Excerpt from Dec 14 2010

I'm on a bus going to Pangasinan, Philippines. I'm going to live there someday, but this is my first time going. Right now I'm on vacation in the Philippines but it's really more than just a vacation, because it's probably the most life changing trip that could ever happen :-). Apparently I'm Filipino on the inside or something. I always dreamed I would be whisked away by someone from a foreign country, and that's a pretty darn good description of what's happening to me. (Can we say, "dream come true?"). I met Sylves through the Internet; but if I hadn't served a mission it wouldn't have happened because he also served in my mission in Quezon City, Philippines. That's where he saw me first and then he found the way to contact me after he returned home to Pangasinan and I returned home to America. It wasn't like other creepy people who try to catch your attention online, he was different. I can't say what made it so different except that I felt differently. After a while, through prayer and temple worship and many other inspiring experiences, I realized that I had a dream coming true! I searched through many different kinds of travel plans to actually meet this sweet guy that wanted to be my "shining armor" for time and all eternity. The way it ended up working out is that I flew here by myself and he and his family picked me up. No decision that I have made in the course of this relationship has been made lightly. I emphasize, I knew full well what might lay in store before making my decisions. The only surprise was what time he chose to pull out the ring. That story will be told some other time. But I accept Sylves Datuin to be my companion for time and all eternity, and the two of us are ready to face all the challenges that lay ahead. But I feel comfortable where I am at this moment, and that is in the arms of the man I love, on a bus going to my future home in Pangasinan, Philippines.


Sent from my iPod

What you may or may not have been waiting for!

So my triathlon is over!!! I lived through it!! My uncle who also did it with me and my dad drove us down to St. George. I took my one sweatshirt just in case I wanted it on the bikeride (and I did!). We got our stuff and they wrote our numbers on our arms Friday night. On Saturday we got there to set up around 8 and it was COLD! It was nice inside waiting to start, and lucky we were there so early 'cause it took almost that long before the race started at 9 for me to be able to feel my toes again. The water was nice, and when I had to run outside again to get on my bike the temperature was fine. I wore my sweater on the bike but took it off for the 5K run. Here are my stats.

What stinks is that swimming is my best event. I came to the conclusion that when that is the case, it doesn't help you at all. The amount of time in the water is so tiny compared to everything else that it gives you no advantage to be fast there. Also because afterwards, having spent so much energy doing well in the pool, getting on a bike is THE WORST. I just felt sick the almost the whole time on my bike. I wouldn't look at my watch, even on the run, which is slightly sad because I even went back to get it out of my jacket pocket on the bike/run transition after almost getting out of the zone without it. If not for that, I would have been exactly on time with what I said in the previous post---I guessed 1:35, and my final time was 1:36! I am totally happy with that, though :-) It was fun when it was over, and now I can say that I've done it, but I probably won't do it again. Unless I get a real racing bike, then I'll consider it; for now I'll gladly enter as a relay member only. The run was fine and so I might consider doing just a 5K in the future too.

my uncle, my dad, my uncle's friend, and me (in no particular order)

We each posed by a cactus when it was over. The actual race was on paved surfaces. I'm amazing!

Wednesday

First of all, I'm eating dried fish. My mom didn't complain about me making the house smell like Iceland again but there were other murmurings from my brother.

I went swimming and running tonight. I timed my 400 yard swim at 7min 15sec. Then I went down to the regular track and ran (mostly) 3 miles. I can say that since I know how many laps are in a mile on that track. It took less than 40 minutes with a bathroom break. I'm going to guess my bike time will be around 45 minutes. I've timed myself twice on 10 miles and it was about 52 minutes each time, but there won't be any stoplights and I'm going to use my iPod to help me keep going at a good pace. I don't want to be too generous because I know it will be hard to get started on the bike after swimming.

Using those times I'm going to make a guess as to how I will do.

7.5 min swim

45 min bike

40 min run

and rounding up for transition times gives

1 hour 35 min

Now I have a goal to keep in my head while I go--that will help too :-) Everyone cheer for me this Saturday!

well, they brought up journals...

...and since this is pretty much my journal I felt guilty for not posting in a while. I'm planning a spoof report about how my sight is going bad, and it's going to be fun, so every time I think about writing on my blog, I think of how I want to finish that so I can post it. But I suppose I do have other things to say too!

My triathlon is next weekend. This past week I did double workouts--swimming and running. I managed just fine. The week before (or two weeks...) I worked up my running. I ran 2 miles without stopping, then 2.5, then I switched tracks and thought I did three but there is no way that's how long it was. I guess I don't know how many laps to a mile are in the small track at the gym. So there's a breach in my keeping track of progress.

