Your Mom Goes to College

Happy Halloween!

So I have to say that I was a little disappointed by the lack of people dressed up on campus this year but it might also have been because my classes are much earlier this year than last year so people might just not have been out and about yet. I'm lame and couldn't think of a good costume, or rather didn't really think about it until like the day before Halloween so I ended up dressing up as "Your Mom". You know like... your mom goes to college or whatever. It was an alright costume I guess and at least I made some sort of effort ish.

I celebrate Halloween I went that evening to a scary story reading and then watched the first season of Marble Hornets. I should probably watch the second season of that some day. I started watching it not this past summer but the one before but it was coming out at the same time and was going to slow to hold my interest. Now that it's done (I think) it seems like a good time to pick up on it again. My roommates and some kids from our ward were also watching the 6th Harry Potter and I watched the end of that with them.

So yeah, here it is, the last day of October. I don't know why but for some reason it feels like the months have been dragging on. Not in a bad way or anything, just that they are seeming to last for a long time. So I'm always kind of excited when a new one starts. At leas until I remember that that means my rent is due again.

Karaoke

Tonight I ended up going to Karaoke at a local pizza place here. It was actually a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be. Not that I didn't think that it would be fun, but I wasn't super enthusiastic at first about singing to a crowd of strangers, especially considering my mediocre singing skills and the fact that we weren't at a bar and so no one would be too drunk to tell how bad I was. I didn't actually end up doing a song, the list of people waiting was really long and we left before all the people in our group (Britini, Autumn, Amanda, Mike (but not the same one who I went to the haunted house with), and three other people I hadn't met before) got a chance to sing. Since it wasn't a bar there were a good number of high school students there who for a little while tried to turn it into a grind fest, but it was also a Tuesday night and so they left after around 10:30.

My roommates Kelli and Stacey have been super interested in singing karaoke and have been talking about going somewhere but they're both cooler than me (aka older than 21 and able to go to a bar where there are drunk people to boost your confidence) and I probably wouldn't be able to go with them, so I'm glad a got this chance to go. I don't know if I'll end up going again any time but if I do and actually do end up singing I'll be sure to let you all know, there were probably be pictures too.

Oh, I also got a job today working at the BYU bakery. It's really just a bottom of the totem pole custodial job for now, but I hope to work my way up in time. I told Kelli I'd do my best to be able to make her a professional cake for her birthday in February so I've go to be up to at least cake decorator by then!

Good Samaritan

I had an interesting experience today. Since it's dumb and cold now I was all bundled up and I noticed that all of the stuff I had was given to me by someone else. My hat, scarf, bag, both shirts, and gloves, and even some of the stuff in my bag had all been given to me as gifts and even though the rest of my clothes like my boots, and pants hadn't been formally given to me as gifts they were purchased for my by my parents and so were gifts in a sense. The only thing that I had with me that I had purchased with my own money were my socks. It kind of made me think about all of the stuff that I get from other people and how indebted I am to others and their kindness. It also reminded me of an in depth study we had done of the parable of The Good Samaritan in my New Testament class.

So, I assume that you all know the story. A Jew gets robbed and left for dead, he is passed by a levite and a priest, but then is eventually helped by a Samaritan. Jesus tells that parable to a lawyer who asked who his neighbor is and the lesson we learn from the story is that everyone who needs help or really everyone is our neighbor. In class though we looked at a few more elements.

The man who is left for dead falls among thieves, this is symbolic of the world and the fallen state of man. He is first passed by a Levite and a Priest who are on their way to the temple but don't stop to help because doing so would make them unclean and unable to do their temple duties without first going through some sort of purification process. They sacrifice the greater law, or the greater good of helping a dying man, for the lesser law of doing their temple duties without delay. This is symbolic of the Law of Moses, which is the lesser of the two laws and while it is good, living by it can never bring you to salvation. Then comes along the good Samaritan. Samaritans were rejected by the Jews, much like Christ was, and yet also like Christ, this Samaritan is willing to stop and help someone in need. Samaritans are half Jewish and half Gentile just like Christ is half the son of God and half the son of man. The Samaritan treats the wounded man with wine, which is symbolic of the atonement and with oil, which is symbolic of the Holy Ghost. He then takes the man to an inn where he leaves him in the care of the inn keeper while he is away. The inn keeper represents both ourselves and our need to care for others and the prophets, who are sent to care for and direct Christ's people while He is away. The Samaritan was willing to pay for the cost of caring for the man. In fact, he was willing to pay any price, symbolic of the atonement and Christ paying the price of sin and finally, the Good Samaritan promised that while he had work to do elsewhere, he would later return again.

