The Carat Test

Anne's cousin got engaged last night! Exciting, right?! So on our way back from the library we stopped by her cousin's apartment so she could congratulate him and his fiance and of course check out the ring. When Anne got back to the car the following conversation ensued.

Me: So what did the ring look like?

Anne: Oh it's really pretty! Nice and simple. It's a solitaire, round cut diamond with a thinner band. And it had three small diamonds on each side of the big diamond.

Me: How big is it?

Anne: I'd say it's about half a carat which is perfect because she is just a small person and has small hands.

Me: Oh nice.

Anne: Yeah the ring really just fits her overall. It's perfect.

Me: So she has a half carat size hand and a half carat size personality.

Anne: Yeah basically.

Me: How many carats do you think I need?

Anne: Oh I'd say you're definitely a two carat personality.

Me: Definitely. And you're probably about one and a half carats.

Anne: Yeah that's about right.

Me: I have an awesome idea! We should start judging people based on how many carat's we think they are!

Anne: Omgsh we totally should!

So basically Anne and I now have a new and exciting way to judge the people around us. Which is probably not good seeing as Anne and I are already some of the most judgmental people I know -- but I swear we're judgmental in a good way! I'm not even sure how the carat test works...it's more of a gut-feeling kind of thing rather than a scientific measurement. Like Anne and I can just tell from our instincts how many carats a person is. Brillante would definitely not approve of this...sigh...I miss that girl.

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin passed away last night at 91-years of age. He will definitely be missed by the entire church but it's comforting to know that he is in a better place now and that he has been reunited with his dear wife, Elisa. Click here to see KSL's story and for other great links about his life including an interview with his son, Joe.

Just spotted...

A grown man skating down my street on Heelys. You know those ridiculous tennis shoes that have wheels that come out of the heels? Here's a newsflash...if you're over 12-years-old you should not be wearing those shoes! I mean really people...

And right after I saw the Heely man I saw the even more awesome unicycle man that frequents my neighborhood. Gotta love him. He once ran smack-dab into a tree while riding his unicycle. My laughter lasted for hours...

Called to Serve

Look at me getting all ambitious and posting twice in one day!!

I'm really just avoiding doing homework...

So as most of you know I've been called to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the South Carolina, Columbia Mission. I am soooo excited!! I go into the MTC on January 14th and I can't wait!
I'll admit when I first read my call I was a little disappointed. I was really stuck on wanting to go to Europe, specifically London. I told myself I would be happy where ever I was called (as long as it wasn't Provo) but there was still that initial disappointment when I didn't get called where I wanted to go. But the Lord calls you where you NEED to go not necessarily where you WANT to go. I just needed to remind myself of that. And here is the really cool thing -- my mission president was the bishop of my ward when I was born! How crazy is that! And my Mom told me that I have a whole bunch of ancestors from her side of the family that were from South Carolina and she still has non-member family living there! Soooo cool!

Regardless to say, I'm totally stoked about serving the people of South Carolina. The day after I got my call I started Googleing info about South Carolina and I found out all kinds of cool facts. I would now like to share a few of my favorites with you:

-South Carolina has the 24th largest population in the United States.

-One of my all-time favorite movies, The Patriot (R.I.P Heath Ledger), was filmed entirely in South Carolina!
-The average high temperature in the winter is 55 degrees and the low is around 35 degrees; in the summer highs are in the 80's and lows are in the high 60's to low 70's.
-Nowhere in the state averages more than 6 inches of snow a year! Woohoo!
-The largest city is Columbia.
-The last time South Carolina voted for a democratic president was Jimmy Carter.
-James Brown, Stephen Colbert, Andrew Jackson, Jesse Jackson, and 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson are all from South Carolina.
-The first time a British flag was taken down and replaced by an American flag was in Charleston in 1775.
-Golf was first played in the city limits of Charleston.
-South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union on December 20, 1860. Ohhh the south...
-There is a temple in Columbia! Isn't it pretty?And my personal favorite...
-South Carolina is freakin' gorgeous! Ok, so I know that's not exactly a fact but after looking at a tons of pictures of the state I came to that conclusion. Just check out this plantation!! Gorgeous!!

And you can check out the rockin' state song here.

I also happened upon the South Carolina tourism website and ordered myself a visitor's guide which came in the mail this past week. It came complete with a full color guide to the state with amazingly gorgeous photos and a map of South Carolina which will soon be on my wall!

