Can't Touch This

There are a few "fashion trends" I have seen around that i absolutely do not understand and that I find just idiotic. I am morally opposed to the following items.

The Shorts worn with Uggs. Where do I even begin. Let's start with can we find the contradiction in this combination. Hello, you wear shorts to keep your legs and body cooler during really hot weather. Why on earth would you wear shorts and then stick on some boots, that are made for winter weather, that roast your feet and practically make them sweat. I have a solution for all of you have committed such a horrible crime. They are called flip flops. They wont' cook your feet in the middle of summer and they are super easy to slip on. I promise.

The Sleeveless turtleneck. Whose bright idea was this honestly. Turtlenecks are thick and warm. The whole point of a turtleneck is to cover more of your skin than a regular shirt in order to keep you warmer during the colder months. Why would you ruin it and take away the sleeves. I've never known anyone whose stepped outside in November or December wearing a tank tap and a scarf to keep their neck warm. Turtlenecks are made for winter, just embrace it and wear the sleeves.

I had no idea until recently that these were back in style (or maybe just in style to begin with). Now, they are called Harem Pants. I saw a girl walk into the library on campus this morning wearing a gray pair of these pants and I just about died. Whatever you call them they are a bad fashion choice for anybody. This is what they remind me of.

Well, that and Aladdin. I'm not saying they are ugly just for the sake of argument. These pants have this pleated, bunched up mess at the top, and the legs are tapered like an awful pair of jeans from 1993. No normal person can rock this combination and look respectable. Not only is it silly but these pants are just unflattering because of their cut.

Any trends you've seen that bother you?

Catcher in the Rye.

Let me just begin by saying I did not particularly enjoy reading this book. I was 150 pages into this book and could not discern what the point of the story/plot or what I was supposed to take away from it. I think I may even have enjoyed it less than 2 1/2 Twilight books I read. Now this is just my opinion and you are entitled to form your own. I just don't want to start any arguments. I guess that's why they consider this a classic because it easily sparks conversation and debate.

Anywho, I think one of the main reason I did not like this book was because the main protagonist is the least likable character you will ever find in literature. I am speaking from my limited experience, but I could not find one redeeming thing about Holden Caulfield except that he cares about his little sister Phoebe. I dislike Holden for the following reasons.

1) His limited vocabulary lead to a lot of swearing and cussing. Just open the book and look at 1 page and you will see what I mean. He seems to be a very lonely and depressed kid who likes to get drunk.

2) Holden has the most negative, pessimistic and cynical personality. He has very little nice uplifting to say about anyone or anybody, even those he considers to be his friends. Notice I avoided using an absolute because there are some nice moments. But more often there examples like this.

"Do you think I could get an intelligent answer out of those three dopes? I thought eh two ugly ones, Mary and Laverne, were sisters, but they got very insulted when I asked them. You could tell neither one of them wanted to look like the other one, and you couldn't blame them, but it was very amusing. "

"The Navy guy and I told each other we were glad to've met each other. Which always kills me. I'm always saying "glad to've met you" to somebody I'm not at all glad I met."

3) Holden is hypocrite. He call everybody in his life phonies. He has this air of self importance that is not at all attractive.

"People Never Notice Anything"

For Holden, the word "people" marks Holden's attempt to separate himself from others. Holden is not like other “people”; the world is against him. Generalizing in this way, setting himself apart, can make him feel better about his own idiosyncrasies and low self-esteem, giving him a sense that he is better than the mass of people, who fail to notice what he perceives. Holden sees through phoniness while others accept it. For example when he talks about Ernie, the piano player "I'm not too sure what the name of the song was that he was playing when I came in, but whatever it was he was really stinking it up. He was putting all these dumb, show-offy ripples in the high notes, and a lot of other very tricky stuff that gives me a pain in the $@#. You should've heard the crowed, though when he was finished. You would've puked. They went mad. They were exactly the same morons that laugh like hyenas in the movies at stuff that isn't funny.

"I don't like any shows very much, if you want to know the truth. They're not as bad as movies, but they're certainly nothing to rave about. In the first place, I hate actors. They never act like people. They just think they do. Some of the good ones do, in a very slight way, but not in a way that's fun to watch. Andy if any actor's really good, you can always tell he knows he's good, and that spoils it."

Then half the time Holden is acting as if he's crazy and delusional and is just as capricious as the people he meets and criticizes.

"I don't even know why I started all that stuff with her. I mean about going somewhere, to Massachussetts and Vermont and all. I probably wouldn't've taken her even if she'd wanted to go with me. she wouldn't've have been anybody to go with. the terrible part, though, is that I meant it when I asked her"

1. "I was half in love with her by the time we sat down. That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they're not much to look at, or even if they're sort of stupid, you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are. Girls. Jesus Christ. They can drive you crazy. They really can."

