If Music Be The Food Of Love, List On?

I love the thought of listing song favorites at the end of each year, but every time I've tried to, my compilation has ended up about 250 tracks long. Sad thing, really. Here are this years attempts at tracking the musical joys of 2010.

First, a record of all the purchases I've made on iTunes. Why? There aren't a ton of songs, but enough to validate this years taste. Plus, that's just a super easy way to do it:

Second, a few albums that were not necessarily released during 2010, but were both received and enjoyed by me this year [I'm a little behind, I know]:

Emotionalism - The Avett Brothers
For Emma, Forever Ago - Bon Iver
The Suburbs - Arcade Fire
All Delighted People EP - Sufjan Stevens
Sigh No More - Mumford & Sons
The Age of Adz - Sufjan Stevens
Where the Wild Things Are - Karen O and The Kids
Veneer - Jose Gonzalez
Sleigh Bells - Sleigh Bells
Hello Love - The Be Good Tanyas
Man on the Moon: The End of Day - Kid Cudi
Red, Yellow, & Blue - Born Ruffians
Say It - Born Ruffians
Alas I Cannot Swim - Laura Marling
Intuit - Romona Falls
Crushes - Mates of State
Attention Deficit - Wale
Peaceful the World Lays Me Down - Noah and the Whale
Plastic Beach - Gorillaz
The Rhumb Lin - Ra Ra Riot
Thistled Spring - Horse Feathers
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
The Blueprint 3 - Jay-Z
Avi Buffalo - Avi Buffalo
Guero - Beck
Friend and Foe - Menomena
Dead Man's Bones - Dead Man's Bones
Subiza - Delorean
Odd Blood - Yeasayer
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Four Theives Gone - The Avett Brothers
Charm School - Bishop Allen

[There are more but.. this is me trying to keep things under control.]

Third, a list of 2010's best garbage songs:

Party In The USA - Miley Cyrus
^ Not even released in 2010, but still wins first place. It's just that good.
Whip My Hair - Willow
Bottoms Up ft. Nicki Minaj - Trey Songz
Outta Your Mind - Lil Jon & LMFAO
We R Who We R - Ke$ha
Eenie Meenie - Justin Bieber & Sean Kingston
Can't Be Tamed - Miley Cyrus
Teach Me How To Dougie - Cali Swag District
California Gurls ft. Snoop Dogg - Katy Perry
Like a G6- Far East Movement, The Cataracs & Dev

Fourth, for memories sake, a few songs my family obsessed over this year:





A quick THANKS to those who blog about good music, text about good music, drive while listening to good music, sell good music on Amazon, ETC. Without you, I'd probably be some angry teenager [yes, I would still be a teenager, despite that I am 20], shopping at Hot Topic, eating crushed cigarettes for breakfast, and hoping to be In This Moment's [2:30-2:55] next lead screamer. Just kidding. But really, thanks.

PS. I don't know if I've ever pulled up the year column of my iTunes until now. I can't believe how much good music came out in 2009. FerRffr reAlz.

Blalkers = Blog Stalkers!

Blog peekers more like- I don't know how many actually look at this thing more than once.

But STILL, isn't that neat^?

[I sure think so.]

PS. Why does blogger have such a miserable picture uploading system. I realized a few nights ago that I frequently say I will put pictures up.. and then I don't. It's just such a task.

Christmas In The Room

FERR REALSIES THERE IS A GUY LIVING AT MY APARTMENT

My roommates fiance sold his contract at the beginning of December and instead of moving home to Preston, he basically moved in with us. I'm all downs with that except.. he's a guy, he's not paying rent or helping with utilities, and he's not at all fun to play games with. [One of those types who cares about technicalities. Yuck.] Plus, the whole thing's just a bad idea, especially since they've got a chronic case of never leaving her bedroom. I got back up here yesterday morning and I didn't even know they were home yet until 10 minutes ago. HA. Then again, I went to bed at 8:30 last night so if they were wandering around after then, that's why I didn't see them.


I wish Christmas wasn't over already, I feel like I didn't properly celebrate it. I didn't read or think about Christmas at all this season. Working so much, not once did I have energy or time to drive around and look at lights like I would have liked. Not once did I just sit in the snow and take everything in, partly because we didn't have any snow. Working at the mall, full of its hustle, discourtesy and gloom, just made the whole season feel so commercial and miserable. On top of that, the week before Christmas was just full of disaster and misfortune. Top of the list bad experiences were:

1) Staying at my apartment last weekend, instead of driving home, because the weather man said it would snow storm when in the end, it only rained.
2) Horrible sales at work.
3) Sleeping in Monday morning >>>>> Half hour late opening at work #1.
4) Sleeping in Tuesday morning >>>>> Fifteen minutes late opening at work #1.
5) 6 upset ladies because of opening late >>>>> 5 forgiving. 1 not so much.
6) A girl peeing through her diaper and completely soaking the velvet chair at work #2. Then, having a completely urine soaked chair at work#2 and having no cleaning supplies what-so-ever to clean it up. YUCK.

