Merely Players

All the world's a Stage,
And all the men and women merely players.

-Billy Shakespeare

Do you guys ever watch movies and notice just the random people in the background? The ones listed in the credits as "Screaming guy 3" or "Guy in bar"?

I love those people.

And if someone made a movie of my life,

(I know it's never going to happen, but I'm just saying, it would be a great movie)

these are the people that would be the random guys in the background.

Cast

In order of Appearance

Bow-Tie Professor

In my head, his name is Eustace.

Or Winthrop.

Or maybe Xavier.

I always see him walking around campus, and I want to find out what he teaches just so I can take a class from him.

He looks kind of like this:

With a beard like this:

(minus the luscious curly locks)

He wears hats like this:

And Glasses like this:

And last but not least,

A bow tie like this:

I know what you're thinking,

coolest professor EVER right???

That's what I think every time I see him.

He is the coolest man I've ever seen.

Tall, Skinny, Bald Guy

I see this guy everywhere.

The shuttle, by my Chinese Class, by my Math class,

this man is all over the place.

He looks kinda like this guy:

But bald.

I find him fascinating.

I imagine his hame is Bernard,

and that he acts like Sheldon Cooper.

There's also,

Too Much Denim Cowboy Man

Scowling Asian

Who Do You Think You're Kidding Trashy Skank Girl

I mean COME ON, trying to wear crap like this around campus is just sad.

And the only guys you're getting are the douchbags the rest of us are too good for.

Intriguing Barefoot Leather Pouch Man

This guy is actually VERY attractive, but he never wears shoes.

He's always wearing either gym shorts or sweat pants,

And he is always wearing this little leather pouch around his neck.

The pouch is definitely what I find most intriguing,

what the heck does he keep in there?

I come up with various theories when I'm bored,

things like:

The ashes of a Native American Shaaman

A shark tooth

The souls of his ancestors

Beef Jerky

Interesting Rocks

and

A tiny dragon egg.

I haven't yet mustered the courage to ask him,

but one day I will.

These people may just be "extras" in my life, but the great thing about life- is that everyone is the lead character in their own story.

I'm sure all of us are just extra's to other people, but I think the fact that we get to play even a minor roll in the lives of everyone that we meet is kind of magical.

I just hope that I'm the kind of extra that people notice versus the kind that just fade into the background.

HOWLOWEEN

What a night!

Oh goodness y'all, no joke I had the time of my life.

Kind of.

Last night happened to be USU's annual incredibly amazing Halloween Party aka

{THE HOWL}

As my idol Stefan would say:

This place has everything!

Stilts

Rubber chickens

Men wearing nothing but fig leaves

And tons of freezing cold air.
Be jealous.

( Adorable McKenna, Gypsy Emily, and Me as a fairy)

The Howl was an adventure right from the start.
Me and my three friends walked the three blocks from my apartment to the building where The Howl was being held only to discover that to buy tickets we had to walk two and a half blocks away to the Basketball Stadium.
We scampered, fast like little rabbits, purchased ourselves some tickets, and then walked the two blocks back to the Howl.
Once we finally got in, holy poop it was a party.
The entire building was completely full of people,
they were EVERYWHERE!
Tall people, short people, fully clothed people, half naked people, more than half naked people, this place was crazy.
I had a bunch of friends who had gotten there earlier who wanted me to meet up with them at the dance, so on to the dance we went. It took us ten minutes to get in- the line was CRAZY, and when we finally did get in- things got even crazier.

Now when I see a crowd- I'm not the kind of girl who just dances on the edge- I dive right in. So we did. We were packed so tight in there that you could barely move, but we did our best and tried to dance. After a few minutes some guys came up and asked if they could dance with us, I said sure.
Big Mistake.
One of the guys grabbed my hips, pulled me super close to him, and proceeded to rub his hands all sorts of all over my butt.
Um. Awkward.
His friend was doing similar things to Emily who also felt her personal space bubble had just been popped to the max. The four of us girls sneaked away through the crowd, away from the Octopus men,
and right in the middle of a fist-fight.
'Twas scary my friends.
Very scary indeed.
Two very large men were both all sorts of upset and were being poorly restrained by their friends. One of them stepped on my foot.
It hurt.
Eventually they got calmed down, the dancing resumed, and me and my gals decided we'd had quite enough.
So we left.
And found this awesome snake man.

