance for National Trails Day the next day. I said I was all for going and we went with a couple of our other friends. We ultimately ended up walking around some of the trails with a few other people we didn't know to pick up trash since there was too many people to help build "speed bumps" to prevent the land moving. Wasn't too bad. Afterwards, we went and got ice cream at Dairy Queen and then to Denny's for lunch to celebrate a friend's birthday. The girls and I went to the Enrichment activity (swimming!) and it was so much fun. I hadn't been swimming in a couple of years. Going to the bottom of the 12.5' pool wasn't the best idea since I hadn't swum deeper than maybe 6' in years. The pressure on my ears was bad. As in you feel it for the next five minutes after resurfacing bad. It sucked. But I at least have an idea of what my brother went through as a child when we would fly from one place to another. After swimming, I went to help move Jenny's dad from one place to another, which wasn't too bad, before meeting up with Alicia again at a McDonald's. She and I ultimately ended up at Red Robin's with four other people to do a birthday dinner kinda thing for Paul again. We didn't leave the restaurant until midnight or so. So much fun.


Today was Fast Sunday, so that meant no eating all day until after church at 3PM (so glad to be at the branch -- Break the Fast is at 4:30PM at my home ward). A baptism was announced for someone who had been coming to the branch pretty regularly lately at 5PM. Between Break the Fast and the baptism (everyone is somehow done eating by 3:30PM), Jenny, another girl, and I ended up at Spanaway Lake and hanging out there until it was time to meet up with a few other people for Nathan's baptism (he's the third guy from the left). It was so amazing to see someone else get baptized, especially when it's so close to the two year mark of my own baptism. I even ended up talking to Nathan about my own and a bit about my missionaries. The missionaries at the branch are pretty cool but they could never replace my missionaries (the two who taught me and baptized/confirmed me [I miss you, Cracroft and Strange]). I hope he won't forget his baptism like I haven't forgotten mine. After the baptism, some of us went to Sprinker and had invited Nathan and Nick (someone else from the branch) in the process, so I got to know Nathan a bit better in the process (I had been meaning to get to know him better, so mission accomplished [well, kinda]).

Call me crazy but I've been listening to a lot of the Mulan soundtrack. "I'll Make a Man Out of You,"  "A Girl Worth Fighting For," "Honor to Us All," and "True to Your Heart" mostly. I absolutely love these songs. Which is why I'm sharing them. :)

I feel old...

...Despite the fact that I'm really not that old since I'm in my early 20's still. I just think it's crazy that I'm celebrating another birthday in my 20's when it still feels like I should be in the 6th grade still and turning 10 years younger than I am today. I don't know where the last 10 years have gone to besides school. I haven't even done anything remotely cool either besides move from New York to Washington and visit Spain for three weeks, if you can consider that cool.

Is it sad that I haven't had a birthday party with friends since my 9th birthday? I've only celebrated with family for the last 10+ years and the "parties" weren't much of parties. Just a couple of presents, cake, possibly ice cream, and maybe a dinner of my choice. What a way to spend your birthdays from 10 until the present. I even considered having a get together the Saturday after to celebrate but as it got closer to June, it turned out that the Relief Society Enrichment activity was that day and turned out to be the day of the bridal shower of someone from the branch and I had been hopeful to invite people from church but didn't want to take away people from one of the other two activities since they already kind of overlapped in time. Having the get together the weekend before didn't really make sense to me unless it was to be a get together combining my birthday with a friend's since we're less than a week apart in age with him being the older one.

Anyways! On a happier note, I was listening to a CD that I haven't heard in a while from Poets of the Fall and rediscovered the songs "Fire" and All the Way/4 U off of the Carnival of Rust album. I absolutely adore these songs. Especially the latter. Poets of the Fall have such beautiful music that I could spend the rest of my life listening to.

I have Pandora on Vladimir and I was listening to one of my channels one day and one of the songs that came up was by Jim Brickman that I really liked. I ended up getting everything I could find by him and one of the albums I got was call Disney Songbook. While listening to it, I encountered the song called "Beautiful". A girl like me can only dream of finding a guy who would do something like sing this amazing song to her -- It's one of those songs that stick with you because it's a, well, beautiful song.

Faith

I don't know why but I've been feeling the need to post this since the first of the month. Yes, I posted this on Facebook first and yes, it's mostly a copy/paste job, but the need is there, nonetheless:

Most people know I'm a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Almost everyone, at one time or another, has asked me how I got involved with it after finding out that piece of information and a lot of people keep asking for my conversion story (missionaries and RMs more often than not but that's besides the point). Being asked the same questions over and over is getting annoying, so hopefully now this gets cleared up and everyone can stop bugging me about this.

