The Best Things in Life...

Yesterday, after a wonderful dinner of delicious steak and scrumptious ribs with my friends Kathy, Christine, Celia, the Missionaries, and my parents, we all decided to go to Coldstone. Celia's never been, and we Americans never can get enough anyway, so it was perfect.

However, it was pretty late, so the guy who works there was very grumpy, and having four teenagers talking, laughing, and playing "Concentration 64" whilst in a very long line probably didn't help his good mood. Apparently, Coldstone should have been closed by then, too. So, our customer service was less than satisfactory (Celia's ice cream was "blended" by folding it over her nuts once and plopping it in the bowl, and Mom and Dad got a burnt waffle bowl, to name a few examples).

We all went outside to eat the ice cream on the benches. Since we decided to go to the Coldstone at the Outlet Mall, we were in the open night air. Since it's open, birds willingly fly in and out. (Actually, they willingly fly in and out of our closed mall's food court too, but that's a different kind of stupid) Most stores were closed or closing, including the Starbucks next door. One employee, heavy laden with two big bags of food, caught sight of the same bird who had caught our attention, sitting pretty in the window frame.

He set down his bags and we watched him chase after the bird, capturing it in his hands, trying to put it in one of his bags he had with him, then chasing it as it flew into the window across the way, and then capturing it again. He asked us if we wanted some free food, and got the obvious answer of "YES PLZ".

As a closing employee of Starbucks, this guy got the chance to bring home the freshly baked pastries that can't be sold day-old as well as the refrigerated food set to expire the next day. However, bringing home a wild but confused bird AND two bags of food doesn't bode well for anyone, so donating it all to his bemused spectators worked well for all parties.

We were as thrilled to take it home as he was to have his new pet, I'm sure, as Starbucks tends to make high-quality yet high-priced pastries and foods. We got tons and tons of breads, rice-krispies, cookies, donuts, and more breads, as well as a few yogurt parfaits and cheese-and-fruit plates.



Our free food served as excellent breakfasts and lunches, as well as some treats for Celia to pass out on the bus on the way to 6 Flags. (She told me when she started passing them out, the other students flocked around her like...well, like teenagers getting free food) Christine, who stayed for lunch the next day, and I had a yogurt parfait (originally $4) and a fruit-and-cheese plate (originally $6) respectively. Mine was absolutely delicious and felt very fancy, but Christine realized after she had blended her parfait that she actually doesn't like yogurt. So she amused herself by staring at the parfait in all its free-fancy-food glory before she actually had to eat it. Eventually, she poured it onto a plate and picked out the fruit, so she was just as happy as me (especially when I shared my Brie).

We still have some food left, mostly pastries and rice krispies, and our island counter looks a bit like it does at Christmastime, covered in the loser breads that aren't as quick-to-be-chosen as the cookies and candies. So, we still have that happy feeling, like we cheated the system or something, whenever we eat some of that three or four dollar treats. I'm sure it would be even better if they had price-tags (the tastiest part of my lunch was laughing at that sad, little "$5.75"), but the memory, not complete without the bird-man's escapades, is delicious by itself.

As they say, the best things in life definitely are...free!

The Dark Knight Reigns!

So my friends and I were all thrilled to the bone to see "Dark Knight" at midnight. Planning the whole thing turned out to be ridiculously difficult, including moving theatres twice, buying tickets in bulk, more changes in rides than I could bother to count, three auditorium moves, and eventually second-row seats.

But, let me tell you, every second and every penny was worth it.

Since we anticipated a simply stunning night, my "daughter" Jenny and I made T-shirts, one for each of us and one for Celia. T-shirt was black, and on the front we painted the batman logo, the yellow glo-in-the-dark (but not too obnoxious, thankfully). On the back we wrote in red, "Why so Serious?" exactly (or as close to) the poster right here as we could. And let me tell you, those shirts were freaking amazing. The front was kind of obnoxiously taking over my chest, but our backs were the creepiest things at AMC...okay, the guys who dressed up as Joker and Scarecrow were pretty creepy too, but...I thought we looked pretty tight. ;)

This movie, my friends, was simply pure cinematic nightmare building thrilling beautiful amazing bliss.

Christian Bale did a wonderful job reprising as Bruce Wayne. His Batman is probably the best batman I know of, even if it's the only one I'm experianced with. He did a great job making Bruce tortured, but not whiny or anything, and his jelousy throughout the movie was well-done. I applaud him greatly for making Bruce interesting, but for making Batman the star...Batman himself had such an attitude that it's just wonderful. Commissioner sums it up beautifully as describing him as not a hero and not a villian, but a dark knight.

Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent was a unique character himself. Harvey Dent was a great, solid, strong character. He had strong conviction and I loved him. But when Harvey...changes...he loses almost all his strong character qualities. All of a sudden, he is just a plain evil character, with only a few interesting qualities. Perhaps, in any other movie, Two-Face would have been outstandingly unique and frightening. But playing alongside Heath Ledger's Joker, Two-Face was a puppy dog.

