look at all the cool things i've done :)

i found this on a blog that i frequent and liked it and am now just getting around to posting it. bold items are haves, not bold are have nots.

200 Have and Have nots!

1. Touched an iceberg
2. Slept under the stars
3. Been a part of a hockey fight
4. Changed a baby's diaper

5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Swam with wild dolphins
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a tarantula
10. Said "I love you" and meant it
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris (in may 2009)
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Stayed up all night long and watched the sun rise
15. Seen the Northern Lights
16. Gone to a professional sports game
17. Been to the top of the Sears Tower
18. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
19. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
20. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Bet on a winning horse
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Taken an ice cold bath
28. Had a meaningful conversation with a beggar
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Ridden a roller coaster
31. Hit a home run
32. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
33. Adopted an accent for fun
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Felt very happy about your life, even for just a moment
36. Loved your job 90% of the time
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Watched wild whales
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Gone on a midnight walk on the beach
41. Gone sky diving
42. Visited Ireland
43. Ever bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited India
45. Bench-pressed your own weight
46. Milked a cow
47. Alphabetized your personal files
48. Ever worn a superhero costume
49. Sung karaoke
50. Lounged around in bed all day (today, for example)
51. Gone snorkling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Done something you should regret, but don't
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Sung on a CD
60. Gone without food for 3 days
61. Made cookies from scratch
62. Won first prize in a costume contest
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Been in a combat zone
65. Spoken more than one language fluently
66. Gotten into a fight while attempting to defend someone
67. Bounced a check
68. Read - and understood - your credit report
69. Recently bought and played with a favorite childhood toy
70. Found out something significant that your ancestors did
71. Called or written your Congress person
72. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
73. Seen the Golden Gate Bridge
74. Helped an animal give birth
75. Been fired or laid off from a job
76. Won money
77. Broken a bone
78. Ridden a motorcycle
79. Driven any land vehicle at a speed of greater than 100 mph
80. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
81. Slept through an entire flight: takeoff, flight, and landing
82. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
83. Eaten sushi
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read The Bible cover to cover
86. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about
87. Gotten someone fired for their actions
88. Gone back to school
89. Changed your name
90. Caught a fly in the air with your bare hands
91. Eaten fried green tomatoes
92. Read The Iliad
93. Taught yourself an art from scratch
94. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
95. Apologized to someone years after inflicting the hurt
96. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
97. Been elected to public office
98. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
99. Had to see someone you love in hospice care
100. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you

101. Had a booth at a street fair
102. Dyed your hair
103. Been a DJ
104. Rocked a baby to sleep
105. Ever dropped a cat from a high place to see if it really lands on all four (define high)
106. Raked your carpet
107. Brought out the best in people
108. Brought out the worst in people
109. Worn a mood ring
110. Ridden a horse
111. Carved an animal from a piece of wood or bar of soap
112. Cooked a dish where four people asked for the recipe
113. Buried a child
114. Gone to a Broadway play on Broadway
115. Been inside the pyramids
116. Shot a basketball into a basket
117. Danced at a disco
118. Played in a band
119. Shot a bird
120. Gone to an arboretum
121. Tutored someone
122. Ridden a train
123. Brought an old fad back into style
124. Eaten caviar
125. Let a salesman talk you into something you didn't need
126. Ridden a giraffe or elephant (is it possible to ride a giraffe?)
127. Published a book

128. Pieced a quilt
129. Lived in an historic place
130. Acted in a play or performed on a stage
131. Asked for a raise
132. Made a hole-in-one
133. Gone deep sea fishing
134. Gone roller skating
135. Run a marathon
136. Learned to surf
137. Invented something
138. Flown first class
139. Spent the night in a 5-star luxury suite
140. Flown in a helicopter
141. Visited Africa
142. Sang a solo
143. Gone spelunking

144. Learned how to take a compliment
145. Written a love-story
146. Seen Michelangelo's David (in may 2009)
147. Had your portrait painted
148. Written a fan letter
149. Spent the night in something haunted
150. Owned a St. Bernard or Great Dane
151. Ran away
152. Learned to juggle
153. Been a boss
154. Sat on a jury
155. Lied about your weight
156. Gone on a diet
157. Found an arrowhead or a gold nugget
158. Written a poem
159. Carried your lunch in a lunchbox
160. Gotten food poisoning
161. Gone on a service, humanitarian or religious mission
162. Hiked the Grand Canyon
163. Sat on a park bench and fed the ducks
164. Gone to the opera
165. Gotten a letter from someone famous
166. Worn knickers
167. Ridden in a limousine
168. Attended the Olympics
169. Can hula or waltz
170. Read a half dozen Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys books

