HAIR.

Can we talk about hair?

First: yes, I am grateful God gave me my hair. Long, shiny, glorious brown hair (praises).

But: maintaining it is a part-time job/daily struggle/wait, lifetime struggle.

Ha.

All you ladies with long hair, advice??? I've dumbed down the routine BIG TIME, as it is. No more straightening. Just blow dry. But oh, that ten minute blow dry is the bane of my existence.

HELP!

The other night we were all at AJ's enjoying a usual nightly bonding bash. I sure have the greatest friends. Anyway, almost everyone had left, and I sat on the couch with my iPhone while Ky and Aje had an important chat. I decided to download hipstamatic (the photo app) and snapped this candid photo of these two, for practice. If they end up being together forever (wink, wink, Ky...), this will be one they cherish, I think.

Junior Year Highlights

I was perusing a friend's blog earlier today when I realized that, well, I have really missed blogging. I can't say I have anything particularly significant to say, but... its refreshing to record one's life, no? I miss it. And I'm going to try to get back into it.

My junior year presented a curve ball at its outset, but I quickly discovered that the person God intended me to be needed to learn and grow. No complaints. As I have slowly worked to rebuild myself, I have enjoyed a number of blessings. Here are some:

1) Getting to have my sister in town. [I love you, Mady!]

2) Traveling to Europe for the first time and winning the national model united nations competition in Olomouc, Czech Republic. We also visited Budapest, Vienna, and Prague.

3) Jimmermania. I mean, well, you know exactly what I mean.

4) Learning to love Relief Society. This is me with my great counselors and secretary during winter semester.

5) Meeting people I admire in our society, including Condoleeza Rice, Elders Perry and Cook, Sister Silvia Allred, Mitt Romney (three times), and, though I didn't actually shake his hand, we'll count him anyway... Mark Zuckerberg.

6) Best friends. Need I say more? This is Ky and I enjoying a nice Japanese dinner in downtown Salt Lake.

7) Trips and visits with family and friends I love, including Aunt Gigi, Chase Renick, Grandma Eames, Aunt Stephanie, Aunt Melissa, and others. And of course... my family.

8) Lady Gaga Concert. Oh, and we had floor tickets. She could be listed among the famous peeps I met.

9) Tumblr and twitter. These things are life-savers. Use them. Therapy.

10) Cruising New York with a new crew of teammates. Oh, and we won. Again.

The Rear Window

Quote of the day~ from Hitchcock's "The Rear Window" which I am watching for Civ. as a blog...

"Nothing has caused the human race so much trouble as intelligence."

Ha! What's great is how often this is true. And what's ironic is how often it is so not true.

Go figure.

Exodus

Throughout history (don't you just love that intro? it's usually my cue to take a nap... haha!), God has commanded his people to make certain exoduses. Adam & Eve made a symbolic exodus when they "left" the innocence and harmony of the Garden of Eden to take on the "real world" and corresponding agency. Noah made a type of exodus with a few family members and the world's zoo when they left society and survived via boat. Lot and his wife were commanded to leave Sodom & Gomorra. The classic exodus story involves Moses leading the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt and into freedom from oppression. Lehi led his family out of Jerusalem when the Lord commanded it. And of course, our pioneer ancestors mustered the courage to trek across North America to the Great Salt Lake Valley-- because the Lord commanded it.

Now, I live in the twenty-first century. The state of the church and the state of our everyday standards are extraordinarily different from the relatively similar daily circumstances that our native ancestors faced. Advances in technology and industry have yielded exponential progress. Times have, indeed, changed. I haven't been asked to make a long trek across an arduous landscape, but I am asked to make symbolic exoduses of my own. Sometimes I rise to the challenge and heed the call; sometimes not. I'd suspect that, in part, we'll be judged by how we responded to the Lord's command for us to do something uncomfortable, unpopular, or just plain difficult. If we don't respond as well as we ought to one time, we should repent, get back up, and give it a stronger go the next time. My testimony is that, no matter who we are or what age we live in, be with the Hebrew slaves of Moses' day or the latter-day saint pioneers chronicled in D&C section 136, I know that God is with us to guide us, strengthen us, and protect us as we make our personal exoduses. We can do it! "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Phillipians 4:13). And the reality is, not only can we do it-- we must.