Time for Some Narcissism

Just a reminder to everyone to be extra thankful today, because it is my birthday. Who couldn't be thankful for the day that brought me into the world, seriously? I sure am thankful for my birthday. And I know all of my siblings were grateful for my birthday, 23 years ago, when I ruined Thanksgiving. And then again, six years later, when I asked for Little Caesar's Pizza for Thanksgiving dinner.

How could any of my siblings forget to be thankful for me when this picture is on display all month long in our family calendar, in 9x6 size, no less



Anyway, I hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving!

Twenty Bucks Richer

I have already told this story many times, but I just love it, so I decided to add it to the cyberspace archives by blogging about it. Because apparently that is how I document my life nowadays, which is pretty sad for several reasons. Moving on.


On Saturday I went on a little adventure with my friend Gavin, my canyoneering guide. We hiked to the top of Rocky Mouth Falls, just south of Little Cottonwood Canyon in Sandy, and then rappelled down the waterfall. It was so much fun, and such a beautiful hike! The rappel had to be done in two parts. We went down to a small, shallow pool about a third of the way down the falls, and set up the rope again for the second part. While I was waiting, I looked down at the rock I was standing on, and there was a $20 bill laying by my feet! Seriously, I found $20 in the middle of a waterfall.

Now, I acknowledge the possibility that it was mine and fell out of my pocket. But I don't think I've been to the ATM since I moved out to Utah 2 months ago. So if it did fall out of my pocket, I don't know when or how it into those shorts. Either way, I walked away from that rappel richer than when I started.

So I bought myself a delicious Cafe Rio lunch. And a cheap movie ticket. And lunch again today. And I still have $5 left.

My Day Off

I started my rotation at Nebo School District on Monday...sort of. I was told in my email from the foodservice director that he had a morning meeting, and so I should come at one instead of in the morning. When I arrived on Monday afternoon, I found out that he was sick, and really not doing well. They didn't think there was anything for me to do, so I was told I could just go home, and that I didn't need to come in the next day either. And I don't have to be at the office until 2 on Wednesday. So after arriving in Spanish Fork at 1, I was back in my apartment before 2, with 48 hours until I needed to be at work again. So what have I been doing? Researching, watching online lectures, taking quizzes, and really getting a hard start on things for this rotation.


Yeah, I wouldn't believe that about me either. I have spent the last two days watching tv, surfing the internet (including bloggin), shopping at Ikea, and working out at the gym. I did look over my schedule for the next month and the assignments I have to complete for this rotation. And I even read a few pages about menu forecasting while I ran on the eliptical. So I didn't completely waste my time. But mostly, yeah, it was wasted.

Picture Purge

I just recently found Suzy's request for summer pictures in a blog post. I spent a lot of my summer hanging out with Suzy and her kids, babysitting, painting, and teaching piano. Jacob, Ryan, and Alison are super cute, and a blast to hang out with, so I definitely didn't mind. It was a good way to spend my last real summer, since (hopefully) I will be in the beginnings of my career next summer. So here are some pictures from my summer with the Young's. Unfortunately I didn't document everything, and some pictures were taken with my phone, so I apologize for the poorer quality of those pictures.

At the Alameda County Fair.

Ryan and the fish he caught at Sunol.

The group that went on to explore the river in Sunol.

Playing games at Daniel's birthday party.

Jacob, Daniel, Karen, and Ryan.

This is what happened when I fed Alison some yogurt.

Our hike to Mission Peak. This is as far as we got, but I was pretty proud of those kids for making it to this point. At least they got to see the peak.

*Insert Captivating Title*

I am sitting in the Orem WIC clinic, on my lunch break, trying to find time to fill this hour. "How about a blog update?" I said to myself. So here I am.

I started my internship last Monday, so tomorrow will mark the end of my second week. So far it is going fantastically, except for the random moments of panic when I think that it is only two weeks down, and a LOT of papers, training, awkward counseling and presentations, case studies, emails, and general confusion to go before I can take the RD exam, find a job, and end this madness. But really, I am enjoying it. There is a lot of down time at the WIC clinic, so I find plenty of time to do some research and work on various assignments. Which is nice. It has allowed me to take time when I get home to settle into my new place. Tuesday marked the day that I was officialy settled, as I put together the IKEA nightstand that I had stained and placed it next to my bed that evening.

