Culture + Nature

On Friday the new exhibit at the museum opened!  This was the first exhibit I had really worked on, so it was thrilling to see everything come together.

Before the opening, one of the artists had a pre-opening party at her "cabin" (a.k.a. lodge mansion) at Sundance.  Wow, it was an experience.  I mostly did dishes and made sure the food was laid out, but there were a bum load of extremely rich people and fancy cheeses.  But even more importantly, the view was otherworldly.  Oh my goodness it is so pretty and green up there right now!  It makes me miss Oregon like crazy!

{The view from her porch}

The opening at the museum was actually pretty well attended.  My boss (the contemporary art curator for the museum) said that on average openings usually see 300ish people.  There were about 1000 there for this opening!  I guess all the billions of posters I posted all over and Facebook invites I annoyingly sent to everyone I knew actually worked!  Haha, and maybe something the PR department did helped a little too...

Anyways, as I mentioned before, I was primarily assisting one specific artist, Pam Bowman, with her installation.  Even though it's defs not my work, I did feel so pleased to hear people's positive comments as I was wandering through the gallery.  It's Pam's beautiful work, but I feel like all the hours I put in have given me a soft spot for it too.

So her piece is called "Becoming".  The viewer first encounters a 10'-tall grey wall with 1000 linen strings hanging from holes about 5' off the ground.  As you walk around the wall you see that each or those strings comes through the other side and attatches in bundles to the base of a 12'-tall sculpture of rope.  Each of the bundles wraps around eventually becoming a bundle of small ropes and finally a bundle of three large ropes.  It's truly so lovely.  I just love it.

{This part where the bundles attach is my favorite.  The way they twist upwards reminds me of water flowing backwards.  It's really pretty.}

The exhibit is open through September so come check it out! : Museum of Art

.   .   .

Then on Saturday, Braveheart and I went hiking with some friends.  We hiked to Stewart Falls and it was just breathtaking!  I can't believe I've lived here for so long and never done the hike.  The weather was beautiful and it didn't start raining until we were hiking back out.  Even then though, the gorgeous shades of green and the sprinkling rain were just so lovely and Oregon-like that I didn't even mind.  MAN I miss the Northwest!

 

 

 

{We got a rainbow on the hike back out!}

Weekend Update...Not with Seth Myers

Unfortunately, not with Seth Myers.

This weekend was packed with friends, food, and fun.

Saturday morning I met up with an old friend for breakfast at Kneaders (French toast...Yum!).  Then Braveheart and I went and helped my parents put some pavers in their side-yard.

{picture isn't showing up}

It's looking really great!  Next, they are going to have a cement slab put in the area under the trees and then install a gazebo.  It's gonna be a sweet area for outdoor parties and receptions.  My dad is in the bishopric so they are hosting a ward member's reception later this summer, and they are excited to do more in the future. If you need a place for your reception, hit me up!

Then I made this delicious Chex mix that my roommates and I affectionately call crack, for obvious reasons.

I ate waaaaay too much of it myself.

On Sunday, I got released from my calling as a Family Home Evening group leader in my ward (the ward is divided into "family" groups for weekly activities and I led one of the groups with a guy in the ward).  When I got this calling a year ago, I was way stressed and I kind of dreaded having to plan things every week.  But when I got released this week, I realised that I never really noticed when it went from being a pain to being a blast! I think it had to do with my partner; we made a great team!

My new calling isn't a whole lot different, but I'm excited for the new opportunity!  Instead of being a group leader, I am a co-chair over all the FHE groups in the ward.  My partner is a guy that I've been started hanging out with recently, and he is great!  It's gonna be a fun summer of awesome activities!

Story about this:

Last Sunday was Fast Sunday and I got that "get up right now and bear your testimony" feeling during sacrament meeting.  Being the ridiculous human being that I am, I kind of just told the Lord, I would go next month, and the Spirit backed off.

Turns out you can't tell the Lord what's gonna happen.

This past week, the bishop announced my new calling at the beginning of the meeting.  At the end of the meeting, there was a little time left and he got up and said "We'd like to ask Sister Jill Hacking to come up and bear her testimony."  Not Fast Sunday.  Definitely not the most prominent calling given that week. Haha, I was mortified, but I also knew that it was the Lord giving me a second chance at the opportunity I had foolishly passed up the week before.  We are so blessed to have a merciful Father in Heaven who wants to help us grow and become who we need to be.

