The Longest Day of All the Long Days

Oh. My. Lanta. If today is a glimpse of what this semester is going to be like, then I really wanna just drop out and go travel or something. I never thought today would end.

First, I woke up super early, but not as early as I was trying to make myself wake up cause my phone alarm wasn't working. Stupid smart phones. They seem to have more problems than the brick phones. 

Rushed to class. Online stats. Yeah you noticed the online part huh. So you may be thinking, why did you have to go to an online class? Well it was the first day and they had to show us how to use the stupid websites. They scheduled it for 8 am. I think people who signed up for an online class don't really wanna be up at 8 am. Hence, the online part. 

Then I went to the bookstore to find the one last book they didn't have when I went before. Couldn't find it again. Asked someone who worked there, AGAIN, and they just said they didn't have it without bothering to even check. 

Rushed to work. Same ole same ole there I guess. Less football drama though which is a plus. Then I went to American Culture, the class with the Rules of the Decorum. The class has 10 PEOPLE. Wow. And it turns out the teacher is more weird and OCD than stuck up. It was a super weird experience. I'd write more about that but I'm exhausted. 

Went back to the bookstore to try and find that book again, couldn't find it. AGAIN. Asked the info desk girl and she helped me find it. It was in the wrong place. Stupid. 

Went to the bank and had to wait in line for like a half hour. Went to "quickly" grab food on the way home and ended up being in the Sonic drive thru for like 15 min. They are always ridiculously slow. 

Got home, thank goodness my textbooks from Amazon came in the mail. Opened the box, took the book out and started on the 2 chapters I was supposed to read by tomorrow. Got done reading the first chapter about an hour ago. Couldn't take it anymore. 

Did all the Stats registering I was supposed to do on the websites and then had to read pointless jokes/stories about stats and watch a video with a robotic voice trying to teach me. This class is going to be what I imagine Hell is like. 

I still have another chapter of History of Graphic Design to read but I can barely keep my eyes open, let alone read and retain information. 

I'm seriously concerned about what I've gotten myself into. 

Also, I bought the new BYU football shirt today. I think it's hysterical. If you don't get why, that's probably a good thing. 

Art is Always the Answer

Art is the answer for me anyway. Definitely helps me cope with things. Since I was freaking out yesterday about school I decided to make something for my sister, Britt.

Voila!

It's for my cute little nephew. Britt showed me this thing on Pinterest that she liked:

So that's where it was inspired from. It was fun and I think it turned out cute. In case you couldn't tell it's just cardboard 3D letters that I painted. 

Anysways, I don't have much to say tonight so peace out :)

P.S. In case you don't know what Pinterest is, check it out. It is awesome and has tons of great ideas. 

You Know It's Time for Some Fun When Someone Hands You a "Decorum Guide"

So I'm in the middle of an anxiety attack right now. I used to get them really bad my freshman year at BYU and they have decided to grace me with their presence once again.

I went and bought textbooks since school starts on Monday. I was totally fine during that part. Then I checked my email and saw emails from a couple of my professors. Yay for syllabuses....syllabi......syllabre??? Whatever it is. I hate them. 

I forgot how freakin hard BYU is! Just reading over the syllabi or whatever I got is pushing me into full panic mode. I really need to calm down. I can do this. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. 

Look at this "Rules of Decorum" thing my American Culture professor sent me:

During gatherings of our learning community, please adhere to these rules of decorum:

Come prepared: complete the reading and writing assignments in advance. — If you are unprepared, then you may not attend the gathering.

      Come on time: punctual is polite, late is lame.

      If you are late, then you may not attend the gathering. o If you insist on violating this rule, you cannot earn credit for your attendance that day.

      Turn off your cell phone before the gathering begins.

      Be still and quiet during the meditative moment that opens our gathering. 

Refrain from making more than your fair share of comments.

          “Let not all be spokesmen at once; but let one speak at a time and let all listen unto his sayings, that when all have spoken that all may be edified of all, and that every [person] may have an equal privilege” (D&C 88:122).

