Rainy Day With No Roomies

Of course, as Idaho weather is horrible and unpredictable I'm not even surprised that the canoe trip was canceled. Again.

In happier news, Breyers ice cream is on sale for $2.88 at Broulims. I bought some last night because my roommates wanted smoothies. But I'm not really a smoothie lover so I made a milkshake. I inherited a smoothie maker from my previous roommate. I figured we should use it at least once.

Our apartment has officially dwindled to half it's usual capacity and I'm left with my own room! And an entire day to relax! I was supposed to have an exam open today, but my teacher still hasn't opened it. I'm hoping she forgot and I won't have to do it this weekend! Yeah, that is a real possibility. She forgets things a lot.

I'm kinda freaking out about classes because of the five classes I have only received one grade back in three of them (two exams and a project) and nothing back from the other two. And we're halfway through the semester. Seriously, I have literally no clue how I'm going to do this semester.

Anyway, hope your days go great! It's wet and cold and slushy and mucky outside with all gray skies and disgusting mud. It's one of those days where I think I'll make soup and curl up in my nice warm blankets and play with my new ITouch read. It's gonna be a good day now. I can tell. :)

***Oh, and so far every single person I've asked has responded that a vacuum tube is a tube on a vacuum and nothing more, however some asked if there were dirty connotations***

Long Weekend

It's a three day weekend and I have hardly any plans. One of my roommates is going to IF to be with her mom and my other roommate is going to Provo to hang out with her family.

My friend, Ashley and I have been trying to do this canoeing thing since last summer and finally this weekend will hopefully be it. It was canceled other times due to Idaho's crappy weather (99% of the time Idaho weather is crappy. This is why I will absolutely never ever live here ever never never ever ever.). We got an email today saying it may be canceled tomorrow since it's been rainy and gray all day today, but they're going to try and meet anyway. They're gonna make us wear wet suits because it's supposed to be cold. Ah well, I'll just cross my fingers!

That's my only plan for the weekend, though. Unless you count that on Monday my friend and I are going to watch a movie that's required for my Sociology class.

Just gonna be me and Kiara all weekend. Unless of course Kiara decides to go home (she lives only two hours away). Then I get the apartment to myself.

I'm ready for a nice, relaxing weekend with lots of sleep and down time. (Except for the exam I have to take tomorrow and the two huge upcoming midterm projects and my mountain of Spanish homework)

Boys!

I wish I had more to say.

I Think I'm That Kid Everybody Hates

I have a class this semester that I don't like. It just annoys me and I disagree with some of the stuff we have to learn. I haven't read the book all semester. Well, no I tried to read the book but it annoyed me.

We had our first test last week. I hardly studied because I'd get frustrated with the material. The teacher gave us this diagram in class and said, "Memorize this. It'll be on the test." So I memorized it but didn't care what it meant or why all the arrows pointed in the directions they went.

I went to take the test and obviously knew almost nothing about what was on it. To make things worse it was all short answer. Only two of the questions were multiple choice. It asked about some theories that I remembered hearing about but didn't remember much of what they were. I faked almost all my answers.

The final question asked about Jonathon Turner's Theory. Who the heck was Turner? I had no clue. I stared at the question trying to at least come up with a funny or witty answer. Nothing.

So just as I began to write "I have no clue who this dude is. Sorry." I happened to look down at the diagram I had to memorize. And there was Turner's name. His theory was that chart thing. So I quickly scribbled out "I have no clue" (I was using pen because my pencils are all broken) and made up an answer with that.

We got our test scores back today. I got that question right. Also, I got a 94% with "Excellent job!" written across the top in red ink. At first, I thought he just curved the grades. A lot. But the class average was 84% and the lowest score was a 40%.

How does that even happen!?

