Simply Random Hosanna

Snow day! I wish...

2012-01-19T21:25:00.000-08:00

So, for the first time in my memory, my school in Frenchtown, which I no longer attend because I am in college now, got a snow day. What on earth?! Never, ever, ever, no matter how much snow we got, no matter how bad the roads were did school get canceled! I feel incredibly left out. Not only that, I wasn't going to go to work today and school hasn't started for me, so the whole novelty of getting a snow day was pretty much lost on me. So lame.

However, there is quite a lot of snow out there, which is pretty exciting. :) About 15 times the amount we've gotten all winter yet, and its mid-January. Prolly about 18 inches, more or less. The roads in Missoula have been nutso since yesterday, but they were really bad today. My roommate had troubles digging herself out of our apartment complex parking and then she got stuck a couple of times trying to get home. I think the city just gave up trying to keep up with plowing the road because the snow just kept a'comin' down ALL day. haha I was pretty lucky in the fact that I had no where to go all day and don't really need to go anywhere all weekend.

Here's a link to what the people at the Missoulian had to say about the day: Snow day article from the Missoulian

Totally crazy stuff! I shoveled snow in the parking lot/sidewalk area right around my apartment. It was nice to get out in the snow a bit. It's quite pretty. I like it a lot. I'm anxious because it's supposedly supposed to rain all day Saturday which would just entirely ruin the snow and make my life miserable...but we'll just see, because we were supposed to have freezing rain today and never really got that...maybe we'll luck out...

New year, new thoughts...well not really...

2012-01-07T18:12:00.000-08:00

Being the beginning of a new year, I felt as though it was time for a new post. What about? I'm not entirely sure. So I guess we'll see where this leads us, shall we?

I would just like to say that my life is beautiful. It is not perfect, by any means, but it is beautiful and I'm loving it. Amazing what a few good friends, family, and a break from school will do to improve your attitude. :) I feel very privileged and blessed. I want to say that I love my Savior! He is my friend and guide. I am so thankful for Him and that He continually helps me every day through the people around me and through His spirit.

I read this really good article today by Thomas S. Monson. He's the leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and God's prophet on the earth today. I love that God hasn't left us alone. He hasn't changed how he operates. He had prophets on the earth in Bible times, and He has one now - to help guide us and direct us to make decisions that will let us be able to see our Heavenly Father again. Anyways, back to this article I read today. It was a good little pick-me-up for the new year. It wasn't one of those humdrum new year's resolution pushing kind of articles. It was a few tips for living abundantly. What does it mean to live abundantly? Well, to me it is so to live in a way that you don't have regrets and don't miss chances for happiness and growth. It means being happy, actually happy. Not just happy because for once you weren't late for work or because you didn't miss your deadline or you made more money than you expected. But happy despite the things that go wrong all the time. Happy because you know the things that are in your life that are truly important outweigh the unfortunate mishaps that occur in your life. That happiness should inspire you to live in such a way that shows you are happy despite those bad things that happen and you desire others to be that happy too. That's how I feel about living abundantly - abundance in the good things of life ought to be shared and passed along to those you know and love as well as those you may not like as well or know at all.

The title of the article is "Living the Abundant Life," and I"m going to share it with you as it's really not that long:

Living the Abundant Life

At the advent of a new year, I challenge Latter-day Saints everywhere to undertake a personal, diligent, significant quest for what I call the abundant life—a life filled with an abundance of success, goodness, and blessings. Just as we learned the ABCs in school, I offer my own ABCs to help us all gain the abundant life.

Have a Positive Attitude

A in my ABCs refers to attitude. William James, a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher, wrote, “The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.”¹

So much in life depends on our attitude. The way we choose to see things and respond to others makes all the difference. To do the best we can and then to choose to be happy about our circumstances, whatever they may be, can bring peace and contentment.

Charles Swindoll—author, educator, and Christian pastor—said: “Attitude, to me, is more important than … the past, … than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company, a church, a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.”²

We can’t direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails. For maximum happiness, peace, and contentment, may we choose a positive attitude.

Believe in Yourself

B is for believe—in yourself, in those around you, and in eternal principles.

Be honest with yourself, with others, and with your Heavenly Father. One who was not honest with God until it was too late was Cardinal Wolsey who, according to Shakespeare, spent a long life in service to three sovereigns and enjoyed wealth and power. Finally, he was shorn of his power and possessions by an impatient king. Cardinal Wolsey cried:

Had I but served my God with half the zeal
I served my king, He would not in mine age
Have left me naked to mine enemies.3

Thomas Fuller, an English churchman and historian who lived in the 17th century, penned this truth: “He does not believe that does not live according to his belief.”⁴

Don’t limit yourself and don’t let others convince you that you are limited in what you can do. Believe in yourself and then live so as to reach your possibilities.

You can achieve what you believe you can. Trust and believe and have faith.

Face Challenges with Courage

C is for courage. Courage becomes a worthwhile and meaningful virtue when it is regarded not so much as a willingness to die manfully but as a determination to live decently.

Said the American essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide on, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.”⁵

There will be times when you will be frightened and discouraged. You may feel that you are defeated. The odds of obtaining victory may appear overwhelming. At times you may feel like David trying to fight Goliath. But remember—David did win!

Courage is required to make an initial thrust toward one’s coveted goal, but even greater courage is called for when one stumbles and must make a second effort to achieve.

Have the determination to make the effort, the single-mindedness to work toward a worthy goal, and the courage not only to face the challenges that inevitably come but also to make a second effort, should such be required. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says, “I’ll try again tomorrow.”

May we remember these ABCs as we begin our journey into the new year, cultivating a positive attitude, a belief that we can achieve our goals and resolutions, and the courage to face whatever challenges may come our way. Then the abundant life will be ours.

http://lds.org/liahona/2012/01/living-the-abundant-life?lang=eng

And there you have it. I hope that this touched you even a little bit in the way it touched me. It inspired me to try a little harder to be positive and encouraging to those around me as well as myself. My favorite line was probably this one: "Courage becomes a worthwhile and meaningful virtue when it is regarded not so much as a willingness to die manfully but as a determination to live worthily." I feel like that should be my motto for the year, if not my life.

Um...I feel like I had more to say when I started writing this post, but perhaps the relative brevity of my own words supplemented by the eloquence of Thomas S. Monson will be sufficient for today. Happy new year to you all - may it be a chance to work on living more abudantly!

Ariel, the red-headed sea lass

2011-12-01T14:49:00.000-08:00

Today, I've decided I need to stick up for Ariel, from The Little Mermaid, the Disney re-telling. Someone I know said that they think she's a bad example to little girls and the worst of the Disney princesses. The reasoning behind this is that she teaches that disobedience to your parents grants you your fondest desires and that if you do nothing the perfect guy will fall for you. Baloney!

First time that I remember seeing her in the film, she's off exploring. Right off the bat, she shows curiosity and spunk - are these lazy, bad qualities? Hardly, although they can lead to trouble when unchecked. Next major scene I remember is Ariel rescuing Eric from the wreckage of his boat in a storm. Does not this suggest courage and bravery? Those are definitely admirable qualities that don't really just spring out of nowhere. In fact, I'd like very much to be as brave. And as a kid, I remember thinking how cool it was that she rescued him from almost certain death and wished I could do the same for someone I cared about if the situation arose.

Ariel being enamored of Eric and then saving his life could've been the end of his involvement in her story. Had her father not come and destroyed her collection of human trinkets, which represented much more than physical possessions - it represented her curiosity, adventurousness, and hope, she may not have ever attempted contact again with Eric. However, her father crushes her dreams along with her collection. In the heaviness of the tragedy of ruined dreams and the loss of trust in her father, she makes a rash decision to restore her hopes. If she'd had some cool down time, she may never have decided to trust a known sea witch. The sea witch knew how vulnerable Ariel would be at that precise moment, and trusted to her young, naive, hopeful nature to feed that vulnerability and turn it into a misplaced trust in herself, Ursula. Ariel's main problems were naivete, foolishness, and a penchant for acting rashly when hurting. It's blatantly obvious, even to children, that trusting the demonic sea witch is a bad idea. Her assistance was not unconditional. True help would be given without demand of favors to be returned. Ariel has thrown her better judgment to the wind in a desperate attempt to prove to her father that she can get what she dreams of, without his help since he obviously wouldn't give it. She sacrifices that which was her most valuable physical talent, that which would've made her quest to win Eric's heart so much easier, her beautiful voice. A high price to pay, under terrible conditions, a 3 day time limit or she'll be forever enslaved to Ursula. *Insert big, flashing, neon sign of DANGER at this point in the story* BAD IDEA, and kids know it. Or at least, I knew it.

That's not at all menacing, now is it?

After Ariel has her voice taken from her and legs given to her, she makes the best of her situation and begins trying to charm Eric into accepting her and loving her. I think she was given VERY large handicaps. She had to learn how to use legs, and try and come up with new non-verbal ways to communicate effectively with Eric - not something she probably had just lying around. She only had three days to learn how to do these things and to make Eric fall in love with her. A fairly impossible task.

She was making real progress with it, enough to scare Ursula into action. Ursula could not afford for Ariel to actually succeed because then, Ursula's plan of taking over King Triton's job and ruling the ocean would be thwarted. So, enter the bewitching Vanessa aka Ursula the nasty sea witch sporting the voice of Ariel, enchantment enough in itself. Eric is immediately enchanted. And I mean that literally, there is a literal enchantment on him. He no longer even knows or cares about Ariel at all and immediately sets forth to wed said witchy Vanessa. Once again, the mallet of bitter disappointment slams down upon Ariel's dreams. Her heart is probably shattering into oblivion as she watches the boat with her love and his newly intended inside sail away. She simply watches and accepts that his choice is not her, and she loves him and wants him to be happy. She cries silently to herself. Not that she has a choice about the crying silently bit, but she could at least kick and throw things and cause general destruction and havoc. She doesn't though.

As soon as she finds out Eric has been enchanted and is about to marry Ursula, Ariel rushes to save him. She engages in a desperate struggle, first to save Eric from marrying a witch, then for her own life, Eric's, and her father, and ultimately to destroy Ursula, the conniving, evil sea witch.

If you ask me, Ariel is NOT someone who sits by and does nothing and lucks out by having the man of her dreams fall in her lap. No, it was a long, hard struggle - mistakes, sacrifice, and disappointment littered the path towards the fulfillment of her hopes. She isn't merely acted upon, she acts. She's a character capable of making decisions, doing hard things, and sacrificing her own will for the fulfillment of someone she loves happiness. No, she doesn't go about things entirely the right way, but she accepts the consequences of her actions and fights, ultimately, for others.

You want examples of doing nothing and getting the perfect man of your dreams anyway? Just take a look at Sleeping Beauty who sleeps through the majority of the story. Or how about Snow White, even more naive then Ariel, who ends up disobeying the dwarves and letting someone into the house who kills her - I don't think she had anything to do with getting the man of her dreams in that state. What did Snow White teach little girls exactly? That if you're beautiful guys fall for you, stepmothers become jealous of you to the point of murder, and if you die it'll all be ok because the handsome prince will find you anyways and awake you with the magical kiss of true love. (Interesting enough, because the only princess movie we owned and I therefore watched many times when I was young was Snow White, and yet I still didn't grow up thinking that if I just cooked and cleaned all day my prince would come.) Yet, Ariel has taken away from her the most attractive thing about her and still manages to win herself her prince through courage and correcting her grievous mistake of playing into a witch's hands. Her father is a wonderful, merciful, forgiving father who really wants Ariel to be happy. If Ariel had just gone to her father instead of the witch, he may have been brought round to grant her her desire eventually. She made a very great mistake in trusting Ursula. However, she strove valiantly to rectify it and restore her father to his kingship with no expectation that she would still get what she wanted. In the end, her initial bad choice did not get her what she wanted, only the love of her father did. Lesson learned? Well, I learned one...

Ok, so obviously this is a grown-up, or at least partially grown-up, woman's reading of the film, and it is true I did not think all of these things when I was a kid. But, I do not remember ever thinking that I could be like Ariel and disobey my parents and I could become a mermaid or a princess or whatever. I did not think that if I just sat around in my room all day and thought lovely thoughts, a handsome, perfect prince would come sweep me off my feet...On the contrary, Ariel taught me that forks were combs, that bravery was to be commended and desired, that if you love someone you let them choose who will make them happy - if you love someone you should be willing to sacrifice yourself and your dreams for theirs. I grant you that I didn't think those things in so defined and eloquent terms but her bravery and determination to save Eric and her father and to destroy Ursula at the end of the film made a great impression on me. Maybe I was an exceptional kid and caught on to things more than other kiddos did...I highly doubt that though. I'm fairly certain I was just like most other little girls. I thought Ariel's hair was sooo pretty, and I just wanted red hair just like hers and to be able to swim like a fish and breathe underwater...

Judge you now herewith, does the Little Mermaid teach evil, bad things?

Mint M&Ms and....

2011-11-20T22:10:00.000-08:00

I'd just like to promote Mint M&Ms right now. They are seriously the best kind of M&M ever! There's just something about mint and chocolate that is so soothing and comforting. I suppose because mint is kind of a cool, smooth, soothing sort of flavor and chocolate is always comforting......anyways, that's all I really had to say about that. I just wanted to share my love of these magical little chocolate candies with you all.

