Some Nights

Been obsessed with this song for a while now, since a dear friend of mine got me hooked :)
I saw the video for the first time tonight and personally, I enjoyed it.

Some nights I go running. This is a recent development in my life. After a nearly five year hiatus from running for sport vs. necessity, I've gotten into the habit of donning my neon and spandex and hitting the pavement late at night.

Some nights I just want to be left alone.

Some nights my arm disappears. Lately I've frequently fallen asleep lying in various positions and later woken up, arm asleep in rubbery submission to the miscommunication between limb and brain.

Some nights I leave my space heater on too long and then it's too hot to fall asleep. (Yes i'm aware of how stupid it is to use a space heater in June in Utah.)

Some nights I don't want to take my makeup off because it's too pretty and not enough people have seen it yet.

Some nights I think I'm pathetic.

Some nights I play 4-square.

Some nights I think I'm too picky. And then my conscience beats that little voice back into submission.


That's all for tonight....I'll be back some other night. XO

The coach's life for me

Being graduated from college has introduced me to an entirely new and somewhat detrimental lifestyle.

Within the last three weeks I have adopted a new evil sleeping pattern; stay awake uselessly until the wee hours of the morn, sleep until noon (sometimes 1 p.m.) because I can't think of any reason to get up, rinse, repeat.

Last night my futile attempts to force my body clock back into submission left me wide awake - lying in the pitch black of my basement bedroom for over an hour and a half. Aside from the residual feeling of annoyance due to my inability to sleep, I spent much of that time thinking about a handful of the most influential people in my life and writing fake letters to them in my head.

Maybe if I ever get organized, or some proper manners, I'll write these letters up one day and send them out. Actually I did send a couple, so perhaps there's hope for me to emerge into society as an adult after all.

In no particular order: the list.

RoTo, aka Rowlad Tolbert - My high school track and field coach. RoTo always encouraged me to push myself to meet my potential. This man is one of the outstanding contributors to my confidence as a teenager and managed to help me glimpse the greatness I could achieve. There was never any doubt in my mind that RoTo cared about me and wanted me to succeed. Unfortunately I faked an injury at the beginning of my senior year and quit - one of the only regrets of my life and something I'll probably never get over.

Suzan Lake - High school english teacher. I was able to have a special bond with Suzan because my mom served in the stake young women's presidency with her; so I got spend time with her in my dining room late at night, at church and even in the lake at girls' camp. Wise beyond her years, Suzan equipped me with two of my most valuable assets: my ability to think critically and write exceptionally. Within the safety of Suzan's classroom and with the help of her honesty and understanding, I questioned, cried, ranted, un-masked and found myself.

Kathryn Culbertson - Piano teacher. This woman is probably one of the most beautiful, happy, spirited and passionate people I have ever met. She is incredibly genuine. Whether she is sticking her nose deep into the pages of a new book, or tasting freshly made baklava, or seeing an old friend after a long absence, her mannerisms are positively vibrant and energetic. Kathryn's example has taught me how important passion is in life and how far-reaching its results can be.

Yolanda Bates - Head coach/BOSS. Yolanda is one of the most driven women I have ever met. She works ceaselessly to achieve whatever challenge lies ahead of her and will go WAY out of her way to accomodate additional responsibilities. Yolanda has showed me that putting in too much time and too much effort is worth making someone else happy. Observing her as a coach has taught me how to work hard and have fun at the same time.

Mark Gray - High school swim coach. I remember as a freshman in high school Mark was an assistant coach. I'm not really sure what athletic value he saw in the creepily skinny 14 year old version of myself, but he would always give me a little extra encouragement or stroke technique. As I grew older I got cranky and lazy but Mark always pushed me at practices and held me accountable for my efforts. Mark had high expectations for me and taught me to accept only the best from myself. By the time I graduated I'm sure he was sick of my antics, flirtiness and drama, but even still, he allowed me to return to the pool and coach for him. Ultimately, I owe my entire coaching career to Mark because of the things he has taught me and his belief in my abilities.


To me, this list presents an interesting trend.

All of these people have been a teacher or coach of mine, and almost none of the qualities I mentioned have anything to do with the particular sport or skill they were "hired" to teach me.

I think this is the reason I'm so emotionally attached to my job as a coach. 

Aside from my parents (to whom I could address an entire blog post) these people are the ones that have helped me grow and discover myself. They have consoled me in times of sadness, offered scarily honest advice, pushed me harder than I would have ever pushed myself, seen the best in me, reprimanded me, accepted my worst qualities, and BELIEVED in my potential.

