san. freaking. tastic.

So today is November 2nd. Today is technically the halfway point of my mission. 9 months in.

What did I do today instead of being in Brazil? I went to my favorite city of all time: San Francisco! Which happens to only be about 2 hours from where I currently live. It's amazing! Today was just such a good day that I feel I must blog about it. We drove down and stopped right before the Golden Gate Bridge. It was sunny, 75 degrees, and no one was there! We found a quick parking spot right in front, got out, and I got to go and use my fun camera for the first time since I came back. Then I drove over the bridge!!! (which I have never done before..) and we also went to drive down Lombard street. It was awesome. San Fran was practically empty today. We found an entire empty parking street one block from the piers and paid about 5 bucks to park for 2.5 hours (amazing). We ate a seafood lunch and walked along the piers while I got to take more fun pictures and photo stalk my friend and her boy friend. I guess the boy friend doesn't technically like taking pictures, but.... once he saw how cool they turned out he even got to posing for me. SO FUN! I LOVE taking pictures! I haven't done it in so long that I must have forgotten. We then went to the Palace of Fine Arts and took more pictures (the closest parking spot was open and free), we then drove around to see Chinatown/more of the city, and then we went to Ghiradelli square to have the traditional ice cream sundaes (which are AMAZING.) (Yes, we also found parking for free right in front).

Basically, today was one of the most magically San Francisco days of all time. It was sunny, warm, and no one was there. I guess that makes sense for a wednesday in November, but whatever. I'm not complaining! It was just.. perfect. (Rivaling with Scotland perfect. Almost there..)

I hope that you all had a great day as well :)

it's still warm here!!!!

You read that right. It is November 1st and it is still warm here in sunny California where I now live. I always thought that California was overrated.. That people were just crazy to want to live there. Now that I have graced the northern part I know that they are not crazy, they are the smartest people. EVER. As you know (probably), I am back from my mission to Brazil and now jumping back into life (which I am LOVING btw..) Here's the thing though. I left in Feb and stayed in Utah until late March. Aka. I lived a winter here. It was cold. THEN I went to Brazil in April in time for their fall (remember the other hemisphere temperature change?) and I lived through being really REALLY cold in southern Brazil with no heater. (and no insulation in the walls. aka. sleeping in the same temperature that is outside with cold showers. BRRRRRR). And now that I am back up north, we are just heading into what again? That's right. WINTER. AGAIN. My THIRD winter in 1 freaking year. yeah. I wasn't too stoked about the idea of bumming it in dreary (yet beautiful) Seattle for my 3rd winter, so when the opportunity came up I abandoned ship and went to move in with my dear friend from school :).

Why northern Cali is better.. I mean, cool too:
1. It is about an hour and a half away from everything. San Fran (<-- favorite city), Beach, Tahoe, Yosemite? Yup. All close.
2. It is November and still t-shirt weather.
3. Driving here is a lot "quicker"
4. I'm close to extended relatives that I didn't really know but now have met and they are awesome!
5. I am living 'on my own.'
6. Did I mention that my boyfriend is only an hour and twenty mins from me too? Bonus. Much better than 7k miles.
7. There are both palm trees and evergreens. It's lovely :)
8. I live right next to a beautiful lake AND a river.

9. I moved here on a Sunday, had an interview on a Tuesday, was hired the same day for a better position than I wanted for more pay and a clothing allowance, and oh yeah, I started the next day. Miracle/awesomeness.

10. Happiness. Just a lot of happiness :D

So yeah.. I went, I came back, and I went off again. But that's what my life is always about right? Lots and LOTS of adventures :)

'ello again

Teaching is fun. Teaching is intimidating. Teaching is awesome. Teaching is difficult. Teaching teaches me. All of the afore mentioned statements have become quite true for me in the last few months. I had the opportunity to work at my old high school and help teach and direct in their theater program! Point Sam! I had many days that I would come home almost literally skipping with excitement and bursting to tell my friends and family how much fun it was to work with the kids. "So and so really did a great job with their acting and made huge strides today! Another person really listened and came up with fantastic ideas! I learned so much today and am so glad that I'm teaching theater!" Other days I would come home thinking twice about the whole teaching concept... "There were so many of them! No one was listening! No one was respecting me as their teacher! Stop cutting rehearsal to make-out with someone in the hallway!!!"

Recently we started doing a musical that requires the use of two British accents and I have taken it upon myself to become the accent coach. Yes, this decision has in fact infiltrated my life for the better! Now, while I work at my other job that actually pays me money, I am constantly singing and dancing along to the incessantly contagious Christmas songs while intermittently trying to speak in as many different accents as possible. The staples as of right now include British (With the T) and Bri'ish (Without it). However, do not be alarmed! I am still throwing in a good New Jersey, Southern, and Irish and am working on Indian and Russian (aided by my co-workers).

Other life. I am going to be a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! I was assigned to the Brazil, Florianopolis mission and I leave February 2nd! The actuality of me going to Brazil in any near future is pretty low seeing as visas are not coming through, but hey--I'm going on a mission and I literally do not care where it takes me. :)

To sum up, life has been happening for the past 6 months since I posted. Surprise! I didn't die, I am happily working and dating and preparing for the mish... It's kind of strange to think that in the next 6 months I will be out somewhere in the world wearing the black name tag and changing my life and hopefully others as well :).

Happy Holidays all!

(but most realistically just the one you who is reading this. Yeah I'm talking to you. You know who you are.. :D )

sounds like me..

