Blast From the Past

So this week has included a lot of new things, but also a lot of blasts from the past. By this, I specifically mean Michael Jackson and the Backstreet Boys.

Anyone that has known me for awhile knows that from about the ages 12-16, I was a crazed BSB fan. However, I did know my limits and never wrote them letters, chased their bus, or tattooed their names on me. I am enclosing a video of them from the Rosie O Donnell Show, maybe some of you remember this. It was the first time I had seen them, but my obsession never really began until I heard the first few strums of "I Want It That Way." And not just with the group themselves, that hot little blond one that sings in the middle was the one I had my eyes on.

I actually stayed up for awhile one night last week watching all my old concert videos I have of them, ones that I cannot find it in my heart to give away. I can laugh now at the cheesy things my brother used to tease me (and them) about (the outfits, dialogue, and dancing), but the preteen inside of me still has her loyalties.

Now you ask, what made you decide to suddenly start watching old BSB videos? Without keeping you in too much nail biting suspense, I'll enlighten you. My old friends have released a new CD, and this it's actually good. I've bought their last two CD's (Never Gone, Unbreakable) out of loyalty, but this new one (This Is Us) actually has some good songs. I popped it in the CD player when my mom and I went grocery shopping, and I knew I had to head back home and watch the old tapes. It really brings back some good memories. However lame they seem now, I really did love them, and I can't bear to rid myself of those memories, or my "Backstreet Box" containing all memorabilia.

Now moving on to a special night (this last Thursday) I went down to Provo to meet Sammy and Becks and see "This Is It." For those of you who don't follow Michael Jackson or his death, or are living in a box, "This Is It" is a documentary based on his tour that he was rehearsing when he died. I believe I can safely say that this tour would have been legendary having seen the footage just from rehearsals. I have been to a lot of concerts, and seen clips for a lot of others, and there has been nothing like this. It was pieced together so you could see performances and what the tour would have looked like, as best as they could. In between the songs, they had clips of him helping put it all together.

The reasons for this movie being amazing were 3-fold: 1) he was 50 years old and could still sing and dance like he could at the beginning, 2) he had his finger in every part of the show, and it was neat to see him put it together, 3) his songs are epic, and it was cool hearing them so loud in the theatre and see him perform them.

I will admit, I am a bit biased when it comes to reviewing this movie. I love MJ, and have for a long time. My roommate Becky and I once last year stayed up late one night watching old videos. We, on several occasions, would dance around our apartment to his music. His songs are amazing, and he is the GREATEST performer ever. I don't care about his private life, or anything like that. I like my Michael singing and dancing.

I will leave you with my personal favorite MJ music video. The dancing, tearing an air vent off the wall, and wiping his mouth are highlights of this classic video. Though I promised an update concerning my life, that will come later. I don't really feel like typing that stuff, but looking up pictures and videos has been a lot more fun!

b

Ho, is my face red!

Yeah, I'm aware of the date of my last blog. I used to whine about how I never was doing anything, so I didn't have anything to say. Now, I am too busy. What a fine line.

I still don't have time for an updated, decent blog, so I'm just gonna post this to whet your appetite.

I am currently online because I am doing on on-line review for the class I TA for. No one has come into the chat room for help, but that's cool by me.

I have what is called a Journal Club Presentation tomorrow, and I'm pretty nervous. I haven't really gone over it yet........

And lastly but not leastly, I am heading down to Provo tomorrow night to see the Michael Jackon "This Is It" movie. So psyched, goin with Sam and Becks. I get to see them (at least Becky) pretty frequently still, but it's weird not seeing them every day!

Get excited, because another great post will be comin your way with lots more fun infomation. (It may not be for another couple of months, but cross your fingers!)

Beauty of Nature

I don't know how many people do this, but sometimes when I am driving on the freeway I tend to look at the sunset on Utah Lake, or the sunrise on the mountains by the point of the mountain and I just can't help looking again. If I am carrying a camera I will fumble in my purse for it and take some pictures whilst driving.


