Irritation for the Day

I am a procrastinator. I can't help it--I was born that way. ;-)

As a procrastinator, I don't enjoy worrying about things until I absolutely have to. In keeping with the spirit of my procrastinational (yes, I just invented that word) tendencies, I want to kindly inform the world of a few tidbits of information that should not be discussed until a later date:

1) Christmas. Actually, I don't mind talking about Christmas during any time of the year. I do, however, think Nov 1 is a little too early to start playing Christmas songs only on the radio. It's also too early to start airing the Christmas commercials--I can only handle the glitter and jingle bells for a limited time, and two months definitely exceeds my glitter-tolerance. And, Wal-Mart, please don't bring out the Christmas merchandise until the Halloween merchandise is at least stored in the warehouse or something. Please. Give Thanksgiving a little chance to shine, will ya? The turkeys, pilgrims, and Indians deserve their time in the spotlight, too.

2) The 2012 Presidential Race. Heavens. We've just spent the last two years being bludgeoned over the head with constant updates on political campaigns. Obama hasn't even moved his stuff into the White House yet, and already I'm listening to people interviewing Palin about her possible plans to run for president! BLEH! No thanks! 2012 is a long way away, my friends. The world could be over by then, for all we know. Let's focus on things that are a little closer...like Thanksgiving!! (Apparently I'm running Thanksgiving's campaign for "The Best Holiday Ever!" award. We don't plan on winning, but we're going to fight with all the strength we can muster!! That is, if we don't get put into a tryptophan coma first....)

That's really about it, for now. If anything comes to my attention, I'll let you know. It is my duty, after all, to stand up for the rights of the procrastinating public. Take care, friends. And enjoy Thanksgiving! I'm sure that it will be the best holiday ever! (Please ask all your friends to vote for it, and make sure you create several Facebook groups instructing all 800 of your friends to do the same.)

Lessons learned from a jeep

Gather around, kids. Your Aunt Julianna wants to tell you a little story about an adventure. So, let's start at the beginning....

Once upon a time, when I was a wee little kid, my dad used to get this suicidal look in his eye and he'd say, "Let's go for a drive up the canyon." In the innocence of my youth, I would say, "OKAY!" Then, he and my mom would load all six of us kids into the camper and take off on a drive up the mountain. (Just so you have an image in your mind, this is kind of what the camper looked like. Sorta. Ours was older, more "ghetto-ish," and more rickety.)


For the next several hours, I would suffer panic attacks as we drove up steep mountain trails located directly over precariously high cliffs. It didn't help that you could feel the camper swaying back and forth in the wind. It also didn't help that if you looked out the windows you could peer over the giant cliffs. Nope. That stuff didn't help at all.

Anyway, the point is that I have an itsy bitsy fear of falling off a cliff in a car. (I'm not the only one in the family who has that fear, isn't that right, Mel?)

Fast forward to the present day. A few of my friends and I wanted to go up the canyon and make a fire. Sounds fun, right? Well, not fun enough for my friend Griff. He wanted to take his parents' brand new jeep up the canyon for a drive.

Maybe I should have taken warning from the suicidal look in his eye, but I didn't. Instead, I said, "OKAY!!" And off we went. (Mind you, by the time we took off, it was already dark outside. That should have been another warning that it was not a good idea to go jeeping....)

We drove up to beautiful Silver Lake--



Of course, it didn't look like this to us because it was pitch black! Oh well. We started to get out of the jeep to decide where to build the fire, but then Griff said, "Let's keep going." What? "Yeah, let's go all the way up the mountain. We're in a jeep!"

So, we got back in the jeep and started driving up a tiny and incredibly rocky trail. I mean, not even my dad would have attempted this one. But, we were in a jeep, as Griff kept reminding us. So, we're invincible, right? Psht...

