new camera

i am a super (lucky) shopper. i went to staples yesterday to buy ink for my printer and ended up in the camera aisle. i found one that was the right price ($134) and a very helpful sales associate came over to talk to me (which was more than ever happened at circuit city, i might add). the guy checked their stock and they only had the display model left. i decided i liked the camera enough, so i told him i bought it. well, they couldn't find the key to remove the security device, so i bought it anyway and went back to pick it up today. the sales guy apparently felt bad and talked to his supervisor about giving me something for my trouble. so they gave me a 2-year in-store warranty on the camera. and it gets better. when he rang up the camera, it was only $119, and i got 10% off because it was the display model. anyway, here's the first pic from my new camera.

this is a painting that i bought on my mission for $10. i decided to get it framed finally with my tax return. i love it so much. the frame is perfect. i think it really ties all of the colors together well. i love it so much that i decided to put it in the dining room so that everyone can enjoy it. you can too the next time you come to my house :)

crabby pants

yes, that's me. i've just been super cranky about everything lately. so in an effort to combat the crabby pants syndrome that i'm having, here are some things that have made me smile.

• having the house all to myself for the weekend.
• the fact that i did my homework last night like a good girl, so i have some free time this afternoon
• i officially have a complete graduate committee!! yay for me!!
• the gorgeous sunset last night. sorry you weren't at my house to enjoy it
• huseyin sharing yummy turkish cookies with me
• finding a place to hang my newly framed painting in the dining room
• having treats at work for leap day tomorrow
• getting to see jenni, aaron, and the whole kasch clan last week
• free redbox code for taking an online redbox survey
• the oscar acceptance speeches by javier bardem, marion cotilliard, and marketa irglova
• the prospect of a little overnight road trip for spring break
• staples now sells dell ink so i don't have to order online anymore
• going to dick's sporting goods (and maybe kirkham's too) after class this afternoon to shop for a tent and a campstove for aforementioned road trip
• going to bed before 11 on 3 different nights this week.

i'm sure there were a couple more, but nothing else is coming to mind. now i'm going to do some readings for class tomorrow so i have more time to play tonight.

monkey business

today i was quite amused in my quantitatitve analysis class, which is a nice change. i hate quantitative methods in general. today we were talking about samples and how infinite samples demonstrate what is "normal" under a bell curve, blah blah blah. so in an infinite sample, there are infinite possibilities. this concept was expressed by my professor in the following manner:

if you take and infinite number of monkeys and place them in front of an infinite number of typewriters and an infinite space, it is certain that one of them will randomly type the entire text of "romeo and juliet."

so we all had a good laugh at his example, but my friend todd sitting in front of me got the giggles. todd is super-philosophical and looks like Don Quixote. He's really quite smart. anyway, he continued shaking in silent laughter (a la Mr Belnap, minus the facial expressions) long after the lecture had turned to more serious topics. then i got the visual of what Todd must have been picturing in his head and i got the giggles too.

think about it. monkeys on typewriters.

you're giggling too now, aren't you.

current events lesson

okay, kids, the drought is over. i'm taking some time out of my very crazy day to give you an update on important things you should know, in case you haven't heard already.

1. Kosovo declared their independence on Sunday. Serbia says they won't let it go. The US, along with many of the European powers, has recognized their independence and is preparing to send a diplomatic corps to solidify that. Russia called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council with the purpose of condemning the action. The US in turn has also called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in order to give UN approbation for the move. Neither country has responded to the others demand for an emergency meeting. Stay tuned for diplomatic fireworks.

2. Fidel Castro stepped down as president of Cuba. So far, not a lot of people care. Cubans in Cuba say that his brother Raul will keep things moving along as normal. Cubans in Florida say that nothing will change. the US still refuses to remove the trade embargo on Cuba, even though it's been pretty much useless. Nothing has changed. so far. It turns out that smoking might kill him off more effectively than the infamous exploding cigar. Just goes to show that if you ignore something for long enough, it really does go away. that's been my philosophy all along. Not about Castro. About life in general.