This Is Not Okay... Except for the Ice Cream

I just haven't been feeling great lately. Maybe it's the fact that I have been having so much trouble breathing. I've actually been having breathing issues pretty much since January, but I've been able to just ignore it and get over it. Except now my roommates actually care that they can constantly hear me gasping for air and breathing heavy and they point it out and threaten to call my parents if I don't do something. The other day a girl in my class even looked over at me and asked if I was dying. This is not okay.

The breathing thing makes me feel better if I try to force myself to do a huge yawn. Needless to say I've been trying to yawn way too much lately. This makes me tired, and I think is the reason for my sore throat. Plus the other day I somehow got this big blister on the roof of my mouth and the skin tore off and it tastes bloody. This is not okay.

My abs hurt from doing this new ab machine yesterday. Good workout. Sore stomach. Especially since my diaphragm already hurts from breathing so heavily. Again, not okay.

Add on top that on my way to the store today I walked into a hole. Well, I walked into a car, and then into a hole beside the car. Who freakin' parks their car on the sidewalk and then puts a hole right beside it!? I seriously looked around for some kid with a camera pulling a prank. This is NOT okay!

Okay so in all honesty I'm laughing most of this off. Yeah, I think the hole thing is funny and was practically rolling on the floor as I explained my grass stain to my roommate (seriously, do those ever come out?) which was not okay because if you recall from complaint numero 3, my abs hurt!

I came home and ate a Neapolitan ice cream sandwich. And then I ate an apple. Then I ate chicken pasta roni. Then I ate another ice cream sandwich. Then I took a nap. Then I ate another ice cream sandwich.

So maybe I'm a piggy. Correction: I am a piggy. But this little piggy's had a hard day.

Personal Triumphs

I have a confession. I'm super competitive. Not many people know or believe this about me. I'm not competitive in the loud, obnoxious, "If you win I'll hate you forever" type of way. I'm competitive in the "I have to beat you or else I can't feel good about myself" kind of way. I'm usually able to, in general, keep quiet about my little obsession with having to be better than everybody else (which, by the way, I'm totally not).

Pretty sure I've been this way my whole life. At the bookstore we had to sell discount cards. If I hadn't sold more discount cards than anyone else, I was going nuts inside my brain. I also tried to make sure I had more sales than anyone else. Not that my bosses (or anyone for that matter) saw or cared in the least about that, but I sure did.

In school I always secretly compare my grades with everyone else. Anytime I get the chance to figure out another students grades I always grasp at it to make sure that I'm doing better, or at least as well as said student. If not, then I get all depressed and work super hard until I make that happen. I force myself to try and be in the top ranges. I don't necessarily have to be the best (cuz that's totally a lost cause), but I have to just be better than usual.

Last winter my roommate Ashley worked really hard and got a 4.0 GPA at the end of the semester with 15 credits. I love Ashley to death. She's very smart and a great roommate. But I just felt like I had to beat her. Secretly, of course. I never told her how much it bothered me. But that's one of the reasons I took 20 credits last semester and did so well. I had to just prove to myself I could do it.

It's a bad obsession overall. But in some ways it's good because I push myself so hard to be better, and I actually do become better.

Today at the gym I was really excited that I finally made my goal of running 4 miles in 50 minutes. I ended up going over 4.5 miles in one hour. I was really really proud of this little triumph of mine. Until I looked at the guy on the treadmill beside me who was on mile 6 in 45 minutes, running without even wheezing. There's no way I'll ever be able to do that.

Then I went over to the weights. I was really proud of myself for being able to finally do this one arm machine at 40 pounds. I felt like this was a super successful workout. Personal triumph. As I got up, feeling the burn in my arms, I noticed the guy sitting down right behind me. He changed it to 110 pounds. Again, no chance I could ever beat that it seems. Fail.

For me, going to the gym and improving on my exercising is a great personal triumph. I have to be careful not to let other people who are way more in shape than I am ruin that for me. It's nice to go to the gym with my old roommate Ashley because we're both about the same level and we both push each other to do a better workout. Well, at least she helps me, I don't know if she has that weird competitive thing or not.

