Bravery in People

I'm not sure why, but this past week had me thinking about the brave and courageous things some people do in their lives beyond extraordinary circumstances. That is why I am doing this blog over a couple stories of people who have these stories.
The first is about a French man named Phillipe Croizon. Phillipe has a plan to swim around the world through small channels that connect five of the continents. To me that is brave right there, but to make the story even more brave is the fact that Croizon has no arms or legs. He lost his limbs in a powerful electrical accident that occurred when he was changing a television antenna. He believes that by swimming around the world through these channels it will bring the five continents, and their people, together. That is so amazing to me to have that kind of determination against all odds!
The next story of amazing survival is one that many of you may have already heard of. It was made into a movie about a year or so ago with the movie's title being "127 Hours." For those who do not know what story I am talking about, it is the story of Aron Ralston who found himself stuck between a rock wall and rock for days on end, and survived due to his immense amount of bravery. This incident happened back in 2003 when Ralston went on one of his normal nature day where he would ride his bike, walk the mountains, and climb them as well  in the mountains of Colorado.  As he was climbing out of a canyon an 800 pound rock slipped and fell trapping his arm between the rock and the wall of the canyon. Even though he tried everything, the rock that had trapped him would not move. After being stuck like that for about five days, Ralston knew he had no choice but to amputate his own arm if he planned on surviving. By this time he was all out of food and water considering he had only planned on being gone for a weekend. After Ralston got himself out he stumbled onto a family who helped him to be rescued. This video shows the trailer of the film that was based off of Ralston's story, while this video shows live footage Ralston filmed while he was trapped. I'm not sure how or why, but I actually remember when this story was all over the news. It immediately made me want to see the movie since it was something I had heard about in real life. I honestly do not know if I could have gone through the pain and agony of cutting my own off in order to survive. That is truly amazing and so brave to me.  
In my opinion, these two people are just a couple of the many who have to go through life at somewhat of a disadvantage compared to the rest of us. The crazy thing about that though is that they go out and do these amazing things that none of us would even consider doing. I know it has never crossed my mind to go out and swim around the world. I can barely swim a lap in a swimming pool I can't imagine going around the whole world. And Aron Ralston still enjoys being outdoors and doing these nature hikes. I know if I got my arm stuck for five days and had to cut it off I would be scared to death to go near another canyon. I just wanted to commend these two men for being so brave. Props to them for doing what they do.

Burnt Out!

I don't know about everyone else, but I am so, so glad summer break is almost here. It makes me feel somewhat lazy, but I am so burnt out on school! This usually tends to happen pretty much every semester. At least we only have about three weeks left, and then it will be time to sit back and relax for a couple months! I guess it won't necessarily be complete relaxation since I still have to work, but it will be much easier just balancing work and life as compared to work, life, and school. It never fails that by the time summer is over, I am pretty ready to get back to school. It is so crazy I will only have a year left. I am ready, but then again I am nervous about having to find a job in my profession which will be criminal justice administration. Who knows if I will even be good at at. I guess that is something I will worry about when it gets here. 
I think that the weather summer brings makes the burnt out feeling even stronger. I love warm weather. It is so awesome to be outside all the time. There is so much to do outside especially when its nice out. There are things to do such as riding a bike, playing catch, tennis, and even swimming! I don't really like to do those things too much when it is cold out since I am naturally cold anyway. If it's not about 80 degrees out then I am cold. It kind of sucks, especially since Steven is warm all the time and he always asks me how in the world I am cold. I will also be in Brazil this summer, and I am so excited about that! I don't know very  much Portuguese, but I'm sure I will learn very quickly. I will pretty much have to in order to communicate with anyone at all. In all, I am very excited for summer and a break from school!

Loving Qualities

In this world there are two sexes, men and women. It is typical that these two sexes hardly ever understand the other, so it was surprising to me to when I stumbled upon this article about five things guys like in a girl. The first thing was glasses, second freckles, third an independent streak, fourth plain janes, and fifth assorted quirks.  The first one somewhat surprised me since I feel nerdy when I wear my glasses, and some girls are the same way. Usually I don't here many guys saying they want someone who looks like a nerd, but then again guys do like girls who are intelligent and smart. The third one really did not surprise me much. I know that I would not want someone who is completely dependent on someone, so I don't know why anyone else would, but that is just my opinion on the subject. The plain jane one also surprised me since I don't know really. The assorted quirks one did surprise me since the ones they described are somewhat annoying sometimes. I found this video interesting with all the different opinions in it (I apologize for the language). 