December of 2007: I got my first set of missionaries at the door. I was willing to take the tour of the building and eventually take the lessons, granted their schedules lined up with my work schedule at Dollar Tree. Unfortunately, no matter how many times we tried to set up a day to meet at the church, work got in the way. About two weeks into my working at Dollar Tree, the same set of missionaries that had come to my door came through my line and they were surprised it was me that was checking them out. I didn't really think too much of the fact that I kept seeing them.

January of 2008: I started school at Pierce. I managed to reconnect with people I went to high school with and because of one of them, I became friends with Bekah and started hanging out with Ashley. At the time, I didn't know they would eventually introduce me to the person who would actually get me to go to an LDS church on a Sunday.

May of 2008: Two weeks or so before my 19th birthday, Bekah and Ashley brought around their friend Andrew. I didn't think much of him at the time – he was just someone else to play cards with since that's all everyone in the group of people I hung out with at the time did. They brought him around one or two more times after that day but I still didn't pay that much attention to him.

October of 2008: Andrew was also attending Pierce now at this point. He hung out with me for a while after our last classes got out and before I went to work or before his first class in the morning since we were both on campus at about 7AM. We didn't really say much to each other then but slowly started talking more and more and mostly on MySpace.

January of 2009: Around this time, Andrew and I started spending a lot of time together when we could and if we weren't together, we were talking through text. Winter quarter of 2009 was when he and I started getting super close because of all the talking we were doing. At some point during the quarter, I found out he was Mormon. He didn't really say much about the church at the time, though.

April of 2009: The night before Easter Sunday, I was talking to Andrew when he asked me if I wanted to go to church with him the next day. My automatic response was to ask if he really wanted me to be there, to which he answered yes. I said I'd try to get there. I spent the next three to four hours trying to figure something out to wear while Andrew kept telling me to not stress out about it. What I couldn't get through his head was that, growing up for me, when you went to church you looked nice and you didn't wear a pair of jeans and a T-shirt into the chapel.

I kept going back every Sunday. At the beginning, it was just another way to hang out with Andrew. But as the Sundays kept passing and the more I was learning about the church and the gospel, the more things started making sense in my head. That spring, I was going through a bit of a rough patch with someone and with what we were going over in Sunday school, it fit exactly with what was going on at the time.

May of 2009: The Lake City Ward missionaries finally started talking to me at the end of the month. They hadn't approached me before the entire time I had been going up until that point. I took an immediate liking to Elder Cracroft (Elder Strange seemed pretty cool, too). They asked me a couple of questions and they soon found out that I wasn't a member of the church. Somewhere around that time, I decided I wanted to take the lessons.

June of 2009: When I finally got to start taking the lessons with the missionaries, it was somehow decided that I would be meeting Elder Cracroft and Elder Strange at the Castro household. Having the discussions at my house wouldn't have been a good idea since my family isn't too fond of the LDS church . I caught on with the information fairly fast and it felt familiar. I didn't have too many issues remembering the information they told me about and after one lesson, they even gave me a reading assignment (thank you, Cracroft). After the final lesson with them, I told them I was sure I was ready to be baptized.

On June 21st, I was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Elder Cracroft. I was so excited to finally be an official member of the church. The water in the font was so cold that it was almost like a tolerable version of the Puget Sound walking into it since they had just filled it prior to it starting. Elder Cracroft was the lucky one of us walking into the font that day, in a way – he didn't have to go completely under the water. I froze walking out of that font and it took what felt like forever getting warm again. And I'm pretty sure all the shaking I was doing wasn't just from the cold water.

June 28th, I was officially confirmed a member of the LDS church by Elder Strange. There weren't too many other priesthood holders at the time that I was comfortable with, so having Elder Strange do it made sense. Even if I had had a choice of having a different priesthood holder do it at the time, I think I still would have chosen Elder Strange to do it. There was just something about having one of my missionaries doing it that I couldn't pass up.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

I am really starting to like the looks of this week.

Why? It just keeps getting better and better. Last Sunday (not yesterday, the one before yesterday), a friend of mine asked if I'd cover her Sunday school class for her. Her way of asking me if I'd do it? By asking me, "Cassie, how much do you love me?" My automatic response was, "Why?" I had considered saying "This much!" and holding my arms out wide before asking why but I knew that she was bound to ask me for something, so I just jumped straight to the why. Someone called it rude as they walked by and heard what was said; I think it's just a matter of knowing what's coming after someone asks you how much you love them. So I got to teach Sunday school on Mother's Day. It was a bit weird to be the one in front of the class and covering the material with everyone instead of just sitting in the class. I didn't get to cover everything I wanted to but I got about halfway through, which was awesome.

