"A Very Merry Unbirthday to Me" and other stories

hello there--

so... I'm writing from a computer on campus, and when I look at my blog, it doesn't show the fancy design that runs along the right hand side. I can't figure out why it's not showing it.

But, if you're viewing this and there isn't a fancy design running along the right hand side, there should be. Imagine it. It's cute.

Sooooo... on Sunday, President Hinckley of the mormon church (or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) died. It's been causing a buzz here, and I was thinking about it, and I don't remember having a different prophet. Which is weird to me because I'm usually really against change, but this was like "Oh, well, I guess it's President Monson now." I suppose part of that is that President Hinckley was 97 and it was almost a relief to hear that he didn't have to worry about the Church and stuff anymore. He can go be with his cute little wifey and be happy. Awww. Anyway-- you can see what Erin said about it here.

In other news, on Sunday night I got back to my apartment at 9:15-ish from being at Erin's and visiting at my grandma's with my aunt and cousin. I walked in and they were in the middle of ward prayer, which is just when our congregation gets together every sunday night to give announcements, sing a song, have a little spiritual thought, and then say a prayer together before we all hypothetically go to bed.

So I walked in and they're passing around the birthday cards as they usually do and one comes to me and I usually try to avoid them. Just because I don't like being insincere and I feel fake being like "Hey, Happy Birthday even though I don't know you and would bet my life on the fact that I can't pick you out of a crowd!" There's only so many polite happy birthday things you can say to a complete stranger.

Anyway. Then they said the prayer and then a group of people met to go deliver the cards and sing to each of the birthday people. I decided I'd skip out on that experience and went back to my room and was reading for a class when someone knocked on the door. (Can you see where this is going??)

I hear a girl through the wall, asking for Mollie. So I go out there and hear them behind the front door saying "Let's sing to her twice." etc etc. After drawing in a huge breath, I swing open the door and quickly begin spouting explanations "Please don't sing to me, it's not my birthday. My birthday's in April and you better save your singing till then. Sorry. Bye." The group is all like "What?! You're mollie? It says right here your birthday was on Jan. 21st." "Well, ok, but it's not." "Awww quit joking with us. Let's sing guys." "No, it's really not!"

Oy.

I had a difficult time convincing them my REAL birthday was on April Fool's Day though. But they finally left.

But, I got a birthday card signed by all these random people in the ward. Some of them I actually do know, so it was nice. I wonder what people will write in a few months when another one circulates for me... as I said, there's only so many polite happy birthday things you can say to a complete stranger. And, you only expect to say mushy happy birthday things to people you DO know once a year. So... Anyway-- that was kind of interesting.

Other than that, life has been good. Busy, but good. Last Thursday, Katie and I went to a movie with Kent and Kyle. They're brothers who are in my ward. I don't remember how we met them. But they came over and invited us out to the movie (which is $1!). It was perfectly timed because I had a super long day and needed a break. So we saw August Rush and it was pretty good. Cute I guess.

Then on Friday night, I went to a benefit concert with The Otts and my cousin Liz. It was at Springville High School. I called a boy (Ryan-- who you may remember from last spring's posts. My birthday entry from last year features pictures that include him) that I know that is living in Springville right now and he was going to meet me, but then ended up doing something else. So I went back to Erin's and we (me and Erin) went out to Applebee's and shared dinner at dessert at 11:30. It was yummy even though it took forever for the waiter to acknowledge our existence.

Then on Saturday I got up and met my Psych group at the library to work on a paper. I hate group projects. Our group is 6 people and we can't find a time for all of us to meet, so we meet in two groups- 3 and 3. And, not to be rude to the other group but, it seems like the group of 3 that I'm a part of does all the work. Oh well. A couple months and it'll be over.

Then I went to Erin's. Ryan asked if I wanted to do something that night since we didn't end up meeting on Friday. So I had promised him dinner/cake for his birthday (which was in Dec. during finals, so I didn't celebrate at all.) So I went to erin's to make the cake. All was well until I tried to get it out of the pan and it a) sunk in the middle and looked awful and b) fell into a billion pieces when I tried to shake it out of the pan. I've made this cake many times and never had a problem. Grr. Erin helped me salvage it. We found CoolWhip (sp?) in her fridge that we mixed with raspberry jam and layered it with the cake in a trifle dish. Along with the chocolate frosting that was supposed to go on the cake. And a bit of oreo crumbs that we got from stealing will's oreos. (I still feel bad about that. Next time I see him I will bring him more.)

I got home and made chicken parmesan-- a little differently than I've made it before, but it was way faster and I may have liked it better. It was good. We had salad and rolls and then our cake thing and then we went out to a movie. We saw I am Legend. The movie was kind of weird but the night was wicked fun!

So that was my exciting weekend. I've been trying to post shorter entries more frequently so they don't look so long on my new blog layout, but I'm just finding that I'm writing more frequently, just as much. Oh well.

