Why Disney Princesses Got Jipped

I get it, the Disney Princesses are meant to be the protagonists of the stories, but does that really mean the guys they married have to be...well...losers? Thank you, Disney, for lowering girls' expectations since 1923.

A friend of mine recently asked me which Disney Prince I'd prefer. Out of all of them, I picked Aladdin. Here's a run down of all the princes to help you all understand how I came to this conclusion.

Beast. 
Let's take into account why he's a beast in the first place. Oh yah, he's selfish and prideful; prob one of those guys who would go around shirtless when it's 60 degrees outside because they like the attention. Then of course he treats his princess exceptionally well by holding her captive. How did Belle fall in love with him again? To quote Perks of Being a Wallflower, I'd say it's because, "We accept the love we think we deserve." So probably because Belle was a social outcast, she fell in love with a guy who treated her like crap. Perfect guys, perfect.

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VALENTINE'S

I Love Valentine's Day.

No, I'm not crazy.

Actually, I've never even dated anyone during Valentine's Day.

To be exact, last year I actually broke up with my boyfriend at the time the night before Valentine's Day.

SO WHY DO I LIKE IT SO MUCH???

I love cuteness. I love happiness. I love expressions of admiration and love. Growing up, my favorite part of Valentine's was seeing what my dad would get me. Usually he would bring home roses or chocolate. I also loved helping my twin brother get together things for whomever he was dating. I liked the creativity involved. The feeling I get when I see people doing really cute things for other people is about what you feel when you see the pictures below:

Overwhelming joy.

That.

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ADDICTION

Sometimes, I just need a change.

Most people do it the normal way.

Myself--I take it out on my hair.

I decided I no longer wanted bright red hair.

So first, it looked like this.

That's right. Orange. Why it won't go the right side up, heaven only knows.

But it currently looks like this:

So there you have it, my friends. AAAaaaaand in case you want a side by side comparison:

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I'm Not Psychic

I'm not.


I'm not sure what you would call it. Gut instinct? God telling me things through thoughts? A combination of the two? Who really knows. But I can't really explain how I know things sometimes.

One time, as I was walking, I began to talk to this boy. Finally I realized that I should probably ask his name. Moments before, images and emotions of a boy named David that I had dated my freshman year of college flooded into my heart and mind. Instinctively I knew that this must be the name of this boy. And so it was.

When I was a missionary, I could only receive letters. Often I would think about certain people--randomly--that I hadn't heard from in a while. The difference, however, was that I knew that because I was thinking about them, I would soon get a letter from them.

This past week, I kept getting thoughts that I had been free sailing for too long. Everything had been too good for too long. I've had this feeling before--it meant something bad was going to happen. My world would be shaken up. Ironically, I was even having these thoughts this morning.

So it shouldn't have been a shock to me to find out tonight that this boy I irrationally still had feelings for, whom was quite in love with another girl, was moving back to Utah to be with her. But not just back to Utah. Back to my apartment complex. But not just my apartment complex. Back in my ward. But not just back in my ward. He was moving into the apt of the guy I just had been dating...an apt which is in MY "family home evening" group. Which, wouldn't be so bad if I weren't FHE mom.

Haven't I shed enough tears over this guy? I had just gotten comfortable with everything. Not having to worry about seeing him at church, or when I went to church functions (minus when I got the shock of the year so far when I randomly saw him two Sundays ago. Not cool).

In other news, my leg is still healing from being run over by a car. The doctor said it would take 8-9 weeks to heal. Well, friend, it's been 8 and it's still bruised, still hurts, and still has some nice purple stripes and pink markings. Whatever.

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Sheila Got Ran Over by a Reindeer...and When I Say Reindeer, I Mean a Car

I don't like to repeat myself. Wow, that sounded rude. But I'm being truthful. So, to eradicate me repeating this story over and over, and to keep from trying to figure out how to make it shorter and shorter each time I tell people, I will give the full blown-out detailed version. That, and this is obviously a very successful way to procrastinate studying for my final tomorrow.

Once Upon A Time...

There was a beautiful, smart, and feisty, young girl walking to class. The caffeine addict she was, she had previously purchased a Dr Pepper to keep her energized throughout the day. (Important for later...well, not really). Anyway, maintaining her position as the favorite child, she was on the phone with her mother. She stopped at the crosswalk, and waited for the pedestrian sign to flash. Once it transitioned, she started walking. Much to her surprise, to her left a blue car started pushing into her. She kept thinking it would stop (I mean heavens, that's what most cars do when they see that they're running into a person), but it didn't. Instead, she was knocked to the ground. Instants later, the wheel of the car is stopped right on top of her leg. Right above the knee to be exact. Besides some other choice words that were said, the girl yells to the driver of the car, "Back up, back up, back up!" He hears her, and slowly backs up. The girl doesn't pay attention to what the guy does next, because the student population of BYU come rushing to her. It's a little overwhelming when you've just been run over by a car. A girl approaches and asks if she should call 911. Trying to assess the situation, the girl pauses, and finally decides it would probably be a good idea. Her brain was running a little bit slowly at that moment in time. Another guy approaches and asks if there's anyone he can call. Remembering that she was on the phone with her mother she answers, "Actually, I'm kind of on the phone with my mom right now if you could talk to her." He sees the the phone she pointed to, picks it up, and says, "Hi, you don't know me, but my name is ______ (I'm not trying to keep his name anonymous, but with my track record, being run over by a car didn't exactly help my inability to remember names) and your daughter kind of just got ran over by a car. Again, she stops paying attention to what's going on until she hears him ask her, "Do you want to talk to her?" He hands her the phone and all she hears is her mother crying hysterically. So of course, girl who just got ran over by a car is trying to calm her mother. The EMT arrives, and the girl promises to call her mom once she's at the hospital.

