Oh dear.

I'm a busy girl.
Yesterday I took two midterms and did a lab... today... I took another midterm.

I also got my first paycheck yesterday! It was about two hundred dollars. I bought myself a BYU sweatshirt... because it's darn cold up here. Today it's raining. A lot.

Tonight I get to go to the General Relief Society thingy... Shweet.

Well, about last week.

Monday! Ahh!
So I went to work, then to all my classes, and then I came home and watched Oklahoma!... which I borrowed from Ryan. Then I set off to make cookies... Oh!
I'm pretty sure I haven't emailed off the witty cookie piece I wrote Monday night. I posted it on Facebook, but I don't think I emailed it off. So... here's that. Viva copy and paste!

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Cookies: An Epic Tale
I Am NOT Having Eight Children: A Rant from Someone Who Likes Things Just So

Disclaimer: I am not incriminating anyone in my FHE group at all… in fact, I love them all bunches. I need to vent out my frustrations… which I like to do in comical prose. I may have exaggerated a few details as per artistic license.

Ok… so… we had our first family home evening group thingy where I, Momma Jenna, was in charge. Oy, that was a HASSLE. So, I figured I'd make cookies for random people in our ward, right? And then have a batch for us to eat? (That's what everyone wanted to do... but no one wanted to be in charge of it... go figure). Theoretically, that would have worked. Except I figured that everyone wouldn't be able to keep their paws off of my cookie dough. So I more than doubled the amount of cookies I'd make. In my head this made perfect sense and might even solve some problems.

I started making dough at three after watching Oklahoma!… and here's where the problem comes in. My roommates (especially Jackie) seem to have a sixth sense that knows when sweets are being made. They also all seem to be addicted to raw cookie dough. They were eating dough all the while I was attempting to mix a HUMONGOUS quadruple batch… And I am wondering if the cookie-ingredient proportions were at all what they should be, because as I mixed it together, it disappeared.

It was once perfect cookie dough.

So of course I made a humongous mess mixing together cookies in such titanic proportions. Thankfully Rachel did some dishes, but really I was left to scour the kitchen alone, all the while thinking, "Oh man… I have history reading I should be doing…"

Somehow our kitchen got clean. And then the boys came.

Hands immediately reach into the cookie dough I spent forever making… Oooh, I am sooo mad. I karate kick Clifton, my little brother, in the chest, but gently, and really only with my toe. He doesn't seem to get the message. He swipes some more later, and that is when I drag him outside and lock him out. Unfortunately, Rochelle and Ashley happen to feel merciful at the time, and let him back in almost immediately.

I don't know how many times I explained that the pre-made cookie dough (my sweat, blood, and tears!) was for people in our ward and was off-limits for eating. Alex and Jon were mostly the only ones actually mixing together our cookie dough (which I yelled many times was free-reign for eating... but no one seemed to comprehend that there was a batch of cookie dough I'd let them eat). I'm sorry to complain, but I confess I wasn't quite happy with the consistency of the batch the boys made and was glad that was the batch we were keeping and not giving away.

Oh, but what I really couldn't stand was all the bickering and roaring laughter (I don't mind laughter, it's when I can't hear my own thoughts that it becomes a problem) and mean jokes and funny snapshots… it would have been fun… IF I wasn't trying to make cookies at the time. See, cooking and baking is like... my zen-mode, second only to church... (How else do I get cooking inspiration???) Most of the time I am perfectly willing to step out and initiate silliness and chaos… but I need order. I know there are certain times where you sit down and have a serious (or more serious-than-usual, as is the case with me) face... which for me is in the kitchen.

We colored paper plates with random holiday greetings (and I mean REALLY random)… signed them, put a dozen cookies on each plate, and then went cookie caroling to random dorms in our ward (we tried to give half to people we knew and half we didn't).

In total we made enough dough to theoretically cork out twelve dozen cookies. (I made two thirds of it myself.) We only made five-dozen cookies. All the rest of the dough had already been eaten. So now… here I am, left with a derelict kitchen, up way past my bedtime, and a little too frustrated to sleep… although a thank you letter from Ryan did help (thanks by the way… I really appreciated that!).

