Wicked: Bringing People Together

This post is dedicated to the most AMAZING musical ever! Wicked! Now for those of you who don't know anything about Wicked it is sort of the prequel to the Wizard of Oz in a sense. It tells the story of how the Wicked Witch of the West becomes Wicked. So you get to see a whole different side of the story. The music is basically the greatest ever. Feel free to listen to a few of my favorite songs below..

Popular

Defying Gravity

For Good

Anywho the reason for this post is because Wicked really does bring people together. I proudly wore my Wicked t-shirt to the grocery store last night and got TWO compliments on it from random people. Think of what would have happened had I ventured out of Macey's! I was able to meet a really cool girl all because she made a comment about my shirt! I love love love Wicked and would see it again in an instant and HIGHLY recommend anyone who hasn't seen it to see it. If you can't fork out the money to go see it just yet then most definitely get the soundtrack and enjoy the great music and wonderful message of this amazing musical.

beauty hurts

I don't profess to be a "pretty girl" and don't really worry about how I look...too much... but I am a girl and I do enjoy looking nice and feeling beautiful. In order to get this feeling of beauty sometimes requires A LOT of pain. One of these painful beauty procedures is the waxing of the eyebrows. Thanks to my dad I was blessed with "bushman" eyebrows which my cousin so lovingly refers to them as.

Now as many of you know my financial status has limited me a little to what I can and can't do and believe it or not you have to pay people to inflict this pain on you. So because of my lack of money I haven't gotten my eyebrows waxed in awhile (the lady that does it for less money than most and does the best job wouldn't return my phone calls...I think it is because I didn't tip her...yeah I am thinking that was it, but that is a story for another time and another post). Anywho my eyebrows being the bushman kind that they are had almost morphed into two totally different shapes. So I am walking around with eyebrows that are two different shapes...attractive right. NOT!

Today I had the most wonderful pleasure of getting my eyebrows waxed. I went to my cheap lady (don't worry I tipped her well so she will forgive me and return my phone calls) and she was like "Well do you want them to be the same shape?" LOL! Ok she really didn't say that but I made sure she knew that I was well aware of the fact that they were not the same shape. I am amazed that it almost doesn't even hurt anymore when she rips that hot wax off my face. I'm a ROCK. I am happy to report that I have two very lovely eyebrows that are now the same shape!

Beauty hurts but I think it is worth the pain especially if it is true that you are more attractive if your face is symmetrical (having two matching eyebrows would be essential in that whole symmetrical thing).

I was told by a fellow blogger that at least my eyebrows don't look like this... Thankfully I don't have a horrid unibrow problem! Bless her soul...

muffins

This is HILARIOUS! Laughed so hard my stomach hurt! Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tcR19y7GPM

giants upstairs

Now I know this is going to sound oh so shameful that I haven't met my neighbors right above me but I haven't. But to be honest who really moves into a new complex and makes the rounds to meet everyone. Ok so there're probably are a lot of people who do this but I have never have even though I probably should.

Anywho... this is all besides the point. What I really want to say is that I think that my upstairs neighbors are GIANTS! I was just settling into my oh so wonderfully comfortable bed after a long day and was beginning to dose when I heard a whole lot of pounding coming from above. Now at first I wondered what was going on, was the ceiling cracking, had someone upstairs repeatedly dropping a bowling ball? No. My giant neighbors were just walking around. I couldn't believe how incredibly loud it was and how awful I felt when I was wondering how much the person weighed that was making such a racket.

Needless to say I was irritated and wanted to call upstairs and tell whoever it was to sit down and quit walking around! Luckily the pounding finally stopped, probably because the giants decided to go to bed, and I was able to FINALLY go to sleep. Maybe I will go meet my upstairs neighbors...I have never met a giant before.

