"...that's nice. marie! the baguettes! hurry up!"

with all the craziness lately, it's been a while since i made something new + awesome. i've been itching to make some bread so here's my project from tonight: braided whole wheat loaves (one's half eaten):

when i look at them, i can't help thinking of the part in "beauty and the beast" when belle is running around the city and saying good morning to everyone (mostly because there's bread in that scene).

i think i can kind of relate to belle. i like to read. i like france. and i'm effortlessly awesome at jump roping. true -- i don't have a crazy, muscly, villain man lusting after me (...or do i?!) but we are alike in other ways. like how we both want more than this provincial life.

listen up.

i've always considered myself to be a kinetic student -- i learn by doing. in most of my classes (both with theatre and broadcast), i was thrust into a brand new world of "doing" with little to no formal instruction. it was sink or swim -- either in front of the cold eye of my camera lens or in the presence of an unforgiving live audience. but lately i've been thinking about the effect of something much stronger in my life: the power of sound and how we are conditioned to learn and remember things because of it.

there are few things that can affect a person more than certain sounds. from the smashing of broken glass to the whisper of a close friend, each sound can mean something so dynamic and different. and in each person's life, i would argue that there are certain sounds that you cannot forget -- no matter what. these voices / sounds follow us throughout our lives and whenever we re-encounter them, there is no mistaking it. they bring with them a flood of enchanting memories (at best) or spine-tingling nightmares (at worst).

there's just no escaping the sounds of your past.

today, i heard a voice that i knew so well many years ago (slightly disguised as it was) and i fell in love all over again.

p.s. no. it's not the ghostbusters guy. WAIT FOR IT.....

oh justin timberlake. i will always love you.

p.s.again. based on the trailer, does this look like a good movie? not really. i mean, is it really worth seeing if i can't actually SEE the love of my teenage life? debatable. but the point is...i knew it was him. and that's what counts.

relationship on the rocks.

two years and three months into our relationship...lex and i have started to hit a few bumps.

it started with a light: a tiny one in the front that refused to be fixed. i replaced it -- he burnt it out again (a week later). now my blinker goes double speed when i want to turn right, which makes me want to stop using my turn signal altogether. to hide my shame, i turn off the auto-lights function so it doesn't look like lex and i are having issues.

isn't that always how it starts? something that shouldn't even be an issue. something you try to fix, but it can't be repaired. then...denial -- covering up the problem and pretending it didn't happen.

so we took a little break. i went to ohio and drove a few other cars there, while lex stayed in utah. he's not the roaming type, but it gave him time to think. and i think all of that thinking made him upset. i've been back a few weeks and it seemed like things were okay. we've been going places, hanging out with friends just like old times. and then yesterday -- totally out of nowhere!! -- boom. dead battery.

did he plan it? i don't know. i ditched him and decided to hitch a ride but when i came back last night, i called aaa and got a new battery. the guy said we'd be good for 3-5 years after that and gave me a warrantee (just in case). but how can you ever really know?

so lex and i are trying to work through this rough patch. we know that relationships are a two-way street and we appreciate all your love and support through this difficult time. we're going to try to go back to the shop this week to take another look at that front light and then just go from there...take it a day at a time. because when you care about someone, what else can you do? you just love them...no matter what life throws your way. because together -- you can make it work.

hospital adventures.

ruth had a baby on monday (eek!) and everything has been a crazy whirlwind ever since then. baby d should be coming home soon, but until then...here's some highlights (and lowlights) from the week.

1. holy hand sanitizer, batman. i don't think i've ever been as disinfected as i've been the past few days ( : apparently the hospital won an award this summer for best use of hand sanitizer (how would you even measure that?) and i'm not even surprised.

2. if you are thinking of having a baby at the a.f. hospital, try to request NOT being taken care of by CHRISTA G. not only is she a total crazy nurse, but she may or may not make super-rude comments about your unborn baby and leave you in your room and never come back.

3. one of the funny things about being at the hospital late: every night when we left, the security guard would check our bags to make sure we didn't take any babies home with us.

4. fong's asian diner. it's on the corner of state street and 2000 and it is yummy! we went yesterday and got these adorable bento boxes and they were delicious. plus, when you walk in, it looks like a classic diner (a la 1950's). if you're ever close...totally check it out.

5. wheel of fortune word searches -- omg. probably the bane of my existence but at least it kept me occupied for a few hours at a time while waiting my turn to hang out with baby d.

6. baby d is super-adorable. i have a really cute nephew. i could say it a few more different ways, but that's pretty much it. congrats ruth + drew on making a baby!

sunday speculations.

1. i made a peach / strawberry crumble dessert today with strawberries i bought on wednesday. they were still really good and yummy. and yet...i went to walmart yesterday and all of their strawberries had fuzzy, white mold all over them. seriously? gross.

2. my family discovered skype this weekend. apparently we're not that sharp with new technology (it was invented like 7 years ago).

3. watched the first two "back to the future" movies last night (we were going to watch BTF3 but we heard the 3rd one is kind of lame) and we have a loooong way to go if we are going to have hover boards and flying cars in five years. fav quote: "you are my density."

4. if you have to ask, the answer is probably no.

