It's funny how the most random things can make you homesick.

At home there is a huge gardenia bush on either side of the stairs leading up to the front porch. They bloom in the summertime and I've always thought that they smell horrid. The flowers are really pretty. They have nice, big, white petals. And a very strong scent. My mother loves them. A lot of people who would come to our house and walk past (more like through, because they were so overgrown that they draped onto the stairs) them would comment on how they liked their scent and my mother would insist that they take a few of the flowers with them to scent their car or kitchen or whatever location they chose. Meanwhile I would gag in the background complaining about the egregious stench.

Today I was working at the Cluff, the greenhouse building on campus. As I was locking up I was walking through one of the greenhouses and a familiar bush caught my eye. I approached it and inspected it more closely, and sure enough there were those pretty white flowers indicating that it was a gardenia. I bent close to one of the blossoms and inhaled deeply. Though I would still never choose to scent my house or car or anything with the smell of gardenias, there is something oddly comforting about that smell. It made me ache for my childhood home, if only for a second.

Let All Things Be Done In Cleanliness

So today was a normal day. I got up and went running. Somehow kept myself busy all morning. Oh, I cleaned out the refrigerator and rearranged the tupperware. Among other things, of course. I headed off to work around 2.

My boss is currently out of town, so because of this I have to go to the building where the area supervisor's office is and clock in there so I can then take the lovely Yukon that we use to transport the crew to our various buildings with me to the ITB. Not that any of that is really important for the purpose of the story, but it explains why I had a conversation with the area supervisor. I entered his office to get the key to the Yukon and he stopped me to tell me about some requests that were made by the people out at KBYU. He said that they asked if we could clean out the microwave tonight. He explained that technically it's vending's job to make sure that the microwaves are clean and functioning, but they obviously fail to do that most of the time. We both agreed that it would be best for everyone to make the sometimes whiny people at KBYU as happy as we can and clean out their microwave.

I decided that since I don't fully trust anyone on the crew that was there tonight to get the job done and do it right, I would clean the microwave out myself. That would take what, five minutes? And then I could retreat back to the Cluff where I have been spending many hours by myself over the past couple weeks.

We got there and went straight to our custodial cage. I had to search high and low for a dang squirt thing for a new bottle of glass cleaner. After finally finding one that worked I grabbed a rag or two and headed for the break room. And this is what I found:



Sadly a quick snapshot using my phone doesn't quite do the scene justice. It was the most filthy microwave I've ever seen, which I think is saying something, being a college student. Needless to say I retreated back to the cage to gather about 5 more rags and the Tough Duty. Twenty minutes later I had it looking considerably better, but it was still pretty stained and kind of gross.

What made me kind of scoff at the situation was the sign hanging above the microwave. It said something to the effect of "Please wipe out the microwave after each use. You wouldn't let your own microwave get this dirty, would you?" with a picture of a microwave not nearly as dirty as that one. I know we all get a bit lazy at some times, but really, is it that hard to grab a paper towel that's right there and wipe out the little bit of splatter your food just left inside?

It reminded me of the time that I was at my dance studio when I was 13 or 14. We were at an all day rehearsal one Saturday and our director came in all upset at us because the trashcan in the locker room was overflowing. She spent ten minutes lecturing us about how if we had any respect for the studio we would try to take care of it better by doing obvious things like emptying the garbage when it's spilling over the top. "I'm sure none of you let that happen at your house!" I remember sharing a glance with my friend that obviously said, "Well, actually...yes."

So I guess I'm basically a hypocrite.

Why is it though that we are generally so lazy that instead of exerting the little bit of effort to clean a tiny mess we let it build to a huge mess that takes forever to clean up? I guess it's just one of those mysteries of life. I'd like to think that I'm not always so bad at it, but from today forward I will make an extra effort to not be lazy in my cleaning. You should do it too. It will make some custodian's job much easier.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, Nepalese dumplings are phenomenal.

Facebook Stalking...Just Having Some Fun

You know we've all done it. We meet someone and we're curious about them. So...we turn to trusty old facebook.

You type their name in the search bar and search through the results till you find the right person. Some people have so many privacy settings though that when you can't see more than their name and profile picture you quietly curse that person for blocking you out of their life. I mean, seriously, how annoying! When you are able to enter their profile you glance at their "about me," "favorite quotes," "likes and interests," and so on.

Then you get to the pictures. You have to admit it though, a person's profile picture says a lot about him or her.

Are they flexing without a shirt on or is it some kind of head shot?

They think they're beautiful and want to show off how hot they are.

Are they making out with their significant other?

One thing on their mind.

Is it a posed picture with a friend or two, maybe a larger group?

They obviously love their friends, but it's possible that they
can't function without at least one person attached to their hip.

Is it a goofy shot of them making a funny face or something?

They like to laugh at themselves and show that
they're not too above always seeming perfect.

So you study the profile picture and then move on to every picture that this person has ever been tagged in. This number may range from 100 or less to 7 or 8 hundred. But it doesn't matter how many there are, you look at every. single. one. You go through all the Halloween pictures, snow fun, birthday parties, holi festival, football games, end-of-the-year saying goodbye, weddings, babies, etc. etc. You count how many pictures there are documenting this person associating with attractive members of the opposite sex that could be potential competition. Or scope out and see if there's any hot friends you could go after. Sometimes you even make fun connections where you see people that you know in the background, not even aware that they're in a picture.

Sometimes after the pictures you'll move on to see if there are any interesting videos. Perhaps you just peruse their wall, seeing how often they update their status and how profound the updates are, what their friends and family have to say to them, what kind of interacting they do with others, and what youtube videos they found funny recently.

Probably about now you call it a day for stalking this particular person and then say to yourself, "Hmm, who can I look up now?"

Some people think that this is ridiculous and look down on others for participating in such an activity. True, it is very ridiculous, but really, what is the purpose of facebook if not to stalk others? Why else does it post on your wall every single little move you make for the world to see? Why can you tag people in pictures and videos and notes so they can be tracked down any number of ways? Why else is there an easy place to click if you want to look at every single picture ever taken of this person? Why else do they have you list your favorites books and movies and music and your cell phone number and email address and jobs and school and on and on and on? It was obviously meant to be the tool of a stalker.

Question: Have you ever facebook stalked yourself?
Confession: I have.

I mean, come on. Aren't you curious about what people see when they're stalking you? Because obviously it happens. Don't you want to make sure there aren't any potentially embarrassing pictures that you're tagged in that strangers, or friends for that matter, could find and judge you for? You don't want people to be able to make misconceptions about you for what's posted on your wall, right? I think it's a legitimate concern and you should be allowed to stalk yourself once in a while, just to make sure that the image that your facebook is portraying you as is alright with you.

You know what I love best though? Is when you log on and it brings you to your home page and your news feed pops up with a bunch of junk that it thinks you'll be interested in seeing. Some of it I accurately find interesting, but a lot of it is junk. But, sometimes there's something that catches your eye for some reason and you click on it. And then you're sucked in for some reason, looking at pictures from a wedding that your cousin that you haven't seen or spoken to in over ten years went to in Arizona. She was only tagged in two pictures of the 274 picture album, but for some reason you find yourself scanning through the entire album. And then halfway through you're like, wait a second, who are these people? And why on earth am I wasting away my life looking at their wedding pictures?

Moving Violations...Without the Violations

I recently went on a cross-country road trip. I accompanied my roommate Lindsay to her home on the Illinois side of St. Louis from Provo, Utah. Approximately 1300 miles. Not a bad distance to cover in a day and a half.

We left Thursday afternoon after stopping for one last J Dawg. I still cannot get over how amazing those hot dogs are. Lindsay drove all the way to Denver that night. That left me in the passenger seat, quite bored. Until I found...the camera. I had a bit too much fun snapping photos of everything outside of the car. Lindsay didn't enjoy the videos I took though. It was actually a pretty fun drive through Utah and Colorado. Everyone complains about Utah being so ugly and brown. We did hit some kind of brown spots, but I thought that even the brown was beautiful. We drove through several canyons and especially enjoyed holding our breath and honking through all the tunnels. We merely chatted and listened to Lindsay's iPod, jamming out to High School Musical, NSYNC, and many other fantastic hits.

We stopped outside Denver at about midnight at some strangers house and snuck in and quickly fell asleep. The next morning we were up and out of there before 8. A boring 13 hours of driving across the rest of Colorado, Kansas, and Missouri. I had the privilege of driving across Kansas. Lindsay was quite upset that there was absolutely nothing to take pictures of all across the state. Ha. After a slight detour through Kansas City earlier that evening, we arrived in O'Fallon at about 10. It was bedtime soon after that.

That was an absolutely thrilling retelling of our trip, I know. I hope it was enjoyable.

My favorite part of the trip was a tie between two things...

1) A game that we started on Thursday evening. It was informally called, Take a Picture of Ridiculous Road Signs.

I wish that I had all the pictures that I took, but those are in Lindsay's possession. We ran across some pretty crazy signs in Colorado though. Hilarious. Some were just funny town names. Some were funny warnings. Here is a count down of my top ten favorites:

10. HM with a big slash through it...?
9. Woodcutting Prohibited
8. Pass With Care
7. Never Shake a Baby
6. Caution: Rumble Strips
5. Speed Patrolled By Aircraft (this one is funny because we were trying to figure out how aircraft enforce speeding...haha)
4. Point of Geological Interest
3. Trail Through Time
2. I-70: Welcome to Kansas' Main Street
1. Eagles on Highway

2) Me frantically skipping through Lindsay's 2000+ songs on shuffle as we drove through St. Louis, trying to get to "Get Back" because the road trip was not going to be complete without us jamming to that and we were almost home. We finally got to it. Whew. It was close though.

Past, Present, and Future from the Past's Perspective

I am currently in Lawrenceville, Georgia right now visiting my family, my house, and my best friend (and only friend who still lives here). It's strange because I've lived here for basically my whole life and I've never known anywhere else as "home" until now. Everyone keeps asking me how soon I'm going home, obviously meaning Provo, and it's so strange to hear that. But it's true, Provo is my home now. Gosh, when did I grow up? I'm an adult who doesn't live at home anymore. I have a job and pay for all of my living expenses myself. I go to school and will have a career in a year. I am completely responsible for myself. Man that all happens so fast. But, I'm not complaining. I'm ready and loving this stage of my life.

That was kind of a tangent that I didn't mean to go off on. One of the main reasons I'm here for a visit is so I can clean out my room and get everything that I want to have with me in Provo. So that means lots of digging and cleaning out. Thankfully I did the deep cleaning last summer so it hasn't been too bad. I've just gone through a small filing cabinet and all the organized boxes in the closet, pulling out the stuff that I want.

The most fun I had was on Thursday when I was going through my filing cabinet. I have a bunch of old school work from elementary through high school. I spent a good amount of time laughing at some of my kindergarten writing. I was so amused that I thought I'd share with you. If I was really cool I'd scan it in here, but I'm too lazy to have to go downstairs and figure out if the scanner still works, so you'll just have to deal with my typed transcriptions.

First I found the little fill-in-the-blank questionnaires for Mother's and Father's Day:

My mom is 30 years old. She has green eyes and brown hair. She is 4 feet tall and weighs 90 pownds. She works at houm. At houm she taks ker of Jeff. Her favorite thing to do is going to UT. Her favorite food is pazzia. She likes to cook fug. On TV she watches ice scading. She and I like to plant flauurs together. I love my mom!

My dad is 30 years old. He has bronw eyes and black hair. He is 10 feet tall and weighs (I can’t tell if it’s 30 or 300) pounds. He is ergoner. His favorite thing to do is sit in the crre. His favorite food is lazanua. He likes to cook food. On TV he watches [baseball] games. He and I like to play together. I love my dad!


Don't fault me for being vain, but how precious! Admittedly I was a cute kid. Reading these made me excited for parenthood, just so I could have my own precious children write that my favorite thing to cook is [fudge]. Ha!

I also found a cute little blurb about my brother that I typed at the computer lab:

3-8-96 I like to hug Jeff And he Likes To hug Me win I git Home.

Aw, if only it were still like that. Actually, Jeff has been fantastic while I've been here. He took me shopping (well, I had the plastic so I was the one that paid, but he drove) and we went and bonded at the Verizon store trying to decide which phones we want when our two years is up next month. I'm not even sure that he's yelled at me once. What an improvement! Last summer, the only time he acknowledged me was to yell at me for existing. So he might not have hugged me when I got home, but he's been a good pal. And he keeps asking me what we're going to do in Provo when the fam comes out in July. So I guess he does love me. I'm excited!

The next thing that made me chuckle was the little book I made that same year called "When I Grow Up." It contained each of the following three sentences on their own page, accompanied by an illustration that you'll just have to imagine:

When I grow up I am going to have 100 dollars.
When I grow up I will have a cunvrdabl.
When I grow up I will have a cunpudr.


1. At the moment I actually have more than 100 dollars. Having 100 hundred dollars is an excellent goal though, as I obviously knew as a child.
2. I'm still working on this one. Perhaps one day though. I still have plenty more time to grow up, so that means I've still got time to get a convertible.
3. I do in fact have a computer.

It's very funny to see our expectations of the future from the past. I actually have another example of this, but we'll have to fast forward from kindergarten to 8th grade. In my cleaning I found a list of 10 goals that I had for my life, a health assignment or something. Here's the list:

1. Graduate from high school with mostly As and only a few Bs
2. Get into BYU and graduate
3. Make it into senior company next year at dance
4. Work hard at dance and get a solo in a show
5. Marry someone who has same standards as me
6. Hang out with good people
7. Continue to do well at playing my flute
8. Get along better with my family
9. Not procrastinate!!!
10.Open my own dance studio


Very amusing to see what was important to me when I was thirteen. I have kind of failed at a majority of this list though...

1. I did graduate with a 4.0, so that one was a check.
2. I am in fact at BYU, on my way to graduating. Only death will stop me.
3. I did make it to senior company at dance at the end of that year.
4. I quit dancing before I had the opportunity for a solo. Before that I had stopped working hard though...
5. I'm working on that one. Hopefully one day in the not too distant future I can put a check by this one.
6. I think I do have this one down. Funny goal though for life. Well, not really, but it is interesting that I put that instead of "Have 12 kids" or something ridiculous.
7. Flute...I guess I did this for a couple more years. Meh, whatever now though.
8. I do get along much better with my family now than when I was in middle school. Ha...oh the angsty rages. They were rare, but they were ugly when they happened.
9. Ha. Like that'll ever happen.
10. No desire in the world to do this anymore. It was in my life plan though back then.

Very fascinating to see what seven years will do to you. I wish I had a list of ten goals from when I had just graduated from high school. That would be extremely fascinating. I'm a completely different person now than I was back then. Crazy what just two years will do to you.

Hmm this is kind of a crazy, random, silly post. I think to top it off I'll leave with a list of ten goals I have for my life, as of right now:

1. Sew three skirts by the time I leave on Wednesday.
2. Work out and lay out every morning, Mon-Sat for all of July and August.
3. Go on 73 dates before July 1, 2012.
4. Complete my list of 21 things to do before I turn 21.
5. Use my time more wisely so that I only do homework at school during the day.
6. Graduate!
7. Be the awesome 5th grade teacher that all the kids want to have.
8. Learn how to play the guitar. And the piano.
9. Marry my best friend in the temple.
10. Raise a family that has a strong testimony of the Gospel.