Frog Dating - A delicacy

I love my job. Today I had the best conversation about dating I have ever had.
Me: "Jared, can we be friends forever?"
Jared (the funniest kid I've ever met sitting two chairs away to my left who has made me guffaw at least 12 times in the past 2 days): "Sure!"
Dahlin (sitting one chair to my right who is also hilarious): "Hmmm? Yeah?" While gesturing with his eyes toward Jared.
Me: "No..."
Dahlin: "I don't think you are getting my point."
Me: "No, I got it, that was my answer... No..."
Dahlin: "Could you be more specific? I'm not very good at guessing."
Me: "I was answering your question."
Dahlin: "Which question?"
Me: "The one you were asking."
Dahlin: Something about happiness sitting two chairs away.
Me: "We already discussed this, I'm not interesting in trying that right now."
Dahlin: "I have eaten frog in my life..."
Me: "What does that have to do with anything?"
Dahlin: "It didn't look like anything that I would want to try eating, but when I did try it, it was the best thing in the world."
Me: "I've tried frog before and it has made me very sick."
Dahlin & Me: "Stomach ache? Food Poisoning!"
Jared: "YOU GOT FOOD POISONING FROM TRYING FROG????"
Me (trying very hard to get the words past my bouts of laughter): "Yep, and it was a very unpleasant experience."
Jared: "WHY WOULD YOU EAT FROG! You should never try frog again."
Me (gesturing toward Jared but talking to Dahlin): "SEE! You see what I'm saying?!"
Jared: "We have to get you away from your addictions where you will never eat frog again. Maybe in the desert, Oh wait, there's toads... The Amazon! Where the frogs are poisonous so if you eat one you die! So you can either give in to your addiction and die or your addiction will over come you and take you down!"
Me: "Right!"
Dahlin: "You could at least try frog again."
Me: "The last frog I tried was a bad experience, it..."
Dahlin: "Hopped away?"
Me: "With half of me along with it. But I do nibble."
Dahlin: "I think you'd better explain 'nibbling.'"
Me: "No physical contact just dating for fun."
Dahlin: "No hugs or high fives???"
Me: "Yes, high fives... and hugs at the end."
Dahlin: "I once took a girl on a date and she didn't give me a hug or a high five, she just walked right into her door."
Oh work, I actually look forward to you every day. :)

Poleeeese (Stop here if you are squeamish)

Logan and I were bored last night, so we decided we would get a group together and play a game of glow in the dark ultimate frisbee. It all went rather well until Kevin caught the winning Frisbee and his leg caught the business end of a goal post support. It the dark it looked like a deep cut. But when Logan's old roommate and I got him to the hospital we could see it was much worse than that. The pole took out a rather large portion of his shin... as you can see...

It was absolutely revolting but Kevin didn't seem to be in too much pain and he actually seemed to be enjoying himself. A volunteer named Liam (who is from South Africa) stopped in to see and show off his own scar. He had a skin graft that encompassed the right side of his left leg from ankle to knee. It was really weird for me to see. I got the lucky job of accompanying Kevin back behind the huge whooshing doors to wait for stitches. 

Here they have cleaned out his wound and you can see just how bad it really is. That is a layer of skin, then fat, then muscle, and at the lowest tip down his leg is where you can see a little bit of his bone. Liam and Kevin had a marvelous time joking about all kinds of disgusting things and I'm sure Kevin was the riot of the ER. I think it was the first time I've ever laughed so much watching someone get worked on in a hospital.

His doctor was a miracle worker and 12 surface 4-6 dissolvable stitches later you would have never know Kevin was missing two inches of his epidermis. 

Stories

I'm really glad my mother and I are so alike because we are anything but normal and it's nice to have an abnormal partner in my abnormalities.
The abnormality I'd like to talk about today is ... stories. Not the regular, sit down read a book story, but the story you make up on the spot after some small event that in your story could be hugely life changing. Like I said, hardly normal. It could be a look, or a phone call, or a text, or a simple phrase someone says or you would like someone to say, or a shoe, a book, a song, a hairstyle, an off-hand comment, an animal, a sunset, a full-moon, a half-moon, a quarter-moon, a new moon, a rude person, an over friendly person, a strange noise, a pleasant noise, an awful smell, a bland smell... I really could go on. I love to make up stories about my life that could possibly happen even if they don't. Not all the stories I make up are happy, but they all keep me highly entertained. Most are happy and almost all have me triumphing or being on top. I can be the kind of person I want to be in these stories, witty, clever, sweet, tough, capable, confident, kind, desirable, sharp, lucky, skilled. I guess that's what I love so much about writing stories. I don't think I've finished a 10th of the stories I write, but I love to capture a perfect moment in time. I write my destiny and other people do what I want them to in my stories.
But, I do love real life, wouldn't it be boring if you knew what was going to happen and when? I still write my destiny, but I always am interested in how other people shape it.

