The Game

No, not football games (although those are super fun). I'm talking about the dating game. The game that every boy and girl plays at some point in time. Girl meets Boy, Boy meets Girl. Boy and Girl flirt with each other. Girl takes interest in Boy... and then the game begins!

The whole outcome of the game is to solidly figure out if the other person likes you. Seems simple enough, right? Wrong! For some reason, there is no simple way to play The Game. I know, I've tried. There are always multiple phases of The Game, and sometimes they have a quick life span, and sometimes they are long and drawn out to the point of exhaustion.

Initial Communication:

This phase is where you first meet the person. It can be anywhere from a ward activity to a random happenstance on campus. It can last five minutes or an hour, depending on the situation, how well you hit it off or how attractive they are (let's be honest-that's a huge factor). Usually the initial communication is where the Budding Attraction seed is planted. If the Initial Communication goes well, then phone numbers are exchanged and further Communication is sought after.

Communication:

After Initial Communication, there's the feeling of "What next?" If the Budding Attraction seed has been planted, then usually the Communication will build to the point of A Date. Communication is where you get to find a little bit more about the person. Are they worthy to go on A Date? Is he even interested in me or is he just being friendly? The Communication phase is important, because what if someone is not as funny/smart/nice/polite as they may have been during Initial Communication? Well that's a problem. Sometimes The Game can end during the Communication phase because you're just not interested. The Budding Attraction seed can either be squashed by a rude and insensitive comment, how dirty his apartment is, or by the fact that he's actually pretty socially awkward in a group. (All three have happened before.) If Communication is successful, and enough hints have been dropped by both people, then A Date occurs.

A Date:

A Date can range anywhere from going out to eat to going to a ball game. Since this is BYU, there are actually some pretty creative dates. A Date can be a group date, or a just the two of you. This is where you really start evaluating the person and how compatible they are with you. If none of his interests match up with yours, then that's a problem. While it's nice to have some differences, there are some things that just can't be overcome. For example, if he totally hates football and refuses to watch a single game, then that might be a problem if you like to spend your Saturday afternoons catching a good game, so you couldn't spend time together. Or if you like doing outdoorsy things and he doesn't, then how would you both have fun  going on a hike? Sometimes there's just no spark.

Sometimes though, there is a spark. You laugh at the same things, love the same movies, and just overall have a great time. You start wondering about whether or not things could actually work out between the two of you. Now this is where The Game gets tricky. Sometimes things can skip right over Budding Attraction into straight up Attraction, then slides on into Relationship easy-peasy. However, sometimes The Game needs to be played out into its fullest. Because what if he doesn't feel the same as you do? Maybe he didn't feel that spark that you did, and you're just crazy?

Budding Attraction:

This is the most crucial part of The Game. It's also the longest part of the game (at least for me anyway). Budding Attraction overlaps into all of the previous categories. Sometimes the seed blossoms quickly, and sometimes it dies before it even has the chance. Budding Attraction is when you start asking yourself whether or not you actually like the person and are interested in taking things to Attraction. Personally, I start keeping a mental pros and cons list that not only lists his good qualities against the bad, but lists the possibilities of where The Game might lead to. For example, yes you really think he's funny...but sometimes his humor is a little mean to other people. Yes he likes to do fun, spontaneous things...but he's not very dependable or responsible. He's seems like such a nice guy...but he doesn't put the milk back in the fridge (huge pet peeve of mine). Budding Attraction can shift into Attraction after either a few days or after multiple dates. It all depends on what you're looking for.

Budding Attraction is crucial because this is when you decide whether or not to go all in. This is where you get the opinions of your friends and roommates on the matter. If you feel like you're not ready for Attraction, then the Budding Attraction seed is squashed, and the person gets labeled "A Crush", while life returns back to normal. If Budding Attraction blossoms into a bright, vibrant Attraction flower, then it's time to turn the tables and see if the other person feels the same way.

Attraction:

After the Attraction flower has blossomed, your attention shifts to figuring out whether or not he likes you back. This is where every action is dissected, rehashed, and retold to roommates and friends. "We sat close to each other on the couch and he didn't back off," or "He gave me a hug when he usually doesn't" or "He's asking me out on Date part IV!" If he doesn't return the Attraction, then there are a few outcomes. The person can decide to quit The Game and start over with someone new. Or the person continues to try and plant the Budding Attraction seed. This part is tricky since it's hard to push things without fear of coming off as too forward or just plain creepy. Attraction is hard to line up between the same two people, which is why The Game is so important. As one of my friends says: "I can never get the right guy to like me back!" However, when the planets align ever so nicely, and both of you are in the Attraction phase, then you're a great candidate for a Relationship.

Relationship:
Congratulations! If you've made it this far, then you have successfully played The Game! Now it's time to move on to The Next Level. The Dating Game is just the first step in the process of The Long Haul (aka Marriage). However, I am not married, nor planning on being married anytime in the near future, so here's where my walk-through is complete.