It made everything better when I came home and my roommate, who also works out, told me it looked like I lost weight. I'm not sure if she was just trying to be nice or not, but that made it all totally worth it.

Now I just have to stop comparing myself to people all the time. That can be my next triumph.

Note To Self:

Never ever ever under any circumstances ever never ever live in Idaho after graduation.

I'm sunburned. From being outside for twenty minutes. In Idaho. This is not acceptable. Especially since I lived in Florida and it took like three times as much exposure to the sun for me to get a burn.

Stupid sunburn.

Stupid Idaho.

I took this picture of my legs wishing they weren't so white.



Twenty minutes later I got my wish. They're now red.

On a happier note I had a fantastic weekend. Apart from passing Bliss,




spending it in Boise,




watching* a friend graduate with a bagpipe band,



and hanging out with another friend which was a total adventure, my sister is married and graduated! That's a lot to take in in just one weekend. But it's awesome. I freakin' love my family!

Now I'm back home and back to my typical college life. But maybe I'll be more motivated to work now. Considering the past few weeks I've been super lazy. I practically bombed a test Friday. Okay, well I don't actually know what I got but I'm pretty sure it wasn't good.

But I woke up at 6:30 this morning to go to the gym with Ashley. My arms are no longer sore from lifting weights. But then again, I went all weekend without it so we'll see...

We decorated cakes for FHE tonight. It was so much fun.



It was Maddie's birthday. We split into three groups and we each had a cake with three color frostings that my roommate Jeanette made. Daisy went to the dollar store and bought tons of random crap to put on the cakes. It was awesome.



The one with the glow stick rainbow and the Army men belonged to my group. And ours won! We let Maddie choose her favorite. Honestly in my opinion, the other two were both better than ours. But ours was cleaner looking.





I liked the one with the salamanders coming out the sides, personally. It was fun though and tasted delicious (after we took all the plastic off). Glad I didn't choose to sleep through it, but really, I'm going to bed now.

*So there were like 1,100 graduates at that thing. So Kelly and I stayed to watch Jalene walk across the stage. Then we went outside and sat on the grass (insert sunburn picture) and watched YouTube videos on my new ITouch for the remainder of the graduation. It's kind of cheating, but really, who enjoys watching strangers walk across a stage for a blue folder?

Is It Just Me?

Maybe it's because it's almost 2am.

Question: What is a "prediction" of a scientific hypothesis or scientific theory?

Answer: b. An observation we ought be see if the theory is true.

Does that answer make sense to anyone else? I know what a "prediction" is. That's like, fifth grade. But this answer makes no sense in my mind. Sometimes I really think I'd do better without the multiple choice.

Maybe it's, "An observation we thought we'd see if the theory was true." That's still poorly worded but...

My Old Roomie Got Married

Oi! So much to say!

I'm sore. I've been exercising more and more lately and today and yesterday was particularly hard. Especially since now I have an ITouch. I get so bored running and doing the elliptical at the gym it's nice to finally have cool music to listen to!

Oh yeah, I got an ITouch!!! As much as I despise Apple and am risking being disowned by my family for giving them money, I have to say Microsoft has nothing close to an ITouch (that I know of). This little device is incredible, plus I got a fantastic deal on it! The only negative is the back is a little scratched up, but it came with a free case so you can't even tell.

My old roommate Kassie got married a few weeks ago and her reception was on Saturday in Blackfoot. I rode down with Alyson who is Kassie's sister Kellie's (who was also my roommate) husbands sister. Yeah, see if you can figure that out! Alyson happens to be in my ward this semester and we remembered each other from back when Kellie and Alex (her husband and Alyson's sister) we dating. Anyway, I rode to Blackfoot with Alyson and her boyfriend, Brian. This is us by the giant potato in front of the potato museum in Blackfoot. Yep, Idaho has a potato museum. Stop laughing.