Remember how I said I went to bed at 8:30 last night? ^ It's because of 3&4. I've never slept in while working mornings up here! I can't even believe I did. After the second time, I went and bought myself a $35 alarm clock, and have not been able to have a peaceful night of sleep since due to fear, ABSOLUTE FEAR, of being late to work again. And not JUST being late, mind you, opening the entire club late. UGGHHH. I hate thinking about it! But enough complaining, I still I have a few things about the situation to be grateful for:

1) That I've been there so long, I was forgiven by my manager.
2) That I didn't sleep in any longer than I did!
3) That 50% of the normal morning ladies didn't show up due to Christmas break. PHWU.

The two day break I got to go home for Christmas was wonderful. It's always so good to see my family and spend time with my mom and sisters. It's fun to see extended family too. Mostly. We spent part of Christmas eve with my dad's side and while we were at grandma's, I spent a few minutes talking to a cousin about my schooling. When he asked what my major was I explained that I didn't have one and told him "I'm in the middle of my third year and I don't know what to do with my life." He awed at me and asked, "Is that even possible? To be all the way in your third year and not have a major?"

UUUGGHHH. Don't ask me things like that. OF COURSE IT'S POSSIBLE.

Though that made me feel like a huge loser, after talking to another cousin of mine during a Christmas day get-together on my mothers side, I started to feel loads better. See, she'll be on her 8th/9th year of college by the time she graduates with her bachelors. It's so good to know there are others like me out there. (:

Anyways, Christmas isn't as fluffy as it used to be, which is fine with me. The morning was still nice. We had cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate for breakfast, a few hours after waking up, and stayed in PJ's for most of the morning. I would have liked to stay in bed too, but one of my sisters tried to get us all up at 8:30 am and started to cry when no one would sneak to the family room with her- which got me up because as the older sister, I felt it was my duty.

My family received Just Dance 2 on Wii, so before heading to grandma's, my sisters and I played it for a million hours straight. 2 days later and my body is still hurting. Gifts I was given consisted of a jacket I bought myself, 2 sweaters I picked out for myself and.. tank-tops, socks, underwear, you know--> the good stuff. Really though. Socks are so expensive, I basically begged my mom to get me some for Christmas. Oh, I also got Despicable Me [from Jake and Heidi] and silverware. NBD? Wrong. SUCH a big deal! I've been using the same box of plastic silverware all semester, so it'll be nice to have real stuff.

MEEEHHH--->> I have nothing else to say. I hope my non-existant blog readers also had a wonderful holiday and are as excited for New Years as I am! Yay for dancing!

PS. Poor quality pictures from the break = on their way.
PPS. Levi sent me a package and in it was a shot glass from a gay bar, that he bought from a gay thriftstore called "Out of the Closet". On the note attached, among other things he wrote, "Welcome to California." Ha ha. BESTIE.

December 17, 2010

Jake and Heidi were wed for all time and eternity on December 17 in the Bountiful, UT temple. What a wonderful day! [Even though we all about froze to death while taking pictures.] There beautiful reception [complete with gourmet dinner, toasts, and dancing] was held at a center in Sandy and after having attended it, I've become more firmly set on not having my reception in a church.

Fer REALS.

The whole thing was so classy and went by so quickly--> I'm still having a hard time believing it actually happened, in fact, every time I get on the phone with the happy couple, or see them in person, I have to tell them how weird it is that they're actually married- as if they don't already know.

Congratulations Jake and Heidi!
May you have a long and happy marriage.

PS. Time for you two to create a blog. Woop-woop! (;

I should probably be studying for finals, cleaning my room, feeding my body, thinking of Christmas presents, thinking of wedding presents [JAKE GETS MARRIED ON FRIDAY!], getting a blanket to warm my toes, going to bed.. All those things and probably more. But, I'm not. I find list blogging is a good way to relieve stress. Not really. But I'd like to do it anyway.

List of my favorite things from last week/this week:

• Surprise visiting my sisters at midnight
• Celebrating Christmas with my besties
• Fishing with macky
• My clothes finally being dry after hanging all over my room for 3 days
  
• Getting work off yesterday
• The finger marks I left in the butter on the counter [Didn't have time to use a utensil. HA.]
  
• Going down to Salt Lake [on a school night! (:]

• Attending the Horse Feathers concert

• Buying super thinly sliced smoked turkey from Smith's deli
• Seeing mass amounts of ridiculously tacky inflatable Christmas decorations
• Having no more class for a month-ish
• Dancing my heart, might, mind, and strength out with Carli [Side note: I will forever ever, ever, ever love dance parties. And I will also forever ever, ever, ever love the fact that Carli and I end up the last ones dancing at every single dance party we go to. TRUE DANCERS WE ARE.]
• Eating donuts every morning, drinking herbal tea every night, and making lots and lots of banana bread
  
• Watching the pebble and the penguin with my roommates
• Getting an A on my paper (:
• Eating pizza my home teachers delivered to me while I was at work [What besties!]
  
