tuesday things.

today was one of those days where everything is planned sun up to sun down... and i liked it. business for me equals happiness.

the highlight of my day was definitely trying to explain rectal stimulation as a means of relieving constipation to a mother with a two year old. with the help of wordreference.com, i think i got my point across ...was that in the job description? not so sure. however i don't think lunch and massages courtesy of alpine therapy is in the job description either, but it is definitely happening tomorrow anyways... did i mention i am a big fan of my job?

i was late for a meeting tonight because i went on a beautiful run up provo canyon and somehow i ended up doing 8 miles, all thanks to my new favorite android app endomondo. this app tracks time, calories, pace, distance, and has a robot that tells you your pace and time every mile. it is so great and addicting... and much cheaper than a garmin. i am in love. what did i do without a smartphone? ... oh yeah. i had to sing to myself and clock my distance with the odometer. that was fun.

i love fall.

i am obsessed with this banana bread recipe i've adapted from joythebaker. add chocolate chips and sub wheat flour. you will think you've died and gone to heaven... and the girls you visit teach might even let you come over.

i found new black suede steve madden boots at ross... and now i have buyers remorse.

this girl is getting married this weekend... my favorite cousin alexis! tomorrow i'm headed to idaho falls to bask in the wedding happiness and craziness. it is going to be a great weekend... i mean, when the weekend starts of a wednesday night it just has to be.

time to make the best roadtrip playlist on this side of the mississippi. 

grandma burleigh.

last tuesday of of the sweetest ladies i've ever had the opportunity to call family passed away at the ripe old age of 91.

grandma burleigh was one of the cutest, funniest, most endearing women i have ever met. while i only got to see her once every couple of years growing up, i will always have good memories of singing songs, visiting her little house in evanston, wy, browsing at walmart, getting yearly birthday cards filled with immaculate handwriting, and her soft voice- the way she'd call me "honey" and tell me how much i looked like my mother through her crooked little grin. grandma burleigh was the perfect example of the qualities i want to emulate in my own life; those of kindness, grace, talent, and love.

her funeral was held on saturday. it was wonderful to have all my family gathered in celebration of the life she lead and the legacy she left behind.

i love you grandma. can't wait to see you again. til then say hi to sara and brycen for me, okay?

thursday according to my phone.

do you see what i see?! little flecks of red! on the hills! fall is here. break out the pumpkin. 

i just figured i should document where i spend a good chunk of time... state street, driving to work every day. those lights never change, i will tell you what. blasting arcade fire from the inside helps keep it all bearable, though. i always have some album obsession for every season, and i think fall 2011 has neon bible locked and loaded.

oh hey katy perry with pink hair. this treasure came in the mail today addressed to a former resident. scoooooooore i spent my downtime at work  smelling all the pretty smells and coveting all the boots. and skipping the article that had anything to do with k. perry and her pink hair. 

and i went grocery shopping and bought this!! yeah, just a wild guess, but pretty sure i am the only twenty something that gets excited about buying coconut oil. in my defense, the internet told me olive oil isn't high heat safe and releases toxic chemicals into the air and burns up all the good stuff anyways, so i converted. oh, and you can rub it on your body. win win!

speaking of food did you really think i'd get through a whole post without mentioning it? nope.

here's what i ate for lunch. seriously, salivating right now. i am a tofu convert thanks to this recipe. 

and something else i've learned! saute broccoli and cauliflower, then drench them in balsamic vinegar. heaven.

maybe i just liked it because while eating it i was laughing my head off at up all night. you need to jump on this bandwagon. pronto!

"to live is the rarest thing in the world. most people exist, that is all"

oscar wilde, you say it well.

at work today i realized upon telling my first patient the date (sept 20 for those who are still wondering) that today is my half birthday.
in six short months i will be 21. 21! sure at 18 i was deemed a legal adult, at 19 i endured the awkward "teen but not really", and at 20 i added the first zero, but i still feel like a person really exits childhood at 21. you're really a big kid now. no ifs, ands, or buts.

as my patient left and i was left to my own thoughts, my mind went reeling into what i want the next six months to be. it seems that fall always brings a lot of reflection, especially when every person you meet wants to know your how, what, when, where, and why of your life and the past summer. my summer was great- the first half of my twentieth year has been spectacular, but when i try to think about things that have really made an impact or that i can truthfully deem important, i come up a little bit short.

