boredom strikes again

Hello there!

I have recently come to the conclusion that my blog posts have become significantly less exciting since I left London. I suppose that's to be expected, but it is still sad. In an effort to remedy that, I thought I'd offer some more random tidbits... reminding me something of this entry. Though I am surprised to say that some of the things I originally listed are no longer "things".

-I push the "walk" button three times and I always take three paper towels to dry my hands in the bathroom. Yes, I know pushing the button more times doesn't make it change faster. But I bet you do things like this too- maybe you lock your car twice? Or sneeze three times in a row? (Ok, so you admittedly might not have power over the last one...)

-I just heard someone sneeze and I'm not entirely convinced they weren't in my room. That's the first time I've noticed the thinness of the walls in my apartment, and it was disconcerting!

-I called my parents today, who were at a restaurant for dinner in Arkansas (on their way to UT). My mom hung up on me out of excitement for chicken fried steak. Ouch. (I guess I'm chopped liver?!) ... (ok, bad pun. sorry...) Chicken fried steak before your own daughter, mother? Seriously... (Granted, I was only calling her because I was walking home and bored- I had nothing important to say...)

-The construction that involves jack-hammering outside my window at 7 am needs to be over.

-I'm pretty sure the people who said "eat soup when you aren't feeling well" did not mean clam chowder. I think eating clam chowder when you're not feeling well may just bring the word "sick" to whole new levels of meaning.

-I just realized I have a one-page paper to write. I best be going...

-mollie

Short Update

Hello!

I just noticed that my mom posted an update on her blog (as Erin commented, I didn't know she knew how to do that...) and they officially own the house as of earlier this month. My childhood home is officially paid off. Awww home. It's sad I won't be seeing it all decked out for Christmas this year.

In other news, I will make this short.

Today I drove around for 10 minutes trying to find the post office so I could buy 10 1 cent stamps. It doesn't take a math whiz to know economics weren't on my side. Lame.

I finally got up the courage to eat again (after my previous entry with self-destructing stomach...) and spent the evening hoping my stomach didn't get mad, which it didn't. (For the record, I never actually threw up.)

It was a beautiful day today.

The Relief Society Pres. I work with got back from her weekend vacation- Hallelujah!!

I have no idea what to wear tomorrow.

I am out of milk. And bread. And somehow I spent $75 on groceries a week ago...

I've got dates with two cute boys this weekend!
(Erin has been sending me [not so] subliminal messages to babysit her children)

I can't think of anything else to say.

-mollie

Weekend Update-ish

Hello there ladies and gents.

Weekend updates are as follows:

-I had my last FA interview yesterday (I try to get to know all my students at the beginning of school...) All 40 of them came! They are my new favorite people.
-My roommates had a Ramen noodle party today. My neighbors said it was intense (I was at Erin's.)
-I had to conduct Relief Society today for the first time, and felt like an idiot doing so. Oh well.
-I heard Erin barfed last night.
-I made chicken parmesan (I hate that word! How do you spell it?!?) for lunch.
-I went over to Erin's for a little while.
-I had Stake Leadership Training- my calling is 2nd counselor in the RS. ... wasn't my idea.
-The kitchen sink has backed up on both sides and our neighbors have the same problem. GAG.
-Whether or not in sympathy for Erin's plight I'm not sure, but my stomach is not happy with me right now.

I am going to bed.

Good night all! Hopefully you are feeling more healthy than I am!

-mollie

Fall(ing), Balancing Eggs

Hey there ladies and gents!

Happy first day of Fall!!!!

It was definitely fall weather today- cold, rainy-ish, windy-ish.

And as is Dickerson tradition (since 2001 anyway...) I balanced eggs!

Unfortunately, my over-achieving twin beat me...

...and my skeptic-appeasing sister already posted the articles about the mythical nature of this phenomenon...

Believe what you want. But as for me, the bell (uhh... egg?) still rings.

-mollie

p.s.- next year I think we should take time to decorate the eggs so they look like little people so that megan's parade can be much cooler/creepy-ish.

If I Had a Dollar for Every Page...

Hello there!

I don't have much to say right now, except that living off of $40 (from selling a book to someone on campus) for two weeks has been an adventure and I am excited to be getting my new debit card.

This week has been busy, and it's only tuesday night! I am hoping to get to bed at a reasonable hour, so I will try to make this short.

First of all, I have really been missing London lately. It's so sad to look at my pictures and wish I was still there. I want to go back! Maybe someday I will...

