Ipod Nano and Skiing

Ok everyone, I know you've just been dying to know how I won an Ipod Nano so I will tell you all about it.

BYU has many half time activities that go on at every game. Last semester, while I was at a girl's volleyball game, I noticed one of these activities called "cougar Idol." I also noticed how good the chances of winning this activity are. It is between two people so it is a 50/50 chance of winning...PRETTY SWEET! So, I looked for the way to sign up and be chosen to participate in this activity. All I had to do was sign up on the BYU Independent study website for the chance to win. So I did it thinking it was pretty unlikely that I would get chosen but I thought "what they hey?" and did it anyway.

Well, a little while ago, I got a call from someone who was in my ward last year. His name is Garrett and he works for BYU Independent study. Well, he was actually calling me to tell me that I had been chosen to participate in the activity for halftime during the Basketball game against SDSU(shoutout to Mark!Sorry you didn't win but at least I got something good from it). I was so excited! at the time I got the message on my phone from Garrett, I started to bounce up and down in my seat(I was in my TA office) and my friends started to look at me like I was from another planet. They understood though once I told them what was up.

So, I got the information I needed and started preparing for the competition. The song was "Beat it" by Micheal Jackson which I thought was kind of wierd because both of the participants were girls and he is kind of a man. I guess he sings pretty high so it wasn't too bad. Anyway, I got the karaoke version of the portion of the song that I was going to sing and I started to prepare. I searched on youtube for some MJ videos to get my moves on and I practiced a routine. But, I was really nervous for the big day.

Game time came along and I had butterflies in my stomach. I told myself that it was really no big deal cuz if I didn't win, it wouldn't matter cuz an ipod is not a necessity of my life. That calmed me down a bit. I got free tickets to the game(even though I already had an all-sports pass). However, unlike my all-sports pass, the tickets were not in the student section. The people all around me must have been used to having all the people who do the singing to be sitting in the same spot I was sitting because they asked me right away if I was the one doing it. They told me that if I had good dance moves, and a good personality, they would get the whole section we were in to cheer for me. I told them they would just have to wait and see.

Half-time came around and I went down to the court to wait to go on. While I was down there, I talked with the other girl for a while. She was really nice and seemed like she was a freshman. Well we went on to court when it was time. I can hardly remember what happened after that.

I remember that the other girl had the paper with the words in her hand and she stood there while she sang. She had a nice voice but no spunk. I also remember that as soon as I saw that she wasn't working the crowd at all, that I thought to myself "I've soooooo got this." Then it was my turn. I took the mike in my hand and I listened for the music to start and then....I sang and danced my heart out. I don't really know how it looked(if you want to know the details you should ask Liz and Cameron cuz they saw me do it). I don't really remember anything that happened. I do remember that one of my moves really made the crowd go wild. Then after I was done, the emcee asked the crowd if the other girl was better and I saw a small group of people stand and cheer. Then he asked them if I was better and the WHOLE CROWD(at least the part I could see) stood up and cheered! Then they handed me the ipod. It was pretty much the coolest thing that's ever happened to me. I'm sorry I had to drag the story on like this.

Now about my skiing adventures. In January, Jon invited me to go with him to an employee ski night for free with him at Sundance(where he had been employed at the time). That night was horrible. They did not have any hills for beginners or anything and I had absolutely no training. I did not know how to stop so what I would do after I thought I was going too fast was just turn and run into the snowbank on the side. It was very painful and dissapointing. I ended up walking a ways and then the people came and picked me up on a snowmobile and took me down the rest of the way. I felt like a failure and I hated skiing. Then, last Thursday, I went to a place called Alta that is near Salt Lake with Jon and his siblings(again it was free). It was much better. They had a bunch of bunny hills for the beginners and I practiced stopping. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN. I really like skiing now and I would like to do some more of it but I will have to wait until next winter cuz the weather is just too warm now. I'm ok with that though.