Stay Awake; Don't Rest Your Head

All right. I'm going to attempt to write this post quickly, because I am tired, and I am making a four-hour drive tomorrow morning to St. George and should really be sleeping instead of posting on my blog. Oh, well. Since when did I ever do the healthy thing? Just wanted to update about my last week before I get distracted by all the undoubtedly fun things I will do next week.

At dinner (Chili's)

Last Friday night, Esther, Becky, and I headed out to a Marriott hotel in Lehi next to Thanksgiving Point to 1) have a girls' night out, and 2) celebrate Becky's birthday. As a result of this, Becky didn't have to pay for a thing for the entire night. We took her to dinner, where we were served by an extremely friendly waiter, Kevin. He sat right down with us every time he came by the table, and Esther took advantage of his kindness by asking him to find out the score of the Utah game, which he obliged her by so doing. The rest of the evening was spent in swimming (and really enjoying the splash bombs in the pool), gorging ourselves on the television in our hotel room and doing our nails, and sleeping. Those beds were sehr comfortable. I slept very well that night, especially since I got very little sleep the entire week before and we didn't go to bed until about 1:30. -sigh- Busy, busy.

Becky is very threatening with the splash bomb

After Becky and Esther were good girls on Saturday morning by exercising, we helped ourselves to the extremely decent (as in, yummy) continental breakfast, jumped on the beds a little more (teehee), and jetted off for home, where we all had other obligations to return to. Lehi isn't that far away from us or anything, but it was a nice get-away, nonetheless. I went to lunch with my old roommate Eliza, so, as ever, we got to catch up on our lives, and it was great. I can't believe it's been three years since we lived together. Crazy. But good. (not that we don't live together anymore . . . well, okay, it is good because now she's married and that's always good . . . but not "good" in the sense that i couldn't stand living with her or anything . . . i'm stopping now.)

Seriously. Comfortable beds.

It was a pretty normal week this week, just getting through work and having to stay longer than usual to meet deadlines, that sort of thing (good thing about staying long on tuesday--i left work today at 2:10! that's my kind of work day). Also added to the week were the usual grumblings about weird Utah weather and its constant flux. Last week, it was totally warm and lovely. This week: snow. Stupid. Just stupid.

Because we're not allowed to do this at home

Tonight I visited memory lane with my friend Charity, while we delighted in the glory that is Willow. Yes, the things I take pleasure in. We had a good time, though, drawing parallels to Lord of the Rings and knowing exactly which lines we missed by talking over them (because then we would say them ourselves two minutes after they came in the movie) and laughing a ton more than we probably needed to. There are some fabulous lines in that movie. Simply fabulous.

And now I must hie me to my bed (actually, i'm already in bed; i just haven't gone to sleep yet, obviously). Good night, all. And let's hope I don't die in my travels allllllllll alone.

-Me

"Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation." -Kin Hubbard

Someday I'd Like to be a Part of an Inside Joke

Here's an example of what's important to the Jensen family. Yesterday at work, I was listening to a shared playlist, and what should come up on shuffle but "The Blue Danube" (which, for all you german speakers, should really be called "An der schoenen blauen Donau"). Even if you don't recognize the title, you ALL recognize the music. I like to regard myself as an arbiter of good classical music taste, so it's only natural that I should be familiar with this particular piece of music. But what exactly comes to mind, you may ask, when I hear this music? Is it the German countryside? Is it the Wiener Philharmoniker? French horns and violins? Lullabies? No on all counts. It's football. American football. How in the world did that happen?

When I was little, my family owned a particular videotape entitled "NFL's Greatest Hits". It had an amazing premise, too, with two janitors staying at NFL headquarters late at night to watch great moments in NFL history as shown by a computer named Felix. (well, at least harold was a janitor . . .) Anyway, there were certain clips that were composited together with classical music. And what was one of the pieces used to synchronize with the awesome and graceful movements of 300-pound men hitting each other? "The Blue Danube". So it was the first thing that came to my mind yesterday as I was listening, and I immediately emailed my parents, brothers, and sister.

