Tuesday, September 25, 2012

So You're Having Trouble Making Friends

Hey no worries, we've all been there. You're aware that you're totally awesome and fairly normal but you're not sure how to convey that information to other people. That is why I came up with some great ways to get people to understand your greatness! 

1. The first great way to let people know you're awesome is very simple. When asked to introduce yourself along with something interesting, you simply state "My name is ______ and I like to party." If anyone around you laughs more than a polite laugh or in fact chooses the same greeting for them self, you smile and nod their direction. You have just made friends with a kindred Hot Rod fan. If you are NOT a fan of Hot Rod, DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS METHOD! You'll ruin the coolness of it. 

2. This next method is also simple but gives you an even better chance at making friends with kindred spirits. You simply bring up your favorite TV shows ASAP. TV habits tell you a lot about people. If they don't watch TV, it means they will not find any of your quotes funny and you may as well stop talking to them now. Unless of course you don't watch TV either (which would explain why you're reading a blog for entertainment...) in which case you two can be happily out of the loop together. If they only watch reality TV, then tell them that stuff is only fun for vacations when you're bored and walk away. If they name off at least three shows they have in common with you, quickly assure them that you are friends and then have an in depth conversation about whether Psych is still as funny as ever or whether it's dropping. If they say that they watch Arrested Development, hug them and inform them you are best friends and you'll be by later to watch old episodes with them. 
I'm telling you people, this is mainly a joke but seriously TV is a huge indicator as to whether you're going to get along great or averagely ok with somebody.

3. Another option is to Facebook friend people you want to get to know. And while it is a perfectly acceptable in this society, I have yet to figure out how to treat those kinds of people. I mean here I am, stalking somebody I just became friends with on Facebook, and then I see them walking by. Is it polite to start a conversation by saying "I see you liked The Office as one of your favorite shows. How do you feel about this new season?" It's perfectly acceptable that I have that information since we're friends on Facebook but is it acceptable to mention to them that I know things about them? Are we all supposed to pretend that we didn't stalk them as soon they accepted the request? I usually try to play it safe and just don't give the person any idea that I know so much about them. But sometimes admitting that you stalked someone gives them the chance to admit they also stalked. And that my friends, is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. 



Secret Weapon: If you are feeling that none of these methods have been effective enough, I've got a sure-fire way to let people know you. Pull out that old morph suit you have sitting around and wear it to your ward game of Capture the Flag with some flour bombs. It's genius! Not only does it show everybody that you are random enough to own a morph suit, it also proves that you're smart enough to use any excuse you have to wear it. The best part of the morph suit is that while wearing it, you will be virtually blind which means you can talk to all kinds of people thinking that it's your friend Alyssa when it is very much not her. The only downside is that you will never be aware of just who you were talking to since you're too proud to admit you had no idea who you were talking to and unwilling to ask their name. Also, don't expect the morph suit to help you be great at the game. While it's useful to be able to blend in with the shadows, it's not useful when you can't even right in front of you. It does take the fear out of running into enemy field because as far as you can see, there is absolutely nobody in front of you! Until they are right in front of you and you have to dodge to avoid knocking them over. All in all, people will remember you. So do it. 

If you tried these methods and still haven't made many friends, I'm in the same boat. Others may tell you that you'll have a much easier time making friends if you get to learn about other people or something along those lines... But my advice is to just pull out the morph suit again. 

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

All to Impress a Boy

My loving sisters have informed me, as nicely as they know how (meaning very blunt), that my blog is boring. So here's a fairly interesting story of my sad attempt to woo a boy by being the greatest gospel doctrine teacher.

It all started the first week of church. I happen to notice this very good looking boy in my gospel doctrine class. I spent the whole lesson thinking of how I could talk to him. Or in reality how to get him to talk to me. Good looking guys are my downfall. I can not strike up an innocent conversation with them no matter how long I stare at them wishing I could. Anyway, this boy, despite my obvious stares, does not talk to me after class. I should have taken that as a warning sign...

Instead I begin to plan on how to get this boy to notice me. A miracle happened in the midst of my scheming! I was asked to teach Sunday school the next week. After clarifying that it was indeed the same class, I began my preparations immediately. This lesson was my chance to show off just how awesome I am!