There's a couple more things going on this week that I'm excited about. I just don't want to say what they are yet. I'll probably mention it in the next post so that way I won't jinx myself. But I'm really excited/nervous/impatient/a million other things for tomorrow and Thursday.

I'm in love with one of Sixx AM's songs off of the new album, This is Gonna Hurt. "Smile" is such a good song. It's one of those songs that you can relate to and it makes me smile (cheesy moment, leave me alone, I do have them once in a while).  The whole album is actually pretty good. It's different from The Heroin Diaries but it's a good different. I'm glad they didn't do something similar because who wants to hear the same thing from the same artist over and over again? That doesn't really show growth as a band, as musicians.

Feliz Pascua! (Happy Easter!)

I don't know when it got to be this time of year again but it's Easter. I don't know why I'm always so surprised by time going so quickly but it seems like it should still be around this time last year. And since it's Easter, it reminded me of the Easter Sunday two years ago when I started going to the LDS church about a mile and a half or so from my house. Sometimes it feels like it's been a lot longer than two years when I look back and I can't believe I haven't been LDS all my life. I've met some of the coolest people through the Church and I wouldn't change a thing. And since it's now Easter, it reminded me that I'm less than two months away from the two year mark of my baptism into the LDS church. I have both of my missionaries (as in the two that taught me) on Facebook and it's been so cool to see what their lives are like outside of the two years they were on their mission. They're both no longer on their missions, so I get to see posts from them on a regular basis, which is awesome. I think it's pretty cool to be able to see what they're up to now and not even just my missionaries either. I have a few of the guys who served part of their missions in the branch I go to on my friends list. You don't exactly forget the missionaries you interacted with on a regular basis. I don't think I'll ever forget the day I met Palmer (we got to talking about Cracroft, which is probably why I won't forget [just kidding, Palmer, I remember cuz you're awesome]). And besides, missionaries are some of the coolest people out there.

In the last post, I mentioned that I hadn't had a name yet for my new iPod Touch. I posted on Facebook about needing a name for him and my friend Dianna suggested the name I went with because I liked it. His new name? Vladimir. People look at me weird when I refer to it as Vladimir but I don't care. I got over it when they gave me funny looks because of Gir. Oh well.

Last Sunday before church started, I was in the chapel with my friend Bekah when she goes, "I have something else for you," after handing me the sunglasses of a friend that we've been passing back and forth between the two of us since January. After I asked her what she was talking about, she pulls a knife out of her bag and tells me it belongs to the friend whose glasses we pass between the two of us, stating that the knife isn't to be given back until he shows up at church on a Sunday. He isn't getting it back until he's in church on a Sunday and stays the whole three hours. I refuse to give it back until after he gets out of Priesthood and I'm out of Relief Society.*

The weather from Monday until yesterday was amazing! It was anywhere between 55 and 60 and sunny and it was so nice to see the sun again. I was outside pretty much every day and without a jacket. I've missed warm weather, so it was nice to not need to worry about the need for a jacket. It was nice to feel the sun warm my skin as opposed to having a jacket keep me warm.

After spending a bit of time, I've decided I more or less like the Vaccines. "If You Wanna" is a good song. "Norgaard" is another good one. The next group up on my list to listen to and decide on whether or not I like them is Night Rider. We'll see how that goes. But the Vaccines are worth it if you like music that makes you want to dance. It at least makes me want to dance. I don't know about anyone else.

*It isn't a very big knife and is within legal limits. It won't be used for anything outside of self defense while it is in my possession. Joey is also aware that I have it.

New iPod

So I bought a new iPod today. They're so expensive! The iPod Touch I bought was almost $250! It's crazy. I wanted to buy one with more memory but that wasn't in the budget since those are around $300 or more. The new iPod needs a name and I'm open to suggestions for what to call him. Yes, once again my iPod is a he. I don't do well with females in any format, whether it be human or technology. It don't matter.

RIP Gir

Gir is no longer in working order. He unfortunately drowned because I guess I didn't have a good enough hold on him and he fell out of my hand and into more water than he was capable of handling. He was a good iPod, despite all my complaints that he constantly gave me music specifically meant for Sunday when it wasn't Sunday and giving me music that wasn't meant for Sundays on Sundays. Now I get to spend $200+ on his replacement just because I'm not willing to spend $50 on one of those iPod Shuffles. I hate not having a screen to see what I'm doing, so that means I get to spend a lot of money on getting one with a screen. Grrrr. Here's to hoping this next one will last longer than two years.

