Lunes

Today I went to the temple.

And after that, it was all downhill on the interesting scale.

Then again, I wrote a great new lyric for a piece I've been fooling with. :)

Valentime's

I've got a love/hate relationship with Valentine's Day. It's a nice excuse to tell people you love/care about them or just that you think they're cool. I didn't really celebrate it conventionally today, though, since it's Sunday. Rather, today I taught my first lesson in Relief Society as an instructor, which was five minutes too short and a bit ill-prepared. Ah, well. I can do better.

After church, I slept for a while. Charné and I had every intention of walking to downtown Provo to explore housing, but we ended up sleeping forever. Later, I walked to Greta's and she and I walked to her grandparents' house while we shared our Valentine's adventures from the night before. Hers was definitely more interesting and seasonal than mine. :)

Later, I walked home and ran into a million people and their dates from my ward, all walking back from a Valentine's fireside. I talked with my cousin and friend on the way home, made it to ward prayer with Charné, and promptly knocked out on the couch when I got home. Until now.

Tomorrow, Charné and I are going to the temple. Other than that, I have no idea how I'm spending Monday.

Peace and blessings. :P

Sunday...sundaysundaysunday.

Only a very select group of people will get that reference.

Like, Madelyn.

I need to organize my ideas. I think I'm going to do the list thing again. That's always fun.

1. Today is Sunday and IT SNOWED!!!! That is- it's snowed before, but this time it's sticking, and it's deep, and it's unbelievably gorgeous!

2. Yesterday, our ward had an activity and we rode the train to Salt Lake City and walked around temple square together! It was so pretty to see all the lights, spend time with friends, and get to know some of those people better. (I feel like I don't go to those activities enough)

3. Tomorrow, a great band called NightNight is playing at my favorite music venue: Velour! I can't wait to see them play!

4. If anyone feels like obliging me for Christmas, I'm in love with these boots. Click here for the link.

5. I'm writing my next This I Believe about serendipity... and sort of finding something good when you're at an ultimate low. It should be good. :)

I guess that's all for now!

The Bucket List

This semester, I am taking a freshman seminar titled "This I Believe," (after the wonderful NPR program) about personal narratives and statements of belief. For one of our first assignments, we had to write a list of one hundred things to do before we die. Here is mine (organized by categories my professor suggested):

Community

1. Write to the President.
2. Write to my Congressman.
3. Have an editorial published in the WSJ.
4. Vote at all major elections.
5. Serve on some sort of decision-making board.

Creativity

6. Publish a novel.
7. Learn to play the guitar.
8. Publish an album on iTunes.
9. Perform a big concert.
10. Publish poetry in a big magazine.
11. Conduct an orchestra or choir, performing a piece I composed.
12. Be in a musical.
13. Learn to play the cello.
14. Be in a band.
15. Get an essay published on This I Believe.
16. Sing opera in public.
17. Participate in Story Corps.
18. Participate in NaBloPoMo without missing a day!
19. Paint a picture I am proud of.

Friends or Friendships

20. Don't be afraid of strangers.
21. Don't withhold compliments.
22. Smile at random people.
23. Show genuine interest in people.
24. Be a better conversationalist.

Spiritual Life (or values)

25. Have mighty, sincere prayers.
26. Read the Old Testament.
27. Have a smile for everyone.
28. Fulfill my Patriarchal Blessing,
29. Always be willing to serve in callings.
30. Go to the temple frequently (once a week, if I am close).
31. See my whole family in the temple.

Health

32. Never be overweight.
33. Always keep the Word of Wisdom.
34. Exercise daily.
35. Take vitamins.
36. Ride my bicycle places, even when it's far.
37. Be a vegetarian for a week.

Helping, Service, Civic Action

38. Serve a mission (senior or as a sister missionary).
39. Work as a poll worker.
40. Volunteer at various organizations.
41. Give a bunch of cheeseburgers to hobos, like Chris McCandless in Into the Wild.

Home

42. Learn to make clothes.
43. Sew a decent dress.
44. Learn to make Foccacia and other bread from scratch.
45. Have a "famous" recipe for something.
46. Read to kids.
47. Bear testimony to kids.
48. Teach kids to be responsible.
49. Have pictures of Christ all around the house.
50. Have a musical family.
51. Read the scriptures every night as a family.

Learning

52. Learn Swedish, French, and German.
53. Learn to compose music really well.
54. Be a great, coherent writer.
55. Be a ham radio operator.
56. Finish The Brothers Karamazov.
57. Read Crime and Punishment.
58. Consistently read different books out of any general type.

Love or Love Relationship

59. Fast and pray before marriage.
60. Marry a return missionary.
61. Marry in the temple for eternity.
62. Write a song with my future husband.
63. Do whatever I can to make my spouse happy.

Money or Standard of Living

64. Be able to stay at home with my children.
65. Make a living composing or writing.
66. Live in a house with lots of windows.
67. Have well-designed furniture.

