Is There Even a Way to Title This?

I work at a call center, most of you (the two people who read this) know that. It's a lovely job consisting of mostly getting yelled at, occasionally having someone cry into the phone at you, some swearing, and some very incredibly awkward personal confessions from people you don't know and have never met. It's awesome! Even better is our company's recent decision to conduct surveys that clearly invade the huge personal space bubble that exists in ones mind. You know, those things that exist but you don't want to talk about? Well, I might call you and ask you to talk about them! Example One: We have a new survey for Stanford University called "Couples". Basically we call and ask questions about your relationship. My favorite questions: How attractive would you rate yourself? How attractive would you rate your partner? Yea, because people are going to tell you the truth when their gf/bf/spouse/intimate lover/dog/whatever floats your boat is sitting next to them. Yea... Example Two: This one is my favorite! It's a survey called TP Study. If you are thinking "no, tp stands for something else." You are wrong, it stands for toilet paper. We call and ask people when the last time they used the restroom was and how they would rate the flushability of their toilet paper. But that isn't the best or worst part! They have been asked to record the flushability of their toilet paper. Like video record. I guess somebody has to do it, right? I'm just glad I'm not the person who has to watch all of those videos....

Running is for Runners. Driving is for Drivers.

My "family" ran Ragnar this last weekend. For those of you like me who don't run or have any idea what it is runners do or find joy in you may not know what Ragnar is. Ragnar is a relay race with two teams of six people each. The one my family runs is called the Wasatch Back; it's from Logan to Park City. Crazy, right? Yes! Well, each year they run we have a little party in Huntsville in between vans to play and eat; or if you're a runner to sleep. It's way fun, and really the greatest part of my family's tradition. So, I went on my merry way to drive to Huntsville, which I, myself have never driven by myself. And got lost. I get lost a lot guys, it happens to everyone, just to me more often than is ordinary. I don't know what it is. I think the road signs have it out for me and so they change when they see me coming so that I go the wrong way. It isn't my fault. Eventually, my "dad" called and directed me in the right way, after figuring out what exactly the right way was. I was on the right track, though! And then the road I was supposed to take was blocked for runners. Why?!?! I get it runners gotta run, but hey drivers (AKA Felicia) gotta drive! I got there...eventually. But it was a stressful, very scenic drive.

Good Byes & Blessings

This week one of my favorite people will head out into the world of gospel spreading as she enters the MTC on Wednesday. Yay! And Boo! It's a confusing feeling to be excited for your friend and sad she will be gone at the same time. But I am very happy for her and she is going to make a wonderful missionary. And she gave a fabulous talk on Sunday!

I have fun friends. :)

I learned a valuable lesson this week and built a stronger testimony of tithing. I fully believe in and support the saying "fake it til' you make it". This is not gospel doctrine so do not quote me on it. But it is something that has beneficial in my life especially with the principle of tithing. I have never experienced the amazing miracle or blessings that come when you pay your tithing. I have heard the stories and I know deep down that paying my tithing is the right thing to do. I have to pay my tithing in order to attend the temple, and I know the temple is where I need to be. But tithing has always been a principle that I have followed blindly without a real testimony of. Wherein lies the "fake it til' you make it". I knew that one day I would gain a testimony of the principle of tithing but how was I supposed to gain a testimony if I didn't live it? So I did. It has been hard especially this last year when money has not been in surplus for me. And especially this last month. My rent for next semester is due in a week. I am almost three hundred dollars short of having enough. I didn't know what I was going to do. So, I paid my tithing having faith that the Lord would take care of me. And did He ever! I received an email today with my contract for housing. My payment is not only not due until August but it is also almost three hundred dollars less than I expected. I know I have a Heavenly Father who loves me and is always blessing me if I but only obey, and I am so grateful for that knowledge. 

My Mid Year Update

2013: the year my entire world goes, well there isn't really a word for it. It kind of feels like this: a;sdifjoajfiojdsofiosuiowrjowndkhoiuglkwefnjhuj. If you are saying "Felicia, that isn't even a word. That  doesn't make any sense, it's just a bunch of garble," then I have captured the emotion perfectly. Towards the end of my Junior year of high school, that's three years ago for those of you who are counting, my life turned upside down. I didn't think anything could be more stressful than changing schools, changing jobs, changing friends, changing families. And indeed at the time it was a most stressful time in my life. But looking back on it I felt completely at peace with everything that was happening. I knew every decision I had made was under the influence and loving hand of my Heavenly Father and that He knew exactly where it was I needed to be. Do not get me wrong that was the hardest year of my life, up to this point. I knew everything would be fine though because I was laid a very direct path to happiness with little obstacle besides my own emotion. 2013, I'm finding, is yet again to be a year of change. We are halfway through and the best is yet to come. I, again, know that a path has been laid and that if I follow in it I will find at the end, and perhaps through the journey, happiness. But this path looks so much scarier.  Sometimes I wish someone would make all the choices for me, then I could blame them if it all went wrong. But that's not how it works, and I'm finding that worse than receiving the answer you don't want is receiving one that tells you to decide for yourself what is right. It's all a little overwhelming. I am so excited for the change that my life is going to take, but I am also terrified. It's going to be a very interesting year folks. :)

My 2013 "Visual" Updates:

My best friend found someone worth leaving the single life for, that guy on the right is one extremely lucky fella.