5. in case you are wondering, here is a list of the kron family food groups: bread. cookies. granola bars. cereal. chicken. we are all definitely going to die as carbohydrate addicts.

what doesn't kill you...

i'll be honest. i thought i was going to die last night.

i mean, if we're being technical, it was about 6:20ish this morning, but regardless, i woke up and it felt like someone was stabbing me with a zillion knives in my side. more specifically, my right side...way more specifically, my lower right side and under my ribs. i sat up. i laid back down. i tried to walk it off, but the pain wouldn't go away. needless to say, i couldn't fall back asleep either.

i googled my symptoms (lack of appetite for the past few days, feel like throwing up, pain in the "lower right quadrant" of my abdomen, fever, etc) and guess what?

my appendix is going to explode and i will probably die.

did you know you can die from appendicitis? gosh...what a way to go. according to webMD, the appendix doesn't rupture until about 24 hours after the initial pain / symptoms start to happen, so i think i've got at least another day or two to live.

so if you don't hear from me again, don't say i didn't warn you.

don't even blink.

it seems like i'm always in a rush on my way to church. i'm typically a couple minutes late, but our bishopric totally enables us by not starting anything until about 1:10 anyways (yeah...we're even in the afternoon and i'm STILL late). so on the way there, i'm usually finishing makeup / changing shoes / putting on lotion / whatever else needs to be done and sometimes that requires taking off my rings (i wear two everyday -- always).

i walked into church yesterday -- sans rings. it was awkward...that feeling when something is so absolutely missing that you are itching to fix it. so after the first hour, i hustled outside to grab my rings.

and guess what? it was raining. dark clouds, rumbling thunder, the whole nine yards. a bona fide mini-summer storm. the tiny rain drops dripped on my head as i hurried to my car and back, relishing one of my top favorite things about summertime (the storms, duh).

but guess what else? by the time church was over, the sun was out and there was no evidence that there had been any precipitation at all. if i hadn't gone outside for those few quick minutes, i would have missed that adorable, little storm altogether.

there is so much awesome in the world -- gotta keep your eyes open as wide as possible so you don't miss out.

"civilization's going to pieces."

i've taken a lot of honors english classes in my life. most of those seem lifetimes away, so i've been re-reading some of the old classics. on my flight to ohio, i read the first half of "the great gatsby." and now...i can't find it ANYWHERE.

i know. it's devastating.

i picked up my old copy of "catcher in the rye" so i still have something to read (for now) but still. i need gatsby. i think i might just have to get another copy because i want to finish it this week. i'd forgotten how much i love reading without having to worry about answering questions, taking vocabulary quizzes and all those awful things. so now that i'm done with school, i can just enjoy reading for the love of it. and for the love of nick carraway...

never wanna wake up.

being in ohio has been like a crazy dream. a good one...but still sort of insane. it's been fun to catch up with friends, hang out with my family, visit my old station and actually take some time to relax for once. without getting into the complex details of my wonderful adventures here so far...here's three quotes from the movie i watched last night. pretty much everything that's happened since i've been here can fall under one of these categories.

"you can't stop a story being told."

"can you put a price on your dreams?"

"you were the best mistake i ever made."

the imaginarium of dr. parnassus...definitely an interesting flick. not released widely in the u.s., but it was heath ledger's last movie, with cameos from johnny depp, jude law and colin farrell (all playing heath's character) so i'm glad i watched it. it was a story about stories, one of a handful of things i am seriously passionate about. life wouldn't end without dreams or stories, but it just wouldn't be as awesome. anyways. loved it. love ohio. life is good.

change of heart.

when i left for college, my brother was still practically a baby. maybe that's why even now...when he's on the brink of turning 12...i still see him as a little kid. i'm pretty sure he's going to grow up (whether any of us like it or not) and that's kind of scary. but what can i do?

then today...i decided something. my dad is always encouraging DK to eat healthy food so he will grow up to be big and strong.

i no longer condone this.

if my little brother wants to eat food without any dietary value, i wholeheartedly support that. if he wants to stay tiny and adorable forever...i'm all about that. so from now on -- i'm hiding the vegetables. and the vitamins. i love my baby (nearly-as-tall-and-strong-as-me) brother just like he is.

bad sleeping habits.

going to bed at 12:47 AM and waking up at 8:30ish AM totally wouldn't be a bad thing...if i was in the right time zone. instead, i am stuck in utah time and living in ohio time. so instead of going to bed a while after midnight...it's almost 3 AM. and instead of sleeping in a little bit...i'm out cold til almost noon.

dear body,

way to totally not adjust to your visit to the eastern time zone yet...even though you've been here almost an entire week. you are super-stubborn.

with love,

from anna.

best seat in the house.

i flew to ohio this week and i was a little skeptical of my seats since i wasn't able to pick them. somehow, i ended up with the dreaded middle seat on the very first leg of my journey...awesome. but guess what? it wasn't bad. here's why. there were two seats on one side of the aisle and three on the other side. i was assigned to the middle seat on the three-seat side:

- AISLE - [ g ] [ X ] [ n ] - WINDOW -

g = guy next to me (aisle seat).

X = my seat (middle).

n = next to my seat (by the window).

here is the awesome part. instead of having a seat next to the window...there was nothing. just empty space. so instead of sitting between two crazies (because they're always crazy), i sat next to one guy and one empty space. basically i had a window seat...just a few feet away from the window. score. plus it was in an exit row so we had extra leg room (because i totally need it).

and since i love lists...here are things i thought about on the plane:

- flying on planes always makes me tired.

- i only ever get seated next to boys. in all my years of flying solo, i don't think i've ever sat next to a girl.

- i never sat in an exit row until this trip.

- i have to chew gum while i'm flying.

- if you pretend youre asleep, they wont make you turn off your ipod.