A lot of disjointed thoughts

News from me: I got my mission call! If you're reading this, you probably already know that, but I'm still going to write about it anyway. I'm going to the Ukraine Donetsk mission. I leave October 20th and it's Russian speaking. I'm super excited. I've been working on my Russian a little bit and I am sure terrible at it. It is not an easy thing to pick up. Now that I've got my call and I'm just sitting at home at my parents' house, I'm getting a little impatient. I'm working at the swimming pool again, which is ok. However, I'm starting to wish that I would've stayed in SLC and taken some summer classes. I am in some serious need of some intellectual stimulation. I feel like my brain is rotting out of my head. The other day I was thinking about some of the things I learned in Chemistry last semester and I couldn't even remember how to mathematically set up the problem. It's scary how fast we forget things when we don't use them. I'm just going to have to have faith that I'll be able to remember my school stuff when I get home.

When I start to get bored like this, I start to scheme all kinds of trips. Lately I've been wanting to hop on a flight and go to Chicago to see the Cubs at Wrigley Field or go to Boston and see the Red Sox at Fenway again before I leave. I could go to California and have my awesome cousin Clare take me surfing or go to Atlanta and visit Kynalie. I'd love to go to DC again and spend a couple of days looking through the smithsonian. If anyone feels a need to get out of Sanpete county and would like to accompany me on one of these adventures, please let me know.

These feelings of impatience and restlessness that I have been feeling are not new to me. This happens pretty much every summer. I think it is just more intense this summer because thispast school year was by far the most challenging and rewarding one of my life. Even though school was super hard and super stressful this year, I learned a ton. I really gained an appreciation for the opportunity that I have to get an education. I think I became more motivated to do well, too. I'm super excited to be able to move back to SLC when I get home from my mission and continue where I left off. Hopefully I'll be able to go back with a new perspective on life and be better able to enjoy my time there.

Even though October 20th seems like a long time away, it actually is going pretty quickly. It's already been a month since I got my call. I'm a little nervous about being gone for 18 months. There are going to be a lot of things that I'm going to miss. Music, snowboarding, family, friends. Snowboarding is going to be a big one because it is what literally keeps me sane in the winter. If it wasn't for my season pass to Brighton this winter, I think I might have died. Snowboarding is a stress relief like nothing else. Another big one is it's going to be rough to be away from my family. Not being able to call up my pops every day and get his advice on everything that's going on is going to be pretty weird. Also, I'm going to miss music like crazy. Especially Angels & Airwaves probably. Listening to them always makes my mood about 10 times better. All of these things, though, are going to be patiently waiting for me when I get back. I might miss them a little bit, but I'll probably be way too busy trying to learn Russian and trying to teach people that I won't notice it too much. Friends might be another story. I've been seriously blessed with some awesome friends. I'm a little nervous that everyone is going to be married and moved away by the time I get home. I guess that's just part of life though. People grow up. Hopefully I will learn some social skills while I'm gone so that I can make some new friends when I get home, and if I'm really lucky, maybe some of my current friends will still want to hang out with me :)

Even though it's going to be hard, I know without a doubt that going on a mission is the best thing I could be doing with my life right now. It's going to take a lot of hard work and it's probably going to be really stressful at times, but I know it will be really rewarding if I put my best effort into it.

Well, that's the end of this rant. I'm going to try and post stuff on here more often before I leave. I don't think anyone really reads these things but this is kind of like my journal so I'll just keep on writing.

Update

It's been forever since I've posted last and I'm really bored so I decided to write something. This semester is going well, even though my classes are way harder than they were last semester. I've been snowboarding whenever I get a chance so that has been fun. I've had a few fun experiences lately that I need to post something about but I'm not going to do it right now. The coolest thing I've done lately is go to Park City and watch the snowboarding grand prix. I was standing like ten feet away from Danny Kass but I was too scared to talk to him. I'm such a dummy. Anyway, that's all for now. Bye.

Just some stuff, mostly about libraries.

It is Sunday night and I'm bored out of my mind so I thought I'd post a little update. School is going well. Only 6 weeks of class and 1 week of finals until 3 weeks of Christmas break. Can you tell I'm excited?

