New Developments In My Oh So Exciting World

YAY for me! I'm officially a student again! I got in one of the two classes needed to finish my B.S. and am taking an education to get my feet wet a little before hitting it hard with my master's. It looks as if I SHOULD be able to start that next summer and if all goes well, COULD be done by the end of summer 2012. Roll tide to that!!!! I'm so excited to be back in school! I also have a job interview soon for a position in Tuscaloosa. If that works out, I'm hoping to be able to convince the parents to let me move back to T-town by offering to pay some of the bills. It seems like life might be getting back to normal soon. Not to mention then amazing convenience of only being 30 minutes away from Joshua as opposed to 2 hours! Life is shaping up for sure! Prayers are being answered for sure!

To Everything There Is A Season

The past few months have been tough stuff. A lot of drama and heartache. But I think one thing that stands out the most is that I am 6 hours shy of having my Bachelor's of Science in geography. I walked at a graduation that wasn't mine, I have a class ring that has a year on it that I didn't graduate in, and now classes are about to start and I'm not going back. Not till spring. I'll living back with  my parents. Not fun. All we do is yell and argue. I'll be out soon, though hopefully. Right now I'm just looking for a job to do me till I go back to school in January and finish up that degree. I'll walk again next May (whether my family attends or not) and I'll actually get my diploma. It hurts that all the photos and memories from May 8, 2009 are a sham, but I'll be so proud of myself when I walk next year, even if no one is there to see it. Then on to my masters!! I want to teach high school science!! I also have an amazing man in my life who makes Prince Charming dim in comparison. He truly is a dream come true. I couldn't ask for someone more perfect for someone like me...someone so unperfect. I haven't felt this at peace about a man...ever. So being the girl I am, I'm already planning a wedding in my head when there isn't even talk of a ring on the finger. Typical female, I am! But then again, I've been doing this since I was 12, taken or not. Knowing I have such an amazing, understanding, reliable, a PATIENT man to share this part of my life with makes all the troubles seem much less dramatic. In a few years, all this will be over and I know I couldn't do it without him. Okay, enough gushing! While back in Pell City, I'm hoping to blog a big more. Maybe it'll keep me sane!! Maybe...

Carpe Diem

This is the story of finding my meaning and my purpose


Untitled from Stephanie Frost on Vimeo.

Favorite Re-Made Videos

This is one of my FAVORITE videos I've found. I'm a huge Harry Potter fan, and in my searchings for fan videos months ago, I found this one, where someone has taken clips from the 4th Harry Potter movie, set it to the soundtrack of Brokeback Mountain, and have created this new story, where it appears Harry, Ron, and Cedric Diggery (yeah, that's Edward Cullen, but if you like Twilight, you should be slapped) have some sort of gay love affair. This video is not only hilarious, but also extremely well edited. It flows amazingly and if I had been completely unaware of pop culture, I could watch this video and believe this was a real film.




This second video makes my double over every time I watch it. This guy whose YouTube alias is "Jabooody Dubs" dubs his voice into infomercials, like this Kaboom commercial from the late great Billy Mays. Warning, it does have a lot of profanity, but honestly it just wouldn't be as funny without it. He dubs over the hosts voice with very literal commentary of what is being seen. Just watch it. Oh, and don't eat spaghetti in the shower!

This song is for a baby

This is the story of the man I love most (other than my dad of course!)



Sean from Stephanie Frost on Vimeo.

Digital Stories

In Rachel Pater's Learning to Ride, she talks about how her eccentric father shaped her life and made her the person she is today. She uses mainly photographs as she tells the story of when her dad bought the family a tandem bike. She said he was always quirky and had quite a sense of humor. My favorite part was when she talked about riding with her dad on the two seater bike, and before he heard the kids in the neighborhood point and say "Look! A two person bike!" he'd quickly exclaim, "Look Rachel! A ONE person bike!!" This reminded me so much of my dad and how care-free and loving he is. My dad is my hero and I have learned so much from him. No one will ever compare to him. But most of all my dad has taught me to be myself, no matter who is watching.

Amanda Wise's digital story How To Change A Life talks about her elementary school library teacher and how she had such an effect on how Amanda felt about learning and reading. Before school started one year, Amanda found out her teacher had passed away and she wished she'd told her how much she'd meant to her. Now, Amanda wants to become a teacher and to teach like her library teacher did. With enthusiasm. She used music and photos to help tell her story, including yearbook photos of her teacher. This story meant a lot to me because there are two teachers I can say have changed my life. One was my 8th grade math teacher and one was my junior high and high school band director. Both mean passed away within about a year of each other. But both of them made me excited about school and learning and that has never changed.

