BS: The Science of Bachelor(ette)hood

So statistically speaking, I believe that 80% of people who throw out statistical reports are completely full of it. Unless you have a PowerPoint in front of you or you are running for something, I just don't think it's natural to carry around many statistics in your head and so I think that when someone pulls out a, "If there are 30 of you in this room, 3 of you here will not marry in this lifetime," I think they might just be making it up. However, I was having a conversation with a friend recently, during which she expressed the budding thought that it may be a possibility that she never marries. This of course led to some pondering on my own part and I remembered that on a number of occasions, I have been in a room when such a marriage statistic was given. As I look around the room in my minds eye, I find that I am one of the few reaming who have not yet married and/or begun repopulating the earth. If you are one of those others in the room and I am doomed to spinsterhood so that the rest of you twenty seven could live in wedded bliss, know this: that the sacrifice was unwillingly given. I do however find comfort in the fact that I do not live in the days of which Jane Austen wrote her wit covered, bitterness laden books. Whereas Anne in Persuasion had a fate sealed in solitude at age 28, I at a mere 25, though in a culture almost as ridiculous about the age of marriage, have found only a few wrinkles and one gray hair and still feel very much in my prime. To friends out there who share my state of things, and those who don't, I want you to know that science isn't everything. My dad is a science teacher and he used to say physics is everywhere, and he is right. I am talking about the scientific method...I found this online as a good way of explaining the scientific method. Swans...

Observation: Every swan I've ever seen is white.
Hypothesis: All swans must be white.
Test: A random sampling of swans from each continent where swans are indigenous produces only white swans.
Publication: "My global research has indicated that swans are always white, wherever they are observed."
Verification: Every swan any other scientist has ever observed in any country has always been white.
Theory: All swans are white.
http://www.wilstar.com/theories.htmu

This article goes on to say that in fact there are black swans. So...point is, though the data collected throughout a life may seem like something won't happen, it can. The Wright brothers never flew...until they did. Abe Lincoln never got elected for a single election...and then there was that one for...oh PRESIDENT. And so you haven't dated much or successfully...and someday you do! Things change! So all the theories and statistics might just be a whole lot of BS!

Fall Photo Shoot

As roommates we took a really long walk on a Saturday in the middle of October. We had fun and yes we're silly girls! I believe in the fall and dark chocolate hair against oranges and reds! I'm definitely made for fall!

And here's one of Megan at the gelato place (Maestro's on Center...check it out|). It's a pretty artsy one...I think I did a good job.
And here's one of Jenny looking mysterious and sultry...

Halloween Haunted Gingerbread Houses

Before Halloween, I had a group of friends over to make Haunted Gingerbread Houses. We had black graham crackers and orange frosting (the kind made from egg whites, powdered sugar, and cream of tartar...it was like cement). I have some creative friends. My group did a Gothic cathedral. Another group did a grave yard (complete with fondant grave occupants and bones) and another did a toilet. A toilet complete with very real looking contents which caused a gag reflex the next morning cleaning it out (the put a plastic bowl in the middle and stuff in it).

Picture to left is of Rob and Megan being sneaky about their creation...they thought everyone was out to get them and steal their ideas. There would have been no way because it was pretty awesome.

Yes, this picture is of my friends eating the pumpkin bread. They're pretty cute, the creations were pretty cute...I'm pretty cute...all cute! And I realize I didn't get a picture of myself that night...so here's me at Halloween! I was a flapper girl. This is me with a couple other flappers I met that night. I'll be honest, the way I figure out what I want to be is to find something that I can wear eyelashes or glitter or whatever...just something pretty! I was the princess kind, not the gory kind growing up. (Note: I looked up what a flapper girl actually entailed to be sure that I wasn't portraying anything risque. The roaring 20's was a time of change for girls...they kind of had a little big of an edge to them. They smoked and shortened their hair and wore shorter skirts. It was kind of an eat, drink, and be merry time...guys were just getting back from the first WW and everyone was just glad to still be alive. The term, "flapper" is attributed to the young, immature (doesn't apply to me ;)
) girl and came from the way young birds flap as they start/attempt to grow up and assert themselves...I admit that part does apply to me.)

Addition to Technology Post

I had something else to say about technology's quirks. It is this. My office is very small. There are maybe 8 of us at a time within 25 feet of each other in any direction. We use IM to communicate a ton. When I can hear the typing of someone IMing me and yet my coworkers don't even poke there heads in when they get to work to say, "hi," something might be wrong. I said this to one of my friends and she tried typing softly so I couldn't hear her. It was funny...funny, but sad...very sad!

