So it has been a long time since I have written in this blog... I keep having thoughts about what to write in it. For example, I have had lots of thoughts about how to gauge progress after you don't have real tangible goals of graduating from college, getting married, or whatever. Like when we are younger we have lots of goals that we can make and keep in short amount of time, however, as we get older the standard by which we compare whether our life is a success or not has to change. And I have been trying to think of how I want to assess my life. I know that a full blog could be written about this... but I don't think I'm going to go into it right now....

Then I've thought about sharing thoughts I've had from a number of books I've read. Like I just read The Stranger by Albert Camus. It is a very interesting book. I don't really know if I like it, but it definitely is a book you have to think about. Asses what you think about trials of law, death penalty, how you view yourself, if we have to wait until we are near to death to regain the passion that we may have lost while we were becoming adult and really live again, etc. I am actually going to have a little chat with my friend who loves this book, so I may add a post about this later... maybe.

But what really was my motivation for writing the post today was actually just to repost a blog I had written on myspace a couple years ago. I went on a date tonight and I actually had an experience that affirmed the long held belief that on a first date you shouldn't interrogate your date to know if they have long term compatibility. I think that first dates should pretty much be there to see if you really are attracted to the other person... once you start asking what your date's ideal significant other and commenting on how you fit or don't fit that... it is kinda turning into a bad date. Anyways, when I was put on the spot to explain what I wanted in a partner and which ones I would and wouldn't compromise on, I remembered this post. I unfortunately couldn't remember all the bullets explicitly, cuz I wasn't planning on being tested on my first date. I thought that if I enjoyed this person's company that each would present themselves in a natural progression.. But I went back to look at this post, and, damn, I really do want an amazing guy! Too bad I haven't met him yet. Anyways, I am going to repost it here, cuz I don't go to myspace very often, and really, even though I intrinsically know what I want, it is nice to read it so explicitly every once and awhile. Also if you know of someone... let me know ;)

1. Intellectually stimulating. This means they are smart, can challenge me, think of new conversations to talk about, trust me enough to talk about anything with me, are open to philosophical discussions, political ideas, books that we read alone and together, like to learn, like to teach me what they learn, etc. Also what can help here is that they have at least a bachelor's degree in something. It shows that they value education and work towards a goal and even though I know it isn't a foolproof way to show that someone is smart and I know people who are smart who don't have a BS or BA but it's a good, easy way to sift through the people. But the first part is more important than the second part of this bullet.
2. Same values and standards as me. This pulls in views towards the church. Lots of my values and standards stem from my association with the church, however, they aren't based solely on the church. However, I think there is a higher probability of overlap and likelihood of less contention (in our own lives and when raising children) if they are of the same religious persuasion and they place value on similar weights to the aspects that the church teaches and want the same standards in our lives. Also they need to have high standards in terms of self improvement, how we can help the environment around us, etc, and how we can always work harder to improve those aspects to a higher standard.
3. Active. I love playing. Playing sports, working out, adventuring, traveling, etc. I don't think I would be happy with someone who doesn't also want to have adventures, play sports, go snowboarding, and up for learning more new active things. Plus it will help us both be healthy. Being healthy is a good bullet, but I'll add it here. He has to like to try new foods, like flavor in his foods, be ok with not always eating meat, realize that good healthy food is tasty too - and def doesnt have to taste like a cardboard box. It can be really tasty, esp if you put any sort of effort in preparation. Which would be fun if they are also into cooking food. I would love to share cooking and having good food with them - trying out new restaurants, trying new food, looking for recipes, and eating healthily with my future ideal man.
4. Wants to be with me. And he makes me feel like he wants to be with me. He makes me feel that I'm special and that he thinks that his life has improved since he met me. Also, what goes along with being my equal, is that there will be times that I need support and he needs support, and he needs to want to be with me when I'm having a hard time, and not get so frustrated with me that he just leaves when I need him most.
5. Thinks that I am an equal. That he thinks I'm an equal intellectually, logically, strength (maybe not actual physical strength, but that I can hold my own, - even physically, and that I'm a strong individual in general), etc. And that he is ok that I will be better than him in some things, just like I will try and be ok that he is better than me in some things.
   