If I go to bed now, I shall get five hours of sleep… Oh, the incredulities!!!

I think I am quite feeling back to my silly ol' self. Not that that helps any… it's hard to sleep when you feel like dancing.

♥Jenna

P.S. The JFSB is always neat and tidy. I think I can completely destress there tomorrow morning... neat... and tidy... while rockin' out to Batman of course!

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So... that was Monday. Tuesday was very full and no exactly exciting.

Wednesday and Thursday I went to tutor at a nearby elementary school. Me 'n' Elsa (the girl I tutor) are already friends. So... here is about when I dash off to a study group... Well, actually I have another Facebook entry on this experience... But... I think in order to keep this email within tolerable lengths, I shall summarize it.

I forgot about tutoring and completely scheduled something in that time slot... a study group with Ryan, Dallin, Will, Roy, Mindy, Liz, and Claire. I had everything planned... and was falling asleep happily on my bed, when...

BAM!!! My forehead hits the shelf above my bed as I jerk up and out of bed, horrified with the realization that I forgot about tutoring. I instantaneously go from very much relaxed and stress-free to skyscraper-like stress levels. I have a throbbing headache spreading from my aching forehead through to the rest of my skull, and I feel really bad about missing this study group thingy... so I miss it...

But then... there's Will... who happens to be a history genius similar to my friend Zack in Arizona. Who kind of timidly asks if I want to study with him later since I missed the study group. Of course I say OK, cuz... well, I have to admit I suck at history and he happens to be darned good at it.

Yesterday... OK, funny story. My roommate's car wouldn't start one day, and they are already late to a concert... and then they see two guys walking to their car... and "Hey!!! You guys! Can we have a ride?" The guys give them a ride. And then give my roommates their number so they can get a ride home.

However, my roommates walk home, and Jackie decides she's going to ask the guys over as a thank you and have them eat the apple rolls we made. Well, I reminded her that she wouldn't let me give Oklahoma back because she hadn't seen it... and so she stuck it in.

Alas, the two boys come over and scarf the apple rolls, and then sit down and... don't leave. They are watching Oklahoma with us. And that's a darn long movie. And... well, there's a whole lotta stuff about marriage and kissing in that movie. Perfect set up for Jackie to feel awkward.

I was going to go to bed, but poor Jackie would feel so weird watching that by herself with two guys. So... I stay and watch it again. And I make funny comments at the awkward parts to make Jackie feel better. They finally leave at 11:30... and poor Jackie looks exhausted. Haha.

Well, I don't have anything else to say. Buh bye now!

Dueling and Little Brothers.

My week has been splendid busy. It was homecoming week, and I am happy to say that I successfully avoided a date.

Avoiding a date? Why would Jenna avoid one of those, might you ask? Well. I don't remember if you recall, but I went on a date with a very quiet guy named Jon. And, uh... well, it seems he likes me. And he's an RM. (Oh no!) I keep hearing things from my roommates about him, such as, "I saw Jon today... he kept asking about you..." "Jonny likes you Jenna!" Thus, I have become victim of many many Jenna's-going-to-marry-Jon jokes.

Well, see... we all suspected that he would try to ask me to homecoming. And thus, we "accidentally" lose my phone. I never see him during the week... only at Family Home Evening, and occasionally at church. We figured that if he was going to try and ask me, he'd call. So we "accidentally lost my phone". And then we "miraculously found it" after the homecoming activities were over. And lo, and behold! There were a few missed calls from Jon.

But enough about that. My classes are going well... my job is going well... and I think (except for the homecoming thing) that my social life is going well.

On to the highlights of the week.

Our Book of Mormon teacher, Brother Wilson, decided that we were going to go see the leaves as they were changing color. Thus, he took the entire class down into the canyon, and took us into a little campground for a picnic.

Oh no, some of you may be thinking, Jenna gets crazy when she's camping.

