i'll take mine half full, please

there once was a woman who woke up one morning, looked in the mirror, and noticed she had only three hairs on her head. "well," she said, "i think i'll braid my hair today." so she did and she had a wonderful day. the next day she woke up, looked in the mirror, and saw that she had only two hairs on her head. "hmmm," she said, "i think i'll part my hair down the middle today." so she did and she had a grand day. the next day she woke up, looked in the mirror, and noticed she had only one hair on her head. "well," she said, "today, i'm going to wear my hair in a ponytail." so she did and she had a fun day. the next day she woke up, looked in the mirror, and noticed there wasn't a single hair on her head. "YAY!" she exclaimed, "i don't have to fix my hair today!" ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING.

i'd rather be in scranton

it started out with resentment. i hated it. i thought it was so stupid. i felt like my IQ was being dropped just by being exposed to it. i'm talking about "the office", of course. i had some friends that were obsessed with that show a while back, but i never got into it. actually, i had never seen an episode of it, to be honest, until a few days ago when i picked up my brother's copy of the first season and started watching. the documentary feel of it was a little weird, but it seemed fine enough.

enter michael scott. the biggest idiot i've ever had the displeasure of setting eyes upon. i couldn't stand him. he made me physically uncomfortable and i still can't fathom the lack of decency he possesses. and i love steve carrell. love him. but the fact that he can even portray someone so tactless and stupid dumbfounded me. i was so unhinged that i had to watch another episode. it's like a scary movie where you want to look away, but you can't. michael scott is the scary movie here. well, then i had to watch the next episode......just to keep the flow of things, of course. and the next and the next. and then, what do you know? time for the next season, which my brother had. so i started watching it (convincing myself it was just because i was bored.)

well, then it started to make me laugh. you know, this michael scott guy is funny. and dwight schrute? come on. what a weirdo. you have to love it. i suddenly have the urge to find the dwight schrute of salt lake and send him faxes from himself from the future or put a bloody hand in his desk and convince him he's committed murder. and then there's phyllis. poor, sweet phyllis, i just want to give her a hug every time i see her dejected face. and angela. you know the tighly-wound prude with a stick up her butt all the time? these people make me laugh. really laugh. so immediately when the second season ended, the encounter with my mom followed.

me: "i'm going to blockbuster to get the third season."

mom: "i thought you didn't like that show!"

me: "i don't, mom! but it'll drive me crazy if i don't know what happens with jim and pam! geez."

bottom line.....i am obsessed with "the office." it seriously is hilarious. i had to refrain from using one of dwight's sensei moves on the blockbuster employee who told me they didn't have the full third season. it was a slow process (i'm talking about all of 12 hours), but i can't get enough of it!

oh, and i still think michael scott's an idiot.

so two creepers walk into an internet cafe....

you know those nights? the ones where you are so scared to death (for whatever reason) that every creak and every bump positively convinces you that there is a ghost in your room or a mass murderer outside your window, causing your eyes to stayed squeezed shut as if your life depended on it, your heart to race sporadically, and your mind to come up with wild imaginations of every. worst. case. scenario.

i know you do. well, i had one of those nights this weekend. it was possibly the longest night of my life (only competing with thanksgiving a few years ago where my whole family got sick and took turns throwing up all night...that was fun).

so my good friend jill and i were in st. george this weekend, just the two of us. we went into a wifi cafe on saturday morning to browse the internet and these two twenty-something guys came and sat down at our table. for reasons i can't explain, they just gave me the heebie jeebies. i felt really uneasy about them. so after they started questioning us about our names, where we were staying, what we were doing here, i wanted to high-tail it out of there and we left. i didn't give them a second thought. until bedtime, that is. never mind that my furnace makes noises at night or that our vacation house is old and creaky, those two guys were on my roof. i was absolutely 100% positive. so i got up and locked the bedroom door. but, wait. what if while we were being really loud and dancing around, they had snuck in the front door and hidden in the closet? i kicked myself inside for being so foolish and loud. what were we thinking? i crept back into bed (where jill was LONG asleep), but decided to double check to see if the front door was locked. better be safe than sorry. in the kitchen, i heard the ticking noise and my heart stopped. a bomb. not only had these two men followed us home and snuck in while we weren't noticing, but dang it, they had gone to the trouble of blowing us up, too. well, there seemed to be nothing else to do. i tiptoed back into bed and honestly (i swear i am not making this up)...i wondered if it would hurt to be blown to smithereens. i was even sweating a little. my knuckles were white from gripping the covers. all this while jill slept like a baby. for three hours, i laid in bed. i hyperventilated. i tried to be as quite as i could. i wondered how long it would take for it to happen. i had taken delusional to a whole new level.

