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25 random facts about me

1. Mark designed my engagement/wedding ring all by himself on one of his nerdy engineering programs. I love him.

2. My Mom is one of my best friends and hands-down the best mother in the world (actually, I think she is tied with Kay Hansen).

3. I have been to more countries than states (States: California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, and Illinois. Countries: El Salvador, Costa Rica, Canada, Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain, Ireland, England, Estonia, and Finland).

4. I love Britney Spears and will see her in concert come April.

5. I am proud to be an Oregonian. I never want to live anywhere else. Especially not Utah.

6. There are few children who I can tolerate. However, I know I will love motherhood.

7. I read Twilight. And loved it.

8. I have spent time in state prison. During my time there, I walked death row, stood in a lunch room with 800 inmates staring at me and had an inmate pleasure himself right in front of me while in his cell. Not a highlight for me.

9. I have a horrible fear of hospitals. I also pass out every time I have to have my blood taken.

10. My friend and I were sent to In-School-Suspension (ISS) in the seventh grade for prancing around the room with a bell pretending that every time the bell rang we sprouted wings. When it came time for my parent-teacher conference, all my teacher could do was laugh. Evidently he told my mother that if I were 20 years older, he would be friends with me.

11. I hate games.

12. The riskiest thing I have ever done was when I jumped off of a 30-foot cliff next to a waterfall in the heart of the rain forest in El Salvador. The closest town was an hour hike and hour drive away. Not safe.

13. I always cheat on Blackboard quizzes.

14. When I was twenty, I became the youngest person in the history of First Investors Corporation (est. 1930) to pass the Series 6 and Series 63 exams to become a registered representative.

15. I almost lost my position writing for the Daily Universe when I protested Dick Cheney's commencement invitation on campus.

16. I don't know how anyone involved with summer sales or pyramid schemes can sleep with themselves at night.

17. I’m obsessed with trashy television. Anything on MTV or VH1 is bound to be a show I will enjoy.

18. I woke up at 4:00 a.m. to attend a rally in Las Vegas and stood fifteen feet from Barack Obama only three days before he was voted as the 44th president of the United States.

19. I still sleep with my baby blanket. I use it as a pillow.

20. I absolutely loathe it when people spell things incorrectly or use numbers instead of words on purpose, (i.e. The krazy kidz R going 2 skool 2day). I think I just puked a little in my mouth.

21. I hiked Mount Timpanogos at 2:00 a.m. with three boys and no flashlights.

22. I loved high school. I never understand it when people look back on high school negatively. I really soaked it up and still look fondly upon my experiences.

23. I have never seen any of the Star Wars movies - and I don't plan on it.

24. I bumped into van Gogh’s “Vase with Twelve Flowers” at the Neue Pinakothek in Munich while a friend was taking a picture of me. The alarm went off and the guards had to inspect the room for foul play. I never admitted to anyone on my study abroad group that it was me – until now.

25. Mark and I are planning a trip to Africa in 2010.

My Birthday Weekend.

I love my husband. For my birthday he surprised me with tickets to the Utah Symphony at the Abravenel Hall in Salt Lake City. We were lucky enough to attend on a night where they were playing Stravinsky and Mozart - both of whom Mark actually knows (surprising, I know!). I've posted a photo below of the beautiful music hall. We sat in the fifteenth row! This event was monumental because it was literally the first time Mark has planned a surprise that I knew nothing about. Usually I catch on to him, but this time he pulled it off.

On Saturday, friends met up for a birthday dinner at Cafe Rio (where else?). It felt so good to have my closest friends in the room with me. I have some great people in my life. Oh, and I had a pink cake with my name on it. Fabulous. Chris took the photos during the evening, so once I get them from him, I will post. For now, I will post a photo of possibly the best meal on earth - the Cafe Rio Pork Salad. (Insert drooling here).

This morning (my actual birthday), I awoke to my wonderful husband, a beautiful card and red tulips! I'm actually a bit excited about the tulips because they are potted. I'm hoping that I can care for them well enough to keep them alive for a long time. They are sitting by the kitchen sink next to Commie (our bamboo plant). And yes, Mark was the one who named the Bamboo.

My new favorite thing.

I finally got my new car! A Subaru! I've posted the car below, but mine is in a dark gray metallic with black interior. We've already been on a few joy rides since last night and I can't believe how fast this thing goes! I'm super excited, although I will be honest; I teared up a bit when I said goodbye to the Audi. It was so sad to see it go, but it was time. Hurray for new adventures in this car! (It needs a name though...)

Not impressed.

Sundance has arrived. Considering my love for film, I am surprised that I have yet to attend even one showing at the festival. Next year I am going to be on the ball early enough to get a few tickets. It has been something I have wanted to do for a while. Someone remind me to do that... The only thing that really irks me about Sundance is the obsession with celebrities. Every year, star struck BYU students march up to the mountain to stalk celebrities and imitate the paparazzi. The best part is that hardly any of them even have tickets to see a film. It is so embarrassing that they flock to the celebrities to take photos and convince themselves that they "went to Sundance." I'm sorry, but, you didn't "go to Sundance" unless you saw a film or attended a party there. Plus, people don't seem to have any shame about begging for a photo or an autograph. I would be humiliated. I also laugh at the kind of celebrities who walk the streets at Sundance. Paris Hilton is always spotted there with her posse. You can't tell me she has any interest or knowledge about film. I guess I'm just not that impressed with meeting famous people (unless their names are Barack Obama or Chris Martin). Maybe it's because I grew up in Oregon, where we have no celebrities, instead of Southern California or New York City. Maybe I just took a page from my Opi's book, who never had any sort of interest in celebrities. He was the head pastry chef at the Benson Hotel in Portland for many, many years. During his time there, he made all sorts of beautiful pastries for presidents, celebrities and well-known rich people. Some of our favorite memories of my Opi are ones when famous people requested to meet the pastry chef. By force, my Opi would walk to the table and with little interest he would say hello. When offered a free autograph, he would turn it down and respond "I'm not interested in your autograph unless you are interested in mine." That kind of lack of interest is such a slap in the face to famous people who think they are on the top of the world. I would love an opportunity to do that someday.

Busted.

As Courtney always states, "Why is it that I always make a scene everywhere I go?" I feel like Larry David from Curb Your Enthusiasm. Yesterday, I was in the handicapped stall in the ladies room, which was empty at the time. I know that stall is designated specifically for handicapped people, but I like to use it because I can put my coat and bag down without it being right under my feet. Anyway, I heard someone come into the restroom and they were waiting for the handicapped stall. Great. I hurried up and when I walked out there was a girl on crutches who huffed and rolled her eyes at me. I was so embarrassed that I scurried out of the ladies room as fast as possible. Without washing my hands. This made me ponder back to a favorite episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm when Larry David found himself in the same situation. He was condemned for using the handicapped stall by a man in a wheelchair. A few days later he waited in the restroom for a stall to open up and the same man in the wheelchair rolled out of a "regular" stall. Larry condemned the man for using his stall and told the man that he should wait for the handicapped stall to be available. I don't necessarily condone this behavior (you know, yelling at handicapped people) because I'm well aware of the purpose of the handicapped stall in the first place. But, I don't see why the girl on crutches had to be so upset with me. She only had to wait like five more seconds. Boo.

We have chosen hope.

I did not vote for Barack Obama because he is black. I voted for Barack Obama because of his values and his character. But an added bonus of his new presidency is the fact that he is the first black man to achieve the highest ranking position in the world. Whether or not you agree with his politics or his goals, you have to respect the great lengths he has traveled and the barrier he has crushed. It's hard to believe that there are people living today who experienced a world where blacks attended different schools, ate at different restaurants and had no possible hope of ever out ranking a white man. I will not go as far as to say that we live in a world void of racism, but we do live in more tolerant times. I cried when I watched the inauguration today at work. I wish I could have been inside Obama's head. What was he thinking? He has achieved something that few blacks ever thought would be possible in their lifetime. I also felt a strong set of emotions as we said goodbye to a president who I have felt no connection with over the last eight years. I felt an odd sense of sympathy for George. I won't blame everything on him. Perhaps things would have been different had he surrounded himself with better people. I hope he is able to hideout for the next while to regain some peace. Our country is on the brink of depression and during these hard times I feel comforted to have President Obama as my leader in office who I trust and respect. I like him. It's not just the movie star appeal, although it's nice that the rest of the world is in awe with him. The less enemies we have, the safer we are. I really like the way Obama functions with his family. He is a good father and a good husband. All of his interviews with Michelle are honest and down to earth. I think the Obamas are who they are on and off the camera. I think his morals and values match my own. I like his ability to think beyond the short term. I like his strong sense of hope he has for our nation. He knows he is up for a tough few years and I'm thankful for his honesty and realism. Today is a good day. As a college student who is approaching graduation and a horrible job market, I have hope and I feel peace.

Twilight & New Moon

I read Twilight over the break, as I had mentioned before. I didn't expect to get obsessively hooked on these books but I guess flight delays and a snow storm forced me into the world that now I cannot escape. I really liked Twilight, although it's not really the kind of book you read if you're looking to be intellectually stimulated. The writing is poor and the characters are quite silly, but the story is captivating (at least in my opinion). I had difficulty overlooking the fact that the books are anti-feminist in every way possible. The story is about a girl who defines herself by the boy she spends her time with. Her self-esteem and life goals revolve around her boy crushes and in the presence of boys she becomes daft and clumsy. This is hard for me to stomach. Women have spent decades becoming individuals and all of the wishy-washy fantasizing about boys in these books erases what so many strong woman have worked hard to create. Count on a Mormon woman to write a series about a young girl who throws everything away for the man she loves. I know it sounds romantic, but I'll tell you what I think is romantic. I think it is romantic that I am myself to the very core around my husband and he supports any endeavor that I wish to pursue, whether that be career or motherhood, and on my own timeline. It's wonderful. But besides all the anti-feminist stuff, the story behind the Twilight books are addicting. There is something so fascinating about the concept of a family of vampires living among regular people. I loved reading about the history of each of the vampires in the Cullen family and the story of how they became vampires. The histories of the vampires reminded me of this Ghost Bus Tour I took while I was in Ireland a few years ago. This tour took us throughout Dublin and showed us various areas that are supposedly haunted. One of the stories we listened to was about a vampire. I've always been drawn to stories about ghosts and vampires for some reason. There is definitely a romantic element when it comes to vampires. I can't put my finger on it though. Weird. I'm also quite taken with the story as it is set in the Northwest. The constant commentary about the dreary, gray weather makes me laugh because in my book there is nothing depressing about a gray sky!

I finished New Moon over the weekend. It took me longer to finish the book because 1) I've been busy and 2) I really can't stand Jacob Black and almost the whole book is about him. For some reason I can totally buy into the concept of a family of vampires, but the concept of a family of werewolves just baffles me. I just can't get into it. It's unbelievable and silly to me - like a story about Bigfoot. I know that is kind of a double standard considering I'm so accepting of the idea of vampires. But, whatever. New Moon was fine. I wasn't nearly as hooked as I was with Twilight, but I understand that certain things needed to happen to set up for the third book. Like I said, I just can't stand Jacob Black! It's not just the werewolf thing, but I think he is clingy and annoying. He kind of reminds me of someone I knew in high school, which might explain my immediate annoyance with him. I've heard the fourth book is partly narrated by him. I'm not looking forward to that.

As for the movie, Twilight, I laughed the whole way through. I went with my adorable sister, who was seeing the movie for the fourth time. There are so many things I would have done differently in the film. I'm usually disappointed when I read a book and go see the film. The film never does the book justice. I thought the part in the woods was so funny when Edward was demanding that Bella say what he was out loud. It just wasn't portrayed with that kind of drama in the book. In fact, if I remember correctly, it was a casual conversation in the car when Bella told Edward her theory. I may have laughed throughout the film, but I will certainly continue to see every film they make. I'm hoping that since they only spent 37 million on Twilight (and made a ton of money) that the following films will be better quality. Also, get rid of the kid who plays Jacob Black. Even he is annoying.