Don't worry. I didn't do anything that bad... The boys start the fire (at my complaint asking why the boys get to do it, I get the reply "Because we're Eagle Scouts!!!"). And after it is started... nothing. Everyone is just socializing. There are hot dogs for roasting, and everyone is just... talking. Except... wait! Ryan! He gets himself two hot dogs and starts to roast them. He must not have been lying when he confessed that he was starving. I grab, Rachel, my roommate, and drag her over to roast hot dogs too.

We put the hot dogs on a pitchfork like roasting object... that feels like... well, a weapon. Rachel notices this too. We ignore the urge to duel and roast hot dogs. I sit by Ryan eating them, and Rachel sits by me. Everyone sees us enjoying food, and they realize, "Oh... we have to cook our own food!" And off they go to the fire.

Soon, I am done with my meat. Both Rachel and I are still itching to duel.

BAM! We are suddenly in a pose-off. Rachel appears like Batman, except with a roasting fork raising high above her head, pointing at me. I match the pose, but I do it so much more elaborately. Then the pose-off moves to our facial expressions. She raises one eyebrow incredulously. I raise the opposite eyebrow, and tilt my head to the side. I am aware of everyone's eyes on us, but I really don't care... and I suspect, neither did Rachel.

BAM! We are no longer posing... we are sword fighting miraculously with roasting apparatus. Then, from one of the boys (not sure if it was Clifton or not), "All you guys need now are flaming marshmallows on the ends of those!" Rachel and I both stop mid swing and realize we are both thinking the same thing.

BAM! We dash off to the marshmallow bag, spearing them incredibly with marshmallows. Oh, we reach the campfire at lightning speeds, thrusting our marshmallows into the hottest flames... My marshmallows are flaming beautifully. So are Rachel's.

BAM! We are back to sword fighting, but the flaming marshmallows certainly make it so much more interesting. A flaming marshmallow goes flying through the air as I knock it off Rachel's roasting stick. Her face at this instant tells me that I have just upped it from duel to war. And it was war. She stabbed at me more amazingly, and I dodge them more miraculously... and then. Finally. I have knocked all the marshmallows off of Rachel's stick, and I realize too late that I have taken it too far. Rachel swipes for my belly... and kills me. I act out an incredible death, falling to the forest floor, crying, "Alas! I am marshmallow'd!" And then I die.

I soon tire of looking like a dead person, and get up. Sweet, everyone is looking at us funny... and Rachel is yelling triumphantly. Brother Wilson, who has never seen me or Rachel outside of a Book of Mormon class, looks shocked, but starts picking up the carnage (not-so-flaming marshmallows...).

After all that, Brother Wilson decides we all need to see where Squaw Peak is, the makeout point. We go up there, and it was windy and beautiful... so I run up at stand on the rock wall, with my arms spread all eagle like while having a brief conversation with Ryan. Then... a faint push. I turn around, and there is Clifton, whom my roommates have declared our little brother (even if he is both older and bigger than all of us). Brother Wilson is calling out "Don't pair off, guys!"

Clifton has asked for it. I could have died... well, not really. But it does sound better that way, when you are about to attack someone. I revert into battle mode, prep for the attack, and then... I ruffle his hair? Oh wait. That would have been a more suitable attack for Hillary, who had long hair... but... Clifton had short hair, and ruffling it made no difference at all. I start thinking of a new attack, as Clifton laughs... and then he dashes away, up around the bend... I set off at a run, screaming, "OH NO, YOU DON'T!!!"

I am almost caught up to him. Then Clifton has to ruin it by pointing out that we have paired up and that people might assume we are doing something we are not... and after all, this is Squaw Peak. Frozen for a millisecond... then I bolt off in the opposite direction, screaming, as little brother chases after me. Hillary misinterprets the scene, and yells, "Don't worry, Jenna, I'll save you! Get behind me!" Thankfully I don't have to suffer the humiliation of hiding behind someone else, because Brother Wilson calls for us to all pile into the vans.