171. Been stuck in an elevator
172. Had a revelatory dream
173. Thought you might crash in an airplane
174. Had a song dedicated to you on the radio or at a concert
175. Saved someone's life
176. Eaten raw whale
177. Know how to sew

178. Laughed till your side hurt
179. Straddled the equator
180. Taken a photograph of something other than people that is worth framing
181. Gone to a Shakespeare Festival
182. Sent a message in a bottle
183. Spent the night in a hostel

184. Been a cashier

185. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
186. Joined a union
187. Donated blood or plasma
188. Built a campfire
189. Kept a blog
190. Had chicken pox
191. Worn custom made shoes or boots
192. Made a PowerPoint presentation
193. Taken a Hunter's Safety Course
194. Served at a soup kitchen
195. Conquered the Rubik's cube
196. Know CPR
197. Ridden in or owned a convertible
198. Found a long lost friend
199. Helped solve a crime
200. Gotten a professional massage

best weekend EVER!! (part 2)

after the concert i went up to ogden to watch my sister sarah's boys while she went and had a baby. that's always a good time. so here's some pictures from that. emery loves baby marlee, but evan was just trying to ignore the 2-ton elephant in the room, so to speak. here's some pics of that.

i'm not sure what kind of face emery is pulling here, but it's kinda funny.

told ya, emery loves his baby sister.

these two pictures with evan took a lot of coersion of some sort. he did NOT want to get his picture taken. he was too busy trying to ignore the baby and pretty much everything else. but he did smile, and he is so stinkin' cute when he does. i dare you to argue with me on that one.
the story with this picture is what makes it cute. i was laying on the couch with my legs hanging off the end. evan climbed up and sat on one of my leg and started bouncing and saying things like "giddyup" and "yee haw." so funny.

best weekend EVER!! (part 1)

it's been a week since i last posted, so i guess it's about time to write some more. so last saturday i went to the ani difranco concert here in salt lake. i was first introduced to her music 8 years ago when i worked in yellowstone, and have wanted to see her live ever since. it was SOO worth the $32 for the ticket. i went with my friend sarah from my ward, and we had a great time. we got in just before the opening act started (his name is martyn joseph, a welch singer, worth the time to listen to.) and since it was just the two of us, we didn't have much trouble getting right up close in between the blankets of people who had been there for 2 hours already. i don't know how happy they were with us, but after the concert started, it didn't really matter anyway. once everyone stood up and pressed forward, there were only 3 rows of people standing in front of us. it was AMAZING!! i loved it. i can't belive i had denied myself of such an awesome concert going experience for so long. i could have done without the smells that accompanied it (pot, patchouli, BO, beer, etc) but it kinda comes with that particular crowd. i was so happy with the set list for the concert, too. if i had to write the set list for my ideal ani concert, it wouldn't have been much different.

(here's a list of some of titles she played for all you ani lovers out there. you know who you are :) -- 32 flavors, anticipate, two little girls, as is, not a pretty girl, evolve, both hands, shameless, untouchable face, 78% h2o, manhole, smiling underneath, the atom, done wrong)

anyway, i just spent some time on you tube finding some clips of my favorite new songs from the concert. i will warn you that the video is not very good on either one because it's just from some concert goer who smuggled in their camera and then tried to keep it semi-hidden while filming to avoid confiscation. but the sound is good, and really, that's what matters. but just the same, you can really tell that she loves what she does and that she's writing from the heart.











and here's some pictures. since i couldn't take my camera with me, we took some pictures afterward. this is me and sarah after the concert in what could very possibly be the best self portrait i have ever taken.

and no concert would be complete without some concert gear, so i bought a tank top that i really liked. okay, so i didn't like the tank top that much. i can't really wear one alone, and it was kinda small and very ribbed, which means that it hugged all the curves that i don't want hugged. so with a little ingenuity on my part and a little help from old navy, i recreated the tank top into the most original (and possibly the coolest) concert t-shirt ever. my roommate was so fooled by it that she though that i bought it that way. but she was wrong. i'm just incredibly clever and talented when it comes to a sewing machine if i do say so myself.

