Shoot

Today I went on a run, went to the store, and opened my textbook. Good, right?

Too bad I ate enough junk food to cancel out any effect of the run, I bought things at the store that probably weren't the best for my budget, and the open textbook didn't magically write my paper due on Monday.

Moral of the story: Today was quite unproductive, at least regarding school. I feel so "blah" after days like today.

I finally got tired of feeling guilty about it, and instead decided to blog about it. I mean, what else could I possibly do with my time? (That was me being facetious, guys. Just in case you didn't pick up on that...)

Positive things from the day:

• I supported a friend by attending the BYU women's basketball game. She sang the National Anthem at the beginning of it. And have you ever been to a women's basketball game?! It's not really the most excited thing, folks.
• I haven't yet died from the copious amounts of cookie dough I've devoured today.
• I bought some fun treasures for Rebecca to come home to.
• I attended a Luau, since it was the stake opening social. Of course, I followed stake event protocol by only talking to people who are already my friends or people in my ward. Why would I meet new people at a stake event when I can just be the typical exclusive single, I ask you?
• I had a few laughs. That's always nice.
• I video chatted with the Merkleys for roughly 5 minutes.
• I got so excited for Rebecca to come home that I nearly peed my pants (oh wait -- that's every day lately).
• I bought a new CD for myself, just because. I really don't think I've ever done that before. Usually I wait to get them as presents. Since I figure I'm running out of chances and patience to get everything I want in present form, I just went ahead and bought that Michael Buble CD.
• We showed 3 different groups of house-hunting girls our apartment. ...Oh snap! That's not positive, so it shouldn't be on this list. Allow me to digress for a sec, kay? Seriously, I really hate house hunting season, 'cause the fact that C2 is the first on the inside row for girls means that we get so many silly people traipsing around our apartment and bedrooms. Barf. And do they really expect to get 4 girls to live all together in as nice a place as this? There are rarely ever 4 openings all in one apartment. And why, oh why would you ever have a group of 8 girls come all together to look at places?? Eight people probably barely fit in half the places they looked at today. You gotta pick and choose your roommates, people. You can't live with every single one of your friends. And is it just me, or is house hunting season like political campaign season? I feel like they both get earlier and earlier every year. I don't stinking know who's gonna live where in September when January is not even over yet, okay? And for Pete's sake, don't come early (or even before 1:30ish) on a Saturday. Everyone knows people wake up late and stay in pajamas for quite a while on Saturdays. Phew. Thanks. I guess people gotta do what they gotta do and I should get over the annoyance.
• I showered. And believe me, on Saturdays that little thing is not always high on my priority list. (Yes, judge me and think I'm gross. In all honesty, I usually do end up showering on Saturdays. The time of day it happens and the lack of getting ready for the day after the shower might be slightly against social norms, but we can all get over that, right?)
• I found some new fun songs on the radio.

So maybe today wasn't super, and maybe I'll pay for it in the upcoming busy week. But, for now I'll just be happy with what did go well, I'll go get in my cute and comfy pjs, and I'll prepare for the wonderful day called Sunday that is tomorrow. :D

Land of the Free

Thursday I acquired the following things within a period of 1.5 hours or less, all at no cost to me:

• Cookbook
• Brownie
• Painted nails
  
• T-shirt
• Pen
• Magnet
• Gelato in a waffle cone
• Popcorn
  
  

I love wandering around the Wilkinson Center around lunch time!

Ragtime

No, that doesn't mean that I think it's time to rag on anyone. I'm actually referring to the style of music. (Check out Wikipedia's background if you don't know to what I am referring.) So, yeah. Ragtime. I think it's pretty nifty! Rebecca and I used to play duets out of a Ragtime piano duet book. We have a lot of fun laughs and memories over those duets. Lately I've created and started listening to a station on Pandora based on Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer." Here's Mr. Joplin himself: My opinion is that he was an awfully talented guy. The station based on his work is pretty much the friendliest music station anyone could ever ask for. My mood always lifts when I hear the cheery piano tunes.

Other memories of Ragtime I have include a Ragtime piano player who sat outside one of the eateries in Disneyland and played for a few hours. I even caught a snippet of that on video (but unfortunately I'm not at home with current access to that video, or I'd post it with this post). Also, when the latter end of the family took a vacation on a cruise to Alaska, there was a piano player in the main lobby of the ship. He was rill good at his job of being an "Entertainer" (pun intended) for the vacationers, and one day Rebecca and I were awed with his ability to play Scott Joplin all by his lonesome at such a quick tempo. Though he was almost playing too quickly, he inspired me to come home from the vacation and work on playing my own Scott Joplin music in non-duet form. 'Twas quite fun for me to get better at the piano through that experiment.

In summary, if you're feeling down, my suggestion is to listen to a bit of Ragtime on Pandora. I know I sure heart it!

p.s. I just listened to a song by an artist named Fats Waller! If a genre of music has a guy with that name, it's just gotta be cool.