I would be a fool not to recognize these individuals' contributions to my deep desire to affect the  kids I coach now like they have affected me. It makes a difference for a child to know that somebody believes in them. It makes a difference when you show genuine care and concern. It makes a difference to listen with  love. I owe it to those who have taught me, I want to be that difference.

37

That's right folks, it's been a year since I posted. I could write 37 posts trying to express how much has changed in that year, but I think instead I'm going to make things more interesting and try to sum it up in 37 words, kind of like those little blurbs we used to submit as our "senior farewell" for the yearbook in high school. So here it goes:

Bear Lake longneck MCHS swimming CVMarlins DARTH Homework-Robot Big Blue 117 hours NO sleep monster Believe designali.com statesman huntsman megamind @allieburn @karliefitz snowflake house SB2012 dasneyland matchell/josh motherfather STAKE photshoots netflix thesis BFA 2002-2010 brunette GRADUATED SLC.

Done. boo. yah.

I think i'm going to be posting more regularly now, since I have actually caught myself thinking in "blogger"recently. Or maybe that's just how I think. So is the pensive life of a college grad...pff.

Willy Wonka

Today. We toured the Cailler Chocolate Factory. AHHHMAZING! We got a briefing from one of the company operators about the history of the brand and it's marketing strategy, and then we got an assignment to re-brand one of their lines of chocolate, "Femina". SO STOKED for this project, I can't even tell you! Then we went on a tour of the factory, but lets be honest, this was not a tour-it was more like the Tower of Terror ride at Disneyland but for chocolate! there were sweet sets describing historical events, lights, special effects, even an elevator floor that stretched the room we were in! Some pictures had crazy spinning eyes and mouths and there were moving parts everywhere. THEN! We got to sample ALL the types of chocolate, it was amazing!!! I definitely had multiple pieces of each kind and everyone else was feeling sick and I felt GREAT. Excellent little bus ride up the windiest tiniest roads you've ever seen. OH. yesterday I bought Harem pants. They look great on me, don't even worry I'm not sending the MC Hammer vibe at all.

That's all for tonight,

Love you all

Ali

time flies...

So it's been a week since I posted. I sincerely cannot believe that time is going SO quickly. I've been so caught up in all the fun and crazy things that have happened that there are a few items of not-so-fun things I have been meaning to share. First, my flat iron got fried. so that is why my hair looks curly in all the pics....it's a shower at night, a bun and curls in the morning...jealous much that my hair does that? That's what I thought ;) but really. I'm sad and still mourning the death of my dear pink flat iron. Number two: A lot of places don't take credit cards. Odd, but lucky I can use an ATM. (Quick shout out to my wonderful mama who loves me and also loves depositing dollars in there) Three: I have a cold again. And that's just sad. But it hasn't affected my ability to participate at all which I am grateful for. Four: I pretty much WAY underpacked on the contact solution situation. But don't worry I'm amazing and have gotten it all figured out. Five: We only have a week left. Since it has been a week since I last posted I'll just give you a run-down on what we've been doing on each day.

Monday: Dornach to visit the Goetheanum-described by our professors as the "closest to Hogwarts you will ever see" but I beg to differ. It felt more like being on a fluffy zonked-out pink cloud-I seriously felt so relaxed it was bizarre. They study Anthroposophy there, check out this site if you want more info. The architecture is STUNNING I know you will enjoy it. P.S. It's NOTHING like Hogwarts.

Tuesday:Fribourg and the Funiculaire aka the "Poo Choo"...a train that is essentially and completely powered by POOP. You read correctly. It was nasty smelling. We also did a BAREFOOT pilgrimage on St. James all the way to the Cathedral where we climbed the debated 372/364/387 stairs up a gigantic spiral staircase to an INCREDIBLE view of the city. Also here we shopped at H&M where I got a skirt, swimsuit and a dress and two headbands. I think I may return the skirt though I haven't decided yet.

