you know it's summer when...

• you spend all day outside in the sun.
• you play night games.
• you wear sandals everyday.
• you go on evening hikes to watch the sun set.
• you have tan lines.
• you run through the sprinklers.
• you walk everywhere.
• you sleep with the fan on and the window open.
• everyone has their front door open.
• you wear a skirt or dress everyday because it's cooler.
• you think about buying a bike/scooter to cruise around.

this summer is going to be epic.

an abundance of music

most of the time i feel like there is too much good music for me to really be able to experience in my life. i guess i really feel this way about most things, not just music, but it's music that i'm thinking about right now. i have about 8GBs of new music coming to me pretty soon, and while i'm really, deliriously excited to get it all and be able to start listening to it on my own, i'm also kind of worried and intimidated. can i really listen to all of that and truly come to know and appreciate it? that doesn't even include all the music i already have and that i want to listen to. and then don't forget that new music, from bands i love and from bands i will probably love, comes out practically everyday. how am i supposed to keep up with it all? i think there is too much for me to handle! but i guess that's why we have our whole lives to listen to amazing music. maybe it's just that some people are better at internalizing the music they hear that i feel like i am an inadequate music aficionado next to them.

jesse proposed an interesting scenario tonight. i came in a little late, but they explained it to me, so here you go. what if you could only listen to 8000 songs (an arbitrary number he just came up with) for the rest of your life? and, once a song begins, it counts as one of your 8000---one of your 8000 options is gone. and, he explained, you can choose any number of songs, so you could potentially only listen to two songs 4000 times each for the rest of your life, for instance. eric did some calculations, and i think he said that, figuring in three-minute long songs, you could listen to 8000 songs nonstop in 16 days.then we changed the parameters so you could stretch out your listening time--2 hours once a week=8000 songs in about 6 years.

what does all of this mean? well, i think it means i would be a lot more selective with what i listen to. i would try not to waste some of my 8000 allotted on lame songs. which christmas songs would i choose? which hymns? which boy bands? which new songs, the ones i haven't heard yet?

so i guess i'm grateful i don't have to be more careful with my music listening choices. though it is going to be harder now to decide what i want to listen to.

here is one track from my new collection, also a taste of cults, the band i went to see on wednesday night.

quotes to get me (and maybe you) through finals and beyond

Perseverance is a positive, active characteristic. It is not idly, passively waiting and hoping for some good thing to happen. It gives us hope by helping us realize that the righteous suffer no failure except in giving up and no longer trying.  {Joseph B. Wirthlin}

I am here for a purpose and that purpose is to grow into a mountain, not to shrink to a grain of sand. Henceforth will I apply ALL my efforts to become the highest mountain of all, and I will strain my potential until it cries for mercy. {Og Mandino}

We must not give up hope. We must not stop striving. We are children of God, and it is possible for us to become what our Heavenly Father would have us become. {Dallin H. Oaks}

Sometimes the decisions are so difficult that we are tempted to stop choosing and just do everything—or nothing. But am excellent person is in touch with his motives, and he can use his own judgment along with the counsel of good leaders and of the Holy Ghost to help him make his choices. {Donlu DeWitt Thayer}

 *quotes found in my byu freshman mentoring planner in four consecutive weeks. i think someone's looking out for me.

ubiquitous pinterest post

this semester as we were discussing issues paper topics in my classes, i strongly encouraged my students to try to talk about pinterest in some way. after all, our focus is new media, and pinterest happens to be a fascinating new media trend affecting people right now.

this might have been a little unfair of me, though i do think it's in their best interest to write about something that i care about; otherwise they have to convince me that i should care, though that isn't impossible or even discouraged. it's just harder. but i guess what i maybe should have done/will do right now is explore my own thoughts about pinterest. and it won't be 8 to 10 pages or even be very much of a coherent argument. just don't tell my students.

yes, i think pinterest can be just another internet time-waster. i know there have been times when i've gotten lost in the wonders of pinterest for an hour or two, though some pretty awesome pins probably came out of that. i do sometimes wonder how much will actually come of my pinterest boards, though, particularly my style board. i can make recipes and crafts, but in order for many of the things i pin to 'stylish' to actually materialize i would have to shell out lots of actual money. and i don't know when that will ever happen.

but what about the things that have materialized in my real life due to pinterest? i've made some awesome crafts and some of the best meals of my life (pecan-glazed salmon...hello yes) from pinterest. (i won't say anything about the macaroni and cheese i made that didn't quite live up to my pinterest expectations.) just this week my dinner group offering featured not one, but four, recipes discovered on pinterest. and it was pretty darn good. the possibility of delicious meals and adorable crafts was always there before, but the appeal of one-stop shopping via pinterest is pretty strong.

and i must say it's cool that people anywhere can access things i've pinned, or i can access things other people have pinned. i'm always flattered just a teeny bit when someone i don't know, who lives who knows where, repins something from one of my boards. it's like they're saying, yeah, you DO like cool things. and now we're part of a sisterhood (let's face it--most of the people repinning my stuff are women) of pleat enthusiasts or gray&yellow fanatics. i'll probably never meet these people, but we'll be forever connected through the internet, as long as pinterest lasts, at least.

that's maybe all i have to say at this point. pinterest largely doesn't matter to my eternal salvation. but, every few days or so when i get on pinterest, it does bring me quite a bit of joy. so i don't think that's too bad.

*all photos, some of my inspiration images, can be found on my pinterest board, 'stylish'

why do i keep having this dream? oh wait, i know exactly why.

i have dreams often, like maybe every couple months, about packing for a trip. this is always an experience riddled with anxiety in my dream: i don't know how i'm going to fit everything i want to take (usually all the shoes i think i need--i might have taken six pairs on our week-long arizona trip a couple weeks ago), i have too many liquids to carry on, i can't take my razor, i'm going to be late for the plane because i can't pack fast enough. i always wake up in a panic until i slowly realize that i don't have any plane rides scheduled.

so i just looked up a possible interpretation for this dream, based on information from what seems to be a very reliable site. packing for a big trip means that something big is about to happen in your life, some significant change. but packing and unpacking and repacking and general unsettled feelings about the packing process means that there is a lot of chaos in your life.

i should have known.