Sleep deprivation.

Egad! What a week.

Monday's FHE was funner than usual. Friendship Dinners tend to drive me to the brink of madness, but I had a lovely chat with a friend about Ebonics, so that was awesome.

Afterward I had a long conversation with John the Animal about movies and such. I also decided that the Animal must be a title and added a Sir in front of his name. Though if you are going to say it, you have to say the entire thing. An accent is encouraged.

The rest of the week was hectic. I had two papers due, one on Thursday and one on Friday.

Wednesday night, I finally started working on my English paper around 10 PM, finishing around 4 AM. Hello, four hours of sleep. I don't regret it, though. The daylight hours of Wednesday weren't wasted (mostly).

Thursday, I was super energetic all day. It was weird. Although that energy was laced with a few bouts of extreme emotion. That night I had to do a bunch of geology homework and try to start my history paper. I got some of the geology done, but it was an even stranger day in that I felt like I couldn't be alone, so I was trying to do homework while being in a room with a huge group of my friends, who were playing psychologist. Thursday night I got to bed around 2 AM. Enter five hours of sleep.

Friday morning I was kind of exhausted. However, I managed to rock my last geology lab and a Spanish oral exam. I did have to fight to stay awake during a movie in history. I managed to finish my geology homework by 2-ish, at which point I started on my history paper. The one due at midnight. Finished around 5. That kind of worries me in the quality department, but I didn't have anything more to say. At that point I probably should've crashed, but lately I've sort of been feeling like defying logic and after finishing the paper I had a resurgence of energy. Instead I ate my dinner, blew soap bubbles while watching the sun set, then went and chilled by the giant bunnies on Mill with a friend. Mill is an interesting place on a Friday night. There was a guy who was basically apologizing for existing, and then he started talking like he was answering a phone, but I don't think he was on a phone...Then of course there were all of the people offering coupons for free drinks or asking for change. Mill, I love you. I wouldn't want to walk down you alone after dark, but I love you.

I got home around 10:30, but played on the internet until...um...? 12? 1? I'm going to go with 12. Then I got up at 5, my dad picked me up at 6. Chiliquilis for breakfast, went back to bed until 1. In my brand new bed! My room at my dad's was distinctly lacking in the furniture department, but that problem has been rectified. I even have some sweet new sheets. And a plethora of hangers! Did laundry all day.

Listening to: School of Rock
Reading: Justine by Lawrence Durrell

Socializing.

Thursday:
1. Dinner
2. Rooney concert (lead singer = Michael from The Princess Diaries)
3. Tim Tam Slams
4. Hanging with Cassidi

Friday:
1. Dinner
2. The 39 Steps at Gammage
3. Foosball/Pool
4. John the Animal
5. Mill Avenue
6. Cookiez on Mill
7. Three giant bunnies (statues)
8. "If you throw a debit card in the fountain, all of your wildest dreams will come true."
9. Me retrieving friends' debit cards from the fountain
10. "Question: which bear is best?"
11. Boys playing with their hair
12. Rearranging the couches in the lounge

Note: not every silence is awkward.

Listening to: Dorm Life
Reading: Justine by Lawrence Durrell

Dorm life.

Friday was quite the day. I got up and headed out around 5:30 AM to go running. Then, at 7:30, I had a geology lab that involved climbing part way up a butte. When the TA dismissed us, he said we could either follow him back down the way we had come and ask questions, or we could go up and over. Silly me, I chose the latter. Me and three other poor fools. Because of the way the vegetation grew, the clearest paths up the butte are baby ravines filled with loose, fist-sized chunks of rock. And it was a mite taller than I imagined. When I finally crested the top, my lungs hurt, my legs hurt, and I was thirsty something fierce. The only things that kept me from going back down were that I knew going down those steep rivers of loose rock would be harder and I'd already gone so far that I might as well keep going. Like the blonde joke about the blonde who swam halfway, got tired, and turned around. That was not going to be me. So I made it to the top. My lab partner was also one of the ones who decided to go over. I think he's part mountain goat or something, because he reached the top a good ten minutes before I did. Though maybe not, because he threw up and I didn't. Then of course, we took the wrong fork going down (the other side had real paths) and we had to pick our way down another ravine as the actual path down was a in the other direction.

We made it, and I was rather happy that the rest of my classes required little thinking that day. A few people did cultural presentations in Spanish and history was a lecture like usual.

I came home, ate lunch, and took a short nap before diving into yet more geology. I had to read two chapter and take online quizzes over them before 11 PM. I finished the first chapter before dinner (taking time out to shower and get all of the mountain off).

Dinner was Roomie, the Cynic, and I.

Afterwards, I hurried through the other chapter and quiz (and got stellar scores, by the by), so we could all watch a movie. They invited a bunch of other people to our small soiree, but only three were not busy and in town. We watched Disturbia, which I am not at all fond of, but it was kind of funny how often Roomie freaked out and started screaming. At one point she even left the room for a minute, but to no avail. The Cynic paused it until she came back in. Devious creature. Her timing was impeccable. She literally walked out only a few minutes before the climax.

After the movie, we spilled outside. We were initially in quest of ice cream, but we got sidetracked when some of our company wanted to be shown where the aquatic center was so they could find it to watch a water polo game on Saturday. That turned into us walking to Mill Avenue, the local street of stores and awesomeness. I think the Cynic was antsy or something, because he was the mastermind behind all of the traveling we did.

I'd never been to Mill at that time of night. There were buskers and street artists galore playing all sorts of funky stuff. It was awesome. We came back down University and went to the only place still open on campus at midnight. It wants to be a '50s diner, but it fails miserably. We got shakes and sundaes. The service was kind of mediocre. I suppose I can't really blame them. There was a surprising amount of people in there. So we hung out there with our various ice cream concoctions just chatting for a while.

Eventually the group dispersed as people realized when they had to get up in the morning for their various activities.

Saturday was a laundry day. Also, Dorm Life. Great webshow. I finished watching it on Saturday night. Started Friday afternoon. Yeah, I found it that awesome.

Saturday was also an interesting day for elevators. When I left in the morning, there was a couch in the elevator. Unfortunately, it was facing the back and I had a laundry basket, so I couldn't manuever well enough to sit on it. Later in the day, I got a text from Roomie telling me she was stuck on one! She called the Cynic who alerted the front desk who alerted the authorities and both the police and fire department came with their lights on and sirens blaring. (I heard about all of this second hand). The elevator had gone down only half a floor and stopped. They had to pry it open and Roomie had to climb out. She's pretty sure they broke the door getting it open. Its groundfloor door now has an "Out of Order" sign on it.

Quite the weekend.

Listening to: "One Tin Soldier"
Reading: The Definitive Wit of Winston Churchill

Crispy.

What with a history paper and all, I haven't felt like I could justify taking out the time to write. For better or for worse, that was turned in last night, so for tonight I feel relaxed. I'm sure that will change tomorrow when I realize that I haven't read in my geology book and I have online work over two chapters due.

I read Oedipus Rex today. That was weird and all sorts of messed up. There are times when it's okay to be wilfully ignorant, but that is most definitely not one of them. Yeah, I'm talking to you Jocasta.

Today was Driver's birthday, so Roomie and I got him a giant, sheet-cake sized rice crispy treat. She put vanilla frosting on it and spelled out "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" in M&Ms. I stuck 19 candles into the cruncy goodness. (Sorry this is such a dry retelling. I'm kind of burnt out on writing at the moment.) Again, we had to go outside to light the candles, but it was even windier than the last time with the flaming muffin, so we were only able to get four or five to stay lit long enough for us to sing. We each cut off what we wanted, mostly in weird shapes and places, and hung out munching on rice crispy treat for a while.

We followed that up with a couple episodes of The Office.

Listening to: "I'm So Excited"
Reading: The Definitive Wit of Winston Churchill

Funky.

I reinstalled iTunes on my laptop. Just saying. That's not really big news. It's just something that happened this weekend.

I stayed up until midnight making a Spanish presentation. I don't think I did a very good job presenting it. I am not expecting high marks.

FHE was awesome. We went to the visitors' center and watched the Joseph Smith movie. Still, I've been in a mood all night, what a friend of mine would call "a funk."

My roommate is amazing.

And apparently Roomie and The Cynic are in some sort of (fake) power struggle over who's in charge of our little group. I feel like the Rhineland.

Listening to: "Lyin' Eyes" by the Eagles
Reading: Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

Chillin'.

One of Roomie &. Co.'s friends from high school was in town this weekend for a concert. He was one odd duck, but vastly entertaining.

The morning was spent in cleaning and the afternoon in hanging out with said friend and The Driver. There was a jam session, In-n-Out Burger, and the airing up of Roomie's bike tires and the fixing of her bell.

An uneventful day, but fun.

Listening to: "Africa" by Toto
Reading: Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

Time-wasters.

Today Roomie and I took the bus over to a nearby collection of huge franchise stores with the intent of going to Target. Mission successful. Our goal? TimTams. Or, as the packaging says, Australia's Favorite Cookie!. The exclamation point is the packaging's, not mine. They were on sale for $2 a package.

