What I've learned while living outside of Utah....

So...I'm a Utah girl. Born and raised there. And not only that but I had never even vacationed on the East coast. So I uprooted everything and moved across the country to Maryland. Turns out everywhere else is not like Utah....who knew? And people warned me, they told me again and again how different it would be, what to expect, but you really just DON'T understand until you experience it.

So I decided to keep a list of things I've learned since moving outside of Utah. So here it goes. Sorry if it gets a little lengthy. 

Things I've learned while living outside of Utah....

That places can be humid even if they're not by the ocean.. Also that like everything from eastern Colorado and over is humid....And then if you include texas and California....the majority of the U.S. Is humid!! Who knew?!? 

That the majority of the U.S. does not have mountains. So many things that Utah has (or doesn't have), that I just assumed everybody else in the U.S. had too! Like mountains!! 

 How many black people Utah doesn't have.... 

Trees. Everyone told me "there's a lot of trees on the east coast" and I just didn't comprehend what they meant until I got here...There are So. Many. Trees. You can't see more than 100 yards in any direction without a freaking forest getting in your way. Can a girl just get a VIEW please?? All I want is to be able to get on top of all these trees and see!! I bet it would be GORGEOUS...just solid tree-tops for miles, but no one can see it dang it!  

That people in Utah are overly friendly (not a bad thing). Sam kept telling me that there is no customer service in Maryland, so I was expecting people to be down right rude. But I don't think that's true...I've had to deal with tons of customer service people with switching our addresses and banks and insurance, etc. to Maryland, and people are polite and get the job done, but you never walk away from them with a smile on your face because they made you feel good. But that happens every time you have to associate with anyone in Utah! It happens so much that people don't even notice it! 

I've learned what a "big city" is. And I've learned that I don't like them. I thought Salt Lake was a "big city"...it doesn't even compare. And I've learned that big cities are chaos. Just pure chaos. And they're SO dirty. And that Mormons have their heads on straight, because even though Salt Lake is the biggest city we have in Utah, it's still very orderly and clean compared to other big cities.  

TOLLS. Are you kidding me?? Tolls are non existent in Utah. I had no idea they were even a thing. Sam and I were in for a rude awakening when we drove to New York for the first time. $60 in tolls!! One of them was a $14 toll!! That's just crazy!! $14 to drive across a bridge?!? What is that? Me and Sam did the math, and that tollway alone is making like $500,000 A DAY. What do they do with all that money?!? Talk about highway robbery. And not only that, but the money is DEFINITELY not going towards upkeep on the roads, because the roads in New York are TERRIBLE. 

I've learned what tadpoles do NOT look like (Thought I had hundreds of tadpoles growing on my deck in a bucket, so I kept them around for a few weeks. Turns out they were MOSQUITO LARVAE. Ew.)

I've learned how to explain what a "ward" is to a non-member. I was prepared to be around a lot of non-members, and I've thought about and practiced ways to explain different things about the doctrine of our religion, and why we do (or do not) do the things we do, but I never thought about how to explain what a "ward" is to a non-member. Such commonly used vernacular in Utah, but out here, if I said "My ward", people would be like..."what? I don't think you're using that word right." ".....like your psyche ward??"

I'll keep adding to my list and update it periodically, but that's all for now. This little Utah girl is becoming cultured :)

Also, funny side note: yesterday Sam and I saw someone throw a chicken bone out their car window on the freeway. hahahahah. Only in Baltimore. Gotta have your fried chicken. 

OH. also, one more thing. Maybe it's just Walmart out here, but they do not go easy on the bags. It's seriously ridiculous. They only put like 2 items in a grocery bag. And if they put more than a couple things in a bag, they double bag it! It's the strangest thing. And this wasn't just like one time it happened to me, I've been to two different Walmarts, probably 8 times now, and it's EVERY time I go. I come home, and I'm unloading the groceries, and it's like...a SINGLE roll of paper towels and box of ziploc bags in one bag. And I have an entire cart of other stuff. I took some pictures to document it, because I can't get over it. 

So here's the first picture, this was how full my grocery cart is (and no, my grocery cart is not always this full. I was stocking up on food storage) 

Below is the picture of the bag with a single roll of paper towels and a box of Ziploc bags.....

