Late nights and random dance parties? Um, yes, please.

I'm back at the Y, which means several things:

• I'm living with all girls, again, which has its pluses and minuses (mostly pluses).
• I'm out of my rut of unproductive hiccup (see previous posts).
• I'm surrounded by married people and small children.
• I'm eating more mac n' cheese and less veggies.
• "Y'all" and Ebonics have leaked into my everyday vocabulary.
• My stress levels have increased several degrees.
• Once again, I don't know what to do with my life.
• bloody noses, cracked heels and elbows, sniffles (where's the rain??)
• Everyone's Mormon, which makes life great. There is a plethora of weird people in Oregon.
• I miss my family. A lot.

There have been upgrades this year, that makes it a whole new experience for me:

• I have a car, which means I can go places. Whenever I want. Wherever I want. FREEDOM from/in Provo, Utah!
• I live in an apartment complex with a pool and workout room. Personal workout sessions became so much easier.
• Boys aren't leaving on their missions, but are actually getting back.
• New phone so I can actually communicate with people.
• New and improved camera=more blog posts with better quality photos!
• dishwasher. the end.

Among the forest of bullet points I hope you picked up on my excitement. Even though I'm taking pre-recs for my major and the stress is piled on thick, life is excellent. Fresh start. New people. Chill roommates. I couldn't ask for anything else.

Liesel's first road trip=OR to UT

Lake Oswego

Sunday afternoon, I got this urge to take pictures. and I got too busy. So Monday, I call up Annie and we decide to head to the LDS Temple to take some pictures of the beautiful grounds, but renovations set us back. So we started driving towards Lake Oswego. We happened upon downtown Lake Oswego, where quaint shops and dozens of boats scatter the lakeside. Here's the shoot!

two hundred thirty three years

Hello friends. Long time, no blog.
In light of celebrating America's birthday, I'd like to say a few things that have been on my mind.

What makes America so great:
1. Abundance=what makes me angry is when people don't realize how good we got it. I think every ignorant person should spend a day in a third world country for a month in order to gain some appreciation. Poverty in America is a good week for some countries. Sure, we see those sad commercials on TV about how you should donate money to this and this organization to feed these starving kids, and we feel remorse for not doing charitable things, but then our featured presentation comes back on our plasma screens in our air conditioned home and we forget about it. We got it good. If I'm hungry, I have the ability to go down to Freddies in my car to get whatever food my little heart desires. If I'm dirty, I can hop in the heated shower and get sparkly clean with my Herbal Essences and Dove soap. We got it good. And I think that if Americans realize this, then our current national economic crisis probably wouldn't have happened. We would have stayed within our means and avoided overspending in our consumer-driven world.
2. Freedom=I don't really like reading international news, but it's like the bad car crash. Once I look, I'm disgusted, but at least I know what happened. I read about the bombings, which I'm sure are made PG through editing and careful selection. I read about the evil men and women gaining power and using it for their own advantage. They take civilized people's choices away. I'm so so immensely grateful to not worry about getting on the public bus at school and it being bombed. I'm grateful for being able to choose. Clothes. Religion. Who I vote for. What I say. Where I work. etc etc etc. Being a religious person, I'm so glad to be able to choose who I want to worship and find for myself the truth in all things, instead of having an international sect that has become too corrupt and government involved. I believe that God made America so that truth is able to come forth and remain incorruptible.
3. Safety=This kind of tags along with the freedom bit. We have national security and we optimistic Americans step in when something bad happens, unlike other countries who just take it and pray that they're not next.
4. Capitalism=I'm worried about this one; it's slowly but surely being taken away from us. I hope it stays and we Americans can take advantage of it. Competition is what makes the economy go round and international trading to be successful. We can choose where to buy our towels and where to eat dinner at. We have the ability to strive for the American Dream through healthy hard work and determination to make it in this world.
5. Stability=Every 4 years, we elect a new President. We have systems and protocols that are followed by the book (or are supposed to be). There's no wondering when our civil war will end or who the next tyrant will be who dictates how the country is run.
6. Checks and Balances=We have people who are watching people who are being watched by other people. Keeps our government in line, for the most part.
7. Dreams=We have schools and institutes that enable us to become who we want to be. I just finished this great book called The Book Thief that's about Nazi Germany through a German girl's eyes. She was in school and grew up becoming a certified Hitler Youth. She didn't necessarily believe what Hitler did, but she didn't really have the choice to be anything else. If she wanted to become a teacher, she had to teach what the Furher wanted. If she was a doctor, she was put into the army to tend to the injured. I'm also grateful for the ability to be a woman and have the opportunity, if I so choose, to go to school and study whatever my heart desires and go into any occupation that suits my own needs and those of my future family. I can become an accomplished pianist, or a heart surgeon, or an elementary school teacher. Whatever I choose to be!