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POLiTiCS--a rant brought to you by PMS

I usually try to maintain political neutrality. Let's be honest, when it comes to opinions, most of us only like to hear those which re-affirm our own beliefs. I'm not sure about other people, but I have a habit of always thinking I'm right, so it rubs me the wrong way when I hear a declaratory opinion that differs from my own beliefs.

So WHY IN THE FREAKING WORLD do people take it on their own behalf to post strong opinions on their Facebooks? 

For example, let's say I'm a Democrat a week prior to the election, and I'm going off about why Romney shouldn't be elected President. Okay, cool, good for me. Then, as I'm scrolling through my news feed, I see all these "ignorant" citizens of the United states slamming on Obama. I'm sure that would get my blood boiling.

Can you see what's happening here? People are being intolerant of other beliefs, and we're having an Alpha Male Politics competition. We don't care what other people have to say; WE care that our opinion is heard more than anyone else's.

A little interesting fact, people. Most people already have their own opinions, so they're not going to be persuaded by yours, NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES YOU REPEAT IT. Those who are most likely to be swayed are those who are the least interested (AKA the ones who unsubscribed from your posts because you were getting on their nerves from all of your political rambling). 

So how do you get your opinion heard?

1) Look for areas of agreement. For example, let's look at something controversial like Gay marriage. Some people are for it, some people are not.

Conservative people believe that marriage is ordained of God, and should be reserved for a man and a woman. Other, more liberal people, believe in the equal rights amendment even further (Equality of rights under the law shall not be abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex) and believe that marriage should be given to all. 

Before I go on, I just want to point out the whole "separation of church and state" deal. How the HECK did the government initially become involved in marriage? Lame. However, they are involved, and they give out certain benefits such as:

• Hospital Visitation Rights – Married couples have the automatic right to visit each other in the hospital and make medical decisions. 
• Health insurance – Married couples have the right to visit one another in the hospital and make medical decisions for one another. 
• Spousal Privilege – Married couples have the right to refuse to testify against one another. Everything you say, write, email, fax, etc. to your spouse can't be used against you.
• Inheritance rights – Married couples have automatic rights to inheritance in the absence of a will.
• Family leave – Married couples have a legally protected right to unpaid leave to care for an ill spouse.
• Pensions – Most pension plans pay surviving benefits to the surviving spouse. 
• Nursing homes – Married couples have a legal right to live together in a nursing home and spend their final years together.
• Home protection – Laws protect married couples from being forced to sell their homes to cover high nursing home bills.
• Retirement savings – Married people can roll over a deceased spouse's 401(k) into an IRA without paying taxes.
• Taxes – Marries spouses may inherit unlimited property from a deceased spouse, tax free.
• Social Security benefits – If you’re married, you get Social Security from a dead spouse. 

Republicans and Democrats may not agree on whether gay marriage should be permitted, but I personally feel like they should at least agree to the concept of equal rights. An agreement/compromise might be something like this: revoke the government's ability to call something a marriage or not. Leave that up to the religious factions. If the government wants to give out certain benefits to people, let them give those to all civil unions. Marriage can still be "ordained of God" and those who choose partners can still get "equal rights".

2) Avoid personal attacks. In contrast to public opinion, people don't like being called "Cotton-headed-ninny-muggins" and other such terms. Do not name call, distort what a person is trying to say, or be nasty. BE CALM.

3) Focus on the facts. This one may be a bit tricky, because everything is biased. I'm pretty sure my boss at work told me about a book he read which instructed the user how to distort statistics to show what you want them to show. A silly example could be this: 90% of the people polled prefer chocolate over other sweets. Cool, but they could have left out that all the people sampled were women. Are you catching my drift? It's very easy to misrepresent information to your benefit. So you can't believe everything you read, and then pass it on.

4) Look for signs of disagreement. If you see something getting heated, back off. It's not logical to think "if I say something more nasty than them, I'm going to win, and then they'll have to admit defeat and that I was right". In WHAT universe? Probably your own--party of one. No matter what, people aren't going to agree on everything. Agree to disagree. It's hard to find 100% truth in everything. Who's to say who's completely right and who's completely wrong?

And, with that, I'm going to class.

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Falling into Fall

First off, can I share how much I enjoy rain?

(I took this picture leaving campus today)

Rain--such an evasive jewel in a desert like Utah. Yet it rained today. In autumn! Usually the cruel forces at work restrain any type of precipitation here to the winter months. So imagine my delight when I realized I was given the privilege of having such a day in which the autumn was similar to that of Indiana! And oh, the rain—it has such a soothing effect. Growing up, I would lay in bed as I listened to the rainstorms beat against my old house. I loved it. It calmed me. And the smell! It’s my personal belief that they should make candles that smell like rain. No one would buy them but me, but I don’t care. It’s weather like this that makes me want to warm up some hot chocolate (check), snuggle up in a blanket (why is the closet so far awaaaaaaaay???), and find a cute boy to hold my hand and tell me how beautiful I am (okay so maybe this one is a constant through all kinds of weather).

:)

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