Matching Monday: Dating

Cortney, Hilary, and I, being the bloggers that we are, decided that we would all write about a certain topic every Monday. We came up with the cute alliteration, Matching Monday. Unfortunately, Hilary was the only one who completed this task last week. I just wasn't feeling it. However, this week I'm feeling it. Cortney, being the obsessed person with dating she is, suggested dating. As this is a fairly broad topic, we made the executive decision that we could talk about whatever we wanted related to dating. However, Cortney slashed both Hilary and mine's hopes and dreams by saying we couldn't talk about carbon dating, or radioactive dating. I was crushed. Because I totally know what both those things are . . . (ellipses added for mysterious effect).

I'm a dating master. Let's not even talk about how many dates I've been on this semester (really, let's not). Let's just say last winter semester, I had 5 dates in one week. I'll let you sit on that one for awhile. Obviously, I know my stuff.

You may ask, "Katie Barker, how the heck do you do it? How do you get all the men?" Well, dear friends, this comic explains my flirting skills quite nicely:

See, boys don't actually like it when you giggle and compliment them. They don't want you to touch their arms. Bat your eyes. It's all fluff. Do you see the nice girls getting dates? No. It's the girls that back a boy into a corner that get a date. Fact. I did a study (even though I really didn't).

Next idea. All this idea of a "soul mate" is rubbish. Even dear President Spencer W. Kimball said, "'Soul mates are fiction and an illusion." After this was brought to my attention, I decided I should just like every boy I meet, and eventually, one will love me back. Well, eventually one that I approve of will like me back. Because trust me, boys love me. Even if they won't admit it and just write about it in their journal . . . My thoughts on this can be summed up in this:

Seriously. This has become my personal philosophy. Why should only one boy be affected by me? I think I'm doing everyone a favor by having a different crush on a different guy every week **

And finally, after some intense googling, this awesome Dinosaur comic popped up. It was like, Whoa, totally me:

I have done all of these. Let me expound:

Method One: Football. I took up football. Or, more, I took up "hey throw me the ball, and then I'll throw it back to you, and not have any skills/talents with it whatsoever, and you'll be like, 'whoa, let me show you baby'." Really, true story. I'll leave it up to your imagination on how well that turned out.

Method Two: It's true. If I know someone that has an attractive friend (or roommate), I try and cozy up to them, and get them to come over with their "friend". I mean, it's not like I'm using this person. I still want to spend time with them. I jsut feel like, I can kill two birds with one stone (gracing a friend with my presence, and finding my potential EC***), it works out for everyone. It works, every time (except for...not)

Method Three: 'Nuff said. Except. Most of my friends don't have brothers, or ones that it would make sense to date. I mean, sorry Cort, as studadelic as Taylor is, I'm just not into that. I need to find friends with attractive brothers . . .

Method Four: I do this ALL the time. I'm like "hey baby, you're a babe." and he's like "hey I was thinking the same thing" and then we like, go buy a taco together. Except I say it in my mind, and everything that happened after me telling werf he's a babe doesn't really happen. Unless the guy can read my mind. It happens.

Method Five: Ward directory, anyone? Except that's creepy. I try and stay under the radar in my ward.

So there you go. That is my thoughts on dating . . .

In all actuality, dating = fun. However, it's complicated. I can never tell when a guy is interested, or if he's just a player mc playin' face. And if he is, that ain't cool boys. No one likes that. I like to think I'm blatantly obvious about when I like someone. Yes, I may flirt with guys a lot, but I do believe it's obvious when I really have been captivated. There's a litlte somethin somethin' that's different about it. I mean, just ask Cortles. She can always tell when I like someone. So chances are, if you think I like you. I like you. So ask me out; even if you hate me. Give me an hour . . . Your heart will be captured for eternity ;-)

** I have discovered, I get crushes on lots of boys. Those last about a week. Then I find something about the guy that drives me crazy, and I stop liking them (shallow things like . . . small hands, or an annoying voice, or a receeding hairline . . . this goes along with another theory I have, but that's for another place, another time). But when I like someone? Oh, I like them. For a long time. If I've had a crush on you for more than 2 weeks, it's legitimate.