Jehovah's Witnesses

Something happened around 6:30 or so this evening that hasn't happened in quite a while (a good year or so): Two Jehovah's Witnesses showed up at my door. I was kind of surprised to see them, especially after having been told that the last time a couple of them showed up, they were told a Mormon lives in the house (which got them to leave pretty quickly, apparently). One of the ladies was still in the driveway as the other was on the porch, trying to shove an invitation thing into the door when I finally got around to answering the doorbell (I was on one end of the house and on the second floor with the door closer to the other end and on the first floor). They didn't stick around too long after the lady on my porch said that they were the only church that went door to door like the two of them were doing and I mentioned that LDS missionaries go door to door as well. And I don't think they liked the sound of "stake center," either, but I can't be sure because I was looking down at the invitation thing I had been handed. I thought JWs were supposed to stick around for a while, too.

After they left, I've been looking through some of the websites Google finds to find out about that specific church. I find it a weird religion with a lot of rules. It makes being LDS look pretty easy. I'm halfway done reading the material on this website and it's a lot to take in in one sitting for what I've read so far. Their rules seem insane and it looks like the people in the "Governing Body" expect everyone to just follow blindly and not ask questions or think for themselves when it comes to what's written in the scriptures. How can anyone just follow like that without at least asking questions? The fact that I can go through the scriptures and interpret them myself makes me so grateful that I'm LDS and not a JW. I'm trying not to find websites that just bash the JW church but find materials that are specifically from the church since there's nothing better than going straight to the source. I think it a bit odd though, that I was given a copy of one of their magazines in the Tacoma Mall after an interview at the Old Navy there back in October. I read through it then but didn't really think anything of it. I recently refound the magazine and glanced through it last week. I might look it over again for good measure.

This afternoon when I was hanging out with a friend, we ran into someone that goes to the singles branch with me and her son at the park. I don't know what had possessed me to take Gir with me when I locked everything else up in the car but Gir caught the attention of the friend I went to church with and we got to talking about music and I let her go through the music. Everyone tends to find at least one band they like and she was no exception. Her little boy is so cute and he's a great kid. He has a ton of energy, which I'm totally jealous of. Then again, he just turned five years old and I'm almost 22, so there's no way I'll have that much energy again. He's definitely a good kid, though.

On the way home, my friend and I decided we were randomly going to pick some daffodils. They were just so pretty that it was hard to resist. How could you say no to something that just brightens your day and makes you smile? I just wish that I had picked more than the seven I had to fill in the vase more. It looks so empty that I want to go on a hunt to find more to fill the vase completely.

General Conference

The LDS General Conference was this last weekend and it was awesome! Lots of great messages. One of my favorites has to be this talk by Elder Richard G. Scott. Definitely shows what we should be looking for in a future spouse and it gives me hope in the opposite gender. It reinforced talks in church a couple of weeks ago given by a couple on marriage/relationships in general about how we should be with others. I can't wait to have a relationship like Elder Scott's with his wife.

I almost freaked out because I thought I had lost Gir. I had used him last night and thought that I had left him in a specific spot but as I was looking for Gir this afternoon, I couldn't find him where I thought he was. It took me almost 20 minutes to realize that he was on my desk in my room. I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't found him. Especially since I go no where without Gir and I have a busy day with institute and going to the library at some point to replace the card I had for 10 years and some how lost (I'm seeing a theme here over the last couple of days), among a million other things, and I'm going to need him. I thought I had left Gir in the car when I was driving yesterday and would have to wait to search it since the car I drove yesterday is my dad's and he was on his way home. But I found him and all's well.

When I was charging Gir (he was almost dead when I found him), I had iTunes going and on shuffle when a song came on that I didn't recognize (which isn't really too rare an occurrence since there's 16.34GB of music in my library). I looked to see who it was to see a band I don't remember putting onto iTunes. I'm still not sure about how I feel about Night Ranger, so I'm gonna have to listen to them some more and get a better opinion of them. It was really random.