Holy poop y'all, we tote's loved that snake.
His name was Malfoy- which is most definitely one of the coolest snake names of all time.
Kudos snake man.

My BFF Jackie loved him too.

Also I love the snake-man's creeper face.

After we spent the better part of 20 minutes annoying the crap out of the snake man- we went and saw the band Cartel.

As you can clearly see, they are as a whole incredibly attractive.

Especially the adorable lead singer.

The concert was pretty much a blast, and they had their bass turned up so loud that my ears are still a little fuzzy.

It was good times.

When it was over, we decided we'd mostly had enough. So we mostly just meandered around.

then Then THEN!

-The greatest moment of my life happened:

That's right

I met the one

the only

Captain Jack Sparrow.

Basically, my life is now complete.

Be so jealous right now.

When we finally left the Howl, we spent 40 minutes searching all over 2 different parking terraces for Jackie's car. The dear, darling girl forgot where it was.

When we finally found it and were leaving the parking terrace, we saw a group of very attractive, very shirtless, very cold sailor's.

They saw us drive up, saw that we were girls, and begged us to drive them to their car.

We're nice, and they were babes.

So we did.

They were hilarious,

and I wish I had thought to take a picture so you could see just how gorgeous they were.

You'll just have to imagine as best you can.

So there you have it folks.

The Howl 2011

I'll see you there next year!

The End.

 

Magic in The Air

Today started out dreary.

I had to wake up at seven.

SEVEN!

I NEVER have to get up that early!!

I drug myself out of my bed,

frankenstein marched to the shower,

and then tried to stay awake while I shaved my legs.

The reason for my incredibly-too-early awakening,

was that I started volunteering to teach kindergarteners to read at the elementary school on campus.

Nothing is cuter than kindergarteners.

I read with a little girl named Lena who was wearing a hat shaped like a kitten.

She was adorable.

Also a little boy named Steven who thought his books were 

"super too" easy.

He was wearing camo pants and yellow crocs.

I loved them.

While they day was good, I only had two classes and nothing exciting happened in either one, I coudn't help but feel a little down in the dumps.

Summer is gone.

The warm sunshine is gone.

And while it is incredibly pathetic of me, I can't deny that I'm still a little disappointed in my lack of a romantic life.

One thing was for certain.

I wasn't feeling any magic.

But.

While I was sprawled out on my couch, eating ice cream and watching Sense and Sensibility, I glanced out the window and saw this:

The brightest, biggest, most beautiful rainbow I'd ever seen in my life.

It absolutely took my breath away...

The world is full of magic.

I'm glad nature took the time to help me see it.



Ten Hut! :)

I know it's hard to believe,

But I haven't always been the incredibly attractive,happy, bubbly, giggly, friendly gal that I am now.

I used to be a very angry person.

I had been convinced by the people that I thought were my friends, that I was not good, or smart, or pretty, or rich enough to matter.

Ergo, was labeled as a "loser" and tossed in the social outcast heap.

For those of you who have been through similar situations,

You know how horrible this feels.

Feeling like you'll never be good enough for anyone or anything.

Wishing you could steal a certain wizard's invisibility cloak and never have to face your peers.

I was miserable.

I hated everything and everyone,

And I didn't know how to change it.

{Then}

I met this amazing girl who taught me probably the most important thing I've ever learned:

As long as you think you're hot stuff, other people's opinions aren't worth poop.

My life drastically changed.

For the first time in a really long time, I let myself be happy.

And it was great.

But.

I still hadn't found my place, my niche.

The place that I really, truly belonged.

And would always belong. 

