Technology

I have a love/hate relationship with technology. It doesn't like me at all, and sometimes I really don't like it. It's useful, wonderful, helpful, but it is the most frusterating thing on the Earth. If your sink is broken you can grab a wrench and bang around for a while until it's fixed. Computers have no such luck. Unless you are willing to devote 4 or more years of your life to figuring out how they work, you are caught in a hopeless mess when your computer breaks down.

To my mind there is no possibly way that computers can work. To me electricity is moving electrons, courtesy of Chem 1210. There is no physical way that computers should exist. A tiny chip no bigger than a fingernail holding 10,000 pictures? How is that possible in my physical world? Of course you can see that my brain works only in concrete matters with things like nails, hammers, gears, wheels. Electricity, motherboards, mega bytes mean nothing to me. I plan on letting my husband take care of that for me. :)

But I am sincerely grateful for the 24 hour Staples help service and mumbling but patient operators. And I am most sincerely happy to have my computer back, even though he's missing some things.

Olympic Mania!

Vancouver 2010--Are you watching?

Jessica has a deep and abiding love for the Olympics and has rooted it into all of us as well. I didn't watch the Olympics at all before this year, but now every night from 7:00-11:00pm the five of us sit around the TV and cheer on the US. I never realized how fun it was, but we have an absolute blast! Jessica knows everything there is to know about the Winter Olympics and is slowly spreading the bug. :)

Last night was absolutely fantastic! There were three events: Womens Half Pipe, Womens Super Combined, and Mens Figure Skating (Freestyle). We had tons of fun cheering on all of the events and our favorites to win. In the Super Combined they would get up to speeds of 100 km/hr, which is 65 mph! That's insane! Can you imagine driving a car at freeway speeds and dodging between poles?

The thing that I love most about the Olympics is that they are real people, not supermodels. They are really focused on their sport, but they are real. And to see them when they win or do their best is so wonderful because they are so happy! Even in defeat a lot of them try to be happy, and I love it!

During Women's Half Pipe there was an American named Kelly Clark, and she was amazing! She was so much better than anyone else, and she took huge risks. She fell a few times, which is the only reason she didn't get gold, but she really took to heart the saying "Go big or go home."

Before every run it would show her looking out at the half pipe as she was listening to an ipod. And the cutest thing! She would sing along, and the camera would pick it up and broadcast it. She was so terribly off key, but I thought it was so cute! She was completely in her own world listening to Kelly Clarkson, just focusing on what was in front of her and singing along like nobody's business. With snowboarding you have to hang loose, and she was awesome at it! But the Kelly Clark Karaoke was awesome and I loved it!

Torah something from Australia was the one who won the Women's half pipe, and she was sooo cute! She just looked sweet and kind and was so excited when she won! I love it when those people win! It was definately well deserved.

Now to the epitome of the night: Men's figure skating. We decided that there is a fine line between manly figure skating and looking....disgusting. Figure skating in general is looked down upon as a man's sport, but some people can really pull it of. Like Evan Lysacek. :)

Here I will highlight the three main characters discussed in our apartment: Johnny Weir, Evan Lysacek, and Evgeny Plushenko.

First, Johnny "Queer" (Weir). The first appearance he made was a black jumpsuit adorned with pink. There was a corset looking thing in the back, and never-ending sparkles. He had mascara and make up on, a pink tassel on one shoulder, and I swear he had honest-to-goodness acrylic nails on. From the get-go we were disgusted. His dance moves and performance were quite disgusting and most of us simply couldn't watch. His second performance was better, and we could watch it, but at the end he got roses and teddy bears and so many girly gifts that it was quite unbearable. Needless to say, Johnny did not get high marks from apartment 301.

