Coney Island & Cameron Asay

Last Saturday Kelly, Stephanie, Amber and myself made the long and arduous journey to Coney Island and Brighton Beach. And by long and arduous I mean only an hour and a half by train. It wasn't quite perfect beach weather but it was overcast enough that it was hardly crowded at all.

This trip was most likely my favorite part of this whole New York experience. It was my first time at the Atlantic Ocean for one thing. I really loved it because it was the first time in months that I felt like I wasn't in a city. Standing in the water and sitting on the sand made me more relaxed than I have been in a very long time. And I don't just mean that in terms of how long I've been in New York. It's not that school is overly stressful but to be as relaxed as I was at the beach? I think we'd have to go back to Christmas break 2012. My biggest problem with New York is the fact that there isn't enough nature. You can't see the stars; there aren't houses with yards; there aren't rolling hills or mountains covered in trees. The beach felt like a whole other place than "New York City" or "Brooklyn." Nothing worried me while I was at the beach.

We also went to the New York Aquarium.

And I bought a new hat!

This weekend I tried to do something equally relaxing without having to go all the way to the beach. It's not so much that I decided to do these things but Cameron brought them up when we talked on Thursday night and he made me promise I would go on this quest, as I like to call it. So I dubbed Saturday "Cam's Quest."

1) My own personal quest was to get Jamba Juice. It turns out the closest Jamba Juice is at Columbus Circle inside the Whole Foods which is basically in the basement of a mall. Pretty nifty, eh?

2) After getting my Jamba, I got back on the train so I could be closer to a specific part of Central Park. I rode one stop from 59th to 72nd street, where I started what I promised Cameron I would do. He sent me to this peninsula near the boat house, across from a fountain and an angel statue. When I got to the edge of the peninsula, there was a nice big rock perfect for sitting on. The area I was at was obscure enough that I didn't see that many people throughout the hour or so I sat there. While the beach made me feel far from the city, sitting on that rock made me feel even farther away. It was a perfectly sunny day with a slight breeze. Trees surrounded me. I'm still not exactly sure of Cameron's reasoning for sending me to that place in Central Park but I'm glad he did. I just sat and thought about a million and one things, but in the good way of thinking about things. I didn't really come to any specific conclusions about life but some times you just need to sit on a rock at the park and think about how things are going.

3) Once I finished "finding myself" in Central Park, I headed to Hell's Kitchen to get some cookies. This was the funniest part of my Thursday night conversation with Cameron. He told me he wanted to buy me a cookie but obviously he's in Utah and I'm in New York so that wasn't super plausible. So then he started describing this cookie place in Hell's Kitchen that he didn't know the name of but was pretty sure was between 8th and 9th avenues. "You'll find it," he said. Through some astute Google searches on my part, I figured out it was called Schmackary's. And I've gotta say, those were some dang good cookies. They sell them 2 for $5 so I got one that was cookies and cream and another that was classic chocolate chip. So now when I go back to Utah, Cameron owes me $5.

What I loved most about going to the places Cameron made me promise to visit was feeling so connected to him. New York is Cameron's favorite city in the entire world. (He's told me that multiple times.) He's been very adamant about me enjoying my time here. Out of all my friends, Cameron is the one I've seen most recently on account of how a week after coming to New York he was here for the BFA Senior Showcase. (I'm pretty sure I wrote about how refreshing it was to see him just days after leaving Utah.) Before that he was still one of the last people I saw in Utah. When I was sitting on that rock in Central Park, I half expected him to come bounding down the pathway and climb up the rock to sit next to me. Part of me really did wonder if  he planned some elaborate joke in which he flew to New York just because and then decided he wanted to see me. The only thing that would've made those cookies better is if Cameron was there eating them with me. I love the fact that I was in places he once visited, places he'd made memories at. Being thousands of miles apart doesn't have to matter.

Another thing I've yet to mention is seeing "Once" the musical. Lion King was spectacular, of course. But "Once"... I think I loved it even more than I loved Lion King. One reason it was so special to me is because the lead male character is played by Arthur Darvill. Arthur also played my all-time favorite companion on Doctor Who, Rory Williams. I've been listening to the Broadway soundtrack ever since the show. We were in the sixth row and though our view was partially obstructed at times, it was still brilliant. Seeing Arthur as someone else besides Rory was great and made me appreciate even more the great actor that he is.

And now that it's Sunday, June 16 . . . I have less than one week left in New York. I fly back to Utah this coming Saturday. I'm mostly excited to go back because that's where my so called "real life" is. I left a lot of people behind when I came to New York. It's honestly been one of the best things I've ever done, living here, but there is something to be said for having a "family" at school. I also get to go home to Wisconsin for a week in July and I'm quite looking forward to that as well. All those people back in Provo mean a great deal to me. If there's one thing I've learned while I'm here, it's how much those friends love and care about me. "Cam's Quest" is just one example of how they've been looking out for me while I've been here. Like on Thursday night I also talked to Ben. After we'd been talking for about 5 or 10 minutes out of nowhere he says, "It's good to hear your voice." I don't think anyone has said that to me before. It definitely made my Thursday night a great deal happier and made me that much more ready to get back to my life.

Sophistication

Last night Lorraine, Becca and I participated in an activity so sophisticated I can hardly believe we did it at all.

We watched the movie Thor on Lorraine's laptop while sitting on a blanket on a hill of south campus. The most sophisticated part of it all? We were also eating cheese and crackers: slices of provolone on cheap, off-brand Wheat Thins.

It was Lorraine's idea to watch a movie outside. The night was far too beautiful to sit inside, that's for sure. None of us had seen Thor yet, even though we've all seen The Avengers. (Lorraine has seen Avengers three times actually.) At first I was a little skeptical of the situation. I didn't quite understand the appeal of watching a movie outside; sure, it's fun to do, but it seemed an oddly specific activity for the night. I went along with it though and it turned out great.

