Sister Vella

I was going to write a blog about Aspen Grove, but I don't really feel like it anymore. I've been thinking a lot about Sister Vella and I want to talk about her. The problem is that I'm not eloquent-and I think we all know that-so bear with my inadequate scribblings about a wonderful woman.

At first Sister Vella may have been hard to get along with because she has a very brisk, no-nonsense personality. We were talking about it the other day and my dad said, "She acted like she knew everything, but...she really did!" And it's true. Sister Vella knew everything. Speaking of Sister Vella, someone said, "If you didn't love her, then you didn't know her." I don't think there could be a better phrase. If you really knew Sister Vella, you would know how generous, kind, and loving she was.

The more I thought about Sister Vella, the more I realized what she has done for me. I didn't see her a lot-especially after they moved-but she still impacted my life through serving my family and specifically my mom.

• She would frequently bring over half of whatever food she made for her family. We always had a jar of Sister Vella's soup in the fridge. My dad mentioned it in his talk, but our favorite thing was tomatoes with mozzarella cheese in vinegar. Yum! No one cooked as well as Sister Vella.
  
• She made my Irish dance costume-and a matching one for my doll.
• She made a new underskirt for my prom dress, so it would be long enough.
• She came with me to Jarom's farewell so I wouldn't have to go alone.
• She offered help and materials for my projects in school.

Besides all that, she was my mom's best friend.

Sister Vella loved babies, and I just hope she's in Heaven finding my children and helping to teach and prepare them for me.

I'm glad that Sister Vella can be at peace now, and not have to worry about any health problems. But we will miss her! I just hope that I can look to her example as a way to live my life. I want to be as generous and giving a person as Sister Vella was.

Friends shouldn't let friends...

...but unfortunately, sometimes they do. I don't think I will ever be able to recreate the expression that is on my face. This is an example of A. The random pictures I have on my computer and B. The random things we do for fun. I seriously have the best friends ever, because when I'm with them I can be myself. But I can also pretend to be different people...like a pregnant woman.

My brother...he's Asian

I am writing an essay right now but I think it's time for a little break. So I'll write a blog to keep me in the writing flow.

This is Mark (the one on the left).

He is one of my best friends. The intent of this blog is to itemize why he is so great.

1. He is Asian, and it's rubbing off on me.
2. He writes me funny stories such as Ethan Chex and Heroic Herbert.
3. He taught me that it is okay to be disruptive in class.
4. He taught me how to really laugh and have fun.
5. I think his writing style rubbed off on me a little bit but that's okay because:
6. Mark is hilarious.
7. He walks me to lunch dates I am nervous about.
8. He listens to my problems and helps me see the humor in every situation.
9. He plays the guitar and sings and he is incredibly smart. Probably the smartest person (besides my dad and brother) that I have ever met.
10. He puts up with us.

So I guess a few of those items are a little silly but I am really so grateful for the amazing friend that Mark is!

Attention!

Some of you may know that I recently had to terminate my best friend contract that had been in effect for about a year. This means that I am now conducting interviews to fill the position of contracted best friend! All interested persons are invited and encouraged to apply. The application process includes taking me to Bajio, listening to my random stories, watching musicals with me, providing me with chocolate, and general adventuring (job duties are very similar to the application process). You will be compensated in hours spent laughing, having fun, peanut butter pie, and the aforementioned adventuring. Schedule is very flexible. I look forward to hearing from you!

*Please note that this position is temporary as I already have a best friend who is unfortunately several thousand miles away. There is a possibility for this job to become long term, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it, which will probably be in January.

The ice cream social

I don't feel as though I live in the past, but I have been thinking a lot about last year at this time. I like to notice how much I've changed and grown. A lot has happened and I'm so grateful for all the experiences I had that helped shape the past year of my life and me as a person.

I've also been falling into a cryptic abyss lately, so I hope that I can pull out of that for this post and say what I want to say without worrying about who will read it and what they will think (let me clarify that this post is in no way meant to point fingers, just stating facts). Here we go!

This week last year was very difficult for me. I was struggling with feelings of abandonment, I think. I always knew I wasn't alone in a very spiritual sense, but I physically felt as if I had no friends and I didn't know how to get any (oh, I sound so sad and mournful right now. I didn't mean for my blog to have this tone).

Our ward had an ice cream social. I was very worried about going because I felt that it would be awkward, but I was on the activities committee so I went to help and support.

This is where the point of my post will (hopefully) come to light. I went to the ice cream social, feeling alone and sorry for myself, and I met three of my best friends. I was already acquainted with them but something changed that night. They very quickly formed my support group. Suddenly I had someone to talk to and share my feelings with. I no longer felt alone.

They were spectacular and really held me through that time in my life. Karlee was pivotal because she had recently been through something similar so she was able to relate very specifically to what I was feeling.

We continue to be each other's support system. As each of us goes through a difficult time, the others are there to help. I wanted to write this blog just to say how grateful I am for those friends. They are so dear to me and I am very blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful people.

I just love to laugh.

Last night I was in a bad mood, don't ask my why because I don't know, but I was allowing myself to feel awful. Then Noelle called, and it completely changed my mood. I love Noelle because we can (and do!) laugh at the most random things. Noelle and I are really good at taking any situation and turning it into something hilarious.

This is a good thing because, while we were talking last night, we realized that I have this uncanny ability to attract the most awkward situations. This is not me being facetious, it's true. I wish I could blog the weird things that have been happening to me lately, but I'd better not. Just believe me when I say that my life is hilarious! I'm so glad I have friends I can laugh with about life because if not....I might be depressed.

I love finding the comedy in my life story!

Oh! But a word of clarification: we know when to be serious. We aren't always silly and frivolous.