(the shirt says "someone call the girl police" which is a lyric from ani's song "little plastic castle" which is one of my faves.)

"i missed the camping extravaganza for THIS" or "funny how some things never change"

for this post, i've taken to naming it a la rocky and bullwinkle. every new segment has 2 titles. i'm really sorry if you've never watched rocky and bullwinkle and don't get it. just know that both titles are very appropriate.

so, my high school reunion. i really don't have anything good to say about it. the food was good and well organized, so way to go, chad, on that one. there was a very poor turnout, only 13 classmates total. and it was pretty much just like eating high school lunch again. same cliques, same topics, just 10 years old. i agonized for years over whether or not i should go at all, and it turns out that my gut instinct was right. i should not go to high school reunions. my dad's been right about this for many years now. i haven't kept in touch with anyone (which, initially, was not for lack of trying) and i really feel very little remorse for that. as it turns out, i didn't even talk to half of the other 12 people who were there. and i also discovered in retrospect that still tend to go unnoticed by many of my classmates (for that story, ask me. it's much better in person). with that lovely insight in mind, i have now vowed to never attend another class reunion. ever. really, if people cared that much, they'd actually try to keep in touch. i don't really try, so take that for what it's worth. no more reunions for me. i'll just find out about people from my mom, the news examiner, and those random reunions in the grocery store at christmas time. and facebook. maybe.

so, like i said, i can't believe i missed the camping extravaganza for this. and somethings never change.

i don't drink beer

now, this is a life statement if i've ever heard one. thanks jules!

kids rock

my friend julia showed me this the other night. i think it's really funny, especially if you know the real words to the songs. i'm sorry if you're not laughing. it's unfortunate that you don't share my sense of humor.

10.9.8.7.6.5.4.3.2.1...

okay, so right now i have a lot of countdowns going on. for some reason it makes me feel better knowing exactly how far away the light at the end of the tunnel is. here are some of my countdowns:

56 minutes until lunch
5 hours 45 minutes until work is over
3 days until i get to go home for the weekend
11 days until the ani difranco concert (yay!)
3 weeks until i get a week of vacation
8 more weeks until i don't have a job any more (which also means. . . )
8 more weeks until breaking dawn comes out
11 months minus two days until i graduate. again.

once school starts, i'll have more things to count down. stuff like "days until this paper is due" and "weeks until fall break" and "days until christmas break" or "days until i'm done grading all of these stupid papers." you know, things to look forward to.

the livingroom

for fhe on monday, we went on a little hike to a place called the living room. basically, it's just straight up the mountain that is behind campus. it was so freaking hard, made even harder by my recently discovered respiratory ailment (which i like to blame on the freaking dirty air that i'm forced to inhale just because i happen to live in salt lake.) anyway, this is me and my friend julia up at the livingroom. it's a change from her livingroom, which is where we both spend a lot of time.

this is looking out toward the south end of the valley. like i said, freaking dirty air. the camera really captures it well. we could actually see the jordan river temple pretty good from where we were.

this is a pretty good view of campus. you can see the huntsman center above and a little to the left of jake's head, so that may give you an idea of how far up we were. jake is julia's awesome home teacher that pretty much encouraged me to make it the last 5 minutes to the top. i was about ready to die and he helped me up the rest of the way.

and this is the treat we got on the way down. of course, my picture doesn't nearly do it justice. it was an amazing sunset, though.

this is what happens when you leave your camera unattended at the sunday pot luck

i think that pretty much says it all.

ode to the perfect slurpee

yesterday i decided that it had finally gotten hot enough to warrant a slurpee. so i went to the 7-eleven on 3300 south by the REI, which is quite possible the closest one to my house. i had to sample all of the flavors first because some of them were new and sounded a little weird. i finally settled on the classic coke slurpee, and can i tell you, it was perfect. it wasn't too grainy, which is always good. i had just the perfect amount of separation (only an inch or so by the time i was half way done with the 28 ouncer). when it was being dispensed, it had just the right amount of grow to it. if it grows too much, of course you end up with a very airy slurpee and then you have to go through the process of getting rid of the air bubbles before you go so that you can top it off a time or two to make sure you maximize the amount of slurpee you're getting in your cup. if only all slurpees could be so perfect as this one. but i know very well that this was just a lucky break and that i will consume many far inferior slurpees before the end of the summer. i was just really glad that the first one of the season was a perfect one :)