Feng Shui Part 2

So I realized that I never did a part two to that first post. Lame.
This is what happened. I did a paper and presentation on Feng Shui, and had the great idea to feng shui my room at college. Then I actually did research, and found out that what I thought was feng shui had nothing to do with real feng shui. It is just the westernized, commercialized version. So I didn't feng shui my room, although it probably would have made it look nicer. If you ever want to hear all about the roots of feng shui in China thousands of years ago, I'll tell you all about it. But if you don't care, I'm sorry I never was cool enough to actually do it and post about it.
On a happier note, I now I have a camera! So I will hopefully my posts will start looking more interesting (as I have had family members nagging me to do). That depends on me doing something interesting with my life, which isn't likely. We'll see what I can do.

Mirror

Today I looked into the mirror, and saw a little girl. She was very inexperienced, and completely oblivious to some important things. I was really surprised. For some reason I had been expecting to see a woman, but no, she was a little girl. She had spunk and potential, but she just wasn't there yet. Why was this so surprising? I should have known all along that she was still a kid, really. It takes a lot more than a couple years at college to turn a girl into a woman.
At first it bothered me. What was wrong? Why was she so young? But then I realized that really, she was doing the best she could with what she knew, just like everyone else, and that is good enough. No need to rush into things. To quote a wiser woman (or is she a girl, too?) than me,

What they don't understand about birthdays and what they never tell you is that when you're eleven, you're also ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and two, and one. And when you wake up on your eleventh birthday you expect to feel eleven, but you don't. You open your eyes and everything's just like yesterday, only it's today. And you don't feel eleven at all. You feel like you're still ten. And you are—underneath the year that makes you eleven. ~ Sandra Cisneros, "Eleven"

Maybe I was seeing the 10 year old in the mirror today. I don't know. She was bright-eyed and cheerful, but missing some understanding. How did all those people that were her friends handle someone so young?How did they handle her immaturities? But then again, they were really just kids, too. A bunch of kids stumbling (and skipping) around in an adult world.
And I realized, God must be really laughing at us all, up there in heaven. Laughing at all of His little kids, making mistake after mistake, and often the same one several times in a row. But He is laughing because He loves them - us. And He knows that eventually we'll figure things out, in the long (really, really long - eternal) run. And its okay. We all need to be kids before we can grow up to be real adults (or Gods, hopefully).
So I turned around, leaving the mirror back there, with a small smile on my lips. Back to my little life, with my little worries. I'm sure glad I can be just a girl for now.
And I'm glad I can give Him a good laugh upstairs sometimes.

Socially Prohibited Facebook Statuses

Do you ever go to type a status on facebook, get halfway through, and then realize that:
1)You actually don't want all of your "friends" reading about your personal life,
2)You don't want to sound crazy,
3)Someone that prompted the status might read it and be offended or figure out that it is about them (this is the most common reason for me),
4)This sounds way more emo than I meant (and I am not sitting here asking to be comforted/for compliments),
5)You don't want creepers that you somehow became friends with commenting on it,
6)My mom is friends with me on facebook (sorry mom), or
7)It really isn't that funny to anyone else.

So I decided to make a list of all the statuses that I have wanted to post, but haven't. Feel free to add your own.

• Man, that date was awkward!
• I'm lonely.
• Boys are dumb. Especially *fill in blank* (I have some sense of social rules still. Or maybe more than one name...)
• I think I am going to drop out of school and form a nudist nun colony that lives in cardboard boxes. Seriously.
• He finally asked me out, and now I just have to convince him to do it again. Best date EVER.
• I have forgotten to eat almost all day today. Oops.
• I just failed that test. bummer. :(
• I love Physics!
• Please. If I am annoying, tell me. Being rude isn't really getting you anywhere. If it isn't me, tell me!

 (Wow. Reading back over it, mostly they have to do with dating in some way or another. Lesson learned: most statuses regarding dating are socially prohibited because they make you sound desperate or the guy will read it later).