Here's like...5 packs of tuna. In one bag. In what world is that "full"??

And here's the real kicker. This bag bellow, has a few more items than the other two right? I'm like "okay, they're getting better." NO this one is double bagged.

I just don't understand!



One thing I wish I'd known before I got married...

I don't mean to catfish you into reading this blog post. I hate those stupid articles on facebook that are like
"10 things you're doing to ruin your marriage"
"You'll never believe this homeless man's reaction when  someone offered him a job"
"$10 and 10 minutes later, you'll never believe what this lady made!"
"He catches his wife crying while doing laundry. Then she tells him the shocking truth."

Anyways...you get the idea. I HATE these articles. I ALWAYS get sucked into them! I can't resist! And sometimes they are insightful things that could help my life, but I just HATE them. That's why I deactivate my facebook so often, strictly because I hate those stupid articles. But then I'll reactivate to check when a friend gets home from her mission, or because I heard someone got engaged, and then I'll keep it activated and three weeks later I'm spending my whole day reading those stupid articles on facebook! So then I deactivate it again for 2 weeks, or a month, or 3 months, and then it happens all over again. It's a never ending cycle! Anyways, I TOTALLY feel like the title of this blog is one of those articles, just trying to suck you in. It might be worse if I called it "One life changing thing I wish I'd known before I got married..." then it would DEFINITELY be one of those articles. But it's totally not. So I'm sorry if you feel like you got sucked into reading this article because of the enticing title. But it's not going to be heart touching, or life changing, or anything of the sort. It's just as surface level as all the other stuff I write about on here. So if you feel like you got sucked into reading this when you didn't want to. Go ahead and stop now. You'll survive if you don't know the ONE thing I, personally, wish I had known before I got married.

So here it is. I wish someone would have just sat me down and told me to SPEND MONEY before I got married. I wish someone would have told me that my money is ALL mine. That spending it doesn't effect anyone else but me! And that it's never gonna be that way again. So there's never a better time in my life to do a little splurging!

I'm a hardcore budgeter. I love finances, and budgeting, and saving, and making all the numbers add up so prettily, and being thorough. I'm always reading a new finance book. Budgets and finance comes up all the time in my conversations. And now that I'm growing up, I'm trying to learn more about investing, but I'm still pretty new in that area. So if you have any knowledge, I'd love to talk :) So this advice is for people like me. People who are penny-pinchers and like to save. I wouldn't recommend taking this advice if you already splurge on everything.

Anyways, I lived on a budget before I got married. I had a good sized savings account for a poor single college student. I didn't have any debt and I've never lived paycheck-to-paycheck. But I wish I would have known before I was married that this would be the LAST TIME that my money is ALL mine. That I can (and should) do whatever I want with it. That it's the last time in my life that splurging on the new purse can be a priority over the million other bills I will have once I'm married. And not that me and Sam even have a lot of bills compared to some people, but it's that getting-a-new-skirt-because-I'm-sick-of-all-the-ones-in-my-closet is not a priority on our list of things we need to buy this month. And now I'm realizing that I totally could have bought that skirt when I wasn't married and it wouldn't have made a difference at all! I just chose not to because I am such a budget nazi.

So whenever one of my single friends is like "should I buy this really expensive shampoo I've been wanting forever?" I'm like "YES!" because if you don't get it now, you'll never get it. Because even though it's a relatively unimportant thing to spend money on, it will become even LESS important once you're married.

And don't take me wrong. I LOVE being married. I'm not saying "oh marriage sucks, don't get married. You can't do anything" I'm just saying that I wish I would have bought that $100 hobo wallet I've wanted for YEARS, or splurged on a new swimsuit, or bought the new pair of shoes, because it wouldn't have effected anyone else but myself. But now that I'm married, splurging on something effects more people than just me.

