Pink

I dyed my hair pink because I wanted it to match my new blog colors. Plus, I never went through a rebellious teenage stage and I just wanted to make up for it. I mean, who wouldn't want pink hair?!?

So, whatcha guys think? Hawt, right?!?

Ok so I'm sure by now all of you who know me are like, "What the flip Jaimie" because lets face it, I am just not hardcore enough to do something that extreme, cool, and punk rockish. What really happened is that this -

Turned into this

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Yes, the Spanish Fork Festival of Colors turned my hair pink! After 9 hair washes, a lot of prayers, and a couple breakdowns about not wanting to go to church with pink hair, I still have pink hair. My best option? To embrace the look for the next couple of days and hope that it eventually washes out.

Now remember how I told y'all that I would post pictures about James Ray, the man with the shady name? Well I got one for ya.

So is he a keeper??? Unfortunately, regardless of if you think he is a hottie or not (I mean, from this photo who wouldn't be attracted to any last one of us here), I had to pull the reigns back on Mr. Ray. He was moving a little bit to fast for me and I am just not quite ready to jump into a relationship. Sad panda. But I must say that I was impressed by his skilz to pick me up and put me on his shoulders during all of the color throwing chaos. That was attractive.

Now my dear bloggie buddies, any suggestions as to what to do about my hair? I'm crossing my fingers that I don't have to seek out professional help on this one.

Peace and loves

Konichiwa and Sushi

I made sushi on a date with a new boy. See -

Yes, I stepped out on my homework boyfriend for a night to go on a date with a boy I met last Sunday. I always get so nervous going on dates with new men. Nervous enough that I asked my friend Matt, "Matt, will you just marry me so that I can stop going on first dates?" I don't know how he could refuse a proposal like that. The boy doesn't know what he's missin! Anyway, I had legit reasons to be a little freaked out on this date. When I was telling Matt about it, he asked me what his name was. Of course I didn't realize the significance of his name James Ray but Matt pointed this out to me. To make matters worse, on the date James Ray talked about going camping at Death Valley sometime. Like I want to go camping at Death Valley with James Ray? Yeah right!

Ok but in all honesty any guy who teachers me how to make sushi is at least worth a second date. I think. Well, we shall see as tomorrow is the Hare Krishna Color Festival and he is coming along. I have to say one thing though, the boy met me on Sunday, texted me on Monday, asked me out for Tuesday, wanted to go on a date on Thursday and another on Friday. A little obsessive? I think so. But don't worry, I'll post pictures after the color festival so that you can tell me what you think. So thanks in advance for that one blog friends ;)

And finally the last topic of discussion. I am meeting up with some Utah bloggers tomorrow morning just for the fun of it. And I have to say that I am so so so excited! It's not like I have a big cool blog or anything that makes me official enough to meet up with fellow bloggers, but I do love blogging. Woot woot!

Loves for bloggers and sushi.

Some of those Awesome Memories at Sundance

Not much beats a good time snowboarding with great friends. Sundance ski resort is a small little place but still big enough for a lot of lovin. And boy do I love me some good times on the mountain with my amigos. Here are a few scenes from the weekend. And be warned, pics of me actually making a normal face are few and far between with this bunch :)

The fruit in the above pic was used in a fruit fight where Chantel and I dominated against the outsiders (the outside of the car people).

And to end the picture gallery, here is our fun group of friends up on the mountain. It was a beautiful day for riding.

Sadly, my homework boyfriend will be occupying my time this week. Don't be surprised if this blog seems a little quiet. It's not that I don't love you, it's that Mr. Homework is a little bit demanding of my time. He's a little selfish like that, the jerk face.

I hope all of you have a terrif week. Loves and peace yo!

Date with Phil - A Tale of Two Cities

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age or wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only (Dickens, 1)."

I went on a date with Phil. Yes ladies, I do go on dates despite my previous post. ha! Ok so Phil is a guy that was in my church ward before I taught English in Taiwan. I haven't seen him for about 2 years now until we got together and decided to go see the play A Tale of Two Cities at the hale in SLC. And let me tell you that the Hale Center Theater in SLC is 10 times cooler than the one in Orem. Here is a pic that I stole from their website of the Hale so you can see how cool it looks:

I didn't really want to bust out my camera with Phil there because what would I say? "Hey Phil, I have this blog that I like to write stuff about my life on so can we take pictures even though I haven't talked to you for a couple of years?" Yeah, that's what I thought too.

Now you wouldn't think that Charles Dicken's work A Tale of Two Cities would make for a good musical, but it was very Les Miserables in the storyline and plot structure. The Hale did such a good job with the production that I basically bawled through the second half of the play. Phil had to lean over and say to me "It's ok Jaimie, the cute guy doesn't really die in real life."

Spoiler Alert - You see the trouble is that this man - Sydney (yes, handsome Sydney), a smart alec alcoholic and lawyer sacrifices his life to die for another. To die for the husband of the woman that he has loved for years but never got to hold and love himself. He switches places with the man she is married to who is to be hanged because of love. The fact that he sacrificed his life because he had this hidden love for this woman and her family is so beautiful and touching. The characters go throughout the story thinking that he is a drunkard screw up, but love him despite his flaws, yet they never expect the greatness that he is capable of because nobody does anything that selfless. Especially an alcoholic.

