Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Wuthering Heights.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book, I must admit that many aspects of it drove me up the wall. I don’t know what it is about the narcissistic characters that drew me in, but I wasn’t able to put the book down. I found myself turning page after page late into the night, and pondering on the events in my free time during the day.

With most of the story being told from the point of view of the house keeper, Nelly (she relays the lover’s story to the new owner of Thrushcross Grange, Mr Lockwood), the reader never really gets an in depth look into the character’s minds.

This left me with many questions. What was Heathcliff’s driving force behind his deeds? Why was Catharine so selfish? Did she really love Edgar? How would Edgar Linton remain with Catharine for so long? How could he forgive her? Why were children so selfish and spoiled back then?

Most of these are answered in the end, when the story comes together and the mistakes of the parents are forgotten by the children. Only the happy ending makes up for the puerile behavior of half the characters throughout the book.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a good love story. The language is a bit hard to understand in parts, as some parts of the dialect is written in heavy accents, and their verbiage is a little old-faashioned; but it is a very agreeable book, and I would delight in reading it a second time.

-xo bailey

Monday, September 20, 2010

There can never be enough food.


This week I made a new friend! Yeah!

His name is Christian McCall, and he's pretty cool. We met through Marie Christensen and ended up hanging out a few times. I thinkI mentioned him in an earlier post.



Anyways, Cristian and I are really good at a few things:

1. Talking. You can't shut us up.
2. Arcade games. 1,262 tickets in under an hour.
3. Finding car crashes.
4. Country dancing.
5. Cooking.
6. Eating.

So, here's the story.

I went to Nickel City with a few friends on Friday night, and invited him to come along since we were short on people and he's a pretty cool guy {like I said}. So, he came and we owned everyone at the games, and took home some stuff that I'm going to send out to my sister, Sophia. Well, neither of us had eaten so we decided to go to dinner, and invited everyone to come with us. No one wanted to because they had previous plans, so we went alone and made it a date. Chili's was fun {we enjoyed harassing the waiter} and then we went up to the top of some mountain because I had never seen the city from up there a night. After an hour or so of spotting all the police lights in the city, we decided we should go home.

On our way down the mountain, the car in front of us came to a stop a little ways down the road. Confused, we slowed down, and, to our surprise, found a Ford Mustang flipped completely over on the side of the road. It was messed up, and we were sure there would be no survivors. We jumped out of the car and Christian talked with the people in the car in front of us while I called 911 {Mind you, I sounded like a COMPLETE idiot on the phone with them because I had NO idea where we were}. As I did my best to help the dispatcher out, the others looked into the car and called out for any survivors {just incase}. No one was in the car!! We figured they had been ejected and began to search the surrounding woods. Nothing!
Finally, the other car decided to go down the road and see if, by some miracle, the driver and passenger were walking for help. They left us with one of their passengers who could perform CPR, and took off.

Not fifteen minutes later, they came back, followed by a cop car. Turns out the driver was fine {not a scratch on him!} and that he was the only one in the car. With the cop's permission, we left and headed home.

How's that for a first date?

Saturday, I got my hair done by Marie {she did AWESOME} and really enjoyed myself. While I was going through the process, Claire texted me and said that she really needed a friend, so I decided I'd go over to her place when I was done.

When I got there, I found out that she was having some guy troubles and that one guy in particular was really persistent about hanging out with her, alone {yeah, he turned my invite to come along down. Jerk}. Normally, I'd be okay with this, but she had been out with this guy the previous night and had gotten really bad vibes from him. She was not interested in him at all, and was scared to hang out alone. So, we decided that we'd just make it a double date so she could hang out with him to make him happy, and still feel safe. So, I called Cristian up and ran it by him and soon enough we were at my house deciding what to do.

After so negotiation, we chose to make dinner and some fun drinks. Jeff was still on his way, so we just planned the menu without him, figuring it'd be okay. Once he got to my place, we ran the food choices by him {Salad, Pasta with some homemade sauce, and a pastry dessert} he okayed them and we went to the grocery store.

While grabbing the items on our list, we noticed Jeff wasn't very enthusiastic about anything, and was constantly returning without the stuff we asked him to grab. Cristian and I knew something was up, and as soon we found Claire and Jeff, we discovered what it was.

Apparently, Jeff is 'lactose intolerant' {but he failed to mentioned that when we told him the menu}. So, he persuaded Claire into leaving Christian and I and going out to 5 Guys with just him. I was mad. I knew she didn't want to hang out with him alone, but she also didn't want to say 'no' a fifth time {earlier that day she told him 'no' many times, but he was very persistent}.

So, they dropped us off at my house and christian and I were left to cook all this food for the two of us. Once again, it turned into a date.



Don't get me wrong, it was a ton of fun, but I was miffed that we spent all that time planning and shopping for food to get ditched. The food was great though, and I had fun talking and getting to know my new friend better.



I learned that Christian:
1. Likes the color blue
2. Is loud like me!
3. Mountain Bikes
4. Long Boards
5. Is 2nd out of 4
6. Has a nephew




So, after dinner and dessert, we put in 'She's the Man'. About halfway through it, Claire returned to my house alone {she was doing laundry here} and relayed her night to us. It went exactly how I thought it would.

They went to 5 Guys where two of Jeff's friends joined them. She spent most of the night getting hit on by all three of them, and when she protested to go home after dinner, it was suggested that they could make her stay if they wanted to {she didn't drive, he did}. They boys wanted to get her this drink {which is pretty much like liquid marijuana} and make her 'relaxed'. Luckily she got them to take her to my place before they could make and irrational decisions.