6. Will be a good father. He has to love kids. He has to be good with my nieces and nephews, for example. He has to know how much I love kids and want to be an integral part of our children's lives. Playing with them, encouraging them, will teach them to be good members of society, etc. Needs to know that family is important, and that our future family will probably be the most important thing in my life, and I'd expect him to share that opinion.
7. Will judge people on the individual traits instead of their group stereotypes. Basically this is my 'he can't be homophobic, racist, sexist, etc' and if he does have some prejudices concerning these groups, that he is at least as good of a person to take each individual he meets and lets them supersede the stereotypes. And I think that living your life based on your prejudices (which we all have) and not letting individuals speak for themselves, is a very bad way to live your life, and not something I ever want to teach my kids. You should love the person for who they are, and not treat them differently when you find something out about them that you may not like.
   
8. I am physically attracted to him. I mean most people can be 'growers', you know the type that you might not find drop dead gorgeous, but as you get to know them, and they are the person you want to be with, their looks grow on you and you think they are so sexy! But I have to be physically attracted to him, and him to me. And they have to be up for sexual experimentation and sex games and sex books etc. Because I am all up for making it 'playing' instead of always just sex or whatever. And if they are sorta a sex prude, then I don't think I'd be happy with him long term.
   
9. He has to like to laugh. He has to like funny movies, he has to like to be silly, he has to like my lame-o jokes, he has to just be a cheery person and like to laugh, he can't be serious all the time.
   

Anyways, that is the list that I made a few years ago, I can't really see any major changes or additions to that list.. Like halfways through this post I thought, "What am I doing opening myself up to such vulnerability on an online media," but I think I'm going to continue on with posting it, so enjoy this little window to my soul - while it lasts anyways ;). And maybe I will post another blog entry before 5 months pass....

Summer to date!

So I went to Julie and Julia tonight. It was a pretty cute show. It made me excited to take on new challenging tasks, made me want to blog (you are getting the benefits of that now), and I learned why guys dread going to 'chick flicks' with chicks... Holy crap. So I was sitting next to this woman (there was 1 seat between us) and she would audibly, "awww," whenever something cute, sad, romantic, etc was on the screen. I don't know how this isn't incredibly annoying to a normal person! And Julie and Julia wasn't like romantic comedy/chick flick. But it was in that it was about women taking charge of their life and the protagonists in the movie were two females, and both were in relationships, but holy crap, don't aww, so loudly that I can hear you 2 seats away. I mean you should enjoy the story and smile and laugh and maybe even aww a couple of times, but when you do it every 5-10 mins, it isn't endearing, it doesn't indicate that you think it is cute, just indicates that you are an annoying woman who I never want to sit next to in a movie again.

Anyways, it has been quite the summer for me. Actually I think this may have been one of the first movies I've seen in quite awhile. I've been travelling a lot. When I would talk with my parents my dad would ask, "Where are you going this weekend?" I went to Portland for a conference and my sister, nephew, Mom and Dad met me and we had a little vacation in Portland and Astoria. This is a picture of my sister, nephew, and I doing an amazing jumping shot at the Oregon Coast. Over the 4th of July one of my best college friends came to visit. She is going to be a veterinarian in the army, so she was in Texas doing her training.
Also I went to New Hampshire for a super great wedding of Caitlin. It was so much fun, probably one of the best day long wedding celebrations I've been to. Here is more of the Scrippsie reunion!Then I went to Tacoma, WA, for the wedding of Kristen. Thrower Pride. It was such a classic wedding, I swear it could have been in a movie! And I got to go to Mt. Rainier National Park. Then I went to New Mexico for another conference, where I got excited for math and bio again and met up with some of my friends who live in New York. I've decided I have an affinity for men who study physics.. They are pretty great :). THEN I went to my 10 year hs reunion in Salt Lake and visited with my family and friends there. It's been a pretty great summer. It is kinda enjoyable to sit at home, sew (I'll post a picture of my dress when I've finished it), cook (I made delicious malted chocolate brownies the other day and watching Julie and Julia made me wanna go look through my cookbooks), do work (one day I will graduate, I even had a discussion with my bosses that was really fun and made me think that I liked grad school!) Anyways, things are going well and I just wanted to give y'all an update! OH and if you didn't know my little sister was famous! She found a Burmese python in our driveway and was on the news and in the newspaper and tells all about her experience on her blog (http://odangausagi.blogspot.com/2009/08/snake-adventure.html) - sorry I'm not cool enough to figure out how to make a link. AND she is coming to visit me over Labor Day, so excited!

