Ah I have so much to blog about. I think I'll split up my thoughts over a few days though.
First, I need to talk about my trip back to Idaho. I had such an AMAZING experience. I sat down next to a young looking couple on my flight from Dayton to Denver. We exchanged the usual flight pleasantries and during that time I found out that they had just been attending a Bible research conference and they learned that I attended a private religious university in Idaho. Really long story short, we ended up talking for the entire two hour flight. We talked about being saved by grace verses works, the fall of Adam, missionary work, Joseph Smith's vision, the Book of Mormon, modern prophets and revelation, and so many other things! I felt a little intimidated because they knew the Bible very well and were able to look up all sorts of scriptures to explain what their beliefs were. I didn't have my copy of the Bible with me which was really frustrating because I know where certain passages are in my copy because they are marked, but don't know the exact references and couldn't find them quickly in theirs. Sometimes if I just described a scripture to them they knew where to find it!
The whole experience made me really realize how I do KNOW what I believe to be true. They were extremely nice people and never in the entire conversation did they make me feel uncomfortable or make me question my own beliefs. They were genuinely interested in what I believed. And although there were many points that we differed on, the one thing we had in common is that we believe that Christ came to this earth to atone for our sins and that the only way we can be saved is though that great sacrifice. I wish I could write about everything we talked about but that's unrealistic. For now, the important thing is that I stood up for what I believed in for two hours. I held a conversation about pretty heavy religious topics with people who were also firm in their faith. I wish I was better at expressing what I believed on some subjects because I know I didn't do them justice but I have no regrets about the entire conversation.
BYU-Idaho is a great place and I love being surrounded by people who share my beliefs but sometimes I really miss living back east where I can have these types of conversations with people on a regular basis.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
Stars & Stripes & Saxophones Forever
I was a band geek in high school. Through and through. I even have senior pictures with my saxophone. When I went off to Idaho I brought my saxophone with me and played in the band for two semesters. Sadly, once I started working last fall I wasn't able to fit band into my schedule and I've missed it so much!
I started band in the fifth grade at Morgan L. Martin Elementary School in Green Bay, WI. Why the sax?? Well the year before me, only ONE boy decided to play it and I thought it would be cool to be different like him. Apparently a bunch of other kids thought the same thing. No worries though, I loved it all the same. That saxophone and I have been through a lot together. We moved to Ohio. We took a hiatus freshman year and missed each other so much we rejoined the band. We've marched outside in 100* weather with 95% humidity AND in 20* weather with whipping winds. We've marched through mud and dirt, in parades, at Disney World, and in state marching band finals. How far have we marched? Well one week of band camp was calculated to be about 26 miles of walking. Times that by 3 years of band camp plus the hundreds of hours outside camp that we march and I figure I've carried my saxophone over at least 200 miles...at least! We've played for Glenn Beck, Stanford Olsen, Jon Huntsman, Jon Huntsman Jr. (potential future president of the United States), thousands of audience members, and numerous conductors, judges, and church congregations. We've played classics, pep tunes, jazz pieces, and originals. We've had our shining moments as a soloist and shared the applause with friends. We've made about a million mistakes but shared in two million personal victories.
I never got a new saxophone. I still play on my student model from the 5th grade. Sure, I would have LOVED to get a nicer model. They're so much easier to play on and tone is automatically increased 100%. But it didn't really matter that much.
There's just something so satisfying about playing a beautiful piece of music. And not just from playing it well. It's sight reading it and sounding awful and then rehearsing for hours until finally it sounds how it's supposed to and you can actually feel the music.
There will always be songs that I hold dear to me because of band. An American Elegy is my absolute favorite. I played it my sophomore year of high school and to this day if I listen to it, I have to stop everything else I'm doing for 11 minutes and 20 seconds and just listen. I know every moving line, every crescendo, every swell and every moment of silence.
