Reunion with an Old Friend

Oh hello Tanlines... so nice to see you again. We're going to really be friends this summer.

Jiggety Jig

(Just a reference to the old nursery rhyme, "To Market to Market to buy a fat pig, home again home again...)
Well, I am now again thoroughly enjoying the weather and diversity of people that Southern California offers. I spent about a week in Utah, which was (for the most part) enjoyable. I got to visit many of my friends in Provo, and to those who I didn't, sorry. I didn't have a ton of time down there, about 3 days, and most of that was spent at Alyse and Tommy's place. While I was there, Brandon and I went with Alyse and Tommy to the BYU men's volleyball game, which was pretty fun. I think I had more fun watching Cosmo than the game, but volleyball's fun to watch. They won in 3 straight matches. Since Tommy hated the picture we took, I won't put it up.
While we were waiting for the newlyweds to meet us, Brandon and I noticed something unusual for us outside... Warmth. It was perfect weather, about 65 degrees, and sunny enough that I was wearing my sunglasses from China (which do NOT make me look like a fly)

I only touched him by accident.
I can't find my camera right now, but I spent some time at Jared and Amy's house with their little kids in Holladay. And they are such a cute family. I got to talk to Heath (yes, the 3 month old) and Tate and I watched Cinderella... just some fun times like that. Unfortunately, I got sick Thursday morning, a few hours before I had to leave. And by sick, I mean I-don't-understand-how-people-with-morning-sickness-deal-with-this sick. Let's just say I didn't eat until dinner time. And one dose of Pepto-Bismol stayed down, but not the other. 2 hour flight home? Yeah, that seemed like 10 hours. I asked to trade seats with the guy in the aisle seat, because I was in the middle of the back row (closest to the bathroom), and you know what he said? "No, my shoulders are too big." Umm, you're not Hulk Hogan! His shoulders could have fit, so I just warned him to not sleep because I would have to get up very quickly if I felt sick. He was warned... But I didnt feel sick on the flight.
Needless to say, I am very relieved to get back here and start some homemade sun therapy sessions.

Finals Week/Packing Up, Moving Out

Easter was the good part of my week. The rest of the week was just torture. Not much to talk about... I did pretty well on my finals, except my science final. I totally bombed that... and it was bad. Not that I'm proud of that, because it basically means i bombed the class and I don't like that feeling. Especially since I studied a lot for that test and I don't want to fail. But I did well on my math final, which I'm pretty sure guaranteed me an A in the class. We'll have to see about the other classes.
So my mom kept telling me, "Don't worry about moving and packing up until after your finals are done". Umm, sorry to tell you but this time you were wrong. I decided to not worry about it (besides filling up 4 storage bins with clothes and moving them into my storage unit) until after my finals were over, and that night was terrible. We had decided to go down to Provo at noon on Friday, and I started cleaning up my room for reals at midnight Thursday night/Friday morning. Big mistake. I'm not going to say what time I went to bed or got up, but I will say that I got 2 1/2 hours of sleep, because of how much work I needed to do. I also couldn't even sleep in my bed, due to the enormous amounts of clothes/papers/miscellaneous junk all over it. I was also in charge of the bathroom, so I spent a few hours doing that. Yep, HOURS. Cleaning a 5X5 room.
So after getting not enough sleep, i found I had enough adrenaline to keep me going. However, that wasn't enough, unfortunately. I began moving more boxes into storage, using Brandon's car (and spare key that I had commandeered), while continuing to clean up. When Tami, our manager, came around at 11:30, I asked her to check the bathroom but not my room, since the bathroom was the only part that was done. Of course, she didn't. So at about 12:30 (an hour later than anticipated), i was finally ready to get myself checked off and moved out. Brandon's Jeep was filled to capacity with my stuff, most of it to go into storage. I called Tami, and asked her if she would come by to check my responsibilities. She asked if she could get a bite to eat first, or if I was in a rush. I told her we were in a rush, so it would be great if she could come now. Then we waited... and waited... and waited. About a half hour after she told me she would be "right over", i called her again- to no answer. I waited about 10 minutes, and called a third time. No answer. At this point I was fit to be tied, and told Brandon we were leaving anyway, even though that meant that would forfeit my deposit. I would have paid that money back to you guys, parents. I was just furious that she would be so rude to not come by. When she did, she found the most ridiculous things for me to do, that were not included in the job listing for the bathroom. Such as clean under the faucet handles with a knife. I nodded and smiled, but knew she was just doing it to get back at me for whatever heinous sin I had committed against humanity. The other person who had cleaned the other side of the bathroom was not told to do any of that. So as soon as she left, so did I. At this point it was 1:30, and I was feeling like the world's biggest jerk. We were 2 hours behind schedule, and I'm pretty sure I had ruined some plans for the day. However, the drive (after filling my 5X10 storage space with clothes) was good. Brandon and I sang songs like "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy", "Every time I hear Your Name", "Fearless", and other very tough and manly country songs. The week in Utah was awesome (stay tuned), and when I report about it I will be in sunny and wonderful California!

