David Archuleta = My Heartthrob

First of all, I have to say that I became completely obsessed with American Idol since coming to Puerto Rico. Even though I saw only Brooke White, Jason Castro, Syesha Mercado, and David Archuleta get kicked off (that's more than I thought), you better believe that I was situated in the TV room, ready for yet another hour-long episode of AI every Tuesday and Wednesday. I can't believe that I got so into it!

I'm just going to tell it straight--I voted for David A. 20 times in the finals. When they announced that one contestant got 56 percent of the vote while the other got 44 percent, I thought for sure that David A. pulled out a victory. With 97.5 million votes, it was a record-setting number of votes this year! When they announced that David Cook won, my heart sank, and I was extremely sullen the whole night--my mom and dad can attest to this. In memory of David Archuleta, I bought his video on iTunes from his performance of "In This Moment," which I just turned on for inspiration in writing this post. If you want to see what it's all about, it's probably on YouTube. How can a 17-year-old capture my heart so strongly?

Here's the real reason of why I posted about David Archuleta. I'm still laughing to myself because I'm not really in love with him--I just think he should have won American Idol! Anyway, I had a very long dream about him last night. I dreamed that at the beginning of the season of AI, they would flash the contestants on the screen and at the bottom of the screen it would say their occupation/job. David Cook's would say something along the lines of "Bartender," and since I don't know if Archuleta has ever had a job before, I dreamed that his caption said something along the lines of house cleaning and other stuff. *Side note--I just watched 27 Dresses last night, and the little boy in the movie was put to work as a house cleaner. I think that's where I came up with Archuleta's job--End side note* After seeing that flash up on the screen, I dreamed that David Archuleta was cleaning in my house, so I could really get a close-up of him. People, I'm telling you that he has freckles on his face that you can't see on the TV! Not just a few--a lot. Basically, I became first acquainted with David Archuleta through his job of cleaning houses. He said something about how he usually cleans members' houses.

Continuing the dream! I dreamed that I was in an ice-skating class at BYU, and guess who else was in the class. You got it--David A. and his three sisters who also go to BYU (I think he has only a younger brother and maybe a sister). We were on the rink, doing this complicated sequence for the upcoming final exam that we were going to have, and I made the announcement to my ice-skating class that I knew I would fall during the final exam. I guess I didn't want anyone to be surprised that I couldn't pull off this routine! (Why do I remember such unnecessary parts of dreams?) Anyway, so the class got on the bus and I started talking to David's sisters. In the dream they had such difficult names; they sounded Indian or something, and I couldn't understand what they were saying. Finally I asked one girl to spell out her name so I could see it on paper. And that's where my dream featuring David Archuleta ended.

I'm making a public announcement that I love David Archuleta and that I'm going to buy his CD the day it hits the shelves! He should have won American Idol, but maybe this is a good thing that he didn't win.

We even laugh at the same things and in the same way. It's meant to be. What's 4 years?

Do you know this person?

This face will forever be engrained in my mind. I didn't know who this person is, and you probably don't recognize him either (or maybe won't even know who he is), but now I do know! Anyway, here's the story.

I took a volleyball class this semester--just an intermediate course, not too hard, not too easy. There were surprisingly a lot of tall boys with dark hair in the class, so I was really confused with names the whole semester. But I had this boy's name down. He's Austin, and he was on my team for tournament play at the end of the semester. So I knew his name is Austin and that he played a sport at BYU; he would wear his warmups instead of the assigned P.E. outfit--dark blue shorts with the BYU P.E. shirt (very flattering). There were two football players, two lacrosse players, and I'm sure other athletes in the class. I figured that Austin played football, but he never really talked to the other two guys.

Last week I was looking at the BYU football roster (one of my favorite pastimes! Not really--I was looking up one of the players), and I started clicking on names that I recognize from the team. I clicked on one of them, and the picture above flashed on the screen.