The weather was absolutely perfect to sit on the grass. There was a breeze but it was a warm breeze. The sky was clear enough that we could see some stars, though in Provo you don't see many stars ever just because of city lights. A lot of the time I wasn't even watching the movie. I was looking around instead, admiring the night and the situation itself. I've been trying to do as much fun stuff as possible in this spring term and last night was great for that. It was so chill to sit there w/ two of my closest friends watching that movie based off comic books. Everything about last night was calm and carefree. It wasn't the irresponsible or traditional collegiate fun I've come accustomed to on Friday nights but that doesn't make it any less wonderful.

And since we're on the subject of the movies Thor and The Avengers, here's some quick thoughts on them:  Thor is a pretty cool guy, definitely very good-looking. I like Norse mythology and all that jazz. I can see why people are so obsessed with Thor. The group known as The Avengers is pretty awesome as well, though by far the most awesome Avenger is Captain America. Now that I've seen all the comic book movies leading up to creation of The Avengers I can now say it definitively. Everything about Captain America/Steve Rogers is wonderful. It seems people usually pit Thor against Captain America as far as good-looks are concerned, and Thor seems to win out more often than not, at least in my experience. Captain America will always win my book though.

Now that I've finally seen all the preceding movies I really should see The Avengers again. I'll probably understand even more of it, and I already did get almost all of it.

At this point there are 10 days until I return to Wisconsin. We'll see what other adventures I can get done before that time.

Last YouTube video I watched: Safe and Sound by Taylor Swift (Cover by Colette Butler and Callie Moore)

Fake spring break day 5

It's fitting that I finish this little series today since it was a week ago today that it ended.

The final day of the trip started off great: we all slept in well past the time we wanted to leave. Instead we got much needed sleep and ate a wonderful breakfast prepared by Grant's parents. There were pancakes, scrambled eggs, juice, cereal and milk. I sure do love pancakes, even though just two days before I'd eaten some as well. Breakfast food really never gets old.

Once breakfast was eaten and the car packed up, on the road we went. It's interesting to see how quickly we could revert back into driving mode. We all had our sort of designated places and roles in the car.

The drive took us a little out of the way since we intended to visit Lake Tahoe before heading back to Utah. It was the best detour/side trip I ever could have hoped for. The scenery started changing gradually and eventually we were driving up and down winding roads through incredible trees and rivers and mountains. It was absolutely breathtaking. Just going through South Tahoe and the area around it was amazing. Trent was having the time of his life with his head stuck out the window as we blasted the soundtrack to the movie Spirit. It really was the perfect background music. All the windows were rolled down as we drove into Tahoe itself. Phillip was having the time of his life and repeatedly expressed his desire to be in something like a small little sports car instead of his Subaru Outback. I can't really blame him either.

So we ate pretzels and Cheetos and smiled and laughed and marveled. We made our way down into the valley area and stopped by Phillip's old house. Yes, he used to live in Tahoe. We parked the car on the side of the road and played around a little in his backyard. Well, it was mostly the boys who played. (These pictures were taken by the wonderful Emily.) Yeah, his backyard literally had a river in it. How awesome is that?

I ventured onto a rock you could jump to from the grass.

Then it was time to actually get to Lake Tahoe. The drive to the actual lake took perhaps another hour or so, but we cared so little about time. It was just too great a place to rush through. We stopped off at a lookout place to see Emerald Bay before we actually got to the lake itself.

Is that not one of the most beautiful places you have ever seen? Pictures hardly do it justice.

Then we actually got down to the lake! We sat in the sun for a while, much longer than we had planned, and eventually got up the courage to do what we had come to do: run in, dunk our heads, and run out. We didn't get any pictures during the act but it was great, definitely one of those moments we don't need pictures to remember.

The boys literally ran back to the car & changed afterwards,
which left Emily and I looking way more hardcore than them.

And once Emily and I changed back into normal clothes, we departed from the glorious place that is Tahoe. (I was already planning a return trip in my head, that's for sure.) So then we drove. We stopped outside Reno and got In & Out since Emily was craving a burger and I'm sure glad we did. I'm pretty sure In & Out there is better than it is here in Utah. From that point on we only stopped for gas. On the drive back we also watched movies 3-5 of Harry Potter consecutively. Since we'd taken our good ol' time at Grant's house and in Tahoe we didn't arrive in Provo until 2 am. It was totally worth it.

This was a fantastic trip and I'm so glad I was able to go. Road trips seem essential to college and this was by far the most awesome one I've been on. I've done little trips up to Idaho and other places in Utah but this was pretty legit, the kind of trip I'm pretty sure I'll always remember. Everything about it was wonderful; well, except for the not sleeping too much, but even that was totally necessary in some ways. What kind of road trip involving college kids involves getting good sleep every night? With how much stuff we crammed in it probably would have taken something like 12 hours of sleep every night to make us not tired, and even then it might've been close. So I wouldn't change a single thing about that trip, except to maybe make it longer.

(Also, you can find even more awesome pictures at Emily's Flickr account. Some of the pictures from these posts came from her. She's a great photographer)

Anna Does Sorted: Teriyaki Ramen Noodles

This was my dinner tonight and I highly recommend it. The homemade teriyaki sauce was quite delicious.

Mine didn't look quite that fancy since I didn't have prawns and coriander and such but I did have onions and other vegetables. I'm definitely going to be messing around more with Ramen noodles in the future, making up new sauces and such. I probably should have taken some pictures of the deliciousness but I was too hungry to stop and document.

I highly recommend Sorted Food for more great and simple recipes; they have a recipe for anything you could ever want. The next thing I want to try is the homemade doughnut/donut recipe. I'm quite fond of donuts, yet somehow I missed getting a donut even though yesterday was National Donut Day. I'll make sure to get one next year.

