Let's hear it for the MEN.

So in one of my classes this week, the discussion turned to how men are not valued in today's world.  In the statistics, women have higher GPAs, higher abilities in the work world even if their salaries still are lower.  Women are more sensitive, better at communication, blah blah etc.  Basically the idea that men are obsolete and a strong woman is better off without one.

I think it is GREAT that we are empowering women and lifting them up.  Women are incredible.  (Especially my mother!)  If society is telling women that they are capable of achieving great things--including those wonderful little achievements reached every day in the home, unknown to the rest of the world--then we are progressing and let's not stop.

But can I just say MEN ARE AMAZING.  Too.  Men are amazing too.  (Especially my dad!)  People are amazing.  There's no competition between men and women, we are all a team.  Men and women both are on the quest to improve, to be intelligent, kind, loving, successful.  We all are looking to feel accepted and appreciated.  So let's be careful when we see the foibles of someone and we give that exasperated sigh, shake our heads, and mutter, "Men."  "Women are crazy."  "Men are dumb."  No!  Men and women are human, and as humans we each have our own personality and flaws.  When we to learn give each other the benefit of the doubt and try to always think the best of each other, our society will go far.

So you men and us women, don't worry.  There may be some unfortunate comments, incidents, mindsets that are still out there.  I'm not saying they aren't.  But women, we respect you.  Men, we respect you.  We appreciate you.  You're great.  We need you.  We love that you are our friends and husbands and fathers and brothers and coworkers.  And when you make mistakes just like every other human being on the planet, we love you.

Soul Roots

After a long respite from posting, I am revitalizing my blog.  Little did I know on the day that I last posted that the next May 29th would bring me to the Provo Missionary Training Center!  Less than two months from today, I will begin wearing a name tag that says "Hermana" on it, and after my six weeks of language training, I'll be making the long and arduous journey (two hours in a comfortable car) to Ogden, Utah, which will be my home for a leetle while.

This year of school (which will be over in three weeks!) has been a kind of quiet adventure.  Making the decision to serve a mission after the general conference announcement was huge and exciting, and will bring great adventures over the next year and a half.  Just as influential, though, have been the little Adventures called Friendships.  The best thing about friendships is that they never stand still; just like every human being is perpetually changing and developing, relationships between people are always moving, deepening or fading, living.

One of the best feelings in the world is that moment after you really talk with someone or really laugh with them or really see them for the first time (or for the first time--again), and you leave them and your heart is yelling to your mind, "Hey!  I just grew a little soul root because of them!"  I've felt that "soul-root effect" again and again as I nannied last summer--when the little boy smiled so happily when I came in to pick him of from his nap, when he tried to read me a book and sang the lullaby just like I sing it, when the girl laughed when I finally "found" her under the pile of pillows.

I've felt it at chance encounters with different people in my ward or classes, when I took the time to have a real conversation with them on the walk to campus or church and discovered that this stranger was actually a kindred spirit.  When someone else goes to kiss their hand and slap the ceiling of the car when they go through a yellow light at the same time as I do, or when someone plays "Slug Bug."  When letters come from friends that are serving as faithful missionaries.  Every time I talk to my mom or dad or one of my brothers or sisters.  When my baby nephew sleeps with his head on my chest, and when my niece climbs onto my lap while I'm doing homework and smiles and laughs when I first see her in the morning.

Something that I've experienced and noticed more this year is that when I'm trying to live the gospel of Jesus Christ--reading the Book of Mormon and other scriptures, praying often, trying to serve, going with an open heart to church, having faith, repenting--the first and strongest feelings that come are gratitude and love for God and for all of the people I see and have relationships with.

I know that so many of the people for whom I've grown "soul-roots" don't know, don't particularly care, don't remember me, or think I don't remember them.  I think one of my dearest hopes is that somewhere, there is someone who has felt the same grateful joy from knowing me as I have felt from knowing so many people.  And there have been so very many beautiful people in my life, from my mom and dad to my best friends through the years, to the random dad that cheered the loudest and best for every cross country runner and to the little old woman that couldn't see and thought that I was a boy when I wore my hair back in a ponytail.

