Observations

My mom told me that people get bored and stop checking your blog if you don't update it. (She's one to talk.) But in that spirit, here is a random update for your reading pleasure.

A list of things I've recently noticed:

1) The Banquet barbecue chicken meal with mashed potatoes and corn is suspiciously similar to the Banquet barbecue rib patty meal with mashed potatoes and corn.

2) I think the cardboard box that the Banquet chicken nuggets meal comes in would taste better than the actual "food". (And really, my standard for TV dinners is not that high.)

3) I think it is funny that the serving size on cooking spray is in seconds.

4) There was a box labeled Lady's Shoes at Macey's tonight. Every time I see a grammar mistake I think of Lynne Truss who wrote "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" and spoke on campus last semester. She pointed out some of her favorite grammar mistakes (one of my favorites being: A CA high school (mascot: Scots) was having spirit week and made a huge banner, but because of incorrect punctuation it said "We are the Scots who could be prouder"). Miss Truss then said, "I always feel somewhat bad after giving a speech like this. Because I know I've now ruined your lives forever. You won't be able to go anywhere without recognizing these things. Sorry." As a sidenote: She was British, and I think my favorite part was that she laughed at her own jokes- I thought she was quite entertaining, but she did no book signing, which I thought was lame.

5) Eating dehydrated pre-packaged noodle meals is probably a disgrace to my Asian roommates.

6) Men take religion classes that are scheduled in the evening, with professors who have high easiness ratings- so much so that the male/female ratio is about 40/10. Maybe this will work to my advantage this semester...

7) Miracle Whip comes in an 8 oz. jar which I think is cute.

8) People I know continue to get married or engaged with scary frequency. (Three engagements in my ward this week, two friends got married this month, and I am expecting a couple more engagements shortly.)

9) Psychology textbooks are ridiculously expensive. ($150 for my Abnormal Psych book, $120 for Clinical Psych.)

10) Provo does not plow roads after snow.

11) Jokes that involve puns almost always make me laugh. (ex: Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like bananas. Or, "Two fish were in a tank. One looked at the other and said, 'How do you drive this thing?!'")

12) The West Wing is the best TV show in the history of TV- I almost forgot how much I love it.
And I prefer to think of my government working in that way- with lots of young, witty, senior staff members who make you think government is both fun and serious. It's probably especially nice that their political decisions have no later consequences- which also makes it fun to watch. I seriously love this show.

13) Group projects still suck.

14) The Utah State Hospital has a girls' unit with 12 girls- I am their new "library time facilitator" or something. I choose a book and read to them once a week and guide a discussion group about it. At least, that's what the guy said he wanted me to do- I think I'll have to work up to that, because I don't have the guts to start off with it.

14a) A surprisingly large percentage (1/6) of the girls at USH had dogs named Moll-y/ie. Or they lie, which is entirely possible. But regardless, I was told "Your name is Mollie? I had a dog named Mollie. She died. I miss her. But it's good that you remind me of her! Ok, goodbye!" in about 2 seconds flat by one of the girls. It made me laugh.

15) The Dean's list for the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences has my name on it this semester. It means I'm in the top 5% of the college for last semester.

16) Apparently free ice cream lures freshman and most of my students are kinder to me at follow-up interviews than at other times. I still need to meet with 8 of them, so hopefully they respond to my attempts at contacting them before next Friday.

17) Japanese horror films are scary. At least, the sounds are scary. (I try to avoid horror movies because I get scared really easily- you should have heard about when I stayed at Erin's house for three days alone. One night I chickened out and escaped to Kyle's.) I came home last night and my roommates were watching a Japanese horror film, and I tried to go to bed to the sound of blood-curdling screaming and flurries of Japanese speech. My roommate told me this morning that, in her opinion, Japanese horror films are "a lot scarier" than those of the US.

18) Some freshmen remain painfully uninformed about national happenings. A student of a co-worker came in, and upon being asked if she watched the Inauguration, said "No. But my friend said she watched it. And she said there were a bunch of KKK members all like in the front row of the crowd. I was surprised they got let in. But I'm more surprised something didn't go down- we really thought there'd be a shooting or something. I mean, they're the KKK." (Seriously?? I sincerely hope this girl's friend was playing a cruel joke [by telling her such a thing] which was an amazing success- otherwise, they're both -sorry- idiots.)

19) The apathy of a majority of BYU students towards the Inauguration was frustrating. Regardless of who you voted for, you can't say it wasn't a historical event worth watching.

20) My English minor is officially completed.

21) The flute players in University Band somehow still have the nerve to be snooty. (Being in Univ. Band generally means they either weren't good enough or didn't have time to audition for a "real" university ensemble.) I'm just enjoying playing again. They can give my Yamaha all the dirty looks they want. (My Gemeinhardt is silver and it makes me nervous to just carry it around willy nilly.)

22) Will (my nephew) was apparently born in the wrong country. He told me last week that he wanted a King instead of President Obama.

23) Scary no-name infections that put you in the hospital are not just from Stephen King novels. See Kyle's blog on the sidebar.

24) I have my first test (of the semester) next week- it's in Abnormal Psych.

25) Eating yogurt that expired a month ago does not kill you- or even make you sick.

26) When Dunford donuts go on sale at Macey's, stay out of Erin's way.

In other news of January: Susy Derby came to visit for a weekend because her dad now lives out here, and I got caught up on a lot of h.s. drama I didn't even know existed. But it was fun/good/entertaining.

I need to do laundry and get ready for a Stake training meeting- because 4 in one school year is JUST NOT ENOUGH!!!! And don't worry, there's another one in two weeks at 7 AM.

until I get bored again,
mollie

(p.s.- this post was published in the PAST! How did I do that?! Well, it's been sitting in my drafts folder for a while. That's how.)