The Best Roadtrip Ever-Spring Break 2010

I had the most amazing spring break ever. I got to go to California for the weekend with six awesome people in a minivan. My companions in the adventure were Rachelle, Amy, Liz, Melissa, Paxton and Tyler. I hadn't met Tyler before but he quickly became one of my besties. We left on Thursday evening riding in our sweet rental. It was decided that renting a car would be a good idea because we could all be in the same car, not wear and tear on our own cars, and split the gas six ways. The minivan was sweet, 2009 model with tons of buttons and AC controls. Very sweet ride. It was raining as we made our way out of P-town, but I was glad because it would make the nice weather in Cali be that much more enjoyable. We plugged in the iPods and rocked out to great music the whole way down. Among one of the great road games we played was making bird calls/sounds to every letter of the alphabet. Highly enjoyable.

The crew in the minivan

We rolled in to Las Vegas at midnight. The goal was to stay there to rest up, get to Cali early the next day. Well the hotel, Planet Hollywood, did not have two rooms ready for us so we had to go stroll around for awhile. Some of the other crew wanted to dress up and while I was waiting for Melissa this black guy knocked on the door and said, "Yo Melissa, get your a** out here, yo party's waiting on you!" He was a maintence worker at the hotel, it was hilarious. We went and looked around at the Paris hotel, got dinner, Tyler and Melissa pretended they were getting married, I saw a drunk girl throw up, and was overall very overstimulated. Not my favorite part of the vacation. But since we were so mad about the rooms not being ready they gave us $100 for the restaurant in the hotel and we used it for breakfast. I only got like two hours of sleep that night...

The hotel employee

The next day we woke up and had a nice breakfast in the hotel. We packed up and left Vegas and were on our way to California! Since we had seven people we had to sit three people in the backseat. It made for some interesting times. In the desert of California I asked Tyler if he wanted to play cards. We started playing Texas Hold 'Em. I wondered what we would bet but we came up with some pretty good stuff. At first it was things like $100,000. But then it started getting crazy. My soul, my kidney to be donated if ever needed etc. I kept losing. It was always close. But Tyler had the high card all the time. One bet was if ever the world was going to be destroyed and I had tickets on a spaceship leaving earth that I had to give all of my tickets to Tyler and his family, but if I had five kids and he had four I could keep the last ticket. Then we started betting real things. Taking the other person's stuff to the beach, rubbing suntan lotion, giving every person in the car massages, popping Tyler's toes (explained later), talking Tyler up if ever I'm alone with a girl he likes, oh and this treasure if ever Tyler toots and people can smell it, I have to claim it as my own. It was quite hilarious. People were listening to us in the car and cracking up. The favorite quote was "I see you carrying my stuff to the beach and I raise you your kidney." We played one final round where if I won I would get all of the bets back, but I lost, barely, so I had a ton of gambling debts.

It was so exciting getting into California. The sun was shining, the hills were green, and there were purple flowers all over the hillside. The windows in the doors rolled down, the air was warm!  We made our way to Anaheim and found our hotel. Guess what, they weren't ready for us there either. So we went to go buy Paxton swimtrunks and then came back. At the store Tyler called in one of his debts, he tooted, but I didn't want to claim it. Then he started chatting it up with this cute little indian girl and sort of made friends with her. We went back to the hotel changed into our swimsuits and headed for the beach. The beach was fantastic. We got there a little late in the afternoon so the sun was starting to go down and it was a little cold but it was fun to feel the sand on my feet, jump in the freezing ocean and get tons of sand in my swimsuit. I took pictures, we played volleball, I collected seashells, and paid up on my debts. I gave Tyler his three minute massage and then did the toe popping. It's like cracking his knuckles but just pulling on his toes. Tyler got immense enjoyment out of the toe popping. Then we built a fire as the sun was going down. There wasn't a whole lot of wood so it didn't last long but it was cool. There were a ton of fires up and down the beach. It's too bad there wasn't anything to roast over the fire. We had a photoshoot, the fire died, and then we headed to look for food. The crew ended up at a local place called Don the beachcomber's which was a luau-like restaurant with polynesian food. There was a band playing while we ate. They had a lot of dishes with hawaiian pork. It was so tasty. I think I emptied a cup of sand from my swimsuit all over the bathroom. Then I discovered that there was a blacklight in the hotel room. I turned it on and saw there were glow in the dark stars on the ceiling so as to make your experience at Disneyland more "magical." Awesome.

