My Favorite Things

I got my hair cut this morning. I LOVE getting my hair cut. So afterward, I was thinking about how much I loved getting my hair cut and I started comparing it to other things I loved, and trying to decide what I liked more. It's pretty hard, because I love lots of things. I decided they can all be favorites, with some being more favorite than others sometimes. In no particular order, these are some of my favorite things.

Haircuts

Jello

Strawberry crepes

Birthdays!

Dancing!
Getting mail
Sleep

Traveling

Stories

Yoplait yogurt (eet ees so guud)

Dressing up

Reunions

Nerds (the candy)
Rolo Cookies
Ice cream with popcorn

These girls

Tucanos
Boggle
Tortilla chips

Jerusalem


Accessories
Clearance sales at JC Penney

Nauvoo

Winning

And the first shall be last

This is me in 1992 on my very first day of school ever. Mom was in the hospital because Scottie had just been born, so Dad took me to my first day. I look excited here, but once we got to the classroom I certainly wasn't. Believe it or not, I was a shy little tot. I did not like being around people I didn't know. I think I was scarred a bit from strangers touching my hair without permission.

This is me on my last first day of school. No pink jacket or purple socks, but I wore my hair on the side for old times' sake.

I now have curly hair, I'm no longer averse to meeting strangers, and I no longer wear such killer shorts (pretty sure they wouldn't pass honor code) but other than that, I'm basically the same person in a taller body.

School started a week ago Monday. It's fine. I'm already ready to be done with it. This is the longest I have stayed at school in Provo without making a major life decision and moving away for a semester, so I'm a little restless. It'll be a busy semester, akin to last school year, but whatever.

I'm sick and missing classes and work as of today. I think I ate something awful last night and it's making me suffer. I want to eat but nothing sounds good, and it makes me nauseous just to think about eating. I already puked up the orange I ate for breakfast. Actually, and orange sounds kind of yummy. I'm not one to negatively associate food with certain experiences. The closest I've come to doing that resulted in me not craving spaghetti for a year or so. Ironically, last night I had planned to make spaghetti for dinner, but for convenience sake ate something out of a can. That was a bad idea, apparently.

Time to put on a semi-happy face when the roommates get home or I'll get smothered. They like to kill with kindness. Oh, the trials of being loved and cared for by awesome friends!

What are you going to do with that?

I hear that question a lot. Mostly because people don't actually understand what anthropology is. If they truly understood what I study, the question wouldn't be so annoying because it would be an informed question from someone who trusts that I have legit career path possibilities, not a followup question in an effort to mask ignorance. Like when people ask me where I'm from and I say Idaho, and then they ask what part and I say Coeur d'Alene, and then they nod like they know and kinda squint and ask if that's near Blackfoot, because they have cousins in Blackfoot. Nope. Idaho knowledge fail.

Let me inform the curious and give you something else to ask me whenever you see me for the next year whether this stays current news or not. I want to work for these guys. They have an internship I want to try for. I don't know anything about radio broadcasting, but I'm a smart kid; I can learn. My ultimate goal is not to love the actual studio production aspect, but to find stories and write shows and interview people.

I first heard about This American Life from a class. I rediscovered this nugget of a public radio show this last semester and spent a lot of time listening to past shows while I worked at the museum on a project that didn't often need brain power. I love a good story, and these shows are all about good stories. Not just good stories, but good stories with a point. There's always a "so what?" to the stories, and the anthropologist inside me glories in the discovery of the "so what?" and "why does that matter?" (Ironically, I discovered what I wanted for Christmas, these three days after Christmas: the Super Limited Edition This American Life DVD Set/Book, or just the first or second season of the TV show. Lucky for me, I have a birthday coming up! hint, hint)

If I did score an internship, it wouldn't happen for a year, as in January 2011. The internships run Jan-June and July-Dec in NYC, and they're paid. I could try for the July one next summer, but I plan to be out of the country most of that month.

In the meantime....I'll find something else to do. Don't ask me what, because I don't know.