And then the best part of this awesome weekend!!!!  We got to Skype with my brother who is on his mission in Louisiana right now!

{He is the twin to my awkward heart, and I miss him like crazy!}

What the crap is that girl doing?!

I am rather fond of this new zombie craze.  Not sure why, but I love me some undead apocalyptic goodness.  Not like Walking Dead into it (couldn't even get 3 episodes in), but like volunteering at a Halloween zombie 5K into it.

{Note my awesome siblings who share my affection for the apocalyptic world of the undead}

Annnnnyway, I recently discovered the best thing on the planet.

 

It's an app called "Zombies, Run!" and it combines an audiobook, a basic running app, and a game.  So basically, you do a chapter at a time and you are a character in an zombie ravaged world.  The story unfolds through other characters in between the songs from your selected playlist.  It tracks your distance, pace, etc and on top of that, you are periodically chased by zombie hordes that you literally have to outrun.

I love running, but I get bored sometimes.  With this app, I'm too freaking scared and pumped to be bored!  It's the perfect distraction.  I'm getting used to the sound of zombies getting louder and louder as they come closer, breathing down my neck, but the first time I used it, I may have taken leave of my senses.

Picture a calm Saturday morning in a peaceful neighborhood.  Some kids are out in the park playing games and random people are out doing yardwork.  A jogger appears and she seems a little tired, but just casually jogging.  Suddenly she screams (yeah...) and starts running and maybe crying a little.  "I can't go any faster!" she yells through panicked gasps.  

I got some weird looks.  If I was just periodically sprinting that would be one thing, but it clearly appears that I am being chased...minus the chaser.

I just wasn't expecting it to be so intense!  Although, my imagination sometimes gets the better of me, so I'm probably the type of person who is most affected by this nonsense.  When the zombies first start chasing you, a creepy voice warns you "Zombies, 100 meters away."  As the distance decreases the beeping of the radar gets faster and the moans get louder.  It's terrifying.  I genuinely could not use this app at night.  The first time the zombies appeared, I started booking it while they were still 100 meters away.  Of course I got winded super fast, but they were just getting closer.  I am not exaggerating when I say I have never run that fast in my life.  When they finally caught up to me and ate me, I stopped in some person's front yard and bent over and felt like puking blood.  I can only imagine what the person in the front room was observing.

 I think the worst part for me was the realization that I really wouldn't survive the zombie apocalypse.  I was honestly a little heartbroken when I realized this.  I won't be one of the survivors.

I suppose my fate as one of  horde has been sealed.

The Lord Blesses Us!

I've noticed I have a tendency to step back and take account of things only when I feel like everything is hitting the fan.  Looking back, I don't always remember the good things and the blessings and the beautiful sunny days because I didn't focus on them or take the time to remember them.  Bad call: I need to be better at acknowledging the Lord's hand in all things, especially when I'm being so blessed (D&C 59:21). Things are going really well right now, so I want to document it!

This has been the first week of Spring term.  Both of my lovely roommates went on to their own adventures for the summer (the third one left on a mission a few months ago), and as much as I wanted to join Braveheart, I just felt like it was right to stay here. 

When they left last weekend, I was afraid this summer was going to be so hard without them.  I mean, my family lives close, but these girls have become my family over the past two years.  I cried it up all weekend (not helped by the fact that we watched The Impossible the night before they left) and as many great things as I knew I had going for me this summer, I still felt so lonely!

But you know what, this week has been wonderful!  I still miss those two and our life in our little townhouse, but I've already seen Braveheart a couple of times this week, and I don't feel so lonely.  The Lord answered my prayer.  I didn't want to wish this summer away the whole time.   I knew the Lord had inspired me to stay here for the summer and He inspired them to leave, and I know He has a plan for each of us.  I've been praying that I would be able to have the faith to LIVE this summer, instead of enduring it.  I've prayed to feel less lonely and be able to enjoy this change.  And even though it's only been a week, I can already feel the Lord answering my prayer and comforting me. Here are some ways I have noticed His hand this week:

Friends

Even though Braveheart doesn't live here anymore, I can still spend time with her!

