marcel the shell.

ever hear about an awesome video, but you can't help being super skeptical about it-cause there is no way it can be as entertaining as it sounds-yet, by some miracle it is a bajillion times better than you imagined and you end up watching it over and over?           

that totally happened to me today.

a good friend of mine was talking about a hilarious youtube video, i trust them so i knew it would be funny, but i was skepital. i figured i'd chuckle and wonder "why i am watching this?".  i just didn't think it would be as great as numa numa, can i have yo numba?, evolution of dance, bed intruder song or any of the most hysterical internet videos. then...i watched marcel the shell

i chuckled, i for sure wondered why i was watching it, and then i laughed so hard i almost spurted coke out my nose (don't worry too much it was of the cola variety). basically, i was wrong and marcel the shell is totally hilarious! but you don't have to take my word for it, go ahead check it out: 

http://youtu.be/VF9-sEbqDvU

5. youtube videos that make you laugh and are totally quotable. 

cheesecake before sandwich.

it’s 12:30 exactly, i just checked the time on my cell. i have about a half hour to eat before i need to go to my next class and i swear this line isn’t moving at all. my head is pounding likely because i’m dehydrated and starving. fortunately, the guys behind me in line are having an interesting conversation. i’m considering chiming in with my own thoughts about their awesome ideas, but it’s too embarrassing to admit that i am eavesdropping and so i stay silently looking forward. finally, i’m next in line. heck yes! i’m gonna get the delicious turkey harvest sandwich and a slice of cheesecake. oh! come on. i can’t believe this guy, in-front of me, didn’t use the 10 minutes we waited to decide what he wants. did i just hear my name? ok i’m loosing it, thats how hungry i am and how bad this headache is. wait, that totally sounds like my name. 

so as it turns out someone was saying my name. it was my former roommate, ren. i love her! she lovingly bounded up to me and gave me a huge hug and insisted that i sit with her and her friend. we had a wonderful little chat over lunch. i ate a few bites of my cheesecake first and then my sandwich. sitting there chatting with friends i wonder why most people wait to have dessert. is it to save the best for last? or just because that's how it has always been done? i like to be a bit different. why wait til you’re too full to  enjoy the sweetness of life? i have a bit of dessert first. 

4. eat a bit of dessert first. enjoy the sweetness of life when you want to.

dinosaurs.

every so often, I get use my creativity and genius at college. these moments are rare, yet totally awesome! so far no other class has let me have as much fun with scholarly stuff than my geology 100: dinosaurs class.  today a two page paper was due titled: "dinosaurs in my backyard." each of us needed to discuss whether or not we could find dinos back in our home states. lets just say i took this paper very seriously. 

Dinosaurs in my Backyard  

(I know it sounds like I'm in the third grad again :))

little sister running from dino

Last year, while digging around in our backyard my brother found some petrified wood and some extremely old bones that most likely came from a deer that died a few years ago. In all our family outings and excavations throughout Washington State we have uncovered fossils, rare stones, and bones, but we have never found a dinosaur. Nor is there any record that any dinosaur bones have been found in the glorious Evergreen State. Then how come this is a picture of my little sister running from a dinosaur in Vantage, Washington at the Ginkgo Petrified Forest one of the many Washington State Parks?

As it turns out Washington soil has yielded many different fossils, gem stones, and petrified woods, but no dinosaur bones. It is just plain cool  or tacky, depending on your point of view, to have a statue of a dinosaur outside a museum. The dinosaur statue brings in the crowds because people want to know what pre-historic meat eaters roamed the plains before them. But if you ask the ranger on site or check out the Washington State Department of Natural Resources website they will tell you the truth: no dinosaur bones have been found in the state. Even though it is unlikely that dinosaur bones will ever be discovered due to the oceanic climate during the day of the dinosaur, everyone seems to remain hopeful that one day they will be discovered. Due to the rare chance of such a find the WA DNR believe that this type of discovery it would be found by rockhounds instead of by geologists. Never fear dino lovers! Dinosaur bones are on display at Burke Museum at the U of W in Seattle and many dinosaur sites and museums exist throughout North America-some of which are close to Washington. 

blah blah blah... (sciencey paragraphs that no one except the TA who has to grade my actual assignment will read) ...skip to the end.

