GASP! Sleepwalking?

Hola, senor! :)

For your information, I am writing this blog out of pure procrastination of studying for an exam that I have to take tomorrow. And I haven't really studied for it. But as I was just about to settle down to study for my test (aka, lay on the couch) I thought, "you know what? You haven't written a blog in a while. You should do that instead." So here I am.

I don't even know if anyone reads my blog anymore, but I hear one of the biggest ways you can get rid of stress is by writing every day. And so I think, hey, why not write in my lovely blog? Even if no one does read it?

Today I learned how to strap somebody up to a machine that will monitor their body waves. It measures, like, everything, and it was a bit over my head, but it was cool. :) I also got to learn some interesting facts in my social psychology class about gender differences. Some researchers conducted a survey in New York City where they had their research assistants approach random strangers and simply ask, "Do you want to have sex with me tonight?" After recording all of their responses, it was found that 0-1% of women agreed to this question. However, a whopping 99% of men agreed to having sex with a complete stranger. Mind. Blown.

Overall, life is just really busy. I know that is all I ever talk about, so I'm going to try to not focus on that anymore. Readers, did you know that I have the tendency to sleep walk? And sleep talk? And sleep laugh and sleep smile and sleep look-people-in-the-eyes-and-freak-them-out?

Once, I woke up sitting on the edge of my bed with my phone in my hand.

Once, I woke up standing in front of the fridge.

Once, in the middle of the night, I rolled over and looked at my roommate and started laughing.

I have walked into my living multiple times, only to go back to bed later.

...... oh what the heck, I think it is time to tell my favorite sleep walking/talking story of all.

So I was over at my sisters house when I was about 16, and she wanted to watch the movie "Donny Darco" or whatever it's called. (Really good movie, by the way, I would recommend it if I knew what it was called.) It was just me, my sister, and her roommate Hannah. Right before we started the movie, I distinctly remember telling Ashley that she couldn't lay down on the couch because she was going to fall asleep. Ashley assured me that she wouldn't.

She did.

Fast. Like... within the first 15 minutes of it.

So me and Hannah, this roommate that I don't really know but kinda knew but not enough to not feel kinda awkward are watching this movie together. It gets to a part where the main male lead is just walking around, and my sister jolts into a sitting position and somewhat screams,

....

Now, for those of you who have seen this movie, you will know that there are no penguins. But my sister looked and was acting so awake, that both Hannah and I were waiting for the penguins to appear on the screen. Within seconds, my sister falls back onto the couch in a heap. Hannah and I started laughing, and I couldn't wait for my sister to regain consciousness to tell her this story. (It was extremely funny at the time.)

So, I waited until the movie was over, and then shook my sister awake. She sat up and looked at me, so I suspected she was awake. I proceeded to tell all about her penguin story and how she had been sleep talking. Hannah and I are laughing; meanwhile, Ashley looked something like this.

So.. I realize that Ashley, who normally would have laughed and asked "Did I really do that?", was still asleep. So I started tapping her on her forehead, pushing her around, until finally she shouted at me "I'M TIRED, KAR-UH!" This only resulted in Hannah and I laughing until we were drooling.

All of the sudden, Ashley (who was wearing a pink night-gown at the time) throws her night gown over her head and shouts, "OH GOOD, you didn't change me. I would have been PISSED if you had changed me." She looked something like this:

So, after much convincing that she hadn't been changed and that she really needed to go to bed, I finally got her tucked away into her bed. As I was tucking the blankets around her, Ashley looked up at me with the most concerned look on her face and asked me, "Kara........ what color are the socks?" Fighting back laughter I replied, "Purple, Ashley, the socks are purple." With that, Ashley's face beamed with happiness and she finally closed her eyes to go to sleep.

HAH! I did it! I wrote the sleep walking blog. It wasn't as good as I imagined it would be, but at least I attempted!

Enjoy life!

