I DO NOT have good study habits.

*Sigh

Do you need any better proof of that than this post?

I write a sentence or two and then find ways to distract myself. Not okay. I may have to find enough time in my evenings to make trips to the library worth it. This is just not okay.

Ok. This is me focusing.

PS My sister and I spent a lovely ten minutes discussing my daring new look. Be excited.

PPS STILL not focusing.

Booger.

Daring New Look

On the recommendation of my chocolate-dipped fortune cookie from Shoot's last Friday, I've decided to try a daring new look.

I've come up with some options.

Option 1:

I like that this option really focuses on appreciating each color for it's individuality. I also like that I only need one pair of boots.

Image found here.


Option 2:

I'm kind of in love with the teal hair. I'm not so sure how I feel about the nose ring: (1) I hate needles (required to get the ring in your nose), and (2) I've never felt a desire to sympathize with the bulls.

Image found here.



Option 3:

This girl is adorable. Notice the ombre hair? She did it herself cause she's just that awesome. Also, her ombre hair looks way better than Drew Barrymore's ombre hair. She needs a new stylist (Drew, not this adorable lady). Actually, I looked her up to make fun of her ombre hair, but hers I actually like. Congrats, adorable girl. I still don't like ombre hair, but yours is pretty cute on you. She looks like she just is adorable. Adorableness is way too much work for me. Not happening.

Image found here.



Option 4:

And then there's option 4. It looks daring and exciting and adventurous. Yup, I think I'm going with option 4.

Two Fabulous Weekends; One Fabulous Me

Weekend 1
Friday night spent on homework (I'm hoping to get my second course done before the end of next week). Art class Saturday. Lunch with the fam. Saturday night at the Utah Symphony listening to Beethoven's 5th Symphony and a cello concerto commissioned from composer Michael Jarrell specifically for the Utah Symphony by the music director, Thierry Fischer, and played by the French cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras. Did I mention the composer is spending the week with the Utah Symphony, helping them prepare to play this concerto?

Weekend 2
Living it up in Vegas with Lindsay B. You know, the usual Vegas things. Walking down the strip, eating delicious food, doing some shopping. Oh, and hanging with Romney at the Nevada caucus and hitting up his victory party if he wins.

Ahh!

If I hadn't decided last summer that I wanted to hit all of Beethoven's nine symphonies this season, I would definitely be going to Vegas. As it is, I'll probably be hanging around here this weekend, but part of me is crying just thinking of missing Weekend 2. Alas, there is only one fabulous me. I'm pretty jealous of pu1-me (parallel universe 1) for spending this weekend in Vegas. She and pu1-Lindsay B. are sure gonna have a good time. *Sigh

So much awesomeness; so little time.

Talents, Food, and Friends

These are the things that made up my last week (and the reason I didn't do any schoolwork: fail; well, except for the part where I took my final for my first course and passed it in 13 minutes)

Talented People
These are the people that I enjoyed the talents of:

• Cute neighborhood girl - I saw her in Orem High's production of the Secret Garden. She played Lily. She did a fabulous job.
• Truman - I saw them at Guru's Wednesday evening. I purchased a cd to commemorate the evening. They signed it for me.
• Brian Regan - I saw him Thursday night. He's funny. Also, his opening act wasn't too shabby either (Joe Bolster?)

Delicious Food
I ate at:

• Texas Roadhouse
• Smashburger
• Guru's
• Blue Lemon
• Shoot's

Fabulous Friends
I played with:

• My family (three times!)
• Michelle
• Anna, Kristen, & Meredith
• Lindsay T.
• Darcy & Lindsay B.

Also, I read a book. A whole book. On Saturday. It felt fabulous. It was this book. I really liked it, but it has dirty parts. Too bad cause it didn't need them. What happened was integral to the story. The parts themselves didn't need to be in the book. Also, I have lots of thoughts about this book and wish that somebody I knew had read it so I could talk about it with them.

And yes, Lindsay B., that is why I am lending it to you. Not so that you can read a good book, but so that I have somebody to talk to about this good book. :)

In my college psychology class we took a couple of class periods to talk about sleep. Everybody needs it. Sure, some people need less and some people need more, but it's essential for everyone. The funny thing is, nobody knows why.

There's all sorts of theories, some more prevalent and accepted than others. But that doesn't much matter. What matters is that everybody needs it.

Sleep and I haven't been very good friends recently. We've had our troubles over the years. There have been times when it has taken me anywhere from half an hour to three hours to fall asleep each night. Generally, it's not so bad anymore.

Round about Christmas time I started not sleeping so well. At the time I blamed not being at home and sharing a bed with my little sister. She moved, I woke up; I moved cause I was awake, she either woke up or moved to a more surfacey level of sleep and moved more.

