Peace I'm Out

While I'm gone you can write me aaaaaaaat:

Sister Allison Riding

Brazil Manaus Mission

Rua Loris Cordovil, 1066

Alvorada 1

69042-010 Manaus - AM

Brazil

Interested in reading more about why I'm on a mission? 

Lemme tell ya!

My wonderful mother may or may not post my letters here. We'll see :)

Both to BRASIL

Okay first of all I'm having slight anxiety over how to spell Brazil (Brasil???). Like I totally get that Brasil is the "correct" way to say it because that's Brazil in Portuguese but we don't run around calling Germany "Deutschland" just because that is Germany in German!!! 

I digress. If you are not friends with me in real life slash do not stalk me via social media then you may not be aware that my sister/best fran is ALSO going to Brazil! Yippity skippity!! It's funny because when I opened my call I was cool/calm/collected. When Jen opened hers? A different story. 

Jen- "I'm going to Brazil!"

Me- *crying*

My visa still hasn't gone through yet, so I'll fly out to Provo next Monday afternoon and do my training at the MTC (Missionary Training Center) there! Time is ticking! Still excited and feeling great about heading out to serve the Lord. But yes, I am a bit of an emotional wreck. *grin*

MW Goes to Washington

It is high past time to address the elephant in the room. Err...  blog. I am going on a mission (ur like ya ya ya, we know). I also have a boyfriend that I love and adore, who came to visit me this weekend! (eek!)

So remember that boy who gave me his number during finals week? His name is Michael. And he is wonderful. And he is such a trooper to put up with these crazy people.

To put alllllllll the rumors to rest (subtly letting my audience know that [i like to think] we're a piece of hot gossip)- I've loved dating Michael and hope to date him when I come home in 18 months. The end.

Prezzy Day

This weekend I headed down with some pals to Zion National Park for some well deserving needed sunshine. We stayed in a weird motel, painted the tiny tiny tiny town, hit up the continental breakfast and spent the beautiful afternoon hiking! We came back late Saturday night, then oh a whim headed up to Logan first thing Monday morning for some snowmobiling. Fun to stay with Michael and Neal's gracious family, and always great to get out of Provo. Didn't even mind the appx 15 hours spent in the car. Srsly though.

Love Day

So half the reason I even have a blog is because it's fun to look back and read it. Let's be honest, we all love to stalk ourselves. Who doesn't get a kick of reading old journals, no matter how cringe-worthy they are?! Anyways today I went back and read my blog entry on last Valentine's Day. Oh ho ho I was so incredibly single it kind of makes me giggle. 

Last year my date cancelled on me, day of. We were supposed to double with his roommate and Sydney, and the roommate decided to cancel too after hearing the news. And yet, neither of us were really all too disappointed because it meant we got to go to dinner with Sydney's sibs and mama who was in town. And also at that point we preferred each other's company to any boy in Provo soooo.....

A lot happens in a year! Twelve months ago I was happy to get cards and letters from my missionary pals, and now I'm about to be a missionary myself. 

Happy Valentine's Day! I'm surrounded by people I love and feel incredibly grateful for that fact. Give somebody a hug. Or a side hug, if you're wary about touching other people like my pal Brookie is.

Look how cute my valentine is :)

Wonderful

(source)

I am an incredibly happy camper. I can rag on Provo with the best of them but at the end of the day it really is exactly where I'm supposed to be right now. Sixteen more days until I fly back home!

Free Time

Although I was initially concerned about this limbo time I have before I report to Brazil in March, I've been filling my time, with all those things you plan to do, "when you have time." Like.....

:: redesigning my blog (y'all likey?)

:: redesigning my sister's blog

:: sewing buttons that have fallen off (don't let that trick you into thinking i can sew)

:: burning dinner

:: weekly temple trips

:: blog stalking manaus, brazil missionaries

:: writing missionaries

:: spending time with the grandparents

:: organizing my closet. multiple times

:: visiting the BYU Museum of Art (see above picture)

:: feeling cool and cultured at the Andy Warhol exhibit

:: online shopping for missionary clothes (spoiler alert- they're all uglaay)

:: getting caught up on my tv shows (Nashville anyone?!?! it's GOOD)

:: dancing around to this song on repeat 

:: attempting to learn portuguese

This is the least busy I've been since probably sophomore year of high school. 

