Tutu

I had the best birthday ever!

I know I said this last year, and two years ago, and the year before that as well. But I really mean it, every time.

This year's birthday started the night before my actual birthday with a trip to the movies. We watched "House at the End of the Street" and basically had the theater to ourselves. Just me, 5 of the best roommates ever, a blanket, and some (homemade) popcorn.

I normally have a very low tolerance for scary movies. Here are my rules for scary movies:

-They can't be toooo scary.
-They can't be Satanic.
-They can't be gross, like gory.
-They can't be not scary at all.
-There has to be a hot guy
-...and he can't die. Well actually he can, I just prefer that he doesn't.
-There has to be a happy ending.
-There has to be some humor.
-Not a huge fan of children in scary movies. I don't like when children are the villains, I don't like when they are the victims, and I don't like when they are both villain and victim (like if they are possessed or something). 

So you see, my pool of watchable scary movies is a very limited one. It includes "What Lies Beneath," "Wait Until Dark," "Disturbia," "The Goonies," and now "House at the End of the Street." Yeah. It made my very exclusive list. We're going to go watch it again when it comes to the dolla theater.

Birthday continued with the apartment decorated so cutely with streamers and balloons and post-its by my wonderful roommates who woke up before I did. They also made my a bomb breakfast of hootenanny pancakes and decorated my car with streamers and balloons and window marker :)

I had an all-day seminar instead of regular class, but they fed me breakfast and lunch and 4 snacks throughout the day, so I can't complain. Plus I was allowed to wear jeans and I had time after the meeting to get Carbaby safety and emissions tested, and she passed with flying colors, and someone whistled at me as I was walking in the store (!!!) and I ended up getting home 2 hours earlier than I usually do and hence, got a perfect parking spot....so there really is nothing to complain about here.

Shannon teaches piano and her students had their recital today, so the roommates and I went to that. We are so supportive :) Her kids were all in costumes for Halloween and it was adorable, and we got treats afterwards, and it also reminded me that I still want to learn how to play the ukulele.

After this artistic appreciation, we went to the Garden of Olives to appreciate some art of the edible variety! I am obsessed with OG breadsticks and salad and everything else. Besides an unwanted unexpected visitor, we had a lovely, fat time.

Unfortunately, Winnie and Tara couldn't be in this picture because they stood a mile away from the rest of us. Haha

And thennn we went home for some more love and fat! Caitlin organized a party and a bunch of people came over for cake and ice cream. I have the best friends a girl could ask for!

Friends from Freshman year came :)

Friends from waaaay before freshman year came :)

Delly came :)

Cute boys came,,,,,

And put candles on my cake :)

It was a good day, kids. More people were there too....which means there are more pictures coming. You know how I do. UPDATE: No more pictures to look forward to! Any pictures that ever will be up, are currently up. Don't worry, it's still Birthday Month.

Elephants Freakishly Yawn

On Wednesday, EFY could have stood for "Especially For Yum" because I ate the yummiest food ever on that day. The cafeteria workers at Xavier could not have been more welcoming and sweet to us the whole time we were there. They called us "baby" and "honey bun" and heaped gourmet food onto our plates as we scooted on through the lines.

On Wednesday, I was on Variety Show tryouts duty with counselors Chris and James. I loved this job because

- I got to see everyone try out. 

- The youth were all so cute and confident, all ready to go with their talents. 

- I got to be Paula, leaving Chris to be Randy and James to be Simon. 

I hated this job because

- There were like 45 acts that tried out and only 15 spots. 

- In my role as Paula Because I am an elementary school teacher, I hated the thought of rejecting any of these acts. Besides this one really bizarre act that just made me uncomfortable. It didn't hurt my feelings too bad when they didn't make it. 

- We were trying people out from the beginning of free time to the end of dinnertime. That is four hours, my friend. 

Thankfully, the cafeteria workers were so nice and let us come eat dinner there anyway. 

The next part of "Yum" happened at Pizza Night. I ordered pizza, but I forgot to get soda. Actually I didn't forget. I just got flustered. Dalin was on the phone and put it down for a second and said, "Do you need soda?" And I hadn't asked my girls if they wanted soda, and I knew if I said yes then he would ask what kind, and I just didn't think I could handle that, so I said no. 

Then, of course, my girls had to ask if I had gotten soda. I told them no. They had a riot. I ran to the boys' floor, hoping Dalin would rescue us. He wasn't there yet, so I stood in the hallway, talking to the boys in my company. Our conversation went a little like this:

Me: Hi! Did you guys get soda?

