Bucket List/Life list/things I wanna do before I croak list.

Kristina did this and then put a link to my blog which was nice of her and so here is her list 
 http://kristinablesch.blogspot.com/2013/06/bucket-list.html

this is the notebook I keep my list in:

Yes that is an elderly woman doing the splits with a cliche Abraham Lincoln quote above her head. 

• Learn to Waltz- Every since Maria and Captain Von Trap did in The Sound of Music I've wanted to Waltz. 
• Visit every National Park in the USA with Kristina
• Graduate from college
• visit Switzerland. Watching Rick Steve's Europe one Saturday morning when I was 14 made it really appealing. 
• Beat every Legend of Zelda game ever made. Majora's Mask I will beat one day even though you're the worst companion video game ever made.
• See, read and comprehend every Shakespeare play written.
• Eat waffles on a busy city rooftop. - 13 year old me REALLY wants to do this so I think I should make it happen someday
• see a Tornado in person
• camp somewhere new every summer
• Go to a Monster Truck rally. I want to go sooo bad
• get married in the temple
• Drive route 66 or what remains of it
• see The Last 5 Years on stage
• Spend Christmas in London
• Change someone's life 
• Go to Comic Con
• Go a Disney Cruise
• Go on an Alaskan cruise
• Oil Paint in Scotland
• Visit the Ghibli Museum
•  learn to speak another language fluently 
• Read Gone With the Wind
• Read the Holy Bible
• Catch all 150 pokemon

Things I have done:

Move out of Murray

• Read the Book of Mormon
• Go to Warped Tour
  
• 
  
• See Katy Perry in concert
  
• 
  
• meet a movie star
• read every Harry Potter
• Swim in both the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean
  
  Pacific
  
  Atlantic
• Go to New York City
  
  Rainy first night there
• 
  
• Go to Disney World 
  
• See the Golden Gate Bridge
  
  watercolor I did 
• Go to a Midnight Movie Premiere 
• Meet Dashboard Confessional
• Meet Bayside 
  
  
  
  
• See Spring Awakening on stage
• Have a "real" best friend- my friend my journal in the third grade so I wrote this angrily in my journal.. I have had many best friends :) 
• Have a Ferris Bueller Day
  
  ok senior year was one Ferris Bueller Day after another

The internet is turning me into a feminist and I like it *sung in Katy Perry voice*

GO watch:
://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJVHRJbgLz8

The following is a link to Jessica Rey, a swimsuit designer discussing modesty. I've seen about four or five  different people post this on their Facebook page as well as KSL Five News (Local News-station in Utah) and had a friend commenting on the Youtube video itself.

I have a few things to say about the subject but I feel better discussing my opinion in a blog where I can say my peace and let go some of the anger I feel about this video, the world we live in and the fact that women STILL have to feel guilty about their personal decisions.

Why I am upset:

-This video infers women who choose to wear bikinis lack self respect.
-This video makes men sound like robotic sex crazed creatures who can't control themselves.
-It uses research from a prestigious university which makes it sound more "valid". I am sure the research is accurate but the way they manipulated is wrong. It makes women who do dress differently feel guilty about their clothing choice.
-Modesty is more than wearing a bikini on the beach. It is being gracious towards others different from you including not slut shaming and making any woman feel bad about what she decides to wear. It is her body. It is her choice. It is not a woman's responsibility to dress a certain way to prevent a man for feeling certain feelings about her.
-It is a man's responsibility to respect women regardless of her clothing choice. 
-It is not a woman's fault that the media has taken the female body and distorted it to the point that some men think sex when viewing a female body.
-She tears apart a perfectly happy pop song to use for her own swimsuit selling agenda. As lover of Pop Music I will not put up with this injustice.

Okay I feel a little better...

Mormon side note:
I am a Mormon and I am asked to wear a certain dress code. This is my very personal and spiritual choice to do. I think modesty is a great thing to have in all aspects of life. Once again though, like many things in this life it is a very personal decision for one to make.

I LOVE list going on 6 years

I haven't blogged about my I love list in two years! So here's an update of things that have made me really happy in two years. 

