30 pills later

I took my last dose of antibiotics today! Now I just have the Sudafed to deal with, and as long as I'm not dizzy or have a pounding headache then I am pill free!!! Unfortunately that hasn't happened quite yet, I sort of forgot that just because I'm feeling better that doesn't mean I can stop drinking abnormal amounts of water...(doctor said when you have a cold you need to up your water intake to 1-2 liters! I haven't done that but I'm still in the bathroom every ten minutes).

PS I love my new background :)

Kisses & Snores

Book of the Day:
"Never Let a Fool Kiss You or a Kiss Fool You"

I have no idea what it was about, but I thought the title was funny. As I was shelving today I stumbled upon two, not just one, but two different guys sprawled out under the cubby desks in different corners of my floor. One of which was totally snoring. Where's a camera when you need one? I tried so hard to be quiet as I shelved books around them, neither woke up so I believe I succeeded.

Ginza

I tried sushi for the first time ever this summer. The first week I got back up to Provo I went up to Salt Lake with Fern, Josh, Hayley, Addie, and Maddox to meet my dad at Ginza, one of his favorite sushi places. I finally plucked up the courage to try the stuff and I actually liked it. Shh! Don't tell. :) It was fun trying all the different kinds that everyone got and feeding Maddox edamame and soy sauce.


Hayley and I got a kick when we passed by the abandoned building with the address 217 1/2. I'm determined to have an address like that one day.

Phobia #1

Snakes...I don't know what it is but they just give me the heebie jeebies. Seriously, my toes curl under whenever I get near one. Last year when my FHE group went to the Bean Musuem we happened upon the reptile show they have every Monday night. Needless to say, I almost cried. But I steered clear of them and survived the night unscathed. I like to think that this fear comes because of all the evil representations snakes are in literature, but someone shot that down when they said that the serpent is also the symbol of Christ (thank you Moses). I've never touched one, I have no desire to and I could live quite happily if I never had to ever interact with one. But...that's not possible. And that would be because of Esau and Spencer. Spencer's sister Katie has a snake named Esau and he is determined to teach me to love him. I'm not ready. I'm quite scared actually, but if there is any fear I am willing to get over it would be snakes. I can't say how long it will take me to do so, probably centuries, but I'm still willing, only if being forced. Which I am being forced. Just like I'm being forced to understand politics. Although I really do hate politics, snakes are just something that give me the goosebumps and make me shiver.

My body can't make up its mind

I've been sick for 4+ weeks. I know because I've been counting. Well not exactly but I woke with a sore throat the morning before I came back up to oober land (aka Utah) for school and have continued to harbor those germs for the last month or so. It's been quite fun! Not. There were mornings where I could barely talk and others where I would skip about giggling. And then Sunday night hit, well more so, Sunday hit. Church at 9am, was promptly home taught afterwards, which took a couple hours since they made us lunch, I then attempted a much desired nap, failed in that area, ran off to visit teach, jumped off to sing at the nursing home, flew off to visit teach, and finally slid into home to prepare for our traditional pancake night. I over exerted my body and it finally shut down on me around nine that night. My glands were so swollen I could have played catch with them, which of course caused any movement of the neck to send searing pain all over. My ribs were sore, my neck was sore, my head was throbbing, and even my legs were sore. But of course I continued to stick it out, socializing with the several miscreants who were milling about our apartment. By ten I was near tears and I had my dear home teachers come over and give me a much needed blessing. I then collapsed into my bed sobbing on the phone with Spencer who of course was the much needed comfort I had been looking for all day.

Anyway, I went to the doctors' this morning. I hate the doctors. I always feel like I am either going to go in and find that it is something way serious or nothing at all, this morning was the latter. Kind of a kick in the butt, no I didn't have strep which everyone thought it was on Sunday (never had it before so I had no idea) and thankfully I didn't have mono either. It's a sinus infection, a nasty one at that. But the doctor prescribed Amoxicillin and I am now doped up on antibiotics and oober amounts of sleep. Personally, I'm done being sick and I would love for my body just to make up its mind about whether or not to be sick.

