This is my BYU education

I'm finishing up my Music Civilization class notes (Last GE, thank-you). As with all exams, I go through my notes and make flash cards. I'm glad I made "special notes" for this class... a list of quotes from my teacher. Hope everyone else finds them as funny as I did:

"Hey! We're kissing in Triple Time!" This came after the discussion of fair phyllis, an Italian Madrigal. Our professor was telling us about how he had a graduate student who was obsessed with realizing musical rhythms in everyday life. At one point this graduate told our professor about how he was kissing his wife, thought about it stopped kissing her and said the above statement.

"But if I'm every too hard on my students, you can always hope I contract stage four ovarian cancer". My professor showed us clips of the movie Wit (It is now on my summer watch list). In the movie a professor of John Donne poems contracts this kind of cancer and few people show her sympathy because she was such a harsh teacher. Some people say that Dr. Howard, my professor, is too hard and therefore he says that you can always pray for bad things... Kind of like
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atBg9zLI2bA

"You poor altos, you never get the guy. You always get jilted." We were talking about how the sopranos and the tenors sing together in order to try and make it sound like a mom and her son, and the sopranos and the tenors sing together to sound like a wife and a husband. Dr. Howard even pointed out how sometimes the altos will sing with the soprano, if the tenor can not get high enough on the tenor line. But the altos never get the guy. :(

In case you forget

In case you are like me forget how blessed you are, come volunteer at the Children's Justice Center. This is where I'm doing my internship. Tuesdays I work with children who have been abused. Thursday I work with teen girls who have been abused. All of these cases are sexual abuse, most of the perpetrators are family members. Everyday I leave my internship wishing I could do more, praying that these girls will find peace and hoping that this never happens to my children. What a scary thought, to have your childhood snatched away all because someone wanted to usurp your personal freedoms. Everyday, I leave with a little glimpse of the view Heavenly Father has for these children and hoping that they can find that same outlook.

Here they come again.

Finals seem to always come at the most inconvenient time: we you're stressed, tired and ready to just be sitting in the sunshine doing absolutely nothing. So, I blog. Because that is such a good use of my time with finals around the corner.

However, if everything goes according to plan (which it rarely does) I should only have one final. Gigantic music civilization. But atleast we finally hit the interesting parts. We just now got to the 1600's. Did you know there was good music before that? We finally get to learn about Bach! Growing up and taking piano lessons, I really did not enjoy Baroque music, but now I love it.

So, in 2 weeks plus some, I'll be seeing Little Scott and Evie. I. Can't. Wait.

 Between now and then, I'm packing, studying, catching up with friends and cleaning, I was talking to my old room mate the other day and we had to wonder where the care free days of Sophomore year went. (Freshman year was extremely stressful, not care free at all). We were able to just enjoy life and really, classes weren't really that hard. All of the sudden we're dealing with missions and marriages and graduate school and we feel as if we have experienced a little bit of whiplash in how fast the time is going. I haven't even left Provo yet and I'm already missing it. Weird. Here's to a good last year of school (which will probably end sooner than I can expect) and a life full of happiness and adventure.

Drowned rat

I often have these odd visions of myself. Not mystical visions like we learned about in my Civilization of music class. But visions of how I swear I look to other people. Like today. I was about to run into Barnes and Noble to find a book about treating abuse (happy, I know). And then it started to rain. A cold rain. So I had a decision. Stay in my nice warm car and wait it out or make a run for it. When I reached the store I wondered if the first option was better. I entered the double doors and was met by a very nice, very cute, store employee. "A little wet out, huh?" he asked. Duh. He was a smart one. I felt like a drowned rat.

Today, I'm feeling... sick?

5 days ago I went into the doctor. Strange nausea. He gave me some pills and sent me on my merry way. I have been feeling great. No nausea. Until today. Today, I talked to my dad about the pain and then about 30 minutes later I was feeling uncomfortable again. Psychological connection? Bodies are amazing, but weird sometimes. The doctor said stress could be causing it, but I'm guessing if that's the case I don't handle stress well at all. But that is so true. Ask my family. I am a walking bunch of nerves sometimes! Here's to the medicine fixing my body so I don't have to keep canceling plans.

Let's talk about self-perception

What do you see what you look in the mirror? If you're like many people you may see a distorted view of what is actually there: a beautiful, powerful and worthwhile person that really can make a difference? After running into too many girls who think they are too fat, too thin, they have too much emotional baggage that no one would like them... sound familiar to anyone one? Women are likely to be critical of themselves and it makes sense. The adversary has to work very hard to make us feel less than we are because that can affect the relationships we have with are families (current and future).


I've been on a Princess Diaries kick lately and I've decided that this movie is a lot about self-perception. Stay with me, I promise this is going somewhere. At one point, the Queen tells Mia: "Many people think being a princess means always looking pretty,being perfect, marrying a prince charming and live happily ever after ; but it`s not. it`s something much more than that. It's a real job." Sometimes, we think life is about being perfect. Not necessarily in the eyes on God (this should be our goal) but in the eyes of the world. Sarah Burge spent $774,400 on plastic surgery in order to look like a barbie doll. But Sarah, and the rest of us are wrong. Instead, I think we should focus on what God wants for us. This doesn't mean we throw looking beautiful out the window. Look at the world around us. Beautiful sunsets, sunrises, flowers and streams. We are his crowning creation. Should we not then, strive to be beautiful in His eyes?


Okay, one more Princess Diaries quote: "She was never normal. She was born royal." THIS IS US! We have never been normal. We are sons and daughters of the Supreme Creator. President Uchtdorf said it well: "No matter how dark your days may seem, no matter how insignificant you may feel, no matter how overshadowed you think you may be, your Heavenly Father has not forgotten you. In fact, He loves you, with an infinite love." We are known by Him, therefore the lies that say we will never be good enough or that we are not beautiful enough are just that: lies. Now, we can embrace the truth of our divine potential and move forward to accomplish not only our earthly goals, but our eternal goals. 

Baby it's cold outside!

Not only is it cold, but it snowed today too! The beginning: Oct. 6th. Any guesses for the last snow of the season? My guess: April 24th. By then I'll hopefully be sitting in nice warm weather, preferably Georgia. I pulled out all the stops today, though: heater, blanket and corn bag. I just need to find some hot chocolate ASAP! Let winter begin if it must and I will play in the snow with all of my friends. I feel like I should be sticking my tongue out at the snow, "You can't stop me from having fun!"