***Eternal Companion

****My views on dating have really changed over the past year. For the better, I promise. No more boys that bring me down. If you'd like to see my list of what I want in my future husband, I'll more than happily share it with you. And, unlike many things I write, it's completely heartfelt.

*****Be sure to read my roomies blogs about this. They give a different view as well.

Fin.

Mystery Man

Have you ever met someone, and for no reason, you just have a strange desire to be friends with them? They just have some kind of alluring quality that draws you in?

Well there's this boy in my marriage and family class. I met him the second week or so of the semester. My teacher, Brother Livingstone, loves having us "turn to our partners and discuss" certain topics, questions, and sometimes even role play. Well, on one particular day, I sat in the back. A few minutes after class started, this boy walks in and sits in the seat next to me. I had never seen him before, but immediately I thought to myself, "This guy has some kind of story." And I really wanted to talk to him. Well, fate intervened, and that day my teacher was like, "Okay boys. I'm sick of you not telling girls you like them. Turn to a girl near you, and tell you how much you like you." So this boy turns to me and is like "Hey, I really, really like you." Obviously, it was part of the assignment, so it wasn't anything too exciting, but I was happy that we at least kind of talked. My teacher had an obsessive amount of partner discussion questions, so we talked a bit more, and I just found him to be incredibly interesting. Well as class ended we said goodbye, and I went home, thinking about this interesting boy I met.

Well, for the next....oh month, I sat in the same general vicinity of where he usually sat (not creepy. It's not my fault we have the same seating preferences), and every single time, he would always sit one seat away from me, but it was far enough away that when we got into partners, he was with someone else. I kind of gave up on being his friend after awhile, but I always found his answers in class to be rather enticing. They would always bring up a different point of view, and I always found myself wanting to hear more of what he said. Like I said earlier, he was just one of those people that you can tell has some mystery to them, and an interesting story. I'll be the first to admit, I'm a people watcher. I observe everything a person does, and I analyze it. I think you can find out a lot about a person by doing that. So on occasion, when my eyes were drifting off the teacher and around the room, I would notice this guy, and I don't know . . . He was just very interesting. I don't really know how to explain it. There are a lot of guys in my class who, no offense to them, act a bit prideful and super holy, always throwing in "well on my mission . . ." or "Well when I'm married and making the big bucks and my wife is sitting at home making me dinner . . " type comments, and it always kind of bugged me. But not this guy. You can just tell he is very humble.

Well, what's the point of this story? There really isn't one. But today we actually talked again, for the first time since that first day back in the beginning of the semester. Today my teacher read us a scenario, about a couple named Bill and Sally, and then we were asked at the end what type of principles we could apply to their situation. I'll admit that I wasn't paying attention. I was kind of dozing off, and chose to opt out of the partner discussion, mainly because I had no idea what to say. I often have done this, and my teacher has never seemed to care, and would just look at me and smile like "Oh, you must be really shy because you aren't taking the initiative to talk to someone." Not the truth, but I let him believe that, as I'd rather look like a shy, friendless girl rather than show my inability to explain what I'm thinking to a classmate. Well today I guess he decided it was time to intervene. Apparently, this guy I had met so long ago, was trying to wimp out as well. He was sitting well on the other side of the room as me. Brother Livingstone went up to him and was like, "Okay, you go over there and talk to her. You'll be partners." I heard him say it, but I didn't know who he was talking to, but I was a bit surprised to look up and see this boy. He sat down, and was like "okay. good luck with this question," and smiled a devilish little smile, because it was obvious he had no idea what to say either. I just looked at him and laughed, and was like "Um..well...", when I heard a person next to me be like "Patience!" so I looked right at him and said the same thing. He laughed, and then I mentioned how I'm not very good at these on the spot questions. We talked a little bit, exchanged names (because apparently he didn't remember me. Psh. Then again, I didn't remember his name either), and then Livingstone brought us back to his attention. I was surprised when the guy didn't go back to where he was sitting, but I was okay with that. A few minutes later, we had to talk to each other again. The question was another dumb one, and he looked at me and repeated verbatim the same thing my teacher had just said, and then smiled goofily like he was so clever. And he was. Pretty much the exact same thing I would have done. haha. We talked a bit (well, mainly, he talked, and I responded with shorter responses intertwinned with giggles . . . Because that's how I roll). We had to answer another question, something about where we felt like we received our most spiritual knowledge, and his answer really impressed me. It was really honest and sweet. Then class ended, and he turned around, asked what my name was again, smiled really big and was like "see you on Wednesday". At that moment, I noticed he had the prettiest blue eyes I had ever seen. I said goodbye, then got up and left, knowing I'd probably never talk to him again.

