To Feel This Vulnerable Means I'm Alive

I know I've let you down. The blog has not been posted on for 3 months. But here's some food for thought. This is probably the 3rd time I've watched this, and it moves me. Each time it feels like it was made for me, for the very moment when I watched it.

Brené Brown - The Power of Vulnerability

• "Let ourselves be seen, vulnerably seen
• Love with our whole hearts even though there's no guarantee
• Practice gratitude and joy in those moments of terror...
• To feel this vulnerable means I am alive
• Believe that we're enough
• Stop screaming and start listening
• =We're kinder and gentler to the people around us and we're kinder and gentler to ourselves"

Morning Visitor

I hopped on my bike this morning. Rode to campus. Got off my bike and walked maybe 100 feet to the building where I work. What do I find on my shoe as I ride the elevator?

This.

I think the girl riding with me in the elevator, who I announced to that I had somehow gotten a traveler on my shoe, might have thought me a little strange.

I clocked in. Rode the elevator back down. Wobbled over to a patch of dirt and scooted this little guy off.

Quite the visitor.

Panda Dogs

Do a googleimage search for panda dog. I dare you.

Blue Blood

You know when you hear a brilliant song on the radio, but to your great dismay the radio announcer either doesn't exist or doesn't tell you what the song is? You cross your fingers every time the radio is on hoping that your song might come on, and that maybe this time you'll be quick enough to write down the lyrics or the radio announcer will give you some clue about the artist.

Well, 3 weeks after hearing that song on KOHS, my ears perked up at the familiar melody on the radio. Greg and I confirmed that it was the very song we'd spent the past few weeks searching for on the internet. Fate. I frantically search my bag for my phone to type the lyrics in my mini-search bar. Oh no. The phone isn't there. It was carelessly left at our apartment on the coffee table. Blast! Greg throws me his dysfunctional phone, which was not allowing letters h, y, or j to be typed on it today - and I write myself a text message so we could search for it later on google after the Friday night events.
3 hours later - the song is found. Located by a google search. Foals - Blue Blood. Not quite the Fleet Foxes we guessed the first time. Not any band I have heard of before, but the little boy in the video bears an uncanny resemblance to our dear Aqualung of yesteryear.


I'm still an anglophile.

Direct Flights during the Holidays

To give you some context, people can locate the number for the department where I work very easily. We are Anthropology and Archaeology combined into one. So we get questions about archaeological proof of the Book of Mormon or letters from prisons saying we are Mafia Studies. You know, your everyday office business.

Yesterday morning around 10 a.m. a woman calls telling me she needs to talk to someone about the archaeological practice of digging up burial sites. She explains that she's read apocryphal texts and Jewish texts that aren't in the Bible, and they condemn this practice. She's a new member of the LDS church, and she must talk to a professor about this grave matter.

So I rack my brain for a professor who would be appropriate, but thank goodness I didn't speak too quickly because before I knew it I was having a conversation that didn't even require an "uh huh" or "yes..." or "I know" to continue on.

Here are some great one-liners:

"[People are] trashing the whole superstructure of the planet," referring to evil people in this world.

"When I was little people did experiments to me and put me on all sorts of medication...I've died. I've already been murdered."

I asked her if she had email so she could contact a professor via email. She said that no she did not and those people at AOL took over her email address. "I don't know if it's the FBI, undercover FBI, or who did it, but they ruined my life."

She then continued to say that in relation to corrupt groups like the FBI, "Groups are great until they take my blood elements."

She talked about how the LDS church emphasizes families and how wonderful families are. She said that she didn't believe that families were all they're cracked up to be. "We're the aliens. We're the aliens to God if we're not in the right family."

I passed the phone to Arlene in the office to indicate what I was dealing with. She thought it was an automated message. She listened in for 30 seconds or so and then passed it back to me. "Doesn't this remind you of your mission?" Yes.

After 15 minutes of her talking, I eventually directed her to another department, the Department of Ancient Scripture. Sorry, guys. But she got close to the redirection of her phone call and spurted out this one, "I need a direct flight to Jesus."

Who knew the holidays could be so thrilling.

Marriage

Oh yeah, I got married in the past 9 months. Whoops.

Because I'm on a Blogging Spree

Greg and I were listening to some sweet tunes on the radio yesterday while driving when Cyndi Lauper's oh-so-lovely ballad, Time After Time, came on the radio. We turned it up, and I had a realization - Cyndi Lauper is a creepster. Here's why:

"if you're lost you can look--and you will find me
time after time
if you fall I will catch you--I'll be waiting
time after time"

"...watching through windows--you're wondering
if I'm OK
secrets stolen from deep inside"

Total stalker or what?

rolling eyes

I have never seen so many rolled eyes as I have these past 24 hours.

"101 paper?"
"Yeah."
"The boxes are downstairs on the 1st floor." (our office is on the eighth floor)
Student rolls their eyes. Goes to the elevator to make the trek 7 floors down.

Another scenario - bright yellow sign on the door. "From now - Friday 101 papers will be turned in in the TA office on the 1st floor."

I can't count the number of times the students walked into the office and asked where the 101 papers went.
3 students walk in. I point to the sign on the door politely.
"Oh so they go here now?"

What isn't clear about from now on?

CRAZY 101 STUDENTS!!!

Probably Time

Here's what's been going on as of late:


Baby chickens are now giant chickens.