     Stick to the subject at hand.

     Read or talk loudly and slowly enough so others can hear and follow.

     Refrain from speaking or whispering when someone else is talking.

     Refrain from engaging in extraneous activities during the gathering: reading irrelevant material, surfing the Internet, texting, and so forth.

     Address members of our learning community by name—learn the names of members of our learning community.

     Express appreciation for the contributions of colleagues.

     Disagree without being disagreeable.

I think there is nothing LESS American than that. That Decorum crap takes away a bunch of freedoms, and I am very anti-communism thank you very much. It did make me laugh though cause of how ridiculous it is. 

My Illustration syllabus freaked me out cause I'm really not good at drawing. That's why I want to do Graphic Design, cause it's on the computer. Hopefully it won't be too bad.....I'm really nervous though. 

I haven't even seen the syllabi...syllabre haha for my other two classes so I'm freaking out. Gotta calm down. Wish me luck. 

Music is Better with the Windows Rolled Down

I love music. That's an understatement. Music keeps me sane and inspires me in so many ways. To me, music is best on summer nights, driving with the windows rolled down. That is my happy place. Lately I've been into more mellow, piano and acoustic songs. Those songs were made to be listened to the way I just described.

Leann, thank you for introducing me to Bon Iver. I am in love. 

There's No Easier Way to Say This: I Love God

I usually don't get too personal on here but this is something I need to say. I've gotten pretty lazy when it comes to my religion and my testimony. I have never stopped believing everything I've been taught my whole life, but I've stopped acting and thinking the way I should. It's time to step up my game.

It has recently hit me very strongly that I'm happiest when I'm doing what I know is right, even if it just seems like little things. I just read my scriptures for the first time in too long and I already feel a million times more positive and calm. I started praying again and I feel a million times happier. These aren't huge changes I'm making but they are making huge changes in my outlook and my attitude. 

My favorite part I read today was Enos 1:15 where it said "Whatsoever thing ye shall ask in faith, believing that ye shall receive in the name of Christ, ye shall receive it." I believe this with all my heart. 

It's funny, for the past like, 5 years of my life I had completely convinced myself that Utah was NOT the place for me. But the more I see and hear of other places I realize how lucky I am to be in Utah. I'm grateful to be in such a clean, safe place even if at times it seems like a sheltered bubble. 

I'm starting to feel truly happy for the first time in a very long time and I have God to thank for that. I would be nothing without him. 

This is one of my favorite church paintings.

"Lost and Found" by Greg Olsen.

Exercise Gives You Endorphins, Endorphins Make You Happy

Happy people just don't kill their husbands.

After a long day of stress, dealing with super rude, obnoxious people, I decided to run off the anger. I like to run on the treadmill cause when I decide to give up, I can just stop and plop down whenever I want haha. No need to run uphill after I've decided I can't take any more. 

Only problem is, our treadmill is possessed. I think it's one of those situations where the technology becomes smarter than the people who created it and take control of the world. After about ten minutes, the treadmill will speed up way faster than what it is set at. When set at a speed for a light jog, you end up sprinting. I think it's trying to force us all into being marathon ready so we will be more of a challenge when all the technology decide to take over. If we can run faster then we'll survive longer haha. 

Even though I gave up after 15 minutes, I think I got a massive dose of endorphins cause I have been laughing at literally EVERYTHING ever since. I don't know if it's a combination of being home alone for 5 hours and the exercise or what, but I'm not complaining. Everything is better when you can laugh at it. For example:

I was watching "Bride Wars" on t.v. and the girl was complaining about her friend making her fat by secretly sending her chocolate baskets and international butter club stuff. The guy who played Van on "Reba" said: 

"International Butter Club? You mean you've been sitting around eating sticks of butter from foreign lands?" Every time I think about it I can't stop laughing. 

This commercial:

Text conversation between me and my sister Britt:

Me: I'm just chilling here scooping watermelon with a tiny baby spoon.

