a day of mourning

today was a sad day. today, paul newman died. i love pretty much every movie i've ever seen him in. not only was he an amazing actor, but he was also a very good (looking) person. and we had the same birthday (january 26th), so what's not to like?




this is a scene from cool hand luke, which has been one of my favorite movies for almost 10 years. (and when i say almost 10 years, i mean 8 years). here's another favorite. the long hot summer. SUCH a good movie. and not just for this scene.

he was married to his wife Joanne Woodward for 50 years, which is quite a feat for anyone, much less for hollywood stars. when asked in an interview if he was ever tempted to stray, he said, "I have steak at home, why go out for hamburger?"

and he had his own food company from which all profits are donated to charity. paul newman gave over $200 million to different charities. take that, brangelina!!
in memoriam, i might just go out and buy some newman's own something or other (juice, salad dressing, popcorn, etc) and curl up on my couch and enjoy a nice old paul newman movie. as soon as i'm done writing my paper that is due on monday.

happy things that i've been saving up

• today i took a nap in my office, and it wasn't just the short kind with my head cradled in my arms on my desk. it was an all out, relaxing in the sunshine, reclined in my desk chair, feet kicked up, hour long kind of nap. i bet you're jealous now.
• julia is twiterpated!! a lot. and though i'm jealous, i can at least live vicariously through someone now.
• the body worlds 3 exhibit is visiting salt lake until january. me and julia went tonight. it was a weird mix of "wow, our bodies are incredible and amazing," and "wow, i'm really creeped out right now." it was amazing. they are all real bodies, donated to science, that have been plastificated.
• i just made up the word plastificate. just call me george dubya :)
• my institute class is awesome. pearl of great price. i highly recommend it.
• not having a job so that i was available a couple weeks ago to help a friend in need. i was able to take jon to a doctor's appointment in the middle of the day, and then spend the afternoon with him because he was lonely. what a great feeling
• all of the mission memories i had and told to julia tonight when we were analyzing the object of her twiterpation. i'll be posting one soon. i know you've missed them.
• my friend becky, who once asked me how i got so many comments on my blog, now has a small following who comment regularly on every funny and witty thing she says. and she says a lot of that kind of thing. hey becky, do you want to clue me in on how to make bloggy friends who make lots of comments??
• i love art. i went to the Utah museum of fine arts on campus to see the monet to picasso display on loan from the cleveland museum of art. well, it was until last week, anyway. i went with my friend angela. we had lots of fun. i'm glad we're friends now. my favorite art there besides the van gogh pieces was the whole section of rodin sculptures. amazing. i'm still in awe.
• i got a new phone. nokia 5310. it's graphite grey with orange accents. it's really cute. i love it. it sings songs by panic at the disco, who i love now.
• i'm going to the chiropractor tomorrow. my back is thanking me already. actually, it's still screaming at me for not having done this 3 months ago. or at least 2. but it will really be thanking me tomorrow.
• also tomorrow, i'm eating my favorite maple express with sarah and the boys. fabulous.

random a.m. comments

tonight me and julia went to ihop after about 15 minutes of just driving around trying to decide what we wanted to eat. we were very pleased with our ultimate decision. i had very tasty pumpkin pancakes and she had cinnamon swirl french toast. the funny thing about our night is that we heard the server behind us ask the people at the table if they had just gotten married. and they said yes. so we glanced over and there was a girl (emphasis on the girl part) in her wedding dress and her newly minted husband eating pancakes at ihop. funny. they had just come from their reception and hadn't made it to wherever they were going and got hungry on the way. apparently they hadn't been able to eat at the reception. all i can say is that girl was lucky that she didn't drip any of the strawberry syrup on her nice new, only been worn once dress.

in other random news, i just cleaned my bathroom. it's been a while since i cleaned the bathroom at 2am. that statement in itself indicates that i have indeed cleaned my bathroom at 2am before. i think the last time was when i lived with my sister katie in 1999/2000. it was caffeine induced, and this time might have been as well. the point is, my bathroom is clean. and i kinda like the scent of the cleaner that i used. strange but true. and to alleviate any concern you might have, i always keep the bathroom well ventilated when i clean.

now that i'm getting going, it's hard to stop. today i pulled out my cards from mrs. pedersen's ap english class. i was surprised at how many of the quotable quotes i still remember (after 10 years, i might add). and how many of them i've forgotten. there was one that julia liked so much that she had to add it to her facebook quotes section immediately. it's from "the importance of being earnest," which, to date, is still one of my most favorite plays. the quote is: girls never marry the men that they flirt with. true. true.

and one last thought. tonight me and julia watched the movie "about a boy". it's my favorite hugh grant movie. he plays a very selfish batchelor who believes that he is an island. (no man is an island, blablabla) there's the plot in a nutshell. but there's a part where he's volunteering for amnesty international (don't let that fool you, it was a selfish act too). he's talking on the phone to someone who is assumed to be a very attractive woman who doesn't have a boyfriend. and here's the best movie quote i've heard in a while. "what? you don't have a boyfriend? talk about a human rights violation." amen to that, brother. amen to that.

