Confession Time

1) Last week, I brought slacks to change into at work after class and while I was trying to pry off my skinny jeans in a bathroom stall on campus, my slacks fell in the toilet. I can assure you only the best thoughts floated through my head as I was already in a hunger-induced bad mood. Since hungry people are not known for making wise decisions, my only solution was to dry them off with the hand dryer and wear them to the office. Yep, that happened.

2) I am having a hard time getting in the spirit of blog-writing since I haven't done it in so long. Not that anyone cares or that there are any rules, but still, I don't know what to write. I keep saying this, but I need a creative outlet, so I am back...again. Maybe I'll get better at this...again.

3) I ate seven dunford donuts in three days. Those things are so heavy, they're like bricks, so I'm a little disgusted with myself. Now if they were Krispy Kremes, I could probably eat a dozen in like, two hours.

4) I had an ovarian cyst rupture last week (I wouldn't recommend it), so I was legit high on lortab the next day in biochem lab.

5) I am married. Weird, huh? I haven't posted on this blog since I've been married, but I'd like to change that. Duh. My husband is the sweetest. Maybe I will post some of our adventures on here. Like three-day long Parenthood marathons on Netflix. The parenthood thing was my confession, not being married. That one is just a cold, hard fact.

Alright....well, I think that was as good of a way to segway back into blogging as anything else.
Rachael OUT. 

tales of a skinny dipper

i love to skinny dip. you might even say i am a skinny dip enthusiast.

 i guess the root of the issue is this: i feel like clothes are a burden. they are heavy and itchy and you have to tug and pull all the time. the absolute worst is when you wake up in the morning and the waistband of your jammies has made a 180 degree turn around your stomach and the ankle of your pant legs are bunched up to your thighs. yuck. so i never wear pants to sleep. one time, i slept completely naked and while i loved the feeling, i couldn't help but imagine someone coming in my room (parents/kidnapper/what have you) and seeing me sleep naked.

one time i was sitting in my bed, under my covers, reading a book, when my friend kindra came in to join me. we sat companionably reading for a while when her leg accidently brushed mine.

"rachael. please tell me you're wearing pants."

"uh. no."

and that was the end of that. she went to read in her own room. i guess we all have our own naked comfort meter.

so back to skinny dipping.

i remember the first time i ever went. i was 14, staying in a beach house in north carolina and my cousin and i decided we had to go. my mom, having been a free-spirited skinny dipper in her youth, agreed to take us. we waited till everyone was getting ready for bed and we snuck out. once we were sure no one was around, lexi and i stripped down and ran in the water. after i stepped on something that shimmied underneath my feet, i wigged out and we streaked down the beach instead, screaming the whole time. we didn't stop until someone set off fireworks right in front of us, so we wigged out again, and turned around, giggling and running naked back to my mom as 14 year olds do.

at first it was weird....and then it was awesome. seriously. i am pretty sure skinny dipping is the best feeling in the entire world. for someone who hates clothes, it is the most liberating, freeing feeling in the world. and the thrill of maybe getting caught? just makes it more exciting.

there have been many SD excursions since then. a few in lake powell (just make sure the fish don't nip at you), a swimming pool here and there, and an almost-excursion while camping in the tetons...until it was discovered and thwarted by someone's dad. it's bound to happen sometime.

and i got my skinny dip on big time this summer in israel. we spent two weeks in a kibbutz on the sea of galilee and our directors were very clear that we weren't supposed to swim without a lifeguard around.

so, naturally, on the first night, my friends and i set the meeting spot and time (the hammocks at 2 AM) and went to bed. at 2, we snuck past our professors hut and then past our directors hut and into the water we boogied. it felt like a scene out of the parent trap.

it became almost a nightly tradition. i have never in my life felt so alive. and you know what? i am 99% certain that our directors and professors knew what we were up to. there was just that twinkle in their eyes and that unspoken understanding that we wouldn't get caught and they wouldn't ask about it. but i know they knew.

and then there was the time after galilee when we went swimming in the dead sea in broad daylight with our professors in a lake that makes you float. skinny dip challenge accepted. but i'll keep that story to myself. it was pretty sweet. am i proud of it? heck yeah i am.

my point in telling these stories is this: the world is stressful and crazy and it's easy to get caught on the routine conveyor belt of life. every once in a while, you need to jump off the conveyor belt and do something a little crazy to keep life fun and fresh. for me, one of those things is just taking my clothes off and going for a swim. 

the prodigal blogger returns

yep...i'm back on the ol' blog (ye olde blog? i think that's an irish pub somewhere.) i decided quite a few months ago that i didn't want to blog anymore because i think that blogs are self-centered. they put on a show about someone's life. they usually don't show the nitty-gritty, ugly, dark side of a person. come on. we all have a nitty-gritty dark side. mine happens to be an overachiever who works too hard and is so perfect that she's misunderstood and ostracized. (woah, that's right. we're not in a job interview. i'm big time kidding.)