Wednesday: We were supposed to visit Lauterbrunnen Valley but it was raining so we went to the Vitra Interior Design Museum which I fell in love with, I want a pretty design house!!!!! I loved the pretty clocks, the amazing pillows, the statues, interestingly shaped couches and chairs and tables, it was beautiful. Pictures to follow on FB. Regrettably most of you will probably see them in person before they are on the web, because we found out that uploading pictures and skype makes the internet crash horribly and then everyone gets angry. So be patient! Also this was another exciting adventure this day; I actually bought my H&M dress here and had a bag that I had bought a book from the museum in. So when I went to the register to pay, I accidentally left the museum bag (which had my book, also my camera and my umbrella in it) at the cash register. So we continued on and walked the streets, met the group back at the bus stop, hopped on the bus, and as we were riding I saw this SWEET poster I wanted to take a picture of when I realized I don't have my camera! AHHHHH! So upon this realization I turn to Bob and told him the bag had my camera to which he says "go". Immediately I pushed the stop button on the bus, hopped off turned and gave Karlie a "come with me pleeeeaase" face, she hopped off, and we set off on our quest. We had 20 minutes to go back, find the bag, and race back to the train platform from where we had a 3 hour train ride home. We literally sprinted 8 blocks back to H&M where I ran to the cash register and asked in out of breath broken German but mostly sign language, if they had my bag WHICH THEY DID. Long story short, grabbed bag, shouted "Danka" a thousand times, sprinted full out with our backpacks unibomber-style strapped and clipped onto our backs through the city, onto the bus where an extremely nice man helped us find our train station and platform on his iphone, booked it through the station neatly hurdling 5-6 trailing suitcases and onto the train with 4 minutes to spare. BOOM.

Thursday: BERN! THE MOST AMAZING MUSEUM EVER EVER EVER EVER. The Museum of Natural History. Designed by Claude Khun. Website here. He is my idol guys, his work at the museum was amazing! He actually literally designs THE MUSEUM, as in the displays etc, as well as the posters, advertisements, brochures, etc. Guys I loved this. I bought a book of his work because I love it so much. One more time: I REALLY LOVED THIS DAY. OH. Also we saw the National Weaponry Museum, and the ALBERT EINSTEIN MUSEUM. It was sweet.

Friday: Lauterbrunnen!!! THE PRETTIEST PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WISH YOU COULD SEE PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Over 72 waterfalls in this gorgeous, lush, green, flower-filled, cow-filled beautiful incredible valley/canyon/mountains. Oh man, I loved it. I sat in a field and enjoyed the sunny weather and did my assignment for the day. P.S. we took a crazy cool Gondola to get up there. Actually this is our methods for transportation to get there. 10 Minute walk, Cog Train, Train, Train, Bus, Bus, Tram, Gondola, Hike. WHOOOO. We do a lot of riding on trains, just FYI. We have been teaching our friend Ryan (who didn't grow up in Utah) a lot of games which he finds totally fascinating. It's pretty awesome.

Saturday: COW FIGHTING. This was insane. we hiked up to what is essentially the boonies of Switzerland (which of course is gorgeous) to a field where 60 plus pregnant cows were herded into an area roped off with what is actually just twine on stakes where they moan and hoof the ground, and snort and FIGHT. Yes they actually smack heads with their horns and push each other down the hill and fight and yeah. It was wicked cold that day. We BBQ'd in the mountains and had Fondue for dinner which was YUCKY. I didn't like it.

Sunday: We went to this sweeeet Stefan Sagmeister show, it was AWESOME! He is a fantastic world-renound designer who I very much like. Any of you who know me well know I have a sweet book of his (the one where his face is a die-cut and has booklets that can be placed behind his face to change the appearance) and the show was sweet. Then we went to Geneva and hit up the boardwalk where we jumped an Olympic height platform (like 10 meters/33 feet), played beach volleyball and jumped off island docks. ALSO Geneva is having this music festival in a while and to advertise they have placed 20 pianos around the city for people to play and I played one! Then all these people came and were taking pictures and videos and stuff and then apparently I'm going to be on this website/facebook, SWEET! We hauled back to Au Bel Air and ate dinner and started watching Sound of Music.

Today: We went to Yvoire, France, I went to France!!! Here we did a group project evaluating Customer Experience which was interesting, layed on the grass, I had a French Crepe and Gelato, and then boated home. And now I'm blogging.

Guys this is crazy awesome, I'm sorry I've been a bad blogger and I love you all.

Ali

Sunday Funday

Hey just a quick post tonight and no pictures, sorry. We've been doing a lot and I haven't had time to upload my pics.