• My 14 minute phone call with Benjamin that ended in him saying, "Well, I better let you get back to blogging, so you can get A's on your finals."
• Shuffle picking Only at Christmas Time by Sufjan Stevens while I was driving home in the snow
• Making best friends with the ladies at the calendar and Western Nut kiosk's
• Working out with Elicia and Emily

• Getting a 24 inch Jedi wrap in my 6 inch long hair.

Manillion Page Paper

Facebook conversation December 5 ---> 10 page paper due December 6

Not long after that, I received a text from a friend claiming decent sized amounts of shock that I had even started my paper.

I'm not a big fail, okay? (:

Paper done. Turned in. Graded. Handed back.

The Megalodon

^ Click to enlarge.

The highest rated comment has probably made today's 10 minute youtube experience worth it. I can't believe I haven't wasted more time going back and forth between shark videos. Then again, I guess it is my bamillionth time looking the them up.

Best ever, right?

Roommate War 2010

Ha! What a JOKE.

3.5 Stars for Bengal Spice!

Last night, while trying to study, I ended up googling for a certain type of herbal tea my family drank all the time when I was younger. It was hazelnut.. vanilla.. something and has long since been discontinued as far as I can tell. Though that is incredibly sad news, during the search I found a million kinds that sounded wonderful, so, today after class I went immediately to Smith's. Needless to say, I'm the proud new buyer of:

Peppermint
Sleepytime Vanilla
and Bengal Spice
[ They didn't have Roastaroma at the store ): ]

How splendid! [And expensive- Good thing they were marked down to $2 a box!] I'm currently testing out the new flavors. Mmm.. numnum. 3.5 stars for Bengal Spice! It's delicious and nutritious until the after taste, which makes my tongue fizzle and sizzle due to incredibly massive amount of cinnamon. Maybe milk will balance it out.. or sugar? Ha.

I always end up taste testing drinks over and over until they're sweet enough to consume while thinking-- "Now was that... .5 spoonfuls of sugar.. 2 spoonfuls of sugar.. 5 spoonfuls? UGH." I just never know! Has anyone ever used sugar cubes for anything besides building miniature igloos? I've seriously been thinking about investing in a box, but they're so expensive! It'd be nice to have some sort of consistent sugar pouring system, but I can't decide if it's worth it.

Now At Last

What a perfectly beautiful song..

Interaction Analysis

Starting this paper has been the hardest thing I’ve done in a long time. To start an essay.. what a task. Free write. Brain blockage. Brain block. Brain cloud. I’d rather arm wrestle my teacher or turn all my clothes inside out before wearing them. As I lay here thinking of what to write all that comes to mind is eating more junk food and/or going to buy a full body mirror from Smith’s market place, because I really need one of those. Rahh, I’ve watched two movies and nothing is done. I MUST BEGIN.

Still Wandering

From Matthew Hall: The Minimalist's Guide to Cultivating Passion

From Auntie Cynthia: Can't Pick a College Major? Create One

A post of holiday pictures will come.. maybe when I'm done taking a nap.
IDK my BFF rose.

I'm just SHO thankful!

A loud "UGH" found it's way out of my mouth when I noticed the christmas lights shining through my apartment window and a snowman wreath hanging on my door. Oh Mandy, you cynical, cynical human, you. "UGH??" Really? Why not "Yay, I didn't have to buy any decorations this year!" Guess living with strangers has altered my attitude about the whole thing. I usually enjoy decorating for Christmas and I usually love spending time with roommates during Christmas break! But, I'm starting to dread sharing the break with my roommates and I shouldn't- they're nice enough girls. This is bad. Very bad. Especially since break is what? 3 weeks long? Double UGH.

I want there to be a drug I can take that forces me to do my homework. HA. I can never get myself to do it until lastlastlastlast minute. Which is a huge problem because I have a 10 page paper due December 6 and I haven't even read the instructions for it. The instructions were given weeks ago! Actually.. more like MONTHS ago! Ugh. The closer the due date comes, the more stressed out I am, and the more incapable I am of starting my paper. What a nasty cycle!