I was expecting, once I returned home, to be able to sleep again. I still couldn't sleep. I blamed it on getting in the habit of not sleeping well and I told my body quite firmly that it should get over it and start sleeping again. It didn't.

Then I went to San Francisco for the weekend. I slept like a champ. And I've been sleeping so well ever since I nearly forgot the differences sleep and I were struggling with before my spontaneous SF trip.

I'm not sleeping again. I probably got maybe three or four hours of sleep last night and the night before. Once upon a time when I was young and spry that wouldn't have been a problem. Now I'm old and I need sleep. Lots of sleep. Ideally seven hours of sleep.

Last night I lay in bed, my eyes feeling swollen and sand-papery, my head pulsing slightly with each beat of my heart (which was in itself slightly disturbing since my resting HR seemed to be at least in the 60s instead of the dependable, sluggish, low 50s that I'm used to), leaving behind a constant, dull, delicate sort of ache. The kind of dull, delicate ache that, given enough time, could drive me mad.

As I was laying there objectively weighting the pros and cons of ridding myself of the contents of my stomach in order to reduce the ache in my belly, I decided nighttime hours are wasted on me. I ought to have been composing the next great American novel. Or perhaps hypothesizing about the neurological processes that inhibit sleep to solve sleeping problems for people the world over.

Somewhere around 3:30 I cut my losses and wandered into the kitchen for a small mug of hot chocolate (for the sleep-inducing properties of the warm milk) and put on the Legend of Bagger Vance, the best sleeping movie according to those in my family who don't have as many troubles with sleep as I do. I snuggled on the couch half-hoping that for once I would be able to fall asleep to a movie. I cut my losses again and returned to my bed a little over an hour later.

As I lay awake in my bed I put the pieces together. It's a simple logic puzzle. The kind they make you do in elementary school to test your abilities to pick out patterns and relationships.

I wasn't sleeping. During and after my crazy San Francisco trip, I was.

I'm not sleeping. [Fill in blank here]

I desperately need to take another weekend road trip

Any takers?

Art Class

I'm taking an art class. My teacher rents out classrooms in various locations around the valley and does an open art workshop. That means that in any given class there are people of all different levels working in different mediums. I'm kind of in love with it.

I've had maybe six classes so far (one every two weeks except I didn't go to class at all in November or December). Here are some of the things I've drawn over the past couple of months representing a slow progression. A couple of the drawings are incomplete; sketching is more mentally exhausting than anything I have ever done before. A two hour class period is about my limit. Even so, I'm getting better, I think.

And yes, I did sign the last one. I did it in class just yesterday and my teacher said it is important to get in the habit of signing my work. (I had to try hard not to laugh in her face. Who knew I would ever be in the position to legitimately sign pieces of artwork?)

San Francisco

I’ve been obsessed with San Francisco for the past year or so. I’m not really sure where the obsession came from. It would maybe make sense if I had seen a special on the travel channel or read a great book set in San Francisco. I didn’t. I just love San Francisco. I’ve been telling people that I’m going to live there someday and I’ve pretty much got LindsayB convinced that she should move there with me.

I meant to go visit last year over the fourth of July. I didn’t. Pretty much saddest thing ever.

So, when LindsayB sent me an IM saying, “Three-day weekend = you and me in San Francisco,” I naturally responded with a “why yes, yes it does.”

Our weekend ended up being 1 part car ride and 2 parts San Francisco and it was amazing!

Not sure you believe 22 hours in the car for less than 48 hours in San Francisco is worth it?

Let me give a little glimpse of what happens when two crazy girls have 44 hours in the fabulous city of San Francisco.

• Valet parking at the Marriott downtown (yeah, that was totally a highlight; drive in downtown San Francisco and you’ll understand)
• Jaunt through Chinatown
• Stroll through Little Italy
• Some time in front of the window at the Boudin bakery (the cute baker was very obliging and waved and smiled like a champ after finishing her two crab loaves; do you think they rotate bakers in and out of the secret back room for when they get tired of smiling and waving at all the tourists breathing on their window?)
• Walk around Fisherman’s Wharf, enabling me to acquire a magnet memorializing my time there
• Amble through Pier 39
• Visit with the seals hanging out in the bay
• Sandwiches on super delicious Boudin sourdough bread
• Massive sundaes at the Ghirardelli shop in Ghiradelli square (mint and chocolate ice cream with piles and piles of Ghirardelli dark chocolate hot fudge)
• A drive down Lombard Street (courtesy of my best cuz Steph and her husband Jon)
• Walk around Union Square exploring the expensive shops with scores for each of us (J. Crew iPad case made in San Francisco for me; Kate Spade iPhone case for Lindsay; 50% off Vera Bradley bag for Steph, which she didn’t get—oh the disappointment)
• Ride on the famous cable cars
• Fantastic color changing nail polish from Del Sol
• Boat tour around the Bay, under the Golden Gate Bridge, and around Alcatraz
• Peek at Chinese New Year celebrations (second time through Chinatown)
• Lazy afternoon hours at the bookstore City Lights
• A cup of the best hot chocolate ever—really
• Adorable Jimmy Choo sandal wedges for only about $300, basically a steal (I wish I could say I purchased them or at least tried them on, but I didn’t)
• Acquisition of a real live Blommingdale’s Little Brown Bag
• Game of Cribbage (5-card)
• Three stops at the closest Walgreen’s (there were about eight around Union square, no lie) for cash back with our purchase, the limit being twenty dollars with each transaction
• Compliment from the Marriott bellman on the cleanliness of my trunk

Like I said, totally worth it.

