the niños of ecuador

a snowy pre-christmas farmington morning

mindy and rachel: back by popular demand #1

I'm off to Ecuador for like a week.

Later suckas.

Things my Grandma Foster said tonight:

"So Rebecca [the only only person who calls me Rebecca], make sure you marry a rich man, if you need to. You're worth so much more than you know." [hahaha]

[About my haircut] "Oh your hair. You looked good enough before."

"Oh you're not cute at all, Mindy. [She is though. Don't worry.] We're trying to hold you back in your development. We're trying to discourage you from dating. We don't like those dating people."

[About a passing visitor at the rest home] "Don't you like his PJ pants? They're stylish, like mine. Just get in your PJs and it's like you're dressed up."

[To Mindy, a BYU Women's Rugby player] "Stay away from that stupid rugby."


[To talk on the phone to Stephanie] "Which end do I speak into?"



Grandparents are great.

What my Grandpa Sharp said at dinner tonight:

"Becca's not weird—she's different."

On the bulletin board at my grandparent's house

haha.

now & then

I went to Cafe Rio with the girls I've loved since I was nine: Jessie, Aly, Staci and Jen (accompanied by Baby Kaysia). And besides the fact that I would do anything to move Cafe Rio to Manhattan (no, Chipotle is not just as good), I also loved seeing those girls. It's fascinating and great when you don't see people for so long, but then it's exactly the same when you're together. And you could very well be cooking Ramen and watching Goosebumps together after school or playing murderer in the dark in the garage like you all did way back when.

the flying novice

Since moving to New York City, I've flown a lot more frequently than I used to. But I realize that I've been somewhat of a Flight Booking Novice. I always thought that the point was to get the cheapest airfare possible—that that was the ultimate goal when booking a flight.

But let's recap some of my recent airplane experiences:

Thanksgiving: New York LaGuardia to Dallas Ft. Worth to Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City to Chicago O'Hare to New York LaGuardia.
Cousin's Wedding in CA: New York LaGuardia to Chicago Midway to San Diego (Oh! A little Southwest stop that I did not know about and was not on my itinerary) finally to San Jose. San Jose to Chicago Midway to New York LaGuardia.
Christmas: New York LaGuardia to Chicago Midway to Denver (Oh! Just another little Southwest stop that I did not know about and was not on my itinerary) and finally to snowy Salt Lake City.

My only goal now is non-stop flights only.

carpet lover

I cannot do sit-ups on hardwood floor. It hurts my spine. (Does it hurt everyone's spine?) This is one of the reasons I love carpet, a novelty that does not exist in Manhattan. Or, if it does, which it rarely does, it's kind of gross. So tonight I laid on the lush carpet in my sister's bedroom while I talked on the phone and ate ice cream. It was super.

and after the work holiday party is the work holiday after party

Last night I partied like Lohan. Sans cocaine and alcohol.

And...what's the point?

But what if it really DID close?

I feel like Kenny would buy this shirt. I would have said Roger, but he has a wife now.

Where they sell this shirt.

Work White Elephants

So. A male Beta. He looks like this. Or maybe it's really him in the photo, and my Cleo is a fish model and didn't tell me. But he's probably too young to be a model, because the cute black kid at Petland told me my Beta is "just a teenaja'." I half-wanted the kid to start singing, "You gotta walk it out, to be my soulja girl," to me.
I purchased Cleo on 6th Ave and Waverly Place during lunch. He made a little stopover at Urban with me, and then we fought the wind back to the office. I was concerned for his welfare out in the wind and winter. But he's a fighter (smirk). I put the gross, dead snake worm Beta food and the water conditioner in a box and wrapped that to go in the present pile. I'll give Cleo's winner the actual Cleo after the box is unwrapped. Because I doubt Betas like sitting wrapped up in boxes for 24 hours. Plus I like having him at my desk—hidden, of course—as it is a white elephant gift exchange. But I'm growing rather fond of Cleo. And I doubt naming him helped in those matters. Fact is, I've never been fond of a fish before. Maybe it's because I've never personally owned one. I'm a dog person. But Cleo I want to keep. How can I rig a white elephant gift exchange so that I get my own present?


Also, other white elephant suggestions from viewers like you:

Spam. Easy and cheap. Also, gross. - Roger
Slippers. Wear around work slippers. Any slippers. Who doesn't like slippers? - Kent
Pregnancy test. - Alison
A packet of stickers. I love stickers. - Christina
Flingshot Superfly Monkey - Ann through Christina
A picture of a moose. Framed. - Kenny
Gum. People like gum. Framed. - Kenny
You could frame an example next to it. Of a bubble. Or proper mouth position. While chewing - Kenny
Or just a bag of trail mix. That's good too. - Kenny
Or Fun Dip. - Kenny
Spanish lessons. Give Spanish lessons. Written on socks. In Sharpie. - Kenny
A fish. Take a fish. Or a mouse! - Kylie

Thanks Kylie.

