4 AM

Well, it's 4 in the morning now. I've been laying in bed for the last 4 hours and haven't been able to fall asleep with my normal tricks, so I'm blogging and listening to Ellen Degeneres watching Spyder-Slayer slink around. One thing that has been keeping me awake is I have a song stuck in my head. It's kind of a weird song, it's the Bicycle Song by Queen. I listened to it about 2 hours before I went to bed and it just never left my head. I guess I'll just update a little on my life.
I have been living in my apartment now for about 2 weeks. It really has been fun because I get along with my roommates really well. They're all from California and pretty cool. It's nice to not have roommates from highly Mormon areas because I don't feel like they're judging me. That's one thing that bothers me, when people judge me when I'm not even doing anything wrong! But they don't do that and we have lots of fun.
My classes are all going pretty well. It's kind of weird, but the classes that I thought were going to be really hard actually turned out to be my funnest ones! I'm taking a class called Readings. It's all about theories on art. I thought it was going to be super boring, but I'm actually enjoying it! Time does kind of drag on in that class because I have it at 3:15 in the afternoon and I've been going straight from class to class since 9 in the morning. My other fun class is my Color Photo one. It's more of my thing, so I feel more comfortable in it. And my teacher is about 7 months pregnant, so she doesn't feel like pushing the class too hard. I think she gets tired standing in front of us teaching for so long because we get out of class early a lot. I'm also taking Heredity, which is kicking my trash. I'm working really hard to understand things, but I feel like everything is going over my head. I hope things get better soon. The only thing that makes me feel better is that lots of other people said they feel the same way. Hopefully he grades on the curve!
For the Halloween concert this year the theme is "Super Heroes". We're all supposed to dress up accordingly (mostly like Marvel comics), but I don't know what to dress up as! Suggestions are welcome! Especially if you know how to put the costume together! I would rather not have to dress up like a boy, but there aren't many girl super heroes.
Well, I think I'll try to get some sleep now. I have to get up in about 3 hours. Have a good night! (Or morning!)

September 11, 2002

On this day, most people remember the attacks on the World Trade Centers by terrorists wanting to destroy America. I think of this too, but this day also makes me think of another occasion. On the one year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, September 11, 2002, I had a procedure done on my heart known as a Catheter Ablation. Up until that date I suffered from a disorder called Wolff -Parkinson-White Syndrome. It's not necissarily a life-threatening disorder, but it did limit my activities and narrow down what I wanted to do with my life. When an attack came on, I remember there was a lot of pain. My chest hurt so severely that it felt like a knife was being shoved into it. I would often get very dizzy and light-headed and on occasion was worried I would pass out. I did play sports, but I knew that certain things would trigger an attack. I couldn't suddenly start sprinting, make any jerky movements, and even running up the stairs set it off. When I was going through a little bit of testing to see if I was a candidate for surgery, my heart was recorded at going 240 bpm (beats per minute). I was scheduled for surgery and on September 11, 2002, I underwent a procedure that helped me live my life more fully. I remember waking up at the crack of dawn to go to the hospital. I'll never forget looking out the back winsheild of our car in the parking garage at the man standing in the middle of it. He was dressed in Scottish attire with the kilt and hat, playing Amazing Grace on the bagpipes. I'll admit, it was an ominous sight. We drove to the hospital and watched as President Bush read the names of the people who died on the flights for the one year anniversary. They called me back to get prepped. I was a little nervous. After changing into a gown, the nurse tried to start an IV on me and missed the vein. Blood started spurting a little from my arm and my dad, who was sitting in a rolling chair, started backing way up (he hates needles). I remember thinking at that point, "That doesn't look good..." When they took me to the room, it was cold. They told me it was a room built for machines, not people. There were a lot of people in the room, mostly students because the operation was at the University Hospital in SLC. When I was put under, I remember seeing the room, but from the viewpoint of the ceiling looking down on what was happening. I woke up in the recovery room and my first thought was to look at the clock to see how long the surgery had lasted. I think I calculated about 4 hours, but I'm not sure what the actual time was. When the nurse saw I was awake, she took my vitals and asked if I wanted some ice cream. My throat was very sore because they had to put a tube down it. The nurse fed me because I was still too weak to feed myself. She was very generous in her servings and hardly let me swallow before she shoved another spoonful into my mouth! I finally had to shut my mouth so I could breathe for a second. I was then wheeled out of the recovery room and into an elevator by 2 people, a man and woman, who I think were talking about some dating scandal that had recently happened. After I got to my room, all I did the rest of the day was sleep and watch TV. Sleeping was hard because of the IV in my arm (which hurt like the dickens every time I touched it) and because the nurses were constantly coming in and out of the room taking vitals and seeing if I needed anything. That next morning, I ate a little bit of breakfeast and we went home. We got back in time for me to go to the volleyball game our team had that night. I couldn't play, but it was fun to sit on the bench and cheer the team on. I know the surgery was very expensive and somewhat of an inconvenience, but it has helped me live a much fuller life. I don't have to worry about running up the stairs or joining in a game my friends are playing for fear of having an attack. If you look at me now, you wouldn't know I had heart surgery. The only scar I have left is a tiny dot on my neck, hardly noticable even when I am looking for it. I'm very thankful for today because it helps me remember what good things can happen with advances in medicine and wonderful people like Dr. Klein and my parents.

