Wednesday, December 22, 2010

So much time.

Why is it that when you are super busy, you can think of 124,492,491,937 things you want to do, but as soon as you are on vacation, that list of 124,492,491,937 things disappears and you can't think of a single thing to do?  Feel free to ponder upon that question while you read the rest of this post.  Let me know when you find an answer.  :)  Here's some more random thoughts for ya.  :)

1.  Staying up late.  I love to sleep.  A lot.  Then why do I always stay up late?  Well, the main reason would be that I HATE getting ready for bed.  The whole process is just obnoxious.  Thus, I just try to avoid it entirely by staying up.  This usually results in me falling asleep on the couch or at the table still dressed in normal day clothes.

2.  So if you go to byucougars.com which is the official BYU sports page, you will find on the right-hand side of the page a list of videos you can watch.  Beware.  HUGE distraction.  There are so many.  And obviously BYU sports are way more interesting than the vast majority (99.9999%) of my homework.

3.  Christmas music is excellent.  I LOVE it.  The end.

4.  Snow.  I like it a lot too.  I could sit at a window and watch it fall all day long.  And it makes everything (except for cars) look 398 times more beautiful.

5.  Static.  Definitely on my list of things I like the least.  There is so much of it in Utah.  And I thought there was a lot in California.  False.  Utah wins in the having the most static category.

6.  Frozen hair.  It's an experience.  :)  Even frozen hair will not make me wake up early enough to blow dry my hair before I walk to school.  Sleep is too precious.

7.  Poster tape.  So on the first floor of the bookstore, they have the better part of an entire aisle dedicated to every kind of tape you could possibly imagine.  Lately, I've been having a poster dilemma.  My posters will not stay on the wall for prolonged periods of time.  Thus, I decided to buy poster tape.  It's basically just double-sided tape.  I really don't know why it is that special.  However, I do know that it worked much better than anything else I've tried.  Weird.  Too bad the posters fell down again despite this magical tape.

8.  BYU is full of interesting people.  And working at the circulation desk in the library, I get to meet many of them.  For example, one time I was informing a library patron that she had some fines because she had turned her books in after the due date.  This shocked her.  She couldn't believe the library charged late fees.  "Since when do you guys charge late fees?!?!?!" she exclaimed.  "Ummmm...since I've worked here," I responded.  However, I was really wondering the whole time what planet she had been living on where there were late fees at libraries.  As much as such fees are hated, they still exist at every library I've ever been to.  Ha.

9.  Leaving my keys in the door.  I do this all of the time.  It's a bad habit.  And I usually don't notice until I leave the apartment again.

10.  Celebration of Christmas, the BYU choirs Christmas concert, was the first week of December.  There were two performances on Saturday.  I was at home for a little bit in between concert.  All of the sudden, around 6:30 p.m., I realized for the first time that day that I usually work on Saturdays from 4-8 p.m.  Ummm...last time I checked, no one had signed up to cover my shift, and I had totally forgotten to find someone to cover it.  Yet no one had called to see why I hadn't showed up.  Thus, I frantically call the circulation desk.  Luckily, Rebecca had signed up to cover my shift.  I will be eternally grateful.

I'll keep it at ten to save you from complete boredom.  Merry almost Christmas!  :)

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Almost there.

One more final to go.  I was planning on being done tonight, but that didn't happen for various reasons.  And what would I do tomorrow if I didn't have a final to take?  Ha.  And now for the randomness that is my blog...  :)

1.  Spanish.  I LOVE IT.  It's such a great language.  I'm glad my mom convinced me to take it instead of French in high school.  Best decision I ever made.  Ha.  Anyway, I just took the final for my Intro to Spanish Literature class.  I'll admit, I'm not a huge fan of reading and then analyzing in any language.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE to read, but as soon as you have to think deep thoughts about what you read and why it was written and then get graded on those thoughts, all the fun is completely destroyed.  Anyway, I was not very good at keeping up on my reading for this class, but the last thing we read was a novel entitled Papel mojado.  And I read every last bit of it!  So while I may be super intimidated by all the returned missionaries in my class, I can say I read a whole novel in Spanish.   And get this...I even understood it.  Crazy.  I know.  Side note: If I serve a mission, I bet you anything, it won't be Spanish speaking.  Just because.  Ha.