Whether it is in an ancient coastal formation in British Columbia, in rocks of Utah, or plains in China, it is truly amazing that geologists and rockhounds alike can find evidence of ancient life. The evidence comes in many different forms, such as fossils of bones, poop, feathers, etc. and yet paleontologists are able to determine from a few footprints found in Canada some of the characteristics of the Columbosauripus. It continues to amaze me that my home Spokane, Washington was probably under miles of ocean in the dinosaurs’ day or at the very least it had an ocean view. As in real-estate paleontology is all about location, location, location. And because of the changes in the land over time and the vast amounts of vegetation currently growing, I probably will never find a dinosaur fossil in my parents backyard, but nothing is better than getting to see real dinosaurs roam the land. (I'm not talking Jurassic Park either.)  Maybe when I go home for Thanksgiving I’ll visit the chicken farm down the road and leave the fossil finding to the geologist in other states. 

3. assignments. they can be fun if you let them.

locked out.

saturday i was locked out of my apartment, for ten whole minutes! surprisingly, this is not the first time this has happened to me. i know! crazy right? actually i've found myself locked out of my house, apartment, room, car, bathroom, and locker...come to think of it...i've also been locked out of a library, the hotel i worked at, a staircase, and i'm sure the list could go on. it is not like i'm an irresponsible person or anything like that. each situation was completely different. saturday, i misplaced my key and ten minutes later my roommate came home and let me in the apartment :]      a few weeks ago, i got home late on a friday night/saturday morning and discovered my room has a lock on it that i didn't know about. after attempting the vast number of lock-picking techniques that can be found on youtube, i called a locksmith because well...lets just say that my door has a state-of-the-art anti-pick lock on it and i didn't want to sleep on the couch or in the bathtub. 2 hours and 55 dollars, after getting home i was finally able to climb into my cozy bed.

i've forgot the keys and/or my combination, i've been too early or too late, i've accidentally walked out locked doors without means to get back in, you get the picture. the point is each time no matter how different the situation was i felt the same thing, maybe you have too,  first denial:  it can't be locked, i'll try it again. usually followed by a form of guilt:  of course, i should have remembered... then i might get a tad bit upset: really!?! why is this happening to me? and at this point i might even try to conjure up super human strength and break the lock, but usually it just looks like me shaking/pulling on the lock with an upset "why me?" look on my face. after the struggle, depression and loneliness set in i know i'm locked out and there seems to be no hope, i am doomed to be a homeless person who can't open a lock (this is not my proudest or most logical moment). yet somehow i realize that there is hope: i remember that somewhere there is someone who can help me. i pray to know how to help myself, or who i can ask that can to help me. after a test of my patience, i am rescued. 

who likes being locked out? i sure don't enjoy the freaking out part, or the sense of helplessness. yet, there is that jolt of adrenaline that screams: you are alive, you have things worth living for. Being locked out makes me remember all the wonderful people i have in my life, people who are always wiling to help me. i have a few seconds to be grateful for the places and things that i take for granted, especially having a home and a car. i'm reminded why i wanted in in the first place. being locked out humbles a person and well from time to time i need the humbling. 

2. being locked out reminds us of all the reasons we wanted in.

my very own blog.

so…this is my blog. my very own blog. i’ve wanted to start it for awhile, and i finally got the guts to do it :] it’s not like i’m new to the blogging world: i’ve posted my thoughts about my dull classes on many different assigned blogs for lazy professors and the whole wide world to see. instead of yammering away about this article or that lecture, all i really wanted to do was write about something else…usually anything else. then one day it hit me, an epiphany or something, i should write about what i actually know…then i remembered in my 20 years of life i don’t really know much. i’m not that good at grammer, and i probably have already misplaced a few commas in this post, i don’t have too much life experience, wisdom, or education, i probably know more about harry potter than united states history…but i do know about my life. i haven’t done much, but what i have done are things worth living for. so this blog will serve as my reminder of what a miracle life is. i want to remember all the reasons to live, or maybe a better way to phrase it is: to prove i lived, moments that weren’t just sucking up air wasting space. most of them will be personal things that i’ve done or that have happened to me, but if you’re reading this i’m fairly certain you are human or possibly an extra terrestrial with earthly internet access, either way most of the things on my blog will probably match up with things you’ve done too, things that prove you’ve lived. maybe one of my little reasons will inspire you to try something new, different, fun, crazy, wonderful, peaceful. so here’s to living and blogging about it. :]

1. starting a blog just for me and maybe a few readers that find what i have to say worth their time.