52 Days of Waiting

In T minus 52 days (give or take) epicness is going to ensue.

Wasn't that a fantastic first line?  Really grabbed your attention didn't it?  And it's completely true!

Although November is still a ways away, there is one particularly awesome holiday within that month.  Thanksgiving.  And it is truly amazing.  It has great food, great junk food and even better desert food.

Mainly it's about food.

But this year is going to be a little different.  This year, I'm taking one of my brothers to see the new Wreck it Ralph movie, due out the week before I get to go home.

I'm so excited!  It's going to be so much fun!

So,

Dear Larson,

Please mark your calendar for Thanksgiving Break.  It's going to be a day to remember!

Love,

Me.

Stinkin' School

It's official.  School is a little bit bipolar.

Is it just me?  Or have you all experienced this a little?  Whether it be work or school or anything else that you really just don't want to do, doesn't it seem that some weeks are extremely slow and the next week everyone seems to pile everything on top you in an unending and annoying attempt to punch your good mood right in the gut.

Honestly.  That's the kind of week I've been having.

Chemistry is a misery, I'm failing math and of course, both classes are making me take tests this week.

And without a doubt, next week, I'll be bored out of my mind.

Stinkin' School.

The Great Seat Debate

Yesterday, after having finally gotten over my complete lack of sleep, my family came up to spend the day with me.  It was nice to go to the store, go out to dinner and take some pictures for graduation and such.  It was good times.

Then we all came to my small apartment to unload the groceries and unpack everything before they left.

It was at this point that one of my brothers had to use the bathroom.  He knew where it was and went without any problems.  (Lets hope so.  He is, after all, almost a decade old.)

About 45 minutes after they left, I had to go to the bathroom myself.  I went into the bathroom and thank heavens that I have a subconscious mind that looks at the toilet and determines whether the seat is up or not because otherwise, I would have fallen in.

My brother had left the seat up.  And to be perfectly honest, I was not expecting it.  Mainly because for the past month or so, I have been living in a college dorm with 4 other girls as roommates.  Generally speaking, the seat remains down.

Good thing I still have 18 years of training after sharing a bathroom with my brothers to know that you never just sit down.  Not ever.

Enjoy your weekend everybody.  And watch out for Bathroom Booby Traps.

Fire Alarms and Flashbacks

Last week, I posted about sleep deprivation.  Evidently the Universe decided it wanted to have a little fun because today was one of the worst days of my life.  And it's only 9:15

I know I was still awake last night around 1 in the morning because at some point, having been unable to sleep, I rolled over and saw that it was 1 in the morning.  I have no idea how long it took me to fall asleep after that, but it was already too late.  I woke up at 6 in the morning and again at 6:15 to my roommates alarm which, as silent as it is, and as quickly as she turned it off, I guess I'm listening for it now . . .

I finally made it back to sleep when I woke up again at 8:10 when my roommate accidentally dropped a few things.  To give you a clue to how tired I was. . . she dropped her books, I didn't flinch.

I'm a really jumpy person (I have no idea why), and if you drop things and startle me awake (as my old roommate can tell you) I freak out.  But this time, I didn't . . . because I was exhausted.

At 8:30 my roommate had left for class and I believe I had drifted off.  I know that I fell asleep before 8:46 because at that ridiculous time of day, only 29 minutes before I actually had to wake up, the ear-splitting shriek of the fire alarm was heard throughout the building.

In 60 seconds, all I had time to do was grab my phone and my keys, put on a pair of pants, a jacket, a hat and my shoes and get out of the building.

If my family wasn't coming up today to take me out to dinner, I might skip all my classes and sleep the rest of the day.

Stinkin' Housing Office.

And what's really sad is the I would only just be waking up right now . . . :'(

Sleep Depravation . . . Why oh Why?

As most of my old High School friends can probably attest, my sleeping habits (or lack thereof) have never been stellar.  I'm the kind of person who goes to bed late and subsequently wakes up late.  But lately I've been trying to change that.