We came home and killed the time until dinner by watching Alex Reads Twilight, a hilarious sequence of YouTube videos in which a snarky Brit (friend and soon-to-be roommate of Charlie McDonnell) goes through Twilight chapter by chapter and shares his thoughts, sometimes to hilarious results (at least for us viewing).

Then dinner. Through which Roomie and I used British accents. Well, I didn't last the entire time. She lasted through most of it.

Then an episode of The Office.

And then, the big moment. TimTam slams! I felt certain I had explained them in a previous post, and I was going to link to it, but I can't find it, so I suppose I'll just explain again. TimTams are a type of chocolate cookie. To do a TimTam slam, bite off a little from both ends, put an end in your mouth, then dip it in hot chocolate and sip the tastiness up through the cookie. Hands are not recommended, as the hot chocolate melts the cookie. Instead, slurp quickly then throw your head back to drop the cookie into your mouth. Basically. I was so sure I'd posted about this before...

Anyway. I feel bad for The Cynic. Either he was having a bad night in the first place, or we were hardcore driving him crazy with our energy.

I don't know what it is, maybe the spring segueing into summer, but I was hyper all weekend and Roomie was hyper all day today, until she ran out of energy halfway through The Office.

I think I would've enjoyed the evening more if The Cynic wasn't so cynical. Downer! But still, tons of fun.

I don't know whether you'll think this is as awesome as I do.

Listening to: "Africa" by Toto
Reading: Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

Pageantry.

Where to begin.

Somehow, miraculously, I finished my online geology work before 10:30 PM on Friday. In fact, I finished it before 3. Which was great, because my friends and I had plans for the evening and I would've guilt-tripped myself if my homework hadn't been turned in, thereby earning me zeros. I actually scored quite high on the little assignments. I even had enough time to finish the extra credit. My geology is now staring balefully at me now, though, since I have a test on Monday and have yet to study. Today was spent in better pursuits. Namely, Conference, laundry, and napping. Wow, guess I don't have to tell you about my Saturday now. Not that I was. Wow, sidetracked much?

Back to Friday!

Roomie's sister arrived around 3:30. We showed her what Rick-Rolling and Communist-Rolling were (YouTube them), and then they spent the next hour watching an episode of Psych. I spent the next hour writing down cool quotes I found in my linguistics book on notecards in colorful Sharpie and taping them to my walls. Inspiration, entertainment, an instant smile. It's all there on my wall in bright marker between faint blue lines.

Around five we headed down to meet the rest of our party for dinner at our glorious dining hall. And by glorious I mean it's a buffet that serves variations of the same five dishes daily. Dinner was a jolly affair. To make my story easier I shall introduce the company now:

1. Roomie. My roommate and partner in crime.

2. Roomie's Sister, hereafter referred to as Cake. Expert in the art of coolness.

3. 19-Year-Old Male #1, hereafter referred to as The Cynic. Master of the Mac and owner of a Dwight Shrute bobblehead.

4. 19-Year-Old Male #2, hereafter referred to as Driver. He who paid the ridiculous price to park on campus and therefore was the automatic chauffeur.

5. 19-Year-Old Male #3, hereafter referred to simply as #3, as I can think of no suitable psuedonym. He shall make only a brief appearance. Know only that he speaks too much of ballroom dance and that which he seems to know but little about.

6. Rebekah, hereafter referred to by all first-person pronouns unless otherwise indicated.

Cake left us a little before six to hang out with a friend who lives nearby. Shortly thereafter we gathered up blankets and trekked out to Driver's truck. I got my first real, useful opportunity to use Google Maps on my phone. Mesa recently started an event called Bikes on Main, which is pretty much what it sounds like and takes place the first Friday of every month. The central part of Main St. is closed off for motorcyclists during this time, so I knew we couldn't just drive down Main to get to the temple. Oh, I don't think I mentioned yet where we were going. Silly me. The entire to-do was about going to the Easter pageant at the temple. Some of my companions' friends were going to come down from their hometown to see it, but they cancelled last minute.

We took a highway route, but it turned out that even our forethought was foiled as Bikes on Main was yet still farther west than where we exited. I guess it's all fair, though, since my dad rode to it and he told me that Main was closed in the opposite direction for pageant traffic. We all just started off on the wrong sides of the Valley, didn't we? Anyway, after much turning in circles we found a parking spot and hiked over to the temple grounds.

They had a huge stage set up for the pageant, and behind the audience they had the poshest port-a-potties I've ever seen. At first I thought they were some sort of manager's trailer or some such.

We ended up sitting way in the back, so during the pageant we kept having to lean back and forth to see around a palm tree.

We got there around 7, but the pageant didn't start until 8. We were saving seats for Cake and her friend, so the way were split up I spent the hour just chatting with Roomie and The Cynic. I didn't mind a bit. Of all of the company present, they are the two I most enjoy conversing with. I have no idea what Driver and #3 did during the interrim.

The pageant wasn't really what I expected. I though it would be just the Easter story, covering the last week or so of Christ's life. Instead it started with the Creation and Adam and Eve, touched on the prophecies of Isaiah, then jumped to Christ's birth and went through some of the highlights of his life. All in an hour. It was pretty awesome, though. I even teared up a bit now and then. The cast was huge! The dialogue was prerecorded, but I totally understand the logic so I didn't mind. It took me a little while, though, to figure out why the narrator sounded exactly like the narrator in most Church films. My favorite part was probably the angels. They had a big balcony above the stage and set back and huge numbers of angels would appear up there blowing trumpets or rejoicing. They would shine the lights on them and the white of their robes would almost glow. I loved it!

Cake & Co. arrived fashionable late, but not too late.

After the pageant was over, we power walked out, trying to get out before traffic got bad. However, it was not to be. We had parked in a dirt lot by a wall, and someone who came in later had backed straight up to the wall, blocking us in along with three or four other cars. Of course, we were in the worst position for trying to wiggle out. Meaning, there was no way. It was like a blue minivan convention. The car blocking us in was one and there was one in front of us. Then we were flanked on one side by a silver minivan and on the other by the wall. We hopped into the bed of the truck and hung out some more until enough of the cars around us had left that we could find a way out. Oddly, they all left around the same. We ended up pulling forward and out. When we left, that minivan that came later and mostly blocked everyone in was one of the last cars left in the lot.

It seems like the pageant and Bikes on Main ended around the same time. As we were getting on the highway a pack of 10 or 12 bikers was pulling on beside us. I love the sound of motorcycles! It was rather awesome to see all of them roaring by.

We got back to the dorm around 10. Cake & Co. met us there, as Driver, Cake, and Roomie were all heading up to their hometown for General Conference. They left as soon as they could get their stuff together, expecting to arrive home around 2 AM.

Man, that was such a fun night. I don't know what it was, but I was hyper and euphoric. It'll make a sweet memory. I'm already smiling at the thought.

Listening to: "Heaven Is a Place on Earth"
Reading: Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

Domesticity and dance parties.

I must tell the story of my Saturday. I don't know what it was, maybe something in the air, but I just felt domestic.

My first act, after breakfast at Anne's and seeing the quadding party off, was to buy laundry detergent and get a little exercise in by walking home from the store. Since I didn't have a car and I'd been dropped off by the aforementioned quadding party, it was really my only choice. But I didn't mind. In fact, I'd asked for it.

Back at Dad's house I did my darks, which is quite a huge load of laundry. I don't know how it happened, but somewhere along the way most of my wardrobe became black and navy. I can remember a time when I didn't own a single black shirt, and now I think I would have to dig to find a white one. Once the washer was done, I went outside and hung it all up to dry. I hate dryers. Sure, warm laundry fresh out of the dryer is awesome, but they're rough on the clothes. I always hang dry now. Plus, it gives my clothes that fresh air smell.

Around lunchtime I was looking through my dad's bleak, desolate pantry and I spied a box of Kraft mac and cheese. I don't know what came over me, but I got the sudden urge to cook. It was quite the ordeal, actually. I searched for ten minutes for a pan that would be the right size, and then I ended up over-cooking the noodles so they were way too soft. A little Tabasco, though, and all was well.

Dinner...not so much. The next thing I found in the pantry was a box of pancake mix. I found a cast iron skillet and went to work. Since I couldn't find a 1 cup measuring cup (it turns out my dad doesn't have one) I ended up using the little tablespoon fridge magnet and counting out sixteen of the little buggers full of pancake powder. Everything was going along just dandy, but when I went to cook them...I learned quick after the first one. As soon as I was done pouring a pancake, it was ready to be flipped, so I had to work quick. Apparently I'm not very good at flipping pancakes. The first one had to be thrown out, as it tasted too much like charcoal. I salvaged what I could of the rest. None of them were really pancake-shaped. They'd fallen apart in the flipping and transferring to plate processes. Apparently my dad doesn 't have syrup, either, so I drowned the things in strawberry jam. They weren't the best, but they weren't awful. I found out what the problem was when Dad got home (other than the questionable age of the mix). The directions said to heat the skilled on medium to high, so I set the burner right in between. Dad says I should've had it on three or four. Halfway between medium and high is seven. That explains some things.

That was Saturday. Today was Monday. Monday means FHE.