As you can see, The Game can be quite complicated, or very simple. I've known circumstances where a couple flies through the first few steps, ended up at Relationship, and then realized that they knew hardly anything about each other, so they broke it off. I've also known where a couple decided to just stay in Attraction and go on Date parts X, XI, XII, etc and they were totally happy with it. It all just depends on who you are and what you like. Now that you're informed, let The Game begin!

Labor-Day Adventures

(What? My blog changed? I guess it must be a new year, with new stories to tell.)

This past Labor-Day weekend was such an adventure! I got called as the Ward Pianist, so I played the pian-y in Sacrament on Sunday. I'm actually quite surprised that I'm the Sacrament Pianist, because I'm fairly certain there are more qualified people than me in my ward. They're probably flawless sight readers and can make things up on command, while I just... can't. But oh well.

After church, Emily and I went to her Aunt Bonnie's place to spend the night, along with other college-aged people that Bonnie knows and loves. We ended up serving up hundreds of hot dogs to people who were volunteering to clean out mud in a town called Saratoga Springs. There was a flash flood and mud was everywhere! It was a lot of fun to serve hot dogs because we prepared them assembly-line style:

So many hot dogs!

That night, we watched some TV till the wee hours of the morning. It was super fun because we got so into the movie/TV show, that we started yelling out advice to the characters. The next morning, Aunt Bonnie made us breakfast, which was delicious. We repaid our breakfast debt by picking lots and lots of vegetables from their garden.

We're real farmers!

We then watched some more of the TV show we watched the night before. It was pretty addicting.

After our Labor-Day lunch, we drove up to Brigham City for the Brigham City Temple Open House, where we walked through the temple before it's dedicated. This was my third Temple Open House, but it was still absolutely wonderful and amazing. The temple is beautiful of course. I took some pictures of the temple that I'll upload later. Here's the one I've got for now.

That was our Labor-Day Adventure!

Family Reunion!!!

What do you get when you get 48 Tillmans together?

To quote my cousin Julie "This is epic!!!"

I pretty much have the best family ever. Guess where I'm at right now! If you guessed Oregon, you're correct! We're at this place called Sunriver, and it's a pretty sweet resort type place. We have four houses that are great. Also, the high in Oregon is around 80 degrees!! HOORAY!

This is my dad's side of the family, and he's the seventh kid out of eight. Three girls came first (Jean, Anna, and Carrie) and then five boys came after that (Chet, Joe, Steve, Ben [that's my dad!] and Matt). So with all of my grandparents children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, we have 48 people here at this family reunion. So yeah, it's pretty fabulous.

So my immediate family came in Monday evening, but we were pooped so not much fun happened. Tuesday, I stayed behind with my two youngest siblings and Aunt Carrie and Uncle Greg's son Andrew while the rest of my immediate family, All of Uncle Steve's family, Aunt Carrie and Uncle Greg, and Aunt Sandy went on the Paulina Plunge (a downhill bike ride). Chad (Uncle Chet/Aunt Sandy's son) and I pretty much just stayed around the house watching the kiddos and catching up on our lives. 

Wednesday was pretty great. I went on the Paulina Plunge with the rest of the "older kids" because I finally graduated into the older group! It was me, James and his wife Taryn, Alicia and her husband Dustin, Julie, Missy and her husband Phillip, Tiffany, Christine, Chad, and Aunt Sandy led the tour. It was a mostly downhill bike ride, with occasional mini hikes to some water falls that we got to jump in, slide down, and swim in. The water was really cold, but it was totally worth it to jump in and swim around. After we got back and ate dinner, a bunch of us cousins got together (Benjamin, Jacob, Chad, Josh Matt, Malynda, Malia, and Maddy with Kyle, Zach, and Seth watching) and sat in the hot tub for awhile. When we got done with that, we watched Batman Begins and got back to our houses around 2am. I guess there's no curfew with cousins!

Thursday we went to the Lava Caves, and it was pretty neat, and also very cold. We only had a couple of lanterns between the 14 of us that went (my family + Uncle Matt's family), so it was pretty hard to see. Luckily we passed by the rest of our family on the way out and they let us borrow some of their flashlights, which helped out a bunch. The Lava Caves were great because we got to see some pretty neat rock formations. Afterwards I bummed around the house for awhile while my parents and some of the younger kids went on bike ride. After dinner, we went back to Uncle Chet's place to watch The Dark Knight.

Today we went white water rafting! It was my very first time and we had a super cool guide. In my boat there was Matt, Josh, Benjamin, Malia, Chad, Maddy, and some random kid named Cole. It was a class 3 ride (I think out of 5?), and it wasn't too hard at all. Actually, it was perfect for people who had never white water rafted before because there were calm stretches that were super easy. We tried to convince our guide to continue taking us down the river to some class 5 rapids, but apparently that's super dangerous or something along those lines.

Tonight my family and Uncle Matt's family are in charge of dinner. Hello hamburgers and hot dogs! Also, we're going to see The Dark Knight Rises to complete our little tradition of watching Batman movies. I don't even know what we're going to do Saturday night.

I can't believe our reunion is almost over! It's been super crazy fun so far, and hopefully we can keep the ball rolling the next day and a half.

