March 31, 2010

Absolutely


I've come to learn that sometimes I am better off alone. I'm happier, I have more time to focus on the important things in life, I work harder and laugh louder. When I start falling in love my mind is always on him... I can't concentrate, my mind is always racing. One second I'm on top of the world and the next I'm getting smashed at the bottom. I spend less and less time with the people that mean the most to me and lose pieces of myself along the way. And then, when my world drops out from under me, I'm left with nothing.


I'd like to believe that someday the right person will come along and love me like my grandfather loved my grandmother: completely and absolutely. But until that day comes, I'm perfectly okay with being alone.

March 28, 2010

#19 Festival of Colors

On the last full moon of the lunar month, Hindu's and many other people all over the world celebrate the end of Winter and the arrival of Spring. They do so by having a Holi Festival, aka the Festival of Colors. Thousands gather together and are given, or purchase, bags of vibrant colored flour/chalk and count down until a full blown "color war".

The biggest Holi Festival in the United States is held at the Lotus Krishna Temple in a small town here in Utah called Spanish Fork. People fly in from all over the US to attend, and thousands of Utah residents make the drive to Spanish Fork every year. Well over 30,000 people participated this year and 50,000 bags of colors were imported from India and were completely sold out.

I had the opportunity to go to the second session yesterday and it was honestly one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. I went with some of my close high school friends and we almost didn't make it on time. Spanish Fork is about 50 miles south of Salt Lake City and normally takes about an hour to get there. There were so many people on the freeway driving down there that it took almost 2 hours. People were parking up and down the streets all over the town and we had to park about a mile or so away. We got there just two minutes before the countdown started and when we went to buy the bags of colors they had been sold out for over 20 minutes. So we just headed down into the crowd and counted down with the tens of thousands of other people.

When the countdown ended handfuls of colors were thrown up into the sky, and into people's faces :] The air was so thick with colors that we could hardly breathe for a few minutes.
We sang, we danced, we celebrated!
Charity, Melissa, and I

Me and Mary Joy!


Will's face!


My eye.
Charity's eye.
Laura and I.
Charity and Mary.
Melissa and I.
Llamas!

Here are a few videos of the festival... MAKE SURE TO WATCH THEM!!



I love learning about other cultures and religions and this was a perfect opportunity to do so. I think a lot of times people fear things they don't understand, and some of the time they don't want to take the time to understand because they have already made their own assumptions. If we would just take the time to get to know people and learn about what they believe and where they are coming from, we will realize that despite our differences, we have a lot in common. We are all human and we all share this world.

Going to this festival really opened up my eyes and made me realize even more that we are all in this together and despite our differences, we need to love and take care of each other. It doesn't matter where you come from, what you believe in or what color your skin is: we are all alike in some way or another. 

This festival was all about bringing people from all different backgrounds together to celebrate something we can all relate to. Nobody cared if you were Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, or any other religion and it honestly gave me hope that someday we can all put our differences aside and learn to finally get along and learn to live together peacefully. 

Needless to say, I am making the Festival of Colors an annual tradition from here on out. It was honestly one of the greatest things I have ever had the chance to be a part of and I can't wait to go again next year.  

If you ever have the chance to go to this festival DO IT! Just be prepared to get super messy and sneeze out rainbows for a few days after. I promise you won't ever regret it!

March 23, 2010

My Life

March 22, 2010

#15 Steal a garden gnome

Meet Caesar, the Garden Gnome! And his trusty steed Gerber, the Creepy Faced Baby Spirit!
RayCray and I took him on a wild adventure throughout the Salt Lake City streets this weekend. Finding a gnome is a tough business, but luckily Rach had seen one in her relative's neighborhood. We commandeered the little guy by the cover of darkness and set out on our adventure. First stop: The Scenic Motel on Foothill Boulevard!
Next was the ever spectacular Hogle Zoo!
Then we gave him a tour of our stomping ground, the U!
No stop to the U of U is complete without a visit to the Pie! Mmmmm...
Caesar even got to ride a wild Utah buffalo!
Taking over the world... one state capitol at a time!
He even got to dance with two lovely girls at Prom! Ow ow!
Our tour of Salt Lake ended with a beautiful Avenues view of the valley.

