Compliments are nice

So since the beginning of the semester I've been writing down nice things that people say to me so that i can look back on them when I'm feelin' down. Some of these i think are pretty hilarious, and others are just plain sweet. Today was just an incredibly good day in general for a dozen tiny reasons. I love love love Rexburg, even though i complain non stop about the heat. and i LOVE my classes, even though i cry about the homework loads. and i absolutely LOVE my ward, especially my Family Home Evening group. some of the best people you'll ever meet, honestly. they're just really good people. I love them. I'll miss them when they leave in 3 weeks!
so here are some backhanded compliments and some real nice compliments:




"you know, I've always wondered what angels sound like. Then you sang. And I don't have to guess anymore." - Chris Moen

"So i used to love looking through my grandmother's senior year book from 1948. You look like you stepped right out of it!" - Taylor Davenport

"Your personality would make a great new spunky Disney princess. they could call her, 'ghetto-leisha' and she could be from Fresno, California. You'd be a really good voice for that." - Mark Allen

"It seems like you have really cool parents, i would love to meet them. I like who you are and i wish i could see why you are this way." - Jake Huskinson

"I really like the way you wear that fanny pack. fearless. Like Stacey and Clinton could pop out from behind that bush and try to take it, but after a few minutes of talking to you they'd realize that you're pulling off like, the greatest fashion achievement ever! Because really like, fanny packs look horrible on every other person, but you make it look good! like it's completely natural to have a giant pocket strapped around your waist. " - Ryan Conferro

"Has anyone ever told you that you look like princess Leia?" - Issac Nelson

"I know that you're really my friend because you dance in front of me. and you're a really bad dancer." - Mark Allen

"Hey Elleni's in town, can you skype sometime today??" - Jason Ibrahim
That made me feel good because he respected my opinion and our friendship so much that he wanted me to meet his girlfriend, even if it was only via skype.

"Your face belongs on a Christmas card" - from 'Elf', but still nice. - David Wood

"so, i was looking at your eyes today, and I've come to the conclusion that blue eyes are grossly over appreciated. I mean, have you looked at your eyes lately? They're like perfectly gooey brownies straight from the oven." -Shain Weiderholt

"Forget that guy, he's a loser for not asking you out again. I'd date you over and over." - Chris Moen

"Melissa I kind of want you marry my brother, just so you can be in my family forever. I feel like you could really easily fit into my family." - Rachel Holland

"Oh my gosh I hate you, your hair looks like a Pantene commercial." - Sarah Williams

(after successfully juggling for the first time in my life and doing a happy dance in the kitchen)
"that was probably the cutest reaction to a minuscule accomplishment I have ever seen. you belong in a hallmark movie." - Chris Moen

"you're like the kind of person that i wish my future sons will marry." - Jessica Bartley

This is the ramble that happens when i stay up until 6 am writing because I'm stupid and still a child who procrastinates and complains way too much

(LONGEST BLOG TITLE EVER, WHATEVER)


So i feel like i try not to complain on my blog and then i actually read it and realize that i do a lot of whining. hahahaha, sorry.
(kind of, but not enough to stop.)

Being at a church school makes it mostly easy to do good things, it makes it mostly easy to be happy, to make good friends, and create good habits, but sometimes it just really isn't easy. Like I mean, going to a church school. Sometimes it's really hard. I don't know how to explain it, because there's not just one way to say this but every once and a while i feel like sometimes i become a nobody. In high School, my religion was one of my defining characteristics. 
I also have longer hair than most people, I sing, I play the Piano, I get good grades and I am energetic.

And then I come to an LDS school and all the girls have long hair, they all sing, they all play an instrument (or two) and they all get good grades and most of them are even bubblier and louder than me. and all the girls here are gorgeous (Why are mormons so good looking? just sayin, there are SO many beautiful people at my school.)
and anyway, i feel like a blob with no individuality.
not all the time, just every once and a while and it's usually because i don't feel like doing my hair so i just braid it, which use to be a cool, different thing because in my high school there weren't too many cool braids goin around, so i felt unique. But here, everyone can braid 1000x better and crazier than i can.
I haven't played the piano for fun since April, and that makes me so sad. It's mostly because all of my music is in Madera, but still. Why do i bother going to the lounge to play hymns when whats-her-face can go full on Rachmaninov?
And everyone here (well, 99%) is a mormon, so i don't even stick out because of my long shorts. 