So for all you single people out there like me, I just want you to realize that your money is ALL yours. That spending it doesn't effect anyone else but you! And that it's never gonna be that way again. So there's never a better time in your life to do a little splurging! That's all :)

PS- while I'm on the subject- Lately I've just been wanting to walk into a store and just buy my favorite thing. Not my favorite thing out of the clearance section, not my favorite thing under $20, but just my favorite thing in the whole store. Most my clothes (who am I kidding, most of EVERYTHING I own) comes from the clearance section of discount stores. So the clothes are already marked down, and I'm still shopping in the clearance section! I just look forward to the day when I can walk into a store, and buy what I want, not because of the price.

An ebayer, hand-me-down, used-merchandise gal buys something new!

So Sam and I are total eBay-ers. Or KSL-ers. Or "oh you're getting rid of that? We'll take it." -ers. Aside from the presents we got for our wedding, we haven't bought anything of value, new...from a store...out of the box. Everything from our bed frame and mattress, couches, tv, entertainment center, car, motorcycle (and countless motorcycle parts), oven, computer, printer, nail polish (and countless nail art supplies), play stations...basically everything we have is used. We either got it as a hand-me-down, from KSL, or eBay. And I have to say that I am pretty dang good at finding deals on those sites. (Also a side note, some of the things we've gotten off eBay are new, but they're from China, so it's definitely not the same as buying something brand new from a store).

And not only that, but anything we own that we're getting rid of that has any type of value, we sell on KSL or eBay. We've sold cars, motorcycles...and again countless motorcycle parts, LifeProof cases, iphones, jewelry, cosmetics, shoes, you name it, we've probably tried to sell it.

When either of us need to buy something, we automatically go to those sites. It doesn't even cross our minds to go shop for it at a store.

BUT. We just barely bought a brand-new, from an ACTUAL STORE, flat screen TV! That is literally unheard of for us. It all started because Sam is obsessed with car simulators lately and he's been wanting to get one, but he needed a playstation to do it. So he found a used ps3 on KSL thinking he could hook it up to our hand-me-down old box TV we have. But after doing a little more research we figured out we'd have to spend like 30$+ buying converters and cords to be able to make it work on our ancient tv. So Sam said instead of buying all the cords, he'd rather just put the money towards a new tv. and that same day we happened to get a cash back reward from one of our credit cards, which would cover about half the cost of a new tv. And Sam had some plasma money saved up to spend on whatever hobby he chooses, so we decided to buy a new-to-us tv. so naturally we get on KSL and start looking for used flat screens.

But we also realized that a flat screen would not fit in the hand-me-down entertainment center we have, because it's made for a big square box tv. So now I'm like..."great. All because Sam found a good deal on a ps3, now we have to get a new tv AND an new tv console, neither of which are in our budget!" (I'm also a psycho budget-er)

We started looking for used consoles and tvs, and we found a few good deals, and one tv in particular that we set up a time to go look at, and were basically planning on buying. But then I started looking up the reviews (I also thoroughly read reviews for any product before I buy it), and it turns out the tv was manufactured like 6 years ago, and people had just recently started posting that their tvs were going bad, so we decided even if the particular tv on KSL is still good, it will probably start to have problems soon. So then I started looking online at new tvs from different places and we found a pretty good deal for a tv at Best Buy. I read the reviews from any place I could find that sold that particular tv and compared prices at all those stores, and the reviews seemed to be good, and Best Buy happened to be having a one day sale on that tv, so they had the best price. The brands isn't like a big name brand, but everyone said it was a good starter tv, and we're total newbs when it comes to tv stuff. Plus it was comforting to know it was a new tv and if we do have problems, there is a warranty. So we were totally sold on this tv.

But the problem was that the closest Best Buy that had the tv in stock was in Park City, and Sam wanted to see the tv in person before buying it and also didn't want to have to wait for it to get shipped to us (cuz he was anxious to play his car racing game).

So off we were up to Park City and we walked out with a NEW tv in our hands! Not new-to-us, not new-from-China, but NEW! We were pretty stoked. AND it came with a Roku TV. Which at the time we had no idea what that was, but now that we do, we're pretty stoked about it.

Now back to the entertainment center problem...

So Sam convinced me to let him try to jimmy rig our entertainment center to make a flat tv console instead. So he woke up super early on Saturday morning and started sawing away. I wish we would have taken some before and after pictures, but we didn't. Just so you get an idea, our entertainment center looked something like this with a much smaller tv square...