I left off at 1574
http://whatislifewithoutyoubymyside.blogspot.com/2011/06/4-years-of-counting-little-thingsi-love.html

the rest of 2011:

1575. Home- Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
1576.Amtrak
1581. Feeling like you're on the Hogwarts Express

on the Amtrak ride to Sacramento in 2011 with Kristina. We went into the Sierra Nevadas and it felt like traveling to Hogwarts.

1584. Tucker Residential Hall

only few understand what this image means.

1597. Tucker 32A
1601. Tadd Mecham

favorite picture

1612. Allyson Mecham :)<----there's a smile by her name 

Hunger Games premiere :)

1627. Lil and Sel

the annoyinz. the reason I believe in true love. 

1629. Muriel's Wedding
1645. Ciara Drawings

2012:

1657. Temple Run
1659. Danielle Monroe

love this girl :)

1665. Long talks with Ariel 
long drives late @ night Price discussing our lives. Miss this girl and her very Hufflepuff ways

1670. "kinda" drunk Tadd- texts me kind and sentimental things from Green River.
1674. Being accepted to the U

1682. New Found Glory
1684. Lemurs <3
1685. Yellowcard at all ages
1691. slightly old Gummi Worms
1692. Mckenna swearing at the road
1697. The nice boy who work at the Taco Time on 54th south
1703. Slumber parties with the Price family
1707.smoking Asians
1713. getting better at school
1714. Joanne at the Green River Archives

2013:

1717. Beating Wayde at Poke'mon Stadium
1719. Volver
1722. Jazz Games with my dad

1731. Silver Linings Playbook

Seriously, stop what you're doing and go watch it. 
1734. Best in Show
1736. Zachary Quinto

if a bunny rabbit and a beautiful dark eyed man had a baby= Zachary Quinto 

1742. Mad Men no words. so good.
1746.Sally Draper
favorite character. 

1752. Adele the Second
1755. Crocuses in bloom 
1759. Pop Chips 
1761. Ciara's letters
writes notes in my journal that make my world a little brighter
1764. Xanax cookies on Delta Flights
1766. cha- who? who?
1777. Cars Family

1783. getting my library back

"What do you want?"

Hello! So I realize I was rather... "Sassy" in my last post. If I offended any of the 10 people who read this blog I'm sorry and I meant every word I said.

On to the next one!
I'm trying really hard to write on here at least once a week and since I have yet to obtain a second job this summer, I might actually meet that goal.

Last night I ventured to a far off land called Utah County to visit my dear cousin Rachel. Rachel recently moved down there for school and will be going to UVU in August.

We started off the evening going to see Oz in the dollar theater. The movie was very pretty and a good dollar show. I got to see my homegurl Rachel Weisz who I have idolized since the age of 7 when she was in The Mummy. Zack Braff is also in it who I love. It's worth redboxing. (it that even a word?)

I recently read the book Wizard of Oz in April and have been really thinking about Oz and home and all the things it means to me. The movie is in my top ten favorite movies and I cry every time I watch it. I love the Wizard of Oz  but I won't bore you with a bunch of facts. There is an article about Frank Baum the author of the wizard I enjoyed :)
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Frank-Baum-the-Man-Behind-the-Curtain.html
Also, Ebert's (R.I.P. <3) review of the movie is beautiful.
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-wizard-of-oz-1939

We then ventured to a duck pond on BYU campus which literally had six different couples surrounding it cuddling watching the ducks splash in the twilight. We threw fries with her roommate and her roommate's friend at Ducks.