The Wind and her Cries

Listening to the wind literally howl right outside my door this morning made me think about how people used to tell stories to explain nature, well, here's my simple attempt.

"Grandpa! Grandpa! Where are you?" he raced through the old large house desperate to find the wisest man in the whole world.
"I'm here Son. What's wrong?" As the old man stepped out of his bedroom the little boy felt relief sigh through him. All was right with the world when he was in those strong old arms. No one was better at making him feel protected than Grandpa and his parents. The child clung to him for a few minutes before explaining to him about the monster in his bedroom. It kept shrieking words that the boy couldn't understand and frightening him. The wise man followed back through the large house until they reached the room the little child was sleeping in. The wind whipped the trees into a frenzy outside and it's icy fingers searched for a crack in the window.
"That sound you hear is the wind searching for her long lost lover." His grandchild could feel a story forming behind that first sentence so he let Grandpa tuck him back into the large bed next to his favorite stuffed tiger. "Many years ago, back when God had first formed the world, there was a young girl more beautiful than any alive today (except your grandmother, no one is more beautiful than she). Wind was happy and danced every where, seeming lighter than the air we breathe. Then she met a handsome young man whose bright blue eyes melted her heart and made her happier than she'd ever been before, he was gentle and loving always striving to make her happy. The two fell in love from their very first meeting and from then on nothing could separate the two. They were both very happy for years and would have been so forever had young Sun not also been in love with the girl. He was very strong and had a magical power over her. She was drawn to him, but why she knew not. He could be gentle and sweet, but was more often harsh and unforgiving. She knew she loved the first young man more, but when she was around Sun, his power weakened her and eventually when she was in his presence she forgot her first love. Sun did all he could to keep Wind beside him because he knew when he left, she would run away with her true love. One night while Sun was sleeping, her true love came and stole Wind  away, trying to escape before Sun awoke. They almost made it away, but a servant woke him and warned him of the lovers flight. In his wrath Sun tracked them down and dueled the young man. Sun was strong, but the young man had a just cause and he gained the upper hand. About to deal the blow that would free the two lovers, he was turned aside by Wind. She plead for Sun's life and explained how much she loved him. Again under Sun's power Wind forgot her love and her heartlessness broke the young man's heart. With no reason to stay, the young man left. Wind never saw him again and she searches for him still. In the summer she dances and plays for the Sun, sweet and gentle, doing all he bids her. When clouds cover the Sun and in the winter Wind remembers her true love and races through the world trying to find the one who made her truly happy, wishing to tell him how wrong she was and how much she truly love him and none other.
"Don't be afraid of her cries, she doesn't wish to harm anyone, she is only crying for the one she loves. She tell him that she still loves him and hopes he will come back to her." 
Grandpa's voice faded in the darkness and he and the little boy sat in silence for a moment.
"I hope she finds him. Do you think she will?"
"I don't know Son. I believe in happy endings, I believe she will find her lover someday, but I don't know."
"She'll find him. Good always wins. Goodnight Grandpa, thanks for the story."
"Goodnight my boy. You are welcome. Sleep tight."
"And Grandpa,"
"Yes?"
"I'll never forget that I love you, no matter what."
"And I'll never forget how much I love you too. No matter what."

Magical

A short (but sweet) addition to the previous post.

I don't think I added a very important part to my post. The bouquet and garter toss! Well, Erin caught the bouquet and Evan, her boyfriend, caught the garter. I wonder if he didn't work it out on purpose... It is definitely something he would do... Anyway.

For all you doubters out there that believe it doesn't work. Exactly a week and a day from the reception I got a text from Erin telling me that Evan had proposed. MAGIC! It works!