Just a quick pet peeve to spring on the world wide web. Lately I have been reading a lot of things for marketing and also just things that friends post on various websites. My pet peeve is this: If you write something, I want to be able to hear you saying it in my head. For some reason, there are a few people that I know that write things and it sounds absolutely nothing like them! Their excitement comes off as petty and their usual sarcastic wit is dimmed by cliches. Please oh please let whoever reads this (if they know me) think to themselves, "Wow. That sounds just like Sam! She could have just sat across the table and read it to me, and I 100% would have known that it was her."

Basically. Please just be yourself! I don't want to go read something you post in order to catch up or continue a friendship and feel like I am reading about someone completely different! Bah!

Ok. Rant finished.

HAGS. :D

it was easter so i egged some people...

Easter Bunny. Yup. I was the Easter Bunny driving around in my rental car on a cloudy Sunday afternoon. The malicious deed hinted at by the title of this blog? Actually the nicest thing EVER! My friend and I were driving around delivering plastic easter eggs filled with candy to friends we knew and then we had some leftovers. We originally had planned to leave those eggs in a park or somewhere strange so that people could find them and have a good day... I wrote phrases on them like "Congrats! You found me!" "Hey Stranger! You can have what's inside me!" or "PUT ME BACK! I'M COLD" After leaving a couple of those eggs strewn around the south of campus, I had a brilliant idea. Here I was, warm in my car, and there outside of my car were random people were walking on the street with their friends without candy/chocolate. I decided to solve the problem. With the help of my friend, we drove around, pulled up next to groups of friendly looking people and asked them if they wanted an Easter Egg! Every group we drove up to took it and looked a lot more happy than they had before we 'bothered' them, so I deem this mission of making everyone have an AWESOME Easter a success. Plus one for everyone involved? Yeah. More like PLUS TEN!

Watch out. Mother's Day is coming up, and I want to get creative.... :)

a funny thing happened on the way from the space needle.

In reading some of my past posts while reflecting on years past, I realize that when bad things happen or I am stressed out, I am usually prone to laughter. Is that strange? Now, when I say bad things, I don't mean sad things, I just mean things that could possibly also be described as "unlucky" or "unfortunate." I guess I just realize that things in life happen, for better or for worse, and whether it is partially your fault or not, life happens, you can't change it, and sometimes the irony that unfolds is just plain hilarious. End Tangent.

Last night was New Years Eve, and a friend and I went to a dance downtown to celebrate. It was probably one of the most unemotional and unexciting turn of the decades that I've lived through. We danced, we had some good sliced apples, we danced more to a lot of music that I didn't know, and then at 6 minutes to, we got in line at the coat check to get our things so that we could run outside and watch the huge fireworks display. Fate was not with us that night because we got to the front of the line when someone said, "10 SECONDS!!!!!!!!" So, we counted down into the new year/decade right when we were given our coats and we tried to get them off the hangers so we could get outside. We ran outside and saw the fireworks going off.. We watched for a few minutes, then we decided to head back to our car to leave before the whole crowd of drunk drivers joined us on the road. We ran back to our car through the damp streets and missed the rest of the show. We drove back, and I had my friend text a couple of my friends to wish them a Happy New Year! (because I was driving). She, however, unaccustomed to my phone, sent one accidentally saying something that could have been taken quite horribly by the receiver. Happy Start of the New Year and Decade! It was one of those moments that there was nothing that I could do but laugh. Trying to explain what had happened? Futile. I felt like a horrible person, but at the same time, it was just so ironic and so accidental, that it was like a 'meant to be' mistake. If you (you know who you are, or your friend) are reading this, it was purely an accident... I promise that I am not a horrible person, I was just trying to be friendly and-- it kind of backfired.

After that lovely moment within the new decade and the very lame welcome of the new year, I made a decision to make the night more memorable for good things. I drove past my friend's house and we went to her old school and we cranked up "You Make My Dreams" and had a dance off in the parking lot (don't worry. there is a video). We also took some pictures, and sang loudly to songs in the car. Now THAT is the way to welcome in the new year! :D

To sum up, life is hilarious. You have to make the fun for yourself, and when life happens, you just have to roll with it because, let's be honest; we don't all have time turners like Hermione. It's up to us to decide the attitude with which to live. I choose happiness. :D

Welcome 2010.

It's going to be a party. I can tell.

finding joy in the small things

This past week-being Thanksgiving- was a breath of fresh air that I greatly needed in order to survive the next couple of weeks before school started. I was a little put out that I was left in my house alone from Tuesday night till now and not flown home to the family (I haven't been home for Thanksgiving since I was in high school and this was the first year it might have happened), but I combined forces with 4 friends and we conquered our own Thanksgiving feast. It was magnificent! Turkey, stuffing, corn, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, salad, home made rolls, 2 home made pumpkin pies, delicious drinks, and I'm sure I'm missing something else. Basically, it was epic. We had movies playing in the background--most notably the extended version of the Fellowship of the Ring, we played games, we had a good time.

More than just Thanksgiving though was the relaxing time that I got to spend with friends and with a cleaning sponge in my house to make it shine as it hasn't for quite some time. I got to go to a football game against our rivals, and we had great seats, AND we won.. AND I got to meet up with a friend who was driving through the area back to his college for the rest of the semester.

These things were fun, and I'm glad that I got to meet and hang out with a variety of individuals.

But I did somethings that I loved more than all these things combined: I painted while watching a movie, and even better? I played with PLAY DOUGH! YES! My slow regression back to my childhood is finally happening!

Oh yes--Christmas lights now adorn our downstairs. This is also a huge bonus. Should we buy a mini Christmas tree?

I think YES.

Hope that your holidays were and will be a party as well! And oh yes, please please please send me any leftover play dough and finger paints that you might have around. They will be VERY much appreciated!!!

Happy Everything!