Some things that I have noticed over the past two weeks:

Mountain Dew is quite the popular beverage among the working LDS woman. Both WIC clinics that I have been at have had 12-packs in various flavors available to the staff. Just donate a quarter and take a soda. Good thing Mountain Dew isn't a strong temptation for me.

There are way too many cute kids and babies out there. One of my favorite things to do here is sit in on the certification of a newborn or a midcert of a 5-8 month old and smile at the babies.

I had a dream the other night that I was a new mother. I was determined to breastfeed my baby, but was struggling because I had to be away from the baby too often for some weird dream-world reason or another. No I wouldn't think anything of it, because I have read and heard a lot about breastfeeding in the last two weeks, but this is the second dream in the last 6 months that I have had where I was a mother struggling to breastfeed. What does that mean?

The previous owners of the condo I am living in clearly didn't vacuum, like, at all, because the first time I vacuumed my room, I had to empty the canister 5 or 6 times. I guess the carpet is pretty new, because mostly what I was getting was a whole lot of fluff. I think my new pet peeve to replace hairballs on the couch (we have a leather couch!) will be fluff-balls on the floor.




I thought I had made more observations that that. Oh well.

Wish List

Warning: This post is materialistic in nature.

Having been a poor college student for the last 4 years, and now a graduate with no paycheck in sight, I find myself saying, too often, "Someday..." This is usually in reference to things I would like to buy. To give you an idea of how distant "someday" actually is, my current dream and ambition is to just have the ability to save money, to set aside a little each month and watch the amount grow in the hopes of one day having enough to buy something. Here is a list of what I dream of saving for:

1. A bike
2. Some kind of hybrid car, though I would be happy with basically any kind of car
3. An iMac
4. Good kitchenware, specifically a few good knives and saucepans
5. A newer and nicer camera
6. An account with Charles Schwab


That is basically it. Not too long, right? And not very unreasonable.



But as long as I am being worldly, I am going to throw a backpacking trip across Europe on my wish list.

Summer Vacation

Here are some Highlights from my trips to Provo and Seattle.

• Being in the bookstore with John and Dakin on Tuesday at 11 am (while it was technically closed) and not feeling guilty about missing devotional
  
• Seven Peaks with Dan and John and their families
• Seeing Donna and Mark's house in Bothel for the first time
• Canoeing with Donna, Mark, Mia, and Sam, which included several misadventures with canoe steering, inhaling second-hand weed, and Sam standing up and peeing out of the canoe
• Trying to keep myself from laughing at Sam, or at least hiding the fact that I was laughing, to keep him from yelling at me. And despite that...
• Making both Mia and Sam scream most of the way home from church because I was laughing, which screaming made Donna and I both laugh to the point of tears
• Donna converting me to coupon-ing ($40-some value of groceries, $8 paid- that was the clincher), and introducing me to Seriously, So Blessed
• Literally eating my weight in pie and root beer
• Watching illegal fireworks from the driveway- there were so many that it was hard to decide which ones to watch
  
• Taking a ferry to Kingston, watching Sam do his excited-dance while he waited for the boat, and eating delicious crepes

• Nate being super cute: dancing, taking little steps, singing and gabbing, pointing at where he wanted to be taken...such an adorable kid
• Hearing Sam ask Donna, "When is that girl (aka me) going to leave?" and then his refusal to be near me while he was eating for the next two days. But we were buds when he wasn't eating.
• Turning around about 5 times in our efforts to go on a hike
• Eating at Small Fryes, where Nate peed on Donna and Sam and I ran around looking for a potty, as the porta-potty was not up to his standards
• An afternoon in Seattle and nearly missing my flight (it actually wasn't that close, but Donna and I were panicked for a few minutes while we waited in traffic to get onto the freeway)
• Finishing 3 books (In Defense of Food, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Their Eyes Were Watching God) by the time my plane landed in California
  

All in all, the trip was really fun! I had a great time visiting Donna and her family. Mia, Sam, and Nate were very entertaining, even when that fact ticked them off.

Rewind Two Weeks

During the last two weeks I decided to take a break from my fairly boring summer to have all kinds of fun (no offense to the people in Fremont, but you all have jobs and responsibilities, and not enough time to entertain me).