Yesterday, Clifton came over to mooch off of our sausage and eggs... like a little brother. Hillary wasn't there, so she totally misinterprets when I casually ask Rachel, "Who was it... I asked, "Are you playing with my ears?" this morning, and was it Clifton who exclaimed, "Yes!"?" Rachel nods, laughing.

Hillary on the other hand had been lying down in bed. At hearing that Clifton had been playing with my ears, she bolted upright, screaming "WHAATTT?!?!" She then proceeded to hyperventilate, and I could see her thoughts in her head, not believing that little brother would play with Jenna's ears.

To relieve her pain, I point out that I was wearing ogre ears at the time. Hillary starts to reverse-hyperventilate... and gasps for breath. Clifton wasn't playing with Jenna's real ears... that's good.

Crazy Week!

Well, it wasn't particularly exciting... but I did promise people to keep in touch and a few people told me they looked forward to hearing about my dates. Soo... I feel obligated... or something.

Last Monday was long and horrid. I only had classes in the morning, and I had already finished my homework for all my classes on Tuesday except for one classes worth of reading. I figured one day would be enough to read it all. Boy, was I wrong. I read for twelve straight hours, and only read half of it (whoops). A little interruption that night was Family Home Evening... where my fhemates proceeded to nominate me as FHE Mom. One of my roommates were also nominated, so we rock-paper-scissored it, and I lost. So I'm FHE Mom. Whoot?

Dad happens to be the guy I went out with the following day. His name is Jon, and his family is from Peru and he went on his mission to Puerto Rico. He took me to the Museum of Art to look at some Minerva Teichart. I liked the paintings, and it was hard to talk much to him while we were in the MOA. However, once he took me to the Creamery and got us a burger and ice cream, I discovered that he really likes to talk. Which is a little eerie because his yell would be like my hoarse whisper. He's extremely quiet. But apparently likes to talk... about everything. So mostly I sat there and ate, listened, and gave an occasional input when I could hear him. It was nice, but afterwards my ears hurt from the constant strain to listen to a barely audible whisper in a crowded Creamery.

Wednesday... I squandered. I really don't remember that day at all. Oh wait! It all comes clear! I had an evil calculus assignment. One of my friends in calculus did a little investigating and figured out that people in 400 level math course were learning the same thing: proof by induction. See, the honors sections of Calculus 1 get extra assignments... like that. It did it, but it took a while... and a lot of backwards thinking. I also had an interview with the bishop (oh no! a calling! save me save me! :D) where he did not give me a calling but asked all about me. He hinted that I would likely only be made FHE Mom, and nothing else. Viva 18 credits and a parttime job? Sweet. Yes, that was my Wednesday.

Thursday! Oh man, I started work at 4am! The job itself is an extremely fun and exciting custodial job (no overstatement intended here) and I really don't mind the early hour. Especially since I go to bed a lot sooner than the average college student. Classes on the other hand... they might have been a little more exciting if you get my meaning. At night time, I went with my friend Sarah to an ROTC Social down in the canyon. That was exciting if I may say so. How can war games and food not be exciting. It's kind of fun to dodge marshmallow bullets while crawling army style on the ground looking for ammo for your Nerf gun. As soon as I found ammo, one of the enemy charged over to my side, and before I could shoot, I was tragically light-sabered to death. I did manage to kill a few of the enemy before I was taken out though. The only awkward thing about that social was that Sarah, some other girls she brought with her, and I were the only single girls at all. All the females there were either wives, girlfriends, or in the ROTC themselves. I got asked several times whose girlfriend I was. Which was a little freaky. What was freakier was when some random (not really, but I thought so at the time) guy started talking to me... he knew my name already, and started naming off a few of my classes by name and asking how I liked them. But then I realized that it was Isaac (I had to ask him what his name was)... apparently he is both in my ward, and in two of my classes. Wow, I'm very observant, aren't I? After another sickening ride home, I went to bed feeling quite carsick. Next time I go I shall require Dramamine.