Unfortunately it's not going well.

Last year, second semester, I was faced with a lot of challenges in my life.  I found that one of the reasons they weighed so heavily on my mind and soul was because I wasn't getting enough sleep at night.  In fact, I was often finding myself falling asleep at 2:30 in the AM or later, depending on how enthralled I was in whatever TV series I was watching that night.  My sleeping habits grew progressively worse from there, until finally it hit me.  Enough was enough.  I needed to get more sleep.

So I set a bed time at 1:30 in the AM.  That may seem ridiculous to you, especially since I was waking up for classes or church at 8:30 AM, but it the best I could do at the time.

I managed to stick to this bedtime for the majority of my second semester.  But then all heck broke lose and I found that summer was upon me.

Summer is great.  There is little stress, little worry and for a college student, the promise of at least one home cooked meal a week.  It should have been heaven.  But with every summer comes a new nemesis.  The dreaded lack-of-schedule.

Without a reason to wake up every morning (I was unable to get a job despite several fantabulous interviews), I found myself sleeping in later and later and going to bed later and later.  And then the worst possible thing happened.

As many of you know, I took a few classes over the summer break.  They were great and I managed to stay on top of all of them despite the lack of assignment due dates.  But then Finals week hit and my cute little cousins came over.  In order to spend time with them and yet get everything done, I woke up around 11 AM, stayed awake and played with my cousins till around 7 when I would take a two hour nap and then stay awake till 5 or 6 AM doing assignments and taking tests.

It was madness.

And it didn't stop there.  Over that Finals week, my entire schedule shifted about 6 hours.  And I have yet to get it back into whack.

It doesn't help that I wake up (for no apparent reason) when my roommate wakes up (sometime between 6:30 and 7:30 AM), and I can only go to sleep at night after the other roommates have finally stopped goofing off right outside my door at 2:00 AM.

The moral of the story?

I'M EXHAUSTED!!!  LET ME SLEEP!

Say Cheese!

I don't think that I am particularly well known for my smile.  The fact is that my natural face seems rather grumpy, and any pictures of me don't exactly show a "photogenic" side.  In this sense, I guess I'm not really an expert on smiles or smiling, but I feel as though I know enough to say that the girl I passed in my hall only moments ago looked like she was in something that resembled more of a hostage situation than a simple meet an nod in a college dorm.


Honestly.  It was literally that bad.


Now, I wasn't always the most unphotogenic person in the world.  For example, this is a baby picture of myself.  Don't I look so cute?

But still, since the years have worn on, my face has no retained the light that shines in Mini-me's face.

Of course, knowing the situation that exists here in one of the most run down dorms on campus, I have to say that sometimes, a hostage grimace is as good as it gets.  Especially when running into snappily dressed people who for whatever reason, cannot, for the life of them, walk in a straight line.

My Super Family

So yesterday, being the Monday that it was, I found myself being a bit melancholy.  Partly because like Garfield the cat, I hate Monday's and partly because I just hadn't had a long enough weekend to recuperate from the previous week of hilarity and fails.

As a result, I went to two of my classes, sluffed the third (and before you get mad at me, it was Calculus so . . . I kinda feel like taking one day of a month is pretty good considering I go 5 days a week), and eventually found myself sitting in my apartment doing the one thing that always calms me down.  I doodled.

I've posted several of my doodles on my blog and people seem to like them, but I haven't posted all of my doodles on this blog.  If you ever want to see them though, stop by my apartment and I will gladly show you.  (Seriously.  Come.  I need to socialize with people.)

At any rate, yesterday I decided to start a whole new doodling selection.  I decided to doodle my family as super hero's.  And let me tell you . . . it has not been easy.  I spent several hours on it yesterday and only have 7/8 logos and two complete figures drawn.

Meet my parents.  In doodle form of course.

I kind of borrowed their superhero designs.  Well, parts of them anyways.

