monday

today i was sitting and thinking about granada and the alhambra. (pictured above) my spanish literature class makes me wanderlusty because my teacher is always showing us pictures of spain and then i get anxious because everyone in that class has flawless spanish and i usually feel like belong more in a spanish kindergarten than three credits away from a minor. (!!!!) i try to follow e. roosevelt's mantra of "do one thing every day that scares you"... but i am beginning to wonder what exactly that does to a person's blood pressure over time.

 its snowing/raining and my plant is dead. january! who do you think you are!!
this weekend was a weekend of dreaming. winter is always a catalyst for my a. stir-craziness and b. my pastime of hypothetical situation planning aka WHAT am i DOING with my LIFE.
 lately i'm really good at putting my brain into what i like to call "advance planning mode"... the daydreaming state i lock myself into during relief society (always) or dull moments of work where i decide on some far fetched but somewhat attainable goal, then painstakingly go through every single to-do that must be accomplished to get there. travel is always involved... how to finance that travel is always hanging overhead. the life of a student! it is both exhilarating and confusing.  (kind of like the brown boots i wore today with predominantly black everything else. or like changing into workout clothes while driving through the snow. this is my life.)
til then, i will just wait for the chips to fall and continually edit and re-edit pictures. and keep a watchful eye out for cheap plane tickets. :)

ah ski ski ski

yesterday was tuesday. you know what that means? ski class! two hours of unadulterated time away from provo up at sundance frolicking in manmade snow. it doesn't get much better! you see that? that's me per kelsey's sweet iphone in skiing garb and i can't believe i haven't written all about it yet. (the skiing, not the spiffy iphone, although that's pretty awe-inducing, too) i mean, granted i've only been twice and there are children 1/4 of my age doing a heckuva lot trickier stuff than i am, but nonetheless i am learning and it is exciting.
i've got a wicked snow plow.
sometimes i can turn.
my toes are habitually numb. forever.
anybody up for a little weekday shred? i can't promise that they won't have to slow down the lift so i can get on in one piece, but i promise not to intentionally knock you over when we're getting off (or at least i will put forth my best effort)
oh, and would you pray for some snow to fall? i think that might enhance the experience, although i can't exactly complain about the shining sun.

more pictures. no ski trip is complete without a photo shoot, obviously.

the weather of provo

can be likened to a 15 year old girl. hormonal.

and i know i speak of the weather a lot, but it just amuses me. kind of like this picture of today:

probably shot at the strangest angle possible, but i guess that's just the product of a lot of happiness because the sun shone today for a good solid 8 hours. and i even shaved my legs for the occasion.

momentous, i tell you. 

however, i just peeked my head outside, and it's been blizzarding as of late, so i guess this nice sunny day won't be replicated any time soon. pity. pleeeeeeease come, spring. i stand beckoning.

in other news..... well, there really isn't any other news... besides the fact that i failed my cleaning check today. speaking of which, i should probably go clean the freezer. 

i've been thinking about summer lately and i even started my list. it's still in the the rough stages, so no unmasking will be done tonight, but seeing as BYU didn't feel like giving me any scholarships for spring/summer, guess all my dreams of taking year round classes have been shattered and now i must think of other ways to fill my days. hmmmmm shouldn't be too difficult! stay tuned. 

to hell with you, microbiology

2.5 hours in one seat during dinnertime in a basement listening to anecdotes about bacteria is THE WORST.
good thing i brought the laptop today. let much blogstalking and list making commence.
feat of the day: making corn tortilla chips at lunch. how? easy.
spray both sides of a tortilla with cooking spray, put that baby on the george foreman for 5 minutes, and VOILA eat it with the remants of your salsa in the fridge.
when you have no food you get creative.
i'm back on my facebook diet, if anyone wanted to know. once a day. (sometimes twice) let's just say seeing "the social network" made me think twice about getting my stalk on. (and on and on and on)
provo is freezing. and does anyone know if the groundhog saw his shadow? i can't get a straight answer from anyone/the internet and i am just really relying on p. phil for the good word.

i yearn for this. i might have been fat and flabby, but i was happy. ridiculously happy. ha sometimes i wonder if it even happened.
9 minutes left and i can go home. oooooooh yeah. and 24 hours til mom comes. :) yay

hi ho, hi ho

it's back to school I go.

Break was FANASTIC. I could go on for days about the splendidness of it all, but I will spare you all the details and just run a few highlights past you...

Hot Springs

Painting

New Years

Christmas

Exploring Boise foothills

Boise's Beautiful Gold's Gym

FOOD.

So now it's back to the daily grind. Yay. (sarcasm there)

But really, so far things have been great. I'm all moved into my new room, I got to sleep til 8:30 and then hit the gym, I don't have class until noon today, and those only go until 2 :) I can handle this. My new roommate is great, and my trooper plant survived 2 weeks with no water. It's magic.

new room

Can Bruises Have Bruises?

All I have to say is that in response to my last post, Mom, I am glad you taught me how to plow, for it seemed like that was the reoccurring theme of skiing yesterday. Well... I guess it is closely followed by wrecking and losing my skis an upwards of 5-6 times every run, but hey, the plowing saved me quite a few times.

Our adventure began early Tuesday. 8 AM, that is, when Cloey and I arrived at Timberline to catch the bus up to Bogus. The roads weren't too bad, so we got up to Bogus around 10. 48 dollars later I was zipping up my snow pants, (courtesy of Melissa Morales) strapping into my skis, (courtesy of the Scoggin Family) and adjusting my goggles (courtesy of the Hardy's). We road the lift up to the bunny hill, and after a small lesson on turning, Cloey let me go. Well, the first run was alright- in fact, the first couple were alright. It was when Cloey decided I'd graduated to the next lift up when I began having issues... and swearing like a sailor. Oh, Sourdough Run. It's shaped like a bowl, and this is where I began my theme of "wipeout". I struggled down, and Cloey followed behind so when I messed up and flew down the mountainside, she could retrieve my poles (sometimes skis) while trying to muffle her uncontrollable laughter, which echoed through the hills. It was definitely an experience. However, falling on the mountain was not the only place I had issues. I had problems even standing, getting my skis to cooperate while in the lift line, and I was just was happy that my goggles hid 3/4 of my face!

However hellish all that might have sounded, my skills got a little better after lunch. We decided to try another run a lift down: "Sunshine". The fog rolled in, so it was kind of hard to see, but I began to feel a little more comfortable with those foreign objects on my feet. I lowered my falling average to about 3-4 times a run, and hey, I was just glad to make it out alive. Here's a video of my skill on Sushine.

Around 4 we met up with some friends, and did a couple runs with them. Overall, it was a really fun day, and I am stoked to continue to conquer the slopes, which I will do in the future, however near or very extremely far away that is! We returned home around 6, and a shower, 3 ibuprofen, and some lasagna, I was asleep by 8. I don't think I've done that since I was, oh, maybe 8? I woke up this morning with everything hurting, but oh, I would and will do it all again.

Hormonal Snow and Unreliable Weathermen

So, it is currently dumping buckets of the white stuff upon the good people of Boise, Idaho.
But then again, this has kinda become a nightly thing for us..
It snows, it melts, it snows, it becomes slush.
It ices the road.
And I cannot drive.
Oh, and the weatherman said there would be a 5% chance of precipitation tonight.
HA! I believe they are 95% wrong.
Oh well, I won't complain, because tomorrow I am skiing for the first time!
Yay. :)
And Mom counseled me to:
1. Stay close to Cloey.
2. Don't fall off the backside of the mountain.
3. "Snow plow"- which is a move she modeled which just looked pigeoned toed.
haha I am excited.