24 hour fitness

I am looking into getting my very first gym membership. I live really close to 24 hour Fitness like basically a 5 minute run so the convenience factor is checked off my list. I took in my little piece of paper to redeem my 7 day trial pass. I was greeted by a somewhat loud and obnoxious guy who is one of those people that makes quiet unsure people feel even more quiet and unsure. He gave me a grand tour of the gym and I was impressed. It is a nice facility and I think that I could really get my money's worth out of a membership. One of the things that I love is the fact that it is only a month to month contract. LOVE THAT! I am all about non commitment or as little commitment as possible and so the month to month contract is so great. It also isn't all that much a month either. So needless to say I am leaning towards actually biting the bullet and getting a membership.

Only downside...I need to get over my dislike and fear of lifting weights in front of people (especially gigantic guys pumping 100's of pounds while I lift my dinky 10 lb dumb bell!). I just always have the feeling that people are watching me and it creeps me out! I am going to work on it though...I really have no other choice. Get over lifting in front of people or be fat. Those are my options. I think I know which option I will choose.

After my somewhat short and unproductive work out (I ran into a friend and chatted way longer than I should have...whoops!) I proceeded to run home. Now I am the kind of person that tends to worry a lot and gets kind of paranoid about things. One of those things is running at night and so I wasn't feeling super comfortable as I ran home in the dark. I was running along a pretty busy street though so that was helping me to feel a bit safer. As I was running a car drove by with probably some really young and immature freshman inside who decided to yell at the top of his lungs as they drove by and you would have thought someone had just attacked me! I think my heart skipped like 5 beats! From there I was really on edge and just REALLY wanting to get home and FAST. I was just about to head up the stairwell of my apt. complex and some girl comes walking out of the creepy shadows and just about gave me another heart attack! I was really happy to walk into the safety of my apartment. Thank heavens dead bolts.

stupid mistake

I didn't even know what to title this post because quite frankly the topic is going to be somewhat depressing, well at least it is for me. Today at work I made my very first MAJOR mistake. Now maybe it really wasn't all that bad but it sure did feel like it. I was helping a colleague on doing what we call "call downs" which is basically calling editors and reporters and pitching to them either a story idea, or inviting them to come to a conference, or participate in phone conference we call a "virtual round table." I was making calls for the latter. My instructions were to take a list of people that was e-mailed to me and only call the ones highlighted. As I am sure you all can figure out what happened from here. I called more than just the ones that were highlighted. I called the whole list. Now you may be wondering why this was so bad. The reason it is so bad is because my colleague was calling and contacting the non highlighted people so we were basically double hitting each of those reporters and reporters DON'T like that. They are sometimes hard to convince as it is let alone when you have two people from the same organization calling and e-mailing about the same thing. They tend to get a little annoyed and rightfully so.

Once I recognized my mistake I had to do the most horrible and painful thing...confess my mistake. I felt like such an idiot because I had totally made not only a mistake but a STUPID mistake. My colleague was very understanding and really nice about it but deep down I know that he is going to have a harder time trusting me with something again later. Which really is what made me feel the worst. I am trying really hard to do good work for everyone that I help so that I can build trust. Making mistakes like I did today doesn't really ensue a whole lot of confidence. So in the end I felt pretty crappy about it but I accepted it and now I just need to move on. Hopefully I will have another chance to prove myself and this time impress instead of disappoint.

funny faces

I am experimenting with the features of my blog and I have this lovely slideshow thing that happens here to the right. I can type something in and it will show pictures within the category I choose. I was getting tired of "sunsets" although they are beautiful they aren't that exciting. So for your viewing enjoyment I have decided to have a slide show of funny faces! Some of these are hilarious. This could be a great boredom breaker, because I know you all just have tons of time to sit and look at a slide show on my blog, but if you really were bored you could try and copy the faces you see. I think I might give it a try... : ) Anything anyone wants to see in particular for later slide shows?

new and improved blog

Because of the lack of suggestions for a blog name I was forced to come up with something on my own. I do have to give Rachel credit for the long list of suggestions that she made they were awesome but I thought of something that just fit a little better. Also I need to give credit to Holly because she definitely got me thinking. So the new and improved blog title is "anywho..." as you all can see. I have decided this because this is a classic Marisa comment. Just have one phone call with me and you will hear me say it. I also think that it does a great job representing how my blog flows and how I think. My thoughts are somewhat random and the perfect transition from one random thought to another is anywho! I also needed a change of scenery. The dots were buggin. Hope you all enjoy the new name and layout! Stay tuned for more random thoughts!

