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Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Restroom 911



Alright, I have a little bone to pick with women's restrooms. Before I get started, I just want to say it is NOT ALL RESTROOMS, only some, although I still can't figure it out. Let me just paint you a colorful picture real quick...

So, I've just gotten to The Rex theater here in Rexburg to see the movie "Taken". This is a much anticipated event for me and after 2 bottles of water, I really need to go to the restroom. I mean, this movie was SOOOO good that I didn't see how I was going to be able to work out a bathroom break, but after holding it for awhile, I couldn't resist.

I walked up to one of the nicest bathroom doors I have seen in awhile, opened the door, was greeted by the fresh scent of lavender and baby boo, and found myself a stall that looked safe. But here is the problem....just as I can see the toilet and my bladder feels like it is going to explode, I reach up to lock the door,there is a sliding lock and there is a latch that the lock slides into...but....wait.....SURPRISE, the sliding lock is about 2 inches below the latch!!!! Ok, ok, ok..don't panic, Bryson. There are 7 other stalls at my disposal, all for me, right there, just open. So I hurry and run to the next available one. SURPRISE! Same dilemma! Lock does not meet latch! So, it's getting kind of weird, I'm hoping this is not a pattern for this particular restroom, but yes....the 3rd stall, same deal. By the time I hit the 4th stall, having the door shut completely was not a requirement nor did I care anymore.

But you know...this is not even the first time I have found myself in this situation. It just never dawned on me until this very night, that this is a growing trend among women's restrooms. Well, I can only speak for women's restrooms, you men might experience this same kind of torture, but somehow I don't think you guys really care. I mean, I can't imagine standing next to a total stranger, taking care of personal business, and then saying "whats up?". I think that if I saw something like that going on in a women's restroom, I would immediately refer to a Melissa Etheridge song in my mind and that is not the kind of bathroom experience I try to have.

So what did I do? Well, I lived to tell about it, so I obviously got some urinary relief, but I made a point to call that theater the next day and ask why in the world would someone make a door that doesn't reach the latch. They had no clue. In fact, I'm pretty sure the person I was talking to had never even been inside that restroom. But now they are aware and the next time I see a movie I will definitely NOT be drinking 2 bottles of water.

Monday, February 23, 2009

What the run???

Well, I almost died 30 minutes ago. I harassed my roommate for an hour to go running with me at the gym, and when she was finally ready, boy was I sorry. For a girl who said she didn't like running, she sure zipped up that hill with little or no effort. Poor me...lagging behind, barely keeping up, what a shame. It's been awhile since I actually worked my body. I'm so used to going to the gym, getting on my nice little treadmill, and going as slow as I wanted for as long as I wanted, tricking myself into thinking I was really making a difference. Tonight was different. We ran all the way up the hill to the Benson and then across campus, up some random stairs, and then back down. It was hardcore. I felt like I was on an episode of The Biggest Loser. Well, I always did say I wanted to be on that show.

I wish I was motivated enough to get up and do it again in the morning, although I know I won't. I miss exercising regularly, being obsessed about gaining an ounce back of any of the weight I had lost. Now, somehow I've lost that drive. I still care, but I see the scale go up a pound every once in awhile and I try to convince myself that it could be worse. I need to get for real and stop screwing around because I will NOT go back to the weight I was in high school.

I've set a real goal tonight. I want to be the best me and I can be. I changed a lot of other things in my life to do that, but to fully become the best person I can be, I need to be healthy. It doesn't mean looking like Kate Moss in 1997, it just means getting fit, watching what I eat, and getting exercise and rest. How hard can that really be? I'm so lucky too. I go to a school where I have access to a free gym and plenty of hills to climb. There is no reason to be 1 pound overweight anymore. I've realized, not only with weight, but with anything in life, it's all about what YOU want. If I want a cookie, I will find one, right? So if I want to lose 30 lbs, thats up to me too. I can achieve it if I really work. And what is more rewarding than losing 30 lbs and being able to say you did i ALL alone, without the help of anyone? It's a good feeling to work really hard and feel good and have others notice the change. I need that back in my life.

Alright, well...I should stop wasting good time I could be doing some crunches or something. Get motivated people, love yourself, life is so short, your youth is not forever! Ha. Start running today. And someone needs to volunteer to run the 10K with me this yr in the Teton Dam race. Any takers?