3 Day Weekend!

Things I am grateful for (right this very second)

1. Three day weekends. I love being able to sleep when I want and for however long I want, love being able to procrastinate homework until Monday without any consequences, love staying up late, love spending time to do nothing... I love it all. Well... until I try to go to bed by 11pm tonight... my body might have a hard time readjusting to my previous sleep schedule.
2. Yellow flowers. A week ago Lucas got me a bouquet of all the yellow flowers... yellow just makes me so happy, especially when it is next to freezing outside.
3. Friends, even when they are all the way in India.
4. Blankets where one side is velvety and soft and the other side is fluffy and soft (aka, the blankets you get from COSTCO.)
5. Healthy hair. My hair was getting so long, but I cut a few inches off of it. Now I have healthy medium length hair.
6. Education. I love learning, and I love being able to learn skills that are applicable in the real world.
7. Lucas. (I am about to get a little gushy here, so skip ahead to #8 if you want to skip the gush.) I absolutely love that boy. Why? Because I can be my absolute self around him. He also lets me put my freezing cold toes on his stomach to warm them up. THAT is true love, dear readers.
8. My family. I am grateful for wonderful parents that raised me right, grateful for a set of siblings that couldn't be more different, and grateful for my little ones that I love more than anything in this world. :)
9. My Savior.
10. All the little things, like warm socks, hairspray, my new phone, nice carpet, boots, scarves, books, music, my guitar... all the little things that could make my list so much longer.

I could go on and on, but I do have homework to do that I have procrastinated this three day weekend. This blog is far from being awesome, but I want to get back into the habit of writing more than three times a semester.

Bye!

New Year!

Ok, I don't have a lot of time to commit to a blog today. So what we will do here is a quick and schnappy rundown of what my semester is going to look like!! and... here we go!

1. I'm taking 16 credits, all classes for my major. The class that I am the most excited about would have to be my health psychology class.
2. I am also doing about 6 hours of research (unpaid) with Dr. Steffan, and we are researching all the things. He literally has several large experiments going on. I get to wear a lab coat and stare at people until they get super nervous. Should be fun.
3. I am going to be doing research for another prof. (Dr. Dyches) for about 5 hours a week. Paid. yah baby... :)
4. I am also working 25 hours a week, mainly at my two beautiful stores Legends Grille and Blue Line Deli. :)
5. I will also be volunteering about 3 hours a week (I wish I could do more) at either a suicide hotline call center or at a women's abuse shelter home. Both of which require about 12 hours of training. I am really excited to keep volunteering!
6. Going to try to get a good 2 hours of studying in each day.
7. Be in love with Lucas and spend time with him.
8. Oh ya... I guess I am going to try to have a social life. No promises though.

I also don't have my beautiful fish Gustavo (and he misses me very badly), I no longer have my best friend as a roommate (I miss her even more than Gustavo misses me), and I no longer sleep. Well, maybe a few hours a night.

Even with all this stress, and with big decisions in the future, I still am just so happy. I am where I am supposed to be, meeting the people that I need to meet to become the person I need to become. I love my roommates, love my friends, love my boyfriend, love my best friend, love my family. So much love. And I love you, whoever is reading my blog. I really do. :)

If your semester is going to be tough this semester, YOU CAN DO IT. :)

(Lucas and I in front of the "Up" house.) :)

Bonds That Make Us Free

In my gender class this semester, I was asked to read a book titled "Bonds that Make Us Free" by C. Terry Warner. This book has perhaps been one of the most influential and life changing books that I have ever read. Its pages are packed with ways that we can rid ourselves of the self-centered, pity-seeking habits that bind us. I read the epilogue, and I got shivers as I read the final words. Warner talks of faith - not faith in a God, or faith in a certain religion, but faith in "doing the right thing no matter what others may think." It takes faith to do what we inherently know is right, especially when those around us are shouting at us that what we are doing and the way that we are living our life is wrong. C. Terry Warner continues:

Some people misguidedly think that faith is for insecure people who cannot stand on their own, and who use it as a crutch. Those who think this way do not appreciate how dependent we are upon each other. Nor do they comprehend that theirs in the negative kind of dependency, a bondage maintained by comparisons, judgement, and generally unspoken mistrust.

