all i've got to do

Never write a research paper on your favorite book. You will hate it at the end.

catswalk

*warning. if you press play on the above video, be prepared to have this song stuck in your head for the rest of the day. possibly multiple days.

My mom is the first person who sent me the original of this video. Which is actually pretty surprising because rarely do my parents know about things on the internet before I do. But anyway. My mom sent it to me and said that it reminded her a little of me. At first I was offended. But then I just accepted it. Because the fact of the matter is: I love cats. I love every kind of cat. And I may even extend that to every kind of animal. Except possibly sloths. I've never quite been able to connect with them. Sometimes people make fun of me because of how much I love things. Like animals. But so be it.

I'm in love, I'm in love and I don't care who knows it!

And here follows a lovely montage of a sweet kitty we "fostered" at our house for a few weeks this summer:

Cats are cute.

a shot of rhythm and blues

If you're ever driving down any kind of coast

(esp. at night),

play this song.

don't try so hard

I would apologize for my lack of blogging, but it seems like everyone does that. So I guess I shall simply commend myself for being an average blogger.

Mediocrity is what we strive for. right?

Also, happy autumn to all.

etcetera

More pictures from June/July.

One day, whilst driving to the beach, Savanah and I stopped by some old ruins of a church and took some pictures.

And apparently thought squatting was a good idea.
My very cool roommates, Chelsea, Savanah and I, had Christmas on June 17th. Why? Because Chelsea had a Christmas tree under her bed.
We ate funnel cakes and I rode the Zipper for the first time at the 50th State Fair. I know what you're thinking: Wow! Hawaii has had 50 state fairs? No. Hawaii is simply the 50th state and this was its fair.
Remember this? Well these are the actual pictures from my adventure. So so fun.

I've been home in Utah for the last month, enjoying my summer vacation and it's been amazing, but unfortunately all I've been doing is sleeping and reading and I don't have any pictures of those activities to share with the world wide web. Maybe by the end of the summer I'll come up with some pictures of me doing things that are worth blogging about.

every little thing

Sometimes when it's really late at night and I need to take a break from my homework I....

..paint over a picture of my sister and me.

I don't even know how I found the particular website that I was on, but it was basically like the old school Paint program. I just uploaded a picture and then started playing around with it. I decided it would be cool if I completely painted over it to make it look like a real painting. I didn't use any special program or feature, I went through section by section and painted over it with the little paintbrush. Nothing is left un painted.

It was fun and actually pretty relaxing for my brain. And I like the finished product.

And don't worry. I finished my homework afterward.

a kind of magic

"It's a strange thing, but when you are dreading something, and would give anything to slow down time, it has a disobliging habit of speeding up" --Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry Potter is over. Of course I went to the midnight showing. Of course I went with Ariel. Of course we saw it in 3D with the special-edition Harry Potter-shaped glasses. Of course I brought my wand and my owl. Of course I cried.

I was the first person in my third grade class to read the first Harry Potter book. I've read all the books--mostly at about 1:00 in the morning on the day they came out. I've seen all the movies. As Harry got older, so did I. As the books got darker, I got more mature. I fell in love with the characters. I knew them by name. Hogwarts was a real place that I went back to in my mind just as Harry did in every book.

I was so excited to see this last movie (and it was absolutely incredible), but in the back of my mind, I was slightly dreading it. I didn't want to say goodbye to something that has been a part of my life for the last twelve years. That's more than half my life. Harry Potter--the books and the movies--was such a magical journey. As Daniel Radcliffe said, this is not the end of the story because "each and every person...who have followed these films over the last ten years will carry this story with them through the rest of their lives and it will affect what they do."

It's been magical. Thanks, hp. I'll love you for always.

it's a hard life

Last Saturday, I woke up at 5:30 in the morning along with Ariel, a couple of her roommates and a couple friends, and we drove down to electric beach to swim with dolphins! It was absolutely incredible.