There is also an article about what girls like in a guy. It lists body odor, scars and blemishes, stereotypically "female" traits, vulnerability, and awkwardness. The first one definitely surprised me. I have never found body odor to be attractive. That is kind of gross, but maybe I'm just shallow. The second one I guess I understand. I have heard a lot of girls say they like scars. The feminine trait one somewhat surprised me, but then again it didn't. It is annoying to have a guy who thinks they  have to be tough all the time. Showing true emotions is really not a bad thing. These two articles helped to show as a whole what men and women both like in each other. Even though I found some of them odd, some people might follow right along with these lists. 

My Weekend

Well this past weekend was a pretty good one because I got to go home! I don't mean just my house here in Joplin, but my home home where I grew up. Saturday after work I headed out to go see my parents. My brother, his wife, and my new nephew went home also. They did not get there until later though. The two hour drive never seems as long on the way there as it does on the way back even though I have to drive almost every time since Steven likes to sleep on car rides. I really miss home a lot. It really sucks I don't get to go back more often with work and school all the time, but I guess it makes it more worth it when I actually can. When we first got there we just talked to my parents for awhile. When my brother got there him, my dad, and Steven all went outside to shoot guns. I usually join but since it was cold and nasty out I decided to stay inside. Plus I wanted to get to hold my nephew Hunter. He is so cute. He will be a month old tomorrow! After awhile dinner was finally ready, Steven left to go see his dad, and the rest of us sat down and ate. After we all ate we decided to watch the new Adam Sandler movie, "Jack and Jill". It was actually really funny. I originally thought that I would not like it since it is kind of corny to have one person playing two roles in my opinion, but that is just me. About halfway through the movie Steven finally made it back. Him and his family had a fun time cooking out. I usually go with him, but since we were going to see them all Sunday I decided to stay and spend time with my family.


Sunday we got up and all got ready for church. I figured Steven and I would go ahead and go to Bartlesville to see his mom, but we ended up going to church at Tyro with my family. After that we finally headed to see his family. We all ate at Golden Corral. It was really good since I had not eaten there in a long time. His little niece kept escaping and going to see the other kids in the restaurant. It was pretty funny even though I think her parents got a little embarrassed. After we ate there we went and hung out at his sisters' house for awhile with everyone. Steven and her husband played a video game. I tried to play but I had no idea what to do. When we left there we went to Quiktrip to get our slushies! We do that every time we go there since they are so good, and there is not a QT close to Joplin at all. After that we went back to my parent's house so Steven and my brother could shoot skeet. They really enjoy doing that. My brother is really good at it. I just held Hunter until my mom got home, then she took him from me. We all decided it was probably time to get home about 9 that night, which didn't put me in bed until midnight. It made today feel like a really long day since I usually go to bed by ten or so! In all I really enjoyed my weekend getting to see my family. I really miss them a lot!

Frustrated

Today seemed to be the day for every rude person in the area to come into Lowe's. I got cussed out by an older couple because they had to return a water filter again. Seriously, if you're gonna get that mad about returning a water filter, grow up. I get that it is frustrating to get things that don't work, but there is no need to throw a big fit about it and cuss at everyone who is trying to help you. If you don't feel like you're going to be able to have a civil conversation with someone without pitching a fit, then don't leave you're house. It does nobody good, and it makes everyone who comes in contact with you have a worse attitude than they did already, or it could even ruin their day. That is just flat out rude if you ask me. Than this smart ellec of a man comes through my line having an attitude about everything he says. When I tried to help him cut some plastic with my box knife I state that the blade was dull, and he came back with another smart ellec that we sold them in the store, you know. No way. I had no idea we sold box knife blades in a hardware store. That totally never occurred to me (notice that this is sarcasm on my part). I mean really, who doesn't know that Lowe's has those. As you can see, I did not have the best day. It is okay though now that it is over and I can relax the rest of the night. I just hope tomorrow is a better day!

