Saturday, December 10, 2011

Remember that one time I didn't blog for 2 years?

Well, I'm back after a 2 year hiatus.  I was inspired by another blogger who I spent a good 48 hours stalking all the way back to the beginning of her blog in 2008.  So here I am.

To kick things off, I'm posting something I found and loved.  I think it describes me to a T.  


Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books.  Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.
Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.
She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.
Buy her another cup of coffee.
Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.
It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.
She has to give it a shot somehow.
Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.
Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.
Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.
If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.
You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.
You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.
Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.”

-Rosemarie Urquico

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Catching up

So it's been foreeeever since I last posted on here... Here are some highlights of what's been going on with me lately.
  • Broke up with Brad almost 2 months ago
  • Got in my first car accident pulling out of the school parking lot.
  • Went to NY for a week and turned 18. While there we did LOTS of shopping and saw The Phantom of The Opera (so incredible!) and Wicked (my 3rd time, but still amazing) on Broadway.
  • Got Swine Flu and was down and out for all of Homecoming week my senior year. Buuuummer.
  • Qualified for the National Merit Award based on my test scores, which puts me in the top 15,000 seniors nation-wide
  • Saw The Killers and Pacific Lights (my friend from EFY's band based out of California) in concert
  • Found my future husband in the guitarist from PL, a Mormon kid who also lives way far away in California :( haha
  • Had my photography published in the phoenix New Times magazine- Best of Phoenix Edition 2009
  • Went to Nauvoo this summer and got to do baptisms in the Nauvoo temple. Super cool experience.
  • Planned a service project to take family pictures at a homeless center for families
  • Am slowly making progress on BYU apps
  • Our stake got 3 new wards from another stake, and new wards=new boys to date ;) holla!

Well, that's about all that I can think of that's gone down since i blogged last. I'm just trying to enjoy senior year and make the most of it!


National Merit Awards Night

Monday, July 27, 2009

It's Haircut Time!

So after close to 10 years of having long emo flippy hair, Brad finally decided it was time for a change (not without a little coercing from Becca however). After weeks of agonizing indecision he finally took the leap of faith and let me take him to Emily's to have his hair cut short.... and yes, it was as big of a deal as I'm making it sound. His hair was his trademark, his baby even.
Here's the journey:

The before shot

We thought it would be cool to stop here and leave him looking like Peter Parker gone emo from the 3rd Spider Man

Almost done... will he like it???


The final product. Aw it's not so bad now is it?
Goodbye awkward little Brad, hello studly man Brad :P





P.S. You're welcome Sister Anderson. Presenting your son with short "church boy length hair"
:)


Fourth o' July

Ariel, Brad, the parentals, and I went downtown to watch fireworks this year for the Fourth of July.
The fireworks show was pretty bomb, but the show we put on in our backyard after was the best part of the night :)
After we got home, we found about 15 boxes of reeeeeeeeally old sparklers and poppers and commenced lighting them. Que hilarious fun.




At the fireworks show


Sparkler madness



We felt like Harry Potter...


He's a bird?




The aftermath

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Tay Swift

My friend Bethany and I got Taylor Swift tickets really last minute the week of the concert, but we were able to get really cheap floor tickets. We went out to Jobbing.com with a couple of our other friends and had dinner out there before the concert.

Bethany and Madeline


Bethany and I
Yes I'm a dork and wore my cowboy hat and boots


Bethany, Madeline, and me

Bethany and I went down to our floor seats which were fairly close, and we watched Gloriana (Tay's opening band) and Kellie Pickler (who wasn't that great) from our seats. Then Taylor came out accompanied by a large about of screaming provided by the masses of preteen girls.
Taylor sang her first few songs from the main stage, then went off stage. At that point we found out that she was coming down to a small revolving platform about 5 feet from our seats. We moved up closer to the little stage and waited for her to come down. When she came down singing Hey Stephen, I'm a bit embarrassed to say that I joined ranks with the screaming preteens, and she even grabbed my hand as she was walking by. We were one of about 15 people that they let through the ropes to go up close to Taylor as she sang on the little stage, and it was way cool being that close to her.
After singing a few songs on her little stage, she worked her way back up to the main stage. Emboldened by being so close to Taylor, we pushed through the standing crowds until we were front row against the stage, and we stayed there for the second half of the concert. No joke, I was 5 feet away from Taylor Swift for a good hour. Amazing! She grabbed my hand 2 more times, and it was so much fun!
The entire show was really well done, and she is even more amazing live than she is in recording. The show ended with a waterfall pouring down on her during Should Have Said No, and the falling water spelled NO as it fell. So cool!! But enough drooling over Taylor, here's some of the close up shots i got in between screaming like a little girl and singing my head off.

On the small stage








Coyote's jersey with Swift on the back


During the waterfall

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

"Prom?" he asks

Last Saturday while I was at a Young Women's conference, Brad was quite busy at my house. He spent over an hour putting 1,200 sticky notes on my car. Each one had something prom related written on it.
On my door it said open for nerds, so I opened the door expecting to find candy, and there he was with candy AND roses. There were two nerds inside my car :P


His prom is April 25th and I'm way excited! I have yet to ask himt to mine though, which is on may 16th. I will have to get him back for this ;)

Monday, February 23, 2009

Hamlet

Brad helped me with a Hamlet project I had to make. The assignment was to pick a well-known quote from Hamlet and make a visual representation for it. It could be in any form. I decided to take pictures. I still need to figure out how to bind the whole photo progression together though...