Wednesday, November 3, 2010

tight.

having lived with roommates for two and a half years, i have made a few observations about the level of closeness that develops throughout roommate-ship. there are many signs that roommates are getting closer. going to bed earlier, or perhaps falling asleep faster, because you know more about each other and do not stay up all night telling stories and getting to know the crazy sides of people that only come out at night, is a definite signal, but going to bed later due to crazy adventures and the like is also a category. matching is a sure sign of roommate love, particularly unplanned matching, but really any kind. increase in a number of pictures together, especially awful pictures also points to proximity. as i said before there are countless examples but i would like to focus on one: food sharing. specifically milk sharing.

milk is an interesting thing. it comes in a bulky gallon and takes up lots of room in the fridge, especially when four people have four gallons. its tricky because everyone drinks different percents and different amounts of milk. some people drink it at every meal, some use it only for cereal. so milk sharing is something that often never happens. therefore, when milk is shared, it is a true sign of real roommate friendship. throughout my years of roommates i have had different milk sharing experiences that i would like to share.

freshman year:
my first year of college was spent in david john hall in a room the size of a closet with one dear roommate: mindy kimille westover. we were matching before we even met each other and after our first picture together i think we have taken at least 5,000 more. our roommate closeness increased exponentially. it practically shot straight up after that first awkward saturday when she moved in. helamen halls meant no kitchen, only a mini fridge that actually was more of a step to get onto our beds than a place to store food. however, helamen halls also meant staying up late and not making it to the cannon center for breakfast before early classes (unless it was a quick muffin grab) so mind and i decided to invest in some cereal and milk for the room. naturally due to lack of space and small fridge size, we shared everything from grocery trip #1. bam. we were as close as it gets. skim milk drinkers and best friends. luckily we had the cannon for when mind was craving some serious chocolate milk. i dont think i know of two closer roomies, and this milk sharing from the beginning only proves just how close we are.

sophomore year:
mind and i branched out and moved into the good old SB 302 with emily alice cloward. after getting over the slight epidemic when emily was drinking whole milk thinking it was skim milk, nothing really changed. mind and i shared from the start, taking turns buying. and emily bought her own milk. the three of us never really got too close. although emily DEFINITELY drank our milk and we occasionally snuck sips from hers it was always done clandestinely - see, we didn't share milk, we snuck sips in secret, we weren't best friends forever. although there were the few occasions when emily blatantly took our gallon of milk out of the fridge and poured herself a glass, perhaps as a cry for closeness, by the end of the semester we were ready to move one and take our milk with us.

junior year:
mind and i have branched yet again and now have spilt leaving us both with new roommates. (don't worry, we still share milk and eat together frequently) however, we had to begin anew with the milk issue. when i first moved in there were three gallons in our fridge. mallory and katie's 1% and my skim. ash is not a big milk drinker. after a couple of my skim gallons went bad, i discovered that mindy is definitely the milk drinker in our relationship and switched to the half gallon. two gallons and one half is a little less bulky but still quite annoying, especially when it is your gallon that gets pushed all the way to the back. sometimes in the realm of the milk sharing world you have to make some sacrifices. one day, and i am not quite sure how it happened, mal and i just started to share milk. yipee! now it wasn't that we weren't close before, we just took a serious step as roommates and became closer. so the two and a half gallons had dwindled down to two. now let me tell you, the girls of allred 11 are close. really close. we have matching outfits. we take hundreds of pictures. we stay up all night talking. one of our most frequently said phrases is "i miss you already" when someone leaves for class. we are close.

and to top it all off, we were in serious need of milk at about 11:00 monday night, so katie and i decided to bike to the store in the chilly night air. guess what. we bought one gallon, just one gallon for all four of us. let me tell you, the is ultimate closeness.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

i like to look for rainbows




i'm not quite sure why it is but today i am lovin the rain.

perhaps it is because i don't have anywhere to go, so i don't actually have to walk in it. i can just smell it. and hear it.

right now i am sitting in my family room with my front door wide open. in fact i am practically sitting in the doorway, but not quite. i've been doing homework and watching the rain. mainly just watching the rain. it moves in stages, right now it is a light sprinkling, but just a few minutes ago it was really coming down. it is a perfect place to sit and smell that perfect smell of wet concrete and fresh rainfall. it kind of reminds me of christmas time at home. it makes me want to pull on my rain boots and go out and spin in circles, but i'm wearing a pretty cute outfit right now and i don't want to get wet.

mallory just got home. she is only mostly soaked.

i've gotten a few quizzical looks.

i love the rain. (today)

well i better go start my chimichurri. adios!