Now, onto the figurative meat and potatoes of this post...don't ask me what those will be, I don't know. I just felt like I should get on here and write something. I guess because it is nearly Thanksgiving I might talk a bit about what I'm grateful for. (And these are not numbered in any particular order of importance....just sos ya know.)

As we've already established above, I'm grateful for mint M&Ms. They are a seasonal candy, so that makes me ever more appreciative of them when they are around.
The cello, and more specifically, Steven Sharp Nelson. I've been listening to a lot of his stuff lately and it's just beautiful. I've always loved the timbre, if you will, of the cello - so soothing and wonderful. Ah, I shall post a link to one of his pieces so you all can partake in its wonderfulness. :) This is his arrangement of Bach's most famous Cello suite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry4BzonlVlw&feature=relmfu
Chelsea, my best friend in the whole wide world. She's a beautiful, loyal, strong, kind, wonderful woman! She's supported me through hard times and is always there to share in a laugh and a ridiculous adventure. She's so much fun to be around! And she has a heart the size of Texas! I love her to pieces and wouldn't know what to do without her. Thanks for being there bestie!
My roommate, Kira. She's become one of my best, closest friends in the 5 months we've lived together. She's spunky and funny. She's a sweet girl who wants to make sure people understand the love that God has for them. She's supportive, and is always good for deep chats about life and the world. I'm grateful that we've had the opportunity to be roomies!
Carly, another one of my best friends! She's so awesome! Hilarious, witty, talented, beautiful, not afraid to speak her mind. She's always up for a little BBC, and everyone needs a BBC buddy, doncha know?
All my many other friends who I would never be able to do justice to in this post. I'm so blessed to have so many supportive, strong, and loyal people in my life who help me get through the rough days and enjoy the fun times with me as well! Shanna, Elise, Donny, Brittany, Taryn, Erin, Mary... eh, why am I even bothering, I'll never be able to name you all off and I'll forget someone for sure! Just know that you are fantastic, wonderful people and I hope I can be the friend to you that you all have been to me!
My mother! My mom is the best! She's always been there to support me when I struggle and feel inadequate or ugly or stupid - basically whenever I'm in the pits and can't get out. She's always there to remind me that I'm a daughter of God and that she and God love me so much. She's taught me so much about life and about the things that truly matter. She's shared her love and testimony of the Savior with me, and that means more than almost any other lesson she's taught me. She puts up with my lack of interest in things such as gardening and sewing, and supported my interest in things like the piano, crocheting, and photography. I love her so much!
My daddy! My dad is the sweetest man I know! He's been the kindest, most wonderful father I could ever have asked or hoped for. He's instilled in me a respect for others' opinions, views, religions, background, etc. He's also my movie buddy. I get my love for film from him, and I love watching movies with him and discussing them with him. He's also instilled in my a great love and admiration for music and books. And he's shown me, by example, the importance of family, living and dead, that I've slowly begun to understand and value myself. His love of the gospel is evident in his dedication to the Savior through family history work and fulfilling his callings in the church and his family. I love, admire and respect my father so much.
My lil' sister Maja. She's the cutest, little blonde sister a girl could ask for. As soon as we moved past the screaming stage of her first few years of life, I began to see that she had some real value. ;) She's seriously a sweetie. She loves pretty much unconditionally, and is always kind. She's absolutely hilarious and I love spending time with her. I admire greatly her dedication to working hard, and her determination to manage and save her money very carefully. (I could do with being more like her in the money saving aspect of life.) I'm incredibly proud of her! She's my favorite! Love her so much!
My brothers, even though they happen to be some of the most trying irritants I encounter in my life at times. I appreciate them for all their quirky, fun-ness. They are both so smart and have such large vocabularies, it's almost like having a conversation with a dictionary sometimes. I'm proud of my brothers in choosing to fulfill their priesthood responsibilities. I'm especially proud of the older of the two of them for serving a full-time mission for the Lord. I do love them, even though they bother me to an extreme.
My many, many other extended family members - aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. I know it's, unfortunately, not the norm to be close to your cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents and I'm incredibly lucky to have close ties to so many in my family. I know that my family is there to back me up in whatever I'm going through or trying to do. I love them so much and enjoy all the time I ever spend with them, which is never enough.
My Savior, Jesus Christ. I can't begin to say how grateful I am for Him. His love and example of how to live the gospel and truly love God and His children are there as constant reminders of how I ought to be living. I am so grateful for that. I am grateful for His Atonement for me, for those I love, for all mankind. I cannot imagine the depth of pain that the Atonement incurred, but I will be forever grateful and try my best to never take it for granted and to turn to Him when I'm in need. I love my Savior with all my heart.
My car. It's just nice to have a vehicle of my own - I don't have to depend on the availability and generosity of others and I really appreciate that. Plus, my car is purple and cute and has a manual transmission, so it's a lot of fun. :)
Winter snow, colorful fall leaves, spring flowers and green, summer berries, waterfalls, frost-covered leaves, sunrises and sunsets. The beauties of nature, a truly magnificent gift from God that can be appreciated by the simplest and the most intelligent of people if you only take the time to do so.
Music. I know I already talked about the cello above, but more generally. I love music sooo much. I love how when I sing or play the piano I am brought a kind of peace I can't get elsewhere. I love when talented people share their talents and allow me to feel the love of God through their voice, strings, keys, notes. God loves us so much He gives us beautiful things like music, sunsets, rainbows, flowers, laughter, smiles. Aren't we so lucky we don't live in a drab, monotone world with no music?
Josh Groban. Nuff said. I just love that man's voice soo much. Thank you for sharing your talent with the world.
Potatoes, from my mom's garden. They saved my life this semester - I've been living off potatoes and supplementing them with the few groceries I've been able to afford. So, I have a new appreciation for gardens.
Bro. Rogers and my mom who teach institute classes and facilitate opportunities for spiritual learning during the week. I appreciate that relief from the cares of the world.

Um, I think that's all I have to express tonight. I have to get writing a paper early in the morning tomorrow, so I ought to be heading to bed here pretty quick. Good night all!

Thoughts and in memoriam

2011-10-18T00:34:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking a lot lately. There's just been so much happening in my life lately I guess I haven't known how to mentally process and handle the experiences and the emotions attached to them. It's been interesting. I'm not the kind of person who when sad stays sad. I stay sad for maybe a day, if that. I don't know why I can't stay sad or mad for that matter. What this particular inability to stay sad or mad ultimately means is that if I'm going through something difficult and I'm particularly struggling with it, I would probably be depressed for a day and the next day I'm back to my normal, smiley self.

A short run down of what I've been going through for the last several months: in June I turned 21, moved out of my parents' house, experienced a very difficult breakup I hadn't seen coming (or as my mother put it, I experienced a "personal tragedy" haha,) and got mono. July wasn't nearly so bad. In August, my best friend moved 3 hours away and school started. Since school began I've been struggling with finances (I've finally come to know what it means to be a starving, broke college student) and with school - not because I can't do the work because I lack the smarts or the skills so much as I just am not at all motivated to do the work. September I got called to be in the relief society presidency in my ward and asked to accompany the ward choir on the piano - and I've never accompanied anyone in my entire life. So essentially, I spent the summer recovering from the impact of June, and now, I'm just trying to make myself get through the last few semesters of my undergraduate college career. I've just seriously struggled a lot. So many feelings and memories and past actions to reconcile with what I know and the need to move on. And I feel pretty inadequate and lame, I must say.

However, I've also been thinking about a lot of other things that have little to do with my problems and my selfish concerns. I've been contemplating the people that God has placed in my life, either as near and constant companions, close friends and family, or as examples who I knew relatively little of or for very little time - people who may have either simply left the area or moved onto the next life, but who left an enduring influence on me. I'm going to attempt to give credit to these wonderful, loving people in the next few blog posts.

Today, I want to start with Bishop Don Berezay. He's one of those people who passed in and out of my life and left me with something unique. Bishop Berezay was the bishop of the Frenchtown ward not long after my family moved to the area. I was little, only about five years old. I remember that I just thought he was the greatest, an impression that has lasted with me since my childhood. I don't know why I remember that, considering I was so young and there are few things I can remember from that time in my life. (He and his family moved to Utah not many years after we moved to Frenchtown.) But, I remember that I loved him and thought he was the greatest. He really obviously left me with something special - how many people remember their bishop from childhood? How many people remember a man they saw only once a week at church when they were only 4 to 7 years old?

I'd like to quote myself from a letter I wrote to a good friend shortly after the last time I saw him, dated August 3, 2010. I had just attended a funeral of another wonderful, kind, hilarious man from my hometown, Daryl Thompson, and had seen Bishop Berezay there.

I said to my friend: "He was the bishop in Frenchtown when my family moved there when I was four. And I loved him! I remember running up on the stand after Sacrament meeting and sitting on his lap. I remember giving him pictures I drew and candy. He's this great big bear of a guy, and he has a glass eye which I don't remember ever noticing or knowing about as a kid.

Anyways, he was there [at the funeral] and recognized me immediately, even though I haven't seen him since he and his family moved when I was 6 or so. He goes 'Well hello sweetheart!' and gives me a big bear hug! It was so great! Nobody gives me hugs like that...But I was so excited to see him and excited that he remembered me and recognized me. He's pretty funny too. He and my dad were talking afterwards and chatting about their heart surgeries. My dad had open heart surgery 5 or 6 years ago - but Bishop Berezay has had 6 bypasses and several stints. He said, 'I think they're trying to kill me. But they haven't managed yet. Actually, I think maybe I am dead. But I'm still here. Me and the three Nephites hang out all the time.' haha So silly. I miss that man - they should move back to Montana!"

Bishop Don Berezay. I totally swiped this picture from facebook - his daughter had posted it there along with his obituary.

This wonderful, humble, funny, loving man passed away this past week. It made me so sad to know that I wouldn't get a chance to see him again, but intensely grateful I had seen him last year, the first time in many, many years. I don't know what it is about some people, but you can see know them for a relatively short period of time and not see them for many years, but feel as though the time and distance don't matter at all. That you still feel the same about them - that you know they really are the same person you knew all those years ago. So strange, yet so wonderful.

This next thought is going to seem somewhat disconnected, but I assure that it does connect to my thread about Bishop Berezay. I am a horrible journal-er. I hate it. I hate it so much - probably mostly because I tend to run on and on, and add detail upon detail and exclamation upon exclamation, and my hand starts cramping up after a couple of minutes because I always grip my pen unnecessarily tight. It's awful. I know I'll probably kick myself at some point in my life because of this, but knowing that hasn't made me a better journal-er at all. Usually, I write in my journal faithfully for a few days and then quit. Pathetic really.

I do, however, ADORE to write letters. And my letters, depending on the intended audience, are essentially a journal. I had the opportunity to write to a boy while he served his mission in California from about January 2009 to February 2011. I wrote EVERY week. I loved it. I looked forward to the time when I could share the events, thoughts, or lessons of my week with him. I poured more time, ink, paper, and stamps, not to mention enthusiasm, into those letters than I've probably ever poured into all my years of writing papers for school. I don't know why writing my thoughts and the events of my life to someone else is a joy to me, while writing for my own self is such a drudgery, but there you have it. It's true that I did have a bit of extra motivation with this boy as I was attracted to him and thought he was pretty much the best guy I knew. And he always wrote back to me, which is a motivation unto itself. But I write with similar gusto and share all sorts of events and thoughts with almost all of my letter correspondents. I believe letters to be so wonderful and so revealing.

Due to some unanticipated circumstances, I found myself in a position to ask for my letters back. These letters contained, or essentially were, a journal of my life for the past two years, and I wanted to have that. I'll be forever grateful for the opportunity I had to share my life's events, to record them in a way I never would have done otherwise. I'll also be grateful that the letters did not get thrown away. Now I can look back at these letters to see what I learned, experienced, remembered; what I hoped and dreamed; what hopes and dreams were crushed, and how I learned to pick myself up again after being crushed or even where I failed to do so; and who I learned to love on any particular day and why. I was given the chance to relive such experiences as the one with Bishop Berezay at Daryl's funeral. The first thing I wanted to do when I learned Bishop Berezay passed away was to find the letter I'd written that boy after Daryl's funeral. I knew that I'd told that boy about Bishop Berezay because I remember being so moved by seeing him again. Thank you Bishop Berezay for being so wonderful and for being in my life for the short and early period of my life you were. I will be forever grateful for your spirit and love. I know you're probably already hard at work there on the other side with your cowboy zeal and enormous heart.

P.S. (two days after I wrote the above)

I attended Bishop Berezay's funeral in Cutbank, Montana Monday afternoon. I went with my parents, grandma, two aunts, and a young cousin. We were about half an hour late due to unanticipated construction and a few drivers who must really believe that 10 below the speed limit is the coolest thing since buttered toast. I was sad to miss the life sketch and a few other bits of the program, but it was more than worth it to be there at all.

