I could never complain...

I have to say that I have an amazing life. I am very grateful. I love people watching, especially because it helps me realize that people need help and that's why we are all here together, to help each other. Life really would be no fun. In Jonathan Safran Foer's book 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,' Oskar, the main character has this idea that we should just have limousines that were so incredibly long they would start at your mom's womb and end at your mausoleum, it would be as long as your life...I thought about just walking through a limo alone and am even more grateful for people who make life so interesting!! PS its a really amazing book!! get it, read it!
Christmas was extraordinary! I made all my presents! And I think I received a grand total of 5 presents. I think it was the best Christmas ever. My parents have helped me so much this year, I told them not to buy me anything and the other small things from my siblings were things I really needed and appreciated ('Everything is Illuminated'-the book, a bell for my bike, a pair of shoes I picked out at Thanksgiving, a battery for my car clicker) Then my parents planned this big service project where they wrapped up all the supplies for hygiene kits and we all assembled them. It was a great Christmas activity!!!
Plus we started Christmas off with a, hopefully, new tradition...the morning jog. I kind of wanted to open presents, fresh outta bed, just because I am accustomed to that, but it was fun to go for a family jog and then open presents. The family that sweats together, stays together. Heres a photo from the jogging: Merry Christmas from the VANS!!

Provo, nice knowing you...

Well, I did my time. I packed up my car today and drove away. woah. It's a surreal cinematic feeling. I wish there would have been some sappy song as I looked over my shoulder at my living room, scanning for any last forgotten items, and then leaving my keys on the kitchen counter. I'm outta there!!! Now onto the next step of life. I told my mom that I want to set up a studio in our house. maybe the garage? Then as I checked out the christmas tree, I noted aloud that there weren't any presents big enough to be a wheel. I guess that will come out of my first paycheck. I already have a kiln and ceramist friends here in vegas. I have a feeling that things will be ok. maybe even great. so far, adulthood is great. ps. I have a celebrity crush on Chevy Chase, well just the character he plays in Foul Play.

wow...

It just hit me at the end of my hometeacher's lesson that I am moving from Provo. I will miss it a lot. I even shed a couple of tears. Surely, my hometeacher thought he had said something amazingly inspired, "little did he know" (I love "Stranger than Fiction") that I wasn't paying attention and was thinking of how that would be my last time being hometaught at my Provo abode.
Trying to figure out how to be an adult is confusing. I want to do something hard or challenging and have amazing experiences. So I am weighing my options. I don't want to take the easy way out of things, so thats why I decided to move home. ha. There I go embracing the future, branching out, and having an adventure.
You all have a place to stay if you are going through vegas. my house of course, not the ten-ga-jillion hotels/casinos. Unless you would rather stay there. But the continental breakfast at my parents house is much yummier.
Thanks Provo!

step teams

I was talking to my friend yesterday about step teams. He didn't know what they were. I think this was the best part of my highschool career. I had a friend whose Dad was a baptist minister and they had a step team as part of their church service. They team would come down the isle before the preaching. Well here's an example and there are tons more on Youtube if you search "step team." its pretty awesome!!!

bands and comments

well here are some bands that hillary, amy and heather should like. I dont even care if they read this. I am a hard core web logger, doing it for the love of it. I like Lali Puna. I like The Blow. I like Ms John Soda. Comment now if you want. Maybe I will care. Yes! my comments work now!! Coming soon....the results of my scientific experiment about Blondes vs. Brunettes.

thanks everyone

My show was great. I had such a fun time seeing all my wonderful friends. I just want to say thanks for all the support. My parents and sister came up from Vegas, my cousins and aunts and uncles came from all over the valley and it was really amazing to be able to see everyone together in one place. Heres me and my favorite friends ever! thanks tigerfire. you play well. Little A, you are the best.

yes, I will be giving autographs on friday...