Sunday, September 19, 2010

early to bed and early to rise

sometimes going to bed at ten and getting up at six thirty is just the way to go.

this weekend, mind and i in our spontaneous way decided to go to cedar city.

(if you go to cedar city, be sure to stop at beaver and take a picture in the giant rocking chair. worth it)

i had the opportunity to take pictures of a beautiful family, nothing like snapping photos of five gorgeous girls (six of course counting their lovely mother) and it was a blast. they were funny, ready for anything, and i was surprised at how long the littlest ones lasted! we took tons of pictures and just had the time of our lives

the next morning we were able to go with them to the cedar city balloon festival. we got up before the sun to go see hot air balloons galore and it was such a treat. i got to take some more fun pictures and just experiment taking pictures of such an interesting subject. i loved it. i loved playing with the intense colors! photography has become something that i just love to do. it truly is one of my favorite things; i love to explore the world through my camera lens and attempt to capture the beauty that is so present around us.

here are a few favorites:














Thursday, September 9, 2010

happiness

things that make me happy today

mini pepperonis
long grey dress
cute pin cushion
safety of the JFSB basement during a potential tornado
blue skies with puffy clouds
naked brothers band songs
disneyland paper chain
pink shoes
cute roommates
made bed

happiness
comes
when you least
expect it

Monday, August 30, 2010

simple things


huckleberries.

i had the grand opportunity to go huckleberry picking with two of my dearest friends Cam and Justin (who is know to me, very fondly, as Crusty).

we left early in the morning (eight am) and set out on a grand adventure to find a certain secret spot. after driving several miles down a dirt road we parked the car and started hiking.

huckleberry bushes were everywhere but they all seemed fairly bare. at first we would get excited to find one berry hiding beneath the leaves. as we climbed higher and deeper into the forest and as the scenery got prettier and the suspicious distant noises got louder we started to hit the jackpot. we would sit in the same place and pick fifty berries all while making loud conversation and singing to keep those bears away.

it was beautiful. we were high enough up that we overlooked my wondrous hebgen lake. the shimmering water peaked through the tall trees and the ground was covered in green. we tried to take pictures but nothing man made could quite capture the beauty all around us.

it was peaceful. yes we did get freaked out every time we heard a cracking sound but aside from that we all found such peace in sitting and picking. berries that is. one time i may or may not have been attacked by a low flying bird. humorous.

it was fun. cam and i sang rounds together. we hit some of the bodine family favorites "america, america" and "ghost of tom" and then we progressed into making up songs of our own. "berries, berries everywhere, berries, berries in my hair..." we climbed a crazy rock formation. we were true adventurers.

we picked lots of berries
glorious
i ate berries and cream for breakfast.
delish


beautiful.
i love the simple things

first day

first day of school


so far i got up,
put my free spirit shirt on,
turned my flat iron on,
then turned it off,
then thought about it some more
and turned it on again,
then got real
and turned it off again.

off to tap in twenty minutes.
love life

Friday, July 2, 2010

Herbal Tea and Vintage Sheets

I have a sweet, sweet roommate.
Her name is Meredith.

Meredith is wise. She served a mission in Peru and speaks spanish. She is a communications major. She is playing Milly this summer and she is so perfect. She is a brilliant actress. She gives the best advice.

She also always makes her bed. Every day. And she has the cutest vintage sheets. They were her great grandma's or great aunt's or once belonged to some crazy relative, and they are darling. You should see how cute her bed is. I have to admit i am a little jealous. Jealous enough that i might be searching for vintage sheets in a different safari tab right now. (However, vintage sheets seem much safer when they belonged to a relative... not a stranger).

She has also introduced me to something else this summer and i am hooked: herbal tea. She was so surprised when i told her i had never tried it; she said that of all the people she knew i seemed to be the most likely herbal tea drinker... whatever that means. So she made me a cup of lemon herbal tea (don't worry folks it is 100% caffeine free), two spoonfuls of sugar and one squirt of honey. The next morning i was at the grocery store buying my very own box of tea, in fact i bought two boxes a lemon and a variety pack. Right now i am drinking ginger twist and already having a better day than i did yesterday. Tea can do that.

Thanks Mer.