Britt: Are you making tiny little watermelon snowmen?

Me: No! But I should! They would be cuter than the little mashed potato snowmen I made.

Britt: Agreed! They would keep their shape quite adorably.

Me: There are even black seeds that I can use for buttons and eyes lol.

Britt: This just keeps getting better and better....

Stupid guy on the tv show "Sweet Home Alabama" that's like the Bachelorette with a southern girl:

"So I did some acting without my clothes on. It was completely tasteful, nothing happened. My parents have even seen this video. It's called Hotel Erotica. I don't see why you have problem with this."

HAHAHAHAHA.......oh man. Tasteful. Yeah right. 

Dwight on "The Office":

"Wait...you told me the money was going to bat birth control."

"I need a baby. I've been feeling a great hole in my life. Sometimes I wake up cradling a gourd."

There were others but I have already forgotten them cause I was so distracted by my laughing. I could get used to this. 

I Never Thought Cleaning Would be Bad for My Wallet

Soooooooooooooo........I finally have gotten around to moving the rest of my clothes from my old room to my new room. As a result, I found a TON of clothes I forgot I had. I had a huge stack of jeans that are totally not my style anymore, and they fit weird. So what did I do? I went online and ordered a bunch of jeans....whoops. 

In my defense, they were all HALF OFF!!!!! I got two pairs from American Eagle, and two pairs from Hollister. The total for all that was about the same as one pair of jeans from Buckle. Bam! Justified purchase. Now I can sleep at night. 

Yesterday, I looked at my booklist for school this semester. Not nearly as bad as last semester, but still, I hate buying textbooks. I ordered all the ones I could from Amazon.com since they're way cheaper than the bookstore. So now I am waiting on three separate packages......yay :) 

Not gonna lie, I'm more excited for the jeans than the textbooks.

A Long Time Coming

I have finally decided that it is time to say goodbye to my job.

It is time for me to make a change. I am finally going to take control of my life and make it better because I can't keep living like this.

There is more to life than doing something you hate every day.
There is more to life than putting up with people treating you like less than you deserve to be treated.

There is more to life than going through the motions, simply because it's easy, routine, and familiar. 

There is more to life than simply floating through life hoping that one day things will change by themselves for the good.

There is more to life than continuously putting yourself in a toxic environment.

Everyone, at least once in their life, has to realize that they need to stop beating a dead horse.

If it hasn't gotten better by now, then it never will.

So I need to remove myself from the situation. Move on to something better. Get out of this rut and finally, finally be happy.

I don't know why it has taken me so long to do this but now is the time.

I don't know where I'm going to go, or what I'm going to do, or even if the next place will be better, but here's hoping it all turns out okay.

Wish me luck :)

Forget About Planet of the Apes, It's Planet of the Spiders

I have finally found a downside to having a mountain as a backyard. Bugs think they can invade your space whenever they want! Maybe this is how they feel when we go hiking and crush their houses with our feet or smash their heads. 

But hey, we're the dominant species, we reserve the right to destroy them.

They don't seem to be afraid though. Without fail, my sister Tara and I have to kill at least two spiders a day. There is usually one in our bathtub EVERY morning, no exaggeration. Whoever showers first has to drown it before they can get in. 

Ants regularly crawl through under the door that goes from our walkway outside to our kitchen. Tara filled this big crack with that white ant killer powder and guess what happened. 

This is a very crappy photo cause I had to crop it a ton and the spider was in a shadow so the flash blew it out. But look at it!

Almost all of it is covered in the ant killer powder!

It must've crawled through the freakin crack or something and gotten in the house. 

The label on the ant killer powder said it kills BLACK WIDOWS even, yet it couldn't kill this freakin thing???

One time, I was sitting on my bedroom floor tying my shoes and I felt something on my knee, so I looked and it was a spider literally the size of a tarantula. I flung it off me and ran away.

About 8 hours later I came back from work and saw it sitting on my desk, so I captured it and took it outside and killed it. 

