Phase One - She DONE!

Phase One of P90X is officially over! Woot! Four weeks down, eight weeks to go. I feel like I'm in better shape, but my physicality really hasn't changed that much. My dad, on the other hand - he looks great! Not that he didn't before. Now his love handles are almost gone. He's doing great at all the workouts, working so hard and completely exhausting himself. I am not quite as intense. I do what I can and that's good enough for me. Still, it's been hard. I've gotten into a horrible sleeping schedule. My dad has to work out at 5:00am in order to get to work on time and I, being the young, work-free person that I am, stay up until midnight most nights. So I now sleep in two shifts. Midnight to 4:50am, then 6:30-9:30am. It's not a good idea. Don't do it. My mom says it takes about 6 weeks for an exercise routine to give you an energy kickback. Until then, you're pretty much just exhausted. I can't wait for that to happen. It's probably just a mental thing. Most things are. Something tells me it's going to be hard to work out at 5:00am no matter what. But hey, I'm doing it! My sexy beach body is on its way, perhaps slower than it should be, but it's coming.

Updated Life Plans

Okay. Here's the plan:

I am going to spend the rest of the summer doing freelance video and photography work. I will go to India for a few weeks with a humanitarian group (hopefully - this one's still in the works). I will search out and apply for various masters programs all over the country and perhaps even in England (squeee!) My brother Josh with come home from his mission and we will have many mucho funs. In the fall I will work as a substitute teacher in the Salt Lake City School District, maybe Alpine School District, and see how that feels. I will be accepted to all the masters programs I apply to - naturally - and then I will pick which one I would like to attend. They will give me many scholarships. If India doesn't work out this summer, or if I like it enough to go back, I will find my way there next summer. I will move to wherever I decide to go to school, and then I will begin my masters degree. I will finish, then get a job either in teaching or in film production. I will write screenplays in my spare time. I will win Academy Awards. I will move to India for a year to study films. I will meet Shahrukh Khan. I will find a good Mormon man, preferably wealthy, and marry him. Nationality isn't important, though currently British and Indian and American men are what interests me - ideal combination being a British Indian who lives in America. PERFECT. We will have 5 children - 3 boys, 2 girls. I will continue writing screenplays while my kids are at school. We will travel, as a family, all over the world. We will end world hunger. Wherever we live, we will visit family in Utah often. Who knows, maybe we'll end up in Utah. My husband and I will live to be 100 years old, and then we will pass peacefully on to meet God, having lived according to God's will to the best of our ability.

So....somewhere after next summer many of these plans turned into wishes...but hey, it's good to dream right? There it is. My life plan. Next time someone asks me what I'm going to do now, I'll just zip them a link to this post. Simple. Sound good? Good.

I...CAN'T.....WAIT

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/disney/greenwithenvy/

Click on the link above. Watch the trailer. You should have seen my reaction. I started screaming and weeping tears of pure joy. I literally can't wait for this movie. Thank heavens they're back :)

Sexiness Approaches

For my dad's birthday we bought him P90X. A couple of my brothers have been using it and really like it, and my dad mentioned he might want to try it. So we got it. He opened it and literally groaned...we had tried our first P90X routine that morning with my brother Scott and my papa was not feeling to peppy towards it. Then I told him it came with a workout buddy - me. That's when he got excited. Though I had previously been less than thrilled about the commitment I was about to make, I found that as my dad became excited I did too.

Today was Day 3 of our 90 day trek to sexy. We're doing the lean routine (not the classic one - we wanna shed the fattiness. My body fat % is definitely much higher than I would like it to be). So far so good! I used to sneer at people who did P90X, thinking they were fitness nuts and didn't realize that they were putting their body through unnecessary pain. Don't get me wrong - I think working out is great. It's good for you. But I've never liked it. I am humbled by my sudden fondness for P90X. The workouts are engaging and really do work your body. I never thought I'd say it, but working out is fun. This may change. I may get sick of the workouts, though they're so various that I think it will take a while. And maybe I'll hit an exhaustion point where I just can't do any more. We'll see. But I'm determined to push through, if not for me then for my daddy. Having a workout buddy makes all the difference. So here's to 87 more days of 5:00am workouts. Wish us luck!

The Hunger Games

I just finished reading the Hunger Games trilogy last night. Let me start off with this: what a fantastically engrossing story. Wow. I definitely got sucked into that one. I had dreams about it the night after beginning the first book. I started my dad on them too and he quickly passed me up and read them all before me.