Tell your friends.

Tribute to the Silent Heros

As my boss stated so perfectly this morning about working with special ed. "If you don't love it, you don't belong." You either love, or you hate working with special children. They are demanding, exhausting, frustrating, adorable, sweet, surprising, and always something new.

As any teacher I already have a few of my favorites.

One boy who drives me up the wall, but always surprises me with how smart he is. I finally have gotten him to listen to me. Favorite moments with him. "I'm bored." (one of his favorite things to say)

"Find something to do, help with the puzzle, play a game, or play on the wii."

He wandered into the corner and pretty soon everyone was ignoring him. (He's very dramatic and loves attention so we ignore his attention grabbing behavior). "I found a stick and I'm going to break it in half." Then after no one responds. "OW! I cut my hand! Ah, my hand! I cut it! It stings!" "How did you do that?" "I broke a stick." This kid is a high functioning kid, he doesn't need to be babysat. The stick he grabbed was pretty thick, we all had assumed it was a twig he had picked up. Guess he won't be doing that again. One of the aids fixed it up for him and he started playing wii. Half an hour later he was still saying sporadically. "Ow, my hand. I cut it." Ah, that boy. Another of his favorite sayings is, "Haha, sucks for you!" and "I'm gonna get in a fight at the park." and "I'm moving to Phoenix." (Which he never does. Shame).

Another of my favorites is an autistic girl who looooooovvvveeesss colors. When you wear the same color shirt she does, here's the response you get, "Gasp!... Gasp!... Blue!... We're the blue shirt girls!... Yes we are."

She loves her coffee too. "Do you want some coffee?"

"Gasp!" then very calmly, "yes."

"Do you wanna do a crossword puzzle?"

"Gasp!... yes."

"Do you want to help with the puzzle?"

"Gasp!... yes. On the white table? In the blue chair? Yes." "He's being silly in the blue chair. ... Yes he is. ... He does that. ... Yeah, he does that." Ah, precious, precious girl.

One kid forever gets on all the teachers' and the aides' nerves. "Sit down." "Let us handle that." "What did I just tell you?" "Don't talk when someone else is talking." "Please talk in a normal voice." "SIT." "SHH!" "SIT DOWN." "What did I JUST say?" It takes a lot of patience not to grind your teeth when you see him walk in the classroom.

One of my other favorites is a lower functioning girl who LOVES to sing. "Bad boys, bad boys..." and she wants you to finish it. She loves Backstreet Boys, Christmas and Broadway songs. "Hit the road Jack.... Hit the road firedrill... hit the road chair... hit the road (insert whatever she thinks of at that moment." "Can I have a scratch?" She loves being scratched. And the fair.

There really is a lot to love about these kids. They are sweet spirits and most of them are a shoo-in for the celestial kingdom. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to work with these spunky hilarious kids.

Favorite moment of today. "Bye ______, have fun at math." WHAM! Down goes one chair. "Bye ______." WHAM! Down goes another. WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! He really didn't want to go to math. Luckily the kids had already cleared out. So, I ignored him. WHAM! One last chair before he left. Bye _____

Keepers of the Wild, for reelzzzz

So this Wednesday I actually got to go to Keepers of the Wild and play with the weeds, tease Kyle, name some animals, plant two trees, sweat like a pig, and get checked out by a monkey. Unfortunately I didn't bring a camera so I didn't get to take any pictures of the actual animals, so I will insert pictures from the internet of animals that look a lot like them.

Brett, Bryan, 10 missionaries and myself piled into an 11 passenger van, I got to ride shotgun. We arrived at Keepers in Valentine, Arizona and could hear the animals waking up and roaring out at the day. The lion, Sultan, had managed to poke his eye on a stick and had to have surgery on his eye, he looked quite melancholy (mel-on-call-y) and slept a lot.

He is quite the big beautiful animal and roared once when a car rumbled past. And when one of the elders got a little too close taking pictures (too bad he wasn't a little closer, he might have peed his pants). The rest of us got a laugh as the elder sprang back as fast as he could. Sultan has quite the roar. Many of the missionaries worked at putting another fence in between the lion's cage and the tiger's cage. The tigers gave us a couple shows, one suddenly rushing at and springing on another. Ruckus and Apollo were their names and Apollo left a lovely gift of spray on Brett's shoe, and boy did it smell strong. :D Remember Brett, it's a privilege.

