It's a Sad Story

It was approximately 8:30, and I was sitting the Kimball Student Center enjoying an amazing banana milkshake and totally owning on Facebook tetris. I was well on the way to beating my personal record. My right hand was keeping busy with the arrow keys and my left hand reached for the spoon of that delicious milkshake...

And then I dumped a quarter of the milkshake onto the keyboard of my sassy cute wonderful pink laptop.

I grabbed a handful of napkins next to me and wiped the ice cream back into the cup (yeah, i ate it later), and got MORE napkins to wipe it off, try to clean between the keys....

BUT

I have approximately six keys that stick. And my laptop keeps freezing. I don't know if that's related, but the milkshake was pretty cold... (ha....ha....ha) But really.

My favorite techie is inaccessible, so I took it to IT, but they said that they can't really fix keyboards (it's tricky, apparently), and since it's still functioning they told me to just keep using it.....


It's a sad story.

College, What?

Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandbox.
These are the things I learned: Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some, and draw and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
Take a nap in the afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the plastic cup. The roots go down and the plant goes up, and nobody really knows why, but we are all like that.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the plastic cup--they all die. So do we.
And then remember the book about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all: look. Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The golden rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and sane living.
Think of what a better world it would be if we all had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap. Or if we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations always to put things back where we found them and cleaned up our own messes. And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together. [Robert Fulghum, "We Learned It All in Kindergarten," Reader's Digest, October 1987, p. 115]

Outlet

Sometimes I wish that I could play the piano really well so I could just sit and......play-- have something tangible to pour myself into, to channel thoughts and feelings.

The Red Badge of Courage

My veins are obstinate and I hate them and they hate me.

Virginia is for Lovers

I have been informed that I need to do a better job updating my blog. So here goes.... the past three and a half weeks in one blog post. Prepare yourself for an onslaught of photos....

SVU has a LOT of activities going on. This was the first dance we went to, just a couple days after getting here. Can you guess our school colors?

The next evening was our first football game of the season! It was a home game and I THINK we won. I met Colin after the dance, and he promised he would remember the names of my friends and me. He did, surprisingly.

There's not a ton to do in BV (that's Buena Vista, pronounced Byoo-nuh Vi-stuh), but if you have friends with cars (like Tiffany who, by the way, has the best southern accent you have never heard) you can get out and perhaps hit up a mall. Don't we look so grown up?

Turns out my next-door neighbor, Kasia (the one in the middle) was also basically my neighbor in Michigan... Our stakes went to the same dances. She's pretty amazing.

The social life is great, but all the comings and goings do make it a bit difficult to really buckle down and study...

So Colin is fierce, but I'm rather strong myself... so I can keep him pretty much under control (relatively speaking...) and we make quite a cute couple, if I do say so myself (which I just did).

Our ward has the best family home evenings. Water balloon volleyball, telephone charades, speed dating, and a paint war. The beautiful daughter of Zion pictured here is my amazing roommate, Emma!

Flashback to childhood, we spent a Sunday afternoon jumping off of beds onto mattresses and piles of blankets. We were blaring church music rather loudly, so it was okay.

While our beds were ripped apart, we decided we may as well rearrange... Sariah's bed is on the left, Emma's is on the right, and mine is the one that's up super high in the middle, mainly because I'm so tall. It's also very effective in the mornings-- after getting down from there to turn off my alarm, I really have no desire to climb back up. So I get ready for class. Put on clothes and stuff.

Emma and I went to church that day practically matching. We're adorable. And so I decided that we needed to take advantage of the fortunate situation and take roommate pictures.

Emma, Me, Sariah. Yeah, we're the cool crowd, basically. And it's not JUST because we're all super good-looking.

We did, however, have to grunge down before the day was over (yeah, it was an eventful Sunday)... Emma had always wanted to go dumpster diving, and I wanted to look for my lost wallet, soooo.....

WE WENT IN!! Our friends were skeptical....

While it wasn't all THAT bad, considering the nature of the activity, it was still pretty gross, so I hit the shower. Someone else seems to have had the same idea.

And that brings us to today.... I'll try to post more often! In the meantime, check out Elephant Shortcut, a super cool campus band. They're on iTunes!

Don't Jump, Don't Jump, Don't Jump

I am a less-than-accomplished swimmer.
I have no form when diving. Or jumping.
Potential energy freaks me out.

So why would I jump off the railing of a 40-foot bridge into the river below?

Well.... Everyone's doing it....

Actually, at the time, NO ONE was doing it, and that was my incentive.We watched them jump off. We watched two jump holding hands, and gasped as one smacked his side against the surface of the water. And then we watched as they just stood up there... watching....waiting... nothing.  What's the fun in watching a bunch of college boys just stand on the bridge next to the railing, staring down? I was going to show them up. Yep. Just mosey on up and jump. So I pulled off my jeans, flipped my hair back into a ponytail, and climbed those stairs. Climbing over the ledge, standing on the beam, my legs were a bit shaky, but... I jumped.

I am bad at jumping.

Before hitting the water my right leg slid up, and my right thigh took the impact. It's pretty red, but not as bad as that one guy's side... he's got popped blood vessels and bruising. And it's sore. But you know what? My boyfriend feels pretty bad about it. Which can work in my favor.

And will I do it again?

Ehh. Who knows.