2.  Mail.  I also love it.  Since I was the third roommate to move in, I got stuck without a mail key.  It kills me sometimes.  But not enough to get a key of my own.  Our apartment gets quite a bit of mail.  Wedding announcements, letters from missionaries...what you would expect for an apartment full of sophomore girls at BYU.  :)  And did I mention my family is GREAT at sending me mail?  In fact, they even mailed me letters they could've given to me in person at Thanksgiving.  They're great.  :)

3.  So, it snowed last night.  It was great!  Waking up to snow is the best.  Especially when it's been pretty warm here lately.  I needed some cold to make me grateful for the California sunshine (which might not show up for a week or so when I get home according to the forecast).  Anyway, ice skating was supposed to be the real topic of #3.  Not the ice skating you are thinking of.  But the ice skating I do when it's cold outside and small puddles make the sidewalks slippery.  I purposely slide on the slippery patches just for fun.  It's great.  :)  I call this ice skating.  It makes the walk to and from school so much more exciting.

4.  Traction.  It is very important in icy weather.  Yet, I still fail in picking correct shoes to wear on icy days.  After slipping and falling twice during a single trip to school last year, I discovered that my fake uggs had horrid traction as pictured below.
So I decided on the first day that there was snow this year that I wasn't going to make that mistake again.  Thus, I proceeded to wear my Keds instead.  I don't know what I was thinking.  If anything, Keds have worse traction.  See below.
When oh when will I ever learn?  :)

5.  Snow fights.  After a devotional a few weeks ago, Anna Toone and I were walking down those bridge/ramps that go from the Marriott over the street to the parking lots.  Snow was gathered on the top of the railing.  And I could not resist the temptation.  Thus, I continued to pick up snow with my bare hand...I repeat...my BARE hand...and then threw it at my roommate.  We proceeded to have a snow fight.  Yes we were acting like five-year-olds.  But what can you expect from people who did not grow up with snow?  So it was all fun, until I realized that my hand was freezing and numb and in pain.  PAIN.  Note to self, don't pick up snow and throw it without gloves even if the sun is shining and makes you think that it might not be cold outside.

Alright.  That's it for now.  Peace out homies.  Ha.



Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Instead of studying.

So I could and should be studying.  But I'm not feeling it.  Ha.  So I shall continue a little further in my list of thing to blog about.

1.  Magleby's must hate me.  I have now tried twice to get free chocolate cake there after our basketball team scores 80+ points.  And I have failed twice.  The first time we were seven minutes late.  The second time was a week night and I guess they close obnoxiously early.  And it didn't help that it was the night of the "blizzard of all blizzards".  Tangent: Good thing Magleby's does a promotion for free cake at 80 points because if not, the blowout games that BYU keeps having might get a tad bit boring really fast.

2.  Self-serve frozen yogurt.  My rule: go big or go home.  End of story.

3.  Mi familia.  They are seriously so great!  Thanksgiving was so much fun!  Yes, I'm still writing about Thanksgiving.  :)  My parents seriously know everything.  And if they for some reason don't know, my grandparents know it.

4.  Snow College has a GORGEOUS new library.  Yes I'm a nerd for liking a library so much.  :)  And my Uncle Jon is the librarian.  He's cool.  :)

5.  My knees.  It's a love hate relationship.  Knees are great to have, except when they dislocate when you are sitting with your feet propped up at Thanksgiving and you move maybe an inch.  Lame.

6.  Around-the-world ping pong.  BEST. EVER.  My whole family...extended family included...played on Thanksgiving.  So much fun!

8.  Lakers @ Jazz 11/26/10.  Kobe is SO GOOD.  He scored the last 14 points for the Lakers.  Yes we may have lost.  Just wait for the playoffs.  That is all I have to say on that matter.

9.  Football.  BYU @ U of U.  17-16.  We should have won.  Horrible call(s) by the refs.  Even Ute fans admit it.  Utah didn't have any points until the fourth quarter.  Just wait until next year.