The other two songs are staples at the high school (and in many schools across the country). I will always love the classic Sleigh Ride and Stars and Stripes Forever. Whenever I hear them on the radio or played by another band I hum my part or try to remember my fingerings. I also can't help but compare them to how we played it because in my mind, our band was the best. IS the best. We played the originals!
I know I can no longer call myself a band geek because I go so long between playing and my scales go at half the speed they used to, but I still love my saxophone and I love playing every chance I get. Band gave me some of my best friends in high school and some of my best friends in college. How can I not be grateful for that?! I've also learned to make a top ten grateful list on days when things aren't going so well. In honor of Mrs. Meeks (my long-time director) I've decided to blog one. They don't need an explanation or even a good reason if you don't have one (but usually you do....), you just have to be thankful! Try making your own. It's just whatever pops in your head first :)
I started band in the fifth grade at Morgan L. Martin Elementary School in Green Bay, WI. Why the sax?? Well the year before me, only ONE boy decided to play it and I thought it would be cool to be different like him. Apparently a bunch of other kids thought the same thing. No worries though, I loved it all the same. That saxophone and I have been through a lot together. We moved to Ohio. We took a hiatus freshman year and missed each other so much we rejoined the band. We've marched outside in 100* weather with 95% humidity AND in 20* weather with whipping winds. We've marched through mud and dirt, in parades, at Disney World, and in state marching band finals. How far have we marched? Well one week of band camp was calculated to be about 26 miles of walking. Times that by 3 years of band camp plus the hundreds of hours outside camp that we march and I figure I've carried my saxophone over at least 200 miles...at least! We've played for Glenn Beck, Stanford Olsen, Jon Huntsman, Jon Huntsman Jr. (potential future president of the United States), thousands of audience members, and numerous conductors, judges, and church congregations. We've played classics, pep tunes, jazz pieces, and originals. We've had our shining moments as a soloist and shared the applause with friends. We've made about a million mistakes but shared in two million personal victories.
 |
| Band Camp 2008 (I'm on the left in the green John Deere hat) |
I never got a new saxophone. I still play on my student model from the 5th grade. Sure, I would have LOVED to get a nicer model. They're so much easier to play on and tone is automatically increased 100%. But it didn't really matter that much.
There's just something so satisfying about playing a beautiful piece of music. And not just from playing it well. It's sight reading it and sounding awful and then rehearsing for hours until finally it sounds how it's supposed to and you can actually feel the music.
There will always be songs that I hold dear to me because of band. An American Elegy is my absolute favorite. I played it my sophomore year of high school and to this day if I listen to it, I have to stop everything else I'm doing for 11 minutes and 20 seconds and just listen. I know every moving line, every crescendo, every swell and every moment of silence.
The other two songs are staples at the high school (and in many schools across the country). I will always love the classic Sleigh Ride and Stars and Stripes Forever. Whenever I hear them on the radio or played by another band I hum my part or try to remember my fingerings. I also can't help but compare them to how we played it because in my mind, our band was the best. IS the best. We played the originals!
I know I can no longer call myself a band geek because I go so long between playing and my scales go at half the speed they used to, but I still love my saxophone and I love playing every chance I get. Band gave me some of my best friends in high school and some of my best friends in college. How can I not be grateful for that?! I've also learned to make a top ten grateful list on days when things aren't going so well. In honor of Mrs. Meeks (my long-time director) I've decided to blog one. They don't need an explanation or even a good reason if you don't have one (but usually you do....), you just have to be thankful! Try making your own. It's just whatever pops in your head first :)
1) Clouds
2) Chocolate chips
3) Fresh cut grass
4) Spring flowers
5) Digital Cameras
6) Sweatshirts
7) Broken-in reeds
8) Inside jokes
9) Airplanes
10) The mailman
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Just Make Sure He's Handsome
Today while Seth and I were sitting at the hair salon waiting for Meredith (who was getting her hair dyed red for Anne of Green Gables next weekend) I had the chance to ask him a few deep and thought-provoking questions...like what he thinks my future husband should be like. I'm sure the lady sitting across from us got a good laugh from the whole conversation...