And I’ve already got my list for the next time I visit San Francisco.

• Another cup of that amazing hot chocolate
• Ride on the cable cars (as many times as possible!)
• Bike ride across the Golden Gate Bridge (preferably on a tandem bike because that would just be awesome)
• Victorian House Tour
• A show at the Orpheum Theater (Mamma Mia is going to be there soon!)
• Some delicious San Francisco seafood right by the bay
• A visit to Golden Gate Park
• An Earthquake from the shop in Ghirardelli Square: eight scoops of ice cream, eight delicious toppings, with bananas, whipped cream, almonds, and Ghirardelli chocolate chips

I also intend to be far enough along in my basic drawing class to feel confident sketching some of the sites in San Francisco.

I Don't Like Pets

Cats shed.

Dogs smell.

Gerbils poop on your hands.

Fish have dirty, disgusting tanks and eat each other.


I understand that many people have deep, emotional connections to their pets and I am glad that they have found something so meaningful. I support eliminating cruelty to animals.

And I'll even admit in theory, pets seem pretty great. (I had a preference as a young child for white tiger cubs.)

But in practice, I don't like pets.

Incidentally, I was at Petsmart the other day buying some cat food for my kitties (outdoor; I see them a couple times a week and they keep the mice away). Petsmart had their diamond doves on sale for $27.99, original price $34.99. There was only one left and I imagine the poor bird took quite a hit to his self-esteem.

For a company that claims to understand the connection between people and their chosen best friends, that seemed pretty cold.

Resolutions

It’s eight days into the new year. It may be that you find yourself in one of these categories:

• Eight days into your resolutions and totally on fire
• Eight days behind on your resolutions but determined to do better
• Eight days in and already to the maybe-next-years

In years past I was nearly always in the first category, occasionally in the second category, but almost never in the third category (that didn’t come until at least a few months in). This year I’m in a completely new, slightly disconcerting category:

• Resolutions? Eh, who needs ‘em?

Okay, I lied. It isn’t disconcerting. Which I think may be what is disconcerting about it. Where are my categories? Where are my lists and charts and deadlines and check points?

Past selves would feel lost. Present self? Not even close.

You should know that I support you. I will cheer for you when you blow one of your resolutions out of the water and commiserate with you when you haven’t gotten quite as far as you wanted to be.

But don’t expect me to get in on the action. I resolve nothing but to have no resolutions.

I will not strive to do things I have never done before but always wanted to.

I will not write down goals I feel I should have but don’t actually want to do.

I will not feel pangs of guilt for forgotten or thrown-aside resolutions.

This year I am nothing but me. There are no resolutions riding on this back. I’m living this year to the fullest reveling in who I am now, just as I am. Dirty and messy and not as healthy or as service oriented or as crafty or as social or as smiley or as organized or as [fill in endless blanks here] as I should be. And I’m going to enjoy every stinkin’ moment of it.

Maybe I do have a resolution after all.

2012
I resolve to take all this year has to offer me and revel in the joy that comes simply by living each moment.

And you better believe I’ve got this.

I’ve been back in school for a month now, but without classes I didn’t feel like a scholar. After packing up my old, college backpack with study materials, snacks, and my favorite pencil and heading to the good, ol’ OPL to study my little brains out, I can say without hesitation that I feel like I’m back in school. (By the way, there’s a new, rather imposing statue of Lincoln in the lobby of the south wing. Perhaps because Lincoln was studious?)

This is my new norm. Or my old norm I suppose. Back to textbooks and assignments and tests and learning.

I can’t say I’m upset about spending my days at the library. Not only is the dusty, old-book smelling nature of the library good for the soul, libraries have a way of making one feel smarter. I am surrounded by opportunities for learning. Even counting only the possibilities visible from where I sit, the possibilities are endless; I could learn about nourishing a cactus, staging a musical, using homemade learning tools for helping children learn, playing scrabble with proven winning strategies, or making my own artist tools. (I admit it: I’m as prone to book watching as I am to people watching.)

Knowledge. Makes a person feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

And now I’m afraid you’ll have to excuse me. I’ve got some hard-core studying to do.