Soundtrack

There are so many things I want to blog about. My brain is full of thinkings that need to be expressed. But you will get those later when I have more time. For now I think I will share the songs that I can't seem to stay away from recently. Some of them I listen to over and over again, not getting tired of them. You know how music seems to capture a mood in a way that words just can't? Yeah, that's what I'm trying to do.
First of all, I have listened to All Will Be Well by the Gabe Dixon Band. I have listened to this three times in a row. Besides the piano, I can't really explain why I love this song so much. Maybe you'll understand anyway. The music video isn't amazing, but that doesn't matter.
I know everyone loves this song, but the next one is Just the Way You Are by Bruno Mars. It could melt any girl's heart. :)
I think the next one was just a phase, but still it was enough to make it onto the list. Terrified by Katharine McPhee.
I also had a The Only Exception by Paramore phase (don't worry, I'm not really into the rest of her music. Just this song. The rest is a little too emo punk rockish for me). It grew on me.
A song I have loved forever is Gravity by Sara Bareilles. Music videos are just weird and distracting a lot, but I still adore this song. One of my absolute favorites.
Sometimes I really love Regina Spektor, as weird as she is. A good example is Eet, but one that really made me think with its weirdness in a way I had to digest to like is Laughing With.
Trying to think of more songs to post, about a bajillion came to mind. But they all fit in the category "I like the style of this song, so I listen to it with everything else, but I actually don't really love it enough by itself". So I won't post those. But I just love songs that are chill, acoustic, maybe with piano. Someday my music tastes will change (again) and I will look at these songs and laugh at myself, but I don't care. :)
P.S. A song that has been helping me relax when I'm stressed, and just go to work. Love it. So much. River Flows In You by Yiruma.

YouTube it Up

I feel like all of my posts are too serious. I need some silly ones once in a while. So I am going to share with you some of my favorite YouTube videos - definitely the logical thing to do.

Marcel the Shell


Red Strip Beer-  Large Headed Friend


Boys Will Be Girls


The Lawrence Welk Show


Time Hawkins - Aging Rockstars


PreBlessed Food


Jellyfish


Top 60 Ghetto Black names


and it wouldn't be complete without
The Bed Intruder Song


(Most of those are made by people with a million other connected funny videos - especially Julian Smith, SNL, Red Stripe Beer, and Tim Hawkins. So if you want to waste your entire day, you can find more stuff by them.)
Enjoy!

Grace

Recently a lot of events and circumstances in my life have been hard, or perhaps just my definition of hard. They weren't anything out of the norm, and they really don't sound that difficult, but they were and they are. The hardest part was that I was trying absolutely as hard as I could to be good and make the right decisions. I was doing all the right things, or doing my very best at doing all the right things. But no matter how hard I tried, I always fell short, and my imperfections were rubbed into my face. I tried to be humble about it, to react in the face of trial the way I am supposed to - you know, the sunday school answers - but sincerely. It didn't seem to help.
As I was struggling with my imperfections - not with the gospel, just with myself - heaven opened. I went to church and everything was tailored exactly to fit me. All the testimonies born were perfect. But the winner was in Relief Society. The lesson was on Grace.
Grace isn't something I have really thought about much before. It isn't really emphasized in our religion - we talk more about the being saved by works part, forgetting that both are important. Obviously we talk about the saving power of the atonement a lot, but I guess I didn't really understand the idea of grace. The teacher opened the lesson with three scenarios where a person needs to find the value of grace in their life. The last one was "the girl who is doing everything she can, and trying her very hardest, but still falls short and never feels good enough". Obviously I burst into tears at the very beginning of the lesson. No hope for preventing sobbing for the rest of it.
The first place we turn to learn more about what grace is is in the Bible Dictionary. Here are some of my very favorite snippets:
"The main idea of the word is divine means of help or strength, given through the bounteous mercy and love of Jesus Christ."
"It is likewise through the grace of the Lord that individuals, though faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance of their sins, receive strength and assistance to do good works that they otherwise would not be able to maintain if left to their own means."
"This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts."
"Divine grace is needed by every soul..."
I was just overwhelmed. Heavenly Father sent that lesson just for me. Well, and a couple of the other girls I saw bawling their eyes out with me. I just needed to hear that - Christ won't just top off my cup at the end, he will help me fill it all along the way. He strengthens me, fills in for me, and recognizes my true effort. "I am a great sinner and Christ is a Great Savior". I can do all things through his grace.
So our bathroom mirror now reads,
"Grace is an Enabling Power
Have you used it Today?"