Tonight was a stake singles barbeque...thing. Which meant it was way too crowded for my tastes, but there were swings so I was happy. I didn't spend much time on them, though. I did dance around with my awesome YouTube video cohost some, but I'm not much of a dancer, so mostly the night dragged on. I still had fun. Best of all was the ride there and back. We were rocking out! The guy driving was hilarious. I didn't know it was possible to rock out that hard to Michael Buble. And I've never seen someone use their phone like a microphone. Especially not nonstop.

Tonight was a good night. I think I really strengthened some friendships, and I got to laugh myself silly. What more can a girl ask for?

The last song we listened to really made me miss Missouri, though. Oh, lightning bugs. I can't get back to you too soon.

Listening to: "Fireflies" by Owl City
Reading: Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

Chuck.

Goodbye, Fuddruckers. I have found a new love in my quest for my hamburger soulmate. It's name is The Chuckbox.

First, the ambience is killer. There was a lovely Old West theme. It's all made out of logs with flour sacks covering the ceiling and copies of famous wanted posters hanging on the walls. The seats are boxes and there are patios with tables on two side of the building.

Second and most importantly, the food. The burgers are cooked over wood coals and the buns are nicely toasted. I was rather amused by their style of ordertaking. Insteading of writing things down, they stick various toothpicks and bitsy plastic swords in the top bun as a sort of code so the griller knows what cheeses, bacon, and peppers to put on the meat. I got a 1/4 lb. burger with Swiss cheese and bacon. For my side I got deep-fried mushrooms. Everything was so delicious! It's also one of those places where you put your own condiments on, so that was awesome. Awesomely awesome on the palate, that is.

So tasty...

Listening to: Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars
Reading: Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

Airy.

Monday afternoon I went shopping with Anne and Meagan. I was going to wait to post until I had taken pictures of all of my loot, but meh. If I wait for that, it will never get done.

I was picked up around 3:45 and we went down to Mill Avenue. Meagan drove in circles for a while trying to find a free parking lot she used to use, but it turns out that someone went and built a thing of condos there, so we ended up parking at her work. Once Anne arrived, we forayed onto Mill itself. Some of the areas there make me sad because they're absolutely gorgeous and serene, but utterly deserted because no shops lease the space. The empty fountains are the most tragic. And there was what looked like an ubercool fancy restaurant with the sweetest chandeliers. It didn't even have a name over the door and it was all shut up, but the tables were still set. Hopefully it's open at night or something.

Our first stop was The Hippie Gypsy. It's an awesome place that sells things like incense and Led Zeppelin posters and Grateful Dead paraphernalia. And the grooviest clothes. I've never enjoyed clothes shopping before, but I spent a solid hour trying on stuff in there. All of their fabrics are so lightweight! I love it! And I'm rather fond of their apparent abhorrence of zippers. My favorite haul was a green dress with gauzy layers that makes me feel like a fairy princess. I won't be able to wear it for while, though. It's a halter top and because of the way the hem is cut it'll need some sort of underskirt. I'm going to hold off until I find just the right undershirt, too. I can't wear just anything with an article that awesome! I'm lucky it fit. It was the only one in the store. Oddly, it was also missing its price tag. I think the cashier just ended up making up a price for it.

For dinner we went to a little Greek restaurant around the corner. I think gyros are some of my favorite food! I want to eat them every chance I get. Also, baklava is epic.

After dinner we headed across town to a store called Rainbow to buy some extra long camisoles. Mission successful.

Then Walmart to get a belt, the only thing I'd really been looking for all night, and so Anne could go wild in the pajama section. I'm not a fan of Walmart, so I burned out on that really quick. I might've been able to stand just hanging around, but the TVs, I kid you not, were playing the same exact ad for the New Moon DVD literally every other commercial. I counted.

Though all in all an awesome night.

Listening to: "Pepper"
Reading: Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

Ashes, part 2.

PART 1

Alexander was flying, or maybe it was that the earth was rushing by beneath him as he stood perfectly still in the air above it. Soon the forests and grasslands he was familiar with were left behind as he skimmed over the distant mountains, or they skimmed under him. An undeniable force pulled him forward past any place he had ever heard of even in tales. Lakes and rivers and strange dry, barren places passed him by, but no people. There was never any sign of people, or of anything else that lived and breathed. It was only him and the strange lands scrolling by before he could really take them in.

He felt impatient and hurried, like he was trying to stop something. No, it was more like he had to stop something, but he was racing against time and space.

After what seemed both a brief moment and an eternity, his pace slowed. He was now over a wide, misty plane. The ground seemed wet and the straight, green stalks of some foreign crop spread out around him. In front of him was a red mountain, the peak gone. Smoke and fire billowed from the broken top.

Suddenly he was there above the jagged crater. He saw now that part of the mountain was hollow. In the emptied space roiled something molten and forbidding. Impossible and unbearable heat rolled over him in waves and steam coated his lungs.

A harsh laughter filled his head and threatened to consume him. He curled up, squeezing his eyes shut and pressing his hands over his ears, trying to shut it out. It seemed to be forever before it was bearable enough for him to open his eyes.

An impressive figure hovered in the air across from him. The man was tall and well-built, his body swathed in rich black fabrics. His looked like a king, or a powerful heathen god. His hair was wild and his handsome features cruelly twisted. His strange eyes were dark and danced with reflected flame.

The man laughed darkly again and thrust his hand out in front of him. Something hot and sharp slammed through Xander’s chest. His heart shuddered as he was thrown back and he sank into unconsciousness.

Listening to: "Slow Me Down" by Emmy Rossum
Reading: Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

Doble.

On Friday I turned in the form to double major. I should hear about my acceptance in a few weeks.

I was perfectly content with my one major, but I have to take a lot of a single foreign language, so I figure why not. Let's just throw in a few extra classes and get a bonus degree. Two for the price of one, right? I wish I could just take all linguistics classes with the occasional goofy elective, but alas. They don't hand out diplomas for not meeting all of their requirements. I think I made an awesome choice with my first major. I absolutely love it. Sometimes I catch myself mumbling about how words would be transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet.

But I suppose this double major will be a good thing. It will give me incentive to practice my Spanish and maybe even one day achieve bilingualism. That would be so cool!

As a sidenote, we were talking about the Great Depression today in history. It made me miss my grandma. I don't feel like I ever really got to know her as a person. Sadness.

Listening to: "It's About Time" by Barcelona
Reading: Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

Possibilites.

I'm not in a funk. I don't think. But the little cogs up in my cerebellum are definitely whirring.

I'm 19. I'm grown up. This is my life. I'm free to live it however I want, wherever I want. Once I graduate and have a job, I can take a vacation and travel...anywhere. I can take a roadtrip or backpack across Europe or go get lost in Australia. Last night I had this strange urge to see Pennsylvania. I've never really been to the East coast. I could go see the Appalachians and experience New England in the fall. Or I could go to New Orleans. Or Greece. Or Turkey.

Some little kids always dream about travelling. I did. Now that I've had a taste of it, I think I'm addicted. I can see the world. I can do what I want. I can have the fairy tale of wonder and adventure.

Why does Pennsylvania sound so appealing?

The world is so big. I can go discover it all on my own. Wow...

Listening to: Will & Grace
Reading: East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Filmography.

In celebration of the first day of spring break, I did absolutely nothing today except play online and watch movies. Since this doesn't really make for a thrilling tale, I'll instead list all of the movies I watched today:

1. The Princess Diaries
2. What a Girl Wants (about 15 minutes)
3. Star Wars, episode IV
4. Step Up (most of it)
5. Miss Congeniality (now playing)

After this, Practical Magic comes on. I love that movie, even if I have only seen it twice. One channel is doing a Sandra Bullock double feature, which I'm totally happy about. She's amazing. I didn't even see The Blind Side, but I totally concur with her deserving an Oscar.

As a sidenote, check my tumblr for some random thoughts about Star Wars. The link is to the side. I know I said I would use my tumblr for book stuff, but my webcam software has been messed up since the virus so I can't make a YouTube video about it as I would prefer.

Listening to: Miss Congeniality
Reading: East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Glowing.

I suppose I should finally get around to blogging about my week. The four tests are not at all the exciting part, though they sort of dictated my frame of mind. I kept thinking I should study...I should study...like some weird college-kid mantra, though very little studying actually took place. It kept losing out to three-hour naps and episodes of One Tree Hill. And that concert.

Forget talking about the rest of my week. CONCERT! Okay, so I'm actually not a big fan of concerts. They're too loud and I get bored really fast since there's nothing to do but listen to music, which is not multitasking enough for me. My brain either wants to do three things at once or do nothing.

Despite all of my issues with the concept, the concert I went to Thursday night was awesome. I'm so glad my friends talked me into it.

We got there when the opening band, a local group called Raining and OK, was almost done, so I don't really have an opinion about them. I don't really remember anything more about them.