More Quotes

Some more random words have come up in our house that I thought I should probably document. Joni has started calling our cat "B-Burns". And when my dad told me I could take a bunny with me to college, she said I should introduce him as "B-Bunny". And some other words I should put down so people know what we're talking about: "P-Pozzle" (pop) which is not to be confused with "B-Bozzle" (Burns). Burns also goes by the name of "Jungle Kitty" which is often paired with Oscar's name of "Jungle Doggy". These were both developed when Joni and Andy were forced to tackle the weed garden and the aminals kept them company. I'm sure there will be more posts to follow this one, but that's all I have for now.

Quotes

I thought I'd let people know that most of the quotes that come from our house are from movies. So, here is a list of movies/shows that are frequently quoted around here:

-Nacho Libre
-Saturday Night Live (Bad Boys episode)
-Everybody Loves Raymond
-ER
-The Grinch
-Anchorman
-Talladega Nights
-Snickers Commercial (Patrick? What's up Brian...Rawr!!!!...Oops...)
-Heavyweights
-Rocky
-Cat Bumper Sticker (I can haz cheezburger?)

As you can see, we are all very well rounded when it comes to our entertainment. Or something like that.

Names

First of all, I FOUND MY PHONE!!!!! Secondly, I think my family has problems naming things. I'll give you a taste of what I mean. Yesterday, my sister told me that my stripper name is "Titties McGee". Well I couldn't let that go unanswered, so I told her that her stripper name is "Bubbles Panclocks". For the rest of the night I continued to call her Panclocks and she answered to it every single time. This isn't the first time we've had weird names for each other. Some of them aren't appropriate enough for me to mention. But my two sisters are listed in my phone as "The Skipper" and "Da Cheat", my brother is "Lawgiver", and my brother and sister-in-law is "Trogdor and Emmersly". This problem also goes further. When our cat starts eating the plants in our house, my sister calls it "Cat Salad" which I know sounds disgusting. My brother has called me "Squinty McSquinter-pants" before. Our cat can be called Wittle Kitty, Kitten, Spyder Slayer, Gandorf Salrong Mitchell the Grey, Spike, or any other name you feel like calling him at the moment. My sister calls the movie The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe "Turkish Delight". When we talk about contraband, we usually mean having food downstairs. Scahonayed is a term we use to mean you got your butt handed to you (usually by dad) because of something you did or didn't do (usually the dishes or eating downstairs). We call the catnip used on our cats toys "Cat Weed". We have so many code names for everything that I feel sorry for anyone that has to listen to our conversations. I'm a little worried about what my children or the children of my family members are going to be named.

Dentist

I had a dentist appointment today. I really hate the dentist. All that scraping and pulling on your mouth for an hour can be tiring and painful. But good news, no cavities!!! I'm still going strong, 20 years old and not one cavity ever. Lets try for 21!

