All the Bitter Sweet Lemons

I tried to go on the master cleanse this week. It calls for drinking a special lemon aid and lots of water for a week. I made it a day. Ya, it was intense. In my own defense I did it six months ago and made it ten days. So I felt that I’ve done my duty to the master cleanse and we can part as friends with no hard feelings. The problem is that when we broke up, it left a terrible mess in my apartment in the form of 200 lemons. What do you do with 200 lemons? What do you do with one lemon? I’ll tell you what, you invite as many people in your singles ward that are willing and host an Iron Chef showdown. It was a blast! We split up in teams by apartment and had an unveiling of the secret ingredient. Each team had exactly one hour to make an appetizer, main course and desert. I chose to use the lemon as a curdling agent and make buttermilk biscuits. They were pretty good. Me and my roommates made a baked lemon noddle dish and lemon syrup for crapes. Can you believe we still didn’t win?  In a surprising turn of events a boy apartment swept the competition with muffins, chicken, and lemon bars. I guess you can’t compete with the classics.

This week marks the end of my adventure here at Alta. One whole year of living the life here in Provo. I am going to miss a lot of it, my roommates, living so close to campus, the social life, etc. I am not going to miss paying rent I can’t really afford, living so close to the BYU stadium, the social life, etc. It has been a bitter sweet day reflecting on all that I have loved and learned about life this past year. I will miss it. On the other hand I’m excited to spend the summer with family and the adventures that await. Another bitter sweet occurrence of the day was attending my last presidency meeting for relief society. I learned a lot with this calling; however I would be more than happy to go back to being a vising teacher district leader or something.

One more week and I am done with this semester. I have exactly one year left! Yes! (Dancing in the street may commence)!!!  It has not been too bad actually I’m just very overdue for a break. The last few weeks have been the only really bad time this semester and most of that was due to a world conference my department was hosting. It was really neat to meet some deaf celebrities and deaf people from all over the world. My favorite was the German man who kept slipping between German sign and ASL. I understood about 10% of what he said. There were ASL students from all levels volunteering and helping with things around the conference. It was a great confidence boost to realize how far I have come in studying this language in two years. I feel so blessed to be doing something so cool with my life. I LOVE DEAF STUDIES. Without a doubt ASL is the lemonade of my life. The trial that continues to test and try me but taste so sweet when I get a glimpse of the end. 

As so many endings are leading to new beginnings I have learned that when life gives you lemons you can make lemonade and it will taste pretty sweet, but I cant drink lemon aid for four more months so I will live it up to the best of my ability and have an iron chef adventure instead. cheers to all your crazy cook offs!

just a few ramblings

I've decided to be a photographer. I will go in and change my major on Monday. I spent all day Thursday  taking photos for my final projet of ASL tehcnology. Way fun. I even enjoyed spending the two hours it took to edit and format my qictures the way that I wanted them. I really like the idea of learning lighting and contrast and all the elements that make up good photography. My dream came to a halting crash when I realized the good cameras came cheapest at about $1200. Oh well, all I really wanted was to look cool with a camera around my kneck. I suppose I will have to settle looking cool with my hands flying in a secret language.

The semester is almost over. I have exactly two weeks to finish all my projects, test, assighnemnts and move out of my apartment. It is a little sad. To face it all. This time in my life coming to an end. I have loved being with my roomates and living so close to school. I plan to live down here in the fall but I know it will not be the same. I have loved my roomates and my ward. I have truly been blesed to be among such awsome people.

So my little brother got married yesterday. Well he got married on paper but not in spirit. Its weird and complicated but because they plan to get married in China, in order for it to be legal they have to be married in America first. We just tacked it onto the end of our family Easter celebration. You know, "Who ever finds the most eggs gets to be the flower girl after dinner!" eat some deviled eggs, have a wedding, your typical Sharp family celebration. And since everything is about me I thought I should note that there nuptials mean that I am the only one in my family that is single. In a family of eight that is quite a feat. I have never been the "only" in my family for anything! so ya for me. No but seriously congrats Matt and Evelyn.

Oh my goodness, I almost forgot. Happy Easter! It has been a good a fairly good day. I went to church, did some family history, made dinner, enjoyed said dinner with roommates and Jordan Mitchell. Talked to some long lost family members, and now updated my blog. Now you see why I only update once every month.

I have accomplished one thing on my bucket list this week. I rode on a motorcycle this week. So amazing. Its like flying but with power! I think I need one, I just cant ever tell my mom that I have one. Whelp now that I have told you all absolutely nothing, I think its time for bed.

China?

So I’m going to china this summer. In exactly one month to be exact. This is how the story unfolds…

My brother Matt and his girlfriend got engaged about two weeks ago. Very exciting news.

Matt “oh but hey the weddings in china…”

Me “Oh”

So that ruled out any possibilities of any of our family being able to attend. I was pretty upset about it to be honest. It is hard to face the fact that you are not able to go to one of the biggest days of your best friend and brother’s life. I was somewhat resolved to the whole situation when in the temple Mom asked me if I would like to go to China for the wedding. WHAT! Was she for real? How could I do that? Well it turns out she was for real. Many factors were preventing her from being able to go herself, and we all liked the idea of someone from our family being able to go and represent us over there. It was fate that I have no ties or other responsibilities that would prevent me from going. I was thrilled at the chance. And so the adventure of applying for a visa and buying the plane tickets began.