   1. Here, Holden reflects on the adolescent male’s (or perhaps most males’, most people’s) tendency to overreach, to create relationships in their minds on the basis of a single seemingly genuine encounter. A single “pretty” thing launches fantasies of love. The more alienated and lonely Holden becomes, the more he recedes into his own fantasies, yet he recognizes that seeking pleasure through this kind of imagination is just “crazy,” not an authentic way to temper the pain he feels.

   1. What really gets me about this book is there really isn't a great lesson to be learned. I don't feel that Holden had changed or matured at the end of the book. He did admit that he missed his friends at the private school he was kicked out of. But this quote at the end tells me he still has the same destructive attitude as he did at the beginning. . He shows no motivation or determination. He doesn't seem to care much about himself from my perspective.

   1. "A lot of people, especially this one psychoanalyst guy they have here, keeps asking me if i'm going to apply myself when I go back to school next September. It's such a stupid question, in my opinion. I mean how do you know what you're going to do till you do it? The answer is you don't. i think I am, but how do know?"

   All in all i felt the book was very unsatisfying. Have you read it? What did you think?

Call me Irresponsible

So this Weekend, I skipped two days of work and a day of class to go to Colorado with my parents and visit Adrienne and William and the kids. We left Thursday and after close to 9 hours we finally made it to Parker. I am so glad I was able to sleep in the car because i was up finishing homework and got an hour of sleep wednesday night. We had a yummy dinner of fish and rice and edamame and we had a wonderful chat. Tristan is getting so big and told us all about what he is doing in school. He showed us this poster of emotions he made. Its pictures they took of him at school being sad, angry, happy, silly, etc. He can write his name and he is learning to read. I can't believe how smart he is.

Friday we took the kids on the town and went to main street. We bought them pumpkins, including 2 little baby ones.

We also passed these vampire, monster, skeletons and black cat decorations all over main street as we took Tristan and Jack to a little kiddie hay maze. Jack was calling everything vampires. They had a blast. The maze was terribly simple so the boys went through 3 or 4 times and then got ice cream from Baskin Robbins

Friday was my dad's birthday. My Cousin Liz and her family also live in Parker and she wanted to help out and babysit if we wanted to go to dinner. Well, we came to Colorado to see the whole Bireley Clan, so we just ordered Chinese in and Liz insisted on making a chocolate birthday cake for my dad. So Friday night, we all went over to the Steven's home. All of the kids were enjoying playing with the fun toys, and Cole made my dad his new best friend. We were enjoying being able to sit and catch up and we got so caught up in our chat, and little Scarlett took a tumble down the stairs into the basement. We all felt horrible for being such horrible adults. She was crying but i think she was more scared than anything. She calmed down and was fine but she scared us all to death. It was the saddest thing you have ever seen.

Saturday we drove to Colorado Springs to Garden of the Gods. It is a beautiful park full of red rock formations. It actually is very similar to Wayne County and the Capitol Reef area where my mom grew up and where my grandparents still live. One of the peaks we saw looked exactly like pride rock from Lion King. It was a perfect day and we had a great time walking along the paved trail. Jack was running around and walking every but on the trail. He would travel in the dirt and hide in the trees a long the way. Every couple of feet Jack would jump up on a rock and strike a pose. He would yell "cheese" to get our attention and let us now he was ready to have his picture taken. You see some very interesting people at parks like this. Some are dressed in the heels and designer jeans and silk blouses, while others are wearing their hot pants and uggs (that whole style trend I never understood). But the park was so beautiful. There are places to rock climb, bike ride, go horseback riding, and there are tours throughout the park. I highly recommend it.

On this trip I discovered Jack and Tristan love the music from Glee. Jack's requests as I was playing songs off of my phone were Sweet Caroline and Gold Digger. Tristan requested the gravity song aka "defying gravity" from wicked. He actually knew enough of the words to sing a long. That made so happy. The funniest part of the trip was Sunday morning as we were getting out of the car and going inside for sacrament meeting Jack started singing "i bust your windows out your car."

During Sacrament meeting I was keeping Tristan entertained by having him draw me pictures. Since he is going to be Batman for Halloween had him draw a batman for me. (p.s. Jack is going to be Ironman and Scarlett is going to be a piggy). Anyway as Tristan finished his picture he looked at it very thoughtfully and told me he thought "batman" looked more like mickey mouse so that is what the doodle was going to be, mickey mouse.

We also played several games of Blokus. This is the one game that makes normally calm and pleasant individuals such as William and myself turn very mean. Adrienne and my parents worry about me playing and suggest that I might need anger management. and I might ever so slightly agree.