Them: We don't know, Dalin's not back yet. 

Me: Oh, hmmm. That's okay. 

Them: .....Did you get soda?

Me: No! It's all my fault, I forgot to order it. 

Them: Oh man! 

Me: Yeah. My girls are about to stage a mutiny. 

Them: ......

Me: .....Yeppp. 

Them: Oh man. 

Me: I think Dalin did get soda. 

Them: Hmmm, maybe he did. 

Me: Oh that's so cool!

Them: ......

Me: Okay to be honest, I'm just hoping that if I stand here long enough, and tell that story enough times, then you will offer my girls some of your soda....

Them: Oh! You can have our soda! 

Me: Oh my gosh, really?? That is so nice! Okay maybe like, if he got 3 things of soda, we can have one. 

Them: Okay no how about, if he got 3 things, you can have two of them. 

Um?! Are these boys not the sweetest ever? They only requested hugs from all the girls. I enthusiastically promised them this. 

Pizza Night is fun because you get to talk about COW's (Crush Of the Week) and sing girly songs and there are no boys allowed. Unless they are dropping off soda for you :) Then they are totally allowed. And it's fun because pizza is delicious and girl talk is fun and sometimes your girls accidentally all start singing, as loudly as they can, a song about two specific counselors sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G, and as we all know, that is the sign of a good party. 

A Grand Old Flag

Everyone celebrates Flag Day in their own way. Here's how one frozen yogurt shop, Top It Fro Yo, chose to celebrate: 

Here's how we chose to celebrate in my family. I invited everyone in for dinner. This is what the table was set like:

Not everyone had a good attitude about it. 

Julie asked if we were in the Great Depression. Dad thought it was hilarious. He took pictures of the table setting and had everyone smile and hold up their food. Here's the conversation that followed: 

Dad: Everyone smile! *Camera click*

Julie: I hope you captured my disgruntled expression. 

Heather: Stop making fun of my meal! It'll all be worth it when you try the tea I made. 

Julie: We're seriously having tea and crackers?? I thought that was a joke!

Heather: It's a really cool tea. It's mint vanilla. I saw it on Pinterest. It just took a little longer to make than I thought it would so I didn't have time to make scones. 

Dad: I think this is great! My college daughter's got me on a diet! 

Mom: Let's pray. 

We prayed. I stood to pour the tea, at the same time teaching some etiquette things. Julie angrily chomped away at her crackers. 

 When I got to Mom, she said:

Mom: Wait! Is this British tea?

Heather: Yes. It is a special kind of....

Mom: Then I can't drink it! 

She stoutly turned her cup upside-down. 

Heather: But - ! I worked really hard on it!

Mom: I am an American! I will not drink British tea! Sarah!!! Put that down!

Sarah: I think it's kinda good.....

Mom: No! I will not drink this! I revolt! This is a revolution!

Julie: Yeah! I don't want tea and crackers for dinner! I'm starving!

I slumped my shoulders. "Alright," I sighed, and went over to the oven. "I guess we can just have these dumb ol' things." I set a platter of Belgian waffles on the table. Everyone rejoiced. 

 

We had a great dinner of Belgian waffles, syrup, whipped cream, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries. We had a special guest sing the National Anthem.

We had a contest to guess how many official flag designs there have been. We had a contest to see who could design the best American flag with their waffle. We apologized for the historical inaccuracy of our little skit at the beginning of the dinner.

If anyone is interested in the recipe for the vanilla mint tea, here it is:

2 cups hot water
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
3 drops green food coloring
1 drop blue food coloring
2 drops yellow food coloring
3 mint leaves sprinkled on top of the tea as decoration

Serve with sugar and coffee creamer.

Please note: this is not a real recipe. I just threw it together for the purpose of this meal.....which was a joke. And for the record, Mom and Sarah were both supposed to revolt, but Sarah actually liked the tea so she just skipped out on her part. And Dad and Julie were totally unsuspecting and they played their parts perfectly :)

Many Happy Days I Squandered

I've been saying a gradual goodbye to Florida and all that I love here over the past week or so. It's been sad, but at the same time, this week was one of the best weeks of my time here! About half of my bucket list got crossed off in this last week. So I'm feeling way more ready to leave now.

(BTW, the title of this post is a line from the Florida state song. And it's pretty much how I feel about my time here. My days were so happy and I squandered so many of them in a kind of blissful daze.)

