Unfulfilled Dreams

     Well, to go along with the last post, one thing that I have always secretly wanted to do was to be a dancer. I think they are so graceful and elegant and beautiful. I was given the chance to live my dream when I was 5 years old! What a wonderful opportunity for a wee little youngster like me to take 2 weeks of free classes at the local high school to become a world famous dancer! YES! All of my dreams were about to come true! I was going to be the best! I was going to be the most graceful! I was going to be the most flexible and talented dancer of them all!!
     When we bent down to touch our toes in the butterfly pose, I always had a huge smile on my face as I pictured a butterfly smelling my stinky feet. My Plie's were always the deepest and most exaggerated and my relevets were always on my tippy tip toes reaching with all of my heart to the sky.
     Little did I know that my dance career would be cut short because of a dumb leotard. Yeah. Did you know that it is very difficult to get out of a leotard when you have to pee? And even worse, it's not fun to miss the dancing part of the lesson because you have to pee. I just didn't want to ask to go because I would rather dance than spend 10 minutes getting out of my leotard, then peeing, then another 10 minutes getting back in my leotard. I would have missed the entire lesson!!!
     I don't know what happened, but next thing you know, I was dancing in a puddle of pee. It was all so traumatic, it is kind of a blur right now. Well, everybody just freaked out and so I started to cry because then I realized that "Oh, maybe I should be embarrassed at what just happened" and then I was dragged out of the room so they could and clean me off. And just as I thought I would get over that humiliation, they dragged me back into the room with all of the other girls while they all watched me clean up my own puddle of urine. Why couldn't my little self just be allowed to dance? I don't know. Well, that's pretty much it.
     Because of the trauma of that whole situation, I have officially given up dancing. I did try again in high school and epically failed, so I will just appreciate dancing and leave it to the pros. And now, I can pee without worrying about if I'm going to miss an important dance lesson. I feel so much freer now. Yay!

Have any of your dreams been cut short because of an embarrassing moment?

Bucket List

In honor of the new year, I have finally decided to compile a list of things I want to do before I die. Some of these will definitely happen, others will not. Some of these have been dreams since my childhood, and others have been dreamed of more recently. I will definitely be adding more as time goes by and I think of more. P.S. These are in no particular order. . .

1. Do the splits (Been a goal since I was a child. . . not even close, but I CAN touch my toes without bending my knees, so that's a good start I think.)

2. Scare my dad (he jumps at nothing and is scared of nothing. . . he's a tough cookie to crack!)

3. Do a backflip

4. Get married

5. Make a viral video on YouTube

6. Go hang-gliding

7. Learn to french braid my own hair

8. Learn to play the guitar

9. See a broadway musical (Les Miserables, Wicked, The Phantom of the Opera, and The Lion King are all on my list)

10. Visit every temple in Utah

11. Visit every temple in the world (this one is a bit ambitious and requires moneys that I definitely do not have)

12. Learn to curl my own hair without it looking retarded (I DID THIS ONE TODAY!!!! YAY FOR ME!!)

13. Ride a galloping horse

14. Ride in a hot air balloon

15. Visit Arches National Park and the Grand Canyon

16. Go to the Sacred Grove and other church history sites

17. Write a book

18. Go water skiing (technically, I have done this one, but I haven't been able to stay on top of the water, so I'm not counting it yet.)

19. Learn how to longboard or skateboard (or at least not fall off when it moves)

20. Go to the Festival of Colors

21. Ride a tandem bike (How cool would that be? I should probably find a cute boy to ride with me though . . . hmmmm. which one, which one?)
22. Learn how to snowboard/ski
23. Ride in a helicopter
24. I would say run a marathon because that seems to be on every person's bucket list, but let's be honest. I hate running with a passion and have no idea how people find it enjoyable, so my goal is to NOT run a marathon. I might do a 5K someday, but that's pushing it big time.
25. Get a Master's Degree or PhD in Education and teach at a University
26. Go on a normal date with a normal guy with normal circumstances/situations. Hasn't happened once in my entire life. Oh dear.
27. Learn how to Ice skate backwards (I sort of did, but definitely not comfortable enough to cross it off my bucket list yet)
28. Spend a night in the hospital. I know everybody says I don't want to, but I actually do. But as long as I'm not in excruciating pain, then I feel like it would be an adventure!