And the best part is, it never has to end!  Life is a beautiful thing.  Frances Hodson Burnett says wonderfully:

One of the strange things about living in the world is that it is only now and then one is quite sure one is going to live forever and ever and ever. One knows it sometimes when one gets up at the tender solemn dawn-time and goes out and stands alone and throws one's head far back and looks up and up and watches the pale sky slowly changing and flushing and marvelous unknown things happening until the East almost makes one cry out and one's heart stands still at the strange unchanging majesty of the rising of the sun--which has been happening every morning for thousands and thousands and thousands of years. One knows it then for a moment or so. And one knows it sometimes when one stands by oneself in a wood at sunset and the mysterious deep gold stillness slanting through and under the branches seems to be saying slowly again and again something one cannot quite hear, however much one tries. Then sometimes the immense quiet of the dark blue at night with millions of stars waiting and watching makes one sure; and sometimes a sound of far-off music makes it true; and sometimes a look in some one's eyes.
        The Secret Garden

There are a lot of things in the world that cause people to wonder if life really is that beautiful.  The only thing that can always bring a conviction of beauty is trust and love in God.

Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God. 

Ether 12:4, The Book of Mormon

Who can help but smile?

popsicle jokes are funny

Blog post blog post blog post blog post.  (Somewhere in there, did you switch from thinking "blog post" to "post blog"?)

At school, I felt like I had a lot of funny stories to tell.  Here, I'm spending a lot of time at home and most of the humor comes from the flagrant wittiness of my family.  But those things are pretty much all "You had to be there" stories, so I'm not going to share them.  If you want to partake of the humor, come to our house.

OH, one story.  My parents were out of town for a few days, and Jeffrey had been sick and home from school.  Every night he would start to feel better, and then he would feel sick the next morning.  Conveniently, he got all the way better around two hours after school got out for the weekend!  Fancy that.  In his defense, I think Jeff truly thought he felt sick.  But things that we dread doing (such as attending a day of 7th grade in the middle of May) have the tendency of making hypochondriacs of us all.

Reading this book on introverts right now.  It explains a lot and satiates my egotistical desire to read about myself.

Worked in nursery for two Sundays.  Love the little buggers.

Victor Hugo is great.

The Once Upon a Time finale was decidedly not great.  But that's perfect for a finale, if you think about it--it makes it a lot easier to accept not seeing new episodes in the following months.  Except, really, it was kind of horrible.  It's making me angry to think about it.

seriously, there's an open study room right behind me...please take it, because your PDA is disconcerting

Announcement 1:
I reactivated my Facebook account.  Hm.

Announcement 2:
I'm engaged.
Clarification: I'm not.  I am, however, wearing my ring on my left ring finger, partially because it was starting to leave one of those weird green lines on my left middle finger, partly because it was hot out today and so my middle finger was an itty bit swollen, partly so I can just get a mischievous sort of joy from thinking that creepily observant people with me here in the library will think that I'm engaged.  Suckers.

Announcement 3:
I am currently on my laptop at a table in the honors reading room in the library.  There is a couple that is stealing kisses and nuzzling noses constantly.  But it's like...not cute.  I don't know whether I want to vomit or laugh more, so I chose option three, which was show no outward emotion but write about it here.  In fact, I only started this blog post in order to relieve my emotions concerning this incident.

Story 1:
Last week, I got lost on my way to class.  It was in the same classroom as usual.

Story 2:
I sometimes have trouble getting my room key into the keyhole.  The other day, I didn't really get the unlocking part down, but I was in the flow of "unlock, walk in."  So I accidentally just walked my face right into the door.  Tip: Always complete step one before continuing on to step two.

Announcement 4:
I officially am majoring in elementary education!  Kids, get at meh.

such and such and back again

Story of What Happened Today
I deactivated my Facebook account today.
Then I wanted to tell people about it so I went to make a Facebook status.
...oh.

Story of Finding My Dream Husband (Not particularly humorous but still particularly golden)
Okay, this is not a love story.  But kind of.  I met this older man (WAIT before you get uncomfortable) yesterday morning.  In the Anne of Green Gables series, Anne calls especially wonderful people "kindred spirits" or she says that they are of the race of Joseph.  This man was as kindred-y and spirit-y and race-of-Joseph-y as a person could get.  I actually wrote down our conversation word for word after he left.

Most important point: He said that every day was the best day in the history of the world, and the reason was that he was married to his wife for another more day.  My heart MELTED.  How great is that?!  He loves his wife so much that he can't go two minutes without talking about her to a perfect stranger.  This is why that man represents my dream husband.  Maybe my husband will have a different way of showing it than my new friend Bob, but he's sure going to love me that much and you can bet I'm going to love him that much right back.

Story of How I Am Gullible
Yes.  I am.  Very.  When people tell me that "gullible" is written on the ceiling, I just HAVE to look, because it's probably not but what if it is??  Forreals, what if you missed out on the one time that "gullible" really was there.  (Look up, because "gullible" is written on your ceiling...like, I just had to look at my own ceiling.)  Incidentally, "gullible" really is written in chalk on the ceiling of the tunnel that leads from Hinckley to the RB.  Look next time.

