5 am Web Surfing

First post since being married! First post since....well, forever. Kinda been slacking. Lots of interested stuff has happened that I could've posted about but frankly, I've been insanely busy. The only reason I am able to post right now is because I came in to work at 5 am today and it's a Sunday and I have taken a total of 1 phone call in the 2 hours I have been here. Not much to do. So I've been reading Andre Agassi's autobiography "Open" which is fascinating. I love tennis and I miss playing it. I haven't played in about a year at least. Makes me sad. So I got around to looking up the mens singles current rankings trying to see how my man Andy Roddick was doing.

You can imagine the shock that came over me when I found out he has been RETIRED since last year and I had no idea. Like I said on Facebook, I am now dead inside. 

Garrett Helund, however, brought me a little back to life. I watched "Country Strong" last night because I love the music and my husband works graveyard shifts and I had nothing better to do. His voice is amazing. I though he was a professional country artist. Little did I know that he is actually a famous actor and he plays Sam Flynn in Tron: Legacy. What the heck?????

That doesn't even seem like the same person! First of all, the voices sound totally different. Second, he seems like a small little man boy in Tron and a big, strong manly man in Country Strong. This just goes to show how extremely versatile he is. I am in love with his voice. And I am absolutely in love with this song.

I died inside a little bit again when I found out he is dating Kirsten Dunst. I don't know how she is as a person but as an actress I'm not a fan. But if they're happy, more power to them.

That's all I've found out for now. Hopefully anything else I discover will be good things that won't make me die inside anymore.

Live for Today

This post is officially my 100th post. Most people write something exciting or post awesome pictures to "celebrate" their 100th post. In light of what happened last night, I decided to write something a little different.

Last night I went to see the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises. My sister had an extra ticket so I went with her. Little did I know that about 500 miles away in Aurora, Colorado an entire theater, much like the one I was in, was in the middle of a massacre. When all those people arrived at the theater they were probably excited. They were going to see Batman. Some people brought their kids. Their significant other. Their friends. Family. Maybe they thought they were lucky to get to be some of the first people to see the movie. They had no way of knowing a cold, evil, psychopath was going to do the unimaginable. He just walked into the theater, calmly stood there, and then unleashed a wave of tear gas and bullets. 70 people injured. 12 people killed. And for what? This mindless act has ruined the lives of so many people, and for no reason at all. Just because a satanic man wanted to feel powerful and cause pain. I will never be able to understand what leads a person to do something like that. Especially how someone can be completely calm while harming so many innocent people. 

When things like this happen it really makes me think about how fragile we all are. God can have us taken at any time. There were two soldiers in that audience. They survived being soldiers, only to be shot in a movie theater in Colorado. It just goes to show that life is short, and you might not get tomorrow. All you can do is live your life to the best of your ability and try to make the best of everything. We are alive. That means we are extremely lucky and we shouldn't waste a second of our lives hanging on to anger, jealousy, hate, or any kind of negativity because every second is precious. We should live our lives feeling grateful and happy just to have today. 

The people who are the best at being happy and enjoying life, even during the bad times, are children. They are pure and innocent. I saw this video today and it made me laugh. These kids are very happy and their happiness is contagious. At least to me. 

Bad things happen all the time. A lot of the time they are senseless. We just have to do our best to try and make the world a better place and try to make the most of the time we have. It's all we can do. 

Happy Belated Birthday America

Once upon a time, after a super long struggle, a really great country was born. The birth certificate was signed by many great men, and America was official. People now had freedoms, rights, and endless opportunities. So what do we do to celebrate this birth? We shoot off fireworks and play with other forms of fire. We eat delicious meat and juicy watermelon and just enjoy being free. The 4th of July is my absolute favorite holiday. Witness the celebration:

Turns out it's a lot easier to write your name with a sparkler than with the moon.

I Love You

Shooting star

Recreation of the duel in Harry Potter

America is great. I am proud to be an American, and I'm proud of all the men and women who fight to keep us free. 