Bishop Berezay touched the lives of so many people. There were probably 200, 300 people there, maybe more. I recognized many from Frenchtown, which is about 4 1/4- 4 1/2 hours from Cutbank, a fair drive I can tell you. Many, many family members and friends of the Berezays were there who I did not recognize. I was in awe of the amount of people in attendance, but not surprised - he was loved by all who knew him. Several of his siblings told stories about him, and a few poems written for him and about him were read that touched and moved all in attendance. Everyone who spoke talked about how he made everyone feel good. A couple of guys who had known him in Frenchtown played the bagpipes as part of the funeral program - they were very moving and powerful. However, the part of the program that touched me the most was listening to his siblings - seeing how much they loved him - and hearing them testify that they knew that he, Don Berezay, loved God and his family, that he, Don, knew the gospel to be true, that they, his siblings, knew the gospel to be true. I was moved by the happiness and love expressed by his family in knowing that there is much more than nothing after death, in knowing that they would see him again and that he would be waiting for them when their time came. Bishop Berezay was and is an inspiration to all who knew him, an inspiration of how to "work hard and play hard," of how to love and serve, and his family knew that he knew who God was and what God expected of him. I hope that I can become even a little bit like Bishop Don Berezay and am so intensely grateful for the opportunity of having known him and of being able to attend his funeral and feel his spirit again.

Rivers, lightning, and railroad spikes

2011-08-06T12:51:00.000-07:00

So, this is what happened on Thursday of this week:

I got off work Thursday at noon so that I could meet my friends Brooke Tabacco and Mary Ross, from Great Falls who were just visiting for a few hours, at Hu Hot for lunch. A few others of my friends from Missoula were there too, and it was a grand time. What's not to love about Hu Hot with friends?

After Hu Hot, my wonderful friend Carly and I hung out until my bestie Chelsea got off work. Then we drove to Frenchtown to meet her and another friend, Jen, to go floating on the Clark Fork River. By the time we got all ready to go floating, the sun was hiding behind a lot of angry looking clouds, but we thought we'd give it a go anyways. It might clear up. We had to "trudge through the wilderness," as Carly put it, to get to the shoving-off point in the river and the mosquitoes tried to suck us dry. That was a lot of fun. But, once we got in the river it all seemed nice enough - still no sun though.

We started floating along with all the merriment of friends enjoying some lazy time. We'd brought a shower radio so we even had tunes. We saw a great blue heron, but no beavers - Chelsea had told us the last time she'd done this float she'd been chased by beavers! The clouds got more and more threatening as we went along and we started seeing lightning after about half an hour on the river. Somewhat ominously, "If I Die Young," by The Band Perry, came on the radio about this point that goes something like this: "If I die young, bury me in satin, lay me down on a bed of roses. Sink me in the river..." You get the idea. We all laughed about it, but thought it was a little spooky. And then it started to sprinkle a little on us.

Oh, if you want to listen to that song, "If I Die Young," click here!

As the lightning bolts occurring and the rolls of thunder got closer and closer together, we began to become more apprehensive about staying out on the water. And as we came up on the train trestle across the river about an hour down the river we decided we should get out of the river. So we had to climb up "the rocks of death," once again Carly's phrase, and walk across the train trestle to the other side of the river so we could walk to Huson to find a phone to borrow. Considering Carly and I were wearing wet flip-flops the fact that we neither sustained injuries nor died while climbing the rocks of death is quite the feat.

Then we walked probably half a mile along the tracks - it was actually kind of a pleasant little jaunt. The rocks on the tracks were emanating a faint warmth and pleasant scent as we walked along. Jen and Chels were quite a ways ahead of Carly and I who couldn't walk as fast as the girls who'd warn shoes that were more securely strapped to their feet than our flip-flops, and Chels would turn around and shout at us to hurry up occassionally. But then, I found a railroad spike just sitting next to the tracks, partially obscured by the rocks around it. I picked it up and decided to keep it as a memento. I was then successful in securing two more spikes for Chelsea and Carly, and Jen ended up finding one for herself. Mine is now sitting on a shelf next to a picture of me and Chelsea as reminder of the rather crazy adventure.

We came out into Huson and walked up to the only kind of establishment it offers, the bar. There were some people outside, all watching the four 20-ish girls walking up with our tubes and in our bathing suits. haha Oh, it was funny. Luckily there weren't any real creepers outside the bar, and we were able to borrow a cell phone without even having to go into the bar. The cell phone turned out to be superfluous, as Chelsea's parents pulled into the bar just as Jen had got her family on the phone. Chelsea's mom had been worrying and so they'd driven to where were supposed to get out, another 4 or 5 miles or an hour, down the river and had come back to Huson to look for us. It worked out incredibly well.

We picked up our cars and all met back at Chelsea's house to hot tub and warm up as we were all still pretty wet, and rather chilled. And the sunset was phenomenal!! And a rainbow even showed up in the east. All-in-all, it was rather a crazy adventure, but entirely worth it, I think!

Spiderwebs and the moon

2011-08-02T20:52:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't written on here for nearly a year, and I realize probably nobody will read this, but that's alright. I'm just all by myself this evening, have been all day since I got off work more than 5 hours ago, so this is as good a place to express myself as any.

I came out to my parents' house to water their garden and flowers, and to feed the Betta fish Rollin, the guinea pigs Oscar and Pippin, and the obnoxious, pointless terrors of birds my sister calls pets, the geese Mac and Squirt. My siblings and parents have been gone for several days in Washington visiting family. I, unfortunately, had to work and therefore got stuck with being the responsible "nurturer," if you will.

At first, I sort of begrudged the task because it's a half hour drive from my apartment, and I just wasn't too excited about making it every day for 4 days just to take care of plants and silly animals. But then, I got an opportunity to see how great of gas mileage my car gets and be thankful for it. Also, on Sunday and Monday I took the interstate out to Frenchtown. Today, I took sort of a backwoods drive to the house, and I had the windows rolled down, mostly because it was pretty warm and I have no AC in my little purple car. But, I kinda like having the windows down and today the most wonderful smells were coming in with the breeze; the smell of the pine trees, and the sweet, warm scent of grassy fields.

Then, after I got to the house and got a chance to sit down today, I got to use the internet, an activity limited to when I come out to my parents' house most days as I don't have internet at my apartment. That in and of itself is not too thrilling and I don't mind not having access to it every day. But, I got to watch several episodes of the Dick Van Dyke Show, and boy let me tell you, it's great! I think my favorites are Buddy and Sally...and possibly Mel...and Milly...they're really all great, to tell you the truth. Here's a great exchange between Buddy and Sally that probably isn't as funny out of context if you haven't seen the show, but I thought it was great!

Buddy: "Come on have some chicken soup."
Sally: "Will you get out of here with that miserable chicken soup!"
Buddy: "Bigot! Listen, go ahead and laugh at my chicken soup. They laughed at Louis Pasteur but he went right ahead and invented milk!"

Ah, it makes me laugh! I wish they still made TV shows like this.

Then, I went out to the garden to turn the water off and decided to make sure nothing needed to be picked right now. There were 4 or 5 ripe strawberries and a handful of peas that needed it, and let me tell you I was excited about that. I walked right through a spiderweb on my way to the peas - I figured that for sure I'd find the arachnid crawling on me somewhere, but thankfully it was swinging from it's forlorn and destroyed web. I felt a bit bad about that. After picking the peas, I figured that some of those inviting little carrots were begging to go home with me, so I pulled a fistful of them up too!

My mother's garden is really quite beautiful. It's the largest she's ever had, that I remember. The vegetables are neat and tidy and cute. The tomato plants are a little wild, but plentiful. The strawberries are just starting to become productive, so I look forward to what the plants will do next year. And the flowers, are so pretty! There are poppies - pink and red - and some little yellow flowers and tall purples ones. There are little Johnny Jump-ups and several sunflowers just on the verge of blooming! The flowers are so lovely and whimsical. They remind me of the sort of thing you'd expect to see around a little cottage tucked away in the woods somewhere. They just make me happy looking at them.

Now, I really don't like to garden. I don't mind it so much every once in awhile. But I'm no enthusiast of bending over for hours hoeing, weeding, watering, hilling, planting, mulching - basically everything to do with gardening. But, that doesn't mean I can't appreciate a beautiful garden. I can see the love and effort my mother has poured into it - the dedication, the time, the sweat. I can see the beauty of the neat little rows in the vegetables, and the carefree beauty of the little flower garden. I love to see ripe strawberries on the plant - not nearly as much as I like to see them on my ice cream, mind you. And, having worked in gardens before, I really feel as though I can properly appreciate gardens - that they hardly just spring up on their own. Kudos to my mother and lil bro Anders for making this one not only grow but flourish and spread happiness.

Another great thing about being out here watering plants and such is that it takes me outside. Laugh if you want, but sometimes it takes a little bit of extra responsibility to get me out of doors when it's hot and I'd rather just lay still and not move at all. And it's not as though I don't get outside when I'm in town at my apartment, I just don't get outside every 1/2 hour or so. But, doing so tonight I got to see some beautiful dramatic clouds in the sunset, but to the east, and the barely present sliver of the waxing moon just hovering over the mountains to the southwest.

I guess what this really comes down to is how much I love being alive and how much I know God loves me - just look at what He's let me see, smell, taste, and appreciate today! I wish I had a camera to take photos to share. Perhaps next time!

Hobbit Day?

2010-09-22T10:17:00.000-07:00

This is how cool I am: I got an email from biblio.com, a bookselling site, telling me that today is "Hobbit Day" in honor of Bilbo & Frodo's birthdays, and that whatever week the 22nd of September, today aka Hobbit Day, falls in is "Tolkien Week." I did not know this before, but I am now super psyched! And I'm trying to think of something appropriate to do to commemorate this wonderful "holiday." I looked it up on Wikipedia and Wikipedia said that people celebrate by having Hobbit-style feasts and parties or by walking around barefoot, like hobbits. It is kinda wet outside, and rather cold...so I don't think I'll be walking around barefoot...and I didn't know in advance to prepare a proper Hobbit-feast/party....so I need to think of something. Maybe I'll just quote Hobbits all day or something....I do not know....haha

I swiped this from a Tolkien dedicated site and put it up here in honor of Hobbit Day. :)

2010-07-22T19:48:00.000-07:00

I ran out in my yellow & orange plaid boxer short jams last evening at sunset to drive down the road and take pictures of the sunset where you could actually see it for lack of trees & houses....I could tell it was gonna be a whopper of a sunset....so I grabbed my dad's Rebel and his other lens and drove down the road about the mile. And here's the results:


An old barn + barn yard silhouettes against the mountains and clouds.


I was trying real hard to get myself and the sunset into the metallic strip on the back of our car...but it just wasn't working...but it was funny anyways.

And when I came home our stupid goose was out in the driveway so, I took his portrait too.

Black Eyed Peas say what?

2010-07-22T19:28:00.000-07:00

So...I really like this song...and I find it rather bizarre that the Black Eyed Peas signs this....but here it is:

I'm taking my bows...

2010-07-22T19:25:00.000-07:00

because I'm the queen of the klutzes! I really and truly believe I am or am at least the princess of klutzes. Here we shall chronicle our clumsy, royal exploits. hahaha

In the past several days I have: tripped up the stairs NUMEROUS times at work - several times in one day - tripped over the same garbage can twice in a matter of minutes, rolled my hair up into the car window, ran into the wall because I was staring at my brother in a state of unbelief as he did push-ups, and here's the real cake topper: Two days ago as I was walking out of one of the bathrooms at work, the door closed faster than I anticipated. As it swung shut behind me, it grabbed the back of my flip flop in the space between the floor and the door which yanked me back into the door. And a lady I work with saw me, and was like "Ow!"

And you know what the worst part of this is? That was just this week...unfortunately, these sorts of thing happen to me quite often...

Elementary, my dear Watson

2010-07-22T19:13:00.000-07:00

I feel like I ought to be a much more observant individual these days. I've nearly finished the first volume of The Complete Sherlock Holmes. He continues to impress me with his observations and deductions. And he can be quite humorous as well. I didn't know that Sherlock Holmes was so funny.

He even, on occasion, waxed philosophic, which after reading a few stories you may not believe. This is what to he says about religion and roses: "What a lovely thing a rose is! There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion. It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its colour are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extra, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers." Very good, Sherlock.

And did you know that Sherlock had a brother named Mycroft - his powers of observation & deduction top that of even Sherlock...if only he had the energy to make productive use of them. Who'd have thunk? Also, Watson met his wife as a result of one of Holmes' cases...which I'd had no idea of beforehand. Heck! I didn't even know he ever got married...had the Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes film not come out recently I never would've thought Watson ever had aspirations of marriage...

Anyways, suffice it to say, I'm really rather enjoying my little adventures into the late 19th century with Sherlock and his faithful sidekick/chronicler Watson. And of course, I can't not think of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson without thinking about the Alfred Hitchcock film The Lady Vanishes - and only true old movie nerds will have a clue about what I'm referring to....

Pushing Daisies...

2010-07-11T13:48:00.000-07:00

I've recently been watching "Pushing Daisies" on Netflix. I was very sad to learn that they canceled the show after the 2nd season, because I think it is pretty dang entertaining. The whole premise of the show is so much more original and interesting than most of the shows that are on TV these days if you ask me.