The Will to Live

This is the story of one of my best friends, his fight for survival, and his will to live.  



Untitled from Stephanie Frost on Vimeo.

The Media Is Very 1984

It's everywhere, and I knew that. But I truly realized it when I started logging all the interactions I had with the media, especially when I noticed I was logging the interactions on my iPhone. Blast! I realized I use my iPhone for hours daily, whether checking email, surfing the web, or facebooking. I facebook in a very addictive manor. One thing that was cool is that I don't have cable, and I have exhausted all my movies, so that wasn't a big chunk of my time. However, I've recently discovered Hulu and spent hours watching the final 5 or 6 episodes of the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, and also my guilty pleasure...The Bachelor.  Everytime I get in the car I listen to NPR. Always. Except on my way to school in the mornings. That's when I spend my 15 minute commute listening to Rick and Bubba. Also, every morning and afternoon I go online and listen to a 7 or 8  minute podcast forecast discussion by my former boss/boyfriend's father, James Spann, to get my weather fix. By night, I facebook for hours on end. The only time I watched actual TV was at my boyfriend's house when we watched the Australia Open for what seemed like ages, but I'm sure it was only a match or two. The worst part (other than my iPhone), was work. I work in a library so I am consumed by computers and books. I did a lot of computer research about potential graduate schools (and then took a break to check river water levels for kayaking this weekend). I also have read an entire book in the past week. That's what happens when you work at a library. I honestly didn't realize how much time I actually spend online, even though I already knew I spent too much time on the computer. The iPhone time was surprising, but I think it's just because it so accessible.  I also don't think I am an avid reader, but to realize how many hours I actually spent with my nose in a book was insane. I also buy a lot of crappy celeb gossip magazines, so I probably spend about half an hour on each of those. I honestly know that I should have been doing homework and studying rather than all this time facebooking and huluing, but that's just how our generation is wired, it seems. Even classes (such as this one) just envelops you in media. A few of my classes show video clips and even one class we watched an entire movie. Everytime I get on the Crimson Ride, there is a radio playing. There are TVs all over the Ferg. I even watched the news while waiting at the doctor's office on Friday. It's mad! Perhaps I should use media as a dessert instead of meal. Wait till everything I actually NEED to do is done, and then perhaps "reward" myself with a bit of facebooking, or watching this weeks episode of The Bachelor (I can't help it, he's just so cute!). Regardless, the media is very big brother and everywhere we turn. Orson Wells should write a book about it.

I Listen To NPR Every Day!

Fear Of Sleep
I love this NPR segment during This American Life. Ira Glass starts off talking about his own fear of sleep as a kid, and then interviews other people who either have a fear of sleeping or should have a fear of sleeping. Mike Birbiglia starts off talk about his sleeping walking problem that became dangerous, such as seeing animals and striking karate poses in his sleep until his girlfriend could talk him down. He delivers this in a very comedic manor and in the setting of a comedy show in a night club or something. The next two women in the story talk about cockroaches and bedbugs that infested their house. They said they weren't scared but have actually just gotten used to it. The third gentleman talks about how, when he was 11, he trained himself not to fall asleep and therefore started seeing things at night that you weren't meant to see. He talks about a night at another kid's house when he walked in on the kid's parents in the middle of an unmentionable act while just wanting to ask for a glass of water. The second to last interview was with NPR producer Seth Lind who started having nightmares because of watching the Shining with his uncle at a very young age. He said what probably made it so real was the fact that so much of the film was from the perspective of a 6 or 7 year old boy, just like him. The scene he said stands out is when the rush of blood comes pouring from the elevator. Ira Glass closes by saying that the fear of sleep can by tied with the fear of death. I loved these interviews because I have a fascination with sleep and sleep disorders. As a first grader I started having trouble sleeping after the fire department visited my school to talk about house fires. I became so paranoid of my house burning down, I could not fall asleep. I then began hallucinating right as I woke up, like one of the interviewees said she did, as well as felt a bit of paralysis. Mine was at night, but hers was only if she napped during the day. I to this day still have trouble sleeping and have to take prescription sleep medication, so this was an awesome show for me to listen to.



