Life lately.

Sometimes I forget that I even have a blog. I don't know how this happens, but it does. It probably happens the same way that I forget other things in life. I have questioned the health of my memory more than once in my life. I very well may be a premature sufferer of dementia or Alzheimer's. But I also am a slight hypochondriac, so disregard everything I just said.
Anyway, so here are two things that have happened to me lately:

Event #1 - I'm a celebrity.

So a group of Koreans decided to up and visit BYU for a few weeks. We're talking legit Koreans here too, not just some Americanized ones. The real thing, through and through. And lucky for me, they decided to sit in on one of my classes. My professor warned us of this before hand, but naturally I remembered it was going to happen every day except the day that it was actually going to happen. So when I walked into my class at 10:57 am Monday morning I was surprised to see a row of Korean women lining the back row. I did a double take and then proceeded to plop myself down in my seat. After sitting there for a few seconds, I decided that I hadn't observed them sufficiently so I turned my head to give them a more thorough glance. And what do I see? A camera. And where is this camera pointed? Directly at my face. I stare into it, trying to process what is happening. At the exact moment when my brain realized "Hey Cara, you're being photographed by a Korean girl" the flash went off and bam. It was finished. I turned my head back to face the front again, still trying to fully understand what just happened. I had just been photographed by a Korean tourist. Why? After much thought and pondering, I have come to form this explanation for myself:
The conversation that took place prior to the taking of the photograph:
Korean Girl #1: "Ahhhh! OMG! Huge American girl walking in room! Wow! She tall!"
Korean Girl #2: "Take picture! Quick while she no looking!"
(Korean Girl #1 rushes to take out camera, meanwhile Sasquatch American girl sits down.)
Korean Girl #1: "No! She sit down!"
Korean Girl #1: "Take picture of her big head!"
Korean Girl #2: "Ok I take picture."
And the rest is history.

Event #2 - Bathroom Meetings

Do you ever have people that you don't know but that you always run into? I have several. Most of them are harmless, but one of them is starting to cause distress. She's a janitor at the library. And for some strange and embarrassing reason, literally every time I use the bathroom in the library, she is there. Always. It is getting to the point that I am keeping a lookout for her and will postpone my bathroom trips to avoid her presence. Today, I thought the coast was clear. I searched the surroundings and there was no sign of her. But then, as I sat in the stall, thinking I had at last escaped her, I heard the jingling. The jingling of the dreaded janitor keys. Immediately I knew it was her. I tried to remain calm and as silent as possible and stayed in the safety of the stall. "She must not know I am here," I thought. I waited in the stall until I heard the slow jingle of her keys leave the bathroom and only then did I go out and wash my hands.
Close call.
I guess one could say that the whole issue is making me a little crazy. Maybe. Just a little.

Anyway, I should get back to my homework now. I have procrastinated the pain long enough. It is now time to suffer.
Adios.

Brings tears to my eyes.

There are some movies in this world that just make the Cara Waterwork's kick in to high gear and "Remember the Titans" is one of them. I don't know why, it's not your typical tear jerker. It's just something about the camaraderie and the team bonding and the power of the human soul...ahh! It's just so good! Definitely one of my all time favorites. It is just the perfect combination of emotion for a movie. Whenever I finish watching it,  I feel so alive! It makes me want to go out and join a football team and sweat, yell and bond with my fellow players! But, that will never happen so I will just forever love this movie and revel in the human spirit of it all.
Love love love.
Plus, it has Ryan Gosling in it. And other attractive men.
Just basically all around greatness.
Here are two of my favorite scenes from the movie:

She's sexy and she knows it.

I have been missing my cat a lot lately, so the following post is dedicated to her. Hopefully it will make you come to love her as much as I do. Enjoy.

Once upon a time in my 12th year of life, I decided that it was time to get another cat. I was just recovering from the death of my last one and was finally ready for a new one. I really wanted to get a kitten, but my mom encouraged me to look at the county shelters and the Humane Society first. So I did. And I found this sexy animal:

I saw her photo online on some Adopt-a-Pet website and fell in love. (She looked much thinner than she does now and in the above photo. The years have not been good to her figure.) So the next day, we all shuffled on over to the animal shelter to meet her in the flesh. They brought her out from her cage and let us fawn over her in the lobby. Immediately it became evident that this cat had problems. There was a fake bamboo tree in the lobby that she promptly proceeded to rake savagely with her front claws. And when she wasn't racing about the room acting neurotic, she was meowing constantly. But it wasn't just your occasional friendly "Meow" it was more along the lines of "meowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeow" Yea. You could say it was rather annoying. But my 12 -year -old self was sold. My mom was slightly concerned, but she conceded nonetheless. So I gathered her up in my arms, paid the woman at the shelter my hard earned $40 and took my precious little cat home.
Now I'm not going to lie and say all was smooth sailing after that. It most certainly wasn't. We had our rough spots, yes. There was the time she thought my leather beanbag was a glorified litterbox made just for her. And oh the fury when my unsuspecting brother plopped himself down in it, thoroughly soiling his pants and underwear. That was a dark day.
But we love her despite her problems. Well, my sister and I do at least. Truly though, she has come a long way.
My sister even worships her now and it pleases her (the cat) greatly.