We returned Caesar and Gerber to his family the following day complete with these pictures and a note explaining his disappearance. We wanted to take him to a few more places (Temple Square and the Gateway to name a couple) but ended up not having time. But the little gnome's adventure is something him and his family will remember for a lifetime!

Revised 20 Before 20

I have come to the conclusion to cheat on my 20 Before 20 list and change some things around. I found a few different things that are far more fun than some of the things I had on my first list. So here we go!!


1. Go on a road trip. It doesn't matter where.Last September I went on a road trip to Oregon with Rachel and Jeff; it was SO much fun and we were only gone for 3 days. Sometime over spring break or over summer break, I want to just take a week or so and get out of town. DISNEYLAND!!!!!!! Best road trip destination? I think so.






2. Go skinny dipping! It's a bit scandalous, but I have always wanted to do it. Maybe on my road trip we can go to Southern Cali and skinny dip in the ocean? That would be epic for sure.



Drive-in Movie by Jonathan Clay.3. Go to a drive-in movie. Sadly, I have never ever done this. And I feel extremely deprived. Click here to read about my drive-in movie awesomeness! 




4. Take an art class. I want to learn to blow glass... or make jewelery. Taking ceramics again would be fun. I never learned how to throw a pot so that would be a great skill to learn. Something like that. I don't want to take the conventional drawing or painting class. Something more daring. Read about my amazing glass making adventure here!





5. Take a cake decorating class. After watching Cake Boss and Ace of Cakes, I really want to learn how to decorate cakes. I want to learn how to make fondant and gum paste flowers and then I want to make a cake for someone's birthday. 

6. Ride in a hot air balloon. Everyone is going all gaga over skydiving but I have never heard of anyone going on a hot air balloon. It's a bit pricey but it would totally be worth every penny.

7. Go rock climbing. I attempted to do it once when I was little... all my big cousins were in the harnesses going up, but I "wasn't old enough" or "not tall enough" or some lame excuse like that. So I pouted at the base and then decided to be rebellious climbed like 2 feet off the ground before my mom made me get down. Ever since that day, I have wanted to do it for real.

8. Swim in the Great Salt Lake. I have lived in Salt Lake my entire life and have only been on the shore of the lake maybe one or two times. Talk about lame. Yeah, it smells like shiz and is pretty much the grossest  body of water ever (besides Utah Lake. gag.), but I want to swim in it. They say there is so much salt in the water that you don't even have to tread, you can just float off and be lazy.

9. Speaking of the GSL, I want to go to the railroad. There is a set of railroad tracks that go straight through the GSL, cutting it into two halves. The north half has a certain type of algae that makes the water pink, and the southern half has algae that makes it a greenish blue. I want to walk along the railroad tracks and see this phenomenon for myself.
 

10. Hike to the top of Mount Olympus. This was one of my New Year resolutions from last year and I never did it. So this year I WILL do it. 



11. Grow a garden. I haven't decided if it will be a vegetable garden or a flower garden just yet. Maybe I'll do half and half. But what I have decided is that it will be amazing.



12. Learn to make candles and/or soap.This just seems so relaxing and rewarding at the same time. Some things you make just get put on a shelf forever or get thrown away. But you can use candles and soaps everyday and they would also make great gifts. I talked to my mom earlier and she agreed to do this with me which will be uber fun.



13. Sundance it up in Park City. Yes, I have lived in Utah my whole life. And no, I have never taken advantage of the fact that for 10 days every year, celebrities and film makers from all over the world come to Park City and I have never gone to visit them. This must change. I became a star at Sundance. Read all about it!

14. Get a decent job. So I won't live the rest of my college experience poor and starving. Success is mine! Check it out here!
15. Steal a garden gnome. And then take him on a wild and crazy adventure and take tons of pictures! Then I'll return the little guy to his family along with all the pictures from his adventure. See Caesar the gnome's adventure here!

16. Make my mark on Suicide Rock. At the base of Parley's Canyon in Salt Lake City, there is a giant rock jetting up in-between the freeway loops that is covered in graffiti. I want to add to the art.


