A few things as of late:

1. Never eat fast food late at night, but mostly just never. After a long night of studying I made Kelsie go with me to grab something to eat, which meant I had to break my no-fast-food-streak, because nothing else was open!  We couldn't even finish one order of chicken fingers and fries between the two of us -- luckily the shake was no problem for us to finish.

2. I have serious plans to learn the Love on Top dance over Christmas break, but first I need to find at least five backup dancers.

3. Sometimes I like my own photos on instagram -- solely because they make me happy.

4.  My face lit up when I found out about the possibility of buying engineering paper in large quantities (boxes at a time).  I'm not even an engineer, but real chemists use engineering paper too?

5. Sometimes I have 5 half drunk water bottles in various places around my room -- I would like to think that this occurrence mostly only happens during finals week, but I think it's a common trend at any given time.

6.  I finished my last math class ever.  Although this should be a happy accomplishment, I'm a little sad to say goodbye to all my math friends and the highly airconditioned math lab.

7.  I have an obsession for candles, especially the twisted peppermint kind that's in my apartment.  And sometimes its flames make it worth staying up a little later to study just so I can feel of its holiday cheer.

8.  Church around Christmas time is the most splendid.

The Middle East

"Sit on your porch and pluck your strings"... Life is so precious, and it's meant to be enjoyed.. This past week two of my closet friends lost loved ones, and another one of my closest friends mourned the two year anniversary of the death of her mother.  I can't help but think of how tender is a life.  We have been entrusted with a body and a family and loved ones.  We have such sacred responsibilities on this earth, and it's got me reflecting on the importance of loved ones.  Love is enduring and eternal.  Love's eternal nature connects us with loved ones no matter the distance.  I know that through the atonement of Jesus Christ we will all be resurrected and united together as eternal families, so for now just "sit on your porch and pluck your strings."      

Happy Thanksgiving

In light of Thanksgiving... I'm grateful for Christmas.

"As we seek Christ, as we find Him, as we follow Him, we shall have the Christmas spirit, not for one fleeting day each year, but as a companion always"

--Thomas S. Monson--

And this is why I celebrate Christmas all year long, and Christmas music in July or August or September... sounds just as good as December.  

Sometimes she is the only thing that can get me through an eight page paper in the late hours of the night.  Goodnight. :)

Beats: Interference in Time

Beats is by definition interference in time, although Dr. Dre's headphones also keep coming to mind, the scientist in me will always resort to the classical definition.  Interference in time. Beats. Beats surround us... they happen every time frequencies interact.  In other words they happen... very frequently.  For me beats happen when I'm studying for a math test and my mom offers me cafe rio instead, and when I blow out the candles on my twenty-first birthday.  Beats occur during late night walks and the afternoon ones too.  Beats are hiking up mountains. Beats are when I find myself at a snow cone shack instead of BYU's game, because it was just too hot.  Beats are hogging the blanket on a very cold moonlight ride. Beats are essentially everywhere.  So inevitably beats have shaped my life and never before have these beats made a more perfect song.  Enjoy your Beats.

From East to West...

I love California in August, because... 

1. The Padres win.

2.  We are avid horse racing fans for a day.  

3.  We see more crabs than people. 

4.  We stay in head stands until all the blood rushes to our heads.

5.  The San Diego temple shines in the sun.

6.  It means family time and no school. 

Southern Girl.

My roommate was homeward bound as soon as finals finished, and I found myself in Tampa sometime after that in July, and it was a beautiful week.  It may have something to do with our immediate stop for our sushi fix, or the fact that her house was beyond a country-home dream.  Or maybe it was so beautiful because she got me addicted to Downton Abbey, and I found myself waking up early (earlier than Kels) to finish the season, or possibly because her quilts were folded with love, and Dade City was so welcoming to a Utah grown girl, or the fact that the beach was so close and frequented that week with our after beach fish tacos and the satisfying Dairy Kurl (Not to be confused with Dairy Queen).  I think it was beautiful because I came home a happy girl with 51 hand-found sand dollars… and possibly 51 little ghost sand dollars that Kelsie said would haunt me.  I think I had such a great time because I stood on the beach during a the-sky-is-on-fire-kind-of-thunderstorm and felt absolutely invincible.  I think perhaps it was so beautiful because I convinced Kelsie to do everything a good Floridian should do like going to Disney World and Alligator hunting in your neighbor's swamp, and running at the hottest part of the day (I couldn't get her to do the last for the three, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone Florida native or otherwise).  Possibly it was because Tampa made me a Rays fan for the night when they won in the 14th inning. I think it reminded me of a simple life where I could wake up at twelve and nobody would care and nothing would change. But mostly I think it was so beautiful because I had my Kelsie back, and we didn't even have school! 

 Made to order. 

Jane Eyre and Airplanes

I’m a reader.  The kind that takes two years to finish one book – restarting each time I pick it up. I’m the kind of reader that falls asleep mid-sentence and who owns an entire bookshelf full of someday-I’ll-read-these novels. That reader that makes her roommate read her psychology novel out loud to her. I’m the kind of reader that’s a horrible kind of reader.

But I am a reader.  And I've held onto every word from Ms. Bronte’s Jane.  Jane Eyre.  She's accompanied me to the coast, overseas and on many many airplane flights.. Many more than I'd like admitting.   

"You never climb the same mountain twice, not even in memory. Memory rebuilds the mountain, changes the weather, retells the jokes, remakes all the moves."    

--  Lito Tejada-Flores --

He walked the whole mountain like this.

I'm done with being Organic.

I've officially finished all my organic chemistry requirements (mmk besides an advanced organic lab?!) :) But for now, I'm done… as least with any classes coinciding with pre-med/pre-dent students, which is weirdly a relief, mostly because I'm done being asked, "what [I] got on the test?" In a way I was flattered to be somebody's standard for success? But mostly, not really… I wanted everyone to do well (in the beginning), even though most didn't want anybody to do well, and I didn't want my success to be based off the failure of others, but the pre-professionals bred that, and I found myself not wanting anyone to do well, or to do slightly worse than me.  So my malicious attitude has been reformed, and the competitive cut-throat personalities are out of the Benson (or at least my classrooms).  I'm half-way done with my college career now, and I still feel like a baby, luckily two years is a long time… or at least long enough.

Speaking of time and passing years, my dad had a birthday this past month and not just any birthday.  This was his 50th! That's half a century!  I'm tempted to say he's old, but he can still out bike me on any mountain and help me with my college level homework, so maybe aged would be a better word choice. aged to perfection.  Because my dad truly is almost perfect, and I can't wait for the adventures in the next 50 years. 

In celebration of finishing finals - (not having any commitments in Provo) my mom and I headed up to Park City for a few days.  We laughed and laughed and laughed like we were children! It was beautiful.  And I think I'm going to own the Montage, or Stein Eriksen Lodge someday… or at least a cabin up in the middle of nowhere, because nothing can surpass its purple mountain majesty.  It screams America, or at least my kind of America, and I like it a lot.