PS I've been in the same pajamas for two days now...mmm, yummy :)

Phone = Car

My phone is kind of like a car, at least when it comes to the battery. Whenever it says "low battery" I really know that I've still got at least...12 more hours before it really is going to die on me. Kind of like how in some cars, your gas gauge will say empty when really you can make it home without sweating about stopping at the gas station. Empty tank? No problem! I can actually squeeze another 100 miles out of this sucker. Low battery? No I don't need to hang up and plug my phone in, I can probably talk to you for another four hours and not need to worry :)

Yeah, my phone is a brick, it will endure anything: I've dropped it a billion times (comes with having butter fingers), chucked it across the room on numerous occasions, spilled water on it, sat on it, slept on it (that was awkward, and uncomfortable), and I think I even got toothpaste all over it one time. I do know it rolled through a mess of chocolate chip cookie, though, that wasn't too much fun cleaning up. Anyway, I can't wait to get a new phone because even though my phone can endure through anything, it's ancient and obnoxious, even the vibrate is loud - it has woken Emily up in the night. Well maybe not completely woken up but she does move in her sleep. So coming in November...Amelia will, hopefully, have a new phone and, hopefully, a new provider (T-Mobile stinks). The end.

Concert #1

We're concert goers, what can I say? I had never been to a concert (aside from Kingston trio my freshman year of high school, but I was the youngest fan there...) until I came up to college. Since then I have been to 11 concerts, in 2 years. So, Saturday night Chris Merritt, a local-ish band that we have seen before, played at Velour, a small venue in Provo. Callie, Emily and I had been planning to go since we found out about it long before school started, but things came up and Cal was unable to come with us. So Em and I invited our roommate Lisa and our friend Steve and they both actually wanted to come! I was surprised because they had never heard of Chris, but they were both eager to tag along. So we busted a move on over to Velour around 8pm, (P.S. if you ever go see a show at Velour go early, pay and get your hand stamped and then you get free food! They always barbecue out front before a show and it's worth the seven bucks to go early and get dinner and a show!!!) There were two other bands that opened before Chris, Parker and Invasion. Invasion was a bit harder rock than I prefer but I did enjoy some of their stuff. However, Parker opened and I was almost in tears during his first song. It was AMAZING!!! and he has a great voice. Check him out at myspace.com/parkersmusic. Listen to "Porch Swing," that was the one he opened with and had me crying.

Chris was amazing as usual. And since this was the second concert we had been to we knew more of his stuff and could really jam. Emily and I were oober stoked when he played "Tower of Sand" and "Dance Karate." We really got rocking to those (I"m trying to use cool terms to describe how much fun we had but I think I just sound retarded).

Lisa took a picture of Em and me up front dancing, but you can't really tell who we are, but it's still a fun picture!

Me, Steve, Em and Lisa (notice the sunburn from the football game...)

BYU vs. UCLA

We creamed them needless to say...but! It was the second BYU game I've ever been to, and it was decent. Emily and I have decided that sports aren't all that fun unless you kind of like someone who you go with...which is hard for me since I left that someone back home (but I did keep him updated on the score!) We only stayed for the first half because it was a bit toasty, especially when you're in jeans and a navy blue t-shirt, and the game was boring. Yes, it was boring. We were up by six touchdowns by halftime, trust me, I know football, there's no recovery from that. So Em and I kicked it, I will admit I was quite grateful she was ready to leave as early as I was because 1. Walking home alone was going to stink and 2. If we stayed any longer my face would have been much more pink than it ended up being. I should have known to put darn sunscreen on, who'da thunk?

Em and me before the game

Me, Em and our roommate Lisa at the game...we had pretty tight seats I will admit...

Shelving

I started working in the Harold B. Lee Library this semester and I have had quite the laughs since being there. It is really interesting to see the books that people actually check out. My favorite are the wedding books that look like they were printed in the 1800s...people still read these? I flipped through one today titled "How to Get Married Now That You Have Been Asked" (published in 1969, and it was checked out about two days ago). It had interesting chapter titles, but it was mainly just a guidebook for what to wear on the honeymoon (what to pack, not in the bedroom :)), where to go, what to do on the honeymoon, when to start having kids...really random stuff.

I got the biggest kick today when I shelved the book "Women, Fire, and Other Dangerous Things" (I'm pretty sure that's the title...). Yeah the title was a kick in itself but what really made me laugh was the typo on the spine of the book. It read: "Woemn, Fire and Other Dangerous Things." I was tempted to take it downstairs, but we can't really do anything about it so it gets left as it is.

You would think that shelving books would be a pretty darn easy job, but it really isn't. The whole process takes sometime to get used to, and to understand. I won't bore you with a description of it, just know that the job is taken very seriously (especially since President Samuelson came in one day and couldn't find a book he was looking for. They've really raised the bar since then). I have gotten some pretty wicked scratches and bruises up my right forearm from carrying the books. My floor, 5th North, is the floor where all the cute guys come to study, as I have been told about a billion times by all the girls. I admit I've looked, but none have held a candle to, well, yeah :) I will soon be able to listen to my iPod as I work, which will be a blessing since I've put tons of books onto it. That and I will just be glad to not be in silence for four hours.