Here Comes The Cold

I don't understand the weather here works. We went from nice fall cool crisp weather to freezing cold and snow. It was hailing on my way to school this morning at 7:45 and it was snowing this evening on my way home at around 8:00. It's still to wet to stick but still, what the hey! It isn't even November yet! November 1st it can snow to high heaven but until then I expect it to be fall like weather. I guess that it wouldn't be that weird if there had been some kind of transition but no, it's just one day fall and the next day winter and it was like that last year too. I just don't understand how that works. I hope this upcoming winter and winter like weather (since there's still like two months until winter actually starts) is like last year where although it was cold there really wasn't any snow. I've found that when it isn't everywhere I really like and am excited for it to snow, but after about a week I get sick of it. So it really is a fine balance  If there isn't any snow than I feel cheated but if there's too much or it's around for too long than I just get annoyed and hate it. I guess what we learn from this is that I'm an incredibly picky person and just want things the way I want them.

Ethics

In my personal history class we read a chapter about the ethics of writing a memoir and my post today is supposed to be about that, so here we go!

I think that when you're writing something that you're going to call non-fiction you should of course make it as honest as possible, but the most important thing is that you keep that honest feel of what it is that you're trying to say. When you're writing something with dialogue than you can't be faulted for not recording what a person said word for word, it's impossible to remember that or to expect that of someone. I think that it is important though that what is said characterizes the person who is speaking, and if it's a specific conversation that you remember you should try to include as many of the actual words as possible. 

When it comes to combining events for dramatic effect I'm kind of torn. I think that if it would compromise the integrity of the story than you should defiantly avoid it, like was the case with that guy who combined his charity to make it sound better than it was. But if you're only combining together pieces of things where they could have happened or did happen, just not all at the same exact time than I'm alright with it. I don't know if that makes sense.

I guess when you get down to it, it just depends on how honest you're being. By telling the reader that what you are writing is non-fiction you are in a sense gaining their trust that whatever you tell them actually happened. So, what you can and can not fabricate depends on how important it is to the integrity of the story, and whether or not you betray that trust by what you choose to say. 

Catch Up

So Saturday I headed up with Autumn, Jennica, and her friend Michael to the canyon but it was really weird because when we got there no one else was there. We were at the right park but we must of had a wrong enterence or something. We decided though that it would still be a cool place to watch a scary movie on a laptop and planned on doing that, but eventually decided to go to a haunted house that we had heard about in Salt Lake. It was kind of interesting, I really, really liked the layout of the place. It was incredibly well designed and I particularly liked that while legally no people could touch you, that didn't stop vines, sheet, and other things from doing so. I was a little disappointed though in the actors. I guess the actors themselves were alright but there just weren't very many of them jumping out at you. A big part of the problem though was probably that we were there on a Saturday night and  it was too crowded. There were so many people in front of and behind us that stuff wasn't as much of a surprise as it could have been if it had been less crowded. It was fun though, I'm glad that we went.

Sunday hmmm, I went to church, wrote some letters, and did some homework, that's about it.

Monday for FHE we carved pumpkins and watched the debate. A lot of people I guess watched the debate for FHE but I suppose I should have expected that from here. It's just interesting to me how politically active everyone seems to be. Not that it's a bad thing at all, in fact I think that it's a great thing, just different is all. Speaking of which, my darned ballot had better get here soon!

Saturday

Happy Saturday!