 This awesome woman, who also happens to be my amazing friend, is going to Arizona in a few short months to serve her LDS mission. So proud of her! :)

That righteous, beautiful, friend of mine on the left is leaving in just two (ish) weeks to serve in the lucky state of Washington D.C./Virginia. She is going to be amazing! And the one on the right  has left our apartment :(, I will still see her lots though. :)

I don't think this picture needs an explanation as to how it has affected my life, and will affect my life in 2013. I love this school I will be really sad to not have the chance to be on campus everyday in the fall, but I'm very excited for my Brigham City adventures!

Just a few months ago my roommates decided to make me this super awesome Christmas gift, which stretched around our entire living room at the time. It's a countdown chain for the homecoming of one of greatest, most important people in the world to me and as you can see it's gotten a lot shorter since Christmas. What once used to stretch around our living room is now occupying only the tiny space that is the corner of my bedroom. It has 145 links today. It's incredible how quickly time flies without your realizing it. 

It's me! The most up to date picture anyone on the planet has of me, it was taken last night. Enjoy it,

because it's a terrible picture. This year is going to be the most interesting, by far, but hopefully it will be pretty great too.

It's Drop it Hot

The air conditioning at work has been broken for who knows how long and no one seems to want to fix it because, well there isn't really a reason, mostly people are lazy. The other day it was especially hot, it was probably 85 degrees outside and 10 degrees hotter inside our building. Fortunately, I had been seated by a window and so it was hot but bearable. The people sitting across from me weren't having such luck, they were baking like potatoes on a grill. One moment everything is as dandy as it can be inside a microwave and the next I hear a thump as the girl across from me decides to take a mid-afternoon nap under her desk. I work with really odd people so don't sound totally shocked and surprised when my first thought was that she really was taking a nap. It's weird but I work with weird people. I stopped thinking she was napping when the guy next to her, who was on a call, started kicking at her feet. I should have been concerned but the scene was so funny that I couldn't help but laugh. Yes, I know, I'm a terrible human being, remember that if you ever feel like passing out around me.
P.S. The girl is fine, and they are now fixing our air conditioning. :)

A 4 A.M. Surprise

Last night I went to bed around like 11:30, pretty close to normal any other day of the week, and I slept like a small child. Well, not exactly I kind of got hot so I pushed all my pillows to the bottom of the bed and my head was dangling off the side of the bed while my blanket was still wrapped around me all the way up to my neck because I HAVE TO HAVE A BLANKET. Yea, I sleep weird. But that isn't the point of my story. I laid dreaming a great dream. I can't exactly remember what it was I was just dreaming that I was plotting a very sneaky, very complicated, very awesome plot of some sort. There was a lot of thinking going on in my sleep last night. In the middle of my plot planning a hear a high pitched constant beeping of some sort. It wasn't my dream. I woke up to the smoke detector at FOUR IN THE MORNING. I look over thinking "well, somebody has to save K, since she could sleep through the apocalypse" and a throw something at her. It actually took her a second to register there was an enormously loud noise echoing through our apartment. Then I opened the door slightly hoping there was a good reason for the intrusion on my dream but knowing that would probably mean a fire and I was okay if there was no reason at all. Good news, no fire. Bad news, our smoke detector is clearly broken or going through it's terrible twos.

The Adventures of Handy Dandy Felicia

This past week I needed to get the safety inspection done on my car because my registration is up this month and of course I postponed until the last possible moment mostly because I'm poor but partly because I'm lazy. The only problem was a few months ago the mirror fell off my passenger side window. Not the whole thing just the glass part, you know the actual mirror. I was super tempted to just super glue it back on but then I worried it would fall off and break and buying a replacement would probably be more expensive than finding a proper way to fix it. The problem was I had no idea how to fix this stupid mirror so I trusted my dear good old friend google to figure it out for me. Turns out the world is full of stupid people (I won't say like me but really they were like me) who also have this same problem and trust the internet for solutions. Also, as it turns out the internet is not very good with the whole up close and personal hands on type stuff. In the end google wouldn't fix the mirror for me it only told me what glue to buy to fix it. Luckily, Wally world had the glue. I came home feeling so cool because I bought this awesome cool special glue and quickly realized I didn't know how to use the awesome cool special glue. I read the package. It sounded complicated. I needed to scrape all the old glue off the mirror before putting more glue on. My weapon of choice: a spoon. Did it work? No. So I returned to the kitchen wondering where I could find something to get the old glue off. Then I came across a knife. I thought to myself "Felicia, do you trust yourself with a knife? No. Do you have any other choice? No." 30 seconds later the knife and I had set out on an adventure back to the car. Everything was going grand and the knife was actually working pretty decently when the mirror slipped and sliced my finger. It was horrible! Blood began spilling onto my hand, it was gross. I felt like Bella after she got bit by the creepy blonde vampire in the first movie, except there was no creepy other blonde stalker vampire to stop the bleeding and almost kill me. I ran inside and put my hand under the faucet only to be astonished by how deep this little cut was. I probably needed stitches. But again with the poor thing and a little with the lazy thing, I didn't go get stitches. Instead I thought "Hey, there is some super glue in the drawer upstairs and really it's the same thing as stitches, right?" And so I did it. I super glued my finger shut. It burned. A LOT. And today I'm wondering, was that such a great idea? I guess if I die I will at least died knowing I fixed that stupid mirror on my car, it was totally worth it.