This Henna Smells Weird

Once upon a time, I turned 21. That day was cursed and a super huge let down. Nothing went right. I had planned to go on a hot air balloon ride early in the morning, and the company called and cancelled due to crappy weather. I was going to go see the Spiral Jetty FINALLY....but then realized it was clear out in Brigham City and I didn't have time or motivation to go that far. Blah blah blah, you get the gist. It wasn't at all what I had planned. 


THEN


My sister Brittany came to the rescue. Today was the super adventure that should have been my 21st birthday. I guess it was still in the same week, so it counts :) 


FIRST: We went to the farmer's market in Salt Lake. Super toasty hot. Lots of girls in dresses and bootie shorts who decided to boycott shaving their legs. And also lots of really cool booths. Props to all the little hippies, farmers, and entrepreneurs out there with their homemade stuff. It was weird too cause my illustration teacher from BYU, Greg Newbold, made all the posters for the farmer's market and would talk about it all the time and I saw them everywhere. 

SECOND: We went to City Creek mall and ate at Bocata, which I love. Their bread is de-freakin-licious. We people watched and it was super entertaining. Also, we walked through Tiffany's and felt like people were going to throw us out at any moment because we couldn't afford to even look at all the  diamonds. Next time we will just wear big floppy hats and eat breakfast outside of it. 

THIRD: We went to Randy's Records and bought some vinyls. Other than the nasty trashy guys who apparently have never heard of deodorant, it was a pretty cool place. I got a Lynyrd Skynyrd record and the Footloose Soundtrack record lol. Britt gave me her old vinyl player so now I can finally start my collection :)

FOURTH: We went to Now and Again, which is a really cute antique store owned by a cute gay (<----I think) man in a cowboy hat. I bought miniature statues of Myron's Discobolos and the Venus de Milo. They had some really cute dressers that I wanted too but I decided to pass for now. 

FIFTH: We went to Night Flight comic book store by the Salt Lake Library. I bought a bunch of comics and am planning on framing them and hanging them on my wall. They should look pretty legit so I'm excited. 

SIXTH: We went to Ikea and Britt bought some stuff. I don't have a home to decorate so I didn't buy anything. However, I wore my new converse that I got for my birthday, which are high tops, and didn't have tall enough socks for them. Let me just say that all that walking around while those shoes rubbed my ankles started to hurt after a while. SO...Britt pushed me on an Ikea cart and everyone stared, and I didn't care one bit. They were all secretly thinking that they wanted to be pushed on Ikea cart. Who wouldn't want to do that? It's the bomb shiz. 

SEVENTH: We went to Walmart and I bought tall socks. And a Superman shirt. 


EIGHTH: I got home and did henna tattoos with Leann. I got this Henna set from Barnes and Noble cause it was on clearance....yeah.....it was on clearance for a reason. All the other times I have gotten henna it was from Good Earth. Lesson learned. Always get your henna at good earth. I left the henna paste on my arm for 4 hours, took it off and it is SUPER light. It's supposed to darken in a day or two so I hope it does. Also it smells really weird. 

(I've been trying to get the picture of my henna off my phone but it's not working so I'll try to add it later.)

NINTH: Psycho was free on demand so I finally watched it for the first time after hearing it referenced all the time and seeing a billion parodies of it. It was actually a pretty good movie and I liked the cinematography. It was done pretty artsy so yay Hitchcock :)

So that was my super adventure for today. Hopefully there are many more to come. 

I Have a Seven-Year-Old Personal Trainer

Do you ever have a hard time motivating yourself to workout? If you're like most people in the world, you do. It's much easier to just comfortably sit there and talk yourself out of putting in the effort towards achieving your physical goals than it is to just get off your butt and be uncomfortable for 30 minutes to an hour. Lucky for me, my adorable little red headed freckly seven-year-old sister likes to motivate me to work out. 