I realized also that the weather might be cooler than I had imagined. I don't know what I'm going to do in the way of apparel for the race! I thought I knew but it may not be enough! I have ideas. Maybe if everyone crosses their fingers that I won't freeze, I won't :P

The following is a sequence of events that makes me happy, but took me off guard at it's swiftness

-Katie complained about needing an accompanist, I mentioned that I am one...

-Symphonic Band needed a piano player, I walked in at an opportune time

-Katie actually gave me music

-Wendy needed an accompanist, Katie told her to go to me

-I was approached with a request to be an on hand accompanist at a musical audition

-Grandma's choir started again (I play for that)

-After the musical audition they had me come back to help with callbacks...

-...And asked if I would be in the pit orchestra for another musical

-Colby's accompanist totally fell through and he came to me for help

-Wind Ensemble started

-And I have to learn and practice exciting duets for accompanying class

I love to share my talents! It's totally fun for me but in the next 5ish weeks I have over 10 performances, which is fine, but getting in all my other work and schoolwork is going to be interesting. I am on the verge of resorting to caffeine! Aaahhhh! Oh well, what can you do.

Physics Pays Off

This weekend was the American Society of Physics, 4 Corners Section conference. It happened to be held at WSU so the HARBOR director pretty much made all of us do presentations of some kind. This is the "poster" I've mentioned before. Murielle and I, the "camera team" submitted a poster for the conference and had some fun making it beautiful and awesome (like science fair for grown-ups, I suppose), but little did we expect in the awards ceremony mine was the first name read off! There were 50 posters and 5 of them won. This apparently was a real kind of contest and so they gave us $100! Who knew?

Our project was using a still camera to verify data taken from other instruments on High Altitude weather-balloon-type flights. We proved that our camera was reliable and then used it to prove the other science-y equipment was reliable. We discovered something we like to call the "crud-o-pause" in the atmosphere and there's still plenty of research to do to understand it more. Science rocks, people! And who knew it would actually pay off so soon? I recommend it to anyone. And not because it pays off, but, in the words of Dr. Palen, "because it is so fantastic!" Happy Day :-)

all-nighter, etc.

I just got home from institute, it was wonderful! I missed two weeks of class and I was SO glad to get back there today. It really makes a difference in life. There was one quote I copied down: "Every tribulation is 'the shade of His Hand outstretched unceasingly'." It was great.

On Monday I did get a plane ticket for the Philippines in December. Tuesday I finished that poster and then I decided to stay up all night catching up on things. I enjoyed it. I almost got caught up on my sight-reading and transposition, I did an analysis on 2 sonatas, I dusted the piano, I worked on memorizing my pieces, I practiced my accompanying pieces, I found and studied Bach's table of ornamentation, chatted with Sylves, made and ate breakfast, read a bunch of science papers, printed the poster, took two tests, and rode my bike all the way home. The distinction between Tuesday night and Wednesday is completely lost.

On the bike ride home, I remembered my goal of trying to do it in under an hour . . . I kind of cheated to try and do this but it backfired on me. I turned onto Riverdale Road itself to go straight down it instead of in the parking lots--and then every light was red. Well, except for that one. I made it up through the roundabouts without stopping, and then when I got to Main street nearly every light was red for me when I got there, again! Somewhere in Clearfield I gave up on trying to go fast at all anymore because I was too sick of getting up there and then having to stop abruptly. I stopped looking at my watch entirely and I stopped at the import store to get stash food (since I had finished up my stash at breakfast).

And random note, I have a lot of pride. I think sometimes it's okay (like from a performance perspective) but in many ways it's not so good. I just really like to learn and know things and be awesome. If I feel like correcting other people I usually try and do it in a nice way but apparently it doesn't come across like that. I don't know how to fix this problem. I might try some counseling. But I still like to be awesome and yes, I like to brag about it sometimes. Okay, a lot of the time. It has come to my attention yet again and I'm here wondering what the heck I can do about it, and I don't have many ideas. Really. So I'm sorry if I offend people but at this point, that's all I can say.

Good night!

[insert title here]

Events from last week:
-taught boy scouts on Tuesday
-played a concert with my Grandma's choir Wednesday
-taught boy scouts Thursday
-worked on my physics report/poster Friday (and made some sweet scientific discoveries! stay tuned...)
-went to the Symphony Saturday and was most certainly outplayed by that 16 year old kid. Oh well, he'll make a fine living for himself.

Events from today:
-got up at 5:15
-rode the 6am Frontrunner
-went swimming at 7
-"ran" half a mile
-finished my astrophysics take home test
---later: will hopefully finish that physics poster, and buy a plane ticket to the Philippines (lots of exciting things will happen there)