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

TAKEN

Ok ok ok ok, time for a quick movie review. So, last night I went to see "Taken" and I was so stunned and unbelievably flabbergasted at this movie. It was amazing. Liam Neeson was awesome. I haven't seen him in too many movies, but he is definitely going on my new favs list of actors. It was brilliant. I am normally not an action movie type of person, but this movie for sure is one of my favs now. So, if you haven't seen "Taken", just go see it. I might even go see it again for the heck of it. Veronica and I left the theater spinning donuts out of the parking lot because it had us to pumped up to take some kind of action and be on an adventure. Such a good movie...SO good.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

I must confess...but judge me not

So, there was a little "situation" that occurred last week that I have been questioned about constantly thanks to our lovely roommate and my #8 on my 25 things no one needed to know about me on Facebook. Everyone wants to know what happened last Monday, did we get arrested, did we get handcuffed, blah blah. Well, let me put those wandering minds to rest and tell you the true story of what happened.

Setting: Monday night...after FHE, American Manor, two girls bored out of their minds, procrastinating homework. Our original plan of going to workout at the gym was short lived. We showed up at the Hart just to find a line of people waiting to get on a treadmill. That seems really ironic and weird to me to see people STANDING STILL IN A LINE to get on a treadmill. Like...ok, whatever. So, we came back home, sad we didn't work out, but still pumped enough we wanted to do something crazy. Earlier in the week, a group of friends had told us all these horror stories of this specific towing company here in town. Apparently, this towing guy rides around to all the apartments looking for cars, even cars that are visitors, just to tow them and charge crazy amounts of money to get your car back. This outraged my friend(it doesn't take much sometimes)and she was ready to take some sort of action towards this tow truck man. She is much like a young female Robin Hood in many ways. Her first idea, which was not a good idea, will not be mentioned in this story. The second idea that I had, was to get some eggs and throw them at the tow truck. Sadly, we went with that idea.

The Victory: So, we found the towing company, but it didn't seem like a good idea to throw the eggs being that the two men were outside getting their truck ready. So we followed them. Yes, we did. With our black sweats, black hoodies, and black hats, we followed that tow truck to at least 4 different apartments, waiting for the right time to strike. Finally, at a complex in clear view of the Snow building, we parked the car, turned off the lights, and prepared to throw the eggs. But to our dismay, they had decided to actually tow a car and had stopped the truck to load it on. My roommate all of a sudden exploded with this super power, opened her door, took off running with 2 eggs, and yelled for me to get in the drivers seat. I was so confused. Never had I heard of this plan of her getting out of the car. At first I just sat in the drivers seat, watching her run, wondering what she was actually going to do. Well, what she did was what she shouldn't have done. She ran right up to the truck, threw the eggs at the window, and took off running to the second driveway. I quickly sped around corner, turned down the next street to meet her, and what I found was a crime gone horribly wrong. My roommate had been tackled on the sidewalk by the tow truck man. She was kicking and screaming obscenities and I just sat there in the car feeling very afraid. He was yelling "call the police, call the police!!!". At that point, I didn't know what else to do. So I did the white thing to do...I drove off and left my friend tackled on the sidewalk. I drove around the corner to my apt, jumped out the car, stood there for a second, and then realized I could NOT leave my best friend like that, it wasn't right, she wouldn't do it to me. So, I grabbed the keys and was about to take off running back around the corner to where she was, when I say my other roommate waving to me from the stairs of my apartment, she was locked out. GREAT! Now I would have to tell her, right? So, I told her the whole story...she also used to be Relief Society President, if that explains how embarrassing it was to tell her the story. So, we drove over to the apt in her car, TWO police cars there, my friend sitting on the steps being yelled at by a very dikeish woman police officer, and me feeling my pulse harder than ever. After being complimented for our deeds and laughed at for our age, my friend was issued a ticket and a court date. And that was it.

And now....it is funny. No it was not funny that night. It was stupid, we were dumb, we will never do anything like that again. However, I have at least done something now that I can laugh about and tell my grandchildren someday. So I am not totally regretting it. So just so everyone knows, no we did not get arrested or cuffed, just a ticket. The end.

Friday, February 6, 2009

"Surname" lol

“Good day.” Good day? Are you serious?! That’s what someone said to me as they passed me walking to campus the first week of school.

The things I hear on campus never cease to amaze me. Every time I try to have a nice little walk to school, all alone in my head, blaring ipod and all, someone tries to talk to me. Why? Why does everyone around here feel like they need to speak to every other person that passes?

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a mean thing to do. However, it’s inconvenient to the other person for a number of reasons. One, they simply may not want to be bothered at 7:30 a.m. in the dark. It’s odd, it’s weird, stop doing it. Two, maybe they can’t hear you. Some people are really into their Kayne West and Britney Spears to have to be constantly aware of their surroundings. Three, maybe some kids have grown up in areas where talking to random people gets you gunned down. Maybe.