And today was just a horrible day.
heck, it's 6 am and I'm STILL UP WRITING THIS STUPID ESSAY.
The sun is literally rising as i'm writing this. UGH.

and the only thing keeping me from ripping the arms off of a certain boy is knowing that I'd probably be expelled if i did, and that would be a big waste of money.



anyway, i promise i don't just sulk around campus thinking i'm a slug with no personality. I know i'm different and special and all that jazz. I do. I'm just pointing out a cultural snag.
But on the bright side, If you want a generally well-rounded, happy, fun, good looking friend or companion in your life, you can go to the nearest mormon chapel and have a large array of grand specimens on any given Sunday.

And maybe the real reason why i wasn't ripping out anybody's limbs was because of this song that my pal Bret Mortimer introduced me to:

supah happy and chill and it kind of makes me want to literally run/dance all the way down to Walmart while singing 'high school musical 3' to get a new fanny pack, which is like the best feeling, so basically this song makes me the most happy. Thanks Bret Dawg!

okay now i have an essay to finish before my class in a little bit, so bye.


AND WHY IS MY BLOG BLACK AND GRAY? nothing i can do to change it. whateva whateva

Spiritual Enlightenment of the Day

Spiritual enlightenment for the day:

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2007/04/using-the-supernal-gift-of-prayer?lang=eng

Richard G Scott, an ordained Apostle of Jesus Christ, speaking about the gift of Prayer.
worth the 15 minutes it takes to read or watch.

Tangerine Skies

one of my friends on a mission put 'tangerine skies' as the subject line for his email to me this week, and it had nothing to do with anything in his letter. haha. okay. but it made me smile, so there it is up there as my title for today, too. it fits though since the sunset today was PERFECT.

This post should be called, "I hang out with Chris way too much."

and these pictures will mean nothing to you, but i don't care.

So Tom Hanks movies (ones that he produces) have a signature shot. I don't know if it has a name, but i look for it in all of his movies and it's there. And in all of his movies there is at least one oblique (tilted) shot, where the angle is taken through a mirror or a window or even a tail light (Larry Crowne), In 'That Thing You Do it's a tilted shot of Jimmy through a screen, through a camera. if that makes sense. anyway i think those shots are way cool, and i like to look for them. 

And the Other day before dinner i was sitting on the couch and i said, "wow! the TV screen looks like a Tom Hanks oblique shot!" and everyone just looked at me. so i said, "wow! the TV screen looks so cool from this angle!" and still they all looked at me, so i gave up. and then Chris took a picture of the screen and sent to me. what a pal.

Chris is my TA for 'Teachings of the Living Prophets' and i ALWAYS forget to put the word count on my Self-Assessment Essays. And Chris always has to mark me own and he is constantly reminding me to include the word count, i'm sure it's just as annoying for him as it is for me. the other day when the feed back box said, "word count Melissa..." i literally screamed because i was so mad at myself for forgetting AGAIN. and i sent him the above snapchat. 

I also spend 2-3 nights a week at Chris' sporting events in the freezing cold Rexburg night winds. true friendship, right there. 

Thursday night Chris' football game was cancelled so we watched Casino Royale instead.

I. HATE. James Bond movies. 

explosions, great score, dialogue that i can't understand because it's hushed and they are British, blatant adultery, more explosions, gunshots, more adultery, dead people, a dramatic twist and then the Bond theme song. oh yeah and cool cars.

cool, i guess.

NOT. 

lame, lame LAME.

needles to say i wasn't paying too much attention to the movie. so i took annoying pictures instead. I'll spare you most of them, because they are pointless and repetitive. here are three:

Me and Chris in a standoff to see who could get the most unflattering picture of the other. He won. and then he put it on facebook like a gentleman.

Shain doesn't think it's funny when i don't pay attention to movies. Shain is also balding which is fun.

and then Shain and Chris found out that they were being kicked out of their house for the summer while it undergoes renovations. hahahaha and they frantically searched for summer housing. they're gonna be my best friends over the summer. because i'm pretty sure we'll be the only people left in Rexburg. period.

okay so i lied, there are four. Chris' "hardcore Christian" keychain. hahaha awesome. 

Also, Here's a screenshot of Adam Levine CRYING on the voice because Amber sang HIS OWN SONG so well. she was amazing and i hate Danielle Bradberry the girl who won.