My new roommates are great!  Whitney moved in and we have another new roommate who seems really nice and into the same nerdy stuff as me, haha.

Last Sunday, I went to church without my two roommates and I realized that while we had friends as an apartment, I didn't really have any great friends in the ward.  It was (and still is!) kind of like starting all over even though I've been here for 2 years.  But a couple of guys from my FHE group came over and started talking to me.  It was a really small thing, but it was definitely the Lord answering my prayer.

Work

UGH, full-time work in the summer.  The one thing I hate almost as much as Weird Al and peanut butter.  It probably has to do with the fact that I have worked at a call center for the last three summers with two of those working another job as well (can you say 14 hour days?).   This summer though, I am splitting (only) 40 hours between a secretary job on campus and a job at the school's Museum of Art (maybe I'm the Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art).

It has been so great!  It doesn't feel like full-time because I'm splitting between two completely different positions.  I've worked as a secretary for almost a year, but I just inherited a whole passel of challenging responsibilities from another secretary who left.  I was worried that I would botch the whole bit, but I am really catching on!  It's a direct answer to prayer because frankly, I could never have figured all of it out by myself.

At the museum, this week has been wonderful because I have purpose!  I have been assisting an artist, Pam Bowman, in fabricating her installation for an exhibit we have opening in a couple of weeks.  I have also been coordinating the schedule of the other interns and employees who have come in to help her.  It was challenging, but by the end of the week I was able to teach the new helpers what Pam wanted so that she could focus on other aspects of the work.  On Friday, I stayed to finish part of the installation with her after everyone else had left and she thanked me for my help and said I had been invaluable to her.  I feel so blessed to have this wonderful opportunity to be a part of the process and I am learning about communication and collaboration and responsibility.  But to have her thank me was completely unexpected and I almost teared up!

School

I am taking classes both spring and summer term and I have had mixed feelings about it.  I've heard it's nice because there are so few people on campus, but it's hard because the classes are condensed.  For spring, I am just taking one class, and although it is more work because it's condensed, I am loving it!  We are studying the first half of the Doctrine and Covenants and I am flabergasted by how little I know about this book!  And about how applicable and personalized it is for me as an individual in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!  Spring term is going well.  Summer will be quite a bit harder as I will be taking an advanced Italian grammar class...but I will cross that bridge when I come to it, with the Lord's help.

New Goals

I hesitate to post goals on here because as evidenced by my very first post on this blog, I am rubbish with committing to goals (probably because I'm even worse at sticking with them).  However, I am going to share my goals for this summer because I am already a week in and doing great (with the Lord's help!).

This summer I have three primary goals.  I want to work out at least thrice a week.  This is going great!  I've run thrice this week and more importantly, I've found times that will work every week so I can't talk myself out of it.  Also, my cousin is a personal trainer and she has a fitness challenge business, Abs for Days, and I am doing her May ab challenge.  So far, so good!

Another goal has been to make actual meals (and/or bake) more than once a week.  I made an actual dinner twice this week.  Hooray for progress!

My last goal is to blog at least twice a week.  Dropped the ball on that one this week, as bits of this post have been simmering since Monday.  Every night this week I intended to sit down and write this post, but you know what? People got in the way.  Or, I should say, the Lord put people in my life every night this week so I wouldn't have a chance to feel lonely.  I didn't feel bad when I chose not to blog this past week because I knew I was choosing people, choosing life that the Lord blessed me with!

Guys, the Lord knows what's up.  I have such a strong testimony that He loves and cares for each of us and wants us to be happy!  He has a plan for each of us and though it's hard to see, if we try He will help us have the faith to follow it.

Victory, Victory.

Yesterday, I ruined the day of several hipsters.

My video won the YouTube challenge this week.  The theme was foreign music, so of course I picked this bomb k-pop video.  All the other nominations of whiny French indie music were shot down.  Winning was great, but crushing the hipsters with something seen by many as irritating? Double win.

Speaking of crushing wins, last night Braveheart and I went to our other roommate's intramural basketball game.  This may [NOT] come as a surprise to many of you, but I'm extremely un-sporty.  I'm horrifically uncoordinated and notoriously ignorant when it comes to competitive sports.  However, we wanted to support our awesome roommate! So we went, and it was actually a lot of fun.  Her team works REALLY well together.  Seriously, when one girl passes the ball to a teammate three-quarters away across the court and that girl proceeds to do a lay-up (ha, look at me and my grasp of sports lingo), it's pretty entertaining to watch.  But when this happens literally three times in a row while the other team looks on? Awesome.  Basically, they crushed the other team.

