See Here!

You might want to hit MUTE for a second at 2:04. You’ve been warned.

When I actually manage to get more than three hours sleep at a time I have crazy dreams. Last night, after a sequence of insane events, I found myself standing in a desert with Andy and some friends from BYU. I turned to Jake Drzayich and asked him ‘Did people in S. Korea have a hard time pronouncing your surname?’ but then he didn’t reply because we all got distracted watching a Royal Mail Delivery Truck zoom out of the sky and land on a nearby airstrip. I said ‘How did you think ‘airmail’ got delivered?’ I think my mind thinks it’s funnier than it is.

This picture seemed relevant.

I found these pictures on my computer too. Eden was such a cute little baby. It’s crazy she’s growing into a little girl now. I love her little dino teeth. I may have posted these before but I’m too lazy to check. These photos put me in a good mood this morning.

I just found these photos hiding on my computer and they made me miss Summers in Utah. Marco Polo in the Marriott pool, Mario Kart until 3am every night, midnight bike rides and all that.

In one of my many posts about my birthday I said that ‘Andy Sang To Me’. I felt the need to clarify that he did not whip out his guitar and serenade me with something by 98°, he sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY. And in response to Eric’s light ribbing about me being so enthusiastic about my French Dictionary: come now, we’re in a recession! Aaaand if you heard me attempt to speak French you’d be glad I got a dictionary & pronunciation guide too.

I’m twenty-four. I don’t feel old, of course, but I feel like I’m gaining aging momentum. Twenty-four is a funny age. The world’s prodigies are all younger than me now.

I love flowers. If Andy buys me flowers, he makes sure all the buds are closed so that I can watch them opening. He bought me some beautiful lillies for my birthday and one of the buds just started opening this afternoon. I love them. The flat looks more alive because of them.

I had the best birthday.

Andy made me a pizza.

Which we ate with Tyson. It was the best pizza base I have ever eaten in my life. I love pizza, but Andy makes this magical dough I could subsist on for the remainder of my days. Here’s Emaciated Tyson, who needs to eat more pizza dough:

Andy also sang to me, and gave me a chocolate cake. I forgot to make a wish when I blew out the candles but it doesn’t matter since I probably would have wished for something dumb like ‘delicious treats’. I can’t make sound wishes under pressure. I’m sure Aladdin understands.

I got a French Dictionary for my birthday which was the best present of all time. I’m trying my best to learn French and French is trying its best to hate me. I can’t wrap my mouth around the majority of the words I want to say, and I’m thoroughly intimidated by French. I have no confidence in my foreign language abilities and get scared and nervous when Andy encourages me to say something in French so instead of just giving the sentence my best show, I act like an imbecile and recite a line of poor French with a flat, english accent. Half to disguise the fact I suck and half to hide the fact I wish I was less self-conscious about adopting a French accent. I’m making progress though. I now know the days of the week and can string a couple simple sentences together. Like “I am going to brush my teeth” or “They are going to become lawyers”. My dad got me a copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in French, so I’m using the dictionary to learn new words from it. I’m also using Madame Thompson (from BYU’s) text, Mais Oui! which I stole from Rachel. It’s slow going but I swear that by the time I’m twenty-five I’ll be able to say more than ‘Bonjour’. Maybe ‘Bonjour’ AND ‘Merci’.

Andy also got me some lillies and made me a card. I wish I could post a photo of the card but I have a feeling Andy would be unimpressed with me. We’re kind of attached at the hip since we live in a one-room flat, share a computer, and even if we’re pursuing different hobbies, we’re doing them parallel to each other. He therefore had about 4 seconds to make me a card during my abscence from our room in which I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I love the card and think it’s genius, but he seems under-impressed with himself.

I’m excited to be twenty-four. I haven’t won a pulitzer, or co-founded an empire with Jay-Z like SOME other under-twenty-four year olds, but I feel treasured anyway and am excited about what this year might bring.

We went to the Natural History Museum for my birthday! The exhibits were obviously elementary, but it’s a beautiful building and I like to pretend that the earth you pass through in the Earth Room is actually the Death Star. Only now they’ve added hippy music to the experience (and projections of questions like “WHAT WILL WE DO WHEN THE EARTH DIES?!” on the mantle of the earth) and that kind of changes things.

I like the dinosaur stuff. I like feeling small next to the casts of dinosaurs and I liked the animatronic teenager T-Rex a lot. If I were a dinosaur I’d like to think I’d be a tricerotops but in reality, I’d probably be something useless, like a diplodocus. Andy and I had a great time just moseying around and messing with the interactive optical illusion displays. It’s still really novel to me to have someone with whom I can do anything, everything, or nothing at all and still have a good time. I think I’m still classed as a newlywed though, so it’s still cool that I’m infatuated.

My parents gave me a card with some £ in it for my birthday, so Andy and I could go out and eat something other than tuna sandwiches. The manager had to move us from our table and reseat us elsewhere. He gave us free drinks for the ‘inconvenience’ and we got Mango Lassi and Apple & Pear juice. I tell you this because fancy fruit drinks are among my favourite things and I believe this to have been a birthday miracle.

Now I really want a glass of apple juice. Urgh. All we have is milk or water. That won’t work.