Ice Bucket Challenge: Why We Love to Hate It

Nearly every Facebook and Instagram post recently is someone getting doused with a bucket full of ice water, screaming in shock. All the other posts are rants over the annoyance of having to see these videos 50 times a day.

The ALS ice bucket challenge. You've seen it. You've clicked the hashtag. You've probably even done it. (I'm doing it tomorrow. Peer pressure is real). 

 (Pics below)

In theory I really like it. It's a viral way to raise money for something important. I like that, and I've heard that they've raised over 41 million dollars from these ice bucket donations alone. That's amazing! I love the idea of people coming together for a good cause and getting such amazing results. So then, why are these videos beginning to grate on our nerves?

I realized the answer to my question tonight as I was washing dishes. This challenge is just a chain letter disguised as a viral video. Think about it. When us 90’s kids were in middle school, chain letter emails would consistently and annoyingly show up in our inboxes, accompanied by that pleasant voice announcing "you've got mail!" The voice however did not warn us about the type of mail we’d received.

The dreaded chain letter. They're all the same. First, they tell you some touching story such as a young girl finding the man of her dreams after forwarding an email to 20 people. Second, they grace you with a “stunning” visual display that dances with dashes and colons and greater-than signs as you scroll down the page. Finally, at the bottom, they always leave you with a threat. "Forward this to 10 people or your crush will hate you forever." No one wants their crush to hate them! So we hit the forward button and bugged our friends, relatives, and loved ones. That is until we came to our senses and realized that forwarding the messages would in no way impact how our crushes felt about us. If he didn't like my acid wash fanny pack before, he wasn't going to like it after receiving an annoying chain letter from me. 

Flash forward to today. Technology is more advanced and more clever; therefore chain letters have become more advanced and clever. A Super Chain Letter, if you will (cue the clawed, metal hand bursting forth from the pile of rubble). The touching story is now more tangible: an actual disease, for actual people, that needs curing. The fancy visuals are no longer 8-bit animations, but somewhat entertaining videos of your friends screaming as they are showered with ice. And the threat feels even more damning than before: "If you don't pour a bucket of ice on your head within 24 hours, everyone will know you hate science and love diseases." Okay, admittedly it's not that harsh, but it has started to feel that way. The urgency has also increased to Super status, requiring us to "forward this message" within only 24 hours since, hey, we all practically live on the internet now! The chain letter no longer sits in our inboxes for a few days because we check Instagram and Facebook about every 10 minutes. 

What’s next for chain letters? We all move to third world countries, make videos of the surgeries we perform, and call people out to Make The Move within 24 hours? Let’s hope not. 

(Hey, at least I got to wear my cat towel at school!)

The Downs and Ups of Life

Sometimes I read people's blogs and I think, I love reading blogs. And then I sit down to write a blog and think, we'll I certainly have nothing to write about.

Wouldn't that be great if this was the end of the blog?

But I guess I could think of something to write...

Emily got her mission call! Sao Palo Brazil west. My cocktail of emotions change everyday, but I am overwhelmingly proud of her. She is amazing. I have always looked up to her.

Kelly and I went camping for the first time since being married. Everything still smells like campfire. We've talked a lot about all the camping we want to do, but somehow we've always talked ourselves out of it. Not this time! Oh mama, did we camp!

I only have 2 months of school left! Driving home today, I practiced what speech I could give my students on our last day together. You know: real inspiring stuff. Be your self and whatnot. (and yes, I did cry as I gave my fake speech to the radio). I need them to know how much I care for them and how important it is to be nice to everyone. I don't even care if they remember the difference between there/their/they're if they end the year more accepting and positive than when they started. As I blabbered in my car over some Billie Holliday song, I realized that I am very wise, but far from eloquent.

In hopes that actions really are louder than words, I've tried very hard to develop a reputation of being positive all the time - even if they think I'm super annoying (and they do) in hopes that it will rub off. I really need them to know that it's okay to be different and for others to be different.

Recently, one of my old students took her life after being bullied because she was different. She came to see me just a day before and we had such a nice chat. We even talked about all the positive there was to focus on in life even when high school sucks; she had the most beautiful smile. As I've grieved, I have done what many do: thought, what could I have said or done to help her more? My heart compresses when I think about it.

