Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Tagged

I've been tagged by Charlene, and I'm avoiding my homework so...

A. List 7 habits/quirks/facts about yourself.
B. Tag people to do the same.
C. Do not tag the person who tagged you or say that you tag whoever wants to do it.

1. I'm really good at eavesdropping. I do it without realizing. This bothers Isaac more than a little. If he wants me to hear something in public, he has a better chance of saying it to someone else while standing 3 feet away with his back turned to me. Then I'd get the message.

2. I like to think that Isaac and I are minor celebrities at BYU. Several of our wedding pictures were printed in the BYU mass-distributed Bridal Guide magazine for winter 2007. We only found out we were in it because random people started questioning us about it. We finally picked a magazine up for ourselves, and there we were! I picked up the fall 2007 edition when I was buying books this month, and we're in it again. I'll have to scan the pages and post them sometime.

3. I'm obsessed with being in water. It's rejuvenating. I dare say it's my lifeblood. We had season passes to Seven Peaks 2 summers ago. Best summer of my life. Isaac says I'm happiest when I'm in the water :)

4. My favorite colors are red and purple. My favorite flower is hydrangea. My favorite foods are pepperoni pizza and vanilla ice cream. My favorite book is Jane Eyre. I love watching movies. Isaac and I are loving members of Netflix. We currently have A League of their Own. My favorite movie is You've Got Mail.

5. I don't like playing sand volleyball because I hate the feeling of dirty feet. I don't like the sand getting in my shoes, and I don't like taking my shoes off because then my feet get dirty. I have to mentally prepare myself to go barefoot. If I wear flip-flops during the day, I almost always wash my feet before I get into bed.

6. I'm nearly fluent in American Sign Language. I'm in the 1st of 2 interpreting classes offered at BYU. I'll start tutoring 101 and 102 students a couple hours each week starting tomorrow. I fingerspell all the time with my hand down at my side. I don't even realize I'm doing it most times.

7. The first month of my sophomore year in college I dated 3 boys at one time. How? They lived in 3 different places. I had one at home, one at BYU, and one on a mission.

I tag Jen, Kelsey, and Melissa.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Home Alone

Since Isaac is on the traveling team now, I spend the late hours of my Friday nights alone. Now a smart person would come home at 11 or 12 and get ready for bed, but no, not me. I fight the tiredness. Because that's the smart thing to do, right? This picture depicts how I feel after a day of school, work, and no husband. Go to bed, idiot Stephanie!!

P.S. I saw 3:10 to Yuma tonight with Tai and Andre. Loved it! Fabulous. Best movie I've seen in a while... might even creep its way into my top faves for the time being. I heart Christian Bale.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Wine Blossom Dress

I want this dress from Anthropologie. I love jewel tones, and it just looks so cute and feminine! Click on the picture to get a better view :)

Welcome, Fall!

You Are Pumpkin

Realistic and practical, you see the world for how it is.
You know what it takes to succeed in life...
And you're happy to help others reach their goals.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

"The Voice" by Thomas Hardy

I had to read this poem for my modern British literature class today. I think it's beautiful.

Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to me,
Saying that now you are not as you were
When you had changed from the one who was all to me,
But as at first, when our day was fair.

Can it be you that I hear? Let me view you, then,
Standing as when I drew near to the town
Where you would wait for me: yes, as I knew you then,
Even to the original air-blue gown!

Or is it only the breeze in its listlessness
Travelling across the wet mead to me here,
You being ever dissolved to wan wistlessness,
Heard no more again far or near?

Thus I; faltering forward,
Leaves around me falling,
Wind oozing thin through the thorn from norward,
And the woman calling.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Beautiful Friday



This morning was a rare beauty. I had to get to school early for a short appointment with a professor at 9am, and my class didn't start until 10. I had about 30 minutes to kill, and since I was on the 4th floor of the JFSB, I decided to venture out onto the balcony that I never see anyone on. I loved it! It was so peaceful up there and so deliciously quiet. I sat at this cool picnic table in the sun, working on my homework and enjoying the sunny breeze and puffy clouds. Loved it. Things like that make life enjoyable. My stress level went down about 7 notches. Now I feel like I have a secret hideout. Not very many students know about it because it's on the level of professors' offices.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Lavender Lime 02

A beautiful word with a beautiful picture:


cloudburst(noun) [KLOUD-burst']


1. a sudden heavy rainstorm; downpour; deluge: "Julin stood in the middle of the park and watched with glee as the summer cloudburst enveloped Manhattan."

