To Be or Not To Be

I do a lot of work with a local university and I love seeing the students with their backpacks as they rush to and from class. I miss school! I think I'm forgetting what it was like to be a broke, stressed out student. But I miss learning in a classroom and that camaraderie you get from your classmates.

So this the question -

Back to being a student, to be or not to be?

ASL Users Will Drool!

Are you just dying right now?

This is Eric Witteborg. CODA. Duh. If you read his description this was basically off the cuff sign songage......huh. This is the sort of thing that inspires me, but at the same time makes me want to cut my hands off because I will never be this good! At the moment, I'm more leaning toward the side of "inspired" rather than "sharpening my blade to disfigure myself". But it could change at any moment.

My Megan showed me this video (thanks girl!) and we have been dorking out over his stuff ever since. Oh, did I mention that we met his brother a few weeks ago? Megan may have screamed when she made the connection. I tried to play it cool. Not sure if I was successful or not. 

Some people like cars or new gadgets - we like rockin' sign songers. In fact, when I go home for Christmas it is officially ON. All my Utah peeps - you better be practicing because there will be a sign song party. Oh yes, yes there will.

GIVEAWAY!

My friend, Lizzie, and her family are working on adopting a baby and they have partnered with a wonderful program called Ordinary Hero. They sell merchandise and give a large part of the proceeds toward the insanely expensive adoption process.

Check out their blog HERE to check out the sweet giveaway they are doing to help them win a contest with Ordinary Hero. Here's the deal - the top 3 sellers will get an additional $500 toward their adoption. There is a TON of cute stuff in the OH store and one other perk is that you get to say,

I'm an ordinary hero.

And actually mean it.

Good luck Lizzie!

xoxo

Our New Obsession

Devon found this boy band from England, One Direction. WE.ARE.OBSESSED. I am going to marry Louis (striped shirt, red pants), we're in love. Fact. He's almost 20 so it's totally fine. Devon's boyfriend is Liam, the lead singer with the shaggy/curly hair. Totally darling, but he's no Louis.

Kristin's boyfriend said that if boys were gathered around the computer screaming and calling dibs on a tween girl group they would be labeled perverts. Welp, that's not the case so, who cares! Not being labeled a perv because of my gender is alright with me.

I'm partially devastased because while this is available on YouTube it is not yet available on iTunes. Dev - a - state - ed. I guess I'll just have to fly over to England and find them.

Happens Every Time....

I had this exact conversation yesterday -

Him: Cool pants, where did you get them?

Me: A thrift store 

Him: Oh really? Which one?

Me: Oh, it's by my parent's house

Him: Where do they live?

Me: Utah

Him: Lots of Mormons there

Me: Yep

Him: Are you Mormon?

Me: Yep

Him: Cool......so what do you think of Mitt Romney?

EVERY TIME!

m.o.r.e.

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isn't it amazing that this is all under our control?

*happy sigh*

"If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that."

- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Makes Me Chuckle

These are the pins on my Pinterest pinboard that have the highest number of repins. Basically, these are the popular kids - 

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and now my favorite......

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(sorry mom!)

Friendship

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You know, the bad thing about human relationships is that we have our agency. My relationship with my shoes is unchanging (it's fabulous, thanks for asking), my relationship with peanut butter is the same, except on the other end of the spectrum (yuuuuuck!). 

But humans have emotion. We don't always see things from the other's perspective. We can be selfish. We lie. 

I'm done. As a very wise roommate always says, "I'm trying to figure out the line between justice and mercy" and I have been merciful in a certain situation for too long and now I'm feeling like a doormat. I have been overly concerned for this person's feelings whereas not an ounce of concern has been shown for mine. 

But the great thing about human relationships is that we have our agency. Despite this bump in the road, I can proudly say that I make excellent decisions when it comes to friends. Our decisions to show and speak love and support to each other is the most amazing exercise of agency I've ever been witness to. 

In the end, I'm grateful for that agency because in my life there have been several heartaches but those times are worth the many, many more instances of pure joy. Be bold, clean up your closet of friends, and don't let anyone get you down. You are enough, you are worth it, and I'm sure you can count at least a handful of people right now who think you're pretty great.

