T Swizzle

One day in August, Jacob and I went to the Awful Waffle for a little snack. He said he had a question to ask me before we came to pick me up, so I asked him while we were enjoying our crepes, "What did you want to ask me?"

He said, "What are you doing on September 28th?"

I thought that was kind of a weird question. I said, "Um....well I can check my schedule? I think I have plans...what am I doing then?"

He said, "Do you want to go to Taylor Swift's concert with me?"

You guys, I came this close to peeing my pants when he said that. Do you know how much I love Taylor Swift?? If I could only go to one concert in my life, that's the one I would want to go to. I love her songs, know the words to almost all of them, love her clothes, and kind of want to be her sometimes - or at least be as awesome as her. That would be cool.

Obviously I said yes.

This week, I was a little sicky, but I was determined to be better in time for T-Swift. Jacob and I tried to prepare by listening to only Taylor Swift songs in the car, watching her music videos, and watching some SNL skits from when she hosted it.

On Wednesday, September 28th, Jacob picked me up from my class at 4. We stopped by my apartment so I could change and eat a little bit, and then we set off for Salt Lake!

We got there at about 5:30, which was perfect because then we had time to look around and take some pictures. There were at least 15 or 20 trucks with Taylor's Covergirl pictures on them. There were also different stages for radio stations giving out pit passes and autographed guitars and cool things like that. Jacob caught some mascara for me so I was pretty pumped about that!




At about 6:45 we got in line to get in. While we were standing there, Jacob said, "I think that girl just took a picture of you!" I looked where he was looking and there were 5 or 6 middle-school girls all looking from a cell phone to me and then at each other. Hmmmm.

"WHY?" I asked Jacob, looking straight at the girls.

Jacob didn't know. We stood there looking at the girls, very confused, until the mom with them leaned out of their line and said, laughing, "I'm sorry! She just thought you two made the CUTEST couple so she had to take a picture."

"I....! Well they....just look! I didn't get....okay well now I'll just take it obviously," the girl with the cell phone sputtered. We laughed and felt flattered and posed for a picture.

After that, we were in! We found our seats, way up in the top and to the left of the stage. There were screens on either side of the stage but our seats were too far to the left of the stage, so we couldn't see it very well. Until we scooted down to some empty seats and took them for ourselves. Oops....

As we sat there, waiting for the concert to begin, we tried taking a picture of ourselves, but it just wasn't working out. The lady behind us kindly asked if we wanted her to take one. We kindly thanked her. She kindly told us that we were just so cute, she had to offer! Apparently people who go to T-Swift concerts are all super nice :)

After the opening acts, Taylor came out onstage! She opened with "Sparks Fly," one of my favorites, and I'm pretty sure everyone in the Energy Solutions Arena was singing along. The music ended, but the cheering didn't even slow down.

"Hello Salt Lake City!" Taylor said, waving. We cheered. "I'm Taylor," she said, placing one hand on her chest. I wish people would get as excited when I introduce myself as we all did then!

The rest of the night was absolutely amazing. She sang almost every song from her "Speak Now" album and some from "Fearless." She changed her outfit and hair several times. There was smoke, confetti, a violin sextet, and a fake wedding. Fireworks shot from the ceiling, sparks showered down on the stage, ballerinas tiptoed around each other, and the set changed as often as the song. Taylor ran off the stage and walked through the audience, giving hugs to all the lucky pit pass holders. She played the piano, guitar, ukelele, and banjo. She did a cover of Neon Trees' "Animal" and played a little "I'm Yours" (Jason Mraz) and "Apologize" (Timbaland) with her other songs.

And in the end, after we all thought she was done, this happened:

Dear Taylor,

I had the best day with you today.

Love,

Heather

Sicky vs. Pregnant

This weekend, I was very productive. And I had a lot of fun. And I got a lot of sleep. And I felt so great the whole weekend.