My life is motivated by fun!

So a few years ago I took the color personality test http://www.thecolorcode.com/colorpersonalitytest/colorpersonalitytest.html and I pretty much was a blue, with a lot of red and then yellow came in on a close 3rd and I had basically no white personality traits. My friend told me he suspected I was a blue or yellow (blue is emotional and caring, red is driven and aggressive, whites are passive peacemakers, and yellows are motivated by fun, basically is the classification). He was mostly a yellow. I have decided I am very much driven by fun, maybe I'm more yellow than I had originally thought. I think I do everything else I do so that i can go out and have fun. One of the big things that I find super fun is going outside and enjoying the outdoors and exploring and having new adventures. Which i did recently when I went camping at Inks Lake State park near Austin. Five friends and I went there on friday evening and came back on Sunday. We went to longhorn caverns - which is a cave formed by fast moving water, only 1 in 20 caves in the world are created this way. We went on a hike. We went canoeing (I'm wearing my cowboy hat that i bought at the rodeo). We even went cliff jumping. It was a pretty great weekend! I love the great weather and the ability to go out and play... you should come along sometime!

Cartoons meet real life...

So the other day I was walking home from work and I laughed out loud at this bird.... so I am going to describe it to you, and you can enjoy the cartoon moment I had..

So I was walking through the medical center. There is a ton of construction going on in the med center and i was walking past the construction zone. so it was one of those bright orange 'chain link' fences that have 4 ft metal stakes that weave through the bright orange hard plastic to keep the fence up, you know what I'm describing? Anyways, to make the metal stakes less dangerous they capped them with a bright orange hard plastic cap, that is round, and maybe 1.5-2 inches in diameter.

So I'm walking on the sidewalk and there is a bird in my path.. I'm kinda scary to a bird so it flew out of my path to the plastic cap on the stake... however, the bird couldn't get a grip with its feet on the cap... its feet kept slipping off and it would keep trying, and it was like he was doing a dance trying to get its balance and footing... I found it hilarious. I definitely could see this exact scene in a cartoon. Then finally it couldn't catch its balance and like fell off the cap... teehehe... luckily it has wings, so when it falls, it is able to save itself and ended up finding his footing again on the orange chain link fence thing... anyways, I thought I'd share it with y'all...

oh and I guess I'm more country/texan than I like to admit.. I went to the rodeo 2x in the last 3 weeks, saw someone from Milford, UT, win the saddle bronc riding (and $7500) AND I bought myself a cowboy hat... but I look sexy in it. I think I'll wear it next weekend when I go camping...

OH and my ankle is feeling better and I got to play 30 mins of ultimate frisbee today in the beautiful 75ish/80 weather today... such a beautiful day... love the ultimate frisbee!

AND I'm going to Andrew Bird tonight... I'll tell you how that goes (oh look we went full circle I started off talking about birds and I ended up talking about a Bird ;) ).

First charcoal drawing ever!

