old, old pictures.

so i was looking at this old folder on my the computer at my parents' house.
and i found a million old pictures that made me crack the heck up.

opa and buddy at the fresno house pool.

buddy and the decoy garbage.

"uhh...daw-bij?"

and these made us really miss soph-tie.

and we picture that pops was super mad about this shenanigan.

just like when sophie always had leaves stuck to her bung and would bring them in and pops would get so mad and grumble "oh sophie" while vacuuming them up many times per day.

oh how i miss fresno and swimming and sophie and suitcases and tiny little james and all of those funny things of which photographs were taken and saved in this old file.

so, it has been snowing for two days. it is the grimmest of the grims indeed. i know that i live in the wrong state, considering how much i loathe the snow. (interestingly, provo got about 4 inches of snow from this storm. sugar house, where i plan to move in april, got about a foot. excellent.) but i can't fight it. snow is an inevitable part of living at the foot of the mountains. sad, indeed. but a price i must pay, i suppose.

but here are some things that counteract the grimness of the snow.

-i am officially done with my last fall semester ever!
-i am also done christmas shopping. and i found some pretty funny/awesome things. oh, and i'm the sneakiest shopper too. i bought like five things for someone who was with me! tricky...
-i bought some really fantastic christmas music on itunes/put the carpenters on my ipod, which is making it feel a bit more like christmas. (ps, thanks SO much for introducing me to the weepies, anji! i am 100% obsessed with that song on your blog. which you can listen to here)
-i am only ten days away from being able to run again! which is good, because i bought a bunch of under armour to wear when i start my training. injury-free!

so, it's supposed to snow like fifteen more feet in the next week. GREAT! can't wait to slide all the way to work tomorrow morning...

reasons why my life > any other.

i am a boring blogger.

1) i have two more weeks of my LAST FALL SEMESTER of college EVER. yeah.
2) i finished my 495 paper. "mark twain: not an anti-intellectual" (the title needs work) the paper that has been haunting my nightmares for the past three months. done.
3) my 365 paper is on one of the best books i have ever read. amazing.
4) i had the most fantastic week/weekend. it included delicious things such as: these cutest babies, downtown salt lake with bailey, not feeling like an idiot when i probably should have, rainy oregon beaches and 5k turkey trots, and 100 of the nicest compliments. :)
5) this saturday is the first one in awhile in which i do not have to work, and have no other plans. sleep in? yes please.
6) deron williams is back. oh yes.
7) it is december and was 50 degrees tonight. love.

other than that, i have the craziest week ever because of three papers being due all on the same day. woof. i probably will be in hiding for the remainder. i need some seriously good grades this semester so i can graduateeeee.

okay, well. sorry i only make lists all day long. it's what i do.

reasons i'm really excited to move to salt lake and live alone.

1) i really enjoy spending time alone. i know this probably makes me sound like kind of a weirdo, but much of my time is spent working or in school, both of which entail a lot of talking to other people. i LOVE being with my friends, of course, but i also really do like to be alone sometimes.
2) i am a creature of habit, a little bit to a fault. i plan out my whole day, and like to write in my planner what i need to do, what i want to do, etc. so if i am planning on coming home and chilling with a jazz game, and find that my roommates have fourteen friends over watching a movie, my day gets a little jumbled.
3) sometimes i just want to go to bed early. my roommates think i'm a 90 year-old for doing that sometimes. i hate it.
4) i am really kind of tired of having roommates. i like my current ones, but they are 18. so they're in the freshman lifestyle, which involves staying up all night because you can, and leaving your dishes in the sink for a month because no one is telling you to clean them up. also, they take thousands of pictures and post them on facebook and talk really loud and have friends over every minute of every day. like right now: it's 1107pm and there are at least twenty people yelling in the family room. also, they forget their keys every day and ring the doorbell fifty times at 230 in the morning.
5) i don't get scared like i used to. i spent the whole month of august in an empty apartment, and i don't remember being scared once.
6) i like to have friends over, but when the family room is always occupied and/or a giant mess, it is less fun.
7) whole closets. all to myself.
8) not writing my name on things in cupboards/fridges.
9) i just like to have my own space. whether for entertaining, sleeping, sporting event-watching, eating, or working, i like quiet, comfortable, and clean spaces. those who reside in my apartment do not feel the same.

that was basically my nine-point rant. sorry. but i am really really excited. i look at apartments in downtown slc and sugar house every day! (which i should probably stop, because i keep finding perfect apartments to which i can't move in yet. five more months!)

if i ever have another roommate, it will have to be a husband. that's all.