Yesterday this reporter called me and said she really loved my BFA show and wanted to write an article about it for the Daily Universe. She interviewed me, asking me questions about my inspirations and ideas. Then she also interviewed my professor, Von, and some gallery personnel. Then this morning, as I ran to campus, I grabbed some newspapers at the bottom of the hill. I AM FAMOUS! The article is pretty awesome and I am excited to finally be able to say that I have been in a newspaper. I am published. Even if it is only the Daily Universe...that still deserves a couple of thumbs up. PS Lauren and I decided it would be funny to get a bunch of copies and have them at my show and sign them all. I love being an artist!!!

out of this world

Don't you wish you could watch "Out of This World" again. I do. I really loved that show when I was little and my default song was "would you like to swing on a star, carry moonbeams home in a jar..." I was searching the whole world wide web to find it on dvd and I found this website petitioning Fox to make it into a dvd. I agree. So I signed. If you want to see it again Please sign petition titled Put "Out of this World" on DVD hosted with free Petitions hosting site.
Also you can see some clips on YouTube that will wet your appetite for more. I wish I could freeze time like Evie.

My BFA Final Show

I guess if I post all these pictures people will think they don't need to come to my final show in the HFAC Dec 1- 15th. But thats not the case. You all need to come. Especially to the artist's reception on Dec 8th 6-9pm. Come on and see!!1

thanksgiving shamanksgiving

Me sleeping, thats all I want to do....

I went home last weekend and I got the stomach flu from my little niece. I came back to school with one day to do a lot of things before I went to Phoenix for Thanksgiving break and instead of being able to do all the stuff I had to do I got really sick and threw up all the time and just wanted to sleep a lot. After about 1/2 a day throwing up I stopped, then I just didn't eat the rest of the day. I had to take a test, photograph all my ceramic pieces for my show, and pack and get ready.
I guess it's good that food makes me sick because usually people gain ten pounds during Thanksgiving and I am prolly gonna lose ten. I don't feel like eating anything still. Hopefully I will be able to choke down a festive piece of pumpkin pie and say my thanks for the season of giving.

Halloween revisited

I decided to post pictures of halloween. I had a great time as Lady Godiva.

ROCK & ROLL

Heres us as rock stars. Aaron date we decided was Scary Spice, Hillary as Bjork, Me as Alanis Morisette, Aaron as Chris Carraba, Amy as Lisa Loeb, and Emily as a member of the Bangles.

one more funny/tragic thing...hearts dont end like sentences

So heres a funny story that happened tonight. Or perhaps its tragic, the story of my life, a tragicomedia. I met this guy this summer...had a little crush, nothing happened, he was out of country for a while, came back, I thought there could be something, he asked my roomate out that very week. So I must have been wrong about there being something. Then I met this other guy. Everytime we saw each other we laughed and talked, thought there could be something there, flirted, no response. Then that guy asked my OTHER roomate out. Turns out they are going to double. So tonight as I was waiting for my saturday night plans to come to pass, my roomates are getting ready and my two ex-crushes come to the door and they have to wait in the living room with me while my roomates primp. Asi es la vida. I think thats the moment where you just give up and move to spain. "You tried your best and you failed miserably. Lesson is never try"

the new me

So it all started when we were going to this ROCK STAR party and I decided that I had a full nude suit from halloween and I should be Alanis Morrisette. Why not? I just need to dye my hair dark. So I had been thinking about doing that for a while and this just gave me a great reason to. Welp, there you have it. I have dark hair. Its permanent and its awesome. I keep pulling on it because it looks like a wig. nope. still real.

peace and pictures

I feel great today!! I finished two midterms today and feel free. No more worrying. I was telling Bryn that I feel like it is the last day of senior year of highschool. So I will prolly do something like I did the last day of highschool today...hmmmmm maybe toilet paper some cute boys house, have a slumber party or watch Clueless. sounds good. At least until tomorrow I don't have to think about school. YES!!! Well heres the pictures of the fishing trip. I loved it.



Here's what the deer see when they are hunting us....





Mister Beaver, hibernating. Thats weird he didnt want to hibernate inside his little house.




Here's all of us. It was the first day of hunting, so we all had to wear bright orange so as not to be shot...and also it was really cold. You can't tell from the photo. But it was up in the mountains and there was snow.