My dad has green lantern colors (for the most part).  The plug is due to the fact that he spends a large amount of time on the computer for work.  My mom's logo is actually Robin, the boy wonder's logo.  It has a different color, but overall its the same.  Her colors don't really come from any particular superhero (unless you guys can think of one).  She just really likes the color red, so she got "hotter" colors.

Be sure to check back soon to see the rest of the family.  Assuming that I have time to draw them soon.

Sincerely Yours,

A few weeks ago, school had just started and I had been going over the Pre-requisites that I needed to take in order to get in to a good Pharmacy program.  Last year, while looking at the list, I had devised my current schedule in an effort to take as many up at Snow College as possible.  This year, while looking at the list, I realized that I did not, in fact, have to take the Public Speaking Class that I had enrolled in.  I didn't need it for the Communications credit, and I didn't need it for my major.  So I decided to drop it in favor of a much easier History credit.

Well, the add/drop procedure is one of the most complicated in all of creation.  They refuse to tell you up front what all you have to do in order to change your class and everyone within the counseling office acts as though it's a huge inconvenience that they lied to you last year, and now you would like to drop a class that you don't need.

However, eventually I was finally able to drop the Public Speaking Class and take part two of a History class I had started over the summer.

You may be wondering why I would willingly take a History Class.  Well there are three reasons.  One,  I actually really like History.  I didn't a few years ago, it was one of my least favorite classes right on par with English, but my junior and senior years of high school, I took history classes and my teachers were so passionate about them that I fell in love with the class as well.

This past summer, I also took two history classes and the textbooks for both were so well written, and my teacher was so great, that I found myself loving history even more.

The second reason is that, surprise, surprise, having already taken part one of this class, I already had the textbook for it, and didn't need to go out and get a new one priority mailed to me.

And finally, the third, and most important reason, is that technically, I had already started the class.

This past summer, the two history classes that I took had similar assignments and they were both from the same professor.  I emailed him and asked if it would be okay if for the Book Report and Oral Interviews, if I just submitted assignments that I had already done for one of them.  He said that would be fine and so I only ended up doing one of each.

This semester, feeling that it would be okay to do it again, I submitted my previous Book Report one more time.  Although I got 40/40 on it, I went online (this is an online class by the way), and I found this message waiting for me in my inbox.


"Would you please stop by my office sometime.  There's no rush."

I ask you, people of the internet, How am I suppose to react to that?

Does it not sound really bad?


I sent back "Wow.  That sounds bad.  Where is your office?"


And he replied, "Its not bad.  My office is in such-and-such a building."



And so now I'm faced with a dilemma.  While my Professor tells me, it's really not all that bad, the Book Report I had submitted had already been submitted twice before.  More importantly, the Book Report I submitted was on a book that I had only barely managed to skim through.

What if he asks me questions about it???


Sincerely Yours,

Petrified.

My Kind of Drama . . . with Flair!

Today was a pretty dramatic day for me.  And of course, now for you as I share my drama with you.

You're welcome.



Today started out like any other.  My alarm went off and I desperately tried to squeeze in a few more winks because I was too tired, I felt, to even be able to get out of bed. :P

But I did eventually get out of bed, get ready and go to class.  Now that might not seem too horribly dramatic . . . this may be because it wasn't.

The dramatic part of my day really started out yesterday.  You see, I got a printer right before I moved out last year.  It was an ink guzzling Gigantor of a printer and eventually it became just too irritating to deal with and so I bought a smaller, more portable printer.  Lately, I've been trying to sell Gigantor on KSL.  Needless to say, it hasn't been going well.

Well, last night I was checking my ad and realized that it had been on the website for over a month.  Knowing that most people rarely scroll past the first few pages when looking to purchase something, and knowing that the older an ad is the further back it is placed, I decided to re-run my ad in a hope that maybe this time someone would see it and buy it.

