Monkeys in the Concrete Jungle

We're Baaaack!!

I don't think we have ever been busier... The summer was fun, but we are happy to be back in Provo.  Javier and I came back to our jobs at the Museum of Paleontology, but we also got other jobs!  Javier got an internship at an outsourcing company in the HR department (SO proud) and I got a job as the Taiwan Paid Program Representative at ILP!  It's been busy, but nice having jobs that we really enjoy.

In remembrance of the summer, here is the post that I started a while back, but never finished because I didn't have any of the pictures...

"I don't think there's a jungle around with as many monkeys as there are people in Manhattan.  Even though all it seemed we did was eat and walk, it was like living in a movie.  We saw Times Square, the Seinfeld Diner, the bar that Maclaren's was based off of (How I Met Your Mother), Broadway theatre, the Hershey and M&M stores, and Central Park.  We ate NYC pizza, hot dogs on the street, and ice cream from a truck.  We rode in a taxi, and on a train.  We watched people ride bikes, people giving people rides on bikes, and people riding in horse drawn carriages.  We saw people dressed up like movie characters and weird statues of liberty and... flags :P. 

Newark is different.  Just a tad. (;  That's where we stayed the night.  Our hotel was called the Riviera-a 100 year old building.  Some of it was cool old!  Like the 100 year old key holder, and original entrance/architecture.  But most of the old things were just...old.  For example: Our elevator was GHETTO to the max.  Old buttons and shaky...almost took the stairs.  Our room looked like the set of a horror movie, with nasty old white paint, with old burgundy curtains and cracks running all over the walls.  And the party from next door seeped through the walls all night.  Yum..."


I'll get back on posting all our fun little stories... We both work and go to school a TON, so those fun little stories get lost in all the monotony if I don't keep up with telling them!

Fun in Philly! Also bugs...

Let me say this right out: Philly is another world!  It's like someone threw some roads and houses in the middle of a forest.  It's beautiful and green, but with the humidity, it makes for bug paradise.  Now, that's awesome for Alterra Pest control (Shout out to Alterra-they ROCK.  When I have my own house, I'm trusting it with those guys), but for the lowly bug HATER, living in a stupid apartment (me), I'm stuck with bugs, bugs, BUGS.  There is a light right above our apartment door. Day or night (night is obviously worse), bugs hang out around it and chill on our doorframe.  Opening the door has become a military operation, trying to keep the bugs from claiming our house as their own.  I hate bugs.  Olan Rogers and I have an understanding...

Hope you enjoyed that. (:

Javier is doing so well.  Like, I am constantly amazed at how awesome he is.  He works so hard!  I can only handle so many rude people, but Javier does it for 10 hours a day, Monday through Saturday.  He has not come home ONCE with a negative attitude.  Some days can be hard.  I'd use those crappy days as an excuse to complain (a lot.  I'm definitely a complainer.).   But Javier comes home, talks about it, tries to figure out what he could do better, and then practices!  And he comes home at 9:30 every night!  He's superman.  Okay.  My praise may be borderline embarrassing.  I'll stop.  But bottom line:  Javier is the best.  Ever.  He would crush any job he could ever have.

I'm a lucky girl to get a job for the 2.5 months I'm here as a secretary at Alterra.  It's the first real full time job I have ever had.  I'm liking it!  It keeps me busy.  I enter paperwork and payments, take calls and make calls.  Kind of mundane, but it's better than sitting at home all day.

When Javier gets off on Saturday, the party starts!  Most of the time we just want to veg out, but this past weekend, we went to DC!  We left on Saturday night with Allison and Brady and went to the DC temple.  It was BEAUTIFUL!  My #2 favorite temple. (SD wins by a long shot, but second is still an honorable position(;)

In our Saturday best (;

We first visited the Arlington National Cemetery and watched the changing of the guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier.  It was really wonderful.  Little did we know, we'd picked one of the hottest weekends to spend in DC.  It was HUMID and got to 91 degrees.  Maybe more.  We were all SO hot!  I got heat blisters on my feet the first hour and spent a good amount of time at church patching them up.

The Lord loves us.  Proof? Front row parking in DC without any time wasted.  Perfect!  After checking out the Washington Monument:

we rented some tandem bikes to get to a couple others and the White house!

