The Latest

I just finished Sisters by Danielle Steel. I hadn't previously read any of Steel's work, though I've always seen and heard her name. This book caught my attention not only because of the title but because the cover illustration shows four women, which I assumed meant the story was about four sisters. It was a difficult option to overlook since there are 4 sisters in my own family.

The book was great, but I don't really care about that right now. Like the women in this book, my sisters are my best friends. I can't say it's always been like that but it is now, undoubtedly. You always hear cheesy sayings about sisterhood, but they obviously originated somewhere. I guess the point of this post is just to say that I love my sisters, unequivocally. They mean the world to me. I could spend hours with each one individually or all of them collectively and never get bored.

I'm in a special situation, being the only girl in the family not married, but most of the time that doesn't seem to matter. Lunch dates, late-night boardgames, text messages, emails, Sunday dinners, General Conference girls' nights...they always seem to have enough time for me. And I don't think there's anything I would schedule over time with my sisters. Maybe that's why I'm still single...I spend too much time with my family and not enough meeting new people. But who cares? My sisters know every ugly detail about my obsessive, sensitive, and sometimes contentious personality, but the bond remains the same.

Jenny, Ashley, and Jessica...Thanks for being my sisters, my best friends, and my constant in life. I love you. I'm sorry for the corny nature of this post, but sometimes things like this just need to be said. :)

On A Roll...

So last night after blogging I started another book, Daddy's Girl. I recently discovered Lisa Scottoline as an author and I LOVE her. Very John Grishamesque (my favorite author). Anyway, the title is a bit deceiving and has actually nothing to do with the storyline, but it's a great book. I finished it last night before going to bed and would recommend it. The tagline on the front of the book states "So many plot twists, the pages seem to turn themselves," and I think I concur with that opinion. Anyway, good book.

I watched American Idol tonight. I've never been totally captivated by that show like many people have, but today as I drove home from work I was thinking I might want to watch it tonight. Jessica stopped by and mentioned she was going to Jen's to watch it, so I tagged along and it was fun. I'm glad I went.

I think that's all I have to talk about today...

Oh! One more thing. The president of the bank came to the branch where I was working today! I got to shake his hand and chat with him for a bit. It was really neat! He seems genuinely happy with his job and is very friendly. It was a neat experience getting to meet him.

Monday, Monday

I finished another book today. Well, technically two books. But one I read in like 15 or 20 minutes and don't really count. The first one I finished, The Soul Thief, was interesting. I'd say it's a good book, but I just got the feeling the whole time that the story was very Toni Morrisonesque. That is to say it was filled with imagery and symbolism which is often lost on me.

The second book was inspirational and I'm glad I read it, though it was far from life-changing and seems to be more an expression of Kristine Carlson's grieving process than an attempt at literary acclaim. I'm not saying that's bad at all. I just mean it's not a book that will stop you in your tracks, though the message is sincere and beautiful.

"But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins."


Full Text Online

Thanks, Bro!

On Monday night, my older brother took me to the Jazz game against Toronto. The Jazz won pretty big (96-79) and I had a blast. It was great to spend time with my brother and to see the Jazz again. I hadn't seen them since they picked up Birthday Boy, Kyle Korver. He's a fun player to watch and I now understand my sister's infatuation.


Then, to top things off, at the end of the night my brother gave me tickets to a Jazz autograph signing party on Tuesday night. My friend and I went and it was a lot of fun, even though Memo, Boozer, and Korver weren't there :(

Here are some pictures:

Harpring signing my friend's ball.


Sloan and Milsap


Ronnie Price


Deron Williams...his line was too long to get his signature.


Ronnie Brewer


One of the signatures on my cute pink ball (Matt Harpring 15)

The Tranquil Library

On my way home from school today, I stopped by the library. I wasn't looking for anything in particular. I saw a book on the "New Books for Teens" display by Gary Soto. The author's name sounded familiar, so I picked it up. It was 175 pages of very easy reading and a little more than an hour later, I finished the book and put it back where I had found it. The story was simple and I still don't know where I know Soto's name from, but I guess I got to add another title to my "Books Read" list. :)

One word: Magical

Being the only girl in her family, my niece sometimes gets spoiled. Jessica and I are some of the worst in this particular area and when we walked into the Energy Solutions Arena to see hundreds of pink booths selling princess paraphernalia, we couldn't help ourselves! Jess sponsored the Cinderella doll and I the Belle necklace. She seemed to sincerely appreciate both, and at the end of the night I loved when she said "Mom I need to put on my Cinderella dress so I can be a real princess" while holding the necklace up.

Belle, my favorite, was the only disappointing part of the night for me. She was only in one number and the Beast wasn't even a part of it... just her and Lumierre.


One of the best parts of the show was Sleeping Beauty. My niece LOVES her anyway and was looking forward the most to SB and Cinderella, so it was fun seeing her anticipation. But when the Prince fights the HUGE glow-in-the dark dragon that breathes real fire onto the ice, my niece was genuinely concerned about Prince Phillip coming out as victor...

The finale, where the Beast suddenly appears in his Prince costume. Where was that before???

My niece and I both really happy after the show, with equally cheesy smiles.


