A Year in the Making

Ah, 14 years old. The time in any young teenage girls life where everything revolves around boys. Everywhere you go your looking over your shoulder hoping to see that perfect boy. You seem to have this fairy tale vision in your head: you and said perfect boy lock eyes realizing at once that you two were meant for each other, he runs over and sweeps you off your feet (literally) and your lips lock into the most perfect kiss you can imagine (which really isn’t that perfect considering you haven’t even had your first kiss yet so you really have nothing to compare it to – but that’s beside the point right?).

I was the epitome of previously described 14-year-old girl. It seemed everything in my life revolved around boys. The nice thing about having this be my obsession was it was also my aunt’s obsession and she was only about a year older then I was. So at every family outing the two of us were always ‘on the look out’.

My family has a time share on a house boat down at Lake Powell and so every summer we would spend a week down there ‘catching up’ with each others lives. This also turned out to be great ‘guy watch’ time. Pathetic, I know. I remember many times cruising down the channel, with my grandparents no less, and checking out the guys (I guess we can’t really call them ‘guys’ at this stage of life right? Should I use ‘boys’?) in other boats.

The summer after my eighth grade year was no different. Darcy (my aunt) and I spent our days down at Lake Powell lounging on top of our house boat waiting for any ‘hot boys’ to pass. There seemed to be a drought of ‘hot boys’ that year so I think we got to the point that any boy within our age rage would pass as eye candy.

This year was also my first year wearing a ‘two pieced’ swimming suit. It was a strange and exhilarating feeling all rolled into one. I finally felt like a woman. I was finally going to get the attention that I deserved… all due to showing my stomach… or at least that’s what my 14-year-old mind was telling me.

One exceptionally hot day Darcy and I were lounging on the top of the house boat after a nice dip in the lake when we saw a house boat about the size of ours pull onto the beach across the canyon from us. We watched as a plethora of boys piled out of the cabin onto the top of their house boat. We took one look at each other and immediately knew what we needed to do. This called for the first ‘real’ shower we had taken all week and possibly firing up the generator to blow dry and curl our hair.

Darcy was the first to be done getting ready, spending a good 55 minutes as opposed to my 65 minutes, so she was already sprawled out upon our air mattress that we were going to use to ‘accidentally’ float across that canyon to said boys house boat, when I appeared on the back of the boat. I kindly asked Darcy to paddle back and pick me up seeing as the mattress had floated a good five feet away from where I was standing. Darcy politely refused (we were always so nice to each other…) and I was left with thinking up some brilliant plan as to how I could get from the back of the house boat to the air mattress completely dry.

I pondered for a moment as I looked around and took in my surroundings. My uncles friend Brian was sitting in a lawn chair watching my predicament as were the ‘cute boys’ across the canyon. I knew I had to do something awe inspiring. After just a few more moments of pondering a light bulb went off in my head. I would commence to jump belly first and land on the air mattress gracefully. I once again looked around to make sure that everyone was watching and then launched myself from my dry stable ground hoping that in a few brief seconds I would feel the air mattress underneath me.

I closed my eyes as soon as I was airborne and looking back that was probably a good idea considering had I seen what was coming there would probably have been a loud shriek followed by some thrashing of limbs. Instead of feeling the softness of the air mattress as I landed I felt the ice-cold smack of the waters of Lake Powell hit me and knock the air out of me. This was not what I had expected. I sucked in a breath feeling the cold water fill my lungs as I quickly scrambled to the surface. My head popped out of the water and I sputtered water everywhere. I could quickly tell that the mascara that I had so carefully applied to my eyelashes was running down my face.

And then I heard the laughter. It was coming from the air mattress, the back of our house boat and across the canyon. I looked around to see the source of the laughter but instead my eyes landed on my swimming suit top floating a couple feet away from me. How it happened to dismantle itself from my body and float a couple feet away I will never know. All I do know is that the blood quickly drained from my face as I grabbed it and tried to cover myself.

This was quite possibly the most humiliating experience I had yet to have and the next thing I heard made it almost unbearable. From the back deck of my house boat my uncles friend who had seen the whole debacle loudly stated:

“Now Megan, that is something I will NEVER forget.”

Apparently I won’t ever forget it either.

Killing Two Yaks With One Potato

I tagged myself from Taren’s blog.