It went well, and my egregious ignorance only came out briefly.  Luckily Braveheart was there to tamp it down...after getting a good laugh out of it.

Me [after the other team made a basket]: Boo!!

Braveheart: Why are you booing?

 Me: Uh, the other team made a basket. [clearly.]

Braveheart: She was travelling.

Me: *quickly searching my feeble mental database of sports terminology* ...so...

Braveheart: *seeing the cogs slowly turning* ...yes, Jill.

Me: So it didn't count!

Braveheart: ...

By this time, we've already missed the next bit of action in the game.  Awesome.  Some boy is gonna be so lucky to have such an illiterate wife.

Tunes Tuesday round 2

Last week's winner in my class was "I want you back" by the Jackson 5.  Synchronized baby Michael Jackson dance moves.  Kind of a treasure. 

This week's theme is music from a television show or movie.  It can be a song sung by a character or just background music.

My selection is from The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. (The song starts at about 1:14)

"The Call" by Regina Spektor

I seriously can't even watch this clip.  

These books are one of my favorite series of all time.  I LOVE the story, and the symbolism behind it really affects me.  This clip with this song is just perfect.  The oldest two are leaving Narnia never to return.  The contemplative, building motion of the song is perfectly aligned with the Pevensies' mixed desire to stay and need to leave.   "The Call" is something they alone will always hear when they go back to England.  It's something they will always have to get them through because they know someday they can heed the Call and return to Narnia.

I really do feel such a connection to these books simply because they are written as an allegory for this life, and it definitely works for me.  I would say I get emotional watching this clip, but it's more than that. It's a pit in the bottom of my stomach and an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia mixed with regret and longing.  But also a tinge of determination.

Okay I'm a mess. I'll stop.

My second place choice would be:

 "Just a Game" by Birdy (Written for The Hunger Games)

This song is also perfect for the narrative.  Once the horror of the Games is over, Peeta realizes that for Katniss what happened in the arena was "just a game."

What song would you pick? Post it in the comments so we can all enjoy it's awesomeness.

Weekly YouTube Clip

So I should have started this three weeks ago.  Buuuuuut I didn't.  One of the seminars for my major is popular culture, and the particular professor I am taking it from is approaching the subject from a popular music viewpoint.  Basically, it's probably the best class I've ever taken.

One of the assignments in the class is a weekly YouTube nomination.  He gives us a theme and we all post our nomination with a description under that theme and then we vote and discuss the winner in class.  I'm loving this activity so much that I decided I will post my nomination on my blog too (and I'll probably tell you the weekly winner too).

So this week's theme (I'll catch up on the previous weeks later) is a favorite song recorded before I was born.  As per ush, I had a crazy hard time deciding.  I went with this video in the end.

 

California Dreaming by The Mamas and the Papas

I went with this one because it plays as you enter California Adventure and this song always takes me back there.  There was one visit when we had to wait at the entrance for forty minutes and since there were only three-ish songs in the playlist, my brother and I always associate this with the magical fun of Disneyland in the summer.

(Also, the message seems to be one of disliking winter which, as you all know, is a sentiment I vehemently share with them.)

Enjoy!

P.S. These two were my close seconds:

 

What song from before your birth would you have picked?  Post it in the comments!

Recent Instagram

Last night I had some friends over to watch the mid-season premiere of PLL, but more importantly to celebrate Amy's birthday!  Whitney and I made her a PLL cake which she wasn't expecting and she loved it!  Yay! 

 Also, I died my hair dark again.  It was the first time I got it professionally done, and I'm loving the color quality.  It looks almost black, but the golden darky brown shows up when light hits it. 

I don't about you, but I'm feeling 22!

Today was my birthday, and I have officially passed the adult mark.  Clearly, it's all downhill from here.  Surprisingly though, my first birthday into boring adulthood has been one of my favorite.

