Aye Aye Cap'n

Something strange has been happening to my body over the past week and a half. I find that I am no longer able to sleep at the socially acceptable times of day. When the darkness of night descends upon the earth and all the people close their eyes to join the darkness, my eyes will not shut. As the minds of others take them on journeys through dreams, my mind withholds such a passport from me.

So I'm left here. Wondering at my future as a nocturnal creature. And this is what the crystal ball holds in store.

Everyone, this is an aye aye. A nocturnal creature.

Somebody, save me from this fate.

GROUPME

So I have these friends... please, refrain from expressing your surprise at this statement.


They reside in Provo most months of the year. Unfortunately this month of the year is not one of those months. They've all gone to the different parts of the west to see family and celebrate the Christmas season from the comfort of their homes. I don't blame them.

But I do miss them.

Fortunately for me a brilliant system has been established that allows me to be connected to each of these people all at once. The solution's name is Groupme. Through this website friends can be put into groups and assigned a new, group number. When members text this number, all people within the group receive the text and have the opportunity to respond. These responses can be seen by all members of the group and the cycle continues on in an uplifting and entertaining manner.

I've grown up with this type of technology and often take for granted how sincerely AWESOME it is. I mean, I can watch an entertaining video on youtube, send it through instant chat to someone in a different state, type a message to a friend in Europe, get her response 5 minutes later, all while reading an email from a missionary in Tahiti. Then I can take a video of a percussion ensemble performance, have my roommate in Arizona watch it while I order a present online from a company miles away. Just stop and think about that.

...

...

Have you thought about it? It's incredible.

So I miss my friends and look forward to seeing them again, but until then I'll stay connected to them and enjoy the jewels of wit that come my way via text.

Groupme: keeping people together has never been so entertaining.

you know it's finals week when...

• all you want to wear is jeans and a t-shirt. maybe a fleece vest too. so you do.
• you can't bring yourself to put on makeup for the sole purpose of being able to rub your eyes while reading
• you spend more time on campus than off campus, even though you don't have any classes to go to
• you have a constant tab (literally...like on your internet browser...) on the conditions of the testing center line
• you consider a blog post more of an opportunity to take a break from studying rather than an actual means of enjoyment
• you sleep in because you were in the library until 2am. (yay extended hours)
• you don't see your friends anymore
• when you do see your friends they don't recognize you because of previously stated lack of makeup and choice of wardrobe
• you daydream of the moment when you will actually be able to sell back those blasted books
• you need to go grocery shopping, very badly, but refrain because you'll be headed home soon anyway. right? i am going to be going home soon...RIGHT?
• you make new resolves every hour to do a better job of studying throughout the next semester
• you watch MormonMessages in an attempt to calm your soul
• you get asked on "library dates"
• you consistently have to remind yourself that you ARE NOT your test score...YOU ARE A PERSON.

Oh finals. What would we do without you?

Oh. I know. Laugh. Smile. Live.

I Do Declare!

Political Science

It has been done.

What to do when you have a bad weekend

I think that we might put a few too many expectations on the weekend. The weekend is what we often live for. We base how we feel about each day off of it's relationship with the upcoming weekend and once we reach the weekend, we expect it to make up for the long, hard week we've just had. I think this is unfair to both the weekday and the weekend. The weekday can't help that it's surrounded by other weekdays and overrun with school and work, so let's not blame it. (even though we desperately want to)

My main thought, however, lies in the weekend. We are being unfair to these days, or at least I am. I rely so heavily on the rejuvenating prospect of a few days off, that when those days don't measure up to what I expect them to be, I'm devastated. Let me try to portray why my expectations are ruining me.

