red white and blue

well i'm a day late in posting this, but that's cause i was too busy enjoying my favorite holiday--the day where we celebrate our nation's independence!  but i did want to share a few thoughts i had while i pondered on why i love this holiday and this country so much...
-i am grateful for the constitution and the inspired men who established this nation
-i am grateful for the freedoms we enjoy because of it.  i can practice my religion without fear of persecution from the government.  i can vote and help decide who leads this country.  and a boat load of other great stuff
-i am grateful for the economy and the progressive attitude of this nation..a week ago i had anaphylactic shock and had to be rushed to the hospital.  it was scary, but i couldn't help but think how grateful i am for those paramedics and the fact that we have the medicine and availability to it that we do.  if it weren't for that medicine i'd be dead.
-i am grateful for the men and women who serve to keep this nation secure, and all the people who serve each other on a daily basis out of love and a desire to be good
"we are great because we are trying to be good" -senator mike lee (at the freedom festival patriotic service last sunday)

happy 4th, everybody!  god bless america.

peace+love

melancholy

not to put a downer on life {let's face it, it's a joy!}, but sometimes i'm melancholy. and right now i'm somewhat melancholy. you see, i'm leaving my beloved cedar city for a while to embark on another adventure elsewhere ('twill be further explained at a later date...plus i have no idea where yet)...when i moved here 10 short months ago i did not expect to love this place as deeply as i do. if you are ever considering a move and need all the reasons to move to cedar city i will convince you this is a fantastic place to call your home.

i have this giant tree with faces carved into the trunk that i climb to go ponder and write.

and just up the canyon from my tree is a small cove carved into the sandstone where i go to ponder some more (or have good conversations with friends).

the colors are vivid. black soil against green foliage against red sandstone.

the weather is always perfect as there is a small but constant northward breeze (why always that direction? i have no idea).

i fall asleep at night to a symphony of crickets and wake up only to hear birds chirping outside my window. there are so many birds in cedar. big, beautiful birds. and in the summertime-bats everywhere at night.

cedar canyon is easily one of the most beautiful and surprisingly diverse places i have ever seen. crystal blue lakes surrounded by aspen groves next to lava fields.

and lets not forget cedar city's proximity to my home away from home, zion national park. a majestic sight everyone should see in this life.

then there's the lifestyle. the benefits of being in a city (with the exception of the severe lack of a music scene) with the perks of living in a small town. the pastry pub, the shakespearean festival (which comes with the most delicious raspberry tarts you'll ever taste), utah summer games, and last night we even had a senate candidates' debate. if you like hiking, camping, climbing, cycling, swimming, walking, reading, pretty much anything-ing, there's plenty of it to go around. especially hiking {but maybe that's just cause i'm biased}.

and the people. that means you, my bosom cedar friends. the people i've met and the memories i've made in the last 10 months have influenced my life in some small {or large} way that has made me a better person--or at least made me want to be a better person. genuine, high quality people. plus in the summer there are tons of tourists and i love tourists.

it's true, folks, cedar city {almost} has it all. {all we're missing is the ocean} my heart will break as i say goodbye, but not to worry....i'll be back before too long.

peace+love

sometimes, i feel like crying

but not today...
spring break =
a new road bike
crazy heart
jonah dumping dirt on my head
working for g-pa
sunshine
insanity
skiing
bad sunburn as a result
blisters on my face as a result
top hat video
too much junk food
the cabin
hot springs
sledding
laughing
don pedros
invisible children
changing my major
transferring schools (did i just say that out loud??)
too much driving

trampoline jumping
hanging out with my awesome adopted little sister
and more driving

peace+love

sometimes, i'm really opinionated

remember when i posted on the cove?
most of you probably heard this story in the news this week--you know, where the whale killed a trainer in the middle of a show in shamu stadium...
welp, this is my blog where i get to voice my opinions:

wild animals don't belong in captivity.

peace+love

i used to have dreams about oscar

when i was in jr. high/high school i wanted to be a film director. i dreamed of being the first American woman to be nominated and win an Academy Award for best director. true story. but that's not the point of this post.
i saw avatar last night.
it was really beautiful. if i could live in a fantasy world it would have to be Pandora. so green and colorful full of crazy bugs and plants, and really graceful people. plus i could ride a sweet dinosaur-like bird. and wear feathers in my hair. feathers were everywhere.

i understand why it is nominated. it has a pretty blatant political agenda (very anti-bush administration...there's even a line from the "bad guy": "preemptive strike is our only way to protect ourselves"...or something along those lines), and respecting mother earth (greenhouse gases and global warming anyone?). and let's face it, movies are like music- to say what you want to say without actually saying it.

but if it wins...well, that would be sad. within the first five minutes i thought i was watching Pocahontas. i even called that she'd be betrothed to some warrior already and her father was "chief". there's even a "grandmother willow". any second and i was sure Neytiri was going to bust out "Colors of the Wind". it was almost comical. then there was a Jurassic Park scene, a Braveheart speech, and a lot of Last of the Mohicans meets Saving Private Ryan. Really just unoriginal .

