Adieu

Oh my gosh! Right now I am enjoying my last 15 minutes in 2010.

It's OVER!!! This is absolutely crazy. Much happened this year and overall I'd say it was swell.

I have quite a few goals in store for me for 2011, but unfortunately none of them include blogging.

So don't get your hopes up.

How about one final photograph to send 2010 away with a smile...

Happy New Year!

Not to abuse my blogging privileges, but....*

...this is amazing.

Home isn't home anymore*

Do you feel weird when you come home home? I feel like a completely different person--like the person I was before college. Like a freind-lacking home-body. And I can't even believe that I am the same person who was running into different people every five minutes and stopping to talk yesterday, or that I was lounging on the couch laughing and joking with everyone last night, or that I spent two hours in a snowball fight with my roommates and a dozen other friends until 1 a.m--TODAY.

And now I'm home. Nobody here knows anybody there, so I can't tell stories effectively, because nobody really cares about stories that star people they've never seen before. I'm so bored.

This is crazy. I want to be THERE.

Who would have ever thought?

Ode to H2O

Bah! Since it's past midnight, I feel I have the liberty to do another post and call it Friday's. But consider it in the context of Thursday night when I say things like the following...

This is my last night being roomies with H2O!! It's been real. It's been fun. And it's been real fun. Jk.

Anyway. H2O is moving back home for good tomorrow (aka Friday). Never to come back. Isn't that the saddest news you have heard all hour?

I'm going to miss her, that's for sure. We've had some good times.

Around here, I am the one who eats the pizza crust. If we get pizza, I just sit there and watch the roomies eat and when they are done, they pass the crust over to me. I love it.

One time I came home from work and H2O said to me, "There's something for you on your shelf."

I went over to the cupboard where I keep my food and found a little ziplock baggie that said "Brittan's Crust" and had a little pizza crust in it. She had saved me the crust from her pizza! It was the cutest thing ever. I ate it immediately and was 100% satisfied. Mm.

One time we just stood face to face for like an hour pretending to slap each other in the face while making random sound effects like snorting and whistling. She kept freaking out and I was like, "What the cram, I'm not going to hit you!" And then I really did hit her. It was the funniest thing ever. I practically peed my pants.

That same night, she taught me all the Rape Aggression Defense moves she knows. So don't even think about raping me because I can defend myself, no doubt about that.

We both like Sons of Provo and there is not a day that goes by that it is not quoted. In fact, we just memorized the confirmation number from the hotel scene and now we can quote it without any help. Watch: "Confirmation number 78391048671098512, that's our confirmation number! They gave it to somebody else." Dude. Funniest movie ever.

For some reason we have been quoting Emperor's New Groove NON-STOP for the past week. I swear, that movie has the most applicable lines to any and every situation! One night we were even acting it out and H2O full on did the creepy Kronk-stealing-Cuzco thing complete with the "ohhwawaawawawa" against the wall (you know which part I am talking about?). It was 2 am and I think part of her brain had already gone to sleep. But it was hilarious.

Just tonight we parked behind a car that had an Obama bumper sticker. H2O said, "Obama?!" Her tone was exactly like Ezma when she says, "A llama?!" So right after she said that we both said, at the same time, "Obama?! He's supposed to be dead!" It was totally awesome! And then we got out of the car and she basically stepped in an ice river. Bah!

Oh man. The memories we have of this semester are so rad. I can't believe it's over. For real. When I come back from Christmas, H2O is not coming with me. I'm getting a new roomie! That is just so weird.

Goodbye H2O! You will be missed.

Workin Hard or Hardly Workin

Finals week is over!!!!!!!!!!

GAHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

I feel old and accomplished. One semester down, 7+ more to go. Can you believe I'm going to start my SECOND semester of college in less than one month?! This is crazy. Time flies, I tell you.

Welllll here's the deal. I am not much of a studier. At all.

It is so boring and time consuming and lame.

Unfortunately, I had no choice this week because there is NO WAY I would have passed my stats final if I had not spent hours on end going over practice problems and previous exams.

However, I did learn at least one good thing from all this and that is how to take an effective break from studying.