10.  After the depressing game mentioned above, we watched three movies while I studied for a test.  :)  Haha.  The Pacifier, Elf, Princess Diaries 2.  Classics.  OK, not really.  But good nonetheless.

11.  So I wanted to keep this to 10 items, but I just had to add one more to complete the Saturday.  I took my last music test during the last possible hour.  I think that makes it 4/4 music tests taken during the last possible hour of availability.  Next semester I'm teaching a course on professional slacking.  :)

Done.  For now.  Off to attempt to study.  Which probably means sleep.  :)

Monday, December 6, 2010

New plan.

So I am heading home in 11 days!  I can't wait!  California is SO great.  SO GREAT!  It seriously makes me so happy.  And I would have never known of my love for the state of California if I hadn't had to leave it to go to school.  Don't get me wrong BYU is so great too!  I wouldn't want to go to school anywhere else.

Anyway, the point of all that was despite my excitement to go home super soon, I still have to endure the end of the semester. It's great except for the fact that there is always something school-related that you could be doing (i.e. studying for impending finals or writing papers which due dates are fast approaching).  So I came up with a new blogging plan.  I will make my posts super short.  I will make posting a motivation of getting important school-related things done.

So I shall start with basketball.  Yes, I know this game was forever and a day ago, but you're gonna have to deal with it.  :)

BYU vs. Mississippi Valley State.  Sad basketball game.  We won 86-36.  Mississippi only scored 7 points in the first half.  Pathetic.  Despite BYU's high score, we didn't play all that well in the beginning of the game either.  The score was about 12-7 ten minutes into the game.  Oh and the "blizzard of all blizzards" came when I was at the game.  Let's just say it barely snowed.  At all.

More to come after I finish something else.  :)

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Craziness.

Today I woke up at what I thought was 9:40 a.m.  I was mad because that meant I was going to be late for my 10 a.m. volleyball class.  After I started getting ready, I realized it was only 8:40 a.m.  I love when that happens. Yes, I'm a little sad I could have slept for longer, but it gets me out of bed with time to get ready for once in my  life.  :)

Volleyball was good.  It's because I ate breakfast.  Haha.  Except, both of my earrings managed to fall out at separate times while playing.  I had to make everyone look for them both times.  I didn't want my the piercings to close.  I can finally change my earrings this Saturday!  Can't wait.

After volleyball, I went to work.  I was covering for someone.  If you haven't heard, there is this storm/blizzard that “will far surpass anything that we've seen, probably for the last several years.”  (According to the National Weather Service)  Supposedly it's heading straight for us.  Anyway, about 2:30, the library announces that since the rest of the campus is shutting down, the library is too!  It was great!  A little stressful trying to get everyone's books checked out while they were blasting the closing music.  But all is good!  It's not even snowing yet but according to one site, there is a 100% chance of precipitation tonight.  Can you even say that there is a 100% chance of anything in the future?  I don't think you can.  But whatever.  It's supposed to be -8 degrees Fahrenheit with the wind chill in Provo tonight.  Haha.  Should be interesting.  I'm excited.  I have a feeling it won't even snow.  But I guess I can count this as my first ever snow day!  Hurray!  That's about it.  Just in case you were wondering, I am in fact going to brave this large storm to go to the basketball game tonight.  :)

Saturday, November 20, 2010

It's been awhile...

You see.  I knew this would happen.  I would not post for a long time and then end up with some super long post like this one is going to be.  Don't worry.  I've been keeping a list of things to blog about.  Yes, I'm a nerd.  I'll try to limit the rambling.  Here goes...

1.  Every Thursday, Women's Chorus has a devotional.  This means we sing a hymn and have a spiritual thought in addition to the prayer before class.  Anyway, it never ceases to amaze me how good hymns sound sung by Women's Chorus.  I'm serious.  So good.  It's a shame we only sing one verse.  P.S.  I hate only singing one verse.  You could say it's a pet peeve of mine.