Evegeny Plushenko from Russia has won the gold in this event for at least three years running, and he shows it. He is a really good skater, but overbearing and cocky. During his performance last night he did some disgusting hip-thrusts that made our whole apartment scream at once. He made it look effortless on the ice, but he was too girly for our tastes. He acted as though he had the gold already in the bag, with his high and mighty attitude. Towards the end the announcer said "He has one minute left and no jumps planned." To which Jessica replied, "It just means more hip thrusts." Immediately after that he did his hip thrusts again we screamed and then laughed hysterically for the rest of the performance. It was "epic." :)

Evan Lysacek, also called "Vulture Man," is from the US, is very handsome and MANLY! He was totally our favorite, and did an amazing performance and we all loved him! His coach has trained Michelle Kwan and a bunch of other amazing people, but he had never coached a gold. We were completely rooting for him because he was so awesome and the only one that had the potential of beating Plushenko. He was fantastic beyond what I can describe! What made me really love him was that he was excited and happy after each performance. You could see him celebrate after each one and he was so happy with what he had done, even if it didn't give him gold. Just the fact that he celebrated won me over.

Plushenko skated last and so as they were announcing scores we all waited with bated breath to see the gold medalist. Plushenko needed a 166 to win, and his score popped up on screen as 165. We all hesitated as it settled into our minds, but once Evan won we jumped up screaming and yelling, giving high fives and dancing. There was so much joy in the room! I haven't been that happy in a long time. Jessica was crying tears of joy and we celebrated for a few minutes. A door shut upstairs because we were so loud. It was the absolute perfect ending to a terrible day. :) As Jess would say, "There was much rejoicing."

David came into the room while we were watching and tried to talk to us and the conversaition went like this:
Kelsie: "Sh, we're watching the Olympics!"
Mallory: "You're distracting from the artistry!"
Kelsie: "We're such women!"
Accompanied by much laughter.

It is true. :) Why else would we be watching Men's Figure Skating at 11 at night?

Now I have a deep and abiding love for the Olympics...too.

I Can Do Hard Things!

Did anyone else learn morals as a child from a dragon named Pumsy? Pumsy taught children how to handle situations, strengthen self esteem, and face scary tasks--at least that was the intent. There was a man that would come to our class every month and teach us a Pumsy story, and I've sadly forgotten his name. But I do remember that he would give out glass pebbles to kids that were really good, and I was so sad because I was always sooo good and I never got one. The things we remember.

My brother and sister went through it too and somehow we ended up with a Pumsy bookmark at my house that found it's way into a set of scriptures that we used for family scripture reading every night. I would get that set every week or so and it revived memories of my childhood. On it was a picture of Pumsy and the words "I can do hard things." I never heard the story, but I always remembered that silly bookmark.


Now to my real story.
WARNING: Super silly content! If you hold Taylor in any high esteem for deep thinking or being outgoing stop reading immediately!

I happened upon the Valentine's aisle at the store a few weeks ago and I spied a wonderful thing. Sitting on a shelf were honest-to-goodness Princess and the Frog Valentines! I couldn't resist buying them, of course, and so I set out to think of 32 friends I loved enough to give them to. :)

Things went well, I have friends in my ward, amazing roommates, and lots of family back home that I would be visiting soon. I even resisted the chocolate I bought to put with them--I only ate one (with permission). Then I got this totally crazy idea, but it kept nagging at me for a few days. It would be so silly, but fun, and crazy... but if I could get up the courage I'd try it. I was going to give a Valentine to my favorite Aggie Shuttle Bus Driver. :)

There is one driver that always makes me so happy when I get on. He smiles and gives everyone a warm welcome, whether they return it or not. He looks more "gruff" that all the others only by the fact that he isn't as jolly-Santa looking, or smooth shaved. He always makes me so happy though, and I was determined to do something for him too. That is... if I could work up the courage. :)

So I prepared the Valentines and held this one in my coat pocket for when I saw him. It was a Friday and so I only had one day. I figured giving it afterwards would be silly and a waste of energy, so I had 4 bus trips to hopefully make the right one.

On my way home from my first class I found him, and started panicking, how could I really go through with this? So I hung back to the end of the line and I simply put it in his hand and said, "This is for you." He thanked me as I scampered to the back of the bus. He smiled really wide at me all that day, and I hope I brought him a little happiness with a silly chocolate and Princess and the Frog Valentine...

So it is true. Taylor can do hard things. :)