But this makes two awesome meals in the last two weeks. The Monday before I left for California I made baked manicotti, which is by far one of my favorite dishes both to make and to eat. That recipe is from America's Test Kitchen. ATK recipes are a bit more in depth but well-worth all the trouble.

Well, I basically just wanted to brag about my awesome dinner. I'll get back to telling the epic story of the final day of the fake spring break road trip next time.

And to finally get back to a tradition I've been neglecting while documenting the trip to California:

Last YouTube video I watched: Adorable Squirrel and Table Topics

Fake spring break day 4

Sunday was not terribly exciting since all we did was go to church and eat lots of food. Literally.

We woke up and ate a lot of cereal before getting ready for church. That was interesting since there were four of us, two boys and two girls, sharing one bathroom and we were all trying to get in there to fix our hair and brush our teeth and such. And yes, I include the boys in the act of fixing hair because do they ever love making their hair look nice and spent more time on it than Emily or I did.

Church was lovely though, not terribly exciting, but nice. A boy who was leaving on his mission spoke and that is always entertaining to me because all my friends are coming home. 19 year-old boys seem so young now, even though they're barely two years younger than me. It's funny how time changes things like that.

After church we spent most of our time playing with Grant's niece before dinner. We hung out on the trampoline and acted, well, old. And his niece was just a little ball of energy and fun. If we'd gotten more sleep the last few days we probably would have been more lively but mostly we bummed around in the sun while she yelled at us to jump. The best part was when Phillip and Trent started holding down Grant so Clara, his niece, could start tickling him, though she didn't really get that. Instead she enjoyed stepping on him and kneeing him right in the chest.

Clara definitely wore us out a bit and then it was time for dinner. We had delicious barbecue chicken and cheeseburgers and fruit salad and just all this summery food. And then after that dinner we went over to the house of some of Grant's family's friends and ate a SECOND DINNER. That was amazing as well. We had steak and baked potatoes and more fruit and salad and for dessert brownies and ice cream. I had Thin Mint ice cream, which was delightful.

The thing about this trip and food is the fact that we never really knew when we would eat next so we just as much as we could when we could, hence two dinners not really being an issue. Even though we spent a lot of time in the car, we also spent a lot of time wandering around different places for hours on end so we worked up some pretty big appetites.

Sunday night we played Cranium. Grant and his mother were a team, Phillip and Emily another, and Trent and I made up the third. Suffice it to say, Trent and I did not have high hopes on account of how Cranium requires you and your partner/team to think along the same lines and have this sort of mind connection. It's hard to compete against a mother/son and boyfriend/girlfriend in the "thinking alike" category. Things didn't start off well for us either. Our worst suspicions were confirmed as Trent and I failed to spell the word "squiggle" backwards. Well, I could do it, he couldn't. However, our luck changed and it turns out Trent and I can get each other to guess pretty much anything once we get the right strategy; or at the very least he can get me to guess things. I managed to figure out he was drawing the phrase "animal magnetism," impersonating Adam Sandler, humming the little bunny Frou Frou song and acting out "free range chicken." When he was acting out free range chicken I even had him stop acting so I could put together each of the three parts. I literally yelled at him to stop and put my hand up, and it worked. That's pretty quality work on both our parts. So while Trent and I found our groove, Grant and his mother lost theirs. Grant went from guessing things like "truck," "ice cream," and "car" to "jail." When all was said and done, Trent and I absolutely demolished the other two teams, thus proving how awesome we are.

Once the game ended we watched Surf's Up which I absolutely adored. Penguins surfing. It's genius. So then the movie ended and off to bed we went, pretty early once again since we had the intention of leaving Grant's house at 8 for Tahoe.

Things did not go quite that way . . .

Fake spring break days 1 & 2

Here's the story of how I went to California for 4 days with 4 of the most awesome people ever.


On Thursday we left Provo at like six even though the plan was to leave at like four. That meant we didn't get to Grant's house until two in the morning. Needless to say, we were all pretty dead tired. The drive wasn't too bad. I was in the middle back between Grant and Trent for the most part; yep, I drove to California in the back, in the middle, with my feet on the hump. It was pretty nice all things considered. I fell asleep on Trent's shoulder two different times, mostly by accident and without the intention of actually falling asleep, but of course he's so sweet that he would never complain, even if it did bother him.

the best road trip buddies a kid could ask for

We listened to a lot of music, of course. And we also watched a Mission Impossible movie, though I mostly slept through it. Well, it wasn't so much sleeping as it was laying against the window with my eyes closed. I quite liked the drive, honestly. I love road trips. All in all it was an uneventful drive. Apparently some crazy stuff went down as we were going through Truckee but it was really only Phillip and Trent that know what went down. And Emily and I aren't going to ask about it anytime soon.

On Friday we left Grant's house bright and early to get to the Oakland Temple so Phil could go to the actual wedding in the temple. That was the reason for the trip after all, so we could celebrate the wedding of Wes and Hannah. While that was going on, the rest of us walked around the temple and went into the visitors' center. I haven't been in a visitors' center in a long time. The sister missionaries of course reminded me of Kelsey and soon enoug Sara. After that, Grant and I went back to the car to study. Grant got a lot done but I ended up taking a nap of sorts. Once the sealing was over we took some pictures on the terrace of the temple. It was very beautiful.

Then we made our way to a nearby BART station to take the train to San Francisco. Taking the train made me really miss London and the tube. Once we got to San Francisco we made our way to Chinatown. I say "made our way" but it was more like wandering around. Since Trent served his mission in Oakland and San Francisco he was our unofficial guide of sorts. He didn't really know where he was going but it seemed like he did. It took a while to walk to Chinatown but we didn't mind. It was just great to be around each other in a new city. We eventually found a really good place to eat, though the boys were not pleased with the size of the portions, though that was to be expected. After lunch we made our way to Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 and Ghirardelli Square. We were on the bay and walked around there for another few hours. It started to rain just a bit but nothing to deter us. It was crazy windy by the ocean but once again we didn't care. I think the best part of the day for Emily and me was Ghirardelli Square. We shared a delicious and huge peanut butter sundae known as the "Gold Rush." It cost us a bit but it was most definitely worth it.

