No Responsibilities

I love being at this point in my life. It is so much fun. I'm getting ready to go into my senior year of college... (WHAT!) and I have a job, an amazing group of friends, no classes, and lots of friends getting married. So this past weekend my friends and I took a road trip down to St. George on Saturday to go to some friends' wedding reception. It was awesome. I loved being able to drop everything just to drive 4 hours one way for the sole reason of seeing some friends on their wedding day. I like being able to take advantage of this lack of responsibilities we have right now to just drop everything and go. I know that some day, a day that is gradually approaching, I will have obligations to others. Obligations that are more important that what I want to do at the moment. I love being able to have these spontaneous road trips and experiences like it so that when I do have to be more responsible I won't feel like I am missing out on things.

 CJ and Katie Neser. These two looked so ridiculously happy, it made me a little jealous :) Everyone is happy on their wedding day, but they are one of those powerhouse couples that makes you feel that happiness when you look at them. It makes you think, wow I want something like that someday.

our group that drove down, switched up cars, and drove back. So much fun :)

Their send off, I love these lanterns

I seriously love these girls! They are both going on missions this summer and I'm going to miss them terribly

Something to Smile About

Today was one of those days when I had to look for things to smile about just to keep me going. It was a rough day to get through. You'd think that it was going to be a good day considering I took my last final this morning but I woke up sad. I didn't get much sleep last night and I didn't get any studying done either. Then on my way to my final I felt the need to do something that just made me more sad, it might have been a little bit dramatic to do, but I felt like it was necessary. Then I walked to my final, on the way it started to rain. I got my test... the first question was about something that I had no idea what it meant. There was a concept in another language that we were supposed to talk about, I didn't even know what language it was. That combined with everything else almost made me burst into tears right there. but I didn't. that would have been embarrassing. I ended up guessing what language it was and the deducing what it meant. I found out later that I was right, luckily, it was German. From that final I went to go help my class finish a movie that we've been working on. The sound guy never showed up or even contacted us, so we didn't get to finish that. In all, I was just zoned out today. On my way home I called Chloe and she happened to be home. I haven't seen her in a few weeks so I went over there. That's when my day turned around.

Chloe is one of the greatest people I know and the best friend a person could have. She was busy writing a paper but when she realized that I needed help she stopped and gave me a huge hug. From there I started finding things to smile about. The little things that could get me through the rest of today and probably the next little bit while I adjust to my new normal.

I have amazing friends like Chloe and her roommates.
We went to the corner store and bought a bunch of candy, Chloe's suggestion
I leave for London exactly 2 months from today. (I wish it were sooner though)
I got my new study abroad backpack today, I quite like it. I've had my other backpack since I was 17.
People shared their pizza with me today
I got a high score on my phone game that I have been trying to play recently
My teacher wrote a really complimentary note in my class binder before he handed it back
only one essay stands between me and the end of the semester
I get paid tomorrow
My little sister called me today and we got to talk for a while
Despite everything, through the sadness, I still feel peace and I am mostly thankful for that

Hey there!

I have a 10 page paper due  on thursday, so naturally I'm going to write a blog :)

This past weekend was one of the craziest weekends ever! We were filming the capstone project that I've been working on for the past semester. I was the Art Director, but that was kind of just a title because I was basically just an art crew member. EXCEPT, for when I had to step up and be the leader... that sufficiently freaked me out. Let me start at the beginning.

We were filming up at the salt flats so we had to leave early so that we could have every minute of sunlight to film. We left at 5:00 am... this was not easy for me but at least I got some sleep the night before unlike some poor people on the crew. One thing that I've found that I enjoy about being up early is sunrises. oh my goodness. The sunsets in Utah are pretty disappointing but the sunrise I saw on Friday was stunning.

The salt flats look awesome. Just flat white ground almost as far as you can see. We got busy and started setting up our set. The set was about a quarter mile away from the cars, which started the heavy lifting. We carried out all of our supplies (which we found out later weighed in total about 1.5 tons!) and got ready to film. We mostly stayed out of the way of the camera so we had a lot of time to take fun artsy pictures. It was pretty easy with an environment like the salt flats with such foreign broken objects such as a park bench or computers.