Less than an hour later, I received an email from a gentleman with the name of "Greg Rick" who said (and I quote), "Is this item still available for sale get back to me final asking price."  And I swear that's how it was written.  No caps, no punctuation.

Being the paranoid person I am, alarm bells were already going off inside my head, (and now they are going off in yours too) but I could really use the $100 I'm asking for it.  So I responded; "Yes.  But I'm only willing to go as low as $90."

Then I went to sleep.

And that brings us to today.

After getting back from class, I found this email in my inbox.  This has been copied and pasted for your viewing concern.

"I am very serious about this purchase and ready to go with it aim okay with the asking price for the item and i don't want you to worry yourself about the shipping as it will be handled by my shipping company as soon as the payment has been made.  The payment will be made via Certified Check (Drawn from my bank)/ cashier check, which will contain both the asking price and the shipping fees via the shipping company and no pick up/ shipping arrangement will be made until the money is fully cleared and cashed by you at your bank, then you will be sure of payment.  So, i will be needing your Full payment and mailing information in order to get the Check mailed to you such as

Full Name
Full Address
City
State
Zip code
Tel #
last asking price

As soon as this is received the Check will be mailed out to you with no further delay and the purchase can be completed. I will look fro your email later."



By this point, major alarm bells are going off inside my head and before I go any further, I decide to email my parents and ask their opinions.  It was a good thing I did.  My dad immediately informed me that this was a major scam.  They were simply looking for my personal information.

Like I said . . . Drama.

On the plus side, this little story does have a tiny bright side.

Dear Karli (my former roommate),

My paranoia does save lives.  It just saved my digital one.  In your face!

Love,

Me.

Ephraim Updates Part 2

Against the backdrop of the setting sun, a lone figure rises triumphant from an endeavor that threatened to crush the life from her chest.  It was there, in that lonely town of Ephraim, that one girl learned that the universe truly does revolve around her, and her epic worthy struggle with math.

I guess the world doesn't revolve around me.  But it does revolve around math (or so my professor keeps trying to believe as we calculate rates of revolution and all that boring stuff).  I haven't posted anything "Ephraim Update" worthy in awhile, so let me just remind you of the way this works.

To me, Ephraim is like a different world.  I live on my own and have to be responsible and stuff.  In that way, it seems more like a fantasy novel than an actual life.  This means that most of the updates will start off with a fictional representation of whats been going on that you should picture with whatever themed music comes to mind.  For this post, the song "The Good the Bad and the Ugly" comes to mind.

At any rate, I don't know how often these will be coming around, but please enjoy!

Procrastination Leads to Zombies

Awhile ago, as usual, I was doing everything in my power to procrastinate something that I know would be easier to do if I just got it over with, and I found myself on one of my good friends blogs.  (Find the link in the comments below.)  It's been awhile since she actually posted anything, so I was just skimming some of the other posts that she had previously posted.  The post was actually a really funny comprehensive list of all her fears both rational and irrational.  Once I started thinking about it, I decided to something similar but with one of the few irrational fears I have.

Everyone who really takes the time to get to know me will learn sooner or later that I have one dominating fear that is both rational and irrational.  To most, it seems like I'm just crazy.  But they are real.  I Googled it.

But wait.  I'm getting a little ahead of myself.  I guess I should first telly you what I am deathly, horribly, awfully afraid of.

One word.

Zombies.

I know.  I know.  Laugh it up, but the truth is, I'm terrified of them.  No, I don't watch horror movies, and no I didn't have a bad experience once upon a Halloween.  I'm just terrified of them.  Mainly it comes from a dream I had once where a good friend of mine ate my arm.

Now lets get back to the part that most of you are probably having questions about, and I have yet to prove to any of my friends.

Zombies are real.

Now they don't look or necessarily "think" in the same way that the brain eating undead psycho's of Hollywood look/think/act.  But there are zombies out there.  They are real.  Even if I'm not terrified of the real ones, the fake ones make my fight or flight kick into full gear and sends adrenaline (which is utterly unhelpful as I don't fight or flight but I do freeze), coursing through my veins.