Abigail: Seth, what do you think my future husband will be like?
Seth: What do you mean?
Abigail: What's he going to look like or like to do?
Seth: I don't know! How should I know!
Abigail: Well what do you want him to like?
Seth: Comic books.
Abigail: Anything else?
Seth: Yeah he has to like to play with kids because I'm still a kid. Oh, and have a good sense of humor.
Abigail: What about sports? Any certain sport he should like?
Seth: Soccer. But not football. Well, actually I don't really care.
Abigail: What should he look like?
Seth: ME!!!!
Abigail: *laughs*
Seth: *laughs* Just make sure he's handsome, okay? *laughs*
Abigail: Seth, what do you think my future husband will be like?
Seth: What do you mean?
Abigail: What's he going to look like or like to do?
Seth: I don't know! How should I know!
Abigail: Well what do you want him to like?
Seth: Comic books.
Abigail: Anything else?
Seth: Yeah he has to like to play with kids because I'm still a kid. Oh, and have a good sense of humor.
Abigail: What about sports? Any certain sport he should like?
Seth: Soccer. But not football. Well, actually I don't really care.
Abigail: What should he look like?
Seth: ME!!!!
Abigail: *laughs*
Seth: *laughs* Just make sure he's handsome, okay? *laughs*
There you have it. I need to find a funny guy who likes kids, comic books, and soccer...oh and he needs to somewhat resemble this handsome 10 year old boy.....
Friday, April 8, 2011
Operation: Something's Fishy
No one knows how funny my apartment really is. We're hilarious. The problem is that we do funny things that we really can't tell other people about... Fortunately, the funniest thing we did all semester was let out of the bag this past week so I can FINALLY blog about it. It was killing me keeping silent! The story is kind of a long one and I want to record it all so this post might get a little lengthy....
Where to start?? Well, to summarize, my roommates and I pulled a prank on our fhe brothers one night and they never found out it was us. We ended up telling them on Monday night since the semester ended this week. It was the funniest thing I've ever done in my life. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing. It was uproariously funny but at the same time, I've never pulled any sort of prank before so whatever I did was bound to be funny.
Now for the long version. It all started with Alexis and I in the car on the way back to Rexburg from Rigby. We were talking about pranks in general and somehow got to the idea that we wanted to prank our fhe brothers. We love them to death and always have fun with them and it just seemed appropriate! We decided to "water cup" their apartment. This meant filling hundreds of dixie cups with water and putting them all over their floor, thus preventing them from walking anywhere until the cups were picked up.
Now, how did we carry out such a magnificent feat? Well the only time we could guarantee that all six of them would be out of their house was during fhe on Monday nights. So we found an activity that they could do at our apartment that would take a decent amount of time...making pizzas.
I couldn't be at the apartment when they got there since our cover story was that Alexis and I were in Rigby, so I went to the Clarke basement next door around 6:00 to hide out for an hour. My friend Garrett (who lives in the basement) came to get me at my apartment since I was also bringing the goldfish and a bunch of pitchers. I pretty much just sat around for an hour, waiting for the signal that the coast was clear. At 6:45, Garrett and his roommates had to leave for their fhe which left me alone in their apartment (I have no idea if that's technically allowed at BYUI) except for the guys who live upstairs. They kept coming downstairs to do laundry and I was freaked out that they would see me sitting there and wonder what in the world I was doing and I couldn't think of a good excuse. Thankfully, I went unnoticed.
Once I got the go-ahead from Alexis (who was watching the apt from across the street) I ventured up the cement stairs with the pitcher of goldfish in one hand and three other pitchers in the other. I tried hard to be careful and graceful but sometimes grace escapes me at the most inconvenient times. I tripped up the stairs and was unable to brace myself without letting go of a pitcher of fish so I ended up dumping half of the water on me and a few of the fish on the ground. Try picking up a goldfish sometime. The little buggars just flip and flop and are literally impossible to grab off a cement step. So I had to sweep a few fish back into the pitcher before finishing my ascent. Let me take time to mention that right after I fell, Alexis decided to yell at me to hurry up...she got a good laugh when she saw me soaking wet and definitely not standing on the stairs.
