On the road again

I'm the nomadic type, it's a truth that I'm happy to accept.

After Brenna's wedding I had the chance to spend a couple days with my dear friend Alexie Lawson, who I love with all my heart. It had been way too long since we had seen each other! So we caught up in the best way possible. We went to Disney World, saw all the glamourous sights of Belleview, Florida, laid in hammocks, ate yummy food, thrift store shopped, laughed, and lounged. It was so very nice.

Then I had to take her back to the airport, and within 12 hours was on the road again. I went on my first ever solo roadtrip. Truthfully, it wasn't that exciting. I wore out all my music, all of Pandora's music, a couple podcasts, talked my mom's ear off, and got a lot of thinking done. If I were driving to see sights maybe it would have been more enjoyable, but as for now I feel that solo roadtrips are a terrible life choice.

Before reaching Utah I got to visit Manassa, Colorado. The little town that my mom grew up in and where I still have quite a few family members and lots of good memories. I spent a couple days relaxing there and catching up with all the family I hadn't seen. I even had a chance to visit Nana's cabin. It's absolutely beautiful up there. No cellphone reception or city lights to distract or confuse you. Just nature, peace, beauty, and quiet. I love how small and yet so important I feel every time I'm up there.

Anyway, I picked up a couple of my cousins in Colorado for the last stretch to Utah. And now I'm in Provo. I guess I live here. It's the first time my bags have been unpacked in months, which is fantastic. Though, I'm wildly aware that this is just a temporary living situation.

It's just strange being a nomad. I visit and stay in some of the most amazing places on earth. I meet interesting people who all have differing views on life. I see family, and I make new friends who feel like family. It's a good life, but one day I hope to have somewhere a little more permanent. Somewhere to house all my memories and adventures. Somewhere to make memories and to feel secure. Because, let's face it, as fun as adventure is "there's no place like home."

In other news, today is my last day as a 21 year old. Which my brain is having a hard time accepting. 21 and I have had our disagreements but overall it's been good to me. I'll be sad to see it go. Especially since 22 still needs to get its' act together; we have internships, graduation, world travels, and grown-up decisions to conquer.

In honor of my 21st year, I give you 21 highlights:

1. Birthday tea party with mandatory fake accents

2. Pack saddle with those beautiful yellow aspens

3. Family Cruise for Thanksgiving

4. Brenna surprising me at the new year's bonfire

5. Making money and learning how awesome my dad and mom are

6. Everything working out for me to live with Christine

7. Late night talks with Nick and Roelien

8. Advice from Christine

9. Piano playing and extravagant dinners at Christine's

10. Phantom of the Opera birthday party

11. Baking cookies at the Alexander's

12. Riding a motorcycle for the first time

13. In South Africa making pancakes when it rained

14. Solo trip to Cape Town

15. Kruger National Park

16. EFY 2011, all of it

17. The internships, those blessed, wonderful internships!

18. Brenna's wedding

19. Eating chocolate and talking with my family on my parent's bed

20. Family trip to Panama City Beach

21. Realizing that I've completed all but one of my "do before I turn 23" goals

So 22, bring it on. You've got a lot to live up to.

So long, farewell

By the end of the week I will be living in South Africa. Here to be exact: Pretoria, South Africa. Take a moment and let that sink in. Pretoria is one of the country's three capitals, it serves as the executive national capital. The climate is subtropical, so it won't be too big of a shock coming from Florida. The people speak Afrikaans and English, this is also a plus. Thank you CIA World Factbook. From what I hear the place is beautiful, I'm going at a great time of year, and there's a good chance that I won't be harmed. For those who don't know, I'm going to work as an intern for the United Nations Information Centre (and yes, I have to spell it that way). I'm pretty excited about it. It's amazing the little things I'm aware of as I'm getting ready to leave. People are so willing to serve and help in anyway they can. I'm more aware of my family and the support they are, and always have been in my life. I'm aware of the blessings of living in the United States and am so grateful for the freedoms and opportunities that exist here. So here's to adventure, here's to travel, here's to working hard in an profession that I adore, here's to proving to myself that I can do anything I set my mind to, cheers.

