at least to me

I love reading other people's blogs.

Like seriously....LOVE it.

It's not because I'm a creeper [at least...I don't think I am...but I guess most people who are creepers don't actually think they are...].  It's simply because I love reading about thoughts, ideas, feelings, and everyday life.

Yep, that's right.  Everyday life.

People tell me constantly that their lives are boring.  The same all the time.  Uninteresting.

But what seems everyday to them is fascinating to me.

Even in real life, I love listening to people.  Listening to their stories.  Hearing about their days.  Learning about their feelings and thoughts.  Because it's just fascinating.

You are fascinating.  You are interesting.  You are worthwhile.  Your life is worthwhile.

To me, at least.  And to one other very important Being that comes immediately to mind.

I know sometimes in my own life I overlook the small things that [should, at least] bring a smile to my face.  It could be something as simple as the sun shining a little brighter [or rain, if that's your thing], getting a Dr. Pepper [or other beverage if Dr. Pepper just isn't your thing...no wait, that can't be right], someone smiling at you, or getting up on time in the morning [this one's a struggle for me].

Because really, sometimes it is the simple things that make our lives worthwhile.  And interesting.  And fascinating.  And often times, inspiring.

I am inspired by those who find the simple joys in life and recognize them.

And I am grateful for those who write about them for me to read and be inspired by.

I'm not saying you should start a blog if that's not your thing, but just know that no matter what I love hearing about your life.  Because you are interesting.  And fascinating.  And inspiring.

At least to me.

quirky, cheesy, and perfectly romantic

Truth:  I have perhaps watched "While You Were Sleeping" 5,364 times.

Or at least something close to that.

[Another] truth?  I never get tired of it.  Ever.

I love it every.single.time.

Perhaps it is Lucy and how I relate to her.  Perhaps it's Jack and how real he is. Perhaps it's Jacks family and their quirkiness and off-beat dialogue and how I always feel like I'm a part of their family.  Perhaps it's how even though I've watched it 5,364 times (give or take a hundred), I still laugh out loud at that part at the beginning where the ice skater falls and that part in the middle where the paper boy falls off his bike.

Or maybe it's how at the end my heart is always completely convinced that love like that really exists.

I guess I'm already convinced of that anyway.  But this movie clenches it.

Really, I could go on forever about things that I love about this movie.  But for your sake, I won't do that.

But just to make your mouth water at the thought of watching it [uhh...make your eyes water?  make your brain ache?  none of these are sounding promising.], I'll leave you with a quote:


Jack: Maybe if we angle it a little. 
Lucy: I think it's wedged. 
Jack: Why don't you step back, I'm gonna try an old trick. 
Lucy: What's the trick? 
Jack: Push it really hard. 
Lucy: Ok, push. 
Jack: I did. 


And just one more for good measure:


Midge: These potatoes are so creamy. Mary mashed them.


p.s. I am also obsessed with The Princess Bride, most of the Jane Austen-based movies [Mormon Pride and Prejudice included - coughKATIEcough], and That Thing You Do.  Yes, you've got it.  All things quirky, cheesy, and/or perfectly romantic.

"good taste"

There has been a recurring phrase in my life recently.

It's not a phrase that describes my life by any stretch of the imagination.  It's just there.  Hovering.  Bothering.  Eating away at me.

The phrase is this:

"Good taste in music."

I hate that phrase.

What does that phrase even mean?

If you say, "I have really good taste in music," what you're really saying is, "I have better taste in music than other people and the music I listen to is better than the kind of music they listen to."  Well, for rude.

Everybody thinks they have good taste in music.  Am I right?  Otherwise you wouldn't like the kind of music that you like.  Listen to the kind of music you listen to.

Or if they're using that phrase to describe someone else (e.g., "So-and-so has really good taste in music"), they could mean one of two things.

1.  "They have exactly the same taste in music that I do!"

or

2.  "The music that they like is really popular right now and everybody else likes it and I should like it, too!"  Or similarly, "The music that they like is really popular right now and everybody else likes it and even though I really don't, I wish I liked it, too!"

Whatever.

It's all relative.