Easter Sunday

This is a week late, but it's fine... I was busy.
So I know pride is a sin... but I'm very proud of myself for this.
For Easter I decided to have a little bit of fun and play the role of the Easter bunny... I have never done that before. My target? Obviously Brandon. Part one was the scavenger hunt... which was actually a test in disguise. It had some majorly subtle clues in the eggs, just to see how well he knew me. They were also stationed throughout the house, which might have made it more obvious. But Brandon passed the test, and showed up to my apartment (as per the last clue), and found his basket:

And his breakfast:

I swear, the little black things on the right are sausages, not cockroaches.
I tried to be cute and make smiley face chocolate chip pancakes, but it kind of turned out like Arlington Steward from "the Box"... can you see the similarity?

The biggest similarity is the chunk missing out of the right side of their faces
So that was exciting, and Brandon loved it, even the disfigured pancake face. We then watched conference (none of my roommates were there to watch it, so I just guess we were the most righteous), and decided our day wasn't over yet. It was pretty nice weather outside, so we decided to do something outside. There are plenty of outdoors activities to do in Rexburg, but since neither of us wanted to change out of our sweats it largely limited the possibilities. We decided to go to the duck pond, and as Brandon is obsessed with animals he loved it.

The highlight was that massive goose in the front, who got so close he stepped on my feet.

Positive!!

So I need to be more positive on my blog... my apologies to those who read my last post and thought I hated the world. I don't, really. I was merely getting out a little bit of frustration.
There really is a whole lot of things to be thankful for. I have shelter from the wind that tears through Rexburg with a vengeance. The weather's been warming up nicely, despite the snowfall on Monday. So warm it's actually raining right now. My friends are wonderful, and keep me sane. I have parents that support me more than most other students have. I have so many wonderful examples in my family of how I want to be. In two weeks, I get to go back to the best place in the world. I am packing my long sleeved shirts and warm weather clothes for the next 5 months, and each bin filled makes me happier. I am healthy, and happier than I have been for a long time. I have no idea why, just enjoying the ride!

It's that point in the semester

Just a quick post... ahhhhhh I'm so ready to go home. Not all aspects of college are bad/annoying/crazy right now... just most of it. Someone said it best in their talk yesterday... "you know when there are those things your roommates do, when at the beginning of the semester you thought were funny, and now just drive you nuts?" haha ummm yep. I wouldn't say everything my roommates do are annoying, because I love some of my roommates. Just when they steal my bread/soda/napkins. And talk on the phone (or yell at each other) in the bathroom at 8 in the morning when i'm trying to squeeze every second out of the precious sleep i get. I love that this is how every semester goes... I leave wondering why I ever wanted to leave such beautiful weather in California, spend most of the semester loving it up here and not thinking twice of going home, but by the end I am so fed up with the petty drama that comes with living with girls that I can't get home fast enough. All I'm going to say (as I don't know how many people actually follow the link on my Facebook page to my blog) is that I'm glad to be moving out. It will be good for a change. I know that living with people will show you their worst side. I just had no idea how bad it really was. It's pretty bad, so I just gotta keep myself as detached from the drama as possible. As it is right now, the madness is inspiring me to stay in the library, which is good for my grades. As far as I know, I'm doing pretty well in most of my classes. I have no idea how I'm doing in my science class, because he never tells us. Soooo.... We'll find out I guess!
On a more petty note, I have a few cute pictures from yesterday... Gabrielle did my hair for church and people liked it, so we got a few pictures. Here's me and Rachel:

And of course they had to get me and Brandon (I'm doing that to show off my new shoes that I swear I didn't buy on a whim... Brandon picked them out for me)

My head looks so much bigger than his... I blame my genes.

