Dry shouts pierce my broken heart

Well, crazy as it seems, it's almost next year, which means that I should probably start thinking about my application for the visual arts program. I think I'll be able to use a few of my high school pieces, but there's definitely room for improvement in my portfolio, so I'll be working on some new pieces over Christmas break.

This post is a plea for help.

I need photo references. Aunt Suzanne, if you have some pictures of Noah that you think are cute, that would be great, because my portfolio is severely lacking in boys right now. Also, pictures of Emma, Alyssa (sp?)... really, any of them would be great. I'm kind of trying to stay away from "look at the camera and smile" shots, though, which is probably something to keep in mind.

School's going great. Finals start in about a week and a half so the stress level is rising (incidentally, that's also the reason I haven't posted in awhile), but at least the end is in sight, and Jerusalem is coming up faster than I thought possible. Hope to see some of you again before I leave! And don't forget the pictures!

P.S. For those who don't know it, my email address is aperplexingpuzzle@gmail.com

P.P.S. What does the title of this post have to do with anything? ...I have no idea. Maybe it's me, shouting out my pleas for help... dryly... oh, who knows :P Jordan should know what I'm quoting, though, if he actually reads this thing :)

Rules of Engagement

I'm engaged.

...Not really. Apparently that's the rumor circulating around the ward, though, which has been... interesting. Chris said that the question he kept getting yesterday wasn't, "Are you engaged?" It was, "When did you get engaged?" You'd think it would be easy enough for people to look at my finger and see the lack of a sparkly, but I guess that doesn't occur to them. I think I know the girl who started it, though. She keeps going around telling people that we're "practically engaged," and somebody must have missed the "practically" part. Part of me thinks it would be funny to go up to her with a ring on my finger and record her reaction or something, though then the rumors would never cease... better not ;)

I discovered an amazing grocery store the other week! Have I mentioned it? It's awesome! It's called the Sunflower Market, and it has a huge variety of produce at really good prices. This week, grapefruit is on sale 8 for $1. Now, normally I don't eat grapefruit, but I had to buy some because it was 8 for $1! How could you not? It's also the only place in Provo I've found that sells ground mild Italian sausage, which is an essential ingredient in Zuppa Toscana, and tastes really good in place of ground beef in other things, too. It even sells tahini, which doesn't exist in any grocery stores in the Kaysville/Layton area (I checked). In short, I'm in love with this store, and we'll probably be announcing our engagement any day. Now I just need to figure out how to tell my boyfriend...

P.S. For some reason, I never could get Pyzam layouts to work for me, but I'm just cool enough with HTML that I managed to make my blog look exactly like the layout I wanted just by editing the coding of the default template. Bam!

P.P.S. *sigh* Sometimes I hate blogs. Well, I'm back to the stupid black layout again until I can figure out how to make my clouds work without taking away the comments feature. It'll happen, I promise you! Plus, when I switched to black again, it got rid of my Blog List which took me at least a half an hour to put together today. *grumble grumble grumble* Yeah, so if comments don't work now, I might swear off blogging completely. Not like I'm exactly an avid blogger anyway... but oh well.

Road trip

Why do I only ever post on this thing late at night? Oh well, at least I'm posting, which is quite the change from previous weeks.

Armed with Mounds bars, bell peppers, and several pounds of zucchini and squash, my friend Jackie and I undertook the long and arduous drive to Cedar City this weekend to visit some high school friends. Highlights of this trip included:

• Doris Day and Audrey Hepburn, the main actresses in most of the movies that we watched
• Throwing sheep
• Wuthering Heights performed by Kate Bush (search for it on YouTube, if you dare)
• Chicken tetrazini made with squash for breakfast, lunch, and dinner
• Reading each other's auras
• Performances in the park (while creepy people with their hoods up watched us)
• Death by ice cream sundae
• Speaking in accents

It was really good to see my friends again, though I won't lie--I'm extremely glad to be back. In fact, I've never been so happy to be in Provo again (hmm... why could that be?). Still, it's nice to have a weekend every once in a while when you can sing, watch movies, speak in strange accents, and generally go insane, and I feel lucky to have friends I can do all that with.

P.S. My aura is orange, by the way :)

"Something's rotten..."

"...in the state of Denmark." Only that doesn't really apply here. Maybe in the state of Utah? Or the state of Blogdom?

I was recently informed that, for some reason, the Comment feature on this blog wasn't working. I traced the problem back to the Pyzam layout I was using, and spent the next hour trudging through HTML coding trying to fix the problem to no avail until I collapsed and died from exhaustion (I'm using hyperbole here). So right now my blog is plain, boring black, though I anticipate that this will change in the future. But on the plus side, comments work again!

Ahem, COMMENTS WORK AGAIN!

...this is a thinly veiled hint.

Life is good

Have you ever seen those t-shirts that say "life is good" on them? I'm actually kind of tempted to buy one of those hoodies--they look so comfy, and they're so refreshingly optimistic. I doubt I will, though, since the one I want costs $70 and I'm trying to save money right now. Apparently, optimism doesn't come cheap these days.

Anyway, I saw somebody wearing one of those shirts today, and for some reason it made me think about my own life. And honestly? Life is good. I feel almost apprehensive in saying this, as though I'm somehow cursing myself (knock on wood!), but it's the truth. I've been blessed in so many ways recently that it would be practically impossible to name them all. I can mention a few, though.

One major positive in my life is that I was finally "officially" accepted into the Jerusalem Center, where I'll be going next semester. This fact has yet to sink in. Sometimes I'll be doing something completely unrelated, like walking to class or checking my Facebook, and suddenly I'll think, 'Hey, I'm going to Jerusalem!' and I won't be able to stop smiling for at least 5 minutes. Even if everything else in my life was going wrong, this one fact would probably still be enough to put me in a good mood.

Good thing #2: so there's this guy... :-)

Then, there's all the little things. The Sunflower Market, which sells pomegranates, fresh raspberries, and tahini, and has double the sales on Wednesdays. The trip I have planned to Cedar City this weekend, where I'll be able to visit some of my best friends from high school. Organ class, where I'm starting to learn how to play Bach's Fugue in G Minor (which excites me, for some reason). Playing the piano in Primary (because, for some reason, my singles ward has a Primary). The Office on Thursdays, which I watch with that one guy. Playing Rock Band II, which I also do with that one guy. David Archuleta's album coming out next month. Halloween coming up, with Thanksgiving and Christmas after that. More scholarships than I know what to do with (or at least, than I will know what to do with once Jerusalem's over). Amazing friends and a loving family. Answers to prayers.

Of course, I suppose the real challenge is to realize that life is good even when things aren't working out just right; it's all a matter of perspective. A person caught in the middle of a storm could be angry and bitter about it, or he could look for rainbows. As life goes on and bad things start to come my way again, I hope I remember that it's always a choice. Life is good not when everything in it is good, but when we see the good in everything.