 Typically my birthday falls in the two day lull between end of classes and beginning of finals week.  This year, however, it was the first day of finals, and therefore my expectations of any sort of birthday joy were very low.  That's not to say that I was being Negative Nelly about it; I just honestly haven't really even remembered my birthday this year.   I've just been focused on finals, so I was pleasantly surprised by all my birthday surprises!  I have the best people in my life!

I woke up early to study and one by one my roommates left to their respective finals.

 (Sidenote: this has been our sleeping arrangement for the last week:

Best. Thing. Ever.  Though not exactly conducive to studying...)

 I went upstairs to get dressed and this is what I found in the bathroom I share with Braveheart:

  

I was so surprised by the gesture and touched by her sweet note that I teared up a little.  She's so great!

Then, after going to work and taking a final I came back home and plopped down on our mattresses/living room floor to find a note from my The Mature One advertising her specialty, cooling on the stove.

Following THE BEST birthday song I have ever had sung/performed for me, we partook of its gloriousness.

In addition to today's awesomeness, I celebrated with my family yesterday (with an iPhone from my parents!) and Whitney and Amy on Saturday at an art exhibit opening.

 Me and some of the fam at the exhibit:

 In summation:

Love these books! Courtesy of Braveheart:

 

 From Whitney, lovely Hunger Games print: 

 

And Hunger Games pendant (It says "Real" and has Peeta's pearl!)

 Finally, one of the best gifts I have ever received:

My parents re-ordered our family Christmas cards because of a heinous typo that laughed at me every time I saw it.  Most people wouldn't have noticed, but it drove me freaking crazy.  So they re-ordered them.  Haha, my enabler parents!

Well, people love me.  And I have a blessed life.  And today was a nice reminder.

Even though it snowed.  And it's finals week.

So, this happened.

So, I'm super nerdy sometimes.  No, I take that back.  I'm not nerdy, I'm just passionate.  And I get really...passionate about things I enjoy.  Such as Pretty Little Liars.  Well, Whitney filmed our other friend Amy and I while we were watching the mid-season finale and then put it on youtube for k's and g's.  No expectations.  We didn't do this to be filmed.  In fact, I didn't even notice for a while.  This right here is pure, honest, unadulturated PLL love.

 Watch this.

YOU GUYS.  Tyler Blackburn (the actor who plays one of the main characters) saw the video on youtube and tweeted it.

I'm having a major fourteen-year-old-fangirl moment.  I'm freaking out.

Productivity. I'm great at it.

This is what I do at work when it's slow. 

My money's on the little guy.  His groupies are waaay cooler.

Random Recents

Here's what I've been up to lately:

1. Princess Festival

Summer of 2010 and 2011 I was in a charity performance festival called The Princess Festival.  This year I decided not to do it, but a fellow alumni (Whitney, a.k.a. Sleeping Beauty) and I took her little cousin and went to check it out from the other side of the curtain.  It was an odd experience not being one of the princesses, and I almost lapsed into my princess voice a few times simply because of the atmosphere.  I missed being a part of it all, but I really enjoyed being the spectator too!  Everyone did such a great job and the shows were darling!

 Here we are with the Little Mermaid and the Frog Princess.

 As we were walking through the booths, I saw a poster for sale and did a double-take.  This was the poster:

This was me the first year I did the Festival.  And the photographer is selling me on a poster! I'm so famous!  Haha, it was a little ridiculous how excited Whitney and I got about it. Every time we walked past the booth my head got a little bigger.  This poster is going to be the next pop culture phenomenon.  Just wait.  Wait for iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.

 2. Nails

I lovelovelove mint green.  It's one of my favorite colors for nails.  This summer I've also fallen in love with coral.  You can't see the colors very well in this photo, but this is one of my recent experimentations with the two.

 

 3. The Best Thing that Ever Happened to Me

 If you are reading this blog, you probably have a fairly good understanding of the fact that I have an inhuman, parasitic love for dinosaurs (specifically Velociraptors...obvs).  Well, my dear friend Whitney gave me this little beauty this week.

 Ummm...hi.  I died.  I'm still dead.  I have never loved anything this much in my life.  It's a BABY DINOSAUR.  And it literally cuddles my finger. DEAD.

