Lately

Well, it's been a long time.

But I don't really feel like I owe this blog anything, since I'm the human and this is the machine, meant for my use, not vice versa (these are the things I study in school, sorry).

So, here's a little catch up!

Saw the craziest show:  Xanadu.  Roller skates, afros, sign language, Australian accents, and my fierce amigas.  Nothing better!

Cut my upper lip on the edge of a chair in the newsroom... many thanks to the anonymous donation of this chimichanga ice pack from the freezer.

                                    Spent a weekend driving around AZ with my family!

                   Got to be home to celebrate McKay's birthday and engagement!  AH!

Took a cake decorating class with Michele in an attempt to become more domestic (not domesticated).

Ryan and Linndsy are pregnant!!  Praying for a girl in this family...

Scored some communications awards!

                                            Falling in love with my reporting job!

Also fell in love with Jackson Hole, WY.

                               Did my last show as a Young Ambassador in America.

Unleashed some llamas!

        Been on a wildlife kick... elephant and camel are done... ostrich, you're up next!

                                                           Got a yellow fever shot.

                        Disco skating for this babe's last weekend of bachelorettehood!

And two more weeks in Utah... then a month in this place!

Hello South Africa.

The Meet Cute

Meet cute: scenario in which two individuals are brought together in a zany, crazy, destined-to-fall-in-love-together-forever sort of way

I'm a romantic.  Blame it on the media, blame it on my nature, or blame it on those meet-cute myths us girls find ourselves talking about late at night.  Some people have extraterrestrial meet-cutes, like...

meeting at a polo match

on a ride at Disneyland

or while raking leaves

But a healthy part of the time, couples meet in the typical places: class, single's wards, baby friends.  And you know what?  I think that's just great.  No matter where you meet, your chances of happiness are probably about the same.  But for fun, let's take a stroll down 90s (and a little beyond) romantic comedy meet-cute memory lane.

You've Got Mail - 1998 

Sleepless in Seattle - 1993

While You Were Sleeping - 1995

The Wedding Planner - 2001

How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days - 2003

I'm not a serious movie critic, but these really tug on my heartstrings.  Plus, the filming is simple and the story lines are relatively clean.  Those were the days!


So, what I'm trying to say is that us girls should reevaluate those romantic ideals we can't bear to budge on.  Just because you didn't meet him carrying strangers groceries to their cars, in a garden reading a classic novel, or rafting down the Amazon doesn't mean he isn't worthwhile.  He probably does all those things too... just not while you're watching.

Dads are classy, too

What a touching day in Washington:


http://cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2012/01/25/ac-jeff-flake-gabby-giffords-state-of-the-
union.cnn.html


There's something to be learned from this, and I'm grateful that for my entire life, I've been learning from this man.

Dressing: it's not about you!

Each morning I wake up, roll out of bed, jump in the shower...

Hello shower cap!  A must-have for every damsel.

and take a few minutes to make myself look presentable.  But what is it that makes some mornings so much easier than others?  Every few shakes of a lambs tail I wake up with "Perfect Day" from Legally Blonde running through my veins.  But some days I'd rather just stay in bed a while longer.

On the days when we're feeling oh-so-tired we tend to reflect it in how we dress.  Sweats, messy buns, no make up, you know what I mean.  But haven't we always heard that we will act how we dress?  Well, it's true.

Imagine this:  you spend all afternoon and evening getting ready for something special.  We'll say it's prom.  How did you act when your date picked you up at the door?  Did you slouch over and stomp your way down the stairs?  No!  You took your time.  You glided.  You let people see you.  Not in an overbearing way, but as a beautiful girl who is happy, confident, and self-assured.

Have you seen this couple?  Last seen tangoing across the dance floor in 2009.

Now, imagine this:  You wake up the next morning.  You've got a cemented up-do and five times more make up than usual still caked on your face because you got home at two in the morning.  You throw on a dress, brush your teeth, and head off to church.  Now how do you carry yourself?  That's what I thought.

So why do we do this to ourselves?  Why do we let ourselves wake up tired, and then feed that by putting on baggy sweats, an over-sized sweatshirt, and slink around campus like the world just punched us in the face.  It didn't just punch you in the face.  And don't tell me that you're saving time.  I find that I spend significantly more time trying to make myself look sloppily presentable than if I'd just gotten ready in the first place.

One more example:  traveling.

Ah!  I love it!  I looked through pictures of people traveling in the 21st century and figured it would be better if I just let you see these instead.  Traveling used to be seen as a privilege; something that was just as important as the trip itself.  Think about when the railroad began.  It was a social event!  Today's travelers would do well to take some advice from these classy people and learn that sometimes it's even more comfortable to dress a little bit nicer because you'll feel that much better about yourself.  Plus, your about forty times more likely to engage in a healthy, uplifting conversation with another person because you've dressed the part.

So there you have it.  Dressing is not about you, it's about making yourself available to others.  Not in a dating way, in a kind, compassionate, love your neighbor way.  My mom used to try to tell me this, but I didn't believe her.  She's the kind of lady who wears a cute outfit on an airplane and always makes a new friend in the bathroom, and now I know why.

This princess knows what she's doing.

Next time you wake up--perfect day, tired day, rough day, or traveling-across-the-world day--put on something nice.  It doesn't have to be anything fancy, just let yourself look put together.  You will feel infinitely better, and others will be drawn to the beauty in how you carry yourself.

  

Caught the plague: satan's baby

I am extremely happy to be lying in my bed instead of on the bathroom floor right now.  Yesterday I went with some of the Young Ambassadors to St. George for a performance and somewhere along the way I picked up some bad food... I have two culprits: the chicken salad or the turkey sausage from Cracker Barrel.

Side note:  Chicken salad.  Seriously?  I used to love this stuff, especially with grapes.  That was until I helped someone prepare chicken salad for an army of 200.  We chopped up the chicken, grapes, celery, and nuts then this lady whips out the biggest container I have ever seen of mayo and pours it all on.  I had no idea that the entire wetness of chicken salad is MAYO!!  My gosh, I'm getting queasy just thinking about it.

Anyway, we had a four hour drive back to Provo in a twelve passenger van (classy), and I was so sick the entire time.  When I finally got back to my place, I was even more sick than I realized and threw up the entire night.  I swear I was giving birth to satan's baby out of my mouth.  My insides we in knots and I couldn't even sit up or drink water on my own and the poison control lady on the phone kept telling me to go to the emergency room!  I didn't want to and I was so afraid she was going to send some crazy person to pick me up.  Chill out.  All I wanted was my mom, and that's when I realized that this was the first time I had been sick away from home!  It's a terrible feeling, knowing that you're growing up sometimes.  My mom and I usually get food poisoning together, too.  Bonding time.

Now that my twelve-hour plague is mostly over, I am more grateful than ever for a good night's rest.

17th century tip:  Stay classy, even when you're sick.  I failed at this one for sure.  If nothing else, use classy language.

Damsels: look out your windows

This could be you

I spent some time looking out my window (more on that later) tonight.  This isn't something I usually do, but now that I have a web log, it's imperative that I create "contemplative" time to reflect on the world.  Plus, it seemed like an appropriate 17th century activity.

I was extremely hot in my matching plaid pajama set (no, I won't be sharing more on that later) so I opened up my window, and to my surprise, there wasn't even a protective screen on it!  I could have slid my legs over and tumbled down the air to my earthly end.  I didn't, obviously.  But maybe I should have so I wouldn't be writing this ridiculous web log post.

While I sat there with the cold air dancing around me, I had a flashback to childhood.  

What happened?  When did I suddenly become a 20-year-old girl with a major, a job, and roommates?  Also, who ever thought they would say the word "landlord" in this life?  Not me.  I thought that was just for people who lived in the Bronx.  So now that having a landlord is part of my reality, here is one more reality I've picked up along the way.

Talk to strangers, they like it.

Talking to strangers is a little bit like looking through a window.  But sometimes we're so wrapped up in what we're doing we forget that there are billions of other people around us who are walking around just outside our windows looking for someone to talk to.  And sometimes we think that everyone is looking through our window when really, no one is looking through it at all.

Or we can be like the woman who was convinced her neighbor was hanging dirty laundry, only to find out that it was her own window that was dirty all along.

Maybe it's time we cleaned off our windows and actually looked through them at the people around us.  From experience (and plenty more experience to come), it's changed the way I think.

It's true.  If you don't believe me, try it for yourself.  Talk to three people you don't know and see how much better your day goes.  You'll be a happier damsel, I promise.  And hey, you might even meet a respectable fellow.

Once upon a time

I've been having stirrings lately.  That's right, stirrings (not those kind of stirrings, Giver fans).  For me, a stirring is a feeling that's a little bit like having butterflies where they don't usually flutter, and these stirrings have been going on for months.  I wish I could link the stirrings to something monumental, but to be honest, all they've been doing is sliding me toward starting a web log.  Yes, "web log" is where "blog" comes from.

If you're wondering why I'm doing this, join the club.  But if you're also wondering why the world seems to be losing its classy flair, there's a club for that, too.

Let's get back to good manners and elegance.  Welcome to the club.