Amelie

When I went to BYU-Idaho I was introduced to a delightful french film called Amelie. I LOVE it. I love the colors, the piano music, the language, seeing the sights of Paris, the many random and unexpected moments, Amelie's awkward haircut but you love her anyway, all of the characters quirks, Amelie's less stereotypical ways of helping people, yep, I just love this darling french, not low on quirkiness film. As a side note, I would highly recommend you enjoy it edited because apparently the non-edited version has sketchiness. Anywho, here's a wee clip:

Ladies Night!

This weekend my high school girlfriends all got together for some play time. So many times during the night I thought, "Well my dear, I've forgotten how much I love being with them." Lots and lots of laughing and plenty of catching up to do. Stephanie hosted (because she has a house, her husband was out of town, and she was usually the host back in high school too. She's good at it!). She made homemade pizza, I made an "italian salad", then we somehow ended up showing eachother youtube videos. haha After so much time without playing, somehow we needed to show eachother random finds. Some things never change.


Mindy and I got home from our missions this year, Stephanie has gotten hitched, and Lindsey AND Steph both have their bachelors degrees. I look back at high school and it seems like we all were going through the same things because we had the same schedule. It's funny how different our lives have become from eachother since then. Here's another vid from the slumber bash. ARE we easily amused? You betcha. But I wouldn't have it any other way.

Late night talking, story telling, and can I just re-emphasize the laughing? I don't hate a thing about spending long periods of time with these girls. SO much fun. To post a video that is not a complete joke, here is a song and group that Mindy introduced us all to. Fact: I do not feel bothered having to listen to or look at these lads. So here is an audio snack for you:

Rugby = hard to watch but hard to stop watching.

Paris introduced me to many things. One of which is a sport that just so happens to make football players look like pansies. Did I think I was going to be introduced to something like this slash be the slightest bit interested when boarding the plane to go to Paris? No, no I did not. But alas, the Rugby World Tournament in 2007 just happened to be going on in Paris when I lived there. They had some pretty sweet places where we could watch the matches outside. Exhibit A:

Well I no longer live in Paris and therefore cannot enjoy the existence of the sport of rugby in front of the Eiffel Tower but...apparently Americans are trying to make this sport work for them too so Kori and I went to check out a rugby match. The BYU-Idaho yeties (not joking. Can we just have a moment of silence for that?) vs. Utah State

They wear zero padding, pretty much any sort of physical contact is free game. You wanna pull at their jersey and make loud grunting sounds throughout the game? Go ahead. You're a rubgy player. Push 'em, grab their arms, twirl them to the ground, YEAH that kinda stuff happens in pretty much every play! I think I spend most of the game asking myself how I can watch it and also...what's going on...but I don't get up and leave. It's intriguing.

Kori and I at the game. I just got done running for the morning so if I look the opposite of dazzling...that's why.

I heart Kori because she's one of the few people that I don't have to live in reality with. haha I can go off fantacizing about life and she 1. gets it and 2. plays along. It's so satisfying. Topics of conversation during the game: Our need to find an internship in Paris--for obvious reasons and/or in New Zealand--so we can watch the All Blacks. Also, trying to figure out how we can get in with Oprah. I have so many ideas to run past her and...if she feels like letting me help her work in Africa...that wouldn't make me sad.

Let's just take a gander at this for a moment. Do I know what's happening? Sure don't. But I think that just goes to show what an entertaining sport it is. You don't even have to understand what's going on. You can't stop watching. They're hard core. The players of this sport do not mess around. They're always coming off the field super dirty, usually bleeding, and at some time somebody's bound to get a concussion. I think Tide and Band-aid sponsor this sport. They just couldn't do it without them. Anywho, that's all for today. I guess I am a fan of other sports then basketball and tennis. Who knew? Thanks paris.

I heart Modern Day Revelation

This evening Elder Russell M. Ballard spoke during a CES Fireside. Mmm...I love hearing apostles speak. They are so wise and have such amazing advice. He talked about something during his talk that I've been thinking a lot about lately. Self-evaluation. Here are some questions that he posed us:

• Are you happy with the direction your life and your faith in Jesus Christ are going?


• Do you read the scriptures everyday?
  
• Are you being kind and thoughtful?

There were others but I've just been feeling within the past week the need to really see how I'm doing and where I could improve and be more of a benefit and blessing to the people around me. Random thoughts among many:

• I want to be better at voicing the compliments that I think in my head. Since when does positive attention do anything but help people feel better? Does any girl NOT want to hear that her hair looks beautiful, how kind you think she is, be thanked for a comment she made that made you think or that she has a wonderful laugh? I'm just sayin...Aaannd I don't know why I aimed all these compliments at girls but...the point of my thought was voicing the kind, positive comments that could make someone's day better.


Random pic. Just some people whose existence I appreciate a great deal. Yup, need to tell them that.


• Does the way that I use my time accurately reflect my priorities? Because of this, I'm doing a week long trial run of banning myself from my waste-of-time activities and I want to START the day with an italian hymn and italian scriptures.



• Now that my body is no longer grumpy at me from the half marathon, I'm excited to get back into exercising and showing Heavenly Father that I enjoy taking care of myself and allowing it to do things that it's capable of.
  