The next day we got up early to make it to Disneyland before the crowd got heavy. After two nights of little sleep it was going to be hard. We did the volunteer give a day, get a day promotion and got our day in Disneyland for free. When we were picking up our tickets Paxton and Melissa told the people they had just gotten married. So they got these "Just Married" buttons, it didn't do anything for them, but later that night they found the married mickey ears and put them on. A lady walked by and said "oh how cute." Hilarious. I got a button that said I was a volunteer and I wore it all day. It was fabulous weather. I think the high was 80 degrees, it was sunny and warm. I was so excited to be in Disneyland and ride the rides. The first one we did was Space Mountain. It was so much fun, it's the best rollercoaster at Disneyland. We did the Matterhorn, Star Tours, and the Buzz Lightyear ride. I got fastpasses for Space Mountain again, when I went to pass them out we were short one. Everyone started cracking up because it was like the bet I had made to give Tyler my ticket on a spaceship. It actually came true. I thought it was hilarious too. We did a ton of stuff at the park. Indiana Jones, Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, the Jungle Cruise ride, Tikki Tikki Room, Small World, the Teacups, and even the Finding Nemo ride (which I think is a complete waste of time but we had a special pass so I went on it. The rides were so much fun for me. We would get on them and hoot and holler, or sing the song that went along. I think people got annoyed with us. In line for the Jungle Cruise Tyle started teaching us how to step. In line for Haunted Mansion we sang the Fresh Prince song. At one point we were just resting on a wall and someone suggested everyone sing a different song at the same time. At the top of our lungs. It was probably super annoying but we had fun. Some of my crew got tired early and wanted to leave by eight o'clock. Me, Melissa, Paxton and Rachelle decided to shop, and then we actually went back into the park and saw the fireworks. I love fireworks!! We walked back to the hotel and then took the van to go get food and gas in the car. It took like two hours because the directions on her phone were wrong. We ended up in ghetto Fullerton and there was a cop car in front of one of the houses. Not where In-N-Out was. Eventually we made it back to the hotel and collapsed into bed.

Sunday we got up and had breakfast, packed and got in the car to head home. I had heard it snowed in Provo over the weekend and I did not want to leave California. It was heavenly. The ride back was also really fun. Rachelle started us playing MASH with playing cards. We had to use people in the car. We started really believing what the cards told us. I got mad because I didn't win any during Paxton's round. Tyler was hilarious-he said "All of your crushes on me just increased by 30%." Because he was winning who is the best kisser, who will be the best dad,...all of the good things. All in all, very entertaining. When I got to Provo I was sad. Vacation was over, Provo was cold, I couldn't play with my friends all day every day, and reality was back on. Also, because we were so sleep deprived everything was ten times more hilarious the whole trip. I don't think I stopped laughing ever. Plus Tyler would just say anything that came to his head, and it was usually random and ridiculous, but funny. We made a favorite moments list and I put it on Facebook. It was a glorious vacation-warm weather, beach, Disneyland, funny moments, adventure, games and stories. I want to remember it forever. Spring break 2010!

And now a cool collage I made of my favorite pics from the trip-

Please, please, please, let me get what I want

Random song from 500 Days of Summer, but the lyrics express my sentiments right now. I have been out of school and unemployed for basically three months now. The bank account is getting low and I am this close to going to donate plasma. I NEED a job. Job searching stinks. I hate entering things in five million times. I hate the questionnaires, (do they really read those things?) I hate not ever hearing back from anyone. I hate staring at the computer screen. I hate imagining what said job would be like and thinking, "I have a college degree, that should count for something, right?" NOPE. And then realizing that my degree and what I studied is not really worth a whole lot. Basically, it's frustrating.

