the smell of sweat and iron.

there is a feeling one cannot explain. it is a mix between joy and pain. it comes as you are walking up the stairs, or try to get out of your chair. it is the feeling of being sore.

there is something exhilerating about being sore. its painful, yes. but a good pain. with a half marathon less than a month away- the gym and i have become best friends. oh yes, and the fact that Gold's gym is now only 10 dollars a month. Such a good deal.

there is cardio cinema. the italian job, ps I love you...my movie knowledge will be pro in no time.

there are weights. im weak, but still its fun to use the machines, and pretend to be cool.

there is the people watching. boys are the funniest to watch work out. but their muscles are the size of my head, so i dont say anything.

there are the friends. working out with friends. way better than working out by yourself. that way you can talk to them while you walk around trying to figure out which machine to use and how it works.

there is the escape. for an hour, you have left the normal world. you can work out frustrations. especailly about group projects (i hate them. okay thats a little harsh. i strongly dislike them.) you can escape from homework, from work, from the world. and its okay because you are doing something productive.

there is the results. more than just physical. you feel on top of the world. you have more energy, more motivation. ah its great.

so there it is folks. my random musings about the gym, and my currently sore legs.

random side notes.

playing ultimate frisbee. fun. playing ultimate frisbee against a team that should be in a higher division. no so fun. losing 12 to 0. not fun in the slightest. (not because we lost, but because it wasnt even a game)

cutting hair. i like it. it stresses me out. i cut jesse's hair for the third time last night. feeling more confident I went faster. it was a lot shorter than before. and i spent the rest of the night looking at it, and not feeling happy. but today at work it looks not too bad. oh the differences gel can make.

trucks are perfect for star gazing. i want one.

and BYU football game tonight..and General Conference Weekend!! woowhoo

the end of my random musings....

too much goodness

So I have been avoiding blogging because there are too many good things to blog about. I just get overwhelmed. But the longer I wait, the more fun  and exciting things happen, the less I want to blog. It's a downward spiral- I swear. So im sucking it up, and just jumping in head first. So here is the brief update of my wonderful life. In bullet-point form.

Friday.

*I LOVE Hobby Lobby. and looking at fabric. I made these flag type things to hang in our loft that were hanging on the Southbank when we were in London. It was so fun to look at all the different fabrics and try to choose ones that would match, or look good together. I swear the lady who cut the fabric hated me because I had so many different fabrics to cut, and only wanted a small amount. dear worker at Hobby Lobby, Im sorry.

* Dinner at Panda with Megan, Giselle, Jessica, and their roommate Lauren. Delicious. Made my stomach hurt the rest of the night. devil.

*Most perfect BYU football game ever. Why...let me list the reasons

1. front row seats. there is something more exciting about standing against a railing than up on the bleachers.
2. a high five from Cosmo
3. we were on the fan cam
4. I made friends with a police officer who had a mustache. We talked about if BYU would come back after the half. He was the nicest.
5. Got a high five from one of the marines who shoot the cannon. and then later talked with him and I might get to shoot the cannon at a game. fingers crossed.
6. saw Jimmer. lots. at one point he was only 5 feet away.
7. made a new friend. turns out he is in my ward. we didnt make the connection until Sunday when i saw him at ward prayer. weird.
8. oh yes and we WON!

  I am excited for this weeks game to say the least. side note: there are times where I get really quiet and awkward. the first half was one of those times. I was sitting with "friends" from freshman year. the quotation marks are because two years changes a lot. I was sitting there realizing that no one knew me. That no one really cared about my life. Instead of acting- like i should have done- i reacted and shut down. silly ellie. i was talking to phil (the new friend) on sunday and he was telling me how i should never be quiet again because the second half was more fun. mental note to self. dont be dumb.

* after gameness at Megan's. Aka I fell asleep watching the movie. shocking.

Saturday.

*woke up at 8 15. picked up Megan at 8 45. drove up the canyon. arrived at soldier hollow. RAN THE DIRTY DASH. took a freezing shower. drove home.

side story. the dirty dash ended up being a crazy ordeal. in the fact that people who were planning on doing it had things come up. then the people they found to take their spot ended up not being able to do it. friday night i was terrified that no one could do it and i would be alone. Megan, the amazing friend she is, and who is not a runner at all, agreed to do it with me. It was great. We climbed under walls, through tunnels, over pipes, through trenches, and sloshed our way through the reservoir. I loved every moment of it. I have voted that our family is doing it next year. 

*took the best shower of my life.

*put away laundry, and worked on making the flags. 

*Sister date with Keri- PERFECTION. half a cafe rio salad later we were off to the Marriott to watch the RS General Broadcast. It was a wonderful broadcast. and Uchtdorf's talk on Forget-Me-Nots was absolutely perfect. I absolutely adore Keri, so it was fun to have a night with her.