In honor of Thanksgiving and the need to be more positive about life, here are a few things I'm thankful for:

Important list:
family
best friends
old roommates
freedom
religion
health
food
work
clothes
shelter
transportation
THE SUN

Unimportant list:
amazon
wit
justin bieber .. and all the other ridiculous under-aged, over-paid pop artists
these reviews on itunes about a kesha song:

dancing
animal crackers
horrible engagement pictures
horrible profile pictures
sleep
really tall trees
old people
summer, fall, WINTER
like a G6
this urban dictionary definition of slizzard:swollen lymph nodes = NOT thyroid cancer
[^had a little scare over the break]
2 jobs
christmas break
not having to work the morning of black friday
junk food
free time
live music
blogs that list
good literature
the time and will to read good literature
good drivers
apple
art, specifically this:

by allison schulnik

pianos, banjos, violins

letters
my giraffe shaped possessions
the farm
music that reminds me of my dad
being warm
2/$1 midnight milkyways at smith's
movies that aren't scary
conversations with elicia:
the ability to avoid twilight fever
cheese: the quality of being too obviously sentimental
microwaves
kind strangers
good hygiene
college
layers
breakfast
good looking people

.. I could go on forever, so I'm just going to end there because, well, remember that paper I'm supposed to write? I've got a lot more to do than just that.

Arcade Fire VS Blondie

Do these sound similar to anyone else?
I cannot listen to one without thinking of the other.

VS

Waah

Megan, P, T, and I went to HP7PT1 at 1:30 Friday morning. SO GOOD. It makes me SO SAD to think there is only one part left until our adventure with Harry, Ron, and Hermione is over!@!!@@@!! [In both book and film. :( ]

Waah.

I wish Harry Potter would continue forever.

PS. I'm learning the banjo. Officially.

HP WHAT?

GOING TO SLC RIGHT NOW SO I CAN WATCH HP7pt1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEAHOO.

Spoiler Alert!

I finally finished Mockingjay, after it's spent a partially read 2 months chillin' in my my house/apartment/car/backpack.


Peeta should have died and Katniss should have had happily ever after with Gale. What is wrong with the world of literature?? Really?

Who in their right mind would choose the cake decorator/baker over their best friend/SOUL MATE. Peeta is just... Bleh. And Gale is HAWT, and everything a girl [aka- me] could ever ask for.

Well, I mean, if he were real- he probably would be. HA.

Can I just list for you the 2 problems that lie within every book I've ever read?

1- The man I fall in love with NEVER wins.
2- Everybody always dies in the end. Always.

Which is just... miserable. It makes me cry about people that don't even exist. Why don't main characters ever get to live the remainder of their unwritten lives with at least one family member or friend?

GAHHH.

Maybe I should just write my own collection of books- one in which Gale and Captain Jack Elliot combine into one superhumanhearthrob5000 that actually survives the whole series- and wins in the end.

Block Pusher

Usually this tiny, frail Vietnamese lady comes into Curves while I'm working. Her name is To. Pronounced "toe". Well, that's how I pronounce it anyways... Ha. Who REALLY knows, right? Just kidding.

Anyways, I'm getting better at understanding her but she has this tremendous accent that is so hard to interpret most of the time, so I usually just nod and say "Oh yeah!" really enthusiastically. It took 2 or 3 conversations about her blood pressure before I realized that's what we were even talking about. It sounded like she was saying "block pusher"- and for all I know that could have been a real thing! .. Maybe. Ha.

At the beginning of this week when I asked her how her weekend was she proceeded to tell me about how she went to a big building around Provo with lots of animals inside. My first thought was that it was Cabelas, definitely Cabelas. So, I asked her.

"Was it called Cabelas?" She paused and looked at me so confused, said "no, no, no..", then started telling me how there were fish inside. "Oh yeah! Were there fishing poles?" Same amount of confusion- "no, no..". I continued to ask her if it was even a store, if there were camping supplies, clothes, etc. Turns out- yep- she bought a coat there. So, I asked her again "Was it called Cabelas?" and she said "No, I find out for you."

Okay, okay.

A morning or two later, having completely forgotten about the conversation- I'm in the circuit talking with all the ladies and To comes in. Upon greeting her she says "here- something for you", reaches into her pocket and pulls out a tiny scrap of paper and hands it to me.

Guess what was written on it.





HAAAAA.

(:

REALLY?

There are 4 employees at work: One is having Thanksgiving two weeks early with her side of the family and her husband. One is originally from here- SO, her family lives in town- WHICH MEANS she probably doesn't even HAVE to travel. One, the manager, has a full-on family of her own. Husband, kids, and whatnot, no more than 30 minutes away from place of employment. [Yeah, that seems like a lot but, she drives that distance every day for work anyways.]

Now... every happy holiday experience I could know and love is at least an hour+ away. Every. Single. One. No husband, no local family, nada.

And I have to open on BLACK FRIDAY?
At 6 am?

REALLY?

And I'm working by myself, no less.

If it's a one person job the manager should do it! She gets paid more than me anyway.

PLUS, I had to work Halloween night.

NOT FAIR.

Music Is Better For Me Anyway

Last Friday I decided I was going to limit my spending to $50/week.
[For everything, except gasoline.]


I've got $2 to last me until Monday.

Ahhhhh..


Why do I feel like buying CD's is more important that buying food?

