on the radio.

i can't figure out how to make my ipod work in my car, so i've been listening to the radio a lot lately. there's a few songs that are in heavy rotation, and it's always interesting to hear what's "popular" or "requested" here in utah...mostly a lot of miley and hip hop stuff, ironically enough.

i had this song i really liked and i found it online and it was awesome -- "fireflies," by owl city" -- and then i heard it on the radio, and i wasn't sure if that made me like it more or less. suddenly, it wasn't a secret song of my very own...it was shared with everyone who heard it on the radio. but then maybe it creates some sense of community? i don't know.

i was thinking about this in terms of tv. i own a ton of movies (seriously...a lot) but when i see a movie i like on tv, i am always really excited to watch it. and i know i could watch it without commercial interruptions (and also from start to finish, instead of starting halfway through) but i like watching it on tv anyways. there's something awesome about watching something with millions of other people.

or at least ten or so.

as a sidenote, i've been to a few different halloween parties in the past week or so, and every college student in the state seems to know the words to "party in the u.s.a." perfectly. that should be kind of embarrassing, but i think it's hilarious. even i know all the words...i'm not ashamed. time to go find another costume for tonight (last week i was a football player and last night i was daphne from scooby doo). tonight...who knows...

stolen, part 2.

^some more things i found / stole this week. both make me think a lot, about myself, about the way i feel around other people, about what is going to happen next week, month, semester, year. just...wow.

marathons.

sometimes on sundays i think of everything i did during the past week. and sometimes it feels like a ton of things and i wonder how i fit everything in. it's one of those days. let's make a massive list.

monday: made three revisions to my plot for children of eden. started to hang the lights for my show. helped to produce a newscast. fhe with ryan and emily.

tuesday: ran a spotlight for devotional. broke everything we touched at the marriott center with jon. went to a story meeting for the news. got a 89% on my spanish speaking test. worked more on my lights for children of eden. met with a director i will be working with later in the semester. hiked the y and helped to light it for homecoming with ryan.

wednesday: baked three kinds of muffins at four in the morning. produced my own newscast. came home and took a nap. ran a spotlight for homecoming spectacular. worked late for tech and created team t-rex. minor brush with swine flu. watched jon spill mountain dew all over his shoe.

thursday: applied to graduate in april (!). successfully got approved to graduate in april. worked through piles of paperwork to see if i can go back to my old station for christmas. slept for almost 8 consecutive hours in the middle of the day. went to my friends' ultimate frisbee game. hiked the y a second time within 24 hours of the first time.

friday: meeting with supervisors for my play. attended a production meeting. made more muffins and gave them to my neighbors. took down the lights for the gigantic homecoming show in record times with my awesome crew. invited everyone to my house and had movie night with the boys.

saturday: watched the osu game. watched oregon game with mikey and devin. taught non-member girl about the church with bo for like an hour. opera / j-dawgs with thorn. made a halloween costume for myself (football player) and helped thorn with his costume too. halloween party with him. watched labyrinth for the first time with some friends.

sunday: church. got set apart for my calling (finally). decided to embrace my calling and introduced myself to a bunch of new people. met some nice boys from the ballroom dance company. interviewed a boy for spotlight time. coordinated ward prayer. and still going!

(i guess it seemed like a ton more stuff before i broke it up into the individual days. but it was kind of a mess then and this is a lot easier to read.)

its funny to think about this week in retrospect. i know there were times this week when i felt sick or depressed or upset, but now that i look back, i only remember the fun things. i guess that's a good thing to remember -- that when we look back on the things we do, the happy things will stand out and the other less-awesome things can sort of fade to the background. time to think more long-term. because twenty years from now, i won't remember the headache i had during homecoming tech...i'll remember trying to run over graham's ex girlfriends and watching zoolander at 2 AM and hiking the y too many times with a 24-hour period. because that's what counts.

get real.

waking up at 5AM is not something i enjoy. and yet...i do it most everyday. doing so makes me really tired by about 3PM. by afternoon-time, i am ready to just be done. but my classes are far from over and i usually have work or something too. luckily, i have some fab friends in my classes (and some who come just to visit even after someone totally steals their seat and they can't sit by me anyways and i feel really bad and instead i spend the entire class time thinking about how dumb i am and why didn't i fix it?) and they keep me awake and not-dead. i think i have some of the coolest people for friends this year and i love it and i love them.

i think that's what i want to say today. you never realize what you have been missing out on until you have a good handful of people you care about and you wonder how you ever lived without them in the first place. that's how i feel everyday when i see one in the hallway or at work or in class or get a text or something small like that. everywhere around me are the most awesome people i have ever met in my life. i am the luckiest girl there ever was.

