crazy roller coaster

Yay Phillies!!!!!
2008 World Series Champions

Today has been a range of emotions:
1) Philly won the World Series last night...I was excited and teary eyed.
2) I didn't sleep last night...I was grumpy today (but not too grumpy because the Phillies won)
3) I'm still 5 chapters behind in Statistics...I'm a little stressed
4) My computer crashed...I'm a little frustrated.
5) I FOUND A CHILDHOOD FRIEND ON MYSPACE!!! I'M SUPER EXCITED!!! (I have been searching for him for years...and finally found him!!!)

Utah fall colors

I went "hiking" with some friends. I walked ahead a bit and took this picture using the self timer. I thought it created a cool effect.


A sunset over Utah Lake

Mountains and fall colors


After the football game on Saturday, I took a nice walk up
to the Provo Temple in order to take some pretty fall pictures:

Pretty!

After lots of hard work, this is what I look like now.

life is grand

I'm much more content these days. I'm not really sure of the reason...maybe just a lot of people have been praying.

Tomorrow, I need to fill out my absentee ballot and mail it back in...I've been dreading trying to make the final decision of who to vote for.

OK, so I have yet to put my reasons for not supporting Prop 8 in writing. Things have been crazy. I haven't had much time to do anything. I did, however, watch the first game of the World Series tonight. Unfortunately, I was doing statistics homework at the same time. I wasn't able to concentrate much on either. BUT one of my roommates watched the last couple of innings with me. You have no idea how I excited I am about that.

College night sometime in Spring '07--it was cold!!

I finished a block class. I feel less stressed now. Even though I have a paper due tomorrow, I'm just using content from the paper I turned in last week for a different class ;) and I have a couple chapters of statistics that I should probably work on tonight. I need to hand in the stats lab tomorrow...I've been putting it off too long.

Well, I would just like to express my progress for some of my personal goals: it keeps me motivated and accountable.

So far, I have used 4 of my 5 personal training sessions. I think that I'm going to buy 5 more (well, more like my mom is giving me an early Christmas present) because it's keeping me in check with the resistance training--what I tend to avoid on my own. Since I joined the gym, I have lost 7 lbs so I'm excited. Hopefully my cute shirts will be flattering again by Christmas. (xcrossing fingersx). Speaking of the gym, I'm headed there now.

compliments

Sometime last week I went to meet with Dr. Stoker (one of my comm. professors) about a paper. Being Dr. Stoker, he asked how I was doing and if I was enjoying the program. I was honest: I love the program but am having a hard time with BYU itself. We talked about politics, my background, my family, and the huge adjustment I've had to make. He looked at me and replied, "Malinda, you seem to have made a lot of big adjustments in your life." Then he went on to list how I first went to Messiah College, how I joined the Church while I was there, how I lived in a third-world country, and then I came to BYU. He went to say that I "seem to be an adventurer" and continued to say how it's nice to have someone with a different opinion. I really needed to hear that. This Proposition 8 thing is making me feel like a social outcast. Sometimes, I wish I would have kept my mouth shut and my beliefs off of my Facebook profile. Yet, I know that in the end, I would have regretted not being true to myself. I'm not going to let the Spiral of Silence get to me.

I've been trying to write down why I don't support Proposition 8 and I've been trying to do so in a non-offensive way...it's hard. Maybe I'll take some time this week to do so (as well as work on my lyrics again). I think it would be beneficial to everyone (especially myself).

politcal stirring

I seem to be stirring up trouble all around me with my political views and personal opinions on Proposition 8. I like bringing a different opinion to the board. At least I feel like I can still think for myself. (I'm not trying to say that others can't...I just tend to get caught up in what others think that I don't take the time to figure it out on my own...whereas I can honestly say I've been doing so lately).

I am different than most BYU students, I'll be the first to admit it. For this reason, I was hesitant to come but I chose to anyway. The past 2 months has been a huge growing experience and I'm thankful for that opportunity.

lyrics

I've picked up my creative pen again (after a several year pause).
In attempts to write new lyrics, I came up with these:

With fear in our eyes
We walk down the street.
With fear in our eyes
We try to overcome these feats.
With the fear in our eyes
That only God can take away
He can heal these broken hearts
And help us start a brand new day.

OK, they're a little cheesy, I know. But it's my first attempt in awhile.

ecuador!!!

OK, I'm flooding my blogspot with posts today...but it's Sunday and I like to do this kind of stuff.

I just called my (much older) friend Carlos Murillo in Ecuador. I was so amazed at how my Spanish just came flooding back to me. I had the accent down and everything. It was very impressive. I can't take credit for it though. I think God had a lot of working in that.