Just kidding. This photo was posed. But still, do you see how happy she is? It's as if she's thinking "At last they are treating me as I deserve." She thinks she deserves a lot of things.
Anyway, we moved. That's when we met Elvis. He is fat, huge, gray and fluffy. He's also a cat. Her and Elvis do not get along. They have fights. They go into each others yard's and harass one another. They screech loudly at each another.
It is very entertaining.
My cat has a special sound she makes that is reserved only for Elvis. I call it the "Elvis Howl". It is quite possibly the worst sound I have ever heard. The first time I heard it, I came running down the stairs, sure that I would find her writhing in pain, her innards squirting all over the floor. But no, she was perfectly fine. She was sitting in the window, gazing at Elvis, who was prancing about our yard and fully aware of the anguish he was causing her. This face-off between the two of them has since become a frequent occurrence.

Here they are staring at each other.

But lately, their friendly mutual hatred has gotten more violent. My dad has had to intervene a few times by getting the hose and dousing them with it. Quite the diplomat he is.
But I think they are secretly in love. They're just both too shy to show it.

So that's her in a nutshell. Isn't she great?

A diamond in the rough.

This is Birdy.

Birdy

She is 15 years old.
She's from this country:

England

And she sings like this:

Angel

She covered the song "Skinny Love" by Bon Iver and her version has become one of my favorite songs. Ever.

She also sings this song, which is almost as great. It's called "People Help The People." The music video is pretty amazing too.

I got the piano sheet music for her cover of "Skinny Love" and I love it dearly. It is so beautiful. But every time  I try to sing along, it generally ends up sounding nothing like her and a lot like this:

My vocally talented sister took pity on me and was giving me lessons on how to sing it over the break. So who knows? Maybe someday I will be able to do it justice. But for now I'll just stick to the piano. You can thank me later.

Here is one last beautiful song from the wonderful Birdy:

She's so great.

The events of the eve of Christmas.

       My winter break was glorious. I miss it dearly. It was also highly entertaining. On Christmas Eve, my sister and I decided to shake things up a bit and rather than lounge about the house like sacks of flour all morning, we decided to go for a run around the middle school track. Seems innocent enough right? I slapped on some random clothes and tied my shoes and then began the long process of awaiting my sister's readiness, which consisted of periodically shouting up the stairs and occasionally threatening departure. I don't know who she expected to see out on the streets of Reno Christmas Eve morning, but there was clearly somebody.

      At last, she finished. We moseyed on over to the track and began running laps. We walked the last lap to cool down. So there we were, two naive girls, getting their exercise on a beautifully wholesome Christmas Eve morning when suddenly to our great surprise we heard the roar of a dirt bike coming down the street. I turned my happy little head to see who else was enjoying the crisp Christmas Eve air and saw two boys, one driving and another clutching to his back. Immediately upon eye contact, the rear rider shouted an indistinguishable obscenity and then he flipped me the birdy. 

Yes. I was flipped off on Christmas Eve. 

Was I offended? Why yes, yes I was. But I was also slightly amazed that I of all people, had the rare opportunity of being flipped off on the eve of the most magical day of the year. A true honor indeed.

         I don't even have the slightest notion of what could have possibly triggered such anger in the boy. Perhaps he was offended by my choice of clothing? Or maybe it was my choice to exercise on Christmas Eve? Who knows. All I know is that I was flipped off on Christmas Eve. 

Definitely a story for posterity.

         When we got back, my sister decided to take the longest shower in the history of mankind. I waited for a good 40 minutes for the water from her shower to shut off, but it never did. I decided that it was bound to turn off soon, so I might as well just get in now. Well, it didn't turn off soon. Only a precious 5 minutes had passed when the water pouring from my shower head turned to icy death. I nearly had a heart attack, but managed to suffer through the iciness to finish my bathing ritual. But my sister was not so determined. Upon the onset of the icy death, she immediately turned off her water and resolved to sit in the bathroom until the warm water returned. 

          Well, it took a long time for it to come back.

  A very long time.

          She began to call out to me, begging me to bring her the Harry Potter 7 book to relieve her boredom. I laughed for a long time and then refused, leaving her with the wisdom to "suck it up." She began entreating other members of the family to fulfill her request, but was met with similar responses. Although my dad didn't bring her the book, he brought her another kind of entertainment. He put his head to the bathroom door and began to sing to her "I'll be stinky for Christmas, you can count on that....I'll be clean for Christmas, if only in my dreams!" 

It was pretty great.

           That evening, we had our traditional Christmas Eve Program, which consists of various Christmas songs being either played on the piano or sung by the kids of the family. It was going well up until my sister sang the last song of the program, "Mary, Did You Know?". As she sang this beautiful song, the room became unusually quiet and for a moment, we seemed like a normal family.

She sang the last climactic line "The sleeping child you're holding is the Great, I Am!" We all were smiling pleasantly, preparing to ensue with the customary clapping when suddenly the silence was rent with a powerful fart from my youngest brother. The shock of it made us forget to applaud. Mouths agape, we stared at him, awaiting an explanation.

"My butt clapped-ed!" he proudly proclaimed. 

So that sufficed as the final applause for the evening. 

        Well, I could go on, but this is already quite lengthy, for a blog post anyway. So, I love my family and Christmas break is a beautiful thing.

The end.
Oh, and this video brought me Christmas cheer. 
P.S- The end of it is the funniest part.