Table Rock Group Date

I had the wonderful opportunity the other day to visit a popular hiking spot in Southern Oregon, Lower Table Rock. This visit was one of those wonderful group Mormon dates which as a 26 year LDS women I love and also loathe in the same breath. Yes, it is a wonderful opportunity in a casual setting to get to know someone, but then there is also always the dude that somehow did not get the memo that he needed to bring a date/ he was to lazy to ask someone, that you don't want to shun as the third wheel, but... you kinda do, and so was it in this case.

The 5 of us singletons piled into a 4 person car and started the short dive to the trail head. My date being a super gentleman sat in the back with the 3rd wheel and the other girl. She for some reason wanted to sit in the middle back, with her feet on the hump, other than with her date in the front. I, only superficially knowing the driver, was a bit concerned about this, did he have bad breath or some other offensive personal hygiene issue that I too should be made aware of? It turned out that it was none of those issues, it was that he was pretty much in love with Taylor Swift, which we listened to, of course, while he sang/ tried to sing to all the songs. Not that his singing was offensive in anyway, but a man in his late twenties trying to hit all the notes in "Love Song", come on dude, not going to happen( Bless his heart).

After our T-Swizal music marathon we arrived at the trail head. We gathered our things from the trunk; jackets, water and in Third Wheel's case a can of soda, ( what?) and then closed the trunk, or tried to. When trying to close the trunk it sounded if it was hitting something, and so started a testosterone filled 15 minutes or so of knifes being happily pulled out and then jamming them into the locking mechanism to some how fix it by.... I actually don't know what they were trying to accomplish with that one.... Then by taking turns of progressively slamming the trunk harder and harder to make it close, and then sitting on it and bouncing up and down to see if that would do the trick. This great display of human masculinity was, I'm sure, for my benefit, but it turned out looking like a group of monkeys trying to open a locked box, I was just waiting for one of them to grab a rock and start to beat the trunk with. But I, wanting to start the hike before dark or before I died, opened my camelback and fished out the rope that I fortuitously had brought and my multi-tool, gave it to the boys and told them to tie the trunk shut so we could just get started. 3rd Wheel stood there for a second perplex at the thought of one: a women having a knife and rope and knowing how to use them, and two: having a women be more prepared for such an event as he was, I'm sure, an Eagle Scout. After the shock wore off of their egso being bruised,they all three worked very hard at reclaiming their man hood by affixing the rope to the car using all the knots they could remember from their days a scout camp.

And so started the hike. The hike it self is a rather short and steep, a 3 mile round trip, but nothing that the average person couldn't handle. It turned out that the other girl was not quite in average shape. She looked like dark haired Victoria Beckham( aka scary spice) but not quite as pretty and who really liked harry potter and cut her hair to match. Anyway, long story short, she was slow and stopped a lot. Her date, Mr. Swift, was kind enough to tag along with her as 3rd Wheel and my date and I walked at a normal human pace. The rest of the hike up was uneventful other than 3rd Wheel making Wookie noises ( I'm assuming trying call for his mate) and my date doing bird calls. The top of table rock is as one might assume is flat and has vernal ponds, which is a nice way of saying it's super marshy and you will get you feet wet. But other than sloping around by the ponds it was very pleasant and I got a few nice shots in.



Because of the snail pace of Spice to get to the top we had only 20 minuets until we had to head down as the sun was setting. Scary Spice also had a wonderful idea so we wouldn't be hiking in the dark, we should run across the top of Table Rock back to the trail. She was very excited about this idea, I can only guess that she wanted to show us all that it was the steepness of the trail that had caused her to be slow not her lack of stamina. This was good idea for about 15 seconds and then she had to stop again. She said that wasn't it strange that someone as skinny as she was wasn't in better shape. When she said that I had an a sudden urge to push her skinny self into one of the vernal ponds. Yeah, its so funny that one person could read Harry Potter all day and eat bean dip and potato chips and stay so thin and another could eat hummus and carrot sticks and run 6 miles a day and not lose any weight. Hilarious? I think not. In protest to the previous statement I continued to jog across Table Rock with my date and 3rd Wheel and left Spice and Mr. Swift to bring up the rear. I stopped a few times to catch the sunset though, it just couldn't be missed.


