The first steps are always the hardest

Have you noticed how it seems the blog titles have stopped correlating to my actual blogs? yeah, me too.
So...last time I blogged was..some other day. Thursday? I could go check
yep, thursday. So, anyway, I guess I should talk about what I did Friday.
So, I slept in, because again I didn't need to go to class. I spent the day doing really productive things, such as uploading an emulator onto Katie's computer, and then playing Zelda. I beat the shadow temple, and got part way through the spirit temple. I also played the piano, and ate food, and I'm pretty sure I took some kind of nap. The only notable things I did happened starting at 7:30--but I'll preface that by telling you that the HumorU show was that night. As opposed to Divine Comedy, which is skit-based comedy, HumorU is all stand up. But, unlike other stand up, HumorU is clean. Completely clean. Now, back to what I did at 7:30. I got two tickets to the show, for the purpose of bringing a date. My date was Erin, whom I had met the summer previous at the Plymouth, NH EFY. We had a small dinner at the creamery before heading over to the Maeser building (also known as the farthest point on campus from Heritage). The show was really great-most of my FHE group was there as well, and so since then we've quoted it multiple times. Ironically, the group was started by an Arab non-member, who made a surprise appearance. I absolutely loved having the jokes pointed into our campus; it's a perspective that I missed. After the show/date, I hung out with some of my FHE group. We basically chilled until 12:00, when we had to leave our apartment (visiting hours), but instead of leaving it at that we hung out outside, playing music and random games. Finally, we just decided to go to sleep outside. We got various blankets and pillows, and just camped out on the grass behind Bowen hall. We all were in varying degrees of sleeping, some people talking while others slept. I fell asleep for real at around 5:00 (my phone was dead by that point, so I wasn't really sure), but I had fallen asleep a few times before that, so it was all good. We finally got up and went back to our own beds at around 8:00. I slept until 12:00, then woke up and made some german pancakes for myself and some of our FHE girls. Unfortunately, something went wrong, and they weren't as good as they could have been, but I got good reviews on them anyway. (In case you couldn't tell, I have now segued into Saturday). Saturday continued with more chilling/playing around, but I got somewhat tired as we got into a game of volleyball, so I came back and showered (don't question the causality of events--they just happen). I started fasting around 4, my last meal being a burger from the creamery. Things I did that night-ish: I followed a circuitous logic chain regarding the nature of human self-identity, until I finally broke out of it to a hopeful conclusion. I am attempting to recreate my logic in an essay, so hopefully if this made no sense to you, you'll be able to read it when I'm done. Also, I met more people: Emma, Jenna, Nate, Jacob, Alex, Paul, Maddie, and I already knew Kaitlin. We watched the end of Sherlock Holmes with them. Then, I kind of went to sleep while writing this post....
fast forward to today: I got up by 9:40, got ready for church, went to church, had church, then stayed at church to practice for choir, which was an hour after church. Finally, choir ended, and I came home and ended my fast and ate food and typed this. Now I'm done.
Bio #3

Richard Anson Call

Anson is the shortest of everyone in our apartment. He hails from Austin, Texas. Yes, he is Anson (and I am Jansen), and he is from Austin (and I'm from Boston). Weird, I know. He is somewhat of a mac freak (has a macbook, iPhone, and his dad has an iPad). He has a ginormous house (even for Texas standards). He was a techie in high school, coordinating the lighting for several shows at his school. He enjoys building. He enjoys doing occasional farm work, including on the ~500 fruit trees on his family's property. His favorite thing(s) ever is(are) cooking, being with his family (some of whom were here today in Sacrament meeting), water sports, general sporty activities, and hanging out (and Melissa). His pet peeve is being ignored. If he had 10 days left to live, he would travel and spend time with his family. Classes he is taking this term are: Living Prophets, Mass Communications, and Anthropology.

How

Insert personal commentary about blogging in general, and the general awesomeness of the above video.

Stop personal commentary and talk about what I did.

Wednesday: I slept in. The last day of lectures for bio was on Monday, so I slept in. Slept until about 10:30-ish. Got past the water temple, and got the hover boots from the shadow temple. Also, during that time, Rachel stopped by and hung out with me (oh, and Trent was there too). 'Twas oodles of fun. I also practiced my choir songs, and generally just killed time until my music class. We learned about american people--Charles Ives and Aaron Copland, as well as others. Class got out typically late ~6:20, so I just came back and chilled some more.. (I know, wicked productive. Hey, it's a balance thing. Tuesday was good. Wednesday was just...meh). Around 10-ish Chris came by and we went to go meet more people. We met Bethany, Emilee, and Lauren (Kristy wasn't there and we already knew Daneka). They're pretty fun--it's a great icebreaker to start reading people's quote walls (though sometimes it goes just a little bit too far). Then I played some Halo with Chris, but not for too long (I did have to go swimming in the morning)

Thursday: I got up and went swimming. I had bought goggles the day before, so I was ready for it all. I actually did a lot better than Tuesday, but ended up getting a really bad pain in my neck from the breast stroke (having my head point forward that whole time). That was followed by NOT OoT, surprisingly enough. I decided to finally start reading my new Rick Riordan book--The Red Pyramid. Being somewhat of a mythology geek, I really like Riordan's stuff. BoM at 2-4, followed by more reading and a nap. Then, at 7:00, I had a Boston Stake reunion! Mike and Jacquie are both out here for the summer as well, and we haven't spent any time together as true Bostoners. So we finally got together and talked, caught up, got some ice cream--it was great. Jacquie is in Heritage-she's staying in Fox right now. Mike is way out in Wyview, so he had to wait until 8:45 for his bus to come, but it was alright. Jacquie had to leave at 8:00 because her home-teachers decided to finally get around to home teaching--even though she had never met them before. After Mike left, I went to this hall meeting about how to check out of our rooms after Summer term was over. Essentially, it boils down to "ask the HA." Then, Chris and I went to introduce ourselves to more people. We started in the basement, with 10-we met Serena and Corrie, and it turns out that Corrie is taking harp lessons, and she totally got is unto a practice room AND I PLAYED A HARP! I was so happy. I love the harp, and it's always been a dream of mine to learn to play it, and it's actually pretty simple! The strings are set up in a diatonic scale, but then there are pedals you can move to change the key and everything. It's really neat. Also, did I mention that I PLAYED A HARP?!? I did. After getting back from the HFAC, we went up to 17 (Autumn's apartment) and met (almost) everyone from her apartment. Besides Autumn and Amanda (who I already knew), we met Lisa, Emilee, and Hallie. Again, the quote wall is a great ice-breaker. In totally related (random) news, Chris showed me how to change my phone so that the date displays in Hawaiian. Swieckt! (I just made that up. Sick+Sweet). Anyway, That brings me tooooo

Bio #2

Chance Austin Bozeman

Chance is my awesome home teaching companion. He hails from Gilbert, Arizona, where there are four different stakes that go to his school (there are roughly four stakes that have membership within the entire state of Massachusetts). He likes to play basketball, run/workout, go to the movies, flirt with girls. He likes music (unfortunately, his favorite is country, and he hates heavy metal)--but he likes it as long as he can dance to it. His pet peeve is dirtiness *cough*neat freak*cough*, and if he had 10 days left to live he would go to Europe (specifically Italy) and sight see.

