My face might have been taken over by kids, but I'm not dead yet

I realize that I haven't blogged in about a decade and I don't really have any good excuses for it, other than the fact that Kristen made me promise to get enough sleep this week so I don't get sick for my performance. She must have been inspired because Thursday morning I woke up with a lump in my throat. Since I had been getting eight hours of sleep since Sunday I still felt pretty good. I got another eight hours of sleep last night and my throat seems to be doing a little better. You see I have this nasty habit of ALWAYS getting sick right before a concert, so long as I have to sing a solo or in a small ensemble. So this week was no different and I am hoping that I make it through the performance and I think that I'll be just fine. Maybe next week when I have Thursdays free once again I will be able to find time to blog or maybe I will just spend more time with the people I love.

It's NOT fun to stay at the YMCA!

On Friday night I went to the gymnastics meet at the Uof U. We got up during half-time and had to sing the YMCA song. The song never brought any feelings to my heart until this past vacation to Ohio/Canada. I had the blessed opportunity to stay at the YMCA and it was not my favorite. It was a little dirty and felt just a bit creepy. Could have been because it felt like we were in the ghetto and we probably were. I had an experience there which I will never forget. I was brushing my teeth in the bathroom and accidentally dropped my toothbrush. I thought maybe I could brush it off or something, you know the 10-second rule. I picked it up and it had black specks all over it. I decided that throwing the thing away was my best bet. So as the song played over the loudspeaker I got to thinking about the places we stayed at while in Thailand and how I would have preferred to be staying there.

While in Chiang Mia we stayed in a hilltop village with wooden floors raised up on stilts and a bathroom that, well you can see for yourself. I was prepared for what awaited me and I didn't expect first class service so I wasn't disappointed. I even slept like a log and then breakfast was waiting for me when I woke up. So I would rather stay at the top of a mountain instead of the YMCA.

After traveling down the mountain we made it back to our 83 Baht or $2.5o hostel. It had plenty of room and we were happy to have warm water once again. It might have been a little cramped but it's a foreign country and it only cost two and a half bucks. We were pleased with the situation.

While in Krabi we went all out and spend $30 for two nights in our own private suites. The bathrooms were crawling with ants but that is what the spray thingy was for. So the moral of the story is don't spend $20 a night for a room at the YMCA. It isn't worth it. And never let me book your hotel room because this time it was all my fault.

Free time? What's that?

Somehow when I graduated from college I expected my life to get a lot less crowded. I figured that since I did not have homework and school related activities I would somehow have extra time. Turns out I was woefully wrong. It seems that since I have graduated everyone else thought I would have free time and so they have taken the liberty of filling up my time for me. So let us begin with my responsibilities:

One of my old buddies asked if I would chair one of the selection committees for the Crystal Crest Awards. It consists of a few meetings, interviews and free meals. I consented thinking it would be a good way to network. Not sure what I was thinking because my co-chair is in the art department and I have no interest in furthering my employment in the art field.

I saw one of my friends from an Institute Council that I serve on a few years ago and she is now in the dental hygienics program up here at Weber State. She asked if I would be willing to come in and let her work on my teeth. Seeing as I don't have dental insurance I thought it would be a wonderful plan. The visit ended up having to be extended from one Wednesday morning to two. But the good news is that no cavities were found so I don't have to go out and find a dentist to fix my problems.

I am still singing with the Choarlaires everyday during the week and it has helped me to keep my head on straight. It is only an hour everyday and since I've got to drive up to Ogden to work I figure that it isn't anything that I can't handle. It has been nice keeping up old friendships and attempting to make new friends. I addition to just singing in class I recently auditioned and made a small ensemble. We have practices at 7 a.m. Tuesday morning and it is almost enough to kill me. I haven't had to get up that early in a long time. To top it all off I was invited to tour with the choir for a week in May if I can arrange my life to fit it in. We would be trekking off to Nevada and a few other places that Bro. Simon was mentioning while I was talking to somebody else.

And do you remember when I use to work at the library? Apparently the employees at the library think I still work there and have done all in their power to keep me involved. I have done a number of story times and the latest event will have me dressed up as a Leprechaun reading stories to little kiddies. I have already made an appearance as a pirate, elf and then last night I got to model a tuxedo. My high school friend called me up and asked me if I'd be a model. I had a free hour between work and rehearsals so I consented. I must admit that the tux was not my favorite, but then again I didn't have to rent it so it wasn't all bad.