I also loved when we stopped at this random Thai restaurant. Trent spoke to the waitress all in Thai. It was awesome and I admire Trent so much for being able to do that. He's an incredibly talented and smart guy. Things are always great when you have a half Thai/half Irish friend who speaks multiple languages.

At that point we were even more tired and decided to take a street car to the Embarcadero BART station and then back to our car. From there we drove back to Oakland for the reception. It was beautiful. Wes and Hannah had their reception at a building at the Oakland Zoo. It was outside and a perfect night as the sun set over Oakland and San Francisco. The dinner was also awesome. They had a great buffet. (You'll notice quite quick that much of this trip revolved around food.) Perhaps the coolest part of the reception was seeing Wes and Hannah's friends give toasts. Hannah's Harry Potter fandom friends were there and they said some hilarious things I'm sure only a few of us got. It was neat to meet them especially because I've seen pictures of them for years and heard a lot about them from Hannah. Though by far the best thing about Hannah and Wes as a couple is the fact that they have known each other since they were about three years old.

We left the reception before the dancing which was kind of a bummer since I really wanted to dance with Grant and Trent, who were both my dates.

our fearless men

 So we went off to Santa Cruz then, heading for our campsite. By the time we got there it was sometime after eleven. We all basically went straight to bed, and by bed I mean we laid out a huge tarp, unrolled our sleeping bags, crawled in and didn't wake up for hours. I did sleep quite well and wasn't cold at all.


And that's the end of days number 1 & 2 of our epic fake spring break trip to California.

Road trip!

I still have 2 hours and 45 minutes until my next class, so I'm sitting in the library finishing up a presentation and talking w/ my dear friend Carson on Facebook chat. (He's the one in Italy, lucky kid.) And once I get through my evening class all I have to do is pack for my little road trip to California.

We're leaving tomorrow afternoon and all I have to do before we leave is go to zumba. What a lovely Thursday it will be. I absolutely love road trips, and road trips with a bunch of friends are even better. I plan to spend most of the 10 hours reading but I'm sure there will be plenty of hilarity. I also haven't taken many pictures this term, or even throughout junior year in general, and I'm sure there will be plenty to photograph. (The boys I'm going with are quite photogenic and ridiculous, but in a good way.)

It's going to be quite fun going to northern California. I've only ever been around southern. I think what I'm most excited about is being all touristy in San Francisco. Everyone I tell about this trip gets so excited when I mention San Francisco so apparently it's pretty awesome. Getting out of Provo will be so nice. Spring term hasn't been bad but Provo kind of wears on a person for a while, especially when you haven't really left since after Christmas.

So besides packing the only thing to do is create my road trip playlist. I make playlists for each semester, certain activities, and especially road trips. I'm not sure what the feeling of this road trip is going to be but as of right now it seems like the them will be freedom and irresponsibility. Not irresponsibility in the "we're going to make poor decisions" way but in the "we're all a bunch of twenty-somethings with no school and plenty of time to do whatever we want" way. Now I just have to find songs that fit that feeling. Imagine Dragons just came on shuffle and they feel very appropriate for such a weekend.

And as there are only a few weeks left of spring, here's another update on the 10 things I was most excited about:

1) Zumba class with Becca. Still awesome.

2) Gettin' biceps & abs with Lorraine. This has definitely not happened . . . Oh well. Maybe in fall.

3) Jordan & Matt coming home. This has been lovely. I went to Jordan's homecoming and we've gotten to talk a few times since then. Matt is home so soon now too.

4) Camping trips. It was lovely. Well, for me. Read about it here.http://wendtanna.blogspot.com/2012/05/night-under-stars.html

5) Imagine Dragons. They're still lovely as well. They'll probably make up my road trip playlist.

6) Legitimately learning to play a Julia Nunes song on ukulele and then recording a cover with Becca singing. This has not yet progressed beyond where I was before. Next week after I get home from California I'm going to apply myself.

7) More tennis and racquetball. Neither of these things has happened . . . Whoops.

8) Time to read the next Game of Thrones book. This weekend I plan to finish Clash of Kings. I had to take the copy I had back to the library but luckily Trent owns it.

9) Frisbee. I've not done this at all, either. Maybe I'll play some frisbee on the beach! Also, my friend Wade will be back in Utah in June right before I leave and he absolutely loves frisbee so I'm sure we'll play.

10) Starting my Chacos tanlines.  This has not progressed much, though I do wear my Chacos often. They are going to be one of my two pairs of shoes for this weekend so maybe I'll get lucky with some sun.

Last YouTube video I watched: Greg Holden - Home (Live)

Excitementish?

Sometimes I feel like my life doesn't amount to much. I see what my friends are doing, friends from school and friends from home, friends taking classes right now and friends elsewhere in the world. People have jobs and internships; others are graduating; a good number are on various study abroad trips to awesome places, like Mckenna in Guernsey and Carson in Italy. I've got my riveting classes of media and world religions, which goes right up until 6:30 every Monday and Wednesday evening, and Iberian civilization, which has an exam basically every week. At first glance, I don't have much exciting stuff going on, but things are surprisingly great, and exciting in ways that most people would probably not consider exciting.

I've gotten a lot more time to read lately. I love sitting in the grass on campus or at the park and reading a good book. It's definitely one of the things I miss the most about fall and winter semesters. There really just is not time for recreational reading. I may have gotten a little too excited about reading though because I've barely started some of the books I checked out from the library and they're due in a couple days.

There's a house of boys who live right around the corner who make sure at least two or three nights a week are filled with some kind of . . . something. Whether that be watching a movie, or kidnapping a roommate for his birthday and getting cupcakes and then fries and Frosties from Wendy's, or going to Macey's for cheap soft-serve, or getting lunch and then going to Home Depot to find spray to kill wasps. They're always around for hugs and laughs and smiles and snacks. Just last night I saw The Avengers with them, and let me tell you: seeing that movie with a bunch of boys makes it 10 times more hilarious and epic.

