Mittens

Ok, so this post might just be lame, but I wanted to dedicate some of my blog with the belongings that I spend the most time with in the winter.....my mittens. I love my mittens, they are soft and warm and I couldn't last the winter without them. The other day I was on campus and some guy tried to make fun of me about wearing my mittens and it didn't work at all. The thing is that once I wear my mittens I never take them off. From the months of November to February it's a pretty safe bet that I'm wearing them. I got these little treasures of delight either my junior or senior year of high school. Since then every winter nobody really sees my hands. They now have permanent marker on them from my job last year and are starting to get holes in them, but I fixed the holes yesterday and I don't mind the black marker. I would probably be worried by the marker, except I don't know if I can ever get a pair of mittens that are so good. They are thick, but not too thick. Two layers of soft, thin polar fleece wrap my hands in a delightful warmth. Anyway, I'd like to thank whoever gave these little delights to me a couple of years ago. They never knew what a source of joy they would be in my life.

Fall Rain

It has been a real fall week here at the BYU. As I was walking up to campus the other day I decided that I am in despirate need of something. I need a new coat. Anyone that knows me might be thinking right now, "Reah right you need another coat. You already have three coats." They would be right about the amount of coats I have, but I feel that just one more would do the trick. I'm going to describe the coats that I have to you and you see if you can figure out where the hole is that would be fixed by another coat.

1) I have a beautiful green wool coat that I bought myself last winter to wear with nice clothing. It is mid claf and I wear it on Sunday's over my church dresses. It kind of looks like a dress and it is beautiful. It's not very practical though so I don't feel safe wearing it during the week where it could get dirty/ruined.

2) I have a rain jacket. This rain jacket is great. It keeps the rain off of me without making it too hot. It's just one thin layer of jacket so if it's cold then I have a hard time with it.

3) I have a snow/winter coat that is really warm. My parents bought it for me when I was a senior in high school and it is truly amazing. It is so warm. There is no way I'm getting cold in that thing. I love it.

Do you see the gaping hole in my coat coverage? Well, if you don't I'll tell you what it is. I need a jacket that would be warmer than the rain jacket and not as warm as the winter coat. I decided this because the other day when it wasn't raining, it was just really cold I decided to go onto campus with my winter coat on because that rain jacket was NOT keeping me warm enough. Well, I got about half way up the hill and I was about to die I was so hot! Then when I was in my class I took it off and got cold! It was ridiculous. Anyway, I know if my grandma read this she'd probably tell me that I have enough coats and I'm just complaining. Well the truth is that she's right, and I know it. All I'm saying is if I had just one more coat I'd be happy as a clam temperature wise this fall/winter. Also I realize that it doesn't get as cold in Oregon as it does in Utah, so that new coat I was describing would be pretty good for Oregon or Washington if I end up there. Anyway, that's what I decided the other day.

Teaching a Pig to Sing

My dad likes to "discuss" issues in life. His discussions have two scenarios.
1) He already has his mind made up. You have come to a different opinion than he has. He thinks that if he repeats the facts of the situation to you again, you will suddenly say, "Oh you are right! How could I come to that stupid opinion?"
2) He doesn't really have an opinion on the subject being "discussed" at all and just dances around you trying to make you worked up.
Either of these scenarios ends up making one or both of the people involved upset.

My grandpa does the exact same thing.

It is for this reason I learned early on about "dicussions." My mom always says (and recently said this to me again), "You can't teach a pig to sing and if you try it'll just make the pig annoyed and you frustrated." This is my feeling on "discussions." If you have an opinion that you've come to after having looked at the facts that's great. I can have looked at the EXACT SAME set of facts and come to a completely different conclusion. That doesn't mean that one opinion is right and the other is wrong. It is based on the different experiences people have in their lives and the different perceptions they have on those experiences.

I have no problem with discussions where the aim is just to see what the other person thinks. In fact I think that this is one of my favorite pass times. I once told one of my very good friends when I first met him that my hobby/pass time is just to talk. He later admitted to me that when he first heard this that he thought it was stupid, but now he realizes that I just like to hear different ideas. I think it makes life interesting that people come to different opinions after having reviewed the same set of data. Learning about something from a different perspective is like exploring. I love it.

What I don't like, however, is someone that thinks they are doing this, but in actuallity is trying to test me or change my opinion. I would say that in general I have thought a lot about my opinions. I like to think about things and test them out before I form an opinion on them. Opinions are just that. An opinion can't be right; it can't be wrong. I can't always tell when someone is trying to do this until I am in the conversation. Sometimes it comes in subtley when the person just tries to keep telling me the same things over and over or when they try and convince me of their correctness (again an opinion isn't right or wrong). Other times it is blatant when someone says to me, "well you're wrong."

I have encountered a few people in my life that like to debate topics. This can be ok if one or both of the people involved is willing to change their stance on an issue. In my life experience, this rarely happens. I have seen most people's debates be rather similar to my father's type number 1 discussions. I find this to be a pointless exercise. The other person has made up his mind and I have made up my mind so trying to change opinions or go over facts again doesn't teach me anything and it doesn't teach them anything and it ends up frustrating one or the other of us. That is something I will never understand.