About halfway up the mountain, some people in our group started feeling sick, so we turned around to head back. Very carefully, Griff inched his way back down the mountain. Things were going very smoothly until we came across a particularly tricky spot. The trail veered sharply to the right, directly along the edge of the mountain. Griff backed up the jeep ever so slightly and started to turn, but unfortunately we didn't have enough room and the front of the jeep started to slide off the mountain.

(Imagine a dramatic flashback to all those past traumatic mountain drives of yester-year.)

Griff slammed on the breaks and we all carefully filed out of the jeep, which started to tip when the weight was displaced. So, we hopped on the back, ready to jump off if things went sour and the car slipped off the cliff. Griff tried to back up, but the tires were spinning, unable to get any traction in the thick dust.

Now, oddly enough, as I sat there inhaling dust and car fumes, I couldn't help but see the humor in the situation. I don't know why. Maybe I just laugh when I get into precarious situations. I just wasn't as afraid as I thought I should be.

To make a long story shorter, we all said a prayer for help, and immediately we knew what to do to get the jeep out of the mess. We put some sticks and cloth under the tire to give it some traction, and we were good to go.

So, kids, want to know the moral of the story? 1) Prayer really works. 2) You can always find humor in any situation. 3) If someone gets that suicidal look in his eye and suggests a nice drive up the canyon in a jeep, perhaps you should suggest a different activity.

I'm back...I guess?

I need to get myself an new camera cord so I can actually upload some photos to my blog. Note to self.... I still have pictures on my phone from May. Ha ha. Oh well! That should teach me not to lose things.

I'm back from Texas, so I'm happy to be close to the mountains again. (I had a perma-smile on my face for the first few days, which is saying something considering I was spending most of my time helping my dad paint and re-carpet the house. Ha ha.) I do miss all the Texas friends and family. :-( I hope y'all are doing well! (By the way, it's embarrassing how easily that little word "y'all" creeps into your language. It's just so darn convenient! I've already been mocked, so I'm hoping I can get rid of it soon....)

Now, once again, I have to figure out what I'm doing with my life. That's one of the bad thing about being in the land of the twenty-somethings. It seems like every few months you have to completely reevaluate your life and decide which direction to go. Where am I going to live and work? Am I going back to school? Where? What? When? Why? HOW?! Ah, life is an adventure, my friends. A very long, tedious, often monotonous adventure.

Rays of Hope

I was all gung-ho about going to the gym earlier today, but now I feel incredibly lazy and I'm trying to put it off.... Oh well. Hopefully I'll make it over there some time tonight. *Note to self: Go to the gym in the morning. *Reply to self: That means you have to wake up early. *Reply back to self: Never mind then. Bring me some ice cream.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to show y'all where I work at the moment. I don't have any pictures on my phone yet, but here is an online tour of Rays of Hope. It's a little different now, but not by much. I wish all of you could physically come see how truly awesome this place is, but this will do for now.

Enjoy!

Checking In

My sister Mel has informed me that my blog is falling to the bottom of the "recently updated blog" totem pole. "WHAT?!" you may be thinking. "Surely Julianna, the great blogger, would never allow that to happen."

Psht. Who am I kidding? I should set up camp at the bottom of the totem pole. We all know I spend lots of time down there, anyway. ;-)

So, life here in Midland has been an adventure. I miss lots of things from Utah (mountains, family and friends, etc.), but there are lot of good things here, too. I present to you a relatively brief list of highlights up to this point--

(The following list is not in any particular order.)

1) I am always fascinated with the sky here. The sunsets are gorgeous and the clouds are so fun to watch. I call them "Simpsons clouds," because they look like the clouds in the opening of the "Simpsons." (Random, useless fact about the way Julianna's brain works...or doesn't.)

2) It's fun being with the family here. Up until this point in my life, I have only gotten to see my "Texas relatives" every couple of years or so for a brief period of time. Now I can actually get to know them.

3) Bluebell ice cream. It is both a blessing and a curse, as is evidenced by my ever-increasing girth. I need the ice cream patch to keep me away from it...or at least some self control.