3. It's snowing in Jerusalem. I'm not even kidding about this one, folks. That makes for an interesting commute, as we all know. But i did learn that Israel has one (!) ski resort on the slopes of Mount Hermon. Who knew? you do now. I told you this post would be full of important to know facts. You should listen to me more often.

2-year plans

pretty much ever since i graduated from high school, i've been dividing my life into 2 year segments, give or take a few months.

1. freshman & sophomore years
2. yellowstone + junior and senior years
3. year off + mission
4. sitting around paying my bills
5. grad school

and now for number 6. it won't start until after i graduate of course, but i'm planning it, at least. i'm seriously considering working with the teach for america program (http://www.teachforamerica.com/). it is a program that seeks recent college graduates who show leadership qualities mixed with a desire to help those needing a better opportunity in education. basically what you do in the program is go teach elementary or middle school for two years in an underprivileged area, usually inner city areas that tend to be ethnically diverse. so basically i would not be teaching a room full of white kids. some of the places i would like to go (based on the options the program provides) are Baltimore, Washington DC, New York City, or Connecticut (which has a very large immigrant population). i've been thinking about this for a number of reasons (in no particular order).
1. at the end of each year of teaching, they give you $5000 to pay toward your student loans.
2. i've decided that teaching is not so bad after all (especially after the stellar lecture that i gave today on the WTO), and while it's not my career of choice, i could give it a year or two just to pass the time. after all, it takes a while to get hired on at the CIA.
3. the pay is pretty good for a single girl with limited obligations.
4. it definitely, definitely gets me out of utah and hopefully to the east coast. don't ask me why, but i'm really a city girl at heart.

earlier, continued

8. the gray hair i just found. and it's not the first!! totally unasked for, unmerited, and unwelcome.

things that make me feel old

1. finding out that the 8 year old (haley lyman) that i used to babysit is getting sealed to her husband next weekend (which of course means that she's been married for a year already).

2. finding out that her 9 year old sister (chelsea lyman) has been married for 4 years and is having her first baby soon.

3. staring down my ten year class reunion to see which one of us will blink first

4. realizing that when i graduated from college, some of the students in the class that i TA were still in junior high.

5. finding out that one of my favorite cute girls in my ward is having a hard time finding other 18 year olds to be friends with in the ward.

6. realizing that said 18 year old was only 3 years old when "so i married an axe murderer" came out and then wonder why she's never seen it.

7. listening to laura's play list and feeling like those songs just came out last year, when it's really been about 8 last years ago.

tina turner

i was just watching the grammys and tina turner was wearing what could be nothing other than a capri-length skin-tight space suit. i could see my reflection in it from here. if you missed it, you can probably find it online. definitely worth a look. then again, if i were 60-something with a body like that, i might be tempted. . . more thoughts on tina turner. in my IR seminar last semester we somehow got into a conversation about the movie Mad Max. i promise it has something to do with the topic at hand. anway, we started talking about the trilogy of movies and about how tina turner was in Return to thunder dome. my friend doug couldn't say enough about how hot tina turner was in that movie. he was probably about 7 when the movie came out, but that doesn't matter. just recall the music video for "we don't need another hero" and you'll see what he means. so yeah, tina turner.

i knew it!

there's a reason why you don't bring up religion and politics at a family reunion. since this is pretty much that, i'd just like to point out that i was right. you shouldn't bring up politics. but at least i know that people care enough to read about what i have to say, so thanks. and just so you know, i'm more middle/leftish than any of you think. and we'll just leave it at that. i haven't got anything better than that for today. i'm really tired and it's friday. i'm contemplating a nap. and maybe then a little bit of homework, but we'll see how things go.