The second band was Gold Motel. They're from Chicago. Perhaps the thing that about them that sticks out to me the most is that they looked like five really random people from very different walks of life who just happened to walk onto the same stage. The drummer was wearing a blue button up shirt and a tie with sneakers. One of the guitarists was wearing a tee shirt, jeans, and bright red converse. He probably had longish bangs, but kept them tucked behind his ear. Another guy would've looked kind of like a regular old farm kid from the Midwest were it not for his hair. I didn't know you could pair bangs with a buzz cut. O.o The lead singer, also the only female, looked normal enough. She was wearing a black dress and grey tights. Then there was the guy my roommate rather aptly described as reminding her of a rooster. He was dressed in all black, including a leather jacket and boots that were somewhere between being cowboy and biker. There he was with his blond bangs hanging in his face. That guy was all over the place! Needless to say, I can't really remember much about their music. I think I liked it?

The headliner band was a group from New Jersey named Steel Train. They were so cool! Since there were probably only forty people in the audience, they joked with us in between songs and eventually just threw out their setlist and took requests. Those guys are hilarious! And very versatile. There were five of them: three guitarists, a keyboardist, and a drummer. They could all sing and every once in a while they would play musical instruments, so to speak, and switch positions. At one point there were three playing the drums at the same time. "Clean cup, clean cup, moooove down!" It was epic. For their last song they just completely rearranged and each sang a verse. It was a cover of something. There was also a song where all five got around the same mic and only one was playing guitar while they all harmonized. So. Cool.

But I saved the best for last! My absolute favorite band of the night was Barcelona, a group from Seattle. They also talked to the crowd in between songs, including asking one kid about his hat. It was an abominable snow cap. :D Roomie and I got our picture taken with them after the show. They were so tall! And they all had good handshakes. I regret that we didn't stay and talk to them more, but it was late and there was sleeping to be done. Check out their music: Click! My favorite songs are "It's About Time" and "Colors." It's oversaid, but they were so much better live. Not to say that their recordings aren't awesome, but the difference is still mind-blowing. They're so cool! They're one of my new favorite bands, probably influenced by the fact that I got to meet them.

My not studying paid off. I feel like I did awesome on all of my midterms. I practically skipped everywhere today after I was done with my last one. I have never felt so good about a Spanish test. Speaking of which, I bought 2,000 Spanish flashcards today to help with my vocabulary. I figure since I'm going to major in it now, I should try harder.

Listening to: Barcelona
Reading: East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Marsh_____.

Ah...the sweet clacketing of a keyboard. Oh, how I love it! While it was fun and novel to blog from my phone, it took forever and generally ate up a third of my battery charge in the process. A nice computer keyboard is much more comfortable and efficient.

...Lost my train of thought. Too many tabs open. Well, since I'm loving on my keyboard it might be apparent (for those who didn't know already) that I got my computer back! Or Sofia, as she shall henceforth be known. Much shorter to say. The virus she got was ugly. Grandpa says it's one of the worst he's seen. It blocked everything else from opening, including the AVG, and pretended to be an antivirus itself. It kept wanting me to install a firewall. Who knows what saying yes would've done.

But Grandpa the Magnificent got it all cleaned up and Sofia is running as fast as ever, with a few slightly irritating side effects relating to HP MediaSmart. I may have to reinstall the webcam software, or maybe even the whole MediaSmart suite. Bleh.

Other than that, though, we're rocking! ...That may sound a bit more chipper than I feel. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy and such, but not...perky.

I'm mellow. :)

Which is interesting, considering the four tests and the Spanish paper due this week. Ah...it must be the looming prospect of spring break.

I can tell I'm all Zen-y by my excessive use of ellipses.

I signed up for classes today for next semester:
Latin 101
Spanish 412 (Advanced Conversation and Composition)
Spanish 325 (Intro to Hispanic Literature)
English 222 (British Literature since 1798)
English 312 (English in Its Social Setting)

I'm excited for next semester. If I survive all the reading, it'll be an exciting romp through my favorite things: language and literature.

O! it feels so good to be back online. I loved my computer-free week, and I got a lot of personal reading done, but...hm...I dunno where that sentence was going.

Listening to: "Do You Wanna Date My Avatar"
Reading: East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Pastoral.

Today my roommate showed me a place she calls the Secret Garden. It was gorgeous. It felt like a natural chapel. All the people there spoke in hushed tones, as though they felt it, too. It's one of my new favorite places. Old Main still holds sway on my heart, but I think there's room for this secluded Eden.

Bonus, there was a guy there just chilling in a hammock! How cool is that?! I don't even know who he is, but he's one of the coolest people I've ever seen.

About to watch The Philadelphia Story with my roomie.

Listening to: "Seven Bridges Road"
Reading: Steinbeck

Utopia.

I don't like shopping. It makes me antsy, especially if I'm with someone else. The longer it drags on, the more irritated and reclusive I get. I've never understood the point of it. If I'm by myself, I can spend as little or as much time in a place as I want, but with other people I feel trapped and terminally bored.

With one exception.

When I'm in a bookstore, it doesn't matter whether I'm the only soul in the building or whether I'm there with a posse of friends. The world drops away and time slows. I feel like I have forever to lazily run my fingers across the bumping rows of spines. I can gently pick up and read the cover of anything that strikes my fancy, whether it be a solitary title or a continuous stream of them all stacked conveniently side by side, as though they knew I was coming and wanted to make access to themselves easy. In a bookstore, my steps are slow and luxurious. Really, I barely get on at all. It's as though I have an eternity to bask in their musky scent and listen to the rustle of pages, to feel their wonderful weight in my hands.

I hope there are bookstores in Heaven.

Listening to: "Out of My League"
Reading: Steinbeck

Virus.

I think it was karma. This is what I get for watching The IT Crowd on a Sunday on a shady/possibly illegal website. My poor, innocent 'puter has a virus. Which is why I'm blogging this from my epic phone, whom I've decided to name Iris after the Greek goddess of rainbows and such. In case you were wondering, my computer's name is Sofia.

So anyway, this virus. It's horrendous. It pretends to be Vista AntiVirus 2010 and wants me to turn on a firewall which would probably spell the end of my hard drive. It also acts like AIDS in that it blocks my real AntiVirus/computer immune system from opening.

Luckily, my grandpa is here to save the day. I took Sofia to him last night and he's going to make her all better. I was kind of worried last night when he started dismantling things and broke apart my external hard drive, but there's a method to his madness. Hopefully any software damage is repairable. Man, I love that computer. I think I'm doing just fine sans internet, but I worry about her just the same.

Listening to: "My Life Would Suck Without You"
Reading: Steinbeck

Cinderella.

I slept basically all day. Got up at ten; helped my roommate take down the trash and recycling; goofed around online for a bit; read a chapter or so of Steinbeck; ate lunch; went back to bed until five. Exciting life, huh?

But my roommate (who slept nearly as much as I did) and I ended the day with a bang by ordering pizza, then finishing Another Cinderella Story (love Selena Gomez) and watching Ever After. We seem to be on a Cindy kick.

Which just got trumped by the AWESOME THUNDERSTORM that just blew up. The wind must be blowing pretty hard, because the rain is flying sideways onto our window. I bet it smells awesome tomorrow. :) Wet sand...*sigh* But I still like Missouri's post-rain smell better. Soil > sand.

Listening to: Selena Gomez
Reading: East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Plaid.

Yesterday I was once again kidnapped and taken to a weird place where someone massaged my feet and painted my toes. While the little asian ladies are cute, fun, and friendly, it's really not my favorite thing in the world.

Anne and Meagan are under the impression that they need to "turn [me] into a girl." O.o Um...I thought I already was one. I don't understand why I have to wax my eyebrows and look like a raccoon to be a girl. I'm sure their argument would be that it's fun to feel pretty, but "fun" and "pretty" are both subjective. They're so obsessed with the stuff that I don't think they'll entirely understand why I hate makeup. Foundation only brings out my flaws (and I prefer my natural skin tone anyway), lip stick needs no explanation, and eyeshadow makes me look like a middle schooler who's trying too hard. Not because it's been ill-applied, mind you, but because it looks out of place. I prefer to recognize myself when I look in the mirror. Face paint might work for some girls, but yours truly is one who would much rather do without.

And my eyebrows are just fine the way they are!

Hair is another issue. I don't feel the need to dye it. In fact, I don't think there's a dye out there that would be as cool as my natural color. Second, bumps. ...What? Who decided that should be in vogue? Neither am I a fan of straightening my hair or of curling it. It does what it wants, and I let it alone. My hair and I have come to an agreement on that count. Besides, my natural curls are much funner than perfect ones. Sometimes I can find perfect ringlets in it while other times it's full of twisty waves. Honestly, Sally's Beauty Supply. Where's your sense of adventure? Some might say that dying your hair green and wearing it as a mohawk is adventurous, but it's contrived. I would much rather let nature surprise me. Not necessarily out of laziness, though that definitely factors, but because natural is much more beautiful to me than manmade.

And then there's nail polish. Ugh. Can't stand the stuff. I don't think it's attractive and I hate the way it feels. Sure, there may be no nerve endings in my keratin, but there's skin underneath and it feels any pressure applied to my nails. That brightly colored paint totally masks that and makes my fingers feel clumsy and deadened. No thanks. I can kind of stand it on my toes, but it's still not my preference. And there will never be a time when fake nails will not be out of the question. My nails are naturally strong and grow in a much better shape than those glue-on atrocities. As an added bonus, they can't break off (if they do, I'm sure I'll have bigger issues) and when they grow out there isn't a weird line where something has obviously been adhered.