The Type Of Thing I Should Keep To Myself

Often times, I feel the need to eat a second breakfast. Reason being that when I work early- I end up grabbing something quick and eating it in the car on the way there so after 2 - 4 hours has passed- I'm ready to go home and have a real breakfast- breakfast numero dos.

This morning I made German Pancakes. Which are SO good and SO easy:
Mix 3 Eggs, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup flour, and 1/4 tsp salt. Place a wedge of butter in the pan, place pan in oven, once wedge is melted- pour mixture in pan. Cook at 400 F until the whole thing looks like a big hilly monster with nice golden-brown edges.


The recipe I use/posted is 1.5 person sized, it's usually doubled which turns out a lot hillier and cooler looking than mine.



For a few months/weeks recently [I don't know which- seemed like months] our dishwasher was broken. It made our dishes situation a little more crazy than normal, or that's what I thought. Unfortunately though, our dishwasher has been fixed for a week or so and the problem persists.

My roommates rarely keep up with their dishes! That's annoying because:

A) it forces me to continue hand-washing my dishes in order to save myself from becoming their slave and doing 30 of their dishes for every 2 of mine. [Plus, I figure if I do my own dishes 100% of the time, 100% separately from the other roommates- I can't be blamed as part of the problem when I'm caught complaining.]

B) because their dishes pile up in the sink, which creates a situation where there is no room to wash new dishes [which forces me to empty the left side onto the right side making their ridiculous lack of dish-washing even harder to ignore].

This morning I came home and the dishes were all done and kitchen cleaned. What a nice feeling. This made me determined to fix the problem. Easing into the subject I asked one of the sisters if she did the dishes. Nope, it wasn't her. I figured that was the case [I have a theory about who ends up doing the dishes], but I was using the situation to work my way into saying something like- "Ohhh, that was a huge mess. We all really need to be more helpful and take care of our own dishes."

Unfortunately, before I could say anything except "oh", she looked at me and said "the dishes are probably in the dishwasher." But with chilling attitude like you can't explain over blogger. [Maybe she's not a morning person, maybe listening to Death Cab's Plans album puts her in a bad mood, maybe she just doesn't like me. IDK.] Anyways, that caught me off guard A) because there was so much attitude and b) because it just didn't make sense. Besides the cupboard and the dishwasher, where would the dishes be? Maybe because they weren't in the sink [like they usually are] she thought maybe I didn't know where to find them? Or maybe she just figured that because the dishwasher was dirty that meant the dishes weren't done. HONEY, once the dishes actually make the dishwasher- they are basically done. Really.

After our short exchange of words she went into her bedroom. [Which is pretty normal behavior for our apartment- spending lots and lots of time in your room.] A few minutes later, she walked through the family room and out the front door muttering a cold, obligatory, last second "bye". In response I yelled "See ya!" and as the door shut I whispered "whore". Uh-oh. I couldn't help it! Ha. When someone has an uncalled for negative attitude it just rubs me the wrong way like nobody's business. [I blame the inappropriate name usage on previous roommates.]

I might be a horrible person forever, despite my efforts to do better. Today I'm not taking responsibility for it though because of the forced honesty experiment for my class.

Time Shmime

I spent some time sweet-sweet relaxing today and destroying my blog. Too much time. I'll admit- I don't feel good about spending hours changing silly blog formats around. It's something I unintentionally ended up doing in efforts to soak up my paperless, responsibility-less day. Yup, my assignment is done and despite all the worry that my procrastinated paper might not be up to par, finally turning it in felt so good. Honestly, just handing off that 8 sheeted bundle I felt as if a huge burden had been lifted from me. ..Phrasing the experience like that sounds like I'm talking about repentance or something- Yup children, don't procrastinate that one either because 9 solid hours at the library the night before judgment probably won't provide much healing of the soul.

That's what it took to complete 7/8 of my paper- special Amanda/library bonding time from 3pm-midnight. I like to think that I wouldn't have left the project until Sunday evening had my computer continued to work [instead of freezing and terminating my Saturdays work efforts] and had I not needed to fit a drive down to SLC somewhere in there too [so I could attend an 8am meeting at Southtowne mall the next morning]. BTW- Who does that? Who holds a mandatory staff meeting on a Sunday morning, an hour and forty-five minutes away from the work location? [It was a regional meeting, so it would have been more inconvenient for everyone else to travel to Logan, but still.]

For one of my classes I'm supposed to be 100% honest for two days. [It didn't seem like a hard thing to do until I had to drive the speed limit. That has been the worst. REALLY. People, myself included, hate people who drive the speed limit!] Anyways, so before I publish post- I need to admit something. After I wrote about healthy eating habits a few days ago, I went straight to the store with one item of purchase in mind- Zebra Cakes. Embarrassing. Everyone knows those things are just striped octagons of Crisco. I bought a box and ate the whole thing within 24 hours. Can you believe that? If I die unexpectedly, that'll be the cause. Bleck. I should probably just eat 4 boxes [20 double packs], get sick and throw them up. That would cure me of the urge to eat them all the time. Or ever again for that matter.

