Catching Up

It has been almost exactly four months to the day since I last wrote in here. I was so utterly swamped last semester that I barely had time to sleep, let alone keep the blog updated. I could go through a long list of everything that has been going on, but it wouldn't make for very interesting reading. Let's just say that 19 credit hours, an internship, a volunteer position, research, running a marketing team of 12 people, working on a business plan, a calling, career searching, etc., left almost no free time! I got some really great experience, but I'm definitely not doing that again!

Here are some pictures of a few of the highlights.

This picture and the one below it are from a marketing campaign I ran to get people to come to our final student-entrepreneur competition event. We got through mountains of BYU red tape to get a Lamborghini, Ferrari, Porsche, and Lotus on campus to draw some attention. We handed out nearly a thousand fliers, and we had people coming from all over campus to take pictures with the cars. One guy camped out all day just so he could hear the engines rumble when the cars were picked up at the end of the day. We arranged for him to get a ride around campus in the Ferrari, and I think it may very well have made his year.

I've always had a fondness in my heart for dark chocolate, which has lately become more of an obsession. The picture below is Tony Caputo's market. Their deli and night restaurant, Tipica, are both fabulous. They also, apparently, have the best selection of high-end dark chocolate in the United States (or so they say). Despite my busyness, I managed to make it to Tony Caputo's (in downtown Salt Lake) at least four or five times over the last few months, usually for the purpose of buying dark chocolate. One of my favorites is the Amano Madagascar bar. (Yeah, I'm biased.) Even still, it's well worth it!

The next few pictures are from a trip I made to Chicago in October. I went with the rest of the leadership of the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization and we went to attend an entrepreneurship conference and compete in a few competitions. Chicago was fabulous! We didn't have a ton of free time, but I did get to see a lot of downtown. I spent one night walking all through the city in a pouring rainstorm and I had a blast. It was freezing, though. I also got some authentic Chicago-style deep-dish pizza, and our group had a lot of fun at the House of Blues, just down the street from our hotel.

So now I'm finally in my last semester at BYU, and I'll graduate at the end of April. It's a little strange to finally be facing the end of my undergrad degree. It has taken six years and three changes of major to get here. Searching for an actual career is exciting and terrifying all at the same time. As of now I haven't got a clue where I'll end up or exactly what I'll be doing. Sometimes I'm tempted to tack a world map on the wall and just start throwing darts at it so I can get some ideas of where to go. (I may still resort to that.)

I'm the meantime, it'll definitely be interesting to figure the next few months/years out. I've gotten advice from just about everyone, but if you have any pointers for a slightly bewildered girl who loves new adventures, feel free to pass it right along!

Week 2

I've taken yet another blogging hiatus. Writing blog updates is often on the bottom of my to-do list, and I rarely get down that far. (Extra sleep ranks a little higher on the to-do list, and it turns out it's a lot easier to talk myself into sleeping.)

I just finished the second week of business school. May I note, ladies and gentlemen, that business school is a whole new ball game. Now it's not content in your presentations that matters; everyone has good content. Your presentation has to perfect. And funny. And if they professor's mind wanders during the presentation, you can forget about that 4.0. And your resume? It darn well better be flawless. And I mean flawless. Then there's that intimidation factor of being in a school where nearly 85 percent of my classmates are male. Oh yeah - the business school is now the no. 5 ranked undergraduate program in the nation. No pressure there.

And I love it. All of it.

Last night was my coming out party as VP of Marketing for CEO. I planned and marketed a kickoff event for two business competitions, which ended up melding into a much bigger event. I've never planned a campus activity before, so there was definitely a learning curve here. In the end, 250+ people showed up. In resume terms, that's a 66 percent increase in attendance over a comparable event last year. Go me!

I'm admittedly really glad that the whole thing is over. (Also, my thought processes are a little warped by resume writing write now. Sorry.)

It remains to be seen how the rest of the marketing will go. Right now I've got a team of nine students who are helping me with a bunch of marketing projects that seem to take up every last bit of free time I've got. It's been a lot of fun, though, and I'm working with some really cool people.

Sometimes I wonder how I got myself into this position. After all, I was supposed to graduate in four years. I was supposed to get a degree in clinical laboratory science, and then I was going to work at a decently paying job in a hospital. I was going to get married and have gorgeous, amazing kiddies. I planned on graduate school in some health-related field, and then I was going to live happily ever after. End of story.

Something changed somewhere along the way. I honestly can't pinpoint when things started change, so I can't even really say how it happened. Regardless, the plan shifted, and I can't begin to predict where I'm headed within the next few years. I know better than that now. There are a few things I'd still like to do. I'd like to live and work in a third-world country. I want to get involved with social entrepreneurship. I wouldn't mind trying my hand at a few professional marketing jobs. Eventually I'll get married, and I'm still going to have gorgeous, amazing kiddies. At some point I'd like go on a mission or two. In the meantime, it's fun to not know where I'm headed. I'm always up for an adventure, and this one is turning out to be pretty good.

Country Roads

At the beginning of this summer my roommate ML and I revived a long-standing college tradition that Munn and I began during our freshmen year. Occasionally when we had some free time, Munn and I would take long meandering drives in the areas south or northeast of Provo. The goal was usually to get ourselves good and lost. Whenever we got sick of exploring, we’d eventually get ourselves back to civilization and familiar roads. We were usually out for two or three hours, and some of the funniest and best talks we ever had were during those drives.

