Horror Mirrors

So, logically, the mirrors in my bathroom should make me feel even MORE secure because they allow me to see more of the room at the same time.

BUT- stupid scary movies have established that mirrors, especially bathroom mirrors, and especially when you're a girl, are only there to show you an intruder or other unspeakable evil that is just waiting for you to look in them.

Cheetos

Curse you, Cheeto fingers!! Is there nothing you won't soil!?

And again, how did your "real cheese" squeak by?

Lonely No More

I remember reading a friend's blog/rant about singleness a few months ago. He recounted a polite small-talking encounter that he had had with a fellow member of his single's ward. The other young man had thought to ask if he had "found anyone" before he had even asked for his name or offered his own. I remember running into that phrase before, when people had asked if I had "found anyone" to marry. Blech, I really don't like that wording!

I'm married right now, but I do remember what it was like to be in a single's ward; that awful tension where if you don't make it out to the activities people assume you're not serious about"finding someone," or rather "being found," if one must put it that way. Then if I did attend a few get-togethers, I would sit and politely exchange "how are yous" and "I've been in the ward for however longs" with members of the opposite sex, and I always felt like I was being appraised or sized up somehow. Oh, I know it was probably just me being paranoid, but if we pen people together due to their lack of significant others in hopes that they will "find someone," I tend to get judgmental, a teeny bit self-conscious, and the smallest bit sour. No, I didn't get engaged to avoid this. I just never went to any activities.

I won't pretend that I will never ever use the wording "finding someone" again. It happens to be an accepted and widely used phrase, and as an English-speaking communicator, it is pretty much in my vernacular just because other people use it. But, if I let myself think about it, well... now you know what I'll be thinking.

I didn't "find someone," like I had lost something and anyone would do if I could just locate them. I fell in love.

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