That's all for now. I'm not sure if any of that made any sense, but I felt like writing about the books. Tonight I start Eclipse!

Pet Peeve.

I had an experience yesterday that resurrected this pet peeve of mine...I will vent briefly:

I just think it is so funny when Americans travel to other countries only to return to the United States with a list of reasons of why their country is superior. It is incredibly arrogant to consider yourself an experienced world traveler if you seek opportunities that you mock. The purpose of travel is not to boost your nationalism or to reconfirm your choice of settlement, but to surround yourself in a different culture. You should be able to appreciate the way other cultures function, even if it is different from your own culture's norms. In fact, if you approach the situation with an open mind you might even learn from another culture. You never know what other parts of the world have to offer. The United States is a wonderful place, but we are not superior to other countries. We are different. So whoever reads this, do me a favor. Next time you travel to a foreign country, please take my advice. Rather than coming home with a list of reasons why you like the United States better, challenge yourself to come home with a list of things you like about the place you visited or a list of the things you learned.

After all, if you're looking for an experience that will make you a prideful American, save the money and head to your nearby McDonalds.

Greetings!

Here's to the New Year! The unfortunate event of our Portland arrival and departure came and went and now we find ourselves back in snowy Provo. Many apologies to friends and family as it has been nearly a century since I have written. The following list are reasons why my commitment to writing on my blog has been a little shady.

1. Twilight. I caved. Earlier I was quite boisterous about my intent to never give in to reading the trashy, poorly-written Twilight books. But delays at the airport and cabin fever over the snowy break steered me in a different direction. Much against my wishes, I read Twilight and (here is the scary part) I loved it. There. I said it. I'm almost finished with New Moon while Eclipse and Breaking Dawn are sitting on my desk patiently waiting for my attention. PS. There will be some entries about Twilight. Nows not the time, but let me get worked up about something and the rantings will follow.

2. Christmas. It was so nice to be with family. The Cusworths and the Stelters always know how to have a good time. Also, on the topic of Christmas, we are spoiled. It's pitiful. We just set up our new 42 inch plasma screen television and our new blue ray DVD player. I'm not usually a sucker for this kind of stuff, but I'm pretty crazy about it. We brought home 13 new DVDs from the break. Come over and watch a movie with us!

3. Sip and Kranz. Aunt Geli and Sirpa bought a coffee shop in the Pearl District in Portland. Check it out: http://www.sipandkranz.com/. This place is super cute and trendy and I'm happy that we found a way for Sirpa to get to the United States. That whole gay marriage thing really could have been handy in this situation. If you're in Portland and you get a chance to check it out, get the hummus. It's amazing.

4. New Years Eve. We went to Gustavs for dinner with our good friends, Dane and Wes. Gustavs is this fabulous German restaurant - also the place where Mark and I had our rehearsal dinner. After Gustavs, we met up with more friends at the Blue Hour, a swanky French restaurant, for dessert and drinks. The waitress looked a little put off when Mark and I ordered a Diet Coke and a Sprite. Sucks for her. It was great to bring in the New Year with old friends!

5. Habitat for Humanity. I am officially a committee member on the Habitat for Humanity Public Relations and Fundraising Board. My first project is a Motorcycle Ride for Charity in May. As of now, I am planning the details of the event and in a month or so I will start working on publicity. I'm excited for this experience for a handful of reasons. 1) It's for a good cause. 2) It looks great on a resume. 3) I need something to do.6. Snow Storm. Portland had its worst snow storm in record breaking history. I've never seen so much snow in my life - not even in Utah. You know...I really enjoy the snow in Oregon. Though I hate it in Utah. And I think I finally put my finger on it. In Oregon, the snow comes and everything shuts down. We don't have salting or plow systems so people stay home from school, church and work. Snow in Oregon means free time, relaxation and no obligations. Snow in Utah means nothing. You're still going to work, church and school. And there is no free time, relaxation and all obligations apply. Life goes on, even if it's difficult to commute and your jeans are soaking wet by the time you get anywhere. Boo on snow in Utah.

That's all I've got for now. Thanks for reading.

Oh and.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! I LOVE YOU!!