The following are a few things that were on my bucket list, but have now been crossed off!

Go to a concert (Lady Antebellum)

Go to a midnight movie showing (Take this one off of your own lists, it is highly overrated!)

Ride a go-kart
Learn to speak another language (TAGALOG)
Go to a different country (PHILIPPINES)
Climb to the top of Mount Timp (Worst day of my life!!!!! I literally sat on the side of the trail and cried. . . I know, I'm just mature like that)

So there you have it! My Bucket List. Isn't it exciting and adventurous?
What kinds of things do you have on YOUR bucket list? What have you crossed off already? What else should I add to my bucket list that I don't already have on there?

Wet Wipes and Bananas in a Hot Squishy Car

     I hope that title makes you want to barf as much as it makes me want to! When I was younger, we would always take these ridiculously long and squishy car rides with 9 smelly people crammed in a little space. To keep us happy and clean, my dear mother would always pack snacks that she thought would keep us happy and keep us from killing each other. Among these snacks, she would always pack fresh bananas and wet wipes to clean us off afterwards.
     It wasn't bad enough that they were just nasty in the car, I also had to have really bad motion sickness when I was younger (which persisted until I was 21). A combination of motion sickness, hot smelly car, and weird smells definitely made me lose it a couple of times. I distinctly remember having to have a barf bag which was used on more than one occasion. Yeah. nasty barf smell didn't help either.
     Because of these memorable car rides, several foods and smells have permanently been ruined for me including fruit snacks, winterfresh gum, warm bananas (normally those are ok), the smells of  wet wipes, coffee, gasoline, and rubber. GROSS!!!

Yes, these things still make me nauseated when I see/smell/eat/think about them. It was that bad.

Do you have any foods or smells that have been ruined for you? Why?

Eeriel with Ariel and Auriel

     You've all heard of Ariel (The Little Mermaid), but little did you know that she has two sisters named Auriel, and Eeriel. Or, that's what I played with my sisters when I was a wee little thing. Laura and Anna were always Ariel or Aurel because those were beautiful names.....and I was Eeriel. What's in a name anyway, right? Wrong! Did you know that everything in the world depends on what your name is? Let me just tell you that things did not go well for Eeriel. . .
     Just to clarify, this game was only played when we were all very young and took baths together. As we sat on the edge of the tub (the wall of the castle), we would chant some cute little rhyme about how the Prince would come to rescue us, but one of us would always fall off and die before he got there. Yup. You guessed it. It was Eeriel. I never got rescued by the Prince. Lame. No wonder I'm not married yet.
     Also, we would play "backwash". Yeah. . . that's right. Laura (who always sat in the front in the deep end of the tub) would get a mouthful of water, swish it around for a while, then spit it into Anna's mouth, who would then swish it and spit it into my mouth. I think I was then supposed to swallow the water, but I might have spit it out. I can't remember. BUT . . . I would just like to point out that after having water spit into my mouth, other things put into my mouth, and being forced to eat soap because I was led to believe that it was a candy bar (more than once, might I add), that MY immune system ROCKS!!!! And Anna and Laura are WIMPS! TAKE THAT, ARIEL AND AURIEL! EERIEL STANDS SUPREME!!! You'll be too weak to hold onto that castle wall and someday, you will fall off before me and then I'll finally get the Prince to rescue me!!! Woo-hoo!!!
The End.

What unsanitary things did you do with your siblings when you were younger? Or that you still do even though you know better?

On a Date with The Rolling Turd

The Rolling Turd. If you don't know what it is, the name says it all. I wish I had a picture to post of this one-of-a-kind car, but I'm pretty sure it broke all of the cameras we tried to use. Just try to picture this, ok? A super de duper old white (sorta) Dodge Spirit, paint peeling, rust forming, heard from a mile and a half away, random backfires, and it rattles like it's going to come apart any second.

The real advantage to having this car was that we could hear our parents coming home from a mile away, so we had time to turn off the TV and pretend like we were doing our chores the whole time they were gone. (They never knew....actually they did....I'm a really bad liar). I thought I was pretty sneaky though.

