waiting for my gesso to dry

I have been painting for way way too long. but good news! I'm done with another one!

her 'tis.

Last night was a blast! Logan got 18 inches of snow in the last 2 days!

so Lauren and Betsy and i went to Old main Hill and went sledding on cookie sheets and we also found some broken abandon sleds. So of course we used them. (We're thrifty poor college children!) :D So here is a list of the pros and cons of sledding from last night

pros-

• it was a blizzard and the snow was like the best powder known to Logankind.
• we made snow angels
• betsy built a jump, "give us a break! How are we supposed to know how to build jumps? we come from one brother families! some of us don't have a million little brothers!" - lauren and I
• We watched some guys tire tube pop right under him. and then betsy flirted with him.. and we didn't even have to bribe her with money this time!
• when Betsy came down the hill once Lauren and I through cookie sheets of snow at her. and then she tried to chase us and then she kept slipping. :D
• And Betsy slips more than the average person does.
• We saw people mattress surfing down Old Main!
• The temple looked really pretty in the snow
• i got this one phone call.... :D
• Betsy flirt texted. haha... i might have too.... okay i totally did. :D
• we got into snow past our knees. It was funny to watch in.
• by the time we got home we had two inches of snow on top of our heads!
• we watched the A team after.
• We made homemade potato chips!

cons-

• i lost my keys in the snow. :'(
• We went to look for them but there was no such luck
• since we didn't have keys we had to break into our house. good thing betsy is so good at being a burglar...
• Our back ends froze.
• My legs have never been so red in all my life.
• and the warm shower i took after (it was barely warm water) hurt so bad!
• our entry way looks like a tornado hit from all our wet snow gear.
• Lauren's mascara was running down her face from the snow. (funny though!)
• i got zero amount of homework done....
• we stayed up waaaay too late!

So i think my gesso is dried now.

until we meet again.

I guess a forehead can kind of be interesting....

So i was bored today (meaning i had way too much to do but didn't want to do any of it) and so i looked up the top searches in google. and the word "forehead" is the number 2 search today. seriously? Don't you learn what that word is referring to at about 2 or 3?

now i'm sitting here wondering about all the reasons one would need to search for "forehead." so naturally i search that word.... finding things ranging from the anatomy definition, to someone tattooing their forehead, to forehead face lifts. i still have no idea why this is a big deal.

can someone please shed some light?

and i saw this picture today too. haha

don't you just love people?

i especially love when my photo history class get's out early. :D

All the ways the 'Y' chromosome can be confusing to the 'X'

Recently I have noticed that most boys flirt just for the sake of flirting. So here I sit completely confused because I can never figure out what a guy really thinks. And over analyzing situations is one of my best talents.....

(sorry if you're one of my guy friends and i'm using something you said as an example... know that i am talking about all of your gender and not just you. :D)

they say things that overly complimentary like, "i think you're smokin' hott!" or "you have the prettiest big blue eyes i've ever seen." or (from a poem received), "we'll work on this friendship and see where it goes." or (my personal favorite) "you twirl at a great equilibrium."

although i'm not entirely certain what this last one means, i'm pretty sure that all of the above can be taken differently. And of course, over analyzed to the extreme.

they can also be extra flirty by adding things like "a woman after my own heart", "mornin' sunshine.", "i think you dance really cute." or "we might need to save that for the 8th date."

if a guy said any of these things to you what on earth are you supposed to think? That they just want to be your friend?

So then if you finally get up the nerve to tell them that they are confusing and they ask "why?". Oh, no problem, i'll just confess to you that i think you're a flirt and here is their responses- "is it kind of a turn on?", "does it make me more mysterious?" "so, you like it?" "i kind of am."

no answer that in return helps the girl know where she stands. gee whiz.

so then you think about every word individually (dramatized, obviously...) and come up with a wide array of options for what they could mean. Ranging from a-they must like you cause why would they ask you if you liked it if they didn't? b-they don't like me because they would just tell me if they did. c- they may or may not like me. or (my personal favorite) d- they're probably gay because they used the word mysterious. (JOKE!... haha)

They tell you weird stories or say weird things and act like they are cool for doing it like they are showing off to impress us. But when in reality it is not a flattering thing. So while we sit and wonder why a boy told us about his obsession with Justin Bieber we might think, "cute! he's trying to impress us." or "why the heck would he think loving Justin Bieber is a cool thing?" or "what was the point to that story?..."

when they ask you to do something they never ever call it a date. EVER. i've gotten- "can I steal you right now?" "wanna watch a movie?" "wanna hang out?" "what are you doing right now?" but extremely (never) rare is "will you go on a date with me?..." I mean it's EIGHT words long. It's not like studying for a test people!

so then someone asks, "well was it a date?" and my answer is always, "i'm not entirely sure." because i am rarely entirely sure if it's a date or not.

or they will text you and ask you to do something. Which is even less date-like. And then you are borderline saying no because he can't even call you.

