The storm before the calm

So my last few weeks have been pretty insane, one thing after another on top of another.

So first I had finals. The Sunday before finals week (I had two finals left) my roommate Michele told us she was NOT getting married in Brazil in a few weeks as planned, but THAT THURSDAY. Being the awesome roommates we are, we helped her put that together--THAT was quite a week. I had to bother and annoy all the people necessary in order to get my temple recommend so that I could actually BE at the wedding, as well as clean up our house for the reception.

This was during the time that I was GOING to be packing up and moving out and finishing up my last project at work.

So.

I worked until mid-afternoon on Friday and got my last project finished, then I went back to the apartment and started packing up.

Then I got a call from mom.

Breanna had a special Lagoon day the next day, and she'd only be able to stay until 1 o'clock, unless I could come supervise her and her friends... so could I possibly get all my packing and moving done that night?

I drove home at two in the morning.

We left Lagoon at four, and I slept.

Sunday was Sunday, and Monday morning it was off to CA with Kim, Becky, and Michelle to meet MWT. Who is made of awesome, just by the way. And my mom is awesome, for making it possible for me to go.

I got home in time to unpack and re-pack to head off to Florida. This was good practice for the mission, I believe--it was hot, and humid, and we walked and walked and walked and walked (though we didn't really sing much as we did). I can't say I really liked the climate, but I do think I could get used to it. I'll have to. (I'm very glad to be back in my dry mountainous desert, where my hair actually gets dry and I know North from South again.)


So this is all one of those hurry-up-and-WAIT scenarios. Because now I'm home, and I do have a few things on my to-do list, and three months to do it all in. The original plan was to have a month to do it all in, because my avalability date for the mission was June 1st. So I have nothing planned for June and July. I'll just... read, and paint, and shop for missionary clothes (etc.) and cook dinner. And go on a couple family vacations I didn't think I'd go on.

*yawn*

Well, off I go. To do... stuff. Yeah, stuff.

feeling crafty

On Saturday Kim, Kristy and Paige went to the craft store and came back with craft supplies. Paige very kindly let me use her fabric paints, so I made a couple awesome shirts--one that says "I CAN DO ANYTHING I WANT!" (a quote from The King of Attolia) and the other says, "You can't," said the Magus in question and on the back it will say, "I can steal anything," Eugenides corrected him.(A quote from the Queen of Attolia)

And, though my shirts are awesome, I am almost as amused by Paige's apron. She had meant for it to say: "Kissing the cook may be HAZARDOUS to your health. Take a risk." but she kind of ran out of steam before she finished. So right now the apron reads, "Kissing the cook may be HAZARDOUS."

I kind of like it this way better.

Ode

Kneaded eraser, how I love thee.
Thy sticky, lumpy grey shape has been much missed these past days.
My figure drawings have been smudged by thy inferior, the Pink Pearl.
Thy ability to distract and amuse is greatly appreciated, even more since you have been missing.
Soft and hard, lumpy and smooth, thy soft grey shade is a comfort to me.

I rejoiced when I discovered thy hiding place beneath my desk. Pray, do not leave me again, I could not bear our separation a second time.


***********

*bows to deafening applause*

*reads over the above*...

You know, maybe I should go to bed. But its only 10 and there is a cleaning check tomorrow.

The Happiest of Birthdays

We just finished our roommate gift exchange.

My gift was obviously a book, simply by looking at the size of the package, but also by how it felt through the paper, etc. When I opened it, it was some random obscure book that didn't really look to be my kind of thing... but I started to make grateful noises anyway. Annilyn laughed and told me there was a note inside.

Anyway, long story short, I was sent on a treasure hunt all through the apartment, looking for letters. I colleced letters from the books/belongings of all of my roommates, including myself (There was one on the Firefly disks, one one one of our english books from last year, one in my copy of King of Attolia, one in my scriptures, one in my butter...)

Finally, I had all my letters. But then I had to unscramble them. I am absolutely NO GOOD at unscrambling. I was given the option of looking the word up in Russian instead of unscrambling it.

Russian has a messed up alphabet. Just sayin'.



The Happily Ever After:

My totally awesome and wonderful roommate whom I love got me The Winter Prince for Christmas/my birthday! It will be coming in the mail any day now.

Dude, I've got great roommates, tuition for an awesome college, lindy hopper shoes, and my new favorite book for Christmas/Birthday. I think I've got about all I need for a seriously awesome Christmas... if I recieve much more awesomeness, I just might explode.

*grins to self*

Oh, and more awesomness of the night: the roommate I was supposed to give to was Annie, but I could not think of anything to get her that was, like, good and special and unique. It was down to the wire, so I just... cut her a few snowflakes. I felt like it was kind of a lame way to get out of buying a gift, but she actually seemed really happy with them. Actually, I was really happy with them... I tried a new way of doing the classic angel-with-trumpet snowfake which I think is my best yet. I also tried doing a word and image on the same snowflake (Peace, with a dove) which turned out looking pretty nice as well.

And Annilyn got a special gift for all of us because she's leaving. Annilyn has this very strange... mutation (:-p) where onions simply don't effect her. She'll be happily cutting onions in the kitchen while we're all blind with tears. Anyway, she got us a special onion chopper machine. The note said something like, "for my roommates, so you don't cry too much when I'm gone." Ha ha, get it? I was amused.

