Best of 2012: Pop Culture Edition

And of course, we have my obligatory pop culture "Best Of" lists. It was actually harder than I thought to narrow these down, but Top 10 lists require ruthlessness. So here it is.

Best Albums of 2012

10. The Heavy, The Glorious Dead

9. Passion Pit, Gossamer

8. Japandroids, Celebration Rock

7. Two Door Cinema Club, Beacon

6. Frank Ocean, channel ORANGE

5. Of Monsters and Men, My Head Is An Animal

4. Fun., Some Nights

3. The Killers, Battle Born

2. Mumford and Sons, Babel

1. Imagine Dragons, Night Visions/Continued Silence EP
     - Imagine Dragons wins number one since they were my most played artist this year by far. Definitely my go-to band when I wanted to de-stress or needed a pick-me-up, which was like, all the time.

Best Films of 2012

10. Looper
9. The Hunger Games
8. Lincoln
7. The Queen of Versailles
6. Beasts of the Southern Wild
5. Life of Pi
4. Wreck-It Ralph
3. Silver Linings Playbook
2. The Avengers
1. Moonrise Kingdom

Best TV Shows of 2012

10. Bunheads
9. Louie
8. Breaking Bad
7. Revenge
6. New Girl
5. The Legend of Korra
4. Parenthood
3. Parks and Recreation
2. The Vampire Diaries
1. Community

Best Books I Read This Year

I didn't read that many books this year, but luckily the ones I did read were pretty good. 

7. Insurgent by Veronica Roth
6. The Chocolate Wars by Robert Cormier
5. Son by Lois Lowry
4. The Diviners by Libba Bray
3. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? And Other Concerns by Mindy Kaling
2. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
1. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
    - Deserves every award it will win this next year. It's a book about cancer, yet not overly sentimental. But it still had me in tears. Just a really real book about kids in a situation they can't control. Just stellar.

Best of 2012

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas - I've definitely enjoyed my break by spending time with family, holing up like a hobbit watching Netflix and reading from my new Kindle Fire, and attending awkward, impromptu high school reunions, where I have to explain what I've been doing for the past year to people I didn't think I'd ever see again.

I always love the end of another year because it's a time to reflect on everything that's happened and it gives me an excuse to do one of my favorite things - make "Best Of" lists! I love making lists in general, and "Best Of" lists are the best kind. So without further ado...

Chelsey's Top 10 Moments of 2012

10. Learned to surf. 

(Just to warn you, a lot of these will come from my time spent in warm, beautiful California this summer.) I was terrified at first because I'm the least coordinated person known to man, but I managed to stay up for a few seconds!! Hahaha. Definitely one of the cooler things I've gotten to do.

Also one of the last times I got to see this girl before she left me for the Lord in Pennsylvania.

 

9. Attended the Sundance Film Festival for the first time. 

As a movie buff, this is something I'd been wanting to do for a while but didn't get a chance to until this year. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see any celebrities (I realllly wanted to see Aubrey Plaza and Jake Johnson, but alas) due to the Nightmarish Blizzard the first weekend, but I got to see some cool exhibits in Park City and of course, watch some great films. Check out Safety Not Guaranteed and The Queen of Versailles as soon as you can. Trust me.

8. Went to a bajillion theme parks.

Ok, only four. But I went to a couple of those more than once, so it pretty much adds up to a bajillion. I LOVE roller coasters, so Six Flags Magic Mountain was probably my favorite of the bunch. Knotts Berry Farm was great because there were practically no lines, and Disneyland was of course magical and twee. And it's always a source of nostalgia to come back to Kings Island, the place where I experienced my first case of ride-induced nausea. Even if that ride is no longer in operation (RIP Son of Beast).

7. Road tripped to Las Vegas for the WCC Basketball Tournament. 

Ok, so BYU didn't end up winning, but I had a great time nonetheless. I went with Jessica and Kristen (miss you both!), and we had a great time in Vegas. Although I still can't believe I paid like 10 bucks to ride a roller coaster at midnight. Definitely fun, but was money that could have been spent at Thunder Down Under. (I kid, I kid...)

6. Lot and lots of awesome concerts.

Foster the People. Imagine Dragons. Ingrid Michaelson. Lonestar. Neon Trees. Fictionist. AWOLNATION. Young the Giant. And of course, The Killers. I forgot I went to so many good concerts this year. I even got paid to go to one of them! And all with fabulous people. 

Lonestar at the State Fair

Rooftop Concert with Fictionist

Imagine Dragons

The Killers

5. Chelsey takes on Hollywood. Or rather, Burbank. 

This summer my entertainment geek flag got to fly free as I unashamedly became part of the studio audience on The Price is Right and Conan. That high five from Coco himself just might be the highlight of the year. And who can forget the Warner Brothers Studio Tour, where I basically shelled out $50 to touch the Bat Mobile, and it was totally worth it. Other Hollywood highlights include comedy shows at the UCB and movies in the El Capitan Theatre.

4. Adventures in San Francisco/PRSSA National Conference

I had the pleasure of visiting The City by the Bay not once, but twice, this year. For my internship we got to spend a weekend there and check out the sites, including a boat tour around Alcatraz. I also got to attend the Public Relations Student Society of America's National Conference there, which was a blast and a half. I got to hang with my BYU PR family and eat lots of delicious clam chowder. And see the Tanner family house, a definite highlight. There was also a big bridge someone told me was pretty important. I don't know, all I remember was all the running to catch transportation.