I think everybody should just listen to the music that they like and not worry about if they or someone else has really "good taste in music."  Because if you've found music that you like and that makes you happy, it shouldn't really matter.

I think the same goes for "good taste in clothes" and "good taste in décor" and "good taste in blah-blah-blah-freakin-blah."

Moral of the story?  Like what you like, and don't worry about "good taste."

Chances are, you'll probably be happier that way anyway.

p.s. In my Memory and Cognition psychology class, I learned that the more people hear something, the more they tend to like it.  We went over all the studies in class that back this theory up.  They're pretty legit.  So really, how much you like something is probably at least partially based on how many times you've heard it or at least something like it.  So if you're still heck-bent (*coughmormoncough*) on having "good taste" in music, then you should probably just listen to the popular-stuff-that-you-don't-really-like on repeat so you'll have a greater chance of having really great taste in music just like everybody else.

p.p.s. I love country music.  [taylorswiftismyhero.]  Just listen to it on repeat for a really long time and in a year, get back to me.  We can attend Country Thunder together.


Editor's note:  Now that I've written this, I feel like I'll never be able to use the phrase "good taste" in good faith ever again.  But.  I guess it wasn't the phrase so much as the attitude behind it.  I've always struggled with the idea of elitism.


But.


I promise that if you ever do say it, I won't jump down your throat or judge you.  Even a little bit.  I was just ranting to cyberspace in general.  And if I ever do say it [with my reputation on the line], I will probably, maybe, most likely, almost certainly mean, "So-and-so has exactly the same taste in [whatever] that I do!"  Not, "My taste is better than yours!"


Just so you know :)

date night

Last weekend, Tim and I went on a double date with one of my old roommates and a guy from Tim's ward.  Tanner and Taryn hadn't known each other previously, and Tanner didn't know either Tim nor I very well, but they were both super good sports.

Because, you see, Tim and I had planned a night of thrills and excitement.

Or something like that.

Here's what really happened.

We ate frozen yogurt.

The end.

Just kidding.  Hahaha

We ate frozen yogurt and then we went to Michael's.  Starting to get good already, eh?

At Michael's, we split up into teams and limited each team to a $5 budget.  I'll bet you could guess who the teams were, but for the sake of time [shoot, you could be a really bad guesser], I won't make you do that.  Tim and I were on a team, and we put Taryn and Tanner on a team.  The objective?  To find supplies to make a boat to race against the other team (again, all for under $5).  Then we went back to Tim's house to make the boats.

Tim felt very confident that our boat was going to win.

I was just having fun putting together the sail.  I mean, uh, I knew we were going to WIN!

Yep, I made that sail.  I'm pretty proud.

It was hard work.  Obviously.

Tanner and Taryn's boat turned out pretty cool....

....but we knew we were going to win.

Here is a picture of their boat in the water:

Whatever.

Our boat got off to a triumphant start...

 ...and then it may or may not have tipped over and died.

Tim was so sad.

I was just happy ours had floated at all.

The moral of the story?  Whoever plans the date wins the race.  I'm pretty sure Abraham Lincoln said that or something.  

Or maybe it was Tim.  

I guess we'll never know.

the day i became a grown-up

....Sort of.  That may be a bit of an exaggeration.  I still feel very much like a six-year-old.  But it was the day of:

My Graduation Ceremony: [almost] the most boring thing I've ever been to in my life.

I say almost because my ten seconds of fame walking across the stage was a wee bit exciting.  And by a wee bit, I mean very.

The other 1199 names that were read and the other 1199 students who walked across the stage made it less exciting for me.  [I'm sure they felt the same way about me.]  Add to that the fact that I couldn't pronounce even half of their names and you had one very bored girl.  [No, no...I take that back.  That part made it more interesting, not less.]

I sat over in that section on the left.  If you can spot me I'll give you five dollars.

In addition to those 1199 students [sick of that number yet?  It's ok, so was I], I have also attended and helped to plan approximately eight other convocation ceremonies because of my job, which also made it less exciting.  They're all very similar.  And by very, I mean extremely.