So, weekend recap as of thus far. Yesterday I crocheted a dinosaur that I think looks alright. I still need to add the eyes, but once it's all finished I'll put a picture up. Last night I also  went to a dance at the Branbury and watched Night of the Living Dead. Well, kind of, I actually ended up falling asleep during it, I know, not a very good one to fall asleep for considering Zombies and what not but I had stayed up pretty late the night before studying for the dumb Fundamental Lit midterm.

Today I haven't done a whole lot. The kids in my Japanese class and I got together. We formed an unofficial,  non-BYU affiliated (mostly so we wouldn't have to do paper work or pay fees) club called Japanese Animation Appreciation Club. We watched Inception, which I realize is not actually anime but technically it was before the meeting actually started and one of the guys there hadn't seen it and then we watched a few
first episodes of some anime. Nothing real promising so far but it's hard to tell after just an episode or two.

Tonight I think I'm going to a scary movie up in the canyon. I haven't been to the place before and I still need to secure a ride so I guess we'll see.

Memory

So I had an interesting experience today where my education actually hindered me academically. I had my Fundamental Literary Interpretations and Critical Analysis  midterm today (yes, the class is just how you would imagine from the title). Studying for the test was kind of intense and I remembered pretty much everything that I needed to except for three different types of fallacies  I remembered what they meant, just not what they were called.

So, of course while I was sitting in class waiting for it to start I looked over the three names and started repeating them to myself over and over again. While I was doing this, trying to keep the terms in my head until the tests started, I remembered what I had learned about the memory in my psychology class about two years ago.

 I started thinking about how the technique that I was implementing was called holding, where you try and hold something in your mind by repeating it over and over. That reminded me that short term memory, contrary to popular belief, is actually only about 10 seconds long and is typically capped at about 7 to 9 items. Which of course reminded me that that was the reason why phone numbers are 6 numbers long without an area code and 9 numbers long with one so that they can be easily remembered in the short term memory.

 The grouping of phone numbers into (XXX) XXX-XXX reminded me of another device implemented in order to increase the amount of information that can be held in the short term memory called grouping. Since the brain can only remember about 8 things, the brain will try to group similar information together and remember it as one thing. So, when you're looking at a phone number even though you are really trying to remember 9 numbers, you tell yourself that it is really 3 things. It's kind of like the Japanese particle "to" if anyone knows what I'm talking about.

So of course all of these things made me think of the curve of knowledge or whatever it's called that was a study done that measured how much people remember over a certain period of time. And then I looked up, saw a huge midterm on my desk and realized that while thinking about memory I'd stopped implementing holding, and had forgotten all about the three fallacies I was trying to remember. I think I still did alright on the midterm but, as far as those three terms go, I have no idea if I got them right. But at least I know I learned something in Psychology.

Writing Exercise, Childhood

For my writing class I have to do an exercise where I just throw up information that I remember about a place in my childhood. So, since I never seem to know what to say I guess I'll just do that here.

When I think of childhood I think of course of the neighborhood where I lived from birth to age eight. Even though the majority of my life and even really the majority of my childhood was spent in another city, it’s the first 8 years that I think about. I think that’s because those first years are when you’re really a little kid. After that you’re still a kid to be sure, but you’re accountable now, you aren’t allowed to be little and without any responsibility anymore.

The street was a cu de sac and we lived about in the middle of it. Our yard had a big evergreen tree in the front with two apple trees in front and to the side of it. For a long time there were bushes lining the yard, but eventually my mom took them out. Across the street from our house was our neighbor and friend Christopher’s house and right next to his house were the mail boxes. Real mailboxes mind you, not the lame ones we have now where you need a key to open it.

Christopher’s driveway sloped up and was a hill that as a child seemed to be huge. At the edge of his yard was a bush that we would hid in and play army in. A house or two up the street was Elizabeth, she had a purple door for some strange reason and the jerk once stole my pokemon cards. Down a house or two was Grant’s friend Daniel and next to him was the Russian house where they kept chickens.

Somewhere in that area, down by Daniel and the Russian house was Brad. Ugh, Brad. He would always invite himself over to our house and my mom would always make us let him in. I don’t remember what ended up happening to him but eventually he moved or something. At the end of the cul du sac was Zach’s house. Zach was an… interesting guy and Austin never liked him, especially after I fell out of the big evergreen tree in his yard. For some reason Zach also seemed to think that the woods off to the side of his house belonged to him and no one else was allowed to use them.

We would play a lot in the street, mostly army and power rangers and we would ride bikes, mostly down Christopher’s crazy hill of a driveway. Occasionally we would play baseball or kickball or something that needed bases. There was a sewer grate in the middle of the street between our house and Christopher’s that would always be home plate. We would jump on the trampoline of the Russian boy whose name now I cannot remember for the life of me and go into the woods behind Daniel’s house and to behind our house. The neighborhood kids liked to break off spongy sticks, burn the ends,  put them in their mouth and pretend that they were smoking.

 It seems like the middle of the street, where we lived was the best place to be. Up the street was Elizabeth who I’m pretty sure I never forgave for stealing my pokemon cards and older people who we didn’t really know and towards the end of the street was where Zach and Brad lived and if you were going to get in trouble it was probably down at that end. 

Another Day

I think that it's the perfect weather today. Crisp, windy,  and it just started raining. Ok, so I don't need it to be raining per say but fall is my favorite season, mostly because of the cool, crisp, slightly dark, fall weather. I love walking around in a jacket with the leaves whipping around me. My second favorite weather is storms, wind and rain storms, which seem to be prevalent in the fall too. Mostly I just like it to be windy I guess.

 Ok, now the weather just got weird. It's incredibly sunny and windy, the rain is coming down almost horizontally. I think I kind of want to go out in this. I was going to talk to you guys today about poetry again but, if I know Provo, this crazy storm won't last much longer. I figure it's been about 8 minutes so sorry, but I'm leaving you all. Here, have this clip from Avatar the Last Air Bender which storms always remind me of now ever since Grant and I ran out in one late at night in one and started yelling like this.

Well, I can find it so here, watch this instead.

Year Two a Quarter Way Through

Well, this weeks marks the middle of the semester. Last Friday I took my Japanese midterm (let me just say that I hate oral tests) and this week I'm taking a final in my Fundamental Lit Interpretations class. It's crazy to think that the semester is already just about half over but I guess it has been 8 weeks. That means that the school year is almost over too. Oh, that means that the world is about to end soon. I can't believe that December 21st is a Friday night too. It's going to be scary that night with all of the partying going on.

So what did I do this weekend? Well Friday after I was feeling better I wrote some letters, went and got pizza, and watched Swing Kids and an old Alfred Hitchcock movie called Shadow of a Doubt. I hadn't seen the Hitchcock movie before, the end was a little weird but over all it was pretty good.

Saturday I went to the game against OSU, which was pretty disappointing I have to say. Afterwards my aunt and uncle and some of my cousins were in town and we went to eat at Legends Grill. It was fun to see them and I also got some "bread" that my cousin made at my house. I say "bread" not because it's bad, it's actually really good, but because it's bread in the same sense that Pistachio bread is bread, which is pretty much not at all.

Nothing particularly exciting has happened yet today but I did run 6.3 miles in an hour at the gym, which is progress for me.  

And the verdict is.....

I'm assuming that all of you have seen the old Willy Wonka movie, the old one that was like 20 times better than the new one. Well, do you all remember the scene where Charlie and Grandpa Joe are sitting at night on the bed and Grandpa Joe pulls out a candy bar that he bought with money he saved up? Do you remember the first time that you saw the movie and you thought to yourself? "Wait, this part wasn't in the book, is this how Charlie gets the ticket? Because I would be ok with that I guess, but I genuinely don't know if that's going to happen here or not!" Or at least, that's what you thought if you were like me. Well, that was me earlier this afternoon. I got an e-mail that simply said "A decision has been made on all communication emphasis. Please come to BRM 360 to receive your letter."

As I walked to the Brimhall all I could think about was that scene from Willy Wonka and how I had no idea what was going to happen. I mean, in the movie Charlie doesn't get a golden ticket in that scene (although obviously it comes later, ) and as soon as the Comms secretary handed me an envelop with my name on it, it was just like Grandpa Joe pulling the candy bar out from under his pillow.

Well, I don't know why I'm bothering to keep you all in suspense since if you read this you probably already know the out come. If you don't for some reason, I'll tell you now that I got in! So, you're probably asking yourself, did I dance all the way back to my apartment like old Grandpa Joe when he and Charlie finally do get their golden ticket? Well, no. Because that probably would have been really embarrassing and also because I actually felt pretty sick with some weird upset stomach dealio going on but, if I lived in a musical and could just burst out in original song and dance without getting some serious psych evaluations than it probably would have happened. If it makes you feel any better, something along those lines was playing out in my mind.

So now that I'm in, what does that mean? Well, there are two different information meetings that I have to go to next week and after that I need to meet with a councilor to map out my plan from now to graduation. Once all of that is done, now that I know that I'm in, I'll need to make a real decision about whether or not I want to serve a mission. After all of that is done than... I guess I'll just have to do whatever comes next. It will be nice to have the rest of my school mapped out though. Soon I'll also be able to work, or at least volunteer in BYU's Ad lab, which will be great experience since they actually work with real clients.

So that's what's new with me. And now I really want to watch Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I think they have it at the library but for now, I'll just leave you all with this.

Broken House

Did you guys know that dishwasher soap can expire? Well... apparently it can, and we've been using it. I guess what happens is that over time it thickens and so instead of dissolving it ends up just clogging the flow of the water. Eventually, so much of the water gets blocked that when you run the dishwasher it "runs dry", kind of like when you don't have any oil in your car. After a little while the dishwasher motor just dies and if you're unlucky, starts a fire. Well, thankfully ours didn't catch on fire, but it did die, so we're getting our dishwasher replaced. We've also had our belt break on our vacuum, our light shatter, our sink clog ridiculously and some occasionally finicky internet service. Thankfully, we've been able to have most of these things fixed or at least had plans for them to be. I guess that's all just part of the adventure of living in an apartment right? Especially a college one. At least I have a landlord though who can fix or tell us how to fix stuff. I don't know what I'm going to do when I have my own house and stuff breaks. Maybe I'll just take a crash course in "how to fix stuff" or just make a lot of friends with a lot of different trades. Until then though, I guess I'll just keep washing my dishes by hand.   

A Year In the Life

For a project that I'm working on, (yes another one, that's what happens when you're in school) I've been reflecting back on what I've done so far this year and I was a little surprised by everything. Here's what I  came up with in no particular order. 

In the year 2012 so far I have : 

Given up movies for a few months for Lent 

Won the "Avenger Award"

Eaten my last meal at the Cannon Center

Finished my first year at BYU 

Moved out of Wyview 

Finished Lost 

Made the Dean's List for Winter Semester 

Gotten my first real job

Moved into North Woods 

Started my second year at BYU  

Developed and lost a "stalker"

Improved my Japanese and dance technique 

Gone to my first meeting at the Conference Center in Salt Lake 

Gotten one year older and wiser

Rode in a hot air balloon for the first time 

Dyed my hair for the first time

Been accepted into the BYU Ad program 

Hiked the Y twice 

Received my first letter from a foreign country and started writing to friends currently living out of the country 

Received a half tuition scholarship

Discovered my blood type

Created an advertising portfolio

Worked more extensivly with the missionaries

Competed in dance sport

Set foot in the BYU gym and is working on making going a habit 

Taken day trips to Jetty Island, Birch Bay, and Bellingham

Registered and prepared to vote for the first time

Learned to crochets stuffed animals (well, learning)

Became CPR/First Aid certified

Spoke at seminary graduation

Read a good number of books 

And it's only the middle of October, there's still a few more months left in the year. Looking at this list makes me feel like I've accomplished stuff this year. Maybe not as much, or more particularly, the exact things that I wanted to, but I did do and accomplish things, and that's what matters. 

The Evil Side of Pasta

I just want you all to know that whole wheat pasta is gross. If I had a choice between the two I would choose no past over whole wheat pasta, that's how bad it is. I've got two whole boxes of the nasty stuff, does anyone want it? Maybe I'll just leave it at someone's door or something. It reminds me of one of my favorite commercials  the one where the people pass around the fruit cake until it gets back to the original people. Maybe that is what's happening, after all, someone gave the stuff to me. Ugh, I can't find the ad, but it was so funny.

So, aside from the crazy mission stuff that's been going on here (I know a bunch of people and have some friends that have already started working on their papers) and walking 9 miles to ride in a hot air balloon the most exciting thing that I've done was probably crochet a new stuffed animal. This one is a bunny, at least in theory. I don't think it really looks like one.

Oh, I also just realized that I haven't shown you any pictures of my new apartment. I'll try to get some up soon. In my Doctrine and Covenants class today we had a very interesting conversation about the unrepentant and what will happen to them. I actually learned a lot, I really like my D&C teacher. It's too bad I've already finished all of my religion classes (well, once I finish this semester) since I'd really like to take living prophets from him. Maybe if I have a free elective or something. If I was ever going to take a marriage prep class at school I might take his too. Anyway, I'd get into what we talked about but it would take forever and I don't really want to take the time ( I know, laziness is a sin or whatever) so maybe tomorrow.

On a positive note though, I should be hearing somewhat soon back from the comms department. It's been almost a month now since I turned in my application 

To Serve Or Not To Serve.

That is that question...

For any of you that didn't know, the age for missionaries to serve has just been lowered from 19 for guys and 21 for girls to 18 for guys who have graduated and 19 for girls. That's right, 19, my age! For a while now, especially when I was serving as a ward missionary over the summer, people would ask me if I was going to go on a mission and my answer was always something along the lines of "Eh, I don't know, it's still years away." and it was true. I mean, why at 18 make a choice about something you can't even do until you're 21, who knows what you'll be doing in your life then. I always figured that I would just decide when I got to that age but... now that age is now! So, I guess that means that I have to decide.

Obviously I wouldn't leave until the end of the year, and I imagine I'd have to work to save money, so I probably if I decided to go wouldn't leave until I was 20, but still! The fact that I could theoretically start on my papers at any time is crazy! In fact, I know a lot of girls who already have! Pretty much everywhere around here is out of Preach My Gospel books and executive secretaries are being flooded with mission interview requests. I can only imagine what school will be like next year. For the next two years at least, the male freshmen population is pretty much going to be non-existent.

Regardless of whether I decide to go or not, I'm really excited about it! I think that it will give future missionaries a lot more opportunities and I think a lot more girls will end up serving now that they don't have to wait so long.It's also just a really exciting thing to be a part of! Even if I don't do anything directly as a result of it.

So, as I asked earlier, to serve, or not to serve. I guess only time, reflection, fasting, and a butt load of prayer will tell.

In other, absolutely unrelated news, I today I also walked 9 miles, rode in a hot air balloon, and dyed my hair auburn.

Gotta get down on Friday!

So, I realize that blogger is telling you that I'm posting this on Saturday but, that's only because it's after midnight. I haven't gone to bed yet so I figure I can still post as Friday. I went to class today, which was pretty good. Japanese was hilarious, and we watched part of The Big Bang Theory in English. After class I spent a while in the library doing D&C homework and finishing my portrait. It's pretty good I think, but still in draft form. Once it's done I'll probably post it on here or something. After my homework I went and got my hair cut, it had been 7 months so, I figured it was probably time to cut it. There was a game later that night that I went to and then I went home and made chicken squares too.

The game was against Utah State and it was awesome! My favorite games are the ones that we play against them. I think they should be our rivals over University of Utah since we're much more evenly matched with them. Last year we won the game in the last few seconds. This year the games wasn't as intense but it was still close!

Wednesday I also watched the debates, which I thought were pretty interesting. Romney did really well I though. I'll be interested in seeing how the rest of them pan out.

Well, conference this weekend, hope you all enjoy it!

You've had a birthday (Shout Hooray!)

Guys! It's my birthday! And let me tell you, it was wonderful. This morning, (in the very technical sense of the word, it was about 12:30) I opened a package from my family that had gotten here earlier this week. It had all the iconic birthday stuff like cake mix, frosting, cups, plates, party hats, etc. as well as some awesome candy and a digital picture frame which I can't wait to set up somewhere in my room. The rest of the morning, I went to class, pretty regular, and during a break I got some ice cream at the wilk with my roommate Kim. Then I went to my last class of the day. I think everyone who wanted to contact me did so during that class. My phone must have gone off at least 5 times before I finally sent it to silent, which apparently on my phone is actually just code for vibrate.

After class I made my way over to the gym. I went on the elliptical machine deal for an hour and ended up going 5.6 miles. I feel like that's kind of decent right? Honestly, I don't know. After that I crawled back to my apartment, had some food (my dear roommates had made me muffins for breakfast/lunch) did a very small amount of homework and then went over to Autumn, Sarah, and Brittni's apartment for a dinner of fish and chips and banana cream pie.  Later this evening I had a little shindig with my roommates and some of our neighbors with cake and ice cream.

It really has been a great day and I'm kind of excited for 19. I really feel like it's going to be a good year (although right now it just kind of feels like a tired one). Well, it's far too late and there is still homework to be done. Thanks again for everyone who celebrated with me.

So, you all remember the essay I had to write a week or so ago? Apparently it still sounds too unnatural and too educated. Ugh, I was doing some serious complaining earlier today but I think I've my rant pretty much out of my system but if I suddenly jump into it or something, you've been forewarned.

The first presidential debate is tomorrow and I'm actually kind of excited for it. I still have a long, long way to go in the political world to become fully invested and informed, but this is really the first time that I've been emotionally invested in a presidential election.

I discovered something else kind of cool today as well. I don't remember if I've talked about my Doctrine and Covenants teacher here but I really like him, I like his teaching style and he's a fun guy. Well, I discovered him in the Ensign today and apparently, he is also the second councilor in the General Sunday School presidency. So I'm being taught the gospel from one of the guys on the committee that decides how the rest of the church teaches Sunday School. Ha, no big deal right? I thought it was pretty cool.

Oh mom, if you see this I got the package that you sent and even though my curiosity is killing me I have yet to open it.

Well, that's about all I've got today so, see you all later!

Sunday Dinner

So today I  was pretty lame and didn't do much. The most exciting thing I did would probably be playing kickball at FHE. It was fun, I haven't played kickball since I think middle school. I kind of want to play softball now though, I'd probably be pretty bad at it now since I haven't played it in so long, but it sounds fun! I even have my mitt with me,  but not a bat or people to play with. I'd consider joining the intramural team but I don't want to play the fees, and I don't remember when it is.

Yesterday was fun though. I went to church in what feels like the first time in forever. Last week was the temple dedication and the week before that was regional conference so I hadn't gone to regular church in two weeks. This weekend is general conference too so I'll be weird to not go again. I'm not sure if I'm actually doing this or not, but I think it might be fun to go down to Salt Lake and see if I can't get in to the Saturday morning session. I don't know how much luck people have with that typically but it would be cool, and if I didn't get in I could always just watch a broadcast somewhere.

Anyway, as great as church was, that is not what was fun. My cousin's grandma was in town and so we all had a family dinner of sorts. There was my cousin Trent and his wife Nadia, his two sisters who are my two other cousins Chrysta and Angela, their grandma Despain, and their brother, my cousin J.J.'s wife's brother Brayden also known as my cousin in law's brother. So everyone was related to someone in the room some how. It was really fun to hang out though. We had hawiian haystacks, and talked for a while and I got to know Brayden since we hadn't met before.

So yeah, that was fun, and I'm hoping to do something fun this weekend, be it going to Salt Lake or whatnot.  Hope you all have an awesome week!