R is for Ragnar, L is for Lego

as promised, the detes on my first ragnar experience...

my running:

LEG 1
5:30pm friday
9.2 miles
9.8min per mile average

LEG 2
4am saturday
3.4 miles
7.6min per mile average (hollllla!)

LEG 3
i-lost-track-of-time-but-it-was-sometime-saturday-afternoon
4.2 miles
(legs felt like cement at this point, btw)
9min per mile average

my thoughts on that:
i'm pleased with all my times, but i'm freakin' stoked about Leg 2. especially because i ran it thru random cow country. it smelled like home. i think it empowered me.

overall:
200 miles. 30ish hours. so much running. not so much sleeping. so much time in a mini van. not so much showering. so much dance partying on the side of the road.

oh, and sooo. much. LEGO.

my friend karolina. i could NOT get that vest on straight.

some of da crew. i wore that hood on my head app. 90% of the weekend.

i'm unsure if this is the sunrise or the sunset. 

because yeah, saw both of those events.

my preferred vantage point.

representin' the team. Run Your Leg-o!

this is my buddy james, and a friend he made.

my hardcore press-on ragnar tat on my (i-like-to-imagine-anyways) hardcore calf muscle.

don't be fooled, i wasn't that blissful. this was Leg 3, you know. that's more of an "i want to break your camera" smile.

the whole shebang, just past the finish line. i love us. 

L is for LEGO, by the way. not Loser.

p.s.

think LEGO needs a new ad campaign??

these special souls

[note: still off ragnaring. hopefully no collisions have occurred between my face and the pavement, caused by running in the aforementioned lego costume. either way, the blog is bound to benefit.]

just when i think i couldn't possibly divide my heart into more pieces to give to new passions and new people, i always go and fall in love with something else.

last week, i organized a KAST project with the Special Olympics:

(photo credits to the lovely kendra pettit)

besides that wicked cool yellow shirt, there is much goodness to mention about this volunteer experience.

i decided that what i admire most about these athletes is their ability to feel and express such pure, unadulterated emotion.

there is so much joy, and so little jealousy. if they love you, they tell you. if they want to hug you, they do. if they've experienced a victory, they'll yell and dance about it. if someone else is victorious, they'll yell and dance about that too.

can't we all take some notes? here are mine:

1. champion others. find joy in others' success.

2. champion myself. yell and dance about my accomplishments.

3. express my love openly.

in someone else's words, i recommend this story.

in my religion, we believe that these particular spirits were so valiant in the pre-earth life that they already qualified for admittance into God's kingdom -- something that the rest of us needed a mortal experience to prepare for.

basically, they are not sent here to depend on us. rather, so much depends on how much we learn from them.

so like i said -- are you taking notes?

lucy in the sky with diamonds

[note: as you read this, i'm off gallivanting about on a ragnar relay. in a lego costume. yeah, you're excited for that post...]

if you didn't catch the delightful quote i added to my blog recently:

"but above all ... watch ... with glittering eyes, the whole world around you -- because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places." roald dahl

thank you, mr. dahl. i happen to agree. i think life absolutely sparkles.

i'm not naively optimistic. glum things happen. that's why it's healthy to be fascinated and charmed by the little stuff hidden in the cracks here and there.

there are certain things that make me happy without fail. it'd never all fit in one blog, but here's a sampling ... just in case a) i ever seem to need cheering up, or b) you're having trouble locating your own sparkle.

you may borrow mine.

color. stripes. thrifting. boots. bearded men. flannel shirts. thunderstorms. small towns. overcast weather in the summer. sunny weather in the winter. hammocks. fudgsicles. getting lost in a book. libraries. cathedrals. nail polish. volunteering. well placed quotes from sandlot, napoleon dynamite, nacho libre, heavyweights, what about bob, the phone call, little giants or the mormon version of pride & prejudice. watching my edited meet joe black. unexpected notes on windshields, doors, pillows, etc. free food. churros. paper snowflakes. valentines day. the 4th of july. people watching. broadway musicals. frisbee. frisbee. frisbee. love stories. puddle jumping. roadtrips. wiggling. my mama's jewelry. sibling time. roommate time. phone chats w/ mama or papa. long distance phone calls with besties. short distance phone calls with besties. texting. emails. houseplants. temple. speeches.byu.edu. mismatched furniture. windswept hair. underlining books. barnes & noble. books on parenting, marriage & motherhood. boys that smell good. blogging. conference weekend. dr pepper. david after dentist video. candy canes. my guitar. other people with guitars. people who are passionate about things. live music. fireworks. baseball. suns games. quirky & offbeat people. people who laugh easily. shnuggling. lawn games like croquet and bocce ball. rice. staying up very late. laughing until my tummy hurts and my eyes leak.

list to be continued, naturally.

get up everybody & sing

"call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. 

whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one." 

j. howard

(promise i'm happier in the above picture than i appear)

families are for keeping forever.

that's all.

i really want...