I am so posting this

I am so posting this from my phone! How crazy cool is that? Technology today is AMAZING! Who knows what they will come up with next!

blog name

So I was thinking that my blog name is well...stupid. I mean really Marisa's Blog. That isn't exactly uber creative. So I was thinking now that I have a few followers...thanks by the way to all you truly devoted friends who are following...that I would get a little input from you about what I should name my blog. So go ahead let those creative juices flow and come up with a FANTASTIC blog name that will represent how truly cool my blog is! : ) Just go ahead and leave a comment on this post and then I will be the judge of who comes up with the best idea! You know I do get a salary now so I might be able to offer a decent prize to the winner...this isn't bribery by the way just a little extra motivation.

15 Kids & Aliens

Today was my very first company wide meeting. At the end of every month (or right at the beginning of the month as this one was) everyone from Connect gets on a conference call with our CEO Neil. Neil is in California and we have offices in Washington, Phoenix, and even one in Munich Germany, and then of course the Provo office.

On this phone call each of the promotions that have happened in the last month are announced and also any new hires. There were a couple of interns that were new but I was the only brand new FULL TIME employee introduced. Ben Jolley, who is my supervisor, introduced me on the call. He said some nice things and complimented me on my successes thus far. Everything was just hunky dory and I was thinking oh that was a nice introduction...and then Ben proceeded to tell everyone that I came from of family of 15 kids and that I believed Aliens will visit the earth.

Needless to say I was a little surprised by that. Everyone in the room turned and looked at me. Awkward! Ben started laughing and that signaled to everyone else that it was a JOKE and I clarified that I only have four kids in my family... not 15 and that I am still up in the air on the Alien thing...

Taxes are of the devil

Today was pay day and normally you would think that would be a happy occasion and it was partially because now I can pay off my over draft, I can pay my parents back the small debt that I owe them, and buy and iron and ironing board! Oh and get the Leona Lewis' CD which I have already purchased from itunes and am listening to it RIGHT NOW! Love it!

Now the sad part of this story comes in when I opened my statement saw what I made and then saw how much I was actually getting. Depression, wanting to cry, and a little frustration would accurately describe how I was feeling.

What is the deal with dinging single people so stinking much! Isn't that discimination!? Well although I was sad to see so much of my pay check going into someone elses pocket I am grateful to be worth more then .11 cents now. Ironing board here I come!

Getting in touch with my 8 year old self

Last night I had my ward opening social at a place called Jumping Jacks. That's right for our ward opening social we all went and had a ball jumping and playing on 5 giant blow up jumpy things! LOL! Just to give you and idea of how serious this was they made us sign a waiver before they let us in! So many times I am asked to sign things like waivers and contracts and do I ever read the agreement...NO...and don't act like you do because you never read the 5 pages of small print you just want to get to the good stuff. Like jumping on huge blow up toys! I do always wonder what it is I am agreeing to though...

After we had signed our lives away it was time to dig down deep and get back to your 8 year old self and let it all go! You wouldn't believe how easily a bunch of college kids were able to find so much joy and entertainment in jumping and flinging themselves into big blow up toys! Within two minutes of running all over the place I was completely exhausted and wondered how I ever did it as a kid. I think that is was a good indication that I need to exercise. Umm yeah, consider it on the list.

A little later they turned off the lights and turned on these disco balls and played classic songs such as "Celebrate" and "Y.M.C.A" which a small group of us proceeded to begin a small dance party with some crazy stake dance moves! Erin (my cool roommate) and I were pretty much working it! The whole thing turned out to be A LOT of fun and I realized that I had a pretty sweet ward. Even Bishop was playing! Too fun!

