Pendulum.

Have you ever heard of them? I mean the band. But seriously, if you've never heard of them or heard their music, you are sincerely missing out. You have no idea. Look up 'Watercolour' and 'Witchcraft.' Imagine awesome electronic dance beat accompanied by heavy bass, SICK guitar riffs, and absolutely gorgeous vocals by Rob Swire. Mmmmm, muy delicioso.
So anyway, life is good. I've been watching extensive amounts of Glee and listening to tons of music and spending a lot of time in my deliciously comfortable king bed. It makes me a little lonely, but I sure do like it. If I lie in the middle and stretch both my arms out straight to the side I can't touch the edges of the bed. Crazy huh? So big. If I have a skinny husband it will be great. Admittedly I am getting a teeny bit tired of my two and a half year old niece... but I've never been much of a kid person so it's not really a surprise. I'll be okay though, don't you fret. :)
On a side note, I love Whoppers.

Flying.

First class, actually. My brother is a silver medallion member and they gave him a free upgrade to first class. Since he couldn't bear to leave his dear wifey, I got to have it. I guess you could say there are perks to being the only single member of my family, but I wouldn't particularly categorize this as the most incredible experience of my life. To be honest, the only noticeable difference won't even happen until I get food. (Philly cheesesteak, it had better be as delicious as it sounds.) But overall, first class is meh. As far as I can tell. The kid (okay, he's 22) in front of me reclined his seat and let's just say that having my laptop seriously in my lap as opposed to my thighs is a little uncomfortable. For typing purposes, anyway. My arms are long. Well everything on me is long. Arms, legs, hair, attitude... ;) Haha, sorry, couldn't resist.
So last night Brandon and I had this intense discussion about hunting. He hunts (bleck) and I hate it. I understand his viewpoint, and I appreciate that he does it 'right' (he has respect for the animals and uses everything he can) but that doesn't change my opinion that it's creepy. And I kind of realized that to me, animals and humans aren't really any different. Sure, animals can't open their mouths and speak in a language that we understand, but they still communicate with us. Some people are too dense to understand what they're saying. But having spent so much time around horses, I will go to my grave swearing that animals can talk. They have personalities, completely undeniably. Showtime is a straight up dorky teenager. Bella (from what I can tell) is the sweet, loving, motherly type. Tessa was the arthritic crazy old cat lady. Smokey was the cocky little cowboy who occasionally enjoyed dressing up in a tux and playing show pony. Charra was the ever thoughtful and helpful best friend type. Cosette was a gorgeous little diva. Ace was the middle-aged guy stuck in a job he doesn't really like, but he can't see a way out so he finds a way to enjoy life. Anyway, where I'm going with this is that it isn't just horses. Animals have personalities. So to me, hunting is pretty much like murder. Granted, it's not, and I understand that it isn't and that it's necessary to help population control, but that's how I feel about it. Now I'm not one of those crazy animal rights activists who is going to protest hunting or become a vegetarian to 'save the animals' (I mean, come on, my best friend is a hunter). I just am not a huge fan. Brandon is so good about it. He's really just good to me in general. Probably why he's my best friend. ;)
Okay, I need to express some intense irritation. My ; key is broken. And it's driving me insane. Irritation expressed.
Back to the subject of flying. There is a ridiculous amount of turbulence today. It's just cloudy cloudy cloudy. And man alive, I am really wanting that philly cheesesteak right about now. :( Oh well. I'll just have to satisfy myself with my smoothie (I opted for mango as opposed to pond scum) for now.
I'm pretty bored, can you tell?

Cancer.

Such a scary word. One that you never want to hear anyone saying following the words "I'm sorry, but you have..."
And one of my dear friends, Kim Nelson, has heard it twice. Her leukemia, in remission less than a year ago, is back.
It really puts things into perspective for me.
Sure, I have no job and no way to pay for school or pay my rent or buy food, but I'm healthy. I don't have cancer. I don't have to go through the complete hell of chemotheraphy.
So what right do I have to complain?
Not that I'm saying I have, but I can promise you now that I won't. While I fight for the life of my dreams, beautiful, sweet, energetic Kim fights for her LIFE.
Things can change in the blink of an eye.
Never take anything (or, most especially, anyONE) for granted.
EVER.

I don't care if you don't believe in my God or in any God at all, but please keep Kim in your thoughts and prayers. I believe that there is a God, and that He will hear even a brief flicker of love towards a girl you may have never even met. Every little thing counts.


Keep running Kim.

Job.

I need one. If I don't get one, I will literally be homeless come February. Okay, maybe not homeless. But still.
I just thought you should know.

Fear.