Kyle was the first animal I saw and the first one I named (someone said his name was Marvin but I think Kyle fits him better). Bryan named the other ostrich Eddie. Kyle and I got into a hissing match and more than one eye contest that I won. :) Coward. It was fun to hear him hiss though. Lucky for you I actually found a picture of Kyle! Here he is in all his glory!

Bryan and I cleared a whole area of weeds and then planted two trees, one of which took forever because the ground was so ridiculously hard ground. The other Bryan did mostly by himself. I enjoyed watching him, and lifting the tree into the hole in the ground. We made friends with a llama I named Tina, and whose real name was Snickers. Apparently Snickers almost got into a boxing match with one of the elders the last time they came. He rose up on his hind feet and came at the elder quite determinedly. The Elder Lindsey took a page from Karate Kid and waxed off Snickers right onto his back. This time Snickers picked on Elder Lindsey's companion, Elder Kioa. Everytime the elder walked by Tina started following him and trying to spit on him. It was very entertaining.

The monkey village proved the most entertaining. One monkey had a very long reach and kept trying to steal peoples cameras and glasses. He also took an interest in me and we had a staring match. As I was staring into the intriguing monkey's face Bryan tried to cover my eyes and told me not to look and the zoo keeper apologized. Then he addressed the monkey, "You're pretty proud of yourself aren't you? Yeah, he always has to show off for the ladies." Then I noticed the monkey was showing off his man parts. Oddly enough the men were more uneasy than I was and I hadn't even noticed until they pointed it out. But, I figure, whatever, he's a male. It's nature, they can't help it. ;) What makes that experience even more priceless is that I was the only girl with 11 other guys.

There was quite an array of animals at the Keepers and I would have loved nothing more than to go an cuddle with one of the big cats. They truly are beautiful creatures and I don't mind helping out.

Someday

Someday. That's a dangerous word. It's really just a code for 'never'. (Knight and Day)

I really don't like the word someday.

Valentine's

Day of love, laughter, and stealing juice from the neighboring party.

So my ward had an awesome Valentine's partly last night that was filled with frosting cookies, making valentines, decorating bags, and picture booths. The weather was nice so I decided to forgo wearing a jacket and putting on real shoes. Instead I wore my mismatching Pirates of the Carribean socks and two different colored flip-flops. Needless to say I was not the height of fashion, though I did wear my "LOVE" shirt! Yay!

My bag died a little. The first one I made had m&ms glued on it but they melted all over the bag, some sort of chemical reaction from the candy coating and the sparkly glue. So I tossed it and made a cuter one with pretty paper on it.

Here's the cookie I decorated. Isn't it lovely? Yes I know, thank you.

I didn't win the cookie decorating contest but the cookies that did are very cute. Congrats girls! There was a neighboring dance party that was pumping their music and Emily and I couldn't help but dance it up a couple times. The photo booth was fantastic though, Emily and I are pro at taking awesome pictures. Don't believe me? Check it out here. Here are just a few of the really cool people at the party. Can you spot Mark in the background?

There were some very adorable drawing on the board so of course I had to add to them.

At last the party drew to a close and Em and I found ourselves very thirsty and the juices from next door calling out to us. We had a ton of cupcakes left over from our party that she had made so we devised a plan to trade the cupcakes for juice. Not so sneakily we placed the cupcakes on the table and snatched a half drunken bottle of cranberry juice. We made an immediate dash for the door and heard a man call out behind us.

"HEY!" After my heart skipping a few beats and collapsing into a fit of giddy giggles with Em we found out it was only Devin, a boy from our ward. We swiped some cups from the Cougareat each (Emily, Mark, Devin, and I) drank some of the juice, were reminded that cranberry juice is bitter and carried the rest of the bottle home with us. Who puts cranberry juice out at a dance? No wonder it was only half empty while all the other juices were gone.

Upon reaching home Emily and I decided to ditch the bottle. Bridget was home from her date so she came with us. We left the 1/4 full bottle on a doorstep, knocked and scattered. No one answered even though the blinds were open and we could clearly see the boy sitting on the couch through the open blinds. So I ran down and knocked again, pounded really, and dashed back upstairs. The boy came to the door and stared at the bottle of Cranberry juice (which I should add, didn't have a lid because we were in too much of a hurry to search the table for it's lid) for at least a full minute. Then he took it inside with him.