that is all about to change. it has to. i mean, i spent the next couple hours wracking my brain on ways to make it memorable and worthwhile, so it better be! as i thought about what i could do i thought about a list of things joy the baker posted back in the spring entitled "thirty things before i turn thirty". i remembered thinking it was a pretty genius idea... something i would have to do upon arriving at the top of that hill. then it dawned on me that i didn't need to wait til i was thirty to make such a list- i could do 21 before 21. and so i did.

and i can hardly read my own handwriting. here's the official list.

twentyone things:

learn to make one loaf of bread by hand.

memorize two meaningful poems.

read three substantial books.

bake and deliver food to four people i don't know.

try five new restaurants.

leave six quarters on the sidewalk for people to find.

be completely vegan for seven days.

watercolor. make into thank you cards and send to eight nearest and dearest.

make nine new friends.

overtip a waitress ten dollars.

learn to make donuts. give away eleven. use that can of coconut cream somehow.

learn to make jam. smother it on freshly baked bread. eat for twelve days.

practice yoga nightly for thirteen consecutive days.

watch fourteen sunrises/sunsets.

bike fifteen miles.

travel to one new place. shoot sixteen videos of the experience.

read the entire book of mormon en español seventeen minutes a day.

leave eighteen meaningful quotes, words on encouragement, praise on cars, sidewalks, doors, elevators.

give somebody nineteen extra minutes on their parking meter.

compliment twenty strangers.

make a list of twenty one good quotes to carry with me.

list, its on!

hey i was on the news pt 2.

remember when i was on the news a couple years ago?

well, it happened again. we were just so good at dodgeball, they challenged us to another go at it!

watch the white shirt girl make a complete fool of herself by clicking the link below...

The other rivalry game: dogeball | ksl.com

bingo.

i think that craigslist has just given me all the direction in life i need.

if only i could find my camera cord to upload those few pictures...

HA just kidding. but really. bikini barista? where the heck are these places in orem? i've never seen them.... however i always wondered what really went down at the "cyber cafe" next to shopko.... i have a feeling free internet isn't the most lucrative business. 

in other news i did something trendy yesterday. like i've written in the past, wednesday evenings are usually cleared so that emily, anita, and i can have our own version of "finer things" club/dinner. we cook, discuss our angst towards byu/our majors (or lack thereof), travel, music.... and making crucial life decisions based on the magic 8 ball app for android.

life changing.

anyway, last night i did something cool with this leafy green. 

welcome, kale. 

don't worry if you aren't familiar with it... even the checker lady at winco had to ask me what exactly it was. people these days... acting as if kale and buckwheat groats weren't found in every american kitchen.

 kale, meet olive oil and copious amounts of salt and pepper. oh, and a low grade oven. 

in goes leafy greens, out comes paper-like crunchy chip things.

if you invite me to your bbq, expect me to bring a fresh batch as my date.

they're like crunching on decomposed leaves... only a trillion times better.

pair with carrot ginger coconut soup and grilled tomato/mozarella/pesto on sourdough, and well, you might have just reached the trifecta.

wednesday should be every day. 

now excuse me while i go searching for that blasted camera cord and try to think of the perfect private dancer name for myself. 

and the world spins madly on

hi, spain. te amo

life is a funny thing.

i am learning that more and more as i make decisions, change my mind, succeed, fail, and improvise in almost every aspect of my life.

last weekend i dropped out of school for the semester. they call it "discontinuance" or something frilly like that. quite frankly, this is not anything i ever in a million years would have imagined myself doing, but after a lot intense thought and a pretty big quarter life crisis right before the add/drop deadline, i decided it would be in my best interest to pull the plug on fall semester.

my decision to discontinue stems from my inability to decided what i want to be when i grow up. i like food. i like exercise. i like spanish. i like writing. i thought that dietetics would be the best option for me, but last friday it just hit me that dietetics wasn't quite it. half of my fall schedule was geared toward this major, and while this realization came to me before any major deadlines, it was 2 weeks into the semester and too late to catch up if i tried to get into new classes, and i was tired of wasting my money on frivolous classes. taking that big deep breath and pressing that "drop all classes" button was both exhilarating and terrifying. calling my parents and explaining the situation was both satisfying and shameful. trying to figure out what i am going to do for a whole semester is proving to be both frustrating and, well just frustrating.

