Thursday, August 24, 2006

The "Maneater"

Tonight I had a really interesting experience with one of my friends that I thought was worth sharing, because it definately gave me a laugh. A bunch of my friends from last year that have left for college keep in touch with me and tonight one of them in particular told me a really funny experience that she had while she was away at college.

She recently met this guy who we'll call Bob. Bob, to put it lightly, is somewhat of a girly-man. No offence to boys of the more feminine side...nothing against you, but this guy was REALLY off. He seemed to think that my friend was going to be the next Mrs. Bob. How do we know this, you ask? Simple - the wonders of the internet are endless.

My friend said that one night she was bored, and googled her name on the internet. Lo and behold, up popped a sight much like this one...a site for the bloggers of the world. Bob, it seems, has a little time on his hands and likes to leave a daily journal on his blog site. Nothing wrong with that, except that it gets a little tedious to watch him calculate his test scores on the computer ("I messed up on these quiz questions..well, I missed two of them, which is 4 points..but I probably missed 15 points overall on the exam..which would give me a 60/75..an 80%..bah humbug."...yeah). Anyway, she went to the entry about the first night that he'd met her, and there it was. The boy was obviously very attracted to this friend, because not only did he have ALL of her good virtues written down, but he also had the LDS temple that they would be married in picked out. I'm not kidding. It went something like "She likes the such and such temple, but I prefer the such and such temple. Oh well, I guess we'll see how things go". Yeah. Nice. Anyway, my friend thought that it was high time that the poor sap realized that, as hard as it was to say, things were NEVER going to get that far. So what did she do? She sat him down and gave him the old "maneater" speech.

Now, I think I should make it clear that this friend is by no means a "maneater". She does not "use and abuse" guys, and I'm almost positive she never will. Bob, however, didn't know that, and I see no need for him to. She sat him down a few days ago and tonight she repeated the conversation for my benefit. It went something like this:

"Bob, a lot of my friends call me a maneater. See, I tend to lead guys on and then dump them." "Ok." (blank stare...obviously this guy has a few more years of school ahead of him. She didn't tell me all of the exact details, but I know that from his entry on the web, she didn't make it very clear, though in the end he seemed to get the general point. Now comes the best part....Bob had just been crushed. His future Mrs. Bob had given him the old heave ho and now he had to find a way to deal with that. Well, apparently, nothing says "moving on" to Bob except a half gallon of orange sherbet and the modern-day LDS version of "Pride and Prejudice". That's right. As Bob put it, he went on a "binge".

Anyway, in addition to being an incredibly funny story (at least to me...I don't think I told it very well, and you kind of have to know the girl to appreciate the true hilarity of the story) this is a warning to all you poor saps out there that ask a girl to wait for her until you return from your mission after knowing her a week and get turned down....there are maneaters out there, and as she put it tonight, "Phase one was complete....now we were on the toilet!"

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Summer Blues

What is it about our school system that makes them think that three months of summer is good? Not that I'm complaining about the long break or anything, but...well...I'm complaining about it. During the school year it feels like the only breaks students really have to look forward to are Saturdays and Sundays. We get pushed to the limit all week long with long papers, math assignments, science experiments, and all other kinds of homework that is probably best not mentioned. Then, just when we're about to crack a weekend comes around. HALELUJIAH! But again, it's only two short days of rest before it's back to the back breaking, mind numbing torture we call homework. It's just not fair, I tell you!

Students work hard. We have to, or we get pressure from friends, teachers, parents, and other sources. Those A's have gotta keep rolling in, and we try to make sure that they do. But it would be nice to have a week off every once in a while. I, for one, am fine with have only two months of summer as long as we get a break from all of that stressful work every once in a while.

Not only do we get pushed to the limit throughout the school year, but then we get three whole months off. Now, after what I've said above, you're probably wondering why I'm complaining about the long break they give us. I'll be the first to admit that after a full year of working and working and working even more, it's REALLY nice to have that long break. But after a couple of weeks of waking up at ten (heavenly!) and having nothing to do all day (because I'm lame and can't get a job), I just get bored. And not only am I bored - I'm lonely. My friends have jobs or family vacations or whatever to keep them occupied. I've spent the last couple of days reading a book, which is exactly what I'll be doing in August at SCHOOL!

All I'm saying: it would be nice to have a break every once in a while during the school year becuase it would solve both problems. The school year would be more bearable with all of the work we've got piling on top of us and the summer would be less boring and, yes, lonely. But what do I know...I'm just the student!

Sunday, March 05, 2006

The Power Of Music

Ever since the time I was just a "nugget", as my new Sunday School teacher calls her baby, I've loved music. Some of my earliest memories are of my sister putting on Abba and then dancing around with a duster in her hand, trying to get me to have a positive attitude about the fact that I had to clean. Let's face it - everything in life is better with a song. I second the motion the seven dwarves had when they say that whistling while you work is better than just working.

This may sound more than a bit cheesy, but I truly feel that being in choir has made a positive impact on my life. I have friends that are faced with the same situations I am, and I can be just as mad as they are about them or feel just as bad as they do, but take me to fourth or fifth period and let me get involved in the music and I'll be skipping down the halls with a smile while my friends still skulk their wayst to class. I'm not saying that my friends are pessimistic by any means. I'm just saying that I have music that touches my soul and they have equations that fry their brains.