So feeling pretty is fun, is it? Well I think I'm wonderful just the way I am. Tee shirt, jeans, clean face, and all.

Listening to: "Magic Man" by Heart
Reading: East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Neverland.

There's a part of me, I think, that will always be a child. A small, broken child, but a child nonetheless. I realized long ago that she's the one who haunts me when I spiral into that dark abyss. It's her nightmares that torment my thoughts. That black place is far from me now, but that child is still there. It is a child's fears that paralyze me when I would live. But it is not all tragedy, for with profound sorrow there comes profound joy. Her eyes see a world untainted and trustworthy. Some might call her naive, but I call her hopeful, innocent. Her little hands reach forward into possibility, dreaming things I've forgotten I could dream and imagining wonders I've grown to distrust and disbelieve. Sometimes I feel like the people around me know so much more than I and are so much more mature, but then I question it. But that is a feeling I want to hold onto. Maybe that's weird, but I want to hold on to that because that is when I feel her the strongest, when I feel the most unequal, and I can hope for just a moment that I can hold onto her other qualities, too.

Enough of doubt and cynicism. Enough of pessimism and worry.

I'm ready to be naively hopeful, to see the best in the world, to trust that everything will be okay, more than okay--wonderful, to have faith that I'm going in the right direction. That someday soon I'll find what I'm looking for, and that in the meantime it'll be quite the ride. I'm ready to blow soap bubbles just because I feel like it and to forego homework to sketch trees and fountains on sunny days.

I'm ready to live unreservedly.

I feel infinite.

Serendipity.

Listening to: "Drift Away"
Reading: East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Sackboy.

My brother and I have the funnest time doing absolutely nothing. Unless Indiana Jones and Little Big Planet both count as something.

Listening to: "Locomotive Breath"
Reading: East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Musings.

The following was written around 1:30 AM on February 13. The pending arrival of Valentine's Day was completely coincidental.

Some people wind up with others because they need to be rescued, or they want to be a rescuer. Others just sort of discover that they're going in the same direction and figure they might as well walk together. But I've got wings. My mind, my heart, my soul can't bear to be grounded. They need to soar, to explore wonders. But the thing is, my wings are only strong enough for one. They won't support another's weight. I think that's why I haven't found him yet, because whoever he is, he's going to have to be able to fly.

O...kay. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that maybe I shouldn't write after the witching hour. If this and past blog posts are any indication, I seem to get all philosophical and mopey. Though I think that the philosophical thing was the entire point I was trying to make with the above. I want to find someone who will understand what I'm saying when my brain wanders off into the vast unknown and starts...postulating...stuff. I dunno. I'm too serious lately. Even just a few months ago I was light-hearted and silly. Now it seems that everything I think about is deep and self-doubting. Although, I do have my moments.

Dinners lately are rather entertaining. My roommate and I have started a habit of eating dinner with two of her friends from Show Low. They'll be leaving on their missions this summer and she wants to spend as much time as she can with them before they go. I think I was initially included because I'm her roommate, but now I think that I'm actually going to miss those guys when they leave. Post-dinner we usually watch an episode of The Office. Fun times, though I didn't start watching with them until they were on season 3, so I'm having to spend some time catching up. Luckily one of the guys owns them.

On a completely unrelated note, I went to the bookstore today to indulge in one of my birthday presents. I bought a copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, not because of the upcoming movie but because my linguistics book literally quotes it every other page and I'm getting the idea that it would be a fun frolick through nonsense. I also bought a book entitled From the Horse's Mouth: Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms. It's from the same people who published Stone the Crows, so now I have a nice little matched set. Wow, my nerdage rises daily.

Cheshire moon tonight.

Listening to: "Nice to Be With You"
Reading: East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Tumblr.

So yesterday-ish I created a tumblr account. My main motivation was keeping up with the WIPs of one Charlie Bowater, who is one of my newer favorite artists. Find her unfinished pretties here.

I wasn't planning on doing anything with my own account, but I think I'm going to use it for my vague, erratic book review things. You can find mine here. My book review YouTube videos were utterly boring, so I think this will be a wonderful alternative. I'll find something else to vlog about. Speaking of which, I kind of want to go make one now...

Listening to: "Everywhere" by Michelle Branch
Reading: East of Eden by John Steinbeck

19 Candles.

My friend via my roommate turned 19 today, so Roomie decided to get him candles so he could make a proper birthday wish. She wanted me to make one, too, but I think I make enough wishes on fallen eyelashes that I can afford skipping the flaming debacle for a year.

Well, since we have no oven, the best we could do for a cake subsitute was a muffin. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We had to talk the birthday boy into participating. After much compromising, he agreed to make his wish after FHE. I wouldn't have side-tracked the story, but I just have to lament a little the fact that I coughed on a guy at FHE. It was failtacular. I turned to cough into the general direction of my elbow right as he walked up beside me to grab the hymnals off the table. My roomie says he smiled at me, but I was coughing up a lung and can't substantiate the claim. Oh, gosh.

Anywho, after FHE we dragged the unwilling wish-maker away from pairs figure skating and outside so we could deck out the muffin with nineteen flaming birthday candles. We had to do it outside because we live in a poorly-ventilated, 15-floor death trap. We took the muffin out to the dorm's backyard area. It was a bit of an ordeal getting it lit because there was a bit of a breeze, but we managed. Part of the agreement for making the birthday wish was that we wouldn't sing, so when the candles were all lit and Birthday Boy was done with his story, he simply blew them out. Or rather, spit them out. It was a say-it-don't-spray-it kind of blowing out. We were just going to leave the muffin there, but we had to take some pictures first because it was just one epic looking little muffin. After the photoshoot the birthday boy punted it across the lawn. It was pretty spectacular. The muffin blew apart and the wrapper fluttered down to the ground amid the chocolate wreckage. Hilarious!

Listening to: The Guild
Reading: East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Vinegar.

So for the past week there's been this random pickle jar sitting in my suite's hall half-full of juice and sans pickles. Everytime my roomie and I walked past it we just gave each other this look that said, "Why?" Our suitemates, or at least one of them, does some weird things. Last semester they kept putting my hand soap in the shower. I freaked out at least three times thinking someone had stolen it before finding it hidden behind the shampoo. I would've been fine with them just using my hand soap, but what's the point of sticking it in the shower? I mean, really. About November I got tired of it and decided to hide it under the sink so they would stop putting it in the shower. Two weeks later my roommate walked in and asked me if I'd put her hand soap in the shower. What the dickens? I guess since they couldn't find mine they moved on to hers. And my roommate also had to make our suitemates put the trash can she bought back in the bathroom last semester. Now her Windex is missing. What I want to know is why someone would steal stuff from the bathroom and leave giant, briny jars in the hallway. That's just weird.

The pickle jar problem has been solved, however. As my roomie's friends were leaving last night after we watched The Office, one of them (the same one who likes to throw stuff into the elevator at us as the doors are closing) stole the pickle jar. At first he tried to stick it in our room, but we would have none of that, so he ended up taking it with him and leaving it in one of the elevators. Odd duck, but at least the pickle jar is gone. I still want to know why it was there, though.

In other news, I took my first linguistics test today. That was a lot of writing. It wasn't essay style, but there were a lot of short-answer questions. I took up the entire class period. I was the second-to-last person to leave. I didn't even have time to do the extra credit question and I think I made up a term. I looked it up in the book later, and I'm pretty sure the term in there is not the one I wrote down. Whoops. Oh, well. We'll see how I do and maybe I'll study before the morning of next time.

Listening to: "Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves" by Cher
Reading: Timeline by Michael Crichton

Cumpleaños.

Ah, the internet. How I missed it the first few hours of my weekend, but then how I didn't. It actually feels kind of weird to be on. I may even get off without checking my facebook tonight. I have a feeling it will take me quite some time to get through all of my new wall posts.

My best friend flew in Friday evening to spend my birthday weekend with me. We got to and from the airport via light rail, which was nowhere near as impressive as its subterranean, European counterparts. It felt so...lazy? Tranquil? Sluggish? I don't know which adjective I want to use, but it was kind of nice and relaxing. The Tube and the Paris Metro were so intense that the local light rail was rather unimpressive by comparison. I would still love to use it more, though.

Friday night I showed A. some of the principal sites on campus. We got dinner at the MU and chatted for hours. It was dark out by the time we left, so she got to see campus all lit up. I love campus at night. All of the lamps are so pretty. Hayden is especially gorgeous, but my favorite part of campus has to be Old Main Lawn. They finally turned the fountains back on Friday morning. I love fountains. When we walked by, Main had that beautiful lamppost glow and, with its serene fountain, it felt like something out of a movie.