The Hunger Games Craze

I'm sure many of you have heard of the movie that recently came out called "The Hunger Games". The movie is based of the book with the same title by Suzanne Collins. I have heard talk about it all over the radio, magazines, as well as Facebook. For those of you who don't know, here is a link of the trailer for the movie .At first I honestly wanted nothing to do with the movie or the books since the hype of it is so big. I don't know, for some reason I don't like when that happens. I also could not see how the story of kids going into an arena to kill each other could be good at all. That sounds so depressing. It was not until a few days after I saw the movie against my will, that I decided I actually like the story, and now I can't get enough of it. In the past two weeks I have managed to read the first two books, and am currently on the 3rd one. The title for each book is "The Hunger Games", "Catching Fire", and "Mockingjay" in that order. You have to understand that this is pretty impressive considering the amount of homework as well as the hours I put in at my job. It really does not leave me much time to read for my own pleasure. A brief summary of the story is that it takes you into the life of Katniss Everdeen in the fictional world of Panem. The world is run by the Capitol, and there are twelve districts under it. Each year the Capitol hosts the annual tradition of the hunger games each capitol has to choose one boy and one girl to send to compete. The one person that wins out of the twenty-four gets blessed with enough food to last them a long while since food is scarce at this time. Katniss ends up going to the games in order to save her sister. That is where it all begins anyway, but it gets so good.
For those who were like me and thought the plot was too depressing, and maybe even somewhat crazy to even come up with, I recently learned that the author of the books got her idea for this story from Greek mythology. The story was that Minos forces the city of Athens to sacrifice seven boys in girls as punishment for past crimes, much like in the book.  I realize wikepedia is not the best site for sources, but I found that to make sense once reading the book and seeing the movie.
Even though the movie and book have a lot of similarities, there is so much in the book that the movie leaves out. This is understandable considering the movie is almost two and a half hours so adding everything else would have made it extensive to watch. Overall the reviews for both the film and the books have been pretty good. This site gives many good reviews of what people have said about the film. I am glad that they left some of the gore that is in the book out of the movie. There is some of it that would not be pleasant to watch. Overall I say that anyone who has any sort of interest in this story should at least try to watch the film or read the book. The story is more than just about kids having to go kill each other for the entertainment of the people in the Capitol, it is also about survival, love, and courage. I hate to admit that I am one of those people who loves this story. If the tickets for the movie theater weren't so expensive I would probably go see the movie a second time.

My Vacation!

This past week, Steven and I went on a cruise with two of our friends. We all left late Friday night and went and stayed the night in Tulsa, OK so we wouldn't have to get up super early in order to get to the air port on time. Then Saturday morning we got up and flew out of Tulsa to Miami. Once we got to Miami we got our rental car, went and checked in at the hotel we stayed in there, and then went sight seeing. We ended up having to walk over two miles in order to get to the beach. There were no parking spots any closer. The walk kind of sucked because Steven and I got blisters on our feet from our flip flops rubbing on our toes. They could have been worse though. After that we all went to eat, got cleaned up, and then went sight seeing some more. It was a fun day, but the fun was just about to begin.


Sunday we got up and got our stuff together to leave the hotel. We then headed to our main destination, the cruise ship! It was a massive ship that occupied over 3,000 passengers. The ship we went out was called the Ruby Princess. Going through security did not take a very long time. That was good since we were all so excited to get onto the boat. Once on the boat Steven and I went to find our room. We found it on the Caribe deck. It was a really nice room. It did kind of throw us off that the beds were across the room from eachother, but we got our cleaning guy to push them together for us. After that we had to go to a safety thing so we new what to do in case some kind of accident were to happen while on the cruise. That was pretty boring. Then it was finally time to sail away! We went and sat on the very front of the ship to watch this. After that we went and settled in our room and got ready for dinner. The dining room was really fancy. We dressed nice, and were seated. Our waiter was a cool guy. His name was Romel from the Philippines. That night we got in the hot tub and watched the movie they played outside. It was "Real Steal". It was a really good movie.


The next day we were supposed to stop at an island, but we ended up not being able to get off of the boat because the water was too rough, and we had to take little boats to the island. That was a pretty big bummer. That whole day we did not do much but hang out on the boat, lay out under the sun, and watch movies in the theater on board. That night they had a magician show. It was really cool! The next couple days after that we got to get off on islands which was a blast! At the first island we all got really burnt, so the next day we took a tour of that island in order to keep from burning even more. While on the boat at night and the other days we had to stay on all day there was plenty to do. A couple nights there were comedians that were hilarious. We also did not go hungry at all since there was always food to eat. They also had amazing smoothies we got a lot. When we got back to Florida we went and watched the movie "The Hunger Games". I didn't want to see it very much, but it turned out to be pretty good despite the depressing story line. On the plane I started reading the book. There were a lot of details that were left out of the movie. That was my vacation! It was a really fun trip.