Neighborhood

68. Paint a mural where I live.
69. Have a "park day" with other moms and kids in my neighborhood.

Play or Recreation

70. Get really good at tennis.
71. Learn to play ultimate frisbee.
72. Learn to waterski.
73. Live on Gotland for at least a year.
74. Drive a fast car, fast, on Gotland Ring.
75. Visit Charne in South Africa.
76. Play with lions.
77. Swim with dolphins.
78. Go on the big roller coaster at California Adventure, overcoming my fear of roller coasters.
79. Skip around New York City, especially in public places.
80. See the Pyramids.
81. Go to Israel and Jerusalem.
82. Go to Australia.
83. Go to Spain and speak Spanish to real Spaniards.
84. Pull one all-nighter. Then never again.
85. Hike Timpanogos.
86. Visit all fifty states.

Relationships with Children

87. Give birth.
88. Teach children about the gospel.
89. Make sure they know I love them.
90. Have great Family Home Evenings.

Relationships with Relatives

91. Be patient with uncles and aunts.
92. Write letters to grandparents.
93. Be the future host of Cousin's Conference.
94. See grandchildren often.
95. See great-grandchildren.

Self-Esteem

96. Don't be afraid to take risks.
97. Smile at everyone.
98. Overcome phobiae.

Work and Retirement

99. Work at a radio station.
100. Be a professional musician.

This is flawed; some of the "Home" stuff belongs in "Relationships with Children," but for me, those will be basically the same thing. Plus, these aren't all exactly concrete. That is, I can't check them off the list in the near future. I guess I've made it more like a list of goals I'd like to accomplish in the long run. Anyway, I'm sure I will edit and add to it in the near future, and I'll keep you updated when I do.

A note to Madelyn: can you configure your blog so that I can leave a comment? As it is, I will just have to say here that I have never seen a Beanie Babie with the seam ripped; now I wonder what's in one. :) Ha ha ha! I miss you a lot, and when I get back, we will have to go on some kind of adventure. I am glad you're having fun in school; re-read what I wrote in your yearbook if you need me to reiterate how wonderful you are!

Another thing: you all need to log on to Skype more or Google Chat or something. And write something new on The Brown Dirt.

I think that's all. :)

Today I am going to the temple, so I can't blog so much...

My Painting

I did a lot today! This morning, I finished the first chunk of my Integrity project by reading a bunch of talks and writing a bit about them. Then I started my painting, which is the main thing I'm doing. It's a picture of the Nauvoo temple with trees and foliage around. I'm doing this sort of Impressionist thing with it and it's actually going pretty well. :)
Okay... it could be better.
Today I also recorded a bunch of improvised a-capella stuff that should be up on my music page pretty soon. That was very fun.
I'm super behind on my journal, so I have to go write in it now. Bye!

Sunday is the day of Rest!

Sunday is fairly easy, because it was nice and slow...
We woke up late enough and showered and got ready for church and then went down to breakfast, complimentary, on the 3rd floor. After that we all walked down to the subway and rode it for a while. We got off at some stop and we ran around for a while because we didn't really know where we were going. Eventually we got ourselves going in the right direction and we found the church. We knew- because there was a nice, big, friendly sign!! Hooray!
We saw some other people who were dressed up like they were going to church and one of them helped us out. The church was in an office building and she typed in the code, which happened to be a church-related number. :) We were a little late, but we came in just after the opening prayer, so we FINALLY got to take the sacrament after missing it for two weeks in a row!! Church was all in Swedish, but they were very visitor-friendly; there were headphones for the English-speakers to wear and this missionary was translating. All the hymns were Swedish too (DUH), so the words were really hard to pronounce.
After Sacrament, we decided to all go to Sunday School together, because we couldn't find the youth classes and Melissa was too afraid to go to primary. The lesson was a really long church movie (in English, fortunately for us) where Gordon B. Hinckley and his apostles in 2000 testify of Christ at all these different locations and stuff. It was cool, but it was really long and I was sort of tired. Church was over after that, so we walked out and they had some cookies and juice for refreshments. We talked to some people, mostly the sister missionaries from Utah. Then Dad decided that instead of the tube, he wanted to walk home, so we did. There was a pretty park we walked through and some nice streets. Eventually we ended up at our hotel again. I think we just took naps for a while and stuff.
Later, Dad woke us all up and told us to get ready because we wanted to go and visit the Stockholm Temple. We rode the subway to the central station, where we bought dinner at (ahh!) McDonald's, and then we switched lines or something and rode to the closest station to the temple. At the temple, we took some pictures and walked around for awhile and then we decided to go look for some snacks at a grocery store because we were still hungry. We bought some stuff, and rode the subway to our station. I was feeling kind of grumpy because of some stupid thing and so I walked ahead of everyone and walked up 13 levels of stairs to our floor. Once we were home, I blogged for a while, hung around with everyone, and later, fell asleep.
That's Sunday!