Ledger MADE this movie. If the entire movie had been nothing but Joker's psychotic actions and dialouge, I would still call it the best movie I've seen all year. He was perfect, and it's difficult for me to describe how perfect he was. His lines, his actions, his movements. His attitude, his thought-processes, his joys and disappointments. His jokes, his threats, his lies, his murders, his murder weapons. Joker is the man of nightmares, my friends. And I'd tell you more, but I believe we have to go soon...

There's plenty more to the movie I'd love to talk about. The deaths that never happened, the plotlines, the other characters and action scenes, and everything else. But really, I feel like the most important thing to talk about was the fact that all the work Ledger put into Joker was well, well worth it. And do you remember the thing when the first Dumbledore died? How Dumbledore 2.0 never quite got up to scruff, no matter how hard he tried?

I don't think there could ever be another Joker like this one, ever. And it's a shame that the next movies are almost ruined because we can't have him back. But then again....maybe we only need one movie of that much evil.

Day Three

...That is, Day Three of having Celia, our french foreign exchange student, living with us. And so far, it's been a great three days!

Saturday morning we went to go pick her up from the family that had got her at the airport. Immediately after lunch (at Portillo's...how else would we introduce anyone to Chicagoland?) we went to Driver's Edge in Villa Park, a four-hour class on defensive driving and better understanding your car. Kathy was there too, so we had fun.

Part of the class included making an emergency lane change, the first time infamous for my managing to take out almost every cone there. I got better my second time, but never quite managed to get it exactly right. In this excersize, the instructor (by the way, all the instructors are professional racecar drivers, so they know how to have nerves of steel, even when telling teenagers to drive eratically) tells us that we're driving on the highway and that the truck in front of us drops a box of puppies, which we have to avoid because "everyone loves puppies". Kathy, unfortunately, killed the puppies on her first run. But Celia eventually learned the word "Puppy" from this experiance, so it was all good. After a few more hours of different lectures and a skid practice, we headed home.

Celia told us that the lectures were a lot of words and tired her out (I don't blame her...I didn't understand them half the time!), so I have no idea how long and confusing church the next day must have been!

My friends who've taken French I had the time of their lives running up to Celia and saying whatever French expression they remembered. Although it amused both her and me to hear nothing but "What time is it?" "What's your name?" "How are you?" and "What's the Weather?" from them, I have to admit, I hadn't even used that much French since she'd come. Sister Mitchell really enjoyed talking fluent French with Celia before we left, though. Which made me feel a lot more inadequate than Jenessa and Kaydee had. ;)

After church we had a picnic for the ECI families at Herrick Lake. It was a lot of fun- Mom and Dad got to hang out with the Fishers, who they used to know from another ward, and I got to meet Celia's sister Margault, and Margault's boyfriend, Bruno. We also met some other very nice families, comparing notes about students, and I used a bit more of my French, talking about soccer and explaining what a raffle was. The raffle, by the way, got Mom her very own Macy's gift card. She was going to give it to me, thinking it was a Pizza Hut gift card, but quickly reclaimed it as her own when she realized its true nature.

When we got home from the picnic, we looked at pictures from the cruise, videos from the cruise, (as well as the Nairs' and Browns' Variety Show preformance from EFY) and then ended up watching a very stupid ABC teen movie. I would have changed the channel because it was so stupid, but Celia AND my Dad came bounding in to watch it, so...we all endured it together.

Rest in Peace...

Yesterday, Ms Annette Cooper died of the cancer she's been battling for a year or so now.

It's quite chilling, as I knew her well enough...but at the same time not at all. I think the worst thing about this is when I heard she died I was very sad, very sorrowful for her family, but...I didn't have anything I could think about her.

Besides snide remarks, stories of annoyance, and cruel jokes I'd heard about her from her students, I don't know much about Ms Cooper. I know that she played a woodwind, that she taught Band, and that she really loved "The Year Without a Santa Claus". Everything else I know is practically gossip.

It really hit me, when I realized that I would suck at giving her eulogy, that her entire life was wasted before my eyes. To me, she is nothing but a bad band teacher...I think I may have only heard one or two good stories. And trust me, I'm not telling you all this in a sick version of "Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead". I'm telling you this because I've made a decision.

Ms Cooper probably knew some good jokes, had some beautiful moments of musical power, and lived a good life. She probably shared some very good experiances with her students and friends and family. But I don't know any of these, because her students decided to put her as "Ms Cooper, the evil band teacher extrodonaire" and nothing else. I've realized why gossip sucks so much...not just because it hurts if you get caught and makes relationships strained and awkward, but because that person is ruined in the listener's ears and eyes forever. Ms Cooper has died and I don't know one single good thing to say about her because her students didn't share them.