The night concluded with a jam out session to Disney songs on our way home. Couldn't have asked for a better Friday night!

New obsession...

So I have a new obsession. I go through phases where I am simply obsessed with certain things. Some things I never become un-obsessed with such as Carmex, Wicked, and chocolate. Now my obsessions will always be favorites but the current obsession is just at the very top of the favorite category.

Anywho...on to my new obsession. I am obsessed with LEONA LEWIS!

Seriously, LOVE her. I have recently become a BIG fan of Pandora (http://www.pandora.com/) in which I listen to my Leona Lewis station all day long! The obsession began when I was listening to my Leona Lewis station (which I created simply because I LOVE her song Bleeding Love). I would hear these songs that I hadn't heard before and I would think to myself "This is a good song! I wonder who sings it?" So I would go and look and see who it was and guess who it was...you guessed it...my very own Leona! So basically I am in great anticipation for my next pay check (I currently have .11 cents to my name, the reason for that is for another time and another post) so that I can buy her WHOLE album "Spirit." Monday is PAY DAY! : ) Just a few more days and I can satisfy my addiction.


P.S. Rachel and Brock came to visit me yesterday on their way to some surprise romantic getaway(Brock was surprising Rachel) for their 1 year anniversary! Can't believe they have been married for a year! Crazy! I love them so much though and I am so glad that they stopped and said "hi."

Text Message/T-shirt/Spanish Language

So there is this little rule about living in BYU approved housing. If you aren't enrolled in school and taking a religion class then you must attend an institute class. Which I don't know how they monitor that or even if they do, but that is besides the point. Since I am living in BYU approved housing and I am not enrolled at BYU I must attend an institute class. I am happy to go to institute, I think it is great "after work activity."

So last night I had the pleasure of going to institute. Once I got to the Tanner building I had a heck of a time trying to find the room that the class was being held in. I was told that the class was held in room 215 but come to find out, after asking a random person, that there was no room 215 in the building. Which brings me to a question that I have often asked myself...why in the world would you skip numbers when numbering rooms in a building!? Is there some person out there just getting a kick out of the fact that a poor helpless girl is wandering around in a very large building looking for a room number that doesn't exist!? Cruel...

After stalking after a boy carrying scriptures thinking that he must being going to institute as well (which I later thought probably wasn't the best sign to look for especially on the BYU campus) I was able to find AN institute class. It didn't take long before I discovered that I was not in the right class...At the very first of class we did introductions (I hate doing introductions) and part of what we were supposed to share with the class was what ward we were from. I immediately had a panic attack as I realized I didn't know what ward I was in. I quickly texted my roommate and asked what ward we were in (THANK HEAVENS FOR TEXTING, once again helping me to save face). People began introducing themselves and saying they were from wards such as the 88th, 116th, and the 127th ward. This is what tipped me off to the fact that I was in the wrong class because my ward is the 7th ward. I was pretty sure that I hadn't made it to the right place. I announced that to the class during my introduction feeling somewhat stupid but of course they assured me that I could NEVER be in the wrong institute class and that I was just fine to be there : )

Now onto the reason for the title of this post. As one of the boys introduced himself he was telling us something that was unique about him and this is what he said "I *heart* thrift stores mucho." It honestly took me a full minute to digest and understand what it was that he had just said! My very next thought was...what is this world coming to? We are now using text message, t-shirt, and foreign languages all at once! Crazy! One side confession though...I kind of thought that it was cool that he had chosen to say it that way. I think that things like that say a lot about a person and I can almost guarantee that boy has one SWEET personality!

So as a tribute to my cool thrift store loving institute buddy I would just like to say...

I *HEART* BLOGGING MUCHO!

My very first follower

I would just like everyone to know that I have my very first follower! Yeah that is right I am actually cool enough to have Holly Arndt (one of my very awesome co-workers) follow me!

For all of you who are new to this whole blogging thing, as a person living in a free country you have the not only the ability but the right to "follow" people's blogs. "Following" someone means that you will be notified when that particular person posts something new on their blog. So if you feel so inclined to be notified whenever I post something new become a follower of my blog! If you did it would make me feel so good and probably boost my self esteem quite a bit.