Hollywood, it's time to come up with something new.

i hope UP wins. or Blindside.

what movie do you want to/think will win Best Motion Picture?

peace+love

come on skinny love, just last the year

happy valentine's day!

things i love (in no particular order and not all things):

the moon
skinny jeans
ocean
TOMS shoes
skiing
fall
receiving letters in the mail
sending letters in the mail
kings of convenience
having my toes popped
npr
mountains
juno
warm rain
ukulele
climbing
zip-up hoodies
sunflowers
my iPod
dolphins
politics
summer
hiking
overcast weather
laughing
folk
family
winter
whales
pretty much all sea life
quarter sleeve shirts
walking in the snow all bundled up
quesadillas (i'd starve without them)
trees
spring
friends
life

What do you love? (name that movie)

also, happy birthday to this kid...
peace+love

moderate politics

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."

- Barak Obama

obama has been in office for a year now. he's a quarter of the way through his term in office. health care has not been reformed. guantanamo bay is still housing prisoners. more troops have been deployed to afghanistan and there is still a war being fought in iraq. oh, and the economy still sucks.

i'm just sayin'.

peace+love

mens short shorts never looked so good

the movie was a little overdone...but i have no complaints about staring at matt damon for 2 hours.

in other news, yesterday i spent 2 weeks worth of food budget at graywhale.
yes, i have my priorities straight.

peace+love

unrequited love

my mother gave me this counsel today:
"be patient with those who are not as astute about worldly knowledge as you"
(please note this is NOT referring to my visiting teaching companion, but is, in fact, referring to someone completely unrelated)
my question for her (and any other readers) is:
when it comes to building a relationship is it actually patience i am lacking?
because the fact is,
what the heck are we supposed to talk about when we're stuck indoors for more than an hour and alas the topic of hunting has put me to sleep?
peace+love

never forget

peace+love

"I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks."

last night i crawled through a cave in which the floor was covered with guano...unsanitary? yes. spooky? yes (there were lots of bats). fun? most definitely.

i am reading To Kill A Mockingbird for the fourth time--Atticus is the most fascinating character. amongst twenty other things i admire about him, one that sticks out this time around is his patience. when Bob Ewell spits in his face and threatens him with his life, all Atticus has to say about the matter is, "I wish Bob Ewell wouldn't chew tobacco".
in sunday school we read this scripture: "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city." - Proverbs 16:32
Atticus is able to take a case of a black man's word against a white man's in a time when victory for the black man was unheard of, and keep the jury out for hours. But more importantly, he made the town see that Scout is right, "there's just one kind of folks. Folks." Atticus is mighty.
and mighty handsome...
peace+love

the love of pain

last night i was talking with a couple of friends and they asked why i love to run and do things that put my body through pain...they could not see the joy or purpose in it...actually, it's something i've been thinking about a lot lately...when i first started running a lot it was to achieve the "perfect" body image...well that is when running isn't fun, it's work. but i'm pretty self-motivated and did it anyway...i'm glad i stuck through it because then it got to the point where i did it because it felt good...i learned there is no "perfect body", just healthy and unhealthy...i love to feel healthy, and i love the soreness the day after a long run...i feel like i have actually acheived something good and put in an honest days work...i love to set goals and train to reach those goals...there is nothing that beats the elated feeling of working towards something then completing it all by yourself...i am always amazed at the things the human body is capable of...i recently went to the body worlds exhibit which i thought, before going, would make me sick...but it was one of the coolest things i've seen...it was amazing how complex every aspect of the human body is...what struck me most, though, was seeing the things that can happen when you don't take care of your body...seeing the insides completely re-motivated me to be healthy and take care of the gift i've been given...i love when my brain keeps thinking up reasons i should quit, but my body just keeps moving...

shout out to dave matthews whose birthday is today! 42 years of making sweet, sweet music...

also, for a project in my international relations class i made a blog all about politics...if you're going to read it don't judge me based on my opinions- http://kellir.blogspot.com
peace+love

gas grill explosions and global warming

I am not a huge comic reader, but my roommate and dear friend Alicia loves "F minus"... she showed me this entry on the authors blog today and i thought it was something you would all appreciate...i know i sure am proud of those americans who talk real good and loud about their opinions and know a lot about what has happened before and has happened before, and love greenland and history...god bless america

