Inconvenient Truth of the Day

So you know this part in A Christmas Story?

It was always my favorite part. Though I sympathized with the poor kid (his name is not really hitting me at the moment), I thought it was the most hilarious thing.

Well, it turns out a warm surface to ice really does stick to said warm surface, and I had a chance to learn that first hand (literally!) today.

One of the other great benefits to my apartment (I am seriously going to live here for as long as I can in my college career) is that it has an ice maker. The ice maker at my parents' house has long been broken, like three years and counting. 


My brilliant mom came with a genius solution and that is this:

My parents fully have one of these things hanging out in their otherwise darling kitchen. To get perpetually cold water, my mom religiously fills up something like this...

I couldn't find an actual model, but think deeper. Mom, if you are reading this, we better hope your container never gives out! They are impossible to find! 

...and sticks it in the freezer. The result is a large (and free!) ice block. Walaa! Cold water and ice in the orange container. It is great, but an ice maker is even better. 

Anyway, so today, I finished up washing my dishes and then decided I wanted some ice to go with my water and naively stuck my wet hand in the ice maker. The result was three pieces of ice firmly stuck on my hand. And it actually hurts pretty bad to get off. So, lesson learned: wet hands and ice don't really go together. Maybe my mom was on to something with the giant ice block. The end. 

I believe in a thing called love

If there is one thing I like better than a good novel I can lose myself in, it is real life love stories told by the people involved. I don't care if it is in an obituary or a blog post, I love it. I like it better than any fictious story line because it is real. It means it can happen to anyone, this thing called love. Reading those sort of real-life stories help me relax for the future. The best is when I inwardly feel happy about the couple being together. I think that means that they are meant to be together, or are doing great being together. (I am trying to wean myself off the idea of soul mates. I think someone can become your soul mate, but I don't believe you find a soul mate right off the bat in the haystack.)

A very wise friend once told me that you know you ought to marry the person you are dating if they a) make you want to strive to be a better person because you are around him/her and b) being together creates good for all those around you. I feel lucky that I have had friends who have in turn been lucky enough to find their perfect match :) They have been wonderful examples to me in showing me that I should never settle.

One trend I noticed is that neither party expected the timing nor thought they would fall in love with each other. It sorta makes me think that you shouldn't actively pursue love. Like those people (not that they are bad people or anything. Bless their hearts) who go out on blind dates every week desperately trying to find that person before time runs out. What time? I'm not really sure. As far as I'm concerned we are dealing with a whole lotta time in the scope of eternity.

The important thing, I think, is to keep calm and carry on.

(And I promise to tell my love story when it happens, on here :)

The Tale of the Forever Procrastinator

Today I got to class, prepared for once (or so I thought). I read the 20-page chapter the night before, ready to contribute to the discussion. Then my professor started addressing the class. He discussed in great detail the paper due in two days. The longer he talked, the more pressure I felt in my head (despite the fact that I was wearing a headband, I knew it was from stress).

With a sinking heart, I realized my preparedness the night before were for naught. I deeply regretted the episode of Psych as I realized I didn't even have a topic for the thing. My world started getting more distorted as I remembered my other homework (reciteastorystartassignmentforbusinessmanagementstudyfortesttakingmitermreadpearlofgreatpricecatchuponhumanitiesreadingstartstudyguidesculturaleventwriteup) and obligations for the next two days.

"I am doomed," I thought and slumped hopelessly over my pull-out desk.

We started discussing Caravaggio's Doubting Thomas as I started doubting I could do this thing called school.

Parking in South Provo

So if you want to know what parking is like in South Provo, here is a good example: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egsdc7tZ_xc&feature=related 
(Sorry, I wish I could embed it, but YouTube wouldn't let me). 


My apartment has only one parking spot for the three tenants (really, the only downfall to the place). It is a pretty big pain in the butt to say the least. I am currently parked in front of my building, but I had to wake up at 7am for the last two mornings to stake this place out, and there is no way I am moving it now. It kind of reminds me of another Seinfeld episode, that goes like this: 


Jerry: We'll have to take your car, it's got the most room.
Kramer: No, no. My car's not running.
(George comes out from the bathroom)
Jerry: What about your father's car?
George: No, no, no. Out of the question. I was over there today. He's got the good spot in front of the good building in the good neighborhood. I know he's not gonna wanna move.
Jerry: Are you serious?
George: You don't know what that spot means to him. Once he gets it, he doesn't go out for weeks.


I always laughed at this, but living in a highly populated neighborhood with too many cars and not enough spaces has taken this conversation to a whole new level for me. In a very George-Costanza-like fashion, I was just trying to convince my sister today to use her car to hold my place while I run a quick errand to Salt Lake tomorrow. Basically this is what it comes down to: I would rather walk around with pepper spray in the dark than take my car out of its spot. 


Anyway, does anyone a) know a place where University Parking Enforcement doesn't have jurisdiction or b)have funny parking stories and/or can validate the Provo situation? 

Day 27 – Your favorite place, in great detail. Destop Mess.

(Disclaimer: So maybe this 30 day meme is taking a year to complete. I would prefer not to commennnnt...)

For the last two years, I have been pretty anal about being clean. My side of the room would always be spotless, I had no tolerance for dirty dishes, and I was so organized with life, I would carefully file my computer documents in folders according to semester, and then subject. It was madness, madness, madness, I say. I am glad to report that I have loosened up a little bit. Here is what my desktop and document folder now looks like:

Documents in disarray, no organization, whatsoever. And for some reason, I haven't the slightest desire to right it. I like, even revel in the mess. Which brings me to my favorite place. Realistically, my favorite place is my room. I like to study here (although how well that turns out is always a surprise). I have nice carpet, it overlooks this pretty courtyard/trees and  as self-conceited as it sounds, I especially like the way it is decorated.

