When you're alone and life is making you lonely you can always go

Talk about a good movie show. 

Series I is out on DVD and Series II premieres on Masterpiece in January.

It's airing right now in the UK though. And it is epic. I'm just saying...

Flashback Friday: Summer 2011

Wow. That was fast.

Top 10 Tuesday: Twofer #2

Well folks, it's Tuesday, so it's time for another total cop out exciting referral to my Top Ten Tuesday post over at the Blue Bookcase. In fact, my post today was sort of a sequel to one I did a few weeks ago and never mentioned here, so I'm giving you another twofer. But don't worry, Flashback Friday is going to be "dam" good.

But until then, here are:

Mean Girls I Want To Punch In The Face

and

Where I Rant About Stupid, Stupid Boys

If you're looking for a little stress relief, I highly recommend the exercise (:

Flashback Friday: Happy Earth Day

Happy Earth Day!

Last year, I celebrated like this:

This year I'm in San Francisco hoping for a glimpse of this:

So that next year I might wear this legitimately, if ironically:

I just realized...

... that this:

Is all my fault.

I went shopping after the second session of General Conference yesterday and was late getting to girls' night out so I left the bags in my trunk.

I only remembered them when I was in a different car on the way to my parents' house and I maybe said a quick prayer that the aerosol cans wouldn't explode in the heat. (It was 65 degrees after all.)

Well, they didn't explode!

Sorry.

In other news, I now have a testimony of Malachi 3:10. I've always believed it in principle; I just never expected my little prayer to be answered quite so literally...

Top 10 Tuesday: Google is crafty. I am not. Even so...

Search Engine. Analytics. Feed Reader. News. Images. Chat. VoIP. YouTube. Blogger. Is there anything Google doesn't do and doesn't do pretty well?

Sometimes (always) I'm pretty sure Google is (way) smarter than I am. For instance, you know when you accidentally misspell a search term:

How does it know that's what you meant? My old coworker Wes wrote about this phenomenon much more intelligently than I ever could here.

But Google doesn't just stop there. When Riley and I were in Cambridge last year, I was shooting off a quick email for school when Google gave me this error message:

If you can't read it, it says, "You wrote 'I've attached' in your message but there are no files attached. Send anyway?"

I forgot to attach the file and Google knew it. Besides the kind of creepy Big Brother undertones of a search engine reading my mail, how cool is that? I was totally blown away (ask Riley) and I didn't think I'd ever be more surprised by Google.

But I was wrong.

Maybe you've seen those Facebook statuses or blog posts going around saying something like this:

"I promise to send something hand-made to the first five people who leave a comment here. You must in turn post this on your blog and send something that YOU make to the first five people that comment on your blog! The rules are the item has to be HANDMADE by YOU and sent sometime in 2011! How fun it that!"

Well, you only need to look at my sad history of glue-smeared, paint-spattered, ink-stained, over-sized t shirts to know that crafty I am not.

However, Adriane posted one of these challenges, and she always makes the cutest things. So I had, had, had, to sign up. And now I have to pay it forward...

But, before I made the same offer, I decided to do a little research. So in preparation for this behemoth task, I sat down one Saturday morning to look for some crafty ideas. And what better place to look for a lot of ideas in one place than Etsy? So I typed the URL into my browser and this is what I got:

Just kidding.

But I kind of wish I weren't. Wouldn't it be great if Google warned you when you were about to do something crazy? Imagine:

• Google says, "If we send you to this shopping website, you will spend all of your discretionary income for the year in one fell swoop. Send anyway?"
• Google says, "If we send you to Facebook now, you will waste your entire lunch hour stalking your latest 24-hour crush only to find out he has a girlfriend and she's gorgeous. Send anyway?"
• Google says, "If we send you to this YouTube Video you'll end up staying up until 3 a.m. watching literal music videos and you'll wake up exhausted with really sore abs. Send anyway?"

I probably wouldn't listen, but forewarned is forearmed, right?

Anyway, it was in fact my first time ever logging onto Esty (I know, I'm totally nebbish.) And nearly two hours later it was one rabbit hole I'm still not sure I should have gone down...

