All grown up: pre-event

So, I feel grown up today. I'm sitting here in business slacks, pointy shoes, curled hair and a classy white blouse tucked into my pants with a black belt (leather, not karate.)Today, is the day of my first official PR event. I am currently interning for The Walton Group Inc., a PR firm in Provo. I have been working with one client inparticular, to plan their 10th anniversary event. Well, since the end of April, I have been working on this event and it is taking place tonight. There has been a lot of time spent on the phone, ordering, correcting and confirming. I have learned what it means to develop good relationships with vendors and to confirm things early. Writing has become a passion. Public relations work has been reconfirmed a passion. I have moments while sitting at my desk, after getting off the phone with a client or vendor, where I smile, laugh and shake my head as I go back to writing an email or whatever I was doing. I love my job. So much. I love what I do. There may be one or two times that I have let out a little yelp of glee or excitement. I'm a geek. Public relations is soo for me. I love organizing. I thrive on putting details in the right place and seeing it all work out. I may get a little stressed (a little being a slight understatement)but I think I have done really well today. Yesterday, I was a wreck. Today, I'm doing much better. There were a few last minute things that got to me: my printer freaking out and incorrectly printing the nametags for all the guests; the microphone being a puny little PA system for 50 people when I needed a manly PA system for 150 people. Other than that, things are working out quite well. Prayer works. Things all work out. And if something happens that doesn't work to my liking, it's okay. Life will go on. I still love my work. We'll hope that tonight goes well! The post-event update will be following shortly.

MIA PAPER PLANES

Another reason why I love my roommates and little sister. Period.

MIA Paper Planes.

Why is my life not more adventurous? Crap.

So, I'm doing a profile article for The Daily Universe on a guy named Spencer Humiston. He and his wife, Breckan, have become silent heroes for me. I came across their blog and did a little research on them and found out that they are doing something like a 4000 mile bike trip across Asia. Holy, freaking amazing. Green is running through my veins right now. There is a large part of me that would love to just drop everything I am doing right now and purchase a bike and pack a small bag and head to Asia to do the same thing. I read the majority of their blog posts as they kept their readers updated during their travels. Wow. Inspiring. They are returning to the land of the free now, so no more blog posts. Spencer is hilarious... a great writer, so I will continue following their regular blog. Their links are included in my favorites. Enjoy.

Speaking of Sisters

So, speaking of sisters... I have the best roommates ever. My source of happiness right now, amidst my crazy, hectic life, is my roommates. I come home after a long day and they are sitting there, after their long days, and we sit and talk. We catch up, talk about what is going on, we run decisions past each other to see if we made the right choice... it is amazing. I love them. So, two of my roommates were out of town over the long weekend. (They left Bre and I to see Wicked in AZ. Lame.) Well, since they were gone, Bre and I decided to have some fun to make them jealous. Thursday night, we walked into our apartment and decided it was time to hang some pictures up on our bare walls. We are in the middle of an apartment paint job so we put some pics up. I have an Ikea rug that I wanted to put down so Bre and I stood in our apartment and discussed different furniture arrangement options. For the next hour and a half, we moved just about every piece of furniture in every spot we could think of. In the end, we only switched two pieces of furniture. We even brought up an extra couch from our basement (which we had to take out the back and around to our front door... we were laughing pretty hard.) The apartment is now quite possibly one of the classiest apartments (college apartments) I have seen. We like to think there is a little New York in our apartment. So, if you want to see a classy college apartment, stop by. The door is open and the doorbell rings.

Then, the next day, Bre and I went WAKEBOARDING! I got up for the first time and stayed up... for a few seconds. But the fact is peeps, I got up! I had a blast with Bre and her fam. Felt good to be on the lake again after two years. I think I want a boat when I grow up. But I could do without the soreness. I biffed it a couple times and got some awesome whiplash.

Moral of the story... I love my roommates. Whit and Addie are back now... I'm glad. I missed them.

Sisters

Here is a pic of me and my two sisters. Love them to death. Arian, the oldest, is on the left. I am in the middle and Kels is on the right, being the youngest. Love you guys!

