yes, this happened

so yesterday, i was buying a salad at the crossroads and the cashier leaned into me and said "do you want to know something?" well, i did. she pointed to this redhead who was turned away from us. "you see him? he's half tongan." 

"what?" i said. 

she got really excited. "yeah! i asked him about it the other day and he told me!" 

the boy turned. sure enough, he looked like a tongan with pale skin and red hair. 

and that is all i have to say since i last wrote. 

the end. 

oh, and i love general conference weekend. who can object to partaking of the spirit in jammies and with good food in your belly? not me. 

most embarrassing moment of my life

do you guys read busy bee lauren? i'm sure you do. isn't she so freaking hilarious? she really has the best stories. anyway, i just read this post on her blog, and i have to say....i feel for lauren.  because her story reminded me of a similar experience i had. and mine for sure isn't as bad....but it was humiliating. 

so i got hooked up with this really sweet job at steiners....it's a rec center in salt lake. i knew someone who worked there and was able to get me a job working at the front desk. this is awesome for three reasons. 1) i have a bunch friends who go to steiners, so i could see them all the time. 2) there wasn't a whole lot of work involved, i just sat around answering phones and swiping cards and talking to friends. 3) i got a free gym pass. great, right? well, i went in to training once and then a few days later, came in for my first shift. my boss wasn't there, and i remember trying to find him so that i could talk to him about spring break in a month. my family was going to europe and was there any way i could find people to cover my shifts then? well, he wasn't there, so i left him a note and put it in his box. a couple days later, i walked in and there were already three people at the front desk, which is weird, because only three work at a time. so i had someone look up the schedule online and i was not scheduled for that day. or for the rest of the month. boss wasn't there again, so i called him to ask him what the deal was.

me: "hi, (insert name here). how are you? i have a question about the schedule. it shows that i'm not on today or for the rest of the month, but i remember we talked about me working--"
boss: "yeah. i left you a message on your home phone. i said to not come back ever again because you high school kids are so hard to schedule around. you think that everyone will just work around you and your vacation. that's why i don't like hiring high school kids."
me:....................................

and then i'm pretty sure i mumbled an apology and a THANK YOU and hung up. and then the three other college employees asked me what he said (and remember that this is my second shift).

"oh, um.....he fired me, but it's really no big deal. it's just a conflict with scheduling. it's fine. thanks for looking up the schedule for me."

and then one of the random employees asked me for a ride home. embarrassing? yes. i waited till i got home to cry. because it most definitely was NOT fine. and i was humiliated. i was too mortified to work out at steiners for a few months, but i slowly made my way back.  luckily, i don't think any of those employees work there anymore. boss doesn't have a clue who i am, but when i'm running on the treadmill and he walks past, i glare daggers into the back of his head, and it makes me feel a little better.

(and i won't say i gave back my employee gym pass right away, either. just sayin'.)

a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils

oh, hi. it's me, rachael. the owner of this blog. that i haven't been on in weeks. speaking of blog.....my mom gave me a groupon for my birthday to get one of those blog books online. so yesterday, i found the site, made myself the cutest little book, and had them ship it to rexburg, idaho.....but i put my salt lake zip code on there.

dummy!

what does the mailman even do when he get's something like that? where does he send it? my blog book is going to get sent to some random family who will be traumatized to read about my stories of scooping poo out of chinese toilets.

anyway, i really wish i had an amazing first week of school story to tell, but i don't. have i told you how much i love fall semester, though? because i do. it seriously makes me so happy. i am excited because...

a) i think i finally know what i'm going to major in. this is exciting for me because i have been lame and put off deciding how to go about starting my life. so. i am majoring in health science and minoring in international studies! all i know is that i love medicine and i love traveling and i love the non-profit field and i have always wanted to do something that combines those things. but i'm pretty sure i have a lot more schooling ahead of me. oh, and i love my classes. i'm taking a middle east class that i can't even stand i love so much. sometimes you just don't know what's going to matter to you.

b) the weather rocks my socks.

c) ben is coming home in SIX WEEKS!

oh, on saturday night, i went with some friends to watch the big game on a huge screen on campus. there were, like, 600 people there wearing their BYU garb and then there was me....decked out in red. and i got lots of hate comments. but i turned it around and smashed victory in their faces like a big banana cream pie. and then some guy on campus said to me today, "hey! you're that utah girl!" uh huh. 

away with the summer days

i would like to submit that summer nights make me happier than anything in the world. (ok. i take that back. even summer nights can't make me as happy as christmas.) and i'm not a huge fan of summer. the heat irritates me and i get bored without school fast.

but summer nights. 

they are a thing of legend in my mind. 

the heat makes me want to stay inside all day, but once the sun goes down, i run outside to do the nighttime dance with the moon. (sometimes we krump when we're feeling extra crazy.) 

i love the temperature. it feels perfect in shorts and a t-shirt. i love the stars. i love the overbearing noise of the crickets in august. i love the feel of concrete and grass under my bare feet. shoes are not allowed when doing the nighttime dance. (p.s. when i wrote that, i thought of the fat-lipped redhead lady on the delta airline video that says "smoking is NOT allowed." does anyone know who i'm talking about?) anyway, i really love when the sprinklers come on at night. i love running around the golf course. i love swinging at the park at night. i love it all. i love just taking walks. 