I spent the night and we went to her singles ward in Orem this afternoon and I had a wonderful time in Relief Society. I'm not even sure what the lesson was on but to open up the class the teacher asked,
"What do you want?" 
She passed out papers and I wrote:

-caffeine
-to be healthier
-eternal family
-travel
-a 2nd job
-to graduate college
-to an Art teacher
-to be independent
-move out of Murray

Next she asked what does God want for us and read Matthew 10:39
39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

This lesson was an eye opener for me because I feel like I haven't really been putting God in my life plans lately. My list is all about me. I didn't even mention God or my family in it. I didn't say "I want my mom to be happy at her new job." "I want Brian and Sarah to do well in Kentucky." It's all about me. I do what I want when I want with who I want. I'm in my 20's and I'm single and selfish. This lesson today humbled me. God doesn't want me to be this way. He wants me to be kind and think of others. He wants me to be better for the future and not just "right now". I've had a lot of free time lately and it's making me slow down. I take Lucy for walks, I read, I sit outside, and I think. I love this because I'm finally getting to the point where I'm opening up to God more and not fighting with myself so much. I feel another self-realization that is going to make me a better human being. I'm going to try to be a little less selfish this week and ask what God wants for me.

glow duck at the Duck Pond.

Happy Sunday :)

Hi my name is Grace Wilson, I'm Mormon and I love gay people.

Hi my name is Grace Wilson, I'm Mormon and I love gay people.

A few years ago, I would be afraid to say that. I would worry about "offending" someone saying that. Because in that statement alone is a world of turmoil. But I am now a little braver and a lot more assertive so here it goes. ( I am so Peggy from Mad Men right now.. Don't worry I will probably post about Mad Men soon enough and why I love it and why I never shut up about it.)

This is what I assume a lot of people our world think when they hear

"Hi my name is Grace Wilson, I'm Mormon and I love gay people. "

-but you're Mormon? How do you love Gay people? 

-Oh well you're just a Fag Hag. You can't get a boyfriend so you hang out with Gay men hoping one day they'll turn for you.

-you're just saying that because it's what your friends are into and you're an art major and all liberal who is fighting "the man". You're too young to understand. 

Now I'm going to address the following not because I should have to do this but because it's the world we live in that I need to address these things.

-but you're a Mormon? How do you love Gay people?

We as Latter Day Saints are supposed to love everyone. There is no clause that says "everyone but" in the Book of Mormon.
3 Nephi 12:16 states "Therefore let your light so shine before this people, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven."
As saints we need to love our LGBT community. It is our responsibility to LOVE ONE ANOTHER. Show people our good works. We treat everyone with kindness and be respectful if someone doesn't think or feel the way you do.

Oh well you're just a Fag Hag. You can't get a boyfriend so you hang out with Gay men hoping one day they'll turn for you.

When I have heard this over my lifetime, I get so angry. It gets under my skin people think of straight people who have gay friends in this way.
1. FAG is never an okay word to use to describe another human being.
2. Hag infers that women who do spend time with the LGBT community are unattractive. It also makes women sound like they must be attractive to be of worth.
3. I am my own person and when I find the right man for me, it will be my choice. Not because I wasn't good enough or because I hang around Gay people who "scare" straight men away. It will because I decided that someone was the right one for me. I don't want to date or marry a man who is homophobic. I won't do it so if I scare a man away someone because they're not open minded enough to be around someone different from them, I don't want to be with them.
4. I have straight, gay and lesbians friends. I don't make friends based on sexual orientation. My gay guy friends are all very handsome fellas but are closer to brothers or distant attractive second cousins. In other words, they're in the friend zone for life.

-you're just saying that because it's what your friends are into and you're an art major and all liberal who is fighting "the man". You're too young to understand.

If you have ever felt left out in your entire life, you're not too young to understand intolerance. I believe I felt out of place and that I was weird at four so no I'm not too young to understand when someone is judging you. My friends are into treating others right because those are the people I want in my life. It's not a phase I'm going through but a constant determination to be better and treat others with love. It's not easy. I'm not standing here perfect. I've treated people with disrespect but it's the trying that is making a little better.

I really needed to get that out in the world. I'm sorry if I was preachy but it is what I believe. We need to change the way we treat others. So have a lovely Sunday. :)

A few pictures from Pride :)

 Me and the beautiful Cassi Mecham. :) I'm excited for her to come to school up north so we hang!

Tadd got an Iphone 5 and now they're our an assortment of awful pictures of me on Facebook being tired and sweaty.

Some lovely ladies from "Ru Paul's  Drag Race." I have the same ears as Pandora's Boxx on the right.