the capstone paper from hell. or chechyna.

{zombie lauren. don't be jealous of how cute i look.}

After watching 4.5 million zombie movies with Dan, I've come to wonder what I'd look like/ be like in Zombie Lauren form. I need to wonder no more, I found out by staying awake (I use that term loosely) for a full 48 hours. You see, I had this Capstone Paper, a lovely 40 page Arabic laced Capstone paper that I've know about since the begining of the semester, yet in true Lauren fashion decided to wait to the last humanely possible second to begin writing. 

{when I asked dan at 1 am to go out an buy me some coke to take to school the next day, I didn't know he'd get a liter. yes, I have no shame, i carried the liter around byu with me.}

{A few times, when I started to freak out, i'd stack my reference books into towers. it helped me chill out. and look like a psychopath}

Enter two days of living in the UofU library, alternately crying, staring at a blank screen, and drinking diet coke. Of course, the night before it was due I got sick (pretty sure food poisoning), so I was alternately vomiting diet coke and writing poorly constructed sentences. It. Was. Awful. 

Both the experience and my paper on the Islamization of Chechens. 

Luckily I had a wonderful weekend of laziness to recuperate. My sister Anna came up to go to "A Day" at Utah State, I accompanied her for moral support. We then spent the rest of the weekend watching The Hunger Games (so good!), going to the new City Creek Mall (so crowded we only stayed for a few minutes), and laying on the couch watching Dexter and drinking Super Big Gulps.

 I'm so glad I've converted another to my sick amount of soda drinking. No, its not paleo friendly, but come on, I have to choose one thing to make life still worth living. And I choose Diet Coke. 

Happy List: 5 things

1) I got to see my parents + Kat last weekend, though the circumstances were less than ideal. My dad came up to have surgery at the U of U. He’d already had surgery down in St. George, but there was so much scar tissue that he was still having problems (he got a bad infection)… Poor man was in a lot of pain. Hopefully things heal up properly after this surgery and he can FINALLY get better (all these problems are still from his accident in Belize, in December!) Bensons show love with balloons, so Kat got these awesome ones to bring to my dad while he was staying in the hospital, but alas was turned away at the front desk. Stupid Latex rules. 

2) My GOTR Season has started

I was pretty nervous going into this coaching gig, but so far, its been awesome. The girls are all really amazing – we have a very diverse team coming from all spectrums of the cultural and socioeconomic scale, but they are all kind to each other and work really well together. One of my favorite things so far was our lesson on positive self talk. After the lesson, we ran our laps and at each lap we would give the girls a positive self message to repeat for the lap, like “I am beautiful!” It was so fun to see the girls beam when we told them something positive, and it was even better when we reversed roles and me and my co-coach had to run as the girls gave us positive messages. I really felt all warm and fuzzy from all the good things the girls had to tell me. Next week were talking about body image – a lesson I think I need more than the girls – and I’m really excited for it. We end our practices with a group cheer, “GIRLS ON THE RUN IS SO MUCH FUN!!!” And really, it is.

3.We joined a cult. 

Its called Crossfit. They take all of our money and then torture us. Really though, its crazy. If you ever want to see something hilarious, you should watch me try to do snatchs with a barbell or do kipping pull ups on the bar… Perhaps the craziest part of our new cult is the diet: Paleo. Crossfit propoganda dictates that you must follow a Paleolithic Diet, only eating what cavemen would eat, sort of ( I totally don’t buy into the “science” and “anthropology” behind this method, I’m doing it out of sheer peer pressure)…. So basically dan and I are constantly sore from the crazy workouts and constantly about to gnaw each other’s arms off from the carb deficiency induced mania. 

{okay, so the finish line was flat. but thats it. i swear!}

{no i don't want any of your dirty bagels. i'm perfectly happy w/ my paleo friendly post-race orange.... not}

4. I ran in a racing club's race.  

My training for the Ogden Marathon has been rather lackluster, so I was excited to find out about the Ogden Racing Circuit – this is what I needed to force me to run. This Saturday they had a 10 miler, I read on their website it was least attended of the circuit because the course was “challenging.” Umm yeah, it was challenging. The whole thing was running up the hills of Ogden above Weber State. The only flat/non killer grade was the first mile. Sick joke. I think the guy who turned to me with a look of death at mile 7 summed it up pretty well: “This b*tch is all up hill!” Dan deserves an awesome husband award as he woke up at 6am today (his only day to sleep in) and drove me up to Ogden, patiently waited for me during my race, then took me back to SLC and went to the Symphony with me! (I needed to go for a class, we're not that cultured to go of our own volition). 

Things next week should be awesome for Dan, all my sisters, and every other student in the state of Utah, as they have Spring Break. Oh, except for my school who doesn't believe in Spring Break/ recreation/ enjoyment of life in any way shape or form...

BYU SHOULD BURN!!!!!

But I've already said that.