So a couple of years ago, I decided to take on a huge project: Fix the quilt my grandmother put together 23+ years ago but stopped for the longest time. What got me back to working on it is a friend of mine is putting together a quilt of her own and I went down to her place last week to help her piece some of it together. We got a couple of rows done in about an hour or two, which was nice, and it was done a lot faster with the two of us than it would have been if it was just her. The picture only shows a very small fraction of the ripping that's happened to the poor blanket over the years. I've taken about three of the patches out and replaced them with denim from a pair of pants that I turned into cutoff shorts and there's another 3-5 patches that I still need to take out since they're beyond repair. That quilt's been to a lot of places (everywhere we've been since it was put together) and most of the time it was the blanket we took outside to sit or lay down on (obviously, by the picture). There were plenty of times where I used it on my bed in the winter to add to the collection of blankets I need to keep warm at night. It's definitely a well loved quilt, though, otherwise it wouldn't be in need of so much work. I just wish that the holes were taken care of as they showed up so there wouldn't be need for me to fix a ton of problems now. At least all the sewing is giving me something to do when I'm bored.

Life is crazy.

And I love every second of the adventure. I went on my first real hike today. I went up to Eatonville with a friend of mine and one of her friends to hike near Mt. Rainier and it was a lot of fun, despite having to walk up all the hills. All the hills reminded me of Seattle, except with mud instead of concrete. And I'm pretty sure I prefer the mud (sorry, Seattle) but I can survive in the city. And at the end of the hike, you could definitely tell that I'm not one of those girls that's afraid of getting in the mud and getting dirty. I knew better than to wear something like really nice clothes (like something you would wear to an evening out or anything like that) or to bring a purse. Getting dirty on these things are inevitable. All three of us had some dirt on us by the end of the hike and I was by far the worst. But I don't really care. I had fun and that's the important part.

The views of the waterfalls were so worth all the hiking and hills and walking on logs over the river to get to them. It's amazing all the beautiful things you can find in the world that occur naturally. I could hike all day, if the weather was ideal, I had absolutely everything I needed with me, and some awesome friends to go with me. More hiking near, and even on, Mt. Rainier is a must after a day like today. I think going up to Mt. St. Helens is a possibility as well. When I'll find the time for all this, I don't know but I will find it somehow.

Pretty sure the funniest thing that happened while hiking was while I was crossing the river on a fallen log. I was about to get off the log and back onto the land and instead of stepping on land, I stepped on a branch and went into the river about halfway up my calves. Luckily enough for me, the current next to the riverbed wasn't all that strong and I was able to get out fairly quickly. And it wasn't as cold as I thought it would be and it felt kinda good.

Walking along that train bridge was scary when you looked down and saw the water between the planks of wood. Some of them were missing bits and pieces and made walking along them even scarier. Sitting on the bridge made for a great picture though. Yeah, you aren't supposed to be on it for safety reasons and the police don't want you on it but we were on the constant lookout for trains (not like we wouldn't hear something that big coming). Every time a car passed by (the road wasn't that far away since we were at the beginning of the trail), the thought of an oncoming train passed through the back of your mind, even though you knew it was only a vehicle on the road.

Towards the end of the hike, I kept hearing the same two lines from Carnival of Rust repeat themselves over and over in my head. I would have brought out Gir to listen to the song but I was having enough trouble trying to hear the other two people I was with when we were close to the waterfalls that I didn't need to add to the list of reasons why I couldn't hear what they were saying.

While at Subway, a remix of this song was playing. I hadn't heard it in a while, despite it being on Gir, and I thought it was awesome that they had it going.

I'm so easily entertained by music and I don't know why.

Sleep... What's that?

This last week has felt like I've gone through finals week, just without all the finals themselves. There hasn't been a day where I haven't done something or seen someone because they randomly showed up at my place with a Dr. Pepper (which totally made my day). Well, until today since I slept through stake conference because I was up until 5:30 this morning and slept until almost 2:30 this afternoon. Oops.

So according to a friend, I'm a "party girl" just because I went to two church dances two nights in a row. In my defense, I didn't spend a ton of time dancing as opposed to spending most of my time socializing with people in the halls and playing Apples to Apples in one of the foyers at Friday night's dance in Tacoma. Only at Bellevue's dance did I actually spend time dancing. The last slow song that was played was this song and all I could think of was the last person I danced with to it. The only reason why I remember it is because I can remember looking at his face and completely blanking out on the words. How do you forget the words to that song? You don't.

Speaking of Bellevue, I got to see the Seattle Temple for the very first time in person last night. I was so stoked that I finally got to see it for myself. Seeing pictures of it just isn't the same as standing just outside. I have three goals that involve the temple at the moment: See the temple at night (accomplished), see the temple during the day and wander the grounds (will get there one day), and go inside the temple (which is a ways off yet but I will get there). It was just so pretty last night that I had to take a picture of it. I'm definitely looking forward to accomplishing the two remaining goals I have for the temple right now. Especially since it'll be a while before I get married with the way my life is going. And in all honesty, I'm OK with that part of my life being on hold for the moment.  I'm not one of those LDS girls that are fully intent on getting married before they turn a certain age. If that was me, I'd be scared for myself and the rest of the world as well since that's never been who I was.