And now, for a little guide of the Tillman family (child of my grandparents first with their spouse second, followed by their children):

Jean/J.D.: Alicia (married Dustin and has three boys- J.J., Cameron, and Sterling), Julie, James (married Taryn and has a little girl Madilyn), and Carrie (she's on her mission right now).

Anna/Mike: Jason (he's married and has two boys now), Jeremy, Shanna (she recently got married this summer), and Doc (he's married too). This whole branch of the family wasn't able to make it out to this reunion which makes us all super sad.

Carrie/Greg: Andrew

Chet/Sandy: Chad, Josh

Joe/Louanne: Brian, Missy (married to Phillip), Tiffany, Brandon, and Christine

Steve/Kathy- Kyle, Zach, and Seth

Ben/Rosa: Me, Benjamin, Jacob, James, Adam, Emily, and Andrew

Matt/Jeselyn: Maddy, Malia, Matt, and Malynda.

Ta da! My super crazy amazing Tillman family!

Marvel vs. DC

Some of you may be wondering what the words "Marvel" and "DC" mean. Well, today is the day to become educated! These are the two major comic producers that create pretty much every comic people have come to know and love. For the following post, I am going to be completely and totally unbiased (Marvel is better) without a hint of preference to either one (Marvel totally beats DC) since this is merely for instructional purposes (Marvel wins. Always). First up is a little bit of background.

Notable DC characters: Batman, Superman, Aquaman, Robin, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, and anyone ever associated with The Justice League.

Notable Marvel Characters: Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Nick Fury, The Hulk, X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and anyone else associated with the Avengers, Hydra, A.I.M., or S.H.I.E.L.D.

Notable Movies Associated with DC (1989-2012): 7 Batman movies, 1 Superman, 1 Catwoman, and 1 Green Lantern. Total: 10

Notable Movies Associated with Marvel (1989-2012): 5 X-Men related movies, 4 Spider-Man Movies, 3 Fantastic Four movies, 2 Hulk Movies, 2 Iron Man movies, Thor, Captain America, and the best one of them all: The Avengers. Total: 18 And these are just the movies that contain the notable characters I've listed above.

As you can see, Marvel has a lot more variety than DC does. The entire X-Men comics alone have enough characters to pretty much be their own universe. Also, Marvel's movies are pretty good overall, especially the most recent ones featuring the Avengers team. (Those ones are just fantastic.)

I'm a huge fan of Marvel because of how imperfect their characters are and how relatable their struggles are to us "normal" folk. The best example is Spider-Man.  He gets bitten by a radioactive spider, and then goes out and does what pretty much any teenager does when they have something cool: He shows off. He doesn't instantly become imbedded with a moral compass. No, he wants to make his problems stop at school, he wants to be cool to the girl he's been crushing on, and (in the new version) he wants to help find out about what happened to his parents. It's not until his Uncle Ben talks to him and begins planting the seed that people with power have responsibility that Spider-Man begins to realize that his powers are more than for showing off. Even after his superhero realization, he still has every day problems. Just because he's now Spider-Man doesn't mean his real world problems will go away. He still has to pay for rent, go to school, help his widowed Aunt May, and figure out how to become less awkward around women. His first love dies in a tragic accident, and the villains find ways to defeat him on a regular basis. Peter Parker's world is not an easy one, and I love the fact that just because he's a super hero doesn't mean that the rest of his problems disappear.

Many Marvel character have issues similar to Spider-Man's They have to struggle with how they plan on going about being super heroes. Wolverine has to deal with isolation issues. Iron Man and Thor have to learn how to stop being arrogant brats and become heroes. Hulk just has huge anger management problems, and even Captain America initially struggles with becoming a hero instead of a dancing monkey. (He actually gets that joke.)

DC doesn't have the same well rounded characters. The only one who even comes close is Batman, and that's pretty much only in Christopher Nolan's most recent "Dark Knight" trilogy. DC heroes' only problems are the ones that they have facing villains. (Although why Lex Luthor is ever much of problem to Superman is beyond me. Puny mortal.) There is not as much struggle, and the good guy always wins. The reason why Christopher Nolan's Batman has been such a huge success is because it breaks the DC stereotype and goes nowhere that a DC character has gone before: The hero has issues. Huge, giant issues like the entire city hating him and the love of his life dying. No longer does a DC hero live in a candy-coated world where he can fix all of his problems.

Am I being a little harsh on DC? Probably. However, the following highlights from this article prove my point about DC films: "Because Reeve's Superman doesn't wonder who he is or why he is, the citizens of Metropolis...don't wonder, either." Superman is also described as a "confident, unburdened hero". Maybe that worked back in the late seventies when Superman: The Movie was released (which is the best Superman according to the article), but it does not work now. Hopefully the new Superman movie (Man of Steel) will put some good background info on the "unburdened" hero showing how he too can have disfunctions, instead of just assuming that he's perfect.

Now just because I don't like DC as much as Marvel doesn't mean I won't watch their movies or cartoon shows because let's face it: They're still superheroes, and I'm all about loving superheroes. I'm not as totally excited to see them though as I would a Marvel superhero movie. I haven't even seen Green Lantern yet since I've heard it was mas o menos (so-so in Espanol). Dark Knight Rises is a definite must-see, and maybe Man of Steel will be worth watching. Maybe.

