Landmarks

I turned twenty last Friday and consequently, I've been thinking about landmark ages lately. I've been growing up more and more officially over the past few years (pictures when they apply).

In 2007, I turned sixteen at a family reunion. (Teenage dream, right?)

Shortly thereafter, the Harry Potter series ended. To understand the gravity of this in relation to my adulthood, you have to know that I read the first three Harry Potter books no less than nine times each, and the next several around four times each. The last one I read only twice. If Harry Potter was grown up, I was grown up. That was it.
My brother went to college. I started worrying about college (which, apparently, I was supposed to have been doing since freshman year.)
I went to prom.

I turned 18, to very little fanfare. (I don't even have a picture.)
I graduated and pulled my first all-nighter at a Disneyland grad night. At 5, before we got back on the bus, my friends and I were passed out on the grass.

I moved to Provo, Utah and started attending college at Brigham Young University. (And met one of my closest friends, Greta Ballif)

I also met Sam, and Mike.

I joined a band.

I turned nineteen.
I got kissed and broken up with.

My tiniest sister, Maren, was born.

I released my first album.

I got kissed by someone nice.

Photo Credit: Justin Hackworth

I turned twenty.

Photo credit: Trevor Christensen

Aaaaaaand this is my first post in about two months. Sorry! I promise there will be more poems/pictures/ideas coming your way. I will be  a good little blogger.

Today

Fast forward to the present for a moment, if you please. All I can say is that my roommate and close friend Hannah and I reorganized our schedules so that we have a whopping THREE classes together on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It has been supa fun. I love that girl.

In conclusion, friends are good because they don't steal your bicycle, and they let you take classes with them.

Diez

My blog is boring. I know. I am always much worse about updating it during the school year. Maybe in November I will FINALLY succeed at NaBloPoMo and be a good blogger forever.

Unlikely. Ha.

Anyway, ten things I have been doing lately:

1. Making creepy cookies with Maddison and Pearl:

This clearly, is my actual finger. Gross, huh? Read the full post at Pearl's blog here

2. Thinking about Halloween. I have an idea for a costume, but I don't want to post it here because you will ALL steal it. Just kidding. It's not that cool.

3. Working on new songs, as always.

4. Taking antibiotics and eating pineapple for my nasty finger. (Google chat status: explained.)

5. Going to the C.S. Lewis Society on Wednesdays.

6. Visiting the Pendulum Court in the ESC. Today they had Pirate Day. It was delicious.

7. Doing a ton of Spanish homework. Yuck.

8. Practicing for Fork Fest. (Tonight: Book on Tape Worm!)

9. Sending fun letters to Sam the missionary.

(Remember this? I miss this.)

10. Slowly working my way through the Book of Mormon in Spanish.

P.S. My family is coming to town on Friday!! Yessssssss.

Things:

On Wednesday, I am playing at a special edition of Acoustic Explosion with Nik Day and Dave Crosby at BYU's Varsity Theatre (more information here), and then on Saturday I am opening for Cody Rigby, Norther, and Book on Tape Worm, which I'm also a part of. :)

In other updates, I'm an FHE mom and super surprised that I like it. I get to research creepy 1890s music for Romeo and Juliet. There is a cute guy in my ward who I've talked to about five times. I am writing new songs and poems and getting better at the guitar. Also, I went on a picnic with friends the other day. It was wonderful.

Credit to Kaneischa for a lovely afternoon and this lovely picture. :)

So.

My mom's been complaining that my blog isn't as... personal? as it used to be, because I keep posting pictures of things I like instead of writing about my life. I think this dearth of life-ness became more apparent when I left for school. Therefore, here are five things I have been doing since August 25th.

1. Going to classes. I am in Psych 111, English 252, Bio 100, Spanish 205, and New Testament. I'm also doing a music project with Megan Sanborn-Jones, the director of Romeo and Juliet, which is for credit. Maybe I should drop something, but I like them all...
2. Working. The other day I was cutting a giant piece of poster board and I accidentally cut myself with the Exacto knife I was using. Gnarly. The adventures we have in the TMA office.
3. Playing dress-up with Hannah. Um... yeah. We are six years old inside. Pictures soon. :)
4. Cleaning/organizing my apartment. Constantly.
5. Writing new songs, mostly on the guitar. Hopefully I will get better at it this year.

First Day of School!

If I had it with me, I'd post the most awkward of awkward pictures ever taken of me on my first day of third grade. As it is, here's an adorable Rockwell cover.

Wait! Also, this:

My first day of school, ever.

Pasadena, California. September 1996.

Soonnnn.

Three days until these kids are reunited.

My parents are flying from Ontario to Dallas today and touring around his mission with him, meeting everyone. They fly back with him on Friday. Sunday is his homecoming and some of us are speaking, including me. My little brother said he wanted to give a talk just so he could sit next to Collin on the stand. Our extended family will be there for the meeting and then lunch at our house. After that, there are two or three days before Collin and I drive to Provo.