When one lives a life full of comparing himself to others, judging those who do not accept the way that a life is lived or condemning those who "victimize" and "insult" a lifestyle, that person finds himself utterly in bondage in hatred and in self-victimization. He or she cannot be happy unless able to blame much of their heartaches and troubles on others that have occurred in their life. They let this hatred build the very foundations that they believe in. These beliefs are only built on hatred and condemnations of others. Warner states it so eloquently in the following few sentences:

Self-absorbed people never think as clearly or act as decisively as those whose conscience is clear. They see threats where none exist, often can't tell their enemies from their friends, and tend to surround themselves with allies who won't overshadow them. . . Moreover, they spur other people to resist them. They cling to others' failures in order to excuse failures of their own.

This book has focuses so much on putting the blame on yourself, asking yourself the question "could I be wrong," thinking of others before yourself, and having a "consistent readiness to yield to the truth in ALL circumstances, no matter what the apparent cost." When a person can live in such a manner, they find that they don't have to look at others failures and shortcomings in order to feel good about themselves. They don't have to dig around in the past and show how their circumstances created the horrible lives that they have lived or live. A person is simply able to accept what he or she knows to be true, and act on it.

I want to end with a fable and a fact stated by C. Terry Warner.

Fable:

The quality of life - the success we hope for - depends largely upon attaining what people have commonly called the good life. By this we mean competing for, obtaining, and securely holding on to certain externals - for example, pleasures, status, or possessions- which we regard as valuable, satisfying, and reflective of our worth.

Fact:

The quality of life depends upon the choices we make, moment by moment, to do exactly what we sense is right toward all living things, including God. To distinguish this from pursuing the good life, I would like to call it pursuing a life of goodness. This means a life of practical faith.

If you have a chunk of time to do nothing and want to be truly inspired, take a moment to read this book. It is not a religious book - in fact, the only time that it mentions God and Faith is in the epilogue. I promise you will get something out of reading it (Again, it is titled "Bonds that Make Us Free" by C. Terry Warner.) I loved what I have learned, and I love how much more loving and kind and free I feel after reading it.

Life is great people. :) I know I haven't written my sleep-walking blog - and honestly, I don't think I will ever get around to it. This blog has been neglected much this year, but everything is more than wonderful in my life.

Ya!

Well would you look at that?

SO much has happened since I have last written! I know on my last blog post I promised some awesome sleep walking stories... so I may get around to talking about them in this blog, or I may not. We shall see. :)

So on the 19th of September was my recording with Jenny Phillips! Thankfully I wasn't too nervous going into it because I was like, "why you getting nervous Kara?? you already won, home girl!" (That's right, my inner dialogue consists of a sassy black woman.) So I showed up, they hooked me up with my headphones and mic, and off I went! I have the recording on a website... but I don't know if I can post it here. AGH! Email me if you want the link, I would love for you guys to hear it!

Anyways, it turned out SO well, despite the near threat of me losing my voice. On Thursday morning I woke up with a tickle, on Friday morning I woke up with a swollen and bumpy throat. So what did I do all weekend? Well, hung out with my mom and sister for one... but I also sprayed the back of my throat with Listerine CONSTANTLY and drank probably 18 gallons of tea. Monday morning I woke up and my throat still hurt, but my voice wasn't affected. So that was awesome! Also, I totally forgot that I was even getting paid for it all. When she handed me my check at the end of the recording, I was like "... uh, are you sure I'm not supposed to be paying you?"

It was amazing. :)

Ok, so then September 20th was, well, my birthday. Turned 20 on the 20th!!! Let's see, what made this day so memorable??

• Woke up to my apartment decorated up the YIN-YANG (still don't understand that expression, but I use it quite frequently.) There were streamers/balloons/baby-birthday-wall paper. I ran around through the streamers 5 or 6 times in pure excitement.
• Lucas came over and wished me a happy birthday and gave me awesome presents (one of which is a falling whistle. Don't know what that is? Look it up. Seriously.)
• I curled my hair on a SCHOOL DAY. That never happens, people. So my hair was rocking all day long (my hair hits about the middle of my back, like...2 inches past my bra strap. The bra strap is always the point of reference for me when talking about length of hair.... I love long hair. :) )
• Classes weren't stressful, WORK wasn't stressful... in fact, during work I ordered some food and 6 of the employees brought me my food and sang me happy birthday. They even had a lighter for me to blow out.
• After work/school/daily life, I came home only to go out to dinner with my close friends. We went to California Pizza Kitchen where I gorged on all the pizza. ALL THE PIZZA!
• When we got home, there was a gathering of people there waiting for me. We did random things like play limbo with the steamers and rock out to some music. Kate made all the cupcakes in the WORLD for me (she makes the best cupcakes EVER). She made this home-made strawberry cream cheese frosting that is to DIE FOR.
• At the end of our party, Kate tells me she has one more present for me. She sits me down in front of the TV and proceeds to put in a DVD. The next 8 minutes consisted of almost all of my friends being shown on the TV wishing me a happy birthday, talking about our friendship, and one word that they would use to describe me. I was laughing and crying at the same time (a pretty sight to behold, I ensure you.) It was one of the most thoughtful gifts that I have ever had.