How could I resist?

Tagged by Aly and Jen

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

5 Things I was doing 10 years ago:
1. Babysitting.
2. Helping Jessie with her paper route.
3. Swinging over the creek on Jen's rope swing.
4. Wearing really nerdy glasses/braces/bangs.
5. Getting in arguments with my friends.

5 Things on my to-do list today
1. Blog
2. Send Molly's Christmas package
3. Watch a movie
4. Clean my room
5. Plan something with Seung Jung

5 Snacks I enjoy
1. Chips and salsa
2. Chips and salsa
3. Cereal
4. Triscuits and Skippy
5. Ice cream

5 Things I would do if I were a Billionaire
1. Go to Belgium and Iceland and China and Scotland and Ireland and India and Brazil and Japan and New Zealand and Fiji and Russia and Switzerland and Mongolia and Korea and Taiwan and Chad and Azerbaijan.
2. Rent some really really cool apartment downtown.
3. Have a car.
4. But lots of clothes. Just being honest.
5. Buy the whole chain of Café Río so they could be my personal chefs, and I could eat their tortillas and salsa every day of my life.

3 of my bad habits:
1. Biting my lip
2. Letting my room get messy
3. Freaking out when it is most likely unnecessary.

5 places I have lived
1. Ventura, CA
2. Henderson, NV
3. Farmington, UT
4. Provo, UT
5. New York City, NY

5 Jobs I’ve had
1. Cold Stone Creamery. Definitely awesome. I gained five pounds that summer.
2. Bed Bath & Beyond. Not my best work.
3. Karen Foster Design. Scrapbook luvers unite.
4. BYU Advertising Lab. BEST JOB EVVVVER.
5. The Geppetto Group. The real world it is.

5 Things people probably don’t know about me
1. I remember playing with My Little Ponies when I was like 12. Too old?
2. I like spray-mounting cut-out pictures onto mix cds for people.
3. I took a jazz dance class in 8th grade. What!
4. In December I like to sit in the dark with nothing but the glow of my Christmas tree lights and think.
5. I throw the javelin. Threw.

I tag Seung Jung, Mel, Anna, Jason Bond, Kylie.

becca's graham cracker new york apartment rides to an undetermined location on the downtown 1 train.

and we never saw it again.

jingle bell rock

asian attitude.

nick was, like, super prideful about his park bench with a pooping dog on it.

richard, bingeing.

techie chateaubriand.

el lonely boy.

it all started with a chair

Juno is the best movie I've seen in the theater in a long time. Really fresh, quirky, funny, and dare I say...heartwarming. I couldn't help but laugh out loud, and neither could the rest of the packed theater. A few lines felt like they were trying to hard (Dwight's in the movie for like two minutes? What?). I laughed, cried (not quite uncommon for me, but you might have actually cried too), and fell kind of in love with 20-year-old Ellen Page and her articulation.

I think it's a limited release movie, but if it's anywhere near you, definitely go.

the meredith grey in me talking

i have an issue: how could it ever last forever?



i don't go to bed lately.

we're crazy. all of us.

cozy

One of my favorite places at work is the women's restroom. I think it's the warmest place in the building. It's always nice and toasty, and I kind of want to hang out there all day instead of constantly jacket-clad in my office.

girl dates.

Tonight on my girl date with Anna she made fun of my post from yesterday. But I just felt like writing, and when I was walking last night I had these words in my head that kept repeating themselves and forming phrases, and I had to write them down so I wouldn't forget. Not because I think I'm cool.

So girl dates. Before New York City I didn't know that people had to go on same-sex dates in order to become more-than-acquaintance friends with someone. I never had to. I had friends, roommates, whatever. But here on this island where Mormon kids live farther from each other than across the hall or street, same-sex dates are necessary if you want a relationship to continue past group activities and mass emails. You actually have to schedule a time to do something just the two of you. Then you talk over dinner or dessert and ask each other date questions to get to know each other. Some guys do it too; I've heard it discussed. And New York can be hard slash awkward to basically asking to being alone with someone. Don't quite know why. Because it's less likely to just happen by happenstance?

So are same-sex dates more exciting to get invited to than opposite-sex dates? Sometimes maybe. But probably usually more beneficial in the long run.

she's here.

