Still in Mourning

The report of the Provo Tabernacle Fire came out today.

Reading the summary is like watching an awful suspense movie. You're sitting at the edge of your seat. You want to yell at the screen multiple times.

You want to yell at the lighting technicians, "Read the label on the lights! It says you shouldn't leave them there! You're not supposed to be in the attic anyway!"

You want to yell at the people who smelled 'hot glue', "Tell someone!"

You want to yell at the guy who noticed the building looked 'foggy', "Call the fire department!"

You want to yell at the guy who told the other guy to silence the alarm, "I know it's 1 in the morning, but it's NOT a false alarm!!"

You want to yell at the guy who silenced the alarm. "CALL THE FIRE DEPARTMENT ALREADY! THERE'S A FIRE IN THERE! DON'T JUST WALK AWAY!"

... but alas, your heart sinks at the end because you know it doesn't matter. The building burned anyway.



And it just makes me so sad.

Popular, You're Gonna be Popular.

So, I'm supposed to be writing a quick paper right now; it's due at 2:30. But I have to take a break to talk about this.

Yesterday Harvard put out an email about commencement marshals. This means one person from each Master's program will be recognized at graduation for being someone who exemplifies leadership and the general HGSE aura; they do some sort of special thing and get a cord or something to wear. It sounded nice, but my first thought was, "... popularity contest. Joy."

So the email included a link for the poll to vote. I closed the email, figured I'd vote later, and moved on with my life.

Until right now. I am sitting in the cafeteria trying to write my quick paper, and I have never overheard so much conversation that made me feel like I was having a flashback to high school. I have heard three different people pitch themselves to their friends to be the subject of the awards. "Would you guys vote for me?" they ask in enthusiastic tones. Really? Really?!

Never have I seen so many mid-twenties (and older) people regress to middle school social skills, vying for a symbolic recognition of their Harvard-ness. "Yes, I DO belong here. Look at my cord! Now somebody hire me." they seem to already be saying. I suppose I shouldn't be quite as surprised, considering many of these people are academic elitists, used to everyone making a big deal about them because of their awesomeness in one form or another. But oh, the lack of humility.

Ick.

So I will go back to my paper now, and vote quietly in my room later. But so help me if we get an email asking us to vote for "Best Eyes" or "Cutest Couple".

birthday planning

Dear Family,

Most of you know your favorite holiday is coming next week... my birthday! (... I think it's taken me 5 years to say "my" birthday and not "our" birthday- and it still looks weird.)

Anyway- I do not want people spending money on me, so I am now accepting only homemade gifts-I would like to see your best macaroni necklaces please.

Some of you might have to help me convince mom not to buy me anything except dinner.

And, the end.

mollie

Anniversaries

On this day a year ago, I could barely sleep from excitement about being accepted to Harvard for graduate school.

On this day this year, I spent my evening volunteering to make phone calls to the newly admitted students. It made me really happy. It reminded me of my BYU/FA days when we used to have phone marathons calling students. And it reminded me of last year when I got a call from a student, but I was still in shock and didn't answer.

Mmmm... that memory makes me so happy.

Oh and apparently I didn't tell anyone this, but last week I got my acceptance to my second year at Harvard to pursue a Certificate of Advanced Study in Counseling and get my license.

I am truly grateful to be going to school here.

Oh AND my friend Sanita from BYU, has an interview at a school in Boston, which means I get to see her for her (16 hour, fly-in, fly-out) visit the week after next. It's been more than two years, because she served a mission. And I'm sure excited.

So it's been a good day.

My Social Network

So today I got up weirdly early and felt weirdly well-rested.

The sun was shining (ok, it wasn't really visible, but it was warm out) so I felt the need to reintroduce it to my legs as I walked to the bus for church. It was SO NICE to not cringe when I opened the door in my sweater tights and spend time worrying that my legs will not be warm enough.

So I ate breakfast and as I stood at the bus stop and popped my last bit of bagel into my mouth, I realized it was fast sunday.

Woops.

I went to church and sat with a friend of mine and during testimony meeting, a guy got up. Not just any guy. One of my best home teachers, from my first year (I was there for 2 years, and had different home teachers the second year, who were also really good interestingly enough- I guess that was the ward of good home teachers) in my last ward at BYU. It was crazy! I could barely contain myself.

No offence to him, but it wasn't like he was my favorite person in the world. It was just that he was a good friend, a familiar face, and a genuinely nice person. And he came from Provo (and is going back tomorrow) and I had been missing Provo. It was so surprising to see him that I couldn't help but be happy.

So that was a bright spot in my day. I asked him what he was doing, and he's out here touring Harvard Law at an admitted student event. (He also got admitted to Stanford and a bunch of other places- who knew he was such a fancy pants... then again, he said the same thing about me being at school out here. We are closet Harvard-ians.)

Anyway. I was supposed to spend my time after church writing a paper due on Tuesday. But I decided since he didn't know anyone and he was staying in a hotel and probably being lonely, I should invite him to lunch at my house. Of course this meant I had to find something to serve for lunch. Luckily I gave in to my Cafe Rio craving last week and bought (on Tuesday) and made (on Friday) all the stuff for Cafe Rio salads. Mmmmm. So I made that. And we ate it. And it was good.

Then he walked down to Harvard for an event, so I tried to do some homework. But the CES broadcast was on, so I watched that.

So... the moral of the story is: it was good to see an old friend today, but I'm afraid my procrastination and social time today mean that I now have to write a 12 page paper TOMORROW. IN ONE DAY. And I have to work at MHS tomorrow and at the FAO. Which means I have to write a 12 page paper tomorrow (after getting up at 5 am), between the hours of 5 pm and 10 am on Tuesday. And do all the research for it.

I am not going to be a happy person on Tuesday.

Let that be a lesson to you: happiness now does not always feel good later.

I sound so Biblical.

The end.

New URL!

So I've decided to change my blog url, as I said I would.

Despite Kyle's advice, I think I succeeded in making myself less google-able.

So here we are!

I think if you were a "follower" of my blog before, you'll have to find me again.

We'll see.

Also, I'm feeling a little provo homesick today. It's sad.

Anddddd I just swallowed a worther's whole by accident. WHOA.