Can I Just Be Old Already?

This last Friday I called my dad for a chat. When he asked me about what I had been up to, I told him the truth: school, homework, work, more homework, with some food and sleep mixed in. Then I asked him what he had been up to that day. His response was something along these lines:

"Well, today your mother and I went to boulder city and had breakfast. Then we went geocaching for a while. Then we got some lunch. Then we went to a car show. Then we went to Tony Roma's for dinner and we both had ribs. Now we're watching an episode of Inspector Barnaby."

It was one of these moments:

I'm sorry, I thought young people were supposed to have all the fun? Isn't that what old people are always telling me? Enjoy my youth while it lasts because with old age comes more stress or something? I'm not buying it. I'm pretty sure there's some sort of conspiracy going on here. All of the people ages 40 and up are spinning these terrible tales of adulthood to us young folk, while really it's full of delicious barbecued meat, field trips, and British murder mystery shows. Plus, there's a whole lot of other advantages to being old:

• You can wear whatever you want and it's ok. Because you're old.

• If you're nice, everyone likes you. If you're mean, a lot of people still like you because they think it's cute that you're mean and old at the same time.

• Old people can go to bed really early and no one thinks they're weird.
• Old people can stomach weird foods like rice pudding and yams.
• Old people can say really offensive things and people don't get mad because they figure the generation gap is at fault for the rudeness.
• Old people can get out of pretty much anything they don't want to do by simply saying, "Oh, I'm too old for that."

  Basically, that whole "I'm old and I can never have fun like young people again" thing? It's an act. It's just this facade that's been put up so young people don't figure out that they're really getting the short end of the stick in life. It's like that daycare in Toy Story 3, when all the new toys get shoved in with the slobbery and evil two year olds while the evil-stuffed-pink-bear-mob-boss guy lives it up across the hall with the nice, fun kids.
  

  
  

  My fellow young adults, WE have been shoved in the room with the slobbery and evil two year olds. And I guess that's life. I mean, supposedly, all the old people were young at some point. So we'll get to the nice, fun room in the daycare someday, right?
  

  Sometimes I just want one of these:

Or I could just wait.

I'm super excited to be old someday. I'm gonna wear muumuus. I'm gonna eat ribs every Friday and I'm not gonna put on any make up ever. I'm going to shake my purse at whippersnappers and get an awesome scooter to ride around in. It's gonna be AWESOME.

P.S. Mom, Dad, and various adults in my life... sorry for calling you "old".

Feelings of Forever - If my life was like Saturday's Warrior

Yesterday my friend K--- asked why I hadn't blogged in so long, and I told her the truth. The truth being that I have at least 5 half-written blog drafts saved on here that I never published because halfway through writing them I got bored and decided I didn't actually care what I was writing about. And, really, if I'm not interested in what I'm writing, who is going to be interested in reading it?

But, I told her I would find something to blog about soon. I wasn't sure what I was going to write about, but I was determined to find something. And lo and behold, today at lunch the topic of this post floated down to me from the heavens.

Today I met my future husband.

I was in line at L&T Salads and Soups with my dear friends J----- and A---. We were talking about various things, and I said that I really liked L&T because of such and such reason. And then this guy in front of me turned, looked at me, and opened his mouth to speak. And then it was like I was in Saturday's Warrior. You know, that part where the guys comes back from his mission and he brings the guy he baptized with him. And the RM's girlfriend is there waiting at the airport for him, but then she sees the guy he baptized and they recognize each other from the pre-existence and then they sing this song:

So if you trade out the weeping RM for J----- and A---, and trade out the baptized dude for L&T guy and the former girlfriend of the Elder for me, that's pretty much went down.

Well, almost anyway.

Actually, what went down was more like this:

Me: I like how big the wraps are here. It's like I'm buying lunch and dinner, all at once!

L&T guy: (sarcastically) I like how fast this line is moving.

Me: Hahaha, yeah! (thinking to myself, "Why did I pick today to skip doing my hair?")

Then we finally got to the front and were ordering our food.

L&T guy: You're ordering it with the spinach tortilla? No way, the tomato one is the best!