It's Not Me, It's You.

So, I'm not one to complain, wait, yes I am. In fact this entire blog is mostly me complaining about stuff. It really kind of is, that's sad. Well, I have to tell someone without actually telling someone because I am super irritated right now. At the end of the school year my dearest roommates went home, without me, and left me here. I am still traumatized over it. Every once in awhile it starts pouring like the scene from The Notebook when Ryan Gosling and what's her name make up and realize they still love each other and that he sent her letters every day, except no one is sending me letters every day and I don't really love anyone at least not in that way and it's not actually raining...so mostly it's not like that scene and I can't remember where I was going with that, whatever. It's really really sad. Onto the complaining portion of this entry. I loved them with every fiber of my being and they left me, they left me and their cleanly ways left me. I am kind of messy, it's true, BUT my mess extends to my bedroom, and it's mostly because I'm lazy and never put my laundry away. But one certain new roommate of mine (all of my roommates names start with K so we will just call her Bo Peep) has a mess that extends far beyond the realm of her own galaxy and waaaay up into all a everybody else's galaxy. I walked downstairs this morning and I could swear that last night she had a bar fight in our living room that escalated into the kitchen and involved a lot of butter. It was a mess. I feel like a mother cleaning up after an overgrown two year old. I'm sure Bo Peep is a wonderful person, she seems really fun, but you can be wonderful and fun AND clean. I'm not sure how she manages to dirty so many dishes in one day, she is one person, but our sink is never empty for more than what seems like five minutes. And it's never two or three dishes it's like she served up a seven course meal to the confederate army! It's crazy! Oh, if only H & A from freshman year had her as a roommate they would have LOVED us. She really is a fun loving, awesome, energetic person and I'm sure, given the chance, we would be great friends. It's just very exhausting to be the only person in the apartment who seems bothered by this problem. Am I wrong to not want to gag when I walk into my kitchen?

A Beautiful Weekend

I still don't have any pictures from San Diego, sorry guys I'm working on it. I was informed yesterday that I need to update my blog more often. Here is a newsflash for you (I won't mention your name): You lived with me, my life is boring! What would you like me to update about, the weather, how I still haven't put my laundry away, or maybe how I suck at keeping my promises to go running -we will pretend you didn't hear that one. I have nothing of substance to tell the world about. It's a sad truth. I need a life. It was very beautiful this Memorial Day weekend though, not that you can tell now because it's very wet and cold outside. My "family" and I had tons of fun playing with the nephews and my solo niece, barbecuing, and swimming (although to be honest it was kind of cold for that). It was a wonderful time and I'm very lucky to have been able to go home. I finished a book! Yay for not wasting all of my time on the internet and I am currently trying to read Eragon. I have also been informed that I must read Ender's Game by the end of October as I will be seeing that movie since it is a favorite of one of my favorite people. Has anyone read that? I don't even know what it is about. Lots of reading! I forgot how much I love to read, as I haven't had the chance to sit down and enjoy a book in what seems like forever. I changed my school schedule, and what seems like my entire life, today. As of right now I have two classes in Logan and all the rest in Brigham City. I was lucky in that they changed the schedule around just enough that I only have to drive to Brigham twice a week next semester instead of three times which will be a lot nicer. It's an interesting change and we will see how I handle it, right now it feels like a heavy weight on my back and there isn't anything I can do so I don't know why I worry. Well, for your viewing pleasure I have included the picture from when I went wakeboarding right after my trip to San Diego. It isn't much but it's kinda cool, I think.

The water was kind of rocky but it was still way cool to get out there. I can't wait to do lots more of it this summer!

"...all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good."

I had a plan. That plan has been ripped up, puked on, and set on fire. These things tend to happen to me. I make a plan, I think the plan is great, then God comes along with His plan and turns out it's different than mine. His plan is always harder, always tearful, and always better. I'm trying to remember this as I pick myself up this week and rearrange what is left of my academic career. I found out yesterday that I will not be continuing in the social work program here in Logan. There are a few options as to what I can do, and after careful consideration and prayer I have decided to use Brigham City as my social work base. Brigham city means a commute, as all my social work classes and practicum will be 30-45 minutes away, but it also means not having to wait until next year to re-apply for the program. It is not going to be an easy path and it was a hard decision to make. I have yet to know why this is the way I need to go but I have trust in that it is the best thing for me. And though I will, probably, still be crying over this two weeks from now, and again in the Fall when it becomes a reality, I will be okay and I can do this.