If you give a girl a star...

Because of a traumatizing episode in Young Women's, I hate hate hate crafts. Hate hate hate. Double hate. Loathe entirely. Let's just say that one of my leaders did not like it that I was thinking "outside the box" when we did crafts for activity. Every week. For years. Starting when I was twelve.

However, I have found myself with a lot of time on my hands. Normally, I fill my free time with reading, but grad school is starting to wear down my eyeballs. I now "watch" my favorite movies, the movies that I can quote in my sleep, the movies that I do not need to use my eyes to watch. I can just listen to the dialogue and the music and my memory fills in the rest. But I'm fidgety. I have nothing to do while I listen-imagine-watch these movies.

And so, I craft. Tonight, the movie was Lord of the Rings. I made a star out of ribbon, beads, and pipe cleaners.

And then the star needed something to shine on, so I made a fairy.

And then the fairy got lonely, so I made another fairy. This one is my favorite, mostly because of her vibrant colors. And also because she has feathers for wings.

And the fairy wanted to ride on top of a kitty.

And now, if you'll excuse, I need to watch my one of my favorite elves of all time (read: Haldir) die a horrible and unnecessary death. It should have been Legolas.

CNN Mayhem

Can you spot the unusual, politically incorrect connection between the two news stories?

From CNN this morning: "A doctor in Ecuador notices his shortest patients are some of his healthiest. Evidence is mounting that a brown dwarf star or a gas giant planet is part of our solar system. A look back at some of the week's best stories."

Or is this just one story?

Happy Canadian Flag Day!

It's National Flag Day in Canada. What are you doing to celebrate? Nothing? Hmmm, me neither. Prolly because I'm not Canadian in any way. In fact, I still have a love/hate relationship with Canada from the 2010 Winter Olympics hockey game. But but but...Gilbert Blythe is Canadian! And and and Michael J. Fox! And lots of other great people!

Anyway, while I'm in the process of rethinking my Canadian sentiments, let me show you how I celebrated Valentine's Day:

We had FHE as a ward, and the festivities included a giant game of twister, as seen here. In the top left corner, you can also see a rousing game of musical chairs going on. I, of course, was wandering around picking up the candy hearts that were getting thrown about.

Oh, and I also dressed up for the occasion.

In addition to Red (my favorite color) and Black (in mourning of great people who have been limited by obsessions with love), I also wore a green heart. Why green? Am I preparing prematurely for St. Patty's Day? Never! I'm too Scottish to pine over an Irish holiday. Then why, already?

Because I like Spock, and he has green blood.

Live long and prosper.

Of Colds and Mummies

Hi. I have a cold. It's driving me crazy. How are you?

Seriously. This cold is rebelling, trying to bring me down. It has gone Egypt on me. Yes, I just turned a current event into an adjective.

While we were cleaning for cleaning checks last night, my roommate got a cryptic text message. "Are you watching? It just happened." She had no clue what it meant.

"Egypt?" I offered. I was scraping soap residue off the washing machine. "Maybe they finally got rid of Mubarak."

She thought about this for a moment, on her hands and knees in front of the oven. "Oh my gosh," she finally said, "what if it's the third world war?!"

I stopped scraping. If my brain could ever work at genius speeds, it did right then. In a single second, I imagined all of life during and after World War III. Billions of images flitted through my mind. My family watches too many apocalypse movies, if you ask me.

I picked at some dried blue soap with my fingernail. "I don't think so."

After a long five minutes, we learned that the text was simply referring to the newest episode of The Office. (Really?) No world-wide warfare yet. But maybe--just maybe--having a cold isn't so bad.

Happy Feberwary!

February: from the Latin word for "purification." The Finnish name for February means "month of the pearl." It is the month when Argentina celebrates the National Day of the Sun, when the world celebrates International Mother Language Day, when America celebrates Black History. It is the month of the amethyst, a gem that symbolizes spiritual wisdom and honesty.

But it's a short month. I only have so much time to make it a February of Awesome!

So let's get out there in the cold and the wind, where the fish fly above our heads and the funny little man chops down a tree on top of a cow, where the sheep and the cattle line up for battle. Hey, I made a rhyme!

What is in store for you this month?