the Fiction World as we know it NOW

So after work, I dropped into Barnes & Noble - a store that I haven't stepped into for 2 years. As I wandered around aimlessly, I found some pretty awesome stuff: a notebook full of empty sheet music, a World Map and a United States of America Map (which I really need to find somewhere) and just loads of books. As I was heading out to purchase tasty Cafe Rio, my eyes fell upon a display of books - and this was right in the center:

(the one of many books on display that took Jane Austen's works and polluted greatness)

I was coming to grips with the new vampire craze brought on by Twilight. I mean, I get it - authors all over the place see the success of Stephanie Meyer (success meaning the amount of money that she has brought in) and take every idea they have ever had and thrust some vampirical idea into it hoping to earn as much money or more. The entire youth fiction wall of books was vampire after vampire after vampire. Anyways - taking classical fiction and screwing it up to somehow make Mr. Darcy (the man of many women's dreams) a vampire is completely TOO FAR.

Fiction needs to stop dirtying itself with the stench of vampires

before the good world of great literature like the pure and clean Pride and Prejudice are ruined and we are stuck with nothing but complaining, heartsick, bloodsuckers.

I wonder what Jane Austen is doing in her grave.

Top Ten Reasons Why I Simply Can't WAIT for...

SUMMER!

1

heat

2

the sun

3

wearing shorts and sandals to class

4

movies such as:

Letters to Juliet May 7th

Iron Man 2 May 7th

Robin Hood May 14th

Prince of Persia May 28th

Karate Kid June 11th

the Last Airbender July 2nd

the Sorcerer's Apprentice July 26th

(i mean seriously - it is as I was telling my friend - great summer movies waited for me to return to come out and grace us with their awesomeness.)

5

the opportunity to swim

6

the promise of excitement and adventure

7

school

8

meeting new people

9

heat

(did i say that one already?)

10

happiness

I mean with extra UV rays dazzling us

Happiness will be unescapable.

A Very Merry UnBirthday.

Aspects of the Day that made this my not so very merry UnBirthday:

I got out from under my down comforter

to find at least 4 inches of white snow outside as far as my eyes could see

on the 6th of April

to go to work

with no human contact for 7 hours

as my sinuses were clogged to the brim

which led me to the doctor where

I was ignored in the room for a spell

to which I left

as soon as I got my hands on the prescription

which led me to Walmart

keeping me from my home longer than desired

as well as helping me forget that I needed to get to Texas Roadhouse 5 minutes ago

to arrive and receive a bitter phone call

leading me to unpleasant thoughts about work tomorrow

where I will have to somehow erase problems that came from today

not knowing the source of bad turn

as i waited in the cold (still April 6th)

so I could an hour so later

get back into my car to head towards Centerville Blockbuster

to come to the horrible realization that it has closed

unbeknowest to even myself

leading me directly back towards 5th South in Bountiful

getting me out of my car

so I could get back in my car

ripping my favorite pair of jeans in 3 places in the process

causing me to somehow mentally figure out how to manage to purchase some more

which led me back to my home

where there was still snow on the ground.

Aspects of my Day that made it My Very Merry UnBirthday:

Waking up warm and feeling better than I did when I fell asleep

to see that the snow plows had plowed our street

(as well as my dad waking up at the crack of dawn to shovel our driveway)

allowing me to smoothly get up my hill

so that I could go to work and

earn the much needed money

to start the adventure of school in less than 3 weeks

during the 7 or so hours of listening to sweet music my sister put on my iPod

and drinking my oh-so-needed Dr Pepper

to when 4 o'clock hit and I headed to the Library

where Specials was waiting for me

bringing me in super close proximity to

InstaCare

where I got prescription medicine for my sinus problems

bringing much needed relief

which led me to Walmart

where I got to spend a little time with my Mom

and ran into Jessica

and lazily browsed the aisles until the time came for me

to head to Texas Roadhouse to eat dinner

with My Friend

to be blessed with an Onion Blossom

as it being our first time to the restaurant

where we went to eat steak and

were pleasantly pleased with our overfull tummies

to which we needed help in digesting

so we chose a non-strenuous activity such as watching a movie

which led to an entertaining 2 hours

where we ate popcorn

and laughed

and enjoyed the deductive reasoning of Sherlock Holmes

and the ever so present Dr Watson.

It was a good day.

