"Free" Time

This week I had two projects due. Both projects I worked really hard on, not because I'm a perfectionist, and not because I wanted the good grade, but because in order to get accepted into the program, I want to really impress my teachers. Show that I have potential. That I can do it!

So all weekend I tried to work on Project #1. Due Tuesday. I ended up staying up late, going to bed, going to class, quickly finishing, and handing it in a half an hour before the deadline. The next couple of days were spent on Project #2, which must be done on a computer with Photoshop. Due Thursday. I stayed in the computer lab yesterday until it closed, then got up early before class and went and worked on it today. Long story short, I finished the project in the first 10 minutes before/during class because my teacher is usually a few minutes late or right on time. And then I handed it in.

So now I unexpectedly have "free" time. I say "free" in the sense that.... well, let me make an analogy.

When you grow up and have a job, your income is never your own. The government gets a chunk, the bank gets another chunk, your mortgage, your car loans, your rent, your utilities... Which leaves you with little for yourself.

I feel like life and time are the same. College gets a chunk of your time, sleep, eating, walking across campus, and homework takes a huge chunk.

When your boss decides to give you a bonus, you have "free" money. You would think that people would take that money and put it towards their mortgage or something, but usually because it's unexpected money, they do something fun with it. Like a vacation.

So when projects that normally were the cause of stress and complete focus for a time, are no longer there, I have "free" time. Time that could be spent studying or catching up journaling or scripture reading. But instead, I think I'll take a "vacation".

The question is, what should I do with that "free" time? I could

•  read a book. Maybe. If I had one.
• do laundry. 
• crochet. A favorite pastime of mine, if only I had the money to buy yarn.
• bake. I've got some bananas that need to be made into bread.
• goof off on the internet for a few hours.

Surprising how many people pick that last option.

Creative Blogging

Did anyone else notice the trend from texting to Facebook to Twitter to blogging? I totally left out MySpace on purpose, cause no one really cared when it was "big" and now it's practically dead. Muah ha ha.

So blogs are apparently the big thing now. I'm almost ashamed to admit that I got caught up in it. But you can find blogs on everything from silly to crafty to showing off the kids to anti-Mormonism to cheese and crackers.

Yes, I did find an anti-Mormon blog. It was kind of sad. The guy was talking about how the "Angel Moronic" is "Joseph Smith's imaginary friend." I wanted to slap him in the face, but I blocked his blog from my Google results instead. (That's a new feature of Google's and I like it a lot.) It was almost laughable.

But blog ideas can go anywhere from how to curl your hair with socks to the top ten ways to fluff your pillow to travel places to school supplies to making Christmas advent calendars 500 different ways to creative Kleenex oragami to just about anything you can think of.

Blogs can also be classified into all sorts of categories. Food, crafts, travel, pretty much just people's hobbies.

I'm not going to classify my blog, and don't you dare either. I like it the way it is, unstereotyped.

And yes, I feel allowed to stereotype other people's blogs.

So for those of you thinking of starting a blog, I have some ideas for posts:

• Your best drawing ever (don't forget to post a picture so we can ridicule it)
• The one time you peed your pants in first grade
• Your kindergarten crush
• Top ten things you can do with a Kleenex

If you're not thinking of starting a blog, think of all the fun, creative things you're missing out on. And remember, blogging is the new Facebook.

On Eating

Let's face it, who doesn't love it??

In the past two days I've been to Pizza Pie Cafe, Arby's, and Dairy Queen. And in all three cases I ate myself sick.

Starting with Pizza Pie. That was the first time I've been there, and it was AMAZING!! I had two pieces of pepperoni pizza, a piece of buffalo wild sauce (or something like that... it was weird), an ENTIRE serving of bowtie pasta with meaty marinara sauce, and a piece of ridiculously good cookie dough pizza. Plus two cups of root beer.

And pretty much felt like I was rolling home.

Then tonight I had two regular roast beef sandwiches, as many curly fries as I could get before my sister did, and then a midnight truffle blizzard at Dairy Queen.

And my poor college stomach couldn't be any happier. After a two week long diet of mac and cheese cause it's my new favorite food at only 66 cents a box, I went and gorged myself repeatedly this weekend. Poor tummy won't be happy again for a while when that's what I go back to eating.

But you all should be jealous! I had food, and lots of it! I literally crammed my stomach so full, especially at Pizza Pie, that I was miserable for an hour afterwards, when I curled up and tried to will myself to digest faster, but it was a conquering miserable! It was worth the misery to be so full of delicious food!