I don't know who told this girl that she could sing but her voice isn't exactly the best. And it sounds like that there's some auto tune in there as well. Or maybe quite a bit of auto tune in there. She's pretty but that's about as far as it goes. There is music out there that is so much better than her.

Speaking of better music, I got my hands on a copy of Poets of the Fall's new album Alchemy Vol. 1 yesterday and it is amazing, despite about three of the songs on it being repeated from two previous albums. But it's so worth listening to. "Sleep" is my favorite song off of this album that wasn't from a previous album. It's such a beautiful song to listen to. I could listen to it all day.

Being up early three days in a row and going to bed really late during the nights between =/= Staying awake the third day too well

Ever since Sunday, I've been getting up fairly early (well, early for me) at around 8AM, or at least attempting to get up about that time. Sunday was because I had to get to church (yay for church starting at 11:30AM); Monday was to get to Pierce around 11 for a visit; today (yes, I realize it's really early Wednesday morning but it still feels like it's Tuesday for me) was for a Pierce visit at 11AM/institute on campus at 12 noon. I was home at a pretty decent time after church on Sunday but I was home maybe half an hour after being gone all day Monday just to go back out and not walk through the door again until 5AM when other people in the house were just getting up and getting ready for work/school. Oops. So I got maybe four hours of sleep this morning before getting up again. So surviving today hasn't been fun. Any time there was a lull in my day, I wanted to pass out right where I was. Which most likely wouldn't have been good in a public library.

Despite being wicked tired today, I'm so stoked that I picked up a disc set of 20 of Alfred Hitchcock's movies. All four DVDs were $5, making each movie about a quarter a piece. $5 well spent? I think so. I absolutely adore Hitchcock's work. How could you not like the movies he's come out with? Then again, I love any movie that will thoroughly screw with your head and make you think. And Hitchcock's movies do that, even decades after they originally came out.

In October of 2009, I had the opportunity to go see The 39 Steps in a play adaptation at the Seattle Rep theatre. And of course, this caught my interest and made me watch the movie to see what the original was like so I could compare the two and figure out which I liked more. I was super stoked when I saw that The 39 Steps was included in the 20 movies on the disc set I bought. And it only took me a year and a half to get to the point of where I'd be able to see the movie. That's way too long to wait. But at least I got to this point. And the actors that did the show did a very good job with the minimalistic set that they used (which must have made striking set so ridiculously easy [yeah, I don't hang out with theater kids at all]). I'm hoping to one day to get back to the Seattle Rep for another show and am so jealous that my brother's going to see Of Mice and Men there at the end of this month. I tried to convince him to talk to the teacher who is taking the entire senior class (he's only in HS) and see if she'd be willing to let me chaperon. Unfortunately for me, I'm not allowed to go yet. But I really, really, really want to go with him and see it. I am determined to get up there and see something at the Rep. Or the Children's Theater since they do really good shows as well. Maybe both.

Because of one of my friends, I'm becoming very attached to Poets of the Fall. How could I not possibly get attached to them? They're pretty amazing.

The other night, DJ Apollo (the DJ friend of mine mentioned in a previous post) attacked my wall on Facebook with multiple YouTube videos. And I was stoked about it. Why? Just watch and see why for yourself:

Nathan "Flutebox" Lee and Beardyman @ Google, London

"Monkey Jazz" : BEARDYMAN & mr_hopkinson™

LES TWINS | YAK FILMS | WORLD OF DANCE 2010 Vallejo, CA | BAY AREA WOD

Salah judge showcase@BOTY switzerland 2010

B BOY SALAH GUATEMALA 2010 

Rowan Atkinson Live - Star of Mr.Bean - Funny invisible drum

The last YouTube video was posted mainly because Apollo knew I needed a good laugh. I don't think anyone knows how thoroughly entertained I am by Beardyman's "Monkey Jazz" video. I laugh like crazy every time I watch the video. And I'm jealous of anyone in any of the three dancing videos. Why? I'm a white girl with no rhythm. So I figure it's OK to be jealous of their skills.

My iPod is named Gir.

And he is definitely worthy of his name. He has a mix of music specifically for Sundays and music for every other day of the week. When I put him on shuffle, what's he do? If it's Monday through Saturday, Gir gives me a ton of Sunday music. I'll get three and four songs in a row that are for Sundays before getting something that's not Sunday related and it's just the one song before it's more Sunday music. If it's a Sunday when I put Gir on shuffle, then I get a ton of non Sunday music with a Sunday song between three or four songs, if not more. I love Gir (I mean, come on, he has my music and let's me use him whenever I want) but I wish he would get it right when it comes to playing the right music. I hate having to skip good music just because it's Sunday. But I do it, anyways. Plus it really doesn't help that I don't process what I'm listening to most of the time, so I don't know when to hit the next button until at least halfway through a song.