This boy is ____ (I've now removed his name). He's a wide receiver for BYU--a 2008 All-America candidate and candidate for Offensive Player-of-the-Year and All-Mountain West Conference honors. This guy is famous, and we were on the same team in my volleyball class the whole semester. We would high-five and compliment each other and do all the great team things. In the meantime, I was in the midst of a legend! I had no idea! So listen for Austin's name and remember that I was his favorite teammate once upon a time.

There he is in all his glory.

I should have known. (I think my brothers and dad would be disappointed with me!)

Take a Walk Down Memory Lane

During this past semester, I would be getting ready for class and random songs would pop into my head. For some reason, a majority of these songs were from my childhood that I hadn't listened to in years. My roommate can attest to the fact that I would come out of the bathroom singing an 80's or 90's song, type it into YouTube, and jam out before going to class.

Let's see if you remember these songs; take a listen and enjoy!

By the way, which one's your favorite?

I wanted to post Cyndi Lauper's video of "Time After Time," but the video wouldn't work on my blog. If you have a minute, you should check out her video on YouTube. It highlights some of the amazing music-video features from 1984. Truly a gem--truly priceless. You may have noticed that I have Quietdrive's version of her song on my playlist--one of my favs!

Human League -

Bonnie Tyler - Total Eclipse of The Heart

Dream boy dream girl

Rockell - In A Dream

Naked Eyes - Always Something There to Remind Me

Summer Babe

Well, it's my third day in Puerto Rico, and I was officially a beach bum on the first day. Actually, I've made it to the beach only once so far, so I guess I'm not really a "beach bum"--just a bum. I don't know what it is exactly that is making me so incredibly lazy--the lack of air conditioning in the condo (or use thereof), the fact that I'm finished with another semester of school (6 down, 1 to go!), the sore throat I started getting last weekend (third time to get sick in 4 months), or the sleep I'm trying to catch up on since finals, moving, packing, and traveling. I hope I snap back into it, but for now I'm just hanging around the condo (carless with nowhere to go, really).

I'm looking forward to working in the real world! Although I can boast that I got straight A's again this semester, I honestly think it doesn't mean anything. Sure I worked hard on homework, projects, presentations, and tests, but that means absolutely nothing when working in the business world. (At least that's what I think.) I can admit that I've mastered how to take undergraduate college classes, but I don't know how to overwhelm an employer by exceeding expectations or come up with ideas that will drastically raise the bottom line. I have a lot to learn, even though I've been in school for 16 years now. What I'm trying to say is that I'm excited about working for an actual firm (BBDO) and see what ad agencies are all about. I hope my Spanish doesn't fail me--I also look forward to brushing up on the Spanish that has been incrementally slipping away from me since my last Spanish class in high school.

Here are some photos from my last month in Provo.

1) I went to the Hare Krishna festival of colors, which is called Holi, in Spanish Fork. There's a full-out Hindu temple in Spanish Fork that you go to (and practically everyone at BYU knows about it and went to it because we had to walk miles to get back to where we parked). You buy this colored flour and when they light the demon on fire, you're supposed to throw the flour on everyone. Krishna is a deity worshipped in Hinduism, and I'm not exactly sure, but I think they light this demon on fire and celebrate it at Holi. As you can see, I got a whole bag of yellow flour dumped on my face, which is unfortunate because yellow just really isn't my color. After throwing flour around and having your eyes blinded and throats choked up, you yell out this chant that goes something along the lines of "Hare! Hare! Krishna! Krishna! Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna! Hare! Hare! Rama! Rama! Hare Rama! Hare Rama! Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna!" I can't remember exactly. I wore my family reunion shirt from 1997--that shirt's a goner.

2) We fit 9 people in that Honda Civic: 3 in the front, 6 in the back.

3) This is Melissa and me at the Charity Ball Auction. We hung out almost every day this semester--she is absolutely wonderful, and I'm lucky to be friends with Melissa. I'm afraid that if she came to Puerto Rico, Mom would say to Melissa and me the same thing she said to Bernice and me in high school: "You're lucky you found each other because you two are so strange." Melissa and I get along so well. :) We went to men's volleyball games, baseball games, basketball games, dollar movies. You name it, we went there.