Awesomeness

So, it's super late, but I'm having a great week and I feel like talking about it. First of all, Valentines Day, aka Single's Awareness Day, I thought was going to be a bust, but it was acutally great. We had stake conference in the tabernacle (pretty darn cool) and instead of moping about my lack of significant other-ness, I made some cookies and cards the night before and delivered them to some girls in the relief society to spread some love to others. Of course, we couldn't really find anyone home, but finally I found some girls who wanted some cookies! Then that night I got together with some friends on a big group date to play games and eat a week's worth of calories in sweets. It was a ton of fun. OH! AND not to mention, TWO of my close friends got engaged! Cherrine! HOLY COW! I need to keep in better touch with that girl, because I was completely shocked....I had no idea she was that serious with her boyfriend...or should i say fiance?! Then, Lindsay, my former coworker/supervisor also got engaged. I'm so happy for her. We'd always share dating stories and gripe about boys. I can't believe it just HAPPENS for some people...out of the blue. Maybe there's hope for me yet. Meanwhile, I just facebook stalk all of the boys that I'm crushing on but am too scared to talk to. (Don't give me crap, you all do it too!)

Monday was President's Day. You know what I love about being back in school? Days off. Even better, because we've already had a Monday off of classes this semester, we got to have our Monday schedule on Tuesday so I didn't have research design this week....hence, I got to lay off the studying after my long week of tests last week. PS. I kicked some test butt. Anyway, Monday, I went snow shoeing for the first time. It was pretty darn awesome. I'm still a Kansas girl at heart, but all outdoor activities here in Utah are winning me over.

Olympics. AWESOME. I love the Olympics SO much. Sunday night I stayed up to watch the pairs figure skating final that I missed during primetime....that means I was up till 3:00am. Yeah, I'm crazy. Unfortuantely, I started fading in and out around 2:40, right when they did the last group of skaters...I was really frustrated with myself. I LOVE THE OLYMPICS!!! I mean, really, people should not be physically able to DO that stuff! Plus, I love the feeling that they inspire. And....the United States rocks. Figure skating is probably my favorite. I'm SO excited about the mens skating. I was completely on the edge of my seat and excited for Evan Lysecek, who rocked the short program, then my heart absolutely BROKE when Jeremy Abbott messed up his. I'm madly in love with both of them. I'll be bummed if Evan doesn't win gold, but I think I'll be okay as long as the Ugly Russian doesn't win. He's NOT a pretty skater! I HATE watching his programs. Sure, he can land a quad jump and do lots of tricks, but he doesn't make it magical. Ugh..don't get me started. It's mean, I know, but I'll be hoping he falls on his butt a lot tomorrow night. Today the U.S. kicked butt...Shawn White-gold, Lindsay Vohn-gold, Shawnie Davis-gold...and some other meadals. Awesome.

I cut my hair today. It has been ridiculously long. So, I went to this girl that a friend of mine recommended, who does hair cuts and everything right in her kitchen. Seriously, amazing. She has great prices and I LOVE my haircut. It's "jennifer anniston" style layers. This girl took classes from one of Jen's stylists. How cool is that? I've always wanted hair just like Jen's. Don't worry, it's still long. It's a couple inches below my shoulders still even after chopping off 6-7 inches! And, I have lots of fringe/long bangs around my face and I'm parting it was to the side. Of course, this is a lot of change for me, but no one will probably even notice.

Lastly, volleyball. Every wednesday night, all year long, my stake has volleyball night from 7:00 till whenever people get tired, which apparently can sometimes go past midnight. I played for almost 4 hours tonight! It was so fun! I'm not that great, but I can hold my own and I can tell I'm getting a ton better even just from playing the last few weeks. I love it because it's fairly competitive, but still just for fun. And it's a pretty good workout. I've been trying to work out like crazy lately. I love having the time to workout. The last few weeks, I've worked out over an hour most days. I bike, run, jog, walk, lift weights, play volleyball, do tae bo....anything. I'm feeling so much better about myself (even though I haven't lost any weight yet-it will come). I am just SO much happier in school, working out, having time to do things I want to do and the freedom to set my own schedule. Work was sucking the life out of me the last couple years. Not because I didn't have a great job and great co-workers, but it was too controlling of my life. I'm much happier now. YAY!

That's a lot of awesome-ness for one week! I hope I haven't used up my quota!

Pretty much the coolest thing ever!

I had the most awesome thing happened today! Naturally, I had to blog about it. I was getting on the bus to go home for lunch today and it was completely crowded. This is pretty unusual for that time of day so I kind of hestitated, looking to see if a seat was open, but instead just grabbed the bar on the ceiling, prepared to stand for the trip...nothing out of the ordinary there. But, out of nowhere, a second later, a guy stood up and asked if I wanted his seat! Chivalry is not dead! I was totally flabbergasted! It was so kind. And then, to make it better, the guy next to him got up for the girl that came on after me AND a third guy did the same thing! How cool is that?! They earned major points, even if I never see them again. It made my day. Well, that and the fact that I got a 101% on my first official test as a graduate student! :) I rocked my fitness assessment test and then I had a program evaluation test today that I could not focus on studying for for the life of me, but I think it went really well too. To make the day EVEN BETTER...to celebrate being done with stupid tests for a while, I spent the afternoon watching Glee and doing some fun reading. AWESOME.

