posting to keep you posted

hello there!

i was bumming around online as i'm wont to do when i have something actually important that needs doing. i stopped on my blog and noticed i haven't written since Oct. 1st, which wasn't terribly long ago, but it seems like it's been a while. So then i got to perusing other various websites and finally decided that i should do something productive.

i went to my composing personal history class tonight. we turned in our personal essays (which i ended up writing about friendly's-ish) and three episodes today. i'll get them back next week- hopefully the professor likes them. which brings me to my next point. we workshopped our personal essays last week. that means that everyone posted theirs online, we went to class, we read each others' and critiqued them. the author wasn't allowed to talk for the first ten minutes. it was my first experience in a writing situation like that, so i was kind of nervous. we had already gone over three (the class is only 8 people) and were moving on to mine.

and my professor said: (get this- it pretty much made my week): "I love this story. I was reading some of mollie's episodes and she writes these stories and i just think "gosh, did i have a childhood like this? this is amazing." and it's not even that she writes about amazing things. she just has a real talent for making scenes and getting her reader to experience it. it's really great. and there are some really great, fun lines in this. all over the place. i wish we had time to point them all out. but there are so many that she just slips in here and there to really create a great effect."

.... i left that day pretty much beaming from ear to ear. not even because she said something nice, but because she didn't say anything like that for anyone else's. she just introduced the other ones and we talked about them. and this time, before anyone else could say anything, she was like "i just have to say..." and proceeded with her comment.

this leads me to maybe almost kind of entertain the thought that i could someday write something that people would like to read that was worthy of a library bookshelf somewhere. how cool would that be?!

anyway.

so today we wrote portraits. they have to be about a person. and our relationship with them. i haven't decided who mine's going to be about yet. hard decision. so anyway.

for the past three, four, possibly five or more weeks, i've had this insatiable craving for sugar. my roommate mac is on a no sugar diet, and i joke with her that i think the spirits of her sugar cravings, after being exorcised from her body, were trying to make their way into craving heaven when i walked in the room and somehow got between them and their destination. because i swear, i have had an unnatural craving for sweets for the past while. it's been really ridiculous. and i try to buy healthy foods so i won't eat junk, and then i come home and my roommate has cookies, another made brownies, and i whip up a funfetti cake. i ate all three of those things.

i knew it was bad when i was walking back to my bedroom after a trip to the kitchen. i came to our closed bedroom door and realized i didn't have a free hand to open it. in one hand, i had a big piece of funfetti cake, and in the other, a brownie. "Oh, this is bad." i observed. my roommate heard me and opened the door and laughed at me as i looked from hand to hand realizing that my sweet foods addiction had officially interfered with my ability to live life. haha. but really.

so before i started to write this entry, i had plopped myself down on my bed, trying to think of something sweet to eat. i pawed through a box that had been packed from last year and found a box of jelly bellies that my mom had sent for my birthday. i had been saving them for the perfect occasion. "Well, this is it i guess." how anticlimactic. I saved them for some perfect occasion when i could whip them out. maybe, say, sitting in the living room with a whole group of kids, and somehow they'd get on the subject of jelly beans and then they'd all be talking about how much they love jelly bellies and how much they wished they had some. perhaps there'd be an argument over whether or not you really can tell what flavor they are without looking. and i'd stealthily sneak back to my room, grab the box, and demand a duel between the two arguers.

how anticlimactic. i repeated, as i popped another into my mouth. i've been eating them nonstop for the last hour or so. one at a time. the mixing of flavors is throwing off my taste-buds. "i need to stop eating them" i say as i blindly feel around the little plastic compartments and surprise myself with my next jelly belly bean.

i must say, if this sugar craving doesn't go away, I'M going to BE a jelly belly soon enough. i suppose there are worse things in life.

well anyway.

i got an A on my psych statistics test. he handed out a gradesheet and i'm in the top 5 of the class, which means i have an A overall so far. it looks like new testament is going to be the worst class for me this semester, which just makes me annoyed. i got an 89 on our test. because he asked completely random, obscure questions that no one on earth would know the answer to. oh well.

