Dear Larry from the Super Bowl commercials,

To put it simply:

You have attended every Super Bowl. With your confession that you have missed weddings and babies being born but you have no intention of missing a Super Bowl, you succeeded not in winning my admiration but in earning my contempt.

Congratulations.

Meet Larry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZawqhVFrJxU

money time

You know, the more I grow up, the more experience I have with the world, the more I realize just how true the saying is: Time is money.

And just like money, it's more fun to spend it on less important things.

Wait for it...

Jake and I are going to get married this Thursday, finally.

So, what is anticipating our marriage like? Let me see...

Well, it's like waiting for Christmas, in that the closer it gets, the more exciting it is.

But it's the Christmas you've been waiting for for virtually your entire life, you know what Santa's bringing you, and it's exactly what you asked for.

Yeah, it's pretty much like that. :)

Family.

I was just absently scrolling through Facebook updates this morning, and one of my friends had shared a link to a video. It's about 10 minutes long, and I usually hesitate to watch something that long. Sometimes they get boring and redundant, but I started watching it just to see what it was about. I watched all 10 minutes of it. And I cried the entire time. It's 10 straight minutes of clips of American soldiers returning home and being reunited with their families. You watch dozens of men in uniform surprising their kids and spouses, siblings and parents. At first I teared up because it was so sweet, seeing little girls and boys grabbing their dads like they would never let go again. But what kept me bawling was what I realized like never before: if there's one thing in this world that everyone agrees on, regardless of religious or political views, it's that family is important. It's meaningful. Time and again, other things like school were getting interrupted so that these families could see one another, because no one can say that there's anything more pressing than a family reuniting.

Then I started to think about family in the context of eternity. These people had been separated for a matter of months or years. After passing from this life to the next, there's no knowing when families will see each other again. Separated by death, and without the blessings of the temple, many won't live together forever, as I know they wish to. How bitter the anguish must be of a family forever separated.

But it doesn't have to be. I thought of myself, alone. My family broken. What I wouldn't do to keep that from happening! Jake and are are going to be married soon. How desperate I am to be sure to have him with me always! I can't say how painful it feels just supposing that this life is it. That all we get is time. But I know that that's not true. Families can be. Forever.

I know that something that wonderful can't come easily. Something of such great worth has to be worked for. The blessings of the temple aren't to be taken lightly. Nothing is more important, more worthwhile, more desirable. I know it.

Military Reunions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr7DcJdbCS0

Our Costume Lady for "Annie"

I am amazed by the fact that someone with such an apparent passion and proclaimed obsession for clothes can dress so badly.

No sugar cane was harmed in the making of this dish

Ah, artificial sweeteners.

For those of us who still want flavor, but without all the flavor.

Sing a song

You know, when you think about it, spelling a word out as part of your song lyrics is only marginally more creative than using "na nas," "la las," or "doot doos."

This means you, Fergie.

Catch-22

So -

If one likes to indulge with comfort food when something bad has happened to one, and one also enjoys indulging as a reward when good things happen, I guess one's only prayer for a healthy diet is to hope nothing interesting ever happens to one.

Policeman Psych-out

I hate it when cops drive close to me on the road because whenever they do, I involuntarily but consistently do a quick systems check of everything I'm doing that they could possibly get me in trouble for.

Speed?

Headlights?

Seatbelt?

Turn signal?

Am I in my lane?

Am I talking on the phone?!

Am I texting?!

DO I HAVE MY HANDS AT 10 AND 2!?!

... They probably think it's hilarious ...

Aromapsychology

I don't know about you, but I love things that smell good. Smelly candles, good smelling lotion, tasteful perfumes and colognes, it's all good.

But, when it comes to using something that claims to be "aromatherapeutic," I just have one thing to say: It's a good thing that they include the effect that each scent is supposed to have in its name, or I would have no IDEA how to feel.

You get flavors like Stress Relief - Eucalyptus, Sleepy Lavender and Vanilla which is a scent of body wash I personally don't think I need that much first thing in the morning, or the classic Energizing Citrus. Don't get me wrong, I think they're delightful. But I can't count the number of times I've found myself in the shower with a bottle in my hand, looking at the label and realizing, "Ooh, so I'm feeling relaxed right now." *proceeds feeling relaxed*

Then there's this morning. I recently bought some "Tea Therapy" shampoo and conditioner just because they smelled good. I used the shampoo first (naturally), and I found myself calmed by the Chamomile Tea (with a little help from the label). Then I came to the conditioner, and what to my wondering eyes did appear, but a bottle containing Healthful Herbal Tea. I'll admit, I kind of skipped out on that one. Boy did it smell good, but I've never really tried fooling myself into feeling healthy thanks to a smell. It seems a wee more complicated.