Once again, there really isn't a point to this story. I still find this guy to be a bit of a mystery, who completely captivated my attention from the beginning. I'll never see him again, I'm sure, but for some reason, I feel quite satisfied having talked to him again, at a time when I had pretty much forgotten about him.

Procrastination: Plaging Students since 287 BC

Alright, I don't really know if 287 BC is even a significant date at all, but I'm sure that procrastination has been around for at least that long. When I was in high school, I would always leave my projects til the last minute. Except for this really big research paper, and a few other random projects, but thats another story. Anyways, I would always intend to start on them earlier, but other, more exciting things would come up (like sleeping, hanging out, etc.), and I would find myself with a big project the night before its due barely touched. Each time this happened, I vowed it would be the last time. Was it? Nope. Never. Fortunately for me, I work best under pressure, and I don't recall ever getting less than A on most, if not all, those projects. Well, when I started college, I made a goal that I would do all my homework right when I was done with class. Luckily, I have had very litte homework so far. And guess what, for the most part, the homework i have had, has been done in a reasonable fashion. However, in Biology, we were assigned to read 5 chapters of a book over the course of a day. Easy, right? Well, last night I went to open my book, and I skip to the end of the fifth chapter to see how much I would have to read, and it was 75 pages! And this wasn't 75 pages of Dr. Seuss size print. It was tiny..and on big pages. So I go to start this last night...I can't get past the first page. Like honestly, I tried. Really hard. but I could not concentrate. And this wasn't even a procrastinted assignment! It has kind of inspired me not to procrastinate. Will this happen? Not likely. But its nice goal to have!



Yesterday was a grand day. We had regional conference, which was a stake conference for about 120 stakes in this area. Being broadcast from the Marriott Center, I had the privilege of actually attending the meeting in person, which was a somewhat new because I am used to seeing/hearing conferences like this via satelite, and to actually be there was an amazing experience! This was SUCH a good conference. There were three speakers, Sister Dibbs (President Monson's daughter), and two apostles, President Boyd K. Packer and President Dieter F Uchtdorf. It was SO cool to be able to hear them speak. Me, Andrea, and Shalece (my other roommates were back home for the weekend) left for the conference at about 9:30, thinking that would be early enough to get good seats. Boy, were we deceived!! We ended up sitting in the bleachers behind the speakers. Nonetheless, just being in the presence of such amazing leaders of the Church was so cool. There was such a great spirit there! I really enjoyed listening to the speakers, despite the pain in my back from sitting on a bleacher for two hours. I loved all the messages that were said, and I really feel strengthened coming away from the meeting.

After Church, we went back to the apartment for awhile, just to relax. Around 1:30,our FHE sisters came over and invited us over for dinner. It was so nice! At about 3, we went over there and had a really delicious meal, complete with rice, chinese salad, pistacio salad, and spring rolls, and a delicious dessert! We hung out there for awhile, and then had to leave at 4:30 for the devotional, where Jeffrey Holland was speaking at six.

You might be wondering, why did you leave at 4:30 for something that started at 6? Well, for one thing, we did NOT want to end up with bleacher seats again. Fortunately for us, we have a wonderful friend, Taylor, who went at four and reserved some seats for us, but I guess he could only hold them til 4:45. Boy, were they great seats! Three rows from the front! Even though we just sat around for and hour and a half, it was worth it to be SO close. I have a few notes from the talk that I want to share(I wish I had more paper than just the back of a flyer I had in my purse..I'll definitely be printin this talk off!), but I'm gonna post some pictures first :)


Me and Andrea waiting for the devotional to begin!











Taylor and Shalece! This is the nice guy that got there so early to save us seats. He definitely is one of our apartments favorite people!!