It's consuming me.
The fear of judgment.
The fear of getting yelled at.
The fear of being treated like an imbecile.
Yes, things are still not going like I had hoped.
No, you are not helping matters by threatening to send me into massive amounts of debt or homelessness.
Yes, I failed to do what I said I'd do.
No, I have no excuse.
I need another chance.
And don't say you can't give it to me.
Why didn't I tell you earlier? Because you scare me.
Whatever you're doing, it isn't working. But I don't know what will.
But fear is clearly not yielding the desired results.

Blame!!

I completely bombed posting yesterday, I can't believe it.
Okay, actually, I can. After Biology my bff Brandon came over for like.... eight hours. lol it was great. Usually we walk home together and he drops me off at my apartment and then goes home. (We live in the same complex.) But yesterday (Wednesday) I invited him to come over and hang out, which is not uncommon. But he came over and he ended up staying until midnight. We watched a movie, and Glee, and Psych, and played football with my roommates... Yeah. Good times. He's a great friend. For real.
Anyway, that's why I didn't post. My bad. I blame him entirely.

Showtime.

I'm in love.
With a 17.2 hand, dark bay Warmblood gelding named Showtime.
He's the sweetest little boy ever, even when he's being a butthead, and especially when he's trying to eat my face...
I go ride him every Tuesday, and it is without a doubt the highlight of my week, every week. Riding is so glorious. Everything about it. The clothes, the boots, the horses, the smells, the feel, the huge sense of accomplishment when you and your horse finally sync up... and most especially, how blissfully thought-consuming it is. When I'm riding, I'm not thinking about stupid ex-boyfriends or scary finals or money or food. I'm thinking about Showtime, and only Showtime. (Or whoever else I happen to be riding.)
This is true love.

Heaven.

I went skiing this morning. Ohhhhhh heaven and earth, it was glorious. It was snowing, quite a bit at first, so there was a little skiff of powder on top of the snow. Not enough to qualify as POW but enough to make for some fun spraying. :)
I can't wait for next week. Even though it's finals week, I'm going skiing every day. Yeah. I know. My life is the bomb.com.
Be jealous.

Me.

Once upon a time, there was a college student. She wanted to say clever and brilliant things on her blog, but when the time arrived, no words came to her. So she blabbered on with no point until she figured no one was reading anymore, and then she crawled in a hole and died of shame. The end.

Just kidding. I'm not planning on crawling in any holes anytime soon. And I'm definitely not planning on dying of shame.

So anyway, I'm Jen. I live to be outside. I ski, rock climb, surf, canyoneer, hike, backpack, and ballroom dance. Wait, one of those was out of place. Ah yes, ballroom dancing. I love it, but I generally don't do it outside. I'm constantly looking to expand my outdoor sports repertoire, and hopefully will learn to ice climb this winter, and mountain bike next summer.

Other than outdoor sports, I love regular sports. Most especially football and basketball, of the college variety. December and March are the best months of the year, hands down. I am a diehard BYU fan, and I will fight [watch], day or night, rain or snow. I have been known to wait for three+ hours in under 30 degree temperatures just to get good seats for a basketball game. Yeah. I know.

Just so you get an idea of where this comes from, both of my parents graduated from BYU, as did both of my brothers. Both of my sisters-in-law attended BYU, and at least one grandparent from each side of my family has graduated from BYU. Most of my aunts and uncles either attended or graduated from BYU, and the same is true of most of my cousins. It's kind of a family legacy, what can I say? I've had at least one piece of BYU clothing for my entire life. I bleed Cougar blue, straight up. In fact, BYU (Provo) is the only school I applied to, so thankfully I got in! ;) I love BYU so very much and I'm stoked to have a diploma from Brigham Young University in a few years to hang on my wall. Or maybe just carry around with me everywhere. That might be a teensy bit pretentious though... so I think I'll steer clear.

I am probably the most bluntly honest person you will ever meet. Okay, maybe not always blunt, but always honest. Beating around the bush is my number one pet peeve. If you don't know how I feel about you, you haven't asked. But by all means, please ask. I will tell you. I try my best to always be tactful, but lying is something I very rarely do unless I have a good reason to.

I love animals, most especially horses. The current love of my life is a 17-hand dark bay Warmblood gelding named Showtime. He's such a goof. Sometimes he can be a little twit, but he's five, so I'll cut him a break. He's absolutely gorgeous though, my goodness. And riding him is glorious, when we work together. He has the most beautiful gaits. Ah! I love him. He's the sweetest.

I also love fruit. And talking. And dating. And movies. And music. And my car.

I really love to start blogs. Please forgive me if I neglect this one. But I promise I will try not to. :)