Me: Not with the Great Ceasar! Spinach is definitely the way to go.

L&T guy: Well, as long as you don't get the garlic tortilla. That one is gross! (I'm sure the L&T people appreciated that.)

Me: Haha, true!

And then he paid for his food and left. And then my friends and I paid for our food and went to find a table. And as we were sitting down I started to let out what I had been wanting to say to them for the past ten minutes. "That guy," I began as I looked to my left - and Oh Snap, that guy was at a table less than two feet away and could probably hear everything I was saying! - ," isssssssss right next to us."

And J----- and A--- laughed at me.

And L&T guy ate his food.

And I ate my food.

And there was no more witty banter about tortillas betwixt us.

But, still. We're gonna get married.

What the heck is going on in this picture?? Why is
she holding an apple, and why is it the only part
of the picture that is in color? Is the apple really
that significant??

__________________________________________________________________

In other news, today I

• was incredibly lazy.
• accidentally sent one of my favorite rings down to the BYU laundry.
• ate a cupcake called "Party in Your Mouth" - it should really be called "Chocolate/Hazelnut/Cream Cheese Atomic Bomb in Your Mouth"

I Know What I'm Going to Do Today!

I'll admit it: not very many things inspire me. I don't get that excited about things. In fact, most of the time when I'm acting excited about something, I'm faking it. But there is something that continually inspires and excites me. It's witty, it's fun, it has good messages, and it's surprisingly intelligent.

And I've seen EVERY SINGLE EPISODE.

I'm not joking. This show is great! Most cartoons these days suck. I mean, they just really, really, really suck.

But Phineas and Ferb is different! The kids practice good values, have CRAZY imaginations, and work hard! And the humor has so many levels! There are jokes and references for adults to enjoy, but unlike other shows that attempt to do the same thing *cough*spongebob*cough*, those are clean too.

All in all, it's just good, clean, clever fun.

Also, the music is pretty impressive. There's at least one original song in almost every episode (I think maybe the first couple eps are song-less). Here's some of my favorites:

I'm gonna have to stop myself from putting more up on here... but it's pretty hard. They're all just so funny and creative!

Also, watching Phineas and Ferb has taught me a few things.

1. New words!

http://phineasandferb.wikia.com/wiki/Forum:P%2BF_Vocabulary

also

2. There are a million things to do instead of staying inside, bored, watching tv.

3. You can never be too obvious when it comes to flirting with a boy.

(skip to 3:06)

Also, they have a made-for-tv movie! Which I expected to be lame (as most made-for-tv movies seem to be), but watched anyways when I was sick on Tuesday. And it was fantastic. So fantastic, that I watched it twice. It made me way happier than that homework I had been planning on doing instead.... I'm actually thinking of watching it again, as soon as I get some more of my Spanish homework done (see! I have a smidgen of self control!).

Basically, these two oddly-shaped, crazy kids who are obsessed with platypuses... platypi... platypeople? are my heroes at the moment. Because, seriously, when you're surrounded by end of semester projects and final exams and trying to figure out your future, sometimes it's really nice to be reminded to have some fun.

Life!

So, I know I haven't been on here in forever, but something HUGE happened yesterday! Also, I really don't feel like paying attention to my professor right now.

ahem.


ASHLEY IS ENGAGED! TO HAYDEN! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!


If you're reading this and you don't know who Ashley is, she was my roommate for my first two years of college and she's one of my favorite people in the entire world. Imagine the cutest, nicest, most animal-obsessed girl in the world and then multiply that awesome by 10.

Ashley, if you're reading this, I would like you to take a little stroll down memory lane to that day over the summer when, after about two months of thinking it, I finally had the guts to say,

"I think Hayden really likes you. Like seriously. You better watch out!"

and then you acted like I was crazy and you were like,

"What?? No, I don't think so. I'm pretty sure he likes someone else."

And even though I said this when you guys started dating, I would like to say it again. I told you so!

Also, I'm really kicking myself for leaving ---- ----- this semester because I heard that there was QUITE a scene when you told everyone. Oh man. I really wish I could have heard Jeramy's screaming. I'm imagining it to be pretty spectacular.