Oh, hey 2011

Where'd you come from?

That's exactly how I feel about this whole ordeal. It's kind of sad saying farewell to such a lovely year, like 2010. So a moment of reflection...

Avatar: To some just a movie. To me, an experience that helped me survive winter in Rexburg. It led to good friends, hot springs, dancing at a random gas station in Utah. Oh the power of the movies.

Meso America Tour: 1 month, 32 students, 4 awesome professors, 3 countries, one of the most wonderful things of my BYU-Idaho career. Yes.

EFY: 1, 2, 3 DEGREES! Matt Reynolds, best co-co EVER! Best kids ever! Hearing my brother bear his testimony for the first time ever! Crying, laughing, and learning more than I ever thought possible in a 6 day period. EFY was a very good idea and I hope to repeat the experience.

Sissy got married: Blake Russ is now part of the family, love him. Annalee is happier than ever, and I'm so happy for her. The brazilians came to town, lovely. It was such a happy and emotional time. Annalee is my very best friend in this world and I loved being a part of this new part of her life. Awesome, just awesome.

The cruise: Such a lovely and gluttonous vacation. Dad actually took a vacation!! Went parasailing with Adam. Ate, ate, ate. Came in 2nd on a disney trivia challenge. Laughed, ate, snorkeled, ate, hung out with the family, ate, watched amazing shows, ate. Yes, it was fantastic.

2010 was awesome, no doubt. However, I have always been partial to odd-numbed years. They have always been good to me. 2005, went to brazil. 2007, started hanging out with the "FPP," graduated from high school. 2009, decided what I'm doing with my life, made amazing friends, lived with my sister in Rexburg, Fall '09 best semester EVER! So 2011 has a lot to live up to.

The resolutions/plans for the year:

Internship in South Africa. My only goal with this is to do the absolute best I can, and not get mugged or raped.

EFY take two? We'll see.

Only eat junk food if it's an experience.

Graduate from college, get my life plan rolling.

Live like this:

My Best Friend

This Girl:

is my best friend!

She are and I are 16ish months apart, but really we might as well have been twins. We don't look much alike, and our personalities are definitely different, but she understands me in a way that nobody else on this earth does. She is not afraid to tell me I'm wrong or to hold me to a higher standard, because she always wants what's best for me. She listens to me when I complain about ridiculous things, and sometimes does ridiculous things with me. Together we've gone to Brazil, tackled long road trips, hiked red rock mountains, had Anastasia themed sleepovers, laughed, cried, and grown. I could not ask for a better sister or a better friend. She will always be my role model because she is a woman who courageously stands for what is right, she is smart beyond belief, and she has the biggest heart. Having her in my life has helped me grow into the person I am now, and she has given me vision for the person I hope to shape myself into in the future.

Now she is married to the man of her dreams. She has a new last name, a new place to call home, and a new person that she spends all her time with. However some things never change.

Annalee will always be my little sister, the girl I look up to (literally and figuratively), she will always be my best friend.

Jari's "Affirmation"

So I like lots of people, places, and things. Nouns are just the best! Let's start here:

People:

I like my Timber! I like my Lexie! I like my Ryans! I like my Jordans! I like all my volunteers!

Places:

I like my Rexburg! I like Mesa Falls! I like the Sand Dunes! I like BYU-Idaho!

Things:

I like the Taco Bus! I like light sabers! I like bon fires! I like my bed! I like my laptop!

I can do ANYTHING good! Yeah, yeah, yeah!

ABBA.Temple to Temple.Service.Birthday.Service.

I am alive. So much is happening so quickly that I barely know what to do with myself. A couple of weeks ago a group called ABBA Mania came to BYU-Idaho. I could stop writing right there and you could probably guess that it was a good time. My two roommates and I went and decided that interpretive dance complemented fake ABBA quite nicely. Not to mention, it is pretty hilarious to watch a predominantly Mormon audience chant/sing/shout along to Voulez Vous and think that the lyrics are completely innocent...yeeeah.