Feng Shui Part One

So I am in a History and Philosophy of Science with an Emphasis on Biology class (super long title, I know. They don't offer a physics one, so all the teaching majors have to take the biology one. lame.).
A major part of our grade in the class is a paper and group presentation on a pseudoscience.

Pseudoscience: a methodology, belief, or practice that is claimed to be scientific, or that is made to appear to be scientific, but which does not adhere to an appropriate scientific methodology (thank you wikipedia).

Our ideas at first were well witching (or well divining), medical magnets, acupuncture, and Feng Shui. The list slowly was narrowed down as we addressed acupuncture and well witching in class, and another group picked medical magnets (anyone reading this, please don't be offended if you believe in medical magnets. All I am claiming on that is that it isn't exactly science, not that it doesn't work. And if you are still offended, don't be. I'm not worth getting offended over.) And then we started getting excited about Feng Shui.
For those of you who are like me, you won't already know what that means. For those who know all about it, bear with me (or even correct me) while I attempt to explain it. Basically it is a Chinese tradition of interior decorating (which they probably would be offended to have it be grouped with) that is supposed to improve the qi (the energy flow, circulation of life energy) of your room, making you happier, better rested, and basically improves all parts of your life. It uses the ideas of yin and yang, and tells you what will hurt your qi. Furniture and wall decor have to be done in a certain way as to not hurt your qi. Some of it is intuitive like, clutter is bad for your qi, but some of it I would have never thought of.
Anyway, I have to write a seven page paper about it by Thursday, so I have a lot of research left to do. But, as part of my project, I am going to Feng Shui my room!!! Lizzy, my roommate, is excited too. It will be hard to find things for our prosperity corner (we need purple, black, green, and money in that corner - definitely don't have purple, black, green, OR money.) And we might be lacking in the relationship corner (I guess family pictures can go there). But it will be fun. And I might find out that that is a totally westernized version of Feng Shui anyway, and not need a prosperity or relationship corner (I'm sure that almost anything we find will be a westernized version considering I can't read Chinese). But it will be fun. :)
I will update you later with pictures about what I learned and what I did, because it will be fun. And we will see if I sleep better, study better, and feel better afterward. :)

Printer Fiasco Turned Victory

Recently I bought a printer. Exciting, I know. Front page news.
 But really, I was excited. It was an HP Officejet 4680 - an all-in-one.