I need to call/write to people in Ecuador more. I think I often feel like it takes too much effort to sit down and write a heartfelt letter in Spanish. What would take me 5 minutes in English would take me a half hour in Spanish...but I know that it would be worth it.

inbox answers

I just received this is in my Facebook inbox from A Verse a Week:

Life is full of important decisions. High school seniors - What college to attend? Anyone still in school at any level - what classes to take? College seniors - What next? Pretty much everyone - Where to live? Where to minister? What to do?

In big decisions such as these, we so often turn to everyone for guidance. Counselors, friends, employers, family, even random people we don't even know. But what about God? He has a plan for our lives, and if we turned to Him for decisions - big and small - if we followed His lead instead of the lead of those around us, we would go astray so much less often.

"With all your heart you must trust the Lord and not your own judgement. Always let Him lead you, and he will clear the road for you to follow." Proverbs 3: 5-6

Blessings!



I don't think anything else could have been better targeted to me.

randomness

The other day, I was walking through campus shortly after 6pm on my way back to the Brimhall building--it houses the communication department. I looked over and I saw three deer grazing in the small patch of grass between the Tanner building and the stairs that lead down to the Richards Building. As I paused to just watch them, it really surprised me that so many people just walked by without even taking a second glance. Three magnificent creatures were standing not even 15 feet away from me. How could anyone just walk by them without taking a second look?

Anyway, I'm still really torn about what to do. I really DON'T like it here. I am miserable 75% of the time. I don't think the degree is worth two years of misery.

I awoke this morning to a text message from Brian Vanderhoof: he (well actually his wife) had a baby this morning.

Normally, I'd be full of joy (because I love babies) but I found my response to this message being a "Oh" kind of response. (Let me catch people up--I dated Brian on and off for about three years...we were engaged twice). I'm not sure if that's a normal response or what. I don't even know why I'm writing this in here.

General Conference

Well, while I nodded off a couple times during Saturday's sessions, I highly enjoyed General Conference. It's one of those things that anyone can watch and take something away from. I know that if I were to sit down and watch it with my Messiah friends, they'd be inspired by many of the words said this weekend. I know I was despite my wavering faith. I especially liked President Monson's talk (I'm pretty sure it was him) about stop wishing for tomorrow or remembering yesterday but to rather live today. It fit perfectly into my last goal.

I admit that yesterday, great loneliness and homesickness fell upon me. Kellyanne was away with her family and Darla was watching General Conference shut away in her own bedroom. I was sitting in the living room all alone. It was quite sad. I've never experienced Conference that way. Then I thought of my Mormon friends throughout the world and realized that we were all watching the same thing at the same time. It brought me great comfort. Then later, after both sessions were over, I realized that it was Saturday night and I had no one to hang out with. When this realization hit, I longed to be back in Pennsylvania with my old friends. Shortly after the tears had started to fall, Kelly called!! It couldn't have been better timing. She cheered me up and I decided to spend my Saturday night at the gym reading my assignments for this week. It was rather nice actually.

I'm so thankful for the wonderful friends I have throughout the world.

dreary days

It's such a dreary day here in Provo, Utah. It's been raining all day. I hate dreary weather...especially when I'm all alone during it. It's emotionally draining. I tried to get some homework done today, but I nodded off several times. I'm going to leave in a bit and head to the gym in order to wake up myself (I just rearranged that sentence so that it would not end in a preposition but I think that it sounds funny now).

I found myself feeling very homesick today. It's just so lonely. I wish I had the guts to just go and knock on other peoples' doors in my apartment building. Maybe I'll do it someday, but I'm not really feeling up to it at this point. Plus, I know that I really need to get my work done. One of my friends from PA is in Utah right now and she'll be in town on Tuesday!! Yay!! So, I have to get my big assignment done before then.

On another note, has anyone ever heard of/read the Clique series? I just finished the book about Dylan for my research project. It made me feel horrible about myself. The whole book was this girl being obsessed about her looks to get a boy. She was a size six but lied and told everyone she was a size 4. Plus, I made a list of brand name product placements in the book.... I entered all of the brand names into Excel (according to each character they were related)...it took 2 pages to print it out. It's pretty ridiculous. If these books have this affect on a soon-to-be 23 year-old, what are they doing two 12 year-olds? I can only imagine.

Brimhall dwelling

Today, I spent nearly 13 hours in Brimhall, the communications department's building. I left once to walk to the Wilk (the student center) to buy myself a sandwich from Subway for dinner.

While today was very productive, unfortunately everything I accomplished was supposed to be done for today. Thus, I still have a load of work for tomorrow. It's currently 2:15am. I'm curious to see how long I'll make it.

So yes, Brimhall from 10am - 11pm. Crazy. Then I got back and knowing that I needed to keep my goal of going to the gym 4 times a week, I headed over there at about 11:30 and got back around 1:30. Craziness. But now, I had my workout, a nice shower, and I just ate some awesome granola...so I'm good to go.