Oh youtube. . . .

My roommate Michelle introduced to the first video on the list, which made so totally thoroughly happy that I felt compelled to blog about it. In order to make this a more substantial blog post, here is a random assortment of my other favorite videos. Which I'm sure many of you already know.
My post inspiration:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0
Gutentaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKgBdrsqvjs
For those with a particular sense of humor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Tu0PAbW75A
Every one of these lists should include laughing babies. My favorite:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6kTJ5xZxDI
Great commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk7yqlTMvp8
Someday (resurrection) I will be able to quote movies at will and with perfection, like some people. In the meantime, this is the only video I can quote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oqy5TMVWYn0
(actually I just remembered I can quote Veggie Tales pretty well)

50 things that make me terribly happy

My friend Hannabeth had her friends compile lists of "10 things that make us terribly happy." Here is mine, only extended. I tried to make them all things that would completely make my day. I love making lists.

1) Blueberry-cranberry Haagen-Daaz sorbet
2) Sincere, unusual compliments
3) Banana Republic outlets
4) Acheiving personal goals
5) When I read my scriptures in the morning
6) Facebook friend requests
7) Scoring at the thrift store
8) Power tools (drills!)
9) Sushi samples at Macey's
10) When I get to pull out all the stops on the organ
11) Being in love when the seasons change
12) Pink tiger lilies
13) Any flowers, really
14) A new conference issue
15) When your last class gets out early
16) A date outfit that fits the occasion perfectly
17) Clean towels, sheets, and bathrobe.
18) Aaron Copland, Rachmoninoff, and Randy Travis
19) So You Think You Can Dance?
20) A good game of ultimate frisbee
21) Grape juice
22) Being able to serve someone
23) Thunderstorms
24) "Awesome Job!" "Way to Go!" etc. on the testing center screen
25) Mail--letters, packages, postcards
26) Puddlejumping
27) "beeeeeeeeeep. This is APX two-way testing. Please state. . . " Hasn't happened for a while, and I'll probably never hear it again, but I can still remember the pure joy.
28) New bars of soap
29) When the Pistons make a good trade (been a while)
30) Beating Matthew in Star Wars battlefront
31) Being 3/4ths of the way through a great book
32) Barnes and Noble. The smell, the chairs, oh man.
33) Knowing exactly where my license, debit card, and BYU id are.
34) Target trips
35) Driving over the speed limit with the windows down
36) Breathing in the air after getting off the plane from Utah to Virginia
37) Airport reunions
38) Boggle
39) Free t-shirts
40) That time during a campfire trip where everyone is chatting a little bit, but mostly just comfortably staring at the fire
41) Camping with my extended family
42) Sight-reading piano music
43) Waking up early in the morning, looking at the clock, and realizing that this is the day you can sleep in
44) The temple
45) The ocean
46) Fresh peaches (or tomatoes, or peas)
47) Western Virginia in the fall
48) Sitting next to a man who smells amazing and is paying attention to you
49) Air conditioning on a hot day
50) A pay raise

maybe someday I'll actually share this blog when I have something profound to say. . . . .

First, something ridiculous: As I pondered what to write about, the first thing I did was check facebook to see what I have been up to. Now that my credibility as a cool one is undermined. . . . . . some things in my life.

As you may have guessed, I have a new car! It's a 2007 silver Ford Taurus. Not too shabby for a college student. Well, I almost have a new car. My mother is driving it out to me in about two weeks. Which leads to the next awesome thing in my life. . .. .

My mother is coming out to visit me! She hasn't been able to be out here since she dropped me off freshman year as a baby college student. I am so excited to have her around. She's going to help me with my classroom. Which leads to the next amazing thing. . . . .

I have the keys to my school and classroom! It was a special experience walking into MY classroom for the first time. I'm going to be a real teacher. Dag. This next year could just be really amazing. My key-ring is so grown-up. Keys to cars, house, and schools! And a Smiths card.

Finals

1. Finals week is great. It's never as bad as the week right before it, the weather (at least winter semester) is perfect, and everyone is a little more cheery because it's all almost over.
2. Due to this blissful schedule, I have been reading my scriptures first thing when I wake up. The difference is incredible. Without even trying, I read twice as much and get four times as much out of it than those squeeze-it-in last thing at night sessions. Why don't I do this more often?
3. Countdown to California: nearly exactly 24 hours
4. Saturday I was priviledged to recieve free Tucanos. My mouth starts drooling at the very thought of it.
5. New term for the refridgerator: The Chirper.
6. Life has finally settled back to normal since the Event of the Century, ie, chopping off my hair. I no longer have the expectation that everyone will be as rocked by it as I was. Still love my hair, though.

My passions, in no particular order.

1. Haagen-Dazs cranberry blueberry sorbet. I just discovered this tonight. I was worried--sounded a little weird. Then I tried it. I was right. It's weird. And amazing.

2. Organ. I really wish I could communicate to the world how incredible it is to play this instrument. Part of the reason why is because it demands so much from you: the precision required is greater than the piano (at least at a basic level), your hands are both going, your feet are flying, and you are manipulating all the stops. And then, when it is done right, the music just fills the room in a way that makes my spine tingle every time.

3. Children's Books. I love reading, and my major has re-awakened in me a love for all those books that made me love reading in the first place. How can you not love Max, king of the Wild Things? Or not cry in Bridge to Terebithia? Or not laugh at Ron Weasley's exploits. If reading enlarges our world, then how important are those books that helped us it explore it first?

4. My family. My mother taught me just about everything, my father taught me the rest. David is the most diligent and guileless person I know. Funny, too. Matthew is everything I wanted to be at his age, except for the boy part. Man oh man, I love them all so much.

More (maybe I'll write the details about them later)

5. Independence/agency

6. The outdoors

7. The proper perspective on dating

8. Frisbee

9. Sight-reading

10. Randy Travis, Aaron Copland, Renee Fleming, and the Beatles.

11. Vermeer.

12. The Old Testament

13. Moroni 7 and 10.

14. The East Coast, and more specifically, Virginia.

15. Fashion