I'm the American who likes to go to the neighborhood parades, and get decked out in red, white and blue, and post flags everywhere I go. I like the traditional, early American patriotism, where everyone closes shop for the 4th and sets the neighborhood on fire with fireworks bought down the street. I don't ever want to forget what it took to get our nation to where it is today and what sacrifices everyday heroes had to make to get us here. I love being an American.

New York New Yorrrkkk

Let's take another step back so that I can put more pictures up. Over 2 years ago, my family and I made our way to the Big Apple for Spring Break. It was probably one of the funnest trips I've ever been on. Being from Oregon, you'd think I'd be against the cars and industry and that I would protest the city by hugging a tree. I love trees and green, but I also think that there can be beauty in buildings. Probably why I'm going into interior design for my profession. I thrived in New York. A lot of smarts goes into creating skyscrapers. I even ran into that one bald guy that has his own design show on TV (I forget his name, but my mom looked at each other and did a double take and then freaked out trying to remember his nam. I forgot again...).
The downside to the trip was that my parents got us this really cool video camera/camera to use on our trip. The only problem was that it took crappy pictures. So here are the few that I could salvage...

Subway

Ground Zero

NYC view from Lady Liberty

Empire State Building

My Evening with Relient k

One of my favorite things to do is go to concerts. The anticipation for the day is heightened as you think about what you're going to wear, wonder what the venue's going to be like, remember how awesome it was last time, etc, etc, etc. Then you wait in line forever in order to get the prime spot in the concert hall. Immediately, the heat hits you and you have to give in to the sweat. There's no way to get away from the sweat. Yours and everyone's around you. Then there's suddenly that first chord hit by the bass, resounding to the point when you think that your sternum is going to snap. It's only uphill from there. Sure, whether or not you have personal space is not your choice anymore, but everyone else is in the same boat, so you go with it. This is kind of a downside to concerts. I got elbowed in the gut by this impatient lady who was trying so hard to keep her large group of girls together. In a room that small with that many people, good luck mean lady. Me and the other people behind her were getting the blame for the tons of people shoving us into her. Oh well, I had fun nonetheless, I can take a hit ha.
The opening bands are good, but you've been waiting for so long that you just want to get to the main attraction already. I really liked the first band, The Classic Crime, but the second band was a bit too techno/pop-y for me.
Then there's the set change between the opening acts and the main attraction. The anticipation grows as the stage crew goes on and off the stage.
There's that moment when you know it's them and not the crew and the energy just expands in the room. I thought it was so funny how they announced their entrance with the theme from "Rocky". They played about 10 songs, with "Deathbed" as the perfect encore. They played some new songs from the album that they're working on and I'm super excited to get it. I think that they are so good live--it's always awesome going to their shows.
Afterwards, drenched like I sat in a sauna for a few hours, we waited for the band to come out. Spencer was so excited when he met Matthew Theissen. We both got his autograph and a picture with him (the rest of the band hadn't shown up). Basically, we got the whole experience and it was so much fun going with my brother. I would go to a concert every weekend if I could. My ears were ringing and my legs were sore and I discovered that somehow I got ketchup on my shoes, but it was completely worth it.
Here are some favorites from the night:

The Classic Crime

The guitarist on the right looks like a Jonas Brother

Matthew Theissen

my hair was straight when I walked in the door...

yessss....

Country Life

While helping my brother with a photo class project, I took some shots on my own. It was actually really cool. I've always wanted to shoot this road that I drive on frequently and so I suggested it to Spencer. There's this huge pasture with some cows and horses and so we decided to try taking picts of the animals. At first, we were worried about them being too far away, but the minute we walked up to the fence, they all started walking over!! It was so awesome and made for easier picts. I feel kinda bad because I think that they thought that we were going to feed them or something. But it was fun.