School

I love school right now! I have to admit that I became an English major because I didn't really know what else to do that was useful. (And yes, I think English is very useful. :P) One part of the English major is to take 9 credits in an emphasis of your choice. The only choice that was really interesting to me was editing. I liked the classes I took so much that I decided to become an editing minor, and I love it! I've never enjoyed school as much as I have this last week. I'm actually enjoying going to class. It's so stinkin' interesting to me. I'm in a copyediting class (editing grammar, punctuation, syntax, style continuity, etc.) and a substantive editing class. Substantive editing is what is interests me the most right now especially because I'm in a section focusing on fiction. We're talking about what defines a "classic" book and the defining points of certain genres. Love it.
Isaac, on the other hand, is trying to remember why he wanted to be a business major. He says it's hard or something :) It's going to be a very busy semester for the both of us.

My History with Books and Words: Written for ELang 410R


I’ve loved writing and reading for my entire existence. My first memory involves me holding a pencil. I’m a three-year-old sitting at the kitchen table asking my mom to draw out my name in dotted lines “just one more time—one more time…!” I loved to trace my name and any other words I could get my mom to print for me.
I learned to read before I was in kindergarten. I don’t remember anyone even reading to me at home or taking time to teach me how. It seems like it was just something I picked up. I remember one particular day standing in line inside the bank. It was before school, (kindergarten didn’t start until noon) and I was running errands with my mom. “Please wait behind the line for the next available teller,” I read off the nearby sign. I remember whipping around to see my mom’s face, waiting for her approval. My mom smiled at me. A lady waiting behind us asked me why I wasn’t in school that day. My mom told her I was only in kindergarten, and school wouldn’t start for a couple of hours. I was more than content with myself.
My mom bought all sorts of books for me when I was younger, and I would spend hours in front of my “book cabinet” reading every book slowly, entirely, and repeatedly. My mom would tell me to take a stack out and bring them over to the couch to sit and read. No way. I liked to sit in the corner, sandwiched between the cabinet and the end table. I preferred to sit as close to the cabinet as possible with books stacked on all sides of me. I would have preferred even more to sit inside the cabinet if I could have fit comfortably.
In tenth grade my friend and I decided to write our own “dictionary.” Whenever we heard cool words we could write them down in this little notebook and try to incorporate them into our everyday language. I’ve never told anyone that before… It sounds even dorkier on paper than it does in my head.
So I’ve always loved reading books and learning new vocabulary. Looking back on the day Barnes and Noble opened in my smallish town, it was probably the second happiest day of my life. I still remember the first time I entered through the big wooden doors. I’m still speechless just thinking about it. I can’t even begin to describe the experience. I still have a hard time heeding my mom’s advice. I never want to take a few books and go sit down. My instinctual desire in a book store is to sit on the ground in front of an appealing bookshelf in the back corner, reading jacket covers and first chapters, and to begin stacking my favorites all around me, boxing myself in. I still haven’t found a way to fit into the shelves.
I have to admit that this is the first time I will be delving into modern fiction though. I’m a sucker for the classics. My favorite fiction novels of all time are Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and The Awakening by Kate Chopin. I think I was convinced for a while that the classics were the good literature. All good literature had already been written. I know this isn’t true, and I’m sure that this course will help me to know for a surety. I mostly blame Harry Potter for this though. A good book should not only encompass a good story, but it should also be well written. I stand confidently with this statement after reading book one in the series. I think my favorite genre, if you can even call it a genre, is literary fiction. I love the beauty of language, but hopefully I will branch out during the course of this semester and learn to appreciate other genres as well.

As a side note, I now prefer Borders to Barnes and Noble.