Siara, me, Ariel, Neco, Alayna and Julia before we headed out:

None of us had ever been there before, but luckily there were a couple other groups of BYU students there that knew what they were doing. We had to swim SO far out to sea! Probably about a half mile. It was really good that those other kids were there, because we probably would have stopped and given up before seeing any dolphins. But we didn't give up and it was so worth it because we definitely saw some dolphins!

There were so many dolphins everywhere! There was one moment where I was about eight inches away from touching a dolphin and there were tons swimming underneath me and all around me! It was pretty magical. A couple boats came around filled with tourists who payed at least $100 just to drive past and watch the dolphins, where we were right there with them without having to pay anything.

We were out in the water for quite a while and took tons of pictures. The dolphins just kept swimming past us and under us and at the end, we saw them jumping up and doing tricks and flips out of the water. Our own show out in the wild.

It was actually really hard to swim all the way out there because the tide was so strong, it kept pulling us back into shore, so I borrowed this kid's flippers and they definitely helped, but they were a little too big for me so they kept rubbing back and forth against my foot and I ended up with a huge blister. Even today, a week later, it still hurts, but it was such a fun day! I would do it all over again even if it meant getting another blister.

party

We enjoyed a very lovely Fourth of July here on the island. Ariel was house sitting her bishop's house and we spent a lot of time over there. They had told her she could have friends over whenever she wanted, so on Sunday the 3rd, we hosted a little birthday party for America. We invited friends over, grilled some hamburgers/veggie burgers, ate, laughed talked, played games. We even had a patriotic cake with red and blue swirls of food coloring in it. Ariel and I had some creative differences when it came to the swirls, but we worked it out in the end.

On the actual fourth, Ariel and I slept in then drove down into town and did some shopping. We ran into a couple of her friends in the evening so we ate dinner with them and then hooked up with some boys from town that they knew to watch the fireworks at the beach. We thought we were just going to be sitting on the beach, but the boys had a different idea: to swim out into the bay and watch the fireworks from there. It meant that Ariel and I had to drive home completely soaked and uncomfortable, but it was worth it! It was so fun to be out in the water with the fireworks exploding right above us.

Not very traditional, but a very satisfying Fourth of July.

in spite of all the danger

yes, it was that cool in real life.

[and maybe a little bit illegal]

barbed wire didn't stop savanah and me

and we had a really great adventure.

drive my car

My dad and I go way back.

About twenty years, to be exact.

He played his guitar for me when I couldn't sleep.

We both like that Beatles song that says "beep beep."

He gives the best foot rubs that I've ever felt.

Sometimes his "I love you" texts make my heart melt.

I'm 90% sure he's in the CIA.

He could spout off random facts all day.

He's spiritually strong--he is my rock.

Happy Father's day, dad! I love you a lot.

good company

These guys are my new bffs. Bruce (black) and Snickers (brown). I love them. Sometimes I just go outside and hang out with them for a while. They're not mine, I'm just watching them for a friend for a couple months until she comes back. But I'm so glad I am. And I think i will be a little sad when I don't get to see them every day anymore.

p.s. If anyone can tell the difference between this post title and all the other ones before it, I'll take you out to lunch.

boys

Father's Day is upon us. And lucky for me, I know some pretty awesome men who are fathers. For example, Trey Orsak.

(I got this picture from my sister's blog. It melts my heart.)

Three things I love about Trey.

One. His sense of humor. I love being with people who can make me laugh. I love being with Trey. His jokes can be a bit dry sometimes--you know the kind, where you can't tell if they're really joking or not--but those are my favorites. He kinda reminds me of Grandpa in that way.

Two. His kindness. Trey's super giving and very thoughtful. When he first started coming around our house for dinner, he was very cautious about which dinner roll he picked because he knew Lauren and I liked specific ones. We knew which rolls were the "good" ones, but Trey wasn't quite sure yet what our standard was. He didn't want to accidentally take what someone else wanted. I really admire how he's always putting other peoples' feelings before his own.