I'm gonna stop now. Life is good-- I wish I could get my students in for interviews, but other than that, I'm pretty happy. I miss them and want to see how they're doing and fulfill my peer mentor responsibilities, but I can't really do that when I can't find times to schedule appointments.

I have a 2 pages anthropology paper due tomorrow. A 2 page women's studies paper due friday. A 1 page Eng. 251 paper originally due thursday, now due tuesday of next week. I guess I shall go be productive and work on some of that stuff.

Until again,
mollie

p.s.- I don't know if I wrote about this already, but I had to speak in church last week on President Faust's talk about "The Power to Change." Oy.

facelift!

so i'm bored, and decided, after seeing Sean's blog, that mine needed a new look.

i thought this layout was SO cute, but decided against it. maybe i'll change my mind yet...

anyway... so here's my new look: it's a tad bit emo, and it makes my posts look SUPER long because they're only like 2" wide now, but i thought it was cute. plus, it's a little valentines-day-ee, so i thought it worked.

hope you like it!

-mollie

A love/hate relationship...

So... my last entry I talked about my ongoing drama with the vending machines. I spoke too soon!!!

It never ends!

Today, I got up at 7 and hurried and got dressed and ran out the door at 7:35. I got to campus 5 minutes before my class-- just enough time to print my reflection for english that we have due at the beginning of every class period.

We read "The Chrysanthemums" and "The Things They Carried" for today and our professor said "I want to let other people talk today, so I'm going to split you into smaller groups to talk about the stories." So we talked about the stories.

I got done with class and was feeling a little empty-stomached so I walked up two flights of stairs to find the row of vending machines there, alive and well, silently offering their wares through their glass windows. I knew what I was getting. My tradition from last winter semester has me a bit conditioned, and I went straight for the blueberry cream-cheese pastry. It's probably about a billion.5 calories, but soooo good. And since I talk about it soo much, I thought it was time to "put a face to the name" and give you a picture. So there you have it... I guess it's a danish really-- I'll stop using the word pastry.

So I swiped my card and pushed the code 53. And then I looked and thought "Oh crap-- that metal corkscrew doesn't look like it's positioned right. Dang it. My breakfast is going to be held hostage in there. I'll have to pay another 80 cents. No wait, it's going. It's turning. Almost there. Keep going." And then it stopped. And there sat my puff pastry/danish thing, perched precariously on the ledge there, in front of the metal corkscrew. I whined "Oh no! It's stuck!"

These two guys were perusing their options in the vending machine next to me and one of them came running over and said "Here, let's shake it." (Remember that segment from Animaniacs: Good idea, Bad idea? This is a classic bad idea.) He tried to wiggle it a little, but it didn't move. It was like that pastry WANTED to not get eaten.

So then he said "Ok, plan B. I'll just buy the same thing and get it for you." So he swiped his card and proceeded to punch in the code, and there moved the pastry, with another sandwiched up behind it until the movement threw them both off the ledge there and they fell to their eventual consumption. I snatched them both up and gave him one and said "Thanks so much!" and walked down to the Freshman Academy office where I ate my pastry and then sat down to tell you about it.

Upon further thought, I'm thinking maybe I should have stayed to chat with my "knight in shining armor" who saved my breakfast and whisked me away to sugary wonderful-ness. Hmmmm...

Anyway.

So that's my story. Apparently the vending machine from yesterday had contacted its comrades and was trying to retrieve its 75 cents from me. But I think I still technically won because a boy came to my rescue and I still only paid 80 cents for my breakfast.

But, as I said, the saga continues. You wouldn't think there'd be so much to say about vending machines, but our interactions are too weird not to document.

I had an interview with a student scheduled for 10, but he didn't show. Now I'm just wasting time until Peer Mentor meeting at 11.

Until again,
mollie

school, skittles, and relatively unrelated pictures...

ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, gather 'round!

I hope the font isn't too small-- it looks big on my computer, but then I hear from some people out there that it's tiny. Well, hopefully it's not too tiny.

Anyway- I haven't written in a while! And I guess the time has somewhat passed to really write about Christmas. But let me just say being home was great. It was all Christmas-ee and lovely and snowy (sort of) and I got to see a lot of people who I really miss while I'm here. So that was nice. So nice, in fact, that I wasn't too thrilled about coming back here. I'm still trying to get used to it again.

So, what can I tell you? My class line-up this semester consists of Anthropology 101, Women's Studies 222, Religion 221, HEPE (Health-ish) 129, Eng. 251, and Psych 302.

