San Fran pt .1

San Francisco so far has been so much fun! We left early Saturday morning, and drove to Reno. The car ride down we watched Anchorman (favorite), The Vow (eh), and New Year's Eve (surprisingly funny). We got to Reno and checked into our hotel room....and did nothing else but eat for the night. Sunday we woke up and got on the road pretty early. We stopped in Tahoe and looked at the lake and walked around main street for a while. It's a super cute little private town, because we were on the south side where there isn't a ton of tourism. The drive up there and the lake is absolutely gorgeous. I would have got more pictures but my camera died.
Sunday we also got to our hotel here in San Francisco and then did some driving around the city. It was SO BUSY. We found out that the gay pride parade was on Saturday, so there was still some residual partying going on Sunday. Sunday we walked around Pier 39 for a few hours and then came back to the hotel.
Today was crazy busy. We woke up early and headed out to go to Alcatraz. We took the boat over and then walked around the jail and the island for a while. It was super interesting. We took one of those audio tours, which I've always thought were incredibly done, but this one was actually super fun. It talked about Alcatraz before it became a prison, what an average day was like, and also talked about some of the escape attempts, which were surprisingly clever and funny. We saw the gardens over there and from the island there was a gorgeous view of San Francisco.
After Alcatraz we went back over to Pier 39 and ate lunch, got some souvenirs, and went to the aquarium.
Okay. I effing LOVE aquariums. I think they are so much fun and there's so many cool fish. I got a ton of cool pictures but I'll post them later. There were these kick ass jellyfish, and the fish from Finding Nemo. There were tunnels you could walk under that had fish going over you that were awesome. I got to pet a starfish, a sea anemone, a sea cucumber, a manta ray, and a SHARK! It was exhilarating. Also, things in the sea feel freaking weird. The anemone felt like a wet mushroom, the sea cucumber felt like a squishy, weird....something. Like, you know those tubes you play with when you're a kid that have a hole in the middle and they're filled with water and glitter and things, and if you squeeze it too hard it will slip out of your hands because it's so wiggly? it's kind of like that, but slimier and even squishier. gah. I can't get over how sweet aquariums are.
After that we drove around San Francisco for a while, came back to the hotel, went swimming, ate dinner, played games, etc.
It's felt like we've already been gone forever. Also, I've always wanted to be the kind of person that says things like, "I love traveling." or "I love to see new places and explore." Nope. I totally am not. I am so comfortable with the people I know, where I'm living, and what I'm doing. On Sunday when we were in town it was so incredibly busy. The whole town was teeming with people, and it just made me so anxious. I just wanted to get away from all that. I don't know that I could cut it living in a super busy town. I'm content where I am, for the most part. It wasn't nearly as bad today, after gay pride was over. But still. So much chaos all the time.
Anyway. This trip has been fun so far, and we'll be here until Friday afternoon, so there's a lot more coming :)

a list of recent tales

recently, i have:
-helped plan/attended dani's bridal shower
-organized her kitchen with all new bridal shower gifts
-kicked a door down
-started a new job
-been told to "fall off a cliff into shit" at that new job
-been so sick i've puked for a whole day
-took liz to salt lake with me for a weekend
-finished the redecorating of my room (except curtains)
-got to see robyn, home from her mission for a funeral
-gone swinging
-gone hot tubbing with girls from work
-read 3 books
-finished desperate housewives
-restarted grey's anatomy
-spent way too much money at old navy and victoria's secret
...
i think that's all.
life is grand, and much too short.

loss

Tonight, i watched the movie Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close with my sister. It's about a boy who loses his father on 9/11, and goes on a "quest" to try and find out more about him. And it just got me thinking. Life is so fragile. One day you can be walking around, healthy as can be. And all of that can change in an instant.

I had a dream last night that David died. I didn't dream how, but I dreamed about the phone call informing me of it. And of his funeral. I woke up sobbing. And the thing that hit me the most was that it could actually happen. Nothing in life is guaranteed, and that includes a tomorrow.

I don't know what I would do if he or Liz died. And now it's just been on my mind. I feel like I can't adequately express how much I love both of them. I tell Liz 10+ times a day that I love her, and i still feel like it's not enough. she means the world to me, and i could never get along without her. i can start crying just thinking about my life without her. ugh.

anyway. i feel very scattered and not well put together lately, so i apologize for the sporadic thought process here.