We did just get t-shirts today (one more to add to my collection of school t-shirts, I have...way too many). I'll send a picture soon! I've wanted to take a picture of my battered arm too, but I don't want anyone worrying that I cut myself...that'd be bad...

P.S. you know how Firefox underlines everything misspelled? Well apparently some contractions aren't words...only some though, the rest don't get underlined. Someone please explain!

In remembrance...

At about 12:30 last night, I turned to my friend Callie who was squished onto my twin bed with me and said, "It's September 11th." We laid there quiet for a moment and then I added how crazy it was that the attack on the Twin Towers was seven years ago. I couldn't decide if it felt like it had happened yesterday or thousands of years ago, so much has changed since then. I do know that I felt old... :)

Seven years ago, as an 8th grader, I was sleeping peacefully in my bedroom (in the most comfortable bed in the world) awaiting my alarm to go off. It never did, instead my father, mother, and my older sisters were suddenly sitting on my bed telling me that the two World Trade Center towers had been hit with airplanes. World Trade Center? I didn't even know what that was, let alone know where it was. Our TV was kept on most of the morning as we all got ready for school, and we watched as the other planes crashed in Pennsylvania and into the Pentagon. It was scary but most of the time I just didn't understand what was going on, if it was real, and what it all meant.

The rest of the day was a blur. Lessons in each of my classes were abandoned and every TV and radio was tuned into the destruction that was happening thousands of miles away and yet so close to home. I wish I could voice my thoughts on how frustrated I am that it takes mass destruction to bring our nation together and turn people to each other, but my friend Elise has done a much better job than I could so here's her post on her blog.

I've come a long way in the last seven years from that naive little girl I was. I still don't understand a lick about politics and I get lazy and frustrated when it comes to current events. But I have suddenly found myself in throes with a dear friend who won't let me get away with it anymore. He's actually quite frustrated at my attitude towards what is happening with the world and has taken it upon himself to educate me. Only problem is he's hundreds of miles away, so he's finding it hard to keep me on top of the news. Deep down, though I really do want to be better because what is going on out there has great impact on my life, my family, and me. So I better go read today's headlines before I get reprimanded again...

Gone deaf

We had a fire drill at work today. I greatly enjoyed the shouts of exclamation that came from the students as they quickly packed up their books and laptops. If any of you have ever been in the Harold B. Lee Library when there has been an alarm than you will know how deafening those alarms are. As my coworker and I were traipsing down the fire exit stairs I turned to her and said, "I've decided that if I were a monster my signature would be to scream like a fire alarm." Think about it, if you could make a noise like that you could floor your enemies and take over in a blink. Kind of like the girl from X-Men. Anyway, my coworker looked at me like I was nuts and said that she would never have thought of something like that. I told her I have moments like that often...

What Brown is doing for me...

A UPS truck almost ran me over today as I was walking home from work. I jumped a little bit as he turned toward me thinking that I really was about to be flattened. I made eye contact with the driver and all he did was look at me with this blank stare as if I was blending in with the background. Thankfully he had just made a wide turn and knew what he was doing, at least I was hoping so.

Locked Out

What do you do when you're locked out of your apartment:

1. When you realize you don't have your key(s) bang on the door, ring the bell and pray your roommate isn't in the shower (that has happened before, trust me, I know).
   
2. Try carding your door. It's exactly what it sounds like, get an ID, credit card, etc. Something that you don't use too much, a Blockbuster card is a little too flimsy but at least you won't kill your debit card or the such. Jiggle it into the space where your door handle goes into the door post, if you do it right you should be able to slip your card in between the two allowing you to push the door in. I've tried many times to accomplish this, each one ending in failure. If you personally can't get it, call a guy, they seem to be better at this then girls. I honestly would like to know why... If, however, your apartment was just re-keyed that week then it will be impossible to card yourself in. The space will be much too small and everything will be too tight to move, even after several of you try.
   
3. Laugh as you double check every inch of your bag, making sure that you really don't have your key(s).
4. Call all your roommates to see when they get home. You will now discover that you only have two out of three of your roommates' phone numbers, but that's ok, no one is going to pick up anyway because 1) they are all in class or 2) they are working. No worries!
   
5. Stick your headphones back in and plop yourself onto the floor in front of your door, or the porch or some comfy, concrete area. Pull out something to entertain yourself with.
6. Become bitter that you didn't pack your laptop that morning, or a book, or anything else you needed for your classes, except a notebook and a pen and of course chapstick (you can think of chapstick every morning but somehow missed your keys?!?! Nice work!).
   