I'm pretty dang excited. Because even though I complain about Provo and dating a lot to my friends, I have to admit... I really like weddings.

Anyway, that's all I really have to say. There were other things that I had thought I should blog about lately, but this engagement excitement has sort of occupied all the free space in my brain.

Is There a Bachelor's Program for Random Crafting?

My life usually works like this:

Sorry for the bad quality. The labels are school, crafts, and work.

The funny thing about being an English major is that all of the professors seem to get together and plot when they should all have their papers due. So what happens is that every 3 weeks or so I'll have 4 papers and sometimes a couple of midterms all at once. Which is always a hassle. But the other weeks are usually just full of reading homework which is cake! I supposed it would be smart to use that downtime to write my papers so that things wouldn't all pile up, but what I usually end up doing instead is doing lots of crafts.

I think my roommates think I'm a little silly for liking to do crafts so much, but, as I've tried to explain to them, when a Mormon girl grows up in Las Vegas, there's not much else she can do. Las Vegas isn't really catered to people with standards... So, my friends and I had to get pretty creative to keep ourselves entertained. We decorated shoes, finger-painted, made puppets, painted rocks, made pinatas, and whittled sticks - and this was in my junior year of high school.

This last week and a half have been in the low school and high crafting area. I crafted a cool surprise for a favorite friend which I can't show you all because I haven't given it to her yet.

However, I can show you this:

This doesn't show it off very well, but I made a whole bunch of
little autumn lanterns! They're actually super cute and easy
but my roommate put up a whole bunch of these lights
and I'm trying to make a lampshade for every single one...
it's taking a whole lot longer than I anticipated.

and also this:

This is my mask for my owl Halloween costume! It's kinda
creepy, especially 'cause I'm holding it in front of my space
heater in this pic. It doesn't usually have evil glowing
red eyes...

I think I'm almost completely crafted out, which is probably a good thing. I still have to make the shirt for my owl costume, but I think after that I'm gonna need a craft fast.

Other Life Updates

I got a new car! Well, new in that it is new for me. It was actually made in '84, but it is in impressively good condition and only has 65,000 miles. I love it! Like seriously, words cannot describe how cool I think this thing is. It's basically the best thing ever times a trillion. My mom says its a grandma car, but that's probably best as I've been told before that I drive like a grandma. It took a lot of deliberation deciding on what to call it. The previous owners had called it Puff, but I wanted to call it "Miss Daisy" due to its birthday and so that I could say I was "Driving Miss Daisy". However, I finally conceded to my mom's idea, "Marsha Mellow," because I think it just really looks like a Marsha.

Tah-dah!

Also, today was crazy at work. While I was supervising this morning, the grill freakin' caught on fire! There were giant flames shooting out the back. I tried to smother it with a giant pan and sent one of the people on my team to grab the manager and the fire extinguisher, and the fire department was also called. We got it put out before the firefighters arrived, but it was intense. And there I am worrying about the grease catchers in the ceiling catching on fire as well 'cause the flames from the grill are getting HIGH, and there's the rest of my team, taking pictures and running down to the grill with mini marshmallows on plastic forks to roast. Finally, the managers arrived on the scene, but there was a couple minutes where in my head, I was screaming like a maniac and running around in circles. I handled it scarily well on the outside though. While the managers were debating on how to best put it out, I sent the rest of the employees over to ice cream while I continued to make the burgers that were on the grill. In my defense, I really didn't want to have to refund 12 people for their food. It's a hassle. And the one woman who I did have to refund acted like it was all my fault that the grill was on fire! I mean, she could see the flames, what the heck did she want me to do?! They were getting ready to hose it down with the fire extinguisher! And it wasn't any of our faults. Apparently whoever has the job of cleaning back there hasn't been doing it... like at all. I don't know whose job that is, but I know its not mine or any of the regular restaurant employees.

Picture courtesy of one of my goofball team members, haha.
It got wider and even a little taller than this.