The characters are fun and quirky. Ned, the pie-making dead-waker, is an average enough fellow...besides the waking the dead thing...and he's got a way cute little smile and his mannerisms are cute and quirky. Charlotte "Chuck" Charles is a sweet re-awakened girl who's awesome in my book just because Ned calls her Chuck. Olive Snook, the love-sick waitress, is a funny character. One of the best things about her is when she thinks she's alone...she sings like she's in a musical, which is just hilarious. Emerson Cod is just funny...his constant referrals to Chuck as "Dead Girl" and his quippy quips make him pretty funny. The aunts Lily and Vivian are just characters in and of themselves worth watching for hours... retired synchronized swimming legends, "The Darling Mermaid Darlings," have a ridiculous love of cheese, even referring to the fridge as the "cheese box," crazy clothes, and birds. The pies at Ned's pie shop "The Pie Hole" look spectacularly delicious and make me want to go eat some pie every time I watch an episode. The murders are kinda outrageous and even entertaining at times- as strange as that sounds. And you gotta love the fact that Jim Dale narrates the show. :)

All in all, I pretty much love this show and am nearing the end of the 2nd season, which is sad since it's the end of the show...but I recommend it. Its fun and quirky with nothing really questionable in it either which is a big plus. :)

What do Vancouver, W. B. Yeats, and Clint Eastwood have in common?

2010-07-01T18:24:00.000-07:00

Haven't felt much like blogging lately...don't know why really. But, it's probably just another manifestation of my lazy, laid back attitude about everything in general lately. Not having to go to school everyday and also having no job leaves so much room for everything else that mostly what usually happens is nothing. (If that makes sense to you I'm glad, but I'm also worried about your reasoning process because I don't think it ought to make any real sense...)

Anyways, I thought I'd share a random experience that made me value experiences and education more than I do generally. I would like to write about a bit of Yeats I'd encountered more than 2 years ago. I'm really not much into poetry or most things even bordering on the edge of being poetic, and so therefore did not purposely stumble upon this particular poem of Yeats.

In 2008, I was lucky enough to audition and be accepted to the ACDA All-Northwest women's choir which was to convene and perform in Vancouver, Canada. One of the pieces we learned and performed (and one of the pieces I most enjoyed) was William Butler Yeats' "The Lake of Innisfree." The words are beautiful and somewhat melancholy, and the tune that Eleanor Daley wrote to accompany the words many, many years later is very pretty. (Here is a link to another group's performance of the piece - 2009 Oklahoma All-State Chorus singing "The Lake Isle of Innisfree".)

As I was saying, I re-visited this poem recently. And as I have indicated that I'm not much into poetry, I didn't re-encounter it on purpose. I was babysitting recently and the kids were down for naps so I decided I'd watch a movie. I was in the mood to watch something I hadn't seen before and preferably something not animated with silly little songs scattered throughout. (I'd been watching a DVD of some episodes of the Nickelodeon's kids' show, "The Backyardigans" for what felt like non-stop since I got there that morning at 6:30 am. I about had all the songs memorized. And by the way, those animated goofy animal characters have really well coordinated moves that I find to be both unrealistic and also a bit unfair.) While pawing through the drawer full of DVDs, my eyes rested on Million Dollar Baby. I had heard good things about it, but hadn't yet seen it. So I popped it in. I rather enjoyed the story. It was emotionally wrenching, and the acting was superb. Clint Eastwood's character was especially intriguing to me. I have not seen many films in which Clint Eastwood has starred, but I'm familiar enough with many of the titles. I had not anticipated Dirty Harry starring in a film that was so emotional and touching. And his character in Million Dollar Baby was learning Gaelic of all things, which of course made me warm up considerably to his prickly ol' character.

Towards the end of the film, he starts reading a poem, "The Lake Isle of Innisfree." I was fairly certain it was the same poem that I had sung in Vancouver 2 years ago. I had not really thought much of it when I had learned its words to music two years ago, but since leaving high school and studying a bit about Ireland and the Irish language I'm much more familiar with the name of Yeats. I came home and checked that it was the same poem because I hadn't remembered that the one I'd sang had been written by Yeats. It was one and the same.

My favorite thing about learning literature, whether it be books or poetry, is when you are able to recognize said literature years later. It makes the whole process seem much more worthwhile when the said "classics" you learned in high school or college re-emerge in your life from a most un-academic source, such as your younger sibling or a character in a movie you're watching.

And there you have my somewhat limited thoughts for the day...hope they made sense and were at least mildly interesting...if not, I do apologize...I shall endeavor to be more uh, poetic next time. ;)

Midnight thoughts on creepy bloodsucking bats....

2010-05-19T00:01:00.000-07:00

So, I'm about halfway through Dracula and it's getting pretty intense. Knowing the basics of the story when I began reading it, such as the fact that Count Dracula is in fact a vampire and that vampires suck blood, are warded off by garlic, and turn into blood-sucking bats, the story in and of itself has not been incredibly shocking to me. However, the book itself was written in an intriguing fashion. It is made up of journal entries, letters, telegrams, and newspaper clippings that all tie together the greater story line.

The details of the story have been rather more shocking than I had initially expected. Although with a book that is 449 pages long, you would hope there was more to the story than an enormous bat flying around biting people. And as such, the silly story is sort of creeping me out a little. haha I don't watch horror films really and I don't believe I've ever read a scary book before. The appeal of scaring oneself completely silly is not something I've ever found actually appealing. So, reading this book with its bits of creepiness is throwing me a little. Granted, I think watching those silly Twilight movies and reading those books has made vampires a little bit more accessible, if not believable, for me than they ever would have been otherwise. I've never been into either vampires or werewolves. I've always preferred princesses and dragons, or something more along those lines; where the villain's main motive is to kill and plunder, not infect and/or suck one's life essentially. The latter motive has a far more evil tinge to it than the lusts of the dragon's hoarding. Anyways, all I'm really saying is, I've never really been into vampires because they are creepy and evil, whereas dragons, although yes they can be pretty nasty pieces of work, don't generally want to try and turn their victims into other dragons. Plus, dragons breathe fire and, let's face it, fire-breathing is fascinatingly cool.

Moving on from the fire-breathing tangent, suffice it to say, Dracula is probably not the first thing you would think would be on my reading list for the summer. But, I was quite eager to read it. Firstly because it is always so interesting to hear the "original" story of some classic that has been made and remade in film after film. Also, I don't know what it is about books written in the 1800s, but I really do enjoy reading them. There is more of an intellectual challenge in them for me - the language being somewhat different from modern English - but obviously that can't be my main fascination with the time period's writing, as I could just try and read textbooks if I'm looking for intellectual challenges as half of what is in textbooks makes zero to little sense to me. Truth be told, I do find the way the past was written to be rather enchanting. And I have found the book to be entertaining enough as a whole. You know what this whole little stream of words comes down to? The fact that I've read probably 10 chapters in the last couple of hours and now have made myself uneasy enough that I'd rather not go right to sleep because I don't actually want to have dreams about vampires. Blech! haha So there you have it, I've got myself worked into a bit of a fright which is ridiculous for multiple reasons. Things of this nature often happen when you're the only one awake in a dark house...although more so when you're the only one in said dark house...but we won't belittle my sensibilities any more than we've already done, shall we? :p

Ah, I hear my dad moving around in the kitchen, he must have just gotten home from work...I daresay I've rambled enough about that...I shall update when I've finished the tale of Count Dracula and his various victims....

Cooking and NPR?

2010-05-18T20:13:00.000-07:00

Last night I made an old standby for dinner for the family, a mashed potato, cheese, and spinach dish that we all love and some rice-a-roni...today, I decided to make some more food for lunch for me and my dad. Generally speaking I don't do any sort of real cooking...but I decided to try to do so today.

I made pineapple chicken lo mein...we were missing several ingredients but I improvised a bit and it turned out pretty good. It looked more like I'd made some sort of shredded beef dish than a chicken dish. This was due to the fact that I used already cooked chicken so it just fell apart when I made the dish, and the soy sauce turned it brown. But it still tasted pretty yummy! For dinner I made potato pancakes au gratin and some spiced up scrambled eggs. Yum.

I really rather enjoyed cooking today and last night...which got me to wondering why I never really cook in general. Then I remembered...it takes time to cook, which I have loads of right now as I have no job or any other commitments at the moment as school's out. Secondly, it takes a bit of energy, which most days during the school year I don't have any of. And if I'm going to make something during the school year, I bake, because I want something sugary and chocolately that's gonna make me feel better. So, I've decided that I should learn to cook as well as I can this summer, because it will be nice to know before I go live on my own how to cook more than macaroni and cheese. I've also decided I have tremendous respect for working moms/wives who work all day and come home and actually make a meal for their families because I can't muster up the energy to make more than a frozen burrito for myself most days after school.

Not having anything to do all day is leading me to do other random stuff like listen to NPR...which is weird because I've never had any sort of inclination to listen to the radio for news before...in fact most of the time I hate it when people talk on the radio. I only listen to music on the radio as a rule...so, yeah...strange...

Anyways, I just wanted to ramble a bit on here so that I could let the whole world know how silly I am...haha

Ah, summer....aka when Hosanna can read freely and hopefully fully!

2010-05-12T20:47:00.000-07:00

I do so love summer time. I am left to my own reasoning and ideas more than I ever get a chance to be during school. (Not that it is entirely a good thing to be left to myself a lot, but it is nice to be able to do things I want to do just because I want to do them.) As I'm currently unemployed, although I do so hope that will change, I plan on getting lots of reading done. I've decided to compile a list of books I want to get read this summer. And here they are thus far:

Dracula by Bram Stoker
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Sherlock Holmes (a few anyways) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Something silly along the lines of Percy Jackson
Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
The most recent in the kid's series Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Ridley and Barry Pearson
The final book in the The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor
Of course I need to reread at least one Jane Austen this summer...we shall see as to which I do...I'm thinking Pride and Prejudice or perhaps Sense and Sensibility

And that is all that I have at the moment....not the most pretentious list I know, but I'm sure I will add to it and deviate from it as the summer months go on. But that's what I love about books! There are just so many out there!

From the messy gelatinous mass they tell me is my brain....

2010-05-11T17:02:00.000-07:00

I just took both my history finals and the current status of my brain is mush. That's a lot of information to cram and then regurgitate. I think I did alright which is comforting....sort of...I might just feel that way because I don't have to worry about it anymore which always makes me feel better. What's done is done and there's no use fretting about it because I'm not Hermione and I don't have a time-turner.

And speaking of Harry Potter, there were a bunch of dudes out on the oval trying to get a game of quidditch started when I was walking back to my ride. I wish I hadn't been so tired and hadn't been going to catch my ride, because I think it would've been entertaining, to say the least, to see how they made the bludgers and snitch work out....anyways...

So, I'm rather sad in a way about it being the end of the semester. All of my friends are leaving. Some are leaving just for the summer, but some are leaving and not coming back to the gorgeous Missoula valley I call home. :( Angela and Brooke are two of my chums who are leaving me forever, and Carly is going to be gone this summer. Not to mention that my bestie will be leaving in the fall for school elsewhere!

I have been having little last minute adventures with my friends before they leave. So that's been good. I threw a little surprise party for Angela last week and made a scrumptious chocolate cake. Then we watched Sherlock Holmes, because we are totally awesome like that! No chick flicks for these chicas!

The next night I went to the college rodeo with Chelsea and Jeri Delys...and of course, I was the one surrounded by the drunkards who kept showing like an inch or more of butt crack! Yuck! Which Chelsea found immensely entertaining haha But the rodeo was pretty fun to watch. Way more interesting than horse shows are that's for darn sure!

Chels and me at the rodeo...she had me decked out in makeup, a western shirt, boots, and spur earrings and necklace. Craziness!

Saturday morning, Angela, Carly, and I went to the Farmer's market and the People's market, which was a lot of fun, but COLD! Missoula is clinging to the winter it never had rather stubbornly this year...

Then, yesterday, Carly and I took a bunch of paper hearts I'd made and "heart-attacked" Brooke's dorm to let her know we were gonna miss her! haha

This is the bottom 2/3 of her door...that's a lot of hearts man!

We had no idea if she was in her dorm or what, so we were trying to be really quite while we taped the hearts to her door and shoved them under her door. And we ended up having spectacular timing. Not 30 seconds after catching the lift, Brooke called thanking us for the hearts. haha She'd been in a friend's dorm, and had just returned to find our surprise. That was so much fun, I wish my finals had been that fun and fulfilling.

All-nighter, walking, and oh yeah, Relay for Life :)

2010-04-24T16:01:00.000-07:00

I hope this post is coherent. Judging by my speaking abilities thus far today, I doubt my typing abilities will be topnotch. Anyways, I want to share my experience from 6 pm last night to 6 am this morning.

A good friend of mine was the team captain for the Honors Student Association Relay for Life team at the Relay for Life event that took place on UM's campus yesterday. She asked me some time ago if I would be on her team, and I agreed, because for once it was a relay I could do without considerable torture involved. (Let's just say I'm not a fun of running.) I, of course because I have an abysmal memory, promptly forgot all about Relay until last week when Brittany sent a facebook message to the team members.

I did not raise any money, which is really a horrible thing because one of the main ideas behind Relay is to raise money for cancer cure research. But, I was there to support Relay and my team, as well as to honor the millions who have been affected by cancer, including my own wonderful grandmother.