During the day...

my mind stumbled over 2 Nephi 2: 25. "Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy." Being one of my all time favorite scriptures - it's tiny but so BIG- it leads into a chain reaction of thought. This scripture never disappoints and my mind went into crazy mode as an analytical chain reaction through the Plan of Salvation initiated.

I mean the Fall of Adam and Eve occurred - was it necessary? Yes. Majorly so. But why? Well for starters, without it we would not be here. It was importantly necessary - got it. But how was this major stunt in the human growth to be overcome? We fell. How could we get back up?

As all these and many more thoughts were jumping around in my chaotic brain - IT HIT ME. The saving power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ is nothing less than a beautiful sign of God's love for us and a highlight of our purpose in this life - the reason we chose to enter the pains and joys of mortality - to fall and learn how to get ourselves back up again - to gain experience from it all, continually progressing in all aspects of life.

With the Fall of Adam and Eve, mankind fell. We fell from the platform of walking and talking with our Father in Heaven. We fell from His presence. Why did we do this? So that we could reach our potential. But just like a bird has to be kicked out of its nest by its loving parents to learn to fly, we, ourselves, had to leave our heavenly nest, even our heavenly parents physical presence, to learn to fly in our own way. A birds flying abilities would be stunted if their parent took them by the wing and did all the flying themselves. The bird is shown and thus taught the way into flight through their parents expertise.

So mankind fell. And we had two options for salvation from the fall: someone to come and pick us up and carry us from then on, or someone to show us the way - to give us the tools we needed to learn to get ourselves up. The first - instant salvation from the pains of the fall, but eternal consequences as we would live in a handicapped state forever (we would never know how to get up from the fall). One word: damnation. The second - an ability to gain the experience that we so wanted, to grow and reach our potential and if we followed the well-planned steps, we would have eternal glorious consequences. We would have joy - which is why Adam fell in the first place (as 2 Nephi 2:25 states). Two words: True Salvation.

The actual conditions of the saving power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ are beautiful- are exactly what needed to be - to make the extreme Fall of all mankind worth it.

Why do we fall? So we can learn to get back up. Once we fall and get back up again, we are better learned not to do it again (at least in the same way). With the Fall, mankind lost ground. The Savior was planned - not to lift us up and take us (with no effort on our part) to heaven once again, but to Mediate for us - to give us a WAY back. One of the many dimensions of His saving power is by teaching us how to get Up from the Fall. Salvation comes with conditions. The beautiful part of it all is that we actually agreed to live with the conditions. We chose to do it this way - we chose to fall and get back up again. It's seriously as if He actually placed a ladder in the deep abyss that we fell into, and we have to have faith from our bruised state to take the first step up the ladder. With experience on the ladder, we gain stronger confidence in the Savior's love and helping hands. And ring by ring, we learn and grow. Going from the innocent child state to an experienced, strong being. So our experiment in following Christ's teachings and having faith in Him bolsters our resolve to continue to follow His way until the glorious day when we reach the gates of Heaven where His atoning, cleansing power will have full effect and we will be welcomed back Home: stronger and happier because we fulfilled our purpose.

The conditions of the Atonement encompass our purpose of this life: to gain exaltation through our choices - to learn and gain experience from our fallings and get-ups!

Recess. the different definitions.

dictionary.com – a period of time when the proceedings of a parliament, committee, court of law, or other official body are temporarily suspended

wiktionary.org – to take or declare a break

Melissa Boyer – a 10-minute moment of the day to supervise kids releasing their energy to better learn throughout the rest of the day

LPA 1^st grader – a 10-minute moment of the day to chase and tackle Ms. Boyer.

***

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday at Legacy Preparatory Academy see 3 recesses: morning, lunch, and afternoon. The bitter cold has effected the kids desire to be out in the cold for more than 5 minutes, let alone 10 whole blessed minutes of freedom. But when an adult is out there who has no other desire but to reach back into time, becoming a first-grader herself for 10 minutes, the ability to stay warm is made simple.

***

I walk outside – unsure if this recess will bring any kid near me. But as soon as I find a seat on the wooden bench, I am surrounded with kids taunting me to come and chase them – to run and heighten my body temperature, to make the cold more bearable. And so I believe that the next 10 minutes of my life will consist of a harmless game of tag – me being it. I no sooner get up and start chasing after one of the 77 first-graders, when I realize immediately that I, myself, am being chased by 30 first-graders. My speed quickens – keeping the cold at bay. I catch the one chased first-grader, and before the group topples on to me, I have time to swing that unexpected first-grader around and around in the air.

