REBELOPOLIS: HERE I COME!!!!

I'm pretty much the most non-daring person I know. Period.

Oh, how I have wanted to:
1. Get the "emo" haircut
2. Dye a shock of my hair bright pink
3. Climb onto the roof of a building that says "do not climb on the roof of this building"
4. Walk on the red carpet part of the airport line even though I didn't buy a first class seat
5. Shout in the "no- shhhh" zone

(yeah- so pretty much all of those things are on my "to do" list before I die anyway....)

Although, in my list of daring things that I have learned to do:
1. Do "smokey eyes" make up
2. Walk on the left side of the sidewalk
3. Wear unmatched socks (hey! Life's too short!)
4. Wear hats to school
5. Be late for a class (but not too late...)
6. Wear BRIGHT red lipstick

So today I finished another one of my 14000 things to do before I die: I read a book that is banned by a number of school districts! BUAH AH AH!!!!

This book is a Newbery Award winner AND a Caldacott Award winner.

It is definitely one of the most incredible books I have ever read...
IN MY LIFE.

The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963 is an incredible story about a family and the struggles that they went through. Mind you, the main struggle only encompassed about 20 pages of the entire book-- the rest of it was pure, unadulterated, feel good reading that brought warm fuzzies to my stomach, love feelings to my heart, and laughter to my... uh... spleen? I love this book. I LOVE THIS BOOK!

I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!

I don't know if I will ever get over it. I laughed! I cried! I- I- I- I- just don't know what else to say! May anyone and everyone within the visual of this html screen (yeah- all 4 of you!) enrich their lives by reading this book.

So yeah. That was my rebellious side shining through.

Behind the Waterfall

So, ever since I watched Scott Murphy's Behind the Waterfall when I was like, 6, I have wanted to go behind a waterfall- HOW AWESOME!!! AND not only is it AWESOME but there is a rainbow EVERY WHERE YOU LOOK!!!

Hello Rainbow! How are you?!

Rainbows are pretty much my favorite thing in the entire world- SO beautiful! I can't even explain my love of their simple, yet amazing, beautifulness. Egads.

"So," you ask me, "When did you have this incredible opportunity to go behind a waterfall?"
"Well," I tell you, "I happened to hike through blistering heat and scorching desert, I climbed to the top of the tallest mountain to the top of the tallest waterfall on EARTH!"
You look incredulously at me.
But you know what? That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
"And where might this amazingly tall mountain be?" you inquire.
"Stewart Falls, Provo UT" comes the reply.

Pretty impressive, eh?
I know.
I didn't even die- not even once!

We hiked all the way to the top and were just chilling a little bit when I looked to the guy next to me and said, "What are we doing?! We're so close!" and we decided to get behind the waterfall but to do that, we had to hike like, 90 degrees up a another cliff, cross algae infested water, grab onto slimy rocks, smash our hands into soft rocks, have our breath sucked from our lungs because of the FREEZING WATER and cut my feet on slick rocks- ALL A MILLION FEET ABOVE THE PLACE WHERE THE WATERFALL WATER FALLS! But is was

INCREDIBLE.

I wouldn't trade that beautifulness for anything.

Course, I scooted on my bum all the way down because I was so scared of falling and even then I managed to fall and scrape my hands up. Alas, the price you pay...

IT'S OFFICIAL!!!!

I'M PUBLISHED!!!!!!!

My famous (well I can dream, can't I?) Tomato and Chicken Stew recipe!

Photo courtesy of: http://scienceblogs.com

So. All I have ever wanted to do is work in the Special Collections section of the Harold B. Lee Library. That is all I have ever wanted to do.


Ever.



So today I applied for a job as a Veteran's History/Folklore Manuscript processor.

I find out in a few days if I will be granted an interview.

Eeekk... I'm so nervous!

According to http://lib.byu.edu/sites/sc/services/,
"The library holds 375,000 rare books and print matter, over 1.2 million photographs and 11,000 unique manuscript and archival collections. The library also offers numerous exhibits, lectures, tours and conferences related to its holdings"

NOT ONLY THAT! But there are the original film reels of Jimmy Stewart, Oscar statues, original copies of the Book of Mormon-- you can pretty much name something and they have it!!!

IT'S LIKE HISTORY NERDS 'R' US!!!!!!!!!!

Yep. So pretty much I hope that I get the job.

The end.

I completed another one of my 14000 things to do before I die!!!

