Someday...

One of these days, I am going to go on a traveling adventure.

Someday I will walk the streets of Boston. I will stand in Independence Hall where the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence. I will go to the Smithsonian and see the original Star-Spangled Banner "whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight o'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming."
I will go to Gettysburg and other sites and learn more about the price that was paid to keep the United States united.

I will cross oceans and experience other cultures.

I will walk the halls of castles where earthly kings walked and lived in ages past.

I will explore ancient ruins and imagine what they would have looked like in their heyday.

Someday...

From Summer to Fall

Summer break is over. It was great going home for the summer and doing all the things that summer entails: seeing movies in theaters (Karate Kid, Toy Story 3, Eclipse, Inception, etc.), reading books, relaxing, being with family, going to the beach. But time flies as it always does, and school is about to start.

I'm back in Provo to start up my final year as an undergraduate at BYU.

Thoughts running through my head:

• I'M GETTING OLD. I saw a bunch of Freshmen walking around campus yesterday and they look way too young to be in college.
• WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH MY LIFE? I'm graduating in History and minoring in English and Music...yeah, there isn't a whole ton you can do with those degrees. So I am planning on Grad School. I'm thinking about Public Administration but I don't feel that I've explored my options enough to make a decision. And I have to take that test. What is it? The GRE? ;)
• HOW AM I GOING TO PAY BACK STUDENT LOANS/PRIVATE LOANS? In this economy, I don't know if I'll be able to get a good enough job to get rid of those looming numbers and payments. I know I have 10 years or so to pay them off but it still scares me a little.

I'm a Senior! Where has the time gone? I never thought I'd get to that point where I actually have to grow up.

Funny Moments Are Worth Remembering

We had our 8th grade trip at some water park with long windy water slides that require you to sit on mats when you slide down them. I picked an older mat and Bailey picked a newer one. I went down first and waited at the end for Bailey to come down. As Bailey came to the end of the slide, the mat suddenly skidded to a halt. I guess that newer mat hadn't been quite broken in yet. The next few moments contained Bailey's frantic attempts to remove herself from the slide before our friend Kyla could slide down and shoot poor Bailey off the end. I'll never forget the look on Bailey's face.

I was opening a bottle of BBQ sauce once at our kitchen counter, standing across from my sister Shelley. The bottle was difficult to open as a lot of the sauce had congealed around the lid. With the help of a butter knife I was able to pry the lid loose but my efforts had also projected some of the sauce into the air. I looked up and saw that Shelley's face had been splattered with BBQ sauce.

Back when we were still in Young Women, we had a sleepover party at Sister Webster's house for all the Laurels in CV1. We were all crammed into the living room and just as were all about to fall asleep, Bailey shouts that memorable line from Mulan, "You men owe me a new pair of slippers!"

We were sitting at the lunch table in the Northgate High School cafeteria. My friend Liz was talking animatedly about her weekend. She held a grape between her thumb and her index finger. At a particularly dramatic part of her story, she accidentally squeezed the grape and the juice squirted right into my left eye. What are the odds?

We were performing a service activity around Christmas time for Young Men/Young Women. The goal was to drop off the little bag of goodies at the house, ring the doorbell, make it back to the car, and drive away before the door had even been opened. Well, Bailey and I went up to the door, left the goodies, rang the doorbell, and then ran. But running as fast as you can in the dark has its perils. As I ran, I hit a dip in the road, flew through the air, and landed in a pile of rocks. Well, needless to say, we didn't achieve our goal of driving away before the homeowners answered the door, but it did result in a car full of laughing girls and even in the composition of a song about my misfortunes. (Ask Hannah and Bailey for further details.)

My roommate Melissa and I walked out of the Tanner Building after we got out of our English 150 class. As we stood there waiting for the light to change so we could cross the street, we heard a poor, kind of desperate-sounding fellow say to his friend, "There are like 15,000 girls on this campus and all I want is one. Is that too much to ask?"

We decided one night to go roll down that grassy hill area next to the Harold B. Lee Library windows facing into the Periodicals Section. I'm pretty sure that hill has a sign next to it that specifically says, "Don't roll down this hill." My roommates, a few of our guy friends, and I rolled down this hill anyway and, for some reason, I stopped mid-roll. My roommate Melissa's boyfriend Paul was right behind me and rolled right over my poor helpless body. Well, I guess that's what you get for disobeying the rules.

