A Contact Sport

So I've been blogging a lot lately huh? I suppose it's because I don't have so much to do that I'm totally swamped and don't have time for anything else in my life, but I have just enough to do that I constantly look for ways not to do it all...thus the blogging. And it's been pretty random thoughts too. So...my apologies. But today is no different.

I hereby dub racquetball a contact sport. Are you supposed to touch each other? No. Do you? Definitely. Especially if playing doubles. Like I was this morning when I got a ginormous bloody lip. I attempted to take a picture of it to post on here but...I decided I really didn't want anyone having access to that close up of a picture of me. So sorry. No picture. But, the point is--I decided this morning that we wear our "eyewear" for a reason. Had I underestimated the wingspan of my opponent even more, I could have been hit with a racquet square in the eye instead of the mouth. And that would be not good (name that movie...).

The big swollen lip is an added bonus because tomorrow I get to meet about thirty people for the first time. Nothing like a sagging lip to make a great first impression. I'm sorry that I haven't officially informed the blogging world of this but I got the offer at a crazy time. This summer, I will be working in Moab for Western River Expeditions! Talk about a dream job. I unfortunately will not be a full-time river guide but instead will spend my days selling merchandise and jeep tours to unsuspecting tourists while picking up random day river trips whenever possible. It should be awesome. So tomorrow we have a big employee meeting in Salt Lake and I get to meet all of my co-workers. With a bulge in my lip. Awesome!

So this turned out a little smaller than it looked online but if you look closely, in the midst of all of that awesomeness there's a glowing building: Moab Adventure Center. And that--is where you can find me this summer. So exciting.

How Did I Miss These?

I am amazed. I watched the Olympics religiously for two weeks and never once saw a single one of these commercials. If you haven't seen the P&G commercials about moms please watch them here at my friend's blog (Maribeth hopefully you don't mind that I'm totally giving your blog address to all three of my readers that probably already know you anyway...). It's the "Feeling Olympic" post. If you are me they will probably make you cry. And want your mom. So mom--even though I'm not a US Olympian, you're still the greatest. Thanks for always being there.

WARNING: THIS IS ME VENTING

I. am. so. angry. It is 11:15pm. Tomorrow, I am taking a final for my block class that just ended. Have a studied for it? No. Not really. Why? Well, because Aspen Ridge, my stellar management company, decided that even though they haven't required one of us since we moved in here in August, they would email us on Friday and inform us that they would be coming Tuesday (that's tomorrow) to do a cleaning check. At least they provided a very specific time frame they'd be coming over: between 9am and 5pm. Now, cleaning checks are no fun anywhere but really, they aren't always that bad. However, when they suddenly decide that an apartment that hasn't been under stringent cleaning guidelines for years needs to be completely spotless in a day's time--that's just ridiculous. Ridiculous. And we can't have cleaning checks on a Saturday? Like the rest of Provo? But on a Tuesday, the middle of the week, the middle of the semester, and it's not like you can clean a few days in advance because just the mere act of living for 24 hours will make the apartment too dirty to pass a cleaning check Aspen Ridge style. All I can say is, if I fail my test tomorrow, or get fined for "not doing my cleaning" (which I've spent the last four hours not doing...) Aspen Ridge will be hearing from me about it.

So maybe it's late, maybe I'm tired, maybe Aspen Ridge doesn't deserve all of this flack and maybe I'm just angry because the Olympics are over, but...my official statement? Cleaning checks are ridiculous. Sure, come on over, make sure we aren't living like complete pigs and that we're not breaking every appliance and piece of furniture. But besides that--does it really matter how clean my baseboards are? Or if I took a q-tip to the cracks in my bathroom counter? Not a bit.

Correction

I would just like to apologize for my recent oversight. Sven Kramer, the speed skater, is Dutch. Not Norwegian. Sorry for any pain or confusion this may have caused.

Magic

Who needs school when you've got this?

Australian Torah Bright (who also happens to be LDS) winning gold in the women's halfpipe.

As if that weren't enough, Americans won both silver and bronze.

Evan Lysacek (who happens to be from Naperville--we're practically neighbors) winning gold and watching Plushenko trying but failing miserably to look happy.

Shaun White. There's really nothing to say but,um, wow.

Sven Kramer (Norwegian speed skating superstar) being told my his coach to switch lanes and being disqualified because of it. I hope they can still be friends.

Lindsey Vonn's disappointing and very painful looking crash on the giant slalom yesterday (not to mention the crazy fog they were attempting to ski in).

Canada's Joannie Rochette skating two days after her mom died suddenly of a heart attack and getting a personal best--enough to put her in third place. Talk about a tear-jerker.