It was AWESOME!  Especially because it started POURING rain.  We got 100% soaking wet, but biked through it.  We stopped for a little bit when it was raining so hard that we couldn't see.  But it was cooler!  And once we became pro tandem bikers, we started plowing through giant puddles in the road.  It was super fun!  We got home, exhausted. not wanting to be big kids again, but such is life. (:

The Disney side of our lives

No matter who you are, Disney is the foundation of the side of you that believes in magical princesses, talking animals, triumph over evil, magical worlds, and all other things magic.  But Disney even has every day adventures covered! AND made a song for them.  Really, Disney has created the soundtrack of your life.  Traveling? There's Disney song for that.  Crushing on someone? There's a Disney song for that.   Going to the beach?  There's a Disney song for that.  Road tripping? There's a Disney song for that.  Going to work?  There's a Disney song for that.  (Have fun figuring out what songs I had in mind for each of those(; )
The past 4 weeks at field camp have been full of Disney moments for me... But not quite in the way you'd expect... Here are some examples:

I hiked until my shoes begged for mercy...

I feel every rock and tree and creatureeeee under my shoes that are meant just for runninnngggg

Sometimes our assignments were AWFUL and I couldn't figure it out...

Like FIRE, HELL FIRE this BURNING in my souuullllll

But I learned that the best rock outcrops are along washes and rivers...

What's a rounds the river beeeeend? Are there rocks around the river beeeeend? 

Getting samples made me feel like...

We dig dig dig dig dig dig dig because we are forced toooo! We dig dig dig dig dig dig dig to graduate BYUuuuuuu.

But there were those moments of bliss that came with finishing a big assignment before the weekend...

Iiiiiiiii got no strings to hold me down!  I am staving... Let's go to town!

But everyone was so ready to go back to Provo

One day mooooorreeeeee! (Pretend it counts...)

But finally, after a month of caveman-ing, Provo made everyone feel like...

Are those people? Are they ruuuunning?  I wanna know about these strangers like meee...

Just a testament to how applicable Disney songs are, right?

I asked if Javier had any Disney moments... He said not so much, but if he had to pick one, it would be Make a Man Out of You from Mulan.  Totally applicable!  

Javier is doing really well! He broke his personal record a few days ago. #soproud!  We have some awesome friends who have been making sure he's not eating chips for every meal(: 

Seeing Javier yesterday was probably the besting that has happened since we got married(:  5 weeks was looonnngggg.  But Philly is great!  (that I've seen so far).  We went to church today, ate some lunch, took a nap, and played some games with friends! We are excited for the next couple months of working hard and playing just as hard!

SpongeBob applies!

The above picture is the most accurate thing ever. It's pretty funny to anyone in school. BUT. For those quite accustomed to SpongeBob (enough that you could pick out the episode, explain what's happening, and quote the dialogue word for word...judge because you're jealous), it becomes even more accurate! Especially for the BYU senior. For example... Drunk SpongeBob is actually hungover from his night of partying at the Goofy Goober Ice Cream Party Boat with his one best friend, Patrick. It was supposed to be a celebratory party for SpongeBob's promotion after being the employee of the month for the entire length of his employment.  But Mr. Krabs chooses Squidward   over SpongeBob for a totally dumb reason and after days of anticipation and a ridiculous amount of
preparation, SpongeBob is crushed! He feels like a goofball, a wing nut, a knucklehead mcspazatron, and just a kid in way over his head (yes, those are all directly from the movie :P). After a night of  triple goo berry sunrises and the support of Patrick and a singing peanut, SpongeBob decides he's done feeling sorry and is so fed up, he picks himself up, doesn't even care he's late for work, and walks into the Krusty Krab and gives Mr. Krabs a piece of his mind, which includes a very long and dramatic raspberry.
The truth in this analogy is just perfect. Any student who has ever taken a college test is a Sponge! (Too far?)

I'm coming up on graduation (one more 6 week adventure far away from toilets, showers, washing machines, and electricity...more on that below) and after 5 years of college torture I would DEFINITELY consider myself an ice cream hungover, grumpy SpongeBob. Look out, spring semester...

Long story short, we are excited for summer. We made it through finals week and got to spend some time at home in San Diego. Javier is now in Philadelphia being a working man! He's already tried a genuine philly cheese steak, which he said didn't meet expectation. :P Also, we don't have a light in our room... Apparently that's a thing?  He also got to play a bit and visit the liberty bell!