We knew we had to work fast so I started setting cups out around the edge of the room and Dustin (Alexis's boyfriend who happened to be in town) and Alexis started filling them. It was quick and continuous work. We didn't stop moving for an hour and a half. Every once in a while I would stop setting out new cups and help fill or place some goldfish but for the most part we stuck to our jobs well. The entire time we were in touch with Hillary at our apartment to make sure the guys weren't going to come back before we were done. It was stressful but once we realized we were almost done and the pizza's weren't even in the oven yet we started to breathe a little.
After finishing, we gathered all of our supplies and headed back to our apartment. It was SO HARD not to laugh as we were walking in (at least for me). Plus, our roommates wanted to see the pictures of what had happened so they rotated to the back rooms every few minutes to sneak a peak. Mad props to them for keeping the guys entertained and out of their place for so long. They had to do some serious story telling. They ended up staying at our apartment for another hour and a half which worried me slightly because I didn't know if the paper cups would leak water or not.
Finally, they got in their cars to head home and as soon as they were around the corner we jumped in a car to follow. We parked in a lot across the street and watched the ensuing chaos with girly giggles, high fives, and pure joy. Here were six guys just standing in the doorway because they couldn't walk anywhere. As we were sitting there I got a call from one of the guys accusing us of the prank but I obviously denied any wrongdoing and he believed me enough for the moment. We circled the block a few times and then switched cars and went around a few more so that they wouldn't get too suspicious.
When were getting ready to switch cars, Lauren decided she wanted to go in undercover and see what they were saying. So she and Brittany gathered their backpacks and headed past their apt "to the library." Lauren, being the genius she is, remembered a voice recording app on her phone and turned that on. The conversation that she recorded is HYSTERICAL and indescribable. We listened to the recording so many times we must have it memorized by now. Brittany and Lauren did a great job and feigning innocence and their reactions were even somewhat genuine because they hadn't seen the room full of cups in real life until then.
The following weeks consisted of numerous inquiries by each of the guys trying to get us to admit that we did it and none of us cracked. They interrogated so many other people and I think the idea that they weren't positive it was us helped us stick to our story. We were lucky that they have so many other friends and family members that potentially could have done this that we weren't singled out. Sure, we were number one on their suspect list but the key point is that were weren't the only ones on the list. Personally, I had to lie to each one of them numerous times...and honestly, I felt bad. I really did!!
Once we even heard them accusing some other girls and the girls acted so guilty we couldn't help but be pleased with ourselves. Not that we like that others were bullied because of us, but we pulled off the perfect prank! We didn't leave any clues behind, we went back to the scene of the crime and didn't get caught, and we stuck to our story so well they actually started to believe us.
Finally the end of the semester came and we knew we had to tell them. I mean, we couldn't go forever without getting credit for this! There was a ward bowling party and after that we went back to the guys apartment. I had put together a slideshow of all of our pictures from the semester for us to watch and it was really fun to reminisce about all the good times. Some of the "last" pictures were from the pizza party that night. After those I stuck in a slide that said "meanwhile...." and the next picture was one of Alexis and I standing in the middle of all of the cups. SILENCE. Oh my goodness, not the reaction I expected at all. I wish we would have had the lights up so we could see their faces!!!
I think it took a while for the information to digest and then as the night went on and we started explaining what happened we could see all sorts of light bulbs going off in their heads. It took them a while to grasp the amount of deceit we actually employed and the amount of spying we did after the fact...from keeping them at their apt to make pizzas (they wanted to go get ingredients at their place so many times but the girls would just convince them to use something we already had), to every time we denied any wrongdoing, to watching the entire thing unfold from across the street, to Brittany and Lauren recording their bewilderment, to anything and everything in between.
