Dorm Chronicles

One of those right-of-passage type things we pass through in college is living with somebody you've never even met... and sometimes wouldn't want to.  Sometimes the differences are minimal.. other times differences are extreme.

For example, Todd has some friends on his hall that are extremely different.

Roommate One is a member of ROTC.

Roommate Two, a thespian from Ohio, is a hipster at his core.

You can imagine how well they get along. Their relationship has grown even stronger since Christmas because Mr. Hipster got a didgeridoo.

Yes. Folks a didgeridoo. As in:

(This is not roommate two in case there was any confusion)

Mr. Hipster is very proud of his didgeridoo (click here for a Youtube clip of how great you can become on this thing), and he practices it often.  During the day, during ward prayer, and of course, while his roommate is trying to sleep.

Yup. Match made in heaven.

LAST SEMESTER

Hey folks! My last semester at college has started off and in true TR form... we've started off with a bang! Today in class my professor walked in and said: We're going to take a field trip!!!! .. of the mind.   He proceeded to take the class back to third grade by telling us to make two hats out of paper, tape, staples, and markers.

We spent at least 50 minutes making and explaining these beauties:

Administration Bonnet

Therapist Crown

The discussion that went with the hats was good, but still my inner hard-core student thought it was a little ridiculous to spend soooo much time on the hats.  I kept reminding myself -- "It's all about the process -- you learn more through EXPERIENCING than just talking...." So hopefully I'll never forget about my multiple roles as a recreation therapist and administrator!

So basically it's been a great year so far ---  I hope this New Year is going great for all of you as well! 

Finals Blessings

This week was finals.  I could complain about how stressful it was and whatnot, but in a shocking twist these last three weeks have been some super great weeks. I've never felt so overwhelmingly content for this long before! Everyone has been nice to me and I've been getting some great blessings! It's awesome.

The most recent blessing was just this afternoon! I needed to take my Family Finance final before tomorrow and I didn't have to work at all today.  So I got to the library around 7:30 and I only left to go to lunch and to run an errand to my job.  But all my studying did not seem to yielding many results.  As the time crept closer and closer to when I wanted to take my test, I got a little more testy.  I finally realized that I wan't getting it. For some reason mutual funds and bonds just weren't clicking.  Ty left to take his final and he said he'd pray for me. Which got me thinking about prayer, so in desperation I threw up a prayer, more like a plea for help.  You know those humble, last-ditch-effort kind, where you just say  -- I can't do this on my own, please help.

Well let me tell you ladies and gents, that prayer (or rather those prayers) made all the difference. I calmed down a bit, and things suddenly started clicking a little more.  Right before I left the library, I decided to look over one last powerpoint slide.  It had some formulas that I hadn't covered yet, but I felt like they were important.  So I spent an extra 10 minutes memorizing them enough to be able to write them down as soon as I got into the JSB.  So I went in, wrote down my formula's and got started.  I ended up using the majority of the formulas I had quickly memorized. (BLESSING.)

Later on, I was working on this after tax, after inflation interest problem.  As I was doing the practice tests earlier in the day,  this was the type of problem that tripped me up the most! It was just so strange to me, but on the test I was able to breeze right through it! The thought came to me: "my strengths are my weaknesses." (Ether 12 anyone?)

Let me tell you as the test went on my pleas were quickly changed into gratitude! I felt like I was so helped on that test -- it was amazing.  This is why I'm so glad I'm a member of the Church! I know where to to turn to when my mind isn't working, and I know who to thank when things work out so well!

So.. there it is guys.  For the moment life is great! My finals are done. I have the best friends. My family is great. I'm going home for three whole weeks. And I'm very blessed!!!!

Welcome to Williamsburg (Brooklyn)

Pop-Culture Fact of the Day: Williamsburg Brooklyn is known for being a hub of indie rock, hipster culture, and local art community.  We channeled a little bit of that hipsterism for Stacey's most birthday party.  (Remember the video invite I shared a few posts back? -- This was the blessed event we were inviting everyone to!)

Stacey and I were at a total loss as to what to do for her fantastic 22nd birthday! The original idea was so go to a bar--a real bar--and do some karaoking.  After visiting the 'family friendly' cafe attached to the bar and getting (possibly) leered at by oldish men, we scrapped that idea and came up with a far superior one! A party based on Taylor Swift's song 22 -- which involved dressing up like hipsters and having breakfast at midnight. 

This was a little hard for the party-goers, because being a hipster is kind of ambiguous. I'm still not even sure if there is one solid way to describe it -- but we all did our best and I believe we did the hipster community proud!