Second of all, I have been trying really hard to be a good student this semester. This means doing everything well in advance and doing all my reading so I am prepared for class and participating in discussion and taking good notes. Not that I wasn't a good student before, I just wasn't as... zealous. Anyway. So I have been trying really hard- and to get to bed on time and wake up early enough that I can take my time getting ready and not rush out the door like I usually do in the mornings (I am not a morning person) and to make my lunches and not buy junk food.

All this has been going well, though having no money may have thrown a wrench into that plan. But for the most part, it has been going well. As part of this endeavor, as I said, I have been doing all my reading. That's right, I said all my reading. I know that most college students (and one of my professors) will say that college reading assignments are not meant to actually be read- there's no way to get it all done. Well, I can say (at least for my class load this semester) it can be done, it just might not be the most enjoyable thing to do. And working 20 hours a week on top of that makes it a little difficult.

Overall though, I have really actually enjoyed my readings. My psychology classes are really interesting, and my English class is reading the Iliad and that has been interesting too. Overall so far, I am finding that classes are infinitely more interesting when you know what the heck the professor is talking about for an hour (or in my case, 1.5 hours each for 3 classes out of 5...)

So, today, being curious and hoping to invoke pity, I decided to go on a quest (which involved no actual physical movement) to figure out just how many pages I've read so far. Now this count is no respecter of page size- that is, my psych textbooks are regular textbook size, while my copy of the Iliad is probably a 5" x 7" size-ish. I'm sure square footage of reading would be interesting to calculate too, but I'm not that nerdy.

So how many pages do you think I've read this semester? Keep in mind I'm taking a World Lit. class, a Psychology of Personality class, a(n) Adolescent Psychology class, a Marriage and Family class, and a Writing in the Social Sciences class. How many do you think? In 14 days of school? Seven hundred twenty-seven .

727 pages!!!

Holy smokes that's a lot. (I have found myself saying "holy smokes" a lot because "holy crap" is generally inappropriate around the three year old nephew.)


Can you believe it though?! That is a LOT of pages. Plus my 20 hours of work a week, and I'd say I'm pretty much booked.

Anyway- I just thought you should know just how hard I'm working. :P


Have a lovely evening,
... for those of you out of school, yours will be pleasantly textbook free.

-mollie

p.s.- My English class was MIA today. I could not find it anywhere. I went to 2 different classrooms on campus and then went back to the original one and still found no one. Hmmm...

p.p.s.- I have pictures of my room that I will post at some point.

p.p.p.s.- My roommates went to the Provo Temple on Sunday to take pictures. I was invited. So I went with them and we took pictures there. There were tons of missionaries hanging around so we recruited them to take the pictures. I got a missionary to take a few on my camera. Oh wait, no I didn't. He apparently didn't push the button down hard enough any of the times he was supposedly taking our picture, because I reviewed the pictures today and found... none. Humphf. Sorry to you. No pictures of the roommates yet.

A First

Last night I did something I never thought I'd do- and something I've never done before...

I ate the *heel of a loaf of bread!

What is the world coming to?!

-mollie



p.s.- I was recently informed that I am dramatic. Do not be deceived- it is completely and absolutely untrue.

I'm in Ohio!!

Hello there everyone!

I'm just writing to inform you that I'm now broadcasting from Ohio! Yesterday I spent the evening in Maryland!!!!

Oh wait, no. I didn't. That's just what my bank statement says...

Yes, as for news from me, I recently had the joy of having my credit card number stolen. I was sitting at my apartment last night doing homework and thought I better check my bank account online. I checked it, and what to my wondering eyes should appear but 4 fraudulent charges made yesterday. My heart skipped a beat, and when it started again, I called Erin who told me I better call the number on my card and cancel it right away. I called the number and got a lady who spoke broken English to me and didn't seem to believe me when I said I didn't lose my card, but it was being used. That lady worked for MasterCard. Then I called my bank and left a message with them telling them what had happened and left my phone number.

I knew I would have to call them back in the morning to make sure they got the message/everything was settled, and thus spent a very unrestful night dreaming about the various conversations I was going to have with the bank and what charges were being made in the hours until then. In the middle of one of those dreams, my phone rang and I grabbed it and answered before I knew what I was doing. It was 6.30 am here, and it was my bank. They said the MasterCard number I had called was just a relay service- meaning they were going to send the bank my information in the morning when the bank was open. Since the lady had me on the phone, she said she could cancel the card for me right then, which she kindly did. I did not get the lady's name, but she was very friendly and kind and I appreciated her helpfulness very very much- considering I had no idea what I was doing/talking about really. She told me everything I needed to do and everything that was going to happen in the next few weeks to get the whole thing resolved. So helpful! I wish I knew her name, but we shall call her Abby since that is the name of the very nice lady in Erin's latest blog post. And as Erin said, the world needs more Abbys.

