Freedom

The best advertising manager ever:

We walked by the Orca booth earlier this morning after English, & picked up a handful of these pins and ran away feeling kind of bad. But when we came back to campus later, they were just refilling the stores & said they had tons of boxes more, so we didn't feel bad grabbing at least 20 more. We feel kind of obligated to find out what Orca is now, since we took so many of their pins... (my favorites: pro, fab, nifty, savvy, ace, frazzled, hero... oh, & SUPAFLY -- funny story) Oh, the wonders of free stuff. =)

Yesterday was exciting, even though we were running around all day. Asia & I got our tickets for "Dial 'M' for Murder" (& I met her hilarious friend Evan), & I picked up a BYUarts program of all the events throughout the year. This is what I discovered:

... the best thing ever. =) I love how diverse BYU is... tuba weekend!! so awesome. I also asked for instructions on how to sign up to volunteer to usher/etc. in order to get free tickets. Right when I got home, I got online & signed up to work at the Choral & Instrumental Showcases, Pericles, & Don Giovanni, which we need to see for Hum 101 anyway. I'm so excited; I'll get to see everything I want to without having to pay all the ticket prices!! My coworker Kylie and I were talking about it at the Testing Center today, & she said a guy in her ward always took girls on dates to those events, because when you sign up you can ask for 2 spots so a friend can accompany you. =) I thought that was smart. All our Hum 101 class goes to World of Dance tomorrow night...

I am so excited! Especially since today in class we watched clips of different dance styles in preparation... Mikhail Baryshnikov, Riverdance, Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers, West Side Story... and this ballet scene from the movie "Brain Damage". I'm glad she showed us a humorous take as well. =) Dancers are so crazy! They are so flexible & work so hard & make their sport look so easy. Talk about self-discipline... dance is AMAZING. I knew that before, but to look at it from more of an analytical point of view rather than just an entertainment standpoint really reinforced it.

Grandma flew in yesterday, and we're all doing something tonight I believe. =) I have Book of Mormon study group after Organ class today... & today's the day of the big Hymn Project to play for Shinji. =\ We'll see how that goes... I went over to the organ room to practice for a little bit today after visiting the library for the first time ever.... we chilled in the Anthropology section for Audrey. =) & I actually got some work done, it was very good. When I'm on campus & have time to study, I plan on going in the library more often.

As a sidenote from last week, I love how this town loves us. I guess I don't really know what other normal college towns are like, but every business here has BYU fan gear... it's great. =)


Helpful Hint of the Day: Best place on campus for chocolate chocolate chip muffins is the entrance vending machines in the testing center. Just figure out how to work the turny-open-the-door machines first in private before you look stupid in public.

Friday Last

No more classes on Fridays anymore. =) I'm excited. Friday was already my day to sleep in, with no class until 10, but now it's extra sleep in time... fabulous. English was fun today, though. We had a sub, and she was cool & taught the material in a funny way. We applied kairos/kronos & some other analyzation techniques to issues affecting us today, so that was nice. Our Mythos, Logos, Ethos paper is due Monday, but mine's already done, & hopefully what she wants.

After class I had lunch with Megan (sister) -- taco bell, yummy. Tomorrow her ward's renting out a nearby movie theatre & playing 4 movies & providing breakfast for us... so I might go. The only catch is it's at 8AM. =\ We'll see.

Grapes called, I had walked with her over to the Wilk & left her at the book sale, & she needed someone to buy her books because she left her money and credit card back in the dorms. After we were done eating inside, I joined her & picked up some more books myself. I also bought about 5 CDs and 1 movie thing for Dad for his birthday/Christmas presents. It was a worthwhile trip.



Today Megan went up to campus with me to turn in my Civ paper (3 hours before it was due, I was proud of myself) and rent a movie from the bookstore to watch on our Movie Fridays. We're going to wait until Whitney gets in after work to see if she wants to come to Wendy's with us for dinner, after which I plan to bring home my Frosty & eat it as we watch Stardust tonight.

Justin finally got my letter today. I don't know what the deal was... stupid. I guess the Naval Academy just doesn't want their people distracted or some mess like that, so they hide their mail as long as possible. Mail stealers.

Helpful Hint of the Day: Feel free to be lazy & wait 5 minutes for an elevator to take you one floor down even though there's stairs 5 feet away. Especially if you have nothing to do afterwards.

A Night Out

So Asia did beautifully at BYU Idol... she sang "The Wizard & I" from Wicked, and she didn't make any mistakes at all. Everyone else in the competition did.



I thought it was really cool that many of our family home evening guys & many other guys from the ward came to support her... very sweet. =) Nate and Alex even came in late because they had a class, and even though they missed Asia's performance, they stayed a while. We have nicer guys in our ward than I thought.