AND I'M LOVING IT!

This Is Sibera

kinda sorta over the snow

Rationalizing

I've always been a "glass half-full" kind of girl, to a fault actually. I think it's a great thing, to be a positive person! However, when reflecting upon actions, I think I've crossed the "happy medium" territory into the extremes. It's like, anything I do, no matter how mediocre it is, I celebrate it. Or when I make a mistake, I can easily tell myself why it's t o t a l l y fine that whatever happened happened. 

Take yesterday. I donated blood. You  better believe I walked around the rest of the day with my elbow wrapped up and feigned innocence with "oh this sticker?! ho ho ho forgot I was even wearing it." But like, why? I took a fifteen nap and got free snacks. But I felt great about myself. I made a difference!!!

I also keeeeeep accidentally buying peanut butter when I clearly am not out. No biggie! It doesn't expire anytime soon! Better too much than not enough! Right? WRONG.

I just internally verbalized "wow i've been really productive today-- painted my nails, blogged, journaled, walking home from school basically counts as working out..." You see?? Someone stop me. So many things wrong with above statement. 

Gas Cans- a Necessity

So back in the glory days of Texas Summer 2012, Sydney and I met up for dinner with some girlfriends from BYU who live about forty five minutes away from us. As we parked I noted the need to fill up the gas tank- but  (this is important!!) the empty light was not on yet. After an hour or two of free refills and giggling and just general girl talk, we said our goodbyes and went on our merry, respective ways. But, I suuupose my car was parked at such an angle where it was reading the gas tank as empty and subsequently the car wouldn't start. 

Like any rational girls would do in our situation, we hitch hiked with the sanest, most normal people we could see-- a handful of some newly licensed teenage girls. Of course upon arriving at the gas station, we realized we didn't have a gas can. Or whatever those thingys are called. Syd and I scampered across the parking lot to the grocery store (with our new besties in the car waiting for us) but lo and behold, Kroger is also lacking in the gas can department. Luckily the manager overhears our desperate pleas and invites us to follow him around to the back parking lot (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) where has a gas can in the trunk of his car (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME I STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW WE WEREN'T KIDNAPPED but we were high on anxiety and stress and followed him and were rewarded with a sticky and dusty but gloriously real, gas can. We ventured back to the front parking lot where our new besties were anxiously awaiting our arrival ("we were two minutes away from calling the police!!!") and we headed back to my car. 

Ten minutes after being dropped off we realized I left my cell phone in the car of those nice kind wonderful teenage girls. Also on my drive home I got t-boned by a non-english speaker. The fact that he doesn't speak English is fine I just hope you really get the picture of us both getting out of our cars and not being able to communicate. At all.

Moral of the story is... I don't know. I will never know if by having the weirdest night of my life I delayed myself long enough to avoid a future car accident closer to my house, or maybe my tires would have blown the next day. Or maybe I was just supposed to learn a lesson about being prepared? Life is so weird. This entire blog post is because a) i love reminiscing-- especially about myself b) this is my vague, round about way of saying my life is confusing me right now.

Happy Valley Indeed

I lalalalove being home. Christmas break is just long enough to make me settle into a comfortable rhythm of lounging and playing around-- aka make me frown upon the idea of returning to Provo. Tears were shed at the SeaTac airport but by the time we arrived at Salt Lake International I was giddy at the thought of another two months in the Happy Valley of Provo. When I first found out I wouldn't be going on my mission until the end of March, I was a little disappointed that I'd have this weird limbo time. BUT BUT BUT. Provo never disappoints and it's been a fun past nine days! Missin' some of my main girls as we begin to scatter! London, Spain, Georgia, Chile; it's definitely a new chapter. I feel like I have nothing to blog about but I also feel like I'm checking off something on my to-do list when I blog so, thank you for helping me feel productive when I've just played around all day today.

Exploring Seattle Part II

Jen had a meeting in Seattle and I tagged along for the ride (read: jen wanted to be able to use the hov lane)!  She was meeting at a restaurant in the aptly named U District. So while she wined and dined (metaphorically) with her bosses I wandered around the University of Washington!

 

Only in Seattle can you find rows and rows of rain gear with your alma matter emblazoned upon it.

We're still tourists but we're okay with it. Thanks for being sunny a handful of times over the break, Seattle! You are an absolute treasure.