Three. How much he loves my sister and his boys. I love Trey's relationship with my sister. They love each other so much and I can tell. He's such a good father--always playing with, reading with and taking care of his kids every chance that he gets. That's the kind of family I want to have someday. Trey and Rachelle are really good examples to me and are always there to talk to whenever I need advice about boys.

I love you, Trey! I can't imagine a better brother-in-law than you. Happy Father's Day.

how do you do it?

The term is over. Weird. Those six weeks went by too too fast. This term started too soon after the semester and was over before I even got a chance to get into it. It was so so nice to go home for the break in between Winter and Spring. The end of Winter was pretty horrid. But I got through it. It was also so so nice to return to Hawaii and the splendid weather (minus the rain) that we've been having (especially compared to Utah weather). The end of this term was pretty horrid too. But I got through it with a little help from my friends (ahem. Ariel). What would we do without each other? Summer term starts next week. I'm looking forward to a few days of respite before I jump back into it. My schedule is super manageable and I'm moving into a new house, which should be exciting considering I've lived in this one for about nine months. I'm ready for a change.

Not much has been happening in my life lately--hence, my lack of blogging. I never take pictures, and I hate it when other people don't include pictures in their blog, so I hate it when I don't have pictures, but oh well. My life is pretty much consumed with school and hanging out around my house and the beach with lovely people like my roommates (who are both leaving within 24 hours) and Ariel. Ariel and I have been spending mucho time together lately. We were recently involved in the writing and filming of a future feature film together, along with our great friend Jordan. Kidding about the feature. Serious about the film. "Understanding Critical Theory." It is 30 min long, creative, funny, witty and educational. Designed as an introduction to the average BYUH student on the basics of critical theory. A hefty project consisting of 40+ hours of effort, but decidedly better than a research paper. We do way too many of those. So, Sassure? We got him. Jacques Derrida? We're basically on a first-name basis. Arbitrary nature of the sign? Know what that means. Deconstruction? I can do it in my sleep. Freud? Still alive and well in the English department. My acting skills? Incredible.

Basically, we're feeling pretty intelligent after this project. Ask me anything. I'm a genius.

dear prudence

the sun is up, the sky is blue

it's beautiful and so are you

fixing a hole

Remember when I said that we were finally out of the rainy season? Well, apparently I jinxed us. We had been having such good weather! And then suddenly, yesterday, was the most rain I'd ever seen in my life! It rained for basically 24 hours straight. Coming home from church, there was at least a foot of water rushing down the road. Rivers, puddles and ponds sprouted up everywhere. A couple classrooms at school got flooded. As well as a grocery store down the road. Of course, it doesn't help that the elevation of Laie is literally 3 ft above sea level. To give you a little taste of just how much water there was, here are a few pictures of our yard. The left was taken today after things dried up a bit (although the air has still been extremely muggy), right was yesterday:



Hopefully this was the last big storm before we can really enjoy the good weather. (knock on wood)

i want to tell you

My mom.

What can I say that hasn't been echoed by thousands, perhaps millions of children throughout the ages? Probably nothing. So, on the chance of sounding cliche, here I go:

I have the best mom in the world. Literally. The best. She takes such good care of me, even now that I guess I'm an adult and I've moved away from home. She supports me and encourages me to always do my best. She sends me really great packages and extremely witty texts. She slays me with her wittiness. Sometimes we talk on the phone for hours. She edits my papers for me, she makes me my favorite foods whenever I come home. She's made me a bunny cake for the majority of my birthdays. Even my 20th.

I know there is absolutely nothing I could ever do to pay her back for all she's done for me. I love you so much, mom.

Happy Mother's Day!

with a little help from my friends

Watched this movie with the roomies last night. Yes, it is a Christian movie and luckily our dvd player had the subtitles on so we got to enjoy reading the lyrics of the seemingly "hardcore" rock songs that actually ended up being about things like love and Christ and soft hearts--things like that. I know, I know. It sounds pretty cheesy. But it was actually a really really fun movie. I would definitely recommend watching it. We were cracking up the whole time it was so hilarious! And wait, isn't that Rufio? Yes. Yes it is.

