The Lists that Govern my Life

My life is currently made up of countdowns. 10 more rooms to clean. 3 more check outs at the hotel. 3 weeks until my half marathon. 10 weeks of work left. 3 more months until school starts. 1 year until I can turn in mission papers. And the most pressing countdown is....29 days until Taylor returns to our family! The present has never been my favorite time, but usually I'm more fixated with the past rather than the future. I get caught up in grandeur castles, foolish aristocrats, and humble peasants from hundreds of years ago, but now, I just can't wait for things to come. Clocks keep ticking in my head; waiting for the alarms to go off puts me on egde and probably raises my blood pressure. Good thing I run. And tragically gave up sugar until the half is over. So, I'll continue counting down, because I'm totally capable of that math.

I often talk about the men that live in my head. I think they deserve some more mention right now. So I have a couple dozen dead people (sadly only three women: Catherine the Great, Elizabeth I, and Jane Austen) that sit upstairs while drinking coffee, smoking cigars, and discussing philosophy. They often argue with each other and try to help me make decisions. No, I'm not a schizophrenic. They really existed and have simply left their personas behind. Sometimes they give good advice. Sometimes, not so much. I keep them around anyways. The purpose in explaining the above was to tell you (ambiguous pronoun...who knows who I'm talking to) that there has been a Spanish Inquisition up there. But not in a religious, bloody manner. I started a job at a hotel this week and everyone who works there speaks Spanish. Except me. I know four Spanish verbs and a smattering of nouns, but that aids me little, especially when the other ladies don't speak English. Only one of the men...

I approve of love stories whole heartedly. I just think we go overboard sometimes. I've been home from BYU for over two weeks now and my social interactions in Colorado Springs have been slim to none. But I've grown so accustomed to spending a lot of time with friends all the time (they're called roommates) and attractive guys with sparkling personalities that I don't know how I was satisfied with this life before I left. Granted, I had friends at school and from sports, not to mention my bordering on unhealthy ardor for my classes at school, but my social life was at its prime during my freshmen year of college. To make up for the lack of human friends here, I've buried myself in a myriad of books and movies. Yes, my Jane Austen dosage has been too high. Yes, my history books have been somewhat neglected, unless they contain some kind of love story too. Don't judge. Actually, it's ok if you are judging. I probably would. Anyways... Love stories are gr...

Write about the things that keep you awake at night. I firmly believe that people have their deepest thoughts right before they fall to sleep. Unfortunately, we forget them by the morn and start the cycle all over again the next night. Society could have progressed a lot farther by now if we only remembered the things that we thought about at night. However, I doubt few people think about the things that I do, or maybe I'm just flattering myself. I do think about some normal things: family, love, marriage, what I need to do the next day... Lately however, I've been thinking a lot about my historical footprint. Yes, laugh all you want, but I wish so dearly that others might have left more evidence of their existences and even a window to their souls. So many people are lost, not because they weren't incredible or brilliant, but simply because we have no record of them. Their diaries, lists, notes: time has eaten them. Therefore, every time I try to clean my room...

12 months. 385 crazy things. Go. I make friends with people who don't shun wierdness and enjoy the adrenaline rushes that come with doing stupid things. You might ask, what ridiculous things do I do? Well, seeing as today was my last day of classes this semester, I'm celebrating twelve months of frivolity. Here we go (brace yourself for another list; I know I swore off lists, but they're so enticing...). We'll start off simple. Graduated high school. Barely:) First TP experience after going to a high school play. Success. Decorated someone's car with a bunch of "Just Married" nonsense (while supposed to be at a state tennis tournament. Double Success). I really wish I had a picture of this because it was possibly one of the funniest things I've ever done. Made an epic history cake for the history department. Chalked a myriad of houses (Thanks to those people who took pictures and posted them on facebook asking who did it. Thanks also to the per...

People have an obsession with possession. Since all the men in my head love social critique, I'm usually in favor of condemning many parts of society, even when I'm a part of it. Material obsessions do digust me, but I think a larger problem is the desire to own people in a sense. The little Freud upstairs takes me back to first grade, where I remember playing tug of war with some other girls over my best friend. MY best friend. She was mine. Not theirs. Middle school, too, was a time where I struggled to keep my best friend away from envious other potential best friends. But why couldn't she have more than one best friend? Or why couldn't I? Maybe it's because we have problems with sharing. We have to share our toys, so we learn to hold onto our people. And when someone else is holding onto the same person, my little Pope Urban II tells me I need to fight them off and take hold of as many people as possible. You see, those men in my head are often pretty selfish. ...

Write about spring. Spring Fever has definitely hit Provo hard this past week with our balmy 50 degree weather. Pants have turned into shorts, apartments have spewed forth their inhabitants on the front lawns where everyone wants to study, and peoples' hormones have heightened, leading to a 300% increase in relationships. I admit I love spring (yes, I do love things, and not just because Rousseau told me emotions are good). I love being outside and being able to run and play sports in short and wearing flip flops and feeling sunshine on my face and most of all, I LOVE GREEN GRASS! Is there not a more pure sign of spring than little green guys poking out from the earth? I say unto you, nay! There is something magical (yes, I also realize that I think lots of things are magical. Thank you Harry Potter) about new life (or recycled/hibernating life?) that just makes me smile. Usually springtime means tennis too, but not this year, which is really sad for me. I actually really miss p...