hurts so good

so…yesterday i went to the gym. remember how i told you about the fiasco with the fitness center that brians work paid for? well i tried convincing brian to pay for a fancy schmancy gym membership but he made me go to the nasty byu FREE gym first...turns out, they’ve gotten all new machines at byu so we poor students can actually have an effective work out. now, there aren’t nearly as many ellipticals as there would be in a huge gym, but i guess ill just stare awkwardly at the chosen elliptical until its rider abandons it. and i actually got to break in my new workout shoes. see below.

this makes me exceptionally happy. and just like middle school, changing in the locker rooms still makes me excessively uncomfortable…

need a gym buddy and are too poor to get a membership anywhere? let me know!

ode to 2009

after having been married for a year, id like to think that i haven’t changed at all, that im still same ol’ alex. its true, i am. but it is impossible to live for a year with another person without realizing some things, either about yourself, the other person, or about life in general. here are a few things i have learned:

1. i am way more sensitive than i thought i was. maybe im just sensitive to brian…

2. i am ALWAYS cold. i didn’t know this before but apparently brian has lava running through his veins.

3. living with a husband is much preferable to being single…insta-social life!

4. i am anti social. still outgoing, just anti social.

5. i still don’t know how to cook well. not that it matters if im just eating salads all the time…besides, brian seems to like it….

6. boys get way more into their sports than they let on to their girlfriends. as a husband, all bets are off, and you should take all unanchored objects out of arms reach.

7. as much as i love debating, i hate arguing/fighting.

8. i really like being with my family/husband. on my days off, id choose time with them.

9. when we got married, my family didn’t just double-there are 3 kids in my family, in brians there are 6, plus 3 step siblings…so my family quadrupled (and that’s not including the spouses and kids….). basically i have a great family-in-law. i have two new sisters and 4 more brothers, and new grandmas and aunts uncles and cousins that are all awesome. and the evil step-siblings-in-law are pretty awesome too. and i get to be an aunt to some of the cutest kids on this planet. basically, im loved J

10. i have always been a sports fan, but i will forever be caught up on every sport in the world and all the controversies thanks to my nightly sportscenter intake.

11. both brian and i get stressed when the house is a mess…me more so with dishes…

12. sometimes i get grumpy and i don’t know why. i blame birth control.

13. i really like popcorn. like LOVE it. make it about twice a week…old fashioned style in a pot and everything...

14. i am really protective of my brothers…all of them, even the in law ones…i seem to think it is my duty to kick every trashy, game-playing chica to the curb.

15. there are friends, and there are good friends, but not even those that you love most dearly will ever appreciate just how awesome and wonderful your spouse is.

so there they are. some of the things ive learned this year. i thought 15 were boring enough, so i didn’t add any more. 0verall, 2009 was pretty awesome to me i think. better not cross my fingers that 2010 will be just as good…don’t want to get my hopes up….

resolve...dissolve...

so, i realized after my last post that ive just been ranting about law school, and not really talking about any other aspect of my life. while this shows the real balance of my life, i think id rather give the cyber world the appearance that my life is much more balanced and well rounded and less consumed by the library than it, in all reality, actually is.

since it’s the beginning of the new year, i too made some resolutions that i aspire to, but most likely will not, keep.

the first on my list is go gluten free. i did it once (for two years), i could do it again right? WRONG! oh, ive been fabulously good for the last two weeks, but i forgot what torture it is to watch everyone else around me consume mass amounts of pizza while i wolf down a gross (read that: Caesar) salad like its my last meal. see, the thing about gluten free is that if you don’t want to munch on veggies and fruit for the rest of your life, you must cook. and between class and homework, I don’t usually have a ton of time to actually participate in the culinary arts. but since this time around im more equipt to cook on a regular basis (aka. more willing), i think/hope it will go better than last time, and become a lifestyle rather than a burden.

second, im going to work out more. this resolution is already dead to me. i tried going to the gym that brian’s work (a health supplement company) subscribes to for free (instead of hiring people full time and giving them benefits), but it turns out that this health supplement company does not want me getting fit because they have not renewed their subscription to the gym. so, i could pay for the membership for 300$ or I could just go to the really really crappy byu gym for free since im a student…but im resisting. i doubt that resistance will last for long though, since i bought new running shoes just to solidify my resolution and they are calling my name very loudly every time i look in the mirror…

so…those are my major resolutions for the year, along with a few little things that probably have a more eternal affect on my life, but those are just the little things, right? if you have any resolutions, id like to hear them! you offer me some moral support, i just might offer you some homemade gluten free cookies that i may not promise to be utterly delicious...

variations on a familiar theme

ive decided that law school isnt anything to brag about. every one always comments on what a "brainiac" i am but if you know me at all, youll know im not the brilliant, scholarly type. really, law school isnt all that hard. (i havent gotten my grades yet so in about a month, this position may change...) id almost rather just say im going to grad school that open to door to all the false assumptions people make one you let the words "law school" slip out of your mouth. the only difference between grad school in general and law school is the amount of mental and emotional and physical pain you like to endure from day to day. not so keen on self mutilation? go to grad school. want to live in a masochistic house of horrors? law school is the place for you! and so far, this semester promises to painful.

however, there are 3 things that bring me hope that i will survive even better than last semester.

1) i have all female professors. how i managed to do this, I dont know. ok fine, i do know-byu choose my classes for me. but thats makes it even more amazing! for a school with a long heritage of always having more men in the building than women (yes, even on saturdays), it pretty crazy to have gotten all female professors. and they are all pretty neat too. one even looks like velma from scooby doo. while a persons gender doesnt necessarily change their political points of veiw, i think this semester my profs will be more interested in opposing points of view than espousing their own opinions. which will be a nice change in this neo-con environment...

2) i have criminal law this semester...and i heart it already. every class has a ton of reading but its all fascinating to me. its taught by a judge who has a more fluid way of teaching but she likes to encourage debate and discussion, which i always enjoy (well. except when im subject to the idiodic, pointless, and irrelevant musing of some of my more socially inept classmates...). and since criminal law is something that ive always been interested in, double yay.

3) all of my profs are away of our different-than-normal-first-year-second-semester schedule, which has disproportionately more core classes than last semester. beacuse of this, they are all taking it upon themselves to lessen our work load. so instead of having 25 pages of reading per class, it ranges from 6-15 pages of reading per class (minus criminal law though...thats more like 40 pages a night). yay again.

so while this may not sound like much to all of you who are now either writhing uncomfortably because you just realized how easy your life really is, or are now quietly celebrating inside because you are a fellow law student who is trying to catch up to todays reading in your carrel and cannot celebrate outloud, it makes a substantial difference and i might actually get o see my husband sometime in the next 4 months. might. sorry honey, i dont know what time ill be home tonight....