when i was in rexburg this summer, i would go on a bike ride almost every night and it was almost always the best part of my day! now that i am home, i haven't forgotten the dance. running, laying on my back and looking at the stars, playing my ukulele, watching the sun set at the park. 

but now it's september and it's kind of chilly tonight which reminds me i don't have many more summer nights! but then i remember how fall is my favorite season and how excited i am for that. crisp temperature, bright leaves, halloween, cute clothes, and school starting again! and then i'll probably be sad when the leaves fall off the trees, but then i'll remember how much i love thanksgiving and christmas and skiing and fires in the fireplace and snuggling and hot chocolate. and then winter will give way to cheerful spring and once may turns to june, the shoes go off and the nighttime dance starts all over again. 

happy birthday, indeed

as of thursday night at 8:23 (eight minutes after my brother, ben), i am 21! ben's been on a mission for almost two years now, so we couldn't celebrate it together, but we've had a crazy two decades together and many more crazy ones to come. so here's to you, ben! happy birthday!

anyway, do you wanna hear the most magical 21st birthday story ever? yesterday i woke up, got ready, and walked out the door to go to lunch with my mom and cousins. there was a little envelope in the mailbox (weird. the mail doesn't come that early.) i picked it up and it was addressed to

Miss R. Ely

The Bedroom off the Kitchen 

and then my address. i turned it around and there was a wax stamp with a hogwarts seal on it.  my mom asked what it was while we got in the car......i knew what it was. i have been waiting for this for ten years. i opened it and right there in my lap sat the most magical piece of mail i have ever received..... 

my hogwarts acceptance letter!!!!! along with a list of books and equipment for first year students and a train ticket from london to hogwarts departing from platform 9 3/4. 

i did the only logical thing and burst out in tears. don't laugh and tell me you wouldn't cry if you found out you were a witch. i've always known this about myself. 

please notice that i have been crying

so that basically made for the best birthday ever. but it gets better. after the usual good birthday stuff (lunch, pedicures, dinner, cake and ice cream), my mom announced that there was a package for me outside. i went out and saw that there was a cheap flimsy trunk with a bow wrapped around it sitting on my porch. i brought it inside, opened it up and saw what i was suspecting (only because i told my mom i wanted this a few months ago)...my own set of brand spanking new harry potter books. now i don't have to share with those stinky brothers. i'm not even going to read them right now. it just makes me happy to know that i have my own set.

jacob's mad, who can blame him?

it was a magical birthday. and it will be a good year. because who can't have a good 21st year knowing they're a witch? 

no one mourns the bad blogger

wow, i have been a baaaaaad blogger as of late. i remember that i was also a bad blogger last august. i don't know why. hmmm. anyway, i'm kind of in a lazy mood, so i will post a few europe pictures and then take my chicken pot pie to the den and probably watch twelve episodes of the office. 

(p.s. we realized when we got to london that our camera battery wasn't charged and we forgot to bring a charger...and then we realized half way through that we had an extra battery. dumb. so i don't have pictures for some of my favorite days!) 

first time seeing wicked......WHAT?!?!?! we loved it. highlight of the trip! we saw what i like to call the holy trinity of theater: war horse, which is a beautiful, moving play about horses in WWI, wicked (what more can i say?), and.....legally blonde.....ahem. 




ok. this guy is awesome. we went on this walk in the east end where you see all the important sites in the jack the ripper story. the guy who took us wrote a book called jack the ripper and travels all over to give seminars about him. did you know people did that kind of stuff for a living? and did you know that jack the ripper's real name wasn't jack and that he only killed prostitutes? the things you learn when you travel. 

paul mccartney's house. creepy? creepy.

that's-a wizard's chess!

beautiful holland.

sitting in a giant wooden clog in amsterdam. i guess i didn't need to caption that.

nothing screams tourist like a rick steves book.

anyway, it was a fun trip! i managed to get $150 stolen within six hours of being in london, but i have a highly developed ability to forget things when i want, so i chose to forget that the rest of the trip.

also, please read this. it's so true. did you know that i liked harry potter before it was cool? ha. ha. ok, not funny.

why am i so awkward?

can i anti-toot my own horn for a minute here? i am packing for europe right now and i have to tell you about my past traveling woes. 

my family went europe a few years ago for spring break and it was so fun!

however, i was still a squirrelly little icky teenager and didn't pack ANY cute clothes. and it was surprisingly really cold. and i didn't want to straighten my hair ever. so every picture of me is in an ugly marshmallow man coat and with frizzy hair. so we went to york in northern england and i got pretty sick that day. we stayed in a nun convent but my family stuck me in a little solitary quarantine room and went and had fun together.....i was mad. 

the next day, we went to ely cathedral.....we were excited because it bears our namesake and duh, perfect christmas card picture! please look at me in this picture. i was sick and mad at everyone as only a 17 year old girl can be mad at everyone. 

note the hair, the glasses, the coat, the sweats. it kills me. my mom still blames me for ruining the christmas card picture. (but to be honest, i think we all look bad!) 

every picture of me in europe looks something like this. 

why was i so awkward?! it makes me mad! 

so anyway, the moral of the story is don't look bad in europe. you will always regret it. i have learned from my mistake and i have to admit...my wardrobe is TEN times better this time around!
i must redeem myself!