As the summer before my sophomore year of high school started, I decided that I needed to do something different.

Take a risk.

Do something wild.

So, at the insistance of one of my friends, I joined the marching band.

From the moment I first stepped on the field,

I knew.

I had found my place.

All of these people had been through almost exactly the same things I had; they knew how I felt, knew what I was going through and they instantly accepted me into their gloriously dorky family.

Over the next three years, my band literally became my family.

I laughed with them

Cried with them

Partied with them

Went to prom with them

Spent hundreds of hours on cramped busses with them

And I loved every second of it.

Now we're all graduated and moved on.

Scattered across the globe by missions, marriage, and school.

And though it's been years since I've seen or spoken to some of them, I know that they're still my family.

And whether it's my wedding, my baby shower, or even just my birthday

I know they'll always be there.

Because that's what familes are for.

My marching Tigers, thank you so much for everything.

You'll never know hom much you changed my life.

I love you all.

Hobbits and Vulcans and Wizards.... Oh My!!!

I am a nerd.

A huge nerd.

And I'm ridiculously proud of it.

You might be one of those unfortunate people who thinks that being a nerd is a bad thing. If you are, my poor chillun- you need to change your ways. Go watch Star Wars and read a Harry Potter book or something.

Goodness.

All of my fellow nerds will agree with me when I say, that being a nerd is the only way to be. Life just wouldn't be as enjoyable if you couldn't wear batman underwear, carry a wand in your back pocket, and hope that by the time they establish Starfleet Academy- you're not too old to enroll.

Yes, I love Lord of The Rings. I've read the books many many many many times, and seen the movies far more times than is probably healthy. I want to be a hobbit. And Farmir's wife. And Pippin's wife. And live in Rohan, with my pet cave troll.

Yes I love Harry Potter. I cried on my eleventh birthday when I didn't get my Hogwart's letter. I would totally marry Severus Snape, and I say "Lumos" whenever I turn on a flashlight.

Yes, I love Star Trek. My faves are Original Series and Voyager. I am in love with Spock, and as previously stated I am anxiously awaiting the establishment of Star Fleet Academy.

I play Call of Duty. I watch cartoons. I love superheroes. I wish I could Air-bend. And I wear huge non-prescription glasses just for kicks 

I am a nerd.

And to all those people out there who mock me, or wonder how I have any friends, or pity the man who I end up married to...I have only this to say:

Avada Kedavra skank.

I'm happier than you.

The End.

Note To Shelf....I Rock.

Just an FYI.

In this post I am going to be tooting my own horn.

This is my blog, I'm allowed to do that.

Remember when I told you guys that my apartment is super small?

Well, I totally meant it.

We still have two girls that need to move in, and there is no space.

Especially in the kitchen.

I don't even have hardly any food, and I was taking up almost half the cupboard space, my roommate Haydn is a crazy baker woman and has enough baking stuff to fill up three kitchens. It was a problem.

So.

Today.

Myself and Haydn set out on a mission.

We were going to find some shelves that we could put in our kitchen, so that there was actually some space for everyone's food. We left the safe haven of our teeny apartment and ventured out into the great unkown, into the wild wilderness of shopping centers located in the Cache Valley area.

Our journey first took us to Hobby Lobby. I fetching LOVE this place. I want to have 18 houses that I can fill up with all the cute stuff from this store. Also IKEA. We walked that store up and down...and also sideways. But despite our greatest efforts, no suitable shelves were found. We found some really super cute ones, and we wanted them....but then we realized that we're poor...and we still need to buy groceries...so we moved on.

Our second endeavor led us to ROSS. This is another store that I have much affection for. When you are in college, and you love to buy clothes- ROSS is comparable to the Merry Old Land Of Oz. You can get super cute shirts there for like five bucks! It rocks.

Unfortunately, they don't really have shelves.

'Twas a bummer.