Give this one a careful read

So here's the thing. As human beings, we are programmed to respond emotionally to different things. Any of the five senses, what we perceive as a tragedy, and young children are among these. But I really think we need to take a step back from our emotions occasionally and delve deeper into things. Mainly what I'm irritated about is all of this KONY uproar flying around. People watch the video, are saddened by what they perceive, and immediately repost it without looking up the information. BE SKEPTICAL. One of my biggest pet peeves in life is when people blindly follow and trust something that they don't know to be true or correct. It's the mentality of sheep being led to the butcher. If everyone else is doing it, obviously it's okay.

If you look up Invisible Children, the company and professed charity that created the Konyvideo and is causing such a disturbance, on the Better Business Bureau website, you'll notice a few suspicious things. One is that Kony refuses to provide all of the information that the BBB asks for. While the information is technically voluntary, it makes the organization look like they are hiding something. They lack transparency. The next thing you can look at is their budget, which can be located at Charity Navigator. The three CEOs are paid 80,000+ dollars a year for doing....nothing. They founded the "movement" back in 2003, but since then, have been part of the company by name only. Invisible Children also spends a hugely disproportionate amount on travel, office rental, and other "unnamed expenses," as their website puts it.

I may be wrong. This could be the real deal. But please. Look deeper into whatever subject it is before you post about it, and before you try to convince others that you're right. This is the way mass hysteria begins.

Little Randoms

My grammar teacher hates me, because she thinks I'm never paying attention. And she's right. Her class is just incredibly easy, so I get very distracted by Pinterest and such. I kind of want to start theming all of my assignments I have to turn in, making them all slightly off. Like, start off by talking about how I love night time and how I've always adored the sound a gun firing makes. And just take everything a little bit further until she thinks I'm going to axe murder her. Food for thought.

I'm supposed to be writing an 5 page analysis paper on 17 lines of one of Shakespeare's plays. That's not happening.

I love all of you guys. You've been absolutely wonderful lately, and I can't thank you enough for your support.

If you don't hear from me for a few days, it's because February 23rd is one of those days that everyone has in a semester that EVERYTHING is due. And you want to freak out because you have so much shit to get done. So this will be my last post for a while, unless I really am going to freak out. :)

In closing, ponder this: There is literally no way of knowing how many chameleons are in your house at any given time.

Here's a picture I love:

january

So I'm trying to blog more. And it's hard, but I'm getting there :) Things as of lately have been great! Some adventures include:

-Meeting these 2 old guys at Citrus and Sage and talking to them for an hour or so. They were fascinating and excellent at playing the piano and singing.

-Going to the hot pots up in Maple Grove with people from work. Super fun, super cheap, and a good weekend night experience.

-Playing with Cassidi a whole lot, now that she's back in the valley for a while.

-Helping Dan plan her wedding :) And by "plan her wedding" i mean that i started a board on pinterest entitled "dani's wedding."

-I am almost completely done with the redecoration of my room. I just have to buy some candles, print out a few pictures, and hang some frames and a mirror up.

-Had an incredibly fun Tuesday night down at Boondock's in Kaysville. Laser tag Tuesday was an epic success.

-aaaand have decided to take it super easy on the partying. at least until i'm 21. i keep having dreams that i get arrested, and that cannot happen. thus, i'll wait until i'm legal.

My uploader isn't working right now. So I'll do an all pictures post of these adventures in a bit.

So, sometimes I over think things. A LOT. For example, last night, my dear friend Kim and I decided to watch a movie. So we scampered down to Hastings and began to browse their massive selection. As Kim is incredibly indecisive, we were there for almost 40 minutes. This couple came up to us and said something along the lines of "you guys have been here for a while, you seem to know a lot about movies." So he asked us if we'd seen "The Debt." I told him I had and that it was good, and that we chatted for a little bit about it. They got it and checked out. For a normal person, this encounter would stop there. Not me.

I was thinking about it all night. What if they hated it? What if they didn't like it and just kept talking about what terrible taste I had? What if my recommendation made them waste their money because they hated it? The thoughts just went on all night. Sweet balls.