I had hoped that we could go down to Mill Avenue Saturday morning, but I slept in and we took a long time getting ready, so we didn't have time before my dad came to pick us up. He had to get us by noon because I needed to go to the bank, where the teller tried to sell me a student account and spelled it "Missiura." I know, right? I probably wouldn't have been so worried by that, but she was looking at my license as she wrote it down. A. and I spent the afternoon hanging at my dad's house and watching YouTube on my PS3 while I did laundry. We watched a few Blind Guardian music videos/concert recordings (that's a fanbase, right there) among other things. I love how when I typed in "somebody to love," she knew I was looking for Jefferson Airplane and not Queen. Somehow that led to us watching The Truman Show. Awesome movie. Of course, then it was time for dinner. Well, after the eyeshadow. I hate makeup. It's so weird looking in the mirror and feeling like I don't recognize myself. Dinner was absolutely awesome. We went to Ah-So. We had a really funny chef who kept whoot-whoot-ing. Actually, that was kind of weird. But hilarious. After we were all done eating, we just kept sitting there. Just as I was about to say something to try to get our party moving, three waitresses came over with a weird orange-and-cherry pyramid for me on a plate. They made everyone put their hands up and clap along as they sang something ("Happy Birthday?") to me in what was presumably Japanese. It was totally awesome. Then the weird lady at the table behind us loudly said, "Oh. It's her birthday." Good job, lady. Good job. Back at Anne's house, A. cut my hair with some of Anne's grooming shears. Eventually we came back to the dorm so we could go to church on Sunday. About midnight we popped in The Wedding Date. Another awesome movie. J. Y. gets mad props for being the first to wish me a happy birthday. At, you know, midnight:30.

Sunday we went to church, though I can't really recall much of what was talked about because A. and I spent most of the time writing notes to each other. I know it was fast and testimony meeting (obviously), the Sunday school lesson was on Noah, and Relief Society was about...gratitude? Self-image? I feel bad that I have only the vaguest idea. I guess that's better than no idea. By the time church got out, A. was ready to eat my notebook because she hadn't eaten anything all day (silly girl). Anne made something she calls chicken-broccoli braid for dinner. Cherry chip cake with chocolate frosting for dessert. Of course, my relatives were their usual selves at family dinner. It was fun, though. For the first time in my life I watched part of the Super Bowl. Which basically means I watched a few of the commercials. Meagan was antsy or something, so we blew that popsicle stand and drove down Main because I wanted A. to see the temple all lit up. Meagan's idea was to yell pick-up lines at pedestrians, but she forgot to factor in Super Bowl parties. The streets were understandably empty, so we got some ice cream at a Dairy Queen that had a sliding glass door instead of a window and a drive-through that went the opposite direction of every other drive-through I've ever seen. We took our ice cream to Mill Avenue just as everything was closing. I don't think Anne and Meagan were really thinking their plans through at all. Ah, well. A. got to see Mill Avenue and, my favorite part, the Mill Avenue bridge. I love that bridge. It's so pretty at night. ...I'm sensing a theme here. Apparently I have a thing for streetlamps. Especially when it's sprinkling, though it wasn't that night until we were already on our way home.

I thought that would be the end of the festivities, but as I was up at 12:30 AM working on my Spanish paper, I had the pleasure of listening to not one but two people talking in their sleep. I think A. was trying to ask me if my roommate and I ever fought because our bedsheets are similar colors. At least, that's my best guess. She wasn't using complete sentences or even content words. There were a lot of pronouns and trailings-off and much gesturing. My favorite part had to be her looking me in the eye, saying "I'm sorry. I'm a little delirious right now," and laying back down. O...kay... My roommate just sort of mumbled as she tossed and turned. Who needs TV when they've got such entertaining friends?

Sadly, I had to take A. back to the airport today. I got to spend more time with her than I expected because my Spanish class was cancelled due to our teacher's daughter being sick, but it was still a major bummer having to say goodbye. Of course, the leaving part was quite the quiet fiasco. We left a little late, so we got to the airport later than we wanted to. Then, A. had misread the airline and we went to the wrong terminal. She set off walking for the next terminal, thinking that would take less time than waiting for the next shuttle. After passing the third parking lot, she finally realized that the terminals were, in fact, not connected and that we had gone under a lot more underpasses than she had thought on the way to the wrong terminal. We finally got there, though. And then my iPod mocked me by playing "Broken" by Seether when I turned it on.

When I finally got home, I felt like napping and doing nothing, but I had to take a check somewhere so I had to hike all the way across campus and back. It was awful. My feet hurt so bad. My calluses aren't quite up to snuff yet after their last round with the pumice stone. Halfway back I gave in and sat on a bench next to one of my favorite fountains for a while. I didn't want to get up, but I convinced myself that the sooner I got back to my room the sooner I could take a nap. When I finally reached my destination, I rewarded myself with a cupcake. Then a nap. A longish nap. The only thing that called me from it was the lure of food. Dinner was taken with my roommate and two friends from her hometown. The more time I spend with those two guys the funnier they get. We sat over our empty plates for an hour just chatting while my roommate debated whether or not she wanted to go to FHE. I had already decided against it because the activity was a rumba lesson and I a. don't like dance lesson activities and b. didn't want to walk to the Institute. My feet are still mad at me. So instead of going to FHE, the four of us watched an episode of the Office. It was going to be the three of them, but they finally convinced me to join them instead of doing my homework.

Now here I am blogging instead of reading my English assignment and preparing for my linguistics test tomorrow. Darn. And sorry for the parenthetical overload. I don't know what the deal is there.

Listening to: "My Life Would Suck Without You"
Reading: Timeline by Michael Crichton

Training?

My poor Spanish homework was neglected last night in favor of the ward birthday dinner and Sister Matheson's cooking. The February-born of the ward and a few others got to enjoy the homemade gourmet that comes out of that wondrous kitchen. We stuffed ourselves until we felt ill and couldn't eat any more. Then they announced dessert and we loaded our plates with ice cream and three varieties of cake and ate some more.

I thought for sure that I would have to roll to all of my classes this morning on my side, but the laughing-until-I-cried totally counter-acted the effects of the hearty meal. My table-mates were epic. This one guy was telling us stories about his past lady-loves and how disastrously they all went when he finally got up the guts to try to hold their hands. He told us that after the last time, he decided he needed some "training." Apparently he red-boxed every movie he could find with words like "love" and "heart" in the title. For an entire week he would go to class, then go home and watch four chick flicks a day, back to back.

Later on in the meal, his roommate and said roommate's girlfriend were arguing about how the K on her laptop got broken. The first guy was looking at the couple like, "Could you please shut up now?" while another girl at our table (Mo: one of the coolest, most genuine people on the planet) said, "That's the foundation of marital bliss" and beamed at them.

That's just a sampling of the evening's entertainment. It was definitely one of those you-had-to-be-there affairs.

My advice for anyone who needs a good laugh is to go to an activity organized by LDS young single adults.

My ward is awesome.

Listening to: "Head Over Heels" by the Go-Go's
Reading: Timeline by Michael Crichton

Confections.

So FHE last night was cookie decorating. Judging by the copious amounts of pink, heart-shaped sprinkles, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this was supposed to have something to do with Valentine's Day. Well, where's the fun in that? As our table's cookies were sitting out in the middle, I noticed that the funny shaped ones (presumably supposed to be tulips) sort of looked like PAC Man ghosts if you turned them upside down...We were going to do a completely PAC Man theme, but we had a lot more circles than tulips, so we ended up doing a general classic video game theme. Someone made Kirby, a star from Mario, Pong, and even an tableau for Shooter involving a frosted plate as the background.

I tried for Hyrule Castle, but the icing came out in thicker lines than I wanted and the sprinkles I was trying to use as stars developed a mind of their own, so I'm calling this the castle of the White Witch from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It was eventually made into a video game, right?

Of course, the true pinnacle of our achievements was the PAC Man scene. The teeth are my favorite part. We put those little heart-shaped sprinkles to better use than they were intended for. Maybe? My only part in the actual creation of this was to smoosh out the two white dots on the napkin. All in all, I'd have to say these cookies were pretty epic. I'm kind of sad I didn't take pictures of the others. Last night may have been one of my favorite FHEs so far in this ward.

Then there was the guy at our table who actually made a tulip...we gave him a lot of weird looks.

And this morning I decided that I want to create my own language someday.

Listening to: "Wheel in the Sky" by Journey
Reading: Timeline by Michael Crichton

Quotation.

"He who takes offense when offense was not intended is a fool, yet he who takes offense when offense is intended is an even greater fool for he has succumbed to the will of his adversary." -Brigham Young

Listening to: "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" by Stevie Wonder
Reading: Timeline by Michael Crichton

Onigiri.

I never really got into that whole oh-my-goodness-it's-Japanese-so-it-must-be-awesome fad, but there is a single manga series that I liked: Fruits Basket. It's about a family cursed with alternative forms corresponding to the Chinese Zodiac. Basically. I've been watching the anime version on hulu. It sticks to the books very well, so I'm happy.

Tonight, I went with my roommate and some friends to an event called Around the World. They had six booths representing Japan, Australia, Egypt, Mexico, Canada, and China, with ethnic foods at most. There was a live mariachi band, sumo wrestling, hockey fighting, mummy races, alligator wrangling, and karaoke. I liked the karaoke best, even though I did terrible at it. Memo for next time: don't pick a song you don't know the tune to, even if it is Heart. I did much better at "Kryptonite."

