Thank you notes: Thankvember day 11

alright, thankfulness...

it's funny, i can always think of very day-specific things to be thankful for all day, until i sit down to start writing about them. and then i lose all my thoughts completely. luckily i have a physical reminder of what i'm thankful for today.

backstory: yesterday i came home from work to the cutest thank you card i think i have ever received in the mail, from a good friend from high school. even though i don't get to see her often anymore the fact that she took the time to write such a cute, heartfelt note made me smile for like half an hour straight. i was half tempted to run around showing it to anyone who had the misfortune of crossing my path.

you know, it's amazing to me just how much brighter a simple "thank you" can make your day. just knowing that someone thought about how much they like you and decided you deserved a physical reminder of that is the best. it made me feel all sorts of warm inside, to quote my mother.

so in short, i'm thankful for good, long-lasting, high-school, friendships and the benefits i am still receiving from them today. oh, and i'm thankful for thank you notes.

post thankvember:
in not so thankful news, today was a strange day. i had to go to work twice today, not leaving much room for church. this has left me feeling weird. this has left today feeling like the third saturday in a row, which means i'm no where near ready for school tomorrow. aaaand basically i can already tell this week is going to be difficult for me. i'm in the wrong mindset.

it's weird, what one simple 3 hour activity can do to reset your thinking.

well, i finally finished registering for classes, so i think it's time for bed.

Sunshine and laundry: Thankvember day eight.

Today I’m thankful for good weather. It was reportedly 65 degrees today, which is nearly double of what it's going to be tomorrow. Winter is coming, and I’m terrified. 

I’m also thankful for free laundry. I already hate doing laundry; I can't imagine how much more I’d hate it if I actually had to pay to do it. 

I’m also also grateful for good roommates and friends. Two of my roommates and ben left to greener pastures for the day/weekend and so in their stead I’ve watched like 20 episodes on Hulu. It’s made me realize just how dull my life would be without them.

Also, I have mentioned I have a job? Because I’m still unbelievably grateful for that. 

Today was good. And I’m also grateful for that. 

Well, it's nearly 12:30 and I’m exhausted. Time for bed, children. Goodnight.

JOB! thankvember day seven

guys! it's happened. i finally, finally got a job. it's only seasonal at best buy but it's still a PAYING JOB. plus if i keep being the shining star i am, i have the possibility for being hired on part time.

ah. relief.

in case you missed it that's what i'm thankful for today.

actually today has been a day full of thankful worthy things. i'm thankful that my dad has the opportunity to come up to logan occasionally to visit me (cough, and take me out to dinner.. whaaaaat...).

i'm thankful my roommate has my back when i wait until midnight to gather up supplies for my photography class tomorrow where we'll be making a camera.

i'm thankful for medicine because i'm battling some intense heartburn right now.

i'm just... yeah, it's been a really great day.

to love the warm night air.

do you remember the first time you felt content? like the thorough, aware-of-your-surroundings-in-a-grown-up-sense, content with the current moment of time in which you were living?
i do.

i was probably twelve (it's kinda funny how everything i remember seems to have happened when i was twelve.) and it was nearing easter time. my mother was frantically rushing around the house at ten thirty that night, attempting to undo our messes faster than we could make them. we were expecting my grandparents to arrive any moment.  all the windows were open so the cooling desert breeze could circulate through the house, airing out the freshly sterilized smell. i remember sneaking outside to sit on the porch bench to wait. i was positively bursting with anticipation and happiness. the buzz of our frantic cleaning had stirred up the butterflies in my stomach and i felt so full of so many good things that i couldn't stay inside anymore. this is when i fell in love with warm night air. 


i don't remember what time my grandparents eventually showed up. i don't remember what i got for easter that year. i don't even remember what age i truly was, but every year when the night air finally becomes a pleasant, tolerable version of the day's sweltering heat, i remember that night and i feel so full of childlike contentment that i can't help but get lost in the breeze. and i feel unbelievably full of so many good things once again.


i wanted to do something special for my 100th post and without realizing it, i wrote this instead. 
and it couldn't be more perfect.

spring is (trying to be) here!!

it was warm today for the first time in... forever. want to know how my body reacted? instant hives. good to know i've still got it.

despite my spontaneous reaction of hival proportions, today was a gorgeous day. marissa and i ate lunch at this park, next to a lake full of half confused ducks (this guy was attempting to feed them by throwing perfectly good bread into the water near where they were sitting and they swam away in fear. ducks. are. retarded. speaking of how retarded ducks are, we also reached the hypothesis that while pigeons are the rats of the birds, ducks are definitely like that kid from elementary who would eat gum off the bottom of desks and sucks on the collar of his shirt and jump around like a frog during recess. you know the type of kid i'm talking about. but i digress...). the sun was out, the snow was melted, the tulips are bravely poking their little heads out of the still wet flower beds, and the lunch we'd purchased from the nearby spar was one of the best sandwiches/massive chocolate covered creme puff things i've had in a while (or i was just extremely hungry. either answers are valid).