Technology: The Connection Disconnect

So I just got home from my job. My job requires me to spend 7 hours in front of a computer. Technology keeps a roof over my head and food in my tummy until I get the job I really want...teaching...which will also use technology. I blog now using my pretty outdated but amazing machine. Disclaimer finished and moving on... I was having a conversation with a group of friends last night about talking on the phone in company (especially date company). We decided we're all addicted to our phones (and one to his blue-tooth ;) ). On Saturday I left my phone at home when I went to the gym and then to run some errands and yes, I kept going to make a text message and then remembered I didn't have it. But you know what...I totally survived! I was on BYU's campus a month or so ago and was just laying on the grass between some meetings I had and looked up and took notice of the passersby. People watching used to be interesting but I saw too much of the same thing...wired people. I took a count of 10 random people who walked by and 9 of them were hooked up to something (i.e. iPod, cell phone). 9!!! And another thing I noticed was this...they weren't looking at each other at all. They were completely missing the interesting (attractive) people walking by because the were tuned in and tuned out. How sad! I made it a goal last year sometime to not talk on the phone while at the groccery store. I realized I needed down time and if I needed to make phone calls while strolling through the aisles of Smith's then I was scheduling myself too tightly. Groccery stores are such fun places. I love striking up random conversations, making a little comment about something like a cute baby, the lack of high quality produce in November, the prices of tomatotos anything to connect to the people around me. We're a community for crying out loud! I should have lived in the day when the butchers knew your name and what your family had for Sunday night dinner. "Ah, Miss Rappleye...your night to cook for dinner group again huh? How did last week go? Was I right about your cut of roast beef? Wonderful!" We're all just a bunch of lonely people these days wandering around disconnected from those around us and connected to people far away. Facebook...what a strange thing. There are people I'm friends with on there that I don't even know that well and won't see as soon as I would my own neighbor but do I make as much contact with my neighbor? No! And texting. I texted a friend last Sunday who I hadn't talked to that day. We passed each other at church but did we say hi? No! No effort put forth there...but Facebook says we're friends too!!!?!!! Now I must wrap up...you see, I've got math homework. Guess what! It's an online class. Yea, it's pretty convenient but I don't get to ask a professor any questions or flirt with the math nerd in class. I get to spend more time alone, away from other people. Maybe after I do my homework I'll go do something fun! Hey, I could go bowling! Or play the guitar! Or go to a Yoga class! But why go out...anyone have a Wii I could come use! (Cue hysterical laughing...the kind that is just laughing at first and then moves into crazy people laughing). Hahahahahahahahah! Hehehehehehehe! Haha! Ha!

"The greatest thing, you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return..."

My niece turned one! She turned one and in the past year I have learned to love in a different way than I ever have before. She is amazing. She is amazing and she can't string two words together. She is amazing and she can't get her own food yet. She is amazing, but by all of the world's standards, as of yet, has very little to offer. She has not earned it by wealth, intelligence, service, or degrees, but our hearts are hers with no chance of ever being returned. I was thinking about this love and how strong it is. I was thinking as I drove away from her birthday weekend in Idaho that the worth of souls is indeed great. That one tiny person's worth is so great and means so much to me. I was thinking about how much we love her and how she is unique in our family, I wondered, if we loved each other as much as we could. I don't mean to say that by loving our niece we diminished our love for each other but this is an intense feeling and I was trying to figure out what made it so different. Why are children loved so much? I thought of some of the things that made them different than their older versions and came up with this: they need you for their every need and so require your love; they are innocent and so have not yet obtained a past or any negative traits...in other words they have received no demerits and so have not earned any reason for a lack of love; their potential is intoxicating and exciting and inspiring because no time is yet lost. I'm speaking now of course of children in general, not necessarily one's own because unconditional love is kind of exempt and my parents love for me is still pretty ridiculous. I heard a young woman talk about her career as a first grade teacher and her love of little children and their awe inspiring and, feeling the same, know that it is a feeling had by many for children and is a mystique that all children, yours or not, carry. I think that for the same reasons that children are loved, some adults are overlooked or unloved or forgotten about to be loved. Most adults don't need another to care for their physical needs. Time has passed and errors have been made so there are black marks on their records. And time has passed and some opportunities are gone and the adult seems to have less potential. It is my budding opinion that none of these things are as they appear and that the difference between adults and children is smaller than is thought. Though physically one may be able to provide for one's self, emotionally, that is not the case. I know many adults who are cold are hard and who seem to need no one who I would guess, and acutally know in some cases, need others to an even greater degree than most. As for the black marks on the past, in the religious views of many, including myself, there was a price paid to have those removed and so the done and atoned for cannot receive condemnation from another who is similarly patched and made whole. This too is maybe even a reason to love more. The potential we have to love another is great. Change is always an option and the need to be loved is always there and if we would look around and if we tried to see with clearer eyes, we would see the vulnerable, loveable children in the eyes of those twenty, thirty, sixty, or eighty years removed from their first birthdays. To hold them now may require a different understanding of how to hold them, but it is no less necessary than it was when those who loved them first could wrap their arms entirely around them.