Some advice for all my friends having children

First of all, let me say congrats on creating a miracle. Second, stop it already until I can catch up.

I find it weird that you are coming to me for advice on how to raise children, because I have none,* but since you obviously are by looking at this post. let me give you a little nugget of wisdom I learned from watching the Daily Show tonight. Raise your child the way I would have been raised if I would have been left in Asia, where obviously I may originally be from. It is called Tiger Mothering.



*That I know of**


**Paternity test pending***

***Alicia Keys is stalling

Adele

Ok, I know I have recently done a post about her a few weeks ago. But I have finals to study for, so you know that means I have basically lived on youtube for the past two days. What have I been watching? Adele, performing live. Man, she has pipes. No one can compete with her.

Lately this song has been my fave:
Turning Tables


Someone Like You


Rolling in the Deep



Don't You Remember


Adele's recent breakup led to her writing this CD. Does it make me a bad person to hope that her next relationship ends bitterly so we can get another gem like this?

Also as a side note, I have heard she is coming to SLC this summer. If anyone wants to take me you can have my first born or something else, like a snickers bar.

Happy Easter

So, this was my first real holiday away from home since the mission. I am moving home in a few weeks so it didn't make any sense for me to go home. A friend of mine was going to come down here but couldn't end up making it. So I thought that I was going to go through my first family holiday as a family of 1. Yeah....it was every bit as depressing as that sounds......until one of my buddies at school invited me over for Easter dinner with him and his wife and some of our other friends from school and friends from their ward. It really turned out to be a lot of fun, great food, good conversation, and definitely filled up that gap that being away from home and family for the holiday left. I kind of felt like a grown up. Like I know that I am 26, but somehow being a student still, even though it is grad school, still makes me feel like I did when I was 21. And the fact that I am not married blah blah blah and all that stuff also does not bode well for the making me feel older thing. So, time away from home over Easter, having a gap filler with friends down here, makes me one step closer to being an adult, right?

Anywho, Happy Easter, I hope that it was a good one for everyone!

Perfect Couples

If you don't watch this show, I recommend you get caught up on Hulu. It started off a little rough but mid season it found itself and now it is a perfect part of my Thursday night of television watching while I run at the gym or Friday at the library in between classes when I am "studying". Here is a clip to get you interested:

Impulsive

Today I realized that I may over react on impulses. I realized this when I started filling out an application to join the Peace Corps. It has always been a dream to serve in the Peace Corps. I really wish it wasn't a 2 year program. I really wish I didn't have the desire to have responsibilities like a real job as a practicing attorney and a family, or else I would be boarding a plane to Ghana or Thailand or Moldova or Samoa or Jordan or Costa Rica and be building farms and digging wells and teaching English or health and playing soccer with kiddos and teaching them tennis and baseball and basketball. I would be on a beach or in a jungle or wherever. Ahh......I should go to bed before I restart an application.

Fear

No not this bad Marky Mark movie of the 1990's



but real and actual fear. I fear one thing and one thing only: the unknown.....and sharks. But I want to talk about the former in this post and will talk about how I just know from years of watching Shark Week that a shark attack is probably the way my life will tragically end in another post.

So fear. I am not really good at talking about emotions with actual people. I am tough. I am nice, but I am tough. I try not to let things get me down. I am generally really optimistic. I try to turn anything into a joke, whether or not it is appropriate or too soon to be joked about. But, if Katrina taught us anything, sometimes those levies just bust wide open. Yeah....I know.... too soon...

Anyways, things that happen to me I never get afraid of. I once heard this quote my Marie Curie that I have tried to live by: "Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood." So I have taken that fully to heart. If there is something that I am afraid of I try to tackle it head on. Moving away from home? Check. I may hate it sometimes, but I am grateful for everything that I have learned about myself in moving away and it has helped me understand myself, families, and independence in a way that I would never have been able to do any way else. My former health problems? Ok, I let them get the best of me when I was in high school. But, I beat that. And now I am not afraid of anything that happens to me. I know who I am and that I am tough.

However, what, does scare me, and one thing that I cannot understand: is when bad things happen to the people I love. The fear of the unknown. Of not being able to control the outcome. Of not really knowing any way I can help. What I am talking about is how my Grandpa was diagnosed yesterday with an agressive form of prostate cancer. He is 82, and you know what they say, if you don't die first you'll live long enough to get some type of cancer. I don't actually know if that is a thing that people say. The Big C is something that happens to people all the time. I know I shouldn't be taken back or surprised......but I am. My Grandpa is my hero. Someone that if I lived my life to be half as great as he is, I would be a really successful person. He is 82 and in really great health. Someone that has taken excellent care of himself. I am just trying to wrap my head around the understanding part of this. I know that if I had to pick between my Grandpa's fighting spirit against his aging self and an agressive cancer, I would pick Gramps every time.

So here comes the time for trying to understand. I stayed up until 4 in the morning trying to learn about prostate cancer, how it is formed, warning signs, treatments, probabilities, preventions, potential for it to run in families, etc. Trying to understand so I can not be afraid of it. Reading about how to help loved ones who get the disease, so I can understand how I can best help my hero. Reading message board posts of people who have it so I can understand how they feel so I can understand and develop empathy. My hero has got a battle ahead of him. His own body is literally attacking him from within. It is hard to wrap my head around that. I am not going to lie, I am a little afraid. But I think I get my toughness from my hero, so I know that the Big C doesn't know what exactly it is up against.

So it is basically the weekend

and in all honesty all I want to do is take an easy saturday and watch these movies that I haven't seen:

Rabbit Hole


This is the movie that I want to see the most on this list that I haven't seen yet. It is supposed to be dark and a little depressing but I have heard it is also supposed to be amazing




Love and Other Drugs


Ok, I have heard some reviews that make me wonder if I should actually watch this or not....so I am undecided




Due Date


Again I have heard it is hilarious and that it is the worst movie either Robert Downy Jr. and Zach Galifnakas have ever made.


If you have seen any of these please let me know if any of them are worth my time.


or I could rewatch some of these new movies that I really, really, really like.

The Fighter


The best boxing movie I have ever seen




It's Kind of a Funny Story


One of my new favorites.





127 Hours


This one was intense and crazy in the same way that Castaway was really good....although I like this movie a lot better than Castaway.


But in reality:
This is what I am going to be doing tomorrow FML



Writing a legal brief. Also it is what I will be doing Saturday. Oh, and Sunday. All of course Intermingled with General Conference. I actually really like General Conference a lot. I am going to miss Momma Cummings' giant homemade General Conference Sunday breakfast. French toast, cinnamon french toast, pancakes, fruit, scrambled eggs, ham/spinach quiche, bacon, fresh orange juice, and my grandparents coming over. My mom makes breakfast only 3 times a year so I think she tries to make up for it by going all out on these occasions. (2 Gen Conference Sundays and Fathers day to be specific) Luckily (being optimistic) this legal brief will keep me so occupied that I won't even know the difference between the banana and granola bar I will be eating for breakfast instead of that family tradition meal.

Saturday I scored a free training session with the head trainer at my gym in between conference sessions so that is going to make for a long day. Ironically enough, I scored a free session with one of the trainers tonight too, basically by chatting with her for a bit before I started working out, and her asking me if I wanted to work out with her when she got off of work. So I ran 4 miles until she got off and then she basically killed me. And by me I mean the areas where I am supposed to have biceps and triceps and pecs and abs.