But I'm trying to have faith-and also exercise dilligence. I've never had to wait too long for things to work out. Heavenly Father loves me and wants me to succeed, so He will help me get where I need to be. That said, I'm applying for a job at the county health department for the third time. This time I REALLY am qualified for the position. They better interview me or I will bust all upons. And Please Let Me Get What I Want!

Now an inspirational photo I took during my trip to California at Bolsa Chica beach.

It's about to get mad all up in here

That's right, March Madness season is upon us.  Normally I don't care two hoots about college basketball. (I've never even been to a BYU basketball game). But this year the extended Carr family is really getting into it by having our own bracket tournament complete with smack-talk and making fun of each other's respecitve alma maters. There are only two or three things that govern my picks. 1. BYU won't usually make it past the first round. This year I'm being generous and having them go to the second. 2. Gonzaga-from Washington-usually does pretty well. So I have them win. 3. Duke is really good and they kick trash a lot. Other than that it's mostly random, and I like to have some underdogs win. Somehow though I ended up with all the number 1 seeds making it to the final four. I hope at least one team upsets this. I picked Kansas to win over all. I still don't care about basketball, but now I feel included.

Speaking of family, I've been doing some research on my grandpa on my mom's side. He attended BYU from 1931 to 1935. There's not a ton that we know about his college years so I set out to find more. I knew that he worked on the school newspaper, the Y News, and that he was Associate Editor for one year. I looked through copies of the school yearbook from those years and found a few pictures that my grandpa was in. It was fun to hunt him down, I went to the Special Collections section of the library, I even had to use white gloves to handle some of the photographs I was looking at. I felt like National Treasure. It was also fun to see pictures of him as a young man, looking different from how I knew him as a 74-94 year old grandpa. The same age as I am now, going to college at the same university, all that stuff. Anyway here are the ones I found. They are scans of copies of the original pages, so the quality will probably be poor. If it's hard to see, click on the image to see a larger version.

My grandpa(Francis Foster) is the short guy on the right. This is the International Relations Club of 1933-34.

The news writing class of 1932-33. Again, the short guy on the left.

The Y Journalists. Grandpa is in the front on the right.

Makes me think about what BYU was like back in the day when there were only 1,500 students instead of 30,000+. And grateful that these people helped make BYU what it is today.

Thank You

I am so sick of staring at my computer screen looking for jobs. So now I'm going to stare at my computer screen and write in my blog. I've had an interesting week or so. Nothing too consequential but there are some things/people I would like to thank.

Thank you Sister Julie B. Beck. She came to my stake Relief Society conference last Thursday. She is such a great lady-she just let us ask her questions and would answer them. No talk or prepared words. It was awesome and inspirational.

Thank you Audrey-for letting us play volleyball at your church and sardines in your pitch black house. It is very freaky walking around with 12 other people in the dark in a strange house-but fun!

Thank you BYU Rugby-for beating Utah in the Wasatch Cup. It was my first rugby game and I have no idea how the rules go, but it is very manly. And exciting.

Thank you Avril-for writing angry girl music. Sometimes I just have to punch dance out my feelings and nothing helps more than doing Kevin Bacon moves to "Hey, hey, you, you, I don't like your girlfriend."

Thank you dryer repair man-for fixing our squeaky dryer. It works amazingly now and is not freakishly loud.

Thank you roommates-for the chats. They are delightful as always.

Thank you HBLL employees-I have no idea how to do family history, but I did find out some stuff about my grandpa!

Thank you Disney-for offering the give a day get a day program. I am going to Disneyland in a week and a half. I am so pumped. 70 degrees here I come!

Thank you russian music website-9 cent songs are so appealing. GLEE, Norah Jones, The Ting Tings, 500 Days of Summer, and Hall & Oates are among recent purchases.

Thank you sun-for shining today. I hope spring is not too far away!