After ROSS, we headed to Michael's, sure that they would have what we were looking for. It turns out...they didn't. We found diddly squat at that place and we were starting to get discouraged. We wanted our shelves dang it!!! We then went to ShopKo. Also Diddly-Squat. Then, Haydn recalled that her grandmother suggested we take our journey to K-Mart. Neither of us had ever shopped there ever, so we were a little skeptical, but decided we had nothing left to lose.

We walked into K-Mart, browsed around for a bit, and then do you know what we found??? We found the coolest thing ever, it was a lamp shaped like one of the cute little green aliens from Toy Story. I was in awe. Also....WE FOUND SHELVES!!!! They're just simple little white storage unit shelves, but they're cute, they work, AND they were only 15 bucks! We scored.

Big Time.

We then scurried home like little rabbits, because we wanted to get our shelves put together before Haydn had to go to work. We unpackaged them, read the instructions, and then realized one major flaw in our shelf-building plans.

We don't have tools.

None at all.

We're women. Building things is not our forte, so it didn't even occur to us to bring something like a screwdriver to college.

That's what men are for.

So, we went to all the apartments around ours trying to find ANYONE with a screwdriver. 20 minutes and 8 apartments later, we finally found one. A very nice gentleman named Cliff lent us his very nifty Phillips-Head screwdriver and we were back in business!!

I took us all of 15 minutes, and we had our shelves. They look awesome, we put them together the right way and everything!

I've never built anything before in my life, except legos...so this was a huge deal for me!! I am so proud of myself it's not even funny.

Not even a little bit.

Moral of this story: Gingers get things done!!

The End.

Train Station Epiphany

My life is finally picking up. 

Which invariably means that it is also looking up.

Which also means, dear readers, that I am one happy camper.

Tired...but happy.

I worked all weekend at Lagoon, and as far as I can tell, I think I'm going to like working there very much. My favorite ride to work on is by far the Wild Kingdom Train. Unfortunately, I don't get to run said train, I just let people into the station and then load them on and off of the train. I know it sounds fairly monotonous, but I actually really enjoy it! 

I love watching people- not in a creepy/stalker way, I just really enjoy observing how people interact. And in a place like Lagoon, there is much to observe.

My favorite is families with little kids. 

( Again, I promise I'm not a creeper )
The kids are all just so excited! The fact that they are about to ride on a real live train is almost too good to be true! The parents, by this point, are exhausted. Neither can remember exactly why they thought bringing the kids to Lagoon was such a good idea, but they smile and nod with glazed-over eyes, pretending they're listening to the millions of words exiting their children's mouths. Once the children realize that they're being ignored, they turn to me.
This is when I love my job.
In their eyes, I'm not just some skinny, physically unimpressive, ginger girl who could find nothing better to do with her summer than work in a rip-off amusement park. 
No.
To them, I'm a mysterious force, a magical person that can make their dreams come true. 
(Well...as long as their dreams involve riding a choo-choo train)
I know it sounds ridiculously cheesy, but I really like knowing that I have the power to make people happy.
That I can make a difference in someone's life, even if they only remember it for two days. Or two minutes.


When I was standing in the train station, watching children's eyes get as big as beach balls when the train finally came around the corner, I realized that that's what I want to do.
Make people happy.
Make a difference, no matter how small.


This is also when I realized how excited I am to become a teacher. To have the ability to change lives, and make people happy every day!
To be the kind of person that helps children become who and what they want to be. 
That's what I want, more than anything.


Maybe I'm crazy.


Maybe I don't care.

Moral of This Story: It's never too late to have a dream.


The ENd.

Bluegrass Adventures

Today was a momentous day. A glorious day. Heck, today was even a frabjous day! I had the best of times at the Ogden Bluegrass Music Festival with a bunch of my high school buddies. 

I don't really even listen to Bluegrass. Ever. But when my amazing friend Mckenna asked if I wanted to go- I couldn't refuse. And, all of my dear readers, I am so glad that I went. It was incredibly fun!