That's my man<3 (: Being without him for so long is just awful.

After Javier left for Philadelphia, I spent some time with the family. It was lovely! I got to visit my old friend, the beach, sleep, and have some fun in LA. (:

I just landed back in Utah, getting ready for my 6 week adventure in the wilderness. (Please refer to the first picture and Jim Gaffigan's camping remarks to understand how I feel about this class). I will be mapping and analyzing geologic stuff and just looking forward to the end!

3 weeks of fun weekends!

When I look back at a week, I always think we didn't do much besides school and work...  But when I stick together all the stuff we did in 3 weeks, it's like all we do is play!  Here is an example:

In the last 3 weeks we.....

1. Went to color me mine and painted a soap dispenser (that matches our bathroom)
3. Celebrated Pi day with pie
2. Played in a toy store
3. Ate at Tucanos
4. Saw Insurgent
5. Played at Nickel City
6. Watched a season of Lost
7. Tried a new ice cream place
8. Made dinner with friends
9. Went to a birthday party

Pretty fun, right??  We have to fill up our free time with stuff like this to get us through the final stretch of the semester.


Some other stuff:

I presented at the BYU spring research conference and talked about my research at the paleontology museum...I won!  $100!  It paid for our Tucanos trip and for a bunch of yarn.  $100 well spent.

p.s. I have been using a lot of that yarn to make these clever coasters:

My friends tell be they're hilarious!  ...And they would be 100% correct.  (:

Javier was in a competition for best sales pitch/door approach for the first year reps at Alterra.  He did SO well! Higher ups came up to him individually and told him how well he did. He was just 0.1 points away from making it to the final 6!  Bummer, because had he been in the other room, he would have made it!  Lame.  But he is at LEAST #7 best 1st year sales rep thus far.  Go Javier!

Speaking of Alterra, and this is going to kill all the hype, but they changed our location... Looks like they overbooked Vegas, so they are sending us to........Philadelphia!  And that's the final word.  We are excited.  Javier will go out on the 28th or so, and I will be stuck in Utah mapping mountains for a month and a half before I head up... But a fun, busy summer is ahead!

Also, I took a field trip with my Sedimentology and Stratigraphy class.  We drove through Price, down the Green River, and back to Provo, stopping at a bunch of outcrops to study them.  Fun, but I'm glad to be home.

In other news: DID HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER REALLY END LIKE THAT?? and other normal stuff.

As you may have heard, Javier and I are hard core How I Met Your Mother fans.  We started watching everything starting with season 1, episode 1 on Netflix.  We freaking loved that show!  I mean, Lily and Marshalls baby?  Come on.  That adorable little thing kept me coming back!  Also Ted's hilarious failure of his search for Mrs. Mosby.  And Barney's terrible lack of conscience. And Robin?...  We didn't like her, actually.  Don't get Javier going about THAT ridiculous and totally worthless character.  If you did, he would list something like (and certainly not limited to):

• She can't let a good thing happen
• She is the worst decision maker in the world
• She is obsessed about her job to the point of being stupid selfish
• She's not attractive (This one is mostly Javier.  I would steal her hair and wardrobe any day.)
• She's afraid of babies?  Come on Robin.  Really?
• She's almost always pissed off about something

So.  This ending I was talking about.  (HIMYM veterans, you know how we feel right now.  Please take a moment to brace yourself.):

Season 8 (yes it starts here): main point of this season was Barney falling in love with Robin, and trying to change for her.  It ended in him proposing to her in the most ADORABLE way!  (Which Robin freaked out and told him he was terrible for proposing the way he did, instead of just saying yes.  Which she did, after yelling.)
Season 9: The entire season was at Robin and Barney's wedding location. (Where Barney was totally cool and super excited to marry Robin, while Robin was having cold feet over the most stupid, minor things.)
The third to the last episode, we all met (and loved) the "Mother".  She was a perfect match for Ted!  She loved all the things he did, he was just in LOVE with her, and they were adorable together.  3 years later, Barney and Robin got divorced because Robin decided her marriage just didn't "work out" with her job.  Odd: Ted doesn't even marry his wife for 5 years because they just didn't get around to it, having 2 kids in the mean time.  What would have been wrong with having them get married like he always planned, and she was all for from the beginning?  Oh, and then she DIES 9 or 10 years later.