However, I think I'm ready to get crafty. And I think it's time I go big or go home.

So I'm paying it forward on Top 10 Tuesday. This means that I'll make something for the first ten people who comment and I won't make you turn around and do the same (unless you want to).

So, enter at your own risk.

And incidentally, if you enter, can you please let me know if you have a favorite quote, poem, song, or book? Awesome.

Top 10 Tuesday: Characters That Make My Family Look Like Saints

This week's topic is another post I did for The Blue Bookcase.

The original idea was to list ten fictional characters I'd like to have in my family, but I answered a question about my favorite fictional best friends a few weeks ago and felt like I would be reinventing the wheel. So instead I wrote about some of the worst characters I could think of. I wrote this post sometime between 1 and 2 this morning, and by the end I was so angry it took my about an hour to calm down and get to sleep. During which hour I had an epiphany: We've all heard the warning to not go to bed angry, so if it's ever a family member that's got you resentfully counting sheep (and let's be honest, it almost always is, just mentally compose your own nasty character list. You'll be hugging the annoying right out of your relations in no time.

So here you go: Characters That Make My Family Look Like Saints

Going Native

Having the worst lungs on the planet isn't easy, but I somehow manage to live what feels like half my life with some kind of chest congestion or another. However, earlier this year I had a cough that just would not quit. We're talking weeks and weeks and weeks. Since none of my usual coping methods were working, I finally I decided to go to the doctor. I've had pneumonia no less than five times, bronchitis pretty much every year I can remember, and smoke-induced asthma since the 2003 Control Burn Debacle of Provo Canyon, so I was expecting that it might be something along those lines.

Nope. Diagnosis: Pertussis.

You know, Pertussis? A.k.a. whooping cough. That disease that like consumption and cholera was pretty much eradicated in developed countries by the end of the 19th century? Yep, I had that.

Lucky me.

Luckier me that there's an app for that. Skipping the part about how I was allergic to the first round of medication with disastrous results, I was eventually quickly cured of the worst of it and have lived to see another day.

Friends and family were often shocked and surprised as to how I developed such an archaic illness, so I took to joking that after having spent several months researching 19th century British social history I had simply gone native. My interest in graduate school was history from below, or the history of the common people. I read about their customs and traditions, I guess I just got a little too into their common complaints (: The idea added a bit of humor to a not-so-fun situation.

So fast forward a couple months to my annual physical. I got a call this morning from my doctor to go over the results of my blood work. The pertussis is all gone and everything else looks good except for one thing: I have ridiculously low levels of Vitamin D.

You know, Vitamin D? That thing you get mostly from the sun that makes your bones strong? Yep, I'm lacking that in a big way. Kind of like most of those 19th century British common people I was researching not too long ago. And given my apparent propensity to take things a little too far I think I can see where this is heading.

Rickets.

Thee lift me and I'll lift thee and we'll ascend together. -Quaker Proverb

I know I've talked about it a little bit before, but I really am a complete failure at keeping a journal. The sum total of records I've made in my life is paltry, and each of the few entries is usually headed with a variation on a common theme: I'm sorry I haven't written in so long but I promise to do better...

Usually I am frustrated when I flip through these few pages. I often do in fact do better, but for such a laughably short time I sometimes feel I shouldn't have bothered to make the effort at all.

But that is where I've been wrong.

I'm learning with my journaling efforts, as in practically every other area of my life, that as long as I keep trying, every single step is worth it. Even if I feel I'm taking two steps forward and one step back.

In a syzygy of events over the recent days I've come to realize that my life has reached a point equatable to most of my journal entries: I haven't been doing what I should for a long time. But this is me promising to do better.

I don't find it necessary or appropriate to air my dirty laundry over the interwebs, but I also think I can be more successful if I have someone more than myself holding me accountable to sustained change.

So, this is the syzygy of epiphanies I had this weekend:

1. The Temple: I went to the Provo Temple on Friday for the first time in far too long. I was blessed to attend a session that was bursting with missionaries on a field trip from the MTC. I was shocked at how young most of them looked (which was compounded by the realization that my baby brother will be joining them in just a few short months). But despite their youth, I can't describe the feeling of sitting with over fifty elders in and sisters in the celestial room and seeing them gather the strength from the House of the Lord that they would need to sustain them all over the world as they worked to preach the gospel. I am not making anywhere near the sacrifice they are making, but I can be better about attending the temple, especially when there are so many so close to me, and taking the strength I receive there to work in my own little corner of the field.