Happy Hipster and Full Body Hipster Shot!

Full on Hipster Stacey

We had a great turn-out for a party starting at mid-night in the middle of a the first snow-storm.  I'm very impressed by the dedication people have to hipster parties!  We all crowded around the entrance being stared at by people that just don't get the hipster appeal until they called for "the Kelli Party" -- what an ego boost --I put the reservation in my name and so they kept calling it "the Kelli Party" -- so fun!

Here's pictures of our super-hip guests:

Some of the Group

Roommates and Boyfriend -- doing their hipster pose!

Cute Hipsters!

My table of super legit hipsters! 

My neighbors to the north being all hip! 

These are some of my favorite ladies!!!!!!

Hipsters getting punched in the face!!

The best part of the night was getting to celebrate Stacey!!! She's been such a wonderful roommate for the past 3 years and I don't know what life will be like without her constant encouragement and enthusiasm! She's definitely as weird as I am and I love that I get to be myself so easily around her! You would all be so lucky to have a roommate like this girl -- she's as fun as she is pretty!!!!

So quick summary: cool birthday girl + cool clothes + cool invite = PARTY SUCCESS!

I've Got Some Super Cool Friends

Remember in August when I was feeling so old because on of my besties got married? Well.. a month and four days ago another one of these besties got married as well! Today happens to be her birthday so she gets this whole post to celebrate herself and her awesome life and adventures!

Isn't she great?!

Alexa is my adventurous friend.  In high school, she decided ON THE DAY OF AUDITIONS to try out for a part in the school's musical.  No preparation. Just a desire to try something new. She did it and she did get a great part -- sausage curl girl or something -- her solo was "Never Part of Any Crowd!"(I think?) I've always thought about how amazing that was; it's something that I wouldn't have been able to do then or now.  Maybe someday.. My adventures never involve the potential for so much personal humiliation, and I've always super admired that Alexa is so unafraid in that aspect.

Alexa is also the oldest of the Fab Four (we didn't name ourselves-- our tennis coach did).  This meant that she was our only driver for awhile in high school.  Which meant we got to drive around in this thing:

This 'thing' was called the BEAST

IT WAS A BLAST! We'd go to lunch together everyday freshman year of high school. One day a week we'd go to Lexa's.  It was chimichangas and sandwiches and other frozen delicacies and chocolate covered raisins.  The BEST PART was driving back to school. Lexa would sometimes let me drive. I'd try to back out of her long drive-way (and end up on the grass once or twice -- sorry Kienlen's!).  Then we'd drive over all these dips in the road, bumping up and down the whole way -- and I mean BUMPING. If we were feeling really great -- I'd try to parallel park this thing WITH NO POWER STEERING (edited to add) or what felt like no power steering. :)  I remember lots of laughing on these trips.

Alexa is also one of my good example friends.  Case in point: She got married in the temple to a wonderful person! And didn't she look lovely doing so:

Aren't they cute?

The Girls!

Other things Alexa is:

She's kind and sweet!

She's got the best laugh!

Alexa in a Picture!

She thinks all my misadventures are so funny -- and helps me see the humor in it.

She listens to me and responds with great things.

She decides what she wants and goes after it.

Girl's Camp to Graduation to Now!

She's a wonderful person and I'm lucky enough to still be her friend after all these years. :)

Disclaimer: I stole many of these pictures from Facebook and one from Darcee's Wedding slideshow! So.. you've probably seen them before! 

I'm proud of this and I feel like showing it off...

I've acknowledged the reason for this post. I'm being boastful. Forgive me and then...enjoy.

Flash Flood of Memories

Hey guys! Did you like my mom's post? Isn't she cool and witty? I get all my coolness from my mom and my dad for sure!

Anyway... as you're aware Hurricane Sandy is hitting the East Coast hard. Several places have been evacuated -- including my sister's old stomping grounds.. if I remember correctly.. Battery Park City.  You probably don't remember, actually I'm almost guaranteeing you don't remember, but during the summer of 2010 my mom and I flew out to NYC (my first plane ride ever!) and spent a week in the life of my sister.  As I've been thinking about New York with the recent storms, I pulled up my pictures from the trip and I realized that I felt like sharing some of the greatness of that trip with you -- how lucky you are!

My sister Dawn knows how to plan a weekend, so we did lots of fun things.  Because we are women (according to my dad), we love to eat the good foods in life... so we also ate a lot of good things.  Below are pictures, stories, and a video as I recollect them!