Yesterday I think I liked the best. I went to work again at 4am, and did lots of paperwork and took trash out of every office (oo, fun?). Then we all ate breakfast together: breakfast burritos, bagels, cereal, juice... I loved it. Best thing was, we were all still getting paid for eating breakfast. :D Then I headed off to all my classes, where I was still extremely tired from my late night adventure with the ROTC. After class I went and had an interview with one my peer mentors who just wanted to get to know me a little better... and then I headed home for lunch. I munched on honeydew and something else, and then I set off on an adventure...to the physics lab! I have to admit I was absolutely thrilled to be able to calculate the acceleration due to gravity with a percentage error of 0.1%. I'd never done anything quite so spectacular before... but then again, having high tech university equipment versus old ghetto ancient Chandler High School equipment might have made a big difference. Yes, I realize I am a nerd and that only nerds would be thrilled about something like that. Furthermore, I felt this urge to email my old physics teacher, Mr. Knust, and relate to him the excitement I felt at an experiment actually going right... for once :D.

Well, after that I came home, thoroughly energized despite my lack of adequate sleep, and decided to do math homework... while listening to the Batman Begins soundtrack at full blast to drown out loud music next door. Very ominous, that was. Made math so much more exciting. And then... I turned on my Pirates soundtrack... to counter our neighbor's booming music and also to celebrate that I was going to be Pirates 3 at the dollar theatre that night! Yes, it was a date. I did homework until he called me... and informed me that he was standing outside. I wonder if he knocked... if he had I probably wouldn't have heard it due to Batman and Pirates booming bass throughout the hall.

So I went and saw Pirates with Ryan, which I absolutely loved. Then we went to Creamery (which seems to be a recurring date motif) and got ice cream. We walked back to the lobby of my hall, where we ate our ice cream... and talked. For a long time. About the most random things... like the game (which you all just lost by the way) and high school... and classes... and professors... and cookies and brownies. Apparently when he and his roommate made brownies for the first time and left them for the girls in our apartment, his roommates were disapproving. But after our positive response... they decided it was a genius idea. They proceeded to make a batch of 110 cookies and then drop them all off in front of girls' doors, making sure to leave a note about who they were from. I thought that was quite silly. Of course, they got tons of cookies in return.

By the time I casually asked what time it was, and to our surprise discovered we had been on the date for over six hours and that it was almost midnight (ahhh!). I went inside where my roommates were all thrilled to see me ("We thought you had been kidnapped!!! But then you were on a date... but you were gone for sooo long!"). We looked out the window, and saw people sitting on the grass outside our hall... We decided to creep them out. We took Hillary's cardboard cutout of Orlando Bloom and stuck him in front of the window, so he was staring at them. They soon left.

I eventually wandered off to bed, and now here I am this morning writing. Exciting?

Smokin'! And... Getting Hit On.

Forgive me, all. But I am about to relate to you an extremely silly story that quite demonstrates how very much I need to improve my observation skills. And it has to do with smoke.

This all happened last night (why is it that the funny things happen on Sunday?) while my roommate was attempting to Americanize some Japanese dish. I don't remember what they were called, but my best guess is nikamun, and I truly don't know what they are. The best I can do to describe them is like...deep fried (I suspect that's the Americanized part) meat eggrolls. Only not.

While Rachel, my roommate, was cooking the meat, Clifton (a guy from our ward) comes over and asks if we want to come over to his place for dinner in an hour. He thought he was too late, because he saw us cooking, but we said that we would go ahead and bring what we were making to the "family dinner" (because he and some of his roommates are in our family home evening group). He left us to finish cooking.

After the meat was done, Rachel started heating the oil, and then she, Hillary, and I started rolling the meat up in the dough. I was proud of mine, because I could make them so cute like little meat envelopes. I loved that mine had more aesthetic value than those of my roommates. While I was caught up in making these things so cute, and Rachel and Hillary were caught up in making them hold meat in the first place, we finally have the sense to realize that... it smells REALLY bad... and come to think about it, we can't really breathe very well either. Our attention captured, we look up in horror to see Rachel's pan of oil has heated up WAY too fast and is ejecting huge clouds of thick smoke into our once-breathable kitchen air. We kind of blink at each other and think something along the lines of Huh... that's not good.