Good times, good times.

Sometimes I Just Gotta....

Katherine asked me if I wanted to go to a concert last night. Sure, why not, I wasn't doing anything else. Little did either of us know the night would be filled with awkward amusement...

The concert was held in the Tanner Building with the choirs singing on the stairs. As you can see there were lots and lots of people.

So Katherine and I decided to take the elevator rather than force our way through the myriad of humans cluttering the stairs. I don't like elevators, I never really have, they make me sick. So, I got in and struck a pose, basically like I was guarding the elevator from people attempting to enter it. It kind of helped my elevator sickness, but to be honest, I just felt like being awkward.

We exited one floor below the entrance, noted that there were no seats and made our way back to the elevator. One girl entered it with us and was kind enough to allow me to leap onto the elevator and resume my pose until we reached the next floor.

Not much luck on this floor either, silly people who save seat they aren't even close too... But we made our way from the stairs to the open space and into the hall. I was feeling restless... Never a good sign.

After hearing that the boy Katherine was admiring was an organ major I attempted a tongue roll, (rrrrrr) but it came out rather pathetic so I did it again with a great deal of success. Then I was reenacting the first tongue roll, holding it out for a while. Long enough for one of the boys in front of me to turn slightly, make eye contact, and give me a "you-are-slightly-amusing-weirdo" smile. I promptly gave him my "you-caught-me-being-an-idiot" smile in return until he resumed facing forward. Katherine meanwhile was busting a gut beside me, not helping my image one bit. Whaddyado?

Then I saw this girl taking a picture of her friend and noticed the camera angle was really wide so I lept into the picture frame and made a grotesque face. The girl immediately started cracking up and she showed her friend the picture. When her friend turned around it was none other than our elevator buddy! They laughed for a very long time until Elevator Buddy came out and explained that she had told her friend to take a discrete picture of me because she liked my hair. Glad that worked out.

Shortly after this lovely incident a boy came and stood directly between me and the choir. How rude! Katherine suggested I cough very loudly. So I did, I was hoping it would be more natural sounding than it was... He didn't move. So I coughed again, again trying for the natural sound. Fail. He noticed this time and with a very concerned look on his face moved to the side. Katherine lost all composure. I lost it when I heard her laughing. The boy apologized and I just laughed even harder.

It was at this point in time we left the concert because we couldn't see. Well, that was one reason. Here is a picture of us on the way out. I couldn't for the life of me get her to smile naturally.

Best Weekend Ever

Why? Because I got to spend three glorious days with my favorite person. Ever. True story

Here he is. My boyfriend, and best friend. Thank you MLKJ, you allowed me a portion of time to see him.

My poor roommates had to put up with me being super excited (jumping up and down any time someone asked me or reminded me that he was coming) The whole week before he came. I hadn't seen him in over a month! I know, tragedy! So, of course I was way excited to find out he was coming.

I had asked him to meet me at work and told him when I got off. Ironically enough he sat down right in front of my work area and I just happened to come up the stairs and see him a mere 15 minutes before I got off. We were both very surprised and all I wanted to do was run and jump hug him. Luckily for my job I kept my composure.

15 minutes later I walk out of work and he vanished! I thought maybe I'd imagined it, so I searched for a few minutes then I called him. I got to run and jump hug him. That made me happy. We toured the school, went to dinner and mini indoor golfing with friends. And that was only the start of a fun filled sa-uuuuuu-per awesome weekend.

(I felt like being contrary)

He left today and I thought I would be sad, but I'm not. I'm really glad it happened and we got the chance to see each other again. "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."

One more month til I get to see him again. Until then, I'll let Owl City state my sentiments.

.

Reasons

Reasons I LOVE my brothers.

Kevin: "Man, my stomach hurt during soccer practice, I was so full from eating all those snacks after giving blood."

Mom: "You're only supposed to have A cookie, A!"

Kevin: "I had to make sure that I replenished all the iron and stuff, You don't want me to pass out do you?!"

Alec: "You should be careful about having too much iron in your blood."