A major award!

3. A coupla job promotions

2012 was a good year for my bank account. I became a supervisor in the ticket office and an account director in the Bradley PR Agency. A great honor, but of course, that also meant more responsibility, and I'm not sure I stayed completely sane throughout the semester. Jury's still out on that one.

 

2. West Coast buddies

The people in my L.A. ward were surprisingly more friendly than I expected (let's be real, I was expecting 90210) and I met some really awesome people during my summer there. I miss them lots and lots but I'll always have great memories of dance parties, movie premieres, beach get-togethers, hikes, Dodgers games, and delicious chicken-and-waffles to remember them by. And who can forget those West Hollywood nights with my best tour guide.

1. Summer and internship in Los Angeles

I got to intern with an awesome agency, Edelman. I got to work with some pretty rad people. I lived in L.A. for basically free. And I learned a lot. It was a pretty swell summer.

These guys were ok.

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Check out my pop culture Best Of Lists here.

Crazy Beautiful Life

Wow, I just realized I didn't post at all in October and pretty much all of November. Sorry about that? I've just been pretty crazy. Crazy busy, that is. For real, I think I've been out of Provo more than I've been in it this semester. And I've definitely only gotten about 30 hours of sleep a week. Senior year, baby.

Here's a quick recap of my life:

I turned 21! I didn't do much for my birthday (it's not a big deal in Mormontown) but I did have friends over for some delicious ice cream cake. My phone's camera pooped out at the very beginning of the party so I didn't get to take many pictures. But people did come, I swear.

In mid October I went to the Public Relations Student Society of America's National Conference in San Francisco. It was seriously so much fun. I kind of love my major and loved the opportunity to hear from the best in the biz and to network with the PR crazies at other schools.

I also enjoyed hanging out with these thugs. The people in my major are the best. We're all one big, happy, Twitter-obsessed family.

The beautiful Golden Gate Bridge. Photo credits all due to Alyssa Call. She's amazing.

No joke - the BYU kids brought the party to the dance floor. Said one kid from UCLA, "No way you guys are sober and dancing like that..."

The Full House house! Preston had the biggest fangirl moment of us all.

Love these girls. #winning

We won the Teahan Award for best newsletter! Woo. #nickbarnesego

Public Relations has been crazy in general. As Account Director for Bradley, I'm in charge of  several awesome accounts, including Dixie State College. We got to travel down to their campus in St. George to conduct focus groups and interviews about the potential name change as they transition to a university. The opinions we heard were...enlightening. People are certainly passionate about the issue.

The awesome Dixie State team, including my estimable British boss and Michael Cane impersonator, Lincoln.

Other news: Kristen finally left to Brazil for her mission! I MISS YOU K-HOOPES.

Halloween! At school I dressed up as Annie Edison...

...and a West Coast thug for the parties. Also pictured are my baby roommates as a horrifying clown and Chihiro from Spirited Away. They're pretty cool too, I guess.

I'm still angry at the punk that did this to my pumpkin. I will find you. And bad things will happen!

Basketball season's finally begun! I'm on the 6th row or so in this picture I think. Also, I called dibs on Zylstra. And no I will not hear reason, such as "He's already married," or "He's not as good as Tyler Haws." He has a brilliantly adorable smile, so all other arguments are invalid.

Two weeks ago I had my very first big girl job interview in Madison, Wisconsin. I haven't heard from them yet, so I don't want to say too much, but I think it went pretty well! If anything it was good experience. And free food.

Also this year I got to go home for Thanksgiving! We traveled to Chicago for the actual day of thanks, and I saw a lot of extended family I haven't seen in a while. Here's my awesome cousin Jonathan. I'll add more pictures once Aunt Christine uploads them :)

Other things:

• Per usual, I've seen a lot of movies lately. In order of preference, I've seen Wreck-It Ralph, Lincoln, Pitch Perfect, Argo, and Perks of Being a Wallflower.
• Who wants to see Life of Pi, Skyfall, or Silver Linings Playbook with me? Also taking applications for someone to snarkily tag-team it with me to Breaking Dawn Part II. 
• The Vampire Diaries has been so good this season, you guys. 
• February 7 is the new October 19. 
• Cyber Monday: just purchased Gilmore Girls: The Complete Series for $85. Totally worth it.
• Yes, the title of this post is based off a Ke$ha song. A pretty good one too. 
• Songs I've been obsessed with:
• Kill Your Heroes by AWOLNATION
  
• Stubborn Love by The Lumineers
 
•  Pretty much the entirety of Mumford and Sons new album, Babel
• Killers concert on Friday. I've only been waiting six years for this. 
• Oh yeah, this thing called the national election happened. Billions of dollars spent and nothing really changed. Still not saying who I voted for. 
• Books I'm currently reading and loving:
• Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? And Other Concerns by Mindy Kaling. Girl is seriously my soul sister. She gets me.
• Son by Lois Lowry. Final book in The Giver series, and probably the best one after The Giver.
• The Diviners by Libba Bray

I probably won't post again until Christmas break. But just know that I will be going crazy with finals and with Christmas decorating and cheer. If you come over to my apartment and catch me hanging stockings and jamming to the Justin Beiber Christmas album, you are not allowed to judge me.

xoxo,

chelsaat 

"There is no sunset so beautiful that it is worth waking me up for."  - Mindy Kaling