The spiders that happen to be in our house the most often BLEND IN WITH OUR CARPET!

No joke. I think they have purposefully adapted to blend in so they can survive longer. 

It's terrifying.

Tara is having nightmares about spiders. I keep thinking every little thing I feel touch me is a bug crawling on me, and 20% of the time it is. 

I think it's time to call an expert or something cause even though it's hilarious to see Tara jump at every little thing and scream and jump on the couch, it's not something I wanna live with. 

If we don't do something soon, the spiders are going to take over.

Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear

For years and years I have wanted a gigantic teddy bear. My little sister Amy got one from her boyfriend for her birthday or something and I was super jealous. Today, fate intervened. Look what I found while wandering around Costco:

Mine is the one on the left. His name is Snuggleupagus.

Amy's is the one on the right and his name is Fernando. They are now BFF. 

Tonight we made them have dance battles, fighting battles, run on the treadmill, etc. It was great fun. Click here to see a video of part of it.

I think you're never too old to have a stuffed animal (if you're a girl. that part is very important). 

The only rule is, the older you get, the bigger the stuffed animal needs to be. Hence, the teddy bear that comes up to my shoulders. 

I didn't want to sit around and wait for someone to buy it for me, so I got it myself. 

Best decision I've made in a while :)

Look, it's Papa Bear, Mama Bear, Baby Bear, and Goldilocks

You Do What You Gotta Do To Keep Away From the Looney Bin

There's a reason they call work, "work". It's not fun the majority of the time. That's why you go to school and work your little tooshie off so you can get a career and do something you don't hate. 

In the meantime, you have to work with what ya got in order to keep from going insane. Here's what I did today:

Isn't it loverly?

It is the display case on the outside of my little box I'm caged in at work.

This is my favorite part:

It's a goal post made out of athletic tape!

Haha I'm strangely really proud of it. Isn't the football a nice touch? 

Haha I thought so.

I think I'm funnier than I really am sometimes. But hey, Tara thinks I'm hysterical. 

Then again....she also thinks she's hysterical.......

Haha just messin with ya Tara I love your guts. 

Also, look what I found on my USB today:

I made this on Paint almost a year ago at my old job one day when I was super bored. 

I think it's freakin awesome. 

Apparently I do my best artwork when I'm at work haha. 

Who woulda thought?

I guess that's promising for when my job is to actually make art.

Two more years baby!

(Here's hopin anyway)

Shopping for Dresses is Like Shopping for Men

What do you get if these shirts have a baby?

This shirt

Ooh baby. There are some winners out there. 

Shopping for dresses is JUST like shopping for men. You've got to go through a lot of ugly ones and sometimes you have to settle, but eventually you find one that is PERFECT for you and exactly what you want. 

One of my favorite sayings is:

"Men are like parking spaces. All the good ones are taken and all the ones left are handicapped."

Luckily, I was able to find a dress for my sister's wedding with way less hassle and stress than trying to find a good man haha. 

Ain't it perdy?

If I have to wear a dress, it has to be cute and will almost always be with converse. Brown ones with this dress :) Can't wait. 

10 days and my sister will be a married woman. 

Weird. 

But she has a gorgeous dress and a terrific guy so her shopping is over :)

I Don't Have a Time Machine, So These Markers Will Have to Do

You know how they say the grass is always greener on the other side? Well it's true. When you're little, you just want to grow up. When you grow up, you just want to go back to being little. I was recently going through a box of my old stuff and it was bringing back lots of memories. Lately it has felt like my childhood was a lot better than what I've got going on right now. 

Since I was feeling all nostalgic and wanting to go back to being a little kid, I went to the store and bought washable markers, colored pencils, a gigantic superhero coloring book, and some mac and cheese.

I colored this awesome Iron Man

The colors in the photo are way off but you get the point. 

Sometimes it's nice to take off all the pressure I put on myself about having to be all creative and progressive and be the best artist,

and just COLOR :)