Celebrate the good things. Rejoice in even and especially your enemy's accomplishments. And listen to Thumper- If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. No one is completely bad and we shouldn't try and paint them that way, ever.

Because then, when they're gone, there's no reason for them to stay in the hearts they touched. They get flushed out and ignored. And no one wants that.

I'm sorry if that's difficult to read or understand, but epiphanies are like that.
Rest in Peace, Ms Cooper. I wish I knew you better than I did. I'll be praying for you and your family.

Meet My Family

I know you're probably thinking I'd give you an EFY post right now, but that's going to take awhile.


Instead, I figured I'd show you all the letter I wrote to Celia, my foreign exchange student, yesterday afternoon. It always amuses me to hear other people describe me or my family, so I thought you all might enjoy it too.

To let you know, I put in the same pictures I sent Celia, but these are uncropped, and Sami lacks a photo. I figure y'all know what she looks like and I didn't want to have to write two entries just to suit Blogger's photolimits.

Without further ado- the Hendricks Family!
----



Okay, so here’s my family-

This is my mom and dad. My dad, Robert Hendricks, is bishop for our ward, which is pretty much being a priest over a congregation for our church. Therefore, he’s very, very busy. When I get to see my dad, he’s a lot of fun. Very nice and always able to make you laugh, even if it isn’t on purpose. If he had free time, he would spend it golfing. He also loves to try and spend time with us, usually playing dominoes, Nintendo, or some other kind of game. My dad’s a great singer, too.

My mom, Susan Hendricks, already gave you her blog. My mom is a seminary teacher during the school year, which means she has to get up really early to teach a bunch of teenagers religion every morning before school. This year, I’m lucky enough to be in her class. My mom doesn’t have a job, but she’s always busy. In the summer, she’s usually working on seminary preparations, doing favors, cleaning, or other things. She’s very kind and also very fun and super easy to get along with.

This is my brother, Mark Hendricks, and his wife, Emily Hendricks. I would be absolutely shocked if you met them while you’re here, but they’re part of the family, too. Mark and Em live in Logan, Utah where Mark attends college. He’s working his way up to being a pilot…it’s a very expensive job. Emily works as a medical assistant and they both have a job as “house parents” for some men, which is pretty complicated to explain. Emily used to live on a farm, so she’s pretty rough, but in a fun, charming, Disney Princess sort of way. Mark is kind of weird, but he’s my brother so I have to say that. He’s very talented and sweet. Mark and Em have been married for a little over a year.

This is my sister, Emily Hendricks. No, I’m not talking about Mark’s wife…I really have both a sister and sister-in-law named Emily Hendricks. This Emily also lives in Utah, but in Provo, where she attends a different college majoring as a Vocal Performance Major. As you can probably imagine, that means she sings simply amazingly. She’s really fun, but you probably won’t meet her either. She does call home more often than Mark and Em though. Emily is an absolute sweet heart, and I’d be very flattered if someone said I remind them of her.


Then there’s me…I don’t really know how to describe myself. I’m a junior next year in school, and I spend a lot of time drawing, writing, or going out with friends. It would probably have been more beneficial to introduce you to my friends than my siblings, but oh well. Um…I’m pretty nice, I guess. And funny…like my dad, not always on purpose, but my friends tell me I’m funny a lot, so yay. If I had a steadier job (I babysit mostly…very unstable money, but very good money!) I’d like shopping more than I do, but it’s something I really enjoy to do with my friends. We also like to go to the pool (when its not too miserably hot) and movies…we’ll do anything if we can talk whilst doing it! (By the way, I’m preparing for a musical in this picture)


I decided I’ll tell you about our pets, since they’re part of our family too. This is Sami, our little old lady dog. She’s eleven years old and starting to show her age, but for the most part she’s as crazy and energetic (and skittish) as she ever was. Sami’s breed is called “Papillion”, but I don’t know what you would call that in France. Here, we don’t have any issues with getting her confused with butterflies. Basically, she looks like a Chihuahua with long hair. She’s very friendly once she knows you, but at first she just begs for attention and then proceeds to run away from anyone who dares touch her.

This is my sweet bird, Papaya. She’s a budgie, but we just call her a parakeet. She’s got quite a personality and loves attention. She’s very smart and knows how to say “Pretty Bird” and “Papaya”. It’s always amusing when she says what sounds like “Papaya is a Pretty Bird” or “You’re a pretty bird” or even a “pretty, pretty, pretty bird”. She also loves to take showers and baths in our sink and try and steal our food if she’s out when we’re eating.

That’s basically my family. I’m so excited for you to come and meet all of us, and I’m absolutely ecstatic to meet you!
It was surprisingly hard to find pictures for you…most of my best individual pictures are on my phone, including of the pets. Not sure how that happened…you’d think a camera would take better pictures than a phone.