A Different Kind of Post

Ok so I needed a break from telling stories so this post is going to be a little different. I'm going to write it like a letter...modeled after my friend Sharissa's blog...

Dear mmmmhmmmm,

Yes I did like you for a time. But then she who must not be named got in the way. Except she left, a long time ago, and so I started to like you again. You're goofy and funny and just fun to be around. You taught me how to be open with people. Which is a very good thing. However, you also taught me to be more awkward. With openness comes my true personality I guess.

But really, this summer has been the best summer of my life and part of that is because of you. Because of you, I wanted to go on some new adventure every day. Because of you, I have stories and memories to share with the world instead of a summer full of movies and card games. Yes, you have been good for me, but not any more. I think I'm starting to annoy you, and really it's ok, you just need to tell me. I'm also done with trying to make something work that will never work. You're going to be gone soon and I'll be off at college. We live two different lives. The boy that's catching my attention now however lives the same kind of life as me...so goodbye mmmmhmmm. Summer's been grand.

Your Friend,

Madi

Why do these things always happen to me?

To tell this story I first have to back up about 5 months...

Once upon a time Madi went to the state FBLA competition over April Fools day. While she was up there, Madi's friend, Colin and her decided to mess with another boy from their school. On the bus ride home they started to text this boy creepy things like..."I see you," from Madi's phone. Colin warned Madi that if they used her phone, this boy would continue texting Madi, but she ignored that advice. But then the next day was conference and this boy asked Madi what she thought of it. Guess Colin was right. But it was done and after that weekend Madi didn't hear or talk to this boy again.

Now Madi's hanging around her house, recovering from Sunday's traumatic story, Tuesday night when she gets a text from an unknown number that says, "Hey! How have you been?" So of course Madi's first text back was to ask who was texting her. Come to find out it's this boy that she texted all those months ago. He had saved her number!!! Of course he wanted to know who was messing with him back in April and of course Madi asked him politely to never text her again.

So then Madi heads down to institute where she starts telling her traumatic experiences to her friends. When she gets done, this boy walks into the door. Great. And then Madi asks, "What other strange thing can happen to me?" Mistake. Right then, her sister's boyfriend's little brother walks in whom her sister's been trying to set her up with. So then she gets a text from her sister informing her that Madi and Joseph (the little brother) need to get to know each other. The whole hour and a half was filled with awkward tension.

Oh but the story doesn't end there...the next morning Madi's working on her brother's eagle project when none other than Weston Gadd shows up to help. Perfect. Now everyone that reads this blog knows how awkward that is! Why do these things always happen to me?

The End

The Singles Ward

Once upon a time Madi decided to attend the singles ward instead of her lovely home ward. There were many different reasons why Madi made this decision, but the biggest one of all was the fact that Madi did not want to go to relief society in the home ward where the average age is 55. So for several weeks now she's been putting up with dumb activities, painful lessons on raising children (none of us even have kids!) or dating, and musical numbers every week because people seem to think that their voice will get them dates. Yes the point of the singles ward is to get married. Don't buy this "to make friends" stuff because it's not true.

Anyway, this week Madi brought Miguel to church for the first time. Usually she goes with her friend Jessica, and a neighbor boy named Elan, but Jessica was sick and Elan was out of town. So it was just Madi and Miguel, which kind of raised a problem when it came to 3rd hour. Madi spotted some boy from her home ward and sent Miguel to priesthood with him with the promise of finding him after. However, that was a little more difficult than she thought. In the middle of looking for him, she spotted her friend Covey, whom she had something to say to. So she stopped and talked.

While they were talking (keep in mind that it was just them, one guy and one girl) this slightly uncomfortable boy came up to Madi and introduced himself as Matt. But he just ignored Covey. He then asked for Madi's number and since she couldn't think of an excuse not to give it to him (he already asked if she had a boyfriend and a phone) she reluctantly gave out her digits. He then carried on the conversation. Madi finally got away when she told him that she really needed to find Miguel.

When she got home, she got a text from this boy asking her out for thursday. This is why she hates the singles ward. She didn't know what to do until Covey told her something that she will always remember, "A boy that comfortable with asking for girls numbers is probably ok with being turned down every once in a while." Thank you Covey! So she politely told the boy that she wasn't interested and that was that.