This has since sparked an email thread that has shot up to 25 emails in the last thirty hours! It's been a combination of line-quoting and attempts at describing exactly how "The Blue Danube" goes (example from kelly's email: "(high voice) dot dot rest dot dot rest"). I'm quite renown among friends and family for having a crazy-good memory, especially for movie lines. They don't know my brothers. In one email in the thread, I asked, "I have forgotten. Who was 'Count Dracula in cleats'?" (a description of a particular player) Craig immediately responded with, "Jack Lambert. Relentless, and remorseless. He considered it his job to hit someone on every play, and there was no one more intimidating." Who knew that two such seemingly opposing forces in the world (classical music and american football) could co-exist so peacefully? And that my family can take part in a discussion quite easily that involves both? That is the beauty of the Jensens. Every time I have gotten another email about it, I just laugh out loud, exclaiming, "I love my family!" We are incredibly unique. It's awesome.

-Megan

"If you ever start feeling like you have the goofiest, craziest, most dysfunctional family in the world, all you have to do is go to the state fair. Because five minutes at the fair, you'll be going, 'You know, we're all right. We are dang near royalty!'" -Jeff Foxworthy

A Slight Modification

Okay, Dad. The font color is no longer blue. Can you see it better? And I'm not changing the picture, even if I'm not the one in the center.

All at Once, One Day it's Spring (some day soon, maybe)

So I've been pretty amazed lately by the awesome people that I am lucky enough to be in contact with: my roommates, my friends, my family. They're just all incredible, and I am very blessed to have them in my life. I realize that my circle of friends comes and goes in waves. Sometimes it feels like I'm surrounded by people I can hang out with and drop in on anytime, and then there are times when I feel like that circle has contracted. The people in the smaller circle are no less valuable to me; in fact, usually that is indicative that they mean more to me. But I am grateful when those times come that the tide is rolling back in and I'm able to make more friends and expand my circle. And then there's my family. A circle that never contracts, but grows and grows as time goes on. Yes, unfortunately, there come those times that we lose loved ones, but I'm at a point in life where my family just keeps growing: marriages, babies, all that. And isn't it awesome how quickly we can come to love the new additions to our families? It's great. We. Are. Great.

Esther likes to look sheepish for the camera

Times are pretty much going the same as ever before with work and life. Mainly my days shift with the people I see and what I might do with them. Last week I got to see my friend Bethany, and I was SO happy to see her! We went to the mall and made fun of stupid movies by mockingly pretending to want to buy them (and actually, i came really close to buying one . . . hahahaha). Then we got to talking and laughing and watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is another one of those things that reminds me that Bethany and I are basically the same person, four years apart from each other. All right, maybe not "THE same" person, but pretty dang similar. She rocks.

For some reason, the roomies thought my hair looked hot this night.
You can't see it, but they're right.

Speaking of stupid movies, I went with my friend Megan to see Twilight in the dollar theater last Monday. We were actually shushed by a movie usher for laughing too hard at and making fun of the previews! I don't know exactly what Megan thought of Twilight, because it was her first time seeing it (my third, everyone . . . golly . . .), but if it was anything like I thought of it, she won't be anxious to see it again except to mock it and giggle. (okay, okay, i'll admit it. there are parts of it that i like. but after a third viewing, those parts are getting to be fewer and farther between.)

Last weekend, Esther went to DC . . . for a very fun reason and weekend which is not my place to blog about. (dang it.) But when Esther leaves, I feel like my social life is completely gone. Total exaggeration, obviously, but it's actually harder for me to find people to see and do things with on the weekends than it is during the week! Something just isn't right about that. Fortunately, Saturday night came along and Jeremie came over! I was so happy to see him after a month of him being away, and he could be leaving again for good this coming weekend, so I'm glad he made the time to come and see me (well, he comes over to see all of us, but i was the only one actually home at the time). And he showed me a video that has made me just want to smile and be happy all the time, and I've watched it once every day since then, and it's awesome. I have since shared it with co-workers and other friends, and I think we're all feeling a little more validated. Jeremie also came over on Tuesday night (once esther was back), and we spent more time just being our silly selves that we are. Hooray for us!

Dallin takes joy in the discovery of a tricycle in the bishop's office.

One last thing: There are two things I don't like about Daylight Saving Time.
1) I lose an hour of sleep by putting my clock ahead on that night.
2) It goes back to being dark in the morning when I leave for work.

However, there are two things that I REALLY like about Daylight Saving Time.
1) It's bright outside later in the day and I get to enjoy that.
2) It's a sign that SPRING IS COMING!!! Woohoo! Come on, we're all happy about that, aren't we?

-Me

"A friend is someone who will help you move. A real friend is someone who will help you move a body." -Unknown