And I woke up on Saturday with it looking like this! I was so proud of him!

 

You would never be able to tell that it was pieced together from a big entertainment center. And not only that, but when I was trying to find a picture similar to what ours used to look like and a stumbled across the "before" picture I just used, it was a step-by-step blog post of how to do exactly what we had just done! 

And Sam thought it up all by himself. I was so proud of him :) 

So if you're wondering how we turned it into this, here's a link to her blog. She paints her new and improved tv console (which I kinda want to do to mine now), so the transformation is bigger than ours, but still...I was impressed with Sam's ingenuity. Also he used screws instead of gorilla glue. 

But look at us! All fancy and buying our first brand new purchase!

Also our entertainment center had a bunch of shelves on the sides where I was keeping all my books and candles and a bunch of other knick-knacks on, so know I need find a book shelf to replace those shelves. I've already started looking on KSL, but who knows, maybe I'll buy a new one!

My rambling thoughts on American Sniper and the LDS community

When I first started writing this blog post, I was going to write this semi-controversial post about how I think it's wrong that all these LDS people are going to see American Sniper, when they are clearly crossing a line that the Church has set. But as I've been writing, my post has evolved, and my anger has disintegrated. And I'm realizing that I'm at just as guilty as these people seeing the movie, even though I don't watch R rated movies.

Here's why. Everyone sins.  I learned something from one of the many men my mom has dated. I can't remember which one, but I do remember our discussion about sinning. What he said was that in the LDS church, it's just "pick-a-sin, pick-a-sin." Everyone sins, but in different ways. And some commandment or guideline from the church that may be very important to me, might not be a big deal to someone else. And I think this is what I'm discovering with rated R movies.

Here's an example of what I'm trying to explain with this "pick-a-sin" thing. A while ago we had dinner with some friends on a Sunday. Everyone at the party was LDS. We all had a different food assignment to bring. We show up to the party and there's a few fresh Carl's Jr. bags on the table. (You're probably thinking the same thing I was right? Why is there fast food here, on a Sunday, and we're all LDS....) It's pretty standard that LDS people don't go out and shop on Sunday. ANYWHO, So the friend who bought the fast food, explained himself and said, "Well I had to go do my home teaching before I came, so I didn't have time to make anything. So I just stopped by Carl's Jr. real fast." At first, I had to chuckle, because it's just like...an oxymoron. You went and did your home teaching, and then bought something at Carl's Jr on Sunday?

 But then I learned something from this friend when I realized this is a perfect example of "pick-a-sin"

Maybe this friend of ours has gained a strong testimony of home teaching and the importance of it, and is a faithful home teacher, but doesn't have the same conviction about not shopping on Sunday. Where in the same room there could be someone thinking, "GASP!! He went and bought Carl's Jr on a Sunday?!?! WHAT A BLATANT SIN!!! That's TERRIBLE!!!", yet that same person hasn't gone home teaching in a year.

and I can think of a million other times in my life when I've seen someone sin, and that particular commandment is very important to me and I totally judge them for it, yet I'm committing just as grave a sin, my sins just look a little different (cough...judging them...cough).

We're all just trying to do our best. And just because someone else's sinning looks a little bit different than ours, doesn't mean we have to judge them for it.

Okay, I totally was NOT going for a "don't judge others and stay out other people's business" soap box here, and that's what it's turning into, so I'm gonna stop right there.

But I still am going to tell you why I'm not going to see American Sniper.

First of all, I think the reason each person thinks different guidelines and commandments are important is largely because of how they were raised and what was prioritized in their house growing up. And watching R rated movies was just something we didn't do in my house. I was taught my whole life that R rated movies are bad and we shouldn't watch them. And down to my very core I am a rule follower- so obviously I believe that too.

The second reason I'm not going to see it is because I feel like if something is so blatantly spelled out for us in the church, I want to follow it. And not watching R rated movies is very blatantly spelled out.