17. Go to a midnight movie showing in full costume. I'm thinking the next Harry Potter? I want to be Snape. I didn't go as Snape, but Bellatrix was just as great. Rhyme? Sort of?


 

 18. Wear University of Utah attire to BYU's campus and count how many dirty looks, insults and physical injuries I sustain. If I can get my hands on a Max Hall shirt, that would be even better. I caused quite a commotion Down South! GO UTES!
19. Attend the Festival of Colors! I have always wanted to do this. It's at the Hare Krishna Hindi Temple in Spanish Fork, Utah (and at other locations all of the world). Thousands of people gather in one place to celebrate the beginning of Spring. You basically get in a HUGE color war, throwing handfuls of powdered coloring at each other until everyone looks like a rainbow. THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN!! READ ME!




20. Go paragliding. I always see people up on the mountain doing it, and I want to do it too! Being pulled behind a boat would be awesome as well.











Other Adventures:
21. Go to Hawaii. Ah, the crystal clear waters of the Pacific, leaning palm trees, beautiful Polynesian dancing, luaus... sounds like paradise! And it was! Read here!

22. Make my own Halloween costume. I have wanted to be Princess Jasmine from the Disney movie 'Aladdin' for a very long time. But all the costumes you can buy look nothing like her outfit! So I took matters into my own hands and made one myself!

March 21, 2010

#14 Get a decent job.


Guess what? Starting tomorrow I will be doing ^this^ for a living. I got a job as a shelver at a local library! It's the perfect job for me, wouldn't you think? 

I have been trying to get this job for a few years. I was offered a job my junior year of high school but it was at a library an hour away so that didn't work out. Then after a one year hiring freeze, two shelver tests, three interviews, and a whole lot of waiting, I finally got one! Party!!

It couldn't have worked out more perfectly. It's at a library right down the street from my grandmother's house and the hours they gave me allow me to still take her to get her hair done every Friday! My main concern with getting a job was not being able to spend time with her every week but that won't be a problem now!

So anyways, that is my good news of the week! Hopefully I will like this job because I've worked so hard for so long trying to get it. We'll see!

March 17, 2010

Life Lesson #14

March 16, 2010

Life Lesson #13

Life Lesson #12

March 15, 2010

Nobody puts baby in the corner...


I thought I knew what I wanted,
only to find out what I wanted wasn't what was best for me.
I jumped in feet first only to scrape the bottom,
and that scares me more than anything...
to have no space to grow.

It makes me want to run to somewhere far from here.
A fantasyland.
A place where I can sink my feet into the ocean
and find a person different than the one I now see in the mirror.
A place just beyond that empty space at the end of each fingertip,
close enough to reach out and touch
in case fantasy doesn't live up to reality.

March 14, 2010

Sweet Freedom...

March 13, 2010

Pet Peeves

1. Milk comes from boobs... not nuts.
So I was watching HGTV tonight and became extremely annoyed when a commercial for almond milk came on for what seemed like the tenth time. Milk comes from mammals, not almonds or soy beans or rice. Last time I checked, those things have never been, nor ever will be, milk producing mammals. Why can't they just call it juice?? It doesn't even taste remotely close to milk! Posers...

2. The current "Disney Channel Stars" are LAME! Get over it.

I swear every time I turn on the radio they are playing that stupid Miley song that sounds just like that equally as stupid 'Climb' song, and Selena's 'It Comes Naturally' crap about thunder and lightening. Honestly? And then they announce that We the Kings just released a new single called 'We'll Be a Dream' and I get super excited, only to find out that Demi Lovato is in it as well. Why ruin a perfectly good song with a Disney wannabe? Miley is a skank with tattooed boobs and old men boyfriends. The JoBros at least are good eye candy, but come on... their music is horrible. Every song sounds the same. I can't wait for the day when people finally realize that these people don't deserve to be famous. Which leads right into...

