she lives in an orange tree, the girl that does yoga

I think if a boy sang and played (well) Damien Rice's "Dogs" to me, I would fall in love with him instantly. (Snaps fingers). Instantly. Or, at the very least, attack him like she does to Will Ferrell in Stranger Than Fiction. No ve?

On another note, I think it's super super lame that girls have to do all the work to get guys. Guys don't do anything. ANYTHING. Who invites guys to game nights, movie nights, brings them cookies, etc.? The girls. Always the girls. They're always the ones initiating any sort of hang out. Am I right or am I correct? Both. I even had this confirmed with a friend today, who asked a girl out for next week, but admitted that she took the first step in them becoming friends. Yep.

He countered that the guy has to do the hard stuff like ask them on the date, hold hands and kiss the first time, etc. Bull. How hard is it really to ask someone out on a date? If the girl initiated the hanging out, how scary is it really to ask on one date? One date! And who really says no to those? Nobody! There's nothing scary about it! And then holding hands? Usually you're either a couple by then or you have a pretty dang good clue on what she wants. Scary? No! Exciting, more like! Dumb.

I mean, is it really that wrong for a girl to want to be chased, pursued for once? Instead of having to work to be noticed? Why can't guys step it up and try to be friends with the girl first? Why are they so lame that they just passively sit around until a girl makes the effort to be friends? Why are guys such pansies??? Why???

That is my rant of the day.

Phlebotomy can be dangerous. Medicine in general, actually.

Scott was drawing blood on a lady today with a syringe, because we were drawing from her hand veins. He popped the top on the needle then went about his business.

"Dude is your lip bleeding?"
"Uh no I don't think so... why?"
"I think you got a little blood on your lip."

I examined it, decided he was already cut on his lip but gave him a paper towel and he wiped it off. He came back and showed us his lip. He wasn't cut at all. He got that lady's blood on him.

So we were worried for a little while, because the lady was getting tested for Hepatitis B, among other things. But then we remembered... Scott has his vaccinations!!

Moral of the story: Be careful with blood, and get your vaccinations.

Seattle is only No. 3 on favorite-city list?!!!

Hahaha..

I want to fall in love

Things I want to do soon-ish:
-watch old classic movies
-make awesome valentine's day cards
-finish knitting my scarves
-learn more damien rice on guitar
-do homework at starbucks, barnes & noble, hello yogurt, red mango, and the hospital
-get sushi at demae
-do an aerial
-play with guinea pigs
-frolic in the fields or run around in the rain
-leave provo, maybe stay a weekend with ted & dantzel
-make something delicious
-take pretty pictures
-fall in love

pray for me, child, even a smile will do for now

I had a lot of fun this weekend-- a lot of firsts! On Saturday Nathaniel, my friend from the Villa 2 years ago, took me rock climbing with him and his friends! Trisha was one of them, who happens to be from my freshman ward! So that was a lot of fun. We went to this place in Orem (can't remember the name) and I'm going to get a year pass so I can go more often-- it was amazing. Exhilarating, scary, awesome, tiring, a good workout, gave me a rush, all at once. Good times.


Next was... Sundance Film Festival 2009! We went to see Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, directed by John Krasinski, most well-known for Jim in The Office. It was quite the process to get on the wait-list...
We started off lining up to get a number 2 hours before the show started. But that doesn't guarantee you a ticket. You have to come back 30 minutes before the show starts and then they'll sell as many tickets as they can. So we got our numbers, 69, 70, 71, then went to get some lunch. Got some pizza, chatted, then I looked at my watch and realized we had 20 minutes to get back, park, and be in number order. So we booked it, Kristen frantically driving, Kenny being super chill in the back, and we got parking miraculously again (FOR FREE!) and made it just in time. Incredible. Of course, they ended up not letting us in for another half hour but still, it was cool we made it barely on time. So then they told us they only let in 50, 50, 9 people in the last showings for this theatre. So Kenny and I figured we wouldn't get in. Kristen of course had undying optimism however... and she ended up being right! We made it into the theatre!!! So then we went up to the balcony and in the dark looked for seats (had to sit separate) but it was great, we got to see the screen well and everything.

It's a funky movie. It was good and I liked it but it was pretty weird. I like how the scenes cut into montages and I liked the cameos/actors (Ben Gibbard, Will Arnett, Karen from The Office) so it was pretty good. Weird though, definitely weird.Kristen and Kenny chilling in line

We guessed which numbers we would get and I was exactly spot on: 70.

While we were eating pizza for lunch, I picked up a Sundance newspaper thing and found out that DAMIEN RICE was playing on Main Street after our movie ended!!! So we went over there after the film and sort of watched him. We couldn't get into the tent but we could hear him so we stood outside and listened for awhile. From what I could hear, he is pretty good live. It was pretty exciting...