So I sing in the institute choir and then I have a few other singing projects on top of that. If you remember from a previous blog I was asked to play the part of Thomas in "The Savior of the World: Act II." It has been a lot of fun learning how to act and getting to sing in a new style. I have enjoyed the experience quite a bit and hope that everyone can make it to the one night performance on March 29th at 6:30p.m. I've got three songs and a bunch of lines that haven't quite been memorized. In addition to this musical I was also asked to sing for Senior Night at the Institute. Every year the seniors from Davis and Weber county are invited for a fun night of music on the WSU campus. I and another girl get to open for Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band. It should be quite the experience but it won't happen til May.

And of course I am still working at the YMCA, learning how to be a better parent by practicing on other people's children. I still enjoy this job and it is fun to see the kids learn and have a good time just playing with each other. A few weeks ago when the snow was still on the ground we built snow creations. I told the kids that when it was time to go inside the other naughty children in the neighborhood would probably destroy the snow stuff. So I encouraged them to destroy it because it would be fun and it wouldn't give the other kids the privilege to doing it themselves. They thought it a good idea and went ahead with it.

Hanging out with family is another popular activity. Kristen and I went up to Logan this past weekend and hung out with my sisters and their husbands. We played a few games, went to the temple and a few other things. I have been quite proud of my attempts at visiting my family this last year. I have been up to Logan more in the past six months than the previous four years. It is nice having family so close.

Just a few other things and then I'll warp up. I still manage to spend quite a bit of time reading, usually about four or five books at once. I have gone on a classics kick recently and have finished two of Dumases novels and I am working on Oliver Twist at the moment. I have only read about ten books this year but I am hope this is the year I break the one book per week threshold, wish me luck!

And of course I spend quite a lot of time with a certain young lady. Kristen manages to come with me on most of my excursions since she is no longer down at BYU. We have a great time together and she manages to put up with all of my running around and foolish faces. Thank goodness.

So my life is pretty busy but I try to slow down sometimes and enjoy some of the things that go on, such as watching the flowers grow. And of course I have to document all of my life just in case I happen to miss some details. So life is crazy and I'm sure I have left out a few of the things that keep me busy, such as the fact that I have two wedding receptions this weekend and two family parties on Sunday. But I'll just keep breathing and see how far I can get.

Birthday number 26

I am officially 26 years old and I feel about the same as I did last year. I remember the days when I was a young child and magical things happened when you turned eight, or twelve, sixteen, etc. Now that I have reached and surpassed the mid-twenties life is kind of the same. I am the minimum age for most things now. Granted I cannot run for president yet or Congress, but I think I qualify for just about everything else.

I got to thinking about the differences between my birthday this year and my birthday last year. Granted I was in Taiwan last year and that automatically made it a little unique. This year has been unique too, though with quite a few similarities

It starts out with breakfast of course. In Taiwan Whitney and Tammy were kind enought to cook me a wonderful breakfast, really the best I had in Taiwan, since I usually ate chocolate muffins. But they made me this wonderful meal. This year my mother bought me a favorite cereal and I had the opportunity to eat alone. It was kind of depressing but since I had people sending me text wishing me a Happy Birthday every few seconds I got over it real fast.

Then I went to school, both this year and last, and had people sing the song to me. I was hoping that someone in America would magically figure how to sing the Taiwanese version of Happy Birthday but it didn't come until I forced my parents to sing it.. The Taiwanese version consists of four exact lines: "Happy Birthday to You!" There is no Steve, Mahonri Moriancumer, or Bob. I like it simple and to finally after my parents and Kristen tried the American version I made them sing it again.

Of course I got to go out to dinner too. I choose a Chinese restaurant last year, cause let's face it there weren't many other choices. This year I chose a Thai restaurant. I enjoyed my food, shrimp in a yellow curry among other various dishes chosen by family members. It tasted pretty good, but I miss my green Thai curry more than I ever expected to.

Then on to dessert. We had pie this year, as you have already seen in the video. Last year we went to McDonald's to celebrate and as ghetto as that sounds my roommates went all out. There were gifts inspired by Mary, a cake made by Joseph, fireworks after running home on the roof, and the list goes on. I also received notes from all of my roommates telling me how grateful they were that I liked shrimp so they did not have to eat it. I got notes this year too but I will spare you the details.

No birthday party would be complete without games. Last year we had a game of ultimate spoons, which I lost but still managed to record a great deal of it on my camera. This year the game of choice was 7-Up, a card game bought to the Adams family via the Irvine Family. My family was kind enough to let me win the game. As a minor sidenote they also let me win the previous four games we had played as an extra special treat.