But in what world do I live that people still say “good day”? For real? And another oddity that occurred today….even more weird, a guy knocked on the apt door and asked for some random girl that doesn’t live here. So, being a concerned citizen and fellow Saint, I wanted to help him and asked her last name. To my surprise he said “Oh, I don’t recall her surname”. What the blank! Surname? Really? Did he really just speak like that in my doorway?

Had it not been for my civilized roommate standing behind me, I might have fallen to the ground with pure laughter. He wasn’t even one of those trench coat, yoda wearing guys either, so I was somewhat shocked at his comments.

I want to go home.

Living Situation

I think my roommates are afraid of me. No really. They are afraid of me and it makes me sad.

My best friend and I moved to Rexburg last year just to stay locked in our room all winter contemplating how and when we should escape this town. But after careful thought and prayer, we came to the conclusion that it wasn’t as much the town, as it was our living situation.

Our roommates never talked to us. In fact, if any of them read this, I bet $2 they don’t even remember they lived with me. We were cool people too, that’s why I couldn’t figure out why they distanced themselves from us all the time.

As the semester progressed, I tried my darnedest to get them to like me, like sometimes leaving dishes for them to do so they felt needed, or sitting garbage around the trash can so I wasn’t leaving it on the counter, or even sometimes I would leave food in the fridge for them but they would just let it spoil for months.

I really thought I was doing everything I could to win them over, but for some reason, it wasn’t working.

Currently, this semester seems to be going rather well…only 1 roommate afraid of me, maybe. I think the other one likes Veronica and I, that, or either she’s just not dumb enough to get on our bad side. But I’d like to think she actually likes us. We like her, at least.

The other one doesn’t speak to us. Not a word. All day long, all night, nothing. I hear her grunting in the kitchen sometimes when she doesn’t appreciate the evenly stacked dishes in the sink, but other than that, not a word. But the reason I know she is afraid of us is because she never says anything to us. I also got word that she actually said she doesn’t like us. But her reason was absurd. However, she still hasn’t approached me, so I guess she will have to keep living in fear. Not that we are actually scary, because we aren’t. My best friend even cries in church sometimes, so I know we are good people.

But I am determined to make this apartment a whole, where love is near and we all like each other. It will happen…or else! Ha.

Step it Up, Yo!

“Hey, how’s it going? I couldn’t help but notice you from across the classroom. I was wondering if your name was Visa because you’re everywhere I wanna be.”

That’s how it would go down where I’m from, but not in Rexburg. Around here, if I dare look at a guy longer than 3 seconds, he immediately breaks the eye contact and nervously starts skimming through a book. At first, I thought it might just be the type of guys that go to this university.

I’ve also thought about the possibility that there might just be something wrong with me, but I can’t even fathom that idea. I mean, if you knew me, you would know that is absolutely not the case.

I came here under the impression that guys are pretty much the same anywhere. That they approach you the same, use the same pick up lines, and so on. But that’s definitely not what I found. I found myself in a world full of unsure and shy men. Right? Am I completely making this up?

I know I am not the only girl here that feels this way because I’ve actually done a little independent survey and my studies show that getting a guy to ask you out is somewhat challenging in Rexburg. However, I’ve never had to overcome this obstacle in life before, so this gives me a little chuckle.

Back in South Carolina, I could simply be grocery shopping, and if I caught a guy’s attention, he would let me know. Whether it be “yo, shawty, lemme get them digits” or “Do your eyes hurt?...because they’re killing me, darling”, I would at least be approached. Hey, I had options. Do you?

That is my point. I think guys here are very much conservative, even the ones who say they are rebels, they aren’t. In a town where approximately 2 people get engaged per hour(I totally made that up, but I bet I am pretty accurate), how are these people getting to the point of marriage if the men are not stepping up their game?

And if you are reading this thinking I am bitter, you are wrong. I just want to know what is so embarrassing about going up to a girl, asking her out and then not being weird about it. I’ll even go out on a limb and speak up for most females on campus and say, men, it is okay to approach us. We do not expect rings on the first date, well, the second date might be a different story, but…only kidding.

I miss the days of “excuse me, can I talk to you for a minute?” I’ve gone on dates in Rexburg but they always end up really bizarre because they usually started out that way. I just want everyone to know there is no mold you have to fill just because you’re in the LDS dating scene when it comes to asking girls out.

Be brave. Take a deep breath. Be silly. Walk up to that cute girl you passed by the Hart and let her know that her “ponytail is ridiculous” and that you want to “holla”. If she turns around and says “holla back” then you have succeeded. Mission accomplished.