The number 1 reason I became a teacher - aside from the fact that English was the only thing I liked - was to help these kids see the good parts of life and understand that even amongst all the bad, there is good. I always wished someone would have told me things like that when I was in school. I mean, my best friend was a cat for far too long. (Pictured below: Me and my BFF)

Aside from the inevitable darkness, life is insanely good.

I hope my students know that life gets better. I mean, look at me. I could go into lots of sappy details about how my insides used to be filled with tar, but how I've overcome and how much my heart has grown since being with Kelly and how he's the love of my life and how he reminds me of all the good in the world and makes me laugh and and and... I could even tell the story of when he taught me that it feels better to laugh than to cry - but I tell that story all the time - and I'll save the sap for another day. You're welcome.

If I was allowed, I would just show my students this talk and bare my testimony.
This talk speaks directly to my heart about what I've been rambling on about. And President Uchtdorf is just way more eloquent than I am.

Merry Christmas to me!

Blogging from my new iPad! Kelly came home for lunch, left to go back to work, and then came back 30 minutes later with something wrapped in his coat. He made me sit down and close my eyes. He placed it on my lap and covered it with some cat pictures. I opened my eyes and was like, CATS!? Then I was like iPad!?!?!? I spent the next 40 hours on the couch playing with it. What's going on? My life is amazing and technological. It's totally cool to type on this little board. The end.

On The 2 Year Mark

Kelly and I hit our 2 year mark, folks. In honor of how much I love reminiscing, let's reminisce.

Starting in 2007, Kelly and I worked together. I was his trainer, and even though I looked like this, he still thought I was cute:

So I'd save a seat for him at work, which he thought was creepy. And I'd scoot my chair closer to him, which he thought was creepy. And I'd tell him how hot his arms were, to which he would flex in response, and he thought it was creepy.  Here's a picture I snapped at the Operator Christmas party because, hey. When you have a crush on someone, it's fun to try to take pictures of them.

 Our relationship really picked up when we started doing skits together at the BYU Operator retreats. Skits in which I insisted on being married to him. Everyone thought it was so hilarious. (right, guys?)

As the years went by, I often would invite Kelly over to do things like carve pumpkins and make s'mores over my stove. We had a lot of fun together, but when I asked him, "Do you think you would you ever, even in some alternate universe, ever date me?" he responded with, "nope."

 I accepted that and decided to just hang out with him all the time anyway, regardless of who I was dating at the time (sorry, past BFs...or am I?)
You can tell by the look on Kelly's face in this one that he loved being close to me and having his picture taken.

And then something magical happened. A miracle. He...started dating me! That's a real smile on his face, folks. Even though I'm so close to him.

And we started doing couple things. Together!

 And we took a road trip to San Francisco on which we talked about...gulp...getting married.

Then we got married! (well, that escalated quickly)

The past 2 years have been the most amazingly happy years of my life. I didn't even know I had the option to be this happy. In fact, I had just come to terms with the idea that my life had to be a little depressing at all times when Kelly showed me the truth was just the opposite.

One of our first real-er dates was to see the movie Ratatouille.  Now, if you know anything about me, you know that 1. I love sugar, and 2. I cry at everything. TV shows, books, movies, commercials, you name it. If it's emotional at all, I'm crying.
So, there we are on a date, and the movie comes to the Famously Disney Emotional Part (I don't even remember. The rat loses his family or that red-headed cook doesn't like him anymore or something) and my empathetic instincts kick in. My brain reminds me how depressing life can be and I feel my stomach clench in preparation. But just before the first tear can weasel its way out, Kelly leans over and says something downright ridiculous. Instead of crying, I erupt in laughter. The people in front of us give us the movie theater SHHHH, but we can't stop laughing, and a light goes on. "Natalie," the light says, "It feels so much better to laugh than to cry! Why have you been crying all these years?" I slipped my hand into Kelly's as a thanks for the revelation he had just unknowingly given to me.