Last year it was Joseph that had a girl to stare at. This year I had the girl and he had his textbooks.

For those of you who are interested in reviewing my past birthday check out the blog.

Anti-Social, a sorry attempt

When I was in Taiwan I was determined to not make any friends when I got home. I didn't want to spread myself as thinly as I had before moving over there. I was excited to tell people that I would not be coming to their parties when I got invited. I had been perfectly happy living with twelve strangers and I figured if I could be happy with twelve people in a foreign country there was no reason to make friends in my own country. So I set my course and started in on it.

I joined the auditioned choir at the institute and decided that I would be nice when people were nice to me and that would be the end of it. As you can see I was quite content being lonely and walking to the beat of my own drum. Everyone's attention is turned another direction and I'm happily stirring the alfredo sauce, an anti-social activity. If the story ended there then I would be accomplishing my goal but alas it does not.

I got sucked into the activities once again. I started to be kind to the people around me and my old choir friends wanted to get lunch during the week after class. Of course I consented and then more people joined and soon I was friends with half the class. I tried really hard to be unfriendly, well I guess that is a lie because if I was I would have no friends in class. Turns out I really do enjoy making new friends because of the new experiences they have to share with me. It is fun serving with new people. Somehow I thrive on the new experiences that come my way and people enjoy hanging out with me.

So my attempt at remaining friendless failed. Thanks to Kristen, J.R., Tesse, Laurie, Dave, Kendalee, Erik, and more I have remained a happy and social person, even if it has been against my will. Perhaps I should try being a little meaner to those around me, ignoring them or blowing them off. Or maybe I'll keep them around a little while longer so that I can feel loved. I'm destined to not be lonely though and I have had quite a bit of help along the way. Thanks, I think.

I left my body heat in Thailand

Ever since I returned from living in Taiwan and vacationing in Thailand I have not been warm. I can't figure out what my problem is, but it is not going away. I think it all started when we went to Thailand. We had eaten at a restaurant and purchased some Chinese food that my body did not take to very nicely. I was sick for the next couple of days. I won't go into detail, but I could not eat too much. But I wasn't allowed to just sit back and relax, of course not. We were required to take an overnight bus to Chiang Mai and then proceed to climb up a mountain. I was dead most of the trip up there cause I hadn't had much to eat.

I did make it up the mountain and slept pretty well on the mats they provided for us. They even had showers ready for us. Of course they were freezing cold and about the only thing you could do was wash the sweat off. So I did, and then I decided to just go to bed, knowing I would probably feel better in the morning. I did of course, but I think that is when the heat-producing bodies within me decided to rebel. You see, it is quite humid in Thailand, Taiwan and the rest of southern Asia. My body must have decided it was tired of working and so it shut down the warm stuff. The weather was super hot and humid as mentioned before, even the Indian Ocean was super warm. It was nice that my body decided to stop working, but it never got the memo when I moved back to the states.

This is in August, a relatively hot month historically, but not for the new Steve. I covered myself in blankets while at a campfire. I even had a jacket on, but apparently that didn't do much for me either. I figured that pretty soon the rest of the world would catch up with me but I would just have to wait until the winter season began.

So winter came and I continued to freeze. I went to Ohio as most of you should know and then drove on up to Canada. We went to Niagara Falls, as mentioned before, and let me tell you, that was freezing. Kristen was kind enough give us handwarmers, which I forget on the walk to Canada, so we froze. But I started to believe that this might in fact cure me. Because my body really had been frozen, perhaps this would wake it up. When I got home from my trip I was doing really good for a few days. I didn't have to wear two jackets for about three days after returning. Soon enough that went out the window. My body started malfunctioning once again and I found myself reaching for an extra jacket. It could have been due to the fact that someone continues to shove ice cubes down my shirt, or it could be that my body really is broken. I had made a pact though, to wear more long-sleeved shirts in an effort to stay warm. So if you care to find out if I am keeping my pact, check my other blog. If you don't care if I'm staying warm then don't check it out.

Horseshoe Falls

In an ideal world I would blog about my trip to Niagara Falls, but I don't know if that will ever happen. So this video of the falls in the middle of winter will work for now. This is the Canadian side. As you also notice, everything is white. It is not snow, rather frozen mist from the falls. It covers everything and it doesn't move. I tried kicking it with my shoe and it just kicks back. It was beautiful though. I am beginning to think that winter is a nice time to travel cause nobody else wants to and it looks pretty cool too.