This week I got the results of my last chemistry test, which were better than expected. I had a test in Sport Psychology that I feel pretty good about. On Monday, I got to see Laura Bush, governor Herbert, and a few other important people speak at the rededication of the Marriott library. That was pretty cool. I'll tell a little bit more about that later. My cousin Brooke came to visit on Wednesday which was awesome. We went to the Pie, checked out a couple of shops close to my apartment, and just hung out. Yesterday was a blast because it was Halloween! I didn't actually do anything that had to do with Halloween, I just went to the Blackout game with my pops and my little brother. It was so much fun to have them with me at the game. My dad went to the U so it's always fun to have him come and tell me about what it was like when he was in school. Before the game we went to the campus bookstore to get some gear for the game. Then we went to the pie and ate until we were bursting. The pie is awesome. If you haven't been there, you need to go. After we ate, we checked out the tailgate party and headed to the game. Even though the Utes played like garbage, the game was a blast. My little bro was super excited to finally be at a U game instead of the usual BYU games that the ward goes to. Despite the horrible playing, the Utes pulled out the win, luckily. After the game when my dad and brother had left, I went to party with Winters and Sweaty. I don't get to hang out with them very often and it was a lot of fun, except when they made me sing when we were playing the Beatles rock band. It's ok though, I guess I'll forgive them.

Anyway, here's more about the library rededication. The library was crazy busy. I felt a little out of place in my jeans and hoodie because everyone there was dressed pretty nicely. I didn't expect to be able to see the rededication live because most people had gotten their tickets already and I didn't have one. They were showing the rededication on TVs in some of the downstairs classrooms in the library so that's where I was planning on watching it. With about a minute before the program started, a lady came into the classroom and told us that if we wanted to watch the rededication live, we could hurry upstairs and fill in some of the empty seats. I hurried upstairs and was lucky enough to get a seat with a view that wasn't completely obstructed. The program started and I don't remember everything that was said, but every speaker talked at least a little bit about the importance of education and how lucky we are to have this great library that we can use. I love libraries, probably a little too much. In the Lucy A. Phillips library at Snow College, I had one certain study spot on the third floor where I would study for hours and hours every week. I loved that spot. I probably spent more hours studying in that certain spot than I spent anywhere else last school year, including my house. The only problem with that spot though, was that it was in the library, which is filled with.....you guessed it....books! I absolutely love books. I'm one of the losers that spends my school holidays curled up in a blanket on the couch with a book...or two...or three. Every day I spent in the Snow College library, without fail, I would find an interesting book that would distract me from my studies. I found books on poetry, sports, old Utah ghost towns, books of Andy Warhol prints, and giant books of prints of ancient drawings. I read about Harvard's medical school, global warming, astronomy, and countless other topics. I could spend the rest of my life in a library and probably be perfectly happy and content. There are books on every topic imaginable. In the Marriott library at the U, there are miles and miles of bookshelves. It is like heaven! On Friday morning, just when I thought I had found a new study spot to take the place of my beloved spot in the Snow College library, I found out that my new proposed spot is right next to a whole section of books on Rock and Roll. While I should have been studying for a test, I found myself looking through a book of classic rock posters from the 1960's. I guess the point I'm trying to make is, if I'm going to be distracted from my studies, books are probably not that bad of a distraction (except for those rock and roll books, those probably aren't helping me all that much :)).

Anyway, now that you all know how much of a bookworm I am, I'm going to write a little bit about my school experience lately. When I moved to Salt Lake in August, I was super excited about starting this new chapter in my life. I felt confident and ready for whatever was going to come my way. After my first week of class, however, I felt pretty overwhelmed. My classes were going well and my roommates were really nice and helpful, but I just felt completely out of place. Nothing and nobody was familiar and I felt really lonely. All I could think about was how all of my friends lived 2 hours away and how I still had 3 years of this friendless torture to endure until I could finally graduate. To be completely honest, these thoughts have stayed with me pretty much all semester until this past week when I realized how lucky I am to be in the situation I'm in. I still don't have a lot of friends that I hang out with in Salt Lake, I still don't feel completely comfortable in my surroundings, and I still miss hanging out with my family every day, but I do know how lucky I am to be able to be getting an education. Not everyone gets the chance to go to college and become anything they want to be. I've realized that I need to stop feeling sorry for myself and enjoy college while I can, because it's an experience that I am very fortunate to have.

Anyway, sorry this post is just a bunch of stuff jumbled together. I do feel better now that I've written a few things down, though. If you read this whole thing, I'm sorry for the couple of minutes of your life that I wasted :) I'll try to make it up to you sometime.