The third reason is because I'm trying to bring only things that will uplift me into my life. Things that will change me to be a better person. (as I'm typing this I'm realizing just how many things I do on a regular basis that don't necessarily make me a better person, but I do them without a second thought. Pick-a-sin, pick-a-sin). but I know that watching American Sniper is not going to make me a better person. It is not going to change my life for the better. It is just a fad (And don't try and tell me it will make my life better. I've had this argument already. Maybe it'll change my views about war and how horrible it is, but I don't necessarily think that's making my life better). There are so many times when I'm watching one of my favorite shows (mostly New Girl and The Mindy Project) and the episode is just down right inappropriate, and part of me wants to keep watching it SO BAD, and I'm having this total inner war with myself- like the good angel on one side and the devil on the other side, and I always ask myself the same thing: "Will it really make THAT much of a difference in my life if I don't finish this episode."

And I reach down deep in myself and look at the point of this life and realize that if I don't know what happens at the end of the episode, it's not going matter 5 years down the road. Usually the only reason I can come up with as to why I should keep watching it is because I will want to talk about it with the friends who also watch that show. Which, obviously isn't a very good reason, so the good angel wins and I turn it off, (sometimes begrudgingly).

And that is what I think people should ask themselves about watching American Sniper. Will it really make THAT much of a difference in your life if you don't watch it? Five years down the road are you gonna say, "Man, my life would be SO much better right now if I had watched American Sniper."

No! You're not going to say that! But it might make a difference to your kids when you're teaching them about choosing the right, and you tell them a story about an R rated movie you REALLY wanted to see, but decided not to.

Now that I've given you the speech I gave Sam about why he shouldn't see it....the point is, well...I don't even know what the point is anymore. This blog post has literally flipped a 180 while I was writing it, and is COMPLETELY not what I was planning on writing about.
So I guess I'll just stop here :)

Thanks for listening to my rant.

Do or don't see American Sniper, let me know if either makes you a better person.

My love/hate relationship with diabetes

I'm just discovering diabetes is not all it's cracked up to be.

Call me crazy or don't believe me, but when I first got diabetes, I was excited. It made me more unique and it made me more like my brother, Jared- the two things I strived to be on a daily basis. Up until I got married, I enjoyed having diabetes. I would see a random (but cute) boy walking past my group of friends and I'd shout out "Wanna give me a shot??" Holding a syringe. It worked every time :)

...I'll just go hang my head in shame.

Looking back, I feel like I was the biggest idiot.  I remember telling someone (and I'm embarrassed to even admit this out loud), "if they invented a cure for diabetes, I don't know if I'd take it. I like having diabetes too much."

Like...are you kidding me? I can't believe those words ever came out of my mouth.

But honestly I just loved letting other people give me shots. The following situation is one that happened HUNDREDS of times: I would be hanging out with a person I barely knew and pull out a needle. They'd freak out and be like "WHAT?!!?!" and then I'd ask them if they wanted to give me a shot. Most the time the answer was yes, then I'd give them a quick run down of how to give me a shot, and they, and everyone around them, would be freaking out, and all the while I would remain this cool calm collected cat- unafraid of needles.  Then usually follow up questions would come and I would get to briefly educate them about diabetes. More than a handful of times I had people come up to me at UVU and be like "I gave you a shot once!!" and I literally have no recollection of ever meeting them.

I liked this for several reasons. It wasn't something people were around every day. It made me unique. It gave people an opportunity to do something they'd probably never otherwise get to do. The rest of the world is afraid of needles, but I'm not (at least diabetes needles). I loved seeing everyone's reactions; some would freak out, others would be super stoked. And it always put me in a situation where I knew more about something than they did, and I got to teach them about it. But typing this all out, I'm realizing that all of this boils down to one thing (which I honestly didn't even realize until just this moment).....

I liked the attention.

It's honestly not anything more than that. I like attention, and diabetes is a sure fire way to get everyone's eyes on me. (Again, more shame and head-hanging).

Okay...I honestly was not writing this blog post to tell the world how much I like attention and my dirty tricks to get it. I am honestly just realizing I did all of this for attention as I'm typing it.

NOW, back to the point of my blog post. So yeah, diabetes was super fun to have when I was single. It was a social thing. But now that I'm married and not hanging out with a different group of people every night, the glitter has faded (...is that a thing that people say?) Like...all the things that once were exciting about it are gone and the real stuff has set in.