I got to the reception and Kassie and Joe were standing at the front meeting people. When I walked in Kassie's mom said she had to hold her back because she was jumping up and down trying to run to me! We hadn't seen each other since last July! My horribly wrapped present went over well. At least I thought. See, once I got there and saw the table with all the beautifully wrapped pink gifts with ribbons and expensive bags and such, I became very self-conscious of my magazine wrapped gift. And then I realized I'd forgotten a card. As I walked into the room a little boy came over and offered to take my present to the table. I gave it to him and decided to disown the gift after that. No one saw me! I was safe!

And then last night Joe and Kassie came up to Rexburg. They came by my apartment to say another goodbye until January. While there, they mentioned the gift. "Yeah, you know we had this incredibly strange gift you may know something about." I had no idea how they figured me out. Since a lot of Joe's old roommate's who I'm sure were perfectly capable of doing the same thing were there, I thought I was safe.

And then they explained that my magazine I had used still had the address on it. It said Apt. 23 and since I live in Apt. 23 they knew it was me. Blast it! I hadn't even thought about that! Ah well. They said thanks. :)

This is Joe, Kassie and me.



I don't know why I do this to myself. Kassie is seriously one of the most beautiful girls I know and I feel so hideous and fat and ugly standing beside her. But I love being with her because she's so stinkin' awesome! And Joe is incredible too. Seriously, this is my third year at BYU-I... I've seen a lot of weddings/marriages. But theirs is definitely the one I'm happiest with and I think it'll just be fantastic! I'm so happy for them! Kassie really is one of my most favorite roommates I've ever had and Joe is so great. I'm so glad I get to be friends with them!

Speaking of favorite roommates, I've been going to the gym with my old roommate Ashley lately. And by "lately" I mean yesterday. But we're trying to go every M/W/F at 6:45am. Early, I know. But hey, maybe it'll be good. I miss rooming with Ashley. She's also a favorite roommate. I love going to the gym with her. We both think the other is more in shape, but actually I think we're about the same. Although I really do think she's thinner. Anyway, I like going to the gym with her because I push myself harder when she's around and I feel more wiped out when I'm done. We also have plans to go rock climbing and canoeing this semester. I'm so excited!

And continuing with awesome roommates, I seriously have some of the best this semester! We all get along so well. There hasn't been any fighting or even bad feelings or anything. It's so nice! I love my roommies!



This is them eating my totally awesome apple pie. And that reminds me, I never showed pics of my apple pie so here they are. It looked better before it went in the oven. But it tasted great! At least my roommates said so.





Anyway, I should probably get back to work. All my homework has kind of just piled on me at the last minute (well, no it was more that I knew about it and chose to let it pile up to the last minute but... you know, I'm the victim here!) so I better go. So on a slightly related note (studying), I'll leave you with this final picture. This was my desk during finals week last semester. I had everything I needed. Book, notes, study guide, paper, pen, and most importantly, food,

Good Friends Work With Limited Resources

My old roommate's wedding reception is tonight. Did you know you're supposed to dress up for those? Well I didn't. I don't go to these things very often, okay?

At least I bought her a present! But I was too cheap to buy wrapping paper. And I was too lazy to go on campus to get a copy of The Scroll (school newspaper). So I used this convenient magazine/coupon booklet thing that was in our house. No one in my apartment has scissors... except for my hair cutting scissors but I didn't want to use them so I wrapped her present with just exactly enough paper. It looks amazing if I do say so myself!





Don't be jealous of my superior gift wrapping skills. Wouldn't you want your wedding present to be this awesome? That's what I thought.

Oh, and Cathryn, your wedding present will be ten times cooler! But you'll have to wait ten times longer too because I'm only giving it to you in person. :)

Girls Are Weird...

