Valentines Day Rant

**Disclaimer: Don't read this if you love Valentine's Day. And I'm not trying to be offensive. Just stating an opinion**

It is Valentine's Day. And that having been said, I feel the need to randomly blog my feelings on the subject.

I hate this holiday. I believe I have told many of you this. And ironically, I hate it even more now that I have a boyfriend to "share it with." I think it is the most commercial holiday in existence. I don't see what romantic love has to do with St. Valentine. I maintain that this is a holiday solely meant to sell stuff to unsuspecting consumers.

Also, I have discovered especially since I started dating someone (being in a relationship teaches one a lot about oneself, apparently) that I absolutely hate the idea of something as cheesy as Valentines Day. My boyfriend knows my feelings on this subject. He told me Happy Valentines day once so he could get it out of the way and not mention it again. I'm pretty sure he would be perfectly willing to buy me flowers and chocolates, too. Oh well. The thought is appreciated, but I am pretty low maintenance. I don't feel any need to be on the receiving end of compliments. I don't want anyone buying me things, and I am perfectly willing to pay for dates. Heck, I am perfectly willing to ask people on dates. I am fairly nontraditional, and I don't believe in double standards.

I think it is sad, as well, that we have a whole holiday in our culture that reminds people so much of the fact that they are in fact still single. It is ok to be single. Nothing wrong with that - at all.

Having said all this:
Happy Valentines Day anyway! :) And to all you romantic, traditional girls out there, I hope you get flowers and chocolates to your hearts content!

Much love to you all!

Story I

I had a crazy dream last night that I thought would make a great story. I don’t know how well I can write it, but I’m going to try. Here's the first part. If anyone reads these things, I want feedback, positive or even better negative in the form of constructive criticism. Please keep in mind that it's in very rough form and not at all close to finished. Just let me know what you think so far.

One of the sleeping inhabitants of the house opened her eyes slowly. She looked around her. “Where am I?” she thought groggily to herself. The other inhabitants still slept. The woman stood up. She was slender, with strawberry blond hair cut to her shoulders. She looked like she was seeing the other side of 35. She stood up and started to wander. The house was a maze of sorts, with long corridors, carpeted in red. It was old and sprawling. The woman wandered into a room. Suddenly, she saw a small bird. She looked at it curiously, wondering how it had gotten in. Then she noticed that the bird seemed to be growing larger, until was no longer small but gargantuan, at least twice her size. She looked about the room in a panic, realizing that all of its furnishings were also enormous. Instinct took over, and she rapidly spread her tiny wings and flew away from the bird. It chased her menacingly for a while, after its prey, until she reached the front door, where the bird landed on the threshold, turned into a small mouse, and ushered her outside. She walked out the door into her living room of 20 years ago, where she saw pictures of strangers smiling happily at her. A man entered from the kitchen.
“Sharon, are we out of potatoes?” he said. The woman tried to call to him. She asked who he was, and why on earth he was in her house. She wanted to know where her parents were.
“Sharon!” the man barked. He promptly passed right through the woman into the next room.
Meanwhile, back inside of the house, the other inhabitants were starting to wake up.

Joy

I was walking to Macey's today, and I ran into someone from my ward. This kid always seems to have a smile on his face. He's the kind of person you can just tell is genuinely happy to see you. I've got a friend like that back home, too. And I was thinking how much that kind of sincerity and happiness can lift people. It certainly made my day a little better. I think that's a really cool quality for people to have...just joy. I think we should all take more joy at the simple things in life. I was walking along the Provo River trail, looking at all of the beautifully colored leaves surrounding it, and it just made me happy. It made me feel at home to be surrounded by trees like that. So I just wanted to say to anyone reading this: have joy. Take pleasure in the simple things, like walking alone, or good conversations, or making dinner. Remember not to take too much for granted. Life is beautiful.