It prints wirelessly, scans, copies, faxes, and walks the dog. Except maybe the walking the dog part. With my dad's coupons and some serious haggling, I bought the brand-new printer, ink refill, and a two year warranty for $36. Not bad, if I must say so myself.
Then I brought it home. It was supposed to be an easy set up, but for some reason my computer didn't like the software. It didn't even recognize the driver disk as software, and I had to look through the files on it to find a setup button. After struggling with it for a long time, and inviting over one of my computer friends, we got it mostly set up, and started to set up the wireless part (the part that sold me).
My printer printed out its own report card. The right column was full of "PASS"es, and one big, fat, ugly "FAIL". I had bought a faulty printer. The wireless didn't work. It even knew that it didn't work. Ugh. It could print with a USB cable, but what is the point of a wireless printer that can't print wirelessly?
A couple of days later I gave up and called HP's 1-800 number. And I know for a fact that the guy I was talking to was from India, or somewhere very like that. He was friendly, but we had....some difficulties communicating.
"Yes! A as in alpha!!!"
Anyway, after over a half an hour on the phone, he was convinced that my printer was not working. He told me that they could send me a new one and that I could mail my old one back to them, with prepaid shipping. I was fine with that. A minute later he changed his mind. "um, I thought of something better. What if we just emailed you a coupon for $139 to our website to buy a new printer?" I was like, "Yes!" And I would get to keep my old printer, which worked just fine besides the not wireless part. Sweet! "Okay. If you don't get the email within a couple of days, call this number, and enter this extension." Nice.
Well, it didn't come. Of course it couldn't be that easy.
And then "Jessica" (also Indian, from the sound of it) left a message on my phone for me to call her back.
Long story short, Jessica was from an entirely different branch and just needed my info for the records. Then someone else called me to make sure I was happy with the coupon - which still hadn't come. After more miscommunication,
"Yes! A as in alpha! T as in tom!!!!"
they got my name and email address right.
And now I have a shiney new printer, the HP Photosmart D110a.

With $139 I was able to buy ink and a warranty as well. What a relief to have that all over. Willie got the old printer, and the wireless (along with the nifty ePrint feature - I can email print jobs to my printer from anywhere) works on this one. Whew.
In the end I think I was just paid for the frustration, but I am happy with how it ended. Score on my part. I'm sure Willie isn't too disappointed either. :)

Catchin' Up

I recently had a friend get after me for not updating my blog so let it reach the top of my to-do list. After all we know how much I love blogging. :)
I decided that instead of doing all the updaters, stories, and thoughts in one post I will split it up. It will be more exciting that way. Are you excited? I am. So look for it - a bunch of unconnected, maybe short, maybe long but definitely April posts. Ready...Set...Apostrophe!

Thoughts From the City

You may laugh at my title, thinking that Provo isn't really a big city, but in comparison to home, it is really different. I have found myself alone a lot recently. My roommates are busy and have their own friends, and I'm still getting into the groove of things - you know, making new friends. So there have been a few nights/evenings were I have had alone time in the middle of thousands of people. It has made me think.
Jottings:
"Today I got home, and no one was here. So I sat on the balcony with the light of a streetlight and the stars shining on me. There was the sound of cars, a breeze in the tree, people talking and laughing, but I felt beautiful solitude. Some people claim they only find true solitude in the wilderness. I also love the solitude of the city. When I have inner peace and quiet, and the immediate world is quiet, but I can hear the world still moving, people still living, and I am silent and still like a rock in the river, I can find peace. I love the peace that comes when I am alone. The completeness. I feel fulfilled."
It sounds weird, but there is a similarity there between being quiet and still in the middle of the chaos of a city and being quiet and still on a mountain looking at the stars. In both places I can be quiet, feel peace, and see how small and insignificant I am. The city doesn't stop just because I do. All those lights and busy people living their busy lives don't really care about me. And when I go star gazing I feel minuscule. Both give me humility and perspective. We all need those moments now and then, acting as a rock, before we join the rest of the water flowing down the river.

Changes!

Hello everyone. Look how good at blogging I have been recently. :)
Anyway, a lot has happened!
First of all, my family finally got texting. It really isn't that big of a deal, but it has been awfully convenient already. I like it. Part of the deal was that I got a new phone, too. My old phone somehow never had reception, so it is nice to have a phone that works. My new phone is red, and has a slidey keyboard that makes texting extremely easy. It is the Samsung Intensity and looks something like this:

So fun. I love it already. It is my new toy. I can put music on it, and the speakers really aren't that bad. It has a 2 gig micro SD card.
Second piece of news. I had my last day at Macey's. That's right, last day. As in, I quit. For several policy reasons, Macey's didn't let me just switch to Seasonal Employee status like they had in the past. Sad day. I cried when I left, as always, which is ridiculous, but I loved Macey's. I have many friends there, and a ton of memories. I kinda feel like I grew up at that job. Of course, I have quit once before, so we'll see. Maybe I'll end up working there again.
Then, Willie moved down to college. I am so excited for him, as well as being a little nervous for him, but it is finally time where all of his worried family has to back off and let him do it himself. No five moms. Just Willie. Go Willie!
And then I moved down to BYU! Woot. It is different this year. Claire got married, and Sarah and Mari moved out, so I have three new roommates (that we actually hand picked). I like them a lot. It will be a fabulous year. My schedule looks kind of scary, though. I have Multi variable Calculus, Modern Physics, Meteorology, and the History and Philosophy of Science, plus a few others. We'll see if I survive. If I do, I will learn a lot, and have a fabulous time. A lot of it depends on if I find people in my classes to study with. You will definitely be updated on it.
Sad story: I love having a lot of pictures on my blog, but when Annie and Neal visited, Joseph decided to throw my camera. It still mostly works, but I think the shutter is broken - as in, it doesn't close. When I take a picture, it is washed out and stripey. As in, my camera is fine, except that it can't take good pictures. Fail. So we'll see if pictures from my phone are good enough.
Anyway, there you go! I am back at BYU, and very happy, although I miss home a little because it was one of the best summers ever. I guess I will just have to make this one of the best school years ever to make up for it. :)

A Beautiful Day

Claire and Devin were married August 14, 2010.
I will miss my lovely roommate, but Devin deserves her, and they are very happy.

Honestly, it was one of the most beautiful and relaxed weddings I have ever been to. Usually there is a few bride-zilla moments, some hair loss by the Mother-of-the-Bride, a few mishaps in food and decor, and some extremely stressful moments for the bridesmaids. Not so, at Claire's wedding. Everything went perfectly. The bride was cool and composed all day. Everything turned out, and the reception was lovely. I was able to help, but also was able to relax and laugh with some of my favorite guests. Here are a few (well, a lot) pictures from the big day.

Waiting...

And here they are!!

A Radiant Bride

The food was AMAZING. And Beautiful, too.

The sign in table

The gift table

They hired a videographer. He was fun to watch.

On the way to cut the cake, Claire's shoe slipped between the boards of the deck. Good thing there was a lot of Cameras on hand. :)

Devin's sister had to give them instructions on how to cut the cake.

Wow. What an action packed picture. :)

First dance

This little boy watched them dance almost longingly. He was so cute. He got to dance with Claire later.

Dessert was amazing!

Stacy got Erilyn laughing really hard.

The videographer got them to do some pretty strange stuff.

Bridesmaids

They finally left! It took forever to chase them out of the door, strangely enough, but we finally got them to leave.

It was such a beautiful day! Everything turned out and was lovely. Congrats Devin and Claire! I wish you the best! You'll still see a lot of me. :)

Tea Party for Claire

I should have blogged long ago, but I still need to post pictures from Claire's Tea Party Bridal Shower.
I had fun picking out stuff from the DI, finding mismatched china and a tea pot for cheap. That was half of the fun. Thank you Annie!

Devin and Claire: A perfect Pair

cute Brittanie, my co-hostess

Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of the fabulous food. Adorable Claire and Sarah show it off for us in this picture: shortbread thumbprints, little sandwiches, and pound cake.

Erilyn always makes cute cards

Claire was excited about getting an apron.

Can I say that I love this picture? We had fun taking pictures of everyone with Claire in an old fashioned picture frame. Sorry some of the pictures are blurry.

All of us together! What a happy party!

Although less people turned out than I expected, I still think it turned out. The sandwiches by Brittanie were lovely and delicious, and all of the people who came were adorable (I felt a little over dressed because I didn't know what everyone else would wear, but I had fun wearing a tea party dress).