Then came the idea that there is a smoke detector somewhere around here. While Rachel takes the pan off the heat, Hillary and I located the detector: right outside the kitchen in the hallway. We decide that since there isn't actually a fire, we don't want that going off and summoning the fire department. We hurriedly shut the kitchen-hallway door. Then we throw open the kitchen window, turn on the fan as loud and powerful as it can get, and then proceed to prop open the kitchen-outside door with chairs. At this point the air in our kitchen is not breathable. The three of us rush out the back door, down the stairs and onto the grass where the air is finally breathable.

At this point, the guy who invited us over had the misfortune of wondering if we were done yet. He calls Rochelle, one of our other roommates, who is safely shut in her room, which is farthest away from the kitchen. Since the kitchen door is shut, and I scientifically presume that the smoke would rather go out the windows and the back door than through the crack under the hallway door, and therefore assume she is safe. I did not take into account that she would get a call from Clifton and then come into the kitchen to track our progress.

According to Rochelle's account she unsuspectingly glides down the hallway, and finding the kitchen door shut, wonders, I wonder why the kitchen door is shut... it's never shut. Innocently she opens the kitchen door and -- "ARGGH!!!!!!" And she hangs up on Clifton.

She joins us down on the grass near our apartment, and we explain to her what happened. Just then, Clifton and one of his roommates, Jon, round the corner, and look bewildered to see our door propped open and expelling clouds of smoke and us sitting on the grass. This wasn't good, because we were hoping the boys wouldn't have found out.

By this time, Rachel decides that the air inside the kitchen is breathable, and goes off to put our toxic creations into the oven instead. The boys return to their apartment. Hillary and I cautiously follow her, discussing carbon monoxide poisoning and marveling about what sort of chemical reaction must have taken place in the oil for it to emit such vile smoke. We decide Rachel would die first if any of us died, so if Rachel collapsed, then we might call 911. Fortunately, we decide we are all healthy except for our sense of smell being scarred for life.

We eventually make it over to the guy's apartment with our toxic eggrolls, which apparently didn't taste so bad. The guys had pork chops and rice and salad and avocados and... juice? Huh. So we sat there laughing at each other, and then Clifton brings up movies. Last week he was mumbling to me about something to with Facebook and movies in class when he wasn't supposed to be talking, and at my expressed confusion, he gave up. he clarified at this dinner. Apparently, according to Facebook's movie application, we pretty much like all the same movies. It said we were a 82% match, which is practically impossible. I didn't really care, but he seemed excited. So the whole table gets into a discussion about what movies we like the most. I say, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" and get great approval from the both guys and girls.

The subject turns slightly to favorite Disney movies. All the people who go before me say the ones I really like, such as Emperor's New Groove, Lion King, Finding Nemo, etc. So... for something new, I say something like, "I really like Beauty and the Beast... because I practically am Belle." Unfortunately, this results in a creepy comment from Clifton: "Well, I'm Beast!" And Rachel, bless her, blurts out, "AWKWARD!" I give her an approving look, and the subject changes.

Well, there's this roommate of Clifton's (Jonathan) who is EXTREMELY quiet, but extremely nice and polite, and his family is Peruvian. I'm sitting next to him, and when we start talking about music I say I like full orchestral music especially (as well as practically everything else). We exchange a few words and next thing I know he is asking me on a date. Ooh... smooth, quiet man. Strike when the rest of the people there are completely ignoring you except for me. I think he's taking me to see some Minerva Teichart at the Museum of Art and then to dinner tomorrow. I can't be completely sure about what he was saying because he was so soft-spoken.

All of us play a few games (except for Jon, who decides instead to scour the kitchen and table clean instead). Jon lets me have all the leftover rice. Then we head home.