Winter grasped for a handhold today with her violent winds and fighting cold. I opted to walk the 19 blocks to and from family home evening at the Bishop's. I hate cold, but it's my first here. First date with frozen New York. I had to see what it was like. And so I felt satisfaction from the cold tonight. Like peeling skin from a sunburn and it may hurt but you do it anyway. But this was far from a sunburn. The wind at my back, hurrying me. Against my face, with strength, fighting. Reverse. Repeat. Reverse. Wind dashing against my cheeks until they could no longer tell whether it was hot or cold they were feeling. Glinting crystals flailing and falling, starting and stopping. Dizzying wind. Rushed wind. Blurring my vision and sweeping the lips from my face. Wind gasping to hold onto all it had gathered in its arms.

Target Brand & Marble Works

and it matches my blog.

which...fine,

Funny how a book can make you think differently about a place. Have you ever read something that makes you think, "Wow, someone just read all of my thoughts and published them in this book I'm reading."

"Two days before Thanksgiving, you fly home to San Jose, and everyone is like, 'You look so cosmopolitan.' Which just makes you feel worse, because you see how far you are from being cosmopolitan, and it's embarrassing that your family can't see it too. And then three days after Thanksgiving you fly back to New York, and in your taxi, on the way in from the airport, you realized you moved here because you wanted to be somewhere that wasn't nowhere, and if you don't want to be nowhere, you're going to have to stay here forever. And you'll never make it, you'll never be able to leave, because this is not where you are from.

Until you meet the right boyfriend. And then New York is where you are from."

foster family boy band

postscript:

This doesn't mean I don't still miss Utah like mad. Only that I'm starting to accept things.

Thanksgiving Break, etc.

Got new shoes, came down with something, ate lots of Cafe Rio, took jumping pics, took tree pics (a new thing!) and fence pics and middle-of-the-road pics, got a David Tao CD, got a new doo—'do?—"do"?, saw August Rush, saw Transformers, saw friends, saw family, ate lots of pie, ate Creamery Salsa (below). Great break. Great break.

But the real kicker was when I got back to New York late last night, and I begrudgingly felt relieved to be back in my apartment, back in my bed. Is New York home now? I've been fighting it. Me and New York City, wrestling. Sleeper Hold. But it might not be so bad. Sirens still wail their Doppler cries through my window. Strangers still breach my personal zone on the subway. But I think my love/hate soap opera with the city is becoming less sudsy.

And so I tell myself to let go of holding on. Be here now.

guess what i'm grateful for

me: but since i haven't lived [in utah] i've realized how much i love and appreciate it compared to this dirty, busy, loud city

Kenny: smelly

me: and smelly

i just miss a car.

and outdoors

and stars

and being able to be alone

and normal grass

and fast food drive throughs

(thrus)

and spacious grocery stores

Kenny: hardware stores

me: and mountains

and aridity

and non-swearing

and carpet

and $20 gym memberships

i could keep going

Kenny: this looks oddly like something artsy/clever/revealing you could copy-paste as a blog post

geppetto sunset

From my high-quality camera phone.

please rewind

The song during the opening credits of Friday Night Lights is the best television theme song I've ever heard. I always sit through the credits, and if I happened to miss the credits I rewind it so I can sit through the credits. But I fast forward through the credits on most shows, even The Office. And I won't even get started about how annoyed I get if I ever hear the Sex and the City theme song. And no, I definitely do not watch Sex and the City.

There's been some confusion about who made the song. Many people think the theme song is an Explosions in the Sky song, but it's not (although you do hear their great instrumental post-rock throughout the series). It was composed by W.G. Snuffy Walden. Here's proof.

Listen/watch:

as promised

This is a post about Ashley. About why I love Ashley. And about why she's my soul mate friend.

Because she's fearless.

Because she would have been an Olympic gymnast if she hadn't torn all her stomach muscles in high school.

Because she gave me late-night handstand lessons.

Because of how our voices change when the three of us talk to each other.

Because she let me wear her scuba gear.

Because she took me to Table Rock.

Because she beats me at bowling.

Because we go sledding at one in the morning.

Because she had me put a photo of her in my locket earring.

Because we slept on the roof of Middle Cambridge.

Because she goes to all of the BYU soccer games.

Because she hangs out on her mom's bed. And because I was invited to join.

Because we have too much fun.

Because she's muy fuerte.

Because she was a great addition to Chi Squared.

Because she let me dress up like her for Halloween and wear her beloved Chacos (too small for me). And because she wore those dreadful boots.

Because she did something exciting like move to the Cayman Islands.

Because after six months she came back to me. And because she's a magna cum laude or whatever.
Because she's a nurse.

Because she does boy things like me.

Love. Love. Love.