that's the problem i've always had with facebook, too. everyone puts out evidence of their fabulous, glittery lifestyle. i don't have facebook anymore, but when i did, i was a culprit, too. i definitely untagged some unflattering photos of me and you bet i only uploaded the ones where i looked awesome. anyway, i decided one day that's not cool, so i got rid of my facebook account. best decision ever.

i've been blogging ever since then, and i have always made an effort to be very genuine. i talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly on here (i could be better at digging deeper, but i have tried very hard not to come across as fabulous and glittery, because my life, in fact, is neither of those things.) just so you know i'm serious, here's a sight for sore eyes. yes, the debut of my least favorite picture on the planet. it's not ugly in a cute, go-cross-eyed-and-stick-out-your-tongue kind of way. just plain tired-and-sweaty-because-i-almost-just-missed-my-train-and-i'm-way-too-big-for-my-bunk bed kind of way.

still, i thought that i should probably invest the time that i blogged--which has never been that much--into writing in my journal, which is more private and where i definitely have less inhibitions about sharing my feelings. but you know what? i'm not a good journal writer. my journal entries are usually written at midnight in sloppy half-asleep writing that says "today, i failed my anatomy test. why didn't i study instead of watching pearl harbor last night?! ok, i'm tired, goodnight."

it motivates me to write better when i know someone else is reading. and i know only a few people have ever really read this blog, but i still kind of like that my piece of opinion is floating out there. i have been missing my creative outlet since i stopped blogging, so i am hereby unbanning myself from blogger. i may not write very often, but i always have thoughts or funny experiences that i think "that would be a good blog post" and never "that would be a good journal entry." i don't know why blogging sticks to me more than journaling, but i'm going to go with it, man!

so...moving on....

did i mention that i'm getting married in a month and a half? yep, i am. to the boy i met when i was first supposed to go to jerusalem, remember? funny how life works out. did i mention that he proposed to me on top of the aztec ruins in mexico city? no? oh, well that's a story for another time....

on top of the world

how do you define a summer?

YDAS (or...you define a summer)

by ian baenziger, class president of BYUJC summer 2012

you define a summer by all the hilarious things rachel miner and becca j would do at 11:30 at night to avoid starting their papers.

YDAS by rachel mackay falling in love in a hopeless place to the man john shackelford, willing to do push-ups in any place.

YDAS by stehly being cooler than the other side of the pillow and megan thomas being sweeter than baklava.

YDAS by the fact that jerica is everybody's favorite person. 

YDAS by blake being the most entertaining person to sit next to on a bus, and by the fact that ryan could probably balance that bus on his chin. 

YDAS when you recognize you will never be as smart as hannah r, as funny as david c, or as good looking as david burbidge. 

YDAS by the life-changing decisions you make, like cutting the steady paycheck in hopes of winning the jackpot, playing it cool when a boy decides to move to your town just to be close to you, and by deciding to dramatically rearrange your life to answer the call of a mission. and to those whom i hope they know i refer, i hope they feel that they are at this moment "doing the things that god requires of their hands and precisely where their father in heaven wants them to be."

YDAS by every girl wanting amy brown's curls, priscilla hobb's smile, and lane thomas' fiancee.

YDAS by the things you never would have expected, from jamie eternally balancing on the kibbutz raft in galilee to brianne throwing grown men around in the self-defense class, 

from chantel's dress at arab culture night to geoff's bow tie and vest at the informal talent show, 

from rachael ely's effort to stay up past midnight every night in the galilee

to mckenzie's amazing job on the t-shirts, which has lead you to hope that she'd give you a discount on your wedding announcement (and if any girls are interested in trying to get a double discount, come see me afterwards).

YDAS by the time that sweet old nate jellen popped out at you from shadows as the most terrifying zombie you've ever seen. 

YDAS by alvin's hot yellow pants! because no ordinary leggings are adequate to robe this gentle greek god.

YDAS with rachel edwards being a one woman dance party and our friend l'angel being a one woman barber shop. 

YDAS by andy knowing everything about ANE, susan knowing everything about israel and palestine, and luke knowing everything about anything obscure found on the internet. 

YDAS a summer by looking at maddy and realizing you have never ben so sincerely happy for a girl to have met the boy of her dreams. 

YDAS by aj leading a dance party on a turkish beach, robert whipping out "call me maybe" during the formal talent show, and having your jaw hit the floor as becca haws goes crazy on the dance floor on the 4th of july. 

YDAS by how deveree and analise always make you feel happier, how paige and anna marie always make you feel better about yourself, and how tacy and melissa always make you feel important.

YDAS by the times you appreciated the deep inner strength of both the natalies, strength that is a lot more apparent to us than they might realize. 

YDAS by the first time you checked out catsofjeru.blogspot.com and thought, "stephanie and ann marie, thank you for giving voice to the oppressed and marginalized."

YDAS by the goofy look dwight gets he's happy, by the insatiable hunger ashley gets when she's curious, and the bigger than the moon grin sarah barlow gets when she's glad. 