Summers To Come

While I was uploading the previous pictures onto my blog, the Coldplay song "Clocks" came on Pandora. Suddenly, I was thrown into a spiral of memories came into my head and I couldn't help but smile to myself. The stages of my life are categorized by songs. Each song is part of a different part of life. For example, the freedoms of summer and the adventures that followed. I think the combination of the beautiful sunny skies today and "Clocks" made me realize how influential music has been in my summers. Last summer, I was confined to an indoor, full-time job all summer, saving money for college in the fall. They always played 101.3 PM or whatever that slow rock station is. They played the same songs at the same time everyday, like Elton John's "Rocket Man" around 5:30 or so and the Paul McCartney "Silly Love Songs" sometime in the afternoon. Almost every day. So now whenever I hear those songs now I think of my days working as a receptionist in a medical clinic. Whenever I hear certain songs by Relient K or Switchfoot, I can't help but think about the summer before, which I spent mostly with my first boyfriend. This summer I predict that I'll remember by "Right Round" by Flo Rida, "How Do You Sleep?" by Jesse McCartney, or "Poker Face" by Lady GaGa because that's all that's on the radio.
When I hear these songs I think about how awesome my summers were and how this summer better pick up pace in order to compete. I'd HATE to waste a summer when I've had 18 other great ones. I think about my friend Seth and how close we got last summer because all we had was work and each other. I think about EFY, Girls' Camp, and all of the people I met that I'm still close to today. I think about how I was worried about finishing my stupid summer reading for the next year of school. I remember the 4th of July's in the Cul-De-Sac with the neighbors, making sure the boys didn't blow each other up and how we tried to avoid the cops coming to make us throw away our Washington fireworks. I remember getting into pools at apartment complexes by knowing people in my ward. I remember only caring about the present and whether or not I was going to get any more tan-er that day. That was the life.
This summer, a best friend that I met at Girls' Camp is getting married. Job hunting isn't as easy. I'm doing adult things like shopping for cars, signing up for classes at college, cooking with my mom. I'm more focused on the future and how I could utilize this summer: should I take online classes and take a step forward in my education, or should I just relax since this is probably my last "free" summer for the rest of my life?

We'll see where this summer will take me.

Springtime

Provo Shots

abby~karah~liz~kayla










Oregon Shots



sisters

Oregon Coast

I've lived in Oregon for a good chunk of my life and I absolutely love it here. One of my favorite places is the coast. Sure, it's cold, but it's pretty!


Rain=Oregon

this used to be a road way back--Hug Point

Ominous

Issues of a Displaced College Student

I'm back! So far, so good. Hopefully this blog will somewhat force me to go out and take pictures again.
Anyways, my issues. Number one: job. This whole recession thing hasn't been easy for us college students. I'm half relieved that we BYU students don't have a spring break so that we can get out earlier for the jobs at home, so that I have a head start on those OSU and UO kiddos. (I'm also half not, because either way I'd have a hard time finding a job AND I'd get a much-needed spring break, but that's besides the point). Let's tally it up...I've applied to about 11 places and have asked if they're employing at several other places. Let me tell ya, it's frustrating. I think my resume is decent and I honestly try to work my hardest whereever I work. But the older people who need to support their families are taking the jobs that usually younger college students and high school students take, putting us out of luck.
Number two: car. OK, so I'm being pretty picky with this one, but it's my first car and I'm paying for it myself, so I think I have the right to be picky. I'm looking for a 1999-2001 Subaru Outback or Forester that runs well, low miles, manual transmission, newer tires, new head gaskets and timing belts, non-smoker, and with no other problems. oh, and in my price range. This has proved to be difficult. At least it's been nice having a dad that knows what he's doing--that'll save me lots and lots of money and problems.
If you are still reading this, I'm sorry that I'm ranting and that this is a boring rant. Usually my rants are funnier and more entertaining because I'm a pretty opinionated person, so maybe you in the blogworld will be able to hear that side of me. You in the blogworld also are probably going through the same issues I'm going through, and I'm sorry that you are. We Americans deserve more than this, like the agencies and programs that Reagan provided. We need a comeback like that, not a bailut package. That "solution" actually causes more problems for my generation's future. Either way, we're in a pickle. And we're paying for it.
On a happier note, today was Mother's Day and I think it was pretty successful. I get a little stressed about it, because I'm a people pleaser and I try to make Mom happy. It turned out well, I think.
I also discovered today that I'm happier when I have things to do. Some people love to relax to make them happier, but I have to constantly be going to be satisfied with life. I have to be creating or working on something. I have to have something to think about in the back of my mind. I have to be active and involved, not on the sidelines, letting things happen to me. This has also prove to be hard since I've been home and I'm jobless. At school, I was going and going and going and going, but within a week I went from EVERYTHING to NOTHING to do.
What does the blogworld think? Am I weird because I thrive on stress? How do you thrive?

Hawaii

Waimea Canyon


USS Missouri


We found this beach where there were signs everywhere about death, basically.


these roosters were everywhere


brothers at the Laie LDS Temple


Laie Hawaii Temple