My bday and such

Blogging is a little harder to keep up with than I thought! This past couple weeks have been rough in spots, so it seems like every time I go to write, I'm either in a bad mood so I decide not to or I just plain don't have time because studying takes precedence over blogging. Crazy, I know. Anyway, last week just started out rough. Long story short, I went to FHE at some apartments (parked in a stall marked "Parking for VISITORS of Forest Gate office only" at 7:00pm), got my car booted, got into an argument in tears with the booting guy (who, by the way, literally has no soul...none. period.), then had a girl in my ward pay the $70 fee while I was in talking to the guy in the apartment office (who said that it was okay that I park there, ps.), and then cried my eyes out in front of people I don't know. Yeah, that was a rough one. Then I consolled myself in a rather stupid manner. I do stupid things when I let my emotions take control. Sometimes I feel like I'm getting better at controlling them, but then something completely stupid like this happens when I'm a little too tired and I let my guard down. Maybe I should take lessons at being emotionless, heartless, and cold from the booting company. You know, I think when they interview people for a booting position, they ask, "If your daughter was being evicted and tossed out on the street because she was short $70 on rent, which you have sitting in a well-stocked bank account, would you lend it to her or let her get kicked out to live under a bridge, digging for breakfast from a dumpster so that she learns her lesson?" and then, if the person hesitates even a second, they don't give them the job. And then to have this girl in my ward help me out without being asked or anything.....I witnessed the full spectrum: "past feeling" to "Christlike Charity" in a matter of moments. It was overwhelming. (okay, long story, made long...sorry)

Anyway, yesterday was my bday. woo hoo. 24 big ones! I'm two dozen years old. Last night I realized that my next bday I'll be 25, a quarter of a century, and I'm still trying to process that. So this weekend was pretty fun. My awesome friends from Orem came up to see me! yay! It was soooo good to see them again. We all were pretty beat on Friday night, so we went to bed early but Jennie and I ended up talking till 2 am. I'm still paying for that one, but I think it was worth it. Then, Saturday, my bday, we had a really chill day. We made french toast for breakfast and just hung around for a while. Then, we went to the bookstore for a bit. M*(name protected:) ) decided we should have a contest to see who could bring back the craziest book. Chelsea thought she had it with the Encyclopedia of Dogs until I showed everyone the travellouge I found entitled, "The Sex Lives of Cannibals." I won. Then we met up with Leo, who's pretty much pure awesomeness, and we all went to Olive Garden for an early dinner. We must have had a new waiter or he was having a spectacularly awful day (maybe he'd been booted earlier). If it wasn't one thing it was the next. Chels wanted salad without dressing (I know...she's weird), and he brought it with dressing, then M* swore she saw him drop a spoon on the floor and put it in our dipping sauce before serving it. Then, to top it off, he brought me out the wrong meal. So, everyone else ate, and they were about done when mine came out. I was kind of annoyed, but I felt bad for the guy. At least my bday dinner was on the house!

The rest of the night was pretty relaxed. The girls drove home and Leo and I went to my sister's place and talked with my parents, who are in town for Jesse's blessing, which was today. Everyone was busy yesterday baking and getting ready to have a luncheon thing with Rachelle's in-laws after the blessing. I was pretty disappointed that they were so busy with that that they hardly awknowledged it was my bday. I pretty much just went over there and held Jesse for a while, then went home about 10 to an empty house and made myself sick on brownies and hot chocolate....oops. Now that all my siblings have children, sometimes it feels like I'm just kind of...there. An extra person to juggle one of the kids. Especially with Rachelle. She used to always make a huge deal out of my bday, decorating my room and giving me 6 roses every year (she told me I'd always be six in her eyes). That tradition has been so special to me and one I always look forward to, but it hasn't happened the last couple years. This year, I had to go to her place to even see anyone and I think I'd been there a half hour before she mumbled a happy bday and went on to the next thing. I know I shouldn't have expected anything because she has her hands full, but it kind of hurt. I think it hurt more to have her take all of the attention this weekend because of everything she needed my parents to do for her. It's like because I don't have kids, I don't have needs in the family. That said, don't get me wrong, I LOVE being an aunt and playing with my nieces and nephews. They are adorable and I love them so much. I hope I don't sound self-centered and spoiled. I just grew up with birthdays being a really big deal. I know. I'm old...I need to get that idea out of my head.

I never thought it would actually happen, but my mom and dad came over to celebrate with me tonight. Get this....they got me a 26' flatscreen TV with built-in DVD player! Um....sweet! Then, while mom baked me a carrot cake (my fave), dad and I set up the TV and then we all watched Glee, which they also got me. It was a pretty fantastic night. It was wonderful because mom wasn't sick, and I dare say even had some energy and dad was happy and excited to play with my new toy. I'm so excited about the TV, but really, what meant more to me was that my parents made time for me to let me know they are glad I'm alive. It felt so great to just sit and have some one on one time with them. I'm really blessed to have such great parents.