Merry Unbirthday

My birthday was last week. If not for facebook, I don't know how many people would know that. For some reason, call me a grinch, but I hate it when people wish me happy birthday on facebook--I just feel like they're doing it because the FB robot told them to and it doesn't mean anything to me. As it happens, for the past 2 years I tried to organize an event for my birthday by using FB and guess how many people came . . . Excluding family, zero. I had fun at both my swimming parties and I love my family but I got all excited and then no one came. So this year I decided not to do anything for my birthday and guess what? It was still awful. Here's the thing: Growing up, I share a bday with a cousin and we nearly always were on a camping trip with all of the Gatrells at the time b/c of Pioneer day, so it was always a blast. BUT I was riding on the fun of other events, not my birthday. Anyway, I tried not to celebrate it this year but I did dress up a little and that small act had a big bad impact on my day. My skirt didn't have a pocket, so I couldn't use my phone all day, and that was the day I really needed to have had my phone with me. The day ended a wreck. I hereby take back all my past three birthdays, and heaven help me if I ever "have" another one. I will be striking it from the record of FB. May I be 23 from this day forth and forever, and if anyone actually wishes me a happy birthday on July 23 in the future, that is fine but I won't be doing anything about it for myself. No parties, no dressing up, nothing special about the day.

Beliefs

I've needed to say some things for a very long time. I finally can't get away from the feeling so I'm going to do it here. This year has been interesting as far as mormonism goes. I've had a few friends "quit" the church, and many movements have been spreading around to create "awareness" for certain issues and at times I wonder myself what is right and what is wrong. But there is a fix for that, for me at least. And that is the Book of Mormon. I haven't been reading it regularly as of late and that has been not so great for my spiritual health, but I still know it is true. That book is from God and it speaks to me. Or at least has spoken to me. And why should I forget the times it has spoken to me in the past? Those were very powerful experiences. And so when I hear "Joseph Smith did this" and "Joseph Smith lied about that" and stuff, the question should not be "Is the church he 'founded' a lie too?" Rather, I prefer to ask myself "Is the Book of Mormon still true?" Of course it is! I'm not going to be a Laman or a Lemuel and forget/disregard the spiritual experiences I have had. The Book of Mormon says itself "And if there be faults they be the faults of a man." Yes, Joseph Smith was a man. He probably had many faults. I prefer not to study them because that is not important. The important part is that The Book of Mormon came from God and Joseph Smith translated it and so he was a prophet. Just like that. Same thing in the church today. The question is not "Are the people in this church perfect?" but "Is this church directed by Jesus Christ?" I see around that there are many people with many faults. I choose to ignore them and go with what I know to be right, and that is the teachings of Jesus. Jesus would not hate another person, He would not shun somebody who has different views, He would not kick somebody out of church for not wearing best dress. Anybody who has read the Bible knows he said to "love one another" and "judge not" and "They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick." Everyone is welcome to come unto Him. Everyone is welcome to church. Everyone is welcome to be my friend (even if I am a horrible friend). I know that there are many members of the LDS church who may not fully understand these things, but that does not make me believe that it is not the Church of Jesus Christ. I believe that my church has the proper authority to administer sacred ordinances here on the earth and that I, personally, must still do my part to endure to the end, that I may find myself worthy to enter the Kingdom of God in the next life.

I realized something.

You wanna know why Mormons are so adamant about marriage being between one man and one woman? Because that's what the federal government forced down their throats when the practice of polygamy came about. Polygamy was not illegal in the United States until after the Mormons started practicing it. People who didn't like the Mormons needed a reason to get them in trouble, so they created the law that outlawed something they were already doing legally. The renouncement of polygamy followed naturally because Mormons also believe in honoring the law. That's why some Mormons get so heated up about the subject of the definition of marriage, because the government defined it in order to punish members. Maybe that's why the government is hesitating now to redefine it, because they were wrong to define it in the first place.

I've commenced!