I had been told by several people that the third book wasn't very good. Some told me to not even bother reading it - ha ha, yeah right. Like I'm not going to finish a series that is that engrossing. I loved the first two. I liked the third. Yes, the third one built up and up and up and you thought there was going to be this huge finale, then there wasn't one. Not a dramatic, flashy one at least. I like the way it ended, for the most part. It pulled a bit of an Ender's Game ending on us, turning the tables until none of us knew which way was right anymore. I think that's exactly what the author wanted us to feel. It worked. It worked well. It left me wanting more, not in a disappointed way but more like I was wishing there was another book.

Everything in the love triangle ended the way it should - that's all I'm going to say about that. I loved the characters overall. They were each distinct and strong. Katniss was intriguing as a character and narrator.

I guess the biggest reason I liked the series was that it seems like something I would write. I love writing in 1st person, inhabiting a character's mind and exploring their world. The Hunger Games let me do that. I can only hope that something I write could be as successful as this series is.

I can't wait for the movies, though I'm curious how they are going to make them not R-rated. They can't give them that kind of a rating because their primary audience is teens and pre-teens. But I'm super excited to see the stories come to life. If done right, I can see the movies being even better than the books.

My brother Mike, the lawyer/businessman...and airplanes

This past weekend my mom and I flew out to Washington D.C. to watch my brother, Mike, graduate from American University! He got a JDMBA. Way to go Mikey! It was a blast to hang out with him, Alexis, and Ryder for a few days. Entirely too short, but wonderful.

We visited the Jefferson memorial, which I hadn't seen before. It's now one of my favorites. A very inspiring fellow. And we went paddleboating on the Potomic! We bought FBI t-shirts (something I've always wanted - it seems only right to get it in D.C.) and did a lot of playing with Ryder. We rolled down the makeshift slide in their living room, constructed using the inflatable mattress my mom was sleeping on. And we shot hoops too - Ryder at two and a half years old is already a better basketball player than I am, no joke. That kid's got skills.

This trip also included some of the most interesting airplane experiences I've ever had. On our flight from Denver to D.C. I sat next to a young man about my age. His name was Paul, and he had never met a Mormon before. I found it rather fun to explain my beliefs and way of life to him. He was a really neat guy - we talked the entire 4 hours of the flight! It was great. He's an inspiring entrepreneur, already running his own business and meeting with goverment officials. Wow. And super friendly. I definitely wouldn't mind being as driven and successful as he is. I'm pretty sure he's the first person I've ever really had to explain my Mormon-ism to as well, growing up in Utah and all where we're very common. I definitely enjoyed that experience.

On the way home was an infinitely less enjoyable experience. I've been known to get car sick, but it's been years since I've actually vomited. Well, the airplane was experiencing a lot of turbulence, and I was in the back of the plane. Four hours of being jiggled around like so much jello left my stomach less than happy with me. As we went in to land I started sweating and getting dizzy. I thought to myself, I should get one of those barf bags just in case. As luck would have it, no one on my row had one. That's when I passed out. The next thing I remember I was doubled over in my seat feeling significantly better. Then I heard my mom freaking out from her seat on a different row: "Jenny! Jenny! Are you okay?" And I saw the small yet very disgusting pile of vomit that made it's way onto my copy of Mockingjay, my pants, a bit of my shoe, and my backpack on the floor. Welp, there's a first time for everything. I can check "vomiting on a plane" off the list things I've never done before and will, hopefully, never do again. In Denver I loaded up on Dramamine and then spent the next flight, the drive home, and the next 12 hours in and out of consciousness. I still got slightly hot and dizzy when the second plane landed too. Sheesh. Oh well. The weekend was entirely worth it.

Newsflash!

Well, I heard from BYU about the Theatre and Media Arts Masters program, and....

I didn't get in.

I kinda had a feeling I wouldn't, deep down inside, simply because I didn't quite fit the requirements for one of the tracks and my interest didn't quite fit the other track. Oh well. It's good, in the end. I was a little bummed, but now I am starting to see all the great things I can do in the next year while I apply to other programs. I just need a job. Honestly, one of the biggest reasons I was bummed about not getting in was that I would have to give up my job at Independent Study. I loved that job. We had a going away party last week for all of use who are graduating and leaving - it was sad...I miss them already.

So now I come to work with my mom every day, working on a video project for incoming freshman and helping my mom with CRT testing. I'm being paid for these jobs, probably not as much as I should be. But it's actually very fun - I love the high school atmosphere. The Student Body Officers for next year are a great group of kids. I could definitely see myself working in a place like this down the road.

I just don't like not knowing where I'm going. I will, soon enough, but not immediately. And patience is a virtue I have always struggled keeping a firm grasp on. God's just giving more of a chance to develop that virtue, right? Right. I'm am open for suggestions on what i should do for the next year, so please feel free.