I'm realizing that I need to take diabetes much more seriously and realizing all the hard things that come with taking it more seriously.

People used to always ask me why I don't have a pump and I'd tell them needles were too much fun, and I'd probably get a pump when I got married, because I'll need one for when I want to have kids. So now here I am, married, and I did get a pump just like I always told people I would.

 I know what you're thinking...

THIS IS NOT A PREGNANCY ANNOUNCEMENT. Or even a, "we're trying" announcement, or even a "we're thinking about trying" announcement. This is an "I'm starting the long road to get to where I need to be in relation to control with my diabetes so that I can think about thinking about having kids in like two years" announcement :)

Because for me, it's not just like "oh we're ready to have kids now! Let's start trying!" situation. I have to get my A1c in mighty fine good control, which is gonna be a long road I think. I don't know alllll the details about being pregnant and having diabetes, but I know it's very risky. For me and the baby. One of my doctors told me once that a good target range for your blood glucose (BG) to be is 100-120, unless you're pregnant, then you'd want your target range to be 80-100. Which kinda freaked me out because like....being above 120 isn't even that bad to me. Like if I'm 150, I'm not like "ahhh! it's the end of the world! My BG is SOOO high!!" So not being able to be above 100?!?! That's tough. I and know that doesn't mean my BG can't ever ever ever go above 100 or my baby will die, but that's kind of how I feel. I just know that every time my BG accidentally spikes when I'm pregnant, I feel like it's gonna increase the chances that my baby will have problems. If there's something wrong with my baby, it's completely MY fault. It's because I didn't take good enough care of my diabetes while I was pregnant.

Okay, whoa. That got deep. This honestly wasn't gonna be a post about why we're not having kids right now either. Goodness, I'm having trouble making it full circle here.

So what I'm trying to say is that diabetes is hard. I never really thought of it as a trial, but it definitely is one. I find myself wishing more and more that I didn't have diabetes (which is literally something I had NEVER said two years ago). And my diabetes care up until this point has been so laxed (my computer is telling me this isn't a real word, but I feel like it is. Like relaxed- but just laxed.)

But ya know, casual. informal, low-pressure, not taken very seriously. And now that all the fun stuff has faded, I'm realizing it's just hard, and not fun. And I need to be taking a much more forward stance on my care, not just like a quick thing I take care of on the side, but actually center my life around it kind of. And I'm actually looking forward to the future when pumps and continuous glucose monitors and all the other technology get so good that I don't have be so worried about it.

Anyways, it's been a weird ride I've been on, going from loving diabetes to now having the same perspective the rest of the world has- that it sucks. And I feel like I just needed to process all these emotions I'm having. And this blog is a place where the things I wish would come up in common conversation do, so here are my recent thoughts on diabetes.

I know for most people diabetes is not "cracked up" at all, but I feel like for me, for the past 7 years it has been, And now every time I get overwhelmed with diabetes, the only way I can describe it is that...

diabetes isn't what it's all cracked up to be.

Interviewer Ettiquette

So....some of you may know, but I have a lot of job interviewing experience. For the past 9 months I have been employed as a job coach. With that being said, I accompany my clients to, on average, two job interviews a week. Do that math, that's about job 90 interviews in the past 9 months. Then you have to add all the interviews I've done for myself throughout my life, and the number is probably about 140 or so....(I actually have no idea how many job interviews I've gone to in my life, but 50 seems like a good number.)

Dang it. Actually doing the math doesn't have quite the effect I wanted it to. But try adding up how many interviews you've probably been to in your life?? Then I think you'll see how big my number actually really is :)

Anyways, I'm job searching for a full time job (because my job as a job coach is only part time) and going to interviews this time around has made me realize something. And this "something" most definitely does not come up in everyday conversation, so I wanted to write about it on here. 

At every interview, at some point, the interviewer says something along the lines of... 

"Well I have a few more interviews.....so I'll get back to you next week"

"I'm doing interviews all day today...."

"I've interviewed several people already and have some more tomorrow...."

(Unless you're the rare case that gets the job offered on the spot. Which I've seen three times in my job interview existence.)