He wants seven kids. His ideal temperature is 72 degrees. He enjoyed his childhood, and wouldn't trade it for anyone else's. He loves his parents. He can't wait to meet his wife.

He is currently taking Book of Mormon, Writing and Rhetoric, and Ballroom Dance. He enjoys his ballroom class, even though it is early in the morning and he claims not to be that good.

Donesauce.

Productivity FTW!

Hi. It's me. Today I went swimming, and have been tired all day. Even so, it was a good day. I went swimming, then came home and made some German pancakes while playing around on scratch (I've made a snake game). I'm glad that I went swimming, but I need to be going a lot more. Good thing that's what I'll be doing, every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. At around 1, Trent suggested doing a date-hike, and I readily agreed. We decided to go up to bridal veil falls, but I had to go to Book of Mormon before I was able to ask anyone. After class, I came back and asked Autumn (who is in our ward, and who is coincidentally the ward choir director) to go, and she said yes. Trent and I prepared a nice picnic-y lunch and we went and picked up our dates at 5:30. It was pretty fun: it was amazing hiking in the canyon, while at the same time there was a river to our side. I didn't feel like I was in the desert, except for the sheer rock cliffs above us (which were pretty cool). We kind of just walked, and then found this nice big rock to eat on. On our way back, there was a small water fight, but I am happy to report that there are no casualties. It was really neat; Autumn and I were able to carry on a really nice conversation the whole time (i.e. there were no wicked awkward pauses). Afterwards I was bored, so I went out and met people. With Chris (who isn't in my apartment but is in our building) I went up to random people's doors and chatted for a while. I met: Casey, Lauren, Hannah, Sutton, Ryan, Jessica, Jen, Allison, Marin (it's her birthday today), Jessie, Parker, Carter, Tanner, and Ben. It was really neat, though I wish I had done so sooner, what with only 2 weeks left of the term.

That's pretty much it. I don't feel like doing a bio. I'll see about doing one tomorrow morning.

Good night!

Things in that dark that go "NI!"

Hi! Yes, indeed, I am posting two nights in a row! *GASP* It's a miracle (also I just don't have other work to do). Today I went to bio. It's a good thing I did, because it ended up being the best bio class ever: he brought his alpacas. It was really cool; there was a five day old newborn alpaca that was really cute. I did take pictures, but putting them up would be too onerous of a task to undertake, so instead I'm going to put them up on facebook or something...later. After bio I went back to the ranch and spent my time productively *cough* Ocarina of Time *cough*, as well as taking a good 40 minute nap (see my status from last night for explanation of why I was so tired). Music (at 4) was okay-we talked about Ravel, Puccini, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, and people like that. When it was finally over I talked to Chance about home teaching our last people, and we ended up home teaching them soon after; right before family home evening, in fact. Then, for FHE we went swimming. It was a very good decision (Thank you Anson!) though it revealed the fact that I have HORRIBLE cardio-vascular. Trent and I decided that we would go swimming in the mornings, which means I need to be getting to bed with good time tonight (hopefully that means that Foster will be done on the computer soon, and I can get to sleep). After swimming I came home and wrote my final paper for bio! I don't have to do any more! Hurrah! Then it was done. Now I'm done

..Almost :)

Finally: Bio #1 !

Trent Nathaniel Taylor

This is Trent. He hails from the great state of ..Utah. Yep, that's right: he is the one Utahan in our apartment (Saint George). He is about my height (which is tall' ish''), and has some horrible disease that requires him to wear these funny things on his face to help him see. His claim to fame is that he is the "coolest person alive." He is the one other person in my apartment who sings, which helps me keep my level of sanity (notice I didn't say helps keep me sane; I passed that point a while ago). Trent is majoring in theatre, as well as doing the pre-med program. Though he sings, he doesn't go for musicals; he is strictly a straight theatre guy. He is a very ebullient person, and thrives among groups of people. He is clean, though not the biggest neat freak in our apartment.

Currently, he is taking Book of Mormon, University Chorale, and Theatre History. His favorite thing to do is: "sing dance act swim play the piano." His pet peeve is: "when people don't clean up after themselves" and "really mean people." If he only had 10 days to live he would "take his friends and go to disney world. He would go snorkeling, skydiving, and then build an orphanage in Brazil." He is usually up for anything fun, even hiking the Y at 1:00 in the morning. In our very first conversation, I found out that he had played Kingdom Hearts and that he sang, and I knew that we would get along.

The (real) end.

Gah

Hi all. I have been trying to go to sleep for the last three hours. Nothing has worked. So, in a fit of desperation, I am going to do a complete blog post of all my activities since last Wednesday.

WARNING: This is going to be text heavy, but hopefully it will involve enough mental stimuli to tire my brain to the point where I will finally be able to sleep.

Wednesday: Bio. Bio class and bio test. Class was boring (big surprise). Test was alright; 94. No class for the rest of the day, because Music was canceled (the professor had something else to do). So I kinda chilled for the rest of the day until Anson showed me the N64 emulator he had downloaded. There went the rest of my day. I think by the time I went to bed I had gotten past the first two dungeons of Ocarina of Time.

Thursday: more of the same. Woke up late (No, I'm not saying how late I went to bed) and got some pointers from Trent who had played the game as a child (I must confess that I had never played OoT in my life). Took a brief break for Book of Mormon from 2-4, but then continued on in much the same vein. Got past the fourth temple that night.

Friday: Good news for the summer-attending BYU student: a Utah-only holiday called Pioneer day. To be fair, it is on the 24th, but they gave us classes off on Friday, too. That meant I could sleep in (yay!) but not by much. The reason for this was because BYU was holding a little something called Cougar Cooldown. I'd explain it, but I think this video does a better job. It was buckets of fun, though some of those balloons hit quite hard. I got hit, the very second time, square in between the eyes; had to turn around and throw balloons backwards until I could open my eyes again. Associated with the water balloon fight was a blood drive, and I figured why not. I have blood, and am always making more. I might as well. It actually was a really neat experience, and I was not much the worse for wear because of it. Note: I love Utah. I totally struck up a conversation with a random couple that were in line ahead of me. The other thing I love about Utah; they had just gotten married a month before. The actual giving of blood wasn't a big deal-it went faster than I would have thought. Then, a nice surprise: after giving blood I went over to talk to this girl I kinda knew-she was a friend of Chance's. As it turns out it's a good thing I did, because she happened to ask me out on a date. I readily accepted, of course.