Writing

I've got an 8-10 page paper due on Monday. And instead of using the last month and a half I've been given to do it, I've decided to wait until the weekend right before. Surprise.

Every time I think about writing my whole mind freaks out and shoots into a million different totally random and out of control sentences, thoughts, ideas, everything's that in no way relate to each other and cannot possibly be written down. It's so frustrating. Writing, or the idea of it, puts me into some sort of coma where all I can do is drink warm beverages and ..goof around on blogger. Bleh.

Does anyone else ever click 'Next Blog'? It's the best! I highly recommend it. I've become quite the creep lately, reading blog after blog. There are so many LDS blogs, it's shocking. Even more shocking though- there are tons and tons of blogs about different plant and animal species. Yeah.

On my quest to find life's itinerary, I've decided to leave the country. A few friends of mine are going on a volunteer venture and for a moment there I had decided to go with, I still might. But, it got me looking into study abroad programs. I'd be excited to participate in either opportunity, but deadlines for everything are coming up soon and I've no idea which to choose! Considering that I have no direction and I'm a third year in college, I should probably save my credits for completing a major, but at the same time- you can go on a study abroad for service learning experience or just to learn the countries language and culture. That sounds like the best. Doesn't that sound like the best?

After the purchase of my first ipod [a 4GB] ...and after the purchase of my second ipod [a 30GB], the phrase "go big or go home" really started to mean something to me. If I had just bought the 180GB in the first place, instead of being a wuss, I would have saved myself pain-in-the-neck itunes transfers, the inconvenience of not having enough space when I needed it, and most importantly--- money. I would have saved myself a lot of money.

I can relate this to most things in my life- whether it's really necessary or just provides justification, I'm not really sure sometimes. In this case, going to Central America would be the 4GB nano- it does not cut it, by so much does it not cut it. I do not need any 4GB's in my life. Going to South America would be the 30GB. Exceptionally better than the 4 GB, it would provide experience and would be cheaper than most places, as far as program and flight are concerned. It'd be cheaper, but not cheap. If I'm going to spend that much money to go there, why not 180GB it?

I've been dying to go to Africa for some time now and if a little extra will get me there, that might just be where I'll go.

We'll see.

PS. I think I've given up on wearing real clothes. Leggings+shirt is the most dressed I can get myself lately. Also, I've been eating healthier- no more boxes of zebra cakes or bags of Baby Ruths for me. [Ugh, saying that makes me really want some of either.] That picture up top is a meal I made myself- a real meal. One that wasn't nachos or taco soup. Oh.. and one last thing- I flooded my bathroom today. Yikes. I guess I should make sure the shower curtain runs off into the showering area.

THIS IS WHAT ELECTIONS DO TO ME.

I'm content with the election results and don't have much more to say except- I need to go out and take the political bumper sticker off my car. Yup, I have one of those. Eek. And I've once again become an avid listener of Glenn Beck. Bet you're excited about that, eh?

Judge me if you want.

PS. Post about the Sufjan concert coming soon.

- Ridiculous Music Obsession #419 -

Megan Bell showed me this the other day and.. well.. I can't get enough of it. Talk about KEWLEST ever. Who would have thought a teenybopper could make a song about whipping your hair back and forth sound so good.

- Blood Bank -

You know those times when it feels like the world has stopped? And you know it hasn't, but you wish it would?


My room is clean [after a few weeks of being.. well.. not.] Mmm, and it smells like Home Sweet Home. How quaint. -People keep using that word around me... I like it. I hear nothing but rain and Bon Iver on low while drinking a mug of 50% Pero, 50% Pumpkin Spice, 5% cream, 5% love. [ 110% WONDERFUL.] I've written in my journal [for the first time in ages] and the thoughts of homework/5:30 AM work have already gone to rest. Soon I'll go to bed too, at 11:00 PM. [That never happens.]

Sunday evening, thank you for visiting. You've got me looking forward to the rest of the week.

- HELP! -

I'm finally getting myself a camera that isn't super inconvenient to carry around! [I've been waiting a long time for this.] Now, the only thing between me and my purchase- is deciding what color to get.

I really like the tan one..But at the same time, getting black just seems like the right thing to do..What a ridiculous dilemma this is!

- Prime Year -

I was going to title this post 'Good Year', but then I felt like it would have to be written about tires or something so... I changed it.

Horse Feathers
is coming to concert..

For $10??

I'm ultimately excited for this! Last time they came, I bailed and went to Megan's BBQ instead. Which I don't regret, but just am a little sad about sometimes. SO, I'm way glad they're coming again! Too glad maybe!

It's been a great year of concerts!! Can my 5 followers believe the visits we've had? 50% of the best ones being free? And the other 50% being really cheap?

