Just Because I Can

I think I want to make some of you just a little bit jealous.  Okay, that's a lie.  I don't want to make anyone jealous, I just want to tell you about my SUPER fun week from a couple weeks ago!!!  To avoid as much detail as possible (because we all know I tell my stories with way too much detail,) I decided I needed to plan a Disneyland trip before I left on my mission so my cousin Marleah, her husband, my blood cousin, Chad, and my friend from school, Ben, planned a trip.  After figuring school plans/work schedules out (Ben is still going to school in Idaho), we decided to go on the 21st of May.  Not long after solidifying a date, my other cousin Audrey said she wanted to go with me before I left and the best time to do it was the week of the 15th-21st of May!  Perfect!!  Two trips in one week!! 

Saweet!  So that's what I did.  Just listen to this schedule (some detail will be added in):

• My mother and I drove to Vegas after church on Sunday.
• My aunts Kathy and Shauna, cousin Audrey, my mother and myself drove directly to the Fashion Districts in LA on Monday morning.
• Went to DL/DCA (Disneyland/Disney's California Adventure) the majority of Tuesday.
• Drove back to Vegas on Wednesday morning, Audrey and I got on a plane, and flew back to Utah later that night.
• Thursday = "relax" aka finish cleaning my car, run errands, do wash, repack, go to the temple, and pack my life away.
• Friday, I got ready for another trip.

And now starts the good stuff...not that the other stuff wasn't not good, but this next trip was a big trips of "firsts."

Firsts =

1. Not only have Ben and Matt (Ben's younger brother Matt tagged along) not been to DL (and they are Disney people as unto myself), but they have not been further south than St. George, UT!!!  So they were able to go to Arizona, Nevada, the Vegas Strip, Cali, and DL in one trip!!!  Not too bad!  (They are from the East Coast, so they have a good excuse for never having been to these places.)
2. I have not been to DL with my cousins Chad, Marleah, nor my aunt Aleda who also decided to come.
3. And the last important first will be explained later.

Here is the schedule for this trip:

• Ben and Matt drove from Rexburg Friday afternoon arrived at my house around 5:30pm, we left from there a little after then, got to Vegas around 10pm (note the time zone change), drove down the Strip to show them around, and got to my aunt Kathy's house for bedtime around 11:30.
• Rise and shine around 3am, out the door and on the freeway around 4am.  Ben was kind enough to take this shift of driving, so I was able to relax while we chitchatted all the way to our destination at 8:30am.
• DL/DCA from about 8:45am - 10:30pm and on the freeway back to Vegas by 11pm.
• I drove on being up for more than 24 hours.  I had to pull over for 20 minutes to rest my eyes, then I had to wake Ben up about 3 separate times to save me from falling asleep (Thanks Ben...even though you don't read this), and then the arrival at Chad and Marleah's place around 3:30am, and then we crashed.
• Wake-up around 10:30am, leave a little after noon, drive to Utah and arrive around 7:30pm (note again the timezone change).
• And my dear, sweet friends had to travel another 4 hours back to Rexburg and they did not arrive until almost 11pm.

Isn't that crazy?!  Crazy AWESOME!!!  I most certainly had an amazing time!  It was perhaps one of the funnest trips to DL/DCA I have ever had...translation, of the many times I have been, this may be one of the most memorable/fun.  I sure hope the boys enjoyed themselves as much as I did!  I enjoyed their company thoroughly.

Now to the last important "first" of the trip.  A little known fact: Star Tours at the DL resort has been closed for nearly a year and the opening is scheduled 2 days after I go into the MTC, of course.  While at DL on Tuesday, they had an opening just for the Cast Members aka. employees of DL/DCA.  I don't think you can understand my jealously.  So on Saturday they were doing the same thing-ish.  People had special laminated passes that I wish I could have gotten my hands on.  While walking with Ben and Matt to meet my family before they left the park, I was admiring the line for the ride, wishing I was one of them.  A Star Tours Cast Member noticed me and said, "Would you like to come on the ride?"  Seriously, I wish I had my reaction on tape.  I literally freaked out.  Running, jumping up and down, clapping of hands, making noises I don't even know how to explain.  I even had people look at me all paniced-like.  So funny.  I just want to know what was going through Ben and Matt's heads!!! hahaha  When we found my family, Marleah said, "I seriously thought you found a $1,000,000." Anyway, we were some of the first 1,000's of people to ride the ride before it opened.  (When I say 1,000's, that's a pretty small number considering the 1,000,000s that will ride it!!)