My apartment has always been friends w/ the apartment right across the hall, but over the last few weeks of spring semester we've seen even more of them, and it's been awesome. We've gone to see movies; we've stayed in to watch movies; we've eaten cookies; we've talked about boys. I got to go to an awesome fire w/ one of them and then after to stare at the super moon. We stop by each other's apartments just because we can. It's a really small thing but hanging out with them is easily some of the most fun I've had all semester.

And perhaps what I'm most excited about/what is most exciting is having the opportunity to go to Mikaela's wedding reception, which is exactly a month from today! I'm so excited. Mik is from Colorado and getting married in Utah and is having a reception here and back home, so had I gone home for spring semester, I would have missed it. Mikaela easily became one of my best friends at school and I'm both terribly excited and sad she's getting married, though mostly I'm excited. Her dress looks awesome and it's going to be an epic day.

However, now that I think about it, what will make spring semester the best is the fact that I get to go to California over Memorial Day weekend! My other wonderful friend Hannah is getting married in Oakland, and fortunately for me the aforementioned boys who live around the block are all going to California that weekend and I get to road trip it with them. One of them is going to the reception as am I, another is from the area, and the other two are basically just going for fun.

So while my life may not be as epic as those traversing the world, it's still pretty dang good.

Last YouTube video I watched: Pitcher Makes Awesome Behind the Back Grab

A night under the stars

Friday night I went camping with some friends/people who live around me somewhere in Provo Canyon. I say somewhere because I'm not too familiar with the canyon and such. Regardless, it was lovely.

For dinner we, of course, had foil dinners. Tinfoil dinners are probably one of my favorite things of all time, right behind things made in Dutch ovens. That's the only thing the night was missing: Dutch oven peach cobbler. I made dinners for Becca and myself: ground beef seasoned with random Italian stuff, garlic, salt and pepper; carrots and potatoes. They were absolutely delicious.

Another thing that was awesome about camping was the fact that I finally got to use my headlamp for something real and not just finding stuff in my room when it's dark.

The real reason I decided to go on this little excursion was the fact that we'd be sleeping under the stars. I've done it a couple times before and it's always been awesome. Life has been kind of crazy lately, though not quite as crazy as winter semester was. Going camping is always relaxing, though. It's always great to sleep out under the stars when it still gets cold at night because you can hunker down in your sleeping bag and all that's exposed to the night is your face, and even then it's not all of it. It was pretty cold out, but not terrible, at least not to me. Basically everyone else was freezing, though. Lorraine did not sleep at all and spent the whole night playing on her phone. I got a good solid four or so hours and would have kept sleeping but everyone else was so cold they wanted to leave, so we were out of there by seven or so.

Looking at the stars is pretty great out in the woods too. (I like how I still said in the "woods" even though we were definitely on a mountain and there weren't that many trees. There were a good number of trees but not enough to call it "woods.") Speaking of stars, I saw the Little Dipper for the first time ever. I'm not even kidding.

So despite all the camping goodness, I'm also a kind of weird camper in that I have to be with the right kind of people to enjoy myself fully. This was one of my worries about coming on the little rendezvous. The people I went with are lovely but I wasn't quite sure how I'd get along with them as far as camping was concerned. Things were totally fine and it was just a great night overall.

Last YouTube video I watched: Poor Wayfaring Stranger

It feels like college

Last night/in the wee hours of this morning I felt more collegiate than I have in a long time. The last time I felt that young and carefree was probably when Hank and I went to play tennis outside at 11 at night back in October. Last night definitely beat out late night tennis, though.

First there was a wedding reception for a dear friend from freshman year. I got to see a bunch of awesome friends so that was lovely. There was also a Cold Stone ice cream bar dealio. It was delicious, of course. My favorite part, besides seeing my now-married friend, was reuniting with SJ.

After the reception, Lorraine went right to bed since she had to run a half marathon this morning and the bus for the start of the race left at 5:30, so she had to be up around 4:30. I, on the other hand, went over to my friend Trent's house. He'd called earlier that evening and wanted to know if I would care to come roast marshmallows with him and his roommates. 

So I went over there and to my surprise were we not only roasting marshmallows for s'mores, we were legitimately grilling. That day Trent's roommate Chris bought a little Weber grill, and so of course they had to use it that very night. Mind you this was around 10 or 10:30 at night. And we were grilling pork ribs and pork chops and asparagus. It was all wonderful, and we had some rice too for good measure. Later in the night, around 11:30, we did roast marshmallows for s'mores. Trent was lovely enough to give me a Reese's peanut butter cup to use instead of a Hershey bar. (Because he is awesome.)

Eventually Grant found the movie he wanted, the first Sherlock Holmes, and we watched that. I was pretty awake at the beginning of it. Then I kind of started falling asleep. But in the last twenty minutes or so of it, I was quite awake once again. I was not tired. At all. Grant walked Becca and me home and then I ended up staying awake until around 3 or 3:30. Totally irresponsible? Yes. Completely great decision at the same time? Also yes. 

I had an absolutely fantastic time with all of my friends last night, both at the reception and at Grant and Trent's house. The best part of it all? We don't even need alcohol to have that much fun. It was so chill and fun and relaxing and exciting all at the same time. Something was always going on but just being around those people made it feel as if nothing was happening at all. That's always interesting to me, the idea of party schools and drinking alcohol of some sort to have fun. I don't understand that type of party/partying. The possibility of not remembering those incredible nights is so unappealing. The only reason I can't remember certain parties is because all the fun and excitement just runs together into a blur of awesomeness from the various times I'm with my friends.

