Things

Yesterday I woke up and it smelled like summer.

I looked at my window (with the blinds closed) and it was gray and gloomy looking, and for a short moment there I thought it was raining, a rainy summer day, and I was quite pleased!
Then, consistent with my thinking habits in the morning, I forgot about it.
I got ready, made sure my hair was extra curly
(I was going to see The Cute Boy in my class)
opened the door...

I have to admit this was the first time I've ever been surprised that it was snowing in Logan. Which I guess tells you something about the weird weather this year...It hadn't snowed in weeks.
My imagination of the rainy summer day must have had me pretty convinced. I wasn't even wearing a coat.

It snowed today too, by the way.

{View from my front door - Not too exciting}


Next Random Story.
Last night I was pretty certain my body would forget how to breathe while sleeping with a stuffy nose. So as I lay there, trying to stay awake as long as possible, I thought about Things.
Like how half of the world writes and reads in the opposite direction that we do here. And most of that half is over on the other half of the earth. Weird.
And for some reason it made sense in my mind that if everyone started writing, and kept going for miles and miles, we'd eventually come together
(probably somewhere in the ocean)
and we'd realize, in that one spot, that really we're all just people.
I'm pretty that's about the same time I got up and made soup, because it sounded delicious.

Today all but one of my classes was canceled. The one I had to go to was French Cinema, at noon, and we watched a movie during the entire hour and fifteen minutes.
Best school day ever!
I slept in and even got to have breakfast with my roommates. It was delicious!

I have a little bit of homework today, but my classmate hasn't emailed it to me yet. SO instead of doing something boring and uneventful, like watching TV for the ten thousandth time this week
(that's a slight exaggeration)
I think I'll go paint something. Why not?

To Dream...

I dream of being this way in 50 years...and every year in between! :)



Cute!

A Very Merry Un-Birthday to Me!

So I have excellent roommates and friends here at this fine establishment, and since I'm going home for my birthday they celebrated by giving me an early birthday party! First they blinded me with an "ear muffler" (as we determined it should be called) and drove me around in circles through the town, to suprise me with a complementary dinner at...ARBY'S!! I actually was surprised that we ended up there, so they confused me well. Also pleased since it's the best fast food this side of the Mississippi. We came back to our apartment to enjoy the gourmet meal and they sprung THIS excellence upon me! :

They even had a bubble machine going to match the balloons

Jenna gave me my own special birthday dance: And, if you're in the mood to listen to several minutes of annoying noise making, lend an ear to this divine piece of music performed by my roommate Jenna and my "half roommate" Sarah.

I got some very interesting gifts... including some interesting/disturbing hair conditioner, food items of delight, pirate eye patches (which came into good use later on), socks, and celebrity items featuring Edward Cullen and the Jonas Brothers! Wahoo!

That last one's an octopus loofa (?) haha.

Soon enough we felt the need to use the pirate eye patches to their full extent.. and so.. we had a pirate dance party!

We topped off the night with a nice bottle of Martinelli's and various photoshoots of our pirate get ups.
My friends are the best! I almost forgot it wasn't really my birthday. Thanks for a fun evening guys! Now for the rest of my birthday present....a weekend back at home! :)

We are All Connected

As I was reading blogs (instead of studying for tomorrow's exciting adventure, a test on the validity of political research studies...), I came across this interesting and slightly awesome video. It reminded me about the amazing world and universe that we live in, and how beautiful life is! The intricate nature of everything around us is miraculous, and truly a God-given gift.

"We Are All Connected"

OK, I'll go be responsible now.

Home for the Holidays!

Well... finals over at last and nothing at all to do! So blogging can resume once again.
Finals were not too bad this semester; I had only two small essays and a 15 page research paper to turn in, which I did without too much stress or trouble....and voila! Tuesday of finals week and I was done! So that was really nice.
Now I'm back at home and read (for fun) to my heart's content! Ahhhhh... :)

I never did write about Halloween so I guess I'll throw in a couple of those pictures now. Our excellent friends John and Ted came to visit and join in the festivities for the weekend, and sometime during all that John and I went to feed the ducks. Those geese were not afraid of me at all, and eerily followed me wherever I went. They were rather large and gave me some fright, so I ended up spending a good amount of time standing on a picnic table, throwing large chunks of bread as far as possible in a vain attempt to draw them away from me.

As for Halloween itself. I kind of had two costumes... one I threw together quickly so I could be dressed up when I went out to dinner with my friends. I was a Masked.. Girl. Yep. It was very creative and oh-so-spooky. Mel put us all to shame with her intense warewolf costume that she put together herself.


My other costume came about thanks to Spencer. I was Kaylee from the tv series Firefly (or from the movie Serenity, based off the series). It was a completely obscure costume that probably about 2% of the general population understood, and most likely it was even less than that since I don't really look like her.


But I had a lot of fun doing it, and was proud of my DI-inspired outcome. Spencer would be proud ... In fact I need to send him the pictures since he's been bugging me about it for weeks.