First edition

Because school can get so stressful, jobs can be overwhelming, life is just time consuming and becomes rather stagnant, my best friends and I always like to have a fun project going on. It gives us something to look forward to and plan for-something that is exciting and hilarious! It provides a release for our pent-up non-school/work energy. Not only do we get to do something fun and different, we get to spend time together as friends, which can be an emotional catharsis. Usually is.

Our senior year we focused on "Casterbridge". Freshman year...well, I was out to lunch for the majority of my first year of college. Sure, I had fun, but I was so disconnected from my best friends; if there was a fun project going on, I missed it. This past fall semester, we focused on our love commercial (if you missed it, you can watch it here).

This semester we are writing a tabloid. It most likely won't be funny to any one but us, as it's chock full of inside jokes, but Noelle sent me the cover today and I just couldn't help myself. I had to post it.

How wonderfully welcoming

I love the first ward. I really do. It's just that I feel like I've been having awkward experiences there lately...

*Warning: This blog may sound corny. I don't mean to be cheesy, but it's just my thoughts for the night.

Today I said the closing prayer in sacrament meeting. I thought it was funny since I'm not even in that ward anymore...what, do people think I took a year long hiatus and finally decided to come back to church? No, it was good. It felt like the ward was welcoming me back, saying to me, "We didn't forget about you! We still love you! Be one of us!"

After the meeting I suddenly felt so visible. Random people were coming and talking to me (Karlee can attest to this). It was weird because they would call me by name, we'd have a somewhat normal conversation, and I would walk away saying, "I have no idea who that person is". It was like everyone suddenly knew me. Odd, but it felt so natural to be back. Even though everyone (besides our little crew) was a stranger to me. It was a nice feeling, going back there.

Boring

I KNOW my blog has been boring lately. Okay? I'm sorry. I have been wishing that I had something funny to post about lately but I'm just not feeling creative. At this moment I just feel like posting a text I got from JS today.

"Attention! 48 U.S. hours until bodacious birthday brick oven party time! Hold for super happy fun, please."

Yeah, it really made me laugh. I wish I could be that funny even when sending a simple text.

A little note

Those of you who are not my family may say that I am a generally mild mannered person. But sometimes I will choose a subject to be outspoken about. The other week we went laser tagging and the guy kept making comments about how men were superior to women. I accidentally spoke out about that, which made me reminisce about my junior year PE class. I won't mention names, but I will share examples of what class was like most of the time.

PE teacher would teach a skill. For example: Catching a baseball.

PE teacher: "Everyone who feels comfortable with/is good at this skill go start a game. Girls, come over here."

PE teacher would then reteach the skill in simplified terms.

PE teacher: "Okay, girls, go join the game! Holly and Natalie, come over here. I'll help you a bit. Okay...maybe we can break it down into different moves, like a dance! I'll teach you a dance. Listen to me and watch what I do. Step step catch, step step throw."

Holly and I [to each other]: "Seriously? Is this really happening?"

So, the class was weird, but I left the class better than I started because I left with an amazing friend: Holly Marie Nelson. We have had so many hilarious and fun adventures and she is just such a great friend!

A reflection

April and May 2007 were very happy times in my life. Possibly the best two months so far. Come to think of it, summer 2007 was pretty great. It had its moments, but overall it was so much fun. Man, why are my friends all gone?

The good and the bad times-we've been through them all

I miss them! I just can't flock by myself!

"It's difficult for one to enjoy the frivolities of life...

...when one is staring death in the face. But then, you seem to be making up for both of us."
-Billy Jester, Little Mary Sunshine by Rick Besoyan, Act II, scene 1, p. 37

My best friends are gone, and I might cry. There are already so many things that I need to tell them, to laugh with them about, to get their advice on...I love them.

I'm excited for them, and I'm even wearing my Nauvoo shirt in honor of them...but I'm also pretty sad. We really haven't been apart for more than a couple of weeks, and we were always in contact through emails, facebook, phone calls, etc. Now we have to rely on real letters. Hmm.

I'm so grateful for my amazing friends!

(Umm, PS: I just found a script for The Foreigner in my closet. I absolutely love that play. Blasny, blasny, right?)

I really need to work on controlling my laughter.

I thought laughing through two AP tests was bad. I think I found something worse. At least, it hurts more. Laughing hysterically (to the point of not being able to breathe) through the reel is not fun. By the middle of that dance I thought I was going to pass out. And I still couldn't stop laughing. It was hilarious. So much for my technique...

Why was I laughing? That's the best part-I don't really know why. I think it was a culmination of everything that's been going on lately: the movie/movie poster, pariahdom, just really really good times with my best friends. Seriously. I love you all, and could not have survived this year without you.

PS-I'm still protesting AP music.

What I did for love

It's a good thing the Pariah is totally my hero-otherwise I would never be able to wear my sunglasses in public. Let's just say I get a lot of funny looks. Whenever someone gives me a look that says, "Girl with the pariah glasses, you are INSANE", I just laugh to myself and think, "Oh boy, if you only knew. If you could just understand how awesome these glasses are". It's going to take a lot of willpower to wear them in Disneyland while I do the "natalie run" by myself.

Come to think of it, it's going to be really sad going back to Disneyland without you all! Who will I do the L.A. dance with? Who am I going to scream with on Indiana Jones? I'm going to have fun with my family, but I'll really miss you guys. Oh well, at least I won't have to put up with that bus driver.

I used to be a double agent.

This is the first time in a long time that I've taken a side and stuck with it through the pencil/fruit snack wars. I'm a little bit proud of my decision (that last line was for you, Mike).

Silent, but not.

The other day Mr. Jones told us that if you have a really good relationship with someone, silence is as natural as talking. I think maybe the sign of a good friendship is when you can be silent, not speaking to each other, but laughing-each knowing exactly what the other is laughing at.