Just imagine my joy, when as a young, innocent 17-year-old girl, I had to take this car to drive my Preference date. Where this is the Girl's choice version of Prom, and everybody is fancy, just imagine how classy I felt rolling up to the dance in this piece of turd.

Just to get a better picture of this awful car, come back with me to when this car was my only source of transportation. I would be driving down the road, and it backfired and died. I would be turning left in the middle of a busy intersection, and it backfired and died. I would be crossing the train tracks, and it backfired and died. Are you sensing a pattern yet? Would this happen every time? No. Did it happen on my date? Of course. Not only did it backfire and die several times on the date, it always took several tries to start the car and my date turned to me while I was driving and asked if the car was going to break because it was rattling so loudly. How mortifying.

Although I really am grateful for all of the adventures caused by that thing (otherwise I would have had to walk everywhere), the point of this story is that kids these days have no idea how lucky they are to drive cars that work, look not like a piece of turd, have a stereo, and don't constantly put them in life threatening situations with their dates. The end.

Did you ever have to drive a car that you were embarrassed to drive or put you in danger by its quirkiness?

Who are you again?

    When I went to Snow College, I met a guy who was in one of my classes and we ended up walking in the same direction to our next class. I decided that I was going to turn over a new leaf and not be awkward anymore. So, instead of walking by him silently, I thought this would be a good opportunity to start up a friendly conversation since I knew we would be seeing each other in class a lot. We talked for at least 5 minutes and he was really nice and then we separated ways for our different classes. Well, I saw him again in the next couple of days and decided that I would say "hi" to him since we had talked before and we were in the same class. Well, he introduced himself to me again which I thought was strange, but brushed it off because I thought he had just forgotten my name. So, we introduced ourselves again and talked for a few minutes. I decided that I had actually made an impression that time so he would remember me and I would not feel awkward next time.
    Well, the next time I met him, same thing happened. So, I introduced myself to him AGAIN . . . and AGAIN,  the next time. Am I up to five times yet? Because that is literally how many times I introduced myself to him and he STILL didn't know who I was. That is when I decided I would not be his friend. And I wasn't. If somebody doesn't remember me (or at least my beautiful face) after FIVE TIMES, then they don't deserve to be my awesome friend.
     That instance was kind of a blow to my self-confidence, but as a few years has passed, I have come to the realization that I just have one of those faces. Usually, when you first meet somebody, you might forget their name the next time you see them, but you can always remember their face. Not the case with me. This same instance has happened to me many many many times. Even my current roommates are flabbergasted at the stupidity of people who don't remember me.
      I just have one of those faces, I guess.  The face everybody just doesn't remember. I have been in the same college student apartment for almost a year, and of course, every semester, people move in and out and we have new ward members (Oh, P.S. I am LDS/Mormon if you haven't figured that out yet. . . ). So, it is super fun to be in this ward with lots of people and fun activities to help us make friends. (Which I definitely need because I am a HORRIBLE friend-maker) Anywho, I swear, every single time there is an activity or we go to church, I will introduce myself to one new person and then I'll say Hi to them and talk to them when I see them in different places. Friendly, right? Apparently, people just never remember meeting me. Inevitably, every single time they will introduce themselves back to me because they just don't remember meeting me ever.
    So, even though it is super awkward when I remember somebody and they have absolutely no recollection of ever meeting me, I have decided that it is a good thing that I'm not so ugly that they can't forget my face. Have you ever noticed that? You really really remember the faces of people that are so gorgeous they should be on the cover of a magazine or you can't erase the face of somebody who is so ugly they should be Nanny McPhee? At least that's not me.

So, question of the day. What do you do to help people remember who you are?

Washing Windows

 

So, I've decided that this is me. Not only do I dig the librarian eye-glasses and curlers in her hair, but being the speshul person that I am, I have come to realize that I have a bit of a self-righteous air that I detest in myself.  I find it a little bit ridiculous how much I unintentionally judge people or criticize them without really understanding them. Of course, I deny it because I don't want to be the "judgy" one, but unfortunately, I am. I find myself basing my relationships with other people off of my first impression of them. Bad form!! Well, this past week, my windows have been washed, and I have felt like a fool and now have a completely new perspective. So, here's to fresh starts and non-judgementalness!!

What have you done to change negative qualities about yourself?