Anyways, I signed up for random times to walk during the 12 hour period, the first being at 6. (The idea behind this 6 pm to 6 am 12-hour block of people walking is a sort of vigil since cancer never sleeps.) I'd never done Relay before so I didn't really know what to expect and what exactly would go on. When I got there, with my bestie Chelsea, nobody was walking around the Oval. (The walking for Relay at UM was to walk laps around the Oval in the middle of UM's campus - each lap being about 1/3 of a mile.) We were rather confused, because we had thought that signing up for 6 o'clock meant we'd be walking from 6-7. We couldn't find anyone from our team, so we just milled around rather confused.

After awhile of wandering around looking for someone we knew who might know what was going on, it was announced over a loudspeaker that they would be doing the open ceremony. The open ceremony was kinda neat. In addition to a few short speakers, they gave the cancer survivors present each a purple balloon and a flower. Then, the survivors walked a lap around the Oval while being cheered on by the friends, family, strangers, and supporters in general who were present.

Some of the cancer survivors walking their lap during the opening ceremony.

Then the general walking commenced. They had paper clips you could pick up each time you made a lap, so you could keep track if you want. By the time it was over, Chelsea and I had picked up around 60 paper clips a piece, and had therefore had walked about 20 miles. If only that 20 miles literally translated into being 20 miles closer to curing cancer...but someday...

....Chelsea and I were joined by another friend, Mary, and walked several laps along with the mass of other people supporting Relay. It was really nice outside, and everyone was happy, smiling, and friendly. One of the nicest little perks of walking around was that there was a Baskin & Robbins trailer, and they were giving a free ice cream to Relay participants. After several laps around, and after being joined by another friend, Carly, we indulged ourselves and got our free ice cream. I got peanut butter chocolate, and it was very yummy!

Carly, me, & Chelsea enjoying our free ice cream. It was super yummy!(Mary was taking this picture.)

Someone had drawn a fairly long hopscotch on one section of the sidewalk which many people attempted. It had 2 ways you could go, an easy way and a hard way. I tried the hard way only once...I'm just not talented enough.

Some Relay for Life-rs having a go at the awesome hopscotch. I think in this picture there are 5 people on it at the same time. One girl, the one on the left is going the hard way, because she was cool like that.

We ended up being joined off and on by several other friends, Brad, Garry, Axel, and our awesome team captain Brittany. We had a lovely time walking rounds of the Oval talking, watching people, and attempting the hopscotch.

It was really inspiring to be around all those people who were supporting cancer victims and cancer research. I really felt great just being there.

There were several events/games going on during the night, although I didn't do any of them. They had a swing dance instruction period and then a bit of a competition I believe, a cake walk, the classic walking with an egg on a spoon, and several others I don't even know for sure about.

During the course of the evening/morning we took breaks, sitting out, snacking, napping, resting, hydrating, and socializing. I had decided I would pull an all-nighter and not sleep at all. Chelsea was awesome and stayed up too. (I was sorely tempted though when we were resting around 2 am and it was cold and I was all comfy and snuggled into my sleeping bag.) And let me tell you, it was an interesting, entertaining sort of time starting at about 2 am. We were all a little tired, for sure. During one of our rests, I got sent into a ridiculous laughing attack and couldn't stop or breathe well for that matter for around 5 minutes. And I sent Brittany into a fit of hysterics too...Oh my, it was great. Of course, what I was laughing about I don't even know.

From about 2-6 am we were really suffering mentally. The later it got, the more our conversations suffered from nonsensical-ness. My favorites of the night being Brittany's philosophy on trees being alive, but not alive, and Chelsea...well, I can't even explain what she said, because I'm pretty sure I couldn't explain what she said well enough to be followable to anyone but myself. Anyways, suffice it to say, it was a highly entertaining evening.

At 5 am, they announced a free breakfast, which consisted of yogurt, milk, juice, and muffins. Which was all fine and dandy, actually it was quite tasty, but it was also kinda cold. But, really, it was good and I appreciated it, because I was starting to get rather hungry!

At 6, we helped pack up our tent and packed all of our stuff back to our cars. Then, we drove home. I was really struggling staying alert. My eyes were just SO tired. Miraculously, I did not drift off once on the 25, or so, mile drive home, and we arrived safely home. Then, I crawled into, more like slumped into, my bed were I slept, despite the bright sunlight coming through my curtain-less window, for 6 hours or so.

It was really a lot of fun, and I would totally do it again, although I may not do the all-nighter part again, because I'm sort of suffering mentally and physically right now. Not that it wasn't worth it, because it totally was! I hope and pray for a cure to cancer, and applaud the valiant efforts of those pioneering the research.

This toilet was sitting out there along the Oval, it says, "Relay for Life" "Cancer is Crappy Donate $$" "Flush Cancer Away."

I'm going to go now....hopefully to do something productive before I lose what is left of this day.

Sitting, waiting, wishing...

2010-04-19T08:19:00.000-07:00

I was listening to that Jack Johnson song a few hours ago...and as I'm sort of doing that now, sitting, waiting, wishing that is, I thought I'd write a post.

I'm currently chilling in the j-school waiting for a disc to burn. I've begun to run out of space on both my computer and my external hard drive...so I'm backing up some stuff to disc...because I don't want to lose any of my pictures or music...

Anyways, this weekend was a bit of a different experience. I spent the weekend with my bestie Chelsea and her cousin Courtney in Belgrade/Bozeman getting ready for and putting on a horse show for the MSU equestrian team. I've been to one other horse show in my life, so it was a fairly foreign sort of experience. I must say, not exactly my favorite thing in the world. There were some pretty horses there, but it's a very slow moving process, especially when you don't understand most of the stuff going on...but I wouldn't say it wasn't a nice weekend.

I also dyed my hair this weekend. I dyed it "dark red brown" because I LOVE auburn...and I think it turned out alright. You can't see the difference as well inside, but outside you can really see the red. I hope it lasts for a long time and doesn't fade out really weird...here's for hoping! I just wish I would've been born with nice dark auburn hair, well, perhaps not "born with" that color, because an auburn haired newborn would be kinda strange...but you know what I mean. haha

So that's a bit of a rundown of the times...I guess I'll tell you a bit about the sitting, waiting, wishing stuff...I really need a job!!! Maybe like 2 or 3...The more I play with the school's nice Canon 40Ds, the more I realize I'm really going to miss using them when the semester's over. So, it would be nice if I could earn some money and save up for at least a Rebel...

Just remembered something else! I was on facebook earlier today, and there was an ad for Star Wars in Concert...and, not gonna lie, I kinda wanna go. haha As nerdy as that sounds...but hey! I totally grew up on the old Star Wars films. Gotta love 'em! They are going to be at the Spokane Arena on June 19th, which is like a week after my 20th birthday! (Weird...I'm gonna be 20. Too bad the tickets at their very cheapest in the "family area" are still $25, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to sit there...because kids aren't very quiet or anything... haha

I still want to go to Metropolis, Illinois on my birthday because they're having a Superman festival that weekend & that just sounds awesome! haha Well, enough of my babbling and whining...haha Enjoy the lovely spring weather I'm seeing out the window!

2010-04-14T18:15:00.000-07:00

Well, I feel as though I haven't posted in forever. So, since I gots me a little down time I'm gonna write me a post. (Now to dispense with the, uh, strange dialectal speech thing I've got going on here...)

What to talk about...well, I could talk about my new found fascination with dancing. Actually, I've always been fascinated with dancing. People who can actually dance well amaze me. The rhythm, fluidity, grace, and intricacy of a good dance is just so neat to me.

As I think I've already explained in some other post, I haven't really had TV the majority of my life, which has never bothered me much. I have recently been becoming addicted to random TV shows, thanks to Netflix and Hulu though. (These are Chuck, Heroes, Dancing with the Stars, and BBC's Robin Hood.) Lately, I've been watching "Dancing with the Stars" because I'm just that cool. haha

My favorites this season are Evan Lysacek and Niecy Nash. I just like Evan. He's fun to watch, and he was an Olympic gold medalist, so that adds to the cool factor. Niecy is hilarious! She's soooo funny. She won me over first episode when she told her partner that if she "lost her jiggly parts" he was gonna get it! haha Good stuff.

The show is a bit ridiculous...well, the drama they try to work into it is. I mean, the little hissy fits they have in their practices through the week really don't add anything to the show...this show isn't really about drama, so they could just as well leave that out.

I also have some people on the show I'm not so fond of. That would be Pamela Anderson. Yuck! And the judges really like her. Is it rude of me to say that I want her gone? I also am not very fond of Nicole Scherzinger either. She's a Pussycat Doll (if you didn't know or care), and has a lot of dance background. So, I feel as though she's got a bit of an unfair advantage over the other contestants. (I mean Evan has some background in performing, but figure skating is fairly different than dancing without skates in technique in a lot of ways, so I don't think it is the same thing. Plus he's a trooper! Dancing with two broken toes! Ouch!) Also, she NEVER seems to wear any clothes on the show...which I just find, shall we say, the complete opposite of classy.

I was kinda sad when Buzz Aldrin got voted off the 3rd week. Let's be honest, his dances weren't as good as the others, but come on! He's an 80-year-old man! The fact that he's out there at all is pretty impressive! His partner was soo cute with him. She seemed so patient with him, and she just acted like he was her grandpa or something. I was sort of relieved to see him go though, because I was paranoid he'd have a heart attack up there or fall and break a hip, ya know?

Anyways, now you have the rundown of what Hosanna thinks, basically, of Dancing with the Stars...mostly I'm just impressed by the dance routines, sometimes disgusted by the outfits, and jealous of people who can dance. And that's that. There, now I feel better. Another post on the wall of infamy...or something...haha

Airport blues

2010-03-28T18:44:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to anyone who's ever had to wait for a delayed flight or had a ridiculously long layover waiting for a connection.

I happen to be sitting in the Missoula airport for a couple of hours at the moment. Not the first time, nor the last I'm sure, that I'll do this. Most of the time when I'm waiting around in the Missoula airport I'm waiting for my dad to get off work. Today, however, I'm actually waiting for a flight.

As you may already know, if you've read my previous post, it's spring break! And I've decided to go to Spokane and visit my fam. Since my dad works for an airline, it is economically better for me to fly. (Although, time-wise, it would be faster to drive.) Anyways, it's free to fly, and as I am virtually penniless at the moment, I'm all for free. Plus, I LOVE flying, always have.

I'm not too miffed about this particular delay though. If the flight is as late as it's supposed to be, I'll miss my connection. There is however one later flight to Spokane after that, so I should be fine. Delays on the way to my destination irk me far less than delays on my way home.

I love traveling! It's seriously one of my favorite activities. I love flying. I love going to new and different places, seeing new things, eating new foods, meeting new people. But, when I'm ready to come home, I'm ready to come home. And it always seems to happen that the worst layovers/delays happen when you're tired and just want to be home, sleeping in your own bed.

One summer I worked in the Grand Canyon for about 3 months. When it was time to come home, I got up around 4 am the morning of my departure. I went to the little tourist town of Tusayan, just outside of Grand Canyon National Park. I got on tiny little tourist airplane, it had maybe 12 seats. It was rather a fun flight As it was a scenic tourist airline, headphones with a narration about the area was provided, and they did a cool sort of fly-by of Hoover Dam.

I flew into the North Las Vegas airport, which is a smaller airport than Missoula. Then, I took a bus through the strip, over to McCarran airport. The lady at the gate told me I might be able to make the earlier flight, so I booked it through security to the little train that would take me to the correct terminal. I arrived only to find out I wouldn't make it on that flight, it was full. :( So, I waited for the flight I had originally been listed for.

I was feeling a little funny, low blood sugar. So I went to buy some food...but all the cheaper, fast food sort of places were outside of security back in the main terminal. I had to resort to a little deli sort of thing....it was ridiculous! I spent $7 on an orange and a bottle of water! That's just plain ol' extortion!

Anyways, I got on my flight an hour or so later, and got to Seattle only to find that the flight had been canceled, or something like that. So, I ended up sitting in the Seattle airport for hours waiting for the next flight. I made some friends with several older fellow passengers who were also waiting for the Missoula flight...they shared their salmon dip with me in the Alaska Lodge which is technically a bar...where I drank water and felt really funny because I was only 16 at the time...yeah...Anyways, I think I got home around midnight that night. It was a long day!

The only other time I had to wait longer was the second time I went to D.C. I had gone with my mom and my cousin on a sort of high school graduation trip. It was a LOT of fun!! :) We walked nearly everywhere we went while there. Oh, and one night we were there, the night before my birthday, my dad and siblings called me at midnight D.C. time, when it technically become my birthday. They woke me up just to sing me happy birthday. Jerks! It was only 10 pm, I think, where they were and they hadn't walked all over the city that day! haha jk I really did appreciate it, even if I wasn't really awake and coherent. I don't remember any of the conversation, just that they sang "Happy Birthday" to me. By the time we went home after 6 days or so, I was just ready to go home and sleep! :)

We had to be at the airport around 4 am Eastern time, and I think we got out on the flight we wanted. (Oh, all of this traveling, except my flight out of Tusayan is standby, which makes it a bit more of an ordeal sometimes.) When we got to Seattle, we went over to a different concourse to try and get on the earliest flight we could. We almost made it on the plane too! There was a party of four that hadn't showed up. If they'd been about 3 minutes later, they would've been too late and we would've got their seats. Fortunately for them, but unfortunately for us, they made it.