Greetings

Has this ever happened to you?:

So, you're walking to your car or headed to a class, minding your own business, kind of on auto-pilot, your mind on other things. You make eye contact with someone that you know, and so you switch into "Greetings" mode.

You say, "Hi."

They say, "Hey, what's up?"

You say, "Good, thanks."

*Slow shaking of the head making a "tsk tsk" noise* Ouch. I don't know about you, but there are few things in this world that can make me feel like a space kidet quite like this does. There's nothing like incorrectly responding to a greeting to let people know that you weren't really paying attention.

Just watching the ducks...

SO - yesterday, my brother Ryan and I went for a walk with our 8 month old niece Jade to go see the duck pond on the south end of campus. When we got there, we took Jade out of the stroller and stood there chatting, watching the 30 some-odd ducks chasing after bread crumbs and each other (I don't know if you knew this, but ducks can get pretty vicious when competing for bread crumbs!).

Apparently, unbeknownst to me, duck mating season had begun. We saw two different duck couples mating in the water. It's always a bit of an unexpected surprise when you see animals mate. Anyway, there were a few 12 or 13 year old boys feeding bread crumbs to the ducks. One of them saw one of the duck couples getting, shall we say, "romantic," and he pointed at them, calling to his friends, "Hey! There's a duck that's drowning, and that other duck is trying to save him! Look! No, wait, that duck is trying to drown that other duck! Look, he's drowning him!!" For some mysterious reason, I was afraid of trying to correct the kid and let him know what was really going on. I was afraid that all that would come out would have been, "No, kid, those ducks are doing it!!" So, I figured I would let it slide.

It turned out okay in the end, anyway. Almost as the kid was yelling about the duck and its homicidal intentions, one of his friends ran over to him, yelling, "No, I think they're mating!" After he said that, for a quick second, I mentally slapped myself on the forehead, thinking, "Whoa! That was a much better way of breaking it to him! Good job, kid, for not making it sound perverted, like I was going to."

Seriously, sometimes I just can't believe myself.

I should have known

Campus is big. And there are a lot of people that go to school at any given university. Sometimes students run into old acquaintances and former classmates during the course of the day, exchanging "Hi"s and other such salutations. It's nice to occasionally see a familiar and friendly face to brighten up our days which are usually so swallowed up in the quick-paced hum-drum of life.

But then again, I wouldn't know about that.

I don't usually run into anyone I know on campus, though I've had lots of classes with students that are still there, and I even know a lot of people that went to my same mission that attend BYU, but for some reason, I never run across any of them.

Except for today.

You want to know why?

Because I didn't shower today. Yep: go a morning without showering, and you run into an old friend from the mission, from your single's ward, from high school, and even a pal from back in junior high you haven't seen in years and used to have a crush on. Swell.

Are they making a "Truman Show" about me? I swear, sometimes that's the only explanation.

Don't mind me...

Well, I'm not really sure of what has driven me to this particular post. I've been a little stressed out about personal things lately (strike that "a little," change it to "unbelievably"), and when I get stressed, I get cranky and judgmental. Yay!! And with that appropriately brief introduction, here are a few things that were getting on my nerves just yesterday:

Okay, dude, call me old-fashioned, but if you open the door, turn around, and make eye contact with me, I AM going to assume that you were opening it FOR me!!

Word to the wise - don't pause to put your jacket and backpack on across the hall from one of those student-run information booths promoting a random student-run organization. That is unless you have 5 minutes to spare, and you're really good at not letting your eyes look glazed-over.

I never really liked automatically flushing toilets in the first place. I just changed clothes for my dance class in one. The toilet flushed 4 times, and the automatized toilet paper was touching the floor by the end. Doesn't that seem a tad unnecessary?!

Can it be ANY easier for me to accidentally say something stupid and hurtful? I'm just saying, sarcasm has been working like a gem, but since I've become such a pro at it, I thought maybe I could step it up a notch!!

*gasp* Breathe!!! Breathe!!

There. That's better.

Mirror, Mirror

You want to know something? I bet a lot of people do this, but I have this weird habit where I talk to myself in the mirror, and I have pretend conversations with people. A lot of the time, I just have something that I want to get off of my chest, but I don't really want to actually tell that person, so I just tell my mirror and pretend that it's them. Stupid, huh? Well, I was just wondering about that...

I wonder if, since I get those feelings off of my chest and onto the mirror, maybe there are some things that I really should have said to that person, instead of imagining it? Not all the time, of course. Most of the time, I'm telling the mirror-person how upset I am about this stupid little thing that that person did, and we usually regret those conversations when we've had them with the real thing.

No, I'm thinking about those times when I share something more significant, and almost important. Something personal that, for some odd reason, I felt that that person should hear, but I defaulted to the imaginary them in order to get it out. I was just thinking: what would life be like if I said those things to the actual people in my life?

Don't count on it. I'm far too much of a panty-waist.