So there you have it.  It was a blast.  I got my Disney fill before the mission, but I'm sure I'll be more than ready for it when I get back!  :)

One last thing.  Seeing as I'm leaving on my mission in 2 days, I will not making any new posts.  If you would like to read the letters I send to my family, I have created a Facebook account where you can read those.  If you search for "Lydia Nelson Missionary," my brother will add you to the account.  Thanks everyone for reading and for being great! 

Peace out for 18 months!  :)

Not Hello, but Goodbye

Something I don't like are goodbyes.  I'm fine with the ones where you know you will see that person/or persons again because it's a temporary parting.  The ones I don't like are the ones where there is an unknown future.  Where you don't know if you will ever see them again.  Well, I guess it depends on the situation.  I've met many acquaintances, gave them a wave or hug goodbye and I'll never see or even talk to them again, not a big deal.  But the ones that aren't my favorite are when you meet someone who you grow close to over years.  The type of person you can confide in for any situation; they make you happy, they make you think, they help you learn and they make you want to be a better person.

Luckily I've only had to do this a couple times and I know some are to come in the near future.  That's what I'm not excited about for the mission; those goodbyes.  It's just so sad!  Leaving someone behind that you care about and not knowing if you will see them again.  It's like losing your favorite something, but you most likely don't cry about it...because it's only a material possession.  Okay, bad analogy.  Anyway.  I guess a happy way to think about it is that there's always email and thinking that you can meet them again in the hereafter if there's no chance in meeting them again on Earth.  haha  I'm a dork.

So, to those who may never read this, but that I have said goodbye to (or may in the future) that I may never see again, thank you.  Thank you for being there when I needed you and even when I didn't.  You made my life that much better and you made me grow in ways you cannot believe.  You were a great example for me to follow and you still are.  Thank you for showing me what a great person is, for being a teacher and a councilor, for helping me make hard decisions and standing next to me in my choices, someone to make me laugh and cry tears of joy, but most of all, thank you for being my friend. You are the best.  I love you and I do hope to see you again.  I will miss you.

The HeART of Hearing

For those of us who have been blessed with perfect, or almost perfect hearing, I think we take advantage of this amazing gift.  We have the ability to hear everything and anything we wish, down to the mere sound of a pin dropping, while others either have assistance with aids, can only hear partially, or cannot hear something as loud as a fog horn.

I find it somewhat sad when I think to myself, "I wish it was quiet!!" while sitting in my room, with my door shut and rolling an earplug in my fingers, preparing to stuff it into my ear so I can read in "silence."  Given, I am one of those people who is easily distracted by sounds such as the tv, so I have to do this to concentrate, but that's a different subject.  Anywho.  Sound, in general, is marvelous and it is more apparent and it affects us more than we actually believe.

What made me think of this was the amazing composer, Ludwig van Beethoven (to whom you are now listening.)  Although he had written most of his music while having the gift of hearing, the last 10+ years of his life were actually spent partially or completely deaf, but he still wrote music these last years of his life for the love and passion of producing beautiful sounds.  He wrote such ranging differences in music; the first song on my playlist which is now playing, brings tears to my eyes because of how sweet it is, while the third is a triumphal song, which gives me the chills every time I hear it.  Such beauty and they came from the heart, which is where most beauty should radiate from.

I must bring someone else up, a man in which I love, one that heard things differently than others.  Not because he was deaf, but because he heard things in is mind and heart and then wrote it down on parchment.  Mmmm, I love him and I have loved him since I was a little girl.  He is yet another composer, one whom I have grown up listening to.  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  He is marvelous.  He had striking talent throughout his whole life, which is apparent from his many scores of music.

These two men, Beethoven and Mozart, although not devout religions men, I believe they were inspired.  Inspired from God to write such glorious music to rest upon our ears.  They listened to their heart and wrote what they heard.  I could not be more grateful for that.  Their compositions have affected my life greatly.

Another note worthy person I would like to mention is someone I hardly knew; I don't even know her name.  We were both dance majors while in attendance at high school.  She was completely deaf, I believe, but she was in the most advanced level of dance the school provided, which was very advanced.  (Remember that music is needed for dance (in most cases) in case you forgot that little detail.) Her abilities were so great that she would never miss a beat.  She felt the rhythms of the music through the floor as well as watching her fellow dancers. (Audrey, correct me if I'm wrong.) This girl used feelings and sight as her ears.  Amazing.