One of the best things that could have happened happened today: One of my favorite missionaries who was recently released from his mission (as in a couple of months ago) came to visit today! I was so excited to see him that I may or may not have glomped him. And I just had to get a picture since he left soon after Sacrament meeting:

I know it's kinda blurry and hard to see but he's definitely one of the favorites. And his showing up for church today just reinforced why he's a favorite. ♥


I've decided that my friends are crazy. Who else would sneak taking pictures in Target when you aren't supposed to do so? And not get caught in the process? But we are pretty cool, despite our insanity. And honestly, I think that would be the reason why people love us so much.

Last night, someone posted this song (although that isn't that exact video since I ain't got the patience to try and find it) to his Facebook and it was insta-love. I probably should warn him about the whole me "loving you if you give me enough good music" deal. But I don't think I will. (Unless he reads this post and finds out that way.) I used to joke around a bit with another friend of mine who DJs that used to give me music all the time that if he kept it up, I'd have a crush on him in no time. It's been a while since I've done that, though.

Ever get the feeling that you want to write something that will affect someone somewhere but don't have the words? I've been having that feeling a lot lately. And it bugs me that I don't have the words like you wouldn't believe. I hope that I'll eventually find the words.

I don't see how some people can do it

I ended up not eating almost all day today due to trying to get job applications into different places (and when I wasn't doing that, I was trying to watch Star Trek: Enterprise [which is something I don't see how anyone could like]). So I kinda just ended up forgetting about food. About 4PM, I realized how hungry I was and managed to eat something small to take the edge off since dinner would be soon. What I don't get is how people can willingly starve themselves. I realize that some people do it to lose weight but there are healthier ways to do it that actually let you have food. And besides, once you get to a certain point you look like a skeleton. How in the world is that attractive to anyone? That's so gross.

On a, shall we say, happier note, I was searching for something on YouTube by Elvis Crespo when "Hey Dude" showed up in the drop down list of suggestions. Curious, I chose that one and ended up laughing at how he says the word "dude." I don't know why I found it so funny (I have quite a few friends of various Latino backgrounds, so it really shouldn't have been funny) but I thought it was fairly entertaining and worth sharing.

I'm finding myself a bit more attached to Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas than I usually am right now. It's crazy to think that this movie came out 18 years ago. And people still love it. I don't think I'll ever give up my VHS copy of the movie until the film wears out to the point where the movie is no longer able to be played. Or the VCR dies and there aren't any more to be found. Then again, who uses a VCR and watches movies on VHS anymore? Besides me.

A whole week later and...

... I still feel like I don't have much to say on this thing, even as I sit here listening to Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Arsenal of Freedom." (Yeah, I know it's not music but it'll do for now.)

An institute class started recently at school and I've pretty much been the only person outside of the senior missionaries and the staff adviser. It's really weird being the only one in there that is on the younger side (as in early 20s) and isn't married. Don't get me wrong, I love learning (especially about stuff like religion) but it just feels weird being there. I'm sure the weird feelings will fade. Hopefully more people will be there next week and it won't be just myself.

The funny thing is, I skipped most of a Star Trek marathon to go to institute. I really wanted to stay home and watched 10 hours worth of Star Trek: The Next Generation (yes, really 10 whole hours of Star Trek) but I decided to be a good Mormon girl and go to institute, like I know I'm supposed to (and I was kinda hopeful that other people would show). I told one of my friends about that and his response? "Nope, Gospel comes first. The Enterprise is darn close though." I like the way he thinks. :)

Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody" has been stuck in my head for the last couple of hours and it's been driving me crazy. I like the song but even the best of songs get old when it's all you hear for an hour or two, if not longer.

YouTube actually gave me a couple of good suggestions when I was searching for something. I don't know why I hadn't stumbled upon the Vaccines before but I really like that song. They kind of remind me of another group but I can't think of the name of the group but I'll remember it later when I'm least expecting it (probably when I'm just about to fall asleep or something to that extent). I randomly came across the Airborne Toxic Event as well, even though I'm pretty sure I've seen that video before on VH1 or MTV before. The beginning sounds like there's some Asian influence in there with modern sounds and a sexy car. Note to self: Get CDs for both the Vaccines and the Airborne Toxic Event to see if the rest of their music is any good.

