The Optimal Life

Current news: Kevin and I broke up. . . as for my feelings about it, well let's just say yes I have feelings.

So now, with my new-found freedom and rejuvenated sense of self, I decided to start living The Optimal Life again.

What is that, you say?

Well, it consists mainly of
1. Going to bed at 10 pm
2. Getting up at 6 am every morning to exercise
3. Deciding to be motivated enough to train for this free triathlon my old stake is putting on July 30 (eek, don't know if I'll be ready, but I can wing it, right?)
4. Eating healthy meals
5. Getting a good study of the scriptures in daily

There are other things that are part of it too, like fulfilling my (new) calling in my (new) ward and spending lots of time with people I love like my roommates:


Mmmm, yes. Don't worry, I am also spending a lot of time in between researching jobs and future graduate programs and doing all those responsible things that 25 year old's should do...

Want a Supai? 'Cause I have one.

Last weekend my friends Jami, Kevin, and Andrew and I all went down to Havasupai - which is a beautiful scenic waterfall area owned by the Havasupai Native American tribe. It was about a 12 hour drive, then a 10 mile hike down to our campsite (with all our stuff for 4 days on our backs), then 3 days of pure bliss in the closest place to paradise I've ever been, then a 10 mile hike back out and 12 hour drive back to Provo. It was a blast. The pictures simply don't do it justice, but oh well. The order of the pictures is backwards, but I'm too lazy to change the order, so you can look at the pics from the bottom-up if you want to see them in sequential order. :)

Kevin jumping off a 50+ foot cliff= crazy. Can you spot him? He looks like he's up in that tree.
Me, grounded and Asian.
Me, jumping off The beautiful "New Navajo" falls, probably about 35 feet. I peed my pants in the process, so scary.
The group at the top of the lookout by Mooney Falls
Kevin turned 24, apparently as he was climbing out of this sweet cave/tunnel that we had to hike through to get to Mooney Falls
Jami and I were exhausted after hiking all day without enough water...
Kevin and Andrew at a *cute* little waterfall
We hiked through this. I love how the bright green is crawling up the red rock walls - beautiful!
Jami swimming in a little waterfall/pool
Andrew, Me, Jami, and Kev
Jami and I at the bottom of Mooney Falls
Kev and I
Me, right before hiking down to Mooney Falls (hence the really nervous smile - it was down a series of steep cliffs with only the aid of rusty chains and a ladder...nerve-racking)
Kevster and I in paradise
Another shot of my fav part of Havasupai - New Navajo (still doesn't do it justice)
Jami and I loved to play around on these little falls

Kev and I after the beastly 10-mile hike down into the canyon...
Our first stop: Havasu Falls (way bigger in person)

Andrew, at the begginning of the trip and hike down to Havasupai -we left at 5 am.
Hiking!
On the way down we stopped at Hoover Dam - Andrew & Kev
The group of us at the Hoover Dam - Kev, Jami, Me, Andrew
Us on the way down - we had no A.C. so we had to leave the windows open. My hair was in dreds by the end.

AWESOME trip, all in all.

Salchichas son muy deliciosas

Current favorite Spanish word- salchichas

Definition: Mexican hotdog that you can buy at the Provo Farmer's market that can be eaten with a cute boy named Kevin.

Some appropriate phrases:

"Yo quiero una salchicha"

"Donde esta la salchicha muchacha?"

"Cuantas salchichas estan en la oficina?"

"Come esta la salchicha?"

The Story of The Fetus

I thought that it would be appropriate to make a written record or blog post about the now-famous clay fetus that I made last semester, which currently adorns our office on my boss's desk. Some of you may not have heard the full story of this clay fetus, so I thought I would share how it came about (which, might I add, was different than how most fetuses come about). This may be a source of extreme discomfort, unusual hilarium, or it may just strike you as weird (a justified response). Possibly a combination of those three feelings.

It all began...

Last semester when I decided to take a Ceramics/Pottery class at BYU. I thought it would be a fun 3-credit class that would help me be a more well-rounded individual. The first big project my hippie teacher assigned to us (emphasizing that you get more points the more abstract aka WEIRD you are) was to find a 2-D work of art done by a famous artist and make it 3-D. I kind of forgot about the project until 5 minutes before class, at which time we were supposed to show up with a printed picture of the art we would replicate. In a rush, I googled the first artist that came to mind, Leonardo Da Vinci. I always liked his art because it looked more realistic and meaningful to me. One of the first pieces of art that appeared was this one:

Although I can't exactly recall WHAT was going through my head when I decided this would be an appropriate piece of art to create and present in front of my class, I think it was something like:

"Oh, I like babies...and anatomy...and I have class in 5 minutes so I'll do this, yeah!"

Apparently I didn't seem to take into consideration the fact that:

#1. That is REALLY hard to make out of clay

#2. What would people think of me, a 25 year-old single girl, if I told them I made a FETUS as a project? Baby hungry, much?

#3. What would I do with that after I make it? Centerpiece for Relief Society? Soap holder? Book end?

After explaining my idea naively to my hippie-teacher (who loved my idea, btw), I decided to begin, work on, and finish this project in one Friday night. So that Friday night I said no to all the boys asking me out (jk) and marched my way over to the Ceramics lab. As I started to make it, I realized that the proportions were WAY off (head= too small; limbs=just weird; torso=not normal-looking) but hey, I had 4 hours to get it done and I would force those creative juices to flow whether they liked it or not.