The best part of the ceremony was knowing that my family and friends were in the audience to support me.  Seriously, they made the entire day for me.  I was (and still am) in awe of the love I felt emanating from them.  I am so, so blessed to have such people in my life.

Here are some pictures of a few of them:

 Mis padres

p.s. I like the girl on her cell phone next to my dad.

My boss

Seriously, she's awesome.

Tim, me, my dad, my mom 

 Timothy and me

Jana Banana and me

Jana, it's the one time I look almost as tall as you :)

Right after the ceremony

We were excited to be out of the heat. And it was only 10:00am!  Please excuse the shiny faced-ness. 

P.S.  Who knew my thumb could get so crazy!

 Tim

He rode with my parents and me because he lost his car like an old person at Walmart :)

At Oregano's soon after the ceremony

Please excuse another case of my awkward arms.

And then I got to spend the rest of the day hanging out with my parents.

For all my complaning, it couldn't have been a better day.

graduation pics

I have some bad news and some good news.

Bad news:

I think Blogger is/was malfunctioning.  Comments are disappearing right and left and links aren't working.  Just as I was figuring it all out, too.  Boo.

Ready for the good news?

Oh good, me too.

I graduated!  I am now an ASU alum!  And it feels great, lemme tell ya.

A few days before I graduated, Tim took some senior pics, just for fun.  His picture-taking services were right in my price range: free.  And I think he did a pretty dang good job!

 My momma's favorite

 I think my arms look super awkward in this picture, but Tim assures me they aren't.

Tim added the "Congratulations" bit...super sweet!  [p.s. can you spot my graduation cap?]

I guess not much is changing for me, since I'll be starting school again in the fall and won't even be switching schools, but heck, gotta celebrate somethin'!

And just for kicks and giggles [what does that saying even mean?], I thought I'd put up a couple of my senior pictures from high school.  I don't even think I look that different.  Perhaps older but certainly not wiser.

Those pictures were taken by Megan Holdsworth.  She's pretty amazing.  You should prolly check her out.

Welp.  That's enough of that.  I promise I won't have hundreds of pictures of myself on every blog post.

p.s. Coming up I'm gonna talk about the graduation day itself.  A little preview: it was pretty great minus the other 1199 names that were read in a two-hour span of time.

food glorious food

You may notice that a disproportionate number of my posts revolve around food.

There is a very simple reason for this:

I love food.

I love looking at it, smelling it, talking about it, tasting it....

you get the idea.

I don't realize how much of my life revolves around food until I go to write about my life.  I promise I don't actually eat that many times a day.  Or even that much per day.  But it is, perhaps, one of the highlights my day.

Having said all of that, Tim and I love to cook together.  [Ok truth be told, we do like to cook together, but it is perhaps more accurate to say that we love to eat together.  It is possible that we go out to eat way more than we should.]  And when we do cook, we make some bomb food.

Let's take our tacos for example.  We have made some great tacos in our time.  However.  On Cinco de Mayo, Tim decided that he wanted to make tortillas.  As in, from scratch.  Like buying masa and adding all the ingredients [and not buying them in the grocery store like a normal person].  I was skeptical of this idea, but decided to go along.

To make a very long story short, between the masa dough sticking to our hands and plates and pans and not being able to get the dough thin enough, it didn't work out very well.  [But it was kinda fun(ny).]

Example 1

Example 2

Luckily, we had some leftover uncooked tortillas from the grocery store.  [Have you ever bought uncooked tortillas?  5, 496, 201 times better than the already-cooked ones.  All you have to do is heat them up in a pan.]

I <3 Uncooked Torillas

Here's a good look at our bomb.com tacos (minus the homemade tortillas):

And some of our very healthy ingredients (it does happen sometimes):

Moral of the story?  Use uncooked tortillas from the grocery store.  Unless you're a native Hispanic and/or have had extensive training or happen to possess a tortilla press.

What are some of the ingredients, you may ask?

uncooked tortillas (duh)
chicken smothered in Chipotle Ranch salad dressing
cheese
lettuce
green onions
cilantro
lime

Pretty simple.  Now, go and do.

ditzy

Thanks to the lovely Annie, I now know how to change my formatting options.

