Check

Things to do this summer:

• Go to the beach - Check.  Three times over. Love Pismo!

• Hike Half Dome - Check. Awesome.

• Finish reading The Count of Monte Cristo - Check.  And I saw a paper copy and I can't believe I read that many pages! (because I read it on my Kindle, I didn't realize how thick it is!)

• Learn to play the piano - Kind of Check.  I can play two songs, and I'm learning one more. We'll Bring the World His Truth, and Minuet in G.

• Work on Family History - Check. Well, not really, because it will never end, but I've taken lots of names to the temple! I still need to visit my bisabuela at least once more and record her talking about the past, so maybe I'll do that on my next day off.

• Party in LA - Check. Thanks to Anna!

• Go camping - Check.  Good times with cool people.

• Run - Check!  I was pretty consistent with 5 miles 4 or 5 times a week, but the last couple weeks I've been recovering from either shin splints or Half Dome. Sadness.

• Go dancing- Check. I love dancing!  Thanks to Dani for coming with me!

• Lose weight - Check? Does maintaining count?

• Earn dinero - Check. But I'd like more.

• Do missionary work - Not really something to check off a list, but I got to do some church tours and some lessons, and of course fellowship... That's the best kind because you just get to hang out with friends!!

• Go on dates with lots of cute boys  - I feel weird saying this, but CHECK!  So many awesome guys in Fresno. Who knew?

• Don't waste time watching TV - Check! With the exception of the first couple weeks here, I have hardly vegged at all.

• Hang out with the Family: Check. Well, kinda. I wasn't home a whole lot, but we still did FHE and traveled and played a lot. Yay for eternal families!

I love summer! I wish it would never end! Only a little less than a month, and then it's back to CosmoCampus.  Which will also be fun. :)

I'm Famous

The Fresno Bee

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Front Page Feature Article 

Code Names

My roommates and I often talk about each other's love interests, or guys we go out with, or guys who like us but creep us out, etc.  But we find it hard to always keep everyone's names straight, so we started giving them all code names.  Not on purpose; it just happened.  We recently realized that we have months and months of code names stored up, so I decided to write them all down for posterity's sake.  Here, I share them with you, in no particular order:

Motorcycle Matt
Little Matt
Ben Eyes
Templeton
Suess
Country-dancing boy 
Freshman Boy
Blind date boy #1
Blind date boy #2
Suckerfish
BF-Ex/Utah State boy
Flower boy
Kind-of-held-hands boy
O-chem boy
Friend Zone boy
Satan's fiance
Jerkface
Hometown boy
Mission boy
The Ex
BOM boy
Peter Pan
Googly Bear
Mate boy
Rennaisance Man
Sexy Bro
All wrong boy
Army guy
Smelly good man
Brownie Boy
The Light

If you feel a strong desire to know the story behind any of these names, go ahead and ask.  But most are pretty self-explanatory.

hahaha I love my roommates. :)

***EDIT**** I posted this a while ago, but my mother told me I should take it off.  She said, "What if you start dating someone and their mother reads this?  I wouldn't want my son going out with someone who gave rude names to people like that."  So, to be clear, none of these names were intended to be rude, only to clarify.  When you are living with four girls, it really is hard to keep everyone's baux straight.  These names arose from, "Wait, who is Matt? Oh, the one with the motorcycle?  Motorcycle Matt. Ok, continue with your story." 

Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence makes me sick.

The other day I was driving home from work, and I saw a man in a car ahead of me punch his wife in the head two times.  I sat there in shock, as he proceeded to punch her twice more.  I snapped myself out of my stupor, called 911, and cut off about 4 people in order to get behind him to see his licence plate.  As I did so, I noticed a little blonde ponytail in the back seat.  Their little girl was in the car as well.  I gave all the info to the police and followed them for as long as I could until they merged onto the freeway. (I would have followed them, but I was running on fumes.)  My whole body was shaking as I filled up my tank, I was so angry and stunned that people can be that horrible to those they "love." 

The sad thing is that people often stay in abusive relationships for various reasons.  Perhaps they think it's the best they can do, or they have been together so long they don't realize there are any other options.  I have never been in an abusive relationship myself, but I have been in relationships that weren't right for me, and I can totally understand how people put up blinders to certain aspects of the relationship that are not working.  A woman I am aquainted with was telling me a story about her abusive step father, and how when she got old enough she stood up to him, got beat up, but also got him thrown in jail.  Her mother, instead of being relieved that the jerk that knocked her and her daugter around all the time was behind bars, was extrememly angry with her daughter.  The mom wrote my aquaintence a letter blaming her for ratting out the only man that ever loved her.  What kind of crazy thinking is that? 


If its not physical abuse, it's something else.  I was talking to some people at work, all with kids and living with their partner, but not married.  I was telling them of some recent dating escapades, and they all said, "live it up while you can, don't settle down for as long as possible."  I said I was having way too much fun to settle down any time soon, but that my mom always told me that marriage is 10 times more fun than dating.  (which must mean its suuuper awesome, because I absolutely LOVE dating.)  They all looked at me with these looks that openly asked, "what the heck, is your mom crazy?"  They asked how long my parents have been married, and I told them 27 years.  One girl said, "wow, then your mom must really love your dad!"  It was like none of them expected to be with the one they are with now for that long.  I think that's crazy.

Fun Fact

Sometimes when I am driving on the freeway in the fast lane and I come up behind someone who is going too slow, I pretend I am a Jedi and try to use the Force to get them to move over.

"You really want to merge right now.  You want to let this nice woman through so she doesn't have to pass you on the right."

Sometimes it works and I slice the air with my arm like it's a light saber. 

I'm Pregnant...

...in my DREAM! 

Ok, so remember how I have some pretty weird dreams?  Well, it happened again!  I dreamed I was pregnant.  I was standing in front of a full length mirror, stroking my enormous belly, totally content and at peace... I remember feeling completely HAPPY.  I got ready and continued going throughout my day, and then somehow I realized that I wasn't married, but engaged.  I lost some of that pure happiness I had, but I remember trying to look on the bright side and telling myself that even though we were starting out hard, we could still be a happy family and raise our child in a good home.  So I kept going on through the day, and then somehow I found out that I was wrong before... I wasn't engaged, I was just a single girl about to have a baby on my own.  My happiness turned to absolute horror.  How did I get myself into this situation?  And then dread... What was I going to do now?  This was not the road I wanted my life to go, and this was not the environment in which I wanted to raise a child.  All these feelings of doubt and insecurity and terror kept building and building and growing till finally...

I woke up.

Dang, I wonder what that dream meant.  Live the Law of Chastity, probably.  Or don't eat Reces right before bed. 

Murder!

I can't tell you who or where or when, but it is happening.  Be aware.




Since this sounds creepy, I will explain by saying that I am planning on hosting a murder mystery dinner sometime in the future. this summer. woot!