*Saturday night was full of parties. It started at Stacee's where I met up with Eric and Tanner, then on to Kesley's (we stopped by the LAX party on the way) and after Kelsey's we headed over to the avocottage for an open mic night and stayed there for the rest of the night. It was wonderful.

Sunday.

* I woke up at 7 45. note i had nothing until 10 30. silly body. instead of rolling over and going back to bed, i got up. craziness- i know. it ended up being wonderful. i was able to get so much done that morning- including finishing the flags.

*had a delicious pancake breakfast thanks to anne. and met abby. who is the sweetest girl ever.

*church. wonderful per usual.


*looked at an outside of a house with matt and keri. it had charm galore. it was built in 1900 and was recently redone. their were balconies, three stories, and looked perfect. (we went back yesterday, and walked through. not so perfect. hopes dashed.)


*birthday party for a girl in a ward, Jari. Side story. Ellie is a CREEPER. yes, thats right folks. she had worked EFY in Virginia and I knew all the Virginia people via facebook because of Morgan. I felt like I knew all their life stories and they had NO clue who I was. 




Monday.


* work was grand.


* class was grand.


*cardio cinema. love. me + the italian job + the eliptical = best workout ever.


* ward FHE. story number one. walk up. brother dewsnup sees me and says "i was watching you on Sunday when we stood up to sing. you are really short" ah devil. later they needed someone to say the closing prayer. i raised my hand. he called on me. "super short girl" yes. he doesnt know my name. but at least he knows im vertically challenged.


*played ultimate frisbee. im not the best.  i have a run around technique that makes me look like i am trying but really do nothing. i like to roar when i guard people. and i scored twice. it was grand. and made new friends. 


*i hate studying. i successfully got very little done by blog stalking people. dear blogger you are ruining my life. correction. dear child psychology you are ruining my life. dear blogger you make my life better.




Tuesday.


*no megan at work today. i cried.


*worked out with the free personal trainer. moral of the story. im out of shape. moral of the story. i am changing that.


*night classes. not a fan anymore. i was so antsy. thank you angry birds for distracting me.


*walked through the house with M&K and we were all bummed at the fact it wasnt perfect.


*was supposed to study but didnt get home until eleven. sometimes i make bad decisions. bad ellie, bad.


*went to bed. funny story of my life. recently i havent been able to fall asleep. it is the most annoying thing ever. last night i was frustrated so i switched the direction i slept in my bed. aka put my feet where my head normally goes. i feel asleep right away. weird.


THE END of my crazy, yet wonderful life.


*Pictures to come

  

forced to slow down.

living with roommates in college is the greatest. it is an instant friend base, a sudo family. People who live on their own- i dont understand. I would be so lonely. But there is a phenomenon that comes with having multiple people live in one place that all have keys- getting locked out.

today a friend from efy, Mary, and I went running. It was a great run, uphill, downhill, around campus...and just time to talk and catch up on life. perfection. on the way out we passed her roommate and Mary yelled for her to leave the door unlocked. Im sure you can guess what happened when we got back. Both doors locked. dead bolted. We went to a neighbors tried to call. no answer. so we sat and waited. and waited. and waited.

It was one of those perfect moments. We were forced to slow down, we couldn't say "oh, i want to stay but i have to go finish _______" we just sat there (pretending to stretch or do sit-ups) for two hours talking about anything and everything. in the shade of the surrounding apartments life was perfect. People would walk by and offer to let us come in. We would say thank you, and then graciously turn them down- being outside was heavenly.  I adore Mary, we have experienced similar things in life, and feel the same way about things. She will put into words exactly how I feel- it is amazing. Moral of the story. be her friend.

she is the cutest.

after we had talked ourselves dry, and there was still no sign of any roommates- we decided to recruit boys to help us break in through the open window 20 feet off the ground. plans were made and about to go into action when her roommate pulled up. I find its always when i give up and take action that the thing i want to 

happen happens- if that makes any sense. Example. at work the door to get to the counseling office has been locked in the mornings. I will knock and hope someone will come, and no one comes. knock again. no one. finally when i start to walk away, to walk around the building and in through the other, hopefully unlocked, door someone comes. oh life.

talking was perfect but it meant i neglected both homework and making the slide show for friday's efy reunion. whoops. i went home and quickly started working. pictures, videos, music...i was blasting through that slideshow when all of a sudden the tiredness hit me like a wall. I swear my eyelids were five hundred pounds. I shut my computer, pulled out my phone to set an alarm, and layed down on the couch i had been previously using. I discovered we have the best nap taking couch in the world in our apartment. The arm rests are short making it a perfect pillow, and the couch is the perfect length for curling up and falling asleep. All i need now is a fireplace, hot chocolate, and a good book. oh yes, and for a nice blanket of white snow outside (not that i want it to be winter, the cold is rough, but it makes the hot chocolate that much better)

the nap was just what I needed, however I was reluctant to get up...ten more minutes, five more minutes, until finally i forced myself to wake up. I worked a little longer on the slide show and then got ready for our first intramural frisbee game of the season.

