work stories by julia, V

by Julia, my love :)

well, amanda was there going over some tuxedo rental details & howtobeabettercustomerservicerepresentative tips. she was talking about being friendly & asking them how they are & what they're up to. i flat-out admitted that i'm the worst conversationalist & that since i hate small talk, i'm no good at it. she suggested a few helpful things. like asking about their day & calling them by name. these sound doable. i'm thinking, "i can do this". customer comes in. i give him his clothes.

also, long ago i was listening to blossom dearie, who is jazzy-ish, & this customer just assumed that i adore every type of jazz. so he let me borrow some cds. that were just instrumental jazz. & lame. i totally forgot his name so i couldn't give them back. then today he came in & recognized me & i was finally able to return them. so odd.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood :)

Today is a beautifully sunny day! Amazing what that does for my mood :) I grew up in one of the rainiest places in America, so I like the rain and it doesn't get me down. But today was the most wonderful spring day and it just put me in the happiest mood ever! I love the sun and not wearing a jacket and finally getting my capris out of storage and the lovely little breeze that keeps me from getting too hot. It's just a beautiful beautiful day. Like Utah is saying, "Stay a little longer, you'll like it here." :) Sorry... I prefer a Washington summer. But today Utah, you are just perfect :)

it was so lovely i wore my favorite yellow shoes :)

In other awesome news, my family is going to be here with me tomorrow. I'm so excited to see them! They are my best best friends :) :) aaaaaand we're going to conference! Which is going to be fabulous.

look at how pretty my school is today :)

Also, April Fool's Day is tomorrow, a holiday that ranks somewhere between Christmas and my birthday on my list of all-time favorite days :) And my lovely family will be here for that wonderful celebration. How exciting :)

And I finished my paper last night. My personal narrative. Even though I had no idea what to write about until approximately 2:45am. I wrote it, and it actually doesn't suck. It's not the best ever, but I'm kinda sorta proud of it. Just a little. :) Also I got an 'A' on my research paper. So I'm kind of feeling like a rock star today :)

Andddd it's the end of my school week, which means I have survived yet another week of school and am that much closer to being home for the summer. Even though I'm really starting to enjoy it here... still. It'll be good. Because life is so good :) and today I feel like a classy confident and capable college student who can do anything and is not a loser, but a winner. And you are a winner as well. You look great today, btw. :)

awkward walking-and-taking-a-picture-of-
yourself-with-a-cell-phone picture hahaha :)

And I actually did the hair and makeup thing today, so I don't look like a scrub and I kind of like myself :)

And I'm listening to music that I like. :) 

And I'm about to go to my favorite class ever.

And I just really like my life today :) :)

Aaaaaaand that's all I guess. It's just a beautiful wonderful day in the neighborhood. I hope you have a lov-e-ly day! :) :)

this picture is really awkward hahaha

personal narrative // i have to write this for school // this is a rough draft

                I had always thought it was cliché when people said the weather matched their mood, but today it matched mine. The afternoon sky was gray, and it was raining intermittently so that as soon as you pulled out your umbrella it stopped and as soon as you put it away it picked back up again. Summers in western Washington are lovely, but this day in early June was convinced we were back in gray and gloomy winter. Walking to my car in the student parking lot after school, I was alone and unhappy, mulling over all of the problems that were plaguing me that day. My best friend wasn’t talking to me, and I didn’t know why. My senior year of high school was drawing to a close and I was tired of school, yet at the same time afraid of the changes that were coming all-too-soon and also not-soon-enough. I was tired of fighting with my parents about stupid things that didn’t really matter but were ruining my last few weeks at home. And I was worried about having the money to pay for college. My aunt had offered me a job with her -- but she lived in Colorado, literally a thousand miles away from my home and my friends. But would that even matter if my friends weren't talking to me and my parents were always mad at me? I sighed as I reached my car, dubbed “Nicely-Nicely” by a friend, and unlocked the passenger door so that I could reach across the seats and unlock the driver’s side door from the inside.

elevator adventures

Elevators are weird. They're like boxes... that you get in... and then they move you. I dunno, does anyone else think that's weird? I think they're just really.... weird. 

Also, I always check for creepers before I get into an elevator. Just in case. 

I don't usually ride them. Unless I don't feel like taking the stairs that day. Which is usually the case if it's more than one flight. I don't like to get out of breath and sweaty when I could just ride up in a convenient metal box.

Anyways, normally I am alone in the elevator. But sometimes, I am not. And those are the times where my heart just stops whenever the elevator makes a noise - because how awkward would it be to be trapped in an elevator with a stranger? What are you supposed to do? Make awkward conversation? I am terrible at small talk. By myself, I would just text someone. But if someone else were there I would feel rude... and uncertain. 