after we were done eating we sat there in glutton-ed contentment until this middle eastern looking dude sat on the bench nearest us and started blasting "music" of equally middle eastern quality.  i'm usually one of those people who can ignore rude and obnoxious people and their behavior but this time was different. i'd waited so long for this perfect sunny day and from that point forward i couldn't completely enjoy it because of his stupid music. /rant.

 guys. innsbruck is so pretty. i walk out my door everyday to stand at the bus stop facing the alps (which i live in the middle of), and just remind myself of how lucky i am to be here. i cannot wait until everything comes back to life and turns green and warm and friendly and i'll feel compelled again to never leave my house without my camera.


school update: it's only week two and i'm already ready to go back to running around europe, and reading nonsense novels and skyping until 4 am every night. i'm so bad at being a productive human being.

oh, and don't worry, i saved the best news for last! guys. i bought tickets to ireland tonight! i am so excited. for as long as i can remember i've had this inner pull to find a way to go to ireland, and it's finally happening. we're going to be there from april 2nd to the 8th, hopefully by then everything will be fully green. i'll make sure to take pictures of every castle i encounter while there.

everything is beautiful and nothing hurts :)

the day i became cultured in (americanized) foreign foods.

so, earlier i was thinking about what i wanted to write about today i realized something. i'm unsure why this is but i always feel the need to address you "guys" when i'm writing one of these (which is slightly pretentious because it's like i'm starting off my posts with self inflated notion that tons of people are going to be reading this, even though blogger tells me differently and that, in all reality, there will probably only be 25 of you. also, that was the greatest, most unnecessary run-on sentence i've probably ever written, but i digress). with that said, i'll probably keep doing it. just because it feels... right.

so, guys. today, as i mentioned yesterday, i got to go to dinner with ciera the great (yes, that is in fact her new and permanent name as far as my blog is concerned. and that is what she will be known by from heretoforth. and yes, i realize heretoforth is not a word but that doesn't seem to stop me from trying to use it. like this is the fifth time i've found myself writing it out in the past week and every single time the spell check gets mad at me. you'd think i'd learn.... but i digress. again) (i just googled it. what i really mean instead of heretoforth is henceforth. yes. that does make more sense. but on to the actual blog now. wow, i'm tired.) aaanyway, ciera the great and i decided to go to this japanese place here in logan called Takara Sushi. being the ever cultured utahard that i am, i'd never had japanese food before. because i didn't know just how authentically japanese the food was going to be i was slightly nervous. but earlier this summer i'd made a pact with myself that i would no longer shy away from new experiences, and that most definitely included food. so at about 7:15 tonight i found myself walking into such a legit sushi bar that they didn't even have forks there, only chop sticks, which made me a little more nervous, considering my experience with alternative cutlery was minimal at best. ciera the great had been there quite a few times before so she helped me pick out the best food on the menu. try not to get jealous, or hungry, but this is what i ordered:

may i present to you, the beef teriyaki platter... spread.. thing.

oh. my. heavenly. i don't even know what most of the stuff on that plate is but i can tell you that i thoroughly enjoyed it. it may look like this was TONS of food but i managed to eat all of it, which people who know me can attest is no small feat, and not feel overwhelmingly stuffed. the japanese are definitely on to something with their portion controls. anyway, on the bottom left corner those are sweet potatoes, onions, and zucchini that have been breaded and fried. there were these little pouches of deliciousness that you can't see because they're hiding behind that white bowl of mystery dipping stuff (see, i legit wasn't kidding when i said i had no idea what i was eating.)

in the top left corner of my tray is four california sushi rolls. because i was trying new things i told myself that i wasn't going to leave that restaurant without trying sushi (especially since the whole time we were there, there was this lady sitting in the complete opposite corner of the dinning area who was basically falling in love, out loud, with her sushi for everyone to hear. it was... slightly disturbing. "this is the best sushi i've ever had, and i've been to san francisco!" i'm still unsure how visiting san fran makes you a sushi expert... but then again, it could. i wouldn't know). so i picked up a piece of sushi with my chop sticks (which may or may not have had cheaters on them), dunked it in soy sauce, and lifted it to my mouth. before i could even open my mouth i caught a good old whiff of it and i swear to you guys, there was no difference in the way it smelled between that and the big can of fish food my mom used to buy for the gold fish i would inevitably bring home from swiss days every year as a child. i tried three different times to get myself to eat that sushi but i never even got my mouth open before i got all sorts of grossed out. i still can't believe a few of you out there enjoy that stuff. no worries though, i didn't waste my sushi. i brought mine and ciera the great's portions (because she's normal just like me, and she doesn't enjoy eating expensive fish food either) of sushi home for katrina because she had to work instead of going on the sushi adventure with us.