I love intramurals, and wish I had done them more over the last 3 years I have been here. It is so fun to just go and play. We got to the game and Anne and I were the only  ones there. We had two, the other team had 14. I sat there looking at the other team thinking we were going to lose, or have to forfeit. At the last minute we had enough to play. we had 8 enough for one sub, they had a million, enough for as many subs as they wanted. I didnt have faith. I thought we were going to lose. Boy was I wrong. we owned. and it was fast. we won 12 to 4, and even with a late start finished before the top of the hour. It was amazing. I felt inadequate on the team, but a few good plays and I felt like I was pulling my weight. In the words of one of the boys on the team, "This is a shirt team." Intramural champion shirt- here I come.

The night finished off with a good old sleepover. I have been missing Susan (my old roommate) a ton recently. It could be the fact I could always count on her to make bad decisions (aka cookie dough) with me, or that we could play down low, too slow for forty minutes just laughing, or that she would laugh at me when my arms felt funny...or it could be all of those things. Long story short, Melissa was out of town and she told me to come over. so i did. one half batch of cookie dough and a movie later we were asleep on the couches. lets be honest a few bites of cookie dough and 15 minutes of the movie later we were asleep on the couch. 

It was a great day. a great great day. yes, there were things that didnt get done. but i slowed down. sat on the grass. breathed the fresh air. and life was perfect.

sorry i have been slacking on taking pictures of my life. hello lots of text. goodbye pictures.

much ado about a lot of things...

today was a productive, exciting day.

it started with a run around the park with cali and amberly. where i spilled my soul and took their advice. question. why is life so confusing? can someone just give me a road map to the end? that would be very helpful. we got back in time to grab a snack before heading back to the park for an intense game of ultimate frisbee. and intense is what it was. the wind was ridiculous making every throw either extremely far or extremely inaccurate. i was guarding cali, and im pretty sure we got more of a work out than any one as we ran away from the other. im sure she hated me by the end of the game because i would get really obnoxious as i guarded her. sorry cal. but our team won in the end. 6-7. we might have ended with the wind advantage, but we also had mad skills. afterwards a group of us stayed at the park to do an ab workout, and decided we should do group aerobics in the park. will it happen? that i am not sure of.

team one- no they did not win.

we dominated. well won by one. but still

but on the way back to the flat, talking to amberly, she told us about a rock n roll marathon in denver- which we are all now seriously considering. having people to train with would make it much more likely to happen, but im just scared it wont happen like last time, that life will get too crazy and i wont have time to train. but i can make time, right? especially if i am training with people. its being social and training at the same time- whats better than that?

then it was home to shower, eat, homework, and get ready for the matinee of Much Ado About Nothing at the globe. the show was phenomenal! to begin with the set was beautiful with orange trees covering the canopy and flowers and water holes surrounding the stage. add the amazing costumes, and the show was off to a great start. then add in the actors. perfection. and the excitement that geoffery, the butler from the french prince of belair, was Hero's father. The actor who played Benedict stole my heart from the moment he walked on stage. his whit, looks, and mannerisms were perfect for the part, and Beatrice was right there with him the whole time. one of my favorite parts is when they were tricking benedict and beatrice into thinking the other one was in love with them. their physical movement and reactions were perfect and left the audience rolling in laughter. also at the end when benedict takes claudio's scarf and covers his eyes and asks for beatrice. hysterical. and then when they find out the other "doesnt" love them, and then they read the letters. oh brother i almost died. moral of the story. go watch much ado at the globe. you wont regret it.

me, cali, amber, and lauren after the show. arent they the cutest.

after the show we were planning to go to borough market for dinner, but talking to delys she said they had gone earlier and only the permanent stalls were there- so a quick change in plans lead us to the favorite italian restaurant of princess diana that we pass on our way to the tube everyday. it was absolutely delicious. and i definitely made up for all the physical activity earlier. so so good. and it was fun just to be with a bunch of people. everyone on the study abroad is just so wonderful. it is grand.

the stairs to where we ate. we love princess di.

we had the sweetest little cubby to eat in. it was perfect.

spinach. pine nuts. garlic. cheese. delicious.

by the way- sometimes i am embarrassing to my life. dinner was one of those moments. i couldnt understand the waiter (he had a french, or some other country, accent.) was saying spinach and i heard spanish- and then failed at pronouncing what i wanted off the menu. i was the person you are embarrassed to take out in public.

then home to work more on blogging about italy. i swear i will never catch up- its the devil. but i sat and watched "make it or break it" with elly and ashlee to keep myself sane while working. oh brother. funny show. ridiculous, but addicting. and the gymnastics was so fun. oh the days of gymnastics, how i wish i hadnt quit thee.