shout out.

dear little brother,
happy birthday! you are no longer a teenager. you are now the big 2-0. you are pretty awesome. but you are very far away. so maybe can you work on coming home soon? like maybe in a year or so? because i miss you.
love, your big sister

Sometimes my brain works like this:

Estoy agradecido por los ascensores
I am grateful for 我最好的朋友.
I am grato para pais amorosos.
我不喜欢 casts.
je serait aime voir ma maison encore
Je ne peux pas bend my foot right now.
Je serait aime to go running and not tienen un problema con él.
我感谢 sunshine today.
I really do not want to take my anatomy exam.
Knyom sraw-line ne-uh nah

Why can't a skeleton lift weights? --- He's all bone and no muscle.

Question: how many bones are in the human body?
(my hand SHOOTS in the air! pick me pick me oh please pick me!)
Answer: TWO HUNDRED AND SIX. (if it's an adult. children, please add 100 to that number.)

And I've spent the past two weeks learning every nook and cranny of every single one of them.
How's that for AWESOME homework?

This is Cesaer. He and I have grown very close lately. In fact, I devoted two hours of my day yesterday to simply just staring at him. Not adoringly. More like loathingly. Although I love and appreciate how incredibly interesting he is, I would much rather NOT have an exam on him in two days. With every indistinguishable marking as a possible test question. I'd rather love and cherish him from afar - with no exam and no cramming and no tibial tuberosity or sustentaculum tali to worry about. (I will give you a dollar if you can tell me where the sustentaculum tali is without looking it up or asking anyone. *science majors not included.) But as soon as this is over, the peripheral nervous/upper extremity muscles begin.... woe is me.

Dear Cesaer,
As much as I absolutely ADORE you, I am pleased to announce that starting Thursday at 10:00 a.m. MST, we will no longer be together. I'd like to have my life back instead of slowly becoming a skeleton like you.
xoxox, Nat

"Do you like hip-hop? I got an album --- and I never shot nobody."

So sometimes I miss Hawaii. I miss the lazy, dream-filled nights. I miss the random connections we made with the people at the hostels. The people with whom our paths crossed for that miniscule moment in time. I miss hiking around mountains and being inches away from the edge of the cliff - hiking for hours until suddenly the waterfall appears and makes the 2 hours in the rain worth it. Conversations on hotel rooftops. Being in flip-flops and a bathing suit, no matter where or when it is. I miss not having to be somewhere at a specific time. Stretching out on the beach with a book that I don't actually have to think about reading. Hammocks made out of parachutes. Riding on the bus and not caring how long it takes to get there. I miss the friendly alohas and the breathtaking flowers. I miss the sound of the waves.

But then, I come back to Provo and realize how much I've missed the deadlines, and the pressure, and the stress. (I know, I'm crazy. But I secretly love having a semi-fast-paced life.) And the sense of pride. And my bed. And hot showers. And not having sand in every single crevice of my skin and on every article of clothing I own. I missed Grover and being able to drive (not that I'm able to drive now anyways......) I missed face-to-face conversations - somehow texting and phone calls don't make the cut after awhile.

However. I did not and do not and will not miss from both Hawaii AND Provo: grades, offices, big casts on my leg that make me walk 103293483920 times slower than normal, singles wards, creepy old men offering me a shack to stay in, creepy old men telling me about the 14 times he saw Jesus on Larry King, creepy old men telling me how he hates Christians, creepy old men telling me that I could be wife #5, drunk spaniards, $2 value menus, and linear algebra.

On a completely different note, I love BYU football.

Where'd all the Good people go?

I found one. One good person. I don't know his name. But he made an impression on me. Not because of his awesome hair, or his smartly pressed uniform, or spiffy shoes or the accent he didn't have. But because he did a good deed. And he did it for nothing.

Imagine being passed up by a full bus after waiting and waiting and watching and hoping. It's kind of saddening. And then all of a sudden, a bus that we weren't waiting for pulls up, asks us where we are going, tells us we won't be able to make it there because the bus we need to get on will be too full and that we should get on his bus and he will take us to where we can get on the bus that we need.

We were pretty stoked about that. But, it gets even better! We got on the bus and he wouldn't let us pay the fee! AND he gave us a free transfer! He didn't do it for personal gain or to get something from us. He was just a nice guy giving six girls a way to get to where they wanted to go.

He made my day. And now I'm going to pass it on and make someone else's day. Not because I want something or anything like that - We just need more good people in this world. And I want to be one. And I'm grateful for each one that touches my life.

So Long Sweet Summer!

Hello August 31st.
The first day of classes.
The day that everyone dreads.

And yet everyone secretly welcomes it with butterflies of excitement and anticipation and nervousness in their tummies. Remember how you were so excited to go to school and meet your teachers? And you had a special new outfit with awesome shoes that were definitely going to make you the most popular person in P.E. class. (Note to certain people - and not just me: Overalls are not included in this "special outfit" category.)

Here on the famed BYU campus, it seems like every girl gets all gussied up for this. New jeans, fancy shoes, big hair and everything. Not me.