4) My job is awesome now. When I got here, I was volunteering at Rays of Hope, a children's grief center, and I loved it. But, as we all know, volunteering doesn't pay the rent, so I went out and got a job. I worked at a call center. *Dramatic music plays* Yes, friends, I reduced myself to the lowly position of "call center minion," and I heartily disliked it. I almost went insane!!!! Anyway, to make a long story short, I quit that and Rays of Hope found a way to hire Nicole and me for the summer! It's great--remind me to post some pictures the next time I happen to update. :-)

Here are some "lowlights," for anyone who is interested--

1)I'm definitely not a fan of sharing a car. Bleh. I hadn't realized how spoiled I have been in that department. I've usually had klunker cars, but they have always been mine. My grandma got a really nice car for Nicole and me to share, and I'm grateful for it and love the car, but I feel like I'm fifteen again at times. Oh well. Sharing is good, right? *Twitch, twitch.*

2) GOOBERS--(n, adj) def: a person, most often of the opposite sex, who lacks any and all forms of social skills. Goobers are most often unattractive and/or smelly, and typically latch on to people who are completely out of their league and then proceed to stalk them.

That is an excerpt from the Julianna Dictionary. Let me just say, I tend to be a goober magnet. I don't know what it is about me that screams, "Please, awkward and scary men, come find me! Ask me out on dates! I will reject you every time, but please continue to follow me around."

*Heavy sigh* They come to me, like moths to the flame. Does anyone have any Goober repellent handy?


That's the update from Midland at the moment. Love you all!

Pictures!

If none of you mind, I'm going to post some pictures from the last several months of life. I finally got these off my camera, so I think I'll spend the next few entries writing about some things that happened during the past semester. :-) So, without further ado, (drum roll, please) I bring you:

THE CONCERTO-ARIA CONCERT!!


In February, the UVSC Symphony performed a concert featuring six soloists performing concertos, arias, or original compositions. I was lucky enough to be one of those six, and I sang "Mi Chiamono Mimi" from La Boheme It's a opera. Ha ha. (That's for you, Mel and Stephen.)

It was really fun, despite the fact that I got sick the day of the performance. Ha ha. I think I just might possible be a hypochondriac. Oh well. It went well and was a good experience. Plus, I got to wear my blue dress again! (This is a dress I wore for the Presidential Scholarship Ball way back in October.)




The lighting isn't great on these, but you get to see the back of my dress, which is my favorite part. :-)


This is me with Dave Fulmer, the conductor of the symphony. He was one of my favorite professors at UVSC.


Heres a video of the performance. The sound quality isn't great, due to the fact that the video was taken on my little digital camera, but at least you can get an idea. :-)

Thoughts after a 3-month haitus...

I have been putting off the whole blogging thing for a while because I wanted to put pictures on here. Well, I haven't been able to find my camera cord, so the picture thing just isn't happening. *Sigh* Oh well. I might as well just go back to my boring words.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, I am officially graduated from college! Woohoo!! And, big surprise, I don't feel any more accomplished than I did before. Also, after sitting through the commencement exercises at UVSC, I have decided that human beings like the sound of their own voices too much. I think we all need to spend a little more time listening and less time spewing forth our own thoughts in monotone voices. :-)

Ah well. You know what I just realized, I'm not really in the mood to write. Ha ha. I'll come back when my brain is actually active enough to recount the last few months of my life and translate them into words.

MIKA!!

So, way back in December, we bought tickets to the Mika concert for Beka's Christmas present. We decided to turn it into a Bachelorette party as well. (Nick got to come along, too. We told him he could be the stripper. JUST KIDDING, MOM! Ha ha ha...ha...ha.... Ahem.) We got all dressed up in some bright clothes and headed off. The evening started with some yummy food at The Cheesecake Factory...