Gah, I get teary eyed just thinking about how touching this play was. I was surprised at how much I loved it. I think part of it is due to the fact that Charles Dickens is my favorite author of all time.

All in all, it was a good date :)

self diagnosis

I have diagnosed myself with androphobia, or the fear of men. So if some guy says, "Hey Jaimie, do you want go out?" I can reply with, "No thank you, I have a bad case of androphobia" and move on with life.

So this tactic was going fine and well until ehow had to go and get all psychological with me by saying that "While many phobias can be relatively harmless and easy to deal with, a fear of men can really hinder possibilities in life and inhibit many opportunities for happiness and success."

Uh, do you get where I'm going here? Ehow is telling me that this phobia might actually stop me from moving forward and having possibilities in life. Uh yeah, that is no bueno. So I've been working on it.

Some steps that have helped me combat man fear in this past month include -

1 - I went on a good snowboarding date. I went snowboarding with a legitimately nice boy that I didn't know all that well. Unfamiliar men sorta freak me out but this guy was awesome. Kudos for meeting new cute boys who enjoy listening to Ingrid Michelson, appreciate ihops all you can eat pancakes, and share in my love for the ski resorts.

2 - Paper roses from Michael. My dear friend michael made paper roses for all of the girls in our ward on Valentines and attached a cute little poem along with them. Sweet huh? But of course I lost mine before it ever made it home. Finding out about this tragedy, Michael hand delivered me another and visited with me for a good while at my house. It was nice to catch up with him because Michael and I were really great friends over the Summer.

This picture is called, "Look, Michael's rose. But where is Jaimie's head?"

Followed by "Nothing beats smelling a fake rose"

(I really try hard to give you guys visuals on all of the posts if you couldn't tell by now)

3 - I've gone on 5 dates with 3 different guys in the last month. That is good for me because I have been avoiding dating like the plague. Like seriously avoiding it. But I realized its time to get over my androphobia and face life head on.

And the last thing to help my man fear. Drum roll please.

4 - Dane Hess, my very best friend in Taiwan. We left the country on not so good terms, of course it was my fault. It had been a couple of years since I've seen him until last month. We got together as a group and went to a restaurant called "Africa" in SLC where we ate Etheopian food with our hands. Nothing beats getting down and dirty while eating food. Anyway, it was really really good to see him again. All of the awkwardness felt after our parting was gone and it was just joyous to see somebody that knows me so well and that I have had so much fun with during such a big part of my life. Here is Dane -

Just kidding. That is some squid on a stick.

Here's Dane

And

(sometimes I made him braid my hair. Not because I couldn't, but because it was more entertaining if he did it. But he doesn't know that so don't say anything)

So I guess the point of this whole blog is that - I've had my share of loser men in the past but that shouldn't stop me from recognizing the good ones that are in my life too. I do not need to be afraid of the unknown and can trust the future because the majority of people are good. And to all of the great guys in my life who are helping me defeat my androphobia, thank you.

Loves

It was a good day, and then it was a bad day

This is one that hasn't been thought out, planned, paid for, paired off. You get the idea

It's just that today was really good and then it got really bad.

The really good - teacher work sample at Lehi High, homemade rolls, making pinata's with my nanny kid Jack, taking my nanny kid Erin to the discovery center at the gateway followed by some Costa Vida. This part was a really good day. In fact, it was a great day.

The really bad - coming home to find out that something sad happened to somebody that I love. It's hard to see somebody you care about go through rough things and feel discouraged. Especially when that somebody is a spiritual giant, a hard worker, a good person. To see this type of person be treated badly by others is unfair and cruel. I'm sure you all know people who go through bad experiences where it just seems like the world is not on their side. Or perhaps have gone through that yourself. The hard part is feeling helpless and that you wish you could change things to make it better, but knowing that you can't. And that is what makes it a bad day. The inability to change reality.

But thank goodness for hope. Hope for a brighter world. That is what keeps me going, what holds me together despite the bad days and seeing the bad things that happen.

Ether 12:4

Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.

Legit is the new Cool

I came across this little word over the Summer on a rafting trip when some guy told me,

"Your kayaking down that rapid was way legit!"

And of course I just smiled at him like, "oh yeah, I use legit in my everyday vocab as well" sort of smile. You know what I mean by that? Like when somebody says something to you and you don't have a clue what they are saying but just agree to avoid looking dumb? Yeah, that was how I responded when he said legit.

So as time progressed I heard the word pop up here and there, but then last week I did some observations at Lehi high and I probably heard it 7-10 times that day from the high school students. That is when I knew that I had to inform all of the people my age (aka out of high school and the trend setting era) that legit is the new cool.

I will put this into context for you a little bit better with some visuals (because we all love pictures, right?). So here you go:

That chocolate milk is legit.

Dude, the angry cat with the melon helmet is wicked legit.

And last -

That guy with the ninja sign is legit.

Now this one might be confusing because one might question how a man saying his father was killed by ninjas could be legit. But you have to think about legit as cool, not as legit. Get it? Good. My prediction is that within 3 years, everybody will be saying legit. I figure you guys might as well have a heads up about it :)

Good job blog class, todays lesson has been way legit.

LOVES and smiles yo!