So I went to Mexico This Week...

....and I am pretty sure that I am the only girl on the planet who can say that after spending a week in Mexico, she came home whiter than she started off. 

Observe the picture above. My legs have a little bit of color, do they not? Yes! 

(That was taken on the first day)

(At the resort...also taken on the first day)

At the end of the week, everyone had become a beautiful golden bronze, whilst I lagged behind, literally whiter than I started off, thank you genetics.

Trust me guys, I have tried time and time again to tan my legs.

When I was in Italy, I wore shorts every day and barely, if at all, applied sunscreen. I ended up with white legs and a rash. Awesome.

So I'm gonna let you in on a little secret: The spray-on tan.

Now, go ahead and take your little moment of judgement, because I know that's what you're doing. Feel better? Great. 

Here are the pros of this method:

1. If you go to the right person, they do it well, and it doesn't look streaky or orange

2. It moisturizes your skin

3. It smells amazing (once again, you have to go to the right person, or else it might smell pretty weird)

4. No freckles or wrinkles from sun damage

5. No skin cancer. And we all know how much I am avoiding that one.

..and the cons:

1. It only lasts about 6 days, and then it starts to look pretty streaky and terrible. 

(Say goodbye to the shorts after day six)

2. You can't shower for 24 hours after you get it, and that makes you feel grody.

oh, would you look at that? Five to Two. I think we have ourselves a winner.

Girls with genes like mine do not really have that many options, you know?

Try to tan, burn instead, get skin cancer. 

Or, pay twenty bucks and enjoy a few days of pretending. 

Here am I, with the crew in Puerto Penasco on the third day, wearing shorts, a lovely first for me

I choose the latter, and all you people who think I'm exaggerating, get a look at the white on me after 5 days in Mexico:

Ow, ow! Beautiful, blinding white. And believe me, I was in the sun constantly.

 Apparently one of my callings in life is to simply make those around me feel tan, and
So far I have a 100% success rate. 
Misión Cumplida.

Oh, and by the way, Mexico was fabulous. I'll post more pictures soon. :)

May 1st, 2013: Things Nursing Students Say, and Professor Deborah Hime's Ten tips for Nursing School Success

That looks like a Cadaver.
I got a 98 on this! (frustration)



#1. Be dedicated. Remember that you wanted this, that you felt called to this, and that you have worked hard for it.
#2. Care for Yourself. You can't give from a well that is not full... you will have things pulling you. You have many years to be employed later, don't let it get in the way.
#3. Care for each other.
#4. Be positive and be grateful.
#5. Pay attention to life lessons! Ope your eyes and look at people and what works for the team
#6. Be an adult learner. Go after info as you need it, be proactive about it.
#7. Be safe. PPE, Back.
#8. Get to know your professors
#9. Remember who you are, and who you can ask for help. HF watns you to take care of your children. There are times when you just don't know the answer.
#10. Endure to the end. This flies by like a flash!

May 1st, 2013, Book List of a dear friend

David J. Ridges, your study of the BOM made easier
Endowed from on High
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Henry Kessinger (author?)
Diplomacy (book...? Not sure if those are the same thing)


Ash And Her Teacher
1. The Matchmaker of Perigord, Julia Stewart
2. The divine comedy
3. If God is Love (Gully & Mulholland?)
4. To Kill a Mockinbird (again)
5. Grapes of Wrath
6. Huckleberry Finn
7. TLOTR
8. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
9. The Princess Bride
10. The Old Man And The Sea (Hemingway)
11. The Last Unicorn (Peter Beagle?)
12. Traveling Mercies (Ann Lamott?)
13. The Once and Future King (T.H. White)
14. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Alexander Solzhenisyn)
15. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)

Ash's Classmates
16. The Power of One
17. Tale of Two Cities
18. Mrs. Dalloway
19. The Infinite Atonement
20. Slaughterhouse Five
21. W. Somerset Maughn's Short Stories
22. Saturday (Ian Mcervam)
23. Daniel Deronda
24. A Ring Of Endless Light
25. In The Time of the Butterflies
26. Warbreaker
27. Increase in Learning
28. Tess
30. 1894
31. The Magician's Nephew
32. The Simarillion
33. Believing Christ
34. Wheel of Time Series
35. The Mistborn Series
36. Dune (Frank Herbert)
37. Screwtape Letters

Sam

1. Mere Christianity,  C.S. Lewis*.  A absolute MUST read.  Got to kinda muscle your way through the beginning, but it is so worth it!  Especially the chapter on Pride.
2. His Majesty: George Washington, by Joseph J Ellis*.  Really interesting read, although I feel like he tries a little to hard to be "unbiased."  It's George Washington for pete's sake! Lets just all accept that he was the man, and leave it at that.  
3. Anthem, by Ayn Rand.  Also a must read.  Really short.  Trippy as mess. 
4. Drive,  An Autobiography  by Larry H Miller*.  Loved it, not boring, the end drags out a little bit though
5. How to Win Friends and Influence People,  Andrew Carnagie.  Super old, super duper interesting.   Loved it.  Just a short read. 
6. Freakanomics: A Rogue Economist explores the hidden side of everything, by Steven D. Levitt.  Kinda fun, and or boring, depending on whether or not you like random facts, but I happen to know that you do.
7. Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris.  VERY LONG.  Kinda slow, still such a good book.  I had no idea Teddy Roosevelt  had such an insane life.
8. The Alchemist, by Paublo Coelho.  Really short fiction book, but it has a lot of really deep points.  I love it.
9. The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis*.  This book is a riot, and so interesting, short read. 
10. The Hobbit, J.R.R Tolkien*.  You have till december to read this, or.. I don't know.  It just seems wrong.
11. 1984, by George Orwell.  Terrifying.  Gave me nightmares.
12. Jesus the Christ, James E. Talmage.  Life changing.
13. Adams v. Jefferson, The tumultuous election of 1800 by John Ferling.  Kinda boring, but still a really good read.
14. Democracy in America, By Alexis de Tocqeuville.  I would recommend an abridged version, but still really good.
15. Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand.  HUGE book, but really really interesting, so far at least.
16. The Chosen, by Chaim Potok.
17. I haven't read this yet, but I'm about to, and my uncle highly recommended it.  Outliers The story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell.