Time keeps moving forward...

... And sometimes, I wish it wouldn't move as fast as it does. There was a few moments this last weekend I wish I could have just frozen and stayed in until the end of time and beyond. Anyone else have one of those moments lately? I wouldn't mind putting Friday and Saturday on repeat, I really wouldn't. Especially parts of Saturday night...  (I didn't do anything like that, so get your head outta the gutter, you dirty minded reader you.)

Someone please tell me that I'm not the only one that doesn't want someone to teach me how to dougie. I think it's a weird song and haven't really seen the dance. Then again, I'm pretty much a white girl and probably shouldn't be learning how to do it anyways since I have almost no rhythm. Oh well.

I love my friends. We found the Mardi Gras table unmanned at school and hijacked the last of the masks. There just enough for everyone to have a mask (everyone but the guy in the green mask is a member of the Odd Squad). I even walked with a friend down to Financial Aide while wearing my mask and got a few looks from strangers. My day got just that much better.

Jarpteetza, the Firebird

Pierce is actually putting on a  pretty good show this quarter. They're doing Jarpteetza, the Firebird (hence the title). I had forgotten how much I loved Baba Yaga stories until I found out that Patrick was directing this particular show. After sitting in with the tech crew and reading lines with them at the beginning of the quarter, I had to read Baba Yaga and the Prince (which is, sadly enough, the only book I have about her).

Because of Patrick, it looks like I'm going to be even more involved with Pierce's theater. Yay? Depending on who is directing next quarter's show, I will either be helping out starting next quarter or this fall. Patrick's definitely directing this fall and has already said he'd like me to come in and help. So no getting out of it this fall.

Has anyone else gotten what this song is about? Why would anyone want to get married just because you have NOTHING better to do? Why even agree to it? I think it's ridiculous.

Pre interview nerves... We all get them, right?

I have an interview tomorrow afternoon that was set up two weeks ago for a more upscale department store. This is the second time I've interview with them, after having been rejected by them the first time. Why so nervous? I don't want to be rejected again! Then again, it seems like I always get at least an interview with them and I have more recent job experience now than I did at my last interview (yay for working two jobs at once during the holiday season!), so I'm hoping for a good turnout. Figuring out an outfit for this place is always stressful, though. Worrying about clothes, hair, and makeup is so not my personality. People who know me well, or just know me in person in general, know that that's not my style. Here's to hoping I find something that looks nice.

I got this song stuck in my head today after listening to it once. I just recently put the soundtrack to Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas on my iPod since I absolutely love this movie and have been listening to it off and on ever since. And now I get to listen to it without the use of my iPod. I don't know if I should be stoked that it's there all the time or annoyed that it's all I hear. I think I'll gonna go with stoked.

I don't know why I'm doing this but...

... A friend started a blog tonight, which got me to thinking that I wanted to make one as well. What I was going to write about, I don't know but I'm sure I'll think of things as time goes on.

Just as the name of the blog suggests, I'm addicted to music and my iPod goes everywhere with me. I've named it Gir (as in Gir from "Invader Zim" for you unfortunate people who haven't seen it [my phone is Zim, FYI]) just because it's green and is the same shade of green that Gir is while wearing his disguise. Sadly enough for me, Gir's only 8GB and I need more room to store everything on it that is currently on my iTunes.  I try to go through what Gir  has every so often and rotate out music and playlists. It goes everywhere I go, so I'm never bored. There's anything on it from pop to rock to sound tracks from movies to a friend who composes his own music (he's amazing, by the way, and if you want copies of "Chronicles" or "Hold On, Let Go" and you're in my area, I'm the girl to go to for a free one).

I'm pretty sure I have some of the most amazing friends anyone could ever have. There's nothing better than going on a crazy misadventure just because we got lost. Or we just plain don't know what we're doing. There may be separate groups among my friends and they're almost all equally weird but the weirdest has to be the Odd Squad. I would trade the Odd Squad for anything, though. I love my odd people. ♥

Because of one friend in particular, I actually like Star Trek after 21.5 years of being in serious dislike of the show. If I know when the show is on TV, then that's what I'm watching. I'm still in season one and have a long way to go. But I don't care -- I'm actually enjoying the show for the first time in my life and wouldn't have it any other way. And I'm getting good at figuring out the question every episode asks (well, I think I am, anyways). Is it bad that I have the schedule pretty much down for when it's on? Oh well. I'm entertained by it. And this video about Wil Wheaton made me laugh when I saw it. And it gets stuck in my head. Sometimes. And it doesn't mean Wil Wheaton doesn't love you!