Storms a-brewin'


Album covers


Girls who love rocks




Chicken coop constructing

en bref.

Admission Decision

I keep checking and rechecking. BYU Graduate Admission Decision/Enrollment. Huh? Are they sure they admitted me? Was there some mistake?

And every time I recheck, the answer remains the same.

I got accepted to the MSW program!

Chicks

Look at the new addition to Greg's room.

I'm Qualified to Satisfy You

Sometimes you've just got to love internet radio, and grooveshark.com is the quintessential internet radio in my opinion. You can pull up loads of songs you never thought you could previously listen to on the internet; you can skip them; you can smile about them; and so forth. So I've been trying to get into the holiday spirit, and thus started creating some Christmas playlists. I put the typical Sufjan Stevens Christmas music and thought, (thought bubble) "I love Joy to the World" by Sufjan Stevens, I'll see what songs come up when I select this song for my grooveshark radio." Radio button. Click. Here's what followed.

Curtis Mayfield - Break It Down
Barry White - I'm Qualified to Love You
Trevor Gordon Hall - Auld Lang Syne (the New Years Song)
Gene Kelly - Singing in the Rain
Stevie Wonder - My Cherie Amour
Versant - Out of Touch DEMO
Tori Amos - Smells Like Teen Spirit

You give them a listen. What do you think? Related to "Joy to the World" by Sufjan?

Merry Christmas! Bring some joy to the world by breaking it down, making this Christmas smell like teen spirit, and making sure that special one knows you're qualified to love them.*

Love,
Heather


*Please, play the Barry White song for them.

Il y a des gens qui n'auraient jamais été amoreux s'ils n'avaient jamais entendu parler de l'amour.
- La Rochefoucault

blogging

Blogging: I used to be better. Now I am horrid. But maybe I'll take it up again. That could do me some good - creating some writing, some lists, maybe some photos. Here's a little of how my weekend went.

Trip to Moab

• On the road at 2:05 with Meg, Greg, and Michael
  
• Made it to Colorful Colorado before we realized we didn't take the right turn.
• Michael's laptop battery lasted the entire trip - music the whole time!
• Great company - fascinating conversations
• Found a stop sign that says WHOA and an old school/church yard
  
• No campgrounds, though we checked out a few
• Made the trip to Moab in about 6 hours instead of 3 1/2 or so (despite the fact that there was definitely speeding involved).
• Met two people in the womens' bathroom in Moab - Kirk who was yelled at by one of the worker women for walking in, "NO NO NOOOOOOO, THAT'S THE WOMENS' BATHROOM!!!" and Laurie (who I know through Josh and hadn't seen for 3 years, except for last week when I ran into her twice in the SWKT). Laurie and Kirk were both part of our party.
• Available campsite eventually located in the dark!
• Dutch oven deliciousness by Greg- got eaten about 9 pm by this time we were out of stomach growls, our bodies had already run out of them. But it was a hit! Even a kangaroo rat/mouse wanted some.
• Campfire songs, scary stories, games, and laughs.
• Sleeping out under the stars in my mummy bag
  
• 4 am drizzling, everyone's awake, the boys are jumping up and moving everything from the table into the cars (a 2 minute walk, probably a shorter jog), girls are chilling/confused and therefore chilling in their sleeping bags on the foam pads watching the boys run around like madmen to get things in cars. They return. The rain has stopped. Greg and Michael opt for the tent that was previously unoccupied. Luke stays put 15 feet away from our huddle. Kirk moves onto the girl's foam pads.
  
• Dog in the early-morning hours. Sniifff sniiiiffffing around our campsite.
• Discovered how beautiful our campsite was - red rock, jabba the hutt surroundings.
• Saw 20 jeeps in a row - maybe more
  
• Delicate arch: one man was taking photos with a teddy bear so that the teddy bear would be ; he was not a native English speaker; another woman was doing an arch with her body - yoga moves - Meg therefore followed suit in our group photo
• Climbed all over that red rock!
• Made Kirk explain lots of geological information like green sediment, fault lines, and salt deposits.
• Petroglyphs
• Great music again!
• Mushroom and Swiss burger at the Lizard Cafe on Main Street next to the classy t-shirt and dress stores. Dirt shirt. And floral grandma dresses.
  
• Traffic held up on our depart. Why? There were women on horses herding cows across the road.
• We encountered rain and snow, sweated and shivered
• Passed the Pillow Talk Hotel
• Sang-yelled some Cranberries at the top of our lungs
  
• Missed pre-game traffic
  

Choose This Day

Welcome to my life: Figuring out how to manage my time.

Bloggins

Summer 2009 - Brief Recap

butter

I'm not sure what it is about Hathaways and storing things in the car. I can forgive the bottled water, stethoscopes, maps, freezer bags, however there are times where logic escapes me. Remember back in 12th grade when I found an entire melted stick of butter in my glove compartment? Or perhaps the can of exploded Cherry Coca-Cola in the compartment between the seats? I do.

Well, last night around 12 am, I slipped my cell phone into a harmless little compartment in my mother's car. When a text came my way, I dragged that little technological skipping stone out by its charging cord, and slipped it into my hand. Yes, slipped because I soon discovered that the once sleek design was significantly sleeker. Butter-in-compartments-in-my-car round 2 anyone?

Calf on the Bangerter highway today!

suspenders

I bet that man thought he was the only one wearing suspenders today on campus.