So then, after 4 hours of toil and forced creativity, I produced this masterpiece (before judging me, please understand that I had no idea where to put the legs onto the torso, I didn't mean for it to turn out so perverted and awkward):

My initial thought: "Am I subconsciously a pervert?"

Second thought: "So I have to present this in front of my whole class on Tuesday. Would it be less or more awkward to put a diaper on it?"

I decided to just forget about it and email my teacher. Afterall, it was 11 pm on Friday night.

Luckily, my hippie-teacher (after a few minutes of stiffled laughter after seeing the "masterpiece" and a few questions of WHY I would make it look that awkward), explained to me about the importance of adding extra clay as "joints" (novel) so the cylinder-legs I had made didn't just stick out awkwardly from the torso.

Good idea.

After some reconstruction surgery, the beauty was transformed to this:

Better, but still a little weird. Or a lot of weird. My teacher than informed me that since it didn't "look realistic" I should "go for abstract" and add some cool designs on it. Again, trying to force myself to be creative, all I could think to do was to make some markings on its head and then some lines on it's back. (Yeah, no meaning). Unfortunately this well-intentioned creativity was then criticized by my teacher as "looking like I messed up and had to cover it up." (In my defense, she never taught us HOW to be creative or abstract).

Eventually after a couple of firings and paint jobs, The Fetus began to look more...well, there's nothing really to describe he/she/it:

Still a little weird. I don't know what I was thinking with those markings...

Now The Fetus has become the Chemistry Business Office Mascot. It sits on my boss's desk, graciously absorbing the lay citizen's awkward glances or the uptight professor's critical eye. And I will probably go down in history as "the girl that made the clay fetus" (my other virtues are far less noticeable).

Can you spot The Fetus?

Who would have thought that THAT would be my legend at BYU?

Goblins Grumble Grumble.

The Valley of Goblins Itself

Some of the groupies - Kev, Me, Jami, Jose, Ashley, Sarah, Sabra
Crawling through the slot canyon - we had to shimmy our way over the water for a while there - AWESOME
Oh hey, we're in goblin valleyyyy!
We found a strange creature in this hole, so we decided to take a picture under it. :)
Jami, Me, and Ashley (Jami's roommate, love her)
Playing admist the goblins...
Where we camped (BEAUTIFUL!)
Climbing up the walls of the slot canyon! Catherine, Aaron, Me, Michelle, Dusty
Token jumping pic, you know
Jami and I - friends for 10 years and counting!
Most of the group: Brett, Kevin, Sarah, Sabra, me, Jose, Aaron, Jami, Ashley, Dusty, Michelle
The Valley of Goblins

A Soulful Sabbath.

Hammocks are the source of all goodness. I love them.

Today was a wonderful Sabbath day. Church was so so good. It amazes me how EVERY Sunday without fail I leave feeling inspired, motivated to change, with an increased desire to BE better, a complete giddy love for the Gospel and for repentance, change, improvement and progression, and most of all, a stronger testimony that God loves me and knows me personally. I love Sundays. And I love having opportunities to bear my testimony and to hear others testify.

Today in Sacrament meeting they talked about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. It was reiterated to me how simple the gospel really is - when we covenant with Him, and do what He says, He promises to give us all that He has. That is it. That's why we're all here, right? When we strive to do that, we can trust that He will fulfill His promises and we will be happy. And I can trust Him completely.

We also had a high council speaker who spoke to returned missionaries and asked us some pretty thought-provoking questions (in my opinion).

Do you feel as happy now as you did on your mission?

Are you doing all that you did on your mission?

Are you reading your scriptures and praying daily with desire and feeling?

Do you know your purpose every day?

Granted, everyone in my Campus Plaza ward is a billion years younger than me - most of them only having returned from the mission a few months or something - but I thought I needed to think about those questions anyway...

These questions, as well as a lesson in Sunday School about finding the lost sheep and reaching out to those who feel lost reminded me of an aspect of my mission that affected me deeply. The reason why I loved serving on a mission so much is that I got to witness Heavenly Father find His sheep and to spend my time looking for them. I saw miracles daily in that work - and I've never felt so happy as when I felt I had helped someone realize personally and individually God's love for them. He never ever, ever, EVER gives up on ANYONE and is always waiting patiently, like the father in the story of "The Prodigal son." It was powerful to me to read that the Father runs to meet his son (who he has been watching for, by the way) who has sinned and who comes back in humility. THAT is the kind of love and patience we need to have and desire for other people. I love that. And I need to be better about praying for opportunities to find His lost sheep and to share my testimony. Goal #1.

My Goal #2 for the week was also prompted by the high council speaker's question: Do you know your purpose every day? On the mission, I knew my purpose EVERY DAY - It was to invite others to come unto Christ. And I repeated that purpose every morning. That is the core of the gospel and the purpose of my life on the mission and now. I decided to remind myself daily of this goal and ponder it daily so that I won't get caught up in other "purposes."

Goal #3 Desires. I read a talk from April General Conference called Desire Here is one of my favorite quotes from it:

"Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions. The desires we act on determine our changing, our achieving, and our becoming."

One of the main goals of our existence, I realized is to maintain and feed pure and righteous desires.

Happiness is...

...eating homemade smoothies in hand-crafted ceramic cylinders after a good bike ride...