So I stayed up later than I should of, especially considering I had a 36ish mile relay race the next day. My team and I started at the Rexburg Temple and ended at the Idaho Falls Temple. Seriously one of the funnest days of nice life. I was the first leg, which means I got to run downhill from the Rexburg Temple. Thank heavens because goodness knows my body does not do the uphill craziness that everyone else had the joy of. Also, I may or may not have gotten lost in a junk yard for a little while... Anyway, after I passed on the slap bracelet and joined the rest of my team in the truck it was a party for the rest of the way. We would drive a little ways down the road from our runner and then sing and dance in the back of the truck until they showed up; at which point we would cheer and scream like crazy and help them along their run. We went through some of the prettiest places in the area, and ended the day with a little ultimate frisbee at a park near the Idaho Falls Temple. I owe a large thank you to my amazing and hilarious teammates, Mika, and Michael Jackson for making the day that much more enjoyable.

I think that I have mentioned this in the last few posts, but this semester one of the things I'm doing is working as a Director for Service Activities. This means that I'm in charge of 15 students and 10 service programs. It is an absolute blast and I love every second of it. Every semester we host a retreat for all of our volunteers. We go to a cabin near the Tetons and have trainings and play. This semester because I'm directing I was put in charge of planning and hosting the retreat. I was really nervous about it, but it went off really well. It was incredible to see how much my volunteers have learned in just the short time that they have been involved, and all the wonderful ideas that they have to improve their programs and the school. I was also really impressed by how much love they showed to each other and me. It was a much calmer retreat that I have been to in the past, but there were also a lot of opportunities to be taught by the spirit. It was fantastic. I am grateful to Jordyn and Jordan (yes, these are the two people I work with...they have the same name pretty much) for all the help and support they gave and for how much closer we got in just two days.

The morning that we left the retreat was also my 21st birthday. So yes, I am now legal to drink, apply/audition for reality TV shows, and participate in all forms of entertainment offered at The Strip in Las Vegas...oh, and I can apply to serve a mission too if I so choose. Anyway, for my birthday my roommates threw me a tea party. It was the most awesome thing! We had great finger food, spoke in the best British accents we could muster, and had some of the most delicious herbal tea this side of Provo. :) Really though, I had forgotten how much fun imagination games are, good choice in birthday festivities.

I went out for a little bit after the tea party and came home to some "interesting" presents. My roommates found a bunch of rocks and geology books that now belong to me, and this stray cat showed up at our door....apparently he's mine too. He's the sweetest cat in the world (and that's saying something because I'm generally a cat hater). We gave him some milk and enjoyed his company, then sent him on his way. He comes back every once in a while and repeats the experience. We've decided to name him BobJeffKnives, I'm not exactly sure why. It probably has something to do with us being ridiculous college aged girls who were way too tired when all of this was taking place.

I decided that I didn't want to hog all the rock related joy for myself, so we decided to make a delivery to one of our beloved friends, Ryan Bruce. He didn't find it half as cool as we did...his loss.

Remember how I said that I'm director for Service Activities? Well, this week was service week on campus. We encouraged all the students to utilize their activity time in Family Home Evening to do something service oriented. So my "family" and I storm cleaned apartments. We had 3 vacuums, 3 brooms, a couple bottles of all purpose cleaner, and some sponges. We would rush into apartments screaming and yelling (I seem to do a lot of that) and clean and laugh while the people who lived there looked at us wide-eyed. We cleaned 5 apartments (dishes included) as a family, and then met back up at our apartment for treats. But then half the brothers started cleaning our apartment, and the other half went to the other girl's apartment and started cleaning it. Not to be outdone we ran over to their apartment and did the same...and after it was clean we decided to rearrange all their furniture for the heck of it. They didn't find that amusing, but life goes on.

So that's life right now. I spend a lot of time doing homework, or work, or service work, or run errands for different clubs I'm in, and then I come home and party with my roommates all night long. Really, this is the life.

Bad Karma, Good Weekend

I'm all out of luck. This past week I had the bright idea that I would pack up all my things and start to move out of my apartment. It had been sunny for pretty much an entire week straight, so I figured I would be set packing up everything, including winter clothes. I was terribly wrong. As soon as I got ready to take things to the storage unit I found out it had been snowing lots, great. So now all I have is a little zip-up to keep me warm, that's fine. At this point I also had the bright idea to get my oil changed, seeing as it had been awhile and I was headed to Utah the next day, I thought it would be smart.

