Random Ramblings #7

75. I thought about posting about the temple tonight. But I already chose my music playlist for the evening, and it's just not the right music to write about the temple. So that will be an upcoming post, I'm sure.
76. I am really suffering for good food over the last several days. Dinner without dinner group is just a weird concept for me. Plus also, when do I have time to go shopping anyway?
77. I've recently started to like the song "If I Die Young" by the Band Perry. Interestingly enough, I don't like any of Katie Perry's music, and Christina Perry is hit and miss on the goodness of her music. What is it with music artists named Perry anyway?
78. It's laundry time. I have to wash all my shorts so I can wear shorts every day next week at band camp. And I'm finally washing my sheets because it's been too long.
79. Speaking of band camp, I got to climb the "Rameumptum"! Really, it's just the new fancy band tower we have. Contrary to what the song says, there really is room for 2 or 3 (upwards of 8 people! . .haha .. upwards, get it?!), and it's awesome.
80. I have a strong urging to buy a book right now. There's a few reasons why I don't buy many pleasure books. a)I'm a transient student and books take up a lot of room. b)I'm a student . ..two good libraries within walking distance provide me with all the access to books that I really want. c) I'm a student . .. do I have much time to read? d) As much as I like to read, some books are only worth checking out of the library for free instead of actually buying them and hanging on to them forever.
80.1. So what I really want to buy is The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I read it earlier this summer, and I loved it! Yesterday Lisa and I went to see the movie . ..soo good! I laughed, I cheered, I cried . .. it was intense-like camping! We sat there after the movie . ..still on the very front row (great seats, right?) just in speechless awe and the greatness of the emotional journey we had just been on. It was awesome. And now I want to read it again! It will probably be my lazy-mood-but-don't-know-what-to-do-mood. Lazy won't come around often enough during Fall semester, but if it's a book that I've already read and already loved . . .it'll be worth buying it, right?
81. Somehow this week I was privileged to join a group of guys as they talked about girls. For being the only female in the group, I got a small glimpse into how guys talk about girls. It was very interesting.
82. I'm currently listening to the song "Hey, Soul Sister" by Train. (See how I can't really write about the temple with that playing?) Anyway, it reminds me of a couple of summer friends in particular. Sigh. Dearest summer, I will miss you.
83. But I am SOO ready for fall! Football games, pumpkin pie, crunchy leaves, new friends, busy schedule . . .man, I am soo ready! Intimidated a little, perhaps. But my roommate Rebecca gave me a new insight; for how busy and overwhelmed my activities may seem .. .it's the people that make it worth it all. Instead of eating that giant elephant one bite at a time, the goodness of the people make it like eating a very large pie. You can't finish it all at once, but every bite of it sure tastes rill good. Especially that pumpkin kind, ya know.
84. Wanna know a secret? I'm not the only person that can touch my tongue to my nose! Kevin can too!

85. There are so many more things I'd like to write about tonight . ..like my most recent date, my transient roommates, band camp, my awesome new job, and my new calling. But why overload it all on my blog, right? I gotta spread it out otherwise it'll be overkill. For me and for my readers.
86. So folks, thanks for reading my random ramblings tonight. May all your wildest dreams come true. Which reminds me . .I dreamed that I was on a cruise ship with my clarinet professor and some other friends. We looked out the window and we saw the letters "EFY" painted on the mountainside. Weird.

Happy Halloween!

Pre-story: Our bishop wants the ward people to be dating. So, the Relief Society organized a date auction activity . ..etc, etc .. . .long story short: Brett got to carve watermelons with me! (There really is a pre-pre story to that if you're really interested, but for the protection of the innocent, I'll leave out all the details). Now here's the real story!
Cutting and gutting. The watermelon, of course. Not each other, silly . . .

Notice the lovely aprons. Brett was a good sport to put one on, even though we didn't splatter nearly as much as I thought we would.

2. Cutting the face. Thanks to Todd's pumpkin carving tool, we made a pretty wicked cool face. Check it out:


But then, we created the mood, and here's what it REALLY looked like:

Oooh! Scary! But pretty cool, if I do say so myself. We can look just as scary . .. well, we tried anyway.

But you know, carved watermelons in the middle of August just put you in a Halloween mood, don't you think? It did for us! Here's what we did next . . .

