General Conference weekend

As I grow older, I am coming more and more to love General Conference. This weekend, I will be attending four 2-hour sessions where I (along with several other million members of the LDS Church) will listen to the words of our prophets, apostles, and other general authorities.

Since high school, I have generally watched most or all of General Conference with friends and/or roommates. This year will be no different, although it's going to be a new group--friends from my singles' ward.

I also particularly enjoy the activites that surround general conference. For instance, on Saturday night after the Priesthood session (during which Cheri and I will be at Wal-Mart!) we are having a movie night. Our movie selection still remains to be seen, but we will be watching from the comfort of the club house at the Milano apartments...which is VERY nice. =)

And on Sunday, we are having a brunch between sessions, and I am SO excited to make french toast. I'll admit that I have been craving french toast for...well, awhile now. So that's my contribution to our potluck brunch, and I'm pretty content with life.

Of course, I am mostly just excited to hear the words of the Prophets. And I'm excited to get to read them in a month's time in the new conference Ensign. I just absolutely love general conference.

Tag again

I have been tagged by Lindsey's blog! This is a new version of blog-tag, I thought I'd indulge...so I get to list three joys, three fears, three goals, three current obsessions or collections and three surprising facts about myself. :D

Joys
#1 Leaving my windows open for a breeze, twenty-four hours a day
#2 Getting to know the new crew this year
#3 Playing music throughout my airy apartment

Fears
#1 My own stupidity (when it happens, and that it might happen at any moment. Seriously!)
#2 I fear for my Elainabug
#3 Apathy

Goals
#1 Figure out what I'm doing this fall
#2 Work my butt off this summer
#3 Learn how to play Guitar Hero functionally (a must with my current crowd.)

Current obsessions
#1 Reading. That's not current, that's always.
#2 Abbey Road. Particularly Octopus's Garden.
#3 Revising my novel.

Surprising facts
#1 I love cooking barefoot in my kitchen. I discovered that last year--especially in the evenings, with the windows open and music playing (see above).
#2 I really enjoy reading multiple books simultaneously. (Not at the same moment silly, just in the same general space of time.) I'm currently reading Alanna, New Moon, and listening to The Host on CD, and I thought about starting HP6 today, but resisted.
#3 I have never been to New York City. This is pure tragedy, particularly for a theatre person.

I'm supposed to tag 5 people, but I like Lindsey's way--if you read this blog, consider yourself tagged. Go and do!

Driving across America, listening to The Beatles

I think that most people don't realize how big this country is. I think we look at a map and comprehend the space in a moment, thinking that we live in a civilized place, when in reality there are huge wide open spaces all over it, untamed places where nothing lives but grass and weeds and deer and wandering cows. Places that stretch as far as the eye can see--again and again and again, with nothing in between but that road you're on, stretching out to the horizon.

I drove for about 11 hours today, and about the same yesterday. Today, I covered half of Nebraska, all of Iowa, and about half of Illinois. (Kearney, NE--Joliet, IL). Yesterday, I covered a corner of Utah, all of Wyoming, and that first half of Nebraska. Two days of driving, and I've covered four states. That's it. It doesn't seem like that much, when you look at a map. I look at Iowa on a map, and I think, "Wow, what a little dorky state full of cows." Driving across it, I think, "Wow, what a HUGE dorky state full of cows!"

And corn.
That's about all.
Seriously.

Today, I found a Barnes and Noble by accident (really! I was actually looking for a Wendys) and I bought "The Host" on CD, by Stephenie Meyer. I listened to "Twilight" yesterday, but after finishing it this morning, I decided I definitely needed another book to listen to. Neither of the bookstores I visited today (one in Omaha, one in Des Moines--which are HOURS apart, by the way) had the sequel, "New Moon", so I ended up getting her new SF novel, which I haven't read. I was nervous to listen to a book before reading it. I'm such a visual person, I wasn't sure it would be the same experience. I'm still sure that it's not, but I'm enjoying it all the same.

In between finishing Twilight and purchasing The Host, I also spent about an hour listening to The Beatles. I have decided--for the moment--that my favorite album is Abbey Road. This may change, but it's definitely my current fav. Although, I actually listened to the lyrics of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" today, and was appalled! I should look them up and see what it really says, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is actually appalling. Silly Beatles.

I'm staying the night at a little motel in Joliet, Illinois, which is somewhat southwest of Chicago. It stands between the Motel 6, which looks like the Bates Motel, and the Comfort Inn, which only had 2-bed rooms that would cost me eighty bucks. I'm okay with this place, it's a little cheap, but clean and not too scary. The only real problem is that there's no refrigerator. This is a problem, because I am carting a cooler full of precious cargo 2000 miles across country.

Melissa (my best friend) burst out laughing when I told her the contents of my cooler. She said to me, "If you could know somebody by food, I would know it was you just from that." Apparently, these are "Valerie" foods:

-a large package of uncooked tortillas
-a 2-lb block of Colby Jack
-a six-pack of Dr. Pepper
-a carton of fresh strawberries

If you know me, you would probably agree with Melissa. Also, I'm carrying a small package of Cotija cheese--my uncle Laurence gave it to me when I stayed with him last night, to try on my quesadillas. Apparently it's a Mexican cheese something similar to mozzarella. It will probably be part of my dinner tomorrow--I have also brought along my all-powerful griddle, to assist in the making of my favorite food while in Pennsylvania, a place sadly scarce in Mexican food.

