Music

The type of music that you listen to defines who you are. I have found so many times that when I sit in someone's car, and their music comes on, I instantly judge them. Hardcore music? They think their lives are hard. Same with the whiny music like Owl City and Dashboard Confessional. Rap? Think they're thugs. If you like "my" type of music, you're cool. Pop? They obviously follow the trends. It's just too easy to classify people by the music they prefer. (Note- I'm listening to rap right now, so I can classify myself in any of those genres)

But it goes further than that. Music DOES define you in the end. Music can change your emotions at the drop of a hat. People say things to music that they wouldn't say normally. Happy, sad, angry, sexual, anything. I still get an adrenaline rush from "Take a Bow" by Muse, although that may be because of "Big Brother". I have playlists for dancing music, which always gets me on my feet; pumping it up, which gets me ready to work out; chill music, which makes me relaxed, etc.

I realize that I need to be more selective in the music I allow on my computer. I have some music which is so fun to play and listen to, but that was the only song someone heard to get to know who I was, they would totally get the wrong idea. Maybe I should edit my music.

The Great Escape

Last night we went to a cocktail party... without the alcohol of COURSE. Actually, I'm pretty sure someone showed up drunk, because halfway through the night I could smell alcohol. But anyway. It was thrown by some exceptionally well dressed guys in our ward, so we knew it was going to be a classy event. We dressed up in dresses (i dont even know what a cocktail dress is supposed to look like, so I just put a dress on) and heels and went over. I wore my BIG heels, which made me a good 5 inches taller than I am now. I kind of liked the change in view.

 

And this is me without heels on:

 

So it was a fun night... they played some pop music but it was mostly older stuff. Nobody was dancing dirty or anything like that, and besides the drunk person that was somewhere in the crowd everyone behaved themselves. Some of the songs were slower... which I hate. Fortunately I had someone there to dance with, even though a few other guys beat Brandon to it a few times and danced with me. The hosts also had drinks for sale at the bar, such as Shirley Temples and Roy Rogers (which I thought was called 'Rolls Royce' oops), and so we got some peach fuzz, Shirley Temples, and Mint Mojitos. Ohhh baby, they were good.

So now I'm enjoying the rare quiet periods in my apartment... I should be preparing my Sunday School lesson, but instead I'm on here and making Mac and Cheese (Three cheese with mini shells). I'll get on it now that I'm done, I'm just letting We Shot the Moon's album serenade me instead of the TV.

Here's to you, Abe/ Disclaimer on the Disclaimer

So this weekend I went down to Provo, to hang out with Alyse, Tommy, my mom, Grandma and Grandpa Murphy, Alec, Tyler, Grace, Tanner..... to name a few. The drive down was... interesting to say the least. All I'm going to say is if someone's going 75 miles an hour, they're NOT going too slow so stop calling them names. Needless to say, I was excited to get to Alyse, Tommy and my mom. We went to dinner at this amazing Brazilian place. AMAZING. They kept coming around and offering these cuts of meat... after a while I just had to pass on it because I was so so so so full. I wanted to go hang out with Alec and his friends afterwards, but I had gotten about 3 hours of sleep the night before so I was falling asleep on the couch by the time I got to Grandma and Grandpa Murphy's house.
Saturday we had brunch with the Murphy cousins, and Grace! Turns out Grace and Jenica are friends at BYU, which is awesome! We had always hoped they would be. So there was Grace, Jenica, Jolysa, Aubrey, Alyse, Tommy and I from the cousins. While we were there, Grandpa cornered all of us and asked if we read his emails. That he sends out about 5 or 6 times a day. The forwards we used to like when we were 12? Yeah, those. Not to mention some slightly inappropriate emails... that are usually crazy right wing "Obama and Palin suck campaigns". We all hemmed and hawed in our seats, then finally agreed on "we scan through them, but it's hard to when you have so many emails from you a day". While we were there, Tommy bought us all Valentine's chocolates. What a nice brother-in-law. I'm pretty sure at one point the discussion at the table was child birth. My favorite...
Then afterwards my mom, Alyse and I just hung out. We haven't been able to do that for a while, so it was really nice. Even though I kept getting kicked under the table for texting. We went to "Quilted Bear", as per my mom's request, and kind of just made fun of all the different signs there. Mormon culture... so cute. I should have brought my camera and taken pictures. After, we went and stopped by Alec's place, and saw him and Barrett and Tucker. We had Brick Oven pizza waiting for us, so we cut the visit short.
The next day (Valentine's Day) was Tyler's homecoming. He had just gotten home from his mission in Ukraine, for those that don't know. AKA it was going to be a party, with all the Myres BYU cousins there.
After his talk, some of us decided we didn't want to go to Sunday School. So we made our own... I think Tucker got the best picture of all of us afterwards. We actually did make our own lesson, so we weren't total sinners.I got to meet Jared and Amy's new baby, Heath Elton. What a cutie.

