Home

I've been home for about 22 hours. Highlights include:

• A marching band-esque productshizzle from the siblings. Including a chorus of "I'm So Glad When Andrea Comes Home."


• Bernadino's with Laura Lee Alida. For old times sake.


• Tommy being so excited that I'm home that he'll randomly run up to me shouting my name then not really know what to do with me so lots of equally random running off.


• Lots of other Tommy running around and saying ridiculous things and being excited to show me everything and tell me all about the plot of The Lion King over and over again which, as far as I can gather consists of "And the monkey climbs on the rocks and holds the kitty," and him running in with his pajamas expecting me to be very impressed with him yelling "jammies!" and the top of his tiny lungs.


• Jenny has zits on her face these days. She's so grown up.


• Showing off the clothes purchases made since I last saw the family to a very impressed Marsha and Melissa who can always look forward to getting those items in a couple years when I grow out/tired of them.


• A really fabulous dress that Melissa has given me that basically means I'm throwing a party in December with the required dress being "festive attire".


• Jenny and Kayla getting all excited to show me that they redid their room, us walking into the room, me exclaiming "uhhh, it looks exactly the same as it did last time I was home," and them realizing that they changed it while I was gone but then changed it back so their recent change was back to what I'd known before.

• Typical Nate things ("I fixed that ancient laptop we had in Indiana, remember it? All I had to do was salter on a couple new wires and you just clip the power source with an alligator clip here and...").

• Waking up at seven this morning to "Four, tres, two, uno..." and the opening bit of that instant classic "Fergalicious". My first thought was, "since when does Allison wake up to this?" Then I was like, "Why the heck is this playing on NPR?" because my alarm is set to NPR. Then I opened up my eyes and realized I was home and the musical wonder I was beholding was thanks to dear Marsha.

• Waking up again this morning at eight to Kevin and Tommy coming in and jumping on me and then asking me to read a chapter of Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix to them.

• The Princess and the Pauper, a Barbie movie that apparently my mother loves. (And yes, Laura, it ends exactly like you thought it would, you needn't be in suspense any longer.)

Ridgecrest

I leave for Ridgecrest in an hour. I'm not looking forward to it so much that I haven't started packing yet.

Kevin

My little brother Kevin is a cute as heck 7-year-old and smart as a whip. But not always as smart as he thinks he is: "They should make a gangster version of 'White and Nerdy'."

Thanks Emilee, for another great article...

An interesting/funny read:

When Your Spouse is Hotter than You

I would like to discuss the ladder theory, but it's somebody else's and I'm afraid of screwing it up.

My thoughts: in some cases hot people aren't just hot people. A very few number of them have depth to them and want someone who isn't boring, as most hot people are. But it's got to be near impossible to find another hot person who's also interesting, so you go for a not as hot person and it's great for you. And people shouldn't make comments about it because they're probably happier than a hot/hot couple.

On a semi-related note: at Wendy's yesterday, Allison, Emilee, Melanie, and I were discussing quirkiness and determined that quirky people need quirky people. The four of us are all very quirky and that's why we get along. Other quirky people mesh really well into our group of friends, regardless of what those quirks are. Normal people get judged in our group. We'll be friends with normal people, but really...it's boring to talk to people that aren't at least a little odd. None of us could ever date someone who doesn't have a few peculiarities about them.

What are you going to do with all that junk?

This post was going to be about the sexualization of society and the way young girls dress and why Anna Nicole Smith is news and even the people who complain about her being news on the TV do it while showing pictures of her scantily-clad over and over while talking because people watch that and how women must not only be talented but always sexy to make it in the music or film industry and how this means girls/women in real life thinking the only way to be noticed by anyone/get men is through showing skin and suggestive comments and sex sex sex and there are commercials that qualify as soft porn on all the time and sex sex sex sex sex. But, in an effort to get the streaking post not the top entry because my parents are urging me to take it down (and I can't decide if it's worth it or not to do so), I can certainly, at least, get it lower down the page quickly. So I'm just going to post two music videos of the same song: one by The Black Eyed Peas and one a cover by Alanis Morissette. It'll essentially get the message across.

Mission Accomplished!

Many may know of this goal of mine, as I've been voicing it for years now. I didn't think it would ever be possible, but it always haunted me...wouldn't it be so cool if I could just find a way. Well, my friends, where there's a will, there's a way.

Many moons ago, I had the opportunity to skinny dip in the RB pool. This tale has been and will be sung by the bards for ages. It's come in handy oh so many times when playing "Two Truths and a Lie". The enormous amount of shock value I get from if has made me long for another naked-on-BYU-campus adventure.

The following story is so cool that I'm posting it even though my mother reads this blog and I'm positive she will heartily disapprove.