YDAS by being inspired over and over watching pam overcome her fear of small spaces. it's really a juan-derful thing. 

YDAS by heather's quite selflessness, karen's undeniable kindness, and shelly's queen-like grace.

YDAS by acknowledging that if sass were oil, then avery and camila would be the two richest countries in the world. 

YDAS by how good inside you feel when you make sarah pittenger burst out laughing.

YDAS by the fact that if you can't get along with stephanie cabamongan or sarah mader, you probably can't get along with anyone. 

YDAS by the fact that sean really does kind of grow on you after a while...rumor has it he's grown on camila quite a bit.

YDAS by sitting outside beneath a beautiful jerusalem sunset, but not noticing it because you're still trying to figure out how nate mcmaster invented tobit's perpetual prison curse off the top of his head. 

YDAS by the hundreds of songs jay and whitney dedicate to each other. 

YDAS by being blown away by john leehmius singing "o come o come emmanuel" at the formal talent show, alicia's "his hands" in galilee, and emily chamber's "savior redeemer of my soul" in sacrament meeting. 

YDAS by meeting an enigma like michael peterson. enigmatic in the sense that a man so charming and good looking is rarely so charitable, selfless, and down to earth. 

YDAS by the faces that rachelle makes. 

YDAS by watching and incredibly nervous and careful laura walton give her first full haircut and having it turn out as good as any president could hope for. 

YDAS by meeting the adventurous soul alyssa bybee, who loves ethiopian food and leaves for china in a few weeks. 

YDAS by the 22 line love poem that sarah jane wrote you, or those two times in galilee where you almost accidentally kissed dana...or maybe that's how i'll define my summer...

YDAS by the fact that you'll probably be tagged in at least one of chloe's 11,000 pictures. 

YDAS by being moved by lauren barden's deep passion for life and everything good about it. 

YDAS by he fact that you can hear robin's laugh across the oasis, tour bus, and probably the old city. 

YDAS by the night where melinda, hailey, and megan watts became the most profitable jc students in history, fiddling their way to enough money in an hour to buy a nativity set. 

YDAS by watching rachel messick in lipstick and a black dress gracefully glide away from the podium, the very podium where she declared that "blood alone will turn the wheels of history!" 

you will define this summer largely by it's loud laughs, spiritual experiences, and fond memories. but each laugh made louder, each experience felt deeper, and each memory made unforgettable was made that way by 78 others. and this one person is you. to the 78 "yous" who made these three months perhaps the best of my life, i say thank you. 

last week in pictures

well, i'm home. i feel weird. when i am dancing around my kitchen eating whatever i want whenever i want or driving my ancient car again, i feel happy. when i remember that three days ago, i was walking through the garden of gethsemane with good friends, i feel really sad. i already feel like the summer was a dream. i've been home two days. soon it will be a week and then a month and then a year. i am praying and hoping that i always feel as close to the experience as i do now. i feel like i need a few more posts to conclude the jerusalem summer, so look out for them this week, but for now, here are some pics from my last week in jeru. it was everything i could have asked for in a last week. it included many sunsets, city outings, pictures, a game or two of quidditch for harry potter's birthday, and reflecting on the summer. on our last day, we had a field trip where we walked to all of christ's last stops of his life and instead of listening to brother harper the whole time (which is usually how field trips go), he had us share the things we have learned and how we are going to carry them over into "regular life." it was a good way to end the semester. right before we left for the airport, we watched the sunset for the last time and recited the living christ and sang together and said our goodbyes. i feel great about how things ended. i went to jerusalem, learned more than i hoped i could, had the experience i wanted, and because of that, i am content coming home. so mostly there are just happy feelings and a very tender place in my heart for jerusalem.

galilee

i can't really think of words that would describe how great galilee was. i feel like it was every reason i wanted to do this study abroad. we studied christ's ministry where his ministry took place. i love galilee so much! 

this is an overlook of the sea of galilee (which is actually a lake) and we stayed in a kibbutz right on the shore. it was so beautiful. it kind of reminded me of bear lake. we took field trips to sites, had classes in a conference room, and had some free time to swim. some of the sites we went to were the mount of beatitudes, nazareth, capernum, the mount of transfiguration, and a lot of other places where christ taught. you cannot beat hanging out with friends, reading scriptures, in nazareth. 

taking a boat ride on the sea of galilee. professor harper on the right...he may be the best university teacher i've ever had. 

professor ludlow and family. i am going to miss them SO much. 

this is a 1st century boat that was found buried on the shore a few years ago!

desperate times, desperate measures. did you know you can sweat from your knees? there and a lot of other places i didn't know about till this summer. 

going to church at the branch in tiberias. the view is breathtaking! 

nightly hammock hang outs occurred. as well as, ahem...middle of the night swims. don't tell kent jackson or he'll have me on the next flight home. oh wait, i'm already scheduled on the next flight home! 4 days left. there are many mixed emotions here in jerusalem.