I especially loved watching it and spending time with Alyssa and Jessica. We just wish Rebecca could be here too.

from me to you

To the woman who is not my mother, but is my sister and also a mother and awesome and who deserves a blog post:

Rachelle.

I have so much respect for this gal. As a person, a mother and a woman. She is so incredible. She graduated college at 21, then was finishing up her Master's two years later, while teaching a math class at BYU and being pregnant. She is a math genius--I never would've gotten through high school math without her. She's also the best mom to her two boys. I love her so much and I want to be just like her when I grow up.

Happy Mother's Day, Rachelle!

here comes the sun

Ginger. Always so classy.

Contrary to popular belief, Hawaii actually does have different seasons: rainy and not rainy. We're just now coming out of the rainy season (thank goodness) and moving into what I like to refer to as the sweaty season. Here comes the sun, sand, ocean, fans turned on high, open windows, surfboards, sunscreen, tan lines, sunglasses, bus rides, rain forest hikes, bike rides, good books, veggie burgers...

Oh. And maybe the occasional homework assignment as well.

a beginning

so.great.

my fingers are snappin.

from a window

Never have I been afraid of lightning/thunder. Until last night. Last night was the most spectacular storm I have ever witnessed. There was a little bit of thunder and lightning throughout the evening, and it was raining here and there, but the show really started at about 1:45 am. Jess and I were asleep upstairs when we awoke to the biggest house-rattling BOOM I have ever experienced. We both sat up in bed and looked at each other, groggy and confused, but clearly frightened. We looked out the window to see the rain pouring buckets and rivers flowing down the road in front of our house. I'm pretty sure lightning must have struck our house because the flashes of lightning were so blindingly bright and a couple of the crashes of thunder were at the exact same time as the lightning. We had to plug our ears it was so loud and I couldn't even look at the lightning because of its brightness--my eyes instinctively shut every time it flashed. It really was incredible. I'd never seen anything like it and I couldn't fall asleep for about a half hour because of all the light and noise. Finally, the thunder became more distant as the lightning moved further and further away so we could finally get back to sleep. But really. I never knew thunder could be that scary.

sweet little sixteen

This is my, ahem, little sister Lauren. She turned 16 last month and her first prom was last weekend. Wait, what?! Prom? 16? Dating? Driving? No more braces? My little sister? When people ask me how old she is, I still have to catch myself because I instinctively want to answer 14. However, Lauren is not 14 anymore. not.at.all.

Lauren is in high school and gets all As. She's a dancer and every time I watch her perform, it takes my breath away. She is one of the most determined people I know and never stops until a project is finished and perfected. We called her "Mini Martha" when she was little because she was so creative and was always making little crafts or decorations. You know when you feel like you can't ever wear really fashionable things because you could never pull it off? Lauren is the opposite of that. She can pull anything off with style and ease. Lauren and I like to watch Disney Channel together and sometimes we text each other hilarious quotes from those shows. She is one of the most righteous people I know and has always been such a good example to me. She just got her Young Womanhood Recognition award and I know she worked really hard for that so I'm so proud of her. Lauren is a very thoughtful shopper and will only buy a piece of clothing after careful consideration, unlike some other people (like me) who will buy anything anytime. But that way, she just ends up with clothes she really really likes. I love hanging out with her because she's not afraid to act like a kid sometimes. Which is really fun when we're jumping on the tramp or getting really excited for Santa to come on Christmas Eve. Kelsey and I used to get so bugged when we were little and Lauren would want to watch us play barbies. So one time, Lauren sneaked into the barbie room before us and hid in the closet with a box of cereal so she could watch us without us getting mad. We did end up getting mad when we found her, but I think that's so funny now. She has the biggest, most beautiful eyes out of anyone in our family, and I'm really jealous of that. Sometimes she'll buy her shoes a half size up from her actual foot size so I can share with her. We used to read books together all the time, with me reading out loud to her, and sometimes we still do it, just for fun. When we were little, we could entertain ourselves for hours playing make-believe games like the one where we were servants in a castle and lived on the stairs. We would literally just sit on the stairs and do nothing, but somehow it was a game to us. Lauren is one of the coolest people I know and seriously has about 100000 friends. Really. 100000.