2.  BYU is a funny place.  For example, people will be studying by themselves in good ol' Harold B. Lee Library and then decide they want to go somewhere.  Obviously not somewhere super far, but far enough away that they cannot see their stuff.  They just leave their laptop and all sorts of valuable stuff laying there.  No, they don't even ask people to watch it.  They just leave.  It cracks me up.  And in case you're wondering I leave my stuff all of the time.  People are so trusting.  I guess it's a good thing.  :)

3.  Shoes.  I might be obsessed.  Okay, obsessed is not the right word.  But I just love, I mean LOVE, my Vans.  All three pairs in fact.  They are the greatest.  Here they are in Espana.


And I also love when I see other people wearing them.  I often catch myself just looking at other people's shoes while wandering around campus.  I also love my Rainbows.  But it's a little cold here in Provo so I haven't worn them as much lately.

4.  Cancelled classes are the best.  THE BEST.  Nothing makes me happier.  Okay.  That's a lie.  But as far as school goes, cancelled classes are great.

5.  Veteran's Day.  While I am still a little bitter that we didn't get school off, I still can't forget to blog about it.  I am SO thankful for all those who serve and have served our country.  I am so proud to be an American.  This country would not be the great place it is today without our armed forces.  Yes, our country is far from perfect, but I wouldn't ever want to live anywhere else.

6.  So you know how sometimes someone will ask a question in a public setting such as a lecture and then the person answering will totally not answer the question at all?  Yeah.  It's kinda funny and awkward.  And that is all I have to say on that topic.

7.  Lately, I have been wondering if President Samuelson ever wears anything other than a suit.  I am almost positive he doesn't.

8.  College basketball.  More specifically BYU basketball.  I LOVE IT.  A LOT.  I'm serious.  The home opener was super cool.  And we crushed Fresno State.  Their coached by Steve Cleveland who used to be BYU's coach.  I decided he looks exactly like a basketball coach.  See picture below.


9.  College students will do almost anything for a free t-shirt.  I'm serious.  

10.  Utah is super dry.  Not that California is super humid.  But believe it or not, it is not as dry as Utah.  My hair is the biggest indicator of this change in humidity.  What I thought was not curly hair in California is way curlier than my hair in Utah.  My mother used to comment that she liked that girls in Utah always did something to their hair as opposed to just leaving it down.  While this is not entirely true, I have realized that perhaps the underlying reason for this phenomenon is that girls in Utah know that it's harder to have good hair in such a dry place.  Just a thought.

11.  Spain.  I want to go back.  Really bad.  It is so great.










12.  Grocery market.  My family always called it this.  In fact "grocery market" or simply just "market" means exactly the same thing "grocery store" does.  Not until this year did I realize that no one else calls it the "market".  Who knew?  

13.  The other day, we were at a stake fireside.  I was thinking about a time over the summer when Kellie, Emily, and I played baseball.  Or at least tried to play.  :)  We had softballs, baseballs, whiffle balls, and tennis balls.  Somehow, while sitting listening to the fireside and thinking about this baseball playing experience, I thought of the most hilarious thing ever.  What if someone decided that they wanted to break a car window with a tennis ball.  So they throw a tennis ball as hard as they possibly can at a the chosen car window.  And all that happens is that the tennis ball bounces back extremely fast and hits the person in the face.  For some strange reason, I thought this was HILARIOUS.  I laughed for quite some time.  :)

14.  Anna and Anna and I made crazy cake the other day.  Why it is called crazy cake, we do not know.  All we could think of is that it might be called crazy because it had vinegar in it and no eggs.  I liked it.  :)

15.  On Monday, I had to wake up early.  Okay so it was only about 8 a.m. :)  The purpose of this early awakening was so I could watch this movie that I had to for a class.  Quick plug for iTunes: their movie rentals through iTunes are extremely convenient.  Anyway, at one point in this movie, the characters were going to sleep.  I then realized I was jealous of these movie characters for getting to go to sleep.  Jealousy of sleeping movie characters, my friends, is one of the many signs of lack of sleep.   

16.  Editing is done best late at night/early in the morning.  The reason for this is simple.  It is harder to comprehend anything during this time.  Thus, whatever you are editing will end up being extremely clear.