As for today? I'm just studying for a test and reading books for fun. I might go disc golfing with Hank and some other people but he hasn't gotten back to me yet on a time. And Jeff might come over? Question mark because I don't know what time/if he really will. All in all, I just need a relaxing day to recover from being so college.

Last YouTube video I watched: The Empire - Jason Munday (May the Fourth Be With You)

Oh tomorrow (which is now technically today) & favorite things

It's the FA Cup Final between Chelsea and Liverpool. Obviously I want Liverpool to win. I just don't know how I'm going to watch the game, if at all. It doesn't seem like it will be broadcast in the United States. At all. On any station. That's a bummer. And it's not going to be online w/ ESPN3 either. It's very disappointing. Over the last week I've gotten back into soccer stuff again, mostly because I have the time to watch it online while I'm on campus. And the UEFA Cup is almost here too! That will give me plenty to watch, as long as I can find some place that broadcasts it.

The rest of this post is inspired by my dear friend Kaitlin. She made a post about a few of her favorite things. So I'm going to do the same through use of Internet pictures. (Just a side note: it's now 3 am on Saturrday . . . I started this post around 4 in the afternoon on Friday.) Here are six of my favorite things in life right now.

always good for a smile & plenty of laughs.

Gryffindor pride.

Self-explanatory

All we need to do.

coined by CS Lewis

Had one tonight.

Last YouTube video I watched: Kids / MGMT / Heyhihello / Poppy

Letters & returns

I just spent well over an hour listening to Noah And The Whale and reading all the letters I got from one of my very closest friends while he's been on his mission. He comes home in about two weeks and it was crazy to read things from both one and two years ago.

We spend all our time waiting for them to come back so when they finally do start coming back it's kind of weird. Nope, not kind of weird. Totally and completely weird. We can send them off and wait for them but it's hard to know how to act when they start returning.

The only contact I've had with these friends for two years is handwritten letters. It's both wonderful and terrible. You get to know people incredibly well through letters, but obviously there is no replacement for in-person interactions. I love the letters I've gotten from my friends and they only make me more excited for those in real life interactions that will be even more prevalent in coming months.

Letter-reading is definitely very relaxing and almost cathartic. For a lot of the letters I read, I could remember exactly where I was when I first read them. The most recent letter from the aforementioned awesome friend, for example, was read lying on the carpet in my living room. And I'm pretty sure I was listening to Noah And The Whale as I read it as well.

All my closest friends from freshman year will be getting home within the next few months so I hardly expect to receive any letters either, not with such small amounts of time left. I could not care less, though. I'm just stoked to see all their faces for real and not in pictures of them with suits and ties.

Last YouTube video I watched: Mumford & Sons - Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

BEDA ends again

So near the beginning of April I made a list of 10 things that I was excited about for spring semester. I figured since spring semester is underway and that April is ending, I might as well check in a little bit and recount my progress.


1) Zumba class with Becca. This is going swimmingly. It's quite fun and definitely my new favorite type of cardio workout.

2) Gettin' biceps & abs with Lorraine. Lorraine and I have not yet begun this endeavor . . . There's still plenty of time, though.

3) Jordan & Matt coming home. This is basically all I think about in the most excited of ways. It's about two or so weeks away now for Jordan and I can hardly believe it's been two years already. Matt won't be back until June.

4) Camping trips. I haven't done one yet but yesterday a girl who lives in my same building told me a bunch of people are planning one for a weekend very soon! 

5) Imagine Dragons. I mentioned in a different post about how I totally forgot about their concert, which is tomorrow. It's terrible, really. But it will all be okay since hopefully I'll get to see them at Summerfest if I'm lucky!

6) Legitimately learning to play a Julia Nunes song on ukulele and then recording a cover with Becca singing. I've learned all the chords in three different songs of Julia's so I'm well on my way to being able to play them all too.

7) More tennis and racquetball. I haven't yet played tennis but Becca and I have played some racquetball. But I also have played soccer so that makes up for not playing tennis yet.

8) Time to read the next Game of Thrones book. I started Clash of Kings yesterday afternoon as I sat on the front lawn of my friends Trent, Grant and Phil's house.

9) Frisbee. I've not done this at all . . . Sad times, I know. But there's plenty of semester left. Since I have only one class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, frisbee would probably be a good thing to do then.

10) Starting my Chacos tanlines.  I figure once I go camping this will get done a little bit. I have been wearing them nearly everyday but I'm not outside all that often because of classes and often needing a computer to do my work. It's going to happen, though.


Well, I don't have class until 4 o'clock. Until then I'm going to watch the Manchester City v. Manchester United match, accompanied by John Green tweeting about it. I don't get to watch nearly enough soccer. I'm obviously supporting Man City since ManU is terrible. Well, not actually terrible at soccer but just terrible in general. I am just waiting for the day when Liverpool gets back to their former glory. (You'll never walk alone.)


Last YouTube video I watched: The Most Awkward Dance Ever

One of those glorious Allstate commercials just came on. You know the ones I'm talking about. Just so you know, BYU grads came up with the concept for those. Magic.

Reading & ukulele

Sometimes the only things I feel like I need in life are good books and my ukulele with good songs to learn how to play. Right where I wrote "need in life," I originally had "need in love," which also sounds pretty accurate actually. All the things on my bed right now, besides my pillows/other bed things are: my ukulele, my tuner, four books (Word Freak, Rough Stone Rolling, Clash of Kings, Infinite Atonement), and my Wisconsin Badgers hat. And my blanket is bright orange, my sheets Harry Potter, and my pillowcases blue and white striped & SpongeBob Squarepants. I feel that's a very accurate representation of how I am as a person. Eerily accurate.

This afternoon/evening literally all I've done is read and play uke. I also did play racquetball for an hour so that just exemplifies my favorite things. It's been a good day, though. Over the last week I've played my ukulele at least once a day for at least 30 minutes each time. It's such a great instrument. I've become addicted to playing/singing terribly the song Little Boxes by Walk Off The Earth. It's awesome.

