Wild Weekend

What a weekend!


Thanksgiving was yummy. I did actually make a dish. That is a miracle. I really don't like cooking very much, but my parents insisted. I concocted a yummy sugar-free jello salad.



Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Everyone came to our house. I adore decorating the house and setting the table with our best china. My mom's china is the set she got at her wedding. She hasn't broken a single piece yet! Everyone's really careful with it.



My mother's jam is ambrosia.







My mom, my aunts, my cousin and I went Black Friday shopping. It was very scary, but I love going every year. I would never go alone! Working as a team works best. I don't want to go into to many details about what we got. (You never know who reads the blog... I can't be spoiling anything now, right?)





I was exhausted the entire time. I couldn't sleep so I watched "Glee" and ended up falling asleep around 1 a.m. Not a good idea if you have to wake up at 2 a.m. to get good deals! Most of the experience is foggy in my memory because I was so sleep deprived.





I am always amazed at how people can be jerks. There were jerks on Friday, but Saturday was the worst. I'm so upset about Max Hall's comments about the University of Utah after our loss. I'm pretty offended, but I'm trying to be forgiving. I just hope people don't associate him with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints. BYU is a church owned instition, but some cougar fans were obviously not keeping that in mind. Utes are children of God too!

I would be amiss if I didn't acknowledge what a good time at Improv Friday. Thanks JC! I love my friends back at home.

-M

My Thankful List

Some things I am thankful for:

I am thankful for Jesus Christ, His atonement, His Gospel, and His light, enough said. If you want to learn more about what I believe click here.

I am thankful for my family, because we have fun times while being somehow involved in fifty thousand extracurricular activities at once.


I am thankful for my friends who support me, make me laugh, and tell me that I am too crazy for my own good.

I am grateful that I can go to school, even though sometimes I want to quit because it is expensive and difficult. I’m so lucky to be able to go to college. It really is a wonderful opportunity.

I am grateful my ancestors that sacrificed so I could have a good life. I’m a wimp. I can’t barely walk to institute three blocks away, let alone walk across the plains.

I am thankful to be alive and healthy.

I’m so grateful for the countless times I’ve lost some belonging of mine and some kind soul honestly returns to me.

I am grateful for nature and beautiful things because life would be dreary otherwise. They remind me that the world is a good place, overall.

I am thankful for Ramen Noodles because they are easy to make and always satisfy.

I am thankful for the Beatles, whose music makes my soul very happy.

I am thankful that my fish, Cyrano de Bergerac, is still alive and swimming after all the involuntary fasts I have unintentionally put him through.

I am so glad I have a computer (and the internet) that allows me to be addicted to Facebook and other such sites and that help me procrastinate.

I am grateful for grammar because even though it seems complicated, it makes it so we can understand each other. It is also a tool used by English teachers everywhere to strike fear in the hearts of their students. I’m so glad it’s my obsession.

I’m grateful for my phone. I love texting and calling people.

I’m thankful for my Titan Blanket. I can sleep anywhere as long as the SHS Titan blanket is around me.

I’m thankful for Harry Potter and all the amazing fans I can count on meeting where ever I go. The other day my friends and I formed the Dumbledore’s Army of Utah. You can join the group on Facebook if you want.

I’m so grateful to the kind souls who drive the shuttles around campus. As I mentioned before, I am wimp, and the campus is pretty much a city of its own.

I am so grateful for socks! They’re miraculous. You put them on your feet but they make your entire body warm.

-M

4 am Bedtimes

What a crazy weekend! That’s all I can say. Tasha and Curtis came up to the U and hung out with Paul and me. Can you say blast off?

Stayed up until 4 a.m. Friday night watching Star Trek and Little Women (The version our high school did last year). This is epic considering Tasha and Paul had a pretty steamy few stage kisses.

The next day we made a music video and took many pictures. (Thank you Ana for letting me borrow your camera)! The link to the epic show will be forthcoming, fear not dear fans.

I do love this picture of me. (A rare good one)

Paul! Such a goof ball!

Tasha! So daring and dashing and independent!

Curtis! Such a happy guy.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner! I’m so glad.

-M

(Edit) Here is the link to the video we made. Or look on the side bar. That works too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNvMaVey9Iw

Shuffle

So I had my iTunes on shuffle the other day. I was jamming to “Life in Technicolor” by Coldplay one moment and then suddenly I was listening to “Endangered Love” from the VeggieTales 10th anniversary soundtrack. I had a fleeting notion to quickly change the song, because my roommate was in the there and it is a little weird that I was listening to a children’s show soundtrack.

Then I realized--

I don’t care!

VeggieTales makes me happy, and the songs are pretty funny. My sisters and I spent endless hours watching the videos and singing along with the music. We even had Jonah: a VeggieTales movie memorized. No joke, we could recite it word for word.