17.  Laceless shoes are the best.  Especially in the rain.  

18.  Life-size cardboard cutouts.  I don't like them.  They are kinda creepy.  And what are the purpose of them anyway?  I guess they do succeed at getting my attention every time, but I still do not like them.

19.  BYU vs. Utah State basketball game.  SO GOOD.  We won 78-74.  Besides the game itself being super exciting, the signs students made were quite comical.  There was the "Voldemort can't stop Jimmer" sign that was probably in celebration of Harry Potter.  Which I haven't seen and don't plan on seeing anytime soon.  I do not understand the hype.  There was also the "U applied to BYU."  I'll admit, kinda harsh.  Then there was, "You stormed the field???  We were 1-4" in reference to our football team's loss to Utah State this season.  Hilarious.  However, my favorite sign was the simple but direct, "You're not good."  Hahahahahahaha.  Emily and I later discussed how the sentence "You are not good" could either be "You aren't good" or "You're not good".  Or you could use the triple contraction and say "Yo'rn't good".  I like it.  :)  

20.  The word "snooze" is bizarre.  Simply bizarre.  While it could be my delirium, I am quite often unable to read the word.  It looks so strange on my phone.  In fact, once I thought the language on my phone had been changed because the word "snooze" looked so strange.

21.  I had volleyball class today which I love.  A few weeks ago, I ate five pieces of french toast before class and went on to play way better than normal.  I blocked a guy!  It was great!  So I decided it was the breakfast that made the difference.  However, today, I did not eat breakfast.  However, I did start watching Space Jam last night and had the Space Jam song stuck in my head this morning.  


Once again, I played some better than normal volleyball.  So I have come to the conclusion that one must either eat breakfast or listen to/sing Space Jam before class in order to play excellently.  What would happen if I ate breakfast and listened to Space Jam music on a Friday morning?  What a crazy thought.  :)

22.  Indoor tracks are funny to me.  Totally unnecessary in California.  :)

The end.  Aren't you glad to be done?  I sure am.  

P.S. Did I mention that Jimmer Fredette is on the cover of Sports Illustrated?  Well, he is.  So cool.



Thursday, November 11, 2010

Why I shouldn't have a blog.

So it is 1:12 a.m. and I could be finishing up homework.   But no.  I am blogging.  How did I know this would happen?  :)  Anyway, looks like it's gonna be another random thought post.

Well, I guess I'll focus on one random thought.  So I went to this performance by a bunch of the cultural clubs at the Wilk tonight for my World Music Cultures class.  That class is running my life.  Haha.  Not really.  But kinda.  :)  Anyway, one of the groups who performed was the Korean Association.  And you know what I realized?  I miss my Korean friends!!!!!!!  So yeah, BYU is diverse alright.  We have people here from every state and a ton of countries around the world.  However, besides white people, there is no massive group of any ethnicity here.  When I swipe people's ID cards at the library, their home address pops up.  So occasionally I'll see people with addresses from Nepal or India or Korea or Mexico (just to name a few), but really there are just a lot of white people at this school and in Utah in general.  I miss California.  For example, back in 2006, my high school was 33% Asian/Pacific Islander, 1% African American, 8% Latino/Hispanic, and 58% White/European American/Other.  I would insert a fancy chart at this point but I am not smart enough to figure out how to copy and paste one.  :)  Now these numbers don't even come close to the percentages of cool ethnic people in the city of Los Angeles that is extremely close to mi casa.  Just look at my home stake.  We have a Spanish ward, a Filipino branch, and a Korean branch!  Isn't it great?!  And the Arcadia mission, which is my home mission, is a bilingual mission.  Every missionary learns to teach in Spanish and English.  And you may be thinking to yourself that we aren't terribly diverse with 58% white people at my high school.   However, you must remember that the 58% included European Americans and Others.  I LOVE DIVERSITY!  :)  My point: I love my hometown and all the ethnic people who live there too.

Ok so this pictures is a bit deceiving.  All of these kids are actually all foreign exchange students from Asian countries.  It was at a summer camp I worked at.  But you get the point.  :)

Well, that's about it.  Happy Veteran's Day!  I'll write more about that later.  Oh don't you worry.  :)