...to make one of these.

anyone want to join me?

(photo via ebjones)

also, i've written some more stuff for The Huffington Post. Good ol' huff:

1. Drive-Thru Woes: Would You Like a Side of Kooky with That?

2. Smart Phone Phobia: One Millenial's Aversion to Creepy Technology

3. Facebook Slacktivism: Charitable Opiate for the Masses 

also, i recorded this video. just a little diddly from the 1960s golden hippie era:

hi, let's date.

turns out i get a lot of response on my blog when i talk about real things. so ima try and do that more regularly.

let's talk about commitment.

(not like the tattooing-your-forehead kind of commitment.)

i've thought a lot over the past couple years about the idea of really committing to relationships. during my undergrad, i was an overanalyzer. i'd try so hard to see the end of a relationship from the beginning, and if i didn't think i could marry someone after a few dates or a couple months, i bailed. why prolong it, i said? why bother hurting anyone if i'm not 100% confident about my feelings?

then i did some thinking. and i thought, what do i have to lose by devoting more of myself and more of my time to legitimately seeing what happens? not on casual dates, not by randomly bumping into each other on campus or at church activities, but by actually being in a legit relationship.

so i tried to be different. i started being brave. i started speaking my mind like nobody's business. i started dating with a new mindset: the "why the heck not" mindset. instead of fretting on date one about whether or not i thought i could be with someone long-term, i started telling myself i didn't need to know those things right away ... and if i saw potential, i should go all in.

truthfully, you can hem and haw for months about dating someone (been there) and never figure out what you really want or need just by pondering alone.

or, you can decide to call someone your boyfriend/girlfriend and give it all your attention and devotion, and you'll figure out what you need to know much sooner than you would've by keeping one foot on the shore.

it might not all end in happiness and roses, but at least then you know. your heart might get broken, but at least you took a chance on giving it to someone. there's just so much to be said for taking risks without knowing it all.

i think the very nature of commitment can do a lot for a relationship. if you've said you're going to make it work, you'll try harder to do so when the little bumps happen. (why do you think arranged marriages work out so well? because they make them work. because they're not accustomed to excuses or easy ways out.)

i've discovered i can learn so much more about a guy by calling him my boyfriend and spending those we're-exclusively-dating moments of our lives together (e.g. eating dinner together every night, flopping on each other's couches and reading or doing hmwk together, texting all day, etc.) rather than trying to decipher how a relationship would be by going on a rigidly formal date for 2 hrs every friday night.

so here's to commitment. here's to relationships.
because it turns out that letting go of the shore teaches me all the things i always wanted to figure out without jumping all the way in.

(from visual photos)

and i'd say, i haven't lost anything by jumping.
but i think i've gained a lot.

thoughts?

flowers in your hair

may or may not have left my heart.

(all photos courtesy of the meghan and her smartypants phone. no guarantees that they're in any semblance of order.)

two words: uncle jesse.

cathedrals are my favorite buildings. ever.

(yes that sign totally says "disabled access" and points at me. whatevs.)

chinatown. no white people. forks not even an option. 

no idea what we were eating.

meghan made me.

first cable car ride. headed to lombard street.

at the top of lombard. it is indeed very, very crooked.

and i would like to live there.

a new friend on the ferry ride to alcatraz.

 making a daisy chain on a sunday walk in Golden Gate Park.

chuurrrrrooo. my first street vendor purchase.

lacked free chocolate like the rumors foretold.

waiting for bob saget & fam to come frolick with me.

we ate clam chowder here. naturally.

in sausalito, i believe. 

i've just got that first-taxi-ride-ever glow, don't i?

fact: this street car was parked. staged adventure & whimsy.

moose and possum(?) hats. actual adventure & whimsy.

a side effect of solitary confinement in alcatraz is that your eye starts becoming cartoonish and at one with your hat.

in case you hadn't heard.

the bridge in all its glory. i want to run across it. daily.

my birthday banana shake.

magic.

my new best friends.

he waited for us at church. not moroni. (note the angry eyebrows.)

we're thinking king noah.