Unlike most people (and most kids) she LIKES to work out. Weird huh? One day I was doing BBX Hardcore (a workout DVD that is, in fact, hardcore) and she came into the room and started doing it with me. 

Eventually she said she was tired and she decided to stop and just watch. Towards the end I was getting kinda tired and she said, "Jennie, if they can do it, you can do it!". It was the cutest thing ever. Then she said, "Don't get tired, I bet there's only five more minutes! And maybe only five more minutes after that, but that's not very long!". So. Dang. Cute. You can't help but be motivated from that.  After I finished my workout she said, "When are you gonna work out tomorrow, cause I wanna do it with you." Then she went off to say when she was going to be home the next day to make sure I waited for her. I couldn't believe it lol. The next day, I get home and she said, "Have you done BBX, cause I really wanna do it with you." So we worked out together. This kid is going to get me into the best shape of my life if she keeps this up. 


Today, we got home from watching Brave (which I would totally recommend, way cute) and she said, "Are you going to do BBX?" I said, "No, it's Saturday and I wanna be lazy and eat this pizza" lol. So I ate a piece of pizza and her little voice was stuck in my head saying that I should work out and stop eating. So what did I do? I did an hour long work out, which she did five minutes of with me and then fell asleep on the couch behind me lol. Right before she fell asleep she said, "You're really good at those moves, keep going." How freaking cute, right? My sister is the best. I think a little seven-year-old pushing you to work out if way more effective than a huge, muscly trainer at a gym screaming in your face to not be weak or whatever it is that they yell at you. 


Basically my sisters are rad and you should all be jealous. My oldest sister did a 5K trail running race this morning and kicked butt, as usual. Woot woot for Tara :) Yeah, I brag on you sis, no biggie lol. Also, we should go to the batting cages soon. Anyway, I'm rambling now and need to go wash off all this sweat and down a bucket of water cause I'm 99.9% parched. 


Peace :)

Who Knew Star Wars Could Change Your Life

Within the past week I have watched every Star Wars movie.

I watched them all in order for the first time (and by in order, I mean by order of the story, not order of how they were made). Weird thing is, I have come to some very life changing conclusions because of this. In Star Wars, Yoda says that Anakin has a lot of fear in him, and fear leads to anger, which leads to the dark side. I never thought about it that way. I mean, obviously fear and anger lead you to do bad things. If you give in to your fear and anger you move further away from what's good and closer to what's bad. Solution: when you get angry, try and figure out what you're afraid of, since all anger stems from some kind of fear. If you figure out what you're afraid of, you can try and work on not being afraid, which will help you find peace. 

2 Timothy 1:7 says: "For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

 I also found a quote by Gandhi on my friend's facebook page that says, “There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever."

Worries are just fears, so it's the same principle. If you're worried or afraid, you just need to trust in God more. He knows what he's doing. I have trust issues like nobodies business, but you can always trust God. He has your best interest in mind and knows what's best for you. There is one surefire way to make God laugh, and that is to make life plans. He will think it's hilarious, and then lead you to the life you're supposed to have. That is a fact. 

Another thing I learned from Star Wars was to focus on life in the moment. Yoda tells Luke that one of his weaknesses was always looking for a future time of when he would be happy. Once he got off Tatooine he would be happy. Once he got out of where he was and started  a life somewhere else, THEN he would be happy. I have the same problem. Once I graduate, I will be happy. Once I move out of Utah, I'll be happy. Once I get a career I will be happy. Once I get married, have kids, and a cute little house with a white picket fence I will be happy. Weirdly enough, Star Wars has made me realize that you really need to just focus on living in the moment instead of wasting time thinking about a future time to fix all your sadness and/or anger. Make the most of every moment because you're lucky to have every moment you get. Life is too short to waste it wallowing in what you hate about your life. 