And awkward.

work stories by julia, IV

by Julia Green. my beloved friend :) :)

i set the alarm before leaving work. i tried to leave through the back door. bad choice. only leave through front door. alarm goes off. alarm is alarmingly loud. i finally turn alarm off. phone rings. alarm company is just checking in. they believed that i was not a bad robber. i leave through front door instead this time. the end.

family love :)

these are my parents

i think this yearbook photo/caption is hilariously awkward :)

they've been together since high school...

this is my baby brother nathan.

ask me the most basic question: what do i eat.

Don't judge. This morning I was despairing because I don't know what to write a personal narrative on because it has to show growth and I'm not very good at that sort of thing.... and then I realized I was hungry so I poured a little bowl of cheerios. And then another one. And as I was gazing at the lovely yellow box on the table I remembered my giant love for cheerios and especially for milk... and that is what spawned this post. So don't mind me, and pardon my morning appearance, I'm just showing you my fridge and cupboard contents :)

cheerios always made me happy when I was a little girl,
and they continue to do so today :) 

I also buy knock-off-knock-off bagged cereal. it's the cheapest.
the raisin bran is so that I can pretend to be healthy.

I LOVE MILK.

not over yet

A little over a year ago I had an experience that I really learned from. It was a wonderful lesson. And since my natural tendency is to wrap up my life stories and put a nice little moral at the end {and then maybe tie a cute little bow on them and store them in my "life lessons learned" file cabinet}, that's what I did. But then a few months later.... I wasn't done learning from this experience. I was still experiencing! So I revised and added onto my moral and went to put it back when - oh. Still learning from this? Okay...
Many months later, I'm still experiencing and still learning from this person and this story of my life. And I keep having to revise my "moral of the story" – every other day it seems! So I'm thinking... maybe I'm never done learning. Maybe I don't get to wrap up my experiences and tie my bow on them and store them away. Could it be that life is about evolving, continually learning, and that we're never done?!? {If this sounds familiar, I wrote about continual learning almost two months ago... apparently I really need to relearn this lesson of relearning.}
So that's the lesson I am learning, along with many others: I'm not done. I'm going to learn, and relearn, and this story is going to keep evolving and teaching, and it doesn't get an ending! {As much as I would like it to... learning can be exhausting sometimes. But it's always good stuff.... and it's the story of my life! So I am thankful.} :)

grocery shopping, pt 2 :)

awkward grocery store moments :)

1) Willing a woman not to buy the 75cent dinner rolls by whispering "don't buy ‘em, don't buy ‘em, put ‘em back, put ‘em back" until she went away.

2) Yelling to Lyndy that there were 75c dinner rolls and to come buy them before someone else did. {She was a few aisles away.}

3) Talking to the self-check machine, like I always do, telling it to be quiet, and the worker coming over to check on me. Oh no, I’m fine... no, thanks though, yeah I'm fine.

4) Describing to Alannah how exactly fiber works at cleaning out your bowel and then noticing the two boys nearby, laughing at us. She wanted to know!

‎5) Being really hungry and so opening my lemon yogurt, but then not having a spoon and so using the tin foil lid and feeling like I was eating trash.

6) Not being able to steer my shopping cart whilst licking my tin foil lid/spoon and so awkwardly almost running into this random lady who looked at me like I was dumb... it's really hard to lick and steer.

:) I'm going to miss these grocery store excursions :) 

i'm hungry.

Hunger is weird.

{Being a college student, it's something I've become pretty familiar with these past few months} ;)

And being both poor and hungry, I've learned to take advantage of free food and eat as much as possible whenever it's offered :) {go ahead and judge me at this point, I don't really care}

Yet somehow... I always end up hungry again. You'd think that I'd be able to eat enough to last me longer, but no. I eat and eat until I can't stomach any more, and then a few hours later I'm ravenous again. Weird.

Well, actually, not weird. But other things, you can get enough of. Right? Not food.

//

What else am I always hungry for? What else can I never get enough of?

...

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.  ~Matt. 5:6

Think about that!

:) 

cleaning.

Today was cleaning check day. I hate this day. I am actually terrible at cleaning. So once a month, a crabby lady comes around to tell me so. {Actually she's pretty nice, but it makes me feel better to call her crabby.} More often than not, I fail the check and have to pay a $5 fee, which in my impoverished college-student state I cannot afford. So today, I was determined not to fail. My assignment was to clean the bathroom. Not knowing where to start, I attacked the bathtub with every chemical I could find, which happened to include Shout! stain removal. When my roommate got home, she laughed and told me it was for cleaning clothes. Well. No one told me.  

I also considered using mouthwash, but didn't. I was hoping that the cleaning lady would be overpowered by the chemical-y smell and at least know that I had tried. Maybe then she would take pity on me.

As it turned out, I passed! Take that, cleaning lady. I cleaned that tub like nobody's business. Got down and scrubbed it. Yeah. 

Anyways, only one cleaning check remains until I am free of this apartment, for which I am grateful.