I'm sure there are about a million other ways that they are confusing like- winking, tickling, back rubbing, pushing, grinning, teasing, etc.

Boys are a very confusing gender. The funny thing is that girls just want to know what they think. They just don't ever give up their feelings like we do. So here we are completely vulnerable because we pour our hearts (so to speak) out and then we get an, "o, okay." or a "does this make me more mysterious?" type answer.

i think by the time i'm done with dating and college i'll be a pro at analyzing boys. i'll just never quite understand why they do the things they do.

the coolest thing since sliced bread

pretty dang certain that i need to get one of these!

like my heart did a little dance when i saw it.

now you all know what to get me for... valentines day! :P

just in case you were confused- this is a mug. it is just shaped like a nikon lens.

a crying p4

this weekend was a BLAST! all the roommates went down to north ogden and Huntsville to Anna's house. Everyone had talked about it being big but man, my definition of huge just changed. they mean HUGE! like the size of a temple, huge.

drinking hot chocolate in front of one of her many fireplaces.

on her spiral staircase!

this is her front door. legit right?

but in sadder news. We watched Charly last night! I forgot how many spots in that movie i cry in! it was ridiculous.

i must say, though, that the best was when anna turned on the lights at the end and everyone had tears rolling down their faces.

my eyes don't get that red or puffy unless i cry really hard.

this kills me. it's nice to know that guys have hearts. what an awesome guy, anna's fiance, Brian is!

Who I am and what I know

Last night something happened to me that has never happened to me before and i did not handle the situation they way i always thought i would.

I was in my drawing 2 class and i'm friends with a girl that is also a photo major who isn't LDS. She's a sweet girl and she doesn't swear or dress immodestly so it doesn't matter to me and i don't feel uncomfortable around her.

last night we were talking about where we lived and i asked her where she lived her first year of college. She told me about where she lived and the girls that were her roommates. she said they were all LDS and she didn't really like how they acted around her. She said that they would read their book of mormon at the table and she felt like they were pushing thier religion on her. (to me it just sounded like a normal thing... i mean i read my scriptures in my apartment wherever i want to and i'm not trying to push my beliefs on them.) she told me she didn't want to offend me because she figured i was LDS and i said she didn't. But then she started talking about how utah mormons don't know anything different than being a Utah mormon. So i told her that i did. i lived outside of Utah before. And that i knew what it was like living in a place where not everyone was Mormon. She said pretty much that everyone should know a different lifestyle to which i replied, "i agree." only to realize that it sounded like i've tried living in a non LDS way before. i tried to climb out of the hole i'd just dug myself into but it just made it sound worse. to which i changed the subject as fast as i could.

I didn't stand up for what i believe in and i'm ashamed of it now. And right after we just had a lesson at church about sharing our beliefs. :'( i feel awful!

So because of this, i am going to share my testimony of the gospel i know to be true to whoever reads this blog (which i think is a whole 5). haha.

I know with all my heart that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know that it was written for the people of this time and that if we read it and apply its principals that we will be happy. It can give us guidance in a time where the world is confused and help us to return to live with our Heavenly Father in heaven.

I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. That no matter what anyone says he saw God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ in the sacred grove that morning. He translated the Book of Mormon and restored the fullness of the gospel to the earth again. I know that the gospel will never be taken from the earth again.

I know the priesthood to be the power of God given to worthy men. I can feels its power and it has created SO many miracles in my life. I know i wouldn't be here today if it weren't for the power of priesthood blessings. I am extremely grateful for a wonderful dad that honors his priesthood and will give me a fathers blessing of comfort to me whenever i need him to.

I know that Christ suffered for my many sins. I know that because of his atonement i am able to be forgiven and that i can have him for a best friend. I know that he hears my prayers and helps me through my roughest of times. I am so grateful for him.

I know that families are forever. that the ordinances in the temple seal us together forever. That when i find the love of my life it won't be "death do you part", but "for time and all eternity" because of the sealing power in the sacred temples. What a great blessing this is and such a comfort to me! To know that when someone dies it isn't the end and i will see them again. I don't know how people can get through the death of a loved one when they do not know of this eternal truth.

I know that Thomas S. Monson is the living prophet today. That he guides this church in the way that my Heavenly Father knows is best. I know that when i follow his teachings i will be a happier person and that i will receive blessings for it.

I know that i am a daughter of God. That he is my father and that he loved me enough to send me to this Earth to receive a body so i could return to live with him some day. I love him.

This church is true. The blessings i receive from it and the promptings i have gotten have made my life wonderful. I'm not perfect but through this church and Jesus Christ i can be.

i say these things humbly today, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I hope that any of you have read this will find out for yourself if what i say is true. I know that the missionaries will teach you and you will be the happiest you've ever been if you do.

visit this website to find out more information.

country. swing. dancing.