Plans began with the game we were going to play. I probably should have began with the lesson but I knew that wasn't going to be my strong suit. I decided on a get-to-know-you game because everybody was still meeting each other. Plus it was a great way to do more research on my boy. A protected Facebook page can only show me so much. And I obviously couldn't add him as a friend because of the simple fact that I'd only learned him name through stalking techniques. The game was a simple one where everyone wrote down two interesting facts about them self and then we went and guessed who it was. It took a while to get through them all but overall seemed to be a success.

After preparing the game I moved on to the lesson. I'll admit it took a while to get that part together but eventually I got a lesson that would be very flexible with time and class participation. Luckily it wasn't a call to repentance kind of lesson. It's a little hard to fall for someone who seconds before was telling you about how wicked you are...

It was a few days into the week that I suddenly realized I hadn't even considered a treat for the class! I don't know how it wasn't my first thought. I take every teaching lesson as an opportunity to try a new recipe without having to eat it all myself. Luckily Chelsea found me these delicious bad boys. Snickerdoodle Cupcakes!

I definitely recommend them! My only remark is that I added more milk and powdered sugar to the frosting.
However this good impression was so important to me I even made cake mix cookies as back up in case I didn't like these cupcakes. I'm telling you people, this lesson was the only thing on my mind all week. I'm embarrassed now by how much work I put into it but man did I nail it!

It was perfect! The lesson went smoothly, the cupcakes were delicious, the game worked as well as I could have hoped for, and I was even looking pretty good! I had imagined everything that could go wrong and the worst I could imagine was the boy not being there. But he was! Do you want to know how he reacted to this brilliant display of awesomeness? Well I couldn't tell you. He kept his head down just about the whole lesson and just gave me a simple "great lesson" at the end of it as I was leaving.

Excuse me?! The lesson wasn't even the good part! And while I was hoping for a drop to one knee and an absolute begging for my number I would have accepted a simple "Love the cupcakes! You should come bake for me!" or even a "You should teach the lesson every week!" But no. He didn't even say great lesson with enthusiasm!

So the moral of the story is, always make a gospel doctrine in the hopes of impressing lots of people instead of one certain one. It's a much surer route of success.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Dorm Decorations For The Unskilled

I'm at BYU Provo now and life is grand! I've got a great apartment, awesome roommates, and classes have yet to kill me. Now one of the things I was the most excited for was decorating my own room at college. Don't worry I'm aware that's nerdy. Anyway my lovely roommate Chelsea and I decided to cordinate our room decorations with the colors red, black, and white. Here are our adorable bed spreads!
Plus we did some adorable crafts to help add to the theme. However, I'm not very crafty so I had to try and find the simplest crafts out there. Now I've sharing them with you all so that you can try them out yourself if you're as unskilled as I am!


This was my simplest craft. Mainly cuz it wasn't a craft. I just took a picture frame, added a picture, and then tied a necklace around the back of it to hang off the side. Also it is the only one that doesn't match the theme of the room.

My next craft I just mod podged cute paper around the frame, glued on some white buttons with hearts on them and added an adorable family picture!

My jewelry hanger I already had from a previous mutual but I had to fix it up to match the room. So the outsides are covered in red sequins, buttons, and rhinestones, many of which came off on the trip up here :( Then I added a smily heart to the top and the word lovely at the bottom.

Now I'll admit none of these have been too crafty. This one I would count as crafty though! I took old random pictures of my friends that I will never use for anything and cut them out to fit around the boarder. I mod podged them on and bamb! You've got yourself a picture outline! Now you can then put a picture inside the frame but it looked a little too crazy to me that way so instead I put words on the inside. This project was almost really great except for the fact that the D in friend ins't in line. If I was completely my mother's daughter I would do it again until it was perfect. But because I'm also my dad's daughter it doesn't bother me enough to fix it.

Chelsea and I both decided to do these decorative letters and it is probably my favorite craft. It was just so easy but I love it so much! You don't even need instructions for it because you just make it however you want. You can do as much or as little with it as you want!

This next project is the one I'm most proud of because it really is a definite craft! I took a plain wooden framed mirror and started by painting it black.

Then I made those flowers around the edges by cutting pieces of fabric in flower shapes, burnign the edges, sewing them together, and adding a sequin to the middle. I also chose words to put on the mirror. I actually didn't have enough E's so I had to trace it onto another sticker and cut that one out.

After that you paint the mirror part with black paint. Once that dries you just peel off those stickers and you've got yourself one sweet project! Then if you're really want to tie it together you add on some perfectly placed rhinestone stickers and you're a craft genius.

 I swear everthing looks better in person so come visit me! I'm still learning how to make friends so I could use the company.... :)