SWON BROTHAS FO LIFE!!!

And if you're wondering what song has been stuck in my head all day, it's been this one:

"Give a Little" by Hanson

Me: *humming that song*

Chris: who sings that?

Me: Hanson

Chris: Hanson?

Me: yeah, you know? MMMBOP! MMM MMM MMMBOP?!

Chris: like, Hanson from way back in the day?!

Me: Heck yeah!

Chris: they're like, alive?

yuppers.

Weasel in Idaho

Jenae was just here!!

I think i hyped it up too much for her because once she got here, all my friends were like out of town! so we didn't really do anything crazy and i'm sure she hated it. haha. but i took her to see the temple and the school farm and we had dinner with Donny and Christine. and she met Chris and Mark and my roommates and we napped. so that's pretty much all that matters, right?

She got here late Saturday night while we were watching Lord of the Rings, and then everybody came back to the apartment and she got to experience us all in full force. hahahaha. then that night after everyone left, i literally tucked into bed and red her a storybook because she is forever a dang child to me and i dont care what anyone says, she will always be baby jenae. done.

Sunday she came to my ward and the boys were looking at her because she's a BABE. and after church we went to Donny and Christine's for dinner and a board game -way fun. Then we came home and took a nap. both of us. on my little bed. hahaha. which was really uncomfortable and way too warm. awkward. 

Then we went to BYUI's farm, which was kind of a bummer because the gates were locked. and the only pictures we took were on her phone...which is dead forever. rough.
I also took her up to the temple. I wish i had planned better so we could have gone inside together but there really just wasn't enough time in the weekend.

She's the best.

Monday morning she came with me to my Teachings of the Living Prophets class which was awesome. And my teacher loved her! haha he's hilarious, i love brother Peterson! And after lunch i took her to AFY registration! yay! Adventure for youth! she spent the week there climbing mountains and doing ropes courses and riding ziplines. cool, kid.

On Thursday night i stayed up until 4 AM scrubbing the kitchen floor for clean checks.

halfway through i noticed how disgustingly different the sides were, and i snapped this:

GROSS.

Friday afternoon Jenae got done with AFY and i took her to the thrift store, obviously.

we got some cute new clothes, Jenae called me fat, and i did our hair in matching styles. 

I got this Harry Potter puzzle that me and Mark did Friday evening.

and then we all went to Kiwi Loco for frozen yogurt!

and Friday night while Jenae and i were out, so was my roommate Jaylene. Jaylene has excellent taste in men. last semester she dates some creeps so i'm always a little cautious when she goes out on dates. This week's model is named Dwayne and he's 33. he's divorced and has a son and thats all that i knew about him at the time. So when it was 12:45 am and i still hadn't heard from Jaylene, i was freaking out. finally she came home and spent an hour and a half gushing to us about her perfect date. by that time it was about 2:30 and before Jaylene got home, the rest of us has started watching Les Mis. Jenae went to sleep at like midnight. I stayed up watching Les Mis, which got done around 4:00, but by then i only had half an hour until i had to be up to get jenae to the bus. I made some tuna casserole for uhhh, breakfast? and then woke Jenae up. She got ready lickety split and we whisked her off to the bus!

peace out lil dawg!

And have you ever walked across BYU-Idaho campus at sunrise? you should some time, it's breathtaking. the photos do NOT do it justice. 

I'm really glad Jenae came! she might not have had tons of fun but i just liked having her around!

200

First of all, 

25,000. that's awesome! thanks. other people have tons more views than that, whateva whateva.

I feel pretty cool!

secondly, this is my 200th post on this blog! WOW!

I need to print this off.

now....

It's Jenae's last night in Idaho and we went out for frozen yogurt with some of my friends. i was trying to get her to take one normal cute picture with me and this happened instead:

enjoy. love 'er.

If you look closely in the above picture, my eyebrow scar is very visible! (I spelled visible incorrectly in the picture below, which is a zoomed in version of the picture above) 

the following picture is officially the ugliest of me ever.

it's for my mama.
she calls this the 'pig cow face' and she showed it to me one time and i will NEVER let her forget it.

ahahaha

If it looks like i'm exhausted, it's because i am. because i stayed up until 4:30 am scrubbing the kitchen floor.

hehehehe

peace out J dawg, I'll see you in a couple weeks at the family reunion!