Dang, my birthday video won't load. Well, if you are reading this we are probs friends on facebook and it is posted there. You should totally watch it if you have 8 minutes to do nothing... or you have something really pressing you want to do but you want to procrastinate instead. :)

Let's see... the rest of the week resulted in hanging out with the people that I love, taking classes that are amazing but hard, enduring the first round of midterms, going to my boyfriends choir concert, working 25 hours a week, etc.

Life is so good, people. Not because of where I am or who I am associating with or anything like that. Life is good because it has a purpose. I know who I am and I know who I want to be...and to be on track to reaching my potential is amazing. I miss Idaho sometimes, mainly because a lot of people that I love are there (like my beautiful niece and nephews) but I am happy to be out making something of my life. Grad school is just around the corner, and I know that should be stressing me out, but really... I am just so high on life that most of the time I don't even notice.

ENJOY life, people.

p.s. Next blog will be about sleep walking, I swear. My fingers are just tired of typing... they are like "Peeeaassee, no more typing!"

Let's get this done, people!

I officially have to go to home in like... four minutes, so needless to say this blog is going to be short and snappy. SHNAPPY, I SAY!

First, school is starting to seem a teeny tiny bit more manageable. I can fit everything that I need to do in my 6am-7pm M-F schedule. Which is a ridiculously long day, granted, but at least I get that feel-good-in-my-stomach-accomplished feeling at the end of the day.

I just read a research article about the correlation between attachment with parents and the amount of religious activity a person has. It was really interesting! It says that parents (especially mothers) who were kind and nurturing as parents to their children increased their child's likelihood of being religious as they got older. So basically, there is a correlation between the way a mom treats a daughter/son and the likelihood that they will remain in a religion as an adult. Prettyyyy cool.

Also, I have learned SO much at BYU this year alone. Like, how to juggle a million different things but remember what is important in life. How to be truly happy with my life, and not just my actions. I have learned so much about religion... I won't go on a religion rampage, I swear. ;) I just love the church that I am in, that's all. I guess all the things that I have learned have been through the gospel, I guess... especially on how to be happy. A lot of people tell me that I am not living my life to the fullest because I am living with an eternal mindset... but tell me, if I am seeking for eternal happiness, how would that make me miserable in the process?

Anyways, my mom and sister are coming down this weekend for my birthday (turning 20 on the 20th... its my golden year. :) ) and for my recording session with Jenny next week. I am THUPER DUPER THTOKED! This week shall be amazing, I say yes.

Anyways, I think I know what my next blog is going to be about. And it's not religion, I promise... I will give you a hint... talking/walking in my sleep runs in the family.

It's getting hot in here!

AH! School... oh, school. I love learning... freshman year I would spend all of American Heritage class just checking my facebook and facebook chatting with high school friends, and now I am the annoying person who always makes one too many comments in class. I am really excited for my writing class, because we are assigned to create a writing schedule of just 1-2 hours a day, every day, until the end of the semester. We have to turn in 50 pages of "polished" writing by the end of the year, which is probably the equivalent of 150 pages of writing total. I am also conducting research experiments! Here is what they are probably going to be:

• The effect of religion on the sense of fulfillment in life.
• The correlation between grades and facebook (maybe)
• How well BYU students actually keep the honor code
  
• If a bit of narcissism is healthy for self-esteem.

My other classes are amazing, my new apartment complex is BOMB. I am going to a cabin in like... 3 minutes with about 30 people in my new complex.

Life is good! Enjoy your three day weekend, people!