So are the Olympics entertaining? Inspirational? Emotional? Magical? Yes, yes, yes and heck yes. So why study when pure magic is being shown on NBC from 8pm-midnight every night of the week? Luckily, it's a slow school week and I don't think the Olympics will negatively impact my GPA. Bring on the magic!

Vancouver 2010

Olympic Party=the most people we've ever had in our apartment.

Sorry about the lack of news since Seattle. I guess everything in Provo just kind of paled in comparison. But...lucky for you we had some action this weekend. Friday night the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics began!! And we celebrated in style. My roommates and I really aren't big party-ers, but if anything warrants a celebration--it's the Olympics. The opening ceremonies, as they tend to be, were a little slow (but good, mind you). But luckily we had plenty of Olympic-themed food to fill the time.

Jen definitely wins the prize for creativity. She ended up coming at the last minute and just pulled this lovely snack right out of thin air! In case you can't tell, that's a block of cream cheese with the Olympic rings on it made out of cabbage, an olive and peppers. She didn't want me to post this picture for some reason but how could I leave that out? (For some reason, google thinks it's awesome to rotate this picture sideways...but use your imagination and flip it around.)

This is our lovely snack table. In case you can't read that brown mess at the top of the rice krispie awesomeness, it's "Vancouver" written with no-bake cookies. We tried.

Another attempt. I thought it might work well to make Olympic rings out of crescent rolls. Yeah...it really didn't.

And the prize goes to Michael Barney. Look at that! Thanks for the truly epic dessert Mike!

Turns out that black ring above? Yeah, it turns your tongue totally black. Pretty fantastic.

Everyone, I hope you enjoy these next two weeks and the magic the Olympics will bring to your lives.

Seattle!

Thanks to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (whose "I Have a Dream" speech I just watched with my roommates to appropriately celebrate), I just had a three day weekend! It was especially awesome because I spent it in Seattle! I'd never been there, or anywhere in the Northwest, so it was pretty great. I went up to visit Megan before she heads off to Lubbock forever. We had a blast. I'll try to sum it all up fairly quickly and only put the best pictures in. But, just warning you, it's going to be hard.

I got there on Friday morning. My flight left Salt Lake at 7am. We went right to the city from the airport and started at the classic Pike's Place Market. It was just as great as everyone has always said it is. I loved it. We even saw the guys throw some fish. We took a little jaunt to the gum wall which I thought was pretty awesome, walked around on the pier, went to Dick's Drive In for some burgers, went to the Seattle Library but only for twenty minutes because that's how long we had free parking (ten floors in twenty minutes was a pretty good time...) and then we went to Gasworks Park on Lake Union where you can supposedly see the "Sleepless in Seattle" house. But...even after watching the movie that night, we're not sure which one it is. Bummer. We also went to Freemont that day to visit the Freemont troll. Apparently some people in the town sculpted this troll under an overpass a few years ago. It's pretty great.

The Freemont troll.

At Pike's Place with a fish guy.

The gum wall! Loved it.

At the pier, aka, "Seattle waterfront".

I took about a million pictures of the library (which I absolutely loved) but none of them really do it justice so I'm not going to put any here. Just know that I love it, it is amazing, and everyone should go. Ok, so Saturday. We went back to Seattle and went to the Seattle Center. Not before going to the hugest and greatest REI I have ever experienced however. Oh man. That was amazing. We literally had to hike, complete with waterfall, from the parking garage to the store. So great. So the Seattle Center basically encompasses everything around the Space Needle. We went to the top of the Space Needle and the view turned out way better than we expected so that was nice. We took the monorail to the mall and then back to the Seattle Center, went to The Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner and then went to the Bodies Exhibition. That was really neat. Apparently it was way smaller than the one in Salt Lake was but I really liked it. Neat stuff.

At REI. And loving it.

Me and the Space Needle.

Seattle from the Space Needle.

This picture kills me. They have these signs advertising a building that is half the EMP (Experience Music Project) and half SFM (Science Fiction Museum). So I am the nerd and Megan is the rocker. It's classic. And true.

Sunday we visited Snowqualmie Falls and went to church and on Monday we hung out on the Kirkland Waterfront in the beautiful, sunny, weather. Those Seattleists sure do get excited when the sun comes out. And for good reason. It was beautiful and probably 60 degrees.

Us and the falls.

Sunny Seattle! A miracle!

Even though it's a little painful to admit to the millions of people I know from Seattle that have been bragging about their city for the last four years, I absolutely loved it. I'd go back in a heartbeat. Coming back to Provo, winter and school...not so fun. But that's what makes the trips worth it, right? So thanks for a great time Seattle (and Megan!). I hope to see you both again real soon.