beth's hot wheels bonfire bash

yesterday was the birthday of my friend beth, so we had a little impromptu party for her. actually, me and my friend sarah decided that it had been way to long since we had done anything together, so we decided to make a big fire and overload on sugar to make up for it. then we invited everyone and it morphed into a big birthday party for beth. we had smores, fire-roasted starburst, macaroni salad, and key lime pie. that's what happens when you don't really plan. i went to the nearest party supply store and found a whole bunch of hot wheels party paraphenalia on clearance (5o cents a package), so i decided it would be a hot wheels themed party. beth loved it. she said she would have loved it even more if only she were a 10-year-old boy. regardless, we had a bunch of fun. morgan brought his guitar and a box full of random instruments, and we let the excess of sugar take it from there. good times, good times.

that's right. three party hats.

morgan wearing one of his better looks (haha)

julia showing her love for the tambourine

sarah and kevin having a good time

the really cool hot wheels balloon that got away

beth, me and carolina starting the festivities.

sarah getting a little crazy

morgan, putting the moves on sarah

sarah, putting the moves on morgan

me, julia and beth having a bit too much fun with the family band.

me in photos, without any actual photos of me

1. The Tin Lizzie, 2. Strange Ecuadorian food, 3. Chasing the frisbee, 4. The ancient pleasure of a cuppa, 5. Daniel Craig as James Bond, 6. Chocolate Milk!, 7. Le Pont du Gard, 8. mint_chocolate_brownies_1, 9. MOMMY & BABY, 10. In Spires, 11. Intellectual hour, 12. United Nations New York


The Questions...
1.What is your first name? Lizzie
2.What is your favorite food? Ecua food
3.What high school did you attend? Bear Lake (that's really someone's picture of bear lake)
4.What is your favorite color? Red
5.Who is your celebrity crush? hands down Daniel Craig, the new james bond.
6.Favorite drink? chocolate milk
7.Dream vacation? europe (pont du gard in southern france pictured here)
8.Favorite dessert? I have to pick one? mint brownies
9.What do you want to be when you grow up? Mommy. i guess i still haven't grown up enough.
10.What do you love most in life? the temple and all it represents
11.One word to describe you? intellectual
12. What was your favorite school subject? international politics (represented by un headquarters in nyc)

If you want to try it here's what you do:

Go to Flickr search and pick out a photo for each one of your answers to the questions below (I didn't post a picture for all of them).Click on the picture you want and copy the URLOpen another browser, Mosaic Maker, and paste the URL for each picture into the desired space. (You'll see directions)Once you have selected, copied and pasted all of your pictures, click Create to make your MosaicClick Share (at this point you can copy the html and paste it into your post)

back at it

i'm supposed to be grading papers right now, but if i don't take the time to write now, it will just give me an excuse to procrastinate later. like you need an excuse for procrastination. hah! procrastination provides its own excuses.

so i'm back to school. i've decided that the only way i'll survive this semester is if i study 5 hours a day. it sounds like a lot, and well, it is. but really, i can do it. in theory. there are definitely enough hours in my day to arrange for 5 hours of studying, in addition to my class time. if i become a hermit and completely disconnect from technology, and thus reality.

i'm really sucking at it so far. yesterday i managed 2.75 hours of studying, plus a 1 hour nap, cleaning most of my room, playing beauty shop with carolina, watching the new episode of gossip girl (again), and doing 2 batches of laundry. not a complete waste, admittedly, but definitely not the kind of dedication this semester requires.

this semester i'm taking advanced spanish composition. i had forgotten how much busy work they give you in undergrad classes. it's ridiculous, really. next i have middle eastern politics, which i hate so far. this does not bode well for the rest of the semester. it's going to suck. then i am taking 3 credits of independent study for the purpose of researching my master's essay. this is where the stress comes in.

adam (my graduate committee chair) just asked me if i would be interested in writing a chapter for a book of which he is the editor. it is on european immigration, and they need a chapter on spain. what do you know, i'm writing my master's essay on spanish immigration. perfect. so now i have to have a final draft of the chapter to him by christmas. 7000 words minimum, about 20 pages, theory, facts, opinions, predictions, all rolled into one. no big deal. anywho, it makes next semester that much easier because i'll have 7000 words of my master's essay already written. maybe i'll be able to defend it really early in the semester. hmmmm. this could be alright after all.

the last hurrah

so here it is. my trip to mesa verde. i went for labor day weekend with my friends julia and sarah. we got rained on all 3 nights, discovered that my 2 man tent is actually a 3 woman tent, and all made it home in one piece. although we did need a break from each other after a while. some breaks were longer than others. . . anyway, i have to explain about the blue bag because it was the focal point of our trip.

i let my friend jake murray borrow a book of mine. i took it over one day when he was gone and his roommates encouraged me to "borrow" something of his so that i would be sure to get my book back from him. they were looking for large items for me to take, like a half case of water bottles or his guitar. i settled for his guitar strap. julia and i began to brainstorm, and we decided it would be very funny if we took the guitar strap with us on our trip and then sent him pictures later. it would look a little silly to just carry around the strap and nothing else, so i made a little purse to go with the strap. only now i'm quite attached to my new purse and he wants his stuff back (he still doesn't know exactly what item of his that i have.) we'll have to figure something out. anyway, that's the story, enjoy the show.