i have a test for psych 210 that closes tomorrow. i have to pay a late fee. i've been trying to avoid paying late fees this year, but this one, i feel, was unavoidable. i had two quizzes yesterday to study for, so i didn't get to study for the psych test till last night and today. that's not even enough time, but i'm hoping i'll do ok. we'll see. it's all essay, so that's a little daunting. as for those two quizzes, i took a shakespeare quiz on The First Part of Henry IV. He said most people don't do as well on that one because it's a lot of people and random relationships between them and all. I don't know if I'll be able to defend my 100% streak, but if I don't, i will at least get a 95. There was only one i wasn't sure about. so that's not too bad- although it is sad to ruin my perfect streak in the class.

i also took a stats quiz. i was really nervous about it. there were only three of us left in the room by the time i finished. (i had written a formula wrong, and kept getting an answer that wasn't a multiple choice option. i finally figured out the formula had been transcribed wrong, completed the problem, and handed in the quiz.) the professor graded it as i stood there. i got a 100%. yay.

you know? the thing about jelly belly beans is that they have so many different flavors. i keep eating them because of the variety. i can have popcorn, then hop over to the top row for some dr. pepper. oh i want fruit! time for a blueberry. ok. now i want something sweet- off to the toasted marshmellow. maybe later i'll spring for the chocolate pudding. seriously. jelly belly beans are like the gum in willy wonka. a three course meal. well, that is if your three courses consist of candy, soda, and fruit.

and the bubble gum flavor always makes me feel awkward to swallow it.

anyway.

i don't have too much else to say. things are good. i'm busy- and it's crazy, but it's going alright. hopefully i pass this psych 210 exam tomorrow. i'm really kind of dreading it. which is why i'm blogging instead of studying. not the best habit.

oh! monday was arrian's birthday so i made him a cake. i guess he liked it. i don't really know. i brought it over, sang, and left.

alright. well really. i should be studying.

TOMORROW'S FRIDAY!!!!!!!

oh HEY-- so this weekend i'm supposed to go pumpkin-patching with erin and bryce and will. (and sawyer). we were supposed to go last weekend but it rained. and it looks like it's going to rain this weekend. you wanna know what?!?! that means we've had FOUR CONSECUTIVE WEEKENDS WHEN IT HAS RAINED, SNOWED, AND/OR HAILED!!!! booo. (in a "this sucks" way. not in a halloween ghostly kind of way) this stinks.

-mollie

some tidbits

hello ladies and gentlemen, assuming there is reason to use plurals on both of those...

so the last few weeks have been really crazy with working and going to school and all. and i told you i'd write a few stories about my students, and i will. i can't go into too much detail though, in case one of them stumbles upon this blog. :)

let me first just say that i have 40 students. they are all fabulous people. i love them much. i have enjoyed getting to know them and hearing their goals and stuff. i really do want to help them in any way i can-- i want them to be happy and successful. i wish they knew how much i care about them doing well. unfortunately, i only "have them" for a semester, so there will be some contact with them for the rest of the year, but i think most will lose touch with me in three months. sad. three months is such a short amount of time to get everything done!

anyway.

soooo first, a few weeks ago, my two co peer mentors and i held a dinner with our students and then held a workshop on effective study group strategies. it was pretty successful. anyway. at said meeting, we had to hand out paper for our students to write down lists of words we asked them to memorize in 30 seconds (the point being if they all compared their lists, they could get all 40 words after 30 seconds, but on their own that had few.) so then at the end of the whole thing, two of my students were sitting at the table and said "here. we drew pictures of you." i laughed. and then i kept them and posted them on my wall at home over my desk to remind me of the reasons why i have this job. the pictures they drew are two of my reasons. [note: i don't even care that one of them spelled my name wrong, as you can see in the picture. and it doesn't even matter that they're not the best pictures in the world either; they're mine.]

so one of my students (male) broke his foot on a door. playing hall soccer. and then i had to go over and make a little house call yesterday to talk to a few of my students, and discovered one of them got in a fight this weekend (by no fault of his own) and got punched in the face. he has a black eye. i asked how his parents responded and he said "are you kidding me? like i'm gonna tell them..." funny kid. and then i met with two students who i hadn't seen in a while at class-- they said they weren't in class for a while because they both had the flu. yummy. poor things. away from home for the first time and no one to nurse them back to health when they're sick. although, i guess one of the guys' moms came up to check in.