April 20, 2012
I graduated from Weber State University today.  There are two important things to get out of that sentence: one, that I am a college graduate, and two, is less obvious, but Weber State is awesome and so therefore I am awesome for graduating from there.  What a feeling!  I may never have to write a paper again or go to classes I don't actually personally need!  I can read books and work out again!  And yet, there are some things I will miss.  Like Dr. van der Beek.  And Dr. Yang.  And Dr. Carroll and Dr. Palen and Dr. Armstrong and Dr. Johnston and everybody that is awesome.  Also dropping things off of tall buildings.  And practicing on nice Steinway pianos every day. Oh boy, I'm going to miss my departments so much.  I'll go back and visit :-).  My life existed until today.  Now, I don't really know what is next.  Everything is changing and there are so many options and plans can change any time, at this point at least.   So when anybody asks me what are my plans, I really don't know what to say.  In school, the answer was always clear--do some stuff in the summer then go back again in the fall.  Not so anymore.  I don't know where I'll be in the fall, hopefully somewhere awesome, but I will try to post here more often, especially since I don't have to worry about writing papers now!  It was overall a pretty dang good day!  Weber State graduate!

Oh, and I bought an iPad to reward myself!

New York Trip!!

So I went to the National Conference for MTNA again this year, in NYC. It was awesome. I made good friends with the people in the Steinway booth in the exhibit hall. Right, the Steinway booth--they totally brought in a guy to carve out an ornate piano case in front of everybody for the three days. AWESOME! And they had out a finished ornate piano (I forget the name of the design, Chippendale maybe) to play on, and oh, did I play on it. I kept going back too. By the end they were requesting certain of my pieces and remembered my name. One of them gave me his card in case I ever want to try and work for Steinway. Work for Steinway!! That would be super awesome!! Well, I also got to go on a tour of the Steinway factory. Super-awesome-sweetness!!! You bet I enjoyed that. They bent a piano rim in front of us and I saw the ladies assembling the action and everything was so clean but a bit loud. It IS a factory. A cool one. They all wear T-shirts that say "I build the world's best piano." Heck yes.

I got lots of free stuff and learned a few things too. Sunday evening I tried to go see Stomp but they were mean and wouldn't let me buy a ticket. So I went to go see NEWSical the Musical off-Broadway instead. 'twas fun. One of the funnier parts was when a gay couple got married and both sets of parents tried to give the bill to the other, but they just kept passing it back and forth cuz they each think their son is the groom, right? LOL. They also made fun of Arnold Scwarzenegger (the guy playing him WAS actually pretty muscular), Lady Gaga (side note: at the conference there was a piece introduced as "Lady Gaga Fugue," a fantasy on "Bad Romance" for piano duet, that was so hilarious I might actually buy it one day), Paula Deen, President Obama, Angela Lansbury (as a phone sex actress), the Italian cruise-ship captain, the republicans (Mitt Romney every few moments: I'm still here!), and so much more, including a commercial on how to escape the IRS by faking your own death. The show changes monthly.

Monday night was freezing cold (wind chill factor: 32). But, I had to go to Times Square and get those name-paint things for the grand piano practice rooms that I've been wanting to get ever since I found out the conference would be in NYC. Due to the wind, there was only 1 painter person I could find. Glad I could find one, though! She kind of tried to rip me off like last time but I didn't even have all the cash she wanted so it turned out okay. Speaking of ripping me off, the hot dog guy made me pay $2 and the pretzel guy made me pay $2, but I was sure they should each be $1. Oh well, no biggie. I tried to talk them down but I wasn't confident enough, not having paid close enough attention or asked someone who would know first.

Stories from Tuesday night to Wednesday will have to wait a few months until they are declassified. Because they are SO classified right now. My resume is going to be SO awesome!

What I've been working so hard on that I hardly had time to post anything ever

No, not the flyers! The recital, silly! But I did have a hard time choosing between the two, so I've been using both.

I DO know all the answers.

Brother: But, do you know the answer to LIFE?
Me: Oh yeah, it's 42.
B: Wow, 42, and it's the first one!
M: You googled it?
B: Yes.
M: I told you!
It was so much more awesome in person. Go, nerdiness! Also, I'm proud to know that Google does know the answer to life, the universe, and everything :-)