Worth the 18 minutes

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Christmas.

I know, you were expecting something more clever. But I am neck deep in reports to edit, projects to finish, and meetings to lead and organize so my brain is unable to come up with anything witty.

The good news is that I have entered the world of smartphones. I picked up my iPhone 4S last week and I'm a new person. I didn't even realize what I had been missing out on.

So, in honor of my newest achievement of graduating from my dumbphone days...here are my latest instagram pics highlighting the wintery season:

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

This is one of my top favorite books ever. I cannot wait for this movie.



“Humans are the only animal that blushes, laughs, has religion, wages war, and kisses with lips. So in a way, the more you kiss with lips, the more human you are. And the more you wage war.”


“We need enormous pockets, pockets big enough for our families and our friends, and even the people who aren't on our lists, people we've never met but still want to protect. We need pockets for boroughs and for cities, a pocket that could hold the universe.” 


“My life story is the story of everyone I've ever met.” 


“Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I'm not living.” 
-Johnathan Safran Foer


It's Brilliant.

Thanks to give

This Thanksgiving break I have a lot to be thankful for. Little sister is in town keeping me company and we've been partying it up with extended family in Draper. I love the holidays. 

Christmas is approaching

movie nights with the friendlies

 last football game of my college career

 s'mores outdoors

 mmm eggnog

 true love?

 Spain roomie love

 keeping little sister away from Dan

 sistersss

 Carly flirted to get us this golf car ride

typical 

 Black Friday shopping adventures

The walks home

Whit and I have this recent problem of being cheesy and nostalgic and it is carrying over to our blogs. Hence, all of the recent posts about how wonderful the people in my life are. Maybe it's because I am graduating soon and I'm realizing that we can't all live within a mile radius of one another forever. We can't always have late night talks and joke about each other's futures and text about how much we hate school. We can't drop by each other's apartments at a moment's notice. We can't meet up on campus. It doesn't last forever. I'm trying to be ok with that fact. So far, I'm not doing too well. It shows in the fact that I am slacking on homework, haven't graded the giant stack of papers on my desk, avoid checking my email, and haven't tried looking for a job. All because I just want to be with the people I love, for the glimpse of time that I can. 

And these walks home get me every time.

Burn, Burn, Burn

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars."

— Jack Kerouac

I have amazing people in my life. There is so much to write on this subject but I'll let Kerouac's quote speak for itself. I am lucky and blessed to have mad people in my life. I am amazed by it every day.

This is Halloween

I love the month of October. For the pumpkins. For the leaves. For the haunted houses. For the crisp fall air. For getting dressed up. For scary movies. For chili. For my mom's birthday. For the ridiculous things that happen on campus.

October this year has not disappointed. (well, except for the fact that it is Halloween night and my roommates and I are all doing homework). The pictures below are from some of October's happenings. Murder mystery parties, Robert and the Carroll's at Velour (hey freshman year flashback), Sunday lunch with the boys, and sprinkle eating contests.

Happy Halloween!

Silliness

Today was silly. It was full of unexpected visits, wrestling matches, singing, dancing, skyping, laughing, funny situations, inside jokes, thumb wars, and giggling like little kids.

And I remembered how much I like being silly. It's something I need in life and luckily, I have friends who will be silly with me. Friends who will lay on the carpet with me as we make fish faces at each other and make up ritual dances and forget that we have hours of homework sitting there waiting to be done. Because sometimes you are allowed to forget about that, and when you allow yourself to do so for even just a little bit...it is always worth it. 

Passing moment gone

I am in the middle of teaching 6 hours worth of labs with bags under my eyes and my hair on top of my head. Students are probably wondering what happened to their lab instructor. ha. Also, I ate wheat thins for breakfast and trail mix for lunch...both out of the vending machine. Mid-semester crisis is happening. 

Anyways, here are some recent pictures of life's happenings:

Homecoming parade

Football game with the sibs

This is normal

My little Wing

Spain crew lunch

Rocky Votolato concert with two of my favs

My Red Sea

Lately, anytime I think about applying for a job or emailing an organization to set up an interview I just can't bring myself to do it. I will look through websites and refuse to hit the Apply button. I will read an email and just stare at it. This whole figuring out my next step thing is paralyzing me. And then today I accidentally read the wrong talk for one of my classes. 

"Of course our faith will be tested as we fight through these self-doubts and second thoughts. Some days we will be miraculously led out of Egypt --seemingly free, seemingly on our way--only to come to yet another confrontation, like all that water lying before us. At those times we must resist the temptation to panic and give up. At those times fear will be the strongest of the adversary's weapons against us.

           And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord...The Lord shall fight for you."

"Don't fear, don't vacillate, don't quibble, don't whine. You may, like Alma going to Ammonihah, have to find a route that leads an unusual way, but that is exactly what the Lord was doing here for the children of Israel. Nobody had ever crossed the Red Sea this way, but so what? There's always a first time. With the spirit of revelation, dismiss your fears and wade in with both feet."

Half way into the talk I realized it wasn't the one that was assigned. I couldn't stop reading.  

The Red Sea as seen by me on Christmas Day 2009

On a lighter note, in religion class today our professor read us some statistics saying that 10% of BYU girls and 13% of the guys think that causal makeouts are okay. Come on people...you are all in denial. 

Fresh men?

Well it is apparent that in my senior year of college it seems that everyone I know has reverted back to freshman-like antics...myself included. Everyday gets more out of hand than the last. Maybe it's this crazy weather (is it summer? fall? winter? come on Utah, decide already). Or maybe it's that Provo seems to get smaller every single day. You know them too? Wait, you guys know each other? Hold on...how did you hear about that? All I know, is I am overdue for a vacation.

And here is my most recent project in Backpack Journalism (aka...most ridiculous class of my life). This assignment was to film something on our cameras that was no longer than one minute. It could be anything. Here's what I got:

Reminders

I've been getting a lot of reminders as to how wonderful life is lately. This gem showed up in my inbox last night:

Dear Keith,Tessa, Kulsom

NAMASKAR

Wishing  all of you a very happy DASHAIN (a great festival of NEPAL 2011) . In  Nepali we say  VIJAYA DASHAMI KO SUKHAD UPALAXYAMA HARDIC MANGLAMAYA SHUBHA KAMANA.

I was instantly thrown into a flashback of this summer, my internship, and meeting the Ashoka Fellows. And I remembered how many great people there are in this world. 

Conference Weekend

Last year my Dad decided he was going to take a vacation to himself and visit me in Utah. It was so much fun. So much fun, in fact, that he came again this year and brought little brother with him.

I wrote last year about how awesome my Dad is, but I thought I would just mention it again. Because he is that great. He's my hero, one of my best friends, the best person I know, and one of the funniest people I've ever met. Of course, maybe I'm biased because we have exactly the same sense of humor. And I never get to see or talk to him, so this week is always wonderful. I picked him and my brother up from the airport on Friday and we went straight to the game, which by some miracle we won. (I think it's because my Dad is a good luck charm) We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out with extended family, watching Conference, and enjoying the beautiful weather. 

And now a word on my extended family: they are amazing. My dad always takes my cousins and I to a haunted house and we end up pushing and shoving each other into the walls and monsters. We have cousin sleepovers where we watch movies and eat way too many sweets and make fun of each other until it gets to the point where someone ends up mad. My family are some of my best friends. How I got so lucky, I'm not sure.