The girls... I wish Ash and my mom could have been there to make the group complete. Sorry. Jess, for blocking you completely in this picture. Lol

What an incredible night! I was amazed with the talent, and it was so neat to see and hear all of the little girls' reactions when new characters came out on the ice. It opened with Tinkerbell and I was in tears listening to their awe. Don't you just sometimes wish you could be a kid again so you could see the magic in life?

3 Posts in 1 Day!!!

I just finished The Other Boleyn Girl. As a history major, I recognized going into this book that historical fiction is a tricky thing. When they decide to author such a book, historians must decide how much truth to sacrifice in the name of a good story, and readers--knowing that there's a hint of truth--are inclined to accept every page as doctrine. I was not immune from the created trance while I read this book. I was extremely excited to see the author site sources at the end of her Author's Note. I am intrigued now as to just how much of the story of ambition, betrayal, and heartache is true. Maybe I've finally found a topic for my History 490 Capstone paper...what do you think? :)

50

Jen made me do this last week and I failed even worse than this. I'm being honest though when I say I think I was stressed with her and her husband standing around while I did it. I swear I didn't study or even look at a map since then and I decided to try it again and did better sitting in the relaxing environment of my room. :) Maybe someday I'll get them all.

More of the Same...

Some of you might have noticed that I haven't blogged in awhile... well, a long while actually. There's no real reason why. My life just feels pretty much the same every day, so there's not much to update you on. I'm still reading more, but the book I'm working on is long and slow at parts, so I haven't been able to update you on a newly finished book. I'm still sick of school and enjoying work. Cheer is going well will no new developments, so you see...if I were to blog every day and tell you that over and over again, you would quit visiting.

One "special" thing about the last week was the chance I had on Saturday to spend the day with my oldest nephew. We saw Spiderwick and visited the fancy "glass library" (dubbed as such by nephew) downtown. We're both book lovers, so it was fun to visit such an incredible encapsulation of knowledge.

Tonight I'm heading downtown again to see Disney Princesses on Ice with two of my sisters and my niece. I'm actually pretty excited. I LOVE watching figure skating, I'm a fan of Disney, and it's always great to spend time with family. I'll let you know how it goes.

Suggestions?

So I've been feeling like posting about my family. I thought for sure there would be a bunch of surveys and bulletins online with an "All About Your Family" theme, but I'm not finding any that seem worth doing. Maybe that means Family isn't a viable conversation topic for the MySpace generation? Anyway... if you know of a fun family survey, let me know.

Also, I suddenly can't change the color of my font when I'm posting...any idea about that one?

Change

I wanted Reese Witherspoon Bangs...

But they said I couldn't have them because of my stupid cowlick...


At first I didn't like them but they've grown on me. It's always tough too when you have to try and figure out on your own how the salon styled your hair.

Anyway, a new squad at the school, a new 'do on the head, and because of the nature of my job, I was at another new branch yesterday for work. This one was fun for two reasons...the main one being my sister works in the same building. So we got to have lunch and hang out--great fun. And then the other exciting thing about the day...

I was helping a customer when I saw someone coming in the doors behind him. The man looked like someone I recognized, but wasn't sure I was seeing correctly. When he walked closer and I had to crane my neck to observe how tall he was and after noticing his Utah Jazz pullover, I knew right away...

MEMO!!!

The teller that helped him was pretty funny. He was cashing some checks and was like "Do you need my ID?" She kind of giggled and responded, "No, you're okay..." When he walked out the door we both exploded into childish laughter. LOL. Come to think of it, I didn't even ask to see the endorsed checks to see his autograph. Oh man...poor famous people :)

Empathy--Gift or Curse?

Well before I get into my real reason for blogging today, I'd like to turn your attention to the left side of the page. Over there (*head nod to the left*) and down a little. Under "books read". I finished another one! Man, this goal to read more has been the easiest goal to keep in my life! Love Walked In is magnificent. It took me a few chapters to get used to the narrator's personality because she's a bit quirky, which I ended up loving. Anyway, it's a book about true love and not just in the cheesy sense. The second half of the book kept me teary-eyed through most of it.

Speaking of teary-eyed... I'm one of those people that cry simply because someone else is crying. It doesn't matter if I know the person well or if they're a stranger, if I relate to their struggle or hardly understand it. When people cry, I cry. Now I'm not going to try to convince you that I am a warm-hearted angel of an individual. I'm not. I can be mean and callous and sometimes even intentionally hurt people, though I can say with a clear conscience that those times are few and far between. But if there is one gentle fact about my personality that I am sure of, it's that I'm empathetic. I'm pretty sure I always have been.

While it's helpful to have something on hand that you like about yourself (without sifting through the under-achiever or obsessive personality or bad with money), it's also sometimes a difficult aspect of my personality to deal with. It gets frustrating feeling people hurt so vividly when you can't do anything to fix it, feeling the desire of someone who wants something SO BADLY but you can't help them get it.

Right now there's a girl on my squad that's struggling. Down the road she might look back on this trial as trivial and juvenile, but it's very real to her right now. Because I care about her, the struggle feels like my own. But even more so, because I'm over her as a coach and the problem stems from within the squad, I feel like I should be able to do something. Which makes it all the more frustrating to know that I can't.

I don't think I'm actually going anywhere with this, so I'll stop. Just thought a little word vomit would help clear my head. :) Adios.