3. Being famous for no reason.
I'm not going to lie, The Hills was one of my favorite shows back in the day when Lauren Conrad was still on the show. It was when Spencer Pratt came into the picture and turned Heidi Montag into *see picture above* that I decided to stop watching. Now they are writing books giving advice to other celebrities on "How to be Famous". Seriously? Somebody give these two a wake-up call!

4. Utah weather.
Yesterday it was nearly 60 degrees, sunny, and I didn't bother wearing a jacket. Today it was in the 20's, snowed all day long, and I wore so many layers I looked like I weighed 400 pounds. Tomorrow it will snow in the morning and then bounce back up to the high 50's. Welcome to Utah my friends. I blame all the people down in Happy Valley that pop anti-depressants like balloons cause this weather is bipolar. Mother Nature, please make up your mind. And if you could, make it up on being WARM! K, thanks :] 

March 12, 2010

Polynomials Suck



Lately I have been suffering from major writers block. I'll stare at a blank blog post for what seems like hours and drill my brain trying to think of something clever to say, only to frustrate myself to the point that I slam my laptop shut and go stuff my face with carbs. Today was no exception.

So I am just going to rant and see where this goes... 

Anyways, so I didn't sleep well last night because I did some math homework and ate a handful of root-beer flavored Bottle Caps right before I went to bed. The combination of numerical torture and sugar kept me up all night with nightmares. In these nightmares, my teacher (who was just as beastly in my dreams as she is in real life) wouldn't let me go to sleep until I finished dividing polynomials. I honestly woke myself up screaming around 3am and decided to go downstairs and watch TV. To my pleasant surprise, the Disney Channel was playing old shows I grew up loving so I stayed up until 6:30 watching them. I watched a couple episodes of Recess, The Little Mermaid series, and some Lizzie McGuire. It was amazing! For a split second I thought I was little again.

The weather here in Salt Lake City was gorgeous to say the least today. I didn't need a coat, the sun was shining, birds were singing, and I could practically smell Spring in the air. It made me SO stinking excited for Summer I could hardly stand it. I can't wait to walk outside barefoot and not have to worry about slipping on ice or wearing 10 layers to keep warm.

Speaking of sunny weather, Spring Break starts a week from today and guess who is excited? Yup, me! I'm not going anywhere unfortunately, but I am planning on going to a ton of places I have never been here in Utah. I joined a Facebook group called 'Secrets of Salt Lake City' and people post cool places they have been. There are some things that are literally no more than 20 minutes away that look absolutely insane and I have never even heard of them before! Like pioneer ruins, abandoned aqueducts, wine cellars in the mountains, tunnels beneath downtown and the University of Utah, etc. I am planning on going to some of these places and will for sure take pictures and post them up for you guys.

Also over Spring Break, my friend Rian from Ohio is coming to visit. RayCray and I met him last April at U Night and we have kept in touch ever since. He is a senior this year and considering going to the U next year so he is coming down to scope things out. I started compiling a list of places we could take him...

Swimming at Snowbird
Park City
Heber/Midway
Rock 801
Suncrest
In N Out
Gateway
Clark Planetarium
Hobbitville
U of U
The Pie Pizzeria
Temple Square/downtown
Rockreation
A Jazz Game
Studio 600
U on the mountain
Ensign Peak
Salt Flats
Crestwood
Jordan Commons
The Mayan
Sugarhouse
Festival of Colors
Thanksgiving Point
Kennecot Copper Mine 
The Living Room
Salt Lake City Cemetery
Parley's Hallow
Suicide Rock

Do any of you Utahns have any other ideas of cool places around Salt Lake? Muchos gracias mis muchachos! 

March 11, 2010

Life Lesson #11

March 9, 2010

Life Lesson #10

March 7, 2010

The Buried Life

If you have never seen this show then you are seriously missing out. I stumbled upon it not too long ago and it has honestly changed my whole perspective on life. 

It's about four (very attractive) Canadian boys,  that were fed up with racing through life with no direction and decided to slow down and focus on what's really important. They made a list of 100 things they wanted to do before they died, bought a big purple bus, got their own show on MTV, and then set out on the road to accomplish their goals. What makes their efforts even more memorable is the fact that for every item they do on their list, they help someone else cross off something on their's. 