The date was wicked fun; it was Rachel (my date) and four of her roommates that all got dates. We had breakfast for dinner (I cooked the eggs-scrambled, first time ever. I did a pretty good job), then went to see a show put on by a camp that was going on at BYU-YASE. It turned out to be pretty neat. Trent, who had gone to that camp the previous year, knew someone on the inside and got us in. They did a wide variety of musical numbers, as well as solo pieces (one of which was ridiculously funny-it was from the musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. We left early to do other fun things; played volleyball and then went back to their apartment to make (and eat) cake in a cup-a really cool recipe by which you make cake. In a mug. All in all, it was a really fun evening.

Saturday--went to my grandparents, did my laundry (for free!) and spilled chocolate milkshake on my computer. Yippee. It seems to be working alright now, but I kind of freaked out. It is not a good feeling to watch chocolate milk shake drip from out of your computer. The day continued improving; I spent at least an hour searching for my flash drive, the one I got such a good deal on (and the one that has all my N64 roms on it). Needless to say, I couldn't find it. The day did improve, however, with the fact that I went on another date. This one was a group date within my FHE group; we had a nice picnic at the JFSB, then went skittles bowling at the wilk (which gratefully was still open on pioneer day) and finished it up with ice cream at the creamery and a nice few games of catchphrase.

Sunday-Woke up at 10:20. Church started at 10:30. Made it there 5 or 6 minutes late, but it was okay (especially considering how late of a start I got and how far away the church building is of a walk). Choir practice went alright, but I have boatloads of practicing to do for two weeks from now. After that, I pretty much just wasted time; spent some of it with my FHE group but after ward prayer (at 8) I realized how tired I was, and how trying to do anything productive would be a waste of time. So, I went to bed. Or tried to. Of course, I'm still up now four hours later, so what does that tell you? I must be some kind of a freak. Oh, and to add to that that apparently I've started snoring within the last four days. I thought Foster was kidding. He does that. But he seemed to be serious. I have no idea what the cause could be, but it worries me. I am not a snorer. It needs to stop.

And so does this post.

Bios this week!

I come in peace

Hi.
Begin Blog
Monday: I woke up and went to bio. The reason I did this was more than just because I had missed the last two classes; I was also going to meet with Elizabeth and Juliana Morrison who were going to start EFY this week; Elizabeth is thinking about starting BYU in the winter, and wanted to get an idea of what class was like. I got there early, grabbing breakfast on the way, and saved them seats. As class went on, I could tell they were engrossed, as was I (which is why I was playing desktop defender). Unfortunately for them, it's a wicked boring class. Fortunately for them, they had to leave to actually go sign up for EFY. I stayed for the post-class review, because of the whole not-having-gone-to-class thing. After class I went back home and split my work between my BoM midterm and my Bio paper (that was due that day at midnight. Or is it the next morning at midnight? Confusing) until 1:00. That was when Grandpa and Grandma came to drop off some stuff from home for me (Grandma just came back from visiting my home) and take me to lunch. The stuff included some red sox paraphernalia, some of which I am currently wearing (proudly). They took me to lunch at this great place called El Azteca, a low key mexican place with the most interesting guacamole I've ever tasted. Besides that, though, their stuff is pretty good (especially their chips; I LOVED their chips. They're home-made, or something--reminded me of acapulcos in that sense). Also, Dylan came to lunch. After they brought me back home, I continued working until going to Music. We learned about Wagner (who is the most written about person in western civilization besides Christ himself), Debussy, and modernist art. Class ended just in time for us to go bowling (yes, again. When it's only a dollar a game and 2 dollars for shoes, it becomes rather attractive to go). We played two games; my first game I bowled a 65, or something like that; I wasn't on top of my game. But, the next game, I got a strike and two spares, and got my score up to 116. Which is almost a 100% increase. I call that skillz (Also, it meant I beat Dezzy by 2 points, who is the most intense bowler out of all of us). After bowling I came back and managed to finish my bio paper by quarter to midnight. It's probably mostly BS, but I got it finished (who assigns an essay on one's role as a steward over the earth's resources, anyway?).

Tuesday: woke up at ~10:00 to finish my BoM midterm. Met my goal and finished it by 12:00, which gave me the next 6 hours to study for Music (except for 2:00 when I had to bring my midterm to BoM--my teacher is kind of old-fashioned when it comes to digitizing of school). I didn't stay for class, though; came back home to studystudystudy. I crammed my mind so full of information that I had to take a nap at around 4 (which lasted until 5:30). Got up and studied some more, then finally went to go take my test at ~7:40 (the testing center hands out tests until 8:00, and closes at 9:00). On monday our professor told us that out of everyone who had taken the test so far, the average score was around a 74. I had studied a ton, but it was still only for one day, so I was pretty nervous. However, over the course of the next hour I sped through most of the 119 questions (with only 4 or 5 really tripping me up). After finishing, I schooled myself into accepting a grade above an 80; end result--> 83 (which, funnily enough, was the same grade I got on the music ID test). I'm alright with that, though it means I got 20 questions wrong (but I'm pretty confident with the picture ID part of the test. I am surprised that he got the testing center to print that one Boucher painting).

Afterwards I came back, chilled at the girls' for a bit, then went over with a group to the library to 'study' (it's a group of people going to the "No shhh zone" of the library; there's not going to be much studying done). I went through all of the information for bio, and then decided to write up this post before going back to the apartment. Now I'm in the present moment, which is always awkward, so I'll stop here.

Yep. Iiiit's the weekend. Or, it was.

Hi. I'm tired, so I'll claim to make this short, but I doubt that will actually happen.
Saturday: I woke up at around 9:30, 10:00, but was wicked tired. Essentially lazed around until 3--literally. I stayed in my bed, or went out on to the couch, trying to go back to sleep. That's how tired I was. Finally, I got up the energy to do my überpost, but when I finished with that it was sometime around 5. Feeling productive, I dropped my books (the ones I borrowed to do my essay) off at the library, but after walking through the hot hot sun (uphill both ways and through the snow. Don't question it.) I got lazy again, and just chilled around the apartment. Around 8, a bunch of people from my FHE group decided to go see inception, but I didn't go. Turned out to be a good decision: After about another hour of laziness I finally started preparing my talk (after a brief trip to the creamery). I think it turned out pretty well. It was on gaining and building a testimony, and in my usual style I put together notes and prepared a spiel. I have to say, it was really great being alone in the apartment. I could sing, act like I was 5 (who says I'm not?) and do generally random stuff and not have people question me. It was pretty nice.
Sunday: Ward choir practice was at 9:20 (preparing to perform that day in sacrament meeting), so, as a good little pianist, I decided to get there early: got up at 8:30, got ready and ate breakfast. Strangest thing: as I was eating breakfast, this complete stranger walks in and asks if I had seen this cup he left on the stove. If any of my roommates are reading this, please explain to me WTFudge this was. I was very confused. Anyway, got to church, practiced, had church: three of the four speakers in sacrament meeting were from my FHE group (me included), which was pretty neat. I was the closing speaker, which meant I didn't have to worry about going over (though to be fair, it's a student ward. Not enough people go over). Choir performed after the 2nd (Courtney) and before the 3rd (Anson) speaker, and I kind of flubbed it. Not too bad, but I was kind of nervous and messed up on a few parts. My talk went tons better: I started off with a good 'Aloha' which was returned relatively enthusiastically, introduced myself (my full name, of course), and then proceeded. I probably took 8-10 minutes, which isn't too shabby. Afterward, the bishop (following the theme of testimony) called some people up to bear their testimonies, Bishop McQuivey style (though it was funny; talking to people afterward that had never happened in their wards). Rest of church passed reasonably well; I found out that there is a senior (RM) in our ward. Go figure. After church we had a potluck, which only went off well because certain apartments were actually given lasagnas to prepare; ours being one of them. Time passed, and then I found myself here, writing this. There; that wasn't too long, was it? (Hoping to start roommate bios either tuesday or wednesday)