My expectations for the weekend:

8 hours of study

7 hours of social gatherings

18 hours of sleep

5 hours of hiking

2 hours of cleaning

4 hours of baking

5 hours of catch up with friends

2 hours of testing

3 hours of dating

1 hour of talking with my family

5 hours of football

3 hours of shopping

For a grand total of 63 hours

Actual hours I can spend doing these things:

Friday: 7 hours

Saturday: 24 hours

Total of 31 hours

The weekend has 31 hours to offer me. I don't count Sunday because most of the things I want to do on the weekend I choose not to do on the sabbath. No matter how I try, I cannot get 63 out of 31. And when I can't do that, I begin my weekdays feeling low, unaccomplished, and unprepared. Then I hate the weekdays because I feel that way.

So what do you do when you have a bad weekend? Well, you look forward to the next one. I mean, it's the weekend after all...

Perspective

This is what I think I look like in a hood:

This is what I probably actually look like in a hood:

Hey, it's all about your perspective.

The Grand Finale? No way...

 So I know that I've posted about these people a few times before but every time I get a new email about the crazy things my brother and sister-in-law do, I just want the world (aka the 7 people who read this) to know about it. Maybe it's not interesting to you but hey, this is my blog and it's interesting to me.

I got this email from Spencer this morning:

Here is a short tale of our recent adventure:

We climbed in Kolob Canyon outside Toquerville on Friday and did some gorgeous climbs on sandstone with huge huecos(holes) in the rock, some providing enough space for you to crawl inside. Very cool.

Saturday was the big day. We had found ourselves a beautiful campspot right outside the park boundaries on USFS land. It's Legal! We departed said campsite at 4:45 am and started running about 5:15. The run from the North to the South Rim is absolutely awesome. All downhill! You run through a few campsites and a spectacular slot canyon-like area called Box Canyon before arriving at Phantom Ranch which is about 12-13 miles in where you can buy a steak dinner for $40. We all felt great at this point. Then we crossed the bridge over the CO river and began the long trek up Bright Angel towards the South Rim. This section isn't terribly steep and we ran quite a bit of it, but the 10 miles still took us about 3 hours, landing us on top at the halfway mark about 6:15 hours among the throngs of japanese tourons. At this point we were quite tired and the only reason we didn't give up was it costed $80 a pop to take the shuttle back to the North Rim. So we then took the shuttle bus over to the South Kaibab trailhead, 1.5 miles away, to run down as it is shorter and steeper.(we wanted to see both trails) This was indeed very steep and we had to hold back in order to not lose our balance and trip over a rock and tumble to our deaths as we ran down a very narrow and exposed ridgeline. We hit the river again after about 8:30 hours of running. Our goal was under 10 hours but the stars were not aligned in our favor, neither were our legs. Steve hadn't run as much lately as he had decided to do the run with us 2 days before, so his calves were killing. Annie's right knee had "a knife jabbed in it" and for some reason my left ankle felt like a small rodent was biting me everytime I stepped. We hobbled, walked, shuffled our way the 4-5 miles of gradual incline back toward the North rim, then slowly we completed the walk of shame back up the steep, steep North Rim, finally finishing at about 7 pm for a time of 13:21.(we didn't count the shuttle time on the south rim in case you were wondering about the math) We started in the dark, and finished in the dark, so we never actually saw the view from the north rim proper, but we saw most of the rest of that dang canyon. We figured our mileage was around 43-44 miles total, with about 24,000 feet of elevation change. I think we decided it was like hiking Timp twice then running a half marathon or something. Spectacular scenery. We found some quarters in the hyundai and each bought a hot shower at the North Rim campground, then dried off with a dirty shirt. I know, somewhat counterproductive. We were too tired, sore, and sick of power bars and gu's to eat dinner, so we settled for some soda and sacked out. We then broke the Sabbath by buying 10 Sausage mcmuffins at mcdonalds while listening to conference on the ride home.

Typical that they'd be doing twice this distant in one day.

So I'd like to think that maybe they're done for awhile. As soon as I think that though, I know that I'm wrong. They'll never stop. And that's one of the reasons I love them. Good on ya' guys. Good on ya'.