Listening to: "Almost Paradise"
Reading: Timeline by Michael Crichton

Goblin-kitty.

Drew this back during the break as the result of a conversation a month or more prior. Running with the species "goblin-kitty," I did some half-hearted studies of bat noses then modeled the rest of its appearance after my caitshidhe shoulder-puppet. http://www.fantasypuppet.com/cat.htm Mine has a sort of skunk coloring with a black throat and legs and a creamy body. Khargein also has the prettiest sky blue eyes. Yes, I need a life.

Also, I've had the song "Eyes on Me" stuck in my head for the past few days for inexplicable reasons. Meaning, buggets if I know why. But it's pretty, so I don't mind. Here:

Now it can be stuck in your head. Oh, and that's no patched together fan-video made as a tribute. The song is actually from FF VIII. This is unedited footage from the end of the game. I notice the side gets a little cut off in my layout, so if you're really interested in watching the video you may want to fullscreen it.

Listening to: "Eyes on Me"
Reading: Timeline by Michael Crichton

Facepalm.

I just spent the past halfhour reading the wrong chapter in my linguistics book. Boy, do I feel silly. But it was so interesting! I guess it just sort of slipped my mind that it was totally not on the topic my teacher had said we would be talking about.

Listening to: "Eyes on Me"
Reading: Timeline by Michael Crichton

Monotone.

Today in my language studies class (the one with the teacher who looks kinda like Robert De Niro) we kicked our day off by watching a lecture by Noam Chomsky. The man may be one of the leading leaders in the field of linguistics, but he could put plants to sleep. They would just curl up their leaves and die. About three minutes into the video, which promised to last for an hour and 27, my eyes were beginning to droop. I tried to remain conscious with a crossword and a few sudokus I had squirreled away in my bag. I barely even know what he was lecturing about. I know it was something to do with biolinguistics and language and the brain, but as far as I could tell he just kept repeating himself and dryly recounting ten-minute long theories that all seemed to be controversial and unsubstantiated (to hear him tell it). Every so often our teacher would shake the computer mouse to see how far in we were. After one of the longest half hours of my life, the teacher said, "Enough of this," and had us start discussing some of the things we didn't get to last time. He had warned us beforehand that Chomsky was very skilled at inducing narcolepsy, but Noam went above and beyond anything I could have imagined from that description. As my teacher so aptly put it, if sleeping pills don't work, try listening to one of Chomsky's lectures. You'll be out in no time.

Listening to: "Ticket to Heaven" by 3 Doors Down
Reading: Timeline by Michael Crichton

Split.

So I was thinking to myself today. I know. Weird, right? Anyway, I realized something that I've sort of realized before but never acknowledged, if that makes sense. When I go off on my long-winded, self-deprecating rants, I'm never actually talking about what's bothering me. I end up talking about other things that have started bothering me because my self-esteem stepped out due to the bigger issue bothering me that I'm not addressing. Savvy? Because me being me, I can't talk about what I'm dying to talk about because that would be counter-intuitive. Okay, maybe not counter-intuitive, as my intuition seems to be split rather evenly on the subject of which way to go. But definitely counter-confidence. Now here I am torn about how to end this post. Part of me wants to leave a cryptic message for someone here at the end, but the other part of me is trying to tackle and hog-tie the aforementioned part so it can't. I guess that's as good as it's going to get.

Listening to: Fruits Basket
Reading: Timeline by Michael Crichton

Overhaul.

I wasn't really digging the old title of this blog, so I changed it. Because I could.

For those wondering, elferingewort is Middle English for a fairy ring. It's the name for a naturally occuring ring of mushrooms. Legend holds that the rings are formed by fairies dancing. To learn more, clickety-click! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_ring#Cultural_references

Ever since I first heard of the legends, I've loved the idea. So why not? Whether one believes in fairies or not, letting your imagination run off in a flight of fancy every now and then does one good.

Listening to: Glee
Reading: Timeline by Michael Crichton

Blustery.

The weather yesterday was incredible.

First, there were the torrents of rain. I wouldn't have minded so much, but I need a belt and the water soaking into my jeans wasn't helping the matter. Also, I left my tennis shoes at my dad's house, so the only shoes I have here at the dorm are a pair of heels and my ballet slippers. Some people can pull it off, but I refuse to wear heels with jeans, so the thin leather flats it was. They're still wet from yesterday.

Second, the wind! My roommate and I ventured out in search of books and food. The wind was blowing so hard it was pushing us sideways at times, and when it was to our backs we were pushed into running so we wouldn't fall over. It was quite the adventure trying to stay upright and at the same time not step in the small lakes forming in the low points in the malls (the fancy name here for the pedestrian-only streets on campus). Naturally, the places we went were all the way across campus. Then, when we finally got back to our building, we had to fight to get the door open because the mighty wind was pushing it closed. The wind was so bad, there was actually a sign on the door telling people to hold it as it closed so it wasn't slammed shut, thereby shattering the glass.

The trees were writhing so wildly it looked like Fangorn was waking up and heading for war. The behemoth palm trees whipping back and forth were the scariest.

I was half-expecting Tigger to show up, or Owl's tree to fall over.

Today was somewhat better. It was still overcast all day and the skies were pouring in the afternoon and evening, but I was done with my classes before one then had a lovely nap. From my 11th floor window, it looks like it's still coming down.

On the bright side, my new phone is awesome. It makes me feel like a secret agent.

Listening to: "When I'm Gone" by 3 Doors Down
Reading: Timeline by Michael Crichton

Jiggedy-jig.

I checked back into the dorms today. It's kind of novel having a clean room. It feels bigger than last semester. I love being back with my roommate. It feels like I've come back to a home. Of course, most places I go feel like that. My favorite part is being back with all of my books.

Sketch of one of my boots I did last semester right after I got my sketchbook and pencils.

Doodle inspired by Ludo from the Labyrinth. This is the result of hanging out in a dog grooming salon all day.

Listening to: "Working for the Weekend" by Loverboy
Reading: Poor Little Witch Girl by Marie Desplechin

Ashes.

The land was empty and flat, hard-baked and ending in a sheer drop that disappeared out of sight. A dead, grey skeleton of a tree clung to the edge of the precipice, choked by a twisting vine of morning glory. Some of the roots were bared where time had worn away at the cliff side. Sunlight shined on the rainbow hued blossoms, highlighting an iridescent sheen. A heady perfume from the flowers, thick enough to taste, masked the scent of the tree’s decay. A slightly warm and pleasant wind gently ruffled the delicate petals. All was silent save for the gentle whisper of the breeze.

From the canyon a roar of fire blared, splashing the undersides of the blossoms and the bare branches a ruddy orange for a brief moment before subsiding. Then all was as before, except for the ashes floating on the wind and the scent of something burning that overpowered even the flowers’ musk, relegating it to a faint aftertaste.

Bare feet trembled forward. A single bright red-orange blossom broke loose and danced on the wind, alighting on a white fold in the fabric of the maiden’s train. A soft, pale hand retrieved the memento, tucking it securely in plaited ebony hair. The flower’s heart was blue, like a flame.

Listening to: Xmen
Reading: Persuasion by Jane Austen

Victory.

I succeeded in staying up all day yesterday. I went with my dad's girlfriend to her dog grooming salon. I mostly sat and watched her work. Strange as it sounds, it was kind of entertaining, although she had a disproportionate number of Schnauzers to groom yesterday. That's not to say I have anything against Schnauzers, I'm just commenting.

Listening to: That '70s Show
Reading: Persuasion by Jane Austen

Wimp.

I tried. And failed. My attempt at staying awake until this evening fell apart around 6 AM, which is when I've been falling asleep any way. I set an alarm for a half hour later, telling myself I was just going to take a nap to tide me over. Since I woke up at 1:30 (the same time I woke up yesterday), I'm going to call that unsuccessful. Darn.

Listening to: Wife Swap
Reading: Persuasion by Jane Austen

Gecko.

Haha! I downloaded Gex onto my PS3. I love that game! It's the silliest thing I've ever heard of and yet it's infinitely entertaining. A gecko gets sucked into a television and has to fight evil, bouncing tomatoes on his epic journey back to the real world? Okay, sure. This is going to be awesome.

I have also decided to try to stay up all night tonight so I'll be exhausted tomorrow night. Maybe I'll be able to fix my sleep schedule.

Listening to: Star Trek: the Next Generation
Reading: Persuasion by Jane Austen

Chibi.

This is a little cartoon version of myself that I drew the summer before my junior year. I feel like I haven't changed much. My drawings might have, though.

Listening to: Mythbusters
Reading: Persuasion by Jane Austen

Persuasion.

I realize now that instead of ranting last night/early this morning, I should have followed my first instinct and read Persuasion. I guess I forgot for a bit that it's my comfort book. I can open it to any page and start reading and enjoy it. I'll know exactly what's going on and what's going to happen and still want to find out anyway.

I know some people don't like Jane Austen. They find her work dry and hard to get into. That's probably why I like it. My mama raised me right. Meaning, on British humor. It's much more subtle than most American work. The key to understanding it is an appreciation for sarcasm.