Tonight was also the night I was supposed to supervise the closing restaurant shift. We had a line to the door almost the entire time. The drains were clogged and so the kitchen was flooded and gross and the dishes had to be done in the supply closet with the hose and drain. And then one of the drains for the dipwells was completely clogged up too!

So basically, I'm pooped. And yet, I'm wide awake too. I guess today was just too bizarre for my system to handle.

I Almost Ruined My Life This Week

I have a problem. And this problem is called being overly rational. And while normally its not such a bad thing, there is a small part of me that always wants to be rash. Occasionally, the rash part of me gets so sick of being shut down by my rational side that it tries to stage a coup. This usually results in my feeling so bored that I come up with a crazy plan that I'm completely serious about doing. And then I call my mom to tell her about my "awesome" plan and then she (thankfully) talks me out of it. And then the coup is defeated and I go back to Logical-Land.

Unfortunately, my rash side has gotten smarter. It waited until my mom was on a cruise in Mexico so that I couldn't reach her when my rationality was under siege.

I became convinced that it was a fantastic idea to proclaim to all the internet that I was interested in a boy. I wrote the blog post. I used his name. I was going to tag him in it on facebook. It was really well written, actually. It was full of humor and wit and whatnot, and if you had read it, I would have been your hero. Seriously, you would have had your fist in the air, shouting "Yeah!"

Actually, it was published for two whole minutes. And I was on facebook, in the act of tagging him to the link, when the guy my friend was on the phone with told her to stop me. Thank you, guy-on-the-phone! If it wasn't for him, I would have been the talk of Provo. I would have had to hide in my house so as to avoid crazy looks from passerby. It would have been pretty bad. And the worst part is that I still kinda want to do it.

I really wish I could post it without incurring the aforementioned social wrath so that you all could see what a crazy state of mind I was in. I guess the best way that I can describe it to you is this.


In other news, those of you who are friends with me on facebook probably saw this status:

"Dear British Boy talking next to me in the library,

I'm having a LOT of trouble concentrating on my homework instead of your awesome accent.... But it's ok. No, really. Keep talking.

-Arianne"

You probably thought it was kinda funny. I meant it to be. You probably thought to yourself "Oh, that silly Arianne. What an excellent diversion for 5 seconds of my life."

All I have to say to that is, "But wait, there's more!"

Yesterday, one of my coworkers told me a story. The story went something like this:

Once upon a time a girl named Arianne posted a status
on facebook about a cute British boy distracting her with
his accent in the library. Arianne's friend A-----, who was
also in the library, saw this status and thought, "hmm,
I have a British friend of the male variety, how funny!"
And then A----- looked around and saw Arianne sitting in
the corner. And then she looked to the right of Arianne
and saw her British friend sitting next to her. And then
A----- proceeded to message said boy on facebook and
encourage him to say "Sorry for distracting you, Arianne!"
And he did and they lived happily ever after.

Well, that last sentence was a lie. Although A----- told him to, he did not apologize to me for being so distracting. But wouldn't that have been hilarious if he had? I would have been properly shocked and mortified. It would have made a fantastic most-embarrassing-moment story.

I remember there being a lot more that I wanted to say in this post, but now I can't remember any of it. Typical.

A Post About Fashion?? Weird...

Girls, I want to reintroduce something to you. It's called a "scrunchie," and it is Heaven's gift to hair. Scrunchies are fun, poofy, and they don't make an ugly line in your hair like regular hair ties do. I never stopped wearing scrunchies, 'cause I think they're fan-freaking-tastic, but it seems like the fashion world is catching on as well. I mean look at these:

So cute!

And I just ordered this one from Tilly's last night:

Adorable!!

I'm just saying, if you want to be as wonderfully fashion forward as I am (the girl who wishes she could wear overalls all the time so she wouldn't have to worry about her pants falling down anymore), you will run off to the store and buy yourself some scrunchies, pronto. And if you don't, that's ok too, cause I'll keep the industry alive with my scrunchie needs alone.



Also, does anyone know where I could find some super cute cowgirl boots? I can't find good ones ANYWHERE. It makes me cry.