I want to be able to look back on my life when I'm lying on my deathbed and honestly say that I don't regret a single moment. I want to be able to say that not a second was wasted and that I accomplished, or at least tried my absolute hardest, to achieve my goals and dreams. I want to be able to say that life didn't scare me, that I took every chance that came my way and made the most out of what God gave me. When I die I want a part of me to live on through my stories and through every person I touched.
 I want to die knowing that I lived

So here is the question...
Here is my current list

Life Lesson #9

March 5, 2010

Life Lesson #8

Seven

Looky what I got! My lovely blogger friend Holly who writes Love Imagine Create awarded it to me and it made me feel so special! I love to hear that people enjoy my little blog because I have so much fun writing it and I'm so happy people actually read it and get something out of it! So the deal is that I share 7 little known facts about myself and then pass the award onto someone else... so here it goes!!


1. I really wish I wasn't allergic to cats so I could have a tan one and name it Mufasa, and a black one and name it Bagheera. I don't even like cats, I just think it would be cool to have an excuse to say, "MUUUUFASA!!!" every time I come home.
2. Everyone who knows me already knows this but I am OBSESSED with Disney. I can relate almost every life experience to a Disney movie... no joke. A few weeks ago I went to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts on campus with a friend and after we had been there for about 20 minutes he turned to me and said, "My goodness, you really are a Disney freak aren't you?" And I said, "What would make you say that?" He said, "Well, when we first walked in you pointed out that bird and said it looked like the ones in Aladdin that Jasmine set free, then you said that painting over there reminded you of the Black Pearl from Pirates of the Caribbean, then in the Native American section you said a sculpture looked like Stitch, and need I mention the whip we saw that made you want to go on the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland?" Touché my friend.

3. I desperately wish I could relive the 90's. Growing up during that decade was seriously so much fun and I miss it SOO bad! The fashion was simply too cool for words, TV was always good, and don't get me started on the music. We had Super Nintendo's, Squeeze It's, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Rugrats, Nickelodeon, jelly shoes, scrunchies, Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, N*Sync, GigaPets, Mario Cart, Britney Spears, Troll dolls, Polly Pockets, Gushers, Bop It's, Boy Meets Girl, Lunchables, The Nanny, Full House, Goosebumps, Magic School Bus... I could go on for hours. (Go here for more!)

4. I'm a hopeless romantic. It's quite sad really. I'm a sap for anything with a good love story. So much in fact, that I have a horribly unrealistic view on love. Which is quite unfortunate considering 99.99% of men these days are no where remotely close to living up to my expectations. Hopefully someday my Prince Charming will come and save me from myself.
5. I secretly wish I could get a tattoo. I never will because: #1 my body isn't mine to decorate however I wish, and #2 I am deathly afraid of needles. But if these things weren't an issue I would want something on my wrist. Only black, because I think colored tattoos can look trashy sometimes. Or I would so get a Mickey somewhere... like the hidden Mickey's all around Disneyland! Oh dear here I go again! LOL
6. I'm Mormon and not a Republican. Go figure. People practically gasp when they find out. I'm pretty much a walking contradiction but I find satisfaction in that. Almost my entire family is that way and it's somehow comforting to know that we are a little different than the majority of people here in our good old state of Utah.
7. I may not look like it on the outside, but I have always been, and forever will be, a nerd. I grew up pretending I was a dinosaur, I collected Pokemon Cards, I once asked for a recycling bin for Christmas, and I kept a cardboard cutout of Gimli and Legolas in my room for years. I think Avatar the Last Airbender is cool, I cried for 2 hours straight after I finished the 7th Harry Potter, I think suspenders are classy, and I even find myself wishing I had bad vision just so I can wear glasses. 

So there are my 7 confessions. Now it's my turn to pass the torch on to someone else and I pick my cousin Lindsay! Her blog Lindsay Blog is incredible to say the least. She is an amazing artist and I am always so jealous of the things she comes up with. Her and I share a similar sense of humor which is awesome. So here you go my gorgeous cousin! Now it's your turn to share 7 facts about yourself and pass along the award to someone else!