Tegan :"Yeah, you can't get rid of it every month."

Alec: ...

Alec: "I was going to say you don't want Magneto to come after you."

Bahahahahahahahaha!

Hopefully I will be able to make you laugh........ if you don't laugh you must either a) be a robot and should probably get that checked out; b) not have the same sense of humor that I have (definitely get thatchecked out); c) be a relative ofScrooge (which means you should learn from his experience... don't make the ghosts come after you too)
In the HFAC (oh how I love the HFAC) at nine in the morning I said this exact phrase is shocked surprise,"Son of Mother!" The girl in the elevator, whom I noticed only after this outburst, stared at me for bit... Perhaps I shouldn't have said it but, there was a MONSTER in the elevator!!!!! Okay, it was made out of fabric,lightbulbs and paper mache. It is hideous!

I fully expected to be devoured by it when the girl exited a floor before I did. Luckily nothing happened any of the four times I passed by it.... creep. Click HERE to see a funny monster prank.

Today I signed up to help paint hat bills ( the part of the ball cap that shades the eyes). Blue. All was going well until I tipped over my cup of water (colored blue due to the many times I dipped my paintbrush) and spilled it on the yellow felt M's. I started hopping up and down and crying "Oh! Oh! Oh No! Oh!" and grabbing M's to stick on my arms out of reach of the blue wave descending upon it. Sadly not one was saved, even more sadly, no one noticed my frantic cries until it was too late. Saddest, they were not even a foot away from me! I felt horrible. But, we finished the hats! :) Yay us... Sorry about the M's Janet...

(Side note... Janet has one of the salon type hair dryers in her room. We put the hats in the chair and turned on the hair dryer machine. Janet, you're a genius!)

Have you ever done the trick where you bend over and pick up a chair? Your back has to be straight and you are basically trying to make yourself a table. Your legs must be directly under your hips and you should have your head touching the wall in front of you. Now extend your arms and pick up the chair with you have hitherforeto placed between yourself and the wall. Now, with chair in hand stand up. Do this in mixed company. (meaning males and females) So funny. Report back to me. If nothing happens out of the ordinary... don't tell anyone I told you to do it. Hopefully you get a few good laughs over it. HERE is what is supposed to happen.

After explaining the trick and why it works the way it works to one of my friends he said, "I have neither the hips nor the brawn." But what I thought he said was, "I have neither the hips nor the bra on." I just about died laughing and he had no idea why. Oh sir, you are so funny!

Imagine this: Two sympathetic pukers in a room together. One of them vomits.... can you imagine the rest? *Hint: Bleh, bleh, bleh, bleh, bleh. Too bad people can't be sympathetic snorters. (the "tehehehe*snort*" kind not the "line 'em up kind")

Fun trick: Wear a backpack (BAHAHAHA) just kidding the trick isn't over yet. Hunch over like a little old lady, bowl your legs, grasp an invisible cane in front of you and chase your friend down the sidewalk. Report back to me on the reactions you get. It works best if you yell, "Wait! Wait little girl (or boy)! I've got candy!"

Hopefully somewhere in this jumbled madness I call a blog post I have made you laugh. If not, remember it's not too late... You can still be saved. Consult with a professional now!

(Song: Inches and Falling - The Format)

Shotgunning Yo. Because it's sexy.

Saturday was perhaps the best day ever! Katherine, my room roommate, and I went shooting with Jared and Joe, boys from our ward, Mike, Joe's friend, Jacob and Eric, Mike's mission companions, Jameson + wife and Adam + wife, Eric's friends. I think I have that right. It gets a little fuzzy after Joe's friend Mike. Anywho, it was an amazing day. All kinds of things happened to make it a great day.

When we got to the shooting hill, I guess it's a range but I'm not entirely sure, it's a hill that lotsa people shoot on. The ground is littered with ammo shells and blasted skeets. In places it almost seems as though Utah not only has red dirt, but bright orange dirt as well.

Right, when we got to the hill and pulled out the tv and guns we realized that someone got the wrong ammo for the guns. This person bought 20 gauge instead of 12 gauge. Oops, but entertaining none the less. We had 2 shells and they let me blast the tv on the left to smithereens. So cool! Jared said that we should have brought out a generator and had the tv going when I shot it. that would have been awesome!

