Alabama, Arkansas, I do love my ma and pa

I went on a little adventure this weekend with Ian. We explored part of Antelope Island, which is in the middle of the Great Salt Lake and is a cool place. There are some great views, and the best part is you can get pretty up close and personal with the wildlife. Ian mostly just went to do something nice for me, and I took advantage of that by declaring that we would not leave until I saw a buffalo. But we actually saw three from the car within ten minutes of being there. So then I decided that we wouldn't leave until I saw a buffalo up close. We ended up having to bushwhack a little in order to make that dream come true, which turned out to be a bad idea on my part because we got attacked by the world's population of gnats, which took up residence in our mouths, ears, brains, and inside of our eyeballs. And I didn't even get to get THAT close to the buffaloes because they were camped out doing whatever it is that buffaloes do in some pretty marshy land. But I got close enough to take a few (mostly indistinguishable) pictures of my bison friends, so I was satisfied. Here they are.

The mountains from Antelope Island.

The bison in question.

My ponytail made a comfortable home for many gnat families.

and had the overfed dead but listened to that high-fence, horse-sense, wisdom

If you know me, you probably know that I love stories...I'm sort of obsessed with fairytales and folktales-- I own a few volumes of them and they are some of my favorite reads. I took a Greek and Roman mythology class this semester and I acquired dozens of completely enchanting stories (and also many off-putting stories of rape and incest and murder that gave me weird feelings in my stomach, but you know, what can you do). I thought I'd share one with you, kind of a sad one, but I like it, so. The story of Cephalus and Procris.

Cephalus was this great hunter, a man's man and a total catch. He fell in love with and married the beautiful princess Procris. They were happily married for a few months before tragedy struck. The goddess of dawn, Aurora, caught sight of Cephalus one morning and determined that he would be hers. She swooped down and stole him away to be her lover. But he didn't want to cooperate--all he could talk about was Procris, the vows he'd made to her, how much he loved his wife, and so on. Not very sexy. Aurora was annoyed and said, "Okay, whatever Cephalus. Go back to your bride, although something tells me you'll soon regret ever even meeting her."

Cephalus set back on his way home, wondering what Aurora could have meant by that. He decided that she must have meant that Procris had cheated on him while he was away. He went back to Aurora and asked her to disguise him so that he could test his wife's faithfulness, and the spurned goddess was all too eager to help. She changed his facial features and sent him back home. He gathered gifts and prepared to woo his wife. When he came back to his kingdom he found Procris in total despair, pining away for the husband she thought deserted her. He decided he still wanted to go through with his plan and attempted to seduce her. She refused his advances time and time again, saying that she could only ever be with her one true love. One day though she hesitated, and Cephalus exclaimed, "You wicked woman! I am your husband, and now I know the kind of wife you are."

In shame Procris ran away without a word. She developed a grudge and mistrust of men and decided to devote her life to the virgin goddess Diana. She roamed the mountains, hunting and worshiping Diana. Meanwhile, Cephalus was devastated and knew he had been wrong. He sought her and once he found her, he begged her to return, and after a time she did. To show that she had fully forgiven him, she presented to him two gifts that Diana had given her: a hunting dog that could outrun any prey, and a javelin that never missed its target. Now, Cephalus lost the dog soon after in a chase with a fox--I don't know, the dog was turned to stone or something by Zeus, that's a whole other story--but he carried the javelin with him everywhere. And he and Procris lived happily together for many years.

Unfortunately, that's not the end of the story. As I said, Cephalus was a great hunter and he went out every day with his javelin. Sometimes he would get tired of hunting and he would rest in the shade, grateful for the cool zephyr that blew in from the valley. He would sing praises to the little breeze, hymns of gratitude. Someone overheard Cephalus saying sweet words to the zephyr, and they interpreted these to be the words of a man in love, presumably with a nymph named "Zephyr." The rumor reached Procris, and her deep-seated anxieties with her husband caused her to believe and to be filled with jealousy. She decided to follow Cephalus the next morning.

After a successful hunt, Cephalus commenced his usual routine of resting in the shade for awhile and singing a little song of praise to the zephyr. He heard a sound of distress and rustling coming from the nearby bushes and hurled his javelin at them. He recognized the cry of pain as his wife's and rushed over, confused and horrified. He tried to tend her wound, but the javelin was destined to never miss a prey and she was doomed. She begged him to not marry this nymph "Zephyr" and he realized the misunderstanding, but it was too late, and she died in his arms.

The end.

and turn the white snow red as strawberries in the summertime

I'm emotional. As in, I cry a lot: when people do nice things for each other, when babies are sad and don't seem to know why, when one of those commercials about starving children in Africa comes on the TV. It's because of this last situation that I have been scammed into giving fake charities portions of my meager funds. More than once. Because I'm an idiot. BUT. Not in vain. I've found a few charities that are actually legit and I thought I'd put in a good word. Feel free to share any that you've found.

The first is Plan USA.This is a Better Business Bureau accredited charity, and they've been around since the 1930's. They don't send out emails more than once or twice a month, and you can donate however much you want and even choose where your money goes.

The other one I like is the Tipping Bucket. I heard about this one at BYU's annual Hunger Banquet. It's kind of a cool idea: they have these projects they propose that cost a certain amount of money, and you can donate as little as a $1 to the project. If they don't raise enough money by the deadline (usually a week or so), you get your money back and they propose a new project.

We are so blessed to live where we live, and I think it's wonderful that these people have made it so easy for us to give back and spread the wealth a little to help our brothers and sisters in need.

all I want is you, everything has got to be just like you want it to

Okay, so I went on a trip to Zion National Park this weekend and yeah it was super cool, but that's not what is in my heart to blog about, and the thing about me is, I always follow my heart. And what's in my heart is worms. This morning they were literally everywhere I looked, just like sprung out of the ground or something. Worms and slugs. I took extreme caution to not step on them, not because I feel tender feelings towards them, because I DON'T, because worms can live without heads, which is GROSS. I just didn't want to get their wormy entrails on my shoes. So thank you worms and slugs for making this rainy morning truly disgusting. When I got back to my apartment I saw that birds were all over the quad, just having a high time gorging themselves on the worms, and I thought, "Happy Easter, birdies!" And then I realized it's not Easter, so. But anyway.

Well, this is what it looked like, except times it by A THOUSAND.

don't think that I'm pushing you away when you're the one that I've kept closest.

"Crystalised" by the xx. I've listened to it on repeat for two days and I feel like a better human. Well okay, not really. But yeah, I was being serious.


I don't know why, but the guitar harmonies in this song make my insides feel like this.

Well my heart has fallen down, thought I'd talked myself around

Lately this is my life: I go to school, and then I listen to music. Sometimes I make an appearance at a social function if someone makes me. But mostly my life is small and quiet, and I know I make it that way but I'm still going a little stir crazy.

This is what I'm listening to as I slowly die from cabin fever:


That's "St. Peter's Day Festival" by Ra Ra Riot. It's a good song from a good album. But it doesn't keep me from wanting to go here.

This is a monastery in Greece.
Or here.

These are tulip fields in the Netherlands.
Or here.

Machu Picchu in Peru.

When I get too sad about the fact that I am doomed to be in school year round for the next year and a half and have no money to travel anyway, I go to the National Geographic website and look at pictures and just weep because they are so pretty. I love school and my friends and even boring little Provo, but sometimes I close my eyes and pretend I'm somewhere else. And I tell myself that as soon as I graduate I'm going to pack a bag and disappear for awhile.