If money were not an issue, Italia would be my choice of residence. Especially Tuscano! (Okay, maybe all that Italian did rub off on me...). I mean, how can you say no to this: 

I mean look at this place: it looks like the place Ariel got dropped off at! 

It has the sea, rolling country side, and most importantly, really great food. Lately I have been a serious connoisseur of food, resulting in many burned fingers and (one) perpetually burned tongue. I have grown quite fond of cheese, and I'm also pretty sure Italia is the place to go for that. Here's to hoping my future husband is rich and willing to take me! :D

Update on life

Hellloooo! 
Just thought I would populate the world with my thoughts and an update on where I am in life. 

• I am definitely on the DIY (do-it-yourself) streak, as noted by this (homemade, I might add!) template. It took me an absurd amount of time that I prefer not to disclose right now. Hopefully this will fade in the next week or two as it has hindered any progress in my considerable homework load.
• I am just as good a procrastinator as I thought I was. 
• I am in my own room here in good ol' P-Town and boy, does it feel good. Do not get me wrong: I have enjoyed living with every one of my bunk mates (for lack of a better word...), but paying for your own room is another animal on its own. No longer am I self-conscious about my morning alarm repeatedly going off, which incidentally, does not go off as many times as it did when I shared a room...
• Said room is in a beautiful condo 10 min. away from campus. I have found that though I live closer to campus, I am walking a lot more to make (unnecessary) trips to and from school.
• I am quite fond of my roommates. We all have an Oriental background, and because of that, we have three rice cookers in the kitchen, but lack a toaster. 
• I love the scriptures. This semester, I am taking two religion classes, one in the Pearl of Great Price, and the other in the New Testament, which means a lot of time is spent in my quad. It is a very satisfactory replacement for a textbook.
• I am looking at a mission in the very near future, and in fact, recently turned in my Papers to the bishop. (I feel the "P" warrants an uppercase with all the work put into them).
• I enjoy cooking and may be spending more time dealing with food than with textbooks... 
• I saw Celine Dion in concert (something off the bucket list)! Sam and I drove down to LV to see her, and it was completely and totally worth  it to pay $100 for the back row (honestly our backs were against the wall). What a show. I would see it again in a heartbeat.
• I caught a cold about a week before school started. How one catches a winter disease in 90 degree weather is beyond me, but I certainly did it. 
• I went to Disneyland this summer with three of the most fun-loving people I could think of. It was so great going 10 years after my last visit. I feel like I was really able to bring out the kid in me (as if it doesn't already make an appearance - HA.) 
• I went rock-climbing on real rocks. I maybe might have almost decapitated someone while attempting to rappel from the five feet I climbed, but I did it. And that is what counts in my book. 
• I saw two touring Broadway plays: Les Miserables and Wicked. They were both fabulous. I actually went to Les Mis on my own (ironically ha), and I learned the value in taking time to go on a date with myself. 
• Other food-related bucket list cross offs: Ate a fried twinkie and cleaned the sink at Angie's, neither of which will I be doing again.
• I climbed the top of Y Mountain. The plan was to see the sunrise, but that didn't work out, partially because of my poor navigational skills. But we got there eventually. 

Basically, I am doing great. Must now attend to some homework that is calling my name. Au revoir! 

I'm still out at lunch...

Last night I wanted to gain insight into my life so I decided to read my journal from the last six months into the wee hours of the night. Incidentally I learned quite a bit: and that is that I do not do well on 4.5 hours of sleep.

Woke up quite suddenly at six a.m. and made the executive decision that I could sleep for a little longer. Doing my hair is overrated anyway. 40 minutes later, I hated late-night-Shelbi just as much as I did before. Committed to going to bed early tonight, although I can almost put money on late-night-Shelbi forgetting all about early-morning-Shelbi by 11pm. 

As I sleepily started pulling on clothes to wear, I looked down and realized my blouse was extremely wrinkled mostly because it spent the last week at the bottom of my duffel bag, having never made an appearance in Las Vegas. On my body, at least.

After a quick ironing job, I decided I also needed to straighten my hair. It wasn't until lunch today that I walked past a mirror and noticed I not only forgot to straighten the back of my head, I failed to iron the left arm of my shirt.

My head felt really heavy today, so in an effort to relieve weight, I cut my hair (pretty sure its the reason I've been on the cusp of falling asleep all day today). Because that seemed like the reasonable thing to do. Luckily I was thinking somewhat clearly and commissioned a professional to cut it.

Later went to make a hair appointment: 

Receptionist: Could I get your first name?

Me: Shelbi. S-h-e-l-b-i

Receptionist: So S-h-e-l-b-e-i

Me: Um, sure. 

Receptionist: Last name?

At this point I am pretty sure I stared blankly at her, not quite comprehending what she was asking. It took another prodding question for me to snap out of it, but we got there eventually. 

The rest of the day went pretty much the same.

Fast forward to the grocery store:
Me: I also need ice...
Cashier: 7 or 20?
Me: (in my head) What is this woman asking me?
Cashier: 7 or 20?
Me: Ounces?
Cashier: Um... pounds.

It kind of felt like a bad Sunshine Math equation.