Didn't Ask To Be Born
This NPR segment, also from This American Life (I love Ira Glass) starts off by using an example from the TV show American High where a father and son are arguing about which car the son can take out. He wants to take the Corolla. His dad wants him to take out the other car, claiming it would attract the ladies. Next a woman named Debra talks about her two daughters, Stephanie and Amanda who she loved more than she ever thought possible. After a divorce and relocation, her relationship with her 2 oldest daughters begins to wither. The daughters talk about rebelling by dying their hair strange colors, shaving it into mohawks, wearing chain covered pants and giant leather boots a la Marilyn Manson. They try to retrace and figure out what and when things went wrong. The second part of the show talks about a young boy who had plenty of friends, a great family who loved him and took interest in his life, yet he set himself on fire. He goes into the reasons why he did it and reads excerpts from his book The Burn Journals. I loved this segment because I have felt like an outsider many times, especially when it comes to my family. I'm very outspoken and am an individual and will do what I want no matter what. My mother and father are extremely conservative and I just have never felt like I fit with them with my strange hair colors, piercings, and tattoos. One of my brothers is on my side, covered in tats, piercings, and a multi-colored mohawk that stands about a foot high. It's no fun being an outsider, but in the end, I'm not doing it to rebel or get attention, but to stay true to myself and to express out the outside who I am within.

Who Am I And Why Do You Care?

So my name is Stephanie, and you will soon learn I love to tell meaningless stories. Whether about the day I am having or my childhood or about somebody I saw at the supermarket, I have always got something to share. I am a Frost by birth, a wanderer by choice, and a college student by sake of reason. I could not begin to tell you what I want to be when I grow up. I am 21 in Gregorian calendar years, but in my heart I am still a kid. I would love to live like Peter Pan and never grow up. But alas, tis impossible. I love big bowls of cereal (I am munching on Apple Jacks right now) and a good cup of Starbucks. I have a heart condition the effects me daily, but I deal. I love being outside. My favorite place on earth (that I have been to, at least) is on top of the world on a little place called Buck Bald, in the Tellico Plains area of Tennessee. I love seeing God through His creation. Nothing brings joy to me more than learning how the world works, whether it be storms, rivers, plants, dirt, rocks, you name it. I love to be glammed up but I also love being covered in mud. Miley Cyrus follows Marilyn Manson on my iPod. I am fascinated with people who have mental disorders. I feel like I would really enjoy being a psychoanalyst working in a mental hospital. I interned for two years at the ABC affiliate in Birmingham, Alabama. My "boss" was my childhood hero, an Emmy award winning Meteorologist, and one of the smartest people I have ever met. He also helped me realize I did not want to be on TV. My lifetime long hero is my dad. He is a silent authority in my life. He does not say much, but I know what he expects of me, and I like it better that way. I have inherited from him blue eyes, a love of music (especially from the 60s), an insanity for Alabama football, a dry sense of humor, and a passion for Christ. God willing, I will be blessed with a husband like him one day. I do not like being told what kind of person I should be. I would rather do that on my own, thanks. I like being who I want to be. I do not try to put on any sort of facade for anyone. Take it or leave it. I find joy in body modification, especially piercings. I find them extremely therapeutic in a sense of releasing emotional pain or frustration through a momentary physical pain. Then the jewelry is a constant reminder of what I have overcome. I have 8 piercings right now. 2 holes in each ear, my lip, my belly button, my nose, and an industrial bar in my left ear. I want the words "Let It Be" tattooed on me at some point in life. I could not even begin to tell you how much that song means to me. Thank you Paul McCartney. I once thought I met the love of my life. I had every intention of marrying him, but Jesus had other plans and, after a year and a half battle with cancer, decided to take Chris home to Heaven on April 11, 2009, and He also has someone else planned for me to spend my life with and I cannot wait to know without a doubt who that man is. I'm over the casual dating scene. I refuse to date anyone that I would not/could not see myself with long term. I know I'm young, but I can't wait to be a wife and mother! Until then, I have a beautiful nephew who I cannot even describe in words. When my sister-in-law was pregnant with Sean, I heard a song by one of my favorite artists, Bright Eyes. "The song is for a baby who has yet to be born. My brother's first child, I hope that womb's not too warm. Cause it is cold out here and it will be quite a shock to breathe this air, to discover loss. So I thought I would make some changes before you arrive so when your new eyes meet mine they wont see no lies, just love." No lies, just love has become a phrase I try to live by. In fact, it's tattooed on my wrists so I can see it and be reminded of it daily. Yes, I am human, and yes, I fail, but no four words have ever held such importance to me. I am a dreamer and a realist. A lover and a fighter. A perfectionist and a sinner. I have lost a lot of trust and faith in mankind in my short 21 years on earth, but I have also grown and learned a lot. This blog is a place for my meaningless ramblings. Read at your own risk.