finals drive me CRAZY

First of all -I have been trying to put my fabulous ward talent show video on my blog but I cannot figure it out. Weird, I know. But CHECK IT! :)

Next - it is finals week. Finals officially started yesterday. AHHH. I was supposed to have four scheduled finals. One was just presenting papers we wrote but the other three were actual tests. Surprise, all teachers decided to give us take home finals. I know, you are thinking, "Wow. That is so nice. Lucky Tati!" Please. Stop that. It's not that lucky. I just had three tests go from multiple choice, true/false, scantron finals to 6-11 page define this, example of that, essay answer tests! And so I had time blocked out for three hours on Wednesday night for this class, and two hours on Saturday morning for this class, blah blah blah, but now that means nothing and I have just spent all day Friday in the library and I have already been here since 9 this morning.
BUT, I am happy to say I finished two finals yesterday and the last of my papers this morning. This leaves me with just one final that is not due until Monday. YES!!!

Also, last night after Aubrey and I were in the library from 4 to 9, we went and saw He's Just Not That Into You. Aubrey has been raving about it since she saw it months ago. Last night he made its debut in the dollar theater. Yes please. What an impowering movie, especially for a single young girl like myself. I was worried I would see it and feel all low about myself because ahh I have done all the things they have said not to. Instead, now I feel like if he is not showing interest, it's because he isn't interested and I can move on and know that he missed out. Yes yes yes.

Some of my favorite/needed to hear/funny quotes:

"You are good enough to be asked out."
"Men don't forget how much they like you. So put down the phone
"If you can find him, then he can find you.If he wants to find you, he will."
"I had this guy leave me a voicemail at work, so I called him at home, and then he emailed me to my BlackBerry, and so I texted to his cell, and now you just have to go around checking all these different portals just to get rejected by seven different technologies. It's exhausting."

LOVE THIS MOVIE. Also my ever-so-sweet roommate is buying the book for me. An early birthday present she says. I can't decide if it's because she really wants it or if she thinks I really need it :)

"Because you love tulips"

My little reception desk at work is right by where the amazing BYU travel ladies are and we have become good friends. They are just so happy and everyone in the office adores them. Athletes will stop by just to say hi to their good friends Terri and Lori. From my desk I hear just about anything and everything that happens in their office. I often get distracted and find myself laughing at their conversations...oops! But I am pretty sure they still like me.

Today, a very beautiful bouquet of red tulips came for Terri. The delivery girl went to her office but Terri was out over by me so I said Terri's name and she turned around and just smiled. She told me they must be from her husband. She opened the little card and read aloud, "Because you love tulips."

I don't know why, but that really hit me. It was such a simple thing but you just knew her husband loved her and she loved him. I almost started crying and even now thinking about it, I am getting teary eyed. Having been at school for the last 3 years and watching my friends get married I have really begun to notice the happy couples in my life who have been an example to me. They are not ashamed to love out loud, if you will.

I hope this blog doesn't look like me being jealous of such love because I feel very loved by my family, friends, roommates, co-workers, teachers, students, peers, and I could go on and on. Seeing Terri get those flowers made my heart hurt (which it does often), and not because I was sad that I had no one to get me flowers but more because I realized how eternal love is. I guess I am not sure what I am trying to say, but I love love. I am so grateful for the love that I have seen and even more for the love I have felt.

What a good day.

CEC Convention

I have recently returned from a fabulous adventure. Wednesday morning I left for Seattle to attend a huge conference for special educators. I am a student member of Council for Exceptional Children and it has been 5 girls and the lone boy from my cohort went and we not only learned a lot but we also saw and explored and ran all over down town Seattle.
We got there in time for the opening ceremony at the convention center and then we looked for somewhere to eat dinner. I have never been to a place so gray and rainy in my life. It was beautiful, green green green, but wet wet wet. It wasn't as cold as Utah - but being that wet all of the time really made up for the Utah cold. We went to some little hole in the wall Thai place for dinner and it was fabulous. We then spent an hour searching for McDonalds to get ice cream. In our quest for McDonalds (which ended up being across the street from out little Thai restaurant) we found and Anthro and Urban. mmmmm loved it.
Thursday was full of sessions, learning what we needed to become great teachers. We also made it out to the Space Needle and the crazy fountain nearby where we took pictures and did our crazy thing. Sean had a little run in with the huge fountain and it took him down and into the water fast. Poor boy was soaked.
We later went on the "student cruise" which we found out wasn't so student oriented. It was a cruise of Puget Sound and the shoreline of Seattle. I think maybe 20% of the passengers on the cruise were actual students and the rest were professors or long time teachers. Let me tell you - once they got drinking I was a little shocked. We had a yummy buffet and then the music started. The DJ opened with Dancing Queen and then asked us who sang that song. OHHHH man - haha the rest of the music was before "birth time" as Sean put it. There was a congo line going and 80's had taken the ship over. Eventually, with some push from Sean some Lady GaGa came on and the dance was going! It turned into a very fun and successful dance thanks to Sean and his moves. Everyone, no joke, EVERYONE was watching that boy shake his stuff.
Friday we made a little trip to Pikes Market where I had fish thrown over my head, saw the most gorgeous flowers of my life, visited the first Starbucks, and got yummy cinnamon rolls. The rest of the day was followed by more class. I also had a run in with a professor from BYU Hawaii who said he could help me find a job out there. Sounds perfect, right?


Then we met up with Barbara Smith - one of my favorite professors this year. She is so so fun. We took pictures and headed for the Yes I Can awards. Most inspirational ceremony ever. This kids have so much potential and it just takes parents and teachers to recognize that. They can do whatever it is they think that they can do...so make them think big. After the awards it was dinner time! The Utah Department of Special Education took us to dinner and we really got to eat some great food. We went to Ivars and I ate some fabulous honey prawn and tomato basil pasta followed with creme brulee. Jealous? You should be. haha We were done with dinner at 9:15ish and ran back up the hill from the pier to our hotel where we changed and made it to our professors hotel by 9:50 and got approximately 5 minutes of jacuzzi time. You don't even know how crazy we looked running through the streets of downtown Seattle - so full that we might pop and in the wackiest happy moods that people had to have mistaken us for a little tipsy. The 5 minutes in the jacuzzi was worth it though and we spent the next hour and half visiting with our professor in the lobby. A fantastic day.
Saturday we ate breakfast and flew back to a freshly snowed Utah but I hear the weather should be improving from here on out :)