I realize this is dangerous, and probably would be for others, but since I am practically a NASCAR driver, I get away with it. Anyhow, as I was thinking of what to blog, and looking at the pictures I had, I thought I'd post these. I can never quite get enough of nature. It is so beautiful, and if I am in a bad or frustrated mood, looking at the mountains usually helps me feel so happy. And I am so lucky that I live in a place that has so many gorgeous mountains to always look at!



This is a video of nature at my very favorite. This is a sunny day that in true Utah fashion, turned very rainy and windy. I realize it is a longish video, but I love watching that tree roll around, it's pretty cool!

Big News

Well, after many months of preparation and worry, I got the letter I was hoping for. That is right folks, I am finally going to be a Running Ute. I have been accepted into the Coordinated Masters Program at the University of Utah. This is an answer to many prayers and much effort. I am excited to have a new direction in life and know what I am going to be doing. I will be sad to leave Provo after 5 years though, I have loved living here and going to school. Though I joke about it, BYU has been an incredible experience and I don't regret coming here at all.
I got the first acceptance letter about 2 weeks ago, but they still had to verify that I did indeed receive a undergraduate degree before they could send an official acceptance. I just received that official letter and I am going to start registering and all that good stuff. I have also been offered a job as a TA or Research Assistant which gives me half tuition and extra pay. I have also received some scholarship, which I am not entirely sure how I got, but I'll take it.

In other news, today has been a good day so far. Becky and I went to the Museum of Art on BYU campus and saw the Walter Wick exhibit. He is the guy that does the I Spy books. They had other photographs by him from other books, and also had some of the models they used from his books. His photographs are so creative, and he has the most clever eye. I recommend anyone to go see it, it is of course free. I feel so lucky to be able to live so close to a Museum that gets such great exhibits!!

Later today, Becky and I, and some friends from work (the ladies of Los) are going to the Festival of Colors at the Hare Krishna temple. I am trying to figure out what to wear so I don't ruin my clothes, apparently you stain everything thing you wear. I will probably post pictures, so stay tuned!!

Domestic

Yup, I made that. All by myself.

Oh Baby, What a Weekend (It's a Pun)

I was more than happy this weekend to take a couple days off and go home to Salt Lake. Why? Well because my sister-in-law Bethany and niece Ainsley were coming to town. Tom unfortunately couldn't make it because of a little complication called "being in Japan for business school". I left work and came home to Beth and the babe, and found out we were attending the University of Utah women's gymnastics meet. According to a very valid source (Anne), and most scientists agree (ha), that Utah's women's meets are the most attended of female college athletics. I remember going a lot when I was younger. I believe it is because Utah has a "dynasty" as the announcer put it, that keeps everyone coming back.

The coolest part was that it was also Senior Night. There were two seniors that were competing for the last time. One of them brought their good friend Nastia Liukin. You may remember her from her the Olympics.

They also started the meet off really cool. They had handed out those glowstick things, only to those who had assigned seating of course, and told them that when they heard a specific song to turn them on red and wave them around. It was quite a scene as you can see from the picture and video.

As I mentioned, Beth and the babe were with us from Friday until Sunday. These are some pictures of the cutest bug known to being. I like the first picture especially because it looks like those paparazzi shots of celebrities coming out of clubs kind of drunk and pushing the cameras away. By no means does this mean that it was actually vodka in Ainsley's bottle, but just a funny look-a like picture.

Valentines Day and Ace of Cakes

Though I had to work all Valentines Day, it still was a pretty good weekend. Early that day I went into work to help out in case they needed me. I got two tables, and then they let me off pretty early. Since both I, and a two co-workers, Russ and Brandon, were let off at the same time, we went to Rice King just down the street where we met my dear roommate Becky. Good food, fun chat.

We had every server, it seemed like, scheduled for work that night. And since there were about 3 people lower than me on the list, I did not have to stay until closing that night, though I was scheduled for it. I got off early and met some co-workers who were already at TGIFridays celebrating a happy Valentines Day!! The picture below is of all of us: Greta, Kymbra, Becky, Kelly, Bobby, me, and Jarom. I love Friday's, and fun company.