i was talking to a boy this weekend about what we were passionate about. i think i'm passionate about people. humans and their stories and what they've been through and the things they're afraid of and the things that make them happy and their goals and their failures and their secret loves and their favorite things.

technology is great, but you can never beat real, live, person-to-person interaction. it's easy to lose sight of that, but the more i spend time with certain people, the more i remember it. and that's why i love the news and theatre -- because it's real people and real stories and real adventures and real heartbreaks and real everything.

i need real things in my life.
and thats why i think i am passionate about people.
(for real)

stolen.

here are three things i take no credit for.
but i like them, so here they are.

first of all...one of my fav musicians listed his top four goals in life:

live poetically.
love romantically.
laugh authentically.
cry unapologetically

i love these. thanks, jm.

* * * * *

second of all...top ten things people buy (according to the nyt):

1. carbonated beverages
2. milk
3. fresh bread
4. beer / ale / hard cider
5. salty snacks
6. natural cheese
7. frozen dinners
8. cold cereal
9. wine
10. cigarettes

my new goals for the rest of the year: buy less of #'s 1 and 5. rely less on #'s 2 and 8. continue to avoid #'s 4, 7, 9 and 10. and try to find better, healthier ways to incorporate #'s 3 and 6 in my life. also cook more...but that's always the goal, lately.

* * * * *

and third of all...this. courtesy of lw, who i wish was still in utah.

^ enough said.

it rained yesterday.

it's been pretty boring around here lately, weather-wise. sometimes it'll be cold and sometimes it will be nice fall weather. and then yesterday, it was rain, rain, rain. it rained for most of the entire day.

loved it.
there really aren't enough thunderstorms in utah to keep me happy.

the best part was that i got to enjoy the sights and sounds of the rain while somehow missing all of the showers as i switched between classes. must be my impeccable timing at work.

but in the evening, i went to the store with em and on our way home it was raining and the sun came out and suddenly there was this GIGANTIC rainbow. it was incredible! a full rainbow, with all the colors, stretching from provo to maybe american fork or something (it was seriously huge). that kind of awesome-ness, you just don't see all that often.

emily says: "god must be telling provo that everything will be okay."

<3 roommate bff.

awkwardly overheard.

let's set the stage. i'm in the communications office on the third floor, waiting to get my add/drop card signed (for one of the most AWESOME-EST things that might be happening in my not-so-distant future if all goes according to plan...) and i see these two guys walking past out of the corner of my eye. i'm not sure how well they know each other, but they are walking together down my hallway.

first guy: so hey, where are you going?
second guy: uh...the bathroom.
first guy: oh cool, me too.

and then it was awkwardly silent as they kept walking together. i wonder what was going through second guy's mind right then.

did they end up going to the bathroom together? i don't know. but i think it's funny that something that would be perfectly normal for a pair of girls to do could be so awkward for a duo of dudes.

that's my story for the day. the end.

real live theatre.

we've been prepping for this mysterious "theatre mitu" production for a week or two now, without really knowing what to expect. i finally met the lighting designer yesterday (who's handiwork included over 250 cues for a show that is about three hours long...all of which i got to program before they arrived) and we started finishing everything and worked on cueing today.

it's not that i haven't worked with professional theatre people...but still. this has been kind of unexpectedly awesome. we rehearse things (and by "we," i mean they do, and i run the lights) and then sometimes the stage manager says to stop and the actors stop and just stand there. it's incredible. they don't start talking to each other or walk away from the spot they're supposed to be standing in. and they know all their lines. for real. i even talked to the actors today and they were all super-nice.

days like today make me think i could really do theatre in a professional setting...if only people took it more seriously here, life would be soo much easier.

but i love my theatre anyways and children of eden is coming along nicely. we have a full run-through on thursday and i plan to get a lot of work done this weekend too. mostly because i have to, but yeah. also because i get to. the end.

at the library.

here i am. it is early. i am tired. but instead of taking a nap (which is what i really want to do), i am forcing myself to be productive. time to get assignments out of the way and figure out how i am going to finish everything i need to do over the weekend.

mostly, i am trying to decide what i want to cook. i'm thinking something along the lines of pumpkin-chocolate-chip-something...maybe cookies or muffins. maybe i should bring some food in when i produce again on monday. (oh...i produced a live newscast on monday. i'll do another one this upcoming monday. and yes...it is the coolest thing ever. <3 the news)

so overall, suddenly it is october and it is freezing out. for some reason, that makes me think about christmas music, so i started listening to some last night. and then today in spanish class, we sang a christmas song there too. guess that's what people instinctively think of when they realize it's freezing out. i'm not complaining though...sweatshirt weather is lovely. i just didn't expect it so suddenly. i should pay better attention to the weather channel.