21 things recap

its crazy to think six months have passed since i made this lowly but lofty list... but can i say i loved doing it? it was so fun to make small goals to work towards, do a little more service, and better myself in the doing. i highly suggest it, folks. you'll be seeing another round soon. 


twenty-one things:

learn to make one loaf of bread by hand.
i attempted this one... it didn't raise. bread hates me.... but then again i didn't say make bread "successfully". yeast-1. alyssa-0. it'll happen though!


memorize two meaningful poems.
alright, didn't do it. but can i just give you my favorite poem?
it's in spanish... sorry, but i just love it so much.


read three substantial books.
the glass castle. room. the joy the baker cookbook (count it! and buy it. so good!)


bake and deliver food to four people i don't know.
the other night i made cookies and stealthily delivered them to my neighbors with a note thanking them for being cool. i think this qualifies as "food"?

try five new restaurants.
oh, i so did this! rice. terra mia. bombay house. pizzaria 712. and stay tuned for a separate post on number five. i'm stoked about this one!


leave six quarters on the sidewalk for people to find.
i wemt to the grocery store and randomly tossed quarters on the ground... and i am praying little kids found them and not vacuums and dust mops.

be completely vegan for seven days.
remember vegan week? it was a great time- but i missed yogurtland.


watercolor. make into thank you cards and send to eight nearest and dearest.
it happened at valentines day- i am no artist, but i do love to mix those colors!

make nine new friends.
i've made all kinds of friends via my ward. they're a good group.


overtip a waitress ten dollars.
at kelsey's birthday party at cpk around christmas we had a party of, oh, about thirty, and our waitress was stressed-the-freak-out. i overtipped her. i hope she bought somebody a really great christmas present with it. 

learn to make donuts. give away eleven. use that can of coconut cream somehow.
remember the donut fiasco hailey and i went through that one weekend and were successful? well, lots of those donuts were gifted... and i made delicious coconut rice with that coconut cream. heaven. 

learn to make jam. smother it on freshly baked bread. eat for twelve days.
i didn't make any jam... but i did make pumpkin butter and hummus... and then slathered the later all over some homemade tortillas. mmmm baby!


practice yoga nightly for thirteen consecutive days.
alright, this didn't happen but i DID go to some yoga classes and got many nights of good sleep... which is almost yoga :)


watch fourteen sunrises/sunsets.
fail... own it.

bike fifteen miles.
i did this! in the form of 6 am cycling classes. me and that spin bike are good friends.


travel to one new place. shoot sixteen videos of the experience.
okay, so no new videos happened.... yet. you see, i did, however, start making some big plans for some future travel. some of you already know what is going down, but if you don't. either way, stay tuned for some exciting news.

read the entire book of mormon en español seventeen minutes a day.
okay so i started this... then realized it was semi-impossible to do in six months. BUT in my living prophets class i've been reading 30 minutes a day from different discourses by living prophets... and modern revelation says that the prophets scripture is most vital work of scriptures soooo.... count it.


leave eighteen meaningful quotes, words on encouragement, praise on cars, sidewalks, doors, elevators.
diana was my accomplice during christmas break on this one. we went downtown and put quotes all over the streets, crosswalks, cars, and handed them to random strangers. golden moments! 

give somebody nineteen extra minutes on their parking meter.
there are hardly any parking meters in utah, i will tell you what. meh.


compliment twenty strangers.
i've been making an effort to compliment people more easily. my job makes it fairly easy, since i talk to tons of people every day. one of my favorite things is to compliment stressed out moms on their cool fingernail polish or rad diaper bags. they like it and afterwards they think we're friends.