Then the sweetest thing happened when I got home. Becky knew that I wish I got packages in the mail sometimes. She and Sammy both got at least one apiece for Valentines Day from friends and family. So she had gotten up that morning and put together a "package" for me and set it up on my laptop so I could see it when I got home. She is so super sweet, and put a lot of thought into it. Love you Becky!!!

The next night, Sunday, I went home for our Annual Reese Movie-Thon. It started awhile ago when our mom was out of town over Valentines Day. We rent a bunch of movies and have special hogie sandwiches. This year our movies were "The Secret Life of Bees" and "Henry Poole Is Here". I give them a rating of B+ and B- respectively.

And if you are a roommate or a member of my family living in Salt Lake, you are probably aware that I have become slightly obsessed with a show on the Food Network called Ace of Cakes. It is a reality show set in Baltimore about a custom cake making business called Charm City Cakes. They make these crazy awesome cakes, and the cake decorators themselves are pretty entertaining to watch. My two favorites are Duff and Geof. What talent. If you are at all interested in my pictures (I tried to post a clip, but couldn't for some reason), check it out on the Food Network website, or fancast.com.

25 Things

For all you facebookers, you'll notice this list of "25 Facts about me" is getting circulated very quickly. I was tagged twice to do it, but chose not to place it on facebook where just anyone could read it. I place it here with you bloggers (5 of you) to read it. These are random facts, and you may not know some, enjoy!!

1. I hate having bare feet when my shoes aren’t on. It doesn’t matter if I am sleeping, or it is summer, I will always have to have socks on. And they have to be ankle socks.

2. I cracked/broke my tailbone once after I sneezed in 8th grade.

3. I have no problem keeping my room and apartment messy, but I can’t stand clutter when I am at work.

4. Both my pinkie toes and fingers cannot move very well. My pinkie toe does not have strength to stretch away from the others and my pinkie finger cannot move without simultaneously moving the ring finger next to it.

5. When I lock my car, I must check every door handle to make sure it is locked.

6. I remember my first lie to my parents. I was four and I said I hadn’t already had a Twinkie, but I had. I was given a second one, and it was the most unsatisfying Twinkie I ever had.

7. In my 22 years of life I have only been to four different schools total (Preschool through College).

8. I have worked continuously since I was 14 (8 years), but only had 3 different jobs.

9. I make fun of other people I see singing in cars, but I totally belt it when I am on the freeway and nobody can see me.

10. I love smelling my pillow because it smells like something familiar (me?) and also like sleep.

11. I like watching trashy VH1 TV shows (Tool Academy, The Pick Up Artist, Rock of Love, etc.)

12. I laugh really loud, and have no problem laughing when I am sitting alone watching television, usually AFV, Fresh Prince, or Reba.

13. I would love to live in London at some point in my life. I love everything about that town: history, music, weather, etc.

14. I will cuddle absolutely anything. Once in the summer, I found myself cuddling a whiffle ball bat somehow.

15. When I was little I used to love playing with cash registers and pretending to be a waitress with my sister. I have now fulfilled both my childhood dreams. (Now if I could just be the singing voice for Disney characters I think I will have them all covered)

16. I choose savory over sweet treats any day.

17. I love making lots of list. I usually will make a “to-do” list, then forget about it and everything on it. So I have many duplicate lists laying around.

18. I love pictures, and usually cover my room with them. I love looking through all my old pictures and reminiscing about old times with friends.

19. I don’t like when the toilet paper roll is hung so the ripped end is hanging over the roll. I like it to be hanging under the roll.

20. I hate sweeping, I was once grounded for not sweeping after dinner. However, that is about all I do these days at work. And I still hate it.

21. I will not shower in a shower that is not in my family home without flip flops on. But I will eat a piece of food dropped on the floor. I’m very selective about the germs I choose to associate with.

22. I consider all my immediate family members to be some of my best friends. I love spending time with my family.

23. Though I am a part of the rising technology generation, I can only use the basic functions of internet, iTunes, and Word on my computer. If my computer is not working, I put it under the umbrella of being “broken.”