It's Time

Someone asked me last night what I had been doing all summer. I hate it when people ask me that because I can only give a pretty depressing answer. I told them I've been working. What else? Reading lots of books. What else? Watching movies with my parents. What else? Um... that about sums up my summer. When I think about it, it makes me kind of sad that I didn't do more. Our family did spend a weekend going to Yellowstone and that was amazingly fun and we did pick huckleberries a couple of times, but I don't have anything else to show for my months of being home besides a fairly good tan. I was thinking last night that I would really like to go somewhere new. And not so much just to visit, I would like to live somewhere I've never been before. Not long term, maybe just a year or so. I would really like to live somewhere in Europe. It doesn't really matter to me much where. But the problem with that is 1) I don't have any money and 2) I need to finish school first. At least my bachelors. Just once I want to do something worth talking about. I've never been the child that my parents can really brag about or even talk more than a few minutes about. But I don't want to do it for them, I want to do it for me. I want to get away from all the people around here whose main goal is to get married and have children and stay in Idaho. I'm in no way saying that's not a great goal, it's just not what I want. I want to get married, sure. But more for the reason that I want a friend I can share my adventures with. Someone I can talk to and will listen to me. Someone who wants to help me do things that I don't have the courage to do by myself. One of my friends is forgoing her wedding reception to go to Europe because she loves it so much over there. I wouldn't want to do that because I think a reception is a good way to say goodbye to the old life and hello to the new phase of your life. But I'm still insanely jealous that she gets to visit Europe twice before I have gone even once. I know this post is all over the place and that things don't really flow together all that well, but I have to get it out of my head or I'll go crazy. I think I've had too much time to think about things lately. I need something to occupy my mind. It's time to go back to school.

Becca and Taylor

Here are another group of engagement shots I took. These are some of my favorite. Let me know what you think!

Mickey Mouse

I found this video on YouTube tonight. I don't know if it's only funny at midnight, but I laughed pretty hard! It's interesting to read the info on the side of this video, but I'll put down the summary of the video. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

The orchestra is performing the William Tell overture, but then Donald Duck (in his third appearance in a Mickey cartoon) appears selling ice-cream. Uninvited, Donald takes out his flute and distracts the band into playing Turkey in the Straw.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IErXg5kBXXg&feature=related

Hiding

Last winter I had a few guys that were pursuing me. They are all very nice and I'm sure will go far in their own lives. However, I don't want to end up with any of them. I'll give you a little background on each.

~Boy #1 and I had a geology class together. We sat by each other and had a fun time. During the winter he started taking me out to lunch a lot and we texted a few times a week. I tried to make it clear that I didn't want anything more than friendship, but he didn't get the hint. I am too scared to be open with him, but he never took me on a date or introduced me to his friends or anything. He is one of those guys that is really into looks and things like that. He took out a $10,000 loan to pay for a car. He didn't have any money because he just barely got off his mission. I don't want a guy that is so focused on that kind of stuff. He almost hooked up with this other girl and I was hoping it would work out, but it didn't. So now we move on to...
~Boy #2! He was my FHE brother last fall and his apartment was all pretty good friends with girls in my apartment because they are all from Oregon. I considered dating him, but then I realized he was one of those extremely weird guys who are totally in their own little world. He is very smart, though. He also took the sneaky approach and never actually asked me on a date or said he liked me or anything. He knows Boy #1 because they were in the MTC together. He also knows...
~Boy #3 because we were all in the same ward. Boy #3 was my FHE brother in the winter. He's really nice, but doesn't have the most direction in his life. He is the only one that actually took me on 2 formal dates. However, he is also the one that got kicked out of school. I never found out why, but I knew from that one thing that he wasn't the guy for me.

I thought that after school got out and we all went our seperate ways for the summer that they would move on and find new girls. However things didn't quite work out that way. Boy #3 texts me almost every day. I try to push him to ask girls out and be social that way, but I don't think it's working. One good thing is that he's not coming back to Rexburg anytime soon, so that is nice! He's a good friend and it's fun to talk to him, but I worry that he might be picking up vibes that aren't there. Boy #2 emails me quite a bit. I email him back, but I make sure that my responses are a little delayed so he doesn't get the idea that I'm waiting around to hear from him. He always talks about all these things he wants to do with me in the fall (ex. bonfires, going shooting, attending FA 100 events together). I don't say that I'm going to attend any of these things and usually just ignore it. I try to bring up other things do distract him, but I don't think it's working. I'm hoping that things will be like they were in the winter and he'll just forget about me for awhile while he's in his own little world. Boy #3 I probably the one I could most see myself with, but it won't happen. I'm sure he'll try to take me out to lunch more and take me on dates, but I'm going to put forth more of an effort to avoid him so he doesn't get his hopes up. I haven't talked to him much this summer so I thought he had found other things to occupy his mind. I talked to him today and now a new obsticle has appeared. He wants me to go with him, his parents, his little brother, and 2 of his other friends on a medditeranean cruise next may. He said the full cost would be $1500 with airfare and everything. I'm not gonna lie, it sounds amazing. But I know that would be the worst thing if I was trying to tell him I don't want to date him. I think I'm going to go into hiding for the next 10 years.