I Am...

One Annotated Bibliography and

One Bus Ride and

One Plane Trip

Away from Home.

In Thirteen Hours and Five-Hundred and Fifty Miles

I Will Be Home.

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Some of My Favorite People

Caitlin and I enjoying some Thai iced teas after watching Julie & Julia

Aurora and I enjoying some drinks at SLP&P

Russ and I in fabulous AEB 220

Cheryl, Jenny, and I, again, in fantastic AEB 220


Dear Blogosphere,

Unacceptable number of updates in August. I do apologize. The past weeks have been CRAZY. It's like I've been on vacation in Salt Lake. To update you...

-Saw Rushmore at the Tower Theater with Caitlin.
-Did the Great Music Swap with Khrystine.
-Saw The Hangover and The Jerk at Brewvies with Wes.
-Rode a long and crazy emotional roller coaster. I am finally disembarking.
-Paid lots and lots of money in rent.
-Bought clothes and stuffs.
-Enjoyed a delicious meal made by my darling Aurora.
-Ate at SLP&P like... 20 times?
-Visited the U and will be visiting again before I go.
-Set the official date for leaving lovely Salt Lake. September 5!

Enjoy the pictures above. Of course, they are only some of my favorite people. Not all. :-)

-Natalie

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The Sweet & Salty Taste of Freedom

Dear Blogosphere,

Oh, wow. I am pretty much done with this semester!! The only thing I have left is a non-cumulative exam in my Intro to Music class. I'm taking it as early as possible: Tuesday (Cinco de Mayo!) at 4 PM. It only covers two units in the textbook so I'm going to start the study guide tomorrow night and just do it at a snail's pace. After this past Tuesday there is not a worried bone in my body.

Last Tuesday was exciting. I worked on my statistics project like crazy. I found some very interesting things out, like the children of divorce are much less likely to believe in an afterlife and feel further away from 'God.' If they do believe in an afterlife, they are more likely to believe that the afterlife will include a reunion. Women are more likely to believe in everything... I had no idea that sex (or gender...) would play such a huge role in religious beliefs. Strange, strange. Particularly odd that most churches are patriarchal yet women are far more religious. Mother's attendance at church also plays a huge role (greater than father's) in beliefs. So, hopefully I'll get to return to the data in the future, because in the end I sort of fell in love with it. I guess if you spend enough time on a project you never really want to let it go. Ha ha.

I also wrote an "exploratory literature review" (how's that for trying to title something loosely?) about the effects of divorce on children and how attachment plays a role in the whole thing. I think there's a lot of room for further research on that topic. I also ran across a few things on attachment and religiosity/religious views. Very interesting stuff. I think we like to think that we are consciously in control of what we think but... ha ha... perhaps just like with our political beliefs, taste in music, and opinion of the death penalty, it has some sort of genetic component or it draws from some of our earliest experiences.

So, in addition to Intro to Music, Nick's Stats and Russ's Attachment courses, I took Human Sexuality through the Health Education department. It was a great course. I wish we had touched more on sexuality through the lifespan, but the cool video of a few live births was AWESOME as was watching someone roll a regular condom down their arm... reaching their elbow. Too much information? I'll stop right there....

I'm rather sad to be done. It was much fun to be Heather's TA, collect stories from toddlers, watch preschoolers dramatize stories, and have the opportunity to watch Mike finish his thesis and Jackie start on hers (fortunately, I'll be staying in the research group through the summer). It's going to be strange to be able to do whatever I want to... whenever I want to this summer! A few friends and I are going down to Las Vegas on the 18th to see Ben Folds in concert, so that will be so much fun. I love Vegas. It is sensory overload. I will certainly be posting photographs.

And Emily is getting married so I'm excited to get everything ready for that! Yay, yay, yay!

Well, that's enough updating. I'll post again probably with graduation pictures! Oh, speaking of which, if you feel like coming it is in the Huntsman Center at 11:15 AM on the 8th. It's the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences, and you'll be killing at least two birds with one stone as Sara is in the same college....

Yay!

-Natalie

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Sugarhouse Life Drawing

Dear Blogosphere,

So I had a pretty fun hour-and-a-half today. Nice break from regression, for sure! It was a drawing party and lovely Jessie was the model. I can't draw to save my life (ok, I guess I can draw a triangle) so I brought my cheap Samsung camera. It is pretty nice, but next time I will for sure snag my mum's Rebel.

I've been thinking more about UCD and the U and have been talking to professors and grad students about it. I haven't gotten any super strong recommendations for the U (except for a professor who said he'd like to work with me). One professor told me to think about things in terms of untapped knowledge. Lots to think about. And I have until April 15.

...Dinner: Impossible tonight is for Pixar artists and there are three theme menus: Cars, Finding Nemo, and Ratatouille. I think I'm going to go watch it now...

Love,

Nat

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Mosaic

Dear Blogosphere,

This is a cool thing that is spreading on Facebook. Here are the directions:

Directions:
FIRST Go to Google image search
- Type in your answer to each question
- Choose a picture
- Use this website (http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php) to make your collage
- Save the image for use in this note
- Post and tag all your friends

QUESTIONS:
1. What is your name? Natalie
2. What is your favorite food? Thai
3. What is your hometown? Salt Lake City
4. What is your favorite color? Aqua
5. What is your favorite movie? Ratatouille
6. What is your favorite drink? Raspberry Lemonade
7. What is your dream vacation? Tour of Scandinavia
8. What is your favorite dessert? Cupcakes
9. What is one word to describe yourself? Enigmatic
10. How are you feeling right now? Optimistic
11. What do you love most in the world? Bunnies
12. What do you want to be when you grow up? One that professes

Mmm... that gluten free cupcake looks delicious.

-Natalie

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Me - Part 1: Utah

This is a rose from the house I grew up in.

Dear Blogosphere,

I thought it would be a good idea to let you know more about me. Instead of a boring old washed up survey with the same old lameXcore questions, how about a different way of presenting myself? Through photographs this time, in the future I might add some of these cool word things I figured out how to make. All in due time.

First up... Utah


This is in Southern Utah. The red rock gets its color from oxidized iron, the white rock, from calcium.


This is up East Canyon. I took this photograph in January when I tested the water for various forms of pollution. Very cold but lovely.


This is in Zion's. What a landscape.


This is in Southern Utah, but I can't recall the location.

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