So, basically we ended up waiting in the Seattle airport for 11 hours until we could go home. It was awful. Seriously ridiculous. I about went nuts. I was tired, bored, and frustrated. I just wanted to go home and sleep and eat real food! My mom and cousin both had books to read. I didn't. I also didn't have any money so I couldn't just go buy myself one from the bookstore. My iPod was also dead, so I couldn't even distract myself that way. My mom and cousin also had me to entertain themselves. I was soooo annoyed, they were having sooo much fun poking at me and making fun of me and making me generally mad. Oooh, those two! Buttheads! I did forgive them eventually...haha Anyways, suffice it to say, I about went mad on that very long day. At least we got home that night, it could have been worse.

Anyways, just thought I'd share my long airport day experiences while I'm sitting here waiting for my currently delayed flight. It seemed appropriate. Anyways, like I said, this is for all you who've had similar experiences - I feel your pain, but I also know it isn't generally the end of the world.

Operation Spring Break Commences

2010-03-27T07:55:00.000-07:00

It's finally here!!! I'm so psyched, it's ridiculous! Ridiculous that I'm so excited about it that is. I mean it's only a week without classes. But come on, it's a week without classes! :)

I only had one class from 11 o'clock till noon yesterday, but my break didn't start until about 10:20 pm last night when I emailed my feature story to my professor. (I had till midnight, but I finished up more than an hour early!) I don't know that it was really any good, but I don't really care. I've been trying to get this feature story together all week. And in the course of this long week, I learned something about being a journalist. Sometimes you can't get interviews with the people you really need to get interviews with. Because sometimes, life happens and that person is sincerely too busy. So, unable to get my key interview, I was forced to change my story around and call upon creativity lying dormant somewhere in the badlands of my brain.

I was fortunate that my professor is not a jerk, and gave me an extra 24 hours to get the story together. It was due at midnight Thursday. Since I went in and explained to him the situation earlier this week, he gave me an extra 24 hours to try and secure my interview or to rescue the story in some other fashion.

I think perhaps that journalism may not be my thing. I was so ridiculously nervous before and during my interviews. I feel completely retarded having to ask questions of people like that. I mean, I just feel like I'm pretending I'm smart enough to come up with a series of questions about something I know nothing about...I'm not even a question sort of person anyways. Argh! It's mildly aggravating. Also, I discovered my voice recorded is not my favorite sound in the world...but I guess it's not the end of the world.

Luckily, I was able to get a couple of pretty good alternate interviews I was able to work with. I think at some point I may post parts of them up here, because some of the things said were really good and interesting. Anyways, I'm just so excited to be finished with that and not have to worry about it for a whole week!

On the other hand, I'm not completely unshackled from school. I'm hoping to use some of this week to play catchup on all the reading for my history classes...I'm rather behind. Like, a whole book behind, again! And, I'm hoping to get a couple of photo assignments shot over break. I was lucky enough to be able to check out a camera, so hopefully I'll get lucky and be able to get some shoots in. I have the camera for 10 days! Which is pretty much awesome!

I'm planning on going to Spokane either tomorrow or Monday. I'm gonna fly because it's free for me, but it will be standby. This means, I may not be able to get out. But I'm just praying that I will be able to get out Sunday night, then I'll have maximum time with the fam! :)

Boy oh boy! St. Paddy's Day!

2010-03-16T08:32:00.000-07:00

I wish I had had my camera with me all weekend. It was a great time! Friday evening I went and helped out with the "decorating" of the float for the University's Irish club, An Cumann Gaelach. We were very minimalist in our materials for decorating, but I think it turned out quite well. We made a couple of banners, luckily spelling everything in Irish correctly. :p And then pretty much decorated the rest of the float with green, orange, and white streamers. Apparently, I was the official streamer holder - more like a streamer dispenser. I was holding all three rolls between each other, and when somebody wanted them they would come grab a hold of the ends and pull and the rolls just rolled between my hands, like a human tape dispenser. Pretty cool, eh? haha I was pretty much told I looked a bit ridiculous standing there with the three rolls of streamers between my hands. I'm just cool like that you know!

Missoula had their St. Patrick's Day parade this past Saturday, and I swear Montanan weather just enjoys mocking people. It was fairly cold and cloudy all day. It even snowed a little in the morning. During the parade, it was cold and windy at times. The next day was gorgeous! Warm and sunshiny...yeah, the weather just likes to mock us mere mortals.

Anyways, I convinced Carly to come with me in the parade, and we walked over, against the wind most of the way I might add, from the University to downtown. Found our float, which was behind the Noon's float with a couple of awesome green Sinclair dinosaurs...I kinda wanted to jump on that float just because of the dinos. But I didn't, our float was pretty sweet too.

I totally stole this pics off An Cumann Gaelach's Facebook group page....but I wanted to show you how awesome we were! :p haha jk Anyways, that was our rockin' awesome banner I helped paint. I personally love that Reily (the kid on the left) is wearing an Irish flag like a cape.

It was pretty cold, but after we got going I stopped noticing that so much. I've never been on a float before...it was rather a fun and unique sort of experience. Throwing candy was lots of fun, because the kids looks so excited about it, not to mention triumphant. We got more than one double fist pump when a kid would catch the candy thrown by either myself or someone else on the float. Some of the kids just enjoyed watching the scramble and fight that ensued over the throwing of the candy. Which, I have to admit was rather entertaining. One little girl in the crowd told me she liked my jacket. But who wouldn't like it? I mean, it's like a biker jacket, so it's just awesome! haha

Another photograph I lifted, but this one you can sorta see me in. I'm in the middle/front end of the float, standing wearing a green shirt...oh yeah! I took my jacket off for like 5 minutes because I'd worn an Ireland shirt, and what on earth was the point of wearing it if no one saw it....anyways, that's the story there. :p

I was rather surprised there were so many people out for this parade. I've lived here nearly my entire life and never been to this parade before so I had no idea what to expect. It was sooo cold and had threatened rain all day, I just didn't expect so many people to come. We ran out of candy pretty fast, unfortunately...so we had to find other ways to entertain ourselves.

Kelsey suggested doing a ribbon dance with the streamers. haha I got off the float because I was tired of standing, and I was cold, so I figured walking would help me warm up. So, Kelsey handed me the streamers and I did a couple of twirls, nothing too exciting or special. Then, Kelsey got down and did a much better ribbon dance. haha It was great. A short time after that, I said someone should do some cartwheels or something, and Kelsey dared me to do it. So, I did. Then, after I did one, I had to just keep going. It was cool to be doing cartwheels in the middle of the street. On one of them, I started going, but I felt like I was too close to the people on the side of the street, so I pulled my legs in at the last second...apparently I was close to hitting the moving trailer beside me...haha Oh well, but I still did a few more after that because it was fun. Then, this kid had to show me up and do some sort of fancy handspring. haha It was pretty sweet!

After the parade was over, I went over to St. Anthony's church to see if they needed any more help. The Celtic Connection was catering a corned beef & cabbage dinner for a fundraiser for the Friends of Irish Studies. I'd helped roll silverware that morning before the parade. I didn't have much else to do, so I decided to see if I could help any. They were pretty good on help though in the afternoon, so I just stood around like an idiot for probably 20 minutes.

All the volunteers got a stamp on their hands, a name tag, and a free dinner. After a while of looking like a foolish wallflower, I decided I'd go get some food and sit down. So, I went through the line and got some colcanna, corned beef & cabbage, a slice of bread with honey butter, and some silverware. Then, I didn't know where to go sit, because I didn't really know anyone who was sitting down and eating...so I stood around some more feeling like an idiot...again. I ended up dumping my silverware out of their napkin onto the ground while I was standing there. Unfortunately, this little trick did not go unnoticed. haha One of the kids from Irish club saw me do it, and applauded me...I decided maybe I should take it as a compliment and run with it. I just can't help it, I'm just that cool.

Thank heavens, a few minutes later a bunch of girls from the Irish club showed up. I went over to the table where they were signing in at to tell them to go get food and eat first so I'd have someone to eat with. Mícheál tried to steal my food. I didn't let him. haha

After they got their food, we sat down. We watched the little girls doing Irish step-dancing, which was pretty neat. It also made us all pretty jealous of their talents. I, for one, happen to not be very graceful or coordinated...I'm also not the greatest at keeping time. It was great fun to watch. Then, they had some live musicians who were really good.

They also had butcher paper table cloths and crayons. And of course, being the awesomely mature college girl that I am, I had to draw on the table cloth! I drew a massive sunshine with purple aviators, some hills, a stream, and some birds. I wrote "Tá áthas ar an grian!" - "The sun is happy!" And he was, I drew him an enormous grin! I even signed my name to this masterpiece. I was feeling super artsy...or something. haha One of the other girls wrote things all over her part of the table cloth like "Is brea liom an práta mór." and "An cáis beag?" and "Bhí sé gaofar agus fuar inniu. Conas a bheidh an aimsir amárach?" ("I love the big potato." "The small cheese?" & "It was windy and cold today. What will the weather be like tomorrow?") Needless to say, our Irish expressions were none too profound, but we had a grand ol' time. And the food was excellent! Absolutely delicious!

I was sooooo tired that whole day. I'd been pretty goofy and sorta sassy all day, which isn't generally how I am. At least, I'm not usually like that around people I don't know very well, and I've only just started to get to know my Irish club buddies. I even came dangerously close to lapsing into one of my notoriously ridiculous laugh attacks....luckily for me and the reputation of my sanity I didn't.

All in all, I'd say it was a great day! And St. Patrick's Day hasn't even officially happened yet. Not that it looks very promising...I have class from 9:40-12 & 1-4...it's not likely to be a very celebratory day. But, this weekend more than makes up for it! Erin go bragh!

Just for giggles...or practice really.

2010-03-05T09:23:00.000-08:00

I've decided that every week or two I should post in Irish. That will give me a chance to practice my Irish a bit more...hopefully nobody who actually speaks Irish well will read this. :p Anyways, here goes....

Is brea liom Gaeilge. Tá mé ag staidéar Gaeilge le dhá bhliain ag UM. Bhí triúr muinteoir Gaeilge agam, Ciara, Traolach, agus Micheal. Is maith liom iad. Tá Gaeilge deacair ach is maith liom é.

Tráthnóna inné, chuaigh mé agus Dave go dtí comhrá Gaeilge. Bhí muid ag International House, ach tháinig club Rúiseach isteach. Mar sin, d'fhág muid agus chuaigh muid go dtí LA building. D'iarr Micheal ceisteanna orainn agus thriail muid a fhreagairt é. Ní raibh mé ana mhaith.

Seachtaine seo caite, chuaigh mé agus Chelsea go dtí an scannán Pointín. Bhí sé go maith, ach bhí sé aisteach freisin. Shroic muid ansin go déanach, ach rug muid popcorn linn. Mar sin, bhí áthas orainn.

bahaha This is kinda hard....I'm gonna have to keep working on it.

Playground Blues

2010-02-19T18:24:00.000-08:00

The other day I went out and took some shots at Bonner Park in Missoula for my photojournalism class. It was before 11 am on a weekday. It was kinda chilly and foggy. And with all the indecisive weather we've been having this winter, there was ice and slush all over. It made for a fun place to shoot. I don't know that I necessarily did it justice, but I had a good time. This is seriously one of the first classes I've actually enjoyed doing the homework for.

I loved the ice underneath the slide. It looked super awesome!

The steps up to the slide! If the ground below the slide wasn't covered in slushy ice I would've been running up these stairs and sliding down in a heart beat!

Some of the ice below the steps up to the slide.

I didn't expect to see anyone there at the park because of what the weather was like and because of all the ice. But a mom and her little girls came and played on the swings. So, I took pics of them all paparazzi-like through the bars to prove that there were some hardy Missoulians braving the weather to enjoy the park!

Hosanna isn't watching the Olympics right now...

2010-02-17T20:05:00.000-08:00

I've become sort of obsessed with the Olympics recently, which is rather funny as I'm not much of a sports person, nor do I come from a sports-oriented family. My brother and sister run track & cross country and that's about as sporty as we get. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy messing around with friends and family playing basketball or soccer occasionally. But I'm not good and I don't really know what's going on most of the time...

Anyways, back to my original point of being obsessed with the Olympics. Perhaps it's the fact that they're relatively closer than they've been to me in quite awhile. Perhaps not. Maybe it's because of their location. I've been to Vancouver once and I really enjoyed it. I would love to go back. But maybe that's not the reason either. Maybe I've discovered a new passion for sports that I never knew I had. I really don't know why. All I know is that I'm pretty into them right now.

I remember watching the Olympics a bit when I was younger and we had TV channels in our old house. I remember the figure skating the best.

I do not have TV and haven't for the last 10 years or so of my life. Watching the Olympics has not been something my family engages in at all routinely. Now that I'm totally enthralled by them, it's been somewhat of a challenge watching them. I watched some luge and speed skating at Chelsea's gran's house last Saturday, and then Monday I went to Chelsea's house and watched some. We had a bit of a fight over whether we should watch the Bachelor or the Olympics...I won. :)

I like the moguls and figure skating the best, of the things I've been able to watch at least. I've always liked figure skating. They look so graceful out there on the ice. Something I've never been able to achieve on solid, non-slippery ground, let alone on ice! The moguls are just so insanely fast & intense I love them. Cross-country skiing is very impressive, but its not all that interesting to watch until the skiers are nearing the finish line.