After that, I decided I better call my parents now (It would have been about 2 am if I called them when I discovered the problem, and I didn't want them to think I died...). My mom went to the bank and filled out the forms on my behalf and now we wait. The card got another charge on it this morning (in Ohio) after my mom went to the bank- luckily that charge got rejected.

So someone out there is livin' large in Maryland and Ohio with my money! From the looks of things they had an expensive dinner or two last night and then headed over to the gas station in town for a couple more transactions. This morning was another hit at a gas station.

You know, it is almost satisfying to think that even though someone was using my credit card, they were only buying gas with it. In a week it's going to be gone and they won't have anything to show for their dishonest scheming- although, I suppose buying something bigger/better may have increased the chance of catching them? I have no idea how these things work...

So that's my story of the day. Pretty exciting. I know I wrote recently about leaving my card at a frozen yogurt restaurant in Provo for a few days, and getting it back without any fraudulent charges on it. I apparently spoke too soon. However, I am more inclined to think it was a London connection than a frozen yogurt connection. At my London reunion, 3 people talked about getting their card numbers stolen much in the same fashion mine was, for the same types of charges. While we were in London, our director continuously warned us against using them a lot because people who had gone to London in previous semesters were finding themselves back in the US with fraudulent charges on their cards. Knowing this in London, I was very paranoid about where I used my card, and essentially only used ATMs, but apparently I still made a bad move. Abby (from the bank) thought perhaps it was an ATM I was using near where I was staying that was getting the numbers.

And, I'm more inclined to think it is some big fraud ring production in London (linking me to all the other people who had theirs stolen) rather than the surfer-type guy at the frozen yogurt place who stole my number, manufactured a fake card, and sold it to someone in the U.S. But I could be wrong. I'd rather not think about it. The whole thing made me very sad [I am trying really hard to save money, and someone else is just stealing it right out from under me?!]- there may have been tears involved. But, I suppose I just need to count my blessings for catching it on the first day the charges were made- that was lucky.

Anyway- just thought I'd share the latest and greatest adventure of yours truly! I know, you all wish your life could be as exciting as mine!

until again,
mollie

p.s.- I kind of wish I was in Maryland and Ohio eating out and buying gas... it could have been a nice break from school!

London Revisited

Hello everyone!

So, thank goodness it's the weekend, first of all!! I am so happy that it's the weekend, though I have a lot of homework (reading) to do before Monday. Blah. But at least I'm not in class/working so much right now. Yesterday I had interviews with students scheduled around the one class I have. I went to class and then had more interviews. Someone on BookExchange wanted to buy my Women's Studies book I listed, so I gave it to someone in the office to hand off since I told the girl to meet me there, but ended up having interviews go over time.

So, I made $40 from that, first of all, which is really exciting. $40 is $40! And then I walked home at about 5 pm. I got picked up at about 5:45 by Lizzy who already had Becky with her, and we were going to drive to Las Terascas (Mexican Restaurant... obviously) to meet David Lake to eat dinner before David drove us all up to Heber to go to David Heywood's house for our London Reunion!!!!

I was really excited about it. Dinner was really yummy and then the drive up the canyon was pretty. Then we showed up at Dave's and ate and caught up with each other and took pictures. We made a card to bring to the Hollands today. We then played a homemade version of CatchPhrase with London words! Awww London! How I miss it so very very much!

It was really weird to see so many of us together outside of the London Centre. And another thing- we are LOUD when we get together. I'll have to bring earplugs or something next time- seriously!

But it was so much fun! Annie (one of the girls) is already engaged to the boyfriend she left in the states while we were away! Crazy!

There were about 20 of us, and the group was 38, so I guess we had about 1/2. It seemed like more than that, but anyway. And, I suppose the picture we took was after a few people left, so there were more there earlier.

It was so FUN! I miss London! Ok, I know I said that already. But I miss it so much!

On the way home, David was driving through the canyon and we saw these red smears in the road, and I figured it was blood from a deer, and then there was more blood and then there was guts and a smooshed dear in the road! We were all screaming- it was disgusting, and surprising. Scared me.

I got home last night at about midnight and slept in this morning until 9. I woke up and did my Eng. 201 reading, and then got dressed and went to Erin's for a while. They left to go to the Utah State Fair, which I really really really wanted to go to, but I kind of coordinated a Freshman Academy Peer Mentor bonfire for the night, so I am going to that in about 2 minutes!