We dressed up and went trick-or-treating!!!
My costume was pre-made (thanks to my ol' high school days), but we did have fun putting together Brett's mummy costume. Sadly, it didn't really last very long . ..he kept trailing toilet paper everywhere we went. I'd say we looked pretty scary. At least scary enough to get a lot of food! Either that, or people were just a bit weirded out to see two costumed people with a carved watermelon on their front doorstep asking for treats. What can I say-people LOVED us!! We totally made bank! Mostly from our ward friends who actually know us when we're not dressed up and knocking on their doors at random hours on a Friday night. Here's a picture of the spoils:

We inherited the pumpkin basket from Jessica's apartment . .. the very last apartment we went to. After coming home and taking inventory of our booty, we promptly ate the cake we got from N3, half of the cookies from N6, the fruit snacks from somebody in South. Likewise, we promptly threw away the mysterious packaged donut from Shalista (name has been changed to protect the innocent), the cough drops (yeah, because whoever gave them to us was probably sick anyway), and the half empty salsa jar from the Taj. (Really, from the Taj? I'm not sure if anything can be trusted!!) We divided up the rest of the booty.
As much fun as these pictures are, there were just some things that can't be pictured. Like the surprised looks on people's faces when they opened the door. Or the snowcones that a random stranger in the Elms gave us. Yes, my friends. Snowcones!! Best. Treat. Ever!! .. .at least for a midnight trick-or-treat run. Nor can I show our scary voices as we told people to "Open the door!!" And although I can't show a picture, if I were to tell you that I had random fits of giggles at the silliness of what we were doing . ..I bet you can imagine that, too. And if you know me at all, you can probably imagine how much fun I had on my Halloween date with Brett. Happy Halloween everyone!

A Very Fulfilling Day

Today's checklist:

• sell back textbooks. $24
  
• have fun at work. Make an awesome design for the Band CD jacket label. Oh, and did I mention that I LOVE my job?! =)
  
• eat free food with Catering/Morris Center crew. Pizza.
  
• study with a friend, Dre. I almost asked him for his number so we can be friends outside of class . . .oops, botched that one!
  
• take a final. Earn an A. That definitely was the easiest term of classes I've ever taken!!
  
• prep Relief Society things. Schedule a presidency meeting.
  
• practice my clarinet
• volunteer at the MTC. Oh, hey, they changed the TRC policy! Now we go as ourselves instead of acting as investigators, less actives or recent converts. And they are definitely teaching the lessons based on the 8 doctrinal points that the Church has come out with over the last year or so. It's especially cool volunteering there now.
  
• go to dinner group. Watch Robert fail at trying to eat 6 saltines in 1 minute. You try it . ..it looks a little tough.
• Watch about 20 minutes of TV.
• Eat about half a dozen cookies that Rebecca made. (Not all at once, of course . . .)
• Stop by the library to see if there are any good movies to check out. There weren't.
• Dodge the sprinklers in front of Chatsworth that were turned on ALL day.
• Play headers with Katy and Lauren with her awesome 99-cent Macey's ball.
• Go for a run with Brett.
• Hang out with the boys in S5. That's definitely a guys' apartment. We talked about cars, guitars, and guns.
  
• Watch part of a freaky movie with my roommates.
• Schedule an appointment online through the DMV to get my Utah Drivers' License.
• Make this blog post.
• And phew! Finally go to bed!

Blog post search and find: Where do the following fit into the context? (I'll reward cookies to the person who finds the most!)
the name of my summer crush
cumin
a free fun size KitKat
the Church Handbook of Instructions
my social security number
a name badge

New Friends

Like I promised, my next post is on NEW FRIENDS! But by now, they really seem like old friends because I feel like I've known them for a long time. It's only just been this summer! Sadly, I haven't been taking very many pictures either, but let it be known that I have really great friends. Let's play who's who . . .Try to identify who fits which description in the pictures.
Who in this picture will be my new roommate in the fall? (Hint: Her name is Kerri)
Who in this picture is a photographer for the Daily Universe? (Clue: Her name is Stephanie.)