4. Meals

I'm really bad about cooking.  Like, two-times-a-semester-tops bad.  I usually just eat snacks and do every possible thing I can to avoid cooking.  Cooking is like this unapproachable puzzle that I can't understand.  First you have figure out what you need for a meal.  Then you have to buy exactly those things.  Then you have to measure crap and operate complicated machinery and I just...I don't really...it's a situation.   

But recently, at the behest and assistance of my sweet mother, I've been a little better.  My mom pointed out that like eighty percent of meals aren't so much cooked and put together.  So I've been consciously working on creating a meal, even if it's not actual cooked food.  And it feels better.  When I sit down with a meal--no matter how pathetic an attempt--I feel much better than if I had been snacking all day.

 

This is just Kraft Cheesy Alfredo with broccoli and a salad I threw together with some berries and pecans I had.  Super easy.  But it felt more like a civilized meal than what I've been doing lately.  Thanks mommy!

5. Midnight Spiderman

Whitney and I went with our little brothers to see the new Spiderman movie at midnight.  It was such a blast! We have super rad brothers.

Here's us on our precious brother-sister date in our pajamas.  My favorite is the awkward photobomber in the back.

                        

Freeway Adventures

        Me and the roommates got back from the Lake last weekend and it was a somber occasion indeed (the coming back, not the actual trip).  The vacation was a dream! No responsibilities, no work, nothing.  Just eating, swimming, tubing, boating, sleeping, eating, roasting marshmallows, skinny dipping (had to adjust to that one...ha!) , watching movies, swimming, soaking in the sun, and sleeping.  As usual, I dropped the ball and took ZERO pictures during the trip.
   
     Fortunately, I did take one picture on the drive home.  Unfortunately, I am not permitted to share it.  So I created a photorealistic replica in Paint so that I can still share the story.

            As you can see, I have blanked out the eyes to protect the identity of the individual (which is important because this is an expert rendition of the photograph).

         So we are in the final leg of our journey (the very same leg in which only 1.5 people would still be alive had we been playing Oregon Trail and not in fact driving home from vacation) when suddenly--um I'm gonna have to establish code name's here...let's call her Braveheart since she's the one that doesn't scare easily --Braveheart's nose starts bleeding, and when her nose starts bleeding, it doesn't do it half-way; it does so in violent gushing waterfalls.  However, we don't have any tissues or napkins and we just passed an exit.  The only thing we have is part of a newspaper, the kind with the super-thick newsprint.  So that what she's using.

Driver (uh, oh.  She's gonna be called Driver from here on out on the blog simply because she was driving that day.  Unfortunate.): Wait!  I think I have a tampon in my suitcase!  Do you want me to pull over and get it?

Braveheart: (muffled from behind the rock of newsprint) Umm...probably, cause its already seeping through.

Driver: *pulls over, grabs tampon, hands it to Braveheart, then looks in rearview mirror*  Oh, crap you guys.  There's a highway patrolman parked behind us.

At this point, Braveheart is leaning out the car door trying to clean up with water and newsprint.  And her nose is just gushing.  Also of note, Braveheart bruises like a Georgia peach and her shorts are currently revealing the extensive patchwork of blues, purples, and greens she collected on the trip.

Braveheart: How about I just tell him you guys beat me up and show him my bruises?

The rest of us: *violent protestations* (cause he seriously would've believed her...she's done acting)

During all of this, the nine-year-old brother of my other roommate, The Mature One, has been asking "What's a tampon?", "What's in her nose?", "What is that?".  To which we have brilliantly been responding by saying "Hey look at that tree!" or "Hey look at my split nail!"  He's not having any of it.

Finally, after chilling in his car forever, running Driver's plates or something, the Patrolman comes up to Driver's window.

Patrolman: Hey, you girls okay?

Driver: Uh yeah, she just got a nosebleed. *stabs her thumb in Braveheart's direction*

At about this time he looks over and sees what the heck is up her nose.  His expression quickly changes to a look of awkward discomfort and literally says  "Okay, bye" and darts the heck out of there. The whole encounter was like 4.6 seconds long.

We all just kinda look at each other and burst out laughing. 

The Mature One's little brother: What's so funny?  What is that thing?

The Mature One: Uh, don't worry about it.

We spent the rest of the drive home forcing Braveheart to smile at other drivers to get their reactions to her makeshift clotting device.  People were WEIRDED out.  It was awesome.