News lab

This picture illustrates me after a long day in the newslab, at the MTC and the internship. Don't get me wrong, I love working in newspaper writing lab; but I never want to be a full-time news reporter. This class I'm taking, writing for the BYU newspaper, is giving me quite the taste for newsreporting. I love it. I'm not going to do it full-time. I don't quite know how I'm taking this class on top of working at the MTC and a part-time internship. It is kind of crazy, but wildly fun! I thrive on a little stress in my life... thus the blog URL: organizedstress. A little organized stress is good for everyone. It is healthy. My problem is, keeping it to a minimum and keeping it organized. Luckily for me, I am a planning feind. I luf to plan. If you don't, call me sometime and I will brain wash you and you will see a whole new world: an organized world.

My Papa

I just have to say... I love my dad. I'm sitting here at 12:05 a.m. and for the past two hours, the two of us have just been sitting talking about anything and everything. From boys and relationships to teaching at the MTC and talking with our hands. He is the most amazing man I know. I respect him and love him. I hope I find a man that is as dedicated to, patient with and loving toward his wife as my papa is. He is intelligent, tall, skinny and my favorite part about him is his bright blue eyes and salt and pepper hair.

Front page

Got front page of The Daily Universe today! Sweet!

IHOP

No, I don't hop... I IHOP. Last night I had the opportunity of visiting the International House of Pancakes. Oh, my dear friends, if you have not treated yourself to IHOP in the last little while, we are going. It is high time you experience The Breakfast Sampler. Ppuuurree HEAVEN. It comes with: three strips of delicious, crispy bacon, two pieces of ham, two eggs cooked to your liking, hashbrowns and two sausages... and the best part, two buttermilk pancakes with the little (or rather large) ball of butter on top. AH! Heaven. I'm a sucker for breakfast for dinner. Not everyone is. But Jonesy here... yep. So, as my friends and I were waiting to cash out, a guy walks up behind us and makes a comment on my purse. "That's a nice purse you have there." Wow. The guy knows his stuff. I was a little put off that a guy made a comment like that about a purse. Oh well, maybe he had all sisters growing up. If so, I will give him a break. We walked outside and our little group continued to chat before we got in our cars. The two guys leave and walk past us, but the one didn't get very far. He creepishly made his way back... I saw him out of the corner of my eye and wanted to ignore him because I had a feeling I knew what he was about to do... he did. "Hey, so I don't know if this is awkward or weird, but, can I get your phone number?" Uuuhhhh, I was more stunned than anything. So stunned, I didn't know what to say. I just looked at him... I think that was his answer. "Oh, okay! No problem-ya, that's kind of awkward! Okay, have a nice night!" Eeehhh! Sorry dude! I didn't know what to say! It was so random and I didn't know him at all. We got a laugh out of that... my face turned a little shade of red. Good thing it was dark outside so no one saw. But I didn't let that experience feather my love of IHOP and The Breakfast Sampler. Mmmm... IHOP...

ALCAT Results

So, want to know something super interesting? I am allergic to over 61 foods. By allergic, I don't mean I break out in hives everytime I eat something or that I pull a "Hitch" and my face is all of a sudden distorted when I touch shell fish. No. About three weeks ago, my parents and I had our blood tested for something called the ALCAT test. Basically, this test is based on recent scientific discoveries which have revealed increasingly deeper levels of understanding of how food interacts with our immunie system affecting metabolism in ways that can be either beneficial or detrimental. Chronic activiation of the immune system and the chronic inflammation that it produces is not only the common feature of modern diseases of aging, but also its major inderlying cause. So, when I eat the "wrong" food, although it may be "healthful" for most people, will induce inflammation. (That sounds really awkward... but keep reading. It gets interesting.) The immune system aims to damge the food, which it mistakes as a harmful invader, such as a bacteria, parasite or virus, but also ends up damaging our own body, ie: allergic reaction of some kind. Long-term exposure can even trigger auto-immunity, where the immune system actively attacks our own tissues and bodily structures.