Last summer Munn left me for bigger and better things, and ML moved in. I told ML about all the drives Munn and I had been on, and we finally got around to trying it out earlier this summer. I guess I wasn’t technically lost this time. I’ve driven out that way so many times that I actually recognize a good chunk of the farms and roads in the area. I couldn’t tell you town names or even the names of streets, but I’m always able to navigate my way through.

It was on this drive that ML discovered my lifelong love affair with dilapidated out buildings. I particularly like old stables on the verge of collapse, but I generally take a liking to any wood structure that seems to be nigh unto toppling over. (See below)

On this particular drive, I also learned that ML is rather afraid of cows. I was much amused.

We also found a favorite spot of mine on the southeast shore of Utah Lake. We were there after the sun had set, but it was beautiful just the same.

I guess the drive tradition didn’t actually begin with college. I remember one night in high school when I just wanted to get out and clear my head. I drove from my house up to the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon, and just sat in my car in a little turnout for a while. Then I came down the canyon, watched some fireworks from Wasatch Blvd, and then looped my way through Sandy. Three or four hours after I began driving, I met a friend of mine in a random, poorly lit parking lot out on Redwood Road. We ended up taking her car out to the Great Salt Lake, and we parked at the water’s edge somewhere out by Tooele or Grantsville. Wherever we were, it was pitch black, and there wasn’t any moon. The edge of the lack was inky black, and we really felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. That’s actually one of my favorite memories of L.

Then there was the time that L., A., E., and I drive up to the area near Top of the World Drive and found the Neff’s Canyon make-out spot . . . er. . . parking lot. We brought a garbage bag full of popcorn and laughed at all the other people around us. The view really was gorgeous. (I guess that’s the reason for the reputation.) That was a fun night.

Another of my favorite drives was even earlier. C.’s mom volunteered to drive a carload of eighth graders way out past Delta for a weekend science field trip. On the way home, C.’s mom was a blast; a little bit into the drive she took us out for a bunch of figure eights on some salt flats just off the road. We laughed and got sick, and everyone had a great time. I’m still friends with every girl who was in that car.

I’ve been on dozens of other memorable drives – too many to list off here. These pictures are just a handful of the scenes I’ve captured during these drives.

Never Too Old

I've cleaned house for an 86 year old woman for over two years. She has her ups and downs, and there have been several times when she has quite literally seemed to be upon her death bed. However, she seems to have really perked up lately. Last week I discovered her secret:

She has a boyfriend.

This week, I had to tidy the guest bedroom because boyfriend had a sleepover. Apparently they are chatting marriage.

The whole thing completely cracks me up.

Is that bad?

Lately

So it's been a while since I've posted . . . again . . . . Here I was thinking I was going to have all this free time once I finished my calculus class. No such luck. At least I haven't been sitting at home doing math all day long!

Here's a random list of happenings, in no particularly order.

I'm interning at Omniture. Sort of. It's rather expensive to have a non-paid internship that's a forty minute drive away, but it's definitely good experience. I got off to a bit of a rocky start, but things seem to be going a lot better now, and I get to work with some really talented people.

I've developed a new and highly irrational fear of creepers. I'm talking about the kind of creepers that would grab my ankles from under the bed, or something like that. I make my brothers check every room of my floor at Grandma's house when they come to visit. I also kneel down and check under the beds every night before I say prayers. Nevermind the fact that the beds are technically too low to the ground and impossible to crawl under. For some reason, my visions of creepers always involve people with icky clown masks from "The Dark Knight" running around. Moral of the story- if you ever hide out at my house and jump out at me at night, I probably won't speak to you again. Ever.

Grant got home from his mission late last Thursday night. It was so fun to pick him up at the airport. I was in charge of bringing Grant's two best friends. Half the family was in PJs and half asleep. The other half of the family could hardly stand still. It was actually pretty thrilling to see him come down that escalator. He's adorable and fun. It has been a blast to have him home. I'm proud of him for serving a mission. It sounds like he did a lot of good.

I'm putting together a marketing team for the Collegiate Entrepreneur's Organization. The whole VP thing has been nothing but stress for the last month, but I'm getting really excited now that I have a few team members on board. I'm having a ridiculous time trying to find graphic designers, though. Apparently there are none to be found at BYU right now. Either that, or I'm just looking in all the wrong places.

Here's my favorite bit of news: I am going to be a research assistant for a doctor who is studying global health systems, particularly in the developing world. (http://ghsia.wordpress.com/ ) I'm super excited about his project. I'm also really hoping this could lead some more international travel. We all know I have a thing for ghetto third-world countries. It looks like there are some definite possibilities there, so fingers crossed!

In between all those things there has been hiking, grandma time, weddings, seeing old friends, and all that stuff.

So that's it, folks. Update adjourned.

Freedom

I officially have my life back! I feel like I've been in a black hole for the last four or five weeks. Life in the black hole consisted of a solid month of 8-12 hour days of calculus problems (with virtually no breaks). I kind of brought this unfortunate situation on myself, but that didn't make it any less miserable. However, I am officially done with calculus as of 5:13 PM on Tuesday. One of these days I'll get around to posting about everything else that has been going on. For now, I'm just happy to have spare time again!

Portraits

I don't fancy myself a photographer, but these are some of my favorite portrait photos from my Madagascar trips. I was last in Mada a year ago, and I have been feeling quite nostalgic lately.