Holly has won the BIG award though for being the first! Thanks Holly for supporting me and my desire to become a blogger with followers!

To become a follower of Marisa's Blog scroll down and you will find the follower section on the left hand side of the page. Go ahead...make me feel good about myself!

HILARIOUS!

Ok so this is the clip from the Miss America pageant when Miss North Carolina basically slaughtered her answer and the link I have posted below is a YouTube clip of Jimmy Kimmel on the late night show "breaking it down." So funny! Unfortunately he says some things right at the beginning that you don't need to hear so forward it to about 42 seconds and then let it play from there. Enjoy! I sure do every time I watch it! It STILL makes me laugh!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR75L08SBHo&feature=related

Blessings for Blisters

This Sunday was my wards stake conference and so I made a special effort to come back from Kaysville to attend. I didn't get the greatest start because I woke up late and I will be honest I heard the alarm the first time, the second time, and also the third so I would be lying if I said that it was an accident that I didn't leave my house at 9:00. It takes an hour to get to Provo and conference started at 10:00 so I definitely going to be late. I arrived in Provo right at 10:00 and had to hurry and throw on a dress and then make my way to the Marriot Center.

I just need to remind everyone that I don't know Provo, I don't know the tricks, I barely know how to get from my apt to work and from work back to my apt. That is the extent of my Provo knowledge. Luckily I had previously been to the Marriot Center and was able to find it just fine...the problem came once I found it. All you long term Provo residents will laugh at the fact that I thought that I was going to get a parking spot at the Marriot Center and I didn't. I drove all the way down to the creamery on 9th East for those who are familiar with Provo that is a REALLY long ways away from the Marriot Center.

I found a sole parking spot and then began my HIKE to the Marriot Center in shoes that are definitely not condusive for HIKING! Within 5 minutes I had 3 blisters on my toes and every step was very painful! I made it within 100ft of the Marriot Center, taking the long way, I unforunately found out later, before I ran into a group of boys walking the other direction. They asked if I was going to the Marriot Center and of course I replied that I was and they proceeded to tell me that the Marriot Center was full. What I thought was a stake conference was actually a region conference making the gathering a much bigger deal and involving A LOT more people. Needless to say I was a little frustrated at the fact that I had just walked a bazillion miles in heels to get to the now FULL Marriot Center.

I decided to ignore the boys and try to get into the Marriot Center anyway, mostly because I didn't know what else to do. I didn't know where I would go to have church if I didn't attend my "stake conference." When I got inside people were sitting on the floor watching the televisions outside of the actual auditorium. I figured that I would just have to be ok with sitting on the ground for the next hour and half. After Sister Dibb concluded her talk my legs and behind were completely numb and I decided that I was not sitting on the floor for the rest of the conference. I decided to be brave and see if I could get myself a seat.

I talked to one of the ushers who told me to try portal J because there was some seats that she pointed out to me. I talked to the usher at portal J who was not the most friendly girl. She told me that there were no seats and as I had just seen with my own eyes that there was I asked her why I could see empty seats. Attitude deserves a little attitude back...I was just trying to find a seat for heavens sake she didn't have to be rude about it! She simply said that anyone who had walked down there had come right back up and so I asked if I could at least go try. She consented.

Then I proceeded to descend the gazillion steps to try and find a seat. The first two were "saved" which I thought was a bunch of baloney by this time it was 30 minutes into the conference if there wasn't someone sitting there by now then they shouldn't be saving it! Anyway I got to what looked like the third and final open seat, this seat was about 10 rows up from the bottom facing the pulpit and I asked the girl if she was saving the seat next to her and she said she wasn’t! I was so happy! SWEET VICOTRY! As I sat down I realized that President Packer was speaking and President Uchtdorf was on the stand! This was a big deal and I had just scored an AMAZING seat! So the moral of the story…Blisters=Great Seats!

A Joyus Reunion!