Starting off, two of my sisters drove down from Washington with most of their kids to, as Kristy put it, "kick butt and take names." Basically, they spent 4 days in hyper-speed packing up boxes, replacing light fixtures, organizing some areas, moving furniture around as well as out of the house, painting, and generally making the house look presentable to potential buyers. After packing up some boxes on the first day, my job primarily became a child-herder, since I didn't have the vision, the skills or the efficiency that Kristy and Donna possess. But I did my best and keeping the kids out of their way, along with our sister Suzy, who has three kids of her own. This included driving the kids to Suzy's house (not enough room in one mini-van, see), a trip to the movie theater, lunch at in'n'out, an afternoon at a "water park", bowling, a picnic in Sunol, "swimming" in the backyard, walks, feedings, etc. Here are a few pictures so you can imagine how much fun we were having.





Emily, having her version of fun, on Club Penguin, or something.

Really, can kids be cuter than this?

Now, for the benefit of those who have seen our home in the past, and especially for Dan and John, here are some pictures of the vast amount of work Kristy and Donna did. Please excuse some untidiness, I haven't done any cleaning since I got back.




































































This is what was moved out of the house.



A big thanks to Kristy and Donna for all that they did. The house really looks great!


The same morning that Kristy and Donna left (Monday the 29th), my mom and I got up very early and drove to Utah, so that she could have the big green van to bring back all kids of goodies from Grandma and Grandpa's house to put into our newly cleared-out house. Two days later, I was off to Seattle, but more on those adventures later.

I Got That Boom Boom Pow

The Black-Eyed Peas have thrown me into a musical identity crisis. You see, I don't like techno music, and I usually don't like hip-hop music. But I like the Black-Eyed Peas new song, "Boom Boom Pow." It is full of synthetic vocals and engineered sounds, and is a kind of electro-hip-hop song. You would think I'd hate it. But I don't. I even dance and sing along to it in my car.

Now I get kind of restless when I listen to the radio or flip through my cd's. I am constantly changing radio stations while I am in the car (which drives my mother crazy), and I often don't even let a song finish before I am looking for a new song. I skip through song's on my cd's very quickly, and usually give up and flip through the radio stations again.

Maybe I have ADD. But I prefer to blame the Black-Eyed Peas.

Where Have I Been?

How did I miss the little bit of news that Lindsey Lohan is gay, or bi, or whichever she is?

I don't follow tabloids or star magazines, but I occasionally read the covers when I wait in line at the grocery store. Through this method, I knew when Britney shaved her head, Paris went to jail, Lindsay Lohan went to rehab, Brangelina hooked up, and most recently that Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson might be dating.

And yet somehow I missed the piece of news that Lindsey Lohan was dating a woman.

Quick Update

Not too much to say, because my life is pretty uneventful. Still not job...but my sister employs me a few times a week to watch the kids. My parents have given me a few projects around the house.

During the weekday evenings I keep myself busy with shows like So You Think You Can Dance and Wipeout.

Like I said, uneventful.

I completed my orientation for my internship a little over a week ago. It was wholly intimidating on the first day, being introduced to the many assignments I must complete during my rotations. I gained confidence as the week went on, but I find that confidence is waning as I sit at home with no job and little responsibility.

I have been keeping busy with church stuff. I have two callings: Sunday School teacher and Activities Committee co-chair.

I spent the afternoon in San Francisco yesterday pulling weeds for a YSA service activity. It was an absolutely gorgeous day: clear skies, nice breeze...a day you don't often see in San Francisco. We were pulling an invasive species of grass out of a hillside on Inspiration Point in the Golden Gate National Park. Unfortunately the area had a bit of Poison Oak growing in it. And I got into a groove and stopped paying attention to anything but the grass I was pulling. At one point Shelly, the park employee, told me to watch out because there was poison oak near me. I looked around and realized there was poison oak all around me...and I had been working in that area for nearly 15 minutes. We were provided with poison oak wash after we were done, but I'm pretty sure a lovely rash will be appearing in the next few days. In fact I already have a red spot on my cheek that is about the size of a nickel. Fantastic. I don't think I have ever had poison oak, but I am hoping the experience will be worth the rash I am about to get.

New Blog Name

You may have noticed I changed the name of my blog. I had originally named it after a song from the soundtrack for Pride and Prejudice. I was never totally satisfied it, but I never came up with anything that I thought was worthwhile enough to change it.