So I caught my line on some branches going for this really great hole...Aaron built a bridge from big rocks and hopped across the river to rescue the blue fox lure that Tom lent me. He looked just like spiderman.

its official...

So I bought Mac Daddy a cover the other day from the Apple store. Now he can really go EVERYWHERE with me!! I walked in and James was there with a friend. He helped me decide which case was better. I told him the requirements like this, "You see since Mac Daddy and I are life-long companions now, getting married soon, its official, I need a soft case, cuz he will be sleeping with me now and..." And basically I guess that was the only requirement.
So this weekend Mac Daddy went with me to gallery stroll up in SLC (he stayed in the car while I went to the galleries), he met my sister (we watched "13 going on 30"--I love that movie and it really deserves its own blog) and he went fishing with Tom, Tom's Dad, Bryn, Aaron and I. I LOVE FISHING and so does Mac Daddy. We were a little sad that we didn't catch any fish, but we hiked around up in the Uintas, saw a dead beaver, there was snow and it was the first day of hunting season so we had to wear bright orange.
I will post pictures later because I got some good ones. I loved the trip, listening to Greg Brown sing about fishing and joking about putting the hook in the beavers mouth to pretend like we fished it out of the river. But then we decided to leave him alone, because maybe he was just hibernating and not dead at all. He would be really mad if he woke up with a hook in his mouth. I mean, I would be.

please for the love of life, wear a helmet.

Today as I rode my bike to school I witnessed an accident. I think I went into shock even though I was a whole car lane away. Here's the scoop. I was in the bike lane...looking behind to see if there were cars so I could cross and go up the hill to campus...well there was a silver truck so I let them pass. When I looked forward the truck had gone to make a left turn and hit a motorcycle that was going straight. The motorcyclist flew off the bike and hit the truck, the ground and eventually ended up wedged into the side of the truck. He was just like a rag doll flopping around and then finally landed and started screaming from the pain and shock. I just went to class. There was really nothing I could do but watch and wait for the ambulance and as I rode away I heard the sirens. It was a surreal experience and has helped me be a very cautious driver all of today and I hope for all of the rest of my life. I hate car accidents...they are always a unwelcome surprise that cause soooo many problems.
On a better note, I think I joined a discussion group where we talk about things. Tonight was the first night and I loved it. We discussed some questions that this Protestant minister had put on a questionnaire that he had taken to Mormons and Baptists all over the country. It was very interesting. We all wrote manifestos. I liked this one guys about renouncing being a homo-sapien...instead he said we should be eco-sapiens. well, ok.

Missed me, missed me, now you gotta....

This is me looking at my new mac. It really has nothing to do with the subject heading but the subject heading has to do with the fact that I miss my awesome friends. Last night I went to a show for Golden Shoulders...just minutes before I found out that Camille and Micah were playing. They are my favorite band ever!!! I think I am their biggest fan ever and also I can't wait until their cd comes out, I would listen to it all the time. We just talked and talked and loved and loved. I loved especially when we talked about the dinners we used to make together. We agreed that we want Cami to make us dinner again. Also I thought a lot about how I used to play the guitar and Camille would play and harmonize with me...ahhh the good old days. I am glad she married Micah because we wouldn't have ever made it to stardom with our Indigo Girls covers.
Then my friend Nate and Tom came over and we were playing the guitar and banjo and I got to harmonize and sing along. A couple of weeks ago I started playing the guitar again (I really havent play for a year or so) and just the other night, Bryn was playing the banjo and I was just playing some easy chords and singing random words that happened to rhyme and she said, "what song is that you are playing," "Oh just one I am making up" "hey thats awesome" "welp, I better write it down." So I wrote it down and we have been playing it over and over again. yes yes yes. I love life.

Yes YEs oh yea

So I got a mac. WOW. I named it Mac Daddy because I am practically married to it and feel like I dont need any other companion ever. It is fun to learn all the command keys and just push a button and have my widgets come up and be able to write sticky notes and take pictures and listen to music and do lots of mac-ky type stuff. I was getting so bored writing spread sheets and word documents on my pc. Heres me really happy the day I opened the mac box.