Wanna know what I did for my last two weeks here?? Ok.....

Tuesday, 4/5. Met the Fairy Godmother at our 5-yr anniversary celebration at work. I had to wake up early, but it was worth it, because I got to take pictures with all my coworkers and I ate cake for breakfast.

This is the cake I ate for breakfast. (I didn't eat the whole thing, don't worry.)

This lady is my boss. Well, not anymore I guess. But she was.

After this lovely work party, I had to leave to go back home in the pouring rain. There was seriously a monsoon as we left. Here's what happened to me:

After the work party, I went back home for a few hours and hung out with my roommates. I ate Chick-fil-A for breakfast, which is delicious anytime but especially on a gloomy monsoon-y day, and then we made a "Remember When" list. I love making these at the end of every semester and Olivia left on the 7th, so we didn't have much time left together.

After this lovely bonding time, I worked for a few hours and then headed over to Hollywood Studios to watch Fantasmic. I can't believe I spent 3 months in Florida and only just barely made my way over to watch it. It was really cool and I think I looked like a little kid with how excited I got.

Once Fantasmic was over I traded in my flipflops for some heels and headed over to the House of Blues for Latin Night with my roommate Jackie and some other friends. Another item crossed off my bucket list :) It was fun and I realized that I forgot how much I love dancing. I think Jackie and I were the some of whitest girls in the place, and I'm pretty sure we were theonly blondes.

Wednesday, 4/6. Jackie, Dianne, and I went with Olivia and her friend Emily to Daytona Beach!! I love the beach and I love these girls, and Daytona is gorgeous.

Some things to remember if you are going to the beach:

1. Sand sticks to everything. You will be scraping it out of your phone and sunglasses for weeks after leaving the beach.

2. Swimsuits get bigger when they get wet. So you should always hold onto them when waves crash into you.

3. You can touch the tops of jellyfish, but don't touch their squiggly little legs. Don't even do it.

Sunday, 4/10. Have you ever celebrated your birthday by being rudely awaken at 6 in the morning to the sound of popping balloons and screams of "Happy Birthday!!!" ? If your answer is no, you need more friends like me, Dianne, Christine, Jackie, and Sean. Two of our friends, Cheyenne and Brad, turned a year older on this day. We pulled them out of bed at 6 in the morning and made crepes and sausages and cupcakes for their special day. Surprisingly, it was lots of fun!

Tuesday, 4/12. I worked a twelve-hour shift this day and was dead tired by the end of it, but I was able to muster up the strength to get dressed and drag myself to the Magic Kingdom for one last viewing of Wishes (the fireworks show) with my FGIT friends. We watched the fireworks and took pictures in front of the castle and got pineapple dole whip and watched the Electric Lights Parade and rode Space Mountain.

I'm going to miss this magical place :(

Wednesday, 4/13. The Saunders came to town! Amber Saunders was one of my leaders in Young Women's and Seth served with my dad in the bishopric. They are in Orlando right now with their youngest son Kellen for an acting and modeling competition so I got to meet up with them and take them to Disney World. On Wednesday morning I picked them up from their hotel and we went to Animal Kingdom. Right after saying hello, Kellen handed me an autographed photo collage. He is darling :) At DAK, we went on a safari and did some catching up, and then I had to go to work.

It was my last day of work, and I didn't have time to go from DAK to my apartment, so I had to go straight to Downtown Disney, which meant that I didn't have my name tag and I had to be Melanie from Reedings, England for my last day.

Everything was bittersweet. All day, my FGIT friends were coming up to me one at a time to wish me luck and express their sadness that I was leaving so soon after arriving. I am going to miss them all so much! Everyone I work with has been so kind to me. I'm a little surprised by how attached I've gotten after only a few months, but when I think about how included everyone has made me feel here, I'm not so surprised after all.

I went on my last parade and thought back to my first parade. It seems like it was only last week that I went on the carousel for the first time and thought, as we went round and round, how fun my job was. My time in Florida stretched out before me with no end in sight. When the carousel stopped this time, my FGIT friends called me over and we took a few pictures together with our flags and banners. Looking into the camera lens, I actually got tears in my eyes, because I'm going to miss this so much.

Rhonda, my favorite coordinator, left at 4. Rhonda was born and raised in Florida but has kind of a Southern accent. She is so funny and sassy and always lets me go on the parade when she's coordinating. She gave me her home, cell, and work number and told me that if I wanted to use her as a reference she would have nothing but good things to say.