Yesterday, (Saturday) we went to an old witches castle where they would keep "confirmed" witches and torture them...pretty sweet! Then to the Tourbillon Castle ruins which is also the home of the world's oldest and still functioning organ where we received a private organ concert featuring a piece from every major period throughout history. Guys, it was amazing! Don't worry, I got video and plan on sharing soon. We also spent a lot of time climbing on the castle ruins...and anyone who actually knows me would immediately infer that I was totally JAZZED about that. The manners of people and the actual level of intelligence in Europe is astounding compared to the states. For instance, the trails leading to the castle was placed alongside the sheer edge of a cliff...in the good ol' US of A people would use that as an excuse for a law suit. Along that same note, not only did we climb on the cliffs, but we were actually ALLOWED to. At least we didn't get any sort of reprimand for doing so anyways...Later that day we went to an arts festival in downtown Sion which was pretty dang sweet. Aside from the atmosphere, aka being surrounded by incredibly old architecture and beautiful design, interesting people, etc. It was a lot like Sunday festivals in NYC but with WAYYYYYY less shopping opportunities...darn. There were some odd street performers though, like the two dudes in spandex suits doing almost nothing besides hopping about and doing bad ballet moves, or the mimes who inappropriately "danced" with our friend Laura. Anyways, that evening we had a WONDERFUL dinner of RACLETTE...a Swiss delicacy that consists of a block of cheese being cut in two and mounted on this object that melts the top of the cheese where it can be scraped onto a serving of baked potato, or incredibly expensive meat. The meat we sampled cost about 80 francs per pound. BOOJJJJ right? Apparently it is the earliest form of fondue which I totally approve of, and found especially delicious despite it's frightfully smelly stench.

Today was Sunday which was amazing, we got up and went to church which, awesomely enough, was Fast Sunday. In French. Luckily the missionaries were behind us and translating into our ears. Guys, the church is the same all throughout the world. I'm not only talking from a gospel perspective right now, as in I believe that I am a member of a worldwide church with the fullness of truths revealed and being revealed to us today, but the types of messages delivered was uncannily similar to those borne at home. This little old French lady got up and started telling us about her lasik eye surgery and this is what the missionary's translation sounded like. Keep in mind he has only been out about 5 months.

Missionary:"Uhhhh and then it was like a miracle! I could See!"

*Laughing, giggling, silence, more snickering*

Us: "What is she saying??!"

Missionary: "She's talking about the shower...and how she could see the soap..."

US: Laughing

Missionary: "Now she's talking about a Jew...?"

Haha it was pretty funny. But I got up and bore my testimony and had a guy who actually served in the Paris mission translate for me. Karlie and another guy on the trip Chris bore testimonies too, it was very sweet and an amazing experience to hear my testimony translated into French! AWESOME!

So...after all of this, we traveled to the place where the St. Bernard dogs are actually kept during the winter, checked them out, saw an ancient roman ruin which was totally sweet, and took the train back down to Lausanne where we enjoyed another farmer's market type street fair. There was this Harbio tent full of CRAZY AWESOME AMAZING candy like I've never seen before, giant marshmallow bananas and strawberries, huge sour patch ropes filled with marshmallow, sour cherries, jalepeno gummies, those tasty candy raspberries/blackberries with sprinkles on the outside...well it cost 5.90 franc per 100 kilograms so I was like, guys lets all pick a treat and i'll buy since Karlie bought churros and i'd eaten some snacks others had shared earlier...anyways I ended up kinda going a little crazy and when I handed the lady the bag to be weighed she rang it up to 44 FRANC! WHAAAAA? Luckily she let us put some back and then it came down to 35 kilo but she gave it to us for 30...Karlie and Jenn pitched in and we all enjoyed a bizarre 30 franc bag of the best candy in the universe. After all of this we got to the main attraction of the day...we have been waiting since last Tuesday to go back to lake Geneva and rent paddle boats with SLIDES on them. Seriously this was sooo fun. The water was soo cold though! The kind of cold where your body doesn't feel to chilly but you can't breathe. After a little while though it warmed up and we were slippin and sliding and jumping and diving like the crazy Americans we are. After a while we looked around and realized NOBODY ELSE WAS SWIMMING. Which was pretty hilarious in all actuality. After making a successful series of train rides home just in time for dinner and a little campfire I am totally exhausted and ready for bed. Perfect Day?? I definitely think so. So much for this being a short post right? Haha, I love you all my dear family and friends. Ali

Weekend

Hey just a quick post tonight and no pictures, sorry. We've been doing a lot and I haven't had time to upload my pics.

