thank you to all of my life coaches. and to everyone who listened to me talk this thing to death. :)

and the final decision is.... stay!

yes, friends. i am remaining in provo for another few months and working a lot and trying to learn how to be better at saving money. because the thing is, if i can save more over the next couple, i can move to salt lake and not stress so much about finding a job so quickly. i can take my time and pay my rent and chill for a bit before figuring everything out. plus, then i'll be graduated and employers wouldn't have to work around my school schedule, which they clearly are not so keen on.

i hope hope hope i can find another apartment like this one though, because oh MAN it is perfect.

the other incentive to stay: i have vacation time this year that i can use for my two upcoming trips. one to long beach/fountain valley/fresno/hollywood/anaheim for my birthdayyyy and the second to MEXICO! ah, yes friends. the other fantastic piece of news is that for my graduation, my bestie is taking us on a cruise to mexico. oh man. she is pretty fantastic, to say the least :) we leave 24 may and return 29 may. i am so very excited!

so that's the plan. work for a few months, finish school and graduate, and then move. seems logical. getting my ducks in a row, and all that. sad, but logical and much safer in this job market. my dad would be so proud :)

what to do with my life, take two.

this might seem like a duplicate to a blog i posted a few months ago. but it's not; i'm just trying (again) to make a decision about my life.

i had pretty much decided that i was going to stay in provo for winter semester. finish my classes, work at my job for a couple more months, live out the provo scene until i graduate and move on. but for some reason, i kept looking at apartment listings online. most days, in fact. just to see what was available, i guess. and today i came across the most perfect apartment.

i mean, seriously. i had a list of requirements for my first post-college apartment. my parents told me i was severely limiting myself in my search because my heart is set on getting a kitty. i want an apartment that is pet-friendly, with a private balcony, under $550/month, and in either sugar house or downtown salt lake. yeah. seems impossible.

but then i found this listing online. and suddenly, i'm not sure what to do anymore! i feel like i won't find another one like this. it's ideal. so, back to square one. should i stay or should i go now?

pros of moving:
-live alone. andddd live in salt lake.
-two of three classes this semester are at the salt lake center. so my commute would be twice a week for school. i already commute to salt lake at least twice a week anyway.
-see my friends up there much more frequently.
-find a new ward, since mine is no good.
-get a kitty!

cons of moving:
-must find a new job, probably make less money until i graduate.
-more expenses (deposit, rent, furniture, etc.)
-have to quit job...ughhh.

pros of staying:
-keep my job, save more money.
-12 vacation days at work.
-not have to drive to provo on tues/thurs mornings.

cons of staying:
-stay with roommates who are loud and young.

i don't know. i guess i don't have to make any decisions until i see the apartment. but the prospect of such a huge change in my life is making my head spin.
i need to go to bed.

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.