Then this morning, I woke up, and I was very post-nasal drippy, and my head was in a metaphorical bucket, and my throat was annoyed, and my ears were sad. And even though I did take a nap, and took some medicine, and drank some caramel-spice apple cider from Starbucks -which, in my book, is every bit as good as medicine - nothing has changed about my condition. In fact, it has worsened.

As it turns out, I get very needy when I'm sick. I just feel like everyone should give me lots of tender loving care and anticipate my needs. Then I realize how unrealistic and unfair that is, and I get annoyed at myself. So it's a vicious cycle.

Furthermore, I don't know how I got sick, but there are many possible culprits. Girls in my classes, people I tutored in the Writing Center, people I sat by at the football game on Friday....any of them could have been the one who thoughtlessly spread their germs to me. As I sat in class, sniffling and feeling sorry for myself, I looked around at all the other girls sniffling and felt acutely annoyed at all of them. I didn't know who to blame, so I blamed everyone. I glared at them and thought, "You did this to me!"

When I went to work tonight, I told this to a guy I work with, named Chris. He laughed and said, "You're going to be terrible to be around when you're pregnant."

My wrath found a new target right when these words finished coming out of his mouth.

"What?" I snapped. "No I won't. I'll be nice. Why would you say that?"

Chris put his hands out in a conciliatory gesture. "Calm down," he said, "I just mean....'you did this to me?' When you're pregnant you might think that.....never mind, calm down!"

I hate when people tell me to calm down. It's not like I'm out of hand. But if you keep telling me to calm down, I just might reach that point.

"No, that's completely different," I argued. "I don't know who got me sick. And I didn't ask for their germs. When I'm pregnant, I'm going to know who got me pregnant. And I'm going to be happy about it."

Chris nodded patronizingly at me. "You're right," he said, obviously just to appease me.

It was very annoying.

It's okay, though. You want to know why?

1. I got a string of pearls today! They are beautiful and I love them and I'm so excited and I'm never taking them off.

2. I am going to be better tomorrow. I just will be.

3. Taylor Swift is coming on Wednesday!!! And I am going to see her! And I am seriously going to pee my pants, I am so excited :) :) :)

No Blog Title

Why is there no blog title today? Because I was only prepared with blog titles to use when BYU beat Utah.




There's us before the game! Look at those smiles. We had great seats, right in the endzone, row 15 or 18 or something like that.



Oh. There's us halfway through the 4th quarter. We left when the score was only 30-something to 10. We found a Dairy Queen and went inside to drown our sorrows in a bowl of ice cream. (Or a Blizzard and some fries.) We weren't the only ones; there were many college students sporting "Rise Up" t-shirts sitting in a miserable silence at tables around the room.

Nottt a good day to be a Cougar.

Cultural Diorama

For my TELL 400 class, we were required to gather 3 things from our house that represent us and our cultural identity. Here are my three things:

Label: an East Coast girl who loves writing, memories, and sunshine.

1. sunglasses

These are my favorite sunglasses. I got them from Forever 21 a few months ago and wear them almost every day. These sunglasses represent who I am because I love the summertime, girly things, and good deals. This past winter, I left the frigid state of Utah for sunny Florida and I've never regretted that decision. I just love sunshine and Florida had that in abundance.

I am an East Coast girl, born and raised in Maryland, and I grew up in a fairly well-off community. I chose these sunglasses to represent that because big sunglasses are kind of trendy and a lot of celebrities wear them. My sunglasses have a floral design printed on the inside of them, which I like because it adds a touch of girliness. I love being trendy and dressing up, and I've definitely been accused of being girly (I won't argue with that!). At the same time, I hate spending lots of money. I think these sunglasses were about $6, which is just the kind of price I like for sunglasses.

2. camera

This is my camera. It’s not anything fancy, but it gets the job done and I love it! My mom loved taking pictures when I was little; anything was an excuse. I remember going to the dentist with my sisters and we were all dressed up so we could take pictures by the Washington, D.C. temple on our way home. I’ve always loved taking pictures so I didn’t mind. My older sister, Kelly, also loves taking pictures, and we both feel that almost any activity is worth it if we get good pictures out of it. My friends always tease me because I have over 2000 pictures on my Facebook, but I just feel like pictures are a great way to preserve memories!