As for the rest of the night . . . Well, that's pretty open at this point. Lorraine wants to hit up a dance party, which could be quite entertaining. If we don't, I'm sure the rest of my night will be spent with Word Freak. I plan to finish it tomorrow, if not tonight. I have the feeling, regardless of my night's events, I'll stay up late reading tonight. I haven't done that in a long time and I'm due for a late night reading session.

It's crazy to think that April is basically over. Only three more days! Blogging every day always goes by so quickly. May is going to be just as awesome though, if not more so.

Last YouTube video I watched: Nannytard's Surprise

Fly away home

It's once again no longer the actual day but that is okay. I was on the phone w/ my dad for about 40 minutes tonight, getting my flight squared away for coming home. It's going to be a good spring but going home will be good too. I am happy that I decided to stay in Utah for some of spring if only for the nice weather. At home the last few days it's been in the 40s or so. Here it's been in the 70s and 80s. I love getting to wear shorts and sandals all the time.

I've now gone to all of my spring classes and it should be an interesting semester. It won't be particularly easy or difficult, at least it doesn't look that way. I just have to stay on top of reading and such; things will be a-okay.

As per my post of the other day including my want/need for some spring tunes, I think I have found it in the form of Walk Off The Earth, especially in their song Little Boxes.

I think the most exciting part of today, however, was the fact that my roommate Stacy made a delicious banana bread/cake thing. Also, our friend Grant came over and we just shot the breeze. (That's a phrase that needs to make a comeback.)

Last YouTube video I watched: Justin Bieber Boyfriend! Official video parody

Zumba, spring music & Sunday recap

I had my first class of spring semester this morning at 9:05, and let me tell you, it is awesome. Zumba is pretty cool, I must say. Becca and I have the class together which makes it even more fun. I've come to realize there is a reason I play soccer and tennis and racquetball and basically any other sport: I'm not coordinated when it comes to dancing. While Zumba isn't all dancing, that's the easiest way to explain it. You combine a bunch of international music and things like tango, chacha, samba and so forth and then you add in a little jumping around and fist pumping and that's Zumba. It's still quite fun despite by poor dancing coordination and is a fantastic workout.

Now here's something I need to think (re. write) out loud (re. quietly) about. I need spring music. I don't necessarily mean music that reminds me of spring but more like a soundtrack for spring semester. Every semester I seem to have one. The last few I've made it a legit playlist that is called "winter 2012" or whatnot. I did start creating a list of music for Jordan and I to listen to once he gets back from Scotland since I know that's probably the thing he's missed the most. That's kind of a spring playlist I suppose but mostly it's just filled with music I listen to all the time now that he might have missed out on. Some of it is stuff I know we both already listened to. I'm looking for a new band. Or at least a band I already listen to that has a new album out. Over the last few days I've been listening to the newest Jason Mraz album, Love Is A Four Letter Word. It's enjoyable, but I need a variety to make it a soundtrack. I figure it's time to do some YouTube research and find some new artists there. ShayCarl recently expounded on his love for Walk Off The Earth, so maybe I'll give them a listen. They're the band that did the Goyte cover on guitar that is insanely awesome.

And now for what happened Sunday! I spent all day w/ Becca and her family. Her brother graduated this past week and her sister who is married w/ 2 kids was in town; the most recent child of hers is only 6 weeks old. We went to church with all of them and took up, like, three rows. We had brunch at her sister's in-laws' house and it was delish. There were pancakes, ham, bacon, sausages, fresh fruit, whipped cream, donuts, muffins and more. I am quite fond of brunch I've decided, though I'm mostly just fond of breakfast food at any time of the day. After we ate we just hung out there for a while and eventually went to watch the movie We Bought A Zoo, which was not too bad. I already was pretty critical of movies and then last semester I met Hank who just made things worse since he's quite critical of movies as well. I don't want to say I expected it to be worse but maybe I did. It was incredibly predictable, though what can you really expect from that type of kids movie? I will say it was much funnier than I expected. After the movie we took a little drive over by the Provo Airport and went birding, aka bird watching. This was strangely fun, though I suspect it was mostly from Becca and her brother hanging out the window and sunroof while driving down a rocky dirt road. My favorite part was seeing a beaver! Forget the birds; beavers are where it's at. Being around Utah Lake also made me want to go kayaking really bad. A lot of the area reminded me of the wetlands/marshlands type stuff there is back home, except in the background there were mountains and not tons of trees. Then after that we just had a nice little dinner. It was a great day overall.

I'm about 100 pages into the Word Freak book and Scrabble has just gotten even more awesome. I'm going to memorize all the words that start with Q that don't need a U, and I might also take on all the two letter words because there aren't that many of them either. This book basically just makes me want to learn how to play Scrabble super hardcore well but that would mean literally doing nothing else but studying words and learning how to anagram like nobody's business. Anagramming is a thing I want to learn how to do well, though. 

My afternoon will be spent reading more and then playing ukulele as well. It's perfect ukulele weather, I've decided. Hopefully I can learn some Julia Nunes songs this week.

Last YouTube video I watched: Italian Chicken Burger Recipe

Josh Sundquist & my days off

Josh is a motivational speaker and former downhill ski racer. He also has one leg. He actually raced on the US Paralympic Team in 2006 in Torino. He's also a New York Times bestselling author. And he makes videos on YouTube.

I've spent a fair amount of time watching his videos and reading his book, Just Don't Fall. I highly recommend you read it. My favorite videos of his are called "________ for Math Nerds." That blank stands for basically anything Josh wants to be nerdy about. So there's Facebook, Twitter, Steve Jobs and Glee for math nerds, plus some others, all of which are hilarious.

So that's my plug for Josh Sundquist.