And finally, just for kicks and giggles, I bring you, Miss Teen South Carolina herself, Lauren Caitlin Upton.



Mario Lopez's face is priceless! I think we should help THE Iraq and the U.S. Americans too Lauren! Ohhh I never get sick of watching that video.

What are those flashing lights behind me?

I've been absent from my blog for a while and I apologize to all one of my loyal readers. What can I say? I'm slightly ADD, so I'll be really into blogging, and then I just get bored with it for a while. However, today signals my return to the blogging world.

About a month ago I'm getting into my car to go to work and I see this index card on my window. On it was written a girl's name and phone number. I automatically assumed somebody must have run into me so I walk around my car but don't see any damage so I don't think anymore of it. Then a few days later I'm walking out to my car again and realize that my left taillight is totally bashed in. And I notice that there are pieces of my taillight allover my parking garage floor. I don't know how I didn't notice it before! Luckily I still have the index card so after work I give the girl a call. I explain the situation and she tells me she has no idea what I'm talking about. I ask her if she even lives in my complex and she says no. She also tells me it must have been some kind of joke and that one of her friends must have left her name on my car. What a load of crap. But I have non way to prove she's lying so I hang up the phone and I'm fuming. What is world coming to!! How can someone just completely bash in your taillight and then pretend like it never happened!! People are just so rude these days!! But anyway, luckily my light was still working despite the plastic being smashed so I put off getting it fixed until I had the time.

Now fast forward to this past Sunday night. I'm on my way to pick Anne up from the airport at 11:45 pm. I'm singing along to my favorite Christmas music and I'm just about to get on the freeway when I see these flashing lights behind me. Yesiree, I was getting pulled over, for the first time ever. Luckily I was able to handle the situation without bursting into tears, which I always thought would be my reaction if I got pulled over. The officer was very nice and asked for my license and registration and if I knew why I had been pulled over. I told him that I didn't know, and he then asked me if I knew I had a broken tail light. I told him I did know that the plastic part was broken but I thought that since the light was still working that it shouldn't be a problem. He told me that since the red was no longer covering the light that my taillight was basically blinding the people behind me.

So then the officer goes back to his car and to run my information and I'm left sitting in my car experiencing a tide of different emotions. On the one hand I'm completely embarrassed to be sitting on the University Parkway freeway onramp as people drive by the poor sucker who got pulled over. I'm also trying to keep myself from crying because I hadn't had a great couple of days and this was just the cherry on top that was about to push me over the edge. And finally, I was trying to keep from laughing because the situation was actually quite funny. I was just imagining what the officer thought of me. I hadn't showered since Saturday night and I'd spent all of Sunday afternoon laying on my couch -- thus my hair was a disgusting, greasy mess. I was wearing no makeup, and I was dressed in flannel pajama pants that are three sizes too big and a sweatshirt (Stacy London and Clinton Kelly would have had a hay-day with me). I was also blasting my favorite Celine Dion christmas CD and singing at the top of my lungs when he pulled me over. I'm probably not the typical person to get pulled over late at night. I really wish I could have taken a picture. It would have given everyone a good laugh.

Luckily, all the officer gave me was a "fix-it" ticket. Basically, what that means is I have to get my light fixed and then go to the courthouse to prove that I got it fixed and have this paper signed. So it didn't turn out too bad in the end. And I have an appointment to get the light fixed on Wednesday morning. So it was probaby a good thing I got pulled over or I would have never gotten it fixed.

What I'm wondering now, is if it's weird that I feel like my street cred has improved now that I've been pulled over? I feel oddly cooler now that I've had a run-in with the law.

Popcorn

I would like to share two little gems that my Mom emailed me tonight.

First this crazy video...which might make me rethink the amount of time I spend on my cell phone:

Pop Corn téléphone portable micro-ondes
Uploaded by sassiere

And then this little ditty...gotta love it:

Just an observation.

Has anyone ever noticed that the when you have like 300 pages of reading to do that you also have a sudden urge to color coordinate your closet and perfectly fold all of your jeans?

Case in point...I was doing this:


When I should have been reading this:

But no worries. Despite the fact that I'm only 33 pages into a 294 page book that I have to write a paper on and turn it in by Tuesday morning at 8am, I will have no problem finding an outfit to wear when I turn in said paper.

p.s. Something I forgot to mention...so my roommate loves Shawn Johnson and while I was perusing Facebook this morning I stumbled about this little ditty. Love it.

p.p.s. I also love this.