As a side note, terrible as I am at the basics of cleaning, I am basically pro at plunging a toilet, a skill that has proven invaluable as our toilet breaks down at least once every few weeks. {Read the story of the original flood here.} 

So thanks, Mom and Dad, for teaching me how the be the greatest toilet plunger in the apartment. I may be helpless at cleaning bathrooms and scrubbing ovens, but I can fix any darn toilet in the complex.

And I'm sorry for spending my entire senior year insisting that I already knew how to clean and didn't need to practice.

you were right.

beautiful world :)

The Story of Cece and the Bully

Once upon a time, when I was in kindergarten, there was a bully. He was in third grade. He told me once that he was going to punch me so hard I would "fart out my mouth and talk out my butt." I said "...okay" and walked away.

But anyways, I told my mom about this, and we read the Friend magazine and talked about what Jesus would do and how the bully probably didn't have any friends so maybe I should ask if he wanted to be friends. 

So I did. I climbed up on the playset {which was third-grader territory} and asked the bully if he wanted to be friends. He looked at me funny, said he already had friends, and then I think he called me a mean name and pushed me off the slide. So I walked back to my friends and played hopscotch. 

And then he brought a knife to school and got expelled or suspended or something.

And I went on to become successful and brilliant and beautiful.

The end :) 

love is

Earlier this week I was listening to "Someone Like You" by Adele {whom I love, by the way. such a fabulously talented singer.} And today the song was running through my head, and it got me to thinking. The gist of the song is her going back to visit an old boyfriend, and he's settled down, found a girl, and married now, but for her it isn't over. "Nevermind, I'll find someone like you," is the chorus. It's a good song, but what I wanted to write about is what it made me think.
And what it made me think is this:


Every time I've been the saddest, it's been because I was focusing on myself. Thinking about how miserable I was, and focusing on my own situation and how bad it was for me. It's true, what Henry B. Eyring said - "Sorrow comes primarily from selfishness, which is the absence of love." Anger is this way too. They're selfish emotions. My life is hard, I am sad, I can't believe this is happening to me. 
Last June I was sort of down about things, when we were asked to volunteer for the Special Olympics. I didn't really want to go, but I went anyways, and it was exactly what I needed. {I wrote about it here.} 
What I learned from that and from other experiences is to stop focusing on myself, and start focusing more on other people. It's happier that way :) Instead of being sad or angry, just try to love other people. Love is a purely selfless emotion. All the good definitions say so :)

"Charity suffers long, and is kind, and envies not, and is not puffed up, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil, and rejoices not in iniquity but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." {Moroni 7:45} 


Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. {1 Corinthians 13:4-7, NIV}


Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained. — C.S. Lewis


Joys come from putting the welfare of others above our own. That is what love is. — Henry B. Eyring

:) Life is happier when you put love first, and focus on others instead of yourself. 

did you hear about...?

This is a snippet of an instant messaging conversation between myself and my {non-BYU, not-yet-mormon, well-beloved} friend. I'm the one with poor capitalization habits. Cut me some slack; it was Facebook chat.

//

did you hear about brandon davies?

{byu basketball player}

Nah

oh

well he got kicked off the team for breaking the honor code

and i feel bad for him.

What'd he do? 

sex

... 

Why do you feel bad?

did you know 7/10 americans have lost their virginity by age 19?

i feel bad because everyone's talking about it.

it must be embarrassing to have everyone talk about your mistakes.

Everyone should certainly forgive him once he shows clear signs of repentance.

Dyou know the ted haggard story?

there's nothing for me to forgive him for haha.

no, i don't.

//

And then we moved on to other things. Specifically: Ted Haggard, forgiveness, decisions, agency, control, love/hate, the Wicked soundtrack, our mutual love for wearing pajamas, LDS temples, bibical name meanings, nonsensical words and sentences, menstrual cramps and what boys have that is comparable, the future, French grammar, and bedtimes and wakeup times. We interspersed a few insults for good measure, and said goodnight. Clearly we're very intellectual creatures :) 

If you want to know my opinion about Brandon Davies and the BYU Honor Code... here it is.

Privacy in a world of Facebook

These videos are the inspiration behind my research paper on how social networking has affected our concept of privacy. My idea is that for many of today's teenagers, the idea of keeping their private lives private is actually quite foreign. Growing up I remember "chat rooms" and learning about online safety - never give out your real name, etc. Today that concept is laughable. 500,000,000 people have their full name on Facebook. And people aren't shy about posting status updates:

this is kind of fun...

For a few weeks now I've been using http://www.moodscope.com/ to track my moods, just for fun.
It uses a daily test where you rank 20 emotions on a scale from 0 - 3, 0 being "very slightly or not at all", 1 being "a little", 2 - "quite a bit", and 3 - "extremely."
Like this:

{it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that the red ones are positive emotions and the blue ones are negative....}