Sometimes she drives me crazy, but mainly I just love her because she's awesome. It seems like she's all grown up, and yet she has the rest of her life ahead of her. And I know she can do anything she wants, and she will be so good at it.

Love you, Laur. Happy birthday!

blue jay way

The sun does arise,
And make happy the skies.
The merry bells ring
To welcome the spring.
The skylark and thrush,
The birds of the bush,
Sing louder around,
To the bells' cheerful sound,
While our sports shall be seen
On the echoing green.

Old John with white hair

Does laugh away care,

Sitting under the oak,
Among the old folk.

They laugh at our play,

And soon they all say:

'Such, such were the joys

When we all, girls and boys,

In our youth-time were seen

On the echoing green.'

Till the little ones weary

No longer can be merry;

The sun does descend,

And our sports have an end.

Round the laps of their mother

Many sisters and brothers,

Like birds in their nest,

Are ready for rest;

And sport no more seen

On the darkening green.

-William Blake

{spring break '11}

bad to me

This woman is frazzled:

And so am I.

Here's a tentative schedule of my next two days:

Thursday.

12 am-4 am: English Lit Research Paper

4 am-5 am: Shower

5 am-7 am: Study for marriage test

7 am-7:30 am: Eat breakfast

7:30 am-8:50 am: Take MARRIAGE FINAL

9 am-3 pm: (1) Make YA Lit presentation (2) Write paper #4 (3) Write paper #5 (4) Complete booknotes #3

3 pm-4:50 pm: Take YA LIT FINAL

5 pm-5:30 pm: Eat dinner

5:30 pm- 6:50 pm: Finish any YA Lit stuff

6:50 pm: Meet with Bishop to renew Ecclesiastical Endorsement

7:30 pm-10 pm: Study w/ Ariel for American Lit final

10 pm- 12 am: Revise short story

Friday.

12 am-4 am: Finish Eng Lit research paper

4 am-5 am: Shower

5 am-8 am: Memorize poem/study for American Lit final

8 am-8:30 am: Eat breakfast

9 am: Take AMERICAN LIT FINAL/recite poem

11 am-2 pm: Study for Eng Lit final

2 pm-4 pm: Take ENG LIT FINAL

4 pm-7 pm: Pack/clean house

Head to airport.

9:15 pm: Get on a plane and...

GO HOME

Honestly, I don't know how teachers expect us to do it all. And really, only some of these things are stuff that I've procrastinated. A lot of it is just stuff that's happening all at the same time. So, good luck to me. Let's see how much of this I actually get done.

Here I go....

she's a woman

This is who I am today:

April is quite the month of birthdays. Three days ago, it was Devin's. Friday is Jessica's boyfriend's, later this month is Lauren and Chelsea.

However, only Devin and I have left our teenage years for good this year. Until time travel is invented.

So long, salad days.

any time at all

Some people put red lipstick on for classy events. I put red lipstick on when I have to do homework all night.

Sometimes homework is as classy as I get.

a hard day's night

This is what my brain does before I fall asleep..