I was doing a princess makeover and she came over and said, "Princess, can I say goodbye to your fairy godmother really quick?" My princess said yes and Rhonda came behind the chair and gave me a hug. That was the second time I started crying, but I held it in really well, since I was onstage. Rhonda wished me good luck in everything and then told my princess, "Thank you for letting me say goodbye. Your fairy godmother is going to the castle for a very long time, so I'm not sure when I'll get to see her again. So it's exciting, because she's going to get to live in the castle, but I'll miss her too." Ugh. The castle sounded soooo unappealing right then!

Nadira, my trainer, and Marjorie left at 5. I was helping Valerie with makeup and Nadira came over and asked to speak with me backstage. They both gave me big hugs and said they were sad to see me go. I loved these ladies so much so I started crying then too. Haha I was seriously like a fountain all day, it was ridiculous.

I didn't leave until 8:30, and at 8:00, a FGIT named Patty came over with all the other FGIT's that were still at work and said that they had something for me. She handed me a laminated sheet of paper that everyone had signed and a PhotoPass card with pictures on it that the photographers had taken of me throughout the day. Make that the fourth time that I cried....

Patty was so nice and said, "We don't usually do this for CP's, but you were such a pleasure to work with. You brought so much to this boutique and we all loved working with you. We just want to wish you luck with everything you do, and we hope you come back to visit us soon!"

Above: me with Nadira

Below: me with Marjorie

Thursday, 4/14. I finally started packing on this day. It really should have happened sooner, but what-er. After a few hours of packing, I went to Typhoon Lagoon with Sean. Sean is one of the first people I met here...in fact, we met on the bus ride from the airport! So it was nice to come full-circle.

We strapped on snorkels and swam with sharks for our first activity. I was retarded at first with the snorkel and it kept filling with water, so this Australian lifeguard swam over to me and was like, "Are you all right, love?" And I was like *cough cough hack deep breath* "sorry, my snorkel just keeps filling with salt water!" And he was like, "It's all right. Here, hold onto my arm." And I was like mmmm. Ok :) And he was like, "You just make a nice seal around that with your lips." And I was like, "what about my lips?" Just kidding, I didn't say that. I just thought it....and then I stopped hanging onto him and swam away and then Sean and I went through again.

This time I wasn't so preoccupied with trying to breathe, so I was actually able to see the sharks. There were some hammerheads and some tiger sharks, and then a bunch of other cool tropical fish. I felt so cool and didn't even get eaten.

After that adventure, we went on a few slides and played in the wave pool, and then it was time to go. I picked up the Saunders and we went to the Magic Kingdom! I've decided that Disney World is a lot more fun when you go with little kids. Kellen was so excited about everything and it was great hanging out with them.

Right after eating dinner, I met up with some of my friends who were also in Magic Kingdom. The Saunders were ready to go home, so I stayed with my friends to watch the fireworks and get one last pineapple dole whip and then we headed home, too. We got home at about midnight and then there were some more goodbyes as Jackie, Christine and I stayed up until 5 in the morning packing and talking and eating pizza (thanks, Anne!)

Friday, 4/15. Three hours after going to sleep, I woke up to take Jackie and Christine to the airport. I know I'll see them in about a month, but it was still sad saying goodbye! I love these girls!

I got back to Chatham at about 10 and learned that I had to be out by 11. Thus began an hour of panic as I ran around, gathering everything, trying to decide what to keep and what to leave behind. My only regret is that I didn't get to say goodbye to the pool :( I definitely squandered many happy days there!

Once I was all packed, I turned in my key and housing ID and left Chatham forever. I turned in my costume for the last time and then I went to hang out with the Saunders for a little bit while Kellen got ready for his competition. It was so exciting! I can't wait to hear how he did.

Later in the afternoon I brought all my stuff over to my friends' apartment. I'm staying with Sarah, Angelica, Amanda, and Abbie for the rest of my time here in Florida. They are being so nice to let me stay with them! It's kinda fun because every time I drive through, I have to hang out outside the gate until someone else wants to come in who has a gate key, and then I just follow them in real quick. Or I have to call the front office and say, "hi, I'm Sarah Stallings, I just left my gate key at home!" And then they open the gate for me. So it's always an adventure. Last night, Geli taught us how to make these cool bracelets so I made two. We are going to go to the beach in a few days and I'm going to surf again and I'm so excited.