So she didn't get in on the decibel level thing, partly because both Alyssa & I were not in our prime yelling states, but after the show the host guy who helped tally the votes came up to Asia & said she was a very good chance for a wildcard. I thought that was cool of him to come tell her that. After the show, we hit up Jamba; I've never had one. I got a Peanut Butter Moo'd, and it was pretty good. It tasted like a peanut butter and banana sandwich. & I got an influx of Immunity in it, hoping it would magically reduce my cough. We'll see.

The other singers were mostly swell, there was a girl who was quite good who sang "Almost Lover", a song I heard for the first time but really like by Fine Frenzy.... a girl whose last name was Pizza (at least pronounced like pizza) who did a nice rendition of a difficult Whitney Houston song... these two hilarious guys who were somewhat better at dancing, which encouraged a quick dance off... and a guy who sang Josh Groban's "To Where You Are" (which already would get mega points in my book), but also dedicated it to his little cousin who died at age 7 last year after a lifelong fight with cystic fibrosis. Needless to say, I cried. His song really had meaning to me.

So we've planned to attend the next 2 BYU Idol competitions, as well as the Acoustic Explosion held next Wednesday, also for free. We have no idea what it is, but it sounds cool... and also, the free part. I feel like a good, involved college student doing all these wonderful things.

Tomorrow holds Humanities and University Seminar again, after which I will dash over to the testing center to complete my first day of training. I'm heading to breakfast with Megan and Whitney before classes though; I learned they always leave at 7:10, because they have an 8:00 class every morning (barf). But I straightened my hair with Megan's fabulous straightener tonight, so it will take much less time to prepare in the morning, so I figured I can make it. We'll see... I guess going to bed sooner would help with that.

His Story

Today I roped Megan into coming to the Progressive Book Sale with me... I scoped it out yesterday, when everything was 50% off, & went back today to get the stuff I could at 75% off. I'm so pleased with the books I got... all for $10.

I feel smart having these books laying around my room... I am reminded of the quote, "Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it." & I'm so excited to be able to start my own history books collection. I figure I need to start doing so, if I plan to be an informed history teacher. I'm interested in this stuff, so I want to know so I can fill in a student one day if they want to know this coolness as well.

After our book surfing (which I will return to Friday to get some CDs for 90% off...), we stopped in the CougarEat to get a nice lunch & change of pace from the Cannon Center, which is our usual haunt since most of the girls here have a Cannon-centric meal plan. After that, Megan was even kind enough to wait for eons as I sloughed through the line at the Student Employment Center... though the people around me in line were quite nice. The guy in front of me was going to be a bio-medical research assistant... his major sounded pretty intense. He's going to be dissecting cell membranes for his professors.

Cool stuff. We chatted a lot. & one of the girls behind me was going to be working at the Testing Center as well; she's also a freshman. & we even have differing schedules, so we could be able to pick up each other's shifts if need be. Very lucky meeting.

I'm kind of excited for my first English paper; it's a short one with a paragraph of Mythos, Logos, and Ethos writing on a subject from our own religious Mythos & person Ethos.

I'm thinking I'm going to write mine on religious persecution, and how it's for our good. Mythos - scriptures; Christ, Joseph Smith being persecuted. Logos - historically proved religious persecutions, such as Joan of Arc and that Ann lady who started Rhode Island. Ethos - my own experiences with religious persecution. I'm glad that idea just came to me, & I hope she likes it... hopefully the writing can make up for if she doesn't like the topic idea.

I'm also a little happy to be going to World Civ class tonight, since we had our first quiz on Monday & I think I did well. It was only a map quiz, but I'm proud of myself, and I want to see for myself if I did as well as I thought I did.

First college quiz, and all... you know.

After Civ I'll be coming back & picking up Megan and Asia, and any other girls that want to come support Asia in BYU Idol. More on that later tonight.... the Daily Universe said the winner last year sang Michael Buble's "Everything" (my current favorite song) and a Josh Groban song, so I'm pretty psyched. I'm glad someone around here can plan cool stuff that people will actually come to.

Helpful hint of the day: Use the Subway line in the CougarEat only if you really want to test how long your feet can be stood on without hurting.

And Then There Was One

So Megan, thanks for being the best blogger ever. You've inspired me to start my own... hopefully it can grow to be half as beautiful as yours is. =) muchas gracias.

So, college.

It's beautiful here, & usually the weather is just right, although I can't wait for it to start getting colder & snowing. I want to get some boots to wear...

... before it starts getting really bad. Today I already slipped & fell coming out of the tunnel by the Cannon Center. It was pretty awesome, especially with my quick hand-stabilizing skills. My pants got dirty, but it was time to wash them anyways.

Helpful Hint of the Day: Flipflops are not the best footwear for rain walking.