It all started on Labor day last.... *dreamy shimmer*

After concocting a magnificent chicken salad chuck full of purpley grapes, crushed nuts (crushed by the infamous "nut crusher"), canned chicken (is it really chicken?), creamy mayonayo, and peeled mandarin orange segments- like a rainbow! For your stomach!!!

After all of that, we piled into Julia's car (with a tire perilously close to a blow out) and commenced our trip. Gut splitting laughter prompted by William Goldman's satire, and amazing
A Capella-head-boppin'-Bobby McFerrin-Don't Worry Be Happy- action, authentic sailor-esk Disney forearm tatoos, and a KILLER 20 miles off an unpaved, gravel road, we finally arrived at the WOLRD FAMOUS ALBEQUERQUE HOLIDAY INN where the towels are oh so fluffy and the air smells like warm rootbeer, and you can eat your soup right out of the ashtrays- don't
worry, they're clean!

WACKA WACKA DOO DOO YEAH!!!

Errrr.... Right..... We went to the world famous ALBEQUERQUE HOLIDAY INN! Do you believe in Déjà vu? Didn't you just ask me that?

Just kidding- but seriously...

We went to
the Salt Flats!!! (well kind of...)
THE SPIRAL JETTY!
IT WAS SO AWESOME!!!

We waded in the Great Salt Lake and gathered salt crystals that were HUGE! The water was so shallow though, and the salt so white, and the sky so perfect and AMAZING that it looked like we were walking on water that actually was the
sky! I can't really describe it, so I guess I'll put some pictures
up!

So Pretty much ever since I watched Pirates of the Caribbean 3, I have wanted to go to the Salt Flats, and this IS the salt flats in the sense that it is Salt and it is Flat- so yeah, I definitely think that that counts (even though I still plan on going to the actual Salt Flats before I die...) So yeah!!! EXCITING WEEK!!!

Recipe Hall of Fame: HERE I COME!!!!

One of my 14000 things to do before I die is be published. There are a number of things that I want to publish, and I am SO EXCITED!!!

Yesterday I created a new Tomato/Chicken/Garden vegetable stew recipe- it was pretty good, but nothing too special- and I typed it up and submitted it to my FAVORITE recipe website: Allrecipes.com! AND GUESS WHAT?!?! Go ahead... guess :)

MY RECIPE WAS ACCEPTED AND IS EDITING BEFORE IT IS PUBLISHED!!! WAH HOOO!!! So what if it's just a website, because hey, don't rain on my parade, huh? Ahhh yeah! Of course, I doubt anyone will ever see this recipe seeing as how there are a BILLION recipes on my FAVORITE recipe website called allrecipes.com, but hey, I'm just gonna keep dreaming!

Oh my goodness!! Has it really been that long since I have updated this?!? I can't believe it! Anyway, as stated, I got the job as a waitress, and let me tell you- HARD WORK! I had no idea how hard waitresses had to work to get a decent wage- after all, when you get paid something like 4.25/hour, you really need the additional tip money if you want to come away with anything at all! I discovered that I don't like to work with people the way that waitressing requires. For example:
1. You have to think that everything everyone says is funny
2. You have to be happy all the time
3. You can't appear stressed out even if you are
4. You have to delegate or nothing will get done
5. Just swallow the criticism and don't take it personally- you can only do the best you can.

Yep. Never have I had a job where I came home more emotionally drained than that job. There is no sit still time- which is funny because the "Child Development Center" didn't have any down time either, but at least the kids kept you engaged. The part that bugged me most was that I was treated like a servant at times. No one- let me repeat- NO ONE deserves to be treated less than a person of divine worth. It was the same way as the housekeeping job- if you hold a station that is seen as "lesser", people treat you that way. And I think that if I didn't know who I was, eventually I would believe the stereotype that other people placed upon me. Crazy how that works.

One thing down on my 14000 things to do before I die- 13999 to go!

So now it's school time and things are starting to get CRAZY! I have 4 hour blocks on the majority of my classes, and since it's only Wednesday (3rd day of class) I haven't even had half of my classes yet (they only meet once a week- Wednesday night and Thursday night). So I'm just bumming around and waiting for the homework to bury me alive!

I'm working on 13999 right now, though, because my elementary education application is due in 2 weeks!!! I"M GOING TO BE A TEACHER!!! (hopefully- that is, if I get accepted...)

Also, new thing to do before I die: 13998- learn puppetry. And as luck would have it, I'm in a puppetry class right now. HOW FUN! It'll really force me to go outside the box, but I'm thinkin' that it's going to be AWESOME!

Anywho, I gotta do some work- until next time :)