oh! and they brought us this soup before our food came out called.... it started with an "m"... that's all i really remember, but it was so warm that the thicker parts of the soup were bubbling and doing this weird thing that me and katrina learned about in astronomy because it's what the surface of the sun is doing at all times (yes this is literally what i was thinking of as i watched the thicker parts of the soup rise, cool, and sink again. and yes, i'm aware that i'm a huge nerd.) but i can't remember the name of it because it's 5 AM and i honestly shouldn't be awake right now.
i kinda lost where i was going with that train of thought, so here is a picture of ciera as she's attempting to enjoy her food while i invade her space with my camera phone.

for some reason i thought posting that picture would help me regain some semblance of a train of though, however it has not so i think this is a good place for me to call it a night. also, i totally just heard one of my roommates in the kitchen. who gets up at 5 AM!? honestly. 

in conclusion: i can't believe you read all this. i apologize for how difficult this probably was to read. also, i've decided that on the rare occasion that i decide to let myself spend money on going out to eat, i'm definitely going to let ciera the great pick the restaurant from here on out.

for being 4 in the morning, i'm awfully chipper.

guuuuuys. remember a few days ago when all i wrote about were complaints? guess what? most of those have been resolved.
- i finally talked to my roommate about paying me back for the utilities. yay money.
- i decided to rent a storage unit in the morning instead of trying to impose on someone else.
- ciera the great has a truck we can borrow.
- i'm mostly packed. well, my room is mostly packed. i can't really say much for my bathroom or kitchen stuff.

things i'm looking forward to:
- only working 4 hours tomorrow and then going to dinner with ciera the great.
- being homeless for 9 days. i've never felt so... unanchored. it's surprisingly nice.
- visiting home in a week :)
- getting a new stereo in my car.
- that last slice of cheese cake in my fridge.
- i found kodak portra film that i'd forgotten about under my bed today. i'm ecstatic to start using film.
- i also found an unopened tube of my favorite lip gloss in high school. mmmm tastes like memories.
- going to the oakridge ward for church sunday. it's nice to see familiar faces again.

isn't it the best when everything starts looking up again? 

for being 4 in the morning, i'm awfully chipper. 

The day I hacked my brain and everything was perfect.

I've had full intentions to write this blog at least three times before this point, but as you all know, I'm contractually obligated to procrastinate, so you get a story about Saturday five days later. You're welcome. 

So, I was scheduled to work at 8 on Saturday morning, and if you know me, you see the problem here. On Friday I was planning on going to bed early, but not only had I had the privilege of sleeping in earlier that day, but it was my roommate Courtney's birthday. So after going to dinner at Costa Vita, we had a ridiculous amount of people in our apartment, eating cake, playing games and attempting to throw a dance party.  It was 2:30 by the time everything settled down, everyone left, and I was ready for bed. As I lay in bed all hopped up on chocolate birthday cake, carbonation, and too much sleep the night before, I started freaking out that I wasn't going to be able to wake up on time. In desperation I decided to do some "imagining exercises" I learned in one of my many strange classes I took at Dixie last year. I spent a solid ten minutes telling myself I was going to wake up on time, and imagining the clock when I woke up and exactly what I was going to do before work to get ready. I set my three alarms for 7, 7:15 and 7:30, as usual, and shot a few prayers towards heaven, figuring I could use all the help I could get. By 3:30 my brain had finally settled down and that's about when I fell asleep.
The next thing I remember being aware of was shooting up in my bed in a blind panic and reaching for my phone to see what time it was. 6:58. WHAT?! That's right. Somehow I managed to not only scare my brain into waking me up like a ninja before my alarm went off, but I also did it on 3 1/2 hours of sleep. That has never, ever happened to me before. And I was ecstatic. I managed to make it to work sans face pillow creases (you know what i'm talking about, those things you get on your face when you stay in the same position the entire night, but you wake up late for work so they don't have time to smooth out. oh, you don't have that problem? just me then.) and with food in my belly. Those two things on their own are a huge accomplishment.

The whole rest of the day was just as awesome. I thought about taking the time to literally tell you about all of the great things that happened in story form, but I'll spare you and create a simple list instead. Once again, you're welcome :)

List of Awesome:

*free things from Targt in the mail

*half a Costa Vita burrito at lunch

*getting May 16th through the 25th off from work so I can come to St.George!

*good friends

*v for vendetta

*a car mustache (which can be seen here)

*sangrias and oreos 

Ask anyone who had to deal with me on Saturday, everything was amazing. Seriously, such the best day.

p.s. just wanted to let you all know that you're totally allowed to comment on here. I know you all want me to believe that none of you read this but blogger tells me differently. So comment away.