Marvel is the best. And if you don't believe me, then do your own Wikipedia research, and watch their movies and if you're a big enough fan, delve into some of the better cartoon shows. Personally, I haven't heard one bad word for Avengers, but that's probably because there isn't one. And in the end, if it turns out that you're a DC fan, it's ok. I'll forgive you.

You've Got Mail!

And by you, I mean me. I get mail quite frequently. It's fantastic. Call it a reward for the amount of time I spend letter writing to missionaries. I now have ten missionaries that I write to quite frequently (Tyler, Nic, Murphy, Brett, Peter, Ryan, Spencer, Mike Clawson, Ben, and Mike Poret). I will be adding some more of these faithful Elders over the summer as well!


Getting mail is definitely one of the best things in the whole wide world. There's just something about seeing letters addressed to me after I've pulled them out of the mailbox that makes me all warm and happy inside! It's wonderful. And if I feel like that every few days when I get a letter, then imagine how those missionaries feel when they get letters from me! They probably feel even better!


This picture represents the amount of mail I have received this summer. Isn't it so super cool?!

Now you see why I've been spending less and less time on the blog, and more and more time writing missionaries. It's super fun.


On a completely different note, look at what I did to the Suburban mirror!

It cost me eighty-two dollars to replace the glass. Talk about a huge boo-boo for my wallet. Now we're having trouble with other parts of the mirror, (I didn't do it! I promise!) so now it's actually in worse shape than it was with the cracked mirror. Lesson that I learned: Cars are super expensive, and cause tons of trouble. I mean, a car isn't magically going to fix itself! Every day it just deteriorates into worse shape than it was the day before. So not fun. That's why I won't get a car for a long, long time.

Movie Review: The Amazing Spider-Man

There are lots of people out there wondering why Spider-Man is being redone so soon. To be put simply, it's because the Sam Raimi/Tobey Macguire's Spider-Man was good, but it wasn't great. In fact, it barely even followed the comics. At all. Like they really didn't follow the comics. One example being the fact that Spider-Man was able to create webs out of his wrists without using web shooters. Foolish movie makers. That's the whole reason why Spider-Man goes like this:



See the black pad in the middle? That's to activate his web shooters.

As you can see, there was some major disappointment in the earlier Spider-Man movies. Jessie used to think that Spider-Man was a lame whiney college kid that needed to grow up, because all she knew of Spider-Man was Tobey Macguire's portrayal. However, Spider-Man is cool. Like super cool. In fact, one might even call him amazing.

The Amazing Spider-Man

Guys, even I was a little skeptical about this movie. I was worried that Spider-Man and Peter Parker wouldn't be portrayed correctly. I was dead wrong. To answer why they redid Spider-Man a mere five years after the previous monstrosity hit the screen is because they had to fix it. This Spider-Man is the true Spider-Man. He's the Spider-Man I grew to love as a little girl. The guy who not only has real life problems as Peter Parker, but problems as a superhero as well.

So what made this movie so good? It was a little bit of everything. Andrew Garfield is an excellent actor, and his portrayal as Spider-Man and as Peter Parker was phenomenal. These characters evolve so much over the course of the film, which is quite a feat over the course of one movie. Andrew Garfield was able to pull off not one, but two character turnarounds, for while Peter Parker and Spider-Man are intertwined, they can almost be thought of as two different people.

The story of the villain was also shown well. The reason why Doc Connors does what he does and how he became a villain is touched on well enough to understand the why, but not overdone to where it takes away too much screen time from our hero.

The romance was also portrayed well. Gwen Stacey is a teenage girl. Peter Parker is a teenage boy. Put those together and what do you get? Hilarious awkward moments to where you're glad it's not happening to you, to super sweet moments where you get to see a little bit more of each characters' strengths and weaknesses. The romance wasn't just something added in to distract the audience temporarily, but it enhanced movie by allowing the characters to become more developed as the movie progressed.

For the people who hated Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man or thought that a "reboot" was unnecessary, this movie helps to correct all of the previous misconceptions that there may have been. This is the real deal. The Spider-Man movie that is closer to the comics, and has a darker edge to it that makes it more relatable to each of us. I would recommend to watch it. Even Jessie has come to realize how amazing Spider-Man truly is.

Oh hi there!

Oh that's right! I have this blog thing that I write in every now and again to satisfy my writing needs! Well, now I have two jobs and seven missionaries that I write (speaking of which, I need to write some of them today) so it's been kinda crazy in my life.

First, let me recap my two jobs. I work for TCU Human Resources, which is pretty fun. I worked full time there for 12 days in a row, which got to be pretty intense. I mostly just do the odd jobs, like scanning things, or mailing things, or alphabetizing things etc. However, I was able to use my International Services skills to help a student out, and it was AWESOME. Just getting to hold an I-20 again and use the acronyms"OPT" and "CPT" made me so happy. I'm so excited to go back to doing that every day!