Traditional Party

Tonight we went to another party... Sorry that's all I blog about... I just don't have anything else to report. It was ok, Rexburg is not known for their partying skills. They had "Monster Pong", where you have cups with a little bit of Monster in them, and you try and bounce a Ping-Pong ball into them. If you do, the other team has to drink it. Rachel and I were "Team Tami", because we love our manager Tami and all. We almost beat the other team, but they threw the ball in the last cup just before we did. I haven't had an energy drink in a LONG time, so it's good it was only a tiny bit of drink in there:

I know it kind of violates the "avoid the appearance of evil" rule, but something that's thrown by Rexburg Housing has to be Honor Code approved... I think.
There was also a dance, which was fun. What really caught my attention was the mechanical bull. Now, I've ridden one before,  so here, just compare the two faces I made last year and this year:

Last year ^

This year^ (Note: My shirt is NOT that low, my skin is just that white that the flash washed it all together...)
Total bliss, right? Thanks Brandon, for catching that awesome moment on film.
So the dance was ok, I just hate it when kids act like "Oh my gosh, my parents are not here to monitor me!" and just go crazy. Fortunately, I was with Brandon who has more self control than that.

That's it, the end. You know I put this post up simply for the sake of putting pictures up... especially this last one.

I can't wait to Move out...

We got in major trouble for clean checks last night... BIG trouble. Lauren didn't take the trash out... so we got charge $10 each. And we got charged $25 for having pet fish. Seriously?! Look at them! what did they ever do to Tami?

(The fish in the middle, Tigger, died 2 weeks ago)

I mean, come ON, Tami. I'd like to tell her where she can put the clean check form.... In the trash can, obviously. So now I'm going to clean the kitchen and my room in between my classes that I actually have. And not pay $25 for the fish... They're going to Brandon's place. So i'm sitting here while Meg is leaving a mess on the counters... I'm going to tell Tami that it was clean when I cleaned it up, because i JUST did it. And left a threatening note on the door. Some people.
I'm quite enraged by this.

Stupid Radio

I was just listening to this song on the radio that goes "Whataya want from me?" It was really good, albeit really cliche pop style. Turns out... it's by Adam Lambert. Eeeewwwwww. I don't think I can be considered to have good taste in music anymore.
On the plus side, I found this little boutique today, and got this shirt for $9:

I feel confident in my purchase... It's cheap and everything. I'm not going to blow off all my money in this store... but it's so tempting.

Hotel, Motel, Holiday Inn

Last night Rexburg Housing threw a party at the Marriott (I didn't even know we had one in Rexburg). It started at 8, so at about 9 Brandon, Rachel and I strolled in. You know the saying, the party don't start til I walk in. I was relieved to see that this held true in Mormon dances, but was quickly disappointed by the fact that the party did NOT pick up as soon as I entered. Of course, this description is all for the sake of being facetious (which IS my word, and not Meg and Liz's), but it's pathetically accurate. There were about 25 kids on the dance floor, and 24 of them were in high school. The other one was a 27 year old I knew. I knew this party was going to be hopping when a scene kid pulled out rave toys and started playing with them. We attempted a few pathetic times to dance, but I never felt comfortable with it. Fortunately, Rachel is comfortable dancing all the time, she kind of reminds me of Pica. So I kept trying... I'm just not comfortable dancing when i'm with boys. Then our FHE sisters showed up. Since 3 of them are RM's, I wasn't quite sure how they felt about dancing at a party. They did NOT disappoint... it was awesome! Right about the time "Don't Trust Me" came on, I was feeling pretty good about this party. I was screaming the words the whole time, but my voice was gone, so it made for a good time.
The music quickly picked up in quality, and I ended up actually having fun with my FHE sisters, despite the fact that the hot RM sisters were getting violated by little kids the whole time. It was pretty funny, actually. Too bad it took more than half the semester to realize how much fun they really were. Now it's 130 AM and I need to finish my Sunday School lesson... in the morning. Thank goodness for 1230 PM church, I'll just get up early and finish it.