Mates of State [2]
Modest Mouse
Girl Talk
The New Pornographers*
The Avett Brothers*
Vampire Weekend*
fun.
Sleigh Bells**
Born Ruffians**
Sufjan Stevens [!!!]
Horse Feathers* [2]
and so many others..

SO PRIME. (:

Ps. All the girls at work are getting baby hungry and I'm having a hard time understanding it. How could working with children possibly make someone WANT one? Haa. Little terrors. I AM getting puppy hungry though. I saw the cutest Dalmatian/something mix on campus a few days ago and the only thing that stopped me from going out and buying one is my apartment contract. Maybe I'll have to buy a book about dogs for temporary treatment.

*Did not attend.
** Not allowed to attend because of age. BLECK.

- Not Much To Say -

Life:

Today I accidentally added the word 'prophile' to my computers dictionary.

My Deductive Logic professor said he wrote 'Jerk!' on a kids test once. The kid had made up 100 extra steps to a problem because he was bored and since the logic made sense our professor had to grade through each one.

I've decided wedding bouquets always look so beautiful. Speaking of weddings.. Talk about a commitment! Forever is a long, long time. Thinking about that makes me so glad I'm not already hitched and/or getting hitched anytime soon.

While I was at work yesterday a little girl got her shirt stuck on her head. It was really, really, really, rrreeeaaalllllllyyyy funny.

Last Thursday, for my Introduction to Folklore class, we went to the cemetery and looked at symbolism on gravestones.. It was really awesome to say the least. Cemeteries are really neat. If you've never lazily browsed one, I highly recommend it. Wikipedia says the Salt Lake Cemetery is the largest city owned cemetery in the United States. Cool, right?

Will someone teach me how to play marbles? I'd like to learn.

- Four Thieves Gone -

Drew that left handed. It's me [if you couldn't tell]. I tried to do a thumbs up but--- it turned into a bird..

Meh, Whatever.

- Noah and the Whale Phase -

Well if you are [what you love]
And you do [what you love]
I will always be the sun and moon to you.
And if you share [with your heart]
Yeah, you give [with your heart]
What you share with the world is what it keeps of you.

I just love that..

- Shlife -

I went into Curves a few days ago and the owner pulled me aside. She told me how a previous member had come in looking for me, wanting to know how I was doing.

"She was very anxious to see you.
... There have been a lot of ladies very anxious to see you. "

It feels so good to hear that. The friendships I have with those ladies make my minimum wage job worth it. Lacking a healthy amount of close relationships up here, I lean on them for encouragement as much as than they lean on me. It's really nice, and sometimes I wonder what I would do without them.

[PS. I've been slacking as a blogger, but it feels really good when real life prevents me from getting on here.]

- Shlove These Fools -

- Conference Weekend -

- Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit -

I wanted to post Mates of States cover of 17 Pink Sugar Elephants on here, but I couldn't find the audio anywhere but in my CD player. [Yes, CD player. (:] The cover is sooo good! Look it up on iTunes.

It's really hard to go from eating mint oreos to eating normal oreos. It's kind of like losing a best friend and buying a fish as a replacement. It just not the same.

Before this year I'd never consistently trekked up and down old main hill and I'm bittersweet about having to do it now. Those stairs are hell. There's no other way to put it. But on the other hand, I really enjoy that side of campus, the view over the hill just East of the amphitheater is so wonderful. This morning while I was walking home from class everything was just so beautiful and perfect. I really love Logan.

I've made a new friend up here. He's a grad student, working on his masters and teaching English 1010. For the past two years, I've spent all my time around the same people. I've been so anti-social. Really. And why? For one, I'm intimidated by awesome people. For two, I only like being friends with awesome people. Therein lies the issue. HA. But I'm getting over it. Hence, my friendship with Matt.

My ward is full of really great people, and I'm so thankful for that. I'm also thankful that I could get work off for FHE on Mondays so I can spend time with my ward. [I've never been able to do that, my whole college career!]

I've been working really hard for the last few months to better myself. I've decided I want to do what it takes to be reflected on as a good, positive person. Along with my no longer downloading music, I've been trying to be a better friend. I want all my relationships to be good ones, and I'm really working on that. I'm learning to say sorry. I'm learning to be productive. I've been more interactive with the real world- [ I have only pulled out my ear-buds once this whole semester!] I've decided to sacrifice my need to be a ridiculous person in able to become closer to the church and become what I'm here to be. I've been semi-diligently reading the scriptures and leaning on Heavenly Father for help. And I've been going to dance parties whenever I can- [the world would be a better place if everybody went to dance parties.]

To friends and acquaintances I've ever hurt,

I've been a vibrant music snob, a vibrant politics snob, just a vibrant snob in general. I've been negative and judgemental. I've been sarcastic. Cynical. I've made others and myself unhappy. I hope you can forgive me for all of that. I've come to the realization that we're all just dirty humans, trying to learn and do our best.