John and Ted didn't bring costumes really, so Mel helped them out with some creepy makeup faces. Ted was a ghosty thing with glasses, and John was a rotten-toothed goblin. They looked pretty good!


So that was Halloween! We went bowling and had dinner and I think we might have watched a halloweenish movie but I don't really remember...

We had Thanksgiving here at home with a bunch of my mom's family. We ate delicious foods, teased each other endlessly, and had overall a marvelous time. I guess we don't have any pictures of it though, sadly.

The very day after Thanksgiving Mom, of course, went into a Christmas frenzy. We decorated gingerbread houses (see some of those photos here), put up garland and lights inside and out, created Santa's little area on our random front hallway shelf, and...ta da! bought and decorated our Christmas Tree. Isn't it Beautiful? It's kind of shorter than intended but still an excellent addition to our home for the holiday.

It's great to be Home!!

Well I've got to run, apparently our ward is having a Christmas Party in about 10 minutes that I'm supposed to go (woops) so.. until next time!

The Little (Big) Missionary Man

"I hooope they call me on a mission,

When I have grown a foot or...five!"

(Spencer's - oh rather, Elder Grierson's - theme song! Seriously.. he is TALL.)
I went home every weekend this month to hang out with my "little" brother before he left on the big mission, and we had some fun times. We watched Firefly and Serenity with Nickell and Aaron.. played some rock band.. bonded.. ate the very best meal ever at Tepanyaki!!.. all sorts of fun stuff! (I promise there was more than that and there was actual fun taking place haha.) Alas I didn't take pictures of any of that, BUT I do have superfluous amounts of pictures from the last two days with him at home! I don't have much to say about the events, because a lot of it will be repeating what my mom said on her blog so... I'll stick to the pictoral version :)

These are from the night he got set apart - an official missionary!we were all still pretty normal that night, not too much weeping or wild flailing of arms or anything like that. And then! the day finally arrived...

mom calls this his "i'm-finally-going!" dance... or something like that. :)

Then at last we got to the MTC... and off he went!
Officially starting his mission Wednesday, October 21, 2009,
I give you......
ELDER GRIERSON! (applause!!)

and of course, afterwards we went to Baskin Robins to sooth our sorrows with a little bit o' chocolate happiness.And that's that! For anyone who wants to write him and reads my blog but not my family's (if such a person exists) here is his address:

Elder Spencer William Grierson
MTC Mailbox # 317
BRA-BRS 1222
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

Write him!

School Has Begun!

Alrighty so some news... I really don't have much but I'll see what I can do.

I'm back in school now, taking 15 credits which isn't too bad. Classes are---

Slavery in the Atlantic!
History of the French Revolution!
Senior Topics: Political Culture! (Research Paper class)
Business French!
and Aerobic Kickboxing! yeah!

I'm also a UTF (undergraduate teaching fellow, basically a teacher's assistant) for a Greek History class with my favorite professor here, Dr. Frances Titchener. I tumbled into the job and I was thrilled! I still am. Basically I just help a small group of students in the class come up with good, succint essay theses that they can then use to write papers. It's a bit intimidating since I don't think I am that good at coming up with thesis statements, but Dr. T. thinks I am, hence the job I suppose. I also do whatever odd jobs she asks me to do. A couple weeks ago I got to punch holes in the students' tests and then alphabetize them! I'm glad my job experience at DMPG is finally coming into use.

I also went on a blind date to the Homecoming dance last night. That was unique. Not too bad though, we had fun and it was not so much a date as group mayhem. Plus I got brownies and ice cream at the end of the night - how can you beat that? The theme was Here, There, and Everywhere, and the attendees were supposed to dress up in clothing from the decade of their choice. My friend Muriel and I attempted a 50s look. Did we succeed? I have no idea, but I felt like I looked pretty awesome anyway. We took a handful of pictures, and once I get those I'll put them up.

Other than that not much is going on. Conference next weekend!! I am super excited, especially since I'm going home to watch with my family! And I'm pleased that fall is here, such a lovely season. Tainted ever so slightly by the winter season right on its heels. Oh well.

Oh I guess I did go to what my friends like to call a "bonfire" recently (really it's just a fire in an approved location in the canyon. Still fun.) We roasted hot dogs, sat and chatted, read scary stories while my friends acted them out in a charades-like manner... good times all around.

Jackie and I unintentionally wore matching high school sweatshirts. Oh the good old high school days...
Well that's pretty much all I've got. I will try to be more effective in my blogging habits and keep up to date with my life's doings. Til next time!

France!

Ok. So let's just admit it, I am not going to get around to writing in depth about France. Ergo I've decided this shall be my France blog...

I went!


Maybe someday, when I'm not in school, I'll be bored and want to fill in the gaps. But for now I think this suffices. SO now I can start blogging about less intimidating topics and feel a little less silly that I have a blog that is stagnating in the online world. Yay!