3. pen

My favorite kind of pen is the Pentel Profile pen - really specific I know, but if you've ever used one you will understand! - but any pen could be used to represent who I am. Besides teaching, writing is my passion. I loved writing stories when I was little and I still hope that one day I will be able to publish a book. In the meantime, I keep a blog, write in a journal, send out missionary letters, and work in the Writing Center on campus.

I also chose a pen to represent education. Doing well in school was always expected and celebrated in my family. Both parents were willing to help me with homework whenever I needed it. My dad is the smartest man I know and was always my go-to man for help with anything involving math, science, or religion. He taught me, through his example, that education is extremely valuable, and intelligence is worth the hard work it takes to attain it. My mom is very creative and always gave me good ideas for big school projects. She didn't finish college but is always learning something new on her own. Still, she always tells my siblings and me how smart she thinks we are and encourages us in all our academic pursuits. Seeing how my parents value education taught me to value it the same way.

Aside from my family's influence, I come from a community that prides itself on it's public education system. I went to school in Howard County my whole life, one of the best school districts in Maryland based on the Maryland School Assessments. More than 90% of the students who graduate from Howard County schools continue their education following high school, a statistic that few communities even come close to. The public library five minutes away from my house is recognized as one of the best in the nation.

As a child I didn't realize how lucky I was, but I can see now that I was greatly blessed where education is concerned. I was given all the resources I could possibly need to succeed in school. I grew to love education, especially when we did anything that involved writing, and now I'm on my way to becoming a teacher!

Radishes and Destiny

Every day in my email, I get the dictionary.com word of the day. Recently, they also started sending me a quote of the day. Today's quote is from an Irish dramatist and novelist named Samuel Beckett.


He said, "What do I know of man's destiny? I could tell you more about radishes."



I'm thinking he probably doesn't know much about radishes, seeing as how he is a dramatist / novelist and not a farmer. Especially when you consider that he is Irish and they have mostly potatoes over there. Except, do they still have potatoes since the big potato famine? Whatever, my point is, I really like this quote. No one can really know what's going to happen to them.


You might think you're going to go to class at 8 on a Friday morning only to remember when you arrive at an empty classroom that your class was cancelled.


You might think you're going to get a pedicure in Salt Lake on a Friday afternoon only to wind up in a car accident and miss your appointment.


You might think that you're going to marry someone, and everyone else might think so too, but despite all their references to your amazing chemistry and strong connection with that person, someone better might come along and you might end up loving them and getting engaged before the person you thought you wanted to marry even gets home from their mission.


You might think you have your life all figured out, but in reality, you probably know more about radishes than you know about your own destiny.


And I actually like that a lot. Because then, you find yourself with an extra three hours that you reallyy needed to do homework. And you get to go out to eat with your in-laws and you happen to go to the mall and your sister finds a great sale and buys 3 dresses for $24.03....so at least it was good for someone? And if you had gotten a pedicure that day you might have ended up with a nasty foot fungus because the salon didn't clean out the foot baths very often. And you're totally in love with your fiance and it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, since you are the only one whose opinion really matters in the end.




**Just to clarify: the situations I talk about in this blog are hypothetical. I'm not engaged. :) **


I think if I knew everything that was going to happen to me, I wouldn't really be able to live. How could you love someone you knew you weren't going to end up with? How could you audition for a play if you knew you weren't going to get the part you wanted? Why would you spend two years in a major that you would end up deciding was not the major for you?


And if you didn't love that person, and didn't audition for that play, and didn't spend two years in that major, then who knows what else you would miss out on. Which is why I like this life, because I'm not in charge, and I don't want someone who doesn't know squat about destiny or radishes to be in charge of my life.