And then I have my brother for the whole year. :)

The Stover Gentlemen's Club

This year, I made friends with an entire hall of boys living in Stover 3100 of Helaman Halls. How this happened is a long story (if you want, ask me sometime), but the point is, I became close with the talented and interesting group of gentlemen living there. Around Christmastime, 3100 collaborated on making a Christmas album, just for kicks. They called it "Christmas with the Stover Gentleman's Club," and it was hilarious in parts and brilliant in others. Needless to say, it was the soundtrack to my winter break.

Around Valentine's Day, they recorded another album all together called "Love n' Stuff," and it's part of the soundtrack to my summer, along with Leonard Cohen, Sam's playlists, and the Troilus and Cressida score.

I miss these guys.

Just so you know...

This is what I look like when I'm bored, slightly frustrated, and stuck in my office for three more hours.

And fooling with poladroid on my break.

I think I'm going to open the windows.

FAIL.

Okay. I missed- what, four days? That being said, I guess I'll keep blogging this month, but I'll probably have to do a legit NaBloPoMo next month. Maybe I'll just try every month until I actually get it right.

Today my dad is in Provo!! We've got a lot of fun stuff planned, and I'm pretty psyched. Already this week, I've shown my Dad around Provo (the highlight of which was giving him a tour of Velour, where I play sometimes), and yesterday I took the train to Salt Lake City and met up with him for dinner there. I felt very metropolitan and cool, especially because Greta did my hair yesterday and it looked amazingly classy and gorgeous. She is seriously brilliant in a million ways. :)

Anyway, I'll be taking my camera with me today, so there should be some pictures soon!

Miss Brown Attends Her First Rugby Match.

First, this morning my really talented friend came over and we practiced music. Actually, it wasn't really morning. More like 11.

Later, as I stated, I went to a rugby match with my roommates. It was Utah State vs. BYU. We won, naturally. I learned a lot about how the game works and had fun ogling/making fun of the players with my friends. Afterwards, we went to Kneaders for the most amazing sandwiches EVER.

Oh, and tonight there's a dance. We're all dressed up. Charné did my hair and makeup. I look cute.

Pictures soon to follow. :)

Mes

This month I'm trying to get Madelyn to NaBloPoMo with me, since I failed in December. I figure if I do this with someone I'll be more committed and whatever.

This morning I went to work, where I sent a bunch of emails for some professors I know who are advancing to full professor. After work was French and Italian Cinema, which is one of my favorite classes this semester. We watched a film called "Rome: Open City" today. Basically, every day in film, I fall asleep for about fifteen minutes-ish and then wake up and pick up the story again. Today I fell asleep for a long time, though, and woke up to see the end, which was one of the coolest endings all semester. I'll have to re-watch it.

Anyway, after that I met up with Greta and we talked for a long time about life and such. Then I walked home and called my mom and argued with her for a while, even though I can't figure out the basis for my argument entirely(Don't ask, it's not really relevant). I got home and listened to Simon and Garfunkel for a while on Marissa's computer.

Later tonight, we're having FHE at our apartment and then an extremely talented friend of mine is coming over to practice. I'm playing the piano for him at a show he's doing in about two weeks. I'm psyched, to say the least. :)

Madelyn: this is your queue. Go write something.

This is Not A Landmark Post.

It's looking pretty dreary outside today, but it's been a decent morning so far. It's raining, which I always love. :) Today, I'm planning to clean my room, get some homework done, go to the Walk of Life sponsored by the Black Student Union at BYU, and then come home for FHE with my awesome group. I might hang out with a friend of mine at some point too, since we were talking music and record deals last night and he might be able to help me. So... if he remembers to call. It should be a great day!

Oh, and my roommates and I rearranged our living room and it looks awesome. :) I'm excited for the semester.

Regarding the title: today is my 162nd post. I think I'd like to get to 200 soon. That would be cool, eh? :)

Hola!

It's been a while-ish, but here are some things I've been doing (in list form, as always):

1. Glorying in this awesome vintage bag my Grandma Nora gave me over Christmas break.

2. Writing letters to my brother Collin, who is serving a mission in the Dallas, TX area. :)

3. Yesterday I went ice skating with two of my friends at the Gallivan in Salt Lake. It's the cutest little rink and I think we all had a fairly good time, despite falling over on the ice a few times.

4. International Cinema-ing. I LOVE INTERNATIONAL CINEMA, and the new season kicked off on Friday by sh0wing the last season's most popular films: Psycho and Pan's Labyrinth. Some friends and I saw Psycho last night, which isn't very scary the second time around. Anyway, I'm really excited for the new season!

5. Starting my new job! I've already said how excited I am about this. I get to work with some of the coolest people on campus, in my opinion. :) I've already made two posters and I'm going to have many more opportunities to develop design-wise.

6. Starting classes, which are going well, now that I've got my schedule figured out. I'm especially excited for... pretty much all of them? Astronomy, French and Italian Cinema (no french/italian required, thank heavens) and Vocal Training! Also, my friend Greta and I are taking a jogging class together, which will be a great experience!

7. Looking through my sophomore year notebook. I wrote a bunch of really cool songs when I was a sophomore, and I am increasingly more proud of 15-year-old me as I dredge them up and start working with them again.