My roommate Melissa, domestic goddess that she is, was making cookies one day. Shauntelle looked over the recipe and said (something to the effect), "It says here that you are supposed to refrigerate the dough for a few hours but I never do." Sandee blurts out, "That's why you're cookies taste like garbage." Jokingly, of course.

Hannah and I were sitting in a Biology 100 class in which the teacher was going off about how our planet is being destroyed, how the icebergs are melting, and how the forests are being razed to the ground. Hannah turned to me and, lovingly caressing her notepad, said, "I appreciate a nice forest but I love a fresh notebook."

The doorbell rang. My roommate Jennifer Jones went to answer it and found Scott Swindler, my roommate Alyssa's boyfriend, standing in our doorway. After a quick emotionless "Hi Scott," she slammed the door in his face. After a good amount of laughter had erupted from those of us sitting around the kitchen table, Jennifer opened the door again and let poor Scott in.

Independent Study

I spent four hours yesterday working on ten multiple choice questions for an assignment for my independent study class. Now before you judge me, let me share with you one of the questions:

Which of the following generalizations is not consistent with a description of some facet of the condition of American workers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries?
a. Some workers improved their condition in the society.
b. Some workers exhibited class consciousness.
c. Many workers had a difficult time organizing and maintaining unions.
d. Some workers favored socialism.
e. All of the above are consistent with the condition of the workers.

Could a question be any more ambiguous? Let us examine the wording. The use of terms like SOME or MANY can be a tad confusing. Does SOME mean two, eight, fifty, two-hundred, one-thousand? And then they throw an "all of the above" option at you. EVERY SINGLE QUESTION IS LIKE THAT! AND THEY'RE ALL WORTH FIVE POINTS! I know it's college and it's supposed to be challenging, but MY GOODNESS! Is clarity too much to ask for? ;)

Spider Season

Dear Spiders,

I hate you. That's right, I said it. Is the outside world not big enough for you that you think you need to come inside our house and then congregate in my bedroom or, even better, the shower? Listen. I know it's hot outside. I know the sun probably beats down on your little exoskeletons and you just want to escape for a few hours into a nice, shady, air-conditioned space. But PLEASE, be considerate! I have feelings too. The way you kind of jerk as you walk across my ceiling frightens me. And I can't stand the way you jump right before I attempt to crush you. Seriously, my poor father is tired of hearing my screams. The next time I find one of you on my ceiling, or hiding in one of the folds of the shower curtain, or climbing up my bedroom wall...well, let's just say you've been warned.

With all the loathing I possess,

Celia

Since it's the Fourth of July, I was thinking today about a research paper I was able to write this past year in one of my history classes. The topic I chose was the impact of the God-is-on-our-side mentality on the outcome of the Revolutionary War. As I poured over numerous accounts from our founding fathers, Continental Army generals, and from the foot soldiers themselves, I was amazed to discover just how many references to God there were in all these documents. Members of the military and those who wrote our founding documents were convinced that God was there, playing an active role in their successes and failures. When a cloud hid the Continental Army's movements from the British, the event was attributed to God. When the war-beaten and exhausted American soldiers somehow made their way across the icy Delaware River, they believed that it was God who gave them the strength and the courage to accomplish such a feat. They had confidence that the Lord would deliver them just as He had delivered the Israelites from Egypt.Writing this paper opened my eyes to see more clearly the workings of the Lord in my own life. I always knew that God was there, that he loved and cared about me but I guess I never really thought of Him as playing an active role in my life. I think sometimes I forget that God isn't just this far-away being who simply watches the doings of man on earth. I think I forget that he has power, not just to know everything that I do but also to act on my behalf. As I have examined my own life more closely, I have seen and come to know, just as our founding fathers did, that we are not left alone. He is present in everything that we do. He helps fight our daily battles. He shelters us from our storms. He gives us the strength to carry on. We can see evidence of His hand throughout earth's history and He continues to show forth His hand today. The same god that delivered the Continental Army and the American colonies from destruction is fighting for you and me today. What have we to fear?

Happy 4th of July!

Stuck in the Middle

Ever have that feeling where you don't quite know what to do with yourself? Well, I've got it now. I've been home in California for about six days, and what have I accomplished? Not much. I've signed up for an independent study class that I can't start until the book comes. I tried my hand at watercolor paints yesterday, failed miserably, and am a little hesitant to try again. I've got several books sitting on my shelf that remain untouched. I knew this would happen. I have time to do all the things I wanted to do but didn't have time to do during the school year. Do I do them? No. Why is that when I have all the time in the world to do something I just don't feel like doing anything?