Then things started getting crazy. The wind blew the entire time, which starts to wear you out pretty fast. Then the director didn't really like what we were planning to do so we had to improvise. At 2, the production designer had to leave so I was left in charge...! All of a sudden people expected me to know exactly what needed to be done and start directing people to get to that goal. After a few flustering minutes I started doing my job, and it was awesome! I felt so cool. And I was so proud of the finished product. Then there was a moment when I thought that everything we had worked for was done. THE SALT FLATS FLOODED! One second I was looking at a pile of books trying to make sure everything looked right and the next I was standing in a puddle of water. From that moment the water came fast! In no time I was standing in ankle deep salt water. We were scrambling around trying to get the equipment out of the water. Salt water stings, a lot, and dries out your skin like crazy, just in case you were wondering. The last shot was planned at sunset, so this is what it ended up looking like. Despite all of the trouble it caused, the water looks awesome, doesn't it?!

We wrapped after dark, so we got to carry everything the quarter mile back through the water in the dark. I felt bad for putting the entire crew through that. We were soaked and wind blown and covered in salt but it ended up looking so amazing that it was so worth it! It's a project that I am so proud of. I worked so hard. In total, I was going from 5:00am-midnight on Friday. Then I got to get up Saturday morning and film again, but it was much more low key then.

my salt covered shoes and
pants that were so covered they were almost standing up on their own.

I have a cool major. :)

And here is another song that is a lot of fun to listen to, enjoy!

Making Money

I got a job!!! It was really an amazing coincidence and it's been great. I just happened to mention to someone how much I needed a job until I leave for London and a guy overheard me and said that he would be keep his ears open to help me. A week or so later he came up to me in class and said that he knows of a job opening and if I sent him my resume then he could submit for me. Within a week I had a job! I can now actually kinda afford to go to London this summer!

I'm the content writer for the Media Arts website film.byu.edu. To some people it might seem horrible and boring but with stuff like this my closet nerdiness comes out and I get a little bit excited. I surprised myself with how much stuff I knew when I sat down to get started editing. I had to get a number code to be able to get into a special restricted room, it made me feel pretty cool. I'm a part time employee right now, I don't have assigned hours, I just come in and work when I can. Spring semester I might be able to work full time because I'm not taking classes. We'll see :)

One of the 5 work stations, pretty fun, huh?
Do you see those speakers? I like listening to music on those while I'm working

Here's the outline of things on the website, I have to now fill in all the info

The only down side? I work in an editing lab called "The Cave" which is in the basement of the HFAC. No phone service and no windows. So I've been missing the sunshine the past few days. Maybe I'll just work nights or something :)

Obsessed

Sometimes when I discover a new song I listen to it constantly. Well I found a new song. Just a warning, it's silly. Completely ridiculous actually. It's mostly a guilty pleasure, but I love it.

This is the song, and this video of a bunch of famous people singing and dancing to it helps me to justify my latest obsession. Enjoy! (The real music video is super funny but it got taken off youtube, unfortunately, for some reason)

2011

I finally had a spare moment today so I put a bunch of the videos that I took last year together. Actually, it took a little bit more than a moment. I happily spent a few hours going through videos and moving things around. It was a great reminder of why I love my major where I get to edit things all the time, of course it's very different when you're putting together your own videos. It's more fun, not gonna lie :)

So here's my compilation of videos from 2011:
(I didn't realize my friends and I danced so much haha)

While I was in the editing lab today cracking up while watching these videos, I kept thinking, wow my friends are so stupid, but I love them!

See you in 18!

on my tip toes trying to be as tall as Erin

Well, Sister Stolworthy finally left on her mission! (actually it was on January 25th but I haven't written since then.)

We got to spend the morning together as a family before we had to drop her off at the curb. It was a bit of an adventure getting her to the MTC though. We all went to Ihop (Erin's choice) for a big family breakfast. As we were leaving Erin asked me for the keys so that she could drive... then I realized that I had stuck it in my backpack, which was in the car, which was locked. oops!

But things all worked out, we were only stuck for a half hour while we waited for the police to come open the door for us. Then it was on to the temple to take pictures! From the temple we got to say our goodbyes, which was hard, but we got through it. When we went to drop her off, we were only allowed 1 car through. So we all piled into the car and drove her in. haha the missionaries that were helping her were surprised to see so many girls in one car.


Here are some of the pictures from Erin's big day.

Erin decided to help me be a little taller.

All of the girls squished in the car



One last goodbye.



Good luck Sister Stolworthy! We'll see you in 18 months!