Week in review

....Hi. It's me again. It's been a while, hasn't it? How have you been? Good, good. Well, I thought I would just check in, see how everything's going, you know? What's that? you want to know about my week? okay, here goes:
Monday: Bio in the morning followed by a test. I got a 94 (which bummed me out for a bit because while taking the test I thought that I knew everything. Don't judge. I don't look at things absolutely). Test was followed by some sort of shenanigans, including helping Katie study at the library, while gathering sources for my BoM essay due Thursday (which is the main reason I haven't been posting this week). I had Music (as always) at 4, and was very happy that I didn't have to worry about getting housing (because I have it! Yay!)

That day ended with a failed FHE event; we were planning on playing ultimate frisbee but the annoying EFY kids took all the good lawn spaces so we ended up just walking around Heritage halls and then coming back.

Tuesday: I had isolated a lot of sources and information for my essay, but I didn't have a coherent thesis linking it all together. Frustrated, I just waited until BoM, hoping the prof. would be able to give me a bit of insight. Before BoM I went to a review for Music (the midterm is from last wednesday to next tuesday: I'm taking it Tuesday.) and then straight to BoM. Needless to say, my professor was no help whatsoever with my thesis. I ended up being even more frustrated, and spent the rest of the evening napping, listening to music, and playing the piano until I suddenly had a stroke of insight for my essay. I threw together a good page and a half and called it a night.

Wednesday: I didn't go to bio in order to work on my essay, but ended up spending all my time before music studying; in addition to our ongoing midterm we also had a music identification test that day: essentially he would play us music and we had to identify the composer and the name of the piece. I spent most of my morning/early afternoon listening to the pieces we had to know. Then we took the test (throwing in a bit of future sight, I ended up with an 83%. Boooo. translates from a 25/30. Not good.) which was kind of difficult. I was also kind of mad that he never played Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 in C# (also known as Moonlight Sonata).

Wednesday/Thursday: After music I came home and tried working on my essay, to not much avail. I did write a poem (the second of the day). My focus completely denigrated once my roommates joined in a water fight with the rest of the building; I didn't really feel like participating in the coalescing of water and cake mix, and there was nowhere else to go, so I got on my bike and started riding. When I started I didn't really have a destination in mind, but I gradually decided to go up to the temple. Yay for iPhones and GPS, I found my way there.

Came home after that (didn't realize how close we are to the temple; too bad it's closed for most of the term) and started working (legit) on my essay--I didn't finish until 10:00. AM. Thursday morning. But it's over now! It's all good! yay! I then went to bed, slept for a good two hours, and got up in time for actual class (how bad would it be if I did my essay and then slept through class and couldn't hand it in. Luckily that didn't happen). Somehow I managed to make it through class without falling asleep. The greatest part of the day was when I got out of class to find that my bike tire was completely flat. Don't know why, all I knew was that I had to walk it all the way back. Which was oodles of fun. Went right back to sleep after that, then woke up in time to go with Trent and audition at this little theatre in Provo for a performance of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap. It went alright, but I haven't gotten a callback or anything (which I wasn't really expecting; I was just glad to at least audition for something). Afterwards, I got everyone to go bowling, spontaneously. It was pretty fun, though I realized that I wasn't used to this real-type bowling (Candlepin, anyone?). I did pretty poorly (ended up with a 72, I think).
The bowling place at the wilk is pretty neat

This is my Tron shoe

Friday: Slept through Bio, woke up in time to get a call from Grandpa, responding to my bike situation. He ended up taking me to get the tube in the front tire replaced, as well as taking me to this awesome food place called Coney's Custard. It's your typical burger joint, with the addition of the most amazing custard I have ever tasted. After that I did random things back home; and then prepared my audition for Hairspray (at the SCERA theatre in Orem) which was 16 measures of Music of the Night, from Phantom of the Opera. I prepared well, but I flubbed the audition terribly. What I wasn't prepared for was the accompanist, and so I just didn't have my starting note the first two times we tried it. It was wicked embarrassing. But again, I wasn't really expecting to do well, I just wanted to audition (it struck me, as I was practicing, how long it had been since I had last really sung). Then it was over, but on our way back we stopped at Cafe Rio, where I had never been to before, and I found out was actually really really good. I got a chicken enchilada, and it was quite good.

We got back, and watched UP--Dezzy had never seen it before, which is a crime, so we watched it. Then I went to bed. Then I got up, and started writing this. DONE

I have found...

...a great way to focus.

Why can't I think of a creative title?