The first four of those classes meet in one-hour blocks between the hours of 10-3 on MW, two on F. My Eng. class meets (wow, I just wrote "meats"... it's getting late) at 8 am on T/Th. I thought that was ok when I registered because it's right on the edge of campus and I can just quickly get up and mosey over there and then come back to the dorm to sleep. Except that I forgot I have to work from 9-10 in the FA office on T and I have FA Peer Mentor meeting on Th at 11. So, I don't get to come home and sleep. It's proving to be a challenge. Last winter I had an 8 o clock class and it seemed like torture because it was all the way across campus. But this seems more torturous for some reason and I can't figure out why...

It's a discussion-based class and the professor (who, I think, is MAYBE 30...) said we would get graded on participation and that you wouldn't get full participation points for a) sitting and not talking much or b) dominating the conversation. It's interesting how class dynamics develop so quickly. This girl sat in the front row on the first day and commented like 5 times within an hour and I knew-- she was going to be a dominator. And she has proved to be exactly that. Her hand is always raised. And at one point, the professor was speaking and she just interrupted her and went off on her own tangent. She seems to think that her ideas are the best in the class. And she speaks at about 400 miles a minute, and at 8 o clock in the morning that seems like 6 times faster than it is, so when she talks, my head just gets tired and I zone out until there's a pause longer than 1/1000 of a second that let's me know she's done. It's like listening to someone speak with a thick accent- once you get off of their word rhythm, you're totally hopeless and it takes a few minutes to catch up and figure out where the words begin and end. It's kind of bad. We had to sign up for groups for a presentation project and I luckily didn't want the topic she signed up for, but I made sure I didn't sign up for a group with her. That sounds mean, but oh well.

Anyway. As for Women's Studies, my professor is really nice. She's a bit of a feminist, which is fine with me, but she's also a bit... odd. I can't pinpoint it yet. My family knows I think this sketch on SNL is funny where this girl is just so ridiculous-- she's in a group of people and always has to one-up everyone else to the point that she ends up saying "My cat had babies last night and I invented the moon, soo...." as she twirls her hair with her bottom lip turned out stupidly. My professor doesn't one-up people all the time, but she completely talks like the character from the sketch. (I think her name is Penelope? not sure...) It is weird to watch, and sometimes I can't help but want to ask her "You're not really like this, are you?" She has good intentions, and I think the class is going to be really interesting, so I guess I shouldn't be rude.

p.s.- I think it's kind of ironic that BYU only has a minor offered in Women's Studies. There's no major.

My HEPE class is gimongous and has more than 800 kids in it. It's fairly boring, but I manage to pay attention because it's also fairly interesting.

Anthropology is just a weird class. The professor talks like he has the remnants of a British accent on his tongue and I can't figure out if it's because he actually does or if he's just snooty. He acts all intellectual and speaks really slowly and wears sweater vests. Maybe all of that is because he IS really intellectual. I don't know. The last two class periods were spent watching a movie called "The Hunters" about the Bushmen in the Kalihari desert. We watched them hunt for five days and stalk and spear a giraffe to death. It was gruesome. And the whole time you're watching it, you know the men and their families are starving, so you want them to kill the giraffe, but you know the giraffe is just a big clumsy animal that can't help itself, so you want it to get away. It's kind of a weird feeling-- you don't know which team to route for.

But it does make me glad that I grew up here. Where my family had a home and I had clothes and a roof over my head and food all the time. I'm glad I didn't wait at home playing in the dirt desperately hoping my dad could spear a porcupine or mongoose so we could eat again.

Anyway.

So the saga of the vending machines continues. If you don't remember such things, try searching "vending machines" in the upper left hand corner of this page where it says "Search blog". You'll find them. Make sure to read the least recent entry first to get it all in chronological order. For how long this blog has existed, I have spent a disproportionate amount of entry-space writing about vending machines. We have a love/hate relationship. Sometimes it's good and sometimes it's bad. Sometimes we get along, sometimes we don't.

Well, here's the latest update there. So yesterday (was that only yesterday?? gah.) I came home and had a cleaning check. Erin was with Sawyer and Will at the doctor's right next to my apt. building, so she came over and played with them in the main lodge while I finished cleaning. Then I went over to meet her. They have a vending machine there (like the one pictured, except this one had three candy things on top) that had skittles in it that will insisted he wanted.

Well, I like to be the indulgent nice aunt, so I tried to put a quarter in there, only to find that someone else had shoved an insufficiently sized coin in there and it was jammed. So, being resourceful as I am, I first searched my pockets and found a little laffy taffy in there that I opened and tried to shove down there to catch the coin. Failed. So then I decided the only thing left to do was to wrangle with the thing myself. So I grabbed it and leaned it over, further and further, until it was laying on it's side on the ground. Still, I couldn't get that coin out. So, I turned the thing up at a 45 degree angle and the quarter rolled out. I laid it back on the ground to recover my strength (the thing was surprisingly heavy. But then again, it's full of quarters and candy...) while Will quickly snatched up the defective coin and shoved it back in the slot I had just gotten it out of. Of course.