And Annie gave me her awesome bird-as-a-wig-and-cat-as-a-scarf art piece for my birthday. And also the DVD of Dark Knight, which I took to be kind of mostly a gift for the whole apartment but I'm very glad to have recieved it for myself just the same :D.

And our home teachers brought a little flame torch thingy over and sang happy birthday and let me "blow" the torch out.

So it was a very birthday all around. :-D.

Up Late

So I've been pretty good about going to bed early enough to get a decent amount of sleep this semester. I'm usually in bed around 12:30 and up at 7:30 or 8, so thats about 7-8 hours of sleep, which I think is pretty decent.

Well, last night was different. (Today being the very last day of classes for the semester might have had something to do with it. But it was mostly just randomness.)

Annie had an art project that she needed to have done this morning. It involved the same sort of weird creepy awesome style that is hers... (It looks like she mostly has photos on here, but there are also some weird creepy awesome drawings: http://annstinator.deviantart.com/gallery/#_featured)

So anyway, Annie was doing this art project which had a bald lady with a bird draped over her head instead of a wig. She wanted to do another person with some other kind of animal draped over it--maybe a fox or something. She didn't really make alot of progress on the drawings. I was just doodling, drawing nothing in particular, so I decided to try my own version. So I did a quick doodle:



It was somewhere between one and two in the morning. I was kinda chuckling to myself after drawing it. But I didn't stop there. Tired and amused, I did another drawing:



I was chuckling to myself as I finished it. Annie looked over and... well, anyway, the drawings were a hit ;-). Since I'm not normally one to draw random weird things like these, all I can say is it was getting pretty close to two in the morning and I was looking at Annie's awesome weird drawings.

And, just by the way, I did get to bed at 2:30ish. And it only took me an hour or two to get to sleep. And I did go to class this morning and pay attention and take notes and stay awake.

The End.

Birthday Countdown: 3 days!

Doorbell ditching hilarity

Oh my goodness, we're all in such a hyper giggly mood right now. And I have to write up the reason before we forget.

So yesterday, today, and tomorrow our ward is doing this Secret Santa thingy. Each day is themed on a different letter--J, O, then Y.

Anyway, Jocelyn got her Secret Santa gift all ready and delivered it to the apartment which was on the piece of paper telling her who/where her assigned person lived. It just so happened that the apartment was our next-door neighbors. After delivering it she looked in the ward directory to see who lived in that apartment. (Our directory is organized according to apartments.) She saw that the girl she'd been assigned didn't actaully live in that apartment. I looked through the directory and found that the girl that she had actually lives up on the third floor.

Well, that was a bit of a dilemma. How to get the present back to deliver it to the right person...

We debated just going up and knocking on the door, but that wouldn't be any fun. So Jocelyn wrote a note on a scrap of paper:

Hi! I just accidentally delivered my gift for _____ on your porch! Could you please put [it] on the porch for me to pick back up? Thanks! Have a great evening.

I forget who delivered that note, but they doorbell-ditched it and ran, keeping our door open for a quick and easy escape.

We waited a couple minutes. We peeked out and saw a note on their doormat. Someone (forgot who again) ran and picked it up.

It was the note that we'd left before, but with the backside up. On it they'd written: For a price.

We debated about how to answer that, what kind of things we could give them to 'pay' for it. Finally we decided on just another note, which I delivered:

I have a wife & 9 children, thats a total of 10 mouths to feed. I just can't afford to get a new gift, I'm desperate. Please give me my gift back?

We waited a few minutes, but nothing showed up on their doorstep. So we left another note, which I also delivered.

Cruel Women! Have you no hearts?

A couple minutes later we checked again. Both notes were on the doorstep. On the back of the first it said, Your plight has touched our hearts. Merry Christmas! and on the other it said, We delivered it for you.

So how were we supposed to answer that? Much laughter accompanied our debate. Eventually, what happened was this: Annie made a 'mask' out of a piece of purple paper she'd cut two eye holes in and taped to her glasses. She, Annilyn, and I put blankets over our heads (well, mine was a bright orange towel--great for stealth, those bright orange towels) so we wouldn't be recognised. Deidre, Jocelyn, and Brooke went up to the floor above so they could watch without being seen (or participating. Scaredy-cats). On our way out the door the first time, Annie and Annilyn were laughing so hard and were so nervous that they had to go to the bathroom before we could actually go.

I went first, then Annie, then Annilyn. Annie stood slightly in front, me and Annilyn stood on each side of her, like henchmen. I rang the bell. The door was thrown open by someone determined to catch the doorbell-ditchers, but the expression on her face quickly turned from triumph to fear/surprise/WUT?!?. A couple of her roomates and some guy who was visiting were watcing too. In a very weird, gravelly voice Annie said,"We wanted to thank you personally for delivering our gift. You will recieve blessings in heaven." Then we ran away around the corner and went in the sliding door so they wouldn't know we were their next-door neighbors.

Jocelyn, Deidre, and Brooke could see the whole thing from upstairs. They said that when we ran off one of the girls said, "What? Where are they going?" and they were laughing really hard. One of their other roomates walked up and they said, "Oh my gosh, you just missed it!"



So that was our evening of hilarity. Now back to homework. I don't want to think about finals...