I also work as a lifeguard for the YMCA branch near my house. It's actually pretty good, but then again, I haven't really worked a million hours a day in the sun since I've only been there a week now. That will change this Saturday, as I will be working a triple aka three shifts back to back to back. It's going to be intense. And hot. But hopefully it will go well, and above all- MONEY! Another great aspect is that I get to work with people who are closer to my age range. I love the people at HR, but there are so many grand-baby stories that you can hear before you start realizing that you're not really in that stage of life right now. But next week, my very dear friend Jessie will be coming home and working with me at HR, and we are going to RULE THE WORLD!! Or just have an insanely awesome good time. I'm so stoked.

So yeah, those two jobs pretty much constitute my life. I'm working abou 55-60 hours between Monday and Saturday. Thankfully I don't have to work Sundays or Monday evenings, so I get to keep going to church and Family Home Evening with the Singles Ward. (I love FHE. It's pretty awesome. This past Monday, we learned how to properly paint with water colors. The Monday before that, we played Ultimate Frisbee at the park, and the Monday before that, we played the most intense game of Uno that I have ever played! So much fun to be had!)

Oh the Singles Ward. At first, I didn't really know what I was doing there. I felt a little outta place, and it was just so tiny, which I wasn't used to. I was used to 180 people, not 40. However, I've grown to absolutely LOVE it! Part of that has to do with my calling, and the other part has to do with the fact that everyone is just so accepting, it's wonderful.

Ok, so calling. I'm the "Ward Music Chair" which typically means that I just oversee all of the musical aspects of the ward. However, since the ward is so small, I am the musical aspect of the ward. I play the piano during Sacrament meeting every Sunday, and I direct the choir, which is wonderful! I love choir. So much. I never really realized how much I love singing until I got put in charge of helping people sing. It's fantastic. And the people in choir are amazing. Our first (and so far only) practice was held two Sundays ago, and about 20 people showed up, which was great! That's pretty much 50-60% of Sacrament meeting attendance. I'm so proud of them. Choir is pretty much all I think about now. I just can't wait for the next practice!

So yeah, that's pretty much my life. Working a ton, and then getting Sundays and Mondays for fun time. It's kind of funny, because if it's not Sunday or Monday, I don't really know what day it is anymore. I keep thinking that today is Wednesday, but it's not, it's Thursday, which means that it's that much closer to Sunday! Hooray!

The Ultimate Nasty

There are few things that I hate in this world. Like truly down to earth will not tolerate and absolutely loathe. And one of those things is medicine. Ew gross. I shudder every time that I think about it.

I hate medicine more than I hate Dolores Umbridge. And that's saying something because she's pure evil.

I don't know why I hate medicine so much. Even the pills are awful. They often get stuck in my throat and cause me to gag them back up and it's just an awful sensation. I refuse to take the little round Ibuprofen pills anymore because it's happened to me too many times in a row.

So two quick stories about my hatred of medicine.

When my family lived in Honduras, we had to take medicine to prevent us from getting malaria. Now the malaria medicine was seriously some of the NASTIEST stuff on the face of the earth. (Pretty much equal to the Ultimate Nasty, which I'll get to later.) So we had to take this disgusting medicine (I feel like it was some sort of powder we had to swallow? I don't know I was four. It was just gross) once a week so that way we wouldn't get malaria and die out in the middle of nowhere. Well one week, I absolutely refused to take it. I mean I flat out wouldn't open my mouth and ran around the room away from my mom. I still remember the resolve I felt that I would never ever take that medicine ever again. And since I was four about to be five, I didn't really understand my mom's reasoning, or maybe I did but just didn't want to accept it. There is one thing I did know: That medicine was never going down my throat again. Man, did I throw a tantrum! And I wouldn't even take the piece of candy that my parents always gave my brother and me after we took the medicine. No way Jose! Not. Happening. So my mom finally decided that it was my dad's turn to deal with me. My dad was pretty much fed up with the super tantrum I was throwing. So much so that he decided to teach me lesson. He then did something that will stay with me forever. I will never forget this. He unwrapped the candy (a Werther's Original) went to the bathroom (dragging me with him), threw the candy in the toilet AND FLUSHED. As I was watching my Werther's Original swirl down into the toilet, he told me that I didn't deserve candy, and that I could either take my medicine willingly, or I could watch the rest of my candies go down the toilet week after week. It was my choice. Boy did that shut me up. I took my medicine every week after that with little to no complaints.

Now there is a medicine that I like to Ultimate Nasty: Off-brand Robitussin. Now Robitussin is no laughing matter. But the off-brand stuff is the most disgusting thing on the face of the earth.

So I have this cough, and it was kinda sorta getting wildly outta control. It doesn't hurt me, and I'm already over every other part of my little cold, but this cough will not die. So the other night, my mom insisted that I take Ultimate Nasty. So I went downstairs with my brother Jacob (for moral support) and grabbed it. We were both talking about how horribly disgusting Robitussin is and Jacob said something that made me laugh so hard because of how truthful it was.

"It doesn't even have any kind of flavor to it! You know, other than death."

Yep, Ultimate Nasty is equivalent to death. That pretty much sums it up.