On relationships. What's the deal

I have decided that I'm missing some important step between "friends" and "dating" or "in a relationship." I don't know what that difference is. The entire pairing-off process confuses me. And I am starting to think I don't like the whole dating thing. I haven't liked one particular guy for sure in years. Even if I did, I don't think I would act that much differently around him than I would around a guy that I honestly just wanted to be good friends with. Ech. It's so confusing and strange. There have been so many times in the past where there would be one guy I would spend a lot of time with, and everyone would be convinced that I liked him, or that we would start dating, or something like that. I've still never had a boyfriend. I don't know when I will. I don't have any prospects at the moment. At the moment, I'm pretty cool with being single. I wouldn't mind having a little more experience, and there are plenty of guys I know right now that I'd really like to get to know better, but spending time with a guy, for me, doesn't necessarily mean that I'm seriously interested in him as anything but a good friend. I have had plenty of guy friends in the past, and I seriously hope to continue the trend. Anyway, there's one more of my rants, for your entertainment and informational purposes.

The working poor and welfare

Hm, so I just read this fantastic book by Barbara Ehrenreich for my sociology class. She (an upper middle class woman) went and worked in low paying jobs for three months and then wrote a book about it. It's called Nickel and Dimed, and I would recommend, especially for anyone who thinks people who receive welfare are just lazy people getting government handouts. So often in our society, we think that having a job solves everything. The reality is that it doesn't. Many jobs don't offer enough money for people to even get by. Here's the last paragraph (which is all I have written so far) of my response paper to the book.
The solution in the book seems to be for the government to step in, but it is also for people to get more informed. My mom has worked in low-wage jobs trying to support her family, and she recently had to quit because the money she made in her low-wage job, a paltry $6.75 an hour, was not enough to justify losing housing benefits, Medicaid, and food stamps. I think the solution to this problem lies with us. Throughout American history, major social change has come about first through the people. I say it’s time for us to grasp our heritage, and in the peaceful tradition of the Civil Rights’ movement, make our voices heard. In the words of Barbara Ehrenreich, “The moneylenders have finally gotten Jesus out of the temple” (118). I say it’s time we bring him back in.

Big corporations in America severely underpay their lower level workers. Outside the US is another story all together. I say it's time that people start being more aware of this situation and petitioning for change. Our government is run mostly by rich white men relying on statistical data for this issue rather than personal understanding. I think it's time, at the very least, for the general public to know how the "other half" lives. Anyway, there's my rant for the day. Just something to keep in mind next time you get pissed at the McDonald's workers for screwing up your order.

2:43 am

So I had a total blast tonight. My kitchen is a colossal (sp?) mess, and I'm going to be exhausted tomorrow, but I think everything is better in the middle of the night. :) We drank hot chocolate and played games at my apt, went to a party (briefly) and went to see a movie at 12:30. I seriously just got home. College is fun. I should start taking pics to put on here. Of course, having a camera besides the one on my phone would be nice. Lol. Well, I'm going to prepare for and get into bed. Night all!

Wow

I had a really interesting experience today. It was about 12:30 in the morning, and I was in bed trying to get to sleep when my cell phone rang. I was puzzled as to who would be calling me that late, and worried when I saw that it was one of my good friends from back home. It's 2 hours later there than it is here, and she doesn't call very often. Furthermore, she has called me twice to inform me that people we both knew had died. I was half expecting this to be another of those cases. Her voice when I answered the phone didn't make me feel any better. She was crying, and had a hard time getting out what she wanted to say. She finally did, though, and what she said kind of suprised me. She asked me to reassure her that there is a God. I didn't know what to say at first, so I prayed, and was able to go on for about 15 minutes or so about why there is a God, and all things denote that there is a God, and sometimes the Lord has us wade through affliction, and when we get to Bountiful, he tells us to build a ship, you're not to the promised land yet. Better things will come. We have to trust in the Lord, who knows all things eternally. I was able to tell her things I have spent basically the whole semester learning. It was amazing to be an instrument in God's hands. It was really humbling, and it increased my testimony of the principal that all things work together for our good. I got to be someone else's tender mercy, and through that received one of my own. It was humbling and amazing, and I am grateful to God for good friends, and keeping me awake, and inspiring her to call me. His hand is truly in all things. Even though He created works without number to man, he knows them and they are His. He does everything He does for us with no expectation of reward. He does it out of love. We are sons and daughters of an Almighty Being, who is infinitely greater than us, and who knows all things. I testify that as long as we trust in Him, and remember that we don't have anything without Him, and that He knows all things and we know nothing, everything will work out in the end. Though we wade through much affliction in the wilderness, we too shall be blessed and eventually receive our promised lands.