i've always been a woman with a plan- i've had something to look forward to and work towards, but currently the only thing occupying my brain seems to be a resounding "now what". i'm good at filling time and being productive, but i'm still worried taking a semester off will prove to be either the best or the very worst decision i've made. i've got a lot of introspection to do. a lot of prayer, pondering, and decision-making.

patience is a virtue and change is the only constant. i have a lot to learn. in the meantime i will call this quote my mantra.
"life is not meant to be easy, my child; but take courage: it can be delightful" - george bernard shaw, anglo-irish playwright. 

the red rock recap.

this weekend i earned my stripes... even if my team misplaced our sharpie the entire race and only marked our calves after the whole shebang was over!
remember when i posted a little bit about the red rock relay down in moab in may?
it happened again. enter red rock relay: zion.  here's the breakdown
2 days
186 miles
12 team members
210 teams
4 hours of sleep in a 48 hour time period
obviously, it's a recipe for a really great time!

this time our team of "red rock relay rookies" was a conglomeration of coworkers and a coworker's extended family. the fun started in cedar city thursday night with a big sign in party and pasta feed. i was worried this mass produced food would be disgusting, but thanks to the best veg pasta sauce i'd ever inhaled and great harvest cookies the size of frisbees, i was pleasantly surprised.

after a quick trip to walmart for the goods, ie tons of clifbars, chocolate milk, trail mix, string cheese, and enough bagels to feed a small county, we slept for a couple hours. then it time for van 1 to make it to the starting line for our 6 am debut.

demon eyes. they come out in the wee morning hours

 obviously we were pretty bright eyed and bushy tailed.
the first part of the race was freezing cold and i didn't feel the least bit envious of our first runner, who had to ride a ski lift twenty minutes up a mountain in the freezing just to run all the way back down.
what did we do for these twenty minutes? jump in our car without knowing where the next exchange was and drove around completely lost, only to go back to the starting line and find out that the first exchange was right by the ski lift.  we're a good team.

 i was the second runner. do you like my ninja suit? when i was thinking "relay in st. george" i was thinking running tanktops and shorts, not underarmour and ear muffs. its a good think i threw those pants in at the last minute! my first leg was a baby 2.7 miler, but a big hill that kind of chewed me up and spit me out at first. i blame the elevation!

 while we took turns running, the rest of us stood around on the road playing cheerleader and justified eating way too many bagels. six hours later we got to our van exchange, passed the baton, and went to chili's for lunch.

 chili's is gross. i had a salad and it was mediocre- not even picture taking worthy, and that is saying something... i should have gotten the molten lava cake. next time!  after that it was two hour nap time, then back to run our second phase of the race. my next leg was a 3.7 miler. since my legs of the race were short, i set little goals, mainly consisting of passing as many men as i could and finishing this run in under 30 minutes. it took me 28. i was proud of those 7.30 mile splits!

then it was dusky and dusty... and i thanked my lucky stars i didn't have to run down this eternal road.

 it got dark and pretty. just look at that sky! the sun went down and the headlamps came out while the rest of our runners hauled up the mountain.
when our phase was done we exchanged with van 2 and went to st. george to shower and "sleep". i closed my eyes for two hours, then it was up again so we could meet our team and finish our last leg.

 enjoy this picture. it kind of shows how sleep deprived crazy i was feeling, just look at those bags under my eyes! 4 am is the prime time to run. your brain is so tired, it doesn't even know what it's doing. my third run was 6.2 mile, then i ended up running another 4.2 for a team member who'd gotten sick. i'd never run in the pitch black darkness with a headlamp, and  it was kind of fun! our van finished our part of the race, handed off to van 2 to finish, and went back to st. george to shower and eat.

 nielsen's caramel cashew custard. i would run any number of miles just for a cone of it!
after eating, we made way to zion to run across the finish line with our team members.

 again, so gorgeous.

 we waited and waited for our van to finally show up. my favorite part of the day was watching all the teams before us finish. they were so creative! i especially liked forrest gump's guest appearance.