So a great big THANK YOU to my true friends. And thank you for anyone who reads this ridiculous blog, you're A-OK in my book.

xoxo

Halloween

We did a group costume for a dance on Friday night.

TETRIS pieces.

Devon, Megan, Abbey, Natalie, and me

I found a balloon and became a pregnant Tetris piece. This is Tim shirking his baby daddy responsibilities.....

Devon, Laura Jayne (a friend from college), and me

After the dance we went to IHOP where we encountered some ASL students and Megan and I had an across the room conversation with them about interpreting.

And then I did a sign song for them.

At 2am.

Saturday night we went to a friend's party

Natalie and me as the Black and White Swan

Devon and Ken as Lily and James Potter

Megan as Murie Curie

We have fun

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Occupy

My good friend, Natalie, is visiting this weekend and our first stop was to check out 'Occupy DC'. I cannot begin to describe how lame they were. This is not a political post, I have my opinions on all these "occupy" protests but I'm not going to write about it here. People were at least true to their word - they were just standing around.

Occupy!!!!

McPherson Square in DC

If you can't see the sign, it's the quote by Margaret Meade ("never doubt that a small group of thoughtful people......). Right, because standing around a public square is definitely bringing about that change.....okie doke.

The lone child protester

I have NO idea

Not a clue

"People often say that 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder,' and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder. This empowers us to find beauty in places where others have not dared to look, including inside ourselves."

- Salma Hayek

a fourth thing

I don't intend to correct the ever so lovely Maya Angelou, but I think she can add a fourth thing to her list.....how a person deals with split pants in public.

Because I can tell you, I'm sending a photo of my behind to just about anyone who would appreciate a good laugh at my expense today. A security guard pointed it out, thankyouverymuch

3 things

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1 - drink lots of hot chocolate

2 - laugh, what else is there to do? (I've had lost luggage 3 times - St Thomas, Hong Kong, Istanbul)

3 - I don't handle that part of decorating

This mini survey can't possibly tell you any more about me than you already knew. I'm a lazy, passive girl with a sweet tooth. Nice to meet you.

Homecoming!

This past weekend was Homecoming for Gallaudet University. I had no idea what a big deal it was until I got to experience part of it. One of my good friends, Jamie, came out for it because she is fabulous and fabulous people do things like that.

I was bad about having my camera on me, except for the day we got crepes.....they were ohsogood!

Megan, loving up on her nutella, strawberry and marshmallow crepe

Beautiful Jamie

Girlfriend, get your bum out here ASAP!

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Kayla + Eric

My insanely gorgeous/talented/smart/funny roommate asked me to take her bridals and a couple shots of her and her fiance last weekend. Kayla is an actual photographer - people pay her to take their photos. We used my camera a bit, but mainly used hers because everything about hers is better. So what I'm saying is that these are unedited, off my rinky dink camera, and Kayla is gorgeous. That's what I'm saying.

For more pictures from her camera check out her blog here

(I took the pictures, she provided the camera and mad editing skillz)

"Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too."

- Voltaire

But Really....

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My buddy Nate came over last night to chat as he does from time to time. And as single person conversation tends to, we ended up talking about dating. !shocker!

He gave me some interesting insight that should not be taken as the rule of thumb by any means, but was interesting nonetheless. He told me that sometimes boys will immediately put funny girls into the dreaded friend zone. Not all guys, but some will see the girl as someone who entertains them and therefore discounts them as a potential love interest. Huh.

My first thoughts -

1) Well that's dumb

2) Maybe I should tone it down a bit, I sometimes command a bit too much attention

3) How stupid, I'm not toning anything down. I gotta be me!

I have to laugh and I need someone I can laugh with. My life is guaranteed to be full of laughter and maybe some guys will discount me because of that. Oh well, their loss. I guess it's not the worst thing in the world to be "friend zoned" for. What if I had really bad breath or was extremely awkward around guys? (only one of the two of those is true)

Someday I shall blog about how I developed my own brand of humor....

By the way, if you've never met me, I'm much funnier in person. I promise.

Guest Post

I guest posted on my friend Suzie's blog today, check it out here!