Things I learned last night while being taught West Coast Swing:

1. I need a remedial course in West Coast Swing.
2. I am not comfortable dancing with virtual strangers.  I'm probably not comfortable dancing with people I know, either, but, for sure, not comfortable with strangers.
3. Dancing is awkward.
4. It is especially awkward when you are suddenly being dipped when you've never, ever been dipped while dancing before.
5. That's probably why my back hurts, now that I think about it.
6. Also, despite the fact that I am probably the worst dancer in the history of dance, I had a good time.

I love the Olympics!

I love watching the Olympics. 
I love watching the athletes compete. 
I love watching underdogs win.
I love watching people make history being the first from their country to win a medal or even just to make it to the games.
I love seeing the joy, the pain, the triumph.
I love seeing the friendship among the athletes, and the rivalries.
I love watching history unfold right before my eyes (with a seven hour tape delay ^_^).
I love how watching it consumes my life for two weeks and I love how, when it is over, I feel different, like I can do at least a fraction of what those athletes did. 

GO OLYMPICS!!!!

Exhaustion

I got a job a few months back.  It's great.  The work isn't that bad and I love the people I work with.  They are fantastic.
However, I'm exhausted.  All the time.
I miss sleeping.  It is my favorite thing and I haven't been getting nearly enough.

Oh, Sleep, where have you gone?

Fear

I'm scared because my state is on fire.  As I am writing this there are eight fires blazing across Utah, not to mention the devastating fires in other states.  I'm not super close to any of them, but I can smell the smoke.  I can feel it in my nose and throat.  I can see it's cloying mist hanging over the valley. 

They start so fast and then they are burning down people's homes, their lives, all that they have.  And you just sit and watch and pray that your home isn't next.  You pray for those people and you hope they all make it out safe.  You pray that they have the most important things.  And you hope and pray that tomorrow around this same time there won't be a fire barreling down the mountain for your home.

I'm terrified that this won't stop and that it will keep getting worse, until there is nothing left except smoldering ruins and ash.

The Artful Dodger

A little over a month ago I got a rabbit.
He died about week ago. 

I named him the Artful Dodger.  He was so small and so sweet.  He would climb up in my lap and just sit there.  Sometimes when we held him he would climb up and sit on our shoulders.  He loved eating dandelions leaves.  He peed on my sister the first day I had him.  And he was the best and sweetest one.  I will really miss him.

Dodger

We took a trip to Crazytown and made my brother come

Two and a half weeks ago my sister and I saw a fairly cheap rabbit hutch on the classifieds.  It was about an hour away... but it was cheap.  So we decided to go look at it and we made my brother come so he could help us put it in the van (Also for protection in case the sellers were crazies). 

When we got to the hutch place, we decided it looked ginormous, but we would get it, because then I could get me a bunny sometime and it would have a place to stay.  So we paid for it and carried it to our van.  We lifted it and maneuvered it and found, to our horror, it didn't actually fit in the van.  We turned it around and around and tried to get it to go in some other way.  But it wouldn't fit! 

Finally, we were forced to face the fact that we really should have measured the van instead of just assuming the hutch would fit.  I made my brother go ask the people we had bought the hutch from if we could borrow a saw to cut off enough of the legs to fit it in the van.  They laughed, but the guy went and got an electric saw and helped us cut a few inches off the legs and, luckily, it fit.

It was so embarrassing.

My Brother was not embarrassed at all, but my sister and I were... 'cause it was embarrassing.

After that, we drove away... And, since we were in the area-ish, we decided to go look at some cheap bunnies...

...But it turned out we were headed into the Labyrinth.

This city, nay this maze, where the bunnies lived was horrible.  We didn't get there until the light was pretty much gone, and we were trying to find an address that wasn't very clear, the people didn't give us directions, and neither my sister, my brother, nor I have smart phones, so we couldn't just look it up.

We drove around for a bit, trying to find the right street numbers, and failing.  Finally, we called my other sister and asked her to look up this address and tell us how to get there.  She would ask us where we were and we would try and read signs that had tiny little numbers that weren't actually visible at night.  Then she would try tell us where to go.  Through much pain and yelling and exasperation and perseverance, she was able to tell us how to get to the house.