I may be wrong about this, but I feel like they gained some respect for us. We pranked them. They got pranked by who they thought were the sweetest, most amazing girls at BYUI. I don't know if there can ever be full trust between our apartments again but hopefully there can be. From this stemmed yet another story that relates the cunning and hilarity of our apartment but sadly isn't bloggable quite yet...maybe someday. I wish I could write about every moment related to this story but there would be way too much and no one wants to read all of that. Heck, I'd be surprised if someone is still reading this which is only a hundredth of all the things I could write about!
There are a few videos we took that night (and tons more pictures) so if you're interested in seeing those you'll have to look on my facebook page. If you aren't my "friend" then you probably don't know me and I'm wondering how you even found this blog. Thanks for reading stranger!
Where to start?? Well, to summarize, my roommates and I pulled a prank on our fhe brothers one night and they never found out it was us. We ended up telling them on Monday night since the semester ended this week. It was the funniest thing I've ever done in my life. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing. It was uproariously funny but at the same time, I've never pulled any sort of prank before so whatever I did was bound to be funny.
Now for the long version. It all started with Alexis and I in the car on the way back to Rexburg from Rigby. We were talking about pranks in general and somehow got to the idea that we wanted to prank our fhe brothers. We love them to death and always have fun with them and it just seemed appropriate! We decided to "water cup" their apartment. This meant filling hundreds of dixie cups with water and putting them all over their floor, thus preventing them from walking anywhere until the cups were picked up.
Now, how did we carry out such a magnificent feat? Well the only time we could guarantee that all six of them would be out of their house was during fhe on Monday nights. So we found an activity that they could do at our apartment that would take a decent amount of time...making pizzas.
I couldn't be at the apartment when they got there since our cover story was that Alexis and I were in Rigby, so I went to the Clarke basement next door around 6:00 to hide out for an hour. My friend Garrett (who lives in the basement) came to get me at my apartment since I was also bringing the goldfish and a bunch of pitchers. I pretty much just sat around for an hour, waiting for the signal that the coast was clear. At 6:45, Garrett and his roommates had to leave for their fhe which left me alone in their apartment (I have no idea if that's technically allowed at BYUI) except for the guys who live upstairs. They kept coming downstairs to do laundry and I was freaked out that they would see me sitting there and wonder what in the world I was doing and I couldn't think of a good excuse. Thankfully, I went unnoticed.
 |
| To get to the basement I had to walk right past their apartment...hence, a disguise was needed. |
 |
| The 17 unwilling participants. |
 |
| Wet from spilling water all over myself... |
 |
| We used about 1600 cups. |
After finishing, we gathered all of our supplies and headed back to our apartment. It was SO HARD not to laugh as we were walking in (at least for me). Plus, our roommates wanted to see the pictures of what had happened so they rotated to the back rooms every few minutes to sneak a peak. Mad props to them for keeping the guys entertained and out of their place for so long. They had to do some serious story telling. They ended up staying at our apartment for another hour and a half which worried me slightly because I didn't know if the paper cups would leak water or not.
Finally, they got in their cars to head home and as soon as they were around the corner we jumped in a car to follow. We parked in a lot across the street and watched the ensuing chaos with girly giggles, high fives, and pure joy. Here were six guys just standing in the doorway because they couldn't walk anywhere. As we were sitting there I got a call from one of the guys accusing us of the prank but I obviously denied any wrongdoing and he believed me enough for the moment. We circled the block a few times and then switched cars and went around a few more so that they wouldn't get too suspicious.
 |
| The guys in their doorway |
The following weeks consisted of numerous inquiries by each of the guys trying to get us to admit that we did it and none of us cracked. They interrogated so many other people and I think the idea that they weren't positive it was us helped us stick to our story. We were lucky that they have so many other friends and family members that potentially could have done this that we weren't singled out. Sure, we were number one on their suspect list but the key point is that were weren't the only ones on the list. Personally, I had to lie to each one of them numerous times...and honestly, I felt bad. I really did!!