School doesn't start now until Tuesday and today I ordered my books off Amazon. My plan to was to just check them out from the library but the library doesn't have the most recent editions of the books I need, so that's a bummer. I also went to the library today to get the next Game of Thrones book but it was checked out! That was saddening. Instead I got a book called Word Freak. It's about competitive Scrabble. I'm pretty excited to read it. Another book I was sad the library didn't have is that one by Ransom Riggs that I can never completely remember the name of. Something about a home for peculiar children. But when I was in the campus bookstore I put Nerdfighter notes in copies of The Fault In Our Stars. I enjoyed that muchly.

I'm not sure what tomorrow will entail but it will be the actual weekend so I can't imagine it will be bad. At this point I'm thinking of going for a run. Or possibly out to longboard, though my parents are quite insistent that I get a helmet before I go out too much. Maybe I'll do that! I most definitely need to do laundry, that's for sure. My favorite shorts are dirty and it's been a beautiful day and the actual weekend should be as well. If I had a car I think I'd drive on down to southern Utah and go hike in Moab with my friends; that'd be lovely. Day trips to southern Utah are quite fantastic. Proof.

There's something I've been debating about lately, though, and this is what I'll end with. And that's how I should tag my posts during spring. Because I'm still used to labeling them "junior year," but I'm not really a junior anymore. I guess that would make me a senior but I've never been at school during spring so I don't know what year it counts for. I guess I'll just have it be "spring semester." And I just looked at some past tags I've used. Apparently I once labeled a post as "adorable boy is adorable." I have no recollection of this or why I did it. Huh, interesting.

Last YouTube video I watched: My YouTube Rules

Ten things I'm excited about for spring semester

1) Zumba class with Becca. We both signed up for this 0.5 credit aerobics class that's twice a week from 9-10:15. I'm stoked. I've always wanted to try zumba and now I get to. For class credit too!

2) Gettin' biceps & abs with Lorraine. This morning as I ate my breakfast/lunch, Lorraine and I were talking. And she said she wants to start lifting weights in spring. Every since ShayCarl lost his 100 lbs. and Colette started working out with him, I have been inspired by her biceps. Seriously. She's way fit. My goal is to have legit biceps and arm muscle. Lorraine also wants some nice abs so I figure I might as well join her on that. I'm fairly certain I'll somehow end up running a 5K too.

3) Jordan & Matt coming home. I don't know the exact date but Jordan will be home in May. I haven't seen him since April of 2010. Well, except in a few pictures. He's my musical soulmate, basically. And we most definitely have lots of music and stories to share. Matthew gets back in June some time, right before I fly home.

4) Camping trips. My neighbor/friend Bethany is from pretty nearby and has lots of camping stuff and we are most definitely in need of some spring adventures down to southern Utah. I haven't been hiking or camping in forever. It will also give me a chance to use my headlamp. I'm pretty darn excited about that, which is probably kind of sad.

5) Imagine Dragons. May 1st in Salt Lake City. 'Nough said.

6) Legitimately learning to play a Julia Nunes song on ukulele and then recording a cover with Becca singing. We've been talking about this for a while and I'm sure in spring we'll actually have the time to. Becca's voice is perfect for Julia songs.

7) More tennis and racquetball. Becca and I began playing racquetball pretty regularly a few weeks ago and that'll continue in spring. And now that it's warm again, outside tennis is a possibility more often.

8) Time to read the next Game of Thrones book. I've been far too busy to read this semester and this series is ridiculously good. I'm so happy to be able to read again.

9) Frisbee. I love ultimate and I'm sure plenty of people will be up for playing. Barefoot frisbee will be especially lovely. Basically, anything barefoot.

10) Starting my Chacos tanlines. Yep, I'm going to be one of those people who gets awesome tanlines on their feet.

Last YouTube video I watched: Can I Be Space President?

A thing I did today

So yeah, I posted already today. About candy. But I just thought of something else I did today that is way more nostalgia inducing and actually pretty serious.

Today I registered for spring classes. As Lorraine and I were eating our respective dinners of rice & vegetables w/ soy sauce and a lettuce wrap w/ cheese, she mentioned how we've been building up to this moment for the last two years, me specifically. Winter semester freshman year, very early on, I decided that I would be staying spring semester 2012 so that I might be able to see some of my lovely friends immediately after they returned home from their missions. I talked about this plan all the time over the past two years. There's probably at least one other blog post from way back when in which I mention it. Last semester it still seemed kind of other worldly to think I'd be in Utah during the spring.

But now it's really coming.

I had some distractions last semester so while I thought about the return of my friends quite often, it was a lot of tempered thought. That was probably a good thing. Last semester was the first time since my friends left that I really felt like I was moving towards something new and different, which I was. I mentioned in my post from Monday that because I've spent all this time waiting, I hardly know how to act with the returning. Looking back, those three months did bring me some guidance, though I wouldn't exactly call it anything concrete. Or maybe I'm just not willing to share what I learned, at least not yet. (Trust me, I learned some really important stuff, though.) A lot of things happened in the last few months of last year that would seem to be turning points of some sort or another. It's an interesting concept.

It's hard for me to decide what to share and what not to share tonight, if only for the fact that I'm scared I'll just be rambling. I think a lot of my posts on the subject of returning friends become quite repetitious. Though my intentions for each post seem different, somehow it all ends up sounding the same. I'm also still apprehensive about sharing on this blog the various details of specific events. One reason I'll admit for not sharing such details is because I find it (usually) much more helpful to work out such thoughts with real people, in real life. Writing about that stuff here sometimes feels like cheating, because I know how much I would benefit from actually talking about it all. What holds me back with actually talking to people is the fact that I need the right people around, especially since some of them have heard certain thoughts over and over again, and I don't want to burden them with it all.

And wow, this has become a completely different post than I stared out with . . . To get back on track: I registered for spring classes and I could not be more excited about it. I will most definitely be in the state of Utah for the returns of a few choice people who have pretty much changed my life.

Last YouTube video I watched: First Impressions (original Julia Nunes)