These three people used something other than their ears to hear, they used their hearts; they used their hearts to create art.  This is something I have been working on; listening to my heart rather than the chaos of the world.  But keep in mind, not only should I be listening to my heart (as well as my feelings), but I must keep an open ear to my surroundings, which offer so many great sounds.

I hope all is well and that you'll take a little more time away from the tv and listen.  Now close your eyes and do just that, listen for a bit.

Firsties

Do you want to know something crazy I realized?  I am the first female EVER in my generations of families go on a mission.  No female (other than my aunt who is on a couple's mission with her husband (she counts, but I'm talking single's missions)) on my dad's side has been on a mission and seeing how my dad is the first member in his line, this makes sense.  On my mom's line, we came from the church with ancestors such as Eliza R. Snow...but I'm pretty sure sisters did not serve then.

It's crazy to think about.  I am the loan sister missionary from both sides of my family.  Pretty awesome.  In this case, I sure hope "the first shall be last" will not ring true.  I would love for generations after me to have young sister missionaries.

Status: Over Defined

I know I'm going to step on some toes with this post, including my own, but I'm still going to write my thoughts.

Life has become overcomplicated, complex, and much too defined, and I think Facebook is to blame.  If someone's thoughts are spoken in their mind with a voice as if it is a Facebook status or they are wondering what they are going to say for their next status or what picture they are going to post and what comment is going to accompany that picture, and these are continual thoughts they have multiple times a day, I think that person may have gone too far.  I was/still kinda am one of those said persons and quite frankly, it's not acceptable because, do you know what, those are the very things addicts think, but about their specific outlet.  And even further, how much of my life has been wasted from sitting in front of a non-changing screen?

Facebook has gone too far and we have as well by fueling it.

I admit, it's a great tool to keep in contact with people you know, but when people are stating that they are at "the gym" with such and such, at "the movies," at whatever "restaurant," and the list goes on, it's an overload of unnecessary information.  We don't need to know every single tiny aspect of people's lives.  Do people really care if others are "watching tv with [ ]" or "at work?"  I really think people could care less.  Although, I would like to know if someone was at a fun location such as at "Captain EO" or "Avenue des Champs-Élysées;" those are worth mentioning because people are generally not there every living day of their life.

Also, it gets a little tiring when you hear that people are having a bad day, day after day after day after day. This is a personal issue that should be dealt with privately.  Certain matters should be kept private with those who people trust rather than with 100s of their acquaintances.  Personally, I would rather hear about people's accomplishments, something funny that may have happened to them, somewhere fun they may have been, or just plain rubbing something in someone's face (in a positive, joking light, of course), because that's entertaining.  I just get tired of hearing the same thing over and over...I guess I have the option to hide such people, but I don't.

What I'm getting at is:
What happened to a life of mystery?  My favorite persons to "stalk" are those who hardly post anything because I want to see if I can find something out about them that I don't know!  If they posted everything they do, then I would have no reason to call them and see what is happening in their life.  Overall, I would rather talk to someone on the phone than figuring out what's going on in their life from seeing endless posts about every aspect of their life.  Isn't it the life of mystery that intrigues someone?  I probably receive the comment, "What are you thinking?!" once a week.  It's a fun game; I make a face (apparently I make faces, which feel normal to me so I don't notice them) and then my teacher will stop the class, and say, "What are you thinking about?!  She's always making faces and I want to know what she's thinking!  It's drives me crazy!!"  haha  I also received the same comment from a few handful of people, so obviously making "faces" is a good way to intrigue others.  It's fun.  It keeps people interested and wanting more...I digress.

Soooo...that being said, this is my contract to myself and to the world:
I, Lydia Nelson, will not be getting on Facebook multiple times a day, but rather only at one given time during the day.  Also, I will not be on Facebook everyday.  I will only post pictures, thoughts, statuses, links, comments, and other such listings if I think someone other than myself will be slightly entertained or uplifted from them.  I would even go so far as to take the app off my phone...put for photo uploading purposes, I won't, I'll just limit my use to loading things, not checking it.

It has been written.  This is my contract...and it starts now.

I'm out.