The more I learn about the Regency Period in which Austen lived, the more I realize just how sarcastic her narrations are. It's quite awe-inspiring, actually. It definitely serves to make her books much more entertaining.

I also love how dimensional her characters are. They have substance and individuality. I think that is truly her greatest achievement. Much like Elizabeth Bennet, she was a studier of character. But beyond anything her character did, Jane had a gift for channeling the best and the worst of humanity into vibrant portraits, all at once ridiculing and elevating the most poignant characteristics of humanity.

She's my hero.

Listening to: the Cardinals game
Reading: Persuasion by Jane Austen

Pity party.

I can't fall asleep because my brain has decided that right now is a wonderful time to go into overdrive and spew out a bunch of complex thoughts. In an attempt to appease it, I've decided to type out some of the stuff it's yammering on about. That, and I know there's something up when I'm considering starting a twitter account.

My brain seems to have landed on the conclusion that I'm basically useless. Before you try to reassure me otherwise, just let me rant for a while. If you have objections, stop reading now. Mkay?

1. My art is crap. If not so bad as all that, then it's definitely mediocre. It's not like I expect myself to be on par with Da Vinci or Mucha, but I'm not even on par with my past self. I used to be able to draw stuff. Sure, my anatomy was wonky, my poses were unvaried, and my backgrounds were nonexistant, but I had a style. I could create things. Now, I can't even scribble out a dragon that satisfies me. I can't even get past the head, and since I have no technique whatsoever, the drawing is basically done before it begins if I can't get past that. Okay, yes, my realism sketches are coming along nicely, but I can't manage to give them the patience to make them really good or multi-dimensional or anything. Thus, they too remain mediocre. They're just better at pretending they're not.

2. I keep saying that my big dream in life (okay, second big dream) is to write a book. And yet, I never write. Some days I'll just have the motivation and drive and nothing better to do and jot down a paragraph or two, but nothing I work on ever gets very far past that. And if it does, it's terrible and poorly developed with flat characters and a hazy plot. And even the pieces that make it that far don't exceed a truncated page or two.

3. I claim to be a bibliophile, but lately waste all of my time staring at this freakin' computer. For the first time in my life, I'm going days without opening a book.

4. I gave up on reading Le Morte D'Arthur.

5. I somehow manage to spend the entirety of my days on the internet by rechecking both facebook and MLIA every few minutes.

6. I have become glued to my phone, even though I rarely hear from people. When I do, I'm usually the one who starts the conversation, and there are only three people who consistently respond. I barely recognize my ringtone because I receive calls about once in a blue moon, and I only get non-reply texts about once a month, usually from my friend Angel, who is usually only sending me random pictures and then not carrying on a conversation with me when I reply.

7. I feel petty and selfish because the people commenting on my facebook statuses are usually not the people I want to hear from.

8. That previous comment makes me feel like a jerk.

9. Number 8 makes me feel like even more of a jerk.

10. I can't ever just be. I have to have something to obsess about.

11. I'm writing this post in the first place.

12. I have no job and my personal fortune consists of a coin jar full of mostly small change with very few quarters because I spent most of the quarters at the campus bookstore. When I need or want something, I have to bum money off of my parents.

13. I'm a procrastinator.

14. At this very moment, I feel like my only real talent is delivering movie quotes. Ironically, I'm a horrible actress.

15. I have accomplished absolutely nothing in the past three weeks. To make it worse, I've spend the past few days doing nothing but watching TV and playing online. At the same time.

As if to underscore my point, I'm giving up on this post. I bet Mom's already up and about, and I haven't even managed to go to sleep yet.

Listening to: "Shadows of the Night"
Reading: Persuasion by Jane Austen

Prisma.

I just broke in my new set of Prismacolor colored pencils while rewatching the season finale of Glee. So far, they just feel like regular colored pencils to me. I think it may be my too gentle technique. We'll see what happens when I start shading and such. Since I'm having issues finishing pieces other than sketches (which aren't really suitable for coloring, as I've found out the hard way), I'm coloring a bit of lineart I printed off. I'll try to post it when I'm done coloring, or maybe even do stages. Either way, I can't take credit for the amazing lines. I only wish I was that good. The piece I chose is by Michelle Hoefener, one of my very favorite artists. Looking at her stuff always makes my fingers itch for a pencil. Sadly, her stuff gets a bit risque. If you want to see her work: http://michelle84.deviantart.com/. Viewers: ye be warned. If you're sensitive, don't click on anything censored by a grey box. Those are content filters. Some of the non-censored stuff is a little borderline anyway. Am I bad for liking some of it?

Anywho, that was not at all where I intended to go with that paragraph.

Listening to: Community
Reading: Persuasion by Jane Austen

Nocturnal.

I have continued my pattern of doing nothing while slowly reversing my days and nights. I woke up around 3:20 PM today. This has to stop, or I'm going to feel it when school and my 7 AM classes start up. I'm going to try to fix it next week, but we'll see how much success I have.

My dad got a bone graft above his front teeth yesterday, so we've just sat around watching TV for the past few days. He keeps saying his face feels like he got smacked with a bag of ball bearings. Since he has a bunch of stitches in his gums, he can't eat anything except yogurt and macaroni and cheese, so our fridge is packed full of pudding cups. I didn't know they made Jelly Belly flavors, but apparently they do. It will be interesting to see what those taste like. I'm excited and skeptical at the same time.

Listening to: Monster Jam
Reading: Persuasion by Jane Austen

Excess.

I flew back yesterday and my dad picked me up from the airport. The flight was actually kind of exciting. I sat next to a Spanish lady (as in, from Spain) who had her four- or five-year old son with her. I'm pretty sure he doesn't speak English. I was so excited! I could understand almost everything the little boy said. His mom spoke way too fast for me, but I still enjoyed listening to them talk.

Mexican for dinner last night. Tamales...mmm....

I did my Christmas at Anne's last night, too. I gave everyone their drawings, which were well received, and sat down to open my gifts. It was kind of awkward just sitting there opening things with everyone staring at me, and Anne goes overboard for Christmas. I got a bunch of movies, a couple CDs, a set of oil colors, Prismacolor colored pencils (!), way too much lotion, some nice dressier shirts, and a PS3. Too much, but very exciting.

I just sort of wasted today.

Listening to: "Heartless" by Heart
Reading: Persuasion by Jane Austen

Sketch.

I've spent today and yesterday at my friend Gabby's house because my mom and brother both went home yesterday. It's been really nice and quiet. I like doing nothing.

I also finally got around to drawing the Christmas presents I needed to. Geez. I make procrastination into an art form. I have two drawings down and one to go, which needs to be finished by tomorrow. I'm kind of taking a break right now because darn it! but apples are hard. I need to recoup before I start the next one.

Listening to: The Two Towers (extended edition)
Reading: Persuasion by Jane Austen

2010.

Last night I went with my brother to meet his most serious ex-girlfriend, who is now married. Alan's ability to remain close friends with his exes always astounds me. But it's kind of awesome. It was about a 45-minute drive, and we didn't leave until almost 11, so we were wandering around lost in the parking lot when the year change hit our timezone. I was pretty amused. We had already driven around the apartment complex twice, and we had finally parked and embarked on foot to see if we would have better luck that way. I was watching the clock, so I called out to him when it was midnight. We hugged, and because Alan is Alan, he kissed my cheek because he had to kiss somebody. Silly boy.

We eventually found the place. We spent a good three or so hours talking to Sarah and Doug. I can see why he thought she was so awesome. Her taste in movies and TV shows is stellar, if I do say so myself. They have a bunch of fish, and the betas are named Mal, Wash, Jayne, and Shepherd Book. Epic win. Plus, they had a ginormous puzzle that they let me work on a little. I love me some jigsaw puzzles. Have I mentioned that before?

Actually, now that I think about it, we were probably there closer to four hours. We got home around five. We had to stop at a Walmart and pick up some toilet paper on the way, but that didn't take that long. Nor was that important to the story. Sorry.

The three of us went to Salt Lake today. We wanted to eat at The Spagetti Factory in Trolley Square, but it wouldn't be open until four, and since I woke up around noon, I hadn't eaten and didn't want to wait two hours. I start feeling sick if I don't eat. We drove up to Temple Square to see if the Garden Restaurant was open, but apparently the Joseph Smith Memorial Building was closed today and noone remembered to change the sign pointing to the parking area that said it was open. We ate at the Cracker Barrel in Layton instead.

Afterward, we went to see an old family friend. She cut our hair when we lived in Utah. I hadn't seen her since I was five or six. It was really cool to reconnect. I'll never forget her yard, but now I'm taller than the boulders in the front. Trippy. They had a colossal gingerbread house that was pretty awesome. The little girls got Alan to play with them, though the four-year-old didn't quite agree with him on what the rules in chess are. That was pretty amusing. She was really ticked off when he held her to the actual rules and she lost. As an added bonus, I got my hair trimmed.

My cousins here are all really sad to see us go. We spent the evening jibing them and goading them to do their chores. Alan was especially zealous in the role of overseer. I was entertained.

Listening to: chatter
Reading: Jane Austen's Guide to Good Manners by Josephine Ross