1. Work every day that I can work. 2. Write 2 songs about Not-So-Elder WaynesWorld 3. Write to all my missionary friends 4. Watch the following movies with my family:
White Christmas
Muppet Christmas Carol
It's a Wonderful Life
A Charlie Brown Christmas
5. Clean room. (which should be done before break even starts because we have cleaning checks...)
Listening to: Danity Kane's "Damaged" -- one of the greatest one-hit wonders ever. Things going on Today: English Final, English Paper due, roommate gift exchange (tis the season) Blessings: I only have to work four hours instead of five... or eight... or forever.
I had a strange dream last night. I dreamt the city of Brooklyn (don't know why it was Brooklyn) was taken over by some guy who had this really monopolistic, brainwashing form of government that allowed for no rebellion of any kind. If you find out too much about how the government was controlling the minds and lives of the populace, you would be kicked out... or severely punished... or killed. Think Ba Sing Sei for all you Avatar fans out there. Everything in the town was green. Everyone wore green clothes, the buildings were green, and the symbol (swatstika?) of the government was on everything. They had a strict entrance-and-exit policy, and everything was background-checked. Everyone was going on living their lives, completely unaware that there were secret societies controlling their every move from behind closed doors. My friend Aaron S. was there; he found out about what was happening, and the next thing I remember, I saw him right outside the gate, in a cage. They took the cage, dragged it to a cliff, and chucked it over the edge with him still inside it. It was scary. Suddenly I needed to get out of there, and fast. So I found some friends and we escaped (how? I don't remember). But before we knew it we were in this northern exposure-type wilderness. We found this bat.. it was blue, sort of reminded me of Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon. He could talk, and he really loved Brooklyn. Hated what this new regime had done to it. So he helped us by flying us away from these government scouts who were tracking us. We made it to this quaint little town on a mountain and there we found Hannah H. She was a spy for the government. We found that out and stole her computer and then trashed her car and threw snow in it. But when we had her computer, we couldn't get the password. We tried everything, but eventually we had to locate a hacker who could open up her files. Then we needed internet access, so we flew all over this tiny town (which somewhat resembled BYU campus...) looking for a WiFi hot spot. When that failed, the bat we were flying found a pink parachute and we sailed away from the mountain town on that. Then, suddenly, I was in the chamber of the ruler of this new government. Somehow or another, I had gained his trust. He was explaining the benefits of this new government system to me: how everyone would be equal and happy in this Brave New World.... I go up to the next floor, but then his wife comes in. He leans out the window with his wife, but when his wife want him to kiss her, he's too busy looking over his big-shot government notes and she gets angry, throws his head against the side of the brick building, cracks his head open, and then throws him out the window which is like seven or eight stories above ground. I watched this from the floor above. And that's about when I woke up. What a strange dream. They usually don't have as complex of plot lines as these ones did.
Listening to: Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" Blessings: Sleeping in, no snow, one more slice of pumpkin pie Things Going on Today: two women's chorus christmas peformances. Blegh.
I know I'm lame. I know I haven't blogged in a very long while. But I also know no one follows this blog anyway, so it really doesn't matter. I suppose I could catch you up on what's happened these past couple of weeks:
1. Lots of volunteering at nursing homes aroung happy valley. 2. Thanksgiving Dinner. I made a pumpkin pie. Two pumpkin pies, actually. There's still a whole half of one in the refrigerator that I'm slowly working my way toward finishing. 3. Elder Waffle... is now just a Waffle. He got sent home on his mission, though he won't tell me why. All I know is that it was both a heartbreaking and a spiritual experience for him. I've been trying to make my own experience with this more spiritual than heartbreaking, but it's hard. He came to visit last Friday and it was quite the interesting visit at that. He's got to swear off girls until he's back in full fellowship with the church, so that means he really can't date me at all until then. And in the meantime I'm wondering if I still want to date him at all. Things are just weird. Weird weird weird. Moving on... 4. Still no word from Sister A. About that night of the Lady Gaga concert. ANSWER ME WOMAN!!! 5. There's this guy in my ward named Mark who basically put an entire letter from Bill Gates to computer hobbyists from the 1970s into a song. Here it is:
Okay, so he's sort of hilarious.
6. SNOW REMOVAL, which is, weird as it sounds, a very satisfying form of torture. I feel like I'm suffering with a purpose, and things always turn out better than I think. On our worst day for snow so far -- Sunday -- it snowed and snowed and snowed and we all were there for like ten hours. BUT... I got to leave early because I had to give a talk in church. Or that day we were up at 2 AM to shovel, we got to go home after only three hours. See? There's a silver lining! 7. I've got ONE MORE PAPER before I'm done with all my big projects/papers for the semester. The only thing I have now to worry about is a test and then it's FINALS. I have four of them: sociology, English, ASL, and Humanites. One of them is take-home, and the rest should be easy. I smell another 4.0... wouldn't that be great!? 8. I had to give a talk about counting blessings last week, so I'm starting a blessings journal. I have to think of ten good things that God has blessed me with each day. It's harder than it looks, but I think it will get easier with time. 9. Ke$ha's got a new CD out... "Cannibal." It's sort of a copycat of "The Fame Monster" but I still like it. My favorite songs are "Crazy Beautiful Life" and "Grow a Pear." :D 10. My parents are coming out here for Christmas! Mucho excited!!!!