Not that I think I have chosen a stellar title. I have mentioned in a past blog that I am painfully indecisive, so of course even though I have made my decision, I can't be completely confident in it. This title comes from Virginia Woolf's essay "A Room of One's Own." I initially created this blog as a creative outlet, my own corner in the expanse of cyberspacefor me to express my opinions, explore ideas, excerpt some of my thoughts, examine the happenings in my life or in the world... a room of my own if you will.

Too bad I have only been slightly more dedicated to writing in this blog as I am to my personaly journal. Nonetheless, I feel that the title "A Room of My Own" adequately defines how I view this little blog.

THE RESULTS ARE IN.....

And I have been accepted to the Utah State dietetic internship!!!! I am so excited! When I first saw it, I was very surprised. I applied to two internship in San Francisco, so I have been envisioning my life as if I were going to be living at home. But I was matched to Utah. It only took a minute, and then I became very excited and happy!

I am so grateful for the peace and excitement that I feel. I have been stressing over this whole thing for so long, and I would pray every night for faith in God's plan and comfort that I did all that I could do. At times I felt peace, but mostly I talked myself through the last two months, continually telling myself that it would work out for the best, and trying to believe that. But not one minute after I read the results of the computer matching, the peace came like a tidal wave, and now I have nothing but hope for the future.

In conclusion, the Gospel is true, prayer works, the Holy Ghost is real, and Heavenly Father knows and loves His children.

My Garden of Forking Paths

I realized something today as I stood in front of the beverage section of the Twilight Zone: I am paralyzed by too many choices. Even now I still stand here, creating this post using my iPhone. Okay not really, and I don't have an iPhone, but in some other version of this world I do. Eventually I did pick out a bottle of V8 Splash, leaving behind the dozens of other choices.

I then sat down to by bagel, apple, and "juice" and attempted to read "The Garden of Forking Paths," all the while sufficiently distracted by the warmth provided by the sun that finally decided it had ignored Provo long enough. Needless to say, I didn't get much reading done, nor did I understand much of what I did read. I quickly read a summary online, and then went to class, hoping I was prepared enough. But no, not really. There was an essay quiz, for which I was able to produce moderately coherent ideas...at a very slow pace.


"The Garden of Forking Paths" by Jorge Borges presents the idea through a fictional short story that at every point of choice, time branches off into many possible futures, all of which happen simultaneously. These paths completely diverge or run parallel to each other, and sometimes they converge. While I am not sure about the many continuum of time occurring simultaneously (if there is anything I am not it is a physicist), the class discussion certainly sparked my interest. What about the decisions I had made recently? If I had been more prepared for class, perhaps I would have included some brilliant insight in my essay, which would have left my teacher weeping on her desk. Certainly she would have shown this insight to her husband in the English Department, who would have shared it with the rest of the faculty, leading to an offer to work with me on some book that will change the world and immortalize me...but that is in some other time continuum. In some other divergent forking garden path it is very probably that I did stand in front of the beverage section, iPhone in hand, unable to make a decision (but then I never would have read the text or been in class, making this particular post not probable, but let's not overanalyze anything). As I told my rommate about all of this, and said something to the effect that my choice of juice probably wouldn't have changed the course of my life, she provided this alternate future: "What if you had picked up some juice with cranberry in it (I hate cranberry juice, and she knows this), and the guy behind you in line was so impressed, because he loves cranberries, that he asked for your number, you guys dated and got married. Your marriage would be based on a lie!" So it's a good thing I didn't choose cranberry...or is it? Maybe my choice to buy that delicious, but surely calorie-dense cookie began my path towards 50 pounds of weight gain. But maybe my decision to go running made by path converge with another where I maintain weight (dare I mention lose weight?).

Whatever other possibilities existed for me in the infinite versions of my future, I am glad that this one includes graduation from college in a short while.

I am fast approaching a fork in my garden, and one which is more obviously divergent. Dietetic internship results will be posted on April 20th, at 12 am CST. Which means that at 11 pm on April 19th, I will be attempting to access the webpage, along with every other person that applied for an internship. So when I finally see the results two hours later, I will be taking my first step on the diverged path of my future.

My Hilarious Niece

I am going to take the time to refer you to my sister's recent post. It is hilarious. Where my niece comes up with these things, I don't know. I almost hope she made it up, because can you imagine if it was a real song? Anyway, you will just have to check it out.

http://bardsleyland.blogspot.com/2009/02/blackmail.html


Someday I will upload some pictures and give an update about my life. But not until applications are mailed, research papers are written, and tests are failed. Thank you for your patience.