There is snow on the mountains....need I say more.

I love the summer and these past couple of days have been really hard because it is so cold here. Usually we have some great fall weather and until the end of October I can be happy. But it rained for 3 straight days and snowed in the mountains. You could barely see the 'Y'. I wasn't prepared for this cold front at all, as I left for school in the morning, late because I had to layer up to keep warm, searching through all my summer clothes and wishing I had time to find my winter ones...then finally grabbing my roomates scarf because all mine are still packed up and running to class, sweating beneath all the layers and hoping my roomate doesn't read this and find out I prolly sweat all over her scarf. It is really cute too. PS. I just wish that Punxsutawney Phil would come out of his hole and predict that we could have 6 more weeks of summer.

Zucchinciñera

Last night we had a party to celebrate the coming of age of my zucchini. I made zucchini bread, chocolate zucchini cake, flan and Bryn made salsa to go with the chips. We had a regular fiesta. There was one zucchini that wasn't made into a baked good so we dressed her up in a white dish-towel dress. It was a halter top dress, tied at the top with a white shoelace. I'm trying to speak very descriptively so to compensate for my not having photos of the very important event in a young zucchinis life.
Many friends came and saluted her with kisses on each cheek, or where we could relatively deduce her cheeks would be if she were a human and not a splendid zucchini, that delicious vegetable that makes cakes and breads so moist and yummy.
One time I said to a young man who had recently entered, to give her "saludos" which in Spanish means to salute with a holy kiss, like the apostle Paul said. He, not being fluent or even partially fluent in the Spanish tongue thought that her name was Saludos. Oh silly boy, zucchinis don't have names.
I was happy to see so many friends at my house, sharing the joy that I felt becuase my sick little garden actually produced goods. And when I say sick I mean that it was actually sick, cough cough, sick. I am not using that word in its skater/slang form for cool. There were bugs, yellow leaves, and also it was prolly dehydrated...but alas it pulled through and caused us all to feel immense joy and sastifaction. Moral of the story, chocolate zucchini cake is good and Aaron and his roomates are the coolest.

studying

I like my classes a lot this semester. It could be because it is my last semester. YES! I am finally graduating. I have swimming, the history of Spain, history of modern art, ceramics, and an intramural yoga class. It is so much fun. I love my PE classes. I have a book about swimming for WSI and I like to read about the strokes. Also I like to look at pictures of the ice dancers because their costumes are so funny. Here's my favorites:

dominos

I want to put these cute pictures of my niece on my blog. I went to vegas to the dentist and got to play with my nieces all weekend long. It was so much fun. We went swimming and laughed so hard as she jumped in with her lifevest on...and told us all that she knew how to swim. I taught her to say dude and she taught me to say shoesies. We played dominos,


I made the 'R' for Rachel

and she knocked it down.


We make a good team.

yes, really clean teeth, without the dentist seat

I just got this tootbrush. I love sonicare. I feel like I just had my teeth cleaned every time I use it. I tell Berta every night about how great it is and she is getting pretty sick of hearing me be so happy about my smooth teeth surfaces. When she is down, I offer to let her use it, I mean, it makes me soooo happy...I am sure that it could help others too. So thanks Pop, for buying me an awesome toothbrush.

full moon

One of Bryn's friends works at Sundance and on full moons they run the lift until 11pm. I wasn't going to go because I had some reading to do...but alas I am easily convinced to have fun instead of do homework. Paul brought a mag-light and I read in the car. We rode the lift to the top of the mountain. It was my first time on a ski-lift. WOW. It was high. I just say that because we were talking about the most commonly used phrases...that might have been heard on that lift that night. Paul said that the most commonly heard would be: "It's so peaceful" or "I love you." I said it would be, "wow, its really high" or "wow, it would suck to fall off here." Then Nick said it would be, "are you warm enough?" That could be a winner. THere were a lot of couples having a really fun time. We would take pictures of them and tell them that they would be on sale later at the giftshop.
We laughed so hard. I love laughing a lot. I love full moons and now I know that I love ski lifts...

