Get me outta here! (Final installment)

Remember a long time ago when I compiled a list of places I want to visit sometime? I never finished posting the list so in lieu of having anything better to write...here's the rest of it:

...Archaeology would have never been able to support this habit.

Guatemala:

Tikal, Lake Atitlan

Brazil:
Iguacu Falls, Rio de Janiero

Australia/New Zealand:
Sydney, the Outback (Ayer's Rock), the Great Barrier Reef, Mt. Doom

Tahiti:

Galapagos Islands:

Easter Island:

Antarctica:

Stateside:

Hawaii (Kauia, Pearl Harbor), the Grand Canyon, Mt. Rushmore, Alaska (Katmai, Denali, Mt. McKinley), J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, CA (random, I know), every other state I've never been to and of course, no list like this would be complete without...the Hoover Dam

With all these travel destinations in mind, would you care to take a guess as to where my family chose to spend our spring vacation?

...

It turns out it didn't make my list at all. Though we all know that means almost nothing to me.

Ireland...we're going to IRELAND!! Ha! Leprechauns and...4-leaf clovers and all-you-can-eat Lucky Charms! But wait! There's more! We're going over St. Patrick's Day! Oh man...can you tell I'm excited? I am a little bit concerned though...the only thing I know how to say in Irish is "top o' the marnin' to ye." On the other hand, my mom does do a great Irish accent...so maybe we'll be able to skate by.

I am NOT a morning person.

My first semester at BYU I took a class at 9:00 in the morning. My second semester at BYU I vowed to never take a class at 9:00 again. So I didn't.

Until now.

This semester, I've been forced to sign up for a class at 7:30 in the morning 4 days a week. I know, I know--all you people with jobs are groaning and rolling your eyes at my pathetic complaining. I've been there before. I thought it would help me. It didn't. Refreshed and rejuvenated are not words to describe how I feel that early in the morning. Instead, I feel muddle-headed and sick and wanting the world to crash down on top of me just so I can sleep again. That includes days I get to bed on time. Maybe I have a chemical imbalance...maybe my circadian cycle is perpetually set to the wrong time zone...maybe my old roommate shouldn't have thought I was lazy for sleeping in past 8:30.

It's remarkable to me that early-morning seminary was ever a part of my life. Perhaps now you'll understand why I barely passed. It's difficult to see but those highlighted numbers are my absences and tardies. Yikes, right?

If I'm anything like my mother...and I am...I'll be doomed to nocturnality forever. In 30 years you'll see me sitting by the side of my bed drinking Diet Coke and eating popcorn, playing solitaire at midnight.

Here's to life.

My life: An update.

There were so many reasons to quit my job:
-more free time to allocate towards school
-which we all know will be used instead to salve the festering wound that is my social life
-the girl sitting behind me chewed so loudly I was beginning to go clinically insane
-I suddenly got an internship that provided a guise of "good experience"
-it's obviously a good time because the economy has never been better
-and I only worked 4 days in the two-week holiday timespan and people were beginning to catch on
...so I did it. I quit. Again.

Thursday was my last day and quitting proved successful! I had a date on my first free night...which actually proved unsuccessful. He took me to the U2 laser show at the planetarium, which was less like a laser show and more like being stuck in a 3D Windows Media Player animation. Give me a white sheet and four friends with laser pointers and I'll be able to pay my way through college without the accompanying motion sickness. Then we went to Spoon Me. (...I would hastily explain that to my mother but not even she reads my blog...I am, however, still going to explain it to you, my devoted follower.) I longingly watched the Baskin Robbins disappear as we pulled in to get...wait for it...naturally frozen yogurt. You know, the kind that actually tastes like frozen yogurt and not just healthier ice cream. You should all be proud of me though, there was only one brief moment where I didn't display pure granola enjoyment.

For the record, he wasn't nearly as bad as the date was. In fact, we have quite a few similar interests. Despite that, I am not currently interested...and despite that I gave a hearty put-on-the-spot "Sure!" to his inquiring, "Can we do this again sometime?" What I really should have said was, "I will go out with you again as long as we don't do anything close to this."

...I took it too far with that last one, didn't I? Is it possible that this is why I don't date...much? Please don't judge me--I am this way purely for your enjoyment.

More on the internship at a future time yet to be determined.

Ring Out, Wild Bells!

Hap-hap-happy New Year's!

In the past I've written about the lameness of celebrating the new year, or rather the inability I have of seeing what the hype is all about.

Well, this year was different...and it's not because I'm dating someone. (...I'm not dating someone) Nor is it because I finally "saw the light." I just ended up having a great time.

My family went up to my aunt's house for some extended family times. At first, it was just another get together. People trying to enjoy each other, but really, not trying that hard--I worked on a little internship stuff desperately avoiding every U fan watching the rerun of the BYU v. Utah game. There was a little Guitar Hero, a little harassing of small children, which was enjoyable but not at all New Year's celebration worthy...but then...there were suddenly Indian leg wrestling competitions, headstands, headstands to handstands, breakdancing, and the disproving of "tricks that guys can't do."

When 2008 finally ticked to a close with a loud 10-second countdown, 2009 was ushered in with a hearty "Happy New Year!" and an obligatory attempt at Auld Lang Syne. Cheers were extended in little green plastic cups brimming with sparkling something-or-other.

If the first few hours of 2009 are any indication of it's potential, it's going to be a good year.

This'll explain the bruising.

On a sunny day in December, when the snow had all turned to lumpy ice, we decided to go sledding. We spent an hour searching high and low for anything resembling a sled--we even considered an air mattress. Finally, purchasing one composed of only thin foam and flexible plastic, we met up with our cousin and his nephews on a very large and treacherous hill. (Sounds ominous, right?)

After flying down the hill unable to either stop or steer and since our lives are only as valuable as the pictures we take of them, we threw caution to the wind and decided it was time to go off a jump.

My sisters did quite well.

I...was unsuccessful every time.