Hi. It's me, Jansen. I am here to tell you about my day. Today I woke up at around 9:00, had a shower, started getting dressed, when I am texted that our apartment is in charge of sacrament, and that we needed to be there by 10:00 (church starts at 10:30). Getting this at 9:30, I had to quickly wake up Foster, and then try and call through to Anson (who's in the shower) to tell him he needed to hurry up. We ended up getting there with good time, but I could see how my parents feel every week, trying to get people to church.
Church was pretty good: we had four speakers and two musical numbers; the speakers were at various levels of preparedness. One speaker didn't even have anything to read, and related his talk to spiderman. Another speaker was quite well prepared, and gave a General Conference-style breakdown of the spirit into three categories. The musical numbers were both quite good, but the better one (bias? what?) was that one done by three of our FHE girls. They did this a Capella arrangement of I Need Thee Every Hour, which was really nice.
After sacrament meeting was priesthood, and then sunday school, which we had outside (due to some random scheduling conflict).
So, church got out at 1:30, and ward choir started at 2:30, which meant I had enough time to go back to my dorm, grab my music, then come back and practice until people started showing up. We worked on O My Father, and I actually got the accompaniment part down reallyreally well (I was wicked excited). I totally played it with them and everything. Luckily, we only need to do one piece every other week, so there's not too much of a rush. But I was really happy that it went so well; I was really nervous about it.
Anyway, that ended, and so I came back to the apartment, changed, and went over to hang out at the girls' (it was probably 4-ish). Katie dyed her hair, and is even more of a brunette than she was before (sorry I don't have pictures, but get over it). Courtney was in the process of making dinner for 5:30, and so the rest of us just kind of sat around and chilled (because, as she claimed over and over, she didn't need any help). It was probably my favorite meal I've had since I've been here (except maybe that one time at Olive Garden). It had pasta, rolls, and corn on the cob (of which there are soo many left). I was a very happy person, but I ate WAY too many rolls.
After dinner we decided we wanted to watch a movie, so Dezzy pulled out her binder, and after turning down such classics as Grease, Chicago, and high school musical 3, we finally decided to watch Sweet Home Alabama. I have mixed feelings about the movie; the setting in the South (where I could never live), but the story is alright. A little annoyed by how it turned out, but, meh. It was interrupted towards the end by ward prayer, and then after the movie Katie, Kayla and I went to get temple recommend interviews (which were going on in the basement). After that, I realized I was tired, but awake enough to write this, but now I'm more tired, so I think I'm going to go to bed.

Weekends

Sorry about not posting last night, but, too bad. Get over it.

Friday:

I had bio, and nothing else. However, it was the most intense class I've had yet, for the sole reason we learned something that I didn't already know. We learned all about what happens to glucose in our cells, and how it turns into pyruvate, CoA, NADH, FADH2, and eventually to ATP. Thankfully, it was over after an hour, and I hung out at the girls' place for an unspecified (and unremembered; it was over a day ago) amount of time. I also went to the bookstore's sidewalk sale with Dezzy and Melissa; Melissa got these crazy tall heels, and I found that they were selling 8 GB flashdrives for 17 bucks. I bought that sucker right up.

On our way back, there was a short rainburst

during which we ducked into the library and had fun with the moving bookshelves in the periodicals.

Then I came back, and took a short nap. At 8, Anson, Foster and I went over to the girls' again, this time because there was a free movie playing at Helaman Fields; Planet 51. We went with Courtney, Dezzy, and Melissa. It was pretty fun; they were doing all sorts of promotional things, giving out t shirts and stuff. The movie started by 9:25, and it was fun until the rain started. It was actually really cool, because we could see the storm moving in; there were some really cool lightning bursts that we could see, including one that kind of branched off sideways. It was neat until it started raining; there were just these big, fat drops, but since we are poor college students we didn't have cars or anything, so we ended up just walking back to Heritage. One with the rain. I ended up taking a shower with the intent to go to bed, but ended up hanging out some more with Courtney, Dezzy, Trent, and his friend. It was when some people decided to go hike the Y at 12:15 that I decided to go to bed. Thus the not wanting to write up a post.

Saturday:

I went to bed with the intent to wake up by 7:30 so that when Tutu came to pick up Kea and Taylor I would be awake and able to go with them, spend the day with them. Totally cool, then, when I woke up at 10:00. Luckily, Tutu was nice enough to come back and get me. I had a great day over there, in American Fork. First off, we stopped by Krispy Kreme on our way, which made me happy. We got to their house, and I was able to visit in with Great Grandma McQuivey, which was great. It's awesome to be able to see someone who is able to age so healthily; that's essentially my goal in life. Also, Grandad built a waterfall, that morning

which looks really nice.

Kea was there, and I was able to fix the problem with her computer (restarting the computer does work most the time) and then with Tutu's computer (she just needed a driver installed). We went to see Eclipse (even though Kea and Taylor had already seen it). I thought it clearly superior to the last few, though the acting (or rather, the lack of) was painful. We got food at In-n-out, which was good, and then we went to this small children's parade in American Fork that Tutu had volunteered us for; we handed out popsicles to the kids after they finished. It was alright; it was actually right in front of the AF high school, which was neat. I'd never seen it before.

(The point of this blog is to make my parents jealous of me doing all these things that bring memories for them. Hence these pictures).

Then I came back to campus, hung out with Dezzy, Katie, and Kayla, and then came to write this. If it wasn't so late, and were I not writing about two days, I would include more detail, but alas. Such is life. Good night!

(DAKOTA FANNING)

squishy

I'm late in posting this, though that is not the primary reason behind this video. It will be explained later, I promise.
My day started at around 9:00, with two very specific goals in mind. The first of those was the appointment I had at 11:00 to follow up from the day before about my AP scores. That was short, and I was soon able to return to my other goal, which had to do with the multiplicity of readings I had to do for my Book of Mormon class. He has these quizzes that he does, based on certain readings he makes available, and we are supposed to read them and understand certain concepts that we are then quizzed on. The quiz became available yesterday at 5, which means that those readings were taken down at 5, so I had to read the rest of them before class (which went from 2-4, and didn't leave me much time afterwards to do the readings. Hence doing all that homework before class). All this explanation just to say that I didn't do much yesterday (before class) except for homework and that meeting. Of course, I am obliged to mention (because I know you are reading this, mom) that at BYU, class level increases with every 30 credits you get. This means, that with the 71 credits that are coming from my AP scores, I will be a Junior. W00t. Though, the counselor was quick to point out that that doesn't mean too much; there are plenty of 4 year and 5 year seniors who have gotten started on their major late and, while technically seniors, won't graduate for a few years yet.
I finished my readings at one, and realized that I was rather sleepy. I had an hour before my class started, so I figured I could conceivably have a short, maybe half-hour nap before I needed to go to class. I laid down....and woke up to find it was 1:57; hence the above video. I absolutely bolted out of there; got my computer and everything ready in seconds and jumped on my bike. It was weird, afterwards, to look back on that because I was so full of adrenaline that I didn't even get as tired as I usually do when riding my bike across campus. By some miracle I got there, to the other side of campus, and into class by 2:03. However, in my haste I had forgotten my phone, which meant I didn't have my scriptures with me. It was alright, though, we didn't read as much as we analyzed. We actually had this really great lesson about Justice and mercy. It was quite interesting, dare I say, enlightening. I have to say, I like the class itself, it's just the work that's associated with it (6 page paper for next week, anybody?) that gets annoying.