Lets go to lunch,
Mandy

- Howl -

Does anyone else spend way too much time looking through their blog and reminiscing? I hope so or else that's really embarrassing that I just admitted it.

Just came across a post that included tons of pictures from freshman year and it reminded me that Halloween is just around the corner! [Almost a month away is around the corner.]


I need to figure out what to be or I'll end up throwing an outfit together day of, and that's never fun. I also need to figure out what I'm doing that weekend. Do I stay at school or go to grandma's? It's such a hard decision!

- We Have A Really Good Looking Ward.. -

I really love being in a young single adult ward. Really. It's so nice to be able to take the sacrament in silence and not hear screaming babies the whole time. Testimony meeting is usually really great too [since we're all young, we don't the regulars who get up and talk about their children] though we do still have the occasional awkward and/or shocking, but still hilarious, comment.

Today's examples:

1. Girl ends her testimony with "We have a really good looking ward, and I'm really grateful for that." HA. Sho funny.

2. Guy gets up and bears his testimony on the priesthood. Really great, right? The story relating had to do with him giving his good friend a blessing, reason being that she had to get immediate surgery around her "bum area" and was waddling around but needed to be better by her marathon that weekend. .. . ..He said "bum area". TMI, man! On a scale of 1-10, uncomfortable level was around 14.

- Stillness Is The Move -

- True Love Will Find You In The End -

Danced it up at Mates of State again on the 17th. [For free this time! Yahoo!] I can't even express to you how much I love them. Talk about the most ridiculously cute and amazing couple ever.

Oh, how I admire them..

A few months ago I decided I would no longer download music. WHOA, right? Well, it's been a strange challenge but I'm glad to see my CD collection grow. Since I work all the time and my life is rather dull, I'm allowing myself the privilege of buying 1 new album/paycheck. What a deal!

Any recommendations?

- Ceo -

- Is That Just All The Change From Your Cup-Holder? -

The most peculiar thing just happened to me..

With my parking pass, my car is covered for 2 hours in the school's lot. Unfortunately, I was parked there for 2.5 hours so when it was time for me to pull out, I owed money and here's the payment process went:

Box Girl: "That'll be $1."

Me: "Man, I wasn't planning on being here this long so hopefully I've got some change." Counts out 7 dimes, 5 pennies, 1 quarter. "Oookkaaayyyyy.."Reaches hand of change out the window.

Box Girl: "Um.."Looks disapprovingly at change. "Do you have a card? Or a checkbook?"

Me: " Uh..no."

What kind of crazy questions are those?
A) I would not be paying in ridiculous variations of change if I had my card and

B) no person in their right mind writes a check for $1.

Box Girl: "Is that just all the change from your cupholder?"

Woman, why would I hand you all the change from my cup-holder?

Me: "Uhh.. no. It's a dollar." Just like you asked for..

Box Girl: Stares at me.

Me: "You can count it yourself."

Box Girl: Counts change. "Okay! Have a great day!"

What?

- We Will Never Forget -

I've been looking through articles and remembering the unity, humility, terror, sadness, and frustration the events of September 11 brought upon us nearly a decade ago. It's strange it's been so long, for I'm sure each one of us remembers it like it was yesterday.

The terrorist attacks marking that horrific day did not harm anyone I knew, but as an American they will effect me for as long as I live, and as a country they will effect us forever.

Work starts in an hour and I know once the river of chaos sweeps me away, the spirit and love I feel in memory of today will unintentionally depart from me. So as I sit here in silence and calm, my thoughts are immersed in remembrance of those who were effected by the tragedy. 9 years later, my heart still goes out to those who have lost loved ones due to the attacks and/or it's aftermath.

I will never forget.

I love this country and I am both humbled by and thankful for those who have given up all they have to protect it.

Please take time today to remember those affected by 9/11 and to remember who we are as people and who we are as a country. Take the time to say the pledge of allegiance and thank our Heavenly Father for the blessings of freedom which we have had our whole lives.

- Interpersonal Goals -

A month or so ago I told my dad that after I get married I want move out to the middle of nowhere with my husband, have a little garden, and live in beautiful, calm, isolation. I have now decided I would hate that because that's how life with my roommates is [mostly just the isolation part]. They're home = their doors are closed. They're gone = their doors are closed. So I never know if they're even here! And it's driving me crazy not to have someone to talk to all the time.

I've been trying to find somewhere I can take refuge and escape from the silence but the only people who keep in contact with me are the friends and family I have an hour and a half away, and truly it's starting to get me down. Every relationship I have here at school is being held together by my texts or phone calls. Every. Single. One. And those texts and phone calls don't even get answered or replied to 75% of the time. UHG.

Interpersonal communication is such an interesting thing. In class yesterday we had a discussion about how every single exchange of communication we make has a goal behind it. Thinking of my communication goals, most of them are relational. I care about how my friends are doing. I try to get together with friends because I enjoy spending time with them. I'm starting to wonder what everyone else's goals are..