Random Facts for me, mostly memo's from phone

In kidney failure the pH of the blood decreases because kidneys recover bicarbonate from urine to buffer blood

Russian Slang: Kruto (steep)

Coastal.com is good for discount eyewear/contacts

Gelotology, the study of the physiology of laughter.

YOur body can generate up to 30,000 iu's with like fifteen minutes of sun exposure (look this up later)

Morgan Freemark

Conflagration, defalgration, misanthropic, dilletante (look up later)

Cosomell Mexico, for scuba diving (mom and dad)

...and then I found 20 dollars.

Trisha, July, 1997

Hootinanny-- to cook? Diane from work

The stressful non-famine: Victor, Edwin, Aaron, Clay, Todd.

pH of your stomach is 1.5-3.5, and the pH of urine is 4.6-8

Das erZelbeh Comesh Ist

He said there are always flowers for those who want to see them. Brown wood frame, creme and grey. Yellow stripes, black flower, weathered

 Empathy, defined as the ability to undersatnd and interact based ont he emotional makeup of others, isone of thk ey personalyt traits of emotional intelligence recommended for consideration in hiring hemployees, along with self-awareness, the ability to recognize one's own emotions and motivation and their effect on others; self-regulation, the ability to control or redirect problematic impulses or moods; motivation, a passion ofr work and puruit of goals with energy and persistence; and social skills, proficiency in bulding relationships and networkds (Connolly, 2002).

so you want to be a true aggie?

A year ago this month, I was getting ready to leave USU for good.
As anyone who attends USU knows, becoming a True Aggie is somewhat of a token of pride. (If you care about that sort of thing. Which I happen to know that I do.)
Here's how it works: There is an "A" pedestal on campus, and in order to become a true aggie, one must stand atop the "A" under the full moon at midnight, and pucker up for someone else who has already become a true-aggie. So one passes on the ritualistic tradition to another. (And then you get a little card, to make things official. I pretty much did it for the card... just like I only ran my half-marathon for the t-shirt. Let's move on.)

Here's the card! I'll show you what it says later

Well, I was about to leave USU forever. And I wasn't going to leave it empty-handed. I mean come on. I wasn't about to go grow up and eventually tell my kids that I went to Utah State for two years and didn't come out a True Aggie! I lived a little, thank you very much! I had fun in college! It wasn't just spent pulling my hair out at the library! That is what I will tell my children, and they will believe me. It will be a powerful life-lesson for all.

So April rolled around. I had been on several dates, and they were all... just.. no. Nobody I was really dying to lock lips with. If you want to hear some funny stories, ask Mal, I was a total wreck that semester. 
 Feast or famine, ladies and gentlemen. Finally, it was my last month at USU, and it was time to take action.  Some people just show up to true-ag night and kiss some random stranger. I wouldn't put it past myself to do that, but I am also not really ready to jump on the Epstein-Barr-bandwagon (that is just a fancy name for mono).
Luckily, I had a good friend who learned of my predicament and kindly offered his...services (ha, ha). 

(Things got a little complicated when some random guy decided to ask me out that night...
I had been planning true-ag night for a month, you guys. It was serious business. But of course I wanted to go on the date, so... I simply told the guy I needed to end it early.
I believe he was under the impression that I was going to go home and study for an upcoming test afterwards? Not intentional)

Awkward moment #1: Seeing the date-ee that I ditched, at True Aggie night. Woops.

Anyway we got there. I envisioned it to be all...I don't know... classy? Soft moonlight, starry sky, kiss.. great.
Well... whatever. It was definitely not classy.

I knew my anticipation was wrong as soon as I saw the tacky wal-mart twinkle lights. Blegh.
There was no soft moonlight, in fact, there was just the opposite: bright stage-lights. Everywhere!
And there was a huuuuge line for the "A."  So many people. So much tackiness in one place.
So not waiting in that.

Midnight approaches. I am fine.
Suddenly everyone starts counting down! (tacky again!) Suddenly I am not fine.
You guys, I totally froze. I started freaking out. There were people everywhere, but fella and I were just standing in this huge open area under the blaring lights, and I felt like everyone and their dog were staring at us. The rest is kind of a blur, because I honestly had no idea what to do.

Well, as soon as midnight struck of course fella knew what to do and promptly kissed me and that was that. All things returned to normal, I got my card, and we went home. Anticlimactic? Maybe. Worth it? Definitely.

This is what I was envisioning, except perhaps with a popped foot for dramatic effect. Classy, right? Just look at that dress.

This is what I got. Note the hoards of people and the BLINDING lights. No thanks.

I must say that experience was just..memorable. To say the least. And now I have my official card, so it's all good, and I am content.  Also, mom, don't look him up. He's married now. haha

So if you want to be a True Aggie? My two cents? Just do it. Everybody loves kissing. You burn like 6 calories a minute when you are kissing. It's just a win-win for all. Just go into it prepared, though. Realize that it is kind of for the experience, and it is definitely not sophisticated or romantic or any other such adjectives. Mazel Tov to you all. You only live once, so get out there and do something about it :)

Winner!