It's Party Time

Has anyone else noticed how stinking busy December always is? I swear, every weekend is full of some sort of Christmas party or end of the semester celebration. December 2010 was no different. In fact, one Saturday all of my meals were provided for me because of happy gatherings! I sure do love free food.

First I had waffles provided by a friend of my roommate.

Next I had the ward closing social complete with ugly sweaters, lunch, a white elephant gift exchange, "awards," friends, and a slideshow. How wonderful.

Here are the hooligans I ate with:

Rachel, Sean, me, Becky, Nick

We've got a "Most Presidential" girl, a girl with the "Best Personality," and a girl with the "Sweetest Smile." What a loaded table. haha.

Bishop Richards and Becky won the "Sweetest Smile" awards! Aren't they tender?

Too bad Becky had a hard time getting that plate off with all of her hair.

Later that night we had our work Christmas pot-luck. Testing Center employees are so cool, despite what the majority of the students at BYU probably think about them.

Nick, Becky, me (holding Luke), Hannah, and Robert
Not pictured: Luke's parents, whom I promise were there too. I didn't just kidnap my nephew and take him to my work Christmas party.

A common theme from the day? Well, did you see me surrounded by all those couples?! haha. Maybe next year I'll have a significant other to take to Christmas celebrations. But really, who cares if I do or not? I still had a blast! Even though I often feel overwhelmed with all of the activities each December, I love getting together with friends and feeling the spirit of the Christmas season.

Anxiously Engaged

For much of 2010, I had the pleasure of watching two of my roommates fall in love. Kara and Grant were crazy for each other, and Becky and Nick were just plain crazy.

Once upon a time on the 3rd of December, Nick proposed to Becky! 'Tis a great story, but the plainest of details are that he proposed at the fossil digging area of the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. How tender.

Ta-Daa!

"Why can't we be matching?"

"Check out the rock this boy just gave me!"

"AAAAaaaaa!" (Perhaps this was a dinosaur pose...?)

"Heidi, what do you want us to do?! Stop taking pictures already."

I sure like these guys, and I'm rill happy they're getting married in the Mesa Arizona Temple on May 22nd! I keep telling the two of them that one day I want to fall in love and have a relationship like they do. They are silly, happy, serious when needed, spiritual, fun, hilarious, etc. and I can't wait to find someone like that for me. I tell them they need to find me someone just like that, but they haven't really figured out who it is. Psh. They'll just have to name their first child Heidi, I guess. :)

One of these days (hopefully rill soon) I might have to make a post about Kara and Grant's engagement, too! Hmmm... we'll see.

A Puzzling Situation

Near the beginning of last semester, I stopped by an apartment of girls in my Relief Society and saw a puzzle spread out on their table. As I spent a while talking and getting to know them, I learned that many of them love to do puzzles. So, the next time I had a chance, I went to DI and purchased a fun little $1 puzzle to gift to their apartment. When I was there, I saw a puzzle that I just couldn't pass by. It was a 1000 piece, Thomas Kinkade design of his painting "Home for the Holidays." And, it was likewise only $1.

After I practically stole the thing (at least that's what it felt like since my joy was worth far more than just $1), I made great plans to do it over the Thanksgiving break when I knew I would have the kitchen table to myself and could spread out without bothering anyone else. Seriously, when people would ask me what I was doing for Thanksgiving, I would explain how I wasn't going home (do I even have one of those?) but that I had planned to watch all three "Jurassic Park" movies and do a puzzle and maybe read some. It was that big of a deal.

Check out what my table looked like over Thanksgiving break!

That's a lot of pieces to fit in all by myself in such a short time. Between the various dinners, movies, and other activities I had planned (including homework, I guess), I figured I might need to ask some friends for help on my puzzle. That was quite alright with me. Doing puzzles reminds me of when Mom and I would do Thomas Kinkade ones when it was just the two of us living at home. It also reminds me of Thanksgiving day when the Hooses and our family would usually do a puzzle or play games after eating our feast. I know some people have a thing for doing a puzzle completely on his/her own, but I'm fine with sharing the fun. I think it's a great time to have fun talking to someone and when you're done a pretty picture is usually left.

Going forward a few months, you'll find that I never did finish that puzzle. I tell ya, it was hard! The pieces were such similar colors, and the box was no help because the colors on the box were more vivid than the colors on the pieces. After a couple of weeks of that puzzle being on the table (and even with getting help from many other people who stopped by the apartment), I got tired of it being in the way. So, I put it all on a box and carefully moved it down to the basement. Unfortunately, it never took priority again (even over Christmas break like I had imagined it would), and I finally decided to put it all back in the box and save the challenge for another time. Here's how far I finally got:
Not too splendid, eh? Oh well. Let's hope the fact that I got it from DI doesn't mean that any pieces are missing for when I actually attempt to finish it!