Moral of the story is...avoid the singles ward at all costs. If you're being forced to go, then have something wrong with you like bad breath, or greasy hair that will keep the boys away.

The End

Precious Moments

Once upon a time Madi and her family went boating on a Monday. It was overcast so Madi and her little brother, Weston, didn't put on any sunscreen and they both got fried. Well that also means that when they got home they both were exhausted and hot...but they still had to work that night.

So after a VERY long night of serving family after family (got to love family home evening!), Madi and Weston had just about lost it. After one family left and the store was empty Madi and Weston started to dance. It was a fast pace song playing on the radio so they did a cha-cha number together. It was very cute. But not as cute as their waltz for the next song. Let's just say they're pretty professional...

The End

Fed up

So once upon a time Madi had a good friend. These two girls had been friends since kindergarten (ya you know who you are). They've had some times when they weren't as close, but they always got back together and shared laughs. Now however, Madi's fed up. See this friend of hers always pushes Madi around, and now that Madi's gained some self confidence, she's done. Adios. The End

Las Fiestas

Once upon a time Madi was sitting in her class in Spain when someone told her that her year was in charge of organizing the school's festival that year. This included getting the food, the entertainment, the games, etc. ready for the little kids. To open up the festivals Madi's class performed a skit/dance that went along with that year's theme. This skit was called the pregón and Madi's class ended up practicing the whole thing over and over again. There were three dances in all...one of just the girls dancing to I'm a Barbie girl, one of just the boys dancing to They don't care about us by Michael Jackson, and one of couples dancing to a Phineas and Ferb Song. Well the girls were barbies in this skit and the boys were G.I. Joe's. The only problem with this whole thing was that all the girls had to wear a tutu and since Madi did not bring a tutu to Spain (weird right?) she had to make one. So after hours of hard labor Madi hand stitched (she also did not have a sewing machine) a very see-through tutu.

The pregón went well but Madi was completely uncomfortable the whole time. So as soon as it was over, Madi ran into the garage that had all her normal clothes and changed right there, not realizing that ALL of the boys from her class were in the garage too. Probably the most humiliating day of Madi's life.

The Barbies for the Pregón

As soon as Madi got home, she went for a run to get all of her frustrations out. On the path she past two girls that yelled after her in a snotty voice, "We liked your tutu (snickers)." Needless to say, Madi wanted to cry herself to sleep that night, but she couldn't because the festivities weren't over yet.

She then got ready for the night party that took place in a club in downtown Burgos. She had a blast dancing with drunk people and she taught them all how to really do the macarrena. But the day had taken a toll on her so she left at 3 in the morning instead of the usual 6 am.

Madi and some of her friends at the club

The moral of the story is don't, under any circumstances, dance in a see-through tutu in front of hundreds of people! The End.

Tomasso's

Once upon a time Madi was working at Tomasso's Italian Ice (or as Madi's phone likes to say...Tum-AHH-sso's). She was working with her brother when things started to slow down a lot and became horrifically boring. So Madi got on the internet and tried to entertain herself for a while. But it didn't work. So now she's thinking about how a nice day laying out in the sun and reading would feel....oh if only....

The End

Swimmer's Itch and Zions

Once upon a time Miguel, Madi's host brother while she lived in Spain, came to Utah to visit Madi and her family. Tuesday morning (the morning after Miguel arrived) they all left for St. George because Madi's family owns a house down there. When they finally got there it was 102 degrees which Madi thought was scorching, but that was nothing compared to Wednesday...106!!! So in the heat of the day the family headed down to Sand Hollow to practice swimming for their upcoming triathlon. When they got to the gate to pay there was a big sign that read "Swimmer's Itch is now Active." Doesn't that just sound lovely? So curious Madi asked the lady what Swimmer's itch exactly was. Apparently it's a nasty parasite that's natural to the lake that affects about 10% of the population. It gets into the skin and creates a rash that looks like chicken pox that lasts from a week to two weeks. Joy. So the entire day Madi was paranoid and kept scratching everywhere. However it's now been two days and there's no rash in sight.

The next day Madi, Miguel, and Madi's mom woke up early and went into Zions National Park. They didn't have enough time to hike Angel's Landing so they hiked Hidden Canyon instead. It was a blast and they had to scramble over several boulders once they got in the slot canyon which made it even more entertaining. Plus, they met a family from the Netherlands and they enjoyed listening to the family speaking Dutch. Overall it was a nice trip and Madi made it back in time to shower and get to work.