1. Albums, in no particular order: -- Danger Days: The True Lives of The Fabulous Killjoys -- Clean Version My Chemical Romance -- Flamingo Brandon Flowers -- Dear Agony Breaking Benjamin -- Ocean Eyes Owl City -- Number Ones Michael Jackson
2. Movies, in order of how much I want them: -- Sherlock Holmes -- Enchanted -- Jane Eyre -- Dead Poet's Society -- Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen -- Finding Neverland -- Newsies
3. Sheet Music I Want: -- Jon Schmidt's Christmas Songbook
Sister Applonie (though she has not yet answered my email about the Lady Gaga concert) said something very interesting today. She says we cannot take another's burden on ourselves. It wastes our own time and energy as well as the person's we are trying to help. Girls tend to do that sometimes. They try really hard to take other people's problems and make them their own. Maybe it's a way to forget your own problems, but it does happen. But Sister Applonie says that's a bad idea. It's not our job to take the burdens. It's Christ's. Our job sometimes is to just stand as a witness for another's pain. Of course, we should be respectful and comforting and do all we can to be there for that person... but sometimes our job is just to listen. Just exist. Just be there. Hm. I think I should use this.
I don't have to go to work. Instead, I have a concert for Women's Chorus, but that's not for a few hours. I forgot what it felt like to sleep in.
Speaking of Women's Chorus, I think I've figured out what I'm going to tell Sister Appolonie about the Gaga concert. Hopefully she will have the mercy in her heart to excuse me from that concert date.
And even if she doesn't, it may all be for the best. I'm wondering if this isn't God's way of telling me I shouldn't go to the Gaga concert. After all, she is DEFINITELY not the kind of artist who invites the spirit into my life. But I've already invested so much time and money into going to this concert... and Katie has too! So it would be a shame to have all that work and excitement built up for nothing. And I STILL really really really really really really really wanna go to that concert!! It's the freaking MONSTER BALL!! By March, her new CD will be out and I will be one of the first to enjoy her sing her new music live. I've already bought an outfit, even. Awww man! This is such a dillemma!
Things Going on Today: NO WORK, Devotional Performance Blessings: NO WORK Listening to: Chantelle's blow Dryer
Yesterday at work, Gavin and I were hauling tarps-full of leaves to the truck about an hour before the shift ended. We were returning into a quad with an empty tarp to see two little boys, who had found our rakes lying beside a giant pile of leaves. They had picked the rakes up and were proceeding to rake the pile. The rakes were about twice as big as they were. My first thought was, "Are they allowed to do that? How are we going to get our rakes back?" But Gavin said, "That's so cute!" and he went over and started to talk to them. "Are you guys raking our pile? Wanna help us?" But I was so embarrassed because I really didn't know what to say or do with those two little boys. I had no idea what to say to make them laugh, how to tell them which way to rake, anything! I was absolutely speechless. I'm sure Gavin noticed, because I usually talk quite a bit. But really, witht these kids, I had absolutely no idea what to say and how to do things around them. But I still found lots of joy watching the others interact with the children. The others came over and we jumped in the pile with them once it was raked onto the tarp. Then we gave them a ride in the tarp over to the truck. The smallest boy -- probably only three years old -- was a little nervous to get into the tarp with his brother. But then he looked up at our encouraging faces and that was when I could see the excitement well up in his eyes and he couldn't contain how excited he was to go for a ride. Gavin really surprised me. It was so cute, what he was doing with those kids. He'd say funny things and show them which way to rake and he'd actually talk to them. He's better with kids than I am?? And I gotta say, it was pretty hot. No joke, a man who does well with kids is definitely a gem... But then I think about what he said as we approached the two boys at the very beginning. "It's kind of sad to say that a guy is better with kids than a girl is, but unfortunately, I think that is the case here." Ugh. But I really am no good with kids! I wonder when those motherly instincts are gonna set in. It was rather embarrassing, not being able to do anything fun with Gavin and the little boys without feeling awkward. Gavin is so good at it... I'm jealous. Really.
When I was a kid, I loved raking leaves into a huge pile and jumping into it. The bigger the pile, the better. My sister and I would spend all fracking day raking our entire yard into one ginormous pile. Even if it meant having to rake all the leaves from the backyard into the front yard, we would do it if it meant having a bigger pile.
One year, we even raked our neighbors' yards, gathered up all their leaves into tarps, and transported them all into our yard to make an even bigger jumping pile. Finally, we had created a massive pile of crunchy leaves that would cushion your fall as you bounded into them. It was amazing.
The giant pile ended up staying there for a while, and the grass underneath was definitely damaged by the time we carted all those leaves away. My parents were not that amused at this.
Now, years later, I no longer find as much joy in raking leaves, especially when I have to do it every day in the cold weather for work. Today, we raked up a pile that was quintupled the size of the biggest pile I made at home.
If I were still a twelve-year-old girl, it would be leaf heaven for me. The pile was huge. It was like a mini-mountain range of millions and millions of leaves. You could create a whole new world in that thing. Tunnels, bridges, homes... The thing was huge.
Yet, while ten years ago I would have been literally jumping for joy into that new leaf world, I could only look at that pile today with dread. We ended up having to painstakingly move all those leaves into the street so it could be picked up by a monstrous vaccuum and transported far away from Ymount Terrace. Now I never want to look at another leaf again.
Happy Autumn, everyone!
"Glints of Gold." Hannah Johnson 2009
Listening to: Alex Goot's Cover of Jack's Mannequin's "Dark Blue" Blessings: Gloves, Boss's Chilli, and Gavin for giving me a ride to campus. Things Going on Today: There's an audition today for "Rise Up Shepherd" and I'm trying out I think. Also making a cake for my coworkers in honor of Halloween tonight.