guess what? i woke up the next morning. it was the clock.

the heart of life

as hourly updates of the haiti earthquake circulate (the tv's been blaring from my kitchen all day), my heart breaks a little more each time i hear words such as "death toll", "homeless", or "relief donation scams." a 7.0 earthquake is not the same in california as it is in haiti. this is the poorest country in the western hemisphere (80% of the population is under the poverty level). these people are no strangers to tribulation and misfortune. a situation such as this combined with a corrupt government and an unadaptable country does not look promising for haiti. the whole world is holding it's breath and hoping for the best, wondering how resilient a country can be, one that has no shape to spring back to. world leaders suspect this tragedy will be detrimental to haiti in the future.

and yet...

amidst all the heartbreak and tears, the confusion and casualties, a single thought sounds and resounds in my mind. tragedies like this prove the goodness of humanity. whether it be an earthquake or a school shooting, it doesn't matter. in a devastating situation where lives are lost and hope for a future looks dim, barriers are taken down, differences are forgotten, and we all unite in a single cause. mankind always pulls through to help those who can't help themselves. governments are dishonest, greedy, and try to get ahead of other nations. people are selfish, gluttonous, and seek money for themselves. but when an earthquake shakes the foundations (literally and figuratively) of a poor, helpless island with no future in sight, our pride and self-serving tendencies are stripped away from us, and we are all just human beings again, fighting for a purpose.

the dominican republic, a country that shares the same small island as haiti and has had centuries-long issues with it, has now opened it's borders to civilians looking for a place to stay. they have shipped thousands of meals and medical supplies to port-au-prince, the site of the earthquake. president obama has declared an "aggressive effort to save lives." although america certainly has economic issues of it's own, obama has announced $100 million dollars will be put into a haiti relief fund. other countries offering monetary relief are belize, brazil, china, chile, spain, canada, israel, iceland, ireland, morocco and the united kingdom. even more countries have sent over rescue and assessment crews to haiti to see how they can best utilize their resources to help relieve the crisis. airlines are organizing relief flights and offering sky miles to customers who donate to aid organizations. over $5 million dollars have been raised by red cross via text messages and social media donations. "it has shattered any record that we've seen with mobile giving before," a red cross representative said. "people text up to three times at ten bucks a pop. you're talking about 300,000 people actually spontaneously deciding 'i can spare ten bucks for this.' and that's remarkable." thousands of tons of food have been airlifted to port-au-prince, so much so that many aircrafts are currently circling the city; there's not enough room for all the rescue aircrafts.

the overwhelming sense of unity is bone-chilling to me. how sad that it only surfaces in times of severe loss, but it's there. yes, these times are dark and dreary and at times, there seems to be no hope for the future, but like one of my favorite songs by john mayer says "i know the heart of life is good." the following is a favorite movie scene of mine. i think you'll recognize it.

sam: it's like in the great stories, mr. frodo, the ones that really mattered. full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? how could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? but in the end it's only a passing thing, this shadow. even the darkness must pass. a new day will come, and when the sun shines, it'll shine out the clearer. those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something even if you were too small to understand why. but i think, mr. frodo, i do understand. i know now folks in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. they kept going because they were holding onto something.

frodo: what are we holding onto, sam?

sam: that there's good in this world, mr. frodo, and it's worth fighting for.

what i'm trying to say is we can't lose faith in humanity! because there is good in this world, and it's worth fighting for. just like we're fighting for haiti. to donate to relief funds, text "haiti" to 90999 ( $10 will be charged to your phone bill) or visit one of these websites below.

http://www.clintonfoundation.org/haitiearthquake/

Hope for Haiti - Donations

Yele Haiti - UPDATES

once in a BLUE moon

let it be known: the color code is evil, sinister, and out to ruin your life.

it's also very accurate.

yes, i have a very strong love/hate relationship with the color code. one of my best friends and i took it together pretty recently and we were rolling on the floor laughing. if you haven't taken it yet, take it with a friend! they usually have a better perspective of you than yourself and they make it less painful. painful, you ask? well don't take my word for it; here are some questions on the test:

are you.......