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


well folks, that is how the cookie crumbles. and after a somewhat crummy day consisting of finding a hole in a brand new shirt coupled with nearly failing a test and a parking ticket, its good to see all the things i actually accomplished! 
tomorrow it's the dawn of adulthood and legality. who wants to go buy a beer?
;)

things for a monday

it boggles my brain that even though i am most likely the only one still living in my building, the water in my shower still does not stay hot for more than 3.4 minutes.

i bought a bag of mixed vegetables with ten servings inside. i've managed to eat half of it and i am more or less determined to finish it by thursday.... stir fry for breakfast! stir fry for lunch! stir fry for dinner!

i am really good at getting stupidly addicted to tv shows. right now it's parenthood... don't ask me why, the show isn't even funny but they play bob dylan in the credits and i just feel like the bravermans are my friends. all the seasons are on netflix, which is not helping my problem... hello christmas break waster!

i have been pretty good at dodging excess christmas foodstuffs this year up until this last weekend. maybe it's the fact that emily made awesome gingerbread cookies. or my grandma rocks at making toffee. perhaps it lies in the fact that our break room counter at work has turned into my own personal candy buffet? when the candy popcorn comes out, my self control flies right out that window.

my gym class instructor was playing brittany spears christmas at class today. now that awful stuff is mildly stuck in my head so i'm currently trying to down it out with some of the following. i'll just take my sufjan stevens christmas album. thanks!



if you're smart, you'll itunes that album. if you're smarter, you'll download spotify and listen to the whole thing for FREE because that man's voice is like sweet, sweet buttah.

three truths

i have the beginnings of an online shopping addiction. for real. christmas shopping this year was done almost entirely via interweb. i just get too sidetracked at real stores. couches and sweatpants suit me better. the other day these mocks came for me in the mail and i am pretty sure they haven't left my feet since. i'm more or less infatuated. they're minnetonka and wonderful... and they make me feel like i should habitually be singing "colors of the wind"

nope, i am not driving with my foot. i've been wearing this pair of socks on my hands every day this week and last on my commute to work. i've got gloves somewhere.... but at this current time socks are getting the job done just fine. another truth is the fact that i really don't even know whose socks these are....

yesterday kelsey and i went on a birthday day to terra mia.... wonderful italian food that still has me hooked and dreaming. i ordered tomato soup.... and while it was lovely and i wanted to backstroke in it, i keep wondering why exactly i didn't go for the delicious looking pizza they had. ohhhh maaaan i've gotta go back... and with delectable gelato to boot, i'm pretty sure it will be sooner than later. pistachio and coconut. it is what dreams are made of.

you just need a picture of a christmas tree. that is all! only working half a day tomorrow... hallelujah my kitchen needs a clean.

tuesday things.

facts of the week this far:

my best friend is a complete bad a.
this picture needs to be blown up put on my ceiling. i may or may not have to do just that.
but really. i am so awestruck by her level of cool... and guess what? her main parachute failed, too! i haven't exactly talked to her about it yet... so your guess is as good as mine. diana- comment and give us the story!

 dinner.

dessert.
the best decisions of my week right there. exhibit a is sautéed zucchini with lentil balls, doused with marinara and a sprinkle of fresh parm. the recipes are simple and i will give them to you.
the first one is via pinterest, the goddess of internet searching. she's married to google. i just decided. the 2nd one is via mama pea... the queen of vegan cooking. seriously, follow her, she is hilarious.
the second one is hardly a recipe, more just inspiration from heaven above. cut a peach in half, sprinkle a little cinnamon and brown sugar in each hole, broil the halves for 5ish minutes, then eat it with greek yogurt. I DIE.
this is real life.

they make hearses still... maybe i am the only one who didn't know this, but it's true. i swear it looked brand spankin new, straight off the lot, and plate-less! impressive.
and just a gem of wisdom for me remember at a later date. note to self: if the guy on the bike next to you at cycling boisterously tells you to "just slap him if he gets too loud for you during class" do just that. really. for any man over 45 who yells out the words along to "like a G6" and "hold it against me" during a class like that, well, it's probably in his best interest as well as everyone else's.

and i'm moving out tomorrow! i'm going to miss my mates.

white perusing blogworld

i took a tumble right onto this. via

Date a Girl Who Reads by Rosemarie Urquico 

Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas, and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by God, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes.