Friday, August 26, 2011

The Short Summer

     Well, in a few hours I'll be leaving to head back to Utah: A fate worse than death. The two weeks I had at home were nice though.
     The first Saturday I didn't do much. I got home around 7:30 pm, had some yakisoba for dinner and watched Rear Window aka The Consequences of Being an Apple Bottom.
     Sunday I went to the singles ward where I saw Patty and a few other people. I also saw my paternal grandmother when I got home. Mostly though I just spent the day chilling and organizing/ packing up my bedroom.
     Monday my sister and I went to my aunt and uncle's house to watch my two little cousins while my aunt and uncle went out to look at houses. That was pretty fun. Both of my cousins are young, 3 and 1, so they are plenty entertaining. After that my sister and my mom and I went to my maternal grandmother's house where we hung out for a while and cleaned.
     Tuesday was my brother Grant's birthday. Our family went out for breakfast and then later in the afternoon we went swimming at a nearby lake. In the evening my paternal grandparents, my maternal grandmother and my cousin's and aunt came up for a BBQ. Oh, we also went to see "Cowboys and Aliens", which I enjoyed but I also felt like it was a mix between "The Searchers" and "Battle L.A." For my brother's birthday I got him the first book in the Hunger Games series. I've never read it personally but he finished it in like three days so, I guess it was pretty good.
     Wednesday I hung out with Riley at the park near our house for a few hours. The next day he would be leaving for Utah: a fate worse than death, but he'll be in Logan while I'll be in Provo so we 'll still be some distance away. I also picked up my senior pictures that I had taken with David before I left. The rest of the day I just spent doing more cleaning and organizing.
     Thursday morning our family left to go spend the weekend at my aunt and uncle's beach house (a different aunt and uncle than earlier). On the way we stopped at a big hunting and camping store where we looked around and my younger brother, who is big into camping, picked up a lantern. We also had elk and bison hamburgers and a venison bratwurst there for lunch. We got to the beach in the evening, probably around 6:30 or so. Soon after we got there we walked down to the water with my aunt where we hung out for a little while. We then went to my uncle's mom's house for dinner where we had some awesome homemade chicken noodle soup. Once we got back to my aunt and uncle's house, we watch a documentary on the Ocean that was narrated by Pierce Bronson. It was interesting, but what is really weird is that apparently Hillary also watched the same documentary on the same day.
     Friday my uncle made us all a humongonous breakfast and we headed into town to get stuff to go fishing. When we got home though, my mom and my aunt, who had gone running out on the beach weren't back yet, so my uncle, brother and sister went swimming in the bay and my younger brother, dad and I went kayaking. After we were a little ways out though we decided to go clamming. My sister, uncle and brother, and eventually my dad and other brother, would dive down and pick up a clam and then I would come over and they would drop it in my kayak. It was a lot of fun and we go so many! Probably close to 100. When we got back my mom and aunt were home so we all ate and then we went out in the boat. We weren't gone for very long though because the water was choppy, the weather ended up being really bad and foggy, some people started getting sick, and we were kind of pushing it anyway with so many people in the boat. Later that evening we cleaned the clams, went swimming at the local country club type place, and watched a movie back at the house.
       Saturday we had another humongonous breakfast and then went for a long walk on the beach. After we got back, we packed up all of our stuff and headed out. On our way home we stopped at Skippers and
had lunch since apparently we hadn't had enough of sea food and the ocean. That evening I ended up going to a local park to meet Katy, Hillary, and Scott. We stayed at the park for a while but it was getting dark and we ended up going back to Scott's house where we mostly talked and roasted mashmellows.
      Sunday I went to my home ward to hear my older brother give his farewell talk since he'll be leaving soon to serve his mission. Both of my grandmothers and an aunt of mine (a different one than before) came to listen to him as well. I saw some people there I know too and Halden, Jared, and I had a good time in Sunday School. Halden had brought some gummy worms with him and we spent the class trying to figure out how to break into them without being disruptive. He also gave me a tissue as a token of our friendship, which I must present to him next time we meet as proof that I have not forgotten him or something. The rest of the day I spent trying to fill out forums for school but the internet kept crashing so it took forever and was rather annoying. I also played apples to apples.
     Monday I had made plans with Hillary, Chelsea, Katy, and Scott to go to a local beach/ island thing but it ended up pouring rain so we went out to breakfast at IHOP and then went back to Scott's where we played Life, Mario Party, watched "Space Thunder Kids" and bummed around. That evening Katy, Hillary and I went back to Hillary's house where we watched the rest of an anime, Fullmetal Alchemist, which I hadn't finished watching. It was pretty awesome and I really enjoyed it, with the exception of one guy that just would not die! He was in that annoying lingering before death stage for like 4 episodes! Every time you thought that you were finally rid of him he just kept coming back to torture you. That one obnoxious guy aside though the show was great and I was glad to finish it.
     Tuesday I left Hillary's house around 12:30 and spent the day at the store. My older brother, my mom and I went to the nearby mall and I got boots, a coat, and other winter cloths to keep me from freezing to death in the arctic tundra that is Utah during the winter. While we were there, the guy who was working at the shoe place was a kid that was in my third grade class, which was kind of weird. While we were at the mall we also went to Borders to look at their close out sales. I didn't see anything that I was too particularly interested in buying, but I did think it was interesting that they were sell absolutely everything. Aside from books you could also buy there tables, chairs, bookshelves, and I even saw price tags on the flavorings that were left over from the coffee shop that was inside the store. If I had a place for it, I think it would be pretty cool to have a bookshelf or something from Borders. After we went there my brother and I went to Half Priced Books while  my mom went to pick up our 9 year old cousin who was staying with us for a few days. That evening my mom and I also went to another store where I got an awesome tiger hat and we picked up some food for the bus ride.
     Wednesday our family went to get some portraits taken and then we spent most of the rest of the day in a small town a little ways away looking at stuff in antique shops (the parent's plan). That evening I we also played Life.
     Thursday I spent the morning with Karoline. We walked to a local park near where she used to live and hung around there for awhile. Then we came home and I almost an entire melon. I spent my late afternoon watching some divine comedy skits and then went to another local park with James and his friend Robert for a few hours. I spent the rest of the night looking up quotes with my parents for my mom's quote wall she's putting up in her classroom and making sure I had everything I needed ready to go.
   That brings us to today, early Friday morning. In a few hours I'll catch the bus in Seattle and then in 21 hours, around 8:00 am on Saturday, I'll be back in Provo. I'll probably spend Saturday buying books, going to the store, unpacking my things, and finishing my work for American Heritage. Then Sunday I'll get acquainted with my new ward and then Monday it's back to school.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

I have returned

So, back in Washington.

It took 26 hours on a bus to get me here and along the way I met some interesting characters. A potentially homeless man who told me in detail about the stalker he had who he was sure was trying to steal all the drugs he was toting. Upon later reflection though he decided that the stalker was actually gay and was trying to seduce him. A moderately blind 30ish year old man by the name of Angel who was headed from San Diago to some place in Montana to visit his parents. A 18 year old kid named James who was going to home to Spokane from Reno after having attended his mom's wedding. He told me in great detail about the story of his family and his dog and how his father left his mother. He was actually a pretty cool kid though. I saw a bad cross dresser, and by bad I mean he was clearly a man that was about 50ish but he was wearing a pink sequence shirt, a woman's jean jacket, girl's pants, and had long layered hair in a pony tail. There was also an old guy who got kicked off the bus because he refused to surrender his knife, and apparently our bus driver was accused of assaulting someone but I'm not exactly sure what went down there since I was asleep. So... this experience has cause me to conclude that riding the bus is much like being trapped in a bar without the alcohol or the karaoke. Or the food for that matter. So nothing to eat and drink and no singing, but everyone feels the need to tell you their life story.  

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

So close...

Two more days, one more final, one more paper, one moving to a new apartment, and one 25 hour long bus ride until I'm home  free.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

the final week

sorry stalkers, but finals have me pretty preoccupied so I don't think you'll be getting an update for a while. On the bright side though, 6 more days and then I'm on my way back.