Now I'm not a total child like I used to be. It used to take my half an hour to muster up the courage to drink my medicine. I would pour it out into its little cup and let it sit there. I had to get used to it, you see. Now I drink it after 5 minutes, tops. And sometimes even after 30 seconds! See, better! But I will always and forever hate hate hate hate hate medicine. Even more than Umbridge.

(Oh, and for more hilarious stories of my freshman year of college, I've been writing some experiences in the apartment blog some of my friends started up, so click here. And yes, this is a shameless promotion of my recently endowed authorship.)

See what had happened was...

This past week, so much amazing has happened, it's not even funny. First, this happened:

Then this happened:

And then we went to The Swamp (Florida's Football Field) and met some of the football players and took a tour of the locker room:

(It turned out a little blurry, I know, but it's the only one we've got! This is Ronald  Powell, the player  that showed us around. He's such a nice guy!)

Then we got a little bit of sun:

And then we finally made it back home! Next week is going to be my very first choir practice as a director and I'm super nervous, as I've never conducted a choir before. Hopefully people show up!

Universal Studios: Day 1

About to go into Universal Studios!

Waiting for my dad and my brother to finish their roller coaster.

Waiting in line for Men in Black (I totally kicked butt in that game)

Coming down the mini water slide in the kid zone, which was probably the most fun place in the whole park.

The foam ball place that had awesome things that could be done with them, like shoot them.

Or load them into a giant vacuum that shot them into the air

Everyone got in on the fun-even dad!

 And Andrew being totally adorable, of course.

Today was our first day at Universal Studios, and since it was a little wet and rainy, we went to the original park. Tomorrow is Harry Potter and Marvel day!! Hopefully I'll be able to meet all of the characters from Avengers, and drink Butterbeer, and get a wand! It's going to be GREAT!!

Time Zone

That's right, I'm now in the Eastern Time zone! After two days of driving, we finally made it! The first day, we ended up leaving a little later then we planned due to the diva of the house not packing (definitely not me or my sister), among other things. After trying out my "Hulk noises" while lifting some heavy luggage, I decided that I am not the Incredible Hulk (apparently I sound like I'm in pain). Sad, I know. I'll find another way to become an Avenger.

After discovering that the tooth fairy in Puerto Rico is a rat fairy (excuse me, a mouse fairy), that the new potty song is Taking Care of Business, and that reindeer now live in Louisiana, we finally made it to my Aunt Sue's house, where we spent the night. We made pretty good time, considering we didn't stop at all that first day.

The next day, we headed out and made fairly good time, getting to my grandparents' house at 8:30 pm. I love this place. It holds so many memories for me. My grandparents live on 20 acres of land on the outskirts of Gainesville, which is pretty sweet. They use most of the land as a tree farm, where trees are planted to be harvested for paper about 16 years down the road. It's so wonderful here! The trees are so tall, and there is tons of green! Hopefully Murphy's jinx won't last for too long. He said that a hurricane would come through and ruin all of our plans, and now there's a tropical storm that fixin' to hang around here for a while (Mike, that's the proper use of "fixin' to", in case you were wondering).

This morning, my dad told us a huge surprise: We are going to Universal Studios this week!!!! Harry Potter world + Marvel world = THE BEST PLACE IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!!! I'm so stoked. Basically my two favorite things all rolled into one. Don't worry, I will be sure to take plenty of pictures (hopefully with some of the Marvel characters). I mean, they have a superhero parade! And it's Hogwarts! Am I acting like a little fan girl? Um, you bet! When it comes to Marvel and Harry Potter, my inner child comes out. Not like it was buried that deep anyway. Good weather, please come our way!

My own first world problem

I am so stoked! For reals. It's crazy to think that in 48 hours, I will not be in the state of Texas! I'm so excited right now, it's not even funny. There's something about this trip that's different than most. However, there is one thing that will always get my mood down when I'm excited for something.

Packing.

Ew. Gross. Without fail, I absolutely hate packing, and all that it entails. I mean, it's gonna be fun right? Even when I was getting ready to go to BYU, I still dreaded packing everything up. I have no idea why my brain shuts down when I think about it. For example, I'm supposed to be packing right now, but instead, I'm writing a blog post about how much I hate it.

So over the next couple of minutes, I'm going to lay out why I hate packing, and then maybe gather up the courage to actually do it. Maybe.

1) There's always so much stuff to sort through! Should I take these shoes, or those shoes? Will it be hot or cold? How many pairs of socks will I need? All of this is why packing sucks the fun out of the trip. It has to be so calculated and planned out instead of spontaneous and fun.
2) There's so much cleaning involved. It's like I need to clean my whole room to figure out what to pack. And by clean, I mean there's the washing of the clothes, and the organizing of the shoes and the bathroom bag that needs to be done.
3) There's always that ONE ITEM that you know exists, but just can't seem to find it right when you need it the most. This happens to me every time. I'm always missing that one shirt that matches the pair of pants I want to take, or the one shoe that I plan on wearing every day. It's so annoying. I swear my stuff plays pranks on me. Oh, you want to take us on vacation? Joke's on you! Evil stuff...
4) Packing as a family is no laughing matter. Firstly, we all share suitcases. This means that not only do I have to track my own clothes down, I've got to find all of my sister's as well. And boy do her clothes grow legs! Secondly, we have to figure out how to cram everything we need into our Suburban, and that's not even counting what we want. It's crazy.
5) There's always that sliver of a doubt that the things we're disregarding will actually be needed. For example, I'm not taking my curling iron. I mean, we're going to be hitting the beach pretty much every day, and besides that, the humidity should keep my hair nice and curly for me. Right? But then again, there might be that one day where I will actually need it to tame my hair, and actually look presentable. However, the chances are fairly slim... It's official. No curling iron. The space it takes up is not worth the slim chance that I'll actually need. Hopefully that decision doesn't come back to bite me in the butt.

