Crushes

For anyone who hangs out with me you know first hand that I have a lot of crushes.  Some think this is strange, but I don't think there is anything wrong with finding attractive qualities in A LOT of people.  Now again, for anyone who hangs out with me you also know that I have categories for these crushes.  I've started to lose track of all of them, so I'm writing them here.  It's a list that's growing, and I threw it together quick so I might be missing a lot of people, but enjoy what I have.

Nerd Crushes:

• Jack Black
• Andy Sandberg
• Michael Cera
• Shia Labeouf

Old Man Crushes:

• Paul Simon
• Steve Carrell
• Kevin Bacon
• Colin Firth (Also an English Crush)
• Tom Hanks

Girl Crushes:

• Emma Stone
• Zoey Deschanel
• Beyonce
• Ellen Degeneres
• Emma Watson
• Keira Knightly

Cartoon/Fictional Character Crushes:

• Thor
• Peter Pan
• Mr. Darcy
• Mr. Knightley

Just Plain Sexy Crushes:

• Ryan Gosling
• Justin Long
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt
• Heath Ledger
• Patrick Dempsey
• Zac Efron
• Darrin Criss (Also Talent Crush)
• Neil Patrick Harris
• John Krasinski

Talent Crushes:

• Bela Flek
• Chris Thile (Also Just Plain Sexy Crush)
• Paul Simon
• Cat Stevens
• Ben Sollee
• Marcus Mumford (Also an English Crush)
• Jonathan Groff

Nature

Today in Anthropology we went for a walk.  The goal was to listen to nature, and observe everything around us.  We walked slow, Prof. Buonforte hugged and kissed a tree, I noticed I look at my feet a lot.  All-in-all, it was a peaceful walk, and at the end Buonforte gave us all an acorn.  After he left Belinda and I managed to crack ours open (this is the first time I've ever been able to do that).  Belinda wanted to try what was inside.  She said it was bland, and had a texture similar to coconut.  I took her word for it... then went to Subway.

Compliments

The other day I was walking to class and I ran into my friend Sam.  He said I looked really cool, which took me by surprise because I was wearing an orange scarf with butterflies on it, my blue and red plaid coat, my green and red striped mittens, and my hipster sunglasses.  Basically I was a walking definition of mismatch, and it was a complete accident because I grabbed everything as I was running out the door.  I told him, "I don't match at all" to which he responded, "You look like you've lived in England."  Sam, that compliment literally made my day.  I miss it there so much.

And guess what!!!???

I'm probably going back.  This time to the Channel Islands.  It's not technically a part of the UK, but the area is highly influenced by British Culture.  For my major I have to complete an ethnographic field study in the spring of 2013.  The Channel Islands is one of the options where I can do this study.  Other options include India, Thailand, Africa, etc.  I haven't 100% made up my mind because the idea of traveling to any of those places sounds incredible, but all in all I love English culture so I will probably be heading that direction once again.  I am so excited.

Changes

Isn't it funny how we change in life? I've been noticing a lot of changes about myself recently. I used to like leading, and now I prefer someone else to lead. I used to enjoy being the center of attention, and now I prefer to listen quietly to others (for the most part). I used to be untraveled and now I've seen the world. I once wanted to be a stage manager for live theater. Now I want to be an anthropologist. I never looked forward to French class in high school and I thought I had no language abilities. Now ASL is my favorite class, but I still don't have language abilities. I've kept some friends, and lost others... And I've become friends with people I never thought I'd be close to. I used to have straight A's... Now I definitely don't. My mom used to make me wonderful dinners, and now I eat a lot of PP&J. Life changes, and it sure is difficult to go through change sometimes but it's nice to recognize that all the changes are good. I could still learn and change things about myself, but what's nice is that I'm finally enjoying the process... I think. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed that food for thought. It allowed me to postpone studying for my science exam another 10 minutes. Peace and blessin's.

Hee Haw... and other Banjo ditties

So, I go through bouts of really missing my mom and tonight contained one of those bouts.  So I made my roommate listen to "Love is like a Butterfly" by Dolly Parton with me.  I love this song.  When I live at home and my dad has a late night at work I sit with my mom's bed, half heartedly fold clothes with her, and watch an episode of Hee Haw.  I bet you wish you were us.  Anyway, Dolly was the guest artist on this particular episode we watched and she sang the song mentioned above.  It's wonderful... and we watched it 3 or 4 times in a row.  Guess what mom!  Ally now loves the song too.  I couldn't have asked for a better roommate.  She loves our music!

So after Ally and I watched this video 3-ish times in a row I showed her "Well May the World Go" by Pete Seeger, another wonderful song my mom and I love.  So I am declaring today a "Two songs of the Day" day.  You should listen to both of them.  They are everything that is wonderful and joyous.

I miss and love you mom!
(Dad and sisters... I miss and love you guys too)

Pixie?

There's a girl in my ward that is in beauty school or something and she needs a pixie cut model on Tuesday... Meaning she needs a girl willing to get her hair cut pixie style.  I've always wanted a pixie cut, but I'm afraid I can't pull it off.  What do you think?

Provo Parties and Bored Cops

For those of you who don't know this, Provo is one of the most boring places to live.  Fortunately, all the students are so busy with school work that the boringness often goes unnoticed.  However, when the weekend comes and the football game has passed Provo inhabitants start to experience stages of extreme boredom.  We don't get drunk here in Provo, so instead we throw semi-awkward dance parties.  I say semi-awkward because the majority of us dance like white kids (with the space of a Book of Mormon between us and the people in close proximity).  Well this weekend the Lax House decided to throw one of these parties.  It was actually pretty cool.  The music was loud and they had a DJ announcing dance off's and all that jazz.  But of course, this party was way too exciting for Provo and someone told the cops.

Ok, by cops I mean a cop... singular.  It doesn't take too many cops to break up a Provo party.  I watched as the cop walked up to the party with a frown on his face, shaking his head in disappointment.  Inside, however, he was thinking, "Yes, this is the most exciting thing I've done all week!  I love when these Provo kids give me something to do."  So he broke up the party right before the last song was played.  Provo cops are the worst.  They have to kill the small amount of fun there ever is in Provo because they don't normally have anything to do.  So well done Lax House.  Your party was so off the hook that the cops got involved.  Maybe you'll make the Police Beat.

School Days, School Days

On my first day of Kindergarten my Dad woke me up with a song his mom used to sing to him.  It goes like this:

School days, school days 

Dear old golden rule days.

Reading and writing and 'rithmetic

Come to the end of a Hickory Stick

You were my queen in Calico

I was your bashful, bare foot beau

You rode on my sleigh

I loved you so...

When we were a couple of kids.

Well the school year didn't start off with that wonderful medley from my dad, but it did start off great.  Some things haven't changed (I still can't get up on time, I still have a messy room, and BYU campus remains clean and conservative), but the one thing has changed.  This year I actually feel like I have direction.  Next Thursday I will officially declare myself an Anthropology Major at Brigham Young University and I am so excited.  I know a lot of you pessimists out there are asking, "What are you going to do with that?"  Well I'm going to be happy and satisfied, and poor, and it's going to be awesome.  Seriously, I can't wait.

In other news, I'm living with Joni, Ally, and Keely this year and it's so wonderful.  Our living room is pretty hippy and chill and I love it.  We have 4 guitars, 1 banjo, a tambourine, a piano, 5 chickens, 3 turtles, and a whole lot of love.  Ok, you caught me!  No animals in the apartment, but everything else is there and the atmosphere is great.  The only thing missing is Jadyn.  We love and miss you!

Joni played a wonderful song in the apartment last night so it's going to be my song of the day.  It's called "Horse in the Sky" by Chris & Thomas.  Listen to it, love it, blah, blah, blah.  Mom, you know what living with Joni means?  Lots of good new music come Christmas time.  Get excited.

You always make me smile

Today's song of the day is "you always make me smile" by Kyle Andrews.  This song plays at work every once and awhile, and when I looked it up the other day I found out the music video was filmed at my school.  I thought that was pretty cool.

In other news, life at home is pretty average.  I've been working a lot.  I had two jobs at the beginning of the summer, but now that Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is over I'm back to the one job at Victoria's Secret.

Ummmm... I really think that's everything.  Wow, my life is kind of boring right now.  The only other thing I can think to tell you about is how hot it's been the last few days.  Humidity is no fun, but I work inside in the AC so I'm surviving quite nicely.

Something in the Water (Song of the Day)

I love when a movie, TV show, or a simple commercial grabs my attention because of a song.  Tonight as I watched So You Think You Can Dance with my family a great song started playing and of course I didn't have my Shazam or my phone to quick write down the lyrics.  So I had Jess text it to me so that I could later find the song.  It is called "Something in the Water" by Brooke Fraser.  It is today's song of the day.

Here's the video so that you can listen to the song.  It's not the most brilliant music video in the world, but the music is what's important.  By the way, she hasn't made it to the $1.29 list on iTunes so you can get this song for $.99!!  Enjoy.

One Scoop Will Suffice

My family and I went to Ruby Tuesday's this week.  My mom said the reason was because my dad wanted the garlic biscuits.  I will have it known that I ate more than he did.  They are so good.  Anyways, I ordered a strawberry lemonade to drink and it was pretty delicious, minus the huge chunks of strawberry.  I love strawberries, but I hate have something chunky in my liquid.  If all the chunks floated to the top, and I could safely drink without a surprise, squishy chunk of fruit coming up the straw, I would love the chunks and eat them when I reached the slurping end of my beverage.  However, these chunks did not float.  Every time a strawberry came up my straw I would go on a rant.  The rant went something like this:

"I hate chunks in my drinks.  I also hate chunky fruit in my smooth yogurt, and I hate chewy raisins in my crunchy cereal.  Raisin Bran would be just fine with one scoop of raisins, thank you very much."

I never thought I was a texture person when it came to food.  Apparently I am.

Work

Today I started my summer job.  It's nice to know I will have money again.  England really emptied my pockets.  For those of you who don't know, I work at Victoria's Secret.  Yes, this is an unusual job for a Mormon girl like me, but I LOVE it.  Today was pretty slow, but even slow days bring in interesting customers.  This particular afternoon there was a suspicious man that would come in only to quickly leave once he saw that I was watching him.  We did have a conversation though.  It went like this:

Me: "Can I help you with something?"

Him: "I'm looking for Victoria."  (really clever pal...)

Me: Sorry, she's not here today.

And then he left.  I like to think I thwarted his plan to steal lingerie.  That's right, Super Lizzy saved the bras once again!  Such a successful day in the underwear world.

New Shoes

Today's song of the day was inspired by the wonderful little boy Calvin!!  Today his mom, Danniey, was putting on his shoes and he got excited and said, "New shoes!"  That is why the song is "New Shoes" by Paolo Nutini.  It's an awesome song and I actually think the singer was 19 when he recorded it.  Don't quote me on that, but I think that's what my uncle said.

Mariah Carey

Today's song of the day is "Always Be My Baby" by Mariah Carey.
Reason for this choice:  I just really like it.

Song of the Day

So I'm going to start posting a "Song of the Day" on my blog as well as on my Facebook.  Normally there is a song that sums up how I am feeling so I'm going to start sharing that with everyone.  Today I feel really good so the song is "Vagabond" by Wolfmother.  I discovered this song on the movie 500 Days of Summer, and it is a perfect song for when you just feel great, whether you have a reason to feel that way or not.  It's also a perfect song to get you into that mood.  So if you're feeling gloomy I strongly suggest getting this song on your iPod, going for a walk, and stepping to it's beat.  Don't look down, look straight ahead and remember that life is awesome and that today is going to be a great day, even if it's just because you discovered a new song.  If you can't get it on your iPod, I added it to my playlist at the bottom of this page so make sure you listen to it.

Just another thought for the day... I love rain.  I especially love rain now that I have my wellies (rain boots), which allow me to walk through and jump in puddles without getting my feet wet.  I've come to the conclusion that there are two different smells when it rains.  One is the smell during the rain, and the other is the smell after the rain.  I love the smell after the rain when the world is all fresh and clean.  During the rain is an interesting smell.  It is kind of musty and smells like dirt, but I am convinced that this smell you are experiencing is actually the smell of worms.  It is kind of a gross smell and you only catch it every once in awhile, but I honestly think you're smelling worms.  Why?  Because all the worms love to come out of hiding once it rains.  Side note, I used to love worms when I was a kid, and then one day they started grossing me out.  I don't know what caused the transition.  Maybe it was because I had to dissect one in Biology... but that was actually pretty interesting.  Anyways, I'm getting sidetracked.  I love rain.  Here's a picture of my wellies:

Sponge

The other day I was stressing, as usual, about the fact that I don't know what I want to do with my life yet.  I was telling my friend Emily about the frustration and she said something that made me feel a little bit better about lost state.  She said, "Lizzy, you are like a sponge.  You like to soak in a little bit of everything.  Ooh... that blue water is pretty.  Wow, now I want to try that green water.  So by the time you finally find what you want you will be better off, and a stronger person, for having tried a little bit of everything."