Once we even heard them accusing some other girls and the girls acted so guilty we couldn't help but be pleased with ourselves. Not that we like that others were bullied because of us, but we pulled off the perfect prank! We didn't leave any clues behind, we went back to the scene of the crime and didn't get caught, and we stuck to our story so well they actually started to believe us.
Finally the end of the semester came and we knew we had to tell them. I mean, we couldn't go forever without getting credit for this! There was a ward bowling party and after that we went back to the guys apartment. I had put together a slideshow of all of our pictures from the semester for us to watch and it was really fun to reminisce about all the good times. Some of the "last" pictures were from the pizza party that night. After those I stuck in a slide that said "meanwhile...." and the next picture was one of Alexis and I standing in the middle of all of the cups. SILENCE. Oh my goodness, not the reaction I expected at all. I wish we would have had the lights up so we could see their faces!!!
I think it took a while for the information to digest and then as the night went on and we started explaining what happened we could see all sorts of light bulbs going off in their heads. It took them a while to grasp the amount of deceit we actually employed and the amount of spying we did after the fact...from keeping them at their apt to make pizzas (they wanted to go get ingredients at their place so many times but the girls would just convince them to use something we already had), to every time we denied any wrongdoing, to watching the entire thing unfold from across the street, to Brittany and Lauren recording their bewilderment, to anything and everything in between.
I may be wrong about this, but I feel like they gained some respect for us. We pranked them. They got pranked by who they thought were the sweetest, most amazing girls at BYUI. I don't know if there can ever be full trust between our apartments again but hopefully there can be. From this stemmed yet another story that relates the cunning and hilarity of our apartment but sadly isn't bloggable quite yet...maybe someday. I wish I could write about every moment related to this story but there would be way too much and no one wants to read all of that. Heck, I'd be surprised if someone is still reading this which is only a hundredth of all the things I could write about!
There are a few videos we took that night (and tons more pictures) so if you're interested in seeing those you'll have to look on my facebook page. If you aren't my "friend" then you probably don't know me and I'm wondering how you even found this blog. Thanks for reading stranger!
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| Life is good :) |
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Spring Cleaning
Sometimes I get in really strange cleaning moods and I think the warmer weather spurred something in me last week. I got the urge to bleach the grout in our kitchen. WEIRD, I know. It took me a few days because it's pretty boring but I finished it and now La Jolla 217 has the cleanest floors in the complex!
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| Before |
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| After! |
Sorry the lighting is different, but you can still see what a difference it made.
Life is good :)
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Dumpster Diving
My apartment complex is right behind a Little Caesars Pizza. The weather was lovely tonight so I decided to do some reading on the stairs outside. Around 11:00 I see a worker come out of the store and throw two boxes in the dumpster. Immediately I think "Leftover pizza! I've heard of people who raid restaurant dumpsters and get free food!" Thinking I'm a genius (although I don't even like their pizza) I walk right on over to the dumpster and proceed to open one of the boxes. I get a peek inside and realize that there's only a few slices in it when the back door to the store opens again. I quickly jerk my hand out of the dumpster and awkwardly walk around, pretending like I wasn't just trying to get a free pizza. I see the worker get on his bike and take off with a pizza box in his arms (and, I assume, a pizza). There was still one more box in the dumpster so I went back and had a look at that one and it too contained only slices. Feeling dejected, I walked back over to the stairs and hoped no one had just witnessed this slightly embarrassing episode.
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| Obviously this is not the actual dumpster as it was completely dark outside at the time of my adventure. |
The story gets better. Around 11:30 I'm talking on the phone with Whitney when I see two guys and a girl on their bikes riding through our parking lot. They pedal right to the dumpster and start looking in the exact same boxes I had earlier! Now, if the story stops there it's funny. But it doesn't stop there. They took one of the boxes with them. They took a half eaten pizza out of the dumpster and rode away!! Ew. Although I can't really judge because there's not that big of a difference between taking a full pizza and a half pizza out of the dumpster.... And that's hilarious.
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