Funny impersonations

Okay. I am really not a huge Miley Cyrus fan, but this skit was so hilarious because they are making fun of her. The girl doing Miley is spot on with her impression. Its crazy. The part with Johnny Depp is basically pretty sweet.

This other skit just reminds me of my dad so much because he is probably Denzel Washington's number one fan of all time. This new kid on Saturday Night Live is talented in my eyes so I

thought this was pretty dang funny.

Things to Look Forward To.

This week, I received my grade on my first project on my English class ( I don't think my score was deserved) and my computer died. That, along with some other things that I've been frustrated with have just put me in a bad mood lately. After kind of a rough time I've decided to cheer myself up by making a list of things I am looking forward to.

I am going to See this at Hale Center Theater Tonight!

I am excited to See Olivia's Dance Competition Tomorrow!

Divine Comedy Saturday Night.

I can't wait to use my New Laptop

BYU vs UNLV Nov 6. First Football Game I've been to since I've been in College. Isn't that sad.

David Archuleta is the guest for the Tabernacle Choir Concert

What are you looking forward to?

Inexplicable

Here are some things that have made me smile over the past few weeks.

I can't get a normal song stuck in my head. Its always something like "My Favorite Things" from Sound of Music or the Hawaii Five-0 theme. Seriously? That one doesn't even have any words.

Jack, just plain Jack. Since I sent my sister Glee: The Music Volume1, Jack has picked a favorite song from the CD. Gold Digger by Kanye West. Jack is also a Lady Gaga Fan. .and he's 3.

I am remembering how much of a dork I am. I still love those books with the collection of 5 minute mysteries that test your reasoning, logic, and observation skills.

I also really enjoy learning new words. My roommate and I decided it would be fun to learn a new word everyday. Today's word: Lucifugous-avoidng light.

Paying it forward. I love to see people being nice and kind to one another. I was at Walmart picking up groceries for my mom. I got into line. There was a lady having her groceries scanned, a man with 2 items, one of which was a loaf of bread, and then me. As the cashier finished ringing up this lady's groceries, she said hi to the man behind her and told the cashier that she wanted to put the man's items on her bill. The man protested a little but she said "No, let me do it. I had somebody kind do it for me once, and i'm sure you'll have the chance to do it for somebody else someday". So Great. Everybody should find a way to help somebody you know this weekend.

And of course, who doesn't want to see Michael Buble dressed up like Justin Beiber, and he even has the hair.

More Lessons Learned. .

LESSON 1 Like my mom said I am like a bull in a china Closet, or plain and simple I am an idiot Either Way You Have To Laugh

First a little Background. I bought the first half of Glee, season 1 on DVD, and I just bought the second half of the season when it came out last week. My sister Adrienne won the first 2 volumes of Glee Music through some contest on the Internet. She had never seen the show, so she told me I could have the CDs when they came in the mail. True to her word she sent them to me.

Now, While she was here visiting this summer, she stole my DVDs and took them home to Colorado to watch them. 2 days ago, she called me and told me she had finished all of the episodes that she pilfered, she really liked the show, and wanted me to mail her the second half. She also texted me and asked me to send the CDs back so she could get the music as well. So, being the nice sister that I am, I obliged and set off for the post office that afternoon. As I was leaving, I called Adrienne and told her I had sent the DVDs and CDs back to her. She was understandably excited. Then as we continued talking, I had a horrifying thought. I had just grabbed the CD cases out of my car and put them in the envelope. I had a sickening feeling that one of the CDs was still in my car. So I immediately checked and confirmed my suspicion. There was Glee, Vol 2, sitting safe in the CD player in my car. I had sent an empty case to Adrienne.

LESSON 2 Recipe for a better Day, whether you are having a horrible day, or your day has already been great.

Christmas Music and Michael Buble my friends. That is all you need. I like to listen to Christmas music before the Holiday chaos starts. I appreciate more before those hectic few months when all you hear about is Christmas, all you see are gifts and decorations, and you are just inundated with Christmas. Plus who doesn't love Michael Buble.

The bright side: you can listen while you are driving or while you study or while you go for a run. You don't have to waste time or feel guilty about doing it. Its win win.

Now, I am talking anything goes. Hymns like 'Angels We Have Heard on High" or "Joy To the World". Fun songs like "Let it Snow Let It Snow, Let it Snow." Classics like "White Christmas", "The Christmas Song", and my personal favorite "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas".

While I love the song "o Holy Night" and I am not trying to disrespect the message, this

version is sure to bring a smile to anybody's face.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnCB4K-bM5A

What do you think? What sort of things make you smile?