Man Zombies give me the heebie-jeebies.  Don't they give you the heebie-jeebies?

Thinking about Thinking

Hello world and welcome to the first in a new segment on my blog called "Random Posts".  I'm starting this because I'm actually a little more interesting than I let on, mainly because I am capable of thinking some really deep thoughts when the mood strikes me.  A couple of times, these thoughts have come to me while I've been online and I will start a post about them, but they really just don't fit with the flow of my blog so I end up deleting them and then not posting something else for another week or so.

So instead, I'm going to start doing "Random Posts".  These will be labeled for easy access and you can find the Label Menu on the right side of my blog under the fish app.

Since that pretty much sums up what I want to do here, I'm pleased to announce the first installment in the "Random Posts" segment.  Enjoy!





I'm a thinker.  There's no better word to describe me.  In fact, some people might even say that I'm an OVER-thinker.  I do tend to overanalyze points and problems that really have no significance whatsoever to other people.  But they matter to me.

Now you all may be wondering why I started out my post in this somewhat ranting, almost lunatic-ial way.  But there is a point.  Just give it a minute.

During one of my over-thinking, anxiety fueled thought rampages that I was having on my way to class, I started thinking about something that has, quite frankly, bugged me for years.

You see world, I don't have any sisters.  In fact, not only do I not have any sisters, but I ended up with five brothers.  I felt, for the longest time, that the Universe just hated me.  In fact, especially in the hormone riddled tween years I felt more like this lovely poster from a hilarious episode of "How I met your Mother" than anything else.

One of these things is not like the other, one of these things is not the same.

But lately, as I've moved out into the world and have strangely found myself in college and surrounded by actual girls, I've been feeling a little bit different. More like this,

Or this,

And do you want to know why?  I can sum it up in one word for you and that word is . . . Drama.

Girls are chalk full of it!!!  Well, not all of them.  But it would seem that I really dodged two bullets by not ending up with a sister.  For one thing, being surrounded by boys taught me to act tough.  I wrestled right alongside of my brothers for a long time.  We went camping and hiking and canoeing.  We were a somewhat active family.  I also dodged a bullet by not having a younger sister who would have, of course, been spoiled completely rotten and there is a pretty good chance that she would have been dramatic.

So thanks Universe for your farsightedness.  At the time I hated your interplanetary guts, but I forgive you now.





And that concludes the first installation of "Random Posts" please comment below about your impressions, thoughts or neuroses involving this post.

My First Social Saturday of Adventure

Hey people.  I haven't posted in awhile.  I don't know how many people check it, but I know that I like seeing new posts on it.  It makes me feel like I have accomplished something.  (Isn't that sad?)

But lately I haven't really been wanting to accomplish anything.  I was on vacation and did next to nothing.  It was fantastic.

However, there was one thing that I did do.  On Saturday, one of my best friends and former roommate, Karli Goodman, took me to see the Piano Guys in Concert.  To be perfectly honest, this was my first concert of all time.  I guess that's why the weather decided to kick in and try it's darndest to rain the concert out.  But as it turns out, Karli and I weren't the only "die hard" fans who were willing to stick it out through the pouring rain, intense lightning and booming thunder just to see a group of guys who add a hilarious and entertaining twist to classical music.

The Event Was Huge!

A Rare and Valuable Picture of Yours Truly

Our View From the Very Back

It was without a doubt one of the most adventurous/ fun things that I've done in quite some time.  Of course, the concert wasn't the only fun things that I happened to be a part of on that particular Saturday evening.  Karli and I also witnessed a tire catch on fire and finally blow out on the freeway and the driver continue to drive on his sad little excuse for an inner tire before finally making it to the nearest exit.  Good times Saturday.  Good times.

At any rate, it made me more willing to go out and explore new things and since this blog is all about that rise to sociableness, this was an important moment to chronicle for the future generations of internet nerds.