I will hopefully be able to do what I've wanted to do for years: Blog about my family's adventures. I mean, nine of us in a car for 17 hours? So much gold right there. And silver. And maybe some bronze too. And that's not counting the actual fun parts of the trip. While I may have limited access to a computer (I still have yet to decide whether my computer's gonna make the journey with us or not), I will do my best to keep y'all updated :)

So off to the Sunshine state! Hopefully all of this whining has left my system so that I can actually get some work done. Then again, there's always Kingdom Hearts to be played...

My very first rant (on the blog, that is)

So I'm actually going to rant for a little (or a lot) bit. Bear with me, ok?

So every few days, I Google Avengers to see if there's any new news I should know about. As I was doing this last night, I stumbled across an article that talked feminism in Avengers. Joss Whedon is known for portraying feminist material, and there are apparently some people complaining that Avengers doesn't have enough female characters and they aren't portrayed in a light that would make it a feminist film. I totally agree with how the guy responded to this complaint.

Black Widow can totally kick butt. Seriously, she's so awesome, and (currently) the only girl on the Avengers team. Now, do they treat Black Widow like some fragile flower that can crack at any moment? No. Do they exalt her to a higher level because she's "just a girl" and yet can "keep up" with the guys? No. Is she "one of the guys"? No. Her femininity is still noticed and valued. Black Widow is on the Avengers team because she's good at what she does. If she wasn't good at what she does, then she wouldn't be on the team. She's not put on a pedestal or demeaned for her gender. She's treated like an equal. A girl, yet still an equal. And no one tries to flirt with her or anything like that. She's accepted. As is Maria Hill. Maria Hill is a girl. The fact that "a girl" is second in command is never even questioned, never even brought up! She's second in command because she's good at what she does. Same with all of the other S.H.I.E.L.D agents on board. Some of them are girls, some of them are guys. They're there because they are good agents, and not because of their gender. This is Joss Whedon's take on feminism. Feminism shouldn't be about exalting women while putting men down, or trying to make women just like men. We're different for a reason. Whedon demonstrates that women who can do their jobs well will be treated with equality and respect.

Now, here comes a tricky question for me. Am I a feminist? Not in the way that people define the term now. I'm not all "women are totally better than men", but I'm not all "women are poor defenseless beings that need help every step of the way". I still believe in gentlemen, and chivalry. I don't mind when a guy opens the door for me, or pulls my chair out when I'm about to sit down. To me, being a gentleman is not a guy's way of demeaning a woman, it's his way of honoring her, and of cutting her some slack every now and again. And it's nice. Does this mean that I'm a total wuss, and can't do anything on my own? Absolutely not. I don't sit around and wait for some guy to rescue me, or shriek when there's a spider. I can kill the spiders, thank you very much.

There are some places where men and women should be treated equally. Namely, the work place. In my sociology class, we learned some terms for what happens to men and women in the workplace. If a woman is working a job that men primarily work (say, an engineer), then they hit what is called a "glass ceiling". No matter how hard they try, or how good they are, women often experience a stopping point, where they don't get promoted to the extent of their abilities, or they don't get paid the same as their peers, etc. On the flip side, if a man is in a predominantly female position (say, nurse), then he is often put on a "glass escalator" or put on a path where he gets promoted sooner and paid higher. Now, I'm under the belief that if someone can do the job, then pay them what you're paying everyone else. If they can't, then fire them! It shouldn't matter when it comes to that whether or not they're a man or woman. Just like how it doesn't matter if Black Widow or Maria Hill are women. Believe me, if they couldn't do the job, then they wouldn't be there! So that's when I find that equality is necessary.

