I Go to Extremes

Sometimes I feel like Billy Joel exists solely to teach life lessons to twenty and thirty somethings who are graduating to lite-rock from their alternative, metal, or emo pasts.  Lessons like: life will be more enjoyable if you seduce young catholic girls (Only the Good Die Young), have massive mood swings (I go to Extremes), and are declared legally insane (You May be Right).

But me and good old Billy have that in common at least.  I wouldn't necessarily call myself dramatic... (yes I realize that others definitely would) but I am willing to admit that perhaps I am prone to extremes.  It's like someone once told me that it's unacceptable to have an ambivalent reaction to things--I must either love it or hate it.  So I have a laundry list of things that I "hate" that honestly I just really couldn't care less about.

Curiously (but not really surprisingly--because it is after all a documented psychological phenomenon)  I find that the more these things come up, and the more I have to defend my position of distaste, the more I actually really do dislike it.  So basically I have convinced myself to dislike such innocuous things as:

Monkeys (I really do not like them.  They are the worst.  And I have no good reason.)

Windows 7

Florida.  The entire state.  And everything associated with it.  Nothing good has come from there.

Professional Sports

March

The UW... and WaSU, Florida and Florida State, USC, MSU and UM... and Ohio?  Holy Cow I hate a lot of colleges. (arguably I can blame some of my sports preferences on my Dad, but since I'm just sort of stealing his opinions I still can't successfully argue why I think the way that I do)

Masks.  They actually seriously freak me out.  I blame that book I read when I was 7.

The PAC 10

Baseball

Anne Hathaway

Cats

Also Cats (arguably a good reason)

Jack-In-The-Box

My Floral Design professor... I mean she was annoying... but really no good reason.

A Walk to Remember

These are all opposed to things I actually dislike for good reasons:

Stomach aches (Why don't we just call them stomaches?  I think it would save at least four keystrokes.  Time I could be spending on things like blinking. Or rolling my eyes.)

Chocolate

Playing that Clue/Telephone/Charades game I'm terrible at.

Playing really any kind of circle game where someone is on the spot.  They're terrible.

Kyle Whittingham.  And his Football team.  Toss up.

At least opinions make life interesting I guess.

On the other side I've also convinced myself that I absolutely love things for no good reason.  Things like Russia, European Monarchical History, the 80s, and Duke University.  And Wednesdays.  No good reason... but I think they're great

Starting out on a Journey

Well, its official.  I am a brand new me.

And just like the actually-dead Romanov princess, I find myself heading out into an unknown future, full of promise, possibility, and probably a lot of adventure.  Because, after all, whats a journey without a little bit of adventure?  And if I happen to defeat an undead ex-orthodox priest on the way, then so much the better.

Within the space of 14 days I found a brand new, full-time, year-round job, purchased my first car (totally by myself), and found somewhere new to live.  Crazy, eh?  I'm not feeling snarky today--which is a shame, I think I do my best writing when I'm snarky--so you'll just have to let an ordinary update suffice without my biting wit.

And can I just say that I found a job in my major, which is incredibly ironic because I never expected to actually work within my degree.  But its kind of actually my dream job.  Basically I sit on the computer all day rearranging furniture and picking out textiles in CAD and CET.

My car is a 2006 Mercury Mariner.  He's blue.  And I like to call him Ichiro, or Ichi for short.  Hes not so much a baseball player as he is Seattle's current favorite Mariner.

I thought about changing the name of my blog, because I am, currently, at a destination.  But I guess the thing about a journey is when one finishes, it always seems to mark the beginning of the next.  When are we not on a journey of some kind?  But ultimately I decided that "Finally Arriving at a Temporary Destination With the Intent to Relocate in 2-5 Years" just didn't have quite the same ring to it.

So here I am in Anchorage.

Consider yourself in the loop.

The Readers Digest Version

So I know its been a while... in an ironic twist of fate, (and you know how i live for irony) I've been too busy living my life to blog about it.  But, I have been keeping track of my crazy life in my journal... so we're good.  I guess if you want to see what I've been doing you could look at the pictures I'm tagged in on facebook.

Note: not my pictures, I rely solely on photos other people have taken to document my life.

In better news, there is nothing to do in Alaska in the winter (or so I hear) so I will probably have tons of time to bestow on you, my blog readers.

For now, I leave you with some thoughts that will hopefully encapsulate the bulk of my summer in Alaska.