24. I am a sucker for power ballads.

25. I absolute love to sleep, and napping has become a favorite hobby of mine. Ask my old roommate Emily Hansen and she will tell you that during our 9 o’clock church days I would take 6 hour naps and still get to bed early that night.

Huh?

I'm not going to pretend I have any idea of how this blogspot works. I wrote that last post on the 30th, but it says it is the 15th on it. So that news is updated to the 30th of January. And in addition, I almost lit our apartment on fire. I was boiling water to take blackberry stains out of a work shirt (it really works!) and I lit this wooden spoon holder thing on our stove on fire. It was more of a slow cook, but our apartment smells like campfire now. This was because I wasn't paying attenion, and was blogging. Yikes.

S

The Month of Susan

I must admit, there is some stuff that has happened since I last blogg-o'd. Some events happened, I learned a little about myself, and etc. Instead of using my High School English technique of organizing all my info into neat little paragraphs that all flow together, I'm pretty much just going to make a list. I like lists......I have a whole planner full of them.

Work

I have been fortunate enough to be named the Employee of the Month at Los Hermanos. This entitled me to a small check bonus, two movie passes, and a free Los Hermanos T-shirt. I also have my picture up on the wall and my name on a little plaque on the Employee wall thing. My name tag now also reflects this change. My parents, sister, and grandpa ended up coming in one night, and my mom was pretty excited to see this, and my sister took a picture of me at the table with my name tag. It is all very exciting.

I actually really love my job. It is easy, and the people I work with are a lot of fun. But as I mentioned before, this month is all about learning about myself, and I have learned this lesson especially in the past couple of days: I am a HUGE klutz. I never thought of myself as a very clumsy person, but now seeing how it reflects in my work, I look back and realize it has always been this way. I have broken my arm, cracked several toes, and taken way more tumbles then necessary.

This revelation has become stronger because in the last three days at work I badly burned my thumb on a fajita pan, jammed my inner elbow on a ice machine corner, rammed my arm into a banister, and hit my shoulder about 8 times. I have so many bruises on my arms and legs, it's not even funny anymore. This same thing happened while I worked in the Winner School snackbar during high school. And to top it all off, every Sunday for the past 8 Sundays, I have hit my little 4th toe on each foot very hard. It's not like it is a long toe, but both are still painful even 2 months after the initial injury.

Boredom

Due to my colorful and wide rooted vocabulary, my roommates have called it "strange" and the words I use "not real", and have started a Vernacular Dictionary for me. So far, it contains real words and phrases such "Red Letter Day" and "(in reference to someone angry) Having Kittens". I must admit that I do make up words sometimes, or shorten them, in the case of 7-11 "the Sev", but I feel as though this is an injustice, and they are the ones who are not cultured. Either way, in true Apartment #61 fashion, this idea will abandoned shortly enough.

One weekend night, I got home from work to find my roommate Becky and her friend Mallory hanging out in our apartment. I don't know what got us started on the subject, but we started talking about music. This is a topic that can get me very heated, but mostly excited. I had recently checked out a book called Legends of Rock from Whitmore Library which contains the groups that shaped Rock and has big pictures of them. We commenced to do a full on show and tell with my book, with Becky at the iPod controls.

This episode helped me realize (another learning about myself event) that I am only slightly obsessed with listening and learning about music. I love reading my books I have about it, and will buy (or take in some cases) lots of music. I go on music kicks, and I am currently on an 80's metal kick. I don't think this music classifies as metal by today's standards, but that is what they called it then. I am currently listening to Whitesnake. I think this 80's tradition of glam rock with big hair and little onside leotards is an art lost in today's rock culture.

Scholastics

You may wonder why I added this paragraph into this already too long blog post. Well, as it turns out, I have officially applied to Grad School. I got an email that all my application materials were in, and now all I have to do is wait!! I am a bit scared out of my pants, because this is the only school and program I applied to. If I don't get in, it may be another year of Los Hermanos. Probably not though.......... Anyhow, I will hear back in March sometime.