Me + TV+shell

Luckily Mike's miss companions were coming with a 20 gauge and plenty of 12 gauge ammo. The day was saved and made more entertaining. These are the guys Katherine and I rode up with trying to figure how to set up the skeet shooter. Priceless, they even consulted the instructions. It was just to kill time and even more luckily Eric had the hand throwers.

Boys from left to right.

Jacob + Jared +Mike+Joe+instructions

While the boys were trying to figure out the contraption, we took lovely photos. :) Because it's sexy. (Jared asked what the flaps on my jacket were for and I started responding, "Because it's se....." when I realized who I was saying this too. Joe asked me what I said and I repeated the entire phrase and after much teasing I joked that it was my reply to everything. "Tegan what are you doing?" "Because it's sexy.") And so are we.

Me+Katherine

Katherine and the boys blasting skeets from the sky. Jared became a pro skeet thrower I might add. I had to try twice, the first time it stuck, the second time it flew. Only to be dashed to pieces by proshooters. I count my roommate and myself in that too.

Jacob+Katherine+Joe

Awww, precious. Katherine and me taking pictures of us shooting. The gun in my hands is a good luck gun. I hit five of the seven skeets with it. Also it was the first gun I fired that day.

This my friends, is me with an assault rifle. Yes I did actually shoot it. Eric also had an AK-47 so basically, I'm a terrorist. But not really. I didn't hit anything with either gun. I'll just stick to my 20 gauge shotguns. Because it's sexy.

Eric's truck can basically do anything. He wanted to go off roading and we said, why not? Mike's truck wishes it could do everything Eric's truck can do. This is Eric's truck pulling Mike's truck out of the deep snow. Oops :) Don't worry Mike, at least you have a truck and not a car. That would have been really messy. We went to the tip of the mountain and over looked the lake. It was absolutely angelic. God truly is a remarkable artist.

This is Mike's truck getting stuck... again. Only this time on a rock. We tried to use the same rope as before but... it tore, three times. So we turned to more conventional methods. Men. All seven of the males on the trip picked up the truck and walked it over the rock. I was in the cab steering. I feel like I did all the work.

Mike+Eric+Jameson+Joe+Jake+Jared+Adam

This man holds a world record in weightlifting. He at one time could bench 500+ lbs. Yeah, impressive.

Eric+truck

After a long day of shooting and off road romping we stopped at McD's and took them up on their offer of 50 chicken nuggets for 10 smackaroos. A most satisfying day indeed. Because it's sexy.

Smoking is Bad for You

Yesterday Ian and I started our routine of running every other day. Needless to say I thought I was going to die after four minutes of hardly strenuous exercise. Yes, I do know that I'm pathetic and incredibly out of shape. It was awesome though, I kept running, at points it was minimal movement but I was still kind of jogging. It felt like a vice had crushed my chest and only the tiniest amount of air was getting through. I was supposed to meet Ali at the HFAC so we ran and ended there.

I met Ali and tried my best to calm my breathing but I began freaking out. Ali told me to stop freaking myself out and told me it was mostly mental. I listened to her and battled my rising panic at my lack of breath. I started hyperventilating but managed to get back under control. Ali talked to me the whole way home, taking my mind off my pain and I found it easier to breathe. Thank you so much Ali for saving my life, or at least my sanity.

The rest of the day, and even now my breathing is like that of a chronic smoker and when I laugh it deteriorates into a hacking sickly cough. So depressing.

Seven Peaks had free ice skating for those students in the Honors Program and their friends and I was invited by a friend to come along. A whole group of us went and had a ball! I saw a boy with a name tag and I called out to him.

"Hello Mike B." I smiled and waved and he looked at me like am-I-supposed-to-know-you?

"Hi, How are you?"

"I'm great how are you?" At this point I realized that he thought I knew him. That's when I couldn't refrain myself.

"I'm doing great."

"It's been forever since I've seen you." I was struggling to not laugh

"Yeah. What have you been up to?" I could tell he was trying to figure out where he knew me from.

"I've just been going to school, you know the regular stuff. What about you?"

"Yeah, just been doing the school stuff. What are you majoring in?"

Needless to say we had a great conversation. My group was moving on so I ended with

"It was great to see you again!"

