She did it again

Welp she did it again folks. Jill went and got herself published in the Daily U again. If you would like to know what she had to say just take a little gander below:

Saved by the Bell

Because of the recent flood of letters complaining about the BYUSA elections, it seems that many people think the only reason people run is to win the scholarship and to pad their resume, which will help them get a job, get married and fine happiness and success (as suggested by the author of the March 4 letter, “Life Without BYUSA”). While I see no problem with joining together as a student body – or at least 10 percent of a student body – to support someone in achieving their dream of campus-wide fame as the figurehead leader of BYUSA, perhaps we should make sure their motivations are not tainted by promises of dollar signs and dates.

In an episode of “Saved by the Bell” (Season 1, Episode 13, “The Election”), Zack only runs for student body president for the free trip to Washington. When Mr. Belding tricks him into believing the trip has been canceled, Zack realizes he doesn’t actually want the job. Maybe we should trick all the candidates into believing they will receive no personal benefits from winning the election. Then only those with the purest of intentions will remain to be the face of BYU. But I ask you, would it really be so horrible for us to help these souls improve their resumes and dating lives?

There you have it. You may notice this is not the first time Saved by the Bell was used in Jill's letters to the editor. she says 'it's just that art imitates life.' Yes, she just referred to SBTB as art. I really believe that all of our best life lessons can be learned from SBTB.

P.S. Recently I’ve been feeling newly committed to our blog. I mean I sit in front of a computer all day and I rely on others blogs for entertainment to get me through the day so I feel I should be giving a little to the blogging universe rather than always just taking. We’ll see how long this feeling lasts.

One more thing. I had to speak in church yesterday. I hate speaking in church because of the amount of nervousness that overtakes me but yesterday wasn’t terrible. I only had one awkward moment where I lost my place and my face turned red but whatev. I would just like to give a shout out to Darren who helped me spice up my talk with sports analogies and another shout out to Cara who managed to included Zac Efron’s swoop bangs in her talk. It’s just that few can manage to get their bangs to look so good.

Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam...

HAPPY KANSAS DAY!!!

On this, the 148th birthday of the great state of Kansas, I would just like to make a list of great things about Kansas.

• The Sunflower State

• Cawker City, Kansas is the home to the world's largest ball of twine. Some people (particularly those from Darwin, MN) may claim that the largest twine ball is actually up north in the land of 10,000 lakes because Frank Stoeber died when his twine ball was just a foot shy of beating Francis Johnson's record in Darwin, and thus had to be finished by the community. "Cawker City, in a touching tribute, built an open-air gazebo over his ball and set it up on Highway 24 in town, where it can still be touched and whiffed by travelers." Locals and visitors continue to add twine to this community project (but be sure to email before you go so Linda can have twine available for you if it's not time for the annual Twine-A-Thon in August). One of my life goals is to visit Cawker City to touch, whiff, and possibly wrap the world's largest ball of twine.
• We came in as a free state after the turmoil of Bleeding Kansas.
• We are the geographical center of the continental United States.
  
• Who else has a state song as cool as "Home on the Range"?
• BBQ - Kansas City is famous for its barbeque and hosts several barbeque cooking contests each year, with one of the more notable being in Lenexa, KS. The Great Lenexa Barbeque Battle began in 1982 with just 12 contestants and 12 judges. In 1984 the governor declared the contest the official Kansas State Championship. It has since grown to its current size of 185 contestants and 240 judges. This year's Battle will be on June 26 & 27 at Sar-Ko-Par Trails Park (at 87th & Lackman).
• Along those lines, KC has several famous BBQ restaurants, including Jack Stack, Gates (my friend from Centerville, UT imports Gates BBQ sauce because it's so good) and KC Masterpiece. Tragically, only one KC Masterpiece restaurant remains. Thankfully, it is in my hometown of Overland Park.
• Chicago has nothing on us. Dodge City is in fact the windiest city in America, with an average wind speed of 13.9 mph
• Famous Kansans:
  *Dr. Forrest C. "Phog" Allen, 1885 - 1974, Lawrence, University of Kansas men's varsity basketball coach*Wilt "The Stilt" Chamberlain, 1936 - 1999, Lawrence, University of Kansas basketball player 1955-1957*William Clark (of Lewis and Clark)*Amelia Earhart*Dorothy Gale*Dwight D. Eisenhower, who, incidentally, was the last bald president we elected.
• Kansas day miracles like the fact that my only class of the day was canceled, giving me time to write this tribute.
• Also, we are the breadbasket of the world. Eat that.
• And you can celebrate Kansas Day anywhere in the world. For example, in Utah. By wearing Kansas gear and standing in the shape of a K. Obviously.
  