After that, I came back to my room, and upon realizing that I didn't have to do any more work that day, I suggested to my roommate (Foster) that we go play racquetball. I hadn't played for some four years, and he hadn't really played either. Luckily, he knew the way to the RB (where all the gyms and athletic-type facilities are. Of course, it being the building of sports-y things, is possibly the farthest building on campus from my room, so simply walking there in the first place is exercise enough. However, it was pretty enjoyable. We rented racquets and stuff, and pretty much just hit the ball around; neither one of us were good enough to actually get a good volley going. We played for a good hour, then on the way back I stopped in at the library to print out music for ward choir; got back and played through some of it (and I'm really excited; provided I get enough practice in, it should turn out really well). Upon coming back upstairs, I realized that nothing was going on, so I went over to the girls' dorm, where it turned out that party was going on. We chilled there for a while, and then someone brought up the idea of going to walmart, and I decided to go because a) I haven't been yet and b) we needed some towels and a trash can for the bathroom. The trip was ...interesting. Blasting Usher out of the windows and the sun roof, we had a great time speeding through Provo at night. Then we got to the walmart, and had a great time; we kind of split up into two groups; Courtney had the cart so I followed her, and then Chance, Dezzy and Kayla wandered around getting random knick-knacks. The best part of the whole trip was hearing the story about how Dezzy dropped a glass bottle of pizza sauce that shattered in the aisle. Also, she loves it when you remind her about it, again and again and again.

We got back from walmart, and went back to the girls' apartment; someone had made chicken enchiladas while we were gone, and they were SOOOOOOO good. In case you couldn't tell, I quite liked them. We ended up just hanging out until 11, when we got kicked out of their room, but then they all came over to our lobby and we continued chilling until midnight, when they got kicked out. Then, I went to bed. But I can't tell you any more because that's the property of tonight's post. So, 'till then!

syadsendeW

Sorry about not posting last night, but I was tired and I didn't have the energy to stay up past 11 (However, the good news of that is that I was abed by 11, for those of you who are care about my wellbeing (mom)). I'll sum up the yester-day.
My day stared with a lovely trip to the cannon center; it was the first time I'd ever been there. It's a pretty big place! Unfortunately, they weren't serving french toast, but their pancakes, donuts, eggs, hash browns, and assorted juices were pretty good. This was followed by Bio-logy, which was annoyingly monotonous, more so than other classes. We went over enzymes, which, again, I learned in 9th grade biology. Whee. Then, after an hour of lecturing, the professor decided to have a review session on what we had learned the past few classes. I stuck around, but just played desktop defender as he re-explained what effect the allosteric site of an enzyme has for the 4th time. It's a ridiculously easy class. Oh, and we have a test next monday, which I'm not going to say is going to be a breeze, but I'll be shocked if I don't get above an 87.
After Bio I came back home (on my bike!) and did some homework. At some point I went over to the girls' room with Trent, which was fun. At 1:30 I went to go talk to this guy about what my AP scores mean, and in the short term it's not much. My classes for next term don't change, and I have to take econ the following term (I am able to just barely squeeze out of American Heritage). In total, my AP scores garnered me 71 credits. After I was done with that, I came back to the room, because I remembered that it was Wednesday, which means new rooms opening up. I checked the available rooms, and there were none opening up in heritage. However, there were 8 beds opening up in Helaman. Quick back-story: my roommate (Foster) until last week didn't have a room for the fall, but he got a room in Heritage last week (one that I messed up on). Earlier in the week, though, he told me that he would rather stay at Helaman, and have direct access to the Cannon Center. Remembering this, I got very hopeful. I waited for him to come back, and asked him if I got the Helaman room, if he would switch with me. Luckily, he said he would. So, at 3:45, I headed off to my Music class, set up my computer and everything, and waited. At 4, I pounced on this room in May building. Got it. Was really excited; so excited, in fact, that I nearly fell asleep in class during the ensuing 140 minutes. Upon arriving back home, I told Foster about my success, and we successfully swapped rooms (which can happen at any time--you don't have to wait for any time). The end result of this is that I finally have a room in Heritage for the fall! I'm in Felt hall, which means I'll be moving over some 20 yards.
After that excitement, I went on a nature walk around the parking lot. Fun story; I found out on Tuesday that we had another essay for bio due Wednesday at midnight. However, the essay was wicked easy because the assignment was literally just to take a nature walk and talk about what I saw. So, that's what I did. I used the microphone on my iPhone headphones and just recorded a voice memo of my observations, came back in and typed it up. Easiest three pages I've written in my entire life. Following that I hung out a bit with some from my FHE group, then realized I should probably get to studying. Upon making that resolve, however, I realized how tired I was and just went to bed (hence why I didn't post last night). Now, however, I must go about the day and the challenges (and BoM quizzes) it may bring. Sayonara!

The Daily Grind

Boy did I not get enough sleep last night. Not only did I not get enough sleep, but I couldn't even take a nap today because I had class from 2 to 4 (though that didn't stop me from almost nodding off)
Today I woke up around 11 (I think). I hate some cereal, and did some homework while I was still focused enough, which degenerated quickly into doing random things (centered mostly around chess and my DS). I was productive in the middle of the day, when I went and set up an appointment for myself to me with Kerry Hammock (re: my AP scores and what that means for next fall). Grabbed lunch at the Cougareat, then came back. I went to BoM 7 minutes before class started, which I usually wouldn't do because I wouldn't be able to make it in time, but today is the first day that I have a bike of my own. Yes, I have my very own bicycle that I can get to the other side of campus in a couple minutes (which is really nice, because it tends to get rather hot in the middle of the day in the desert, so the less time I'm outside the better). After BoM I attempted to get some more work done, but then at 7:20 I got a text from the ward music committee chair that I needed to go get set apart--at 7:30. Now, for all of you who don't know, we have church at the conference center, but there is currently construction going on, blocking what would be the shortest route. To add to that, I didn't know whether I needed to dress up or not, so I ended up going halfway, wearing a button-up shirt that I left unbuttoned as I rode up the hill towards the building. What I realized in the course of that trip was how dreadfully out of shape I am. I really need to start working on my cardio-vascular. Maybe I'll accompany Trent on his morning jogs; he can run and I'll ride my bike. (Trent=a roommate; bios soon, I promise!) The cool thing was that while we were doing setting-apart(s), EFY was upstairs on their first dance of the week. Brought back good memories. Also, Kea and Taylor are there, which is cool. When I got back to the apartment, some of our FHE girls were there and we chilled for a bit before deciding to go play basketball, which degenerated into an 8-person game of pig, and then to knockout (I'm pretty sure they're still out there). I realized how ridiculously tired I am, so I came back with the intent to sleep, but realized that I should post this first. Also, fun fact, my right eye has been killing me all day. I'm hoping it's just because of lack of sleep, and that it's not an infection or anything like that.

And on that note, buenas noches.

Bloons

Today I was at the Provo balloon-type event (I'm not sure whether it's a fest or a meet). I didn't get to go up in the balloon, but I was on chase and was able to help pack it up. After the meet was mainly over, I watched some of the parade. All of the pictures I took from that period (the ballooning and the parade) are here. There are a lot of marching bands in Utah, but I loved most of all the tank that was in the parade, as well as the multiple stake-sponsored floats and the mtc spot. Utah sure does the 4th (5th?) of July different. After the parade we went over to this small little picnic area, where there was a barbecue hosted by the balloon meet organizers, which was pretty good. Before that, though, people talked and socialized and I had a good chance to chat with my Uncle BJ. Fastforwarding to post-lunch, Grandpa brought me back to the apartment, with my new (new to me, not new-new) bike. I'm really excited to have it, especially for tomorrow where I have to go to BoM, which is the farthest of all my classes.

After getting in and settled I went straight to bed. Getting up at 6 after a restless night doesn't do much for restfulness, so I slept. And slept. When I awoke, I found to my surprised that our FHE girls were over, so I pretty much just spent the rest of the night hanging out here with (most of) our FHE group. We had pizzas made by Amy, Kayla, and Tim, which were pretty good-we still have an entire hawaiian pizza left over (also, the crust is really really good). Thaaaaaat's pretty much my day. I'm going to go to bed now. I'm tired after all this weekend. G'night!

Stadium of Fire!/Suuunday

So, I didn't have my computer yesterday so I'm combining two posts into one, which means I'll be condensing my days.

Saturday started on the couch in the basement at the Kellys, when I woke up to go see the balloon meet. We got there, Grandma and I, but the wind was too strong for the balloons to take off (even though a few people did), so I got there just in time to help clean up, and then go to breakfast. We ate at this really cool place called Mimi's cafe, which serves all sorts of delicious breakfast foods. After that I rode back to Highland in Grandpa's truck (and had a nice nap). He showed me the bike he had that he was going to give me; my uncle had fixed it up years ago, made it for mountain biking so it's got a low frame but I like it. It's nothing fancy, which hopefully means that no one will want to steal it here on campus (which still won't stop me from getting a bike lock). I rode with him as he went to bring his balloon to his friend to get it patched up (some kid had run over it at the field), and when we came back everyone else had gone. It turned out they went to Brigham's house (one of my uncles), which I was fine with; it gave me a chance to get my post about lagoon up and then have a nap. In the evening we went out to the Market Street Grill, a mainly-seafood place that also has the most amazing prime rib I have ever tasted. My aunt Liz put it best when she said: "it's like bread, but made out of meat." It was the most tender steak I've ever had. After that, my grandparents were kind enough to drop me off near the stadium, even though it meant waiting through all sorts of traffic to get me near enough. The reason they were dropping me off near the stadium was because it was the Stadium of Fire(!). For the uninitiated, it is one of the (if not the) biggest fireworks display in the country. They had all sorts of pre-show activities: Colonel Telford of SGU fame (who has some sort of real person name, but I don't remember actors) was emcee. There was a cool dancing routine, where all these girls wearing patriotic colors made a flag and stuff; it was pretty cool. The coolest part of the show was this group called the 5 browns: siblings, each of them has graduated from Juliard, and they all play piano together. They played this really cool John Williams Medley; the only problem was the venue. All playing grand pianos in an open air stadium, the sound couldn't really echo like it should: the music ended up being really flat. Other performers (less cool): there was this violin player who's famous, the Osmonds second generation, and Carrie Underwood. Then, finally, it was time for the fireworks. I took picture after picture on my phone, and put them all up on facebook here and here. As cool as they may look in the pictures, it was so much cooler to be there; the sounds, and the smells, and just being able to watch them as they kept blowing up. I love this holiday. There was an interesting part where one of the fireworks they shot up over the field misfired and flew into one of the rows on the ground. It didn't seem like anyone was seriously hurt, but still, that's not good. I was there with Kea and Taylor, and afterwards we walked back towards the creamery on 9th, waiting for Tutu to get there to pick them up. After they were gone I went straight to bed.

Today went pretty leisurely in comparison. I woke up around 9, showered and got ready for church; on the walk there I struck up conversation with this one guy, who ended up being in the elder's quorum presidency. It ended up being pretty cool, because he had me help with the sacrament. It had been a while since I last did that. Testimony meeting was pretty neat; you'd think that with it being the 4th all the testimonies would be about freedom, and the first few were, but they ended up being more about family, and the atonement (separate; but they were the two most common topics-hence the comma before the 'and'). I bore my testimony as well. After that was Elder's quorum and then Sunday school. We learned about Psalms and hymns. It was nice. After church we held a meeting for anyone interested in ward choir; we actually had a really good turn out. I'm excited for our prospects. We still have to find a place to practice, however, but I'm hopeful (anyone know if the HFAC will let us use some rooms on Sundays? Maybe during the week, if we need to). I then went over to our FHE sisters' for dinner. It was a really good meal with chicken and rice, and this really good little garnish-type thing. Following that I had a pretty long nap (I guess that's why I'm still up), and then was up for ward prayer. Immediately following that, my grandparents came by with the rest of the stuff I had left at their house (as well as a blender: I can now make German Pancakes!!! (and yes, that did deserve to be capitalized)). Thennnn, I uploaded the pictures, looked for youtube vidoes to put up, and wrote this. Now I am now, and writing more would just get overtly detailed and pedantic, so I'm going to stop. Enjoy the fireworks! And happy Our Country Is Super Awesome Day!

Lagoon--The Experience

This may be crazy, but it relates back to one of the rides that I'll discuss; this post is just going to be about Lagoon.

The entrance. Lots of cool flag-like things

From right to left: Me, Kea, Taylor

The only wooden rollercoaster in the park; it's pretty good, nothing fancy, but it works

This is a pretty cool ride; it's like a ferris wheel but each individual cage can rock back and forth, and then lock in place

This ride is called Wild Mouse (or something). Its attraction is really abrupt jerks and changes in direction

This is the Bat, the only suspended roller coaster in the park. It's kind of lame, especially compared to Batman

This is called Jet star, or something. Another fun coaster.

I don't really know what this ride is called, but it's pretty cool; those water jets shoot up and the rows of people pass through them

There are some rides that aren't pictured so I'll briefly describe them:

Colossus: Best ride in the park. Pale Red and Yellow color scheme, and it turns to put one end really close to the ground. It has two loops.

Wicked: An alright coaster that shoots straight up and then goes straight down; past that, though, there isn't really anything notable about it. It's too short.

Spider: a cool coaster on a small cart that rotates so that the people in front and back get to face both ways.

Water Park: Lagoon is widely known for its water park, and when I've come before with my family we spend most of our time there. It's got a lazy river and some nice water slides, the coolest of which are essentially straight drops into the pool (I'm over-exaggerating, of course, but they're pretty steep). The cool thing is the with one of the slides, if you position yourself just right, you can actually skim out across the landing pool.

The water park was smaller than I remembered, and we ended up only spending 2 1/2-3 hours there.

The funniest thing about the park is the height of the water fountains

Another example of an extremely short water fountain.