Last night, I met up with some of my FGIT friends at the Rainforest Cafe for Kayla's birthday dinner. It was delicious and we had a really funny and nice waiter. Except he accidentally told my friend Shayna that she was sexy and then her boyfriend met up with us later and he was a meathead and got super mad about it and wanted to fight our waiter so that was awkward since our waiter was just being nice and in fact has a girlfriend who also works at the Rainforest Cafe and was standing right there when Shayna's boyfriend confronted him about it.....

Saturday, 4/16. Tonight I am going out for one final hurrah with my FGIT friends. Haruna is having her birthday party and we are going to give ourselves princess makeovers and then go out dancing. I'm going to be a Disney Diva with blonde hair. It's gonna be awesome.

WHEW. I'm sorry about how long this blog post is. I just had so much to talk about! I'll probably come back later and post some more pictures, but until then, I think this is more than enough material. If you don't read the whole thing, I won't even be offended.

Boys will be Girls....but only for a little bit.

I've decided Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, because dress-up is pretty much my favorite game. I love figuring out what I want to be, coming up with the design in my head, and then finding all the perfect accessories. I love putting on fake eyelashes and I love spending hours to get ready and I love taking pictures of it all.


This year, Halloween was just as fun as it always has been. I try to dress up in as many different costumes as possible, so on Friday I was Minnie Mouse and on Saturday I was the girl in the song about apple-bottom jeans. Thanks to Kelly for giving me a red-and-white polka-dot dress last year and Nicole for the apple-bottom jeans!


On Friday, Caitlin, AnnaLisa and I went to the stake party with some boys from our ward, and on Saturday, I went to Pirate Island with Winnie, Jackie, Christine, Kristen, C.L., and a few of their friends who I don't know as well. One of the people in our group was a boy named Dallin who dressed up as a Playboy bunny. He wore a short pink tutu, a midriff-bearing black shirt, lacy pink knee-highs, and a curly blonde wig. I don't think I've ever seen anyone so excited to be wearing a skirt.


All night, I watched as he pranced around, twirling his blonde hair around his finger, fluffing his pink skirt, batting his fake eyelashes. When we took group pictures, he felt the need to be in the front, so everyone could see every part of his costume. He wasn't pushy or obnoxious, just excited. Everyone else found him just as hilarious as he found him(her?)self, so we didn't get tired of him or anything. Still, it was obvious that he was proud of the costume he had put together and he wanted as many people to be aware of it as possible.

After the dance at Pirate Island, we all went back to Winnie's apartment and watched a scary movie. Dallin changed out of his costume into some more comfortable basketball shorts and a t-shirt and seemed happy to at last be out of the wig. From observing all of this, I was reminded that being a girl is a pretty great thing.

Despite all the disadvantages that a lot of girls like to bring up occasionally when they are feeling particularly gripe-y or pms-y, I love being a girl! I love the role that I have been given to play by society. I love that I am expected to look pretty and speak kindly.

I love the relationship that I, as a girl, have with boys. Maybe I shouldn't like it so much, but I really like that boys are supposed to be strong and protective and good at math. I like that, when the vaccuum breaks, my roommate txts three different boys in the ward to get them to come fix it instead of asking any of the girls living next door or below us. I like that boys wanttt to fix things for girls. Maybe it's an archaic way of thinking, but personally, I think that I got the very long end of the stick.

Towards the beginning of the night, while Dallin was parading around in his tutu, I thought that he must have discovered how fun it is to be a girl. But at the end of the night, when he had reverted back to his manlier ways, he seemed much more comfortable. When I went camping over the summer with some of my friends, we tried to act as manly as possible. We grunted and made manly jokes and did a manly fire dance. It was fun, but when we woke up the next morning, we were all ready to shower and put on our makeup and be girls again.

And I think that's the beauty of Halloween. For one day, or two, or three, depending on how much you celebrate, you can be whatever you like, even if you wouldn't want to be that thing forever. I believe that the girl described in "Low" is actually a stripper, or at least a pole dancer, which I certainly am not. But I wanted to dress up like her, so I did. It was fun to wear big hoops and put shimmery eyeshadow on up to my eyebrows, but I wouldn't want to dress that way on a regular basis. It doesn't accurately portray who I really am, but on Halloween, it did a great job of portraying who I'm not.

Halloween means that a little blonde girl can dress up as a super-ghetto shawty if she wants to, and a bench-pressing, deep-voiced man can go out all dolled up like a playboy bunny is he wants to.