7. After the bitter stage has set in, stare dejectedly at the blank pages of the notebook and try to recall where in the world your key(s) could be.
8. Start panicking. You have now realized that you had taken your house key off of your chain because on your date last night you didn't want to be carrying a massive key chain with more chains than keys. But then remember that you decided against that and put the key back on and just took the dang junk with you and just left them in the car. Pause in your moment of panic and wonder if you really did reattach the key. If you decide yes then wonder horribly about whether or not it somehow, miraculously, possibly came off during this said date and is now on the floor of your date's car. It's ok though because he only lives in Bountiful (one hour away) and will be leaving any day now to return back to school in Rexburg.
9. Start panicking all over again.
10. Talk yourself out of a heart attack and brush it off. Start writing random things down in the notebook, maybe work on a story you are writing or even try to catch up on your journal. Be glad you packed a light jacket because it gets breezy in the stairwell.
    
11. Now that you have officially gone through all of these steps decide that you can be more productive with a computer and trudge all the way back to campus. Make sure your side bag is situated just perfectly so that it digs preciously into your shoulder and neck and rubs nicely against your hip. Make sure to walk crookedly, even after you have taken your bag off.
12. Collapse into a chair in the LRC, suddenly discover you have to kick it and leave for class. Walk out frustrated and enter class in a very fragile state.
13. Last but not least (oh, 13!) make sure to record your experience somewhere where the whole world can read it and desperately hope they all laugh about it so you don't feel too ridiculous.
    

Peach Days

I spent this weekend in Harricun, as you all already know. I drove down with Joe Furse, his sister Mary, and a couple other boys. What was supposed to be a 5 hour trip from Provo with a detour through Ephraim to get Mary turned into a 7 hour drive. Poor Joe, Kyle and McKay though, they had to suffer through 2 hours of SLC traffic and then some more after Provo. Plus the line at Wendy's in Nephi took us almost a half hour to bust through. The food, unfortunately, was worth it and I think I ate more than the boys... (remember I'd been living off of Mac & Cheese and Cream of Wheat for two days already).

We got in around midnight, whereupon my cousin Colton, Joe and I headed down to Bench Lake (it's not really a lake) so they could practice their music for the Peach Day's fair (it had been more than two years since they had played together and they were missing a member of their band, Brad, who is serving a mission at the moment). Saturday morning we got up bright and early and went down to the parade. I rode in the float with Hayley, Maddox, Aunt Jilyn and Aunt Cathie and the rest of the younger cousins (Grandpa Barber planted the first peach tree in Hurricane).



The Parade! -ish


After the parade we went off to the fair where they had food vendors, competitions for food and art. My cousin Tyson won first place with his cookies and ginormous watermelon that we busted later that night. It was amazing. Colton and Joe played twice that day and were received by a very warm crowd. The girls couldn't keep their hands off of them :) One guy was determined to get them on America's Got Talent or something else crazy like that. We're pretty sure he was drunk, although they have had a run in with him before and apparently he's loaded...with money...and with booze :)



After the fair and what not several of us went back to Grandma and Grandpa's and took naps. Later that night I went to the rodeo with Colton, Tyson and Joe and watched these tiny little kids ride horses in barrel racing and do some mutton bustin' (that's when they ride sheep). It was pretty hysterical, especially when there was about 30 kids running around trying to catch chickens. After that we had a shindig at Colton's and busted a watermelon and built a hot tub in a water trough over a fire. It was amazing and felt so good and was totally awesome!!!

Sunday night Joe, Colton and I went out South of Town and to Bench Lake, where we did the traditional walk down the dirt road. If it hadn't of been so stinking dark I would have gotten a picture. I had to go to the bathroom this entire time, which was the only reason why the boys didn't try to scare me. I've already got horrific memories of the last time they did. Joe and Colton just laugh about that one... Out South of Town was where Colton first told me skin walker stories so I wasn't too keen on going out there. I spent the entire time with my back against his just so that nothing could attack me from behind. Oh! We had an amaz-z-zing stake lunch with potatoes on Sunday. I love meat. We left Monday after lunch, this time the trip was fairly quick and painless. Getting back into Provo wasn't exactly a treat, except I finally got to see Emily who had abandoned me for 4 months for the Brits. Overall it was a kicking weekend and loads of fun!

Oh yes, Maddox was amazing at waving to everyone while on the float. He even had both hands going:

Gotta love college

My diet for the past 4 days, until I go grocery shopping...

P.S. I caught two guys picking their nose in my D&C class today...it was hard to not burst out laughing. Actually I was a bit more disgusted than humored, seriously they're like grown men!