One of BYU's choirs that sang some of the songs that night. They were so beautiful! I am in a non-audition choir, The University Chorale, and we will be singing at a devotional in December! I can't wait :-D

So this is kind of blurry, but here is Jeffrey R. Holland. :)









Elder Holland's talk was basically about how we will all be in Spiritual Liberty Jails at times. He really put a lot of emphasis on how sometime the righteous will receive a lot of trials and life, even if they are doing everything they should, but it's not because we're being punished, but because we need them in order to grow. I think my favorite thing he said was "If you're having a bad day, your in good company." I mean really...at some time or another, all of us have/will think "why me? I'm the only one that has to go through something like this"? I know I have definitely felt like this many a time...but the point of what he was saying is that...even if we are having a bad day, pretty much everyone out there can relate. We just need to remember that the Lord will always be there, and all we have to do is ask with all sincerity of our heart (easier said than done, right?), and He will help us. I really liked when he said something along the lines of, whenever we weap, He and the angels of heaven weap with us. Throughout his talk he outlined three lessons that we can learn from Joseph Smith's stay in Liberty Jail. I really liked them, so I'm gonna write them here..Maybe someone out there will like them as well :)

1)Everybody, especially the righteous, will experience trying times
2)Just because hard, unfair, or unjust things may happen, it does not mean we are unrighteous
3)No power is greater than God's. Rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of Heaven.

He took about 15 miutes on each of these points, and really emphasized the truths of them. I do believe that the righteous are sometimes tried more than others, just because we are doing whatsright, and bringing forth the Gospel to the world, and Satan wants to stop us anywhe can, and when he can't do it with things like immorality, drinking, etc., he tries to make things go wrong for us, in attempts of lowering our opinion of ourselves, and maybe even try to get us to question if God really cares about us. Or at least, thats what I think :) Anyways, this was such an amazing fireside with such a great spirit at it, and I'm very happy I was able to attend it!

Sunday was a really great day :)

On Monday I just went to classes..Honestly, I LOVE having LDS teachers. They incorporate the Gospel into our lessons, and I think it is really cool how the Gospel really correlates with so many educational subjects. Suprisingly, I really love my English class. My teacher is really young and a graduate student, and is so much fun. All of our assignments are way fun, and I love her teaching style. We are currently working on editorial writing right now, and I think it is so much fun! I am also really enjoying my choir class. I was too chicken to try out for an audition choir, but for a choir that anyone can join, regardless of talent...I think it's gonna be graet. I mean, I think it already sounds better than Concert Choir back home! :-D We also had family home evening, and it was pretty fun. My group seems pretty interesting. We played a charades and had cake! Woo hoo. I have sme pictures, but I don't feel like uploading them :-P maybe later!

Well, my lunch is about over (I'm eating in the wilk, and just had the nastiest thing ever..don't eat he Bacon, Brocoli, Chicken calzone with alfredo sauce!!), so I guess I"ll draw this to a close :-) Thanks for reading!

Rise and Shout, The Cougars are Out!

So I have officially began my life at BYU! Today is my second day, and I am really loving it so far. At first I was having a bit of hard time, but as the day progressed yesterday, everything was great...So let me start at the beginning!!!

On Thursday, after I got my final (Hopefully!) dental work all done, we left our house at about 12 o clock. Here I am in my "traveling" clothes...which my mom said didn't match, and well, she was probably right, but I was going to be in the car all day and no one would see me, so it's all good :-D

The drive to Provo is like 8 hours or so..and guess what! I drove about 2 1/2 hours in the mountains! For someone who never ventures off of the two lane road 5 minutes from her house and never has driven on the freeway, I think I did wonderfully! I gotta say, I do love cruise control, and I hate semi trucks!!


That night when we got to Provo, we went and got Daniel and went to our favorite Utah restaurant...Wingers! It was very yummy! After that I went to visit my friend Cortney in her dorm becase she was there all alone. haha. And that is about it for that day! The picture of me to the left is the next day right before we left to move me in!!










After I moved most of my stuff into my dorm (oops, forgot to take pictures!), I went and got my ID card, and then went to lunch with my parents, daniel, and michael..Daniel told me about the most delicious food ever at this salad place in the Cougar Eat...It was this yummy Barbque Chicken wrap...mmm!