So tomorrow I continue onward in my journey. I have about 700 miles left to go, through more civilization than the last 1400 combined (I hope). I'm going to pass through Cleveland before turning up toward Erie. And I shall continue onward through The Host as well. I'm interested to see how it turns out.

Hormones

God must've had a real laugh when he designed the menstrual cycle. Either that, or feeling particularly sadistic.

I've been craving chocolate for two days. Starting on the rag didn't make that go away. I think I ate five chocolate chip cookies this evening. Enough to make me feel slightly sick to my stomach, but not nearly enough to make the craving go away.

I think I was a little short with my nephew tonight. He's five, and his baby sister is in the hospital, which means their mom has been at the hospital with her as much as possible--which means little Ben misses his mom a lot. Which, in his case, means he acts out. He's constantly attention-seeking, which unfortunately means he's almost constantly causing trouble. I love the little bugger, but he frequently drives me crazy, and tonight I was probably a little harsher than I needed to be.

Cramps make it hard for me to concentrate. I wrote about 4000 words today, but I'll need to remember to read it over carefully in a few days--I kept catching my fingers typing things my brain didn't mean--words were missing, or misspelled, or misplaced, or a totally new one took its place without my brain ever thinking it. In fact, if this blog is a little topsy-turvy, you know where to place the blame.

Mood-swings are the worst. Tonight was especially bad. I had a great day--I sat outside all afternoon and wrote wrote wrote, listening to my music, watching my dad work in the yard, and the dog chase birds. She can do that for hours--and did. Great afternoon. Then my mom made cookies, which I proceeded to consume. Then we got to talk to my brother for a few minutes--he's on an LDS mission in Virginia, which means we don't normally get to talk to him on the phone. But he was in a bicycle accident, he got a concussion and possible a fracture in his cheekbone, so he was at the hospital, and his mission president let us talk to him for a few minutes. Ben told him he needed training wheels! lol. After finally getting Ben to bed, my parents and I sat down and watched "Pursuit of Happyness", which is a swell movie. And now, despite this wonderful day, I'm in a bad mood. I couldn't even begin to tell you why, except for one thing:

Hormones.

They are the bane of human existence. For women, because we have to endure them, and for men because they have to live with them. Force of nature, my friend.

Culinary Experiments

And dangit, I forgot to take a picture like I intended.

Tonight, Dixy Christopher and I made a pizza. Dixy used a family crust recipe (I will see if I can get it later.) Then we smeared on tomato sauce (Dixy was a little disappointed later on when she realized I hadn't spiced it--note for next time.) Then we had a "Mexican blend" of shredded cheese, courtesy of Mom and Costco. Next came some Canadian bacon. Then, for Dixy and I came pineapple chunks, and for Dixy and Chris came mushrooms. All three of us included sliced olives, sliced tomatoes, and chunks of asparagus, with a few leaves of spinach on top. Fortunately, Chris did not add any bananas. Then we sent the cheese-storm over the top of it all.

Baked for about 25 minutes at 350 degrees to a crisp golden brown crust. The whole thing exploded a bit--I would recommend a deeper pan for next time.

It was delicious. The asparagus turned out particularly well (since I've never had it on pizza before.) The crust was excellent, and the whole concoction was delightful. I'm not usually one for "combo" pizza, but this turned out really well. I would definitely recommend the experiment.

Inspired by Gregory

My friend Gregory recently posted a blog on his MySpace concerning a Life List. He described starting a list in high school, a list of things he wanted to accomplish during his lifetime. It echoed with me, because I happen to keep a similar list. As Gregory himself said: "... partly because I love lists and partly just for fun, I have decided to post my working life list. And I encourage you to create your own list—what do you want to do with your life?

So here are some of the things I want to do with my life: (in no particular order)

--Serve a mission.

--Publish a book (at least one).

--Learn to play the saxophone.

--Learn how to cook well.

--Go to grad school (I find out in March!!)

--Get married in the temple. (Really, what kind of good LDS girl would I be without this one?)

--Raise at least three children.

--Work on a Broadway tour.

--Stage manage all of Shakespeare’s plays.

--Work in politics. (Preferably in DC, because its a great place.)

--Learn to tap dance.

--Travel the world. (Vague, but really I just want to see everything.)

--Live in a big city—NYC, D.C., Chicago, Philly, London, or the like. At least for awhile.

--Live in a small town, at least for awhile.

--Live in another country, for awhile.

--Write a book with Sam. And actually finish it. Maybe it can be the one that gets published!

--Raise pets. Dogs, especially. Beagles.

--Work in publishing.

--Become bilingual, at least. The languages I would most like to speak are: German, Spanish, Russian, Italian, and Mandarin. Following those are the rest of the world's languages.