I'm so excited for the bonfire- I have wanted to go to a bonfire all summer! Kent took me to one once, but when we got there everyone was leaving. So this time, it's going to be a true bonfire experience. I even bought bananas, chocolate chips, and marshmellows to try the banana boat thing- last time I tried I was at Girls' Camp and a bear came and ate my banana (and lots of other things) while we were all sitting there... before I got a chance to roast it. So sad.

Anyway- Here's some pictures from NSO (the first one... me with Sanita, a fellow PM) and then the rest are pictures from the London Reunion!!

Good times!

-mollie

Working Like a Dog

Hello there dear readers.

I'm bored, and I've finished my reading for tomorrow (hurrah!) so I've decided to give myself a little break, even though I should probably be starting reading for classes next week. Blah. Today I was on campus 9 hours, so it's getting a little better. Although, my last class gets out after 6 pm, and that's pretty late!! Work has been busy this week, but I start interviews with my students tomorrow and I'm kind of excited about it! Interviews are exhausting, but they are one of my favorite parts of the semester!

Anyway.

I was looking at my blog recently, and the wonders of Google showed me that someone recently found my blog by searching "blogspot mollie" on google. Being curious, I typed in that very phrase into google. I found my blog listed there on the first page, but then got so curious about all the other things that came up under the title "blogspot mollie" that I started looking around. And, the majority of them are about dogs. I didn't really realize that people write blogs about their dogs (or cats for that matter), but apparently they do! Seriously. I would say 75-80% of the websites that come up are speaking of a dog. I found one that said: "Today we say goodbye to the 2nd largest pup in Mojo and Pazzy's litter, Mollie. She was born with a spot on her left upper lip, hence the name Mollie."

... what? "hence the name Mollie." ? What does that mean? Come to think of it, I have a spot on my left upper lip! (It's a freckle.) But really, I'm still not sure what that means.

Another site said Mollie is "the name of old ladies and puppies". Well, excuuuse me! I know I'm 20, but I didn't think that was "old" yet!

I found two jack russell terriers, one lab, one poodle mix, two bassett hounds, and one mutt named Mollie- and those are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head!

I found 2 blogs (in the first 5 pages of the google search) that talked about people Mollie's death... with a variety of Mollies being the subject there. That's depressing.

I found a Mollie who is, for some reason, spending three months in Rwanda (the why was unclear) and posting updates and pictures of all her escapades.

There were three Mollies who owned photography businesses.

There was one that said "Mollie is a variation of Mary. I've met a lot of Marys but not a lot of Mollies, though the name seems to be coming into its own popularity. I'm not sure why though, since it means 'sea of bitterness'." Sea of bitterness?! Megan means "Pearl"- don't think I haven't noticed. Sea of bitterness?! Seriously! I'm not a sea of bitterness!

ok... well, I'm not always...

Anyway. When I just google my name, I come up with lots of old cemetery/burial listings. Nothing really current. I guess there aren't too many famous Mollie Dickersons out there.

This whole thing reminds me of a story someone (Erin I think... but it could have been another family member) told me about my nephew Will (who is generally adorable by the way. But don't tell that to Erin- she's been cleaning stinky underwear lately...). She said there was a little boy outside and Will, as he is wont to do, went out and said hello and asked him his name. The little boy said his name was Will. And Will said "No, I'm Will!" and the other little boy kept insisting it was his name too. As the debate continued, Will just got more and more upset and started yelling "I'M WILL!" at the boy, apparently not understanding that two people could be named the same thing without endangering the existence of the other.

I'M MOLLIE!!!

So there. And to all you people who have dogs named Mollie, at least try to refrain from mentioning it to me if we ever happen to meet. This is usually what happens probably 60% of the time when I meet someone. "Hi, my name is Mollie." "Mollie?! Ohmigosh- my [grandma's/uncle's/best friend's boyfriend's/sister's/neighbor's] dog's name is Mollie!" ... Uhh... thanks? Woof? Not sure what to say to that.

This is the problem with giving animals people names. Or maybe giving people animal names? Anyway- I suppose our family isn't guilt-free either because we have a dog named Nikki, which I suppose could be construed as a people name. This reminds me of the time the way-too-touchy piano man came over to tune the piano. I was in high school and came home and was sitting down at the table to eat a snack. The piano man was sitting at the other end of the table and apparently got introduced to me and the dog at the same time. While I was sitting there eating my Chinese food, trying to look busy reading the newspaper, the piano man says "You're such a good girl Mollie! Such a good girl! Yes you are!" Not knowing what to say, I looked at him out of the corner of my eye and luckily saw that he was looking at the ground and that, yes, the dog was laying next to him and he was petting her.