13.1 miles, take two.

it took some time to decide what to say about the snow canyon half marathon... but i'm ready for a recap.

7pm, night before: i cannot carb load. literally, my stomach cannot take much more than about four bites of pasta. so...i was hungry in the morning. what a waste...
7am, race day: eating some oatmeal that i brought from home in the hotel's breakfast room. pretty sure the front desk girl thought i was sneaking in cocaine because she kept staring at me as i pulled my breakfast out of my bag. i just have a routine. lay off.
815am: woman with her daughter, pointing at those of us in the line to get on the bus: "those are the crazy people. they're running 13 miles today. by choice." thanks for the pep talk, lady.
9am: ready to go. race coordinators are not.
940am: race starts. finally. due in part (i think) to runners inching closer and closer until finally someone just started running. 40 minutes late.
miles 1-3: so great! my garmin told me i did them in 9 minutes each. much faster than my usual mile, therefore...
miles 4-7: veering off the downhill course onto an uphill, gravel bike trail. very uphill.
miles 8-10: eating shot blocks like candy in hopes that i will somehow finish this race.
miles 11-13: girl next to me - "are we going to be able to go three more miles?" me - "can you carry me on your back please?"
13.1: FINISH. awesome friends with sign, cheering louder than the announcer. i think people were jealous that i had my own fan club :)
emily: can you run through again? i missed the picture of you crossing the finish line.
me: (lying on the grass) "NO." :)

mmm yes. the second half marathon was 14x more brutal than the first. i'm not sure why exactly, but i'm thinking it had to do with the serious incline. the race packet says "bus to the top of the canyon and enjoy a beautiful run down" i feel that this is quite a misrepresentation of how much we were running up. :)
but i loved it. strangely, i would do it again.

after a checkup/x-ray with my sports med dr this week, i will be signing up for the salt lake marathon. wish me and my tibia good luck, okay? thanks.

halloween

so, i'm not the biggest fan of halloween. i think it's kind of weird, i don't love dressing up, and i hate being scared...
but.
this cake makes halloween so worthwhile.

yep. it's a cake.

amazing.

reactions at work:

dr cook was dying laughing. seriously. he kept bringing his patients into the kitchen to see it.

this girl got a texted picture of it and said: what the heck? is that a litterbox? why is it on the kitchen table?

this other girl said: we should put it in the corner of the waiting room with bowls and a sign that says help yourself.

oh man. it was pretty fantastic/disgusting.

life coach, please.

so, after much deliberation and searching of class schedules (100 times, minimum) i may have made some decisions.
obviously, these decisions are not certain, because i have no idea whether or not i will find a job, an apartment, etc... but i am interested in feedback. (bean: i promise i'm not just trying to get comments. i just want input from people who have been in a similar position :)

i have nine credits and five months left in my college experience. one class will be taken at the salt lake center in the winter. the other two are only available at the provo campus.
so, here are my options.
1) stay in provo until april, drive to salt lake for school one night a week. keep my current job, and keep going to salt lake frequently because it's the city i love here.
2) move to salt lake, find a job and an apartment there. drive to provo 1-2 days a week for classes. stay in salt lake once graduated, find a job there.

i don't know what's better. either way i'll be driving (or taking trax) semi-frequently to and from provo/salt lake. but part of me thinks that i belong in salt lake much more than i belong in provo. i've done provo for five years now, and i'm feeling anxious and a little stuck. i'm thrilled with the prospect of moving to a new city with new people and a new experience.
but at the same time, i am terrified. i am afraid of trying to find a job, of quitting my old job, of being a grown-up and living in my own place and paying rent (yikes.) and of everything that comes with change.
i tend to repel change by nature, so the thought of such a drastic change both frightens and thrills me.

i don't know what to do anymore.