After a long, semi-productive Monday of finals preparation, The Hybrid and I decided we needed to put a little joy back into our lives. And what better way to do that than a nice visit to the cemetery!

Yes.

But this was no ordinary visit. We full on dressed up in black and mentally prepared ourselves to mourn. It was awesome.

We walked through the cemetery looking at the headstones and thinking about death. And what would a trip to the graveyard be without an owl hooting the night away? It was perfect.

It lasted only a short time, and then it was back to studying.

So if you ever get so fed up with studying that you can't handle yourself, find the nearest cemetery and enter immediately. It helps. I totally passed my final.

The 13th is the new 24th

Wow, apparently GP is way too deep for me. That's what happens when I go to USU and she goes to BYU. She surpasses me on the intelligence level. I don't even know what to think about that last post, let alone say about it.

On that note, please enjoy this story of my life:

On Saturday I went to the mall all by myself to get the finishing touches for the gifts for my roomies. I bought a bunch of little things from a bunch of little stores which meant I had a bunch of little bags in my hand.

So I pulled up to my dorm and decided to simplify a bit. I dumped the contents of the Claire's bag into the Walmart bag and then put the Claire's bag in the dumpster.

3 minutes later I was in my room dumping everything out on my bed, ready to wrap it all. I started wrapping Miss C.'s present when I stopped dead in my tracks.

A ring was supposed to accompany her gift. It was nowhere to be found. I searched and searched, on my bed, under my blanket, under my bed, in every nook, in every crack.

Nowhere.

Then my mind replayed the moment three minutes before when I put that Claire's bag in the dumpster.

Oh. No.

So I rushed downstairs, out the door, and over to the dumpster. Opening the lid all the way, I could easily see where the bag had landed, toward the back of the bin.

But of course I couldn't reach it.

I had one option.

Oh. Yes.

I climbed in the dumpster. No lie. My entire body. In the dumpster.

I grabbed the bag and opened it.

No ring.

WHAT?!

Then I had to climb back out of the dumpster, walk back up to the third floor, into my room, and search my stuff, AGAIN.

And guess what. It was right there in the bag with all my other gifts. No prob whatsoever finding it.

I SPENT 30 WHOLE SECONDS IN THE DUMPSTER FOR NOTHING.

I don't know when you were in a dumpster last, but let me tell you, it is not pleasant. In fact, it's repulsive.

So, with the ring in place, I proceeded to wrap all my gifts and then I put them all under the tree.

And guess what! Tomorrow is our dorm Christmas, which means today = Christmas Eve!

We are going to make sugar cookies and leave some out for Santa. I am so thrilled.

Would you like to see how we do Christmas here in 303?

The Tree.

The Gingerbread Houses. Do you see my little Rudolph?

The Thankful Snowmen.

The Fireplace. Yes, one stocking is missing. It will arrive this afternoon.

And of course we have the usuals as well, including Christmas lights, a wreath, etc.

Christmas is Heaven on Earth, I tell you.

Save the children. The right way.*

SOOOOOO,

On Thursday at 9:30 a.m. I had my very last Social Work 200 class of my life. It's been real. It's been fun. But it hasn't been real fun.

Anyway, my professor, Dr. Roby (who is kind of a big deal out there in the real world. She does all sorts of international research and policy on child welfare and is kind of famous) was talking about humanitiarian groups who "swoop into third world countries to save the children" thinking that they're doing all this good and making a difference in the world, when really, they're only messing things up. Let me tell you why:

1. Attachment. You can't just go to Africa for a week or a month or even a year and become bffs with this little brown-eyed African child and form this great bond. Because guess what happens when you leave and never see the kid again? They're devastated. And then some other humanitarian organization comes in and it happens all over again. Pretty soon the poor kid gets messed up and has all these attachment problems and will probably never have a normal relationship with anyone again.

2. Orphanages. Orphanages are bad. They're like, the last resort for a child who needs a home. Did you know the 80% of kids in orphanages have families? Their families just put them in the orphanage because they thought that they'd be better off there. Which is partially true if the parents don't have any food and can't provide for their kid AT ALL. But underdeveloped countries are trying to change that about themselves. They've finally learned that they need to intervene at the FAMILY level and help the PARENTS be able to provide a good home for their kids. And it's working. They're getting rid of orphanages slowly but surely.