Turns out it was about 1,005,324 times easier than I thought it would be. Just had to click on another tab.

I swear someone dyes my hair brown at night.

Look at all my new options:

Big
Little

Green

Purple

Yellow

I am a happy, happy girl.

And just as ditzy as ever.

bahama bucks - the epitome of perfection

Confession: Tim and I went to Bahama Bucks the other day.

That might seem like an insignificant confession. It doesn't seem like a big deal, does it? Could've happened to anybody. It was just a one-time thing, right?

Wrong.

The truth: Tim and I go to Bahama Bucks. A lot. A lot, a lot.

My name is Katie and I am addicted to Bahama Bucks.

Ok maybe addicted is too strong a word. But my body does crave it from time to time. Or perhaps more accurately, my tastebuds crave it.

If you've never been to Bahama Bucks, you should go. Like maybe right now. Or if not now, in the near future. Get out your planner and make a date out of it. And make sure to get cream. Preferably extra cream. It costs more, but it is so worth the extra 50 cents or whatever it is.

Heaven in a cup. [Too cliché? I don't even care. The truth cannot be held back.]

Every time we go, I get the Strawberry Daiquiri flavor. That might seem a bit redundant, especially since there are about 70ish other flavors. But when you've found perfection...

Ahh yes.

Tim always gets the Root Beer Float flavor. I know their slogan is "Eat Yellow Snow," but in truth, the slogan does not motivate me in the least to do such a thing. But apparently it works for Tim.

Ew.

Moral of the story? Tim and I go to Bahama Bucks. And you should, too.

[They should really hire me for their marketing department or something after all this free publicity. Sheesh.]

P.S. A few months ago, Blogger just randomly changed (i.e., greatly downsized) all my posting settings. As in, when I'm writing a post, I can only bold, italicize, strikethrough, link, and insert pictures. I've just dealt with it until now, but I would really like to have the option to change font sizes and whatnot. Thoughts? Feelings? Insights?

sunshiney day

Well...this is it.

The last day of my undergraduate career. [Unless you count my graduation day - May 13, 2011 - which I don't.]

And despite previous blog posts which may have indicated otherwise...I am so excited.

Plus, whilst I am going to miss my two roomies who are moving next week, I am excited for the furniture reorg which will take place in their absence. [We're losing one couch, but my other roomie Katie just found a spectacular yellow couch. Really, it's pretty fantastic.]

Plus plus, my coworker just gave me a chocolate chip cookie. A really good chocolate chip cookie.

Plus plus plus, I just finished a Dr. Pepper. [I promise I do eat healthy things sometimes. Today I want to be free.]

Plus [to the fourth power], summer is my favorite time of year. Heat and all.

Yes, the sun is shining a little brighter today.

[That sign used to say "Happy Halloween." Then it broke. So I stole the "Happy" part and stuck it in my cubicle. And it makes me happy every single day.]

hearing issues

Yesterday I called Tim after I got off work, and he started telling me about the paper that he needed to write. He said he was worried because he wasn't sure if he could make it long enough. So I told him that I'd help him research it later, and that we'd find a lot of sources to "make the paper more fluffy."

There was a pause.

Then Tim asked [quite incredulously, I might add], "...Did you just call me Fluffy?"

Which naturally resulted in me giggling for the next five minutes. Literally. Five minutes. On the phone. Attempting to drive my stick shift.

It wasn't until I stopped giggling enough to breathe that I could correct this gross misconception.

And I thought I had trouble hearing.

It reminded me of another time when it actually was me with the hearing issues. [I always joke about this, but I actually do have hearing loss. It keeps my life interesting.] One time we were driving in his truck, talking about our impending trip to California. Here's how it went down:

Me: We should go to the beach while we're there!

Tim: I'm game!

[How the above sentence sounded to me]: I'm gay!

Me: Why are you picking now to tell me this?!

Then we giggled about that for quite sometime.

Talk about gross misconceptions.

P.S. On a totally unrelated subject, I went to a car wash the other day for the first time in months. She needed it. My beloved Roxy is squeaky clean.

P.P.S. That's all.