Helping Japan

Dear Reader,

As most of you know, I lived in Japan when I was young and since then I have felt a strong connection to the country. Since the recent tragedy there I have been wanting to find a way that I could help them. Luckily my friend dropped an opportunity right in my lap.

She was putting together a fundraiser to raise money to donate to the LDS church's humanitarian fund. Basically it works like this: You go around door-to-door with a plate of cookies and a jar for money. You ask for a donation from whomever answers the door (and roommates), generally just loose change or whatever they have lying around. Nothing big. And then you give them a cookie (whether or not they give you a donation).

Such a good idea, right? I mean, if you were selling cookies to raise money people would be all, "Oh, that's okay, I don't really need a cookie. . . ." but if you just ask for money and have cookies as a bonus people are all, "Oh, yeah, sure! Let me see what I can find!"

Interestingly enough, we had many people turn down cookies, they just wanted to donate to the cause. It was really cool to see how many people were willing to give to help the people of Japan.

Natalie and I hit up my ward, part of her ward, and a small portion of my sister's ward. About 3 hours later we had raised over 160 dollars in people's spare change (and some very generous donations of 5 and 10 dollar bills). Crazy! And it was so easy and so much fun!

Last week my friend said they raised 400 dollars and they're going to be continuing this fundraiser through the end of the semester. Hopefully with our powers combined, along with the kind students of BYU, we'll be able to do some good for the people of Japan, or whoever else the Church decides to help with our donation.

If you are able, please donate whatever you can to help Japan and others affected by disasters throughout the world. Never underestimate the power of a penny. They add up surprisingly fast. Every little bit really does count!

Also I went to Best Buy today with Natalie so she could buy Tangled. And I may or may not have walked out owning these two movies. I am so weak.

P.S. Natalie took the pictures of the money. Give credit where credit is due.

Attempting adventure.

Dear Reader,

Because there was no school yesterday Natalie and I wanted an adventure. It was, after all, our last vacation whilst in college.

But then we remembered we live in Provo.

And it's winter.

And nothing was going on because it was President's Day.

So we asked ourselves: What does one do in Provo? Eat and go to the dollar theatre.

Next question: Are there dollar theatres and restaurants elsewhere in Utah?

Answer: Sandy.

So we went to Sandy. And we took our Provo experience with us.

We ate at Five Guys (which they have in Provo, but I had never been to before) and it was good. Like way good. And even if I didn't believe that the food was good myself, I had dozens of signs and newspaper clippings all over the wall to convince me it was true.

We saw The Tourist at the dollar theatre. It was funny (and not playing at the Provo dollar theatre, so that totally justifies a 45 minute trip to Sandy, right?...). I recommend it if you're looking to suspend reality for a few hours. Or if you just want to look at beautiful scenes of Venice, Paris, and London. And wish that you were there.

A highlight of the night was that Natalie and I stopped by Petsmart on the off-chance that there just might be dogs there that we could see. As luck would have it there were several dogs with owners and a little girl even let us pet her puppy (which came bounding towards us, by the way. It clearly loved us. Or it wanted our leftover french fries. Whichever.).

Oh, and if you're wondering what it feels like to have a puppy running towards you, this will give you an idea:

I believe "pure joy" are the words you're looking for.

If you couldn't tell, I want a dog reals bad. (If you want more evidence, go here to Natalie's blog. She expounds on the topic further.)