Who in this picture has a brand new nephew (his first one, actually)? (Look for someone named Jordan)
Who speaks with a nice Southern accent? (We call him Keith)
Who has been on a helicopter ride in the last year? (Miss Duvall, aka Beth)
Who has the best Chaco tan line I've ever seen? (Hint: His name is Matt)
Who is the coolest roommate? (I'd be sad if you don't get this one)
Which two people talked about linguistics during the entire descent from this hike (that's what the picture's from anyway . . .)? (The only other ones left in the picture.)

Comments are very much welcome on this blogpost. =) Until the next one . . .over and out.

Old Friends

Remember that old song?
Make new friends, but keep the old . .one is silver and the other gold . . .
Well, I've never figured out which ones are the silver ones because to me, they're all golden friends! Since coming home from my mission, I've had the opportunity to catch up with several of my dear old friends. Here's just a sampling . . .
This is Lisa, Sarah, and Tara . ..good old friends from the BYU Clarinet Studio. Well, I guess Lisa's a trumpet player, but we still consider her an adopted member of the Clarinet Studio. This was at Sarah's recital, and yes .. .Tara always makes faces like that! =)
Here's a somewhat okay picture of a group of us from the 2008 Nauvoo Brass Band. Marie, Sis. Blackinton, Shanda, LIsa, Dr. Blackinton, Sophie, me, and Jordan. We hadn't seen each other in a while 'cause we all went on missions !=)




Friends from my Elementary Music Education classes. The first picture is Jessica and me at Rachel's wedding, then it's a picture of Jessica, Evan and me at 31-cent ice cream night at Baskin Robins. Then it's Jessica and me again with Christina. The five of us all started out together in the classes, yet we've all taken different routes. Jessica graduated in the program, Rachel's doing ElEd after serving a mission, Evan's doing a BA in Music, and Christina (a single mom of 5 and one of my personal heroes!) is studying Music Therapy at Utah State. Where will I end up? =)
My MTC teacher and companions (Jessica, Lisa, and Rachel) at Lisa's wedding. Now it's a race to see who will be next! Haha.. . .NOT me!
Friends from Midland: McKenna Stevens Nordin (a sister missionary who lived with us) and her parents, and our recent convert friend Steve Corder. We all went to the temple together.

My dear Music Ed Major friend Lily Ferguson. With the passing of time, we see each other less and less, but we love each other more and more. From May 2008-January 2011, we overlapped serving missions, so it had been a while since we had seen each other. And the amazing thing is . ..we wrote to each other during that whole time!

Here's Christina and Jessie and me. We were friends in the clarinet section in Marching Band and Wind Symphony Tour during the 2006-2007 year. Jessie's graduated and working, Christina is a mommy, and I'm still finishing out school. Both of them married boys that they met on the 2007 tour. Maybe I ought to go on tour with the Wind Symphony again-third time's the charm, right? ;)
Next post . ..new friends! =)

Relationships

Today I decided to try out the new Institute class that our stake is offering. It's called "Relationships," but really it means Marriage Prep. I guilt-tripped Heidi into going with me because I certainly didn't want to go by myself! It was an alright lesson, I suppose . . .I really liked what we talked about eternal perspective.
And so then I tried applying it. By asking a guy out on a date. Oh my goodness . . .I was an awful wreck beforehand! It's a double date with my cousin Jonathan, and the tickets for the event are already bought for Saturday, so . . .he's guilt-tripping me into going. I tell you what, I went crazy before I got up enough courage to call a guy on the phone to ask him. I spent about 8 minutes on the phone, and at least about 3 times that amount of time trying out my words on Heidi and Jonathan. Do I ask if he's free that night first? I have to be a big girl and use the word "double date." How do I respond if he can't? What small talk can I make before hand? I have to make sure he knows that my cousin is a he and not a she . . .etc etc. This was just like the role-playing that you do with your investigators so they can tell their anti-Mormon family or employer that they're getting baptized. Heidi will be a good missionary; she gives good feedback on that role-play thing!
I am ridiculous I tell you.
I guess that's what happens when I really like this boy.
But Heidi listened in on my side of the conversation to give me feedback. I did okay I think.
But . . .he can't go.
Which means . .. I have to do it all over again . . ..
Shut up.
I should really work on this eternal perspective thing . . ..

What I want to do Saturday at 6 pm

C'Mon .. . .who doesn't get tired some days?!