Before we headed up to Salt Lake to visit Cindy and AJ, we stopped to take some pictures in front of my dorm, Horne Hall. Don't let the pleasant outside appearance fool ya...The inside looks like a prison, and my room is even smaller than a prison cell..haha nonetheless, I think it will be fun :-D

Like I mentioned earlier, we went up to Salt Lake to visit with Cindy and AJ and visit for the night! It was lots of fun. I'm so excited to be so close to them now, and I can't wait to visit with them lots over the next year! We went to this yummy pizza place, The Pie, which we came to found out was a pretty hot spot for University of Utah students...haha. nonetheless, it was probably the best pizza I've ever had! It got me really full though, I couldn't even finish one slice! Afterwards we went back to Cindy and AJ's house and just hung around for awhile and talked and lauged! It was so much fun! Cindy made some really delicious banana bread! :)





The next day we drove back down to Provo. My parents came and dropped me off, and said goodbye. It was really sad :( I'll miss themand Michael (and all my siblings in Colorado) lots. After that...I don't really remember what I did. I think I went to a barbque for lunch and went to get my books...that was excited. I'm pretty much a smart consumer, and purchased most mybooks online..and in all saved about 50-60 dollars!! After buying my books, me and daniel went to the grocery store to buy some food, and then headed over to his apartment before the game...we sat on his couch and watchd the U game. i was really bored, so i started reading that book by Covey...7 habit of sucessful people, or something, because it was sitting on the couch and didn't have anything more exciting to do. One of his roommates was in the shower for an hour, and that was strange. Besides that, it was a very uneventful hour or so!





Finally, it was time to go to the game. Well, we went kind of early. Our seats were pretty good though! The game was really long, because of countless fumbles and injuries. Hopefully the games will be more eventful in the future! Most people left when there was a minute left on the clock..but oh, not us. We sat in our seats until the timer read 0! Actually, I would have left earlier, but Daniel is not a fairweather fan, and we stayed till the bitter end. Boy was it hot that day! After that game we went back to Daniel's apartment. We stayed there for a little bit and talked to his normal (well...more so than the others..hahahahaha) roommate, Jared for like 30 minutes. I didn't have my camera, or else I would ave taken pictures, because Jared loves picturesof himself on facebook and blogs. Next time though! haha. Daniel took me back to my apartment around 8 cuz he was going to work at 9:45. Even though he lives fairly close, it took forever to drive back because of the post-football game traffic! It was intense, lemme tell ya. I kind of just hung around my apartment for a little, and then some of my roommates and I went to the New Student Orientation Dance...So i normally don't like dances at all, but this one was suprisingly fun..way crowded though! After the dance, a bunch of people came over to our building and went downstairs to play some games..It was a blast! Here are some pictures from the night...

So i guess I'll explain these pictures..the first few show us playing this game called "Around the World". I'll be honest, I was horrible. Everytime we messed up or missed the ball (or in my case,hit it way to hard and hit it all the way across the room), we got a letter, and once we got enough to spell PING, we were out. I was out in 4 turns! The next game though, I did much better at. It sounds really kind of weird and random, but it sure was fun! We all had a differnt part of the ping pong table, and we put a ping pong ball in the table..and well, the concept was to blow the ball off of the table. Let me just say, its harder than you think! Overall, it was a way fun night and enjoyed getting to know new people!

Well, it's getting late, but i figured i'd post a few pictures of my room and what not,just so yall can see! It's really funny, my roommate, Andrea, and I got the same bed spread and sheets, and we didn't even plan it!!! Isn't that crazy? We really get along way well, and I'm so grateful to have her as my roommate! I have four other apartment-mates, and I just love them all! They all have really fun personalities, and I really can't wait to get to know them better! Anyways, it's getting late, and tomorrow is the first day of school! Luckily, i only have two classes, and the first one is at 2 :-) Oh the wonderful love of a college student! lol. I'll write my blog about labor day weekend tomorrow...hopefully :-) Good night!