Here's how it works: List 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 surprising facts about yourself. Then tag 5 people at the end of your post and leave them a comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

3 Joys:

1. Traveling and the beach

2. My family

3. Kittens

3 Fears:

1. Loosing someone I love

2. Getting older

3. Heights

3 Goals:

1. Finish school

2. Learn to play the guitar

3. Up date my blog at least once a week??

3 Obsessions/Collections:

1. High School Musical! HSM

2. Ice cream

3. The beach

I don’t really collect anything. I tend to throw things away too quickly to collect them.

3 Surprising Facts About Me:

I’m a pretty open person so there’s not many things that I can say that will surprise people but here I go anyways:

1. My favorite number is 8. It has been 8 since before I can remember and I really don’t know why.

2. I love driving by myself for extended amounts of time. It is the best time to think.

3. I love use to be really self conscious and awkward around people. (Surprising, I know. Haha.)

I’m also not tagging anyone. But anyone who reads this can totally steal the idea!

Bug Glasses and Orange Rainboots

East Coast Top Ten

#10. Dressing like a Hannah Montana superhero going to a slumber party is in fact the best social outfit ever! Yes that’s right, HM shirt with HM pillow case wrapped around my neck. Everyone was jealous of my ingenuity!

#9. Awesome tan lines!! I.E. flip flop tan lines on my feet!

#8. My bug glasses and bright orange rainboots. I figured they needed to make it somewhere into the post considering this post was named after them. (But I have been known to name certain posts about absolutely nothing that related to the actual post.) These were my staple ‘look’ for the summer. Yes I had a ‘look’ and it was quite… er… ferocious? My glasses, which take up half of my face, were purchased for $8.00 in china town and my awesome rainboots (which saved my life many times) were purchased for $20.00 from Target.com. (I believe they have already made an appearance in my blog. Oh well.)

So basically everyday I looked wicked hot! No really. Nooooo Reeeeaaaalllllyyyy!

#7. This summer was the first time that I have actually been skinny dipping. Scandalous I know! But before you judge me let me explain myself… It was the middle of the night, pitch black (you seriously couldn’t see anything), four girls and we were only there for TOPS twenty minutes. So it really wasn’t too scandalous. But now every Myspace survey that I fill out that asks the question “Have you ever been skinny dipping,” I will be able to answer “Yes.” Profound experience… I know.

#6. Critter shorts, critter shoes, staff t shirts, spandex, bright colors, crocs, crazy awesome earrings from Wal Mart, Wal Mart clothes in general, millions of bracelets on one arm, no make-up, and dressing up as anything under the sun NEVER goes out of style.

#5. Hot Australians

#4. The art of perfect s’more and pizza bagel making.

#3. I am a pretty darn good whale watcher... which is interesting because I have the worst eyes in the world! But I did see many whales out in the middle of the Atlantic…

Which brings me to another point (That doesn’t get another number because it was on the same day) When you walk about halfway out into the ocean to a sand bar that takes you out to an island make sure that the tide doesn’t start coming in because the sand bar that got you there will start disappearing.

#2. We’re all in this together. (Yes, that is from High School Musical.)

#1. You can learn a lot about yourself and others by taking yourself out of your comfort zone and doing something completely foreign to you. (Like being a camp counselor… definitely something foreign.)

How To Live A Better Life

Just a little video that they showed us at the beginning of camp before the kids got there. Enjoy :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rx-yXGXNstU

A post from my old Blog - Also not funny

Yoga: To perceive the constant union, unity, or copulation with the divine self in every breath, in every moment, in every activity, and in every achievement. Yoga is the way one can perceive divinity manifested in the whole universe as well as in the entire body.

Back last February I had a coworker take me to a Bikram Yoga class. I had done yoga before at our local gym but I had never experienced anything quite like this. I didn’t know what to expect so I wore my regular gym clothes, which consisted of capris and a baggy t-shirt – bad idea. We walked into the studio a bit late and so we hurriedly put our mats down in the back of the room. There were about 15 people in the class and then one big mirror in the front of the room. The first thing that you notice when you walk in is the temperature of the room. To be true Bikram Yoga – or Hot Yoga as it is sometimes called – the temperature in the room must hit 105 degrees – definitely hotter then your average fitness class.

Bikram is composed of 26 poses – or asanas – each of which are performed twice in sequence and held for what can feel like forever. The first half of the set is the standing poses and the second half is the floor poses. The goal of all of these poses is to stretch your muscles and release all of the toxins in your body. Even though there are other people in the room you only are supposed to concentrate on yourself – how can you compare yourself to your neighbor? You have two completely different bodies!