But then guess what happens? Stupid do-good humanitarian organizations come in and build them right back up again! We're so dumb!

Anyway, it was a lovely lightbulb moment for me. Like, HEEELLLOOO? Who's letting these humanitarian groups go in and ruin everything?? Somebody needs to EDUCATE them!! Somebody needs to help them CHANGE THEIR PLAN. Because humanitarian work isn't a bad thing. It's a good thing. But we're just not applying it to the right place.

IT NEEDS TO START WITH THE FAMILY.

Men on a Mission*

You knew me in highschool. I had plently of friends, but they were all girl friends. I can't honestly say that I had one real guy friend, they were mostly just cordial acquaintances. But here in my new fancy-schmancy college life, I can say just the opposite without even lying to you. Most of the people I say hi to on campus, most (in fact virtually all in this case) of the people that chill out in our kitchen on a daily basis, and most of the people that I spend my time with on weekend nights are guys. This lifestyle turnaround has my head spinning.

Unfortunately I think another turnaround is headed my way, because a good solid half of the boys around here are leaving on their missions in January, which means that I only get to spend a short week and half more with them. Have you inferred the implications of this situation?

I won't see them for two years. They probably won't even remember me when they get home. I'll be an insignificant grain of sand on their path toward finding a marriage partner. Actually, I'll probably never even see most of them EVER again since I'm going to be busy capturing the hearts of the Africans and Cambodians with my global phenomenonality.

What an interesting cultural paradigm we Mormons possess.


p.s.- I was just informed today that a club for the prevention of human trafficking is starting up here! Can you believe it? It's like a dream come true!

Happy December!

I know this post is a whole day late and that is probably hard to believe, due to the fact that I was 100% ready for December the very MINUTE it arrived.

But late it is and here is why:

1. I have been quite busy as of late doing real homework for once. Yesterday I wrote my last paper of the semester. I am cool.

But guess what. I actually haven't written a real paper since my Junior year of high school. I didn't have to do one citation page or bibliography or ANYTHING all semester. How ridiculous is that? I can feel myself getting dumber by the day. All my papers are pretty much essays of my opinion and they don't even have to be intelligent. I was expecting a little more out of college, I'm not gonna lie.

2. So, speaking of my paper. It was on The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, what he thought was important in life, and what I think is important in life. Have you seen it? It's pretty good. I liked it. He said a lot of awesome things, including the following about some important guy in his life: "He's forgotten more than I'll ever know." I love that.

He also said, "If you do the right thing, good stuff has a way of happening." Quite true.

3. The roomies. Sometimes I just get so distracted by them and my blog goes unnoticed. Would you like to hear what we have done in the last 48 hours?

a. Miss C. cooked and ate an artichoke. Have you ever seen a real artichoke? It is the weirdest thing. In the middle there is this fuzzy stuff that's like a brush. And it's edible. It is so strange. What's even weirder is that we could not find the heart. I swear it didn't have one. Wait, maybe the brush thing was supposed to be the heart. Hm.

b. The Hybrid did workouts in the middle of the hall and up and down the stairs and I was her trainer. Again, I am cool.

c. Then The Hybrid and Miss C. jumped over a chair repeatedly.

d. We took turns jumping from the stairs like superman into each other's arms.

e. The tele has been showing America's Next Top Model and Donkey Kong as of late.

f. Last night me, The Rock, and The Hybrid played a real game of soccer in the hall. It was intense. Those two against me. The final score was something like 18 to 6. But if you think about it, I basically scored half their goals for them so...ya. My whole toe on my right foot is a bruise. It's totally sweet. But at 12:30ish in the morning we were forced to stop because apparently there are quiet hours in this dorm that had started 2 and a half hours earlier and other residents were trying to study/sleep. Whatev.

g. And finally, my mama let me borrow the video camera so we have been documenting college life. I think every college dorm should have a video camera. It is pretty much the funnest thing on the face of the planet.

Thus my blog is neglected. But it's December so all is well.