Long Over Due

Hello Blogville,

I've decided that it has been too long since my last post and that life without blogging is pointless. I mean seriously, there's been a void and it's been revealed to me that I must blog in order to fill it. The title for this blog depicts more than just my lack of blog posts, but also pertains to my lack of studying attempts for economics, political science, family finance and statistics as well as my realization that my class schedule was not appropriately planned. Typical.

Let's see...as we can observe from my last post I decided to take some time away from my studies. Looks like I applied that philosophy a little too generously and the rest of my fall semester has been me playing catch up. Lame. Hence, my studying attempts at each of the above classes is long over due, my realization that I don't want to major in business, much less apply to the program is long over due (since I am now stuck in the classes - which I shall just convert to a business minor) and the realization that I should have taken personal finance instead of family finance.

Well, I guess I can look at all of the above as sunk costs because my expectations for the future contain a new class schedule and a beautiful outlook. Therefore, the costs of this semester will not effect my future costs and no longer matter. Yay! Look at me, I've used some vocabulary words. Woot.

Lesson of the Day: Use random spouts of vocabulary from your classes in everyday language and people think you are way smart. Just be careful of doing this too well, because others might bombard you with questions and ask you for help. Eww.

Quick side note which should have been posted yesterday.....

Below is the textual conversation between my family, namely my brother and two of my sisters, and I about a particular individual who shall not be named, because I have a reputation to maintain as the "nice" girl and if she found out that I was talking about her I'm sure our agreeable relationship --which consists of sitting next to each other in the one class we share and each of us exuding fake laughs at the other's odd sense of humor (or lack thereof) that neither of us care about--would be terminated and I would have to endure her high school attitude through the rest of my stay at the Y. Also, I've decided to include pictures of my siblings so that you can see their expressions in your mind as you read their responses (Marie at piano with JohnJohn and Josie doing some genie-somethin pose and me with glasses and meditating). Let us proceed*

Nina (Mass Text to JohnJohn, Josie, and Marie): Omg this is going to make me a horrid person, but I have to say this. This girl is singing at the top of her lungs one of my favoritest songs and she's horrible. She is totally ruining it and I wish she would just shut up! Like it is literally hurting my ears. Literally.
Josie: Hahaha you should create a blog.
Nina: I already have one I just haven't been on in a while. And I can't because if she read my blog she would freak!
Josie: So change her name to "this girl".
Nina: Ok.

JohnJohn to Nina: Oh.........fight back. I know there's a banshee in u.

Marie to Nina: Hahahaha then listen to your laptop or something
Nina: I can't. I can still hear her. Agh my ears hurt. You know how people cringe when they hear finger nails scratching the chalk board? Yeah it's kind of like that.
Marie: Haha you fight back yet?

*Please note that this conversation is not typed verbatum, because none of my family keeps my texts stored in their phone for dire purposes such as now. Rude.

SEGO

SEGO: Provo Music Festival substitute for Austin City Limits.

You gotta do what you gotta do.

The McDonald's shirt was awesome. And I just realized that his face matches the face on thebanner behind him. Funny.

My plan to work two jobs and save up money to fly home for the Austin City Limist Music Festival fell through and so I was here in Provo and had to make up for my lack of live music. Thus, I attended the SEGO Fest and felt the little hole in my heart where ACL was fill with satisfaction. I'm so glad I could get my fill of live music for the weekend. What's even better is that I can listen to music from ACL on attblueroom.com/music so really it's like I was there...almost...but hey it's better than nothing. Yay for SEGO. :)

Even though attending the music festival put me behind on my studies for about 5 hours it's all good. I think it was a good investment of my time and seriously, if it would have been a higher opportunity cost for me to stay put at home and study.

Twenty

Happy Birthday to Me. I've officially left the realm of teenagers.

California

I went down to California with my cousins during the second to last week in August. It was grand and smelled just like home! Even the people reminded me of home and I was soo happy! I made a few new friends on the pier and got to walk on the beach. There was a lot of shopping, but the best place in the shopping centers (The Grove, The Fashion District, and other huge shopping malls) was the three story Barnes N' Noble! I was seriously in heaven.

Since I'm not going to go home until this Christmas, it was nice to leave the small confines of Provo and BYU campus and be around normal people again. I mean, don't get me wrong, they're some righteous people at BYU, but sometimes they all just get on my nerves with their self righteousness and how they treat people they don't know.