Yesterday, (Saturday) we went to an old witches castle where they would keep "confirmed" witches and torture them...pretty sweet! Then to the Tourbillon Castle ruins which is also the home of the world's oldest and still functioning organ where we received a private organ concert featuring a piece from every major period throughout history. Guys, it was amazing! Don't worry, I got video and plan on sharing soon. We also spent a lot of time climbing on the castle ruins...and anyone who actually knows me would immediately infer that I was totally JAZZED about that. The manners of people and the actual level of intelligence in Europe is astounding compared to the states. For instance, the trails leading to the castle was placed alongside the sheer edge of a cliff...in the good ol' US of A people would use that as an excuse for a law suit. Along that same note, not only did we climb on the cliffs, but we were actually ALLOWED to. At least we didn't get any sort of reprimand for doing so anyways...Later that day we went to an arts festival in downtown Sion which was pretty dang sweet. Aside from the atmosphere, aka being surrounded by incredibly old architecture and beautiful design, interesting people, etc. It was a lot like Sunday festivals in NYC but with WAYYYYYY less shopping opportunities...darn. There were some odd street performers though, like the two dudes in spandex suits doing almost nothing besides hopping about and doing bad ballet moves, or the mimes who inappropriately "danced" with our friend Laura. Anyways, that evening we had a WONDERFUL dinner of RACLETTE...a Swiss delicacy that consists of a block of cheese being cut in two and mounted on this object that melts the top of the cheese where it can be scraped onto a serving of baked potato, or incredibly expensive meat. The meat we sampled cost about 80 francs per pound. BOOJJJJ right? Apparently it is the earliest form of fondue which I totally approve of, and found especially delicious despite it's frightfully smelly stench.

Today was Sunday which was amazing, we got up and went to church which, awesomely enough, was Fast Sunday. In French. Luckily the missionaries were behind us and translating into our ears. Guys, the church is the same all throughout the world. I'm not only talking from a gospel perspective right now, as in I believe that I am a member of a worldwide church with the fullness of truths revealed and being revealed to us today, but the types of messages delivered was uncannily similar to those borne at home. This little old French lady got up and started telling us about her lasik eye surgery and this is what the missionary's translation sounded like. Keep in mind he has only been out about 5 months.

Missionary:"Uhhhh and then it was like a miracle! I could See!"

*Laughing, giggling, silence, more snickering*

Us: "What is she saying??!"

Missionary: "She's talking about the shower...and how she could see the soap..."

US: Laughing

Missionary: "Now she's talking about a Jew...?"

Haha it was pretty funny. But I got up and bore my testimony and had a guy who actually served in the Paris mission translate for me. Karlie and another guy on the trip Chris bore testimonies too, it was very sweet and an amazing experience to hear my testimony translated into French! AWESOME!

So...after all of this, we traveled to the place where the St. Bernard dogs are actually kept during the winter, checked them out, saw an ancient roman ruin which was totally sweet, and took the train back down to Lausanne where we enjoyed another farmer's market type street fair. There was this Harbio tent full of CRAZY AWESOME AMAZING candy like I've never seen before, giant marshmallow bananas and strawberries, huge sour patch ropes filled with marshmallow, sour cherries, jalepeno gummies, those tasty candy raspberries/blackberries with sprinkles on the outside...well it cost 5.90 franc per 100 kilograms so I was like, guys lets all pick a treat and i'll buy since Karlie bought churros and i'd eaten some snacks others had shared earlier...anyways I ended up kinda going a little crazy and when I handed the lady the bag to be weighed she rang it up to 44 FRANC! WHAAAAA? Luckily she let us put some back and then it came down to 35 kilo but she gave it to us for 30...Karlie and Jenn pitched in and we all enjoyed a bizarre 30 franc bag of the best candy in the universe. After all of this we got to the main attraction of the day...we have been waiting since last Tuesday to go back to lake Geneva and rent paddle boats with SLIDES on them. Seriously this was sooo fun. The water was soo cold though! The kind of cold where your body doesn't feel to chilly but you can't breathe. After a little while though it warmed up and we were slippin and sliding and jumping and diving like the crazy Americans we are. After a while we looked around and realized NOBODY ELSE WAS SWIMMING. Which was pretty hilarious in all actuality. After making a successful series of train rides home just in time for dinner and a little campfire I am totally exhausted and ready for bed. So much for this being a short post right? Haha, I love you all my dear family and friends. Ali