I firmly believe that music makes a difference in life. I know people that listen to rap music that can't ever seem to force a smile, while others that listen to Mozart can't seem to stop smiling. I'm not saying that you have to listen to classical music to be happy, but I am trying to make a point here. I know that when I'm in a bad mood and I want to stay in a bad mood, I turn on X96 or some other similar hard, sulky rock station or CD and sulk in my room. When I don't want to stay in that bad mood, though, I turn on the MoTab or even upbeat country music or something like that. Life's attitudes can truly be altered by a simple melody.

I believe that music touches your soul as well as your ears. Peaceful music brings peaceful feelings of rest and repose...unhappy people who record themselves scream with a drum beating in the background don't usually produce the same effect. All I can say is that I'm so grateful I have discovered the cure to almost any problem...a good, beautiful, soul-inspiring song.

Friday, January 06, 2006

Feliz Navidad...!

(My writing skills are a bit rusty, due to the fact that it's been over three months since my last blog, so forgive me if this blog isn't interesting or whatever.)

It's true! I, the girl that dreams of big places but has only occasionally gone anywhere truly interesting, can officially say I have left our country! And let me tell you...it was the most amazing vacation I've ever been on! For Christmas my parents took my sister and I to Mazatlan, Mexico. I have to say that it has to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. Our hotel, El Rancho, was literally a little heaven on earth. We walked past the first two condos in search of our own temporary home and I stopped dead. It was like walking into a forest of tropical plants. Palm trees, flowers of every color known to man, and other large green plants were EVERYWHERE. But, sadly, I'm getting ahead of myself.

The morning we left for our eight days of bliss, I had to wake up at three thirty AM after having gone to bed at two thirty AM so that I wouldn't miss our flight. After two flights (one from Salt Lake to Phoenix and the other from Phoenix to Mazatlan) were as good as airline flights can be, and everything seemed all right until we landed. As we moved from our gate, through customs, and to the luggage carousel, we settled down for the long wait that usually accompanies the process of retrieving luggage from an airplane. Much to our dismay after waiting for a while, we were told that our luggage hadn't been transferred from our first plane to our second in time. We were stuck without clothes in a strange and foreign country. Whoopdeedoo.

As I said before, however, those little troubles were pushed from my mind when I saw our tropical hotel. After we'd dropped what belongings we'd had in our carry-ons off at our condo, we walked the thirty second walk to the little restaraunt beyond the swimming pool. I wasn't prepared for what happened next, so it's no wonder that the sight took my breath away. As we walked towards our lunch, I looked beyond the wooden staircase and saw nothing but a small area of green grass, white and brown sand, and then nothing but blue. The ocean was HUGE, spreading as far as my eyes could see, and from where I was standing, it looked like it went on to the left and right forever, too. I later found out, however, that there were two points about a mile and a half away on either side of us. But that was the moment when it first sunk in...I was in MEXICO!! I spent the rest of the week in one of five places. Either in the ocean with my newly purchased boogy board, lying on one of those white, long lawn chairs next to the beach in the sun with a book, playing on the beach, shopping or eating in the market or stores in downtown Mazatlan, or sleeping in my condo. Oh, and for the first time in my life, I'm TAN! Not sunburned, not completely white. TAN. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, miracles DO happen.

My favorite part of the trip? As much fun as swimming in the ocean, tanning with a book, shopping for random treasures, eating octopus (yes, the slimy thing with eight tentacles), and watching the blazingly, breathtakingly beautiful sunsets was, my favorite part was the adventure my sister Mary and I had for only $20 bucks each.

I'm one of those people who gets so bored that they do random things to keep themselves entertained, and I'm not ashamed to admit that one of those random things one day was making a list of the top 100 things that I wanted to do in life. Well, thanks to my Christmas present in the form of the ocean, I can cross off one of the items on that list. I got to go horseback riding in the surf. What was even better, though, was that as I was trotting along making myself as sore as could be, the sun was setting. YEP! I got to go horseback riding along the beach, in the surf, while watching the sunset! Oh, it was AMAZING!

Seriously, if anybody wants one of the best vacations that's humanly possible, visit Mazatlan in December, when the temperature is still in the low eighties, and you will see how amazing life can really get. We got home on Sunday at midnight after having dealt with the American West Airlines, who had lost our luggage AGAIN (luckily, the first time they'd delivered them by late afternoon the next day, and the second time was kind of our fault....long story). We talked to our family members that were here waiting for us, and then I checked my email and went to bed. As I climbed under the sheets in my sisters bed, however (I had to stay with her because my sister and brother-in-law were staying in my room for the duration of their visit from california), I realized how much I really wanted to be back in Mexico, sleeping on the only flaw of the vacation (I swear those beds were wooden boards with sheets over them) and waiting for the next day, when I could walk along the beach with my aunt (who'd met us there) waiting for the sunrise.

Still, I'm glad to be back in Provo, where I can actually brush my teeth with water from the tap. It was the best vacation I think I've ever been on, though, and it'll DEFINATELY be a place I'll be visiting again and again later in life.