We get home, and upon informing my roommates of this date, they immediately turn into teasing mode. They decide instead of having a marital status board (which originally listed us all as single, but then morphed into sillier things... i.e. arranged marriage to mystery Tibetan man... then dumping the mystery Tibetan man for the cardboard man in Hillary's closet...), that we should have a date tally. They continue to tease me about having two dates in one week. Yes, two. I have another one. On Friday. With Ryan. Who happened to be the one that made my entire apartment brownies and left them at our doorstep. Yes, that was him. We are going to see pirates on Friday.

And this is slightly disturbing to me, because I've only been on one date before this, and I am not used to getting hit on. At all. It's like... whoa, guys like me? And I have more dates than any of the other girls already? Dang it. Staying single is going be a lot more difficult than I thought it was going to be. Especially since I just found out Jon is pretty much the only RM in our entire ward. Oops.

The Myth of the Starving Student

I apologize that my life at the moment is not as entertaining as before. The most interesting thing going on is homework (which I'm sure you don't want to hear about) and my culinary life.

I don't know if this is a false idea that I got from pop culture, but the myth goes that kids going off to college are starving students, begging for food from merciful relatives and random passersby. This certainly is not the case for me.

I have, since I go to BYU, a required meal plan, which basically pays for your food, but you pay a mongo monthly bill. Unfortunately, if you accumulate too much money (i.e. not being able to spend it all), they stop giving it you… even though you already paid for it.

So, here is the dilemma: I have too much money allocated for food. I, and all my roommates, go to the Creamery for the sole purpose of spending our meal plan. No, we're not hungry, if fact, we are quite the opposite. We have elaborate meals. And lots of them.

Take, for instance, my menu today. For breakfast, I had a yogurt, because I wanted something quick. I ran to the Creamery and bought myself a beautiful turkey and ham sandwich with lettuce and tomato I could stow away in my backpack and eat when lunch came around (lines at lunchtime are horrendous). Around five I come home, my homework finished, and realize I'm bored. So I eat… little bits at a time! I munch on the community Cheezits happily as I start to do homework for next week. Then, alas! I realize I still require sustenance, and scavenge around our kitchen. I decide to make myself a delicious honey barbecue chicken breast. After eating it, I amble around my apartment aimlessly. After realizing my extreme boredom again, I turn to the fridge. Fruit. Lots of fruit. I make myself a beautiful fruit salad. More aimless wandering. I have some cottage cheese (don't tell my Dad, he'd gag at the thought of it). I play with my roommate's exercise ball. I have a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios. I check my email. I proceed to make Jell-O. I grab my hymn book and make the trip to the basement to play piano in a claustrophobic room. I come back. I eat fried squash with basil, oregano, and garlic. Mmm, tasty. Just now I ate a York Peppermint Patty. And I guarantee that I am going to eat something tonight… probably Jell-O, more fruit, and something else. :D

My roommates and I are trying desperately to spend our food money. Thankfully, the Creamery sells things like laundry detergent, shampoos, make-up, and school supplies that I can spend my already-spent money on.

And, all my roommates and I have discovered that we can make fine cuisine with just a little extra money.

And even after this, I've got extra money that I can't buy things I want with. Eww. Especially with local mothers bringing us boxes and boxes of produce (stir-fry!!!).

So… I've got tons of homework, but not enough to keep me occupied. Really, the most interesting thing I had to do was write a couple paragraphs for an introduction to my autobiography for English. Bleh. And I'm being hit over the head with pre-calculus (oww) and dimensional analysis. I am so bored in my classes.

I've been hired for an early morning custodial job (Whoot! The only job on campus that'll work with my crazy schedule!) where the people are as crazy as me. I'm at home, haha.

Tonight I have the fine privilege of going to see Charlie Brown… for free!