But no sooner than I have put the One down, the wind is blown out of me as I brace myself against the thirty who tackle into me, desperately trying not to fall down into the soft, muddy winter earth, at no avail.

What then occurs is something one has only seen on – cartoons, or the Mask of Zorro. Those 30 seven-year-olders tackle me to the ground and pile upon each other to make my escape impossible! But little do they realize that the only things that they are ALL on top of are my feet. I quickly slide out of that hilarious predicament – and laugh to see them all on top of each other! But the laugh is short-lived as I realize that they noticed that I am no longer under them – their captive has freed herself. So I grab my shoe that had been pulled off, and start sprinting away, temporarily forgetting that the ground is moist after the light rain and snow. My memory comes rushing back into focus as my socked foot lands in the soft mud and the feeling shoots up my spine. Due to that impediment, I am soon tackled again by 30 little people – sending All of me down into the spongy, moist earth. My clean pants are now again in need of a washing.

All of us are laughing and you hear multiple renditions of: ““Get off her.” “Ah, you got me.” “Get her.”” from all voices – but then we hear “10,9,8…” being chanted off in the distance – and I see FREEDOM! It’s time to line up to go back into the world of books, teachers, pencils, and ‘hugs&bubbles’.

***

Recess - a period of time when the proceedings of an organized school system are suspended to become a kid again.

It’s worth all of the mud and grass stains, and the like-allergic reaction I receive to the wood chips spread across the playground.

***

Life is good when you can be a kid.

the Wedding: the Cruel and Unusual Punishment

... that we voluntarily choose to put ourselves through. It's self-inflicted unconstitutionality!

Now you might be wondering where all of this came from. Let me explain - I just went to my cousin's wedding this afternoon.

But before we move on, a tangent must occur. He is too young to be getting married! I mean every single one of my acquaintances is too young to be married- but most of them are. I mean, really guys, aren't we still just little kids? Where did we get the grand ideas to actually legalize our house-playing? During the ceremony today, I realized that the last time that my cousin and I spent more than 5 minutes in actual conversation, was 3.5 years ago and we were both 19. When did he become 22 and I, 23?

... Well, I guess if we really are that old, he is old enough to tie the knot. Odd - how time flies. Anyways, tangent over, moving on.

So you must be wondering how I could even think that a wedding, that day the female race looks toward in giddy anticipation - planning down to the minute, years in advance - sometimes slowing down through the diamond displays they so easily set in our paths at department stores - and lazily wandering onto wedding dress websites - how could I possibly accuse that well-thought-out and-looked-towards-day to be CRUEL and UNUSUAL punishment?

Well let's just look at it on the side of the girl that looks at all her married friends and realizes that really, the road of her Life has actually reached the marriage square - but where is her groom?

So it simply is....

Cruel and unusual punishment - to thrust all that romance, the giddiness, the sparkle in the eyes, the speeches given by ecstatic loved ones, the tinkling of glasses which is followed by the mandatory couple-kiss, the well-chosen colors, the Dress, the men in excellent attire, the mood music, the flowers, the electrifying amazingly RIGHT-feeling atmosphere - to thrust all of THAT upon a vulnerable young girl of 23 who is ready for her own fairy tale - her own Prince with which to ride away into the sunset, to kiss deeply after the Man says - you may kiss the Bride. I mean, aren't I right?

This is the definition of cruel and unusual punishment.

But we, the female race, bring it upon ourselves by enthusiastic dreaming and star gazing. One day, we will be the married bystanders amidst the family and friends; some of who are enjoying themselves immensely and some that are punished by our giddiness and sparkle, unbeknownst to even themselves until they are way too deep into the oh-so-"perfect-fit"-feeling.

And that is why we choose to inflict this unconstitutional punishment (to witness a wedding) upon ourselves- because ONE DAY it will be us.

The Nose Hurts

So I have been suffering from the Common Cold - the one disease that has no cure for about a week. A week!! There is no cure but for some odd reason we think that there is and we buy loads of medicine to cover up the symptoms. In reality - the symptoms might be covered up but the runny, red nose will always come. It's super rude. And not treatable.

And I look like a female Rudolph.