I also stuffed my pockets with Skittles to bribe Tate to sit by me, but the 21 year olds ended up eating all of it. Tate also said he would be my mom's Valentine, but he was actually mine. Obviously... who could resist this face?

The best part is he was in the middle of eating a cookie, and I asked him if I could take a picture and he stopped what he was doing and cheesed for me.
Monday morning my mom left, which was a sad day. I really did have fun with her. And no, the fact that we don't have pictures isn't an indication of my love for you. We just don't take a lot of pictures together i guess.
However, i DID get In-N-Out before going to the airport. I had to take the shuttle back up to Rexburg because my ride wasn't leaving until like 6 at night, which was way too late for me.

So it was a great weekend. I missed all my cousins, and being down there made me kind of jealous that they all get to hang out. However, I've already started scheming a return trip next month. Thanks for the good timing on the birthday, Abraham Lincoln.

Ok ok ok. Disclaimer on the disclaimer. I do NOT have a boyfriend. All it means is my home teacher likes me, and I like him, and we're going to go on dates. That's ALL. Mom, don't worry- I'm not going to lose my head.

Disclaimer

I'm going to write about my weekend in Utah next post... promise.
Ok, so since people seemed concerned... I am NOT depressed. I love BYUI, and I love my family and friends. That was just word vomit on my blog. I do not like watching friends throw away their lives (i'm not going to say names for obvious reasons), but i guess the positive side is that it makes me raise my own standards for relationships of my own.

Slightly Bitter Sounding

Only because it's the night before Valentine's Day, and I'm sitting at the computer typing on my blog. But I think that just means I'm out of town.
I'm just glad that I have a weekend to get out of Rexburg... I really needed it. Some things were starting to fall into place literally hours before I left, but this semester's something of a train wreck. I really appreciate the true friends I have, because they're few and far between. It kind of sucks watching my friends want to marry the wrong people, and throw their lives away. Who knows if it will even last... all it makes me want to do is not get married any time soon, at least until I find the right person who is the opposite of what I've seen in these boys. Rexburg is kind of a hole at times... especially when I know all my cousins are down here and have each other. I love to socialize, but I know that you are stigmatized by the people you associate yourself with... which is why I can't wait to move out and start new. This weekend will be good for me. We'll just see how excited I am to go back.

Nerds vs. Jocks Night

 

Last night was Gabrielle's birthday, so we had to make it fun. Fortunately, Locus Music was putting on a dance party titled "Nerds vs. Jocks"... meaning we got to dress up. First we made dinner for her, which ended up turning out well (which is always a relief), despite people throwing Peanut M&Ms at my head while I was checking on the chicken. I was kind of more of a wannabe, but whatever. I did the Britney Spears "You Drive me Crazy" hairstyle, and had my argyle knee length socks on. We only stayed at the party for like an hour, because there were some high school kids (that somehow got in, as it was supposed to be 18+) that were being disgusting on the dance floor. Maybe they were freshmen... those kids always try to be as crazy as possible as they have never been away from their parents before. It was a night of pocket protectors, sports jerseys, Daisy Dukes, sweatervests, crimped hair, etc etc etc. Happy Birthday Gabrielle!

Sunday School Day 1

So I taught Sunday School for the first time on Sunday... It was one of the scariest moments of my life. My class ended up being about 75% RMs, which intimidated me a little bit more. Here they had served a mission for two years learning alllll about the Church and its teachings, and I was supposed to teach them a lesson? Ha, that's a joke.  My friend Mitch advised me that if I read the lesson the Sunday BEFORE, and thought about it through the week, I would find ways to connect it to the class' lives, and the issue of getting the class to discuss wouldn't be so bad. I decided to take his advice, and it worked. My mom called me a few days into the week, and told me about this talk by Elder Scott, titled "To Help a Loved One in Need". My lesson plan was about Cain vs Enoch, and their attitudes towards God. However, while reading this talk I knew that I had to take it a different direction. Instead, I made my lesson about the wayward child. It was a pretty tender subject, and I was crying a lot in the library while preparing it... which probably made people wonder who died. But I felt confident in what I had done, and just prayed that it was the right choice.
D Day rolled around, and I was standing in front of the class wondering what the Sunday School president (who was sitting in the back just to watch me) had gotten me into. Some of my friends (RMs) were sitting in the third row directly in front of the podium. I didn't know until afterwards that they had a game going to see who could make me laugh and smile the most. It worked. When I stood up and announced "so I decided to take the lesson a different direction", Mitch gave me the thumbs up. I had people read scriptures and quotes, and felt like it was successful. I only started to cry a little bit once, while sharing a story. When I looked up and there were 15 minutes left of class, i thought "ohhhh shoot". However, the best thing happened. People began raising their hands, and shared experiences they had had, and took up 10-12 (not a joke this time Alyse) of the remaining minutes. Afterwards, I got plenty of hugs and "good jobs" from people.
In other news, referring to a missionary in the possessive is one of my new pet peeves. He is NOT yours, he is the Lord's... until he gets home. That's all.