I obviously know they're conducting interviews because their previous interviewee was walking out when I walked in and because their next interviewee is waiting in the lobby when I leave.

I never thought anything of that line until recently. 

I went to a job interview with Utah First Credit Union. I was impressed by a lot things I saw/experienced during the interview process (I had three interviews with them), but the thing that impressed me the most was that never ONCE did they say anything about interviewing anyone else. 

...I saw one of their next interviewees waiting in the lobby when I left, so I know they were interviewing other people, but other than that, it was like it was this big secret they were trying to keep from me. 

But I actually appreciated it. It made me feel special, like they valued me as an interviewee so much they were afraid to tell me they were interviewing other people. Like they were afraid I, the person jumping through hoops to get the job, would walk away if I found out they were interviewing other people. 

And it also made me have more respect for their company.

This probably seems weird, and most people conducting interviews don't think any thing of it, and I certainly didn't until I experienced the opposite. But it was just so classy of them. I really appreciated it.

So I decided that if I'm ever the one conducting the interviews, I won't feed that line to anyone. 

Cool stuff..

So....I just had the coolest thing happen to me. And I have to take a break from my non stop studying to blog about it. It wasn't even like anything huge, it was actually kind of tiny, but it definitely made my day. It brought new meaning to the phrase "Little things mean a lot". This story may or may not be super long (I dunno yet, I haven't typed it) but if you get to the end I promise it'll make you smile. Hopefully.

Pre-story:
So I had a work meeting at 9 this morning in Salt Lake. Me and three co-workers (also friends) were driving up together. Melissa was driving and picked me up at my house because we live like 30 seconds away from each other. I had class at 11am and on our way back I didn't have enough time to go get my car, then drive back to the school, so I just had Melissa drop me off at school because we also have our last class together so I figured she could give me a ride home after class (because again, we live super close to each other). So class gets out at 4pm and both of us completely space that I need a ride home. I had a meeting with a teacher after class that I had forgotten about and Melissa just left. So at like 4:30 I'm just realizing that I have no way to get home. I call Sam because I know he's studying at the testing center and ask him when he'll be done taking his test. He's not sure but sometime between 8 and 9. I'm like "okay....that'll be good for me because I can just stay here and do homework while I wait for you to be done, then you can give me a ride home."

Fast forward a couple hours:
So here I am at school...it's about 6:45pm and I'm just up on the 4th floor of the library typing my life away and a few things dawn on me.
First, I haven't eaten since breakfast...and I'm starving
Second, all the food places at probably school are closed by now.
Third, I have no cash or change with me to buy something out of a vending machine

Realizing I'm going to be in a predicament, I hurry down to the bottom level of the library to see if the food place down there is closed (all the while, leaving all my school stuff and laptop unattended on the 4th floor). The food place is closed. Dang it. I start walking down the hall to Jamba Juice and that little cafe place across from Jamba to see if they're open (still worrying about my stuff unattended on the 4th floor and getting hungrier). They're both closed. Suck.

Then I realize that I've seen some drink vending machines on campus that take cards, so I start looking at all the vending machines to see if I can find a food one that take cards. Of course I can't. I count the change in my wallet and it's like 30 cents and some pennies. I even check the vending machines to see if there's anything that cheap in there. There's not.

So I decide that if a drink is the only thing I can buy with my card, a drink is better than nothing.

THIS IS WHERE IT GETS GOOD
I go swipe my card at the drink vending machine and nothing happens. So I swipe it again and the screen says "Vending cancelled. Coin return" or something along those lines. I can't remember.

guess what happens next....
A DOLLAR AND FIFTEEN CENTS COMES OUT!!!!!!!!

I gasped and said aloud, "are you kidding me?!?!" Then chuckled to myself as I took the money and skipped over to the food machine.

Side note: it took me a really long time to decide what the most filling thing in the vending machine would be that I could afford.

I decided on poptarts.

That's my beautiful poptart and the 15 cents I had left over

As I was walking back up to the 4th floor (luckily we live in Utah Valley and none of my things were touched) I said a little prayer to thank Heavenly Father for watching over me even when I'm just hungry and stuck at the school for another two hours. And to let the person know that lost their $1.15 earlier today that it went to a good cause :)

The end.