A Gilmore Girls Wannabe

As most college students know, the perfect study spot is hard to find. Its a delicate blend of studying atmosphere and comfortability. Inspired by the Gilmore Girls episode reruns I watched over the summer, (remember this one? Where Rory finds her perfect study spot at Yale only to have it taken away from her by another student?) I decided to find my own spot.

I wandered from the dead-silent catacombs of the periodicals section to the no-shh zone in the library. The periodicals were too quiet and I kept running into friends in the no-shh zone--not quite the studying atmosphere I wanted. I studied at the the Wilkinson Student Center for a little bit; it had the perfect white noise background but was so busy most days I couldn't find a table. I tried the Creamery on 9th; it had the same atmosphere as the Wilk but all I ended up doing was buying fries and ice cream rather than studying. I finally found the perfect spot on the outdoor patio on the 4th floor of the Joseph F Smith Building; the foot traffic below created a good background noise while studying in the natural light. I was invisible from the world--I could see them but they couldn't see me. 

Life is a Highway

 Every college student needs to go on at least one college road trip, and I found out that was going to be a solar eclipse in May which was visible in St. George, we decided to road-trip the four hours south. I gathered up three other friends (C, J, and P) and headed on our grand weekend adventure.

The morning after arriving at my grandparent's house in St. George, we decided we were going to hike Angels Landing the next morning.

Photos courtesy of J

The next Saturday we drove off to Kanarraville--the eclipse's small-town sweet spot an hour outside of St George. It's the middle of nowhere with population of 311 people, although on this particular afternoon the town's population exploded to 100 times larger than normal. 

Photo credit to P

News

I have some news for you all! My family is moving from our sleepy little Massachusetts town to.....Australia! Tada!

My Dad's been chosen to head the Australia branch of the company he works for. It'll be a four year job, so we'll be selling our house and moving all of our things. My family will be living in Canberra, the capitol of Australia and three hours south of Sydney.

My dad is heading out to Australia in early June and the rest of my family will follow in September. I'll finally join them in December for my Winter break from college. Good thing: Winter here is summer there. Soo...I'm going to be one of those obnoxious people who leave for winter break and come back as middle-of-summer-tan. Second good thing: Penguins. Penguins live on the southern coast of Australia. And not only are they penguins, they're itty bitty fairy penguins. Third good thing: I've always loved that part of the world. Vacations in Tonga, Fiji, the Philippians... Fourth good thing: My friend from home is serving his mission in Australia. My family won't be in his mission, but at least they'll be on the same continent :)

So there's my news! Big change ahead, but I'm excited to see how it all plays out :)

Book of the Day

Recently in Relief Society someone brought up a book which I hadn't heard of before. I liked the excerpt read, so I decided to check it out.

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

This is a compilation of lessons from a man dying of pancreatic cancer written for his young children to read. All the lessons he would have taught his kids if he was given the time are written down in these 224 pages.

You just have to decide if you're going to be a Tigger or an Eeyore. 

Find the best in everybody. Just keep waiting no matter how long it takes. No one is all evil. Everybody has a good side, just keep waiting, it will come out

To Beat the Bad Day Blues

Last Saturday most of the girls in our apartment had a bad day for one reason or another, but we decided instead of moping and crying over a chick flick (our typical recovery method), we'd try the opposite--a slumber party.

One of my roommates had never had a sleepover before. So we pulled out all the stops. Music? Check. Forts? Check. Nail polish? Check.

We dragged all of our mattresses into the kitchen and created a bouncy floor:

covered the lights with colored sheets:

and had a 90s music dance party.

It was the ultimate way to recover.

Biology Class

Today in Biology class we played with termites and hypothesize what they'd do with a circle, indentation, etc on a piece of paper. I managed to dump the termites from the vial onto the paper, corral the termites on the paper, and wrangle them onto the petri dish from the paper, all without mishap. But then...as I handed off the petri dish full of termites to my lab partner I dropped it. The termites went flying. All Over Us.

Of course the lab was first thing we did in class, so we went through an entire 45 minutes of class post-termite-dousing. All through the rest of class we couldn't keep still--with the slightest itch or twitch I was panic-ridden. It's an hour later and I'm still paranoid that I have termites on me. I just Googled it and apparently termites can bite human flesh....although the up side is that they can't transfer diseases and germs to humans! The bite won't swell or be sensitive. So, no worries, I'm safe. Covered in termites, but safe.

Funny Story

Once upon a time, there girl who was almost done with her first semester at college. Let's call her Lauren. One morning, she accidentally hit the snooze button one time too many and was running about ten minutes behind. She jumped out of bed and on her bike to head off to her 8:00 Arabic class (yes, she was a silly freshman and decided to take Arabic her first semester of her first year in college. And decided it would be a good idea to take this at 8 in the morning). She, being the really smart girl that she is, decided to jump the curb. However, in her early morning rush she had forgotten that the paved road leading onto campus was not so paved anymore because of the silly construction.