The season ends with Ted's 2 kids telling him that he really only told them all those stories to show them how much he loves Robin and told him to ask her out.  So, he does.  The end.  Ew. 

So: 2 seasons building up the most wonderful wedding and happy ending and they tore it all apart in the last 2 episodes??  Is there a small group that wanted Ted to end up with Robin?  Sure, maybe, but that's not what they REALLY wanted.  They wanted Ted to be happy, and for a long time (for who knows why) Ted wanted Robin. So, people may have voted for her.  But once you see how PERFECT his wife ended up being and how happy she made Ted, who could POSSIBLY vote for Robin?  What was wrong with the happy ending the entire series was leading up to?  Bad form, writers, bad form.

As you can guess, we are still very upset... mostly because really all we see is Robin ruining all the happy endings and then getting her own, completely undeserved, happy ending in the end.  I looked up the alternate ending.  It's better.  They could have made some cute projections into the future, but it is still 100x better! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoHUs8J7x94
 
Anyways.  A week and a half later, and we are STILL mad about that. We will probably send a strongly worded letter to the writers.  You know... years after it ACTUALLY ended... :P

*phew.  I haven't used THAT many caps in a while...

And to the normal stuff:

We had a blast at the Night at the Museums event!  This is a yearly shin dig where all 5 of the BYU museums open up from 7-10, show people all the cool stuff they don't usually keep open (we opened up the lab), and give out food!  This time we also had a scavenger hunt game going on.  Winners got free stuff!  I think Javier's favorite part was food and free t-shirt.  Also he got to hang out with his favorite Cretaceous crocodile, Dinosuchus.

The next day, we volunteered as councilors at the BYU Pow Wow for the BSA.  We had a fun time with the kids, but we also had to sit through an art merit badge 3 times and it wasn't very good :P  Those poor boys!  The teacher had 2 slides, barely any pictures and taught them like a professor.  He just explained abstract art concepts out loud... poor kids!  Next time, WE are taking over the classroom (: 

Also, we found out where we will be this summer: Summerlin, Nevada, in Las Vegas! You know what that means?  Our SD and Provo friends can come visit us (;  Speaking of Alterra, they had an Olympics activity.  Javier did super well!!  He even made ton the top 5 list for rock climbing.

Valentines Day Adventures

This week was full of exciting things!  (and when I say this week, I really just mean the weekend...) We were looking forward to the three day weekend all week.  Javier's 3 day weekend started on Friday.  No classes for that boy!  Lucky. 4 day weekend for him!  He went shooting with Alec, Bro. Burgess, and Jared.  Fun! I went to school and worked... I think we should always celebrate a 3 day weekend by taking Friday off.

Before I get to the weekend fun, Thursday we went grocery shopping! Which is the best. (And yes, is important enough to point out here to remember forever(: )

Saturday was Valentines day!  We slept in, then made heart-shaped bacon and pink cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

 I LOVE Valentines Day.  I have never celebrated it with a "Valentine" before being with Javier, so I think all the excitement has just built up! Javier, on the other hand (as well as all other men on the planet) isn't one to make a big deal about it.  If there was a National "legal for one day to plant explosives places and shoot stuff" Day, he'd be ALL over it!  But, because he loves his wife, he made our lovey breakfast, and spent the whole day having adventures with me. He even got me this balloon!

After breakfast, we watched Netflix (we are currently blowing through the How I Met Your Mother series).  Then, we went to the MOA and made origami!  Did you know they have a downstairs?  It's like a secret origami cave...

After that, we ate at Olive Garden (shout out to Rod and Angel! They love us.), then went to the Movies.  SUCH a fun Valentines.

Sunday was so lazy.  After church, we made our special multicultural feast of Curry, rice, cong you bing (蔥油餅-Chinese Pancake), and arroz con leche.  YUM! I forgot to take a picture.  We were hungry...

Monday was even lazier than Sunday.  We slept in, made a yummy breakfast, went to work to make a kid's dream come true, and watched Netflix for the rest of the day!  It was GLORIOUS.  But!  School has to start again every week.  The sad circle of life of college students.