This is called the rocket; it's your standard fast-acceleration drop (except one of them does a drop, the other does an equally accelerated ascent--that's the one we went on)

This is the scariest ride I have ever been on. Mere words can not described the fright it induced within me. Called the Samurai, it has 6 arms which rotate around a rotating arm. Oh, also, each arm rotates around its lengthwise axis. I made the mistake of sitting on the end, which for any physics students out there will know that v=r* omega, and so I was going the fastest anyone could go on that ride. I was literally in hysterics as the ride finished, alternating between quietly shaking and then laughing maniacally. It gave us all a headache.

This is this nice ski-lift kind of a thing that goes from one end of the park to the other. It was pretty restful, as you can see.

Not pictured, also, was the Catapult ride. Essentially, you get in this big steel framed ball, and they launch you reallyreallyreally high in the air. Kea and I rode it, and it was not really that scary. After the initial feeling, and surprise when it launched, it was actually really fun. Now, they have a camera in the thing, so that you can buy a video of yourself. I was totally going to buy it and put in on as the video, but once we were done and went to buy it, guess what clueless attendant had forgotten to push the record button. That's right, it didn't record. So now I just have pictures.

After that we went to Olive Garden; Kea and I really wanted pasta after such a long and exhausting day. It was soooo good. I've never had such a good meal at Olive Garden.

The cake that we had for desert. It was yummmmmmy. (Somehow I still had room for it after eating all of my fettuccine alfredo).

That was my day (yesterday, by this point). Okay. Bye now.

Lagoon

Today I went to Lagoon! (Lagoon is an amusement park in Farmington Utah). I went with my McQuivey grandparents, Tutu and Grandad, and my cousins Kea and Taylor; they picked me up from the Kellys at about quarter to 10 and we were on our way. Lagoon opens at 11, which is good because it is about an hour away. We got there with good time, getting in right before the park opened. Just as a rundown, Lagoon has a water park with a few slides and a lazy river and stuff, so we went there to set up a kind of base camp first, after which Kea, Taylor, and I went on some roller coasters. I'd write about it, but I think I'll let the pictures tell the story. Unfortunately it's really late so I'm going to go to bed and post them tomorrow morning.

an APple a day keeps the courses away

Hello once again, it's your favorite neighborhood Jansen-man. I'm here to tell you about the wonderfully exciting life of my alter-ego, Jansen. Jansen's day began late, but abruptly, when at 11:00 two things caused me to bolt out of bed: a) hearing conversation about and b) smelling French Toast. Unfortunately, it was all for nothing because my roommates didn't leave any for me. Wah. But I'm a big boy, so I had some cereal or something; it was all good.

Then, suddenly, I realized what day it was! July 1st! The day AP scores are available to be called in! (Granted, it cost $8, but such is the price we pay. Of course, I could have just waited a few weeks, but I did need to know my Calc score sooner rather than later in order to pick the right class for the fall). So I got all my needed information and called in--and became SUPERCALIFRAJALISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS-DUPER HAPPY! I actually surpassed (most of) my expectations! There was only one score where I fell short. I don't feel like re-posting them, so I'll just link to my facebook note (*the smiley person in the note is one of my friends. He likes it when I put embarrassing pictures of him online). Yep. That's me.

After that I wasted some time until my BoM class at 2, which, again, was pretty cool. We talked about how Lehi's dream becomes the new cultural narrative for the Nephites (replacing the exodus) and how that dream imagery pervades Nephite culture. It makes for some really interesting stuff. I lucked out with this guy.

After BoM I got back to the apartment, then my Grandpa (Kelly) picked me up to go to this ballooning banquet As some of you may know, it is independence day weekend coming up, and apparently that's really big out here. And when I say really big, I mean, REALLY big. They're setting up like this whole fair kind of a thing, with rides and everything. It's wicked intense. Anyway, there's this balloon meet for that, which starts tomorrow and ends on Monday. I'm not going to be going tomorrow, but I'll definitely be going Saturday and Monday. It's been so long since I've been to a balloon meet (and I promise to take lots of pictures for those of you who have never been to a balloon meet). Annnyway, that was a lot of talking and I kind of got off track. The point to this paragraph was what my Grandpa was driving when he picked me up. I'm not very car-literate, but I think these should be pretty self-explanatory:

Yeeppp. That's actually my Grandma's car. It is so. Freakin'. Cool. The top folds back literally at the touch of a button. IN the words of my Grandpa: "Those Germans sure know what they're doing." (It's a Mercedes-Benz).

The banquet was all right; standard Utah fare: a salad with plenty of Ranch dressing, then meat and potatoes. No bread, no fruit, and no veggies (besides the salad and the potato, of course. Did I mention that the potato wasn't baked, but was deep fried?).

After the banquet, I went back to my grandparents house. I'm going to Lagoon tomorrow with Tutu and Kea, for which reason I decided to skip bio (calm down; all the lecture is online, and I did just get a 100 on the test. I think I can give myself some pretty good leeway) so we could get to Lagoon as it opens. Then, I realized that both sets of grandparents live within 10 minutes of each other, so it would actually be better to sleep over and my Kelly Grandparents (and the myriad cookies and bread that were there helped to make up my mind). Before I put up the pictures of their house and yard, I'll just comment on the family that is over: the Stanleys (my mom's sister and her family) are here from St. George, and then Liz (another of my mom's sisters) is here with her ~10 month old, Evan (I don't know where her hubby is; ok, that's a lie. I know he's in Idaho, but I don't know why she came down separate. I just didn't bother to ask).

This is the view from the loft in my Grandparent's house; in other words the coolest place ever. That weird looking guy is my Uncle Josh. Never believe a word he says. Most of the time, he's just joshing you.

A view up from the loft, to see the neat skylights. Also, you can almost see the floor (this view is to the right of the view above)

My grandparents' pond. It's really cool, and my Grandpa keeps it stocked with (I believe; correct me if I'm wrong) freshwater trout

This is a view of the stone wall that fronts the 'beach.' Upon the wall and stretching back a ways is the garden, which is absolutely immense. Their house is in the back.

This is the patio next to the pond; the stone wall is to the left. There is a firepit, and some nice furniture that I'm not sure if it's home-made or bought.

This is the cool waterfall/feature that was in the back of the last picture. It's pretty.

Apparently, after the hatch blew up in season 4 (? or was it 3?), it relocated itself to my grandparents' yard. I could see a light at the bottom of it, and heard a name that sounded distinctly like 'Desmond'

My Cousins (Stanleys)--On the left is Colin, with some rockin' glasses. Then, (Foxy) Roxy. Finally, the fluffball is Jonah (don't eat the clay)

As evening fell, Roxy, Jonah, and I played some Mario Kart, as well as the coolest thing ever: Lego Rock Band (all on DS, of course) Then, here I am, in Highland, about to go to sleep. But that's OK because I've finally finished and I've got Lagoon to look forward to tomorrow. W00t!