I really hate that one level of brickbreaker. I wonder if Jessica's asleep. I wonder if the bunny is asleep. Poor little bunny all alone downstairs. Tomorrow he will want to hop hop hop. I bet Rachelle is awake right now at this exact minute with Weston. I really need to do that bibliography tomorrow. I should wake up at 7. I'll probably wake up at 8. I'll set my alarm for 8. It really bugs me that Jessica keeps closing that window. It would be really creepy if someone just opened my bedroom door right now. What if it was Rebecca and she was acting really weird and then it turned out she was a zombie and then all my roommates were zombies and they had been infected by something and I had to barricade myself into a room and I called 911, but they answered the phone and all I heard was growls so they had turned into zombies too. I would have to call my house and tell my family I loved them because the zombies would be right at my door and I would probably die soon. What would I say if I knew that conversation would be my last? What would I say to James Franco if I ever met him in read life? "Oh, what up James Franco. I love you." Hawaii's a pretty popular place for vacation. I could run into some celebrity here. That one kid from Friday Night Lights is here filming Off the Map. I could probably run into him at Foodland. That one kid? "Oh my gosh you're what's-his-name from that show I watch every week." Classy. It's Friday Friday gotta get down on Friday. Everybody's looking forward to the weekend. No that is so annoying. I've got to get another song in my head. Hey, Jude... I wonder if A & A are going to name their baby Jude for real. I'm guessing not. They'll probably end up with something more traditional, but on their baby it would seem cool. They've probably already had that baby. I wish Rebecca and David were getting married in July. Fun fun fun fun. I should blog more. 1 2 3 4 5. Stop counting. You still have 28 teeth. I think. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29. Dang it. 1 2 3 4 5 6.. Laughing is the weirdest thing ever. Something funny happens, and our response is to let this weird noise come out of us? Probably if you startle people every time you laugh, you're laughing too loud. I laugh too loud. The walls are saturated with the sounds of whispers. I like that. I should use that in a story. What if their child is missing? What if he's having an affair? Truth is pretty relative. I mean, everyone has their own version of what really happened. So I guess the true "truth" about a certain event would only be known to one person, like Heavenly Father, because He can see everyone's version of truth, but that still means that the real version is just made up of everyone's different versions. What time is it? My wrist hurts. I wish the bunny could come sleep up here with me. I need to come up with a topic for my research paper. I should read some articles tomorrow. What is that one movie called? I should put it in my Netflix queue. Friday Friday. That song is so annoying. I should write Johnny tomorrow. I haven't written him for like four months. Is it raining outside? That light coming in the window is really annoying.

..every.single.night.

all things must pass

He lived next door to me my whole life.

His candy cupboard was always stocked with goodies.

When we were little, he would catch us in his legs and sing "You're in the jail house now."

He always talked about people he knew from Wyoming like we, also, knew them.

His knowledge of cowboys and Western novels seemed exponential.

Mainly, one could always find him sitting on his floral-patterned couch, watching tv with the volume turned up too loud.

His family trips to Hawaii were the greatest. Kahana Sunset was the BEST condo in the world, with a heated pool and everything.

He loved to sing and was always letting us in on the latest secrets to enhance vocal quality.

He was my grandpa.

Earlier this semester, I had an assignment for Creative Writing to write a personal essay. I decided to write on some memories of my grandpa. Click here to read it.

I love you, grandpa. Say hello to grandma for me.

what goes on

Every morning is the worst morning of my life when Ariel comes and wakes me up at 6:30 am.

But we feel really good afterwards.

Now we're on our third week.

This man is our personal trainer:

Every day we get one workout closer to a rockin body.

carnival of light

Grandma Myler.

She lived with us when I was younger and I loved having sleepovers with her. Most kids had to travel to get to their grandparent's house, I just had to walk to the next bedroom.

She gave us foot rubs on Christmas Eve and had the strongest hands I've ever felt.

She put salt on her apples because she said it brought out the sweetness. I was intrigued and disgusted by this. I've still never had the guts to try it.

She had a twin sister and as a young girl I was horrified that there was someone who looked exactly like my grandma, but wasn't my grandma.

The only time I've ever watched Little Rascals was with her.

I was mad when she left me to go on a mission, but she sent us letters with puffy stickers that pretty much made up for her being gone.

As she got older, she would always make the joke that us grandkids were growing while she was shrinking.

She was a nurse during WWII and then she went back to school at the age of 63 to refresh her license.

My grandma was so great. Now she's with her parents, twin, husband and daughters. I'm grateful to have had her in my life and I'm happy about where she's at now.

11.5.1925-3.3.2011

I love you.