Then we got caramel apples at Rocky Mt. Choco Factory then headed home. All in all, it was a pretty successful day with lots of lucky happenstances (free parking all day, making it into the film just barely, finding out about Damien Rice who happened to be playing the one day we went). Good times!!

holy crap-- seriously??

Scary. Check out this blog: http://jean-lee-bolivia.blogspot.com/

A person named Jean. A person named Lee. Both went to Bolivia. TRIPPY.

i won't tell no one your name

One day I'm going to write a song and it's going to be like the one I'm listening to right now, that says "I won't tell no one your name" or others that say things like "I'm not nobody's fool" except in the middle of the song the lyrics will go "Haha tricked you! That means I will tell somebody your name because the double negative cancels out!!!!!!!"

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2008581338_opin02goodman.html

Read this article on how abstinence-only sex education does NOT work. And how we've wasted lots of money on it these past 8 years. Que pena.

she&him

I've discovered a new band: She & Him. You should check them out. I'm quite a fan of their soundings.

For some reason I feel like writing about an experience that happened to me earlier in the year, oh dear, I mean last year, in September. I had just gotten back from Bolivia, I was having troubles adjusting in that mostly I just missed it so badly and didn't like anything about here. So I was at the temple, in Provo, and realized while waiting, that the last time I went to the temple was in Cochabamba, Bolivia, that everything was in Spanish, that I was still there, still doing my internship. And I just got so sad. I missed everything about it more. Man.

So while I was in the confirmation room, a temple worker popped in and asked if any of them knew Spanish. None of them did (the temple workers were the only others in, I went on like a Tuesday early afternoon so nobody was there) which I thought was surprising because so many guys serve Spanish-speaking missions, you know? Well I said that I spoke Spanish but he said that didn't help and left. I figured he needed a priesthood holder for something. So we continued on.

When I left the confirmation room, the guy stopped me and said I would be translating for this guy who wanted to do baptisms for his family and they wanted to make sure they were doing exactly what he wanted. So I got pretty excited and nervous and went up to help out. At first it was pretty lame, the guy wouldn't listen to me, which made me feel crappy about my Spanish and stuff, maybe it was so bad he didn't believe I really spoke it or something. So I wasn't really doing much. But then he started the baptisms and as I sat waiting for my turn, I realized-- I was hearing the prayers in Spanish. It was exactly how it was back in Cocha. And I just felt so grateful for this blessing, this tender mercy, that God could give me a little piece of what I missed so much.

Not only that, but I got to be the proxy for the girls in his family that he was doing the work for. So that was amazing too. Then we started the confirmations. Once again, I was so grateful to be hearing the prayers in Spanish. But then the man started to cry. And I realized how amazing this must be for him, to be doing the work for his family, giving them the opportunity to live with God, and making it so he could be with his family after our lives here too. I am so grateful I got to be a part of that, a part of this huge monumental moment in this man's life. I started crying of course, ha, and it was just the most amazing experience. I felt a little lonely for him too, though, because he was alone. But I'm glad he got to do that for his family.

Afterwards, the atmosphere had totally changed. Whereas before, it was a little tense because of the lack of translating and all the misunderstandings and mishaps occurring with reading the prayers correctly, etc, it was suddenly just flooded with peace and love and gratitude and awe and the spirit. It was so incredible. We all just knew that we had participated in something so beautiful and sacred. I thanked the man for the opportunity and he finally listened to me. He thanked me for helping as well. And then I was finally able to help by telling him how he had to go up to the front to pick up his names and such, and he listened. Everything was just so different. We were all so much more... filled with the spirit. Quieter, reverent, grateful.

This is just one of those experiences that tells you that God loves you, that He will bless you when you need it. He knew I was lonely, sad, missing people and places, and He blessed me with this. It showed me that He really cares about me and knows what will help me. And that if I do what I should, if I follow His commandments, if I go to the temple and all the things I'm supposed to, then He'll bless me. It showed me that I'm not alone, that He hasn't abandoned me at all.

I was just thinking about it today, and sad that I had forgotten it. Because I've been feeling so lost. But these things, we should write them down and share them so we can remember. Satan tries so hard to make us forget these things. And it worked, I had forgotten. I'm glad I can remember it now and hopefully keep remembering it when things get rough this year, as I'm sure they will. But it'll be okay, because I'm not alone, and even if the whole world decides to abandon me, I'll still have someone who's the most important, who will always understand and listen and give advice and help me along, who loves me unconditionally. And that is a pretty serious and amazing blessing.

mason jennings

It's almost 4am and I'm not tired at all. Not one ounce of sleepiness in my body. What do I do??

I've just been watching House. I totally could work a little, I have emails to check and students applying last minute to figure out. But I don't want to. Maybe I'll live out the last 1 1/2 days of break that I have with pure laziness and relaxation.

So here I am, chilling, listening to some Mason Jennings as I try to get sleep to bless me tonight.

I've totally screwed up my sleeping schedule this break. I think I've gone to bed at 4am for the past week at least. Oh man.. that'll be fun to break next week.