So i went country swing dancing for the 3rd time since moving to logan in August. :D it was the most successful of all the times.

probably because i'm working on one of my new year's resolutions of being more brave.... or maybe cause my roommates, Melissa and Betsy give me death threats to ask guys to dance. but i'd like to think it's cause i'm more brave. ;)

so i had 2 good experiences with guys asking me to dance, and 2 good experiences asking guys to dance. My roommates fiance, Brian asked me and twirled me around till i was way dizzy. he's funny.

{haha. this reminds me of the time when i danced with his roommate chad and he told me, "brianna, you twirl at a great equilibrium!" what does that even mean? i hope it's a good thing....}

the other guy that asked me was brennan. a guy that Betsy has gone on TWO dates with. he isn't the best at dancing but good enough. he tried this one dip and i had no idea what to do (because he put himself in the position to be the "dippi" (does that make sense?) of the dipping and i don't know how to dip a guy... anyways. but then he dipped me anyway and i thought the poor guy was going to fall over.

then i asked this EXTREMELY attractive cowboy. his name was jordan. jordan the cowboy. it sounds legit right??! he had this handsome plaid shirt and dreamy brown eyes with great LMH. (if you don't know what LMH is than you will have to just wonder because it is a privileged thing to know. :D and if you google it to find out, i am not talking about lawrence medical hospital) anyways we danced to a taylor swift song (PERFECT!) and he showed me how to do 4 new moves! one including a hip bump of sorts. sounds weird and lame, right? wrong. it was legit! and i learned this cool new spin that leads into an awesome dip thing. we will call it the jordan dip. he was from nevada.

and then there was mike. he was talkative! which was good but bad at the same time. good cause then you get to know them but bad because i was saying, "what?" more than anything else. but mike was nice. and he was more of a relaxed swing dancer than jordan. he was fun and had a really nice smile.

and then i danced to your love is my drug with betsy. and we made up our own swing dance moves. I think people probably want to learn our moves. Who wouldn't?!

i just NEED to take a swing dancing class. Because then i will actually have cowboy friends instead of admiring them from a distance.

full speed ahead with the possibility of liver cancer.

last semester was the worlds easiest semester.... well.... when being compared to this semester.

I should be studying, or writing a paper, or developing more film, or painting, or drawing, or sleeping. but i'm bored of all that.... well minus the sleeping part....

but good news. i got to be before midnight last night! first time in weeks! it was 11:57. :D success!

this semester has hit. and when i say hit. i mean like as hard as my little brother can hit someone in football. i don't think i've ever been so busy in all my life! i guess that's what being retarded and taking 3 studio art classes will do to you.

i have never spent so much dang time in a dark room before too. i can honestly say i can develop better than ever before. this week i have already developed 3 rolls of film. one normally (12.5 minute development with 6 min fixer and 30 minute wash) and one compaction (25 min development with the other times the same) and one expansion (7 minute developments with other times the same.) and 3 contact sheets, and 3 11x14 prints. AND i still have to develop 5 more rolls of film at more various times. including a 35 minute one. in hopes of perfecting my knowledge of the zone system and all these N-3's (insert any number where the 3 is to 1-10) and N+4's and other such shenanigans.

but on the bright side. i learned selenium toning today. it makes my prints beautiful!!!! but on the not so bright side... it can cause liver cancer if i get it on my skin. grrrreat.

so here's how long it takes to develop one single print if i add an archival selenium process.

1 hour and about 15-20 minutes. so, if you ever can't find me, i'm probably in my dark room.

Item number 2- i HATE google earth. Stupid planet earth useless assignments! I was in the library for 3 hours yesterday working on this thing. I wish i would have taken the AP environmental science test. Cause if i would have passed i would not have had to take this class. Ridiculous that the concurrent enrollment didn't count for it. grrr

On other good news- i watched the bachelor last night and learned how to do a french fish tail in Betsy's hair. She was more than willing to let me experiment.

So i finally decided that for my 5 page research assignment in photo 2 that i am going to do it on how portrait photography has changed since the time of Hill and Adamson to the end of my textbook. And now i have to go write an outline before class.

but first, here's an update on the possibility i get frostbite this winter- probably looking at a 70 percent chance. yesterday my face wanted to fall off. i couldn't even smile my cheeks were so frozen. And even though i'm sure you don't want to know this but i'm pretty sure the snot in my nose froze this morning heading to campus.

between the possibilites of frost bite from the cold, breaking a limb on the ice, suffocating from a frozen nasal passage, or getting liver cancer from selenium toning i'm pretty sure college will change me in some way.

even if it's just in how to avoid all of the above.

advice from betsy- wear your snow pants everywhere. even in the house. :D