 ...al capone? where you at?

as opposed to the regular seafood section listed above this section. hrmm.

did you think?

(pic from livestrong.com)

just one simple sunday thought today, coming from the conglomeration of quotes on the wall by my bed:

"Prayer is a divine fellowship with the Father. If we miss that communication every morning, we are missing the greatest priority." Elder Kikuchi

i've heard it put this way before: if i'm running out the door in the morning and realize i forgot to put on my shoes, would i go back, or leave without them? if i realized my phone was still upstairs, would i pause to go get it?

it's amazing how every morning i need to consciously slow down and remind myself that prayer is far, far more important than my cell phone or my shoes.

i've been trying harder not to leave home without it.

2 little things i adore

this quote:

"there is one thing which gives radiance to eveything -- it is the idea of something around the corner."

g.k. chesterton

this snack:

 (except pretend it's the peter pan brand. because what is more magical?)

both of these things speak quite fluently to my little heart.

and lately, i feel as though many things are indeed around the corner. details to follow(?)

and i say, it's all right

today is a big day for a certain someone. meet my papanwa. today he is one year older and wiser too!

(he's the one on the right, clearly.)

(and yeah, i just used this photo in another post. but it's darling, ok?)



anyway. he's a good papa because he's good at treating my important things like they are important (didn't i just blog about that?)

because every time i called him during college to tell him i was changing my major and life plans for the 4th or 6th or 10th time, he still listened like i wasn't going to change my mind next week.

and because he's the funniest person i know. and then some.

and because he always tells me when there's fudgsicles in the freezer.

and because every year he walks me through my taxes and never gets impatient when i get distracted and stare at the walls/ceiling/anything-but-my-taxes.

and because he's very, very thoughtful. like that one time when i was homesick freshman year and he sent me flowers on valentine's day. and that other time i was homesick freshman year and he knew i loved a certain song and he had recently learned how to download music, and therefore he made me a CD with 8 different versions of said song and mailed it to me.

and who doesn't need a little "here comes the sun" when the utah winter weighs heavy on your soul? it officially became my most favorite song.

in any case.
happy birthday, papanwa! feliz cumpleanos and many more!

p.s.
here's one lovely cover from the CD, just for kicks:

hello?

okay seriously. you must watch this. i think i had the giggles for about a week every time it popped back into my head...

don't quit early either. the good moments last all the way thru the end.



ima let you decide on your own favorite parts, but i'll point out that mine is from 3:49 to 3:56ish.

bahaha

p.s.
do you think l. richie honestly takes himself seriously? is anybody truly that naive to a really, really, really bad music video script? i mean, a professor who stalks his blind student? really?

p.p.s
yes, my roommate now has to deal with me randomly sticking my head around corners and singing "hello" in a dramatic voice. it comes with the package deal of being my roomie. (you love it, k. sparks.)

p.p.p.s.
hello?

love, actually

I was feeling romantic on a certain day this week (take a wild guess) and my thoughts turned to things of love. It didn't hurt that I spent some time in a bookstore on a drizzly san francisco day, carrying around a lovely rose that my valentine gifted to me (if you count H&M as my valentine, and if you count giving-it-to-me-cuz-i-bought-a-fabulous-skirt as a gift).

Anyway, as I was in my romantic state of mind, I figured it out. I figured love out.

For me, love is knowing what's important to somebody and treating it like it's important. It's being careful with each other's feelings, excited about each other's passions, and unfailingly encouraging of each other's dreams.

There's nothing that crushes me faster than when someone stifles my enthusiasm. There's no worse feeling than being so excited about something and having someone you care about shoot you down.

I see too much of this between lovers. There is too much belittling. Too much sneering. Too many condescending tones and eye rolls and "what do men know" and "you know how women are."

People in love have a unique capacity to hurt one another because they know the squishy parts of each other's hearts so well. Which also means, people in love have a unique capacity to be each other's best champions.

{found on etsy. i adore this banner.}

All i'm saying is...

If she loves coconut m&ms, pick some up at the store. If he plays soccer, go to all his games and yell the loudest. If she just wants to simply sit and look at the trees, simply sit and look with her. If he really loves james bond movies, have a marathon with him. If she gets so excited about planting a garden (even if she lacks a green thumb or two), let her take way too long to pick out seeds at the store and then spend all saturday planting them and then maybe finish planting them for her when she gets distracted or grumpy and wants to make you lemonade instead.

Yes, that's all. Take care of those squishy parts.