And because I feel a bit dumber since I graduated, I have been trying to keep my brain active. I guess I feel if I am actively learning something, I won't lose too much in these months before school starts again. I have turned to literature to fill this intellegence gap. Since October I have read a bunch of books, most recently Wuthering Heights. This is a very good read, though a bit tragic. I am currently muddling my way through Sense and Sensibility, which is a bit harder because it seems for every word that Emily Bronte would use, Jane Austen throws about in 10 more.

Recent Major Events

I did get a big haircut recently, which I topped off with a dye. This following picture was before the dye, but picture a dark brown.

It is a good change, I have always known I look better with short hair, but because of laziness, and just a tad of wishful thinking, I always try and grow it out. Once it gets just past my shoulders, the weight of my thick hair kicks in, and I chop it. I am enjoying not having the ponytail at work, and the dark color seems to elicit positive responses.

Bad news readers, I blew my tire the other day. But in true January fashion, I realized through this event how calm I can be faced with panicky situations. I was going about 70 MPH on the freeway, almost to my exit, when a large pothole appeared out of nowhere. Yes, I hit it. At first, I thought I was safe, but then I heard and felt the thump. I pulled off to the side of the freeway assuming I would be dead in 5 minutes. I called AAA first thing, then tried to contact the parentals since they were waiting for my safe-back in Provo call. I had to wait about 50-55 minutes for someone to come for me due to confusion in my location. He was a nice guy, and even pumped air into my spare tire. Through all this, I remained a cool cucumber, and only shed one or two tears as the cars zoomed by me and shook my little Mazda. Now I just got to go get new tires and hope they don't take advantage of a young ignorant girl.

A Final Moment

I have been having such good days this past week, and I think it may because I am trying to be more positive about crappy tips at work. But I really think it is because I have started an earnest daily scripture study. I have actually been enjoying reading the D&C, and the student guide companion. I am also reading the History of Joseph Smith by his mother Luck Mack Smith. It is a very good read, and not at all would I would have expected. I look forward to my study sessions, whenever they end up being.

And on a completely different topic, the Superbowl is upon us. And though I usually could care less about this blessed event, there is one part that I am pretty excited about. One of the coolest peole on earth today is performing at halftime. Yes, that's right friends, the Boss, Bruce Springsteen is enlightening us with yet another tame halftime show. Let us cross our fingers that Born to Run will be blasted. But until then, I have much more work to do. Hope this montly long blog-bore was an easy read though there was not as many pictures as I am usually so fond of doing. I'll see you next month.

Susan

Christmas Bloggin

Well, since my blogging is something to be desired, I thought I'd use my "completely free and void of important stuff to do" time to blog. As compared to last time, there has been stuff going on in my life to blog about, I just didn't do it.

Christmas happened, and that was pretty stupendous. We had Tom, Beth, and the babe for a long time over break. I didn't realize how much I missed my brother (hadn't seen him for 4-5 months) until I saw him. Luckily we have gotten to see Bethany and the baby since they moved, but I haven't even heard much from Tom since they left. We played a lot of Wii, me and him. I am the master of what he called "backseat playing." Here are my feelings on the matter: if you aren't good, and don't know what to do or where to go, listen to me because I sure do. It's too bad that I didn't get to spend as much time home as I wanted because of work, but I still had an awesome break.

I actually surprised my family on New Years Eve. I was supposed to work that night, and I had been told that we were open till late. I assumed I would be sweeping during the New Year, and complained to anyone with functioning ears. Turns out, we closed at 10, hurried through closing stuff, and then I raced home to Salt Lake. I didn't tell my family, and actually called my dad as I was pulling in the driveway and sounded like I was just walking home from work. Then I opened the door and walked in. They were surprised, and seemed excited to see me, however that may have been due to the bag of chips and salsa I had bought from work.

Since I do have to go to work, I'll blog more later, but thought I'd post a picture of the cutest bug ever. She is the CUTEST thing. This is her Christmas morning trying to open the can of Vienna sausages that my dad put in her stocking.