A Request

Dear Christian Bale,

Would you please sing in your next movie? It would make my decade.

With kindest regards,
Emily

Maybe I'm a real adult now

Today, it hit: adulthood. I still feel immature, and I'm pretty sure with my ponytail and sneakers today I still can pass as an 18-year old, but it's true. I am officially an adult. That's because today, I had to sign up for my own personal insurance (yup, my parent's insurance let me stay on until my 26th birthday, which I realize is longer than most, but I wasn't about to complain). Granted, I had to have my mom help walk me through the sign-up process, and until I have a steady income, my mom agreed to put it on her credit card and just add the amount to the debt I already owe her, but still, there is an insurance policy out there with my name on it.

I also received a phone call from my university asking for money. I wanted to say "not right now" and hang up, but last semester for a class assignment I had to go and observe the people who call on these capital campaigns, so I felt sympathy for this girl. (I would have felt true empathy, because I was supposed to actually do some calling, but because I had lost my voice due to the swine flu and pneumonia, I couldn't talk. Which ended up costing me 50 points, which might have been the reason for my A- instead of the A I was shooting for. But that's not the point of this story). Anyway, I listed to the schpeal the girl gave "to graduating seniors" (I'm not a senior! I'm a 2nd year grad student! Its very different). Then she asked me to give some money back to my school, as part of the "Choose to Give" campaign. I have a hard time saying no to requests for money, but BECAUSE I sat in on those phone calls, I now know their secret. Her goal is to get me to commit to give money, and my goal was to get off the phone and back to playing the piano. Well, I remembered that they can give pledge forms, which would mean I wouldn't have to give my credit card, and I could send money once I actually HAVE money. So, I told her to send me a pledge card, which I promised I would send. I just didn't say when.

We also completed our census. It was kind-of fun to fill out my own section, because last time a census happened, I was in high school and could care less that a census was happening. Filling out the form was over in about 30 seconds, so the exhilaration was fleeting, but it did serve a momentary satisfaction. And it again reinforced that I am an adult. An adult who still feels very dependent upon her parents, and still loves eating her fruit snacks (I got Star Wars fruit snacks for my birthday! So fun!), but an adult nonetheless.

I want to be a Jedi Knight

My roommates are saying its time for a new blog post. Which lead to the question, what have I been up to the last month? The answer: Disneyland and dressing up like a princess. Your typical month, I know. My friends and I did the Disney Day of Service, which meant for the price of 2 blankets donated to needy children, I was able to get into Disneyland. Pretty sweet deal. We had a large group go down from the MPA program, and wore matching shirts and everything (they were almost hot pink, but the store ran out of that color in bulk and we had to go for blue and green instead. I was extremely grateful.)














What did I learn there?
1)Some boys should NEVER wear do-rags.















2)It is possible to not spend a dime in Disneyland, especially if you just mooch food off your friends.
3) The 80's cover band at Disneyland is definitely worth listening to. And dancing your head off to.
4)If this whole Public Administrator path doesn't work out, my next best option is to be a Jedi Knight in Disneyland. Because I don't think I'm tall enough for Darth Vadar, nor do I think I would like the costume. But a Jedi Knight would be sweet.














So, the weekend after I got back from Disneyland, my ward had a Cinderella Ball, where each girl put in a shoe, and each guy picked a shoe, and whoever had your shoe was your date for the dinner portion of the evening. In preparation for the ball, I went to my parents house to get a dress. I learned that the way to be the coolest aunt for my nieces is to put on a pretty dress and dance with them. And the way to be the cool aunt to my nephew is to act like a damsel in distress (except, rather than being the prince saving me, he wants to be the dragon attacking me. Oh to be a five-year old boy).

So the dance was great, my date was one of the nicest guys in the ward (he even was willing to pose for the oh-so-cheesy Cinderella picture).



















We had a great time in the dinner, and then the dance was pretty good. Its pretty fun to be dress in a pretty dress for an evening, it reminds me that I really am happy being a girl.

Fortune Cookies

I have a number of food weaknesses, which include fruit snacks, potato chips, any candy bar that includes peanut butter, and apparently fortune cookies. When I was at Walmart (which was NOT the one from my hometown, which I'm boycotting), I saw chocolate covered fortune cookies and couldn't help but buy them. I think I'm in love. And because I'm in love with these fortune cookies, I have eaten around two every day, which means I have gotten a number of fortunes in the past few days. According to my fortunes:

A romantic encounter is coming my way.
I need to improve my exercise routine.
I need to follow my beliefs.
I need to make the special talents I have work like a charm.
And another one mentioned love, but I can't remember what it said. . .

Do I really believe in these fortunes? Of course not. But don't be surprised if you see me working out again.

Updates

So, I haven't blogged for awhile. You would think that during the Christmas break, while I had no school or other obligations, I would have 10 minutes to blog. Well, I had plenty of 10 minute breaks, but did not spend them blogging. Sue me, but I like talking to my family a little too much.

So, here are some highlights from the last month:

• I love putting sour cream on just about EVERYTHING. Some favorite sour cream drenched items include: fried potatoes (or french fries), toast, bagels, and all things Mexican. Well, I finally decided that I should try to be a "normal" American, so I bought some strawberry cream cheese to put on my bagels. I might still prefer the sour cream, but cream cheese is pretty good, too.
• Christmas Eve, my niece got sick and threw up on me. Right as dessert was being served. I reacted pretty well, and managed to catch most of it and nothing hit the carpet. Well, I then got sick a week later on my mom's birthday, and threw up, again, right as dessert was being served. Rather than throwing up on one of my fellow human beings, I instead threw up on my little sister's cat. Yup, he ran right into my lane, and because he made me pause a second to not trip over him, I didn't make it to the toilet in time, and instead nailed the cat. It was pretty funny (once I felt better).
• I learned that air mattresses are quite comfortable, but can be VERY COLD. Make sure you have about 3 blankets underneath you if you sleep on one.
• Palo Alto is beautiful. As is Oakland. And Utah's air quality during the winter is dreadful.
• My roommates and I went snowshoeing today. I think I'm in love. But, in order to fully follow this love, I need to make sure to always wear sunglasses, because I got a headache from staring at all the white. Not too pleasant.

That is all.

Introducing my "new" car!

I suppose since I let everybody know about the death of my old car, I should let you know that I now have a functioning car. It took about two months after the death of my other car to get this one functioning, but thanks to the efforts of mechanics in my hometown to get the car to pass emissions, and thanks to friends Katie and Hank to fix the radiator (yes, Hank did the work, but Katie was the one to offer her husband's service in the first place, so she gets an assist in my book), AND thanks to Emma's cousin who tightened up the battery cable, I FINALLY have a functioning car.

So, I now present to the world my "new" car: A 91 Honda Civic hatchback, sold to me by my younger sister who decided it was time for a better car, and had not yet found anybody to buy the car off of her. Yes, I am that lucky girl who gets to buy hand-me-down cars from her little sister.




















Jenni named the car "The Puddle Jumper." Now, most of you are probably wondering what that name even means. The puddle jumper is a ship in Stargate Atlantis, a small shuttle-type ship built by an ancient race of really smart people (creatively called "The Ancients"). It is called the Puddle Jumper because it is small enough to fit through the stargate (which, when active, looks like a big puddle of water).











Don't they look similar?! This is not simply a case of us being geeky and naming things using Stargate references just because we are love the show (which might happen). I think there is no other name appropriate.

It could always be worse. . .