We spent the next thirty to forty minutes falling in love with some very small bunnies.  The family we were buying them from had rescued them from neighbors.  There were five bunnies and they were all really sweet... so we got two. ^_^

Now my sister has two bunnies and I have one; she has one girl and one boy and I have one boy.  They are so cute and I love their faces.  But the only thing is, now we have to worry about keeping them apart so we don't end up having bunny babies, which would not be ok. ^_^

The big one is the one we had from before.  The two little ones are new.  Sizes are only slightly exaggerated ^_^

Spring Term and Bunnies

I'm taking two classes this spring term.  One is an English language class and the other is an English literature class.  They are both pretty cool, but I'm having a hard time convincing myself to do the homework.  All I want to do is look at bunnies and dogs available in the classifieds on the internet. 

My sister got a bunny a few weeks ago and since then I've been wanting my own pet.  I live at home with my parents and my dad doesn't want dogs, so I know I won't get a dog (yet ^_^), but there is a chance I could get a bunny.  So I look and I fall in love, one bunny at a time.

It's really distracting, though, and pretty unrealistic, because most people don't want to give up their bunnies for free, so I would have to pay them and I am very unemployed and broke.  Also, it seems like all the cheap bunnies are far away.  But I still look and waste my time. 

Anyway, here's a picture of my sister's bunny.  It looks braver in this picture than it is in real life.

Major Changes

I changed my major to English. 

I sort of had a mini panic attack the first day of classes this semester.  I was in a lab for one of my Geology classes and I just sort of freaked out because I felt like I didn't know anything and never would be able to figure it out.  I don't think anyone noticed, but I'm not sure.  I left class early and didn't go to any classes the rest of the week.   And I seriously considered dropping out of college.  I didn't really want to drop out of college, but at the same time I did. 

That got me thinking.  I've never really liked my Geology classes.  I mean, some parts were cool, but except for a few fantastically awesome exceptions, I didn't like them.  And for the last two years I've been skipping classes and playing catch up and hating school and wondering what was wrong with me that I couldn't even force myself to go to class.  Finally, I figured it out a huge part of it: I don't want to study Geology.  So I dropped most of my Geology classes and decided to change my major.

The only question was what to change to.  After looking at all of the majors offered and after adding an English class to fulfill a general requirement and after praying a lot, I decided that maybe English was something I liked enough to study.  So I changed my major. 

It's scary.  I'm afraid that I screwed up my life.  I'm afraid I made the wrong decision, but I know that I had to make a decision.  I know that I couldn't stay with Geology, but I'm not sure that English is the right choice.  But, is there a right choice?  I just don't know.  Sigh. 

But at the same time, I really like my English class.  I like thinking and talking about the things we are reading in class.  And while my papers haven't been super great so far, at least I've written them, and they're getting better.

So maybe, even though any job that I get because I major in English (if I ever get a job ^_^) won't be nearly as cool as a job I could get as a Geologist, I will be happy.

Also, maybe you noticed, I changed the look of my blog.  I haven't decided for sure if I like it this way, so it might change again soon, but for now this is it.  Enjoy ^_^

Paranoid

For two weeks I have tried not to touch or rub my eyes.

Over Christmas break my niece got pink eye.  Apparently the bacteria from it, that is lingering on everything she touched, can last as long as two weeks.  Since I didn't want to get pink eye, I have been very careful not to touch my eyes, or at least to wash my hands beforehand.  You know, in case I touched any of the same things that my two year old niece did.

It might sound paranoid.  And, well, it is.  But I didn't want to get pink eye.

It's kind of funny, though.  For two weeks I have watched people on TV and in movies rubbing their eyes, because they were tired, or their eyes itched, or for whatever reason and I have been jealous.  I wanted to rub my eyes.  All the time. 

But it's been two weeks since the last symptom, or at least since my niece went back home.  So now if my eyes itch I can take care of it.  Yay!

In case you wondered, this is what I would have looked like with pink eye.  Also, I think, close to what I look like when I am angry, or when I cry. 

A Post!

Guess what?

It's a new year and school has started again.  Already I am sick of it.  Fantastic, right?

Christmas was great. 
My sister and her husband came with their two girls.  My nieces are so cute.  And smart.  The 2 and a half year old almost got sent to bed for being grumpy around 6 PM and after that, she was a perfect angel and played quietly, until her dad realized that she had stayed up until 1:30.  It was hilarious. 

One of my best friends got back from her mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (learn more here).  She was gone a year and a half.  I really missed her and I'm glad she's back.  We always went walking before her mission, and I guess she misses walking now she's back.  So we went on a few walks before she moved to University town. 
Anyway, it makes me so happy to be able to talk to her again.

But, the holidays are over.

And it's back to school.

This is how I feel about being back.  And that puddle is not spit, it's tears. ^_^