Here are some pictures of the hike:

The End

Ice Skating

Once upon a time Madi was hiking with her friend Annie (what else is new?) and they decided that the following week they wanted to go ice skating. So due to some complications in a flight schedule, Madi's Monday was freed up and she texted Annie. They both decided that Monday was the perfect day to go so Madi immediately started to text people to join them. After about four other people agreed to go, Madi looked at the time that the ice skating rink was going to be open. Unfortunately it was only open for an hour and a half in the morning. So then they decided to go hike Timp caves. Madi found the number and called the rangers up there to reserve tickets. The ranger said that they were only selling walk-in tickets, but she insisted that there would be no problems. By the time Madi, Annie, and their friends got up there, there were only two tickets left to purchase. Another failure.

Since they had already paid to get into the canyon, they decided to go on a different hike. So they hiked the Timpanooke trail up to Scout Falls. It was pretty and all, but Madi wanted to do something more adventurous, so she told the group that they should all cross the waterfall. Long story short, they were all numb within the first could of seconds of walking through the water, they only made it about 3/4 of the way, and Madi tripped and hurt her back. But it was an adventure!

Lesson learned: if you want to do something different in Utah... plan way in advance. If you're just looking for something memorable... hang out with Madi

Monday

So early Monday morning Madi took her dog, Izzy, up to Alpine to go hike with her sister, McKenzie. She was wearing her chacos because she thought they were only going to hike to a waterfall. Well they did end up hiking to a waterfall, just one that was an hour and 15 min. away. With the steepness of the hike combined with Madi's very rare, but yet still painful when they come cramps, Madi did not move very fast and I think McKenzie was a little disappointed. Oh well, she still took Madi out afterwards to a frozen yogurt place.

When Madi got home, she was feeling worse than ever. So she quickly downed 4 advils and hoped it would be over soon. At 1 her and her dad went out to Tucano's so celebrate a late birthday (a VERY late birthday). While there, they saw Max Hall, John Beck, and Dennis Pitta eating away. Her dad tried to take a picture, but he accidentally filmed the floor instead. Anyway, Madi was eating and she didn't feel full until one bite of chicken. She all of a sudden hit the wall (in the words of Adam Richman), but she couldn't leave without eating more pineapple, so she waited. While her dad was getting the check, she couldn't wait any longer to she ran outside and without taking five steps, she threw up a good portion of her meal (sorry for being gross). Kind of embarrassing.

So she got home and took a nap. Then for family home evening, her family went fishing. After about an hour of complaining Madi felt the bite. She jerked up on her line and reeled in a small fish. That's right. She was the first to catch a fish. Then about 15 minutes later her sister McKenzie thought she caught a fish and reeled in her line and actually her line was connected to Madi's line and on Madi's hook was a small catfish. Sorry McKenzie, maybe another day. Then Madi's dad caught a small fish and then after everyone had left, Madi caught her last fish. Since everyone was gone, she had to get the fish off the hook. She tried, but she failed miserably so the hispanic man next to her had to help her out and he kept the fish.

En fin, it was a fantastic ending to a semi good day. Definetely eventful. That's for sure.

The End

Coincidence? I think not.

Once upon a time Madi decided to go on a hike with her friend Annie. Both of them wanted to try a hike that neither of them had done, so they chose to go up slate canyon. Once they got there they ran into construction (yet again) and so they had to park far away and hike up to the trailhead. After only hiking for about 10 minutes after getting to the trailhead Madi was exhausted. She bent over to breathe out a long sigh when it happened. There was a voice hidden in the bush by the trail that mimicked Madi's sigh. Annie asked Madi if she heard and Madi originally thought that the sound was some sort of animal so they both stopped walking and listened. They heard the sound again and this time Madi's heart dropped because she knew it was a sound only a human could make. Annie told Madi in a shaky voice that they should probably turn back but Madi stayed put and considered her options....until it happened again and it was getting closer. So Madi quickly looked at Annie, took one step backwards and bolted down the mountain. Both Annie and Madi made it safely to Annie's car without getting hurt.

Now fast forward a couple of days. Madi was watching the news when a story about a naked man hiding in a bush scaring people up a canyon came on. Now, it was a different canyon, but Madi's pretty convinced that the person she heard was either this man, or this man's friend. The End.