Girl #1 asks Girl #2 to ask Girl #3 a favor because Girl #1 is too shy to ask said favor. Girl #3 does favor, but makes a funny face while doing so. Girl #2 assumes that Girl #3 didn't really want to do said favor, therefore, Girl #2 feels bad for asking.

Girl #1 notices Girl #2 feels bad, and when she finds out it's because of the favor she wanted Girl #3 to do, Girl #1 feels bad.

Girl #3 notices Girl #1 and Girl #2 feel bad, and so Girl #3 feels bad for making them feel bad because in reality she was happy to do the favor, she just passed gas while doing it which explains the funny face.

Girl #1 feels bad because she feels responsible for making Girl #2 and Girl #3 feel bad because it was her favor to begin with.

Girl #2 blames herself for beginning the "I feel bad" feelings.

Girl #3 feels bad for making a funny faces.

All feel bad that the others feel bad.

Boy walks in. Sees an apartment with a bunch of girls apologizing to each other. Boy wants to know what happened. Girls say boy doesn't want to know. Boy insists because boy wants to fix problem.

Girls unify in being annoyed at poor boy who has no idea what's going on and girls no longer feel bad.

Good luck if you followed that. :)

Joys of a Fake Mini Kitchen!

I get burns a lot. Seriously, when I'm at college I can pretty much always guarantee I have at least one burn on my hand. This has only been for the past few months, however. Ever since I learned that my pan fits in the oven. None of my roommates, nor myself, have cookie sheets or really any oven-safe anything. Except for my pans that can double as working in the oven. So I use those to make the things I cook in the oven.

Well, last night I wanted to bake cookies in the oven. I was super careful and used a cloth to take it out (we don't have oven mitts or hot pads either, so we just use dish towels... but we have to be careful cuz if the dish towel touches the bottom of the oven it starts a fire.... don't ask how we figured that one out). Anyway, I took it out and put it on the stove. Well, the dishwasher was running with our only spatula in it, so I was trying to get my cookies out with a butter knife. This doesn't work very well.

So I decided to grab the handle of the pan and flip the whole thing upside down. My reflexes apparently decided to work super slow though. I had grabbed the pan and even picked it up when my hand decided that was not going to happen and I dropped the pan with a loud clatter.

No worries, the cookies were safe! But my hand? Well yeah, it feels kinda funny. Actually it doesn't. Cuz you see, it doesn't really feel at all anymore. Despite my running it under cold water for like ten minutes. It just sort of tingles. It's funny to use this computer because as I move around with the mouse I can't really feel that my pointer finger is moving it, but I see the mouse moving. Weird.

Okay so really it's not that bad. But typically when I get a burn it's pretty small. This one covers literally my whole entire hand. It doesn't hurt though, so I'm sure it'll be fine. :)

I can't wait to own my own house with a big kitchen and a dishwasher that works and real dishes and a real nice mixer and plenty of plates and serving bowls and spatulas and can openers and strainers and cookie sheets and cake pans and pie pans and and and.... well yeah.

Today Is The Day

I have to give a presentation in my persuasion class today. This is one of those assignments that I totally dread and don't want to do and procrastinate it to the last possible second and then when it's over I feel like a gigantic weight has been lifted off of me.

The presentation is about this TV show "Intervention" where they film people who are drug addicts. Unfortunately it's a partner project and when we began the project I was totally comfortable with everything and my stance and our question and all. But then she decided to change it and complete her outline in a totally different way than I did. It basically forced my stance to be, "I believe doing, and encouraging others to do, recreational drugs is perfectly ethical." Which, obviously, I totally do not believe at all. I was able to convince her that I didn't want to stand in front of the class and act like I actually believed this. So we changed it to a slightly better question, but one that I still disagree with the stance I'm being forced to take.

My friend took this same class from the same teacher though and said she's not a super hard grader. I'm sure I'll be fine. My partner's not freaking out, but then again she doesn't have to stand in front of the class and be the "bad guy." I wish we'd have chosen a different question. Too bad I'm a pushover. Blech!