To brighten your day :)

1 down, 13 to go! :)

It's one week into the semester, yet it seems like it should be halfway over by now! Busy busy busy! Last weekend I kinda had a bad attitude about school starting, change is always kinda weird for me... It takes me a while to get settled I guess.  But there's no going back now so I might as well just enjoy it, right? :)
 I'm going to be soo busy! But busy isn't bad... AND i'm really excited for my classes! I say that now... wait 2 months or so and I might be singing a different tune.

I’m taking:

One of the most challenging classes for most psychology majors (and the teacher takes a little too much pride in that fact), Behavioral Neurobiology. It even sounds hard. That class in and of itself is going to be a LOT of work, and very time consuming, but should be really interesting too. The brain is fascinating. Wish me luck.

*Social Psychology -- which I am most excited for! People watching, why do people do what they do? Why do people act differently in different situations? These are the things that interest me most in psychology! Plus my professor is a very funny French guy. I LOVE French people! I had him last semester & he’s one of my favorite people ever!

*Adult development -- It’s giving me a fear of turning old. And it makes me want to drink milk every single day. I better buy Nesquik or something stat! :)

*A sociology class that I never remember the name of – This little class is… interesting. Well yes, it is interesting because sociology is interesting.  But the set-up to the class is different than any I’ve ever had. He’s the kind of teacher who jams his classes super tight at first… I mean, I was sitting on the ground the first day for crying out loud! But he knows so many people will drop that first day that it all pans out in the end. He starts with a lecture comparing his class to teaching kids to swim by pushing them into the deep end… then goes on to introduce a killer research assignment that scares away a quarter of the class. Nice. But the weird part is… Even if you do ALL the assignments PERFECTLY, you can only get a c in the class. Saaaay whaaaatt? In order to get a B you have to do all the assignments correctly, and then do some additional work, approved by him, that corresponds to things we talk about in class.  (i.e. extra research assignments; book reports; GRE or grad school prep, etc.) To get an A you have to do all the assignments correctly, even MORE additional work than B status, then, during finals week, you have to go to his office with all of your work in a portfolio and explain to him why you deserve an A and defend your position. He takes the whole “taking learning into your own hands/Know and DO/unto à into/take a step into darkness” thing to an extreme level. Well, Mr. PhD, Challenge accepted. Plus, he’s also rather funny and I’m sure good habits will derive if nothing else.

*Book of Mormon. Self-explanatory. I love the Book of Mormon and there is always so much to learn… this is bound to be a great class.

So there you have it. My next 3 months in a nutshell! I’m very excited! :)

Happy weekend! 

Keeping it Classy in College

Remember my "classy" goals for 2012? Well this may or may not have anything to do with those…  But it’s funny nonetheless!

My five roommates and I all spent the weekend unpacking and getting settled into our apartment. None of us knew each other previously, so we got to know each other and laughed a whole lot. We also proposed the idea of making Sunday dinners together.

Sunday came and Megan decided to go ahead and be the first to make our weekly Sunday dinner. Well our apartment was still kind of a mess; there were empty and half empty boxes everywhere (and still are for that matter). So when she went to set the table, we weren’t sure if we were all going to fit. Kayley quickly announced that she would just eat on the couch.  But before she could even finish, Megan responded, “NO! This is our good Sunday meal. We will all sit down at the table. It’s one day a week for 30 minutes, you can do it.” (or something to that effect… I don’t quite remember now). I laughed at her quick INSISTINCE on eating a proper meal and made a joke about how classy we would become because of it. Before long, everyone started in on the classy jokes, except Megan. She took them in lightly but underneath she was becoming COMPLETELY DETERMINED to make this meal classy.

 It was HILARIOUS.

She started setting the table. “We need ambiance” so she brought in a lamp from her bedroom and turned off the lights. 

We all decided to play classical musical softly in the background... (i'm getting cultured and classy)

“Does anyone have placemats?” Uhh… no we’re in college. Who has placemats? So she went into the bathroom and pulled 6 green hand towels and set them under the plates.

“We need flowers or something” I offered to gather all the toothbrushes and put them in a cup/vase for a floral-like centerpiece, but she declined my invitation.

As Kariann is putting a bagged salad on the table, “It can’t go on like that, put it in a bowl!”