We got there, (we being myself, Mckenna, and two of our friends: Emily and Cole) and were instantly greeted with the glorious sights, sounds, and smells that can only accompany an event such as a bluegrass festival. I don't know what it is about these kind of things, but they have a magical atmosphere. 

I think so anyway.

As the day progressed, we ran into more of our friends and we all did what any self-respecting group of young adults would do: acted like fools. 

It all started with a very talented group called Driven who was comprised of five men. Two of which happened to be very attractive twins. Very. Attractive. One played string bass, the other rocked out on the mandolin. I have discovered that there is nothing sexier than a man with a mandolin. We whooped, hollered, and whistled while the men of Driven did their stuff (which they did very well) and once they were done performing...we started stalking them. We followed them all the way back to their tent, and didn't rest until we got our picture taken with them.

Unfortunately, we didn't take them on my camera, so I have yet to gain access to said pictures. In their place however, I have a video of them performing which is almost as good!

After the stalking/picture fiasco, we started exploring the rest of the festival. We made many discoveries. These I DID take with my camera, so I can share them with you now!

The CUTEST pregnant couple I'd ever seen in my life

(I also think this picture could be used as the cover for a young adult novel involving young love, unwanted pregnancies, and bluegrass...possibly called Sweet Song of the South...or something...)

A guitar made out of a cigar box

The coolest/creepiest/craziest/sexiest/scariest denim jacket I've ever seen.

A banjo called Plucky. 

Does it get more precious than that?

Look closely...this man is NOT wearing pants....

The gorgeous Mckenna with a bright green ukelele

My very talented friend Kent can play the guitar with two women sitting on his lap.

I believe this is the epitome of skill.

All in all, I would call today A Success. 

Also, I've been offered a position at Gymboree, I have an interview at the new Riverdale Cafe Zupas, and I finally get to start working at Lagoon next week. 

Moral of This Story: Mandolin > Guitar. Also, life is good.

The End.

Crazy For HUE

I love colors.

I love temples.

I love adventures.

I loved yesterday.

I traveled to the magical land of Spanish Fork, Utah with my amazing roommates and one of my best high school buddies Lara Smith. We had a frabjous day joining the Indian Community of Utah in their annual Festival of Colors at the Hare Krishna temple. I'm usually not one to dabble in the celebrations of other religions, but for this, I made an exception. 

We started the day early...ish. We're in college, 10:00 on a Saturday is early for us. Don't judge. 

Well, we started our pilgrimage at any rate, and after the drive down there and spent way way WAY too long trying to find a parking spot, we finally arrived at the Hare Krishna Temple!

It's so pretty isn't it? I'm not going to lie, when I first saw it my first thoughts were of Agraba...and I was really hoping to meet Aladdin....a girl can dream right?

Then, we walked around for a while, just throwing brightly colored chalk at each other. I must say, the results were quite enjoyable, and great for taking pictures!

My and my amazing roomies!

(Haydn, Me, Elise, Lea)

Me and La-la-la-lara!

Our very colorful feet

(Mine are the ones at the very bottom)

There were so many people there, it was unbelievable! And everyone was just chucking this powder at each other! It was like a food fight!...where everyone threw powder....instead of food...

Ok, so maybe it wasn't like a food fight but it was still really epic.

This is only a portion of the people, there were probably three of these pictures worth of people just in the crowd. It was    Kuh-Ray-Zee! So we were standing in this crowd, some Indian man was telling us a story about a monkey that realized it was unique, and also they burned a witch. Then, the entire crowd started throwing their chalk in the air, creating an incredibly dense cloud of chalk smoke. One moment, there was a gigantic mob of people, the next, you could only see two feet in front of you while you were choking on pinkish dust. 

I know it sounds kind of crazy, but it was so much fun!

The Festival itself was epic, but it was more fun when we were walking around the grocery store looking like hooligans. A family walked past me and the little boy in the cart stared at me and said in a tone of disgust "You look Weeeeiiiiirrdd!"

In his defense.... I did.

I hope you guys had a great weekend!!! 

Hare Krishna!!!!