I read this quote on this girl's blog I follow that says, "Don’t just hang in there, enjoy yourselves. Travel, learn new skills, serve, do something that challenges you, work on making yourself a better person, and don’t worry about the rest…don’t worry about what you can’t change, but do worry about (and do something about) what you can. And be happy now…don’t wait for some event to make you happy…happiness is not some goal to be reached or destination…it’s a way of life!"

My goal is to learn and do lots of new things. For example, I'm learning how to draw those 3D chalk drawings people do on the sidewalk. I wanna take a pottery class. I wanna go fishing in a row boat on the lake. I want to hike up Timp FINALLY. I'm getting in shape. I'm saving up to move out. I will eventually get a motorcycle :) And the list goes on and on. I started a bucket list a long time ago so I will start trying to accomplish the things on my list. The future is as bright as you want to make it, and I plan on making my future a good one :) 

It's Time to Talk Politics...Kinda

I saw this video during the previews of The Five Year Engagement. I love Jason Segel. Anyway, they showed this video called Bad Lip Reading and it was pretty funny. I couldn't find the exact video but here are some that they took clips from. 

I guess they gotta get people interested in politics somehow lol. 

The Golden Rule

Alright. I need to get something off my chest that has been bothering me for a while. I am going to discuss equality. I want to start off by saying that I am completely accepting of all races and all religions. I want to make that very clear before I say what I need to say. I am not racist in the slightest and I feel that everyone has the right to choose what religion, if any, they want to be a part of. If you choose not to have a religion that's great too because that's your choice and I don't judge you in the slightest. You know why? Because I don't want anyone judging me for how I choose to live my life. It's called the Golden Rule people, do unto others as you would have them do. 

I am getting pretty sick of everyone trashing mormons. We are not brainwashed. We are not a cult. We do not practice polygamy. We are, in fact, Christians despite popular belief. We have our own minds and we do what we think is right. We don't simply do things because the church says its right and follow along blindly. We have our agency and we use it to make up our own minds. My sister is living out in Oregon right now and people are constantly asking her why she doesn't smoke and stuff like that. It's not because she thinks she's better than anyone because she doesn't smoke and they do. It's because she has made a personal choice not to, and people should respect that. Those people don't want her telling them not to smoke and openly judge them for it, so they should stop judging her for not doing and continually pressure her to smoke. It's ridiculous how so many people don't see that they are doing to other people exactly what they complain about people doing to them. It infuriates me actually. STOP BEING HYPOCRITES!!!

The second thing I need to vent about is racism. It is getting pretty old how people are racist against Caucasians, yet it isn't seen as racism. There is Black History Month every year. There were Latinos in Action at my high school. And there are constantly movies released that have an all African American cast. Is there a Caucasian History Month? No. Because people would get sued until the day they died for suggesting it. Are there Caucasians in Action groups in schools? No. Because that would be "racist towards all other races" according to society. Are there movies that are purposefully made with an all Caucasian cast? No. Because that would be "discriminatory" and "unacceptable". I don't get why it's okay for people to be racist against Caucasians. We are still a race, and people are discriminatory against us. People talk about wanting equality all the time, but often they are the ones causing the inequality. 

Anyway, that's all. 

Something To Look Forward To

I can already tell that 2012 will be a good year. For movies at least lol. There are some awesome movies coming out next year and I can't wait.

The Avengers

May 4, 2012

What's better than Iron Man, The Hulk, Captain America, and Thor all rolled into one? Nothing. 

The Hunger Games

March 23, 2012

If you've read the book, then you know it should be an awesome movie.

The Dark Knight Rises

July 20, 2012

Dun nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh BATMAN!!!

Snow White and The Huntsman

June 1, 2012

Hopefully Kristin Stewart doesn't ruin it.

And The Great Gatsby, which doesn't have a trailer yet but is being released in December of 2012 and stars Leonardo DiCaprio. There are other movies coming out that have the potential to be good, like Taken 2, Step Up 4, and The Bourne Legacy, but they could go either way.

Anyways, I'm supposed to be studying for finals so enjoy :)