So if you are struggling with what to do in life, maybe it is because you are a sponge, like me, and you want to try a bit of everything before you nail yourself down to a final career or major.  Being a sponge makes your search for meaning a lot longer than you ideally want it to be, but in the end you will be better for it.

Invisibility

Today in Psychology my teacher asked us to write on a piece of paper what we would do if we were invisible for 24 hours.  There are a lot of things I would like to do if I were invisible, but I wrote, "Get on a plane to London.  IT'S FREE."  When Ostenson read mine out loud people laughed.  I have no idea why... I was completely serious.

It was interesting to hear everyone else's answers so I thought I'd entertain you with some of them:

• Swim with sharks
• Spy
• CIA Spying
• Roommate spying
• Boyfriend spying (including boyfriend's on missions)
• Girlfriend spying (one guy wanted to spy on the girl he considers marrying)
• All of the above were mentioned
• Play pranks on roommates (there were a lot of these)
• Rob a bank (not too original, but now that I'm actually a poor college student I do see the intrigue)
• Pretend to be a ghost
• Copy the American Heritage final (brilliant)
• Walk around naked (also brilliant... as long as the invisibility effects don't wear off before I'm fully clothed again)
• Dance around all day (I do this anyway, but I guess that's abnormal)
• Sleep all day (LAME)
• Not shave
• Get close to the president
• Leave my boyfriend (yikes...)
• Ask this one girl out

One of the papers started out, "Assuming I'm invisible to God as well..."  I wonder how other statements in the class would have turned out if everyone assumed this.  Anyway, I just thought it was an interesting, fun activity.  What would you do if you were invisible for 24 hours?

Happy Valentine's!

I don't know how your Valentine's day went, but mine was pretty awesome.  For those of you who don't know, today is my wonderful cousin's, Jadyn Cherry's, birthday.  So Jadyn, the girls (Amber, Joni, Melany, Ynna, Ally, Becca), and I went to P.F. Chang's to celebrate.  We got dressed up real sexy and then drove like crazy to get to the restaurant before they gave away our reservation.  We got there in ten minutes thanks to Joni and her need for speed.  I could imagine my mother swearing at the way we were driving, but you know what they say... "Desperate times call for fast driving."

We got to the restaurant right on time and after we were seated our sexy waiter, Glenn, came to get our drink orders.  Well, at least I found him attractive.  Jadyn said he looked like he spent 5 hours doing his hair...  Anyways, his first words on approaching the table were, "This must be my lucky night!"  Dang straight, Glenn!  The boy knows some sexy ladies when he sees them.  We all ordered our drinks and shortly afterwards we ordered our food which was super delicious.  Amber, of course, had to ask the waiter what his ethnicity was... he had olive skin and dark hair.  He made us guess and I said, "Whatever Johnny Depp is."  In the end he was German and Irish.  Bummer...

Then it was time for dessert.  Mel and I got this really good banana thing... I forget what it was called, but it included this super good pineapple, coconut ice cream.  It was seriously the best ice cream I've ever had.  Jadyn and Amber got candles in their desserts and we sang happy birthday to them.  Then of course we couldn't leave without my good old buddies leaving my number without my consent.  I swear, they do that to me every time we go out to eat.  While the waiter may have been attractive he was ONLY eye candy for my night out.  But no... the roomies had to leave my digits with the scandalous message, "Be Mine."  Real cool guys.  You're lucky that I love you.

The night ended by blasting some stellar tunes in the car.  We looked pretty sexy as we peeled out of the parking lot in our smooth grandpa ride with the white girl bass pounding some sick beats.  I have the best friends ever!  I love you guys!  Happy birthday Jadyn, and Happy Valentine's Day to all!