So I leaned it up again and got it out and put my foot on it before will's little fingers could grab it again. I put the thing back in its upright position and checked out the situation. I turned the dials without putting any money in and found... wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles, a quarter in the slot where the candy was supposed to come out! I turned another dial and got another quarter! And again! This was looking like a pretty sweet deal! A candy vending machine that gives out quarters for free?! Count me in! Well, after 3, my luck ended and the quarter-spitting ended. I made 75 cents. I tried using one of those quarters to get some skittles, but the thing was broken. It wouldn't turn. No skittles.

Will had a fit. I ran down to the office and got him some smarties and we went on our way. So even though the vending machine refused to give me candy, I managed to weasel 3 quarters out of it, so I think we're even for now.

Anyway.

I have many more things I've wanted to write about-- like how there should be pedestrian police on campus. And how unsettling it is to hear someone with clunky shoes walking behind you. You don't want to look over your shoulder because you don't want them to know they're bothering you. So you just walk faster and faster and hope they don't trample on top of you. And how people should have brake lights so you don't run into them when they decide to randomly stop in the middle of the hallway or sidewalk because they've run into someone they know, or their shoe fell off or something. And how there should be turn signals and horns. "Go faster lazy! I have an 8 o clock class and if you don't move it, I'm going to be late! Slow traffic keep to the right! And you! No passing in the break-down lane, thank you!"

Well anyway.

I guess I should stop writing now.

My roommate Tristan's birthday was on Monday. We went out to the Olive Garden. If all worked as planned, I put some pictures here. I wore my new jeans and shoes and Mac did my make-up. It was fun. We took quite a few pictures... so there are plenty for you to look at...

Alright-- that's all for now. I NEED to be asleep right now if I want to not die from sleep deprivation tomorrow. I have my 8 o clock class, then my Peer Mentor meeting at 11, then student interviews from noon-5. Gonna be a loooonnnnggggggggg day.

I miss and love you all and hope you're all happy and healthy and keeping warm this winter!

much love
mollie

p.s.- along with my post about will wanting candy, the other night when I was babysitting, erin was trying to get him in bed and he came downstairs. he came over and tried to climb on me, but i told him aunt mollie wasn't going to play with him because he was supposed to be in bed. he looked at me, clearly thinking through the situation carefully and looking a little puzzled and finally whined "but aunt mollie's niceeeeeee!"

... talk about guilt trip...

hello from the nephew

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another short update

hello!

I'm just writing to say that I'm back in UT. I got up at 4:30 am CT time and got dropped off with Kyle at the airport to catch our 6:15 am flight. Ok, in case you're wondering, 6:15 is ridiculously early to be going anywhere.

Anyway. Then we got to Baltimore at 7:30 and then left Baltimore at 9 ish. We got to UT at noon UT time. We came to provo and I visited with Erin and Will and Sawyer for a little bit before heading back to my apartment. I unpacked everything in a couple hours, washed my sheets (I don't know-- I got back and just decided they needed to be washed.), took a shower, got dressed, went to FHE and then went to Kyle's to drop something off that he made me put in my luggage. I went to Smiths and got some milk and cereal so I won't starve before I can shop for real. (Cocoa Puffs for $1 a box... can you believe it?! ... I only bought one box and I'm kind of regretting it...)

It's really nice to have transportation. Megan flew to CA to visit Chad, so she was driving back to Rexburg with him, bypassing Provo. So I get the car until mom comes out in the beginning of February. It's really expensive to put gas in it, but it's nice to not be so cooped up all the time.

And now I think I should go to sleep in my nice, fresh-smelling, warm bed. Not nearly as nice as my bed at home, but that's a story for another day. I have an 8 o clock class tomorrow morning, which is already sounding like a really awful idea. But, it's the only class, and it's right on the edge of campus, so I can walk there, sit for an hour, and walk home and sleep away the rest of the day if I want. Probably not the best plan, but I could do it if I wanted.

It's been a long day.

Maybe tomorrow (or soon) I'll write about my visit to CT. :)

good night!
-mollie

short update

So I'm home for Christmas Break, in case you haven't caught on to that yet...

I leave for UT on Monday, so I'm trying to soak it all in. Can I just say that I'm really not excited to go back? I'll leave my reasons unnamed, but I don't want to go back. At least not quite this soon. I guess I'm happy to have new classes, but... almost not because it's stressful!

Oh, and on a partially-related note, I have officially decided that I hate my apartment complex "The Glenwood". (They don't get to be anonymous because they annoy me so much.) If I can avoid it, I will not live there again.

Oh! And I got my grades for last semester-- some of you saw my "report card." I did quite well (I was a little surprised...), so I was kind of proud :) So yay for me!

Hope you all had a lovely holiday season. Can you believe it's over for another year?! Crazy!
And of course, Happy 2008!

-mollie