A-Z Things That Make Me Happy :)

In all of my post-fall break depression I decided to take a few minutes to remind myself of what makes me happy. Enjoy.

A- Angels & Airwaves
B- Baseball
C- Concerts
D- Driving while listening to tunes
E- Evening time
F- Friends
G- Grape snow cones
H- Harry Potter
I- Interesting things
J- Jelly
K- Kraft macaroni and cheese
L- Letters from long lost friends
M- My Family
N- New England
O- Otter Pops
P- Popsicles
Q- Quotes
R- Rain and Reading
S- Snow! and Snowboarding
T- TV
U- Underwear (I didn't know what else to put haha)
V- Very good books
W- Warm blankets
X- Xylophones. What else starts with X?
Y- Yummy dinner that my mommy makes.
Z- Zoos

NEW!

Hello everyone, sorry it's been such a long time. A lot has happened since I last posted anything. My trip to DC with Winters was a success. After 2 days of trying to get a flight I finally made it. Sweaty, Winters, and I watched the Red Sox destroy the Orioles in Baltimore, toured the monuments, and looked around at the Smithsonian. DC is such a cool city. I wish I could have spent more time there. I'll just have to go back sometime. Soon after that trip, we headed to Las Vegas to see Green Day. The day of the concert we went to the buffet at Mandalay Bay. I was more full than I have ever been in my entire life. I didn't ever want to look at, smell, or think about food for at least a week. It was delicious though. Then, that night we went to the concert. It rocked. Green Day is comprised of some seriously talented people. The next monday was the first day of school. Yay for the U of U! That first week of school was a blur. As a person, I am very resistant to change so it was stressful to try and get into the flow of things. I did have one nasty surprise...I found out that my fees were going to be almost 600 dollars. I was expecting something more along the lines of 300 to 400 since that's what all of the letters I got said to expect. Because of this, my hopes of spending my free winter days snowboarding were dashed. I was super bummed. However, a few weeks later my parents and grandpa surprised me with an unexpected early Christmas present. A season pass to Brighton! I have never been so happy. I have the best family in the world. Thanks Mom and Dad and Grandpa! Anyway, I started getting into the routine of school. On labor day I went with my sister Carli and saw Blink-182 in Orem. We were in the second row the whole time. It was really really awesome. I've wanted to see Blink since I was in middle school so it was super cool. After that, all I've really done is go to school and do homework. I'm starting to go a little bit crazy with nothing to do but schoolwork so I'm really excited for fall break next week. Only 5 more days to survive until a whole week of freedom! I can't wait.

Nonrev

This morning my friend Winters and I embarked on our journey to Washington DC.  Lucky for us, we get to fly for free.  However, we have to fly nonrev.  Nonrev is short for "nonrevenue".  This means that since we fly for free, we can only fly on flights that have empty seats.  Unfortunately, the first flight we tried to get on was completely full so, you guessed it, we were left to try to get seats on the next one.  Now we are sitting here waiting for a flight to St. Louis where we will change planes and head to Baltimore, and then ride the bus to DC.  The flight to St. Louis has about 20 other nonrev passengers all fighting for only 12 open seats.  Hopefully we have checked in early enough that we will get 2 of those 12.  Needless to say, even though traveling like this is free, it is extremely stressful.  More to come soon....

Update

Wow, it has been a while since I've posted anything on here so I thought I'd leave a little update.  The summer has been going well so far.  I took a maymester statistics class and that is good to have over.  I've been working at the pool teaching swimming lessons and lifeguarding almost every day so that keeps me nice and busy.  I lucked out and somehow got the 4th of July off of work!  This 4th of July was a blast.  I've decided that it's my new favorite holiday.  Every year for the 4th of July all of my little cousins from my mom's side of the family come and visit.  It is the only time of the year that we have everyone together.  My cousins are hilarious and I got to play with them all day.  We went to the park, hung out at my grandparents' house, did some fireworks, and watched the big fireworks together.  Another fun thing this week was my birthday yesterday.  We didn't do anything huge, we just had a little BBQ with the fam.  It was really fun.  Now that all that excitement is over, I've got to find a place to live in Salt Lake so I can move there and start school next month.  I'm really excited for school.  I'm taking a chemistry class and a bunch of classes for my exercise physiology major.  I'm excited to just have classes that are directly applicable to what I'm doing and not have to take dumb classes that I don't need and I'm not interested in.  Anyway, that's just about everything that's going on with me.  Have fun with the rest of your summer everyone!