My shortcoming in this area is that I get very worked up when I get into this situation. I can feel myself getting worked up and so then I just have to close my mouth and say to myself, "well, this is something I'm just not going to do with this person again." I think that a lot of times it would be better if people in general (myself included) could just take a second and ask themselves, "What do I want to get out of what I'm saying right now?" or "What's the purpose of this conversation?" I think a lot of unnecessary words would be taken away.

Next time you're talking to someone just take a second and ask yourself, "Am I trying to teach a pig to sing?" (Not that the people you talk to are pigs, but you get the picture.)

Something New and Different

Last night a really good friend moved into town. A group of kids from Spokane threw him a party and invited me to come. So I went. It was great to see the kids from Spokane. I really enjoyed that part. Since emerging from my Middle School self-conscious phase, I have thought really highly of the kids I grew up with. I was mostly surrounded with guys who had really high standards in my LDS group of friends. I ended up being one of the guys. It's cool with me. I'm glad I got to be their friend. Anyway, last night was really hard for me though because at one point in my life I had a crush on three of them. Nothing ever happened with any of them, and now I've moved on to being with one of the most amazing guys I know.

Here's the rub though. I want to be friends with these guys now. I don't have many friends here in Provo anymore. Looking back at it I realize that I am in this situation because of the choices I made last year. I have only a few people here that I am so close to and care so very much about. I wouldn't give them up for anything. Anyway, going to that party last night made me so uncomfortable because there were tons of people there. I, unlike my sister, do not enjoy big groups of people. This makes it hard to branch out and make new friends. I don't know how to become close friends to these guys that I used to be so close to because I don't want to go over there with big groups of people. Plus, it feels weird to try and talk with the guys one on one now. I'm not sure why and perhaps I'm wrong in this feeling. I guess I just need to think about it more or something like that.

So anyway, I just realized that none of this has a point. So I'm going to stop now.

Washing the Car

So I haven't washed my car since I drove it from Spokane, WA to Provo, UT. Needless to say it was pretty bad. Today they told me they didn't need me at work. I decided I'd finally get my car cleaned. I did the worst job cleaning my car ever!

Here's the story:

I went to wash my car on the carwash off Freedom. I get there and nobody else is there, that's cool, whatever. Then the manager comes out and is cleaning the stall next to me. I think nothing of him being there. So I start washing. I'm thinking about how much I LOVE washing my car. I really do enjoy going there. My favorite part is the foam wand. I could spend hours using that thing. I would have too. The only thing is that while I was doing that this red headed college age man starts rollerblading around the place. Immediately I think that I don't like him being there. Then I thought to myself, "There's no reason to not like the kid, he's just skating." So I keep going about my business. I'm right to the foam wand (the aformentioned favorite part) when I look up and the kid skates THROUGH MY STALL. I didn't like this at all, but I didn't really know what to do about it except give him a dirty look. So I did. I'm half way done with the car when I have to go put more quarters in. When I do that the kid again skates through my stall, but this time it's WITH HIS WEINER HANGING OUT! He was holding it and smiling at me. Instantly I'm upset. I always used to ask myself what would I do if I were in the situation of girls that are being harassed. I never had an answer. I was so embarassed! It was weird. I didn't say anything, but then he kept skating around behind the place with his dick out. I resolved to tell him to go away. It took so much effort to get the words to come out that I actually screamed them. "Go Away!" I think the kid must have seen the manager in the stall next to me look up because he said, "Sorry" and skated off. I could barely rinse off the car fast enough to get out of there. I was afraid he'd come back and hurt me or something. It was really scary. I was going to go talk to the manager to tell him to look out for the kid and make sure I didn't get assaulted for yelling at the psycho, but I couldn't. I was too nervous. I got in my car and tried to drive away. My foot was shaking so bad I couldn't work the clutch in my car so instead I drove around to the front of the place in plain view of the road and the other customers (a mom cleaning out the inside of her mini-van, and a guy washing his SUV) and I decided to try and dry off my car and get sufficiently angry to be able to get rid of my shaking hands. Well it worked. I was so mad. Who really decides that on a Tuesday afternoon it would be a good idea going around skating and exposing yourself to people? What sort of deranged psycho does that? Anyway, so now I know what I'd do if I were sexually harassed. I'd yell at them to leave me alone.

My car is now all streaky with dirt and none of the bugs are gone, but at least I'm alive, and not raped or anything like that.

I'm in the Library!

So I'm studying in the library. I study on the fifth floor in the carols in the back. This is the farthest place you can go from the door. That means that it is really the quietest. I like it. Unfortunately today I have to do some research for my nutrition class. This means that I must study in the periodicals section. YUCK! Periodicals is infamous for being a social studying place. Many people get dates and meet people here. I guess it's fine if you want to use the library for a social life, but as for me I'm going to stick to using it for a study place. I just turned around and saw this couple behind me hugging and kissing. The guy was all over the girl! It was gross. This is exactly why I study on the fifth floor. In a carol. By myself.