The very last pose is Shavasana – or the corpse pose. This is designed to quiet the mind and as my teacher says “Thoughts may come but don’t dwell on them. Let them run through you”. Your supposed to keep your eyes open and ‘stay present in the room’ but truthfully all I ever want to do is close my eyes and fall asleep.

By the end of the class you are absolutely pouring sweat. Seriously, stepping out of that class I feel as if I am stepping out of the shower – just not anywhere near as clean. But by the time I am home, showered and in bed I am really able to marvel at how good I feel. So, if you have the chance I would recommend trying Bikram Yoga. But go twice at least – I promise after the first time you will want to throw in the towel – this is the only way to get to know how truly wonderful Bikram is!

Santa Baby

"I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so you can learn to let go. Things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they are right. You believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself. And sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together."

-Marilyn Monroe

I find it interesting that people quote things that Marilyn Monroe said. She wasn't exactly a dignitary, politician, philosopher or anything of that nature. She was an actress. Yet I read this quote and I liked it a lot so I decided that I would share it.

I feel like I am at a turning point in my life right now. Last year I went through a lot of changes. And by a lot I mean A LOT! I didn't exactly handle the changes very well which in turn led me to be someone I wasn't. But I am over that stage in my life now and I feel I am moving on. Maine def. helped :). I am relating a lot to the "sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together," part of M.M.'s quote.

Um, this post wasn't very funny which is kinda sad because I am typically a very funny person. I apologize for the unfunniness of this quote and promise to have a laugh out loud hillarious post next time!

OOheee It's Where I Wanna Be

I have been MIA for a couple months now. Sorry about that! I actually have been in Maine being a camp counselor for the summer. This was a HUGE learning experience in my life and I really feel like it has changed me a lot. It was also one of the hardest summers of my life. Basically we were on a rigid schedule from 7:30 in the morning until 10:00 at night. I couldn't ever call in sick to work (even though there were a few days when I know I should have), I couldn't sleep in, I had to always being worrying about someone else that wasn't myself (in most cases multiple people) and I basically had to 'grow up'. There was never a time during the summer when it was allowable to be selfish, lazy, arrogant, obstinant etc. If you couldn't tell: I had a blast!

Maine is gorgeous! If you ever get the chance to go I would def. say do it! It is so different then this mountaineous desert that we live in. There aren't any mountains at all actually but there are very large trees! Everything is green (this might stem from the fact that it rained half the summer). Our camp was about 1.5 hours out of Portland. We were in the middle of no mans land. I did get to travel around Maine a little bit and everywhere was just as gorgeous as where we were. We went up to Booth Bay Harbor and it was quite possibly the cutest harbor I have ever seen. We went Whale Watching there and wow... that was an experience.

Not only was the place gorgeous but I also got to make many new friends and experience a different way of life. There were camp counselors there from all around the world! One of my friends was from Australia and he was possibly the funniest person I have ever met! We had completely different views of the world and morals and what not but it didn't matter. It was interesting explaining what I believe to so many different people. I was told more then once that I was the first LDS person they had ever met which was weird for me because I live in Utah. And I finally met my first TRUE hippie. We're talking no underwear, no cell phone, belief in reincarnation, life long dream: to travel the coast in a van and surf all day everyday and the list goes on and on. He was amazing and so fun to have conversations with! Basically everyone I met out there I absolutely loved!

Coming back was really hard for me. My first full day back in Utah I basically just wanted to cry. I love everyone here and I was so grateful to see my family but I was already missing Maine. I didn't want to come back and get submersed in all of the drama of life again (which by the way I am not letting myself get submersed back in all of that so don't even try! hehe). At camp everything was so care free. When you went to bed at night the second your head hit the pillow you were out like a light. There was nothing to keep you up worrying about. So basically that is my goal for here... not to let things get to me like I used to! I'm doing good so far! :)

I am glad to be back and I am glad to see everyone! I missed the mountains... weird I know, I missed floating down Provo River with my friends (which was amazing let me tell you!), I missed being able to eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, I missed my soft bed and I missed being able to do things without having daddy long legs everywhere!! Hallelujiah!

So in short: Camp was a great experience. Go if you have the chance. Go to Maine if you have a chance. Don't get submersed in random drama that doesn't matter. And KILL ALL DADDY LONG LEGS!!!

Quote of the Day:

Do what makes you happy,
Be with who makes you smile,
Laugh as much as you breathe,
Love as long as you live.