My Newest Ginger Crush

Ok, I think it all started out with this ginger:

This summer, it was him:

(It was more for his music than his looks, okay? 

Don't judge me.)

And now:

I will admit to saying at one point in my life that even if he cut his long nasty hair, he wouldn't be attractive. I stand corrected. I even just found out he plays guitar in a band. If only he'd won gold, it would be love for sure, but as it is now, I'll settle for a ginger crush.

"It is a truth universally acknowledged..."

...that any Mormon girl my age should be married.

(I hope Jane Austen doesn't mind the liberties I took with that quote.)

Yes, I'm in one of those phases where I am deeply pondering marriage. You know, the stuff like where I thought my life would be by now, what has happened to bring me to where I am right now, the prospects I've had for marriage, the jealousy that I do have towards my married friends and acquaintances, the relief that I have that I am able to be selfishly single right now, etc. etc.

I try to think of the reasons why I'm not married: because I haven't met the right guy yet; because the Lord wants me to learn and experience more by myself; because I'm too busy pursuing my career to bother with marriage and family (ha--that's true, but not by choice); because for one reason or another I'm not ready; because I'm not desirable; because I'm damaged; because I'm not meant to get married; and so on and so forth. Some reasons are good ones, some not so much. Do I believe all of these reasons? No. Which ones do I really believe? I don't know. I still don't know any reasons why I've ever been rejected.

I could get a lot deeper and more personal right now, but I won't. Partly because of propriety, partly because I don't know how my thoughts and feelings would sound as written words.

However, I will say that I hate the juxtaposition of marriageable age between Mormon culture and most of the rest of the world. Part of me is starting to freak out because I'm turning 24 this year and I'm not married. But then another part of me is thinking that it's crazy that I should be freaking out because I am still so young and have no need to be in a hurry to get married. I wish that LDS culture was a little less obsessive about marriage. Yes, I definitely understand the importance of marriage and why it's such a worthy goal to achieve, but seriously, I hate that I've been brainwashed to progress situations in my head much faster than is realistic. Nobody should ever meet a cute boy and have one conversation and then start wondering if you're gonna get married. It's ridiculously annoying, but it's an automatic response. One that I fight very hard.

Another pet peeve. I have seen this several times. Someone gets engaged or married and people are posting their congrats on facebook walls, and a phrase pops up that really irks me: "Married life is so fun! You're going to love it!" Oh really? Well, I'm glad they know that now. I'm glad you've reinforced their decision to get married so now they know how great it's going to be. And yes, I'm avoiding marriage because I don't want a fun life that I'll love. I don't know why I get so worked up about that. It just annoys me. Another one of those things to add to my list of ignorant mormonisms. Because there are some of us who have obviously done something wrong to keep us from being eligible at this time for that blissful life of being married.

Something I will say though, is that it is kind of nice that everyone is starting to reach that state of panic about my relationship status. "Oh no! Stephanie's not married and she's not dating anyone, what can we do to help her?" And that means people are starting to at least consciously be on the look out of worthy young men to set me up with. I'm ok with that, because do you think I have had any time or energy to pursue dating as a first year teacher? Ain't nobody got time for that.

Nothing has quite happened yet, but there are prospects of set ups that I'm actually pretty excited about. I've definitely reached that point where I am feeling great about my life and all of my past woes are just that, in the past. I'm really ready to make the most of 2014.

On an unrelated note, I survived round two of parent/teacher conferences. So much better prepared this time. And still just as validating for me as last time. Feels great to have that over with, and I don't have to worry any more about principal evaluations either. Now it's just standardized testing to deal with. Which is probably one of the most stressful things ever. My kids are nowhere near as prepared for these tests as they should be, and it's not from a lack of me trying. Enough teacher complaints.

I'm off to watch another romantic movie while trying to do some lesson planning for this next week. Hopefully I'll have some great stories in the near future about my dating exploits, assuming all the people who have told me they're going to set me up with someone follow through. If I'm lucky, one of them will be a single man in possession of a good fortune, who is in fact in want of a wife.