BYU Fun: Poltergeists with Alibis and Manbrownies

By far, my most interesting day has been today... so I will just quickly summarize my week at the Y, and then tell all about my fabulous and well, very funny, Sunday. I flew up to Salt Lake on Wednesday morning, and my grandma picked me up and took me over. I spent that evening unpacking and situating myself. Thursday... orientation. Walked all over campus. Not particularly exciting. Friday. Ditto. Saturday... I bought my books! And... cleaned my kitchen. I twitched everytime I walked by it, because there were boxes everywhere and I could barely walk through it. So I cleaned it. And I went to the football game, where we both won and got sunburned. Then... I was tired and slept.

Sunday.

I woke up around 9am, which for me was sleeping in. To everyone else in my apartment... well, let's just say they were all asleep. Perfect time to sneak a shower; after all, I do share my bathroom with five other girls. When I come out of the bathroom, my door is closed... and locked. With my room key inside, along with my contacts, my shoes, my phone... basically anything that might come in handy. So I ram on the door, screaming at my roommate Ashley to wake up ("Awaken, awaken! Let me in!"), but to no avail. I assume then that she is not inside. Next option. I barefootedly and wethairedly leave my apartment and ram on the Resident Assistant's door... she doesn't hear me... after all is only about 10am. Too early for the average college kid to be awake anyway. Back to my apartment... excitement!!! One of my roommate/apartmentmates is awake! Rachel tried her key, but it didn't work (should have been obvious, but it was worth a try). So... I left to try and wake the RA again, and again to no avail. Alas! As I reenter my apartment, out yonder by my room appears -- Ashley! Aparently she slept through my desperate attempts to get in my room. Haha. I now will take my keys to the shower with me. :D

We went to church as a hall, and then we came back... most of my roommates left, so it was just Rachel, Hillary, and I. Being the strange creatures we are, we discussed how useful a poltergeist would be... and that we would bribe it with brownies so that it would torture our roommates instead of us. We continued this conversation by IMing Rachel's cousin Cynthia... who didn't know what a poltergeist was.

Then...

BANG BANG BANG!!! Someone knocking at our door! We immediately suspect poltergeists, but in kidding. I bolt to the hallway door, and peep out the eyehole... no one! No one at all!!! So... the three of us, slightly freaked out, run to our kitchen door, and alas! No one there either. Now that our freak out factor has been raised to paranoid level, we decide to check the hall door again... this time we actually open it. And... the ground yields and poltergeist-y surprise. Brownies. On the ground.

Coincidence? We thought not! We were just talking about how wonderful a poltergeist would be, and how we would make our poltergeist brownies, and suddenly a poltergeist yields up brownies as an initiative offering of alliance! But for those non-believers, the brownies and the poltergeist had an alibi. With man handwriting! Ahhhh! And the handwriting said something about the brownies being a gift from the shippmates in a particular room in a neighboring man's dorm. And! There were initials on there. In awkward cursive!

We were not at all impressed at the intrigue and mystery, and had to know WHO had left us brownies if not the poltergeist (who I am now a firm believer in). Hillary, being the resourceful sidekick she is, remembered about the freshman academy directory... and quickly identified the culprits. Two bakers and... a sustainer. Slightly disappointed at them being guys and not poltergeists, we headed off to a hall meeting and a ward prayer.

Back from the activities, we sit down and start chomping on the brownies, having identified the culprits and confronted them at ward prayer (one of which asked my roommate Jackie on a date, haha), felt safe enough to finish off the plate. As we ingested the large amount of sugar (after fasting no less), we undoubtedly and expectedly became very silly and hyper although it was kind of late. And sadly, I have to admit the sillyness started with careless mumble of, "Mmmmmm... manbrownies...". This of course resulted in a long tirade of laughter and a succeedingly hillarious onset of jokes.

The worst, and funniest, joke, although I am afraid I may have screwed up attributing who said what and what exactly they said:

Rachel: "Everybody stop! There may a ring hidden in one of these manbrownies!"

Hillary: "Oh! Oh! I got it! I got it!"

Well, I start class on Tuesday, although I already have homework to do. So that is what I'll be doing tomorrow.