Now, once we're outside the workplace, that's different. Men and women are physically built differently. That's why sports are often separated. I'm 5'3". Am I going to want to play a contact sport against a broad shouldered guy that is over six feet? Absolutely not! Why? I could get hurt! There's no way little me would stand a chance at bringing someone his size down. It's like when you see those wrecks on the high way where the little Honda Civic is totaled, but the truck only as a small bump in its fender. Should I be screaming for "equality" and whining about how it's not fair? No. We're built the way that we're built for a reason. That's why I refuse to play contact sports with boys. Someone (and by someone, I mean me) could get seriously hurt. Does this make me weak? Nope. It makes me smart. Sports are separated for a reason. Women have different abilities than men. I'm going to say it straight up: men are stronger, taller, and often faster, than most women (even professionally). So girls, don't go throwing a hissy-fit because you can't run as fast or be as strong. It's the way we're built. Just be the best you can be, and let the rest work itself out. Now, this doesn't mean that you shouldn't play sports with guys. Just be smart about it. I play sports with guys all the time. So do a bunch of girls that I know. And they're respected because of their knowledge of the game, and their overall awesomeness on the field (not talking about me now). And when we're playing a pick-up game in the park, I definitely want to be treated by the way I can play. If I'm a good player, then pass me the ball! Don't do it because you pity me, but at least give me a chance! This happened to me while playing Ultimate Frisbee. Now, I'm not the best Frisbee player. Not by a million miles. But I can catch. If I'm wide open, then the Frisbee should be thrown to me, and not to someone who's covered. Chances are, I'm going to catch it. It just took the boys a little while to realize that yes, I'm a girl. Yes, I can catch the Frisbee, even with the defense closing in around me. Now, did I drop it sometimes? Of course, but everyone does. When it comes to something like that, at least give the girls a chance to prove whether or not they can play the game. If they suck, then don't throw it to them, just like how you wouldn't throw it to a boy who couldn't catch at all. It's simple.

I know this is getting long, but I just wanted to make a couple more points. When people hear about what I want to do in life, they laugh at me or tell me that I'm wasting talent. I want to be a stay-at-home mom. This doesn't mean that I'm going to skip college and spend all of time looking for a husband to take care of me. Quite the opposite. I go out and do my own thing. I'm going to college, and I'm going to finish my degree, with or without a husband. I'm not going to sit by and not be educated. I do want to have a career at some point, but if it gets in the way of me having kids, then it's ultimately unimportant. Being a mom is the highest honor I can think of. My mom is tough as nails. She doesn't let anyone or anything stand in her way. She's a stay-at-home mom. More like "run around town helping out my kids" mom, because let's be real here,it's not an easy job. At all. Especially with seven of us. But she still does it, and I love her for it.

So why are men and women different? Some say evolution, but I say God. If God wanted us to all be the same, then we would all be 6' tall and reproduce asexually. But that's not the point. The point is to celebrate our differences, and accept the fact that while women can't do some things "just the same" as guys, we can do a whole lot of other things. Like be caring and maternal. We help to raise children to grow up and survive in this world and become good people (I say help, because dads help with care-giving too). So am I feminist? I guess in the way that feminism should be: Not exaltation and praise for being "so good in a man's job" or demeaning other men and rejecting them like the Amazons. Just quiet acceptance and realization that men and women are different for a purpose. A heavenly purpose. So girls, you can be anything, and you can do anything. Just be smart about it. And don't turn away a good gentleman, because they're not demeaning you, they just want you feel special. Even Black Widow let Captain America shield her from an explosion. Be who you want to be, and accept who you are. That's when you'll be truly happy.

Wizzy-Wisdom

So I've been 19 for about a month now, and while I don't think it's that old, my siblings think I'm an old fart or something. Three quick stories:

I was talking to Andrew (he's four), and he asked me how old I was. When I told him I was 19, his eyes got really big and he said "That's old!"

James (he's eleven) was talking about how he remembered when I cut my hair super short "when [I] was really little" He made me sound like I was super young when it happened. I was his age. Me being really little is now his age. What is the world coming to?

I was visiting my friend Stanley at TCU last week, and the campus had changed a lot from when we used to visit all of the time (back when we only had one car and had to pick up my dad from work). Instead of him giving me a tour, I gave him a tour of what campus used to be like. Certain buildings cropped up where parking lots were, the student center was in a totally different place, and I could remember when the Rec center was being built. It made me feel really old.

So with all my age and experience, I have some words of wisdom:

1. If you keep practicing, you will get better and better, I know it!
2. Thumbs up everybody, for rock and roll!
3. Playing rock-paper-scissors with three people is like a love triangle. Somebody always get left out.
4. Don't drop your toast butter side down. It's an unfortunate experience.
5. When your cookie falls into the bottom of the milk cup, take a deep breath and remember that sometimes bad things happen to good people.

Yep. There ya have it folks. Nineteen years of pure wisdom right there.

Fun with chalk and other exciting news.

Happy Birthday Jacob! He's my brother, and he's old now. Also, he's finally gotten taller than me, which he makes fun of me for every day. Probably because he also thought to himself: "Self, I will be taller than my older sister one day." He finally made it, the little bugger.

In honor of his birthday, I opened up the last two bags of chalk that I had left from Festival of Colors. Then I put them into cups, and set my brothers loose in the backyard. The contest was who could emerge the cleanest would be the victor. Jacob won. I have pictures that are absolutely adorable and downright hilarious, but before we get to those, I have exciting news!

1) I got a job yesterday at TCU! I'm just temping over the summer, and doing whatever they need me to do, but it's still exciting! They're hoping to keep me at about 20 hrs/wk, which is wonderful. I start this coming Monday.

2) I got a letter from my friend Tyler! Tyler chose to be a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He is currently at the Provo Missionary Training Center, but will be leaving for Hermosillo, Mexico within the next six weeks or so. I was very happy to hear from him.

And here are the pictures!

Have a happy Friday!