Nov 12, 2008
Hate Mail Classic
"Welcome Baxter Reunion. You can thank the cook and his cheap gas grill for bringing you here"

Monday's comic reminded me of a letter I got the day it was published back in January of 2007. I'll share that letter with you now, exactly as I received it. Prepare to be astonished: "i am a reader of daily comics on line and came across a comic about god talking with a family reunion that had just died because the mans grill polluted the air, that you wrote. well i wish you guys would use your talent and your job to be a positive meaning to our world and speak about things that you know are the truth, but instead you guys (believers of global warming) know hardly anything about global warming and with knowing only a little bit of what truly is global warming you would like this whole world to pay trillions of dollars to pay for something that this world knows little about. global warming as hap pend before and it has happened before and has been proven but everyone for some reason wants to avoid the truth and would like to be a b**** to this world. hundreds of years ago the vikings lived on an island Greenland. it was describes as a green and lush place, hence the world green land. also have you flown in a plane and seen how much land is not used by humans and then flown over a city and see how much a little city can have no affect it has on the area or world around it. i would like for you to write back to see how much you actually know."Normally I enjoy analyzing a letter like this for you, but with this one... I think this one is funny enough on it's own. Besides, I have to get back to work, being a b**** to this world.

letter and comic compliments of http://www.spreadthefword.com/
peace+love

life is good

first of all i would like to sincerely apologize for being such a terrible blogger...for the limited number of people that actually read it, i'm sorry that everytime you sign in my blog says the same thing...i have a good excuse, but i won't bore you except to tell you i got hired on for a second job today-lifeguarding at the south davis rec center! look for the hot girl in the lifeguard uniform (aka the frumpy girl who doesn't shave her legs or do her hair)! now onto the purpose of me posting...

a lot has happened lately and not just in my personal life...here are a few things not in any order that have been on my mind...first of all, the tradegy in myanmar-it really saddens me that governments are corrupted to the point that they won't even allow aid to their own people...also, i haven't followed up this story since school ended (i got a free new york times everyday at school, it was wonderful) but in zimbabwe they had elections for a new leader and the leader now who has been in rule for decades or something is with holding the results of the election in fear that he actually lost but doesn't want to give up his power, causing riots and rebellion...there is so much genocide and i find it hard to live with the fact that you simply can't help everyone...i'd say i'm pretty anti-war, but when people complain about the iraq war i hope they have thought about the fact that the reason we went over there in the first place is to get rid of an evil dictator who was killing his own people...i believe that if we were to leave right now another dictator would rise up and start the trend over again...maybe we shouldn't have gotten involved in the first place, but now that we are involved i think people should look at what we can learn from our mistake and be discussing BETTER ways (that don't result in the loss of life) to get rid of oppressive gov't...complaining doesn't accomplish anything very efficiently...i realize i don't understand a lot of what goes on with the corrupted governments of other countries, but it makes me sad that people complain so much about this country's gov't when we are free to own businesses, become successful, express our opinions without fear of death....i feel like i live a very privileged life because i live in america....
in afghanistan people grow opium as a living (which is illegal) and take out loans to start their crops with a pledge of a certain amount of opium in return...when the gov't comes in and shuts down these opium farms, the people cannot pay their loans and end up selling their daughters to the loaner...these girls (sometimes sold while still in the womb) are sold as wives, and until they are old enough to consummate the marriage are forced to live as servants within the household...i feel like crap about complaining about stupid things like "i have nothing to wear" (even though my closet is overflowing)...these girls in afghanistan will never really get to go on dates, go to prom, the things we deem as so important...also, in america we can take people to court for sexism and as women enjoy the same privileges as every citizen of the U.S....
I could go on forever giving examples that explain why people shouldn't complain so much, but what i'm getting at is simply take the time to show people you care about them, appreciate the fact you can walk out your front door of your comfortable home everyday without fear of losing your life, and aren't just working to keep a roof over your head and bread on the table (because you already have that) but for luxuries of life not very many people enjoy...i realize i am a good example of an unappreciative privileged free citizen (even though i don't complain about politics i just never seem to be satisfied with what i have), but i'm working toward being content with a family, home, and the opportunities i have to do great things...usually i could think of song lyrics or a quote to kind of sum it all up but i am drawing a blank right now, so think of one on your own (scriptures are great too) and go enjoy life!
peace+love