Love...or Something Like It

I don't know what it is, but I love Peter Gallagher. So does Janna.
I just read in the Daily U that someone saw him at Sundance. Words don't express the jealousy I felt.
Can you blame me?

Birthday Boy

Thomas Anthony John. Perhaps you know him as Tony, Anthony, TJ, Fat Tony John. He is 28.
Some things that remind us of Tony John:

Red Sox

Billy Joel

long talks
good advice

poopy pants

drama

eloquent
scarves
never used to wear a coat
tends to lose coats
married my (Jill's) sister

Happy Birthday Tony!

Hot Time, Summer in the City!

Something recently reminded me of when we went to Atlanta this summer, and with all this extra time I have on my hands recently, I thought it was about time to blog about it. Bethanie decided to go ahead and get married on us this summer. This is something my close friends don't do very often, so naturally, we couldn't miss this occasion. Janna, Darren, and I flew down to Atlanta a few days before the wedding and got to check out the city. We didn't go on a Segway Ghost Tour of the city, unfortunately, but we did have a few adventures (and may or may not have seen the ghost of Margaret Mitchell).

The Waffle House was delish. And gave us great hats. A Southern classic. We do have them in KC, but not on every corner like in Atlanta.

We also visited the Olympic Park. I remember being very sticky at this point, even though it was still fairly early in our adventures. Atlanta is a very humid place.







Special shouts out were given to our favorite moments from the 1996 Summer Olympics, hosted by the great city of Atlanta. Mine was of course Keri Strug and her miraculous vault landing.





Underground Atlanta held such wonders as "Mysteries of the Unknown" . . .




. . .and Mark Teixeira jerseys for 50% off, thanks to a trade earlier that week. Janna took advantage. I think she was not the only one.

We got to fulfill one of Darren's life goals in seeing the Braves play at Turner Field, where it just happened to be Wild West Night.

Very exciting (on both counts-checking off the goal, and being able to do so on a theme night).





I always appreciate a good theme night.


The weather threatened to be inclement, but it was not enough to drive away die-hard fans like us (mostly Darren).

Clint Sammons had a good game and we loved him. We also loved how the scoreboard showed the players decked out in western garb for Wild West Night (where, incidentally, Jewel sang the national anthem).

Also exciting was the fact that the Braves won.

Darren treated us with a lot of trivia and statistics about the team, the players, the stadium, baseball in general, etc. I remember little to none of it now. Sorry. But it was interesting at the time.

Katie joined us for Day 2 in the South, after an experience on the way to the airport that taught us that a GPS is not actually omniscient. I don't have the pics from our adventures that day, but we did visit the Margaret Mitchell Museum, including a (unauthorized) self-guided tour of her house. In the basement, the Gone With the Wind photos transitioned to a Martin Luther King, Jr. exhibit. Except there was not really a transition at all. And since we were not taking the official tour with a guide, we never really figured out the connection. Except this: apparently, MLK Jr. once sang in a youth choir at the premier of the Gone With the Wind movie.









Am I missing the connection here?



We also visited Martin's house and burial place. Very cultural.

We also had the mission of obtaining a garter for the wedding reception. I am pretty sure we were the only white people in the entire mall when we went to buy one.

The heat took a lot out of us though, and Katie needed a bit of a nap at the Marta station as we waited for Valerie to come pick us up for the bachelorette party. We had not seen Val all summer and were very excited to see her. She drove down from Charlotte for the wedding. I'm pretty sure Katie is dreaming about the tender reunion here and Janna is just not one to always show the full extent of her emotions. I was very excited, and probably was showing it behind the camera.

Extra Special shouts out to Valerie for being willing to drive us around (we obviously loved the public joy of Marta, but it was nice to have a car to get to the places the 4 train lines and various bus lines did not go, and on our own time schedule) and to her wonderful, generous, highly educated sister Maria, whose car Val was using this summer.


Bethanie all decorated for the party.









At the party we met Randon's sister Shawney. A couple hours later, on the way home, we asked her to be our best friend. We really like her. Shockingly, she did not seem to be scared away.

I suppose I should include some pics of the wedding day. It was the reason we were there. (This is why I never blog...it just takes me so long and by this point I just want to be done.)

The happy couple.



















Marci refused to smile for the pictures. I somehow, being an awesome photographer, caught this special moment where the true feelings of the bride and her maids were displayed. It was hot (the only way it could have been more humid was if it was actually raining--which it did just a short while later). And this was only the beginning.














It was so fun to be able to be there. So in the friends-getting-married count, we are now at 2 down, 7 to go. I have good company.