Did you know that traveling internationally is one of the number one causes of headaches in melodees? It’s true while I’m grateful for the experience this is giving me I do not look forward to doing it all again anytime very soon. The most difficult part has been trying to make sure that I have done everything properly. Much of this can be avoided by the use of an agency but in the necessity of making this as cheap as possible, I’m doing it myself. In purchasing my plane tickets I spent over an hour just researching the cheapest flights. I was able to find one for $800. A steal, I added the traveling insurance for an extra $100. One of the reasons it was so cheap is that I plan to make my round-trip from Los Angeles to china. I have plans to go see plans in Bakersfield before heading home to Provo. So then I needed a one way ticket from SLC to LAX I was able to find one for $100, a steal or so I thought. When I was reading the confirmation email I realized the reason the ticket was so cheap was because it was going to Long Beach and not Los Angeles.  After waiting on hold for 40 minutes I decided to look into ground transportation instead of changing my flight. Hurrah, I found a van service for $30. So all told my transportation to china will cost just over $1000. A whole 200 dollars cheaper than if I had just bought the first ticked I found and saved myself two hours of trouble. You decide if it was worth it.

The plane tickets should have been a fore shadowing of what was to come. I am currently in the process of figuring out the visa issues. So far it has not been too bad, however, I have a lot of questions that I feel are unanswered. Even printing the forms for the visa turned into an hour adventure on its own, but that’s a whole other story.

So I don’t like to complain (*chough cough this is where you nod your head in agreement), but as awesome as the chance to go to china is, it’s really messing up my life plans for the summer. Ok really it’s not Chinas fault and I should give the country a break. All of the summer classes I was planning to take are no longer being offered (a week before registration is when it change, convenient huh). So I have to reassess my whole plan. Do I take no classes this summer and graduate a semester later? I I’m in china I really can’t take first block which leaves second block. But if I’m in school second block to I stay in my apartment the whole summer so that I’m not commuting. Do I live in my apartment at all this summer, or should I move home before leaving for China? What can I afford, what do I want to do, what are the pros and cons to all of my options? My life feels more in the air than it has in a long time, and it’s never really reach solid ground for a while. Oh what a joys time of life. I’m positive it will all work out in the end. The question is how do you find end?

Bucket list

I believe strongly in setting and achieving goals. I believe in it so much that I often overwhelm myself with everything I want to accomplish. That being said I have a fairly extensive bucket list. When I realized that I had missed placed my most recent bucket list I decided it was time to remake one. Now my one disclaimer for my list is that I include all my goals from the obviously achievable, to the reaching for the stars veriaty. So without further ado: See the northern lights See the Tibet lanter festival Walk the sonne Visit every continent Live in a different country for at least a year Fall in love Own a mini van Nationally certify as an interpreter Make an infomercial Be in the credits of a movie Read at least a verse of scripture every day of my life Watch the sunrise from the top of a mountain Run a marathon Learn to play the piano Learn to play the guitar Learn to dance Be happy every day Make it to the celestial kingdom So pretty much this is a rough draft until other details are finalized. Here's to a good life!

Re-visiting the Who Cares Report

When I was in middle school, before the age of the blog, my brother had a string of monthly e-mails he titled the who cares reports. They were cleaver and witty and gave a great sum up of his life. As I attempt my first blog I decided what better way to than with a tribute to he who taught me that life is funny and way to over thought.

I am single. have been my whole life. While I am not bitter about that fact it has lead me to several thoughts and understandings about the world. In fact I feel that all that universe juice my mom fed me as a kid helped my gain an insight to the dating fallacy. Fist, dating is the universe's way of performing torture. What better way to help the male and female variety of the human species find a mate than to stick them in the most awkward social setting possible and see who can make it out alive. The worst is the blind date. Here is my position on blind dates as a girl. Those boys that need to be set up on a blind date are either way too social awkward or not interested in a serious relationship. If they were not one of the two they would not need to be set up. I have had several blind dates and they all end the same way, with relief. Second, what is up with DTR's why are they such a big deal? I wish there could be a DTR every hour. I hate the constant wonder if others actions are the result of being nice or actual interest. I wish we could communicate our "like" in words instead of ambiguous actions. I understand that this could potentially be more awkward and require a heck of a lot more self-esteem then the average dating age individual posses, but I would be so much less confused, and that's always a good thing.

Well, I may need to revise this post since I doubt that two items can count as enough knowledge gained as to be divinely inspired by the universe. But they have been learned in personal experiences on the battle ground. For instance I had a wonderful date last night. I liked this kid all last semester, but after a batched second date I figured the stars were not crossed enough for us to be lovers. I got over my crush and moved on with my life. Well last night we had a ward date activity in which we were paired together. I was excited, I knew he was a good guy and we would have fun together. The problem is I had to much fun. The activity was a dance and since neither of us liked to dance we meandered to the RS room where he played the piano and sang. It only took about three notes for me to be head over heels impressed. It would have been a lot better if he couldn't sing, but boy can that boy sing. After our serenade session we went back to the dance and he taught me the Lindy hop. Let me sum up the date for you so far. He is supper sweet and talented, and now knows that I cant sing, play piano, or dance. He must have felt like the luckiest guy in the world (sometimes I wish sarcasm was easier to convey in writing). But wait it got better. We went to his apartment to watch a movie with his roommates and some of their dates, and while we are sitting there waiting for the movie to start one of the other girls there starts to flirt with him! Not just flirting with him, leaning over so she can see past me to him since I was in-between them, to flirt with him. See why I love dating yet?

I think I'm in serious trouble of liking this boy again. However throughout all our dates I'm still not sure if he is just nice or if he likes me. The hardest part of the date always seems to come the next day. Do you approach them at church or wait for them to approach you?  Do you act cool and not mention the date like it never happened? Are you suppose to make special mention of the date so they know you had a good time or is that more creepy and overbearing? Or is the best policy to through up your hands and tell the world "who cares!"