As Megan is searching through the knives trying to find 6 that match, Kariann adds, “We’re eating spaghetti we don’t need knives.” To which Megan replies, “That’s not the important thing, we need a proper table”

All the while the classy jokes from the peanut gallery were firing in rapid succession. I was almost on the ground I was laughing so hard.

Then it was dinner time. Classy meals can be delicious as well. This one sure was.

Pinky's out. Classy dinner #1 was a success! Thanks Megan! :)

Next week Kariann is going to make a Chilean dinner.  When it’s my turn I’ll probably make pigs in a blanket and have everyone sit on the floor on a blanket or in a fort. Haha I kid. Sort of. 

Techno Shower Raves

This is a view of our bathroom. 

Does anything seem weird or out of place here? Anything at all? Pay no attention to the overflowing trash can… it was the only one we had when we first moved in.

No? How about in this one?

Take a look at the location of that light switch.

It’s OUTSIDE of the bathroom.

 There is only one explanation… the bathroom was designed by an only child. No human with siblings or roommates would ever put a light switch on the outside of a bathroom.

If one of us suffers a seizure before the semester is over, it’s probably from the techno strobe light experience we receive every so often. 

Serious case of the diamondbacks blues...

So I live in Idaho now... and mostly there are 3 things that I miss about AZ. My family, the sun, and the Diamondbacks. Oh and the 3 week American history tour my family is currently enjoying... but i'm receiving a hilarious play-by-play from Mariah, so it kinda makes it worth it. A little. Ok not really, but i'm over it. 

But out of all of those I'm fairly certain that the one I miss the most is.... the diamondbacks. Maybe because I can still talk to my family and know i'll seem them soon. and because every once in a blue moon the sun comes out for a day or so. but i'm missing THREE QUARTERS OF THE ONLY 2012 BASEBALL SEASON THE DIAMONDBACKS WILL EVER PLAY! I am not handling this very well. I check the scores pretty often, but it's just not the same.  I don't know how the individual players are doing. I'm missing the EXCITEMENT. Whoever says baseball is not an exciting sport, obviously.... just... I don't even know what to say.... they just don't know anything. There is a rather large section of my heart devoted to baseball, the Diamondbacks in particular. And there is LOTS of excitement. My heart has started racing many a times during these games, launching me to my feet, with my hands on my head. The walk off homers, the crazy catches, the strikeouts or ground-balls to get outta jams, come from behind wins, rookie moments, throwing base runners out, sweeping a rival team, clutch hits, the driving energy as they round the bases. Momentum is not something you can read about on the play-by plays, it's something you need to experience. Plus all the season fluff. You know, the jokes and pranks the players play, Ryan Robert's fierce vein popping facial expressions, the fist pumps, the dog piles, the outfield sandwiches, the legends race, Mark Grace and Derek Sutton's rants, the brawls, the suspensions, pitchers nailing players in the head, managers getting kicked out of games. Everything. I'm missing it all. 

(Photo Courtesy of the Diamondbacks fb page... who ALWAYS posts pictures, making my case of the dback blues 50 times worse!)

First on my agenda when I go home will definitely be a Diamondbacks game! And an outside BBQ... even in the 115 degree weather! I'm SOOO stoked!!!

Spoke too soon...

Well my friends, it was too good to be true... Rexburg is no longer warm. In fact, it didn't even get above the 50's today. Seriously I don't even know how it is possible to drop 45 stinkin' degrees OVERNIGHT!! But anything is possible in this Idaohan town. Yesterday there were RECORD HIGH'S around the state and tonight we have to bring our flower planters in because it's suppossed to get BELOW FREEZING. I haven't been able to entirely wrap my mind around this concept. But at least i'm being cultured.  Later tonight i'm supposed to go on a date to the park to play kickball and volleyball. But it's just too cold, windy and now raining.. so we'll be doing an indoor activity now. It's June and we're stuck inside because it's too cold to be outside... I live in Idaho now.

Summer lovin'

Today is a GLORIOUS day! Why you ask? Well how about because it's 90 degrees in Rexburg!! 90!! Mmmhhmm! It's BEAUTIFUL!! I just want to put on shorts and bask in the beauty! I'm seriously so happy. One downside... our apartment doesn't have air conditioning. It's a slight bummer, but i'll take it over barely surviving the coldness of April. May was bipolar... 70 one day 40 the next. Here's to hoping June stays this warm forever!! :)