I like attainable goals.
I had a head cold for a month.
Did you know that Morgan Freeman is basically the coolest?  Not only was he the president of South Africa, head of a major corporation, a chauffeur, plus the voice from above in life--but he managed to do it all while incarcerated in Shawshank prison.  They even got Nelson Mandela to play him in a movie... seriously, how cool is that?
I get all my current events this summer from the Colbert Report.
If you don't sleep you can pack in more extracurricular activites.
People are surprisingly willing to change their plans if they know other people are doing other things.  Huh.
I don't like hand guns.  Rifles sure, hand guns no.  They feel less like recreation and more like a murder weapon.
Pizza is the best!
Apparently I'm an expert cake baker... question mark?
Canoe portaging, biking, fishing, hiking, mountain-climbing (yes different than hiking.  It involves reaching an actual summit of an actual mountain).
We drove six hours to go to a dance.  Each way.
I love being on a boat.  Its basically my favorite.

Typical movies, songs, and activities:

Laughing
Soccer
The Colbert Report
Inception
Hiking
Dancing (particularly impromptu dance parties)
Aventures
Party all the time
Arrested Development
CJ's- 39 cent hand scooped dreyers ice cream.  Does it get any better?  I submit that it does not!

Notice the lack of sleep on this list

Some catch-phrases:

The worst!
You're the best!
I feel so good about that.
Double rainbow--it's so vivid!
GOAL!
Yellow card!
I know, right?

And now everyone is gone... well.  Not everyone.  There are still technically some people living in the state of Alaska.  But their number is significantly decreased.  And now with less people, my social life is definitely winding down to a walking pace.

Closing Time

I don't have to go home but I can't stay here.

So, I've been looking forward to this day for a very long time.  Mostly because I really wanted to use the lyrics by Semisonic as a blog title, but also I am just super ready to be done.

Good news!  I am done!

After graduation this weekend, I'll go home for a week or so, and then up to Alaska.

I'll stay for sure through the end of the season, and depending on how the company does, I will be hired on salary year round.

At least I have a plan I guess.

Also, I guess i sort of suck at that whole 'goodbye' thing.  I really have to build myself up to it if I'm going to be emotional at all.  Usually my farewells are sort of a "I'm never going to see you again, but its been fun.  Here's a hug-You've been great.  And if you never hear from me, don't worry too much--I don't stay in touch with anyone really.  Also don't be offended that I'm not crying.  I only do that in movies."

I suppose I'm just one of those people, that when something ends, it's over, life is different, I adapt, and then it's like life has always been that way.  I don't get reminiscent very often.  And only rarely nostalgic.

So let this be the message to all:  you've been great, really, and don't be offended if I'm the worst goodbye-r on the planet.  And remember, we'll always have Provo.

Laters.

It's grass-tastic!

Or so says the packaging on a bag of questionable candy my roommate received.

Edible Easter grass.  made in Germany... where else.  The interesting thing about it is, that edible is the best word to describe it.  It isn't delicious, or sugary, or even terrible.  It's just sort of meh...edible.  But I guess:

Edible Easter Grass

meh... it's edible 

just isn't as catchy as:

Edible Easter Grass

It's Grass-tastic!

So you eat one, and it tastes sort of like foam.  Sort of really like foam.  But it has just enough hint of green apple that you feel like you're eating something.  And so you have another.

Good news--the entire massive package is only 100 calories.  It has no fat, no sugar, no cholesterol, or anything else really... except for <1g of fiber.  Begging the question, what the heck is even in these things?

Glad you asked.

Ingredients: potato starch, corn starch, modified corn starch, and artificial flavors.

Artificial?!  Gasp.  Could've fooled me.

Prose and Khans

There were a lot of factors to consider.  After all on the one hand we have things like history, film, fiction, and this blog.  And on the other people like Chaka, Ghengis, Shao,... and the Wrath of...

So you can see it was a difficult decision.  One full of sensitive, intensely-felt promises*, and of course murderers and villains.  And to be perfectly honest I still haven't 100% confirmed it or worked out all the kinks--but so far it feels good.  And frankly thats all I really need in life.

The moral of the story is I got offered a full-time job in Alaska and I think I'm taking it.

*Like the prose written by George Peppard's typewriter in Breakfast at Tiffany's

I'm so vague--you probably think this blog is about you

So, the time has come.

My roommates and I have finally created a pizza blog wherein we divulge our expert opinions and connoisseur-like evaluations.  If you want to be blown away, or just get a fun idea idea full of pizza-related goodness, you should visit it.

Its basically the best thing since the stuffed crust.