She didn't realize that after the pavement jump was a gravel pit. And She. Fell. Off. Her. Bike. She, the eighteen year old college student who has been riding a bike for 75% of her life, fell off her bike. Not only was it not a gentle little topple, but no. It was a faceplant. In front of 20 other college kids running off to class as well as 10 construction workers. No one stopped to help, no one seemed worried that she was gushing  blood out of her knee and hand. Nope! The students walking by decidedly didn't look in her direction and the construction workers were blatently looking and laughing at the poor college student who couldn't figure out how to ride a bike.

This girl was running late so she couldn't go home and change out of her blood-stained jeans or wash off her hands. So she came running into class 10 minutes late with blood on her hands and construction dust all over her jacket and had to explain to an entire class of upperclassmen about how she couldn't ride a bike. And not only did she have to explain this embarrassing moment, but she had to explain it in Arabic. And she mixed up the words for bike and car. So she ended up telling the class that she fell out of her car and cut herself. Which is even more pathetic than falling off a bike.

The End.

BYU Quidditch

A friend from Late Summer Honors started the first BYU Quidditch team! While the first practice was a couple Saturdays ago, I wasn't able to make it, so my first practice was last Saturday.

There are the same positions as the original Quidditch--Snitch, Seeker, Chaser, Beater, and Keeper. However, since we Muggles can't fly, all participants play with a broom between your legs. You waddle up and down the field as you catch, throw, and attack one-handed.

This was a pre-broom practice

The Snitch is a really fast runner with a tennis ball in a yellow sock tucked into the waistband of their shorts. Seekers chase after the Snitch and try to grab the tennis ball from the snitch's pants. The trick is that the snitch has no rules (the Snitch's use of water balloons may or may not have happened). Once the Snitch is caught, the game is over, and the team with the snitch gets an extra 60 points.

Keepers are the goalies and try to keep the Quaffle (a very deflated volleyball) from getting in the hoops. While Chasers try to throw the Quaffle through the hoops (shown in the picture above). Each time the Quaffle goes through, they get 10 points. The Beaters attack the Chasers with Bludgers (deflated dodgeballs), trying to prevent them from scoring. The only rule for Beaters is that you can't grab at their face. 

Family Pictures

In case I haven't mentioned this....my Family Home Evening group is very close. So close, in fact, one day we were joking around about how we should take a family Christmas picture and send it out...and we actually did it. Color coordinating and everything. I kid you not.

I'm going to miss this when Patrick, Trevor, and Andrew leave on their missions next semester. I'm worried what our family will be like with the new guys. We have Michael and Kevin moving into two of the beds, which will be fun, but we don't know who'll be moving into the third. The whole feeling of the group will change, and I'm not sure if it'll be for the better or worse. Michael and Kevin are already at our dorms all the time and we know them extremely well, but it will still change everything. They aren't Patrick or Trevor or Andrew. No one can really replace them. Patrick's calming presence, Andrew's goofiness, or Trevor's jokes. I'm going to miss them.

Off to a Grand Ol' Start

My first day of college started off with my 8:00 Arabic class. I arrived at my class in the SWKT only to find a sign indicating it was moved to the JSB...only to realize the sign actually said it was in the JKB on the other side of campus. So I was 15 minutes late. From then I headed off to Book of Mormon class only to realize that it was the Book of Mormon class specifically designated for Return Missionaries.

As I was walking back to my dorm, I ran into D and invited him over for lunch. I didn't have very much food, but I decided to make some instant rice. Feeling all cool, I threw everything together in a bowl and tossed it into the microwave. As I was trying to flirt,f there was loud bang. Not a darn-it-something-fell-in-the-back-room kind of bang, but an oh-$%&!-someone-threw-a-grenade-into-my-apartment kind of bang.

We shrieked (okay, I shrieked) and ran over to the microwave only to find that apparently not all glass bowls are microwave safe. I was so mortified. We cleaned it up and vacuumed the kitchen floor, picking up all the shards of glass. D and I decided that it would be safer to eat at the Cannon Center rather than have me try my hand at cooking again.

Lesson learned: Double-check the details

Can't Measure, Will Fail

On the Sunday before classes start and the day after moving in, M and I decided that we should host a pancake breakfast on Sunday for some of our new-found friends. We invited everyone over and started making the pancakes only to realize that while we had all of the ingredients, we didn't have any measuring cups. Or anything to grease the pan. Or paper towels. Or enough cups and plates for everyone. So, we ate out of frying pans.



Because we didn't have measuring cups or anything to grease the pan, the pancakes ended up burnt with a strange consistency.

It's the thought that counts, right??