2. Financial Planning: We had a combined Sunday School class this Sunday. The speaker was a senior in the BYU business school and will soon graduate with a degree in accounting. He talked to us about the importance of financial planning. This is something I've been almost as successful at doing as I have been at writing journals. I need to be better.

3. CES Fireside: Elder Perry has been one of my favorite speakers ever since the time I was weeding in the front garden and heard a voice behind me asking if I could use a hand. It was Elder Perry and he was kind enough to not notice the dirt on my face when my jaw literally hit the ground. His talk tonight was inspired and I need to do much much better at prayer. At scripture study. At temple worthiness. And at service.

I'm committing to make time this week to come up with concrete goals in each of these areas which I may or may not share, but please know that I truly would appreciate any suggestions for success, calls to repentance, and requests for progress reports.

Every time I try develop a journaling habit, I feel confident that this will be the time it sticks. But I know that no matter how good my intentions are, it is so easy to falter, fall, and fail. I also know that it is just as easy for us to lend a hand to guide, steady, or even pick each other up in those circumstances.

I promise to help you if you'll do the same.

Top 10 Tuesday: Twofer

Okay so this blog is beginning to look like every journal I ever started and then promptly abandoned as a kid with each entry beginning: "Sorry I haven't written for a while but..."

This just cannot go on.

While I'm getting my act together, please enjoy a twofer on me. Here are the last two Top 10 Tuesday posts I did over at The Blue Bookcase:

The Books I Wish I'd Read As A Kid

and

My Favorite Debut Novels

Happy Reading!

Flashback Friday: London Calling

So remember that one time I lived in England? I do, it seems like it was just twenty-four days ago.

Psych.

I don't mean that time. I'm mean the time before that time.

Well, this week marks the five-year anniversary of the beginning of that best decision of my life, so I wanted to give a quick shout out to all the awesome friends I made and a nod of thanks for all of the amazing, life-changing things I experienced from January through April 2006. If you look at any of my posts from that time, I think it's obvious we rocked the Argyle socks off London. (Then London rocked the Argyle sweater off Stephanie. Rude.)

Side note: I'm in San Diego for the week for work and I am SHATTERED, but I didn't want to fail on my first week attempting to resurrect Flashback Friday, so I compromised and made this post short and sweet. Don't think the brevity is a reflection of the awesomeness of this subject though, because it's not. It just gives me an excuse to bring it up again. (Because, if you actually looked at the posts I mentioned, you'll see I was just about as awesome at consistent blogging as I am now. Oh the stories I have yet to tell...)

Top 10 Tuesday

Okay, so remember that one time I decided to try and do this? (And succeeded a total of thirteen times...)

Well, this year it's coming back bigger and better than ever! And to keep it company, I'm going to go crazy and add another meme to the mix!

Top 10 Tuesdays will basically be a list of whatever I decide to numerically rank.*

There's no boundaries on how ridiculous epic these lists will be. Sort of like my listless phase.

So obviously this comes as part of my new year, better year plans, the reason being I am a horrible blogger, but I'm also the worst journal writer ever, so I'm choosing to tackle the lesser of two evils and then go from there.

For my inaugural Top 10 Tuesday post, I'm going to (re)introduce you to something else awesome I'm doing. Remember that one time I tried out for this? Well, thanks to your awesome feedback (seriously: *tear*) I got the gig! Now I periodically post book reviews, bookish essays, and bookish Top 10 lists (so you see where this is going) and I love it.

So, when a Tuesday, my turn to write The Blue Bookcase Top 10 List, and this blog align (oh look, another syzygy!) that will be the topic of the week.

So, without further ado, let me introduce you to The Top 10 Books Meagan Read in 2010!

*If you have any suggestions for Top 10 ideas please pass them on! (However, you should know I may be ranking them in order of awesomeness for one of my posts so make sure they're good suggestions :)