So, today's gullibility story.  I got two glasses of milk and I thought that I filled them, but when I looked half an hour later (no one had taken a drink from them), I SWEAR the milk level was lower.  And this is the second time I've noticed this happening.  I told my friend and said it was probably just the frothy bubbles disappearing, but then he explained otherwise.

He said that milk condenses when it sits, so the milk level really did get lower.  And he said that if i shook up my cup a little bit, the molecules would spread out and I'd have a full glass again.

If anyone ever tells you that if you shake up a non-carbonated drink, then it swells up somehow--don't believe them.  Trust me.

umumummm

In a given moment, I have an infinite number of factors that make my life mine.  Before I commence with storytelling, I would just like to point out that ALL of the different events and characteristics of my life at this moment--and THIS one and THIS one--are just...wonderful.  Even the bad stuff is wonderful in its own way.  If you haven't figured out how great your life is, think about it and don't stop thinking until you know that it's great.  Every life deserves to be appreciated.

Now.  My life is funny but I can't remember any recent stories that are perfect for my blagh so I'm reminiscing.

Story of the Lil Baby Scar on my Left Foot
I love eating grapes, but other than when I am chewandswallowing them, we tend to meet under unpleasant circumstances.  Like when Carine is chucking them at me.  Or...when they give me scars.

Once upon a high school day, I was walking just outside the cafeteria, wearing sandals with extremely poor traction.  Walkingwalkingwalking--sandal steps on grape, grape slides, sandal slides, foot slides with it, skin on top of foot slides against tile floor (how??), foot bleeds, body's balance goes berserk, COMPLETE AND UTTER WIPE OUT.  I am sprawled on the ground.

The above is one of those "if-I-didn't-have-a-sense-of-humor-I-would-die" times.  I think I developed a sense of shame that grew slowly in elementary school, peaked in middle school, and decreased all through high school.  So college then found me devoid of embarrassment.  Luckily, Grape Incident occurred junior year, so I was already down to like...3 out of 10 on the shame scale.  (Disclaimer: There are separate shame scales for silly things and naughty things.  My Silly Shame score is about 0, my Naughty Shame score a 10 and staying strong.)

If I ever take myself too seriously, I just look down and see a little scar on my foot and I perspective-ify my thoughts.  Life lessons come in strange forms sometimes.

mmmmmmeh

I think most of my titles will end up being things like "narf" and "mmmmmeh," mostly because I'm forced to talk using existent words all the time, and most of the time I'd like to speak in grunts and indistinguishable noises.  The cavemen were onto something there, ya feel me?  I heard something once about how with body language and tone and facial expression, the actual words you say only make up about 5% of your meaning.  I say why bother with the words, because 95% communication is good enough for me.  But in real life this would cause problems so I limit myself to my blog titles.

Sequel to the Story of Saying Hi to People that Don't Say Hi To Me
Reminder: In my first funny stories post, I talked about how I had said hi to people that didn't hear me and so on.  Well, today another variation of this happened.  I saw someone I knew, waited until they were close, and said "Hey _____".  Unfortunately, today there always seemed to be a stranger between us, and they always turned like I was talking to them.  Like, "Yes, male that I don't know, when I said 'Hey Sophie!' I was talking to you.  Oh wait NO I WASN'T TURN AROUND."

Story of the Sorry Game
This is one of my new favorite games at BYU, especially in the Cannon Center at meal times.  For those who don't know, the sorry game only works when you are in an environment filled with overly-polite people in mass.

Rules:
1. Scope out an unsuspecting victim.
2. Act like you aren't looking as you walk in the direction towards them.
3. Accidentally-on-purpose bump into them.  (Extra points for excessive force or broken dishes.  Not really about the dishes.)
4. DO NOT SAY SORRY.
5. Wait....THEY WILL SAY SORRY.
6. Reassure them that it's okay.
7. Restart game.

This is a strange phenomenon that most people don't notice because we all do it.  We all apologize, even if someone clearly barreled straight into us.  IT'S BRILLIANT.

Story of How I am Insecure about my Mathematical Abilities
We were learning about the energy of life pyramid today.  The rule is, each level up retains 10% of the energy.  My professor called on me in class to tell what each level up would be if the base level was 20,810 kcal.  I was blushing a whole lot because I was afraid I'd mess up at dividing by 10 in front of the class.  But I got every level right!

Self-Absorbed Story of my Random Daily Observation
I was told today that 1. I am awkward and 2. I am calm.  After reflection, I decided that I like having both of these traits.