7. Planning my amazing Maeser show, which will either be at the end of this month or sometime in February. I'm trying to pick a day when there's a "lull," as my friend Greta put it. Yesterday I found a bunch of songs on iTunes that have my full name in them, which I think would be hilarious to play before the show starts.

8. Cooking/trying to cook. The other day I made fried rice, which was a great success. I've always been good at making that, though. I'm planning a little dinner party for next week for a reunion with some of the girls I know, and I'm making curry. THAT should be exciting. Mmmmm... curry. And today, I am making muffins. From a box, though. Doesn't really count.

9. Missing David Tennant as Doctor Who. REALLY, REALLY MISSING HIM. :/ (Even though the episode with the new guy hasn't aired yet.) (Or at least, I haven't seen it yet.)

10. Being myself. We'll see if I can keep that up...

ADKFHLSJ;AKSD

I never know what to title my posts. Today I am STILL in Provo and I don't come home until tomorrow morning. So I get to think of ways to use up my time. I already passed my cleaning check. I think now I'm going to finish Mansfield Park, since I started watching a decent version on Hulu yesterday night. I also found out that we DON'T have to take down our Christmas decorations, thank goodness! I like having Christmas up as long as possible. :P

This post is kind of for yesterday. I shall continue in the next possssssst...

Okay...

I tweaked the time on this post, because I don't feel like today is really over yet. Today I went to the Joshua James Christmas show with my friend Sam and then he came over and we made cookies, worked on our song that we're writing, acted goofy, and hung out until 1:30ish. :) It's been a nice end to the day.

It's been a good day.

If unproductive.

Today I got up and eventually went to campus and ate lunch at the Cannon Center with Charné and Marissa. Then I went to the actual campus and hung out with Greta for a long time, walked home, and am working on my project.

So I am going to do that...

Yup.

Peace and Blessings.

I forgot to post yesterday. AGAIN.

Okay, so yesterday I went to church and everything was really slushy, so my feet got all wet. In church, I played the organ, since I'm the ward organist. However, this was our last Sunday with our callings, so it was the LAST DAY of that calling. :(

Later I went home, researched random things on my computer, did some work, talked to my family, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera...

Oh! Something funny happened last night! One of my friends came over to my apartment because he wanted to hear my music, and afterward, he, Charné, Marissa, and I were talking. We told him about how we sometimes spy on people from our top-floor window and stuff. Anyway, he left later and Charné went to take the trash out. A while afterward, Marissa and I were looking out the window to see where she was when we noticed a group of people to the side. We were looking for Charné among them when we realized our friend was there, and he looked just as I wondered aloud if it was him!!!

Marissa and I went down behind the windowsill like little kids when suddenly we heard a snowball hit our window. We popped back up and he and another friend were throwing snowballs at us! We cracked up and made faces; I fell off the couch, I was laughing so hard. Charné came up again later and they were still throwing snowballs at us, so we opened a window and yelled at them a bit from it. Eventually we waved goodbye. :)

Cosas

Hi. This post has to be kind of quick, because I have a lot to do this evening.

I really, really, REALLY wish I could go see NightNight at Velour tonight, but I can't. Because I procrastinated myself into a terrible pit of destruction and the only way out is to finish this crazy project.

So. Today I went to the mall with Charné, procrastinating some more. I smelled perfumes. I'm still in love with GAP's Heaven. Not only is it what I would smell like if I were bottled, it is my favorite color. So we are perfect for each other.

In related news, I'm not really in love with the mall in Provo and I will probably end up doing any real shopping at quirky indie stores from now on. Which is way cooler anyway.

My life is a liiiiittle bit scattered right now. I don't really know what I should do. I think I'm going to fast tomorrow.

CRAP!

I forgot to post yesterday! So here is what I did, I guess, and I'll post twice today??

Anyway, I went in for training at my job in the TMA office (WHICH I'M SO EXCITED ABOUT!!!) and learned a lot about InDesign and how fun and amazing that office is! I'm so psyched to start work there. I'm going to get to do all these awesome design projects all year. I think I'm going to learn a lot, which is what I'm looking forward to the most.

Later, after that, Charné and I went on an adventure and got lost on the bus system until we got to the post office in Provo (which, thankfully, was where we were headed). There, we got a very important letter my mom sent to me which the postman, for some reason, thought I needed to sign for. Anyway, it was this big stupid mishap. We rode back to campus after that, and I went to the Student Employment Office and finally got hired OFFICIALLY. Maybe I can get paid before Christmas. That would be amazing, because then I could get everyone amazing presents.

After that, I walked home through the snow with the best intentions of being productive. And then I got home and just... wasn't. :/

Later, Charné, Marissa (our kind of adopted roommate) and I all went to a farewell party for two guys in our ward who are leaving on their missions soon. It was really fun. :)

We got home around two in the morning. And then I knocked out.

In a few random pieces of news:

I think I've finished my song in G... but I'm kind of afraid that it will say too much.

I love the Weepies. I LOVE them.

I can't wait to come home and feel the sun and see all the people I miss!