[Note: The 2 and 7 refer to the 9 of us that go back to the dorms/Lib Square. However, it was hard to actually narrow it to those 9 because some of those have temporarily left us while others have joined us since then. So maybe let's just leave it at this: My close friends tend not to get married. It's a trend we are still resisting.]

Here's to Thailand

Happy Birthday Cindy.

Tag Schmlag

I didn't think we'd ever have enough of a following to be tagged, but here I am. Carrie and Emily both tagged me, so I can't really escape it.

6 Places I go often:

1. The Law Lib. These are in order by the way. I spend most of my time here. I live my entire life here pretty much. It's kind of sad. (You may have to enlarge the pic to see that I'm pointing to the law building.)

2. The J. Reuben Clark Law School - Room 306. I have 3 of my 4 classes here, so I am there often. Since I spend approximately 89% of my life in the law building, I thought I'd separate the lib from the rest of the building.

3. Janna/Valerie/Lauren/Cara's house. You may call it Blue Condo West. You may call it West Sapphire Chateau. You may call it my home away from home.

4. The intramural fields. This season, especially the football fields (Lady Wingmen have 2 games this week--we might finally win! Come support!) I love the intramural program. I am always looking for more teams to support though I have no time to support them.

5. The Wilk. For weekly lunches. For random errands made up just to give me an excuse to get out of the law building for 2 seconds and get some fresh air.

6. Smith's. My life is really exciting.

6 people who email regularly
Who email me? Probably the Graduate Student Society, the Bishop, Dad, Melanie, other family members, Sister Rachel Bodily's weekly emails. Oh, and Doctor Dictionary is my most faithful correspondent, bringing me a Word of the Day each day. Today's word: intimation \in-tuh-MAY-shuhn\, noun:an indirect or slight suggestion; hint.

6 of my favorite restaurants:
Oh, I don't know. As I was recently reminded, I can't make decisions such as where to eat. I'll say Gloria's Little Italy, Chili's, Sol Azteca, Sweet Tomatoes, the Max, KC Masterpiece. But probably just because under this pressure I can't remember the place I really truly Love.

6 places I would rather be:
Really anywhere with people I love and enjoy. The beach , New York, Spain, home in KC, home at my apt, basically any place where I wouldn't have to deal with finals or writing my case note. I don't think that place exists. :(

6 TV shows I like to watch:
I really don't watch that much TV. But I would have to say: 1. The Office; 2. Without a Trace; 3. Jeopardy; 4. Wheel of Fortune (I really should be on this show. I am so much better than the people who are on it sometimes!); 5. Saved by the Bell; 6. The O.C. (especially Seasons 1 and 2).

6 People I tag:
I don't. Except Janna. If I have to do this, so does she. This was supposed to be a joint blog to document our adventures. This was not really an adventure, but we stopped following that rule in like post 1.

6 Quirks:

1. I like to eat the chocolate shell off of 3 Musketeers Bars before savoring the nougaty goodness inside. I just discovered this anew as I have eaten 2 bars in the past 5 minutes in that manner.

2. I don't like to sleep with doors open that are facing my bed. For example, I used to never be able to sleep with my closet doors open. I didn't like having that gaping hole staring at me while I slept. I had to get over that because my shoes impede the closing of the door these days. So now I hate to have the bathroom door open, which my bed currently points at.

3. I hate dangling prepositions. It was kind of painful for me to end that last paragraph with an "at." I blame Mr. Pulsinelli, 12th grade English teacher. Thanks to him I also couldn't say "this" or "that" without a qualifier. This what? I have slowly been able to get over that, but not completely. I still always think about it when I say it out loud, and cringe to myself.

4. I always run home from Janna's house. She now lives down the street from me, nearly a block away! I get bored walking to and from her house, so I often start to run to get there faster. Darren noticed this one night as he crossed the street to go home and I took off running, not even thinking about it. I got a phone call from him a few seconds later, thanking me for running. Apparently it was funny/weird...quirky, if you will.

5. I only drink milk out of a mug. I cannot/do not drink it out of a glass. I think it's because I don't actually like milk, so I only have it when I am eating cookies or some other delicious treat, which for some reason I associate with milk needing to be in a mug. I have made an effort to drink more milk in the past year, which means my cookie consumption has also dramatically increased.

6. I only do my crossword puzzles in pen. I refuse to use a pencil. It just looks ugly. Having to scribble or write over incorrect letters because I cannot erase? Not ugly. Pencil? UGLY. Also, I have to go down the list of clues in order. Even if one jumps out at me that I know right away, I will usually wait until I get to that number before I fill it in.

But I'm really not that quirky. Ask anybody.