The end of the hike was dark and quite other than the sound of wet shoes sloping down the trail. We drove back to the individuals cars that came, my date dropped me off at home on whom deposited a friendly hug. THE END.
And so ends another Mormon group date not bad, not great but a pleasant enough way to spend a evening.

As I very quickly mentioned in the previous post it was a busy year.

School wise, I finished my major and my second minor and all of my 400 level classes. I took naps in the Library, Food court (Cross Roads), and on a bench outside the Microbiology Lab. I grew Green African monkey kidney cells ( it's a real kind of monkey...p.s. they are not actually green) in a lab then infected them with HPV and killed them. And truly and sincerely developed a great dislike for one of my professors( first and hopefully the last because it was absolutely exhausting to be pleasant to a person who was just....you know.... the worst person ever...I get mad even just talking about it). Also developed a friendship with a teacher. It was so much fun to get to know him as a person that hates finals week just as much as the rest of us.

Social Life wise, you can pretty much read the previous paragraph and summarize what kind of social life I had. The best relationships that I had were with the Library, my study groups, my computer, and some pretty rad roommates that would every now and again drag me from my room/ library/computer/ books/papers to karaoke, get ice cream, party,or go to the gym. May the Lord bless them forever for putting up with me.

Other than the studying I made the terrible mistake of going out with a study buddy. Word to the wise, don't do this, for after studying for 8+ hours for a Biochem test one might to lose judgement and might begin to think," yeah he is kinda cute when he is trying to remember the charge of proline", or "that amino acid joke was so funny", or " that his ' if I'm lost translation just blame my RNA' T-shirt is pretty sweet and kinda want to purchase one". If any of these thing come to your mind it's time to stop studying, take a nap( in any of the aforementioned locations)and take the test because none of those things are true, they are just the result of a mixture of no sleep and that thing that happens when you look at a simple word for a super long time and think it looks wrong, but its right, but in this case it is wrong, and starts to look right. Because after the amino acid joke stop being funny you're left with an awkward night to fill and some weird tension for the rest of the term. Not that this will happen to everyone but again, something to think about.
But I am happy to announce that other people in my life have lives that I was a part of. Two of my wonderful friends got married, and two of my sisters are pregnant, so life dose goes on even
when you feel like you might be standing still.



Travel wise, it was a fun one.
Davis
-->San Fransisco
--> Davis
---> Medford
--> Rexburg

-->St. George
--> Oceanside

--> Las Vegas
--> Pensacola
--> Las Vegas
--> Idaho Falls
--> Salt Lake City
--> Manti
--> Salt Lake City
--> St. George
--> L.A.
--> Newport
--> L.A.
---> Medford
--> Rexburg
--> Medford.
Whoow...

Hobby wise, I gained a few.
Paper mache... don't know if it's a real hobby but its so much fun.... seriously.
Geocaching: It's free +outside+ treasure hunt + sneaky= awesome


There you go all caught up... sorta.

New Days New Layout

It has been a year. It has been one long busy year full of school and other nonsense. Now let move on, shall we.

The Sacramento Temple( in Folsom)

On a wonderful, and sunny Saturday in January, my dear roommates and I thought that we would visit the temple in the area. Though it is the Sacramento temple, it is in Folsom, which name I have a particular fondness for. We enjoyed the view, and the spirit there, as well for the wild turkeys that roam the grounds.