Being in California was exactly what I need. I hiked the Y a week before with my FHE group and that's when it hit me. I needed to get out of Provo. I was sitting on the Y and thinking to myself and looking at the extent of my existence here in Provo, from point A (my casa) to point B (campus). It was the most depressing thing to see how my life seemed to revolve around those foci, that something in my brain clicked and I knew that if I planned on surviving the next four months in Provo I needed to get out of it. I love Austin so much and the people there that I just needed something that was close to that environment, and California fit that profile perfectly.



I enjoyed my time with my cousins and also realized how much I dislike spending money and shopping all the time. My favorite part of California was talking to people that didn't go to BYU and that weren't from Utah. It's just so refreshing to be around people with different perspectives and backgrounds. I guess I also just felt at home because they were people of color all around me! It's still a bit of a culture shock being surrounded by so many white people, coming from Texas and it's huge diverse population. Anyway, I just want to confirm that California rocks. Especially the areas that I was in - Whittier, LA, and Santa Monica.

The Lions

I'm so glad my family got to come up and visit this summer. It was so much fun having the whole gang together again. Even Terriana managed to make it up in the middle of the week. I'm glad they at least got to come up because I won't be going home until Christmas time.

Some of the things we did while they were here was attend the Stadium of Fire, eat at Mimi's Cafe, chill at Barnes N' Noble, visit relatives, watch Wall-E, hang out with the Gallups, walk to the parade, shop at the 4th of July booths and eat lunch on campus.

Seriously, my family is the best. Sure, we are far from perfect, but I wouldn't trade any member for anything. I like that we are all different and that we share a lot of the same interests as well. The best times together are when we are just chilling out at home and telling stories or cracking jokes. Family prayers were always a riot. I'm not to sure if we got through any without laughing. Don't worry no one was offending God, he was laughing too. Oh and what's also great about my family is that we make random videos and concoct our own songs. A lot of it is improv and then the rest, well what else are we supposed to do with all that free time on Sundays?

Anyway, we are probably the oddest family ever and that's why I love them. Below are just a few reasons of why I love being a De Leon.


Mom: Josie, we have to bless the food.
Josie: It's already blessed. We're in Utah!

Terri: I like boys with trucks!
Josie: Morris has a truck!


Dad: Mom keeps giving me that look: "Where are my kisses?"
JohnJohn: Ashley gave me that look at Soar.

More Memorable De Leon Moments....

Josie: Look it's a rat!
Terri: No, it's Gus Gus!!!!!! Nina: Careful, JohnJohn might eat him for his survival camp.

JohnJohn: Dad always says stuff that I already know.

Terri: Wait, just listen.
JohnJohn: Let me guess...a boy was checking you out.

Picture Scavenger Hunt!!!

Last night I went on a double date! It was so much fun and my roommates helped plan it out. My roommate and I doubled with two guys from our fhe group. We were assigned tasks as part of a scavenger hunt and had to take pictures for each task. I had a lot of fun and the pictures were awesome. We went around Provo, south of the BYU campus, on foot and got to know our dates a little bit more. We began the date with pizza and ended with ice cream.

It's ironic that we all chided Michelle for spilling on herself and I totally ended up spilling ice cream on my shirt too. What goes around comes around eh? Anyway, the night ended well and we had some girl talk with the roomies afterwards to assess everything. I'd say it was a Friday night well spent.

jurassic park in the canyons

Back home we always watched movies on the projector inside the house or outside on the lawn. It's the coolest thing ever, and Provo just got cool points yesterday because I watched Jurassic Park in the canyons with a group from my ward! It was projected onto a sheet and brought back lots of good memories.

It was fun hanging out with my rooms. We also got to meet more people in our ward and that was nice, cause I still feel like the new kid. Also, my roommates and I had fun being goofy and taking lots of pictures. Sometimes, I care to much about being and looking mature when I'm around older people, but last night I didn't care. I let myself loose and didn't worry about what everyone thought about me. I've been so caught up with that lately, that it felt awesome to just relax and be myself. I haven't had so much fun in a while :)

I must say, life is so much more enjoyable when you can be yourself. That's definitely a "DUH" factor, but sometimes I forget that. And, what made the night even better was that I got to wear my awesome Tegan and Sara shirt. Rock on!