As many know, they've been doing some remodeling work on at Lavell Edwards Stadium recently. Well, apparently one of the workers forgot to close one of the gates all the way last night and I noticed this walking home from Stadium Terrace yesterday at about midnight. I walked in, heart pounding. Prowled and listened and determined the coast quite clear. Climbed down to grass level and fulfilled a dream. Yes, dear friends, I can now proudly say that I have been streaking across this field:


My only regret is that the lines weren't painted on, so I couldn't think to myself while running, "She's to the 40...the 30...the 20...the 10...TOUCHDOWN!!! Touchdown by Wonnacott after a 76-yard run!!! Incredible!!! Hear the fans roar!!! That's just the kind of play BYU has needed all game. Perfectly executed. Playing to their strengths." Instead, of course, I was thinking more, "I hope they don't have a ton of security cameras and a police vehicle headed here right this moment and...actually it'd totally be worth getting arrested for, what a story that would be."

How things are going these days...

• It's been about the job hunt lately. I've interviewed at a few places and submitted resumes/applications at more. If anyone has any leads on full-time work, I'll gladly take them.
  
• I played Guitar Hero for the first time this week (briefly, in a store). I think I would've done better with Sousaphone Hero.
• Twice this month I've bitten off all my nails for no reason.
• There is nothing you can't do if you just have a plethora of good cardigans at your disposal. I wish I had money, it's time to start thinking about fall clothes again (sure it's still ages away, but you have to start thinking early on or you're at a total loss once you need it, like a day that
  
• I cried watching the music video for Avril Lavigne's "When You're Gone" today when I came across it channel surfing. Yes friends, it's a few days before my period yet again. It's not a spectacular song, but come on, the old man crying holding his dead wife's old clothes? It's beautiful.
• And for no reason other than there is too much hate in the world:
  

Five-Second Rule

A brilliant article from The Washington Post: That Dropped Doughnut (thanks, Emilee).

I remember hearing ten-second rule more than five-second rule as a child, but I could just have a faulty memory. I remember specifically, however, that my uncle Matt was the first person to ever explain the rule to me and I believed him because I was young and Uncle Matt is a doctor. I'm pretty sure I even used "Well my uncle's a doctor and he says..." as an excuse to my elementary school friends. This was before I found out that adults lie to children about what they know and know even less.

I'm an animated creator!

I took the personality test at PersonalDNA.com yesterday morning, so look at my results (not that I expect anyone to read through it all, but it's worth a glance through). I feel like it's a fairly accurate representation of me, though my first thought was "I'm not that animated." But most of it fits, with the sole exception being I think I have more empathy than they give me credit for. The best was there were a couple things in there that I was like, "Hey, it says that in my patriarchal blessing, too!" So it's got to be a good test, yes?

Perhaps. But of course the problem with any test like this is that people have many facets to them and nobody is very strictly anything. Even the stuff that they got dead on with me has other sides to it (example: as up for new things as I really am, I'm still the kind of person who has to sit in the same seat in Relief Society each week or I get nervous) (also, I'm not quite as fun-driven as they seem to think: there is that side to me, but I'm also a great lover of calm, though you can't portray someone as both in this sort of test, where the goal is to simplify your personality to something manageable). When it comes down to it, I might as well have taken a test like this:

Which Disney Princess Are You?
	You are Belle. You are strong, deep, and you are not a slave to petty superficial things. You are independent and allow yourself to see inner beauty without sacrificing your values. You are almost too good of a person.

I'm curious to see other people's results: Take the test (PersonalDNA...or I guess the Disney Princess one) and tell me what you are!

Presidential Hopeful Fashion

Wait...Hillary Clinton is a woman? A recent Washington Post article discusses Hillary Clinton's cleavage and her fashion history. I know it shouldn't matter at all in a presidential candidate, but...I'm really glad a woman is running simply because the wardrobe of a female presidential candidate is so much more fun to think about. (Side note: If anybody can find a picture of Hillary in the Donna Karan dress they talk about in the article, I'll be forever indebted to you. I've spent a good chunk of time looking and can't find it anywhere.)

And let's recall that snippet about her coral jacket on Monday: Edwards and Obama Split on Clinton's Jacket. That was pretty much a mistake on Edwards' part, he sounded sexist. However, I do admire him for at least trying to answer the question that most of the other debaters passed on with varying amounts of grace. However, the jacket was not the right target to go after, it wasn't funny enough to be taken as a joke, regardless of intent.

Men, of course, aren't completely immune to the fashion scrutiny. There's a fabulous article in the Wall Street Journal about Pulling Off the Obama Look. I happen to love this open-collar-no-tie look. With it Obama looks like he's ready for action and doesn't take himself too seriously. Plus it's kind of hot. Guys take note (and I've discussed this with numerous girls and most agree with me): One of the absolute hottest ways a guy can be dressed is the dressed-up, dressed-down look. A guy in a dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, or in a suit but barefoot, or with a tie untied or loosened or missing....yum.