Ana and I do listen to a pretty varied music selection so I shouldn’t have been surprised when she didn’t poke her head in from the bathroom and exclaim: “What are you listening to?” Nope.

She just kept doing her thing. I love that strange music doesn’t faze us.
After all, you get everything when you listen to musicals, and we’re musical kind of people.


Examples:

Rap-- “In the Heights”

Opera--“Phantom of the Opera”

Pop--“Wicked”

Big Band-- "Hairspray"

The term "musical" is pretty open. There isn't just one type of music in musical theatre.


We recently discovered iTunes Home share. Amazing. We’re practically family so we didn’t feel guilty about exchanging our eclectic selections over the wireless network. Now I can jam to all sorts of random music and so can she. Because besides musicals, I'm into all sorts of other stuff like folk, classical piano, choral, random alternative from obscure bands, and even a sprinkling of techno. And of course--VeggieTales.

Why listen to top 40 when there is so much out there?

-M

Change

This weekend has been a busy one for sure. Theme of the weekend: the only thing constant is change (and God). I’ve decided that change is something that must be embraced. Change should not be dwelt upon. The best thing to do is to keep moving forward and live in the moment.

Like tonight. My roommate, our adopted roommate Daphne, and I made turkeys out of construction paper by tracing our hands. That was so much better than homework, or dwelling on the fact that my life feels like an endlessly rotating kaleidoscope.

Earlier this evening I performed with my beloved Women’s Chorus of the University of Utah. I wasn’t too thrilled about having a show on a Sunday, but it was unavoidable. However, the music was very uplifting. There is nothing quite like singing in a choir. How is it that on stage I can focus impeccably but not in yoga? Maybe it’s the bright lights and the pressure of the audience in the dark expanse beyond--but I think that it’s the music.

My favorite song tonight? (or perhaps EVER) Weep No More by David Childs. The text is taken from the first stanza of a poem by John Keats.

Shed no tear--O shed no tear!
The flower will bloom another year.
Weep no more—O weep no more!
Young buds sleep in the root’s white core.
Dry your eyes—O dry your eyes,
For I was taught in Paradise
To ease my breast of melodies—
Shed no tear

I love my girls in Women’s Chorus! There is nothing like participating in inspiring music with amazing people. (Like Katie, the amazing accent girl!)

-Just Little Old Me(g)

Lessons from College

In high school, if you sit alone at lunch, then you’re considered a social outcast.

But in college, it happens all the time, and it isn’t that strange. At least, I don’t feel awkward. I like that about the colligate life.

Some other things I’ve learned from the university:

1. How much I don’t know. I’ve learned more in this first semester than my entire public education, but I’ve also realized I really have only licked the iceberg.

2. How to get addicted to Facebook. You can’t really blame me for this habit though. So I move away to big university and leave 99.9% of all the people I know back in my little hometown. Girls are getting married, boys are leaving on missions, men are returning, and girls are having babies. I need to keep up on all the social happenings. FB is how I connect with my peeps back home. I honestly wonder how teenagers survived without this powerful networking tool before now.

3.How to not procrastinate. If I had a dollar for every time someone told me college was going to sink me, I’d be rich enough to pay for my entire higher education experience. My terror of college was so great that I was actually compelled to get stuff done. I mean, if I save something until the night before, I’m a nervous wreck. Which is weird.

4.How to wake up on time. So I had a few scares the first week, which made sleeping quite difficult. I’m so paranoid about sleeping in that I just don’t sleep at all. I got bed late and wake up early.

5.How to be very tolerant. I used to want to go out of state for school. I don’t think I needed to—I’m getting a culture shock here. I’m meeting the whole spectrum of people. Gays, granolas, Germans… you name it.

Forget and Not Slow Down

A few weeks ago I did something I rarely do: buy an entire album on iTunes. I'm the kind of person that likes to just pick and choose my songs. But when I heard that Relient K had come out with a new album, and I knew I could rely on their music, I caved and bought it.

Forget and Not Slow Down

Relient K

I loved it. I'm a poor college student, and let me tell you that $11 was well spent. I walk around campus with my headphones stuck in my ears, and it was so refreshing to be serenaded with the fresh sounds of the classic band. They've matured a lot since last I heard them. My favorite song on the album? "Candlelight."

This album really made my whole week. (And it continues to make my weeks.) If you buy it, remember to listen to the songs in the numerical track order first. After that, just listen on shuffle with the rest of your tunes.

Hello Again!

After lying dormant for about 18 months, this blog is being resurrected!

Yup, that's right. You heard correctly.

Meg is doing a blog again.

So that is pretty exciting. I have new ideas about doing things around here because lately I've been reading other people's blogs. I hope ya'll stay tuned

As a disclamer: I am a linguistics major and o I'm kind of obsessed with grammar. I do make mistakes though. Just know that I am as horrified as you are when I make an error.

-M