What New York Doesn't Look Like Right Now...

 Let me begin by saying that probably one of the biggest reasons why a person would decide to never show pictures of their trip to New York is that you look down-right nasty on the trip.  You may not believe here at the beginning of the post, but as I continue you'll see.. Maybe just maybe New York should rip off Las Vegas's motto and make it their own because seriously.... humidity kills a good photo!

Super Fun Event One: 

Top of the Rock! This was one pretty fun! We didn't do the traditional Empire State building, but we did get just as high with a great view still!  It was actually super fun to look through the binoculars and wave to the people on the Empire State building -- what a great sense of community I felt!

Dawn and Mom -- Top of the Rock and looking hot!

Dawn, Alfalfa Kelli, Mom!

Crazy about Binoculars!

Dawn's enthused!

So much to see!

Good Eats Number One:

Max Brenner.. I can't remember what about this place made it so high-class, but it was a little too high classy for us! So we opted for the most amazingly cute and delicious desserts ever. Seriously.. give this place a try!

Super Fun Event Two:

   Wicked!!! I had heard the sound track a lot so I was so excited for the real thing.  Turns out the cast changed and with it so did the voices.  We also had the understudy Elphaba.  While it was a little different.... It was so amazing! I do not know how Elphaba could have been better than she was, so that star must be off the wall!

This picture is blurry because we were so excited about just seeing Wicked!

Super Fun Event Number Three:

Time Square. This picture was taken post Wicked really late at night with no flash!! It's so bright there it's crazy! You can't see it, but we had just finished eating McDonalds on the Red Stairs(Steps?) -- my treat! I was so generous! ;)

Good Eat Number Two:
   Dawn, an experienced New Yorker -- really new what was up.  She took us to this great little place called S'MAC.  The only thing they serve there is different varieties of insane Macaroni and Cheese! I was still a picky eater in those days, so I kept it tame with an pretty plain thing, but it was amazing!

S'MAC your face with greatness!

Super Fun Event Number Four:

On Sunday we did some things that didn't cost money, like walking the Brooklyn Bridge. It's a long walk and it was sort of raining and of course it was humid.  So the walk was fun, but I look sort of on the gross side.

NEW YORK!

Loving the Walk.. Can't you tell?

Super CRAZY THING:
Dawn and Bryan worked in the tallest building in the background -- that part is New Jersey.   This morning I saw a lady reporting from this exact spot -- so I guess the Esplanade is still in tact!

Aren't they sweet?

 Super Great Food Number Three:
We also got pie at Rocco's! So delicious.  BUT SO RICH! We couldn't even finish it all, so we took it to go in these cute little white boxes.  To let our dessert settle, we walked to Washington Square Park, and with our cute little white boxes clutched in our hands.  We walk into the park and right near the entrance (it was late at night too) these men call out: "They say good things come in small packages." -- IN SUPER CREEPY WAY. Not in like a I'm from Wyoming and not used to this situation creepy, but more in that was weird and gross sort of way.  Needless to say we walked quickly into a different direction.

Super Fun Event Number Five:

Central Park Is HUGE! It's so massive, but so pretty and awesome.  But when you're tired from a long walk, the beauty starts to dissipate a little. So we were walking down another huge path and then we see this dog in the distance. I say to my friends (mom and Dawn) -- if that's a Balto statue I'm going to freak out. It was and I did.

Balto and me!

Super Good Eats Number Four:

   Some cute brunch place in Manhattan. I don't remember much about it, except that Dawn lost her camera and then found it there.  And that doing brunch is very New York and very fun! 

Super Fun Event Number Six:

  The picture below could speak for itself.. BUT I have to make a comment.  We were going along .. not any rain in sight.. yet.. I was getting so wet -- not from the wild waves.. instead it was from the nasty humidity.  I said it then and I'll say it again... It seriously felt like we were taking a shower a little at a time.

The Statue of Liberty.

 Super Good Eats Number Five:
Authentic Italian in Little Italy. It's totes amazo. Be jealous.

THE LAST DAY:

   Here's my picture of eating a big apple in the Big Apple.  I think it's pretty symbolic: I came, I saw, I conquered. And I want to go back.

My sweet hostess sister: She's great!! 

IF YOU MADE IT THIS FAR YOU GET A BONUS VIDEO. Three words: Dirty Water Dogs. Jealous?

So there's the recap.  I hope that New York is able to recover quickly from Frankenstorm so that it can continue to be the wonderful metropolis that I enjoyed two years ago!