It has been known for ages that food can be either the best medicine or a strong poison. Did you know that? The ancient Greeks like (Hippocrates and Lucretius) expressed this clearly in their writings,"Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine thy food," and "One man's meat is another man's poison."

So basically, what I am trying to say is that the ALCAT test can tell you which food is your 'meat' and which is your 'poison.'

I'm not sure if anyone has heard of the book, "Your Hidden Food Allergies Are Making You Fat?" Well, there is such a book. It is based on the fact that we eat foods every day -- foods that, as explained above, can be one man's food and another man's poison. For example: after reading my results, I found out that I have a severe intolerance for baker's yeast. HA! What contains baker's yeast? Pretty much everything... bread, pasta, crackers, cake...whatever we hold to be beautiful, delicious or of good report... yes, we seek after these things. BUT, the thing we don't realize is that eating those 'poisons' is what is playing a huge part in our chronic fatigue, inability to lose weight, horrible acne and a number of other 'diseases' we have come to consider normal. We just think it is how we are, not what we are eating. I know when I eat certain foods, my energy levels and even my attitude are affected. The thing with these allergies, they aren't going to show up immediately. They can show up a few days or even a week later. It takes time for the immune system to react and defend.

A few other things that I have intolerances toward: cherries, lemons, duck (not that I eat it very often,) broccoli (ahhh, darn it,) turkey (WHAT THE!?,) vanilla, artichoke, beet sugar, cane sugar, fructose (so, basically anything with sugar... great,) chicken (may I repeat, WHAT THE?!,) garlic (my future husband won't mind that,) strawberrys (freak... this is getting lamer by the second...) and a few other things that aren't as important: navy beans (I don't think I have even heard of those,) sage, sardines (ewwww,) millet...(I don't even know what that is.)

So, now my responsibility is to work on keeping the severe intolerances out of my diet for six months, my moderate intolerances out of my diet for three to six months and mild intolerances can be rotated in and out of my diet every four to five days.

I hope this doesn't sound like I am this picky eater now who is super allergic to everything. No. I love eating. I eat pretty much everything. But, I want to be healthy. I want to have the optimal energy levels that my body should have -- so, I am choosing to take better watch of what I eat. And that's that.

Happy Valley Optimism - 2nd Daily Universe story

Utah Valley optimism keeping businesses ahead
Wed, 07/01/2009 - 23:09
By ASHLEY JONES

Forbes Magazine recently ranked Utah Valley first in its job growth analysis, with local businesses winning more than 40 Best of State Awards.

In Forbes’ tenth annual ranking of the best places for businesses and careers, Provo has the eighth-fastest job growth in the past five years at 4.2 percent annually.

Bucking national trends, employment actually accelerated in 2007 and was up 5.5 percent.

Crime rates in Provo are among the lowest in the country and 31 percent of the adult population has a college degree, compared with 23 percent nationally.

“The ‘Happy Valley’ optimism is keeping businesses ahead — both nationally and locally,” said Joel Racker, president of the Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The “optimism” Racker referred to has to do with the number of college graduates and their level of education in the area as well as the diversity of businesses. This combination, Racker said, brings optimism and, in effect, a stronger economy.

Any economy is going to struggle when it is powered by one specific industry, Racker said.
Park City, for example, does extremely well during its peak season: winter. However, strolling down Main Street on a summer afternoon, it may seem more like a ghost town. In comparison, Provo has businesses and recreational opportunities that fit every season and interest.

“Our partners and businesses in Utah Valley have had a ‘weather the storm’ attitude from the beginning,” Racker said.

With the mission to bring money to the local economy, the Convention and Visitors Bureau is initiating web and radio campaigns as well as brochures in over 1300locations to attract tourists from neighboring states as well as residents throughout Utah.

Because of the tax revenue brought in by tourists, the average Utah Valley household pays about $700 less in taxes.

Some of the efforts being pressed by the Convention and Visitors Bureau to increase tourism in Utah Valley include multiple festivals: The Freedom Festival, Strawberry Days and the Tulip Festival.

ashleyelizabethj@gmail.com