So luckily he was not making such odd comments to me, but unfortunately there's no good way to fix that problem at that point. "Oh, actually the dog's name is Nikki." "Thanks for the praise, but most 17 yr. olds know how to use a fork..." My favorite part was when Mom called from the other room: "Mollie?!" ... what was I supposed to do then?!

Anyway.

I'm just rambling now, but I thought you should know because I'm a little bored. I might start posting things I've learned in my classes- be thankful I haven't gotten that desperate for material yet!

-mollie (not a dog).


*editor's note: I really don't mind if people tell me they know a dog with the name Mollie, but after they say it, I really don't know how to respond.

*editor's [second] note: despite all this, I do like my name.

Junior Year- In The Beginning

there was the word. And the word was with God.

Just kidding.

Hello!

So, contrary to my last post, I did get excited about seeing people in my classes, while sitting in them waiting for everyone to get there. I had anxiety about picking an outfit for the second day of school, and I did not sleep like a baby.

So I guess it all came later, though it wasn't there at first. I got excited about seeing people in my classes because a couple of my coworkers are psych majors and it turns out we're in a couple of the same classes! I also ran into people from my freshman and sophomore years- crazy, crazy. You wouldn't think that would happen at a school with 30,000+ undergrads, but it did!

My first day outfit was boring, and so was my second day outfit, but I didn't know what to wear this morning for some reason. You know those mornings when you get up and you just can't decide on what to wear? Surely I'm not the only one who has these mornings. I get an outfit in mind, put it on, decide something looks weird about it, try to think of something else, put that on, and the process continues. I think I changed some piece of my outfit about 6 times this morning. A little excessive, I know.

And I didn't sleep like a baby, but not because I was anxious. Because, as previously mentioned, I have a cold. And because, as not previously mentioned, someone in this neighborhood has a dog. That barks. A lot. And, I believe a big truck comes around and empties all the dumpsters in the area every morning at 3 am. Ok, it's not at 3 am. But I think it's pretty much at about 6 am and that's plenty early for a neighborhood of college students!!

So, in short, my first couple days have been long and tiring. Work is always really busy in the first couple weeks with getting to know the students and holding interviews and getting all the work done to set the routine for the rest of the semester. My classes seem interesting, but seem to have a lot of reading. I made a goal to do all my reading this semester. Maybe it's because I didn't quite do it all before, but it seems like there's a TON, all the time!

I'm taking Psych 321- Personality, Psych 341- Developmental Psych of Adolescents, Eng. 315- Writing in the Social Sciences, Rel 234- LDS Marriage and Family Relationships, and Eng. 201- Masterpieces of World Literature.

All the classes seem pretty good as far as content and professors, but I'm worried it's going to be a lot of work. But then, I suppose college is supposed to be a lot of work.

I have some pictures to post from NSO (I know, I said that before) and I have my camera out, but I'm too lazy to connect it to upload them, etc. It's getting late and I need to get to bed, especially because I'm trying to fight off this cold! I spent 10 hours on campus today. Yesterday I spent 11 hours on campus. Oy. Hopefully once I get into a good routine my days won't seem as long.

until again,
mollie

Junior Year

Hello there!

So... tomorrow is my first day of junior year- well, sort of I guess because I took enough credits over the summer that I don't think I'm technically a junior. But anyway... it is my first day of my third year of college.

I can't believe time has gone by so fast! At this time next year, I'm going to be preparing for my SENIOR year of college! Oy.

You know? When I was in elementary school, even up to high school, I was excited about the first day of school. You get to see everyone again, you get to wear your new clothes, and you get to find out who's in all your classes. I used to get so excited I couldn't sleep.

Now, I don't know enough people to be excited about seeing them on campus or in my classes, I'm not going to be wearing new clothes, and I'm pretty sure I will sleep like a baby tonight.

Hmmm... when did that happen?! It's kind of sad actually.

Oh well.

At any rate, Bring It On Fall 2008- I'm ready for you!

At least, I'm trying to be...

-mollie
p.s.- in other news, 1) Megan and Chad were here for most of the day today. 2) Utah has been having crazy cold weather with lots of rain and thunderstorms. 3) We tried to save a runaway dachshund today and chased it down the road into someone's yard- it didn't seem to be as intent on being saved as we were on saving it.
4) I found out my RA from freshman year is my neighbor! 5) I have a cold.