Even though, I haven't been able to watch the Olympics very much, I've been following them like crazy. I get on the Vancouver Olympics website and check out who's been winning and how individual athletes that I know or have heard of have been doing. I check out the medals. And every time U.S. is on the top I do a little happy dance and tell everyone in the room.

<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;nbsp; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-medals/" title="Vancouver 2010 Medals"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;View the vancouver2010.com medals' table&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

I think my fanaticism is probably linked back to the Summer Olympics of '08. I had lots of friends who were pretty much obsessed with Michael Phelps. So I watched a few of his races that summer. I also watched the Opening Ceremony of those Olympics. I was totally enthralled by the total theatrics of it all. And I was just awe-struck by the height of Yao Ming!

I think one of the things I find most interesting about the winter Olympics is that most of the stuff the athletes do is super insane, fast, and dangerous. It's really fascinating watching somebody seemingly hurling themselves down a VERY fast, icy slide - especially when someone was killed on that track recently. The dedication and competition that the athletes have is mind boggling to me. When you've had 6, or more, knee surgeries but you're still skiing moguls I'd say you're kind of crazy. I'm so amazed by the sheer athleticism of the athletes though. I think that's one of the things that impresses me the most. They're so physically fit (well, then there are those who are doping up, but they're not what impresses me.) And they just push themselves too such extremes. It's simply amazing.

So, now you know what Hosanna thinks about the Olympics. I'm not sure you wanted to, but that's what you get for today. I'll have you know that I was a good girl tonight, and I stayed home and worked out instead of going to Chelsea's to watch speed skating and men's half-pipe snowboarding. Aaah! It's killing me.

All things Irish, well maybe just a few.

2010-02-05T19:06:00.000-08:00

When I entered the realm of higher education, I really had no idea what I wanted to do there. I was fresh out of high school, and I'd had no dreams of careers since I was little and wanted to be a singer. (I don't think I'd even reached teenager-hood before I realized that while I enjoyed singing and music very much, I did not really want that life. I'm not very competitive, and the lives that a lot of celebrities lead really aren't very inspiring.) I took a random smattering of classes, hoping that something would just jump out and smack me over the head - that I would just have an epiphany one day and know that I'd totally found what I wanted to study...so far, and I am in my 4th semester of college, no such luck.

Well, that is not strictly true. I decided to take Irish. Irish the language. I don't mean learning how to speak with an Irish accent. I mean the language, Irish Gaelic, Irish, Gaeilge. (You would not believe how many people ask me, "Wait, isn't that just English with an Irish accent?" when I tell them I'm taking Irish. It's pretty insane!) I needed a language for my general education requirements, and I was like "Irish sounds pretty awesome! I mean how many people even know it's a language?" Also, partially because my mom's maiden name is Flynn, I've been fascinated with Ireland for a long time, and I've always wanted to go there. This was in no way a revelation telling me what to do with my life. Nobody hit me on the head and said, "You totally want to study Irish!" In fact, I wasn't even sure I wanted to continue past my first semester of Irish. The language is not an easy one. I'd taken 2 years of Spanish in high school and a year of French as well, and they'd both made more sense to me than Irish.

But, I figured once I'd started with one language what was the point of dropping it and picking up a new one. It doesn't do me any good for my gen eds. I have to have 2 years worth of ONE foreign language. So, I told me self "Stick with it kid! If you don't want to stick with it after you've filled up your gen eds, then drop it." So, I continued on. And I'm really pleased that I did.

My second semester of Irish I was in a class of 3 people, plus our teacher, Ciara. (There were two other sections of Irish II, I believe, with more people in them. But, the section I was in didn't end until 5 pm, if I remember correctly. Most people didn't want to take a class that late if they could help it.) I think this was probably the best thing that could've happened to me in regards to Irish. I really don't do well in large classes generally, it's part of why I've struggled with my large lecture courses in the past. A small class forces me to learn and keep up so that I don't look like a complete idiot. It also is MUCH easier to learn a language in that sort of setting. There's more interaction between the students and the teacher and between the students as well. The teacher can see where everyone is individually as well and cater to the class's needs better. I also started attending Irish conversation table on Monday nights. Most days at conversation table, we watched clips from Des Bishop's (He's an American-Irish comedian, as in he was born in the States, but moved to Ireland with his parents as a kid.) experience in learning the Irish language. It was great to interact a bit with the language outside of the classroom, and Des is pretty funny. (His language can be a bit sketchy though, just in case you wanted to know.)

I'd made it through two semesters of Irish by the end of last spring! I enjoyed it. I was rather excited about it even! Irish is such cool language to listen to. It's got a sort of rhythm to it.

Then, my third semester of college began last fall...and I wasn't so sure about things again. I had a new teacher. Traolach O'Riordan. I'd heard scary things about him. I'd heard that he made life rough on the new Irish students, because he didn't want people who weren't serious about learning the language in there. I was very tentative about class with him. The class was larger than my last Irish class had been, there were 7 of us plus Terry. And the first week was rather terrifying! Terry is from a different part of Ireland than Ciara. So his accent is different and a LOT thicker and harder to understand. I seriously couldn't tell most of the time when he switched from Irish to English and vice versa. I was seriously worried I wouldn't be able to understand him at all, and that I would end up failing miserably.

Luckily, I ended up getting used to, for the most part, Terry's accent and I did not fail. Terry turned out to be pretty entertaining, and I enjoyed his class most of the time. Granted, I usually walked out of Irish feeling like I'd had my brains extracted rather painfully through my ears or something. But, I felt like I was making a decent effort and succeeding somewhat in my effort to learn more of the language.

My favorite days of class with Terry last semester were when he would begin illustrating some point about the Irish language and wander off topic on to the Irish, or some anecdote of his. I loved when he talked about food, mostly those good old potatoes and meat. Meat, meat, meat. After he finished a story, he'd pause for a minute or two and then jumped back into the language.

When I went to General Conference for church in October I had to leave early from his class so we could start driving. I explained I had a church conference in Utah to go to. He said in his thick brogue, "For da Mormons? Make sure ya do some recruitin for the Irish language class while you're down there, will ya?" Oh, good times.

Well, I've now reached my 4th semester of both college and Irish. It's looking a bit daunting at the moment. I'm taking 15 credits. This includes two history classes, two journalism classes, and Irish IV. (One of my history classes is entitled "The Irish" and thus far I'm enjoying it immensely!) Irish is going to be held for 3 hours one day a week. An hour of grammar, an hour of translation, and an hour of conversation. This shall be very interesting. Just in case I haven't mentioned this before, I swear I must have some form of ADHD or something...I don't sit still well, or concentrate well for that matter, for long periods of time. (Another reason I have a hard time in lecture classes.) A three hour class is going to test my limits just a wee bit, I think.

Hopefully I'll survive this semester and will have improved my Irish as well. I'm hoping eventually to visit Ireland someday soon...maybe if I'm lucky I can do a study abroad there, wouldn't that be cool? I'd best get to doing some studying though if I want that to happen. Slán!

Sharing a bit of my bestie with the world! :p

2010-02-05T07:59:00.000-08:00

Well, I do think I shall write a bit about the adventures of Chelsea and myself. Chelsea and I probably shouldn't be allowed to do things like cook, at least not together. So far this week Chelsea managed to make the top ramen explode and I completely mutilated her pancake (apparently I can't flip pancakes...) While we were making ramen, we argued back and forth about who's way was the right way to cook ramen. And then Chelsea was trying to scoop the long ramen noodles out of the pot with a ladle...which obviously wouldn't work well. So I kept trying to get her to use something else...so I guess you could say we were lucky that we ended up with food in our bowls with the way we were carrying on. Apparently, this was all very funny, because a girl who was also using the kitchen said, "I'd almost pay money to watch this." We could practically have our own reality TV show. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not...

This is me and Chels dressed as pirates, I was One-Eyed Wanda, at a sweet awesome Pirate Murder Mystery party

Apparently, we're kind of juvenile. We both like watching Disney channel. haha I personally think the shows can be rather entertaining, in a dumb, dopey way I'll grant you, but funny nonetheless. Chelsea and I are both turning 20 this year...I have no idea what this says about us exactly. But, Chelsea, myself, and another friend of ours were all watching TV and I turned it to the Disney Channel and our other friend just looked at us like "Really guys? Are you really watching the Disney Channel??" haha What can I say? We are just too cool for school...or something like that.
A pleasant view from the mountains behind Chelsea's house. This is why I love Montana so much!

A few weeks ago we decided that we were gonna ride Chelsea's brother's four-wheeler up the mountain behind her house. It was a beautiful day, and the view was pretty nice. We stopped so I could take pictures, and Chelsea turned the four-wheeler off. Which turned out to be almost disastrous, because she couldn't get it to start after that. She tried turning the key several times and that didn't work. Then she tried pull-starting it like 10 times and that didn't work either. We almost ended up walking down the mountain. haha Luckily, Chelsea succeeded in pull-starting after about 20 minutes of trying to start it or figure out what to do.

One of Chelsea's worst fears is spiders. I don't understand it. I think fear of spiders is pretty irrational because they are absolutely minuscule compared to humans. You can kill one with your shoe, a broom, or your finger, if you're morbid like that. Point being that it is super easy to kill them. Also, there are hardly any spiders that can do permanent damage to you, at least here in Montana. Anyways, you get the point. A few weeks before Christmas Chelsea was going to come pick me up and go look for a Christmas tree in the mountains for my family. Right before she was supposed to come get me she calls me and says in a hoarse voice, "Hosanna! I can't leave the house! There's a HUGE spider right above the door!" Chelsea blames her completely terrified sounding voice on the fact that she had pretty much lost most of her voice from being sick, but at first when she called me I thought something really bad had happened, like a wreck. But no, it was just a spider. Luckily, I only live 5 minutes or so away from Chelsea, because she asked me to come kill the spider for her. haha I did, because that's what friends are for apparently. Then the crisis was over, and we were able to go find a loverly Christmas tree.

That Christmas tree in and of itself, was rather entertaining. We couldn't find a saw, so we grabbed an ax. We found out later it was a splitting maul, which is apparently more ideal for splitting logs than cutting down a tree. But how were we supposed to know that! We're a bunch of girls for Pete's sake! We went along on our merry, ignorant way and found a tree that looked nice. Its trunk where we chopped it down at was probably 4 or 5 inches in diameter, not real big. But it took us probably 1/2 hour at least to chop it down. I'm fairly certain if we'd had a different ax or a saw we could've finished much quicker. It probably would've helped some if I had more upper body strength and knew how to swing an ax. All that aside though, we managed to cut the tree down. Which should be noted as the impressive feat that it was. Unsurprisingly, the trunk was a fairly mangled stump. I had to saw off the bottom 5-6 inches with a dull little hack saw I found at my house. Good times.
Our lovely mangled stump...haha

If you've made it this far, I'm impressed. I sort of have a tendency to ramble and not make a whole lot of sense. But I hope you enjoyed a bit of mine and Chelsea's awesome adventures.

Biggest full moon of the year!

2010-01-30T08:14:00.000-08:00

I hope you all saw the moon last night. I don't know how you couldn't see it if you had any contact with the outside world last night. It was so beautiful and bright. In fact, according to National Geographic, it was the biggest full moon of the year because it's closer to Earth than normal. They also said it would appear a lot brighter full moons, around like 30% brighter.

I was at a friend's house when it rose, so I don't know what exactly it looked like while rising, but we went outside around 7 pm and took some pictures, or rather attempted to take some pictures of the moon. Because as I'm sure you already know, you need a pretty nice camera/lens combo to get good pictures of the moon. Mostly we just dinked around in the yard. It was a bit chilly but really it was rather refreshing.

This was one of my attempts to get a shot with my little Nikon Coolpix camera. The nice thing about this shot is you can see Mars to the left of the moon, even if it's really not that great of a shot of the moon.

Another cool thing about the moon was the fact that Mars was big and bright right next to it. It was pretty neat. Right now Mars is pretty close to Earth as well the closest it's been in years, unless I'm much mistaken.

The moon was amazingly bright even in the fog that covered the valley on my way home last night. I only wish that it wasn't so cold out and I could've just outside and looked at the moon for hours. I mean, you could practically read a book, by its light. It was just so breathtakingly beautiful. Gotta love those marvelous beauties that nature has to offer.

A mock book review...or rather the impressions left upon me by a book...

2010-01-28T07:55:00.000-08:00

I've decided to rave about this book I just read. It's called Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation by John Carlin. Now, under most circumstances, reading non-fiction doesn't work out so well for me. I either can't get into the story or I lose interest. Or at least, such has been my experience in the past. Perhaps I'm turning over a new leaf and discovering a new interest in actual occurrences in the history of the world. But see, that isn't even very accurate because I've always enjoyed historical fiction novels which are based in fact and true events. So....I don't know what my problem with non-fiction is/was.