And when you're at the buffet, it's impossible not to cram yourself full. Because you paid for it (actually my lovely sister and brother in law did) and 1) you want your money's worth, and 2) look at all that free food!! There's no limit, which makes it a challenge. I will eat as much as physically possible because the opportunity is there. I always accept the challenge!

And now I'm still full from Dairy Queen. I will sleep good tonight.

Awkward Conversations

There are many classifications for awkward conversations.

1. When the other person knows your name, but you have no idea who they are.

Example: Person walks by you on the street. "Oh, hey, Emily! How's it going?" And you're thinking, "Who in the hanna are you, and how do you know my name??" Usually I just pretend I know who they are. "Hey! How's it going?" and just omit the name part.

2. When you know their name, but they obviously don't remember you.

You say, "Hey, Sarah! How's life?" and they're all "Hey, how are you?" Like they know your name but they just didn't say it and you can just tell they don't remember you. Cause when you know them but they don't know you, then you just feel like a creeper.

3. When they think they know you, but they really don't.

There are a couple examples for this.

Example 1: "Oh my gosh, hey! How's your mom? Is she still in the hospital?" ....Not since my little bro was born? Are you sure you're talking to the right person?

Example 2: The guy who, for a solid month after we met coincidentally at a fireside, thought my name was Katie. Then he helped change my flat tire and his roommate was all, "So what's your name?" And I said "Emily. Oh... You were calling me Katie, and I didn't have the heart to tell you it was Emily... and you were calling me that for like a whole month..." I ran into this guy again. He now calls me Stephanie.

4. When you think they're someone else. There are two examples for this as well.

Example 1: "Oh my gosh, hi Lisa!! How's your brother?" ".... My name is Sarah." .......sorry :\

Example 2: "Oh, hey, while we caught up with you, we're you're visiting teachers!" "Oh, yeah? That's awesome. Wait, what's my name?" "Um, you're Anne, right?" "Bahahaha, no, that's my roommate. I'm Lisa." (true story...)

 5. When both of you know that you know the other person, you just can't for the life of you remember where or who they are, but you KNOW that you know them. And you know that they know it too and you both just pretend you remember who the other person is, or you spend an entire conversation trying to remember where you know that person from.

Changing a Tire

I might be a Mormon in Utah, but I grew up outside of Utah. I grew up in good old South Dakota. There my mommy taught me how to cook, clean, and keep house, and my daddy taught me how to take care of my car and be responsible and make decisions.

Surprising how many people didn't learn one or all of the above mentioned things. For instance: the house MUST be clean before Sunday. I prefer it to stay tidy. Knowing the state of my bedroom for the past week and a half, you wouldn't think so, but the living room was utterly devoid of clutter for those whole ten days (apology directed towards my less neat-freakish roommates).

Also, I learned how to change a tire. So last week, we went to an Institute activity in the middle of no where at a girls camp somewhere (they really have those here! Camps just for Girls Camp!) and we got SO lost and we finally found the place and climbed out and as we were walking away, I heard "pshhhhhhhh".... From experience, I know that sound. The sound of a tire deflating. Awesome.

Being a country girl, I ignored my tire while I went and found food. After a hot dog and a couple s'mores, I decided I was ready to handle the situation. Going back to my truck, I discovered that I didn't have anything to change it with.

So I went in search of someone who did. Surprise! All these city boys don't have a jack big enough for my Tacoma. In fact, no one really had a jack at all. So this guy says that he does and we go off and get his jack from his car and as we were walking, I turned to him and asked, "You know how to change a tire, right?"

...His response? "Uhh...." *turns to his roommate* "Jon, you know how to change a tire, right?"

Are you kidding me? Jon's going, "I learned in Mutual once... a long time ago...." I stepped in, "It's okay, I know how to change a tire." I just didn't have the equipment to do so.

But heaven forbid a girl in Utah change a tire by herself. 20 minutes later I find myself shuffled off to the side while a group of boys that gradually increases as more people drive by and then stop to help. To top it off, the whole night it was raining/drizzling, so everyone's cold and getting hypothermia and covered in mud.

So how many boys in Utah does it take to change a tire? Go ahead and guess. I'll tell you from my experience, it takes eight. Plus my roommates that are with me and two girls that were on a double date with two of the boys helping are all standing off to the side.

And I'm not the kind of person to be shuffled off to the side, so I'm in there helping and on the ground in the mud right along with them, which I think surprised them. I guess they're not used to their Utah girls being muddy, but I'm a South Dakota girl and proud, and anyway, I never was or claimed to be a lady.

So we got the tire changed and happy and the world was right again.