Last night I had the PURE JOY of reuniting with my roommate of 9 months, Aileen Ferguson (I prefer to call her "A"). We always joke that we were roommates long enough that we could have had a baby! LOL! That's a long time. When I graduated we parted ways, me home to Kaysville to begin my career and her to Arizona to EAT, hang out with friends, EAT, scan papers for 9 hours a day and make $10 and hour doing it, and watch movies. It has been 7 weeks since we last saw one another so needless to say it was so fun to see each other again.

A and her mom didn't arrive in Provo until about 10:30. I knew that it was going to be a late night anyway but starting as late as we did I knew it was going to be a REALLY late night so I took a nice little nap from 9:30-10:00 p.m. so that I would have a little more pep to keep my little eyes open until the wee hours of the morning. A, her mom and I went to DQ for some grub and enjoyed lively conversation, particularly about the sweet relationship that Aileen and I have and how well we have gotten to know one another. Yes A, I do KNOW you!

I felt somewhat bad taking Mama Ferguson's daughter from her and leaving her all by herself in the hotel room but at the same time I was very excited to have my roomy back. Once we got to my apt (with Aileen not stalling once in her new standard! Phew!) we sat and chatted and had companionship inventory. Which I LOVE by the way. What a good healthy activity to participate in...a totally honest and open conversation about how you are feeling about the friendship or companionship. A has always been incredible at getting out of me exactly how I feel and I will say that I think that it takes less effort on her part now. I offer my thoughts and feelings a lot more freely now days...sometimes I think A wishes I wasn't so pro "talk about my feelings."

My nap definitely came in handy in helping me to stay awake until 3:30 in the morning...yes that is right 3:30 in the morning! Believe me I am feeling it today and I am going to crash hard tonight but it was TOTALLY worth it. The rest of the night consisted of talking, gigling, bedtime routines, a few back spasms (Aileen has weird health issues, sometimes I wonder if she is going to survive to the next day) and some sleep talking coming from my side of the bed! The night was so fun and I most definitely have a really GREAT friend, for LIFE! Love you A!

Provo vs. Rexburg

Now that I have recently relocated to Provo I have been making a lot of comparisons between "Happy Valley" and dear old Rexburg, ID. I spent a wonderful 3 years in Rexburg and most definitely holds a special place in my heart. As I have been here in Provo I have noticed a LOT of differences between Rexburg and Provo. For instance...

• There happens to be more than 3 restaurants here in Provo and two shopping malls less than 15 minutes away from where I live. This is a JOY to my heart!
• When entering Provo you feel as though you are entering a booming metropolis...at least in comparison to Rexburg which when you enter you wonder if you got off at the right exit.
• I have throughly enjoyed the fact that my hair isn't blown all over the place the moment I step outside my door, making it much easier to have the motivation to actually "do" my hair in the morning.
• One thing that I never dealt with in Rexburg was traffic. I find myself getting very frustrated here in Provo because it takes me 15 minutes to drive one mile!
• I very much miss walking into Broluims and seeing at least 5 people I know from school and of course recognizing almost all the employees. These are the joys of living in a small town. I felt so unwelcome and unfamiliar on my first trip to Macey's here in Provo.
• Lastly there is a much more homey feel to Rexburg. Yes at first you feel as though you are out in the middle of nowhere and you almost feel as though you are on an island (especially in the winter when your life is threatened everytime you try to drive anywhere) but then all the sudden you start to miss the place when you are away and it is all down hill from there.

As you can see there are a lot of pros and cons to both places. I dearly loved my time in Rexburg and I am so glad I was able to spend so much time there. I will always love going back there and seeing how it has grown and at the same time how it has stayed exactly the same. I also am enjoying the change to a little different city and learning all it has to offer. I think for now I will just keep focusing on the fact that soon enough Provo will also hold a special place in my heart.

One side note: I LOVE the fact that I can be home in 1 hour instead of 3. I am much happier when I get home and I don't have to spend as much on gas, and that is ALWAYS a good thing.