And thank you Jenna, Jared, Eric, Leland, Jillian, Jules and McDonalds-for letting me watch the Olympics on your tvs. Mine is super ghetto and I would have been sad had I not been able to watch at all. Go USA!

Olympics-days 12, 13, 14, 15 & 16, or El Fin

Dear Olympics I will miss you. You too Bob Costas. And Apolo Ohno. Good thing I have a back-up. DVD of highlights from the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics. Here are the best from the last week or so.

Day 12
USA wins silver in women's two man bobsled. Go Erin Pac and Elane Meyers! They came in second behind a Canadian pair. I am sad that Shauna Robock, an Orem native and BYU alum did not medal.

Women's downhill was plagued by a lot of crashes. They kept replaying the crashes, they are way too graphic to watch the whole time.

Day 13
USA goes 1-2 in the Nordic combined. What the Nordic combined includes is a ski jump and a cross country race. Manly isn't it? I think they should add target shooting with guns into that. Even more manly. Anyway, Bill Demong got the gold and Johnny Spillane got the silver. Spillane got the gold in some cross country race earlier.

Aerials-Jeret "Speedy" Peterson won silver after busting out his patented "Hurricane" trick. The other American, Ryan St. Onge got fourth. It is what diving is for the summer olympics. Fancy twists and flips but with skis, and a scarier landing. Go team USA.

Women's figure skating finals. It was amazing. The Americans did well but they are only 17 and lack the experience some of the other skaters have. Rachel Flatt and Mirai Nagasu gave really beautiful performances, they should be really proud of them.

Joannie Roachette gave another moving performance. She was beautiful on the ice and skated a very clean performance. I loved her routine and thought she very much deserved the silver medal she was rewarded with.

The gold medalist of the night was Kim Yu-Na. Her music was twinkly and costume dazzling. She did amazing clean jumps and skated very powerfuly. She looked so relieved when she finished because she had so much pressure from her country of South Korea. Yu-na is so popular there and they love her so much. At 19 years old, she has had to endure a lot. She ended up getting the highest score anyone has ever received under the current scoring system. I think she really deserved the gold medal. They are talking about how her performances will go down as some of the best in history. Mao Osada won the silver.

Day 14
Maria Reisch won gold in women's slalom. She won in 2006 I believe so it is her second gold in this event. She is really good.

USA beats Finland in men's hockey to head to the final. A showdown against Canada.

Apolo Ohno gives us the last performances of his career. In his last individual race he should have gotten silver. He was fourth at the last turn but a crash made him second across the finish line. But judges determined that he pushed someone and was the cause of the crash. He was disqualified. I don't think he should have been DQed but that is the sport. Then came the relay. During the 49 lap race there was lots of excitement. USA was usually 4th out of five. Apolo did the last two laps in the race and did a lot to catch the team up. They ended up getting silver. JR Celski also raced for team USA. Ohno now has eight winter medals, more than anyone else. Congrats Apolo. We will miss watching you race. Short track has a lot of fans because of you. It was always exciting. And your cute little Asian dad cheering you on. Thanks for the memories. Good luck in retirement.

Day 15
USA driver Steve Holcomb and his team take gold in the four-man bobsled run. They had the fastest time racing their "night-train" christened sled. Also I think the correct term is bobsleigh. But sled is easier to say/write. IDK.

Day 16
Canada and USA face off for gold in men's hockey 30 years to the day of the "Miracle on Ice." It was a close game. USA had already beaten Canada in regular play. But they couldn't do it again. They tied 2-2 at the end of regulation but Canada won 3-2 in OT. Good job Canada.

Medals Count: USA wins the most medals with 37 beating the record set in 2002 of 34. They took home 9 gold, 15 silver, and 13 bronze. GO TEAM USA!!! Canada broke the "no-gold-on-home-soil" curse and got 14 gold medals. Way to show up. All in all great Olympics.

Well, that's the end of my Olympic commentating. I'll have to find something else to do. I look forward to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. But before that I am counting down until the 2012 Summer Olympics in London!