obama girl

just weighing in on the presidential race because that's sort of my thing. i think it's interesting now that romney has dropped out and i really think that we'll see a mccain-huckabee ticket come november. which is one of many reasons that i'm an obama girl. i really like him and what he stands for and his ability to bring people together, which is what i think this country needs right now. he's my first and only choice. if it comes down to a choice between hillary and mccain, though, i'm exercising my right to write in a candidate. even if it doesn't count for much, i'll at least i'll know that i've put in my two cents and that's about all you can ask for. i would recommend the write-in option for all of you who don't like your other options.

i believe in ghosts.

and i'll tell you why. on ghost hunters, they say that theoretically, when a spirit is about to manifest itself, it totally drains the batteries on your electronic devices. today, i must have been surrounded by spirits all day because i charged my phone all night last night and the battery is dead already! it's proof! ghosts do exist. no manifestations though, so that kinda shoots holes in my theory. hmm. gotta work on that one.

apparell choices

today i was sitting in the class that i TA and happened to notice the shirt that one kid was wearing. i don't know why i though it was funny, but i found myself laughing at it anyway. this is what it said:

Jesus is gay.
and i don't mean that he's happy.
i'm not saying he's a homosexual either.
i'm talking about another kind of gay that you don't know about.

like i said, i don't know what's so funny about it. it's one of those things that make you tilt your head to the side with a slightly puzzled look and say, "huh."

my new love

keep your hats on folks, i'm not dating (still). this post is dedicated to paul newman. i realized last night that i am in love with pretty much everything that he ever did. not to mention the fact that we share the same birthday, which has got to count for something. last night i was watching "the long hot summer", which is one of my recent purchases. it struck me what an attractive man he is. even at 80-something, he's still got that twinkle in his eye. i realized that i'm starting a collection of his movies, which now includes the long hot summer, the sting, and cool hand luke, all of which are ranked very high on my list of favorite films. and he's been married to his wife joanne woodward for over 50 years now, which is a feat in and of itself, and absolutely unheard of in hollywood. they are still just so cute together and so much in love still, it's so romantic. and his company makes some of the best lemonade available on the market today. and that is why i love paul newman.

funny noises kids make

i'm posting twice because this didn't quite seem approprate for part one. so i was at sarah's this afternoon and i was talking with emery. sometimes he tells the most random stories. we were talking about my blue car and how it got hurt (severely, as it turns out) because it ran into a big van. then he started telling me about the dodge truck and how it's windsheild wipers are broken this is what he said:

"and in the dodge truck, the windshield wipers are broken and they say 'chugga-chugga squeeeeek'"

it was so funny. and we started laughing, so he kept doing it. sarah said she had never heard that before, from him or the truck.

emery was also telling me about his trip to the dentist. he told me about how they cleaned his teeth and the lady squirted water in his mouth and then vacuumed it out. and then he made the exact sound of the water vacuum. it was uncanny. the kid is freaking hilarious.

paying respect

this morning before work i was able to go to pres hinckley's viewing. they had a special "before hours" viewing for church employees and their families. it was nice because the lines were short and we all go in and out pretty quick.

the viewing was at the conference center in the hall of the prophets. i just thought to myself how appropriate it was for that to be chosen as the location for the public viewing. first of all, to be able to walk through the conference center, knowing that pres hinckley was responsible for such a magnificent building, was a nice beginning. and then, walking into the hall of the prophets, it was such an amazing experience, knowing that all of the men represented in that room are now together on the other side pushing the work forward there. for any of you who have been there, the hall looks out on the temple. it is such an amazing tribute to the work that each of them have done and for the blessings we can enjoy as a result.

after leaving the conference center to rush to work, i was struck with a bit of sadness, realizing that we will never again get to hear one of his amazing conference talks. in my institute class, which is the teachings of the living prophets, we are reading conference talks from each of the presidents of the church to see the continuity from beginning to end. we looked at 4 of pres hinckley's talks this week, and it was amazing to see the things that he taught. it was always the basics, but those are the things that are most easily set aside from day to day. the message was always pure and simple. i think that the best tribute we can give is to actually strive to follow the words that he spoke and lived.