No more Jeff for Claire.

That pretty much scared her enough to ignore his pursuits for good. She ended up staying and finishing the movie with us before I sent them both off for the night.

I'm really enjoying Provo, and hoping and praying that I get a job. The search is proving futile, but I'm trying not to give up. I know the Lord will bless me for my efforts.

I miss everyone in Florida so much and I can't wait to see them in December {I come home the 12th}!

xo-
Bailey

Monday, September 13, 2010

First Week in Provo, Utah!



This week has been simply AMAZING! I am so happy that I moved to Provo! I can finally be close to some of my best friends!

I got in late Sunday, after a quick reunion in Layton with a mutual friend of Rebecca and I: Malan Berg. It was so goo to see her! She's the cutest thing ever, and I hope that I'll get to see more of her now that I'm out west!

Once that was taken care of, we arrive in Provo around 10:30 pm, and unpacked at Claire's apartment! It was so good to see her! I have missed my best friend so much; a year is just too long! Since that night, we've hung out every day! We even went that same night to see Alice Runmey on her birthday! Another friend that I had missed for too long!



Monday, we went to her grandparent's house and had a wonderful dinner! Her grandparents are so sweet and her family is so much fun! It was a blast playing in the yard with her three cousins {9, 7, & 4; all boys} and just chatting with Beth, her sister, and their Aunt.




After that, I would switch off between Alice and Claire as they went to classes. I even had the chance Tuesday night to see Kendl Hansen and Marshall Gibson!

Saturday, Claire and I went to the Cocoa Bean, a small cafe which specializes in non-cafinated hot drinks and jumbo cupcakes. It was sooo good! I got a mint flavored 'frappe' and a mint chocolate cupcake and Claire got a raspberry cheesecake cupcake! I definitely found a new favorite food shoppe.





I also had the opportunity to meet Elder Christensen, a missionary who served in my ward, 's sister, Marie. She's seriously the sweetest person I have ever met! And she's SO much fun to hang out with!!! She cooked me dinner, and I met her awesome roommates who also were way fun and super nice! After that, we gathered up a few boys from the neighboring apartment and headed over to a country dance where I got thrown around like a sack of potatoes! What an experience! My love for dance was rekindled and I spent the night learning awesome moved with Christen, a boy we invited! He's super funny and super sweet! I'm glad I'm making friends!!

Sunday brought about 'Regional Conference', where my roommates and I {who are super awesome and all graduated} drove up to the Marriott to listen to Elder Holland, Sister Beck, Elder Snow, and President Packer all speak! It was so amazing and spiritually uplifting! It's so interesting to see everyone act so natural about Apostles of the Lord come and visit the campus! That night we listened to Elder Scott give a wonderful fireside on marriage; though, afterwards I felt really single. Two of my roommates have long term boyfriends, so my singularity is often shoved in my face, but I cannot complain. They are super sweet about it and I think I'm really going to like living here!!!

Well, I'll try and take as many pictures as I possibly can now that I'm finally here in Provo! For now, the ones posted are all I have! I've got to go now and see Elder Dunn, or rather, Aaron Dunn since he's off his mission now! How cool is it to see all of these missionaries that served in my ward! Elder Christensen comes home soon as well! I cannot wait to see him!!


xo-
Bailey

Cooking Experience!




Sorry it's taken so long to update my blog! I left my camera cord in Florida and just got the package my mom sent today. What fun is a blog without pictures?

Any way, my existence in Rexburg, Idaho was short lived, and I now reside in lovely Provo, where I will be attending Brigham Young University in January, 2011; however, much occurred in my life since the last update.


For one, I took up cooking! Yeah, me, hater of all things dealing with the oven, am now an avid 'chef'. I guess I needed something to take up my free time I usually spent waiting for Rebecca and Travis to get off work. After calling my mom for some recipes, I headed over to the grocery store to get my ingredients and begin learning to fend for myself.

Among the said recipes was shepherds pie,




black beans and rice,




baked ziti,




beef stroganoff


and spaghetti.


I even invited some friends over to feed them, and often took my leftovers to my neighbors, or fed my roommates.

Such enthusiasm!

[from left to right: Mark, Chris, Travis, Marco, Rebecca]

Look how happy they all are!!


No one complained! Everyone loved my food!! I was so happy to know that I could bring happiness to my friends through food!

Then one day, while meandering through the BYU-Idaho Bookstore, I came across a cookbook entitled 'Sandra Lee: Weeknight Wonders'. Intrigued, I invested the twenty some-odd dollars it cost, and left, hopeful of the future. It wasn't long before I was cooking straight from the book! With the hep of Rebecca and Travis, we cooked a whole new kind of shepherds pie along with a delicious eclair like dessert that we shared with Andrew, one of the Malott's tenants {they manage guys housing}. To my surprise, all four of us thoroughly enjoyed the meal, as did mine and Andrew's roommates!

Unfortunately, I was to caught up in the excitement to remember to take pictures, but I promise that the next time I make dinner, I'll post it!


Beautiful flowers that Mark got me!

Aside from the cooking, I met tons of wonderful people who really helped enhance the BYU-I experience. I miss them all terribly, especially Rebecca and Travis, to whom I am eternally grateful. They have been such a wonderful support system through my trying times away from my family! I love them so much, and cannot WAIT to see them again!!!!

xo-
Bailey