rachel van

I really like being called rachel van. thats why I decided that forever I want to have 'van' as my middle name. 'Van' will spice up any boring last name that might come my way. Or maybe I will just marry someone with the last name of 'winkle' or 'dyke' or maybe 'damme' Then I can be Rachel Van Damme. I really like that. So, send all your 'damme' relatives and friends to me. Hopefully one of them will suit. Then I can make 'damme' jokes for the rest of my life. Then I will be happy.

it makes me want to visit my sister

I went home to vegas for a couple of weeks in july. I started to use the bathroom in my sisters house. She has a little hose installed so it becomes an insta-bidet. I love it. All my time in europe and uruguay I never used the bidet and also never knew that bidet was spelt like that. I thought it was badeau or badaue...but I did a rigid search and finally found the correct spelling on the kohler website. Kohler offers a internship for ceramic students...I should custom make toilets or bidets. I like them a lot.

life oh life

I've been kind of busy traveling back and forth between SLC and Provo. My uncle died a week ago and my family has all been in town going to the funeral and viewing. I was at the cemetary as they placed the casket over the spot where his body would lie for a while and I just thought, "wow, everybody dies." I feel like everyone in my life is going to die. Especially when I found out the next day that my friends brother was killed and also some girls in my homeward died in a car accident. I was just standing in the cemetary over all these people who had come and gone. Our lives are like sitcoms, says Saum, my brothers highschool friend. There are the main characters who are always on the show and then the guest stars who make appearences and are there for a little while. One thing is for sure, I will miss uncle dennis on "the rachel show"

I want to spread the laughter from coast to coast...

Bryn bought a book called The Know-It-All One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World It is hilarious. He read the entire encyclopedia britannica and shares his thoughts as he read it. Random. I love it. Here is his entry under "Las Vegas: Mormons were the first settlers. Not sure Joseph Smith would approve of today's topless showgirls and liquor. Though he would like the volcano at the Mirage. Everybody likes the volcano." A.J. Jacobs, you are funny. way to go.

just like karen carpenter said, "I'm on top of the world..."

so, I went to wyoming. wow. the tetons are really pointy and tall. It was so beautiful. I loved hiking around, playing in the snake river and being with my family. We stayed at teton village and I would recommend that as a great get-a-way spot. We climbed the mountain there. I almost died, and then we took the gondola back down. We saw moose, technically mooses but I would rather say meese, buffalo, elk, deer, marmots, pika...etc. I like wildlife. It is just out there living in the wild. SO heres a picture of the mountain I climbed (I am quite proud of the fact that I actually made it to the top) and also a picture of me with meese.

lichtenstein

hot babes and habibs

i guess here in vegas there are hot babes who want to meet you. they are prolly at Habibs. At least thats what the guy driving the hot babes truck wanted us to think as we drove along side him down the strip and he tried to get his hot babes advertisement in all of our pictures. hot babes. how funny. Dina and Pedro liked las vegas. I think. I like las vegas too. but mostly because of all my little hot babies...my little nieces are so cute!! so, there you go.

este pizza place teaches wisdom

I went to this little new york style pizza place in salt lake, tucked up in sugarhouse, with some friends last night. man, it was a good time. I think the best thing was when I was in the bathroom and I saw this bumper sticker on the wall that said, "Doctors should teach nutrition, not pharmaceutical addiction." cool. I agree. I was talking with my friend Jacki Lee who is now married and Jackie Walker and also she is going to have a baby in a birthing center in Holiday. She was telling me about her midwife and I thought that would be awesome to have a baby in a place like that....but we all know FIRST comes love then marriage and finally after that comes the baby in the baby carriage. I gotta keep those in order.

So this is my first post ever. I feel like I have finally reached adulthood...blogging. I have been trying to relate to all my married friends and now we have this connection. We all like to blog. Basically that is why I am doing this, so I can have something to talk to them about. I have no experience in marriage or having kids but at least I am starting to understand this part of their world. yes yes yes.