10. a) demanding

b) unforgiving

c) unmotivated

d) vain

16. a) argumentative

b) unrealistic

c) directionless

d) an interrupter

20. a) insensitive

b) judgmental

c) boring

d) undisciplined

ouch. ouch. OUCH. don't worry, only half of the questions focus on the qualities you'd rather not focus on! no, the test really is fun to take. it caters more to adults with spouses and kids, but i was able to guess what i might do in a situation concerning my kids or husband.

and the results? are scary. DEAD ON. in case you're not familiar with the four colors, they are as followed:

red- the power wielders.

blue- the do-gooders.

white- the peacekeepers.

yellow- the fun lovers.

statistics show that most people are either red or blue. so what color am i? drumroll please....BLUE! my results show i'm about 70% blue. i'm pretty sure it's not common to be that dominant in one color....the other 30% is evenly split between yellow and white. not a drop of red, strangely. anyway, here's a little more about blue personalities.

blues are motivated by intimacy and relationships with other people. they are constantly thinking of others' feelings and looking to serve. they are extremely loyal and once they've committed to something or someone, they never let go. they care deeply about those with whom they are close. they need to feel understood and appreciated. they are dependable and they are pleasers! the world would not go round without their compassion. they are afraid of saying no for fear of hurting feelings. They're also worry-prone and hyper-analytical. according to wikipedia, a common saying from a blue would be "my emotions are my achilles heel!" they definitely rule by the heart. they need to be loved and accepted by others, but can be harsh on themselves.

holy cow, this is me to a T. i love it. i hate it. only a blue would be hypersensitive about someone calling them hypersensitive! but it is me. my roommate said to me one day, "rachael, sometimes i just want to slap you!!"

"why?"- a little stunned at the bluntness.

"you think about things too much!"

"well i'm a blue! what did you expect?!?!"

generally blues don't get along with reds. reds tend to hurt blues' feelings with their bluntness. i have quite a few red friends and although i can take things they say too personally, i've learned to appreciate their straight-forwardness and learn from it, since i tend to beat around the bush. i've become a lot better at saying no and also saying what i think, even if it's not what the other person wants to hear.

take the color code test! take it again and again! i've taken it a few times over the years and as i grow older, my results change a little bit. i think it's fascinating. even if i said it's evil and sinister ;)

p.s. i don't know how to label a picture, so i hereby label the picture above "a red and blue sandwich!"

on the other hand...

do you know what i love? good handshakes. they say a lot about a person. i can form an opinion on someone right off the bat based on their handshake. you can tell if someone is earnest or jolly, confident or self-conscious, whole-hearted in their intentions or just half-hearted. in my perspective, a good, sturdy handshake is directly related to charisma and assurance- and who doesn't want more of that? a firm grasp is a simple, easy way to exude these qualities. (am i right? who's ever been impressed by a lousy fingertip handshake?) personally, i want people to shake my hand and think "wow, she's got gumption!"

but then again, i'm sure there are people who prefer it the other way. to each their own.

the world is my oyster

i had an epiphany last week, as i was reflecting on my first semester of college, and that is this: i hold the world in my palm. the world is my oyster. i can do anything. i'm not exactly sure what brought on this bout of- pardon my french- piss and vineger, but it hit me. i am unstoppable. and i'll tell you why.

i have been blessed with a very, very privileged life. i have a loving family who supports everything i do and all my ambitions. if it is important to me, it's just as important to my parents. i have a dad who takes care of us financially. i can afford to go to college and get an education. i have resources! i live in a good neighborhood and have been brought up around great people. i am extremely aware of my blessings. and i've developed the idea that those who are given much are expected to use their advantage to help the less fortunate.

besides my countless blessings, i have youth. i have my whole life ahead of me! my life is a fresh canvas and i can paint whatever i want on it. along with being youthful, i also have good health. i have enthusiasm and energy. i'm not tied down with a family to take care of or a full time job.

and most important of all, i have passion. one of my good friends challenged me a year ago to do everything in life with passion. i really don't like when people are lukewarm about important things. it's hard, but i try to be heartfelt in all aspects. which, of course, ends up making life a lot more meaningful.

considering all things listed above, i think i have a lot going for me! which brings me back to my original point, which is that i can do anything i want to if i set my mind to it. there's so much i want to do! i want to travel! see the pyramids in africa! climb machu pichu! go zip lining in costa rica! new zealand! israel! the mediterranean! i want to be a philanthropist! do humanitarian work! create a life for underprivileged children! i want to go on a mission! i want to major in medicine! minor in psychology! but i'm also interested in sociology! cultures! what about anthropology?! so much to do! so little time!

my mom thinks i'm insatiable. i call it ambitious. so what am i going to do about it? i'm going to DO. make things happen for myself. i am only young once and i want to look back and not have any regrets. i want to be a go-getter, one who doesn't have a limit on her ability to make things happen. one who doesn't get set back by failures. one who measures up to her full potential.

the world is my oyster.