The Apartment

So, I'm in Davis California and have been set up in a very BYU-I like apartment, we even have our very own chastity door. But the one thing that I believe that I can complain a little bit about is the shower. I don't know why the people building this complex thought that the only people living here would be five three inches tall, but they did. Perhaps back in the late 70's or early 80's people didn't grow as tall, who knows? All I know is that every time that I want to wash my hair I feel like I'm practicing for the limbo. If I turn on the water and stand at the back of the shower it hits me in the stomach. But I guess I should be try and be thank-full for it. I can take a shower and not wash my hair without even trying, so that's a plus, I think, I guess, ok...

Davis, California

As part of the requirements to graduate with a Biology degree from BYU-Idaho I need an internship. It can be any thing really to do with Biology. As my fortune would have it I was offered a internship in the winter in Davis California. Now, you might thing why is getting an unpaid internship a thing of fortune, ahhh... I will tell you.

If you have anything to do with Idaho in the winter you might already know where I am going with this. Yes, no more snow, or ice, or excessive wind that chills you to the bones. There are palm trees here, that's right palm trees lots of crow and rat infested palm trees and that means no snow. Yeah!

Also being in California means Asians. Yes Asians, and I love it. It's almost like being back in Taiwan with one large difference, they don't care that I'm white. No one asking for my picture just to have it, I guess I'll get over it.

Along with being chalk full of Asians Davis is also one of the most bike friendly towns in the country, so there are rows and rows of bikes everywhere just like Taiwan. They also have Olive, Orange, and Lemon trees lining the streets, it's great.


So Davis is where I am, but what am I doing? I am working in a Lab on the UC Davis campus studying bacterial chemotaxis, fancy, hu? So for the most of my days I am stuck inside a ugly concrete building, pouring agar plates and measuring bacterial
colonies. Uuh, maybe not so fancy.

Music

I have been influenced by music my whole life. My first memories of this love begin years and years ago in the 80’s. My mother, Sandy, has a picture of me sitting in font of my fisher price plastic record player -- it had different songs that toddlers might enjoy, like happy birthday, camp town races, humpty dumpy, and songs from the Sound of Music-- smiling and enjoying myself.

Next came the real record player in the family room where I spent time playing my parents old records, and of course the new thing in our home the CD player and the Wilson Philips CD, the only CD in our home for about 6 months.

We also had a piano in our home that when I was younger would put olives on my fingers and try to play. I remember my sisters bringing home flutes from summer music school and playing with them not knowing what to do. My sister Audrey for Christmas one year got a interactive computer program to teach you how to play the piano. I tried my hand at it but I guess when you are 7 or 8 you don’t have the patience to learn that way, or at least I didn’t. When our family moved to Oregon I tried to teach myself how to play the piano, I mastered a few songs but nothing note worthy. And the piano was Audrey’s thing any way so I moved on.
I would even take my old Walkman and tune to the AM classical music station and fall a sleep to it every night. Falling asleep to the intertwining melodies complicated rhythms and tones and the monotone voices of the classical station DJ’s, till I could no longer find batteries.
I joined the Sunlight singers, my elementary school's choir, when I was in the 5th grade and the school band, I played flute, rather poorly I recall. But I kept it up though the 7th grade when the elementary schools merged and there was a plethora of flutes so I changed to the French horn. The transition was not smooth. I would play in the bathroom to try to muffle the sound, but it ended up amplifying it. I would practice outside and people would yell out their doors for me to shut up. But in those 3 years of junior high and the freshmen year in high school I became rather good, and no longer was I taunted and jeered or locked in the bathroom by my sisters.


When I switched schools my sophomore year, because of class conflicts, I could no longer play in the band. Yearning for some sort of musical outlet I joined the choir. I loved it! Harmonizing, blending and movement, it was joy.
After High school, however, I didn’t have much of a musical outlet except for the music that I listened to and discovered. The years past and just last fall I found it again. I joined the university choir and took piano lessons. Walking back to my apartment after the half an hour lessons once a week I was refreshed and happy. I was for so long denying that part of me. The part where music lived, without it I was not all the way whole. I have always been drawn to music and have delighted in making it and enjoying listening and revel in its passion.