our van finally showed up and we ran/hobbled across the finish line as the announcer told everybody to give it up for the"red runners relay rockies". rookies, rockies, tomato, tomahto. we were just happy to be done!
carbo-loading/snacks devouring ensued, then the long ride back to provo with a delirious bunch of women. let's just say that trivia and my aunt carolyn's jokes are a lot funnier when you've had four hours of sleep.
i am now accepting applications for team mustache 2012 (get it? must-dash? i'm hilarious) next september.
til then i will probably be trying to scrub these inch wide stripes off my calf. i don't doubt i'll be loofah-ing until next year's race rolls around.
the strange looks from my bishop are well worth it.

fast times in the mile high city.

i feel like the title above is a little misleading... or sounds like the sequel to night at the roxbury.it's 6:30 am, so let's just go with it. with the way this weeks schedule looks, i figure blog now or it might be brushed aside and become the red headed step child of memories. 

first off, i just have to say that i love colorado. it's pretty! it's clean! people wear their workout garb all day and there are ample places to park a bike. there are running trails less than 100 meters from my aunt's front door. there's public transportation and a cafe rio. really, i think a combination of these things are the only necessities to life. 

on saturday, britni and i boarded a jet at million air airport. in provo, utah. no, we are not high rollers, but leaving from an airport proclaiming "million air" and having to walk outside on the tarmac to board the plane made us feel pretty fly. (and in need of some aviators)

oh, skymall... i need this.

 my aunt aly collected us from the airport and we went on a fieldtrip to krispy kreme on the way home. 

we then embarked on to highlands ranch, co, where my family lives, and proceeded to spend the day stuffing ourselves with chips and salsa for lunch, shopping around for hours, and having a repentance dinner of salad at cpk. oh, and i started getting a cold, how lame is that? i always get sick on trips, and that is a fact.

 sunday we hung out and went to church, watched the baby, and went to my aunt's house where a lot of good eating ensued, followed by a lot of laughing and pinterest. it's safe to say we've converted my aunt.

i kind of think this is exactly how a 17 month old lives life.

 monday i went trail running. it was so great, like i said above, there are many paths and trails that all connect in the area my family lives, so i was able to go crazy, with a little help from my gps. (what did people do before technology?!)

 later monday britni and i rode the light rail to real denver and proceeded to  chew that city up and spit it back out in a good 8 hours time.
 we went to the "taste of colorado" fest and got free eats and watched cooking demos.

we rented bikes and rode all over the city

we spent a couple hours inside of the coolest bookstore of our lives

we had the best ice cream ever. ever. little man's chocolate coconut, you are something else.

we had sub par food at a crappy parisian cafe. 

we met black rappers who wanted us to be in their music video... and wanted pictures with us, after ordering us to "putcha shades on!" oh, and told us to look for them on mtv. done deal.

we did touristy things like ask people on bikes to take pictures of us in front of rando buildings.

we tried to go see boyz to men... but decided against fighting the crowds.

all in all, it was a great day in the city, minus the fact that everything was closed for labor day.

tuesday morning i went on another run on these remarkable trails i just can't stop talking about. all the runners i passed were all smiley and wave-y. sometimes they would try to talk to me, but i had my headphones in so i just pretended i understood and gave them a little laugh. i still wonder what they all said to me.

 back at the fort my aunt made us award winning smoothies. mental note, get a vitamix.
later, we took a field trip out to my uncle's work and stopped at the red rocks amphitheatre, which is breathtaking, by the way.
 we found out zac brown band had been playing all weekend, and we were sad to have missed it, seeing as britni's cousin is in the band, and we could have scored some great tickets. boo. maybe if we had gone the red rocks would have collapsed on us? yeah we'll just go with that.

you can't hear it, but he's saying CHEEEEEEESE

later, we ate at a mexican restaurant and more chips and salsa ensued. then it was back to the airport and onto a smallish plane to finish our travels. we landed safely in provo and patted ourselves on the back for a trip well done.

 all in all, this weekend taught me a couple things. colorado is beautiful. i have a wonderful family who are great hosts/tour guides. when you have a cold and there is already pressure in your head, the descent on an airplane is pretty painful.  i am going to suffer this week for being irresponsible and not going to school.

i hardly care because my trip was completely worth it.

colorado and family there, thank you. you're wonderful.