This moment didn't take away all my empathy and stop me from crying during every TV Show/movie/book. Oh no, I cried watching Modern Family this morning on Hulu. But that's not the point. The point is, my whole life I had been worrying and crying myself to sleep, dwelling on things that I couldn't change; but there was suddenly this amazingly wise (and funny) man in my life who made me feel like I didn't need to anymore.

Now when things start falling apart and I feel my limbs give out like a child's push puppet, Kelly's right by my side, reminding me how good it feels to laugh and how good it is to be me.

My life is amazing.

Here's a video to prove it:

On Puppets

I know you guys are always wondering, what does Natalie do with all the puppets she makes!? 

I am here to answer that question with a video:

An Experiment...

First of all, I'd like to thank Science for making this all possible. 

This idea came to us from Life Hack. The website told me if I wanted to clear up hazy car headlights, I just had to use toothpaste:

Kelly and I were both enchanted. And if you haven't heard, I have some hazy-a$$ headlights. 

We rolled up our sleeves and put on our Myth Buster's outfits. 

Our hypothesis: Toothpaste would not make my headlights as clean as the internet said they will be.

 The Materials:

Toothpaste

Tooth brush

Slurpee cup full of water

Rag

and a Squirt Gun, of course. Just in case.

After the initial polish with the toothpaste, the headlight started looking pretty good. It seemed to be clearing up the haze. Our hypothesis seemed... plausible. I mean, the toothpaste was cleaning my headlight, but it wasn't sparkling clean like the internet promised. 

We weren't satisfied. We wanted my headlight to be straight-up wizard status. We got out our bottle of Novus 3, its purpose being the removal of tough scratches on the playfield of a Pinball machine. It's supposed to be some pretty powerful, abrasive stuff. See how it says the word "HEAVY" like 4 times right on the bottle?  

Our Hypothesis: This was either going to shine my headlights or set them on fire. I was ready and anxious for either or both to happen.

Kelly went to work, cleaning just half of the headlight to see if our next hypothesis was correct...

The before and after here certainly looks like a big change. We were on to something:

The final result was impressive. Look how clear that headlight is. 

"Why, Natalie. Is that a new headlight?!" 

"No, good sir. I just used Pinball cleaner on it."

"By Jove! It looks magnificent!"

Lights on or lights off, the answer is clear. Novus 3 definitely cleans a hazy headlight much better than toothpaste. This myth is busted, sucka! (That was our initial project right? Pitting the 2 against each other? How did we get here again?...)

Thanks again, Science!

The Super Hip Braided Babe

People are still way into braids, right? And it's still cool to take pictures of yourself, right?

If that's the case, then you're in for a treat!
I call this the...

Super Hip Braided Babe

I accidentally invented this last week when I decided to braid my hair to the side, but then didn't want any of it on my neck. I just started pinning the braid up and thought, "Hey, this doesn't look so bad!"

Let me walk you through it...

Step 1: Awkwardly braid your hair down the side of your head. To do so, tilt your head so it feels like you're using your shoulder to talk on the phone -- you know what I'm talkin' about. It's okay if it's messy, but in the end it should look something like this. (This is the same beginning for Easy Hair That Looks Alright.)

 Step 2: While watching The Colbert Report in your living room surrounded by empty gyro wrappers from Mad Greek, pull up your braid and fold it over.

 Step 3: Once you've folded your hair over, use a bobby pin or 2 to hold it in place. At this point, make sure you pause to take a big swig of Diet Coke from your monster Big Gulp cup. Braiding your hair is hard work, you deserve it!

 Step 4: Since the end of your braid is just hanging awkwardly off the side of your head, fold that part in and pin it down. Your hair now kind of looks like a snake. But a really trendy snake. 

 Step 6: The end of your braid is sticking out; you need to fix that. Simply tuck those hairs into the fold of your braid and hold 'em down with another bobby pin.

Voila! You have The Super Hip Braided Babe!

You can do whatever you want with your bangs in the end. At first I twisted them to the side, but Kelly said I looked like I lived in a commune, so I changed it to a little pomp.

In the end, you can see all of the sloppily placed bobby pins. You can also see the rubber band which you used to tie off your braid. Don't worry; no one cares. 

If you want an extra tip, use a rubber band that sort of matches your hair color. Unless, of course, you want to make some sort of fashion statement, then by all means do whatever you want.