"It was great to see you too." I guess he forgot that he was wearing a name tag. :)

He found me later and introduced me to his friend, trying to get his friend to figure out my name. I laughed and apologized for not knowing him. They both laughed and his friend asked how I knew his name. I pointed to his name tag. We became friends. Mike B. gave me the B. part of his name tag so that I could have a name. Good times, good times.

Livin' off Love

After speaking with my mother last night and my roommates last night and this morning, I came up with this imagery of love. It may be that I've heard it before, it may be that I made it up entirely, but, whatever the case, here it sits.

Humankind stands on the brink of a vast canyon. Each of us live our lives with our toes curled around the edge. Behind us stands a forest, neither dark nor foreboding, simply there. In front of us lies the greatest drop we've ever seen and beyond that lies a vast land full of greenery, fruits, rivers, and flowers. We stand wondering what we need to do to get to the land we see beyond us. Small groups form, debating what the best way would be to get across. Two people, a man and a woman jump from the edge, they fly for quite a ways before he tells her she is holding his hand too tight and they begin bickering. They are no longer able to fly and both plummet toward the rocks below. Cries go up down the line of humanity, some begin weeping. Another couple launches themselves off the edge and this time they make it to the land beyond with out quibbling. They land gracefully and begin wandering around and looking at all the wonderous sights. Wonder and awe fills the people standing on the ledge. The couple below pick themselves back up and take hands again, they begin to soar again and though they fall back down many times, they pick themselves back up and make it to the other side.

A man flings himself off the edge, trying to reach the other side alone. He falls as soon as his feet leave the earth. Battered and bruised, he picks himself up but cannot seem to go anywhere but back. He climbs and reaches the rest of humanity again.

Some people panic and run into the forest, I am one of them. The forest is safe and has what I need to sustain myself, alone, I don't need anyone to help me. Every once in a while I run back to the edge and gaze longingly into the land beyond. Many times someone comes up to me and offers to take me there. Even though I know that two can make it together I've seen too many people fall to the rocks below and some never make it back up. They choose to stay down among the rocks because they can't be hurt again if they are already on the ground. I don't want to be one of those people. I retreat into the forest each time, never taking a hand.

This last time though, someone approaches me with honesty and confidence in his eyes. He admits that he is scared too, but he is willing to try. He stretches out his hand and I take it. We make it to the edge, panic wells up inside me, but I look into his eyes and he smiles at me. I take confidence and we fling ourselves off.

I've never felt this before, flying, it is beautiful and wonderful. I look at him and laugh, he is amazed too. I let my eyes wander and I see the rocks below us, fear grabs me and I feel myself falling. I'm pulling him down too, I look at him and see that he is afraid too, we begin falling faster. I try to let go so I won't drag him down too but he holds firm and tries to pull me up. I believe he can pull us back up and already I feel myself floating again. We straighten out and continue flying toward the land before us. Many friends stand to greet us cheering us on. Finally we touch down and embrace those around us.

I realize that if I hadn't been willing to fall I would never have flown. I had to be willing to take the chance that I might have been dashed against the rocks below, because being where I am now is completely worth it. I had finally been able to trust that someone else had my best interests at heart too.

To play or not to play?

In my TMA 101 (Intro to Theater) class we had to write a seven to ten page play with six characters or less. It's a lot harder than you think. A story writer is allowed the privilege of describing his character's actions and facial features in his own words. A play write is only allowed to tell his story through his character's words. The rest is up to the interpretation of directors and actors. I found it quite challenging at first to write seven pages of dialog. Then, I had to be sure I wasn't repeating and dumbing down my play. The best of all, it was due today at four and while I was revising it for the billionth time I suddenly realized how I wanted it to be written! I didn't have the time I needed to revise it entirely. It's gotta be tough to be a playwrite.

Like I said, each of us had to write a play, we were split into groups of eight, (mine has nine due to number discrepancies) and now all of us must democratically choose one play that we will produce in it's entirety. As much as I want my play to be touched with the golden rod, I really don't want it to be done. As soon as others start being my characters they will no longer be my own and perfect in my mind. I won't control their emotions, I won't control their expressions, I won't control their inflection. Yet, to have a play produced? One that is my own? How exciting would that be?

Keep your fingers crossed, I'm not sure for what yet, but keep 'em crossed.