we had a good conversation and i was feeling all influential about getting them to come to class and work hard in school, and then i went to class today and they weren't there. hmmmmm. i asked then what their goals were for the semester and one of them said "well, once we get over being sick, we want to go to all our classes." i encouraged this goal and asked if they had any others. they said "well, if you came over here to get us to go to class, our goals are contradictory." i asked them to elaborate and he said "well, our other goal is a second date with you." ... they were just kidding, and i was laughing, but i had to explain that my visit did not count as a date. and then they said "fine. you can call it whatever you want. but our goal is to get you to come back here." hmmmmm... i'm just going to assume they don't really mean that. hopefully i'll see them in class tomorrow.

in other news, our apartment hasn't had hot water for the last 2 days. yesterday we got home from church and the water was freezing cold. not just cold. freezing cold. so tristan called maintenance and they couldn't come till today. so this morning, i had to shower because i was gross. well, i had to at least wash my hair. so i bent my head over into the tub under the faucet to get the job done. i wet my hair and shampooed as quickly as i could, but my hands and scalp had quickly gone numb and i was quite uncomfortable. so i pulled my head out, went into the kitchen, and put the two biggest pots i could find on the stove filled with water. i heated water, and used a cup to pour it over my head in the tub to get the shampoo out. it was at this point that i was so very grateful i had the brilliant idea to buy shampoo-and-conditioner 2-in-1 last time i went shopping.

i used the heated water to wash my face as well and then got dressed and went to class. let me just say, i felt very... 19th century-ish. washing my hair out of a pot of hot water. oh modern conveniences. how i love you. and how inconvenient when you don't work.

sooo yeah.

i've included another picture of my computer screen. the other night i was trying to look up a location for a store that was somewhere around my apartment building, i just didn't quite know where. being resourceful as i am, i plugged the address into google maps, and got the map shown in the picture. ... wow, thanks for that detailed information. now i know JUST where to go. let me just look out my window and see if i can see a giant green arrow anywhere. then i'll be set. ... ok... so i was kind of annoyed. but then laughed at how ridiculous it was.

that's all i have for you tonight. i have to write an 8-10 page personal essay for class thursday and it's supposed to be my 3rd or 4th draft. hmmmm. i have NO IDEA what subject or event to write about and it's stressing me out. today i took a psych. statistics test and got an A on the multiple choice. we'll have to wait to see how i did on the open-ended questions.

i have a new testament quiz opening tomorrow, but haven't studied yet, so... we'll see when i end up taking it.

i got another 100% on a Shakespeare quiz. The professor seems to be even more impressed with me now. He always looks at me when he asks questions in class about things, and when he calls my name for attendance he always smiles at me like we have an inside joke-- a secret from the rest of the class. it's odd. but i'm not gonna complain. it's certainly better than having a teacher hate you.

life has gotten so crazy, it's ridiculous. i feel like i'm so busy- going from one thing to the next all the time. my students take up a lot of my time and energy, but i am enjoying it so much. the only problem is trying to go to school at the same time, but i suppose by what i've written here, it looks like i've got that down too.

life is good.

busy.

but good.

i'm happy. today was a perfect october day. it was my half birthday! it doesn't feel like it's been 6 months. weird. but anyway. october and april are my two favorite months. spring and autumn are my two favorite seasons. and today was a perfect example of why i like october and april. it was cool-ish. not hot, but still warm enough to bear being outside. there was/is a lovely breeze that kept the air moving, and it smelled like fall. there was a crispiness to the air, and the leaves were blowing around, crunching under peoples' feet. the sky was clear (until about 6 pm) and it was just a beautiful day. perfect. it made me want to go buy pumpkins. or rake leaves. or drink apple cider. i LOVE fall. unfortunately Utah doesn't have too many deciduous trees, but they seem to change color a bit and it reminds me of home. as i said, it's days/nights like this that remind me why i am so enamored with autumn. i adore it. i wish i could bottle up days like this and keep them for when things just aren't going right. even a bad day can be made better if its blessed with good weather. a rainy bad day has no redeeming qualities, in general.

anyway. as i said, life is good. i am happy.

-mollie