So I came home, a little unhappy with the weather gods, but life goes on. I got ready for a Pi Sigma Alpha event, went out to my car and lo and behold, it wouldn't start. So now I was bare-legged, in a skirt, walking through the snow. Awesome.

Turns out that there was something wrong with my battery and I got it fixed the next day before leaving for Utah. All was well. Until I got to the Salt Lake Airport, and after picking up Annalee, Blake, Adam, and all their luggage started to hit the road again. Before even getting to the freeway all the lights on my dash flew on, the power steering went out, and the car shut down.

So a tow truck, car examination, rental car, and four hours later it was determined that the oil changers forgot to put a drain plug in; and now my engine is blown potentially totaling my car.

So that was plenty to put me in a bad mood, and even though Annalee keeps telling me that I wasn't, I know I was a pain in the butt to hang out with the rest of the weekend, but I did have fun.

While Adam and I were waiting to hear about the car we explored the Pep Boys store, got into a sword fight with wire brushes, tried on biker helmets, and tried not to get kicked out. When the four of us all got back together again we went to chipotle, and ate yummy food. We were pampered at Ranae's. We were able to see Randi and Devin, and Jordan and her boyfriend Ammon. We even got free strawberry shortcake. We went to the Saturday afternoon session of conference, which means we were there for Elder Holland's talk, which was awesome. It was just nice to be with family, to not have to do school work. It was great. I love Annalee, Adam and Blake so much, and thank them so much for putting up with me this weekend. I needed it.

Sunshining

It has been a hard week, there is evidence of it in the messy and disorganized state of my room. However, there have been lots of mini accomplishments, lots of things to make me smile.

1. I am so so so so SO close to being done with the Devotional Promotional DVD, I will be so excited to see the final product. Probably not as excited to watch my bad acting, but still.

2. I'll be home in 6 days. In Florida. Surrounded by people I love. The weather forecast is good. 6 days!

3. I keep getting little phone calls from home. Some from my mommy when she gets home from a run. Some from my sister while she's driving. Some from bud when he has something cool to say and I'm the one he wants to tell. Daddy, who calls me on accident a lot, but then ends up having things to talk about regardless. Even from Blake, who really is practically family anyway, making sure I'm alive and rubbing in things that I miss out on. I love them all. I love our miniature through out the day conversations.

4. Not miniature conversations. Annalee and I talked for 2 and a half hours Wednesday afternoon. Neither of us had much motivation to do anything productive, including shower, so we just sat and talked about everything from China to our little house back in Belleview. It was great. I miss that little one.

5. I finished so much homework. I gave two, hour long political science presentations, gave a 20 minute presentation in Spanish, put a rather large dent in my presidential paper, did an annotated bibliography for my population control paper, read 3 short stories in Spanish and did write ups on them. . . I did a lot of homework. AND I never have to do another presentation in Winter 2010 EVER again!

6. I ate delicious Mexican food


7. I was summoned from my bed on Friday night to hear happy stories from two of my favorites, Kallie and Bruce. Being around them makes me feel like I can conquer the world. They're great

8. Went on a field trip of the Kirkam and Snow buildings. . .BYU-Idaho has cool stuff. We also played some intense elevator tag.

9. Family Dinners! Randi and Devin, Jordan, Blake, and I have been slacking this semester. But we finally got together on Wednesday night and had family dinner. We laughed at Blake's story, talked about why dating is stupid, and made Randi tell us all about her pregnancy. I love family.

10. Brazilian birthday party. I had forgotten how much I simply adore the loud music, louder conversation, and good food complemented with good company. It was a rather nostalgic evening, but I loved every minute of it.

11. Sunday hikes

I'm terribly excited for this coming week. I'm excited to
watch Lion King in Spanish, to eat yummy food with dear friends, to talk and laugh, but mostly to board that airplane and go back to the sanctuary I call home!