Anyway, there are still many goals to set and much to do but I was just so happy to hear a talk about something that I have literally been pondering for like a week. I love answers to prayer and moments when I understand how I can progress to be better and happier.

Little memories of Paris

While I lived in Paris I was introduced to the wonder of Tecktonik dancing. I remember my friends and I were hanging out at the Eiffel tower and there was a group of guys by us that was listening to tecktonik music and dancing. We were with our friend Gabriel and he showed us some basic moves. It's fun because it looks random--it's like organized chaos. haha I don't know how to explain it. I just love it because it reminds me of Paris and therefore makes me all kinds of happy. Happy Tecktonik dancing!!

Oh what a night...

Our ward does a pretty a-okay job at planning activites to keep us busy and get us holding hands. Yup, the bishopric is especially enthusiastic about activities that encourage the latter. haha Welcome back to Utah Mal. There has been much talk and publicity about the ward barn dance. I was torn about how it was gonna go down and whether or not I was okay with the idea. Things like this generally go one of two ways: Hilarious good time or...impeccably awkward. The only image that came to mind when I thought of a barn dance was this:Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Classic flick. Who DIDN'T want to get in on this barn dance? Though I still had my doubts. This is a ward activity, not a scene from a charming old school film. If we're being honest with ourselves, there's obviously high awkwardness potential.

Final verdict: actually pretty fun. Lots of stepping on toes and people who took it way too seriously and found mistakes entirely unacceptable. My feelings on the matter were if you mess up, just clap, do-si-do and make loud enthusiastic sounds.

Not all in our group had a hilarious good time at the barn dance so we went to Angie's to "Clean the Sink". There are people all around town that have bumper stickers that say, "I cleaned the sink at Angie's". I have spent much time not understanding the pride in going to the local diner and helping them with spring cleaning. My roommate Whitney and her sister Tinille decided it was time for my friend Kori and I to understand what it actually meant.

This is the sink at Angie's. It is full of ice cream and we were supposedly supposed to "clean" it... with our faces or something. I apparently can't do anything without adding another element to it so I suggested we do something to keep us going and encourage us to do it. So...er...we hummed the beat to "Eye of the Tiger" and went around the circle having to take a bite to the beat. Yeah, I dunno. Apparently we find junk like that entertaining.

Did I wake up that morning thinking, "Hey I should go to a barn dance and then eat large quantities of dairy"? Negative. But that was our Thursday night. Hilarious, random, awkward, and very...us.

This day actually came...and went...and I didn't pull anything awkward

Well well where to start? What does the average festive american do on Saturday October 30 early in the morning? Probably not smearing dirt colored make-up on their face, putting on a ripped shirt and getting ready to run 13.1 miles. Nope, seems like a silly idea right? Well, that's what I did. I was nervous. What do I eat for dinner the night before? What do I eat for breakfast? How many times should I go to the bathroom before the race to be SURE I won't have to go during? So many questions running through my head and ...really nothing to do but put my hair up in a side-bun and just run.

I'm pretty sure I loved everything about having this experience with everyone (or most people) dressed up as something ridiculous. Lots of where's waldos, bumble bees, skeletons, nurses, indians, and...whatever those girls are in front of me in this picture--something cutesy and tutu-like. Well, maybe I just feel a need to go against the grain, but...I was a hobo and therefore finishing looking sweaty and dishelved only made me feel more in character.

I roped my friend Kori into running with me. She was dressed as an indian but apparently shed the costume as soon as she crossed the finish line. So...I didn't realize what a less-intelligent life choice I made until I was re-telling the story to Kori. I decided at the beginning of the race to run with a pacer--someone who runs at the same pace the whole time. That way I'd know how fast I was going and how long it'd take me to finish the race. Well...the first mile of the race I went a bit faster and was way ahead of the pacer. I thought, "Hey, I know. I'll slow down and wait for the pacer to catch up to me." So I did. And they didn't catch up. I kept slowing down and in the end...kind turned back to run with them. haha Probably should have been a sign that I could have run faster but...I know that for next time?

Adam and Camarie were amazin'. They went to several parks to cheer me on, give me a sports drink, and I even got Adam to jog with me for a wee bit. It was so nice to see them so much during the race because I thought (because the race was coming out of the mountains and on fast roads) that I wouldn't see anybody til' the finish line. Thanks so much guys. You are the wind beneath my wings. haha I don't know where that came from but I'm not going to delete it.

I was super surprised that the whole fam came out to see me finish the race. It was so nice of them to drop their Saturday afternoon plans to see a sweaty hobo hobble across the finishline. I love them. They're pretty much Websters definition of wonderful. Well the race is over. It took me 2 hours and 26 minutes (including going back for the pacers as if they were soldiers left behind). Not the speediest one in the bunch but I didn't walk, pass out, pull any muscles, turf it and cross the finish line bleeding, or...anything else awkward. It was so satisfying to do something that I'd worked for for 3 months. Loved it.
Aaanndd they got me flowers. Flowers=gorgeous. Family= so thoughtful. Thanks so much for being so wonderful and supportive. It was really a great great day. But now it's Tuesday. I'm already feeling stir crazy and it's only been 3 days. So...now what? Well, as soon as I can walk like a normal human being, I'm gonna hit the gym and start training for something else.