And then we decided to show up a little late so we wouldn't have to wait in the cold so long. The doors were supposed to open at 6:00, and the concert was suppose to start at 7:00. Well, we showed up at 6:30, only to find a line that stretched out for a few blocks. What the...? Turns out, the whole Mika crew ran into some troubles in the canyon. Their equipment got stuck, and they were about an hour late showing up. To top it off, because of the equipment issue, the show was changed to acoustic only. :-( So, that meant we had been waiting two and a half hours in the literally freezing cold (without coats, mind you) for only half a show, basically. I was not happy. (I dare any of you to try and stand outside in those conditions for that amount of time. Not fun.)


We wanted to leave then, because we didn't think the show would be good at all. But, we stayed so we could get a ten dollar refund.

I'm so glad we did!! IT WAS AMAZING!! My love for Mika has increased ten-fold. I took some videos that aren't very good, but oh well. If you want to watch them go to my facebook profile.

If they were amazing just winging an acoustic show, I want to see how good their real shows are....

A Quick Look at the News

My boxing gloves came today. Yay!! Just in time--my knuckles are getting a little bruised from the punching bag. I've been beating the bag up a lot lately, mainly to keep myself from punching certain irritating people in my apartment complex. :-) I really need to learn patience and kindness.... Nah. These people just need to stop being annoying!! That's what I get for living in BYU housing, I suppose.

Has everyone heard the news about Heath Ledger? I'm actually quite depressed about it. He was only 28! I guess I don't handle death very well, particularly when young people die unexpectedly. It throws off my groove. :-)

Well, there's your sad and depressing news story for the day. Maybe I should counter it with a happy news story.... The polar bear cub in a German zoo opened its eyes today! Yay!!! There. That's happiness.

I hope you all enjoy yourself today. I'm going to teach some more piano lessons. Hopefully I won't make any of the children cry today. :-)

Quote of the Day: Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water bath is to the body. --Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809 - 1894)

Movies for the Week: I Am Legend-- Am I the only one who didn't like this? It was not enjoyable to me, though Will Smith did a great job. It was mainly just depressing.
Jane Eyre-- This is the new-ish Masterpiece Theatre version. If you are in a sappy mood and have 4 hours to spare, this movie is great.

BRRRRRR!

It is so cold outside. I would cry about it, but my tears would only freeze on my face and make the situation that much more unbearable. January and February have to be the most miserable months ever for Utah, as far as weather is concerned. I must find a happy place.... (A dream bubble appears above Jules' head. Inside the bubble is a beautiful beach in Hawaii. She can almost feel the sand underneath her feet...until a blast of cold air pops the bubble and ruins everything. BLAST.) Oh well. Back to the lovely reality of school, work, and the miserable cold.

Ha ha. I'm such a whiner. Things really aren't that bad. I'm a couple of weeks into my last semester (YAY!), and so far nothing too hairy has come up. Of course, I'm not really expecting anything too strenuous to happen. I'm taking classes like fencing and kickboxing, after all. By the way, the more I kickbox, the more I absolutely love it. I can pretend to be tough in that class. Ha ha. Maybe now I can count all of those hours of watching Alias as "research." ;-)

I do have a dilemma about school, though. I've spent four years working on a music degree, all with the intent of going off somewhere to teach. Now that my four years are almost up, I've come to the conclusion that I don't want to choose teaching as a career. BLAST. I'm not quite sure what to do now. I'd love to go on and get a Master's degree, but I don't know what I'm doing. Truth be told, I would love to go into composition, but I feel so stupid around all these brilliant musical prodigies who have been winning composition contests since they were six years old. WHAT IS A MUSIC MAJOR FIT FOR IN THIS WORLD?! *Jules has a panic attack, takes a puff on her inhaler, and calms down. Unfortunately, now everyone in the school writing lab is wondering what sort of psychological disease she's dealing with. Jules decides it's probably best to leave now.*

I hope you're all doing well. If you happen to have any advice for a girl in the middle of a quarter-life crisis, please let me know. Hugs and kisses to you all. MWAH!