Enough of that rambling nonsense. I picked up Playing the Enemy because on the first day of this new year I went to the theater with my family. Most of my family went and watched Avatar, which my brother had been raving about for months before he even saw it. I really didn't have that much interest in seeing Avatar as it mostly looked like one giant cartoon to me. So, I talked my mom into watching Invictus with me. I'd seen the previews and it looked promising. Plus, it had Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon in it. I absolutely adore Morgan Freeman. I think he's a first rate actor and he has such a unique, interesting voice. And I've loved Matt Damon ever since The Bourne Identity. I went in expecting it to be good, and I was not disappointed. (Going into a film or book, as you may know, with expectations of greatness is sometimes a dangerous thing. What if it does not meet your expectations, but falls short by a long shot? Sometimes it is better to go in with no expectation at all. But, luckily in this instance I was rewarded for my predisposition to the film.) I really loved the movie. I didn't know much about South Africa, Nelson Mandela, or rugby at the time I watched this film, but my interest was piqued. Somewhere in the credits it mentioned that it was based on a book. I noted the book in my memory and looked it up at my local library the first chance I got.

I've now finished the book and consider myself to know just a wee bit more about rugby, South Africa, and Nelson Mandela. The trials Mandela went through in his struggle for his country were really quite immense. He sacrificed over 20 years of his life to being in prison and also much of his personal life to his cause. He came out of prison with such an attitude of forgiveness and graciousness that I cannot help but be completely amazed. I do not think it would be very possible for anyone else to accomplish what he did. He was smart, gracious, forgiving, and an excellent politician. He led his nation towards a unity no one in that country could ever have expected to happen in a million years. And for the black people of the nation of South Africa, who had been discriminated against and exploited by the white apartheid government for so long, to be able to follow Mandela's lead towards forgiveness and unity is really quite astounding. Equally amazing is the change that seemed to have happened with the white population of South Africa. They lost their fear of the black people and of Mandela. What amazes me most is how much this story revolves around sports, more specifically rugby. I do not come from a particularly sports oriented family. To me, the emotion that occurs around sporting events is fairly foreign and amazing. What also impresses is me is the symbolism a sport, team colors or name can have for a people. And I feel that the author, John Carlin, did a wonderful job in this book of conveying to me, the reader, the importance and symbolism this rugby team, the Springboks of South Africa, had to the people at the time. To the white people, rugby was a religion. The black people of South Africa regarded rugby with little interest except to cheer on whoever was playing against the Springboks. And as for the Springboks, well the blacks saw the team, the name, the colors, as a major symbol and reminder of apartheid.

I highly recommend both Playing the Enemy and Invictus to any and all who wish to hear or watch an inspiring story about forgiveness and the ability for people of different colors, creeds, and races to unite despite their pasts. The book is filled with anecdotes and emotion. The film was very well scripted, filmed, and acted. I thoroughly enjoyed them both.

Giving it another go...

2010-01-26T16:36:00.000-08:00

Hmm...well I've obviously proved to be a very faithful blogger, no? ;) haha But, as I'm sitting here looking at some friends' blogs with nothing particularly productive to do I decided I'll give it another go. It's a new year after all.

So, let's see. I've made it to another new year. I haven't dropped out of school or flunked out either, so that's good. And I may even have figured out what I want to study in college after a year and a half, so that's good as well. haha I want to study photojournalism, or at least I think I do. So, this semester I'm taking a photojournalism class as well as a reporting class to get a feel for journalism and to see if it's the pathway I'd like to follow. Also, I'm aiming for an Irish studies minor. It looks as though this semester is shaping up to busy and, hopefully, a time of growth and productivity for me. So wish me luck, eh?

I was rather excited for this semester to begin because I am taking a bunch of interesting-sounding classes: photojournalism, reporting, Irish history, a history class on terrorism, and, hopefully, the Irish IV language class. I was also dreading this semester. I've never been very big into going to school, or at least, I haven't been since about the beginning of my senior year of high school. Naturally, with feelings like that, my interest in my classes and excitement for this semester to begin was tempered by habitual dread of all things scholastic. Perhaps this is the semester that will change that view.

That said, I think I'll leave this here for today. And hopefully I will be more faithful with this blog thing as this semester winds on.

Oh, as I side note, it occurred to me just now that this could probably be a good place to test my journalistic feelers...hope I don't ending up boring whoever reads this to tears or anything.

Until the next time...

Expressions of Silence

2009-03-20T22:30:00.000-07:00

My philosophy on life, or at least on how to look at life, is to look at other people's problems and challenges to put your own into perspective. I know that I do more than my fair share of whining. It never fails that if I think I'm having a hard time with something and I just talk to someone else for five minutes about how their life is going, I feel that my problems aren't so bad after all. (Although, sometimes this makes me feel worse, because then I feel guilty for thinking that my problems were bad...) Now, I believe that everyone here on the earth and who has ever lived is faced with different trials suited to their personality, character, and skills. That should make you stop and think a little about your own or others' challenges.

I have been blessed to have full use of all my senses my whole life thus far. I can wake up in the morning to a beautiful sunrise and see all of the different colors in the clouds and the sky and watch as the sun makes everything golden and alive. I have my sense of hearing intact as well. As anyone who knows me at all knows, I LOVE to talk, but I also LOVE to listen. I like to listen to people speak in conversation or when making a speech, and I love to listen to music. Music is a very important part of my life in listening, but also in expressing myself through singing and playing the piano. It is very hard for me to imagine being deprived of either of these great senses and living through life with any measure of satisfaction. Yet, there are people, amazing people, who do just that. Some people, whether born without or as a result of some later incident in life, cannot hear. Some cannot see. Of course, there are other senses, but as of this point in time, these are the senses I feel I would have the hardest time without.

I was recently privileged enough to go watch/listen to a concert by Expressions of Silence. I'm not very informed about the group, but the basics are that they are the choir from the Montana School for the Deaf and Blind which is located in Great Falls, MT. Kids from all over the state go to this school, and have a schedule much the same as the public schools in the area. This choir meets after school, and is comprised of 5th to 12th graders. They have performed with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and they traveled to Washington D.C. to perform as well. The signing is not a direction translation of the songs for the most part, as I understand it, it's mostly artful signing. These few facts I know I found out from a friend who got to meet with the group earlier in the day and from a sheet they gave people before the concert describing the group a bit. I hope to find out more about just how they learn the music and how to sign in time and such, but since I don't know right now, I'm not going to attempt to tell about what I don't know.

And so back to the concert I attended. I believe part of their theme was 1950's music, so they began their concert with several pieces from the 50's. They signed all of their songs, and had dance routines as well. They all looked like they were having such a grand time up there. They also did this song called "Love in Every Language" (I think that's what it was called) and as I understand it this has become a routine part of any concert they give. The last half of their concert was filled with songs about love and understanding like "Waiting on the World to Change" by John Mayer and patriotic songs such as "God Bless the USA" by Lee Greenwood and "Citizen Soldier" by 3 Doors Down. I found these songs particularly inspiring for some reason, probably because they weren't just fun songs like the 50's songs had mostly been. They had a message, and the way these kids expressed this message was particularly impressive and inspiring to me. I hope that everyone gets a chance to see something like this. It really opened my eyes and made me appreciate what I had. It also made me think more about those people who don't perhaps experience things in quite the same way as I do, but are still bright, wonderful, loving people capable of expressing themselves.

Strange Snow

2009-03-11T08:01:00.000-07:00

This was the snow in town the other day...it was big enough to be hail but it was really, really soft. It was pretty strange I have to say. I didn't really think that it was real snow at first.

A good old fashioned letter

2009-02-11T19:45:00.000-08:00

I don't know about you all, but I love writing letters. Real letters that you put in an envelope, lick to seal, and put a stamp on before dropping it in a mailbox. There's something so satisfying about writing out a letter by hand and then by following through the whole process. And then you put it in the mailbox and start wondering about when the person you're sending it to will get it. Eventually, you get to wondering about when and if your correspondent will write you back. And although sometimes this can have a somewhat depressing effect if you don't get a reply, it is all the more rewarding when you do get one in reply.

There's something so much more personal that comes in a handwritten letter than an email or text can ever hope to convey. The individual who wrote the letter's personality shines through the individually formed letters. You can often tell if they were hurried or if they took their sweet time writing it. And almost always, depending on the letter's content of course, you feel so special that someone took the time to write to you in a day in which the world of instant gratification evidenced by cell phones and computers seem to make the handwritten letter obsolete. This may all sound somewhat hypocritical seeing how I am typing it out on a computer to be shared via the internet...but its not really the same. I can't send this little blip to the whole world in an envelope, and it is not intended for one individual. I even wrote a paper about this for my English class this semester. This is how much I really like letters. :)

I've kept pretty much every letter I've ever received. Currently, most of them are in a book in sheet protectors, organized by the sender. If I'm ever feeling a little lonely for someone in particular, or just lonely in general, I pull that book out and read through the letters. Some of my favorites are ones written by my cousins when we were little kids. They're so funny! Kids are pretty consistent...they say funny things, and they write funny things. Also, there was often a drawing or coloring with most of those letters. They just remind me of playing in the old combine in the field, playing board games, and helping my aunt in the kitchen. They remind me of swimming in the canal and riding horses.

Some of my other favorite letters are ones written by Taiwanese friend. She has pretty good English, but sometimes the things she writes are so funny just because of the way she's structured them. I always love reading about life over there. I find it fascinating. Plus, I haven't seen her for a few years, so its great to still communicate with her via letters. Also, the envelopes and stamps she sends the letters in are often really cool because they're Taiwanese.

I always loved having "pen pals" as a kid, obviously I haven't changed much. :)

Sisterly Love

2009-02-07T20:47:00.000-08:00

For whatever reason I've decided to talk about my sister today. Probably because I was home all day with her Saturday which only happens once a week, if that. Normally, I'm in town all day at school during the week and she's at school, and on the weekends I spend a lot of time with my friends, because school stuff really doesn't allow for a lot of friend time during the week.

There is about a five year difference between our ages. We are very different, and yet, especially lately I see a lot of similarities...it's rather frightening actually! haha She is a lot messier, louder, and more dramatic than I am in general...(of course, this is all from my obviously biased opinion) She also has an irrational love and tolerance for all four-legged mammals and any bird species you could possibly name. Before my sister expressed major interest in having pets, we never really had very many. We had a few hamsters and a rabbit over the first 14 years or so of my life, but really not very many pets. Since my sister has gotten a bit older we've had 3 geese (not counting the gosling we had for awhile and then gave away), 2 guinea pigs, and several goldfish...more than you can count...This may not seem all that significant to some, but it really is...have you ever been around geese, let alone kept them as pets? Enough quibbles about her animal interests....

We've shared a bedroom since she was about 6 months old...maybe a little older than that, I can't exactly remember...I was only 6, but I distinctly remember her crib being in my room and her screaming and crying for what felt like forever most nights, and that being the only occasion I ever seemed worried about actually getting to sleep because of school the next morning. haha You would think that I would have spent more time around her as a result of this, but I, alas, neglected that duty of getting to know her - partially because of our age difference, partially because she has a tendency to irritate me.

Lately I've been spending more time around her and with her. I went on a trip to Spokane with her a few months back, and I've noticed especially since then that she reminds me of myself...which scares me a lot, because I'm pretty certain that there is really only room enough for one of me in the world! haha She is becoming quite the goofball, but really she was doomed considering how goofy I am...and how several of our other relatives are.

Practice makes perfect...or not...haha

2009-02-04T16:18:00.000-08:00

So, I've known for awhile that I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to playing pool. In November, I'd only played once before, so why would I know what I'm doing? Since then, I've been determined to get better. So, for about the past month I've been playing several times weekly. Mostly with my buddy Chelsea...who's not the greatest either, she is however better than I am.This is me...attempting to shoot some pool...

And this is what normally happens to me when I play pool...I start laughing like crazy and have to hold myself up on something.
And this is Chelsea...notice the cue ball is off the table quite a way...that happens to me a lot, I just managed to catch it with the camera somehow. We often do amazing things...we just can never do them again because they always happen by complete accident. I have gotten somewhat better, I nearly always hit something when I hit the cue ball...but I still scratch a lot! These games tend to take about 20 minutes apiece! I hope I get better soon...

My first post on my first blog ever!

2009-02-04T15:42:00.000-08:00

So, I have a couple of aunts who are really into this blog thing...so I decided to give it a go so I'll have something else besides facebook to distract me when I'm supposed to be doing homework. haha

Well, let's see what should I write about on this very first blog post of mine....well I guess I could talk about college life a little, since that's pretty much what my life is about right now...at least it's supposed to be about that. I'm taking a random smattering of classes to fulfill my general education requirements and also to see if anything really strikes my fancy. I've never really been the sort of person who has known their entire life what they want to be when they grow up. When I was little all I wanted to be was a singer. After I hit the age of about 10 or 11 I realized how unrealistic an ambition that was, and since then I've had no idea what I want to do with the rest of my life. So far this year, I've taken classes in astronomy, sociology, anthropology, music, math, English, and Irish. Some of it has been quite interesting and fun, and some of these classes were the epitome of boring and frustrating. I've found that there are some professors who are really neat people who are eager to share what they know and make the classes as interesting as possible. Then there are those professors who are so caught up in what they know and how many years they went to school to get whatever prestigious degree that they have, that they seem to be trying to make their classes as boring as possible to see how many people they can put to sleep. Another observation is that college text books cost a lot! And they're big and heavy! My backpack strap broke today! I'm quite sad...but what does that tell you about the amount of books I've been carrying around for the past 5 months?

Well, I guess I'll wrap it up here...its not too exciting, but its all I could think of because that's what's been on my mind lately. Next post will be more fun I promise! :)