Farewell my little town of Litteton...For now

It has been quite the bittersweet week, I must say. Tomorrow is the day I have been looking forward too (and actually dreading) since that fateful day last November when I received my acceptance letter to Brigham Young University. I have wanted to go to BYU ever since I can remember. When asked what I wanted to do when I grew up, I always would say "I want to go to BYU and be a Mom." (and an elephant, but that's a story for another time). And not much has changed. That's really what I want to do (except I don't want to want to be an elephant, and I'm wanting to get a degree...not just get married..maybe ;-) jk). For the most part, I can hardly wait, but I can't help but be sad and anxious/nervous about the future and what's to come this year! I think I will name this week..the week of tears. All of my goodbyes over the past couple of days have been hard in different ways. I can honestly say my family are my best friends, and it's really hard to say goodbye to the people I have been so close to for the past 18 years, and I'm really going to miss them all so much. Isn't it so great that we have so much technoloy, like blogs, webcams, cell phones, etc. that will make it so much easier to keep close even when we're far. I'm so grateful that we're an eternal family! I don't think I've cried so much in one week befre (and the worst is yet to come...Saturday!) Even though I'm leaving most my family in Colorado for awhile, I'm SO excited to be near Cindy and AJ and Daniel. I'm so happy that I'll have three of my siblings so close, it makes moving to Utah so much easier, and I can't wait to spend time with them all. I can't believe I'm actually leaving...It's so weird. Utah ain't no Colorado, but it'll suffice for the time being :) Honestly, i can't think of a better place for me to spend my college years than at BYU. It's kind of sad. Friends from high school have been posting pictures from their first weeks of College..It makes me sad, really..all the pictures they have are of them being all drunk and high! I'm so grateful to be going to a school where I won't have to worry about things like that :) Anyways...I leave tomorrow (well, I guess today..) at about 12, and we'll get there at 7 or 8 and go get Daniel for dinner at the best restaurant EVER...WINGERS!!! I'm actually not going to move my stuff in til Friday. So friday, i'll bring my stuff to my apartment, and then go to some orientation things, and then go up to SLC with my parents and Michael to see Cindy and AJ (Yes, i'm prolonging saying goodbye as much as possible). Saturday we'll come back down...and let the water works begin..I'll be left in Provo. No looking back. Am I ready for this whole new life? Well..maybe not entirerly, but I'm really excited, and I know that I'm in the right place. My ward seems like ts gonna be great, Im leaving in Heritage Halls, my roommates seem so nice and fun, I got my job with ChaCha, and my classes are just what I want! Don't worry everyone, you'll be reading plenty of blogs in the months to come... :)





So for now...I'll say farwell to Littleton..but don't worry, I'll be back :-)





And for entertainment purposes...here are some before and after pictures of my room (pre-packing and post). The first pictures...my room isn't normaly like that, I just had all my clothes and stuff strewn across everywhere, and the after picture? Probably the cleanest it's ever been, thanks to Kristalyn and Diana and My mom...I couldn't have packed my room up and gotten everything ready without them..Thanks guys :)



BEFORE

AFTER

The 2nd Singles Ward

Has anyone else seen the Singles Ward 2? We bought it for my dad for fathers day (because seriously..whats better than a present that everyone in the family can enjoy?!), and we watched it today. I'll admit, I absolutely love these cheesy Mormon films, and this is no exception. It's probably one of my favorites actually. I was happy to see that most of the characters from the orignal Singles Ward, even though most of them only made a few brief appearances. There was definitely a lot of funny (cheesy..but funny) scenes and Mormon humor, but at the same time, it was very touching. My parents both really enjoyed it as well, so I think its definitely a movie for everyone of all ages. I just love Kirby Heybourne...He's in just about every Mormon movie out there! I was a bit disappointed that he was in a Miller Light commercial, and I was beginning to wonder if this wonderful actor was no longer active in the Church..but I found this article that dismissed that curiousity. I was glad to read that he still is active in the Church, and even if I don't think being in a beer commercial is all that great for his rep, it was good to see Hollywood (or Mormonwood...i don't think Mormon movies are quite as big as Hollywood ha ha) hadn't gotten to him! But anyways, I definitely recommend this movie to anyone out there who wants a good laugh and a heart warming story! It kind of makes me excited/nervous about the student wards next year at BYU, but hey, it'll be fun! I really liked this movie and couldn't just keep it to myself, lol.