This is my first attempt at doing a charcoal sketch. I have done some art, pretty casually before, but i've never used the medium of charcoal before. My sister got me some materials at Christmas. I know it isn't amazing, but I do like how it turned out, esp my hair. I think the next object will be a couple of studies - like spheres with light sources, etc, to get used to the shading and the materials. I was thinking it also might be fun to go to the park and draw a couple of the trees.. The subject matter is basically endless. I'll keep you updated!

Mardi Gras 2009

So on Saturday I went down to Galveston for a Mardi Gras parade. It was the first time I had been to a mardi gras celebration. My friend that I went with went to New Orleans last year for celebration, he said that there was more kids in Galveston than in New Orleans... a little bit of a different clientele. This is a picture of me with my beads I caught off at the Parade (I didn't get a picture of me at the parade). My friend said that I was popular. Basically whenever I would put my arms up and cheer then I would get beads thrown at me... I responded, "Well I'm hot, what can I say?" Gotta love the arrogant self sometimes ;). I was impressed with the floats. They were quite ornate. I wonder if they would have been even more ornate if there hadn't been a hurricane a few months ago. The part of Galveston that I drove through looked back to normal, but my friend said he saw some boats in parking lots while we were driving, and we didn't go off the touristy areas much... and it def hasn't gotten its business level back up. There is even talk of closing the hospital down there. Anyways, back to mardi gras. So an example of the floats is seen here. Some had different themes - this one was a pirate obviously. Others included, 'under the sea' and '007'. In the parade there were also a lot of good marching bands (I've decided that being in a marching band would be very difficult). And lots of good dancers and baton spinners and flag twirlers. I enjoyed it.. even though it was a chilly mid50s temperature with a wind.. thank goodness for coats! Yes, before you say it, I admit I've acclimated and am currently a temperature wimp! Anyways, Happy Fat Tuesday!

Alumni meet 2009

So I decided it was pretty bad form letting my 2 regular readers down by not writing enough posts. I mean both Mom and my sister have told me that I need to do posts more regularly. So I thought I would give a little update about the alumni meet.

I went to to california to do my alumni meet at the beginning of Feb. It was super fun. I was debating about not going this year, but I am glad I decided to go instead. It was also nice because I shared a hotel room with Kristen one night and Kristina the next night, so I was able to spend a lot of one on one time with both of them. I like my track friends.

Anyways so the meet went well. I didn't throw that amazing... but it has been 6 years and in college I wasn't ever a super star. But I did get my friend to film me on the one good throw I had. My coach said that it was about as good of form as I had in college. So that was nice to hear.



As you may have noticed I had short hair in that video. Yes it is true, I cut of 10+ inches and my hair is currently on my fridge in a plastic bag ready to donate to locks of love. I'll get around to it eventually.

Anyways, I'm glad I went down to Claremont for the alumni meet - even though it was kinda chilly. Here is a list of a few of the things I miss from college:
1. The Motley - it really is great to have a place to hang out, talk with friend, have a good drink, and stufy if you'd like to.
2. The dining halls - The dining halls on campus, esp on Scripps, really wasn't too bad. And I def like having food prepared for me everyday right when I want it when I'm done with work. I mean I do like to cook, but sometimes when you're just home and starving cooking food just isn't what you wanna do.
3. Living next door to all my friends. I like living by myself and having my own space, but having the oppportunity to be within a couple mins walking distance from all your friends is quite desirable.
4. Having a workout prepared for you everyday. I love being outside, and though I have a hard time doing my own work outs, I do love to lift weights. And track work outs really were pretty great.
5. The absurd amount of spoiling Scripps does - I walked through the new field house - HOLY CRAP! it is like a resort. I don't know how you wouldn't work out if you lived at Scripps now.


Well that's enough nostalgia for now - there is plenty of other things about Claremont and college that I like, which is why I get so excited when I meet someone who went to Pomona, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, Claremont Mckenna, or Scripps. And luckily I have a chance to meet up with some 5C'ers every year. Here is a shout out to the alum and current CMS hammer throwers.