I make a point of wearing a certain article of clothing - sometimes it's a shirt, sometimes it's a skirt, sometimes it's shoes - that I dislike. Because then I will dislike what I'm wearing ALL day long. That way I'm not one of the crowd. I don't walk around with the omnipresent 'excited, yet completely SCARED' look on my face. I might maybe be a little excited, but thanks to that awesome piece of clothing that I keep around for just this reason, I'm unique. Pretty clever, right? I think so. :)

But however smart I think I am, school is going to be formidable and is going to take a Herculean amount of effort on my part. Hopefully I can do it.

Homesick but happy.

I got to walk around Salt Lake City last night. And the fact that the whole city wasn't dead and quiet by 10 o'clock made me so excited.

People were walking around and joking and laughing. There were random parties and concerts happening on street corners and in parks. And the people walking around weren't your normal -run-of-the-mill people. They had character and personality. It reminded me SO much of NYC. And I got a little homesick.

But then driving home late at night, I saw something wonderful. As you drive on the freeway and get to the edge of American Fork and Pleasant Grove, I drove over the hill and saw a beautiful sight. From way off to the side of the mountain, I got to see this: (Minus the line of light going up to it - this picture is kind of old. They light it up a different way now.)

And seeing this really isn't that big a deal. They light it up for the graduation ceremonies every semester and for homecoming in the fall. (They lit it up again tonight for the second night of graduation. I'm sitting here in my living room, and I love that I can see it from my couch.) But for some reason, it kind of hit me at this point how much I love being in Utah.

Yes, I love New York, and I always will. It is such an important part of my life and it is the place I dream about constantly because I miss it so so much. But, Utah is home. I live here now. And as much as I first hated coming out here to this strange world that is so completely different from NY, it has grown on me. I hated a lot of things about this place - mostly the fact that I wasn't really happy here.

But now, sometimes I can't bear to think of leaving it. As much as everything here can get chaotic and frustrating and seem so overwhelming, this is home. This is where my heart is now.

So last night just kind of made this transition feel so real. I saw SLC and loved it and missed NYC. But then that Y on the mountain just felt so right. Homesick and happy. Is that even possible? I guess so. And that's how I like it.

wednesday wonders.

today was interesting. good and bad, with ups and downs. lots of downs, but really good ups. because it is the 12th, here are 12 things I learned from wednesday.

1. "If there's something wrong, those who have the ability to take action have the responsibility to take action." i believe it.
2. the tiles in the bathroom at my brother's house aren't really tan. they are purple. i just didn't realize that until after i scrubbed it for 2 hours.
3. the BYU bookstore can be talked into giving you an extra 20% (40% total!) off of all 48 pompoms, 24 footballs, and all 29 yards of fabric (etc.) that you have to purchase. it just requires that you climb up and down 3 levels of stairs repeatedly, go on a goose hunt for someone that doesn't really exist, and convince a lady named Nicole that you really are doing this for a good reason.
4. pinesol smells DEE-LISH. actually, I really like cleaning with it. when something smells so fresh like that, i'm more willing to scrub harder because i want the whole house to smell like it.
5. sometimes good things happen to good people.
6. mango flavored things make the days a little bit better.
7. BYU football and thursdays are exciting. :D
8. attitude is a matter of choice, not consequence.
9. land rovers are very roomy. they can fit 3 sets of golf clubs, 2 suitcases, 1 memorabilia football, 3 containers of random clothing/curtains, 2 boardgames, 1 lampshade, 3 college students, and lots of love.
10. relish the awkward moments. they make for awesome memories.
11. I have no Napoleonic dream. I'm just hard-working and pragmatic. ("pragmatic"=matter-of-fact/concerned with practical matters)
12. as long as you don't give up on me, i won't give up on you.

I'm on a boat

So I was on a boat last weekend. We woke up before the sun so that we could be on the lake before anyone else. And it was totally worth it! We had absolutely the most beautiful water. So glassy and perfect to wakeboard on. I haven't ridden on perfect water like that in a LONG LONG time. It was incredible.


And yet, I still managed to do something like this:




It kind of really really stung. And kept stinging after I'd gone and fallen again three more times.
Then, I decided to jump off the boat. But I got a lovely reward for trying to do it with a wakeboard on. :)



This picture is from 4 days later. It is so colorful!
All in all, it really was a fantastic trip that I now have a reminder of every time I raise my left arm. :) I just wish I could go every day.




20 days until school starts? where did summer go?

This only adds to how weird I am. Please, no judging me.... :)

I got the best surprise yesterday!!! (actually, I got a couple of them, but you only get to hear about one right now...)

I made a quick trip home. And sitting underneath the door mat was a lovely brown box.

And guess what this box had in it!!! (You will never guess. EVER. It's just not something you'd think that anyone would get in a package.)

I've been looking for these for forever. No joke. I even looked them up online and went to all the places that said they had them. And NO ONE had any.

So, I took matters into my own hands. :)
And this is what I got:


These are so convenient. How can you NOT want some?
Plus, they're good for you. :)