Early Morning Giggles

So here I am at school early, grading and getting stuff ready for today. I was grading a worksheet we did a few weeks ago about microbes where the kids had to read this eBook and just fill in the blanks. Question eight says, "Many microorganisms have _________________ relationships. Some are mutually beneficial, and some are damaging."
One of my students, obviously without searching for the answer in the text, said "intimate."
(The correct answer is symbiotic.)

Laughing so hard right now.

My Books of 2014

I am very surprised at my lack of writing in the past few weeks. I haven't been working hardly at all, and I've had several things on my mind that I wanted to share, but I can't say why it hasn't happened. Oh well.

Something I want to do this year is keep track of how many books I read. I was just trying to think about how many books I read this past year...and I'm not sure. It was probably at least twenty. But I want to really keep track this year, just out of curiosity. So I'm going to try to keep a running list here. We'll see if I remember to keep up with it. I've already read four books so far.

And let me gush for a moment about the first three on my list, the Divergent series. Flipping awesome books. Definitely on my new top favorite list, alongside Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. It's kind of Hunger Games-esque. Futuristic society and impending revolution. You know, the stuff that's all the rage these days in young adult literature. But here are some of the things that I think make these books phenomenal.

1. The characters are very real. Veronica Roth develops the characters very well, and then they act accordingly through the entire series. Nothing random, out of the blue, why the heck did he do that? type of stuff that happens sometimes in books.
2. The characters are pretty likable, unlike other leading protagonists in futuristic dystopian books.
3. The love story in this trilogy is very real and very satisfying. And there is no love triangle! I mean, I like a good love triangle as much as the next guy, but I think they've been a little over done lately. Also, it wasn't a fairytale, magical relationship either. They fought. They disagreed. They lied to each other. And they tried to figure out if it was worth it to keep trying and how to best go about doing so.
4. There were fantastic themes and morals throughout the books. They made me think about my own life and about forgiveness, sacrifice, and love.

I could probably go on and on forever about these books, but I'll stop there. Phenomenal. Just to let you know though, I bawled my eyes out for the last THIRTY pages of the last book. So maybe you won't enjoy them as much as I did, but I deem any book that can make me cry a good book. Seriously, just thinking about it again is getting me so worked up! So without any further ado, here's my list:

1. Divergent
2. Insurgent
3. Allegiant
4. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck
5. The Twits
6. Tuck Everlasting
7. Dragon's Gate
8. Soldier X
9. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
10. HP and the Chamber of Secrets
11. HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban
12. HP and the Goblet of Fire
13. HP and the Order of the Phoenix
14. HP and the Half-Blood Prince
15. Becoming Naomi Leon
16. HP and the Deathly Hallows
17. Trapped in Death Cave
18. Delirium
19. The Book of Three
20. The Black Cauldron
21. The Castle of Llyr
22. Taran Wanderer
23. The High King
24. Unenchanted
25. The Mark of Athena
26. The House of Hades
27. The Blood of Olympus
28. Hunger Games
29. Catching Fire
30. Mocking Jay

The Universe Has Spoken...

At dinner last night someone said, "Someone make a toast!" So I raised my glass and said, "To 2004." Nope, not a typo. We had a good laugh and reminisced about our lives a decade ago. I still have no idea why my brain and/or mouth didn't add the "teen" to the end of that year. Nor do I know why I'm telling you this. Let's cut to the chase.

Last night was the best New Year's Eve I've probably ever had. I won't expound because it was a long night filled with many different fun activities, but know this: 2014 is going to be great. I might be saying this because I've been watching way too much of How I Met Your Mother, but last night it seemed that "the Universe" was saying that things are just going to go well this year. Seriously, last night could not have gone more perfectly. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time for everything. So I'm going to be optimistic and take that as a sign that this year is going to be filled with being in the right place at the right time. Don't get me wrong, I know that I have a huge role to play in this year being awesome, but I'm determined to do my part. So 2014, bring it on.